@database "ar508.guide" @Node MAIN "Amiga Report Online Magazine #5.08 -- September 29, 1997" =========================================================================== September 29, 1997 @{" Turn the Page " link MENU} Issue No. 5.08 =========================================================================== ,a c4%&; 1%%%b 9%=~ " m; mmmm; nmm mmmmm .,pmq,. m; j#6 ##6 j### ### ,#'~ ~`g, j#6 ##&; ##&; #### ### ,#f `# ##&; jP##6 ###6 jP### ### .##' " jP##6 #'$#&; #$#&; #'### ### i## #'$#&; jP l##6 #l##6 jP ### ### &## jP l##6 #' $#&; # $#&;#' ### ### &## #' $#&; j#mmmd##6 # l##6P ### ### ?## mmmw j#mmmd##6 #' $#&; # $##' ### ### ##; $#$ #' $#&; jP l##6 # l#P ### ### `#l ,&#'jP l##6 #' ###mm # $' mm###mm mm###mm `#q,.,p#' #' ###mm (R) "~^~" &&&&q, , ,P `b d' tm d' ,P d&&&P ;P .,d' ,c&&q, &&&&q, ,c&&q, q&,e&q ;P' d&&&P ;P' `& d' `b ;P' `b dP~ `P d' ;P'`&; dB&&&&P ;P ,P d' P ;P ;P d' `&; &, , d' .,d' &, .,d' d' d' , &&& &&'`&&&P' ;B&&&P' `&&&P' &&& `&P' d' ;P &&& "THE Online Source for Amiga Information!" Copyright 1997 FS Publications All Rights Reserved @endnode @node MENU "Amiga Report Main Menu" @toc MAIN Amiga Report 5.08 is sponsored in part by: @{" Amiga Informer Magazine " link AD1} The fastest-growing American print magazine @{" Catalyzer for ImageFX " link AD2} ImageFX is the engine. This is the Catalyzer. =========================================================================== == Main Menu == =========================================================================== @{" Editorial and Opinion " link OPINION} @{" Featured Articles " link FEATURE} @{" Reviews " link REVIEW} @{" News & Press Releases " link NEWS} @{" Aminet Charts " link FTP} @{" Reader Mail " link MAIL} --------------------------------- @{" About AMIGA REPORT " link ABOUT} @{" Dealer Directory " link DEALER} Contact Information and Copyrights Amiga Dealer Addresses and Numbers @{" Where to Get AR " link WHERE} @{" Advertisements " link COMMERCIAL} Mailing List & Distribution Sites Online Services, Dealers, Ordering ______________________________________________ // | | // ========//====| Amiga Report International Online Magazine |======//===== == \\// | Issue No. 5.08 September 29, 1997 | \\// == ==============| "THE Online Source for Amiga Information!" |============= |______________________________________________| @endnode @node JASON "Editor" @toc STAFF =========================================================================== EDITOR =========================================================================== Jason Compton ============= Internet Address -------- ------- jcompton@xnet.com 1203 Alexander Ave jcompton@amigazone.com Streamwood, IL 60107-3003 USA Fax Phone --- ----- 847-741-0689 847-733-0248 @endnode @node KATIE "Assistant Editor" @toc STAFF =========================================================================== == ASSISTANT EDITOR == =========================================================================== Katherine Nelson ================ Internet -------- kati@nwu.edu @endnode @node KEN "Games Editor" @toc STAFF =========================================================================== == GAMES EDITOR == =========================================================================== Ken Anderson ============ Internet Address -------- ------- kend@dhp.com 44 Scotland Drive ka@protec.demon.co.uk Dunfermline Fife KY12 7TD Scotland @endnode @node WILLIAM "Contributing Editor" @toc STAFF =========================================================================== CONTRIBUTING EDITOR =========================================================================== William Near ============ Internet -------- wnear@epix.net @endnode @node BOHUS "Contributing Editor" @toc STAFF =========================================================================== CONTRIBUTING EDITOR =========================================================================== Bohus Blahut - Modern Filmmaker =============================== Internet -------- bohus@xnet.com @endnode @node EDITORIAL "compt.sys.editor.desk" @toc OPINION =========================================================================== compt.sys.editor.desk By: @{" Jason Compton " link JASON} =========================================================================== Ahhh! Finally. Work on this issue is finally coming to an end. And yes, it's been a long time since we put out 5.07, although I must say that most of you showed considerable restraint in not mailing me -too- much about it. A lot of work went into getting this issue ready for the new graphical HTML format we'll be moving to. That's right. Amiga Report has finally made the switch. Initially, we had thought we could maintain both an AmigaGuide and an HTML version of the magazine, but now that we've seen the result of the HTML version (which, if you're reading the AmigaGuide version shortly after its release, will be available in a few days), we've realized these things. 