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Links to [8-bit Acorn] Programming Books?
http://www.retrosoftware.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=61		 Page 1 of 1
Author:  DaveM [ Sat Mar 29, 2008 5:18 am ]
Post subject:  Links to [8-bit Acorn] Programming Books?
Might it be a good idea to round up a set of links to 1980s-era books (e.g. Programming/Gfx/Sound/DFS/Adventures/Advanced User Guides) that have been scanned in and made available online, and include them somewhere on this site (perhaps right at the bottom of the Sample Code Library?).

Or perhaps we could even host any relevant books right here on the retrosoftware domain? (obviously there is a copyright issue ... but it's highly unlikely that anyone would object as they're no longer available and the commercial value is virtually nil ... we could always remove on an individual basis if required?!).

Some good stuff littered around the likes of BBC Docs, 8BS, AcornBooks and Chris Dewhurst's Pages! :)

I also own LOTS of programming/design-type books myself that could potentially be scanned ... however, I'd only have time to produce quick n' dirty scans through an ADF (doc feeder) ... therefore I'd need some volunteers to tidy up the scans and possibly OCR/PDF them.
Author:  AndrewW [ Sat Mar 29, 2008 8:33 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Links to [8-bit Acorn] Programming Books?
Creative Assembler seemed a good one from what I've seen that's been PDF'd and seems relevant here.
Author:  SteveO [ Sat Mar 29, 2008 8:42 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Links to [8-bit Acorn] Programming Books?
That is a most excellent idea Dave. I've spent wasted time trawling sites for documentation at times. If we could get it all here plus new stuff that would be great :) Very great. Also I've a copy of the new advanced user guide which covers Masters etc. quite well. But I've never found this on the Net (but could be out there somewhere). I think that would be a good contender for inclusion for people wanting to push there game to it's limits.
Author:  Samwise [ Sat Mar 29, 2008 5:00 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Links to [8-bit Acorn] Programming Books?
Hmm ... *scratches chin*

I wonder if actually hosting them here is the best idea. There are already sites dedicated to preserving Acorn documentation and I don't think we should fragment those. That would make things even worse when looking for things in the future.

I propose we have a page which contains links to the most useful documentation for this community - potentially with a description, describing exactly why it's useful.

For books, mags etc. which aren't online yet, I think we'd be better submitting them to somewhere more appropriate e.g. http://www.bbcdocs.com and then linking to them from here.

What does everyone think?

btw, Dave - what's the URL for AcornBooks? That's a new one on me ...

Sam.
Author:  DaveM [ Sat Mar 29, 2008 5:26 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Links to [8-bit Acorn] Programming Books?
http://books.acornpreservation.org (one of "mine" ... very little content there, however)

There's also http://manuals.acornpreservation.org though I don't think it has anything relevant at present ...
Author:  Samwise [ Sat Mar 29, 2008 5:31 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Links to [8-bit Acorn] Programming Books?
oh, acornpreservation - I geddit.

That sub-brand confused me ... (!)

well, I reckon we should contribute books to either there or bbcdocs.com, whichever one will have no difficulties getting them published within a reasonable timeframe.

My 2p's worth,

Sam.
Author:  AndrewW [ Sun Mar 30, 2008 1:49 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Links to [8-bit Acorn] Programming Books?
I think an index would be invaluable as there are so many different sources BBC lives, BBC docs. MicroUser.com, Acorn Preservation etc.
Author:  Samwise [ Sun Mar 30, 2008 2:24 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Links to [8-bit Acorn] Programming Books?
Right, we have a new page. Everybody get crackin' ... ;)

Sam.
Author:  SteveO [ Sun Mar 30, 2008 7:57 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Links to [8-bit Acorn] Programming Books?
Link to use guide is broken.

I can scan my advanced user guide in but it's only a page scanner at work so it's going to take me a while, be patient ! Presume I'd then need to OCR it. I've not done this sort of thing before, any tips as to what resolution/ software to use.
Author:  JeffreyL [ Sun Mar 30, 2008 9:22 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Links to [8-bit Acorn] Programming Books?
It's OK, I've fixed the link now. It was just a mistake in the wiki markup.

