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ACTION! Reference Manual


remowilliams

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Wow, thanks a lot! This is one of the most sought-after Atari 8bit-related documents that never made it to a publicly available downloadable form. I think I was looking for the bytes for this ten years ago (I eventually got an early version of it in hardcopy). Did you do it, Remo? If so you've done a real service to the community and enabled more new Action! software to be authored.

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Wow, thanks a lot! This is one of the most sought-after Atari 8bit-related documents that never made it to a publicly available downloadable form. I think I was looking for the bytes for this ten years ago (I eventually got an early version of it in hardcopy). Did you do it, Remo? If so you've done a real service to the community and enabled more new Action! software to be authored.

Yes, I did the scan myself. I was really glad to see the beat up Action! manual in a box of other stuff while I was looking for another manual, and since I've never seen it available anywhere I moved it to the top of the scan pile. :)

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Thanks, Remowilliams!

 

I have just finished editing the document, and have fully bookmarked every section & subsection. I'll be posting it over the next few days.

 

It appears that the language is more closely related to ALGOL 60 than ALGOL 68, as the Wikipedia page on Action! incorrectly states. In particular, it appears that Action! is specifically a subset of the language known as JOVIAL. I will post my findings... right now, I'm comparing a lot of code examples from various ALGOL variants.

 

JOVIAL has a VERY colorful history of being used as the exclusive language for all of the command & control systems at NORAD, in B-52s, missile systems, and all sorts of interesting military gear. Interestingly, it was in use up until 2009, when it was finally phased out.

 

Aside from the obvious cool-factor of being the NORAD programming language, the USAF spec-ed out the 1984 version of JOVIAL (in this document)... & let me tell you, it is one of the best spec-ed languages that I have ever seen. I am very inclined to believe that the programmer of Action! had been a US military programmer (the specific outline format used for the Action! manual is kind of a dead giveaway, with it's military-document-derived outline style). So, I'm going to be doing a bit more research into finding support for this hypothesis.

 

In any case, the JOVIAL Manual, listed above contains a very clearly delineated path to upgrade the Action! language.

 

I'm pretty psyched about Action! & JOVIAL... even though I'm finding out about them years after the fact... Ironically, all of the pseudocode that I've written since high school is essentially ALGOL... I just didn't know that was it's name... ha.

 

So, anyway, I'll be posting a fully bookmarked version of the Action! manual, pretty soon... just to help to avoid anyone's potential duplication of effort. You will find it to be a manual of superlative quality with a great deal of attention to detail. 

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 No, I was mistaken. Action! is closer to ALGOL 68, than to ALGOL 60. 

 

& It has bits of c, pascal, ada, & Modula-II thrown in for good measure. Ha.

 

As far as JOVIAL is concerned, it was supposedly derived from ALGOL 60... this was probably a reference to an earlier version of JOVIAL, because the 1984 version in the B/N format, in the above link, seems to correspond more to ALGOL 68... hence my mistake. I spent a lot of time searching out source code, and it is now very obvious that Action is definitely a relative of ALGOL 68.

 

I would imagine that there were more millions of lines of code written for JOVIAL, than for most languages (being that it's a US DOD language for... ahem... VERY high-end hardware)... but guess what? There is exactly >ZERO< JOVIAL source code on the web. This must be Homeland Security related.

 

Anyway, just wanted to clear up that Action! is a definitely a relative of ALGOL 68, not ALGOL 60. It is also related to the JOVIAL version in the 1984 MIL-STD-1589C definition of JOVIAL. The 1984 MIL-STD-1589C JOVIAL spec appears to be the final spec that was used until 2009.

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 No, I was mistaken. Action! is closer to ALGOL 68, than to ALGOL 60. 

 

& It has bits of c, pascal, ada, & Modula-II thrown in for good measure. Ha.

 

As far as JOVIAL is concerned, it was supposedly derived from ALGOL 60... this was probably a reference to an earlier version of JOVIAL, because the 1984 version in the B/N format, in the above link, seems to correspond more to ALGOL 68... hence my mistake. I spent a lot of time searching out source code, and it is now very obvious that Action is definitely a relative of ALGOL 68.

 

I would imagine that there were more millions of lines of code written for JOVIAL, than for most languages (being that it's a US DOD language for... ahem... VERY high-end hardware)... but guess what? There is exactly >ZERO< JOVIAL source code on the web. This must be Homeland Security related.

 

Anyway, just wanted to clear up that Action! is a definitely a relative of ALGOL 68, not ALGOL 60. It is also related to the JOVIAL version in the 1984 MIL-STD-1589C definition of JOVIAL. The 1984 MIL-STD-1589C JOVIAL spec appears to be the final spec that was used until 2009.

 

Either way Ation! is very cool so having a fully indexed manaul is great! I also like how you can inject machine code into your Action! source by doing something like

[$3c $65 $23] etc

 

I am still amazed at how many languages were available on the atari 8-bit.

 

Currently I have copies of

Action!

MAC/65

Atari Assembler

Atari Macro Assembler

Pilot

Microsoft Basic II

Forth

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Nice job, as usual "remo"!

 

Actually, the full manual was made available in August, "down" in the 8-bit programming forum: Action Toolkit Thread ...although somewhat hidden, and without the authentic covers.

 

Not to take anything from you "remo"... you are "the man" with scanning the manuals. :thumbsup: Can't say thanks enough for all the effort, and that you're willing to share them here.

