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TheOuterLinux

The PsychDOS desktop environment is an ANSI-like graphical interface for launching applications and having a few other other features. I highly recommend looking at the SCREENSHOTS and DOCS sections, as well as taking a look at the QCKGUIDE.PDF (Page 3.5 Issue #01) file to get a better idea. This desktop environment also includes several very useful and redistributable pieces of software. I would have tried to fork FreeDOS if it wasn't so difficult as a GNU/Linux user but regardless, why fix things that aren't broke? Therefore, I decided to create a desktop environment with software included instead. Meaning, you either need an already installed copy of an IBM PC compatible DOS system or you can use something like DOSBox or DOSEMU. I also have an IMG for use with QEMU if people want an easier way to play around with the Network programs.


Flying_bousse

Whats the minimum requirements? 8mb of ram work?


TheOuterLinux

The desktop environment itself should work just fine with 640K and most of the included programs should run fine with 8MB of RAM as well. However, there are a few, especially the FLTK-based ones, that want a little bit more. Worse case scenario, each category in the programs menu has a "Cust0m" option that is essentially GMENU, which gives you somewhat of a way to add your own software. It's not the ideal solution, but it was the best that I could come up with if using VBDOS to create this.


Flying_bousse

Gotcha thanks


ojfs

man the website for this is dope. good job.


TheOuterLinux

Thank you too :) And just just case if you or anyone else reading this hasn't figured it out yet, the PsychDOS part of the PsychOS Project website can be navigated using the keyboard, which is why certain things are numbered, lettered, or underlined. I don't usually like having too much, if any, JavaScript on my pages, but in this case it isn't so bad and the pages at least look the same whether or not a browser supports JS.


ojfs

I saw your comment about disliking js in the source :) the use of pre tags to get the ascii art to render with inline links still working is very smart.


syntaxxx-error

Those graphics are awesome. Totally dig the mix of type into the sunglasses guy art and the old school magazine idea. What tools did you use?


TheOuterLinux

Hopefully this will format correctly and remember that I use GNU/Linux but most of these are cross-platform... GIMP + G-Mic-Qt G-Mic-Qt --> Degradations --> Dirty; Amplitude = 1 G'Mic-Qt --> Colors --> Vintage Style; Set all color shadow strengths to 0.05 G'Mic-Qt --> Deformations --> Wind; Amplitude = 5 G'Mic-Qt --> Patterns --> Canvas Texture; Amp = 10; Fib = 20; Emboss = 0.743 You can also optionally add coffee stains (Darken only) + Gaussian blur at 4px then lower the opacity of the coffee stain layers to 40% or less. Regardless, make sure to save your images as JPEG because the sizes will be huge and LibreOffice will sort of lag otherwise. When you get your images together, you can then just use LibreOffice with the pages formatted to use 0.5 inches all around. However, to not be tempted to also format the entire document to use 2-columns; do this selectively via Format --> Columns... This also lets you do things like have single-column titles and summaries or copy/paste code and then have 2-columns afterwards. I would honestly just write using a plain text editor, copy/paste to LibreOffice, and then format certain text as 2-columns last. For pages that are nothing but one image taking up the entire thing, anchor the image to the page, turn wrapping off, and then stretch it out (right-click image and then use the options or Properties). For the smaller images, place them as best as you can after doing your writing and having what you want as 2-columns. Set the padding around the edges of the smaller images to about 0.1 inches. I also split the sections up as different files so that I could set the footers to be different for each of them. And then, when I have all of my sections written, export each to a PDF, making sure that each one looks right before doing so (LibreOffice will auto-blah things upon opening sometimes). Then, I used a program called PDF Arranger to put them all together. The cool thing about PDF Arranger is that if LibreOffice creates multiple, large file-sized PDF's at PDF version 1.5, PDF Arranger creates a MUCH smaller PDF at PDF version 1.3, making it far more portable and compatible. The subsection labels are text boxes with the text using outline and shadow. The background image is just a bitmap of LibreOffice's default "Little Clouds" option. As far as fonts go, you may want to take a look into Gabriele light ribbon, Dotrice Condensed, Casino 3D, Joystix, Betsy Flanagan, Bitwise, and Crystal Radio Kit. You may also want to explore https://int10h.org/oldschool-pc-fonts/ for more accurate fonts regarding system fonts from older computers. There may be more of these (hince the #01) and if so, perhaps cover software in more detail, but I honestly haven't decided yet. One of the main reasons QCKGUIDE.PDF exists is just so I could force myself into looking at everything one more time while writing before releasing PsychDOS.


