[comp.sys.amiga] Compatibility

ugkamins@sunybcs.uucp (John Kaminski) (04/12/89)

How compatible are the 1.2 and 1.3 systems?  What I am worried about is
KS'ing 1.3 and using a 1.2 disk, then having funky things happen to my disks
or an unnecessary guru visit.  How necessary is it to run SetPatch?  Am I
gonna get an out of control Amiga if I don't?

For all you A1000 users out there with no real time clock:
I have written a program to fetch the time from my modem on bootup by
opening SER:, sending AT@T (for an ADC Phone Modem....I've seen AT*T too),
getting and parsing the results, then Execute()ing date.  Anyone interested?
I know an immediate improvement would be to use the timer.device to eliminate
two disk accesses, but I'm too lazy to figure out the number of seconds since
whenever the base time is!  (I'm also too lazy to re-look it up in
the manual :^)

schow@bnr-public.uucp (Stanley Chow) (04/15/89)

In article <6766@bsu-cs.bsu.edu> jbwaters@bsu-cs.bsu.edu (J. Brian Waters) writes:
>In article <22977@shemp.CS.UCLA.EDU>, michael@maui.cs.ucla.edu (michael gersten) writes:
>>  ...
>> Wrong. The 68010 has one instruction privleged that was not privledged
>> on the 68000. This kills early versions of Lattice's math library,
>> and some games.
>
>Um they mean OS software changes... and programs that used the move ccr,<ea>
>instruction went against the Amiga programming rules.  They would not work
>with a 68020 either... in fact I think CA should have put a 68010 in at least
>the 2000 for just this reason.  It would have made sure that programers would
>have fixed this more quickly.  Just as the release of machines with non-chip
>ram got many program fixed in that area.
>-- 
>Brian Waters              <backbone>!{iuvax|pur-ee}!bsu-cs!jbwaters

A lot of this depends on your point of view. I think CA probably thinks they
learned their lession by making sure the computers are compatible!

Most new purchasers of a B2000 would be very upset to find that some programs
didn't work. Most s/w publisher would be very upset to have to change their
program because CA changed to the 68010 for no good reason.

You can explain about the Amiga programming rules, the customer will still be
angry. Since CA want to have more happy customers, staying compatible seems
very sensible.


Stanley Chow     ..!utgpu!bnr-vpa!bnr-fos!schow%bnr-public


When I am authorised to represent BNR, they will almost certainly want to 
screed what I say. Fortunately, I am not so authorised.