Oric Explorer

This is the new official Oric Explorer GitHub repository at https://github.com/oric-software/OricExplorer, imported from the original version that was initially published and maintained at https://github.com/laurentd75/OricExplorer.

This software was originally written by Scott Davies (http://oric.mrandmrsdavies.com/ -- archived in the Wayback Machine Internet Archive at https://web.archive.org/web/20190609120811/http://oric.mrandmrsdavies.com/).

First documented and published to GitHub by Laurent D. (https://github.com/laurentd75) in September 2018 at https://github.com/laurentd75/OricExplorer.

Moved to the oric-software GitHub organization (https://github.com/oric-software/) by retroric (https://github.com/retroric) on 25 September 2020.

Primarily maintained by Damien P. aka dipisoft (https://github.com/dipisoft).

Presentation and History

Oric Explorer is a .Net GUI application (running primarily on Windows but also compatible with macOS & Linux) for exploring collections of Oric media, primarily tape and floppy disk images of various formats. Features include viewing text and binary data, pictures, and code with syntax highlighting pertaining to software designed for the different models of Oric 8-bit computers: Oric 1, Oric Atmos, and Oric Telestrat.

This application was originally created and developed by Scott Davies and published on his web site at http://oric.mrandmrsdavies.com/ (now archived at https://web.archive.org/web/20190609120811/http://oric.mrandmrsdavies.com/).

The first version of Oric Explorer (referred to as "v0.70" in the application and on the author's website, although the executable file bore the "0.69.0" internal version number) was released circa November 2008.

A tentative "2.0" version (more like a "1.5" version in the words of the author himself) was released and temporarily made available for download circa 2015 and actually bore the "1.0.0" internal version.

This 2.0 version was also distributed with issue 317 of the French CEO Magazine in September 2016 (in the 317_options.zip file coming with the mag).

A 2-part detailed review of this version was published in issues 317 (September 2016) and 318 (October 2016) of the French CEO magazine.

The current "Work in Progress" version 2.0 of this application stands as of 24 March 2018, and is significantly different from the previous "v2.0" that was previously released.

The original description for this application is reproduced below:

Oric Explorer is a Windows application with a similar look and feel to Windows Explorer. It has been designed to help you manage your collection of virtual Oric tapes (.tap) and disks (.dsk).

With Oric Explorer, you are able to view the files and programs stored in the disk and tapes, displaying their contents in various formats such as a BASIC listing, 6502 disassembly or a hex dump. It can also display TEXT and HIRES screens along with Character sets.

A handy feature of Oric Explorer is the ability to display data embedded within a program using the Data Viewer, this can be Text, HIRES data or character sets.

Development status

Oric Explorer is currently maintained by Damien P. (dipisoft on GitHub). If you are interested in further developing and maintaining this software, you are encouraged to participate by getting in touch with the oric-software GitHub organization members (https://github.com/oric-software) or using the CEO forums (http://forums.oric.org/) or the Defence Force forum (http://forum.defence-force.org/).

See the thread that was initially started on the Defence Force forum when this softare was first published on GitHub: http://forum.defence-force.org/viewtopic.php?t=1829

Please also read AuthorsNotes.md which is a copy of an email sent to Laurent D. by Scott on 23 April 2018 that explains in detail the status of the software when it was first open-sourced and the reasons why Scott had to stop development.

Please acknowledge the original author's name and wishes in all further development and abide by the CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 licence this project was placed under (see OricExplorer-LICENCE-CC-BY-NC-SA-4.0.md or .txt file).

Development Environment Prerequisites

Oric Explorer is a graphical Microsoft .Net application written in the C# language. The current version targets v4.5.2 of the Microsoft .Net framework, and version 6.0 of the C# language.

As such, it requires version 2015 of Microsoft Visual Studio as a minimum (although Visual Studio 2013 can be used, it requires adding support for C# v6.0 through a specific add-on package).

