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Article 289 of comp.sys.amiga.announce: Path: bronze!ux1.cso.uiuc.edu!uwm.edu!linac!att!rutgers!cbmvax!vanth!jms From: jms@vanth.UUCP (Jim Shaffer) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.announce Subject: AMReport #2.02 Message-ID: <jms.07s5@vanth.UUCP> Date: 22 May 92 02:42:45 GMT Organization: Carlos Allende cabal, Paratheo-anametamystikhood Of Eris Esoteric Lines: 2878 Approved: vanth!jms@cbmvax.cbm.commodore.com Below is AMReport 2.02. I am posting this as a service to the network community and in doing so do not necessarily endorse anything written here. Comments, questions, or contributions should be sent to the editor's address, not to mine. ============================================================================= *---== AM-REPORT INTERNATIONAL ONLINE MAGAZINE ==---* --------------------------------------- "The Online Magazine of Choice!" from STR Publishing Inc. ----------------- May 16, 1992 Volume 2.02 ========================================================================= > 05/16/92: AM-Report #2.02 The Online Magazine of Choice! -Amiga 600 -Rambrandt Video Card -Jobs Available -AM-Report Expands -Mac Emulator News -XCAD & .INFO Both Gone -New BBS Software -Consultron Info -AmiBack 2.0 -Amiga UNIX -Amiga ADA -Amiga Neural Network -Amiga Hoy Internacional -Comeau C++ v3.0 -* Commodore's Quarterlty Report *- -* Bridgecard Speed Hack *- -* ADPro 2.0 Review *- -* Much, Much More *- TODAY'S NEWS ..TODAY! ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > AMReport's Staff The regulars and this week's contributors! ================ Publisher - Editor ------------------ Ralph F. Mariano PC DIVISION AMIGA DIVISION MAC DIVISION ----------- -------------- ------------ Robert Retelle Charles Hill R. ALBRITTON Contributing Correspondents --------------------------- Mike Todd (CIX) Jim Shaffer, Jr. (UseNet) 70117,634 on CompuServe cbmvax.commodore.com!vanth!jms Andrew Farrell Australian Commodore and Amiga Review & Professional Amiga User Magazine Mike Ehlert, SysOp: PACIFIC COAST MICRO BBS -- FidoNet 1:102/1001 IMPORTANT NOTICE ================ Please, submit letters to the editor, articles, reviews, etc... via E-Mail to: Compuserve.................... 76370,3045 Internet/Usenet............... 76370.3045@compuserve.com **************************************************************************** EDITORIAL ~~~~~~~~~ Okay, so I'm a *little* late (four months -- one-third of a year!). I have excuses. (Lord knows I've had time enough to think some up!) First off, I moved -- twice. I also attended a half-dozen conferences as an exhibitor and a few as an attendee (no, nothing Amiga specific). On Friday, March 13th I had a bad day. My PC got hit by a virus; my A3000 went on the blink (no virus -- a bad RAM chip) and my A2000 died blowing smoke out of it's power supply (certainly not a virus!) The A2000 took out the hard drive and one floppy drive...unfortunately the hard drive had this issue of AM-Report on it. No, I didn't have a backup. So I'm late -- sue me! :-) (Just a joke folks!) On the rumor front -- the Associated Press newswire was carrying a story that Nintendo was looking at purchasing Commodore. I AM NOT JOKING! They did carry the story. Nintendo was rumored to be looking for an established European distribution network. Nintendo is also flush with cash (remember they were looking at the Seattle Mariners just a little while ago). However, both Nintendo and CBM said it was just a rumor. Nintendo has since spent a fortune to establish its own European base in Germany. [It would've been interesting since Commodore's new A600 could be a direct competitor for SuperNES depending on the way it is advertised.] On to the news! ============================================================================= COMMODORE FISCAL REPORT ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ NEW YORK (APRIL 29) PR NEWSWIRE - Commodore International Limited (NYSE: CBU) today reported earnings of $4.1 million, or $0.12 per share on sales of $194.6 million for the third fiscal quarter ended March 31, 1992. This compares with net income of $1.4 million, or $0.04 per share after extraordinary charge on sales of $246.3 million in the year-ago quarter. For the nine months ended March 31, 1992, Commodore reported net income of $49.5 million, or $1.47 per share on sales of $770.3 million. This compares with net income of $44.9 million, or $1.37 per share after extraordinary charge on sales of $830.7 million in the prior year. The decline in sales for the quarter was primarily due to the discontinuation of the unprofitable low-end MS-DOS range, and a reduction in C64 sales, due to economic softness in certain markets. This was partially offset by a 10 percent increase in unit sales of the Amiga line along with continued growth in the Professional PC line. Gross profit for the quarter declined, primarily reflecting the impact of lower revenues, partially offset by the favorable impact of hedging activities. Operating expenses were reduced by 25 percent vs. the prior year. These factors resulted in net income for the quarter of $4.1 million. Irving Gould, chairman and chief executive officer stated: "Revenues and profitability for the quarter were adversely impacted by the weak global economic environment. However, we are encouraged by the continued growth in the Amiga and Professional PC lines. Furthermore, Commodore's range of products has been enhanced with the recent introduction of the Amiga 600 and 600HD, a new line of consumer products which have been well received in the marketplace." ============================================================================ COMMODORE Amiga 600 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ [The following blurb was posted on CompuServe's AmigaUser forum by a Compute! magazine representative. The original archived fileset included a HAM picture along with this file. -- Ed.] The following specifications are taken from Commodore brochures distributed at the recent CeBit show in Germany, and are publically available. The A600 was unveiled to the masses at that show by Commodore Germany, and has also been announced over NewsBytes by Commodore Netherlands. Commodore U.S. and Commodore U.K. have not yet announced whether or not they'll be marketing the 600 in their respective countries. Amiga 600: ~~~~~~~~~~ MC68000 MPU running at 7.14 MHz (shades of 1985 -ed.) ECS Agnes and Denise chips Kickstart 2.05 in ROM Workbench 2.05 on disk Gayle chip replaces Gary to support new hardware features 1MB Chip RAM, expandable to 2MB using A601 slot PCMCIA credit-card expansion slot replaces 86-pin expansion found on A500 IDE hard drive interface on motherboard, room to mount internal 2.5-inch hard drive (A600HD includes hard drive) All chips except Kickstart surface-mounted No numeric keypad ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Commentary: This machine could be a Sega/SuperNES killer if marketed at about $250-300, and enhanced by an ad campaign comparing it against the game machines, like the old C64 vs. Atari VCS commercials. Commodore Germany says the price will be the same as the A500Plus. However, look for a rapid drop, as (1) Commodore usually drops prices on new machines considerably after a few months, and (2) the surface-mount construction and smaller, keypad-less case should make it much cheaper to produce. This is either the best idea since the C64 or the best idea since the Plus/4. Commodore's marketing department will make that decision. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This picture provided courtesy Amiga Computing Magazine (UK) and COMPUTE's Amiga Resource (US). COMPUTE's Amiga Resource is a 32-page monthly all-Amiga section published in a special edition of COMPUTE. Subscriptions are only $9.97 a year. Call 800-727-6937, make sure to specify the Amiga edition, and give them code J4LY to get the special $9.97/12-issue price. ============================================================================= COMMODORE POSITION AVAILABLE ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ [captured from usenet] Position: Amiga/CDTV Support Engineer II Location: Commodore Applications and Technical Support (CATS) Commodore International Ltd., West Chester, PA. 215-431-9100 Apply to: Human Resources Department Commodore International Ltd. 1200 Wilson Drive West Chester, PA. 19380 Please include a list detailing the Amiga hardware and software features you have programmed. If possible, please include diskette and/or printed listings of Amiga code you have written. Job Description --------------- The successful candidate for the position of Amiga Support Engineer will be actively dedicated to ensuring that Commodore's third party software and hardware developers can obtain answers to technical issues related to developing quality software and hardware for Amiga platforms. Responsibilities ---------------- o To provide software and hardware development support to third party developers and others as necessary through direct contact, telephone, electronic mail, and electronic information systems. o Research and provide solutions to developer questions and problems. Can include communicating with Commodore's R&D staff, and writing test programs. o Write technical articles and assist in the development of developer documentation as needed. o Program utilities and examples to aid in development and debugging. o Handle bug reports and follow up to determine a resolution or workaround. o Test new system and development hardware and software. o Keep up on on all technical aspects of Commodore systems, as well as new developments and emerging standards. Education and experience ------------------------ o Engineering or computer science degree or equivalent experience required. o At least 2 years microcomputer programming experience o Experience (diverse as possible) in programming the Amiga o Proficient in C, experience with micro assembler (preferably 68000) o Strong communication skills---written and verbal---required. o Must be organized, and have initiative. [Note that this position may be filled by now. -- Ed.] ============================================================================ JOB OFFER ~~~~~~~~~ Position Available: Amiga Technician/Programmer Cable TeleGuide, Inc., a fast-growing technology company, is accepting resumes from qualified applicants for the position of Amiga technician/ programmer. This salaried position offers a generous benefit package in an attractive working environment. Qualifications include: 1) Experience in configuring, troubleshooting, and repairing the Commodore Amiga computer, 2) Experience in programming the Amiga using the C programming language, and 3) Knowledge of data communications protocols and procedures. Interested applicants should send resumes to Cable TeleGuide, Inc., 181 E. Evans St., BTC-030, Florence, SC 29506, or fax to (803) 661-7724. ============================================================================ MORE JOBS ~~~~~~~~~ Attention Amiga Programers! HOLLYWARE/MicroIllusions is looking for Amiga programers and programers looking to have their software published. If you're interested in programing please send your resume to: HOLLYWARE/MicroIllusions 13464 Washington Blvd. Marina Del Rey, CA. 90291 To submit a program for review please send your information along with a brief description of your program to us via E-Mail. We will send you a non-disclosure contract before we will accept your submission. HOLLYWARE/MicroIllusions ============================================================================ COMMODORE JOB AVAILABLE ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ CATS POSITION AVAILABLE Here's your chance to be a CAT ! CATS (Commodore Applications and Technical Support) has an opening in our Amiga Developer Support technical group. We are looking for an Amiga/CDTV Support Engineer with varied Amiga programming experience and skills in written and verbal communication. We would be especially interested in anyone whose experience includes programming Amiga hardware ( custom chips, interrupts, device drivers, ...) CATS provides support for Amiga and CDTV developers via telephone, electronic BBS, AmigaMail articles, sample code, debugging tools, developer's conferences, and developer manuals. If you'd like to work with a great team If you'd like to see your name in print If wouldn't mind doing ALL of your work on networked Amigas and Unix machines ! Apply today! If you've applied before, please apply again. If you are applying for any other positions at Commodore, and would also like to be considered for this CATS position, please attach a note to your resume indicating that you would like a copy of your resume forwarded to CATS. Please include any salary requirements, a list of your Amiga programming experience, and, if possible, examples of Amiga code you have written. --------------- Job Description and Application Address --------------- Position: Amiga/CDTV Support Engineer II Location: Commodore Applications and Technical Support (CATS) Commodore International Ltd., West Chester, PA. 215-431-9100 Apply to: Human Resources Department Commodore International Ltd. 1200 Wilson Drive West Chester, PA. 19380 ATTN: CATS Support Engineer Applications Job Description --------------- The successful candidate for the position of Amiga Support Engineer will be actively dedicated to ensuring that Commodore's third party software and hardware developers can obtain answers to technical issues related to developing quality software and hardware for Amiga platforms. Responsibilities ---------------- o To provide software and hardware development support to third party developers through direct contact, telephone, electronic mail, electronic information systems, examples, and developer documentation. o Research and provide solutions to developer questions and problems. This can include communicating with Commodore's R&D staff, and writing test programs. o Write technical articles and assist in the development of developer documentation. o Program utilities and examples to aid in development and debugging. o Handle developer bug reports. o Test new system and development hardware and software. o Keep up on on all technical aspects of Commodore systems, as well as new developments and emerging standards. Education and experience ------------------------ o At least 2 years microcomputer programming experience o Experience (diverse as possible) in programming the Amiga o Proficient in C, assembler experience (preferably 68000) beneficial o Strong communication skills---written and verbal---required. o Must be organized, and have initiative. