of hy d w an ow t, h ha OS e w ISC Th R INTRO his may be the series and the RiscPC. In collaboration first time you with several other companies, RISCOS Thear of RISC Ltd have taken over the development OS . and production from the original Acorn You may think that company. New energy is being put into RISC OS is new the further development and renewal of on the PC market. this concept. Others have joined in as And you may won- well. The British firm RiscStation is de- der whether it is a veloping the R7500, MicroDigital are reliable and viable developing the Mico and Millipede are system; whether it developing the Imago motherboard. In may be interesting this leaflet you will find images of the to you and wheth- RiscPC produced by Castle er it is compatible Technology. with other sys- tems. There is only one answer to these questions: he proof of the pudding is still in the read, try, ask, test, eating. So, don’t be afraid, have a and compare. Tgo. You’ll be surprised...

he British firm Acorn has pro- Tduced com- puters since the nineteen-seventies that are very pleasant to work with indeed: the , the le- gendary BBC, the Electron, the Master, the Archimedes, the A-

2 HARDWARE Processor this way all options he RiscPC offers the use of several like telebanking, processors. trying out alternat- T ive operating sys- tems, operating he primary processor is always an programmes that ARM processor (Advanced Risc you use at your TMachine). ARM processors have workplace or run- been specially designed as RISC pro- ning PC-oriented cessors (Reduced Instruction Set CDs and CDROMs Computers), enabling exceptionally fast are open. processing. Standard ARM clock speed is 75 MHz, while StrongARM clock speed is 200 or 233 MHz. This may seem a little sluggish today, but it amounts to as many as 140 Mips or more. 600 MHz and 750 Mips ARM processors are currently under devel- opment. In case you are wondering if the fan isn’t working, ARM processors require no cooling, and very little en- ergy indeed. Which is why you may find these chips in Psion palmtops and many mobile phones. ARM operating systems are of course RISC OS, but also UNIX (Risc BSD) and The RiscPC secondary ARM processor may be used, or a PC-card if you want to The casing Ause PC applications. So DOS, he RiscPC , BeOS, Unix, Linux, motherboard is anything goes. The processor makes Tsituated at the full use of the internal memory, devices bottom of the cas- that function with RISC OS as well. In ing, which has

3 room for the power Controllers supply unit, cards isk drives, hard disks or CD drives and several drives. can be connected to the built-in If you need more DIDE controller. If you wish, a second IDE controller can be installed. Several SCSI cards can be fitted as well. There’s room to move for scan- ners, zip, jaz or DVD drives, CD writers or rewriters, which, incidentally can be connected to parallel ports as well.

Video/memory/sound or 2 Mb VRAM is provided for the screen image. That is enough for a 1range of up to 16 million colours. Resolutions go as far as 1280 x 1024. Specially designed technology enables lightning-speed generation or refresh- ing of the image.

The modular slices AM memory can be expanded to 256 Mb. Usually 4 or 8 Mb is more room, extra slices Rthan enough, since operating sys- may be mounted tem and programmes are very small in on top. In this way size. you can stack up to seven storeys, 16 bit Soundblaster compatible enlarging the sys- soundcard is included in the tem at your will. Asystem.

4 RISC OS The advantages of OS in ROM they were meant to he is contained in do so from the out- ROM. It is located in two 4Mb ROM set. This makes for Tchips. It is very small but at the easy and speedy same time very powerful, because it action. was written especially for the ARM pro- cessors. This gives it a headstart from The desktop the moment you switch on the com- he desktop is puter. In addition, hardly any disk the entire work- space is needed for the operating sys- Ting area visible tem to work, and all the infamous vir- on your screen. It uses that many people are worried shows the win- about cannot affect it. Consequently, dows of your pro- re-installing your operating system to grammes. The get rid of any bugs or malfunctioning is large area occupy- never necessary. All programme de- ing most of the signers have kept to the original screen is called concept through the years, which the pinboard. It means a pleasant consistency in can be specially design. Routines that apply in one pro- set up at the click gramme apply similarly in another. of a button for any kind of work envir- The art of multitasking onment that a par- he multitasking capabilities are ticular job requires. among the strong points of the RISC To do this, you Toperating system. No matter wheth- all er one, ten, or fifty programmes are icons representing active at any given moment, whether the programmes there are just three or three hundred that you want to windows open on your screen, operat- use to the pin- ing speed is hardly affected. On top of board, and save that, the whole system has been so this constellation consistently designed that active pro- under a suitable grammes can work together because name. In this way,

5 for any wizard-like constructions to find what you want.

