The Absolute Beginners Guide To Amos ------------------------------------- Chapter Twenty Seven ---------------------- Amos extensions seems to be the only way Amos will be able to compete with other languages in the future as Europress (The publishers of Amos) are no longer supporting the Amos range at all, which of course means no upgrades or bug fixes etc. So we Amos users are going to have to rely on third party developers to bring out new extensions to fix bugs in Amos and expand it's commands and add new features. In case you don't already know, an extension is a library of routines written in Assembler or C. You copy the .lib file of the extension into your Amos System drawer and add the extension name in your set up by loading the Config file supplied with Amos and allotting the extension a number which the extension docs will tell you about. After re-booting Amos you can use the new commands as specified in the documentation. If you get an Extension not found error you have not installed the extension properly. The commercial extensions, and indeed some of the better PD ones supply an installer program that makes all the necessary changes for you. Below is a list of known extensions at the time of writing. INTOS OTM £29.95 --------------------- A commercial extension making use of Workbenches Intuition. Giving you the power to use the standard ASL file requester, as opposed to the rough old Amos one, Workbench type menus, windows and gadgets. Not too hard to learn to use. Extremely useful if you want to write utility programs. LIBERATOR T-SOFT £22.50 --------------------------- Offers intuition/access to all Amiga libraries making Amos as good as Blitz in the Intuition department. Even allows AGA screens on a 1200/400,but not when the program is using an Amos screen of course. Not one for the beginner though, unless you are familiar with C. CRAFT BLACK LEGEND £19.99 --------------------------------- Offers 160 weird and wonderful commands including fractals and turtle like graphics. Not of much use unless you have a specific interest in this area. TURBO Manuel Andre V1.9, P.D -------------------------------- Adds speed to graphic/bob operations. Has an obsessive following by the more advanced Amos games coders. Worth checking out as it's P.D. STARS Jason Diog Shareware ------------------------------- Gives Amos interrupt driven starfields. It's very small and very easy to use and best of all it's free. OrgAsm T-SOFT £? ------------------------ Another advanced coders dream. Allows you to use the assembler source created from the Gadstoolbox program in an Amos bank. The demos are very impressive but beginners beware. STICKS N.CRITTEN, £10 for registered version, PD version available --------------------------------------------------------------------- Offers a variety of joystick related commands. The general consensus is that this extension is good but not quite £10 good! ENHANCED MUSIC EXTENSION P.REECE, P.D --------------------------------------- Fixes a lot of Amos Tracker command bugs and even allows the playing of MED modules from Amos 1.3, as well as adding a few new commands. Definitely worth a look if you are into music in any way. EASY LIFE Paul Hickman, Freeware ----------------------------------- Get this extension simply because it's free! It proposes to make programming Amos easier (which is debatable) But it does give a lot of new commands for you to mess around with, so why not? J.D (PRO ONLY) J.Dommermuth, P.D -------------------------------- A fantastic extension, so I have heard! For Amos Pro only, supports loads of new commands. The drawback is the docs are in German. DUMP EXTENSION Alex Grant, P.D ---------------------------------- Enhances use of your printer from Amos. L-SERIAL N.SJOBERG, P.D ----------------------------- Many new commands to make use of the serial port. L-DOS N.SJOBERG, P.D ----------------------------- Tons of new commands mainly relating to disk/drive access plus many more unrelated commands. To give you an idea of the size of this extension, the doc file is 80k long! POWER BOBS EXTENSION Magic Knight ? -------------------------------------- I have only heard about this one. At the time of writing it has not be finished but I have been led to believe that Powerbobs speeds up all bob/sprite commands to an amazing frame rate. It is claimed writing games like Project-X and Superfrog are now within reach of Amos programmers. Where to get them ----------------- The PD extensions are all available from the Amos PD library, the commercial ones from the companies listed. The Amoszine disk mag that I keep plugging has carried all the PD extensions mentioned above at one time or another. End of chapter Twenty Seven ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^