Word Processing on ST to publish on Windows

[Rick Dangerous]

You can get marcel at the essential software list:https://sites.google.com/site/stessential/wordprocessors

 

Dont expect much thou since you cant use fonts.

 

Thanks this is great! Would the easiest way to get this on my ST be to unzip the file and put it on my Ultrasatan SD card, running it from there? I am still a newb with the ST and trying to figure things out.

[Fletch]

Yes. The Ultrasatan will be seen by the ST as a hard drive and you will be able to run programs from the SD card just as if it were any other hard drive.

 

As long as your SD card was formatted by either HD Driver or PPera's hard disk driver in a manner that is readable by both an ST and a Mac/PC, you can just pop the SD card into your PC/Mac and copy the files you want to use on the ST.

 

It is very convenient. But again, the SD card must be formatted to be used on both platforms. I've seen Ultrasatans sold with the SD card formatted with ICD Pro and that will work great on the ST. However, ICD Pro formatted SD cards will not be readable by a PC/Mac.

[Rick Dangerous]

As long as your SD card was formatted by either HD Driver or PPera's hard disk driver in a manner that is readable by both an ST and a Mac/PC, you can just pop the SD card into your PC/Mac and copy the files you want to use on the ST.

 

Awesome, I will request this specifically next week when ordering my Ultrasatan. Appreciate the help everyone.

[Atari74user]

I would also recommend the Papyrus and NVDI combination. By far the best and most powerful Word Processer for the Atari range, in fact, one of the best written pieces of software for your Atari in my humble opinion. It can still hold it's head up today regardless. You can also grab it here along with other WPs mentioned in this thread as mentioned: https://sites.google.com/site/stessential/wordprocessors

 

However you will not find the last incarnation of Papyrus X as it is still being sold under license, also as mentioned.

 

As far as NVDI, Google is your friend

 

Lastly, don't discount the Suska GigaFile, often forgotten but much more beautifully designed, a smaller footprint than any SSD connected externally to your Atari, and perhaps more solidly built, again my opinion, not to discredit the wonderful work that goes into the Ultrasatan of course. However, perhaps not as cost effective, but worth it, but at least you have a few good choices in the Ultrasatan, CosmosEx and GigaFile: http://shop.inventronik.de/store/10

 

So you do have some offerings.

Edited November 13, 2015 by Atari74user

[Atari74user]

 

Thanks this is great! Would the easiest way to get this on my ST be to unzip the file and put it on my Ultrasatan SD card, running it from there? I am still a newb with the ST and trying to figure things out.

You can also un-zip Zip files on your Atari using STZip, as opposed to un-zipping on your PC first: https://sites.google.com/site/stessential/archiver-tools

[Rick Dangerous]

Welp,

 

Downloaded the HD Driver demo, until I hear back from Lotharek whether he likes that or Pera's better, and downloaded

 

-Marcel

 

-Papyrus

 

Hoping to get something working on the ST tonight....

 

I don't need fonts, just a working word processor that saves to RTF so I can transfer it to my PC.

 

I have the HDDriver on my SD cart but would you format it to be recognized on my mac or does it format in the ST? I'm not sure how this works. Sorry for all the dumb questions.

Edited January 28, 2016 by travistouchdown

[galax]

You configure and partition the SD card from the ST, and the first partition on the card is visible when the card is inserted into a PC or Mac.

 

I would go with PP's driver- it's cheaper, smaller, simpler, and I believe faster. Here's how easy it is to set up a new SD card and transfer files across (6 minutes including my waffling!) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4qoat_1cuBo

[Rick Dangerous]

You configure and partition the SD card from the ST, and the first partition on the card is visible when the card is inserted into a PC or Mac.

 

I would go with PP's driver- it's cheaper, smaller, simpler, and I believe faster. Here's how easy it is to set up a new SD card and transfer files across (6 minutes including my waffling!) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4qoat_1cuBo

 

Thanks! Lotharek explained the process and that I do the partitioning and formatting on the ST itself. I also emailed Pera with a request to buy his driver.

