Amiga Tools
Introduction
This chapter is dedicated to the Amiga software which is included with Amiga Forever. This software is included on the CD-ROM, and is located and preinstalled in such a way that it is easily usable both from within the emulation environment, as well as when the CD is inserted in an "real" Amiga. A different chapter in this guide, titled "Data Sharing", describes the connectivity and data exchange tools which are included on the Amiga Forever floppy disk.
The Online Edition of Amiga Forever includes only version 1.3 and 3.0 of the Amiga ROM and OS files. The other versions are mainly of historical interest, and for space reasons have not been included in the Online Edition, which however contains additional new software titles, such as TurboText, KingCON, LhA, ToolManager and MailBX. These programs, with documentation in several languages, are preinstalled in the "Work/Software" directory of the 3.0 emulation environment.
Amiga ROM and OS Files
The definition "Amiga OS" (Amiga Operating System) includes both the system files stored on the "Workbench", "Extras" and other disks, and the Amiga resources stored on the Amiga ROM (read-only memory) chips, which contain for example the basic software necessary for the Amiga to boot and access a minimal set of peripherals, including those on which the other OS files are stored. The terms "Workbench" and "Amiga OS" are often used as synonyms, as in "Which version of the Workbench do you have?" One of the most visible parts of the Amiga OS is named the "Workbench Screen", which is the blue (on OS versions 1.0 to 1.3) or gray (on newer versions) screen where the user can view and manipulate disk and file resources. This is the equivalent of the Windows "Desktop", or the Macintosh "Finder". Technically, the term "Amiga OS" includes both the Workbench and the ROMs, even if especially the word "ROM" is often used to stress the difference between the parts of the Amiga OS which are stored on the "Workbench disks", and those which are instead built-in inside the computer. The first Amiga 1000 computers were manufactured when the Amiga ROM was still partially in development. For this reason, the OS parts which normally reside in ROM could not be built into the machine, but had to be loaded from a floppy disk named "Kickstart". Since then, the word "Kickstart" has become a synonym of "ROM".
The different Amiga operating systems were in general designed so that the Workbench disks of any given version required a ROM with the same version (or a newer one). The main exceptions to this were Workbench 1.3, which worked with Kickstart 1.2 (to which the 1.3 ROM mainly added the capability to boot from a hard disk), and Workbench 2.1, which was used in combination with the 2.04 ROMs. Internally, Commodore developers in general used a different type of numbering, based on "library revision" numbers.
The CD-ROM version of Amiga Forever includes all Amiga ROMs and Workbench disks released between version 1.0 and version 3.0. The following table lists the major Amiga OS versions, and the often "mysterious" library version numbers which were associated to the various releases.
| Amiga Library Revisions and OS/ROM Versions | ||
|---|---|---|
| Library | OS/ROM | Notes |
| 30 | 1.0 NTSC | NTSC version only |
| 31 | 1.1 NTSC | NTSC version |
| 32 | 1.1 PAL | PAL version |
| 33 | 1.2 | |
| 34 | 1.3 | |
| 35 | 1.3 (A2024) | Also used for v. "1.4" (then released as 2.0) |
| 36 | 2.0 (A3000) | Also used for v. "1.4" |
| 37 | 2.04 | "Final v. 2.0" (fixed many bugs of rev. 36) |
| 38 | 2.1 | Workbench only, used with ROM rev. 37 |
| 39 | 3.0 | |
| 40 | 3.1 | |
Amiga Forever includes all ROMs publicly released for PAL-standard Amiga systems (PAL versions support taller screens than NTSC versions), except for version 2.0 (replaced by version 2.04, which includes a series of fixes to version 2.0), and versions after 3.0, which were not licensed for Amiga Forever. Eight different Workbench versions are included, from version 1.0 to version 3.0. These ROMs and OS files will virtually last "forever", allowing future emulation programs to run different Amiga operating systems. For all operating systems, a few minor changes were required by the licensing terms between the Amiga companies and Cloanto. These changes should not affect compatibility.
Both on the CD-ROM, and on the hard disk after installation, these Amiga files are grouped inside the "Emulation/shared" directory. This directory contains four subdirectories, with different contents:
- "Emulation/shared/rom": Amiga ROM image files
- "Emulation/shared/adf": "ADF" image files of Amiga Workbench floppy disks
- "Emulation/shared/dir": Amiga 3.0 "System" and "Work" hard disk partitions, stored as directories and files readable by all CD-ROM filing systems, and then installed in the host filing system
- "Emulation/shared/hdf": Amiga 3.0 "System" and "Work" hard disk partitions, each in a single "hardfile"
The Workbench floppy disks are in the ADF ("Amiga Disk File") format, which is in general supported by Amiga emulators, while the ROM images follow a similar standard. The ADF and ROM file formats are also supported directly by the Amiga Explorer software. Three digits are used in the file names to specify the version number. For example, "kick130.rom" means "1.3", and "204" means "2.04".
