Morphos compatible software solutions.

[anakirob]

Here's what I want from my Efika/MorphOS system.

- Word processing.
 Loading and saving RTF, DOC & of course plain ASCII. And maybe a customisable dictionary

- 24-Bit Image editing/Paint package.
 Is photogenics still available? And is it compatible with MorphOS?

- Media Player
 MP3/MP4 is adequate. DVD/DivX would be awesome.

- Touch Typing Training Software

If you could give me links to the software I want, then that would be very nice and would save me a lot of time. I'm also more than happy to purchase commercial software, so company websites instead of warez where available. However if warez is my only option then just tell me the software names I need to type into Google (as a link to warez is against the rules of this forum anyway). Thanks.

If I require some extra HW (like a specific GFX card), then again company websites please.

[Crumb]

@anakirob

Hi! nice to see sceners are interested on AmigaOS alike OSes too. But please keep on releasing stuff for classics! :-)

- Word processing.

You'll have to deal with WordWorth/FinalWriter (but live without DOC support. RTF support is OK). Or perhaps take a look at AmigaWriter but I think WW/FW are better.

- 24-Bit Image editing/Paint package.

IIRC most of system friendly gfx apps work (ArtEffect, Photogenics, FXPaint,...), so no problem. Even PPaint works very well if you set the right options.. it's quite decent for scene related purposes -hint, hint- ;-)

- Media Player

MorphOS MPlayer is a winner here. Fab has done an excellent work and thanks to him, MorphOS MPlayer runs rings around all the other players for any amiga-like OS (and faster than Mac/Linux versions too).

For music use AmiNetRadio :-)

- Touch Typing Training Software

ugh! I haven't tested that kind of software on Amiga but I guess some old software will work OOTB. Do you have that software for A500? Perhaps it works.


If you haven't bought your Efika yet it may be a much better idea to wait until MorphOS is released for Mac Mini :-)

[Rob]

Photogenics can be bought here.

[KimmoK]

For Word processing one might also take a look at CinnamonWriter. http://desler.be/modules/wfchannel/
It's a AmigaOS4 application, but it might work with AOS4emu.

And pagestream sureli is a up-to-date publishing application, but perhaps it's an overkill for simple word processing needs.
http://www.grasshopperllc.com/


offtopic? : Is there a way to develop modern amiga application binary that runs on several (modern) different Amigalike OS?  (other than targetting 68k OS3.0)

[takemehomegrandma]

Here is a little compilation of some 1156 applications you could browse from:

http://morphos.lukysoft.cz/en/

:-)

[recidivist]

Several of the more desirable programs seem to be unavailable (copyright issues?) as attempting to download gives page errors,file not found,404,etc.

[zyphoid]

Cinnamon Writer doesn't work, at least not the newest version, unless, I don't have the setup write.  I haven't heard of any successes with 0s4emu.  alot of the older programs may work, but the trick is to get them from floppy to efika.  One idea is to get a program which converts them to adf, then transfer that to a usb of some sort then have a adf reader on morphos to read the file.

[takemehomegrandma]

recidivist wrote:
Several of the more desirable programs seem to be unavailable (copyright issues?) as attempting to download gives page errors,file not found,404,etc.

Try sending a mail about the broken links you find to the list maintainer so he can update it then. :-)

[amigadave]

KimmoK wrote:
offtopic? : Is there a way to develop modern amiga application binary that runs on several (modern) different Amigalike OS?  (other than targetting 68k OS3.0)

I just purchased CubicIDE, it was on a half price Christmas special.  You might do a search for it and see if the special reduced price is still available.

With it you can target AmigaOS3.x 68k, AmigaOS4.x PPC, or MorphOS2.x PPC.  It comes with several compilers as well as GoldEd (version 7 I think).

Mine has not arrived yet, but should be here any day now.  You can download a working demo of it, but it is limited to the number of lines you can enter, or compile.  I downloaded it to my EFIKA and installed it, but have not had time to use it yet.  Now that I have ordered the full version, I have not been motivated to test the demo.

I would provide a link, but I am too busy (shouldn't even be writing this) as I have family coming to visit and this place is a mess.

Happy Holidays to all!

[Trev]

@amigadave

I think KimmoK was asking about something like Apple's universal binaries.

They all use different loaders, but if the newer systems recognize and execute Amiga hunk executables under emulation/JIT, then you could in theory write a startup module that detects the host environment and then dyanimcally reloads itself as a native app on MorphOS, OS4, etc.

The downside would be the size of the binary, which would need to accomodate images for all the various platforms. If you start thinking about separating the loader from the binary images, then your back to just having separate executables. The only upside would be a single installation image that needn't change from platform to platform.

Someone else (Piru?) may know if a single ELF binary could be constructed to run on MorphoOS, OS4, and AROS.

Anything's possible, of course, but it may not be practical.

[Piru]

@Trev

Single ELF for all three, no. It'd need to be dynamic, containing the different binaries inside. The obvious solution would be to wrap it all inside an amiga 68k executable with a small 68k code stub that determines the actual runtime system and loads the appropriate ELF, except that AROS does not run 68k binaries at all.

Thus, while it would be easily possible to create a binary that runs on both OS4 and MOS (with native code), it is not possible to include AROS (the only exception would be AROS ported to 68k, but does such thing even exist?).

[KimmoK]

Thanks for SW development infos!

MULTIPLATFORM:

So, current solution is to compile to AOS68k or compile all different binaries and then perhaps build a 68k tool/front-end/installer/launcher that selects the needed binary.

Amazing that usable multiplatform installer/launcher does not yet exist? Perhaps it could be done with some 68k installer if /whenthe HW/SW platform could be dug out inside the scrip, etc...
And surely it would be very usefull if the whole process could be automated as much as possible, for the user and the developer.

[Trev]

@Piru

It's unfortunate that ELF was never extended to support fat binraries.

The probelm could be solved directly by the various system owners agreeing on an Amiga-like fat binary header and modifying their loaders accordingly--but this is Amiga we're talking about, so the various factions are rife with memories of scene showdowns and intro potshots and are unlikely to agree on anything. ;-)

A hunk extension of some sort could work as well but would again require agreement among the factions and modification of the various loaders.

[itix]

@Piru

The obvious solution would be to wrap it all inside an amiga 68k executable with a small 68k code stub that determines the actual runtime system and loads the appropriate ELF, except that AROS does not run 68k binaries at all.

No need to use 68k code. MorphOS executables are always executed from the beginning of the first hunk and OS4 executables are executed from _start() entry.

I would probably just use simple script to detect OS. It would do everything what fat binary would do.

[Piru]

@itix

No need to use 68k code. MorphOS executables are always executed from the beginning of the first hunk and OS4 executables are executed from _start() entry.

That would work, but you'd need to have a special linker.

I would probably just use simple script to detect OS. It would do everything what fat binary would do.

That doesn't allow single fat binary, however.