HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: Paul_Trauth@agwbbs.new-orleans.LA.US (Paul Trauth)
Newsgroups: alt.sys.amiga.demos
Subject: Re: Writing a StarField. Which method is best?
Distribution: world
Date: 21 Nov 92 15:37:15 CST
Organization: The Amiga GateWay BBS * New Orleans, La.

In a message dated Sat 21 Nov 92  7:24, Shogun@dialix.oz.au (matthew Fitzge
wrote:

 SF> Some coders (like myself) can't stand using includes, ok, system
 SF> coding is 
 SF> a little different - everyone has their own methods!  I know most of
 SF> the 
 SF> hardware registers off the top of my head so why use symbolic
 SF> names??? No-one
 SF> sees y code except me and the other guys in my group, and I document
 SF> my
 SF> code ALOT - which is another reason why I don't use includes!!
I suppose it's a personal decision. Myself, i do a lot of hardware-level
coding. I usually include just a couple things: hardware/custom.i (and
maybe some of the other hardware includes), exec_lib.i, and gfxbase.i...
(the last two are used in my friendly machine takeover/restore code. i like
symbolic names.)
Then again, back on the C64, i had a couple of stored symbol tables (close
enough to includes...) that were the complete symbolic name lists of the
VIC-II, SID, and CIA chips. I'd read in the ones i was using on every
assemble.
I feel i have better things to use the space in my brain for than
memorizing cryptic hex offsets. (that said, i do STILL remember the offsets
for quite a few important VIC-II registers. sigh.)

 SF> I still prefer to do EVERYTHING in hardware... (if I want to multi-
 SF> task then
 SF> I'll use system library functions etc!)  It's fast and it makes your
 SF> brain
 SF> work harder figuring out your own algorithms, you must admit that
 SF> when coding
 SF> with libraries, alot of the work is already done for you!  
True, but even when hardware coding (as i said) you can include the names
of the registers.

I have enough trouble understanding my own code sometimes - having the
symbolic register names helps it a lot, for me.


-- Via DLG Pro v0.995

- be zorch, daddi-o --------------- paul (raccoon) trauth ----------------
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Internet -> paul_trauth@agwbbs.new-orleans.LA.US        \\\///\\\///\\\
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  "eagles may fly, but a weasel will never get sucked into a jet engine"
Newsgroups: alt.sys.amiga.demos
From: robertr@odie.cs.mun.ca (Robert Randell)
Subject: Re: DejaVu...this time, something IS wrong.
Organization: CS Dept., Memorial University of Newfoundland
Date: Mon, 16 Nov 1992 16:25:24 GMT

In article <d2ser.721919157@dtek.chalmers.se> d2ser@dtek.chalmers.se (Svante Eriksson) writes:
>jbrown@hal.gnu.ai.mit.edu (Justin William Brown) writes:
>
>>functionality.  The demo in question is DejaVu.  After "loading" and
>>"decrunching," it encounters an "illegal exception."
>
>   You are probably running Kick 2.04 or better.  I had exactly the
>same problem when running under 2.04, but no problems at all under 1.3
>with the same configuration.  (A-2000b, 1M chip, 4M fast)
>
>>Marc Brown
>
>...ser
Nope, sorry. The problem isn't with running a kickstart >= 2.04 because
I'm running an Amiga 500 with 2 megs of fast ram, 1 meg of chip ram, and
Kickstart 1.3 and I get the same "Illegal Exception" error.

- Robert Randell
From: cs_e375@ceres (Andrew Weakley)
Newsgroups: alt.sys.amiga.demos
Subject: Lsd_Joe2.dms > 720k!
Date: 20 Nov 1992 15:22:20 GMT
Organization: Kingston University
NNTP-Posting-Host: ceres.kingston.ac.uk
X-Newsreader: Tin 1.1 PL4

	Sorry if this has been asked a million times before but:

	I am trying to transfer the 2nd disk of LSD Jesus On E's demo from
an msdos disk to the Amiga, however, the filesize is 960k and will not fit
on a msdos disk.

	I have tried packing the file again with various archivers, and using
ARJ with multi volumes but the Amiga un-arj does not seem to support the
multi-volume switch. Can anyone help?!

