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Introduction

In the two years since we took over the development of the desktop version of RISC OS there have been major changes in the RISC OS marketplace. RISCOS Ltd is adapting to those changes and RISC OS Select is the first result of those changes. 

26 bit versions of RISC OS under the project name of RISC OS 4.5 will in future be supplied on a yearly subscription basis. 

This is similar to the way that yearly maintenance and upgrade schemes are provided for other major software packages. 

From now on RISC OS will be updated on a rolling basis, instead of releasing a major upgrade every couple of years. The important point to note is that there is no target for a "Final" release version of RISC OS, since technology and user requirements will very much dictate what features are, or are not, added to new versions of RISC OS and hence the RISC OS Select Scheme is deliberately intended to be fluid in nature. 

It is also very important to note that RISC OS Select is a personal subscription meaning that you may install the software provided under the scheme onto any machines which you or your family (who are resident at the same location own). If you have 3 machines at home you do not have to take out 3 RISC OS Select Subscriptions. If you are a company with greater than 10 machines then a special price applies. 

The advantage of the scheme is that the timescale for fixing bugs and offering new features will be significantly decreased. 

Many people who heard about the Scheme at the Wakefield Show have been concerned that with the Operating System being soft loaded that it would therefore be prone to virus attack. We would like to point out that using the Select Scheme components does not mean you have to remove the current physical ROM's from the machine and hence in the unlikely event of problems with the new ROM image you will always be able to return to using the original RISC OS 4 settings. 

Future components of RISC OS will be released in two formats:- 

1. ROM images which can be soft loaded to replace the existing physical ROM's 

2. Individual modules that can be loaded as part of the Boot sequence. 

The new ROM image and modules can be stored on local Hard Disc, on a Network, or loaded directly from CD. Part of the new ROM image boot sequence will provide the option to choose which medium you wish to boot from, so that you may for example wish to keep a backup of your usual Boot sequence on CDR and then install the new RISC OS Select ROM image and Boot sequence onto your main hard drive. All Subscribers to RISC OS Select will receive up to 3 CD's per year i.e. one CD approximately every 4 months. The CD will contain both Beta software and official release versions. It is anticipated that components which are issued as Beta on one CD will become official releases on the next CD. Interim components will also be available from a password protected area of the new RISC OS Select Web Site. The scheme is suitable both for users who want to be sure of receiving the latest fixes & official releases and also for users who like to have the latest experimental modules & features. 

(Subscribers to RISC OS Select will be provided with a method whereby they can choose to just install the release components or else they can try out the latest features, knowing that they can restore to a known working set-up at any time. To do this each Select CD will contain a "safe" boot image with all the released upgrades and patches pre-installed as a working disc image.) N.B. Users will have to initially purchase RISC OS 4 in ROM either as an upgrade from RISC OS 3.5/6/7 or else as an integral part of a new computer. 

It will NOT be possible to soft load RISC OS Select packages onto anything other than RISC OS 4. 

Purchasing RISC OS 4

New Users

New users will be have three choices when purchasing RISC OS 4 in the future. 

i) To join the RISC OS Select Scheme for �229. For this they will receive the current full RISC OS 4 ROM package and a one year subscription to the Select Scheme. 

or 

ii) To buy the current RISC OS 4.02 ROM and installation CD for the special new reduced price of �75. (This will NOT include any bundled applications, such as Vector, Writer, ImageFS or the new RISC OS Internet Suite) 

or

 iii) Buy the current full package with bundled applications and Manuals CD for the new reduced price of �85. 

(Users choosing ii) or iii) will not get access to the web site or other upgrade features of RISC OS Select.) 

RISC OS Select

Users of machines that were supplied with RISC OS 4 will only be able to join the Select Scheme at the full price of �155, irrespective of when they purchased their computer. e.g. if you have bought RISC OS 4 as part of a Kinetic Strong ARM upgrade or with a RiscStation, Risc PC, A7000+ or MicroDigital Mico. 

N.B. All prices are inclusive of VAT.
 
Overseas subscribers will be charged postage at cost if they wish to receive CD's. They may optionally choose to only receive updates via the Web Site at a reduced cost. 

