Topic: Applications

Cretin is a IRC Client first developed in 2002 by the Sidwell brothers and was released by James Scholes around christmas time 2005.
James has released Version 0.20b around a month back.

R-Comp have been busy, and in case you don't know they released HTML Edit 6 a couple of weeks ago, so here's the reasons why you should upgrade:

New updated versions of all programs
Improved Interfaces
Better Image Conversion
Improved handling of file extensions
Iyonix and A9Home friendly
Comes on a CD-Rom
Electronic Manual

A new version of my Background Control application is now available for download via the downloads section of Myriscos.

For anyone who's not used the Myriscos Downloads section before, it's as easy as downloading from any other website, only on Myriscos, things are sorted into categories and come from many different sources. Additionally, you as users within the Myriscos community can submit your own downloads for inclusion in our database.

To celebrate the Festive Season (and the release of ArtWorks 2.1 at the Guildford Show in October) the following Christmas offers are available when ordering the full version of ArtWorks 2 or upgrades from plain ArtWorks 1 between Dec 15th 2003 and Jan 15th 2004:

- Either -

• get £10 (EUR 15) off the regular price AND get a free 64 pagecolour printed manual

- Or -

• get a staggering £25 (EUR 35) reduction off the regular price

This offer is valid for orders with cash/cheque/bank transfer payment only (Sterling cheques and Euro bank transfers).

Online credit card orders during the offer period are at the regular prices but include the free 64 page colour printed manual. The manual is delivered world wide without any extra postage required.

On one of our fellow RISC OS portals over the weekend (Drobe), we've noticed an interesting article describing the use of RISC OS for entertaining the masses with music.

Following a gap of nearly two years, Cerilica !Vantage has been updated from version 1.01 to version 1.10 closely followed by 1.10a.

This so called 'stability' release has had, and indeed still does have, a few teething troubles. In particular, users running on RISC OS Select 4.29 - 4.36 will not be able to run the current version.

So what's new in this long awaited 'upgrade'?...

I've recently been updating my background control application to include some new features and also made it a little more compliant with RISC OS style conventions.

Aaron Timbrell, that lovely cuddly creature from VirtualAcorn emailed a quicky to us a day or so back (sorry folks, the bluebottle has been really busy, but things should be back now!).

VirtualAcorn are delighted to announce that version 1.4 of VirtualA5000 will be released at the RISC OS SouthWest show on the 22nd of February 2003.

Google Toolbar for RISC OS Public Beta version 0.62 (18 December, 2002)

After a while of no development, I have released the latest beta of !Google, a version of the Google Toolbar for RISC OS computers.

The Google Toolbar for RISC OS is an attempt at making the Google Toolbar,
which is an add on to Internet Explorer which allows the user to search the
Internet from any Internet Explorer window without going to the Google
website, available for the RISC OS platform. It allows the user to search for web pages, images, usenet articles, open directory links and news.

This new version contains a few updates to the previous release version, such as the option to search in the .co.uk domain rather than the .com domain, the option to hide the iconbar icon and the option to start small.

Please note that the homepage for this version has changed to the http://toolbars.andrewpoole.org.uk

Bug reports, suggestions etc. are welcome. Please Email them to andrew@andrewpoole.org.uk

Well, the frenzy to go over to 32 bit is hotting up. So far, we've had announcements from RComp that lots of their products will be available (at a small charge for upgrades) for 32 bit machines, Cerilica are there already, the 32 bit developer tools are already available, Icon Technology had a 32 bit happy version of their amazing TechWriter/EasiWriter products ages ago.. A 32 bit version of CDBurn (called CDBurnLite) will be shipped with the Iyonix.

David Pilling is making his software available as 32 bit, as is a new version of ArtWorks from Martin Wuerthner. Abacus Training, the bods behind PipeDream have already made FireWorkz 32 bit and have plans to do the same with PipeDream.

Even GCC has a 32 bit version!

Who does that leave?

We're still waiting to hear back from Clares Micro Supplies and also to see what APDL/Proaction will be able to do with their catalogue. Most of the applications for RiscStation machines will be 32 bit in the near future.

At this point, it is unsure what will be happening with the 4th Dimension software from CJE - our newshounds are onto that one ;-)

Note: I suppose what this does show is how quickly applications can be moved to 32 bit neutral when it came to the crunch. Question is, why has it taken this long to get something like the Iyonix?

News has reached us that RComp have radically updated their DialUp software.

It has some really fun new features such as

• being able to link different ISPs to different times of the day as well as being able to map no ISP to a time of day (prevents anyone going on line)
  
• news and mail handling has been worked on so that POP3 email boxes can be temporarily disabled and periodic news checks made while online
  
• email can now be sent as soon as it's queued
  
• shortcuts introduced for easier access to your newsgroup listing and accounts.
  
• improved use on home networks and as a backup for when the always on broadband connection becomes always off
  
• now compliant with Select's global clipboard (this actually covers the entire of the RComp Internet Suite as well)
  
• an autoredial has been added (useful for ISPs which time out like Freeserve)
  
• added support for users running proxy software on networks
  
• lots of new ISP configuration files added
  

Obviously all of these improvements will cost and for the stonkingly huge figure of 12UKP (inc. p&p) you can have this wonderful new piece of software (provided you also return your original discs)

Google Toolbar for RISC OS

I haved decided that it is time to release my first *useful* RISC OS desktop program, the Google Toolbar for RISC OS.