			Thanks.....

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Andrew Weakley - BCS 2 - Kingston University - EMail: cs_e375@kingston.ac.uk
-----------------------------------------------------------------GURU48454C50-
Xref: sparky alt.sys.amiga.demos:1670 comp.sys.amiga.applications:8696 comp.sys.amiga.introduction:1545 comp.sys.amiga.marketplace:8938 comp.sys.amiga.misc:16904 comp.sys.amiga.advocacy:29208
From: kjohnson@csugrad.cs.vt.edu (Keefer)
Newsgroups: alt.sys.amiga.demos,comp.sys.amiga.applications,comp.sys.amiga.introduction,comp.sys.amiga.marketplace,comp.sys.amiga.misc,comp.sys.amiga.advocacy
Subject: Re: Programming
Date: 16 Nov 92 04:56:54 GMT
Organization: Virginia Tech Computer Science Dept, Blacksburg, VA

oahvenla@snakemail.hut.fi (Osma Ahvenlampi) writes:
> It also teaches them bad programming manners that are hell to rid of.

Uh, if you are talking about AMOS, you are certainly wrong in this point.  AMOS
IS BASIC, but it has become much more structure-oriented than the BASIC you are
probably used to and are thinking of.  I.e. BASIC on the old C64s and Apple
//es provided for nothing but hacking and spaghetti code.  Now, although AMOS
DOES support this old (Very Bad) style of programming, they by no means
advocate doing it this way in the manual.  It's provided strictly for backward
compatability for old BASIC programs.  I'd chalk that up as a plus (though you
could say it's a minus because it DOES support the Old Way Of Doing Things).
Since I am a CS student, and am pretty much forced to write structured
programs, all of my AMOS programs are rigidly structured.  (No GOTOs!)

To say that AMOS teaches bad programming manners really isn't the truth at all.
In fact, it's a LOT easier to hack code in C than it is in AMOS.  And I daresay
that a hell of a lot of C source that I've seen is a LOT more unstructured than
most of the AMOS source that I've seen.  Obviously these are individual
programmer traits, but it is so much easier to confuse someone else as to your
intent in C than in AMOS.  And I'm not saying this blindly; in fact I probably
know more about C (in general not Amiga-specific) than most above-average
programmers.

later,
keefer

-- 
| Keith Johnson ("Keefer") |Choose the |  "Sometimes you get to be the bird   |
|VA Tech. Dept. of Computer|/\  Logical|                And                   |
|  Science  Undergraduate  |XX  Altern-|     Sometimes you get to be the      |
|kjohnson@csugrad.cs.vt.edu|\/   ative |             windshield."             |
Xref: sparky alt.sys.amiga.demos:1696 comp.sys.amiga.applications:8745 comp.sys.amiga.introduction:1556 comp.sys.amiga.marketplace:8977 comp.sys.amiga.misc:16990 comp.sys.amiga.advocacy:29315
From: liam@durie.amigans.gen.nz (Liam Greenwood)
Newsgroups: alt.sys.amiga.demos,comp.sys.amiga.applications,comp.sys.amiga.introduction,comp.sys.amiga.marketplace,comp.sys.amiga.misc,comp.sys.amiga.advocacy
Subject: Re: Programming
Date: 17 Nov 92 21:05:20 GMT+12
Organization: It's Home, really...
X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.1 PL6]

    If people are interested in a Basic language that is good for machine
bashing games and demo coding, and has support for the OS in a a reasonable
manner they could do worse than take a serious look at Blitz Basic 2.
    It has the old Blitz mode where you throw away the OS and bang the
hardware, but it now has _much_ greater suport for the OS. It also
implements linked list stuff, and C like structures. Reasonable support
(they do a user mag with disk) and the language implementation has been
modularized, so they can upgrade it without a completely new version. My
last upgrade added Arexx support for your apps, Dpaint anim support, more
serial handling, MED sequencer.

