Path: utzoo!utgpu!attcan!uunet!seismo!sundc!pitstop!sun!pepper!cmcmanis From: cmcmanis%pepper@Sun.COM (Chuck McManis) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga Subject: Re: Info for new AMIGA owner needed... Keywords: help, amiga, compilers, hd Message-ID: <76133@sun.uucp> Date: 4 Nov 88 01:42:40 GMT References: <1206@leah.Albany.Edu> Sender: news@sun.uucp Reply-To: cmcmanis@sun.UUCP (Chuck McManis) Organization: Sun Microsystems, Mountain View Lines: 68 In article (Julius A Cisek) writes: > 1. What are the differences between the 500 and the 2000. Expansion slots, video slot, CPU slot, Bridge Card slot (aka PC expansion). These make it easier/more convienient to expand the box. There is also a detached keyboard, and bays for extra peripherals such as a hard disk or 5.25" floppy. Software should not be able to tell which machine it is running on. > 2. What is the best (give me facts please, not opinions) C compiler for > the Amiga. There is no "best" C compiler for the Amiga. You write down what a C compiler should have and then compare Manx and Lattice (and GNU if you want). Something to be aware of is that Lattice has announced that Lattice 5.0 will be available soon (they are predicting this month) and it *includes* such winners as a full source level debugger called "CodeProbe" and a global optimizer, make and an integrated editor etc etc. Then at the same time Jim Goodnow and Manx have been working hard on Aztec C 4.0 for the Amiga and while I haven't heard of a release date it too seems to be a winner system. My old standby is that if you are new to C (preferably haven't used cc on a unix machine) then Lattice will give you fewer problems and better diagnostics, if you have UNIX experience Manx will feel very comfortable and you'll come up to speed faster. Both generate about the same quality code, both support all memory "models", both can run from floppies or a hard disk. > 3. Can I hook virtually any hard drive to the A-500 without the need of > a special interface? (I'm talking about IBM compatible drives) No. If you want to hook an IBM compatible drive to your machine get the Wedge. If you want to hook a SCSI drive to your machine you can either get an expansion chassis and some sort of interface card. Depending on the expansion chassis you may also need a box for the drive mechanisim and some cables. This is one of the key differences between a 500 and a 2000, with the 2000 you buy a card for $300, and a drive for $300 and plug them in to have a drive. On the 500 you need to buy an expansion chassis for $400, the card for $300, the drive for $300, and a box for the drive for $100, a cable for the drive for $30, and then you are set. So you spend $530 dollars *later* for the money you saved up front when you bought the 500 over the 2000. It's worse if you want to upgrade the CPU. > 4. I need to have a MIDI and Video workstation, so what software and > hardware would you reccommend? I've seen D-Paint II and am very > impressed by it. But what about video work and MIDI software? Dpaint II is nice, so is Photon Paint and Express Paint. Video software is tuned for different applications. FantaVision is the best "moving pieces" software so far, another is The Director although it is a bit tougher to use at first. JDK Images Pro Video is nice for titling type effects, and then there are several "renderers" like VideoScape 3D/Modeler 3D and Sculpt 3D/Animate 3D. These are more model based. > 5. What books can you reccommend to get me best started with the Amiga > operating system. What does this mean? Programming the operating system? That would be the the Rom Kernel Manuals and the "Programmers Guide to the Amiga". If you mean just using it like you would DOS or something then the Bantam AmigaDOS manual and Rob Peck's Amiga Companion would be good first bets. --Chuck McManis uucp: {anywhere}!sun!cmcmanis BIX: cmcmanis ARPAnet: cmcmanis@sun.com These opinions are my own and no one elses, but you knew that didn't you.