Otherware

home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search

/ Otherware / Otherware_1_SB_Development.iso / amiga / utility / text / amigaphi.2 < prev next >

Wrap

Text File | 1992-11-11 | 82.6 KB | 1,673 lines

AMIGAphile For Amiga users by Amiga users AUGUST 1992 Volume 1/Number 2 CONTENTS Editor's Desk AMIGAphilosophy What's New Ask the Experts What My Amiga Means To Me AMIGAphile Survey - part II Reviews: Solid State Leisure B5000-40 accelerator board KCS Power PC Board v3.5 The Arizona State University Amiga Lab AREXX Application List - Updates and Changes Fred Fish Forum Bulletin Board Systems User's Groups Classified Ads World of Commodore Amiga Show Back Page Rumors AMIGAphile 4851 Kingshill Drive #215 Columbus, Ohio 43229 USA (614) 846-8658 Editor and Publisher: Dan Abend Contributors: Brian C. Berg Michael Glew Barry McConnell Ken Thompson ARTICLE SUBMISSIONS: Send article submissions in manuscript or disk format to the above address. Submissions may also be sent via Internet in ASCII format to abend@cis.ohio- state.edu. All submissions must be accompanied by a request for submission including name, address, and phone number. MATERIALS FOR REVIEW: Send all materials for review to the above address along with a letter requesting review. If you wish the material returned, include a self addressed, stamped mailer with your submission. PRESS RELEASES: Press releases should be sent to "New Products" at the above address. COMPLAINTS ABOUT ADVERTISERS: Every effort is made to prevent fraudulent advertising in AMIGAphile. However, if you purchased the product advertised in the magazine, are dissatisfied, and can't resolve the problem, write to "Customer Service" at the above address. Written complaints should be as specific as possible, and should include copies of all relevant correspondence. NOTICE TO ADVERTISERS: All advertising is subject to the approval of the Publisher and AMIGAphile reserves the right to refuse advertisement without notice. Advertisers and/or their agencies assume the responsibility for the condition of the contents of the advertising printed herein and agree to indemnify the Publisher of AMIGAphile for any and all claims and/or expenses incurred therefrom. AMIGAphile is not responsible for mistakes, misprints, or typographical errors, and will not issue credit of any kind for such errors. AMIGAphile advises advertisers that statements regarding shipping and handling charges, warranties and money/ or no money back guarantees should be stated in all forms of advertising within AMIGAphile. The opinions expressed in the articles, columns, and advertising appearing herein are those of the authors and/or advertisers and are not necessarily those of AMIGAphile. The editor reserves the right to refuse any submissions which are deemed unsuitable and no guarantee of publication is made. Letters may be edited for clarity and length. Permission is given to the addressee of this newsletter to make photocopies and printouts for personal use. This newsletter was created using PageStream by Soft-Logik Publishing. Special Thanks to Andrea Taylor, Daniel J. Barrett, Ellen Thomas, Sascha Wildner for the AMIGAphilosophy suggestion, and those who sent suggestions, comments, and articles. Amigaphile is a registered tradename of Dan Abend. The contents of this newsletter are Copyright (C) 1992 by Dan Abend, All Rights Reserved, unless otherwise noted. Amiga is a registered trademark of Commodore Business Machine, Inc. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- EDITOR'S DESK We're on a roll now. This issue makes two issues in a row. If this trend in support continues, there will be many more issues to come. I would like to discuss a topic important to the survival of AMIGAphile: Advertising. With advertising support, it will be possible to continue providing the AMIGAphile newsletter free of charge. With enough advertising support, it will be possible to upgrade the quality of the printed version as well as pay the contributors of articles for their work. I would like to continue to provide the AMIGAphile newsletter to the public free of charge but without the newsletter providing any revenue, this will not be possible. If you have something related to the Amiga you would like to advertise, please see the section on submitting classified ads. For all other types of advertising, contact Dan Abend. This month, AMIGAphile introduces the AMIGAphilosophy column which is devoted to news about AMIGAphile. This column contains everything from the results of previous projects to hopes for future endeavors. This is the forum where I will share all my ideas about what has happened and what will happen and how AMIGAphile is planning to be a part of it. Also new in this month's issue is a column called What My Amiga Means To Me. Ken Thompson was brave enough to put his feelings down in words in order to share what his Amiga means to him. I hope to make this a regular column. One where users may share why they use their Amigas instead of another system and how they feel about the system they have chosen. Anyone with access to Internet who would rather receive the newsletter via email, please mail me at abend@cis.ohio-state.edu so I can add your name to the emailing list. The advantages of getting the electronic version of the newsletter over the printed version are (1) It gets to you quicker (2) It costs me less (3) It's recyclable and no trees must die. The disadvantage is that you don't get the neat cover page. You win some, you lose some. AMIGAphile is also distributed across many other computer bulletin boards. If you have access to these boards or receive the newsletter in the electronic form, please distribute it to other bulletin board systems you call which support the Amiga. The only way to keep AMIGAphile rolling is to get a broad base of readers and contributors. Until next time, happy reading and happy computing Amiga-style. Dan Abend AMIGAphile ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ AMIGAphilosophy What has AMIGAphile done? What is it going to do? What have you done for me lately? I know all these questions cross your mind. This new column is not going to tell you the meaning of life but it will keep you abreast of happenings related to AMIGAphile. As you can see, the size of the newsletter has already increased. At this pace, I'm gonna have to get a bigger hard drive in order to store this monster. The Premier Issue The first issue sparked the interest of about 30 people who contacted me for copies. These people had not filled out surveys but had heard about it either via the network or by word of mouth. I got about 10 people, who were honestly interested in helping, to leave me comments, suggestions, and articles. Out of a distribution of about 100 issue, 10% isn't all that bad. So, if you've been meaning to write me, you better get to it. Apathy is what kills a good computer system in the market. Upcoming Newsletter News For upcoming issues, I am going to need articles. I don't want to dive it specific things until I get a larger reader base but getting a head start would be a good idea. Below I have listed the topics of upcoming issues. I only know so much about each topic so I could use some articles to fill in the blanks. Most of all, I need people to volunteer their time to answer questions. I don't know everything so even if you'd rather not write an article, contact me and let me know what your strong points are. That way, I'll have some people to help me with details and keep things accurate. Let's use me for an example. I would write a letter stating what type of system I have and what software and hardware I use on a regular basis and have a good knowledge of. I have an Amiga 2500/030, 100 meg hard drive, 8 megs. I regularly use Deluxe Paint, PageStream, and JR-Comm. I use and check out a lot of shareware programs. I know BASIC, Modula-2, C, Pascal, and LISP but don't program the Amiga often. I own a Video Toaster and use it mainly for the switcher and the character generator. I own a Perfect Sound audio digitizer and have had much practice making quality samples. I also own a USR HST modem and do a lot of BBS calling. Please feel free to contact me about any of the above if you need information. If you contribute an article, please give a brief author profile stating things such as your occupation and what qualifies you to write the particular article. Topics: 3-D Graphics: rendering, scanning, modeling, putting down on film Animation: drawing, animating, programming (hopefully with code) C programming: Using screens, graphics, animation, sound Assembly programming: anything High Speed Modems: reviews, BBS software, Modeming dictionary Floptical Drives: performance, installation Backing up your hard drive: Tape backup, utilities Programming ARexx to do your dirty work Networking: Amiga to Amiga, Amiga to PC, Amiga to Mac Animation Contest In the future, I'd like to hold an animation contest. This can't occur until after we have gotten more advertising. It's no good to have a contest with no prizes. This is just a preview to let you animators know that you'd better start thinking about a real killer animation. I hope to get some code together and even a whole issue on animation to get everyone started. I'll be sure to give a few months warning. The animations should all play in real time. Length is not important but all artwork and backdrops must be original works by the author. Module Contest I'd also like to have a module contest. Those of you who spend your time creating music modules deserve some credit. Again, contests just aren't as much fun without prizes. I'm gonna leave this open for now but let's say that any format will be okay (Protracker, MED, whatever) but