    Blitz Basic 2 is written by Mark Sibley, and is available direct from
    Acid Software, 10 St. Kevins Arcade, K Road, Auckland, New Zealand

    I paid $NZ250, but that was at the WOC in Sydney, so I don't know what
    the retail is. Sorry about all the guff, but I don't use it much at the
    moment (too much to do at work :-( ), so I don't want to get into
    e-mail conversations about it and thought I'd better stick all I could
    think of in at once.

                        Hope this helps, Liam

--
 Liam Greenwood ------ liam@durie.amigans.gen.nz ------ Wanganui, N.Z.
                 Don't tell my Mother I'm a programmer,
               she thinks I'm a piano player in a brothel

Newsgroups: alt.sys.amiga.demos,comp.sys.amiga.advocacy
From: ralph@bugend.edvina.se (Staffan Vilcans)
Newsgroups: alt.sys.amiga.demos,comp.sys.amiga.applications,comp.sys.amiga.introduction
Subject: Re: Programming
Date: 16 Nov 92 19:41:46 GMT
Organization: Bugend BBS

rfentima@ub.d.umn.edu (Robert Fentiman) writes:

> AMOS multitasks, no problems there.

It uses buisy wait, that's not very nice in a multitasking enviroment.
(L)AMOS is just the worst bits from both system friendly and hardcoded 
programming. It's not good for games and demos but neither is it good 
for utilities. It tries to do both but succeds with neither.

But I guess it's OK for use as a learning language or a toy programming 
language.


---
"Piracy is theft." / FAST
"Property is theft." / Pierre Proudhon
Newsgroups: alt.sys.amiga.demos,comp.sys.amiga.applications,comp.sys.amiga.introduction,comp.sys.amiga.marketplace,comp.sys.amiga.misc,comp.sys.amiga.advocacy
From: eyvind@Lise.Unit.NO (Eyvind Bernhardsen)
Subject: Re: Programming
Organization: Norwegian Institute of Technology
Date: Mon, 16 Nov 92 16:57:38 GMT

In article <Bxt9zr.JCx@unx.sas.com>, walker@twix.unx.sas.com (Doug Walker) writes:
 > 
 > In article <1e41q2INNne0@ub.d.umn.edu>, rfentima@ub.d.umn.edu (Robert Fentiman) writes:
 > |> the commodities.  As with ANY language, these properties that you
 > |> describe are code dependant.  I could write a C program that would not
 > |> allow what you have said.  Does that make C bad?  I am fairly positive
 > |> many (if not all) of what you have suggested can be implemented in an AMOS
 > |> program.  Everything I have stated IS TRUE to the extent of my
 > |> knowledge.  For answers to these questions, ask a more experienced AMOS
 > |> user.
 > 
 > The point is that with AMOS it's not totally code dependant.  AMOS
 > has a run-time portion which is always the same.  I don't know much
 > about AMOS, but the claim these guys are making is that this run-time
 > portion disables multitasking and steals the input stream from
 > Intuition.  Since you don't control the run-time portion with your
 > code, this would imply that ALL programs written in AMOS do this.
 > If this is true, AMOS is indeed a toy language and not suitable for
 > any serious application.  Please, if any more experienced AMOS users
 > are around, let us know if the above statements are true - as I said,
 > I've never used AMOS.

For the *last* time...  AMOS does *not* disable multitasking!  (Sorry, but I'm
typing this in my SLEEP now...)

 > As a side question, is AMOS a compiled or interpreted BASIC?  If it's
 > interpreted, that reduces its usefulness for commercial products, but
 > wouldn't affect its usefulness for personal applications or PD 
 > projects.

Uh, it's both - interpreted as standard, but there's a compiler available.

 > |> 	Robert Fentiman

 > =*|_o_o|\\=====Doug Walker, Software Distiller====== BBS: (919)460-7430 =

SAS inst.?  Why is my SAS upgrade so #$%& expensive?

