Lots of RISC OS Developments news ahead of the London Show this weekend. Please note that not all downloads will be live until the weekend,
although the PackMan Iris server should be up and running already.


Iris Releases via PackMan
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

The Spring and Summer saw multiple beta releases of Iris as we worked hard towards producing a more public release this Autumn. Whilst nothing is
ever as "finished" and "polished" as we'd like, we feel that Iris is now
at a point where is provides a much more viable web browsing experience
for RISC OS than was previously possible.

If you would like to try installing Iris via PackMan right now,
instructions follow:

1) Load !PackMan from your Apps folder, and make sure you
install any updated packages it tells you about.

2) Check PackMan's version number from its iconbar menu Info
window. It should read 0.98 beta. If not, please quit and
re-run it. If you have installed the updates mentioned in 1)
you should now be on 0.98 beta.

3) From the PackMan iconbar menu, go to Advanced->Sources

Add the new RISC OS Developments package repository:

http://packages.riscosdev.com/pkg/autobuilt

Also, make sure the default package repositories are installed,
in particular:

http://packages.riscosopen.org/packages/pkg/programs-armv5

Tick "Refresh package lists" then Save.

4) Now, assuming you're on a machine capable of running Iris (an
ARMv7 compliant machine ie. Pi 2 onwards), when you look in the
pacakage list, you should find Iris list.

Double click on it to install, then follow the screens through
to install the Iris program and all its component parts (there
are a lot of them).

Iris will be installed into Apps.Network folder although you can
change this or move it around.

5) We recommend rebooting before using Iris in case any older
module versions are still around.

The first time you open Iris, it may take a bit longer to open its main
window because it will be generating font indexes and cache files. Future
runs should open more quickly.

We'd like to thank Chris Gransden for his help with packaging Iris, and as always, Lee Noar for his development work.


RISC OS Direct for Pi5
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

This builds on the great work of the RISC OS for Linux team (Timothy
Baldwin and Jan Rinze) to produce a version of RISC OS Direct capable of running on a Pi5 system. Because RISC OS doesn't support the Pi5 CPU
directly, this is achieved as an "application" on top of Linux, although
as benchmarks attest, most code is run natively for very high performance.

The RISC OS Direct distribution includes many popular applications and important assets such as compatible monitor definitions and working
network configurations, to allow most RISC OS applications to run as
expected, including network apps like NetSurf, !Store and more.

The main limitations are that there is presently no sound support (which
limits gaming options) and lack of ARMv7 support for Iris.


Wifi and TCP/IP
=-=-=-=-==-=-=-

Check the RISC OS Developments website - there will be a new release
around the time of the show, with fixes, improvements and some performance enhancements.


Ethernet-based filing system
=-=-=-=-=-==-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

This is a by-product of another commercial project, but may be useful to
some RISC OS users. The project allows a Filecore (ie. RISC OS native)
drive to exist on a network-connected device (eg. a Pi with RAID array).
The host system for the filecore partition is largely academic - as long
as it exists on an accessible network, a RISC OS computer can access it.

As a demo, a filecore partition was hosted in one part of the country on a server, and accessed securely from a client computer several hundred miles away. Amazingly performance for the database software using this was very similar to running natively, but with the benefits of RAID and encryption.

Traditionally, network drives on RISC OS have been based on other filing systems and used protocols such as SMB for transport. This project allows
for secure "native" network drives.

The software was built on the open source BlockDevices platform which significantly shortened development time, allowing this work to be up and running quickly. It also benefits from ROD's CacheFS disc/memory cache system.

For more info, chat with Richard or Andy V on the ROD stand at the show.

--
Andrew Rawnsley
RISC OS Developments Ltd


_______________________________________________________________ a.m.conroy@argonet.co.uk, Moderator of comp.sys.acorn.announce.
Submissions to csaa@owlart.net
Related mail to csaa-request@owlart.net

--- PyGate Linux v1.5
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)