Editing Acorn Archimedes (section)

=== RISC OS ===

Remedying various criticisms of the early operating environment, Acorn previewed [[RISC OS]] (or, more formally, RISC OS 2) in late 1988 and announced availability for April 1989.<ref name="acornuser198811_riscos">{{ cite magazine | url=https://archive.org/details/AcornUser076-Nov88/page/n20/mode/1up | title=RISC OS upgrades | magazine=Acorn User | date=November 1988 | access-date=17 May 2021 | pages=19 }}</ref> Internally at Acorn, the realisation had dawned that multitasking had become essential in any mainstream computing environment where "the user is likely to use lots of small applications at once, rather than one large application alone", with other graphical environments such as [[Hewlett Packard]]'s [[NewWave]] and [[IBM]]'s [[Presentation Manager]] being considered as the contemporary competition.<ref name="acorn_nl10">{{ cite news | url=http://chrisacorns.computinghistory.org.uk/docs/Acorn/NL/Acorn_NewsIss10.pdf | title=Comdex marks the path for the computer industry | work=Acorn Newsletter | date=June 1989 | access-date=26 May 2021 | last1=Bell | first1=David | issue=10 | pages=3 }}</ref>

Reactions to the upgraded operating system were positive and even enthusiastic, describing RISC OS as giving software developers "the stable platform they have been waiting for" and "a viable alternative to the PC or Mac", also crediting Acorn for having improved on the original nine-month effort in developing Arthur in the following twelve months leading up to the unveiling of RISC OS.<ref name="acornuser198902_editorial">{{ cite magazine | url=https://archive.org/details/AcornUser079-Feb89/page/n4/mode/1up | title=Editorial | magazine=Acorn User | date=February 1989 | access-date=1 May 2021 | pages=3 }}</ref> For a modest upgrade cost of £29, users received four ROM chips, three discs including several applications, and documentation.<ref name="acornuser198902_riscos">{{ cite magazine | url=https://archive.org/details/AcornUser079-Feb89/page/n23/mode/2up | title=RISC OS | magazine=Acorn User | last1=Watkins | first1=David | date=February 1989 | access-date=1 May 2021 | pages=22 }}</ref>

New facilities in RISC OS included co-operative multitasking, a task manager to monitor tasks and memory, versatile file management, "solid" window manipulation ("the whole window moves - not just the outline"), and adaptive rendering of bitmaps and colours, using dithering where necessary, depending on the nature of the selected screen mode.<ref name="acornuser198902_filing">{{ cite magazine | url=https://archive.org/details/AcornUser079-Feb89/page/n23/mode/2up | title=Filing from the desktop | magazine=Acorn User | date=February 1989 | access-date=1 May 2021 | last1=Watkins | first1=David | pages=22 }}</ref> A common printing framework was introduced, with [[Dot matrix printing|dot-matrix]] and [[PostScript]] printer [[device driver|drivers]] supplied, with such drivers available for use by all desktop applications.<ref name="acornuser198902_printing">{{ cite magazine | url=https://archive.org/details/AcornUser079-Feb89/page/n25/mode/1up | title=Just point to print | magazine=Acorn User | date=February 1989 | access-date=1 May 2021 | last1=Bell | first1=Graham | pages=24 }}</ref> Amongst the selection of applications and tools included with RISC OS were the Draw [[graphics software|graphics editor]], featuring vector graphics editing and rudimentary manipulation of text (using the anti-aliased fonts familiar from Arthur) and bitmaps, the Edit text editor, the Paint bitmap editor, and the Maestro music editor.<ref name="acornuser198902_tools">{{ cite magazine | url=https://archive.org/details/AcornUser079-Feb89/page/n23/mode/2up | title=The tools in detail | magazine=Acorn User | date=February 1989 | access-date=1 May 2021 | last1=Watkins | first1=David | pages=23 }}</ref>