:)

-Eyvind


-- 
     //|                             | DISCLAIMER: I don't HAVE opinions.
    // |                             | I just repeat what everyone else says!
\\ //--|miga: There can be only one. |
 \X/   |         eyvind@lise.unit.no | Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaargh!  Ackpth!
Newsgroups: alt.sys.amiga.demos
From: crystal@glia.biostr.washington.edu (Crystal)
Subject: stb_Euro.dms (Nov92) Nice music, graphics hang :<
Organization: University of Washington
Date: Mon, 16 Nov 1992 17:47:35 GMT


Well, I downloaded the 662K eurochart demo to see what one of those things
was like, (since from the descriptions of the chart demos I just couldn't
believe someone would waste coding time presenting simple text files -
programmers really *are* peculiar! ;>)

Anyway, the music was quite nice, and there seem to be several tunes on it,
but it just sat there saying "Static Bytes EuroChart" with a list that
said things like "Best arcade game" and "Best Coders", etc.  It never
got any further.  It simply hung...sort of "static-like".  (That group is
*quite* well named if there is no motion in these chart demos).

I got this copy off of wuarchive, and it took 2 hours to download at 1200
baud...and then it just sits there.  I think I will record the music onto
a cassette tape andthen delete the thing.
 
 Does anyone know how many different tunes are on that demo?

 Thanks,
 Crystal
   ;>

(And *PLEASE* don't suggest I get a faster modem!  I'm unemployed and have
other priorities...and I am growing weary of people telling what hardware
I *should* have - when right now I have what I *NEED*.)
From: browder@csugrad.cs.vt.edu (Chip Browder)
Newsgroups: alt.sys.amiga.demos
Subject: Re: stb_Euro.dms (Nov92) Nice music, graphics hang :<
Date: 16 Nov 92 23:58:05 GMT
Organization: Virginia Tech Computer Science Dept, Blacksburg, VA

In article <crystal.721936055@glia> crystal@glia.biostr.washington.edu (Crystal) writes:
>
>Well, I downloaded the 662K eurochart demo to see what one of those things
>was like, (since from the descriptions of the chart demos I just couldn't
>believe someone would waste coding time presenting simple text files -
>programmers really *are* peculiar! ;>)
>
>Anyway, the music was quite nice, and there seem to be several tunes on it,
>but it just sat there saying "Static Bytes EuroChart" with a list that
>said things like "Best arcade game" and "Best Coders", etc.  It never
>got any further.  It simply hung...sort of "static-like".  (That group is
>*quite* well named if there is no motion in these chart demos).
>

 Well. I for one am sorry you were disappointed, but I should have warned
 you that the EuroChart is not a demo at all. Rather it is just a listing of 
 the top demos/groups/etc. in Europe. There is no great entertainment, as in
 a real demo...

 However, I'd like to make *our* chart much more entertaining. We have the
 skills to do so I think.

>I got this copy off of wuarchive, and it took 2 hours to download at 1200
>baud...and then it just sits there.  I think I will record the music onto
>a cassette tape andthen delete the thing.
> 
> Does anyone know how many different tunes are on that demo?
>

 No, but there is also a collection of really cool bootblox.

 If there WERE a big non-euro scene, people would take more interest in both
 that scene and the euro-scene.
 
> Thanks,
> Crystal
>   ;>
>
>(And *PLEASE* don't suggest I get a faster modem!  I'm unemployed and have
>other priorities...and I am growing weary of people telling what hardware
>I *should* have - when right now I have what I *NEED*.)

 Sell it and buy some food :)



+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+
|              _____  ___    ____   ___    ______ ___  _____  _____  _____  |
|             /     )/ __)  / ___) /   |  / / / //   |(_  __)(_  __)(  ___) |
| RAMchip of / / / // ___) / (_  )/ _' | / / / // _' | / /    / /  __\ \    |
|           /_/_/_/(_____)(_____/(_/ |_|(_____/(_/ |_|(_/    (_/  (_____)   |
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+
 (Chip Browder) browder@csugrad.cs.vt.edu - ramchip@megawatts.async.vt.edu
From: jxp@dcs.ed.ac.uk (Joe Potter)
Newsgroups: alt.sys.amiga.demos
Subject: Re: Phenomena egos??
Date: 16 Nov 92 12:22:43 GMT
Organization: Department of Computer Science, University of Edinburgh

