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From: dillon@CORY.BERKELEY.EDU (Matt Dillon)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: (simple) Amiga questions
Message-ID: <8708241927.AA27931@cory.Berkeley.EDU>
Date: Mon, 24-Aug-87 15:27:06 EDT
Article-I.D.: cory.8708241927.AA27931
Posted: Mon Aug 24 15:27:06 1987
Date-Received: Tue, 25-Aug-87 05:16:13 EDT
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
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>1) How well does it handle C? I guess I've been spoiled by UNIX, but
>   I would really hate to program *anything* in another language. Even
>   with nitty-gritty machine level stuff. Did I hear once that the Amiga
>   OS is in modula? Maybe not...

	C is the native high level language used on the Amiga.  With the
	exception of DOS, the entire operating system was written in C or
	assembly.  DOS was written in BCPL, which nobody has a high opinion
	of, but which was the only way it could be released in time to be
	competitive.  The graphics, window interface, etc... is all C or
	assembly.

	Unlike a certain (unnamed) computer, there is a huge amount of
	technical documentation and support for C on the amiga.

>2) How easily does this thing handle multiprocessing and what are its
>   limits in this area?

	The OS was multiprocessing from the start.  In fact, the OS itself
	consists of about a dozen processes.  The only limitation is the
	amount of memory you have to run them.

>3) How well does it handle multiple RS-232 devices. For example, I'd like
>   to hook up two modems and have each modem run by a separate process
>   simultaneously. Anyone see any problems here?

	Well, the Amiga has only one serial port.  Due to the nature of the
	serial interface (a standard device driver), and assuming there is
	some product out there which has another serial port and device driver
	to run it, it would be utterly trivial to modify a program to use 
	(just change the device name in the OpenDevice() call).

>4) Is there any method of having multiple processes communicate? Sockets
>   would be great, but, again, I think I've been spoiled by BSD UNIX.

	The Amiga EXEC contains primitives for interprocess communication via
	message passing.  If you don't want to go that deep you can always
	use a commercial or PD PIPE: device and communicate that way.

>5) And, of course, how's the Pac Man?   8-)

	A.W.E.S.O.M.E.  (BTW to everyone else: I haven't seen it on the net
	so I guess I'll send it mod.binaries... it's a shareware program).

>Any answers/experiences would be appreciated. Graphics and sound effects
>are nice, but if it won't do what you want...

	I, as a programmer and hacker, am completely satisfied and also
	gratified that it is extremely easy to change what I, as a programmer,
	do not like about the Amiga.  People have done more things to the
	Amiga (Demos and utilities) that are completely compatible with *all*
	the Amiga software out there that would cripple any other computer.

						-Matt

P.S. And NO, I am *NOT* cross posting this to comp.sys.atari or comp.sys.mac