Articles
AMIGAphile Volume 1 Number 3 (SEPTEMBER 1992)
What My Amiga Means To Me
by Chuck Kenney
Radio controlled cars and airplanes, CB radios, police scanners, calculators, remote-controlled consumer electronics of all kinds, etc... I've bought them all - usually within days of their first appearances on the market! OKay-Okay, I admit it. I'm a hard-core neo-techno-phile.
Or is it techno-neo-phile?
It was all the rage in the late seventies. Many of my fellow computer technicians were buying 'home computers' for themselves. "Home computer?", I thought. "I can have my own computer at home?". "I've gotta check this out!". So I drove down to my local RADIO SHACK. I took one look at this big grey thing that was called a 'home computer'. "It has a TV screen?", I asked. "Oh, it's called a 'C-R-T'. Sorry." "What does C-R-T mean?", I wondered. "And you can save programs on a cassette tape?". "Nice." <blah, blah..$$$.> "It costs HOW MUCH ???". For THAT kind of money, it wasn't quite nice enough! I mean, a home computer should be like a color TV with a keyboard - you know, it should do COLOR and draw PICTURES and make MUSIC! I decided to 'pass' on this T-R-S... whatever it was called. So I bought the latest and greatest printing calculator. "Never walk out of a technology store empty-handed." Oops! Batteries, extra printing paper... and oh....a pair of mini-book-shelf speakers while I'm here.
...And speaker wire.
Not more than a month later, I saw THE AD in a magazine... It looks like a keyboard with a computer built-in! It does color! It hooks up to your color TV!! It has special graphics and sound!!! And look at the key-caps on the keyboard!!! LOOK!! There's little graphics pictures right there on the fronts of the key-caps!!!! WOW!!!!!
My next income tax return was plowed into my new Commodore VIC-20. Three hundred and ninety-nine dollars... plus tax. I think that's what I paid. I was so excited the day I bought it, I can't remember now what store I bought my VIC-20 from. I only remember this colorful box under my arm and driving home to get started with my new 'home computer' hobby! How long ago was that? 10...15 years? It was exactly 4 apartments, 1 job, 1 wife, 1 home and 1 baby ago, all of which are still 'in service', even the apartments (presumably). During that time, and mostly before I got married, I had acquired a Commodore 64, Amiga-1000 and Amiga-2000, and let's not forget ALL the requisite accessories and peripherals; disk drives, hard drives, video, music, monitors, MIDI, memory, modems, aaannnnd multitudes of software. These are all still 'in service'. OKay- Okay, the VIC-20 is in a closet.
So, as I have grown/aged/matured/withered (choose one) from a 'typical' American bachelor (who used to blow his entire paycheck) to a 'typical' home-owner/husband/father (who is saving for a hair-cut), I will now (finally) tell you what my Amiga (specifically) and Commodore computing (in general) has come to mean to me... or maybe you can guess...
I like to compose music - DMCS, SoundScape, Music-X, Dr. T's.
Photography is another hobby - Digi-View, ECA PhotoLab, TV*Text, DeluxePaint IV.
Videos for friends and family - Deluxe Paint IV, Deluxe Video III, The Director, Animation station, etc.
Pocket Billiards is another hobby - Animate the trick shots I know (BIG unfinished project!)
Golf! I'll never break ninety - maybe if I digitize a pro's swing and genlock it over my own swing...
I probably SHOULD keep my resume updated - Final Copy and my wife's, and sisters', and in-laws'... - Final Copy again
Mailing lists for a couple of local music groups - SuperBase
Games - Too many to mention, but the C-64 "JUMPMAN" is a CLASSIC. (I wrote a program to pick the start level!)
What if I opened a Billiard Parlor? - VIP_Professional personal inventory - SuperBase
Interactive video for my daughter, Faith - AmigaVision
and on and on and on...
