I have always felt that RISC OS machines still have the edge over other home computers in two areas: ease of programming, and electronic interfacing. Now, this site is largely dedicated to the former, but I had always planned on a section dedicated to RISC OS and electronics.
Wherever you find a keen computer enthusiast, an interest in electronics is rarely far behind. Questions along the lines of "how can I get my computer to control (insert project here)" appear often. And right from the beginning, Acorn machines have been easy to connect to all manner of home projects.
There is one name which crops up often in relation to Acorn computers and electronics: Mike Cook. Mike wrote hardware-related articles for The Micro User, Acorn Computing and Acorn User right from the beginning. This long running series was called The Beeb Body Building Course, and then Run The Risc in Acorn User.
I've contacted Mike, and sadly he could not give me permission to duplicate his articles. This is because he is exploring further avenues for his material, and hopes to perhaps have the entire collection available on a CD one day. I wish him best of luck, and look forward to such a CD. I'll be first in the queue when it is released!
However, his articles are already available on the web, albeit in a slightly primitive form:
So you can still get started with your interfacing project even if you don't have a magazine collection to peruse. There is a lot of very valuable information stored there, and I recommend you browse through it all. But for the purposes of this section of tofla, I think that the following articles are of special interest:
Body Building articles for 1991 [External Link]
Body Building articles for 1994 [External Link]
Run-The-Risc articles for 1995 [External Link]
Run-The-Risc articles for 1996 [External Link]
Run-The-Risc articles for 1997 [External Link]
Run-The-Risc articles for 1998 [External Link]
(To-do!)