CompuServe Thread

If I may jump in here: I'm an Amiga user, and I just recently bought an IBM-compatible laptop for work. BIOS problems: these days, it's rare to find a BIOS that causes any problems. Compatibility issues between various IBM clones were ironed out a few years ago, and the differences between BIOS' these days mostly relate to custom power management features, arcane RAM/ROM remappings and so forth. If you buy a name brand, don't worry about it. Transfer: There's a shareware program available on CServe called Twin Express. You need two programs: one runs on the Amiga, one on the clone. Connect the two with a null modem. You can then transfer files from one to the other painlessly. Alternatively, if you're using AmigaDos 2.x or later, or have a copy of CrossDos, you can transfer files on 720K diskettes without problems. Except, of course, file format issues. Most IBM-clone word processors can read and write a number of different formats, including Word Perfect (which used to be supported on the Amiga). I've had most success with RTF, Rich Text Format, for inter-machine wp file exchange, but I don't know that any of the Amiga WP programs support that. Anyone? In the spreadsheet world, DIF files are a sort of lowest common denominator. Again, IBM-clone programs are pretty capable with different formsts; I've imported straight ASCII comma-delimited files into Excel without a hitch, and you can generate those files almost by just printing your spreadsheet to disk. Database: a lowest common denominator here is either ASCII delimited or maybe dBase format, which most everything reads and writes. I'm not really up on Amiga db prorams, so I can't say much more. Resources on the laptop: if you're running Windows, then your requirements match those you listed in your post. If you're sticking with DOS, you can get by with much less. It really depends on what you want to do with the machine, but to run current-generation WP, SS and DB programs generally means Windows, especially if you want to move data between them. I got myself a Toshiba T1900, which has just been replaced by the 1950 (!) It's considered a "budget" model, '486, monochrome, 4Mb RAM, big hard drive. It works really well, no complaints. They have international service, it's very well made and supported. I went with a brand name because I thought that the engineering requirements for a good laptop were probably a little more demanding than just slapping a desktop clone together, but you may feel differently. If you're still looking, PC magazine had a review of forty-something different systems in their August '93 issue. Hope the info above helps – let me know if you have more specific questions. –rbt

Roger, Memory requirements will be a major culture shock. We are use to the relative compactness of WB OS' ROM, RAM and HD requirements. OS/2, NT, and even Windows seems to emulate UNIX's penchant for the need of MASSIVE amounts of memory. I understand that although NT will operate with 8 MB of RAM, 16 is prefered!! Compared to what could be done with the early A1000 with 1MB of memory this is absurd (but what should we expect, NT/Windows was written by those rocket scientists that brought us AmigaBasic <ugh>)! BIOS is the firmware that boots up DOS, or NT, or whatever. It is the PC's most direct access (and used to be used heavily by game creators to circumvent speed problems with PC's in th eolde days – I don't know if they still "cheat"). The BIOS should effect you in the least, since your exchange of data will be at a higher level. The easiest approach is "SneakerNet" – just copy PC formatted disks back and forth between your Amiga and your Laptop (remember not to use 1.4MB high density disks, or atleast format them as lower density so that Amiga's CrossDOS will recognize them. You could also hook the serial ports together as a null modem and exchange data as if you were uploading/downloading thru terminal programs on both machines. The fastest (and most absurd possibility, is to get ethernet boards for both and hook them up as peers on a small network (then the speeds would be amazing). Again, the PC market is a regular "free-for-all" of vendors poping into existance, and winking out. There old out of date models still being sold, sometimes in the same places that sell new stuff. You can buy the next great wonder or a museum artifact! We're probably looking for different things in laptops to a degree. I'm interested in having access to text in a more mobile way, and am presently considering the Compaq LTE 4/25e, which not only has a 486SL/25, but features the only active matrix black and white large screen. The contrast is much nicer than in passive screens and the price is lower than an active matrix color screen. The compaq also has a docking base, which can be configured as a "second" base computer for interfacing with my Amiga. I also want to get a little experience with the PC world (just in case I have to depend on those machines). If your needs are a simple DOS tect device that inputs data and dumps it to your Amiga, don't let people "gee whiz" you into buying something twice the price that you really don't need. Next year the stuff their selling now will ALL look lame (and the next year, and the next…). As for a PC program specific to dumping data to an Amiga, I don't think there is such an animal. The best thing is to find Amiga programs that have compatible file formats to the PC Universe, and shift floppies with the data. SuperBase exists on both systems, WordPerfect used to, but some Amiga Word Processors can translate PC formats (how well, I don't know). Unfortunately, don't expect anyone from the PC Universe to court Amiga users (there's just too many of them and too few of us). The better approach is to investigate Amiga software producers for file compatibility in their products! Good Luck (to us ALL <g>)!!! // I'm gonna wait for \X/ the A5000! <G> -RSL-