Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!wuarchive!wugate!uunet!portal!cup.portal.com!Sullivan
From: Sullivan@cup.portal.com (sullivan - segall)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: Amiga Development ??
Message-ID: <23125@cup.portal.com>
Date: 15 Oct 89 19:34:44 GMT
References: <23123@cup.portal.com>
Distribution: na
Organization: The Portal System (TM)
Lines: 57

>I am a professional IBM programmer about to start a port of a game in progress
>to the Amiga.  I'd like to hear facts and opinions about native and cross
>development systems and tools.  I'd also like to know if the Amiga has
>gotten over its early lamentable habit of munching disks with important
>data on them, since that's not acceptable in a development environment.
>
>So what are you using to write Amiga programs?  What's wrong with the tools
>you have?  If you also program under UNIX or MS-DOS, how do the tools compare
>with what's available there?  What are the essential documents necessary to
>write code for the Amiga?  What's a minimal development system?  What have I
>failed to ask that I should have?
>
What type of game?  What language are you using?  For development of 
real-time interactive "video" games you'll need a good assembler and 
a lot more familiarity with the Amiga hardware.  Almost all other development
is done in C, with a small minority in Modula-2.
 
Historically the favorite compiler among developers has been Manx C.  Currently
Manx has fallen well behind Lattice in maintaining their product.  Lattice is
also the official C compiler used by Commodore.  The upcoming release promises
to include considerably better optimization than had been used to date.  Source
code debuggers are available for both compilers(although that really shouldn't
be a problem since the code you are porting should presumably be free of 
logical bugs.)  Manx's new release is expected in about a month and will
include all of the ANSI extensions.  Lattice is already fully ANSI compatible
but includes many enhancements beyond ANSI's recommendations.


IMHO the minimum development machine includes a reasonably fast hard-disk
ca. 40Mb, and 3Mb RAM.  You may want to use the new Agnus chip to remove 
chip ram problems while the game is being developed, but you'll probably want
it to run in 512k total memory in its final iteration to reach the widest
audience.  It doesn't matter whether or not you use an A500 or an A2000.
Both machines have essentially the same capabilities.  
   One important part of the development machine not to forget:  Go and 
purchase a couple of games currently on the market.  They'll give you a 
good idea of what the hardware will support.  There have been a rash of 
hasty ports to our platform, and one more game with lousy graphics and poor
control isn't really going to inspire anyone to purchase it. 

A final word of advice.  Those of us who own harddrives and/or expanded 
memory really hate to see them ignored. If you are planning on obliterating
the operating system, then at least check to see what is attached first.  
Maybe those extra two megs could be used for a ram-disk instead of continually
rereading your data from disk.  More optimal would be to work within the
multi-tasking OS.  God forbid any game should actually have an exit option.
Be the first on your block to exit cleanly.  Allow your software to be 
installed and run from a harddrive.  


...ah well, my legs are aching from trying to hold my balance on this !@#%$#
soapbox.  Any questions I missed? -ss

maile to: sullivan@cup.portal.com

#include <stddisclaimer.h>
#pragma __deny__ spelling_error || literal_truth