[net.micro.amiga] SetSerial source, AMICUS news, IBM-->Amiga filter

wirch@puff.UUCP (10/28/85)

My Amiga developer friend John Foust speaks again...

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From: John Foust

Re:  The Amiga Tech BBS in San Jose

I downloaded all the good stuff, and I've burst the shar-like files into 
pieces.  If you've signed up for AMICUS, I'll copy this if you send me a disk 
and SASE mailer.  This disk has source to SetSerial, Image.Ed, R.J. Mical's 
Intuition test suite, demos of BOBs and playfields, device code examples and 
more...  If you want it on IBM disks, I have that way, too.


Re:  IBM to Amiga serial links, solution to "Read timed out."

I've been transfering text all day.  Sure wish I had Kermit or something.  
Actually, I started translating C Kermit to the Amiga.  I was desparate.  
Developer Eric lavitsky@rutgers said he was porting Kermit a long time ago, 
with terminal emulation and maybe xmodem, too, but he hasn't posted much 
since.  I can't wait to have modem transfers happening in the background.

I wrote a little filter to transfer IBM text files to the Amiga via READ.  It 
expands TABs to spaces, and ignores CR, and lets LF through.  Rick will post 
it to net.sources.  (Note: CONVERT converts a binary image to a READ hex 
stream, with no character translation.  CONVERT is no good for text.)

A Compaq+ couldn't keep up with the Amiga's READ program - the cause of "Read 
timed out" message comes from.  If the hex file is already on disk, at 9600 
baud, it works, but when COM1: is driven by a filter, you get "time out" 
messages.  At 9600, I got lots of "invalid character(s)" messages, but at 
4800 baud, no bad characters, and the filter can keep up 98% of the time.  On 
longer files, it still timed out.  I thought this had to do with disk access 
time, but it did the same while in ram: disk, too.  Sending the filter output 
to an intermediate file solved the problem.

Also, be comforted: the Amiga has some form of protection on the serial port. 
I plugged a ribbon cable from the Amiga to the Compaq's port, WITHOUT my 
adapter that prevented +5, etc. from hitting the Compaq.  By accident, of 
course.  The Amiga re-booted, the keyboard was dead, with the CAPS LOCK light 
stuck on, but I disconnected and reseated the keyboard cable, and all was 
well.  Whew.

If you need to transfer IBM PC files to the Amiga, I offer to do the transfer 
for free, so more P.D. programs are ported to the Amiga.  I've started to 
port a few. Who has an archive of useful C programs?.  If we don't like 
what's in c:, we can write new commands - like Unix-style ls instead of dir 
and list.


Re:  SetSerial, Icon.Ed, Font.Editor, Image.Ed

On a tip from the net, I went to my local dealer, and searched all their demo 
disks for these programs.  I found SetSerial, Icon.Ed and Image.Ed.  The 
IconEd program ran, but wouldn't load or save.  It was from pre-V1.0 
AmigaDOS, so I don't trust it.  ImageEd loads and saves, and looks like 
IconEd, but what can you do with it?  It edits 9 small images at once in 640 
mode, and lets you animate them.

If Workbench icons are BOBs, can they be animated?  This would be a cute 
hack: little dancing icons.  A Boing! icon that bounces all the time.  Or a 
pointer sprite that animates as you move it.  A co-resident task could do 
these, I think.  Remember, you saw it here first.

The old SetSerial I found didn't work right.  With the SetSerial source, I 
updated it to V1.0.  Note that you can't set the baud rate with this tool. 
You have to update baud rate with Preferences instead.


Re:  AMICUS:  AMIga Computer USers

How can we reach others?  It might be nice to court non-developer Amiga 
users.  I'm going to post something to the Source and CompuServe.  It seems 
the Amiga user groups and BBSs at present are just out to make $$$.

Maybe they could be separate SIGs.  Any comment?  If anyone has any public 
domain Amiga programs they want to put on a AMICUS public library disk, 
please send those, too. I'm very receptive to suggestions about this AMICUS 
group.  What sort of direction do you think it should go?  Once things get 
settled, I'll use your SASE envelopes to send out a newsletter.

It would be nice to get together electronic versions of a CLI manual.  
Non-developer hackers are really stalled.  This would be a good first project 
for AMICUS.  Any takers?

To sign up, send two SASE envelopes, and proof of developer status if you 
want a copy of the Tech BBS disk.  Please send any software you'd like to add 
to the public or developer library.

Sight & Sound Music Software, Attn: John Foust, 16 N. Carroll St. Suite 600, 
Madison, WI 53703, (608) 256-3646