HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: cstuckless@kean.ucs.mun.ca
Subject: This name thing (Was RE: Commodore R&D....)
Organization: Memorial University. St.John's Nfld, Canada
Date: Wed, 8 Apr 1992 02:31:04 GMT

In article <1992Apr7.165738.7477@sun.pcl.ac.uk>, marcus@sun.pcl.ac.uk (Marcus Harvey) writes:
> In article <1992Apr4.212106.18693@zorch.SF-Bay.ORG> mike@zorch.SF-Bay.ORG (Mike Smithwick) writes:
>>In article <kdarling.701884015@garfield.catt.ncsu.edu> kdarling@garfield.catt.ncsu.edu (Kevin Darling) writes:
>>>
>>>You're both right.  I believe the company name was Amiga Computer, Inc.
>>>But to gain name recognition in the game arena, they bought and marketed
>>>some things such as the Joyboard.
>>>
>>>kev <kdarling@catt.ncsu.edu>
>>
>>Actually, the original name was "HiTorro" (sp?) which came from a 
>>Japanese game in the same way the term "Atari" did (I believe that
>>Atari was the equivalent to "check" in Go and Hi-torro was the same
>>as checkmate, I'm not a Go person, so don't quote me on this). Anyway it
>>was changed to Amiga after a couple of months. Amiga was supposedly derived
>>from "Amica" or "Amicabilis" which is Latin for "friendly" or "peaceable".
>>
> The word "amiga" is Spanish for "female friend". They must have known this.
> 
> So we have Girlfriend Computer Inc., Girlfriend500, Only Girlfriend Makes it
> Possible etc...

  Ya, like I'd rather have a computer named after a breed of apple 
than a Spanish babe. :)

> Marcus Harvey

-- 
  
Colin Stuckless          \  The bottleneck for every computer 
FutureVision Ltd          \  platform is the mind's ability to invent 
CStuckless@kean.ucs.mun.ca \  creative new applications for the system
From: dvan@pnet01.cts.com (David Vandeven)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy
Subject: Amiga Inadequacy
Date: 11 Apr 92 21:16:07 GMT
Organization: People-Net [pnet01], El Cajon CA


 I used to own an Amiga.  A 2500 with a Hurricane 25 MHZ '030 board and a Sony
1304 monitor.  I had a Genlock board, 8 megs of RAM (2MB chip), and a
68882 math chip.  My 230 megs of drive space were almost filled with
excellent multimedia, scientific and game software.  I had software for
almost every application I could think of.
  So you might ask me why I now own a Macintosh Classic II, with a little 9
inch B&W monitor and 16 bit
data path.  The answer is ZOOMRECTS.  In Amiga parlance, "rubber banding
windows."  The first time I saw a Macintosh, with those exciting little
lines zooming around, I knew the pain of inadequacy.  Not only did the
little lines zip around,  but when you selected a menu item, the item name
BLINKED! Now THAT was excitement!
  Every time I used Workbench, I had this hollow feeling in my stomach.  It
just wasn't the same without those
little ZOOMRECTS!!  I knew that if I had them on my screen, my whole life
would change. I would become accepted.  My clothes would smell laundry
fresh, all the time!  I would have dates on friday night.
  I dreamed fevered, sweaty dreams about little zooming lines.  I thought
about ZOOMRECTS
when I was with my girlfriend.  I COULD STAND IT NO MORE! So I sold my
Amiga for $100, and bought the only macintosh I could afford the very next
day.
  Now I sit here blissfully, launching multiple copies of TEACHTEXT, watching
my little lovely ZOOMRECTS all day long.  
*Sorry, an unnamed Amigaphile put me up to this based on an extremely silly
2am conversation....  He stated that Zoomrects was the one thing really
inferior about the Amiga.*
______________________________________________________________________________
     "What are you freaking looking at!!??!   MOMMIE!"
                                      -Frank Booth- 'What's that Smell?'
David Vandeven-     ********************************************************
Systems Progammer   *   UUCP: {hplabs!hp-sdd ucsd nosc}!crash!pnet01!dvan  *
                    *   ARPA: crash!pnet01!dvan@nosc.mil                   *
  MAC Think C 5.0   *   INET: dvan@pnet01.cts.com                          *
      RULES!!       ********************************************************
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy
From: barrett@iastate.edu (Marc N Barrett)
Subject: Re: Wild rumor, potential for massive sea change in Amiga world...
Organization: Iowa State University, Ames, IA
Date: Wed, 15 Apr 1992 22:56:16 GMT

