home
***
CD-ROM
|
disk
|
FTP
|
other
***
search
/
Amiga Collections: MegaDisc
/
MegaDisc 08 (1988)(MegaDisc Digital Publishing)(AU)[WB].zip
/
MegaDisc 08 (1988)(MegaDisc Digital Publishing)(AU)[WB].adf
/
ARTICLES
/
Enhancing_WB
< prev
next >
Wrap
Text File
|
1988-05-28
|
14KB
|
275 lines
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
ENHANCING THE BENCH
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
[Ed: A long overdue article on removing all the dross on Workbench.
Take this as a general guide - you can remove all sorts of things if
you know what you're doing. Robert Lang prepared a Theme Disk for us
called IFF2PCS_DISK or JIGSAW, and he organised it so that you can
remove all the extra IFF2PCS stuff and be left with a SLIM Workbench.
Thanks, Robert, & thanks Tim for the article.]
FREEING THE DISK
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
So you've got the computer of your dream and with it come two
Commodore-Amiga Disks containing Workbench and Extras. However one of the
major problems with this disk is that it comes with only 4% or so free
space (out of 880 KiloBytes, ie .88 of a Megabyte). To solve this problem
you must remove certain files to free the disk (remember to have a backup
WorkBench disk just in case anything goes wrong).
For starters, the biggest directory is the C dir where all the
commands are found such as DIR and COPY. Here you can pick and choose which commands
to keep for your own use. The DEVS drawer holds the system DEVICES. From
here you can clear away "Clipboard.device" & its dir and the "Keymaps dir".
These are used by other programmes which normally do not reside on the Work-
Bench disk and so serve no real purpose.
The L and Libs dirs are very important directories which AmigaDos
and WorkBench (Intuition) rely upon. For starters The "Disk-Validater must
be kept and so to the "Port-handler" if you which to print files to the
printer.
The third file, Ram-Handler is necessary for making Ram Disks so
you must keep it. In the Libs Dir you require really only "Icon.Library"
(otherwise workbench will hang), and the others are only kept if required.
Info.Library - Necessary for selecting INFo from WorkBench menus
Diskfont.Library -Needed to access fonts from disk only for
notepad
Version.Library - Version numbers stored here. V.Small file
MathTrans.Library - For calculating in special programmes
MathieeeDoubbas - Not necessary, only for complex maths
Translator.library - once again not very necessary, unless you
like your Amiga to talk to you.
**(You will find however that I keep most of these on my WB disk.)
The Next Dir is FONTS. This draw and diskfont.library in the LIB drawer are
not necessary for the Workbench - only for NOTEPAD which I have replaced.
T: is the Temporary workspace dir and can be kept.
S: is the dir with the startup-sequence which you MUST keep.
Finally after you have moved your scythe through the disk you may come
up with a nice clear WorkBench Disk. As for the commands required see
AmigaDos manual as to what you will want to keep. The usual ones to keep
are commands like COPY, DIR, PATH, LIST, etc. and anything which you see in
your STARTUP-SEQUENCE - try entering in the CLI
> type s:startup-sequence
and you'll see the commands needed there.
ENHANCING THE DISK
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ PUBLIC DOMAIN UTILITIES
As you should Know the best thing about the Amiga apart from the
Machine itself is the support from Dealers and Developers it receives. Fred
Fish probably deserves a Nobel prize for his contribution to the Amiga. So
far there are about 154 FISH DISKS around along with 26 or so AMICUS Disks
each with a great deal of software/shareware for you to use.
Some Suggestions Are:
Utilities:
MR/MR.DATA/MR.INFO - MenuRunner is a unique programme that creates a
small window on the Menubar of WorkBench and creates a menu with 40
possible selections each with an equivalent form in the .Data file
that defines what is to be executed when you select a title and
even gives a extension for files that require more info like a
filename.
CONDOM/VIRUSX1.2/VCHECK - Ever Since the First Virus appeared on the
Commodore Amiga last year there have been many attempts to combat
it with programmes like VCheck/VirusX1.2 & Condom.I use Condom
because fairly small about 2k and it only detects it in memory.
