HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: de5@ORNL.GOV (Dave Sill)
Subject: A1000 & misc. questions, advice
Organization: Oak Ridge National Lab, Oak Ridge, TN
Date: Wed, 6 Jan 1993 13:50:08 GMT

I bought a 1000 shortly after it was introduced.  I added another 256k and an
external floppy drive to make it usable.  A couple years ago the kids were
playing with it and someone inserted a second disk into the internal drive.  I
removed the disks, but the drive was hosed.  A friend of mine swapped the
internal and external floppies the other day, so the system is again usable.

I guess I've been spoiled by the $20k workstations I use every day at work. 
The 1000 and AmigaDOS (1.3) seem pretty primative.

What can/should I do to make this system more usable?  A 200-300 MB hard disk
would help, I suppose.  What would one cost?  What kind of controller do I
need?  Can I copy programs to it that I normally run by booting off the
floppy?

How about a newer version of AmigaDOS?  What the best the 1000 will support? 
What improvements does it have over 1.3?

If I were to bag the 1000 and buy something new, what would a complete,
reasonable system cost?  What's the old 1000 worth?  I see the 1200 lists for
$600--whats the street price?  Can I use the monitor or floppy drive from my
1000 on a 1200?  If not, what would a new one cost?  How much would a decent
hard drive cost?

What's the current state of Amiga technology?  What are Commodore's stated
plans for the Amiga's future?  Is the user base steady, growing, or declining?
I've seen people complaining about software vendors dropping Amiga support.

Should I just save up for '486 clone?  If not, why not?  I'm a computing
professional with a CS degree.  I'm a UNIX weenie and a competent C
programmer.  I realize the Amiga is a theoretically superior platform but I
also realize that the PC platform has a huge user base, endless third party
support, trillions of software packages, and very competitibe pricing.

I expect to use my home computer for games, word processing,
spreadsheet/financial apps, and perhaps some hacking/software development. 
Ability to take advantage of good free software like GNU Emacs, GCC, and
various X apps is a plus.

-- 
Dave Sill (de5@ornl.gov)                 Computers should work the way beginners
Martin Marietta Energy Systems           expect them to, and one day they will.
Workstation Support                                                -- Ted Nelson
From: jperkski@kentcomm.uucp (Jim Perkowski)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.misc
Subject: Re:  New program: CaveComm
Distribution: world
Date: 12 Jan 93 09:34:33 EST
Organization: No such thing as organization. Life is chaos!

In article <58574@dime.cs.umass.edu> barrett@astro.cs.umass.edu (Daniel Barrett) writes:
>>In article <C0oB4v.Jp6@usenet.ucs.indiana.edu> shulick@navajo.ucs.indiana.edu (Sam Hulick) writes:
>>>Me release CaveComm, version one.  Ugh!  Send smelly smoke signals to
>>>another person....  Best of all, CaveComm as portable as dragging wife by
>>>hair.
>
>In article <jeper.02sa@kentcomm.UUCP> jeper@kentcomm.UUCP (Jim Perkowski) writes:
>>Is this message politically correct? NOT! :)
>
>	YEAH... it discriminates against Neanderthals, Cro-Magnon Persons,
>People of Fossilization, and the Prehistorically Challenged.  This should be
>reported IMMEDIATELY to the Society Against Bashing Early Relatives'
>Telecommunications Offensively Or Through Humor.  Ugh.
>
>                                                        Dan
>

 Actually I was thinking about the native americans and women members of the net.:)
Is this a real program? CaveComm?

--
_________________________________
        (Jim Perkowski)
kentcomm!jperkski@legend.akron.oh.us
kentcomm!jperkski@aldhfn.akron.oh.us
  (Where am I when I need me?!)
From: n8643084@henson.cc.wwu.edu (owings matthew)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.misc
Subject: Re: Great feature in 1200 (3.0?)
Date: 13 Jan 93 01:47:26 GMT
Article-I.D.: henson.1993Jan13.014726.29431
Organization: Western Washington University

In article <C0o47s.6D2@news.iastate.edu> barrett@iastate.edu (Marc N. Barrett) writes:
>In article <griffita.726704390@sfu.ca> griffita@fraser.sfu.ca (David Stuart Griffiths) writes:
...
>>Wonderfull!  Great!!! Thank-you Commodore!!!  I've been waiting a LONG
>>time for an Amiga which can recover from a guru error without anyone
>>clicking the mouse!!!
...
>   I know some other people who would be greatful for this: cable operators.
>Amigas are uses to produce the Preview Guide that is carried by many local
>cable systems, and I don't know how many times I have turned over to the
>Preview Guide and seen the infamous GURU flashing.  Having the automatic
>reboot from the GURU would make the Amiga a bit more acceptable for other kinds
>of automated on-air uses.
>
>---
>| Marc Barrett -MB-  |  email: barrett@iastate.edu

