Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!watdragon!rose!ehoogerbeets From: ehoogerbeets@rose.waterloo.edu (Edwin Hoogerbeets) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga Subject: Introduction to comp.sys.amiga Message-ID: <14872@watdragon.waterloo.edu> Date: 4 Jul 89 19:22:32 GMT Expires: Aug 4 15:19:13 EDT 1989 Sender: daemon@watdragon.waterloo.edu Reply-To: ehoogerbeets@rose.waterloo.edu (Edwin Hoogerbeets) Distribution: world Organization: U. of Waterloo, Ontario Lines: 1539 This is an introductory posting to comp.sys.amiga. If you are a new reader of this group or even if you just want Amiga/Usenet information, please read the following articles. This posting last changed: July 4, 1989 It is recommended that you save this article for future reference. Please refer to this article first before posting to the net. This will help keep the comp.sys.amiga* groups uncluttered with topics that have already been discussed. * * There is an analogous posting in comp.sys.amiga.tech. * To save this posting when you are using rn or vn: s newuser to save in the file News/newuser. notes: snewuser to save this article in the file ./newuser. To read any of the following topics after this page, type 'g' for 'go to' and the three letter index identifier in capitals that is listed on the left. This article contains the following topics: Please note that the list of FTP sites has been deleted from this posting, since Tuna Ertemalp posts the same list monthly. Also, since he is the one taking care of the list, he will always have the more up-to-date version. ,NET The Etiquette of the net. (netiquette) Please read this article before posting anything. edwin@hcr.UUCP ,MOD How to receive and post Amiga programs from/to the moderated Amiga newsgroups. page@Sun.COM (Bob Page) ain@mace.cc.purdue.edu ,FNF The Fish Public Domain software library. How to get Fish disks and how to submit programs. fnf@fishpond.UUCP ali@polya.stanford.edu ,PIC How to get and send Amiga graphic pictures and related 'show' programs. joe@dayton.UUCP ,ARC How to use the kilowatt archive server raz@sun.COM (Steve -Raz- Berry) ,WED Address of the Wedge people. stan@teroach.UUCP ,SID Putting the Amiga 2000 on its side. Is it possible? edwin@hcr.UUCP ,BUY Which machine to buy? (500 or 2000 Amiga, Atari, Mac?) uunet!Sun.COM!cmcmanis (Chuck McManis) geoffs@smoke.UUCP AmigaIan@cup.portal.com.UUCP ,CPU Is 14.32MHz too fast for my expansion RAM? daveh@cbmvax.UUCP ,LED What does flashing caps lock LED mean? bjc@pollux.UUCP ,MAC A2000 vs B2000, which machine is which? daveh@cbmvax.UUCP ,SUR comp.sys.amiga survey, opinions from the net uunet!rice.edu!carson ,CLI Closing the initial CLI hcr!edwin ,KIK Crashing all the way to Kickstart 1.3 (*the solution*) bryce@cbmvax ,HAR Hard drives for Amiga (especially the 2000) Witting@topaz.rutgers.edu ,COL All dem [screen] colors during boot hah@mipon3.intel.com (Hans Hansen) ,GUR GURU-NUMBERS (what they mean) bryce@hoser.berkeley.edu (Bryce Nesbitt) (current address: bryce@cbmvax) ,HED The 2090(a) and SCSI drives jesup@cbmvax Send questions, comments to: Edwin ehoogerbeets@rose.waterloo.edu ************************************************************************* ,NET From: edwin@hcr.UUCP (Edwin Hoogerbeets) Subject: Netiquette Behaviour on the net: Behaviour on the net should be based on respect for other readers. If you follow this guideline, the net can be a very powerful tool for useful information. Try to reduce the amount of material posted and keep your articles short. This helps to save on phone bills throughout the entire Usenet community and saves time when reading the voluminous Amiga news groups. Try to avoid posting your view on an issue that has no "correct" answer. An example of this is the "my machine is better than your machine" discussion that often flares up in the microcomputer newsgroups. If you must express your point of view, please indicate that you would like to continue the discussion via mail, so as not to harass other readers that are not interested in the subject. Please do not make derogatory postings (aka. flames). Do not subject other readers to these childish tit for tat postings. Have fun via mail. Newsgroups: There are currently four official groups dedicated to the Amiga. Here is a brief description of each of them and what kind of articles they should contain: comp.sys.amiga - This newsgroup is for general discussion of Amiga related news, software and hardware. comp.sys.amiga.tech - This newsgroup is for the technical discussions about programming the hardware and software of the Amiga. comp.sources.amiga - This newsgroup contains the sources to freely redistributable programs posted exclusively by the moderators. comp.binaries.amiga - This newsgroup contains the binaries related to the programs in the sources group. This group can also only be posted to by the moderators. Please adhere to these classifications and post your news to the appropriate group. See the MOD section (enter g MOD) in this posting on how to post to and receive from the moderated groups. Mail: If you would like to reply to an article posted by someone else and you do not think your reply is of value to others on the net, then please send mail to the poster instead of posting a reply. This helps reduce the amount of news sent each day and improves the ratio of signal to noise in the newsgroup. When in rn type 'r' to reply via mail. Type 'R' to include a copy of the poster's article. Following up: If you do feel the reply is important enough for everyone on the net, then please keep your posting small. In rn, type 'f' to follow up, and 'F' to include a copy of the poster's original article. Please trim the included article down to only the relevant parts, so that people are reminded of the gist of the original without having to re-read the entire text. Posting original material: Original material is preferred, as it offers something new for the readers. However, if you post an request for information or software, please include a request for mail instead of a news followup. Again, this is to help reduce the amount the reader must go through each day. Cross posting: Cross posting to many newsgroups takes no more room or time than posting to one newsgroup. However, many more people see your article, and the above rules become more critical. If you do cross post, please realize that people from any of the groups may followup to your article. By default, most news programs post to all the original newsgroups. If you think the replies to your article will only be relevant to one group, please use the Followup-To line to indicate that the named news group should be used for replies. Also, if you are replying to someone else's cross-posted article, please edit the Newsgroups line to indicate only the groups to which your reply is relevant. Remember to have respect for your fellow netters and you will gain the most from Usenet. Edwin uunet!utai!utcsri!hcr!edwin ************************************************************************* ,MOD From: page@Sun.COM (Bob Page) Subject: how to retrieve programs from the moderated groups How To Use The Comp.Binaries.Amiga Postings Every comp.binaries.amiga submission is archived with the ZOO archive program, which does a fair amount of data compression and retains the original names, dates and directory structure within the archive. Because Usenet data paths are not 8-bit, these archives must be encoded to "regular ASCII" which is 7-bit. The encoding is done with a program called 'uuencode'. The version used adds a checksum at the end of each line, and includes