Totally new to RISCOS-Books?
21 posts
I have never used riscos (wrong side of the pond) but want to learn. Problem is, I've never had the opportunity, have no one who's brains I can pick and cannot seem to find any books over here to get me started. Simple things like syntax and the difference between BBC Basic and PC Basic are what I am looking for. Any recommendations ? Either online resources or books I should look for would be great. Most everything here is Intel oriented (or Apple) and I would like to do something different with my PI. Raspian looks good but is just another flavor of Linux. Help me, please.--mike
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Have you loaded the RISC OS alpha distro and tried it yet? It is a whopping 21.7 Mbtes to download the 2Gbyte SD card image (here http://www.svrsig.org/RISCOS_Distro.zip).
Updates also issued here:
http://www.svrsig.org/AlphaUp.zip
with incremental updates following:
http://www.svrsig.org/AlphaUp5.zip
http://www.svrsig.org/AlphaUp6.zip
http://www.svrsig.org/AlphaUp7.zip
Try the free download of BBC BASIC for Windows here http://www.bbcbasic.co.uk/index.htm - it's quite different from BBC BASIC as it has been extended but the unextended parts are very similar. Hopefuly the BBC BASIC USer Guide will end up bundled with the Pi disc image once it gets to beta...
Updates also issued here:
http://www.svrsig.org/AlphaUp.zip
with incremental updates following:
http://www.svrsig.org/AlphaUp5.zip
http://www.svrsig.org/AlphaUp6.zip
http://www.svrsig.org/AlphaUp7.zip
Any recommendations ?
Try the free download of BBC BASIC for Windows here http://www.bbcbasic.co.uk/index.htm - it's quite different from BBC BASIC as it has been extended but the unextended parts are very similar. Hopefuly the BBC BASIC USer Guide will end up bundled with the Pi disc image once it gets to beta...
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The acorn BBC Basic manual appears to be available online at:
http://foundation.riscos.com/Private/manuals/BASIC/
if you want to do UI programming the Programmers Reference Manuals were the RISCOS bibles:
http://foundation.riscos.com/Private/manuals/PRMs/
not sure what there is in the way of updates to this for the newer versions of RISCOS...
http://foundation.riscos.com/Private/manuals/BASIC/
if you want to do UI programming the Programmers Reference Manuals were the RISCOS bibles:
http://foundation.riscos.com/Private/manuals/PRMs/
not sure what there is in the way of updates to this for the newer versions of RISCOS...
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There were never very many books on RISCOS even back in the day. Most of the information came from the reference manuals and from the magazines around at the time. BBC basic slowly developed from the original Model B through to RISCOS. It got more structured and was more like C but with BASIC syntax.
You could even program desktop applications in it by using SWIs. These were Soft Ware Interrupts and basically were hooks to get inside the various sections of the operating system. To that end the four volume RISCOS reference manual was the king. I payed about £80 for my copy back in the late 80s, when that was considerably more money than it is now. Fortunately they are still in a corner of my loft.
You could even program desktop applications in it by using SWIs. These were Soft Ware Interrupts and basically were hooks to get inside the various sections of the operating system. To that end the four volume RISCOS reference manual was the king. I payed about £80 for my copy back in the late 80s, when that was considerably more money than it is now. Fortunately they are still in a corner of my loft.
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...and presumably dying to see the light of day again!Grumpy Mike wrote:Fortunately they are still in a corner of my loft.
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Grumpy Mike wrote:... the four volume RISCOS reference manual ...
And 5a
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Yes just had a look at them and forgot there was a 5a as well. 
I can't believe how small the files are when you compare them with the bulky tomes. That is the lack of diagrams I suppose.
I can't believe how small the files are when you compare them with the bulky tomes. That is the lack of diagrams I suppose.
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I have put Risc OS onto an SD card and placed into my Raspberry Pi
It work alright the only problem that found is that I can't save any files I create inside Risc OS
onto the SD Card. Also I don't know how to setup a harddisk4 image to use with the Raspberry Pi
I hope someone can explain how I can do this simply.
Thank you any help
It work alright the only problem that found is that I can't save any files I create inside Risc OS
onto the SD Card. Also I don't know how to setup a harddisk4 image to use with the Raspberry Pi
I hope someone can explain how I can do this simply.
Thank you any help
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Also I don't know how to setup a harddisk4 image to use with the Raspberry Pi
Use the alpha distro here: http://www.svrsig.org/RISCOS_Distro.zip with these instructions:
http://www.riscosopen.org/wiki/documentation/show/Software%20information:%20Development%20%28ROM%20image%29
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I have used the Risc OS Distribution from this site. http://www.svrsig.org/RISCOS_Distro.zip
but where on the SD Card do I need to put the hard disc image file and how to set it up so that write my work onto the SD card.
Do I need to undertake the length process outlined on this page
http://www.riscosopen.org/forum/forums/1/topics/1098
It seams quite a bit work to get it work.
I have not tried out this process yet so I don't if work yet
but where on the SD Card do I need to put the hard disc image file and how to set it up so that write my work onto the SD card.
Do I need to undertake the length process outlined on this page
http://www.riscosopen.org/forum/forums/1/topics/1098
It seams quite a bit work to get it work.
I have not tried out this process yet so I don't if work yet
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anicemanone wrote:I have used the Risc OS Distribution from this site. http://www.svrsig.org/RISCOS_Distro.zip
but where on the SD Card do I need to put the hard disc image file and how to set it up so that write my work onto the SD card.
Do I need to undertake the length process outlined on this page
http://www.riscosopen.org/forum/forums/1/topics/1098
It seams quite a bit work to get it work.
