RISC OS
| RISC OS | |
|---|---|
| developer | RISC OS Open Ltd. / RISCOS Ltd. |
| License (s) | Proprietary , Apache license |
| Current version | 5.24 (current RISC OS Open version from April 25, 2015) RISC OS Pi Version 5.24 from April 2018 (current RISC OS Open Version for the Raspberry Pi) |
| ancestry | - |
| Architecture (s) | POOR |
| Others | Languages: English |
| www.riscosopen.org / www.riscos.com | |
RISC OS is an operating system with a graphical user interface . It was invented by British company Acorn in the late 1980s for its 32-bit computer Archimedes with ARM - CPU developed.
history
RISC OS 2 was the first version of RISC OS and in 1989 replaced the Arthur des Archimedes transitional operating system written in BBC BASIC . The Acorn A5000 was shipped with RISC OS 3 in 1992. In 1994 RISC OS 3.5 followed with the introduction of the Acorn Risc PC . The StrongARM -Support came in 1996 with RISC OS 3.7. For the successor to the Risc PC, which was never available, Acorn developed RISC OS 4. In 1998, Acorn dissolved and RISC OS went to the company Pace.
As a result, two development branches of RISC OS emerged. Both branches are largely compatible for application programs , but not completely. There will be no merging of the two RISC-OS branches in the foreseeable future.
The company RISCOS Ltd. licensed RISC OS 4 and shipped it in 1999. RISCOS Ltd. further developed the operating system as RISC OS Select . For the ARM9 computer A9home, the company adapted the RISC OS Select for modern ARM processors and called it Adjust32 in 2006 . With RISC OS Adjust32, the dependencies on the old Acorn hardware have also been removed. In 2007, RISC OS Select 4 appeared under the name RISC OS 6 and was a further development of Adjust32. Development ended in RISC OS 6.20. The rights to this branch of RISC OS later went to 3QD Developments Ltd. over.
Pace himself adapted RISC OS 4 to modern ARM CPUs from ARM9 and XScale and removed the dependencies on special processors that Acorn had developed. This version was then used by Castle Technology from 2002 in their IYONIX PCs operated with XScale as RISC OS 5 and further developed. In 2003, Castle acquired RISC OS from Pace. In the same year, RISC OS Open began to publish the first parts of RISC OS 5 in source code . The entire source code should gradually be released. The open source code of RISC OS 5 was ported to more modern ARM hardware, namely the System-on-a-Chip of the OMAP family, from the end of 2008 .
properties
RISC OS is a lean and fast operating system with cooperative multitasking and, apart from emulators , only runs on computers with an ARM CPU including StrongARM and XScale. The operating system's micro-kernel is small. A large number of interchangeable modules are responsible for the file system , hard disk access , graphical user interface, etc. (These modules can be listed from the graphical user interface by pressing the function key F12 and entering help modules in the command line.) A large part of the operating system and some application programs are contained in the ROM or in the Flash ROM . A booting from the hard drive as with other operating systems can be dispensed with. The exception is RISC OS Select, in which an image of the ROMs is loaded from the hard disk into the RAM .
The operating system does not write or read any data to or from a read-only memory after the boot process, i.e. without any action on the part of the user. This means e.g. B. that you can remove the memory card from the Raspberry Pi after the boot process. RISC OS just keeps running. This protects SD cards. If external hard disks have a built-in power-saving mode, they may also have to start up again and again when the user wants to save or load something.
RISC OS is not a multi-user system. There are no login masks or user accounts. The system is completely open. After starting, you immediately land on the surface and can work immediately. There is no need to log in. Every user can see everything and set almost everything. This makes the entire system very transparent for the user.