Full list of RISC OS products and prices.

Application forms for the RISC OS Select Scheme are available from the RISCOS Ltd Web Site at http://www.riscos.com/select/ 

Registered Developers

Since the formation of RISCOS Ltd the demands of the current software developers have been very varied. In a recent survey of developers most of them indicated that they do not usually need much individual support. In order to provide full support to those that require it we shall be increasing the fees for Registered Developers to �500 per 6 months as from 1st June 2001. This will entitle them to direct contact with the RISC OS Development team. Developers that only need access to technical documentation will be able to do so by joining the RISC OS Select Scheme. Anyone that joins the RISC OS Select scheme may also apply to be become an affiliate Registered Developer. There will be no fee for becoming an affiliate and they will be able to use the Registered Developers logo. The Foundation RISC User CD and the RISC OS Products Database Web Site will contain a database of all Registered Developers, and their products. The only requirement for becoming an affiliate and having software included on the database will be that a fully functional version (and any subsequent updates) of the software is supplied to RISCOS Ltd for evaluation and internal use. 

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End User Support
With immediate effect RISCOS Ltd will no longer be offering technical support for end-users via telephone. Support queries can still be sent to mailto:support@riscos.com but there will no guarantee of an individual response. Where appropriate new answers will be added to the RISC OS Knowledge Base at http://support.riscos.com/ 

RISC OS Select Q and A

Q. Do I have to take out a RISC OS Select Subscription for every machine I own? 
A. NO. The scheme is a personal one and allows you to install the RISC OS Select software on any machines you own. If you are a business with more than 10 machines then a site wide subscription to Select costs �300 per annum. You will however have to have bought a separate RISC OS 4 ROM upgrade for each machine you own, in the first place before joining the Select Scheme. Discounts are available for bulk purchases of RISC OS 4 ROM's. 

RISC OS Select Features

� New version of CDFS with support for RockRidge extensions, Joliet and mixed mode disc reading. 
� Filer has been improved with :
- indication of shared discs via file icons,
- refresh option for filer displays,
- numeric sorting of names,
- lowercasifying option,
- optional alternate renaming method,
- create new directory by click on menu entry,
- sharing of directories made simpler,
- easier entry of filenames with spaces - i.e. you can now just type <space> in a filename entry rather than <alt><space>.
� Updates to !ChangeFSI and !Paint to allow importing of PNG files.
� JPEG export from !Paint
� System application support for the Universal Clipboard system allowing cutting and pasting between compliant applications.
� New version of !Printers with support for networked printer drivers.
� Startup choices to allow user to choose boot device so that booting is possible from CD-ROM, network or hard disc. � LanManFS in ROM along with new Internet stack with BootP and DHCP support and updated ShareFS. This will also work with the Appletalk client module which will be available shortly.
� ROM images larger than 4MB to support everything being in ROM for machines than may require to boot without a hard disc.
� New configuration applications for fonts, replay, screensetup and filer.
� Miscellaneous improvements to kernel
� !Bugz application for easy reporting of faults.
� ADFSfiler quick format
� Improved speed of booting over ShareFS
� New integrated CDPlayer and CDFS Filer
� Graduated Pinboard backdrop
� Multi-user choices
� GZip support in !Squash
� Improved internet configuration And many other features that are of interest to programmers such as :-
� Filer has improved error handling
� Improved DeviceFS/BufferManager interaction
� FileSwitch with : -
Enumerate file handles Fix for upcall on rename in an image filing system
� !Impression second-ROM bank access fix (would crash on click)
� Wimp EdgeNotify message
� Wimp copes with long CLIs to StartTask
� Shared ZLib and PNG support.
� Programmers Zip file handling
� ShareFS now supports EOF
� MimeMap has :-
 reduced processesing impact caching of matches to improve efficiency
� SpriteExtend : fixes for 1:2 sampled JPEGs rendering speed improvements Exif support
� Improved JPEG compression support
� ClipboardHolder module provides a persistent clipboard
� Freeway fix for S_0 bug
� Fix for HeapSort failing near the end of a page
� All Obey files are now cached. This means that you CANNOT use *Obey Pipe:Gunge if the file is already open.
� PipeFS speed improvements
� Taskwindow speed improvements for Upcall handling
� Sound service handling for external hardware

