This is a list of our current products, please do not hesitate to contact us for more information. To order go here.
Current Version: 1.75
Price: £30 + VAT (£35.25)
In the decade since CDROMs have appeared, the standards in use have moved on. Sadly, Acorns CDFS has never really been updated to cope with these new developments, and RISC OS has fallen behind other platforms. Acorn did promise a CDFS rewrite for RISC OS 4, but due to it not improving the actual range of discs that CDFS can read, and it causing other problems, it is now not going to appear.
With these limitations in mind, we have produced CDROMFS. This is a complete rewrite of the filing system part of CDFS, with the following features:
An enhanced CDFiler application is also supplied with many new features, including a disc information window that shows details of the size and layout of tracks; ideal for CD-R users to see how much space is left on part written CDs. CDs can even be shared across Access networks.
Standard ISO9660 discs are supported with the Acorn CDFS extensions to allow filetypes.
Full support for multisession discs.
Where filetypes are not provided on the disc, they are intelligently mapped from their extensions in a highly configurable manner.
Joliet standard discs can now be read; this is the standard used to get long filenames on Windows 95, 98 and NT.
ISO9660 Extended Attributes are now understood.
Associated or Opaque files are now supported (frequently found on discs originating on Macs).
The problems that CDFS has with certain disc and file names have been resolved.
Navigation around CDs is faster than with CDFS.
The original CDFSdriver module is used, together with the CDFS Soft drivers present in your machine, so that CDROMFS will work on any drive that CDFS works on - no compatibility worries!
New, much enhanced, CDFSFiler application.
We are working with other vendors to ensure that CDROMFS is supported by other software; such as PCPro, SCSI/IDE cards, CD Players etc.
UDF (Packet written) discs are now (partially) supported.
Current Version: 1.57
Price: £50.00 + VAT (£58.75)
Dr Smiths C Development Toolkit is an invaluable aid to all developers using C on the Acorn platform. The major components of the toolkit are a heirarchical profiling tool, and a memory access checker.
The Heirarchical profiler, HeirProf, enables developers to see at a glance where their program is spending most of its time, thus enabling them to tune performance critical sections of code. This means that a minimum of time need be spent guessing where the bottlenecks in your program are, thus minimising wasted time tuning unimportant sections.
The Memory Access Checker, MemCheck, when linked with a program, and activated by a single function call in main() will check all writes and reads to memory to ensure that programs do not overwrite themselves. This instantly traps all manner of common C errors including overrunning array bounds and dereferencing null pointers. These bugs are traditionally very hard to spot as they can cause programs not to fall over instantly, but to fall over later in an unrelated section of the program; MemCheck can catch them instantly.
These programs have been extensively beta tested both in house, and with Acorn, ARM, ANT and other RISC OS developers. Feedback has been good, and many longstanding bugs in code that was thought to have been stable have been found and eradicated.
A free demonstration is available on request. The demo contains the documentation for the full release together with source and binaries for a couple of example programs, that show the toolkit in action.
The new professional version of the toolkit includes support for C++ and module code. The professional version still costs just £50+VAT, and owners of the standard version can upgrade for £20+VAT.
Price: £30 + VAT (£35.25)
All RISC PC PC cards (except the original 486-SX ones) have floating point hardware on them. FPEPC is a small module that passes all the floating point work from RISC OS across to the PC card. On ARM 6 and 7 based machines this results in a significant speed up; from 4-100 times depending on your application. While FPEPC cannot be used at the same time as the PC card software, it automatically disables itself as appropriate so the user need never worry about conflicts.
Unfortunately the benefits for StrongARM users are not as clear cut; some types of instruction (notably trig functions) are much faster with FPEPC, some are actually slower. For this reason we are not currently recommending this for StrongARM users. If you are not thinking of upgrading in the near future though, this represents a superb way of speeding any FP intensive tasks you may do!
Current Version: 1.22
Price: £15 + VAT (£17.63)
FastSpool, by Andreas Dehmel, is a public domain program that can send data down the parallel port of the computer far faster than the standard RISC OS drivers. With certain printers this can result in a far faster printing than the standard drivers.
This application has now been developed further to produce FastSpool+. FastSpool+ offers all the facilities of FastSpool, but now integrates seamlessly with !Printers to offer one key printing, supports many printers that were not supported before, returns control to the desktop far faster, and includes network spooler facilities.
