kim@amdahl.uts.amdahl.com (Kim DeVaughn) (05/02/88)
[ Everything in this line may be wrong! (with apologies to Richard Bach) ]
Attached are some comments by Charles Conlow that cover the first couple
of days of DevCon, that I picked up from a local BBS. Not alot of real
specifics, but some interesting hints, etc.
I'd be interested in what other attendees have to offer (Leo, Marco, any
C-A'ers or CBM'ers, ...).
I believe that CBM will be making a set of DevCon notes (and floppies ?)
available to those of us who (sniff) couldn't get away. Is that right,
Lauren?
Mr. Conlow implies that there will be at least one more report from DevCon,
so I'll post that here also when and if I see it.
/kim
vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv
----- From the 1988 Amiga Developer's Conference -----
Friday, Day #1
------------------------------------------------------
Here are my notes, opinions and C-A's (Commodore-Amiga)
announcements from the first day (Friday) of the 1988 Commodore Amiga
Developer's Conference.
Because C-A did not anticipate such a large attendance, the whole
shebang got off to a late start. I was in line to register at 8:15 for
the 9:00 first speaker, and I noticed that people were STILL registering
at 3:00 PM! Everything today was shifted back half an hour.
Gail Wellington gave a short welcome and introductory speech in the
main conference room. It was equipped with two Amiga 2000's, a big
projection screen TV and two BIG monitors (one was CBM's (Commodore
Business Machines) own manufacture, a Bi-Synch Super-Hi_Res job). We
watched the ever popular "Only Amiga Makes it Possible" Video, and then
Gail introduced Dr. Henri Rubin.
Dr. Rueben, C.O.O. of Commodore International, gave a short speech
about the MEANING of the Amiga series of machines; how far we have come
with the multi-tasking aspect, and how little of the machine's promise
has so far come to light. He mentioned CBM's past financial emergencies,
and how the bottom line ( = money) is always in our minds (CBM,
Developers and third party manufacturers).
Dr. Rubin went on to say that although the Amiga has been received
very well of late (in US as well as abroad), it should, and MUST! do
better if we are to see the NEXT generation of Amiga computers. He also
mentioned that although Amiga continues to improve and upgrade the
quality of the OS, other computer manufacturers STILL can't seem to get a
working multi-tasking system off the ground.
During Gail's closing remarks, members of the audience (a little
over 300) stood when she named their country. Quite an international
bunch this weekend...
Israel, Austria, Turkey (CBM's fastest growing market), Canada, West
Germany, United Kingdom, Denmark, Finland, Italy, Australia, France,
Holland and Venezuela were all represented, as well as a goodly number
from the good ole US of A (sitting next to me, Leo Schwab, "the man in
the cape").
During the morning session, there were several sessions with
speakers from CATS, C-A and CBM fielding questions from the audiences and
making remarks and comments as they came to light...
Bill Koester (CATS (C-A Technical Support)) & R. J. Mical (Amiga
Software Engineer) led a group of first timers through the Exec -
Intuition - ADos system.
Dave Haynie, George Robbins and Jeff Boyer (all C-A Hardware
Engineers), led a discussion, followed by a Q & A about the A-500's
design; it's expansion port interface limits, power supply requirements
and problems, and the documentation for the machine.
Dale Luck and Jim Mackraz (Amiga Software engineers) gave the Copper
a going over. Speaking of what the Copper is SUPPOSED to do, and what
developers are trying to make it do, they attempted to make clear the
guidelines for proper use of one of the Amiga's most basic custom chips.
Next, Carolyn Scheppner (CATS) went through the latest of the MANY
IFF specs; some accepted by CBM, some pending and others... well, maybe.
John Toebes of Software Distillery presented their new IFF form, PGTB
(ProGram Trace Back), which is of great interest to developers. This
form, and the program stub that produces it, dumps to a file all the neat
and interesting things that were resident in the system when it GURUed.
This allows programmers to look at the environment when someone other
than themselves has attempted to use their program. Watch for "Catch".