I have not tried out this process yet so I don't if work yet
No you don't. The distro contains all the files in the hard disc 4 image and more. That image is intended for use on systems other than the Pi.
Sawdust
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I put the Risc OS distribution on my SD card and it works fine.
I used the image dated 24th July On this website http://www.svrsig.org/RISCOS_Distro.zip
The Resources are read only
If I try and save a file onto my SD card it tells me that the SD empty
I have looked at files on the SD and I can't find the Self extracting HardDisc4.util file.
The RISCOS_Alpha_24Jul2012.img contains the following
BOOTCODE.BIN
CMDLINE.TXT
CONFIG.TXT
LOADER.BIN
RISCOS.IMG
START.ELF
Risc OS responds faster than the Linux on the Raspberry Pi
I would like to be able to save files and create directories.
Can someone please explain what I am doing wrong thanks
I used the image dated 24th July On this website http://www.svrsig.org/RISCOS_Distro.zip
The Resources are read only
If I try and save a file onto my SD card it tells me that the SD empty
I have looked at files on the SD and I can't find the Self extracting HardDisc4.util file.
The RISCOS_Alpha_24Jul2012.img contains the following
BOOTCODE.BIN
CMDLINE.TXT
CONFIG.TXT
LOADER.BIN
RISCOS.IMG
START.ELF
Risc OS responds faster than the Linux on the Raspberry Pi
I would like to be able to save files and create directories.
Can someone please explain what I am doing wrong thanks
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in the FAT partition plus a whole RISC OS partition occupying 1700Mbytes of the card.The RISCOS_Alpha_24Jul2012.img contains the following
Can someone please explain what I am doing wrong thanks
When you put the SD card image onto the card and boot the Pi, it should start up in RISC OS. You should then be able to see the RISC OS Desktop. You should be able to save files to the SD card (and other USB pen drives etc.) Please post a screenshot or give detail as to what is the problem...
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acornone wrote:I have looked at files on the SD and I can't find the Self extracting HardDisc4.util file.
You should not see HardDisc4.util as this not connected to the distro, what you should see is a !Boot application and and whole load of other directories.
How did you write the image to the card and what are the details of the card? Have you another one you can try?
Sawdust.
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I downloaded the zip file onto my PC and unzipped the RISCOS_Alpha_24Jul2012.img file
I put my SD card into a reader and attached to my PC via a USB slot.
Then used Win32 Disk Imager To write the information onto the SD card.
I used the same method to put Linux onto another SD card and that works fine
If I import the RISCOS_Alpha_24Jul2012.img into Windows the FAT32 part only contains
BOOTCODE.BIN
CMDLINE.TXT
CONFIG.TXT
LOADER.BIN
START.ELF
RISCOS.IMG I assume that the Risc Os bits are all inside this file.
I put my SD card into a reader and attached to my PC via a USB slot.
Then used Win32 Disk Imager To write the information onto the SD card.
I used the same method to put Linux onto another SD card and that works fine
If I import the RISCOS_Alpha_24Jul2012.img into Windows the FAT32 part only contains
BOOTCODE.BIN
CMDLINE.TXT
CONFIG.TXT
LOADER.BIN
START.ELF
RISCOS.IMG I assume that the Risc Os bits are all inside this file.
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the FAT32 part only contains
as you would expect.
RISCOS.IMG I assume that the Risc Os bits are all inside this file.
No - this is 6Mbytes of ROM. What you cannot see, except under RISC OS, is the RISC OS partition. If you start up the Pi [all of the stuff to do this is in the FAT partition], RISC OS will boot up and you will see 1800Mbytes of storage with 110Mbytes or so being RISC OS software with access to the FAT partition (some 130Mbytes) from within RISC OS.
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Regarding RISC OS books, take a look at http://alligatamedia.magcloud.com/
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There was also a 64bit ready version called Basic64.
I should shortly receive my Raspberry, and will resurrect a project I was working on on my RiscPC. This was essentially an IDE. You would still need the PRM's as you would still need to call SWI's on occasion. Most of the UI calls are handled by the IDE (including, for the initiated, Menus)
I should shortly receive my Raspberry, and will resurrect a project I was working on on my RiscPC. This was essentially an IDE. You would still need the PRM's as you would still need to call SWI's on occasion. Most of the UI calls are handled by the IDE (including, for the initiated, Menus)
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There is a new book by Bruce Smith on Assembly Language. It is for Beginners and uses the BBC BASIC Assembler in RISC OS. It shows how to use the RISC OS SWI calls too.
I have the book and it is pretty good. Easy to read. I learned a lot from it.
There is a discussion thread to it under General Programming, called 'Assembly Language Made Easy' or you can find it at Amazon:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Raspberry-Pi-As ... 752&sr=8-1
There is a eBook version as well.
I have the book and it is pretty good. Easy to read. I learned a lot from it.
There is a discussion thread to it under General Programming, called 'Assembly Language Made Easy' or you can find it at Amazon:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Raspberry-Pi-As ... 752&sr=8-1
There is a eBook version as well.
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Here is a tutorial on WIMP Programming:
http://acorn.revivalteam.de/Emu/Wimp%20Tutorial.htm
Also RISCWorld magazine has a bunch of good articles on programming in BBC BASIC on RISC OS. Volumes 1 through 9 can be viewed on there site free, see:
http://acorn.revivalteam.de/Emu/Wimp%20Tutorial.htm
http://acorn.revivalteam.de/Emu/Wimp%20Tutorial.htm
Also RISCWorld magazine has a bunch of good articles on programming in BBC BASIC on RISC OS. Volumes 1 through 9 can be viewed on there site free, see:
http://acorn.revivalteam.de/Emu/Wimp%20Tutorial.htm
RISC OS, Giving the control of your computer to you.
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