In article <1992Apr15.143822.9901@ra.msstate.edu> skip@tacky.cs.olemiss.edu (Skip 'AdaX' Sauls) writes:
>In article <1992Apr15.011619.7706@news.iastate.edu> barrett@iastate.edu (Marc N Barrett) writes:
>>   By winter, Commodore should have finally announced their new systems
>>(if the rumors are correct).  I don't expect to be too wild about them, but
>>they should be enough to marginally beat the new Atari systems.
>
>If C= released an Amiga with the power of an Indigo for $300 you would find 
>some way to complain about it.

   And if Commodore released a whole line of VIC-20s in different packages 
you would be completely satisfied with Commodore's product-development 
efforts.

   Besides, what you said about me is just words.  Really, I challenge you
to name just one truly innovative product that Commodore has produced in the
past six years that I wasn't totally enthusiastic and supportive of when it
was released.  Hell, go back 8 years if you like.  The fact is, I am totally
supportive of new Commodore products that are truly innovative (as I was with
the A1000).  The fact also is, Commodore hasn't released a single truly
innvoative product since the A1000. 
   
>Skip Sauls                     //    Graduate Student & Instructor
>skip@tacky.cs.olemiss.edu    \X/     CS Department, University of Mississippi 

---
| Marc Barrett -MB-  |  email: barrett@iastate.edu
--------------------------------------------------
From: kdarling@garfield.catt.ncsu.edu (Kevin Darling)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy
Subject: Re: Video Machine - Toaster Sales Killer?
Date: 12 Apr 92 04:06:04 GMT
Organization: North Carolina State University

Neal C. Wickham writes:
>>The Video Machine is able to cut and mix live video.  It requires no extra
>>hardware such as TBCs or editing decks.
>
>How does it do this? ...by converting the video signals to digital/analog
>format (like DCTV) before editing and then converting it back afterward?

An educated guess is they're using Philips' Digital MultiStandard Decoder
video chipset, which converts analog Y/C or composite NTSC/PAL/SECAM
inputs into YUV or RGB digital data.  With two such chipsets, and several
megabytes of memory, you'd end up with a pair of multiframe syncs (TBCs).
You could then mix/overlay/chromakey their data output in harmony. The
fancier the buffer output address variations are, the fancier the effects.

>What about animation?  If this thing will do animation in  3 million
>colors off a hard drive like DCTV will, I'd say that the Amiga/Toaster
>was history.
 
That would depend a lot on whether or not its frame buffers are available
on the computer bus (as Ray questioned).  Offhand, it doesn't sound like it.
I think the Toaster still has around 6 months to a year before some true
competition hits.  Me, I just look forward to when all these gizmos are
a dime a dozen :-)

best - kevin <kdarling@catt.ncsu.edu>
From: roll@skybridge.SCL.CWRU.Edu (Kevin 'Rat' Roll)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy
Subject: Re: Amiga - Did I make a mistake?
Date: 15 Apr 92 15:34:58 GMT
Article-I.D.: usenet.1992Apr15.153458.938
Organization: Smith Undergrad Lab, CWRU, Cleve. OH
X-Post-Machine: olympus.scl.cwru.edu

In article <1992Apr14.124834.24880@ms.uky.edu> justin@mik.uky.edu (Justin Sullivan) writes:

>> Just my 2 cents worth.
>
>You forgot the tax.. 

