Amin GirasolNov 11, 2023

I am having an unreasonable amount of fun rediscovering the amazing #atari8bit universe. My trusty original #Atari800 has been fitted with #lotharek's #INCOGNITO board and #FujiNetPro (and a flawless 1050 floppy drive for good measure). Figuring out how to get all this hardware playing nicely together has taken me a few evenings of experimentation and many hours trawling through the #AtariAge forums! I'm getting the hang of it now. #SpartaDOSX is thankfully quite like #MSDOS, with a pleasing #Atari accent.

It's funny - games don't really interest me. It's the utility software that floats my boat. Can I actually be productive with #FlashJazzCat's #TheLastWord #WordProcessor? I can see myself writing official correspondence with it, printed to one of the many printers emulated by the #FujiNet.

Is #AtariPril a thing? Attempt to use an 8-bit Atari for all your computing needs during April? I might just get enough skills built up by then to be somewhat productive!

Show threadInverse ATASCIINov 11, 2023

@fluidlogic you can certainly do the things, it’s just not as convenient. Arguably way more fun though. Today’s apps are very generic and de-specialized in a sense. They try to be a Jack of all trades, which means 1) you can get away with just 1 or 2 apps.; 2) they’re essentially the same tool in your toolbox with different names. Looking at you word processor and spreadsheet.

I’d like to see CalDAV etc clients. Just because we can now with modern expansions.

Show threadAmin GirasolNov 11, 2023

@inverseatascii Lovely to chat to you! Convenience be damned, I just love the sheer personality of my upgraded Atari. 😍​

What blows me away is how responsive it is (when loading programs from the compact flash 'hard disk'). And I haven't seen any ads for shampoo or pension funds yet.

I've watched the first episode of David Arlington's "Action! Programming for Atari 8-bit Computers" https://inv.zzls.xyz/playlist?list=PL5FYYzC9Hpgog9GPsJRtshMP0wpHrxb2J and I'm very tempted to use that as a starting point for mocking up some possible UIs, figuring out some sensible internal data structures and seeing if I can hook it up to the #FujiNet's N: device.

Action! Programming for Atari 8-bit Computers - Invidious

Show threadInverse ATASCIINov 12, 2023
@fluidlogic I blogged about my re-learning of Action! And eventual building of my TUI library. If you’re interested here’s the Link for 1st post: https://unfinishedbitness.info/2015/07/16/a-call-to-action/
A Call to Action!

In the mid eighties a new language popped up for the Atari 8 bits.  It was called “Action!”.   I got it after some friends got it.  It was only available on a bank switching cartridge, …

Unfinished Bitness
Show threadAmin Girasol

@inverseatascii This really looks the part. Thank you!

https://invidious.einfachzocken.eu/watch?v=ew6tO4V1lzM

I've gotten as far as getting my dev environment set up. Next will be running your demo as shown in the video. I guess this one? https://github.com/Ripjetski6502/A8ActionLibrary/blob/main/atari/APPDEMO.ACT

#Atari8bit #ActionLanguage #ActionBang #RetroProgramming

Atari Action! Library v1.4 Demo

Demo program written using my Action! language library for the Atari 8 bit computer.

Inverse ATASCII | Invidious
Nov 12, 2023 at 7:02pmWeb
Show threadInverse ATASCIINov 12, 2023
@fluidlogic that’s the library. It’s a little behind the c version, but works.