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From: david@starsoft.UUCP (Dave Lowrey)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.tech
Subject: Re: need help learning amiga programming
Message-ID: <1859a224.ARN2584@starsoft.UUCP>
Date: 12 Dec 90 13:49:56 GMT
References: <27348.27630086@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu>
Reply-To: david@starsoft.UUCP
Followup-To: comp.sys.amiga.tech
Organization: Starbound Software Group
Lines: 49
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In article <27348.27630086@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu>, 2flolump@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu writes:

> Can anyone direct me to a book that TEACHES me how to program on the Amiga.
> I bought this computer years ago, with the hope that I could learn to
> program it.  But I soon discovered that the OS was something that really
> had to be learned to take advantage of all the features.  Anyway, I own
> the Amiga ROM KERNEL manual:Libraries & Devices and it seems to be sketchy
> on many things.

To me, the Libs & Devs manual is THE BEST amiga programming manual.

All of the example source code is avaliable on a couple of fish disks.

What "things" are sketchy?

> I really am starting to dislike C the more I read it,  I don't know why
> everyone praises it so.  I guess those who learn its cryptic commands get
> some pride from how others struggle with it.  Anyway, I have owned TDI
> Modula 2 for quite awhile and while I like the language, which I believe
> is more readable than C and has more software engineering features, which C
> lacks, I find that this compiler is inferior.

Amazing Computing magazine usually has a program written in Modula 2
in each issue. However........

In the "real world", there isn't much code written in Modula 2. You
might as well bite the bullet, and learn C.

> This leads to my final questions.  Does anyone know of a good Modula 2
> development package that is actually used?  Does anyone know of a good
> book on how to program the amiga in Modula 2?  Does anyone have a
> good recommendation on a C compiler that is affordabe, if I do indeed find
> this is the only language with which the amiga can be programmed effectively.
>
There are a couple of free C packages avaliable on Fish Disks and FTP
archives. There are North C and PDC. However, you will need to purchase
the Commodore include files if you are going to do much Amiga
specific programming. They go for around $20.00. There is also DICE,
written by Matt Dillon. There is a free (no floating point?) version,
and a supported version that costs money (I think $40.00).

Good Luck!!

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      Dave Lowrey        |  david@starsoft or {uhnix1,lobster}!starsoft!david
Starbound Software Group |
      Houston, TX        | "Dare to be stupid!" -- Weird Al Yankovic