PRESS RELEASE 04/09/03

RISCOS Ltd releases updates to Toolbox Modules

RISCOS Ltd is pleased to announce updates to the RISC OS Toolbox modules for use with all versions of RISC OS.

The last public release of the Toolbox modules was in April 2000.

Overview

The Toolbox was designed with the following goals:

• to facilitate writing consistent, high-quality desktop applications under RISC OS 3.10 and later
• to encourage the writing of applications whose user interface complies with the RISC OS 3 Style Guide
• to be easy to learn
• to be language-independent
• to make it no harder to do operations which can currently be done using the Wimp. The Toolbox has the following characteristics:
• it is structured as a set of RISC OS relocatable modules
• it will only run on RISC OS 3.10 or later
• it does not directly call back to code in the client application
• it is SWI-driven
• it can be used from C, C++, BASIC or Assembler with equal ease
• communication back to the client application is via events
• the client application does not have direct access to data structures maintained by the Toolbox
• it uses a new resource file format to hold templates for the user interface objects which the application will use at run-time.

The User Interface Toolbox has been designed to be extensible to support any number of Object Classes by the creation of Object Modules which implement those Classes. ResEd (the resource file editor supplied with Acorn C/C++ and also as part of the RISC OS Select Scheme) was also designed so that editors for new Object Templates can be added without the need to alter the main ResEd binary.

Toolbox module installer

The modules are provided for download and installation as a Self Extracting and Installing Archive. The toolbox module installer, Tbox/ff8, is intended to install updated toolbox modules. You should set its type to &FF8 (Absolute) and then double click it to run it.

Latest Module versions and main changes

All modules are built to be processor and C library neutral, so the installer and the modules themselves will function on RISC OS 3.1 through to 5.x with whatever C library is presently installed.

ColourDbox 0.23 (01 Jul 2003)
  No significant changes.
ColourMenu 0.24 (01 Jul 2003)
  No significant changes.
DCS_Quit 1.16 (05 Jul 2003)
  Resized buttons to be 'standard' sizes.
  Updated dialogue boxes to new style.
FileInfo 0.22 (01 Jul 2003)
  No significant changes.
FontDbox 0.22 (01 Jul 2003)
  No significant changes.
FontMenu 0.27 (01 Jul 2003)
  Fix for menu creation in submenus (aborts in Zip2000).
IconBar 1.22 (01 Jul 2003)
  No significant changes.
Installer 0.11 (01 Jul 2003)
  Made compatible with RISC OS 3.1.
Menu 0.40 (01 Jul 2003)
  No significant changes.
PrintDbox 0.20 (01 Jul 2003)
  Updated to use the standard divider between buttons and entry icons.
ProgInfo 0.20 (01 Jul 2003)
  No significant changes.
SaveAs 0.22 (01 Jul 2003)
  No significant changes.
Scale 0.19 (01 Jul 2003)
  No significant changes.
TextGadget 0.49 (06 Jul 2003)
  Added support for cursor positioning.
  Fix for initial text offset bug.
  Added changes from Rik Griffin.
  Changed error returns to be valid.
  Added support for multiple columns in scrolllist.
  Added 'No selection' and 'Icon selection' flags to Scrolling Lists.
  Updated ScrollList fade algorithm.
  Added column headings.
  Redraw of wide lists improved.
  Rendering the gadget outline uses defined colours for ScrollList.
  Rendering the gadget outline writes the name for ScrollList and TextArea.
  Fix for reversed sprite pointer/name flags for items.
  Fix for sprites being plot from specified area.
  Fix for Help not being provided.
  Fix for 'option' like selection being non-standard.
  Fix for resizing failing when icons were toggled.
  Fix for sprite highlighting.
  Added some space beside associated sprites.
  Added support for clipboard.
  Added keyboard support for select all/none (ctrl-a/z)
  Added support for reading text selection colours from the Wimp.
  Added new flag for 'Key notifications' to gadget.
  Fix for caret/selection positions not being set.
  Fix for deselecting items in scrolling lists.
  Added AutoScroll to text areas.
  Clicking in a Text Area will now give it the focus where selection is.
  Redraw bugs now fixed where text is inserted from clipboard.
  Selections will now reflect the current colours, rather than the unfaded colours.
  Files other than text files are not dataloaded.
  Improved redraw speed for unselected text.
  Stripped out binary data from imported text to TextAreas.
  Added TextArea_DataLoaded event.
  Fix for dragging the text area selection causing a selection.
  Fix for single pixel redraw glitch on cut.
  Fix for text replacement on DataLoad generating binary data.
  Added support for dragging to iconbar icons.
  Removed the ability to insert tabs with ctrl-i in text areas.
  Fix for memory leak on opening scroll list gadget.
  Allowed menu to be passed through to client in scrolling lists.
  Optimised window sizing by centralising furniture size code.
  Another tentative fix for dataload problems in TextAreas.
  Fix for 'hiding' scrolling lists.
  Fix for 0-length columns becoming infinitely wide.
  Added support for reading the scrolling list font.
  Removed clicks being passed on (was failed menu fix).
  Added support for re-finding fonts on mode change (TextArea and ScrollList)
  Tool furniture resizing can use RISC OS 4 Wimp call.
  Fix for TextArea redraw bug on inserting text manually.
  Fix for TextArea caret redraw bug resurfacing on cut text.
  Fix for title bar sizing.
  Added support for system font in text areas.
  Fix for DataSaveAck response not using an estimated size of -1.
  Fix for dragging objects to and from text areas.
ToolAction 0.23 (05 Jul 2003)
  No significant changes.
Toolbox 1.71 (27 Aug 2003)
  Rik Griffin's changes to reverse the order of the registrations of filters.
  Updated to use Wimp_Extend 257 for sprite files.
  Ensure that all acknowledgements are passed through.
Window 1.79 (11 Jul 2003)
  Fix for crash on certain radio operations.
  Added partial support for window colour reading.
  Added support for parsing colour validations.
  Text buffer length on popup menus added.
  Added scroll request handling to sliders.
  Fix for resizing radio and option buttons.
  Fix for slider gadget reacting to well when a display field.
  Fix for stringset failing to allocate sufficient space.
  Tentative fix for windows shown with menu semantics mis-delivering events.
  Fix for abort on shutdown.
  Additional checks for validity of 'current_task' during shutdown operations.
  Updated Makefile in preparation for modules release.
  Fix for font handle leakage in icons.
  Fix for potential 'divide by zero' in Slider.

Installation on RISC OS 5

RISC OS 5 does not provide support for softloaded Toolbox modules. Users will be required to manually update their !Boot sequence. Users should contact Castle Technology Ltd for more information if they uncertain how to do this.

Download location

The new Toolbox resources are available for free Download from : http://support.riscos.com/Support/Updates/index.htm

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