[Coco] Nitros9 and Smartwatch

Francis Swygert farna at att.net
Wed Dec 7 07:07:45 EST 2016


Date: Tue, 6 Dec 2016 19:49:57 -0500
From: piperfox74 <piperfox74 at gmail.com>

<rant on>
Regarding software and documentation, I find it a bit odd to argue that any piece of software, no matter how simple, “does not need documentation”. I’d say a pervasive attitude like that in the community could turn away newcomers. I’ve been away from the CoCo seen for a very long time, and I was quite young back in the ‘80s and ‘90s when I was heavily into these computers. I’m eager to get back in, learn as much as I can, and help out others if possible, but the overall lack of consistent documentation for all of the new toys (especially DriveWire and Nitros-9) make this endeavor more of a struggle than it perhaps needs to be.

I’m not meaning this to sound like I’m jumping on you. I appreciate your help, as I appreciate this entire community of bright, eager people looking to keep the CoCo alive as long as possible. I’m just hoping to express that focusing a bit on documentation and covering those topics that the “old timers” consider common knowledge or too simple to document might encourage more participation and help bring in new people to the community.
<rant off>, and thank you!
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I understand your position. There is the "Start OS-9" book available on Malted Media. Unfortunately I lost the disk that went with it that had some utilities. I don't think anyone has located and uploaded a disk image, but you can find the individual utilities easy enough. The book is a "lesson plan" based on the original CoCo3 OS-9, but will still be helpful with Nitros9. I had wanted to re-write it for Nitors9, but never found the time, and really don't know Nitros9 enough to make many of the additions that would be needed. 

Robert did point out that you can use the built-in help though. Many of the OS-9 utilities have an extensive help file/function -- usually enough that additional documentation isn't required. If you have no idea what the utility is for you might have a little difficulty figuring it out, but usually not. 
 Frank Swygert
 Fix-It-Frank Handyman Service
 803-604-6548


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