What application would you like to see on the A8?

[flashjazzcat]

Following on from a suggestion made a few days ago on this very forum, I'm interested to know what "serious" applications people would like to see on the 8-bit Atari. Is there a gap in the range of productivity software, for example, or some utility you'd love to see implemented on the 8-bit platform? What about operating systems? Windowed environments? File managers? The VBXE edition of The Last Word is in the pipeline. What other (non-game) programs would you like to see written for VBXE?

[snicklin]

A graphical internet browser would be nice. I suspect that implementing the TCP/IP stack and decoding JPEGs would be enough to fill the Atari's RAM though.

 

Personally I'd like to see a lot more PC software for Atari cross development.

[dwhyte]

Personally I'd like to see a lot more PC software for Atari cross development.

 

I agree with you on that one. An all-in-one IDE, much like C64 Program Generator, would be a nice addition to A8 cross platform tools.

[+Philsan]

GEOS.

[MEtalGuy66]

A REAL SpartaDOS Hardisk defrag, directory repair, file recovery, etc. utility..

 

Might also add the ability to make compressed backup images of drives..

 

Basically, a suite of utilities similar to AmiBACK tools on the AMIGa, or NORTON Utilities on the PC (back in the DOS days when Norton's stuff was still decent.)

 

 

 

Another thing that would REALLy rock is a seriously powerful file manager like Norton Commander or QDOS was on the PC..

 

For instance, something that would allow you to surf a directory tree, choose a directory and open a file manager screen, where you could then tag files, choose an operation (eg, copy or move) and then go back to the directory tree, navigate to another directory (eg. destination) and have it copy all the files in one shot..

 

Right now, theres no utility that allows you to quickly and efficiently reorganize files on your hardisk.. Theres a few file managers out, but they are limited and cumbersome compared to the way QDOS was on the PC, and theres really no reason (with effective use of extended ram) that something similar couldn't be done on the atari.. QDOS ran fine on an 8-bit XT, and SpartaDOS has evolved to a point where it is if anything more advanced than DOS 3.3 was at the time..

 

Because the way things are now, with the current "file managers" that are available, I'm much faster just using the command line than I can manage to get things done using the existing/available file managers.

 

Considering your work on The Last Word, I think that this is something well within the scope your coding abilities, and you could really do an excellent job with it.. And I'd be happy to help in any way i can..

Edited September 20, 2009 by MEtalGuy66

[Mr.Amiga500]

I was just thinking of this question myself. Now that I have an SDrive NUXX and loading and saving is fast and easy, I was wondering what programs I could find that could actually make my Atari useful (aside from just games). The problem is - it's really hard to think of something I can't already do on my Amiga or PC.

 

Both the Atari and Amiga are silent and boot up much faster than the PC, so I'd probably focus on simple things I need to do quickly - like make a quick note or log, maybe even a simple database or spreadsheet. Sometimes I need to just turn on the computer, enter a couple things and turn it off - without wanting to wait for long PC startup and shutdown.

 

I planned on using AtariWriter for notes, but I don't need a full wordprocessor with print capabilities. I'd like a simple editor with the same colour scheme, but no paragraph symbols after linefeed. (this is simple though and I could probably write it myself)

 

I'd really like to see a simple customisable database like XBaze on the Amiga. It's useful for daily logs & checklists.

[rchennau]

I am thinking about writing a simple Twitter update application. If I can fit the TCP/IP stack into 48K and have enough left over to send and receive XML it should be pretty nice.

