Hello, A few pieces of news: 16/04/96: Online Resource Area now Available ---------------------------------- I'm pleased to announce that the password-protected Registered Developer resource area is now available as http://www.art.acorn.co.uk/SALES/DEVELOPERS/ This URL is not linked to from any page on the rest of the WWW server, and so the URL must be typed in manually. UserIDs and passwords will be issued individually over the course of the next day or so. The area comprises a fronting page of HTML which is intended to carry the latest news, and a resource area containing useful snippets of source code, technical bulletins, field change orders, and (coming soon) extracts from the Acorn Faults Databases to enable you to determine whether a problem, should you encounter one, has been encountered before whether an explanation or workaround exists, and if so, what it is. As the Faults Database contains reports going all the way back to RISC OS 2.00 and includes those which have been fixed (indeed, most of them have been fixed) along with bugs which were only exhibited in internal-release versions of RISC OS, please be patient as the data begins to come online; a great many of these records must be scanned by eye to determine their suitability for upload. Mailing List Management System in Final Testing ----------------------------------------------- The Mailing List Management software (owing to ease of installation and administration, we've settled on SmartMail rather than majordomo; from the user end, the programs provide identical facilities) which we will be using to run the live version of the Developer Email Forum is currently in final testing, and should hopefully be deployed live by the end of the week. I will email you instructions for use once the system is up; in the meantime, email ISVQuery with the subject line of "For Developer Forum" if there is anything you would like other developers to know. RISC OS 3.6 ROMs ---------------- I've already had several requests from developers regarding the provision of RISC OS 3.6 ROM sets; I haven't managed to get hold of any here, however I've raised an agenda item for the next ART coms meeting to discuss whether we could do a limited production run of ROM sets for sale to developers. I know that many of you have been wanting ROMs since last October and still need them urgently, despite the fact that the StrongARM-aware RISC OS (as far as I know, it doesn't have a version number yet, so I'll refer to it as RISC OS-SA) will be out along with the StrongARM card later this year; if all goes well, I'll be able to tell you sometime in the next fortnight what the timescales are. Straw Polls ----------- Obviously I can only steer things in the directions you want them to go if I know which way you want to go! From time to time, therefore, I shall be asking you for your opinions on specific topics relating to Developer Support and general ART policy; for example, if a significant number of you had not approached me about RISC OS 3.6 ROMs, I might be asking you whether you would want to buy some if we were to do an extra run of them. As questions arise and are issued, please pass your comments to ISVQuery with a subject line "Re: ". More news soon. Regards, Dave Walker Engineering Support Manager