the file size at the end of the encoding. Sometimes the files are too large for one posting (Usenet postings should generally be less than 64k bytes but you can sometimes get away with longer postings). If this uuencoded zoo archive is too large, it gets split into pieces, roughly 64k in length. Finally, the (possibly split) .zuu files are enclosed by some simple UNIX commands. This 'shell archive' is commonly known as a 'shar'. There is a more-or-less standard set of file extensions used to show the file type. The file extension is the set of characters after the dot (or period) in the name. The set of file extensions used is: .zoo An archive file in ZOO format .zuu A .zoo file that's been uuencoded .zu1 The first file in a split .zuu file .zu9 The ninth file in a split .zuu file .zu10 The tenth file in a split .zuu file .uu1 The first shar file in a (possibly split) .zuu .uu9 The ninth shar file in a (possibly split) .zuu .uu10 The tenth shar file in a (possibly split) .zuu To get all this back into a usable form, you need to: 1. Unpack the files from the shar format (the verb is usually called 'unshar'). You can either use a standard text editor to remove the info, or the unix 'sh' (Bourne Shell), or a publicly available tool to do it for you. With some tools (like 'sh'), you are required to remove the Usenet header information first; other unshar tools will remove it for you. Once you unshar a .uu? file, you'll have a .zu? file. 2. Combine all the .zu? pieces into a large .zuu file. You should use something like 'cat' under UNIX or 'join' under AmigaDOS. It is important that you combine the pieces in numerical order. Be aware that the single digit pieces do not have a leading zero, so a wildcard sort will probably not do what you want. Instead, you should specify the files in this way: zu? zu??, which will do the single digit files first, then the double digits. You can rest assured there will not be any triple-digit postings. 3. Convert the .zuu file to a .zoo file with the 'uudecode' program. If you have a version of uudecode that understands the checksum and file size information, you should use it. If you don't, you can still use the old uudecode program, but you will not know if the file has somehow become corrupt. 4. You now have a .zoo file. To extract the files into a directory, you need a program called 'zoo'. After "un-zoo'ing", most submissions will have some documentation to tell how to set up and run the software on your Amiga. --------- Of course you need to get the program(s) to your Amiga to run them. Usually this means downloading the software to your Amiga through a terminal program. If you want to download the files as quickly as possible to your Amiga, you should do steps 1-3 above on your UNIX machine and download the .zoo file to your Amiga, since the .zoo file is the smallest of the files. It's also usually faster and easier to do steps 1-3 on the UNIX machine because you have less worry about disk and memory limitations. However, some terminal emulators available for the Amiga do not handle binary downloads well. Experiment with yours and see. If you have trouble, you might try a different protocol or different terminal program. If all else fails, you can download the .zuu file, which is an ascii file, and do the uudecode on your Amiga. The mechanics of terminal programs, protocols and downloading are beyond the scope of this document. Most terminal programs should have a manual section describing how to log in and do remote downloads. --------- Here are the tools you need, under UNIX, AmigaDOS, or both. All are publicly available; you do not need to purchase anything to make use of the software that comes across in comp.binaries.amiga. shar, sh, unshar - a tool to unpack the shell archives, or use an editor cat or join - to append the split .zu? files to one .zuu file uudecode - to decode the .zuu file to a .zoo file zoo - to unpack the ZOO archive. -------------------------- From: mace.cc.purdue.edu!ain (Patrick White) Subject: How to post to comp.[sources|binaries].amiga I'll give you a quick rundown of the various ways to make submissions in preferred order.. 1) make up some postings and post them to the proper groups -- since these groups are moderated, the posting will get sent via mail to the moderator(s). Preferred. Helps us a bit if we forward the submission to a different machine. 2) send mail to the mail aliases amiga-sources-request or amiga-binaries-request. Next best -- but be sure the size of the file will go through mail unscathed (100K or less is usually ok). (BTW, the aliases are always directed to the right person to receive the submissions) 3) send mail directly to the moderators. Same warnings as above, but also be sure to send it to the right person -- if you get it wrong, your mail might never be heard from again. Since all these ways use mail, the data transmission is equally reliable between them. The main difference is ease of submission, and what happens at our end. The current moderators are: Bob Page - page@Sun.COM - uunet!sun!page ************************************************************************* ,FNF From: fnf@fishpond.UUCP Subject: How to get Fish disks. WHAT'S AVAILABLE ---------------- There are "do-nothing-useful" examples of various capabilities of the AMIGA, real development tools, editors, languages, games, and other odds & ends. Also included are machine readable form of many of the examples (received directly from C-A sources) out of the official AMIGA manuals, including the ROM Kernel Manual. HOW TO OBTAIN DISKS ------- First, check with your local dealers and user groups. Many already have the earlier disks. Since these disks can be copied freely, and widespread distribution is encouraged, they propagate out to central distribution points fairly quickly. If you just can't wait, or can't find copies locally, I am willing to make these disks available for the cost of media, mailing materials, postage, and miscellaneous expenses (like wear and tear on my drives). My goal is to get as much software as possible into the hands of people that can use and enhance it, and make the AMIGA the success it deserves to be. Generally, each disk contains all source necessary to recreate the executables provided. All programs are currently compiled with the latest Lattice C and/or Manx C compiler available at the time of release. In a very few cases (noted in the description) the code will not compile or run for some reason, but was considered interesting enough to include anyway. Almost all executables are known to run on the latest kickstart/workbench combination available at time of release. Disks are typically 85 to 95 percent full. HOW TO ORDER ------------ To order, send a list of the disks you want, and $6 per disk ($5 per disk for 10 or more disks), in U.S. funds, to: Fred Fish 1835 East Belmont Drive Tempe, Arizona 85284 USA Price includes cost of media, mailing materials, and first class domestic postage. Overseas orders add $5 per order for Air Mail. Time and other jobs permitting, all disks will be mailed within 3 days of receipt of order. Feel free to order more the the current number of disks available. Excess funds will be placed "in escrow" (refundable at any time) and drawn against for automatic mailings of future disks as they become available. I hope to add at least two to four disks per month to the library. Given that I have a database of about 300Mb of freely distributable software to draw upon, that should be a fairly easy goal to accomplish. DISK CATALOG ------------ A disk based catalog is available directly from me at no