Relay-Version: VMS News - V5.7 09/01/89 VAX/VMS V4.7; site router.kpo.fi From: edwin@hcr.UUCP (Edwin Hoogerbeets) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga Subject: Introduction to comp.sys.amiga Message-ID: <5281@hcr.UUCP> Date: 3 Mar 89 06:50:31 GMT Organization: HCR Corporation, Toronto Reply-To: edwin@hcrvax.UUCP (Edwin Hoogerbeets) Posted: Fri Mar 3 00:55:34 1989 Lines: 866 Summary: monthly info posting This is an introductory posting to comp.sys.amiga. If you are a new reader of this group or even if you just want Amiga/Usenet information, please read the following articles. This posting last changed: March 2, 1989 It is recommended that you save this article for future reference. We hope that you refer to this article first before posting to the net. This helps keep the comp.sys.amiga* groups uncluttered with topics that have already been discussed. There is an analogous posting in comp.sys.amiga.tech. To save this posting when you are using rn or vn: s newuser to save in the file News/newuser. notes: snewuser to save this article in the file ./newuser. To read any of the following topics after this page, type 'g' for 'go to' and the three letter index identifier in capitals that is listed on the left. This article contains the following topics: ,NET The Etiquette of the net. (netiquette) Please read this article before posting anything. edwin@hcr.UUCP ,MOD How to receive and post Amiga programs from/to the moderated Amiga newsgroups. edwin@hcr.UUCP ain@mace.cc.purdue.edu ,FNF The Fish Public Domain software library. How to get Fish disks and how to submit programs. fnf@fishpond.UUCP ali@polya.stanford.edu ,FTP A list of locations from which you may ftp amiga files. leh@beach.cis.ufl.edu.UUCP LUSIANI@CERNVM.BITNET.UUCP page@ulowell.UUCP ,PIC How to get and send Amiga graphic pictures and related 'show' programs. joe@dayton.UUCP ,WED Address of the Wedge people. stan@teroach.UUCP ,FFS Answers to questions about the Fast File System. cmcmanis@pepper.UUCP ,SID Putting the Amiga 2000 on its side. Is it possible? edwin@hcr.UUCP ,BUY Atari vs. Amiga: what to buy? geoffs@smoke.UUCP AmigaIan@cup.portal.com.UUCP ,CPU Is 14.32MHz too fast for my expansion RAM? daveh@cbmvax.UUCP ,LED What does flashing caps lock LED mean? bjc@pollux.UUCP ,MAC A2000 vs B2000, which machine is which? daveh@cbmvax.UUCP ,SUR comp.sys.amiga survey, opinions from the net uunet!rice.edu!carson Edwin uunet!utai!utcsri!hcr!edwin ************************************************************************* ,NET From: edwin@hcr.UUCP (Edwin Hoogerbeets) Subject: Netiquette Behaviour on the net: Behaviour on the net should be based on respect for other readers. If you follow this guideline, the net can be a very powerful tool for useful information. Try to reduce the amount of material posted and keep your articles short. This helps to save on phone bills throughout the entire Usenet community and saves time when reading the voluminous Amiga news groups. Try to avoid posting your view on an issue that has no "correct" answer. An example of this is the "my machine is better than your machine" discussion that often flares up in the microcomputer newsgroups. If you must express your point of view, please indicate that you would like to continue the discussion via mail, so as not to harass other readers that are not interested in the subject. Please do not make derogatory postings (aka. flames). Do not subject other readers to these childish tit for tat postings. Have fun via mail. Newsgroups: There are currently four official groups dedicated to the Amiga. Here is a brief description of each of them and what kind of articles they should contain: comp.sys.amiga - This newsgroup is for general discussion of Amiga related news, software and hardware. comp.sys.amiga.tech - This newsgroup is for the technical discussions about programming the hardware and software of the Amiga. comp.sources.amiga - This newsgroup contains the sources to freely redistributable programs posted exclusively by the moderators. comp.binaries.amiga - This newsgroup contains the binaries related to the programs in the sources group. This group can also only be posted to by the moderators. Please adhere to these classifications and post your news to the appropriate group. See the MOD section (enter g MOD) in this posting on how to post to and receive from the moderated groups. Mail: If you would like to reply to an article posted by someone else and you do not think your reply is of value to others on the net, then please send mail to the poster instead of posting a reply. This helps reduce the amount of news sent each day and improves the ratio of signal to noise in the newsgroup. When in rn type 'r' to reply via mail. Type 'R' to include a copy of the poster's