Magnetic Pages Article | 1993-10-14 | 25KB | 104 lines
MPARTICLE
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& It would be appreciated if letters&of more than a few lines were sent on&disk as this saves re-typing. Text&files should be in the ASCII format.&Include a covering letter and put your&name and address on the disk. All&subscribers' disks will be returned&with the next issue of the magazine if¬ sooner. If possible all other&disks will be returned but as it's&impossible to know how many will be&received this can't be guaranteed -#the postage could become excessive.& Feel free to include pictures on&disk related to your letter but please&make them as small as possible. They&should be hi-res non-interlaced and of&16 colours or less. Deluxe Paint type&brushes are ideal. Other (non-AGA)&Amiga formats could be used but they&would have to be converted anyway so&if you are drawing a picture to go&with your letter please use non-
interlaced hi-res.& I reserve the right to edit or&abridge any letters or not to include&them at all. Those using nom-de-plumes&will only be used if a full name and&address is included. This will be kept
confidential.& Letters to the editor should be
sent to...
CyberCraft
PO Box 4032
Mayfair
HASTINGS 4201
NEW ZEALAND
Letters next page...& This letter from the author of&Landscape is in response to my&criticisms of AMOS in the review of&his program in issue three of APDR.&It's abridged due to being extracted
from a longer letter.
$ SOME COMMENTS ABOUT AMOS PROGRAMS.
&The "AMOS is a brilliant language.."&line did indeed refer to it being a&brilliant language to program in and I&too find some of the AMOS "quirks" a&little annoying. However comments&which you made about multi-tasking&were not quite accurate. The left&Amiga A combination is not new to AMOS&Pro. The original version also&supports this. (Try it with&Landscape.) It is possible for the&programmer to disable this, for&example in a game when you don't want&the machine to multi-task and upset&all of the timing in the game, but&otherwise left Amiga A should work on&all AMOS programs. When you have&switched to Workbench using this you&can multi-task in exactly the same way&as if you had used Amiga N/M in any&other program. I am writing this&letter with a text editor while&Landscape 2 is happily generating a&scene in the background. The only&catch is that everything is slowed&down if the AMOS program is taking up&a lot of processor time. (This is true&of any other Amiga program). My only&complaint about the way AMOS multi-&tasks is that it uses the A key&instead of N/M, and this means I have&to keep writing notes in all my doc.&files pointing this out. This is a&real pain and I wish that it used N/M.&Incidentally, you suggest that your&readers press the Amiga and M keys to&get to the Workbench. This doesn't&work! You have to press the N to get&Workbench and the M to come back on my&machine. By the way I also got the&HiSoft Basic from the coverdisk and it&looks pretty good. I haven't written&much in it because there doesn't seem&to be any way to produce stand-alone&code with it, however those who got&AMOS on the other coverdisk also got&the compiler which allows you to&produce stand alone code, so it is debatable who got the best deal!
&As for the comments about the deletion&of text under Workbench 2, I doubt&that any AMOS program would implement&it because each programmer would have&written their own routines to handle&input. It would seem to me that the&only way a program could use new&Workbench 2 stuff would be if it used&standard Amiga libraries and these had&changed slightly under Workbench 2. I&doubt that this sort of thing would&work if I had used HiSoft Basic (or&any other Basic) to write the program.&I can't afford Workbench 2 (or 3 or&??) so I can't test this. I haven't&seen AMOS Pro for the same reason.&AMOS is a different operating system&to Workbench so it would be surprising&if there were not a few differences,&and I find that I can cope once I have&worked out what these are. I also had&the same sort of problem moving from&icons to text viewers to IFF viewers&etc. to systems like the one used in&your magazine. (I had trouble&navigating at first, but when I had&worked it out it was fairly easy,&although not the way I would have done&it from Workbench.) Please don't take&any of this as criticism as I agree&that it is a pain in the backside when&a program doesn't behave intuitively.&I have provided the above comments&about multi-tasking so that your&readers can make better use of any
AMOS software which they have.
&I think that the answer to your&question about fractals at the end of&the Lyapunov review is: They are&discovered, but usually by inventive
minds! (Sorry, no postcard.)" Andrew Kreibich,& Australia.