it has to be less than 880k (one floppy) including all samples and they will be judged on originality and composition. AMIGAphile Convention How about an AMIGAphile convention. I think one might just be in order. Of course, this can't happen until more readers join our humble clan. I will also need more support from vendors. A convention just is no fun when I'm the only one there. I find the cover charge just isn't worth it. I'm thinking about having the first one here in Columbus, Ohio but that could change. There was once a discussion about having a get together in Bloomington, Indiana. I'd like some more input on this idea. I'm not sure I'm ready to attempt to pull something of this nature off, ... yet. By The User, For The User Remember, AMIGAphile's policy is by the user, for the user. Without your input, the AMIGAphile newsletter is just blank paper, all my good intentions are wasted. Please, take the time to contact me. Let me know what you do with your Amiga, what you would like to do with your Amiga (even if this includes allowing it to plummet several stories from an open window), what you would like to see in the future. But, keep in mind, I have no influence by myself. It is together that we will make a difference. Beta Testers (Assistant Editors) What I really need are about 3 beta testers. I need someone to read over the AMIGAphile newsletter to check my typing. I'd hate to release a newsletter to the general public with a bunch of typos. It would also speed up production because I wouldn't have to spend the extra time re-reading and re-re-reading to make sure everything is correct. I'd appreciate someone who has a good grasp of the English (American) language, can receive the newsletter via email on Internet, and has time to read through it each month and check for errors. It would also be nice if they were able to put up with me and really offer constructive criticism. I don't take destructive criticism well. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ WHAT'S NEW COMMERCIAL Supra Corporation is now shipping GP FAX software with its SupraFAXModems; the SupraFAXModem Plus and the SupraFAXModem V.32bis which are both external. As of the May 1, 1992 price list, the SupraFAXModem Plus is $219.95 US and the SupraFAXModem V.32bis is $479.95. The GP FAX software is also available separately for $99.95. If you don't have a local Supra dealer, these products many be ordered directly from Supra. Their customer service number is 1-800 -727-8772. [Ed. - I contacted Supra about obtaining a modem for review and was told that no special program was available for review products and I would just have to purchase one to see what it's like. Looks like a job for one of you brave readers.] Commodore Business Machines has released its 386sx bridge board the A2386sx. [Ed. - Since I have no affiliation with CBM other than owning one of their fine machines, I am unable to provide any specifications at this time. Please contact Commodore for more information] SimEarth has just hit retailers shelves. The new addition from the makers of SimCity promises as much fun creating worlds as SimCity did creating cities. Soon to be released: MegaTraveller II Quantum introduces the Quantum Passport XL (tm) - the high-performance removable hard drive that features effective access times as fast as 9ms and capacities up to 240MB. According to their literature, the Passport XL removable hard drives come in 50, 105, 120, and 240 MB capacities, are SCSI and SCSI-2 compatible, and include Quantum's 2-year renewable warranty. For more information contact Quantum at 1-800-624-5545. PUBLIC DOMAIN Amiga SOX - multi-format sound converter Amiga release 2.0, after public release 5 by Lance Norskog and Sundry Contributors, Amiga port by David Champion. SOX converts *between* any two of 8SVX, AIFF, HCOM, ulaw, VOC, WAV, and raw (signed/unsigned, byte/word/longword) sound formats. You should be able to convert *any* sound file to a format readable by *any* Amiga application, and vice versa. SOX can also perform any of various effects on a sound file, including echo, vibrato, rate change (resample), volume change, filter (low-pass, band-pass), and a minimal statistical analysis. The Amiga version includes FPU (68881/2 math coprocessor) and non-FPU versions to perform mathematically intensive effects more quickly, and a set of scripts for the Amiga Shell and for U. Dominik Mueller's csh which perform many of the most common conversions without the full command line. AmigaSOX is freely distributable. Copyright 1992 Lance Norskog and Sundry Contributors. ZMachine 1.0.3 - Patch level update - Minor new features and bug fixes. ZMachine 1.0.3 is an Amiga port of the freely distributable ZIL interpreter. ZIL is the "Zork Implementation Language" used by Infocom text adventure games. New for this release: Special support for using ZMachine along with BBS software as a means of providing on-line infocom games. In BBS mode, ZMachine can restrict where user created save files are stored and what the files are named. Using ZMachine's BBS mode and BBS scripts, multiple on-line Infocom adventures can be provided with each user having a personal set of save game files for each game. ZMachine also supports the CLI quick exit feature and ctrl-c exit-signaling in BBS mode. The Amiga port of ZMachine is copyrighted but freely distributable, no fee of any kind is requested. The newest revision of the CMUS (Common Musical Score) IFF file format by Talin is version 0.4 (dated July 7, 1992). The CMUS format is for interchanging musical data using Common Music Notation. The project is currently under development on the BIX conference amiga.dev/iff. This version does not include the tabulature item as that is still being worked on. This spec WILL change!! MFR - MagicFileRequester version 2.0c (Minor update to 2.0) by Stefan Stuntz (stuntz@informatik.tu-muenchen.de). MFR is a replacement for all other file requesters. Features include complete keyboard control, nice outfit, proportional font support, directory caching, file find mechanism, file class support, file notification, many configuration options, history list, ... MFR is distributed as shareware (US $ 15, DM 20). ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ASK THE EXPERTS Every good magazine has its column devoted to helping the readers solve their problems. So, not to be left out, let me welcome you to the column where the experts among us can help the learners among us. I think AMIGAphile has an advantage in this area because most magazines have a two or three month turn around time where as AMIGAphile has about a week. What this means is that most magazines have their issues ready up to three months in advance. AMIGAphile is written the month it is put out and it only takes about a week from final edit to your hands (or screen). In order to have a column such as this, we need three things: experts (this one was a gimme), learners, and questions. Any volunteers? If you are an expert in some area (or many areas) related to the Amiga and would like to offer your help, please write me. If you have a question, send it in and I'll direct it to the appropriate expert. If no expert is found who can answer the question, I'll include the question and we'll keep our fingers crossed that one of the other readers knows the answer. If the question is broad enough, I might devote a whole column to the topic. Remember, there are no stupid questions, only stupid answers. So, to get us started, I've got a question. Video Toaster Animation I have a short animation that I created using Lightwave 3-D and the Video Toaster. Since I am not rich and don't make my living laying down computer graphics to video, I lack the equipment to put the animation on film. I'd like to render the animation and convert each frame to an Amiga specific graphics mode such as HAM and then assemble the frames into an animation. I would be using the Art Department Pro for the conversion of the frames. How do I go about this? I'd prefer to have an ARexx script do it for me. I also hear that there is a 24-bit anim format now. Are there any 24-bit anim players? ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ What My Amiga Means To Me (C) 1992 Ken Thompson, Tucson, AZ The title of this article is something that just gelled into the foreground of my brain, as I sit here and see the cover of the premier issue of AMIGAphile. I have done quite a bit of writing over the last several years, being the editor of the Hughes Aircraft Company Employee Association at Tucson (HEAT) Commodore Computer Club, first about my C64, then my C128, and now about my Amiga. Although our membership is limited to employee's and their family members, I try to write articles with all ages and abilities in my mind as I write them. Many times, while writing to an audience that is this varied, you tend to lose either the very inexperienced user, or the very experienced user. I hope I do neither with this article. So, I now sit here with my text editor, and try to think "What DOES my Amiga system mean to me?" This is a tough question to have a simple answer for, but it is possible, with just a bit of thought. I chose to purchase an Amiga for a very simple reason; the user of the machine is capable of doing more than one thing at a time, so why shouldn't the computer be able to? I have owned Commodore computers for over ten years now. I won't go into details of writing my first program with my 5k VIC20 (how can you write ANYTHING useful these days in BASIC, with only 3k or RAM??), or when I upgraded to a C64 a couple of years later, or when I moved onward to a C128 when the C64 died. I know that many of you have had similar personal computer upgrades. You may not have started with a