Welcome to CDPD1, volume 1 of Almathera's CDPD Public Domain Library. This disk contains disks 1 to 660 of the world-famous Fred Fish PD library, ready for direct-from-CD use through the WorkBench system. The easiest way to describe the contents of this disk is to take a quote from the ReadMeFirst file which appears on each of Fred's disks: What's Available There are useful tools, games, programming examples, editors, compilers for various languages, demos of commercial products, and other odds and ends. In other words: Everything. 90% of Amiga public domain software has at one time or another been on a Fish disk. If you're having trouble with a title, please bear the following in mind: Notes Please keep in mind that most of the materials in this library are intended for use by experienced programmers, or at least experienced Amiga users. Many are runnable only via the CLI user interface, as they contain NO icon files (particularly the early disks, before about disk number 90). Use of the Shell, WorkBench and AmigaDOS are all documented in your system manuals as supplied with your machine. Learning about these makes life with your Amiga infinitely less frustrating. Because of this variation in content from disk to disk, a catalogue and index program has been included. 'Kingfisher' as it is oh-so-wittily called, resides in the 'KF' drawer on this disk, and allows you to search through the disk for software titles of interest. Instructions for the use of Kingfisher are included with the program. Once you've found a program, open up the relevant drawers from the PD main drawer to get to it. Kingfisher does not act as a front-end program launcher. And networking. CDPD1 currently supports ParNet and SerNet over DNet, to hook up the CD machine to another Amiga. There's scripts to start each of these processes on the disk, each with its own icon. ParNet requires a ParNet lead and a machine running ParNet on the other end of the link, and SerNet over DNet requires a machine runnning SerNet and DNet with a null-modem cable connecting the two machines. If you're confused by now, it's not surprising. Both networking systems are compatible with all versions of KickStart, and will work on CD^32 and CDTV as long as you've got the requisite hardware connections. ParNet is easy to start up - SerNet is a little more complex. To start SerNet up, click on SNET-START. This will open a shell window for output of DNet's subtasks, and DNet's own window should open up, offering a menu selection of Quit, SendBreak and Start DNet, via the right mouse button. SendBreak clears the serial line, for setting up the connection, and Start DNet kicks the whole thing off. If DNet connects to the remote machine, IE if Start is selected at both ends, a chat window entitled 'FTerm' will open up, for typed messages between machines. SerNet will then be mounted, as the device SNET: A shell is used as opposed to a normal CON: redirection, so new chat windows and DNET control commands can be entered. FTerms can be fired up or closed at any point once DNet is running, and will go alongside SerNet's operation. To shut down DNet, either enter the command QuitDNet in the shell, or use Status to list all processes on the system, and breaking DNet's process number with every signal. For more information on the Shell and AmigaDOS, consult your machine's AmigaDOS manuals. All serial preferences for the various KickStarts on this CD have been set at the fastest reliable configuration for DNet - 19200 baud, no parity, XOn/XOff, 8 data bits read/write and 1 start/stop bit. Set the remote machine's serial preferences to match this to achieve the correct DNet setup. NComm is also included on the disk for quick serial networking and testing the DNet link. DNet/SerNet is more complex to set up than ParNet - it requires two levels of software protocols - the easiest way to set it up on a remote machine is to copy the relevant files, scripts and software handlers from DEVS:, L:, LIBS: and S: on this disk to your remote machine. We are using an early version of DNet on this CD, partly because it doesn't use ixemul.library which is KickStart 2.x-only, but mainly because it's solid as a rock on every version of the OS. DNet documentation can be found in the relevant drawer. Read carefully the texts for SerNet and DNet and you'll be okay. And yes, you can run ParNet and SerNet at the same time onto the same machine. Or onto different machines. Party time. Note that we've set up ParNet to look like the NET: volume, and SerNet to appear as SNET:, as is our wont. Note, however, that while you can use the middle machine as a waystation, don't expect to be able to run a second connection back along the link. Both of the network systems were designed to go between two machines only, not to be a broadcast network, so if you try to push a third network access into the system, it'll probably lock the entire thing up. You have been warned. We've also killed the automatic reset that usually happens when you boot from CD, meaning you can start the network system, eject the CD, insert another, and remote access it. Anything else? Music. There's a whole load of music modules in the MODULES directory on this CD, with a moduleplayer ready-to-go as well. Well, you may as well have the CD-server doing something useful in the background - it is effectively a full Amiga, no? Protracker, the music creator utility, is also included, however it's not fully compatible with the AGA chipset as found in modern Amiga systems. Holding left and right mousebuttons down at powerup allows emulation of the older chipsets as a fall-back mode via a special boot menu. Applications. A few useful serious pieces of software. And that's about it. Relax and enjoy your disc. THP / Almathera. ----------------------------------------------- And now, the plug: ----------------------------------------------- Almathera Systems Ltd is a multimedia production company based near Croydon specialising in CDTV & PC CD-ROM Title production. Contact us for all your Amiga or CDTV needs. Almathera Systems Ltd 1st Floor, Southerton House Boundary Business Court 92-94 Church Road Mitcham Surrey CR4 3TD England Tel. : (081) 687 0040 Fax. : (081) 687 0490 And ze creditz, d00dz: THP. Rebuilding of CDPD to allow networking, multiple networking, record-breaking ParNets <12 metres in separate rooms is possible, it's just expensive>, DNets and SerNets all up at once, the sick mind behind the A1200-ParNet-CDTV-SerNet-A3000-Envoy-LAN jump, Seb-irritation at twice the price, SCSI devalidation 5 times a week, and scapegoat par excellence. Lunatic, manic, and strange. Max Guidi. Built the original with his bare hands/machines. Jolyon Ralph. Got the multiOS handling right, keeps claiming that elephants live in trees and eat pencils, despite evidence to the contrary. Seb Lee-DeFleubedub. Also known as Seb Lee-Delisle. Feel free to make your own jokes. Original artwork and design, and a few modules. <15 days> Mark Tipper. Artwork and design this time round, as the original files got trounced long ago, when we'd thought we'd finished with developing CDPD... Dan Stopani. Not much apart from rekacking the title screen, but what the hell... Syz: For letting me network the flat within an inch of its life. The toaster is now controlled from the shower. If you would like to see any of your public domain software/demos on the next update of this CD, then please send them to us at the address above. The best submissions will receive free updates to the CDPD Public Domain collection. The worst of them, erm, won't. ----------------------------------------------- ALSO AVAILABLE FOR CDTV/CD32 ----------------------------------------------- CDPD2: More Fish disks (660-760), Scope Disks (1-220), JAM Disks, AB20 Archive software and much more - 600Mb of Public Domain software for the Amiga. CDPD3: Fish disks 760-890, Clipart, Fonts, books, utilities, applications and much more. Demo CD 1: 1000 Music modules, PD Animations, graphics, games, etc. Demo CD 2: 100 PD/Shareware games, 2000 Music Modules, 24-bit graphic files and much much more. 17-Bit Collection: Double CD containing over 1,700 discs of quality public domain, including demos, games, utilities, applications and more. 17-Bit Continuation: Single disk containing over 700 more disks of the latest and greatest PD. Euroscene 1: 600 Megabytes of PD including the best demos, music and graphics for the Amiga. Ideal for BBS Systems. And please phone for information on ordering these discs or for information on other products we publish.