Mouse operation
The graphical user interface of RISC OS is specialized for operation with a mouse . A three button mouse is required. The left mouse button is used as usual from other systems. The middle mouse button (or pressure on the scroll wheel) opens the pop-up menu belonging to a window or symbol (only on the toolbar) . There is no menu and the associated long mouse paths at the top of the window or screen. The pop-up menus always appear in the immediate vicinity of the mouse pointer (“context-sensitive”) and can be freely moved and positioned using the mouse. The right mouse button either reverses a command or has another useful function. If you choose z. If, for example, you select a menu item with the right mouse button, the menu is not closed and you can immediately select further menu items without having to first call up the same submenu with the middle mouse button. If you click with the right mouse button on an arrow in the scroll bar , the bar moves in the opposite direction of the arrow. Windows can be moved on the screen with the right mouse button without bringing them into the foreground. With the help of the right mouse button, you can work your way back through the file system by clicking on the closing cross of a file window (i.e. going back in the path). The contents of windows can be moved two-dimensionally on a progress bar by "holding" with the right mouse button. The xy movement of the mouse is transferred to the window content. Both moving bars move at the same time. This works under RISC OS for every program. There are many other uses of the right mouse button, depending on the program, to make working on the computer considerably easier and faster. The operation of the surface is largely consistent, ie it always happens the same, regardless of which program is used.
Desktop areas and windows
The desktop consists of two parts since ARTHUR. The upper and larger part of the desktop is the pin board. Files and windows can be stored on it. The files are only links to the corresponding files in the file system. The pin board thus serves as a docking station under RISC OS. It does not have its own storage space. The lower part of the desktop consists of a bar called an icon bar or toolbar. There you will find the symbols for the existing physical input and output media such as drives and printers on the left and the symbols for the loaded application programs on the right (as well as the task manager available immediately after the start on the right). Each of these symbols has a menu that is always opened with the middle mouse button. With a click of the left (or in special cases also right mouse button) the window of the file manager of the respective drive or the window of the application program opens. Individual windows do not have a symbol on the icon bar.
Windows and programs are usually separated from each other in RISC OS. In RISC OS, closing a window only means that only this one window is actually closed, and not the associated program. If you want to end a program, this is usually done via the pop-up menu of the corresponding symbol on the toolbar. Individual exceptions to this are possible.
Under RISC OS, a program can keep many different windows open at the same time. There is only ever one document per window. RISC OS does not offer a complicated window-in-window technology like on other systems.
Drag and Drop (drag and drop)
Saving and loading data to and from programs has not worked from these programs since the early days of RISC OS. Since the interface offers multitasking, this is used. So there is no cumbersome storage dialog box under RISC OS, where you have to laboriously work your way through the file system every time. Under RISC OS you open a window of the file manager , which shows the contents of a specific directory on a drive or storage medium. The application program window is placed next to it or behind it and either drag and drop the symbol of the file into the application window to load it and let it “drop” there (release the mouse button), or use the pop-up menu to save the application (middle mouse button or press the rotary wheel of the mouse) or by pressing the F3 key, open the save dialog and drag the file symbol into the corresponding window of the file system.
If you drop a file symbol in this way onto the document window of an editor (e.g.! Edit or! StrongEd) and hold down the Shift key at the same time, the file is not loaded, but the file path is inserted.
Since many different windows of the file manager can be opened at the same time and placed freely on the surface, you have almost any number of different paths available at the same time, which can be used by any application program. This technique works by allowing the file manager and application programs to communicate with one another.
This technology is not limited to the communication between application programs and the file manager. It is also possible to move file symbols with the mouse between different open windows of the file manager using drag & drop . This allows files to be copied to different drives and to different directories. If you want to move a file, you have to hold down the shift key while clicking and holding down a file symbol with the mouse. This represents the logical extension of the principle of Norton Commander (with 2 columns) or of the file management of GEOS. Except that under RISC OS, much more than just two different storage locations can be opened and placed freely on the screen at the same time.
As a final consequence, however, it is also possible to save and load directly between different application programs by dropping the corresponding icon over the open document of another application program instead of a corresponding window in the file manager. The data generated with one program are then transferred directly to another program. Of course, this only works if the relevant program can do something with the data or supports this technology. With RISC OS, many small programs can be used or combined with one another to complete a single task. A single program no longer has to be able to do everything. It can be compared to the Unix toolchain concept , only implemented here graphically. With this ability, RISC OS offers the user a high degree of freedom and creativity in addition to the extremely high operating speed and operating consistency.