Commodore, but you have one now, and I'd be willing to wager that, if the time came to upgrade to something else that's bigger/better/faster that had an Amiga nameplate on it, you would at least seriously consider it over something else in the market. I thought long and hard on purchasing the A500 system that I bought about 1 1/2 years ago. Ever since I saw my first "Boing!" demo at that user group meeting many, many years ago, I knew that eventually I would own one. Only now that I have one, do I realize that I did make the right choice. Did you make the right choice? Even if you complain about various things about it, you probably did make the good choice. Okay, so I can't run WordPerfect, even on the PC's at work; I have an extraordinarily hard time with any PC program...it's just so cryptic, isn't it when it compares to an operating system like AmigaDOS? I have a couple of perfectly good word processors that equal (in my opinion) software for Intel- based machines, and that suit my personal purposes just fine. If I happen to need the services of something printed to a laser printer, utilities abound for getting my text onto a MS-DOS formatted disk. I take it to my wife's place of business, and in a few moments, it comes out of the printer in perfect form; if not, onto my 24-pin printer here at home it goes. My system is a hobbyist system, even with the recent addition of a hard drive and more memory. I have more than enough computing power to do everything I want to do with my system. Most of the time, I am found either writing my newsletters, doing some programming, calling bulletin boards, and playing some graphically superior games. I can find answers to many of my most pressing questions with a few phone calls, and a few hours to a few days worth of wait. The fact that the system is able to do any or all these things simultaneously is the real feature of our Amiga systems, and I think you will all agree this continues to be the strongest point of our beloved Amy's. I have had the opportunity, recently in my job, to run many different types of computers, large and small. One of the last machines I operated was controlled by an Macintosh. I have to admit that, although accelerated with a 68030, there were many things the operating system was so slow at, such as saving data files, and so forth. I chatted at length with the system manager about the differences between an Amiga and a Mac, and he was impressed at how I described the multitude of things we Amigaphiles take for granted. Doing a floppy format while continuing to run the application of interest was something that he just didn't see necessary, and until you're NOT able to do something like this is when you really miss it. When I spoke to him about being able to do even simple things like this with my home system, while the system I used while working, which cost several times more than my personal system, was not able. I joked to him, "Well, you get what you paid for!" I suppose that what I am getting at is that a computer system is much the same as the personality of the individual who owns it. I believe that having a system like the Amiga, with all it's strong points of graphic, audio, and multitasking superiority, over it's Mac and Intel-based cousins, is having a system that will do precisely what you want it to do, day in and day out. Other systems that "can't chew gum and walk at the same time" can be a very bad experience, especially when you have used a platform that CAN do these things and many more simultaneously. Now, we all have heard that "...because it doesn't have (program of your choice here!), it's not a real computer!" just doesn't see a basic human trait here. So what if Amiga doesn't have V5.x of WordPerfect; buy Excellence!, ProWrite, or any one of the other fine word processors out there, and see how much BETTER it is, running a simpler, yet just as effective program for putting words into a computer. The point is (and I know some flames will come of this statement), do it with something else, and see that the world does not revolve around MicroSoft, Borland, IBM or several other multi-megabuck corporations. "What My Amiga Means to Me" is the title of this article, so it's time to sum it all up. My Amiga means this: I have purchased the best personal computer for the money for my personal use. It really doesn't matter to me that Big Business doesn't use it. I know that many of them may consider using it, if they knew more about it, and would not follow those previously-mentioned corporate giants into the pool of mediocre software and hardware. Commodore Business Machines, along with other companies like GVP, Electronic Arts, Newtek, ReadySoft, and many others continue to support my present machine, and they are doing some (though not as much as we all would like) improvements to the system, both hardware and software. We, as Amigaphiles, need to continue to support Commodore in their positive efforts toward the system as a whole. When they do something that we think is "brain-damaged", we all should let them know (nicely) that we feel they have taken the step in the wrong direction, and follow it up with constructive comments. I know that Commodore many times does not seem to take the time to actually listen, or respond when we do these things, but it must not be discontinued. The communication has to continue to take place from us to them. With ALL of us taking the time to do these small things regularly, we will all benefit in the end, Commodore, you, and I. About the Author: Ken Thompson is a 31 year old transplanted Tucsonan, who, while not working at Hughes Aircraft Company as an Electronic Technician, enjoys his computing, motorcycling, and photography hobbies. He may be reached via Internet at "cobra@datalog.com". ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ AMIGAPHILE SURVEY - part II In the last issue, it seems I neglected to comment on the types of people who filled out the AMIGAphile survey. Most of the surveys came from users of the Internet network. These people come from a variety of professional backgrounds. Many of them are commercial developers and professionals in other computer related areas. The other large percentage of the repliers are students at a college or university working toward a degree. Many of the numbers are not so surprising when these facts are taken into account. Most of the respondents had what I would call an above average knowledge about their systems and other Amiga related subjects. Since many of these users are programmers, I believe that accounts for the large number of A3000 systems as well as WorkBench 2.0 users. I believe that these numbers do indicate a trend, especially in average hard drive size and average memory per machine. Overall, I think this sampling of owners/users is a bit above average but as more surveys are filled out, the numbers will tell what trends are in and what trends are out. MODEMS The trend in modem speed is obviously toward 14.4 kbps but it seems that everyone is running at 2400 bps or higher these days. This is especially true with the abundance of 2400 bps MNP-5 modems. The numbers do not reflect the difference between 2400 bps with or without MNP-5 but, from the surveys, I know that most of the people specified when they had MNP-5 and there were a lot of them. 88% of the survey respondents own a modem. Of the modem owners, 16% don't know if they have a BBS in their area. Some of these use other BBS services such as Portal, CompuServe, or Genie. I asked the BBS questions to see if there was a need for a BBS listing. I think the numbers indicate that there is a small need so that everyone can make the most out of owning an Amiga. Some of the best software is shareware and only available from a BBS or a service such as the Fred Fish collection. Hayes 8 % ******** Supra 34 % ********************************** USR 10 % ********** Zoom 6 % ****** Other 42 % ****************************************** 1200 bps 9 % **** 2400 bps 71 % *********************************** 9600 bps 9 % **** 14.4 kbps 10 % ***** Have a local BBS Yes 71 % *********************************** No 13 % ****** Unknown 16 % ******** Local BBS User Yes 61 % ****************************** No 39 % **************** PRINTERS More than 84% of the respondents own a printer. Since many of the computers belong to students, I can understand why this number would be very high. As a student myself, I find my printer to be indispensable. Some of the more often mentioned printers include the Panasonic KX-P series, Hewlett Packard InkJet and Laser printers, and Star NX series. USER'S GROUPS Local User's Group? Yes 80 **************************************** No 10 ***** Unknown 10 ***** Member of local User's Group? Yes 34 ***************** No 66 ********************************* It's good to see that so many people have a local user's group but I find the number of people who are members to be shamefully low. I have to admit that there is a local user's group here in Columbus but I am not a member because I just don't have the time to go to the meetings or be an active member. I hope this is the reason many of you are not members. User's groups are an excellent way to get support. Local Amiga Dealer Yes 80 **************************************** No 16 ******** Unknown 3 * Do you buy mail order Yes 73 ******************************** No 26 ************* Most people (80%) have a local Amiga dealer. I suppose this is a good thing but I've found that most people don't support them because they stink. All the dealers I have talked to blame Commodore for poor support. You'd think Commodore would support their dealer network but it appears that the dealers know about as much as the owners. I think this is poor policy and evidently so do most of you. The figures for people who use mail order are large which I think shows the independence of Amiga owners. It is true that most users have to be loners because the support just isn't there. MAGAZINES The way Amiga magazines have been dropping out of sight, you'd think the number of magazine readers would be low but 52% of you read one or more Amiga magazines. The numbers do indicate the reason that .info magazine is no longer around as it only had 13% of the readers. Magazines in the other category consist of European magazines such as Amiga Format and Amiga Shopper which I failed to include in my list. Amazing Amiga 17 ******** AmigaWorld 55 *************************** .info 13 ****** other 15 ******* ...Next month, part III - AMIGAphile Survey - the final chapter. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ REVIEWS Solid State Leisure B5000-40 accelerator board This is a review of the Solid State Leisure B5000-40 accelerator board. You may have seen my review of their A5000-16 68020 board on Usenet last year. One of my major complaints with it was its lack of DMA-able 32-bit RAM. I wrote a program DMAfix to help solve this problem, and released it as Shareware. In return for the exclusive rights to distribute a greatly enhanced version of this program (actually a total rewrite) with their boards, SSL sent me this nice new '030 board. So I guess I cannot say I have no connection with them except as "just a satisfied customer", but I'll try and keep this review objective. :-) HARDWARE The card comes in various configurations, all on a single board which fits into the CPU slot of an Amiga 2000. The base model has just a 40Mhz 68EC030 (if you desperately want an MMU, they might have a 50Mhz non-EC part available) and 4Mb of RAM on it. An optional 68882 at either 40Mhz or 50Mhz can be added, along with up to 32Mb of memory. There are two banks of four SIMM sockets on the board. You can populate one or both banks using either 1Mb*8 or 4Mb*8 70ns SIMMs. (You can use the *9 SIMMs if you like instead - the parity bit is ignored by the Amiga.) Thus you can have either 4Mb, 8Mb, 16Mb, 20Mb or 32Mb of 32-bit RAM. The memory supports the 68030's burst mode. There is a 68000 fallback mode, operated by clicking on a icon. Once in 68000 mode, you can't get out of it (except by turning off the machine); SSL claim this is to ensure 100% compatibility (ie. it is impossible for a badly- written game to accidentally re-activate the '030). I find it a minor annoyance to have to power-cycle the machine every time I want to leave fallback mode, but I guess I don't use that often anyway (only for some games and demos). The board itself is quite small; it doesn't go the entire length of the Amiga. It makes a very solid connection with the CPU slot, which is just as well, since there is no rear-mounting bracket (future revisions may have one). Hence it is possible to wobble the board while it is in the socket, but this causes no ill-effects. SSL claim it is possible to turn the machine upside- down and shake it, quite safely, although I didn't like to try this. :-) The chips are facing to the left of the machine, and - at least for my setup - the power wires inside coming from the PSU rest against the "underside" of the B5000. I left it like this for about a month, but have noticed that they *do* eat away at the plastic covering of the wires ever so slightly, so I now put a piece of cardboard down the side... just in case! My machine is an Amiga 2000, GVP Series II, Quantum LP120S, 1Mb of Chip RAM, 2Mb of 16-bit Fast RAM and 8Mb of 32-bit RAM. (And the C= Display Enhancer...) INSTALLATION Well, you either know how to fit a card inside an A2000, or you don't! There was no written documentation with the board; all the information was on the floppy disk that came with it. This basically briefly explains the workings of the B5000-40, how to install it, how the software works (see below), how to add more memory, how to add a maths co-pro, and then a little about benchmarks. Besides the usual Mips, Whetstone and Mandelbrot programs, there is a program called Alloc40 which you run from your Startup-sequence to link the board's 32-bit memory into the system memory list and shadow your Kickstart ROM into 32-bit RAM (no MMU is needed to do this). The memory is not auto- config. Also included is Dave Haynie's SetCPU, and a comprehensive memory tester for when you add more 32-bit RAM. I added an extra 4Mb of SIMMs at a later stage, and experienced major problems. Firstly, the SIMMs stand vertically on the board; not sloping like on some other cards. Hence you cannot insert a SIMM if there is one to its immediate left. In the end, I had to remove the original 4 SIMMs, and then replace them along with the new ones going from right to left. Inserting each individual SIMM was quite tricky as well, due to the way the sockets have been made. SSL told me that the most recent revisions of the board have a better layout for adding memory. There was one problem with the board - while it worked flawlessly the first time I powered-up, on reboot, it would randomly hang when accessing the HD. After some experimentation, I discovered that any DMA access into Zorro-II memory >=512 bytes in size would cause the whole machine to hang. Ouch! Luckily the GVP Series II's 16-bit Fast RAM is not technically Zorro-II (data is DMA-d from the HD as normal, but not via the Amiga bus for added speed), so it didn't suffer from this problem. Hence it was only Chip RAM that caused the machine to hang, so I was easily able to modify my new version of DMAfix to mask out that as well (in addition to the 32-bit RAM), and at the moment everything is fine. SSL were totally stumped on this problem (of course it doesn't happen normally!), but I am *still* waiting for their hardware expert to call me to determine exactly what is at fault. (Their tech support is fine as long as YOU call and there is someone intelligent there - getting them to call you back on their own initiative is another story. However, if you are calling long-distance (like me!), they will always agree to call you back immediately if you like so the call is billed to them and not you...) I have tried the board in another A2000 with a plain A2091, and experienced the same problems. SPEED Well, at 40Mhz it's going to be fast, that's for sure. Most benchmark software reports it to be about 1.35 times the speed of an A3000-25, which sounds reasonable (the A3000 has extra features like 32-bit Chip RAM access and the Ramsey chip). Here are the results from some real-world applications, and a few ordinary benchmarks thrown in for good measure. The first column is the result in 68000 fallback mode, the second column is the result on the SSL A5000-16 (16.67Mhz '020), the third column is (where possible) the result on an A3000-25/100 with 10Mb of 80ns RAM, and the fourth column is the result on my B5000-40. The speedups of the B5000 over the other machines are given in the final columns. Where possible, no HD activity was involved, and everything was running in 32-bit RAM (except on the 68000 of course). None of the tests used the FPU. Test: 68000 A5000 A3000 B5000 x000 x020 x3000 LhA v1.30r compressing 166.5s 44.9s 19.0s 8.8 2.4 1Mb of text files Testing archive 26.8s 6.9s 3.2s 8.4 2.2 Genesis drawing a 139.7s 41.7s 38.2s 35.3s 4.0 1.2 1.08 fractal landscape AudioMaster 3 187.7s 54.9s 34.8s 34.0s 5.5 1.6 1.02 echoing a 450K sample PowerPacker crunching 239.7s 58.2s 23.1s 10.4 2.5 a 320K file Rebooting machine 29.3s 18.3s 15.3s 1.9 1.2 Opening 15 windows on 86.5s 29.8s 18.6s 4.7 1.6 an 8-colour screen Closing them 170.0s 43.0s 23.0s 7.4 1.9 Find/Replace in 139.5s 39.5s 23.7s 18.3s 7.6 2.2 1.30 TurboText v1.0 demo Assembling a program 24.7s 8.0s 4.1s 6.0 2.0 with DevPac 3.01 Drawing a mandelbrot 21.5s 4.5s 3.0s 2.0s 10.8 2.3 1.50 Load a file into ProPage 20.5s 8.1s 4.9s 5.3s 3.9 1.5 0.92 and display first page Display next page 13.6s 4.9s 2.9s 3.0s 4.5 1.6 0.97 Multicolour fill circle 139.4s 37.8s 24.5s 21.5s 6.5 1.8 1.14 with DPaint Load Eric Schwartz's 98.8s 45.0s 36.3s 2.7 1.2 "Gulf Conflict" AmigaBench Dhrystones 1653 5720 8960 13297 8.0 2.3 1.48 test (optimised 68000) Mips 0.853 5.071 7.764 12.315 14.4 2.4 1.59 DiskSpeed 4.1 134 672 1379 2093 15.6 3.1 1.52 CPU rating K write/sec to RAM: 1077 4361 7584 7520 7.0 1.7 0.99 K read/sec from RAM: 1056 4054 7520 7231 6.8 1.8 0.96 As you can see, most things outperform an A3000-25 by as much as almost 60% (which is the difference in the clock speeds). DTP will be almost the same speed, because the A3000 gets a boost with its 32-bit Chip RAM. The only thing I am a little worried about is the RAM disk speed (ie. straight memory copy), but I am told the A3000 has special modes to greatly enhance things like this. COMPATIBILITY Everything that worked with the '020 appears to work with the '030. As usual, some games and a lot of demos don't run. The Odyssey demo runs perfectly from my hard drive. F-18 Interceptor is quite fast. :^) My '020 board had some sort of FPU/MMU logic error on it (fixed with later revisions of that board), but this does not affect their '030 boards at all. The memory is of course located outside the 24-bit DMA space, so it is not DMA-able. But since you will be getting my enhanced version of DMAfix built-in to the Alloc40 software (or AllocMem for '020 users), this is no longer a problem. My GVP controller has a similar fix built-in to it, although DMAfix is marginally faster than it (and has more CPU time free). The newest A590/A2091's should also be able to handle non-DMA memory by kicking into PIO mode, but I _imagine_ this uses more CPU time and is slower than DMAfix. Older A590/A2091's (ones without v6.6 ROMs I think) will certainly need to use DMAfix. OVERALL IMPRESSIONS I couldn't use a plain 68000-based Amiga any more. I am currently running my Workbench in 8-colour mode, and in fallback mode, it positively CRAWLS along. With the '030, it is very usable. The whole system no longer feels sluggish; and you get used to the speed very quickly. Since I was upgrading from an '020, the change was not quite so drastic, but if you own an unaccelerated Amiga and have ever drooled over the speed of an A3000, then you know what to expect with the B5000! Things like LhA and uuencode/uudecode happen so quickly, you no longer need to go and make the proverbial cup of coffee while waiting. Having said that, SSL's top-of-the-range board is NOT cheap. Their '020 board is the kind of thing you could save for quite easily, and even the 25Mhz '030 board represents good value for money, but you pay perhaps double to go from 25Mhz -> 40Mhz, and you certainly do not get double the speed. What you do get is a nicely laid-out board for your CPU slot, and space for LOTS of memory. 