1. HTML lets us do a lot more with Amiga Report. 2. HTML lets us make Amiga Report look a lot better. 3. Trying to maintain both an AmigaGuide and an HTML version would be nearly impossible on anything resembling our current schedule. For these reasons, Amiga Report in AmigaGuide is a lame duck. We'll do one, perhaps two more issues in .guide format, and thereafter switch fully to HTML. For the time being, the HTML version will be available on Aminet and through participating web sites. Once the switch is made, however, we'll use the Amiga Report mailing list at majordomo@ninemoons.com (the "areport" list) to distribute HTML Amiga Report. Because HTML tends to be larger, and because we'll be able to include pictures much more readily, the magazine will be split up into multiple archives, logically ordered (a text archive, and various graphical archives as needed). There are a minority of readers who cannot even read AmigaGuide but struggle through reading the magazine as text. To these readers, a switch to HTML means a slightly higher level of inconvenience because the magazine will be in multiple text files instead of just one large .guide file. There is another minority of readers who do not have an HTML browser. My advice? Get one, they're easy to find and run on virtually any Amiga configuration put together since 1989. Your browsing mileage may vary, of course (Amiga Report in HTML has been IBrowse optimized but looks quite good on other Amiga and non-Amiga browsers), but AWeb, Voyager, and IBrowse demos are all over the place--online, on shareware and magazine CD-ROMs, even on commercial CDs as front ends. Check out AR 5.08 in HTML when released and we hope you'll agree with our decision. A lot has gone on besides just switching over to HTML. Last issue, I was about to leave on a trip--to Gateway HQ, where I participated for a few days in discussions with new Amiga, Inc. GM Jeff Schindler, his skeleton staff, and the directors of the ICOA (or Open Amiga for "short".) Petro was there as well. Most of what went on was friendly talk and just getting acquainted--there was of course some mutual brain picking going on, as Amiga Inc. wanted to know what market insiders and well-known luminaries like Andy Finkel thought about the Amiga market, while we all hammered at them trying to find out what their plans were. As of today, Amiga, Inc. has not been able to hire many employees--partially due to a company policy imposed by Gateway requiring them to fill upper management positions first before fleshing out their larger engineering and marketing staffs. It may seem somewhat disappointing, but I was greatly inspired by the drive and level head with which Schindler is approaching the situation. For now, cooler heads need to prevail and these guys need a chance to get up and running before TOO much judgement has passed. They have made some attempts at a public presence--Petro is flying around making personal appearances, and new moving target PR man Darreck Lisle has made some stops in the US as well. What they've said so far is largely general--no spec sheets are being handed out. But they will be at the early November Midwest Amiga Expo as well as the large Cologne Computer '97 expo. By then, perhaps we'll hear a bit more. -Jason PS: It looks like I'll be at the Midwest Amiga Exposition, along with Assistant Editor Katherine Nelson and our partners from Legacy Maker. Hope to see some of you there! @endnode @node COMMERCIAL "Commercial Products" @toc MENU =========================================================================== Commercial Products =========================================================================== @{" Catalyzer for ImageFX " link AD2} ImageFX Tutorial Videotape @{" Amiga Informer Magazine " link AD1} The USA's fastest growing magazine @{" CalWeb " link ZONE} The new home of the Amiga Zone --------------------------------------------------------------------------- @{" News " link NEWS} @{" Opinion " link OPINION} @{" Articles " link FEATURE} @{" Reviews " link REVIEW} @{" Charts " link FTP} @{" Adverts " link COMMERCIAL} @endnode @node AD1 "The Amiga Informer Magazine" @toc COMMERCIAL I hope you had a chance to have a look at issue 9 of The Amiga Informer. It was our largest issue to date and contained over eight main news stories, fifteen news bytes and product announcements, sixteen reviews and summaries, and, of course, our usual informative columns. At The Informer, we have a unique way of bringing you information. Through our network of internationally connected correspondents, we are able to gather information as it happens and often we get inside reports directly from the source. Unlike some publications, we don't just reprint press releases that are posted to the internet, but instead investigate and research our stories and provide you with a commentary view of the events happening in the Amiga world. We have an innovative approach to bringing you this