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AMIGAphile For Amiga users by Amiga users JUNE 1992 Volume 1/Number 1 AN INTRODUCTION TO AMIGAPHILE CONTENTS Welcome to Amigaphile Look What's New Amigaphile Inside and Out A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Mailbox Amigaphile Survey Results - part 1 Multiplayer 1.30 ARexx Application List Bulletin Board and User's Groups AMIGAphile 4851 Kingshill Drive #215 Columbus, Ohio 43229 USA Editor: Dan Abend ARTICLE SUBMISSIONS: Send article submissions in manuscript or disk format to the above address. Submissions may also be sent via Internet in ASCII format to abend@cis.ohio-state.edu. All submissions must be accompanied by a request for submission including name, address, and phone number. MATERIALS FOR REVIEW: Send all materials for review to the above address along with a letter requesting review. If you wish the material returned, include a self addressed, stamped mailer with your submission. The editor reserves the right to refuse any submissions which are deemed unsuitable and no guarantee of publication is made. AMIGAphile is published on a basis consistent with the amount of information and articles available at the end of each business week. If more than six printed pages has been compiled, a new issue will be printed. Each new issue will receive the next issue number and at the end of each year, starting June 1st, 1992, the volume number will be increased by one and the issue number returned to one. Permission is given to the adressee of this newsletter to make photocopies and for printouts personal use. This newsletter was created using PageStream by Soft-Logik Publishing. Cover created using Scenery Animator 2.0 by Natural Graphics and Art Department Professional 2.1.3 by ASDG Incorporated. Special Thanks to Andrea Taylor, Daniel J. Barrett, Jo-Ann Nemeth, Tim Parker, Ellen Thomas, everyone who filled out a survey, and the crew that never rests. Amigaphile is a concept created by Dan Abend in May of 1991 and therefore subject to copyright by him. Amiga is a registered trademark of Commodore Business Machine, Inc. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Welcome to the World of Amigaphile Welcome to the first edition of Amigaphile. In this edition, I will explain the who, what, where, when, why, and how of Amigaphile. I hope that everyone is as enthusiastic about this project as I am. I have found that it takes a great deal of time (and money) to put together a newsletter. I hope this effort was not wasted. One of the most interesting of this months articles discusses the Amigaphile survey. I would have to applaud it as a roaring success. I received over 70% return rate. At the very start, I was inundated by the number of requests and returned surveys but by now, the request have dwindled to 1 a week. Again, I thank those who completed the survey. I'd also like to thank everyone who offered encouraging words and especially those who offered their assistance. You are the ones who will make Amigaphile a success. Also included in this issue are many of the thoughts, ideas, and opinions returned with the surveys. Many of you I spoke with and asked for your permission to quote. Others, I hope will not be upset if I reprinted something without asking. Most Amiga owners have a very well defined idea of where they stand in relationship to their computing habits as well as in their relationship with Commodore Business Machines. Many people expressed concern about the future of Amiga computing. I hope we can answer these questions and address these concerns. Finally, I have a short list of User's Groups and Bulletin Boards. I hope this list will help make many of you aware of your local Amiga support. You are not the only Amiga owner in existence. I hope this list will grow in time to include something in your local area. - Dan Abend Amigaphile ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Look What's New Lucasfilms Games has released the sequel to it's popular pirate adventure Monkey Island. Monkey Island II promises to live up to the standards set by the first adventure. Electronic Arts offers yet another update to its forerunning paint program. Deluxe Paint 4.1 offers full screen brush morphs and CompuGraphic scalable fonts. With that Workbench 2.0 look, Micro-Systems Software brings us Excellence version 3.0. With a fresh new face-lift, this popular wordprocessor has many versitile and flexible options which differentiate it from its competitors. Type along spell checking, the ability to have any document read aloud using the Amigas built in speech processing, and all of the previously available options, keeps Excellence in the running with the other top Amiga word processors. The Disk Company offers MaxiPlan 4.0. This new version of their spreadsheet and graphing program features 1.3 and 2.0 compatibility, logarithmic scales for line, bar, and XY charts, ARexx support, and 16-color mode. Multiplayer 1.30 brings this general purpose multitasking music module player under GNU General Public Liscence. It is now distributed with full source code. Multiplayer supports over 20 music module formats including ProTracker and MED. There is talk of a new general musical notation file format called CMUS. Its developement continues on the BIX conference amiga.dev/iff. CMUS - Common Musical Score: An IFF File format for interchanging musical data using Common Music Notation by Talin is a distributable document containing the current specifications. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Amigaphile Inside and Out Who is behind Amigaphile? I am proud to stand up and introduce myself. My name is Dan Abend. I was born in Butler, Pennsylvania, USA and moved, with my parents, to Wooster, Ohio when I was 2. Then I moved to Columbus, Ohio when I started attending college. In Wooster, we got our first computer. It was a good old Apple ][+. This was around the time the Apple ][e was introduced but who knew. I taught myself to program the Apple and eventually learned how to repair it. Now, it's home is the closet but it still works, I'm sure of it. Our second computer was a Tandy 1000 which lead me into the IBM world. I continued teaching myself BASIC and started to program in the IBM environment or at least as close to it as you can come on a Tandy. I wrote my own bulletin board software and began running a BBS while I was in High School. In the mean time, I got a Commodore 64. After I discovered BASIC wasn't an ideal language to write BBS software in, I ran it on the C=64 using commercial software. The board was a success for about 2 years in which time, I met many new people and was introduced to the Amiga 1000. I took a liking to it right away and within the next year, I purchased an Amiga 500. Since then, I have moved up to a 2500/030 but the A500 still chugs along, running WB 1.2. I have had to nurse it along, repairing it's power supply, and replacing a CIA chip along the way. I have convinced many of my friends to purchase Amigas and we're all just one big happy family. Back with the acquisition of the Tandy 1000, I started to work on commercial software and I successfully sold a few programs which gave me enough money to purchase my Amiga. Ironic, isn't it. Last summer, I worked for a local shop repairing and assembling IBM's and compatibles. Along the way, I acquired a 286 and have continued my programming. I have also learned Pascal, Modula-2, C, Assembler, and some LISP. It's amazing the things you pick up being a Computer Science major. Currently, I am a Senior at Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio. I have another year or so before I graduate. I'm just a down to earth kind of guy and I hope to make a difference because I feel that as Amiga users, we have gotten the short end of the stick. What or who is an Amigaphile? If you are the proud owner of an Amiga, you are an Amigaphile. It's just that simple. What Amigaphile is has yet to be rigidly defined. The best I can hope to convey is my ideas about what Amigaphile should be. I envision Amigaphile as a central source of support for the Amiga computer. I'd like to tie together the existing Amiga support structure consisting of User's Groups, Bulletin Board Systems, and local dealers. I'd like to offer a cost effective newsletter which contains truly useful information and not a bunch of fluff and advertising. Something with a little bit of information for everyone. In the near future, I would like to start an integrated information service by providing an Amiga BBS software package that would allow Amiga BBSs to have their own network. None of these ideas are carved on stone and I'm sure they will change over time. I'd like to see more Amiga tradeshows with vendors and User's Groups meeting to exchange ideas and information. Until things get off the ground, the future is unclear. I will continue to produce this newsletter until all hopes are lost. This could be tomorrow or it could be far in the future. It really depends on you. Where is Amigaphile? Amigaphile is everywhere. I am located in Columbus, Ohio, USA but anywhere two or more people discuss the Amiga, that is part of Amigaphile. Anywhere someone does something to promote the Amiga, that's where Amigaphile is. It's not concrete, it's a thought, an idea, the spirit behind the machine. When is Amigaphile? Amigaphile is right now. It is going on all around you and you never stopped to look. Right now is one of the most exciting times in home computing and you are here to experience it. I'm just here to help make your experience as pleasant as possible. Why is Amigaphile? It is obvious that more Amiga support is needed. Many companies which have tried to survive in the Amiga market are gone. This includes hardware and software manufacturers as well as Amiga related publications. It's just not profitable enough for the little guy to survive in this profit driven