https://www.dickimaw-books.com/blog Articles from the Dickimaw Books blog. Sat, 25 Apr 2026 13:43:02 +0000 Sat, 25 Apr 2026 13:43:02 +0000 en-GB https://www.dickimaw-books.com/logo2-mini.png https://www.dickimaw-books.com/blog 33 71 https://www.dickimaw-books.com/blog https://www.dickimaw-books.com/blog?id=53 Summary: An update on pending novels, but primarily the alternative history novel The Fourth Protectorate. Tue, 20 May 2025 22:06:23 +0000 https://www.dickimaw-books.com/blog https://www.dickimaw-books.com/blog?id=54 Summary: If you have read my short story Smile for the Camera, did you notice that the ending could have two possible interpretations? (No spoilers please!) As a writer, it’s always difficult to tell if something is too obvious or too obscure. If you need a hint, consider the naming scheme and remember that not everyone is what they say or imply that they are. Thu, 29 May 2025 16:29:44 +0000 https://www.dickimaw-books.com/blog https://www.dickimaw-books.com/blog?id=56 Summary: The DRM-free ebook retailer SmashWords has its annual Summer/Winter sale from 1st – 31st July 2025. My crime novel “The Private Enemy” and children’s illustrated story “The Foolish Hedgehog” both have a 50% discount, and my crime fiction short stories “I’ve Heard the Mermaid Sing”, “Unsocial Media”, “Smile for the Camera”, and “The Briefcase” have a 100% discount (i.e. free!) for the duration of the sale. Did you know that you can gift ebooks on SmashWords? Tue, 01 Jul 2025 08:56:17 +0000 https://www.dickimaw-books.com/blog https://www.dickimaw-books.com/blog?id=55 Summary: There are a growing number of digital historians who are interested in documenting old computing systems from the twentieth century, but much of the information has been lost and coincident names can make it hard to search. This article is about the RISC OS ARMTeX distribution, which provided TeX and LaTeX for the ARM-powered Acorn computers in the 1990s. Wed, 09 Jul 2025 13:09:46 +0000 https://www.dickimaw-books.com/blog https://www.dickimaw-books.com/blog?id=57 This is a follow-up to Nicola Talbot’s post “The Problem of Name Clashes and Lost Resources for Digital Historians (RISC OS ARMTeX)” after I began investigating the history of TeX on RISC OS computers. The earliest port that I could find was dated March 1990, which was Frank Lancaster's port of TeX. This was known as ArchiTeX, and was published commercially by Tools GmbH, costing £99 (according to Archive Vol 3 No 6.). This port used the (RISC OS) C conventions for paths (that is, the [...] Tue, 02 Dec 2025 11:09:31 +0000 https://www.dickimaw-books.com/blog https://www.dickimaw-books.com/blog?id=58 Summary: The evolution of a vector graphics application inspired by Acorn's !Draw application designed for integration with LaTeX documents, either exporting images as pgf code or exporting document classes or packages that use the flowfram package. The application was originally named JpgfDraw but was then renamed FlowframTk. Sat, 25 Apr 2026 13:43:02 +0000