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   Tests

Amiga SDK Impression

 
Hi,

After reading your little installation feature on the "Amiga SDK" I would like to share my experiences after 1 day of use. Currently, my box consist :

• Hardware:
  Intel PIII 733 motherboard (Matsonic)
  TNT2 video card
  256 Mb RAM
  15GB IDE Quantum
  Intel 10/100T 18552 Ethernet NIC
  Soundblaster 128
  SCSI 19160 Adaptec
  JAZ SCSI 1GB drive
  Ricoh 6200S drive
  

• OS:
  Linux Redhat 6.2
  

After going through the tedious process of getting the SDK registered, the SDK was installed without problems.
For the Redhat 6.2 system it is required to get/install the "amiga_ncurses.tar.gz" in the /usr, without it you won't get the Amiga shell started. The package installs the needed curses libraries to /usr/amiga/lib and all that is needed is to point your LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/amiga/lib.
At first start I was mislead by some errors in the manual on page 4 that said the Amiga shell needed to be started using "sys/platform/linux/elate" command. So, small tip.... first get the "Errors in the SDK manual" from the FAQ page on www.amigadev.net.
There you will find corrections which tell you all that is needed is to type in "intent_shell" in a terminal session, and that from a non-root directory (eg. /home/youruserdir).
I strongly advice to thorougly browse through the SDK manual, to fully understand the implications on how the shell's filing system has been implemented (virtual, images, read only), including the way tools and apps are started. Apparently the best method is to always work in the "Amiga"-root, typing in the paths. So, to start the "boing" demo you would have to type "demo/examples/ave/boing".
In my opinion the help system provided is truly needed and easy to use. Going through the manual my first impression is that a lot can be achieved, but a lot needs to be done. The AVE GUI toolkit seems to provide most needed interfaces. So for now I'm diving into the help system and getting the hang of that before going into the more serious work.

Regards,
Chris De Maeyer
http://www.visionary.yucom.be