[comp.sys.amiga.programmer] UNIX*ish* Amiga software

chrisf@wpi.WPI.EDU (Chris H. Foley) (06/20/91)

Hi there folks. I'm amazed. I was just talking to a friend of mine who's an
ST fanatic and he told me (and showed me) that they have BASH (a GREAT shell
which would elevate the amiga to a new level of software development 
compatibility), they've *HAD* GCC for about a year and we're just finishing 
up versions of ours (the wilde port seems quite good), they've got G++, 
MGR (A Multi Window communications protocol similar to DNET but *WITH* 
GRAPHICS support!) and a Modified TOS called MINT which is a Unix subset..


The reason I rattled all that off is NOT to make the amiga or the amiga PD 
world look bad, I'm just wondering why more effort hasn't been put in to 
developing these products... 

It's really easy to criticize and I'll be the first to admit that, but it's 
just too bad that we're not up to par with what they've got over there on the 
ST :)

If anyone knows of any completed versions of these or things like it/them, 
let me know...

sincerely,
Chris

baxter_a@wehi.dn.mu.oz (06/21/91)

In article <1991Jun20.093756.1638@wpi.WPI.EDU>, chrisf@wpi.WPI.EDU (Chris H. Foley) writes:
> Hi there folks. I'm amazed. I was just talking to a friend of mine who's an
> ST fanatic and he told me (and showed me) that they have BASH (a GREAT shell
> which would elevate the amiga to a new level of software development 
> compatibility), they've *HAD* GCC for about a year and we're just finishing 
> up versions of ours (the wilde port seems quite good), they've got G++, 
> MGR (A Multi Window communications protocol similar to DNET but *WITH* 
> GRAPHICS support!) and a Modified TOS called MINT which is a Unix subset..
> 
> 
> The reason I rattled all that off is NOT to make the amiga or the amiga PD 
> world look bad, I'm just wondering why more effort hasn't been put in to 
> developing these products... 


So? Write them yourself. 

Regards Alan

(This may be beginning of another run of those "what the lazy no hoper
PD authors should be writing for me or I'll buy another computer" flame
fests like we had 1 1/2 years ago, so I gotta get in early!)

alanb@sdl.mdcbbs.com (06/21/91)

In article <1991Jun20.093756.1638@wpi.WPI.EDU>, chrisf@wpi.WPI.EDU (Chris H. Foley) writes:
> Hi there folks. I'm amazed. I was just talking to a friend of mine who's an
> ST fanatic and he told me (and showed me) that they have BASH (a GREAT shell
> which would elevate the amiga to a new level of software development 
> compatibility), they've *HAD* GCC for about a year and we're just finishing 
> up versions of ours (the wilde port seems quite good), they've got G++, 
> MGR (A Multi Window communications protocol similar to DNET but *WITH* 
> GRAPHICS support!) and a Modified TOS called MINT which is a Unix subset..
> 
> 
> The reason I rattled all that off is NOT to make the amiga or the amiga PD 
> world look bad, I'm just wondering why more effort hasn't been put in to 
> developing these products... 
> 
> It's really easy to criticize and I'll be the first to admit that, but it's 
> just too bad that we're not up to par with what they've got over there on the 
> ST :)
> 
> If anyone knows of any completed versions of these or things like it/them, 
> let me know...
> 
> sincerely,
> Chris

Well, I was hoping to see how many of bash, flex, bison, gnuchess, perl,
gnuchess, ghostscript, emacs, and other gnu tools I have lying around
on my Sun at work would port once I find where to get GCC, so I'll let you know.

I've only just got an Amiga (1500), so don't hold your breath. (Might have to
wait for hard disk and more RAM for a start). I'll post any progress here (or,
more likely, requests for help). Anyone who already has these tools, I'd like
to know.

For those who don't know bash, it stands for Bourne Again SHell.

Compatible with the standard Unix Bourne shell, but with a lot more, e.g.
C-shell style aliases and history, login/out files, and ~ expansion,
help on builtin commands, functions, emacs style command line editing.

alanb@sdl.mdcbbs.com     Alan Braggins

P.S. flex - fast lex
     bison - yacc (but hairier)

dillon@overload.Berkeley.CA.US (Matthew Dillon) (06/22/91)