[flashjazzcat]

Good ideas and suggestions so far:

 

• Graphical Internet Browser: I understand someone's already writing an HTML renderer. Quite what form it will take when finished I'm unsure, but it looks an interesting project.
• Cross-platform IDEs: I use WUDSN at the moment, and it's fast shaping up into a fairly complete solution. I've never seen the C64 Program Generator, but it sounds great. I have no experience writing PC software at the moment, but I'm sure there are plenty of PC wizards prepared to take on the job.
• GEOS: Interesting, particularly since I propose to start writing my own GUI before the end of the year. I actually got hold of the GEOS source code with a view to doing a straight port to the Atari. However, the source code is largely uncommented and hard to follow. An even bigger problem is that there's no source code for the GEOS applications yet. It would be nice to have just run C64 apps on an Atari GEOS straight out of the box, so to speak, but there'll be too much C64 specific code in the applications. In any case, it might be better to start from scratch. The stumbling block will be writing all the applications over again.
• Norton Commander/Utilities for the Atari 8. Now this really appeals to me. Way back in the early nineties I played with Norton apps on an 8088 PC and I thought then that the Atari needed something similar. SDX's Menu command is by far the closest thing I've seen, and I started writing a DOS "Shell" for SDX but I basically faltered through lack of knowledge of SpartaDOS's internal workings. Well, I have that knowledge now, and if you look at The Last Word's disk menu (with tagged file copying, file viewing, etc), it's clear that by bolting a scrolling tree onto it and adding a hex/text editor, etc, you'd have a pretty decent shell. Really it should be able to launch applications as well, and become the default interface on exit to DOS. This is something I'll start working on there's a demand for it. Same goes with a defrag/recovery program.
• Simple text editor: I'm working on a stripped down version of The Last Word at the moment. There are many "simple" text editors, but many are line-based and lack word wrap. I always think it's worth having that extra bit of flexibility.

 

Keep the suggestions coming. It's good food for through for us programmers.

Edited September 20, 2009 by flashjazzcat

[+bf2k+]

With the Gigabyte HD's we are using with our MIO's now (thanks to Warerat's firmware update), we need a disk partition manager program to keep track of all the possible partitions on these bigger disks. I have thought about writing one myself but not being an ASM programmer, I think I would probably have a tough time with it. Basic function something like this:

 

• read/write/store all the partition(s) info in a data file
• create MIO config in memory from this data file
• read/write MIO Config info from/to the MIO
• ?

MIO users... what else?

 

I'd be willing to help with this...

Edited September 20, 2009 by bf2k+

[Mathy]

Hello flashjazzcat, bf2k+, guys

 

That's funny, I just wanted to suggest a partition manager for the BlackBox. You can have a lot of partition lists on the BlackBox, but at the moment, you have to remember where they are as the BB doesn't keep track of more then one partition list. It would be nice if we had a utility that would do that for you. I might have written something about the structure we (Hias and I) solved that on the Atari 8 bit boot CD on my site. Information about the configuration page and the structure of the partition list can be found at the bottom of my BlackBox page.

 

And ofcourse if you use the ASPI system, you can use the same utilities (probably excluding the partition list software) for BlackBox and MIO and ... by just loading the ASPI Manager for that piece of hardware.

 

greetings

 

Mathy

[Mathy]

Hello guys

 

How about a RAMdisk driver standard that works with all memory extensions? You'ld load a RAMdisk driver of the memory extension you have and all the software (that wants to use a memory extension) just talks to this RAMdisk driver. All variations of this driver would be called from the same entry point, so the software (not the driver) would only see if there is a "Standard Atari 8 bit RAM disk driver" compliant driver and wouldn't care about which banks are used. The driver would select the banks. For instance, you software would say, "I want to store something in bank 1 (or 2, or ...)" and the driver would select $E0 or $A8 (or whatever) depending on which memory extension you have.

 

greetings

 

Mathy

[+bf2k+]

...

And ofcourse if you use the ASPI system, you can use the same utilities (probably excluding the partition list software) for BlackBox and MIO and ... by just loading the ASPI Manager for that piece of hardware.

 

 

The ASPI interface looks very interesting. If I had something like this for MIO, I could write a front end interface to it.

[flashjazzcat]

How about a RAMdisk driver standard that works with all memory extensions? You'ld load a RAMdisk driver of the memory extension you have and all the software (that wants to use a memory extension) just talks to this RAMdisk driver. All variations of this driver would be called from the same entry point, so the software (not the driver) would only see if there is a "Standard Atari 8 bit RAM disk driver" compliant driver and wouldn't care about which banks are used. The driver would select the banks. For instance, you software would say, "I want to store something in bank 1 (or 2, or ...)" and the driver would select $E0 or $A8 (or whatever) depending on which memory extension you have.

