matherp
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Joined: 11/12/2012
Location: United KingdomPosts: 12194 |
| Posted: 11:08am 13 Nov 2026 |
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A word processor and a spreadsheet for the Colour Maximite 2
Two new programs in the 7.00.00RC5 programs zip, for the Generation 1 and the Generation 2: WordGrinder, a word processor, and sc-im, a spreadsheet. The firmware is unchanged: download the zip again and copy its wordgrinder and scim folders to the card.
https://github.com/UKTailwind/CMM2V1.5/releases/tag/v7.00.00RC5
What they are
Both are well-known text-screen programs from the Unix world, ported whole. They run on PDCursesMod, the curses library, with a new screen and keyboard for the CMM2 underneath, so they look and work as they do on a PC terminal, in colour and with accented letters.
• They use the video mode MMBasic is in, from 640 x 400 up to 1920 x 1080 on a Generation 2, with a font to suit: 8 x 16, or 12 x 24 above 1280 pixels across.
• Alt+= steps to the next video mode and Alt+Minus to the next font while you work. Each program remembers your choice for next time.
• Files can be on the SD card (A:) or a USB flash drive (C:).
• Use a USB keyboard: Ctrl, Alt and Shift with the arrows reach the programs from it.
WordGrinder
David Given's WordGrinder 0.8 is a word processor for writing. It keeps to the words and their structure: paragraphs, headings, bulleted and numbered lists, quotations, and bold, italic and underlined text. How the page looks is left to whatever you export to, so there are no fonts, margins or page breaks to fiddle with.
• Export as ODT, which Microsoft Word and LibreOffice open, or as HTML, Markdown, LaTeX, Troff or plain text. Import ODT, HTML, Markdown and text.
• Esc opens the menus. Ctrl+S saves, Ctrl+Q leaves, and Ctrl+X, Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V cut, copy and paste.
• Autosave, templates, and several documents in one file.
• Spelling on a Generation 2: a whole English dictionary, British to start with and American in the folder too. It takes about 16MB, which MMBasic lends WordGrinder while it runs, and about six seconds to load. Misspelt words are shown in grey; Ctrl+L finds the next and Ctrl+M adds a word to your own dictionary. A Generation 1 has not the memory for a whole dictionary: WordGrinder says so and carries on, and your own word list still works.
CHDIR "A:/wordgrinder"
RUN "wordgrinder.app", letter.wg
sc-im
Andrés Martinelli's sc-im 0.8.6 is a spreadsheet that grew from sc, the spreadsheet calculator Unix has had since the 1980s. It is worked from the keyboard in the manner of the vi editor.
• Formulas with over 60 functions (@sum, @avg, @if, @lookup, dates and times, text), several sheets in a file, number and date formats, sorting, filters, undo and colours.
• Its own .sc files keep the formulas. It reads and writes CSV files for Excel and LibreOffice (Excel's CSV UTF-8 or its plain CSV), tab-separated files and Markdown tables.
• A USB mouse moves to a cell with a click, types a cell's name into a formula as you write it, and scrolls with its wheel.
• Its CSV handling was mended for Excel's files on the way: the mark at the start of a CSV UTF-8 file, quotes inside text, the accented letters of a plain CSV file, and quotes written out the standard way.
CHDIR "A:/scim"
RUN "scim.app", budget.sc
It is not Excel, and five things catch everyone out at first:
• Letters are commands. Start a number or formula with =, and text with <.
• What you type appears on the second line of the screen, not in the cell, until you press Enter.
• Esc gives up what you are typing. The arrows and the mouse do not leave the cell while you type.
• :w saves and :q leaves.
• Rows are numbered from 0, so the first cell is A0.
Its chapter in the App User Guide starts with these, and then makes a first sheet step by step.
What has been tried
On both generations:
• WordGrinder: its own 65 tests, of which 64 pass (the other looks for a Windows install folder); typing, selecting, the menus and styles with a USB keyboard; saving on A: and C:; autosave; an ODT export opened in Word; Alt+= and Alt+Minus; spelling with the whole dictionary on a Generation 2.
• sc-im: the chapter's first sheet; formulas, functions, dates and formats; accented letters, and Greek letters with Ctrl+K; the keyboard and the mouse; Alt+= and Alt+Minus; its settings file; sheets saved and loaded as .sc and CSV; CSV files saved by Excel opened in sc-im, and sc-im's opened in Excel.
What they do not do
• Neither prints: export from WordGrinder, or save a CSV from sc-im, and print from a PC.
• WordGrinder 0.8 has no mouse.
• sc-im has no charts, cannot open or save .xlsx, .xls or .ods files (use CSV), has no clipboard to other programs, and cannot run shell commands. A CSV file holds each number as it is shown, so give a column the decimal places it needs before saving.
• Sorting, filters and subtotals in sc-im have not been tried yet. Reports are welcome.
More
Colour_Maximite_2_App_User_Guide.pdf, on the release page, has a chapter on each. WordGrinder is under the MIT licence; sc-im is under the BSD 4-Clause licence, and this product includes software developed by Andrés Martinelli; PDCursesMod is in the public domain. The README in the zip lists every part's licence. The source is in apps/wordgrinder, apps/scim and apps/pdcurses of the firmware's repository. Faults found on the way were reported to their authors: two in WordGrinder and one in PDCursesMod. |
Notice. New forum software under development. It's going to miss a few functions and look a bit ugly for a while, but I'm working on it full time now as the old forum was too unstable. Couple days, all good. If you notice any issues, please contact me.