VCheck and VirusX are different, VirusX1.2 opens a small window
and checks each disk as it is inserted and tallies the amount. The
source is easily available. [Ed: see this disk for better ones]
ASDG/VDK: - Virtual disks are a necessity like Ram Disks for those
with one Disk Drive. The difference between a RAM Disk and A
Virtual Disk (VDK/VD0) are virtual, ie they survive reboots and
thus all data is saved if the machine hangs. However Virtual disks
don't work too well on 512K machines because a Virtual disk is not
flexible like Ram disks. They are mounted as devices with x number
of tracks and thus you can even format it.
Usually with these programes come extras like DRAM to
delete the Vd0: and when you reboot CLEARAM cleanses a Vd0: to
remove all files just like formatting. SYSMON Is an Amiga Moniter
that shows you the CPU acess and RAM: amounts. Thus if you have
extra Memory this the utility for you.
DU-I-DU-VI - The CLI is extensive and Workbench is limited. So how
about a programme with windows which you click on files then
select delete copy Unlock or Rename. You can also read text files
and other selectable choices such as editing a text file With
SYS:C/Ed and Show an IFF Picture, or comment on files. The best
Editors are Du-V and Du-VI, each with a few differences either
support for DE-ARCING a file and FixObj-ing them. [Ed: see the two
MODEMING articles on this disk for more details.] These offer many
choices and are perfect for Disk maintenance when you find some
disks are full of useless files. Also available is DISKMAN-II,
which offers a Du-VI interface but in HIRES/INTERLACE
which allows up to 48 files to be displayed in each window.
TxEd/MicroEmacs - Complete WordProcessors are great and just what
you need for that Assignment or document. However if you want to
write a startup-sequence, small letter or a Review like these you
won't want to boot up these large programmes and so you use TxEd by
MicroSmiths or MicroEmacs found on Extras 1.2 disk rather than the
NOTEPAD. Thus I use TxEd for writing short documents and Use MORE
to view than in the Workbench (see later notes).
CONMAN1.1 - This program is a console Handler that remembers previous
commands at a press.Thus if you keep using the same command over
and over again or a sequence of them. Thus CONMAN is a very useful
for those who use the CLI regularly.
DUTILS - For those who require better utils Mike Hansell's DUTILS2 is
the one for you, I suggest you give a donation because it's a great
disk editor that Doubles as A virus Detector which kills it in
memory and suggests you use the F) install option to kill viruses.
This programme is about 48K in size but it's worth it. Some
useful features are FILE and DISK SECTOR EDITORS that allows you to
edit a executable source file so as it seems you wrote it.
Truthfully my Dutils has THANKS TIM! and Written by Tim Hogan Doran
but I do keep the original sources printed on paper so as I can
fix it if I wish. However thanks must go to Mike and this is
another great Util.
PLAY - Mike Hansell's Second or first? achievement PLAY offers the
use of playing Digitised Sounds either DUMP or IFF Sounds at any
speed and any playback rate. Play features allows you to repeat the
sound or even set the playback speed and also cut the grovelling
messages-a pretty original move. Because it's quite small it allows
larger sounds to be played without the need for loading sound editors
that take up great amounts of space in memory for 512K machines.
G.O.M.F.1.0 - "GET OUTTA MY FACE" a common saying when the GURU
visits. Thus a sort of Software like MMU and task aborter has been
made into GOMF1.0 which has now become a commercial software piece.
A major problem with programming is that your wondrous creations
tend to hang at the worst time, hence we say G.O.M.F. This is where
the GOMF steps in and asks you if you wish to reboot or WHAP the
task by removing it from the system. However the drawback is that
not all the memory is free, but believe me it's better than a GURU.
Thus GOMF is really only a crash delayer. If too many problems
build up the machine will hang but its better a third or fourth
time than on the first time.
MORE & LESS - Reminiscent of Unix MORE & LESS, more-or-less. These
programmes are available on many PD disks and are different in each
subsequent version.Both will create a window on the Workbench so as
to view the file which has its default TOOL set to SYS:C/More. Less
is quite the same in size and usage. [Ed: LESS has more features,
and has just come out in Version 1.3, allowing for printing out
the file you're reading.]
Commands:
FixHunk Fixhunk is a unique little programme for Amiga 2000/500 owners.
it offers to the AMIGA 500 or 2000 owners the ability to ATOMIZE
the executable code of software that don't work due to FAST MEM
being on. NO LONGER DO YOU NEED TO TURN OFF FAST MEMORY USE
FIXHUNK!! Fixhunk allocates either FAST/CHIP/PUBLIC flags to HUNKS
of programme so as to determine if they should be put into CHIP
memory. Apparently SONIX is completely put into CHIP memory as ONE
HUNK. I wonder how they made it one hunk?. THUS 2000/500 owners
don't fear FIXHUNK is here to save your SOFTWARE!
