Getting software going?

Hi all! Apologies for spamming up the forum with tragically noobish posts. I’m new to RISC OS, using it on my Raspberry Pi B+. Enjoying the experience thus far (I used to do bedroom coding on a BBC back in the day). I am having trouble getting a lot of the applications going, though. I am clearly doing something very simple wrong. I install via the !Boot folder under “Configure” and/or by copying to Apps.

AMPlayer = claims that AMPlayer Cfg needs to be installed, even though as far as I can tell, it is. Have tried fresh installs to no avail, and installing the Cfg separately.

Lincity = double click and nothing happens.

AlephOne = double click and nothing happens

What stupendously obvious thing am I doing wrong? Thanks so much for your time.

AMPlayer = claims that AMPlayer Cfg needs to be installed

It doesn’t do that here starting with this version of AMPlayer

The config file, !Boot.Choices.AMPlayer.Config, is written when Startup – Autoqueue is enabled from the main menu

AlephOne = double click and nothing happens

AlephOne is just a game engine and needs some games to be set up to run. If you look at the help (Menu click over the game icon in the files and select the Help Option) it should have instructions on how to download the games and set them up.

Once set up you get an application for each game, which you can double click to run in future.

I think I tried this on the Pi when I first got mine and it worked OK. It should work in any case as I had many happy hours playing one of the games on my Iyonix.

Lincity = double click and nothing happens

Look in the Help again. I think there may be a server component as well that needs to be run, but my recollection may be faulty.

Many thanks, Alan and David. No joy as yet with Lincity nor getting AlephOne games going, but the AMPlayer pling (correct terminology?) worked a charm! Great to see Risc OS thriving.

Apologies for spamming up the forum with tragically noobish posts.

I think there aren’t enough noobish posts! :)
 

Your problems with AMPlayer remind me that I’ve never gotten DigitalCD working properly on my PandaRo, since I have to start the app myself before playing any MP3 files, whereas just clicking on the file should be sufficient.

I did try reading the instructions, but they tell me to open the Choices window and go to the Visualisation→Samplers section, but there’s no “Visualisation” in that window.
 

Some other instructions tell me to check that the file type is in !DCDRes.Setup which it is…

Audio MPEG (MP3)
1AD = smp

..but there’s no explanation of what “smp” means nor advice about what else might need to be typed in.

Your problems with AMPlayer remind me that I’ve never gotten DigitalCD working properly on my PandaRo, since I have to start the app myself before playing any MP3 files, whereas just clicking on the file should be sufficient.

To have an MP3 file start !DigitalCD this instruction is required :-

Set Alias$@RunType_1AD Run DigitalCD:!Run %%*0

This can be in the !Boot and !Run files. The contents of !DCDRes.Setup only tell !DigitalCD what to do with the file once it has been loaded.

This can be in the !Boot and !Run files.

More explicitly, it should be in the !Boot and !Run files of !DigitalCD.

Since the OP has the boot sequence configured to “look at” / “run” DigitalCD the alteration of the DigitalCD !Boot file to set the run type alias should mean files of type 1AD are run by Digital CD.

More explicitly, it should be in the !Boot and !Run files of !DigitalCD.

Isn’t it bad practice to put it in the !Boot file? That means it will claim those files whenever it’s “seen” by the Filer, even if something else already has claimed them.

Normally, I think the recommended approach is to put a conditional to claim the filetype only if the RunType variable is not already set in the !Boot file. In the !Run file, I think it’s fair play to forcibly claim the filetype, though I imagine that’s open to debate too, really. Some people might have a player set up that they use most of the time, and don’t want the occasional running of another player to steal the runtype away.

Something like this (untested):

If "<Alias$@RunType_1AD>" = "" Then Set Alias$@RunType_1AD Run DigitalCD:!Run %%*0

I thought it was a golden rule that you never add lines to !Boot or !Run files.

I thought it was a golden rule that you never add lines to !Boot or !Run files.

True, unless you really know what you are doing. If you do add anything and have issues, do retry after removing them, before reporting problems to the author.

True, unless you really know what you are doing.

Well, there is that – but it’s also a bad idea because an update to the app containing them could overwrite your changes.

Not to mention the problem of people asking for support or reporting a problem which is a result of such changes – though such shouldn’t really come from those who ‘really’ know what they’re doing! (Which you did mention. Read properly, Vince.)

That’s right, you guys – so where should I put the Set Alias@RunType command?

because an update to the app containing them could overwrite your changes.

One could say that it being absent from the Run file is a bug the author might want to fix with an update.

That’s right, you guys – so where should I put the Set Alias@RunType command?

In the DigitalCD Run file (and the DigitalCD Boot if you want it to claim the filetype just by being seen by the filer).

One could say that it being absent from the Run file is a bug the author might want to fix with an update.

One could also say that the author may have, for some reason, deliberately chosen not to have the app claim the filetype, in which case it’s not a bug.

In both cases, the word ‘say’ is more realistically replaced with the word ‘assume’.

(Besides which, even if you do assume its absence was unintentional so putting the line there fixes it, it’s still possible the next update would still lack that line, so an update would overwrite your changes.)