business. How is Amigaphile going to happen? I am asking for your help. I can't do this on my own. It takes time and money to produce this newsletter. If every reader tries to lend a helping hand, I will tie it all together. Did you attend a User's Group meeting? Tell us what happened. Did you get a new piece of software or hardware? Tell us about it. Did you hear a rumor? Share it with us. I hope that you will take some time to write me. Do you know C programming on the Amiga? Help everybody else out by sharing what you know. I admit that this may be too much to ask. Most magazines pay for articles. Well, most magazines cost a lot of money and rely on their advertisers. Amigaphile doesn't. This first issue was produced out of my pocket. I'd like to throw out some suggestions and hear your thoughts. (1) Users helping users. This is the idea that everybody should offer what they can to help make this a success. I am looking for someone to write articles about C and Assembly language programming. I need reviews on software and hardware. I want to know what goes on at your User's Group meetings. I want to know what's new in Public Domain and Shareware. I think you want to know all of this too. The more information I receive, the more often you will receive an issue of Amigaphile. The less information I have, the less often you will have a chance to read Amigaphile. (2) What do we do about the cost. I'd would like to suggest that Amigaphile be available on a subscription basis. Actually, this would be more of a membership fee and with the membership, you would receive the newsletter. I have figured how much it costs to print and mail the newsletter per issue and that is all I'd ever ask you to pay. I wish there were some other way but I'm not independently wealthy. I will send you the next issue at no cost. All I ask is that you help me find a solution to the above question. Eventually, I'd like to be able to offer some reimbursement for submitted articles but for now, all I can offer the author is a free issue containing your article. Does this sound reasonable or am I dreaming? I think that if we all band together, we would make a formidable force to be reckoned with. Perhaps the word "Amigaphile" will strike fear into the hearts of IBM and Mac users worldwide. This works along the same lines as Smokey the bear's "Only you can prevent forest fires." because only you can make Amigaphile work. So, I leave it in your hands. If you help me, everything will workout to everyone's advantage. Granted, I will be a little busier than I am now but that doesn't bother me. I'm willing to make the sacrifice to help a cause I believe in. Are you? ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ An Interesting Thing Happened On My Way To The Mailbox I always assumed that everyone had an opinion about everything. I never imagined some of the opinions I received relating to Amigaphile, the Amiga, and Commodore. Many of these are straight forward and some are just meant to be fun but there are others who are very serious about their machine. I have found that in general, Amiga owners have a good sense of humor and don't tend to take criticism too harshly. However, when they are asked to stand up for what they believe in they jump right in with both feet. "HELP! I'm an Amiga owner, and I feel so ALLOOOONNNEEEE! :-) (well, okay, I'm not THAT desparate, but I AM still interested in your survey.)" "At least someone is doing something to support Amiga (the only true computer...)" "I await with anticipation for further developments in this user group! The A600 WAS a mistake." "I just read your note in comp.sys.amiga.misc. And it's quite true what you said. Here In Finland we have quite many Amigas, but it is considered only as a game machine. So I'm interested on your idea." "I think the Amiga is a great computer for the home and lots of fun. I wish that I could get more respect for the Amiga, but I've found that among "those in the know" or people who are computer literate, the Amiga is "awesome". People who really know will tell MS-DOGS that the Amiga can in 1/2 Mg of RAM do full multi-tasking OS and Workbench that takes a PC at least 4 megs, and a RISC Workstation 8 megs. The Amiga OS is small and efficient. Who wants UNIX (memory and disk hog) when I have to use it at work, it's okay. But at home "I want my AmigaDos!" "I don't understand what you're asking for here. Is it my opinion of how well Amigas are selling? That's hardly useful or even serious information. If it's my opinion of their sales dept., see marketing. Sales wise, there's over 3 million Amigas, vs something like 10 million Macs and 40 million PC clones. Something like 75% of Amiga sales are in Europe, though. What Commodore needs to make an inroad into the US is an Amiga 1000-type box with an 020/030, 1 meg fast/1meg chip ram (internally expandable to at least 4meg fast), a harddisk, and a display enhancer for <$1000. Hmmm-I've almost described an A3000. Well, that's what they need... It's hard to sell people on Amiga 500s with flicker and no harddisk when VGA 386s with 24 bit color are sub $1000. While MS-DOS is still completely brain-dead (and most MS-DOS applications user-hateful) and Windows will never match WorkBench's elegance and ease of use ("Screens?" what's a "Screen?"), PCs are certainly catching up to Amigas. It makes me sick. Good luck with Amigaphile!" "Amiga is the great machine with great potential, but Commodore does not seem to know how to sell/advertise it. It seems to me like the users are doing the commercial for them. Sometimes I imagine how great the Amiga would be if it is owned by other company such as GVP. (Only my own opinion)" "I try to maintain a balanced view of the Amiga. The Amiga is a wonderful machine. I've sunk a great deal of my personal resources into developing my home system. But it's not the only machine. It appeals to people like me who are technically inclined to be hackers, explorers, and hobbyists. It's not the ideal business machine, and I doubt that it ever will be. But if IBM had bought Amiga instead of Commodore, however many years ago, the world would be a different place today, and there would be no need for Apple computers at all." What other computers do you own? An IBM compatible. "it's a laptop - something CBM's too braindead to develop" Now that you've seen what others think.... What do YOU think? I'm interested. Write and tell me. Like I said above, everyone has an opinion. I've also noticed that most people don't mind sharing them. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Amigaphile Survey Results There were a total of 90 surveys returned out of the 125 or so that I sent out. I never really expected more than half of them would be returned. I was pleasantly surprised. I have found that talleying these surveys is hard work and the amount of information available from them is too vast to put everything in this single issue. I will share the general feeling of the surveys and some of the more interesting results. What model of Amiga do you own? The low end Amiga 500s out numbered all other models. This is probably due to their affordability but the 3000 seems to be gaining a large following. Predictably, the 1000 has declined and many of the Amiga 1000 owners also own another Amiga. It would appear that Commodore has found a good basis for their high end systems in the 3000. I can't say how many 3000 owners moved up from other Amiga systems but I would guess that the majority of them owned another Amiga before taking advantage of Commodore's trade-up offer. The trade-up offer is one thing that I think Commodore did right. It enabled many people to move up and expand their system without starting from scratch and I'm sure this helped push sales of the 3000 from the start. We'll have to wait and see what the A600 does for the low end of the Amiga line. 500 38 ************************************** 500+ 1 * 1000 14 ************** 1500 1 * 2000 10 ********** 2000HD 10 ********** 2500 5 ***** 3000 24 ************************ 3000UX 1 * TOTAL 104 What model monitor do you own? Most people own a Commodore monitor. This only seems right since I image most computers were purchased as a bundle including the monitor. Of course, some of the A500s come with no monitor but the ability to hook it to your television. NEC monitors, mostly the 4D, were the most popular non-Commodore monitor while Phillips, represented in the other category, was popular with the Europeans. Commodore 68 ********************************** Magnavox 5 *** Mitsubishi 4 ** NEC 7 **** Panasonic 1 * Seiko 2 * Sony 5 *** Other (mostly Phillips) 10 ***** What version Workbench are you using? The numbers speak for themselves. Workbench 2.04 edged out version 1.3 and both of them left version 1.2 in the dust. This only confirms the numbers of people upgrading to the new release. I guess I fall into the minority of 1.3 users and had better start seriously thinking about that upgrade. If 2.04 is this good, makes me wonder what sort of goosies can be expected from 2.1. We'll just have to wait until Commodore releases it. WB1.2 4 ** WB1.3 40 ******************** WB2.x 50 ************************* Both 6 *** The both category covers those who have added a switch so that they may select which version they want to use. How much memory? When the memory from all 103 computers is added together the total is 424.5 megabytes of memory. Therefore, on the average, each system has about 4 megabytes of memory. I was shocked by these figures because I know that many of the A500 systems have only 1 meg of RAM. I can only imagine that the number of A3000 systems with 8 megs or better helped to raise the average tremendously. Among A500 owners, one megabyte of memory sems to be the norm while A3000 owners like to put a little bit more under the hood. What type of memory expansion? Looking back, this was not a very good question. Many people have expansion memory on their hard drives and the A3000 has room on the motherboard. This accounts for the fact that only 80 people have memory expansion of some type or other. Most every A500 with 1 meg used the A501 512K expansion from Commodore. This puts Commodore in the lead with 29. The other category got 22 replies putting it second. I can only figure that all A1000 expansion and the non-Commodore brand 512K A500 expansions all fell into this category. GVP and Supra follwed with 12 and 11 respectively. Most of these were hard drive controllers also. Many Supra expansions went with A500s. ICD had 4 while IVS had 2 replies. I find it hard to draw any conclusions from this data because of meny lack of forethought. Afterall, I have expansion memory on my SupraRAM, GVP series II controller and my '030 card. How does that fit into the survey? What brand and size hard drive? 68 out of 90 people own hard drives (76%). These 68 people own 98 hard drives amongst them. That's 1.44 drives per owner for a total of 9894 megabytes of storage with an average of 100 megabytes per drive. Maxtor 8 **** Segate 8 **** Quantum 67 ********************************** Connor 3 ** Other 12 ****** This break down is accounted for by the fact that A3000s are shipped with Quantum drives therefore it should be expected that Quantum would be the leader. Quantum seemed to always be the choice for at least one drive when two or more were in a single system. The other category is made up of removable media drives, optical drives, and non-name brand hard drives. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Multiplayer 1.30 (release date May 25, 1992) by Bryan Ford (bryan.ford@m.cc.utah.edu) (taken from Usenet c.s.a.announce) IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT It's Christmas again for music lovers: MultiPlayer has "gone GNU." Starting from version 1.30, MultiPlayer is now distributed under the GNU General Public License, with full source code available, to be copied and modified freely by anyone. The main reason for this is that I no longer have a large amount of time to devote to the development of MultiPlayer. While at first this change in distribution may seem unfair to my registered users who paid for the registered version of MultiPlayer, I believe it would be much less fair to keep development of MultiPlayer all to myself, limiting the functionality of the program to whatever I have time to implement. Moreover, my registration policy is still fully in effect, under slightly different conditions. Now, when you register, instead of paying for the un-crippled version of the program, you are paying for almost completely free upgrades, announcements of major new versions as they appear (such as this announcement), and the right to suggest improvements you'd like me to make to MultiPlayer if you can't or don't want to do them yourself. (I will generally ignore such requests from unregistered users, since I am receiving no compensation or support from them.) Of course, if you don't want any of these benefits, you are not obliged to register. The registration fee is still the same low $15 that it always was. MultiPlayer version 1.30, both binaries and source code, is available by FTP or E-mail on the Internet (see below) or from me directly (see Player.doc). The source code is currently in a very bad state as far as readability goes, and it contains quite a few ugly hacks that need to be worked out of the system. Most internal functions are not documented at all, and those that are have pretty sketchy comments. Therefore, while you are free to try and figure out (and modify if you dare) the source code as it is, you may want to wait until I get the internals organized in a more presentable manner. I will probably be working on this for the next few months. Note that version 1.30 of the program itself is not a really significant change from 1.20; the real "change" with this version is the change in distribution policy. There are some improvements, however - see below for a list. GENERAL DESCRIPTION General-purpose multitasking player for music modules. Supports over 20 Popular module formats such as Protracker and MED. Provides volume, balance, and speed controls (with NTSC/PAL speed presets), both master and per-module. Allows you to build module "programs" which are played in random order, in sequence, or only when you select them. Allows you to load and save these programs and use them like normal modules. Allows module selection through two Workbench 2.0 AppWindows and AppIcons. Supports 2.0 commodities exchange so it can stay resident without any windows, and you can pop it up with a hot key. Provides four optional, individiually selectable "flashy" windows: a standard note/volume spectrogram, a stereo waveform scope, a four-channel scope, and a miniature scrolling note display (looks like a tracker program, but you can't read the notes). Auto-detaches from the CLI and uses a custom overlay system for minimal memory usage. Includes an ARexx port similar to that of RxTracker. Compatible with any Amiga model, any processor, multitasks well, no special memory requirements. NEW FEATURES (since 1.20) 1.30 (R3, 25-May-92) GNU-ized and released with full source code. 1.21 (R2, unreleased) Icon 8-colorized. (Thanks Barry McConnell!). The "Protracker tempo commands" option is now on by default. Protracker player now uses the audio.device NotePlayer, so all Protracker, playing is now completely system-friendly. Some windows rearranged significantly. Other minor bug fixes and enhancements. SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS: Kickstart 2.0 or later. DISTRIBUTABILITY: General Public License. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ The Arexx Application List I would like to thank Daniel J. Barrett for giving permission to publish the changes made to this list. I would also like to thank all those who have contributed to the list and I encourage others to help with the updating and upkeep thereof. The ARexx Application List is Copyright 1992 by Daniel J. Barrett. All rights reserved. HOW TO READ THE LIST The information about each product includes: Product name: The name of the product. Product version: The version number of the program. Since version numbers are constantly changing, the only guarentee you have is that this version DOES support ARexx. Product type: What kind of product is this? Results are in ALL CAPITAL LETTERS so you can search for topics more consistently. Author: The author's name. Status: Commercial? Freeware? Shareware? ... Port name: The name of the ARexx port. Number of commands: How many ARexx commands are supported. Executes scripts by: A description of how ARexx is used from INSIDE THE PROGRAM. (We assume that every ARexx application can be invoked from OUTSIDE the program.) Examples are: function keys, macro filename from a file requestor, any key, mouse click, etc. If the program cannot invoke scripts, then the entry is "External control only." Notes: Brief but important information. NEW ENTRIES ADDED THIS MONTH Ami-Back, AmokEd, Burf, CyberCron, dbMAN, DeliTracker, DMD, Final Copy, FishCat, FreeDraw, GNU Emacs, JM, KCommodity, Leggi, Postdriver, RXSER2, SRI, TLog. Numerous other entries have been updated. ============================================================================== PART 1: AREXX-COMPATIBLE APPLICATIONS ============================================================================== Product name: 2View Product version: 1.11 Product type: IFF PICTURE VIEWER Author: Dave Schreiber (Fish Disk 546) Status: freeware Notes: Requires Workbench 2.0. Product name: 3-D Professional Product version: 1.56 Product type: 3D MODELING Author: Cryogenic Software Progressive Peripherals & Software Status: commercial Port name: 3-D Professional Number of commands: 50+ Executes scripts by: File Requester Notes: Uses ARexx as its internal scripting language. Product name: Ami-Back Product version: 2.0 Product type: HARD DISK BACKUP Author: Moonlighter Software Status: commercial Product name: AmigaTeX Product type: TYPESETTING, TEX Author: Radical Eye Software (Tomas Rokicki) Status: commercial Product name: AmigaVision Product type: MULTIMEDIA PRESENTATION Author: Commodore Business Machines Status: commercial Port name: AV.REXX Number of commands: 3 Executes scripts by: Invoking them from within a "flow" Notes: Shares data between AV & ARexx variables. Product name: AmokEd Product version: 1.20c Product type: TEXT EDITOR Author: Hartmut Goebel (htgoebel@cip.informatik.uni-erlangen.de) Status: freeware Port name: AED || <hexnumr>. V1.28 and up: user-definable. Number of commands: 140+ Executes scripts by: any event Notes: Internal variable to get the unique name, if no PORTNAME is specified. Product name: ANIM Tools Product version: 0.5 Product type: ANIMATION Author: Cryogenic Software Status: commercial Port name: ATools Number of commands: 20+ Executes scripts by: File Requester/[alt/shift/ctrl]Function Keys Notes: Uses ARexx as scripting lang/to talk to ADPro. Product name: ARexxDB Product type: DATABASE Author: JMH Software Status: commercial Number of commands: 70 Notes: Database records manager Product name: Art Department Professional Product type: GRAPHICS CONVERSION IMAGE PROCESSING Author: ASDG Incorporated Status: commercial Port name: ADPro Number of commands: 55+ Executes scripts by: function key Product name: A-Sound Elite Product type: DIGITAL SAMPLE EDITOR Author: Deltaware Products Status: commercial Notes: Stereo audio sample editor Product name: A-Talk III Product type: TELECOMMUNICATIONS Author: Oxxi Status: commercial Port name: ATK Number of commands: 47 Executes scripts by: file requestor Product name: Aztec C Product version: 5.0 Product type: PROGRAMMING LANGUAGE Author: Manx Status: commercial Port name: (not applicable) Number of commands: (not applicable) Executes scripts by: Automatically when compilation fails. Product name: CyberCron Product version: 1.3 Product type: PROGRAM SCHEDULING Author: Christopher A. Wichura (caw@miroc.chi.il.us) Status: freeware Port name: CYBERCRON Number of commands: 17 Executes scripts by: Launch Notes: Requires OS 2.04. ARexx not necessary but useful. Product name: CygnusEd Professional Product version: 2.0 Product type: TEXT EDITOR Author: ASDG, Inc. Status: commercial Product name: dbMAN Product version: 5.31 Product type: DATABASE Author: Versasoft Status: commercial Port name: DBMAN Number of commands: 320 Executes scripts by: Function call Notes: dBase III+ compatible relational database Product name: DeliTracker Product version: 1.21 (18 May 1992) Product type: MUSIC Author: Frank Riffel, Peter Kunath Status: shareware Notes: Player for 40 different "tracker" module formats. Product name: DME Product version: 1.45 Product type: TEXT EDITOR Author: Matt Dillon Status: freeware Port name: DME || <hex address> Number of commands: 134 Executes scripts by: Any event Notes: ARexx port is undocumented. Unique port names are created and deleted automatically. Only way to learn the port name is to have DME launch your script. Product name: Final Copy Product version: 1.3.2 Product type: WORD PROCESSOR Author: Softwood Status: commercial Port name: FinalC.1, FinalC.2, ... Number of commands: 66 Executes scripts by: Function key, menu Product name: FishCat Product version: 1.2 Product type: FRED FISH DISK INDEX Author: Matt Brown Status: shareware Port name: FISHCAT. May be set by user. Number of commands: 3 Executes scripts by: External control only Product name: FreeDraw Product version: 0.01 Product type: PAINT Author: Richard M. Ross; ARexx port by Tomas Rokicki Status: freeware Port name: freedraw Number of commands: 9 Executes scripts by: External control only Notes: Very minimal; a demo of how to add an ARexx port to an application. Available in the MinRexx Product name: JM Product version: 1.1b Product type: SYSTEM TASK MANAGER Author: Steve Koren Status: freeware Port name: JMSERVER Number of commands: 18 Executes scripts by: External control only. Notes: Requires OS 2.04. Most ARexx cmds query system status (load average, uptime, etc). Product name: KCommodity Product version: 1.70 Product type: INPUT HANDLER COMMODITY Author: Kai Iske Status: freeware Notes: Mouse/window/keystroke/screen handler. Requires Amiga OS 2.0 or higher. Product name: Leggi Product version: 2.0 Product type: TEXT READER Author: Sebastiano Vigna Status: freeware Notes: Complies with Commodore's application guidelines Product name: Postdriver Postscript Printer Driver Product type: PRINTING Author: Soft Service, Inc. Status: commercial Port name: (Not applicable) Number of commands: (Not applicable) Executes scripts by: (Not applicable) Notes: "ARexx can activate previously saved settings." Product name: SRI (SAS/C Rexx Interface) Product version: 1.00 Product type: PROGRAMMING SUPPORT Author: Matthias Scheler, Michael Illgner Status: freeware Notes: Interface SAS/C 5.10a (or newer) with text editor Product name: TLog Product version: 2.01 Product type: PHYSICAL FITNESS Author: Ed Bacon Status: shareware Notes: Daily record for athletic training. ============================================================================== PART 2: COLLECTIONS OF AREXX SCRIPTS ============================================================================== Product name: DMD Product version: 2.00 Product type: TEXT EDITOR MACROS Author: Fergus Duniho Status: freeware Port name: (not applicable) Number of commands: (not applicable) Executes scripts by: (not applicable) Notes: Macros for DME text editor. See entry for DME. ============================================================================== PART 3: UTILITIES FOR AREXX PROGRAMMERS ============================================================================== Product name: RXSER2 Product type: SHARED LIBRARY Author: Joseph Stivaletta Notes: Library for ARexx serial port communication If you wish to contribute to this list please use the following form and contact either Daniel J. Barrett or myself. Product name: <Name of software product> Product version: <the version number> Product type: <PAINT, WORD PROCESSOR, ANIMATION, etc...> Author: <Author or company's name> Status: <commercial, shareware, freeware, public domain> Port name: <ARexx port name. Be careful with upper/lower case!> Number of commands: <number of ARexx commands provided> Executes scripts by: <menu,gadgets,function keys,any key,mouse,any event> or <External control only.> Notes: <Any BRIEF but important notes> Daniel Barrett Department of Computer Science Lederle Graduate Research Center University of Massachusetts Amherst, MA 01003 USA INTERNET: barrett@cs.umass.edu COMPUSERVE: internet:barrett@cs.umass.edu ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Dan Abend may be reached many different ways: (1) Write to me at Amigaphile (2) email me on Internet at abend@cis.ohio-state.edu (3) email me on Compuserve at internet:abend@ohio-state.edu (4) email through RIME to Dan Abend (5) contact the New Horizon BBS and leave files or mail to Dan Abend I always welcome correspondence from the readers of this newsletter. Don't hesitate to contact me via any of the above methods. If you would like to run a product ad contact me for more information. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Bulletin Board Systems USA BerksAmiga BBS (215) 921-1016 Reading, PA 24 hours a day / 7 days a week Baud rates: 1200-2400 100 megs on line File transfers and message bases Sysop: Mike Koch Triple-A BBS (510) 528-2867 (Kat-Buns) Berkeley, CA 24 hours a day / 7 days a week Baud rates: v.32bis/HST/v.42bis 100 megs on line (no garbage!) File transfers and message bases Sysop: Randy Spencer Hobbit Hole (904) 243-6219 Ft. Walton Beach, FL 24 hours a day / 7 days a week Baud rates: 1200-9600 HST 330 megs on line File transfers and message bases Home of MechForce by Ralph Reed Sysop: Cal Jones The Hobbit Hole has over 2500 registered users from all over the world. New users are allowed 15 minutes until their account is validated. Afterwards, they have 45 minutes per day. Validation is automatic for those who don't abuse the system. There is no charge, fee, or donation required, requested, or accepted. This BBS is a hobby. AUSTRALIA Boing Amiga Archive +61 7 344 4536 Brisbane Queensland Australia 24 a day / 7 days a week Baud rates: up to V42 bis 2.46 Gig on line File transfers: Zmodem Only Message bases: Internet Mail Only Sysop: David Tucker At the current time, Bulletin Board System ads are accepted and printed free of charge. If you would like to have your BBS placed on this list, send the following information. BBS NAME: BBS NUMBER: BBS LOCATION: BBS HOURS: BBS BAUD RATES: BBS STORAGE (on line): File Transfers: (Y/N) Message Bases: (Y/N) Required Fess and Restrictions (if any): SYSOP NAME: and any other useful information. User's Groups USA Amiga Addicts Anonymous Berkley, CA Focus on new users, weekend programmers, and Video Toaster users. Regular classes on Amiga use, including AREXX, CanDo, Imagine, and the Video Toaster. Group purchases on things like DCTV, 2.0 installations, and show tickets. Monthly group meeting at the Water District building in Concord across from the Acura dealer on Concord Ave. General Meeting Third Tuesday 7 pm, Monthly class (Topic TBA) the following Sunday 10 am, Board meeting (Lafayette Round Table) 7 pm, Video SIG following Wednesday (call first). Berks Amiga Users Group RD#2, Box 297 Boyertown, PA 19512 President: Roger Malinowski Treasurer: Mike Koch BAUG has been in operation for almost a year and a half, and supports users of all Amiga models. The membership is primarily interested in video, graphics, 3-D modeling, animation, telecommunications, and games. Meetings are held on the third Tuesday of each month, in the Schuylkill Room of the Reading Area Community College (RACC). Meetings begin at 7:00 PM and typically last around 2 hours. The typical meeting begins with announcements and news, followed by a game demo, followed by the demo/discussion of the month. A yearly membership fee of $15 is collected from each member when they join, then each January thereafter. The membership fees are solely to offset the costs of producing the group's monthly newsletter, "Interface", which is mailed to each member. Subscriptions to the newsletter are available for the same $15 fee, although free copies of the newsletter are provided to any/all other Amiga user groups. Send us a copy of yours and we'll send you one of ours. ;-) CANADA Toronto PET Users Group 5334 Yonge St. Box # 116 Willowdale, Ontario, Canada M2N 6M2 USER'S GROUPS: Please send me your newsletter and I'll send you mine. In this manner, we can trade information. Send me your ad telling a little about your group and I'll print it along with these in the next issue. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Amigaphile is proud to announce The Home of Amigaphile: New Horizon BBS of Columbus, Ohio 24 HRS/7 Days per week (614) 755-2604 HST 14.4 (V.32bis V.42bis soon) Sysop: Jo-Ann Nemeth Asst. Sysop: Tim Parker Storage: 680 megs online plus 1 CD Rom Drive with 3 Night Owl CDs along with Fred Fish (coming soon). The CDs are changed every day or two. Just join one of the CD conferences and the News File will tell you which ones are online today. Message bases: 100+ Rime Conferences, Metro-Net, and home of the All Amiga Network. Contact the New Horizon sysop for information about joining the All Amiga Network. File transfer: Amiga and IBM. Access: There are 5 levels of access. 1 Public access limited 2 6 months $6.00 / 20:1 byte ratio 3 12 months $10.00 / 20:1 byte ratio 4 6 months $12.00 / no ratio 5 12 months $20.00 / no ratio Supporting memebers of the BBS will receive a time limit of 1 1/2 hours a day. Supporting members have access to the CD-Rom drive.