KOSH [Kommunity Orientated Software Hardware]

Weekly Summary

Week Commencing: 3rd April 1999

Number: 015

Mailing List: kosh-general

In the mailing list this week, the following items were discussed. Please do
not email the scribe regarding any of these topics, it is not his job to answer
these questions but merely to report  the topics of conversation. If you have
any queries about this summary, please email ben@kosh.net, stating the Summary
Number, and Mailing List Name, and he will try to answer your queries.

a)

Subject: UML notation

Summary of debate: See: http://www.rational.com which details a notation called
                   UML (email to the ML was about the design diagrams that were
                   discussed).


b)

Subject: Closed KOSH?

Summary of debate: It was expressed that some may feel KOSH to be a closed
                   group, particularly with the website being down at the
                   moment.

                   Actions to remedy this situation include getting the web
                   site back up, issuing surveys asking what people want of
                   KOSH (and publishing the results) and promotion of the
                   surveying working group to do this.


c)

Subject: Standardised coding

Summary of debate: Without standards and things like Interface Control Drawings
                   could cause difficulties for programmers later on. Formal
                   specifications for any software created are a must.

                   It was mentioned that perhaps we should not start direct
                   coding for KOSH until standards, schematics, etc have been
                   designed and implemented. However there is no reason why
                   people should not try out their own ideas by coding them in
                   whatever language on whichever system they prefer with the
                   aim to be to port them to KOSH at some point in the future.

d)

Subject: Recursion

Summary of debate: A lot was said on how to implement and use recursion in KOSH
                   programming, including using it for sorting algorithms.
                   However it is not the quickest or most space-efficient
                   construct available.

                   It was mentioned that recursion could in fact be as fast as
                   the same function coded non-recursively. It depends on the
                   language and compiler.


e)

Subject: More on KOSH, Linux and Windows

Summary of debate: One argument against using Linux with KOSH-hosted is that it
                   is based on a 25-year old  OS technology. The same can be
                   said of Windows which is based on 15-year old OS technology.

                   However as has been suggested on numerous occasions these
                   two systems provide probably the best opportunities for
                   hosted versions of KOSH, at least to start with.


f)

Subject: Commercial Open Source Software (COSS)

Summary of debate: Details of how to reconcile the advantages of Open Source
                   Software with being paid for ones efforts at:
                   http://www.treetop.demon.co.uk/coss.html

                   The Slashdot discussion is at
                   http://www.slashdot.org/articles/99/04/04/1544211.shtml

                   These approaches could be useful to KOSH which in part at
                   least seeks to combine Open Source with an ultimately
                   commercial venture.

                   A subscription to KOSH could be one way to gather revenue
                   while at the same time providing easy access to source
                   information.


g)

Subject: Planar into "Pixel Land"

Summary of debate: A long debate was had on the merits and possibilities of
                   taking Planar display modes and getting PC Chunky Pixel
                   graphics cards to use them, thus allowing both bitplane and
                   chunky pixel on one device.

                   MCGA, a graphics mode that came after VGA but before(?) SVGA
                   was mentioned. This could in part provide something of a
                   cross over but it may be limited on resolution.

h)

Subject: Fractal packing

Summary of debate: See the following for an introduction to the above:
    http://www.rasip.fer.hr/research/compress/algorithms/adv/fraccomp/index.htm

                   Two further resources on this are:
                   http://inls.ucsd.edu/y/Fractals/ or
                   http://links.uwaterloo.ca/fractals.home.html


i)

Subject: KOSH Birthday cake

Summary of debate: Joel Newkirk has pledged an awful lot of cookies and a
                   birthday cake for the release party of KOSH v1.0


j)

Subject: New ML -> kosh-programming-o

Summary of debate: A new open mailing list with the above title has been
                   created by Jason Radford. Subscribe at
                   kosh-programming-o@kosh.net - It is intended to be used to
                   discuss the majority of programming and language issues that
                   have been generated on the general mailing list as well as
                   more besides.


k)

Subject: Abbreviation reference source

Summary of debate: Suggested that a list of all abbreviations in common usage
                   on the internet (such as AFAIK, OFC< IMHO, etc) as well as
                   all the smileys and terms such as OOP and BOOPSI could be
                   written and hosted on the KOSH site. It would help KOSH to
                   be more inclusive.

                   Ruward F. Leenstra mentioned the suggestion to have a
                   Terminology Working Group who could be responsible for this.


l)

Subject: Request for permanent help with summaries

Summary of debate: The scribe of the General Mailing List (mois - Bridge Deady)
                   has asked for offers of assistance with summarising the KOSH
                   General Mailing List, preferably on a permanent basis (and
                   has received some offers to help already - much
                   appreciated). If you can help please email the scribe at
                   csbdeady@mythicz.u-net.com




m)

Subject: Colour filters

Summary of debate: An inbuilt graphics filter that compares pixels side by side
                   could possibly help with some forms of colour blindness
                   and/or "colour fuzziness" (eg: red text on a green
                   background can often swim for a lot of people).


n)

Subject: Blinux and further Braille discussions

Summary of debate: While discussing the use of Braille terminals it was
                   mentioned that Blinux is at http://leb.net/blinux/

                   The mechanical complexity of a Braille terminal can mean
                   that they are prone to breaking down. It was suggested that
                   it could be replaced by heated spots - but they would have
                   to cool very quickly. A stereo speaker built into the device
                   would alert the user of a change in the device - this would
                   emulate the mechanical clicker. By being stereo it would
                   alert them as to whether the changes are to the left or the
                   right of the centre of the board.

Date: 12 Apr 99 19:50:21 +0100
Subject: Offener Brief
To: "Mag: Amiga News (Petra Struck)" petra.struck@online-club.de
From: Andreas_Kleinert@t-online.de (Andreas R. Kleinert)

Hallo Petra,

 zu dem offenen Brief bzgl. PPC/PCI erreichten mich
 bisher ueberwiegend Zuschriften bzw. Kommentare
 von Leuten, die offensichtlich ohnehin nichts
 von PPC-Karten halten.

 Da es mir nicht um die Diskussion des Fuer und Wider
 oder Sinn und Unsinn hiervon ging - worunter uebrigens
 auch Preisvergleiche mit PC-Hardware fallen - moechte
 ich gerne noch einmal oeffentlich und zusammenfassend
 auf Folgendes hinweisen.

 Meine Praemisse war:

  a) es gibt Leute, die einen neuen Rechner wollen
     (z.B. weil der alte A4000 irgendwann mal den Geist
      aufgibt oder "man" heute sowieso zusaetzlich auch
      einen PC braucht)

  b) dieselben Leute wollen auf diesem neuen Rechner
     alte Amiga 68k-Software ausfuehren lassen
     (wofuer sie auch UAE nehmen koennten)

  c) sie haben bereits eine PPC-Karte fuer ihren Amiga
     oder werden sich ohnehin noch eine kaufen

  d) sie moechten auch alte Amiga PPC-Software auf dem
     neuen Rechner ausfuehren koennen (was derzeit weder
     mit UAE noch irgendeiner anderen Software-Loesung
     moeglich ist oder Sinn machen wuerde), so dass
     ihnen b) nicht ausreicht

 Wer nicht wenigstens zu a, b und d zustimmt - und zur
 Haelfte auch zu c - der kann es sich eigentlich sparen,
 weiter zu diskutieren.

 Es geht naemlich einerseits um einen Brueckschlag zwischen
 "Amiga OS 3.5 mit PPC-Support" und AmigaNG bzw. andererseits
 um eine sinnvolle Alternative fuer ppc-interessierte Leute,
 die sich fuer AmigaNG nicht interessieren und stattdessen
 eher einen PC kaufen werden.

 Das Fazit der ganzen Emotionen und der ganzen Irrationalitaet,
 die bei der Diskussion herausgekommen sind, lautet fuer
 mich, dass es offensichtlich Leute gibt, die mit ihrem
 Amiga 68k voll und ganz zufrieden sind (oder doch nicht ?),
 sich statt einer PPC-Karte lieber gleich einen PC oder
 Mac kaufen wuerden (oder doch nicht ?), aber es den Leuten,
 die bereits eine solche Karte besitzen nicht zugestehen
 wollen (warum eigentlich ?) dass sie nicht nur 68k-Programme
 mit UAE & Co. sondern auch PPC-Programme - die in der Regel
 einiges gekostet haben - auf andere Rechner "mitnehmen" wollen ?

 Die ultimative Loesung waere natuerlich, wenn AInc sich
 fuer den PPC als neue AmigaNG-CPU entscheiden wuerden,
 und eine solche PCI-Karte, d.h. der Ausloeser dieser
 Diskussion, komplett ueberfluessig waere...

--
Andreas_Kleinert@t-online.de  or via @gmx.de | ARK@News.wwbnet.de
Or try good, old: FidoNet 2:2457/350.18 --- *SuperView* development
PerSuaSiVe SoftWorX - Software Engineering Amiga/Wintel and more
Visit http://wdo.de/ark/ for information, free downloads, registration

CutNPaste33.lha      biz/dopus   20K+Adds Cut'n'Paste to DOpus5.5+ (Version 3
BurnIt_Driv113.lha   biz/titan  100K+BurnItMasterdrivers V1.13 (29.03.99)
AmIRC_HU.lha         comm/irc    14K+Unofficial hungarian catalog for AmIRC
life1_1.lha          comm/maxs   23K+Uncrashes Maxs/Paragon BBS Doors
Camedia.lha          comm/misc   36K+Transfers pictures from digital camera (
jl.lha               comm/tcp    26K+JustLinux dyndns server client (MUI)
term48_HU.lha        comm/term   17K+Hungarian translation for term v4.8
icr.lha              comm/www    11K+Restores IBrowse cached WWW pages for lo
Lynx282dev21.lha     comm/www   979K+Fast WWW browser - Fixed -
mapPlugv13.lha       comm/www    71K+HTML client side image map editor v1.3
pEditorv10.lha       comm/www    45K+Free MUI based text editor v1.0
bm-qapmoc.lha        demo/aga    74K+Qapmoc 40K by Black Monks, 3rd place at 
JP7.lha              demo/mag   1.8M+Jurassic Pack#7 - diskmag by Faith, Gods
MUICD_HU.lha         disk/cdrom   6K+Hungarian translation for MUI CD v1.13
OptyCD2_HU.lha       disk/cdrom   3K+Hungarian translation for OptyCD v2.1
agpg.lha             docs/hyper 108K+Amiga Games Patches Guide
agpg_txt.lha         docs/hyper 484K+Amiga Games Patches Guide -AddOn Textes
REDD_Gde.lha         docs/hyper  14K+Red Dwarf Episode Guide (52)
DevGuide.lha         docs/lists  75K+Guide about  303 Amiga Devices   -21-
DTypeGuide.lha       docs/lists  74K+Guide about  240 Amiga datatypes -23-
LibGuide.lha         docs/lists 228K+Guide about 2309 Amiga libraries -37-
ShopsMailbox.lha     docs/lists 307K+New Shops and Mailbox guide 12.04.1999
NintendoMag.lha      docs/mags   76K+New  Nintendo Magazin   12.04.1999
gm_backdrop12.lha    game/data  452K+Replacement Backdrops for F1GP
gm_backdrop13.lha    game/data  501K+Replacement Backdrops for F1GP
GuiCreator.lha       game/misc  162K+A program to make Gui s for commands/pro
civhack.lha          game/patch 196K+Saved game editor for Civilization
jst.lha              game/patch 142K+JOTD Startup for HD Installs & Degrader 
jst_dev.lha          game/patch 514K+JOTD Startup for HD Installs & Degrader 
Crazy8.lha           game/think 479K+Card game  you vs. computer
Crazy8.samps2.lha    game/think 277K+Another alternate sample set for Crazy 8
Crazy8.samps3.lha    game/think 252K+More samples for Crazy 8's
CrazyUPD.lha         game/think 172K+Update Crazy8 v2.7/v2.8 to v2.9c
CGraphX224u.lha      gfx/board  147K+CyberGraphX Extension Update 
CGraphX225u.lha      gfx/board  147K+CyberGraphX Extension Update 
VE-VCard.lha         gfx/edit     2K+Visual Eng. - Visual Card v1.50
card_prep.lha        gfx/ifx      3K+Prepare Reko or Soliton cardset pics
SvII-1.lha           gfx/misc   261K+SViewII V8.35 (10.4.99) - Part 1/8
SvII-2.lha           gfx/misc   202K+SViewII V8.35 (10.4.99) - Part 2/8
SvII-3a.lha          gfx/misc   135K+SViewII V8.35 (10.4.99) - Part 3a/8
SvII-3b.lha          gfx/misc   213K+SViewII V8.35 (10.4.99) - Part 3b/8
SvII-4.lha           gfx/misc    41K+SViewII V8.35 (10.4.99) - Part 4/8
SvII-5.lha           gfx/misc    51K+SViewII V8.35 (10.4.99) - Part 5/8
SvII-7.lha           gfx/misc   113K+SViewII V8.35 (10.4.99) - Part 7/8 (opti
SvII-8.lha           gfx/misc   211K+SViewII V8.35 (10.4.99) - Part 8/8 (opti
Upgrade40.lha        gfx/misc     2K+Run Photogenics 1.2aSE with OS release 3
TrueReality.lha      misc/emu   121K+Nintendo 64 emulator - Version 990322.2 
uae-app_014.lha      misc/emu    29K+UAE-ADF Mount+Unmount Workbench-Interfac
AmiKanji_beta.lha    misc/misc  4.6M+XJDic1.1 and other utils for japanese
TotoSei.lha          misc/misc   74K+TotoSei v2.0 DEMO (ITALIAN)
dachip.lha           mods/elbie   2K+A nice chiptune by elbie^t13n!
fog.lha              mods/elbie   3K+A nice chiptune by elbie^t13n!
happy.lha            mods/elbie   5K+A nice chiptune by elbie^t13n!
hidden.lha           mods/elbie   4K+A nice chiptune by elbie^t13n!
planet.lha           mods/elbie   1K+A nice chiptune by elbie^t13n!
crs_ast1.lha         mods/techn 2.0M+CRS00043: Atomic Shelter Tunes vol. 1
AmTagEdFR173p.lha    mus/misc     6K+Full french catalogs for AmTagEd V1.73
AmigaAMP.lha         mus/play   331K+MPEG audio player with GUI (68k/PPC)
Amoralplay1.1.lha    mus/play   105K+-*AMOREL*- No fuss multiformat(OSS etc.!
D-Shuttle.jpg        pix/mark   306K+A Shuttlecraft flying away
anc_fatality.lha     pix/misc   154K+[ANCOR] a new pic with Sandra
CatManGED.lha        text/edit    9K+Essential download for all translators
heddley120fr.lha     text/hyper  17K+French catalog for Heddley 1.20
HTML2Guide.lha       text/hyper  19K+HTML to AmigaGuide convertor v2.0
flshlib.lha          util/sys     1K+Flush a library from system (+ source E)
DCF77.lha            util/time  380K+Radio clock receiver, clock, time signal
Gurus99_15O4.lha     util/wb    469K+Shows infos about Gurus (German + Engl.)

Name: VirusChecker II v2.0 & Brain v2.16
Archive name: vht_vc2.lha
VC brain file: vhtvb215.lha
Archive size: 446.171 bytes
Released date: 11 April 1999
Programmer: Alex van Niel - Virus Help Team NL
System: OS 2.x or higher 

AmiPoint News

AUGDD und Panorama Computerclub User-Meeting

Am Sonntag, den 13.06.99, findet im Ladenlokal des AmiPoint von 11:00
bis 18:00 Uhr ein Amiga-User-Meeting statt.

Es soll gezeigt werden, daß der Amiga trotz PC-Dominanz noch nicht zum
alten Eisen gehört. Es werden mehrere Amigas zur Verfügung stehen, auf
denen die verschiedenen Einsatzmöglichkeiten aufgezeigt werden.

Dazu zählen:

- Audiobearbeitung
- Grafik- un Videobearbeitung
- Lokale und ferne Netzwerke (Ethernet-LAN und Internet)
- Raytracing (Andreas Weyrauch bekannt aus der A+ Bildergallerie)
- Büroanwendungen
- Web-Cam um das Meeting im Internet verfolgen zu können
- Ausserdem wird, mit freundlicher Unterstützung von Amiga Int. sowie
  Haage & Partner,ein Preview des neuen AmigaOS 3.5 gezeigt!!

Eingeladen sind alle die sich für das Thema Computer (und speziell
Amiga) interessieren.

---
Online Shop

Ab sofort ist unser Internetangebot für unsere Kunden deutlich
übersichtlicher.
Wir bemühten uns speziell um ein Shopsystem das auf allen Amiga-Browsern
lauffähig ist und sind fündig geworden.
Die Adresse lautet: http://www.amipoint.de/

---
Netzwerk

Ab sofort gehört eine spezielle Amiga-Lösung im Bereich LAN zu unserem
Angebot.
Wir sind stolz damit die günstigste! Amiga-Lösung anbieten zu können.
Unsere Fiberline PCMCIA-Ethernetlösung beinhaltet einen speziellen
Amiga-Treiber, einen Hardwareadapter (A1200 Tower), Sambapaket sowie
natürlich eine PCMCIA-Netzwerkkarte (10MBit/s) mit TwistedPair sowie BNC
Anschluß.
Der Verkaufspreis liegt bei 159,- DM



Wir bitten um freundliche Beachtung
--
Mit freundlichen Grüßen,

AmiPoint, Marc Gerlitzki
---------------------------------------*
Marc Gerlitzki         Tel. 0203-476890
Kampstrasse 71         Fax: 0203-477782
47166 Duisburg   E-Mail: mg@amipoint.de
               BBS: 02855-932112(Modem)
               BBS: 02855-850471(ISDN)
---------------------------------------*
       http://www.amipoint.de
---------------------------------------*

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

April 9, 1999

NCAUG Cookout at Software Hut

Contacts:
Bill Borsari - tekmage@amiga.org
Mike Skov - skov@moon.jic.com
Software Hut - softhut@erols.com

The National Capital Amiga Users Group http://www.ncaug.org is happy to
announce in conjunction with Software Hut http://www.softhut.com a cookout
for their May meeting. The festivities begin at 12 noon on Saturday May 1st
at Software Hut's West Chester location. Come early, the fun ends at 3 p.m.
Aside from special deals for those who attend, there will be food, fun, and
a surprise or two.

Members of NCAUG will meet at predetermined locations to arrange car pools
to Software Hut. Please consult the NCAUG Web Page and newsletter, Amiga
Intuition, for more information. Amigans from New York, New Jersey, and
surrounding areas are also encouraged to attend, you do not need to be a
member.  It is asked that you either call (800-932-6442) or e-mail Trish at
Software Hut if you plan to attend.  A map of Software Hut's location is on
their web page.

The National Capital Amiga Users Group has been serving the DC Metro Amiga
user since 1985.  Home of the famous Blimp Cam, our group is world reknown
as one of the most active Amiga User Groups there is.  We offer the latest
in Amiga developments and informations.  SIGS supporting the Internet,
programming, and video production available to all members.  Please come by
for an afternoon of fun.

Fabian Jimenez

fabian@cais.com

--
Fabian Jimenez : fabian@cais.com : ICQ# 21377601
       Editor, Amiga Intuition Newsletter
National Capital Amiga Users Group, www.ncaug.org

======================================================================
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  /\\    |\    /||    ||   /  `    /\\   ||  A M I G A   U P D A T E
 /__\\   | \  / ||    ||  || ___  /__\\  ||     -News and Rumors-
/    \\_ |  \/  ||_  _||_  \__// /    \\_||   (An Occasional e-mail
         KEEP THE MOMENTUM GOING         ||       Newsmagazine)
======================================================================
        AMIGA and the Amiga logo are trademarks of Amiga, Inc.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
990410

        P R E S I D E N T   C O L L A S   W R I T E S   . . .

            A M I G A   U P D A T E S   C O M M U N I T Y

             W H O   I S   R I C K   L E F A I V R E   ?

                 S A K U   9 9   I N   F I N L A N D

   D O W N U N D E R   9 9   I N   O Z   ( W H E R E   E L S E ? )

         A M I W E S T   9 9   P L A N S   A N N O U N C E D

                 W O R L D   O F   A M I G A   ' 9 9

  D E L S Y D   C O N S I D E R   S H O W   -   Y O U R   V O T E ?

        B E S T   P O W E R   T O   S U P P O R T   A M I G A

                     M O R E   O N   A M I J O E

       T W I S T E R   -   A N O T H E R   P P C   C H O I C E

     U P D A T E   O N   P H A S E   5 ' S   N E W   B O A R D S

     G R O U P   P R O M O T E S   D I S C O U N T S   I N   U K

               S T A R G A T E   2 . 0   B O W S   I N

    S C A N N I N G   S Y S T E M S   F R O M   R A N D O M I Z E

                S I A M E S E   3 - P A C K   C A S E

                   A M I D O G   I S   N O   D O G

                  Y I K E S ,   I T ' S   J I K E S

Editor's Thoughts and Introduction:
 Interesting news from Amiga in this issue. There's an open letter to
the Community from new President Jim Collas and an update on major
activities, both on the Amiga website. We run them here for the
benefit of those who can't or haven't had a chance to see them.
There's also a very interesting addition to Amiga's staff. A new Chief
Technology Officer has been hired - some information on him is below.
 April is "Amiga Update"'s birthday. We got our start about the time
Commodore's suicide was complete in '94. Since those early days, we've
grown into a publication read world wide - our thanks to all our loyal
readers! Give yourselves a pat on the back for keeping us going.
 A recent check of our subscribers' list turned up about 20 different
countries. That amazed even me. The one thing I'd dearly like to do is
publish this newsletter in the native languages of all our readers.
It's an impossible task, so we thank you for reading us in English.
 For the fun of it, here's a list of the top level domains in our
subscribers' list. How many are you familiar with? They're not in any
special order other than being almost in the order we got subscribers
from them. (No, we don't yet have a comprehensive list of where all of
them point, so we can't publish an answer to this little quiz.)
 "Amiga Update" goes to the following domains:
.com, .us, .edu, .gov, .mil, .se, .jp, .uk, .au, .es, .no, .nz, .fi,
.ch, .il, .fr, .it, .uy, .hk, .yu, .mx, .de, .ar, .ca - and we might
have missed some - if so, please let us know.
 We hope you enjoy this issue, where ever you are.
 Brad Webb,
 Editor
----------------------------------------------------------------------
E-mail to the E-ditor:

9 Apr 1999
Hi Brad,

Further gen on that A2000 batt problem, hope it helps.

Reference:

URL  : http://www.amiga.com/diary/developers/y2k.html

Title: The Year 2000 problem and the Amiga

6.2 Leaking clock batteries

 A battery provides the necessary power to keep the battery backed up
clock hardware ticking while the Amiga computer is switched off. As
time passes and the clock hardware keeps ticking, the batteries age:
some must be more than ten years old by now. Old batteries can leak
acid, causing great damage to the Amiga motherboard hardware. Often
such leakages go unnoticed until critical parts of the Amiga hardware
begin to fail. Of course, once you notice it, it is probably already
too late...

 It has been recommended to replace the clock batteries on every Amiga
main board that is more than three years old. The batteries are small,
barrel-shaped objects about 18mm long and 15mm in diameter. They look
as if they were being held between two clamps (they are not; the
batteries are soldered) and have a blue or red plastic covering. The
covering is often labeled with the name of the manufacturer (e.g. GP
or Varta) and the battery properties (3.6V, 60mAh). Also, the anode
("plus pole") should be marked clearly.

 Where is that battery? Try looking for it: the battery may look like
a capacitor on first glance, but it is unique in that it appears to be
held between clamps. It is larger than any capacitor on the main board
and the labeling should be unique. Here are some hints on finding the
battery:

 o Amiga 2000: under the drive bridge, where the floppy disk drives
are mounted
 o Amiga 3000: near the left edge, right in the middle of the main
board
 o Amiga 3000T: right below the power supply, next to the two
Kickstart ROM chips
 o Amiga 4000: left side of the main board, near the mouse ports; note
that only older Amiga 4000 boards use the barrel-shaped nickel cadmium
 storage batteries, the newer boards use disk-shaped lithium batteries

 You should really start worrying if corrosive salts are covering the
metal casing of the battery: it should be replaced as soon as
possible. Do not attempt to replace the battery on your own. You
should consult a specialist, such as your nearest Amiga technical
support centre.
            Written by Olaf Barthel

 mikdom
~~~~~~
This note was in response to a recent reader question.
Thanks "mikdom" for the information.
 Brad
======

 Recently we spotted discussion on the Net about supposed plans to
drop the snapshot feature from Amiga OS 3.5. We contacted Mr. Juergen
Haage, of Haage & Partner for further information. Here's his note to
us.

5 Apr 99

Hello Brad,

 We don't remove the snapshot function. This was maybe a
misunderstanding of Mr. Raukamp. What we tried to do is to find a
automatism to remove the manual snapshot. On the current point of work
we can say that this will not be possible.

 Please be sure we never try to remove the snapshot function we only
try to make it a little bit easier.

Kind regards

Juergen Haage
======

6 Apr 1999

Dear Brad,

 I enjoy receiving your periodic bulletins filled with the information
so vital to the survival of the Amiga and its users.

 Recently I have been unable to connect with the SoftLogik
Publishing(PageStream) Co. website and the phone is no longer working.
 With all of your contacts in the Amiga forest, I wondered if you had
heard anything about what happened at SoftLogik. A lot of users may be
left high and dry if they have left the Amiga scene. It would have
been nice to hear from them (a la Oregon Research) if they have closed
shop. If not, where are they?

 If you could find something out by your next publishing date, I along
with many others would certainly appreciate it.

 Looking forward to hearing from you,

Sheldon
~~~~~~

Hello Sheldon,
 I don't know for certain, but Haage & Partner also provide a clue for
this question. The following item was in a recent H&P newsletter, and
can also be found on their website:

"31 Mar 99: SoftLogik is moving

SoftLogik is moving to a new location and even their domain
www.softlogik.com is not available for about 2 weeks."

 At this point, we don't really know what that means. Once we do know,
we'll pass the information along.
 Brad
----------------------------------------------------------------------

        P R E S I D E N T   C O L L A S   W R I T E S   . . .

 · · OPEN LETTER TO THE COMMUNITY
----------

April 1999

 This is my first open letter to the Amiga community. In many ways, I
am honored by the opportunity to address such a great community of
people and represent such a unique brand as Amiga. There are many
remarkable Amigans, both former and current, that are responsible for
Amiga's impressive products and its spirit of revolutionary
innovation. These are the people that created the Amiga phenomena and
the people that persevered through these tough times. Amiga
communities from across the world have kept the Amiga spirit alive. I
can't claim any responsibility for the early success of Amiga or the
current endurance. I can only praise the people responsible and hope
that I can help bring a new era of greatness to Amiga and fulfill the
hopes of the Amiga community.

 The St. Louis show a few weeks ago was the first Amiga show I
attended as president of Amiga. From the feedback I have received, the
show was a great success. The show was well organized with good
attendance and was also a lot of fun. The number of people who
attended was approximately 1,200 but more important is the fact that
there was a 14% increase in attendance from last year. I made my debut
as president of Amiga and I want to thank everyone who welcomed me to
the community. I especially want to thank those who welcomed me until
3:00 a.m. in the morning and taught me that Amigans really know how to
have fun. You know who you are.

 In St. Louis, I had the opportunity to spend a significant amount of
time with people in the Amiga community. Several times during the
show, I publicly made the statement that the Amiga community is the
greatest community in the computer industry. I am now more convinced
of this than ever. The Amiga community is the most innovative,
dedicated, heroic and enduring community in the computer industry. I
am amazed at what the community has done with little or no support
from a corporate entity. You have endured through extremely tough
times and kept the spirit of Amiga alive and strong.

 Unfortunately, some of the difficulties the Amiga community has
endured in the last two years stem from some misguided decisions made
by Amiga Inc. It is now obvious to me that some very big mistakes were
made in defining a path for Amiga in the last two years. The low
priority and support given to Amiga by our parent company, Gateway,
aggravated this situation. Gateway was preoccupied during this period
with significant internal restructuring to strengthen its core
business for the future. The intentions relative to Amiga were good
but the situation was mismanaged. Some people have told me that I
should stop talking about past mistakes and only look toward the
future. I agree with this but I also want people to clearly understand
that I realize how much our past mistakes have hurt the community and
delayed progress. This is important because I do not want to repeat
these mistakes so be patient as I discuss this one last time.

 In my opinion, the biggest mistake was the decision not to evolve the
current Amiga architecture as we developed the next generation. This
hurt the current Amiga community the most. The right decision would
have been to overlap product generations just as Apple did during the
Apple II to Macintosh transition. Apple evolved the Apple II
architecture by introducing the Apple III even after Apple came out
with the Mac. The Apple III wasn't a big seller but it helped Apple II
hardware and software companies and allowed them time to transition
their products to the new Mac platform.

 In hindsight and from the vantage of the Amiga community, not
evolving the current architecture may look like an incredibly stupid
mistake but it was not as obvious to people coming from the PC
industry. I am not trying to justify this flawed decision but to give
some insight as to how such a decision could be made. Living in a
computer industry dominated by Wintel PCs skewed the thinking of
people making this decision. In a computer industry dominated by
Wintel PCs, computers are obsolete within six to twelve months. The
inefficiency of the architecture requires a continuous upgrading of
CPUs, graphics, and storage devices in order to deliver acceptable
improvements in features and functions. This is what happens in an
industry where revolutionary innovation has been replaced by
constrained evolution. From this PC centric view, no one could imagine
that a computer architecture that stopped evolving in the early '90s
could have any life left in it. Obviously this view was very limited
and flawed as the Amiga community has proven over-and-over again how
much life was left in the current Amiga architecture.

