APDL software



Clares Micro Supplies was founded in 1981 and published many of the biggest software titles for RISC OS until 2002, when APDL and ProAction bought the rights to publish their back catalogue.

In early 2004, I was employed to produce 32-bit compatible versions of two Clares applications: Schema 2 and ProArtisan 24. I had to reverse-engineer the C source code for parts that had been lost. I also updated the user interfaces, resolved various incompatibilities with modern OS versions and fixed some longstanding bugs. In late 2005 I did the same for WimpBasic, with the additional complication I had to rewrite the code to link programs with the runtime library.

Those titles have been commercially unavailable since the death of David Holden of ADPL in 2015. As such, they could be reasonably described as abandonware. In addition, being exclusive to RISC OS makes them technologically obsolete with little commercial value.

In line with the stated desire of Aaron Timbrell and David Bradforth "to make all of the APDL software titles available free of charge to single users", I am making them available here without warranty of any kind. If the copyright holders wish to assert their rights then they should email me at the address at the bottom of the page.

The title and icon of each program are linked to the relevant Zip archive for download. On RISC OS computers Zip archives may be opened using SparkPlug, SparkFS (commercial) or Infozip.


Directory iconPCA resource

Description

!PCARes is a resource for the PCA system. You should place it in a directory where it will be 'seen' by the filer before any PCA applications are seen or run. (I suggest !Boot.Resources)

Applications should not include a copy of the PCA support module. Instead, provide a skeleton copy of !PCARes so that there is only ever one copy of the module on the user's system at one time.

Author

Rob Davison

Latest version

0.35 (04 Mar 2003)


!ProArt24 application iconProArtisan 24

Description

ProArtisan 24 is a 24-bit art and painting program which features many different palettes, filters, effects and drawing tools but only one level of undo. As a curiosity, it also supports Kodak's proprietary Photo CD technology.

This application requires the PCA support module.

Author

Jon Warmisham & Frank Dart

Frank Dart was a full-time maths teacher at Sale Grammar School at the time ProArtisan was being developed. We shared a staff room for a short time when Frank was testing aspects of the program including an intended 3D effect module. Too many of my colleagues couldn't cross their eyes sufficiently so that idea was dropped.

The late Jon Warmisham was the artist. He taught my daughter at South Trafford College. I've not seen the art term 'Frisket' used in any other painting program. All I've encountered use 'Mask'. Jon always referred to 'Frisket' in teaching 'wet paint' art. Jon was an excellent teacher and an all-round great bloke. Much missed.

— John Cartmell

Latest version

1.26 (Oct 2017)

Changes in version 1.20

Changes in version 1.21

Changes in version 1.22

Changes in version 1.23

Changes in version 1.24

Changes in version 1.25

Changes in version 1.26


!Schema2 application iconSchema 2 application

Description

Schema 2 is a spreadsheet application which features a macro language and the ability to draw graphs such as pie charts, line plots and histograms.

Author

Andrew Colin & Robert Hawking

Latest version

1.24 (28-Feb-2021)

Changes since last release


Spreadsheet file iconSchema 2 tutorials

Description

A collection of Schema 2 spreadsheet files which are intended as tutorials. Also includes a vector graphics file.

Author

CRM Ltd

Latest version

28 Jan 1994


Spreadsheet file iconSchema 2 examples

Description

A few Schema 2 spreadsheet files which are intended as examples, two of which are linked into a saved workspace. Also includes a large collection of vector graphics files.

Author

CRM Ltd

Latest version

12 Apr 1994


!ConvS2WK1 application iconSchema 2 converters

Description

Schema 2 can import (and in some cases export) data in various file formats. This requires support from external applications which communicate with the main application using a message protocol. This approach of farming out file format conversions reduces the memory requirements of the main program whilst making it more modular and extensible.

The following converters are included:

Author

CRM Ltd and APDL-ProAction

Latest version

16 Jun 2012


!MacroEdit application iconSchema 2 macro editor

Description

Schema macros are stored in text files with file type SheetMc (&aed). The Schema 2 application cannot load these files directly; if one is dragged to its icon on the iconbar then it will automatically invoke the Macro Editor application in order to compile the macros before loading them.

The Macro Editor is a standalone text editor dedicated to the purpose of editing Schema macros. It incorporates a compiler which generates object files of type SMacro (&c0c) in the same directory as the source files.

Author

CRM Ltd

Latest version

12 Jun 2012


Spreadsheet macro file iconSchema 2 macros

Description

Sources for the macros which produce the standard set of graph types provided with Schema 2.

"The code is far from perfect, but these programs have two solid merits: they work, and they define a lower level of acceptability which you can improve on."
—'Introduction to Schema 2 Macros', Andrew Colin and Robert Hawking

Author

CRM Ltd

Latest version

31 Mar 2000


!WimpBasic application iconWimpBasic application

Description

Wimp Basic is a programming language and integrated application development environment for RISC OS. The authoring application incorporates window and menu editors as well as a source code editor. Other resources such as sprites can be associated with a project but not edited directly.

When saving a user application, its source code is compiled either to an intermediate tokenised form or directly to executable ARM code (when creating a so-called 'optimized' application). In both cases the resultant object code is loaded by a completely generic loader program which links it to a runtime library. The loader also converts the program from its tokenised form into ARM code, if necessary.

The runtime library must be installed on every end-user's machine and easily locatable, so it is distributed in the form of a relocatable module wrapped in another application named WBModules. (This is equivalent to programs compiled by Acorn's C compiler requiring the shared C library module distributed in the !System application.)

Author

Höskuldur Hermannsson

Latest version

2.14 (06-Jan-2018)

Changes in version 2.13

Changes in version 2.14


StrongHelp manual iconWimpBasic manual

Description

A user guide for the WimpBasic application, in the form of a hyperlinked StrongHelp manual.

Author

APDL-ProAction & H. Hermannsson

Latest version

24 Apr 2003


WimpBasic file iconWimpBasic tutorials

Description

A collection of WimpBasic project files which are intended as tutorials. Also includes a small collection of 16-colour sprites.

Author

Höskuldur Hermannsson

Latest version

10 Sep 1997


WimpBasic file iconWimpBasic extras

Description

Five extra WimpBasic project files which are intended to demonstrate some of the features that were new in WimpBasic 2.

Author

Höskuldur Hermannsson

Latest version

01 Jul 1998


!WBModules app iconWBModules

Description

This archive contains 32-bit compatible versions of the WimpBasic module (the dynamic linker and runtime library) and WBLinker (a loader found inside every application created using Wimp Basic). An accompanying text file (also available online) describes the SWI interface of the WimpBasic module and lists changes in versions 2.10 to 2.16 of that module.

Author

Höskuldur Hermannsson

Latest version

2.16 (15 Oct 2017)

Changes since last release