Conference hydra::amiga_v1

1399.0. "News from Developers' Conference" by NAC::PLOUFF (Beautiful downtown Littleton) Tue May 03 1988 15:21

Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Path: decwrl!ucbvax!pasteur!ames!amdahl!kim
Subject: Reports from DevCon: days 1 & 2
Posted: 2 May 88 01:29:03 GMT
Organization: Amdahl Corporation,  Sunnyvale, CA 94086
 
 
[ Everything in this line may be wrong!    (with apologies to Richard Bach) ]
 
    Attached are some comments by Charles Conlow that cover the first
    couple of days of DevCon, that I picked up from a local BBS.  Not alot
    of real specifics, but some interesting hints, etc. 
 
    I'd be interested in what other attendees have to offer (Leo, Marco,
    any C-A'ers or CBM'ers, ...). 
 
    I believe that CBM will be making a set of DevCon notes (and floppies
    ?) available to those of us who (sniff) couldn't get away.  Is that
    right, Lauren? 
 
    Mr. Conlow implies that there will be at least one more report from
    DevCon, so I'll post that here also when and if I see it. 
 
    /kim 
 
 
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             ----- From the 1988 Amiga Developer's Conference -----
 
                                Friday, Day #1
             ------------------------------------------------------
 
    Here are my notes, opinions and C-A's (Commodore-Amiga) announcements
    from the first day (Friday) of the 1988 Commodore Amiga Developer's
    Conference. 
 
    Because C-A did not anticipate such a large attendance, the whole
    shebang got off to a late start.  I was in line to register at 8:15 for
    the 9:00 first speaker, and I noticed that people were STILL
    registering at 3:00 PM!  Everything today was shifted back half an
    hour. 
 
    Gail Wellington gave a short welcome and introductory speech in the
    main conference room.  It was equipped with two Amiga 2000's, a big
    projection screen TV and two BIG monitors (one was CBM's (Commodore
    Business Machines) own manufacture, a Bi-Synch Super-Hi_Res job).  We
    watched the ever popular "Only Amiga Makes it Possible" Video, and then
    Gail introduced Dr. Henri Rubin. 
 
    Dr. Rueben, C.O.O. of Commodore International, gave a short speech
    about the MEANING of the Amiga series of machines; how far we have come
    with the multi-tasking aspect, and how little of the machine's promise
    has so far come to light.  He mentioned CBM's past financial
    emergencies, and how the bottom line ( = money) is always in our minds
    (CBM, Developers and third party manufacturers). 
 
    Dr. Rubin went on to say that although the Amiga has been received very
    well of late (in US as well as abroad), it should, and MUST! do better
    if we are to see the NEXT generation of Amiga computers.  He also
    mentioned that although Amiga continues to improve and upgrade the
    quality of the OS, other computer manufacturers STILL can't seem to get
    a working multi-tasking system off the ground. 
 
    During Gail's closing remarks, members of the audience (a little over
    300) stood when she named their country.  Quite an international bunch
    this weekend... 
 
    Israel, Austria, Turkey (CBM's fastest growing market), Canada, West
    Germany, United Kingdom, Denmark, Finland, Italy, Australia, France,
    Holland and Venezuela were all represented, as well as a goodly number
    from the good ole US of A (sitting next to me, Leo Schwab, "the man in
    the cape"). 
 
    During the morning session, there were several sessions with speakers
    from CATS, C-A and CBM fielding questions from the audiences and making
    remarks and comments as they came to light... 
 
    Bill Koester (CATS (C-A Technical Support)) & R. J. Mical (Amiga
    Software Engineer) led a group of first timers through the Exec -
    Intuition - ADos system. 
 
    Dave Haynie, George Robbins and Jeff Boyer (all C-A Hardware
    Engineers), led a discussion, followed by a Q & A about the A-500's
    design; it's expansion port interface limits, power supply requirements
    and problems, and the documentation for the machine. 
 
    Dale Luck and Jim Mackraz (Amiga Software engineers) gave the Copper a
    going over.  Speaking of what the Copper is SUPPOSED to do, and what
    developers are trying to make it do, they attempted to make clear the
    guidelines for proper use of one of the Amiga's most basic custom
    chips. 
 