 It is obvious that the community would currently be stronger if we
had made the decision two years ago to evolve the current Amiga
architecture. Two years have now passed and we are faced with a tough
question. Is there still life left in the current architecture? I
believe that there is. The release of O/S 3.5 in late July or early
August will allow the current architecture to live on for a few more
years. In addition to O/S 3.5 we are looking at supporting companies
that are looking at hardware enhancements to the current architecture.
We will also support emulation of the current Amiga architecture on
the next generation Amiga so that people can use most of their old
software. I am spending time with key people in the Amiga community to
finalize transition plans between the current Amiga and the next
generation.

 Now, it's time to talk about the future! I know this has been an
extremely difficult and painful period for the Amiga community but I
would like to put that chapter of the Amiga story behind us and look
toward the future. We have a difficult road ahead of us with many
important decisions to be made on our future plans. I will not make
the mistake again of not understanding the Amiga community, its
requirements, and its dynamics. St Louis was a good start for me but I
require even more input to better understand the situation. As all of
you know, the Amiga community is very strong in Europe with many Amiga
companies and extremely impressive individuals. I am planning a trip
to Germany and the U.K. in late April to meet with more leaders in the
Amiga community. The objective of my trip is partially to communicate
our current thinking but mostly to listen and understand. I want to
understand the opinions of prominent people in the Amiga community. I
will use this input to finalize our future architecture and plans. I
especially need help in planning out how we will transition from the
old architecture to the new architecture in such a way that keeps the
Amiga community healthy.

 One thing clearly requested by the Amiga community was BETTER
COMMUNICATION on the activities at Amiga. I promise to improve our
communication starting with this letter and continuing with frequent
postings on our Web site as well as increased interaction with the
community. Our participation in the St. Louis show and my upcoming
trip to Germany and the U.K. are good examples of our efforts in this
area. The letter you are currently reading is posted on our Web site
in the new "Executive Update" section that I will personally be
updating on a monthly basis. In this section you will also find an
update on major activities listed after the monthly letter to the
community. I think this is a good start and we will continue improving
our communication as we go forward. If you have any input on my
executive update web page or on how to improve our communication
please send your suggestions via email to executive@amiga.com. You can
also send email to me directly at jim.collas@amiga.com but I get
significant amounts of email so it may take me a few days to respond.
The executive@amiga.com email address goes to my assistant who in turn
directs the email to the Amiga executive that can most effectively
reply.

 I know that I have yet to prove my dedication or win your confidence
but I hope to do so over the coming months. As many of you already
know, I stepped out of a senior executive position with Gateway that
was a very prominent position in the PC industry to lead Amiga. I did
this because I believe strongly in what Amiga stands for. I believe in
the Amiga spirit of revolutionary innovation. I believe that the PC
revolution is over because innovative revolution has been replaced by
constrained evolution. I believe that there is a new computer
revolution on the horizon, one that will fulfill the promise of
bringing the power of computing to the masses. Most importantly, I
believe that Amiga will play a significant role in this new computer
revolution. But Amiga can't do this without the full support of the
Amiga community. The Amiga community is one of the greatest and most
innovative communities in the computer industry. It is a revolutionary
army waiting to strike and reclaim its prominent position in the
computer industry. I truly believe this from the depths of my heart
and I promise to use all of my experience, resources, industry
contacts, and energy to give Amiga a strong and aggressive push. I
hope I will not let you down.

 Let's keep the momentum going as we come back for the future.

Sincerely,
Jim Collas
President, Amiga
----------------------------------------------------------------------

           A M I G A   U P D A T E S   C O M M U N I T Y

 · · UPDATE ON MAJOR ACTIVITIES

April 1999


Operations/Planning:

 1) We have combined Amiga, Inc and Amiga Intl under a single
corporate entity. The name of the new company is simply Amiga. Amiga
Intl is a subsidiary of Amiga and will remain in Germany under Petro's
leadership. As part of this we have combined our Web sites into a
single Web site.

 2) We have secured funding for a significant budget to drive our
plans.

 3) Our executive headquarters have been moved to San Diego.

 4) We are opening up San Jose engineering facilities to support our
rapid engineering expansion.

New Staff:

 1) In February we officially hired Dr. Allan Havemose as VP of S/W
engineering.

 2) In February we also hired Jim Von Holle as VP of OEM Sales and
marketing.

 3) Allan has hired Richard Lipes from Silicon Graphics as a director
of S/W engineering for graphics and A/V.

 4) Within 2 weeks I will announce a new Chief Technology Officer
(CTO) and VP of advanced technology (you will be impressed) as well as
a new VP of finance and operations (you will be impressed again).

 5) In the next few weeks we will begin advertising in major
newspapers to recruit engineering resources for our San Jose facility.

Major Development Programs:

 1) O/S 3.5 - This product is being developed by Haage & Partner under
contract from Amiga. The target release date is late July or early
August. We will also be talking to Amiga hardware development
companies about possibilities for hardware products targeted at the
O/S 3.5 release.

 2) AmigaSoftTM Operating Environment (OE) - We are developing our
next generation operating environment including operating system, user
interface, and some revolutionary software structures to be disclosed
at a later date. Target beta version is 3Q99 with final in late 4Q99.

 3) Next generation hardware architecture - Being developed as a
foundation for all next generation Amiga products.

 4) AmigaSoftTM development system - This is planned in 3Q99 along
with the beta release of the new AmigaSoftTM Operating Environment.

 5) Initial next generation computer - We are developing the next
generation computer that will be used to launch the next generation
systems architecture and operating environment. Target release date is
late 4Q99.

Shows and Community Activities:

 1) Amiga had a strong presence at the St. Louis show. We also spent a
significant amount of time talking to leaders in the Amiga community.

 2) I am planning a trip to Germany and the U.K. in late April in
order to discuss future Amiga plans with leaders of the Amiga
community in Europe. Petro is coordinating this.

 3) We are working on supporting and getting finalized plans for a
1999 World of Amiga show in London.

 4) We are planning for the Cologne show in November.

 5) We are planning for the Las Vegas Comdex in November.

 6) Petro is developing reseller, distributor, and magazine support
programs to help the Amiga community.

 7) We are also working on some user group support programs.
----------------------------------------------------------------------

             W H O   I S   R I C K   L E F A I V R E   ?

8 April, '99

 {Rick LeFaivre, PhD, has recently been named Chief Technology Officer
of Amiga. While no announcement has been made as yet, here's what some
enterprising folk have turned up in searches on the Web. Brad}

 "LeFaivre has held R&D management positions at Sun Microsystems and
Silicon Graphics Computer Systems, in addition to Apple Computer and
Viacom. He is also a former professor of computer science at Rutgers,
the State University of New Jersey. LeFaivre holds his B.A. in
mathematics from the University of Missouri, Columbia, and his M.S.
and Ph.D. in computer sciences from the University of Wisconsin,
Madison."

 "Dr. Rick LeFaivre, has returned to the company as vice president of
the newly formed Apple Technology Group and Human Interface Design
Center. LeFaivre was formerly vice president of Apple's Advanced
Technology Group, and most recently was senior vice president and
chief technology officer at Computer Curriculum Corporation, a
subsidiary of Viacom, Inc."

 "Borland International, Inc. (NASDAQ:BORL) CTO Rick LeFaivre"
----------------------------------------------------------------------

                S A K U   9 9   I N   F I N L A N D

 ESPOO, FINLAND - April 4, 1999 - Finnish Amiga Users Group is pleased
to announce its third annual Amiga event, Saku 99. Following the
success of Saku 98, which was visited by some 500 Amiga enthusiasts,
Saku 99 is aimed to be bigger and better than the previous events. Mr.
Petro Tyschtschenko of Amiga has already confirmed his presence and
other great highlights are planned.

 Saku 99 will be held on Saturday September 4th 1999 at the Science
Centre Heureka in Vantaa, near Helsinki. The venue is the same as last
year and available floor space has been increased by reserving an
extra hall for the event. The event is expected to open at 12:00 and
end at 18:00. Admission will be free of charge. Please stay tuned for
more details as the planning progresses.

 For further information, visit Finnish Amiga Users Group's Web Site
at http://batman.jytol.fi/~saku/ or http://tzimmola.tky.hut.fi/saku/.
E-mail inquiries may be sent to Janne Sirén (siren@mikrobitti.fi).

 About Finnish Amiga Users Group

 Finnish Amiga Users Group (Suomen Amiga-käyttäjät ry.) is a
non-profit organization for promoting Amiga computing and helping
Amiga users in Finland. Also known as Saku, after it's disk magazine,
the group is trying to accomplish it's goals by organizing meetings
and by publishing a disk magazine. Since 1993 the Finnish Amiga Users
Group and it's predecessors have released almost thirty issues of the
disk magazine and held several public gatherings. Other
accomplishments include the Web site and Sakunet, a national Fidonet
style network of Amiga related bulletin board systems.
----------------------------------------------------------------------

   D O W N U N D E R   9 9   I N   O Z   ( W H E R E   E L S E ? )

6 April, '99

 The Amiga Downunder 99 show will be run at the Hotel Heritage, in
Canberra, the Australian National Capital, on August 21st and 22nd
1999. The show will run from 10 am to 4 pm on both Saturday and Sunday
with a dinner and trivia night on Saturday evening.

 Further details, including a list of invited guests and stallholders,
will appear on our website as we receive acceptances. An application
form will be available through the web site.

 As our permanent domain address is not available at the moment,
pointers will be available at http://www2.dynamite.net.au/krash/ or
http://www.spirit.net.au/~jamesm/CAUSe.html at the moment the web page
is located at http://www2.dynamite.com.au/krash/amigadu/index.html but
this WILL change.

 We intend to update the web page frequently so please check back
often.

 Please use the addresses on the web page to contact us. Suggestions
would be appreciated.

James McPhee for
Amiga Downunder 99
----------------------------------------------------------------------

          A M I W E S T   9 9   P L A N S   A N N O U N C E D

10 Apr 1999

---------------------
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
---------------------

                           AmiWest '99
                           -----------

The Amiga West Coast Convention, Amiwest '99 is shaping up!

Where: Holiday Inn, Sacramento Northeast
       5321 Date Avenue,
       Sacramento, California

When:  Friday, July 23, 1999 through
       Sunday, July 25, 1999

That's right!

 Thanks to the 700+ Amiga fans that visited Amiwest '98 last year,
their fantastic support makes this years convention a reality.

 The AmiWest committee is proud to annouce we are again hosting this
year's show in Sacramento, California, and, because of need for MORE
ROOM we will hold AmiWest '99 at a new location; the newly remodeled
Holiday Inn in Northeast Sacramento, California, nearly doubling the
available exhibition area of last year.

 AmiWest '99 will run from Friday, July 23th, through Sunday, July
25th. Classes and seminars will be held Friday through Sunday with the
exhibit hall being open on Saturday, July 24th from 10a.m. - 5p.m. and
Sunday, July 25, 10 A.M. - 4 P.M.

 Space is available for rent to companies, clubs, organizations, and
individuals producing Amiga related products and services. This three
day weekend event will showcase the progress that IS the Amiga
Community.

Booth pricing is available on our web page:

    http://www.sacc.org/amiwest/

Admission to the event is as follows:

    $8  (One day Pass - Paid by July 5, 1999
    $10 (One day Pass - Paid at the door)

    $12 (Two day pass - Paid by July 5, 1999
    $15 (Two day pass - Paid at the door)

 There will also be a banquet on Saturday evening, July 24th, with
guest speakers to be announced. Price is $35 per plate.

 For more information contact John Zacharias at jzachar@calweb.com or
write to us at:

    AmiWest99
    c/o Sacramento Amiga Computer Club
    P.O. Box 19784
    Sacramento, CA 95819-0784

Come visit us at our web site!  http://www.sacc.org/amiwest/

Watch for these future announcements:

    Guests        (?????????????)
    Raffle prizes (Grand and Door)
    Hotel Rates   (Special AmiWest prices)

And don't be shy, drop us a line!

John Zacharias, chairperson
AmiWest99

jzachar@calweb.com
----------------------------------------------------------------------

                 W O R L D   O F   A M I G A   9 9

28/03/1999

By SEAL

 Yes, we toddled off to the centre of London on saturday at the
bequest of AmigaSoc, to help brainstorm WoA '99. World of Amiga '99
will definitely be on the weekend of the 24th/25th of July. The venue
is still to be finalised between the two front contenders, both in
London. WoA is definitely going ahead this year though, and Amiga are
desperate for it to be on, as they want the opportunity to make some
rather important announcements and show off a couple of things (not
least of which will probably be the unveiling and selling of os3.5).
WoA '99 is going to be the best yet! In a better venue, and a lot more
going on, such as...

Seminars (like last years on Photogenics and ImageFX, but better...)
Videos played everywhere.
Competitions (so hone up your Sensi Soccer and Quake skills)
Cyber-Cafe
Tutorials and demonstrations
Your questions to Amiga Inc
Annex!

 And of course all your favourite (and more) Amiga stores doing good
business. As I said, the venue and pricing (tickets may be cheaper
than normal...there's no way it's going to be more expensive) are
still to be decided, but it looks like it's going to be the best one
ever! And that's just because we're going to be there with a booth of
our own! You lucky people! :)
----------------------------------------------------------------------

  D E L S Y D   C O N S I D E R   S H O W   -   Y O U R   V O T E ?


28th March 1999

 After hearing about the demise of Midwest Amiga Expo, we at Delsyd
Software have decided to see if anyone would be interested in
attending a different show. The show would be held in Burlington,NC
around the same time that MAE would have been held. If there is anyone
who would be interested in attending this show or setting up a
booth,we would like to hear from you. We've set up a special email
address for this purpose. You can contact us about this show at:
delsyd99@yahoo.com

 NOTE:We will only hold this show if enough people or companies are
interested in attending the show. This could be a very large event,if
people from the right companies set up booths.

Send us your mail now!
----------------------------------------------------------------------

       B E S T   P O W E R   T O   S U P P O R T   A M I G A

 7 Apr 1999

 {The following letter from Best Power was posted to the net by Mark
A. Loyd. Thanks, Mark, for making this public! Brad}

This is not just a rumor, but fact!

 Best Power WILL be supporting the EXISTING Amiga line with the next
release of our UPS monitoring and control software, CheckUPS II v3.3.
We will also be supporting the next generation of Amiga machines as
they become available. I recently attended the Amiga '99 show in St.
Louis, where I made the announcement at the ICOA Developers meeting,
that Best Power was going to support the Amiga. I was very pleased
with the overwhelmingly positive response I received.

 While at the show, I opened a dialog with Amiga Inc.'s new president
Jim Collas, as well as Juergan Haage (H&P's Managing Director of the
AmigaOS 3.5 project), about adding direct UPS (Operating System
Shutdown) support into AmigaOS 3.x as well as the new AmigaSoft 5.x
Operating Environment. Working with Amiga Inc., I believe that Best
Power can provide a greater level of UPS connectivity for the Amiga,
then has been achieved on any other OS to date.

 In addition to providing UPS support for the Amiga, Best Power will
be making another first in the UPS industry by releasing it's in-house
UPS driver API as OPEN SOURCE!

 The CheckUPS SDK, a full Software Development Kit for writing serial
and network based UPS monitoring software. Based around the "Best
Power UPS Driver API", it will provide a very easy means of writing
custom software that communicates with any Best Power model UPS,
without having to know anything about the specific UPS communication
protocol. Also, as Best releases new UPS models, it will continue to
update the SDK, thereby making adding support for a new UPS to any
software written using the CheckUPS SDK, as easy as recompiling or
downloading the latest shared library.

 Considering the fact that the UPS Driver API was delevoped excluively
on an Amiga A4000T, (the same machine that creates our CDROM masters),
it seemed only fair to directly support the Amiga :-).

Regards,

Jamie Krueger
Software Engineer - AmigaOS / UNIX
Best Power - http://www.bestpower.com
---------------------------------------------------------------------

                     M O R E   O N   A M I J O E

31 Mar 99

What "stuns" me ....

 We are very glad to see that our recent announcement of the AmiJOE G3
processor upgrade for the AMIGA contributes not only to the ongoing
discussion about the future of AMIGA, but also to the design efforts
of other companies. Even in their approach towards potential customers
and users of such products these people have started to think a little
more customer-friendly. So, maybe it´s time to release some more
educational stuff.

 Our AmiJOE 1200 is certainly meant for the majority of loyal Amigans
still using one of the most exciting sub-500-$ computers worldwide.
But please note, that we do not provide the G3 solution to owners of a
customized A1200 built into a big tower case. Our AmiJOE will fit into
the regular keyboard-style case of the original A 1200. How do we do
that? Engineering!

 The AmiJOE 1200 will have an expansion socket for a module also
fitting into the regular A 1200, offering either USB or, without any
difference in price, a Fast-SCSII 2 - connector. This module is part
of the AmiJOE 1200 product and included in the price of 599 EURO.

 AmiJOE 2000/3000/4000 will obviously be a little bigger in size, so
it has USB on board. The PCI 2.1 - compliant connector will be ready
to connect to another expansion card, the MultiJOE. At this stage, we
don´t want to disclose too much information about the MultiJOE, since
others should think up their own ideas. We are only going to let you
know that MultiJOE will offer Ultra-SCSII and a complete grafics
system, which includes 2D/3D, video-in and digitizing, alpha blending,
genlock and flicker-reduction and AC-97- sound.

 In the last couple of months, we have learned a lot from our
microprocessor partners about G4 and Altivec. The major benefit of the
G4 (PPC 7400) will be to handle up to 2 Mbyte of Backside Cache. It´s
some waste of time making 1 MB BSC solutions with the G4, so we will
stick to the G3 for now. One important thing to understand is that
this next generation of PowerPC isn´t ready to ship by the time we
will start to deliver the AmiJOE to the market. As it becomes
available, there will be another product, too.

 Firewire maybe of interest for digital video editors, but it´s our
clear vision that USB will bring a broad range of modern peripherals
into the Amiga world. On the other hand, video work will bring much
fun and productivity with the MultiJOE, and this will be a turn-key-
solution without paying a fortune.

 EURO pricing is rather new, but makes it very easy for all customers
in Europe and the US to figure out their ticket into the G3 sphere. We
appreciate that others will join these practices, adding also more
transparency to the competition.

 As we still don´t ask for prepayments, it´s good to support people
who need this type of financials. And in this case, it´s very customer
friendly to accept orders even without the prepayment, although they
will have to pay a huge interest charge on top.

 Time will tell about reality.

 Yours sincerely


 Stefan Domeyer President & CEO met@box AG
----------------------------------------------------------------------

      T W I S T E R   -   A N O T H E R   P P C   C H O I C E

                  TITAN COMPUTER proudly presents

                 the new Twister G3/G4 PPC Project

The Story so far....

 There never existed a Viper project. A user has got these
informations and release this name.

 The Twister G3/G4 project for Amiga 1200 is a cooperation between ACT
(Apollo), Haage&Partner and Titan Computers.

 The new Motorala G3/G4 PPC-Cpu`s open a new world of speed and
creativty for A1200 users. With a Twister PPC board the Amiga 1200
will play again in champions-league of power- ful computer systems.
Old 68k times are over a new RISC-CPU era has begun.

 Due to Haage&Partners 68k emulation which is fit in a 2MB Flashrom
the Twister-PPC board reaches a 100% compatiblity to old 68xxx CPU`s.

 The emulation is powerful enough to reach the speed of an 68060 CPU
on a 300MHz G3 turbo board. Furthermore the Twister PPC-board has 2
local PCI-Slots with each 100 MHz bus clock The Slots are suitable for
a 2D/3D graphic board on RivaTnT2 basis and for Ultra-Wide-
SCSI-controller

 The Twister boards will need a lot of space therefore it could only
fit in a Amiga 1200 tower system

Specifications:
- G3/G4 PPC-board with 300 - 450 MHz
- 2 local PCI-Slots with each 100 MHz Bus clock
- 2 Ram slot for upto 512MB SD-Ram, also clocked with 100MHz
- 512 KB 2nd Level Cache
- 2MB Flashrom for BIOS and 68k emulation

 suggested retail price for G3 300MHz version DM 1100.- (incl. 16%
local taxes)

Expansion boards:

Twister-Vision

- 2D/3D graphic board with 8MB SG-Ram, upgradable to 16MB
- Riva TNT2 graphic chip
- Amigasignal will be passed through the gfx-board. No Monitor
  switcher or something else needed

suggested retail price DM 349.- (incl. 16% local taxes)


Twister-SCSI

- UW-SCSI-controller
- upto 40MB/sec transfer rate
- DVD-Support
suggested retail price DM 249.- (incl. 16% local taxes)

Release date 4. quarter 1999
----------------------------------------------------------------------

     U P D A T E   O N   P H A S E   5 ' S   N E W   B O A R D S

29 Mar 1999

 {This following item from phase 5 is certainly a salesman's piece. It
does however offer details on their upcoming accelerator boards. The
articles we run from suppliers and developers are often sales pitches,
but every once in a while one makes us smile a bit more than the
others. This is one such. If we didn't think it was probably a very
good product despite the article's "wow, we're great!" tone, we
wouldn't run it. Brad}

 phase 5 digital products is excited to announce that the next step in
ground-breaking technological progress will take place soon. Since we
first announced the Cyberstorm G3/G4 project just 10 days ago, the
overwhelming response by the Amiga Community has not only convinced us
to extend the original Cyberstorm G3/G4 project to an extended Amiga
G3/G4 product line. Driven by the excitement of so many Amiga users,
we have spent many hours of additional consideration meanwhile,
discussing the requests and demands by the user community, and going
into technical details and cost optimization. Today we can present
some exciting news, which also make some of the statements of the
original announcement and the update obsolete already. However, if you
had not informed yourself about this development before, please read
these original announcements which contain information about
conditions and time frames for this new product generation. Following
the history of world's most established processor upgrade technology
for Amiga computers, and implementing the experience of the innovator
who made the PowerPC technology for the Amiga a reality, we at phase 5
digital products have also decided to make this new technology
available to a much larger user base, and doing what we always did in
the past years with our stunning products: Offer more value for less
money! And that's what we will be doing again - so go ahead and read
about the new additional features at the new lower prices! New models:
By introducing a second product, the Blizzard G3/G4, we will also
provide the stunning G3/G4 technology and performance to the users of
A1200 Tower systems. Two models - one with G3 and one with G4
processors - can be ordered now. We are also now taking orders for the
300MHz G4 version of the Cyberstorm G3/G4. New features: All G3/G4
boards from

 phase 5 digital products come with SCSI on board - UltraSCSI on the
A1200 versions, UltraWide SCSI on the A3000/A4000 version. Our proven
SCSI technology, which has been providing unmatched performance since
seven years, will provide full backwards compatibility with existing
SCSI devices. But even more than that: With the integration of
400Mbit/s FireWire ports, all our G3/G4 boards open the door to this
future industry standard, including the world of digital video devices
New prices: By proceeding with the related projections and
calculations, and going into the details, we have been able to
determine new and improved pricings which will make these stunning
products even more attractive.

 Plus, we have changed the pricing to EURO (for Europe) and US$ (for
outside Europe). New Order & Prepayment conditions: In order to
proceed quickly with the finalization and production of this new
product line, we still require the originally announced quantity of
back orders with a prepayment deposit. All customers who support our
development will receive a major discount, as announced before (please
see below for the new prices and discounts for the different models).
But phase 5 digital products is also ready to take orders now without
prepayment, for the suggested retail prices listed for the different
products. These orders will not be shipped by phase 5 digital products
directly, butforwarded to local dealers and distributors. So far the
overview of the major changes in the project. Now here comes the list
of the extended and updated new G3/G4 product line for the AMIGA by
phase 5 digital products. Right now, users can choose out of the
following four models:

 BLIZZARD G3/300 for A1200 Tower systems
 300 MHz PowerPC750 processor with 1MB fast Backside-Cache

 Ultra SCSI on board for backwards compatibility with a large number
of existing SCSI devices, providing a performance of up to 20MB/s

 Three 400MBit FireWire ports (IEEE-1394), allowing the connection of
up to 63 devices, and opening the world of digital video to the AMIGA
up to 1 GB SDRAM

 PCI-Bridge-Connector: This interface, a fully PCI 2.1 compliant
implementation, allows the connection of PCI devices or PCI
backplanes, thus allowing the expansion of the Amiga with all kinds of
industry standard hardware products

 suggested retail price of EURO 669.00 (Europe) or US$ 729.00 (outside
Europe)

 Customers who are ready to pay a prepayment deposit of EURO 125 / US$
140 will take advantage of the discounted prepaid price of EURO 589.00
or US$ 639.00 including worldwide free postal delivery - and, of
course, will be among the first to receive their Cyberstorm G4 board!

 BLIZZARD G4/300 for A1200 Tower systems 300 MHz PowerPC7400 processor
(G4 with Altivec) with 1MB fast Backside-Cache

 The breathtaking multimedia performance of the 128-Bit Altivec vector
processing unit will open new dimensions to all kind of applications
which are optimized on the G4 chip

 Ultra SCSI on board for backwards compatibility with a large number
of existing SCSI devices, providing a performance of up to 20MB/s

 Three 400MBit FireWire ports (IEEE-1394), allowing the connection of
up to 63 devices, and opening the world of digital video to the AMIGA
up to 1 GB SDRAM

 PCI-Bridge-Connector: This interface, a fully PCI 2.1 compliant
implementation, allows the connection of PCI devices or PCI
backplanes, thus allowing the expansion of the Amiga with all kinds of
industry standard hardware products

 suggested retail price of EURO 749.00 (Europe) or US$ 829.00 (outside
Europe)

 Customers who are ready to pay a prepayment deposit of EURO 125 / US$
140 will take advantage of the discounted prepaid price of EURO 659.00
or US$ 729.00 including worldwide free postal delivery - and, of
course, will be among the first to receive their Cyberstorm G4 board!

 CYBERSTORM G3/400 for A3000/A4000 systems 400 MHz PowerPC750
processor with 1MB fast Backside-Cache

 UW-SCSI on board, providing a performance of up to 40MB/s
andbackwards compatibility with a large number of existing SCSI
devices

 Three 400MBit FireWire ports (IEEE-1394), allowing the connection of
up to 63 devices, and opening the world of digital video to the AMIGA
up to 1 GB SDRAM

 PCI-Bridge-Connector: This interface, a fully PCI 2.1 compliant
implementation, allows the connection of PCI devices or PCI
backplanes, thus allowing the expansion of the Amiga with all kinds of
industry standard hardware products

 suggested retail price of EURO 949.00 (Europe) or US$ 1049.00
(outside Europe)

 Customers who are ready to pay a prepayment deposit of EURO 125 / US$
140 will take advantage of the discounted prepaid price of EURO 829.00
or US$ 919.00 including worldwide free postal delivery - and, of
course, will be among the first to receive their Cyberstorm G3 board!

 CYBERSTORM G4/300 for A3000/A4000 systems

 300 MHz PowerPC7400 processor (G4 with Altivec) with 1MB fast
Backside-Cache

 The breathtaking multimedia performance of the 128-Bit Altivec vector
processing unit will open new dimensions to all kind of applications
which are optimized on the G4 chip

 UW-SCSI on board, providing a performance of up to 40MB/s and
backwards compatibility with a large number of existing SCSI devices
Three 400MBit FireWire ports (IEEE-1394), allowing the connection of
up to 63 devices, and opening the world of digital video to the AMIGA
up to 1 GB SDRAM

 PCI-Bridge-Connector: This interface, a fully PCI 2.1 compliant
implementation, allows the connection of PCI devices or PCI
backplanes, thus allowing the expansion of the Amiga with all kinds of
industry standard hardware products suggested retail price of EURO
899.00 (Europe) or US$ 989.00 (outside Europe)

 Customers who are ready to pay a prepayment deposit of EURO 125 / US$
140 will take advantage of the discounted prepaid price of EURO 779.00
or US$ 859.00 and worldwide free postal delivery - and, of course,
will be among the first to receive their Cyberstorm G4 board! All
prices do not include VAT / MwSt. or any other local taxes or duties
which may apply. Specifications and prices are subject to change. A
note about Software:

 For the add-on features such as the SCSI interfaces or the FireWire
ports, phase 5 digital products will provide the necessary software
tools and drivers, and also cooperate with other developers.
Additionally, we are in negotiations about licensing useful software
to ship with our G3/G4 boards, and will take care that support of the
upcoming AmigaOS developments is realized. Another note on the
prepayment & discount: Remember, the prepayment which enables you to
take advantage of the discounted price, will go on a special notary
account as announced earlier. The amounts collected there will not
become available to us before we actually ship the products; they are
a deposit which support our efforts to bring out the new products for
the Amiga which the users have been asking for, thus representing a
partnership between the Amiga community and us in realizing this
stunning new technology for the Amiga. If this new list of stunning
product offerings includes the G3/G4 model which you want for your
Amiga 1200 Tower/3000 (T)/4000(T), then donot hesitate but go ahead
and support us in supporting the future of the Amiga by placing Your
CYBERSTORM G3/G4 or BLIZZARD G3/G4 preorder NOW!
----------------------------------------------------------------------

     G R O U P   P R O M O T E S   D I S C O U N T S   I N   U K

1 Apr 1999

Discounts available for UK user groups

 As part of AmigaSoc's drive to get more people to join their local
user group, we have been working closely with UK user groups in order
to secure a discount from Amiga dealers in the UK. We hope that these
discounts will entice Amiga users to join up and support their local
user group whilst making some considerable savings. There's never been
a better time to join a user group! To find your nearest user group,
see our user groups page at http://uk.amigasoc.org/usergroups for an
up-to-date list of user groups around the UK.

 Note: The discounts will only be offered to representatives of user
groups who have registered the name of their representative with
AmigaSoc.

 If you're an Amiga dealer and wish to offer discounts to user groups
in the UK, or are from a user group and would like to register your
group for the discount scheme then contact Chris Livermore (E-Mail:
chrisl@uk.amigasoc.org).

