Ovation

You may or may not know – David Pilling has released the source code to Ovation (not Pro).
You may or may not know – I have modified it to build in a more DDE friendly way.

I have already designed high(er) resolution sprites for Ovation to use, and tweaked a few smal things. It looks nicer on modern machines (and shame on Beebug for not sorting that out eons ago!). http://www.heyrick.co.uk/blog/index.php?diary=20151025

I plan to modify the code to use “$Path” variables correctly – I think David’s use goes back to RISC OS 2, or maybe even Arthur. I don’t plan any radical changes – if you want that, go buy OvationPro! ;-)

However, if anybody who uses Ovation has a “pet bug”, get in touch with me, I’ll see what I can do.

Ovation itself is was a part of David Holden’s portfolio, I think as a release from The Really Good Software Company. As yet, none of the RGSC products have been made available on the APDL website, so Ovation’s current status would appear to be “MIA”…

Great work.
I’m a registered Ovation user (a9home):

Is this enough to get a copy from yours?

I’m a registered Ovation user (a9home):

You never moved up to OvPro?
Better than Imp. Publisher Pro IMO.

Have both, on different machines.

You never moved up to OvPro?

No. I do the most thinks with !TechWriter.

I have try OvPro Demo. Is a good Program but for the little things I do Ovation is enough.

I have an eye on it, also on ArtWorks. I not need this at this time but nobody knows what the future brings. My daughter begins to use my a9home. I think the future is pretty close

What Steve said. OvationPro is seriously nice, and running more or less the same¹ on both a PC and RISC OS is a definite advantage.

I have contacted Aaron to ask about how to proceed regarding modified versions. David Holden held the copyright, I’m not sure where this leaves distribution. I’ll wait and see what Aaron says.
[if you wonder why I’m asking him – refer to the APDL website]

I’m a bit concerned about the Reg to and Serial number. My build doesn’t have any of this, I guess it was added by APDL? I wonder what other changes may have happened along the way.
The original code identifies itself as…
I can’t say about the copyright string, as my old Templates say it is a Beebug program; but the embedded description says – equally to yours – Ovation 1.49S (12-Dec-2002).
Same date. But something’s not the same…?

Oh, and right now there are few choices of 32 bit native DTP packages for RISC OS; plus only one choice of cross-platform DTP software for RISC OS and…

Just sayin’.

What I have is a Box with book and CDROM and a lot of stuff and different 26 and 32 bit installer, I mean.

Sorry for the infodump. I should have been in bed an hour ago, but…

Aaron is going to put Ovation on the APDL site.
In the interim, you can get my modified version (with permission to do so) from → http://www.heyrick.co.uk/blog/index.php?diary=20151104

Here’s what’s changed, new, or broken-differently ;-) :

Ovation v1.50 - Rick'sMods (based upon v1.49)
=============

This is a 32 bit application built on a RaspberryPi. Going forward in this
incarnation, no attempt is going to be made to retain compatiblity with
RISC OS 2. I would be extremely surprised if this impacts ANYBODY at all...


2015/10/24 v1.50

* Converted so a DDE style application that builds the with-spellcheck version.

* Changed inefficient RISC_OSLib-derived polling code to 14 lines of assembler...

* Created a Sprites22 file for better looking sprites and icons (in as much as
  my (in)famously lame drawing abilities permit).
  
* Ovation will now load Sprites22 if it exists. Due to how Ovation was designed,
  this was actually a surprisingly simple modification.


2015/11/04 v1.50 *released*

* Undid the previous changes to the Menus. It seems to have been a quirk of my
  machine at that moment in time, the original menu set works fine now (!?); so
  no point fiddling with something that isn't broken...

* Tweaked AutoRun.!OArtWorks to correctly load ArtWorks modules (my version was
  incorrectly setting OvationPro$ArtWorks - that might have been something that
  I missed up back circa Y2K or so...whenever it was I changed to OvationPro!)

* Changed all occurances of Ovation$Path to Ovation$Dir.