& First up an apology for not knowing&that AMOS programs can multi-task. Or&more correctly, you can have access to&one AMOS program plus any other normal&Amiga programs. If you start a second&AMOS program while another one is&running the previous one then becomes&unavailable! Whether it's still&running or not I haven't been able to&determine but it comes back again when&you exit the second AMOS program. In&other words AMOS is stacking it's&programs with only the last one&started ever available to the user.&It's an utterly weird way to do&things. But yes, you can at least&multi-task one AMOS program which is
better than none I guess.& I looked at the docs of a few AMOS&programs to see if anyone mentioned&the Amiga A key but none did. ZAM 3&was a multi-tasking scene mag! If I'd&known it might have got a few more&points. And how about this from the&docs to Landscape v1.11 as presented&on Fish 554. "To save memory this&program closes the Workbench while it&is running." This hardly encourages&users to believe the program is multi-
tasking in any useful way.& I still stand by my other&criticisms of AMOS. By not using the&normal Amiga conventions it forces the&users to re-learn things they already&know. With regards to my magazine. I&know the first three issues were not&the easiest to navigate but this&wasn't due to the programming of&Magnetic Pages or the program used to&write Magnetic Pages. It was just bad&design on my part. (Improved with&issue four and hopefully again with&issue seven.) Magnetic Pages produced&magazines do conform to standard Amiga&practice. The Amiga N/M keys (and&screen gadgets) are supported, the&windows can be scrolled up and down to&reveal what's on other screens,&(unless they happen to be AMOS&screens), it uses the Workbench 2&requester so if that's upgraded it&will make use of it and you can run&the magazines as many times as memory&permits without any problems. All that&because the language Magnetic Pages&was written in conformed to the normal
Amiga conventions.& This is not a criticism of AMOS&programmers. I suspect AMOS's&popularity is due to not having to buy&a swag of other books and stuff after&purchasing it just to write a halfway&decent program on the Amiga. When I&first bought my Amiga I was appalled&at AmigaBASIC, the language that came&with the A500. I looked around for&alternatives but C programs were way&too expensive and then you still had&to get those books as well and then to&program in assembler it seemed you had&to know some C too! HiSoft Basic or&GFA Basic seemed the only suitable&languages at that time, (I ignored&AMOS for the above reasons and also&because if you wanted to write a&simple little program for running on&Workbench you'd have to use another&language anyway), but I still had my&doubts as to whether the price would&double due to having to buy the&necessary books to get the most out of&them. I got a ray-tracer instead and&haven't yet learnt an Amiga language,&dabbles in AmigaBASIC not withstand-&ing. So "quirky" AMOS programs are&entirely Commodore's fault for not&providing a decent Basic with the
Amiga right from the start.& The Amiga N/M confusion was my&fault for not checking how it works on&the A500's 1.3 Workbench. It's been&simplified with Workbench 2 and that's
the method I described.& When HiSoft Basic came out on a&cover-disk the AMOS alternative&offered didn't have the compiler with&it. Since then CU Amiga has done it&properly and included AMOS with the&compiler. I still didn't buy it
though.& "Discovered, but usually by&inventive minds?" That's a sophist's
answer if ever I heard one!& Readers should also check out the&latest version of Landscape reviewed&in the Updates section of this issue.&AMOS or not, it's a polished and user-
friendly program.
----& Letter from Andrew Woods, author of
EasyCalc and Directory Manager.
&Amiga shareware could be MUCH better.&Most Amiga shareware is useless.&Negative? Not really, if you compare&the shareware of the PC or even the&Atari ST you will see what I mean. On&the PC there is a company called&Shareware Publishing. Shareware&authors can send them software then&forget about it. The company produces&quality printed manuals, user support&and all the disk duplication. They&also handle sending the software to&shareware libraries and magazines for&review. It makes PC shareware cost&more but the quality is also much&better. I can think of several full&time shareware authors on the PC that&make a comfortable living just from&coding shareware 8 hours a day. There&are hundreds of others who make a part
time living from it.
&This professionalism makes the&software excellent. Compare it with&the Amiga scene full of crappy demos&(which look good but are no use). On&the Amiga some programmer will write a&simple programming exercise, like an&address book, or a units converter and&then think "wow that was easy, lets&slap a
5 shareware fee onto this". I&doubt whether anyone registers, and&all it does is make the situation&worse, giving the Amiga a reputation!for cheap, but rubbish shareware.
&To make matters worse, on the Amiga we&are plagued by these lame sods who go&around hacking games and software. I&don't care about games, (most are over&priced rubbish anyway) but when some&"character" hacked my address out of a&
10 shareware program, which could be&legally copied, it just summed up the&Amiga scene. These people had nothing&to gain by doing it, so why? Is it&because since they have destroyed the&Amiga games and business markets they&have turned their attention to&shareware? Sticking your name into a&program is easy, it certainly does not&show you are a master coder. Any lamer&with a hex editor can search for an
ASCII string and change it.
&You think I am alarmist? I have been&an Amiga "freak" for nearly five years&now. I have seen it all come (and most&of it go). A few years ago there was&some shareware, when SID came out, a&million users suddenly discovered&directory utilities. Even four years&later, SID is still a good program. I&can not think of a single new&shareware program of the same scale as&SID, that has been released in the&last year. I challenge your readers to
prove me wrong!
&To finish this long rambling text:&Without a major change in the&attitudes of Amiga programmers (and&users) Amiga shareware is going to&stagnate and die. Think how many&shareware programs have become&commercial (Scenery became Vista,&PowerPacker became PowerPacker Pro).&An organisation is needed which®ulates shareware and possibly&handles distribution of it. Fred Fish&is the closest we have on the Amiga to&an organisation. Although I have heard&rumours that he is thinking of&stopping at disk 1000. An Amiga&shareware organisation could control&what is actually released as shareware&and could even produce printed manuals&for a few
more. If any enterprising&readers or libraries read this maybe&they could set something up, I would&certainly be interested in helping. As&for the hackers out there, they are&the lowest form of life as they have&done more to destroy the Amiga than&any marketing mess by CBM. Finally&shareware users should be prepared to&pay more for shareware. I am sure&users would rather pay
20 for a&quality application than
10 for
another disk to reformat.