charge (as long as you supply disks and postage). The catalog has been split into two disks (disk 0A and disk 0B). To get a copy send two disks and $0.65 postage to the above address. DISTRIBUTION CRITERIA --------- To the best of my knowledge, materials in this library are freely redistributable. This means that they have met one or more of the following conditions: (1) The materials contains explicit copyright notices permitting redistribution. (2) The materials were posted to a publically accessible electronic bulletin board and did not contain any copyright notice. (Such materials will be removed if it is subsequently shown that copyright notices were illegally removed.) (3) The materials were posted to a widely disseminated electronic network (such as usenet), thus implying that their author/poster intended them to be freely distributed. This applies only if they contain no notice limiting distribution. (4) The materials contain an explicit notice placing them in the public domain. This is not the same as condition (1). One last note; I get frustrated when I get email from people and then can't get a message back to them because of some sort of braindamage in the return path. Please don't assume that just because you never saw a bounced message, that it actually got through to me, or even if it did, that I ignored it. I DO RESPOND TO ALL MY MAIL. I don't spend ANY time trying to figure out how to work around bad paths if my response gets bounced back. For best results, include your phone number in case the email route fails completely. Also note that my preferred usenet address has changed recently to this machine (fishpond!fnf), rather than mcdsun!fnf. ------------------ From: ali@polya.stanford.edu Subject: How to get a listing of Fish disks electronically: If you can FTP, you can find the following files on SCORE.STANFORD.EDU, in the directory WHEREIS (a list of programs that've appeared on Fish disks 1..138, sorted by prog name & with one line description) 1, 2, 3, ... (detailed descriptions of what's on each disk --- these are Fred Fish's own descriptions of what's on the disks) You can anonymously FTP these files. Because SCORE is a TOPS-20 machine, you can't CD to the directory, instead you need to: FTP> get whereis If you want it let me know and I can mail you at least the WHEREIS file. Ali Ozer, ali@polya.stanford.edu ************************************************************************* ,PIC >From: joe@dayton.UUCP Subject: Re: Picture swap (was Re: clite demo) So I am hereby officially becoming a picture collector. If you have pictures, drop me a disk. For every disk of pics I get, I'll send it back with what I may have found by that point. A few notes: 1. If you send ray-traced, sending the input to the ray tracer would be appreciated. That's up to you. 2. If the picture can not be displayed with DPaintII or the DISPLAY program that comes with DBW_Render, please provide a display program somewhere on the disk or at least give me some clues as to how I should display it. 3. Make *sure* you give me full mailing info and such. 4. Anything you send me should be freely redistributable. This means that I'd love to get digitized pictures out of your favorite magazine, but that's not legal..... 5. If you DO violate note 4, at least tell me you did so I don't get into trouble with someone Official. 6. Keep copies and insure yourself if you send more disks than you're willing to lose in the mail. If I start to get some collections together, I'll do a followup and tell people what they can do to get some pictures from me without sending submissions. I'm also willing to accept pictures over the phones if I don't have to make long long-distance phone calls to do it. If you have DBW_Render pictures, you can just email those to me.... My mailing address is NOT my work address, however. Send disks, etc to: Joe Larson 6121 St. Croix Ave. N. Golden Valley, Minnesota 55422 Disks sent to me at work will get here, but home would be better.... -- UUCP: rutgers!dayton!joe Dayton Hudson Department Store Company ATT : (612) 375-3537 Joe Larson/MIS 1060 (standard disclaimer...) 700 on the Mall Mpls, Mn. 55402 ************************************************************************* ,WED [The following is included to prevent the occasional questions on the net and in NO WAY ADVOCATES OR DISCOURAGES the use of the wedge.] >From: stan@teroach.UUCP Subject: Low cost Hard Disk is here for A1000 and A500!! [stan's opinion on the wedge deleted for objectivity] So if you don't mind I'll pass on the pertinent information: R.S.I. 9651 Alexandra Road Richmond, B.C. Canada V6X 1C6 (604) 270-0064 Again, I am in no way affiliated with any of the manufacturers mentioned above, I just want the word to get out, HD RELIEF IS HERE!! ************************************************************************* ,SID From: edwin@hcr.UUCP Subject: Putting the 2000 on its side. There seems to be no problem with putting the Amiga 2000 on its side to make it fit nicely under a desk. My 2000 has been in this orientation for approximately 10 months and I have had no problem associated with its position. I recommend putting your computer on its left side so that the drives are as high (and accessible) as possible. You may need some extension cables for the keyboard and mouse. A standard joystick extender cable is fine for the mouse and a standard 7 prong DIN cable will work for the keyboard. Both are available at Radio Shack and similar stores. There has been some discussion about the operation of disks and drives in a sideways position. I have had no more or no less bad disks because of this. However, it remains to be seen if the disks wear out faster sideways. I have heard of problems with hard disks, however. It seems that some hard disks will only work in the orientation that they were formatted. If you have this problem, you can do a complete backup and reformat your drive, and it should work. ************************************************************************* ,BUY From: uunet!Sun.COM!cmcmanis (Chuck McManis) Subject: a comparison of PC's... which one to buy This posting is an effort on my part to demonstrate why these arguments are pointless. I try to show that the Amiga 500 and the 1040 ST are essentially the same design with different compromises. When all is said and done they are the same computer. You as a reader look at the two machines, look at the way the designers compromised, and pick the one that *you* like better. Also be aware that your choice is only the better choice from your perspective, others will disagree and they are also correct from *their* perspective. Take the following comments from Peter as an example : In article <11767@cup.portal.com> (Peter Ted Szymonik) writes: > ...I'd say Atari will have no > problem reaching the million mark next year if it hasn't already > done so! ... Given the "magicalness" of a million machines (see the PS/2, Apple Mac announcements when they broke a million) it is clear that Atari (or Commodore for that matter) will be shouting to everyone that can read (especially developers) to let them in on the good news. Witness Commodore's hyper sensitivity as they get closer to that number. > Also, I'm sure that a good chunk of those Amiga sales > were the 500 which was probably bought primarily as a game machine > while the majority of STs out there are 1040's which have much > greater utility. This is an especially wonderful example of why debating machine merits is a waste of time. Here is a guy who obviously is very proud of his computer ownership attempting to slander the "competition" with absolutely no facts at all. If he understood the Amiga computer line he would realize that the Amiga 500 *is* the Atari 1040 ST competition. Line up the features side by side and even a third grader could tell you they were the same machine, to wit : 1040 ST Amiga 500 ---------- ---------- Processor 68000 68000 "Main" Memory 1 Meg 1 Meg Screen Resolution 320 X 200 350 X 200 various #'s of 640 X 200 700 X 200 colors. 