Re: [hatari-devel] Cartridge help text

[Nicolas Pomarède <npomarede@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Le 11/01/2017 à 21:45, Eero Tamminen a écrit :
> Hi,
>
> On 01/10/2017 12:25 AM, Thomas Huth wrote:
> > Am Sun, 8 Jan 2017 22:56:14 +0200
> > schrieb Eero Tamminen <oak@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>:
> > > Hatari cartridge image contains program that shows some
> > > Hatari help text.  I noticed that it's a bit out of date.
> > >
> > > Attached patch adds few missing keyboard shortcuts,
> > > shortens other text so that they hopefully fit, and
> > > makes the texts more consistent (all start with lower
> > > case etc).
> >
> > Actually, now that we've got configurable keyboard shortcuts, IMHO it
> > does make sense at all anymore to show the hard-coded keys there.
>
> I've always thought cartridge program to be default bindings
> help for new users (or to users who otherwise have missed
> documentation about Hatari's key bindings).
>
> From that point of view, the info still makes sense...

Hi

honestly, in all the years I worked on Hatari, that was the first time 
this week that I run this program :) I never noticed before it was there.
I doubt many users will notice it too, you need to to add an extra drive 
under GEM desktop and name it "c:" (in lower case, else it doesn't work).

If we really want user to have a quick help text, it would be better to 
add it into the F12 menu IMO.

> > Any suggestions for a better text?
>
> I'd prefix "Hatari keyboard shortcuts" with "Default".
>
>
> Btw. It's kind of cool that it's a native Atari program.
>
> What if we would announce a small "demo" competition,
> to upgrade the cartridge help program?
[...]
> (Bonus points if demo is provided both as pre-built cartridge
> image and patch to Hatari code which applies & builds fine.)
>
> Winner would get "fame"; demo inclusion to Hatari
> and credits in authors.txt & release notes.
>
> Do you think anybody would be interested?

That seems like a lot of (too much ?) criteria ; although some demos are 
still released nowadays, production is not as high as it was in the 
'90s, I'm not sure many people would have time to code a demo just for us.
If people want to code an intro for Hatari, I'd rather have some 
different intros to celebrate each new release of Hatari.

I have a few ideas of demo effects that could be used to do this, but as 
many people I think lack of time is the main limitation, this also 
requires a team of people for gfx and music, which can be difficult to 
find a common timeframe to work on it.

Perhaps I will have time to contribute something one day, but I'd rather 
not release anything than release a rushed/not finished intro due to 
lack of time.

Nicolas