QueryAny - A problem with startup-sequences is that you aren't visibly able
to see what is happening and so you must break the sequence and
what a great way to do it is to answer Yes to Workbench, No to CLI.
Thus Queryany is a very useful command to be kept in your startup
as my example shows below. Asm source available. [Ed: check out
SMARTASK on this disk for, well, a smart ASK command.]
Show - Like WordProcessors it takes a long to load Deluxe Paint or
Digipaint. Thus IFF displayers are necessary. Display and Show
both are necessary. I prefer Show because its only 7K as to
Displays's 14k size. Show also loads 10k picture data per second,
its usage SHOW [time] [file] [time] [file]...[time] [file] thus is
very useful for demos of your fine art. And can be used from
Workbench.
Undelete - Occasionally you will delete a file by accident (Don't lie,
you have done it before). And this programme will scan the disk in
search of the file you have lost.
RunBg - GOMF and other programmes don't allow the AmigaDos window to
close after ending the CLI so you must shrink it and hide it in the
corner. RunBg (RunBackGround, or RUNBACK) allows the Cli to execute
a file after a preset delay time to stop Disk Thrashing when two
disk based programmes are being called up. RunBg as seen in the
Startup-seq. is used to get Gomf going and allows 2 seconds for
the Endcli >NIL to be loaded and executed.
CloseWb - When using the Workbench the standard machine comes up
with around 400KB free. Usually it would be around 430-420 before
the WorkBench is loaded up. And when using the RAM Disk for speed
the 30 Kilobytes is quite handy and so you can free up this memory
with CloseWb.
POPCLI-III - The Amiga offers a Unix-like Dos where you use the CLI
to call up files and use the commands. However once you exit the
CLI to the second operating System of Intuition. And the only way
back is NEWCLI but you have to open the System Dir and get NewCLI.
However POPCLI allows you to get a newCLI with TWO KEYS
Left-Amiga and Escape. POPCLI III is a MUST GET.
AmigaDos Replacement Project
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Developed for freeing the Workbench Disk and Enhancing it like I
have suggested is another selection Called ARP (Amigados
Replacement Project). The aim of this is to create smaller
Asemmbly code that is quicker and more advanced in use. These new
commands are smaller and thus quicker. All however use the
ARP.library file in the Libs dir and if your new disk hasn't got
it the command will GURU (however it is recoverable).
After some time with ARP I must say it is good in that
execution speeds are faster, hence the smaller code. After saying
that I must say I only use it on my Workbench disk since I feel
it's too much of a hassle elsewhere. [Ed: see a review of ARP on
this disk. We've got the full, most recent version on its own disk
and Mike Simpson has put together a disk (SIMPSON*UTILITIES) which
combines ARP with the powerful DIRECTORY UTILITY JOBS4 all set up
and ready to go, with the one-drive user in mind.]
A suggested Startup-Sequence:
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
condom ;Checks for viruses
BindDrivers
POPCLI NEWCLI >NIL: CON:0/150/640/50/AmigaDos1.2 ; creates the Auto CLI
mount VD0: ;Mounts MY Virtual Disk
Dir >NIL: VD0: ;checks if Vd0:is present
IF EXISTS VD0:c
Echo " VD0: Exists and POPCLI III Active "
ELSE
echo " Making VD0: with C Commands "
Makedir VD0:c
copy df0:c/copy VD0:c
copy df0:c/List VD0:c
copy df0:c/delete VD0:c
copy df0:c/info VD0:c
ENDIF
Date ; Without an internal Clock you should keep
SetDat ;track of time and update this regularly
Date > SYS:s/Now ;then write it to a file ">" is the direction
Path VD0:c ;where "06/08/88 12:00:10" is written
runbg sys:System/VirusX
QueryAny Exit CLI to WorkBench (y/n) ; do I want to quit ?
IF NOT WARN
loadwb
RunBg df0:GOMF 2 ;RunBg gets around the problem from GomF of
Endcli >Nil: ;keeping the cli there even after task ending
Endif
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
And so it is that with so much out there in PD land we should really
try to update our PD shareware by taking the time to acquire large and
small programmes alike just to make life easier.
Written By Timothy Hogan-Doran.
==========================================================================