ST Guide - Hyp file viewers

In the Atari scene these days you will find documentation for Atari software in .hyp format. The traditional program used to view these is ST Guide. I found a german demo of the program called 'stguide.zip' which contained:
ST-GUIDE.APP
ST-GUIDE.HYP
ST-GUIDE.INF
ST-GUIDE.REF
I might claim I got it from here but I can't be sure.
Update 21-July-2009 There is another version of this downloadable from 16/32 systems on the downloads page. direct download

Installation:
Just unzip the files and possibly make a copy of ST-GUIDE.APP, renaming it as ST-GUIDE.ACC and put it in the root folder.
It also would be possible to associate files with the extension .HYP with ST-GUIDE.APP in your favourite desktop. (Tos 2.06 upwards makes this easy)

I also found a file called stgde101.zoo (zoo.ttp -extract stgde101.zip) which has nothing to do with ST Guide but is:
'TAG - The Atari Guide' by Keith R. Marshall and is part of the 'galactic guide' project. Its file viewer is called STGuide. (Its probably more than just a file viewer...)

HYPView

The next option I've seen recommended is HYPView, available from here. They have screenshots and I tried out version 0.40.0
And so I tried it out, and in 640x480x16 colours, it started and didn't seem too terrible, in that I got as far as selecting a .hyp file to view, but it didn't
actually display anything.
So then I tried putting the hyp files into C:/gemsys/guides/
and that didn't make much difference. I also note that when I exited the program the keyboard stopped working. So that sounds like a bad crash.
If anyone has better success with this program I'd love to hear from you :-)

The other alternative for Windows users is to use winguide:
http://frankrueger.dnsalias.net/old_homepage/#winguide

This worked well for me and only the menus are in german. There appears to be an option to save your .hyp file as a .html file. I tried it and it works. You end up with lots of .html files (one per page) and a few additional images too. Unfortunately I started this post with the aim of getting gdos working too, and we've gone sideways.

Back in the original ST-Guide, it expects you to have installed a 'font selector' to let you change the screen font used to display stuff. This might be useful so you can look at a helpfile while also looking at your code/work/whatever if you could only choose a smaller font.

Font Selectors

In theory you will want a working selection of fonts already installed, however I'm going the simple solution first because gdos (and alternatives) may be a bit tricky.
So I found the file fontsel.zip, this contained:
FONTSEL.HYP - german .hyp file
FONTSEL.PRG
FONTSEL.REF
FONTSEL.TXT - german documentation
FONTSEL.ENG - english translation of the documentation
INSTALL.ENG - english installation instructions for the impatient

Basically, the simple way to install it is to put FONTSEL.PRG into the auto folder and reboot. Then in STGUIDE, you can select from a range of built in 'SYSTEM' fonts. They are very dull monospaced ones, but have the advantage of being quick to display.
Also of note in the german documentation is a list of other font selectors, which I'll copy and paste for your reference here (thanks to winguide):

UFSL von [Michael Thänitz]:
der Prototyp, [UFSL-Schnittstelle]

xUFSL von [Stefan Rogel]:
erster Nachfolger von UFSL mit erweiterter Schnittstelle

FontSel von [Holger Weets]:
kompakter Nachfolger von UFSL, Updates von Ch. Zwerschke

[Calvino] von [Dirk Haun]:
moderner Nachfolger von UFSL, neue [xFSL-Schnittstelle]

[HuGo!] von [Stefan Rogel]:
Nachfolger von xUFSL mit [xFSL-Schnittstelle]

Font-Selektor aus "Magic" von [Peter Hellinger]:
Bestandteil von Magic (nicht von MagiC!)

Font-Selektor aus "ACSpro" von [Stefan Bachert] und [Oliver Michalak]
Bestandteil (Objekt) von ACSpro

[FontSelector] aus "EnhancedGEM" von [Christian Grunenberg]:
neues Konzept, [Font-Protokoll] mit GEM-Nachrichten

[FONTselector] von [Hayo Schmidt]:
aus dem AES-Font-Loader-Paket, FOse-Schnittstelle

Unfortunately the links didn't go anywhere, so it's a case of typing in the names of the authors and seeing what comes up in google.

Installing GDOS or.. getting a nicer looking font system to work.

On the one hand, there is plenty of information about GDOS.. On the other hand, who wants to use the original GDOS that needs lots of manual editing of assign.sys files, and then trying to guess which resolution you're in. And all that for bitmapped (non-scalable) fonts. There must be an easier way..

