Hi All

I have for some time been working on a writer application for the amiga. The intention for this project is to have a very portable code base and a application which can resemble Abiword in capabilities.

Originally my intentions where to keep this project under the radar until I had a more polished product. However I am nearing a phase where I need graphic artists and beta testers and my more subtle posts does not really attract as much attention as possible. Therefore I have decided to share some information about this project.

I have included some screenshots which shows some of the capabilities. Please note that cinnamon in this case runs on my mac. This is however only because my AOne is unavailable at the moment. The program is excatly the same on AOS 4

Screenshot 1
Screenshot 2

Added Amiga native screenshots:

Cinnamon Writer - On Amiga
Cinnamon Writer with friends

The help I would like is as follows:

Graphic artists to make the GUI theme. I need a cool full theme, complete with background, icons and buttons

Beta testers: I am developing on a AOne G4. However I would like to see how this puppy flies on slower machines. If you would like to be a beta tester it would help if you had a "special" amiga

The timeplan for this project is:

Beta version for testers in a month
First version for public around the end of january

If you have any suggestions or requests or if you would like to help please contact me

Thank you

Last edited by Desler on 26-Nov-2006 at 09:03 PM.

@Desler

As for graphics, you may consider using AISS. However, this would be a problem if - as it seems - your aim is to have a multi-platform application: in that case, you could just ask the permission for the icons alone.

Congratulations and best luck!

saimo

edit: added link to AISS' homepage.

Last edited by saimo on 26-Nov-2006 at 12:16 AM.

_________________
RETREAM - retro dreams for Amiga, Commodore 64 and PC

@Desler

Two things I'd like is table support, and MS Word compatibility.. are these doable? I paid for AmigaWriter for my A1 early this year. I'd love to register your software if its any good too. Especially considering its os4 native and has a future.

What features do you have implemented so far?

The forums are full of angst and bickering, so this thread is really refreshing. :)

@Desler

Sign me up for beta testing...

My system: µA1 (G3 750 GX), 512mb, OS4 beta and several other beta things that might affect cinnamon...

_________________
OS4 Rocks
X1000 beta tester, Sam440 Flex (733)

Visit the Official OS4 Support Site for more help.

It may be that your sole purpose is to serve as a warning to others.

@Desler

By special, do you mean an A1SE @600 mhz? If that is special enough, I'd be glad to help with a betatest.
Jim

@Desler

I would be happy to test it on my Micro A1. No problem. Also, good work, I have been using finalwriter for the longest. Could use something new and native.

Yogi

@Desler

Nothing special here, I'm afraid. Just an XE with 7455. However, like Severin, I am a betatester, so we both have access to the latest versions of everything (some of which are more strict than Update 4 releases).

BTW, in screenshot #1, "left-justified" and "right-justified" are back to front.

_________________
cheers
tony

Hyperion Support Forum: http://forum.hyperion-entertainment.biz/index.php

@jahc
I will probably relaease this software as free-ware or something similar, eventhough I have been thinking about requesting some money for it, in order to be able to support other future amiga projects (Other than my own). In any case it will not put you back more than 5-10$

The capabilities that will be present in the first version (Not the beta) are:

- Full truetype support (Im using the freetype 2 project so more or less everything that they support)

- Normal layout options: bold, italics, underline, line spacing, justifications, font size and font. As well as superscript, subscript options and other basic options.

- cut, paste, copy functions and endless undo / redo functions

- Files can be loaded and saved as text files. However if my "real" work permitting I will try to finish a RTF module to loade and save files. But right now its just important to get the core working

Future versions will include:

- General insert fields which will support textboxes, vector graphics, pictures and tables

- Word doc type compability and other. However I will probably need help with these formats

Even more future versions are planned to include:

- Spell checker (of course)

- Some kind of scripting language which will allow people to integrate Cinnamon into their own applications (Something like Perfect paints arexx commands, just more complex)

- A reference manager which will handle pdfs and extract author information for use in your own document. (Really great for those who would like to make any bigger reports)

-OpenGL support. BUT only if it helps useability

@tonyw and other

Thank you for your interest. If you would please pm me with contact information and AOne information
I will add you to my list.