32 megs would do me quite happily I think! PRICES All quoted in UK pounds ex 17.5% VAT (which of course you don't have to pay if you're living abroad). Postage free within UK. I would advise getting any of SSL's boards sent out to you by courier if you are outside the UK, unless you are not in any particular hurry for it to arrive... ;^) A5000-16/1Mb (16.67Mhz 68020) ...... #170 B5000-25/1Mb (25Mhz 68030+68882) ... #425 (yes, a genuine '030-with-MMU!) B5000-40/4Mb (40Mhz 68EC030) ....... #850 50Mhz 68882 for B5000-40 ........... #255 Extra 4Mb of RAM for B5000-40 ...... #212 (far cheaper elsewhere) CONTACT Solid State Leisure Ltd, 80 Finedon Road, Irthlingborough, Northants NN9 5TZ, England. Tel +44 933 650677 If you have any questions, feel free to e-mail me on the net. SSL are on the point of releasing some new products (including an '040 board), so my price list above is probably incomplete. Barry McConnell bmccnnll@unix1.tcd.ie KCS Power PC Board v3.5 IBM Emulator + 512Kb RAM expansion (undercarriage slot on A500 or A2000 adaptor) by Michael Glew internet:s3007048@mackay.mpce.mq.edu.au OVERVIEW Excerpt from the original v1.0 manual - "The KCS PC POWER BOARD provides your AMIGA with a memory expansion of 1 megabyte including an extra ram disk of 512 Kb. As an emulator, the KCS PC POWER BOARD converts your AMIGA into a fully compatible IBM-PC (Tm) computer, allowing full use of the printer and serial port, mouse, one or both joy-sticks and one or more external disk drives." The contents of the original package were: * The hardware emulator based on a 11MHz 8086 * KCS PC POWER BOARD boot disk * 3 x MS-DOS 4.01 installation disks * MS-DOS utilities disk * MS-DOS HANDBOOK * MS-DOS SHELL HANDBOOK PURCHASE AND SETUP I bought my board for the first year of my degree course, as there was a lot of work done on PC's, so I approached the dealer affiliated with the university in order to get a bit of a discount. The shop had a demo version, but no sealed packs so I had to get one posted to me. The RRP at the time was about A$700, but I got it for a little bit less. A while later, I received a package in the post that was the board package. This is what I found in the package: The board, manuals, and disks were packed in the box that MS-DOS 4.01 came in with various decal's situated on the box, and all of the manuals. This I accepted at the time, because I was excited at getting this new toy, but in retrospect this comes across as a little bit bodgy. Also I found that the original MS-DOS installation disks had not had their write-protect tabs set, which I considered dangerous. I proceeded the work my way through the instruction manual, and inserted the board under my A500. I powered on again, and all was normal - great! Loading WB led to the 1Mb memory being available, as seen in the menu bar. Then I proceeded to install MS-DOS, which worked fine. Then MS-DOS SHELL, this went not so well, as one of the disks had an error on it, but as the warranty, as stated in the front of the installation guide, said that I had to pay for all postage, to Holland, of any fault materials, I decided to do without. This left me with an IBM emulator that supported CGA/MGA/Hercules graphics adaptors. This was enough for the time being, but with the promises of free updates, VGA, and HD access in the works, I was content to wait... UPGRADING TO VERSION 2.0 OF THE SOFTWARE I heard that Fonhof computers, NSW Australia, had upgrades to the software available, so I got in phone contact with them. They would post me a disk with v2.0 on it for the cost of A$5 (postage+disk???), what I got was a disk in the post, but it had hard errors on it. This upgrade gave a "turbo" mode that was rated at 11MHz, but I suggest that it might just have been some code speedups. By the way, the disk (A$1) and postage (A$1.20) were not worth what I paid, I suggest people don't get their upgrades from Fonhof if they can help it. Also, this update didn't handle external drives properly, but it did introduce an optional on screen drive track counter, which I found useful. Also verification was optional too. UPGRADING TO VERSION 3.5 OF THE SOFTWARE Early this year, I caught wind of a KCS board user in the UK talking about v3.5 of the software, so I contacted him and got a copy of the upgrade. The new upgrade comes on one disk, instead of two, and includes VGA/MGA/CGA/EGA/Hercules graphics adaptors, as well as HD access and expanded RAM. Everything worked fine, except the expanded RAM, as it caused my machine to die. I guess it won't work without more than 1Mb of RAM in my Amiga. This version was a great deal faster, with installation of the MS-DOS portions of the package being possible from the Amiga boot disk (very impressive). I tested the board with a game playable only on a VGA machine, and it succeeded with flying-colours. I can't wait 'til the next update... ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ THE ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY AMIGA LAB An update on the future... When the ASU Amiga computer lab was installed in December of 1990, we declared our dedication to develop four areas of emphasis around the Amiga: Instruction, Research, Information, and Development. It is our pleasure to inform you of the accomplishments we have reached in each of these areas over the past year and a half. EQUIPMENT The lab consists of 13 Amiga 3000/25-50s, 5 Amiga 2500/30s, each with 50MB harddrives. All A3000s have 6MB RAM with 2MB Chip ram. Peripherals to the computers include: Video Toaster, DCTV, Sony LDP-2000 laserdisc player, Sony RGB video projector, CDTV, SoundMaster, VoRec One, laser printer, Syquest 88MB drive, A2286 BridgeBoard, Edmark TouchWindow touch screen, and other miscellaneous audio/video devices. INSTRUCTION Three semesters worth of classes have been offered specifically for the Amigas. AMIGA TECHNOLOGY; first in the Amiga series of classes, "AmiTech" has been offered twice. Teaches up to twenty undergraduate and graduate students the unique aspects of the Amiga platform and familiarizes them with the operating system and the various hardware and software options available. AMIGA ANIMATION; next in the series of classes, "AmiAnim" offers an in depth study of animation techniques using Deluxe Paint, Disney Animation Studio, and Imagine 3D modeling software. Many students enhance their products with digitized sound effects. Students are encouraged to enter their final projects into the AmigaWorld Animation Contest. INSTRUCTIONAL TELEVISION; not specifically in the line of Amiga classes, students had the option to use our NewTek Video Toaster to add special effects and titles to their video productions. With a new multicamera Hi8 video production system recently delivered, this class will be offered again in the future with more emphasis on Desktop Video. AMIGA PRESENTATION/AMIGA INSTRUCTION; two other classes which are in the planning stage. Students will use AmigaVision, Foundation, or other authoring systems to create multimedia presentations or instructional applications. Projects may be stand alone or incorporate laserdisc or videotape technology. Every Amiga class offered has immediately filled up during early registration. In fact, this Spring semester's Amiga Technology enrollment would have approached 100 students if all requested overrides were granted. Unfortunately, the number of Amigas in the lab limits the enrollment to 20 per class. RESEARCH The first summer after the Amiga lab was installed, we offered a special program called AMIGAKIDS. A spin-off of ASU's successful Center for Academic Precocity (CAP), AmigaKids was a heuristic study of how children relate and interact with computers. With five video cameras placed throughout the lab, over 300 hours of valuable data were recorded. The AmigaKids program received national coverage on a cable channel program called Campus Directory which spotlighted the Amiga computers being used at ASU. Taking the AmigaKids program one step further, a grant was awarded to the Amiga lab from the State Department of Education's Migrant division. We are giving 20 Amiga 2000HD/P computers with software, modems, and printers to a selected group of disadvantaged children. They will use the Amigas for schoolwork, writing journals, and creating graphics with Deluxe Paint 4 which they will upload to an Amiga bulletin board system installed at ASU called The PRIDE Network. This project, will continue to expand and a network of students using Amigas will begin to use the BBS for the sharing of information and files. Other significant plans are under way as well, including an important partnership with the Phoenix Union High School District and their MetroTech vocational high