In May this year, Mandarin Software (UK) will launch a new BASIC language
for the Amiga. It`s name will be AMOS, it will change the way basic is
looked at. It will be the only available language to directly access all 
the features of the Amiga we all know so well. Sound, sprites, bobs, colours,
music, scrolling.. its all in there and it does most things on interrupt 
(50 times a second). Having been fortunate enough to see Amos as it has 
been developed I have been continually stunned at what the programmer
(Francois Lionet) has managed to fit in and come up with. His own inventive
enthusiasm has seen Amos change from an initial port-over from STOS (the St
equivalent) to a total reprogramming to make use of all the features of this
superb machine. Intuition has gone out of the window so forget what you know
and what you thought was possible!! If you haven`t seen a demo of Amos then
I`d advise you to get hold of the PD demo thats available, take note of 
what that does and remember its an old demo! Its fairly shocking when you
see an interpreted language such as basic smooth-scrolling a screen from
left to right with a Ham full-screen picture scrolling over it from top to
bottom, and with another small screen cycling over that!! To list every 
feature of Amos would take an age, there are hundreds of powerful commands
letting loose for the first time the Amiga powers to the majority. Amos will
become the standard for `casual` amiga programmers and expect to see many
productions using it. Later on there will be an Amos compiler which will
obviously lead to commercial products being written with it - its very 
capable of that! 

For those interested at what AMOS looks like, here are 3 programs that do
different things...

HERES A PROGRAM THAT FIRSTLY LOADS UP A STANDARD IFF SCREEN AND THEN
CREATES 7 `CLONES` OF IT. THEN THE SCREENS ARE SCROLLED HORIZONTALLY AND
DOWNWARDS, ALL AT ONCE! POSITIONS OF SCREENS IS CONTROLLED DIRECTLY BY
USING OFFSETS, MEANING EASY SMOOTH MULTIDIRECTIONAL SCROLLING.


Screen Close 0
Auto View Off
Rem ---> Open normal screen, and load picture
Screen Open 0,320,256,32,Lowres
Flash Off
Load Iff "amos:amos_pictures/amosbig.d3"
Rem ---> Open CLONE screens
For N=1 To 7
   Screen Clone N
Next N
Rem ---> Display
For Y=0 To 960 Step 2
   C=1
   For N=0 To 7
      Screen Display N,,Y+N*50-500,,95
      If N and 1
         Screen Offset N,Y,65
      Else
         Screen Offset N,2480-Y,65
         C=C+1
      End If
   Next N
View
Next

THIS NEXT SHORT LISTING DEMONSTRATES HOW COPPER LISTINGS CAN BE USED TO
PRODUCE THE POPULAR BARS/RAINBOW EFFECTS USED IN MANY DEMOS AND PROGRAMS.
THE `AMAL` (AMIGA ANIMATION LANGUAGE) COMMANDS INSTRUCT THE BARS ON SPEED
AND MOVEMENT, THE PROGRAM MOVES A LARGE GREEN AND RED COPPER BAND UP AND
DOWN THE SCREEN, LIMITED BY A BLUE RANGE WHICH IS BROUGHT DOWN BY MOVING
THE MOUSE UP AND DOWN. NOTICE THE COMMANDS FOR LIMITING MOUSE MOVEMENTS.
ALL COPPER ROUTINES ARE OF COURSE INTERRUPT DRIVEN.

