PDF manuals

pavero · Post by **pavero** » Thu Jan 25, 2024 6:59 pm

Around 500 PDF manuals (fully OCRed) have been created/uploaded in the last 12 months.

Here is the online (still up-to-date) list:
https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/zxdb/test/manuals.php

cmal · Post by **cmal** » Fri Jan 26, 2024 12:47 am

Holy Smokes! Did you make these PDF's, @pavero ? Very impressive!! Thanks for sharing!

pavero · Post by **pavero** » Fri Jan 26, 2024 9:21 am

cmal wrote: ↑Fri Jan 26, 2024 12:47 am Holy Smokes! Did you make these PDF's, @pavero ?

Yep, mostly from @Mort and @Gilby scans.

akeley · Post by **akeley** » Fri Jan 26, 2024 11:55 am

Incredible stuff...nothing beats the original. I just DownedThemAll!, thanks a million.

Vampyre · Post by **Vampyre** » Fri Jan 26, 2024 1:00 pm

Wow! I never knew these even existed. The Frankie Goes To Hollywood version is a thing of beauty.

equinox · Post by **equinox** » Fri Jan 26, 2024 7:54 pm

I spotted a weird error in the Hisoft Basic PDF manual today: an appendix lists routines for INK, PAPER, FLASH, BRIGHT, COURIER, OVER, AT and TAB. Clearly it should be INVERSE (they are in character-set control code order).

I mentioned this on the ZX Discord and SevenFFF came up with the good theory that the BASIC keywords were supposed to be in Courier font (a typewriter-style one) and maybe there was a markup mixup.

Stefan · Post by **Stefan** » Fri Jan 26, 2024 9:29 pm

It seems that this error was introduced when the author initially ocr'ed and fixed the manual - see http://hayne.net/Spectrum/HiSoftBASIC/

The easy confirmation is to write a basic program with the inverse keyword and see if it does indeed compile to code 120.

On a side note, the lack of alternative sources is worrying, the entire internet has exactly one (buggy) copy of this manual.

jpnz · Post by **jpnz** » Sat Jan 27, 2024 3:44 am

Stefan wrote: ↑Fri Jan 26, 2024 9:29 pm It seems that this error was introduced when the author initially ocr'ed and fixed the manual - see http://hayne.net/Spectrum/HiSoftBASIC/

The easy confirmation is to write a basic program with the inverse keyword and see if it does indeed compile to code 120.

On a side note, the lack of alternative sources is worrying, the entire internet has exactly one (buggy) copy of this manual.

I do have an original copy of HiSoft BASIC, though it is version 1.1 and the manual is the 2nd Edition February 1988 - as such, the list of runtimes isn't documented. However, the premise of runtime 120 being INVERSE stands true - tested with version 1.0:

Code: Select all

  10 REM : LIST 
  20 REM : LPRINT 
  30 REM : OPEN #
  40 BRIGHT 1: INVERSE 1: OVER 1
  50 REM : CLOSE #

 LINE 30: +0
 LINE 30: 65203 #FEB3

RT61     65268 #FEF4
RT89     65312 #FF20
RT93     65323 #FF2B
RT110    65329 #FF31
RT114    65334 #FF36
RT119    65345 #FF41
RT120    65351 #FF47
RT121    65357 #FF4D
RT124    65363 #FF53

HISOFT BASIC ?1986 Cameron Hayne

M/C: 165 BYTES
+ 0 BYTES FOR M/C VARIABLES
(BASIC WAS 63 BYTES)


SAVE "m/c"CODE 65203,165
LOAD "m/c"CODE 65203

pavero · Post by **pavero** » Sat Jan 27, 2024 7:47 pm

All PDF manuals from Firebird Software have been added today.

https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/zxdb/te ... man_sort=6

equinox · Post by **equinox** » Sun Jan 28, 2024 8:23 pm

jpnz wrote: ↑Sat Jan 27, 2024 3:44 am I do have an original copy of HiSoft BASIC, though it is version 1.1 and the manual is the 2nd Edition February 1988 - as such, the list of runtimes isn't documented. However, the premise of runtime 120 being INVERSE stands true - tested with version 1.0: [...]