Once FastSpool+ is installed on each machine with a printer on a network, it is simple to set up the system so that any machine can print to any printer.Turbodriver support is now complete; a side effect of FastSpool+'s network operation is that using FastSpool+ with the Turbodrivers removes the need for the special cable. This means that PC card users can now print painlessly from both DOS/Windows and RISC OS without needing to swap cables, or suffer unreasonable slowdowns.
Price: £35 + VAT (£41.13)
ImageNFS is a complete NFS client for RISC OS machines, hand written in ARM code for optimum speed. Developed over a period of years it has been extensively tested in the field and has been a vital tool in the production of several large software projects, including RISC OS 4.
Far more advanced that Acorns own NFS client this operates (and has been tested) with a wide range of servers including Linux, OpenBSD, NetBSD and various other flavours of Unix.
Features:
Site licenses are available under our standard scheme.
Current Version: 1.17
Price: £35 + VAT (£41.13)
LanMan98 started life as an extension for Acorn/ANTs Omniclient. It was intended to work alongside LanManFS and to offer full long filename support. As the product has developed, however, it does both this, and more. While it will integrate into Omniclient and offer the same sharing and printing options as LanManFS does, it will now also work without Omniclient.
With Omniclient LanMan98 operates exactly as LanManFS does, with each disc and printer share appearing twice in the list (once for LanMan98 and once for LanManFS). Thus all existing programs will continue to work as LanManFS is there for compatibility. Without Omniclient, LanMan98 has to be told where to look for disc and printer shares, but once found, remembers them in a list.
Finally LanMan98 also allows connections to be made over the internet to sites running CIFS servers, such as sunsite.
LanMan98 offers all the advantages that Win95FS does over DOSFS, but over the network.
Current Version: 2.16
Price: £10.00 + VAT (£11.75)
Larger is an enhanced Pinboard replacement offering optional automatic backdrop organisation, multiple heirarchical backdrops, enhanced iconisation and application management facilties, and various other desktop enhancements.
Larger has been reviewed in the following magazines:
A free demonstration copy of the latest version is available on receipt of a disc and SSAE. The demo version is identical to the full version, except it will refuse to run after about 2 months.
Current Version: 1.10
Price: £20.00 + VAT (£23.50)
Web browsers have always offered the facility to fetch files from the internet, but there are limitations in their abilities which are becoming more and more apparent as the internet develops. At busy periods network congestion can cause servers to 'dry up' and stop sending data. This can be extremely frustrating when you get 80% of the way through a download and it dies on you.
As downloads get bigger, the problem gets worse; to partially counteract this, software is often released in multiple sections. Unfortunately there has been no easy way to queue multiple downloads. It is also a sad fact of life that web browsers aren't the worlds most reliable bits of software; when they crash you lose your entire download, sometimes killing the whole machine.
Finally, telephone based Internet connections can 'drop' at unexpected moments, either due to faulty modems at the remote end, poor telephone connections, or even family members picking up other extensions. With the (slow) introduction of unmetered access that currently regulates load by disconnecting people automatically after a period of time this looks set to get worse before it gets better.
LoadMaster addresses all these concerns: Use your normal web browser to surf as usual, and pass any lengthy downloads to LoadMaster for queueing. If the browser itself dies, then LoadMaster carries on in the background. If the whole machine dies then on a restart LoadMaster will remember where it was and will continue onwards. If the connection drops then LoadMaster will simply wait for it to come up again and carry on from where it left off.
Current Version: 2.01
Price: £35 + VAT (£41.13)
Netplex is the perfect tool for those users interested in developing their own websites. Netplex has the most comprehensive feature list for any web server seen on RISC OS, and allows development of websites ranging from simple homepages to complex "autogenerating" sites with its powerful industry standard cgi-bin interface.
Not only does Netplex allow you to make use of RISC OS specific features (webpages can invoke BASIC programs, C applications and Obey files), but it also operates with web standards such as Perl. Netplex also provides services normally only found on dedicated web servers such as server side includes, PHP scripting and password accessible areas.
Netplex will serve files either over your local network, to its own machine (via loopback) or even across the entire internet. For people without a permanent network connection websites can be created and prototyped locally before uploading them unchanged onto dedicated web servers on the Internet.