Also, Gary Bonham of Sparta delivered a speech about the ANIM IFF
FORM, and its use by Aegis, Inc. He detailed its development as an
outgrowth of his work with Space Defense-type systems at Sparta, and how
many months of feedback and coding led to a simple, quick compression and
playback technique. Bob "Kodiak" Burns raised the point that an ANIM
file is not a true IFF FORM, but rather a LIST. Gary admitted that, and
also admitted that an awful lot of work had gone into the thing, and was
pretty far along in development to re-code for LIST. Kodiak's point,
though, is well taken. IFF is SUPPOSED to be a CBM approved standard.
FORMs are FORMs and LISTs aren't. They proposed to form a working group
to throw this idea around. Keep tuned!
Marketing of Amiga products was also discussed with Product support
people from CBM, both US and abroad. How to get the most coverage for
the smallest amount of money seemed to be the jist of it, but I was
listening in from another hall, and will have to get this part
straightened out (later guys).
In the afternoon, Jeff Porter (Product Development, Commodore
Technology Division), introduced us to the new CBM and C-A products.
They were not in the room, and no price or release dates were announced.
We also were told that many of these hardware thingies are still on the
board, so think what you will...
We were not asked to sign any non-disclosure agreement, but I tread
lightly here, as I VALUE my status as developer and a trusted member of
the CADP (C-A Developer's Program). But I think I am safe in stating...
As per the Hanover Announcement, the A-2500.AT and A-2500.UX will
bring IBM-PC.AT performance / or / Unix support to the A-2000. These are
not NEW machines, but bundled software of CBM's already announced (but
not yet available) AT card and Unix (AT & T Unix 5 release 3.1.).
Also announced was the 1.3 and 1.4 systems, with vague references to
1.5 (and you thought all they did was answer phones in West Chester!).
There is an Enhanced Chip Set to be available SOON (New Fattest Agnes,
New Denise and New Gary chips) to allow for 640 x 400 non-interlaced
screens with 4 out of 64 colors. This chip set will also allow for
software control of EITHER PAL or NTSC (did I hear someone say horizontal
scrollable screens?).
Some new monitors were also discussed, which have the SMARTS to be
able to handle all these new different video modes, as well as all
current ones. And most (if not all) of this new technology is backwards
compatible, meaning your existing 500's and 2000's can use the new chip
set, monitors and enhanced OS (Unix).
Some other hardware goodies... a self contained 20 meg SCSI hard
drive for the A-500. This would be the first hard drive from CBM in many
years, since the 90x0 line in the late seventies. It would have a smart
external power supply, that will turn itself off and on as the A-500 is
turned off and on.
For the 2000, look for 2 different GenLocks (of quite different
quality), the 68020 Bridge, the 80286 Bridge, the 2090A (auto-boot hard
disk controller), and KickStart 1.3 in ROM (also for 500).
Yes friends, 1.3 is STILL not ready! Gamma 7 releases were made to
developers, but there is still no firm date for public release for a rock
solid KickStart or WorkBench/ADos for 1.3.
That's all the time I have to write this up this evening, but I have
more about 1.3 and 1.4, the new preferences, sound, 'C', OverScan and
Libraries from today! not to mention Saturday and Sunday!
Keep tuned kiddies, and be patient with Uncle Andy (Finkel)!
----------------------- EOF --------------------------
FileName: DevCon-1.Txt
Created: 29-Apr-88 23:00
Author: Charles Conlow (GEnie = C.CONLOW)
============================================================================
----- From the 1988 Amiga Developer's Conference -----
Late Friday, Day #1 & Saturday Day #2
------------------------------------------------------
Friday, in the afternoon sessions, some more technical material was
discussed, including the following...
Jim Mackraz and Hedley Davis offered their (very considered)
opinions of how the Amiga systems should handle FONTS / TEXT and GRAPHICS
when using the newest view modes (VERY_HIGH resolution). Using the Gray
Scale monitors, OverScan and HAM, system parameters may seem tossed to
the wind... there is so far a general rule about this, and 1.4 should
bring a STANDARD (i.e. iff or IFF.2) about FONTs, COLOR_FONTs, and
VIEW_Modes.