As my life habits and routines have changed over the years, so have my computing habits changed, from weekend-long cold-pizza-programming to intermittent tinkering. When I first purchased my Commodore 64, the first thing I did was to convert all my VIC-20 cartridge games to C-64 disks. This was a fun project for learning machine language, disk drives, memory maps, memory expanders, etc. My first Amiga project was to convert a C-64 "Simons's Basic" program I had written to AmigaBasic - the program simulates a Spiro-Graph (remember that set of plastic rings and wheels that you could draw neat little designs with?). Shortly before getting married, I purchased my first 'C compiler' and a couple 3-D ray-tracers. I managed to get the famous "Hello, world" C-program to compile, and to generate a glass sphere in TurboSilver, but since then I have become a devout home-owner/husband/father and the 'C' programming and ray-tracing doors will likely not ever be opened any wider by me. Well, maybe when I retire - it's only about 30 years away.
Only 30 years away? You may laugh...I'm serious! I met a retired 'home-computer nut' at an 'in-law' family reunion. He's a great-uncle of my wife. He was thrillfully telling me about his COCO (Radio Shack COlor COmputer) computing hobby. He had just hooked-up his brand new "5-1/2 inch disk drive". "5-1/4, Uncle COCO, not 5-1/2", I thought. He was amazed at how much faster it was than his data-cassette drive! So, I just MAY be sitting down in front of my old Amiga in the year two-thousand-and- twenty-something to try some ray-tracing as a retiree. I am quite sure I won't have the money to buy an Amiga 9000 or whatever Amiga model will (hopefully) be available by then. It WILL be fun though to bore a great- nephew-in-law computer hobbyist at a family reunion with a story of my recent upgrade to 8 Megs of memory! And he will probably be thinking something like, "God! Doesn't he know that RAM went out with the 1990's? NAM modules are the ONLY way to go these days.". (writer's note: NAM - Neural Access Memory module, infinite capacity, uses turn-of-the-21st-century neuralectronics technology.)
... But, I am getting off the subject...
So, at the risk of sounding ridiculously romantic, the Amiga has become a sort of "friend" - one I intend to keep for a long, long time. The Amiga has depths I will never explore. It has POWERFUL programs that can be intuitively learned (and revisited after long periods of time). "Ami" is both EASY to use AND to be PRODUCTIVE with - a rare combination. I get the feeling that the Amiga has the power to enable the prodigy, REGARDLESS of his field of interest. EVERY other computer I have EVER sat down to seems like only a box, a tube, and a keyboard - no personality, no excitement, no pizzazz. Just... well, not fun. Maybe this is why the other computers are making it in the business arena. After all, work IS supposed to be "work", you know... not "fun". Without the Amiga, I would have quite an un-interesting, un-fun, and difficult time getting various things accomplished.
Bravo, Amiga! Kudos, Commodore (not you, Marketing)!
... and you, dear reader, thanks for your time.
Amiga Assembly: An Introduction - 'Hello World'
by Sean Conner
Welcome to the first of a (hopefully) ongoing series of articles on Assembly Language for the Amiga.
Anyway, after some thought, I decided to stay away from the traditional course of things, where I spend an article describing binary, octal, decimal and hexadecimal notation, then spend several articles describing the instruction set of the MC68000 (shorthand version: 68k), and THEN spend an article on how to use an Assembler and linker and then ...
I've had enough of that type of teaching method in class. Besides, there are many, many books out there that can teach you that stuff. Like I said, I'm not going the tradition route here.
"Well," you say, "if I can just buy a book and learn Assembly Language that way, why waste my time reading this?" Glad you asked (pretend you asked). Most books on the subject (about 99%) on Assembly go into excruciating detail about the instruction set, giving trivial examples on how to use most of the instructions available, and maybe an overview of the computer system (just enough to run some not-quite-as-trivial-but- still-useless-in-the-real-world examples (not all books are like this, but many are). Also, some books assume you've never programmed a computer before. Other's assume some programming experience (BASIC, C, Fortran, Pascal, stuff like that) and try to use that knowledge to teach you. I've found that that usually is a hindrance to learning something so radically different (and no, C is not quite the 'portable Assembly' some say it is).