Current Version: 2.03
Price: £10 + VAT (£11.75)
PhotoFiler is an innovative tool that extends the RISC OS Filer to include an image thumbnailing facility. With PhotoFiler loaded, file type icons are replaced with a miniature version of the picture the file contains. This is very useful for organising collections of pictures, as it enables you to rapidly identify the contents of a file simply by looking at its icon.
Unlike other thumbnailing packages PhotoFiler generates its thumbnails entirely on the fly, so you no longer have to deal with updating your indexes as you change/reorganise your pictures. PhotoFiler even multitasks while generating its thumbnails so you never lose control of your desktop. The degree of multitasking, size of the thumbnails and other options can all be set from the handy frontend application.
In addition to thumbnailing, PhotoFiler provides additional controls over the presentation of icons in directory displays. You can define your own icons for directories which will be used instead of the usual directory sprites; ideal for providing a graphic representation of a directorys purpose. PhotoFiler also contains an option to alleviate a long-standing 'gripe' that of the pling (!) character in front of application names. These can be optionally hidden from view in directory viewers, giving neater looking directory displays.
PhotoFiler requires RISC OS 3.6 or later. RISC OS 3.5 is supported, if the SpriteExtend 0.99 and DrawFile 1.30 modules are available.
Current Version: 1.00
Price: £30 + VAT (£35.25)
If you have a Citizen Printiva 600C or 700C (or one of the ALPS 2300s that the Printivas are rebadged from) then this printer driver is for you. It allows both single and multipass printing at 300 and 600dpi using all 8 colour ribbons.
Current Version: 1.01
Price: £10 + VAT (£11.75)
Despite the fact that many web pages have sounds embedded within them, no software on RISC OS has as yet made any use of them. This has meant that surfing the web on RISC OS has been a silent business - until now!
Our sound plugin brings these pages to life, supporting some of the most popular audio standards on the web (AIFF, AU, VOC, WAV, WVE and SND files) in any browser that supports the Plugin protocol (tested with Browse, Fresco and Oregano).
Both 8 and 16 bit sound systems are supported. A copy of Acorns Replay software is supplied.
For licensing reasons this product does not support RealAudio.
Current Version: 2.16
Price: £10 + VAT (£11.75)
Traditionally, the web has used bitmap graphics to provide its graphical information. GIF, JPEG - and recently PNG - have all become commonplace. One of the earliest strengths of RISC OS was its use of vector files to provide a much cleaner and more intuitive way of drawing. The Web Consortium (W3C) are working on a specification for 'Scaleable Vector Graphics' (SVGs).
Because the internet is a diverse place, SVGs are definitions of graphics in text form, such that they can be decoded by any machines that might access the Internet. They are Scaleable because they can be 'scaled' to a large variety of uses - from technical drawing, through presentations to frivolous artwork. SVG intends to be extensible and flexible enough to be used for many years to come.
The SVG application can work as either a plugin for your webbrowser, or as a standalone viewer. Drawfiles can be saved for later use.
Because the whole SVG standard is still very new (work on SVG support directly in Mozilla only started in February '2000), and has yet to be finalised, support is quite limited in browsers. A number of third parties have introduced plugins for other platforms, most notably Adobe. For a change you can say "Yes, RISC OS will do that" with a new techonology.
Current Version: 1.07
Price: £35 + VAT (£41.13)
If you, like many, have upgraded to Windows 95, you will undoubtably have been infuriated by the fact that the long filenames provided under the PC card, vanish when viewed from RISC OS, leaving you with the unfriendly DOS versions - for instance a file or directory called "Windows Applications" under Windows 95 will appear as "WINDOW~1" when viewed from RISC OS. Windows 95 changes all this, and filenames are shown in all their glory.
In addition, any characters that are not normally displayable under RISC OS are cunningly converted so that files copied out, and then replaced do not have their names or file attributes corrupted, so for the first time Windows partitions can be backed up and replaced without fear of the system not booting any more.
Filetypes are handled better under Win95FS too; users that have watched as DOSFS and Windows 95 have conspired to lose the filetypes set for a given file will be pleased to know that Win95FS solves all this. Filetypes can be set both from the file extension given to a file, or by overriding this manually.