Sounds good. The Last Word does exactly this with non-SDX systems. It detects all known memory expansions and creates a transparent interface for selecting numbered banks. A RAMdisk driver which worked the same way would enable applications which use extended RAM to live in harmony with RAMdisks. The SDX memory management system already does all this, but it might be worth writing a new RAMdisk standard for MyDOS/DOS 2.5. If an application detected the new RAMdisk, it would then be able to make calls to the resident memory manager when selecting banks.

 

...gonna write this ASAP because I want to figure out how LW will interface with it. There are lots of fun ways to go about this: could even write an "M:" CIO handler. I figure there'll be a config file on the disk as well, specifying how many banks the RAMdisk should occupy. An application should be able to detect the new driver, which will at the very least provide an ordered list of the PORTB values for all the UNUSED banks.

Edited September 20, 2009 by flashjazzcat

[NML32]

I'm still looking for a nice Diary program.

 

I posted a while back looking for one and still haven't found one worth using.

 

http://www.atariage.com/forums/topic/145645-anyone-know-of-a-diary-type-of-program/page__p__1784347__hl__diary__fromsearch__1entry1784347

 

Thanks,

Mark

[emkay]

Seriously, the A8 needs a full POKEY and GTIA supporting sound tool. It's waiting now more than 30 years to be unleashed....

[MrFish]

I'm still looking for a nice Diary program.

 

I posted a while back looking for one and still haven't found one worth using.

 

http://www.atariage....1entry1784347

 

Thanks,

Mark

 

Have you tried this one yet?

 

Calendar 1.0.zip

 

It's more of a scheduling program, but it looks to be fairly complete. Only thing is that you're limited on the size of memo for each day, which is fairly small.

[+Allan]

How about some more software to take advantage of Classic's USB cart?

 

http://www.atarimax.com/usbcart/documentation/

 

It would be cool to be able to read a USB CD Drive.

 

Allan

[NML32]

Not exactly what I'm looking for. I tried it in the emulator and couldn't figure out how to change the month and year. When I get time I will try on real hw.

 

Thanks,

Mark

 

I'm still looking for a nice Diary program.

 

I posted a while back looking for one and still haven't found one worth using.

 

http://www.atariage....1entry1784347

 

Thanks,

Mark

 

Have you tried this one yet?

 

Calendar 1.0.zip

 

It's more of a scheduling program, but it looks to be fairly complete. Only thing is that you're limited on the size of memo for each day, which is fairly small.

[MrFish]

I tried it in the emulator and couldn't figure out how to change the month and year.

 

All the commands are in the "Help" menu.

[MEtalGuy66]

With the Gigabyte HD's we are using with our MIO's now (thanks to Warerat's firmware update), we need a disk partition manager program to keep track of all the possible partitions on these bigger disks. I have thought about writing one myself but not being an ASM programmer, I think I would probably have a tough time with it. Basic function something like this:

 

• read/write/store all the partition(s) info in a data file
• create MIO config in memory from this data file
• read/write MIO Config info from/to the MIO
• ?

MIO users... what else?

 

I'd be willing to help with this...

 

The next firmware release is probably gonna include a partition manager.. Warerat has pretty much maxed out the current firmware, so the next one will be a ground-up rewrite.. We may even have to enable another adress line to add more rom space..

[Mr.Amiga500]

 

Have you tried this one yet?

 

Calendar 1.0.zip

 

It's more of a scheduling program, but it looks to be fairly complete. Only thing is that you're limited on the size of memo for each day, which is fairly small.

 

Thanks MrFish! It's a nice little schedule program. I just wish it loaded the default calendar on startup.

 

 

Not exactly what I'm looking for. I tried it in the emulator and couldn't figure out how to change the month and year. When I get time I will try on real hw.