The mouse he mouse has three buttons: the one on the left is used for selecting, Tthe one in the middle for context- With anti-aliasing defined pop-up menus, and the one on the right for various tricks and treats. You will find some of them mentioned under ‘windows and tricks ‘ but there are many more. Because this system is so simple and effective, your mouse has an easy time and chances of RSI are small.

Without anti-aliasing Drag and drop frequent action is exporting and im- porting files or objects. With RISC a small file is AOS this is simply a matter of drag- saved that brings ging and dropping text or icons. Simply back your tailor- drag a picture you just made with pro- made set-up at the gramme A into the active of click of a mouse. programme B and it’s there! No cutting The status bar is and pasting! Quick and easy. situated along the bottom of the Anti aliasing or ‘fuzzy font technique’ screen and con- n order to produce on your screen tains icons of in- crisp, easily readable letters, even stalled devices on Ismall eight-point ones, RISC OS uses the left, and active Anti-Aliasing: a hardly visible edge of programmes on grey pixels is generated around each the right. Very letter which eliminates the jagged effect neat, and no need along the outline. This produces beauti-

6 fully smooth letters which are easy to clicked on with the read, however small they are. The pic- right-hand mouse tures shown here illustrate the effect. button. The same Less strain on the eyes! effect applies to the left-right but- The fonts tons. Moreover, onts are managed by the operating both vertical and system as well. The bare system in- horizontal scroll- Fcludes six standard fonts. But there bars can be moved are thousands that can all be installed. simultaneously by They can all be scaled smoothly from dragging either of two-point size to whatever size fits onto them with the right- hand mouse but- ton. If you have a window lying ‘behind’ another window, you can move it around by ‘grabbing’ it by its title bar with the right-hand without it popping to the front.

The three buttons of the mouse Modular construction your paper. There is no distinction he operating between screen fonts and printerfonts. system contains Tdozens of mod- Windows and tricks ules working to- ne handy trick to know is that the gether, which in buttons for scrolling up and down their turn are used Ohave a reverse effect if they are by active applica- 7 tions. Many indis- allows for childishly simple installation pensible items are of programmes (drag-drop-instant ac- therefore present tion) and enables the user to set up his from the start and work area at will, depending on the need not be nature of the job to be done. Moving defined separately and removing of programmes and files for each individual is as simple as can be. Saving and programme. In this copying of programmes and files is a way, programmes matter of one click and one drag. remain small and Simplicity itself! need little memory space, thus speed- ing up the comput- ing .

Computing achieve- ments are impressive ISC OS man- ages several Rfiling systems, devices and tasks, co-ordinates the active pro- grammes, allows for sheer limitless multitasking, provides clear messages for the user through a beautiful and com- fortable user inter- face, can be con- figured with ease,

8 PROGRAMMES Programmes in ROM Kit, Vantage, OM contains a range of ready-to- Vector, Topmodel2 use programmes and applications Rfor sound (Maestro), bitmap Graphical bitmap editing(Paint), vector editing (Draw) Aim, Compo, and text editing (Edit), a compression Photodesk3, utility (Squash) and interactive help Studio24 Pro (Help). Although they are small, they do excellent work. For those who have Presentation high demands there are fine additions CableNews in the form of the following Professional, OHP programmes: CAD/3D-CAD DTP WorraCad, ProCad, , Ovation Pro, Publisher, Architech, Da EasyWriter, TechWriter, Formulix, Vinci90 HTML-Edit Sound/music/midi Editors , Rhapsody Edit, StrongEd, Zap Multimedia/video/ani Database mation Datapower2, Masterfile, Squirrel, S-base VideoDesk, Optima, 24i16, Cineworks, Spreadsheet Animator Eureka, FireWorkz, Pipedream, Schema Internet, Bookkeeping/administration communication DiagramIt, Prophet3, Planning/Projecting, Hearsay, ArcTerm7, Shares, Tablemate Pro, Vera, ANT Internet Suite 1Statistics, Organizer II, Webster