That's it! Maybe with a 13% VAT tax on advocacy some of this inanity will
cease. There could be deductions for coherency and factual information....

	- (The Tax-Fried) Rat
From: tron1@tronsbox.UUCP (Kenneth Jamieson)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy
Subject: Re: AppleEvents, how to they work?
Date: 10 Apr 92 00:02:30 GMT
Organization: Xanadu Enterprises Inc.

In article <jbickers.05rh@templar.actrix.gen.nz> jbickers@templar.actrix.gen.nz (John Bickers) writes:
>Quoted from <3433@tronsbox.UUCP> by tron1@tronsbox.UUCP (Kenneth Jamieson):
>
>> 	Every application is, for most purposes, a seperate language
>> that must be learned (though REXX will standarddize the control constructs).
>
>    Another way to think of it is like learning a new library in C. The
>    language is the same, but you have new functions to use.
>
>    So switching your editors would be like switching which comms library
>    you use in a C program.
>

	Yeah - that might be better. But it is actually more like
writing in C without ANY standard library at all. Every application
wants different commands to open a file for example.

	IMHO this is the ONE thing that has held AREXX back from being
a real shining beacon.

 


-- 

+--[ Xanadu Enterprises Inc. Lingerie, Consulting, RPG's and ANIME ]-+.sign
|  Please send email for detailed product or catalogue information!  |ature
|             Ken Jamieson: uunet!tronsbox.xei.com!tron1             |Virus
|---NONE of the opinions represented here are endorsed by anybody!---|V3.2
|              Original contents are Copyright (c)1992               |1992!
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
From: Lee_Robert_Willis@cup.portal.com
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy
Subject: Re: AppleEvents, how to they work?
Date: 5 Apr 92 17:31:57 GMT
Article-I.D.: cup.56918
Organization: The Portal System (TM)

>>From your description, it sounds like AppleEvents provide a
>>way for one application to drive the GUI of another.
>
>  No, AppleEvents avoid this.  You pass an open AppleEvent with the
>parameter being the file identifier, and App B (assuming it is
>AppleEvent aware), jumps straight to its OpenFile code (eliminating
>the dialog boxes).

Sounds reasonable.  I'm curious how programmers implement this.
(I know squat about programming on the Mac.)

>ObligAdv:  How does AREXX know which applications support what
>messages?

AREXX doesn't.  AREXX passes any command it doesn't recognize to its
'host'.  The host then gets the opportunity to interpret the command.

> ...For example, when you're writing a script, can you tell
>whether an application handles a particular message, and whether
>it requires or has optional parameters, and what types those
>parameters are?

You have to read the manual that comes with the application.
The Amiga User Interface Style Guide lists the recommended standards
for AREXX commands.

--
Lee      Lee_Robert_Willis@cup.portal.com
From: Lee_Robert_Willis@cup.portal.com
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy
Subject: Re: AppleEvents, how to they work?
Date: 8 Apr 92 22:45:49 GMT
  <1992Apr7.215609.3111@watserv1.waterloo.edu> <632twjn@rpi.edu>
Organization: The Portal System (TM)

>|> 	The difference between Arexx and AppleEvents is that with Rexx you
>|> create an external script file to control the application.  With AE's you
>|> must embed the messages within an application, you can't execute an arbitrary
>|> script file.  AppleEvents are NOT a language, it is a protocol.  (an in my
>|> opinion a hack).
>
>Correct. However, from my understanding, w/ ARexx u (or some programmer)
>must imbed the messages inside of the programs in exactly the same way
>as you must w/ Apple Event [right? right?]

No, the ARexx scripts are usually external ASCII files.  e.g. My text
editor (TurboText) allows the user to add menu-items to the application,
and bind the filenames of an ARexx script to each menu-item.  (You can bind
it to hot-keys, too) Thus one can extend the editor environment to do
anything one is clever enough to program ARexx to do.  One common use is to
program the editor to submit the code to the compiler, and to move the
editor cursor to the line of the error, if any.

