RISC OS for Windows users (wiki page)

I’ve made a first stab at a wiki page explaining the RISC OS GUI, for people familiar with Windows or macOS – you can view it here.

Is this the sort of thing people wanted to see? If yes, what needs to be added/changed?

If yes, what needs to be added/changed?

I’m not quite sure how we would classify forward/reverse scroll by clicking left or right mouse in the scrollbar section that is not occupied by the scrollbar.

There’s also the limited key shortcuts in the OS and similarly in applications (or if you’re using StrongED, how few unused keys there are)

Very nice start BTW. Maybe we should lockdown more often.

Delete selected file(s)
macOS: Press Command-Backspace.

That key is labelled Delete, not Backspace, on a US Mac keyboard. Is “Press Command-Backspace” an error, or is it actually labelled Backspace on a UK keyboard?

I’ve changed “Windows system tray” to “Windows taskbar”. There is no such thing as the “system tray” in Windows.

That key is labelled Delete, not Backspace, on a US Mac keyboard. Is “Press Command-Backspace” an error, or is it actually labelled Backspace on a UK keyboard?

I was interested enough to do a quick web query and the layouts here suggest that I, for one, would be seriously irritated that the backspace-delete key in the UK layout becomes the forward delete in the US.

The word “Backspace” may not be on the key cap (unlike this DELL laptop) but that left pointing long arrow is the same.

Is “Press Command-Backspace” an error, or is it actually labelled Backspace on a UK keyboard?

On older UK keyboards the key is marked with a left-pointing arrow, suspiciously identical to the arrow on the “Backspace” key that occupies the same position on rival UK keyboards. I therefore jumped to the conclusion that it was the Backspace key. On the extended UK keyboard, the “Delete” key is elsewhere (in the block of keys to the right of the Return key). Pressing Command-Delete on such a keyboard does not delete the file; pressing Command-key_with_left_arrow_on_it does delete the file.

Recent UK extended keyboards do have different symbols: an “x” inside a left-pointing arrow and an “x” inside a right-pointing arrow. I would guess that these are now meant to be called “Delete left” and “Delete right”. Should I refer to the necessary keypress as “Command-Delete-left” or does that also introduce confusion?

There is no such thing as the “system tray”

In years gone by I obviously had the misfortune to only ever see Microsoft pages that called it the system tray. Serves me right for believing something on the Microsoft website, I suppose.

I didn’t mean to cause any confusion! It seems that only the US-layout keyboards actually have English text on them so that explains why the ‘proper’ names were a bit of a mystery in the UK. As for Forward Delete, that still exists as its own key. The two keys function the same as a RISC OS or Windows keyboard when it comes to deleting text, but deleting files or other objects requires use of the Delete (Backspace) key, not the Forward Delete key.

There are also separate Return and Enter keys, and they do subtly different things :)

Windows 10 still has a System Tray – it is the area to the right end of the task bar where the clock, network, charging status, notification flag, etc are shown along with the up-arrow to ‘hidden icons’ – which is the expansion area for the system tray.

I think this is a super page :)

I would say, though, that it’d be good to highlight the things that the Adjust button allows which aren’t present on Win/Mac (eg. in the first table). For example, moving a window without changing its position in the window stack (adjust-drag titlebar) or adjust clicks on the scroll buttons to scroll in the opposite direction without moving the mouse (although scroll wheel rather defeats the purpose of that).

I’d also put alternatives in the Filer table, like dragging a selection-box out to select/add multiple files, or using menu→selection→delete.

Revised wiki page now online, incorporating Andrew Rawnsley’s suggestions. I’ve also decided to use Apple’s terminology for the keys on Apple keyboards, as any resultant confusion is Apple’s fault, not mine :-)

or adjust clicks on the scroll buttons to scroll in the opposite direction without moving the mouse (although scroll wheel rather defeats the purpose of that).

Or just right (adjust) clicking in the path of the scrollbar as I described earlier.
As to the scroll wheel:

1. Not universal
2. Great for causing RSI

I’ve also decided to use Apple’s terminology for the keys on Apple keyboards, as any resultant confusion is Apple’s fault, not mine :-)

If it’s anything to do with Apple it’s probably the opposite to the rest of the Universe for no good reason. Not that you’d ever get an Apple fanboi to admit anything like that.

Windows 10 still has a System Tray

The article I linked above points out that it has never officially been called the system tray. It was introduced in Windows 95 and the printed manual referred to it as the “notification area”, and that’s always been its official name. The Settings app in Windows 10 still refers to it as such.

I’ll stop veering towards Aldershot now :)

The article I linked above points out that it has never officially been called the system tray.

“Right hand side of the iconbar” :)

The article I linked above points out that it has never officially been called the system tray.

No, the article says that some people believe that “notification area” is the wording that should be used, but also points out that “system tray” is the commonly used name for it, and that many people inside Mcrosoft called it “system tray”, and if you find old developer documentation from MSDN of Win95/Win98 vintage, there were code examples on how to target the system tray. I know, because I implemented a thing called “tray icon” in native code with a JNI interface for use from Java applications, long before the JDIC stuff became available.

That someone pretends that “notification area” is the correct wording is quite meaningless when everyone else uses a different name. Look here for one instance of “system tray” in recent versions of Windows 10: https://www.howtogeek.com/685748/did-you-know-windows-has-never-had-a-system-tray/

If it’s anything to do with Apple it’s probably the opposite to the rest of the Universe for no good reason.

Out of curiosity I took a look at the history. Apple renamed it from Delete to Backspace alongside the Apple IIGS, which I think was the first Apple II to have icon representations of files. Presumably the idea was that you delete a file; you don’t backspace it.