Much of the RISC OS media scene has faltered over the last five years. Of the established printed magazines, RISC OS Now and Qercus have vanished. The CD based production RISC World has ceased, and the NEWS website Drobe is in archive mode. The disappearance of these well liked sources of RISC OS news and information is not necessarily the result of a declining market. Often a production is driven along by one or two personalities, and their commitment is invariably bound up with whatever else is going on in their lives. By all means lament the disappearace of yesteryear's mainstays but don't let that prevent an embracing of the new.

One such newbie is the downloadable PDF magazine Drag 'n' Drop. Launched a couple of years ago it shows every sign of being part of a revitalised RISC OS media scene. High time, then, for RISCOScode to give it a look over.
 
In order to review Drag 'n' Drop properly I printed out the last three issues in full colour. This impressed upon me that each contains a substantial amount of material; on average, 36 A4 pages. These are landscape, rather than portrait, and with three columns of text. The text flows around the embedded pictures and diagrams. Lavishly illustrated, the pages look purposeful and lively.
 
Drag 'n' Drop is driven along by editor Paul Stewart's passion for RISC OS. He pens many articles himself but has also managed to attract a team of competent writers. They contribute expertise, depth and innovative content. There were more fresh ideas floating around in Drag 'n' Drop than I had expected. In particular, I enjoyed reading about 'Blogging using RISC OS', 'Using a free Online Diary' and 'Google Alerts'. Each of these three tutorials stepped the reader through an online activity with care and attention to detail. Another highlight for me was an article by Gavin Wraith on doing clever things with webpages and emails using various scripting languages and tools. And I enjoyed Jon Robinson's carefully considered article on the place of RISC OS in education today.
  
Drag 'n' Drop has fully embraced the retro gaming scene. Matthew Thompson writes at length on the soon to be released 'Repton -The Lost Realms' while Paul himself energetically reviews half a dozen games that have recently been ported to RISC OS.
 
Clearly an enthusiast's endeavour, Drag 'n' Drop has a number of quirks and layout issues that would not be there if it were a news-stand publication. Personally, I think that's part of its charm. It's a young enterprise, and I suspect that Paul has learnt a lot from his involvement with it. It'll be interesting to see how Drag 'n' Drop evolves. As it is, Drag 'n' Drop is contributing something different and new to the RISC OS media scene. It's definitely worth supporting.

Drag 'n' Drop editor Paul Stewart.
The photo was taken at a RISC OS christmas show a few years ago.

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