This is why you'll hear Amiga programmer saying they DONT want an
integrated environment like Borlands Turbo Pascal.   With closed-system
integrated environments, you may get stuck with a good compiler but a lousy
editor, or a lousy editor but a good compiler.  With ARexx, you can pick
your favorite compiler, and your favorite editor, and make them work
together.

---
Lee      Lee_Robert_Willis@cup.portal.com
From: jerry@connection.prospect.com (Jerry Shekhel)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy
Subject: Re: Considering switching to IBM
Date: 9 Apr 92 22:23:35 GMT
Article-I.D.: ctr.1992Apr9.222335.14649
Organization: Molecular Simulations, Inc.

Gerrit@laosinh.stgt.sub.org (Gerrit_Heitsch) writes:
>>
>> It could be, but IBM will supposedly attempt to change that view by bundling
>> OS/2 with its home systems (PS/1's) and doing heavy advertising.
> 
>I thought OS/2 2.0 will only work on a 386/486 ?
>The PS/1 is a 80286-10 with 1 waitstate. Do you want to run OS/2 on
>such a slow processor ?
>

OS/2 2.0 does require at least a 386SX CPU.  IBM will bundle OS/2 2.0
with its *new* PS/1's, which have the 386SX.  As far as I know, the original
286 PS/1's have been discontinued.

>
>Gerrit
>
--
+-------------------+-----------------------+--------------------------------+
| Jerry J. Shekhel  | Molecular Simulations | Time just fades the pages      |
| Drummers do it... | Inc.  Waltham, MA USA | in my book of memories.        |
|    ... In rhythm! |     (617) 890-2888    |              -- Guns N' Roses  |
+-------------------+-----------------------+--------------------------------+
|           ...! [ princeton mit-eddie bu sunne ] !polygen!jerry             |
|                            jerry@polygen.com                               |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy,comp.sys.amiga.games,comp.sys.amiga.misc,comp.sys.amiga.multimedia,comp.sys.amiga.graphics,comp.sys.amiga.hardware
From: aissmith@kraken.itc.gu.edu.au (Doug Smith)
Subject: Re: Considering switching to IBM
Organization: ITC, Griffith University, Brisbane, Australia
Date:  6 Apr 92 09:30:01 GMT

nap42487@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (Nishith A. Patel) writes:

>I want to clear up some misconceptions about the speed of Intel -based 
>computers and Amigas. First, when the person who first started this with his
>thought of switching to IBM posted something about the Amiga, it did not sound
>too fast. He had the Amiga in 16 color mode, and his downloading in the background could not go fast enough to do something as small as downloading when he used the Workbench to open a drawer or move something. A Windows machine would
>never go that slow (and it is in 16 colors, with a lot more Graphics than the
>plain and boring -looking Workbench. 
>The really sad thing about this is this guy had a 68040 accelerator!!!!

You're full of shit, Nishith.

A few things:  I have a bottom of the range Amiga processor (68000).  I do
multitasking all the time (ie: downloading, whilst doing other things).
Admittedly I don't run a 16 colour workbench, but I have *NO* noticable delay on
graphics when downloading.  Seeing as this mysterious person you speak of
has a 68040 processor, I'm sure that would make up for the fact that he
has 16 colours and I only have 4, speed wise.  I think either someone has
lead you astray (namely some demented IBM owner) or you are so biased
against Amiga, you've made that bullshit up.

Another thing: you said a windows machine (I assume you were referring to a
486) would NEVER go that slow.  Well, I have news for you.  I spent about
5 hours straight sitting infront of a 486 running windows, and quite
frankly, it was a pathetic sight.  It was SO slow, it reminded me of the
time I accidently launched 6 copies of the same communication package
whilst I had the Amiga rendering an image, and also converting an IFF pic
to GIF.  And thats on a 68000!  Quite frankly, a VERY cheap Amiga will
whip the arse off a 486 windows machine for graphics speed.   And as for
that smooth text scroller that comes with it: they may as well not have
bothered, as its DEAD slow and its STILL not totally smooth.