Particular changes of note are :

• CMYK sprites are now supported
  CMYK sprites can be created, manipulated and plotted. The current implementation is functional, however certain applications which manipulate sprites directly may be provoke undefined results.
• Sprite, JPEG and DrawFile rendering may use 'colour mapping' Colour mapping allows arbitrary functions to manipulate the colours as used within the graphics.
• JPEGs rendering system has been improved
  The number of variants of JPEG that are handled has been improved, including the rendering of progressive JPEGs.
• Sprites may be rendered translucently Sprite operations which would previously generate a solid image may now be rendered at arbitrary degrees of translucency. This new facility is used by the DragASprite module to provide translucent dragging of objects within the desktop.
• Sprite generation from PNGs Sprites may be generated from PNG imaged using the new ConvertPNG module.
• Generic image file rendering Image files may be rendered through a plugin interface provided by the new 'ImageFileRender' module.
• System sprite pool changed The system sprite pool is no longer maintained by the Kernel. All manipulation of the system sprite pool is now delegated to the SpriteUtils module.
• Generic blending tables can now be generated The new BlendTable module has been created to generate tables for blending between different colours in shallow colour modes.

Input
In order to support the 'Wheel' mice which are now prevalent, parts of the system have been modified to provide a new interface for accessing such devices. The kernel issues additional requests to pointer devices to discover the state of such devices. Support for PS2 and quadrature wheel mice is now provided.

A PS2 wheel mouse can be used via the standard RiscPC quadrature interface by using an STD PS2 mouse interface. The STD mouse interface must be configured to 'driver' mode (consult documentation supplied with the PS2 interface) and the relevant mouse type selected in the mouse configuration. Alternatively, use *Configure MouseType 10 to select the STD PS2 mouse interface driver.

Within the desktop, new flag bits and icon validations have been defined to allow applications aware of the new interface to take advantage of the new input method. Toolbox 'Slider' gadgets and ColourPicker 'Slider' gadgets have been enhanced to support the new interface. Refer to 'PointerDevices' for low level driver information and 'WindowScroll' for the desktop interface.

Window manager
In keeping with the core graphical changes, the WindowManager has been enhanced to ensure that these graphical changes are used where applicable.

• Disabled icons algorithm improved The colours to which icons now fade when disabled are now slightly different to those previously used. Disabled icons will now fade toward the background colour of the window, rather than toward white.
• Deep shaded sprites Sprites in icons with 32 thousand or 16 million colours will now fade correctly in the same manner as their shallow colour counterparts.
• Furniture tool order configuration The window furniture tools can be configured to use different a different order to that which RISC OS has previously used. A simple configuration tool is provided within the Window configuration group.
• New interface for sizing text Text sizing of italic fonts has been improved to allow for the printable area to be determined for desktop fonts. Previously, italic fonts might be truncated by sizing routines using the standard operations.

Networking
Networking operations have been improved where they have been found to be lacking. The changes are necessarily not as large as those which took place for Select 1, but are still important.

• Automatic configuration of network interfaces Network operations have been improved to allow the automatic configuration of network interfaces. A new configuration command and a related option in the interface configuration tool have been added. The InetConfigure module takes on the job of performing this automatic configuration, and has necessitated the removal of the old FWAutoAddress configuration command.
• A(corn) Universal Network support In order to support certain applications which require support for 'AUN' networking, the NetI and related components have been updated to support the facilities offered by Select. 'AUN' refers to the support for Econet operations over Ethernet. New configuration tools have been developed and can be found within the 'Network' configuration group. In keeping with the automatic configuration changes, network maps used by AUN systems can be automatically configured from the network address.
• Internet pollwords A new 'ioctl' operation has been added to allow applications to flag changes on a socket when operations occur. This alleviates the requirement for additional shared code just to notify multitasking applications of activity on sockets.
• Fix for ShareFS authenticated objects Authenticated shares were issued incorrectly in Select 1. This fix allows objects to be shared using authentication.

