Retro Commodore

COMPUTE!'s Beginner's Guide to the AMIGA Dan McNeill 95?eM~~!!Le~blications,lncl. One of the ABC Publishing Companies Greensboro, North Carolina The following have given permission to use quotations from copyrighted works: From The Old Patagonian Express by Paul Theroux. Copyright © 1979 Cape Cod Scriveners Company. Reproduced by permission of Houghton Mifflin Company. From Invisible Cities by !talo Calvino. Copyright © 1972 by Giulio Einaudi editore s.p.a.; translation copyright 1974 by Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Inc. Reprinted by permission of Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Inc. From On the Road by Jack Kerouac. Copyright © 1955, 1957 by Jack Kerouac; copy right renewed by Stella S. Kerouac. Reprinted by permission of the Sterling Lord Agency, Inc., and Viking Penguin, Inc. Copyright 1986, COMPUTE! Publications, Inc. All rights reserved Reproduction or translation of any part of this work beyond that permitted by Sections 107 and 108 of the United States Copyright Act without the permission of the copyright owner is unlawful. Printed in the United States of America 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 ISBN 0-87455-025-4 The author and publisher have made every effort in the preparation of this book to insure the ac curacy of the programs and information. However, the information and programs in this book are sold without warranty, either expressed or implied. Neither the author nor COMPUTE! Publica tions, Inc. will be liable for any damages caused or alleged to be caused directly, indirectly, in cidentally, or consequential1y by the programs or information in this book. The opinions expressed in this book are solely those of the author and are not necessarily those of' COMPUTE! Publications, Inc. COMPUTE! Publications, Inc., Post Office Box 5406, Greensboro, NC 27403, (919) 275-9809, is part of ABC Consumer Magazines, Inc., one of the ABC Publishing Companies, and is not associated with any manufacturer of personal computers. Amiga, AmigaDOS, Kickstart, and Workbench, are trademarks of Commodore-Amiga, Inc. IBM is a registered trademark of International Business Machines, Inc. Contents Foreword ......................................... v Preface .......................................... vii Part One. Getting Started .......................... 1 1. Commodore ................................... 3 2. A Tour of the Amiga ........................... 10 3. Setting Up .................................... 22 Part Two. The Hardware ......................... 33 4. The Universal Machine ......................... 35 5. Input: From Thought to Chip .................... 42 6. The CPU: The Headquarters of the Amiga ......... 63 7. Memory: The Amiga as Electronic Storehouse ...... 84 8. Output: The Amiga's Showcase ................. 102 Part Three. Software ............................ 123 9. The Software Pyramid ......................... 125 10. The Amiga Operating System ................... 138 11. Programming ................................ 147 12. Word Processing .............................. 157 13. Spreadsheets ................................. 165 14. Databases ................................... 172 15. Integration and Emulation ...................... 177 16. Games ...................................... 182 Part Four. Light and Sound ...................... 189 17. Behind the Screen .................. .. 191 18. Graphics Software ............................ 200 19. Music and Voice .............................. 209 Part Five. Communications ....................... 223 20. Modems and the World ........................ 225 21. The Other End of the Rainbow .................. 238 Conclusion . .. 251 Index .......................................... 253 Foreword Whether the Amiga is your first computer or you've moved up to it from another machine, COMPUTEt's Beginner's Guide to the Amiga will be a reliable companion to ease you on your way. First of all you'll learn how to set up the Amiga. Then you'll progress in easy, logical steps to an understanding of the machine's hardware. You'll see how to operate the system by using the keyboard, numeric keypad, mouse, and menus. Discussions of optional peripherals such as light pens, touch pads, and speech recognition devices will give you suggestions about expanding your basic system. And you'll learn about creating output for various types of monitors and printers. After this comprehensive grounding in the basics, COM PUTEt's Beginner's Guide to the Amiga examines all the soft ware available for the Amiga-word processors, spreadsheets, databases, graphics and music programs, and games. When you're ready to buy software, you'll find tips on evaluating