    Next, Carolyn Scheppner (CATS) went through the latest of the MANY IFF
    specs; some accepted by CBM, some pending and others... well, maybe.
    John Toebes of Software Distillery presented their new IFF form, PGTB
    (ProGram Trace Back), which is of great interest to developers.  This
    form, and the program stub that produces it, dumps to a file all the
    neat and interesting things that were resident in the system when it
    GURUed. This allows programmers to look at the environment when someone
    other than themselves has attempted to use their program.  Watch for
    "Catch". 
 
    Also, Gary Bonham of Sparta delivered a speech about the ANIM IFF FORM,
    and its use by Aegis, Inc.  He detailed its development as an outgrowth
    of his work with Space Defense-type systems at Sparta, and how many
    months of feedback and coding led to a simple, quick compression and
    playback technique.  Bob "Kodiak" Burns raised the point that an ANIM
    file is not a true IFF FORM, but rather a LIST.  Gary admitted that,
    and also admitted that an awful lot of work had gone into the thing,
    and was pretty far along in development to re-code for LIST.  Kodiak's
    point, though, is well taken.  IFF is SUPPOSED to be a CBM approved
    standard. FORMs are FORMs and LISTs aren't.  They proposed to form a
    working group to throw this idea around.  Keep tuned! 
 
    Marketing of Amiga products was also discussed with Product support
    people from CBM, both US and abroad.  How to get the most coverage for
    the smallest amount of money seemed to be the jist of it, but I was
    listening in from another hall, and will have to get this part
    straightened out (later guys). 
 
    In the afternoon, Jeff Porter (Product Development, Commodore
    Technology Division), introduced us to the new CBM and C-A products.
    They were not in the room, and no price or release dates were
    announced. We also were told that many of these hardware thingies are
    still on the board, so think what you will... 
 
    We were not asked to sign any non-disclosure agreement, but I tread
    lightly here, as I VALUE my status as developer and a trusted member of
    the CADP (C-A Developer's Program).  But I think I am safe in
    stating... 
 
    As per the Hanover Announcement, the A-2500.AT and A-2500.UX will bring
    IBM-PC.AT performance / or / Unix support to the A-2000.  These are not
    NEW machines, but bundled software of CBM's already announced (but not
    yet available) AT card and Unix (AT & T Unix 5 release 3.1.). 
 
    Also announced was the 1.3 and 1.4 systems, with vague references to
    1.5 (and you thought all they did was answer phones in West Chester!).
    There is an Enhanced Chip Set to be available SOON (New Fattest Agnes,
    New Denise and New Gary chips) to allow for 640 x 400 non-interlaced
    screens with 4 out of 64 colors.  This chip set will also allow for
    software control of EITHER PAL or NTSC (did I hear someone say
    horizontal scrollable screens?). 
 
    Some new monitors were also discussed, which have the SMARTS to be able
    to handle all these new different video modes, as well as all current
    ones.  And most (if not all) of this new technology is backwards
    compatible, meaning your existing 500's and 2000's can use the new chip
    set, monitors and enhanced OS (Unix). 
 
    Some other hardware goodies...  a self contained 20 meg SCSI hard drive
    for the A-500.  This would be the first hard drive from CBM in many
    years, since the 90x0 line in the late seventies.  It would have a
    smart external power supply, that will turn itself off and on as the
    A-500 is turned off and on. 
 
    For the 2000, look for 2 different GenLocks (of quite different
    quality), the 68020 Bridge, the 80286 Bridge, the 2090A (auto-boot hard
    disk controller), and KickStart 1.3 in ROM (also for 500). 
 
    Yes friends, 1.3 is STILL not ready!  Gamma 7 releases were made to
    developers, but there is still no firm date for public release for a
    rock solid KickStart or WorkBench/ADos for 1.3. 
 
    That's all the time I have to write this up this evening, but I have
    more about 1.3 and 1.4, the new preferences, sound, 'C', OverScan and
    Libraries from today! not to mention Saturday and Sunday! 
 
    Keep tuned kiddies, and be patient with Uncle Andy (Finkel)! 
 
             ----------------------- EOF --------------------------
 
FileName: DevCon-1.Txt
 Created: 29-Apr-88 23:00
  Author: Charles Conlow (GEnie = C.CONLOW)
 
============================================================================
 
             ----- From the 1988 Amiga Developer's Conference -----
 
        Late Friday, Day #1 & Saturday Day #2
             ------------------------------------------------------
 
    Friday, in the afternoon sessions, some more technical material was
    discussed, including the following... 
 
