GP32 a GP32 'magazine'...


R

RTj

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How about doing a GP32 equivalent of the old ST/Amiga disk mags ??

People could submit articles, code, programming help, Q&A's, etc etc...
I really enjoyed the old disk mags of yester year.
Always full of interesting stuff they were.
:D

Doesnt need to be just GP32 stuff, it could be articles about anything...
I'd program it myself but i'm not good enough yet... :(

But i'd certainly like to take part if someone does use the idea...
It'd be really handy for people on the move who take their GP's with them on buses/trains etc...
 
That's a cool idea!! I remember that mags... :) I'm in!
 
I'd like to ask:

Would readers prefer each page being a bitmap?
OR:
The entire document being text only??

Text only would mean just that... all text, no images.
Bitmaps would mean you could have text (of any font, size and colour) along side images too.
(kinda like images within images if you see what i mean) :huh:

I'd like to get something like an electronic GP mag off the ground since i have fond memories of sitting for hours reading through Grapevine... :)

I'm no whizz programmer but i reckon i could do it using images rather than text but would people want to sit and make an article with 'a page' being 320x240... ?? :blink:
(obviously the article could be as many pages as you wanted...)

Answers on a postcard please... :D
 
What about text & pics? It shouldn't be too hard. Just make a file with the paths of all the pics, and the position on the screen. Also, you would have to manually wrap/aline the text file by adding a null char (mabye |) where it shouldn't put anything because a pic is there or cuz it needs a newline.
 
i'm all for it guys but i'm not a good enough programmer to make it like i'd want it to look.
I could (at a push) get a text version going, or a bitmap version but the text version would be the most feasable methinks.
(most people would not want to make their articles in an art prog! I dunno why i even gave that idea the time of day!!)

But to make a text version with images??
Not me!

Any takers on this idea?
If so please PM/email me i'd like to co-author it in whatever way i can...

Exactly as NeoAP said, it'd be a free download that you upload to your GP32 and read...
 
RTj posted on Jun 21 2003 said:
i'm all for it guys but i'm not a good enough programmer to make it like i'd want it to look.
I could (at a push) get a text version going, or a bitmap version but the text version would be the most feasable methinks.
(most people would not want to make their articles in an art prog! I dunno why i even gave that idea the time of day!!)

But to make a text version with images??
Not me!

Any takers on this idea?
If so please PM/email me i'd like to co-author it in whatever way i can...

Exactly as NeoAP said, it'd be a free download that you upload to your GP32 and read...
Click to expand...
A jpg file would suck for size and quality, making it scrollable would also prove difficult. All text leaves much to be desired too.

Making a generic document format with support for inline images and basic formatting would not be too hard, but I wouldn't go to such lengths for a magazine. Stick with full text for now BUT include 'links' to graphics files. You could do this by making a text reader with a text file, and have the images in GP32 image format and load as desired (perhaps an image gallery alongside the magazine text).
 
Last edited by a moderator:
A simple HTML viewer? Hard to make a simple html viewer, and it would be a bit pointless. One of the main things about html (and many other formats) is that it can be resized at will. Something that fixes the size of eveyhting would be better, so you wouldn't have to worry about doing word wrapand moving everything around.
 
Couldn't you make it all text with a [Press ® to view picture] msg on a screen of text that has an accompanying image then pressing r would flick between the (full screen) relevant image and the article text. Just store the image relevant to each page on a buffer and flip it to screen when R is pressed? Then on the next page of text change the image in the buffer to the image relevant to that page?. It seems fairly easy to do following Rico's tut there no need for animated sprites, physics or collision detection just writing text to screen and an single image for each page (2 or 3 maybe with a different button revealing each?) and flipping between image and txt?. that way you dont have a low quality jpg for each page so txt is clear and you dont have to worry about having a formated page lay out?

Or am i totaly wrong ?

Either way, im up for writing an article each month.
 
Loading a text file up is no problem, i can do that.
Loading up an image... no problem.
:D

But the GP32 screen isnt as wide as a PC (obviously!) so either the writers would need to stick to a particular width for their text or the GP32 would need to do its own word wrap stuff.
(a bit above my programming level that one). :blink:

HTML would be great for a mag but certainly not easy to write.
JPG's... again, waaay above my level for the moment.
:(

All i've got (coded) is a basic graphical menu which, when you choose menu page 1 and article 1, loads a text document (of a set width) into a 35k buffer so the article could be no longer than 35k at the moment (which is still loads), but doesnt do length/page checking... so if you made a 20k article then there'd be 15k of space at the end. But thats just a niggle... :D

The only way (at the moment) for images is to have the images seperate.
This is possible coz the menu has pages which are split into categories.

Anyway, i'll keep you posted on developments at my snails pace... :D
 
Doesnt the standard text to screen command text wrap? if not starting a new line after x amount of characters (including spaces obviously) would not be to hard would it? I'm SUPER busy this week and havent had much of a play with coding my GP but il see what i can bash out over the next couple of weeks.

As for your buffer prob how about making each screen full of text a "page" meaning each full page of text would take up the same amount of memory. So you would only over use memory possibly on the last "page" of an atricle as it may not fit wholey on to the final page? Lowering possible memory misuse over the whole mag?
 
easier said than done! ;)
I've put in an background image (8bit) and now (for some unknown reason) my text file wont load!
Its driving me crazy!! :angry:

Anyway...
I also thought the text would wrap but it doesn't.
I tried it with a standard PC txt file and it just ignored anything that was out of the screen... :(

If i knew more about opening files and so on then i 'spose i could just draw only the text you want to see but for now... its a big ol' buffer... :D
 
Hurrah!
got my text loader working again. :D

Added an image loader too! :)

So i've pretty much got me a diskmag together now... :lol:

Once i tart up the graphics a bit i'll release an issue #0 (just to show what it can (and can't!) do).
... and hope to God that i get some submissions for an issue #1 !!
:D

But i also need a name for this diskmag.
Any ideas???????
 
I think that there should be lots of diffrent magazines for it, and also (if you didn't do it already) everything should go in one file :) What format does your thing use? Cuz I want to make a viewer, too but I don't want incompatible magazines ;)
 
Sweet, RTj!

I thought I'd answer the venomous replies to my HTML suggestion. There is an HTML format for phones called HDML, and an XML format called WML. Both HDML and WML are designed to be used with small screens and limited keys.

But I think a text viewer and image viewer are fine solutions.
 
I'm in, I'd be interested in writing a review or tutorial for something. Or even a "best of Atari ST games" article?

matt
 
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