JESSE%SLUVCA.BITNET@cornellc.ccs.cornell.edu (05/21/88)
I am considering buying an amiga. I have a few questions, I hope someone will take a few minutes and answer them. Please no arguments of little ol me. 1) some say buy the a500, its the best computer for the money. When you need to exapnd it, accept the fact that perferials cost more. others say but the a2000, pay more up front but save on expansion perferials. one person said to also buy an IBM AT to do the development (programming) on. I would appriciate comments on all three possibilities. 2) the a2000 comes with a serial & parallel port. What is availiable in the way of expansion ports? I always seem to have need of another serial port. 3) Can a program open the serial device is such a manner that no other currently running program can access it? 4) Looking at different books, the Amiga looks very complex to program the video interface, sound and speach. Are there functions included with C that simplify any of the system calls? Mainly for standard needs, like put a window at (x,y) of size (x,y) titled "..." let all of the other stuff default. 5) One of my interests is in writting programs that deal with the MIDI interface but I cant find any system calls for the MIDI. When I buy a midi board, where does it plug in at? Can I still use the port for what it was intended for? Does a subroutine package come with the midi hardware? Who makes a GOOD midi board? Thanks ahead of time, Jesse Tutterrow JESSE@SLUVCA.bitnet St Louis Univ 3694 W. Pine St Louis, Mo. 63108 (314)658-2560
phil@eos.UUCP (Phil Stone) (05/21/88)
In article <2657@louie.udel.EDU> JESSE%SLUVCA.BITNET@cornellc.ccs.cornell.edu writes: >I am considering buying an amiga. I have a few questions, I hope someone... I'll just field a couple of these... >3) Can a program open the serial device is such a manner that no other > currently running program can access it? > Yes...involves opening the serial device with an "exclusive access" option. > >5) One of my interests is in writting programs that deal with the MIDI > interface > but I cant find any system calls for the MIDI. When I buy a midi board, > where does it plug in at? Can I still use the port for what it was intended > for? Does a subroutine package come with the midi hardware? Who makes a > GOOD midi board? MIDI ports plug right into the serial interface - code that deals with them looks like any other serial I/O (just change the baud rate to 31250 and yer loggin'!) Uses up the serial port, though. Rumors of serial port expansion options (for the 2000, at least) abound. Since the serial port already has a UART built in, the MIDI interface consists of a mere opto- isolator and op-amp, and some dangling cables - several sources available, and you should be able to find one for no more than $25 (considering it's about $5 worth of parts!). Don't let the Atari-ST hype about built in MIDI sway you from this machine; it's ridiculously easy and cheap to add and use MIDI on the Amiga. Good Luck! Phil P.S. An entire MIDI library is available in the public domain, and from what I've seen of it, it looks great, though it might take awhile to figure out. phil@eos.arc.nasa.gov phil@eos.UUCP { uunet, hplabs, hao, ihnp4, decwrl, allegra, tektronix } ames!eos!phil