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Forum Index : Microcontroller and PC projects : Planning an update
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CircuitGizmos Guru  Joined: 08/09/2011 Location: United StatesPosts: 1425 |
I'm planning an update to the Beginning Maximite document. For those who use it as an alternative/supplement to the original/official Maximite documentation, is there anything that you would like to see in version 1.5? Any feedback? http://www.circuitgizmos.com/files/begmax.pdf Micromites and Maximites! - Beginning Maximite |
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panky Guru Joined: 02/10/2012 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1101 |
Hi CG, Great work on the manual - couple of comments/suggestions:- 1. At 550 odd pages, it is getting to the unwieldy stage - would you consider splitting into two parts, intro/hardware etc. and a separate language reference section? 2. I particularly like the small code examples for each command/function - these could possibly be expanded a little more? 3. Although one command/function per page looks good, it ends up being many half pages or less - where practible, could multiple commands be on one page? Eg. PWM and PWM STOP. 4. Full circuit diags of all the CG boards. 5. A shade less right, top and bottom margin to again trim overall size and, with respect, trim down your bottom margin banner, again to trim size. 6. Lastly, would you consider discussing with Geoff the possibility of including info on Geoff's original MM and the colour MM - circuits, board layout etc? This would then make this the definative reference manual(s) for the MM. Congrats on a great job - looks like it is a project of love for you - well done. Regards, Doug. PS. Packaged as pre-printed manual, assembled board and software on CD or USB stick, it would make a very attractive option for schools - the Pi (IMHO) is too complex for an entry level intro to computer hardware. Doug. PPS. One lst request - would it be possible to have a one summary table of all commands/functions with clickable links the detailed explanation page? ... almost all of the Maximites, the MicromMites, the MM Extremes, the ArmMites, the PicoMite and loving it! |
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| CircuitGizmos Guru Joined: 08/09/2011 Location: United StatesPosts: 1425 |
"Great work on the manual" Thanks! 1. I had considered that, but it makes keeping the index updated rather unwieldy. I'm doing what I can to reduce document size. Already down 50 pages. 2. Yes. I will work on that when I have time. User contributions of simple examples would be greatly appreciated. 3. "Eg. PWM and PWM STOP." I didn't want to do that wholesale, but there are some commands I'll do this to. 4. They end up hard to read but I'll try. 5. Pages have been trimmed. If I trim the right, then that screws up double-sided printing if you 3-ring bind the doc. Top/bottom at minimum. This is for U.S. sized paper. Other countries have taller pages. 6. It is meant to be a reference manual for the CircuitGizmos products. "PS. Packaged as pre-printed manual," There was some talk of making it a published book, but that didn't happen. "attractive option for schools" I've only had one school contact me about the CGCOLORMAX. If there is more interest, I'll consider a package. "summary table of all commands/functions with clickable links" A bit of work, but that would be beneficial. Thank you for your feedback - good ideas! Micromites and Maximites! - Beginning Maximite |
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| phiber Newbie  Joined: 19/09/2013 Location: United StatesPosts: 8 |
Incredible documentation effort! Considering the size of this manual, you should call it the "Maximite Bible". By the way I should introduce myself... I recently joined this forum after building my Altronics Colour Maximite kit a few nights ago. So far I'm having lots of fun with it. I'm extremely impressed with the quality of the hardware and firmware, particularly MMBASIC's features. Regards -Mark |
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| paceman Guru Joined: 07/10/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1329 |
Hi CG, There's no doubt you've put a lot of work into a great asset for the Maximite community. I'd agree with Panky though that it's gotten too big! If you do get into a wholesale 'compacting' though I'm glad it's you doing it because I can see any revision of the way it's laid out will be a big job! Here's my five cents worth about what you might do to reduce it. 1. Reduce the font size. I know quite a few of us need big print - however we still manage to read a lot of other stuff on our screens that are a lot smaller. The 'headings' particularly are very big. 2. As Panky also noted, the code examples are great - especially for newbies. They take up a lot of room though at the size they're printed. They seem to often be double spaced too. I think a fair bit of gain can be made there. 3. All your photos are really good quality which is great. Some of them though don't need to be anywhere near as big to still get your point across. In many cases that would allow you to put a lot of the accompanying text on the same page which would save a lot. The same goes for several of the diagrams. 4. The screen shots take up a lot of space when they mostly only have a few lines at the top. Maybe many could just show a section of the screen (top left and just the relevant lines) and still get the point across. This would reduce the 'real estate' considerably and the text on the screen could even be bigger. I can see a full screen will sometimes be needed though to show options available on the screen. 5. I don't think each topic should have a new page. Most manuals would do that for Chapters but not topics within them. There's a fair bit to be gained there. 6. The MMBasic commands are a big 'paper' burner. I agree with Panky here too that each one doesn't need a new page. If you did decide to reduce the font sizes that would make this point even more obvious. 7. Panky's suggestion re splitting it into hardware and software seems a good idea to me too, half the size in one fell swoop! - but I can see your point about keeping the index updated. I wonder if the full reference of MMBasic commands even need to be included. Geoff's MMBasic manual is always up to date and available, and to me, the best part of "Beginning Maximite" is all the hardware info and application examples. One final point, unrelated to size is that I think including a prominent link to the MMBasic library would be very useful. Anyone that's using "Beginning Maximite" exclusively for their reference will be unaware of the existence of this very useful resource. Greg |
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| CircuitGizmos Guru Joined: 08/09/2011 Location: United StatesPosts: 1425 |
Greg: Great feedback, thank you. 1. The working version of BegMax 1.5 already has font size reductions. I was holding off on that because I was using my laser printer feature of printing two pages of the document on one side of the paper page. Several people have done this and fonts any smaller would be darned hard to read. I'll reduce font size and stop doing the double-page printing. 2. Code examples in 1.4 are single-spaced. 3. Already reducing most photo sizes. Again a hold-over from double printing. I've halved a select number of photos and will do more. I've allowed text to wrap around the photos, too. 4. Some of the screen shots are from early versions of MMIDE and need updating. When I do that I will crop the pictures more. 5. This has been mentioned before and I was still going to hold off on making this change. I realized that it is something that only helps the document author. So as of 1.5 only the major topics will start a new page. 6. Not changing this, though. I want the top of the page to list the command. Paging through the document when printed it is easier to find commands when at the top. 7. If you don't want the command reference included, just print the first half of the document. I moved all hardware parts to the first half of the doc for this reason. Final point: I agree that the library is a great resource. Not sure yet how to include reference to it. Micromites and Maximites! - Beginning Maximite |
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