Kernel
The Kernel has been changed to support a number of the changes described elsewhere in this document, in particular for handling of CMYK sprites and mouse wheel. In addition, parts of the kernel have been reworked in anticipation of future developments.

• RiscStation support The hardware used within the RiscStation machines is now supported by the kernel and such machines will now function with the same ROM image as other machines.
• Addition of function signatures Certain parts of the kernel have been updated to use function signatures. This is an on going process which should allow for simpler debugging. It should be noted that many of the modules within Select are now built with function name embedding enabled such that developers can identify problem locations.
• Rationalised module operations Certain calls (Unplugging and Inserting modules) were only possible through CLI commands under previous versions of the OS. Select makes these available as SWI calls to simplify their interface. A new operation has been added to allow the enumeration of modules with their private words pointers - an operation which was previously impossible. A module service has been added to allow clients to be aware of the state of modules.
• Fix for 1bpp sprite mask operations Certain operations on 1bpp masks would fail.
• Removal of OS_SubstituteArgs This call now lives in the OSSWIs module.
• Dynamic area delegation Font and System Sprite dynamic areas have now been delegated to the FontManager and SpriteUtils modules respectively.

Desktop
The Desktop components have been improved slightly to allow for issues raised in Select 1.

• Filer text strings are now sized more reliably Text in filenames on icons is now sized correctly using the new Wimp_TextOp calls (see above).
• Random requests for unshared discs fixed. Previously an interaction between special fields on discs with filers open and shared discs would cause directory viewers opened on to directories which had become unshared to request the unshared discs. This has been corrected.
• Reduced memory usage for selection of large numbers of files Previously, attempting to drag a large number of files would use a large amount of memory. This has been reduced substantially.
• Moving files on ImageNFS no longer faults directories When moving directories on ImageNFS, an error about directories containing objects is no longer generated.
• Pinboard can use Drawfiles as background images. Strictly speaking Pinboard can use any file format supported by the ImageFileRender module. At present, this means DrawFile or JPEG in addition to Sprites.

Toolbox
The toolbox components have been updated to support some of the wheel mouse additions, and to address some issues raised by Select 1.

• Scrolling lists are now faded in a better manner Although the algorithm is not identical to that used by the WindowManager, it more closely matches it than previously.
• Scrolling lists can now use column headings It is possible to use the column lists together with headings to allow lists of related elements to be grouped together. Documentation to follow.
• Improved resizing on scrolling list transitions The extent of the scrolling list windows was not always being correctly calculated as changes were made between different display formats.
• Scrolling list help is now provided Previously, help messages were not provided where they had been provided by the client. They will now be provided.
• Scroll wheel support for sliders Slider gadgets can be modified by using the scroll wheel, if supported by the mouse driver.

Configuration tools
The configuration tools have been updated to address a few issues raised in Select 1 and to provide the configuration of the extra facilities which Select 2 offers. In some cases, components have moved in the structure, but only to the extent that they now live within sub-groups. The configuration groups can now provide a 'full info' mode for displaying more information about the tools.

• Access configuration renamed ShareFS The name 'Access' was confusing to some users and so the component has been renamed to ShareFS.
• AUN configuration tools provided To configure the AUN networking components provided within Select 2, two new tools are provided - AUN and NetFS.
• Boot configuration tools improved. Configuration tools can now change display format (large and small icons), be resized and can open directories.
• New input configuration group The 'Input' group allows configuration of input devices. The mouse and keyboard tools have been moved here and a mouse scroll configuration tool has been added to this group.
• Automatic interface configuration In interface configuration tool, the old AUN auto-configuration option has been extended to cover the new auto-configuration options.
• Pinboard configuration tool reflects changes in Pinboard The tool has been updated to support the ImageFileRender component, allowing it to render any image that Pinboard can use.
• New time and date configuration tool The Date and Time tool can configure the date manually, or configure network time fetches on startup. This function replaces the 'Set clock...' option which would normally be accessed through Alarm.
• Users configuration now allows auto-logon The 'default user' can now be selected, allowing automatic log on with as a user without supplying a password. * New windows configuration group The old Window tool can now be found within the Window configuration group. This should allow for greater flexibility in the future. A rudimentary configuration tool is provided to cater for configuration of the furniture order.
• Sound frequency configuration tool.
  A rudimentary tool for configuring the loading of RateTracker is provided.

