BCI NET 2/BCI NET 2.iso/archives/textfiles/amigados3.1dis.txt

Internet Message Format | 1995-01-17 | 11.3 KB

Path: rcfnews.cs.umass.edu!barrett
From: [e-mail] (Per Espen Hagen)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.reviews
Subject: REVIEW: Workbench 3.1, disk only (with Kickstart 3.0)
Followup-To: comp.sys.amiga.misc
Date: 16 Jan 1995 05:56:18 GMT
Organization: The Amiga Online Review Column - ed. Daniel Barrett
Lines: 285
Sender: [e-mail] (comp.sys.amiga.reviews moderator)
Distribution: world
Message-ID: <3fd1q2$[e-mail]>
Reply-To: [e-mail] (Per Espen Hagen)
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Keywords: OS, system software, 3.1, Commodore, commercial
Originator: [e-mail]


PRODUCT NAME

    Workbench 3.1, used with Kickstart 3.0.


BRIEF DESCRIPTION

    In this context, Workbench 3.1 is the disk-based part of AmigaOS
3.1, the latest version of the Amiga Operating System.


AUTHOR/COMPANY INFORMATION

    Name:        Commodore-Amiga, Inc.
    Address:    Village Tronic Marketing GmbH
            Wellweg 95
            31157 Sarstedt
            Germany


NOTE

    As far as I know, AmigaOS 3.1 is NOT packaged and sold in a ROM-less
version by Village-Tronic.  They only manufacture complete sets with ROM(s),
disks, and manuals.  However, since there is a demand for ROM-less versions,
as well as for standalone Kickstart 3.1 ROMs, many dealers have split the
packages accordingly.  To the best of my knowledge, this is completely
legal; there is no mention in the documentation that such a practice is a
breach of any rules or regulations.  (Village-Tronic may not LIKE it, but
that is another issue.)

    Due partly to the current state of affairs with Commodore-Amiga,
there are lots of pirated versions of AmigaOS 3.1 (especially ROM-less
versions) around.  However, the package I bought (from a long-time Amiga
dealer in Oslo, Norway) was the official one, split in the above manner.  I
know this for a fact, because we have bought identical packages (with ROMs)
for our Amigas at work.  The box that my copy came in was originally marked
as suitable for the A3000/A3000T.


LIST PRICE

    For the reasons mentioned above, there is no official "list price"
on the ROM-less package.  I have seen it advertised a few places, at highly
varying prices.  I paid NOK 290 (about GBP 27, or $40 US).


SPECIAL HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS

    HARDWARE

        No special requirements mentioned in the documentation.


    SOFTWARE

        Kickstart 3.0 or higher required.


COPY PROTECTION

    None.  Hard drive installable.


MACHINE USED FOR TESTING

    Amiga 1200 with Blizzard 1230-II, 40 MHz 68030/68882.
    12 MB Fast RAM, 2 MB Chip RAM.
    Toshiba 260 MB 2.5" internal IDE hard drive.
    Chinon High Density 3.5" internal floppy drive.
    IDEK MF-5015 multisync monitor.

    Kickstart 3.0 (39.106).
    MultiUserFileSystem (muFS) 1.7 on all partitions.


INSTALLATION

    Installation to a hard drive is done with the standard Installer
utility.  This is usually a very straightforward procedure.

    Because I use muFS and otherwise have a somewhat non-standard setup,
I chose to install the software manually.  Although a bit time-consuming,
this had the advantage of letting me see what had changed since 3.0 (new
files, updated files, etc).

    There is one known problem with the 3.1 disks; the "pure"-bit is
cleared on all files.  To set this bit on the files that are actually pure
(re-entrant and re-executable), I ran a small script called "Fix_WB3.1".
(This script is based on information from Dr. Peter Kittel, ex-Commodore
Germany, and can be found on Aminet.)


WHAT'S NEW

    After the installation, I rebooted the Amiga.  At first glance,
nothing seemed to have changed and everything worked just like before.
However, Workbench 3.1 comprises a substantial amount of bugfixes and nice
little enhancements at all levels.  Therefore, I will just list some of
the improvements I have noticed so far myself in the following.

    One of the most striking features is the enhanced DataTypes
system.  There is a new "animation" datatype class, with sub-classes for
IFF ANIM and CDXL animations.  Animations are played back directly from
disk, and can also be stepped forwards and backwards.  Playback speed is
good on custom screens, but (not surprisingly) slow on the Workbench
screen.

    On a related topic; MultiView is also heavily improved.  It can now
jump back and forth between Workbench and its own custom screen, for any
datatype.  Even more important; MultiView v40 has an ARexx port!  The ARexx
interface has 24 commands, mainly corresponding to the available menu
choices.

    Also, the AmigaGuide datatype/library is drastically improved from
v39, with lots of features from the old standalone AmigaGuide viewer -- for
instance, AmigaGuide files can now be traversed from the keyboard.

    Another big item for some is the support for CD-ROM through the
CDFileSystem.  I don't have a CD-ROM drive myself, but we have one on an
Amiga at work, and the 3.1 file system seems to work well there.

    Talking of file systems, CrossDOS now also supports text
translation to/from Apple Mac ASCII.  On the down side of 3.1 CrossDOS is
the ugly custom PC disk icon, which is hard-coded into the file system
(there's an easy fix to this; but as it's slightly hack-ish, I won't
mention it here).

    The monitor drivers and Overscan Prefs in 3.1 are much better than
their 3.0 counterparts -- they now allow more overscan, and the sync pulses
can be moved (thereby shifting the display area horizontally and/or
vertically).  Most of these have been available for a long time (from the
archive Monitor30Patch, on Aminet), but the 3.1 Super72 monitor was not
included there.  Super72 can now be as big as 912x628.

