Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!wuarchive!cs.utexas.edu!rutgers!cbmvax!daveh
From: daveh@cbmvax.commodore.com (Dave Haynie)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: various amiga questions
Message-ID: <13476@cbmvax.commodore.com>
Date: 27 Jul 90 14:06:55 GMT
References: <5009@hemuli.tik.vtt.fi>
Reply-To: daveh@cbmvax (Dave Haynie)
Distribution: comp.sys.amiga,sfnet.atk.amiga
Organization: Commodore, West Chester, PA
Lines: 57

In article <5009@hemuli.tik.vtt.fi> Jan.Lucenius@tel.vtt.fi (Jan Lucenius) writes:

>4) Is the 500 compatible with the 2000 etc. if expanded with the expansion
>   board. Is there any curcuit diagram or/and description how to build that
>   kind of expansion board published ? Would then the same software and
>   hardware fit for the 500 as for the bigger models ?

The guts of the A500 are substantially the same as those of the 2000, less the
expansion bus, of course.  An expansion backplane design is given in the
Commodore publication, "A500/A2000 Technical Reference Manual".  A well
designed backplane for the A500 should run any A2000 expansion card.  It will
require its own power supply, and very careful mechanical design to make the
device ergonomic without making the bus lines too long.

>5) Is there a CAD software for designing and calculating electronic curcuits
>   for the Amiga ?

There is LogicWorks, which claims to do logic simulation.  I wasn't at all
impressed with V1.0, which is possibly useful for a High School level course
in electronics, but not practical for any useful work.  There is an updated
version that I have not tried.  For schematic capture and PCB layout, I 
recommend Pro-Net and Pro-Board from Prolific, Inc.  These programs aren't
quite up to workstation standards, but they're comparable with the IBM PC
family schematic capture programs I've used for the most part.  And they have
far less trouble with memory than IBM programs.

>6) is there any hypercard like software for the amiga ?

CanDo or AmigaVision, depending on your tastes.

>7) Which compiler is best ? Do anyone have an integrated software developing
>   environment like the one of the interpreting AmigaBasic or TurboC for the
>   PC's ?

On the Amiga, you generally build an integrated environment if you want one,
but there's really no need.  I usually run with an editor and shell open on
workbench.  I save a file, then use one of the various UNIX-like "make"
programs.  If you have AREXX (standard in 2.0) and an AREXX-knowledgable text
editor, you can pretty much design an integrated environent that suits you.
There are various examples of these kinds of things out in the public domain.

The BenchMark Modula 2 compiler comes with a special version of Emacs that
gives you something more along the lines of the traditional integrated 
environment, but that's really an illusion; it's using the separate pieces
available, just like any AREXX-integrated system would.  I like Emacs, so I
liked this system.  But the flaw in any integrated environment, especially
those for the PC, is that you're generally stuck with the compiler writer's
idea of a "good editor".  I could live with the BenchMark editor (though it's
not the best Emacs clone around), but I couldn't live with Lattice's LSE or
Manx's Z (a VI clone).  On the Amiga, I can have the environment the way I
like it with my editor of choice, for the most part (eg, my favorite editor
needs AREXX support to do this).

-- 
Dave Haynie Commodore-Amiga (Amiga 3000) "The Crew That Never Rests"
   {uunet|pyramid|rutgers}!cbmvax!daveh      PLINK: hazy     BIX: hazy
           The Dave Haynie branch of the New Zealand Fan Club