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Amiga Emulation Sample Screen |
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The 1.3 Workbench disk also includes the famous "Boing" bouncing ball demo. To start it, double-click on the Boing icon, and then send the Workbench screen to the background. One or two clicks on the left mouse button may be necessary to activate the program and start the demo. To terminate the program, move the mouse pointer to the top left, and click the left mouse button.
Version 3.0 of the operating system also comes preinstalled in a hard disk partition, named "System". This version is enhanced by new DataTypes, and by Picasso 96 drivers which allow the UAE emulator to open screens in true color, or in palette modes up to 256 colors.
The "Work" partition does not contain any Amiga system files, but rather it contains the preinstalled applications described in this chapter. The "System" partition is designed to be used either alone, or in combination with the "Work" partition (or a different, custom configuration).
As outlined above, both the "System" and the "Work" partitions are included in Amiga Forever in two formats:
- All directories and files corresponding to directories and files on the host filing system
- Hardfiles (each hard disk partition on one "HDF" file) on the host filing system
By default, the Amiga Forever installation program for Windows and DOS only installs the first format, and not the hardfiles. To learn more about the differences between the two options, please refer to the section on emulation.
Picasso 96
The UAE Amiga emulator includes an emulated 24-bit graphics card. This is like having a normal Amiga computer with the original Amiga chip set, plus a "retargetable graphics" (RTG) display card installed in it, so that both the standard Amiga screen modes as well as the new screen modes provided by the display card are available. With the help of appropriate drivers, which are included with all graphics cards, the Amiga OS is able to recognize and use new screen modes in up to 256 colors. "Hi" and "True" Color (respectively 16-bit and 24-bit) screen modes are not supported by default by the Amiga, but can be added with the help of additional software, which in part replaces and extends some operating system functions. Picasso 96 provides both the drivers and the additional software required for the Amiga OS and for other programs to detect the emulated graphics card and to use it in palette-based modes up to 256 colors, as well as in hi-color and true-color modes. Of course, the Picasso 96 software also supports a variety of "real" graphics cards, and is very popular on Amiga computers of all types.
The Picasso 96 software comes preinstalled in the "System" (Amiga OS 3.0) partition in the emulation environment, so that no additional steps are required to install and configure the software. The "Software/Picasso96" directory in the "Work" partition contains additional tools and documentation files, accessible from within the emulation. The original Picasso 96 files are stored in the "Archives/Picasso96" directory on the CD-ROM.
Although it is included under license in Amiga Forever, the Picasso 96 software is shareware. If you like and use this software, please support the Picasso 96 developers by purchasing your own, up-to-date, registered version!
Related site (Internet link):
Personal Paint
Personal Paint 7.1 is a powerful and intuitive paint, image processing, animation and 24-bit printing package. Stunning effects like emboss, water-colors, transparencies and stereograms (as in "Magic Eye") are available, while virtual memory and blitter emulation free precious Chip RAM by using other storage resources. Personal Paint includes support for RTG graphics cards, different file formats (IFF, GIF, PNG, PCX, JPEG, BMP, TIM, Photo CD, C source code, DataTypes, etc.), nine brushes, two independent working environments, multi-level Undo/Redo, animation storyboard, Bézier curves, autoscroll painting, Internet publishing features (GIF animations, map editor, professional color reduction, transparency and progressive display), superior text editor, color fonts, PostScript output, screen and window grabber, 181 ARexx commands...
Personal Paint 7.1 is preinstalled in the "Work" partition of the emulation environment, as well as in the "Amiga" directory of the Amiga Forever CD-ROM, so that it can be used and installed on any Amiga. The version in the "Amiga" directory on the CD-ROM has some additional artwork in the "Pictures" and "Animations" directories, which by default is not installed, to save disk space. This artwork can always be accessed directly on the CD-ROM.
The full program documentation is included in AmigaGuide format in the "PPaintCD.guide" file in the Personal Paint program directory, and is accessible from the Amiga side.
The full Personal Paint 7.1 software and documentation would have made the Online Edition of Amiga Forever too large to be practical to download. For this reason, the Online Edition includes short tutorials instead of the full manual.
