Two weeks with RISC OS as main system

Some weeks ago one of my sons moved out and I got my old homeoffice/studio back. This meant that I could organise things better.

I decided to have Timachine as the main computer in computercorner and at the other side of the room pc laptop for music production (along with synths etc). Under the computer desk I also have a pc for building browser and hacking u-boot things. It is running more or less headless.

It works very well, runnning ssh to linux pc and rdp to laptop (for skype and ehem facebook).

I do most doc reading on risc os, but sometimes I dump pdfs to jpegs. It is way faster reading pages with SwiftJpeg than having like 20Mb pdffile with a lot of tables etc. I also have started on running todo list/bug tracker in DP Home. I imported my backlog from OmniFocus (A macOS / iOS program) and got a nice database that I now add new things to. Organizer is also in the mix with imported google calendars. Messenger Pro for handling the endless amount of emails.. (from gmail). and usenet.

If I need to write something I do it in OvPro or TechWriter.

NetSurf works as mainbrowser , but it will be replaced with owb as soon as I have multiwindow support in it. Btw OWB now uses the 2d library cairo and renders most things very well and rivals NetSurf in renderspeed.

My Ti is on 24/7 and only crashes if I do something stupid.

To sum it up.. I enjoy the fact that RISC OS is my centre when it comes to computer usage. It works very well with complements from pc world.

It is almost as beeing back in the 90ies again , but having a much better machine!

I also have a PC [which] is running more or less headless.

My Windo$e PC has been headless since I upgraded to 5.24 on Ras Pi.

RDPclient is a magic bit of software. (Not totally perfect, but does the job very well).

I do just about everything from this Ras Pi running RO 5.24. (and it runs my GPS tracking at the same time)

and I don’t intend to change things any time soon.. :)

I do just about everything from this Ras Pi running RO 5.24. (and it runs my GPS tracking at the same time)

A Pi3 ?

No. A Pi 2 (Cortex A53) Clocked at 900 MHz. (Spending most of its time at 600 MHz)

I do a lot of things on my Pi. And I use RDPClient a lot too. But with some problems:
1/ No support for modern connection type. I don’t know how much work would be needed to use a more recent version of rdesktop.
2/ Problem with dead keys: for example Alt+[ then e should give é. Or, on French keyboard, AltGr+0 → @. It doesn’t work (the same with VNC server under RISC OS).
3/ Sometimes a bit slow. I don’t know how much work would be needed to compile it with GCC + VFP.

I can solve the first problem, by ‘downgrading’ my Windows. But the second problem is really annoying.

On the non-RDP side, I could say:
- the lack of a modern web browser (OWB?)
- the lack of a ‘complete’ version of DOSBox for the Pi3 (recompiler + Win98 support).

Of course, I would love a port of BBC Basic for SDL, as I simply won’t need a PC any more.

I haven’t downgraded windows on my laptop, but I use rdpwrapper, that gives you more control.

But I have to admit , I use nettle/ssh more than rdp.

Problem with dead keys: for example ……

I keep my PC keyboard to hand (usually leaning against the PC) in case I need some odd keystrokes (ctl-alt-del).

I haven’t downgraded windows on my laptop

Because you didn’t need too (Windows 7?). rdpwrapper does not work on the latest versions of Windows 10.

but I use rdpwrapper

And I don’t need to (Windows 10 Pro). But I needed to lowered the security level, since the protocol has changed.

And I don’t need to (Windows 10 Pro). But I needed to lowered the security level, since the protocol has changed.

I have win10 pro. It is just that the security settings is easier with rdpwrapper.

I love hearing what people do with RISC OS, coz sometimes I feel like I’m the only one still thrashing it. I wish I could claim to have contrived the image below, but this is honestly where I am today – according to WindowList I have 45 windows open, and my iconbar is… busy.

It’s usually blown up before it can get to this state. I don’t know whether that’s a good sign or not.

It’s usually blown up before it can get to this state. I don’t know whether that’s a good sign or not.

Wow thats a lot of discs! I have like 30 editor windows ( when doing rom work ). I used to use !Zap , but it crashed on me so I switched
to StrongED. I liked Zap better, but I don’t want to have freezes now and then!

Hmm, I’ve had Zap crash from time to time, but yet to have it actually freeze the machine…

[of course, now I’ve gone and said that… ;-)]

Yeah, Zap is very reliable here. That is to say it reliably gets PostScript syntax colouring spectacularly, laughably wrong. And cut-and-paste in Basic mode is… unpredictable: “Nope, you didn’t want those four bytes, they were very tasty, nom nom nom”.

Love Zap.

my iconbar is… busy.

You bet! I wish though that just for interest I could identify all the loaded apps. Nice to see Vantage featuring on, I think, VirtualRPC (if not elsewhere?), but a tad tantalising.

This seemed like a good idea when I started.

Just <checks> 370 countries to go…

Da iawn!

my iconbar is… busy.

How do you get different coloured icons for each drive?

Can you do the same for network drives, e.g. via LM98?

How do you get different coloured icons for each drive?

That’s my custom version of HostFSFiler, but I patched ADFSFiler a looooong time ago to do the same. It’s pretty simple – the FS filer will use icons called harddisc4, harddisc5, harddisc6 etc, falling back to plain old harddisc if the specific ones don’t exist. (And you could do the same kind of thing with any filericon).

The colours match the ColourFiler backgrounds which makes it easier to tell where I am – too many discs.

Oh yeah, it uses harddisc4s etc if the drive is shared too. So the ‘LED’ on one of my drives is green instead of red, because that one is shared. And they’re also animated when dragging stuff, but that’s my ‘hover’ functionality…

Da iawn!

Môn wedi mynd! :-(

Lost and gone or just gone?

He’s such a tease! So many programs/enhancements that we’ll never get to see.

Can someone explain to me why (some of) the best RISC OS programmers never want anyone to use there stuff?

PostScript syntax colouring spectacularly, laughably wrong

That’s surely an add on? I don’t think I have any PostScript mode.

And cut-and-paste in Basic mode is… unpredictable:

Yeah. Because it deals with raw BASIC which it doesn’t always cope with as input. :-/ But, again, this is an add on.

I’ll admit that Zap has a pile of goddamn bugs amusing quirks, but Zap isn’t responsible for all of its add ons and extensions.

Do you have the PostScript mode sources? Ever thought of fixing it?

He’s such a tease! So many programs/enhancements that we’ll never get to see.

Maybe he’s enticing you into offering a free ARMBook and a desktop?
Or, you’re right and he’s a tease…

This is getting better. Multiwindow now works with OWB, so less NetSurf for me.