EDITORIAL Welcome to this edition of Drag ’N Drop. Like millions of others in the world my schedule was knocked completely off course in 2020 by the Covid pandemic so I can only apologise for the late arrival of the magazine. I’m pleased to say I’m now settling in Scotland with my partner Kirsty. The editor of the ‘other’ RISC OS mag is is in Northern Ireland having taken up the reigns after the sad death of Jim Nagel. We have an almost- UK-wide representation! It’s really inspiring to see the campaigns like Direct and Cloverleaf reaching out to more people than ever before; RISC OS needs to shed its reputation as just a hobbyist’s pursuit. Do support the campaigns in whatever way you can and enjoy your Drag ’N Drop.

Copyright ©2020 Drag ‘N Drop Produced on RISC OS This issue has been blessed with contributions CONTENTS from the following people: Norman Lawrence (Schema2) Editorial...... 2 Christopher Dewhurst (everything else) Beginner’s Page ...... 3 The views expressed in this magazine are not necessarily those of the editor. Alternative News and App Updates ...... 4 views are always welcome and can be expressed by either writing an article or a short editorial. RISC OS 5.28 ...... 6 All articles and advertisements are published in good faith. No materials in this publication are Scuba Hunter Review ...... 10 meant to be offensive or misleading. If you come across something you believe is either of Programming in PostScript...... 11 the above please contact the editor using the details below. Getting started with email ...... 18 Contact Information A Celtic Knot in 5 minutes...... 23 Editor: Christopher Dewhurst Email: [email protected] Schema2 ...... 25 www.dragdrop.co.uk DO-IT ...... 32

Drag ’N Drop | www.dragdrop.co.uk | Autumn 2020 | Page 2 Beginners and drag the Next slide bar out to How do I open an Applcation the right. Directory? You can also type programs in a Application directories begin with a How do I get the BBC Basic task window, hold down Ctrl and prompt? ! called 'pling'. Hold down the shift press F12. You can't use the cursor key and double click select to open Press F12 and type *BASIC editing facility or change MODE, the directory. and press Return. You can however. I get a blank screen when change the screen mode with Task window MODE n where n is a number e.g. running games listings *BASIC MODE 7 or MODE 0. ARM BBC BASIC V Check you have the Anymode Type AUTO for automatic line version 1.54 module installed. You can download numbering. Press Escape to stop and Starting with 651516 it from www.pi-star.co.uk/anymode. type SAVE "myprog" followed by bytes free It goes in !Boot.Choices.Boot. > Return to store myprog on hard disc. Predesk. To return to the desktop type Open the !Boot application *QUIT. directory, in the root directory of the Programs listed in Drag ’N Drop You can also program and run Basic SD Card, that is SDFS::RISCOSPi. are assumed to work on all programs from the desktop. Double- $.!Boot. Locate the Loader which is machines with RISC OS 5 e.g. clicking on the filer icon runs it, a multi-coloured directory with PC Raspberry Pi, unless otherwise holding down Shift and double written on it. With Shift held down stated. clicking loads it into your text double click it to open it. Create a How do I open a Task editor. text file in Edit with the following window? line (press Return at the end): disable_mode_changes Menu click over the Raspberry icon What does ‘currently Save it inside Loader as CMDLINE/ on the right side of the iconbar and selected directory’ mean? TXT and restart your machine. select click on Task window. Or Articles may tell you to set the CSD press Ctrl + F12. (currently selected directory). Just click menu over filer window and Sounds are strange choose Set directory ^W. It’s where Some listings need the RDSP You may need to reserve more the stores the file when module installed. Download it from memory for the task in which case you type SAVE "myprog". www.amcog-games.co.uk/rdsp.htm adjust-click on the Raspberry icon where you’ll find instructions on and under Application tasks click how to install it.

