jwhitman@st-louis-emh2.army.mil (Jerry Whitman) (03/30/89)
Well kiddies, its time for our weekly show and tell. I'll show you what I don't know and you can tell me how. I have made some very interesting observations during the past several days that leave me puzzled about the way my 2000HD looks at life. Unfortunately my sessions at Amys keyboard are usually forced to be brief ones when I can snatch the time from other demands. As a result I do not get the luxury to explore some of these issues to the depth that I would like, and come up with some of these answers myself. I realize that most of you who read this have no idea what I mean since you are free to devote countless hours plumbing the depths of AMY and thereby fully mastered her in less than two weeks. :^) :^) :^o Why are you looking at me like that????? 1. I cannot seem to get Prefs to switch to interlaced WB. I select Prefs from the workbench window, observe that the interlace selector is set to NO, click on YES, then USE. Prefs promptly goes away and nothing gets changed. Re-selecting Pref shows the interlace selector is still NO. Then I try the same routine, but select SAVE. It appears to save (the pointer goes to sleep momentarily). To try it I re-boot and viola' - up comes workbench in NON-interlace. Selecting Prefs from the Workbench again reveals (Yup, you guessed it) the interlace selector is NO. But I could have sworn I had just saved it ON? Obviously I am doing some thing not quite right here. Does the HD boot-up ignore the WB Prefs? Even if it did, why wasn't the WB Prefs updated when I selected it and SAVEd it? 2. How can I free up the maximum amount of core so I can run some of the core hog demos that need about 800k. After normal boot-up the WB memory meter tells me I have about 720K. So I ask myself, what is eating up that 280K? With what little knowledge I have and no good DOS manuals I poke around and find very few things I can remove and gain core back. RAM: for example is using less than 3k. Ahah, perhaps WB is using up the most of that. I deftly excise LoadWB and EndCLI from the Boot:s/startup-sequence and reboot. Ami promptly comes back and displays the CLI prompt. Anxious to assess my results I do an AVAIL and find I have about 460K of chip and 260K of fast for a total of 720K. Hmmm! That bears a striking resemblence to the amount the WB memory meter said. Perhaps WB does not use much core after, but I find these two core figures hard to accept. SOOOOO--Who is camping on my core and how do I evict them? 3. Occasionally when I re-boot AMI appears to read the boot code from the Hard Drive and then wanders off into oblivion until I prod her with another three finger salute. Then all is well. Me thinkest this is not ladylike behavior. Any comment? 4. When I start shell from the WB window I get another anomily. After (note I said after) I click on the shell window the very first character I type is lost. After that the shell performs properly. Even if I put it to the back and later bring it to the front it accepts the first character typed after being clicked in. I frequently get this with CLI also, but I have not isolated the conditions where it does and does not eat the first character after invocation. Are these items (3 &4) possible symptoms of a sick mind? (NO!! not mine, the computers!!) 5. I am about to remedy some of my ignorance and get Rob Pecks 'The Amiga Companion', but even that has some fall-out. Wasn't there a note not too far back that Rob was about to release a New & Improved Bigger & Better version? If so does any one know the status or the expected availability? Will it also be only available from Amiga World? Well, I think that is about all for this round, but don't dispair. I can assure you there are more equally exciting issues just lurking in the wings. Murphy promised me!! Thanks again for your patience and your excellent response. Regards to all; Jerry
kevin@uts.amdahl.com (Kevin Clague) (03/30/89)
