News
The latest news to land on the RISCWorld editorial desk...
RISCWorld's pick of the news from the last couple of months...
New distributor for Impact Database
Sine Nomine Software has taken over the distribution of the popular database package, Impact, originally developed by Circle Software and more recently distributed by CJE Micro's. Matthew Phillips of Sine Nomine Software, speaking from his high-tech broom cupboard in a secret Scottish location, revealed that he has been the mystery programmer behind Impact for the last five years. �"Now that we are distributing the software ourselves, we hope to be able to bring out updates more easily," he said. �"We will also be able to write press releases in the third person and all sorts of other fun things."
Chris Evans, of CJE Micro's, said that he didn't have much to add, but was happy to have the opportunity to remind customers that he still has 2999 other items 'in stock'.
Impact 3.29 is now available at the bargain price of £55 for a full copy, with upgrades from earlier versions ranging from £0 to £30. �For more information please visit http://sinenomine.co.uk/software/impact/.
About Impact
Impact is an easy to use relational database system for RISC OS. It provides for the creation, editing, import and export of data, and allows data to be merged directly into Impression or OvationPro documents for mail shots, report generation, invoicing, etc.
Impact also has a powerful scripting language enabling a high degree of user configuration, greatly improving the ease of use and general productivity. It also includes the label printing software LabPrint which interacts seamlessly to allow printing of labels in a wide range of customisable formats.
About Sine Nomine Software
Matthew and Hilary Phillips have been programming for RISC OS for eighteen years. �Their recent products include graphics utilities (DrawPrint, DrawToSprite, SpriteClean), games (SuperDoku) and genealogical utilities (GedcomWeb, Prune).
Free trial copy of Archive
If you haven't seen Archive magazine lately, you might like to take up our offer of two free trial issues, and we think you'll like it.
The most recent issue out has interviews with John Cartmell (the editor and publisher of Qercus) and with Jan-Jaap van der Geer, along with a review of !Hedwig, his new Colibri-like application for finding files.
A hardware feature tells how to use a Compact Flash card as a completely silent hard drive in a RiscPC. There are ongoing technical articles about compiling with GCC, tutorials about spreadsheets and Datapower, and lots of other interesting stuff.
Archive has a "lively tone going", says David Pilling in the letters-to-the-editor section. �And the next issue is about to go to press.
Drop me an email with your postal address and we'll be pleased to send you a couple of trial copies with no obligation.
Jim Nagel (editor@archivemag.co.uk)
RISCOSCode issue 3
Issue 3 of RISCOScode is now available to read on-line. Martin Hansen's webzine this time features:
- A front page Gogo animation slide show,
- A design competition with £40 worth of prizes,
- An appreciation of RISC OS artist Simon Smiths amazing work using !Draw,
- A full software review of MoreDesk from Steve Revill's company, 7th Software,
- An insight into the display of 256 colour cards, and picking colours from them using BBC BASIC. This is the first part of a two part programing tutorial.
The magazine has again been 100% produced using RISC OS software. Considerable effort has gone into developing the structure of the magazine so that it displays as beautifully on a 3G iPhone as on regular desktop and laptop machines. In his NEWS report Martin explains what the key design features are that work well, and what to avoid. Martin clearly feels that mobile web browsing is going to revolutionise website design.
The primary purpose of RISCOScode is to emphasise the fun, hands on and hobby nature of modern day RISC OS computing be it on native hardware or under emulation.
RISCWorld