comp.sys.acorn.announce Google Group

R-Comp releasePDF Suite Pro at Birmingham Show

rc...@rcomp.demon.co.uk (R-Comp) — Fri, 12 Dec 2009 10:02:03 UT

R-Comp is pleased to announce an enhanced version of its popular
PDF Suite package. The PDF Suite (as existing users know), allows
almost any RISC OS application to generate electronic PDF documents
which can be read on almost any computer platform. The PDF files
can be emailed, or given out on disc, and solve most document

Forthcoming RISC OS Shows 2009/2010

p...@riscos.com (Paul Middleton) — Thu, 12 Dec 2009 20:44:40 UT

News from RISCOS Ltd December 2009
------------------------------ ----
Dear All,
It is now an amazing 11 years since Acorn announced their closure of the
workstations division and we all had to start rethinking our plans for the
future in the Acorn World back in 1998.
I am delighted therefore to announce two RISC OS Shows to be held over the

MBBack release 6 (yes, six)

martin.baz...@blueyonder.co.uk (Martin Bazley) — Wed, 12 Dec 2009 23:21:00 UT

In my continuing quest to reinvent the wheel in every manner humanly
imaginable, the RISC OS world's newest (as of the time of writing, less
than one month old) backdrop randomiser has just received yet another of
its annoyingly frequent updates. Yes, I'm wondering when it'll stop as
much as you are - but if I become aware of any other features it doesn't

Festive Fun at WROCC - 2nd Dec

info2...@wrocc.org.uk (Chris Hughes) — Sun, 11 Nov 2009 15:50:04 UT

WAKEFIELD RISCOS COMPUTER CLUB
MEETING on Wednesday 2nd December 2009
'Festive Fun' Night
-------------------
Yes, its that time of year again. Its our new annual event, the
Fastive Fun night.
This year we will have mince pies, stollen cake, and shortbread

MBBack release 5 (not another one!)

martin.baz...@blueyonder.co.uk (Martin Bazley) — Sun, 11 Nov 2009 09:02:13 UT

My all-singing, all-dancing backdrop randomiser program with added
whoosh, whose name is not, as described by certain people among us,
MMBack, but rather MBBack, has received yet another update. Not quite
as big as the last one, but I still recommend upgrading, because there
are quite a few bugfixes!

SiteMatch version 2.40

r...@richardporter.me.uk (Richard Porter) — Sun, 11 Nov 2009 08:59:42 UT

I have uploaded version 2.40 of SiteMatch, which may be useful if you
use the auto-compare facility, but not otherwise. Clicking Adjust now
reverses the effect of the auto-compare flag on Upload and Reset
instead of simply forcing a rescan of the local site which cancels any
excludes you may have set.

!Calibre - Version 3.21

r...@rayfavre.me.uk (Ray Favre) — Fri, 11 Nov 2009 17:31:45 UT

!Calibre Version 3.21 (27th November 2009) is now on my website at
[link]
This version corrects a bug in Version 3.20 which wrongly stripped
the final two characters from Red Letter Day added text, when using
'old' RLD files.
The Manual does not need amending.
------------------------------ ----

Wakefield 2010 Show Announced

show2010i...@wakefieldshow.org.uk (Steve Fryatt) — Fri, 11 Nov 2009 11:34:03 UT

The Wakefield RISC OS Computer Club are pleased to announce that the
Wakefield RISC OS Computer Show will be taking place once again in the new
year. On 24th April, Wakefield 2010 will be returning to the Cedar Court
Hotel near Wakefield, which has been the show's home for the past couple of
years.

Southampton Acorn Users Group December meeting - Change of date!

davehig...@dsl.pipex.com (Dave Higton) — Thu, 11 Nov 2009 00:38:21 UT

I'm going to change the date of the December meeting to Wednesday 9th. This
avoids a clash with a departmental dinner.
I haven't had confirmation of the room yet, so please keep an eye on your
e-mails (if you're on the SAUG mailing list) and/or comp.sys.acorn.announce
nearer the date. Favourite is still S1; first reserve is G1 in the sports

MUG RISC OS Show 09 - Saturday 5th Dec

doug.j.w...@btinternet.com (Doug) — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 10:36:37 UT