The recommended development environment is Microsoft Visual Studio 2017. Any edition of Visual Studio can be used, including the free "Community" edition, since Oric Explorer is a free, non-commercial application.

The recommended steps for setting up your development environment are as follows:

• Download and install .NET Framework 4.5.2 :

  The runtime can be downloaded from https://www.microsoft.com/net/download/visual-studio-sdks

• Download and install the latest version of Visual Studio Community Edition:

  Go to https://www.visualstudio.com/fr/downloads/

Building

Building the application is currently a manual task that must be carried out from within the Visual Studio IDE.

The steps involved are as follows :

• open the OricExplorer.sln file in Visual Studio
• Select "Build solution" from the "Build" menu. This will build both "Debug" and "Release" versions of the application in corresponding subdirectories of the OricExplorer\bin subtree.

For additional information on Building and Cleaning Projects and Solutions in Visual Studio, please refer to https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-US/library/5tdasz7h.aspx.

Packaging

The "Installer" subdirectory of the Oric Explorer source contains installation scripts meant to be used with NSIS (The Nullsoft Scriptable Install System, an open-source system to create Windows installation programs available from http://nsis.sourceforge.net).

However, these scripts are currently unfinished and will NOT work as expected. Specifically, in the main installation script (OricExplorerInstaller.nsi):

• the main installation function for the programme (CopyOricExplorerExecutable) is currently not implemented (OricExplorerInstaller.nsi lines 154-158)

• there are disabled (commented) lines with hard-coded paths (see lines 24, 121, 124, 138, 142,157, 200)

Therefore, until the installation scripts are fully tested and ironed out, the recommended packaging method so far is to build the project under Visual Studio and then ZIP the full contents of the OricExplorer\bin\Release directory. The resulting ZIP should be copied to the "dist" directory and its name should include details about the version and build date.

The generated ZIP file can then be used as a distributable file: for installing Oric Explorer, users will simply need to extract the contents of the ZIP to a suitable location.

Side notes:

• my personal opinion is that while being free, the NSIS installer is not a very good option as it is quite cumbersome to use. There may be other installers better suited to the task.

• In any case, I do not think it is worth wasting any time working on an installer for this programme, especially since a fully-fledged installer would require to package the .Net framework redistributable files and installer, which would take up a huge amount of space. As it stands, the current manual means of installation is not overly complicated and is probably suitable for most users.

Installing and Running

• Prerequisites:

  The Microsoft .NET Framework version 4.5.2 : must be installed on the target machine prior to installing and running Oric Explorer. The required installer package can be downloaded from https://www.microsoft.com/net/download/visual-studio-sdks

• Installing:

  Installing Oric Explorer currently consists in extracting the contents of the ZIP file in the dist/ subdirectory at the location of your choice. It is advisable NOT to extract it to "Program Files", as this location should be reserved for programs with proper installers (this is only a piece of advice, you may have a different opinion on this!).

  The program can thus be run from any directory on any drive (including thumb drives), as long as the prerequisite .Net 4.5.2 SDK library is installed on the host machine.

• Running:

  To run the application, you only have to launch the OricExplorer.exe file form within the installation directory (you may wish to create a shortcut to the application and add it to the Windows Start Menu for convenience).

Cross-platform compatibility

Although this application was primarily and solely targeted at the Microsoft Windows platform, it should normally be compatible with Linux and macOS platforms, thanks to the Mono project (https://www.mono-project.com/) that brings Microsoft .Net compatibility to Linux and macOS environments.

Likewise, the MonoDevelop IDE (https://www.monodevelop.com/) can normally be used in lieu of the Visual Studio IDE to edit, build and run the project on either the Windows, macOS or Linux platforms.

Copyright and Licensing

Oric Explorer is (c) Scott Davies, original creator and author of this application.

Scott agreed to distribute the source of his work in April 2018, on condition that he will be given due credit as the original author.

Since this application was always meant to be free for the Oric community, the following license model was chosen:

This software is ruled by the Creative Commons License CC BY-NC-SA, version 4.0.

See https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/ for a descripti