RISC OS wish list

Information

• Web site (2013-08-30) - 19 - agree - disagree - follow up
  • + Top 1 on my wishlist is an up-to-date website! [www.riscos.com]
  • - What's missing ?
  • + Online manuals, PRMs?
  • - PRMs and so on are available on many locations
  • + Condensed PRMs, yes, but not the actual PRMs - there's lots of info in PRM chapters other than SWI definitions. The StrongHelp manuals tell you how to use a particular call, while the PRMs tell you how to (say) write an FIQ handler. These are not the same thing.
  • + The PRMs are on the PRMs CD. Or if you're a foundation member you get them in PDF format on there. The PRMs are not really a thing for the web site...
  • + What I'm missing are the signs of life. Especially if you are on RISC OS you need this. If a web page hasn't been updated for a several weeks you may find yourself asking 'Is it still alive?'. www.riscos.com needn't to be turned into a web portal, but, hey, please offer something like a worklog or .plan files to show the community whats going on.
  • + Just look at BeOS: Full developer support online - with full PRMs and and and... Ok. we all know that having many (quality) applications are the key to success for an OS. So give as much information as you can to the community, to encourage them to develope software. PRMs on CD for Foundation Members only? Ridiculous! Bring them online and, important, give them a centralised home and do not spread them all over the net.
  • + What on earth gives you the idea that the PRMs CD is for foundation members only ? And exactly how many people actually submit to the StrongHelp development cause ? Not very many, I can tell you. Maybe it's changed now that Iain has taken over, but those people that complain about a lack of information being available, even in the freely distributable community are the ones who are shooting themselves in the foot by not providing the information themselves. Notice that the SH manuals have a centralised home. Notice that the Freenet archive is a centralised home for internet applications. How many people actually use those ? Don't try to sound so self-righteous unless you've actually done something towards this yourself.
  • + The RISCOS Ltd site will not become a portal.
  • + Developers are aware what is happening to RISCOS, that's what the developer conference was for.
  • + Maybe RISC OS Ltd need to 'formally support' ie link to a few of the portal sites out there.
  • + Dang! I tried to co-ordinate a documentation site for RISC OS in the shape of Bibiotech (sure, it looked crap, but I wanted to keep it simple) but I got feck-all support from the RISC OS community!
  • + Link to drobe, methinks!
  • + Freenet isn't exactly well publicised, is it!
  • + Freenet is cited as the place to go to for any network application in lots of places. Same goes for the manuals part. *I* don't believe that you should post to CSAAnnounce about anything and everything that happens to a site. It seems that from the number of "I've just updated my page" postings that there are around that others do think that. Freenet has been announced a number of times on there, but it's not a regular thing. Do the networking application authors try to find out how to add things to the site ?
  • - Drobe = portal = complete lack of content = pointless.
  • + riscos.org = content based = what is needed = exactly what we need so join in!
  • + Check out the plans at http://www.machinemedia.co.uk/riscos/ regarding this point.
  • + Can't someone revive the Acorn website as it was before they gave up? you know, when we had the workstations division in chanrge of RISC OS? I quite liked the Acorn website :-/
  • + Or all of the Acorn website would be nice! perhaps Mr Vigay has it hidden in a cupboard somewhere! If he hasn't, someone, somewhere has!
• England or Wales? (2013-07-22) - 9 - agree - disagree - follow up
  • + Is the RISC OS Operating System developed in Wales (Cardiff) or in England by PACE (RISC OS LTD develops it under licence from PACE)? I don't understand who develops the Operating System. My wish: for the 'developers' to make it clear which companies make this great Operating System. Does PACE write any code for it? Why don't I see any references to RISC OS on the PACE website (www.pace.co.uk)?
• Context sensitive help system (2013-04-09) - 1 - agree - disagree - follow up
  • + Help/instructions available related to the current process you have a problem with , perhaps triggred by ERROR message.
• A carefully written introduction to RISC-OS (2013-04-09) - -543 - agree - disagree - follow up
  • + New but untechy users (that's nearly all of them) just can't get to grips with the Desktop. A tutorial of sorts shipped with the product would be extremely useful.
  • + what is needed is an audio CD with a voice telling you what to do. With my A5000 came a cassette wich did just that, but today CDs should be used. The problem with written tutorials is, that nobody really wants to read manuals.
  • + ... and those very same users complain that they don't know about features, or how to use things. Ye gods, you can take a horse to water but you can't make him drink.
  • + An audio DC would be excellent, especially if you could play it on your machine's CD drive interactively. That could be really impressive.
  • + When you switch you computer on you should the given the opportunity to run the multimedia tutorial on the hard disc.
  • + I look after my wife's Mac, in the sense thatshe is not a computer person!! (As an aside the textis not being written at the point where the cursor is !! :-( This is in the follow up screen. In the Mac, or is it Claris, there is an active manual with pic.s. Sorry it is difficulat to edit this due to cursor displacement. But... what I am trying to say is that if we had active pics, by that I mean clickin on various parts brings up help or example or whateverthis would combine the advantages of RISCOS wimp. A simple example: when I was seeking out properties in a certain part of UK the Estate Agents had a map you could click on to go to the part of the country I was interested in.Need I say more right now ? Well, yes I will. A thought occurs to me. Whena a user, totally new to RISCOS switches on his/her RPCa window comes up in the middle of the screen It would say something like this. "If you are new to this sort of computerand wouldlike to know where to start then press ANY key on you key board. There then follows some more windows with pictures of mouse, monitor etc.If you want me to go let me know. I cannot do all the programming, but I could with !Paint !Draw !Edit, or whatever and colloborative help create something that would help.
  • I look after my wife's Mac, in the sense thatshe is not a computer person!! (As an aside the textis not being written at the point where the cursor is !! :-( This is in the follow up screen. In the Mac, or is it Claris, there is an active manual with pic.s. Sorry it is difficulat to edit this due to cursor displacement. But... what I am trying to say is that if we had active pics, by that I mean
  • + Sorry about my long windedand double entry.But a cursor which is not at the text is a pain, anyway, anyone wanting to contact me can do so at johnolan@argonet.co.uk . I have onoy just heard about this site via AU June ed. Not onoy was there a cusor problem, but the site seemed to get stuch, hence double entry.
• Manual (2013-08-30) - -7529 - agree - disagree - follow up
  • + Manual for RISC OS in general
  • + Lack of manuals is a problem for new users. Acorn did a superb job of documenting RISC OS 3 so it could be used by new users.
  • + manuel for installing a network connection to any computer
  • - Considering the cost of RiscOS4 it was a little dissapointing not to a nice new manual, what kind of manual do new users get (ie. RiscStation buyers) surely not just the leaflet I got with RiscOS4.
  • + A manual like the manual for riscos 3.x
  • - Make all the documentation freely available You need to encourage people to write software
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