HINTS AND TIPS   


			 Compiled by Tim Strachan



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		   *** New HINTS_&_TIPS Compilation Disk ***  

   If you like Megadisc's Hints & Tips sections, then you'll love this disk.
  Leigh Murray has worked long and hard putting it together in a very easy to
  use format - it uses a hyperbook format and is terrific for reference and
  navigating to find particular types of tips. All of the hints and tips
  from MD 1 - 30 are included on this disk (many hundreds) and they cover ALL
  facets of Amiga use. Price: $19.95 or $13.95 for subscribers to Megadisc.


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   IBM & Amiga compatible compression

   Most of the compression programs on the Amiga come directly as ports from
  the world of MS_Dos (or Unix), and as such files compressed on one system
  can be decompressed by the brother archiver on the other system. This goes
  particularly for PKZip (Amiga PKaZip), Zoo and Zip. This is useful
  information if you regularly have to move big files to and from Amiga and
  PC.  Other methods: use a Syquest, which, being a SCSI device, can be
  transferred from system to system; or use a null modem cable (for details
  see MD11); or upload to a BBS on one computer and download via another.


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   SCSI-II and the CBM A3090 controller-to-be

   SCSI is the Small Computer Systems Interface, and came standard on the
  A3000 in the SCSI-I form. Hackles and eyebrows were raised when CBM came
  out with the IDE interface for the A4000 and A1200, the IDE being cheaper
  and less of a performer. However, CBM is developing a SCSI-II controller
  which should address these problems - read on for what miracles this new
  standard will perform.

   SCSI-II was finalised in 1990 by ANSI, and designed to address concerns of
  not being able to "plug and play" various devices, and to add compatibility
  for the newer devices on the market. Thus, CD-ROMs, Optical drives,
  Scanners and Medium changers are now supported on the command level in
  SCSI-II.  Features are:

   1. The new standard removes the powering of terminating resistors as an
  "option" - this should remove confusion and failure of the bus if a device
  is not powered upon bus initialisation.

   2. Command Queuing - SCSI-I only supports one command to be "outstanding"
  in the command phase; the new standard allows the SCSI initiator to send up
  to 256 commands to a device, the commands being tagged witha value that the
  target can use to decide execution sequencing.

   3. Wide option - brings the normally 8-bit bu up to either 16 or 32 bits.
  This alone can get transfer rates up to 1- to 20 MB/sec. The extra bits
  are carried on a separate cable to maintain backwards compatibility with
  teh older SCSI-I devices. The 2 cables for a 68-pin connection.

   4. Fast Option - raises the alread fast bus to a blazing 10MHz no-wait
  transfer clock speed, double the SCSI-I speed . With a 16 to 32 bit bus,
  this generates transfer rates up to 40 MB/sec!

   The new A3090 will be a Zorro-III (32-bit) board, and thus a major
  improvement over existing hosts. Commodore may choose any option above -
  perhaps the Fast option to be compatible with existing devices, since there
  are very few Wide devices out there for personal use.


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 The `CLI' Tool Type

   Under Workbench 2.0 there is a new Tool Type that can be used with all
  Tool and Project icons, but which does not seem to be mentioned in any
  documentation: the single word `CLI'.  When Workbench `attempts to load' a
  program whose icon contains this Tool Type it puts up the Execute Command
  requestor to solicit arguments to the program; the icon's name appears as
  the default string in this requestor.  Moreover, the program is run as a
  CLI process rather than as a Workbench one.

   [Thanks to A Wong for this info.]



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 Amiga 1200 Hard Disk Problems


   Category 15,  Topic 21
   Message 29        Fri Jan 08, 1993
   DENNYA [[[[Denny]]]] 	at 09:51 EST

   IMPORTANT MESSAGE FOR ANYONE INSTALLING THEIR OWN HARD DRIVE IN AN A1200
  OR A4000! ESPECIALLY QUANTUM DRIVES!

