Halcyon Digital Research - Macintosh Software

Newsletter issue 1, Feb 2009

Halcyon Digital Research's newsletter is for people who want up to date information on all HDR projects the minute that news emerges.

Sent weekly over Hard Copy! To subscribe, get yourself a DNS (go to www.staticcling.org and register), email sariatv( at ) gmail ( dot ) com with your staticcling.org name (e.g, Halcyon's account is halcyonprintserver.staticcling.org) and that's all there is to it. To unsubscribe, just ask to be unsubscribed.

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/_/ |_| \___//____/ \___/\__,_/ /_/    \___/ /_/ /_/          issue 1, Feb 2009 


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                        AT 2.3 - NEW FONTS, NEW SIZES, NEW EXPERIENCE!

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(1) Hard Copy at 2.3

(2) Future of Drumatix

(3) Python Hard Copy?

(4) Windows Support

(5) Best Laser for Hard Copy

(6) James Rants


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Hard Copy 2.3 is now out - again, only a day or two after Hard Copy 2.0, 2.1 and 2.2... In this version, a much needed 'multi font' support has been added.


Halcyon D.R use Geneva as their default font in most programs, however because text is only able to be sent via Hard Copy, one needs to take into account ASCII art and fixed-width fonts. Without this, HDR's newsletter would not exist, and it is thanks to 2.3 that we can have art ect. In fact, you're probably getting this newsletter because you already have 2.3! The "fixed width" tab ensures your document arrives to other 2.3 users in size ten Andale Mono format. Users with 2.2 and below will not receive fixed width transmissions.


I must note that we plan on having _really tiny font sizes_ for printing in later versions, because some ASCII art is so high-resolution and so large that it needs to be able to support much more line width (200, 300 lines maybe) and we have adjusted the font size accordingly to get everything to fit.


On another note, colour transmissions may be possible in the future, thanks to HTML. HTML's colour formatting for individual characters may prove useful to send decent quality colour images without using any images. However, this method could also slow down Hard Copy transmissions dramatically - therefore we propose that two versions of Hard Copy exist; Hard Copy and Hard Copy Colour. Hard Copy Colour would use HTML rather than pure text, allowing for much better freedom to create formatted documents. However, this maybe excessive, but we'll decide some other time.


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Drumatix has not been updated in nearly two years. It is slow, hugely dependant on system resources and has very limited functionality. However, it sounds great if you're a techno-lover.


Drumatix 3.0 has been on the cards for a while, but has never materialised, and with more important projects like Hard Copy taking up all of our time, it's unlikely 3.0 will even be started.


But there are some plans to possibly kick start Drumatix again - albeit as a hardware project and not a software project. Few people know, but HDR has built a drum machine using spare wood, switches, PC motherboard and Drumatix. And...it works just like a Roland drum machine!


So, here's the list for what MIGHT be in 3.0 IF it ever materialises;


      (*) Much needed 'export' function

      (*) Cleaner interface

      (*) Slimmed code

      (*) Actual timing in music time and not ticks

      (*) Better samples!!!


Hopefully once Hard Copy is stable enough, Drumatix will be worked on again.


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Halcyon Digital Research programmer David Sanders has taken up an enormous challenge - porting Hard Copy (an RB application) into Python, whilst still being able to communicate cross-language.


If he succeeds, then you will be able to send images, PDF, text, RTF - anything. However, if it does not, you will probably be able to pick up his copy under a different name, as not to confuse people.


Myself nor David know when this port will be finished or even usable, but it should be sometime in March, or maybe later.


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All Halcyon Digital Research products are generally designed for the Mac. However, we sometimes like to compile them for Windows too - but it should be noted that not all Halcyon D.R products are guaranteed to work on Windows systems.