Tennant:

That’s right, you guys – so where should I put the Set Alias@RunType command?

You could put it in a separate obey file, and point the LookAt section of Boot at it. Note that you’ll need to ensure DigitalCD is looked at first.

Doing it this way solves the problem, and doesn’t involve changing any of the files in the app itself.

You could put it in a separate obey file, and point the LookAt section of Boot at it.

That’ll be the “Run” section. It is instructive to attempt to enter a single file into the “Look at” section.

Note that you’ll need to ensure DigitalCD is looked at first.

Why?

A rather better solution is to actually read the manual, in the StrongHelp, “Accepted filetypes”, “configuration options”, is this :-

quote
DigitalCD as default application for a given filetype

In the list of filetypes, put a “!” in front of the filetypes you wishes DigitalCD to be started when you double-click on a file of this type. DigitalCD must of course have been seen by the desktop (booted) for this to work.
/quote

Eg.

Audio MPEG (MP3)
!1AD = smp

When seen !DigitalCD will then set the relevant RunType.

Note that all the suggestions I make are tested, in this case with DigitalCD 3.07 on a Raspberry Pi.

That’ll be the “Run” section. It is instructive to attempt to enter a single file into the “Look at” section.

Good point. :)

“Note that you’ll need to ensure DigitalCD is looked at first.”
Why?

Because (for most apps) you might reasonably expect the !Boot file to set up system variables, such as appname$dir, which would be referenced in the line you are putting in the separate file.

A rather better solution is to actually read the manual,

That involves searching for DigitalCD, and downloading it, etc., which is why I didn’t read the manual before suggesting what I did. :p

in the StrongHelp

Ugh.

However:

quote
In the list of filetypes, put a “!” in front of the filetypes you wishes DigitalCD to be started when you double-click on a file of this type.
*/quote

Versus:

Some other instructions tell me to check that the file type is in !DCDRes.
..but there’s no […] advice about what else might need to be typed in.

Perhaps Tennant didn’t see that reference to inserting the ! before the filetype (which to me seems arse about face – I’d use a ! prefix to indicate not doing something; so !filetype would read as don’t act on this filetype!)

Perhaps? How could I see it when David posted that 9 hours after my last visit?

Anyway, I’ve just put a “!” in front of the “1AD” in !DCDRes.Setup and now I shall reset.

And it works! :)

Many thanks to David Pitt for his excellent advice.

Note that all the suggestions I make are tested, in this case with DigitalCD 3.07 on a Raspberry Pi.

Ooh, I’m on 3.06 so need to upgrade, hang on…

Right, 3.07 is now installed & running, so I check !DCDRes.Setup – and the !1AD is still there. :)

Just done a reset to check that everything still works – and now nothing works.

All my MP3 files have lost their icons, though they’re still typed 1AD, and double-clicking on one crashes the machine with a “FileCore in use” error.

I’ve then done a another reset, installed DigitalCD 3.07 on the icon bar, and then dragged an iconless MP3 file to it.

That then starts playing, but I’m back to Square One in this discussion.

Or more accurately, Square Minus-One. :(

I’ve just gone back to DigitalCD 3.06 and all is working again.

But am I doomed never to upgrade?

All my MP3 files have lost their icons

!DigitalCD does not supply an MP3 icon, but !AMPlayer does.

I’ve just gone back to DigitalCD 3.06 and all is working again.

!DigitalCD 3.07 has been stable, so far, on the Raspberry Pi, OS5.21 18-Nov-14, in strict ARMv7 mode.

Oops, spoke too soon

Error from DigitalCD: Internal error: abort on data transfer at &23ED63B4

Address 23ED63B4 is at offset 00000B20 in module AMPlayer

!DigitalCD has lost its menus and cannot be quit.

Oh dear, this is getting worse, the above crash in !DigitalCD occurs on dropping an MP3 on !AMPlayer, !AMPlayer needs the Pi to be in ARMv5 mode to avoid that. As far I can see !DigitalCD does not use that AMPlayer module!! Both apps do appear to have issues, there will be evictions after a reboot!

Perhaps? How could I see it when David posted that 9 hours after my last visit?

He posted it later, but he explained he was quoting the manual.

He posted it later, but he explained he was quoting the manual.

Ah, the manual.

Load the application, on the menu select help, dig around a little. Find the information, which is a counter-intuitive marker on the start of an entry¹ in non-obvious file in the application and likely to be overwritten during an upgrade.

I think I prefer an entry in the !Run file.

¹ Especially for someone used to entries like “no sffd enable” to turn off the sffd feature. Or used to playing around with regex, or various programming constructs

The counter-intuitive thing for me was that the manual explained about “CB6 = tim, qtm”, then when I looked in Setup found it just had “1AD = smp” but I didn’t know what to type in after the “smp”, and then the manual sent me to the Credits section so I missed the next bit.

!DigitalCD does not supply an MP3 icon, but !AMPlayer does.

I don’t seem to have an !AMPlayer application, is it needed for MP3 files?