what BIOS is to the Amiga??

[InTheSand]

This may be a result of you using Kickstart 2.x with a Workbench 3.x disk... I'll try that combination here and see if it works...

Also, the "say" command and associated "translator" device and library files were dropped from the OS from release 2.1 onwards (though the files work fine if manually copied from a 2.04 Workbench disk into a more recent installation).

 - Ali

[InTheSand]

Follow-up: just tried, and the "Ed" text editor doesn't work when used on a KS2.x Amiga that's been booted with a Workbench 3.1 disk. It gives a recoverable alert message, then an "Unable to open needed library" message.

Looks like you'll need to find a 2.x Workbench disk set...

 - Ali

[InTheSand]

Hmmm... Due to your "unique" combination of KS2.x and WB3.x, you can create a text file but you'll have to do it the old-fashioned way:

1. Open a new CLI window (from Workbench, select "Execute Command" from the menu, then enter "newcli" in the resulting dialogue box)
2. Type the following into the CLI window: copy * testfile   (this tells the Amiga to create a new text file called "testfile" and to accept input from the keyboard - similar to using "copy CON: " in MSDOS)
3. Enter the lines of your text file, pressing Return at the end of each one
4. Press CTRL and hash (#) to signify the end of the file

You'll then at least have a text file, into which you could place some commands...

And... I've discovered that the old line editor (called "Edit" and invoked by a command with the same name) does work, but you'll need to search for instructions on how to use this (at least "q" quits it!).

You really would be better off waiting until you get your A1200!!!

 - Ali

[InTheSand]

But that'd be waaaay too easy! And think of all the fun that's to be had by attempting to use the arcane line editor commands!  :-)

 - Ali

P.S. 324 doesn't have any other disks with his sorry pile of A500 remains! So it might be difficult to get anything else running on it!!

[InTheSand]

Hi,

Early versions of 2.0x still came with "translator.library" and the "Say" command, etc. This was improved upon from the older Workbench 1.x versions.

And there's this alternative, which can even speak in Klingon!  :-)

 - Ali

[InTheSand]

Hi,

It's definitely worth checking out the v42 replacement translator.library (Aminet, see link in my post above), especially for non-English-speaking users, Klingons (!) and anyone not wanting American English pronounciation. I'm not sure about the quality of this vs the last official C= version as I've never done a direct comparison.

 - Ali