Samwise (and anyone else): Pipes (|'s) only work for internal links, not external ones. For external links you just use whitespace to seperate the URL and the link name.
Author:  DaveM [ Sun Mar 30, 2008 9:48 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Links to [8-bit Acorn] Programming Books?
Thanks Sam, I'll start adding some books that I think are relevant now (and thanks Jeffrey for intervening there!).
Author:  DaveM [ Sun Mar 30, 2008 9:52 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Links to [8-bit Acorn] Programming Books?
Steve, are you intending to scan the standard Advanced User Guide, or the New Advanced User Guide? The standard AUG is already available, here: http://members.aon.at/~musher/bbc/essentials.htm

As for scanning res, as they're only books, I would create original scans @ 300 dpi in 256 colour greyscale, then save the images as uncompressed PNG.

Then I would use something like Omnipage to create a lower-resolution PDF file, with OCR layer.
Author:  SteveO [ Sun Mar 30, 2008 10:02 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Links to [8-bit Acorn] Programming Books?
DaveM wrote:
Steve, are you intending to scan the standard Advanced User Guide, or the New Advanced User Guide? The standard AUG is already available, here: http://members.aon.at/~musher/bbc/essentials.htm

I know, it's linked on the Wiki :)

So yes, "The New Advanced User Guide" is the one I intend to scan.

DaveM wrote:
Then I would use something like Omnipage to create a lower-resolution PDF file, with OCR layer.


Is Omnipage free ? If not is there any free software ?

Also be pateint everyone, with having to do it at work and everything else I'm doing at the moment it's going to take a while.
Author:  DaveM [ Sun Mar 30, 2008 10:15 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Links to [8-bit Acorn] Programming Books?
K, just making sure! ;)

Whilst Omnipage isn't free, I believe 'Lite' versions are often shipped with scanning equipment, so have a poke around your office and maybe a CD will show up (though I'm not sure if the bundled versions contain PDF-export capability).
Author:  SteveO [ Sun Mar 30, 2008 10:34 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Links to [8-bit Acorn] Programming Books?
Well I've got the disks for it somewhere in the office as I ordered it for myself about 5 years back and it's sat in my cupboard almost since then !, will have to see what's on them. I've got Jaws PDF creator, so that will probably help converting to PDF.
Author:  DaveM [ Sun Mar 30, 2008 11:19 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Links to [8-bit Acorn] Programming Books?
Hold it right there, Steve!

Just realised that it's already been scanned (by Thomas Heck and John Kortink); it used to be available on 8BS.

Now mirrored here:
http://www.bbcmicro.net/old-8bs/othrdnl ... _Guide.zip

Incidentally the text hasn't been OCR'd, but it's certainly better than nothing.

I will add it to our new Useful Docs page in a sec (which now contains a nice selection of links!).

Btw, for anyone reading who is thinking about listing more books on the Wiki, I think we should avoid adding books that:
- contain nothing but Program Listings
- are targetted at beginners (i.e. Machine Introductions, introductory-level BASIC programming etc)

Also, I don't think there's any point in taking up space by listing books that aren't available to download online.
Author:  SteveO [ Sun Mar 30, 2008 11:36 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Links to [8-bit Acorn] Programming Books?
Well, thank goodness for that, was so not looking forward to doing it. You've made my day :)
Author:  Samwise [ Sun Mar 30, 2008 1:01 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Links to [8-bit Acorn] Programming Books?
Ahh, you found the "test link".

Well done, you passed!

(For various reasons I have to use MediaWiki, MoinMoin, Confluence and TiddlyWiki in various guises. At nearly 3 am, I tend to make mistakes every so often ...)

This is why we built a wiki ... :)

As for scanning resolutions, replacementdocs.com says this on the subject:

Quote:
The ideal scan resolution for most situations is 150 dpi. Part of the reason for that is because of the way certain documentation is printed. 150 dpi scans will minimize the amount of interference in the scan. I won't go into the details but interference is an odd kind of moire effect (a wavy looking pattern) that appears in your scans. This is caused, more or less, by the materials being printed at a different resolution than what you are scanning. On a few rare occasions, such as very detailed maps or very small print, I will use 300 dpi for scans. Any higher than 300 dpi gives pretty much negligible benefits and huge filesize increases.


@DaveM, why not list any beginners books? As long as they're clearly marked (and when we have a goodly number, we may need to categorise them properly), I think identifying useful books for newcomers is a good thing?

Sam.
Author:  DaveJ [ Mon Apr 07, 2008 6:49 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Links to [8-bit Acorn] Programming Books?
Wasn't there a book called "The BBC Revealed" that was withdrawn? It was supposed to have a lot of useful stuff in it.
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