What are you doing with RISC OS?

My goal is to keep my brain from turning to mush. In furtherance of this goal I bought a Raspberry Pi as part of a Cannakit bundle. I’ve learned Python, learned to use the GPIO pins to control LEDs and read switches, ported my favorite C program to the Pi, and started learning ARM assembly, all using Raspbian. My project now is ARM assembler in Risc OS. If I find I like Risc OS, I may try writing some things in C for it.

Thanks for your input.

Unless you reformat the entire thing and start over assigning the right sizes to each partition!

and put more open-source replacements in place of some ROMModules

Isn’t this basically a question of semantics?

and put more open-source replacements in place of some ROMModules

Isn’t this basically a question of semantics?

If you consider the phrase and the situation then really you could make it more open by changing the Castle licensed item to BSD or you could make it less open by replacing with * * * (nasty acronym)

Exactly my thoughts, but I wasn’t going to start that argument (again).

;-)

The Castle licence is really not so onerous. The two killer terms oft quoted are:

1. Must be an ARM processor. Frankly, I think this is a bit dumb. Given huge swathes of RISC OS is pure assembler, I don’t want to even contemplate what it would involve to port it to a different architecture with an entirely different calling mechanism, registers, and the like. In fact, I would say the simplest way to port RISC OS would be to write an emulator. Anything else…pain to the nth cubic degree.
2. Castle want to profit from your code while you cannot (they get your code, you need a commercial licence). I would imagine this is recompense of sorts for what it would have involved in making the source available. Perhaps also it is to dissuade a dozen poor hacks of RISC OS turning up with varying degrees of functionality? After all, we have suffered two branches of RISC OS where the advocates of one would rather die by their swords than get involved with the opposing branch. Imagine a repeat of that and the problems it could cause.
   Is it fair that Castle get your code and you don’t? That entirely depends upon what you want to do. I know I can build a custom version of RISC OS (one in which the timezone works (wink!)) right now and stick it on my website. As long as I leave the licence alone and be sure to state it is my hack rather than something official, that’s okay. Because I’m not wanting to sell it or use it in anything I sell.

I guess whether this is an impediment depends upon why you believe in Open Source…

though to increase the availability of replacements for many modules and other components, with 100% compatible equivalents written by a third party and released under something like a 2 clause BSD license or a MIT license would, likely, increase the interest of those so inclined to study the architecture of RISC OS.

Fair enough :)

A new sound command for RISC OS.

When not Christmas shopping. I’m making good progress now on my new free sound synthesiser module for RISC OS.

I’ll make the beta download available (I hope (Unless I hit a horrible bug)) next week.

It will allow easy sample load and playback. However, it also includes a sound generator, a simple resonant low pass filter and effects.

Currently I have a module with 4 star commands (and SWIs working):
*rsound – Generate a variable pulse wave, saw or triangle (AND-able together) or modulatable noise for up to 365 frequencies.
*rfilter – Set filter level to one of 255 cut off values and 12 resonance values
*rstart/ *rstop – Turn ROSEDSP on/off

Only have a single channel switched on at the moment, but will soon be switching on instrument / patches (i.e. envelopes) but I plan for these to be accessed by name rather than number. As well as enabling the other sound channels and sample playback.

My goal is to make sound much easier to use on RISC OS and to get back some of the fun of the BBC sound command (with some upgrades).

I think I read that I need to request a proper SWI number from ROOL for a new module. So will do so soon.

Well, I’m new to RISC OS and my intention is to move to a small, energy saving, affordable and stable OS, that is a bit unknown/harder to hack from the Internet side.
I work in Internet security for over 15 years now, and I the current trends simply want me to move away from Linux and that other operating system. The reason here is: I really do not want to share my personal data/files with any cloud. A friend of mind said ‘you go old-school by using high high-tech’. And this is my goal, to find out if RISC OS can actually give me more privacy – and at what cost.

