Amiga Education

[DonP1]

Is there a good place to learn Amiga DOS commands and basic Workbench programs (like ED)? I have an Amiga DOS 1.1 and 1.2 AmigaDOS book, but I'd like something that covers up to 3.1 at least.

I used to have a lot of Amiga Books and Manuals, but after several moves, this box unfortunately disappeared.

Do'h - just found the Tutorial forum.

Any other info - good books to look for, will help as well.

[InTheSand]

Hi,

Google's always useful for this sort of thing, there are quite a few sites that cover the Amiga's CLI and its commands.

As for Ed, its command mode can be entered by pressing Esc, followed by:
Atext - insert text after current position
B - go to bottom of file
BE - mark end of block
BFtext - backwards find text
BS - mark start of block
D - delete line
DB - delete marked block
DC - delete character
Ftext - find text
Itext - insert text before current position
IB - insert copy of marked block
IFfilename - insert named file
Mnumber - go to line number
N - go to next line start
P - go to previous line start
Q - quit without saving
SAfilename - save as named file
SB - show block
T - go to top of file
WBfilename - save marked block as named file
X - exit and save changes

There are a number of keystrokes that can be used in Ed too, in addition to the obvious cursor/backspace/delete/return, etc.:
Ctrl-A - new line
Ctrl-B - delete line
Ctrl-D - scroll down 12 lines
Ctrl-E - go to top or bottom of screen
Ctrl-F - invert case
Ctrl-O - delete word or spaces to right of cursor
Ctrl-R - go to start of previous word
Ctrl-T - go to end of previous word
Ctrl-U - scroll up 12 lines
Ctrl-V - refresh screen

That's pretty much it, I've left out the more obscure / less useful items...

 - Ali

[Matt_H]

The 3.1 Manuals are fairly thorough in that area.

[DonP1]

Matt_H wrote:
The 3.1 Manuals are fairly thorough in that area.

My 3.1 manuals are lost, along with my 2.05 manuals and 1.3 manuals (I might have even had 1.2 or 1.1 as well). I lost a lot of Amiga stuff when I lost that box full of my books.

I guess I should look to see if people sell 3.1 manuals (on ebay?).

[DonP1]

InTheSand wrote:
Hi,

Google's always useful for this sort of thing, there are quite a few sites that cover the Amiga's CLI and its commands.

As for Ed, its command mode can be entered by pressing Esc, followed by:
Atext - insert text after current position
B - go to bottom of file
BE - mark end of block
BFtext - backwards find text
BS - mark start of block
D - delete line
DB - delete marked block
DC - delete character
Ftext - find text
Itext - insert text before current position
IB - insert copy of marked block
IFfilename - insert named file
Mnumber - go to line number
N - go to next line start
P - go to previous line start
Q - quit without saving
SAfilename - save as named file
SB - show block
T - go to top of file
WBfilename - save marked block as named file
X - exit and save changes

There are a number of keystrokes that can be used in Ed too, in addition to the obvious cursor/backspace/delete/return, etc.:
Ctrl-A - new line
Ctrl-B - delete line
Ctrl-D - scroll down 12 lines
Ctrl-E - go to top or bottom of screen
Ctrl-F - invert case
Ctrl-O - delete word or spaces to right of cursor
Ctrl-R - go to start of previous word
Ctrl-T - go to end of previous word
Ctrl-U - scroll up 12 lines
Ctrl-V - refresh screen

That's pretty much it, I've left out the more obscure / less useful items...

 - Ali

Thanks Ali. Great info on Ed - is this the best text editor for changing stuff (like startup-sequence)?

I've tried googling "Amiga DOS" with no luck but haven't tried "Amiga CLI" yet. I just clicked your link and started looking at those websites. Thanks!

[xaccrocheur]

Aahh, Ed. Scared the HELL out of me when I typed "ed s:user-startup" on a friends advice, back in the 500 days, and saw *that*. This thing is even more sick than vi. I mean, edit texts NOW (pretty much2007) in Ed is not normal, man. Don't tell anyone, or suffer the social consequences.

You want to use GoldED. And get girls. Girls love syntax highlighting.

[AmigaPete]

I've tried googling "Amiga DOS" with no luck but haven't tried "Amiga CLI" yet. I just clicked your link and started looking at those websites.

Try Googling "Amiga Abacus". Remember those books? Probably some of the ones that you lost. The first hit should get you something.

Pete

[Matt_H]

@ DonP1

The 3.1 manuals are fairly common on eBay. Most dealers still sell them as well.

[InTheSand]

DonP1 wrote:
Thanks Ali. Great info on Ed - is this the best text editor for changing stuff (like startup-sequence)?

No worries! And, despite what you may read here (xaccrocheur :-) ), Ed is fine for doing basic things like changing Startup-Sequence, other shell scripts, mountlists, etc...

As for Ed being worse than the abomination known as Vi... Not a chance!!!

Ed's by no means the best editor, but it's functional and small. I sometimes use Cygnus Edit (CED) or Protext for basic text editing too.

 - Ali