Amiga.org

Amiga computer related discussion => General chat about Amiga topics => Topic started by: orb85750 on January 19, 2011, 08:01:42 PM

Title: Amiga hardware/software development forum?
Post by: orb85750 on January 19, 2011, 08:01:42 PM
Is there any such place where ideas can be shared, help can be gotten, and little or no nonsense is found?
Title: Re: Amiga hardware/software development forum?
Post by: Karlos on January 19, 2011, 08:06:02 PM
Quote from: orb85750;607697
Is there any such place where ideas can be shared, help can be gotten, and little or no nonsense is found?


There are development sub forums on here that I've had a positive experience with. And do not forget UtilityBase (http://utilitybase.com) :)
Title: Re: Amiga hardware/software development forum?
Post by: Cammy on January 19, 2011, 09:22:55 PM
Yeah, try UtilityBase. It's like the doctor's surgery of Amiga websites. You go there with your problem, wait a long time, finally get some help along with more bad news, and if you ask the doctor for his creative opinion he'll just smile and send you on your way.
Title: Re: Amiga hardware/software development forum?
Post by: Trev on January 19, 2011, 09:34:29 PM
Quote
and little or no nonsense is found

You are talking about Amiga development, right? Despite Cammy's bad experience with UtilityBase.com--and it was bad and not her fault--there are several very knowledgeable programmers there that read posts and respond regularly and kindly.
Title: Re: Amiga hardware/software development forum?
Post by: Cammy on January 19, 2011, 09:42:19 PM
It certainly is the no-nonsense Amiga development forum, and there are knowledgeable programmers there. Some of them might be kind, some of them will make you feel like you should just give up trying to learn to program for the Amiga.
Title: Re: Amiga hardware/software development forum?
Post by: Karlos on January 19, 2011, 10:12:34 PM
Quote from: Cammy;607716
It certainly is the no-nonsense Amiga development forum, and there are knowledgeable programmers there. Some of them might be kind, some of them will make you feel like you should just give up trying to learn to program for the Amiga.

I think sites like utilitybase aren't your best bet if you are a learner but are useful if you are already a developer and need help or advice with a specific coding issue. Sadly, a lot of seasoned developers tend to forget what it was like when they didn't know anything and aren't that helpful to newcomers.

Thankfully, however, they're not all like that.

Another problem, and I admit that I fall into this category also, is that Amiga developers, tend to be biased towards C, which, although probably the ideal language for development on the Amiga (with assembler where it is called for), is not a language that is perfectly suited to beginners that want to "see" some action on their screens. This is a void that I feel tools like BlitzBasic are good at filling. Learning to program the amiga in C, first requires learning C itself which can be a bit of a motivation killer when you realise you won't write anything remotely graphical or event driven for a long while.

My apologies for the awful C puns in the above paragraph.
Title: Re: Amiga hardware/software development forum?
Post by: trilobyte on January 19, 2011, 10:38:20 PM
Quote from: Karlos;607721
Amiga developers, tend to be biased towards C, which, although probably the ideal language for development on the Amiga (with assembler where it is called for), is not a language that is perfectly suited to beginners that want to "see" some action on their screens.


Not to mention that there is C, and then there is Amiga C.  BPTRs, Open(), Printf(), geta6(), register function parameter passing, pragma/alib, stack management, NEAR/FAR, word-alignment... all these things which your compiler may take care of for you, even when you realize you need it not to :)

Still, I'd rather use SAS/C (with its CodeProbe debugger, and a set of the printed manuals) to learn C than the behemoth GCC any day.
Title: Re: Amiga hardware/software development forum?
Post by: Karlos on January 19, 2011, 10:43:35 PM
Quote from: trilobyte;607726
Not to mention that there is C, and then there is Amiga C.  BPTRs, Open(), Printf(), geta6(), register function parameter passing, pragma/alib, stack management, NEAR/FAR, word-alignment... all these things which your compiler may take care of for you, even when you realize you need it not to :)


Indeed. Once you step away from portable C into the realm of system-specific coding, you'll find many such issues, not just on Amiga either.
Title: Re: Amiga hardware/software development forum?
Post by: Trev on January 19, 2011, 10:46:18 PM
And those are just artifacts of the Amiga's pre-ISO C past. All the most recent compilers are shipped with standard C libraries (C89).
Title: Re: Amiga hardware/software development forum?
Post by: orb85750 on January 20, 2011, 12:22:57 AM
Quote from: Karlos;607698
There are development sub forums on here that I've had a positive experience with. And do not forget UtilityBase (http://utilitybase.com) :)


Every time I go to utilitybase.com, my AVAST alerts me that it's blocking malware.  Is that site infected??????
Title: Re: Amiga hardware/software development forum?
Post by: Karlos on January 20, 2011, 12:39:08 AM
Quote from: orb85750;607741
Every time I go to utilitybase.com, my AVAST alerts me that it's blocking malware.  Is that site infected??????


Not as far as I know...
Title: Re: Amiga hardware/software development forum?
Post by: orb85750 on January 20, 2011, 02:30:26 AM
Does anyone else have AVAST installed and activated on their Windows machine?  If so, please let me know if you get the malware detection when you go to utilitybase.com.