With RISC OS available, Acorn launched new and updated applications to take advantage of the improved desktop environment. One of these, deferred until after the launch of RISC OS, was Acorn Desktop Publisher, a port of [[Timeworks Publisher]],<ref name="acornuser198811">{{ cite magazine | url=https://archive.org/details/AcornUser076-Nov88/page/n10/mode/1up | title=Archimedes set for desktop publishing | magazine=Acorn User | date=November 1988 | access-date=14 April 2021 | pages=9 }}</ref> which introduced a significant improvement to the anti-aliased font capabilities through a new outline font manager,<ref name="acornuser198910">{{ cite magazine | url=https://archive.org/details/AcornUser087-Oct89/page/n135/mode/2up | title=Hold the Font Page | magazine=Acorn User | date=October 1989 | access-date=14 April 2021 | last1=Bell | first1=Graham | pages=134–135 }}</ref> offering scalable fonts that were anti-aliased on screen but rendered at the appropriate resolution when printed, even on dot-matrix printers.<ref name="raine1991">{{ cite conference | url=https://archive.org/details/1989-proceedings-5th-comp-graphics-workshop/page/25/mode/1up | title=The Acorn Outline Font Manager | last1=Raine | first1=Neil | last2=Seal | first2=David | last3=Stoye | first3=William | last4=Wilson | first4=Roger | conference=Fifth Computer Graphics Workshop | location=Monterey, California | date=November 1989 | publisher=USENIX Association | pages=25–36 }}</ref> First Word Plus was also updated to support the new RISC OS desktop environment, albeit retaining its own printer drivers, being positioned as complementing Acorn Desktop Publisher whose emphasis was on page layout as opposed to textual document creation.<ref name="acornuser199005_firstwordplus">{{ cite magazine | url=https://archive.org/details/AcornUser094-May90/page/n128/mode/1up | title=First Up | magazine=Acorn User | date=May 1990 | access-date=14 April 2021 | last1=Bell | first1=Graham | pages=127 }}</ref>

As part of an effort to grow the company's share of the home market, Acorn introduced a bundle called The Learning Curve, initially featuring the A3000, optional monitor and a set of applications (First Word Plus, the PC Emulator, and Genesis).<ref name="acornuser199005_learningcurve" /> This bundle was enhanced later in 1990 to attract buyers to the A420/1, adding Acorn Desktop Publisher and some additional Genesis applications.<ref name="acornuser199010_learningcurve">{{ cite magazine | url=https://archive.org/details/AcornUser099-Oct90/page/n10/mode/1up | title=Learning Curve Advances | magazine=Acorn User | date=October 1990 | access-date=9 May 2021 | pages=9 }}</ref> Acorn's document processing applications also began to see broader competition around this time, with [[Impression (software)|Impression]] from Computer Concepts and Ovation from Beebug also providing competitive solutions for desktop publishing.<ref name="acornuser199005_impression">{{ cite magazine | url=https://archive.org/details/AcornUser094-May90/page/n114/mode/1up | title=Easy to Impress | magazine=Acorn User | date=May 1990 | access-date=23 December 2020 | last1=Bell | first1=Graham | pages=113–115 }}</ref><ref name="acornuser199011_ovation">{{ cite magazine | url=https://archive.org/details/AcornUser100-Nov90/page/n92/mode/1up | title=In Ovation | magazine=Acorn User | date=November 1990 | access-date=16 April 2021 | last1=Bell | first1=Graham | pages=91–93 }}</ref> Also in 1990, PipeDream 3 became the first version of the PipeDream integrated suite, descended from Acorn's View Professional but developed and marketed by Colton Software, to be made available for the RISC OS desktop.<ref name="acornuser199004_pipedream">{{ cite magazine | url=https://archive.org/details/AcornUser093-Apr90/page/n125/mode/2up | title=Dream Time | magazine=Acorn User | date=April 1990 | access-date=2 May 2021 | last1=Futcher | first1=Dave | pages=124–125 }}</ref>

