Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!pt.cs.cmu.edu!o.gp.cs.cmu.edu!andrew.cmu.edu!rg20+
From: rg20+@andrew.cmu.edu (Rick Francis Golembiewski)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.games
Subject: Re: Omega Followup II (Just when you thought it was really ported...)
Message-ID: <8bRH2yu00WAyE_QqoH@andrew.cmu.edu>
Date: 23 Dec 90 22:33:34 GMT
References: <2790@ux.acs.umn.edu>
Organization: Class of '92, Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA
Lines: 65
In-Reply-To: <2790@ux.acs.umn.edu>


>Argh! I got omega 1.0 from the nasa site. And, of course, it was a very
>nice bug-free version - which will not, under any known circumstances,
>run on a 3000. ARGH!

If you read the docs file for 1.0 you should get the idea that the 1.0
port was shaky at best, I wouldn't even call it close to bug free, but
It was what I had time to do and figured that a so so port of omega is
better then none at all.   BTW v 1.0 is quite old, I've had v1.3 (so
named because I had tested it under 1.3) out for some time, not only
is 1.3 far more bug free, but it is a LOT faster and has more features
(I hacked up some custom fonts).    A few notes on version 1.0: I
think that the reason that it doesn't work on the 3000 may be due to
the version of lattice C it was compiled under (4.0 or so I believe),
because version 1.3 works great under 2.0 on my 3000 with no changes.

>1] Couldn't someone who's done a port just put the source up for ftp? I
>  know omega like the back of my hand (rewrote a copy of it once) and as
>  such, could probably fix it myself a lot faster than I could get it from
>  everyone else...

The reason that I've been reluctant to post the source is that I don't
want hundreds of versions floating around (there is already enough
problems with 2 revisions!), however if someone is REALLY interested
in doing work to enhance v1.3, then I will certainly give them the code.
Be warned though, the code is large (is more then 1MB of object files
~ 1 MB of source and ~600K for the executable) so that it really
requires a HD with a fair amount of space for the excutables.  Also
the omega source is not pretty, and neither is the my amiga specific
curses routines (mainly because I reverse engineered them with out any
docs other then what omega was supposed to display and a man page for
cures...), there aren't a lots of comments and I don't really have
time to put them in either....

>2] Though it's been said before, no one seems to listen...
>  People, Commodore puts out *rules* for programming Amigae. If you follow
>  the rules, your programs will work on all future amigas. Please, folks,
>  follow the damn rules! There is *no* excuse for a game not working properly
>  on any amiga, under any workbench, whether or not there is fast memory.
>  Really, people, it's true: You *can* specify chip memory where you need
>  it. You don't have to require nofastmems... ;-)

I DID actually follow the rules, for all alocations I used malloc for
memory allocation [Of course I'm not sure how good Lattice 4.0 was
about Fast/Chip memory etc.) (and put in checking to insure that the
mallocs were successful, somehting the UNIX version was lacking), I used the
standard screen and window routines and used Text() for text output
(even though it is pretty slow), in fact all of the docs I have
dealing with graphics were on 1.2, but they still worked fine in 2.0.
If you look at the code there are several 
if ( (foo=openfoo())==NULL) cleanup(); 
and similar statements through the code, I even put in code so that if
v1.3 couldn't find the fonts it would use the regular character set.
V1.3 works perfectly on my A3000 with 2MB chip and 4MB fastram enabled
or disabled. I stongly suggest that you (and anyone else that is using
v1.0) get version 1.3 from:

drycas.club.cc.cmu.edu
in the directory:
[anonymous.amiga-sig]omega.zoo

//     Rick Golembiewski  rg20+@andrew.cmu.edu  \\
\\       #include stddisclaimer.h               //
 \\  "I never respected a man who could spell" //
  \\               -M. Twain                  //