Here is an example assign.sys to remind you of how horrible it all is:
example.txt

So I'll be needing some fonts named in the style XXYYNN.FNT where NN is the font size in points, while YY is the 'name' of the font eg; Times Roman might be TR...

I'll also be needing something like gdos.prg for the auto folder, and screen.sys? possibly as a 'screen' driver. Not sure about that one, I know you do need one for any printers you have.

A Shortcut..
I cheated and went straight for fontgdos, from "Atari Explorer Online Volume 1 Issue 03" which contained two accessories: FONTGDOS.ACC and FSM.ACC (I put both of these in the root of C:) and also FONTGDOS.PRG which I put in the C:/AUTO/ folder. One of these desk accessories lets you choose the folder for your fonts and select which fonts are associated with which screen resolution or printer (ie; you don't want printer fonts to be in your screen section of assign.sys, otherwise you might get a size 13 printer font - which would look huge on screen and then a 14 point screen font which then looks tiny -- worse still FONTGDOS may just crash, because it can.)

For whatever reason gemulator was being difficult and assign.sys would not save no matter what I did. Eventually I figured out how to disable drive A: and changed the boot device to C: and then everything went a bit smoother.

Finally the next stage was finding some real fonts.. I found the file gdsfonts.zoo and that had a few fonts to choose from. I installed almost all the ones with HI at the end of the names. And then it liked to stop working entirely, gdos wouldn't show any of the fonts I'd chosen. I opened up the ASSIGN.SYS file and got rid of the font starting with a number. Then everything was fine and I was able to view STGuide files with a different font to the system one. (see the screenshot)

This post has been a little longer than I expected, but the point is that once you've got the hang of getting a couple of fonts installed, you can probably consider using some of the more graphical atari programs that like scalable fonts, AtariWorks is one I'll be trying out, if I can find it.. Also I might see if I can find my old copy of fonty, a realtime font generator..

Some reference information:
For a really interesting and way too in-depth article about GDOS (and the various ones you could use to use true-type fonts and therefore save yourself from only having 4 fonts available in 4 different sizes!) and also get real printer drivers (possibly-- not sure if there's a useful 'image' driver or 'pdf' driver), have a look at
this and read about Speedo GDOS (v 5 upwards) and NVDI 3.0 and above. Both of these programs offer to let you use true type fonts (ie; the ones that come with windows ;-) and let you scale them to any old size, so of course this would be useful if you were for example trying to view web pages from the internet)
I haven't been able to try either and I think it might be a bit difficult to get hold of this commercial software.. As I previously mentioned.. if you wanted to use Papyrus or Atari Works, you'd benefit immensely.

In addition this site 16/32 Systems has other interesting software. (16/32 Systems, 156 Maidstone Road, Chatham, Kent ME4 6EN). The site was last updated at the end of may this year, so I think prices and products are up-to date. He writes:

28 May 2009
Top Ten Products Sold in 2009 so far

1 - Iron Soldier for the Atari Jaguar
2 - Cybermorph Empty Box
3 - Chips Challenge for the Atari Lynx
4 - Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story for the Atari Jaguar
5 - European Soccer Challenge for the Atari Lynx
6 - Atari Ring Binder
7 - Bubsy The Bobcat for the Atari Jaguar
8 - 1Mb Ram
9 - Desert Strike Box
10 - Yatsuna 1 - The Alchemy Cubes

Real Atari Computers and Compatibles

Atari's last computer was the Falcon in about 1993. Then they went bust. After that, a company called c-lab 're-badged' Falcons for the music market (with stronger cases and better sound connectors). Since then, a couple of companies manufactured clones..
And so onto today. There are a number of options to get a modern fast computer that runs much faster than the speeds available when the Falcon was first released.

Falcon Upgrade board
Rodolphe Czuba makes upgrade boards that connect to the Falcon and replace the space taken up with the original power supply with a motorola 68060.  Unfortunately, he needs an order of 25 boards before he will make another batch.
The CT63 board allows you to run software at between 80 and 100mhz, and can be fitted without soldering. You still need to provide the ram and an atx power supply.
more details.

The benchmarks are interesting too. Its probably worth reading the details of what technical difficulties that could possibly arise.  To get yourself on the waiting list, find out more here

Atari Coldfire Project
The next option to get a new atari is the Atari Coldfire Project.. This is basically a new computer which sits inside a pc case. Instead of running a 680x0 processor, they use the motorola coldfire processor which is capable of running at 266MHz and should provide everything a modern computer should have.
The website provides lots of details and has been very recently updated. It seems like a very exciting project. The cost for developer boards seems reasonable for a new computer, although perhaps your opinion depends on whether you compare it with a pc laptop or whether you view it on its own strengths.

