Using The Programs

Unix Porting Project

The programs available for download fall into a number of categories, and are run in different ways. It's important to understand these differences to save yourself confusion and frustration.


You Will Need

All programs require SharedUnixLibrary. This is provided in an archive which contains a !System application which needs to be merged with your !System (use the facility in Configure). The latest version is 1.07.

On an Iyonix, the sample rate is not set correctly. As a temporary work around, create a Basic file with the following:


     SYS "Sound_SampleRate",3,25
   
And place it in your PreDesk directory.

Many programs also rely upon !UnixHome. This application is the equivalent of a home directory on a Unix system. Some applications will provide skeleton versions of this which should be dropped over the top of the original.

Some programs need to be invoked from Nettle, so ensure you obtain this too.

SharedUnixLibrary  SharedUnixLibrary

UnixHome  UnixHome

Optional

For playing music, some SDL programs make use of a MIDI player which relies upon a directory of samples:


Command Line Programs

These programs act much like existing command-line based applications on RISC OS. They are run in a normal taskwindow. In many cases, these applications are candidates for having a WIMP frontend written for them.

wget

wget is invoked from a Taskwindow prompt. This is typical of how programs in this section are run.


Terminal Programs

Programs in this category produce text-based output that is suitable for display in Nettle. They need to be launched with the "ANSI Task" option in Nettle. The current method of launching programs is recongnised as far from ideal; other methods are under consideration.

To launch a program in Nettle, "ANSI task" is selected from the connection menu, and then the program is dragged to the command writable icon. If the command is in your path, you can just enter the program name. Any parameters (in this case, the website) are typed after the command.

You can also setup a hotlist entry in Nettle. See its documentaion for more details.

ANSI Task Launch

Lynx being launched in Nettle.


Traditional X11 Programs

These are GUI programs. They have been compiled against a direct port of the Xfree86 X11 libraries (effectively the same as !RiscXLib). As such, they will need an X Server to display on. The X Server can be run on RISC OS with Leo White's RiscX or displayed on another machine (e.g. Linux, Windows) with an X Server.

Warning: these programs are slow - this is because of a variety of bottlenecks in the X system on RISC OS. Most are unlikely to be very useful in their current form because of this. However, their existence serves to demonstrate that they are able to actually run on RISC OS.

To launch them, run in a taskwindow.

xeyes run from a Taskwindow and displayed in RiscX. If you wish to move windows around, you will need a Window manager such as twm.

Note that RiscX must already be running before the X app is run.

xeyes in RiscX


Native X11 Programs

chox11 logo

These are programs linked against my X11 library "ChoX11". These programs will run much faster than their counterparts requiring an X Server, but because this library is still at such an early stage, the number of programs that work under is limited, and they may exhibit odd behaviour.

You can normally just double click on the programs to run them.

RISC OS xlogo
xlogo running after double click.


Games

Most games are normal RISC OS applications, so can be just be double-clicked to run. Most rely on SDL, so you will need the DigitalRenderer module installed (see above). Some will run fullscreen or multitasking or both. Check the documentation with each.

LBreakout Game


Errors

"No writable memory at this address"

Unfortunately the current method of launching some of the programs doesn't allow for a large enough Wimpslot to be allocated. The quick answer is to make the wimpslot (either with the *wimpslot command, or from task manager window) bigger than the binary you're running.


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