information too. Unique among Amiga publications, The Informer provides our readers with both a detailed and professional print magazine, and a comprehensive website where readers can enjoy current and past articles and columns. The website provides instant links to the web sites and email addresses of both our advertisers and the Contacts listed within those articles. In addition, our subscribers get regular news reports sent directly to their email address, courtesy of Amiga Update Newsletter. By taking advantage of the power of the internet and the expediency of electronic correspondence, we are able to provide our readers with the latest and most comprehensive reporting available to Amiga enthusiast. The Informer also provides a means for the small developer or vendor to reach the Amiga community. By printing our magazine in grayscale instead of a full color glossy format, we are able to maintain affordable subscription and advertising rates. This gives small companies a chance to advertise and let readers see just what products are available in the market today. We also give a voice to the development community by offering them free announcements for their new products and upgrades and providing a web-based Developers Forum where developers can air their views on matters of interest to the entire Amiga community. The combination of these and other services are what is making The Informer the fastest growing Amiga print publication in North America. By listening to the suggestions of our readers, and keeping our fingers on the pulse of the world-wide Amiga community, we will continue to provide our readers with the most comprehensive and informative Amiga publication available. You can purchase the latest copy of The Amiga Informer from one of the following retailers: AV Solutions, St. Paul, MN Commodore Country, Burleson, TX Computer Advantage, Johnston, IA Digital Arts, Bloomington, IN GfxBase, LaSalle, QC JW's Lil Shoppe, Walla Walla, WA Maxximum Video, Boise, ID National Amiga, London, ON Sixty-four and More, El Cajon, CA Systems For Tomorrow, Independence, MO The Lively Computer, La Mesa, CA Turtle Lightning, Midland, TX Wonder Computers, Ottawa, ON Or you can subscribe by calling our toll free order line at: 1-888-88-AMIGA (888-882-6442) 1-914-566-4665 for orders outside of the US or Canada Rates for a six issue, one year subscription are: $15 for US subscribers $18 for Canadian subscribers $28 for all other subscribers Visit our website at www.amigainformer.com for a look at what we offer. You can try our on-line, no risk, no obligation subscription offer at www.amigainformer.com/subscribe.cgi (sorry, this can only be offered to US and Canadian addresses). Thanks for your support, Fletcher Haug, Editor PO Box 21 Newburgh, NY 12551-0021 eldritch@mhv.net Phone/fax: 914-566-4665 @endnode @node AD2 "Catalyzer: Tutorial Video for ImageFX" @toc COMMERCIAL Starting in November, Legacy Maker is going to put ImageFX in a whole new light. ImageFX is the engine. Your Amiga's tank is full of gas. This tape is the Catalyzer. Catalyzer is a project-based approach to learning how to create professional-looking effects with one of the Amiga's most powerful tools. Hosted by Bohus Blahut, the man responsible for Nova Design's latest ImageFX demonstration tape, Catalyzer explores the limit of ImageFX's capabilities to put you in control. For more information, contact Legacy Maker at 773-465-5158. Catalyzer is $39.95 plus shipping. Availability is expected for the Midwest Amiga Exposition show. @endnode @node MAIL "Reader Mail" @toc MENU =========================================================================== Reader Mail =========================================================================== Ardell Broussard (Ardellb@concentric.net) comments: I found an AmigaGuide viewer for those Amiga users out there that have (temporarily) left the Amiga for MS-Doze... I just can't remember where I found it... It's called AGV...(AmigaGuide Viewer - original name eh?) I don't have any docs on it but I found it on the WWW (somewhere...) - Mr. Broussard followed this up with the executable. I'll see what I can do about making it more readily available. It's ironic, though, that this came through so short to our cancellation of the AmigaGuide version of Amiga Report... -Jason --- --- --- --- --- From: "James Sellman" Subject: Amigas in Sri Lanka In the current issue of AR, a poor Amiga enthusiast from Sri Lanka asks for help in getting Amiga-related materials in his decided un-Amigan country. While unfortunately I live nowhere near Sri Lanka and cannot help him, I should point out that one of the Amiga's more famous promoters, Arthur C. Clarke, DOES happen to live in Sri Lanka. I wonder where he got his equipment? --- --- --- --- --- From: "Todd A. Oberly" To: dhaslup@erols.com CC: jcompton@xnet.com Subject: Migraph Dear DeWilton, > comments: I am writing because I have a MS2400 Migraph