* Changed OvationDictionary$Path (neither a path nor in Ovation namespace) to be
  Ovation$Dictionary.

* Templates file now just called "Templates". Older "Templates2" discarded.

* As RISC OS 2 is deprecated and the spellcheck build is "default", it was possible
  to trim a lot of junk from !Run (and hardwire suitable defaults in the code).

  Accordingly, the following system variables have no purpose any more:
    Ovation$Dither            - RISC OS has supported dithering for aeons.
    Ovation$FontMan3          - RISC OS has supported rotated fonts for aeons.
    Ovation$Spell             - Spellcheck version is now 'assumed'.
    Ovation$Sprite3           - RISC OS has supported rotated sprites for aeons.
    Ovation$Templates         - RISC OS 2 or 3 style Template selection

* Drastic modifications to the !Run file.
  (plus a lot of comments to make things easier)
  
* On the Pi, Ovation requires 500K (application space) plus it creates a Dynamic
  Area that is initially 80K. Therefore, the least Ovation requires is 580K. In
  the !Run file, this is rounded up to 608K (to be a multiple of a 32K page).
  This requirement is the first thing in the !Run file. Just before running the
  program, the WimpSlot is set to 512K - enough to run the main program (again,
  rounded to next highest 32K increment).
  Things may be different on a machine that doesn't support Dymanic Areas; with
  a little luck Ovation will get itself running and then manage its own slot...
  [in case you can't read between the lines, this means "it wasn't tested" ;-) ]

* Compiled on a RaspberryPi (non-ZPP custom build of RISC OS 5.21).
  Tested on RaspberryPi with Frobnicate magazine, issue #1 (it's on Arcade BBS).
  Tested with text frame import.
  Tested with Sprite image import, plus rotated 38 degrees (randomly chosen angle).
  Tested with JPEG image import (JPEG rotation not supported).
  Tested with DrawFile image import, plus rotated 38 degrees.
  Tested with ArtWorks image import (Startup splash screen within !AWViewer).
  Tested with ArtWorks image import (Pi -> $.Documents.Images.ArtWorks.Apple5).
  ...and the ArtWorks images both able to be rotated 38 degrees. ;-)
  Tested with line drawing - default narrow black line. Arbitrary start/end.
  Tested with line drawing - 2mm red dot-dash line with arrows at each end.
  Frobnicate looks correct, so text flowing not tested. Assumed to work...
  Spellcheck tested on Frobnicate. Works but many faults due to the use of
  technical words not in the dictionary...though I can see I spelled
  "seperate" incorrectly. Pffft! <blows raspberry>

* OH MY GOD. SO MUCH PAIN!
  Yup. After the above tests, I decided to fire up my ZPP version of RISC OS
  to see how Ovation fared.
  It didn't.
  Is the short answer.
  The logfile for loading Frobnicate #1 ran to some 40K and about 30 entries.
  Since that was worrying but not frightening... time to warm up the compiler
  and abuse the assert() statement...

* ZeroPain quashed - was trying to read an error number from a returned error
  block (in fo.addtocache)....that is NULL if there was no error. This cropped
  up when trying to open a new document.
  
* ZeroPain quashed - a rather horrible pile of checks in act.setactives() was
  checking if "!act->box" (among other things) and then ORing a check with
  "(act->box)->type". If act->box is NULL, where's ->type supposed to be?
  Now split into multiple checks. This cropped up when trying to open a new
  document.
  
* ZeroPain quashed - Acorn's DrawFile code (Drawfiles.note_fontcat) was
  setting a "size of font header" value without bothering to check if the font
  header even existed. This cropped up when loading Frobnicate #1 which has
  like a bazillion DrawFiles in it.

* ZeroPain quashed - vi.inspaqy was looking at the value of test->y which would
  fail if test was NULL. This cropped up when loading Frobnicate #1 - no idea
  what this function does, but it was broken and now it ain't. ;-)
  
* ZeroPain quashed - vec.setsrc was not coping with vlsrcp returning NULL. This
  cropped up when dragging a large image box around.