Right I don't even know why people are disputing this because, as I said, it was a list of routines, and the "typo" one was precisely in the place where INVERSE belongs in the character set.
We know it's inverse. The only question is why someone wrote "courier".

P.S. I paid for my Hisoft. (I didn't really -- I got it second-hand from a friend who was ditching all his Speccy stuff -- but back in those days, you could give away a tape. SOMEBODY paid for it. No piracy.)
The talented Cameron Hayne (who developed this tool) is still findable online.

Stefan · Post by **Stefan** » Sun Jan 28, 2024 8:42 pm

equinox wrote: ↑Sun Jan 28, 2024 8:23 pm Right I don't even know why people are disputing this because, as I said, it was a list of routines, and the "typo" one was precisely in the place where INVERSE belongs in the character set.
We know it's inverse. The only question is why someone wrote "courier".

P.S. I paid for my Hisoft. (I didn't really -- I got it second-hand from a friend who was ditching all his Speccy stuff -- but back in those days, you could give away a tape. SOMEBODY paid for it. No piracy.)
The talented Cameron Hayne (who developed this tool) is still findable online.

Nobody is disputing anything. Link to Hayne’s website is also above.

equinox · Post by **equinox** » Sun Jan 28, 2024 8:45 pm

Hayne's page says that he did his own scans. But pavero says (in previous page of this thread) that he scanned it. So who is guilty? (or whose scan do we have?)
I am joking more than criticising...

Stefan · Post by **Stefan** » Sun Jan 28, 2024 9:43 pm

equinox wrote: ↑Sun Jan 28, 2024 8:45 pm Hayne's page says that he did his own scans. But pavero says (in previous page of this thread) that he scanned it. So who is guilty? (or whose scan do we have?)
I am joking more than criticising...

And there I was thinking you were just hijacking Pavero's pdf manual scan thread, since I could not find the Hisoft Basic pdf on Pavero's list, entry 8249 is not on it, and you started waffling about errors in "the" Hisoft Basic pdf.

pavero · Post by **pavero** » Sun Jan 28, 2024 10:41 pm

Stefan wrote: ↑Sun Jan 28, 2024 9:43 pm And there I was thinking you were just hijacking Pavero's pdf manual scan thread, since I could not find the Hisoft Basic pdf on Pavero's list, entry 8249 is not on it, and you started waffling about errors in "the" Hisoft Basic pdf.

And I must cofirm it. I didn't scan/create PDF manual for Hisoft Basic at all. This manual was taken over from old WoS and it has nothing to do with my work.

equinox · Post by **equinox** » Mon Jan 29, 2024 12:03 am

Okay, I got some outdated wrong copy, my mistake. Sorry. (It worked as a manual! INT vs POSINT) but not the right one. I'll hush now.

pavero · Post by **pavero** » Sat Feb 03, 2024 11:03 pm

pavero · Post by **pavero** » Wed Feb 14, 2024 9:13 pm

PDF manuals from Digital Integration, Grandslam Entertainments, Mirrorsoft, Monument Microgames, Storm Software and Virgin Games have been added today.

pavero · Post by **pavero** » Mon Feb 19, 2024 9:52 am

pavero · Post by **pavero** » Sat Feb 24, 2024 10:24 am

pavero · Post by **pavero** » Mon Mar 04, 2024 11:00 pm

pavero · Post by **pavero** » Wed Mar 20, 2024 8:13 pm

pavero · Post by **pavero** » Wed Mar 20, 2024 8:30 pm

pavero · Post by **pavero** » Fri Apr 12, 2024 2:48 pm

pavero · Post by **pavero** » Mon Apr 22, 2024 9:35 pm

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