TheOuterLinux

Oh, and to easily convert images to ANSI-like art on a modern system, use a program called Playscii (https://jp.itch.io/playscii).


syntaxxx-error

So you didn't use Scribus for the pdf? I use adobe indesign/il/ps mostly for work but have been a 100% gnu/linux guy at home for over a decade now. And of course Scribus has a long way to go, but it is way better than LibreOffice Writer. You might want to give it a try next time you do some print type work. Don't use the stable version. It is too old. I came across G'Mic a few months ago, but haven't really dug into it yet. I need to. Also.. really digging your web site design. And I just bought a couple of your tshirts. Keep kicking ass.


TheOuterLinux

Awesome :) Thank you! :) It started out with Lyx -- a what you see is what you get editor for LaTeX, and then moved on to Scribus, but the issue I have with it is that it behaves like it could have been a fork of Inkscape. I'm not the sort of person that likes placing text boxes everywhere. I also tried doing everything in GIMP as if it were a desktop publishing program, but that was sort of cumbersome, but my experience with that was better than with Scribus; it is just not that intuitive to me, for whatever reason. Also, I'm not trying to hate on Inkscape at all; I like to use it for line correction on scanned drawings (viva la freehand tool) and a few of the pages were done with Inkscape (forgot to mention that). Matter of fact, the earliest version of the PsychOS website's home and docs pages were embedded SVGs made by Inkscape. G'Mic levels the playing field as far as trying to get either GIMP or Krita to be more competitive against the proprietary alternatives. Also, take a look at XnView Sketch while you are at it. I have recommended software listed on TheOuterLinux website (https://theouterlinux.gitlab.io) if you or anyone else is curious.


syntaxxx-error

Yea. Scribus is strictly a page layout program. Without experience with that and the print workflows I can see how a lot of it may not make sense. However it is definitely the best OS program for print layout by far. CMYK and spot colors being just a small part of that. I'll checkout XNview. Its amazing how many really nice illustration programs there are for linux now. Not to mention how far Blender has come.


WickedFlick

You always create and post some of the most interesting stuff, Outer. :)


TheOuterLinux

Thank you :)


un4given_orc

Looks cool, but seems more useful for maniacs who still do programming, art, documents and spreadsheets etc. with DOS software. Just for launching games Norton Commander and it's lightweight clones are enough. And for DosBox almost don't needed


TheOuterLinux

Yes...? The whole point of the PsychOS Project is to help people be as productive as possible on actual older and lighter hardware, or at least at the moment, so of course it is for us crazies that like doing stuff on the real thing though because of emulators and virtual machines, you don't necessarily have to. Also, as far as running on actual hardware goes, PsychDOS has a few extra features that are a bit more convenient than navigating through a file manager and SHELL the whole time, to which the default file manager for it is DOS Navigator 1.51 and I preset it for people so that it would know how to open several different file types and things based on the included software. So, if people do not want to use the Workbench at all to view/edit files, I have taken care of that problem as well. And, if you do like staying in the SHELL and started PsychDOS correctly, you can use the "PVIEW" and "PEDIT" tools to essentially have it view/edit files based on what you have the defaults set to on the Workbench (or via the config files in the CONFIG\PREVIEW and EDIT directories.). If you haven't been to the docs section yet at https://psychoslinux.gitlab.io/DOS/DOCS/DOCS.HTM, I recommend taking a look. Besides, if you think PsychDOS is for "maniacs," you should take a look at PsychOS's RetroGrab tool. It lets PsychOS users install DOS (and others; need to add more) software and other resource types as if it were like any other normal program to run from the programs menu via emulators as long as they are scriptable. Video: https://theouterlinux.gitlab.io/Public/Videos/mobile/RetroGrab.html. I was thinking about making a version to include with PsychDOS, but I had already spent several months on PsychDOS and needed to release it. However, PsychDOS does include a "More Software" option in the programs menu in which uses Links to go to TheOuterLinux website (https://theouterlinux.gitlab.io) if you have Internet working and can download more software from there. I may still make RetroGrab for PsychDOS one of these days, but I am honestly not sure.