tschak909 Posted January 3, 2019 Author Share Posted January 3, 2019 OK! -Thom Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tschak909 Posted January 3, 2019 Author Share Posted January 3, 2019 @Albert - is the box roughly this size? https://www.ebay.com/itm/BASIC-computing-language-cartridge-for-ATARI-400-800-BRAND-NEW-SEALED-NOS/303010504277?hash=item468cd55e55:g:658AAOSwqiJb8gGp:rk:2:pf:0 -Thom Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tschak909 Posted January 4, 2019 Author Share Posted January 4, 2019 @Mr.Robot yes, there is no darker strip at the bottom, that's just a fading artifact. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gunstar Posted January 4, 2019 Share Posted January 4, 2019 (edited) I have three cartridges right here with original, unfaded labels and they are all one color. Eastern Front 1941, Atariwriter and Pacman. My others are all faded to some extent, enough to have a darker strip at the bottom. Edited January 4, 2019 by Gunstar 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tschak909 Posted January 4, 2019 Author Share Posted January 4, 2019 @Mr Robot, are you suing Columbia Serial, or Salzberg Serial for headers? -Thom Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+David_P Posted January 4, 2019 Share Posted January 4, 2019 One question: Is the minimum RAM required 8K or 16K? With a GRAPHICS 8 screen plus DOS etc, I think it needs 16K, not 8K - but the box cover says 8K. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tschak909 Posted January 4, 2019 Author Share Posted January 4, 2019 yeah, that'll change to be 16k..but it'll need further runtime tweaking, as the data section isn't quite in the bottom 16K segment...but it'll get there. -Thom Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Justin Payne Posted January 4, 2019 Share Posted January 4, 2019 (edited) Does it really work with the Touch Tablet? UPDATE: I just saw the post that it does. Sweet! Edited January 4, 2019 by Justin Payne Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Robot Posted January 4, 2019 Share Posted January 4, 2019 @Mr Robot, are you suing Columbia Serial, or Salzberg Serial for headers? -Thom Optima One Colour label : PT Label.svg.zip Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Lange Posted January 4, 2019 Share Posted January 4, 2019 This is looking really cool! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tschak909 Posted January 4, 2019 Author Share Posted January 4, 2019 yeah, I'm... ... (obviously speechless) -Thom Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tschak909 Posted January 4, 2019 Author Share Posted January 4, 2019 (edited) Meanwhile, I am working on the printed manual: The manual source is in DocBook 5.1 , and will be available shortly on github. Right now, it's all about content. I will make a custom stylesheet to match the Atari manual styles, once I've done all the content work. -Thom Edited January 4, 2019 by tschak909 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tschak909 Posted January 5, 2019 Author Share Posted January 5, 2019 OK, So I have the first pass of the manual content done. It's written in DocBook 5.1 format, which is an industry standard XML mark-up that is well geared precisely for things like software manuals. The source XML material is here: https://github.com/tschak909/platoterm64/blob/atari_cart/doc/PLATOTerm%20Cartridge%20Manual.xml I have not started extending the stylesheet, but you can see a rough draft render of the output, here: https://github.com/tschak909/platoterm64/blob/atari_cart/doc/PLATOTerm%20Cartridge%20Manual%20-%20content%20test.pdf As you can see, very well structured, with lots of semantic content that can be hooked onto by XSLT stylesheets, to produce whatever layout is wanted. I take this output and run it through xsltproc, like so: $ xsltproc -o temp.fo /usr/share/xml/docbook/stylesheet/docbook-xsl/fo/docbook.xsl PLATOTerm\ Cartridge\ Manual.xml This produces a FO (Formatting-Objects) file, which is an intermediate XML format that has lots of stylistic information in it derived from the XSLT stylesheet. This file can be turned into a PDF, like so: $ fop temp.fo output.pdf You then have the finished PDF file. Why do this? Because this way, I was able to concentrate on just getting the content done. I typed it all in, and only worried about the content and giving the content some meaning, chapters, sections, key presses, keyboard input, screen output, etc. and from this point, I do not have to touch the content much, if any, I can not only extend the stylesheet to mould the typeset output in any way I want, but it can be output to a wide variety of formats, such as PDF, EPUB, DOCX, HTML, etc, only needing to change the stylesheet as