Graphical vector editors ArtWorks, Draw, DrawWorks, Font Design Games

9 Doom, Quake, lot of specific has been Destiny developed for education and institu- Ational care, but also for special Conversion (file im- needs groups like people with mental port en export) and physical handicaps (image and ImageFS, Translator, motion recognition). ChangeFSI, Creator, TypeOne Other platforms under or parallel to To Font, InterGif all RISC OS free of charge. Linux ARMLinux under RISC OS or Linux on compression the PC-processor ARCFS, PackDir, SparkFS, UNIX BSD SparkPlug (Zip, UNIX under RISC OS or on the PC- Arc, Tar), Split processor

Networks Dos and Windows 3.x, 95, 98 and NT Acorn Access+, NFS, on the PC-processor Omniclient, LanManager, Programming languages AppleTalk (optional programmability via OmniClient), rogrammes are written with the op- TCP/IP Protocol erating system’s task as point of de- Suite, !X, X- Pparture, to ensure import and ex- Window Terminal, port and processing of events. All IPX-protocol aspects are subsequently forwarded to (Novell) the programme which in turn processes the events. This is what the program- Public domain mer is required to define. Apart from Too many to mention. this, there are four aspects that should High quality. be taken into account: one file defining the programmes operating environ- ment, templates defining the appear-

10 ance of the windows, icons to be used Citrix ICA client for the programme symbol and any tail- ISC OS com- ormade buttons, and a set of help and puters can be message files. Since the operating sys- Rincorporated in tem knows all these facilities (remem- a Citrix ICA client ber the modules mentioned earlier) any network. Even ten- defining can be compact and efficient. year-old machines The is expected to adhere can be still be to certain rules to ensure consistency used in a network. of all programming. This will reduce learning time for the end user. Manageability and Programmability of RISC OS is out- costs. standing, thanks partly to an excellent n the RISC OS Programmer’s Reference Manual and world ‘only’ two the Style Guide. Ihundred viruses are known, which ARM-assembler are quite control- Basic IV lable. RISC operat- ++ ing systems can- Java not be affected by viruses of other RISC OS networking operating systems. n Maastricht, Holland, the Regionaal There are all kinds Pedagogisch Centrum has 36 RISC of backup facilities, IOS machines operating in a network. It learning time is has three printer servers, one network very short on ac- server and one database server. This count of the con- network never fails or crashes. The sistency of pro- manager is credited 40 work hours on grammes, and a yearly basis. programmes can be installed, relo- cated or removed very simply in- deed, making it

11 possible for the system to be set up according to your individual needs. Prices are admittedly higher than those of other systems, but the hardware, the op- erating system, the programmes and expertise last much longer thus reducing economic depreciation.

12 LINKS Dealers RISCOS Ltd f the nearest dealer is not close to your www.riscos.com home, you can order through the post Ior by telephone, fax or e-mail. Your or- www.castle.org.uk der will be delivered at home within two RiscStation working days and you will be the proud www.riscstation.co.uk owner of a RISC OS . Of MicroDigital course they are ready to help you with www.microdigital.co.uk any queries you may have. Millipede www.millipede.co.uk

Desk esk has been a support centre for RISC OS users since 1991 and Dhas most software and hardware in stock. http://www.deskvof.nl telephone: +31 (0)10 2860541 fax: +31 (0)10 2860542

ECD bv Patrijsweg 16 2289 EX Rijswijk http://www.ecd.nl telephone: +31 (0)70 3194343

Uffenkamp Computer Systeme (UCS) CS is a german dealer for Acorn, RISC OS, Psion hard- and soft- Uware with an extensive web-shop http://www.ucs.de

13 XAT Scheldestraat 6 5347 JD Oss http://www.xat.nl telephone: +31 (0)412 634433 fax: +31 (0)412 643884

RISC OS based businesses any of the companies mentioned below have been using RISC OS Mcomputers for years to their great satisfaction. The motto is: RISC OS works, also professionally.

Busser & Busser facility management &B offers professional help in set-

ting up, reorganising and maintain-

! " ! # $ % & ' ( % ( & #

 Bing supportive processes in organ-

                

 isations.

