> The hard part is that the Canon Cat had bespoke hardware with dedicated keys for its actions
I actually designed a PCB / custom keyboard (well, it's just a copy of the Canon Cat layout) with the Leap, Use Front, etc keys (using an ARM dev board called Black Pill, which is probably overkill, to scan the rows/columns for key up/down events) for this reason. Right now I have it sending key codes over a serial connection to another microcontroller with a display module so you can now type on it, but I really need to get started on the actual Canon Cat style software. I'm not really planning to make it USB compatible or use any existing OS though.
> Maybe predictably, early on I found myself wanting more than one text stream. I fought that inclination to discover what’s in store down the pure Canon Cat path.
I think the Cat would let you do that if you used multiple disks? I haven't used a Canon Cat, but only read the documentation. It used a single DISK button for loading and saving, based on context. The following quote is copied from the manual for reference. I think the "beep" option is for if you've made an edit in memory but don't have the correct disk in for saving that same text stream.
[quote]
The Cat has two storage places for your text: memory and disk. Memory is the area inside the Cat where the text is stored while you are working on it. The on-screen text is a portion of the text stored in memory. The memory is kept alive by the electric current coming from the wall. If the power were cut, the text in the memory would be lost, so you need to record the text more or less permanently on a disk with the help of the disk drive.
One command, [DISK], handles all operations involving disk and memory. When you use [DISK], the Cat does one of three things:
-Plays back the disk in the drive. This means copying the information from the disk into the memory, and putting a portion of it up on the screen where you can see it and work on it.
-Records the text in memory. This means transferring the information in memory to the disk for safe storage.
-Beeps. This means the Cat makes a warning sound and does nothing, because recording or playing back might lose information.
A DISK sign appears on the ruler while the Cat is recording or playing back.
[unquote]
kragen•2m ago
This does mention Archy, but not in any depth. It doesn't mention The Humane Interface (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Humane_Interface), THE, or RCHI. I wonder what the reason is for these omissions? You'd think they'd be central to any discussion of recreating the Canon Cat document interface!
drivers99•1h ago
I actually designed a PCB / custom keyboard (well, it's just a copy of the Canon Cat layout) with the Leap, Use Front, etc keys (using an ARM dev board called Black Pill, which is probably overkill, to scan the rows/columns for key up/down events) for this reason. Right now I have it sending key codes over a serial connection to another microcontroller with a display module so you can now type on it, but I really need to get started on the actual Canon Cat style software. I'm not really planning to make it USB compatible or use any existing OS though.
> Maybe predictably, early on I found myself wanting more than one text stream. I fought that inclination to discover what’s in store down the pure Canon Cat path.
I think the Cat would let you do that if you used multiple disks? I haven't used a Canon Cat, but only read the documentation. It used a single DISK button for loading and saving, based on context. The following quote is copied from the manual for reference. I think the "beep" option is for if you've made an edit in memory but don't have the correct disk in for saving that same text stream.
[quote]
The Cat has two storage places for your text: memory and disk. Memory is the area inside the Cat where the text is stored while you are working on it. The on-screen text is a portion of the text stored in memory. The memory is kept alive by the electric current coming from the wall. If the power were cut, the text in the memory would be lost, so you need to record the text more or less permanently on a disk with the help of the disk drive.
One command, [DISK], handles all operations involving disk and memory. When you use [DISK], the Cat does one of three things:
-Plays back the disk in the drive. This means copying the information from the disk into the memory, and putting a portion of it up on the screen where you can see it and work on it.
-Records the text in memory. This means transferring the information in memory to the disk for safe storage.
-Beeps. This means the Cat makes a warning sound and does nothing, because recording or playing back might lose information.
A DISK sign appears on the ruler while the Cat is recording or playing back.
[unquote]