    Jim Mackraz and Hedley Davis offered their (very considered) opinions
    of how the Amiga systems should handle FONTS / TEXT and GRAPHICS when
    using the newest view modes (VERY_HIGH resolution).  Using the Gray
    Scale monitors, OverScan and HAM, system parameters may seem tossed to
    the wind... there is so far a general rule about this, and 1.4 should
    bring a STANDARD (i.e. iff or IFF.2) about FONTs, COLOR_FONTs, and
    VIEW_Modes. 
 
    Rob Peck (Author of the Audio Tools Library) and Dan Baker (CATS)
    covered the Amiga's multi-tasking limits with regard to the sounds /
    music she can make (and what beautiful music!).  Rob Peck has been a
    major contributor to the Amiga Developer's world of audio, and has also
    followed up on his original implementation of the Audio Tools Library. 
 
    Andy Finkel has given us a pretty good idea of what 1.3 can and cannot
    do... There are reasons why we CAN do some things, and reasons why we
    CAN'T do others.  Major revisions of 1.3 are the printer.device and
    associated drivers (quite fast, and really VERY clean for dot matrix),
    the FFS (Fast Filing System) for hard drive users (FFS will be standard
    on all devices as of 1.4) and smaller - faster C: commands ( bye-bye
    BCPL). 
 
    Other Friday Topics were Math Libraries (including the support for the
    various co-processors), Creating your own libraries (remember the
    interrupt?), 'C' on the Amiga, What hardware implementation of 1.3 and
    1.4 require to auto-boot and what 1.3 preferences is all about. 
 
    Friday, several disk of source code were distributed which contained
    the examples (object and source) of most of the Conference's projects,
    as well as Gamma 7 of WorkBench 1.3 (Still, no release date kiddies!). 
 
    Saturday, I will have to rely on other people's notes, as I had to duck
    in and out all day... 
 
    During the morning hours (yawns!), hardware and software was shown in
    the computer rom from companies such as... 
 
    Aegis, MicroSmiths, Manx, Lattice, Software Distillery, and of course
    CBM / C-A / Commodore Int'l 
 
    Then Dave Haynie, George Robbins and Jeff Boyer talked about the slots
    of the A-2000.  There MAY be mods to future machines, there probably
    will not, but there will CERTAINLY be a backward compatible path on
    this matter as the 2000 is THE AMIGA as far as C-A is concerned.  The
    stress of this matter is that the 2000 is the ANCHOR of the series, and
    all future machines MUST allow for its  existence. 
 
    Also on Saturday, the implementation of multiple ports was discussed.
    In 1.x (4, 5, 6?) there will be allowed a multitude of ports available
    for the end user, with a total of number of 65536.  Be these serial,
    parallel or user, the protocol of manufacturer ID, placement, power
    drain and access methods all need to be set in stone... an important
    step toward true MULTI-USER status, especially if a windowed UNIX is to
    be supported. 
 
    In addition to the multiple ports issue, the idea of the TRANSPUTER was
    raised.  Now the Amiga, already a multi-tasking machine, lends itself
    well to the multi-processing stage of the transputer (I know this, but
    you know how to :whatever: it, here it is, send it back [fixed]; thanks
    so much)... Well, here we go again... ! 
 
    Gosh - this reporting bit is harder than I thought! 
 
    Well guys, I will finish Saturday's report tomorrow, and also the
    Sunday "chats" with Hardware, Software and Marketing people, as time
    and typing skills allow.... 
 
             ----------------------- EOF --------------------------
 
FileName: DevCon-2.Txt
 Created: 30-Apr-88 18:00
  Author: Charles Conlow (GEnie = C.CONLOW)
                         (CI$ = 74116,3067)
 
 
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
 
-- 
UUCP:  kim@amdahl.amdahl.com
  or:  {sun,decwrl,hplabs,pyramid,ihnp4,uunet,oliveb,cbosgd,ames}!amdahl!kim
DDD:   408-746-8462
USPS:  Amdahl Corp.  M/S 249,  1250 E. Arques Av,  Sunnyvale, CA 94086
CIS:   76535,25

    [Two more reports, lightly edited from Usenet.  -NWP]
    
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Path: decwrl!labrea!agate!pasteur!ames!necntc!dandelion!ulowell!page
Subject: Re: Reports from DevCon: days 1 & 2
Posted: 2 May 88 22:25:13 GMT
Organization: University of Lowell, Computer Science Dept.
 
kim@amdahl.uts.amdahl.com (Kim DeVaughn) wrote:
>[ Everything in this line may be wrong!    (with apologies to Richard Bach) ]
 
    Along with many things in the article.  Seems Mr. Conlow read the
    program and reported that.  Some things just didn't happen the way he
    reported them.  For example, Rob Peck wasn't there, and Dale wasn't
    part of the Copper talk, just JimM. 
 
