It was a glorious sunny day in Wakefield and a very upbeat RISC OS show with lots of interesting hardware and software. You can see some show pictures, and here are my show notes if you were not able to attend. Any mistake/omissions are mine.
 
Exhibitors
Richard Brown was talking about his new cloud solutions and general internet packages. Lots happening behind the scenes with RISCOS developments and public announcements will happen when they are able to update everyone. South west show date and new venue was announced and is now on the SW Show website. Make a date in your diary for Saturday 16th February 2019.
 
CJEmicro's had its full range of computers, software and new hardware releases to demonstrate. Chris did a theatre talk. They were pushing the RaspberryPi 3 model and an excellent platform for R-Comp's new PiFi solution.
 
Wrocc had a club stand where they also ran a prize raffle. They did a great job of organising the show.
 
R-Comp has their range of hardware and software products including the new mini machine and the software updates. Andrew did a theatre talk.
 
Sine Nomine showed off the enhancements to RiscOSM with contour lines and updates to Impact database. They showed all of these in the theatre talk. The range range of data RiscOSM can use has really expanded, it has some neat integration with online resources and a nifty little style editor.
 
Organizer has been updated to 2.28a which is free to 2.28 users and available as a chargeable upgrade for other users. Nigel is still asking for your ideas on what you would like to see.
 
Jim Nagel had the latest edition of Archive magazine (fresh off the press with show previews), archive CD and back issues.
 
Chris Hall was demonstrating his new FamTree application and showing off his GPS systems on RISC OS.
 
RISCOSbits had its full range of hardware products with interesting names. Rumours that Andy has run out of risqué product names are without foundation.
 
Drag'n'Drop had the new edition out today and free draganddrop pencils for all visitors. They were also showing their range of books and software.
 
Amcog games were showing off their latest game, Island of the undead, RSDP, full range of games and compilations.
 
ROOL had RISC OS 5.24 to purchase or download and the new Users Guide available along with their full range of books, CDs, SD cards, etc. A Titanium was playing the latest Star Wars video and also shown !Prophet running on new hardware. Eleasar has been investigating adding the ability for !Prophet to write out the xml format needed to submit accounts to Companies House. Price of !Prophet TBA and software will be released once the manual has been updated.
 
Mw-software had the updated AWviewer (a free plugin to show artworks files) and demonstrating the recent releases of Artworks and TechWriter/EasiWriter. Martin was dapper as usual in his bow tie.
 
Steve Fryatt had cashbook 1.40 now available and his full range of software. He was selling a CD of all his software to raise money for charity.
 
Richard Keefe has fixed Impression colour issues and finalising the new release of Impression. Stay tuned over next few weeks.
 
In the 8 bit section, Rob Coleman had his BBC graphics card, and Spectrum emulation. He can also do ZX81 and Jupiter Ace for real purists. Flax cottage had a range or BBC’s running education software. There were several stands with BBCs running and a charity stand.
 
Theatre Talks
 
11.15 R-Comp
Arm still in sling, Andrew updated us on developments since last year. He talked at NetFetch5 (major security improvements) and Messenger pro 8 (new today and adds additional security features and a revised manual). Release brought forward as RISC OS 5.24 needed update anyway. It does not need 5.24 to run or for any features. Improved handling of html email. Easier configuration options. Includes key for Windows and Mac version on CD.
 
Demoed new ‘mini' ARMX6. All features in 2 inches except what would not fit in that tiny box. Half the price. Still does the 4K screen resolution. Can be powered from USB.
 
There is a new version of SafeStore. Early access version now with full release to follow.
 
PiFi version 3 almost out - turns pi into a WiFi server. Native RISC OS interface to setup. CJEmicro's has some cheap pi3s in stock.
 
Quake was updated at SW Show and uses hardware do to speed things up. 3 times performance.30-40 times faster than risc pc. Wolfenstein has also been updated now.
 
R-Comp will be rolling out RISC OS 5.24 upgrades for machines in the near future.
 
12.00 ROOL
Rob Sprowson updated us on changes in last year. Network stack 20 years old so time to update for making it easier to use RISC OS for network tasks (Rob cited his use of his non RISC OS machine for online banking, browsing, cat videos).
 
