Amiga.org
Amiga computer related discussion => General chat about Amiga topics => Topic started by: runequester on August 03, 2010, 06:47:10 AM
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So after far too many years away...Ive gotten back on top of my amiga, workbench etc.
What do I learn now?
master the CLI ?
Learn some basic coding in amos or something (and how on earth does one get started with that?)
Learn to read schematics of the motherboard ?
Master Dpaint V ?
Figure out what the hell any of the buttons in protracker actually does?
Give me some suggestions :)
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You do what ever floats your boat!
You might want to get off the top of your Amiga first though, the plastic might be a bit brittle after all these years if it is an A500. :lol:
Seriously, the Amiga community is in desperate need of more programmers. So, if you have any interest or desire to really learn, pick up as many programming books as you can comfortably read and if you are starting at the bottom with no experience at all, you might want to enroll in a community college to take some night classes in beginning programming theory and a math refresher course.
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Hi runequester :)
Your only limited by your own imagination when you use an Amiga, (mine's is pretty vivid !!!) :lol:
I wouldn't bother too much about reading the schematics, I did and I know Who Dunnit... :D
Even after 20 odd year's on the miggy I still haven't sussed out all those ProTracker buttons !, but I do recall that every time I clicked on one near the top left corner, the neighbours dog 3 houses down the street would bark like crazy... :roflmao:
Don't worry, It'll all come back to you (especially the Guru Meditations...) :lol:
Cheers :drink:
Franko
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Give me some suggestions :)
In no particular order:
+1 for mastering the CLI. Always good to know your way around the shell.
Learn ARexx and then how to use it to do funky stuff with your existing apps that support it.
Give OctaMED Soundstudio a whizz.
Get the NDK and have a go at C.
Try your hand at a spot of 680x0 assembler. Compared to many other architectures, it's fairly easy to get to grips with and nice to write, to boot!
*Create a crazy boot scheme where you create a RAD on cold boot and extract an archived minimal OS installation into it when you boot, using RequestFile to select the "boot image" from a directory.
*I actually do this on my main A1200T.
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68k definitely is the Rolls Royce of all assembler languages! ;)
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68k definitely is the Rolls Royce of all assembler languages! ;)
Couldn't agree more... I never write in anything but 68k... :)
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Learn C and then learn the Amiga API.
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so if I know nothing about programming (pretty much), where does one start? Whether in general, or amiga specific ?
Any books or resources to look for?
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Mastering shell scripts (inputs, variables, escape codes, lformat) and arexx scripts are very rewarding, but still not too demanding :)
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I had such a huge post typed up and bumped the mouse and lost it, now I don't feel like retyping it, sorry.
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so if I know nothing about programming (pretty much), where does one start? Whether in general, or amiga specific ?
Any books or resources to look for?
Start by taking a trip to your local library. Pick up a book and start reading through the basics and make sure your sat away from a computer. Learning any language is hard from the outset so don't expect to learn how to code overnight it takes weeks, months and even years to 'perfect'. And there is something new to learn everyday.
If you have access to a Mac you could look at Applescript which is a macro like language. Its language set is BASIC like and reads pretty much like 'a book'.
If you have never programmed before, BASIC is a good place to start; if you can't get your head around using BASIC then you might as well stop.
Start somewhere you feel comfortable, having to worry which header files and resources to include just to print 'Hello World' in a new window is probably not the best place to begin learning to code.
All languages share things in common like variable declarations, math operations and if..else..endif like structures, only the formatting differs, but the principles are generally the same.
There are so many ways you could start, foreinstance you could start with javascript and learn basic functionality like declaring variables, working with arrays and basic operation - then again this can be a little daunting so I'd stick within a programming environment where you can code and see the result within seconds and debug it easier rather than alt-tabbing between different applications.
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so if I know nothing about programming (pretty much), where does one start? Whether in general, or amiga specific ?
Any books or resources to look for?
If you really want to start programming in 68K then you can download The DevPac Assembler Package from here...
http://planetemu.net/index.php?section=roms&dat=375
The DevPac package contains all you need to get you started, it has many simple tutorials and examples of 68K coding. There are quite a few other 68k assemblers around but I have always found DevPac to be the best and simplest one to use.
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Not sure Asm is the best place for a complete novice to start learning to code, but I guess some don't mind jumping in the deep end right away!
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Go for the Atari now.
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so if I know nothing about programming (pretty much), where does one start? Whether in general, or amiga specific ?
Any books or resources to look for?
Google for JavaScript ?
I had such a huge post typed up and bumped the mouse and lost it, now I don't feel like retyping it, sorry.
I know how you feel: :uzi:
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so if I know nothing about programming (pretty much), where does one start? Whether in general, or amiga specific ?
Any books or resources to look for?
I have a bunch of resources here (http://amigadocs.hokstad.com/).
Specifically there's a developer links section that has links to a bunch of tutorials and reference material (http://amigadocs.hokstad.com/doku.php?id=dev-links) (if you come across any new links, please feel free to add them).
I like this one in particular (http://www.liquido2.com/tutorial/index.html). I guess you're on real Amiga hardware, but otherwise it includes links to a pre-configured hardfile image for UAE with a full development environment; if you want to run that on your regular setup it's a bit more work but it links to a gcc installer.