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From: acs@amdahl.UUCP (Tony Sumrall)
Newsgroups: net.micro.amiga
Subject: Re: Q: AmigaBasic access to Amiga features
Message-ID: <2730@amdahl.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 3-Feb-86 10:44:55 EST
Article-I.D.: amdahl.2730
Posted: Mon Feb  3 10:44:55 1986
Date-Received: Wed, 5-Feb-86 01:25:09 EST
References: <1277@vax135.UUCP>
Organization: Amdahl Corporation, Sunnyvale CA
Lines: 48
Summary: Help!?!

In article <1277@vax135.UUCP>, cjp@vax135.UUCP (Charles Poirier) asks for
some further info on AmigaBASIC (coercing mouse() to look at port 2,
etc.).  I also posted a request some time ago and have gotten no reponse
so...at the risk of repeating myself and invoking the wrath of the usenet
gods, I'm reposting my requests, to wit:


    [...]            I would like to be able to access all of the
"devices" that are supported by the OS.  I'm able to open RAW: as random
but for the life of I can't figure out how to "poll" the window.  What I
wanted to do was implement an AmigaBASIC program to take advantage of
RAW:'s escape-seqence generation and remove AmigaBASIC's massaging of my
keystrokes (can't determine that the ALT key was pressed in conjuncion with
another character, etc.).  Maybe I shouldn't be using RAW: but I think I
should be able to; maybe RAW: buffers its input but I should be able to
unbuffer it if I want; maybe the standard AmigaBASIC keyboard handler
is nice because I have one keycode to correspond to one key but what if
I want to extend my programs to utilize *all* keycodes.

If the facility already exists, lemme know; if I'm wrong, lemme know;
if...well I think you get the idea.
   [...]
I've finally begun delving into the depths(?) of AmigaBASIC and am finding
myself in a world of wonder (since I'm not a developer and haven't been
able to find a ROM kernel manual).  On the AmigaBASIC distribution diskette
I find a nice little program ConvertFD which converts ".fd" files to
".bmap".  After reading one of the appendices, searching out .bmaps and
typing them to my printer (opt h, of course) I find about 3 dozen routines
available to me in dos.library and graphics.library.  Now I *know* that
there are more libraries and routines in libraries than what are listed
in the 2 bmap files I have.  I have several questions:
  * is anyone gonna produce more .bmaps?
  * what are .fd files?
  * how can I get more .fd (or .bmap) files?
  * is anyone gonna document the parameters that should be passed to
    the routines?
I suppose that if I had access to a ROM manual I wouldn't be asking these
(silly) questions but, since I don't, I am.  The library demo program
on the AmigaBASIC disk is nice (it gave me quite a few clues) but it's
like giving a parched man a small sip of water--I wanna DO something with
this wonderful piece of work but can't.  Arrrrggggghhhhhh!!!!!

Help?!?
-- 
Tony Sumrall                       ...!{ihnp4,hplabs,amd,sun}!amdahl!acs

[ Opinions expressed herein are the author's and should not be construed
  to reflect the views of Amdahl Corp. or its employees. ]