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RISCOS Ltd. yesterday announced that they have completed preparation of the latest printed Programmers Reference Manual. Entitled "The Window Manager", the new volume has been brought bang up to date with RISC OS 6 features and will be available for purchase at tomorrow's Midlands Show.
The new manual is the first printed RISC OS PRM for 15 years (yes, that's right!) and at 472 pages, represents a large amount of effort by those involved with its production; updating, correcting old errors and checking, as well as laying out.
A preview, pre-print copy of the manual was on show at the recent Guildford show and we saw that the manual will be similar in physical size to the orignal RISC OS 3 PRM volumes and covers everything you ever wanted to know about the WIMP environment, including all changes from RISC OS 4 to RISC OS 6, although old, deprecated calls have been removed.
It is noteworthy that RISCOS Ltd. have chosen to keep to "themed" volumes rather than arbitrary numbered ones, so this will not be referred to as "RISCOS 4 PRM Volume 1", but rather just the "Window Manager" volume, although with it covering changes since RISC OS 3 means that it also will not be just one version of the operating system. As you can tell from above, the WIMP is a fairly large subject and fills an entire volume. We shall have to wait and see what the next installment brings.
For those interested in grabbing this latest documentation, the normal price will be £40, but RISCOS Ltd. are discounting this for Select and Foundation members to £38. People have often complained over recent years about not feeling they received value for money on their Select subscriptions, this is a small example where the benefits can be seen.
The above prices do not include Postage and Packaging. As you might imagine the manual will be quite heavy, so RISCOS Ltd have also quoted postage prices of £4.50 for UK, £10.50 to Europe and £15 to USA and Australia. Anyone collecting their copy at the show will not need to pay these postage costs.
As stated earlier, this production of new documentation represents a huge undertaking and RISCOS Ltd. and those involved should be thanked and congratulated for their efforts.
The full press release is below:
RISCOS Ltd Press Release 28 November 2007
New RISC OS Programmers Reference Manual - "The Window Manager" to be available for purchase at the ARM Club Christmas Show 2007.
RISCOS Ltd has today announced that the initial print run of the first new printed update to the RISC OS Programmers Reference Manuals in over 15 years will be available for purchase at the ARM Club Christmas Show 2007, which is being held at the Heritage Motor Centre, Gaydon, Warwickshire, CV35 0BJ on Saturday 1st December 2007 from 10.30 - 16.00.
The manual is 472 pages long and covers all the additions and changes to the Window Manager (Wimp) that have occurred since RISC OS 3. It does not include any items which have since been deprecated, so it may need to be read in conjunction with the original PRM Volume 3 if you need to use both RISC OS 3 only functions and newer RISC OS 4/6 functions. However for anyone
developing for the most up to date version of RISC OS, then this volume will give you everything you need to know about the Window Manager under RISC OS Six.
The normal retail price will be ukp40 with a discount down to ukp38 for Select or Foundation members.
The above order prices exclude postage and packing.
Orders collected at the Show will not be liable to Postage Costs.
Postage and packing (Signed for Delivery) will be ukp4.50 in the UK, ukp10.50 to Europe and ukp15 to USA and Australia.
The Window Manager is designed to simplify the task of producing programs to run under a WIMP (Windows, Icons, Menus and Pointer) environment. The manager itself is usually referred to as the Wimp. programs that run under the Wimp are often called task, because they are operating under a
multi-tasking environment.
The Manual contains the following main sections:-
Introduction to the Window Manager
Core Concepts
The Window Manager environment
Memory Management
Windows
The WindowScroll module
Icons
Menus
Error Handling
When the Window Manager first appeared in 1987, it was a new and novel concept: now these are almost universal in modern OSes.
The Window Manager is an important part of RISC OS because:
- It provides a simple to use graphical interface, that makes your applications more accessible to a wider range of users.
- It also provides the means for you to make your applications run in a multi-taksing environment, so that they can interact with each other, and with other software.
The manual also gives guidelines on how your applications should behave so that they are consistent with other RISC OS applications.
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