jimh@hpsadla.HP (Jim Horn) (10/02/86)
[* All right - what's a Line Eater, any way? }
Some general questions for the Net....
* Does anyone out there know of a really worthwhile editor for the
Amiga? I've got the 'vi' lookalike ('z') which comes with Manx's
Commercial C package, and I do enjoy it, but it is really only intended for
writing programs, so it lacks word wrap and various other niceties. Yes,
EMACS is available, but like all other Amiga programs I've seen, it has a
sssllloooooooowww screen update (equivalent to ~1200 baud). Why I should
have to wait for a screen to slowly scroll to what I'm looking for in such
a machine is beyond me, especially since I have no need for subwindowing
while editing. Foreground/background windows do just as well in this
limited-screen environment.
Yes, I know about Scribble! and many other commercial editors. But
learning an editor well enough to judge it properly is an expensive
investment in time and effort. Some of you have undoubtedly already done
so. Any suggestions? Oh yes - I know that picking an editor, like
picking an article of clothing, depends heavily on tastes. But a turkey is
a turkey... And my Amiga should be faster and easier to use than the Apple
][+ I just gave away, not slower and more difficult.
* Has anyone done any work in getting Friedrich Knauss's ray traced
graphics program in C running on the Amiga? I've got it compiled on mine,
but it blows up (16 bit pointers again?). While we have made a number of
additions to his code here (with nifty results!) on our HP9000 machine,
having it on the Amiga with IFF output, display of the results as they are
computed, etc. would be great. I'll be happy to send what I've got so far,
but wonder what others have done. With anti-aliasing (which we've added),
super bit maps, 16 levels of gray and a larger-than-640x400-window, the
results should be spectacular!
* Has anyone noticed that the "life" program on Fish disk #32 (#31?
#30?) only takes about 850 NANOseconds per pixel per generation? That this
is faster than any computer under several hundred thousand $ has ever done
it? That our Atari/Mac/IBM/??? friends are waaayyyyy out in the dust on
this one? That we have yet to see just what we can do with the Blitter?
* Finally - forgive me, but I can't resist tossing a nugget into the cat
fight - is there anyone who would seriously suggest putting an all-out drag
racing engine into the family sedan for ordinary day-to-day driving, or an
old in-line six into a racing Porsche? And that the made-for-many-users-
running-many-tasks Intel MPUs and the get-a-small-number-of-jobs-done-NOW
Motorola MPUs both are excellent? Since my own computer is only serving
one user, and usually only doing one job (and the rest of the time, only a
few), I'll take the 68000 family any day! But hey, are (for example) the
folks from other countries stupid and ignorant because they don't speak
English? Same for users (and enthusiasts) of other chip families. And
fooey on the religious fervor in MPU debates.
Jim "I've seen the future, and it's not here yet" Horn
(707) 794-3130 1212 Valley House Dr, Rohnert Park CA 94928
All opinions by anyone are equally valid, and anyone who thinks otherwise
should be locked up.jimh@hpsadla.HP (Jim Horn) (10/02/86)
Ooops - I forgot the two questions that originally started me on this... * There was a reference in net.micro.atari16 to an implimentation of TeX for the Amiga. Does anyone know anything about this? (Yes, I asked the poster of that note and am still awaiting a response.) * With TeX for the IBM PC family, there has been a lot of interest in and a real market for the J-Laser card which allows those machines to generate the video signal for the Canon CBX marking engine (the guts of the laser printer used in the HP Laser Jet, the Apple Writer, and others). Since we've got 8 Meg (or 10, if you wish) of address space to play with, plus the speed and capabilities of the 68000, Blitter, and friends, we should be able to utilize a similar card very, very well. Considering too that Ricoh and others are driving the cost (and size) of the marking engines down steadily, I can't help but wonder if anyone is doing such a board. If so, good! If not...... Thanks in advance for any pointers, inputs, or other nuggets of wisdom! Jim "First, ray traced graphics. Then, a graphic Ray Tracer" Horn (707) 794-3130 1212 Valley House Dr, Rohnert Park, CA 94928 Diclaimers? We don't need no steenking disclaimers!
daveh@cbmvax.cbm.UUCP (Dave Haynie) (10/04/86)
> > [* All right - what's a Line Eater, any way? } > > Some general questions for the Net.... > > * Does anyone out there know of a really worthwhile editor for the > Amiga? I've got the 'vi' lookalike ('z') which comes with Manx's > Commercial C package, and I do enjoy it, but it is really only intended for > writing programs, so it lacks word wrap and various other niceties. Yes, > EMACS is available, but like all other Amiga programs I've seen, it has a > sssllloooooooowww screen update (equivalent to ~1200 baud). Why I should > have to wait for a screen to slowly scroll to what I'm looking for in such > a machine is beyond me, especially since I have no need for subwindowing > while editing. Foreground/background windows do just as well in this > limited-screen environment. I use Emacs all the time, mainly 'cause I get it on my VAXen as well and I've been using it for about 8 years. Its coded for a generic machine, so its slow. I've only used a demo version, but I'd recommend TxEd from MicroSmith's, written by C. Heath. Its about 20 times faster than Ed in screen display, and it supports clipboarding. Its a programmer's editor, not a full WP, but I believe it has word wrap and other simple things. Best of all, there's a demo version floating around (seen it myself on CompuServe's Amiga Forum) so you can try before you buy. > Jim "I've seen the future, and it's not here yet" Horn > (707) 794-3130 1212 Valley House Dr, Rohnert Park CA 94928 > > All opinions by anyone are equally valid, and anyone who thinks otherwise > should be locked up. -- ============================================================================ Dave Haynie {caip,ihnp4,allegra,seismo}!cbmvax!daveh These opinions are my own, though if you try them out, and decide that you really like them, a small donation would be appreciated.
mic@ut-ngp.UUCP (Mic Kaczmarczik) (10/05/86)
Summary: In article <900001@hpsadla.HP> jimh@hpsadla.HP (Jim Horn) writes: >* Does anyone out there know of a really worthwhile editor for the >Amiga? I've got the 'vi' lookalike ('z') which comes with Manx's >Commercial C package, and I do enjoy it, but it is really only intended for >writing programs, so it lacks word wrap and various other niceties. Yes, >EMACS is available, but like all other Amiga programs I've seen, it has a >sssllloooooooowww screen update (equivalent to ~1200 baud). Why I should What version of MicroEmacs did you try out?? The version I use has screen update that goes at the full speed of the console device, which is more like 7200-9600 baud!!! I recall that the original MicroEmacs for the Amiga didn't buffer its output, which made the screen update ridiculously slow, so this may be the one you tried. If so, try MicroEmacs version 30, from the Fred Fish public domain software library (disk #24, I believe), It's much improved over the original. As for "really worthwhile editor", I suppose it's obvious which one I'd recommend, so I won't go into details... ;-) --mic-- ARPA: mic@ngp.utexas.edu BITNET: CCEP001@UTADNX.BITNET HOGNET: soooooooooweeeeeeeee!!!!!! UUCP: ...!seismo!ut-sally!ut-ngp!mic