Flatbed Scanner and > recently had a reason to scan slides. When I purchased the scanner Migraph > had an attachement that allowed the scanning of transparencies. > > My question is does Migraph still exist? There phone has > been disconnected and I can't get a new listing from > directory assistance. > > Do you have any idea where I might find one of these attachments? I just read your letter in Amiga Report this morning. Unfortunately I can't help you with locating the transparency attachment, but I can confirm Migraph's fate. Back in December I tried contacting them to get an update to their Touch-Up software, but to no avail. So I then proceeded to mail each of their 3 or 4 last known addresses. All but one was returned, and that letter went to a Post Office Box. AFAIK that relies on the cooperation of the (current?) boxholder. So I then decided to contact City Hall in Federal Way, WA, who plainly told me that Migraph had not renewed theit business license for 1997. So they chose to quietly slip away. I've never seen any of their hardware first-hand, but would be surprised if they didn't just choose generic scanners made in the Far East and put their name on it. I have seen hand scanners for several different platforms, and this would appear to often be the case. So my guess is that some company out there sells an attachment that will work for you. Hopefully somebody can give you a more concrete answer, but failing that, I would start making enquiries. And if all else fails, I have the name (and possible address) of the owner. Sincerely, Todd Oberly --- --- --- --- --- From: Enrique OrtegÓn Moreno (rfp05000@inter.net.co) comments: Hello Mr. Compton. I know the Amiga Computer since 1988 and get a A1200 in august of 1993. This computer is "sensacional", "la berraquera" this the principal expresion to this platform. My machine A1200 had accelerator Microbotics, with MMu and FPU and 50MHZ, sound, video and conection to Internet. I lost my A1200, because the "ladrones" in spanish, get into my house and get us all my home: TV, A1200, CDTV, VHS, bicyclet, radio, "joyas", and so on. This ocurred in jun 27 of 1996. Today i buy another A1200, with HD 80MB, Accelerator GVP, monitor Comm. 1084, MMU, FPU and Midi Interfece. I have an PC Computer Premium. But A1200 is very nice. I work in Servicio Nacional de Aprendizaje, SENA. in Santafé de Bogotá, Colombia South America. My Entity is a public service to prepared the workers. We are 9,000 employees. 4,500 of they are teachers an instructor of diferents materias or especialities. Sena is the only public service for the poor people. The working student has much necesities and the only site to study is Sena Entity. In relation to Amiga report I have collected Amiga Report from 201 through 507. Your magazine is very important. The Colombians Amigans are "preocupados por" the Amiga future. Gateway 2000 not decided nothing. I have in my computer IBrowse v1.0 and tomorrow will have IBrowse 1.12a. Excuse me my bad English. Thank you. Felicitacions from Amiga Report. A Colombian Amigan. - It's really rewarding to hear from readers so diverse from across the globe. Sorry to hear about the loss of so much of your equipment. -Jason --- --- --- --- --- From: Per Jonsson Subject: For next AR, readers section.. Hi! I have now for about one year waited for a sign of an eventually new version of Magic Workbench. I'm still waiting... Reference: ----8<---from http://www.sasg.com/mwb/future.html --- The test extends over the coming months. The amount of new-registered users in this test period will be decisive of the future of MagicWB and if I will continue my work on it. If the amount of registrations within this period is not going to improve I will interpret this as a "no" to any further development of MagicWB and will eventually have to stop this project (as much as I would regret it). ----8<--------------------------------------- This test Martin is talking about have been almost a year now... (1st of August 96?) I wonder when it will end? As with the Amiga situation today only time will tell.. Regards Per Jonsson --- --- --- --- --- From: MORNE GELDENHUYS (ERIC@SMARTNET.CO.ZA) comments: Is Amiga dead or not? When is Gateway releasing the new Amiga range is there such a range and is there any hope of South-Africa getting some Amiga stores or support. My A1200 BLEW UP by lightning and no one can fix it. Give us some news on the net of what is happening. - No, the Amiga is not dead. It's too soon to tell when Amiga, Inc. could release a new line of Amigas or even what is feasible to put in such a computer. As far as South Africa gaining substantial Amiga support, in the short run I would imagine that would have to be market driven, although it would be nice to see a world-class service organization develop over time. -Jason --- --- --- --- --- From: Chad Freeman (chadf@sgi.net) comments: Wow, Amiga Report still kicking! I am glad to see