BlitzBasic vs Amos

[Amithony]

If you had to choose which language to code in between blitz basic 2 and Amos what would it be and why? I'm thinking of going postal on Ebay.

[amigadave]

Blitz Basic would be the logical choice as it is still available on the PC, AFAIK.

I have both and still plan to learn both of them before moving on to StormC++ and REBOL, then maybe JAVA and other C++ compilers on Linux & MacOS.  I bought a programming book for my Son titled "Programming Games for Teens" and was surprised to find out that it was based on, and had a CD inside with Blitz Basic for the PC on it.

Edit: AMOS and AMOS Pro are available for free for a download.  If it were not already past midnight and I didn't have this migraine headache, I would post a link of where you can find it.  There is still a small group that is running a website for AMOS and a few members of Amiga.org belong to that group.

[bloodline]

Blitz Basic; it is system friendly, it runs compiled, it allows in line assembler, it has more libraries available, and most importantly... It supports real data structures so you can write much more powerful software!

[adonay]

For small fun stuff i would use amos as it seems to be easyer to get start help in it and the program seems easyer to use .. Blitz i would call a little more serious ...

[rednova]

Dear Friend:

Amos professional is very easy to learn, to use, and you can make fantastic games in it. You can get both amospro and the compiler for free. I would get amospro for free, then learn.
http://amos.condor.serverpro3.com/index.php
That is the website for amos factory...a current amos site, where we can share our amos experience (free).
Amos Pro is super!!! Vulcan used amospro to make the game valhalla, really good. I also have blitz basic 2..but to me amospro is much better. The amos site is great, you can get help to learn to use amos, a site with dedicated amos users helping each other. Blitz basic for amiga does not have support anymore for amiga users, but amos, we have a small community still coding.
Cheers!!!

rednova
-mobilis in mobile-

[Hattig]

Back in the day I preferred Blitz Basic 2.

I did use AMOS as well, before I got BB2, and it isn't that bad, and you can jump in quite quickly. However for me it was more of a logical progression from the very limited 8-bit BASICs that I had used before.

[SamuraiCrow]

Since both are available for download, I'd just pick the one you'd need a user-manual for.  They both support extensions to the core language so you'd better learn how to add them as well.

If you see a copy of AmosPro with a manual you'll be in fine shape.  I wouldn't go for the watered down versions of Amos the Creator or Easy Amos but I'd insist on getting the pro version.  When writing programs, be sure to download a copy of the AMCAF extension since it seems to be the most useful one.

AmiBlitz is the modern BlitzBasic with bugfixes and new features.  It will compile well for 68k processors but the current maintainers aren't planning on a version for newer systems.

A project I'm working on is called Mattathias because, like its namesake the son of the prophet Amos, it is designed as a sequel to Amos.  However, in order to keep things flexible we might be able to add support for other parsers as well.  Since Blitz is still maintained, adding a parser for it would be a moving target and the Amos compatibility extension is planned to be first.

Be sure to post back here with the one you choose to download or buy.

[Lonewolf10]

Hi guys,

I don't visit Amiga.Org that often due to some huge projects I'm working on (currently archiving the Yahoo AMOS-LIST message archives and uploading them to Aminet).

Anyway, for me AMOS (AMOS Pro 2.X to be precise) is both easy to get into and allows for experienced programmers to include assembly (ASM) code, mess with the copperlist (needed for visual effects such as simple horizontal reflections) and much more.

If you get an Amiga emulator to run on your PC, then you can run AMOS Pro on that. I tried Blitz once and hated it, but that was an early version.

Try both, you can probably download them for free somewhere and then buy manuals etc. for the one you prefer the most.


Regards,
Lonewolf10

[JetRacer]

Both have their own unique and special drawbacks :-)

AMOSPro+Compiler works well and is very easy to learn and directly implement ideas in. On the other hand it's all hardcoded to suit the A500. There's workarounds in the shape of machine-language procedures, but I doubt it gets you anywhere near something that looks like an A1200 native implementation with real OS support (I might be wrong though since it's been alot of water under the bridge). But if you're just after something that smacks a gui on the screen, does some stuff with buffers and read/write raw output to files then it pretty much works for anything (great that way). It's also good for writing small games (like Scorched Tanks).

Blitz on the other hand supports post-A500 hardware if my memory serves me right (might not). But there's probably good enough reason(s) why people still prefer to use AMOSPro+Compiler. -I've never heard anyone saying they prefer Blitz while having AMOSPro+Compiler too.

[hooligan]

I have programmed for both, and it really depends what you are going to do. For games/demos AmosPro is just fine, for utilities Blitz. BTW, if you are a beginner in programming, better forget both and go for c

[hooligan]

Oh well.. must add. AmosPro is very slow, so doing anything which requires lots of math will be dogslow. My more complex demoroutines were very slow even on 060 (filled vectors even).

[JetRacer]

@ hooligan: So you admit you code all your demos in Blitz while telling your friends it's all done in 1oo% asm?

[bloodline]

JetRacer wrote:
@ hooligan: So you admit you code all your demos in Blitz while telling your friends it's all done in 1oo% asm?

I used to like Blitz II, you could do all the GFX set up in Basic and then use ASM to optimise the processing! Saved a lot of time!

[JetRacer]

I was just pulling his leg :-)

Anything short of linking stolen code (like some a-holes do) is fair game. But I admit: using Amos is stepping the line in more than one way :-)