Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!mnetor!seismo!rutgers!cbmvax!daveh From: daveh@cbmvax.cbm.UUCP (Dave Haynie) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga Subject: Re: Initial Opinion of Amiga Message-ID: <995@cbmvax.cbmvax.cbm.UUCP> Date: Mon, 17-Nov-86 14:01:10 EST Article-I.D.: cbmvax.995 Posted: Mon Nov 17 14:01:10 1986 Date-Received: Mon, 17-Nov-86 22:33:21 EST References: <939@blia.BLI.COM> Organization: Commodore Technology, West Chester, PA Lines: 102 > > My opinion is that, with the exception of being able to display > many colors, the Amiga is pretty dismal. I deliberatly didn't look > into the internal aspects of AmigaDos but base my opinion on > user interface problems. I should also note that I mainly use > the CLI interface. > > The first thing I noticed is that the Amiga doesn't use Control-S > and Control-Q to stop and start output to the screen. Control-S > does work but only carriage return seems to resume output. The > XON/XOFF protocol is so common that I would hope that there is some > good reason why Amiga doesn't use it. The Amiga CLI output stops when you type nearly any character, and starts again when you delete that character or type . While you are correct in stating that it doesn't follow the more conventional XON/XOFF convention, I see no reason why it really should. That convention dates back to when you were typing on an attached TTY of some kind. This scheme is better, at least once you get used to it. Its part of the type-ahead mechanism; unlike type-ahead under UNIX, console output on the Amiga pauses until you complete a line. > The next thing that bothered my is that the Amiga is SLOOOOOOW in > performing tasks that a standard speed IBM PC can do much better. > For example, running DIR is unacceptably slow. Yet, this is a very > commonly run command. The CD command has the same problem. DIR and CD in MS-DOS is built-in, plus MS-DOS directories are organized more efficiently for directory searches. AmigaDOS directories are optimized to allow a named file to be found as quickly as possible, and in this respect they work very well. The Amiga CLI doesn't have any resident commands. Every command you type must be loaded from disk in a normal configuration. That's normally going to take a bit more time that the built-in CD command would, though with the command on a hard disk or in RAM: you wouldn't notice it. The advantage of a small CLI is that it allows more programs to co-exist in memory at once (no big deal if you've got a few megabytes on your machine, but important if you're limited to 256K or 512K in you current configuration). > What follows is a short list of other annoying features of the Amiga: > > 1. The lack of wild card characters is a bother. There's no CLI managed wildcard expansion, though most of the AmigaDOS commands (DELETE, COPY, etc.) support wildcards. These aren't like UNIX or MS-DOS, but are generally more powerful once you get used to them. > 2. I couldn't find the command for removing a directory. Did they supply you with an AmigaDos Manual? This could explain a number of the problems you've been having. The command for removing a directory is DELETE. If the directory contains files, you'd have to specify DELETE directoryname ALL similar to the UNIX rm -r directoryname operation. > 3. The file system is very similar to Unix and MS-DOS. Why couldn't > they use the same pathname syntax of one of these? Why couldn't MS-DOS use the already established UNIX pathname structure, instead of inventing one of its own? AmigaDOS is a direct descendent of TriPos, an operating system common in Europe. The directory structure and many of the other features are a direct result of this. > 4. The amount of time it takes to respond to Control-C seems unpredictable. > This is true even though I was running a compile which does I/O > like crazy, which on the IBM is when Control-C's can be detected. I've never noticed this, but AmigaDOS does allow ^C trapping within I/O routines. Actually, I believe that a ^C is noticed immediately by the I/O management Process, and during a program's I/O its occurance is polled. It depends alot on how the program is written; it can be dangerous to break out of a program at certain points, so its likely that the ^C checking is turned off in these cases. > When I read other people's submissions complaining about systems I know > something about I often think to myself that the person who wrote > the article was obviously suffering from a severe case of cranial-anal > inversion. But, being in the same situation is a very enlightening > experience. > > Jon Forrest > ucbvax!mtxinu!blia!forrest -- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Dave Haynie {caip,ihnp4,allegra,seismo}!cbmvax!daveh "Laws to supress tend to strengthen what they would prohibit. This is the fine point on which all the legal professions of history have based their job security." -Bene Gesserit Coda These opinions are my own, though for a small fee they may be yours too. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~