school. INFORMATION We are constantly receiving requests for Amiga demonstrations and are happy to provide information about Amiga computers to educators who are not familiar with the Amiga as a creative tool. Many conventions held in the Phoenix area attract visitors from around the world. Here are some of the highlights that we have participated in: National Educators Computing Conference National Art Educators Association Microcomputers in Education Conference East Valley Personnel Management Association Tempe Union High School District PACE program Phoenix Union High School District FUSION project Computer Graphics and Animation Association Classes from Interactive Computer Graphics major Classes from Educational Media and Computers major many many more... DEVELOPMENT We are dedicated to the ideation, development, and production of instructional material for the Amiga. This includes everything from self-paced software tutorials to interactive laserdisc instruction on the water cycle. One of our overall goals is to develop the Electric Classroom where students can stay at home and insert a disk into their Amiga with a weeks worth of instructional material on it and follow through it at their own pace. This will be accomplished by combining the resources of instruction, research, information, and development at the Amiga lab. In addition to producing materials in-house, our diverse range of software and hardware facilities offers an ideal site to test new products from outside companies. We were a beta test site for the Commodore Amiga 3000UX UNIX platform and CDTV before they were released. We were involved in testing Impulse's Foundation authoring system. We were the first Amiga site to receive an Edmark TouchWindow touch screen with Amiga software drivers. We are hoping to work with Kurta to test software drivers for their drawing tablets. Hopefully by informing the public of the ASU Amiga lab's capability, we can encourage other hardware and software vendors to test their products in our university environment where many different people have the chance to use them. HERE'S TO THE FUTURE... A few short years ago, the ASU Amiga lab was a mere dream in the eyes of a few people. Today, the Amiga has surpassed all expectations and continues to grow. We will continue to press the limits of what is "current" to reach even greater aspirations. I am certain this report will require regular modification, and will be presented again for your information in the future. If you have questions or would like to contact us for any reason, please write or call: ATTN: Amiga Computer Lab Educational Media & Computers Arizona State University Tempe, AZ 85287-0111 USA EMC department office: (602) 965-7192 Brian C. Berg Arizona State University Amiga Lab ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ AREXX Application List - Updates and Changes This is only a small portion of The ARexx Application List, showing products that have been added recently. The entire list is posted monthly in the USENET newsgroup comp.sys.amiga.applications, on or around the first day of each month. If you have access to the Internet, you can obtain a copy of the entire list by sending mail to barrett@cs.umass.edu. Currently, the list contains 174 products. This is a list of computer programs for the Commodore Amiga that support the ARexx interprocess communication language. Using ARexx, you can cause these programs to interact with each other, control each other, share data, and other useful things. This list does not describe products in detail. It does not rate them or review them. It does not list the authors' addresses. However, it does provide the names and brief descriptions of many, many ARexx-compatible products. If you need more information on a product, consult Amiga magazines, USENET, or a product guide like AC's GUIDE TO THE COMMODORE AMIGA which is published quarterly in the USA by PiM Publications. The ARexx Application List is Copyright 1992 by Daniel J. Barrett. All rights reserved. HOW TO READ THE LIST The information about each product includes: Product name: The name of the product. Product version: The version number of the program. Since version numbers are constantly changing, the only guarantee you have is that this version DOES support ARexx. It is also extremely likely that any version with a higher number also supports ARexx Product type: What kind of product is this? Results are in ALL CAPITAL LETTERS so you can search for topics more consistently. Author: The author's name. Status: Commercial? Freeware? Shareware? ... Port name: The name of the ARexx port. Number of commands: How many ARexx commands are supported. Executes scripts by: A description of how ARexx is used from INSIDE THE PROGRAM. (We assume that every ARexx application can be invoked from OUTSIDE the program.) Examples are: function keys, macro filename from a file requester, any key, mouse click, etc. If the program cannot invoke scripts, then the entry is "External control only." Notes: Brief but important information. The products are listed alphabetically in three categories: (1) Applications that support ARexx (2) Collections of ARexx scripts (3) Utilities for ARexx programmers (function libraries, etc.) NEW ENTRIES ADDED THIS MONTH ARexxBox, AsimTunes, 4D-BBS, HamLab Plus, Ldos, RexxView UPDATED ENTRIES THIS MONTH Ami-Back, DMD, KCommodity, SKsh ============================================================================= PART 1: AREXX-COMPATIBLE APPLICATIONS ============================================================================= Product name: Ami-Back Product version: 2.0 Product type: HARD DISK BACKUP Author: Moonlighter Software Status: commercial Port name: AmiBackRexx Number of commands: 4 Executes scripts by: External control only Product name: AsimTunes Product type: COMPACT DISC (CD) PLAYER Author: AsimWare Innovations Status: commercial Notes: Supplied with AsimCDFS CDROM filesystem. Requires a supported CDROM drive. Product name: 4D-BBS Product version: V1.95 or Greater Product type: BULLETIN BOARD SYSTEM (BBS) Author: CornerStone Software (Dale Reed and Jeff Holden) Status: shareware Port name: 4D-BBS (may be set by user) Number of commands: 50+ Executes scripts by: function keys, pulldown menus Notes: V1.95 to be released in mid-July 1992. Product name: HamLab Plus Product version: 2.0 Product type: GRAPHICS CONVERSION, IMAGE PROCESSING Author: Ed Hanway Status: shareware (free demo version has size restrictions) Port name: HAMLAB.1, HAMLAB.2, ...(base name may be set by user) Number of commands: 55 Executes scripts by: function keys, console window Notes: Available after July 4, 1992 Product name: KCommodity Product version: 1.75 (Fish Disk 673) Product type: INPUT HANDLER COMMODITY Author: Kai Iske Status: freeware Notes: Mouse/window/keystroke/screen handler. Requires Amiga OS 2.0 or higher. Product name: Rexxview Product type: AREXX MONITOR Author: Martin Kees (BIX:mkees) Status: freeware Port name: (not applicable) Number of commands: (not applicable) Executes scripts by: (not applicable) Notes: A program that monitors ARexx messages. Product name: SKsh Product version: 2.0 Product type: COMMAND LINE INTERFACE (SHELL) Author: Steve Koren (Fish Disk ???) Status: freeware Port name: SKSH, or user definable Number of commands: all shell commands available Executes scripts by: External control only Notes: Passes results of evaluation back to ARexx. ============================================================================= PART 2: COLLECTIONS OF AREXX SCRIPTS ============================================================================= Product name: DMD Product version: 2.01 Product type: TEXT EDITOR MACROS Author: Fergus Duniho Status: tradeware Port name: (not applicable) Number of commands: (not applicable) Executes scripts by: any event Notes: Macros for DME text editor, making it more powerful and user-friendly. See entry for DME. ============================================================================= PART 3: UTILITIES FOR AREXX PROGRAMMERS ============================================================================= Product name: ARexxBox Product version: 1.00 Product type: AREXX INTERFACE GENERATOR Author: Michael Balzer (balzer@heike.informatik.uni-dortmund.de) Status: freeware Notes: Generate ARexx interfaces interactively. Conforms to Commodore Style Guide. Product name: Ldos Product version: V1(3) Product type: AMOS EXTENSION Author: Niklas Sjvberg Status: shareware Port name: (not applicable) Executes scripts by: (not applicable) Notes: LRexx is an AMOS-interface to the library rexxhost. CONTRIBUTING TO THIS LIST If you have any corrections or additions to this list, please send them by electronic mail to: barrett@cs.umass.edu (INTERNET) >internet:barrett@cs.umass.edu (COMPUSERVE) If you do not have access to electronic mail, you may reach me at: Daniel Barrett Department of Computer Science Lederle Graduate Research Center University of Massachusetts Amherst, MA 01003 USA For additions, please use the same "standard" format of the other list entries. Here is a blank entry, and some guidelines: (1) If you submit information electronically, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE do not change the indenting! If you do, I will have to edit your entry to fix it, and this is waste of time. Consistent indenting is very important for people who use programs to search through the database automatically. Remember to read the guidelines at the top of this document, titled "HOW TO READ THE LIST", explaining what all the fields mean. (2) Please keep your "Notes:" brief -- ideally, 1 or 2 lines. -------------8<----------------- cut here ----------------8<------------------ Product name: <Name of software product> Product version: <the version number> Product type: <PAINT, WORD PROCESSOR, ANIMATION, etc...