So let's begin: Well, I'd love to assume since you've got this baby that you've got a modem..and since you've got a modem you no doubt have downloaded files before so you have Pkax and perhaps LHA, and from that I can infer you have Show and Less and probably Conman and Mackie, and thus PrefCh and Select... but I won't. You actually COULD be sitting there with the thing barely hooked together, boxes still scattered around, you've read the "manual" (I REALLY hesitate to use the word..), maybe hauled up the Notepad and wondered what in blazes was going on, and...was the book really giving you the right directions? Maybe you've actually typed DIR in a CLI window, only to be confused by a bunch of gibberish rolling by on the screen. And you're STILL puzzled about them using icons from your religion, menus from a restaurant, projects from the office, tools from the garage and the notepad off your desk! It's called "Par for the course" in one language, "Welcome to the club!" in another. And then you get handed THIS by a friend. * Well, the bad news is that you still have to learn the manual. I'm only going to fill in the stuff they left out, or worded is such a way that they might as well've left it out. No offense to Commodore meant here; computer manuals are notorious for being poorly-written. Somebody'll come along any minute now and tell me this one's one of the all-time greats. It also, to be fair, should be noted that the book doesn't claim to be the "manual", only an "Introduction to..", which it certainly is. The only question this leaves, then, is just where IS the manual?? And in case you were wondering why the manual and the DOS books are a little off the mark sometimes, it's because they're either not upgraded for your version or else they're just plain ol' wrong. Pick up the Bantam DOS book, as mentioned in the manual, and I liked Compute!'s AmigaDOS Reference Guide, an excellent book, very witty command examples. Yes, you have to learn them, yes, there'll be a test. By the way, it's very obvious which parts of the books are for us, and which aren't. I'm not going to tell you how to use the computer, as such, I'm going to help you get things set up so that when you DO use the computer, it'll be more comfortable and natural to use. That's my disclaimer. * And as long as we're being serious, I'd sincerely like to recommend you buy some interesting games for your Amiga. Now, I know you're a serious person, and are interested in this computer for very serious reasons, but I, being of like mind, found that if I took a break now and then..not from the computer, but just from the serious side..my momentum and interest in the computer as a whole remained strong. There's always those one or two games in any good selection that'll tickle the fancy, so pick up a few. I'll mention my favorites later on in the tutorial. There...that's it for the serious stuff. Glad we got it over with. * And an apologetic literary sidenote to the women: As you know, they acci- dentally left out a couple of words when they invented the English language, such as a non-genderizing word for "he" and "she". So it's MUCH easier to just write to one gender or the other. So, call me a sexist, but I picked the guys. If you'd just substitute a little "she" for every "he" and a "gals" for every "guys", it would be gratefully appreciated. And if I call the computer a "he", well, I call my car a "she", so what can I say? Hey, I'd apologize for the inventors' oversight, but I wasn't there. * And YOU...learn to type. That's right, with all your fingers. Learning how to type isn't all gruesome and time-consuming like, say, learning how to play the piano. Look at it this way: When was the last time someone had to show you how to hold your toothbrush? It's the same deal. You just spend a little time learning where all 26 are ("No looking at your hands!") and it's there forever. It becomes "second nature", as they say. Get yourself an intriguing Infocom all-text adventure from the local store and you'll WANT to be able to type, because you'll find NOT being able to a distraction to your concentration. For what it's worth, earning to type with a monitor in front of you is MUCH MUCH easier than learning to type with a typewriter, as you can see your mistakes immediately and clearly, unlike a typewriter, so appreciate what you got. Be quick. Be pro. Learn to type. * Okay, some basic definitions to make sure we're all on the same page: device - The whole "container", like df0: or Ram: View them as different file cabinets if you want. directory- Just like a drawer in the file cabinet, it holds stuff. drawer - Workbench name for a directory. Basically, a drawer is a directory with an icon to open it as a window, so you can operate things with the mouse. file - Just a general term used every which way meaning some- thing made up of bytes, meaning anything stored on a disk. command - A CLI instruction to do something to/for/with a file, stored in the c directory. program - A file that is Run, like the Clock. tool - In general, any program. Specifically, a program that performs a certain, individual task, such as the IconEd. project - A file that needs a tool to run it, like a Notepad note (the project) needs Notepad (the tool) to display it. textfile - A text document like this one that you Type, or, more properly, a text document