article. Following up: If you do feel the reply is important enough for everyone on the net, then please keep your posting small. In rn, type 'f' to follow up, and 'F' to include a copy of the poster's original article. Please trim the included article down to only the relevant parts, so that people are reminded of the gist of the original without having to re-read the entire text. Posting original material: Original material is preferred, as it offers something new for the readers. However, if you post an request for information or software, please include a request for mail instead of a news followup. Again, this is to help reduce the amount the reader must go through each day. Cross posting: Cross posting to many newsgroups takes no more room or time than posting to one newsgroup. However, many more people see your article, and the above rules become more critical. If you do cross post, please realize that people from any of the groups may followup to your article. By default, most news programs post to all the original newsgroups. If you think the replies to your article will only be relevant to one group, please use the Followup-To line to indicate that the named news group should be used for replies. Also, if you are replying to someone else's cross-posted article, please edit the Newsgroups line to indicate only the groups to which your reply is relevant. Remember to have respect for your fellow netters and you will gain the most from Usenet. Edwin uunet!utai!utcsri!hcr!edwin ************************************************************************* ,MOD From: edwin@hcr.UUCP (Edwin Hoogerbeets) Subject: how to retrieve programs from the moderated groups Saving a file: To get a program, you must save the article you are reading. Under rn type: s filename while reading the article with the program in it. The 'filename' can be any name you choose for it. This will save the program under the default directory News. Thus the file will be News/filename. Once you have saved all the programs, you should then use an editor such as vi to delete all the lines until the one that says, "delete all lines up to this one." Shar: Most programs the moderators send out are shared together. This is a special way of binding many text files together to make them easier to handle. You now have various choices. There is an unshar program on the Amiga (Fish 97) or you can use the standard Unix Bourne shell 'sh' to unshar them. The Unix 'sh' should work with any file the moderators send across. From unix, type: sh filename It is recommended you put this file in its own directory to contain all the file that sh generates. Uudecode: Some files are binaries that have been 'uuencoded'. This is because the connection between Unix machines can only handle text characters, and not certain binary characters. To get around the problem, these binary files are encoded into text using uuencode. Uuencoded files usually have a .uu or a .uue extension so that you can recognize them. To uudecode a file type: uudecode filename It is recommended that you do your uudecoding on the Amiga. This way, there are less errors involving file formats on your host machine that are different from the Amiga's own file format. There is a version of uudecode for the Amiga on Fish 38. Arc/zoo: You might notice that .arc or .zoo files are produced by uudecode. These files are actually many files glued together and compressed to conserve space. To extract files from a .arc file, type the following on the Amiga: arc x filename To extract files from a .zoo file on the Amiga: zoo x// filename There is a version of arc on Fish 70 and a version of zoo on Fish 136. (Earlier version of arc: Fish 40. Earlier versions of zoo: Fish 87 and 108) Edwin uunet!utai!utcsri!hcr!edwin -------------------------- From: mace.cc.purdue.edu!ain (Patrick White) Subject: How to post to comp.[sources|binaries].amiga I'll give you a quick rundown of the various ways to make submissions in preferred order.. 1) make up some postings and post them to the proper groups -- since these groups are moderated, the posting will get sent via mail to the moderator(s). Preferred. Helps us a bit if we forward the submission to a different machine. 