RewriteWP

Here is some more clarification regarding the various math fonts that I created for use with Rewrite. (Hopefully, I am remembering all of this correctly this many years later.) The original Math Epson FX-80 printer font that I created and used to write my Thesis in 1987 was called MATH.FNT The original MATH.FNT is on the REWRITE 2.5 Thesis-1.ATR disk image. At the time I gave Rewrite (version 3.x) the ability to load and use screen fonts, the then current version of the printer font MATH.FNT was renamed as MATHFX80.FNT. MATHFX80.FNT is on the REWRITE 3.1 PROGRAM 1995 2.ATR disk image. According to Rewrite's Compare function, the printer fonts MATH.FNT and MATHFX80.FNT are slightly different, but I do not remember what changes were made and I no longer have an FX-80 printer to try them out on. The latest documentation regarding this Epson FX-80 printer font, MATHFX80.FNT, is in MATHFONT. MATHFONT is a view file on the REWRITE 3.1 PROGRAM 1995 1.ATR disk image. From that point on, the filename MATH.FNT was used for a screen font that could display various math characters on the screen. MATH.FNT is on the REWRITE 3.1 PROGRAM 1995 2.ATR disk image. I ran out of characters to convert to math characters that I needed for Calculus and Statistics. So CALC.FNT and STATS.FNT are slight variants of the MATH.FNT that have a few extra characters for each of those subject areas. CALC.FNT is on the REWRITE 3.1 PROGRAM 1995 2.ATR disk image. STATS.FNT is on the REWRITE 3.1 PROGRAM 1995 2.ATR disk image. You can use the BASIC program called SUPERFNT.BAS to load these screen fonts to see which characters were changed to math characters. SUPERFNT.BAS is on the REWRITE 3.1 PROGRAM 1995 2.ATR disk image. Note: When I recently archived and released Rewrite, I no longer had a Rewrite 2.5 program disk, but I still had the source code. So I re-assembled Rewrite 2.5 and simply put the resultant AUTORUN.SYS file on a Rewrite 3.1 (1995) program disk. The resultant disk images are: REWRITE 2.5 PROGRAM 1995 1.ATR disk image. REWRITE 2.5 PROGRAM 1995 2.ATR disk image. So, that is why the year on each of these images is listed as 1995 instead of 1988. And hence, there are many things in these images that were not available in 1988 when version 2.5 was first assembled. Robert (Bob) Ertl

There are two very different files that I designed for Rewrite that are both called MATH.FNT. This confused me at first as I tried to remember the details about Rewrite. After pondering this for a while, here is what I have deduced about these files. On page 32 of my 1987 Thesis, Figure 2 shows several math symbols and formulas that were produced by Rewrite. See the file called FIGURE.2 in the disk image called REWRITE 2.5 Thesis-2.ATR. Near the beginning of that file, there is an "Include Verbatim" command line (IVMATH.FNT) which sends the contents of the file called MATH.FNT to an Epson FX-80 printer. So the file called MATH.FNT in this disk image is a printer font. Unfortunately, version 2.x of Rewrite did not yet have the ability to display any of those special math symbols appropriately on the screen. So, what you see on the screen in the FIGURE.2 document is what I had to get used to looking at as I created mathematical documents with Rewrite 2.x. A few years after that, I started using MS Word on a Mac to create printed mathematical documents and so I abandoned the above mentioned printer font called MATH.FNT. However, I did not abandon Rewrite. I had also developed a classroom team competition program for the Atari (which came to be known as the Buzzer Game) which displayed questions on the screen that needed math symbols. So I created an Atari math screen font, but unfortunately, I also named it MATH.FNT. That screen font can be found on the disk image called REWRITE 3.1 PROGRAM 1995 2.ATR along with several other screen fonts. At the same time, I gave Rewrite version 3.x the ability to load and use different screen fonts (with [OPTION] [L] [F] and [sHIFT]+[CTRL]+[#] to toggle the ANTIC modes on the screen). This allowed me to use Rewrite to easily create mathematical question banks for the Buzzer Game. To create screen fonts, I used a program from Compute! Magazine called SUPERFNT.BAS. My embellished version of that program is also in the disk image called REWRITE 3.1 PROGRAM 1995 2.ATR. If you load MATH.FNT (or STATS.FNT or CALC.FNT) from that disk image with my embellished version of SUPERFNT.BAS, you can see which characters are paired with the various math symbols. Unfortunately, those character pairings do not match the pairings that I used in my abandoned Epson FX-80 printer font described above. While it would certainly be possible to use SUPERFNT.BAS to create a screen font that matched the Epson FX-80 printer font (or vise verse), I never bothered to do that, since my FX-80 printer had by then been replaced with a Laser printer for my Mac. Having a math screen and printer font that matched, would allow Rewrite to both display and print these special characters appropriately. At this point, this would be of interest to me only if I could still use the printer font to print. Do any of you know of an Epson FX-80 Emulator or and modern printer that can pretend to be an Epson FX-80? (Note: The Atari Peripheral Emulator (APE) from ATARIMAX) emulates an Epson MX-80 printer.) (One final note: I now have the latest version of APE for Windows (3.0.13) from ATARIMAX and I am no longer experiencing any data transfer errors as I use it to transfer files from floppy disks to ATR disk images or when I use it to print documents from my Atari.) Robert (Bob) Ertl