The RISC OS Midland User Group (MUG) 2009 show is taking place on Saturday
5th December and is again at Birmingham University, Guild of Students, B15
2TU.
The show will be a mixture of:
- the old with the Retro Software stand showcasing software and developments
for the 8bit range of Acorn machines

MBBack release 4

martin.baz...@blueyonder.co.uk (Martin Bazley) — Tue, 11 Nov 2009 21:29:03 UT

MBBack, my backdrop randomizer with a now stupid number of bells and
whistles, has received a more-major-than-most update. Namely:
- Can fetch images from the Internet, as well as local files, by means
of Wget.
- Now comes with a separate front-end to automatically call MBBack
repeatedly after a set delay, should you get bored with backdrops

RISCubes and RISCBooks now available with Windows 7 as well as RISC OS

r...@rcomp.demon.co.uk (R-Comp Interactive/RCI) — Tue, 11 Nov 2009 18:54:54 UT

Our range of RISCBook and RISCube computers are well known for
combining the elegance and convenience of RISC OS, with the "outside
world" compatibility of Windows. Until now, all our systems have
shipped with Windows XP as the "Windows Bit" rather than the generally
disdained Vista.
Last month, Microsoft released a replacement for Vista called Windows

Qercus 292

j...@qercus.com (John Cartmell) — Tue, 11 Nov 2009 09:33:20 UT

Qercus 292 is very much a Christmas issue - but should be landing on your
doormats very soon.
Happy Christmas!
Acorn always wanted you to play games on games machines and keep your Acorns
for serious stuff, so:
1. We have a review of the games machine that is different - the Nintendo
Wii - and there is a review of one of the latest games for the machine from

32bit conversions

dr...@druck.org.uk (David J. Ruck) — Mon, 11 Nov 2009 23:12:46 UT

An update to the 32 bit conversions page:-
Twirl 0.09 - Changes the Task Manager icon to an animated acorn,
original by David G Jones.
Apologies for yesterday's upload, it wasn't fully tested before being
posted up. Hopefully this version is fully working, and passes mouse
clicks on to the Task Manager.

32bit conversions

dr...@druck.org.uk (David J. Ruck) — Sun, 11 Nov 2009 18:46:34 UT

A addition to the 32 bit conversions page:-
Twirl - Changes the Task Manager icon to an animated acorn,
original by David G Jones.
---druck

Murnong updated to reflect changes in YouTube's webpages

bel...@internode.on.net (Christopher Martin) — Sat, 11 Nov 2009 23:27:14 UT

Murnong, the application for fetching videos from YouTube, has been
updated to version 1.40. This update introduces code that will try to
use the DDEUtils module to allow much longer filepaths on RISC OS 4 or
later.
Unfortunately for RISC OS 3 users, loading DDEUtils will make little
difference. For any conversion operation, the sum of all filepath

Drag 'n Drop Editorial column open to all

edi...@dragdrop.co.uk (Paul Stewart) — Tue, 11 Nov 2009 11:42:31 UT

Do you have something RISC OS related that you want to get off your
chest? Perhaps you just want to add your thoughts on what is needed
for the platform to move forward. The Drag 'n Drop Editorial column
(January issue) is now open to all who have an interest in the RISC OS
platform. Perhaps the topic you want to discuss is controversial and

RISC OS Midland User Group (MUG) Nov09 meeting and Xmas Show 09 details

doug.j.w...@btinternet.com (Doug Webb) — Tue, 11 Nov 2009 11:35:34 UT

The next meeting of the RISCOS Midland User Group (MUGwill take
place on Saturday, 21st November 2009 at 2pm.
At this meeting we will discussing and finalising the organisation of
the forthcoming MUG Christmas RISC OS show which takes place on
Saturday 5th December 2009 and will again be at Birmingham University,

RONWUG Reminder 18th November 2009

spo...@btconnect.com (Steve Potts) — Sun, 11 Nov 2009 22:40:09 UT

RONWUG - RISC OS North West User Group - 18th November 2009
This month at RONWUG we're taking a look at the information and tools
available to developers in the RISC OS world.
We'll be having a look at some printed Acorn developer documentation as well
as the most up to date - Window Manager PRM from RISCOS Ltd. In addition to

