News from RISCOS Ltd No. 21 June 6th 2002 ============= This Newsletter is being sent to all current and lapsed Foundation members as it has some special offers for everyone. Membership Renewals ------------------- As previously announced new Foundation membership fees are now applicable as follows:- European Community countries £35.00 + VAT = £41.13 Non-EC countries in Europe will be £35.00 (No VAT) Zone 1 Postal Countries, such as South Africa £37 (No VAT) Zone 2 Postal Countries, such as Australia £39 (No VAT) UK subscriptions £33 + VAT = £38.78 Lapsed members -------------- If your Foundation Membership has lapsed more than 6 months ago then we have a special offer to help you decide to re-join. For only £40 (UK) or £42 (Europe) or £45 (Overseas Zone 1) or £48 (Overseas Zone 2) you can re-join the Foundation for 12 months and also receive the latest Foundation Risc User CD Issue 8 PLUS a further 4 issues. If your membership has only recently lapsed then you can re-subscribe at the standard rates. Please contact mailto:foundation@riscos.com if you wish to renew your subscription. RISC OS 4 upgrades ------------------ To celebrate the 3rd Anniversary of the launch of RISC OS 4 we are offering two special upgrade packs between now and 31st July 2002. Offer 1. -------- RISC OS 4 Upgrade (full pack with bundled applications) UK £ 85 EC £ 87 Zone 1 £ 75 Zone 2 £ 77 Offer 2. -------- RISC OS 4 ROM only upgrade (for existing RISC OS 4 Users) UK £ 80 EC £ 82 Zone 1 £ 71 Zone 2 £ 73 Offer 3. -------- RISC OS 4 Upgrade and 1 Year RISC OS Select subscription UK £ 175 EC £ 177 Zone 1 £ 154 Zone 2 £ 156 All the above prices include VAT (for UK and EC) and delivery. Orders for RISC OS 4 and the Select Scheme should be sent to mailto:sales@riscos.com RISC OS Select -------------- The price for new subscriptions to the RISC OS Select Scheme will be increased to £155 (£150 for Foundation members) as from 1st January 2003. All existing subscribers will be able to renew at the current price of £105 (£99 for Foundation members). i.e if you join the scheme at any time before 31st December 2002 then your 2nd year subscription will cost just £105 (£99 for Foundation members). Embedded RISC OS ---------------- Work is now progressing on developing a new version of RISC OS which will primarily aimed at the embedded products market. Target devices will include ARM 7500, SA110 and eventually the SA1100/SA1110 (as a result of the Ron project). Other processors may be supported according to demand. The embedded version of RISC OS (which will probably be marketed under a different brand name) will be a componentised version aimed at dedicated hardware applications such as point of sale devices, internet / network terminals, portable dataloggers, process controllers etc. Embedded RISC OS will be targetted at volume products which require a limited range of features. This will provide a faster development cycle than products which require the full range of facilities expected of a desktop version. In principle it will be similar to the NCOS derivative of RISC OS previously used in Network Computers, but with the added advantage of being customisable to support the addition of third party applications as part of the ROM image. A typical example would be Point of Sale Unit, which would have the necessary POS software in ROM and would give very fast switch on time to boot straight into the POS software. The first product to use Embedded RISC OS is being developed by Castle Technology using their Neuron system. Internet based translation services ----------------------------------- A very useful new service I recently discovered is the Intertran translation service. http://www.tranexp.com:2000/InterTran This relies very heavily on JavaScript, but it works very well with Fresco and Oregano. If you have a Web Site that you want translated it can directly scan the site via a URL entry or you can manually type it text and then wait a few minutes whilst it does the translation. The list of languages it can deal with is very comprehensive covering:- * English * British English * American English * French * European Spanish * Latin American Spanish * German * Italian * European Portuguese * Brazilian Portuguese * Japanese * Dutch * Danish * Norwegian * Swedish * Icelandic * Finish * Polish * Czech * Romanian / Rumanian * Bulgarian * Russian * Serbian * Bosnian * Croatian * Hungarian * Slovenian * Greek * Welsh * Filipino / Philipino / Tagalog * Hindi * Turkish * Korean * Vietnamese * Latin The site is run by Translation Experts Ltd who have various products which can help you:- * Translate web pages written in a foreign language. * Translate e-mail messages to/from a foreign language. * Translate letters, facsimile, reports and memos in a foreign language. * Translate manuals and books to/from a foreign language. * Interactively learn new words and phrases of a foreign language. * Interactively learn how to pronounce new words and phrases of a foreign language. Having tried out a couple of example translations they do come out a little bit formal, so I still recommend having any translations checked out by a native speaker. Forthcoming Shows ----------------- Big Ben Show 2002 ----------------- Once again RISCOS Ltd are sponsoring the RISC OS Expo organised by the Big Ben Club at the Hotel Mercure in Nieuwegein near Utrecht in the Netherlands. The Show