I wish I could scribble on the DeskTop

Does anyone know if there is a way to write on the Pin board with a mouse.

There is a sticky app, but I would like to be able write notes on the screen just with the mouse.

You would need some sort of pinboard replacement app – the standard one doesn’t support doodling.

I’ve never heard of such a thing. Someone will have to write it.

Sounds to me like a transparent window over the desktop that takes the scribbles and then saves them to an image that perhaps becomes the desktop background on reboot.
Although the first problem I see with that is that the transparent window has to pass through clicks that are over a pinned item on the desktop so that the desktop still works.
The “perhaps” above arises from the slowdown that occurs with a large image load into the background.
Redraw speeds etc.

I’m sure it would be easier to produce a scribble/note app that loaded at boot and popped out from a window boundary when you took the mouse pointer over the trigger area.

Separate app is probably better. Remember that a pinboard replacement, in addition to sorting out what’s a click on something and what’s a scribble (should there be an “undo”?), it would also need to handle file shortcut icons, pinned windows, and TinyDirs.

I’d settle for a version of the Pinboard that allowed drag-saving to the deskop, and stored files in a definable location (eg. !boot.choices.pinboard.files or something), creating *pin commands after saving the data.

Also, a version that saved on shutdown would be handy, with a “revert” option on the menus to allow you to reset if you didn’t want what was happening.

Yes, these are very Win/Mac-alike operations, but having to manually save the pinboard feels rather clumsy (I can see the advantages, but…). Also, the number of times I want to save something, and can’t find the right window – dragging to the pinboard would be a really handy time-saver. I could then move the file elsewhere (shift-drag would move file and un-pin) at my leisure.

A compromise might be to forcibly update the current Pinboard file with any saved files/documents, but not forcibly update other changes. This would keep the benefits of having to “save” the pinboard, whilst not losing icons for saved documents.

Scribbling on the desktop would be better for an enhanced “sticky notes” type app. If you have a sticky-note text note app, then allowing for a graphical type note where scribbling was allowed would probably do what was needed. Otherwise pinboard would need to have paint-like tools and allow stored sprites to be plotted over parts of the desktop. Do-able, yes, but probably not very attractive – sticky notes sound better (maybe built-in to pinboard, as it’d be pretty logical to press menu over pinboard and make a new stickie).

I’d settle for a version of the Pinboard that allowed drag-saving to the deskop, and stored files in a definable location (eg. !boot.choices.pinboard.files or something), creating *pin commands after saving the data.

!Filters / TaskFilters by Andrew Kemp does this, though I can’t find the entire app on ym system, just the module I have installed on Boot. I doubt it’s 32bit though, and a quick google failed to find it, or the author.

Edit: It may have been called !PinFilters, Paul Vigay’s pages have an old link to it here: http://www.archchancellor.demon.co.uk/good/a.html but that’s out of date now, obviously.

It also gets a mention in Acorn User October 1994: https://archive.org/stream/AcornUser147-Oct94/AcornUser147-Oct94_djvu.txt

Further edit: I’ve just found it on the Acorn User CD1, and the archive includes sources for the modules :)

Nice find Andrew! A free ARMbook to anyone willing to add that or something similar to Pinboard then ;)

A couple of other nice features it has, which I use all the time on my RiscPC and miss them elsewhere, is ‘click and hold’ on the close icon of a window to iconise it, and click on ‘Info’ from the pinboard menu to open the Pinfilters folder where items saved to the pinboard are stored. I wonder if they could be incorporated into the OS too? I guess the ‘click on info’ thing needs to be a proper menu item though! ‘Click and hold to iconise’ is very handy.

It certainly would be nice is RO5 could start to gain some of these “quality of life” improvements. That kind of thing (although not that specifically) is why Adjust/Six still have their advocates, and what made them attractive in the first place.

I think it would go a long way in helping move forwards beyond that history if RO5 started to gain those kind of improvements too, beyond just support for other hardware. Problem is, manpower. ROD could fund some work, but no-one seems to want to make working on RISC OS their job :(

Apropos of nothing

Ooh, great! Where do we get that handy little app?

I’d settle for a version of the Pinboard that allowed drag-saving to the desktop

Bizarrely, MiniDisc does this AND it is 32bit! It’s set in Choices…. Patches, listed as Pinboard drag-to-saves

Files are saved in Boot:Choices.MiniDisc.Desktop

Bizarrely, MiniDisc does this AND it is 32bit! It’s set in Choices…. Patches, listed as Pinboard drag-to-saves

There are a number of things that MiniDisc does, either as part of the main functionality or by way of a side feature.
Wouldn’t everyone prefer that those features and featurettes were built into the OS?

Equally the window stack rearrangement feature Nemo has clearly built into a utility, or modified OS component but I’m betting the former, really ought to be in the OS.

Given the offer from Andrew R. I wonder how much Nemo would like an Armbook…

Apropos of nothing

Nevertheless interesting on two counts:
1. The ‘handy litte app’ — reliable enough to be shared?
2. How did you record the animated GIF?

I use VirtualRPC, so it’s easy to use something like GifCam to record stuff. Then I stick it on Imgur.

As for ToolMenus, it was written in 1999. It could probably do with some dusting. I’ll put it on my list.

I’ll put it on my list.

Great, but I expect that your list is long, and that you have a keen sense of priorities!

Well… I can agree with one of your assumptions…