Good AmigaGuide viewer for Windows? YES, finally.

[StoneOakvalley]

Im not sure where to post this, sorry if it was placed in the wrong forum.

Anyway, does there exist a decent Amiga .guide viewer for Windows? Yes, there is something called WinGuide. However, I dont like it, to be honest.

So, during the recent months I created a own tool from scratch called AGWViewer, or AmigaGuide Windows Viewer. Currently in v.099beta.

Forums for it here:
http://www.dirtcellar.net/phpBB3/vie...php?f=21&t=730

The software can be downloaded from here: (v1.1)
http://www.stone-oakvalley-studios.c..._v11_setup.zip by using the InnoSetup installer, clean and nice. It can be released as a portable too, 158kb only, but .guide file associate will not be available.

It features:
- Tested and works fine with WinME/Win2000/2003/XP/Vista/Win7
- Limited functionality in Win95/98, but converts and exports to .HTML and TXT including Powerpacker support.
- Require WinUAE v2.3.1 (or lower, not tested) for decompressing XPK compressed guides, works transparently, just configuration path and .rom file.
- Saves settings as .ini file. No registry or hidden shit, no shitty dot.net requirements, etc. etc...just plain window design and no bloat stuff.

I have tested it with about 60 different good and cranky guide files and v.099 seems very stable and trust-able now. It even looks like the real AmigaGuide thingy.

In addition it gives you the output as HTML, TXT or print to any printer you want (hence it can produce pdf files for you). It also have own INDEX function, supports supposedly all graphic codes and finally a search that is ALWAYS available. Search works for the entire guide file and not only "word" based, but "wo" as in "word" if you like.

Let me know what you think, or if any strange .guides lock the software up. It does seems pretty stable by now after several months of coding and debugging.

Programmed in PureBasic.

Regards Stone Oakvalley

[Dan]

Finaly an winguide replacement. Thanks.

[gulliver]

Thank you!
It is really great software

[rockersuke]

I could use that portable version here at job, where I can´t install any software and pretended a few times to print guide files (winguide is pretty bad for printing). Nice job!

--

[alexh]

Nice work.

I've got the source code to AmigaGuide if you want it? I kept meaning to post it up on the Aminet since I was given it last year by the author.

[prowler]

Thankyou, Stone Oakvalley.

Gulliver is right, this is really great software!

The hyperlinks are inactive when browsing in IE8, but that's just a minor quibble. (Can't check it in another browser; I don't have one installed on this machine.)

[StoneOakvalley]

Hi all,

Great feedback. Im glad it works. There was a buggy xpkGZIP.library so I replaced with one that works for the v1.0 version coming some day.

Alexh: No, I think I can manage without the source code, it was all reverse-engineering manual style by just looking at a wealth of amigaguides, taking one step at the time :-)

Prowler: So inactive in IE8 after you chose the "View in browser"?. The software was programmed in purebasic and it includes a webgadget which is basically just embedded whatever ie engine you got installed. I'll look into what happens when it goes into IE8 mode.....Firefox is my default though.

The portable is easy to get, just install it on a virutal pc or something, copy the exe file and use it whereever you want. It will only create a ini file if you configure the WINUAE stuff. Naturally no doubleclick on .guide files will work, but not a big problem. I'll zip up a portable version when it gets v1.0 on my site, no problem.


EDIT: The IE8 is just blocking javascript when running locally. If you load the 0001.html into IE8 it pops up with that yellow bar at the top. It will works from a http:// site. file:// are mildy blocked in IE8 by default I suppose. Lowering the security would help, but thats up to the user to decide.

[mfilos]

StoneOakvalley thanks for this wonderful program!
I really like it and it works nicely.

I found some guides that had some issues (dunno if it's due to the Guide or due to the program but in the Amiga they work just fine).

I'm attaching an archive for you to check it out when you'll have time

Thanks again mate!

[prowler]

Originally Posted by StoneOakvalley

Prowler: So inactive in IE8 after you chose the "View in browser"?. The software was programmed in purebasic and it includes a webgadget which is basically just embedded whatever ie engine you got installed. I'll look into what happens when it goes into IE8 mode.....Firefox is my default though.

