Tell us which programming language videos we should prioritise!

To everyone interested,
I’ve got some PTO coming up and so (finally) I’ll have some time to dive into our video backlog.

Could you spare a moment to let me know which videos you’d like to see first? Your input is invaluable! Cast your vote in our poll here:

https://www.youtube.com/@RiscosCommunityOnGithub/community

Feel free to drop your suggestions here or on our YouTube channel – every vote and idea counts! Without your input, brace yourselves for an impromptu series on “Continental Philosophy” (presented by Sprow)! 😉

Thanks for all the feedback! :)

This response will probably get overlooked in the tsunami of responses but just in case it gets through I would like to bang the drum for Python. It is improving all the time but it seems very few people are using it. There are several reasons for this, but one is a shortage of RISC OS end user documentation and examples. The harvest truly is plentious but the labourers are few.

I don’t use YouTube for programming learning. But the more ways for getting people interested in programming for RISC os the better.

This response will probably get overlooked in the tsunami of responses but just in case it gets through I would like to bang the drum for Python. It is improving all the time but it seems very few people are using it.

Thanks for your feedback John! Thankfully, most feedback was expressed via the Poll on youtube, which helps to organise results quickly, few others were expressed through various comments/posts on the multiple socials and a bunch via email.

Your requests for Python are noted and, IMHO, you’re right, it’s clear that the adoption of Python (and RiscLua) has been slower than expected, primarily due to limited documentation and practical examples. This reminds us of how many learned BBC BASIC in the past—through detailed articles and hands-on tutorials in magazines (type-in etc.), not just reference guides. Indeed, comprehensive and example-rich documentation/tutorials are key to encouraging people to embrace new programming languages.

Regarding the poll results so far, it appears that ARM Assembly is currently in the lead. This may be because people are more interested in understanding the RISC OS sources rather than actively writing applications (especially in Assembly, as was common in the 80s and 90s).

As a side note for everyone: it’s important to note that developing applications in Assembly in 2023 is quite challenging (I would argue almost a dead end!). Modern users expect a range of features that can be time-consuming to implement in Assembly. ASM requires extensive testing on multiple RISC OS devices to ensure code runs smoothly everywhere. As such, those who choose this path should be prepared for potential setbacks and extended periods of development and refactoring.

Once again, thank you everyone for your contribution to this discussion. Your feedback is invaluable in shaping our approach and understanding community needs for the next tutorials!

the more ways for getting people interested in programming for RISC os the better.

Indeed! :)

Another area which could do with a refresh is connectivity with non-RISC OS machines. this is important for anyone who wants to develop software ON RISC OS, as opposed to developing on say Linux for RISC OS.
There used to be several guides on how to connect RISC OS with mainstream OSes.
These are largely out of date now. Security has tightened up in the OtherWorldOSes and methods that used to work no longer do so.
To take a current example. I am trying to integrate Git and GitHub into my development process on an ARMX6. I am comfortable with Git have no problem with using GitHub or GitLab. The problem is that the local/remote bridge is broken. I cannot Push to remote from RISC OS. This is fundamental and is illustrated by the excellent YouTube video “Coding on RISC OS via TortoiseGit on Windows”.

Thanks again John!

Yes and more security measures will be added as more security issues gets discovered. So, while ROOL and ROD tries to address the modernisation of the network stack and the file-sharing clients, here is a guide that allows to solve the problem with older devices and RISC OS 5 (until more modern protocols get implemented):

https://paolozaino.wordpress.com/2023/03/07/retrocomputing-how-to-build-a-raspberry-pi-server-to-share-files-with-retro-or-vintage-systems-and-modern-platforms-part-1/

It’s a bit of work, but I think at some point I’ll make a Raspberry Pi focused Linux distro available that has everything already configured.

On a side note, macOS sonoma NFS works fine with RISC OS and !OmniClient (instructions shared in another thread). Will certainly make a video to help folks seeing how to configure this.

This is fundamental and is illustrated by the excellent YouTube video “Coding on RISC OS via TortoiseGit on Windows”.

;)

Great to hear you’re diving into your video backlog! From my experience, asking your audience directly (like with your poll) is the best way to ensure engagement. If it were up to me, I’d vote for anything covering community development tips or unique use cases—it’s always cool to see something relatable and practical.

As for organizing and editing your videos, make sure they’re in viewer-friendly formats and don’t skip on fine-tuning transitions. I use Movavi for converting and tweaking video files—it’s quick and keeps everything clean for uploads. You might find https://www.movavi.com/video-converter/mkv-converter.html useful, especially if you need to process multiple formats before publishing. Keep up the great work, and I’m excited to see what you post!