that you display with a Type program, like the "More" program in Utilities. scriptfile - A textfile full of CLI commands that you Execute. Also called a "Batch File" 'cause it batches commands together, as well as a "Command Sequence File"...but that doesn't count 'cause it's too many words. format - If I say something like "look in the Tool Types box for the correct format", I mean to check out EXACTLY how the command or whatever is laid out; spaces, quote marks, capital letters, etc. Format - The command in the System directory. New disks ALWAYS have to formatted, so if I say a "blank" disk, I assume one that's been formatted. Called Initialize by the Workbench, although no one knows why. Info - There are two Infos, you'll use them both. One's in the c directory with the rest of the commands, the other's from activating an icon and using the Workbench pull-down Info menu. You'll do a lot with this window. .info - Tagged on the end of a file name (tool, icon, disk, etc) means it's that file's icon. An icon is how you run a program from the Workbench, it doesn't need to be there for the program to run. Type "Clock" in a CLI and up pops the Clock, "bypassing", as it were, the icon. There will be programs you always run through the CLI and you'll delete the .info file (the icon). Other programs, mainly ones you download, you'll have to borrow or make an icon for because they were too cheap to include one. If you see JUST a ".info" when you Dir a directory, that's the window's "file marker" or something. Type "Dir Ram:" and it should be empty (unless you've got that CLIPS and ENV business in it). Double-click the Ram icon to open the window. Close the window and "Dir Ram:" again. You'll see ".info" listed, the (newly-created) window's small claim to existence. * And three general references: - The "Workbench" isn't the computer, as such, it's a means of accessing the computer through the mouse and icons. When your computer is booting up, it's using the CLI to execute the two scriptfiles "startup-sequence" and "startupII" located in the s directory. The screen you see as it's booting up is a CLI process, or "task", in operation, the same CLI as the one found in the System drawer. THAT'S the computer. DOS means Disk Operating System, and when you're using the CLI, that's exactly what you're doing: Operating the Disk (floppy or hard) System. When you're "in DOS", that is, using the CLI, at that point you're looking at the computer as people have been looking at computers for two decades now, with a big blank screen and a ">" in front of them. The Workbench screen, the thing that pops up with the icons on it, is a Commodore deal (and a few others companies as well) that's the basis for the term "user-friendly". That's because of the ease of using the mouse, as well as such thoughtful touches as requesters asking us if we REALLY want to delete this stuff. Those requesters drive the old hands in the audience just nuts, but you can just BET that somewhere not far down the road you'll activate the wrong icon, swing the menu down to Discard, and JUST before you hit the "ok to discard?" box, you'll realize with a humbling flash of sanity that, no, you really didn't want to at all. THEN you'll want to kneel down and kiss the ground before the All-Wise and All-Knowing gods at Commodore. When someone mentions "the computer", you have to think DOS first and Workbench second. There's very little you can do with the Workbench that you can't do with the CLI, but LOTS of things you can do with the CLI that you can't with the Bench. Hey, they just said "friendly", not "smart". - When it comes to "Ram" and "memory", look at them as one and the same. Ram IS memory, only you can see it, add to it, make directories in it, etc. Ram is what makes the meg of memory visible. An example: Let's say you've got some 600K of memory available after booting up. You put a bunch of programs, about 100K's worth, into Ram for whatever reason. Now you've got about 500K of memory available. Let's say you've got a neat animation you want to show that's about 70,000 bytes, and the tool to run it is about 30,000 bytes, so together that's 100K needed to show the animation, and since you've got 500K available, no problem. In that light you can go right down to zero before you're out of memory. There are two different types of memory, "chip mem" and "fast mem", but for our purposes right now there's really no difference. You'll learn as much as you need to know about them along the way..just be glad you've got the FastMem pack. The first 512K just kind of sets the computer up and gets it ready to do something. That second 512 is what you do it WITH. - A "BBS" is a computer Bulletin Board Service, and you should make one of your primary goals getting a modem and calling some local BBS's. They're just regular ol' people running these things, so don't be hesitant or shy. A BBS consists of a software program, computer, modem and phone line donated, essentially, to the good of Amigakind. Some are "message-base" only, and don't have any programs, most have a bunch of both. The reason the BBS's are so important is because they contain small programs, "tools" in our language, that are almost vital to the proper working of our computer, and we want em'. While it's nice to have a brand-new modem and some snazzy software, you really don't