The main points I am interested in testing are:

- Speed. Will it be useable on "slow" amigas. Specially considerering that the next gen amigas are probably "only" SAM specified

- Memory requirements. Minimum requirement. Should probably be just fine on a 64-128 mb amiga. But youll never know

- Ease of installing. I would like to have an extremely simple installation process on all machines

- New memory system. I am VERY interested in knowing if cinnamon breaks any compability with the new memory system

Ps. Quote:

BTW, in screenshot #1, "left-justified" and "right-justified" are back to front.

Uuups this is what happends when you start making mock-ups 12 o'clock in the evening. Actually Im pretty releived that no-one has noticed the Gilmore Girls episode scattered around the desktop of my mac. THEY BELONG TO MY GIRLFRIEND

I will try to make a recompile on my amiga one of these days and upload a native screenshot

@Desler

Quote:

iles can be loaded and saved as text files. However if my "real" work permitting I will try to finish a RTF module to loade and save files. But right now its just important to get the core working

why don't plan to use open document or xml files? don't use strange things..

however good work!

_________________
http://www.amigasoft.net

@Desler
A very impressive and interesting native application Desler! As a long-time FinalWriter user, I'd love to get my hands on this - AmigaWriter just didn't cut it.

@afxgroup
Agreed, XML is the future, so start supporting now.

_________________
After a decade away from the scene, I am back!

@amipal / afxgroup

Ill look into XML. It really doesnt matter if Ill learn RTF or XML. I just had the notion that RTF would be easier to quickly implement. After having seen some sources I dont think that is the case. In any case this is a bit far down on my to-do list.
Just curious: Wasn't XML to be the native save format of future word versions or will they only be XML compatible?

@Desler

Quote:

Even more future versions are planned to include: - Spell checker (of course)

You could integrate ISpell like golded does (don't ask me how it does it though ), there's a native version on os4depot and it should allow you to add a spellchecker much sooner.

_________________
OS4 Rocks
X1000 beta tester, Sam440 Flex (733)

Visit the Official OS4 Support Site for more help.

It may be that your sole purpose is to serve as a warning to others.

I have up-loaded some screenshots from the native amiga version:



Cinnamon Writer - On Amiga

Cinnamon Writer with friends

Enjoy

@Desler

Looking even better under OS4! Thanks for the update Desler!

_________________
After a decade away from the scene, I am back!

@Desler

Very nice. I wish you all the best with this project.

---
redfox

@Desler

i'll be glad to betatest it too

not so "strange/speacial" A1, but...


--
javierdlrATeuskalnetDOTnet
AOne/AOS4.0b/PPC7455-800/Radeon7000/256MB/HD40GB/DVD/DVD±RW

@Desler

Word will use an XML format which is proprietary, patent encumbered and has binary blobs incorporated. OpenOffice.org V2 uses the internationally standard Open Document Format which is fully XML and openly published. ODF will be used by many European government departments and US states and would be a wise choice for future compatibility with other programs and platforms. In fact, I expect it to be used widely around the world.

RTF is an old Microsoft format intended (if you are of a kindly mentality) to enable exchange of documents with competing word processor software. The format changed regularly to ensure the dominance of Word, and RTF is best ignored.

Regards
Roy Leith

@royleith

Quote:

Word will use an XML format which is proprietary, patent encumbered and has binary blobs incorporated.

It might not be the ideal format, but Microsoft have at least opened it up so others can support it this time around: http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms406049.aspx

There's also code examples floating around on various MSDN blogs.

Quote:

OpenOffice.org V2 uses the internationally standard Open Document Format which is fully XML and openly published.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenDocument_technical_specification

_________________

@royleith and Gnarly

So in your opinion what would be the best bet. I dont want to waste alot of time in vain on some format that no-one uses. Therefore any help would be very welcome.

My idea is to support pure XML and then hope to be able to use some of the converters which are out there. Does anyone have thoughts about this. Would it be better just to try to support microsofts XML?

Another thing: I have pretty much all the beta testers that I need now (Thanks guys) However if you have a very special amiga (G2 /220 mhz or Samantha or Panda or ANYTHING) I would be very pleased to have you as a betatester. I dont even need to know what you got, just if its a slow or fast amiga.

Finally I still need some graphic counsel (Background picture, icon themes, size of icons, placement, general layout and such)

Thank you