#Kudos & Questions
48 messages in this thread
Andy, Bravo! It appears that 2.04 for "the rest of us" (2000 users) was
well worth the wait! Well done. As the Getting Started booklet claims,
"It's like getting a new computer." I have 2 minor questions to ask. 1) Is
there any advantage for a 2000HD user to Install with the 3 tools for
installing on the 3000? (I have a 2091) 2) I couldn't find any mention for
the requester that comes up when you try to overwrite a file. Two of the
choices given are REPLACE and REPLACE ALL. What is the difference? Thanks
for being available to us for this help!
Tim
Thanks. 1. No particular advantage; it reconfigs your partitions to
match the A3000; If your sys: partition is already big enough,
then you don't have to worry.
The UpdateWB script will just put the new stuff on your disk.
2. Replace means replace just that file. Replace All comes into play
when replacing lots of files. It means Workbench won't ask you
about *each* file.
BTW, if you are installing by hand, I suggest reading through the scripts
anyway. Otherwise you may miss installing something.
andy
Andy, Thanks for the advice. Tim.
I'd like to join in the kudos. :^)
We installed the actual "enhancer" package on a machine here a couple a
days ago and it was (a) extremely easy, (b) went without a single hitch (c)
EXTREMELY appreciated that the install allows us to keep the old filesystem
until we can conveniently change it and (d) jsut in general the smoothest
and most worthwhile OS change I've ever been through.
And 2.0 is the best thing the Amiga ever saw. You people did a wonderful
job, first class and sharp.
I got grey hairs waiting, but it was worth it.
Ben
Glad it worked and that you like it.
andy
Andy –
Like Ben, I think that the 2.04 software is excellent. I had no, and I
really mean NO problems installing the ROM and the software. All problems
with the S/W have been adjustment problems mostly with other applications.
I miss the GURU a little.
My only complaint, and it's mostly just grousing, is that it was sooo
loonng in getting out. But I am absolutely delighted with the results. I
suppose that means that the wait was worth it… My compliments to all the
Commodore staff who worked on 2.0! Thank you, one and all!
– Nelson Ingersoll
Denver, CO
– via Whap!
Andy…
One comment I got from an Amiga developer (he'll identify himself here if
he cares to) said to me (when he saw the 2.04 install script):
"Did you see that script for installing 2.04? It's absolutely incredible!
Only Andy could have done this. If you ever want to learn about making
scripts, look at this thing as a guide."
Myself, as a complete end user (Non-programmer) type, really appreciated
the install script. Seems that the script has met with approval to all
types of folks!
ALMOST makes me wish I was a CBM employee again! 🙂
Jim
– Signed, sealed, Whapped!
Thanks. Actually, it was a collaboration between myself and Peter Cherna.
Our testers were Eric Cotton (acting as expert user) and Bryce Nesbitt
(acting as novice user). When we decided that we were going to have to use
a script rather than the new installer, we put some effort into making it
work as well as it could.
Now, I'm having just a little trouble imagining Bryce Nesbitt as a novice
user! 🙂
Betty
He's really good at it, actually. Not as good as Jeff Bruette, but, still,
he manages to do most of the silly things possible.
andy
As you probably know, I spent 31 years teaching 7th grade math. When I
approach a piece of software to test or some such thing, I just pretend I'm
a 7th grade cheerleader who would really rather impress the football player
across the aisle than to do this job right. Find all kinds of silly errors
that way, too.
Betty
Generally the problem with 'novice' beta testers is they pick up knowledge
and stop being novices, all without telling you. Most annoying 🙂
andy
Yep. It is really hard to pretend to know nothing after you've learned
something. Especially if you don't realize that you've been learning.
Betty
Andy, ditto with me too. How does fountain work with existing software, and
what are some examples of using this feature?
Thanx for any help,
Paul
–pt–not seattle– 😉
The new outline fonts are available through the diskfont.library, An
application asks for a font; if that size doesn't already exist it is
created on the fly. IF an application asks for a list of sizes, the
default sizes are returns for that font, as well as any previously created
as bitmaps.
Andy, is there any way for those of use with the Compugraphics fonts from
Gold Disk (the 'extra' set) to use those with WB2.0?
…or will Commodore be coming out with their own set of Compugraphic
fonts, or make the spec public, so we'll have tons of PD stuff? 🙂
–jp–seattle–
You can use the fonts from Gold Disk…Fountain will read them; (there
apparently are some minor problems reading special characters though) and
you can use standard Compugraphics Intellifont disks, which contain the
FAIS files that Fountain likes. The disks are in MSDOS format; but by
using CrossDOS you'll have no problem.
The spec is available directly from Agfa-Compugraphic (located in Mass.)
andy
Actually, Compugraphic will send you the PC version of the source code to
the rasterizer, and then direct you to become an HP developer, who will
then give you the real Intellifont spec to go with the code. This is a
much improved situation from two years ago, where Compugraphic said, send
us a check for $20,000 and we'll send you these things.
I think you can get just the spec these days as well. You do have to give
a reasonable story about why you want it, though.
andy
So Andy, if we order Gold Disk font discs we'll get extra Compugraphic
fonts ready for Fountain? And eventually we'll have software we can use
the fonts with …
Ron
Right. Currently the standard CG font disks (FAIS format) work best.
andy
Ron,
I've tried a number of Gold Disk CG Fonts. About 2/3 of them work great
with Fountain. The other 1/3 are missing certain characters, including "'`#
and some others (can't remember exactly which ones right now–they're
important enough to make those fonts unusable for me as Fountain-ed fonts).
I don't know if Gold Disk plans a fix/change for these.
In the meantime, probably the best thing to do is order the PC versions of
the CG fonts on 720K disks and use CrossDOS to access them. The actual
Compugraphic-labeled fonts on the PC disk work fine with Fountain and you
don't lose any characters.