Applications
The applications supplied with Select have not changed significantly with the exception of Paint and, to a much lesser extent, Draw. Draw can now use ctrl-D to 'duplicate' the current selection in a similar manner to the prior, non-clipboard, ctrl-C operation. In addition, ctrl-V now pastes the clipboard at the pointer, fixing a rather annoying fault in the previous version. Paint has had what can only be described as a major overhaul. In line with some of the graphics changes described above, Paint has been extended to use CMYK sprites and has improved PNG import capabilities. Many other changes are documented in the related documentation. Note: Because of the significant number of changes which require the enhanced graphics system provided by Select 2, Paint will not function on earlier versions of the OS. You should make a backup of the previous version if you intend to use it with earlier OS versions. Refer to 'Paint'. ResEd has had a few updates to cater for the additional options provided by the window system.

Library
The library has not changed significantly for Select 2. A new JPEG transcoding tool, 'MiniJTran' has been created to use the features provided by the transcoding CompressJPEG module. This allows JPEG files to be converted to and from progressive images.

Updated modules
The modules provided within !System have been updated to include the common ethernet drivers. This should alleviate some of the issues involved in upgrading. VProtect has been updated to the latest version, and a version of RateTracker has been provided. Refer to 'RateTracker'. Select 3

Building upon the work done in Select 1 and 2, Select 3 improves upon both the significant changes made to both the graphics and networking components as well as adding many new features. The focus on Select 3 has been mostly based around stablising features from Select 2 and improving the desktop usability of the Operating system.

Major highlights

• Cut and paste
  Text in writeable icons provided by the Window Manager is now able to be selected by keyboard and mouse. Such icons can be used with the standard clipboard operations
• Thumbnailing
  The filer can now display images as thumbnails, allowing photo albums and other image collections to be browsed more easily.
• Improved 'buttons'
  Action buttons, as well as groups and other 3D-style icons have been improved and may be made round or given colours. Support for button styles is a 'plugin' interface and other clients may provide different button renderings.
• Alpha-channel sprites
  A new class of sprites has been created for alpha-channel sprites. These sprites can be used whereever the standard sprite operations would be used through system sprite rendering calls. Alpha-channel sprites allow each pixel to have variable translucency, which means that sprites can blend better to their backgrounds.
• Recycle bin
  Files deleted by the user can, optionally, be sent to a recycling bin from which they can be retrieved if necessary.
• Improved Paint application
  !Paint's internal and external operation has had a major overhaul to cater for some of the new features of Select 3, including alpha-channel sprites.

Feature breakdown

Application changes

• New !Recyclone application provides a rubbish bin into which files deleted by the user will be placed. A configuration tool is provided to allow the bin to be expired and its location changed.
• New !NetLights application displays network activity on the iconbar.
• !Draw can now import any type handled by ImageFileConvert where the type can be converted to a type which is handled natively by Draw. This means that PNG files, Artworks, BMP and other images types can now be imported.
• !Paint has been given a major overhaul. See the separate section for more details.

