The WROCC Newsletter
WROCC members receive a copy of our monthly newsletter, The WROCC. Produced in A5 format, it contains articles on RISC OS and its software, hints and tips, information about the subjects covered in our meetings, and much more.
Copies are produced in PDF format: members can download them from the this page, or have copies emailed to their inbox as soon as they are published. In addition to a ‘one page per A5 sheet’ version, a ‘two-up on A4’ version of each issue is available to help those who prefer to print their copies out for reading.
If you’re not a member but would like to see what you’re missing, a selection of older issues are free to download further down the page.
In March 2023, Chris Hall updates the NVMe series with a summary of the available drivers and what to do for a machine that ‘just works’, while another member describes their use of CashBook for managing an association’s finances. We look at the release of a pair of new games for the platform, a collection of desktop enhancements and a number of other new software releases. Finally there’s a summary of the events at WROCC’s 2025 AGM, and a look back at RISC OS news from around the time of the release of RISC OS 2.
In the February 2025 issue we review the past twelve months with the results of the 2024 Contributor Award Scheme, and bring members up to date with plans for the new RISC OS North show in March. We investigate the use of, and pitfalls with, Network Time Protocol, and there’s the second part of the story of the intro to the Club’s YouTube videos. There’s also a roundup of recent software releases, and one of our members considers customer service in the RISC OS world.
The January 2025 issue starts the new year with a look forward to two of the upcoming RISC OS events: RISC OS North and the Big Ben Show. There’s a look at the new Git client from RISC OS Open in action, and Chris Hall describes how to create new manuals for RingBind.
In December 2024, one of our members upgrades his Raspberry Pi 4 with a FHANTom from RISCOSbits. We investigate the modification of drawfiles programmatically, and look back at the show theatre presentations from April’s Wakefield Acorn & RISC OS Computer Show.
In the November 2024 issue Ian Stanley investigates a set of circuit boards which allow a replica Acorn Atom to be built inside an Electron or BBC Micro case, while Chris Hall recounts a project to document and animate mechanical signal boxes from the Great Western Railway using drawfiles.
Indexes
An index of the articles found between issues 6.1 and 42.12 of the newsletter has been produced by John Arthur and Kev Smith, and can be downloaded here as a PDF document. Volume 6 coincided with the release of RISC OS, and prior to that the newsletter was mainly short hints and tips.
The Wakefield Back Catalogue
Relaunched following the completion of Volume 42 of The WROCC in April 2025, the fifteenth edition of The Wakefield Back Catalogue contains PDF copies of the Club’s monthly newsletters going from The WROCC and Awake right back to the very first “hints & tips” sheet handed out at the April 1983 meeting.
The new compilation contains around 501 issues and is available as a download in these more ‘virtual’ times. It costs £10.00 for non-members, whilst members can buy it for the discounted price of £5.00. To order your copy, complete the Order Form and send it back to us. Contact us if you have any questions.
The WROCC Guide to Networking
Starting in late 2009, the Club published a series of articles on networking in the newsletter. Two years later, we turned them into a stand-alone guide to the subject of networking RISC OS systems.
Each part of the guide is available in a 20 page A5 printed booklet, which are now free to download.
By April 2010 there had been enough articles published to create the first 20 page A5 booklet; launched at the 2010 Wakefield Show, this covers the basics of setting up a network that contains RISC OS machines and is available for purchase to members and non-members alike.
The guide introduces us to networking and how to configure IP addresses on a home network, as well as how to make sure that DNS is working correctly. We look at sharing an internet connection, configuring ShareFS and using Samba to view RISC OS files on Windows.
Launched in April 2011 at the Wakefield Show, Part 2 of the WROCC Guide to Networking continues where Part 1 left off and looks at file transfer and the RISC OS firewall.
We cover the use of File Transfer Protocol (FTP) and LanManFS to access files stored on Windows, using Sunfish to read files from Linux over NFS and Moonfish to view RISC OS files on Linux. There’s consideration of how filetype mappings work on network filing systems, and details of how to configure the RISC OS Six firewall.
Free samples
Here are some old back-issues of The WROCC, which can be downloaded in PDF format to give an idea of what the newsletter is about. More recent issues are available to members at the top of the page.
The files can be viewed on RISC OS using PDF, which is maintained by Chris Gransden: recent versions (3.00.1.21 or later is required to view the newsletter correctly) can be downloaded for free from www.riscos.info/index.php/PDF.
In the June 2014 issue, the newsletter carried a report of the 2014 Wakefield Show and details of what RISC OS Open had to say at the event. There was a report of the May meeting, where several members looked at interfacing things to a Raspberry Pi, a review of Sine Nomine Software’s RiscOSM mapping software and a guide to changing the iconbar icons used by Uniprint.
Alongside a report on the new risc/pi website, the August 2013 issue of the newsletter reported on the July Meeting’s talks including the options for printing from RISC OS and Peter Richmond’s experiences using RISC OS on the Raspberry Pi. There was also a guide to getting RISC OS up and running on a Pandaboard.
The January 2013 issue of the newsletter contained a report of the December meeting and included the Christmas Quiz questions for readers to try out for themselves. We looked at the inside story of creating the Back Catalogue CDs, and had a preview of the 2013 Wakefield Show. Some of our members looked at using David Pilling’s SyncDiscs for scripting automatic backups and Snapper for taking screenshots. There was also a quick look at NetSurf’s early Javascript progress.
In December 2012 the newsletter reported on the previous month’s visit from Mike Cook, where he had demonstrated his RFID-based music sequencer, some Raspberry Pi-based hardware projects and the ‘Spoonduino’. In his final article, the late Colin Sutton described the Super Hi-Vision equipment used to bring the London Olympics to the big screen in Bradford, we took a look at an early version of RISC OS on the Raspberry Pi, and discussed what was required to connect a modern LCD monitor to a RiscPC.
Contributing
If you would like to contribute to The WROCC, you can find details how to do it – including the file formats that we can accept – in our guide to Contributing to The WROCC. We accept items for publication from both members and non-members, and all are eligible for our annual Contributors’ Award.