Rob Peck (Author of the Audio Tools Library) and Dan Baker (CATS)
covered the Amiga's multi-tasking limits with regard to the sounds /
music she can make (and what beautiful music!). Rob Peck has been a
major contributor to the Amiga Developer's world of audio, and has also
followed up on his original implementation of the Audio Tools Library.
Andy Finkel has given us a pretty good idea of what 1.3 can and
cannot do... There are reasons why we CAN do some things, and reasons why
we CAN'T do others. Major revisions of 1.3 are the printer.device and
associated drivers (quite fast, and really VERY clean for dot matrix),
the FFS (Fast Filing System) for hard drive users (FFS will be standard
on all devices as of 1.4) and smaller - faster C: commands ( bye-bye
BCPL).
Other Friday Topics were Math Libraries (including the support for
the various co-processors), Creating your own libraries (remember the
interrupt?), 'C' on the Amiga, What hardware implementation of 1.3 and
1.4 require to auto-boot and what 1.3 preferences is all about.
Friday, several disk of source code were distributed which contained
the examples (object and source) of most of the Conference's projects, as
well as Gamma 7 of WorkBench 1.3 (Still, no release date kiddies!).
Saturday, I will have to rely on other people's notes, as I had to
duck in and out all day...
During the morning hours (yawns!), hardware and software was shown
in the computer rom from companies such as...
Aegis, MicroSmiths, Manx, Lattice, Software Distillery, and of
course CBM / C-A / Commodore Int'l
Then Dave Haynie, George Robbins and Jeff Boyer talked about the
slots of the A-2000. There MAY be mods to future machines, there
probably will not, but there will CERTAINLY be a backward compatible path
on this matter as the 2000 is THE AMIGA as far as C-A is concerned. The
stress of this matter is that the 2000 is the ANCHOR of the series, and
all future machines MUST allow for its existence.
Also on Saturday, the implementation of multiple ports was
discussed. In 1.x (4, 5, 6?) there will be allowed a multitude of ports
available for the end user, with a total of number of 65536. Be these
serial, parallel or user, the protocol of manufacturer ID, placement,
power drain and access methods all need to be set in stone... an
important step toward true MULTI-USER status, especially if a windowed
UNIX is to be supported.
In addition to the multiple ports issue, the idea of the TRANSPUTER
was raised. Now the Amiga, already a multi-tasking machine, lends itself
well to the multi-processing stage of the transputer (I know this, but
you know how to :whatever: it, here it is, send it back [fixed]; thanks
so much)... Well, here we go again... !
Gosh - this reporting bit is harder than I thought!
Well guys, I will finish Saturday's report tomorrow, and also the
Sunday "chats" with Hardware, Software and Marketing people, as time and
typing skills allow....
----------------------- EOF --------------------------
FileName: DevCon-2.Txt
Created: 30-Apr-88 18:00
Author: Charles Conlow (GEnie = C.CONLOW)
(CI$ = 74116,3067)
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
--
UUCP: kim@amdahl.amdahl.com
or: {sun,decwrl,hplabs,pyramid,ihnp4,uunet,oliveb,cbosgd,ames}!amdahl!kim
DDD: 408-746-8462
USPS: Amdahl Corp. M/S 249, 1250 E. Arques Av, Sunnyvale, CA 94086
CIS: 76535,25page@swan.ulowell.edu (Bob Page) (05/03/88)
kim@amdahl.uts.amdahl.com (Kim DeVaughn) wrote:
>[ Everything in this line may be wrong! (with apologies to Richard Bach) ]
Along with many things in the article. Seems Mr. Conlow read the
program and reported that. Some things just didn't happen the way he
reported them. For example, Rob Peck wasn't there, and Dale wasn't
part of the Copper talk, just JimM.
Some of my impressions, off the cuff:
The conference notes were about 3 inches thick, single sided.