What I'm planning on doing is to present some (hopefully) realistic situations that face the Assembly Language programmer, offer several solutions, and explain why I did what I did. I also hope to teach something about the art of optimization (or, in the old days of hacking, what was called bumming code [1]). I also hope to teach you about what's available on the Amiga, both software wise (Exec, AmigaDOS, Intuition, etc) and hardware wise (DMA, Blitter, Copper, etc).
I've found that the best way to learn Assembly Language is to have a good book (or some book if you can't find a good book), look at as much Assembly code as you can get (the good, the bad and the ugly) and then program as much as possible (typing in examples by hand, if you have to).
So grab that 68k reference, the RKMs [6] and come on ...
* * * * *
But first! A word about the software I use (simply because Dan Abend (the almighty Editor-in-Chief) mentioned that I should mention it) and the hardware I have. So here goes ...
The Assembler I use is A68k [3] by Charlie Gibbs (well, the Amiga port anyway). The reason I use A68k is that one, it's free. Two, is that you get the source code. Also, it does support separate compilation of source code for later linking. It may not be as fast as ASMOne, but ASMOne doesn't really allow you to have separate modules (at least the versions I've seen).
The linker is Blink [3], from the Software Distillery. It too, is freely available and (from what I've heard) a bit better than Alink (the default linker for the Amiga). Besides, A68k works in conjunction with Blink anyway, so ...
And the editor I use is Dme [3], by Matt Dillion. If you've never heard of Matt Dillion, that's surprising, because Matt is a code factory (Dme, Dmake, DICE (an integrated C environment including front end, pre-processor, compiler and assembler (not sure about the linker though)), Csh (a replacement for the CLI) and various other miscellaneous utilities). The editor is, again, free, comes with source code and is customizable (remap the entire keyboard if you want to).
About the only thing that isn't quite freely available are the include files from Commodore. You basically get them from Commodore, or from a development environment like Lattice C (that's where I got mine from), or type them in from the RMK books (not something I recommend 8-). I use them because they're there, but if many of you don't have them, I guess I can supply the values (mostly offsets inside of structures really) needed.
As for hardware, I have an Amiga 500 with a lowly 68000 running 1.3, 3 meg RAM (512K of that is chip) and a GVP Impack Series II A500-HD+ 50M hard drive (at least, that's what it says), and two 3.5 disk drives. Nothing that spectacular (well, except for the hard drive), although for development work, a harddrive is recommended, but you may get by without one (which I've done on a old IBM PC. Not for the faint of heart).
But enough of formalities, on with the show ...
* * * * *
Seeing how this is the first article (of a series) and all, I've decided that a frivolous program wouldn't be all that bad. Besides, the following program is one that is done in each programming language (at least, every time I learned a new language, I've done this program in it), and if you can get this one to run, you're on your way. Besides, even K&R [4] did this program in their book, _The_C_Programing_Language_.
All the program does is print 'hello world' to the screen (well, in this case, to the CLI window you run the program from), but it does illustrate some points about the structure of an Assembly language program, and some of what is needed to start a program on the Amiga.
The first few lines include the Amiga specific include files. I've found that this order of includes works (at least for the Assembly .i files from SAS/Lattice and A68k). I've included them because (1) they're there, and (2) I don't feel like tracking down the offsets manually through the RKMs (although, like I said, I can probably find out the offsets they provide if enough people ask me ... ).
The next section is the actual code, as you can see from the line that starts 'section mycode,code'. I include the section directive because (1) I come from the MS-DOS world where it's MANDATORY to have sections for code, data and stack (old habits die hard) and (2) because I tend to write large programs that span several files, and this way, the linker (Blink) will string together all the code sections that have the same name, and all the data sections with the same name. It keeps things more manageable with small files than one large monolithic piece of code that's about 70K in size!
Sections are optional under A68k, and you can forego them, but I feel that the benefits of using this method outweigh any other reason you may have for not doing it. Anyway ... on to the actual code.
