A potted history of RISC OS machines

Why RISC is best

Acorn (ie, RISC OS) powered computers are, arguably¹, superior to PCs. Some of the reasons are given below.

• The operating system is not stored on the hard disc like with Windows, but is held in ROM chips inside the computer. This means it cannot be corrupted by viruses, and that the computer is far faster to start up - mine typically takes under 20 seconds².
  Another effect of the OS being stored in chips is that even if the hard disc has been smashed apart with a sledge hammer, the computer will still boot, and you can use most of your software from floppy disc. It is also far easier to install upgrades.
• There are very few viruses, and of these only 1 can cause serious damage. RISC OS is immune to PC viruses.
• Everyone agrees that the OS is incredibly easy to use, and, because of the way it is designed, it is very easy for programmers to extend. The whole system was designed holistically, with more thought being given to the the user interface than on any other platform. For example, all fonts are anti-aliased³, significantly improving display quality. They have been since 1992, and MS Windows has only just caught up...
• The software is all far more compact than on other platforms - typically 12 times smaller. It is also more consistent, and user friendly, with seamless integration between applications, allowing for much greater productivity. Data can be easily transfered between applications.
• Programmer support is far better on the RISC OS platform - typically within a few hours of e-mailing a bug report to a developer a new version of the software will be released⁴. Compare this with Microsoft, where development can take days, weeks or months.
• Any acorn machine can read discs formatted on both PCs and macs, and I find it far faster when formatting/verifying discs. Defragmenting hard discs is unnesscary on an Acorn, since the disc is accesed far less often.
• Although RISC OS machines are sometimes more expensive than PCs, they are amazingly long lived, and this combined with the bug-free OS and the durability of design, mean that they are far more productive, especially for novices. I have never had to take a machine to be serviced, and have only ever once had one lock up on me, despite the fact that I write software⁵ (and on other platforms this is one of the most dangerous things that you can be doing).

A quick guide to RISC OS

Given how generally wonderful RISC OS is, here is a brief guide as to how to use it.

The Mouse

The first thing is that the mouse has 3 buttons⁶ They are called, from left to right, Select, Menu and Adjust.

• Select is used for dragging, clicking, poking about with things, and is generally the main button. It is used to make an initial selection.
• Adjust is used as a subsidiary of select. For example, where in Windows you might hold down shift or control while clicking, in RISC OS you use adjust. It is used to toggle elements in and out of selections, and to add extra selections without cancelling the corrent ones.
  Also, if you use adjust to click on a menu entry, or to 'OK' a dialogue box, the menu (or dialogue) will be kept open.
• The Menu button opens a pop-up menu. RISC OS doesn't use permanent menus, like Windows, as it was felt these aren't dynamic enough, and a waste of screen real estate.

The Keyboard

Keyboards are usually the same, except that for historical reasons the 'End' key (next to delete) is sometimes used as a 'delete right' key. Also, if you get one of the posh keyboards from Cerilica graphics you have a little turn dial on the keyboard that can be used to change the volume on music players, re-scale and rotate graphics objects, scroll around windows, etc.
Finally with the keyboards, the function keys are used for common operations, instead of things like ctrl-S, ctrl-C, etc, as in Windows. The ones you should be aware of are F1, help; F3 save; F4, find; F5, goto; F6 and F7: selection and clipboard; F8 undo; F9-F11 usially editing functions; F12 enter command line (and other system functions, such as shift-F12 - bring icon bar to front). This means that these functions are quicker to use (once learnt), and consistent between applications.

The Desktop

In RISC OS the desktop is also referred to as the Wimp (Windows Interface Management Program). It is one of the strongest features of RISC OS, and is fundamentally different to Windows because it isn't pre-emptive. That is, it waits for the user to lead it, and the user can perform many tasks at once. One of the most elegant features of the desktop is that you can easily move files and data between compatible applications (and most of them are compatible) by drag and drop.