Drag ’N Drop | www.dragdrop.co.uk | Autumn 2020 | Page 3 News and App Updates

London Show After Paypal checkout as well as system itself. You’ll need a ‘foreign’ The first ever online RISC OS being returned to a page with the OS to actually write the SD image, computer show took place on appropriate download link you will though... Point your browser at Saturday 24th October 2020, the also be automatically sent an email www.riscosdev.com/direct/ for Covid pandemic preventing it from with your order confirmation and more. taking place at the usual venue. If copy of the link. you missed it, the show is available RISC OS Cloverleaf on catch-up, see The second campaign Cloverleaf is www.riscoslondonshow.co.uk/ an ambitious crowdfunded project being steered by German developer RISC OS 5.28 Stefan Fröling. If €50,000 (about The London show marked the £44,500) is raised by 16th January release of version 5.28 of the RISC OS Direct 2021 then a completely new range with the highlights The first of two RISC OS of fully-integrated RISC OS being a global clipboard and campaigns to bring the world- computers will be marketed with a overhauled Paint plus 366 other beating OS to a improvements. Head over wider audience www.riscosopen.org/ or just order a than ever, RISC new SD card from the RISC OS OS Direct, Open shop. spearheaded by Tom Williamson, Drag ’N Drop website is a free SD card Your favourite magazine’s website image download has been overhauled to create what of just over a we hope is a smoother buyer gigabyte. It experience. www.dragdrop.co.uk contains an takes you to the top 20 products or enormous access the whole shop by menu at amount of www.dragdrop.co.uk/shop.php. software as well as the operating Drag ’N Drop | www.dragdrop.co.uk | Autumn 2020 | Page 4 range of new software. You can Gavin Smith is now editor of the download from henrikbp.riscos.fr/ make a pledge for anything from RISC OS highbrow periodical so if £17 for a T-shirt to £450 for a high- you like your irreverent tabloid then PushSend 0.11 end RISC OS notebook. Your card keep reading Drag ’N Drop. Annual This is a small application which won’t actually be charged unless the subscriptions start at £40 for 6 lets a RISC OS app send a real-time project takes off so whatever you issues delivered by post. More notification to your mobile phone can pledge to support this exciting details at www.archivemag.co.uk/ using the Pushover service. new project counts, head over to !home.php. Download from davehigton.me.uk/ riscoscloverleaf.com/ to find out more. Pluto 3.18 Launcher 1.10 The freeware RISC OS email This is one of those handy apps you Ghostscript 9.26 app has been upgraded and available didn't know how you survived The very latest version from www.avisoft.f9.co.uk/. Check without... of the cross-platform out the article in this issue of Drag www.stevefryatt.org.uk/risc-os/ PostScript interpreter is ’N Drop for how to get up and launcher puts a button on the side of available for RISC OS and with running. your desktop and when clicked a Drag ’N Drop’s very own series on panel pops up onto which you can programming in PostScript starting LibraOffice to HTML place shortcuts for your desktop in this issue, head over to Clive Semmens has released a free apps. Unlike the built-in Pinboard www.riscosports.co.uk/ app to slim down bloated HTML you can launch programs with just downloads.html to update your files saved by the open-source one click of the mouse. copy. Beware the LibreOffice suite of download weighs programs. Download from in at 43 megs! clive.semmens.org.uk/ RISCOS/where you will Archive Magazine find a whole host of other The longest usefulties. running RISC OS mag in the world Studio Sound 2.09 has taken on a new The 32-track audio life after the death sequencing software has of editor Jim Nagel been updated and free to earlier this year. Drag ’N Drop | www.dragdrop.co.uk | Autumn 2020 | Page 5 RISC OS 5.28

