louie@trantor.UMD.EDU (09/19/85)
From: Louis A. Mamakos <louie@trantor.UMD.EDU> Having grown impatient waiting for my Amiga, I called Commodore yesterday asking about my development system. They said that I should have it the very next day. Sure. They said the the "Check, er Machine is in the mail." We'll see. Sure enough, today I find that two large boxes from Commodore are just waiting for me. One was obviously the color monitor (NOT the one you see in all of the photographs of the Amiga). I immediatly tore into the other box which contained my "Amiga 1000" computer system, the extra 256K memory expansion and the addition 800K microfloppy driver. "I'm all set to hack now" he says to himself. I search through the foam "peanuts" used as packing for the manuals, etc. Nothing. I frantically search through the peanuts, spreading them all over my clean carpet. Still nothing. $%^*&*#(@ he cries, not even the stupid Amiga Kickstart disk. Where's my kickstart disk? Where's my C language development system? Where's my many volumes of documentation? Why is Commodore playing this cruel trick on me? These, and many other good questions will be asked tomorrow. In the mean time, my 512K Amiga, with two disks, mouse and monitor just asks me to insert to Kickstart disk. That's all. Real neat. Not bad for $1900. Louis A. Mamakos WA3YMH University of Maryland, Computer Science Center Internet: louie@trantor.arpa -or- louie@TRANTOR.UMD.EDU
granvold@tymix.UUCP (Tom Granvold) (09/23/85)
- In article <3698@topaz.RUTGERS.EDU> louie@trantor.UMD.EDU writes: >From: Louis A. Mamakos <louie@trantor.UMD.EDU> > >Having grown impatient waiting for my Amiga, I called Commodore yesterday >asking about my development system. They said that I should have it the >very next day. Sure. They said the the "Check, er Machine is in the >mail." We'll see. > >Sure enough, today I find that two large boxes from Commodore are just >waiting for me. > >I search through the foam "peanuts" used as packing for the manuals, etc. >Nothing. $%^*&*#(@ he cries, not even the >stupid Amiga Kickstart disk. Where's my kickstart disk? Where's my >C language development system? Where's my many volumes of documentation? > >In the mean time, my 512K Amiga, with two disks, mouse and monitor just >asks me to insert to Kickstart disk. That's all. Real neat. Not bad >for $1900. The same thing happened to my brother. He received exactly the same stuff Louis did. My borther says that the screen the asks for the kickstart disk doesn't look as good as the simular one on the Atari ST. Anyway, my brother called Commodore about what was happening. Commodore said that they have a new release of the software almost ready (they did not say if this was the OS or what) alone with updated manuals. Therefore they are holding back the software and documentation untill the new release. This new release should be real real soon now, my borther got the impression that it would take a week or two. He received his Amiga on the 13th, and as of the 21st he had not received the software or manuals. I am glad that I am not you or my brother. I'd be very frustrated right now. But since I have a development system on order (it should take a couple of more weeks), I may also end in the same position. Let's hope that they don't take long to get the new release out. Tom Granvold ucbvax!allegra!oliveb!tymix!granvold
hr@uicsl.UUCP (09/25/85)
<>
"Having grown impatient waiting for my Amiga [development system]..."
"my brother... received exactly the same stuff Louis did. [ a
development system]..."
"But since I have a development system on order..."
OK, enough is enough. How are all these people getting development systems?
Or rather, how can some of the rest of us get them?
After reading the net, I'm beginning to have strange twinges that all
but one or two Amigas will be sold as development systems! Arggghh!
harold ravlin
{ihnp4,pur-ee}!uiucdcs!uicsl!hrlouie@trantor.UMD.EDU (09/27/85)
From: Louis A. Mamakos <louie@trantor.UMD.EDU> Just an update - I received my developement system software and documentation a few days ago. The manuals are done pretty well; being bound in 5 or 6 different volumes. I think that I'd prefer loose-leaf to install manual updates, but what the hey... I didn't receive the ABasiC manual or the demo-software disk. The Introduction to the Amiga manual was omitted. I called Commodore and asked them about it and they said that the plan to replace the AMIGA ABasiC with real Microsoft basic in the coming weeks, and that they didn't want developers to write any software using the existing BASIC. If I wanted the other manuals or disk, I should just send a letter requesting it. Hey, I don't care *what* BASIC they provide, I'm using Lattice C for my software. I have to agree with what someone else said earlier; the CLI interface is sort of ugly. It doesn't have the feel as being as well done as the lower level ROM (er.. RAM) kernel and the Intuition software. The argument specification is particularly obtuse. Happily, Lattice C uses UNIX like option specifications. The CLI really needs a PATH variable or something like it. You can ASSIGN a logical name to a directory containing the executable commands, but only to one directory (on ONE disk). It would be nice to give a PATH or the convention that the 'C' directory on each disk be searched. Does anyone know how to reogranize the Workbench, and save the organization? When I made a working copy of the WorkBench disk, the icons are somewhat disorganized. I can select the CLEANUP menu item to fix it, but when the window is closed and reopened it is the same as before. I wonder if this stuff is documented in the "Introduction to the AMIGA" manual that I didn't receive? Louis A. Mamakos WA3YMH University of Maryland, Computer Science Center Internet: louie@trantor.arpa -or- louie@TRANTOR.UMD.EDU
LAVITSKY@BLUE.RUTGERS.EDU (09/27/85)
From: Eric <LAVITSKY@BLUE.RUTGERS.EDU> Hi, I didn't get the ABasic manual or the Inroduction To Amiga manual either. I believe it is possible to assign multiple volumes, I will have to check on that. To get the Workbench Icon configuration saved, choose the icon you want saved and select 'snapshot' from the 'special' menu bar. If you have a disk window open, select the disk icon and choose 'snapshot' this will save every Icon in windows that are open under the current disk. As far as the Intro to Amiga manual - a guy at Commodore told me that developers wouldn't be receiving that and would have to get it through dealers. I think a few calls and letters from developers complaining about that to the folks in PA will change that situation. Hope that helps, Eric -------