 The following companies have already agreed to participate in the
scheme:

     * Fore-Matt Home Computing

     * HiSoft Systems

     * White Knight Technologies

     * Amiga Survivor magazine

...and more are on the way!
----------------------------------------------------------------------

              S T A R G A T E   2 . 0   B O W S   I N

April 2, 1999

 Toysoft Development Inc. is pleased to annouce the release of
StarGate v2.0 MUI. The same developer who released the first true GUI
email client "Air Mail" for the Amiga computers. {Note: while we
appreciate Danny's enthusiasm, a good argument can be made that there
were GUI based mailers before "Air Mail". Brad}

 StarGate is an integrated e-mail and news client with multiple user
interfaces, multiple email accounts, intuitive design, easy to use,
highly configurable, designed for novice to expert users and no learn
curve.

 Version 2.0 includes custom formating of messages such as bold,
underling, italics and text coloring. StarGate is only Amiga e-mail
client that offers multiple message formats such as plaintext,
StarGate (custom) and HTML and Forms.

 An added feature in v2.0 is NNTP news support. With StarGate you can
post, read, reply and forward new articles. Posting article with files
is also supported and the same as decoding articles with files. With
the Helper database you can view pictures, play AVIs/MOV/MPEG etc...
Articles can be selected for batch download for offline reading.
Downloaded articles can be archived to user defined folders.

 StarGate is highly integrated with the three most popluar Web
Browsers (AWeb, iBrowse and Voyager). When reading mail or news
article you can double click on a URL or FTP link and StarGate will
direct your designated browser to the URL.

 StarGate is the only commerical e-mail client for the Amiga that
offers unprecedented features and user support.

 Toysoft Development is 100% Amiga developer and will continue to
bring innovative products for the Classic and the new NG Amiga.

 For more information about StarGate or to learn more about Toysoft
Development Inc. please visit our web site at
http://www.toysoft-dev.com or email danny@toysoft-dev.com
----------------------------------------------------------------------

    S C A N N I N G   S Y S T E M S   F R O M   R A N D O M I Z E

 Randomize, Toronto, Canada, brings affordable flatbed scanning to the
Amiga in North America by introducing ScanQuix Amiga Scanner and its
ScanQuix/Umax Scanner Bundle.

 ScanQuix 4 works with a number of popular scanners and provides a
universal scanner interface for the Amiga.

 The ScanQuix/Umax Scanner Bundle provides ScanQuix 4 bundles with the
Umax Astra 610S, 1200S and 1220S scanners giving the cost effective
flatbed scanning solution.

 Simply connect the Umax Astra Scanner to your Amiga's SCSI port (we
offer the DKB Spitfire as a bundle options for those needing as SCSI
controller) and install ScanQuix 4 and your ready to scan.

Umax Astra 610S Bundle - $224.95 US, $349.95 CDN
Umax Astra 1200S Bundle - $289.95 US, $449.95 CDN
Umax Astra 1220S Bundle - $319.95 US, $499.95 CDN
ScanQuix 4 Software (sold separately) - $99.95 US, $149.95 CDN
DKB Spitfire - $89.95 US, 139.95 CDN

Additional information can be found at
http://www.randomize.com/scannerbundle.html

Randomize, Inc.
R.R. #2,
Tottenham, Ont.
L0G 1W0

Phone: 905-939-8371
Fax: 905-939-8745
email: sales@randomize.com
WWW: http://www.randomize.com/
----------------------------------------------------------------------

               S I A M E S E   3 - P A C K   C A S E

30th March 1999

 Siamese Systems wish to announce the new 3-Pack multi-board computer
system case. This case is designed with our Multi-OS platform in mind
and combines up to three complete computer motherboards in one strong,
space efficient and good looking case. Giving the ability to run
AmigaOS, Linux and Windows all at the same time.

 We have designed this system to combine the Newtek Video Toaster 4000
based Toaster/Flyer system with a commodity Windows or maybe Linux
powered PC/Alpha. The Video Toaster will be controllable from the
Windows display. Both of these can be fitted into the 3-Pack case and
still have room for an Alpha or another PC as a rendering system or
whatever you want from it. Any Amiga 4000 motherboard will fit
including any 68k/PPC card and we will produce an A1200 adapter if
there is a demand.

 It is made from the same high quality and strong steel constructions
as the Siamese 8-Pack case and is designed to run very cool
internally. The case should appeal to all those computer users like us
who have two or three systems in use at once and would like them all
in one place, and controllable from one Keyboard, Mouse and Monitor.
Add to this the cool design and colours and we believe it looks good
too.

 Please take a look at our web site at http://www.siamese.co.uk/ and
then email us for more details at steve@siamese.co.uk
----------------------------------------------------------------------

                    A M I D O G   I S   N O   D O G

6 April, '99
                            AmiDog's Movie Player

 - The worlds fastest Movie Player for your PPC equiped AGA Amiga!

 Version 1.00 is here! Full CGFX support, 8bit/16bit/32bit uses direct
gfx memory access and is therefore very fast. Sound is also here, it's
however very slow currently, but I'll work on that now when the CGFX
support has been added. Please report any strange behavior to me!

   o New features:

 o Full CGFX support (8bit/16bit/32bit uses direct gfx memory access).
 o Sound using AUDIO: and AHI.
 o If AMP quits for some reason, it will never ever leave any
   screen/window/requester/library open!


   o Removed bugs:

 o AMP always closes every screen/window/requester/library when
   quiting.



   o Known bugs:

 o Of some reason the prefs file wont get closed when read/written, I
   don't know why yet.


   o Features to be added (in no particular order):

 o Frameskip.
 o Custom playback size.
 o Window playback.
 o More speed.
 o Preloading of small MPEGs.
 o AVI/QT/ANIM/FLI/FLC... support.

 Please don't contact me about problems that are described above!
Thanks!

http://www.amidog.com/amp/news.html
----------------------------------------------------------------------

               Y I K E S ,   I T ' S   J I K E S

April 4, '99
                     Amiga Java Software

 This is just the first of a number of Java related programs we intend
to release for the Amiga. Just how soon we release others depends
largely on how much interest there is - so let us know if you want to
use Java on the Amiga! Please send comments to
support@ramjam.u-net.com

                           Jikes

 Jikes is an Open Source Java compiler from IBM. It compiles Java
source files into Java byte-code class files, which can then be run on
a Java Virtual Machine (JVM).

 Jikes strictly implements the Java language as specified by The Java
Language Specification, with no extensions or variations. The Java
byte-code generated conforms strictly to The Java Virtual Machine
Specification.

 Jikes can be used in place of Sun's javac or the GNU guavac compiler.
Jikes is faster (although this Amiga version hasn't been accurately
benchmarked yet), produces optimised byte-code, and has a
sophisticated make feature. It can also be used in an incremental way
- we plan to release tools which make good use of this feature later
this year!

 In order to use Jikes you will also need the standard Java classes -
these are not provided at our web site,
http://www.ramjam.u-net.com/software/jikes/index.htm. A good source of
the standard class files is Sun's own JDK.

 A very brief usage summary is produced if Jikes is invoked with no
parameters. No documentation is currently provided with the Amiga
version.

 Note that when specifying source files to be compiled, that Jikes is
case sensitive - unlike most other Amiga programs.

 Note that this Amiga version requires ixemul.

jikes 0.41 (01 Dec 98) (463KB).
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Amiga Update on the net:
 All back issues available at:
    http://www.globaldialog.com/AdventureCentral/AU/index.html
Stop by and check out our archive!
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright 1999 by Brad Webb.    Freely distributable, if not modified.
======================================================================
                 _    __      _     <>_   __      _
   A M I G A    /\\    |\    /||    ||   /  `    /\\      A M I G A
  U P D A T E  /__\\   | \  / ||    ||  || ___  /__\\    U P D A T E
              /    \\_ |  \/  ||_  _||_  \__// /    \\_
                    amigaupdate@globaldialog.com
======================================================================

The Year 2000 problem and the Amiga

Written by Olaf Barthel

To make a long story short, the Amiga in general does not suffer from the Year 2000 problem in the context known to the PC world. Still, the Amiga faces three distinct date problems and a single, specific Year 2000 problem with limited scope which will be described in this paper.

This document will show you how to find out if your Amiga might have a Year 2000 problem and will then go into detail, explaining the technical aspects of the problems and how they may be addressed.

(This is a revised version of the document of the same name which appeared on September 20, 1998, on the Amiga, Inc. web site).

1. How to tell if an Amiga is Year 2000 compliant?

The Amiga runs under control of an operating system called AmigaOS which, depending on the operating system version, is either fully Year 2000 compliant or may have a problem in the Year 2000. To tell which operating system an Amiga is running you can perform a simple test. The test works by invoking an operating system feature that is unavailable in the operating system versions that may have a problem in the Year 2000.

For this test, hold down both the leftmost and the rightmost mouse buttons before you switch on the computer and keep holding down both buttons until a picture appears on your monitor.

The picture to appear should look like one of the three illustrations shown below. Please see the description for each illustration to find out what the pictures mean.

Figure 1: The Amiga 3000 Kickstart menu

This is a picture of the Amiga 3000 computer prompting you to choose the operating system to use. Two principal choices are possible, you can either use the older Kickstart version 1.3 or the newer version 2.x. On this machine, either choice will pick an operating system version that is Year 2000 compliant (the Amiga 3000 is not vulnerable to the SetClock problem described in this paper since it uses a special version of that utility). If a picture like this appears, it means that your Amiga is Year 2000 compliant.

Please note that the picture you will see on your screen need not be completely identical to Figure 1.

Figure 2: The AmigaOS 2.0/2.1 boot menu

This picture shows an Amiga prompting you to choose the device to bootstrap from. If a picture like this appears, it means that your Amiga is Year 2000 compliant.

Please note that the picture you will see on your screen need not be completely identical to Figure 2.

Figure 3: The AmigaOS 3.0/3.1 boot menu

This picture shows an Amiga prompting you to choose an early startup option to change. If a picture like this appears, it means that your Amiga is Year 2000 compliant.

Please note that the picture you will see on your screen need not be completely identical to Figure 3.

If the picture to appear does not look like any of the three illustrations shown above, then your Amiga is probably not entirely Year 2000 compliant. To find out how to address the problems, see section 5 of this document.

1.1 Is the software written for the Amiga Year 2000 compliant?

Software written for the Amiga computer is not automatically Year 2000 compliant. While the Amiga operating system provides time and date keeping services which are Year 2000 compliant, it was always left to the individual software developers to use them properly. Amiga, Inc. neither supports nor maintains 3^rd party application software.

2. Scope of this document

The following text refers to Amiga desktop computers built between 1986 and 1997. It covers only computer hardware configurations designed and built by Commodore-Amiga, Inc., Amiga Technologies GmbH and Amiga, Inc. This specifically excludes 3^rd party hardware extensions, such as the Microbotics "StarBoard" which among other features offered a battery backed up clock.

It should be noted that, as far as the ROM operating system and Amiga software is concerned, this document only covers the features and/or shortcomings of the Amiga operating system as designed and implemented by Commodore-Amiga, Inc. 3^rd party application software designed to run under control of the Amiga operating system may not show the same behaviour as the operating system itself. It may show bugs which AmigaOS does not exhibit, and the other way round.

3. How the Amiga handles date and time

The Amiga operating system has always followed the Unix model in measuring time as the number of seconds that have elapsed since a fixed point of time. Under AmigaOS that fixed point of time (also known as 'epoch') is 00:00:00 of January 1, 1978 (Unix uses 00:00:00 GMT, January 1, 1970). The operating system manages time and date through a module known as timer.device. This module reads and stores date and time information using a data structure known as timeval which, in 'C' language notation, is shown below:

   struct timeval
   {
      ULONG tv_secs;
      ULONG tv_micro;
   };

In this context an ULONG refers to an unsigned 32 bit quantity. The tv_secs structure member holds the number of seconds that have elapsed since the AmigaOS epoch. The tv_micro member denotes the number of microseconds (the 10^-6th part of a second) that have elapsed since the last second has passed.

3.1 The AmigaDOS date and time handling is special

"AmigaDOS" and "AmigaOS" are not two names for the same thing. AmigaDOS is (in a nutshell) the name of the AmigaOS layer which implements filing systems and their actions, the command line interpreter, and the means to load and relocate executable binary files. AmigaDOS is more or less a port of the Cambridge University TRIPOS 32 bit kernel. It has its own peculiar data structures, including its own version of the timeval structure described above. The AmigaDOS variant is known as DateStamp, as shown below:

   struct DateStamp
   {
      LONG ds_Days;
      LONG ds_Minute;
      LONG ds_Tick;
   };

In this context a LONG refers to a signed 32 bit quantity. The ds_Days member contains the number of days (each day consists of exactly 24 hours) that have passed since the AmigaOS epoch. The ds_Minute member denotes the number of minutes that have passed since midnight (00:00:00) of the given day. The ds_Tick member contains the number of "ticks" that have passed since the last minute. A minute consist of 3,000 "ticks", i.e. there are exactly 50 ticks in a second.

The term "tick" is often confused with the "tick" signals which the Amiga hardware can generate either through the power supply or the custom chip set. The frequency at which the hardware generates "tick" signals is controlled by the power supply frequency (50 Hz or 60 Hz) or the jumper settings on the main board (PAL = 50 Hz, NTSC = 60 Hz). There is no relation between the hardware "tick" signals and the "tick" quantities used in the context of the DateStamp data structure. For the DateStamp ds_Tick member, there are always 50 ticks in a second, regardless of the power supply frequency or the main board jumper settings.

AmigaDOS uses DateStamps to describe file and volume creation dates. All shell commands follow the same model, i.e. if the system date is set through the shell Date command, it will calculate time and date in DateStamp format.

3.2 Local time vs GMT

The Amiga operating system never knew the concept of local and global time. While the AmigaOS 2.1 update (1992) introduced a locale preferences editor that allowed for the time zone to be selected, the operating system itself never put this feature to use or encouraged application software developers to use it. One might argue that with this background, the AmigaOS was always tuned to local time.

3.3 How the Amiga maintains its system time

The early Amiga computer models did not support a battery backed up real time clock that would keep ticking and maintaining local time even until after the machine was switched off. For example, the first Amiga computer ever (later christened the Amiga 1000) did not offer a battery backed up clock. For the Amiga 500 the battery backed up clock was an extra hardware feature one could buy separately with a memory expansion.

Amiga computer models without battery backed up clock hardware include:

• Amiga 500
• Amiga 600
• Amiga 1000
• Amiga 1200 (note: only a few early machines were built with battery backed up clock hardware)

Amiga computer models with battery backed up clock hardware include:

• Amiga 500+ (this is a variant of the Amiga 500)
• Amiga 2000
• Amiga 2500 (this is a variant of the Amiga 2000)
• Amiga 3000
• Amiga 3000T; also known as "Amiga 3000 Tower" or "Amiga 3000, floor standing model" (this is a variant of the Amiga 3000)
• Amiga 3500 (this is the precursor of the Amiga 3000T; only few of these machines were built)
• Amiga 4000
• Amiga 4000T; also known as "Amiga 4000 Tower" or "Amiga 4000, floor standing model" (this is a variant of the Amiga 4000)

These two lists do not mention the CDTV and CD³² devices since these machine types do not really count as desktop computers.

On machines without battery backed up clock hardware, the Amiga sets its system time according to the modification date of the boot volume. In other words, the point of time the last file was modified or created on a disk would determine the system time. As this was by no means accurate, the AmigaOS boot process would suggest and prompt you to adjust the system date once the system had booted (as pictured below).

Figure 4: The shell window prompting you to adjust the date

On machines equipped with battery backed up clock hardware the system time was read during the boot process. As of AmigaOS versions 1.2 and 1.3 a special program, called SetClock, was responsible for reading the current clock settings and setting the system time accordingly. Starting with AmigaOS version 2.0 that functionality was integrated into the ROM operating system, making the SetClock utility at least in part redundant.

If the system starts up without being able to set its system time, it defaults to 00:00:00 January 1, 1978.

4. Setting and reading the time

The Amiga offers both a command line interface and a graphical user interface. Both went through a number of changes over the years as will be described below.

4.1 The command line interface

There are two shell commands which deal with the system date, these being SetClock and Date. The Date command is for reading and setting the current system date whereas the SetClock command deals with the battery backed up clock: it reads and stores the current system time from/in it. The Date command is of particular interest due to the human readable date format it uses by default. Today you might invoke the Date command and receive the following output:

   19-Sep-98

As one can see the year number is limited to two digits only. Even if a different locale is used (e.g. french), the year will always be displayed with its two last decimals only. Luckily, this numbering is consistent with the following rule:

• If the number is greater than or equal to 78, the year number is 1900 plus the number given (i.e. numbers 78..99 indicate years 1978..1999).
• If the number is less than 78, the year number is 2000 plus the number given (i.e. numbers 00..77 indicate years 2000..2077).

To set the system time to any year beyond 1999, you reverse the rule, i.e. entering date 01-jan-01 will set the time to 1 January, 2001.

All versions of the AmigaDOS Date command (version 1.1 through version 37.1) display and parse the data format in the same fashion. They behave consistently and predictably throughout all Amiga operating system revisions. The same holds true for the other two Shell commands that deal with dates, namely SetDate and List (the List command can list files and drawers created/modified since a specific date).

4.2 The graphical user interface

The system time is set through the preferences editor which in AmigaOS versions 1.0-1.3 used to be a single, monolithic program as pictured below:

Figure 5: The Workbench 1.1 Preferences editor

The controls for setting the system time are located in the top left corner of the window. They allow the last two digits of the year to be adjusted; the model follows the AmigaDOS Date command in that a year number less than 78 denotes a year in the range 2000..2077 and all other settings refer to a year in the range 1978..1999.

With the introduction of AmigaOS 2.0, the time preferences editor was moved into a single program named Time, as pictured below:

Figure 6: The Workbench 2.0 Time Preferences editor

In this editor, the year can be entered as a four digit number. However, the range is limited to the years 1978..2113.

When the AmigaOS 2.1 update was released, the time preferences editor was revised, as can be seen below:

Figure 7: The Workbench 2.1 Time Preferences editor

Just like with the previous version of the Time Preferences editor, the year can be entered as a four digit number. In this case, the range is limited to the years 1991..2099.

5. The problems

As far as is known today, the Amiga faces four date problems. Two are design problems caused by numeric overflow, one is caused by hardware limitations and one is a real bug that will strike in the year 2000.

5.1 SetClock stops working in the year 2000

The Amiga Workbench disk revisions 1.2 and 1.3 would ship with a program by the name of SetClock which was responsible for reading the battery backed up clock time upon system startup. The SetClock program suffers from a bug which causes it to miscalculate the battery backed up clock time starting with the year 2000. It is accurate only for the years 1978..1999. Once the year counter rolls over to 00, SetClock will believe that the year is 1978 until the year 2079 is reached; that's when it will believe that the year is 1979 -- which is not necessarily an improvement.

Please note that only the SetClock program found on the AmigaOS 1.2 and 1.3 Workbench disks suffers from this problem. Several versions of this program were distributed, each between 4,000 and 7,000 bytes in size. To tell whether you have a version that works or not, check the file size; if it is less than 1,000 bytes in size you will probably have the properly working version (and not one of the older versions). If it is larger than 4,000 bytes, you probably have the faulty version. Size isn't everything, though. Some 3^rd party hardware extensions would use their own versions of the SetClock program. They went by the same name, but read the system time from a different hardware location. Do not replace these custom versions. You will probably be using such a custom version if your real time clock is hooked up to a mouse port or the keyboard connector.

A fix for this problem is provided in this archive. Download it and unpack it, then read the enclosed SetClock_ReadMe file!

5.2 Negative time

As was outlined above, the Amiga measures time in seconds. As it turns out, the number of seconds to accumulate until 19 January, 2046, 03:14:07 will form the largest value a signed 32 bit integer number can hold. This is not a problem for the time keeping module (timer.device). However, application software and other operating system components which treat the number of seconds as a signed quantity will get into trouble one second later: the number of seconds will rise to 2,147,483,648 which in two's complement format represents the negative number -2,147,483,648. AmigaDOS, which always treats time as a signed quantity, will consider this date to be invalid because it is "negative". Worse, the ROM date conversion routines exhibit a bug which, once the date is later than 19 January, 2046, 03:14:07, causes all subsequent date operations to be inaccurate. The immediate effect this has is that calculations on dates can be off by more than two years.

This behaviour is consistent through all AmigaOS versions. A fix is not available yet, but research is in progress to investigate whether this bug could be fixed by updating several AmigaOS modules (locale.library, dos.library). After all, this bug is "just" a side-effect of treating an unsigned quantity as signed.

5.3 Time rolling over

An unsigned 32 bit integer can hold a maximum value of 4,294,967,295. When the Amiga has accumulated that many seconds, it will be 7 February, 2114, 06:28:15. One second later the seconds counter will roll over and restart at 0. In other words, on 7 February, 2114, 06:28:16 the Amiga will believe that it is midnight on 1 January, 1978.

No fix for this problem is available yet.

5.4 The battery backed up clock can count only to 99

Amiga computers equipped with battery backed up real time clock hardware use one of two different hardware designs: either the Oki MSM6242RS (A500, A2000) or the Ricoh RP5C01 (A3000, A1200, A4000) chip. As is common with clock chips of that type, the year counter is implemented as a two digit BCD number. Once it reaches the year 99, the counter will roll over and start again at 00.

Starting with Amiga operating system version 2.0, the boot process will read the battery backed up clock time and set the system time accordingly. This takes place every time the Amiga is reset. Because the year number covers only two digits, the same algorithm as used by the AmigaDOS Date command is employed. Consequently, the Amiga system date set at system startup time will always be in the range 1978..2077. While the system clock will keep ticking beyond 31 December, 2077 a system reset will set the clock back to 1 January, 1978.

No fix for this problem is available yet.

6. Other hazards

The following section covers topics which are related to time keeping, but not quite in the same context as was discussed in the previous sections.

6.1 In a version tag a year only has two digits

The AmigaDOS Version command (which was introduced in AmigaOS 2.0) can extract the version and revision numbers and the creation time of any file which includes a string like this:

   $VER: version 40.1 (9.2.93)

A string like this is called a "version tag". The date, as it appears in brackets, consist of a day, a month and a year number (exactly in that order), none of which may contain more than two digits. This was not such a big problem with versions 37 and 38 of the Version command, which extracted the string and printed it verbatim. However, starting with version 39 of the Version command, the date extracted was converted and printed using the default locale. The conversion process involved has a major flaw in that it always takes the year number, adds 1900 and prints the date. This is not consistent with how the Date command treats year numbers beyond 99. In fact, in order to print properly, the year 2000 would have to show up as the year 100 in a version tag (which is guaranteed to cause some confusion).

The problem described above exists only in version 39.1 and 40.1 of the Version command. To find out which version of this command you have, open a Shell window and enter the following command:

   version c:version full

A fix for the date parsing problem in the Version program is provided in this archive. Download it and unpack it, then read the enclosed Version_ReadMe file!

6.2 Leaking clock batteries

A battery provides the necessary power to keep the battery backed up clock hardware ticking while the Amiga computer is switched off. As time passes and the clock hardware keeps ticking, the batteries age: some must be more than ten years old by now. Old batteries can leak acid, causing great damage to the Amiga motherboard hardware. Often such leakages go unnoticed until critical parts of the Amiga hardware begin to fail. Of course, once you notice it, it is probably already too late...

It has been recommended to replace the clock batteries on every Amiga main board that is more than three years old. The batteries are small, barrel-shaped objects about 18mm long and 15mm in diameter. They look as if they were being held between two clamps (they are not; the batteries are soldered) and have a blue or red plastic covering. The covering is often labeled with the name of the manufacturer (e.g. GP or Varta) and the battery properties (3.6V, 60mAh). Also, the anode ("plus pole") should be marked clearly.

Where is that battery? Try looking for it: the battery may look like a capacitor on first glance, but it is unique in that it appears to be held between clamps. It is larger than any capacitor on the main board and the labeling should be unique. Here are some hints on finding the battery:

• Amiga 2000: under the drive bridge, where the floppy disk drives are mounted
• Amiga 3000: near the left edge, right in the middle of the main board
• Amiga 3000T: right below the power supply, next to the two Kickstart ROM chips
• Amiga 4000: left side of the main board, near the mouse ports; note that only older Amiga 4000 boards use the barrel-shaped nickel cadmium storage batteries, the newer boards use disk-shaped lithium batteries

You should really start worrying if corrosive salts are covering the metal casing of the battery: it should be replaced as soon as possible. Do not attempt to replace the battery on your own. You should consult a specialist, such as your nearest Amiga technical support centre.

BurnIt_Drivers.lha   biz/titan  159K+BurnItMasterdrivers V1.12 (26.03.99)
EDoomMovie_07.lha    biz/titan  2.4M+EvilsDoom Movie Part 7 of 18
ShadowGVP.lha        biz/titan   71K+Shadow 3rd Moon GVP, SX32 fix
AWBNetbt.lha         comm/www     7K+Netscape4 Style buttons for AWebII 3.x
dcs-neb.lha          demo/aga   2.7M+Nebula by Dual Crew - Shining (2nd at TG
dcs-phef.lha         demo/aga   4.3M+Phenomenon(final) by Dual Crew - Shining
GenderBender.lha     demo/aga   6.2M+GenderBender - TotalVision (PPC & 68k & 
GenderBender_F.lha   demo/aga   859K+GenderBender - Fixed PPC Version
ltx-epilepsy.lha     demo/aga   2.6M+Latex: Epilesy. Third place at CSX.
ltx-rubber.lha       demo/aga   837K+Rubber Mania. Latex first demo.
wpz-frozen11.lha     demo/aga   541K+Frozen Pack#11 - Mekka & Symposium Party
wpz-frozen12.lha     demo/aga   691K+Frozen Pack#12 - Mekka & Symposium Party
dcs-2cb.lha          demo/intro  60K+4-BROMO-2,5-DIMETHOXYPHENETHYLAMINE by D
ltx-ascii.lha        demo/intro 124K+Latex: Ascii Attack. First place at CSX
ltx-jul.lha          demo/intro 114K+Latex presents: Jul. (suprice compo)
2b_RDBArc18.lha      disk/misc   61K+Simpliest way to backup your HD's RDB, v
RecoverRDB_src.lha   disk/salv   16K+Helps to recover deleted RDB - source
F1GP_1999.lha        game/data    8K+1999 F1 season data for F1GP-Ed (7-Mar-9
fu_smht.lha          game/misc  1.9M+German indoor championships (football ma
ltx-stuntcar.lha     game/patch 300K+Stuntcar Racer Fix
TaskForce.lha        game/think 303K+Tactical combat game & editor (V0.34; lo
SvIIFix831.lha       gfx/misc     6K+*Fix* for SViewII V8.30 (9.4.99)
Spitfire.lha         hard/drivr 185K+A Palm Desktop for the AmigaOS!
imdbDiff990402.lha   misc/imdb  1.3M+Diffs for the Internet MovieDatabase
ms99-sid.lha         mods/chip   81K+MekkaSymp99 SIDs as PSID-files.
smokebomb_mod.lha    mods/demo  535K+Mod from SmokeBomb demo by Ozone
lnsR6_water.lha      mods/jungl 336K+Out in the water - jungle remix
lnsR9_boy.lha        mods/jungl 185K+The boy from bronx - triphop remix
A2-M4chn_2.lha       mods/misc  2.4M+Astrosyn`2 - 4 channel music compo entri
lns31_technoEp.lha   mods/techn 111K+Techno ep p2 - calling pilot
lnsR10_ecua.lha      mods/tranc 191K+Ecuador - acidtrance remix
lnsR11_chil.lha      mods/tranc 160K+Children - minimal trance remix
lnsR12_Xfile.lha     mods/tranc 169K+X-files - trance remix
lnsR13_flo.lha       mods/tranc 683K+Flotasion - trance remix
lnsR7_dick1.lha      mods/tranc 492K+Dick Turpin Crusade 1 - trance remix
lnsR8_dick2.lha      mods/tranc 384K+Dick Turpin Crusade 2 - dance trance rem
FALCONER-Icons.lha   pix/mwb    473K+Many Cool Icons & More 4 MWB
glowiconsaddon.lha   pix/nicon   93K+57 new icons in GlowIcons' style
glowiconspack.lha    pix/nicon   78K+48 more icons in GlowIcons' style
ohnomoreglow.lha     pix/nicon   74K+Even more icons in GlowIcons' style
wordpadv1.lha        text/edit  132K+MUI Based TextEditor v1
Esplit.lha           text/misc    8K+Splits japanese EDICT into PN & normal
EsplitX.lha          text/misc    8K+Splits japanese EDICT into rude/normal
JChar.lha            text/misc   29K+Generates various japanese charsets
JCode.lha            text/misc   22K+Print japanese codes out of a text
JConv.lha            text/misc   25K+Converts japanese codes between texts
KDFilt.lha           text/misc    7K+Filter for KanjiDic
dos2amiga.lha        util/cli    20K+Converts DOS 8.3 filename to long Win95 
2b_CAF.lha           util/misc   19K+CAF - Collect Aminet Files (with source)
Gurus99_15O4.lha     util/wb    469K+Shows infos about Gurus (German + Engl.)