is on from 10.00 a.m to 5.00 p.m on Saturday 22nd June. Details of the Show can be found at http://www.bigbenclub.nl/ If you haven't been to Holland before it is well worth the trip. Nearly everyone speaks English and there are many different ways of getting to Holland. Presentations in the lecture theatre will include Martin Wurthner on ArtWorks add-ons. RISCOS Ltd on RISC OS Select and MicroDigital on the "awesome Omega". User Group Meetings ------------------- I visited the Hemel Hempstead RISC OS User Group (HHRUG) on Wednesday February 20th and the M25EROUG on Tuesday 16th April. Both events were well attended and I was able to show the latest versions of the RISC OS Select scheme. I will next be at the Derbyshire Acorn Group on Monday 10th June. DARC meet at 7.30 at Duffield Parish Church. Duffield is about five miles north of Derby off the A6. http://www.darc-comp.org.uk http://homepages.enterprise.net/julianp/darc/ If other User Groups would like a visit please contact me mailto:paul@riscos.com Other News ---------- www.riscos.info web site ------------------------ Peter Naulls has created this new site as he felt that there was no comprehensive guide to C programming for RISC OS. Although there are many resources that cover different areas of programming on RISC OS, and sites that mention aspects of C programming, none is really entirely suitable for both beginners nor as a complete reference for experts. Peter points out that a significant portion of the content is his personal opinion based on many years of experience rather than strict factual content. Where content is the former, it should be obvious from context. While this isn't too much of a concern to novices - they should be able to take the information as-is. http://www.riscos.info Artworks Updates ---------------- Martin Wuerthner has been keeping up his program of developments to ArtWorks and following agreement with Computer Concepts has now been able to release updates to ArtWorks itself as well as to his numerous collection of extra modules. His web site contains lots of useful information about ArtWorks including a list of known bugs in ArtWorks along with some work arounds and patches. Artworks Patch http://www.mw-software.com/software/awmodules/awbugs.html Crystal plugin The Crystal Plugin for Artworks This module is without doubt the most significant ArtWorks update ever produced: Finally, ArtWorks has full transparency support! Crystal offers three types of transparency (Mix, Stained glass, Bleach) and allows you to apply a transparency type and percentage to any ArtWorks object, no matter whether it is a shape, a line of text, a sprite, a text area, etc. Further information and example screenshots can be found on the Crystal home page at: http://www.mw-software.com/software/awmodules/crystal.html Crystal costs 35 Pounds (EUR 55) (inc. VAT, price for e-mail delivery, add 2.50 Pounds (EUR 4) for snail-mail delivery). You can order by sending him a cheque or online with credit card payment (follow the link in the "Pricing and Ordering" section on the Crystal home page). Pineapple Software / VProtect ----------------------------- Pineapple Software has moved and have new contact numbers. PO Box 83, Bognor Regis, PO22 7WB Tel 01243 587122 Fax 01243 587953 mailto:sales@pineaple.demon.co.uk Pineapple Software have been running the Virus Protection Scheme for over five years now, since the first viruses appeared on the Acorn scene. It has been used by many thousands of people to successfully combat the effects of viruses and recover data that might otherwise have been lost. There are however, at least 223 strains of virus still active on Acorn systems and this number is increasing, so constant updating of protection software is always required. Most viruses tend to be fairly harmless and simply produce 'amusing' messages on certain dates. Because they only show up occasionally though, they can spread throughout your computer harddisc and floppy discs without your knowledge. When you eventually remove them you may find you have over 100 infections of the same virus! Other types may cause the computer to crash which will lose current data, and there are a couple of very nasty ones which can erase all the data from floppy or harddisc drives. The software comes in two parts. VProtect is a small module which is automatically loaded when the computer starts up. This constantly monitors the computer memory to check for any virus activity. If it finds an infected application then it will produce a warning message advising you to use the Killer software to scan the infected disc. The Killer software is a major application which allows you to scan either individual directories, floppies, harddiscs, CDs etc. for viruses. If it finds any viruses they can normally be removed without any loss of data from your files. Although Killer is very simple to use, it can be set up to your own requirements to perform automatic unattended scanning of large discs if required. The Virus Protection Scheme is based on a yearly subscription and in order to ensure that you only use the latest version of Killer, the software will 'time out' after a period of time. Members of the scheme will of course always receive a new version of Killer before the old one stops working! If you have more than one computer then you may want to invest in a site licence which allows you to