RISC OS

RISC OS is a computer operating system designed in Cambridge, England by Acorn. First released in 1987, its origins can be traced back to the original team that developed the ARM microprocessor.

It runs on ARM processors and also on ARM emulators under Windows, MacOS and Linux. Implementations on ARM systems include Raspberry Pi, BeagleBoard, PandaBoard, OMAP5, plus desktop systems based on Wandboard (iMX.6), Titanium (Sitara AM5728) and Pinebook (RK3399).

Its code is open source, owned by RISC OS Developments Ltd. It is maintained by RISC OS Open Ltd (ROOL) and volunteers.

Vector graphics

A fundamental feature of RISC OS is its system-wide use of an extensible vector graphics file format that gives sharp resolution when displaying graphic object data at any magnification This is highly desirable in the application of mapping, and ensures that downloaded OSM data can be manipulated locally in vector format.

The vector format is called Draw, and the RISC OS bitmap format is called Sprite. Interoperability is possible by converting Draw files to PDF, SVG, WMF, EMF, and Sprites to GIF, PNG, JPEG using other programs, as well as creating bitmap versions of vector files at a specific resolution.

Application software

RiscOSM

RiscOSM is a vector map rendering application based on downloaded and converted OSM data, with which you can search for places, select the map area to display, choose the scale and style of map, and more. Both vector (Draw) and bitmap (Sprite) images can be exported. An illustrated overview is available here. Features include:

• Contour data from Ordnance Survey and NASA where available
• Map features can be included and excluded, and be set using the style editor
• Web links in maps can be opened in a browser
• Photographs that include GPS data can be dropped on a map creating location pins
• Others' photographs can be found via Geograph
• GPS track data can be dropped on a map to create tracks on the map and display an animated time/distance summary
• Routes and areas can be drawn on a map
• and considerably more detailed functionality, all fully detailed in the documentation.

Application OSMConvert is also provided to convert PBF data downloaded from OSM into a form efficiently usable by RiscOSM. Since the conversion process is long-running, the software supplier can provide files ready for RiscOSM that have been converted in the recent past.

The application and converted data are available from SineNomine.

Nominatim

Nominatim allows a user to search OpenStreetMap's Nominatim database from the RISC OS desktop.

The application is available from SineNomine.

MapView

MapView displays map tiles from OSM (and other sources) given coordinates.

The application set Map Tools, which includes MapView, is available free from PlingStore.

ProOSM+

ProOSM+ is a program designed to work with the general purpose RISC OS CAD program ProCAD+ to handle OSM data It reads a .osm file exported from OpenStreetMap.org and converts it into a ProCAD file.

Both applications are available from PlingStore.