CompuServe Messages

Jack, <looking in horror>, you need a serious readjustment with respect to the Amiga. One does not "steal" an interrupt, unless you like a crash. Instead, you politely ask the system for the par: or prt: resource. This is a multi-tasking machine and you _MUST_ always ask for a resource and test to see if you get it. As for the particular configuration of the parallel printer port, my laser printer cant seem to tell the difference, nor can MAPLE. I think that's compatible enough. If the system does have more than one printer port, you will not find it under any consistent name. PRT: will probably, not necessarily, be assigned to the first printer port. It's best to ask the user, via a configuration screen, about how many, and what names, his printer ports are using. Again, the principle is to ask, not grab. As for the serial port, an un-accelerated Amiga 500 or 2000 will probably have problems at 38.4 Kbaud. Come to think of, so will a clone, even at double the clock speed of the Amiga. 19.2 KBaud is the best speed one can expect without running a test on a system. That's assuming AmigaDOS 2.0, I think. I haven't tested this extensively since I refuse to use an unaccelerated machine <grin>. Question 5 is a can of worms. The "best" depends on how much you wish to spend and what you are trying to do. If your used to paying Borland prices, than SAS C is definitely a full enough package to keep you going. If you want to get out cheap, but don't mind setting up your own environment, then Matt Dillon's DICE (Dillon Integrated C Environment, shareware) package should do the trick. You will also want to pick up the standard reference books for the Amiga. All of the following from Addison-Wesley and indispensible: Amiga ROM Kernal Manual-Devices, Amiga ROM Kernal Manual- Includes and Autodocs, Amiga ROM Kernal Manual-Libraries, Amiga Hardware Reference Manual, and Amiga User Interface Style Guide. The Libraries manual is essential if you want to save coding time. [ MORE ]