CompuServe Thread

Marty, The amiga OS is not at all compatible with msdos and msdos programs will not run on an Amiga unless you have a DOS emulator, such as the CBM Bridgeboard. The bridgeboard is basically a DOS box on a card which coexists with the Amiga, but runs as a separate hardware and software machine. If you want to run dos/windows programs rather than buy new software for an Amiga, you are best off with a dos machine. AmigaDOS is quite a different operating system from dos/windows or the Mac. In the PC world the closest you will come to an operating system like the Amiga's is OS/2 or Windowns NT. However, because dos machines are based on the Intel processors and the Amiga is based on the Motorola processors, the software written for one machine will not run on the other.

Marty, you can use IBM programs on an Amiga (I'm living proof of that) but the current solutions out there will end up either being very slow, or as expensive as buying another PC entirely. The software solution is to use CrossPC or one of the other software emulators. What these do is to read each instruction within an IBM program and translate from what it does on an IBM machine to what it should do on an Amiga. The two machines don't speak the same language, so you are running a word by word translator. Unfortunately, even on the accelerated machines, the programs run much slower than a real IBM, and are only compatible at the XT (8088) level, i.e. no Windows. At the hardware level, you can add a board to the Amiga which is essentially an IBM on a circuit board. While you can get acceptable speeds out of it, by the time you add a SVGA card and the other cards you might need, you are out some significant amount of cash. I'm running both approaches here and while it does what I need to do, i.e. maintain compatability with the University computers, I don't think it's up to snuff for what you want to do. There is a much better approach. Find out what programs that run on the Amiga do what you need to do. Next, find out what file formats they can save that your IBM can read as well. You may want to look at one of the professional packages, such as Art Department Professional or ImageMaster (??) that tranlate between formats. Once you have established which programs you need to do the work you need to do, and which programs, if any, you need to get to do the translations, go out and buy those packages when you get the Amiga. If you buy an Amiga that has AmigaDOS 2.1, or better, with it, it can format, read, and write DOS diskettes for you. So you're compatible at the disk level, so long as the data is written in a manner that it understable to your IBM programs. Make sure that you get a powerful enough Amiga to support the Amiga programs you've selected. BTW, this is what I always recommend. Pick the software first, then the hardware to run it. It'll save you grief in the end. The other recommendation I have is that you post a message similiar to this, along with any other questions you may have, over in the AmigaArts forum. I'm sure there are quite a few people that have had to bridge the gap between the two worlds that hang out there. They are far more knowledgable about what each program can do than I. I hope this helps. Brian bjbart@watserv.ucr.edu