I really don't know how you can expect people to believe this tripe when
I have see an Amiga 500 outperfrom a 486 for GUI stuff.  And stop slanging
workbench - you obviously haven't seen Workbench 2.x.  Its like me trying to
compare my Amiga with Amiha DOS and Workbench to an XT machine's MS-DOS.

I suggest you that you should only write about stuff that you know
about.  All IBM PC supporters are the same.

Doug Smith.









Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy
From: kdarling@garfield.catt.ncsu.edu (Kevin Darling)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy
Subject: Re: Apple "Loses" Look-and-Feel Lawsuit
Date: 16 Apr 92 06:53:39 GMT
Organization: North Carolina State University

P McDunnough writes:
>kdarling@garfield.catt.ncsu.edu (Kevin Darling) writes:
>>U.S. District Court Judge Walker today dismissed most of the $5 billion,
>>four-year-old, Apple lawsuit against Microsoft and Hewlett-Packard over
>>alleged Mac "look and feel" copying by MS Windows 2.03 and HP's NewWave.
>
>Finally, there's hope for an end to all the legal nonsense. Are you sure
>about this?

As sure as possible... I condensed it from AP, UPI and Reuters :-)

As I've tried to point out in the past though, this case really revolved
around questions over what that 1985 Microsoft/Apple agreement covered.
So it doesn't appear to qualify as a prime look-and-feel example case,
nor does it invalidate Apple's visual copyrights.

The best hope is that Apple's lawyers have been discredited enough that
Apple won't continue to throw money at these lengthy court cases.  Then
again, maybe they'll just pick someone smaller to go after next time.

<sigh> kevin <kdarling@catt.ncsu.edu>
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy
From: justin@mik.uky.edu (Justin Sullivan)
Subject: Re: Mac OS just sucks -- "ease of use" = "lack of freedom"
Organization: University Of Kentucky, Dept. of Math Sciences
Date: Thu, 16 Apr 1992 12:53:02 GMT
X-Bytes: 

Mark Brezina writes
> 	I believe you.  There are problems with postscript on the Mac.  I
> watched in horror last week as my Mac II turned a 3k text file into a 495k
> Postscript file!  Like what the hell kind of Postscript implementation is  
that?

That is because it includes the entire dictionary with it. This is  
over-rideable.
 
> 	I thought "this must be a mistake, there is no way the file should be
> that big".  But when I examined it with MacWrite, it was a Postscript file.
> About 1/3 of it was function definitions and the rest of the file was hex
> digits.

See?

--
*******************************************************************************
* "Imagine sky.. High above, in Caribbean Blue.." <sigh>                      *
* The University of Kentucky doesn't pay well enough to share my opinions.    *
*******************************************************************************
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy
From: nap42487@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (Nishith A. Patel)
Subject: Re: Graphics boards
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana
Date: Wed, 15 Apr 1992 05:42:49 GMT

gerald@seas.gwu.edu (Gerald G. Washington) writes:

>>Yeah, but the DMI uses a 34010 (TI) CPU, and the clones use the old
>>charlie-cha-wa graphics chip.

Ooooh! For graphics cards with a coprocessor for the IBM, the 34010 is the
lower end processor. The cards frequently use the 34020 or the s3, which is faster than the 34020.

Nish Patel   nap42487@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu

Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy
From: peterk@public.sub.org (Peter Kittel)
Subject: Re: CDTV
Organization: Public News & Mailserver, Commodore Germany PM UNIX, Frankfurt
Date: Wed, 08 Apr 92 09:43:05 GMT

kdarling@garfield.catt.ncsu.edu (Kevin Darling) writes:
>Gary Martin writes:
>> Some time back it was said that developers had the option of hard disk
>> through an internal SCSI card for the CDTV, though they weren't sure if
>> Commodore would be distributing the card to the consumer.  I can't
>> remember who said this - but more than vapourwear I think :-).