The same is true for auto tellers in our mall.  The ATM's have separate screens
for advertising the bank and it is usually sitting there with a GURU on it.
From: walrus@wam.umd.edu (Udo K Schuermann)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.announce
Subject: NEW RELEASE:  KingFisher v1.15
Date: 4 Jan 93 19:04:59 GMT
Reply-To: walrus@wam.umd.edu (Udo K Schuermann)
Followup-To: comp.sys.amiga.misc
Message-Number: 311


  Available via anonymous ftp is version 1.15 of KingFisher, fixing all
  bugs (including a problem with national characters the presence of which
  could lockup the program.)  Version 1.15 also adds a number of features,
  such as FirstFish/LastFish gadgets.

  General overview of KingFisher:

  KingFisher is a freely distributable replacement for Aquarium, providing
  a mechanism to search for software in Fred Fish's Library of Freely
  Distributable Software.  KingFisher has been designed for users of both
  floppy-only and harddisks systems operating under either Kickstart 1.3
  or Kickstart 2.0.  Some features are available only under Kickstart 2.0.

  KingFisher v1.15 offers the following features:

  - Maintains a split database across multiple disk volumes,
  - Searches this database more than 3 times faster than Aquarium,
  - Provides a small and very fast program name search index,
  - Adds new fish directly from Contents files or Usenet postings,
    even from multiple concatenated postings or email contents files,
  - Fish can be deleted from the end of the database to undo errors,
  - Database is a line-oriented text file accessed through index
    which can be modified by hand and then reindexed,
  - Flexible print and export functions, including search-filtered
    output,
  - Select from multiple different search strings,
  - Limit searches to a portion of the database,
  - Follow version links to older or newer versions of software,
  - Maintain multiple different "bookmarks" into the database and
    switch between them with a single mouse click,
  - Supports proportional and scalable fonts for description text,
  - Now supports the 2.0 display database including Text Overscan.
    Limited support for overscan, PAL, and interlace displays is
    available under 1.3.
  - String gadgets are optionally kept active for keyboard comfort,
  - Full configuration saved between executions,
  - Iconifies to save Chip RAM (46K).

This update does not include a database.  To obtain the database you must
obtain a file named KingFisher.lha which is 477691 bytes in size, or obtain
version 1.11 (the version from the Fish Disks.)  KingFisher115.lha is 75809
bytes in size.

KingFisher115.lha can be found at the following ftp sites:

wuarchive.wustl.edu	128.252.135.4	   /systems/amiga/incoming/fish
grind.isca.uiowa.edu	128.255.19.233	   /amiga/Read.These         (*)
ux1.cso.uiuc.edu	128.174.5.59	   /pub/amiga/KingFisher     (*)

(*) May take a little time for KingFisher115.lha to show up there.


 ._.  Udo Schuermann        "New way?  What's this I hear about a new way?"
 ( )  walrus@wam.umd.edu                      -- Alex, "A Clockwork Orange"

--
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list: announce-request@cs.ucdavis.edu.  Comments to zerkle@cs.ucdavis.edu.
MAIL ALL COMP.SYS.AMIGA.ANNOUNCE ANNOUNCEMENTS TO announce@cs.ucdavis.edu.
From: 2575BROOKSR@VMS.CSD.MU.EDU (Ryan K. Brooks)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.announce
Subject: DCTV Video Switcher (DSwitch) now available by FTP.
Date: 8 Jan 93 22:51:31 GMT
Reply-To: 2575BROOKSR@VMS.CSD.MU.EDU (Ryan K. Brooks)
Followup-To: comp.sys.amiga.multimedia
Message-Number: 315

TITLE
 
       DSwitch
 
VERSION
 
       1.04G
 
AUTHOR
 
        Ryan Brooks
        Internet: 2575brooksr@vms.csd.mu.edu
 
DESCRIPTION
 
        DSwitch is a shell command for controlling DCTV video.
        It allows the user to toggle video pass-thru on/off along
        with selecting a few experimental modes.  Can be used to
        control interactive presentations where a mix of Amiga
        video (or any other composite source) and DCTV encoded
        pictures/animations is needed.  Also, it prevents the user
        from having to switch cables to check the Video Input to
        the DCTV unit.
 
REQUIREMENTS
 
        AmigaDos 1.2 or later.
 
SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS
 
        DCTV
 
FTP LOCATIONS
 
        File name: DSwitch.lzh
 
        ftp.csd.mu.edu (134.48.20.88):
                         /pub
 
        hubcap.clemson.edu:
                        /pub/amiga/incoming/utils
 
PRICE
 
        US$0.00
 
DISTRIBUTION
 
        Freely Distributable; see documentation.
 

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From: cathy@cbmvax.cbm.commodore.com (Catherine Godfrey - CATS)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.announce
Subject: AmigaVision Professional now shipping
Date: 4 Jan 93 19:07:57 GMT
Reply-To: cathy@cbmvax.cbm.commodore.com (Catherine Godfrey - CATS)
Followup-To: comp.sys.amiga.misc
Organization: Commodore Applications Technical Support
Message-Number: 312

Commodore Announces the Availability of AmigaVision Professional

(West Chester, PA --- December 21, 1992) --- Commodore Business
Machines, Inc. today announced it is now shipping AmigaVision (TM)
Professional, a new implementation of the Commodore icon-based
authoring tool.

AmigaVision Professional builds and expands on the visual programming
environment used in earlier versions of AmigaVision. One of the many
new product features is the ability to display Advanced Graphics
Architecture (TM) (AGA) based screens, which is key to users of the
new Amiga (R) 4000 and Amiga 1200 AGA computers.

Among other new features are full support for the CDTV (R) player,
including playback of CD-ROM based CD-XL motion video files; speed and
memory improvements; and enhancements to the authoring environment. In
addition, a freely redistributable Runtime Module has been included,
enabling flows created in AmigaVision to be played back without loading
AmigaVision.

AmigaVision Professional has a Manufacturer's Suggested Retail Price of
$399.00. The product is an attractive option as an authoring and
presentation package for interactive courseware designers and developers;
educators for classroom, administrative and interactive learning
applications; kiosk and point-of-information displays; user friendly
front-end interfaces to complex data processing networks; as well as
business, government and educational presentations.

Current users of AmigaVision can upgrade to AmigaVision Professional for
only $99.00, plus shipping, by contacting CommodoreExpress TM at
1-800-448-9987.  Users will be required to return their original
AmigaVision disks to CommodoreExpress within ten days to receive the
$99.00 upgrade price.

Commodore Business Machines, Inc., based in West Chester, PA, is the
U.S. subsidiary of Commodore International Limited. The company
manufactures and markets a complete line of Amiga computers and
peripherals for the business, consumer, education and government markets.
The company's worldwide installed Amiga user base exceeds three million.

Commodore CommodoreExpress, CDTV and Advanced Graphics Architecture
are trademarks of Commodore Electronics Limited. Amiga and
AmigaVision are trademarks of Commodore-Amiga, Inc.

Commodore Business Machines
1200 Wilson Drive
West Chester, PA 19380
(215) 431-9100

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From: zerkle@toadflax.cs.ucdavis.edu (Dan Zerkle)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.announce
Subject: Repost of Fish 781-790 needed?
Keywords: administrivia
Date: 13 Jan 93 01:09:57 GMT
Reply-To: zerkle@cs.ucdavis.edu (Dan Zerkle)
Followup-To: poster
Organization: Department of Computer Science, University of California, Davis

A few people have asked for the contents of Fish Disks 781-790, or
complained that they never got them.  My backup moderator put these
up last month, but it is possible that there was some problem sending
the post everywhere.

I have the file (of course).  I can post it again (if enough people
ask).  Otherwise, contents files are always available from
grind.isca.uiowa.edu, in files like /amiga/fdocs/f7/Contents.780.
I'm sure other ftp sites have them, too.

So, did you get it at your site?  If not, would you like a repost?

--
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Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.programmer
From: umoster0@ccu.umanitoba.ca (Sean K. Ostermann)
Subject: Fourier Transform Example Code
Summary: I need some example code
Keywords: Fourier Transform Code in C
Organization: University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Canada
Distribution: na
Date: Tue, 12 Jan 1993 16:27:14 GMT

Does anyone know of an ftp site (or does anyone have) that contains
example code in C of a Fourier Transform for a signal (discrete or
continuous and periodic).  This includes FFT code as well.  Any help would
be greatly appreciated (I need the code for a class I am taking!)