In this article we show you how to First go to www.riscosopen.org > safely upgrade your RISC OS Pi Downloads > Raspberry Pi. Scroll machine to the latest version of down to 'ROM releases' and click on the operating system, then look at download RPi ROM Stable. Save some of the new features in the the BCM2835/5/28/zip on your built-in RISC OS applications. memory stick. These are the ‘firmware’ files. You The process is essentially in three Now go to Downloads > may have more than six. Make a stages: Miscellaneous and scroll backup of them by dragging them down to 'Disc based out and onto your memory stick. ● Download two Zip (archive) files components'. Click on This is so if anything goes wrong from RISC OS Open website. HardDisc4 to download HardDisc4/ you can copy them back. ● Upgrade the ROM image and 5/28/zip. Double click BCM2935/5/28/zip restart your machine. Double click on BCM2835/5/28/ open. ● Upgrade the !Boot sequence and zip. restart your machine. Hold down the shift key and double click on your I recommend storing the Pi's !Boot file. Release the downloaded files on a shift key. memory stick, you’ll need Look for the Loader file with an about 19 megabytes of free icon which looks like a Microsoft space so the Drag ’N Drop back Windows logo with PC written on Select click anywhere on this issues stick, available to buy from it: window and press menu > select all. the website, is perfect. Double click it (n.b. don’t hold Drag the files into the !Boot.Loader down Shift) window. and it will Restart your Raspberry Pi by open. You will pressing Shift+Ctrl+F12 or clicking see a display Menu over the Raspberry Pi which looks switcher icon at the bottom right of like the the icon bar and choosing following: Shutdown, and clicking on Restart Drag ’N Drop | www.dragdrop.co.uk | Autumn 2020 | Page 6 Product: Scuba Hunter designed and I liked the way he been nicer to Review Cost: £9.99 shrinks to nothing when you run have a graphical Supplier: AMCOG, www.amcog- into a monster and lose a life. editor. games.co.uk The number of diamonds you Scuba Diver Scuba Hunter is the latest exciting need to find to complete the current isn’t as offering from Tony Bartram at level is shown, which is helpful, and immersive as recent 3D outings AMCOG and the action takes I liked the LCD-style font for the from AMCOG but the usual high place underwater. score. standard of graphics and music On loading Scuba Hunter you New levels can be designed in a composed especially for the game are presented with the AMCOG text editor although it would have make it a pleasant addition to your splash box and title screen collection. which helpfully summarises the controls. You can click one of three options with the mouse to start the game at level 1, input a code for a higher level, or quit the game to return to the desktop. You begin outside your diving bell, near the surface of the sea. Atmospheric music fades up and you start swimming down to to the depths. The watery backdrop scrolls nicely in parallax behind the scenery. Scuba Diver is essentially a ‘Repton’ style game in which you collect diamonds and clear the earth to release boulders to kill assorted marine nasties like jellyfish. The diver character is well

Drag ’N Drop | www.dragdrop.co.uk | Autumn 2020 | Page 10 to view it in !PDF. Series PostScript This way you have PostScript (PS) is a programming the option of exporting to Draw for language invented in the early further editing or dragging into a DTP package like Style. 1980s used to specify the layout of ● the printed page. Drag the PoScript file to the printer icon, assuming you have a You don't have to have a printer driver like PoScript2F or the more to program in PostScript, these days superior PS3 installed. you can view the output on your If you bought your Pi's Micro SD computer screen. card from RISC OS Open then We begin this series with an Ghostscript, GView and !PrintPDF introduction to the language which come pre-installed. works on virtually any computer If not you'll need to download platform, including RISC OS. Postscript is an arse-about-face language. and install them yourself. We've given the relevant web links at the But why learn PostScript? end of this article. Why should we go to the trouble of Editing and viewing PostScript files are plain text files learning another language, Creating a PostScript file particularly an ‘arse-about-face’ one and they can be written by hand in Load up Edit and press Menu over (because its commands are written in a text editor like Edit. They are the icon bar icon and choose Create back-to-front)? filetyped PoScript (FF5) in the filer and type PoScript at the bottom, After all we have a perfectly and look like one of the following then press Return. good, free package called Draw to icons: produce diagrams with ease, and which itself can produce PostScript. Well, it's not uncommon for There are three ways of viewing the packages like Draw to produce output: errors in their PS output. Drawings ● Double click the PoScript file to with repetitive elements are time- open it in GView consuming to produce. Accessing ● Drag the PoScript file to Type in Listing 1 and save it PS directly often results in better !PrintPDF icon bar to convert it to a somewhere convenient as 1/ps. The quality and more efficient files. PDF, then double click the PDF file /ps isn't necessary unless you're

