Almathera Ten Pack 3: CDPD 3/Almathera Ten on Ten - Disc 3: CDPD3.iso/scope/001-025/scopedisk1/dnet/march.to

Text File | 1995-03-18 | 11KB | 199 lines

TEXAS TALES

Betty Clay
Arlington, Texas

This month, my news is not neatly arranged about one single topic.  Rumors
and products of several kinds have been most interesting, and I want to tell
you about all of them.

VERSION 1.3

Rumors concerning a 1.3 revision of the Amiga software have been circulating
since early last summer.  When version 1.2 was under development, it was
relatively easy for anyone to get a copy of the unfinished code, and almost
everyone tried a number of alpha and beta versions.  We knew what was being
developed.  There were problems with that, however.  Some programmers began
to write their software based on those pre-release versions, and when the
final version came out, the software did not work properly with the finished
version.  This time, the Commodore people have been terribly tight fisted and
close mouthed about the new version.  Questions about the release date have
usually elicited a response similar to "When it is fully tested and known to
be correct."

During the past few weeks we have begun to receive messages from them that
give some firm information.  We had been told that version 1.3 would be
released some time during the spring.  I feel that the positive information
coming out may indicate that release time is drawing near.

The major points of improvement promised include a greatly improved printer
device, improved file system, better handling of both hard disks and
floppies, an AUX: device, and built-in pipes.  Now, pipes are not a familiar
feature to me.  The Usenet folks speak of them constantly, and apparently
find it difficult to get along without them.  As I understand it, a pipe
allows you to use the output of one program as input for another.  There are
some "fixes" written by various Amiga programmers that give this capability,
but version 1.3 is said to have this ability built in to the system properly.

We are told that version 1.3 will include both a KickStart and a Workbench
disk for owners of the Amiga1000; A500 and A2000 owners will receive a
Workbench disk.  The ROMs built into those machines are said to have "hooks"
through which new code can be loaded from the Workbench and still work with
the ROM-based system.

Improvement in disk-handling and other filing system capabilities have been a
truly major thrust for Version 1.3.  One Usenet writer said that the new
system may make disk accesses as much as three times as fast.  Many bugs have
been fixed, too.  For example, have you had problems with the file requester
that says "Volume xxx has a read/write error"?  Sometimes, you can keep
hitting "Cancel" repeatedly, but nothing happens.  If you remove the disk you
get the more urgent requester that says "You MUST replace volume xxx in drive
n!!!".  So you jiggle disks back and forth until you grow weary and reset the
machine, losing all of your work.  This problem is caused by a three-second
timeout problem in AmigaDOS.  The disk has been altered, and the DOS is
trying to write the corrected bitmap back to the disk.  If it encounters abad block while writing the bitmap, you encounter this problem and loss of
work.  I have no immediate answer to the problem, but Steve Beats of
Commodore has promised that it is fixed in the new file system.


My personal favorite in the promises for 1.3 is that we will have improved
printer support.  I have never been able to use the excellent software I have
(such as Pagesetter and DPaint) because I did not have one of the printers on
the Workbench disk.  I could find drivers that would let me use a few of the
features of my STAR-SG-10, but for most things, it simply cannot do its thing
when used with the Amiga.  The WordPerfect Corporation has been trying for
months to create a satisfactory driver for this printer, and has not been
able to do so.  The promise of a new printer driver - easier to use, faster,
and capable of supporting more printers - is most welcome.

The first real leak of 1.3 material that has come my way has been some of
those new printer drivers, along with the new printer device that makes them
work.  These are on one of the disks I am mailing to you this week (February
25).  Nothing there for any of the STAR printers, I'm sad to say, but there
are drivers for EpsonQ and EpsonX, among others.


DEVELOPERS' CONFERENCE

Commodore has announced a conference for Amiga developers, to be held in
Washington, D. C. April 28 through May 1.  Items to be discussed include
versions 1.3 and 1.4 of the operating system; slots for the A2000;
peripherals for the A500; new Commodore products; various specialized topics
such as IFF, sound and audio, working with the special chips, and discussions
of libraries such as the Janus library and the math library.  This conference
will be at L'Enfant Hotel, just a few blocks from the Smithsonian Institute
and other tourist attractions.

FORGOTTEN PATHS?

A number of people here have recently mentioned the same small problem.  On
certain occasions, they have found that with particular disks inserted in the
drive (any drive), the Amiga would forget all known paths.  Upon removing
that diskette, the paths are remembered again.  One user thought he might
have acquired a new virus, so he ran Install on his disk.  No change.  He
formatted a new disk and copied the files over - the problem disappeared.
Then he did Diskcopy on the original, and the problem remained on both the
original and the exact copy.

The problem seems to be that the Amiga cannot accept disks that have the same
names as those of the directories or devices that are coded into the system
software.  For instance, one of my friends had named his compiler disk "C".
This disk was causing the forgetfulness mentioned in several discussion
groups.  The Amiga has hard-coded C: into its paths.  When a disk named "C"
was inserted, that disk became the C: directory as the Amiga saw it.  One of
the developers suggested that there are a variety of these.  He suggested
that you might want to try naming a disk something like "Libs" or "Devs" or
"DF1" - just for 'fun', of course.

HARD DISKS FOR THE AMIGA1000

Those of us who have elected not to move up to the Amiga2000 have really been
feeling left out recently.  Many of us remember a time when having a tape
drive was a bit of a status symbol.  In my own case, I began computing with
an advanced system - an 8032 with 8050 drive.  But my school system set up
its computer labs with PETs and tape drives that same year.  We were
considered quite progressive at that time.  Recently, however, hard disks
have become the status symbol in these parts.  Now really - who ever thought
a Commodore user would come to consider a hard disk to be a necessity!
Perhaps the same dreamer who would have dared suggest we would need 2.5M of
memory?

Well, with the coming of the A2000 and its ability to handle the relatively
inexpensive hard disks made for the Big Blue computer, a hard disk has
suddenly become a major topic of conversation.  In the 2000, it is simple to
install one.  For the 500 and 1000, it is expensive and difficult.

Two products have been released in the States recently that will make it
easier for us to add these items, though I do not have either myself.  Here
is some information about them, mostly taken from Usenet.

-----------
The WEDGE is a two piece interface that connects to the BUS connector
on an A1000 or A500. The first piece is a vertical board about 6"
long and 2.5" high, with the BUS connector approximately in the middle.
The second piece is a backplane that sits horizontally under the first
board and has two female connectors. The first connector holds the
wedge and the second holds the "controller" card, such as the Western
Digital WX1 or the DTC5150. These two cards are tested and recommended.
The WEDGE allows you to connect up to two 142 Megabyte IBM style hard drives.


Here is a physical description from Bill Henning:

---------------------+    /WEDGE
                     |   /           two ribbon cables
              ===    |  L I<-- WA1  /
           HHHHHHHHH | I  I        / +-------------+
              ===    | I  I==========|             |
                     | I  I          |             |
===================#=|=I  I==========|             | <-- winnie + power
supply
                     | I  I          |             |     in a box
---------------------+ |  |          |             |
    ^              ||  U  U          |             |
    |              || ------         +-------------+
Amiga 1000               ^
                         +-- small backplane

"  The  wedge  is  plugged  into  the  computer  and  a small XT-style
backplane,  which  also holds the hard disk controller.  The hard disk
ribbons go to the winnie in whatever box is used, which also holds the
power  supply  for the drive.  The wedge and controller can be powered
from  the  Amiga  or  the  drive's  supply.   I  am currently using an
XT-compatible  [read  cheap]  fliptop  case  with a 150W power supply,
which powers the wedge and controller and winnie." - B. Henning
-------------

The Wedge comes with software that is used for formatting the disk and
parking the heads.  The cost of the WEDGE and software is given as $175 CDN
for user group members; $195 CDN for non-user group members.  This translates
to only about $130US.  We are all user-group members, aren't we?  Then, you
must also have a controller card and the hard disk itself.  Most of us would
also want a case, and there has to be a power supply.  The suggested
controller card is the Western Digital WX1 or DTC5150.  A tour of the
COMPUTER SHOPPER, a periodical that specializes in large ads from mail-order
houses, indicates that the controller would cost less than $100, and the
drive would cost from about $275 (20M) to $850 (70M).  Cases that included a
power supply and fan were selling for $40 last weekend in the vendor area of
InfoMart in Dallas.  Using the lowest prices I could find advertised, we
would have a cost of about $130 for the WEDGE + $65 for the WX1 + $199 for a
20M drive +$40 for the case, fan, and power supply, making a total of less
than $500 to have a 20M hard disk up and running.

The other product being discussed recently is called the PALAMAX card and
software.  This is a kit which the purchaser must put together.  Several of
the technical types have written about this product and seem quite pleased
with it.  This card allows the IBM controllers and drives to work with the
Amiga.  As with the WEDGE, these controllers and drives may be purchased
separately from the PALAMAX card kit.  The PALAMAX works with the RLL
controllers, allowing for more useful space on the disk.  This card is said
to have a reading rate of about 200Kb/s and a write rate of about 80Kb/s.
The cost of the kit and materials (not including the drive itself), runs to
approximately $250.

With the arrival of these relatively inexpensive ways to attach hard disks to
the A1000 and A500 computers, probably more of us will find them a necessity
soon.