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- ANOTHER COMMODORE JOB ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Amiga OS Software Development ============================= Commodore has software openings in the following areas: CDTV Development OS and application SW development for the multimedia Amiga- based CDTV product. Work with CD+G, device drivers, graphics, audio in a state of the art multimedia platform. Experience with multimedia applications would be an asset. Outline Fonts Integrate modern outline fonts technology into the AmigaOS. System fonts, screen rasterization, printer rendering. Outline font technology expertise required. Workbench Develop new and standardize existing utilities for Amiga Workbench window-based GUI. Custom Device Development Support: As a member of the graphics group, work on a task force developing, testing and proving custom graphics devices for the Amiga. This challenging position offers the opportunity to contribute to state of the chip design. Experience with low-level system programming required. For all of the above positions, C language and/or 68000 assembly experience is required, and Amiga or multitasking OS development experience is strongly desired. The successful applicant will be hard working, self-motivated and able to work well with peers. Writing and communications skills are a definite plus. As a member of a small entrepreneurial team, each engieer is a significant contributor through the actual marked introduction of his/her product. As a member of a large international corporation, each engineer benefits from the resources that Commodore can provide. AND you're working with the Amiga, a pioneer in multitasking, GUI and multimedia. Become a member of the strong, innovative team with developed AmigaOS. For immediate consideration, please send resume, including applicable experience and salary history, to: Amiga SW Positions - Human Resources Commodore Business Machines 1200 Wilson Drive West Chester, PA 19380 FAX: (215) - 431 9156 or electronically to Email: havemose@cbmvax.commodore.com {uunet|cbmehq}!cbmvax!havemose Bix: ahavemose If you have code examples you're proud of, send them on! Commodore is proud to be an equal opportunity employer m/f/h/v. ============================================================================ SUPER HIRES AMIGA CARD ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I found this text file on a local BBS. It gives the specifications for Progressive Peripherals high-resolution video card: Rambrandt. It looks like a transcript of a brochure, so remember this is all advertising copy and probably contains a good deal of hype. RAMBRANDT PRODUCT PREVIEW Video and Graphics System For Amiga 2000 and 3000 series computers Rambrandt Amiga offers workstation power for desktop video, multimedia, Industrial and scientific applications. For video and graphic profess- ionals, and industries demanding high-performance graphics and video workstations, the Rambrandt Amiga system offers features and performance at a revolutionary price. Rambrandt has two framebuffers with adjustable resolutions of up to 1024 x 1024 pixels per buffer in 32-bit color. The Rambrandt twin-board graphics system is based on the Texas Instruments TMS34020 40 MHz 32-bit graphics processor, with 34082 graphics/math coprocessor. For video and graphics applications, Rambrandt has composite and RGB video input, and composite and genlockable RGB video output. Through Rambrandt's RGB and composite video output, displays of 16.7 million colors are possible in resolutions up to 1024 x 1024. Rambrandt can digitize video from a variety of sources in 16.7 million colors in real time - 1/30th of a second. The dual buffers can be linked for a contiguous, scrollable work area of up to 1024 x 2048 pixels. Rambrandt's standard configuration is two four-megabyte banks of fast video RAM (VRAM)and eight megabytes of RAM (DRAM) for resident application software. NTSC and PAL versions are available to support video and graphics applications world wide. Rambrandt is an ideal system for video and graphics work, multimedia, computer aided design, medical industry, industrial and scientific simulations, and entertainment industry applications. For film and video production work, Rambrandt is capable of an unlmited variety of digital video effects such as flipping, page turns, coloriz- ation, solarization, polarization, up to 8:1 zoom, rotations, picture-in- picture (PIP), live resizing, digital graphic overlay, and many real-time 24-bit animation and digital video effects. For graphic work, Rambrandt is a star performer. Its high-resolution, double-buffer architecture with true 24-bit color and 16-color overlay makes interactive 24-bit painting easy. Pixel level control and 8:1 real-time hardware zoom give graphic artists capabilities to create stunning images in 2-D and 3-D. Rambrandt's coprocessor with built-in 3D functions will render three-dimensional scenes and animations with incredible speed and clarity. Rambrandt's abilities to compress and display images make it the ideal host for a graphics database. Rambrandt can provide 3-D Modeling and graphics software power found previously on workstations costing tens of thousands of dollars more. Desktop publishing in high resolution, black and white or 24-bit color, is fast and efficient with Rambrandt. With scrollable work areas of up to 1024 x 2048, Rambrandt offers desktop publishing capabilities going far beyond those currently available in the personal computer market. Computer-aided design software can take advantage of Rambrandt's high speed, built-in drawing and calculation abilities. For architectural and engineering design, Rambrandt offers CAD muscle to finish projects faster. Screen redraws and object calculations are virtually instant- aneous, translating ideas in to visual images in fractions of a second. Rambrandt's blinding graphic processing speed offers tremendous potential to the industrial and medical market. For graphic and scientific simulations, Rambrandt has the power to process hundreds of thousands of variables and calculate complex simulation systems, producing high-quality visual results. Simulations can be displayed in real-time on monitors and recorded to tape for presentations. Medical applications such as magnetic resonant imaging (MRI), chemical and molecular modeling, biological simulations, and many more are possible with Rambrandt. Hundreds of image processing functions are built-in to Rambrandt's Hardware. Image enhancement, image recognition, histography, and many other functions can be processed with blinding speed. Application software for scientific work, such as geology, seismology, astronomy and other branches of science can take advantage of Rambrandt's image processing engine. Rambrandt is a landmark for the entertainment industry. Interactive simulations can be run in 24-bit color and high resolution, creating realism and excitement, taking entertainment software to the limits of game designer's creativity. Real-time flight simulators, fast paced three dimensional action/adventure games, and other spectacular software can tap into Rambrandt's resources to create stunning new video games. Multiple Rambrandt boards can be linked to create exceptional virtual reality systems. Rambrandt opens doors for new concepts in entertainment, at a relvolutionary performance vs cost factor. Simply stated, Rambrandt represents the state of the art in Multimedia and graphic workstation power. The multifaceted Rambrandt intergrates professional desktop video, graphics production, desktop publishing, CAD and many other functions. No other single product offers such a elegant and powerful solution to such diverse applicatications. Rambrandt's visionary design will satisfy the increasing demands of many industries. Several man-years of professional hardware software engineering have gone into Rambrandt, to assure that Rambrandt will meet the demands of not only users, but also application developers. Rambrandt's not only to use, its easy to develop for. Rambrandt offers unique software compatibility to the development community through its Standard Amiga Graphics Extension (SAGE). PP&S and Digital Micronics Inc. (DMI), with Commodore's cooperation, established this standard at the Amiga Developer's Conference in Denver. SAGE provides a simple and efficient way for developing applications which are compatible with Rambrandt, DMI's Resolver, and other 340x0 hardware products. SAGE libraries are available to other manufacturers who wish to enter the market. SAGE has been enthusiastically received by the Amiga Developer's Association, and a number of major Amiga software development companies have expressed commitment to SAGE. Developers interested in SAGE can obtain the professional developer's kit, which includes manual, SAGE libraries, and source code examples. This complete kit is available for the nominal fee of $300. Rambrandt will be available in December 1991. The standard configuration board with a 40MHz 34020 processor, 34082 coprocessor, 8MB of VRAM, and 8MB code RAM, is expected to be released at a manufacturer's suggested list price of $3995. Rambrandt is compatible with Amiga 2000 and Amiga 3000 series computers, AmigaDos 1.3 and 2.0, in NTSC and PAL versions. TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS ------------------------ TMS34020 Processor: 40 MFlOPS peak speed at 40 MHz, 32-bit architecture with 512 byte Cache TMS34082 Coprocessor: 32-bit math/graphics coprocessor Onboard 3-D Vector Support and rendering engine Parallel Processing Capability Memory: 8 Megabytes of 44C251 1-megabit VRAM Pixel/bit-aligned block transfer rate of 142 megabits/second 8 Megabytes of DRAM for resident applications Input: RS-170A (Composite), CCIR-624 (PAL), and RGB (DB9 Targa Pin-Compatible) Output: Externally synchable RGB (DB9 Targa Pin-Compatible) RS-170A (Composite), CCIR-624 (PAL) RGB Resolutions: Variable from 320x400 to 1024x1024, in 8 or 32 bits 1024x2048 scrollable work area by combining buffers Non-Interlaced: 320x400, 320x480, 640x400, 640x480, 512x512, 640x640, 800x600, 800x640, 1024x512 Interlaced: 800x800, 1024x768, 1024x1024 thousands of other custom resolutions possible Composite Resolution: 768x480 (NTSC), 768x576 (PAL) Pixel Depth: 8-bit or 32-bit, user definable Horizontal Scan Rate: programmable 15.734 KHz (nominal NTSC), 15.625 KHz (nominal PAL) Range 15-34 KHz Vertical Scan Rate: programmable 30 Hz (nominal NTSC), 25 HZ (nominal PAL) Range 25-100 Hz Interlace: programmable 2:1 Interlaced, or Non-interlaced Amiga Bus Interface: 4 x 128k DMA blocks, directly addressable Hue, Saturation, Contrast: software adjustable via digital pots in 256 levels each. Palette: 16.7 million colors displayable from a palette of 16.7 million colors Alternative display of 256 colors from a palette of 16.7 million colors Overlay: 8-bit Alpha channel with 16-color overlay Alpha channel color key between buffers Image Capture: Full frame and field capture in 1/30th or 1/60th of a second Real-time image capture in 24 bits up to 1024x1024 resolution Gray-scale image capture in 256 shades Multiple resolutions in composite and RGB, up to 1024x1024 Image Processing: Bit-blitting Hardware Zoom and Pan Dynamic Resizing Run-Length Encoding JPEG Compression Support SAGE Library: Over 200 graphic functions, with 2-D and 3-D graphic libraries: LINEDRAW, POLYDRAW, CUBICSPLINE, PHONGSHADE, GOURADSHADE, and more. Fast Image Loading: NTSC overscan image in less than a second, 1.5MB 24-bit image in less than 4 seconds ALL TRADEMARKS ARE ACKNOWLEDGED, PRODUCT SPECIFICATIONS ARE SUBJECT TO CHANGE WITHOUT NOTICE ============================================================================ THE WORLD OF PRINT ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Here's some interesting tidbits on what's going on with Amiga-related magazines and non-Amiga magazines that had coverage of the Amiga. VIDEO REVIEW: The February issue of Video Review has a nice review of Gold Disk's new video toy -- Video Maker. The review was quite positive and was accompanied by a nice photo of an Amiga 2500 setup. AMIGA WORLD TECH JOURNAL: By now you've probably heard about AWTJ ceasing publication. If not, here are the details: AWTJ will cease publication after the March/April issue. An option of transferring the remainder of a subscription to Amiga World or of receiving a refund will be given. The reasons given for the fold were -- circulation lower than expected; costs higher than anticipated; and not enough advertisements being place. In short, it was losing money. See the letter elsewhere in this issue for an "official" notice. .INFO: From what I understand, .INFO has gone the way of AWTJ -- out of business. I don't have any further information but I'm going to look into it. ============================================================================ SUPRA PC EMULATOR ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Supra will start shipping the KCS Power PC board this week. (First week in March.) It allows Amiga 500, 2000, 3000 to run PC software. The board fits in the trapddoor RAM board area on the A-500. An adapter board will be available soon for the 2000, 3000. The latest software adds color EGA, VGA video modes and supports EMS and most hard disk systems. Amiga Magazin in Germany rates it the best PC emuator for the Amiga. ============================================================================ AMIGA NEURAL NETWORK ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ MegageM is pleased to announce NeuroPro 2.0 for the Amiga. NeuroPro 2.0 is an advanced Neural Network Artificial Intelligence system with state-ofthe-art features. NP2.0 supports up to 768 neurons (256 per layer, 3 layers) with over 130,000 connections for sophisticated applications. NP2.0 graphically displays the operation of the entire neural network in real time. NP2.0 incorporates 3 complete user interfaces: a 'pushbutton, AmigaDos 2.0-look' graphic user interface, a menu interface with keyboard shortcuts, and ARexx. Most functions can be accomplished via any of the three interfaces. NP2.0 supports three types of data: bit arrays, text, and graphic images. With NeuroPro 2.0 you can design and train networks to translate any data type on the input to any other on the output, e.g. text to text translation, bit arrays to text, text to images. Images are supported for input & output layers of 64 (8x8 pixel image) or 256 (16x16 pixel image) neurons. Data for inputs and outputs can be loaded from IFF files which are easily editable in Deluxe Paint. Text files for input and output training data are supported for any layer. Up to 32 characters of text may be applied as input data (256 neurons) or training set data. Input and output data sets can be saved as bit arrays, text, or graphic images (IFF files). Trained networks can also be saved for later recall and applications with different data sets. You can use NP2.0 to develop systems for language translation, text to phonetic/speech translation, image recognition, game theory, financial analysis, and other artificial intelligence applications. With its strength in its varietyof data types, NP2.0 breaks the barriers to practical