The first thing you'll notice is that I open up dos.library. Since this is a complete stand alone program (not linked with anything else), I have to do this step. The next thing I have to do is get the file handle for output to the CLI window (usually, unless you re-direct output to a file, in which case, the file handle I get references that file). Only then can I actually output any message.
After the message is written, I then can close the dos.library and then simply return to the system.
Wow! Quite a bit of code just to print out a 13 byte message. Well, welcome to the wonderful world of Assembly. One thing you'll notice is that the source code for programs written in Assembly tend to be a bit larger than their counterparts written in higher level languages (HLLs) like C or Pascal, but the resulting executable is usually smaller (unless you link in a large static library like c.lib). Because with Assembly, you're more or less telling the CPU exactly what you want done, as opposed to, say C, which has to take a more general route to get something done.
So, track down an Assembler and linker (maybe even an editor), read your 68k reference manual, peruse the RKMs (if you have them) and play around with the code some, and next month, we'll see about getting rid of those nasty gurus that seem to keep popping up on the system, if you're like me and still running under 1.3. Even if you have 2.0 (which, if I understand, has done away with gurus), you will still find next month's topic interesting. Also, some code to output more than just static text.
See you later ...
* * * * *
[1]: This, and much more about the origins of hacking systems can be found in _Hacker's__Heroes_of_the_Computer_Revolution_ by Steven Levy (ISBN: 0-440-13405-6 [2]). Good book, and I recommend it.
[2]: ISBN stands for (I think) International Standard Book Number. Each book has one, and is all you need to order a book from a book store. The salesperson may say they need the title and the author for ordering information, but they're lying.
[3]: The following programs are available from the Fred Fish Collection.
Program Fish Disk Program Version (listed most recent first)
A68k FF521 (2.71)
FF314 (2.61)
FF186 (2.4)
FF110 (1.0?) (version not listed)
Blink FF040 (6.5)
FF034 (5.7)
Dme FF530 (1.45)
FF441 (1.42)
FF284 (1.38)
FF153 (1.30)
FF134 (1.29)
FF113 (1.28f)
FF093 (1.27)
FF087 (1.27)
FF074 (1.25)
FF059 (1.22)[4]: K&R Stand for Brian Kernighan and Dennis M. Ritchie, creators of the C programing language and that operating system known as UN*X [5].
[5]: The _New_Hacker's_Dictionary_ (ISBN: 0-262-18145-2 (hc) or ISBN: 0-262-68069-6 (pbk) also available in an on-line version) says about UN*X:
UN*X: n. Used to refer to the UNIX operating system (a trademark of AT&T) in writing, but avoiding the need for the ugly {(TM)} typography. Also used to refer to any or all varieties of Unixoid operating systems. Ironically, lawyers now say (1990) that the requirement for the TM-postfix has no legal force, but the asterisk usage is entrenched anyhow. It has been suggested that there may be a psychological connection to practice in certain religions (especially Judaism) in which the name of the deity is never written out in full, e.g., `YHWH' or `G--d' is used. See also {glob}.
[6]: RKM stands for Rom Kernel Manual and is a three (four for 2.0) volume set of reference manuals for the Amiga. For AmigaDOS Version 1.3, they include:
Libraries & Devices (ISBN: 0-201-18187-8, Commodore Item Number (CIM) 363099-01)
This volume is more or less a tutorial on programming in the Amiga environment, and includes using libraries, devices, graphics and Intuition.
Includes & Autodocs (ISBN: 0-201-18177-0 CIM: 327271-06)
This volume contains a description of all system calls available in the various libraries and devices. It also contains information about the IFF format (which I'm not going into), the source code for the C header files and Assembly include files as well as some sample code.
Hardware Reference (ISBN: 0-201-18157-6 CIM: 327272-04)
This contains the hardware specification of the Amiga. No serious Amiga programer should be without it.
