Castle have published a meek road map of their view on the future of RISC OS development, which is about time too, given that they own it.The RISC OS 5 developers have pledged to keep the Norcroft C/C++ compiler toolset up to date, but they say updating the RISC OS core is "commercially rewarding work" and "has the highest priority". Such development has, according to Castle, led to further support for ARM processor cores.
Future desktop enhancements, under the codename Merlin, will include: filer enhancements, extended graphics capabilities and network services, USB performance and connectivity, audio input, window manager enhancements, ROM application (Paint, Edit, etc.) enhancements and last but not least, bug fixes. These updates will be gradually released to end users, and Castle may introduce a pay structure for some features.
Castle have also opened a features wishlist, billed as a "6 week period of open consultation with the RISC OS community to assist Castle's management in allocating development resources through its internal Green Paper."
The Merlin website adds: "At the end of the 6 week consultation, Castle will begin processing the Wishlist database and compare it to their 'Green Paper'. Once processed, the Wishlist database entries will be made available along with Castle's comments and preliminary projections of future development plans."
The parallels between today's announcement and the early days of RISC OS Select are uncanny: RISCOS Ltd. also talked of C/C++ compiler updates, also opened a wishlist, also published a road map of desktop enhancements and also launched a scheme of periodic updates. Castle have also all of a sudden begun, uncharacteristically, pre-announcing activities and products: firstly, beta USB2 support is demonstrated at the Wakefield show, and then talk of un-named projects involving 50,000 units. As the divide between RISC OS 5 and 4 ever widens, Castle are either feeling the heat from the combined popularity of VirtualRPC and Select, or they have much to talk about.
Links
Project Merlin website
Press release