Desktop changes

• DragASprite no longer uses a 'drop' shadow when translucency is active.
• DragAnObject's sprite creation code has been optimised slightly.
• Wimp now supports a 'priority' sprite pool which is able to forcibly override anything in the other sprite pools.
• 'IconBorder' plugin system allows the default slabbed borders to be rendered in a customisable manner. FilterManager has been updated to support multiple icon border filter clients. Example bordering source code will be supplied.
• 'Auto-open submenus' option now opens submenus and windows in the correct position regardless of where the mouse is placed.
• Selection of text within writeable icons and its use with cut and paste operations is now supported by the Window Manager. This furthers the work started in Select 1 to make the entire OS capable of using the cut and paste system.
• Tinting of icons is now more reliable and can use any tint type provided by the ColourMap module.
• Command windows generated by single tasking applications when run from the desktop are now centred on the screen.
• FilerAction proxying is now an option which may be disabled under the clients control. This might be used by rubbish bin applications to invoke 'delete' operations on items already in the bin.
• When in EY0 modes, Pinboard now correctly sizes its background window on a mode change.
• Pinboard configuration application can now be accessed by its main menu. Optimisation for redraw speed of tiled ImageFileRender images.
• Pinboard and Filer have both been updated to provide StyleGuide compliant save dialogue boxes.
• Attempting to delete !Boot will now raise a warning.
• Attempting to copy a directory called !Boot over your !Boot directory will now invoke the boot merge tool.
• Should Filer fail to launch the filer action window for a delete operation, the confirm deletes option is now honoured.
• In Filer, the Help option is now greyed if a directory and application combination are selected.
• Filer windows have been updated to be more style-guide compliant and to address issues raised by the use of icon bordering.
• Filer now offers to share directories as read only by default, rather than read-write. It makes sense not to share folders as public read/write by default.
• Filer now provides a fourth display option beside those for Large, Small and information icons. The 'Thumbnails' display renders images using the ImageFileRender components, allowing any known image format to be displayed within the Filer.
• Directories starting with a ! but without a !Run file are no longer treated as an application, allowing such names to be used safely if necessary.
• RAMFSFiler will share the disc as read only by default.
• The Sprite Pool has been updated with a number of slight modifications:
  • RAMFS icon now fits in with the new style of icons
  • JPEG icon now follows the bitmap style
  • Shared CD discs now look more like the CDROM icon
  • Addition of Zip, GIF, PNM, XBM, Sun raster, PCX, ICO, Clear, and BMP sprite icons.
  • LanManFS icon updated to fit better with correct style.
• TaskManager can now launch Configure from the menu. The info box now describes the OS as RISC OS Select, and has been improved to address some issues with Icon Bordering.
• Toolbox "Discard, Cancel, Save" icons have been resized to be 'standard' size.
• TextGadget scrolling list boxes now display associated sprites more sensibly when selected; previously these would be displayed lighter than the rest of the line. The text is now positioned a little further across the window, away from the sprite in order to reduce the tight look that had been created.
• ImageFileGadget correctly positions its window now; previously it would inset the window by a pixel. When resizing the gadget, the entire window is redrawn to ensure that it remains up to date. The facilities provided to developers for using ImageFileGadget have been greatly improved.
• ImageFileGadget is now able to report mouse click events and has a much greater array of image manipulation options.
• TextArea gadget now supports standard clipboard operations properly, allows for 'key notifications', and renders much more quickly in most cases.
• Toolbox slider gadgets would respond to clicks and scrolls over the wells of the gadget even when the slider was set to be display only. They no longer react to such events.
• Free space client templates tweaked to address issues relating to Icon Bordering.
• The sprite file DesktopBanner$File is now loaded by the Desktop module, if it is present, and used as the welcome banner on entry to the desktop.
• ShareFS 'Share directory' window is now updated to represent the current settings of the share if one is present, including the name of the Share.
• TaskWindow now includes a fix for 'The MessageTrans Bug'.