needed. So what's next? Lots of careful formatting, typesetting, and kerning to produce exactly the output I want. What's still needed? Probably better diagrams.. The goal is to make something very much circa 1982 ATARI manual What are everybody's thoughts? -Thom Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tschak909 Posted January 6, 2019 Author Share Posted January 6, 2019 Ok, so, here's the next pass of the manual, Some XSLT styling applied, fonts matched and typeset, some pagination done, still a LOT of work to be done, but you can start to see how this will look at actual manual size (5in x 7in with 1/8" margin all sides), You can view it online here: https://github.com/tschak909/platoterm64/blob/atari_cart/doc/PLATOTerm%20Cartridge%20Manual%20-%20content%20test.pdf And attached here: PLATOTerm Cartridge Manual - content test.pdf What do you guys think? -Thom 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+davidcalgary29 Posted January 6, 2019 Share Posted January 6, 2019 LOVE it! Except, of course, that glaring omission of the XEGS (and, OK, the 800XLF) in your list of “compatible” systems. You know this thread is going to be flooded with irritating chatter from the three people who use the XEGS as their main unit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flashjazzcat Posted January 6, 2019 Share Posted January 6, 2019 The manual is extremely impressive, and Mr Robot's cover art is excellent. There are some fantastically talented and creative people on this forum. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Robot Posted January 6, 2019 Share Posted January 6, 2019 Ok, so, here's the next pass of the manual, Some XSLT styling applied, fonts matched and typeset, some pagination done, still a LOT of work to be done, but you can start to see how this will look at actual manual size (5in x 7in with 1/8" margin all sides), You can view it online here: https://github.com/tschak909/platoterm64/blob/atari_cart/doc/PLATOTerm%20Cartridge%20Manual%20-%20content%20test.pdf And attached here: PLATOTerm Cartridge Manual - content test.pdf What do you guys think? -Thom That looks amazing! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tschak909 Posted January 7, 2019 Author Share Posted January 7, 2019 Have improved it a bit, see attached. PLATOTerm Cartridge Manual - content test.pdf * Added ACCESS keys table * Further typographical fixes * first attempt to fix cover, still need to reformat and change some bits I also need some replacements for the placeholder images * ATARI 810/1050/whatever * ATARI 850 * Diagram of Atari keyboard * Diagram of atari, 850, wifi modem Thoughts? -Thom 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gozar Posted January 7, 2019 Share Posted January 7, 2019 Looks good! I don't know when I'll have time to get pictures, but I'l try this week unless someone beats me to it. There is a layout issue for numbered lists once the number hits two digits, there isn't any space after the period before the text starts. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tschak909 Posted January 7, 2019 Author Share Posted January 7, 2019 Yup, I just need to increase the list margins a bit. Lots of little things like this. -Thom Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tschak909 Posted January 8, 2019 Author Share Posted January 8, 2019 Yup margins fixed...now comes trying to do color correction. the initial output on my printer is very dark, and I need to see if anyone else's output is similar. -Thom Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tschak909 Posted January 8, 2019 Author Share Posted January 8, 2019 Ok, revised body, no cover matter. I need to figure out how to add that DIRECTLY to the document without needing to assemble it later by hand. Can somebody do a test print on their printers to see the legibility and if the blue prints too dark? (my CLP-510 butchers the output) -Thom PLATOTerm Cartridge Manual - Body Test - 2019-01-07.pdf Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Nezgar Posted January 8, 2019 Share Posted January 8, 2019 Anyone else see a resemblance between Plato and Joe Decuir? 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tschak909 Posted January 8, 2019 Author Share Posted January 8, 2019 haaa Does the typesetting look okay? I will continue to try and paginate as best I can. As for new content, I think this will be all the content. I don't want to print a phone book, Albert would kill me. -Thom Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tschak909 Posted January 8, 2019 Author Share Posted January 8, 2019 What's the correct size for the Atari cartridge label? -Thom Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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