2) send mail to the mail aliases amiga-sources-request or amiga-binaries-request. Next best -- but be sure the size of the file will go through mail unscathed (100K or less is usually ok). (BTW, the aliases are always directed to the right person to receive the submissions) 3) send mail directly to the moderators. Same warnings as above, but also be sure to send it to the right person -- if you get it wrong, your mail might never be heard from again. Since all these ways use mail, the data transmission is equally reliable between them. The main difference is ease of submission, and what happens at our end. The current moderators are: Bob Page - page@swan.ulowell.edu - uunet!ut-sally!im4u!woton!swan!page Pat White (moderator without a home :-) (ain@mace.cc.purdue.edu | ain@k.cc.purdue.edu) ************************************************************************* ,FNF From: fnf@fishpond.UUCP Subject: How to get Fish disks. WHAT'S AVAILABLE ---------------- There are "do-nothing-useful" examples of various capabilities of the AMIGA, real development tools, editors, languages, games, and other odds & ends. Also included are machine readable form of many of the examples (received directly from C-A sources) out of the official AMIGA manuals, including the ROM Kernel Manual. HOW TO OBTAIN DISKS ------- First, check with your local dealers and user groups. Many already have the earlier disks. Since these disks can be copied freely, and widespread distribution is encouraged, they propagate out to central distribution points fairly quickly. If you just can't wait, or can't find copies locally, I am willing to make these disks available for the cost of media, mailing materials, postage, and miscellaneous expenses (like wear and tear on my drives). My goal is to get as much software as possible into the hands of people that can use and enhance it, and make the AMIGA the success it deserves to be. Generally, each disk contains all source necessary to recreate the executables provided. All programs are currently compiled with the latest Lattice C and/or Manx C compiler available at the time of release. In a very few cases (noted in the description) the code will not compile or run for some reason, but was considered interesting enough to include anyway. Almost all executables are known to run on the latest kickstart/workbench combination available at time of release. Disks are typically 85 to 95 percent full. HOW TO ORDER ------------ To order, send a list of the disks you want, and $6 per disk ($5 per disk for 10 or more disks), in U.S. funds, to: Fred Fish 1346 W. 10th Place Tempe, Arizona 85281 USA (602) 921-1113 (Sorry, I can only return calls collect.) Price includes cost of media, mailing materials, and first class domestic postage. Overseas orders add $5 per order for Air Mail. Time and other jobs permitting, all disks will be mailed within 3 days of receipt of order. Feel free to order more the the current number of disks available. Excess funds will be placed "in escrow" (refundable at any time) and drawn against for automatic mailings of future disks as they become available. I hope to add at least two to four disks per month to the library. Given that I have a database of about 300Mb of freely distributable software to draw upon, that should be a fairly easy goal to accomplish. DISK CATALOG ------------ A disk based catalog is available directly from me at no charge (as long as you supply disks and postage). The catalog has been split into two disks (disk 0A and disk 0B). To get a copy send two disks and $0.65 postage to the above address. DISTRIBUTION CRITERIA --------- To the best of my knowledge, materials in this library are freely redistributable. This means that they have met one or more of the following conditions: (1) The materials contains explicit copyright notices permitting redistribution. (2) The materials were posted to a publically accessible electronic bulletin board and did not contain any copyright notice. (Such materials will be removed if it is subsequently shown that copyright notices were illegally removed.) (3) The materials were posted to a widely disseminated electronic network (such as usenet), thus implying that their author/poster intended them to be freely distributed. This applies only if they contain no notice limiting distribution. (4) The materials contain an explicit notice placing them in the public domain. This is not the same as condition (1). One last note; I get frustrated when I get email from people and then can't get a message back to them because of some sort of braindamage in the return path. Please don't assume that just because you never saw a bounced message, that it actually got through to me, or even if it did, that I ignored it. I DO RESPOND TO ALL MY MAIL. I don't spend ANY time trying to figure out how to work around bad paths if my response gets bounced back. For best results, include your phone number in case the email route fails completely. Also note that my preferred usenet address has changed recently to this machine (fishpond!fnf), rather than mcdsun!fnf. ------------------ From: ali@polya.stanford.edu Subject: How to get a listing of Fish disks electronically: If you can FTP, you can find the following files on SCORE.STANFORD.EDU, in the directory WHEREIS (a list of programs that've appeared