lphillips@lpami.wimsey.bc.ca (Larry Phillips) (07/27/90)
In <13476@cbmvax.commodore.com>, daveh@cbmvax.commodore.com (Dave Haynie) writes: > On the Amiga, I can have the environment the way I >like it with my editor of choice, for the most part (eg, my favorite editor >needs AREXX support to do this). > I would have said that in order to be my favourite editor, it would have to have ARexx support. :-) -larry -- Sex is better than logic, but I can't prove it. +-----------------------------------------------------------------------+ | // Larry Phillips | | \X/ lphillips@lpami.wimsey.bc.ca -or- uunet!van-bc!lpami!lphillips | | COMPUSERVE: 76703,4322 -or- 76703.4322@compuserve.com | +-----------------------------------------------------------------------+
Jan.Lucenius@tel.vtt.fi (Jan Lucenius) (07/27/90)
Because lack of time and bad manuals I have to ask these questions:
1) AmigaBasic (Extras) seems to work improperly with the memory expansion;
the edit functions do not work. With only 512 kB you can't use more than
four (I think) colours and also otherwise 1 M is needed, so is there any
solution to this malfunction ?
2) If you in a basic program make use of the mouse, menues etc. and during
the program is running needs to use an other application (calculator,
editor etc.) where you also need the mouse. How do you tell the basic
program not to interpret the mouse buttons and movements before you again
activate the basic window to which you return. Do the window(0) and
/or window(1) functions help ? (What's the difference between them)
3) What is the upper limit of Amiga 500's internal memory (If my knowledge
is right, plugging in four extra memory chips in the empty places should
be equivalent with the 512 kB memory cards sold, in a Finnish newspaper,
however, it said that both of them can't be used). I have however seen
notices about 1.5 MB memory cards.
4) Is the 500 compatible with the 2000 etc. if expanded with the expansion
board. Is there any curcuit diagram or/and description how to build that
kind of expansion board published ? Would then the same software and
hardware fit for the 500 as for the bigger models ?
5) Is there a CAD software for designing and calculating electronic curcuits
for the Amiga ?
6) is there any hypercard like software for the amiga ?
7) Which compiler is best ? Do anyone have an integrated software developing
environment like the one of the interpreting AmigaBasic or TurboC for the
PC's ?
8) What do you need to get additional sounds for Deluxe Music ?
9) When you have only one disk drive the copying of even small files require
a lot of disk changes, is there any other way to overcome this problem
than to copy first to the RAM disk and then to the destination disk.
10) Can you make the disk I/O faster by addbuffers and stack commands? If so
which is the optimum for a 1M machine ?
11) Is it possible to change the font used in WB, CLI, or in programs without
making changes into the program itself ? How ? Well, I know there are
font editors, but I don't know how to make use of a smaller font other
than in text processing systems etc.
12) I bought seven PD disks (Captain Nemo or something like that). Unfortun-
ately they have their own startup sequence and even seem to have some
different disk format, because I have not managed to use them from a
noramal WB or CLI environment neither vice versa. Does anyone know how
to make use of them ? Because if you have to reboot the system, then only
the games are "useful".
13) The disks mentioned above also was claimed to be 100% virus free, however,
the virus detectors supported with them tells me that this would not be
the case, and also that (at least some) of my other disks would be infec-
ted. Shall this notice be taken seriously or is it due to the different(?)
disk formats ? Or are the PD virus detectors of no value?daveh@cbmvax.commodore.com (Dave Haynie) (07/27/90)
In article <5009@hemuli.tik.vtt.fi> Jan.Lucenius@tel.vtt.fi (Jan Lucenius) writes: >4) Is the 500 compatible with the 2000 etc. if expanded with the expansion > board. Is there any curcuit diagram or/and description how to build that > kind of expansion board published ? Would then the same software and > hardware fit for the 500 as for the bigger models ? The guts of the A500 are substantially the same as those of the 2000, less the expansion bus, of course. An expansion backplane design is given in the Commodore publication, "A500/A2000 Technical Reference Manual". A well designed backplane for the A500 should run any A2000 expansion card. It will require its own power supply, and very careful mechanical design to make the device ergonomic without making the bus lines too long. >5) Is there a CAD software for designing and calculating electronic curcuits > for the Amiga ? There is LogicWorks, which claims to do logic simulation. I wasn't at all impressed with V1.0, which is possibly useful for a High School level course in electronics, but not practical for any useful work. There is an updated version that I have not tried. For schematic capture and PCB layout, I recommend Pro-Net and Pro-Board from Prolific, Inc. These programs aren't quite up to workstation standards, but they're comparable with the IBM PC family schematic capture programs I've used for the most part. And they have far less trouble with memory than IBM programs. >6) is there any hypercard like software for the amiga ? CanDo or AmigaVision, depending on your tastes. >7) Which compiler is best ? Do anyone have an integrated software developing > environment like the one of the interpreting AmigaBasic or TurboC for the > PC's ? On the Amiga, you generally build an integrated environment if you want one, but there's really no need. I usually run with an editor and shell open on workbench. I save a file, then use one of the various UNIX-like "make" programs. If you have AREXX (standard in 2.0) and an AREXX-knowledgable text editor, you can pretty much design an integrated environent that suits you. There are various examples of these kinds of things out in the public domain. The BenchMark Modula 2 compiler comes with a special version of Emacs that gives you something more along the lines of the traditional integrated environment, but that's really an illusion; it's using the separate pieces available, just like any AREXX-integrated system would. I like Emacs, so I liked this system. But the flaw in any integrated environment, especially those for the PC, is that you're generally stuck with the compiler writer's idea of a "good editor". I could live with the BenchMark editor (though it's not the best Emacs clone around), but I couldn't live with Lattice's LSE or Manx's Z (a VI clone). On the Amiga, I can have the environment the way I like it with my editor of choice, for the most part (eg, my favorite editor needs AREXX support to do this). -- Dave Haynie Commodore-Amiga (Amiga 3000) "The Crew That Never Rests" {uunet|pyramid|rutgers}!cbmvax!daveh PLINK: hazy BIX: hazy The Dave Haynie branch of the New Zealand Fan Club
soh@shiva.trl.oz (kam hung soh) (08/01/90)
In article <5009@hemuli.tik.vtt.fi> Jan.Lucenius@tel.vtt.fi (Jan Lucenius) writes: > >Because lack of time and bad manuals I have to ask these questions: >4) Is the 500 compatible with the 2000 etc. if expanded with the expansion > board. Is there any curcuit diagram or/and description how to build that > kind of expansion board published ? Would then the same software and > hardware fit for the 500 as for the bigger models ? The A500, A1000 and A2000 are basically the same machine with different expansion options. Almost all software that will run on one machine will work on the other. Hardware is a different kettle of fish (so to speak). The A1000 and A500 expansion buses are similar but physically reversed (take that with a pinch of salt), and the A2000 has a similar expansion bus. The A2000 also has several IBM-AT and Zorro II expansion slots. >7) Which compiler is best ? Do anyone have an integrated software developing > environment like the one of the interpreting AmigaBasic or TurboC for the > PC's ? Really debatable. The two Amiga C compiler publishers - Aztec and SAS / Lattice - have products which do that job well. Aztec is (supposedly) faster, but uses its own format for the libraries. Lattice / SAS is (supposedly) slower, but uses a standard Commodore format for its libraries. Neither have an integrated environment like the Borland products and are slower because the Amiga OS is such a complex beastie compared to a standard PC-clone. However, since the Amiga has a multitasking system, you can choose any text processor you like for editing your files. On the shareware / PD front, there is PDC, Sozobon C and Matt Dillon's DICE. >9) When you have only one disk drive the copying of even small files require > a lot of disk changes, is there any other way to overcome this problem > than to copy first to the RAM disk and then to the destination disk. For small files, you can either: a. Copy the `copy' command to RAM: and tell the CLI that the RAM: device is to be searched for commands (use PATH ADD RAM:). b. Make `copy' resident in memory so that you can remove the system disk (use the RESIDENT command). >10) Can you make the disk I/O faster by addbuffers and stack commands? If so > which is the optimum for a 1M machine ? Addbuffers will steal memory from CHIP RAM (graphics memory). In return, some memory is reserved for disk buffers. This memory cannot (as far as KS 1.3 was concerned) be recovered without a reboot. A more flexible way is to use a cache program such as FaccII. >11) Is it possible to change the font used in WB, CLI, or in programs without > making changes into the program itself ? How ? Well, I know there are > font editors, but I don't know how to make use of a smaller font other > than in text processing systems etc. There is a kludgy way which works for any program using the console device (CLI opens a window and handles I/O with the console device). Use setfont or fastfont to change the font. I'm sure this works for the normal text display, but not so sure about the menu fonts. The Workbench 2.0 demonstration we had showed instant font changes for the menus and workbench icons. >12) I bought seven PD disks (Captain Nemo or something like that). Unfortun- > ately they have their own startup sequence and even seem to have some > different disk format, because I have not managed to use them from a > noramal WB or CLI environment neither vice versa. Does anyone know how > to make use of them ? Because if you have to reboot the system, then only > the games are "useful". That doesn't sound like PD software to me. You may have been cheated into buying pirated stuff. All PD software from the Fish Disks can be run using Workbench and the CLI. Many major