> Author: <Author or company's name> Status: <commercial, shareware, freeware, public domain> Port name: <ARexx port name. Be careful with upper/lower case!> Number of commands: <number of ARexx commands provided> Executes scripts by: <menu,gadgets,function keys,any key,mouse,any event> or <External control only.> Notes: <Any BRIEF but important notes> -------------8<---------------- cut here -----------------8<------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ FRED FISH FORUM CONTENTS OF DISK 691: CManual -- Disk 1 of a 5 disk distribution of one of the largest collections of documents, examples, and utilities in C for the Amiga. It consists of six manuals, with more than 40 chapters, 175 fully executable examples complete with source code, and several utilities and other goodies. The manuals describe how to open and work with Screens, Windows, Graphics, Gadgets, Requesters, Alerts, Menus, IDCMP, Sprites, VSprites, AmigaDOS, Low Level Graphics Routines, etc. They also explain how to use your C Compiler and give you important information about how the Amiga works and how your programs should be designed. When unpacked, the manuals and examples nearly fill up twelve standard Amiga floppies. This is version 3.0, an update to version 2.0 on disks 456 and 457. Because of its size, it is distributed on five library disks, 691 through 695. Author: Anders Bjerin CONTENTS OF DISK 692: CManual -- Disk 2 of 5 CONTENTS OF DISK 693: CManual -- Disk 3 of 5 CONTENTS OF DISK 694: CManual -- Disk 4 of 5 CrossMaze -- A crossword puzzle game where the player is given the words but no clues. The object is to find a way to place all the words back into the puzzle. Options include 10, 20, or 30 word games with one or two players. Version 1.0, binary only. Author: James Butts Kan -- A program that patches a replacement delete function into the DOS library. This program will simulate the Trashcan function provided by Workbench. Support programs provided to allow automatic purging of Kan directory from startup sequence. Compatible with 1.3, 2.0 and Amiga 3000. Version 1.0a, an update to version 1.0 on disk 660. Binary only. Author: James Butts PgmToShd -- Takes a standard PGM format graphics image and creates from it a PPM image containing information to view black and white images in 151 shades of gray instead of the Amiga's standard 16. It uses the monochrome composite video output jack available on the Amiga 500 and 2000, so provided you have one of these computers and a monitor capable of receiving its input through composite video, no modifications are required to the Amiga. The PBMPlus library of graphics manipulation routines is required to make use of this program, as well as a standard IFF viewer such as Mostra. A sample test image is included. This is version 1.0, binary only. Author: Dan Charrois CONTENTS OF DISK 695: CManual -- Disk 5 of 5 ICalc -- A powerful calculator with many features, including user-defined variables and functions, C-style programming constructs, complex number calculations and more. Has comprehensive instructions, and numerous examples. This is version 2, a significant update to version 1.1 on disk 550. Binary only, source available from author. Author: Martin W. Scott PPData -- A small utility for crunching data files using Nico Francois' powerpacker.library. Requires Kickstart 2.0 or later. Includes source. Author: Martin W. Scott CONTENTS OF DISK 696: CLITools -- Two small shell commands, touch and time, which behave like their UNIX cousins, and can be made resident. Kickstart 2.0 or later required. Includes source. Author: Martin W. Scott Drivers -- Printer drivers for the Canon BJ10, BJ20, BJ130, BJ300, BJ330, and the 9 pin Epson mode Star printers. Includes preferences programs for controlling additional options such as margin, timeout, job end signal, arXon switch box, greyscale conversion function, customized tab stops, default typeface, and more. Binary only. Author: Wolf Faust; distributed by Canon Europe N.V. IFSLab -- An Iterated Function System fractal generator. This one focuses on the "Collage Theorem". It permits you to draw an approximate outline of the planned fractal, then create the collage directly, jigsaw-puzzle style, from actual reduced images of the outline that you can manipulate and deform with the mouse. The attractors of the resultant IFS codes can be rendered in black and white or in grayscale, and saved to IFF files. Version 1.0, includes source in C. Author: Nathan Zeldes MemSnap -- A small memory monitor useful for seeing how much memory other programs take up. Based on a program called Memeter, which broke under Kickstart 2.0. Requires Kickstart 2.0 or higher. Includes source. Author: Martin W. Scott TinyClock -- A cute little analog clock with lots of features, including pop- to-front, hourly chirp, and alarm. Size and colors used are configurable, and it uses very little memory or cpu time. Requires Kickstart 2.0 or higher. Binary only. Author: Martin W. Scott WindowTiler -- A WB2.0 commodity for arranging windows. Comes with many tool types to help customize it. Supports virtual screen users, tiling, cascading, refusing windows & screens, exploding windows, etc. This is version 2.1b, an update to version 1.2.1 on disk 623, with many enhancements and bug fixes. Binary only. Author: Doug Dyer CONTENTS OF DISK 697: Hackdisk -- A complete replacement for trackdisk.device minus support for 5.25 inch and 150RPM floppies. It offers a verify option and is faster than trackdisk 2.0. Hackdisk is supplied as a Rom-Tag module and may be RamKick'ed or placed directly in the Kickstart ROM. Free for non- commercial use, assembly source included. This is version 1.10. Author: Dan Babcock HiSpeed -- A high speed printing utility for DeskJet printers. Output is reduced to about 1/4 of its original size. The maximum processing speed is 4 pages/min. Supports ANSI ESC codes (e.g. Italics), single or double sided printing, multiple copies, and free layout. Two fonts are available. DeskJet RAM cartridge required. Version 2.7, shareware, binary only. Author: Dietmar Eilert QMouse -- An unusually small and feature-packed "mouse utility". Was inspired by, but not derived from, the original QMouse by Lyman Epp. Features include automatic window activation (like WindX), top-line blanking for A3000/A2320 users, system-friendly mouse blanking, mouse acceleration/threshold, "Pop-CLI", click-to-front/back, "SunMouse", "NoClick", "WildStar", Northgate key remapping, and more. Requires Kickstart 2.0, but is not a commodity. Only 3K. Version 2.10, public domain, assembly source included. Author: Dan Babcock TypoGrapher -- A softfont editor package for 24-pinwriters and DeskJet printers (any model). Editor supports Laser fonts, DeskJet fonts, Amiga fonts, pinwriter fonts and IFF files. Features include about 40 drawing commands, special effects (e.g. 3D look), import/export of IFF images, generation of width tables, and more. Includes several tools for easy download (e.g. simulation of "soft" font cartridges). Requires at least 1Mb of memory. Version 2.05, shareware, binary only. Author: Dietmar Eilert CONTENTS OF DISK 698: SCRAM500 -- The first of a series of Public Domain "KitWare" hardware projects for the Amiga. On this disk you will find the design for an 8Meg RAM and SCSI controller for the Amiga 500 (SCsi RAM for the 500 = SCRAM 500). You will also find an order form to obtain PCB, chips and whatever you need to build one. The SCRAM 500 is easy to build, cheap and should be useful to a lot of people. Included in this distribution is complete documentation on how to assemble a SCRAM 500, notes for Amiga 1000 owners, a description of the custom chips, design notes, troubleshooting guide, user's manual, bill of materials, 12 HPGL plot files for schematics and PCB layout, hard drive partitioning software, a mountable device driver, a ROMable driver, and more! Author: Norman Jackson CONTENTS OF DISK 699: EZAsm -- Combines 68000 assembly language with parts of C. Produces highly optimized code. Uses C-like function calls (supports all 2.04 functions), braces, "else", ".fd" support, and much more. Comes bundled with A68k and Blink, for a complete programming environment. This is version 1.7, an update to version 1.6 on disk 592. Includes example source and executable files. Binary only. Author: Joe Siebenmann IFFConvert -- A program to convert the different compression methods of IFF ILBM files. It supports the normal compression, a new compression method that compresses column by column instead of row by row, and uncompressed files. Version 1.11, includes source. Author: Matthias Meixner MungWall -- Munges memory and watches for illegal FreeMem's. Especially useful in combination with Enforcer. Output can go to either the serial or parallel port. Includes a new MungList program that examines used memory areas for MungWall tag info, and outputs a list of who owns the various pieces of allocated memory, their sizes, etc. Can even identify the owner of the memory by task name. This is version 37.52, an update to version 37.51 on disk 659. Binary only. Author: Commodore Amiga; submitted by Carolyn Scheppner ReOrg -- ReOrg is a fast disk optimizer that can be used for floppy disks and hard disks. Supports new Kickstart 2.04 features including hard and soft links and High-Density drives. Includes program versions in English and German for use with Kickstart 2.04 only. This is version 2.3, an update to version 2.1 on disk 678. Shareware, binary only. Author: Holger Kruse Shrink -- A new archiver that uses dynamic arithmetic encoding with a dictionary size from 1-64Kb. Slower than other archivers, but seems to get better compression