Why should I use Amiga?

[Matt_H]

For me, the Amiga has an extremely logical system layout. Everything is where you would expect it to be. Hardware drivers in the Devs directory, shell commands in the C directory, shared libraries in the Libs directory, etc.

What I like best about it is that you can use it as a high-level user-friendly system and still be able to get beneath the surface very easily to not only diagnose problems, but just to learn how the system works.

You may want to consider buying the Amiga Forever emulation environment and a Developer's CD (v2.1) to learn more.

[Matt_H]

anon123 wrote:
I was considering AROS, what would you recommend I use? How does the Amiga forever thing compare (I perfer Free (as in freedom))?

From a programmers perspective, how is Amiga? Is the API clean? easy to use? powerful?

If it's free as in freedom you like, then its AROS you'll want to look into. While advanced over the non-opensource Amiga OSes in some respects, it's lacking in others. OS3.x and MorphOS are probably the most mature, meaning you can jump right in and start doing cool things, rather than worrying about a core system layer not being there.

I'm not a programmer, though I've tried to get into it several times. The Amiga API is extremely straightforward and everything is documented in things called 'autodocs'. They're little text files that give you an overview of all the commands and code templates for using shared libraries, includes, and devices.

A semi-famous sound sample from CanDo, a multimedia package from years ago, featured a person saying, "Programming the Amiga is like taking a vacation!"

Though its possible to do quick and dirty ports of Unix-type CLI tools, many such recompiles don't take advantage of the Amiga's unique features such as a GUI, interprocess communication, and centralized configuration data.

The core of Amiga programming is found in the ROM Kernel Reference Manuals, commonly abbreviated as the RKRMs or RKMs. They're a rather old (1991 is the last revision), but that was when the core API that's still with us today was codified. Digital copies of the RKMs and the autodocs for core system components are on the Developer's CD I mentioned earlier. There's really a lot of useful and historical material on there - you should really consider getting it. Software Hut, Vesalia, or AmigaKit can probably sell you one for a fair price.

EDIT: AmiDevCPP is a cross-compilation suite you may find useful as well

[Matt_H]

@ anon123

The only thing preventing OS4 from running on generic PPC platforms like Macs and the Pegasos is some sort of legal stupidity. The code changes needed to be able to boot it on something other than AmigaONE hardware could probably be accomplished within a week (and some claim to have done it privately), but Amiga, Inc., the trademark owners, are being jerks about allowing such a thing. Right now, the only way to get an OS4 system is to buy one secondhand. Very few were made to begin with and those who have them are likely to hold onto them.

The SAM440 board may change this, but don't hold your breath. It'll be months at the minimum, based on past timelines.

Multiuser support is not built into AmigaOS. It can be added to OS3.x systems through a third-party add-on. this is the latest version for 3.9 systems, and this is the base package for older 3.x systems.

Your best bet is to set up an OS3.x emulation environment and start experimenting!

[Matt_H]

anon123 wrote:
You say some "claim" to have done it privately, have any of these people released their code?

No, they can't because Amiga, Inc. will try to sue the pants off them.

Is their a doc somewhere explaining in depth how the Amiga boot sequence works? Could someone point me in that direction,

This is the boot sequence for classic machines. The AmigaONE and Pegasos have additional steps at the beginning that I'm not entirely familiar with, as they have additonal firmware layers that the classic machines don't.

I would like to attempt this (running Amiga on a pegasos or a mac).

Not worth trying, especially since you can't get either the source or binaries of OS4. Either get UAE or a Pegasos with MorphOS.

What hardware can I run 3.9 on?

Any classic Amiga with a 68020 or higher processor and 8MB of RAM, or UAE.

Get UAE.

UAE will answer most of your questions.

It's easy to use.

Amiga Forever is a commercial distribution of UAE that comes with everything you need to set up a system.

Try it. You'll like it.