risc-os-community / dme-desk-base

Base directory structure (and container) used by the entire DME Suite of components for RISC OS

DME Desk Base

This repository hosts:

• DME !DeskCfg
• DME !DeskRes

All the components hosted in this repository are delivered using a single Packman RiscPkg package and therefore should always be built together.

This repository (together with DME-Core) are the base dependencies for all DME Suite components and extensions.

Please note: The reason for choosing short names is to ensure they are suitable for all RISC OS disk partitions/FileSystems.

Status

This repository is still under initial development, so it's not ready yet for use.

!DeskCfg

This is the container for the configuration of all the components in the DME Suite.

It's directory structure is simple and DeskCfg is designed to work from RISC OS 3.00 up to latest RISC OS 5. It always offers the same access paths and behavior on all RISC OS release.

To access the configuration container simply use DeskCfg: path.

DeskCfg is also suitable to be provided via ShareFS, for example on those environment where one wants to configure a set of interconnected RISC OS devices with all identical configurations (for example classrooms or labs etc.)

When installed via PackMan, DeskCfg should get installed on your active Choices directory in your RISC OS Boot sequence.

If you are installing it manually, then we recommend to install it in your active Choices directory in your RISC OS Boot Sequence. However, if you need to share it live, across multiple RISC OS systems, then it's best to install it on your ShareFS shared directory and ensure that you configure DeskRes accordingly to search for DeskCfg in on your shared directory (more info on thi slater).

!DeskRes

This is the container for all the components in the DME Suite.

DeskRes should be stored in !Boot.Resources and, not only it will host all the DME Suite components, but it will also enure that DeskCfg gets seen by the Filer before any of the DME components gets executed.

To access DeskRes structure from your own code you can use DeskRes: path.

When installed via PackMan, DeskRes will be installed in your RISC OS Boot Sequence (UniBoot) in Resources directory.

If you are installing it manually we recommend you to install it in your UniBoot in the Resources directory.

Even when using a distributed configuration (aka sharing DeskCfg via ShareFS) DeskRes should always be installed in your local UniBoot Resources on your RISC OS system. This also improve boot performance btw.

How to build this repository

You can either use GCC suite or ROOL DDE to build this repository.

To use GCC (or ROOL DDE) edit the Config file and ensure you comment out the lines for the suite you do NOT wish to use to build the repo.

Before you start your build, ensure that RISC OS Filer has seen the Compilers suite you would like to use to build this repo (otherwise the build process will fail return errors like "File not found" etc).

To start the build, double click on the Mk file from a RISC OS Filer window.

dme-desk-base's Issues

Ensure that DeskCfg is suitable from RISC OS 3.00 up to RISC OS 5

Summary

It' important that DeskCfg is suitable from RISC OS 3 up to RISC OS 5 and also usable with the old RISC OS 4.39 "pseudo multi-user" support.

Also DeskCfg should be designed to work fine when served via Access/ShareFS

• As a RISC OS User I would like to:

Easy to use, no issues. Fully transparent and easy to copy to another RISC OS system to duplicate my configuration quickly

• As a RISC OS Developer I would like to:

Easy to access and with well defined paths (for example DeskCfg:) so I can easily store my components configuration and/or create my own component space in it. It also should work exactly the same from RISC OS 3 up to RISC OS 5, I prefer not to deal with differences like it happens for the !Configure plugins between RISC OS 4 and RISC OS 5.

• As a RISC OS Vendor I would like to:

Make it robust and easy for the users and easy for me to copy my default configuration across all my systems