New version of MBBack

martin.baz...@blueyonder.co.uk (Martin Bazley) — Sun, 11 Nov 2009 15:22:59 UT

The new release of MBBack is now out!
[link]
It now has ChangeFSI support to give better rendering quality than that
supplied by ConvertJPEG, at a substantial speed cost. It can also
choose not to convert files at all, but just copy the original filetypes

Steve Furber at London RISC OS user group, Monday 16th November 2009

dgs.rou...@googlemail.com (dgs rougol) — Thu, 11 Nov 2009 10:33:24 UT

The next meeting of the RISC OS user group of London will be:
Acorn and ARM
presented by
Professor Steve Furber
Monday 16th November, 7:45pm
The Blue-Eyed Maid (upstairs)
173 Borough High Street
London
SE1 1HR
Steve worked at Acorn between 1980 and 1990, and was a designer on early

RONWUG's recommended RISC OS web sites

spo...@btconnect.com (Steve Potts) — Mon, 11 Nov 2009 17:12:50 UT

As announced previously, at the October meeting of RONWUG, we did something
a little different to the norm and asked members to recommend various
websites that might be worth a look by other members and the larger RISC OS
community.
The results are now on our web site as a consolidated list for all to have a

Southampton Acorn Users Group - November meeting

davehig...@dsl.pipex.com (Dave Higton) — Sat, 11 Nov 2009 23:15:40 UT

The next meeting of the Southampton Acorn Users Group will take place
on Tuesday November 10th, at Itchen College, Middle Road, Bitterne,
Southampton, from 19:00 until 21:00. Admission is 50 pence and all
are welcome. We will be in room S1.
Dave

!Missile updated

davehig...@dsl.pipex.com (Dave Higton) — Thu, 11 Nov 2009 22:55:33 UT

I am pleased to announce an update to my !Missile application,
which has been responsible for, ooh, minutes of fun.
The update was precipitated by the discovery of a new version of
the launcher, looking exactly the same as the old one, but with
an entirely different control protocol. Today's version of the

BAABE - new text adventure interpreter for RISC OS

martin.baz...@blueyonder.co.uk (Martin Bazley) — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 21:07:03 UT

I am pleased to announce the immediate availability of the first release
of the core distribution of BAABE [1].
BAABE is a freeware interactive fiction interpreter and framework for
RISC OS. The script files are written in ordinary BASIC for ease of
adventure creation and maintenance, with several veneers and

Yet another random backdrop chooser released

martin.baz...@blueyonder.co.uk (Martin Bazley) — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 21:06:01 UT

The first release of MBBack has now escaped from development hell, and
may be found at:
[link]
MBBack is yet another random backdrop chooser program to pick from the
myriad selection on the Internet. What makes this one unique? Well,
the headline features are:

BookMaker 2.13 releasedBookMaker 2.13 released

tig...@argonet.co.uk (Nick Roberts) — Mon, 11 Nov 2009 08:32:58 UT

A new version of BookMaker has been released, and can be downloaded
from:
[link]
This version includes a new preference, "Sort books to top" that
modifies the behaviour of the address sorting tool.
BookMaker is an address book manager for many RISCOS browsers,
and email, telnet and FTP clients (unfortunately not NetSurf).

!Calibre - Version 3.20

r...@rayfavre.me.uk (Ray Favre) — Mon, 11 Nov 2009 08:31:15 UT

I am happy to announce the release of !Calibre Version 3.20 (31st
October 2009) which is now on my website at
[link]
This version adds two new feature: namely, the ability to
have up to 9 names in the two 'family calendars'; and the ability to
define two sets of colours for Red Letter Days (RLD) and choose

RISC OS London Show videos

show2...@riscoslondonshow.co.uk (Bryan Hogan) — Mon, 11 Nov 2009 08:30:19 UT

Better late than never, videos of the theatre presentations from the
London show are now available as RiscPC friendly MPEG files.
The videos can be downloaded from here:
[link]
They can be played using KinoAMP, which can be found here:
[link]

Draft New Photodesk manual available

sa...@cjemicros.co.uk (Chris Evans) — Thu, 10 Oct 2009 23:39:31 UT

Photodesk, the premier photo retouching package for RISC OS, has been in the
process of having a new written from scratch manual for some time now. This
work is continuing and is approximately 85% complete. To enable users to
benefit from the new manual now, we have made the draft version available to