AE30-dansk.lha       biz/haage   12K+ArtEffect 3.0 - Dansk locale
Calendario1999.lha   biz/misc     4K+Italian calendar made with TurboCalc
gemsylk.lha          biz/misc   163K+Business Chart.WB 1.3+. Version A.0 beta
BurnIT_Eguide.lha    biz/titan   30K+Burnit new english guide
FDreamsFrench.lha    biz/titan  313K+French Guide for FantasticDreams
DLG1_27.lha          comm/dlg   1.1M+DLG 1.27 Free Upgrade
S5-Trans.lha         comm/misc  116K+Copy files to and from Psion S5 (V0.1b)
TTimeDeluxe.lha      comm/misc  556K+Displays Phonecosts online (Germany only
uprc.lha             comm/misc   66K+Generates Aminet upload readme files
jldyndns.lha         comm/tcp     2K+ARexx script to update the justlinux.com
PortalOpening2.lha   comm/tcp   181K+Remote administration tool for Amiga
autoindex2g.lha      comm/www    63K+Generates html doc to view pictures with
Eph-Flux.lha         demo/aga   1.4M+Flux - 2nd in the demo compo at TG'99
NCE-VEND.lha         demo/aga   1.8M+4th place at MS99 by NUANCE
wpz-frozen10.lha     demo/aga   476K+Frozen Pack#1o -  The Gathering Party Ed
DKG-2998z.lha        demo/intro  30K+4th place at Mekka/Symposium'99 Amiga 40
jrm-sund.lha         demo/sound  62K+DA JoRMaS: Sundance (2nd at The Gatherin
GuiGFXLib.lha        dev/misc   230K+Application layer for pixel graphics
ukbbslis6.txt        docs/lists  77K+List of UK BBSes - Version 6 - APRIL 99
saku28d1.lha         docs/mags  451K+Saku #28 (2/99). Finnish diskmag. 1/2
saku28d2.lha         docs/mags  499K+Saku #28 (2/99). Finnish diskmag. 2/2

• QNX, Kooperationspartner von AMIGA, nimmt mit seinem Kernel Neutrino RTOS 2.0 an der Preisverleihung "EDN's Innovator and Innovation of the Year" im Bereich "Embedded Development" als Finalist teil. Ueber den Sieger abgestimmt werden kann auf http://www.ednmag.com/innovators/scripts/common/main.cfm?CFID=2585418&CFTOKEN=2152 .
• Per Umfrage wird ueber den Namen des kuenftigen Newsletters der Amiga-Usergroups entschieden. Drei Alternativen stehen zur Wahl. Die Teilnahme ist auf http://www.amiga.org/poll/poll.cgi moeglich.
• Steffen Haeuser schreibt zur Umfrageaktion "Tornado3D fuer WarpUp":
  
  "Hi!
  
  Leider hatte die BBS auf der die Umfrageergebnisse gesammelt werden einen Plattencrash, was zum Totalverlust aller bisher gesammelten Umfragedaten fuehrte. Ich habe den User nun neu eingerichtet, aber leider muessen alle Leute, die bereits eine Mail geschickt haben, diese nochmal schicken.
  
  Ich weiss, das ist unprofessionell so, aber was will ich tun ? Die Daten sind leider vollkommen weg... (Mein persoenlicher email-Account wurde nicht betroffen, nur der Umfrage-Account sowie einige andere Daten der letzten 2 Wochen - da noch ein Backup von vor 2 Wochen existierte)
  
  Steffen Haeuser"

fwml9903.lha         biz/swood   20K+Messages about FW during March 1999
Hurl.lha             comm/mail   26K+The Ultimate URL integrator for TCP Clie
PalmBackup.lha       comm/misc  176K+1.3 - Backup/Restore/Install for PalmPil
RScript_online.lha   comm/misc    4K+Online/offline support with Miami
sshnote.txt          comm/net     0K+Note regarding comm/net/SSH.lha.
jldyndns.lha         comm/tcp     2K+ARexx script to update the justlinux.com
smokebomb.lha        demo/aga   3.1M+Smoke bomb by ozone. 3th place at ms99!
StatsFuncs.lha       dev/basic   47K+MORE statements and functions for Blitz!
ubbinstall.lha       dev/basic    3K+Fixed install script for Blitz 2 (from U
gtlayout.lha         dev/gui    376K+Gtlayout.library V45.1
SCSIFormat.lha       disk/misc   18K+Lowlevel format SCSI drives
SCSISnoop.lha        disk/moni    6K+Snoops accesses to SCSI devices and othe
SCL_DreamCars.lha    game/2play  41K+SCL! - 32k game at Symposium'99   -exe- 
sol_dt.lha           game/board  62K+*Inofficial* German exe for Solitaire v1
VideoEasel.lha       gfx/misc   630K+THE flexible Cellular Automata (LIFE...)
FastFibo.lha         misc/math    5K+Calculates Fibonacci numbers
SCL_Infinity.lha     mods/atmos 778K+SCL! - Mod.DCC_Infinity   -pt-
SCL_Mermaids2.lha    mods/atmos 543K+SCL! - Mod.TRN_Mermaids-2000   -pt-
SCL_InABox.lha       mods/demo   92K+SCL! - Mod.MRV_InABox  -pt-
Landing.mpg          pix/anim   2.0M+The Landing Animation by Tobias Richter 
SCL_LandOfMagx.lha   pix/illu    79K+SCL! - Handpixeled pic at Symposium'99  
3emars.jpg           pix/trace  303K+3eFighters in the orbit of Mars
mad-MysticMira.lha   pix/trace  701K+MysticMiracle by Madbart/Appendix
SCL_QuakerFace.lha   pix/trace   41K+SCL! - Raytraced pic at Symposium'99   -
sliner.jpg           pix/trace  311K+A Space Liner at Mars
WarpUpSettings.lha   util/misc   10K+Set WarpUp-Env-Vars with GUI
FWCalendar.lha       util/rexx   44K+THE calendar creator for FW & Pagestream
vht-vg27.lha         util/virus  78K+VirusWarning.Guide v2.7 (VHT-DK)

KOSH [Kommunity Orientated Software Hardware]

Weekly Summary

Week Commencing: 27th March 1999

Number: 014

Mailing List: kosh-general

In the mailing list this week, the following items were discussed. Please do
not email the scribe regarding any of these topics, it is not his job to answer
these questions but merely to report  the topics of conversation. If you have
any queries about this summary, please email ben@kosh.net, stating the Summary
Number, and Mailing List Name, and he will try to answer your queries.

a)

Subject: Cymraeg, Gaelic, Cornish and other local languages

Summary of debate: It would be inclusive and a positive step for the Kommunity
                   of Koshans to include support for languages that are
                   normally missed out in mainstream systems. This could be
                   done via the KOSH localisation system.

                   Suggested that we contact relevant local organisations
                   sometime soon about this.

                   There was (and still is??) an Amiga Translator's
                   organisation. Perhaps we could contact them to see if they
                   would do KOSH work too? - Does anyone have the contact
                   details? Suggested contact is Gary Peake who was apparently
                   in contact with them sometime earlier on this mailing list.


b)

Subject: Colour clash and dithering

Summary of debate: It was noted that certain colours on certain coloured
                   backgrounds (eg: red on blue, black on red) can be
                   difficult to view by a large number of people. Further,
                   dithering and patterns such as checks with text on top can
                   also present difficulties. Therefore in KOSH documentation
                   we should avoid such designs.

                   It was also suggested that where possible we so not use
                   dithering in KOSH as a whole, particularly as we are looking
                   at supporting new fast 24bit+ graphics cards (admittedly AGA
                   256 colour dithering will be needed). All of this obviously
                   only applies to full colour KOSH systems.


c)

Subject: KOSH documentation formats

Summary of debate: It was asked what sort of documentation KOSHans would like.

                   A printed manual or manuals would be liked as online
                   documentation is often difficult to use at the same time as
                   the software it refers to - both being on the same system.

                   As well as this, online (HTML?) documentation that
                   configures itself to represent the settings that the user
                   has setup (as mentioned in a previous summary).


d)

Subject: Functional languages

Summary of debate: It was suggested on the subject of what computer languages
                   to use with KOSH that a functional language that includes
                   complex computations could be used.

                   However functional languages are not very straightforward as
                   they often have bizarre syntax.


e)

Subject: Application generators

Summary of debate: Traditionally application generators are always tailored for
                   a specific type of application. However, as the UI in KOSH
                   will have personalities the applications for it will not
                   have to be constant. We could have a KOSH-Script builder
                   with another layer on top that changes with the personality.

                   An applications generator that produced KOSH scripts could
                   come in different versions, each specialized for one type of
                   work.


f)

Subject: More COMAL

Summary of debate: See:
                   http://www.macharsoft.demon.co.uk/unicomal/aboutcml.html
                   Macharsoft produces unicomal, a current COMAL implementation
                   which they claim incorporates OO concepts. NB: the whole
                   site is dedicated to COMAL.


g)

Subject: Structured summaries

Summary of debate: Marcus Peterson has gone through the summaries and
                   restructured them according to categories instead of summary
                   dates.

                   Having both date and subject-based summary formats available
                   will make locating particular information easier.


h)

Subject: Wider world survey

Summary of debate: Greg Webb, greg@gpwebb.freeserve.co.uk would like help with
                   conducting a survey of the wider world beyond us Koshans to
                   see what the computer world at large would like in something
                   like KOSH. If you can help (particularly but not exclusively
                   if you have experience with statistical analysis) then
                   please email Greg directly.


i)

Subject: KOSH programming and semicolons

Summary of debate: It was pointed out that C brings up an error when it is
                   missing a semicolon but then pinpoints the exact location
                   that the semicolon should have been placed at. Therefore it
                   was implied that KOSH should be able to automatically insert
                   such characters.


j)

Subject: One KOSH programming language for all / A KOSHan beginners language

Summary of debate: It was suggested that one global KOSH programming language
                   could be designed (possibly based on existing languages)
                   that was suitable for beginners to programming all the way
                   up to experts in OOP and structured programming.

                   An opinion was expressed against BASIC for something like
                   this in that it can make structured programming difficult.
                   However it was noted by another scribe-e that this may only
                   apply to some versions of BASIC.

                   Such a language could ship with KOSH and be used to
                   encourage people to program. However this may only teach them
                   how to program in the cosy well thought out world of KOSH
                   which could limit their ability to program with other
                   systems.

                   Was suggested that the critical features and design
                   decisions that must be made for a beginners language are:
                   1) Garbage collection - this may be too complex for a
                   beginner. The language must support garbage collection.
                   2) No traditional C-style pointers thereby eliminating a
                   possible memory leak, and making implementing garbage
                   collection easier.
                   3) Run-time array bounds checking or unbounded arrays to
                   protect against inaccurate writes to memory.

                   It was mentioned that eliminating pointers eliminates a lot
                   of power and convenience.

                   It was noted that Java almost fits these criteria except
                   that it doesn't actually support run-time bounds checking
                   but uses a theorem prover instead.

                   Suggested goals for a programming language for beginners
                   are that the system should be protected from accidental
                   damage, the language should be immediately effective with
                   something visible after only a short amount of work and the
                   language should help teach better habits, possibly by
                   requiring the syntax to be commented although this latter
                   suggestion may make the language wordy.

                   A language for KOSH should aim to reduce the gap between
                   having ideas and being able to implement them in a computer
                   language.


k)

Subject: ISO Modula-2 compiler

Summary of debate: Suggested that in the fullness of time we could look at
                   created a ISO Modula-2 compiler for KOSH.


l)

Subject: Installing KOSH

Summary of debate: Proposed that the KOSH v1 installation (on CD?) should
                   include a setup routine to install a base version of Linux
                   as well, with options available for a number of platforms.
                   This would allow those who own platforms on which a hosted
                   version of KOSH has yet to be written to use it, via the
                   Linux hosted version.

                   The complete install could be available as an FTP directory
                   located somewhere.


m)

Subject: Terminology WG

Summary of debate: Could anyone interested in joining the above named Working
                   Group for KOSH please email Ruward F. Leenstra at
                   uart@xs4all.nl


n)

Subject: Loading and coping with older versions of objects

Summary of debate: The following questions were posed: what happens if you have
                   have software which has a number of objects that contain
                   data and when the next version is released, these objects
                   have changed? How should this be handled?  How would older
                   versions of objects be loaded?

                   Old versions should be loadable. It should be possible to
                   just plug the old objects into the new handles or use an
                   adaptor for this.


o)

Subject: Sharing computer experiences

Summary of debate: A way to share experiences of the various computer systems
                   that we all use (including Mac, BeOS, Amiga, Linux, Unix,
                   BSD, NeXTStep, Windows, OS/2 and many others) could be
                   useful. This could take the form of a large section on the
                   web site available (to members only it was suggested) for
                   downloading in parts that would contain emulators, trial
                   versions and other relevant software to allow people to try
                   other systems.

                   The same area could also contain languages like COMAL and
                   Delphi that people could try out.

                   Jason Radford the administrator for the server that the KOSH
                   web site is on agreed that some of the 4gig of drive space
                   available for KOSH could be used for this purpose. He
                   suggested that if enough interest and ideas came forward
                   that ftp.kosh.net could be created.


p)

Subject: Case-insensitive KOSH

Summary of debate: Suggested that throughout KOSH an Amiga-style system where
                   case is stored but operations are case-insensitive is used.


q)

Subject: Standardized diagram construction package

Summary of debate: It was suggested that we try to find a standardized
                   package to construct diagrams for KOSH. A set of brushes
                   that could be used would be useful.


r)

Subject: Executive Scheduler

Summary of debate: KOSH could implement a scheduler similar to the Amiga's
                   scheduler.

                   Further suggested that this should be a separate object. The
                   basic system could ship with a scheduler that does the basic
                   round-robin scheduling.

showguru.lha         comm/misc    2K+Shows Guruhistory (AMMS)
herz.lha             gfx/3dobj   43K+Maxon Cinema object of a sweet heart
AMP.lha              gfx/show   131K+MPEG1/2 video player for PPC, v1.00 (990
AmiGenerator.lha     misc/emu   265K+Sega Genesis/MegaDrive emulator, v1.03 (
SpaTra05.lha         misc/misc  131K+Spanish Translations Pack 05 v0.40
hccb05wp.lha         mods/hardc 145K+Whats Your Preference - Enticer 05
hccb06th.lha         mods/hardc 184K+This is Hardcore - Brutal Tendencies 06
hccb07bg.lha         mods/hardc 157K+BassKick GoForIt Tronix & Enticer 07
hccb08sc.lha         mods/hardc 287K+Smokers Choice by the DJ Enticer 08
ahdistus.lha         mods/jorma  52K+Ahdistus by Naks (Distorted elektro, fro
ph-sain.lha          mods/techn  34K+Samba-technomod - Samba Inferno
nexus.jpg            pix/misc    57K+Cute graffiti picture
toast.jpg            pix/misc    76K+Cute graffiti picture
ad_new.jpg           pix/trace   61K+Raytraced Advanced BBS Logo
GetSize_dt.lha       util/cdity   2K+German catalog for GetSize v1.0

• We have combined Amiga, Inc and Amiga Intl under a single corporate entity. The name of the new company is simply Amiga. Amiga Intl is a subsidiary of Amiga and will remain in Germany under Petro's leadership. As part of this we have combined our Web sites into a single Web site.
• We have secured funding for a significant budget to drive our plans.
• Our executive headquarters have been moved to San Diego.
• We are opening up San Jose engineering facilities to support our rapid engineering expansion.

• In February we officially hired Dr. Allan Havemose as VP of S/W engineering.
• In February we also hired Jim Von Holle as VP of OEM Sales and marketing.
• Allan has hired Richard Lipes from Silicon Graphics as a director of S/W engineering for graphics and A/V.
• Within 2 weeks I will announce a new Chief Technology Officer (CTO) and VP of advanced technology (you will be impressed) as well as a new VP of finance and operations (you will be impressed again).
• In the next few weeks we will begin advertising in major newspapers to recruit engineering resources for our San Jose facility.

• O/S 3.5 - This product is being developed by Haage & Partner under contract from Amiga. The target release date is late July or early August. We will also be talking to Amiga hardware development companies about possibilities for hardware products targeted at the O/S 3.5 release.
• AmigaSoftTM Operating Environment (OE) - We are developing our next generation operating environment including operating system, user interface, and some revolutionary software structures to be disclosed at a later date. Target beta version is 3Q99 with final in late 4Q99.
• Next generation hardware architecture - Being developed as a foundation for all next generation Amiga products.
• AmigaSoftTM development system - This is planned in 3Q99 along with the beta release of the new AmigaSoftTM Operating Environment.
• Initial next generation computer - We are developing the next generation computer that will be used to launch the next generation systems architecture and operating environment. Target release date is late 4Q99.

• Amiga had a strong presence at the St. Louis show. We also spent a significant amount of time talking to leaders in the Amiga community.
• I am planning a trip to Germany and the U.K. in late April in order to discuss future Amiga plans with leaders of the Amiga community in Europe. Petro is coordinating this.
• We are working on supporting and getting finalized plans for a 1999 World of Amiga show in London.
• We are planning for the Cologne show in November.
• We are planning for the Las Vegas Comdex in November.
• Petro is developing reseller, distributor, and magazine support programs to help the Amiga community.
• We are also working on some user group support programs.

EvilsDoom_demo.lha   biz/demo   2.3M+EvilsDoom Demo RolePlayGame
Sword_demo.lha       biz/demo   440K+Sword Demo Jump&Run Game
Wildfire7_3D.lha     biz/demo   742K+Wildfire\7 DEMO (7.14) - 3D Operators
Wildfire7_3DF.lha    biz/demo   453K+Wildfire\7 DEMO (7.14) - 3D Text Operato
Wildfire7_Demo.lha   biz/demo   1.7M+Wildfire\7 DEMO (7.14) MAIN FILES (no)PP
Wildfire7_PPC.lha    biz/demo   384K+Wildfire\7 DEMO (7.14) - PPC Files
GetAllHTML.lha       comm/tcp    15K+Auto-download/check entire web sites! (v
CompressHTML.lha     comm/www    69K+HTML (De)Compressor/Preprozessor (German
RandAnim.lha         comm/www    12K+Start any browser with random xfer anim 
xhatchfiles1_3.lha   comm/xeno   33K+Hatches any file in a FileEchoarea
jrm-guil.lha         demo/sound 463K+DA JoRMaS: Guillotine (a Mekka & Symposi
jrm-ulst.lha         demo/sound 923K+DA JoRMaS: Ulsteri (3rd at The Gathering
scm.lha              dev/lang   660K+Scheme interpreter for R5RS
PManager.lha         dev/misc    45K+Visual C project manager v2.4
Amimag12a.lha        docs/hyper 683K+AmigaGuide version of Amimag
agsaku28.lha         docs/mags  1.7M+AmigaGuide-Saku #28. Finnish diskmag.
saku28d1.lha         docs/mags  456K+Saku #28 (2/99). Finnish diskmag. 1/2
saku28d2.lha         docs/mags  494K+Saku #28 (2/99). Finnish diskmag. 2/2
LatexREKO.lha        game/data  544K+Latex girls cardset for Klondike AGA
startrekprg.lha      game/think 1.0M+Updated Star Trek Game! Hires graphics!
Upgrade40.lha        gfx/misc     2K+Run Photogenics 1.2aSE with OS release 3
AudioMixer.lha       hard/hack    4K+Active Stereo Mixer
uae-app_013.lha      misc/emu    25K+UAE-ADF Mount+Unmount Workbench-Interfac
wlz80core.lha        misc/emu    13K+Wzonka-Lad's FAST GB-Z80 source code
TCalcStats2.lha      misc/math  337K+Statistical Analysis using TurboCalc 5
hccb09tw.lha         mods/hardc 187K+The Terror Within - Brutal T 09
hccb10js.lha         mods/hardc  82K+Justification - Tronix 10
mp3ted.lha           mus/edit     6K+MP3 TAG Editor with GUI
EP_BennDaglish.lha   mus/play     5K+EaglePlayer Benn Daglish external replay
EP_Polski.lha        mus/play    24K+Catalog files for Eagleplayer V2.01
MindSID.lha          mus/play   227K+A nice SID-player with GUI
ProlitePlus.lha      pix/icon   748K+Prolite Icons, YAM2 & DOpus images, etc!
StuBench.lha         pix/wb      56K+My 8 colour WorkBench 3.1 screen
Skriptmanagr13.lha   text/edit  197K+Create Script, AmigaGuide ->simple to do
TransFont_2.2.lha    text/font   54K+Bitmap font code page converter
Guided.lha           text/hyper  46K+Amigaguide editor 
HSCCaps.lha          text/hyper   9K+Generates caps in HTML (src inc.)
GB-Folding.lha       text/misc   11K+Change "return" in GuoBiao chinese text
GBDetect.lha         text/misc   11K+Fix corrupted GuoBiao chinese texts
HanZiPlus.lha        text/misc   57K+HanZiPLUS utilities
Map-GuoBiao.lha      text/misc   15K+Ascii -> GuoBiao chinese texts
Epson_400.lha        text/print  14K+Epson Stylus 400/440 Driver for WB V1.8
Epson_600.lha        text/print  14K+Epson Stylus 600 Driver for WB V1.10
NilNull.lha          util/cli    11K+New NULL device and RunBack replacement
a2h.lha              util/conv    6K+Converts ASCII text to html (V1.00)
HSMathLibs_881.lha   util/libs   73K+Very fast replacement for all math libra
A1200PPC.lha         util/moni    1K+SysSpeed Module - A1200 BlizzardPPC
VClock_1.5.lha       util/time  329K+Real Voice Speaking Clock v1.5

Lexer version 0.22 (05.04.99)
ADDED: The attribute HTTP-EQUIV
ADDED: The attribute CONTENT
ADDED: The attribute BORDER
ADDED: The attribute COLSPAN
ADDED: The attribute SIZE
ADDED: The element TR
FIXED: Tags that are split over several lines
       (caused the duplication bug)
FIXED: The attribute TYPE
CHANGED: Internal changes, v0.22 is
 smaller than the previous version

AFM3.lha             comm/mail   43K+AFM3 - Aminet Ftp by Email (MUI+YAM)
GetAllHTML.lha       comm/tcp    15K+Auto-download/check entire web sites! (v
GnS-Away.lha         demo/aga   1.7M+*WINNER* Demo at TRiP'99 by GENESIS.
pjz_tg99.lha         demo/slide 1.0M+Partyslide and report fresh from TG99.
trp-as1.lha          demo/sound 2.1M+Australian Style #1 by Trip
AsmPro.lha           dev/asm    159K+Asm-Pro V1.16 mc680x0 macro assembler
AFM2_Source.lha      dev/basic   10K+AFM2_01 Source Code for BB2
CNKI.lha             dev/basic   34K+Converts a brush/animbrush to .CNK file
AutodocV132.lha      dev/misc    46K+A really neat autodoc viewer v1.32 (OS3.
AIOPetro.lha         docs/anno   13K+Petro Tyschtschenko interviewed in AIO i
EmailAIO.txt         docs/anno    1K+Get AIO magazine each month via email, t
BAB5_Gde.lha         docs/hyper  38K+Babylon 5 Episode Guide (115a)
ClassesGuide.lha     docs/lists  10K+A Guide of Amiga custom BOOPSI classes. 
Aakt0499HTML.lha     docs/mags  232K+AMIGA aktuell - German infotainment maga
Amiga4ever6.lha      docs/mags  857K+Issue 6 of the German Freeware Mag
JAFEB.lha            docs/misc  243K+JUST-AMiGA mailing list msgs for all of 
jamar.lha            docs/misc  166K+JUST-AMiGA mailing list msgs for all of 
BomberBlaster.lha    game/2play 290K+Work in progress demo of great Super Bom
SpodRacer.lha        game/2play 1.6M+Full version of this Destruction Derby i
DC2Lvl-Jewels5.lha   game/data  524K+99 new Levels for Diamond Caves II
gm_backdrop10.lha    game/data  113K+Replacement Backdrops for F1GP
gm_backdrop11.lha    game/data  181K+Replacement Backdrops for F1GP
gm_cart1999.lha      game/data   15K+Cart Datafile for F1GP
FaYoh.lha            game/jump  435K+Full version of a GianaSisters-style pla
VE-gausedge.lha      gfx/edit     2K+Visual Eng. - Gaussian edge v1.55
VE-gausfeather.lha   gfx/edit     1K+Visual Eng. - Gaussian feather v1.21
VE-logotexture.lha   gfx/edit     2K+Visual Eng. - Logo texture v1.15
VE-primcolors.lha    gfx/edit     2K+Visual Eng. - Primary colors v1.81
VE-shadow.lha        gfx/edit     4K+Visual Eng. - Shadow v3.19
ay-colly6.lha        mods/chip   50K+Collection of the best AY musics for DT.
ballfish.lha         mods/jorma  60K+Ballfish by Pekka Pou (Elektro, from Sun
meeting.lha          mods/jorma 232K+Meeting by Vesuri (House, from Ulsteri)
Freedom_rmx.lha      mods/melod  82K+Spoochy's 13th OctaMed mod.
Maiga_rmx.lha        mods/melod  87K+Spoochy's 15th OctaMed mod.
gethood.lha          mods/piano 144K+Spoochy's 14th OctaMed mod.
tvns-badmix.lha      mods/techn 285K+Spoochy's 17th OctaMed mod.
Denoman.lha          mods/tranc 126K+Spoochy's 12th OctaMed mod.
Traminglo.lha        mods/tranc 170K+Spoochy's 16th OctaMed mod.
bsb.lha              pix/art     38K+An Anti-BSB Pic
RPG-Icons.lha        pix/art     32K+154 Icons painted for never released RPG
Klingons.jpg         pix/mark   265K+Bird-of-Prey, Vor'Cha and Negh'Var
QuesWB.lha           pix/wb      73K+My new style workbench grab :)
RM4mat.lha           text/misc   10K+Remove format code in GB texts (chinese)
CheckX.lha           util/arc    33K+V1.56 Check for Archives/Packers/Viruses
ViNCEd.lha           util/shell 709K+ViNCEd, the final CON: solution. ^Z, TAB
ViNCUpdate.lha       util/shell 212K+ViNCEd, the final CON: solution. ^Z, TAB
StringSnip.lha       util/sys    12K+Much better editing features in string g
KaiClock.lha         util/time   64K+KaiClock V2.2. A clock for WB

svconvert.lha        biz/dopus    6K+Convert pictures using SViewII and Dopus

HomeCINEMA.lha       biz/dbase   95K+V1.22 - THE German Video Database
Flash-300399.lha     biz/p5     940K+30.03.99 CyberStorm PPC/MK3 & Blizzard P
TCounter.lha         comm/misc   47K+Counter for Online-Costs (german) Versio
queso.lha            comm/tcp    13K+QueSO/6.6 find out what OS a host runs
HTTPResume_Ru1.lha   comm/www    43K+Russian localization for HTTPResume v1.5
IBrowseScripts.lha   comm/www   175K+V1.71 Handy scripts for IB and more
WebColour.lha        comm/www    15K+Creates HTML code for coloured text
a2-phtna.lha         demo/aga   3.1M+SHEDULE ONE demo by phase truce & nah-ko
C-P_Frost.lha        demo/aga   1.0M+Frostbyte by Core, 1st at Midwinter99. R
GenderBender_F.lha   demo/aga   859K+GenderBender - Fixed PPC Version
wpz-frozen08.lha     demo/aga   846K+Frozen Pack#o8 - Astrosyn 2 Party Editio
wpz-frozen09.lha     demo/aga   300K+Frozen Pack#o9 - Astrosyn 2 Party Editio
obligement14.lha     demo/mag   825K+Obligement #14 - Famous FRENCH fanzine !
wpz-info04.lha       demo/mag    88K+WhelpzInfo issue#o4. Minimagazine about 
IntuiExtend20b.lha   dev/amos   409K+Extention pour Amos v2.0b/AmosPro v1.12+
BlitzLstMAR99.lha    dev/basic  738K+Messages Posted To The Blitz List Mar 99
audio_in_e.lha       dev/e       11K+Audio examples using audio and ahi devic
CyberAVI_QT_Sr.lha   dev/misc   716K+CyberAVI and CyberQT complete source cod
saved11.lha          disk/moni  103K+Hex editor v1.1, specially for editing s
a590faq.txt          docs/help   20K+How to bring your A590 up-to-date FAQ
CDG201.lha           docs/hyper 207K+List of AMIGA-CDROMs V2.01 (German Only)
loto_f.lha           docs/hyper 480K+French demo version of LotoGUIDE (lotery
Aakt0499GFX.lha      docs/mags  394K+AMIGA aktuell - German infotainment maga
Aakt0499GUIDE.lha    docs/mags   97K+AMIGA aktuell - German infotainment maga
afd-copy-ru.lha      docs/misc    4K+AFD-copyright (russian)
ProGammon.lha        game/board  91K+An interesting game of backgammon. v2.83
pf_demo.lha          game/demo  562K+The upcomming release from Alive. v1.1
superbobdylan.lha    game/jump  546K+A Super Mario-inspired platform game
ovenbird.lha         game/misc  313K+An arcade-adventure - Ovenbird v0.50
ovenbirded.lha       game/misc  239K+Editors for Ovenbird v0.50
civhack.lha          game/patch 197K+Saved game editor for Civilization
WHDKatakis.lha       game/patch  18K+HD Installer for Katakis
WHDStryx.lha         game/patch  29K+HD Installer for Stryx
cblast.lha           game/shoot 1.1M+Fine game like Dungeon Master & Hired GU
Wolf3D.lha           game/shoot  96K+Wolfenstein 3D Amiga Port v0.15 (68k)
JPEG-Box.lha         gfx/conv   209K+JPEG generator for WWW graphics V4.10 (6
PNG-Box.lha          gfx/conv   223K+PNG generator for WWW graphics V4.10 (68
bsdemo.lha           gfx/edit   135K+Demo of vector modular drawing program
SvII-1.lha           gfx/misc   250K+SViewII V8.30 (31.3.99) - Part 1/8
SvII-3a.lha          gfx/misc   135K+SViewII V8.30 (31.3.99) - Part 3a/8
SvII-3b.lha          gfx/misc   213K+SViewII V8.30 (31.3.99) - Part 3b/8
SvII-4.lha           gfx/misc    41K+SViewII V8.30 (31.3.99) - Part 4/8
SvII-5.lha           gfx/misc    51K+SViewII V8.30 (31.3.99) - Part 5/8
SvII-6.lha           gfx/misc    62K+SViewII V8.30 (31.3.99) - Part 6/8 (opti
SvII-7.lha           gfx/misc   113K+SViewII V8.30 (31.3.99) - Part 7/8 (opti
SvII-PPC.lha         gfx/misc   942K+Update for SViewII PPC modules V23.1
SvIIFix830.lha       gfx/misc     5K+*Fix* for SViewII V8.30 (1.4.99)
Show.lha             gfx/show   678K+Cybergfx only picture viewer (040+PPC) V
FMradio.lha          hard/drivr  40K+FMRadio (for Wizard-Radio)
IOBlixSerUpd.lha     hard/drivr  15K+IOBlixZ2 and IOBlix1200 serial driver bu
ScanTrax.lha         hard/drivr 803K+HP/Epson Scanner-Driver V2.2
bluepol.lha          misc/math   65K+Count point position to polygon(+algor.)
adriatic.mpg         mods/mpg   2.9M+Adriatic. Hard/Classictrance (MP3) tune 
bas_ines.lha         mods/wmr   1.0M+IMM: "I've Never Seen" by BASiC
oo-press.lha         mods/wmr   394K+IMM: "Press Play on Tape" by Xyltburk
wolf_cc.lha          mods/wmr   559K+IMM: "The Omega Point" by WolfSong & CC
sciura.lha           mods/xm    462K+Crazy mod without any sense!
WaveTracer.lha       mus/edit   1.0M+Extensive sound-editor/ -converter/ -cre
OverheadFanT3D.mpg   pix/mpg    793K+Volumetric light through a fan.Tornado3D
SJI-Aurora-Pre.lha   pix/nicon  505K+SadJesterIcons Aurora Set Prerelease
DND.lha              pix/wb       8K+Picture of drag`n`drop.library in use.
m2aeur10.lha         text/misc    5K+Convert Microsoft euros to Amiga
wordwrap.lha         text/misc   35K+Reformat ASCII texts to new width, V2.3
DMS2HD1_4.lha        util/arc    42K+Unpacks DMS archives to HD v1.4
Altabber.lha         util/cdity  26K+Windoze-like Alt-Tab 1.5 (w/ source)
SRename.lha          util/cli    51K+Advanced rename/renumber CLI program.
CASCADEv1_0e.lha     util/dir   679K+Multitool for CLI,Dirs,Filemanagment
ilbmdt44.lha         util/dtype   8K+Improved ilbmdt (44.19)
ARC32.lha            util/misc  117K+Aminet Readme Creator 3.2
dreamcdguide.lha     util/misc  214K+256 colours interface for Aminet and Dre
ViNCEd.lha           util/shell 709K+ViNCEd, the final CON: solution. ^Z, TAB
SavInstaller.lha     util/sys   214K+C= Installer replacement (Mar 30, 1999)
DCF77.lha            util/time   29K+DCF77 time signal receiver software
MemMon.lha           util/wb     26K+MemMon 1.92 Monitors mem levels, can giv
Sgrab.lha            util/wb     44K+Screen grabber with GUI (1.10)
TextLoaderNG.lha     util/wb    287K+V1.13 Converts Docs(Word,WPerfect,AWrite
TheBossV2_10b.lha    util/wb    122K+An easy-to-use and powerful system manag
tombraid.lha         util/wb    711K+Tombraider Workbench Theme