Sean
======================
University of Manitoba
Computer Engineering
======================
From: rock@lakes.trenton.sc.us (Rockerboy)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.programmer
Subject: Re: HostileTakeOver of Amiga OS
Keywords: flame bait lives here
Date: Wed, 06 Jan 93 05:28:55 EST
Reply-To: rock@lakes.trenton.sc.us (Rockerboy)
Organization: Lakes Public Access

spc@pineal.math.fau.edu (Sean 'Captain Napalm' Conner) writes:

> (donning asbestos long johns in preparation of a potential flame-a-rama)
> 
>   I'm currently trying to write some code to take over the Amiga system from
> the OS, do what ever I want to the hardware, and then return the system back
> to the OS in as much of the same state as it was before I took it over.
> 
>   So, what I'm wanting to know, is what exactly do I need to do to (in as
> friendly a mannor as possible) to take over the system from the OS.  Code
> fragments (in any language) would be nice, as well as possible
> warnings/cavets/etc ... that may be required.
> 

No!  No!  Don't do it!  It's _evil_, don't you understand!  My _GOD_, 
don't you recognize the damage your programming will do!?  You'll ruin 
the entire future of Amiga if you do this, so _don't_!

But if you really want to, the simplest way is to simply shut down 
interrupts (after preserving them), redirect vectros, preserve the system 
copper lists (see graphics/gfxbase.i for details on that).  I like to pop 
up a requestor warning the user I'm taking over his machine, too.  
Allocate any RAM you need, then shut down the OS as mentioned above, do 
your thing, put everything back like you found it, and you're done.
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.programmer
From: jerry@cs.mcgill.ca (Gerald Jerry KUCH)
Subject: Re: Chunky Pixels vs. Bitplanes (was: Chunky Chip Set...)
Organization: SOCS - McGill University, Montreal, Canada
Date: Wed, 13 Jan 1993 01:01:29 GMT

In article <1993Jan12.112405.14424@doug.cae.wisc.edu> pochanay@cae.wisc.edu (Adisak Pochanayon) writes:
>     Chunky Pixels are much more efficient than Bitplanes.  Consider setting
>a 8-bit color-depth pixel.
>
>    With Chunky pixels you simply make one memory access.  That is, writing the
>color to the pixel address.
>
>    With Bitplanes, you must make 16 memory access.  For each bitplane, you must
>read a byte, set or clear the appropriate pixel-bit, and then write back the
>byte.
>
>             1:16 memory access to slow chip mem???  I think that Chunky wins.
>Not to mention that chunky pixel calculations take less time to find the
>pixel address.
>

Thank you for your manifold, profound insights.  This was the first point
brought up in this thread, which has been going on for about three weeks
now.  There are pros and cons to both sides.

But Thus Sprach Pochanay... so shall it be.


-- 
 Jerry Kuch (jerry@cs.mcgill.ca)   |  NEED A NEW QUOTE
 "I was wrong to play God.  Life is precious, not a thing to be toyed with.
  Now take out that brain and flush it down the toilet."
                  --- M. Burns  "Treehouse of Horror II"
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.programmer
From: fletcher@netcom.com (F. Sullivan Segal)
Subject: Re: How should I learn C?
Organization:  bottom up!
Date: Thu, 7 Jan 1993 00:21:16 GMT

>
>Most of these extensions are those introduced in Modula-2:  a generic
>parameter type, type transfer functions, open-ended arrays, etc.  The
>advantage being that you get a cleaner syntax (I much prefer pointer
>indirection as a postfix operator, for one).  Again, this is less portable,
>especially when it comes to standard library functions (which Pascal
>provides very few of).
>
I was under the impression that Modula-2 enforced single type functions.
Either way, being limited to a fixed number of arguments is still a 
major drawback.  (The only problem with 'writeln' is that it is both
useless in the form that it is provided, and you can't write a replacement.
By simply removing 'writeln' Modula-2 doesn't really address the problem.)

In any case, for advanced programming features, C to C++ is an easier
step than anything else I can think of.

--
                           -F. Sullivan Segal
_______________________________________________________________
 _
/V\  E-Credibility:  (n -- ME) The unguaranteed likelyhood that
 '   the electronic mail you are reading is genuine rather than
someone's made up crap.
_______________________________________________________________
Mail to: fletcher@netcom.com
From: s37732v@snakemail.hut.fi (Markus Juhani Aalto)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.programmer
Subject: Re: Version Strings...
Date: 7 Jan 93 16:40:01 GMT
Organization: Helsinki University of Technology, Finland
NNTP-Posting-Host: lk-hp-16.hut.fi
In-reply-to: Leon@abcd.Houghton.MI.US's message of 6 Jan 93 18:46:40 EST

In article <Leon.0byx@abcd.Houghton.MI.US> Leon@abcd.Houghton.MI.US (Leon) writes:

   Can anyone give me a code fragment to insert a version string in my program
   so that the AmigaDOS version program will detect it?