After two weeks using my rPi and rPi2, buying Messenger Pro and Organizer Pro, I think I am on a good path here. My NFS/SMB Server (an other rPi running Rasbian) is giving me access to my files on all my machines without barriers.
The only thing that I really find lacking is a modern Web-Browser. Most of the time I can use NetSurf, which I like a lot. I don’t need the fancy web sites to read news or look something up. DuckDuckGo has a ‘lite’ site (https://www.duckduckgo.com/lite/) that works with NetSurf as well – so all boxes are ticked. For the rest (Online shopping, Online Banking, Youtube, etc) I resort to my Linux notebook. Which is fine, as this is a way of security. Downloaded files will be stored on the NFS server.

Moving on to my other goals:
- find a good text editor to write documentations → EasiWriter, TechWriter or FireWorks Pro 2 ?
- find a descent vector graphics program that can handle png and jpg on the fly and allows Text box editing → ArtWorks 2 ?
- a descent Database Program for all the stuff I need → DataPower3 or Impact?
- a 600+ dpi PDF printer/exporter tool
- something to create some good looking presentation material → Ovation Pro ?

Maybe the community here can help me to find the ‘right’ programs … ;)

Unfortunately my programming skills are in the realm of Pascal, Visual Basic and Python. So I won’t be able to contribute a lot to the RISC community. But I am wiling to spend money, if that helps to keep things running.

Also, I am very curious about the TiMachine – how fast is it (subjectively) to a rPi2 (old version)? Does it run all the programs I am looking at? Or is it better to get the ARMX6? Can I get my monitor running at 2560×1440 on both?

So many questions … I hope you can help me ;)

EasyWriter is very good. But Writer+ (in NutPi) is also cool.
ArtWorks and Ovation Pro are both excellent.

Nota: Python exists on RISC OS, but would need some experts to evolve.
Titanium is fast, but limited to 2 Full HD screen. For higher modes, it’ll be ARMX6 or Pi3.

Don’t forget – original Ovation is available too:
https://www.heyrick.co.uk/blog/index.php?diary=20160723#ovation

a 600+ dpi PDF printer/exporter tool

Expressing a DPI figure when exporting PS or PDF is a bit meaningless, as there’s no native resolution associated with such files. As far as RISC OS is concerned, a PS file from Printers is a vector object with bitmaps embedded, and those bitmaps are at the resolution selected¹ by the application doing the printing. PDF files are then created by converting such PS data into PDF.

Have you looked at PrintPDF and its associated tools? The Level 2 Postscript drivers that come free with RISC OS do interesting things to bitmaps, but the commercial Level 3 drivers from MW Software are much better. Ghostcript will then down-scale any bitmaps to whatever resolution you require when turning the PS into PDF.

Note that there’s a newer GhostScript port around somewhere, which might fare better on modern hardware than the one PrintPDF’s manual links to. Hopefully someone can offer a link.

¹ “Selected” is a bit strong, as with most apps it’s just a function of the bitmap’s size and the page area that it takes up, allowing for RISC OS treating bitmaps at 100% as being at 90dpi.

Well, I’m new to RISC OS and …

Welcome to the community!

It looks like you are just the right sort of person we need now to test and strengthen our online security…especially if the WiFi bounty gets anywhere…

On to the applications and hardware, here are my thoughts:

• I’m hoping at some point to buy TechWriter but for now I find Writer+ (as part of the NutPi) and Fireworkz suit me well. I understand that the Fireworkz developers are interested in getting ODT support which would be a real boon. One of the things I like most about Fireworkz is that it also has a spreadsheet built in (although I don’t do much spreadsheeting!)
• If you have the cash to buy a TiMachine it would probably be worth it, I believe you will be able to run the Otter browser on there which is more modern than NetSurf. I use a Pi B+ and a Pi Zero as my RISC OS machines. I did use a Pi3 for a bit but it was not hugely stable at the time (although this is changing)
• If you are sharing data between RISC OS and your Linux machine then you should definitely check out Sunfish (NFS client) and Moonfish (NFS server) as well as CloudFS from Elesar. I haven’t got CloudFS yet but I use Sunfish daily.
• Another useful way of getting into Linux boxes is via NettleSSH—make sure you get the newest one you can find as some of the older ones have trouble with modern SSH protocols
• I haven’t tested it yet but have been recommended to try DrawWorks XL as a graphics package. You should be able to get it (and a lot of other useful interesting software) from www.apdl.org.uk

Hope that helps and again, welcome to the community!