ratios. Another interesting feature is that it uses a new IFF format for it's archive files. Version 1.1, binary only. Author: Matthias Meixner Sizer -- Reports the size of selected disk objects (including subdirectories). It reports the number of bytes in all plain files and the number of blocks occupied by files and directories. It is intended for the Workbench user who wants to know if there is room to drag-copy one or more icons. Includes source and binary. Author: Fabbian G. Dufoe, III CONTENTS OF DISK 700: TextPlus -- TeXtPlus Professional is a TeX frontend word processor. Now you are able to create TeX documents without having to know anything about the professional typesetting program TeX. Makes use of PasTeX, Georg Hessmann's Amiga implementation of TeX. Contains both the English version (4.00EN) and the German version (4.00N). These versions are updates to the 3.00 versions on disk 484. Shareware, binary only. Author: Martin Steppler ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Bulletin Board Systems USA BerksAmiga BBS (215) 921-1016 Reading, PA 24 hours a day / 7 days a week Baud rates: 1200-2400 100 megs on line File transfers and message bases Sysop: Mike Koch Triple-A BBS (510) 528-2867 (Kat-Buns) Berkeley, CA 24 hours a day / 7 days a week Baud rates: v.32bis/HST/v.42bis 100 megs on line (no garbage!) File transfers and message bases Sysop: Randy Spencer Hobbit Hole (904) 243-6219 Ft. Walton Beach, FL 24 hours a day / 7 days a week Baud rates: 1200-9600 HST 330 megs on line File transfers and message bases Home of MechForce by Ralph Reed Sysop: Cal Jones The Hobbit Hole has over 2500 registered users from all over the world. New users are allowed 15 minutes until their account is validated. Afterwards, they have 45 minutes per day. Validation is automatic for those who don't abuse the system. There is no charge, fee, or donation required, requested, or accepted. This BBS is a hobby. AUSTRALIA Boing Amiga Archive +61 7 344 4536 Brisbane Queensland Australia 24 a day / 7 days a week Baud rates: up to V42 bis 2.46 Gig on line File transfers: Zmodem Only Message bases: Internet Mail Only Sysop: David Tucker BULLETIN BOARD LISTING SUBMISSIONS: The Bulletin Board Listing is a regular feature of AMIGAphile. Bulletin Board System ads are accepted and printed free of charge. All listings are arranged alphabetically by state then by area code. If you would like to have your BBS placed on this list, send the following information. Only systems operating 24 hours a day, 7 days a week (except for maintenance), supporting Amiga related topics, for which complete information has been submitted will be included in the list. BBS NAME: BBS NUMBER: BBS LOCATION: (city, state, province, country) BBS BAUD RATES: BBS STORAGE (on line): File Transfers: (Y/N) Message Bases: (Y/N) Required Fees and Restrictions (if any): SYSOP NAME: Be sure to include personal contact information (for use ONLY when verifying the information provided above), and a special password so that we may log onto your system and verify your listing. To REMAIN on the list, the information given must be verified at least every three months by contacting AMIGAphile. The Bulletin Board Listing is produced exclusively for publication in AMIGAphile. All information is as complete and accurate as possible at the time of publishing. Due to the nature of bulletin board systems, some listings may no longer be valid. User's Groups USA Amiga Addicts Anonymous Berkley, CA Focus on new users, weekend programmers, and Video Toaster users. Regular classes on Amiga use, including AREXX, CanDo, Imagine, and the Video Toaster. Group purchases on things like DCTV, 2.0 installations, and show tickets. Monthly group meeting at the Water District building in Concord across from the Acura dealer on Concord Ave. General Meeting Third Tuesday 7 pm, Monthly class (Topic TBA) the following Sunday 10 am, Board meeting (Lafayette Round Table) 7 pm, Video SIG following Wednesday (call first). Berks Amiga Users Group RD#2, Box 297 Boyertown, PA 19512 President: Roger Malinowski Treasurer: Mike Koch BAUG has been in operation for almost a year and a half, and supports users of all Amiga models. The membership is primarily interested in video, graphics, 3-D modeling, animation, telecommunications, and games. Meetings are held on the third Tuesday of each month, in the Schuylkill Room of the Reading Area Community College (RACC). Meetings begin at 7:00 PM and typically last around 2 hours. The typical meeting begins with announcements and news, followed by a game demo, followed by the demo/discussion of the month. A yearly membership fee of $15 is collected from each member when they join, then each January thereafter. The membership fees are solely to offset the costs of producing the group's monthly newsletter, "Interface", which is mailed to each member. Subscriptions to the newsletter are available for the same $15 fee, although free copies of the newsletter are provided to any/all other Amiga user groups. Send us a copy of yours and we'll send you one of ours. ;-) CANADA Toronto PET Users Group 5334 Yonge St. Box # 116 Willowdale, Ontario, Canada M2N 6M2 USER'S GROUPS SUBMISSIONS: Please send me your newsletter and I'll send you mine. In this manner, we can trade information. The User's Group Listing is a regular feature of AMIGAphile. All listings are arranged alphabetically by state. Send me your ad telling a little about your group and I'll print it along with these in the next issue. Please keep your ads up to date by keeping in touch with AMIGAphile at least every three months. The User's Group Listing is produced exclusively for publication in AMIGAphile. All information is as complete and accurate as possible at the time of publishing. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Classified Advertisements All advertising is payable in advance by check or money order drawn on U.S. funds. Send orders and remittance payable to Dan Abend % AMIGAphile, 4851 Kingshill Drive #215, Columbus, Ohio 43229. Advertisers using a P.O. Box must furnish complete name and street address for our records. No logos, photos, or any other illustration can be used in the classified ad section. Please type or print your ad legibly on a plain sheet of paper. If more than one ad is submitted, use a separate sheet of paper for each ad, making sure your complete name and address is on each sheet. Classified rates as of June 1, 1992 - $1.50 per word, with a minimum of 10 words per ad. The first two word (if underlined) will be set in bold face at no extra charge. Boldface thereafter will be $.75 additional charge per word. Blank lines are $5.00 per line. A line of stars is $6.00 per line. Classified Order Form: Classified Ads, AMIGAphile, 4851 Kingshill Drive #215, Columbus, Ohio 43229 To figure the cost of your ad, the rate is $1.50 per word. Any letters, numbers, or symbols with a space before and after counts as ONE word. Boldface is $.75 extra per word. Minimum word count of 10 words per ad. Please type or print your ad. Run under heading:______________ __________ __________ __________ __________ __________ __________ __________ __________ __________ __________ __________ __________ __________ __________ __________ __________ __________ __________ __________ __________ __________ __________ __________ __________ __________ __________ __________ __________ __________ __________ __________ __________ __________ __________ __________ __________ __________ __________ __________ __________ Name:_________________________________________________ Address:______________________________________________ City:__________________ State:__________ Zip:_________ Include $1.50 per word for your name and address if included in the ad. Run ad for ______ issues Payment of $_____________ US enclosed ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ WORLD OF COMMODORE AMIGA SHOW Just a reminder that the World Of Commodore Amiga Show is coming up soon, September 11-13 in Pasadena, California. Friday, September 11: 10am-5pm Saturday, September 12: 10am-5pm Sunday, September 13: noon-5pm The Pasadena Center, 300 East Green St, Pasadena, CA Registration at the door: $15 one day/$30 three days Preregistration: $10 one day/$25 three days Look in current issues of Amiga magazines for the preregistration coupons. (Pre-reg deadline is August 21) ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- BACK PAGE RUMORS Electronic Arts finally making a Deluxe Music Construction Set (DMCS) upgrade? Word on the street is they are looking for programmers and going to re-write a major portion of the code. I think there could be a big market for a re-write but an upgrade is needed, not a bug fix. Sonic the Hedgehog coming to an Amiga near you? I doubt it but an interesting demo came out lately which had a lot of people fooled into believing it was a playable preview. I'd like to see this game for the Amiga with at least all the flash of the Sega original. Aces of the Pacific may see its way to the Amiga platform but who knows if it will be another poor IBM port? Supra should be releasing its SupraFAX v.32bis ROM upgrade to all registered users sometime around the second week of August. Directory Opus 3.50 is a non-official beta copy released by a less-than- scrupulous beta tester. This version contains some major bugs and may cause data loss. The official release is scheduled for late August or early September, this coming from Jonathan Potter of INOVAtronics. CrossPC based on the IBeM emulator started shipping the last week of July. Todd Rundgren will be showing off his new Video Toaster produced video "Theology" at SIGGRAPH '92. Over a year late in its release, it will blow away his previously released Video Toaster made video.