All are published by Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, Inc. I'm not affiliated with them, this is just for your information 8-)
* * * * *
About the author: Sean Conner is a 23 year old student at Florida Atlantic University well on his way to becoming a tenured undergraduate. When not pretending to work, consulting on programing under MS-DOS, reading news, hanging out with friends, sleeping or eating, he programs the Amiga. He may be reached via Internet at 'spc@pineal.sci.fau.edu'.
include "exec/types.i"
include "exec/funcdef.i"
include "exec/exec_lib.i"
include "libraries/dos_lib.i"
include "libraries/dos.i"
;--------------------------------------------------------------------
;********************************************************************
section mycode,code
start move.l #doslibrary,a1 ;open DOS library
moveq #0,d0 ;any version is fine
move.l 4,a6
jsr _LVOOpenLibrary(a6)
move.l d0,dosbase ;save DOSBase
beq.w clean_exit ;if NULL, exit program
move.l dosbase,a6 ;Now get handle to stdout
jsr _LVOOutput(a6)
move.l d0,stdout
move.l stdout,d1 ;output 'Hello world!'
move.l #hello_text,d2
move.l #_s_hello_text,d3
move.l dosbase,a6
jsr _LVOWrite(a6)
clean_exit move.l dosbase,d0
beq.s clean_exit99
move.l d0,a1
move.l 4,a6
jsr _LVOCloseLibrary(a6)
clean_exit99 rts
;--------------------------------------------------------------------
;********************************************************************
section mydata,data
dosbase dc.l 0
stdout dc.l 0
doslibrary dc.b 'dos.library',0
hello_text dc.b 'Hello World!',10
_s_hello_text equ *-hello_text
;********************************************************************
end startAMIGAphile Survey part III: The Final Chapter
Overall, the AMIGAphile survey was fun and enlightening. I hope to do this again next year but until then, here are a few final figures to think about.
SHAREWARE
Eighty three percent of those surveyed (chose Trident for their patients who chew gum) use shareware programs. The Amiga has the largest number of shareware programs available. This makes 83% no surprising. Most users would never consider using software without paying for it. This would ensure that developers keep developing and a good software market would exist. The problem is that only 56% register the shareware they use. At least 20% register some of the shareware programs they use. They are honest about this fact. Some authors don't support their products and I think users should demand good support before registering. The bad news is, this leaves 24% who don't register the shareware they use. Bad user! Bad user! The above figures are alarming. Everyone complains about the software quality, the product support, the lack of upgrades, blame it piracy. Software companies are dropping the porting of their software to the Amiga. This is good news for those who have ugly, slow, IBM ports but this is bad news for the software market. The IBM market is more lucrative. If you use the software, register it. If there is a reason you won't register it, let the author know. Without software all our fabulous hardware is scrap metal. I know that piracy exists but all the problems can't be blamed on that alone. Among pirates there is a saying, "If it's good enough to take up disk space, it's good enough to buy". I do wish companies would do away with their stupid protection schemes. Pirates will always get around them and they annoy the helpless user who owns a legitimate copy. That's enough preaching. Think about supporting the software developers. They will be the ones to say when the Amiga is through in the market. Even if Commodore stops making them, there will still be those who have one.
HARDWARE HACKERS
The Amiga was originally 'the' hacking machine. Many users do their own hardware upgrades. A1000 owners are particularly prone do solder things inside their system. 22% of those surveyed do, or have done, their own hardware hack. The number of successful hacks was not tabulated by this survey. Many of them are simple and most are the only way to upgrade an old system. I'd be more willing to take a soldering iron to my machine if I knew I could upgrade (read A1000 owner).
AVERAGE USE
How often do you use your Amiga? Now that I do this newsletter, my Amiga only gets turned off long enough for me to sleep. I do everything on my Amiga (except fry eggs - even though the SCSI drive does run hot enough).
24 hours a day 19 *******************
More like 12 hours a day 23 ***********************
Once a day 31 *******************************
Five time a week 9 *********
Three time a week 9 *********
Once a month 2 **
I know it's here... 1 * [I think he said it was broken]WHAT I DO WITH MY AMIGA
I tried to include a selection of the most common things done with a home computer (especially the Amiga). Two people threw me a curve and said they use it to teach. Now that's refreshing news. Since most of the surveys came from people on InterNet, the large number of people doing telecommunications is expected. This gives AMIGAphile the large reader base. Everybody is a game player. The Amiga has the talents and is often necessary to blow of some steam. The rest of the figures, I leave for you the decipher. I wonder what the software market is geared towards...