Loads of useful information.
Everyone who was at Monterey (sp?) said this DevCon was
a WHOLE LOT better.
Randy Spencer's machine taped Yar's death while we were
all out partying with Discovery Software, then it was shown
a few times (at least 2.5) on the big screen.
Dave Haynie showed up with a 68030 board for the A2000,
and somebody ran the C64 emulator on it when he
wasn't looking. Called it the 64030. :-)
All companies there got a KS1.3 ROM.
Lots of companies were looking for Amiga programmers.
Leo ran an Anim that said "OS/2 ==> HALF-OS" ... CBM let it
run for a while :-) After that, Leo ran his Stars program
whevener somebody let him near a machine.
Dave Haynie won the Usenet BOING award.
Fred Fish won an award from CBM. It was the first ever
publicly presented "fatter Agnus". Six other companies
got them too (picked by lottery).
RJ Mical is expecting his second child.
Tom Rockiki tried to describe Breshnev's line draw algorithm.
Having failed that, he showed us his terrific error
checking routine in BlitLab 1.3. :-)
Mike (Powered by Cyberpunk M&Ms in training) Smithwick had
Leo read the beta version of his new StarChip EnterBoing
adventure at the USENET meeting. Dale kneeling before Leo?
At the USENET meeting: CBMers Lauren, DaveB, Dale, Bryce,
George (grr), Dave (boinger) Haynie, SteveB (?) and maybe
more (I didn't get a lot of sleep this past weekend, kids).
Perry & Eric advanced the concept of Amiga Working Groups,
sort of like technical steering committees to hammer out
ideas. Just about everybody liked the idea, including CBM.
Randell Jesup was hired by CBM.
Nobody wanted to talk much about IPC, multiple ports or
the ultimate user interface. Well, everybody wanted to,
but didn't want to get into flame wars, ala USENET.
Joanne Dow kept saying "Post it on BIX! Post it on BIX!"
Chuck McManis had a great Intuition programmer's library;
showed you how to do everything. Commercial product.
During the "beyond 1.4" talk, about 6 presenters brought
up ARexx.
Five disks were handed out: WB 1.3 gamma 7, WB Extras gamma 7,
DevCon 1, 2 & 3 examples source disks. Hedley also gave
out a disk on the A2024 monitor if you went to his talk.
The SCA virus was in the computer room, on at least 6 A500s.
All the Fish and Amicus disks were there for copying. The
computer room was open from 7pm-5am Fri & Sat night, and
was full until around 3am Saturday morning. And yes, people
did get kicked out at 5am when they closed the room.
Translator.library is being rewritten for 1.4.
Workbench is coming out of the ROMs for 1.4.
FFS will be in ROM in 1.4.
Jim Goodnow of Manx, true to form, was playing with his
compiler source (version 4.0) around 3am Saturday morning.
He's got a flickerfixer too.
Leo suggested CBM throw away Exec/DOS and start over.
SubLogic demanded CBM recode everything in assembler.
...and many, many more things. There were just loads of things going
on, all at once. Everyone will have their own recollections and
things that stand out to them. I think a good time was had by all!
..Bob
--
Bob Page, U of Lowell CS Dept. page@swan.ulowell.edu ulowell!pagethomson@utah-cs.UUCP (Richard A Thomson) (05/03/88)
In article <6744@swan.ulowell.edu> page@swan.ulowell.edu (Bob Page) writes: [ lots of good gossip deleted ] > Tom Rockiki tried to describe Breshnev's line draw algorithm. ^^^^^^^^ I think you haven't had much sleep Bob. I'm sure you meant Bresenham's line drawing algorithm? I've never heard this particular gem of computer graphics ascribed to any Soviet leader, past or present. -- Rich (Michail Gorbachev announced the Glasnost Chip today... :-) Richard Thomson 3190 MEB, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT 84112 thomson@cs.utah.edu (801) 584-4555: Talk to a machine, they're lonely. Gaia: Its not just a hypothesis, its an epistemology. -- Richard Thomson 3190 MEB, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT 84112 thomson@cs.utah.edu (801) 584-4555: Talk to a machine, they're lonely. Gaia: Its not just a hypothesis, its an epistemology.
