NEAT Documentation

How simple some things sound.

As mentioned before, I have a Windows version is NEAT, which I have converted to visual studio 2008. however it doesn't come with any documentation, to speak of. There is however a sentence which directs the user to the documentation, in Linux version of the NEAT code.

Downloading the code is easy enough, but of course it comes in a Gzip package, so first I needed a Linux computer to unzip the package. Not a problem, I recently bought a ASUS EeePC. I unziped the package and transferred it to full sized Vista laptop. (In case you don't know the EeePC is a sub-notebook with a 7" screen. And it has no C compiler.

It turns out that the documentation is in a Postscript file. A wonderful format for most of the world, but of course on Windows you have to pay someone Mega$$ to read it! And of course my printer is not a postscript printer.

Next, try reading the file on the sub-notebook. The file is 17 pages, and too wide to display at a legible font size on the 7" EeePC screen without scrolling sideways to read each line ... hardly conducive to digesting 17 pages of technical info! Setting up printing to a network printer on a Windows network is beyond me, and once again I failed. (One of these days I will set up a Linux network server, and solve the issue of different OSs).

How do I turn a post script file into something I can read on Windows? Google is your friend! It isn't long before I find a utility that can print a postcript file on Vista. Wonderful.

Download.

Install.

Run.

Error Message. " You are trying to print a Postscript file to a non-postscript printer".

Well YES!!@*!

Back to google. I found a wonderful site that will convert a Postscript file into a Portable Document File (PDF), just upload it and download the result. It took a few attempts, probably because I didn't read the instructions!

Finally I print the documentation. Success.

Next of course I need to understand it. But this has taken the whole evening, and I am too tired now. I should go to bed ... what is on TV?