Wakefield's November meeting was held on a thursday, just to check we were all listening. It was open to non-members as well as the speaker was Steve Revill from RISC OS Open giving us the talk we would have had at the London Show if it had happened. There were just under 40 attendees.
Steve has been doing RISC OS OPEN since 2006 and focus is still preserving it for all users for past, present and future.
Hot topic is currently RISC OS 5.30. Full review of all ports in May and feature freeze. Aim for monthly release candidates when possible (ie significant change). There will be a new release candidate for !Boot including some new optional enhancements (you will have to wait for details). Still needs contributors, especially with updating new version of User Guide and proof-reading.
On the traffic light scoring for releases, 4 platforms green, 2 yellow and 2 red. Full details on the ROOL website along with details on how to get involved. Aiming for release before SW Show (February 2023).
Update on bounties scheme. Ongoing are file system improvements, Paint improvements, network stack improvements, reunifying toolbox versions, Git client. Collecting for Unicode support, updated PRMs, USB stack, more recent LanManFS protocols, and filing system improvements.
Some big ticket items for the future include Multiple monitor support, enhancing BBC BASIC, accessing more memory, multi-core processing, Vector floating point and end of 32 bit.
ROOL have been thinking if bounties are suited to solving these types of issues. Prioritise Cheaper and Better over faster. Works well for smaller tasks and features. RISC OS Developments priorities are Faster, Cheaper and Better. ROOL thinking how we can get these big items done - needs big investment to get them done. Food for thought...
After the talk, there was a Q and A session.
It is amazing what you learn in the talk pre-chat....Steve had just returned from a trip to Orlando (and paid 65 dollars for a bowl of cereal for breakfast). Rob Sprowson always has a cheese sandwich for lunch.
Rob will actually be the speaker at next month's hybrid meeting - back on wednesday.
Details on all meetings (and email address to ask for a Zoom link) can be found on the website