I’d second EasiWriter/TechWriter. I’m a maths graduate, so I have always been impressed by TechWriter’s facilities for typesetting mathematical formulae, but actually as I don’t really do maths any more, I’ve never upgraded from EasiWriter. I do not have any experience of Fireworkz Pro as the complete package, only the spreadsheet element which was bundled free with the Iyonix. EasiWriter is good for loading and saving Word documents, and can load Open Office documents in a basic way as well. Sections of pages can be exported as Draw files, which is handy for vector graphics tasks, and it can also output PDFs and HTML. The Word import needs a bit of an update, in my experience, as I am finding a few files from newer versions of Word do not work so well.

As for databases, I’m the developer of Impact, so you might think I’m a bit biased in what I say next. Impact has a demo version available to download from the Sine Nomine Software web site The full manual is available there too, so you should be able to get a good idea whether it meets your needs. Wait till next week though, before you download, as we will have a new version released at the Wakefield Show this weekend which substantially improves the CSV import facilities.

Datapower is very powerful, but I do not think that a demo or the manual are available to download. R-Comp may be able to help if you ask them. Impact does not use SQL: it’s very much GUI-driven, but does have a scripting language. It has relational database capabilities with a few limitations. Datapower is a more professional system, allowing you to define relationships between tables, and it may support SQL as well as its own scripting language. I think Fireworkz Pro (available from RComp) includes a database element which is related to Datapower in some way, so that is another option. If you cannot find the information you need on the RComp web site, do get in touch with Andrew: he’s very helpful. I think they do not have enough time to keep the web site up to date. I know for a fact that Datapower is now on version 3, as you can see from here but on their web-site it looks like it’s still version 2.

My advice would be to try out both Impact and Datapower, if you can, and then decide which suits your needs. I’m happy to answer questions (after Saturday) if you want to contact Sine Nomine Software

Hi Rob,

As others have said, Easi/TechWriter are class-leading wordprocessor applications, although they do have their quirks and require a little getting used to. As Matthew says, Techwriter in particular can do things that other platforms struggle with, but personally I find the heavily “structured” approach used by Easi/Techwriter to be a bit alien. I “grew up” with Impression (and latterly Ovation Pro) both of which offer greater layout flexibility, coupled with a “style system” that I’m comfortable with.

(split point in case of accidental mistake!)
I think a lot of RISC OS folks started with Impression, which was advertised as a “Document Processor”. Whereas DTP apps on other platforms required text to be prepared in separate programs, Impression basically said “Let’s build a good wordprocessor directly into the DTP engine”. So, you lay your page out, and type directly into the framses, with styles and so on.

If you then move to Easi/Techwriter, the lack of frame-based layout and heavy dependence on structures (sections, sub-sections, chapters, and so on) is a different way of working, and I struggle to get the best out of that. But, for maths, some tabling, and for MS Word import, it rocks.

Basically, if you think you want a DTP package, you may not need a separate word processor, unless you need MS compatibility.

Fireworkz is a jack-of-all-trades. It excels at being a spreadsheet, and the Pro edition has both read and write capability for MS Excel. The effects/style-based word processor is easy to comprehend, but lacks the layout capabilities of Impression/Ovation. Given its spreadsheet capabilities, I’m sure it’ll come as no surprise that it is good at tables, because each table is effectively a mini spreadsheet. The database bit of Fireworkz Pro is the weakest portion, mainly because it doesn’t have a lot of options. It uses the DataPower 1 engine, but does so from within the Fireworkz UI. It was mainly designed for simple databases like address books, CD collections, and that sort of thing. Once nice feature is that it is good (and easy) at spreadsheet-style databases (ie. each record on one line). FZ databases can be opened in DataPower Home or DataPower 3. Fireworkz ultimately offers a nice amount of content at a very affordable price, but if you don’t have any need for spreadsheet capability, there’s no reason not to choose other software (except the price!).