on Fish disks 1..138, sorted by prog name & with one line description) 1, 2, 3, ... (detailed descriptions of what's on each disk --- these are Fred Fish's own descriptions of what's on the disks) You can anonymously FTP these files. Because SCORE is a TOPS-20 machine, you can't CD to the directory, instead you need to: FTP> get whereis If you want it let me know and I can mail you at least the WHEREIS file. Ali Ozer, ali@polya.stanford.edu ************************************************************************* ,FTP From: ertem@polya.Stanford.EDU (Tuna Ertemalp) ------------------------------------------------------------------------- AMIGA FTP-Sites Any information starting with [;] is something which I couldn't verify. Some of them were reported to me by other people, but I never managed to FTP them. Or they seem to be refusing anonymous FTP although they used to accept it. Some of them does not seem to exist at all. Even some directories seem to have been purged. The rest is what I am using always. Have fun and keep me informed about any new sites, IP-addresses, and directories, as well as the ones which have been removed, changed, or manipulated (enough to make this list "old"). I'd appreciate it :-) Tuna Ertemalp. Ertem@Polya.Stanford.Edu ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Name IP-Address(es) Directorie(s) ------------------------------------------------------------------------- a.cs.uiuc.edu 10.3.0.37 /pub/amiga ; 192.5.69.1 cs.utah.edu 128.110.4.21 /pub/amiga-forth ; 10.0.0.4 ; husc7.harvard.edu ; 128.103.1.57 ix1.cc.utexas.edu 128.83.1.21 /microlib/amiga ix2.cc.utexas.edu 128.83.1.29 /microlib/amiga j.cc.purdue.edu 128.210.0.3 /comp.binaries.amiga ; 10.1.0.37 /comp.sources.amiga louie.udel.edu 192.5.39.3 /pub/amiga ; 10.0.0.96 /pub/ka9q ssyx.ucsc.edu 128.114.133.1 /pub/amiga swan.ulowell.edu 129.63.1.1 /amiga 129.63.224.1 topaz.rutgers.edu 128.6.4.194 /pyr-public/text/mg2/sys/amiga trantor.umd.edu 128.8.10.14 /info-amiga /info-amiga/uxe /pub ucsd.ucsd.edu 128.54.16.1 /hamradio/karn uunet.uu.net 192.12.141.129 /amiga-sources ; 192.112.141.12 ux.acss.umn.edu 128.101.63.2 /usenix87/Amiga /usenix87/Editors/Emacs/MicroGnu/sys/amiga /usenix87/Editors/Emacs/MicroGnu/tty/amiga uxc.cso.uiuc.edu 10.6.0.94 /utils/cshar 128.174.5.50 uxe.cso.uiuc.edu 128.174.5.54 /amiga /archived_notes/comp.binaries.amiga xanth.cs.odu.edu 128.82.8.1 /usenet /amiga ************************************************************************* ,PIC >From: joe@dayton.UUCP Subject: Re: Picture swap (was Re: clite demo) So I am hereby officially becoming a picture collector. If you have pictures, drop me a disk. For every disk of pics I get, I'll send it back with what I may have found by that point. A few notes: 1. If you send ray-traced, sending the input to the ray tracer would be appreciated. That's up to you. 2. If the picture can not be displayed with DPaintII or the DISPLAY program that comes with DBW_Render, please provide a display program somewhere on the disk or at least give me some clues as to how I should display it. 3. Make *sure* you give me full mailing info and such. 4. Anything you send me should be freely redistributable. This means that I'd love to get digitized pictures out of your favorite magazine, but that's not legal..... 5. If you DO violate note 4, at least tell me you did so I don't get into trouble with someone Official. 6. Keep copies and insure yourself if you send more disks than you're willing to lose in the mail. If I start to get some collections together, I'll do a followup and tell people what they can do to get some pictures from me without sending submissions. I'm also willing to accept pictures over the phones if I don't have to make long long-distance phone calls to do it. If you have DBW_Render pictures, you can just email those to me.... My mailing address is NOT my work address, however. Send disks, etc to: Joe Larson 6121 St. Croix Ave. N. Golden Valley, Minnesota 55422 Disks sent to me at work will get here, but home would be better.... -- UUCP: rutgers!dayton!joe Dayton Hudson Department Store Company ATT : (612) 375-3537 Joe Larson/MIS 1060 (standard disclaimer...) 