Topic: RISC OS Select

RISCOS Ltd have today announced the immediate availability of RISC OS SIX Preview.

In communication with some subscribers, RISCOS Ltd. have recently stated that the long awaited Select 4 release will be available before the end of November.

RISC OS Limited have announced RISC OS 6, it will soon be available to Select scheme subscibers.

RISC OS Six is built from a completely 26 bit / 32 bit neutral source, and the move away from the RISC OS 4 brand is because "RISC OS 4 has always been linked with 26 bit computers". The name RISC OS Six is also rumoured to have been chosen due to links with Advantage Six (This has not been confirmed - Ed.). ROL "hope that everyone will soon see the advantages of RISC OS 6."

A preview version will soon be available for as a softload for existing Select subscribers, and also for those who last subscribed to the Select scheme after May 31st 2004.

You can view the RISC OS 6 website at: select.riscos.com/RISCOS6

The folks at RISCOS Ltd have announced that the second release of the Select scheme is now available for download.

A Beta version of Select 2 is now available for Download. This version contains RISC OS 4.32 plus many updates of RISC OS Tools and Applications.

Goto Select 2i1 Download Area (protected)
Goto Select 2i1 Details (free access)

The CD version of Select 2 is expected to be released in approximately 3 weeks, subject to the usual bug reports on this initial Beta release.

From the Select Website...
"We will be releasing the Source Code to the Frontend of !Printers+ as a publicly accessible collaborative project via the SourceForge Web Site. "

According the the Select website..
"The RiscStation R7500 is now fully supported by Select. The forthcoming RISC OS 4.32 Release of Select will for the first time support all three current RISC OS platforms"
No date for the release of 2.32 yet though.

In the week where those lucky bods at the Wakefield RISC OS User Group managed to see the all sparkly Microdigital Omega first hand, that we get this in from RISCOS Ltd

Select in now available for all Mico users. As special installer is available on the Select website and if you want the CD version, just ask!

This is indeed excellent news, it also means that it's two down, one to go on getting the new version of everyones favourite operating system, RISC OS. Let's hope it arrives soon!

RISC OS Ltd. have announced on their Select website that the First Select CD Shipment is being prepared and is expected to be sent to customers at the end of april.

For those of you that were waiting ...

Dear RISC OS Select User,

The first Kinetic enabled version of the first Select ROM image is now available for download from the Web Site. This version is also suitable for standard Risc PC and A7000 users and contains all the latest updates and fixes.

Don't all rush at once!

According to the Select website (password required)

No CD yet but the site is now open, so Select members can download the content.




support.riscos.com/Select/

Changing the Filer is likely to produce most praise - and complaint. the Filer is our means of handling the 'objects' in the computer and its use can be compared with driving a car; swapping 'break' and 'clutch' pedals may arguable be more ergonomically efficient but it's likely to cause one or two complaints from survivors.


Unsurprisingly RISCOS Ltd have chosen to improve the Filer in little ways.

The Kernel has already been changed for the first Select CD but these changes will continue in future issues of the OS.


The Kernel will be leaner with components split from the Kernel. these (now externel) components will be easier to maintain as they can be modified and tested without a complete ROM build.

ChangeFSI, Draw, edit, Paint and SciCalc now (in RO4+) use the ClipHolder module. at last the global clipboard is used for the standard apps and there is no longer any excuse for other software writers to ignore the facility.
The ClipHolder module provides simplified Clipboard facilities for applications exporting a single file using standard Clipboard protocols.



Draw, Edit and Paint now have menus that are more style-guide compliant - again other writers please note!



CDPlayer is a new application. It runs automatically from the CD icon if a music CD is present. It‘s a basic program - leaving the beels and whistles to 3rd party programmers. It does link with AcornCD to extract track and disk names from the web database.



ChangeFSI can import PNGs (not masked) and doesn‘t keep popping over to the centre. Where before it used long silly names it now uses sensible ones. Speed decoding progressive JPEGS using djpeg is much improved.



Draw will now export simple SVGs - the vector graphics format to be used on web sites and presumably elsewhere.



Paint is (more) stable after having many bugs withdrawn! It supports dynamic areas for workspace, import JPEGs (reliably) and PNGs (not masked) and save sprites as JPEGs.



Squash will compress and decompress GZip files. [what difference will this make anyone?]



RISCOS Ltd were at pains to point out that Puzzle has been extended and is more devious. They‘re sadists!


I already have my own list of things to do to improve Draw (readers of my Acorn User column won‘t be surprised at this!) and I‘m hoping some might be included in later releases of Select.


What do you think ROL have missed (so far) in updating the apps?

Would you like RO4+ to be (even) more reliable and user friendly?

Would you like RO4+ to be designed such that software authors find it easy to add components to the OS?

These are design goals one and two from RISC OS Ltd. Are they goals you can agree with?



The other two design goals are fixing bugs and integrating external components (where appropriate and suitable).

Of course all this depends on context. What are ROL actually going to do with RO4+?

How could it be more user friendly - you suggest ideas and I'll tell you what ROL have already done.

What do software authors think about RO4+ being designed to make it easy to add enhancements?

Should ROL produce an OS complete with the latest possible bells and whistles leaving third-party authors to concentrate on producing separate applications?

How else might ROL improve the operating system for users and software writers?

RISC OS Select is the name given to the means by which the new Operating System, RO4+, will be distributed.


Instead of producing a version of the OS that will be set in stone for three or more years RISCOS Ltd will release the product in stages over two years. New for RISC OS the new OS will be on CD, you will need RO4 on your machine to run RO4+, and problems encountered in one version can be modified for the next.


As RISCOS Ltd expect to issue three CDs each year the wait between issues won't be excessive.
It's worth noting that RISCOS Ltd are not using us all as beta testers; each CD will include some beta and some release versions of software and purchasers can opt to ignore the beta software. Software in beta on one CD is likely to be in a release version on the next.


Undoubtedly there will be enough adventurous souls who will want to explore and test the beta software and ensure the feedback to ROL for the good of us all.

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