…Denny Atkin
What's a good source for IBM Compugraphic font disks?
Jonathan
Jonathan – from Albany, NY, via whap!
Denny, remember that while we can certainly display these fonts, most of us
still have no way to print anything with them. I do understand that at
some point there will be a way to use them with Final Copy, though.
Ron
Denny, maybe you know then. What about the CG fonts supplied by Gold Disk
for ProPage? Is there any way to get them to work with Fountain, etc? I've
been unsuccessful. Any advice would be appreciated.
–jp–seattle–
Andy;
First, I installed 2.0 tonight, after finding an enhancer. The revision is
wonderful – it works and looks great. I am also surprised at what a large
percentage of programs (including copy-protected games) still run. Nicely
done!
My question is this: I am running two hard-drives, both GVP controlled.
One is their latest SCSI controller, the other the IDE controller on their
SeriesI accelerator.
I would like to reformat the drives for better performance under 2.04;
however, there does not seem to be anything in their setup-program (it is
the same for both SCSI and IDE) that relates to the getting started docs
for WB2.04…except for an item under the RDB screen called "mask", with
has a value of 0xFFFFFFFE. If I change this value to 0x444f5301, and
reformat the drive, will I have all of the new advantages? I have tried to
contact GVP for a couple of days with this one, but it is nearly impossible
to get through to them.
Jonathan
Jonathan – from Albany, NY, via whap!
Jonathan,
I can't fully answer you question, but I can tell you that you do
NOT want to set the mask to 0x444f5301. That value is the DOS_TYPE, not
the mask!
Don
Don–
Thanks for the warning. Perhaps I'd better get in touch with GVP,
although it may take several days…
Jonathan
MASK controls the area the filesystem is going to attempt to direct
transfer to/from. On an A2000 without 'pie in the sky' memory you should
leave it as it is; (the trailing E ensures word aligned transfers, btw).
The GVP Prep program should allow you to pick the filesystem and filesystem
type in use; unfortunately, I'm not familiar with theirs. I've been told
that their Series II controllers are compatible with the Commodore
HDToolBox, but that the series I is not.
It's probably best to contact GVP, as while I know you can do it on GVP
drives, I've never done it personally.
andy
Andy–
Thanks for the reply. And thanks for the operating system.
Jonathan
The ONLY glitch I had with the installation was with my C: commands, which
was either because they were ARP or because I had them protected from
deletion. I unprotected them but then had to manually delete them before I
could correctly run UpdateWB.
Other than that (a minor, self-inflicted inconvenience), it was an
incredibly easy-to-use update and I'd echo everyone else's kudo's!
Beautiful!
Andy –
I finally heard from GVP, and am now using the ROM FFS; however, I asked
them if I needed to reformat the drive to derive the full benefit. They
told me that I did not…does this sound correct?
Jonathan
Jonathan – from Albany, NY, via whap!
Are there flavors of Intellifonts? I realize this may be getting beyond
your expertise…. However, I saw an ad in Egg Head software for AllType,
a program that is supposed to convert between sever different formats. Two
of which are Compugraphic Intellifont, and Postscript. The Ad said
Compugraphic Intellifont (Laser Jet III). Was wondering if there is a
difference. If not it might be handy for Bridgeboard owners who want more
fonts for Pagestream or Pagesetter/Professional Draw.
There are a couple formats for interchange. We support Gold disk format
and FAIS (which is the CG standard format) through Fountain.
andy
Ditto here as well. How about uploading a doc file on Fountain?
– Whapping from the North Coast Michael
Michael, Fountain contains doc internally – just run the program and hit
the help key.
Steve… you're kidding right? You mean CBM actually DID something with
the HELP key? 🙂
Surprise! 🙂
I've been using 2.0 (now 2.04) since June on my A3000, and AmigaDos 1.xx
since 1986. What a difference.
It makes me wonder why Bill Gates and IBM put up with, no, SUPPORTED the
horrible path they chose with the development of MSDOS.
In five years, AmigaDOs and the workbench have matured to a remarkable
level. MicroSoft should be ashamed.
Congratulations, and thanks.
Microsoft *did* devote energy to Windows and OS/2, for what they're worth.
🙂
"Microsoft *did* devote energy to Windows and OS/2,…" 6
John:
You're right… but the emphasis has been elsewhere in marketing and
development. In my opinion, they sold out instead of dragging the MSDOS
world kicking and screaming in to the future, they chose compatibility, and
mediocrity, to support the short term stability of the stockholders
interests. SHORT TERM. Maybe I'm being to hard on them. I mean it is
probably a nightmare to try and get 80 million users to change operating
systems.
In comparison, AmigaDos has been fortunate enough to walk the tight rope of
compatibility and advancement… no easy task.
– Whapping from the North Coast Michael
Thanks. While I appreciate the sentiment, there's *got* to be a rational
explanation as to the vast amount of money Microsoft has made 🙂
andy
Here's an explanation:
The vast majority of us are Lemmings.
We set our goals for the short term, if we set goals at all.
We reach for the tangible, not the ehtereal
We work to better our own existence at the expense of the future.
are you depressed yet?
Lemmings, army ants, religon, and ignorance. :^)
That about covers it. Concisely. :^))
Ben
MicroSoft's not got anyone smart enough, or concientious enough to be
ashamed.
I'm not inclined to believe that individuals, be they MicroSoft employees
or not, lack a conscience; rather, it is the lack of a collective consience
that bothers me.
Have you tried hitting the HELP key while in Fountain? All the docs anyone
would ever need are built right into the program.
Thanks Denny… I haven't even touched Fountain yet 'cause I didn't know
what it was. I'll check it out tonite.