EDIT: The IE8 is just blocking javascript when running locally. If you load the 0001.html into IE8 it pops up with that yellow bar at the top. It will works from a http:// site. file:// are mildy blocked in IE8 by default I suppose. Lowering the security would help, but thats up to the user to decide.

Thanks for the info, Stone Oakvalley.

IE8 is not my browser of choice - it doesn't crash all the time like IE6, but in every other respect it's worse (IMHO), and this just reinforces that belief. Unfortunately, it's all I had installed when I tested your viewer after a fresh Windows install.

Back to Firefox soon, and normal service will be resumed!

[StoneOakvalley]

mfilos: Thanks for the files. I see some codes not handled yet. And, linking to disk files will not work very good and scanning is screwed for sure. I used the standard AmigaGuide 39.11 (31.8.92) for verify/appearance/testing on a winuae'd A1200. I dont have any new-school AmigaOS here (in case there are some <img src> to be shown within the guides?.

Like that Amiga OS 3.9 guide? @database Hard Disk Manual - AmigaOS 3.9

I'll look into some improvements for the v1.0 version to be released in Easter.

[StoneOakvalley]

All righty. I filtered out those codes that made the test guides appear kinda messed up. It seems they rely on v40 amigaguide...which I have no time or material to dig into right now.

For now, it just ignores the v40 tags and revert back to v39 style. Also a xpkGZIP library decompressing was replaced as this didn't work. V1.0 as final yesterday:

http://www.stone-oakvalley-studios.c...x_software.php

[mfilos]

Awesome work StoneOakvalley!!!
All files work as intended now. \o/

Made a small contribution for supporting your efforts as well

[StoneOakvalley]

Thanks mfilos,

Received with great appreciation!

[Minuous]

The handling of @ has a bug.

@ needs to be prepended with \ and the leading \ is stripped before display.

I notice in the About window it says "Written without any specification", I have found the relevant document and put it in the Zone for your perusal.

Originally Posted by alexh

Nice work.

I've got the source code to AmigaGuide if you want it? I kept meaning to post it up on the Aminet since I was given it last year by the author.

@alexh:

This would be awesome, could you please put it in the Zone or email it to me? I will upload it to Aminet too for you if you like. Many thanks.

[Allen1]

Thanks StoneOakvalley, that's a brilliant piece of software

Thanks also to mfilos (I used your zipped file to try it out)

[StoneOakvalley]

Originally Posted by Minuous

The handling of @ has a bug.

@ needs to be prepended with \ and the leading \ is stripped before display.

I notice in the About window it says "Written without any specification", I have found the relevant document and put it in the Zone for your perusal.
.

Yes, it seems a guide called heddley.guide uses \@ to spell out an email address. In the output it comes out as:

My grateful thanks go to Geir Harald Hansen (geirhans\@ifi.uio.no) for his
invaluable help with debugging Heddley and suggestions as to how to improve it.

Out of the 110 guides I used during testing only this one had \@ in it.

[Minuous]

Also, before I forget, \\ should be output as \

Not sure if you have already implemented that.

[alexh]

I see that you've updated to v1.1 perhaps you should change the link in the first post to

http://www.stone-oakvalley-studios.c...x_software.php

Nice software BTW: I use it quite a lot so I guess I should donate

[asymetrix]

Wow, well done this is great work it should be GPLd :-)

Impressive !

when a guide is loaded, are the links(buttons) fixed width/font/color/size or can it be changed so all links can be a schosen style/font ?

I could not find view page code option.

If someone wants to improve this program, consider adding simple page formatting per paragraph and max width text justification or text alignment.

This way exported PDFs would look great.

edit: broke on :
http://aminet.net/util/rexx/ARexxGuide2_0A.lha

[asymetrix]

Originally Posted by alexh

Nice work.

I've got the source code to AmigaGuide if you want it? I kept meaning to post it up on the Aminet since I was given it last year by the author.

Been waiting a while for it :-(