640 X 480 700 X 440 Disk Drive 720K 880K Serial Port Yes Yes Parallel Port Yes Yes MIDI Port Yes No DMA Port Yes No Expansion Bus No Yes Hard Disk Available Yes Yes Memory Expansion Avail Yes Yes Max Memory 4 MB 9 Mb Blitter No* Yes Audio Yes Yes ----- * Blitter optional according to some things I have seen And the astute readers will note that a.) Prices are different, b.) Implementations are different, and c.) Neither machine is the "better" machine to everyone. In terms of hardware capabilities they offer the same functions. The question you ask are "What are the decisions the designers made?" Take MIDI for example. The Amiga does not have a MIDI port, the designers did not decide to include one. It is easy to turn the Amiga serial port into a MIDI port but it will cost you the user extra cash. *You* decide which decision is better for *you*. Same thing with a hard disk. Atari builds in a DMA port that makes connecting a SCSI device easier, Commodore provides and expansion bus that you can connect a hard disk controller to. Here the Atari designer may have said "Well, either we offer a hard disk interface or an expansion interface, which will it be? Gee most of our users will just want a hard disk so lets offer that." Whereas the Amiga designer might have said "Lets offer an expansion port so that other things beside a hard disk can be easily connected here." The Atari decision makes for cheaper hard disks, the Commodore decision makes for greater flexibility. Which do *you* prefer? *You* decide and that makes that machine best for you. When one evaluates both machines you will notice that the Commodore decisions tended to flexibility even when it raised the cost, whereas Atari's leaned toward keeping the price down at the cost of flexibility. None of these decisions make one computer "better" than the other, they just make the computers different. Of course none of this means anything to someone who's ego is tied up in the computer they own. That type of person will get just as hyper about whether or not a BMW is better than a Mercedes or a Ford is better than a Mercury. The important point to remember is that when you read an article from someone who really likes their computer and thinks anyone who doesn't like their computer obviously has a learning disability, you have to understand that they are *correct*. This is how they think from *their* perspective. There is no need to point out how their perspective disagrees strongly with *your* perspective. That is because both of your perspectives will disagree with everyone elses perspective. The end result is a couple of thousand articles describing the authors perspective and views. If you could condense them into a single survey message you might et the Signal to Noise ratio up above .5 but I doubt it. Well thats *my* perspective, -- --Chuck McManis uucp: {anywhere}!sun!cmcmanis BIX: cmcmanis ARPAnet: cmcmanis@sun.com These opinions are my own and no one elses, but you knew that didn't you. ---------------- >From: geoffs@smoke.UUCP Subject: Re: Atari vs. Amiga: what to buy? ATARI VS. AMIGA: WHAT TO BUY? * the bottom line is -- whatever you like best. * but here are some thoughts: WORK/SCHOOL OS features: ======================== What kind of environment are you using at work/school? It is Likely Multi-tasking. (VAX VMS, UNIX, ?) - (AMIGA & ST) If VMS, I don't know of any VMS look-alikes for either machine. there is a PD editor (TVX) that can be configured to look like the VMS EDT editor I think... I know it can be made to look like VI and emacs/jove/uemacs... (unix). - (AMIGA) If unix at work,... unix editor PD look-a-likes "vi" and "emacs" are available. (They are also available on the ST). - (ST) If unix at work, then note that an ST version of MINIX has gone to Prentice Hall for distribution (out in Sept? - check comp.os.minix on when). You are familiar with MINIX? It is Version 7 unix look alike muli-tasking OS, comes with compiler and unix-behaving tools. - (AMIGA) As you know the Amiga has multi-tasking built in, so it you can handle a different interface from the one at work, but are used to multi-tasking, you are already set. - (ST) UNIX? Today *now* there is a nice PD shell on the ST (gulam) that looks a lot like the unix shell with many of the commands. The editor is emacs-like, and you can pause the editor, escape to the shell, compile a program, then bring the editor back to the fore ground (via "fg" a-la unix). Not multi-tasking. Context switching, but it is the unix look and feel. - Note: Amiga and ST can run MSDOS stuff with appropriate add-on's. ST cam also run MAC stuff with appropriate add-on's. MIDI: ===== The ST came with midi's built in and this has generated a lot of ST midi software. Buy a copy of STart magazine. There are always adds in that artist-oriented magazine for music editors, and multiple other midi programs. I do not know what midi stuff is available on the AMIGA. I think there is a large library of midi software on the PC market. You may wish to look here too... Final suggestions: 1. Get several machine specific magazines on both computers. Try to stay away from those published by the machine manufacture; they tend to be censored and over-hyped: "See how great we are!!!!!!!!". 2. Please try before you buy. - you may hate the feel of the keyboard. *BOTH* good computers, you probably can't go wrong what ever you choose. To be fair, I do not own an Amiga. I own 2 Commodors (the VIC-20 & C64) am the happy owner of 1 Atari (the ST). I will not suggest either computer over the other. That is a personal preference. A choice only you can make. My experience with both companys is about the same. They are probably on a par with the rest of the retail computer industry. -- ---> geoffs@brl.arpa -- ---------------- >From: AmigaIan@cup.portal.com.UUCP Subject: Re: 500 or 2000 ? >My next question is this: >should I buy an amiga 500 or an amiga 2000? >Can someone give me the pro's and con's of the two machines? Ok, let me give it a try, The 2000 comes with 512K more than the 500 but I have seen 512K expansion for the 500 priced under $150. You can have IBM compatibility with the 2000 but not with the 500. The 2000 costs more $$$ but it is a little less expensive to expand. The 2000 is bigger than the 500. If you expand with the 500 you need alot of space. The 500 is about $700 cheaper if you get a 1 meg 500. The 2000 is now selling for $1499. The 500 is now selling for $649. Did I miss anything? I believe those are all the diffrences. Hope I made things easier rather than harder. Ian_Matthew_Smith@cup.portal.com ************************************************************************* ,CPU >From: daveh@cbmvax.UUCP Subject: Re: Is 14.32MHz too fast for my expansion RAM? > I don't know about the CMI board, but some 68000 speedup boards have > floating point processor sockets. If you use it, and are running > programs with a lot of FP computation that support it, you should > get a dramatic speed increase, yes/no? You'll get a speedup over no 68881 at all (assuming 1.3 math libraries). What you don't get is a 32 bit interface to the 68881, or a true coprocessor interface to the 68881, so this is still considerably