DataPower is available as DP Home or DP3, and sometimes as part of bundles (eg. NutPi). DP Home, the cheaper version, is a “flat file database” and very “visual” in use – extremely friendly welcoming. The original author, Neil Raine, was one of the original RISC OS team, and he actually used DataPower to testbed various RISC OS protocols (eg. drag’n’drop protocol between apps). You drop fields onto the page, and drag them to size, put in pictures/backgrounds and so on, then use it. The DataPower files can be read on Windows PCs via the supplied “reader” program (which does everything including data entry, except modifying the structure of the database).

DataPower 3 expands on this by going fully-relational, retaining the attractive UI, but adding more complex ideas such as multiple tables of data within the database, and linking the tables together. Again this is done visually – you see each table on screen, and drag fields from one table to another to “link” them – you even see arrows showing the linkage! There’s a full scripting language (included dedicated printed manual to this), and endless articles in Archive back issues about it all. Then there’s comprehensive SQL support for industry standard querying etc. Of course, you can ignore all of that and just use it akin to DP Home since the menus etc are basically the same (just with a couple of extra options).

Artworks 2 is pretty much the only choice that will fit your needs for vector graphics (based on your requirements). It’d give the free !Vector a try too, but really, there’s nothing to touch Artworks.

PDF resolution, as Steve has said, isn’t something that you need to worry too much about. PDF is postscript, which means that resolution only applies to bitmap images – everything else is smooth vectors (including text etc). Most bitmaps will be handled either as unmolested JPEGs, or processed as needed by Ghostscript. For PDF conversion there’s !PrintPDF from Steve (available on !Store) or our PDFmaker. Steve’s program has a few more features, ours is designed to be “one click” install (more or less) and just work. I can vouch that it has been used to create many professional books etc via print-shops and online print services, and I’m sure the same is true for !PrintPDF. Basically, I wouldn’t worry about it. And, if you’re still not convinced, you can set the halftoning to 600dpi (for the rare occasions it is relevant) via a tiny edit to a config file, which takes all of 5 seconds. But, as I said, it’s not worth worrying about.

As for hardware, the video limit on TiMachine is 2048×2048 which means 1920×1200 (a little higher than 1080p) in real terms. The counter argument is that it does have two video outputs so could drive two 1080p screens. There is a beta driver for this, but it remains unchanged since appearing 12 months ago, and I’d be cautious of selling a system based on its promise as it requires a bit of “coaxing”.

The ARMX6 will drive up to 4k displays (3840×2160 resolution) and my “testbed” monitor is a 2560×1440 display, which works faultlessly “out of the box”. It can also do HDMI audio etc. There is, however, only one video output.

Performance-wise, the TiMachine is faster, but it’s not a night-and-day difference (esp coming from Pi, which is noticeably slower in many operations). Otter isn’t exactly pleasant on either system. If money’s no object, and the resolution limitation isn’t a hinderance for you, then TiMachine may be the better choice, but if you’re looking to get a machine and software, the ARMX6 is a great all-rounder (and remains by far our most popular system). Both TiMachine and ARMX6 feature SATA SSD connections, and gigabit ethernet.

For technical reasons, ARMX6 is slightly more compatible with things than TiMachine. Firstly, ARMX6 uses standard RISC OS “bgr” colour internally which means all existing apps display colours correctly without modification. Some programs needed to be adapted to Titanium “RGB” colour (for example, Otter needs to have a system variable set to correct this). This work has now been largely completed by the various companies affected (eg. Martin W offers a suitable Artworks patch, and the latest PhotoDesk works correctly). However, little quirks do remain – someone sent a “Ti RGB-format” screenshot to me the other day which arrived on an older machine, and the sprite would not display.

Additionally, if you have any interest in real “legacy” software, there’s no 256-colour support on Titanium, which affects old games, emulators (eg. OS3.1 support) and the like. Conversely, ARMX6 has no 16-colour support.

Given that you’re new to RISC OS, none of this is likely to impact you in any meaningful way, but I mention it because we still have a lot of users running legacy apps.