* ZeroPain quashed - drag.gotextdrag was not checking if box was NULL. This
  cropped up when clicking in the borders to drag a guideline.

* ZeroPain code is contained within conditionals "ZEROPAIN" with original code as
  the #else clause, in case you want to revert for testing changes (etc).

* Tested on a RaspberryPi with ZPP build of RISC OS 5.23. Originally the same
  tests as given above; then going through and testing pretty much every menu
  option (plus dragging some stuff around).
  The notable omission here is PRINTING. It's gone midnight and I haven't even
  made dinner yet, so you'll have to excuse me NOT testing that part tonight.
  However, it seems that everything else works with ZeroPain module INACTIVE
  (so a problem would crash the application).

God, I’m whacked now. Goodnight everybody. Time for me to switch to Standby Mode.

Rick that’s great. Just remembered I actually use Ovation a lot on the A4000 because of its smaller footprint compared to EW.

Thus sayeth the help file

Spellcheck tested on Frobnicate. Works but many faults due to the use of
technical words not in the dictionary…though I can see I spelled
“seperate” incorrectly. Pffft!

Might be useful to drop the file into Ovation and spellcheck. See how many “occurances” of strange spelling exist :)

Nice work. Now people have a free document processor for the Pi

Might be useful to drop the file into Ovation and spellcheck. 

:-P

Now people have a free document processor for the Pi.

Mmm, you’re right. I hadn’t realised that.

Rick,

Minor error seen in the !OArtWorks !Run file.

When checking for !CCShared (around line 9) refer to OArtWrks$Dir, but this is defined earlier as OArtWorks$Dir – changing this allows this to load properly.

Best regards,

Matt H

Nice to see Ovation again – brings back memories of when I used to work at Beebug

Thanks for the feedback. I now have two (minor?) bugs to stamp on this evening.

If anybody has any pet bugs; please do let me know. It’ll be quicker and simpler to get things sorted now when I can tweak and put the program directly on my website. Plus it also means when APDL’s stuff is online, they can offer a solid working version and not last decade’s build. ;-)

So, come then, let’s get this sorted!

I have never used Ovation. Does it have a manual or help file? Can pages be saved as Drawfiles, Techwriter files, pdfs, jpegs or pngs? As I do not have a printer it would be a dead-end for me unless Ovation files are convertible to other formats.

Hi,

There was a manual. I don’t have text or anything, maybe when the APDL version is available? Perhaps I should write a crash course on my blog.

No, it saves only as Ovation; but you can print to PDF files which work on other machines. Look for PrintPDF. I can’t link, I’m in the car on the way home (passenger, of course!).

Does it have a manual or help file?

There is a third party manual, “Getting into Ovation” by Roger Amos. It is on the Nutshell CD in Ovation format or as a PDF on Risc World Vol.2 Issue 6.

Great work Rick and thanks for updating this old but very useful program.

I’ve tested it anmd it works Ok, with minor tweak mentioned, on my Raspberry Pi and Iyonix but gives Fatal error type 5 on my Beagleboard so I assume it is just ARMv5 compliant and not ARMv7?

I’ve tested it anmd it works Ok, with minor tweak mentioned, on my Raspberry Pi and Iyonix but gives Fatal error type 5 on my Beagleboard so I assume it is just ARMv5 compliant and not ARMv7?

It means that Rick was aiming for a fully compliant version but doesn’t have an ARMv7 machine to test on so missed that bug.
If you give a more complete description of exactly when it produces the type 5 then things will be easier to trace.

Steve/Rick

I have altered the Pi setting to ARMv7, fast and exceptions off tried, and Ovation works ok but doesn’t on the Beagleboard.

The fatel error is seen when you try to load or create a new document. I have tried it with out any boot being run and using a virgin copy of !System as well. This is using the 5.23 4th July 15 Beagle rom i.e pre ZPP. The Pi is also running the non ZPP ROm of the same date.