Edited by MrFish
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That's OK, this will be the "Definitive Edition" of the Action! Language Reference Manual. Douglas Engelbart, himself, would be proud at the EXTREME level of bookmarking & intra-document hyperlinking that I've applied to this document.

 

I've made a very cohesive document that will stand the test of time. When you see it, I'm inclined to believe that you will also feel this way.

 

In summary, I've just finished ALL of the work (believe me, this was a labor of love; money can't buy this level of professionalism... well, maybe A LOT of money...lol...).

 

I still have to fully test all links (one by one) and give the OCR results a final once-over, in the sanity checking department.

 

It will be ready for distribution soon.

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Nice job, as usual "remo"!

 

Actually, the full manual was made available in August, "down" in the 8-bit programming forum: Action Toolkit Thread ...although somewhat hidden, and without the authentic covers.

LOL, yeah, right past the sign, in the basement, that says, "Beware of the Leopard"....

 

"But Mr. Dent, the plans have been available in the local planning office for the last nine months."

"Oh yes, well, as soon as I heard I went straight round to see them, yesterday afternoon. You hadn't exactly gone out of your way to call attention to them, had you? I mean, like actually telling anybody or anything."

"But the plans were on display..."

"On display? I eventually had to go down to the cellar to find them."

"That's the display department."

"With a flashlight."

"Ah, well, the lights had probably gone."

"So had the stairs."

"But look, you found the notice, didn't you?"

"Yes," said Arthur, "yes I did. It was on display on the bottom of a locked filing cabinet stuck in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying 'Beware of the Leopard.'"

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Nice job, as usual "remo"!

 

Actually, the full manual was made available in August, "down" in the 8-bit programming forum: Action Toolkit Thread ...although somewhat hidden, and without the authentic covers.

LOL, yeah, right past the sign, in the basement, that says, "Beware of the Leopard"....

 

"But Mr. Dent, the plans have been available in the local planning office for the last nine months."

"Oh yes, well, as soon as I heard I went straight round to see them, yesterday afternoon. You hadn't exactly gone out of your way to call attention to them, had you? I mean, like actually telling anybody or anything."

"But the plans were on display..."

"On display? I eventually had to go down to the cellar to find them."

"That's the display department."

"With a flashlight."

"Ah, well, the lights had probably gone."

"So had the stairs."

"But look, you found the notice, didn't you?"

"Yes," said Arthur, "yes I did. It was on display on the bottom of a locked filing cabinet stuck in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying 'Beware of the Leopard.'"

 

Hahaha... yes, exactly. Nobody seems to venture down there much. I guess it's because it's all the way at the bottom of all the forums, and it is kinda damp and dusty down there...

 

One nice thing about the recent forum software update is that you can collapse all the forum sections between here and there, if you don't use them anyway, and then it's not such a long scroll to get there. ;)

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  • 3 weeks later...

OK, as promised: The Definitive Edition of the Action! Reference Manual

 

I have gone over this document with a fine-toothed comb. Everything is set up properly, with the cover images properly re-sized, to allow for correct viewing in the now default View setting of "Fit-Width". I have added all Bookmarks, using a comprehensive hierarchical outline structure, to reflect the intended Outline-Structure delineated in the Contents of the original manual. I have also Highlighted every clickable link within the document. Every link is also Cross-Referenced, meaning that the Bookmarks go to the correct Page Destinations AND every single Highlighted Section & Subsection can be clicked (within the document itself) to jump to it's hierarchical parent node Contents Page. This means that the ENTIRE document is Hyperlinked!

 

I did it this way so as to have a very ergonomic interface, in terms of eliminating wasted motion; meaning that the .pdf document works just as fast as skimming a physical manual, when looking for commands & informative text (which is normally the case, when programming while referencing a user manual). 

 

I hope that you enjoy this document! It took quite some time to implement all of the new structures, & check them for Link Accuracy. If you stumble across any missed links, please report them here, and I'll update the document for re-distribution as a revision.

 

Have fun!

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OK, as promised: The Definitive Edition of the Action! Reference Manual

 

I have gone over this document with a fine-toothed comb. Everything is set up properly, with the cover images properly re-sized, to allow for correct viewing in the now default View setting of "Fit-Width". I have added all Bookmarks, using a comprehensive hierarchical outline structure, to reflect the intended Outline-Structure delineated in the Contents of the original manual. I have also Highlighted every clickable link within the document. Every link is also Cross-Referenced, meaning that the Bookmarks go to the correct Page Destinations AND every single Highlighted Section & Subsection can be clicked (within the document itself) to jump to it's hierarchical parent node Contents Page. This means that the ENTIRE document is Hyperlinked!

 

I did it this way so as to have a very ergonomic interface, in terms of eliminating wasted motion; meaning that the .pdf document works just as fast as skimming a physical manual, when looking for commands & informative text (which is normally the case, when programming while referencing a user manual). 

 

I hope that you enjoy this document! It took quite some time to implement all of the new structures, & check them for Link Accuracy. If you stumble across any missed links, please report them here, and I'll update the document for re-distribution as a revision.

 

Have fun!

 

 

Wow thanks for doing this, impressive work

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Oooh, thanks for this!

i *loved* Action! back in the day

You're welcome! Glad that you find this useful.

 

Anyone who has any sort of inkling to program on the Atari should really download the Definitive Edition of the Action! Reference Manual... the Action! language can be used to make great, professional-level software. This incarnation of the manual makes the language very easy for anyone to understand & use. So, if you haven't gotten it yet, give it a go, and try it out.

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  • 1 year later...

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