RISC OS News Network

Not sure who set it up or who last maintained it but I used to visit this site daily to capture updates across a number of RISC OS and ARM relevant websites:

https://riscosnews.wordpress.com/

However since twitter rebranded and changed how it is accessed this site has stopped working.

Did anyone else use it?
Is anyone interested in re-activating it – perhaps to monitor different sites eg ROOL Forum, Iconbar, RISCOSITORY, etc instead of Twitter/X feeds.

Been meaning to ask for ages and there you go have asked the question.

However since twitter rebranded and changed how it is accessed

Not changed. More stopped external sites from using data feeds.

Is anyone interested in re-activating it – perhaps to monitor different sites eg ROOL Forum, Iconbar, RISCOSITORY, etc instead of Twitter/X feeds.

What would be the point? The RISC OS world is littered with dead websites like this, which were set up, ran for a few weeks, months or years, and then stopped – but still remain “live” on their hosting, polluting search results and suggesting that the platform is even more moribund than it is.

There aren’t many sites to monitor. Just monitor them directly, link to them, support them, and help keep them active in that way!

fair point. the RISC OS NEWS NETWORK page was my first port of call for probably 10 years.. shame to see it go by the wayside… I currently peruse ROOL Forums, Iconbar, RISCOSITORY and occasionally comp.sys.acorn (although think these are bot to go too) and rarely stardot

Do you recommend any other RO sites to keep an eye on?

This is the first I’ve heard of that site… but if it was simply scraping the bottom of the X shaped barrel, then no loss.

I read here, Riscository, and Iconbar.
If a story isn’t on one of those, it’s probably not worthy of attention…

It should be possible to do something similar to RISC OS news but with the RSS XML feeds from those sites.

What would be the point?

but with the RSS XML feeds from those sites.

Sargasso?

comp.sys.acorn (although think these are bot to go too)

I’m not aware of that. Google Groups might be coming to an end, but Usenet will still be a thing: you just need to get your newsfeed from a proper News server.

Hey Rick – thanks for the prompt re Sargasso. That is an awesome and simple program. Have got it monitoring some ACORN/RISC OS sites as well some general IT sites and also some local fire service warning feeds (we are in the country).
Can re-order the feeds too by editing the ‘Feeds’ txt file in !Boot.Choices.Sargasso

Prompted me to go looking for a similar program on my windows machine as well and after a number of false starts found QuiteRSS which although a bit older has multiple install options – ie portable or installed and has a version of Mac OS X, OS/2

Just had a look around and find the site http://zamez.org/sargasso still has James Bursa’s November 2006 version 2.01 of Sargasso available for download, as well as its source code.

Unfortunately it hangs during load on my iMX6 and on the Pi 400, with Reporter logging WimpError &050DEAD0. Perhaps DownUnderROUser is using a downunder version of RO ;) Anyone suggest how to get it to run under OS 5.29?

2.07 here, Bernard: https://riscosports.co.uk/downloads.html

Or better, from Packman! (See https://www.riscosopen.org/forum/forums/5/topics/15864)

!PackMan has a 15th July 2023 version. I’d suggest installing it from there.

Thanks both.

I am running Sargasso v2.11 (15 Jul 2023) which seems to be the current version. I got it and its still showing on Packman.

This works on IMx6 and Pi4B here.

Stuart’s link to riscosports gives Chris Grandsden’s version 2.06pre5 which works okay here.

But I can’t see Sargasso on PackMan at all!

But I can’t see Sargasso on PackMan at all!

riscos.info is currently unwell: the package lists are not being constructed. This looks to be a repeat of the June 2023 incident – when the problem is corrected, the package lists should repopulate and an entry for Sargasso should reappear in PackMan.

I downloaded Sargasso from Packman last week – it is the 2.0.11 version. only tested it so far on RO5.28 on a RPi Zero W and on RPCemu running 5.27 and 5.28. These installs working with no issues. I have just done an update lists for Packman and this worked OK so looks like Packman is working OK.

Some of riscos.info is still there, some download zips are available.

http://www.riscos.info/packages/arm/Administration/packman_0.9.7-1_arm.zip

More can be seen at :-

http://www.riscos.info/packages/arm

Sargasso is in Network.

Updating PackMan’s Lists has however managed to loose Sargasso but retained PackMan itself.

Hope this helps until riscos.info fully returns.

Update

the package lists are not being constructed

A look inside !Packages.Lists shows some zero length files, including the one Sargasso is in.

A look inside !Packages.Lists shows some zero length files

So it does. That explains why I have been confused recently! Perhaps PackMan should notify users it has found a zero length file.

I see also that ‘http://packages.riscosopen.org/packages/pkg/programs-armv5’ list is empty: is that broken as well?

I see also that ‘http://packages.riscosopen.org/packages/pkg/programs-armv5’ list is empty: is that broken as well?

That redirects to www.riscos.info/packages/pkg/raspberrypi so yes it will be affected as well.

Perhaps it’s time to migrate package management to ROOL systems?

Some of riscos.info is still there, some download zips are available.

Not any more, download zips are no longer visible, riscos.info is a bit more dead than it was two days ago.

This could be a good sign in that a repair may be underway.