Applications
Application programs are located under RISC OS in a directory whose name begins with an exclamation mark ("Pling" symbol). If you click twice in quick succession ( double click ) with the left mouse button on such a directory, the directory will not be opened in a new window by the file manager. Instead, RISC OS searches for a file named! Run in the directory and executes it if it is available. Application programs are started via the file manager. You can open such application directories if you hold down the Shift key while double-clicking with the left mouse button. Since application directories also contain a file called! Boot, which the system executes when the directory is viewed for the first time, RISC OS programs can be placed almost anywhere in the file system by the user himself. This is made possible by the fact that all path information within an application is made relative to the installation path of the application. The path of an application is stored in a system variable and the programmer can then, relative to this path, e.g. B. address its storage or initialization path, user data directories, etc. The content of the variable can also be displayed (command: * show).
Programs are installed by copying them to the appropriate location from where they are to be run. Installation programs are not required. The application can also be moved or copied completely to another location or even to a data carrier after installation. If all files and directories belonging to an application are located in the application directory, everything is moved / copied completely to the new storage location. This allows you to build up directory hierarchies that are thematically sorted (e.g. folders with word processing, graphics, math, physics, games, etc. in which the associated programs and data are then stored) or simply a (safety) copy on an external data carrier.
Under RISC OS, programs are often packed in archives and made available for download or, due to their often very small size, also sent by e-mail. However, there are also installation programs such as PackMan, as known from other systems.
File types
RISC OS does not need any file extensions to recognize the file format . The file format is an attribute of the file and is recorded in the file system. When you double-click a file in the file manager, RISC OS first checks whether an application program is loaded that can handle this file format. If this is not the case, a suitable program is searched for in the registered application programs to open the file. Alternatively, you can drag the file onto the application program in the toolbar or into its open window.
There is a multitude of applications for all areas. For many common file formats from other systems (Zip, Word, PDF, etc.) there are programs that can display or even edit these formats.
Programming languages
With one of the fastest BASIC dialects BBC BASIC , RISC OS also offers a built-in ARM assembler. Operating system routines are made available via SWIs, which the individual operating system modules make available (commands: * help, * modules). There are also two C compilers in particular, one that is offered by the RISC OS makers themselves in their development kit (Norcroft), and the gcc (GNU Compiler Collection). Furthermore there are u. a. Variants of Pascal, Forth, Fortran, Perl, Python and also more "exotic" concepts like Charm or Lua are available.
Network support
Common network protocols such as B. SMB, NFS, FTP supported (as client as well as server), as well as Acorn / RISC OS own ShareFS (peer-to-peer). A directory integrated via the network is handled like a local directory and installed as a drive on the toolbar.
Archives
Archives can also be addressed as a file system using suitable software. This opens z. B. a zip file like a normal file system window and can then be manipulated with all the operations that are possible in the normal file window (i.e. pulling in data that is packed on the fly , deleting files, creating subdirectories etc.). Here, too, the user does not notice any significant difference to the normal file system, operation is always the same (consistent).
Further development
The RISC-OS-5 branch is being further developed. This happens primarily with regard to current hardware such as Raspberry Pi, BeagleBoard , PPndandaboard, wall board, Titanium - some of which can also be purchased as ready-to-use complete systems under other names. But older hardware is still supported, especially the RiscPC and the A7000 or A7000 +. The Iyonix PC is also supplied with upgrades. This development by RISC OS Open Ltd. is coordinated by the license-holding company Castle, whose servers contain not only the RISC OS downloads, but also a general forum, the developer forum and lots of freely available current documentation.
So that the normal user can also have some influence on the upcoming development, there is a so-called bounties system, in which small donations are collected in different pots until the respective partial development task can be financed with it.