Drag ’N Drop | www.dragdrop.co.uk | Autumn 2020 | Page 11 Getting started with Email on RISC OS

Many newcomers to RISC OS pluto318.zip. find setting up email software on Set its filetype to Archive (ddc) their Raspberry Pi quite daunting by clicking menu over it and and if you are one of those people choosing File 'pluto318/zip' > Set then this article is for you. type > and type 'Archive' then press For various reasons two Return. applications need to be present on Go to https://www.heenan.me.uk/ your machine to use email. One acorn/download.html. Download retrieves and sends email data (the POPstar and save popstr205/zip in transport) and the other is for Pluto is named after a famous cartoon dog and POPStar the Downloads directory. You don't reading and replying to the after, well, whoever your favourite pop singer is! need to set the filetype. messages themselves. Do this by clicking on the :0 icon on Go to www.aconet.org/tools, We use the free POPStar and on your your Pi’s SD card. Click download SocketWatch version Pluto applications – commercial menu over the filer display and 0.07. Save socketwatch/zip inside software is available but isn't choose New Directory. Downloads folder. You should now necessarily superior. have three files in your Downloads You'll need your email address, directory: password plus POP and SMTP settings. If you aren't sure about POP and SMTP just Google for the Open both directories by double likes of “TalkTalk POP” or “BT clicking on them with select. email settings” or whatever your Internet Service Provider (ISP) is. 3. Install POPStar and Pluto 2. Download POPStar and Pluto Open the popstr205/zip by double 1. Create two directories We are going to put three files from clicking with select. If they aren't already present, create the internet into Downloads. You will see a filer window two new directories on your Pi's SD Firstly using Netsurf or your which looks like the following: card called Downloads and Internet. favourite browser navigate to the icon bar to open a filer window https://downloads.sourceforge.net/ project/plutoemail/pluto/ Drag ’N Drop | www.dragdrop.co.uk | Autumn 2020 | Page 18 A Celtic Knot in 5 minutes

1. F1 turn grid on. 5. Group the two F2 Shfit+F1 grid lock. parts of the ‘+’. Select line tool. Ctrl+C copy and Menu>Styke>Line width 30. position second ‘+’ Draw a vertical line 3cm long. ½cm away from the first.

2. Line tool. Menu>Style>Line width 25. Colour of your choice. Draw another line 3cm over the top. 6. Ctrl+A select all. Menu>Transform>Rotate>45 to make two X’s.

3. Ctrl+A, select the two lines Ctrl+G to group. Ctrl+C to make a copy. Position the copy ½cm away from the original.

7. Line tool. 4. Select one of the lines. Menu>Style>Li Menu>Transform>Rotate>90 ne width 30 and Place it on top of the other one Line colour to form a ‘+’ shape. black. Draw a curve on the left of the first X with the control points shown.