Amplifier_Dopu.lha   biz/dopus    0K+Load MPEG AUDIO files into Amplifier wit
DeliTracker2_D.lha   biz/dopus    1K+Load Modules into DeliTracker2 with Dopu
VE-addspaceb.lha     gfx/edit     2K+Visual Eng. - Add space B v1.03
SvII-2.lha           gfx/misc   209K+SViewII V8.30 (31.3.99) - Part 2/8
SvII-8.lha           gfx/misc   211K+SViewII V8.30 (31.3.99) - Part 8/8 (opti
houseBreed.lha       mods/house  40K+A happy house PT module by Breed
lns30jungleEp1.lha   mods/jungl 376K+JungleEp p1 - Devils delegate
lns30jungleEp2.lha   mods/jungl 330K+JungleEp p2 - a lovely bomb
lnsR4_diarrea.lha    mods/jungl 372K+Summer diarrea - jungle
A2-MRb338.lha        mods/misc   30K+Astrosyn`2 - Rebirth-338 music compo ent
astralBreed.lha      mods/techn  36K+A little techno PT module by Breed
lns28_tomatEp1.lha   mods/techn 236K+Tomat Ep p1 - A happy tomato
lns28_tomatEp2.lha   mods/techn 134K+Tomat Ep p2 - meanwhile
lns29_arson.lha      mods/techn 230K+Premeditated arson - techno house
lns31technoEp1.lha   mods/techn 172K+Techno ep p1 - Monster
lns26_hardEp1.lha    mods/tranc 389K+Hardtrance ep p1 - snowblower
lns26_hardEp2.lha    mods/tranc 494K+Hardtrance ep p2 - On sale
lns27_goaEp1.lha     mods/tranc 585K+Goa Ep p1 - empty brain
lns27_goaEp2.lha     mods/tranc 450K+Goa Ep p2 - segregation of objekts
nearBreed.lha        mods/tranc 159K+A little trancy PT module by Breed
RachelRuns.jpg       pix/art    232K+Rachel Raccoon finishes running with a p
A2-G24bit_1.lha      pix/misc   2.2M+Astrosyn`2 - 24bit gfx compo entries [1/
A2-G24bit_2.lha      pix/misc   1.5M+Astrosyn`2 - 24bit gfx compo entries [2/
A2-GAscii.lha        pix/misc     7K+Astrosyn`2 - ascii graphics compo entrie
A2-GPixel_1.lha      pix/misc   1.3M+Astrosyn`2 - pixel compo entries [1/2]
A2-GPixel_2.lha      pix/misc   1.9M+Astrosyn`2 - pixel compo entries [2/2]
A2-GTrace_1.lha      pix/misc   1.1M+Astrosyn`2 - raytracing gfx compo entrie
A2-GTrace_2.lha      pix/misc   2.1M+Astrosyn`2 - raytracing gfx compo entrie
Notes1.5.lha         text/dtp   283K+ProPage4 Notes-print-Genie Deu&Eng
mpgerman.lha         util/misc    3K+German Catalog for Miamiphone V1.5
SummerGer.lha        util/time    3K+German Catalog for sguard V 1.0

From: Titan Computer Amiga Hard&Software <MacFly@TitanComputer.de>
To: Petra Struck <petra.struck@online-club.de>
Date: Thu, 01 Apr 1999 10:18:08 +0100
Subject: Re: mailto:MacFly@TitanComputer.de

Hallo Petra,

Am 27-Mär-99 schriebst Du:
> Hallo MacFly,
>
> ich wende mich nochmal an Euch wegen SiedlerII.
> Es geistern ja mittlerweile jede Menge "News" zu
> diesem Thema durch Netz.

Ja, das ist richtig jeder, jeder User hat seine ganz eigenen "News". Fakt
ist, daß Blue Byte die Lizenz zurückgezogen hat, unter dem fadenscheinigen
Argument, daß sie zu sehr mit der Umsetzung belastet werden würden. Die
einzige Belastung für sie wäre gewesen eine CD mit den nötigen Daten
zusammen zustellen, 2-3 Stunden Arbeit sind das besten Falls.
Wir haben, nachdem diese "Begründung" kam, nocheinmal schriftlich
garantiert, daß wir keinerlei technischen Support Seitens Blue Byte
benötigen. Leider hält es Herr Hertzler nicht einmal für nötig auf unser
Angebot zu reagieren. Also somit ist Siedler 2 für uns gestorben.

>
> Einige sagen, SiedlerII sei komplett gestrichen.
> Meine letzte Info war, daß Ihr von Blue Byte nicht
> den nötigen Support bekommt.

Wir haben alles soweit fertig es fehlen nur noch die Daten von BlueByte.
Aber mittlerweile reicht es mir, denn seit nun mehr als 1 Jahr zieht sich
der Quatsch hin und außer heißer Luft ist bei BlueByte nichts zustande
gekommen. Sie benötigten sage und schreibe 7 Monate, um eine Entscheidung
zu fällen. Die erhielten wir dann Anfang Oktober, da hieß es per Telefon
durch Herrn Simon "Ok, sie haben die Lizenz, schicken Sie uns die Verträge
zu" Gesagt getan und wieder passiert wochenlang nichts, ständig wurden wir
auf neue Termine vertröstet, bis dann im Januar die Absage erteilt worden
war.
Daraufhin habe ich nocheinmal mein Mindestlizenzgebot erhöht, sowie
schriftlich garantiert, daß wir keine Support von Blue Byte in Anspruch
nehmen und auch nach dem Release der Usersupport von uns übernommen wird.


Um mal ein paar positive News abzugeben. Wir haben zusammen mit ACT(Apollo)
und Haage ein PPC G3/G4 Projekt für den A1200 ins Leben gerufen.

Das Twister Projekt zeichnet sich durch folgende techn Merkmale.
(Gerüchteweise haben einige Spezialisten dies als Viper-projekt im Umlauf
gebracht das ist natürlich Quatsch gewesen.)

G3/G4 Karten von 300-450Mhz, 2 Ram Sockel für bis zu 512MB SGram (100Mhz),
512kb 2nd Level Cache, 2MB Flashrom on board für 68xxx Emulation und Karten
Bios, 2 local PCI Slots mit je 100 Mhz für RivaTNT2 Gfx-Karte mit 8MB SGRam
und einem UW-SCSI Kontroller

Der geplante VK für die G3 Karte mit 300 Mhz sind DM 999.- Release 4 Quartal
99

RivaTNT addon DM 349.-
UW-SCSI-Kit   DM 299.-


Bei BurnIT gibt es auch was Neues V2.25 ist released worden:

- Support des Joliet-File Formates
- mpeg3 encoder für das Audiostudio
- Bugfix für Trackanzahl es sind jetzt die vollen 99 Track per CD möglich
nicht nur wie bis
  her 98 (Anmerk. gab wirklich jemanden, der sich wegen diesem einen Track
aufgeregt hat)

Mfg

Michael Garlich

*** E-Mail: MacFly@TitanComputer.de             ***
*** Web   :http://www.TitanComputer.de          ***

Date: 01 Apr 99 14:24:37 +0100
Subject: SViewII PPC/WOS information
To: aakt@gmx.de, petra.struck@online-club.de, webmaster@amiga.org
From: Andreas_Kleinert@t-online.de (Andreas R. Kleinert)

Hi,

 as you may have noticed, SViewII 8.30 and PNG/JPEG-Box V4.10
 now also do offer basic WOS support (although not all of
 the PPC modules already have been converted from .svm to .dll).

 However there did happen a small mistake with the 31 March release,
 so please note the following:

 There's a BIG bug in svppclaunch.library V1.0 and all PPC users should download
 Aminet:gfx/misc/SvIIFix830.lha as well - it does include V1.1 of the library.

 This version already has been detected to have another small bug: LOADELF_WOS=ON
 is default, which should have been =OFF (simply go to SVPrefs and change it
 manually to =OFF).


 P.S.: This isn't an April fools mail ;)

--
Andreas_Kleinert@t-online.de  or via @gmx.de | ARK@News.wwbnet.de
Or try good, old: FidoNet 2:2457/350.18 --- *SuperView* development
PerSuaSiVe SoftWorX - Software Engineering Amiga/Wintel and more
Visit http://wdo.de/ark/ for information, free downloads, registration

Subject: 6/7/8 august 1999: chaos communication camp
Date:    Wed, 31 Mar 1999 22:02:56 +0200
From:    Chaos Update <chaos-update-owner@lists.ccc.de>
To:      "Chaos Update" <chaos-update@lists.ccc.de>

Liebe Hacker,

vor einiger Zeit hat die intergalaktische Kontaktgruppe des CCC ein
Notsignal empfangen: im Raumschiff Herz Aus Gold ereignete sich an Bord
ein schwerwiegender Computerfehler und bedarf nun einer dringenden
Reparatur. Die Kontaktgruppe verständigte sich mit der Bordcrew auf eine
Reparatur unter Gravitationsbedingungen auf unserem Planeten. Die
Vorbereitungen laufen auf Hochtouren und im August wird das Raumschiff
nun endlich landen.

     http://www.ccc.de/camp/story.html

Anläßlich der Ankunft der Herz Aus Gold organisiert der Chaos Computer
Club eine Drei-Tage-Hack-Session im Freien für Nerds, Hacker und Phreaks
aus der ganzen Welt. Die Veranstaltung steht in der Tradition der HEU
(93) und HIP (97) in Holland und damit für viel Spaß am Gerät. Gemeinsam
werden wir die Herz Aus Gold schon wieder flott machen.

     http://www.ccc.de/camp/camp.html

Das Camp findet vom 6. bis 8. August 1999 auf einer Wiese in der Nähe von
Berlin statt. Wir werden die notwendige Infrastruktur für einen
angemessenen Hackerurlaub bereitstellen (Strom, Internet und
Möglichkeiten zur Nahrungsaufnahme) und die Aktivitäten auf dem Gelände
koordinieren.

Du bist eingeladen, Dein Zelt und Deinen Computer mitzubringen und Deine
Geräte an das Campnet und damit an das Internet anzuschließen. Die
Internetverbindung wird befriedigend breitbandig ausfallen. Mehr Details
zur Technik später.

Alle Informationen (zur Zeit nur in englisch) finden sich unter

     http://www.ccc.de/camp

Die deutsche Web Site und eine umfangreiche FAQ sind in Vorbereitung.
Weitere Informationen werden über die camp-announce Mailingliste
erhältlich sein. Wer alle Informationen zum Camp automatisch erhalten
will, kann sich durch eine leere Mail an

     camp-announce-subscribe@lists.ccc.de

auf der Liste eintragen lassen.

Wir hoffen auf eine rege und aktive Beteiligung auf dem Camp (das Camp
wird für 1500-2000 Leute ausgelegt). Wir erwarten eine Vielzahl von
Projekten zu den unterschiedlichsten Themen (Kryptographie, Free
Software, Chipcards, Astronomie, Meteorologie). Wer Lust hat, eigene
Projekte auf dem Camp zu realisieren, sollte sich mit der Orga-Crew in
Verbindung setzen: crew@camp.ccc.de.

Für die Presse wird es besondere Richtlinien geben, die derzeit noch
ausgearbeitet werden. Auch dazu später mehr.

Chaos Computer Club
März 1999

From:    Salva <Salva.Fernandez@rhein-main.netsurf.de>
To:      Petra Struck <petra.struck@online-club.de>
Date:    Wed, 31 Mar 1999 20:54:22 +0000
Subject: G3/G4 Projekt

Hallo Petra,

es gibt erfreuliche Neuigkeiten aus dem phase 5 Lager !

Bitte setze doch diese Mail in Ihrer ursprünglichen Form
in das Netz. Danke

Nachdem ich heute ein ausführliches Gespräch mit Wolf Dietrich
hatte, haben sich folgende neue bzw. ergänzende Tatsachen
heraus kristallisiert.

Das Cyberstorm G3/G4 Projekt wird, nach den ja derart schon
massenhaften Vorbestellungen, die innerhalb kürzester Zeit aufgekommen
sind, in den nächsten 2-3 Wochen aufgegriffen und somit komplett
im Laufe der Zeit realisiert. Eine Vision wird somit wahr.
Wer hätte noch vor Kurzem an eine G3/G4 Beschleunigerkarte
von phase 5 gedacht.
Herr W. Dietrich ist auf Wünsche und Vorschläge der User, Händler,
Programmierer, sowie verschiedenen Entwicklern, eingegangen um
einen weiteren Meilenstein in der Geschichte des Amigas zu setzen.
Herr Dietrich hat die Zeichen der Zeit wahrgenommen um dadurch
auf eine verheissungsvolle Technologie des nächsten Jahrtausends
zu setzen.
Bestandteil des Gespräches war unter anderem auch die Frage nach
einer Grafikkarte. Die existierenden Grafikkarten verfügen derzeit über
einen sehr leistungsfähigen Permedia 2 Prozessor, welche
an einem dafür speziell angefertigten Hochleistungsbus an der
Cyberstorm PPC oder Blizzard PPC angeschlossen wird.
Auf der Cyberstorm G3/G4 soll dieser Grafikkartenanschluß aus
Platz- und kostenbedingten Gründen nicht vorhanden sein.
Deswegen wird derzeit über eine Grafikkarte mit z.B. einem high Speed
3D Grafikprozessor Permedia 3 von 3D Labs und Texas Instruments,
mit z.B. 32MB VideoRAM vehement nachgedacht.

Ein anderer wesentlicher Aspekt bzw. Gesichtspunkt trägt
offenbar die schon ehemals verkündigte Multiprozessor-Technologie.
Hier möchte man gegenüber anderen Computersystemem,
durch die Integration von 2 oder gar 4 ZIF Prozessorsockeln,
dem Amiga einen Vorsprung bieten können.
Man überlege sich z.B. eine Cyberstorm G4 mit zwei 300MHz G4 PPC
Prozessoren zu verwirklichen. Eine solche Karte würde nicht
die Verdopplung des Preises von 899 EURO heisen, sondern könnte z.B.
für ca. 1.199 EURO verwirklicht werden.
Bei vorhandener Software, die die Altivec Technologie der G4 Prozessoren
unterstützt, sind Geschwindigkeitssteigerungen gegenüber dem G3 Prozessor
um gar 4-5 mal schneller, durch aus realistisch. Durch Multiprocessing ist
der Rechner dann wahrhaftig nicht mehr zu "bremsen". ;-)

Hiervon abgesehen können Interessierte weiterhin Vorbestellungen
tätigen, da erst bei Beginn der Erstellung von den ersten Karten die Kunden
nochmals gefragt werden, welche Version Sie denn gerne hätten bzw.
bei zukünftigen Änderungen wird auf Kundenwünsche eingegangen.

Das natürlich jetzt auch noch die Amiga 1200 User unsere Unterstützung
erhalten, ist eine klare Entscheidung, der man nicht oder nur ungern aus-
weichen würden. Das Projekt der Blizzard G3/G4 Karten ist auch hiermit
eindeutig beschlossen und wird mit höchster Sorgfalt entwickelt werden.
Nichts desto trotz ist dies auch eine kleine Reaktion auf anderweitige
Vorankündigungen, die gerade kurz nach unserer plötzlich erscheinen.
Wodurch ein Mitbewerber hier versucht, auf bestimmter Art und Weise auf
dieses Projekt wie auch auf das Geschäft zu intervenieren.
Das ist also ganz meine persönliche Meinung bzw. mein persönlicher Eindruck.
Wie heisst es so schön......Konkurrenz belebt das Geschäft, obwohl
ich in der Hinsicht weniger an die Konkurrenz glaube, als an andere
Sachen....
Die Vergangenheit hat gegenteilige Fakten auf den Tisch gelegt, wie z.B.
das plötzliche nicht Erscheinen auf bestimmten Amiga Messen und so
ne..........

Zum Zeitpunkt sitzen seit 19 Uhr in Frankfurt die führenden und leitenden
Kräfte des Amiga Marktes zusammen, um der Zukunft des Amigas
mit höchster Kreativität und neuen Impulsen die genialen Innovationen
der Firma phase 5 digital products zu unterstützen.

Petro Tyschtschenko, Jürgen Haage sowie Wolf Dietrich beraten
derzeit die Situation des Amigas, um signifikante wie auch
effiziente Pläne für die Zukunft zu schmieden.

Bin gespannt mit welchen ereignisreichen Ergebnissen hierbei
zu rechnen ist.

Die neue, große und hoffnungsvolle Amiga Phase [5;)] hat hiermit begonnen.

Vorbestellungen meiner begeisterten Kumpels, sowie die meinerseits
sind schon längst abgegeben worden. Die Vorauskasse bezahle ich gern,
wenn die Vorankündigungen der Leistungen eingehalten wird. Dann
lohnt sich das Ganze sehr. Wer der Meinung ist, daß ca. 2.000,- DM zuviel
für eine G3/G4 Karte sei, der soll doch bitte sich eine aktuelle Macintosh
Zeitschrift holen und nach den Preisen von G3 ZIF Prozessor-Modulen
Ausschau halten. Er wird bemerken, daß das günstigste G3 400MHz Modul,
wo nur der Prozessor und der Backside-Level-Cache drauf ist, ca. 1.700,- DM
bezahlt. Übrigens ist das günstigste Angebot auch von phase 5. Wer sich
einen
G3 Prozessor-Modul von z.B. NewerTek holt, der wird dann locker noch ein
paar Scheinchen hinlegen müssen.
Somit erhält man für ca. 300,-DM eine Cyberstorm G3/G4 mit 1-4 ZIF Sockeln,
UW-SCSI onboard, zwei SD-RAM Bänke, zukunftsträchtige FireWire Ports,
PCI 2.1 Interface, 1 Direktslot für z.B. eine Permedia 3 GKarte sowie den
512KB FlashROM. Von der 68k Emulation mal abgesehen.
Also was wollt Ihr denn noch ?

In diesem Sinne...........

Where do you want to be tomorrow ?

Gruß

Salva


See you later .....
--

``````````````````````\_______________________________/`````````````````````````
                         |    »»»SALVAFACTORY©«««   |

``````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
AMIGA POWER against monopolism ! Stop that lousy WINTEL-System !

REMEMBER: ITS NOT THE CHIPS OR MIPS......,THE OS IS THE BOSS!

AMIGA 4000T MICRONIK^CYBERSTORM PPC PHASE V DUALBOARD
    WITH MOTOROLA 604e 233MHZ & 68060 66MHZ PROCESSOR
 WITH ULTRA-WIDE SCSI CONTROLLER & IBM DCHS 9 GIG UW-SCSI
152MB-TOTAL-FAST-RAM^CYBERVISION PPC WITH T.I. PERMEDIA 2
`N` 8MB SG-RAM^SILICON GRAPHICS 20" MONITOR^YAMAHA SOUND
ITH ISDN-MASTER II REV.8^MACROSYSTEMS VLAB MOTION SVIDEO
NONLINEAR EDITING STATION WITH TOCCATA SOUND & MOVIESHOP
SOFTWARE^DIGITAL BROADCASTER 32 PROFESSIONAL NONLINEAR
EDITING STATION FROM DIGITAL MICRONIKS^FRAMEMACHINE AND
PRISM 24 S-VIDEO-GRABBER FROM ELECTRONIC DESIGN...........etc.
                                                ///
                                               ///
                                         \\\  ///
                                           \X//
...................and he`s still the SURVIVOR. Long live the Amiga
community.

                        ------AMIGA RULEZ-------

                   DON. SALVADOR FERNANDEZ GOMEZ

                            FON___+49 (0) 6101 500039
                            FAX___+49 (0) 6101 127579
                            BBS___+49 (0) 6101 127579
                            GSM___+49 (0) 172 6532859
                          http://www.aranea.net/~sfernand
                e-mail: Salva.Fernandez@rhein-main.netsurf.de
                       e-mail2: donjuan@stud.fh-frankfurt.de

                    AMIGA - THE LAST LINE OF DEFENSE

From:    Martin Baute <solar@baud.de>
To:      Petra Struck <petra.struck@online-club.de>
Date:    Wed, 31 Mar 1999 12:46:37 +0100
Subject: Hilfe - ISDN?

Hallo,

soeben hat der Postbote mein ISDN-Paket gebracht. Enthalten ist u.a. eine
Fritz!X PC-Box (externes ISDN-Modem).

Nun spricht das Handbuch an allen Ecken von CAPI. Ich hatte bei der Hotline
vor der Bestellung extra gefragt, ob die Fritz!X auch per AT-Befehle an-
gesteuert werden kann, was bejaht wurde.

Nur, im Handbuch steht nix davon!

Du hast doch ISDN? Gibt es da irgendwelche Software, die ich mir besorgen
müßte, oder soll ich auf Teufel komm raus Miami auf die Fritz!X loslassen,
und zusehen, was passiert?

(Wenn's schiefgeht, wäre ich vom Internet abgeschnitten... :-( )

Mit freundlichen Grüssen
--
    Martin Baute          /// Amiga A1200 Towerhawk - PowerPC 603e / MC68060
 => solar@baud.de <=     /// Newsmaster & VersionWatch at http://www.baud.de
Member of Team AMIGA \\\/// Member of the Bielefeld Amiga Users & Developers
100% Microsoft free!  \XX/ "Move, and you're dead." "I am dead, and I move!"

Amiga, MS-DOS, Windows: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly...

Hier noch ein Ausschnitt aus einer zweiten Mail von Martin:

Allerdings habe ich gerade etwas herumexperimentiert, und Miami kann mit
der Fritz!X nicht das geringste anfangen. Sieht so aus, als hätte ich mich
zu früh auf die heile ISDN-Welt gefreut... :-(

Ich werde jetzt erst einmal versuchen, mein 33.6k Modem als Analoggerät
an die Fritz!X anzuschließen. Dann hätte ich immerhin schon mal ISDN-
Telefonie plus 33.6k Internet plus zwei Kanäle plus drei Rufnummern. Auf
die Voice-/Fax-Funktionen sowie den 64k-Zugang werde ich dann wohl
verzichten müssen. (Wozu, zum Henker, habe ich mir eigentlich so voreilig
STFax zugelegt? Gargl... :-( )

Na, vielleicht dann unter OS 5... :-/ Schade, die Fritz!X ist vom Funktions-
umfang her einfach klasse, günstig (149,- DM bei ISDN-Neuantrag) und sehr
leicht erhältlich (1&1, Conrad). Rennt da draußen evtl. irgendjemand rum,
der einen Fossil/CAPI-Treiber für die Fritz!X stricken könnte?

Und noch eine Message ist gerade eingegangen:


On 31-Mär-99, Petra Struck wrote:

> Martin Baute (solar@baud.de)
> schrieb am: 31-Mär-99 um 12:46:37
> zum Thema:  Hilfe - ISDN?

> Hallo Martin,

>> soeben hat der Postbote mein ISDN-Paket gebracht. Enthalten ist u.a. eine
>> Fritz!X PC-Box (externes ISDN-Modem).

Ein Anruf bei der 1&1 Hotline erbrachte folgendes:

Man entschuldigte sich zerknirscht für das Mißverständnis: AT-Befehle
verstünde die Fritz!X nur über einen (mitgelieferten) Spezialtreiber -
für Windows... :-/

Man bot mir an, die Fritz!X zum Differenzbetrag gegen eine Hagenuk
SpeedDragon umzutauschen.

Kurze Frage an die ISDN-Kenner: Taugt die SpeedDragon? Was ich gerne
hätte, wäre 64k-ISDN Datentransfer, Voice, AB, Fax (STFax vorhanden)
und eine Möglichkeit zum Anschluß eines analogen Telefons (letzteres
muß nicht unbedingt, wäre aber nett). Ach ja, und AT-Befehle sollte
sie beherrschen - aber da Miami Voreinstellungen für die SpeedDragon
hat, gehe ich davon mal aus. Bringt die SpeedDragon mir das?
Und was kriege ich an Mehrwert gegenüber der Fritz!X für die 100,- DM
Preisunterschied?

Dann höre ich auch auf zu nerven... ;-)

Regards

    Martin Baute          /// Amiga A1200 Towerhawk - PowerPC 603e / MC68060
 => solar@baud.de <=     /// Newsmaster & VersionWatch at http://www.baud.de
Member of Team AMIGA \\\/// Member of the Bielefeld Amiga Users & Developers
100% Microsoft free!  \XX/ "Move, and you're dead." "I am dead, and I move!"