700 on the Mall Mpls, Mn. 55402 ************************************************************************* ,WED The following is included to prevent the occasional questions on the net and in NO WAY ADVOCATES OR DISCOURAGES the use of the wedge. >From: stan@teroach.UUCP Subject: Low cost Hard Disk is here for A1000 and A500!! [stan's opinion on the wedge deleted for objectivity] So if you don't mind I'll pass on the pertinent information: R.S.I. 9651 Alexandra Road Richmond, B.C. Canada V6X 1C6 (604) 270-0064 Again, I am in no way affiliated with any of the manufacturers mentioned above, I just want the word to get out, HD RELIEF IS HERE!! ************************************************************************* ,FFS From: cmcmanis@pepper.UUCP Subject: Re: Fast File System questions In article <260@geocub.UUCP> anthes@geocub.UUCP (Franklin Anthes) writes: > - is FFS a totally new FS, or just changes made to the old FS? Yes and no. Yes it is a totally new file system handler, however the way the data is stored on the disk is not changed in a really remarkable way. The only real difference is that datablocks now have 512 bytes of data rather than 488. [Yes, that's a "free" 5% increase in space] > - What changes have been made? Biggest wins come from sequentially ordered hash chains and full data blocks. It makes long reads much more appealing (and DMA much more efficient). > - Why does FFS for diskettes have to wait until 1.4? Because it won't be in ROM for 1.3, so there is this chicken and egg problem where you have a disk and no filesystem in memory yet that can read it, because the filesystem is on the disk you are trying to read. See the problem ? Further, some of the stuff that diskettes rely on (like the ability to deal with being swapped out) is not part of FFS yet. > - Has something been done to make directory access faster, or will the > the speedup in this area just be proportional to the speedup for > FFS? Yes, all aspects of disk activity are faster. My wife (who uses a PC-AT at work) commented the other day at how fast the directory popped up on the screen. Such are the improvements. Anyway, with FFS all hard disk activity on the Amiga are faster than equivalent activity on the Mac, PC, or Atari. --Chuck McManis uucp: {anywhere}!sun!cmcmanis BIX: cmcmanis ARPAnet: cmcmanis@sun.com These opinions are my own and no one elses, but you knew that didn't you. ************************************************************************* ,SID From: edwin@hcr.UUCP Subject: Putting the 2000 on its side. There seems to be no problem with putting the Amiga 2000 on its side to make it fit nicely under a desk. My 2000 has been in this orientation for approximately 10 months and I have had no problem associated with its position. I recommend putting your computer on its left side so that the drives are as high (and accessible) as possible. You may need some extension cables for the keyboard and mouse. A standard joystick extender cable is fine for the mouse and a standard 7 prong DIN cable will work for the keyboard. Both are available at Radio Shack and similar stores. There has been some discussion about the operation of disks and drives in a sideways position. I have had no more or no less bad disks because of this. However, it remains to be seen if the disks wear out faster sideways. ************************************************************************* ,BUY >From: geoffs@smoke.UUCP Subject: Re: Atari vs. Amiga: what to buy? ATARI VS. AMIGA: WHAT TO BUY? * the bottom line is -- whatever you like best. * but here are some thoughts: WORK/SCHOOL OS features: ======================== What kind of environment are you using at work/school? It is Likely Multi-tasking. (VAX VMS, UNIX, ?) - (AMIGA & ST) If VMS, I don't know of any VMS look-alikes for either machine. there is a PD editor (TVX) that can be configured to look like the VMS EDT editor I think... I know it can be made to look like VI and emacs/jove/uemacs... (unix). - (AMIGA) If unix at work,... unix editor PD look-a-likes "vi" and "emacs" are available. (They are also available on the ST). - (ST) If unix at work, then note that an ST version of MINIX has gone to Prentice Hall for distribution (out in Sept? - check comp.os.minix on when). You are familiar with MINIX? It is Version 7 unix look alike muli-tasking OS, comes with compiler and unix-behaving tools. - (AMIGA) As you know the Amiga has multi-tasking built in, so it you can handle a different interface from the one at work, but are used to multi-tasking, you are already set. - (ST) UNIX? Today *now* there is a nice PD shell on the ST (gulam) that looks a lot like the unix shell with many of the commands. The editor is emacs-like, and you can pause the editor, escape to the shell, compile a program, then bring the editor back to the fore ground (via "fg" a-la unix). Not multi-tasking. Context switching, but it is the unix look and feel. - Note: Amiga and ST can run MSDOS stuff with appropriate add-on's. ST cam also run MAC stuff with appropriate add-on's. MIDI: ===== The ST came with midi's built in and this has generated a lot of ST midi software. Buy a copy of STart magazine. There are always adds in that artist-oriented magazine for music editors, and multiple other midi programs. I do not know what midi stuff is available on the AMIGA. I think there is a large library of midi software on the PC market. You may wish to look here too... Final suggestions: 1. Get several machine specific magazines on both computers. Try to stay away from those published by the machine manufacture; they tend to be censored and over-hyped: "See how great we are!!!!!!!!". 