Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!mcsun!ukc!edcastle!cs.ed.ac.uk!db
From: db@cs.ed.ac.uk (Dave Berry)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Novice questions: PCs, printers etc.
Message-ID: <367@skye.cs.ed.ac.uk>
Date: 17 Sep 90 14:21:35 GMT
Sender: nnews@cs.ed.ac.uk
Reply-To: db@lfcs.ed.ac.uk (Dave Berry)
Organization: Laboratory for the Foundations of Computer Science, Edinburgh U
Lines: 54

I'm considering buying an Amiga - a 200 if I can afford it, more likely
a 500.  I have a few (10) questions, which I'd be grateful if someone could
answer for me.


1.  It's essential that I can transfer data files from the Amiga to
    a PC and vice versa.  Recent articles on this newsgroup suggest that
    several people do this.  Would I need an external drive to read/write
    3.5" PC disks, or could I use the internal drive?  How much does
    the software cost?

2.  Can Amiga software use the built-in fonts of matrix and daisy wheel
    printers for draft of high quality copies?  Obviously not all
    documents could be printed using built-in fonts, but I'd like to be
    able to use them for ASCII files and wordprocessor files.

3.  Can postscript generated by an Amiga program be printed on an
    Apple Laserwriter?

4.  What is a flicker-fixer, and how necessary is it?

5.  How do the AT bridgeboards and Mac boards access the screen?
    Does the Amiga screen look like the PC/Mac screen to programs running
    on these boards?  How does the resolution of the Amiga screen compare\
    with the PC and Mac?

6.  The range of software for the Amiga seems a bit limited, apart from
    music and graphics packages (which I'm not really interested in).
    Are DTP packages like Ventura and PageMaker supported on the Amiga?
    Which wordprocessor and database would you recommend?

7.  Is UNIX available or going to be available for the 2000?  (I've
    seen the recent posts about MINIX, which is encouraging, but I'd
    like to know about the Commodore version).

8.  Are Prolog or Smalltalk available for the Amiga?

9.  I was expecting to find more games avaiable for the Amiga than the
    PC, but it seems that strategy games (like SSI products for the PC)
    aren't as common as arcade and adventure games, which I'm not
    really interested in.  Is this impression right?

10. I've seen some articles in this newsgroup criticising the Amiga's
    graphics capabilities.  Are people comparing Amiga graphics with
    PC graphics or with more powerful machines aimed at the workstation
    market?

Thank you for your patience in reading this far.

--
 Dave Berry, LFCS, Edinburgh Uni.      db%lfcs.ed.ac.uk@nsfnet-relay.ac.uk

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