Suska
Suska III comprises 2 different projects. Both appear to be an ambitious idea to put an entire STE on a chip. It sounds as though the project is nearly completed. The second system takes a different approach, to update the STE to a more modern platform, in that it would have USB ports, an ethernet interface and the ability to read Micro SD-Cards. The idea would be that these would both be very energy efficient, tiny computers.. The updated edition would have no moving parts and make an ideal platform for portable devices or non-portable network devices..
More details from the website. The latest news from april is that Suska-III-C tests are in progress and up to now successful. They are prepareing information material and user manuals.

So let the designers know your thoughts, particularly if you'd like to buy!!

recommended software to get started with...

There are still a few people developing new software for the standard (non-multitasking) TOS.

Firstly, desktop replacements: I found teradesk and I like it. It is available from
here.

I found an editor which is specifically for html. Only I like to program so I'm using it as a normal text editor too. Its called Joe. There are a few other programs available from this page, they all seem to be free and the author seems to be a bit of a fan of GFA basic. Get it from here.

And finally, I wanted to get perl for the Atari. The latest version that I see that runs with TOS is version 4, and these are found in the form of zoo archives. Pain in the neck...
Anyway the Perl files I found were:
perl4_10.zoo (252kb)
perl_419.zoo (191kb)

Then the zoo archive program was zoo21.lzh

And to unpack the zoo program I used winrar (boo.. hiss..)

So, once I had ZOO.TTP and readme.st, it was just a matter of typing in the correct command line. Which turned out to be a right pain because I couldn't find the forward slash key..
In Teradesk, I ran Zoo.ttp and entered 'x C:/ATARI/perl_419.zoo'
and hey presto, it all unpacked.

Perl 4 is not as cool as later versions of perl and perhaps there's a 'command line' for the ST that would make error messages stay on-screen for longer, but any bugs in my perl didn't seem to be usefully reported to the screen. After a lot of trial and error, I wrote a working prime number generator..

@primes = (2);

$t_s = time;
for ($i = 3; $i < 35000; $i = $i+2) {
  $sqrt_i = sqrt($i);
  $prime = 1;
  foreach $k (@primes) {
    if ( 0== $i%$k) {
      $prime = 0;
      # print " $i is divisible by $k \n";
      last;
    } elsif ($k > $sqrt_i) {
      last;
    }
  }
  if ($prime) {
    push (@primes, $i);
  }
}
$t_e = time;

The two biggest bugs were:
'push @primes, $i;' -- didn't work because you need brackets for push.
'if ($i%$k) {' -- didn't work because that wasn't the correct test..
'if (not $i%$k) {' -- should have worked, but seems perl 4 doesn't work like that.

So that's plenty enough for one day...

Getting Started

I personally have used Gemulator in the past for working in the Atari world.. Its a fast emulator and generally pretty reliable once you've got going.
So as I didn't have it on my computer, here's a guide from the beginning:
1. Get Gemulator -- either the smaller version (Gemulator 2000) or the latest 'beta' version which may be faster on your computer.
Download from
www.emulators.com

2. Next step is to find some roms. Of course that's no longer as much of a hassle because there's a freeware (new development) ROM which you can use to get you started called 'EmuTOS'. Available from
emutos.sourceforge.net

Personally, I also find that Tos 2.06 to be pretty reliable (you can either find a working machine with it already installed and dump it to floppy and copy that to your pc, or find an alternate source)

Either way, the older Gemulator expects you to call the rom TOS.IMG and doesn't really make it easy to switch between different roms in the same path.

Gemulator lets you access your PC hard drive as a 'C:' drive etc. so you can put Atari applications into an Auto folder and boot with winsizer.prg in there to get a high resolution (I find 640x480 in 16 colours to be sufficient)..

So then all that's left to do is download software (usually zipped) and stick it on your hard drive.
Of course there's the slight problem that some software is for better machines and setups than what I've got working so far, so as I go on I'll find more useful apps and utilities to get the most from the system.

Introduction

I seem to have forgotten how to use the Atari ST -- Mostly because I haven't gotten round to it..
Anyway: No more excuses.. Here I will ocasionally document what I've done using the Gem based operating system.
And maybe try and tie together other bits of the internet about Atari developments.