slower than a similarly clocked 68020. Given the speedups you can get with any kind of math chip, it's probably a good idea for someone into image rendering or other heavy duty math operations who doesn't have a 68020 type budget. > If you do a lot of floating point stuff (and a lot of graphics programs do), > it sounds like a lot more bang for the buck compared to a 68020 board > with coprocessor at ~$1000 more (plus 32 bit memory to get a real advantage > over the 68000). Note that for math operations, a 68020 with 68881 is several times faster than a 68000 with 68881, even on a 16 bit bus. The difference is of course the CPU interface that the 68020 uses, plus the wide data bus. The 68000 or 68020 have to fetch data for the 68881 in either case. But while the 68000 will fetch at 16 bits, then transfer at 16 bits, the 68020 will do it's transfers at 32 bits. Of course, if you can only afford a fast 68000 board at $200-$300, it's going to speed up your math more than that cash sitting in the bank waiting for a 68020 board will... Dave Haynie "The 32 Bit Guy" Commodore-Amiga "The Crew That Never Rests" {ihnp4|uunet|rutgers}!cbmvax!daveh PLINK: D-DAVE H BIX: hazy "I can't relax, 'cause I'm a Boinger!" ************************************************************************* ,LED >From: bjc@pollux.UUCP Subject: Re: What does flashing caps lock LED mean? In article <1200@tellab5.tellabs.CHI.IL.US> grj@tellab5.UUCP () writes: >Sorry if this has been covered many times before, but I don't get a chance >to read this group often. Anyway - sometimes when I power on my A2000, >the caps lock LED flashes at about a 1 or 2 Hz rate. The keyboard is then >useless and nothing typed gets recognized. It seems to have started Look on page 3 of Appendix H to the Hardware Reference manual. Briefly, though, it says: One blink Keyboard ROM test failed Two blinks Keyboard RAM test failed Three blinks Watchdog timer test failed Four blinks A short exists between two row lines or one of the seven special control keys. It also says that you probably would not have been able to type anything before this sequence would be completed, but if so, the key codes would be sent to the computer and then a "terminate key stream" code would be sent. There is more information in that appendix. Betty ************************************************************************* ,MAC >From: daveh@cbmvax.UUCP Subject: Re: A2000 vs B2000 > How can I tell which one my 2000 is? A or B. Mine has Amiga 2000 in > little letters on the system box as opposed to the new ones I've seen with > Amiga 2000 in BIG letters. If you bought it in the USA, it's a "B" (or someone hosed you). The easiest way to tell is to look at the phono jacks on the back of the machine. The "A" has two, the "B" has three (that extra one is a monochrome video output that I got basically for free when using the A500 video hybrid). Most stuff works in both. What doesn't probably can't be easily added, though with a minor modification to the case, a board swap is possible. > I got it in late '87 (December I think maybe Jan '88) and the writing on > the box is mostly in German. We kept using boxes from Germany long after switching to the US designed motherboard. > Will all the hardcards/SCSI interface/genlock/whatever cards fit in the > A2000?? Or am I screwed there too? As long as 100 pin cards are in spec, they'll work fine on both machines. All Genlocks should work similarly. The B2000 video slot has many more signals, but the only thing I know of on the market that's currently taking advantage of that slot is MicroWay's flickerFixer, which won't work on the "A" board. > If I've got the 68020 in my 2000 (which I don't yet) what would be the > purpose of booting from the 68000??? I put that feature in to allow developers who develop on the 68020 based Amiga an easy way to test their software on a 68000. It has the side effect of allowing you to run software on your machine that doesn't work with the 68000. I've found a better use for such software -- reformatting the disks it comes on. Really, though, there's very little software that can't be used on the 68020. -- Dave Haynie "The 32 Bit Guy" Commodore-Amiga "The Crew That Never Rests" {uunet|pyramid|rutgers}!cbmvax!daveh PLINK: D-DAVE H BIX: hazy Amiga -- It's not just a job, it's an obsession ************************************************************************* ,SUR From: Jim Carson Subject: comp.sys.amiga survey I BACKGROUND a. How experienced do you consider yourself with the Amiga? EXPERIENCE: Very -- wrote popular software 6 had amiga > 2 years 10 Fair amount of programming. 4 had amiga > 1 year 4 Some Programming 5 had amiga < 1 year 2 No programming on Amiga 10 did not say 10 b. What kind of hardware do you have? (Some people had more than one system) Machines: A1000 17 A/B2000 9 A500 7 Peripherals: External Memory 18 Extra Floppy 14 Modem 11 Hard Disk 10 Printer 10 Accelerator board 3 Sound/MIDI interface 3 Clock Card 2 Sidecar 2 Digitizer 1 Ethernet Interface 1 c. How much do you use your Amiga? (Some people said "lots", which I took to mean 2 - 4 hours/day) > 4 hours a day 10 2 - 4 hours/day 6 1 - 2 hours/day 4 < 1 hour/day 1 d. What are your favorite kinds of programs (games, utilities, etc)? Games 13 Utilities 9 Compilers/Program Lang 8 Telecommunication 6 Music 5 Demos 4 Editors 3 II. HARDWARE a. Hard Drive/Card Controllers: WEDGE 1000; WEDGE 500 ($175-$200) - very good Bear Products - good ($120 w/o chips) Commodore 2090; C.Ltd.; Overdrive;- okay Microbotics HardFrame Startime - Bad performance Drives: Miniscribe; Seagate ST157N, ST277N - okay Quantum; Rodime; Supra SCSI; GVP Impact; CDC Wren - good b. Other Permanent Storage (Tape, CD, etc) SCSI tape is nice for backup. R/W opticals are great for animation (650MB Sony). c. Modem Supra 2400 - Great ($150 for 2400, $70 for 1200) Hayes - Nice, but expensive. Trailblazer T2000+; Ventel MD212 - good Courier 2400; BytCOM 212AD; - okay Bizcomm Intellimodem EXT; Avatex 1680 - adequate (incompatible w/software) d. Midi interfaces ECE MIDI interface, connected to an Ensoniq Mirage keyboard. Golden Hawk MIDI Gold MIDI interface. - Nice little box, does the job f. External Disk Drives A1010. (3.5") - okay A1020 (5.25") - slow, but good for transferring ibm <-> amiga California Access - good Byte by Byte PAL Jr. - nice, but obsolete. Company sucks. g. Printer Great: Epson LQ-800. Nice, but not as good as an Imagewriter on a Mac C.Itoh C310-xp - Fast (300cps), Very nice NLQ Panasonic KX-P1090i - Very nice NLQ ($200) Ok: Epson LX-800 - cheap, quick with 1.3 drivers, graphics Howtek PixelMaster color inkjet IBM Colorjet Okidata 82A w/Rainbow Tech firmware upgrade Mannesman-Tally Spirit-80 - Excellent printer 5 years ago, good company. Marginal quality: Okimate 20 - cheap printer Star SG-10 - cheap printer Epson FX-286 - slow. paper jams incessantly. ugly NLQ. Citizen msp10 - slow. problems with proportional print & tabs. h. Monitor Sony KV1311 - very good C-A 1080 - good C-A 2002 - good NEC Multisync - good Thompson 4120 - good C-A 1084 - okay, but crackles C1702 [modified] - adequate i. Memory Expansion INSIDER board (1MB + RT Clock) - great Spirit, A501 - good Starboard 2-meg - good Orphan 4-meg - no recommendations ************************************************************************* ,CLI From: hcr!edwin Subject: Closing the initial CLI % "I can't get my initial CLI window to close" seems to be a commonly % asked question. It would be good to explain "run" vs. "runback" Okay, a CLI will not close if a program has been "run" from it. (Check your startup-sequence) This is