Drag ’N Drop | www.dragdrop.co.uk | Autumn 2020 | Page 23 Anton for making my day! The other zip file xlsConversionSch ViewXLS is great for opening contains two Schema2 related files Part 4 2 Excel xls workbooks on RISC OS. (!sch2xls and !xls2sch) that can be First ensure that ViewXLS can be used for converting between seen by the filer, double click on the Schema2 and Excel and vice versa. Excel file and ViewXLS will display As before, ensure that these two one of the spreadsheets that it files can be seen by filer at startup. contains. My ARMbook laptop had no For workbooks containing problem reading the dean's memory multiple sheets, simply click the stick which was Fat32 formated and Importing Files menu button in the Excel the convertion into Schema2 files Here at the College of Knowledge, spreadsheet being displayed, choose was remarkablly simple. Just start our dean introduced a new prize Sheet and then select the worksheet !xls2sch and drop the Excel file onto worth $1000 for the best student you want to view. the xls2sch iconnbar icon. completing our Engineering Diploma course. Beginning with the course just completed in 2019, I have been tasked by the dean to create a certificate for this award. He helpfully suggested I automate the process and gave me a memory stick containing an Excel spreadsheet with the results for the two years of the Diploma Course. Well that got me thinking: how could I do this on RISC OS using Schema2? Then I remembered Anton Reiser developed viewXLS and xlsConverterSch, available from http://home.allgaeu.org/areiser/ Figure 1 Selecting which Excel spreadsheet to Open in ViewXLS. riscos/software/index.htm. Thanks

Drag ’N Drop | www.dragdrop.co.uk | Autumn 2020 | Page 25 undo Edit’s ‘Expand Tabs’ option. 110WHEN 3:SYS "Wimp_CloseWindow",, Type it in and, ensuring it's B 120WHEN 6:PROCCLICK debugged, save it then double click 130WHEN 7:PROCINITSAVE to run. Being the ‘bare bones’ of an 140WHEN 8:IF B!24=13 PROCQSAVE app there’s no fancy application 150WHEN 9:PROCMENU directory but you can easily add 160WHEN 17,18:PROCMESSAGE this. 170ENDCASE 180UNTIL Q DO-IT will install itself on the 190SYS "Wimp_CloseDown" iconbar. Drag a text file to it and a 200END save window will pop up: 210 220DEF PROCCLICK 230BT=B!8 :REM MOUSE BUTTONS 240IF B!12=-2 AND BT=2 SYS "Wimp_C A situation frequently arises on reateMenu",,N,!B-64,180:ENDPROC RISC OS where we need an app 250IF B!16=2 PROCQSAVE:ENDPROC 260IF B!16=0 AND BT=64 PROCDRAG to respond to a file dragged to it, 270ENDPROC perform some operation on it and 280 output a result such as a The filename is appended with an 290DEF PROCMENU converted file. underscore and then you can do all 300I$=STRING$(32,CHR$32) The type-in app presented here 310SYS "Wimp_DecodeMenu",,N,B,I$ T the usual in RISC OS stuff like O ,,,I$ called DO-IT takes some of the pain amend the filename, press Return or 320IF I$="Quit" Q=TRUE out of writing this type of click the green OK button to save 330ENDPROC application because the ‘front end’ the file, or drag the file icon to a 340 code is all written for you. new filer window. 350DEF PROCDRAG 360FO$=FNRDICON(W1,1) For most purposes you only need DO-IT Listing 370SYS "Wimp_GetPointerInfo",,B alter the CONVERT procedure at 10REM DO-IT 380!B=!B-34 the end of the program to suit the 20REM (C) DRAG N DROP 390B!4=B!4-34 job in hand – follow the program 30ON ERROR PROCERROR 400B!8=!B+68 40APP$="DO-IT" description at the end of the listing. 410B!12=B!4+68 50SYS "Wimp_Initialise",200,&4B53 420SYS "DragASprite_Start",,1,"fil By way of demonstration, DO-IT 4154,APP$ e_"+STR$~FT,B takes a text file dragged to its icon 60PROCINIT 430ENDPROC bar icon and replaces runs of three 70REPEAT 440 80SYS "Wimp_Poll",,B TO E or more consecutive spaces with a 90CASE E OF tab character which you can use it to 100WHEN 2:SYS "Wimp_OpenWindow",,B Drag ’N Drop | www.dragdrop.co.uk | Autumn 2020 | Page 32