   Thanks MUCH...

   Bi Bi...

   \Leon

   -- Via DLG Pro v0.995

   ______________________________________________________________________
   |  o__ ----       \\ABCD///Amiga BitSwap Central Dispatch - DLG BB/OS!
   | _.>/ _-------    \\BBS// 16K8bps - 3 Lines! - Fido/UUCP(906)482-8248
   |(_) \(_)Leon Shaner\\\// <leon@abcd.houghton.mi.us> or <leon@mtu.edu>
   |________[MTU - CTS] \\/  ...Non-Conformity is a virtue I hold dear...

------clip here--------------------

UBYTE Version[] = "\0$VER: ProgName 1.0 (7.1.92)";

------clip here--------------------


--


**************************************************************************
*         Markus Aalto              | Helsinki University of Technology  *
*                                   |                                    *
*  EMail: s37732v@vipunen.hut.fi    | Faculty of Electric Engineering    *
*  Fax:   358-0-8746991 (Sometimes) |                                    *
*                                   | Undergraduate in Computer Science  *
**************************************************************************
        
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.programmer
From: s37732v@snakemail.hut.fi (Markus Juhani Aalto)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.programmer
Subject: Re: Enough talk.  FILE: server.c
Date: 09 Jan 93 10:00:54 GMT
Organization: Helsinki University of Technology, Finland
Distribution: inet
	<C0JsA8.MIt@usenet.ucs.indiana.edu>
NNTP-Posting-Host: lk-hp-7.hut.fi
In-reply-to: shulick@navajo.ucs.indiana.edu's message of Fri, 8 Jan 1993 18:20:31 GMT

In article <C0JsA8.MIt@usenet.ucs.indiana.edu> shulick@navajo.ucs.indiana.edu (Sam Hulick) writes:

   So Forbid() should be used before creating new message ports, and
   finding them?  How's this revised version?

   ....code....
      Forbid();
      myport = FindPort("Foobar!");
      if (myport)
      {
	 if (EasyRequest(NULL, &ereq[SERVER_RUNNING], NULL))
       ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Don't call EasyRequest if you have Forbidden task switching. I don't
know if its illegal but it certainly isn't very nice.

>       // Amiga 3000   ___ \ Sam Hulick: shulick@indiana.edu (NeXTmail OK!)

--


**************************************************************************
*         Markus Aalto              | Helsinki University of Technology  *
*                                   |                                    *
*  EMail: s37732v@vipunen.hut.fi    | Faculty of Electric Engineering    *
*  Fax:   358-0-8746991 (Sometimes) |                                    *
*                                   | Undergraduate in Computer Science  *
**************************************************************************
From: D.J.Miller@newcastle.ac.uk (Dave Miller)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.programmer
Subject: Assembler help needed
Date: 7 Jan 93 14:31:01 GMT
Organization: Computing Laboratory, U of Newcastle upon Tyne, UK NE1 7RU.



Greetings :)

  having just bought Stefan Ditrich's book 'Amiga Assembly Language' (or whatever it's called), I'm a bit miffed at his constant use of AssemPro. Throughout the entire book he make use of macros and commands which appear unique to this assembler. For example in an intuition based program which shows off gadgets/menus/windows etc....there is use made of a command:

	blk.w  500

and two macros

 	INIT_AMIGA
	EXIT_AMIGA

blk appears in various forms throughout the text (blk 9,0 being another one)

has anyone got any idea what these are on about so I can set about replacing them with code that Devpac2 and/or A68k will understand. 

I'm assuming that blk is some fancy version of the link command as it is used to reserve stack space for menus (according to the comments) however, direct substitution causes a crash.

any help would be appreciated,

cheers

dave


University of Newcastle upon Tyne
England
NE1 7RU


d.j.miller@newcastle.ac.uk
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.programmer
From: alewis@cs.weber.edu (alan lewis)
Subject: Re: REPOST: GNU C++ in smaller chunks?
Organization: University of Utah Computer Center
Date: Fri, 8 Jan 93 17:01:01 GMT

If your using a Unix machine, and you can get the whole file, you can split it
up with dd.  On the amiga you reassemble it with join.  i.e.

	dd if=gcc233.lha bs=1024 count=700 skip=0 of=gcc233.lha.1

you would change the count to 7000 then 1400 then 2100 etc.

On the amiga you would use:

	join gcc233.lha.1 gcc233.lha.2 etc. as gcc233.lha

^You should be able to get enough disk space on your system by asking the
administrator, even if it's only temporary.

Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.programmer