2. Please try before you buy. - you may hate the feel of the keyboard. *BOTH* good computers, you probably can't go wrong what ever you choose. To be fair, I do not own an Amiga. I own 2 Commodors (the VIC-20 & C64) am the happy owner of 1 Atari (the ST). I will not suggest either computer over the other. That is a personal preference. A choice only you can make. My experience with both companys is about the same. They are probably on a par with the rest of the retail computer industry. -- ---> geoffs@brl.arpa -- ---------------- >From: AmigaIan@cup.portal.com.UUCP Subject: Re: 500 or 2000 ? >My next question is this: >should I buy an amiga 500 or an amiga 2000? >Can someone give me the pro's and con's of the two machines? Ok, let me give it a try, The 2000 comes with 512K more than the 500 but I have seen 512K expansion for the 500 priced under $150. You can have IBM compatibility with the 2000 but not with the 500. The 2000 costs more $$$ but it is a little less expensive to expand. The 2000 is bigger than the 500. If you expand with the 500 you need alot of space. The 500 is about $700 cheaper if you get a 1 meg 500. The 2000 is now selling for $1499. The 500 is now selling for $649. Did I miss anything? I believe those are all the diffrences. Hope I made things easier rather than harder. Ian_Matthew_Smith@cup.portal.com ************************************************************************* ,CPU >From: daveh@cbmvax.UUCP Subject: Re: Is 14.32MHz too fast for my expansion RAM? > I don't know about the CMI board, but some 68000 speedup boards have > floating point processor sockets. If you use it, and are running > programs with a lot of FP computation that support it, you should > get a dramatic speed increase, yes/no? You'll get a speedup over no 68881 at all (assuming 1.3 math libraries). What you don't get is a 32 bit interface to the 68881, or a true coprocessor interface to the 68881, so this is still considerably slower than a similarly clocked 68020. Given the speedups you can get with any kind of math chip, it's probably a good idea for someone into image rendering or other heavy duty math operations who doesn't have a 68020 type budget. > If you do a lot of floating point stuff (and a lot of graphics programs do), > it sounds like a lot more bang for the buck compared to a 68020 board > with coprocessor at ~$1000 more (plus 32 bit memory to get a real advantage > over the 68000). Note that for math operations, a 68020 with 68881 is several times faster than a 68000 with 68881, even on a 16 bit bus. The difference is of course the CPU interface that the 68020 uses, plus the wide data bus. The 68000 or 68020 have to fetch data for the 68881 in either case. But while the 68000 will fetch at 16 bits, then transfer at 16 bits, the 68020 will do it's transfers at 32 bits. Of course, if you can only afford a fast 68000 board at $200-$300, it's going to speed up your math more than that cash sitting in the bank waiting for a 68020 board will... Dave Haynie "The 32 Bit Guy" Commodore-Amiga "The Crew That Never Rests" {ihnp4|uunet|rutgers}!cbmvax!daveh PLINK: D-DAVE H BIX: hazy "I can't relax, 'cause I'm a Boinger!" ************************************************************************* ,LED >From: bjc@pollux.UUCP Subject: Re: What does flashing caps lock LED mean? In article <1200@tellab5.tellabs.CHI.IL.US> grj@tellab5.UUCP () writes: >Sorry if this has been covered many times before, but I don't get a chance >to read this group often. Anyway - sometimes when I power on my A2000, >the caps lock LED flashes at about a 1 or 2 Hz rate. The keyboard is then >useless and nothing typed gets recognized. It seems to have started Look on page 3 of Appendix H to the Hardware Reference manual. Briefly, though, it says: One blink Keyboard ROM test failed Two blinks Keyboard RAM test failed Three blinks Watchdog timer test failed Four blinks A short exists between two row lines or one of the seven special control keys. It also says that you probably would not have been able to type anything before this sequence would be completed, but if so, the key codes would be sent to the computer and then a "terminate key stream" code would be sent. There is more information in that appendix. Betty ************************************************************************* ,MAC >From: daveh@cbmvax.UUCP Subject: Re: A2000 vs B2000 > How can I tell which one my 2000 is? A or B. Mine has Amiga 2000 in > little letters on the system box as opposed to the new