The program is a copy of the Google Toolbar which has been available for Windows computers running Internet Explorer for some time, and allows you to search the web, search for images, search the Usenet archive and the web directory from your desktop.

!Google will work with any RISC OS web browser (currently except Fresco, which I am currently investigating) without any settings needing to be changed to change browser.

The program can be downloaded from here and a BASIC source release is also available. The current version being 0.39.

Minidisc 0.51 has just been released.

For those not in the know, Minidisc is a cracking little utility which makes the desktop fun and easy to configure.

This version includes...

• Removes many of the icons (including hard discs) cluttering up the left of your iconbar ...
  
• ... and stacks them up into a single icon.
  
  
• 'Shortcuts' application launcher, with a WYSIWYG drag-n-drop configuration tool.
  
  
• A dynamic, customisable toolbar that can be used as an alternate/additional application launcher. You can even move your harddiscs off of the iconbar and on to the toolbar if you want!!!!
  
  
• Iconbar information tool, showing time, date, free memory.
  
  
• Configure up to 16 different actions for iconbar clicks.
  
  
  
• Configure up to 8 different actions for files dragged to the iconbar.
  
  
• A detailed user guide, describing every feature in detail.
  

MiniDisc is about as customisable as you'll ever want. Every feature can be enabled or disabled and changed to suit your personal requirements.

MiniDisc is released as freeware.

Our advice, go get a copy now!

This just in...

Improved anti-aliasing in ArtWorks

Normally, ArtWorks files are rendered using 16 levels of anti-aliasing. In most circumstances, in particular while editing an illustration, this is quite adequate. However, for presentation purposes and for high-quality bitmap output, it is desirable to have more accurate anti-aliasing.

Therefore, I am proud to announce the release of the free AWSwitch utility that allows you to choose between 16, 64 and 128 levels of anti-aliasing in ArtWorks (and other applications that render ArtWorks files).

AWSwitch sits on the icon bar and allows you to change the number of anti-aliasing levels with a single mouse click.

Click here for further information and download AWSwitch.

Peter Naulls has released the first batch of his Unix ports and a fine looking batch they are as well.

The site is comprehensive and gives you all the information you will need to get the apps up and running.

From all of us at MyRISCOS, we must thank Peter (and the rest of the porting crew) for this effort and advise people to sign up for his porting support scheme - it's only 25 quid.

News in from the Cerilica folks...

RELEASE OF CERILICA PUBLISHING PACK 2

For all users of Cerilica Vantage, Draw, Ovation, Impression, TextEase, TechWriter, EasyWriter, etc.!

Cerilica is proud to announce that its its latest brand-new software pack has been officially released.

VirtualAcorn will be exhibiting at the Wakefield Show on the 18th and 19th of May. At the show we will be launching version 1.20 of VirtualA5000.
This is noticeably faster than previous versions and includes a number of improvements, including better keyboard handling, a new version of HostFS, improved disc build, higher screen resolutions, extended manuals and third party plug in support. In keeping with our current free upgrades policy existing customers will be able to get a FREE upgrade to version 1.20 from the VirtualAcorn website shortly.

Customers with VirtualA5000 V 1.0 will need to upgrade to version 1.10 (also available on our website), before downloading the V 1.2 upgrades.

RiScript's development continues to progress well with the recent major release of version 4.15. Available now as an on-line upgrade to all existing customers, the version brings even more powerful PDF reading capabilities such as handling of CIE colour models and Euro symbol support. RiScript now also automatically embeds any Type1 font data that may already be present for more accurate document text (features such as hinting will be preserved).

RiScript customers may download the upgrade at their own convenience via the Cerilica on-line upgrade area

This just in from Artex....

The realtime strategy game TEK is complete. Well, almost: The distribution agreement has to be signed yet, and the installation software and the manual have to be finished. Thus, the actual sale of the game will be delayed a few more days.

People who have pre-ordered will soon reveive a mail with payment details, and the first copies will finally be available at the end of this month or at the beginning of May, depending on the production speed. Pre-orderers will receive their copies first.

After letting it spend an awful long time in quarantine I decided to finally let the CVS 1.11 RISC OS port go. Unfortunately it is only the command line based tool at the moment and not the accompagning GUI which I hope to finish 'soon'.

More information can be found at cvs.riscos.org.

MW Software is proud to announce the release of Crystal, the ArtWorks transparency module.

ArtWorks, the best-selling advanced vector graphics package for RISC OS, has received a large number of new features and enhancements over the past years, e.g., the TextArea module adding rotatable multi-column text areas or the BMExport module adding high-quality Sprite and GIF export options.

The new Crystal module is without doubt the most significant 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

Note: A quick picture has been put together by Chris Williams (he of EasyGCC fame) which shows what can be done in a very short amount of time with Crystal..

Click here to view it

From CSA.Announce:

The Acorn version of DA's Picture from Digital Arts is now officially declared 'Freeware'. The program was released in 1994. It is an 24 Bit image processor and will work on RISC OS 3.5 or higher (it has been tested with RISC OS 4.24 and StrongARM processor). The program is released as it is - there will be no further development.