"If you strike me down I shall become more powerful
than you can possibly imagine."
- Obi-Wan Kenobi

Nachtrag vom 01.04.1999

1&1 zeigt sich kulant: man schickt mir die SpeedDragon, und die Fritz!X
muß ich erst bei Erhalt der SpeedDragon zurückschicken. Preislich lag
wohl ein Mißverständnis vor (die Hotline hatte ja 100,- DM Aufpreis
gennannt), der Versand berechnet nur 30,- DM. Man mailt sich demnächst
mit ISDN...

bulllister.lha       comm/cnet    5K+Bull Lister Version 1.0
KewlStory_12.lha     comm/maxs   49K+Let your callers make up a story, 1.2
MagicFile_46.lha     comm/maxs  178K+Automated file menus & more for MAXs, 4.
EMR-ResTito.lha      demo/aga   3.9M+"Restito" by Embora - 6th at Astrosyn`2
PHT-Schedule.lha     demo/aga   3.1M+"Schedule One" by Phase Truce - 7th at A
DKG-BreezeNow.lha    demo/intro   5K+5th place at Astrosyn'99!
noe_ppc_c2p.lha      dev/asm    195K+Ppc c2p converters (8bpp and 15bpp)
gtshape.lha          dev/basic    3K+Blitz2 - code for fixing GTShapes
FlashROM_11.lha      disk/cdrom  16K+Amiga tool to change the flash ROM of Pl
b5guide.lha          docs/hyper 102K+Babylon 5 Episode Guide
ovenbird_src.lha     game/misc   41K+Source codes for Ovenbird v0.50
RushHour_16a.lha     game/misc  344K+Switch trafficlights, like C64 Traffic
MortalKombat2H.lha   game/patch   5K+MortalKombat2_Hd {4 disks)
PowerView.lha        gfx/show    75K+JPEG Viewer (CGFX and AGA) for PPC-Amiga
PowerView.readme     gfx/show     2K+JPEG Viewer for AGA and PPC (BETA!)
imdbDiff990319.lha   misc/imdb  1.5M+Diffs for the Internet MovieDatabase
mw_trust.lha         mods/wmr   1.4M+IMM: "Trust" by wOOd/Acid Demons
MMULib.lha           util/libs  218K+Library to ctrl the MC68K MMUs, beta
ShowMem.lha          util/moni   15K+Shows memory fragmentation via gfx
BenchTrash.lha       util/wb    185K+Global trashcan for WB, with eject suppo

sakkare.lha          biz/dopus  177K+Awesome theme for magellanII
sshnote.txt          comm/net     0K+Note regarding comm/net/SSH.lha.
GetAllHTML.lha       comm/tcp    13K+Auto-download entire web sites! (v0.61 )
MyHost.lha           comm/tcp     7K+Shows your host on one or all interfaces
FLP-Elthiag.lha      demo/aga   3.3M+"Elthiag" by Floppy - 3rd at Astrosyn`2
UDP_Chat.lha         dev/basic   94K+UDPfuncsV2.3 for Blitz-good for Net game
E-List9811.lha       dev/e      127K+All November 98 msgs on the AmigaE Maili
E-List9812.lha       dev/e       50K+All December 98 msgs on the AmigaE Maili
E-List9901.lha       dev/e       49K+All January 99 msgs on the AmigaE Mailin
E-List9902.lha       dev/e       53K+All February 99 msgs on the AmigaE Maili
AutodocV131.lha      dev/misc    28K+A really neat autodoc viewer v1.31 (OS3.
ReCatItProGRca.lha   dev/misc     5K+ReCatItPro v1.00 Greek catalog
MakeCDdeutschD.lha   disk/cdrom 322K+German documentation for MakeCD V3.2b
BUFF_Gde.lha         docs/hyper 100K+Buffy Vampire Slayer Episode Guide (51)
ACNews_9.lha         docs/mags   62K+E-zine focused on Amiga News: #9-Mar 99
SCSI_PCMCIA.lha      docs/misc  124K+Allows you to connect a SCSI PCMCIA read
startrekanm.lha      game/think 3.1M+Optional Anims My Star Trek Game
startrekprg.lha      game/think 998K+Updated Star Trek Game! Hires graphics!
Sezioni.lha          misc/misc  112K+Sezioni v2.0 DEMO (ITALIAN)
SpaTra06.lha         misc/misc   32K+Spanish Translations Pack 06 v0.10
Totogol.lha          misc/misc  132K+Totogol v3.6 DEMO (ITALIAN)
TotoSei.lha          misc/misc   61K+TotoSei v1.0 DEMO (ITALIAN)
lns22_peasants.lha   mods/techn 169K+British peasants - minimalism
lns23_cranium.lha    mods/techn 247K+My cranium is gone - minimalism
lns13_childe.lha     mods/tranc 281K+Children of the sun - softtrance
lns14_black.lha      mods/tranc 152K+The black death - softtrance
lns15_stack.lha      mods/tranc 296K+Smoke stack - hardtrance
lns16_desert.lha     mods/tranc 211K+Desert hero - hardtrance
lns17_light.lha      mods/tranc 346K+Let there be light - hardtrance
lns18_netto.lha      mods/tranc 405K+Nude in netto - hardtrance
lns19_pressure.lha   mods/tranc 235K+Endangered by pressure - acid+goa
lns20_secret.lha     mods/tranc 181K+Secret world - softtrance
lns21_Ra.lha         mods/tranc 188K+The eye of Ra - softtrance
lns24_coin.lha       mods/tranc 515K+Co-incidence - softtrance remix
lns25_tmt.lha        mods/tranc  31K+The morning trip - goa
bp_melt.lha          mods/wmr   553K+IMM: "Melt" by balistic/DiSC
ds-above.lha         mods/wmr   386K+IMM: "Above the Clouds" by Dawnstar
Sub.lha              pix/anim   844K+Sub anim with sonar sound in IFF-SoundAN
MODiskIcons12.lha    pix/icon   104K+Icons for 3.5" Magneto-Optical disks

From:    "Colin-Stewart Bridge Deady" <csbdeady@mythicz.u-net.com>
Date:    29 Mar 99 23:33:47 +0000
Subject: Summary 13
To:      kosh-general@kosh.net

This is a MIME encoded multipart message. The fact that you are reading
this means you don't have a MIME capable mail program. You might still
be able to read part of the mail's content, but some of it may require
a MIME capable mail reader to decode. Following are some URLs where
you can find MIME-capable mail programs for common platforms:

  Amiga............: MicroDot-II  http://www.vapor.com/
  Unix.............: Metamail     ftp://ftp.bellcore.com/nsb/
  Windows/Macintosh: Eudora       http://www.qualcomm.com/

General info about MIME can be found at:

  http://www.cis.ohio-state.edu/hypertext/faq/usenet/mail/mime-faq/top.html

--=_=8<==MD237000DDB-2E5C69D0==8<=_=
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

Hi all

Summary 13 enclosed. Many thanks to Robert Wise and John Chandler who
helped out with writing it.

It's a long one - a very long one - and I decided to keep John's
excellent contribution in a separate file to reduce the size of the
main file - although admittedly this is a larger_than_average summary.

If we get this many contributions to the general mailing list in the
future I will need help summarising the ML on a regular basis -
alternatively -please- take a lot of topics to the appropriate other
lists as I can't summarise them for lack of time.

Regards
-Bridge


--
http://www.mythicz.u-net.com | csbdeady@mythicz.u-net.com
ICQ:29145054 | DT-MUD:sunsite.auc.dk:4242
Amigan | Vegan | KOSHan Go for a swim in the object sea,
http://www.kosh.net | Storm of the Eye GUI-PBEM http://www.2bp.com/

--=_=8<==MD237000DDB-2E5C69D0==8<=_=
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X-MD2-FilePath: Work:mythicz/ksum13.txt

KOSH [Kommunity Orientated Software Hardware]

Weekly Summary

Week Commencing: 20th March 1999

Number: 013

Mailing List: kosh-general

In the mailing list this week, the following items were discussed. Please do
not email the scribe regarding any of these topics, it is not his job to answer
these questions but merely to report  the topics of conversation. If you have
any queries about this summary, please email ben@kosh.net, stating the Summary
Number, and Mailing List Name, and he will try to answer your queries.

The Summary this week was completed jointly by myself, Bridge Deady, Robert
Wise and John Chandler. I have incorporated Robert's sections into the main
summary but I have enclosed John's separately to allow for different
pagination.

a)

Subject: Keyboard mapping

Summary of debate: An idea posted is that it would be useful if you could swap
                   keys of the keyboard in software. For example, if you wanted
                   to replace "x" with "y" you would just run the appropriate
                   mini application, specify the keys to swap and choose OK.
                   This would allow people who would like keys to be mapped
                   slightly differently to be able to accomplish this.

                   It was further suggested that this could later be
                   implemented in hardware by allowing physical hotswapping of
                   keys on a keyboard. Does USB have the bandwidth and features
                   to enable this?

                   Each key could have the character it represents embedded in
                   it, interfacing through a quick-connect/disconnect plug. An
                   advantage of this is that if a key stopped working you could
                   just buy a new key rather than a new keyboard. If you needed
                   more space for a larger alphabet you could just clip on a
                   new section to the board and populate it with your chosen
                   keys. Perhaps this interfacing could be achieved with PIC
                   chips cut down to size?

                   It was pointed out that this is all part of a larger picture
                   about the ability to input into a computer in a native
                   language. To this end it would be nice to get involvement
                   from people in Asia in KOSH. The system should support many
                   languages as standard (presumably via language objects).

                   Keyboards could be handled via a keyboard driver object. The
                   actual keyboard can be anything the user wants to use. A
                   stream of input messages come from the keyboard which could
                   be unicode characters or special events (eg: Help key)/ If
                   its a smart keyboard (like USB) it will automatically start
                   the correct driver.

                   Suggested that a lot of what has been said could be
                   accomplished by a configurable touch screen although it
                   would lack tactile feedback. Tactile feedback could possibly
                   be handled via a gell that becomes progressively harder as
                   an electric field is applied to it - at the points where it
                   is pressed.


                   Different keyboard input objects based on Unicode could
                   handle any input required. Alternatively have an intermediate
                   object between the keyboard input object and the input
                   handler object, which may translate.

                   The Dworak keyboard that maps the most used keys closest to
                   where one has ones fingers was mentioned.

                   Could each key have a LED like the one on the Amiga Caps
                   Lock key?




b)

Subject: Cooling KOSH (was Waterproofing KOSH)

Summary of debate: Perhaps by using conductive fluid pipes in the computer one
                   could cool it.

                   Another idea would be to have slots on top of the machine
                   (not the side where they currently are), but this would take
                   us back to the first problem - coffee spills and dust.
                   Therefore the slits could be at the top edges of the case
                   facing out of either side with a slight V-shape in the
                   inside top of the case directing hot air that rises to these
                   outlets. Any foreign bodies entering these outlets could be
                   made to fall down channels in the inner side of the machine
                   and hopefully not enter the fragile innards.


c)

Subject: Chunky pixel and bit plane graphics modes

Summary of debate: When we get around to designing KOSH graphics cards can we
                   try to use the advantages of both systems mentioned above?

                   By connecting the vsync signal from the graphics card to a
                   hardware interrupt pin on the CPU we can make real-time
                   window dragging look smooth and fluid.

                   KOSH should use the inbuilt interrupt feature of many
                   graphics cards to accomplish this.

                   KOSH graphics cards could contain some form of copper, maybe
                   a more advanced version that allows 2D operation (which
                   would speed up the GUI).

                   Further questions raised: do we want a graphics card at all
                   when instead we could use a modular design, keeping the RAM,
                   DAC and custom chips as separate, scalable and optional
                   modules?

                   Do we want shared memory for graphics, data and sound like
                   the Amiga's chip RAM?



d)

Subject: Memory protection

Summary of debate: Would it be possible with today's memory management units to
                   protect private members of a single object?

                   Dave Haynie has previously suggested a system using flexible
                   context objects, which can live in at least four different
                   protection levels (app, global, object, and system).

                   Only if you wanted to devote a large chunk of memory to each
                   such object. An MMU, for good reason, works in page-sized
                   increments.

                   Could there be a standard way to lock an object in memory
                   for reading and writing to prevent another task or person
                   from changing the object that is curently being used?

                   Only if you wanted to devote a large chunk of memory to each
                   such object. An MMU works in page-sized increments.

                   However from the Amiga we can see that a system can be
                   stable without protection - it also shows where protection
                   is needed.

                   Only write-protection is needed to avoid having
                   applications trash each other's memory. However security
                   reasons would mean that you may not want someone to scan all
                   your documents and therefore read-protection is also needed.

                   What mechanism might exist to identify methods that a given
                   object understands? How would it be possible to tell that a
                   particular subclass of text object manipulator understands
                   font styles or not, or some similar thing? Not necessarily
                   determining whether it responds to a specific method, but
                   whether it has an equivalent method.

                   To physically protect objects from being altered by
                   malfunctioning classes each object could have its own memory
                   space. Knowing when to protect the object is as important as
                   actually protecting it.


e)

Subject: Book recommendations

Summary of debate: Booch's book about Object Oriented Analysis and Design,
                   (Grady Booch. 0-8053-5340-2) comes recommended.
                   Also recommended is Software Inspection by Gilb and
                   Graham (0-201-19246-2, 0-201-63181-4), which gives good
                   ideas about how to increase the quality of software.

                   Scribe's note: Books are summarised on the kosh booklist
                   website - see a previous summary for the URL.



f)

Subject: KOSH training

Summary of debate: Many people involved with KOSH may not that well versed in
                   the technology behind the proposals. Mario Saitti is willing
                   to help set up a system for KOSH to teach structured
                   programming methodology/Data Structures/SSADM/computational
                   to anyone interested.

                   Suggested that we should be thinking about teaching OO, not
                   structured programming. Structure programming doesn't really
                   go well with the object sea.

                   OO Design could also be a very valuable skill for all KOSH
                   members.

                   Could such training "courses" actually be devised?
                   Supplementing such training with books was recommended.


g)

Subject: Against hosted

Summary of debate: One scribe-e pointed out that they are against running hosted
                   versions of KOSH. Their reasoning is that there may be little
                   point in redefining computing to use modern methodology if we
                   put it atop of a base that is at least 20 years old. While
                   ensuring market compatibility is the compromise worth it?


h)

Subject: Why there should be an Object Sea

Summary of debate: One scribe-e pointed out they currently view the object sea
                   as just a set of descriptors and protocols made up of sub
                   classes which determine how the system will handle the
                   object.

                   The advantages of this approach include the fact that it
                   promotes really serious, heavy use of code reuse and
                   polymorphism. Together, these can lead to both better
                   performance and far more reliable code. It is then easy to
                   add behaviours to the system.

                   why is there a need for a frozen form?

                   A datatype still needs to open the JPEG file, close it later,
                   perhaps committing or forgetting edits at the same point.


i)

Subject: COMAL, REBOL, JIT & Basic KOSH

Summary of debate: Should KOSH come with a BASIC-like interpreted language?

                   A COMAL interpreter included with KOSH as standard was also
                   suggested. COMAL is very widely supported.

                   How about REBOL which is a messaging based interpretive
                   language currently going towards version 2.0 and developed
                   by Carl Sassenrath? See: http://www.rebol.com <=Some like
                   REBOL, others are less impressed.

                   Why bother with an interpreted language when with KOSH we
                   are thinking of the possibility of programs compiling at
                   either install or run time from a slim binary type of
                   format? How about a JIT compiled language as we would not
                   lose significantly in time that way?

                   Suggested is making a computer language that is more like
                   the equations that scientists and people in general have
                   been using all their life. Pointed out that we may not want
                   to create a new language. Mentioned that instead of a
                   compiled language one that halts and hilighted errors would
                   be good.

                   The standard compiler shipped with KOSH could be simple with
                   a more advanced highly optimised version available for
                   purchase.

                   In regard to OO rather than structured programming, see
                   Farenheit at http://www.sgi.com for some of the newest
                   declarative systems.


j)

Subject: CORBA links

Summary of debate: See:
                   http://www.corba.org ? Try searching for papers and AOOC.
                   http://www.cetus-links.org/ have some links that might be of
                   interest.

                   Also see: http://www.omg.org (or something similar) - the
                   parent organization is something like "Open Management
                   Group".




k)

Subject: Structured design methodology

Summary of debate: Suggested that we could all write a few lines on structured
                   design methodology and someone could summarize it for the
                   glossary.


l)

Subject: Accessing KOSH (continued)

Summary of debate: A completely aural interface for the system could be very
                   useful for those who are completely blind.

                   However this could have disadvantages such as if the
                   interface was left turned on next to a radio. Perhaps
                   preface commands to the computer with another word (aka Star
                   Trek).

                   Any audio control should be able to understand conceptual
                   terms - most likely via some AI.

                   A true 2-colour screen could be useful for someone who is
                   colourblind.

                   Avoiding colour clash (a form of colour blindness) when
                   certain colours are placed on other colours should be
                   paramount in KOSH.

                   Braille keyboards and a Braille screen were further
                   suggested.

                   Circular radar like pulses going to a mouse pointer when you
                   press a shortcut key could be used to help keep track of the
                   pointer.

                   The Amiga and Mac ability to flash the screen when there is
                   an error as well as provide a beep should be included.

                   We should also look at alternatives to keyboard + mouse
                   including joystick control amongst many possibilities.

                   Mario Saitti has suggested that issues like these would need
                   an entire working group of their own.



m)

Subject: DLL's

Summary of debate: Was mentioned by a number of people that we should stay away
                   from a system similar to Windows DLL files as these can
                   create severe problems when things go wrong.


n)

Subject: Garbage collection

Summary of debate: Garbage collection from LISP could be used. Object Seas
                   based on their existence are suggested as the way to go.


o)

Subject: Localised languages

Summary of debate: Locale on AmigaOS allowed easy adaptation to many languages.
                   By incorporating this in some form into KOSH the system as a
                   whole becomes even more inclusive.

                   To fully internationalise KOSH it was suggested that a
                   mixture of languages should be useable at once. An example
                   given was Swedish in a wordprocessor but something else in
                   the other applications.

                   KOSH from the ground up should be designed to be flexible
                   and powerful in respect to language implementation including
                   Kanji which appears to be very complex.


p)

Subject: Punch cards

Summary of debate: KOSH should support punch cards as there is a lot of data
                   stored on them which is currently difficult to access.

                   It was pointed out that this could be achieved by placing
                   the punch card in a scanner and then interpreting the
                   resulting picture.


q)

Subject: KOSH-OO-help ML

Summary of debate: A mailing list with the above title was suggested by John
                   Gustafsson so him, Dave and others can post a mail now and
                   then about something about OO and those interested could
                   talk about it.


r)

Subject: Get together

Summary of debate: Suggested we should all get together to celebrate the
                   release of KOSH 1.0 when it is out. Joel Newkirk wants to
                   know if we want to go to a party at his place? Such an
                   opportunity will give us all a chance to meet each other.
                   Dave Haynie then goes and invites us all to his place for a
                   Summer party in the year 2000 - what a nice gesture!. Mario
                   Saitti then makes further offers around the theme of a get
                   together.

                   Oh and ideas for the place to celebrate KOSH 2.0 are coming
                   in now as well:P


s)

Subject: Hardware Procurement WG

Summary of debate: Joel Newkirk suggests the above working group to establish
                   means of procuring hardware for testing, kommunity needs,
                   individual purposes, etc at the lowest available prices.
                   Maybe establish a specific physical/legal base in the state
                   of Delaware, which is conveniently free of sales tax, yet in
                   a convenient location at the heart of the US East Coast
                   Metro-Belt.


t)

Subject: Users as objects

Summary of debate: Suggested that we could tread users as objects or a set of
                   objects, with permissions for various things and levels
                   being objects or object-related as well.

u)

Subject: Multiuser systems

Summary of debate: Mentioned that would we need a multiuser system? With KOSH
                   being designed so that it is fast, easy and fun to use
                   rather than a mainframe OS with terminals and users perhaps
                   multiuser is unnecessary.

                   However multiuser systems may be a must for any connected
                   computer. File sharing would be hard and inefficient without
                   a multiuser system.

                   The multiuser model could be defined and then set the single
                   user model as the degenerate case.

                   By being able to boot the system into a configuration mode
                   that is free of user context software and hardware could be
                   easily added globally.

                   Data, applications and hardware could all be user-specific
                   (with the ability to add other users) or global in their
                   availability. Therefore we could have just one KOSH
                   distribution with many different levels of users. Sharing
                   like this could also be done over a network.

                   If every KOSH machine is fully multi-user it would mean that
                   identifying oneself to any machine would allow access to all
                   of that users resources and settings. Suggested that KOSH
                   should see multiuser as adding "personal" resources and
                   access privileges to the generic system.


v)

Subject: Resolving handles

Summary of debate:  Resolving handles and finding methods/interfaces is likely
                    to take at least some processor time. Suggested these
                    things could be cached.

                    Further suggested is that we could have some objects built
                    at install time and updated at runtime if applicable, to
                    handle the resolving, on the machine the application or
                    object's installed on. The OS then wouldn't have to do a
                    new complete resolve each time the object were to be
                    invoked.


w)

Subject: KOSH Vocabulary WG

Summary of debate: Ruward F. Leenstra has suggested that it is time to create
                   the above named working group. As this will help with
                   reading Dave's paper on the Object Sea by defining and
                   explaining the terms contained within it.

                   A lot of interest was shown in this idea.


x)

Subject: KOSH FAQ

Summary of debate: Suggested that for subjects covered by KOSH mailing lists we
                   could have a frequently asked questions section of the web
                   site.


y)

Subject: Object synchronization

Summary of debate: One of the concepts arising in the discussions is the ability
                   to synchronize object by transferring the events (methods)
                   from one system to another. If the objects in question are
                   identical then no problem exists. If they are different, but
                   significantly similar then the same effect could be achieved,
                   in a limited fashion. The question is how can we determine
                   what methods a given object will respond to, and if those
                   methods are globally standard or intrinsic to that object?

                   By looking at the objects class hierarchy, the class
                   definition will determine the methods an object will
                   understand.

                   Suggested that we let the object manager be responsible for
                   almost everything related to this.  Instead of calling an
                   object directly or using an object that pre-exists, we could
                   call the object manager to rebuild an appropriate object. All
                   calls to the object manager should be abstract under this.

                   Object Synchrony developed as an approach where two compatible
                   objects on different systems are synchronized by duplicating
                   the events therein or methods sent thereto between 2+ objects.

z)

Subject: Alternatives to the monitor

Summary of debate: Audio cues discussed in depth. They have advantages over
                   simply enlarging the text on screen, although having the
                   ability to work split at the OS level (not just in
                   applications) with one half at 100% magnification and the
                   other at anything you choose would be neat.

                   See http://www.cast.org - Center for Applied Special
                   Technology. Part of their purpose is to expand the
                   accessibility of computers. Their Blobby tool at
                   http://www.cast.org/blobby is very useful to check web pages
                   for accessibility.

                   Suggested KOSH could contact relevant organisations (eg:
                   Royal Society for the Blind in the UK) and tell them that we
                   are interested in getting opinions of our ideas from
                   experts in the field, and that we are eager to try to
                   incorporate capabilities they can show to be helpful.

                   It was stated by someone who is visually impaired that a
                   windowing system is useless for the blind and if you are
                   otherwise visually impaired such a system is poor.


1a)

Subject: Window shapes

Summary of debate: At the moment almost all windows are rectangular. If KOSH
                   implemented a form of masks from the outset the windows
                   could be any shape desired.


1b)

Subject: VB Problems

Summary of debate: See the following re Visual Basic and problems with it:
http://www.vb-zone.com/upload/free/features/vbpj/1999/mckinney/mckinney1.asp#1


1c)

Subject: Mouse movement

Summary of debate: The mouse pointer in KOSH must not be jerky, it must be
                   completely fluent.


1d)

Subject: More mouse control

Summary of debate: A small trackball under the finger on top of a mouse could
                   be used in addition to the mouse itself for panning and
                   zooming etc.

                   How about a horizontal wheel as well as the vertical one.

                   Mice that sense rotation were suggested.

                   Pointed out that if the drivers were written better the
                   support for the mouse could be automatic without an
                   application exactly having to support it.

                   A trackball or a trackpad in the center of a split keyboard
                   was suggested as an alternative.


1e)

Subject: Cartesian Coordinates

Summary of debate: Cartesian Coordinates were suggested to be used with the
                   Object Sea as 2D and 3D objects. However they can be
                   difficult to deal with a lot of non-rectilinear objects and
                   waveforms.


1f)

Subject: Alternative caching method

Summary of debate: Could we create a new 'protected' directory object that is
                   accessible only to the parent task and appears and
                   disapears along with it? This could be useable to get
                   around a new EU ruling that caching is against copyright
                   law.


1g)

Subject: Mutual NDA

Summary of debate: To protect KOSH work and the work of individuals involved it
                   may be necessary at some stage in the future to use mutual
                   non disclosure acts in some areas of the Kommunity - namely
                   in certain Working Groups set up for certain reasons. Anyone
                   could have access to this but they would have to sign a
                   mutual NDA with KOSH, Inc. to gain access.


1h)

Subject: High Performance Computing Users (HPCU) Group Annual Conference

Summary of debate: See: http://www.hpcu.org re the above, or the email posted
                   by Giorgio Gomelsky (gio1@interport.net) on the 26th March
                   entitled "Fwd: Computers/computation/standards" which is a
                   forwarded message calling for computer papers on an array of
                   topics.


1i)

Subject:  Using a new object model rather than an existing one.

Summary of Debate:  Several features were proposed for the KOSH object
                    model which do not exist in current object models
                    (specifically C++'s.)  One of these features is
                    method transparency/translucence.  Using this
                    feature it is possible to create a transparent/
                    translucent container class which receives methods
                    and passes those methods along to the objects the
                    class contains.  Method transparency/translucence
                    can be utilized by an object to "broadcast" a
                    method to many recieving objects.  There was some
                    concern that this would be wasteful, in that during
                    a broadcast many objects could receive methods they
                    do not implement, and be forced to ignore those
                    methods.  Used appropriately, however, the ability
                    to "broadcast" methods would be a powerful tool.
                    An example of a translucent container would be a
                    generic-disc-object-container.  This would be a
                    container class that held all the information
                    necessary to store an object that exists in memory
                    on the disc.  The advantage of this is that while
                    the object is in memory it is not burdened with the
                    information about how it is stored on disc, and the
                    information about how to store an object on disc
                    can be implemented once, rather than over and over
                    again for each class.

                    Another feature proposed for the KOSH object model
                    was bidirectional polymorphism.  Here methods can
                    be sent to a class which does not implement those
                    methods but may implement them at some point in the
                    future.


1j)

Subject:  "Model-View-Controller" GUI Implementations

Summary of Debate:  Under this common method for GUI implementation
                    each GUI component is broken into three pieces.
                    The Model consists of the logical representation of
                    the component, the View consists of the visible
                    representation of the component, and the Controller
                    consists of mechanisms to which the component
                    responds.  This model originated in Smalltalk and
                    is used in QNX and in modified form in Java
                    JFC (SWING)


1k)

Subject:  Polymorphism

Summary of Debate:  Polymorphism was described as a subclass being
                    functionally the same class as it's parent class.
                    It was noted that this would be useful when
                    attempting to synchronize heterogenous objects.  As
                    long as the objects shared a common ancestry they
                    would have a set of common methods.  C++ uses
                    "pure virtual methods" in it's handling of
                    polymorphism, which are methods that are left
                    unimplemented in a parent class and must be
                    implemented in all subclasses of the parent.


1l)

Subject:  Object Links

Summary of Debate:  Anyone wanting to read more about object
                    orientation should check out the following:
                    Very Introductory Stuff
                    http://www.soft-design.com/softinfo/objects.html
                    Smalltalk ("Squeak" is a popular free subset
                    implementation)
                    http://www2.ncsu.edu/eos/info/ece480_info/project/
                        spring96/proj63/www/index.html
                    http://squeak.cs.uiuc.edu/
                    http://www.ddj.com/articles/1999/9901/9901k/
                        9901k.htm (funny)
                    http://www.stic.org/

                    Eiffel
                    http://www.eiffel.com/doc/manuals/language/intro/
                        page.html

                    Java
                    http://128.95.4.112/homes/gjb/doc/java-lang/
                        index.htm
                    http://www.javasoft.com/docs/books/tutorial/
                    http://www.javasoft.com/beans/docs/spec.html


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Object Technology & Resources Summary

** Efficiency, Flexibility & Classes

The discussion mentioned the trade-offs required to balance efficiency and flexibility. Concerns about
making unnecessary calls to objects which may not implement a specified method was countered with the
fact that broadcasting requests can often be more efficient than implementing suitability tests.

It was also pointed out that it is better to build an object in runtime from appropriate classes using
predefined methods. An 'upgrade flag' would be present in the system: objects could be 'frozen' to assist
with performance, but re-built by the object manager during each upgrade. Classes unable to fulfil a
functional requirement are ignored - this leaves a missing function, but is highly unlikely to cause
anything to fail.

Properties of objects shouldn't be restricted in general - UI characteristics, for example, could
legitimately be inherited by 'non-UI' objects in order to, say, provide display and user-interaction
parameters. Developing hybrid weirdity (great term!) is another reason for being able to want methods
mutating, but without the object code changing. A functional flow interface with user interaction provides
an example of this: streaming data and live interaction with adaption being performed - methods adapting
to the quality and quantity of data to change the visualisation. Dynamic artwork is also mentioned, as is
being able to change colour representation or whatever. To quote Paula Lieberman:

	"let's add some purple dye up there at time N, and at time N+1 change the dye to yellow, and
	when I press the Escape key, make it violent chartreuse with an A minor chord on a organ sample
	at fff....."

In essence, you need to be able to ensure the flexibility is there to cope with the things we didn't
originally anticipate. [John's note: truly creative stuff comes from really bending things totally out of
shape - if you can't do that, creativity is limited]. The needs of users can often be different from the needs
of programmers, which suggests we must make it easy for developers to create the software the users
want, and not their own 'toy pet'.

** Selfmodifying Code

Comments on selfmodifying code spawned some interesting points. Experience of LISP has given a sour
opinion of selfmodifying code to many, and it is indeed a bad idea in most cases (selfmodifying code, that
is - not LISP!). Modern computers, with varying cache capabilities, can easily have performance
degraded by selfmodifying code. Well, if you do it wrongly it can - but if you do it right it can improve
things quite considerably. [John's note: compare to the issue of 'goto' - while a bad thing for almost all
situations, it does have its uses when handled properly].

The cache problem can be handled sufficiently by flushing the first level cache. However, as cache sizes
get bigger and more processors are added you have more caches to flush. The Intel Merced, for example,
will probably have an 8 MB cache, and be present in multiple-CPU configurations.

Furthermore, it's important not to get confused about what selfmodifying code is:  it's code directly
changed during execution. However, if this code is actually rewritten to cover different cases as multiple
sections of code accessed through conditional branching you can develop alternatives for most uses of
selfmodification without cache problems and the like which can degrade performance. Of course, you
could create versions of functions/methods for a given system and just swap a pointer to direct code to the
right method - selfmodification would then only occur at the moment code is first loaded up. It was
mentioned that selfmodification should even be physically forbidden through techniques such as write-
protection of memory.

Are some of us trying to out-optimise modern optimising compilers by any means necessary? Apart from
keeping code compact (not really much of a necessity these days and still achievable through other means)
selfmodification can be replaced by more considered, structured programming approaches.

** Structured Programming

Ah, structured programming... In particular, criticism about universities and other institutions
(particularly in the west) not placing enough emphasis on structured design and programming techniques.
[John's note: Oxford Brookes University, UK taught me structured programming and design with great
emphasis, so not all universities are bad].

Good languages mentioned for teaching structured programming included Pascal and Modula-2 (praise to
Wirth!) as well as Java, while C and C++ came under fire for being unnecessarily complex,
unstructured and unfriendly. C++ has also helped destroy some companies, apparently! [John's note:
Sounds like C++ and ISO 9000 are related...]


