Best feature of RISCOS missing from Mac OS X?

[mdavey]

Was using RISCOS too.

Apple engineers [should be] required to have [a RISC OS computer] on their desk

Looks like there are a few RISC OS fans here. What is the best feature of RISC OS that is missing from Mac OS X?

For me, it would be a toss up between:

* The Save box - drag and drop the file icon to a Finder window to save

* Window focus model - the window environment remembers where the (text) input focus was before it was moved. When you close a window or dialog with input focus, the window environment returns the input focus to the last window or dialog that previously had the focus and is still open. IIRC, the window with input focus isn't necessarily the front-most window and clicking on the titlebar doesn't change the input focus - only clicking inside the window pane itself does.

 

[robbieduncan]

The ability to select a menu item without closing the menu. Then you could select another item from the same menu. Really usefull for say turning on Italics and Bold. Basically use one mouse button (left) for select and close and another (right iirc) for select and don't close.

Basic apps in ROM was pretty cool as well (and the whole OS being in ROM made for very fast starts).

I used to love RISCOS but it looks really dated now!

 

[whooleytoo]

The ability to select a menu item without closing the menu. Then you could select another item from the same menu. Really usefull for say turning on Italics and Bold. Basically use one mouse button (left) for select and close and another (right iirc) for select and don't close.

That's pretty handy - it may sound like a trivial feature, but the convenience (and lack of delay) of not having to open the menu multiple times would be very useful.

Given Apple's reluctance to deliver a multi-button mouse though, it's hard to see them adopting this any time soon!

 

[mdavey]

The ability to select a menu item without closing the menu.

[that] would be very useful.

Given Apple's reluctance to deliver a multi-button mouse though, it's hard to see them adopting this any time soon!

Make cmd-click on the menu item perform the action but keep the menu open - would work for me

 

[Thomas Harte]

The Save box - drag and drop the file icon to a Finder window to save

In OS X there is the "similar" feature whereby if you open a saved file (or create and save a new file) then most apps will display a titlebar with a tiny little icon in it and dragging that tiny icon to anywhere in the Finder will save a new copy of the file. If they extended that so that the icon didn't grey out on unsaved changes but instead created a copy with modifications if dragged then it'd be even more convenient that RISC OS was.

Besides that, I was really only a casual RISC OS user in that it's what all the computers at school ran, but the only Acorn I had at home was an old Electron. I therefore don't really feel qualified to answer the real question posed. That said, it'd be nice if OS X had a version of Stunt Race 2000 - that was always my favourite RISC OS feature.

 

[howesey]

I loved the pure drag and drop features of RISCOS. I also miss booting from ROM.

 

[Glen Quagmire]

Built-in BASIC interpreter. Ideal for knocking up quick (and not-so-quick) programs. Including an assembler for the sadists out there (ARM assembly language is very nice, IMHO.)
Drag and drop everywhere - save from one program into another (e.g. from Paint into Draw).

I *loved* my RISC OS computers. Absolutely adored them. RISC OS will always have a special place in my heart. I had a lot of good times, back in the days.

My history:

1983 - Acorn Electron
1987 - BBC Micro (model B)
1992 - Acorn A3010 (RISC OS 3.10)
1996 - Acorn RISC PC 610, upgraded to RISC OS 3.7, StrongARM and a whopping 64MB of RAM.

Unfortunately, after Acorn imploded in the late 1990s, I switched to the dark side. Fortunately, I'm writing this message from my Mac mini, which arrived yesterday.

After a day using OS X, it's the closest yet that I've found to reproducing that old RISC OS magic.

You can still buy RISC OS-based computers, such as the Iyonix.

 

[ddevorchik]

Built-in BASIC interpreter. Ideal for knocking up quick (and not-so-quick) programs. Including an assembler for the sadists out there (ARM assembly language is very nice, IMHO.)
Drag and drop everywhere - save from one program into another (e.g. from Paint into Draw).

Drag/Drop everywhere was one of the best features we implemented in RISC OS, the fact it was a building block for all data transfer enabled many different scenarios.

--ddevorchik
(somebody who wrote a large amount of assembler used in RISC OS from 1989-93).