fredc@petsd.UUCP (Fred Cassirer) (05/26/86)
This is my first time creating an article , I hope it works ...
I've recently bought an Amiga w/512k, and the 5 1/4" drive. Besides a
bum keyboard right out of the box (I have 2 c64's and a vic 20 and never
got a good one the 1st time either anyway...) it's great.
The documentation for the workbench is ok, but com'on we need to mention
the CLI more then once in the index, if it wasn't for the May/June edition
of "AmigaWorld" I don't think I'd have gotten the CLI up.
When I bought the Amiga I figured I'd get the 5 1/4" drive and give up the
extra storage for the PC emulator, I figured I'd still have two drives and
not have to play musical disks -- I got it home and found out the 5 1/4"
isn't recognized unless it's in PC mode. There isn't a bit of documentation
that tells a would be buyer that the 5 1/4" is useless.
Why C-A would ship the drive without any S/W support is beyond me. The
drive seems to accept commands in the same format as the 3 1/2". I say
this because I was able to sort of format a disk. The disk will read/write
the 1st 40 tracks (last 40? Only 40!) of the 5 1/4" fine, but then it tries
to write out past 40 (The drive tries but to no avail - the heads just bang
away). It seems to me that if it can be read/written with no difference in
the driver, then all that really needs to be done is to check a "MaxTrack"
field it Amiga's version of a DCB (device-control-block). Since I've seen some
other articles where the problem was mentioned, but never an answer - So
if anyone out there at C-A is listening could you please let us know what
your plans are with the 5 1/4"? If you're not going to support it, maybe
I can return it for an extra 3 1/2".
Enough of that - While I'm here I have a BASIC question - Is there anyway
to use a 2nd level Menu from BASIC? - When I try using 'MENU 2,0,1,"xxx"'
I crash the machine - Can someone bring the Guru out of meditation for me?
Thanx in advance
Fred Cassirerrandy@cbmvax.cbm.UUCP (Randy Weiner) (05/28/86)
In article <777@petsd.UUCP> fredc@petsd.UUCP (Fred Cassirer) writes: >This is my first time creating an article , I hope it works ... It did! > >I've recently bought an Amiga w/512k, and the 5 1/4" drive. ... >The documentation for the workbench is ok, but com'on we need to mention >the CLI more then once in the index, I recommend you buy the Dos Reference manual set published by Bantam Books. It should be available at your Amiga dealer, and if not, probably other book stores. Others on the net may be able to direct you to the nearest source. This book includes everything (at least almost everything) you want to know about CLI and DOS , and more... all for only $24.95 (correct me if I am wrong). > >When I bought the Amiga I figured I'd get the 5 1/4" drive and give up the >extra storage for the PC emulator, I figured I'd still have two drives and >not have to play musical disks -- I got it home and found out the 5 1/4" >isn't recognized unless it's in PC mode. Take heart, the 5-1/4" drive is recognized under V1.2 of the operating system. With a little luck, this version should be available sometime before the end of the summer. The 5-1/4" drive will only provide an additional 360K bytes of storage. My suggestion is that when you are able, purchase an additional 3-1/2" drive. > >Enough of that - While I'm here I have a BASIC question - Is there anyway >to use a 2nd level Menu from BASIC? - When I try using 'MENU 2,0,1,"xxx"' >I crash the machine - Can someone bring the Guru out of meditation for me? Make sure you have properly defined the menu strip and it has been added to the window. The first level menu item must also be defined in order to use a second level. Also, there can be no holes in a menu strip. In order to leave a blank, you will have to define an empty item entry. I hope these hints will help, but you have not provided enough information for a more detailed answer. Please feel free to email if you need more help. -- + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + Randy Weiner -- Commodore Business Machines <<Amiga Technical Support>> uucp: {ihnp4|seismo|caip}!cbmvax!randy arpa: cbmvax!randy@seismo (or) randy@cbmvax.UUCP@{seismo | harvard} TEL: 215-431-9180
daveh@cbmvax.cbm.UUCP (Dave Haynie) (05/28/86)
> ... So if anyone out there at C-A is listening could you please let us know > what your plans are with the 5 1/4"? If you're not going to support it, > maybe I can return it for an extra 3 1/2". > ... > Thanx in advance > Fred Cassirer I'm no official of C-A, but the next release of the Amiga System, V1.2, seems to allow the use of a 3 1/2, 5 1/4, or virtually any other style of disk drive with a very simple configuration mechanism (in ASCII text). You simply tell a bit about the drive, and then all of the disk based commands, like Format and DiskCopy work on it. There's also a command to be used for logging in disks on drives like the 5 1/4 that don't have sensors that tell you when a disk is changes like the 3 1/2 does. Version 1.2 is in beta test now, I don't know when it will be released to the world at large. -- Dave Haynie {caip,inhp4,allegra,seismo}!cbmvax!daveh "There, beyond the bounds of your weak imagination Lie the noble towers of my city, bright and gold" -Genesis