Iconbar Articles

cdwrai...@yahoo.co.uk — Wed, 10 Oct 2009 19:46:42 UT

Have you visited The Iconbar recently? If not, you'd have missed:
- An article on the new PostScript 3 Drivers;
- Short pieces on Luafox and Micro Men;
- An in-depth article on the ongoing attempts to port RISC OS to new
hardware.
There's more in the pipeline, including (of course) Ian Bell's Asian
Kittens. And of course there's still the forums, small ads, and

SuperDoku 1.20 released

mn...@sinenomine.freeserve.co.uk (Hilary Phillips) — Mon, 10 Oct 2009 11:16:17 UT

After a month's hard programming I am pleased to announce to all
Sudoku fans that SuperDoku 1.20 is now on the Sine Nomine Software
website at [link]
SuperDoku 1.20 introduces Hitoshii or KenKen puzzles, which feature
arithmetic in addition to standard Sudoku logic. The grid is divided

UnitConv version 2.23

chrisjohnson+n...@spamcop.net (Chris Johnson) — Mon, 10 Oct 2009 09:00:00 UT

My application UnitConv has had some minor updates and is now at
version 2.23.
UnitConv is freely available from
[link]
[link]
[link]
UnitConv converts between various units, generally

Murnong updated to reflect changes in YouTube's webpages

bel...@internode.on.net (Christopher Martin) — Sun, 10 Oct 2009 08:54:01 UT

YouTube has once again made changes to its webpage constructions so
Murnong, the application for fetching videos from YouTube, has been
updated to version 1.32.
Download from <[link]>.
Note that if you have already installed Murnong, you only need to
download Part 1 and install its contents over the top of your existing

Postscript PDF for Brother duplex printers

n...@rjdarby.co.uk (Richard Darby) — Wed, 10 Oct 2009 17:50:52 UT

This is the second release of the postscript Printer Definition File and
feeds for the original PostScript 2 and the new PostScript 3 printer driver
by John Tytgat and Martin Wühner. It allows automatic double sided
printing flipping the paper on either the long or short sides, from both the
main paper tray and the multi-purpose tray.

Postscript PDF for Brother duplex printers

n...@rjdarby.co.uk (Richard Darby) — Tue, 10 Oct 2009 08:20:04 UT

This is the second release of the postscript PDF and feeds for the
original PostScript 2 and the new PostScript 3 printer driver by John
Tytgat and Martin Würthner. It allows automatic double sided printing
flipping the paper on either the long or short sides, from both the main
paper tray and the multi-purpose tray.

RONWUG Reminder 21st October 2009

spo...@btconnect.com (Steve Potts) — Tue, 10 Oct 2009 08:18:57 UT

RONWUG - RISC OS North West User Group - 21st October 2009
This month's at RONWUG we're going to do something a little different... A
colaborative effort which feeds back into the RISC OS community...
With help from those attending on the night, we're going to compile a list
of
RISC OS related resources on the net that people find interesting or useful

Impact 3 at London RISC OS user group, Monday 19th October 2009

d...@segfault.co.uk (dgs) — Mon, 10 Oct 2009 09:20:38 UT

The next meeting of the RISC OS user group of London will be:
Impact 3 Database
and other software
presented by
Matthew Phillips, Sine Nomine Software
Monday 19th October, 7:45pm
The Blue-Eyed Maid (upstairs)
173 Borough High Street
London
SE1 1HR
Impact 3 is an easy to use relational database program for RISC OS, with a

JDServer released

davehig...@dsl.pipex.com (Dave Higton) — Sun, 10 Oct 2009 10:27:48 UT

I am pleased to announce the release of JDServer, a JetDirect (Raw)
print server application for a RISC OS computer.
JDServer makes a printer, connected to a RISC OS computer that is
also on a network, available to client computers also on the
network, via the JetDirect (Raw) protocol.
Note that only the printer is shared out; the printer driver is

Sine Nomine Software at London user group meeting

mn...@sinenomine.freeserve.co.uk (Matthew Phillips) — Fri, 10 Oct 2009 22:36:43 UT

I will be demonstrating various Sine Nomine Software products at the ROUGOL
meeting on Monday evening. Please see
[link] for further details of the
meeting and the venue.
Those attending will get a preview of Impact version 3.35, which is shortly
to be released as a free upgrade for users of 3.32 onwards. You'll also see