[gozar]

(Almost three years after this topic was started...)

 

I'm quite surprised there hasn't been any mention of Markdown. If you write in Markdown, you get plain, readable, text that can be converted into any format you want. For example, my last research paper was written in Vim using Markdown, and then converted to .docx with Pandoc. For Markdown you would just need a word processor that can save as ASCII.

 

Another route you can take is to use the Atari as a terminal to a unix box. Then you can use any console base word processing app (such as Vim) and still get all of the easy backup, version, etc. (If you have a CosmosEX, can you access the Pi command line from the Atari?)

 

[Rick Dangerous]

You configure and partition the SD card from the ST, and the first partition on the card is visible when the card is inserted into a PC or Mac.

 

I would go with PP's driver- it's cheaper, smaller, simpler, and I believe faster. Here's how easy it is to set up a new SD card and transfer files across (6 minutes including my waffling!) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4qoat_1cuBo

 

Apparently you have to write a 15mb DMG file to the SD card to get the ST to recognize it.

 

Anyone a know a good free Windows program to accomplish this? I am begging to get some grey hairs trying to get this to work

 

I love playing around with old computers, i'm just not a good programmer and not good at this kind of stuff..

[+DarkLord]

Too bad you're not using Linux. Then you could use mtools. I take my STacy's SD

card from the ultrasatan, insert it into a reader via usb cable, and voila! read and

transfer anything from the card. You do have to get familiar with a command line

though.

[Christos]

(Almost three years after this topic was started...)

 

I'm quite surprised there hasn't been any mention of Markdown. If you write in Markdown, you get plain, readable, text that can be converted into any format you want. For example, my last research paper was written in Vim using Markdown, and then converted to .docx with Pandoc. For Markdown you would just need a word processor that can save as ASCII.

 

Another route you can take is to use the Atari as a terminal to a unix box. Then you can use any console base word processing app (such as Vim) and still get all of the easy backup, version, etc. (If you have a CosmosEX, can you access the Pi command line from the Atari?)

 

 

I've never heard of Markdown, I guess you need to use some kind of tag system to write your text and then pass it through a converter to get to your result. There are three problems with this approach, a you need to be familiar with the language structure b. it's definitely not wysiwyg and c. you need an external machine to do the actual conversion. It could help solve the utf issue though.

Edited January 30, 2016 by Christos

[galax]

Apparently you have to write a 15mb DMG file to the SD card to get the ST to recognize it.

 

Anyone a know a good free Windows program to accomplish this? I am begging to get some grey hairs trying to get this to work

Take a look at the video I posted above, I use PP's program to partition an unformatted SD card from the ST without any help from a PC.

 

You do have to get the partitioning software onto the ST though. There are lots of ways to do that, one way is to use another SD card that you formatted on the PC. You could use this disk image of ganes and the software linked from this page: http://atari.8bitchip.info/DiskImgPP1.html

Edited January 30, 2016 by galax

[Rick Dangerous]

Take a look at the video I posted above, I use PP's program to partition an unformatted SD card from the ST without any help from a PC.

 

You do have to get the partitioning software onto the ST though. There are lots of ways to do that, one way is to use another SD card that you formatted on the PC. You could use this disk image of ganes and the software linked from this page: http://atari.8bitchip.info/DiskImgPP1.html

 

Giving it a try now.

 

UPDATE: No luck with this IMG either.. I think i am doing something wrong, or the program doesn't work to write the actual image to the SD. Moving this conversation over here:

 

http://atariage.com/forums/topic/248526-why-is-this-so-hard-writing-a-disc-image-to-an-sd-card-using-pperas-prog/

 

But will continue this conversation once I get Marcel and Papyrus up and running! (one of these days soon hopefully)

Edited January 30, 2016 by travistouchdown

[gozar]

 

I've never heard of Markdown, I guess you need to use some kind of tag system to write your text and then pass it through a converter to get to your result. There are three problems with this approach, a you need to be familiar with the language structure b. it's definitely not wysiwyg and c. you need an external machine to do the actual conversion. It could help solve the utf issue though.