papa@pollux.usc.edu (Marco Papa) (05/03/88)
Bob recollection is pretty much close to reality, though I don't know whether what I am saying makes any sense since, as everybody else, I had 12 hours of sleep in 3 days. The fun was great (especially at the USENET meeting and Randy's taped replay of Star Trek). Dave Haynie won the USENET Boing! award, but George Robbins was VERY close second. The conference cost less than last time ($200 instead of $450) and general agreement is that we (developers) come back with more: more docs (nicely printed), more source code examples. One thing Bob did not mention are the Janus disks that RJ handed out that allow using the bridgecard to create a 976-type partyline :-) Dr. Henry Rubin, Commodore Chief Operating Officer, seemed to enjoy RJ's talk quite a lot. There was talk of another devcon much sooner than 1 and 1/2 years from now. The IFF library meeting also got started. I don't know if it will become one of the official Working Groups, but it is likely. Carolyn is handling that one. The Addison-Wesley Manuals are going through a major revision by Carolyn and Nancy Rains. Only drawback, I came back with a cold. It is nice to be back in "sunny" Southern California :-) How about having the next devcon in LA in January of 1989 (it was 85 degrees this year)? Lauren, Patsy and Nancy took care of all our needs, and Gail Wellington run the show very nicely and smoothly. Is she running for a higher position inside CBM? Lots od developers were hoping so. -- Marco -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= uucp:...!pollux!papa BIX:papa ARPAnet:pollux!papa@oberon.usc.edu "There's Alpha, Beta, Gamma and Diga!" -- Leo Schwab [quoting Rick Unland] -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
thompson@savax.UUCP (thompson mark) (05/04/88)
In article <6744@swan.ulowell.edu> page@swan.ulowell.edu (Bob Page) writes: >Some of my impressions, off the cuff: > > Tom Rockiki tried to describe Breshnev's line draw algorithm. ^^^^^^^^^^ > Having failed that, he showed us his terrific error > checking routine in BlitLab 1.3. :-) >..Bob >-- >Bob Page, U of Lowell CS Dept. page@swan.ulowell.edu ulowell!page Good to see high ranking Russian officials getting involved in the graphics community :-) Sorry, couldn't help it. I think you mean Bresenham's line drawing algorithm. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- | Mark Thompson | | decvax!savax!thompson Designing high performance graphics | | (603)885-9229 silicon today for a better tomorrow. | --------------------------------------------------------------------------
papa@pollux.usc.edu (Marco Papa) (05/04/88)
In article <5465@utah-cs.UUCP| thomson@cs.utah.edu.UUCP (Richard A Thomson) writes: |In article <6744@swan.ulowell.edu| page@swan.ulowell.edu (Bob Page) writes: | [ lots of good gossip deleted ] || Tom Rockiki tried to describe Breshnev's line draw algorithm. | ^^^^^^^^ | |I think you haven't had much sleep Bob. I'm sure you meant Bresenham's line |drawing algorithm? I've never heard this particular gem of computer graphics |ascribed to any Soviet leader, past or present. Sorry Richard, but I was there too and can confirm that Tom described the Breshnev's line algorithm before ending his speech with fireworks :-) -- Marco -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= uucp:...!pollux!papa BIX:papa ARPAnet:pollux!papa@oberon.usc.edu "There's Alpha, Beta, Gamma and Diga!" -- Leo Schwab [quoting Rick Unland] -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
rokicki@polya.STANFORD.EDU (Tomas G. Rokicki) (05/04/88)
`Breshnev's' line drawing algorithm was a figment of my cheap sense
of humor, not due to anyone losing any sleep. I know, I know, I'm
working on it . . .