Well, I at least saw on CeBIT a CDTV which had such a harddisk built-in.
But don't know from whom (not C=) and when it will ship to everyone.

>> Your right about the development of titles on larger more gutsey
>> machines, but bugs have skill in getting through emulations - so a CDTV
>> with extra RAM and hard disk would be usefull for that final stage....

>Hmm.  Maybe not the extra RAM... that could hide problems.  But yah,
>using an emulation of the CD drive via a hard disk makes sense.  Altho
>what would you do?  Unbolt the 600M hard drive and plug it into the CDTV?

No, but this is done for production: take the 600 MB drive and give it to 
the CD manufacturer (you get the drive back :-). At least thus it was 
already done.

And Commodore has some emulation software that degrades the performance
of a standard harddisk to that of a CD, so you can emulate all timings.
But this works on an A2000, not on the real CDTV.

-- 
Best regards, Dr. Peter Kittel  // E-Mail to  \\  Only my personal opinions... 
Commodore Frankfurt, Germany  \X/ {uunet|pyramid|rutgers}!cbmvax!cbmger!peterk
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy
From: jerry@connection.prospect.com (Jerry Shekhel)
Subject: Re: Intel HW
Organization: Molecular Simulations, Inc.
Date: Fri, 10 Apr 1992 14:46:56 GMT

In article <1992Apr10.043635.11118@seas.gwu.edu> gerald@seas.gwu.edu (Gerald G. Washington) writes:
>jerry@connection.prospect.com (Jerry Shekhel) writes:
>>Well, if the Intel-based machine cannot even hope to compete, then why does
>>*my* 386 clone consistently perform better than a comparably equipped A3000?
>
>How are they suitably equipped (i.e., what hardware does each system have)?
>Curious.
>

As far as I can tell, each has a fast 32-bit CPU, graphics, a hard disk, a
diskette drive, a keyboard, and a mouse :)

>-- Gerald
--
+-------------------+-----------------------+--------------------------------+
| Jerry J. Shekhel  | Molecular Simulations | Time just fades the pages      |
| Drummers do it... | Inc.  Waltham, MA USA | in my book of memories.        |
|    ... In rhythm! |     (617) 890-2888    |              -- Guns N' Roses  |
+-------------------+-----------------------+--------------------------------+
|           ...! [ princeton mit-eddie bu sunne ] !polygen!jerry             |
|                            jerry@polygen.com                               |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy
From: ggg@kepler.unh.edu (Gregory G Greene)
Subject: Re: C= policy (Re: Apple problems "Home computer")
Organization: University of New Hampshire  -  Durham, NH
Date: Wed, 8 Apr 1992 00:48:33 GMT

In article <1992Apr7.062857.1556@qdpii.comp.qdpi.oz.au>, davidme@qdpii.comp.qdpi.oz.au (David Meiklejohn) writes:
> In article <1992Apr6.215805.8775@nic.unh.edu> ggg@kepler.unh.edu (Gregory G Greene) writes:
> >
> >	Complete 486 systems have been under 3000 for a while now.  You could
> >  buy a 33/486 with 4 meg memory, 130 meg HD, SVGA card w/1mb, and a monitor 
> >  for around 2800 back in july of last year.  Thats from Gateway 2000 also,
> >  a pretty good clone company. 
> >
> >							G.Greene
> 
> Except that I'm in Australia, and thats Aussie dollars, not US.  A$3000 is
> under US$2500, which is very low, compared to what we've been paying here
> until recently.
> 

	Sorry about that.  I should've noticed.  

						G.Greene

> 
> David Meiklejohn                  | Internet : davidme@qdpii.comp.qpdi.oz.au
> Computer Systems Officer, QDPI    | Fax      : +61 70 92 3593
> Mareeba, Australia                | Voice    : +61 70 92 1555
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy