#P.D. Recs
20 messages in this thread
Please help an Amiga Newcommer. I would like anyone to suggest some noteworthy
p.d. programs that are on the dl's. Im afraid I dont know much at this point
but would like to dabble in all aspects of the Amiga. So be it games, art,
music,productivity,programming ANYTHING! I have heard that there are TONS of
really good P.D. Stuff available. If only someone could point me around the
millions of files in the dl's
At this point I have NO SOFTWARE sans the Amiga 1280 terminal prg! (Im waiting
on the offer prgs) Thank You, Ena P.S. Is there a newer version of Amiga Term
around? One that uses 1.2 of WB? I would like the time to load automatically or
at least use the setclock opt load Thanks again
Ena,
The quality of p.d. programs in these dl's will definitely reinforce your
decision to buy an Amiga. Sure there are klunkers, but in general you'll do
very well just by sifting through and downloading whatever catches your eye. I
recommend Access! in DL4 for a terminal program, there is a full-featured word
processor in DL9(??I think), DL6 has many pictures to choose from, DL16 has
animations and utilities to run the animations, DL5 has music and music
players, etc. Others will be more specific, I hope, and get you started
properly, but you can also look in each DL for files like DL6.ARC, which lists
all the pics through, I think, July. Then you can browse the oldies at your
leisure and choose which of those you like, and "bro" the entries from August
on while on-line. Oh, yeah, DL8 has games. Download several! (I just grabbed
Amoeba.Arc and will go try it now.
Something just occurred to me. You may wonder what all those ".ARC"
extensions are. If you don't have it, you will absolutely need a file called
"ARC" in DL4. To get the exact filename, go to DL4 and type "bro ARC*" to
browse all files associated with the name "ARC". Arc compresses files so
they're cheaper to download, then de-compresses them for you after you've
downloaded them. Most files here are arc'ed, and you'll understand why when you
see how large they are even in their compressed form.
Have fun. There's enough here, you may not have to shell out for commercial
software for a long, long time. If you need any help, just type my number.
Don Weed
Don, Thanks. Ill get arc now since most files seem to use it. Ill look for your
suggestio ns Ena
Donald,
As long as you mentioned Access… 8)
I've been able to get it to autoload all it's files by being in the same
directory with them when I run the program. I would have preferred it to also
look in S: or something, but as long as it works…
ONE thing doesn't work, though… no matter what I can think of trying, it
won't load a custom color palette automatically. I can click COLOR LOAD OK
EXIT and it will do it manually just fine, just won't do it for itself. Seems
to me it did it ONCE when I first started tinkering with it, but no luck since,
and I'm beginning to doubt my memory on that subject.
Do you know if it is possible to autoload the palette, and if so, how?
Appreciate any pointers you could give me.
Rick
Rick, about getting Access! to load custom colours…
It looks for the file called Acc!.color (I think) in the directory you've
specified in the config file. I tried that a little while ago with one of the
colour files in the arc package and it worked fine.
Nick
Okay, hold on, I'll check…
I'm back. Okay, I have an EXEC file called TERM which CDs me to DF0: root,
then runs Access!. The DEFINEs has the color file set (currently) as
S:Acc!.color. I have a copy of Acc!.color in DF0: root _AND_ the S: directory.
No go.
I _thought_ that I had seen it work once… your comment makes me believe I
did. So, I guess it's just more experimentation until I find it.
Thanks for the encouragement.
Rick
P.S. I also can't get it to look anywhere except the CD for the config file…
do you have any information in that area?
Mysteriouser and mysteriouser. I have the colour file defined as trm:Acc!.color
(trm: being a virtual device somewhere in the bowels of my HD), and it finds it
no problem. I can only think of a couple of things, primarily mistakes I doubt
you'd make… such as, you don't _really_ have Acc!.color defined in your
config file (type opt h the config file to make sure?), or you have given the
config file the wrong name. Like I said, I doubt either of those is the
problem.
What are you using for a colour file? I don't suppose it would be the
Brown!.color file from the arc package, would it? As far as I could tell, that
was the same as the default colouring, and would make you think the colour load
had failed when it had in fact succeeded. Again unlikely, sorry, but that's my
whole stock of ideas so far as to what might be wrong.
As to the location of the config file – no, there doesn't seem to be any polite
way to make it look elsewhere than the CD. A major pain – I don't understand
_why_ he didn't make s: at least an alternate. I just hexdumped the file (well,
part of it) and I notice the string "acc!.def" starting at offset $2AB4. So I
think I might revise that to s:ac.def and see if it works.
Let me know if you figure it out.
Nick
Okay, here's more… I just changed those bytes in the executable and it does
now get the config file from s:. Much nicer. In the process, I found out that
its system for filing all those support files is a little bizarre. You know
that window where you specify filing preferences? You say what file has your
colours, your key defs, your phone book, and you specify a "system directory".
Let's say for the latter you choose foo: (just a wild and crazy name I invented
:). Now you click on 'save', and it offers you the default name 'Acc!.def', and
the default dir "foo:", because that's what you just specified as your _system
directory_. But you don't want to put the _config_ file in foo:, just the other
ones, so you change it to s: and save. And guess what? Next time you bring up
the define window, your system dir is not foo:, but s:, and that's where it
will look for your colour, key and phone files.
Now, I said the above design was bizarre – brain-damaged would be a much more
apt description. Access! does not appear to want to let you distinguish between
the directory where your config file is and the one where your other files are
– even though that's part of the what the config file is for! And you have to
jump through hoops to get around it. Chew on all that, and play with those
windows, and I think you'll get to the bottom of your problem with the colour
file.