packages can also be run from the same setup. Only pirates, speed freaks and defensive software companies use proprietary disk formats. >13) The disks mentioned above also was claimed to be 100% virus free, however, > the virus detectors supported with them tells me that this would not be > the case, and also that (at least some) of my other disks would be infec- > ted. Shall this notice be taken seriously or is it due to the different(?) > disk formats ? Or are the PD virus detectors of no value? Many virus detectors look in the boot block of a disk to determine if there is a virus present. If the boot block is not a standard AmigaDOS format, then it could be a "virus". Some games publishers have their own format, which would not look like a standard boot block. How seriously you regard this warning depends on the software and the distributor. If you've been conned into buying pirated software masquerading as PD, you should report this to the authorities. If you've been paying more than a handling or copying fee for PD software, then you should check if the extra money is going to the authors of the software. Soh, Kam Hung email: h.soh@trl.oz.au tel: +61 03 541 6403 Telecom Research Laboratories, P.O. Box 249, Clayton, Victoria 3168, Australia
ifarqhar@mqccsunc.mqcc.mq.oz.au (Ian Farquhar) (08/02/90)
In article <1989@trlluna.trl.oz> soh@shiva.trl.oz (kam hung soh) writes: > >Really debatable. The two Amiga C compiler publishers - Aztec and SAS >/ Lattice - have products which do that job well. Aztec is >(supposedly) faster, but uses its own format for the libraries. >Lattice / SAS is (supposedly) slower, but uses a standard Commodore >format for its libraries. Neither have an integrated environment like >the Borland products and are slower because the Amiga OS is such a >complex beastie compared to a standard PC-clone. However, since the >Amiga has a multitasking system, you can choose any text processor you >like for editing your files. Lattice C v5.02 which I purchased for around $400 contains LSE, the Lattice Screen Editor with quite a few features that make it similar to the integrated compilers on MS-DOS. You should also know about ARexx, the Amiga implementation of IBM's REXX language, which can be used to link applications with ARexx ports (like Cygnus Editor - the most beautiful programmer's editor I have ever seen) to compilers to form an integrated environment. I have not done this yet, though a friend has quite a few ARexx scripts that do just this. > >Many virus detectors look in the boot block of a disk to determine if >there is a virus present. If the boot block is not a standard >AmigaDOS format, then it could be a "virus". Some games publishers >have their own format, which would not look like a standard boot >block. There are non-boot block viruses around, and you should be aware of them. My suggestion is to purchase a supported program, so that you can obtain regular updates. KDV (Kill Da Virus) is one local product that is quite good, and Mike Hansell (the author) works almost continually on it. However, I must say that as Mike is a very good friend of mine, I may be quite biased there. You make your own decisions. -- Ian Farquhar Phone : 61 2 805-7420 Office of Computing Services Fax : 61 2 805-7433 Macquarie University NSW 2109 Also : 61 2 805-7205 Australia EMail : ifarqhar@macuni.mqcc.mq.oz.au
crazyrat@disk.UUCP (@jap) (08/03/90)
In article <1989@trlluna.trl.oz>, soh@shiva.trl.oz (kam hung soh) writes: > In article <5009@hemuli.tik.vtt.fi> Jan.Lucenius@tel.vtt.fi (Jan Lucenius) writes: > > > >Because lack of time and bad manuals I have to ask these questions: > > >9) When you have only one disk drive the copying of even small files require > > a lot of disk changes, is there any other way to overcome this problem > > than to copy first to the RAM disk and then to the destination disk. > > b. Make `copy' resident in memory so that you can remove the system > disk (use the RESIDENT command). If you try this method, it is advised for you to make SURE that the pure bit is set on the copy command. Making anything resident is usually a hassle especially with 1.2 or lower. On a similar note, I'm having a few problems with the resident command and AmigaDos (Arp) 1.2. The problem I am having is that in my startup-sequence I try to make a cli resident (I think this is necessary for C-Shell...Matt Dillon thank you for a beauty!), and it becomes resident perfectly. The problems begin when I try to execute simple ados commands from the newcli that is spawned after opening this initial resident one. When I run simple dos commands such as 'newcli' or 'newshell' or 'endcli' I get an Error 103 message (Not enuff memory). I know this is impossible, since I have tested this under all kinds of situations. (I use Avail soon after and it says I have over 300K chip and 2000K fast...ram expansions are nice) So what could be happening? Joel P.S. Some other pertinent information. Amiga 500, with A501. 4 disk drives (3 3.5', 1 5'1/4), 2 meg autoconfig expansion (Byte Box). Cshell version 4.01A. I use the 5.25' drive as a global C directory, since all of the c commands that I usually use won't fit on my boot disk. All I do is mount it as a 5.25 (df3:) and then assign C: df3:. Thanks for the help. Conserve bandwidth...use E-mail! I'll post summary. -- Joel C. Justen Crazyrat Productions Ltd. disc: who cares? CRAZYRAT@DISK.UUCP