    IconEdit was notoriously buggy under 3.0; this seems to have been
fixed with 3.1 (although I have only tried it very briefly; I use Chad
Randall's excellent _Iconian_ instead).

    The Format command now supports a few ToolTypes -- VOLUMENAME and
TRASHCAN.  Saves you from always de-selecting the "Put Trashcan" checkmark
when you format floppies.  You still have to set the file system manually,
though; there aren't any ToolTypes for this.

    There's a new command, LoadResource, which is used for pre-loading
(and optionally locking) fonts, libraries, devices, or catalogs into RAM.
This is mainly of interest for floppy-only users, but it can be useful for
HD users as well.

    Plus lots of minor things... the height of MultiView's file
requester is now dependent on the screen height -- under 3.0, it was
irritatingly small on large screens (Perhaps it's a bit _too_ tall now, but
that's a matter of taste).  HDToolbox now displays the help texts when you
press the "Help" key -- under 3.0, you had to click the "Help" button.  In
Palette Preferences, you can select an item (e.g., "Dark Edges") by clicking
on it in the sample window.  There was also a bug with Pointer Prefs in 3.0,
in that the three pens it locked weren't released on exit.  This has been
fixed.  And so on, and so forth.


COMPATIBILITY

    After about one month's operation, I haven't noticed any problems
whatsoever with any of my 3.0 compatible commodities, utilities and
applications under Workbench 3.1.  Also, I haven't had any errors or crashes
that can be attributed to the Kickstart 3.0/Workbench 3.1 combination (my
Amy crashes about once a week on average; mostly when I'm testing new
software or when I make silly mistakes in my own programs).

    So, although the use of this combination is not mentioned anywhere
in the 3.1 manuals, I assume that it is a "safe" one.


WHAT YOU DON'T GET

    So why would people want to upgrade their Kickstart from 3.0 to
3.1, if you get all of the above with just a Workbench upgrade?  Well,
there ARE a few things you don't get without the new Kickstart.  For
instance, the "Workbench->Execute Command", "Icons->Rename" and
"Icons->Information" windows are fully font-sensitive with Kickstart 3.1;
they even work with proportional fonts.  With Kickstart 3.0 however, you
still get that ugly Topaz/8 interface.

    The same is true for any other change in the gadtools, workbench,
dos, intuition, layers, graphics, utility, exec, expansion, and other
ROM-based libraries, devices, residents and so on.  I don't have a complete
list of all the changes.


DOCUMENTATION

    The package comes with three manuals; Workbench, DOS, and ARexx.
There is also a Quick Reference card with short descriptions of all the
AmigaDOS commands.  The manuals are similar to the 3.0 versions, but
somewhat better organized.

    In general, the manuals are fairly good for beginners and
experienced users alike, but there are some holes in the coverage.  As an
example, I haven't been able to find any information about the keystrokes
used to traverse AmigaGuide documents (Tab, Shift-Tab, Enter, /, <, >) -- I
just happened to discover them by chance.  (No, they aren't documented in
the online amigaguide help file either; that one hasn't been updated since
3.0.)

    Another negative thing about the manuals is that the covers are (in
my opinion) extremely ugly; the 3.0 manuals were much prettier in that
respect.  Not terribly important, but definitely irritating.  (Note: There
are two different versions of the covers, the other one is much brighter
and less hideous than mine.)


LIKES

    What can I say?  I like all the new features, especially the
enhanced MultiView/AmigaGuide/DataTypes.


DISLIKES AND SUGGESTIONS

    Well, there are of course the usual complaints about Workbench --
most of the Workbench programs (prefs editors, Commodities, etc) are still
Topaz/8 only, the default "look" is immensely boring, etc.  And the manual
covers are ugly... but apart from this, I don't have any complaints at all.

    One suggestion to the new Amiga company (if any) would be to
include one or two disks with alternative preferences and unsupported
third-party Workbench enhancements and other generally useful tools;
things like ToolManager, Yak, DiskSalv, and KingCON, plus some more
DataTypes.  I would also like to see an AmigaGuide help file for all the
standard commands.


COMPARISON TO OTHER SIMILAR PRODUCTS

    Nothing compares to AmigaOS.


BUGS

    I've already mentioned the missing pure-bits "bug".  Another
similar problem is that the stack size specified in MultiView's icon is
much too low for animation files.  This often results in crashes when such
files are used.  Increasing the stack size to 20,000 bytes solved this
problem for me.


VENDOR SUPPORT

    Not much point trying to contact Commodore-Amiga these days... :-(


WARRANTY

    No warranty is mentioned in the documentation.


CONCLUSIONS

    First of all, I think this shows that the Kickstart 3.0/Workbench
3.1 combination is a viable option.  It is especially interesting for A1200
users who want to retain the PCMCIA support (otherwise, the full Kickstart+
Workbench package for the A4000 can be used).  A1200 owners will also get
some things that aren't shipped with the 1200 as standard:  AmigaDOS and
ARexx manuals; the Install disk (with HDToolbox, Installer and the
disk-based FastFileSystem); scalable fonts on the Fonts disk.

    The ROM-less upgrade is usually a lot cheaper than the full
package, and you still get MOST of the new features in AmigaOS 3.1.  If you
use Workbench much, this upgrade is definitely worth the cost.

    I'd rate the package 4 stars out of 5.


COPYRIGHT NOTICE

    Copyright 1994 Per Espen Hagen.  All rights reserved.

---

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