In article <11838@louie.udel.EDU> jwhitman@st-louis-emh2.army.mil (Jerry Whitman) writes: >Well kiddies, its time for our weekly show and tell. I'll show you what >I don't know and you can tell me how. > > >1. I cannot seem to get Prefs to switch to interlaced WB. s Unfortunatly you must reboot the machine for the Interlace stuff to take effect. Not at all obvious. > >2. How can I free up the maximum amount of core so I can run some of >the core hog demos that need about 800k. You did well to remove the LoadWB. try to unresident any commands you may have made resident (residented?) during startup. limit the number of things you mount (like NEWCON:) and such. > >3. Occasionally when I re-boot AMI appears to read the boot code >from the Hard Drive and then wanders off into oblivion until I prod >her with another three finger salute. Then all is well. Me thinkest >this is not ladylike behavior. Any comment? My 2000 with 2090A and ProDrive 80S do the same now and then. I've often wondered the same thing. Mine hangs with floppy drive 0 light on. Yours? > >4. When I start shell from the WB window I get another anomily. >After (note I said after) I click on the shell window the very first >character I type is lost. At one time there was a design problem with the 2000's keyboards, but I was pretty sure Commodore had fixed this a long time ago. Since you have a 2000HD, I presume your Amy is fairily new. Hmmmm... Take it to a dealer and have them check out the standard keyboard fix? Just get used to it? > >5. I am about to remedy some of my ignorance and get Rob Pecks book > 'The Amiga Companion' Yes. Rob has done some great work writing books for the Amiga. Besides books like these, the best thing I can offer is example sources on the fish disks. I've done a lot of coding on the Amiga and besides the books like Rob Peck's, there is nothing like example code. I bought my Amiga 1000 back when we were at Fish Disk 15 (or so), and there were no books. The fish disks were (and still are) irreplacable. Of course this forum and .tech are also of a great help. Nothin like experts from around the world to help. > >Thanks again for your patience and your excellent response. > >Regards to all; Jerry Hope this helps. Good luck on the ramp up. Kevin -- UUCP: kevin@uts.amdahl.com or: {sun,decwrl,hplabs,pyramid,seismo,oliveb}!amdahl!kevin DDD: 408-737-5481 USPS: Amdahl Corp. M/S 249, 1250 E. Arques Av, Sunnyvale, CA 94086 [ Any thoughts or opinions which may or may not have been expressed ] [ herein are my own. They are not necessarily those of my employer. ]
tope@enea.se (Tommy Petersson) (03/30/89)
In article <11838@louie.udel.EDU> jwhitman@st-louis-emh2.army.mil (Jerry Whitman) writes: >1. I cannot seem to get Prefs to switch to interlaced WB. I select Prefs What You described will save the new System-Configuration in the devs: directory on the hard disk. Unfortunately, the System-Configuration on the boot volume (df0:) is used. Fortunately, there is a program on the WB disk (at least WB 1.3) called CopyPrefs, which copies System-Config from devs: to df0:devs. You then have to eboot the machine. The USE option in Preferences doesn't work for all items.
kevin@uts.amdahl.com (Kevin Clague) (03/31/89)
In article <4398@enea.se> tope@enea.se (Tommy Petersson) writes: >In article <11838@louie.udel.EDU> jwhitman@st-louis-emh2.army.mil (Jerry Whitman) writes: >>1. I cannot seem to get Prefs to switch to interlaced WB. I select Prefs > >What You described will save the new System-Configuration in the devs: >directory on the hard disk. Unfortunately, the System-Configuration on >the boot volume (df0:) is used. Fortunately, there is a program on the >WB disk (at least WB 1.3) called CopyPrefs, which copies System-Config >from devs: to df0:devs. You then have to eboot the machine. > >The USE option in Preferences doesn't work for all items. and after copying preferences, you must reboot for them to take effect. Kevin -- UUCP: kevin@uts.amdahl.com or: {sun,decwrl,hplabs,pyramid,seismo,oliveb}!amdahl!kevin DDD: 408-737-5481 USPS: Amdahl Corp. M/S 249, 1250 E. Arques Av, Sunnyvale, CA 94086 [ Any thoughts or opinions which may or may not have been expressed ] [ herein are my own. They are not necessarily those of my employer. ]
rap@ardent.UUCP (Rob Peck) (03/31/89)