you do not have archived my inauspicious publishing debut with A.M.I.G.A. :-). Sadly, I jumped the Amiga ship about 3 years ago now, and have been paying for it since through Windows 95/DirectX programming hell. You don't know how I've wished for sanity in an operating system! I do still have my trusty A1200, languishing away under the bed, but there nonetheless. Anyway, just wanted to say I hope you have continued success with the mag, and I expect you to still be here 3 years from now when I check in again (and the Amiga will be owned by Wal-Mart or some such nonsense) :-) Chad Freeman, former Amiga Report anarchist - Something must be in the air, I keep getting e-mail from former Amiga Report editors and contributors! -Jason @endnode xxx opinion @node OPINION1 "The Evolution Of The Icon" @toc OPINION =========================================================================== The evolution of the Icon Eric Sauvageau merlin@thule.no =========================================================================== [Eric Sauvageau is the current author and maintainer of NewIcons, which recently released Version 4. As someone who is deeply involved with the look and feel of Amiga desktops, he can be considered an expert. He is, of course, somewhat biased by his experience, but his insight is worth reading. -Jason] Workbench85 ----------- One of the things in which Commodore never did much work was probably the icon part of Workbench. Be it the icon engine itself, or the look of the system icons, Commodore seemed to have always worried about the ridiculously-low-end part of things by keeping their icons 4 colors--with a no-frill engine to handle them. Fast but boring. Basically, icon imagery is nothing but actual bitplane data stored in an image structure, with no color information. All that is stored is information that some pixels will use whatever color is first in the screen's color map (Color0), other pixels will use the next color, and so on. This means the icon will use whatever colors the system palette is set to, preventing the use of any color scheme in icons for easy recognition. Thus, an icon which is supposed to show the Canadian flag (red and white) might very well come up as gray and green. Workbench 2.04 - Things are getting better... Are they? -------------------------------------------------------- With Release 2 of the OS, Commodore did a complete overhaul of the GUI. A new 3D look was defined for windows and gadgets. This was also applied to icons--they were turned into large buttons that would recess as you clicked on them. While this provided a very useful visual feedback, this kinda hindered artistic efforts - you had to do something that would look nice while surrounded with a gray box. You couldn't get rid of it. As for the icon look itself, not much was done to improve the look. It was mostly left to flat black & white pictograms. A little Magic on your Workbench -------------------------------- The first real effort toward improving things came probably through MagicWB. It defined an 8-color standard palette (quite an improvement over the CBM 4-color scheme), as well as more a intricate icon design. It quickly became popular, and soon hundreds of icons using the MagicWB style started to appear. However, the palette engine used by Workbench and icon.library was still a problem. A small patch was written to ensure that the 8 standard colors would be locked, preventing applications from changing them. So, you were sure your MagicWB icons would always use the same colors on any system running that pen locker. For quite a few years, people were content with it. Newer and better ---------------- The second attempt at improving things came out as NewIcons, from Nicola Salmoria. NewIcons's revolution was that it wasn't just an attempt at changing the look - it was also an attempt at improving the actual icon engine, by allowing a palette (up to 256 colors) to be embedded within each icon, which would be dynamically remapped as it was displayed. The drastic improvement over the original palette-less icon scheme was to allow more colorful icons to be used, without having the user worrying about what color to lock in his or her Workbench palette. The new engine (supplied as a library and a system patch) was shipped with a 16-color isometric iconset, bringing a whole new look to the Workbench. However, the silly gray boxes were still there. There was also a price to pay--more colorful icons meant higher memory requirements, and the actual remapping process slowed down icon display quite a bit as well. Today, we might find this irrelevant as we're flying with 24-bits cards and 68060, but back to these days (around 1993), the average user was still using ECS or AGA, on a 68020 or 68030. The new Ring Bearer ------------------- Just after the release of NewIconsV2, Nicola decided to pass the torch to new developers as he migrated to another computer platform. Eric