Limit Mouse 0,40 To 512,330
Set Rainbow 1,0,60,"(2,1,15)(2,-1,15)","",""
Set Rainbow 2,0,60,"","(2,1,15)(2,-1,15)",""
Set Rainbow 3,0,30,"","","(1,1,15)(1,-1,15)"
Rainbow 1,0,50,60
Rainbow 2,0,50+250,60
Rainbow 3,0,40,60
Channel 1 To Rainbow 1
Channel 2 To Rainbow 2
Channel 3 To Rainbow 3
Amal 1,"Loop: Move 0,250,Z(63)+2; Move 0,-250,Z(63)+2; Jump Loop"
Amal 2,"Loop: Move 0,-250,Z(31)+2; Move 0,250,Z(31)+2; Jump Loop"
Amal 3,"Loop: For R0=0 To 29; Let X=R0; Let A=YMouse-40; Pause; Next R0; Jump Loop"
Amal On
Centre At(,3)+"Hello interruptions!"
Centre At(,10)+"To have a better view"
Centre At(,11)+"close screen 0!"
Centre At(,13)+"Move the mouse to set blue"
Centre At(,14)+"rainbow Y size!"
Direct

THIS VERY SMALL LISTING ALLOWS YOU TO LOAD IN AN IFF SCREEN AND MAKE A ZOOM
COPY OF IT BY JUST MOVING THE MOUSE. THE CALCULATION OF THE SIZE IS DONE AS
FAST AS PROGRAMS SUCH AS DPAINT III!!

Load Iff "amos:amos_pictures/amosbig.d3",0
Screen Open 1,320,256,64,0
Flash Off : Get Palette(0)
Screen Display 1,,,,256 : View : Limit Mouse
Repeat
Zoom 0,0,70,320,175 To 1,0,0,X Screen(X Mouse)+1,Y Screen(Y Mouse)+1
Until Mouse Key

FRANCOIS LIONET, PROGRAMMER OF AMOS HAS DONE SOME AMAZING NEW THINGS WITH
MENUS, THROWING THE OLD SYSTEM OUT OF THE WINDOW, HE HAS CREATED MENUS THAT
CAN DO ALMOST ANYTHING!! THE MENU SELECTIONS CAN BE SPRITES, BOBS,
PICTURES, EVEN DRAWINGS IN REALTIME!! YOU CAN DO ALMOST ANYTHING WITH THEM,
AND OF COURSE ITS VERY FAST TOO.. THE EXAMPLE BELOW SETS UP A LARGE MENU
SYSTEM WITH ALL THE SELECTION BOXES BEING FILLED WITH BOBS. THE MENU SYSTEM
IS INCREDIBLY VERSATILE AND IT WILL SURPRISE MANY, MANY PEOPLE.

Load "sprites.abk"
Flash Off : Get Sprite Palette
Print "Initializing menu..."
Menu Separate 1
Menu Bar 1
Menu Line 2
MN1$="(ink 1,0:bar 32,20:locate 0,0:bob 1)"
MN2$="(ink 1,5:bar 32,20:locate 0,0:bob 2)"
MN3$="(ink 1,0:bar 48,48:locate 0,0:bob 9:locate 48,48)"
MN4$="(ink 1,5:bar 48,48:locate 0,0:bob 5:locate 48,48)"
MN5$="(ink 1,0:bar 32,32:locate 0,0:bob 12:locate 32,32)"
MN6$="(ink 1,5:bar 32,32:locate 0,0:bob 13:locate 32,32)"
For L1=1 To 5
   Menu$(L1)=MN1$,MN2$
   For L2=1 To 4
      Menu$(L1,L2)=MN3$,MN4$
      For L3=1 To 4
         Menu$(L1,L2,L3)=MN5$,MN6$,,"(lo 0,0)"
         For L4=1 To 4
            Menu$(L1,L2,L3,L4)="(ink 1,6:ink 2,0) Do you like my menus??? ","(ink 1,0:ink 2,6)     Worth  waiting ?    "
         Next
      Next
   Next
Next
Print "Done! Press a key to end..."
Menu On
Wait Key
Edit

WE PLAN TO FEATURE AMOS TIPS, HINTS AND IDEAS AS WELL AS LISTINGS WHEN IT
EVENTUALLY GETS RELEASED (ABOUT MAY I HEARD LAST!).. IF YOU HAVE ANY IDEAS
AND COMMENTS PLEASE DROP US A LINE AND WE CAN PASS THEM ON TO MANDARIN.