because the program that has been "run" needs someplace to get and put its I/O. If your program does not need to do I/O to the CLI, you should use the RunBack program from Fish 152 (earlier version on Fish 65), or RunBackGround on Fish 73. These programs will totally detach your program from the CLI and allow you to close it normally with endcli. Edwin ************************************************************************* ,KIK From: bryce@cbmvax Subject: Re: Crashing all the way to Kickstart (*the solution*) In several articles <> several.net.posters wrote: > [Since installing V1.3 I have noticed something strange. If the > machine ever crashes, it sometimes goes back to the Kickstart hand > instead of the Workbench hand.] Thank you all for noting and reporting this bug. I have located the cause; a code mistake causes the Kickstart protected memory to be left open open for writing during some types of system Alert. This problem will be addressed in the next version of "SetPatch" (no date or distribution details are available at this time). ************************************************************************* ,HAR From: Witting@topaz.rutgers.edu Subject: Hard drives for Amiga (especially the 2000) NOTE: The following is a summary of replies concerning my future purchase of an Amiga 2000. I want a Hard Disk, and was inquireing into advantages/disadvantages of the different cards, esp in ref to the new Amiga 2000HD, which came with a CBM 2090A cantroller and HD The 2000HD will sell about $100 less than a system built with third party components. Of course, shop around to find the price diff you will actually be working with. BTW, tech note. SCSI interface transmits 1 byte at a time, ST506 1 bit at a time. ST506 is the IBM standard, SCSI looks to be the new standard. 2000HD- Basic a 2000 with a CBM 2090A Hard Disk Controller and a 40meg HD connected through a ST506 interface, leaving one more ST506 and 6 SCSI connectors open. The 2090A uses a DMA to controll the hard disk, leaving the processor free to do other things. The GVP HardCard is heavily recommended, clearly the best of the established third Party cards. It has been around a while, so all the bugs are gone, but it supposedly relies upon the processor to do a lot of the work. The Quantum Drives are supposedly the Best on the market, and is available in 28ms and 11ms types. Expect it to last twice as long as typical drives. May require EEPROMS to Autoboot. The Microbotics card is impressive, claiming to transfer data at bus speeds (as fast as the Amiga can handle it, not 65mph hiway, 15 mph city ;) It uses a DMA to controll the drives, leaving the processor free like the 2090A. It is a half sized card, so it can used in expansion boxes, has power hookups for a card mounted drive, and several extra SCSI interfaces. There are a few other points to consider: 1. The CBM card has its own processor, the GVP can bog the processor down if you are working processor intensive tasks, otherwise the GVP is faster. The microbotic is like the CBM card in that it doesnt harass the processor, and is the fastest and newest design of the three. 2. The CBM comes pre-installed. The cards should not be hard install, but I understand dammage done by improperly installed cards is not covered by warrantee. But the 3rd party warrantees are tiypically longer, CBM offers only a 90 dayer. This does not apply if you already own an Amiga, but having an authorize service rep install it should keep warranty problems away. It can also put you out another 60 or 70 bucks. 3. The CBM must boot to the old file system, not the newer fast filing system. While this only affects a small section of the Disk (The rest can be configured fast filing) The others don't have this weakness. K1.3 was designed for autobooting to HD's but some GVP cards may still require additional PROMS. Personally, I'd like the microbotics with the Quantum 11ms, but 1st I gotta check prices. I also want to investigate the possible bug. *I have heard from a few people who own the microbotics, and so far they are extremely happy with them* paul -- "Run, Run, as fast as you can, you cant catch me, Im the gingerbread man" "Lets do some crimes. Yeah, lets get sushi and not pay" 6 6 Witting@topaz.rutgers.edu `--' ************************************************************************* ,COL >From: hah@mipon3.intel.com (Hans Hansen) Subject: All dem colors during boot A M I G A ' S I N I T I A L I Z A T I O N C O L O R S Dark gray Ok Hardware Light gray Ok Software Red Bad ROM Checksum Green Bad RAM Blue Bad Custom Chips Yellow Exception A M I G A ' S I N I T I A L I Z A T I O N Clear Chips Disable DMA and Interrupts Clear the Screen Check the Hardware Pass or fail the Hardware to the Screen Checksum the ROMs Pass or fail the ROMs to the Screen System setup Check the for RAM at $C00000 Move SYS_BASE to $C00000 if it exists RAM Test Pass or fail the RAM to the Screen Check the Software Pass or fail the Software to the Screen Set up the RAM Link the Libraries Find External RAM and link it to the list Set up Interrupts and DMA Start default Task Check for 68010, 68020, and 68881 Check for an Exception System Reset Hans ************************************************************************* ,GUR >From: bryce@hoser.berkeley.edu (Bryce Nesbitt) Subject: Re: GURU-NUMBERS [this was posted before Bryce was hired by C-A and I kept it - ed] This comes from the V1.2 include files. Save this file if you think you might ever want it. /********************************************************************* * Format of the alert error number: * +-+-------------+----------------+--------------------------------+ * |D| SubSysId | General Error | SubSystem Specific Error | * +-+-------------+----------------+--------------------------------+ * D: DeadEnd alert * SubSysId: indicates ROM subsystem number. * General Error: roughly indicates what the error was * Specific Error: indicates more detail **********************************************************************/ /* General Dead-End Alerts:*/ /*------ alert types */ #define AT_DeadEnd 0x80000000 #define AT_Recovery 0x00000000 /*------ general purpose alert codes */ #define AG_NoMemory 0x00010000 #define AG_MakeLib 0x00020000 #define AG_OpenLib 0x00030000 #define AG_OpenDev 0x00040000 #define AG_OpenRes 0x00050000 #define AG_IOError 0x00060000 #define AG_NoSignal 0x00070000 /*------ alert objects: */ #define AO_ExecLib 0x00008001 #define AO_GraphicsLib 0x00008002 #define AO_LayersLib 0x00008003 #define AO_Intuition 0x00008004 #define AO_MathLib 0x00008005 #define AO_CListLib 0x00008006 #define AO_DOSLib 0x00008007 #define AO_RAMLib 0x00008008 #define AO_IconLib 0x00008009 #define AO_ExpansionLib 0x0000800A #define AO_AudioDev 0x00008010 #define AO_ConsoleDev 0x00008011 #define AO_GamePortDev 0x00008012 #define AO_KeyboardDev 0x00008013 #define AO_TrackDiskDev 0x00008014 #define AO_TimerDev 0x00008015 #define AO_CIARsrc 0x00008020 #define AO_DiskRsrc 0x00008021 #define AO_MiscRsrc 0x00008022 #define AO_BootStrap 0x00008030 #define AO_Workbench 0x00008031 /* Combine the above to get the actual number */ /* Specific Dead-End Alerts: */ /*------ exec.library */ #define AN_ExecLib 0x01000000 #define AN_ExcptVect 0x81000001 /* 68000 exception vector checksum */ #define AN_BaseChkSum 0x81000002 /* execbase checksum */ #define AN_LibChkSum 0x81000003 /* library checksum failure */ #define AN_LibMem 0x81000004 /* no memory to make library */ #define AN_MemCorrupt 0x81000005 /* corrupted memory list */ #define AN_IntrMem 0x81000006 /* no memory for interrupt servers */ #define AN_InitAPtr 0x81000007 /* InitStruct() of an APTR source */ #define AN_SemCorrupt 0x81000008 /* a semaphore is in illegal state */ #define AN_FreeTwice 0x81000009 /* freeing memory already freed */ #define AN_BogusExcpt 0x8100000A /* illegal 68k exception taken */ /*------ graphics.library */ #define AN_GraphicsLib 0x02000000 #define AN_GfxNoMem 0x82010000 /* graphics out of memory */ #define AN_LongFrame 0x82010006 /* long frame, no memory */ #define AN_ShortFrame 0x82010007 /* short frame, no memory */ #define AN_TextTmpRas 0x02010009 /* text, no memory for TmpRas */ #define AN_BltBitMap 0x8201000A /* BltBitMap, no memory */ #define AN_RegionMemory 0x8201000B /* regions, memory not available */ #define AN_MakeVPort 0x82010030 /* MakeVPort, no memory */ #define AN_GfxNoLCM 0x82011234 /* emergency memory not available */ /*------ layers.library */ #define AN_LayersLib 0x03000000 #define AN_LayersNoMem 0x83010000 /* layers out of memory */ /*------ intuition.library */ #define AN_Intuition 0x04000000 #define AN_GadgetType 0x84000001 /* unknown gadet type */ #define AN_BadGadget 0x04000001 /* Recovery form of AN_GadgetType */ #define AN_CreatePort 0x84010002 /* create port, no memory */ #define AN_ItemAlloc 0x04010003 /* item plane alloc, no memory */ #define AN_SubAlloc 0x04010004 /* sub alloc, no memory */ #define AN_PlaneAlloc 0x84010005 /* plane alloc, no memory */ #define AN_ItemBoxTop 0x84000006 /* item box top < RelZero */ #define AN_OpenScreen 0x84010007 /* open screen, no memory */ #define AN_OpenScrnRast 0x84010008 /* open screen, raster alloc, no memory */ #define AN_SysScrnType 0x84000009 /* open sys screen, unknown type */ #define AN_AddSWGadget 0x8401000A /* add SW gadgets, no memory */ #define AN_OpenWindow 0x8401000B /* open window, no memory */ #define AN_BadState 0x8400000C /* Bad State Return entering Intuition */ #define AN_BadMessage 0x8400000D /* Bad Message received by IDCMP */ #define AN_WeirdEcho 0x8400000E /* Weird echo causing incomprehension */ #define AN_NoConsole 0x8400000F /* couldn't open the Console Device */ /*------ math.library */ #define AN_MathLib 0x05000000 /*------ clist.library */ #define AN_CListLib 0x06000000 /*------ dos.library */ #define AN_DOSLib 0x07000000 #define AN_StartMem 0x07010001 /* no memory at startup */ #define AN_EndTask 0x07000002 /* EndTask didn't */ #define AN_QPktFail 0x07000003 /* Qpkt failure */ #define AN_AsyncPkt 0x07000004 /* Unexpected packet received */ #define AN_FreeVec 0x07000005 /* Freevec failed */ #define AN_DiskBlkSeq 0x07000006 /* Disk block sequence error */ #define AN_BitMap 0x07000007 /* Bitmap corrupt */ #define AN_KeyFree 0x07000008 /* Key already free */ #define AN_BadChkSum 0x07000009 /* Invalid checksum */ #define AN_DiskError 0x0700000A /* Disk Error */ #define AN_KeyRange 0x0700000B /* Key out of range */ #define AN_BadOverlay 0x0700000C /* Bad overlay */ /*------ ramlib.library */ #define AN_RAMLib 0x08000000 #define AN_BadSegList 0x08000001 /* no overlays in library seglists */ /*------ icon.library */ #define AN_IconLib 0x09000000 /*------ expansion.library */ #define AN_ExpansionLib 0x0A000000 #define AN_BadExpansionFree 0x0A000001 /*------ audio.device */ #define AN_AudioDev 0x10000000 /*------ console.device */ #define AN_ConsoleDev 0x11000000 /*------ gameport.device */ #define AN_GamePortDev 0x12000000 /*------ keyboard.device */ #define AN_KeyboardDev 0x13000000 /*------ trackdisk.device */ #define AN_TrackDiskDev 0x14000000 #define AN_TDCalibSeek 0x14000001 /* calibrate: seek error */ #define AN_TDDelay 0x14000002 /* delay: error on timer wait */ /*------ timer.device */ #define AN_TimerDev 0x15000000 #define AN_TMBadReq 0x15000001 /* bad request */ #define AN_TMBadSupply 0x15000002 /* power supply does not supply ticks */ /*------ cia.resource */ #define AN_CIARsrc 0x20000000 /*------ disk.resource */ #define AN_DiskRsrc 0x21000000 #define AN_DRHasDisk 0x21000001 /* get unit: already has disk */ #define AN_DRIntNoAct 0x21000002 /* interrupt: no active unit */ /*------ misc.resource */ #define AN_MiscRsrc 0x22000000 /*------ bootstrap */ #define AN_BootStrap 0x30000000 #define AN_BootError 0x30000001 /* boot code returned an error */ /*------ Workbench */ #define AN_Workbench 0x31000000 /*------ DiskCopy */ #define AN_DiskCopy 0x32000000 ************************************************************************* ,HED From: jesup@cbmvax Subject: Re: 15 Head Hard drive and the A2090(a) In article <1735@dciem.dciem.dnd.ca> kevin@dretor (Wallace B. Wallace) writes: >I recently acquired a 15 head Hard Drive for my Amiga 2000 only to discover >that the A2090(a) does not support >8 heads. Has anyone figured out either ... > BTW, the drive is a Fujitsu 2249SA, SCSI, 320M, 8 disks, 15 heads Maybe this should be added to the introduction to comp.sys.amiga. The A2090 supports 8 heads for ST506 drives. For SCSI, the number of heads is not important, so it WILL support all of your drive. -- Randell Jesup, Commodore Engineering {uunet|rutgers|allegra}!cbmvax!jesup ************************************************************************* ,ARC From: raz%kilowatt.EBay@Sun.COM (Steve -Raz- Berry) Subject: How to use the kilowatt archive server The following message is the reply that kilowatt (the archive server) will mail to you if you ask it for help. Please be sure that you read it carefully and understand it completely before you post to the net asking for help. If you have problems with the server, and you *can* reach the machine (but it isn't doing what you want) send the symptoms of the problem to manage%kilowatt@sun.com and I'll get back to you as soon as I can. Also, if anyone is interested in setting up their very own archive server, contact me at the above address and I'll send you all information and programs that you need to set one up. -Raz PS: For those that are interested, kilowatt is a Sun 3/260 8meg ram, with 128meg of disk allocated (currently) for the archive. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- This message comes to you from the archive server at kilowatt@sun.com, archive-server%kilowatt@sun.com. It received a message from you asking for help. The archive server is a mail-response program. That means that you mail it a request, and it mails back the response. The archive server is a very dumb program. It does not have much error checking. If you don't send it the commands that it understands, it will just answer "I don't understand you". The archive server has 4 commands. Each command must be the first word on a line. The archive server reads your entire message before it does anything, so you can have several different commands in a single message. The archive server treats the "Subject:" header line just like any other line of the message. You can use any combination of upper and lower case letters in the commands. The archives are organized into a series of top-level directories. The top-level index gives you the index for each of the files in the archive. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- If you are bored with reading documentation and just want to try something, then send the server a message containing the line send index When you get the index back, it will give you the names of all of the files in the archive; send the server another message asking it to send you the files that you want: send applications plplot.2 plplot.3 etc. If you are using a mailer that understands "@" notation, send to archive-server%kilowatt@sun.com. If your mailer deals in "!" notation, try sending to {someplace}!kilowatt.sun.com!archive-server, e.g. uunet!kilowatt.sun.com!archive-server. For other mailers, you're on your own. For BITNET mailers and those lazy typists out there, I have aliased archive-server to archive and archive-management to manage. This means that you can also use the net address of: archive%kilowatt@sun.com {}kilowatt.sun.com!archive manage%kilowatt@sun.com {}kilowatt.sun.com!manage --------------------------------------------------------------------------- The server has 4 commands: "help" command: The command "help" or "send help" causes the server to send you the help file. You already know this, of course, because you are reading the help file. No other commands are honored in a message that asks for help (the server figures that you had better read the help message before you do anything else). "index" command: if your message contains a line whose first word is "index", then the server will send you the index of the contents of the archive. For example, you can say index You can then send back another message to the archive server, using a "send" command (see below) to ask it to send you the files whose name you learned from that list. The index is updated nightly, to reflect the contents of the archive. So if you are getting messages that inform you that the file you requested does not exist, ask for the index again and double check the file name. If your message has an "index" or a "send index" command, then all other "send" commands will be ignored. This means that you cannot get an index and data in the same request. This is so that index requests can be given high priority.) "send" command: if your message contains a line whose first word is "send", then the archive server will send you the item(s) named on the rest of the line. To name an item, you give its directory and its name. For example send workbench ptranim.uu2 or send audio vclock.uu Once you have named a category, you can put as many names as you like on the rest of the line; they will all be taken from that category. For example: send exec xoper13.1 xoper13.2 xoper13.uu1 Each "send" command can reference only one directory. If you would like to get files from more than one directory, you must use two "send" commands. One of the most common mistakes that a new user makes when formatting a send command is to type something that looks like: send dos/fs pthass.sh1 dos/fs pthass.sh2 (This is incorrect... ) This will not work for 2 reasons. One, simply because the archive will look for a directory called "dos/fs". All that you need to do is: send fs pthass.sh1 pthass.sh2 (This is correct) The second reason that the previous send command would not work is that you may only specify one path per send command. You may put as many "send" commands as you like into one message to the server, but the more you ask for, the longer it will take to receive. See "FAIRNESS", below, for an explanation. Actually, it's not strictly true that you can put as many "send" commands as you want into one message. If the server must use uucp mail to send your files, then it cannot send more than 100K bytes in one message. If you ask for more than it can send, then it will send as much as it can and ignore the rest. Since many files in the archive are around 60K, it's probably best to ask for one file at a time unless you know it's safe to do otherwise. "path" command: The "path" command exists to help in case you do not get responses from the server when you mail to it. Sometimes the server is unable to return mail over the incoming path. There are dozens of reasons why this might happen, and if you are a true wizard, you already know what those reasons are. If you are an apprentice wizard, you might not know all the reasons but you might know a way to circumvent them. If you put in a "path" command, then everything that the server mails to you will be mailed to that address, rather than to the return address on your mail. For example, if you say path decwrl!pyramid!rutgers!zakkaroo!jj@uunet.uu.net then all mail sent by the server will be sent to that address. If you use mixed-mode addresses (! and @), the archive-server will put precedence on '@' before '!'. You cannot expect the archive server to pick a uucp path to be determined for you. If you can't determine a path yourself, make the path relative to a 'known' site, e.g.: path place!person@uunet.uu.net which will cause the archive-server to send to site uunet.uu.net with the instructions "send this to place!person". EXAMPLES: 1) Find out the list of all of the Amiga files that are in the archive. Send this message: To: archive-server%kilowatt@sun.com Subject: hi there index 2) Get files from the archive (you have learned their file names from the list that was sent to you in step 1). To: archive-server%kilowatt@sun.com Subject: send digest 3.17 send iff gif2iff.uu2 ifflib161.uu1 send iff dplaz.uu1 (it turns out these three files add up to less that 100k, so they can all be sent by return mail). 3) Get a file, and send it over the best path to my site: To: uunet.uu.net!mcvax!kilowatt.sun.com!archive-server path myname@site.uucp send iff iff2ps20.1 NOTES: The archive server acknowledges every request by return mail. If you don't get a message back in a few days (depending on how close you are to sun.com on the network) you should assume that something is going wrong, and perhaps try sending another request, this time with a "path" command. If you aren't getting anywhere and you don't know a wizard to help you, try putting path mysite!myname@uunet.uu.net in your message, where "myname" is your mailbox name and "mysite" is the uucp name of your machine. The delays in sending out large items from the archives are intentional, to make it difficult to get copies of everything in the archives. If you are new to the network and would like to get all back issues of everything, you should post a request to a regional newsgroup asking whether someone who is geographically near you can provide them. Don't send mail with long lines. If you want to ask for 40 files in one request, you don't need to put all 40 of them in one "send" command. The archive server is quite able to handle long lines, but before your mail message is received by the archive server it might pass through relay computers that will choke on long lines, or chop them up. The archive server does not respond to requests from users named "root", "system", "daemon", or "mailer". This is to prevent mail loops. If your name is "Bruce Root" or "Joe Daemon". Yes, I know about Norman Mailer and Waverley Root. Norman doesn't use netmail and Waverley is dead. FAIRNESS: The archive server contains many safeguards to ensure that it is not monopolized by people asking for large amounts of data. The mailer is set up so that it will send no more than a fixed amount of data each day. If the work queue contains more requests than the day's quota, then the unsent files will not be processed until the next day. Whenever the mailer is run to send its day's quota, it sends the requests out shortest-first. If you have a request waiting in the work queue and you send in another request, the new request is added to the old one (thereby increasing its size) rather than being filed anew. This prevents you from being able to send in a large number of small requests as a way of beating the system. If you request 10 files together, you will get substantially higher priority than if you make 10 requests for 1 file each. The reason for all of these quotas and limitations is that the delivery resources are finite, and there may be many people who would like to make use of the archive. [end of help] *************************************************************************