Sauvageau and Philip Vedovatti decided to take over, respectively as programmer and icon artist (former icon art was being done by Roger McVey). Work began on a major update that would push it even further. V3 finaly came out, with a welcomed surprise: gone were the gray boxes surrounding icons! Also, as people started to get faster CPUs and better graphic cards, they started to want something more colorful for their Workbench, NewIcons grew in popularity. V3 also allowed graphics card owners to have icons loaded into FastRAM instead of the slower (and limited to 2 MB max) ChipRAM. Better, Stronger, Faster ------------------------ About one year later, another incarnation of NewIcons appeared, as Version 4 was released. As 68060 and graphics cards had become popular, the included iconset got redesigned in 32 color. Also, gray boxes were totally eliminated, as icon dragging is now also box-free. It also allowed the user to select between normal, outlined or shadowed rendering for the icon's text, allowing even more freedom in Workbench look customization. And finally, it was also faster than V3. icon.library - The Next Generation ---------------------------------- There is no doubt that something must be done about the icon scheme in a future update to AmigaOS. The first thing that needs to be addressed is the need for screen palette independant icons - having each icons decide which colors it requires, just like NewIcons does. However, NewIcons itself isn't a long-term solution. NewIcons was designed as a patch over the old icon scheme, compromising in various areas to allow full backward compatibility, like having its new image data stored in the tooltypes. And with modern graphics cards, 256 colors for icons is no longer enough. The icon palette would need to be extended to at least 16 bits, with true transparency support. Other features missing from the actual icon scheme is support for alternate imageries. How about less colorful images for systems with less color? Or with the advent of more powerful processors, dynamic rescaling so icons would adapt to the aspect ratio of the actual display could even become a realistic feature. Another feature popular on other platforms is the presence of an alternate, smaller image that can be used as a pictogram either in an application launcher or in some text display of a directory, like a file requester. Finally, some form of filetype recognition needs to be integrated to the Workbench. This could be implemented as a "filetype" field stored into the icon, which would take further the idea of a "default tool", where a user could change the default tool for a given file type through some global preference editor, rather than having to individually change every icon for a given filetype. This would eliminate the chaos of every programmer finding another new esoteric text viewer to set as the default tool for their documentation icon, ruining the idea of saving the actual user the work of having to decide what to use as he double-clicks on its icon. Who shall lead the herd to greener pasture? ------------------------------------------- Third party developers pushed farther the unfinished task Commodore had started in 1985 by bringing to the user a graphical user interface that was meant to be both easy in use and attractive. They took care of the aesthetic side of things that Commodore had somewhat failed to assert. Now, it's time to give back the torch to whomever at Amiga, Inc. will be working on the next version of AmigaOS, so they can take things one major step further ahead, farther than third parties could by just patching over an OS and an icon system that's starting to show its age. @endnode xxx news @node NEWS1 "Amiga Report Format Change" @toc NEWS As some of you will notice already, Amiga Report has made its long-awaited shift to a graphical HTML version. When first announced at the beginning of the year, it was thought that the Amiga Report editorial staff would be able to continue producing simultaneous AmigaGuide and HTML versions of the magazine. However, due to the work required, and the amount of pride we have in the new HTML appearance, this will not be the case. 1997 will be the last year in which an AmigaGuide Amiga Report will be produced. This is not a decision we make lightly, but these factors helped us make our decision: 1. The HTML version looks much better than the AmigaGuide, and more easily allows us to present information (including better tables, picture integration, and other enhancements) in a much more pleasing form. 2. The vast majority of input we've had about the appearance of Amiga Report encouraged an HTML version wholeheartedly. 