London show - new BBC BASIC manual (right up to vfp). Most popular ROOL book to date. Had to get permission to use BBC name in book. First ROOL book on Amazon and in top 15,000 briefly! DDE28 released (2 minor updates since).
Dec2017 - USB bounty completed, updates from netbsd parent code, rewrite of low level complexity. Now more reliable if keyboard on hub.
Jan 2018 - run up to 5.24 release begins. More formal release strategy for 5.24 with traffic lights scheme and detailed criteria for passing. Not passing just means not all criteria met.
March 2018 - TCP/IP bounty claimed - about fixing security holes. Parts already in 5.24. Replacing SSL with more secure TLS protocol.
April 2018 - 5.24 out. 5.22 was April 2015 so this release includes all the bounties since then - JPEG improvements, Edit enhancements, USB step 1, bits of Paint bounty (ctrl+ mouse wheel to zoom) and TCP/IP . Improvements to HForm, Maestro. Printers. Chars supports Unicode and fancy fonts, Dosfs. Filecore can handle up to 2tb. More secure !LanmanFS which can connect to windows 8 and 10
Kernel offers physical memory pools up to 512meg. Oflaoflaofla message should be replaced with more clear messages.
NFS client back. Econet on omni. Access+. Routed and uti modules. Trusted certificates datebase. Porterhouse font now included.
 
Total of 708 changes and 21 main ones.
 
Fix for zero page now in. 34 months of advanced warning. Part of ROOL strategy of trying to ensure RISC OS ready for ARM changes to chips (in contrast to previous changes under Acorn).
 
New ePic release with updates for software - SparkFS, PhotoDesk, Impact, DDE.
 
Aim to get RISC OS back into NOOBS for RaspberryPi (so easy for anyone to try it).
 
New copy of user guide. 62 chapters and includes new part from former Welcome guide. 924 illustrations and detailed draw and paint guides.
 
Updated us on bounties. Community driven. Open to ideas. 6 open bounties at present - Compiler improvements, Filing system , clipboard support, RISC OS general, TCP/IP step 2, USB stack step 2.
 
RISC OS 5.25 now nightly build. Future stable releases hopefully around every 2 years.
 
1.30 Sine Nomine
After some technical issues, fixed by the usual expedient of switching the projector off and on again, we kicked off with a demonstration of recent changes to Impact. Last year, made much easier to import csv files. Import is now much more intelligent. In process of adding more support for security and encryption via password. Any beta testers welcome.
 
Demo of RiscOSM. Contours released at London show. UK data from Ordnance Survey. Since then added NASA data for much of Western Europe. Showed route tracing tool which now shows gradient profile. Routes can have arrows. Demoed ability of RiscOSM to access data on internet to add to maps (ie pubs in Galway).
 
Software can also find photos on internet from Geographic for any location. Flickr integration planned to make use of new features from ROOL bounties. Style editor makes it much easier to edit and create new styles. Accessible via features window.
 
In reply to question from audience, unlikely to add direct export to PDF but can be done indirectly via printing. The wishlist for future features is 10 screens long but please suggest new ideas.
 
2.15 CJEmicro's
Chris has had the distraction of project managing his new house. Andrew and Jordon have been busy keeping business going in his absence. Chris showed small mouse interface launched in August. RaspberryRo lite launched in July. Pi-topRO covered with customisations for RISC OS . Still waiting for developers to release tech details for v2 of hardware. Commissioned another batch of ide interfaces for A3000 machines (retro and legacy big markets).
 
Still hoping to get Tablemate to a 32bit release.
 
Chris talked about complete systems offered by CJEmicro's. He is interested to hear if anyone has found a use for 4gigs of ram on a RISC OS machine. Looking for donations of old Acorn kit. Will produce 5.24 updates for latest machines in due course.
 
3.00 Amcog games
Showed off both the games and his development kit.
 
RISC OS a very creative platform for writing games and agreat community.
 
Takes between 2 days and year to write the games.
 
Lots of sequencing music on games.
 
Demonstrated new Island of the Undead zombie game. Game has full soundtrack and lots of zombies to shoot.
 
Free updates to games and open to suggestions for feature updates.
 
Showed games kit for writing games.