SparkFS 1.52 Choices

required you to email credit card details for payment

And that’s why I’ve not considered buying from them in the past ¹. You just shouldn’t do this. Plain text, encrypted text, whatever.
I’m surprised the banks even accept such payment these days.

¹ These days, import duty. A lovely Brexit Benefit.

Maybe I should take a look at these apps with a view to checking on style guide compliancy, and modifying where possible.

I have often been asked for dialogues in Ovation Pro (for example) to update the document contents immediately. It would be an improvement, you could see how the document looked without clicking on OK (or Apply). If you want to revert to how it was, just click Cancel. I’ve never done this because it is complicated.

Point being if there is something better the style guide will change.

(mostly though I have got it wrong and not read the style guide).

It would be an improvement

I think the usual way to handle that sort of thing is to have an “example” of the style/colour/text as it would look in the dialogue window.

Because I can’t help but think that some modifications could cause important (potentially major) reflow of the document contents.

If you want to revert to how it was, just click Cancel.

If you want to see how it looks, just click Apply. ;)

Doesn’t Undo undo stuff like that too? If so, a quick Undo would revert.

not read the style guide

To be fair, it came out somewhat later than most of our applications!

Interesting… I just took my printed copy of the RISC OS 3 Style Guide down from the shelf, and although the printed info on the inside cover states Issue 1, July 1993, I have written in the front cover ‘8-10-93 version’. I’m not one for just writing in books for the sake of it, so it must have meant something BITD.

Did anyone ever see the RISC OS 2 Style Guide? I have no memory of this at all.

I have often been asked for dialogues in Ovation Pro (for example) to update the document contents immediately. … I’ve never done this because it is complicated.

Same here with Fireworkz! Just no. Is this a Mac thing?

RISC OS 3 Style Guide … Issue 1, July 1993

That version does not have the concept of Choices within !Boot, that pops up a bit later in Application Note 251, issue 1.02, 18 Apr 1994.

Choices within !Boot … Application Note 251, issue 1.02, 18 Apr 1994

Only took me until 2012 to get round to doing that for both Fireworkz and PipeDream 4!

By 1994 the only RISC OS development going on at Colton Software was for Recordz / Fireworkz Pro. Diz and I were finishing off Fireworkz for Windows amongst other unrelated things. And even then, I’d have said that the majority of our customers (mainly the schools) were still using a mix of RISC OS 2, 3 and 3.1, so a Choices-within-!Boot wouldn’t have worked. They were more interested in having a central read-only instance of PipeDream 4 or Fireworkz on their school’s server and little stub applications that could be copied for each new user in which their own choices, dictionaries etc. could be stored, also not then being tied to one particular computer.

Did anyone ever see the RISC OS 2 Style Guide? I have no memory of this at all.

The RISC OS 5 version of the Style Guide mentions (on its copyright page) that the RISC OS 2 version was released in December 1990, with an Acorn part number of AKJ18. 4corn.co.uk has a scan of what is described as a “draft proof” of the manual: it is noticeably smaller than the RISC OS 3 version (56 pages vs 144 pages).

Ta. Ha ha! “The mouse has three buttons – Select, Menu, Adjust” (pp3,4). “The mouse buttons must be in capitals” (p10)

Did anyone ever see the RISC OS 2 Style Guide? I have no memory of this at all.

We worked hard to make Ovation (mark 1) style guide compliant. Then along came Impression with its 3D buttons (not in the style guide!) and everyone said Ovation looked rubbish.

Because I can’t help but think that some modifications could cause important (potentially major) reflow of the document contents.

Imagine you have text and you want to tweek some setting to get it to fit perfectly. Much better to have instant updates, rather than keep clicking Apply. Every time you click Apply a variation gets written to the undo buffer. Means undoing the last editing event is a load of undos. Granted some of this could be fixed with better management of undo.

The difference between setting up values follwed by actioning them, and instant effect is more brainwork. It’s like asking the punters to be programmers. This is why if you’re going to do something drastic you’ll not be given a system with instant effect “are you sure”/“take off the safety latch”.

For driving a car “Alexa, left hand down a bit”, is not the way, for a supertanker it is, but which is more difficult.

I have no memory of this at all.

RISC OS 2 didn’t have style. That’s why. Remember those icons that went blue or orange when the mouse moved over them? The cream up/down buttons. And Interface to make a sort of 3D look, except CC who invented something else.

and everyone said Ovation looked rubbish.

Ovation looked rubbish because RISC OS 2 looked rubbish.
Run it on RISC OS 3, and suddenly it’s Impression that looks a bit crap (I don’t much like the visual appearance of ABI).

For driving a car

Apples and pears. If you have to guess (assuming you’re not experienced enough to know) what values to set in the font dialogue, clicking Apply a few times isn’t a big deal really.

If you have to guess how far to turn the steering wheel and lock it in to see if that’s a good amount, PEOPLE WILL DIE. If you have to select the brakes and then instruct the car to do so, PEOPLE WILL DIE.
So when flexibility and response time is important, it’s immediate effect with no Apply button.
(in the case of cars, it’s also much simpler engineering ;) )

Sorry, I want your problems. You guys are talking about a thirty year old program that works very well. Isn’t there anything more important? I can only shake my head ;-)

I liked the cream buttons.

I liked the cream buttons

#MeToo

We were promised a graphic designer would be along Real Soon™ to create better visuals… How many decades did my crappy xxxFiler icons last?

cream buttons

You mean flat design?! Get rid of the borders and you basically have current design practices. What’s old is new again.

Any minute now someone will invent 3D buttons and grey backgrounds and we’ll be bleeding edge fashionable again.

Same here with Fireworkz! Just no. Is this a Mac thing?

Mac control panels (later called preferences, now settings) have always behaved like that. It makes a kind of sense: In the real world, on a physical control panel with switches any changes would take effect as soon as you toggle the switch. There’s no “OK” button on a fireplace or sewing machine, for example, so why should there be one on a computer?

Putting the details in a weakly encrypted zip (or even something obscure like a drawfile) raises the bar too high for not all, but the vast majority of threat actors.

I remember the advice being to ensure the text in the drawfile was converted to paths. Otherwise it would be quite recognisable as a credit card number from inspection of the file.

cream buttons

You mean flat design?

Hell no! 3D normal cream buttons and the huge 3D well around the cream OK button.

Isn’t there anything more important?

Has the name Gary Lineker popped up at all on your news? Did they explain why?
Anybody with a functioning brain is currently in denial or nursing a migraine from all the wall banging, so if you don’t mind we’ll just discuss quirks in a thirty year old program, thank you.

PS: If you have no idea about this latest you-couldn’t-make-it-up mess, Jonathan Pie will explain it for you: https://youtu.be/jXqVGtxFppQ

the vast majority of threat actors.

Hmm, once upon a time a threat actor was Christopher Walken. He turned up in a scene, you know it was all about to go sideways.
Now? Now it’s a weird term for criminals with keyboards.

3D normal cream buttons and the huge 3D well around the cream OK button.

Which won’t have been RISC OS 2 then, not unless using something else to draw the buttons.

Is the desktop theming capable of giving you all your buttons in cream?