applications of smart pattern recognition systems for the Amiga. NP2.0 is written completely in fast, efficient 68xxx assembly language. NP2.0 uses the widely successful 3-layer back-propagation algorithm. A version for 68881/882/68040 is included which can train up to 250,000 connections per sec on 040. Performance like expensive dedicated hardware. SLP $199.95 Contact MegageM 1903 Adria Santa Maria, CA 93454 805-349-1104 ============================================================================ BLACK BELT FILM STRIPS ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Filmstrips are small animations that Imagemaster can create as tests or records of what you've been doing in the sequencer or the morph tool. There is a sample filmstrip (a morph) in the archive with the viewer, and filmstrips look just like they do in Imagemaster. Slideshows are staic images, so not to be compared. Filmstrips are complete animations (or they can be slideshows, if that's what you want to do with them). They consist of small luma (B&W) frames, either 96x60 in interlace, or 96x30 in non-interlace. They look amazingly good, too. FilmStrips are not ANIM OP-5 type files, either; they can onloy be played by this player (uploaded to CompuServe) or our image manipulation software. [There are now a number of sample filmstrips in the AmigaVendor forum libraries of CompuServe.] ============================================================================= SPANISH-LANGUAGE AMIGA MAG ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Amiga Hoy Internacional is a new Spanish Amiga only magazine that is being distributed in all of Latin America and the United States. If you are interested in more information please contact Javier at the following through CompuServe at 73060,1275 (73060.1272@compuserve.com through the Internet). ============================================================================ SPEED UP THE BRIDGECARD-XT ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The following is a text message about modifying an XT Bridgecard to run at 7.15 MHz or 9.54 MHz instead of the paltry 4.77 MHz it was designed to run at. The text file was part of an archive that contained some IBM-PC binary code necessary to make everything work. I am presenting the text file so that AM-Report readers can decide if they want to go through the trouble to speed up their Bridgecards. AM-Report assumes no liability or responsibility for any damage caused to equipment as a result of...well, anything. SPEEDING UP THE A2088 BRIDGEBOARD by Eddy Olk January 1992 ABSTRACT The A2088 bridgeboard is IBM XT compatible, especially with respect to speed unfortunately. So any speedup is welcome. Those with unlimited supply of money will go for a turbo AT bridgeboard of course. But for us cheapies with a plain A2088 there is some hope! This text describes how the A2088 bridgeboard can be (easily) run at 7.15 MHz or even 9.54 MHz with minor modifications. However, you must have a bridgeboard with the Faraday FE2010A (watch the A!) chip. If I'm not mistaken the newer A2088s are equipped with this chip. DISCLAIMER Of course: I can't guarantee the proper working of any of the modifications described in this file nor can I be held responsible for any related damage. I've done my best to describe the necessary speedup modifications (for a rev 3 board) as detailed and understandable as possible. I do advise however you only apply the modifications when you know what you're doing and have some experience with electronics. Don't risk ruining your bridgeboard, 4.77 MHz is still better than 0 MHz :-). TECHNICAL INFO The FE2010(A) is a multi-function chip in a 68-pin PLCC package and is almost a complete PC on a single chip. Among other things, it incorporates the 8237 (DMA controller), 8253 (timer/counter), 8254 (clock oscillator), 8255 (PIO) and 8259 (PIC) ICs used in the IBM XT. The FE2010 chip (without the A) can only run a 8088 at 4.77 MHz. However, the FE2010A, a pin-compatible enhanced version of the FE2010, allows either a V20 or 8088 to run at clock speeds of 4.77 and 7.15 MHz when using a 14.31818 MHz crystal/oscillator or at 4.77, 7.15 and 9.54 MHz when using a 28.63636 MHz crystal/oscillator. This input frequency is indicated by pin 16 (not used on FE2010). This pin must be pulled up with a 4.7K resistor to +5V when supplying 14.31818 MHz and must be tied to 0V when using a frequency of 28.63636 MHz. The FE2010A has an extended configuration control register to allow switching between CPU clock speeds. This (write only) register is located at I/O address 063H. The functions of the data bits of this register are summarized in Table 1. data bit | function ---------+---------- 0 | disable parity 1 | 8087 present (enable 8087 NMI) 2 | 256K RAM (1 bank) 3 | lock register (bits 0-4) 4 | 512K RAM size (2 banks) 5 | fast mode (0=semi-fast, 1=fast) 6 | 7.15 MHz clock 7 | 9.54 MHz clock Table 1: Function of data bits of configuration register. SOFTWARE Since the FE2010A always clocks the CPU at 4.77 MHz after a reset and the BIOS doesn't support the faster execution modes of the FE2010A, we have to fiddle with the configuration register (see technical info) ourselves to run at the higher speeds. I've written two programs: BIOSEXT.COM and CPUCLK.COM BIOSEXT.COM is stay-resident and extends the BIOS and allows you switching the clock speed from the keyboard by pressing the following keys simultaneously: <ctrl>-<alt>-S for 4.77 MHz <ctrl>-<alt>-M for 7.15 MHz <ctrl>-<alt>-F for 9.54 MHz With CPUCLK.COM you can change the cpu clock speed under program control, most likely in a batch file. You must give a digit as argument: 0 for 4.77, 1 for 7.15 or 2 for 9.54 MHz. Put both programs in your AUTOEXEC.BAT, e.g.: biosext rem install bios extension cpuclk 2 rem switch to 9.54 MHz I've included both sources and executables of the programs. YOU HAVE A FE2010 NOT A FE2010A If you've sadly discovered you have the old FE2010 and not the enhanced FE2010A (BTW the chip is near the CPU, see the photographs in the introduction section and Appendix F of your A2088 user's guide) you have three options: 1. do nothing: least trouble, least satisfaction :-). 2. not replace the FE2010 but still get a speedup by replacing the 14.31818 MHz crystal with a faster one, e.g. 22 or 24 MHz. This is essentially what the German firm X-Pert offers (even for bridgeboards with a FE2010A!). This has some drawbacks, e.g. the faster running timers (SI still reports index of 1.0!). Also when using the floppy drive, you must switch back to 4.77 MHz since the floppy interface will not work reliable at the higher speed. So what you need here is two oscillators, 14.31818 and 22-24 MHz, and a multiplexer controlled by a switch and/or the MOTORON signal of the floppy. If you want to build this, you will find instructions and a schematic in the German AMIGA (Markt & Technik) sonderheft 13, entitled "Tips & Tools". I can't help you further here, but there is a last option! 3. replace the FE2010 with a FE2010A and go for the (easy) 7.15 MHz or (slightly harder) 9.54 MHz modification. You can also use a V20 now. The main problem here will be to obtain the FE2010A. Unfortunately, I can't help you much here. Try a store specialized in electronic components for PCs. If it helps: the chip is manufactured by Faraday. When you have somehow acquired a FE2010A, you have to make some modifications to your A2088 before replacing the FE2010. The FE2010A is pin compatible with the FE2010 but some internal pull-up resistors present in the FE2010 were left out in the FE2010A. This affects pins 12,13 and 16. Pin 12 and 13 are connected to J1, the default display jumper. For proper operation you have to pull-up pins 1 and 2 of J1 (see Appendix H of the A2088 user's guide) with a 4K7 (4.7 KOhm) resistor to +5V. However, I didn't encounter problems using the FE2010A without the pull-up resistors. Pin 16 indicates the input frequency of the FE2010A: 14.31818 (pull-up with 4K7 to +5V) or 28.63636 MHz (tie to 0V). RUNNING A2088 AT 7.15 MHZ This is simple! You must: 1. Replace the 5MHz 8088 with a 8MHz 8088 or V20. You may even want to try running the original 8088 at 7.15 MHz. Although I haven't tried this myself, I know several people who are successfully running their original 8088 at 7.15MHz. 2. Run the CPUCLK.COM program on your bridgeboard with option 1 to set the cpu clock to 7.15 MHz. MODIFY A2088 TO RUN AT 9.54 MHZ Here's where a soldering-iron comes in handy! The following steps are needed: 1. desolder the 14.31818 MHz crystal near the bracket. 2. replace it with a 28.63636 MHz crystal (not sure this will work) or use a 28.63636 MHz oscillator. Connect pins 1 and 7 of the oscillator with 0V, pin 14 with +5V and pin 8 to the lower contact hole (the one nearest to the edge connector) of the (now desoldered) 14.31818 MHz crystal. Also put a 100nF (nano Farad) decoupling capacitor between pins 7 and 14. 3. tie pin 16 of FE2010A to 0V. Figure 1 shows the contacts (top) of the FE2010A socket seen ooooooooooo from the back of the ooooooooooooo bridgeboard. Pin 16 is oo oo marked with an asterisk (*). oo oo Check with an ohmmeter if oo oo you're not sure! oo oo oo oo oo oo Figure 1: FE2010A socket seen oo oo from backside, pin 16 oo oo marked with *. oo oo ooooooooooooo oooooooo*oo (bottom) 4. replace the original 8088 with a 10 MHz 8088 or (better) V20, a 8 MHz V20 will work too (and may be cheaper). Before inserting the new 8088/V20 you must bend pin 19 (clock input) a little bit outwards so it will not stick in the socket. Do the same with the 8087, if you have one. 5. connect pin 19 of the 8088/V20 (and pin 19 of the 8087, if present) to pin 15 of U8 (74LS244). This pin carries the unbuffered cpu clock signal from the FE2010A (also pin 19) and must be used instead of the buffered clock signal connected originally to let it all work at 9.54 MHz. U8 is the lower-right one of the four 20-pin ICs below the 8088/V20. 6. run the CPUCLK.COM program with options 0,1,2 to run the bridgeboard at 4.77, 7.15 and 9.54 MHz respectively. PROBLEMS The only serious problem I've run into is that the floppy interface only works reliable at 4.77 MHz. Most of the time it works at other speeds but it occasionally fails. However, DOS doesn't report this but ZOO, for instance, sometimes gives CRC errors when unZOOing from floppy. I don't know whether this is a hardware or a software problem. I do remember some (earlier) turbo PC clones having this problem too. Be sure to switch to 4.77 MHz when using the floppy! Furthermore, I'm not sure a 8 or 10 MHz 8087 will work in the faster bridgeboard. I don't expect problems however, but perhaps someone could verify this! BTW make sure the 8087 clock (pin 19) is provided with the unbuffered clock signal, i.e. connect it to pin 19 of 8088/V20. Another problem you may experience (I didn't) is that after switching to another speed for the first time with CPUCLK or BIOSEXT, you get a (BIOS) message which says a NMI interrupt was detected and asks whether to shut it off or not. If this message annoys you, use the CPUCLK-.COM and BIOSEXT-.COM programs. They explicitly disable the NMI interrupt in the extended configuration register so you will not get the message. CONCLUSION Well, I think the modifications described in this file are pretty neat. A 50% speedup is possible by just running the software while a 100% speedup requires only minor modifications to the hardware. I have my fully equipped A2088 (VGA card, hardcard, multi I/O card, 512K 150ns RAM, 128K 120ns dual-port RAM and 8 MHz V20) running at 9.54 MHz since January 1991 and besides the problem with the floppy, it runs perfectly. Perhaps someone (I don't have time unfortunately) is willing to extend the BIOSEXT.COM program to automatically (temporary) switch back to 4.77 MHz when accessing the floppy. If you have any questions/remarks regarding the modifications I described, you can reach me via email: eddy@duteca.et.tudelft.nl mail: Eddy Olk Beatrixstraat 8 3264 XB Nieuw-Beyerland The Netherlands =========================================================================== BROADENING OUR REACH ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ AM-Report has entered into an agreement with the moderator of the comp.sys.amiga.reviews section on UseNet. Reviews that appear in AM-Report will also now be available in comp.sys.amiga.reviews and will be included in the main review index. Also, AM-Report will have access and permission to publish reviews done by other persons that have been submitted to comp.sys.amiga.reviews. This allows reviews published in AM-Report to reach a greater number of people who might not otherwise see the magazine. It also allows the editors of AM-Report to flesh out the magazine a bit with different opinions and different writing styles. The following message is the standard disclaimer for anything that appears in comp.sys.amiga.reviews. Please note that article two, section three "Electronic network distributions" doesn't apply to AM-Report articles. I don't care what networks charge, post AM-Report where you will. ---------------- Subject: ADMIN: Disclaimer for comp.sys.amiga.reviews. (12-03-91) Followup-To: poster Summary: Legalese Keywords: Administrivia Organization: Blob Shop Programmers Distribution: world Message-ID: <1991Dec03Disclaimer@menudo.uh.edu> Supersedes: <1991Dec01Disclaimer@menudo.uh.edu> Expires: 05 Jan 99 23:59:59 GMT This is the disclaimer for comp.sys.amiga.reviews. This document was last revised 12-03-91. This is the disclaimer that covers all articles posted to comp.sys.amiga.reviews, be they written by me (Jason Tibbitts) or another person. The language included here does not supersede any such language included in the individual postings, but instead acts in addition to such language. 1. Spirit of disclaimer I'm simply trying to reduce the chance of me or my school being sued. I'm a volunteer attempting to do the Amiga UseNet community a favor by acting as an editor for an online reviews column, and my school is generously providing the computer time and network access. I want to be able to do my job as the moderator freely. I am simply a filter through which a review passes. I make sure that there are no spelling errors and that it conforms to a certain format. I do not have the power to verify the complete correctness of any published material. I do leave channels open for the publishing of corrections, however. I also welcome official responses from the manufacturers and publishers of reviewed products. 2. Language of disclaimer By submitting a review to the moderator, the submitter implicitly agrees that the material may be posted on UseNet and included in: 1. Newsletters and other printed matter available freely with a copying and distribution fee of not more than $2.00 an issue, and 2. Newsletters on magnetic media and other forms of magnetic distribution such as the UseNet summary disks available freely with a copying and distribution fee of not more than $6.00. 