Finally, Win95FS may find a place in the hearts of people that haven't got a PC card, or will never use Windows 95, as it provides a true RISC OS filing system that breaks the 77 files per directory and 10 characters per filename limitations.
Our upgrade policy seems to have confused many people. We have clarified its explaination, and added a scheme whereby people can now get upgrades via email and credit cards. Please read the full statement.
The following software was once sold by us, but is no more. For continued support use the links below to contact the original authors who are developing and maintaining it now.
Now handled by Murklesoft
Developed by a maths teacher, Cabriolet is a new tool for teaching geometry that enables pupils to explore mathematical laws as never before.
Traditionally, children have been asked to construct geometrical shapes on paper and to measure the angles and lengths of lines to satisfy themselves that laws are valid.
Cabriolet allows the same process to occur on a computer screen but then takes it one stage further. Once a diagram has been created points can be dragged around and the diagram will flow with them, maintaining all the constraints with which it was built.
By being encouraged to explore the constructions they can perform, children can be lead to discover the laws for themselves and gain an unprecedented appreciation of precisely how geometry works.
Once constructed, files can be saved to !Draw, or dropped into word-processors to be used in reports.
Cabriolet comes with a comprehensive, easy to read 50 page manual that explains the package and the concepts behind it.
Cabriolet supports all the following geometrical constructors, and more:
| Points (labelled & unlabelled) | Lines & Line segments |
| Circles | Ellipses |
| Intersections | Midpoints |
| Mirror Points | Vectors |
| Parallel & Perpendicular lines | Perpendicular Bisectors |
| Angle Bi/Trisectors | Measured & Marked angles |
| Line Lengths in Ratio | Static Locus |
I think this package has great potential for use with pupils (particularly KS 3 and 4). The more I use it, the more I think of other ways to use it - and at £30 it's good value! In fact, as I've been writing, I've thought of a few more ways to use it! - David Rookes, Archive [11.8]
Now handled by Steffen Huber
CD-Burn is the complete CD mastering system for RISC OS. The system supports the creation and burning of both audio and data tracks, including mixing both on the same CD. Currently supported CD-R drives are the HP 4020/6020, Philips CDD2x00, Plasmon CDR 4220, and Yamaha 200t/400t. CD-RW drives are now also supported - we are attempting to support all the drives that conform to the MMC spec, especially the Yamaha 4260, the TraxData 4260 (a rebadged Yamaha 4260, but cheaper!), Ricoh 6200S (and the rebadged Nomai 680).
We haven't found a Read/Write drive that doesn't conform to the MMC spec, but because there is such latitude in the way that drives can work and still claim to be conformant, we do advise customers to check with us for latest information before purchasing a drive, though.
Support is being added for more drives all the time, so contact us for the latest details. If you have a CD-R drive already, and want to know if its going to be supported, then just drop us a line!
Please note that the Plasmon 4240 is NOT fully supported yet contrary to previous information on this page; this was a typo - sorry!
The latest additions to the software include:
The manual for CDBurn is available for prospective customers to look at, either on request or from the authors own CDBurn website.
Now handled by Murklesoft
6502Em is a BBC emulator. This allows you to run almost any BBC software under RISC OS, far more reliably than with 65Host. For example, our emulator will even run games like Elite, Exile, Fortress and Zalaga that do really nasty things to the hardware.
Models supported are the A, B, Master and Master Compact, with full sideways/shadow RAM.
Software can be loaded either from tape via a printer port interface (requires tape support software), from disc in native BBC format, or using Snapshots.
Unfortunately, we are not allowed to distribute the BBC ROMs, but we supply a program that will extract them from !65Host (which is freely available), so this is not too much of a problem. For the Master 128 and Master Compact ROMs, you will need to run the supplied programs on those machines to get images of ROMs on disc, which can be `plugged in' to our emulator.
6502Em has been favourably reviewed in both Acorn User and RISC User.
Version 3 now available: the screen routines have been completely rewritten to offer even better emulation than before; palette/mode changing part way down the screen is now supported - see the water level move around in Exile again! The new frames-per-second option also gives even better 'true speed' emulation.
Now handled by Murklesoft
Z80Em is a Spectrum emulator. This allows you to run almost any Spectrum software under RISC OS. Even full sound support is included.
Version 3 is now available: This offers optional multitasking, and improved emulation; compatible with even more snapshots!