Hi Herbert,
thanks for your feedback. I did a poll on th eYouTube channel and turns out that ARM Assembly is the most requested, so I started to work on that, also because given the extremely low amount of software being produced for RISC OS on both the users here and the retro users, the even lower collaborations and help and quite a bit of comments on the future of RISC OS that seems to be describing a different OS, I have a feeling that a lot of people need tutorials from absolute zero.

Link to the Poll here: https://www.youtube.com/post/UgkxJ1QIA2l6jY-bFNmuJqPOLS5lJA2FGjqO

After the work on ASM there will be focus on other languages too.

As for the videos, while writing a large set of example to create my next videos on, I re-used those examples to generate a “knowledge database” (combined with updated info on RISC OS User Guide, RISC OS API and programming infomrations) to generate some GenAI RAG (a weird term that means adapting things like ChatGPT to help people in need to learn more about RISC OS).

The first of these GenAI RAGs is out and available, there is another announcement for that.

While the community channel has reached the wooping 150 subscribers now, which is an impressive achievement for something so nice.

As for organizing and editing your videos, make sure they’re in viewer-friendly formats and don’t skip on fine-tuning transitions.

Many videos are already out on the channel, so you can check if they are of your like.

Cheers!

make sure they’re in viewer-friendly formats

That bit doesn’t make sense. It’s been a long time since I’ve had to pull my hair out over RealVideo or OGG or an MKV with something super weird inside.
These days you just throw the video at YouTube (it accepts many formats) and it’ll transcode that into MP4 or WebP in various resolutions to let the player pick the most suitable.
[it’s 2025, low end formats like FLV have been thrown on the scrap heap]

Rinse and repeat for DailyMotion, Youku, and all the other video sharing sites…

Regarding the poll results so far, it appears that ARM Assembly is currently in the lead.

Is this still true?
In the 80s I had my first Acorn, an Atom, because it had a basic and an assembler + ports.nice!
But today, to attract new developers and to be able to create applications, we have other languages.
@Paolo
I’m going to subscribe to your Youtube channel :-) with the subtitles I should be able to follow the conversation.

I wonder if the assembly language requests are for Arm 32 or 64?

Is this still true?

Apparently so. 🤷

are for Arm 32 or 64?

Well, there isn’t any native way to access 64 bit mode (it isn’t like fiddling with the PSR mode bits), therefore 32 bit would be the logical one with respect to RISC OS.

Well, there isn’t any native way to access 64 bit mode (it isn’t like fiddling with the PSR mode bits)

SWI “OS_EnterOS64” of course!

@ All

Thanks for the recent votes (like last week) lol but the poll was made more than 1 year ago, so yeah ARM Assembly won and I have been working on that for a while. It will be followed by Modern C++ on RO (can’t wait to get rid of the silly stuff on ASM to get on the exciting things with C++ TBH).

@ Jean

I’m going to subscribe to your Youtube channel :-) with the subtitles I should be able to follow the conversation.

Thanks, yes subtitles are to help everyone. I have been working with AI to provide coerent subtitles in multiple languages also because I have got some retro magazine in Italy and I think in France who got very excited about the idea of the video tutorials for RISC OS which isn’t so common material to find, and in both cases they asked for subtitles in their native languages. Given folks on here are too busy to post on the forum instead of helping, AI to the rescue XD

@ Colin

I wonder if the assembly language requests are for Arm 32 or 64?

The Assembly requests are for ARM 26 and 32 (26 because of the retro community they are certainly more active and engaging). In most cases is because people wish to learn how to read RISC OS sources (that is a good motivation IMHO).

I hope long are gone the days when folks believed ASM was the way. I mean some may still want to learn ARM Assembly to give us all a lesson (or something on these lines), if they do, they’ll be the one getting a lesson (as we, the one who coded in ASM for years, have learned on our own directly!).

@ Druck

SWI “OS_EnterOS64” of course!

XD – well played lol and then I assume folks will want the AArch64 assembler in BBC BASIC, wait what??? No AArch64 ASM in BBC BASIC, I am gonna have a strong word with someone!!!

No AArch64 ASM in BBC BASIC, I am gonna have a strong word with someone!!!

Doesn’t NemoBASIC have two? :)

XD – well played lol and then I assume folks will want the AArch64 assembler in BBC BASIC, wait what??? No AArch64 ASM in BBC BASIC, I am gonna have a strong word with someone!!!

https://asciinema.org/a/osqvfUWM7cpebfw7LuiJX5kWc

https://asciinema.org/a/osqvfUWM7cpebfw7LuiJX5kWc

My dear friend, DON’T give them bad ideas!!! XD – I am already asking my self why am I doing the ASM tutorials in 2024/2025, every time I have a moment for it.

Beside the jokes, really nicely done Charles! :)

If it’s any consolation, I also ask why you’re doing that :P