3. Electronic network distributions, either by the standard UseNet distribution or on a commercial information system (i. e. the Portal System) charging no more than $6.00 per hour of non-prime time 2400 baud connection not including local access charges (i. e. Telenet or Tymnet access charges). Errors in typing, transmission, etc. and inaccuracies of commission or omission may occur, and neither the moderator nor the University of Houston System assumes liability for these errors. Material submitted is the responsibility of the submitter. Neither the moderator nor the University of Houston System will be held liable for the accuracy or content of such material. In addition, neither the moderator nor the University of Houston System will be held liable by either submitters or users of such material for any errors of omission or commission the moderator may make. If you disagree with these conditions, do not make use of the information the moderator posts to comp.sys.amiga.reviews, and do not submit material to the moderator. ============================================================================ HOW TO VOID YOUR WARRANTY (My Experiences Installing RAM in an A3000) Time for an AM-Report pop quiz. How many of you out there know how much memory your computer has in it? Stupid question, no? I acquired my A3000 in early August and just (January 30, 1992) learned that it had five megabytes of RAM. Laugh if you will, for six months all I knew was that it had "enough" RAM to do what I wanted. I know that my A2000, which now serves as a BBS host, has one meg of chip RAM and two megabytes of 120ns SIMMs on a GVP HC+8 card, but until yesterday the 3000 was a mystery. You see, the A3000 was ordered with a specific purpose in mind and I just took what the dealer had in stock as long as it had over four megabytes of RAM. My software ran, so I didn't bother to get details. Last week I made a modification to my program and updated some of the commercial software I was using and found out that things were getting a mite cramped. With everything up and running I had a grand total of 30K of free RAM. Not a lot of wiggle room. As it was, things were starting to slow down -- I needed more RAM. Since this was a commercial demo system and I had a presentation coming up in two days, I needed more RAM _NOW_. Unfortunatly, 1x4 meg ZIPs are not all that cheap. It would cost me a couple of hundred dollars to put in another set and I didn't have the cash. -- SIDEBAR -- For those of you unfamiliar with the A3000's RAM setup, let me explain. The A3000 has one set of 80ns, 256x4 chips soldered onto the motherboard. This constitutes the first meg of CHIP RAM. Right next to these, there is another set of sockets for accepting another set of 8 DIPs -- giving you a total of two megs of CHIP RAM. On the other side of the motherboard, under the drive/power chassis, is the FAST RAM expansion area. One set of DIP sockets sits ready for a megabyte's worth of 256x4 chips. Above this is a set of ZIP sockets which can accept either 256x4 ZIPs or 1x4 ZIPs. If you use 256x4 ZIPs then RAM is increaded by increments of one megabyte for a grand total of four megs of ZIPs. If you use 1x4 ZIPs (like me) then RAM is increased in four meg increments for a grand total of 16 megs of ZIPs. The tricky part is that of the two sets of DIP sockets (one fast, one chip) only one set may be used. You either have one meg of CHIP RAM and one meg of FAST RAM (DIP) or you have two megs of CHIP and no FAST (DIP). This allows for a grand total of 18 megabytes on the Amiga motherboard, either in 2 CHIP/16 FAST, 2 CHIP/4 FAST, 1 CHIP/17 FAST, or 1 CHIP/5 FAST depending on which set of DIP sockets is used and whether or not the ZIPs are 256 or 1 meg chips. Silly me, I assumed that on ALL Amiga 3000s there was one meg of CHIP memory and one meg of FAST RAM in DIPs, unless the user/dealer specifically moved the DIP chips from FAST to CHIP. Somehow I got the notion that if I opened the case and stared hard enough at the chips, I would come up with the money to buy more ZIPs. It didn't work. I did discover a number of interesting things about the innards of the A3000 though. The first discovery was that all 3000s DON'T come with a socketed set of DIPs! Lucky me, I could add another megabyte of RAM for $59 (including tax)! The second thing I discovered was that the motherboard was designed by someone who had a brain. Too many hardware expansion cards have you fiddle with jumpers to modify settings. Commodore's Bridgecards are the worst offender known to me. I spend hours fiddling with jumpers to set the boot screen type (color/mono) and other stuff. I swear that if I needed to find J245 and there were 500 jumpers on the board, I could spot J1 - J244 and J246 - J500 inside of ten seconds, but couldn't find J245 without a concerted search. Jumpers are NEVER where the manual says they are. Not the A3000. The A3000 was designed so that an idiot would be sure that he had the right jumper. Need to ad drive DF1:? Just move jumper Jxxx over one. The big deal? On the 3000 not only is a jumper given a number, but a function name also. The drive jumper has DF1: printed on top and NODF1: printed on bottom. The RAM jumper has 256K printed on top and 1M printed on bottom. This was a great idea! Not only is the right jumper easy to find, but you can tell the status of it at a glance -- without using a manual! Back to the story. I called my dealer about the chips. Today was my lucky day! The UPS man had just dropped off a shipment which had a set of unclaimed 256K DIPs. I was in such a hurry to get the chips, I left my wallet at home when driving over to the store. Fortunatly I had $49 dollars in store credit on file and while the chips were $59, they said I could pay the difference next time I was in (I have a REAL GOOD local dealer). I got back home at 5:00 pm. My wife was getting ready for work (she works nights). "The kids are all yours!" she said. I have three kids. Two twin boys are two years old and their sister who is three. Right now all have colds, all are screaming for "Daddy" and all are located directly between me and my Amiga. I wanted to put those chips in REAL bad -- so I broke my one unbreakable house rule..."The Children Shalt Not Enter The Office". I took all three in with me and sat them on the floor next to my desk. I powered everything down, and unplugged the whole mess. Grabbing the screwdriver I performed the sacred opening ritual of the electrical engineer -- GROUND THYSELF! The case was off and expansion cards out inside of five minutes. Since the CHIP RAM sockets are on the left side of the motherboard, I didn't have to remove the drive/power chassis. Accessing the FAST RAM and CPU direct slot is much more difficult. Now, I figured that installing the chips would be easy, right? Just slip them in push down firmly, but gently. (Ha ha ha ha!) First step, orientation. I figured that the writing on the chips had to face the same way as the writing on RAM chips soldered in next to the sockets. Except that the brand of chips I had was foreign and the writing was Korean. I had no idea which way was up or down! Even the numbers on the chips were no help...was it 108810-080 or 080-018801? They used a damn symmetrical font so it looked proper both ways! Fortunatly I remembered the orientation notches that are located on one end of DIP style chips. Just align that with the notch in the socket. Volia! Chip one was in. Only seven more to go. Gee, this isn't hard at all. Right then, the kids decided that this "sit still and be quiet" stuff was for the birds. One boy started to bawl and wanted to be held. The other was helping his sister try and fax some 3 1/2'' disks to God knows where. Fortunatly, disks don't properly fit in my fax machine. Reprimanding both was the best idea yet. While the three year old said "I get toys!" and ran off for her room, the other boy started to bawl and also wanted to be held. Unfortunatly, I only have so many hands. To make a long story short, I installed seven more chips with one hand while holding a sick child on my lap and listening to another scream in my ear about me holding his brother but not him. For the record I bent four pins and installed three chips upside down (one chip twice, just for practice). I put the machine back together, only after taking my DKB SecureKey away from my daughter, who had been chewing on it. After everything was back together, I booted the machine and (surprise!) everything worked (thank you DKB). I now have two megs of CHIP RAM with a total of six megs overall. After powering down, I turned around to see my wife sitting in the chair by the door? "Just finished?" I asked. "No, " she answered, "I've been sitting here about twenty minutes." "WHAT?! Why didn't you do something! You saw all the problems I was having!" "Yes, but you always tell me not to disturb you while you're working." "<argh!>" The only reason she made it to the car and work alive is because I tripped on one of my daughter's toys. "Daddy fall down an go boom?" was the last thing I remember hearing before giving up and drowning my frustrations in cold pizza and warm beer. [-Chas] ============================================================================ PRESS RELEASE PRESS RELEASE PRESS RELEASE PRESS RELEASE PRESS RELEASE PRESS For immediate release February 1, 1992 CNet Amiga v2.0 Bulletin Board System PERSPECTIVE SOFTWARE RELEASES NEW PROFESSIONAL BBS FOR AMIGA Power and speed mingle with user friendliness in the new CNet Amiga v2.0 BBS software, a fully multi-tasking Bulletin Board System for all models of the Amiga computer using AmigaDOS 1.3 or 2.0. Supporting up to 24 external phone lines, CNet Amiga v2.0 is equally at home operating a small single-line BBS, or as an international FIDO-Net or UUCP network node. Because CNet Amiga has been developed on the Amiga from the beginning, it takes full advantage of the Amiga's multi-tasking power. Several BBS users can be connected to the Amiga in the background while you operate a word processor or spreadsheet. CNet Amiga requires one megabyte of RAM, plus another 200K for each phone line. All multi-serial port cards are supported. CNet Amiga v2.0 installs easily on any Amiga hard drive, and comes with complete instructions covering its extensive array of configurable options. Other system features include multi-user conferencing, all the major file transfer protocols, true visual text editing for ANSI users, and a unique password system for security. Technically minded operators can extend the system still further with the addition of C or AREXX external program modules for games, or dedicated business applications. Those wishing to see CNet Amiga v2.0 online may call Perspective Software's 24 hour multi-line customer support BBS at (313)981-4113. 9600 baud users call (313)981-6150. Direct sales and wholesale distribution are being handled by Beverly James Products, P.O. Box 40191, Redford, Michigan 48240. Retail Price is $129.95 in U.S. dollars. Voice phone orders, please call: (313)537-6168. * * * Please contact: Jim Selleck, (313)537-6168 PRESS RELEASE PRESS RELEASE PRESS RELEASE PRESS RELEASE PRESS RELEASE PRESS ============================================================================ THE FOLLOWING BULLETINS WERE POSTED ON THE CONSULTRON BULLETN BOARD... ATTENTION! ATTENTION! ATTENTION! ATTENTION! ATTENTION! ATTENTION! ----------------------------------------------------------------- Due to a series of circumstances difficult to anticipate, we will be shipping CrossDOS 5.0 Plus and Ambassador later than we expected. CrossDOS 5.0 Plus is currently sheduled to ship in late May. The Ambassador is currently sheduled to ship in early June. Contact 2.0 is shipping NOW! We are working long hours to provide these products as quickly as possible. Please accept our apologies for the delay. If you are inquiring about whether we have received your order, please leave your name and phone number where we can reach you. Assume that we received it. We will try to give you a call ONLY if we cannot find your order. Thank you again for your patience in this matter. Leonard Poma; Pres. [editors note: Consultron: 313-459-7271] ----------------------------------------------------------------- CrossDOS and the AE High Density drive (12/11/91) ====================================== We regret to announce that the Applied Engineering drive does not support 1.44 Meg IBM formatted disks. We wish it did but it cannot due to certain hardware limitations. According to the information we have, they are not planning on designing a drive that will support 1.44 Meg IBM disks. This drive can read and write 720K IBM disks with low density disks only. We regret to announce that Applied Engineering has left the Amiga market. ATTENTION! ATTENTION! ATTENTION! ATTENTION! ATTENTION! ATTENTION! ----------------------------------------------------------------- Due to a shortage of technical staff in our company, we are temporarily limiting tech support hours from 1:30 to 3:30 PM EST weekdays. We are investigating a number of solutions to this problem to allow us to provide better service to you. Thank you for your patience in this matter. Leonard Poma; Pres. ============================================================================ X-CAD RUMOR ~~~~~~~~~~~ Rumor has it that AVT, the maker of X-CAD, has filed for bankruptcy. Again, I have no other information. ============================================================================ EMPLANT RUMOR ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ There is word floating around the nets of a product called EMPLANT that is made by Utilities Unlimited. It is supposedly a Macintosh emulator similar to AMAX but with the following specifications: 1. It multitasks similar to a Bridgecard. 2. It has two Appletalk ports that can be used by the Amiga. 3. It supports 3rd party 24-bit display devices. 4. It supports color (Mac IIx). 5. It uses a SIMM/ROM for the Mac II series. 6. It has FCC approval and is in production. 