One big plus for TiMachine is that it can also run Linux, so you can have a single system running RISC OS and Linux. Our “Grpahical Linux” discs include browsers such as Firefox and Chrome, as well as a range of well known applications. This can add an extra dimension to the system, but be aware that these are still lethargic compared to even a cheapy PC. For many folks, our “UniLaunch” system (part of UniPrint) remains a good choice for browser-issues. This allows you to launch a URL directly to another machine (typically PC, but UniPrint runs on Linux and Mac under Wine) just by clicking it. In MPro, for example, left-click opens in RISC OS browser, right-click opens via UniLaunch.

Bottom line is that both systems have their strengths, and they’re both excellent purchases. Going forwards, ARMX6 is really what we consider to be our “baseline standard” for RISC OS developments primarily due to weight-of-numbers. TiMachine builds on that with extra Mhz, at a higher price.

It is worth also commenting that current RISCubes (Windows+RISC hybrids) perform almost identically under RISC OS to the latest pure-ARM machines. Depending on the test, they’re either noticeably faster (DataPower testing is observed to be about 50% faster) or a touch slower (software written in BASIC, usually). I mention this because I have been chastised a few times for not reporting on this, and sounding a bit too “pure ARM” biased in recent talks!

RISC OS is going from strength to strength at the moment, and (as you’ll hear this weekend) we have some big plans :) Rest assured that your purchases go straight into funding more development (minus the cost of the odd cheese-toastie!) :)

WOW. No, really, WOW! Thank you all for your replies! I feel … overwhelmed by the friendliness, support, information and amount. You guys rock and I can see why RISO OS is still alive and kicking! :)

I love the idea this forum is actually read (and nswered) by the developers – which reminds me ofthe ‘good old days’ in 1991, when the Internet consisted of Gopher, Archie, FTP and Telnet.

After reading all the answers I have to do more research. The programs mentioned as alternatives have to be checked out, deciding on the hardware is a challenge.

So, here are a few more thoughts:
I can rule out EasiWriter/TechWriter for me, as I do not need M$ compatibility and rather have a DTP environment than something like LaTeX. Also, I completely forgot about spreadsheets! Yes, I need them from time to time, at least in a basic form. So, I think I can go with Fireworks, maybe even the free version.

Then I need a DTP tool – Ovation or Ovation Pro? I am a bit confused by the two versions, but thanks for mentioning the free one. It seems to be all I need at the moment as it covers the main aspects (Boxes, Text Styles and Pictures including rotation). Not sure if I need the extra features like Grouping, Text Rotation, etc.:)
Are both versions still developed?

PDF printing, yes, I was deceived by the looks of the ragged lines on RISC OS using a PDF reader. But looking at the same PDF fil on a different machine, the output was all I was wishing for. So the free PDF will be it!

In terms of Databases I’ll have a look at the possible options. Now that I got a better understanding on how they work, what they can do (and where they struggle), I think I am in a good position to compare them. The information you guys gave me was very informative – thanks again!

The decision on the hardware will be the most challenging. I really want my HD screen using the highest resolution possible, but then I can always use CPU speed. Ha, writing this on a 700MHz rPi … which seems capable of doing most tasks. Does Sun Fish work on the ARMX6? It does not seem to work on the rPi 2 (v1.1, ARMv7).

Looking at the specs and how well my rPi1 is doing, I tend towards buying the ARMX6. Seems to be the best choice for my purpose in terms of power, software and graphics support.

This UniLaunch seems to be interesting – is there any more information available?

Also, is there something that reads/writes RTF files?

I found more about UniPrint here:
http://www.arsvcs.demon.co.uk/rci/uniprint/

And something to convert MS Word Files
http://www.winfield.demon.nl/

Steve’s program has a few more features, ours is designed to be “one click” install (more or less) and just work.

Unless things have changed recently, PrintPDF will happily work in parallel with R-Comp’s PDFMaker, such that whichever one you have running on the iconbar at the time will handle the file that you’re converting. This means that PrintPDF can “sit on the coat tails” of R-Comp’s installer…

That said, PrintPDF isn’t hard to install, and the manual contains detailed step-by-step instructions which have been road-tested and refined over the years based on user feedback. :-)

And, if you’re still not convinced, you can set the halftoning to 600dpi (for the rare occasions it is relevant) via a tiny edit to a config file, which takes all of 5 seconds.