Error data as below:

postmortem requested

Arg4: 00000000 0
Arg3: 0×00000001 1
Arg2: 00000000 0
Arg1: 00000000 0
fc1546d8 in function setvdiextent
54d08 in function openvdi
1f640 in function createnewfiles
1f698 in function createnewfile
arg2 : 0×00081288 529032 → [0×0008192c 00000000 0xe1a00004 0×3e694c3c]
Arg1: 0×00000001 1 3353c in function main
Arg2: 0×00033484 210052 -. [0xe1a0c00d 0xe92dd833 0xe24c6004 0xe15d000a]
Arg1: 0×00080da0 527776 -. [0×764f3c22 0×6f697461 0×6944246e 0×212e3e72]
fc 148934 in shared library function
62250 in anonymous function

Thanks for the feedback. Anton Reiser contacted me regarding the Type 5 earlier in the day, and even went so far as to poke around the source to try to find out why.
It turns out (he wasn’t au fait with ARM code) that a function written in assembler was using MOVS PC, R14 to return. This doesn’t have particularly nasty side effects on ARMv5 or ARMv6; but on ARMv7 it does.

This is why it is worth perhaps renaming the Pi’s ARMv7 mode in the configuration. It is “ARMv7-like”, but the processor is not an ARMv7 and will behave slightly differently…as this instance demonstrates.

I have given the updated program a quick test on my Pi; however I will not be performing a complete test as I still cannot get reliable joy from the digital video output. In the end I gave up and reverted to using s-video.

For what it is worth – here are two bug reports from the most recent beta build of RISC OS for the Pi:

• It freezes at “Acorn SCSIFS”, waits ages, and then gives up. System is set to Boot. Device boots correctly in 5.22 stable. If I configure language to 1 (and get dropped into Supervisor), I can get the boot started by typing “Run !Boot” at the command line. Boot never completes, I think this is a ZPP ROM with some 2012 vintage code running. ;-) At any rate, why doesn’t RISC OS boot itself? [boot device is a FileCore formatted USB key]
• CreateModeFile always fails. It appears that either my monitor, or the VGA adaptor, does not provide a monitor name, so the CreateModeFile command tries to save “<path>.” which is not a valid filename.

I have printed two PDF documents from Ovation using Printers and !PrintPDF (by Stephen Fryatt, visit http://www.stevefryatt.org.uk/software/ ). Trying again on the ZPP build spits out 250KiB of rubbish just starting !Printers. Erk. Well, Ovation threw some Pain but it was in module PDriverPS so I am assuming that Ovation is okay, it’s the printer driver that is unhappy.

Okay, I’m going to reboot back to my custom build and get an update put out. I’ll post a message when it is available.

Complete user guide is here, in HTML format: http://www.apdl.org.uk/riscworld/volumes/volume2/issue6/ovation/index.htm

I have never used Ovation. Does it have a manual or help file? Can pages be saved as Drawfiles, Techwriter files, pdfs, jpegs or pngs? As I do not have a printer it would be a dead-end for me unless Ovation files are convertible to other formats.

As Rick rightly points out you can only “save as” Ovation. EW however seems to be able to import them without problems, at least that’s what I always did: dropping Ovation files on my EW templates. I didn’t use any fancy options though and the final formatting was done under EW and then saved as PDF for compatibility reasons. With Ovation now running on modern hardware I should be able to directly print to PDF using PDFPrint (name?), thereby cutting out the middle man. Nice!

Now people have a free document processor for the Pi.

Well, there’s FireWorkz too of course, although I personally only use it (the Pro version) for spreadsheets.

Word processor != Document processor.
WP != DTP.

Okay, I’ve updated the original archives (so everybody gets a working version, and also because the changes were minor).

http://www.heyrick.co.uk/blog/index.php?diary=20151105

Here’s evidence. Ovation running on the Beagle. It’s S-video, and that’s the real picture dimensions. ;-)

Finally, here’s a button that needs pressed:

Finally, here’s a button that needs pressed:

What, no style=“cursor: pointer”? Shocking. :)