In article <1991Jun20.093756.1638@wpi.WPI.EDU> chrisf@wpi.WPI.EDU (Chris H. Foley) writes:
>Hi there folks. I'm amazed. I was just talking to a friend of mine who's an
>ST fanatic and he told me (and showed me) that they have BASH (a GREAT shell
>which would elevate the amiga to a new level of software development
>compatibility), they've *HAD* GCC for about a year and we're just finishing
>up versions of ours (the wilde port seems quite good), they've got G++,
>MGR (A Multi Window communications protocol similar to DNET but *WITH*
>GRAPHICS support!) and a Modified TOS called MINT which is a Unix subset..
>
>The reason I rattled all that off is NOT to make the amiga or the amiga PD
>world look bad, I'm just wondering why more effort hasn't been put in to
>developing these products...
>
>It's really easy to criticize and I'll be the first to admit that, but it's
>just too bad that we're not up to par with what they've got over there on the
>ST :)
>
>If anyone knows of any completed versions of these or things like it/them,
>let me know...
>
>sincerely,
>Chris

    I've followed the ST world on BIX for some while, out of interest, and
    they do good with what they can get their hands on, but I also have the
    impression that these are relatively raw ports with few ST specific
    features.  This suites many people just fine, but you will not see me
    walking into a store and buying one IMHO.

					    -Matt

--

    Matthew Dillon	    dillon@Overload.Berkeley.CA.US
    891 Regal Rd.	    uunet.uu.net!overload!dillon
    Berkeley, Ca. 94708
    USA

dillon@overload.Berkeley.CA.US (Matthew Dillon) (06/22/91)

In article <1991Jun20.093756.1638@wpi.WPI.EDU> chrisf@wpi.WPI.EDU (Chris H. Foley) writes:
>Hi there folks. I'm amazed. I was just talking to a friend of mine who's an
>ST fanatic and he told me (and showed me) that they have BASH (a GREAT shell
>which would elevate the amiga to a new level of software development

    I have the bash source in my in-bin for a while but, alas, no time
    to port it.  Don't let this stop anyone else from porting it through!
    I have *lots* of unix stuff in my in-bin which I haven't touched in
    months.

    In anycase, something like Bash ought to be breeze under 2.0

>The reason I rattled all that off is NOT to make the amiga or the amiga PD
>world look bad, I'm just wondering why more effort hasn't been put in to
>developing these products...
>
>It's really easy to criticize and I'll be the first to admit that, but it's
>just too bad that we're not up to par with what they've got over there on the
>ST :)

    Well, actually, we are.  Take WShell and AREXX, for example.  And as
    far as compilers go DICE and SAS/C are state of the art.  We also have
    AmigaUUCP (the next release will be the most stable due to added
    workarounds for serial.device bugs).

>sincerely,
>Chris

					    -Matt

--

    Matthew Dillon	    dillon@Overload.Berkeley.CA.US
    891 Regal Rd.	    uunet.uu.net!overload!dillon
    Berkeley, Ca. 94708
    USA

elg@elgamy.raidernet.com (Eric Lee Green) (06/26/91)

From article <dillon.8949@overload.Berkeley.CA.US>, by dillon@overload.Berkeley.CA.US (Matthew Dillon):
> In article <1991Jun20.093756.1638@wpi.WPI.EDU> chrisf@wpi.WPI.EDU (Chris H. Foley) writes:
>>Hi there folks. I'm amazed. I was just talking to a friend of mine who's an
>>ST fanatic and he told me (and showed me) that they have BASH (a GREAT shell
>>which would elevate the amiga to a new level of software development
>     I have the bash source in my in-bin for a while but, alas, no time
>     to port it.  Don't let this stop anyone else from porting it through!
>     I have *lots* of unix stuff in my in-bin which I haven't touched in
>     months.

You too, eh?

BTW, I've found a neat solution for the problems with Unix vs. Amiga
unlink() semantics... my new "unlink()" calls DeleteFile(), and if
the return from IoErr() is OBJECT_BUSY (or whatever -- the file is
open, in any event), I then shove it onto a list of "pending deletes".
Each call to close(fh) then checks the list of pending deletes and
tries them again. The exit code, after it has closed all the files,
again checks that list of pending deletes. In the common case, where
there's no pending deletes, this adds a MOV.L and a BNE.B to the
execution stream... hardly a fatal slowdown for close(), considering
that it has to do all sorts of jibberish anyhow.

Of course, I'm doing all this under SAS/C, via some creative
reverse-engineering (I first disassembled the library routines, then wrote
"C" code until my disassembled code was identical to their disassembled
code, before going in and making my mods). I really do need to ship my $50
for DICE, I guess, except that I'm so addicted to Codeprobe... sigh. Only
time I've fired up DICE in the past six months was to re-compile "getty" to
handle my modem right.

>     In anycase, something like Bash ought to be breeze under 2.0

Almost everything is a breeze under 2.0 :-).

--
Eric Lee Green   (318) 984-1820  P.O. Box 92191  Lafayette, LA 70509
elg@elgamy.RAIDERNET.COM               uunet!mjbtn!raider!elgamy!elg
      Looking for a job... Unix/Amiga/C... tips, leads appreciated.