In article <1992Nov16.083508.24131@ugle.unit.no>, mortene@Lise.Unit.NO (Morten Eriksen) writes:
> >Another nice "hack" on the Amiga, is to have more than 8 sprites
> >on a single raster-line. It is pretty easy, you just use the copper
> >to set the xposition of the sprites more than once pr.line.
> 
> Oh? I've heard that this isn't possible. Couldn't you supply us with some source-
> code, please?
> 
> Morten

	Well, some pseudocode from the top of my head...

	for each virtual sprite:
		for each line:
			get a free h/w sprite number [NOTE 1]
			insert into copperlist:
				WAIT (pos 8 lores pixels before sprite X)
				MOVE (position),(h/w sprite pos)
				MOVE (data),(h/w sprite data)
		next line of virtual sprite
	next virtual sprite

	[NOTE 1] Even if you have sprites next to each other, you get 8 times
	sixteen = 128 pixels before having to reuse one.  Provided there's enough
	chip DMA left for the copper (use low colour low res screens), it can
	update the sprite info in time.

	Obviously, this algorithm is disastrously slow, with all those insertions. 
Ideally, you'd collect all the vsprite lines and sort first by Y and then by X position.
That WAIT instruction may require more time - remember, this is off the top of
my head!  I know, however, that the sprites position and data registers can be
updated by the copper rather than the DMA controller.

							Joe.
From: cmp0119@sys.uea.ac.uk (Paul Harrison)
Newsgroups: alt.sys.amiga.demos
Subject: Re: AGA-demo at Anarchy's party...
Date: 23 Nov 92 15:44:27 GMT
Organization: UEA School of Information Systems, Norwich, UK.

u920659@daimi.aau.dk (Carsten S|rensen) writes:

>oahvenla@snakemail.hut.fi (Osma Ahvenlampi) writes:

>>Actually, it'd be 16777216, if there was enough pixels. You can use any color
>>from the palette even in HAM8 mode, which makes it compressed 24 bit. Think
>>about it, 24 bit graphics in 1/3 of the space, and hardware to show it without
>>any conversions!

>If HAM8 works like I think it does (like the previous HAM (6?)) then the
>number of colors must be 262144 + 64.

>		 _   SLAMMER of
>		//\ __  __ __ _ |_
>	       //--\| )(_| | (__| )\/ - BEDTIME FOR DEMOCRACY
>		                   / u920659@daimi.aau.dk

You're both right. The 64 "palette" colours can be used to set the least
significant parts of the colour registers, so *in theory* the full 16M
colours can be used. In practice, because each use of a palette colour
changes every bit of a colour register, it's very difficult to use in any
practical form without making strange, corrupted, pictures, so 262144+64
(+ tricks using the copper) is the practical maximum.

Paul
Newsgroups: alt.sys.amiga.demos,comp.sys.amiga.applications,comp.sys.amiga.introduction,comp.sys.amiga.marketplace,comp.sys.amiga.misc,comp.sys.amiga.advocacy
From: KRC@ECLX.PSU.EDU (Keith R. Connors)
Subject: Looking for awesome demos for NTSC.
Organization: Penn State Engineering Computer Lab
Date: Sun, 15 Nov 92 17:33:18 GMT
X-News-Reader: VMS NEWS 1.24

Hey there....

Well, after downloading at random from wustl's systems/amiga/demos and
nic.funet.fi's pub/amiga/demos directories, I have gotten frustrated by the
good number of the demos just don't like NTSC machines.  Unfortunately,
I don't have a FATTER AGNUS, so I can't switch to PAL.  Anyway, I don't blame
the programmers for programming in PAL....I would too if my machine was PAL!

Anyway, since my time is limited and I'm hooked on euro-demos, 
I'm just wondering if you guys could please recommend some awesome
demos that run well in NTSC (I know some of the demos allow you to switch 
using the mouse)....thanks so much!

Keith Connors
krc@eclx.psu.edu
From: wchucky@ocf.berkeley.edu (Chuck Woo)
Newsgroups: alt.sys.amiga.demos
Subject: Re: Music and Code from Demos
Date: 18 Nov 1992 07:03:06 GMT
Organization: U.C. Berkeley Open Computing Facility
Distribution: world
NNTP-Posting-Host: hailstorm.berkeley.edu

In article <Paul_Trauth.12zg@agwbbs.new-orleans.LA.US> Paul_Trauth@agwbbs.new-orleans.LA.US (Paul Trauth) writes:
>Nope. Timex Sinclair=Sinclair ZX81.

oh !@#$, I had one of those.  it was cool, too, considering the top machine
was either a vic-20 or the c64, which was like $600!
never got any of those MindWare (?) games to load though...