Nick
Nick,
Thanks for the input! I'm bailing out right _NOW_ for the weekend, and won't
be back until Monday late, so experimenting will have to wait until then. But
to answer your questions:
1) Yes, it's defined. I dumped Acc!.def (my config file), and found the string
S:Acc!.color, so that's okay. I know the config is loading, because all the
directories and stuff are set up properly. I also know it's working because
clicking COLOR LOAD OKAY OKAY loads the palette, which it couldn't do if it
wasn't properly defined.
2) It's a custom palette; I've only changed one thing, which is the grey text
to green (easier for me to read, I dunno why). So I know when it loads, for
sure.
I've already noticed the wierdities about filing, but have (with the exception
of colors) managed to work around them.
$2AB4, eh? I'll have to hack the object when I get back. What did you use to
make the mods?
Talk atcha next week!
Rick
Rick, to modify the object I used Joe Bostic's text editor AEdit, which has the
very neat capability of reading in a binary file as hex (with the Ascii off to
the right as per usual) then writing it out again as binary after you've played
with it. Very good for fixing misspelled prompts in executables among other
things. 🙂 AEdit has some other nifty features too – excellent wildcard s & r,
and you can undo your last 300 (if I recall) changes one by one in each of the
nine available text buffers. Unfortunately it also has some serious misfeatures
so I use Uedit day-to-day.
Run out of ideas on Access… let me know the answer when you figure it out.
Nick
Ena,
I see Donald has already pointed you in the right direction, but I thought
I'd throw in one more warning. Amigaterm has a bug, and despite what is stated
in the manual, you must set 8 bits, no party, and 1 stop bit in order to do
file transfers.
Regards, Larry.
Thanks, I tried all day yesterday & could not get it to start downloading at 7
bits. I read a file in dl0 or 1 that also said that so I at least got that
straight. Thanks Again. Ena
Ena,
I use AmigaTerm V1.0.3 in an A500 under WB1.2 (the only one available) and it
seems to work OK. You can copy the SetClock (and other useful programs
necessary) from your WB1.2 disk to the AmigaTerm Disk and use the ed program to
add "SetClock opt l" to your s/startup-sequence file. It would be well worth
your while to become familiar with the s/startup-sequence file, since it is
where you will be able to customize your system at startup. Also, if you don't
have it already, the Bantam Books Amiga Dos manual is an ESSENTIAL addition to
your library. (I still can't quite get over C= selling a computer without a DOS
manual!)
Enjoy your Amiga!
David
One more thing – make sure that you get the second edition which is updated for
WB1.2. There are still some of the first edition on the bookstores shelves.
David
David,
Thanks for the sound advice! Im trying to run while learning to walk & I
quite often trip! Im getting to the editing start sequences now as it seems
thats needed to gain full control of your "personalized" Amiga. Ill hit the
bookstores on Wed. & Ill keep an eye open for that title! Thanks Again,Ena
In addition to ARC, there are a couple of others I'd suggest
ConMan : if you use the CLI, you'll want this one. It gives you the
ability to edit the command line you're working on, and
to recall previously issued command lines
VT100 : (Dave Wecker's terminal emulator) I picked this one up
because I needed good VT100 emulation and Kermit. It also
turned out to have a good script language.
Blitz : again, somewhat specialized. It's a text display program
(allows you to read files such as .doc files) whose
principal advantage is that it's FAST.
PopCLI : I use this primarily as a screensaver (blanks the screen
after x (user specified) seconds, but it also allows you
to execute a given command (usually newcli, but specifiable
by the user) via a "hot key"
KickBench : allows you to use the same disk to boot the Amiga (functions
both as Kickstart and Workbench). The disadvantage is that it
greatly decreases the space on your workbench disk.
These are some of the shareware/PD programs *I* use a lot, and you can probably
deduce some of my interests from the list. The suggestion to browse thru the
DL's and pick up what's interesting is a good one (but could cost you a LOT of
connect time—there's lots of it out there)
Some of the above are "shareware" meaning that the author is marketing the
program via public distribution. If you like it and use it, you should send $$
to the author. Since this is frequently an outstanding source of inexpensive,
useful software, I feel strongly about this.
Welcome to the world of the Amiga,
Mark
E.G: (Ena? Gloria?) one question — what are your interests? That would help us
choose what you might enjoy, as there are literally hundreds of PD programs in
the DLs here. For instance, are you a systems programmer, a hacker, a 'c'
freak, lisp, basic, artist, musician, sex goddess, what? <grin> There are a
number of terminal programs in DL4. Just for fun, you might want to look at
Access!, which is by _far_ the best looking terminal program I have ever seen.
It's a little bit broken, but is worht the time just because of the way it
looks. –Ben–
Ben,
At this point, being such a neophyte, I was looking to build a sort of
computer aptitude test. By downloading the various general types I could
see what catches my eye. I would like to learn to program on it (So any
utilities etc. can never be excess) even though Ive been told there are
easier machines to learn programming. I would guess that right now I would
lean towards Art & Music since video interests me too.(Although Ive been
told that if video is one of my preferences that the 500 may have been a mistake
BUT I couldn't afford the 2000). but really I like a lost soul drifting
from lifeboat to lifeboat til I find the one Ill take to shore!
Did that answer the interests question? I hope so. Bye, Ena
It did indeed. Look in DL16 for video goodies, and DL5 (I think) for art (still
images). The AMiga is a wonderful machine to learn to program on… don't let
anyone tell you different. Good luck and have _tons_ of fun. –Ben–
Ena:
The Amy is 'a very difficult' machine to learn to program. However, as
you start trying to do 'more difficult' things you discover that the Amy
becomes easier to program. Very complex video with audio and user interaction
can be just short of impossible on some other machines. 73, bill