I am Nemo I am NemoIts not hard to find out who I really am, but Nemo is shorter and easier to spell. No, it has nothing to do with Mr Verne, so don't call me Captain. I used to write RISC OS software (ah, memories!). A tiny fraction is available here. The rest you can't have, so there.
There are also some interesting Elite Trading Routes, if you find Elite interesting.
Delirium screensaversYes, you need Delirium (which might be here) if these are going to be any use.
 | Meltdown (1.5K zip) Desktop melts in an alarming fashion. Basic |
| Squiggly String (11K zip) An endless and very squiggly string fades into the distance in slowly changing colours, while a digital clock pulses along the bottom. Basic/Ass |
| Phase Time (8K zip) ArmOric's big digital clock demo turned into a saver. Includes source |
DigitalCD skinsAndre Timmerman's wonderful CD/MP3/mod/sample player was last seen here and is really rather good. It is also necessary for these sprites to be of any interest. These are conversions of published WinAmp skins, original author documented where known.
Important: I have a calibrated monitor, so if these sprites look rather dark, you don't.
| Reality (15K zip) Brushed aluminium and huge LCD display. |
| Sonic Vibe (20K zip) Yes I know you already have it. This has a larger volume slider more in keeping with the rest of the design. |
| Black (10K zip) The usual Japanese plastic effect. Don't know why I bothered. |
The WimpRO4 has proven how important graphic design skills are when designing icons, by not using any. But enough of that, here are things.
 | ColourFiler (4K zip) Control the colour of your Filer windows! |
| IconMover (1K zip) Rearrange your iconbar! Hold Ctrl-Alt-Shift and drag any icon. |
 | ToolMenus (8K zip) Pop up a menu from any part of a window's furniture. Bring obscured windows to the front! Send windows further down the stack but not all the way to the back! Scroll to the bottom with a single menu choice! Iconise any window with a titlebar! Open a window's parent! Other less exciting things! |
 | InAWindow (2K zip) Ever wanted a BASIC program or stand-alone ABSOLUTE to open in a TaskWindow without all the messing about? !InAWindow, installed in Boot.Tasks, defines two new filetypes - TskBasic and TaskApp - that perform this miracle. You will probably want to alter Zap's Types file so &AA5 is loaded into Basic mode, and &AA6 is loaded into Code mode. Yes, these filetypes and the Boot.Tasks location have been officially allocated. |
| RightBrain (link) If you EVER even CONSIDER designing a user interface, go and visit these good people and LEARN. The Hall Of Shame is a particular hoot. |
Monitor CalibrationWe use our computers for publishing, so we need to deal with pictures in a format that best suits printing, rather than that which best suits video display. Rather than having the standard 2.2 gamma response (very roughly), our monitors are calibrated to be linear - a gamma response of 1.0
Now before you start thinking that calibrated monitors are rather esoteric and non-RISC OS, I should explain something: Due to innumerable misunderstandings, the majority of RISC OS graphics software assumes the display is linear. This includes:
FontManager yes, the much lauded font manager will only antialias correctly on a calibrated monitor. Surprised? Ever wondered why 'light' fonts always seem heavier on the monitor than on paper? Now you know. ColourTrans ask it for a 50% grey in a two colour mode and you get a checkerboard. That is only correct when 50% grey is half as bright as white, which is only true for a linear display ChangeFSI scaling, antialiasing, colour matching all in linear space
ImageMaster ditto All CC's software more of the same
Some software has been written by people who do understand about gamma, but have decided to insist on a calibrated monitor:
PhotoDesk its doing quite enough as it is Vantage ditto
I can't think of any software that works correctly on a monitor with a 2.2 gamma response, except possibly:
Compo Alledgedly. Browse Browse's PNG handler assumes a gamma of 2.2, the next version may use our module.
Except Andrew's not allowed to make another. Shame.
Unfortunately, though the programs' algorithms assume a 1.0 gamma response, the majority of user-interface sprites have been designed for a 2.2 gamma response. See what I mean about misunderstanding? The Cerilica calibrator alters the desktop palette to compensate for the calibration, so 16 colour icons still look the same. This can't be done for 256 colour sprites, so its hard cheese. You can always process them through ChangeFSI with a gamma correction of 0.455 (1.0/2.2).
There isn't a simple answer to this one - either put up with the fact that most of your software is Getting It Wrong™, or calibrate your monitor and be prepared to edit those too-bright icons.
 | Calibrated? (1.5K gif) Open this GIF in your browser to see the problem. The background of black and white pixels averages out at about 50% brightness, the text is defined as 50% grey - if you can easily read the text then your monitor is not linear, this is to be expected. Problem is, most software that asks for 50% grey thinks it is getting 50% brightness, which is only true of a calibrated linear monitor. |
 Temporarily unavailable | VDUGamma (1.5K zip) This module provides a much needed interface for controlling the monitor's gamma response. It is a replacement for the standard RISC OS PaletteV call to write the hardware LUT (yes I know there isn't one). Since it implements both a calibration and a user response curve, it allows RO4 or programs such as Delirium to fade the screen without destroying the calibration. It can fade the screen by a percentage towards any colour. It also provides a call to read the gamma response of the system, so that sensible programs can adjust their output if necessary. Highly recommended. |
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Erm, that's all. No don't thank me. Oh, you didn't.
Distract Nemo from his proper job: nemo@20000.org
Updated: 2008/05/04, 2005/09/10