 

Thanks,

Mark

 

I had difficulty with this too. You have to use <> to change year, () to change month, then under "Change", "Save Defaults". Next time you start it, it'll be at the right year and month. It would have been annoying to start at 1985 every time.

 

You'll still have to go to "Disk", "Load" to load your schedule though. Pity.

[sl0re]

 

Keep the suggestions coming. It's good food for through for us programmers.

 

If it has not been done, add all the various 80 col support/s to last word (including bit 3).

[MrFish]

Have you tried this one yet?

 

Calendar 1.0.zip

 

It's more of a scheduling program, but it looks to be fairly complete. Only thing is that you're limited on the size of memo for each day, which is fairly small.

 

Thanks MrFish! It's a nice little schedule program. I just wish it loaded the default calendar on startup.

 

 

Not exactly what I'm looking for. I tried it in the emulator and couldn't figure out how to change the month and year. When I get time I will try on real hw.

 

Thanks,

Mark

 

I had difficulty with this too. You have to use <> to change year, () to change month, then under "Change", "Save Defaults". Next time you start it, it'll be at the right year and month. It would have been annoying to start at 1985 every time.

 

You'll still have to go to "Disk", "Load" to load your schedule though. Pity.

 

Yea... I was optimistic that it would load the default calendar on startup too. At least it skips the startup screen after saving the default settings.

[sl0re]

Following on from a suggestion made a few days ago on this very forum, I'm interested to know what "serious" applications people would like to see on the 8-bit Atari. Is there a gap in the range of productivity software, for example, or some utility you'd love to see implemented on the 8-bit platform? What about operating systems? Windowed environments? File managers? The VBXE edition of The Last Word is in the pipeline. What other (non-game) programs would you like to see written for VBXE?

 

Web browser. If one existed I could actually use the Atari as a main computer.

 

I know it’s hard for another reason than making it work on the Atari hardware. It requires too many different skill sets. TCPIP, video, web, et cetera. To happen it would require some type collaboration between people with the right skills.

 

Round one would probably be getting the required upgrades… network card, memory upgrade, video upgrade… and settling on them as the standard. I’d been hoping one of the 6502 upgrade projects would get done as most come with a memory upgrade… as to networking, I say just give in to a chip that has its own memory and IP stack… the atari needs a little help.

 

As to what is already done, some PC picture file viewers are already out there for the atari.

[flashjazzcat]

If it has not been done, add all the various 80 col support/s to last word (including bit 3).

The reasons XEP-80/VBXE 2/etc will require a different version of The Last Word are numerous. I ran out of memory, for a start, and the software 80 column approach requires a huge 10K screen buffer for the dual display. This won't be needed for VBXE, but it's difficult to free up this memory "on the fly", so I figure I'll do a special version. Also, I don't think there'll be any real need to have a dual display with VBXE's clarity in 80 columns, so a better idea would probably be to have a 30K text buffer or something.

 

Web browser. If one existed I could actually use the Atari as a main computer.

 

I know it's hard for another reason than making it work on the Atari hardware. It requires too many different skill sets. TCPIP, video, web, et cetera. To happen it would require some type collaboration between people with the right skills.

 

Round one would probably be getting the required upgrades… network card, memory upgrade, video upgrade… and settling on them as the standard. I'd been hoping one of the 6502 upgrade projects would get done as most come with a memory upgrade… as to networking, I say just give in to a chip that has its own memory and IP stack… the atari needs a little help.

 

As to what is already done, some PC picture file viewers are already out there for the atari.

This seems to be a popular request. You're quite correct in as much it would probably have to be a collaborative effort, although I'm aware of someone who's having a crack at it on their own. There might be a nice surprise in store somewhere down the line, then. However, I think the programming skill involved in writing a web browser spills over into the much-requested GUI, and a collaborative approach to that would be the ideal way forward. Unfortunately I haven't gotten very far with the font renderer yet, which is central to the GUI project. I think things will move slowly on that unless we all get our heads together.