need to spend much money to get online. Modems are a dime a dozen at the used electronics fairs/fleamarkets/stores, etc, and you can pick up phone numbers and a cheap, crude but workable software program at your local Public Domain/ShareWare outlet. After that, it's just phone line charges to your local BBS. There's no charge to become a member; only the big boards like CompuServe and GEnie charge. If the board you call wants money, forget 'em. There are thousands of free Amiga-only BBS's across the country, and many many more multi-computer boards that have great Amiga sections. I remember being kind of shy at first, and thinking "Gee, I've already got TONS of stuff to figure out, what do I need any more for?", but I quickly learned that not only do the programs you download from a BBS make your computer easier and more enjoyable to operate, but in the process of incorporating them onto the Bench, you learn bunches about the computer at the same time. As a budding Amigalite, you should be in the state of mind where you can't WAIT to be online! * Basic assumptions: - You're using a backup copy of Workbench1.3. I'm going to tell you to (gasp!) delete some stuff to make a little room, but don't worry, it's all faithfully there on your master. Actually, you're supposed to have a master backup of the master, even, so you never have to touch the original. Again, in theory, this holds true for EVERY good master disk you have: bench, paint, processor, game, you name it. Blank disks are only a couple of bucks apiece. Can you see any OTHER part of your system that's that cheap? Live it up, buy lots and lots of disks. Put a master backup set of all the really good stuff in a closet somewhere, away from the computer. I like the Sony 2DD disks; they're reliable, have colored labels, and, best of all, the labels actually peel off months down the road and don't leave all this crap behind. That kind of engineering marvel is enough to sell me on a product any day. You think I'm kidding? You want put to labels on top of labels making the disk thicker, you want to have maybe a gummy edge roll back and have it get stuck in the drive, you go right ahead. I don't use White-Out, either, just because of the possibility of it flaking. When thinking about how to handle the disks and drives, the words "reverence" and "awe" spring to mind. Update Note: Well, trust Big Business to screw up a good thing. The "new" Sony disks come with impossible-to-peel-off labels, all the same ugly puke- green and with this lovely "SONY" printed across them. Oh well. I could have just deleted the previous paragraph, but there may still be a bunch of the "good" ones out there (maybe my area is a "demographic testing ground"), so thought it worth leaving in. - Whenever I give a command to type in a CLI window, I'll put it in quotes. There are very few times that you actually use quotes anywhere so I don't think we'll run into any confusion. If I list out a string of CLI commands, like so, I won't use quotes: Dir df0:devs Delete System.info Run Clock - When I capitalize the word "Type", it's the CLI command to type a docu- ment, or, more properly, a textfile. As mentioned in the Read1st file, you should copy the included Type program (Less1.1) to your c directory, wiping out your original and semi-worthless Type command. I say "semi-" because it does have one tiny role yet to play, but I'll let you figure it out. And one more little thing: - NEVER remove a disk while the light is on!!! * Update Note: Well, I finally upgraded to 1.3, although I found no particular advantage in it. Essentially, I (blush) did it for you, as I really want the tutorial to be as thorough as possible. I had originally thought that they'd just tossed on a few new files, and I confess I was absolutely aghast when I saw the startup-sequences, plural, a few weeks ago for the first time. That's when I knew it was time to spend a few bucks and do it right. As far as the "improvements" in 1.3, well, I don't like the idea of this hard drive "auto-booting" thing, they didn't include some very necessary BBS programs, and then there's this Shell business. In my very humble opinion they completely fumbled the ball with this one. There's nothing overtly wrong with it, and I'll comment on it eventually, but they shouldn't have made it so "permanent" as to actually write it into the startup-sequence. You've got to remember that, hey, you're just a computin' type o' guy, but there are a lot of people out there who are just going to buy an Amiga and some big program they need, bring it home and do nothing more than plug in the cord and turn it on. Then on down the line they want to try out some of this famous "multi-tasking" they've been looking forwards to, so they fire up some OTHER big program and the next thing they know they're lookin' at some NOT ENOUGH MEMORY box. And the difference could have been nothing more than the bunch of bytes this Shell program hogs during startup. Well, that's why they invented the word "customize". If you're running under 2.0, the tutorial's not updated for that (yet?), but the majority of the text remains the same. If you have files in your dirs and other things are misplaced, don't sweat it. In the next section we're going to get downright serious, so set aside some time, have a couple copies of Workbench1.3 on hand, and let's do it. *