Related sites (Internet links):
AmiToRTF
AmiToRTF is a utility which can extract text from a variety of Amiga document formats, and save data in the Rich Text Format (RTF, ".rtf" file name suffix) or as plain text (ISO 8859-1 "ASCII", ".txt" suffix). The resulting files can easily be loaded by the most common programs under different operating systems. AmiToRTF was written as an Amiga Rexx script which interacts with Cloanto's Personal Write (version 4.2 or higher) word processor, which is included and launched automatically by AmiToRTF.
AmiToRTF can extract texts from the following file formats:
- Amiga ANSI
- Amiga IFF-FTXT
- ASCII (Amiga, DOS, Mac, Atari, CBM, C-64, 7-bit ASCII and others)
- Cloanto Personal Write (FTXT, compressed, encrypted)
- Cloanto C1-Text (FTXT, compressed, encrypted)
- PowerPacker (compressed, encrypted)
- Documents created by ProWrite, FinalWriter and Wordworth
- Unrecognized formats
The software and the full program documentation are located inside the "Work:Software/AmiToRTF" directory in the emulation environment, or in the "Amiga/AmiToRTF" directory on the CD-ROM. Both are accessible from any Amiga, hardware or emulated.
Related site (Internet link):
DirDiff
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DirDiff is a powerful tool to scan, compare, synchronize and replicate files. It was originally designed for internal use at Cloanto for backup management and to simplify the maintenance of software master disks. Over the years, new features were implemented, the file comparison engine was enhanced and a graphical interface was added.
DirDiff can be used to compare (and optionally update) two disks. Several options can be set to finely tune this process.
DirDiff can be used to copy some files from hard disk to floppy, then use the floppy on another computer (for example at home), and from time to time automatically move the files which have changed to whichever medium contains the older version.
DirDiff can be used to compare bootable disks against new versions of the Amiga Workbench disks. It can selectively compare only the files used in both disks, skipping icon files if desired. So only messages regarding relevant files are generated. If desired, DirDiff can upgrade the system files on work disks in the same process.
When copying tens, or hundreds of Mbytes from one device to another, errors are more likely to occur and pass undetected than with normal, interactive use. Using DirDiff, at Cloanto we discovered faulty I/O configurations which caused only one or two bytes out of 100 million to be corrupt. We now always use DirDiff after each step in the preparation of master disks, both for floppy disks and for CD-ROMs, to make absolutely sure that no errors have occurred. When it finds certain errors, DirDiff does an additional check to make sure that the storage medium gives consistent results. It even double-checks the RAM locations it uses.
DirDiff is an invaluable tool to back-up a hard disk to a slower device, such as a magneto-optical disk, because it can copy only the files which have changed. Results can be achieved faster and in a less resource-consuming way. To make the process bullet-proof, the source directory can be locked, and differing files can be force-copied from hard disk to the optical disk even if they have an older date. Files from older backups which become unused can be deleted in the process. The combined use of these functions can deliver identical copies at a fraction of the time a standard "Copy" procedure would normally require.
DirDiff can detect even subtle differences between two items, such as a directory renamed from "WBstartup" to "Wbstartup". Before DirDiff reports that two directories are identical, it checks not only the contents, but also the attribute bits, file comments, dates and exact names of all items.
DirDiff can scan a directory or disk and give an electronic signature (for example "DD5-A89CE287"), derived from the contents of all files. This short code can then be used to refer to a particular disk or product release without detailing the entire contents. For example, two distant offices which want to verify if they have the same version of a disk can execute DirDiff separately, and then check the signature in a phone call taking only a few seconds. Or the signature can be used as a reference in a licensing agreement, as a confirmation of what is being licensed.
DirDiff includes additional checksum capabilities, and features such as clearing of unused blocks on a device (useful when it is desirable that others do not "undelete" data on a medium which was considered safe to give away).
The software and the full program documentation are located inside the "Work:Software/DirDiff" directory in the emulation environment, or in the "Amiga/DirDiff" directory on the CD-ROM. Both are accessible from the Amiga side.
Related site (Internet link):
Amiga Interactive Guide
Gareth Knight's Amiga Interactive Guide, renamed "AiG Forever" for its first release on Amiga Forever, is an encyclopedia of Amiga technology, history and opinions.
For space reasons, the Amiga Interactive Guide is not included with the Online Edition of Amiga Forever. The following link indicates the internet address where the Guide can be found.
Related site (internet link):