I’m not sure if we’re thinking of the same thing here, but if you mean editing the DPI setting in the Printer Definition File, then don’t waste those five seconds. I used to supply 300dpi and 600dpi versions of the PrintPDF definition file, until it was politely pointed out to me by a dapper German gentleman in a bow tie that it was a waste of time: Printers requires all definitions to contain a DPI for the benefit of the raster drivers, but the PS system (both Level 2 and Level 3, AIUI) completely ignores the value. On the assumption that Martin knows what he’s talking about in this area, I stopped including the 600dpi definition with PrintPDF.

Then I need a DTP tool – Ovation or Ovation Pro? I am a bit confused by the two versions, but thanks for mentioning the free one.

Ovation = written by David Pilling for the company Beebug who left the scene years ago.
Source donated to the community by David.

In the years following the Beebug release David wrote the Pro version, still sold and supported.

When the source of the original came available Rick Murray converted it to 32 bit status and fixed a few bits, Less capable but free

I can rule out EasiWriter/TechWriter for me, as I do not need M$ compatibility and rather have a DTP environment than something like LaTeX.

So buy the Nutpi, and you’ll have Writer+. Enough for many use cases.
And you’ll get databases too with it. And many other cool tools.

Then I need a DTP tool – Ovation or Ovation Pro? I am a bit confused by the two versions

Easy:
- One is limited, but useful and free.
- The other is not free, but excellent.

Are both versions still developed?

Seems to.

I think PS DPI is only relevant for images. For the rest, it is a description – line here, letter here in this font and this size… I’d imagine that would be output in the native resolution of the printer.

According to the PS specification, you’d definitely be right. Whether you’d be right in practice depends on the printer driver.

To answer the SunFish question, yes, it is part of the ARMX6 standard disc image, and several customers use it to access a variety of devices. I’ve tended not to use it (the built-in Samba/LanMan networking works well for me), but I have seen a number of recommendations on the ARMX6 mailing list.

Fireworkz – there are reasons to buy the full-version of FZ Pro from a spreadsheet perspective, not least that it comes with many more pre-defined layouts (both for WP, and SS) modelled on more standard programs (or tasks). This means that using the standard spreadsheet layout in Pro feels much more comfortable than the free version. The Pro version also includes expanded documentation, more examples, and (perhaps pertinent to this thread) PDF generation by way of a version of !PDFmaker.

Additionally, FZ may also be your solution for RTF. Whilst many RISC OS programs do offer RTF import/export, there were significant improvements made to Fireworkz Pro in the 2.xx release notes (I forget the exact version). I recall the author did quite a bit of work supporting a variety of embedded images etc, as well as coping with different “spins” on RTF from more modern sources. IIRC, most other programs are limited to text-only RTF, as they stem from the early 90s.

I would definately say that trying NutPi is a good way to familiarise yourself with a number of programs, although that product is not really “transferable”. We do a conceptually-similar Bundle CD available with machine purchases, depending on your roadmap.

As for the PDF dpi thing, it’s funny because I remember being shown two different printouts by Paul at Explan back in the 90s, when he was changing that value with Kyocera postscript printers. The examples bitmap image seemed subtly different (as you’d expect from halftone options), but perhaps he was changing other settings – I only saw the end result. Smoke and mirrors I guess! Acorn – prescribing placebo pills for your printer since 1987!

I think for the sake of impartiality that it is only fair to point out that CJE Micros also supply hardware based on the IGEPv5 board and the Titanium hardware, both of which are faster than the ARMX6. It is all horses for courses.

Just to add – I have an ARMX6 from R-Comp and a IGEPv5 (RapidO Ig) from CJE Micros sitting side by side here. Both machines have performed without problem over the past 2 years (ARMX6) and 1 year (RapidO Ig).

Fireworkz Pro

Store update? It’s still the old version.
Good product anyway.