#AP
14 messages in this thread
60 or 70 bucks seems pricey if all it does is "look better". Can you give me
some examples of what it does significantly better than whap. Is this authored
by the same people who did whap? If so, is there an upgrade price? Thanks
– via Whap!
John,
While the author of AutoPilot did the editor part of Whap!, he did not do
the communications part. AutoPilot is not an update to Whap! It was
written from scratch by a different programmer, and he did not even have
access to the source code for Whap! while he wrote it (except for the code
to the Whap! editor, which was his, of course.)
Autopilot has many advantages over Whap! Among them:
.Multitasking. As soon as AP has moved from Mail to a forum, you can
begin reading and answering your mail, for example.
.Unlimited forums. Whap! allowed only ten. AP lets you have as many as
you want.
.History, with utilities. You can automatically keep all the messages
from a forum in a .HST file. This lets you press a 'parent' button to
find the parent to a message you are reading, and you can back up to the
earliest message of the thread so long as it is in your HST file. You can
answer messages in the history file, too. And the provided CLEANUP
utility will prune the history file to the number of days you set when you
are ready to prune it a bit. This is an extremely nice feature that is
hard to appreciate until you actually have it.
.Support for Internet and FAX abilities of Cmail.
.Handling of uploading and downloading is vastly improved. Example: if
you are uploading or downloading and your call is interrupted, AutoPilot
saves your place and begins the upload or download with the file that was
interrupted. You don't have to do any editing or other management of the
files. To me, this is a MAJOR feature.
.Catalogs – when you add to an AP: catalog, it assimilates the new
descriptions into your old catalog, removing any duplicates that might
have crept in. You can search the catalogs by keyword, saving lots of
time in looking for a file, too. There are other features that don't come
to mind at the moment, but catalogs and up/downloading are much nicer.
.Download single file. If you are reading messages and see a file
mentioned that you want, you can select a menu item right then and there,
type in the name of the file, and next time you sign on, it will be
downloaded for you. Awfully handy. And it is not really just one file –
you just name the files one at a time. If you see a second one you want,
you can use the same feature for the second, etc.
These are just a few of the new or improved features. There are dozens
more. Every few days, I see a list of new or improved features. There
must be hundreds of them!
—Betty
I've been following the Whap v. AP discussion and have no doubt that AP is
better…..but….I have an A1000 and, for many reasons, am content to leave
things the way they are. I have one question — I have tried to ask this
question before and have not gotten a direct answer so I'll try again.
Will Whap! be discontinued in 1993????? I read in a forum that it will be but
I do not know what *discontinued* means. That the program will no longer be
sold?, that the program will no longer work? that other people will laugh even
harder at me??? I would like to try it but I need to know what *discontinued*
means, if anything.
Thanks…..via manual-pilot.
The next time CIS changes their software which will cause Whap! to cease
functioning (in about 3-4 months) that will be the end of Whap! — there will
be no further updates.
Mike,
Whap! will continue to be available as long as it continues to work
properly. The author of Whap! sold his Amiga almost three years ago, and
has no further interest in improving Whap! or even in correcting it when
the CompuServe system software changes. Since CompuServe is constantly
working on its software (which we certainly want – it keeps getting better
and better), it is almost certain that at some time in the future, a CIS
change will cause Whap! to break and when that happens, there is no way to
get it fixed. When someone says it will be discontinued, they mean that
when it no longer works with the CompuServe software, there will have no
choice but to quit offering it in the library.
I think you might want to talk with DKB. They sell a product that lets
the A1000 run the new software, and it will keep your 1000 working and
useful for quite a long time.
—Betty
Thanks for the info….I'll contact DKB as you suggest. I just put in their
fast PAL kit today – I hope that is not what you mean
To be fair, however, it doesn't seem that i actually had or have any bus noise
problems in that my hard drive and memory card share the bus without problems.
I'm adding an A-Max II which will probably represent the final frontier for my
A1000. Hopefully it won't be the straw that breaks the power supply's back.
Regarding dinosaurs like my A1000…why is there such affection and nostalgia
for old cars but old computers are rejected in an instant. Surely an old
four-barrel carb is as useless relative to fuel-injection as a 68000 chip is to
the AGA set. Yet, 4-barrel V-8's still have a certain romance. There is
something about mechanical gizmos that
Sorry…I hit the wrong button and posted the message while I was still editing
it. What I meant to say is that Machines seem to retain a kind of enduring
grace, while old computers are just so much cream-colored plastic. I'm not
sure why this is so, but I suspect it is important.
I still have my A1000, complete with Sidecar, but it is sitting on a shelf
in the garage now. It simply was not expandable and it could not run the
newer versions of the system software without add-ons. I decided early on
that it was better to just move up to a newer machine. I have not yet
purchased a 3000 or a 4000, though. My budget has limits, and I'll
probably not buy one until this one is unable to handle the newer software
and operating systems. That will probably be sometime this year or next,
I imagine. You will find, however, that quite a lot of us have veritable
museums of computers sitting around somewhere. Even when we never turn
them on anymore, we find it hard to part with a computer we have really
loved using.
—Betty
Wanna give your A1000 to me? I will give it a good home and much friendly use.
Bob
Nope. My grandson uses it when he comes to visit.
—Betty
I have an old A1000 too, I plan to keep it when I upgrade, but then I keep
old cars also.
Richard -> via the Amiga 1000 AutoPilot
Mike,
I also own an A1000 and feel the nostalgia. I got my A1000 back in early
1986. It was the most incrediable computing experience of my life. I
think many computer owner's have lost the appreciation of the technology
that our friends at Commodore have brought to us.
Remember, it was Commodore that made the Amiga finally possible. A fact
that is often lost when people beat Commodore to death in these forums.
-mark=
Drivin' on Otto Pilot
I still own an A1000 along with several other newer Amigas… I love it,
it brings me fond memories of the earlier days!
-Jonathan
I also have an A1000 yet, sit next to my 3000 and never gets used. I
think I found the perfect use for it though, a Christmas present for my
nephews. The older one is going to be 4 and loves Lemmings and
DeluxePaint. 'Bout time they upgrade from the C64 I gave them 2 years
ago. 🙂