&Oh yes, finally, a quick comment on&the magazine. Great, the best disk&magazine I have seen. Even better than
mine!
" Andrew Woods,& United Kingdom.
& I'm unsure that a distribution&company for Amiga shareware would be a&good idea. Apart from the increase in&prices due to the extra overheads,&users would also lose the direct&contact they have with the producers&of shareware. The programmers may also&lose the feedback they get from the&users. They would also be left high&and dry and perhaps without a mailing&list if the distribution company went&bust. Just look at the attrition rate&among PD libraries and they're not&having to worry about handling other&people's money. If anyone's planning&to do this though then let me know and
I'll spread the word.& Paper manuals are not an attractive&proposition in my opinion. I have over&twenty programs, sitting on my&Workbench alone and uncountable others&deep within the directories of my hard&disk. The thought of having a paper&manual each for even a tenth of them&is too horrible to even contemplate.&I've also produced the first five&issues of this magazine quite happily&without an Amiga printer. I've one now&but it's only to speed up the writing&of letters to all these shareware&authors who keep pestering me. (All&the letters people have received from&me this year were written on a C64 and&an eight year old Commodore 1526&printer - who says Commodore kit&doesn't last!) But paper's on the way
out.& I do agree however that there's too&many Amiga programs around that people&are asking shareware for when they&should really be just PD or perhaps&giftware. Programmers should be using&the smaller programs they produce for&getting their names known and only&placing shareware fees on their larger
applications.& I'm not sure Amiga users should be&willing to pay higher prices for&shareware. I just think they should be&willing to pay! This is the rub on the&Amiga and with software in general it&would seem, going by the comments I&received while selling the above&mentioned printer. "We've got that&software but I've never seen the&manual before." On hearing I used to&subscribe to Loadstar, a C64 disk mag.&"I get that through the club - it's&cheaper." This attitude is the norm in&NZ it would seem going by what I've&heard. I just don't think the average&user even considers that the producers&of the software they're using deserves&to be rewarded for their efforts. If&anyone has any suggestions on how to&get it into their thick heads that&this would be a nice thing to do I'd
like to hear from them.& The reality for the Amiga now&though is that coverdisks are the&benchmark for a lot of people where&prices are concerned. There's now a&shareware version of VMorph available&at a mere
5 that runs ten or more× faster than the PD version.&However a commercial morphing program&that supports colour has appeared on a&coverdisk costing about the same or&less. Rightly or otherwise, this is&what people now expect to pay for&Amiga software. As a user I love it&but as a producer of software it sure&makes it hard to compete with those
kinds of prices.& With regards to the lame sods who&removed your address from that
10&shareware program of yours. Perhaps it&crashed on them Andrew? Users don't&like bugs you know. It makes us&nervous. Consider this from Microsoft&Press's "Programmers at Work", 1st&Series. It's from an interview with&Ray Ozzie, a programmer involved with&Symphony, a spreadsheet produced by&Lotus for PCs. "My most amazing&experience was a phone call I got from&a surgeon who was using Symphony for&real-time data analysis during open&heart surgery. It is sobering to think&that someone was lying on an operating&table, potentially relying upon my&program running properly. It reminds&one of the real responsibility to end&users." As I said, bugs make us users&feel nervous. SID,'s not a good&example either as when I first tried&it the thing crashed on me so I&haven't tried it since. I don't use&buggy software unless it's
indispensable.& Andrew also suggested that&shareware programmers may like to form&groups like the demo groups but for&the production of applications. (Well&he suggested it in the letter to the&editor on paper but not in the&supposedly identical one on disk!)&This is an excellent idea and I'd be&happy to let the magazine be used to&help programmers get in touch with&each other. So any Amiga programmers&out there who would like to work with&others in the above manner then let me&know and I'll let the world know
you're interested.& The magazine Andrew produced which&is not as good as mine is called TDH&Magazine though from my reading of the&sixth and last issue it seems to have&been produced by Tom, Dick and Harry&of the group Satan's Underpants. They&liked to refer to their magazine as&The Serious Amiga Disk Magazine due, I&think, to the inclusion of AMOS and&HiSoft Basic examples, music and&art-work and not, I assure you, due to&it's style, which is much more&humorous than serious. The final issue&contains one of the all-time great&magazine editorials. Back issues are&still available!!!
1.50 each in the&UK or
2 in Europe (and beyond). See&Andrew's address in the shareware
column if you're interested.& Anyway, on the strength of Andrew's&"long rambling text" above he's now a&columnist for this magazine. I just&hope I don't live to regret it. He's&also informed me that he really and&honestly does like demos. Honest!&Personally I don't believe a word of&it. I assume he's just trying to&ingratiate himself with the editor&which I guess is what he expected from&Tom, Dick and Harry but it ain't the&way things work at CyberCraft. You&listening Andrew? Good. Now make the
coffee please.
----& One letter last issue, two this&time. At this rate of growth by issue
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