Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!casbah.acns.nwu.edu!nucsrl!tellab5!chinet!miroc!caw From: caw@miroc.Chi.IL.US (Christopher A. Wichura) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.misc Subject: Re: Few questions/observations about the A3000 Message-ID: Date: 25 Apr 91 01:02:01 GMT References: <1991Apr22.184252.10274@bronze.ucs.indiana.edu> Lines: 77 In article <1991Apr22.184252.10274@bronze.ucs.indiana.edu> tagreen@lothario.ucs.indiana.edu (Todd Green) writes: >1) Any final word on when KickStart 2.0 will be in ROM? Also as far There is no definitave date the C= has stated, no. However, word on the street is RSN. >as I have gathered KickStart is roughly equivalent to the Toolbox on >the Mac (I come from a Mac background...at least that's what I get Maybe I don't know what Toolbox is (I hate the Mac and avoid it as much as possible, but to each his own), but, by its name, I think of Toolbox along the lines of say an X toolkit. That's something you would use to make building an application easier because you call widgets and whatnot that handle things like layout and buttons for you, etc. Kickstart is what the Amiga's OS is refered to as. It's the whole kit and kaboodle. Now, with 2.0, it is true that you have things like gadtools.library which provide toolkit functionality, but there is so much more in Kickstart that's OS and not toolkit. > 1a) What disadvantages would there be to getting a A3000 > before KS 2.0 is put in ROM? Upgrade costs, troubles, etc. Shouldn't make any difference. As my dealer tells me (I own an A3000), the 2.0 ROM upgrade for 3000 owners will be treated like an in warranty service request. Bring the machine in, let the dealer bang on it (depending on your dealer, maybe not such a good thing... my dealer is pretty cool, though), and take it home with 2.0 ROMs. >2) Upon looking at the 1950 monitor I noticed an annoying flicker on the first >scan line of the monitor. Escpecially when you would pull down a "screen". >Any word on this? I think this was discussed before on this group...but oh well. This is an artifact of the AMBER display enhancer chip. Whether or not it will be fixed I have no information on. If it is fixed, all it should require is swapping in a new AMBER. >3) Any comments on the best development programs (C/C++/Objective-C) would be >welcome. Commercial only. For C, the two big names are SAS and Manx. I prefer SAS. Let's just say that a fair amount of Kickstart 2.0 is compiled with SAS... >3) Any difinitive word on the supposed problems with the SCSI controller with >multiple drives? This is a reselction problem, and C= on the net have stated many times recently that the final ROMs for the A3000 will have an scsi.device driver that has this problem fixed. As it stands now, I use two drives with reselection turned off on both and have never had any problems. Others on the net complain that they do. Your milage may vary. >4) This is not really for me, but a co-worker has asked me to ask for him >(guess he's too lazy to type it in himself). What kind of deals/opportunities >exist for an Amiga owner to develop for SEGA. Are there any packages/cross >compilers etc. (reply either to myself or mdchaney@bronze.ucs.indiana.edu) This you need to talk to SEGA about. The main CPU is a 68000, for which there are several different compilers (C, Module II, etc) and assemblers available on the Amiga. It also has a Z80 chip in it (often used to handle the sound, as I understand it) and I know of at least one PD Z80 assembler. >2) Poor text quality. After using a NeXT and Mac for over a year looking at the >Amiga tends to make me think back to Apple II 40 column days. A sharper display >would certainly help out the machine. Again this comes from limited use, so no flames >please. These are just my initial observations from about 1 hour of playing with >a machine in a local store. I use my A3000 with a 1950. My WB is set to 724x484 resolution and looks quite nice. Admitadly, if your dealer was running something like 640x200... -=> CAW Christopher A. Wichura Multitasking. Just DO it. caw@miroc.chi.il.us (my amiga) ...the Amiga way... u12401@uicvm.uic.edu (school account)