Here is a small table, saying what we support, what we part support and leave unsupported for all our products


+================+================+================+

|  PRODUCT NAME  |     WINDOWS    |    MAC OS X    |  Full Support: actively updated

+================+================+================+

|   Hard Copy    |     PARTLY     |  FULL SUPPORT  |  Partly: no updates, support given

+----------------+----------------+----------------+  

|   Drumatix     |  UNSUPPORTED   |  FULL SUPPORT* |  Unsupported: no updated, abandoned

+----------------+----------------+----------------+  support, generally you should not

|   HunAgurk     |  UNSUPPORTED   |     PARTLY     |  use unsupported software

+----------------+----------------+----------------+  

|  HalcyonEdit   |  Not released  |  UNSUPPORTED   |

+----------------+----------------+----------------+


   * only for versions above 1.5


We hope this clears up some important compatibility issues in Windows releases.


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Halcyon Digital Research recommends the Brother HL-1050 for use with Hard Copy. It's perfect for offices, homes, light or indeed heavy printing use. And it has a smaller footprint than most other laser printers too! However, this printer is a few years old by now; so why do we recommend it?



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|              .:/:::-----...``          |

|             .:++//////////////::--.    |

|         `.---://:::////////+//o//+.    |

|       `.--------::::::::://///+/+/     |

|     `.--------::::::::::::::://++/--.  |

|   `..----------:://////::::::/:/::://  |

|  `.-----------------:::::::::::::/++/  |

| `-----------:::::::::::::::/::::/++++  |

| :::::---:::::::::::::::::://////++++/  |

| ./+oo++//////::::::::::://////++++++.  |

|  :+oyhyyyyssssooo++++///+////++oo+/.   |

|  `-/oysooosssssyyyyyyyysssooo+oso-     |

|      ``.-://+ossssssssysyssso+os:      |

|               `.-:/++osssssso++.       |

|                        `.-://.         |

|                                        |

|         BROTHER HL-1050 USB            |

+----------------------------------------+


(*) SPEED - this printer is not as fast as some, but it certainly isn't slow either.

(*) LOW COST - this printer lasts forever on one toner cartridge, which can be costly, but you get more pages for your buck.

(*) OPTIONS - it can connect via USB or Parallel, which is useful for PC users who want to use an older machine - which is fine!


All in all, the HL-1050 is cheap, solid printer. Did I mention this is the printer for the main server?


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      ___    _   _  __ _____  ___  /7

     / o | .' \ / |/ //_  _/,' _/ // 

    /  ,' / o // || /  / / _\ `.     

  /_/`_\/_n_//_/|_/  /_/ /___,'()   

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I HATE TONSILLITIS. Let the word   MMMMMMMMMMMI:=,.,....MMMMMZM7=:...MD=MMM

be known; tonsillitis is a         MMMMMMMMMM.........$MMMMM,..........MMMM

horrible disease. It's like        MMMMMMM,.,.:.~...........?MM~........MMM

having a mouthful of food you      MMMMMM.$MMMMMM+......:OMMMM$MM=?......MM

can't swallow, a cigarette you     MMMMMMMMMMZ=$?Z$.....=MM.MMMM..........M

can't smoke, a quid tossed into    MMMMMMM7,=MMMMMM,.....$MM8?............$

a mound of dog crap and            MMMMMMMIMM.MMMMM........................

forgetting about a cup of coffee   MMMMMMN8MM,M7M$.........................

- then discovering it, and being   MMMMMMZ$M7O7?~+:.,..M...................

disappointed that it's cold.       MMMMMM7?=,:~.=OM,.,OM...................

                                   MMMMMMO7??~=:,.I,,......................

Why isn't tonsillitis dead? It's   MMMM....MMM~..=$?.......................

been here for hundreds of years.   MMMM  ..........NMMMMMM8?...............

It makes you shiver, sweat,        +~MMMMMMI?$?M:D$.MI~....................

chatter, cough, hack and unable    ~OMMMMMMO$Z:+7$Z==??=...................

to speak properly - and yet we've  ~OMMMMMMO$Z:+7$Z==??=...................

cured smallpox, polio, measles     =MMMMMMM?MZ=I+$:=I$?~,.:................

and yellow fever. Why the hell

hasn't anyone thought about tonsillitis? Surely millions of pounds are spent on antibiotics and painkillers on the NHS when we could just vaccinate against tonsillitis and be done with it. What a waste.

                  - James Stafford


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