#AmigaDos books wanted
14 messages in this thread
Can anyone recommend a good book on AmigaDOS?
I'm from the DOS world and am used to typing commands as opposed to Clicking on
ICONS. I'd like to be able to copy files, format disks, etc like I can do on
my PC's.
Thanks in advance.
Dave Felder
You don't say which machine/OS you have. Since you apparently don't
have an AmigaDOS manual (which tells you how to use the shell which
is similar to a Unix shell or MS-DOS), I assume you have 1.3. Might
I suggest that you just upgrade to 2.1 which comes with a good
AmigaDOS manual?
Dale,
I've got an Amiga 2000 with Workbench 2.0. The manual seems to be all
Workbench, not command line.
Dave
2.04 (the first version of 2.0 available for the A2000) came with a large
manual called "Using the System Software" which has a large section called
"AmigaDOS." That's what you want to look at.
Dale Larson
– An Amiga Software Engineer with less and less time on his hands.
It's no harder than moving from CP/M to DOS. But you may be younger than that.
Item (1): Filenames are longer, periods are not very significant, and
they can have spaces in them if you put quotes around the whole name.
Item (2): The forward slash is the subdirectory divider symbol and
the backslash is legal in a file name. So, when you copy a file to a
subdirectory and cannot find it later, look in the root directory for
a file with the name of the top subdirectory.
Item (3): * is not an alias (though it can be turned on). If you turn
it on, it still isn't exactly like in DOS.
Item (4): AmigaDos doesn't keep track of default directories. If you
are in a subdirectory on one drive, switch to another drive, and then
switch back, you will be in the root of the drive.
Item (5): AmigaDos makes big use of the ASSIGN statement that DOS has
but rarely uses. AmigaDos can assign long names to drives and some
conventions have become standard. Don't try to create a C: physical
drive because every program in the universe expects your default
drive to have a directory named c and an assign that sets its alias
to C:. Almost every program that uses type expects there to be an
assign pointing to some directory under the name FONTS: (its actual
name may be something entirely different).
Item (6): AmigaDos doesn't assume a default destination for a copy. In
DOS, Copy A:\*.* copies everything in A:\ to wherever you are. In
AmigaDos, it blows up with too few parameters. * doesn't seem to work
either.
Get a point and shoot system like SID or Directory OPUS. It will make
life a lot easier. And learn to write script files (like batch
files).
Paul,
Double quote marks are the current directory so you'd:
COPY DF0:#? "" ALL
will copy all files and directories on df0: to your current directory
Don
Don,
I didn't know that, thanks!
Oh, now that's faxcinatin'. Never had heard/seen/found that.
Thanks, —–Paul—–
"…Double quote marks are the current directory so you'd: COPY DF0:#? "" ALL
will copy all files and directories on df0: to your current directory…"
That procedure dates back to either WB1.2 or 1.3, I can't remember which, but
it is a very useful shortcut, hmmm, wonder if it's in Denny's book,
..flipping pages…
Well, I'll look some more later, but I do believe I remember seeing it in
there.
Chris
Thanks for the tips on AmigaDos Paul. They're all helpful.
Dave
They are most of the little things that kept tripping me up when I was good at
MSDOS and couldn't make what I read in Amiga manuals make sense. I can still
make no sense of the `help' that Amigados commands gives you when you foul up.
But I am still a command line person.
—–Paul—–
Dave,
"The Amiga Companion" is the book I've found to be the most
useful. It's put out by IDGC/Peterborough. It was origninally
written by Rob Peck, the gentleman responsible for documenting the
Amiga, although he has since passed on, so I'm not sure who is listed
for the Author credits now.
Thanks for the "Amiga connection" info Brian. I'll check it out. Dave
"Amiga Companion" not conncection <grin>.