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