In autumn 2018, RISC OS 5 was placed under the Apache license .
history
| year | version | computer | Manufacturer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1987 | Arthur | Archimedes A3x0, A4x0 | Acorn |
| 1989 | RISC OS 2 | Archimedes A3x0, A4x0, A3000 | Acorn |
| 1992 | RISC OS 3.0 / 3.1 | all Archimedes computers | Acorn |
| 1994 | RISC OS 3.5 | Risc PC 600 | Acorn |
| 1995 | RISC OS 3.6 | Risc PC 700, A7000 | Acorn |
| 1996 | RISC OS 3.7 | StrongARM Risc PC, A7000 + | Acorn |
| 1999 | RISC OS 4.0 | Risc PC, A7000 (+), RiscStation, Microdigital Mico and Omega | RISCOS Ltd. |
| 2001 | RISC OS Select 1 | Risc PC, A7000 (+), RiscStation, Microdigital Mico | RISCOS Ltd. |
| 2002 | RISC OS Select 2 | Risc PC, A7000 (+), RiscStation, Microdigital Mico | RISCOS Ltd. |
| 2002 | RISC OS 5 | IYONIX pc | Castle Technology |
| 2003 | RISC OS Select 3 | Risc PC, A7000 (+), RiscStation, Microdigital Mico and Omega | RISCOS Ltd. |
| 2006 | RISC OS Adjust32 | A9home | RISCOS Ltd. |
| 2007 | RISC OS 6 alias RISC OS Select 4 | StrongARM Risc PC, A7000 (+) | RISCOS Ltd. |
| 2015 | RISC OS Pi Version 14 02/23/2015 | Raspberry Pi u. a. | RISC OS Open (Castle) |
| 2018 | RISC OS stable 5.24 | 32bit and 26bit legacy machines | RISC OS Open (Castle) |
RISC OS for the Raspberry Pi
RISC OS for the Raspberry Pi , or RISC OS Pi for short , is based on the released open source code of RISC OS Open Ltd.
Many of the freely available RISC-OS programs can be installed and upgraded using the PackMan package manager . The package manager Pling enables the direct installation of commercially available software. Many other programs are available through dealers or directly from the authors' websites.
The scope of delivery also includes the GPIO module and the associated documentation, with which the control of the input / output lines of the Raspberry Pi is made possible. Together with the highly structured BBC BASIC, which has always been part of RISC OS, or any other programming language, the Pi becomes a control device and maker device.
The operating system itself is available as part of the NOOBS DVD of the Raspberry Pi project or, more recently, as a direct download from RISC OS Open. It can also be ordered there in the form of a recorded, ready-to-use SD card.
See also
- ROX Desktop - adopts RISC OS concepts for Unix systems.
Web links
- Link catalog on the subject of RISC OS (English) at curlie.org (formerly DMOZ )
- risc-os.de (German)
- ArcSite (German)
- Drobe Launch Pad (English)
- RISCOS.org (English)
- riscos.info (English)
- GAG-News (German Archimedes Group) (German)
- RISCOS Ltd. (English)
- Castle Technology (English)
- RISC OS Open (English)
- VirtualAcorn (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ riscosopen.org
- ↑ riscosopen.org
- ↑ a b http://www.riscos.info/index.php/PackMan PackMan - package management for software
- ↑ http://www.riscos.info/index.php/C_in_RISC_OS C Compiler for RISC OS (English)
- ↑ http://fortran.orpheusweb.co.uk/
- ↑ http://riscos-charm.yolasite.com/ Charm for RISC OS (English)
- ↑ http://lua-users.org/wiki/RiscOsLua Lua for RISC OS (English)
- ↑ https://luanova.org/porting-lua-to-risc-os/ Porting Lua to RISC OS (English)
- ↑ https://www.pro-linux.de/news/1/26425/risc-os-unter-frei- license- stellungs.html
- ↑ http://packages.riscosopen.org/packages/ RISC OS packaged software (English)
- ↑ http://www.plingstore.org.uk Pling Package management of commercial software