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AMIGA-aktuell-Special +++ AMIGA-aktuell-Special +++ AMIGA-aktuell-Special

Phase 5 mit Aenderungen, Preissenkungen und A1200-G3/G4-Boards (29.03.99)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------

Die Ereignisse ueberschlagen sich: Nachdem vor wenigen Tagen auch die Firma
Metabox G3-Boards angekuendigt hat, zieht nun Phase 5 mit einer Reihe von
Aenderungen nach. So soll es nun auch G3/G4-Karten fuer den A1200 geben.
Desweiteren wurden die Preise der A3000/4000-Boards gesenkt, bei
gleichzeitiger Integration neuer technischer Features.
Hier die englischsprachige Ankuendigung, die deutsche wird, wenn sie
rechtzeitig erscheint, in AMIGA aktuell 4/99 zu finden sein:

»Note for german readers / Hinweis fuer deutsche Leser: Die deutsche
Version dieser erweiterten Ankuendigung wird am 31.03.99 ins Web gesetzt.
Wir bitten um Ihr Verstaendnis, dass wir derzeit einen kurzen Vorlauf fuer
englische Ankuendigungen haben.

phase 5 digital products is excited to announce that the next step in
ground-breaking technological progress will take place soon. Since we
first announced the Cyberstorm G3/G4 project just 10 days ago, the
overwhelming response by the Amiga Community has not only convinced us to
extend the original Cyberstorm G3/G4 project to an extended Amiga G3/G4
product line. Driven by the excitement of so many Amiga users, we have
spent many hours of additional consideration meanwhile, discussing the
requests and demands by the user community, and going into technical
details and cost optimization. Today we can present some exciting news,
which also make some of the statements of the original announcement and
the update obsolete already. However, if you had not informed yourself
about this development before, please read these original announcements
which contain information about conditions and time frames for this new
product generation.

Following the history of world's most established processor upgrade
technology for Amiga computers, and implementing the experience of the
innovator who made the PowerPC technology for the Amiga a reality, we at
phase 5 digital products have also decided to make this new technology
available to a much larger user base, and doing what we always did in the
past years with our stunning products: Offer more value for less money!
And that's what we will be doing again - so go ahead and read about the
new additional features at the new lower prices!

New models: By introducing a second product, the Blizzard G3/G4, we will
also provide the stunning G3/G4 technology and performance to the users of
A1200 Tower systems. Two models - one with G3 and one with G4 processors -
can be ordered now. We are also now taking orders for the 300MHz G4
version of the Cyberstorm G3/G4.

New features: All G3/G4 boards from phase 5 digital products come with SCSI
on board - UltraSCSI on the A1200 versions, UltraWide SCSI on the
A3000/A4000 version. Our proven SCSI technology, which has been providing
unmatched performance since seven years, will provide full backwards
compatibility with existing SCSI devices. But even more than that: With
the integration of 400Mbit/s FireWire ports, all our G3/G4 boards open the
door to this future industry standard, including the world of digital video
devices

New prices: By proceeding with the related projections and calculations,
and going into the details, we have been able to determine new and
improved pricings which will make these stunning products even more
attractive. Plus, we have changed the pricing to EURO (for Europe) and US$
(for outside Europe).

New Order & Prepayment conditions: In order to proceed quickly with the
finalization and production of this new product line, we still require the
originally announced quantity of back orders with a prepayment deposit. All
customers who support our development will receive a major discount, as
announced before (please see below for the new prices and discounts for
the different models). But phase 5 digital products is also ready to take
orders now without prepayment, for the suggested retail prices listed for
the different products. These orders will not be shipped by phase 5
digital products directly, but forwarded to local dealers and
distributors.

So far the overview of the major changes in the project. Now here comes the
list of the extended and updated new G3/G4 product line for the AMIGA by
phase 5 digital products. Right now, users can choose out of the following
four models:

BLIZZARD G3/300 for A1200 Tower systems

   o 300 MHz PowerPC750 processor with 1MB fast Backside-Cache

   o Ultra SCSI on board for backwards compatibility with a large number of
     existing SCSI devices, providing a performance of up to 20MB/s

   o Three 400MBit FireWire ports (IEEE-1394), allowing the connection of
     up to 63 devices, and opening the world of digital video to the AMIGA

   o up to 1 GB SDRAM

   o PCI-Bridge-Connector: This interface, a fully PCI 2.1 compliant
     implementation, allows the connection of PCI devices or PCI
     backplanes, thus allowing the expansion of the Amiga with all kinds
     of industry standard hardware products

   o suggested retail price of EURO 669.00 (Europe) or US$ 729.00 (outside
     Europe)

   o Customers who are ready to pay a prepayment deposit of EURO 125 / US$
     140 will take advantage of the discounted prepaid price of EURO
     589.00 or US$ 639.00 including worldwide free postal delivery - and,
     of course, will be among the first to receive their Cyberstorm G4
     board!

BLIZZARD G4/300 for A1200 Tower systems

   o 300 MHz PowerPC7400 processor (G4 with Altivec) with 1MB fast
     Backside-Cache

   o The breathtaking multimedia performance of the 128-Bit Altivec vector
     processing unit will open new dimensions to all kind of applications
     which are optimized on the G4 chip

   o Ultra SCSI on board for backwards compatibility with a large number of
     existing SCSI devices, providing a performance of up to 20MB/s

   o Three 400MBit FireWire ports (IEEE-1394), allowing the connection of
     up to 63 devices, and opening the world of digital video to the AMIGA

   o up to 1 GB SDRAM

   o PCI-Bridge-Connector: This interface, a fully PCI 2.1 compliant
     implementation, allows the connection of PCI devices or PCI
     backplanes, thus allowing the expansion of the Amiga with all kinds
     of industry standard hardware products

   o suggested retail price of EURO 749.00 (Europe) or US$ 829.00 (outside
     Europe)

   o Customers who are ready to pay a prepayment deposit of EURO 125 / US$
     140 will take advantage of the discounted prepaid price of EURO
     659.00 or US$ 729.00 including worldwide free postal delivery - and,
     of course, will be among the first to receive their Cyberstorm G4
     board!

CYBERSTORM G3/400 for A3000/A4000 systems

   o 400 MHz PowerPC750 processor with 1MB fast Backside-Cache

   o UW-SCSI on board, providing a performance of up to 40MB/s and
     backwards compatibility with a large number of existing SCSI devices

   o Three 400MBit FireWire ports (IEEE-1394), allowing the connection of
     up to 63 devices, and opening the world of digital video to the AMIGA

   o up to 1 GB SDRAM

   o PCI-Bridge-Connector: This interface, a fully PCI 2.1 compliant
     implementation, allows the connection of PCI devices or PCI
     backplanes, thus allowing the expansion of the Amiga with all kinds
     of industry standard hardware products

   o suggested retail price of EURO 949.00 (Europe) or US$ 1049.00 (outside
     Europe)

   o Customers who are ready to pay a prepayment deposit of EURO 125 / US$
     140 will take advantage of the discounted prepaid price of EURO
     829.00 or US$ 919.00 including worldwide free postal delivery - and,
     of course, will be among the first to receive their Cyberstorm G3
     board!

CYBERSTORM G4/300 for A3000/A4000 systems

   o 300 MHz PowerPC7400 processor (G4 with Altivec) with 1MB fast
     Backside-Cache

   o The breathtaking multimedia performance of the 128-Bit Altivec vector
     processing unit will open new dimensions to all kind of applications
     which are optimized on the G4 chip

   o UW-SCSI on board, providing a performance of up to 40MB/s and
     backwards compatibility with a large number of existing SCSI devices

   o Three 400MBit FireWire ports (IEEE-1394), allowing the connection of
     up to 63 devices, and opening the world of digital video to the AMIGA

   o up to 1 GB SDRAM

   o PCI-Bridge-Connector: This interface, a fully PCI 2.1 compliant
     implementation, allows the connection of PCI devices or PCI
     backplanes, thus allowing the expansion of the Amiga with all kinds
     of industry standard hardware products

   o suggested retail price of EURO 899.00 (Europe) or US$ 989.00 (outside
     Europe)

   o Customers who are ready to pay a prepayment deposit of EURO 125 / US$
     140 will take advantage of the discounted prepaid price of EURO
     779.00 or US$ 859.00 and worldwide free postal delivery - and, of
     course, will be among the first to receive their Cyberstorm G4 board!

All prices do not include VAT / MwSt. or any other local taxes or duties
which may apply. Specifications and prices are subject to change.

A note about Software: For the add-on features such as the SCSI interfaces
or the FireWire ports, phase 5 digital products will provide the necessary
software tools and drivers, and also cooperate with other developers.
Additionally, we are in negotiations about licensing useful software to
ship with our G3/G4 boards, and will take care that support of the
upcoming AmigaOS developments is realized.

Another note on the prepayment & discount: Remember, the prepayment which
enables you to take advantage of the discounted price, will go on a
special notary account as announced earlier. The amounts collected there
will not become available to us before we actually ship the products; they
are a deposit which support our efforts to bring out the new products for
the Amiga which the users have been asking for, thus representing a
partnership between the Amiga community and us in realizing this stunning
new technology for the Amiga.

If this new list of stunning product offerings includes the G3/G4 model
which you want for your Amiga 1200 Tower/3000 (T)/4000(T), then do not
hesitate but go ahead and support us in supporting the future of the Amiga
by placing

Your CYBERSTORM G3/G4 or BLIZZARD G3/G4 preorder NOW!

IMPORTANT: If you have already placed an order during the last 10 days,
please DO NOT place a new order! We will email or mail you in the next
days, to verify if your order may be changed to a different model.«

(Quelle: Phase 5 digital products)

--

E-Mail-Abos von AMIGA aktuell koennen unter Angabe der gewuenschten
Version (1. AMIGAGuide oder HTML; 2. mit oder ohne Grafiken) kostenlos auf
den WWW-Sites http://www.mediaspace.net/amigaaktuell und
http://www.vmc.de/aakt bzw. per E-Mail (aakt@gmx.de) eingerichtet werden.

© 1999 Carsten Schroeder - Der Inhalt dieser Mail darf nur vollstaendig
und ohne Aenderungen weiterverbreitet werden.

AMIGA-aktuell-Special +++ AMIGA-aktuell-Special +++ AMIGA-aktuell-Special

======================================================================
   _    __      _     <>_   __      _    ||
  /\\    |\    /||    ||   /  `    /\\   ||  A M I G A   U P D A T E 
 /__\\   | \  / ||    ||  || ___  /__\\  ||     -News and Rumors-
/    \\_ |  \/  ||_  _||_  \__// /    \\_||   (An Occasional e-mail
         KEEP THE MOMENTUM GOING         ||       Newsmagazine)
======================================================================
        AMIGA and the Amiga logo are trademarks of Amiga, Inc.      
----------------------------------------------------------------------
990328

         A M I G A   R C 5   T E A M   N E E D S   H E L P 

       C O R R E L   R U M O R   S P O T T E D   O N   N E T 

         P U R E   P P C   F R O M   P H A S E   5   . . .

               . . .A N D   F R O M   M E T @ B O X 

              U G N   T A P S   H E N R Y   C H U N G 

               P A L M B A C K U P   R E L E A S E D 

              N E W S   F R O M   D V S   D I R E C T 

           B E T T E R W E B   F R O M   P A N T H E O N 

                 T W O   N E W   F R O M   A T E O 

         C L I C K B O O M   A U C T I O N   F O R   A L L 

                  A M I G A   R A D I O   N E W S 

            N E W I C O N S   4 . 5   A V A I L A B L E

           A N O T H E R   M O Z I L L A   P R O J E C T 

                 T H O R   2 . 6   R E L E A S E D

       W I L D F I R E   7   F R O M   N O V A   D E S I G N 

 
Editor's Thoughts and Introduction:
 This must be the PPC issue. Just as we were sending the last issue
off, we learned of a very interesting PPC board from Phase 5 but
weren't able to get a good story for that issue. We do have a story in
this one. Then, as we were preparing this issue, we learned that
another similar board had also been announced. This one is from
met@box, formerly known as Pios. We've information on both boards
below. We sure hope there's room in the market for both.
 News is always a bit slow after a major show such as the Amiga 99
show which just ended, but despite that we have many interesting items
for you to read. Just about all of it positive; the sort of news we
most enjoy sending your way.
 Brad Webb,
 Editor
----------------------------------------------------------------------
E-mail to the E-ditor:

20 Mar '99

Hello Brad,

In regards to the guy that asked about a printer
driver for a HP 690C. If that is a DeskJet 690C
TurboPrint which is the finest print package I've
seen has a driver for it.

regards,

Lee
~~~~~~
Lee,
 Several people wrote in to point that out. Thanks for being one of
them, and further thanks to all the AU readers who did so. Amigans
have always responded well to requests for help and information, and
clearly the readers of AU are on the top of the list.
 Brad
======

19 Mar 1999 

Hello Brad,

 I just recieved your newsletter, I am suprised you didn't recieve
more feed back about the show. Maybe it's because the community is
still taking it all in. I attended the show with my parents and my
brother (who is a programmer and made an announcement of his own :-) )
and we felt a sense of excitement and hope for the future. I would
have to admit some of Jim Collas' speech could be called political by
the doubters (and was) but I felt a sincere atmosphere.
 
 It always impresses me how a regular Joe can talk so freely with any
of these powerful people at the head of Amiga Inc./Amiga
International. Every one seemed to be receptive to any input and
sincerely listened. I don't think I'd be too far out on a limb to say
you wouldn't walk up to the likes of Bill Gates and get a glance and a
nod let alone listening and asking pertinent questions.
 
 My brother and I spent some time with a group of revellers in one of
the suites after the pub closed on Saturday night. Among this group
were Jim Collas, Jeff Schindler, and Joe Torre. My feeling was that
Jim Collas is much like a 'regular' guy and he really has a grasp of
what we feel as an Amiga community. He asked us in his speech to give
him a chance and I don't think we will have to wait long, but we will
have to wait. What's a little longer.
 
 Some changes can already be noted. We were told Amiga.com and
Amiga.de would be integrated and that has already happened. An
agressive time-line has been announced for the release of OS3.5 and
AmigaSoft4.0OE. BTW: the distinction between OE and OS is an operating
environment encompasses an operating system and operator experience.
Sounds like the Amiga feeling to me.
 
 My brother was talking from a developers point of view w¡th some
users at the show. These users seemed to have a common point of view I
heard expressed: "why should I pay for an OS3.5 upgrade when I already
have Miami/Ibrowse/NewIcons/etc." My brother's point was that the
enhanced functionality from a programmers point of view made the
likelyhood of greater development for Amiga Classic very real and the
users would naturally migrate to 3.5, 3.6, 3.7...
 
 Overall I came away from St. Louis w¡th some great Amiga hardware, a
feeling of greater excitement than I have felt in a long time, and a
chance to meet and greet with the new President/CEO of Amiga Inc.

We're BACK!  Can you feel it???

Jody 
~~~~~~
Jody,
 Thanks for your take on the show, and especially a programmer's
perspective on the upgrades to the Classic OS. Web users will probably
have noted that the two Amiga web sites are now unified in content as
you point out.
 We just got the official count of attendees from the show: 1,142. Not
bad for an Amiga show, especially on a weekend when Mother Nature
aimed a snowstorm at St. Louis.
 Brad
======

21 Mar 1999 

Hi.

 I've been reading your March 19th edition. I was disturbed by part of
Dr. Havemose's open letter. He said --
 
 "I know that the MMC speculation has been fun, but there
unfortunately isn't much to speculate about. We just have not had to
make a decision yet, so we haven't !"
 
 How in the name of sweet reason does Amiga Inc expect QNX to write a
version of Neutron for the MMC if they don't know which chip it is?
Look, I appreciate that ol' "Visa Bill" Gates doesn't need to know
what Amiga Inc is up to, but their partners had better!
 
 Be afraid. Be very afraid.
 
 Allan
~~~~~~
Allan,
 Your letter makes a nice counterpoint to the mostly upbeat mail we've
had since Amiga 99 ended. Unfortunately, you raise a very good
question. Even more unfortunately, I don't have any kind of an answer
for it. I hope someone somewhere does, preferably at Amiga.
 Brad
======

20 Mar 1999 

Dear Brad, 
 Do you know of any reason as to why AMIGA SHOWS are not held in
N.Y.C.? Also since Gateway is the BIG DADDY why don't they advertise
the NEW AMIGA'S on T.V. Fact is, there are still many people that have
never even heard of the AMIGA.Leastwise not here on the East coast. If
a prson walks into an appliance or computer store(RADIO SHACK) and
asks for AMIGA software, they look at you like your"re an alien.


GOOD LUCK AND GOOD HEALTH-JIM
~~~~~~
Jim,
 I've been amazed myself there are no shows in New York or Chicago.
There used to be some good ones in both cities. Anyone out there want
to organize one, especially since the good folks in Ohio won't be
having theirs this year?
 As for advertising the new Amigas, that's probably premature at this
point. It's usually a bad idea to sell "futures" so until the next
models are ready to ship, ads will have to wait. However, when we get
to that point I hope Amiga Inc. will do a better job than the former
Amiga owners did. Wouldn't take much.
 Brad
======

20 Mar 1999 

Hi Brad,
 Thanks for the great newsletter and supporting the amiga. One reason
for this E-mail is the article I read in the March 10 issue of TV
Technology on page 4. the article talks about Echostar's set-top Dish
Network and names Gateway as a partner and custom-builder of these
machines. Is this part of Amiga future?

Ron 
~~~~~~
Ron,
 Hadn't heard of that but it's most interesting. I don't know if the
Amiga plays into this or not, but we'll be keeping our eyes open for
further information. Thanks for sending this along.
 Brad
======

25 Mar 1999 

Just found your Web Site and I'm very impressed.
Had put my Amiga2000 in the closet a few years
ago and just recently dusted it off. Now I'm even
on the WWW with A L L Amiga hardware/software.
But... that's another story.

I'm writing regarding Tony's e-mail to you on
12/18/98 regarding replacement of old battery in
Amiga.

I bought a new battery at the Amiga99 show in St.
Louis recently.

Maybe you could publish the steps (exactly for be-
ginners) on how to remove old battery and install
the new one. Looks like some soldering involved.
Called local computer store. They want $65 per hr
with 1/2 hr minimum.

Thanks.

gary
~~~~~~
Gary,
 You raise a good topic. However, don't have a set of instructions for
replacing batteries. Does anyone know of a goos site on the web or a
text docment that covers this?
 Brad
----------------------------------------------------------------------

        A M I G A   R C 5   T E A M   N E E D S    H E L P 

7 Mar 99 

Hello Amigans,

 The Amiga RC5 team could sure use your help. The rc5 contest is a
worldwide experiment in distributed computing. The goal is to crack a
heavily encrypted code using the spare crunching power from computers
being used in all walks of life. Its a pretty noble cause--after all
who knows when this technology might really come in handy to quickly
solve a real world crises--but more importantly, its a cut throat down
and dirty fight to prove which platform has the user loyalty and
computing power it takes to find the winning key.
 
 Out of 5,854 registered teams, the Amiga RC5 team is currently in a
dogfight for third place daily. However, ever since the rc5 stats page
exploded early this year, the team hasn't grown as quickly. The daily
stats are back up now, so we can check progress once again...
 
http://stats.distributed.net/rc5-64/tlist.php3?low=1&
limit=100&source=y

 Please consider downloading the rc5 client from the link below, and
adding Myzar to your WBStartup drawer. Its just that simple to join
the team. The Amiga's excellent priority driven preemptive
multitasking OS will allow you to crunch keys in the background
without denting your daily performance, no matter what processor your
Amiga uses. Everything you need to be up and crunching in a few
minutes is on the Amiga RC5 homepage, in the download and misc
sections.

http://distributed.amiga.org/

Thank you for considering joining the team,

-Steve.
-http://www.amigapro.com
-The website for the Amiga performance enthusiast. 
----------------------------------------------------------------------

       C O R R E L   R U M O R   S P O T T E D   O N   N E T 

23-Mar-99

 {Found the following fascinating item in the Amiga Newsgroups. For
now, best regarded as a rumor ... I think. Brad}

 Apparently Corel (the makers of CorelDRAW and WordPerfect among
others) have announced in Com-Digit Journal, that they will port their
Corel-Office package for the next generation Amiga. The magazine
comments: "If the Amiga was supplied with this software at a
competitive price, it could be a real threat to PCs."
----------------------------------------------------------------------

         P U R E   P P C   F R O M   P H A S E   5   . . .


 Oberursel, March 19, 1999: Once again phase 5 digital products is
happy to announce a groundbreaking new development, which will
represent an extract of phase 5's leading-edge technologies and the
many years of expertise in designing upgrade products for Amiga
computers. After a long time of evaluating the market, we have decided
to support the existing Amiga user base and the new developments at
Amiga Inc. with a next generation product, which will offer highest
performance, future compatibility and a bridge to industry standards.
This product will be a powerful PPC accelerator for A3000/A4000
systems (and other Amiga systems expanded with an A4000 compatible CPU
slot) and the upcoming Amiga OS 3.5, as well as future versions of the
Amiga OS.
 
 The new accelerator, the CYBERSTORM G3/G4 board, is a pure
PowerPC-based processor card. It will ship with a fast PowerPC750 or
PowerPC7400 (G4 with Altivec), which is installed in a ZIF socket.
This ZIF socket is fully compliant with the Interposer standard from
IBM and Motorola, which is also used in PowerMacs and other systems,
what will allow easy upgrading, if required by the user in the future.
In the base version with a 400MHz PowerPC750 processor and 1MB
backside Cache @ 200MHz, the CYBERSTORM G3/G4 will provide an
impressing peak performance of up to 19.2 SPECint95 and 13.1 SPECfp95
(source: IBM website 03/18/99). In real-world applications, this
allows incredible application performance, which is estimated to reach
15 -20 times the performance of a 50MHz 68060 processor (with native
PowerPC coded or PowerPC optimized applications). The CYBERSTORM G3/G4
will use standard SDRAM running at 100MHz, providing a peak memory
transfer rate of 582 MB/s, and has two DIMM sockets which will support
up to 1 GB main memory. An on-board PCI 2.1 interface will allow the
connection of all kind of industry standard devices and cards. The
on-board Flash ROM with 512kB size can be used to install software
necessary for system-startup and other functionalities. By default,
this Flash ROM will only contain a basic boot-strap functionality
(hardware write protected) which will allow to install any kind of
system software from disks; this functionality will be fully
documented and freely available to everybody.
 
 By it's design concept, the CYBERSTORM G3/G4 is the perfect solution
for running native PowerPC coded Operating Systems as well as emulated
68k OS segments. As a processor card which fits into the A4000
compatible fast slot, it allows to run 100% native PowerPC code, and
has full access to all system hardware functionalities and interrupts
which is not the case with add-ons that are not installed in the fast
slot, but e.g. in a Zorro slot. With it's ability to be the master
system CPU, the PowerPC on the CYBERSTORM G3/G4 does not need an
additional 68k processor which is the case in other designs. Beside
the technical advantages of this approach, it offers the user the
opportunity to e.g sell an existing 68060 processor card in the
second-hand market, thus lowering the cost of the upgrade to the
PowerPC G3/G4 generation.
 
 phase 5 digital products will NOT built or deliver any software or
hardware add-ons for the CYBERSTORM G3/G4. The CYBERSTORM G3/G4 will
be open to third party developers in a wide way:

 o Software support will be realized with the new developments from
Amiga Inc. and Haage&Partner, especially with the upcoming Amiga OS3.5
with PowerPC support, and upcoming 68k emulator products.
Additionally, the CYBERSTORM G3/G4 is perfectly suited for the
implementation of other Operating Systems such as Linux, which have
already been realized on earlier PowerUp boards.
 
 o For hardware add-ons, the implemented PCI 2.1 interface will allow
third-party vendors to design PCI bus backplanes, and write drivers
for any common PCI card on the market. The interface is implemented as
a single connector, to which other vendors can connects e.g. PCI cards
or PCI backplanes, or design a physical link to PCI slots on bus
expansion boards.
 
 However, due to the current market status, we can only justify the
realization of this project with a significant number of preorders. We
will therefore have to collect a total of 1,000 orders from customers
(end users, dealers, or distributors). For each of these orders, we
will also ask for a down-payment of DM 250, which will be collected on
a notary account and will only be made available to us at the time we
deliver the CYBERSTORM G3/G4 product to the customers. This gives
security to all customers who want to support this exiting new project
and get stunning G3/G4 performance for their Amiga, and will give
security to us when we make the necessary investments.
 
 What will be the cost of this product, and are there benefits for
preordering?
 
 The regular list price for the CYBERSTORM G3/G4, including
 
 o the CYBERSTORM G3/G4 mainboard with an Interposer ZIF socket for
G3/G4 processor modules, 2 SDRAM DIMM sockets for up to 1 GB memory,
512 kB Flash ROM for system software (system software not provided
with the board), a fully implemented PCI 2.1 interface with one
connector (for PCI backplanes provided by third party vendors)
 
 o one G3 CPU module, with a PowerPC750 processor with 400MHz and one
Megabyte Backside Cache with 200MHz clock rate
 
 will be DM 1,995 plus local taxes (in Germany: DM 2.299,- incl.
MwSt). This price is based on the current price projections for
components and parts for the 3rd quarter 1999, and will be updated
whenever major components such as the CPUs fall in price.
 
 A price for a CYBERSTORM G3/G4 model with the new XPC7400 (G4 with
Altivec) processor is not yet determined, and will depend on the
pricing of these new processors. As soon as we have these pricings, we
will determine a list price for this product.
 
 For those Amigans who are ready to support this major technological
step forward by placing one of the necessary preorders, we offer a
special benefit: Customers who are ready to order this board in
advance, at the conditions mentioned herein, will get this stunning
product for a special discounted preorder price of DM 1,750 plus local
taxes, including world-wide free delivery by economy postal service.
And even more: If the regular list price drops before the preordered
CYBERSTORM G3/G4 boards start to ship, the discounted preorder price
will be reduced by the same amount.

How will the whole project proceed, and be finalized?

 First of all, we will now be looking forward to the response of the
Amiga community to this project. The basic concepts of the CYBERSTORM
G3/G4, as well as major parts of the design (such as the SDRAM
controller and the PCI bridge) have been developed at phase 5 digital
products during the past year, as building blocks of other projects
that we are working on; in other words, most of the product is already
"in the drawer". From the day we can make the decision to start the
project finalization, we estimate roughly four months until the
product can be shipped to the customers. Therefore, the shipping date
will largely depend on the time which we need to collect the
preorders.

The project has four stages:

 1. Announcement and preorder phase.
 
 We now collect preorders from customers all over the world. Please
only place a preorder - which is not yet legally binding - if you are
really ready to buy the CYBERSTORM G3/G4, and if you are ready to
later pay the prepayment. If many users place preorders now, but then
cancel or refuse to prepay, this will hurt the project flow
significantly. If you are not definitely interested in this stunning
new technology, please don't place an order.
 
 2. Notification phase.
 
 Once we have received the necessary 1,000 preorders - the sooner, the
 better, of course - we will open the notary account, and send
 notifications to all customers which will include a proforma invoice
 and the terms of the contract, as well as information about the usage
 of the prepayments. At the same time, we will also release updated
 product information and updated pricing, if available. All customers
 will be asked to pay the prepayment with 3 weeks to the notary
account.
 
 Important: The prepaid amounts will not become available to phase 5
digital products before we actually ship the CYBERSTORM G3/G4 boards
to the customers who have ordered. If we fail to deliver the product
within a certain time from date of notification, the prepaid money
will be reimbursed. The prepaid money will not be reimbursed if the
customer cancels his order for any reason.
 
 3. Development phase

 Design finalization and verification, including rapid prototyping and
full in-system test will require appx. 3 months. During this time, we
will also work in close contact with other developers, and support
software development on the new boards.
 
 4. Release & Shipment
 
 Once the CYBERSTORM G3/G4 is released for production, we will go into
the assembly, and start to fullfill the preorders. The first boards
will ship appx. 4 weeks after the start of the production. We will
fullfill the preorders in the order we have received them. After the
preorders are fullfilled, we will decide if we continue to built
CYBERSTORM G3/G4 boards for the regular market, what will depend on
the market situation and the demand forecasts at this time.
 
 If you want to take part in this stunning new development for the
AMIGA, which finally will bring the latest G3/G4 technology to the
AMIGA and support the new developments by AMIGA Inc. and their
partners, then go ahead and PLACE YOUR CYBERSTORM G3/G4 PREORDER NOW!
----------------------------------------------------------------------

             . . .   A N D   F R O M   M E T @ B O X 


PRESS ANNOUNCEMENT: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Hildesheim/ Germany, March 26, 1999

JoeCard G 3 goes AMIGA !

 met@box AG (formerly known as PIOS Computer AG) is proud to announce
the newest member of it´s award-winning JoeCard family: the AmiJOE.
 
 The AmiJOE will be the first pure PowerPC solution for the existing
Amiga platform. AmiJOE will implement the powerful G3 PowerPC
architecture which will enable the Amiga to outperform today´s
personal computers.
 
 The met@box engineering team decided to make the AmiJOE available not
only to users of the high end Amiga Systems, but also to the many
people being committed to their A 1200. The basic specifications of
the AmiJOE products are:
 
 o PowerPC 750 (Lonestar) G3 Processor
 o 333 or 400 MHz
 o 1.024 Kbyte Backside Cache
 o 66 MHz Local Bus Speed (A 1200)
 o 100 MHz Local Bus Speed (A 2000/ A 3000/ A 4000)
 o Universal Serial Bus (USB)
 o Realtime Clock (RTC) (A 1200 only)
 o PCI compatible Connector for future expansion (A 2000/ A 3000/ A
4000 only) - Socket für SDRAM Modules - Flash ROM for easy Software
upgrade
 
 The AmiJOE for the A 1200 is clocked at 333 Mhz at a recommended
street price of 599 EUR, while the AmiJOE for the A 2000/ A 3000/ A
4000 is clocked at 400 Mhz with a recommended street price of 899 EUR.
Prices do not include VAT/MWSt.
 
 met@box AG is ready to take orders without any prepayments. First
product shipments are planned for the beginning of Q3 1999. Purchase
orders please send to sales@joecard.com

http://www.joecard.com
----------------------------------------------------------------------

             U G N   T A P S   H E N R Y   C H U N G 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
25th March 1999

 The User Group Network (UGN) is pleased to announce the selection of
Henry Chung as the Asia Coordinator for the UGN. Henry will help
represent user groups located from Pakistan to the Far East. Henry,
like the other Worldwide Coordintators, will collect information from
user groups in his area when needed, as well as forward on to them
information from the UGN, Amiga Inc., and developers.
 