-tom
--
/-- Tomas Rokicki /// Box 2081 Stanford, CA 94309
/ o Radical Eye Software /// (415) 326-5312
\ / | . . . or I \\\/// Gig 'em, Aggies! (TAMU EE '85)
V | won't get dressed \XX/ Bay area Amiga Developer's GroupEwalker@sas.UUCP (Doug Walker) (05/04/88)
In article <6744@swan.ulowell.edu> page@swan.ulowell.edu (Bob Page) writes: > All companies there got a KS1.3 ROM. Yes, a KS1.3 ROM. KS 1.3 is identical to KS 1.2 except for autoboot stuff, so it is stable. WB 1.3 is still flakey, although I have been running it for a while in beta test and it has been fine for me. > Perry & Eric advanced the concept of Amiga Working Groups, > sort of like technical steering committees to hammer out > ideas. Just about everybody liked the idea, including CBM. This was a CRUCIAL item. If this idea gets off the ground, it will revolutionize the Amiga community. There are a lot of talented people willing to do real design/coding work for the Amiga, but the resulting stuff will not be accepted as 'standard' unless C-A blesses it. C-A has agreed in principle to foster these groups and examine what they come up with. Of course, they are under NO obligation to do anything with the results, but if the specs generated in a working group seem to solve a recognized problem, why not? It was decided that all members of AWG's would need to be registered developers, both to control what was going on and so we could (maybe) use the C-A newsletter for progress reports and so forth. AWG's were discussed in such areas as IFF, Expansion Peripheral conventions (getting rid of devs:mountlist?), User Interfaces and more. > During the "beyond 1.4" talk, about 6 presenters brought > up ARexx. "Use Rexx!" was definately the rallying cry of the conference. > Leo suggested CBM throw away Exec/DOS and start over. I believe Leo actually suggested the CBM throw away COMPATIBILITY with the current Exec/DOS. For example, align long structure elements on longword boundaries to increase 68020/68030 performance. He also indicated his desire to see innovative new hardware, perhaps incompatible with the old, to keep the Amiga ahead of the competition. > SubLogic demanded CBM recode everything in assembler. "Because it's easier to debug." > I think a good time was had by all! Speaking for myself, I had a ball! Doug Walker, Software Distiller
mike@ames.arpa (Mike Smithwick) (05/05/88)
In article <5465@utah-cs.UUCP> thomson@cs.utah.edu.UUCP (Richard A Thomson) writes: >In article <6744@swan.ulowell.edu> page@swan.ulowell.edu (Bob Page) writes: > [ lots of good gossip deleted ] >> Tom Rockiki tried to describe Breshnev's line draw algorithm. > ^^^^^^^^ > >I think you haven't had much sleep Bob. I'm sure you meant Bresenham's line >drawing algorithm? I've never heard this particular gem of computer graphics >ascribed to any Soviet leader, past or present. Au Contrair kind sir, Tom did say "Breshnev's algorithm", giving the rest of us a lot of free yucks in the process. *** mike *** -- *** mike (Cyberpunk in training) smithwick *** "Use an Atari, go to jail!" [disclaimer : nope, I don't work for NASA, I take full blame for my ideas]
page@swan.ulowell.edu (Bob Page) (05/06/88)
walker@sas.UUCP (Doug Walker) wrote:
>KS 1.3 is identical to KS 1.2 except for autoboot stuff, so it is stable.
Agreed on stable (stable as 1.2, anyway). Agreed on autoboot.
And agreed on *functionally* identical ... but not wholly identical.
So NoKlickStart won't work on it.
C-A had - what, 17 bytes free in the ROMs in 1.2? So how did they
shoehorn the autoboot code into 17 bytes? They made room for it. How
did they make room for it when they didn't change any source code?
Left as an excerise for the reader.
BTW, Last night a bunch of Amigans installed a fatter Agnus,
a 1.3KS and flickerFixer in Harriet Tolly's (Syndesis) A2000.
Everything worked! Dale was on hand to make sure PM knew about
1MB chip ram (it didn't ... "musta been an old version" :-) ).
..Bob
--
Bob Page, U of Lowell CS Dept. page@swan.ulowell.edu ulowell!page