Graphics changes

• Rendering of sprites with 1bpp masks, using no scaling or colour translation, where the sprite data ends on a word boundary, but the mask data does not end on a word boundary, and the output alignment is not a word boundary due to a graphics window being present... now works properly.
• SpriteExtend would fail to generate code when translucent sprites were rendered in paletted screen modes where the eigen factor was EX0 or EY0. This allows sprites to be visibly dragged in such modes.
• FontManager can now safely resize its dynamic area. The version supplied in Select 2 had problems on certain systems which has now been addressed.
• ImageFileRender now provides *ImageFileRenderers command for listing the supported renderers. This is mirrored in a new SWI to enumerate the renderers.
• A default viewer application can now be specified through ImageFileRender and will be set up as system variables for all renderable types.
• ImageFileRender's sprite renderer now supports information requests previous versions were would return the colour type incorrectly for certain sprite types. Sprite rendering will now render sprites of 8bpp or less through a wide translation table which improves their appearance when colourmapping is used in 16bbp or higher.
• New ImageFileConvert module is used with the Convert* modules to provide a generic conversion method, allowing conversion between different file formats through a number of SWI calls. *ImageFileConverters will list the supported converters.
• DrawFile will now render sprites in 8bpp or less through a wide translation table which improves their appearance when colourmapping is used in 16bbp or higher.
• JPEG rendering where DPI based JPEGs are given as ratios are now taken into account in a similar manner to that used by !Draw. JPEGs which supply a ratio, DPI or DPC (dots per centimetre) of 0 will now be treated as 90 DPI. JPEGs with low values for DPI or DPC will now be treated as is this was a ratio.
• CompressJPEG module now registers as a sprite to JPEG converter with ImageFileConvert.
• JPEG handling is much more robust now, and should never generate aborts for either valid or corrupt compressed data.
• ImageFileRender_Artworks module added to render Artworks documents.
• New ConvertGIF added to ROM to generate a 'dummy' image. This is a placeholder module which avoids the requirement for a Unisys patent for the use of the LZW algorithm.
• New ConvertXBM added to ROM to convert XBM image files to sprites.
• New ConvertSun added to ROM to convert Sun raster image files to sprites.
• New ConvertBMP added to ROM to convert Windows BMP image files to sprites.
• New ConvertPNM added to ROM, supporting type 1-6 PNM files.
• New ConvertICO added to ROM to convert Windows .ico files to sprites.
• New ConvertPCX added to ROM to convert PCX files to sprites.
• New ConvertClear added to ROM to convert Translator 'Clear' files to sprites.
• New ConvertSprite module added , which supports creation of sprites through ImageFileConvert from any format which ImageFileRender can handle. ConvertSprite provides a proxy ImageFileConvert handler for ImageFileRender in much the same way that ImageFileRender automatically provides a proxy ImageFileRender handler for ImageFileConvert. ConvertSprite can also provide callback and SWI functions to render images to a sprite.
• ConvertPNG has almost full support for creating PNGs from sprites (including alpha-channel sprites), with only CMYK sprites presently unsupported. Sprites can be created from any form of PNG, generating alpha-channel sprites where necessary.
• DrawFile module now supports creation of SVG files from DrawFiles using the ImageFileConvert interface.
• New ColourMap module allows generation of colourmapping descriptors without recourse to assembler. Currently supported mappings are :
  Blend, Brighten, Contrast, Gamma, Identity, Invert, Monochrome, Monochrome and scale and User.
  Colour map descriptors can be chained together to create more complex effects.
• SpriteExtend, Kernel and ColourTrans have been updated to provide a new sprite type for alpha-channel sprites. Alpha-channel sprites allow the images to be rendered with varying levels of translucency per pixel. Previously, sprites could only provide binary (pixel on or off) masks.
• SpriteUtil (System sprite area provider) has had a number of commands fixed to remove errors when no system sprite area is present.
• InverseTable 'destination tracking' is now improved and should no longer result in corrupt font colours or alpha channel rendering.

Networking changes

• Internet, ShareFS and Freeway have had issues relating to large file transfers addressed.
• InetConfigure can now configure static IP addresses properly. Previous versions would retain the addresses stored in CMOS rather than using the new addresses supplied by the user.
• Internet module has had a fix for interfaces with no addresses never issuing service calls.
• Aliased interfaces are no longer dynamically named; the names used on their creation are now retained, allowing deterministic operation.
• Internet can now handle changes in interface addresses more reliably. Previous versions had issues relating to multiple aliased interfaces and ARP requests which could cause machines to seemingly 'vanish'.
• Added support for ZeroConf IP configuration. ZeroConf is a means by which an address can be obtained for a machine on a network without any configuration process. This is similar to the configuration used by the Access, but standardised across multiple platforms by a global group.
• DHCPClient and ZeroConf client both respond to *ShowStat to provided their statistics.
• DHCP client now supports address changed due to its deletion of the interface address. Previously this was not an issue, because Internet never issued service for address deletion, but now that this has been done it is now aware of this case.
• The AppleTalk client is now supplied in ROM. This allows RISC OS systems to contact AppleTalk file and print servers.
• LanManFS has been improved, resulting in faster resolution of names on local networks. The 'Transact' SWI call has been updated to allow a larger number of Transact communications to be made, including old WinPopup messaging.

