RISC OS User Guide PDF

I find Windows 10 more riscos like than ever. I rarely see a menu on display, mostly use right click, programs do stay on the icon bar the only difference being that closing the last window closes the program – not a problem as you can pin to the taskbar very easly – unlike addtinydir which requires a commandline for the first addtinydir then you can drag and drop. It even has iconbar menus – even when the program isn’t running.

The windows taskbar has some nice features like running a pinned application doesn’t create another icon on the taskbar like riscos does. I don’t use the backdrop to pin programs I use the iconbar and on windows the taskbar.

So I would say windows is only different if you are used to using XP.

The windows taskbar has some nice features like running a pinned application doesn’t create another icon on the taskbar like riscos does

That behaviour rather depends on the default behaviour for the application, StrongEd for example will open a new window for each document but not normally another iconbar icon, although opening another icon instance may be the default situation.

All apps which normally have an iconbar icon which are pinned to the iconbar with addtinydir always produce a copy of the icon on the iconbar when run. Windows doesn’t add an extra copy it highlights the icon to show it is running.

Ah, but TinyDir is just placing a shortcut, not running the application itself. If you don’t like this, you could always pin the application to the backdrop instead?

Of course it just places a shortcut – I never said it didn’t. The point is it’s not as nice as pinning an application to a windows taskbar. I’m not asking for a workaround – there isn’t one – I originally was just pointing out that windows is not that different.

I’m assuming David meant “there will always be beginners”

Yep :)

Case in point!

Once the Desktop chapter has been merged, I think it would be good for someone to have a look at how the different window interactions and keyboard shortcuts are introduced to the reader.

I’ve put the current Desktop draft here. I need to clean up the purple text but otherwise this is the same stuff that’ll get merged into the master.

Once the Desktop chapter has been merged, I think it would be good for someone to have a look at how the different window interactions and keyboard shortcuts are introduced to the reader.

A quick skim through of the desktop & windows chapters suggests the following window interactions are covered:

• Back, Select – Ch. 4 (windows), Ch. 9 (desktop)
• Back, Adjust – Ch. 9 (desktop)
• Back, Shift-Select – Ch. 9 (desktop)
• Back, Shift-Adjust – Ch. 9 (desktop)
• Close, Select – Ch. 4 (windows), Ch 9 (desktop)
• Close, Adjust – Ch. 9 (desktop)
• Close, Shift-Select – Ch. 9 (desktop)
• Close, Shift-Adjust – Ch. 9 (desktop)
• Title bar, Select – Ch. 4 (windows), Ch. 9 (desktop)
• Title bar, Select-drag – Ch. 4 (windows), Ch. 9 (desktop)
• Title bar, Adjust-drag – Ch. 9 (desktop)
• Iconise, Select – Ch. 4 (windows), Ch. 9 (desktop)
• Iconise, Adjust – Ch. 9 (desktop)
• Toggle, Select – Ch. 4 (windows), Ch. 9 (desktop)
• Toggle, Adjust – Ch. 9 (desktop)
• Toggle, Shift-Select – Ch. 9 (desktop)
• Toggle, Shift-Adjust – Ch. 9 (desktop)
• Scroll arrow, Select – Ch. 4 (windows), Ch. 9 (desktop)
• Scroll arrow, Adjust – Ch. 9 (desktop)
• Scroll well, Select – Ch. 4 (windows), Ch. 9 (desktop)
• Scroll well, Adjust – Ch. 9 (desktop)
• Scroll slider, Select-drag – Ch. 4 (windows), Ch. 9 (desktop)
• Scroll slider, Adjust-drag – Ch. 9 (desktop)
• Resize, Select – Ch. 4 (windows), Ch. 9 (desktop)
• Resize, Select-drag – Ch. 4 (windows), Ch. 9 (desktop)
• Resize, Adjust-drag – Ch. 9 (desktop)

Which looks good to me. (Ch. 4 only introduces actions that use the Select button, Adjust / Shift introduced in Ch. 9)

Also (note to self) I need to submit an updated battery manager icon for chapter 1!

I was suprised to see a copy of some version this draft UG elsewhere on the net at https://www.scribd.com/document/353743584/RiscOSUserGuide
Is this legit?

Is this legit?

Doubt it. There’s a lot of dubious stuff on Scribd, so much so that I wonder if there aren’t bots out there hunting down PDFs to steal.
I notice that Scribd is no longer “free” nor using an uploads-give-you-download-rights system, but instead “Access an unlimited* number of books, audiobooks, magazines, and more — all for only $8.99/month.” so in short, they’re engaging in wholesale profiteering from piracy. Not even YouTube is that audacious.

This may be useful: https://www.scribd.com/copyright/report-infringement

PS: I love how the Scribd reader opens on the copyright page, blatantly saying who has copyright and all the “Thou shaln’t rip us off” text. It’s almost as if they’re intentionally taunting Cthulhu…

scribd also has a copy of the Assembler manual – and maybe others but searches not easy.

Also (note to self) I need to submit an updated battery manager icon for chapter 1!

Yeah, it does look fairly out-of-place! When I was capturing icons for that chapter, I noticed from CVS that the battery icon literally hasn’t changed in decades.

You may have been looking in the wrong place then – RISC OS 5 uses the BatMgrHAL component, which uses all-new icons.

I’ll see if I can grab a new image tonight.

Ah! Well in that case I stand corrected; there are two different versions in there. I don’t have a battery-powered system so I didn’t realise that it had changed.

I was suprised to see a copy of some version this draft UG elsewhere on the net. Is this legit?

Thanks for picking that up, we’ve advised Scribd about the terms of use on page 1 (you can use the contact details on the feedback page at the back of the manual for such matters, rather than posting links on our forum, which then get picked up by search engines) especially as there’s a much better later draft available than the copy they’d harvested.

To date, nobody has asked about distributing the User Guide PDF. If you found a copy on a computer you bought, on a magazine cover disc, car boot sale, or website, it’s not legit.

We’re still in need of more pairs of eyes to check the draft User Guide for mistakes.

The deadline for printing means this needs to be complete by 19-Mar-2018 in order to not delay the OS release schedule.

Most chapters are around 10 pages so this isn’t a big ask of the community – don’t expect Mikko and Chris Mahoney will do all the work for you!

Hi UserGuideEditor,

I’ve got some more time this weekend to take a look. According to the link ‘Check the draft user guide’ all chapters have been reviewed. I am happy to read the as much as I can tonight in any case, as I will be looking at this fairly objectively.

Please let me know if ther is any specific part of the guide that needs to be checked.

Thanks,

Tony

I’m actually quite enjoying it and it’s also educational for me. Although I’m more likely to pick up on grammatical errors than “syntax” errors I have spotted a few (e.g. PostScript file types being wrong), so more reviewing by more expert eyes would no doubt be beneficial.

Today’s draft now includes all the index markers, the text of which is manually typed (the page reference is automatically added). As item 13 on the hit list it would be useful for someone to check the index for duplicates (eg. draw and Draw would be considered 2 entries) and similar mistakes.

I’ve got some more time this weekend to take a look. Please let me know if ther is any specific part of the guide that needs to be checked.

Given limited time, picking chapters which have only been reviewed once would be best. An extra point of view is always valuable because different readers will pick up different classes of mistakes.