   I posted this as a response to Jose before I discovered he'd fixed his
  problem. However, there is a bug in the IDE large-transfer implemenation
  in some hard disk drives, Quantum in particular. With these drives you
  have to change the MaxTransfer value or files >130K in size get mangled.

   Load HDToolBox, go to the Parititioning screen, click Advanced Options,
  click Change File System, and change the MaxTransfer value to 0x1ffff.
  (This is covered in detail in a certain Tips and Secrets book. :-) I know
  for sure you need to do this with Quantum drives.

   Editor's Note: This is also the case with all Maxtor 2.5" IDE drives.

   [from Amiga Report]


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   More on Workbench 2.1

   Monitors in DEVS (now all iconised) now includes also 3 new entries to
  provide 70hz refresh rates for less flickering - Super72 provides multiscan
  monitor owners with a 800x600 interlaced mode.

   DOSDrivers drawer allows users to automatically mount optional system
  devices, such as a recoverable ram disk, by dragging an icon instead of
  using the Mount command in the startup-sequence/CLI.

   CrossDos, now a part of the system, can be made to work with IBM-format
  external hard drives, or Syquest removable hard drives.

   In the Tools drawer, the Lacer program interlaces any display, to provide
  a more compatible TV-style video signal for genlock users, and for those
  who use the composite colour outputs of the A600 and 1200 to send graphics
  straight to the VCR.

   PrepCard helps configure the expansion cards that use the new PCMCIA
  expansion slot on the A600 & 1200.  ShowConfig gives you vital statistics
  for your system - type of CPU, Ram, etc. - not as good as Nic Wilson's
  SysInfo, however.

   Gone: apart from the various speech capabilities mentioned last issue
  (just use them from a previous version of AmigaDos), DiskDoctor is gone.
  Disksalv (on Topik 10) and FixDisk are still the best game in town for
  these situations.


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   "Make-it-Work" disk for A1200

   Althea Lutz sent in this disk for users of KickStart V2 and above
  machines.  Basically it is a kickstart V1.3 that has been transferred to a
  single file and set up on this disk so that it can replace the V2 or V3
  kickstart in your machine. This should then allow you to run all those
  programs that don't run on these newer machines (such as A600 and A1200).
  The kickstart is actually loaded into a space in ram so some programs still
  may not run if it looks for this particular area. The kickstart will also
  survive rebooting so there is no need to reload it when you want to play
  another game.


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   Outline (Vector, Structured, Compugraphic, etc.) Fonts

   This subject is rapidly getting trickier to follow, but you'll find
  something in the Hints&Tips files of each of the last few Megadiscs which
  add some clarity to the situation, I hope.

   While a bit-mapped font (usable by DPaint, for example) must have a font
  file for each point size, a structured font is defined by lines and curves,
  thus a new font size is just a matter of re-scaling an existing font, and
  will still be perfectly smooth. The only worry is the speed of calculation
  and display of these fonts, on slower machines.

   Postscript Outline Fonts

   You'll probably see reference to Type 1 or 3 Postscript fonts here and
  there and they are often used in the world of Mac & IBM DTP.  Type 1 fonts
  are "hinted" fonts, meaning they include additional infor to help the fonts
  render crisply at small point sizes.  Type 3 fonts lack this information,
  so it is preferable to use the Type 1 format, which are supported by most
  DTP packages. You can get our 12-pack or 9-pack of such fonts to get
  dozens of these fonts.

   Compugraphic Fonts

   These have been licensed by Commodore for AmigaDos and are excellent high
  quality fonts.

   Proprietary Outline fonts

   Pagestream and Final Copy II are examples of programs which use their own
  proprietary font formats - they are incompatible with other programs, and
  the buyer should be aware that he is being locked in to buying expensive
  commercial fonts when he wants to expand his font collection, at least in
  the case of Final Copy II.  Pagestream can use Type 1 fonts when they have
  been suitably formatted.

   Now available from SoftLogik is TypeSmith, an outline font editing and
  creation package which will do all the creation and font management you'll
  need. See a review of it here soon.