    Some of my impressions, off the cuff: 
 
    The conference notes were about 3 inches thick, single sided. Loads of
    useful information. Everyone who was at Monterey (sp?) said this DevCon
    was a WHOLE LOT better. Dave Haynie showed up with a 68030 board for
    the A2000, and somebody ran the C64 emulator on it when he wasn't
    looking.  Called it the 64030.  :-) All companies there got a KS1.3
    ROM. Lots of companies were looking for Amiga programmers. 

    Leo ran an Anim that said "OS/2 ==> HALF-OS" ...  CBM let it run for a
    while :-)  After that, Leo ran his Stars program whevener somebody let
    him near a machine. Dave Haynie won the Usenet BOING award. Fred Fish
    won an award from CBM.  It was the first ever publicly presented
    "fatter Agnus".  Six other companies got them too (picked by lottery).
    Tom Rockiki tried to describe Breshnev's [really Bresenham's] line draw
    algorithm. Having failed that, he showed us his terrific error checking
    routine in BlitLab 1.3.
    
    At the USENET meeting: CBMers Lauren, DaveB, Dale, Bryce, George (grr),
    Dave (boinger) Haynie, SteveB (?) and maybe more (I didn't get a lot of
    sleep this past weekend, kids). Perry & Eric advanced the concept of
    Amiga Working Groups, sort of like technical steering committees to
    hammer out ideas.  Just about everybody liked the idea, including CBM.
    Randell Jesup was hired by CBM. Nobody wanted to talk much about IPC,
    multiple ports or the ultimate user interface.  Well, everybody wanted
    to, but didn't want to get into flame wars, ala USENET. Joanne Dow kept
    saying "Post it on BIX!  Post it on BIX!" Chuck McManis had a great
    Intuition programmer's library; showed you how to do everything.
    Commercial product. 

    During the "beyond 1.4" talk, about 6 presenters brought up ARexx. 

    Five disks were handed out: WB 1.3 gamma 7, WB Extras gamma 7, DevCon
    1, 2 & 3 examples source disks.  Hedley also gave out a disk on the
    A2024 monitor if you went to his talk. Translator.library is being
    rewritten for 1.4. Workbench is coming out of the ROMs for 1.4. FFS
    will be in ROM in 1.4. 

    Jim Goodnow of Manx, true to form, was playing with his compiler source
    (version 4.0) around 3am Saturday morning. He's got a flickerfixer too. 

    Leo suggested CBM throw away Exec/DOS and start over. SubLogic demanded
    CBM recode everything in assembler. 
 
    ...and many, many more things.  There were just loads of things going
    on, all at once.  Everyone will have their own recollections and things
    that stand out to them.  I think a good time was had by all! 
 
..Bob
-- 
Bob Page, U of Lowell CS Dept.  page@swan.ulowell.edu  ulowell!page

Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Path: decwrl!labrea!agate!pasteur!ames!ll-xn!oberon!pollux.usc.edu!papa
Subject: Re: Reports from DevCon: days 1 & 2
Posted: 3 May 88 06:01:37 GMT
Organization: Felsina Software, Los Angeles, CA
 
    Bob's recollection is pretty much close to reality, though I don't know
    whether what I am saying makes any sense since, as everybody else, I
    had 12 hours of sleep in 3 days.  The conference cost less than last
    time ($200 instead of $450) and general agreement is that we
    (developers) come back with more: more docs (nicely printed), more
    source code examples. One thing Bob did not mention are the Janus disks
    that RJ handed out that allow using the bridgecard to create a 976-type
    partyline :-) Dr. Henry Rubin, Commodore Chief Operating Officer,
    seemed to enjoy RJ's talk quite a lot. 
 
    There was talk of another devcon much sooner than 1 and 1/2 years from
    now. The IFF library meeting also got started.  I don't know if it will
    become one of the official Working Groups, but it is likely. Carolyn is
    handling that one. 
 
    The Addison-Wesley Manuals are going through a major revision by
    Carolyn and Nancy Rains. 
 
-- Marco 
uucp:...!pollux!papa       BIX:papa       ARPAnet:pollux!papa@oberon.usc.edu