Telecommunications 74 *************************************
Game playing 66 *********************************
Word processing 64 ********************************
Programming 64 ********************************
Graphics 49 ************************
Audio 35 *****************
Animation 25 ************
Desktop Publishing 19 *********
Video work 15 *******
Spreadsheet 9 ****POPULAR PROGRAMMING LANGUAGES
It seems that C is envogue on every platform but Amiga users are entrenched in that camp as well. The Amiga always seemed very suitable for programming in C and Commodore seems to encourage this buy looking at their Programmers Reference manuals. The ever classic BASIC holds second place but I think this is because of the efforts to make it more structured. When I was growing up, everyone knew BASIC. I guess, learning new languages is never fun and with the improved environments so BASIC packages offer, there is little incentive to change. I expected assembly to rank high on the list since many things are done better using assembly language; even if it is in-line code in a C program. The rest of the contenders are languages which cater to a specific programming task. Being at a university gives one the opportunity to be exposed to many different languages but I don't imagine too many companies have accepted some of the newer languages. Maybe, it's because many of these languages aren't support by the big names in language packages.
C 64 ********************************
BASIC 22 ***********
Assembly 18 *********
ARexx 12 ******
Modula-2 9 ****
LISP 8 ****
Fortran 7 ***WHAT OTHER MACHINES DO AMIGA USERS OWN?
Sixty one percent of Amiga owners have another system (two timers, hmpfh). Forty three percent own an IBM or a compatible. This doesn't surprise me for some reason (I own one too). Windows is a face-lift for a poor excuse of an operating system. Excuse me, Bill Gates, you need how much RAM to multi-task? 4 meg minimum? I think I can name that tune in 512K. Most IBM users are zombies who do what they're told without know why. They say you need a 386 or better, then that's what you buy. I must admit that the prices are low and the graphics are superior (for now). Macintosh owners make up 14% of those who own another system. They are easy for novices to use. They don't have any of that Guru nonsense the early Amigas seemed to proliferate. The other 40% own something different. These systems range from Commodore 64's to Apple ]['s and Atari's. Most of these systems just collect dust. I know, I have one of each. I just like to have the latest and greatest. I guess that's why I didn't buy a Nintendo (needed more computing power).
HOW'S OUR DRIVING - COMMODORE
Oh boy did I receive a ton of comments on this question. Everybody has an opinion about Commodore. At least we are entitled to this one. The categories to rate were marketing, sales, support, reputation, and overall opinion. These are all opinions and reflect the feelings of Amiga owners everywhere. Commodore (tap tap tap) are you listening? This could save you company... (trailing off into the hot air). Commodore has exhibited very little marketing. Take some initiative. I just got a packet in the mail about the Amiga as a multimedia machine. It's great literature. Now, put it in some magazines (I got this by filling out a reader service card in Byte). The figures indicate that people feel sales have been going well but not great. Mediocre... the computer isn't and the users aren't ... who does that leave? Support was rated at Good. This is encouraging. I find support to be very important and would like to take the time to thank everyone from Commodore who participates in discussions on the InterNet. Commodore's reputation ranks at average. Is this how the owners see Commodore or how other see Commodore? I don't know (best Pee Wee Herman impression). Overall, they rate better than hangnails but worse than pepperoni pizza. Now if we could just get some really good press...
Great Good Average Yuck Seriously?
Marketing 1 1 9 29 48
Sales 3 16 56 10 1
Support 1 37 28 3 5
Reputation 1 12 33 31 11
Overall 0 25 31 19 12RIDING INTO THE SUNSET
Most of all, this survey was fun. I got to introduce myself to many different people and find out if AMIGAphile would be worth the effort. The numbers never lie and I think the questions where pertinent. I hope you learned something. Y'all come back now, ya hear!