ones I've seen with > Amiga 2000 in BIG letters. If you bought it in the USA, it's a "B" (or someone hosed you). The easiest way to tell is to look at the phono jacks on the back of the machine. The "A" has two, the "B" has three (that extra one is a monochrome video output that I got basically for free when using the A500 video hybrid). Most stuff works in both. What doesn't probably can't be easily added, though with a minor modification to the case, a board swap is possible. > I got it in late '87 (December I think maybe Jan '88) and the writing on > the box is mostly in German. We kept using boxes from Germany long after switching to the US designed motherboard. > Will all the hardcards/SCSI interface/genlock/whatever cards fit in the > A2000?? Or am I screwed there too? As long as 100 pin cards are in spec, they'll work fine on both machines. All Genlocks should work similarly. The B2000 video slot has many more signals, but the only thing I know of on the market that's currently taking advantage of that slot is MicroWay's flickerFixer, which won't work on the "A" board. > If I've got the 68020 in my 2000 (which I don't yet) what would be the > purpose of booting from the 68000??? I put that feature in to allow developers who develop on the 68020 based Amiga an easy way to test their software on a 68000. It has the side effect of allowing you to run software on your machine that doesn't work with the 68000. I've found a better use for such software -- reformatting the disks it comes on. Really, though, there's very little software that can't be used on the 68020. -- Dave Haynie "The 32 Bit Guy" Commodore-Amiga "The Crew That Never Rests" {uunet|pyramid|rutgers}!cbmvax!daveh PLINK: D-DAVE H BIX: hazy Amiga -- It's not just a job, it's an obsession ************************************************************************* ,SUR From: Jim Carson Subject: comp.sys.amiga survey I BACKGROUND a. How experienced do you consider yourself with the Amiga? EXPERIENCE: Very -- wrote popular software 6 had amiga > 2 years 10 Fair amount of programming. 4 had amiga > 1 year 4 Some Programming 5 had amiga < 1 year 2 No programming on Amiga 10 did not say 10 b. What kind of hardware do you have? (Some people had more than one system) Machines: A1000 17 A/B2000 9 A500 7 Peripherals: External Memory 18 Extra Floppy 14 Modem 11 Hard Disk 10 Printer 10 Accelerator board 3 Sound/MIDI interface 3 Clock Card 2 Sidecar 2 Digitizer 1 Ethernet Interface 1 c. How much do you use your Amiga? (Some people said "lots", which I took to mean 2 - 4 hours/day) > 4 hours a day 10 2 - 4 hours/day 6 1 - 2 hours/day 4 < 1 hour/day 1 d. What are your favorite kinds of programs (games, utilities, etc)? Games 13 Utilities 9 Compilers/Program Lang 8 Telecommunication 6 Music 5 Demos 4 Editors 3 II. HARDWARE a. Hard Drive/Card Controllers: WEDGE 1000; WEDGE 500 ($175-$200) - very good Bear Products - good ($120 w/o chips) Commodore 2090; C.Ltd.; Overdrive;- okay Microbotics HardFrame Startime - Bad performance Drives: Miniscribe; Seagate ST157N, ST277N - okay Quantum; Rodime; Supra SCSI; GVP Impact; CDC Wren - good b. Other Permanent Storage (Tape, CD, etc) SCSI tape is nice for backup. R/W opticals are great for animation (650MB Sony). c. Modem Supra 2400 - Great ($150 for 2400, $70 for 1200) Hayes - Nice, but expensive. Trailblazer T2000+; Ventel MD212 - good Courier 2400; BytCOM 212AD; - okay Bizcomm Intellimodem EXT; Avatex 1680 - adequate (incompatible w/software) d. Midi interfaces ECE MIDI interface, connected to an Ensoniq Mirage keyboard. Golden Hawk MIDI Gold MIDI interface. - Nice little box, does the job f. External Disk Drives A1010. (3.5") - okay A1020 (5.25") - slow, but good for transferring ibm <-> amiga California Access - good Byte by Byte PAL Jr. - nice, but obsolete. Company sucks. g. Printer Great: Epson LQ-800. Nice, but not as good as an Imagewriter on a Mac C.Itoh C310-xp - Fast (300cps), Very nice NLQ Panasonic KX-P1090i - Very nice NLQ ($200) Ok: Epson LX-800 - cheap, quick with 1.3 drivers, graphics Howtek PixelMaster color inkjet IBM Colorjet Okidata 82A w/Rainbow Tech firmware upgrade Mannesman-Tally Spirit-80 - Excellent printer 5 years ago, good company. Marginal quality: Okimate 20 - cheap printer Star SG-10 - cheap printer Epson FX-286 - slow. paper jams incessantly. ugly NLQ. Citizen msp10 - slow. problems with proportional print & tabs. h. Monitor Sony KV1311 - very good C-A 1080 - good C-A 2002 - good NEC Multisync - good Thompson 4120 - good C-A 1084 - okay, but crackles C1702 [modified] - adequate i. Memory Expansion INSIDER board (1MB + RT Clock) - great Spirit, A501 - good Starboard 2-meg - good Orphan 4-meg - no recommendations *************************************************************************