3. Any Amiga with a configuration even approaching "modern" is capable of running a minimal HTML browser. Demo versions, some with surprisingly few limitations, are available free. Magazines give them away on their CD-ROMs like crazy. They are, in short, not difficult to find. 4. For the small percentage of AR readers who have access to neither an AmigaGuide reader or an HTML online viewer (for the current text-only HTML conversion), it would seem that the inconvenience of reading the magazine in HTML is only slightly more than the inconvenience of reading an AmigaGuide file as plain text. 5. Amiga Report's release schedule has not been very commendable over the past year. We know this. Requiring us to produce two different versions on two totally different design paradigms would make matters worse. (In AmigaGuide, the tendency is to squash many files into one. In HTML, the idea is to make as many things independent files as possible. This is inconvenient for making two versions from the same source material.) We hope that you will be understanding about this change, and that this advance warning will allow the minority sector of readers without HTML viewers to seek one out before the permanent change is made. The Amiga Report mailing list will distribute AR HTML as a series of files, due to the restraint many systems impose on incoming mail. Most likely, AR will be distributed as an archive of text-only files, with graphical archives following. The archive to be placed on Aminet will of course contain all the necessary files in one .lha file, since the restriction is not the same. We hope all of you will be as excited by the new Amiga Report as we are. For as long as the AmigaGuide version lasts, the mailing list will be used exclusively for the AmigaGuide version--the HTML versions can be obtained from Aminet or other participating distribution sites. Jason Compton Editor in Chief, Amiga Report @endnode @node NEWS2 "Power Solutions" @toc NEWS Power Solutions acquires world wide distribution rights for Distant Suns Winnipeg, MB, August 1, 1997 - Power Solutions has reached agreement with Chaocity to acquire world wide distribution rights for Distant Suns. NTSC and PAL OEM versions of the CD-Rom are available, as well as a floppy disk version. All versions are aggressively priced at $27.75 CAD. Dealer and distribution inquiries are encouraged. Distant Suns is a "Desktop Planetarium", which has won many awards in the past. Power Solutions is a new, Amiga only, Canadian company. http://www.powersolutions.mb.ca info@powersolutions.mb.ca 1-204-453-0527 ABOUT DISTANT SUNS Distant Suns is a virtual planetarium, like having a high powered telescope on your desktop. With Distant Suns, you can display up to 10,000 stars and galaxies, nebula and star clusters. Comes with 25 full screen images and over 200 smaller deep sky images. Displays images in 256 colours on machines with AGA compatability. Animate planets, asteroids and comets as they travel around the sun. @endnode @node NEWS3 "TimeString.mcc" @toc NEWS TITLE TimeString.mcc VERSION 12.3 RELEASE DATE 14.08.1997 AUTHOR Kai Hofmann i07m@informatik.uni-bremen.de http://home.pages.de/~i07m/ DESCRIPTION TimeString is a Custom Class of the Magic User Interface by Stefan Stuntz. It's a subclass of string-class and time-class. TimeString is an MUI public custom class that displays a string gadget for time strings. The display format of the time string can be freely defined. An input string can be parsed by the given format string, or in various standard formates. TimeString.mcc features that are of interest for users: - Can be dragged around - Accepts drops of other Time.mcc objects. - Handles daylight savings time - Handles time zones - Supports 12h and 24h clocks - Supports various string formats TimeString.mcc features of interest for developers: - Based on Time.mcc - Supports MUIM_Import and MUIM_Export - The time can be read in hour/minutes/seconds format or as seconds from midnight on - The time range can be restricted - so the user can only input time that lies within his/her working time - It's possible to notify a Date.mcc object when the next or previous day was reached - Method to set the current time - Methods for increasing and decreasing the time - Method to compare with another time object NEW FEATURES - Added AmigaGuide V40 features to the documentation - Added "Please rate" section to the documentation - Added MagicWB readme - Compiled with MCCLib 12.2 - MCC-Install 43.21 - Now based on Time.mcc 12.3 - MUIA_String_Contents will now be filtered - Improved demo SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS MUI 3.1 date.library 33.278 (included) locale.library AVAILABILITY http://home.pages.de/~i07m/amiga/mui/TimeString.html ftp://wuarchive.wustl.edu/pub/aminet/dev/mui/MCC_TimeString.lha And all other Aminet sites. PRICE For NON-COMMERCIAL USE this is giftware! (Non-commercial includes giftware and shareware!) Permission for COMMERCIAL USE is only given by an extra available commercial license that must be validated! Contact me directly for this license, because it will be individually handed out per your needs. Please send me a full version of your product at no cost including free updates. DISTRIBUTION Permission is hereby granted, without written agreement and without license or royalty fees, to copy and distribute this software and its documentation for any purpose, provided that the copyright notice and the following paragraphs appear in all copies of this software, to: - All who will distribute this software for free - All free accessible Internet servers - All Aminet sites - Fred Fish for his great Amiga software library - The German SAAR AG PD-Library - Angela Schmidt's Meeting Pearls series - All others who do NOT take more than US$ 5.