The launch of the A5000 in late 1991 brought a new version of RISC OS to the market: RISC OS 3.<ref name="acornuser199111_a5000" /> This delivered a range of enhancements to the operating system including multitasking filer operations (meaning that file copying, moving and deletion no longer took over the computer), support for reading and writing DOS format discs, the provision of various bundled applications (Alarm, Calc, Chars, Configure, Draw, Edit, Help and Paint), commonly used outline fonts, and software modules in ROM (instead of needing to be loaded from accompanying floppy discs into RAM), the removal or raising of limits on windows and tasks, the ability to "iconise" windows and pin them to the desktop background (or pinboard), desktop session saving and restoring, screen blanking support, and other printing and networking improvements. Providing the bundled applications and other resources in ROM saved an estimated 150&nbsp;KB of workspace, thus being beneficial to users of 1&nbsp;MB machines.<ref name="acornuser199111_riscos3">{{ cite magazine | url=https://archive.org/details/AcornUser112-Nov91/page/n10/mode/1up | title=More Powerful RISC OS 3 at Heart of New A5000 | magazine=Acorn User | date=November 1991 | access-date=31 July 2021 | pages=9 }}</ref>

The bundled RISC OS 3 applications were enhanced from their RISC OS 2 versions in various general ways, such as the introduction of keyboard shortcuts, but also with new, specific features. The printing system was also updated to support multiple printers at once, but in this first version of RISC OS 3 background printing was still not supported.<ref name="acornuser199112_a5000" /> The "most obviously improved" application was Draw, acquiring new features including multiple levels of "undo" and "redo" operations, rotated text (benefiting from an updated outline font manager), graduated fills, shape interpolation (or in-betweening) support, and built-in support for converting text into paths. Edit gained improved formatting and searching support plus transparent BASIC program editing facilities.<ref name="acornuser199201_take3">{{ cite magazine | url=https://archive.org/details/AcornUser114-Jan92/page/n133/mode/2up | title=Take 3 | magazine=Acorn User | date=January 1992 | access-date=31 July 2021 | last1=Bell | first1=Graham | last2=James | first2=Paul | pages=130–131 }}</ref> One somewhat visually obvious improvement delivered in RISC OS 3 was the use of "3D window borders"<ref name="acornuser199210_riscos3" /> or, more accurately, dedicated bitmaps for window furniture, allowing different desktop styling effects.<ref name="acornuser199302_beginners">{{ cite magazine | url=https://archive.org/details/AcornUser127-Feb93/page/n114/mode/1up | title=Absolute Beginners | magazine=Acorn User | date=February 1993 | access-date=31 July 2021 | last1=James | first1=Paul | pages=113 }}</ref> The appearance of the desktop would eventually shift towards Acorn's "NewLook" desktop theme, previewed in late 1993.<ref name="acornuser199312_newlook">{{ cite magazine | url=https://archive.org/details/AcornUser137-Dec93/page/n10/mode/1up | title=NewLook at Acorn World | magazine=Acorn User | date=December 1993 | access-date=31 July 2021 | pages=9 }}</ref>

In late 1992, RISC OS 3 was itself updated, becoming RISC OS 3.1 (as opposed to the initial RISC OS 3.0 provided with the A5000) and being made available for all existing Archimedes machines, although A300 series and the original A400 series machines needed a hardware modification to be able to accept the larger 2&nbsp;MB ROMs, employing a special [[Expansion card#Daughterboard|daughterboard]].<ref name="chris_simtec_riscos3">{{cite web |url=http://chrisacorns.computinghistory.org.uk/32bit_UpgradesH2Z/Simtec_ROS3_ROMCarrier.html |title=Simtec RISC OS 3 ROM Carrier |publisher=Centre for Computing History |date=31 October 2008 | access-date=18 April 2021}}</ref> Various bugs in RISC OS 3.0 were fixed and various other improvements made, making it a worthwhile upgrade for A5000 users. Notably, support for background printing was introduced. VAT-inclusive introductory pricing for the upgrade was £19 for RISC OS 3.0 users and £49 for RISC OS 2.0 users, with the upgrade package including ROMs, support discs and manuals.<ref name="acornuser199211_riscos3">{{ cite magazine | url=https://archive.org/details/AcornUser124-Nov92/page/n26/mode/1up | title=ROM for Improvement | magazine=Acorn User | date=November 1992 | access-date=31 July 2021 | last1=Burley | first1=Ian | pages=23 }}</ref> The non-introductory price of the upgrade was stated as being £89.<ref name="acornuser199210_riscos3">{{ cite magazine | url=https://archive.org/details/AcornUser123-Oct92/page/n10/mode/1up | title=RISC Upgrades Ready | magazine=Acorn User | date=October 1992 | access-date=31 July 2021 | pages=7 }}</ref>