USB missile launchers not working?

davehig...@dsl.pipex.com (Dave Higton) — Wed, 10 Oct 2009 21:15:06 UT

Has anyone bought a USB missile launcher and found that my programme
doesn't control it?
If you did, and you didn't contact me: why not? (although my anti-
spam measures might have prevented some messages from reaching me...)
Please contact me now. I've been made aware of another one that
looks identical to the original, but has entirely different vendor

Southampton Acorn Users Group - October meeting

davehig...@dsl.pipex.com (Dave Higton) — Mon, 10 Oct 2009 10:58:02 UT

The next meeting of the Southampton Acorn Users Group will take
place at Itchen College, Middle Road, Bitterne, Southampton, on
Tuesday October 13th, from 19:00 until 21:00.
We should be back in room S1.
Admission is 50 pence and all are welcome.
Dave

luafox available now

m.gerbra...@cityweb.de (Michael Gerbracht) — Wed, 10 Oct 2009 14:58:19 UT

luafox is a new program for RISC OS offering many functions that make it
easy to handle and analyse data in a quick and easy way. Results can be
presented in publication ready graphs. The most important features are:
Data handling
* Import and export CSV and ODS files
(open document format as used in OpenOffice)

!Rename 3.22

tig...@orpheusinternet.co.uk (Nick Roberts) — Wed, 10 Oct 2009 10:11:54 UT

A new version of !Rename is now available for download from
[link]
!Rename is a smart file bulk file renamer using !Edit-like wildcard
features to control file renaming.
!Rename includes the new filename to include an incrementing file index
as part of the new filename.

Avalanche 0.20 available

j.peacock.n...@googlemail.com (James Peacock) — Tue, 10 Oct 2009 10:38:34 UT

A new version of the RISC OS Avalanche VNC client is now available for
download. Changes in version 0.20 include:
* Fixes to full screen mode. It now interacts in a better way with
applications such as MoreDesk which manipulate the desktop
window stack.
* A new option as been added to pass Alt-Arrow key presses through

WROCC Meeting 7th Oct

ch...@mytardis.me.uk (Chris Hughes) — Tue, 10 Oct 2009 10:37:11 UT

Sorry correct date is 7th not 5th.
WAKEFIELD RISCOS COMPUTER CLUB
MEETING on Wednesday 7th October 2009
Teaching Old Micros New Tricks
------------------------------
This month we are Joel Rowbottom is giving a talk and demo'ing new

EtherUSB 0.06 available

j.peacock.n...@googlemail.com (James Peacock) — Tue, 10 Oct 2009 10:35:02 UT

A new version of EtherUSB is now available for download. Changes in
version 0.06 include:
* Basic Asix AX88772 support added.
* Basic MosChip MCS7830 support added.
* ADMtek Pegasus support.
* Fix to serious bug causing aborts when RMKilling module.
Thanks go to Jeffrey Lee for adding support for Pegasus based devices.

WROCC Meeting 5th Oct

info2...@wrocc.org.uk (Chris Hughes) — Sun, 10 Oct 2009 23:44:26 UT

WAKEFIELD RISCOS COMPUTER CLUB
MEETING on Wednesday 5th October 2009
Teaching Old Micros New Tricks
------------------------------
This month we are Joel Rowbottom is giving a talk and demo'ing new
tricks you can do with your old Beeb, etc..

Jet Direct server - and USB toys

davehig...@dsl.pipex.com (dave higton) — Fri, 10 Oct 2009 16:53:43 UT

I am on my way to releasing a Jet Direct server for RISC OS. If anyone wants
to talk to me about it, I'll be at the show this weekend, as a helper (and
therefore with a name badge!) and sometimes on the RisControl/BeebControl
stand, playing with some of my USB toys (which you can also talk to me

Show 'Last Orders' & Wanted

sa...@cjemicros.co.uk (Chris Evans) — Fri, 10 Oct 2009 11:21:00 UT

We will not be able to bring everything with us to the London RISC OS Show
this Saturday (3rd October) so if you are interested in purchasing any
particular item please contact us by mid day on Friday to avoid
disappointment.
Wanted at the show:
We are may be able to recycle your unused RISC OS items, some we even pay