install Killer onto more than one harddisc. If you have computers with just floppy disc drives, then you can of course us any of these to scan all your floppy discs. A single user Virus Scheme membership costs just £20 + vat to join, and then £15 + vat to rejoin in subsequent years. Updated discs are sent out as necessary to keep members protection up to date. DiscKnight 1.38 released ------------------------ The latest version of DiscKnight 1.38 has been released by Dave Ruck and the ARM Club. The changes in this release are as follows. * Enhancements: Map disc end marker repair code added Root directory checked for valid space allocation New Root directory creation checked for failure * Bug Fix: Check of map system object + root includes share rounding mailto:DiscKnight@armclub.org.uk http://www.smartgroups.com/groups/discknight The RISC OS Academy ------------------- Paul Vigay is pleased to announce the launch of "The RISC OS Academy". Do you remember Acorn's hey day back in the 1980's, when people unpacked their shiny new computer and eagerly started programming the beast, using nothing but built-in software and a huge amount of enthusiasm? A lot of people gained their first introduction to programming via BBC Basic, progressing to more advanced and complex languages. It seems sad that over the years, the computer world has become more 'consumer orientated' with children happy to spend their spare time playing computer games etc. People have drifted away from trying their hand at programming, being happier to buy a pre-designed package or do without a particular utility. One reason for a smaller number of people experimenting by writing their own code is the perception that wimp and multi-tasking programs are out of reach of the 'ordinary user', requiring compilers, more advanced knowledge and skills. (Another reason is the smaller number of RISC OS developers, but hopefully The RISC OS Academy will change that too!). People who dabbled with BBC Basic before but felt daunted by all the new facilities available in later versions of RISC OS will be ideally catered for, as will anyone who's just bought a RISC OS computer and wants to learn a bit more about how to program it. The RISC OS Academy has been created in order for people to learn programming skills on a variety of topics and at a choice of different levels. Running a bit like a correspondence course, people can learn at their own speed and in their own time, with a complete set of internet based resources to help them - clearly written tutorial articles, program examples, possible problems worked through and even full applications. Help is provided via email, and each person can learn at their own rate. Initially, 12 courses will be available (one fee gains entry to the entire Academy web site, so people can learn whatever they choose, when they choose). These are: General info and conversion/refresher courses 1. What is RISC OS 2. Introduction to RISC OS 3. RISC OS for Windows users 4. RISC OS for Apple Mac OS users Introduction to Programming courses 5. Introduction to RISC OS as a development platform 6. Beginners Introduction to BBC BASIC 7. Beginners Introduction to Wimp Programming 8. Intermediate BBC BASIC 9. Intermediate Wimp Programming Introduction to HTML Web Design using RISC OS 10. Beginners Introduction to HTML Web Design 11. Intermediate level Web Design Introduction to Internet Programming 12. Introduction to cgi programming using PERL Future, more advanced courses, as well as courses on other topics are planned for the future. The RISC OS Academy is designed for anyone who wishes to know a bit more about programming and using RISC OS in the real world. The RISC OS Academy officially opens on 1st September 2002, and costs £50.00 per year (runs from the day you subscribe rather than Sep-Sep) or £75.00 for a family membership. However, as a special incentive, and to judge interest, anyone subscribing before 1st July 2002 will gain an extra 2 months membership (ie. subscription will run until 1st Sep 2003) and also be able to provide input and feedback on the initial courses available. For more information, please visit The RISC OS Academy web site at http://www.vigay.com/adademy/ USB Cards --------- A bit like buses, you don't see any for ages then two come along at once. At the recent Wakefield Show both Castle and Simtec were showing off their new USB cards. The MicroDigital Mico has USB sockets on it but AFAIK they have never released any drivers for it. Details of the two cards are available from Castle http://www.castle.uk.co/support/usb/ Simtec and Partners http://www.riscos-usb.com/ Replying to queries from this Newsletter ---------------------------------------- If you are responding to a specific query in this newsletter please use the appropriate mailto: address to reply rather than replying to the sender of this email. Also don't reply to the general foundation or admin email addresses as your enquiry may not get dealt with promptly. We try to reply to all enquiries within 5 days. But at peak times it may take longer to reply. regards -- Paul Middleton RISCOS Ltd --------------------------------------------------------------- Copyright ©2002 RISCOS Ltd. RISC OS is a trademark of Pace Micro Technology plc. Certain other product names, brand names, and company names may be trademarks or designations of their respective owners.