 Henry is one of the many Coordinators who represent the UGN's
Worldwide committment to supporting Amiga User Groups everywhere. The
UGN Area Coordinators function as the Board of Directors. Their
decisions make sure that the UGN goals and plans are beneficial to
all. They will do their best to ensure that all Amiga User Groups are
supported. The UGN is not about one person, or one country. It's about
all of us!

 The User Group Network is an organization dedicated to the
advancement of the Amiga oriented User Groups worldwide. The UGN will
work cooperatively with all to establish a valuable resource to share
and dissemminate information to Amiga User Groups. See what the UGN
can offer your User Group at http://ugn.amiga.org.
----------------------------------------------------------------------

             P A L M B A C K U P   R E L E A S E D 

2 Mar '99

W.F.M.H. is happy to announce that PalmBackup has been released.

 If you own an Amiga and 3Com's Palm Pilot Personal, Palm Pilot
Professional, Palm III organizer, IBM's WorkPad or derivatives, this
software is for you!.

INTRODUCTION

 During the development of our PalmSuite for Amiga software, the
PalmLink library was released. As we needed to find out if that
library gives us any gain compared to our connection stack, we quickly
adapted some tools we got here, to use PalmLink library. The
PalmBackup is the result of that.

FUNCTIONALITY

PalmBackup features:

   o backup of user preselected organiser databases
   o restore
   o configurability of almost any option it offers.
   o multi user support
   o internal cache system (once you list your unit, PalmBackup will
   o keep the list of the remote files).
   o advanced manager for installing, removing, purging etc
   o fully system compatible
   o quick, fast and efficient code
   o fully localized
   o and more...

AVAILABILITY

W.F.M.H. home site:

http://amiga.com.pl/

Aminet mirrors: comm/misc/PalmBackup.lha
----------------------------------------------------------------------

             N E W S   F R O M   D V S   D I R E C T 

5 Mar '99

 DVS Direct to Handle Assembly and Distribution of RBM Digitaltechnik
Products in the US
 
 RBM Digitaltechnik of Eschwege Germany is the maker of several
innovative products for the Amiga Computer including the TowerHawk
expansion chassis. The TowerHawk expansion chassis is design to
convert the Amiga 1200 and Amiga 4000 desktop computers into a full
tower configuration. The TowerHawk 1200ex is the world's first Amiga
1200 expansion system that fully supports Newtek's Video Toaster Flyer
system. Other RBM products include IOBlix Multi - I/O - interfacecard:
4 serial ports and optional 10base/100base ethernet modules.
 
 DVS Direct will also be integrating Complete Amiga Based systems
using the TowerHawk and A1200 . This will ensure an abundant supply of
Amiga Host systems for the Video toaster Flyer as well as other Amiga
specific applications using The Amiga 1200 Motherboard and TowerHawk.
DVS Direct will be stocking TowerHawk components here in the US thus
eliminating lead time for shipping. DVS Direct is also manufacturing
an ISA adapter card to allow use of ISA power devices in the
TowerHawk. For more information the TowerHawk go to our website at
http://www.dvsdirect.com/

DVS Direct
69 Beaver Dr. Suite 110
DuBois PA 15801
PH 814 371 5640
FAX 814 371 2033
----------------------------------------------------------------------

            B E T T E R W E B   F R O M   P A N T H E O N 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - March 8, 1999

 Pantheon Systems LLC today announced its BetterWeb web publishing hub
service, which includes free home page publishing, great web
publishing hints and tips, and a unique set of commentaries and news
items for the web-savvy and web-beginner alike.
 
 Users with free web sites on BetterWeb are granted access to
BetterWeb's ultra-easy web-based site management tool, which makes
publishing and managing your web site a breeze. No clumsy FTP
programs, just view and manage your site completely within your web
browser!
 
 In addition, all BetterWeb users are automatically enrolled in the
BetterWeb search engine, and have access to a set of excellent tools,
including a hit counter and online discussion forums. Moreover,
BetterWeb's servers are connected to the fastest Internet backbones,
so you'll never have a delay calling up your free home page.
 
 Since the BetterWeb site management tool is completely CGI-driven, it
is compatible with all Amiga browsers, including A-Web II 3.2, IBrowse
1.2, and Voyager 2.9x. To get started publishing your own, free home
page, point your browser to: http://www.betterweb.net
----------------------------------------------------------------------

                 T W O   N E W   F R O M   A T E O 

12 Mar '99

Two product announcements from Atéo Concepts.

Pixel64 ZorroIII

 Atéo Concepts is designing a new version of the Pixel64 named Pixel64
ZIII.
 
 This new version of the Pixel64 will plug on a ZIII slot of the A3000
or A4000 (Sorry, no ZII support...)
 
 3D features for the Pixel64!!!
 
 Atéo Concepts is working on a 3D expansion for the Pixel64. This
expansion will be based on the Voodoo chip (version 2 or 3). The 3D
expansion will be available for all the Pixel64 version. The release
date is not yet available.
 
 Full information about these news on
http://www.ateo-concepts.com/amiga/eproj.html

----

AteoNet

 The cheaper Ethernet card for the Amiga are now available. Two models
exists, a simple Ethernet with RJ45 output and a full version with
RJ45, BNC and AUI output.
 
 More information and order on
http://www.ateo-concepts.com/amiga/eateocards.html

ATEO CONCEPTS
Le Plessis
44220 COUERON
FRANCE

Tel : +33 (0)2 40 85 30 85

Fax : +33 (0)2 40 38 33 21
E-mail : info@ateo-concepts.com
Web : http://www.ateo-concepts.com/
----------------------------------------------------------------------

         C L I C K B O O M   A U C T I O N   F O R   A L L 

 Toronto, March 20, 1999: clickBOOM announces a fully automatic
real-time online Auction place now open to all Amiga users.
 
 After a month of successful operation at The Portal and due to a high
demand, clickBOOM has taken the next step, making Amiga Auctions
available to everyone.
 
 This is where all the action is -- you can bid on or sell
Amiga-related items at the one and only place of its kind on Amiga.
Finally there is a place for Amiga users to be able to trade their
hardware in a simple and absolutely private manner.
 
 1. Amiga Auctions is the place where you will find the best Amiga
deals, guaranteed.
 
 2. Bidding is absolutely free.
 
 3. If you have an Amiga-related item to sell, Amiga Auctions is the
place - hold an auction and have other Amiga users bid on it. It's
fully automatic - create a new auction in less than 5 minutes, and
don't worry about it until you make a sale at the highest offered
price. Best of all, it's free if your item doesn't sell!
 
 4. Advanced options such as Automatic Bidder, three types of
Auctions, notification, etc.
 
 5. English and German, with more languages coming soon.
 
 To see all of the Auctions just visit
http://clickboom.com/auctions
 
 If you wish to bid on, or sell items, fill out a simple form to
register yourself, and you will automatically receive access within
seconds.
 
 Portal users should continue accessing Auctions through The Portal.
----------------------------------------------------------------------

                  A M I G A   R A D I O   N E W S 

March 20, 1999

 The User Group Network (UGN) is pleased to announce the arrival of
Amiga Radio News. Amiga Radio News the first Amiga news source to
broadcast live to the Internet using streaming audio! Amiga User
Groups can download and playback this weekly Amiga news update. Every
Friday, a new update will uploaded to Amiga Radio News. Amiga Radio
News is located at http://ugn.amiga.org/arn/.
 
 In order to listen to the Amiga Radio News you will need to download
an Amiga compatible streaming audio player that supports either ADPCM
or GSM 6.10. Fortunately two such players exist and are available off
Aminet. ADPCM_Package.lha is needed for the ADPCM file, and GIR06.lha
is needed for listening to the GSM encoded file. In the future Real
Audio, MP3, and 8SVX file formats may be added.
 
 The User Group Network is an organization dedicated to the
advancement of the Amiga computing platform and the fostering of Amiga
oriented User Groups worldwide. The UGN will work co-operatively with
the owners, licensees, user groups, and the users to establish and
expand a customer support base for licensed Amiga computer products.
The UGN will endeavor to provide a single, centralized resource for
the promotion and assistance of User Groups and users world-wide. The
UGN Web Page is located at "http://ugn.amiga.org".
----------------------------------------------------------------------

             N E W I C O N S   4 . 5   A V A I L A B L E

NewIcons 4.5 is now available for download. See below for the list of
feature
changes and fixes.

Now the bad news. If you haven't heard already, Eric Sauvageau, our
programmer, has ceased further development of NewIcons. While he still has
his A1200, he is now spending most of his time on his new PC.
Unfortunately,
this is the second time I've had to annnounce the loss of our main coder to
another platform (Nicola left the project after version 2). Eric has been
kind enough to do one last version to optimize things further and fix some
minor bugs.

Fortunately, after nearly seven years of updating, the NewIcons System is
highly optimized, and as stable as ever, and there are thousands of you out
there using it every day. As was the case with Nicola, the NewIcons System
has been a labor of love, rather than a commercial enterprise. Neither
Eric,
nor Nicola asked for one dime for all their hard efforts. I'm glad I've
been
a part of this project from the start, as it really exemplifies the spirit
of the Amiga community. Eric still hangs out as an IRC operator on the
Amiganet IRC network, and you can still catch him there often.

You may be worried that this is the end of NewIcons...NOT SO! I will
continue
to pump out more icon sets and other NewIcons related graphics, and I'm
sure
many others will also. AmigaOS 3.5 is still in development (it's true), and
I have a good feeling that the NewIcons concept of dynamically remapped,
palette independent icons will, in some form, be integrated into the 3.5
operating system. When that happens, you can be assured that the images
you're using today will still be usable, NewIcons patches or not.


Overview of version 4.5:

   o 4.5 is mostly meant to be an housekeeping version. It mostly consists
of
     fixes and minor improvements. It also denotes the departure from 2.04
     support. We'll keep the low-end version of the library so that
     applications can still use it to display/remap icons, but the patch
     itself will now require V39 (Kickstart 3.0).

   o Most of the patch code was rewritten, speeding them up and making them
     smaller (some patches are now fully in ASM rather than a mixture of E
     and ASM).
----------------------------------------------------------------------

             A N O T H E R   M O Z I L L A   P R O J E C T 


9 Mar '99

 MOZZAM is a project to port the Mozilla OpenSource browser to the
Amiga platform. It used to be called AMozilla, but has recently been
renamed to avoid confusion with another ongoing project with a
similiar goal (but different approach).
 
 MOZZAM utilizes the MXlib, my own X server library which utilizes MUI
to provide a native X client API to applications. The ultimate goal
behind MOZZAM is to be in sync with the Unix source tree of Mozilla
and, on the long run, to simply do
  ./configure
  make
  make install


 with any new Mozilla source release on a gcc equipped Amiga. MXLib
will be made public later on as an OpenSource resource to ease porting
of other well known applications from the Linux world to AmigaOS.
----------------------------------------------------------------------

                  T H O R   2 . 6   R E L E A S E D

28 Feb 99 

 Ultima Thule Software is happy to announce that THOR 2.6 (finally)
has been released.


                                - THOR -

                               Release 2.6

            Copyright (C) 1993-1999 Ultima Thule Software,
                         All Rights Reserved.

 THOR 2.6 is an advanced multi-format offline reader, supporting the
QWK, Fido, UUCP, SOUP, Bluewave, Omen, ABBS, MBBS and Hippo (BBBS)
message formats. It will also handle TCP-connections with NNTP, SMTP
and POP3, with extensive MIME support.

Changes from 2.5a to 2.6:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
THOR:

 - New Save window added.
 
 - The main listview has complete support for proportional fonts now.
There's a slight speed penalty involved with using proportional fonts
due to some extra calculations required for the wrap code, but it
shouldn't be too bad.
 
 - Fixed so that GETCURRENTSYSTEM from an ARexx enter/leave script
will report the correct conference at all times.
 
 - SAVEMESSAGE from ARexx has several new arguments.
 
 - The conferences window now has a tree-view layout, with
configurable folder setup etc.
 
 - Trippled the minimum stack size due to reports of a possible
problem with the stack on advanced multipart messages.
 
 - You will now be allowed to Edit Data on a Forward Msg event and add
a text comment, or remove the previous text comment.
 
 - Previous search results will now be cleared in all conferences and
not just those that matches the current result.
 
 - The TAB key or the small gadget marked 'S' can now be used to
toggle selection of all enties in all requesters where multiple
entries can be selected from a list (eg. To Name/Address when sending
mail, joining groups, etc).
 
 - Added FilterThor to the external menu. FilterThor is a new MUI
based tool to configure sortmail triggers.
 
 - Added conferences field in the attachment listview in the
pack/purge window.

+ many bug fixes and improvements

 QUESTIONS?
 ~~~~~~~~~~
 There is a newsgroup for Thor with the name of alt.sys.amiga.thor. If
the group is not available at your newsserver, ask for it by sending a
mail to your system admin.
 
Mailing Lists:

 The old THOR mailing list has be resurrected. To subscribe to this
list, send a mail to majordomo@thule.no with "subscribe thor-ml <email
address>" in the body.

 There is a mailing list for developers of programs and ARexx scripts
related to THOR. To subscribe to this list, send a mail to
majordomo@thule.no with "subscribe thor-dev <email address>" in the
body. If you have no interest in making scripts or programs related to
THOR, you do not need to join this mailing list.

--
    Petter Nilsen

    EMail THOR Team: thor@thule.no
    WWW site:        http://www.thule.no/
    EMail:           pettern@thule.no
    IRC:             Mitchman
----------------------------------------------------------------------

        W I L D F I R E   7   F R O M   N O V A   D E S I G N 

17 Mar 1999 

Wildfire 7 - Animation Sequencing and 3D Effects

 Nova Design, Inc., producers of the award winning ImageFX package and
the highly received Aladdin 4D package, are proud to announce that
they have arranged to be the exclusive distributors of the Wildfire 3D
effects package for North America -- now in version 7!
 
 Wildfire is an exciting new animation sequencing, 3D effects,
transitions, and animation package by Andreas Maschke published in
Germany by Oberland Computer. It can be compared to SGI Flint or Flame
systems and it is capable of creating amazing 3D effects by mapping
video sequences into Wildfire's intuitive storyboard animation
sequencing system.
 
 Wildfire is perfect for the animation hobbyist, Toaster/Flyer
professional, Movieshop/Draco editor and all others who use their
Amigas for animation and video.
 
 Highlights of Wildfire
 
 Wildfire is a professional animation sequencer that allows you to
create and process animations in several formats, to generate
time-dependant 3D special-effects and design large projects containing
several animations and frame-synchronized sound-effects. Wildfire's
animation sequencing allows you to combine animations on a timeline
and output the results as a YAFA animation with synchronized sound.
 
 Wildfire is able to perform basic non-linear editing of animation
sequences and can import or export frame sequences, Amiga ANIMs,
YAFAs, MPEGs, Windows AVI, and Macintosh Quicktime formats!
 
 The 3D effects included in Wildfire include height-field deforms,
cubes that automatically unfold and fold again, Lightwave object
support, 3D magnet effects, 3D transitional morphing, unlimited
mathematical deformations, twists, sphere mapping, twirling, water
transitions, perspective transforms and more!
 
o Full CyberGraphX Support 
o Font Sensitive GUI
o Full PowerPC Support 
o Storyboard editor Interface 
o Convert using MPEG, AVI and Quicktime movie formats 
o Timecodes Editor 
o Envelope Controls for Effects 
o Filmstrip Interfaces 
o Real-time Feedback 
o Transition Maker
o Preview for almost any Operation 
o Animation with Sound 
o Post Processing Tools 
o Color correction Tools 
o 24-bit Animation Player with Sound

 Wildfire is an open development platform, like Nova Design, Inc.'s
own products, with a complete plug-in development system and a full
Arexx interface (with over 400 commands) is included.
 
Ordering Wildfire

 Wildfire works on your standard Amiga 68k models as well as the
PowerPC and it is only $199.95. You'll find it's available at your
favorite Amiga dealer or mail order firm.
 
 Wildfire comes on CDROM and requires an Amiga 68k series or PowerPC
system.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Amiga Update on the net:
 All back issues available at:
    http://www.globaldialog.com/AdventureCentral/AU/index.html
Stop by and check out our archive! 
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright 1999 by Brad Webb.    Freely distributable, if not modified.
======================================================================
                 _    __      _     <>_   __      _      
   A M I G A    /\\    |\    /||    ||   /  `    /\\      A M I G A   
  U P D A T E  /__\\   | \  / ||    ||  || ___  /__\\    U P D A T E 
              /    \\_ |  \/  ||_  _||_  \__// /    \\_  
                    amigaupdate@globaldialog.com      
======================================================================

Date:    28 Mar 99 14:47:46 +0100
Subject: Offener Brief
To:      "Mag: Amiga News (Petra Struck)" <petra.struck@online-club.de>
From:    Andreas_Kleinert@t-online.de (Andreas R. Kleinert)

Hallo Petra,

 folgenden "offenen Brief" habe ich an phase5,
 Metabox und Escena geschickt.

 ***************************************************************

Hallo,

 nachdem man nach Einbau einer G3/G4-Karte den alten
 A3/4000 ohnehin nur noch als "Gehaeuse" weiterverwenden
 wuerde...

 Mir geht eine andere Idee durch den Kopf:

 Warum nicht eine G3/G4 PCI-Karte fuer x86-PCs entwerfen ?

 Gleiches versuchen doch auch Siamese mit ihrer 68060-Karte,
 allerdings faende ich es sinnvoller, einen Rechner einzusparen
 UND PowerPC-Support zu behalten.

 Bei einem offenen PCI-Design mit Flashrom koennte man
 dann diese Karte auch im neuen AmigaNG (von mir aus
 als 68k/PPC-Emulationsoption unter "AmigaSoft 5.0")
 weiterverwenden. Der Kompatibilitaetslevel wuerde in
 etwa dem Draco bzw. einem Amiga unter CyberGraphX
 entsprechen.

 Im Detail:

 Nachdem WinUAE/AROS und AmigaNG als Emulations-
 kombination in greifbare Naehe ruecken - warum
 nicht eine PPC-Karte als PCI-Addon fuer den
 neuen Amiga bereitstellen ? Diese koennte den
 68k emulieren UND Kompatibilitaet zu PPC-Anwendungen
 und Amiga OS 3.5 (3.6, 3.7 ?) sicherstellen und
 den neuen Amiga-Prozessor entlasten...

 Daneben waere es denkbar, WinUAE und die Karte
 zusammen in einem normalen x86-PC laufen zu
 lassen.

 Was halten Sie davon ?


 P.S.: Diese eMail ging zeitgleich an phase5, Metabox und Escena.

--
Andreas_Kleinert@t-online.de  or via @gmx.de | ARK@News.wwbnet.de
Or try good, old: FidoNet 2:2457/350.18 --- *SuperView* development
PerSuaSiVe SoftWorX - Software Engineering Amiga/Wintel and more
Visit http://wdo.de/ark/ for information, free downloads, registration

KOSH [Kommunity Orientated Software Hardware]

Weekly Summary

Week Commencing: 13th March 1999

Number: 012

Mailing List: kosh-general

In the mailing list this week, the following items were discussed. Please do
not email the scribe regarding any of these topics, it is not his job to answer
these questions but merely to report  the topics of conversation. If you have
any queries about this summary, please email ben@kosh.net, stating the Summary
Number, and Mailing List Name, and he will try to answer your queries.

a)

Subject: Alternative filesystem mechanics

Summary of debate: Part of the feature set for the filesystem "SFS" is that it
                   supports a "run-time defragmenter" that defragments the
                   drive when the user isn't accessing it. Still in development
                   but take a look at the following if interested:
                   http://www.xs4all.nl/~hjohn/SFS/features.htm

                   There is a similar tool under development for PFS2


b)

Subject: File locations

Summary of debate: If the end user wants to be able to keep their files in
                   locations not originally designed for, eg: applications in
                   the applications area then they should be able to do so.


c)

Subject: Sets

Summary of debate: A collection of files/objects could be termed a set. Sets
                   can contain subsets. Two sets can also contain common
                   objects without one being a subset of another. Folders and
                   drawers as terms lack this ability of multiplicity.

                   Soft sets would contain only references to objects. Hard
                   sets would contain the objects themselves.


d)

Subject: Moving around a GUI

Summary of debate: At the moment most GUI's are designed so that you move
                   around them vertically and then horizontally (or vice
                   versa). As a result moving windows, text, pictures etc. in a
                   fluid and accurate diagonal manner can be haphazard at best.
                   For example: resizing windows in 2 plains at once is OK, but
                   after that you are left with a vertical and a horizontal
                   scroll bar and nothing that combines both (except the new
                   track wheel mice - but these have their problems).

                   Therefore it would be nice if KOSH could have diagonal
                   movement built in as standard in an intuitive way.


e)

Subject: New keys on keyboards

Summary of debate: It would be nice if KOSHkeyboards had cut, copy and paste
                   keys in intuitive positions. However you should be able to
                   define your own clipboard keys so adding these three may not
                   be necessary. If we did add these keys they would need to be
                   placed in the main area of the keyboard and not off to one
                   side (eg: near the keypad) as accessing them becomes slower.

f)

Subject: Abstraction and Backing up data

Summary of debate: Scribe's note: this is a subject that I have summarised in
                   depth as it is central to a number of concerns that people
                   have expressed about the object sea.

                   KOSH will fully abstract physical and logical devices in a
                   comprehensive and easy-to-live-with manner. Therefore it
                   will be possible to locate all animations, text objects,
                   application objects, etc individually (eg: .jpg) or by
                   group (eg: all picture types etc) that are present on the
                   system irrespective of where they are located.

                   There is no relationship between the layout of the
                   filesystem as presented to the user and the physical
                   location of the files on a disk.

                   However there should still be a way to find all data
                   relating to a particular object or objects. This could be
                   one of the many entries in the object "database". Therefore
                   an option to display the system as per the conventional
                   currently used directory tree system should also be included
                   as this could be of use when wanting to do things like data
                   backups.

                   However the user should not need to see this. The backup
                   tool perhaps does but it can present the information to you
                   in whatever way you like.

                   Backup tools would probably take a frozen object and
                   compress it (if not already) and store it on the chosen
                   backup media, and note the pertinent information in some
                   index object it maintains of the backup.

                   Backup tools don't need to work directly with the storage
                   system on the drive, just with the objects themselves. It is
                   unlikely that people would often want to perform a
                   block-by-block backup of their files.

                   With an object sea, you throw your work into the sea. To
                   enable you to find it again, it has one or several strings
                   attached to it. When you need it you can just pull in the
                   right string until your creation comes up to the surface. A
                   natural worry that this creates is that the descriptive
                   strings could get broken and objects could therefore be
                   theoretically lost in the sea.

                   Therefore objects in the object sea will not float in an
                   arbitrary way. The objects will be ordered, even if they can
                   have links all over the place.

                   When sending an object to another KOSH machine the class
                   object and associated binding would be understood. however
                   when passing this same object (eg: a JPEG file) to a Linux
                   or Windows machine, they don't know KOSH object structures or
                   class bindings. Further, "JPEG" has a fairly precise
                   definition as a byte-stream. When sending this out to other
                   systems, just that JPEG stream would be wanted. Likewise
                   when importing: a JPEG (again as an example) from another
                   system should be inserted into a JPEG object.

                   Having the ability to add compression, cryptification or other
                   services to the objectsystem is a very good idea.

g)

Subject: Java Serialization

Summary of debate: See: http://www.javasoft.com - In Java there is something
                   called serialization which provides an easy way to implement
                   loads and saves of data in an ArrayList (from the Java API).
                   This could be the same with the Object Sea except that load
                   and save are replaced with freeze/unfreeze.


h)

Subject: Engineering Jobs at Amiga (in San Jose)

Summary of debate: See: http://www.amiga.de or the post forwarded to the ML by
                   Paul May dated 13/03/99, title as per the above subject
                   for information about positions with Amiga.


i)

Subject: Status of AROS

Summary of debate: Paul May has also forwarded a statement on AROS and where it
                   is currently at to the ML, dated 13/03/99, title: [TA] AROS
                   Statement (fwd).


j)

Subject: Icons (continued)

Summary of debate: Do we want fixed size icons which must occupy a specific
                   square or do we go for the Amiga approach which is more
                   flexible but potentially untidier and harder to handle?


k)

Subject: Force feedback input devices

Summary of debate: The idea to have force feedback devices such as a mouse was
                   suggested. This could (for example) let the user feel
                   scrollbars as channels, resizing windows as pulling elastic
                   and selecting icons becoming heavier the more you picked up.


l)

Subject: Mouse-Responsive Speech in a GUI

Summary of debate: As the mouse (or other control device) moves around the
                   desktop a voice could quietly tell the user the name
                   associated with each icon that is passed over, or some other
                   sound, word, or phrase specific to it. This then provides
                   aural confirmation of selection for those who may benefit
                   from such a feature. The same type of aural presentation
                   could equally as an option be implemented for menus and
                   controls within an application. The same applies to context
                   menus in web browsers.


m)

Subject: Heat dissipation in KOSHboxes (continuing "Waterproofing KOSH")

Summary of debate: Two links recommended regarding cooling chips are:
                   http://www.kryotech.com/ and
                   http://www.totalpc.net/hardware/renegade/
                   Kryotech manufactures cooling cases for PCs that use a
                   refrigerating base that runs through a heatsink that you can
                   then affix to your CPU in place of a standard heatsink.

                   The best solution to overheating would be to use low power
                   components and some sensible power management system that
                   can power down unused parts of the system.

                   As for radio interference as previously mentioned, the way
                   to solve this is with shielding which converts radiation
                   back into heat which can then be dissipated via some inbuilt
                   system.

                   The orientation of cards to allow for unfanned convective
                   currents to be optimised could be important. Orientating
                   cards on a vertical plane would not hinder heat
                   dissipation.

                   We must ensure that any KOSHbox that is produced can compete
                   in the general marketplace and therefore special cases and
                   heat dissipation units may increase the cost and reduce
                   sales potential when put next to an average PC. Therefore
                   apart from passive design points (eg: orientating cards
                   vertically) there may be little we can do initially to
                   improve designs.



n)

Subject: Virtual memory in newer NetBSD systems

Summary of debate: See: http://www.ccrc.wustl.edu/pub/chuck/tech/uvm/ for some
                   technical documents on the above.


o)

Subject: Compiling for the Object Sea

Summary of debate: How far would existing compilers need to be rewritten to
                   take account of the new object system when taking into
                   account the fact that programs tend to save data as
                   separate files?

                   A set of functions in the OO filesystem would allow existing
                   applications to be directed to use the new system and not
                   rely on traditional methods of saving. A method would be
                   needed to map the old style files onto the OO filespace.

                   It was stated that this would have nothing to do with
                   compilers as most languages have I/O as some kind of library
                   routine. Allowing for some functions being rewritten there
                   should be no problem.


p)

Subject: RAM disks

Summary of debate: Implementing a RAM: disk aka Amiga-style but designed to
                   work with virtual memory so that the data would be held on
                   disk but not placed in memory. This could be a better way to
                   handle things than temporary files in Windows.

                   Perhaps if everything is conceptually in RAM (including
                   contents of physical disks). Some systems use this and it
                   would building an OO system with persistent objects.

                   There could actually be a (small?) application which does
                   about the same thing as a RAM: disk.


q)

Subject: Task masking

Summary of debate: Could we set up a system where, via a quick option, certain
                   running tasks are suspended and hidden according to user
                   settings and (optionally) another one that's been frozen in
                   the background gets re-activated and set as the current
                   running application?

                   Hotkeys could accommodate this.


r)

Subject: Use of computers by those with disabilities

Summary of debate: See:
     http://www.newsunlimited.co.uk/The_Paper/Weekly/Story/0,3605,30692,00.html
                   which is relevant to the above subject particularly as KOSH
                   aims to enable accessibility for all.


s)

Subject: Speed and thousands of files

Summary of debate: In a traditional filesystem organising several thousand
                   files into several directories with several subdirectories
                   allows for a relatively fast search and locate for an
                   individual file. With the Object Sea references to objects
                   will similarly allow fast access - most likely faster
                   if a directory class optimised for large numbers of files
                   was created.


t)

Subject: Printing of objects

Summary of debate: Objects could be made to include the details to be able to
                   print themselves if text (or show themselves if pictures -
                   or both if either etc). This would remove concerns about
                   having the correct viewer/whatever to be able to use the
                   object. Could Amiga-style datatypes be used for this?


u)

Subject: Computer knit-wear

Summary of debate: See: http://wearables.stanford.edu/ for (what one scribe-e
                   describes as) a "combined pocket computer and hand warmer".


v)

Subject: Userinterface Working Group

Summary of debate: Timo Suoranta wants to work on user interfaces. For this he
                   would like a mailing list and a working group set up. Timo
                   details that this would be started by making one version of
                   the user interface with a limited C++ object model. Then when
                   the KOSH object model is available this can be rewritten or
                   translated. The first version would run on top of X.

                   Timo will look at some existing user interfaces which have
                   free source code and see if this can be utilised. See:
                   http://www.fsai.fh-trier.de/~schmitzj/Xclasses/ which could
                   be relevant.

                   It turns out that Xclasses had some building trouble, but
                   another promising toolkit could be: http://fltk.easysw.com
                   which Timo built on his NetBSD system.


w)

Subject: Disadvantages of the Windows interface (again)

Summary of debate: Greg says the URL quoted last time should have been:
                   http://www.iarchitect.com/msoft.htm - that little "l" makes
                   all the difference:)