Miscellaneous changes

• OS_CLI is handled by an external module, CLIV.
• Some calls have been moved from the kernel to a new module called LegacyBBC.
• BEL (VDU 7) no longer uses OS_Word 7, but is passed to Sound calls directly.
• FileTypes now declares PCX, PNG, SunRaster, BMP, Clear, ICO and XBM file type names.
• FileSwitch is now able to reference path variables (pseudo-filing systems) through $, eg Music:$ for <Music$Path>. Writing to a path variable with multiple entries where a <path>$Write variable exists will now use the $Write directory for the operation.
• FileSwitch no longer leaves streams open if a 'close' fails.
• ResourceFS will now only issue 'changed' messages where the files changed are opened by it, thus reducing the impact on menus opened by the user when ShareFS discs become available over the network.
• ParallelDeviceDriver is now capable of reading Device IDs. This allows the auto-detection of the make and model of Printer connected.
• PCI memory reservation has been removed from the kernel, freeing 256M of logical address space for use by dynamic areas.
• Conversions module has a minor for for ReadUnsigned returning an invalid V flag on some conversions.
• ScreenBlanker now supports a second-level blanking using DPMS. ScreenBlanker no longer uses CMOS to get its initial settings and defaults to 'off'.
• CDFS legacy support for built in conversions removed.
• EvaluateExpression module takes over from the Kernel's OS_EvaluateExpression. Additionally, expressions can now extract directory or leaf names from a string, canonicalise a filename and generate a string from the current time.

Configuration tools

• Softload ROM images are now sorted into date order, making selection of ROMs much simpler. ROM images are now supplied in archives together with their change lists; these lists are recorded with the ROM when installed to allow them to be viewed at a later date.
• Resolver configuration is now able to locate DNS servers on the local network, even with bind variants.
• Interface configuration can now take effect immediately, rather than requiring a reboot.
• Re-written Filer configuration tool includes the new thumbnail configuration options.
• All tools now warn if the configuration application is closed when changes have been made. Tools where changes have been made are indicated by a '*' in the title of the window, in line with standard RISC OS practice.
• CPIShell is now able to be passed command line arguments to pass to the launched plugin. This is used to allow installation of components through Filer_Action (dragging over !Boot).
• TimeSetup is now capable of setting the timezone.

Scrapfile naming

Previously, when a network interface is active on a machine the ScrapDirectory is set to a Directory named after the MAC Address of the first installed Network card. If NetFS was active, this would be replaced by the station ID.

With Select 3, the scrap directory naming is now based solely on the hardware configuration, as detected by HWScan. For most users this will be disabled and so the scrap directory will be named 'Disabled'.

New IconSetUp Configuration Tool

The new IconSetup configuration tool allows the setting of options for the standard IconBorderRound module. The following options are supported for buttons and borders :

• Rounded edges with Small, Medium, Normal or Large curves
• Apply to (sunken) writeable fields, display fields, or groups
• 'Special' colour schemes with choice of Foreground and Background colour for Action buttons, Default buttons, and Groups

All the above colours may be applied as solid colour or as a tint of the original colour.

Furthermore button icons and information fields may have the colour applied as a Blend (top to bottom blend of the border colours, applying the button colour as a strong tint).

Button icons may have a rim highlight and may have either thick or thin borders.

Paint

The Paint application has been updated to support the new alpha-channel sprite format provided by Select 3. Paint can create sprites with alpha-channels, add an alpha-channel to an existing sprite, and allow editing of the alpha-channel.

Paint's user interface has also been brought up to date, with a separate attached toolbox for each sprite (similar to !Draw) so each sprite has it's own "working set" of toolbox settings. Shortcuts for zoom and select colour have been added along with a new colour display area. The menu tree has been revised to be more logical and Styleguide compliant.

Paint makes better use of the ImageFileConvert system in Select 3 and can directly load any filetypes supported by ImageFileConvert (PNG, JPEG, Clear, ICO, BMP etc). Paint allows saving of an image in JPEG and PNG format as well as sprite.

A good number of bug fixes and performance improvements have also been added along with usability features such as a true graphic brush display and improved clipboard support.