*** Check out the Press Release about TypeSmith, the Outline Font editor
    in MegaBites this issue - this program will do it all by the sound of
    it.



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   Re upgrading CDTV

To Workbench2

   It's not possible to do this unless you get Don Quixote's kit which
  enables you to turn off the CDRom and load up Workbench 2 - this releases
  all your memory taken up by the CD-Rom and you can then run 1-meg programs
  on your CDTV. This will be available soon and should be less than $50.
Ram Boards
   Ram Boards are coming out from the UK and there are 2 versions - a 2 meg
  and an 8-meg, both internally fitted. No idea of price yet.

   You can now obtain the old WB 1.3 Enhancer kits in case you want to use
  your CDTV as an Amiga.
SCSI Hard Drive
   Also an external 65 MB hard drive with internal SCSI adaptor and 1.3 Enhancer
  kit - $799 via Megadisc.

   Get in touch with us for these products.



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   Using CMD for redirection of program output


   If you enter in a CLI under Workbench 2 (though these hints go also for
  WB1.3) CMD help you'll see this come up:

     CLI Usage cmd 37.4: [run] Cmd devicename filename [opt s m n]
       devicename = serial or parallel
       s = SKIP any short initial write (usually a reset if screendump)
       m = installed for MULTIPLE files until Break or CTRL_C
       n = enables NOTIFY (helpful progress messages)

     WB Tooltypes: DEVICE, FILE, and booleans SKIP,MULTIPLE,NOTIFY


   I wanted to get a text file of all our Megadisc dealers, and the only
  place I had a list of them was in BEST, an accounting/invoicing program
  which I use.  However, BEST only outputs to the printer directly, and not
  to a disk file, and this is where CMD comes in. CMD allowed me to
  re-direct the output of BEST from the printer to a file, using this:

   CMD parallel ram:dealer_list

   I used "parallel" since BEST was sending the info to my dotmatrix printer
  which is connected via the parallel port. If I'd been intercepting output
  to my laser printer which is connected to the serial port, this would have
  been changed to "serial".

   I could have used the options mentioned above if I'd wanted those features
  too of course.


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   List of ARexx applications

   [by Dan Barrett]

   With over 250 programs now supporting ARexx, you can pretty much hook them
  up in many different ways and accomplish many things.  Here are some
  examples I use at home:

   o VLT (terminal program) has a whole phonebook facility implemented in
  ARexx.

   o TurboText (text editor) uses ARexx as its scripting language.  I've
  created interfaces to GNU etags, the AutoDocs, ISpell spelling checker,
  WShell, and other programs so they are all invocable from TurboText.

   o I make ShowDVI (a TeX previewer) invoke TeX through ARexx.

   o I use ARexx to make WShell (a shell) and FishCat (Fish Disk catalog
  program) communicate.  When the name of a program is being displayed by
  FishCat, I can simply type:

		1>  tofish

   and the shell automatically will "cd" to the corresponding directory on my
  Fred Fish CDROM.

   o I wrote a cut/paste program called KillBuffer that communicates with my
  text editor for cutting and pasting text.  It improves on the Clipboard
  because it supports appending text to the clip.

   o I wrote a generic "print" script that invokes the proper print command,
  depending on what kind of file you give it as an argument.



   [From a gent called Jeremy]

   -I've used Arexx to automate DigiView so that I could easily make b/w
  stop-motion animations without having to walk back and forth from my
  digitizing stand to my computer.

   -I use Arexx in conjunction with ToolManager's dock feature to have a
  "view" icon that automatically determines whether a file dragged onto it is
  a picture or text, and load the file into the appropriate viewer (viewtek
  or ppmuchmore)

   -I use Arexx in a similar fashion for an "unpack" dockicon that
  automatically determines what type or archive the file is (based on
  filename extention) and unpacks it with the appropriate unpacker, then
  deleted the archive file.

   -I used Arexx with Final Copy's obliquing and text sizing commands to
  create a sort of "star wars" 3d text effect.




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