- for one disk that includes this software This package may not be included on any further Aminet CD-ROMs unless authors contributing their software to the CD-ROM, (without mentioning distribution "NoCD") are granted a copy of the CD free of charge. @endnode @node NEWS4 "DanNews 1.6" @toc NEWS TITLE DanNews 1.6 AUTHOR Tim Corringham Ramjam Consultants Ltd http://www.ramjam.demon.co.uk/ mailto:support@ramjam.demon.co.uk DESCRIPTION DanNews is a NNTP news unbatcher. It is much faster than RNews, and can cope with relatively small amounts of free memory. NEW FEATURES DanNews 1.6 copes even better than DanNews 1.5 with corrupt news batch files (corrupt news batch files commonly result from dropped connections to newsservers). SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS DanNews requires Kickstart 2 or later, and a news set up which stores news articles in UUNEWS: AVAILABILITY The most recent version of DanNews is always available from: http://www.ramjam.demon.co.uk/software/DanNews.lha (21318) or via e-mail to support@ramjam.demon.co.uk PRICE DanNews is FREE! DISTRIBUTION DanNews 1.6 is Copyright (c) 1997 by Ramjam Consultants Ltd. It may be distributed without charge for non-commercial use. There is no requirement to register its use, but anyone who does so will be kept informed of future updates. @endnode @node NEWS5 "Dice C Source" @toc NEWS From Matt Dillon and Obvious Implementations Corporation (OIC): I have finally found the time to release the source to the DICE compiler. It's pretty much as-is, I'm sorry to say, but still a pretty good piece of work even now. The release is roughly equivalent to the last commercial release that we (OIC) did. The core source will compile on the Amiga and can also be compiled on most UNIX platforms. It generates 68000 output and all files are output in the amiga's binary, object, and library file formats. Embedded 68000 support is included, which is basically what I use it for these days. Sources for the complete system: dcc, dcpp, dc1, das, dlink, and dobj have been released along with a bunch of other stuff. Since I still use DICE for embedded hardware projects, it isn't *totally* obsolete. The code should easily compile on an Amiga or a FreeBSD box and ought to compile reasonably well on other UNIX boxes. The code can be retrieved from the Obvious Implementations Corp. web site: http://www.obviously.com/ I haven't done much work on the Amiga recently. Some of you might have heard that I got caught up in an ISP startup . That was about 3 years ago and I've been working at it ever since. Thank god we don't have to deal with Microcruft NT. It's FreeBSD all the way. I'm doing mostly UNIX work these days... back to my root's, in fact, as I was using BSD 4.2 at UC Berkeley a couple of years before the Amiga came out. In anycase, DICE is probably my finest piece of code. I hope people get some use out of the core and libraries. -Matt @endnode @node NEWS6 "A Subtle Reminder from Sidewinder Productions" @toc NEWS Future Shock 2 (#SWP1969), the first 100% Amiga made electronic dance music CD album, is still available at a good price of $10. Certainly a must for your CD collection. Produced in 1994 by Sidewinder Productions on A500/A2000. Visit http://www.geocities.com/SunsetStrip/Palladium/1244/ for additional info Regards, Eric 'Sidewinder' Gieseke @endnode @node NEWS7 "Oliver Wagner Clears The Java-Filled Air" @toc NEWS Oliver Wagner is the one-man wrecking crew behind a number of Amiga internet utilities, most notably Voyager, the shareware HTML browser which more than once has been the first to offer new features, beating its commercial counterparts AWeb and IBrowse. Java and Javascript support have been mentioned for the browser in the near future. Below is Wagner's explanation of the situation, taken from the CU Amiga mailing list. To join CU's mailing list yourself, mail listserv@cu-amiga.co.uk with HELP in the body for a full list of commands and options. -------------- From Mr. Wagner: I've been working on the Javascript implementation for quite some time already; actually, all Voyager versions since 2.42 internally have the hooks to the Voyager_JS.VLIB plugin which contains the interpreter and object management parts (those were accidentally left active in 2.70, thus causing Voyager to complain about lack of this library upon hitting