In article <11838@louie.udel.EDU>, jwhitman@st-louis-emh2.army.mil (Jerry Whitman) writes: > > 5. I am about to remedy some of my ignorance and get Rob Pecks > 'The Amiga Companion', but even that has some fall-out. Wasn't there > a note not too far back that Rob was about to release a New & Improved > Bigger & Better version? If so does any one know the status or the > expected availability? Will it also be only available from Amiga > World? Yes, there is a new version in the works, but even if an editor started on the changes today, the new version could not hit the stands for "X" months (with a strong hope that the value of X does not exceed 2, but...). Anyway, the Preface to the first edition, says "Send ME (the author) money (miniscule amount, believe me) and I'll send you the same updates that Amiga World will be using to create the second edition. First edition text is largely 1.2, and reference section is 1.3. Most of the oft-used options for the commands are what 1.2 had anyway. So if you get first edition and send for the updates, you get equivalent of second edition, NOW (not X months later), you save at least $3.00 cause the price likely will go up a little because of all the added pages (the update is 56 pages long... 1/3 replace-this-with-1.3-template-or-with-1.3-listing, and other 2/3 is new explanations of the command options and new commands in 1.3, including a 14 page tutorial for MEMACS. You can decide for yourself... wanna get smart now and save money as well, or just wait for the new edition. Amiga World, (800)441-4403. Charge cards accepted. ONLY from Amiga World? No. When second edition is out, the book WILL be widely available from dealers and mail order folks. They told me so. That'll let you go to the local dealer and page thru it to assure yourself that it IS better than its competition. Why the delay and why a second edition? Well, 1.3 came out just as the book was ready to go, and I started writing for second edition immediately (lotsa mods during alpha/beta/gamma and had no idea what final would really look like). So now we're ready and the First Edition is very nearly sold out (good news for everyone I believe). Right at the moment, the only thing that really surprizes me is the small number of folks who read book Prefaces... out of nearly 5,000 copies sold as of a month ago, I have had only 30 requests for the update. I lost money on each update I shipped until I found a way to reduce its physical bulk and thereby reduced its mailing cost till I just barely break even on that part but of course my manager (ok... wife) says don't rock the boat... if all 5,000 respond, I hafta get real busy for no financial return. She's right, of course, but I still find the low response surprizing. Rob Peck
lgreen@pnet01.cts.com (Lawrence Greenwald) (03/31/89)
jwhitman@st-louis-emh2.army.mil (Jerry Whitman) writes: >Well kiddies, its time for our weekly show and tell. I'll show you what >I don't know and you can tell me how. > >1. I cannot seem to get Prefs to switch to interlaced WB. I select Prefs >from the workbench window, observe that the interlace selector is set to >NO, click on YES, then USE. Prefs promptly goes away and nothing gets >changed. Re-selecting Pref shows the interlace selector is still NO. >Then I try the same routine, but select SAVE. It appears to save (the >pointer goes to sleep momentarily). To try it I re-boot and viola' - >up comes workbench in NON-interlace. Selecting Prefs from the Workbench >again reveals (Yup, you guessed it) the interlace selector is NO. But >I could have sworn I had just saved it ON? Obviously I am doing some >thing not quite right here. Does the HD boot-up ignore the WB Prefs? >Even if it did, why wasn't the WB Prefs updated when I selected it and >SAVEd it? > Jerry, even with booting from a hard disk (I am assuming you have the 1.3 roms in your 2000HD), Preferences takes its configuration info initially from the device it boots from. Enter an 'ASSIGN' command and look where the logical device SYS: is assigned. Even money your startup-sequence has changed where SYS: now points to (note the device name)...and it's not the BOOT volume. Thus, it's saving the Pref info in the devs/system-configuration file on device SYS:. Solution: very simple...copy the SYS:devs/system-configuration file to the boot volume, and that should solve your problem. I'm posting this since I just helped a person in my local Amiga who was having the exact same problem and it's general enough for ALL to benefit. Larry Greenwald UUCP: {hplabs!hp-sdd sdcsvax nosc}!crash!pnet01!lgreen ARPA: crash!pnet01!lgreen@nosc.mil INET: lgreen@pnet01.cts.com SNAIL:4545 Collwood Blvd, #52 San Diego, CA 92115 "I'm looking over a three-leaf clover that I overlooked be-three!" -Bugs Bunny