The Icon Bar

The bar at the bottom of the screen is called the Icon Bar, and is a bit like the Taskbar in Windows⁷, except that one icon is given to each application, and an application can have any number of documents (as opposed to Windows, where each window gets an icon). If the icon bar gets too full, it scrolls when you point at the ends.
On the left of the icon bar are the filing systems, such as the hard disc, floppy disc, commonly used applications, recycle bin (which may be hidden), ram disc, and any compression filing systems that may be loaded.
On the right is the configuration icon, and on the far right, the task manager. From the latter you may change the allocation of system resources, such as how much memory each application gets.
The main method of controlling applications is to click menu over their icon bar icon, and from the menu that appears you may get help, find out about the application (version number, status, Author, etc), quit the application, and perform any number of application specific tasks. Clicking Select on an application icon typically opens a new document, or gives it control of the whole screen (for a game). Press F12 to return to the desktop.

PC Emulator cards

As well as offering file format compatibility with mac and PC, and being able to read their disc formats, it is actually possible to plug a second processor into a RiscPC, providing native emulation for PC software, and letting you share resources. It is perfectly feasible to have both desktops running simultaneously, and many people prefer this since they can use both the industry standard (Windows), and the best (RISC) operating systems.

'Killer Applications'...

One of the defence mechanisms evolved by users of RISC OS to cope with the dominance of PCs is the concept known as the 'Killer app'.
These are products that are supposedly so brilliantly wonderful that thousands of users will defect from other platforms just to use them.
In the past, killer apps have included Sibelius (music notation software), Artworks (vector graphics, now known as Corel Xara) and Ovation (DTP). Sibelius has indeed been very successful, but ironically it is no longer available for RISC OS, although this may change with the future release of a modern C++ compiler for RISC OS.
Currently expected killer apps include Iron Dignity, a game that has been in development for the past four years, and Vantage, a revolutionary vector art package from Cerilica graphics.
Personally, 'killer apps' always remind me of cargo cultism, but I'm well known for being a bit mad ;-).
Finally, I must just mention the sad story of the Pheobe. This was the final machine that Acorn designed before they collapsed, and many people expected it to do for Acorn what the iMac did for Apple. However, it never saw the light of day, and in many ways it was the ultimate white elephant.

New Machines

In the dark days⁸ (pre 1998), Acorn was the only manufacturer of RISC OS machines. The development cycle went something like this: Acorn would go quiet for a bit; then they would announce one or more new designs, which would of course all be world beating⁹. Everyone would then be terribly optimistic for a few months, and claim that the end of the tunnel was in sight. Then there would follow a pause of about three years, in which time the rest of the computing industry would move on, and the machines begin to look very out of date. And then the cycle starts again. Grim :-(

It is impossible to predict how things will go in the future, what with the marked behaving like a chaotic dynamics experement gone AWOL, but there are currently 3 new machines under development:

• The Imagio motherboard, designed by Millepede graphics, intended for televisual subtitlingand releated applications.
• The various Risc Station machines, from RiscStation Ltd.
• And the Mico desktop machine, produced by Microdigital.

What to do if confronted by a die-hard Acorn user

These are easy to spot as they usually either have beards and wear sandals, or perpetually have a slightly shifty look in their eye and constantly seem about to shout "Down with Bill Gates!". Most of them are called Paul, are unfeasible tall, and many conceal Psion devices beneath their jackets¹⁰. They also tend to refer to Windows as Windoze (and pronounce PC as PeeeCeee).
The best way to deal with them is to agree with whatever they say, and claim that you too hate Microsoft. If possible, complain about any failings that your printer may have.

What to do if confronted by Bill Gates

Wrap your towel around your head and hum very loudly. Even better, wrap your towel around his head, and pull it tight until he promises to be nicer to people.
You must remember, however, that this man is the source of much of the evil on Earth, and so try avoid letting him near your throat.

Finding out more...

The best way to find out about RISC OS is to march into W. H. Smiths and look for Acorn User, in the computer section of the magazine racks, usually quite low down, buried beneath mounds of Apple related publications. Please buy it, 'cos then the price might go down :-(
The centre of the universe, as far as the RISC OS community is concerned, is RISC OS Ltd., the company set up after the collapse of acorn to develop the operating system, which is now at version 4.
A good place to read about RISC OS on the Web is the Acorn Cybervillage. From here you will find links to many other major sites, and can read about much that is important to us. Up to date news can be found on the Drobe Launch Pad.
The best site for RISC OS gaming is, in my opinion, the Acorn Arcade.
I have also wired this entry up to the Acorn WebRing¹¹. This is one of the best ways to discover about RISC OS, so use the links below to navigate.