>I'm not sure if the Spectrum was ever available in the US...

it was, in a modified form: remember the TS/2000?

-- 
-----------------------------------------------------------------------///
Chuck Woo                               wchucky@ocf.berkeley.edu      ///
"Bad spellers of the world:  UNTIE!"  - from some joke newsgroup  \\\///
-------------------------------------------------------------------\XX/
Newsgroups: alt.sys.amiga.demos
From: bosman@fwi.uva.nl (Cor Bosman)
Subject: Re: Can you tell me how to make this demo work?
Organization: FWI, University of Amsterdam
Date: Tue, 17 Nov 1992 14:26:13 GMT

Paul_Trauth@agwbbs.new-orleans.LA.US (Paul Trauth) writes:

>In a message dated Fri 13 Nov 92 22:10, Jyork@iastate.edu (justin York)
>wrote:

> JY> I have been trying to get the LSD - Jesus on E's demo to work, but
> JY> with no
> JY> luck. I have a 500 with an MMR, 4M fast, 2M 32bit, 1M chip. I have
> JY> tried
> JY> this with 512k chip/512k slowfast in 68000 mode, and this works for a
> JY> minute,
> JY> but the music gets messed up and then the computer gurus. I tried to
> JY> run it in
> JY> PAL, with several different pal-booters, and degrader, but it still
> JY> dies after
> JY> about a minute. I tried getting rid of all memory except 512k chip/

>Just to let you know it's not just you, it exhibits similar symptoms on my
>machine. Loads forever (~10 min!!!), starts the pretty nifty music and
>graphics, then bombs.
>(a2000 68010 1M chip 2M fast an HD and PAL.)
>...maybe the archive's slightly corrupt? (ugh)

I also had this problem, and altho it sounds weird, and maybe was
a coincidence, I switched the drives. I have 1 3.5" and one 5.25"
I put disk 1 on 3.5 and disk2 on 5.25 and it crashed. Then
I switched them and it worked. Weird huh. Awesome music btw!

cor bosman

-- 
|bosman@fwi.uva.nl_   //     | Honest Officer , had I known my health      |
|-----------------\\ //AMIGA | stood in jeopardy I would never had lit one.|
|  PE no.1         \\/       |             -MAXIM (of the Hells Angels)-   |
|__________ Quickly Scotty,beam me up.There is no ox..y..ge..._____________|
From: cs_e445@ceres (Vlod Kalicun)
Newsgroups: alt.sys.amiga.demos
Subject: Re: Everybody, get "ACM 3.0"
Date: 20 Nov 1992 16:37:30 GMT
Organization: Kingston University
NNTP-Posting-Host: ceres.kingston.ac.uk
X-Newsreader: Tin 1.1 PL4

marnold@cwis.unomaha.edu (Matthew Eldon Arnold) writes:
: I see lots of posts saying, "Hey, how do I code plasma is BASIC" or
: "Gee, where does one begin programming these things?"
: 
: You only need to be given the proper documentation.  "The Amiga 'C'
: Manual 3.0" can be found on Fred Fish disks 691 - 695.  It unarcs to
: nearly eight megs.  It covers so much I can't even begin to explain it
: all.  Most of it is well-documented source code.
: 
: This is what you've been waiting for.  Sure beats to crappy books by Abacus.
: Now quit reading news and go code some 'C'.
: 
: -- 
: +-----------+    /\/\                            Since computers become 
: | Will code |   //\/\\                           dated so quickly, UNO 
: | for food  |  //    \\arnold@cwis.unomaha.edu   issues CSCI degrees with 
: +-----------+  ===============================   an expiration date. 

If you intend using it, you should register it, as you can imagine a lot
of work has gone into it. Without direct support, projects like this wont
happen in the future.

Vlod

Newsgroups: alt.sys.amiga.demos