¡ ¢ ¡ £ ¤ ¤ ¢ ¥ ¦ ¢ § ¤ ¨ © ¥ ¤ ¢

http://www.feniks.demon.nl/start.htm

        telephone: +31 (0)478 512123 fax: +31 (0)478 511633

Stichting Creatief Beeldwerk omputer illu- strations and CDTP entirely with RISC OS. http://www.beeld werk.demon.nl telephone: 0161 433226

14 Ottens’ Dutch Designs ’dd is a company for graphic design that makes 2D, 3D and 4D Odesigns with RISC OS computers. http://www.ottensdutchdesigns.com

Topix Software/demogroup [email protected] http://www.dse.nl/~topix/

Arnhems Radiotherapeutisch Instituut; ArTech, (technisch illustreren), Pijnacker; Smits Reclame, Delft; BIC Benelux, Roosendaal; Bin Rijkswaterstaat Mahjid, Oman; Bouwman Vioolbouw; British Rotterdam; School In The Netherlands; Café Vlaanderen, Severinusstichting, Delft; Cinekid festival; Convergo Breda Veldhoven (zorgsect- (zorgsector); Cor de Jong Video; Delinkwentie & or); Stuut & Bruin HiFi, Samenleving, Rotterdam; Donksbergen Den Haag; TPD TNO, Stichting, Duizel (zorgsector); Duits Delft; TU Twente; Nederlandse Windtunnel, Lelystad; DSM TUDelft, Bouwkunde; Geleen; ECN Petten; Erasmus Univ. Lab. v. Inw. TU Delft, Industrieel Geneeskunde, Rotterdam; ESA, Noordwijk; Ontwerpen; TUDelft Fachhochschule Bochum; Geodelta Technische Ingenieursbureau, Delft; Haags Centrum v. Natuurkunde; TU Onderwijsbegeleiding; Hogeschool Enschede; Eindhoven; Univ. Hogeschool Nijmegen (Creatieve Therapie); Leiden, Biologie; Univ. Inspecteur de Vriesschool (zorgsector); ITC, Leiden, Sociale Enschede; Kath. Univ. Nijmegen, Wetenschappen; Tandheelkunde; Kitt, Enschede; Memo Universiteit Antwerpen; Bedrijfsinrichting, Hoorn; Milieutech, Rosmalen; Univ. v. Amsterdam Multifoon Hifi, Delft; Ned Instituut. v Chem. Technologie; Hersenonderzoek, Amsterdam; Nedstaal NV, Vuurvogel, Den Haag; Alblasserdam; Nationaal Instituut v. Nieuwe Waterloopkundig Technologie (NINT), A’dam; Nationaal Laboratorium, Laboratorium v. Lucht- en Ruimtevaart, A’dam; Emmeloord. NOB Facilitair bedrijf, Hilversum; Noordelijke Hogeschool, Leeuwarden; Onze Lieve Vrouwe Gasthuis Amsterdam; Philips Drachten; Pohlkamp & van Riel, advokaten, Delft; Prince Promotions, Utrecht; RK Onderwijs Den Haag; ROTEB, Rotterdam; RPC, Maastricht; 15 User clubs those who want to ask questions by e- ISC OS users mail, although it is not really meant to meet. User be an official helpdesk. Rclubs organise meetings for ex-

ACorner, the user club of RISC OS in the province of Limburg. http://www.cuci.nl/~pscheele/ACorner/ telefoon: 043 361 63 01

perienced RISC Acornisten OS users and end an e-mail containing in its body those who intend (not in the ‘subject’) the words sub- to be so. If you join Sscribe acornisten to: (yearly subscrip- [email protected]

Big Ben Club he national user club for Acorn and RISC OS users. Thttp://www.nedernet.nl/~bigben [email protected] tion rate dfl. 55.-) there will be twelve Colofon: interesting meet- ontributors to this leaflet: André van ings each year, but den Berg, Ike Busser, Wim Luinge you are just as C(translations) Maarten en Steven welcome if all you Ottens (graphic design), Nico ter Haar, want is to take a Peter Hillebrink, Frank Kraaij, Rien peek. Ask for a Mertens, Paul Reuvers, Léon Ruwette, RISC OS demon- Peter Scheele (editor), Paul Sprangers stration. The AcornistenList is a mailing list for

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