[Coco] [Bulk] CoCo3FPGA Documentation

[Joel Ewy]

Becker, Gary wrote:
> Is anyone interested in proofreading the pre-release documentation for
> CoCo3FPGA? Please send me any suggestions, comments, or questions and I
> will make the changes. The link is
>
> http://www.geocities.com/gary_l_becker/COCO3FPGA.pdf
>
> This is a rough draft, I created it, but have not read it yet.
>
> Thanks
>
> Gary
>
>
>   
Hey Gary,

This looks great.  I have some suggested corrections and
clarifications.  I know a lot of these things are picky, but I assume
that since you're asking for review you'll take them in the spirit
intended, and use what you find useful.

On page 2, in the first sentence of the second paragraph, 'Digilent' is
misspelled 'Digilint'.

On page 4 of the PDF, in the third sentence, 'but' should probably read
'bit'.  In the second sentence of the third paragraph on the same page,
"Like wise" should be a single word.  Still on page 4, in the first
paragraph about the keyboard, it's still a little unclear to me how the
keyboard is mapped.  One sentence says "Most of the keys follow the PS/2
arrangement."  From this I would assume that the character I see on
screen should correspond to the legend I have printed on my PS/2 key
caps.  But a later sentence reads:  "The CoCo3FPGA takes the shifted 8
and turns it into what the CoCo3 software is expecting to see for this
key."  Since the CoCo software expects to see a left parenthesis when
you shift the '8' key, I take that to mean that typing [Shift]8 on the
PS/2 keyboard would result in a '(' appearing on the CoCo screen rather
than a '*'.  Maybe this could be worded in a less ambiguous way.

It's a very minor point, but Radio Shack referred to a ROM cartridge as
a 'Program Pak' rather than 'Pack', and called the expansion unit a
"Multi-Pak Interface".

On page 5, in the third sentence of the section on Video, "graphics
modes use a 2 pixel
wide dots".  You could just strike the 'a', or make 'dot' singular to
agree with the following sentence.  "Every CoCo3 video mode scan line is
two scan lines on the VGA monitor."  This sentence might read better if
it said each scan line "is represented by" two scan lines, though that's
probably just a matter of style.  In the first sentence of the next
paragraph, I would say that the video mode is "similar to but not
exactly the same as" ('to' added).  In the third sentence of the second
paragraph of the Video section, 'ccross' should read 'across'.  Also in
this paragraph, it would be nice if you could insert an actual Greek
'mu' character for micro-seconds instead of the letter 'u'.  It doesn't
work so well in email, but shouldn't be a problem in a PDF. 

The second to last paragraph in the Video section on page 5 reads:  "And
lastly, a last 800 Ohm resistor is connected to connector A1 pin 22 and
a wire is connected to VGA connector pin 1."  We have two 'last...'s and
four 'connect...'s in one sentence.  It might scan a little more
smoothly if it was changed to read something like:  "And lastly, a final
800 Ohm resistor is attached to connector A1 pin 22 and a wire is
attached to VGA connector pin 1."

In the "Floppy Interface" section, on page 6, we have many repetitions
of the word 'interface' both as a noun and a verb.  Maybe it would read
better to replace the verbal use of the word 'interface' with a
different word.  Maybe something like:  "Instead the floppy interface is
replaced with a serial port that communicates with a file server. This
communications port was adapted from Terence J. Boldt's Serial Virtual
Drive, (SVD) interface for the Apple IIe at apple2.boldt.ca."  In the
middle of the same paragraph, "is communication at a speed of 115200
bps" should probably read "communicates at a speed of 115200 bps".

On page 7, the second sentence of the first full paragraph about the
clock (under the port address table) contains some kind of a grammatical
error.  What you probably meant to say was "all changes" rather than
"all changed".  In the next sentence, I don't think you need the comma
after 'update'.  In the fourth sentence, "you could have a day 32 in
month" should probably read "in a month".

Overall, I would say this is very good documentation, and just reading
it over answers some questions I had had about your project.  I'm really
excited to see this coming to fruition, and I'm going to start saving up
for a Digilent board.

JCE
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