 

 

Markdown has become almost a pseudo standard for writing on the web. There are related markup languages, such as RestructedText, and the screen writing version, Fountain.

 

The markup takes about 5 minutes to learn. Here's an example:

# This is a heading

Here is an example  of *emphasized* text, which can also be written with _underscores instead of 
asterisks_. For strong emphasis, you **double** the __character__. (I usually only use asterisks.)

Blank lines separate paragraphs.

For an unordered list, use * or - at the start of a line.

- Item 1
- Item 2

1. Numbered 1
1. Numbered 2
1. Numbered 3

(You don't have to manually number the lines.)

## Heading 2

Links are the hardest part to remember, it's brackets and then parenthesis. Brackets around the text
for the link, and parenthesis around the link, [here's my website](http://gtia.com).

The idea is to create a file that is readable in its ascii form, but to also easily convert to any format you want. No, it's not wysiwyg, and you're not going to create brochures or pamphlets in it, but you are going to be able to create novels, blog posts, and screenplays in it.

 

Advantages are:

• Totally open format, you'll always be able to open your Markdown formatted files. Everything I write is usually in Dropbox.
• Easily converted to your chosen format. Need an ePub, Mobi, and .docx file? No problem.
• Can be edited with any hardware or software that can save as ASCII.
• Easily version controlled with git.

For use on 8-bits, the files can be used as is. For 16 bits, they could be used as is or a script/program written to convert the Markdown to the format you want, such as .rtf. No external program needed.

 

Downside is using git. Git is based on lines, so each paragraph is one line to git, so when using it for version control if you change one word in a paragraph, git will show the entire paragraph as changed.

 

This thread is inspired me to get ST Writer going on my Mega STe for some writing tasks since it's keyboard is awesome!

[Rick Dangerous]

I think we have a winner:

 

Marcel

 

-It works

-Its simple

-it's a program file, no install needed

-docs saved at .rtf show up as word doc on my pc

 

Will still check out Papyrus but very happy with Marcel so far!!

Edited January 31, 2016 by travistouchdown

[leech]

By the way, for back up purposes, you can always set up NFS, save it to the network share and have that version controlled. I have a NetUSBee connected to my Falcon, and that id's hogs I pull over software.

[Rick Dangerous]

Have been word processing on my ST lately. Marcel. The keyboard is so steep I just need a second wrist pad to double up so the angle is better. Otherwise with the best keyboard cup replacements it types quite nicely...

[leech]

Ha, that was the first 'mod' I did to my new 1040STe, put in the 'TT Touch'. Also have that in my Falcon. After being used to some newer mechanical keyboards, the stock keyboard for the STe / Falcon was terribly mushy. I have some serious arthritis or something in my knuckles, so typing on something like that for a short mount of time even just hurts.

 

Would love a full on mechanical keyboard replacement.

[Amimitl2]

Although it might be a bit overkill using it on a stock Atari ST with 1MB, when it comes to its memory usage. An alternative can also be Joe (the HTML editor)*, which is quite nice for writing HTML pages. It also has the nice feature of writing foreign characters, when you type them, directly as HTML code, instead of the letter. The reason I point this out is that if you type a document with foreign letters directly and save it, you will need to convert the font table to be PC compatible, with a program like Blinex, or else the foreign letters will become strange symbols instead. The Atari font table is fine to use and open on PCs, as long as you type in English though.

 

And with writing a document in HTML, you will be able to open it in any web browser on the modern platform, while keeping the formatting intact. And by using a suitable HTML editor on the modern platform as well, you could quite easily write back and forth between the platforms.

 

* https://ptonthat.fr/joe-html-editor/

[leech]

What would be nice is if one of the word processors could be updated to include support for ODF. Any of the word processors modular enough to be able to do this?