7. It uses 256K or 512K Mac ROMS. It sounds nice but I can forsee a number of problems. One, Utilities Unltd. doesn't have the best reputation. One of their other products, a disk copier called Sybil, has given many people a lot of trouble. Multitasking a Mac with the Amiga IS NOT A GOOD IDEA! Since EMPLANT would use the Amiga's CPU as well as disk drives, ports, etc. then it would have to be trying to run two operating systems off of one processor. Fine if you use a Bridgecard-like approach (second CPU) but run TaskX sometime and see just how many system tasks are running when you "aren't doing anything". A lot. Now imagine the Macintosh OS (System 7) trying to compete with the CPU for time cycles....slow as molasses! [I'm speculating here.] Color would be interesting, though the Mac screen is 640x400 and fits the Amiga aspects like a glove. Quickdraw or 32-bit Quickdraw would have to be present (emulated?) and that would be darned slow unless you owned one of the accelerated video cards like the Resolver or Rambrandt. ROMs are still scarce as hen's teeth, though this will not be the case by the end of the year (see Editor's Note). It emulates a Mac IIx, which is a 68030 based machine. Can't do that on non-accelerated A500s, A1000s and A2000s. That kills one heck of a lot of your customer base. Emulating a Mac Classic/Classic II would be much better (the heck with Mac color -- very few programs REQUIRE color on the Mac). We'll wait and see what come of it. If it is true, it will be one heck of a product. Until it ships, though, it is vapor. On a side note, it looks like Readysoft is getting ready to finally ship AMAX-II+ and it supposedly works with System 7 now. ============================================================================ COMMODORE ADVERTISING ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ATTENTION ALL ATTENTION ALL ATTENTION ALL ATTENTION ALL In PC Week, App. Dev Edition, March 9, 1992, is an ad from Commodore about the CDTV, Amiga 2000s and 3000s, and multimedia. It is a very good ad, which is headlined with something like this: If you want to be sold on Commodore Multimedia, all it takes is a few minutes with Apple and IBM. Cute ad. Pushes all machines, not a specific one. Looks like Commodore is getting some. Darin, SPC Superbase Technical Support ------------------------------------------------------------------------- AMIGA UNIX ~~~~~~~~~~ COMMODORE (R) PUTS POWER OF UNIX WITHIN MORE AMIGA USERS' REACH Version 2.1 of UNIX SVR4 (R) Introduced Now Available at 40% Price Reduction ------------------------------------ West Chester, Pa. -- February 12, 1992 -- In response to changing market conditions, Commodore Business Machines, Inc., is making the increased performance of UNIX available to more AMIGA users. The company introduces Version 2.1 of AMIGA UNIX System V Release 4 (SVR4) -- an operating system module for AMIGA 2000 and 3000 series machines. Version 2.1 allows standard access to the X Window System (TM) and Open Look (TM) for the desktop environment. In addition, it provides standard networking capabilities such as TCP/IP, NFS (TM) and RFS (TM) to handle networking across different environments. "AMIGA UNIX is easy to use and structured for future growth," said Geoff Stilley, vice president sales, Commodore. "Version 2.1 can be installed on the same hard disk in different partitions as both AmigaDOS (TM) and MS-DOS (TM) for more extended functionality." Version 2.1 provides several user interface shells, including Bourne Shell, C Shell, Korn Shell, Restricted Shell, Remote Shell and Job Control Shell. Also, it features a simple-to-use e-mail system, plus emacs and vi, two screen-based text and program editors. Multiple virtual screens are available in addition to multiple windows, so each of several users can have a screen on the same machine, or a user can have separate virtual screens for different uses. "With Version 2.1, AMIGA users now have significantly increased performance," Stilley said. "It is a full implementation of UNIX SVR4 and includes additional useful features at a very competitive market price." The Version 2.1 bundle includes manuals and documentation, a magnetic tape containing the operating system and other utilities, and boot disks for loading and installing Version 2.1. A two user license can be purchased as of February 12, 1992 for $995, and an unlimited user license costs $1195. More information is available through Authorized Commodore Dealers. As part of the AMIGA UNIX Version 2.1 introduction, Commodore has announced a reduction on their AMIGA 3000UX Systems effective until April 30, 1992. The AMIGA 3000UX CPU will include the UNIX Version 2.1 Operating System, a 200 MByte drive, nine MBytes of RAM, keyboard, 3 button mouse, the 2410 high-resolution color card, and Ethernet (R) card (for both thick and thin Ethernet), plus the customer's choice of either an A1950 color monitor or an A3070 tape drive (SCSI) unit, for $4998.00. Sold separately, the suggested list price of this system is $8495.00. "The introductory pricing is a part of Commodore's goal to provide technical solutions at affordable prices for users," Stilley said. "The AMIGA 3000UX is not just another hardware clone, it provides a unique platform of this industry standard operating system." Commodore Business Machines, based in West Chester, Pa., markets a complete line of computers and peripherals for business, education, government and consumer markets. Commodore is a registered trademark of Commodore Electronics, Ltd. AMIGA, AMIGA 3000UX and AmigaDOS are trademarks of Commodore-Amiga, Inc. UNIX and UNIX SVR4 are registered trademarks of UNIX Systems Laboratories, Inc. and Open Look is a trademark of AT&T. X Window System is a trademark of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. NFS is a registered trademark of Sun Microsystems. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- AMIGA ADA ~~~~~~~~~ (from loftus@wpllabs.Penn-Valley.PA.US) AmigaAda Given the release of Ada/Ed to the public, WPL Laboratories, Inc. as a public service has ported Ada/Ed to the Amiga. The current Amiga version is very untested. Bug reports are welcomed. DICE version V2.06 was used for the port, which was done on a 2500/20 with 9 Megs of RAM. Ada/Ed is an Ada Compiler/Interpreter that can be used to learn about the Ada language, but not for large programming. Unfortunately, there is no commercial Ada compiler for the Amiga. Ada/Ed has passed all of ACVC 1.07 and passes most of ACVC 1.11. For a copy of the Amiga sources and executables, which are covered by the GNU General Public License, send a $US25.00 check (no disks) to: WPL Laboratories, Inc. PO Box 111 Penn Valley, PA 19072 Attn: AmigaAda ------------------------------------------------------------------------- RADIANCE 2.0 ~~~~~~~~~~~~ This is an announcement of the first beta release of my Amiga port of Greg Ward's lighting simulation package Radiance 2.0. This beta release is available in a 3MB lharc arhive at the following FTP sites in the listed directories: hobbes.lbl.gov (128.3.12.38) /pub/ports/amiga osgiliath.id.dth.dk (129.142.65.24) /pub/amiga/graphics/Radiance >(Note that the latter site is in Denmark). The files are `radiance.lzh' and the checksum file `radiance.lzh.sum'. The checksum is the output of a BSD compatible `sum' run on `radiance.lzh'. Also, there should be a `radiance.readme' file including Amiga specific information on Radiance. Radiance 2.0 is the sixth release of Greg Ward's synthetic imaging system developed at Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory in California and EPFL in Switzerland. The system consists of a raytracer with many features not found in any other raytracer available for the Amiga: * Procedural materials, patterns, and textures. * Procedural light distribution from light sources. * Light sources can be polygons, cylinders, spheres, etc., i.e., they are not restricted to point sources. This produces interesting penumbra effects. * Secondary (virtual) light source generation from mirrors. * Advanced ambient light calculation that can produce results similar to those obtained with radiosity methods. Along with the raytracing program comes many utility programs for generating simple object descriptions (boxes, tesselated parameterized surfaces, surfaces of revolution, etc.); utilities for manipulating pictures (adjusting exposure, filtering, etc.); utilities for converting pictures to other formats like QRT; some calculator programs based on the expression language used throughout the Radiance package. Also included is a big library of patterns, textures, and objects, as well as a few non-trivial example scenes. Preformatted UNIX manual pages are provided. As mentioned above this is the first beta release of the Amiga port. The port requires AmigaOS 2.04 and as this is a beta release only binaries compiled for the MC68030/68881 are provided. Sources are not provided currently. Sources and binaries compiled for M68000 will be released later. I'm the person responsible for the port of Radiance, while Helge Rasmussen is working on an object converter to convert Imagine objects to Radiance objects. He has also done some work related to the HAM-E device, and a Radiance to IFF24 converter. Greg Ward (GWard@lbl.gov) runs a Radiance mailing list which you should join if you're seriously interested in Radiance. I will post a more detailed description of Radiance in `comp.sys.amiga.graphics' soon. Please direct any questions and bug reports regarding the Amiga port to me (bojsen@moria.home.id.dth.dk); technical questions regarding Radiance itself should probably be sent to the Radiance mailing list or Greg Ward. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- CBM JOKE ~~~~~~~~ This was on Usenet and I thought it was funny enough to send: TOP TEN REASONS ALEXANDER HAIG IS ON THE COMMODORE BOARD OF DIRECTORS 10. For the babes. 9. The technology just turns him on. 8. Likes the fact he only has to show up at meetings four times a year. 7. Likes to vacation in the Bahamas... what a coincidence that the shareholder meetings are held there! 6. He wandered in one day and never left. 5. It's like the military, except you get to wear a tie. 4. No tanks. He hates those damned tanks. 3. Likes being around Medi Ali... he's such a swell guy! 2. Can't remember... just like poor Reagan. ...and the number one reason Al is on the Commodore board of directors... 1. It's a living? Hell man, we're getting stinking rich! ------------------------------------------------------------------------- MORE LZH NEWS ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Beginning January 1, LZ 1.92 gives extracted files dates one day ahead of what they should be. Ahha... thank you mucho for that tidbit!! It's rather annoying to run `ls -ltr' and see unarchived files with the botched timestamps. Looks like timestamps of files extracted from LZ archives created pre-'92 are okay. Files created/archived in '92 get extracted with +1 day; pre-'92 files in a '92 archive are extracted -1 day. Lha-1.11 extracts '92 files from LZ archives okay, but pre-'92 files are -1 day. LZ-1.92 extracts pre-'92 files from Lha archives okay, but '92 files are +1 day. Scott J. Kramer UUCP: {sun,ucbvax}!pixar!aura!sjk P.O. Box 620207 Internet: sjk@aura.nbn.com [home] Woodside, CA 94062 sjk@ai.sri.com [work] ------------------------------------------------------------------------- AW WANTS YOUR VIEWS ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ AmigaWorld is looking for comments on products scheduled forreview. Tell us what you like or dislike about the following products and instant fame will be yours if we print your comments in one of the review section's "Your Turn" boxes. AdSpeed/IDE (ICD), Caligari 2 (Octree Software), Contact (Consultron), DynaCADD (Ditek Int'l), Freelance Escort (Mr. Hardware), MaxiPlan Plus (TheDisc Company), Miracle Piano Teaching System (Software Toolworks), Novia (ICD), PageStream 2.2 (Soft-Logik), Personal Fonts Maker, (Centaur Software), Phoenix Board (Phoenix MicroTechnologies), Prima (ICD), Presentation Master (Oxxi), ProCalc (Gold Disk), Race Trace (Programs Plus & Video), Ray Dance (Radiance Software), SuperJAM (Blue Ribbon SoundWorks), Take 2 (Rombo/American Software), Video Escort (Mr. Hardware), Vidi-Amiga w/Color Splitter (Rombo/American Software), Visionary (Oxxi), Wordsworth (Digita Int'l), World Atlas 2.5 (Centaur), World Tour (Designing Minds). Let us know what you think of them and we'll pass the word along to your fellow users. ALSO AmigaWorld is considering ways to improve its review section, and we'd like your input! Before you answer "Run longer reviews, run more of them, and make them more timely," I must give you two warnings. First, we don't have unlimited space to work with. Currently the review section is alotted 9 pages (+/-) a month. That is unlikely to change, even though we're constantly campaigning for more editorial room. Second, lead times are a fact of life in publishing. From the time a product reaches our office it takes at least four months for a review of it to see print. The reviewer needs time to evaluate the product, we need time to edit the review and layout the pages, and the printer needs time to print the issues. Keeping these constraints in mind, please consider the seven questions in the following message and forward your answers to: Send your thoughts via: Standard mail-- Your Turn AmigaWorld 80 Elm St. Peterborough, NH 03458 CIS E-mail-- 76376,2135 INTERNET-- 76376.2135@compuserve.com Telephone-- 800/441-4403, ext. 118 or 603/924-0118 Be sure to include your full name and address (town, state) so we can properly identify you in print. 1) Given space limitations, would you prefer the review section contained: A) A few long, in-depth reviews B) Many short reviews C) A few medium-size reviews, plus a few capsule reviews D) The current length and number reviews (6-8 medium-size) 2) We try to run a screenshot with each review whenever possible. Would you prefer: A) Larger screenshots than we now run (meaning less text) B) No screens (meaning more text) C) Screenshots of the same size we run now 3) Products A & B are competitors. Product A was released today, and Product B will be released in another month. Would you rather we: A) Reviewed Product A right away, and reviewed B separately when it arrives B) Waited an issue or two and did a head-to-head comparison between A&B 4) We could preview beta soft/hardware. Given the number of products we receive, however, we would probably not follow up with a review in such cases. Knowing this, would you rather we: A) Preview beta products to be more timely B) Review final versions to be accurate, even if it means waiting another month 5) Which, if any, of these elements would you like added to individual reviews (indicate as many as desired): A) Features charts B) An overall rating (one mark on a scale of 1-5) C) A rating system (grades for individual elements & overall mark) D) A usage level rating (beginner/advanced/home/professional) E) Key facts boxes (RAM/HD/OS requirements, copy protection) F) More Your Turn comments per review G) Your Turn comments from professionals (when appropriate) H) "How it stacks up" boxes --feature and price comparisons with competitors I) Nothing new 6) Which, if any, would you like added to the review section (indicate as many as desired): A) A "latest upgrades" listing B) Structured reviews with a consistent approach/formula for all products C) An "Editor's pick of the month" page D) One-paragraph summaries of past reviews (once a year?, every 6 months?) E) Nothing new 7) Are we overlooking an improvement that's obvious to you? Tell us your ideas: Thank you for your help! Linda Barrett Laflamme THANKS! ------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEW SUPRA PRODUCT ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Supra will start shipping the KCS Power PC board this week. It allows Amiga 500, 2000, 3000 to run PC software. The board fits in the trapddoor RAM board area on the A-500. An adapter board will be available soon for the 2000 & 3000. The latest software adds color EGA, VGA video modes and supports EMS and most hard disk systems. Amiga Magazin in Germany rates it the best PC emuator for the Amiga. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- IMAGEMASTER PRICE HIKE ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ -- Notice -- Notice -- Notice -- As of March 15th, 1992, the retail price of Imagemaster will increase 25% from it's current $199.95 to $249.95. This action reflects the many new capabilities now included in the package, including true infinite 2-D morphing, filmstrips, multi-frame processing and so on. Upgrade prices will remain at the current level. Distributor and Dealer prices will also increase by similar proportions. Sales: (800) 852-6442 International Sales: (406) 367-5513 Questions: (406) 367-5509 FAX: (406) 367-2329 BBS: (406) 367-2227 Black Belt Systems - 398 Johnson Road - Glasgow MT - 59230 ------------------------------------------------------------------------- IMAGEMASTER NAME CHANGE ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Black Belt Systems is contemplating changing the name of our image manipulation software, "Imagemaster". The reason for this is that in the United Kingdom, the name "Image Master" is already in use, and we cannot market our product under the same name in that country. We would be very interested to see any suggestions anyone might have for a new name. We're looking for something catchy, medium to short in length, and easy to remember. Any implication of martial arts is also a plus, but not required. If we choose the name you suggest, we'll provide you with a free copy of the program as thanks. Thanks for any suggestions you might have. --Ben [Ed. -- Imagemaster now directly supports the Video Toaster file format for images.] ------------------------------------------------------------------------- AMIGA 'CLASSIC' ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The following is an excerpt from a recent issue of "Amiga Computing", a British computer magazine. CLASSIC AMIGA UNDER DEVELOPMENT - 'EXCLUSIVE' --------------------------------------------- A New Amiga with the development name Amiga Classic is set to bridge the gap between the A2000 and A3000 later this year, says a source close to Commodore US. Officials at the firm refuse to admit its planned release, although Amiga Computing can reveal many of the Classic's specifications. Based on a 68020 processor, it will come with 2 megabytes of memory, 16-bit sound and the latest operating system. An internal hard drive will be fitted as standard. A monitor will be supplied and it looks similar but slightly smaller" than the top-end A3000. Price is expected to be fixed below 2000 pounds and it could hit Britain in the second half of the year. Spokesman for Commodore UK, Andrew Ball, said: "I'm not going to comment on any new computers in the Amiga range. So much changes so quickly - the future is vapourware." [The rest of the article is interesting and informative. For a more complete picture, pick up an issue of Amiga Computing at your favorite computer store.] [Ed. -- I've heard nothing on this project other than what you've just read. I can assure you, however, that the name of any new Amiga will NOT be "Classic". Commodore couldn't afford the licensing fee and ensuing law suits.] ------------------------------------------------------------------------- TOASTER 2.0 ~~~~~~~~~~~ Video Toaster System 2.0 is shipping! No lie.... I recieved mine today! For those waiting for the upgrade.... The manual seems excellent... 3-ring binder style. 14 disks..... plus a cool T-shirt. You might as well know this right now so you can prepare for it... The installation program REQUIRES at LEAST 40MB of FREE Hard disk space to work! (Maybe closer to 41 or 42 MB...) Disk #1 is the only Amiga DOS format disk, and has the installer program on it. The rest are all in some sort of crunched format. The Tech Assistant dept. at New Tek said that after all the un- packing and installation of the program is done, the actual amount of disk space used will be around 35 MB. So if you don't have the space ready, you might as well prepare for it. Since I was not prepared, I still have some house-cleaning to do on my HD so that I can install it, but I wanted to get this info out to everyone ASAP to make things easier for everyone.... Have fun! -Mike- ------------------------------------------------------------------------- SID 2.0 FINISHED ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ From Timm Martin's BBS, Deep C: March 5, 1992 \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\//////////////////////////////////// \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\/////////////////////////////////// \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\////////////////////////////////// \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\///////////////////////////////// \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\//////////////////////////////// \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\/////////////////////////////// After two years, 2317 hours, and 2,950,911 bytes of code... SID v2.00 is complete. I will begin mailing diskettes Monday after work (sorry--previous committment this weekend). I will start with the oldest registered users and work my way forward. I will mail old checks, upgrade letters, etc tomorrow. ALL registered users should receive SOMETHING in the mail in the next two weeks. Thanks again for all your support and patience. ---- Timm Martin Deep C 1-606-344-1647 2400 F8N1 BBS for SID Correspondence: Timm Martin P.O. Box 3205 Cincinnati, OH 45201-3205 U.S.A. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- COMEAU C++ ~~~~~~~~~~ COMEAU RELEASES ENHANCED VERSIONS OF MULTI-PLATFORMED C++ Support for ANSI C++ Templates Now Available NEW YORK, NY -- February 11, 1991 -- Comeau Computing announced today the availability of Comeau C++ 3.0, its multiplatformed C++. Comeau C++ 3.0 provides C++ template support and other enhancements. The product will begin shipping February 17, 1992. The AmigaDOS version will begin shipping March 3, 1992. The new release includes support for ANSI C++ templates which further support the promise of OOP by enhancing the code reuse capabilities of C++. "Comeau continues its tradition of being the first to support the latest developments in C++," said Greg Comeau, CEO of Comeau Computing. "The high quality and timeliness of Comeau C++ 3.0 will hurl Comeau further into its leadership role in the overall C++ marketplace." Comeau C++ 3.0 will be the only version of C++ supporting templates classes and template function on a number of platforms. Templates, descriptions of families of common functionality, allow developers to write a generic description once. Templates also reduce the amount of code developers need to write. Comeau Computing also announced its intent to provide support for numerous back-end C compilers and additional ports of Comeau C++ 3.0. "Comeau C++ was the first to support C++ 2.0 and for over a year was the only vendor to support the C++ 2.1 specification. Continuing in this tradition, Comeau's leadership role and commitment to C++ and object-oriented programming and technology is upheld with our support of templates and other post-2.1 C++ features," said Comeau. COMEAU C++ ALLEVIATES TRANSITIONS C++ provides a bridge for C programmers to enter object-oriented programming and obtain other serious improvements. Comeau C++ 3.0 provides another bridge to allow C programmers access to this technology and to increase their productivity. Comeau C++ 3.0's strong compatibility with ANSI C and ANSI C++ is a steppingstone toward this goal. C++ programmers gain the ability to express their algorithms in a more natural manner while still retaining the efficiency of C. Furthermore, C programmers can move to C++ without having all their code break and they can learn Comeau C++ in a tiered transition. Comeau C++ is especially designed with cross platform and cross operating system capability in mind. Consistency across implementations is of the utmost importance. Previous versions of Comeau C++ supported MS-DOS, all UNIX 386's, SCO UNIX 386, SCO XENIX 386, the AT&T 3B2, AmigaDOS, AT&T UNIX PC 7300 & 3B1, the Sun-3, and the IBM RS/6000 AIX. Comeau C++ 3.0 adds support for the Sun SPARC, and others to include the Atari ST, UNIX SVR4, MS-Windows, and OS/2. "This diversity has been an important concern to our user base. They want to develop source code here and then go use it there. They want to specify generic interfaces to ensure portability. They need compilers on their target machines. They want to be assured that what worked on the source machine will work on the target with no hassles or strings attached. Not only do we address these considerations, but we guarantee them." commented Comeau. C COMPILER SUPPORT Comeau C++ 3.0 is a licensed port of AT&T's cfront, the de facto standard C++. Comeau C++ 3.0 is a full and true compiler that performs full syntax checking, full semantic checking, full error checking and all other compiler duties. Input C++ code is translated into internal compiler trees looking nothing like C++ or C. Instead of generating an internal proprietary intermediate code from these trees to be used by a proprietary back end code generator, Comeau C++ 3.0 generates C code as its output. Besides the technical advantages of C++, the C generating aspects of products like Comeau C++ 3.0 have been touted as a reason for C++'s success since it was able to be ported to a large number of platforms due to the common availability of C compilers. The C compiler is used merely and only for the sake of obtaining native code generation. What is the "3.0" in Comeau C++ 3.0 With Templates? The Major Features of Comeau C++ 3.0: * Multi-platform, multi-OS capability. * Support for proposed ANSI C++ template classes and template functions * Support for nested types (the transition model initiated with Comeau C++ 2.1 is now complete). * Source and link compatible with Comeau C++ 2.0 and Comeau C++ 2.1. * Improved architecture, reworked internals and better organization. * Support for overloaded prefix and postfix increment and decrement. * Support for constructor and destructor syntax for built-in types. * Support for protected derivation. * Support for fully default argument'ed constructors initializing arrays. * Completed transition in support of dominance to data. * Completed transition in support of access specifiers in unions. * Argument matching transition complete. * Operator overloading transition complete. * Many anachronistic transition models are complete and diagnose as errors. * Continuing the transition: many +w diagnostics are now default diagnostics. * Support for an unlimited number of nested include files (unlimited to the "extent of intent" as, for example, your C preprocessor may have limits). * Improvements to the ANSI C +a1 option controlling input and output. * Further ARM/ANSI C++ compliance. * Strengthening due to more powerful C++ test suites. * Bug fixes. * Under MS-DOS, the Comeau C++ 3.0 compiler proper will use the now industry standard DPMI protocol (previous versions supported VCPI). * Continues it support of 32-bit processing. * Free technical support. * Low price. Third Party Support Comeau C++ receives support from third-party library and tool vendors. Furthermore, Comeau C++ is the choice of compiler to use by many C++ text book publishers and C++ training groups. Comeau C++ 3.0 will continue to receive this support. COMEAU COMPUTING Comeau Computing is a leading international software house dedicated to C++ and OOP featuring timely and robust spec compatible C++ ports for various platforms and operating systems. Comeau is also involved in C++ libraries, toolkits, debuggers, browsers, and training. How do I order Comeau C++ 3.0 With Templates? If you currently possess a version of Comeau C++ 2.1, ordering of Comeau C++ 3.0 With Templates is as follows: o if your license is > 60 days old, cost is 50% of the purchase price you paid o if your license is <= 60 days old, cost is 25% of the purchase price you paid (Either way provide us with your 2.1 serial number). If you do not possess a version of Comeau C++ 2.1, ordering Comeau C++ 3.0 With Templates can be obtained by contacting us through those mechanisms listed below. Comeau C++ 3.0 for AmigaDOS costs $250 (no shipping and handing charge if shipped domestically in the US). Comeau C++ 3.0 for AmigaDOS works with either AmigaDOS 1.3 or 2.0 and requires about 1 Meg of disk space, about 2 Meg's of RAM, a version of rexx, and a C compiler (SAS/C 5.10a and above, or Manx Aztec C 5.0d and above). Orders will follow previous Comeau policy (prepaid, US dollars, etc). Contact: Marge Behrens Voice: 718-945-0009, Fax: 718-441-2310 BIX: comeau, Compuserve: 72331,3421 Usenet: attmail.com!csanta!c++ Prodigy: tshp50a Postal: Comeau Computing, 91-34 120th Street, Richmond Hill, NY 11418-3214 ------------------------------------------------------------------------- MICROILLUSIONS ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ MicroIllusions, Inc has moved and has been purchased by HOLLYWARE Entertainment. Our new address and phone numbers are: HOLLYWARE/MicroIllusions 13464 Washington Blvd. Marina Del Rey, CA. 90291 (310) 822-9200 (310) 390-0457 Fax We are looking forward to developing a strong relationship with the members of Compuserve. Look for new demo's from HOLLYWARE to appear in the game demo library. For all who are interested we are having a special sale for Compuserve members please contact us for further details. Philip Moody, Customer Support, HOLLYWARE/MicroIllusions. ========================================================================= Art Department Professional v2 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ PREAMBLE -------- Art Department Professional v2 is the first major upgrade to ASDG's popular high-end image processing program for the Commodore Amiga. New features include support for enhanced graphics devices; more load/save file formats; new image processing options and upgrades for supported devices such as film recorders and scanners. AM-Report has been using ADPro2 since late October of 1991. During the past four months I have had the opportunity to put ADPro through its paces. AM-Report does not have a big testing lab like the major print publications so there are a number of features that I did NOT get to work with. I did, however, have the opportunity to test ADPro out in both a standard commercial environment and the grueling hectic world of a computer trade-show/exposition. GENERAL ------- Art Department Professional v2 (henceforth referred to as ADPro2) is an image processing program. It has three main features: LOADERS, SAVERS and OPERATORS. Through these features ADPro can import and export picture files in almost any format, whether the image was created on an Amiga, Mac or PC. Images can be shrunken, enlarged, sharpened, enhanced, blured, etc. Pictures can be scanned in from scanners, printed to film recorders, printed out on a PostScript printer or even on any Amiga Preferences printer. ADPro2 will work any any Amiga running Kickstart v1.2 or later. Special enhancements are available to KS 2.0.4 equipped machines. At least one megabyte of memory is required with ASDG reccomending a five or more. While ADPro2 will run on an MC68000 based Amiga, it really needs a fast machine to work properly. ADPro's little brother, The Art Department, is a good alternative for users who don't need professional power. THE TEST SUITE -------------- Amiga 3000/25 25 MHz 68030 cpu 25 MHz 68882 fpu 6 megabytes RAM (2 chip/4 fast) GVP IV24 video board Phovos 300C color scanner (600 dpi) Poloroid Freeze Frame film recorder HP DeskJet 500 inkjet printer Kickstart 2.0.4 on disk (uses 512K RAM) and later in ROM THE PROGRAM -- LOADERS ---------------------- An ADPro2 loader is a module that is used for importing an image into the program so it can be worked on. You select the loader that will accept the file format of your image and hit the "load" button. The loaders are actually small filter programs located in their own sub- directory. Done this way, it is easy to add new loaders without having to reinstall the entire program. New loaders are simply copied from their disk to the LOADERS2 sub-directory. Another benefit is with the loaders each having their own file, you can not install the ones you don't use. ADPro2 comes with 20 different loaders and there are more you can buy. This saves time and confusion when selecting the loader you want to use. Since I only use five or so loaders regularly, I delete the other files on my hard drive and don't have to scroll through them all when using the program. Savers and operators both work in this manner, also. The standard ADPro2 package comes with 20 different loaders, they are: BACKDROP - Create solid or gradiated background screens BACKLINE - Similar to BACKDROP but with a different method of gradiation BMP - MicroSoft Windows 3.0 format images CLIPBOARD - [I assume it loads images from the Amiga Clipboard. It is not mentioned in the manual. Oops, this is corrected in ADPro 2.1] DPIIE - Deluxe Paint IIE, the PC version of DPaint that has 256 colors DV21 - DigiView 3.0 21-bit files FRAMEGRABBER - Allows framegrabs directly from PP&S Framegrabber unit GIF - CompuServe's GIF 87a and 89a formats HAME - Black Belt Systems' HAM-E display enhancer format IFF - A superIFF loader that handles standard IFF, EHB, HAM, SHAM, AHAM, Dynamic HAM, ARES, Dynamic HiRes and IFF 12, 15, 18, 21 and 24 including DigiView 4.0 21-bit files IMPULSE - RGB8 and RGBN formats used with Turbo Silver and Imagine IV24 - Framegrabs from GVP's IV-24 display enhancer JPEG - JFIF formated JPEG compressed 24-bit images MACPAINT - The Mac format 1-bitplane images PCX - IBM PC file format including the new 24-bit PCX format POINTER - Digitize a sprite image used for the current mouse pointer QRT - The format used by the DKB and QRT raytrace programs SCREEN - Digitize any Amiga-viewable screen SCULPT - Byte-by-Byte's Sculpt-3D image format UNIVERSAL - A "smart" loader that can identify the image format and invoke the correct loader module. Optional loaders include: TIFF - The hires Mac/PC image format for 24-bit/32-bit images TARGA - The TrueVision file format for their hires display enhancers RENDITION - Popular PC/Mac 3D format for hires images PHOVOS_300 EPSON_300 - Popular color scanners JX_100 Notice that loaders aren't restricted to images on a disk. They can also control hardware devices such as framegrabbers and scanners for digitizing and/or scanning in images. When an image is loaded in, if ADPro2 detects color data, it automatically creates a 24-bit version of the image for internal manipulation. This doesn't improve the image -- a 16 color image is still 16 colors, just now out of a palette of 16.7 million -- but it allows ADPro2 to work with much more precision. If no color data is detected, only intensity levels are found, then ADPro2 expands the image palette to an 8-bit gray level -- 256 shades of gray. THE PROGRAM -- SAVERS --------------------- Savers are the output version of loaders. They take the image data and write it out to a file or a device. Savers can actually write a file to disk for future use or can send the image data to a hardware device like a Firecracker-24 board or a Poloroid CI3000 film recorder. Saving a file to a display enhancer activates that device and then displays the image on-screen. Saving to a film recorder exposes the film and makes a photograph. Saving to a printer prints the file and saving to disk actually saves the file. ADPro2 comes with 18 standard savers: A2410 - Display images on Commodore's U. of Lowell graphics board BMP - Save to disk 1, 4, 8 or 24-bitplane MS Windows image data CLIPBOARD - [See the loader by the same name.] DPIIE - Save to disk IBM PC DPaint IIE format ILBM files FC24 - Display images on the FireCracker card from Impulse FRAMEBUFFER - Display images on a Mimetics Framebuffer GIF - Save to disk using CompuServe's GIF format v89a HAME - Display images on a Black Belt System's HAM-E display HARLEQUIN - Display images on an Amiga Center Scotland Harlequin device IFF - Save images to disk in an IFF format IMPULSE - Save to disk either 12-bit RGBN or 24-bit RGB8 files IV24 - Display images on GVP's Impact Vision 24 device JPEG - Save to disk images compressed with JPEG compression PCX - Save to disk either gray or color PCX files POSTSCRIPT - Save to disk OR print to printer either an EPS/non-EPS, Color/Gray, ASCII/Binary file PREFPRINTER - Print to any Amiga-Preferences printer with 24-bit accuracy in color or 8-bit accuracy in gray QRT - Save to disk images in Qucik Ray Trace format SCULPT - Save to disk Red, Green and Blue components of a Sculpt file Others are available for such devices as the Poloroid CI3000 and Kodak SV film recorders; TIFF, TARGA and RENDITION file formats. THE PROGRAM -- OPERATORS ------------------------ Operators are the heart of ADPro2. They are what you can actually DO to an image once it is in memory. Operators are like loaders and savers in that they are also just command files in their own subdirectory. This means that it is possible to add more operators to the program simply by placing their respective files in the proper directory. ADPro2 comes with 28 operators. Some of the operators are duplicates of others that have been optimized to work with ARexx or with direct human control. APPLY MAP - Adjustments made to an image's contrast, gamma, brightness, red, blue or green components are used as a filter when raw 24-bit data is rendered to an Amiga-displayable format. APPLY MAP adjusts the actual 24-bit data as described by the balancing controls. This is very handy when displaying raw 24-bit data on an enhanced display device such as the FireCracker 24 or IV-24 boards. This also allows greater control over images printed using the PREFPRINTER option. BLUR - An image can be blurred by comparing a pixel to its neighbors then replacing it with the average value if the difference between the pixel and the average are greater than a certain amount. Giving a picture a "soft focus" look can be done this way. COLORIZE - Gray scale data is stored in an internal 8-bit format while color data is stored in an internal 24-bit format. COLORIZE changes gray data from an 8-bit to a 24-bit format then actually colors the gray image. It is a modified version of the GRAY TO COLOR operator. COLOR TO GRAY - A 24-bit color image is analyzed and transformed into an 8-bit gray image based on the relative intensity of each pixel and the weighting giving the individual color elements. There are two default settings -- one for a luminence-based conversion which is optimized for an NTSC screen, and one for an average conversion best for when an image will be printed on a gray scale printer. CONVOLVE - CONVOLVE is a multi-purpose operator that really belongs in a class by itself. CONVOLVE is a general-purpose convolution filter that can apply to a 3x3 or 5x5 matrix. Convolution matricies are some hefty items mathematically and can perform some very interesting and useful functions. ADPro2 comes with 24 preset convolution matricies in their own special sub-directory: BIG SHARPEN, BLUR, BLUR 5x5, CROSSHATCH, DEPRESS, EAST, GAUSSIAN, HORIZONTAL, JIGGLEVERT, L TO R DIAGONAL, NORTH, NORTHEAST, NORTHWEST, R TO L DIAGONAL, SHARPEN, SHARPEN 3x3, SHARPEN 5x5, SOUTH, SOUTHEAST, SOUTHWEST, SPECKLE, VERTICAL, WEST, WOODCUT Convolution matricies are best applied to line-art and non-color complex images. They do some very wierd things to digitized images. Convolutions are a world unto themselves and take as much time to understand as the rest of ADPro does as a whole. CROP IMAGE - This is one of a pair of cropping utilities. CROP IMAGE is smaller than it's visual brother CROP VISUAL and crops an image based upon numeric input. It is better than CROP VISUAL for processing images via ARexx since it is smaller and slightly faster. CROP VISUAL - A brother to CROP IMAGE this operator will place a dithered version of the image and an "elastic" rectangle on the screen. Size and position the rectangle over the portion of the image you want to keep and press the radio button -- instant cropped picture! DCTV - This operator reformats the 24-bit data into DCTV's format and displays it through the DCTV unit. DCTV pictures can be saved to disk by then saving using the IFF saver and setting the rendering to a 16-color hires image. DEF PIXL ASPECT - This operator takes data such as that scanned in from a scanner with a 1:1 aspect ration and reformats it to the proper visual aspect -- lores, hires, superhires. This prevents the "squashed" and "stretched" looks common with scanned and printed images. DEINTERLACE - DEINTERLACE takes an interlaced image and creates to "stacked" non-interlaced image files. This has applications in creating files for the X-Specs 3D glasses and other things. DYNAMIC RANGE - Find out and limit the range of colors used in your image. This is very useful for eliminating "hot" colors which cause bleed and crawl on a composite NTSC display. GRAY TO COLOR - Similar to COLORIZE but simplay places the 8-bit gray image ina 24-bit color format -- the image is still in gray shades but now can be composited with color images as well. HALVE - A specialized version of the SCALE operator which halves an image both vertically and horizontally. (This makes it 1/4 of a screen.) This is good for transforming frames of a full-screen animation into the quarter-screen necessary to run CDTV real-time anims. The HALVE operator about 13 times faster (on a 68030 cpu) than using the SCALE operator. HORIZONTAL FLIP - Flip an image left-to-right/right-to-left. INTERLACE - Cousin to the DEINTERLACE operator. This takes two non- interlaced screen images and "stacks" them to form one interlaced image. LINE ART - This operator only works with 8-bit gray scale data. It invokes a propriotary edge-detecting algorithm that creates outline images from filed gray data. MEDIAN FILTER - Very similar to BLUR, this operator computes the median value of the 8 pixels surrounding each pixel and if the median differs from the pixel value by more than a user- defined amount, the pixel is replaced by one with the median value. BLUR uses _average_ values, while this operator uses the _median_ value. The difference is that BLUR is more likely to be affected by single pixels of extreme value. BLUR also uses a center weighting factor in its computation. NEGATIVE - Make photographic negatives of images. RECTANGLE - Another one of a pair. This version draws rectangles or rectangular solids around/over user-defined areas of an image. Thickness and mix values can be adjusted. This version takes numbers and is smaller than its visual brother. Best used for ARexx processed images. RECTANGLE VISUAL- Brother to RECTANGLE, this operator looks exactly like CROP VISUAL except instead of cropping the image, it places a rectangle of variable thickness (or filled) around over part of an image. REM ISOLATED PXL- This operator works only on rendered data. Very similar to BLUR and MEDIAN FILTER, RIP doesn't have a threshold value to compare with. It is good for removing "artifacts" found in some images. RENDERED TO RAW - Take rendered image data and transform it back into 24-bit or 8-bit raw RGB data. SCALE - Enlarge or reduce an image (limited to the amount of free memory available). TEXT VISUAL - A powerful tool for placing text on an image. Fully supports scalable fonts and has a wide variety of options including embossing, blurring and mix values. TILE - Create wallpaper effects by repeating a defined region throughout the entire image. TILE VISUAL - Same effect as TILE except instead of feeding a pair of coordinates you use the same interface as RECTANGLE VISUAL and CROP VISUAL to define a region. TPORT CONTROL - Send an image to Microillusions Transport Controller for handling by MI's software. VERTICAL FLIP - Turn an image upside down. I haven't the occasion to use all of the operators, but have put a good number of them through their paces. I use 8 of the operators on a heavy basis and have played with all of them except DCTV and TRANSPORT CONTROLLER. INSTALLATION ------------ ADPro2 uses Commodore's new standard installer program. It is a breeze to use and I had no problems either installing the entire ADPro2 setup or customizing a setup. I should note that this was the *first* time I had seen or used the CBM installer and I had no problems. APPEARANCE ---------- ADPro2 uses a lores gray scale screen for its control panel. Image info is displayed in the lower left corner; loader and saver info in the upper left; operator info and color controls are in the middle left. The load/save controls are in the upper right and the rendering controls are in the lower right of the screen. The entire screen has a 3D embossed look, including requesters and special screens set up for VISUAL operators and scanner control. ADPro2's screen lend themselves to a very professional appearance. USING ADPRO ----------- Images can be loaded into ADPro in portrait or landscape orientation, and images can be composited into others (within limits). Color images cannot be composited into 8-bit gra without first using the GRAY TO COLOR operator to map the gray image to a 24-bit workspace. Scanning images don't composite without first saving them to disk then reloading them. You can't composite in landscape orientation. Compositing is loading one image directly into another, usually smaller, one. ADPro2's composite controller is very versatile. Images can be positioned within one another manually by