The limitations of RISC OS became steadily more apparent, particularly with the appearance of the [[Risc PC]] and the demands made on applications taking advantage of its improved hardware capabilities (although merely highlighting issues that were always present), and when contrasted with the gradually evolving [[Microsoft Windows|Windows]] and [[Classic Mac OS|Macintosh System]] software, these competitors offering or promising new features and usability improvements over their predecessors. Two fundamental deficiencies perceived with RISC OS were a lack of [[virtual memory]] support, this permitting larger volumes of data to be handled by using hard disc storage as "slow, auxiliary RAM" (attempted by application-level solutions in certain cases<ref name="acornuser199005_32mb">{{ cite magazine | url=https://archive.org/details/AcornUser094-May90/page/n10/mode/1up | title=32MB Arc Applications | magazine=Acorn User | date=May 1990 | access-date=5 August 2021 | pages=9 }}</ref>), and the use of [[cooperative multitasking]] as opposed to [[Preemption (computing)|preemptive multitasking]] to allow multiple applications to run at the same time, with the former relying on applications functioning correctly and considerately, and with the latter putting the system in control of allocating time to applications and thus preventing faulty or inconsiderate applications from hanging or dominating the system. Problems with the storage management and filing systems were also identified. In 1994, the FileCore functionality in RISC OS was still limited to accessing 512&nbsp;MB of any hard drive, with this being barely larger than the largest supplied Risc PC hard drive at the time. Filing system limitations were also increasingly archaic: 77 files per directory and 10-character filenames, in contrast to more generous constraints imposed by the then-"imminent" [[Windows 95]] and then-current [[Macintosh System 7]] release.<ref name="acornuser199412_change">{{ cite magazine | url=https://archive.org/details/AcornUser149-Dec94/page/n58/mode/1up | title=Time for a change? | magazine=Acorn User | date=December 1994 | access-date=31 July 2021 | last1=George | first1=Andy | pages=59–60 }}</ref>

Although an update to the FileCore functionality was delivered in 1995, initially to members of Acorn's enthusiast community, providing support for larger storage [[disk partitioning|partitions]] (raising the limit to 128&nbsp;GB), other improvements, such as those providing support for the use of longer filenames, were still only provided by third parties.<ref name="acornuser199508_update">{{ cite magazine | url=https://archive.org/details/AcornUser158-Aug95/page/n8/mode/1up | title=Two-page Acorn update | magazine=Acorn User | date=August 1995 | access-date=29 September 2021 | pages=9 }}</ref> With adverse financial results and a restructuring of the company in late 1995, Acorn appeared to be considering a more responsive strategy towards customer demands, potentially offering rebadged PC and Mac products alongside Acorn's existing computers, while cultivating a relationship with IBM whose [[PowerPC]]-based [[Server (computing)|server]] hardware had already been featured in Acorn's SchoolServer product running [[Windows NT]].<ref name="acornuser199511_future">{{ cite magazine | url=https://archive.org/details/AcornUser161-Nov95/page/n10/mode/1up | title=The future for Acorn | magazine=Acorn User | date=November 1995 | access-date=29 September 2021 | pages=11 }}</ref> In the context of such a relationship, the possibility was raised of "bolting a RISC OS 'personality' on top of a low level IBM-developed operating system" to address RISC OS's deficiencies and to support virtual memory and long filenames.<ref name="acornuser199511_riscos">{{ cite magazine | url=https://archive.org/details/AcornUser161-Nov95/page/n10/mode/1up | title=Writing on the wall for RISC OS? | magazine=Acorn User | date=November 1995 | access-date=29 September 2021 | pages=11 }}</ref> At this time, IBM was pursuing its [[Workplace OS]] strategy which emphasised a common operating system foundation supporting different system personalities.