using a mouse to place a rectangle representing the incoming image onto the background, or by entering coordinates of the upper-left corner of the incoming image. A mix percentage can be used so a transparency effect can be generated. Separate red, green and blue values can be weighted for specialized effects. Images are limited in size by available memory. I've had no problems with scrolling around in 1K x 1K images...except that a 1K x 1K 24-bit image uses a lot of RAM (2.4 megabytes). Oh, yes. To work on images, RAM must be *contiguous*. That is, it must be in one continuous chunk. With a multitasking system, this can be harder than it sounds to achieve. TOTAL memory available may be in many little chunks, fragmented by occupying programs. ASDG's reccommendation of 5 megs is just about right. You will need more if you are multitasking anything of size at the same time. THE TEST -------- Rather than try to cover all of ADPro's uses and functions, let me say that everything does what it says. I have by no means used all of it -- I really have no use for convolutions because 99% of everything I do is digitized photographs -- and I don't have all them different display devices. To get an idea of what you can use ADPro2 for and how it performs, let me tell you how *I* use it and how it has performed on various occasions. My company, InfoTrak, uses ADPro in conjunction with Superbase Pro 4, ARexx and some custom software to create multimedia databases which contain photographs as well as text information. Images are scanned in or digitized using a Phovos 300C color scanner or a GVP Impact Vision 24 card and camera. Digitized photos are passed from the IV24 card to ADPro2 via ARexx for scaling, compression and gray scale conversion. The scaled gray shade image is then incorporated into a Superbase form and printed -- picture and all. This is used for novelty "Wanted" and "Missing" posters you see in malls and flea markets. It can also produce identification cards and bracelets as well as any other type of photo I.D. Recently I have changed the way the printing takes place. Now, instead of SBPro printing the form, I pass the data to ADPro which then prints the form. While it is easier to print with SBPro, ADPro2 will print gray shade pictures with 8-bits of accuracy (256 shades) whereas SBPro only prints 16 shades in hires. Print time doubles from about two minutes to about four minutes, but the quality increases by a factor of four. Here is exactly what goes on, step-by-step: 1. Framegrab an image using Impact Vision 2. Invoke ARexx script that pulls the following info: a. name of the IFF image file as saved by IV24 b. index key of subject as defined in SuperBase 3. Save color master image to 1 Gb magneto-optical drive in JPEG format 4. Convert 24-bit color image to 8-bit gray in ADPro 5. Scale to size needed to fit on form 6. Save 8-bit IFF file of image 7. Load form template (created with TEXT VISUAL and RECTANGLE VISUAL) 8. Composite load 8-bit image into proper place on form (X,Y coordinates) 9. Pull data one field at a time from SBPro record and insert into proper place in form using TEXT VISUAL to define coordinates, style and size A. Change aspect of pixels from hires (22:26) to printable (1:1) B. Color correct the image for proper printout (Gamma adjustment) C. Print form using PREFPRINTER saver D. Crop form so only picture is left E. Render picture to 16-color hires screen F. Save cropped screen image of picture G. Pass rendered image name to SBPro to use as a "thumbnail" photo for quick reference H. Pass control back to main program The procedure is slightly different when scanning in existing photos but essentially it is the same thing. ADPro2 is a joy to work with in ARexx. *EVERYTHING* works as it is documented and it really *works*. I have had problems with poor documentation using the IV24 card and Superbase Pro with ARexx, but ADPro is documented to the hilt and it is all *correct*. Any problems I've had with ADPro and ARexx could be traced back to my not fully reading the particular section. I have successfully loaded, saved, scaled, monochorized, cropped, composited, printed and rendered images with small segments of ARexx code that worked on the first try. The entire operation was put to the test when I hauled the equipment from my home in Orlando, FL to Jacksonville, FL for a four-day convention and trade show. For three of those four days my system was cranking out i.d. cards, "wanted" posters and i.d. bracelets. It was scrutinized by potential customers and competitors alike. All in all I printed over 200 wanted posters, 100 i.d. cards and 75 i.d. bracelets in the three-day period. The entire system never missed a beat. It went so damn smooth and we drew such a crowd that our major competitor left in the middle of day two in disgust -- no one was looking at his products! (IBM PS/2 based digital video with SVGA.) From 8:00 am to 4:00 pm, February 24 - 26 ADPro loaded, cropped, scaled, monochromed and printed over 350 images. All this while running Superbase Pro 4, AmigaVision and ARexx at the same time in a 6 meg Amiga 3000/25. I had not one glitch or bad image. Every printout was clean and crisp, every picture was sharp and detailed. Not once in three days did I actually see the ADPro screen -- that was hidden in the background behind an AmigaVision screen. Oh, yes. All this was done *live* and fully viewable by the public since I also fed S-VHS video out of the IV24 board to my 31" television we used for a public display. Not one hiccup. FINALE ------ ADPro2 has more tools than I mentioned: there is a nice color separator and optional scanner control is a dream. ADPro can be loaded with the screen behind the others and its working RAM can be controlled via a command line argument or icon info. The color separator supports CYM, CYMK or RGB separations with inputs for ink impurity compensation. I've never had occasion to use it, so can't make comment. While a god product, ADPro is lacking what *I* consider some fundamental abilities that make some operations damn difficult to perform. 1. REGIONS -- Place a radio button on the main panel labeled REGION. When off, all operations are performed on the entire image. When on operations are performed ONLY ON A DEFINED REGION of the image. Right click on the button to define a region using the same interface as CROP VISUAL and RECTANGLE VISUAL. Right now, I simulate this effect by using CROP VISUAL to crop the region, operate on that; save it and then composite load it back into the original image. A royal pain in the rear end. 2. ROTATE --- Yes, you can rotate images as you load them in by selecting LANDSCAPE or PORTRAIT mode, but when I'm switching back and forth between many images I forget which is in what orientation. It would be nice to be able to rotate and image AFTER it has been loaded in. ROTATE 90R and ROTATE 90L would be an improvement. There would have to be some compensation for pixel aspect as an option, though I suppose DEF PIXEL ASPECT could handle it. 3. TEXT ----- A smaller, quicker text operator that is designed for ARexx control would be MUCH nicer than having to use the sluggish TEXT VISUAL operator. Same concept as CROP/CROP VISUAL and RECTANGLE/RECTANGLE VISUAL. 4. IV24 ----- Support for GVP's Impact Vision board is good, but it could be better. Scrolling is slow (I know, that is because of the board) but could be speeded up. MacroPaint 24 scrolls at about three times the speed with the exact same image. Support for freezing an image instead of just digitizing one and support for PIP including freezing and digitizing a 12-bit IFF from the PIP would be superb. 5. FILES ---- Under Kickstart 2.0.4 ADPro2 uses file requesters for selecting loaders, savers, operators and screen formats. There is a most recently used (MRU) option that places the last couple of items used on top for easy access. Very handy for accessing 99% of the loaders (Universal & Phovos are almost always on top on mine). However, I am used to the list sorting when I grab the scroll bar. With ADPro2 there is an explicit SORT button for this -- the scroll bar just scrolls. This I don't like. All my other programs sort when I grab the scroll bar so I am used to it. ASDG's logic is that grabbing the scroll bar defeats the MRU option and if MRU is off, the list is sorted anyway. Faulty logic. If MRU is on and I have to touch the scroll bar (messing up the MRU), then I *don't want* one of the MRU items. If I did, I wouldn't touch the scroll bar to begin with. If I do, I am searching for a less used item and it is much easier to find if the list is alphabetized. I just keep forgetting about the SORT button. Yes, this one is picking nits, but it is a nit that annoys me. RECCOMENDATION? --------------- ADPro2 is a professional program. It is not a program to run on a 1 meg A500 for fiddling with some framegrabbed X-rated pix. It needs RAM -- contiguous RAM -- and it needs power. Unless you have an accelerated Amiga with atleast 4 or 5 megs of memory, get ADPro2's littl brother - The Art Department. I've listed most of the features of ADPro. It *DOES* what it says, so it is up to you to determine if it has what you need. It is supremly stable, the support is good and the documentation is outstanding. It multitasks well and installs on a hard drive. ADPro supports the widest variety of third-party add-ons that I've ever seen, and more are on the way. ADPro is not copy protected. ADPro is simple to use and a *very* powerful program. At the above convention I had not problem scanning in documents given to me by another vendor then saving them to a PC disk (using CrossDOS) in a PCX or GIF format. He imported them effortlessly into Harvard Graphics/Windows for a slide show. I have taken images designed on Macs and transferred them for use on PCs. I've exported EPS files on PC disks for my printer to use in printing our brochures. ADPro is designed to fit your needs today while being easily expandable in the future. I have had PC gurus tell me "I wish the PC software was as easy to use..." and Mac wizards drool over the price. It seems comparable Mac software costs from 2 to 10 times the price. HINTS ----- I work a lot in superbitmap images. I also work a lot in gray scale since I print images on DeskJets and laser printers. DON'T SAVE A GRAY IMAGE USING JPEG COMPRESSION!! What saves out to an 800k IFF file will save to a 100k JPEG format file. BUT, JPEG converts everything to 24-bit first. What was a 1 meg image now wants over 4 megs of contiguous RAM to load! Ugh! For more information you can contact ASDG at: ASDG, Inc. PORTAL: go asdg 925 Stewart Street BIX: join asdg Madison, WI 53713 CIS: go amigavendor 608/273-6585 [Boy am I slow! ASDG has released ADPro 2.1 with FRED (FRame EDitor), some improvements/bug fixes to ADPro and patches to other items. I'll update the review next issue. ASDG is also looking for developers who wish to write custom loaders/savers/operators that work with ADPro. They are offering an ADPro development kit. For info on ADPro 2.1 and the developer's kit, contact ASDG at the above addresses.] ========================================================================= Ami-Back v2.0 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Moonlighter Software of Orlando, FL has just release v2.0 of it's popular hard drive backup utility, Ami-Back. The following is a list of changes and improvements that have been made to Ami-Back version 2.0: * Backup data compression has been added (an average 30%-35% savings) * The scheduler configuration can now be accessed from the main menu. * A notify mode for the scheduler has been added. * Ami-Sched now uses AppIcon (under Workbench 2.0 only). * ARexx support for all major commands has been added. * When the source device is searched, a window is now opened which gives the user important information regarding the source device. * Backups can now be password protected. Ami-Back uses industry-standard algorithms for data encryption. * The backup verify option now includes a comparative restore mode. * Backup and restore modes now have separate filters. The user can now AND/OR any combination of Filename, Device name, Comment, Protection Bits, or Date Stamps. The filters allow for inclusion or exclusion. * Ami-Back now includes the "911" (tm) mode. This emergency data recovery mode will salvage as much lost data from a crashed hard drive as possible, then back it up to any device supported by Ami-Back. * The device listing method has been improved so that even with the addition of so many new features, Ami-Back is still simple and easy to use. * Fast Search support has been added for DAT drive users. * A tape append mode has been added. Now additional data can be backed up to tapes that already contain backup up data. * A SCSI tape default reader has been added which reads the user's default drive set up. * An Iconify mode has been added for backup and restore screens. * Ami-Back now defaults to the first device in the device list. * The Image backup and restore modes will not give the user the partition size if they are not the same. * Ami-Back now supports multiple fixed block mode (for tape). * Ami-Back can now label the backup set (80 character maximum), and it can store this information with the index. * The backup catalog may now be stored that the end of the backup. * Missing disks may be skipped during restores so that the rest of the data may be restored properly. * Backup disks are now labeled in sequential order. * Compare mode now indicated what percentage is complete. * Compare mode now only displays errors in list view gadget. * Abort mode for backups and restores now uses a second check requester. * Floppy drive status during backups and restores is now displayed. * Floppy drives are inhibited during backups and restores. * Tape drive error messages are now much more informative. * A Write Notify mode has been added that will notify user during backups whether any data already exists on disk. * Online Help is now available for major gadget functions. * Numerous other minor changes. Users who purchased Ami-Back v1.0x on of after April 1, 1992 and have sent in their registration cards, Ami-Back v2.0 will be made available for $5 to cover postage and handling ($10 outside the U.S.) and a copy of your sales receipt. For all other registered owners the upgrade price is $15 plus shipping and handling ($3 inside the U.S., $7 outside the U.S.) Florida residents add 6% sales tax. ============================================================================ ------------------------------------------------------------------------- AMReport International Online Magazine Available through more than 10,000 Private BBS systems WorldWide! ------------------------------------------------------------------------- AMReport "YOUR INDEPENDENT NEWS SOURCE" May 16, 1992 16/32bit Magazine copyright 1992 Volume 2.02 -------------------------------------------------------------------------