your individual requirements that will help you avoid making mistakes. The Amiga's music and graphics really shine. Here, again, software is available that can turn you into an artist and change your Amiga into a music synthesizer. You'll take a look at some of the programs available for both the amateur and professional. Finally, with your Amiga you can branch out into the fas cinating world of telecommunications, accessing vast databases that contain information ranging from up-to-the-minute stock market information to complete encyclopedias. You'll be able to communicate by electronic mail and can even shop and bank electronically. When you and your Amiga have finished working for the day, you can tune into one of the bulletin boards and talk to new friends-electronically. Dan McNeill's conversational style and thorough de scriptions provide the reliable information that COMPUTE! books are known for. As you learn about this remarkable new machine, you'll gain the confidence to explore everything it can offer. v .. Preface he Amiga is one of the most fascinating computers ever T built, and this book is a guided tour of it. You'll see how it works, what it can do for you, and what you can do for it. You'll also receive tips on hardware and software, so you can talk to computer dealers without feeling they are leading the high-tech revolution. I've arranged the book in a rough chronological order. It begins with events that occurred before the Amiga appeared, and moves on to the items you'll encounter in approximately the sequence you'll encounter them. The story breaks down into five parts: 1. The background of Commodore, the essential contours of the Amiga, and the experience of setting up. 2. The hardware, including not only the computer, but acces sories like the printer and video display. 3. Software, the major types and the Amiga's potential for extending their powers. 4. Video and audio, two special realms in which the Amiga excels. 5. Telecommunications, or how to make the Amiga's screen a pipeline to the world. A few words before setting out: First, if you don't understand something, don't worry. You will. Second, I've tried to shield you as much as possible from jargon-that is, terms that are arid, pretentious, and even un pronounceable. The task is ultimately impossible. You can't talk about a machine like the Amiga without using a word like "interface," any more than you can talk about baseball with out mentioning RBIs or ERAs. In a way, learning the terminol ogy is learning the topic. Yet any sort of verbal underbrush is unfortunate, and particularly so in the field of computers. For the topic is fas cinating, and, despite its reputation for chrome-like im personality, very human. The people behind computers-the vii hardware engineers, programmers, entrepreneurs-have pro nounced personal qualities, and their creations may have wit, charm, and grace. The Amiga is ultimately a machine, but you may find yourself speaking of it, or to it, in rather human terms. Welcome to this book. Acknowledgments The author would like to thank: Paul Freiberger, for unstinting aid and encouragement along the way; Phillip Robinson, for expert advice graciously given; Gene Beisman, for generous technical comments, and for the emergency loan of a monitor; David Leon, Jeanne Polevoi, and So ames, for contributing a subtext invisible to the reader; and Stephen Levy, my editor at COMPUTE!, for guiding this book into print with special care and frictionless efficiency. Dedication To Rosalind Gold viii Commodore wo years ago, the idea that Commodore might launch a T state-of-the-art computer upon the world would have seemed pretty farfetched. The company made serviceable, in expensive machines and sold them in bulk, in department stores. Its unofficial motto-"We make computers for the masses, not the classes" -almost ridiculed the high-end market. Now it has the Amiga, a machine with features so ad vanced that you'd have to buy several expensive computers to match it. You might approach its basic business capacity with the upscale IBM PC AT, but to equal its graphics you'd need at least a $10,000 computer, and to exceed its sound you'd need a good Moog synthesizer. The emergence of this computer signals a dramatic change in the nature of Commodore, and behind it lies a fascinating tale about the American Dream. But there are reasons beyond dramatic interest to know about this company. A food proces sor or a vacuum cleaner can stem from spontaneous genera tion, at least as far as you're concerned. But a computer has both a background and a future. It comes from a particular maker, which offers ongoing support for it. Commodore al ready sells hardware and software compatible with the Amiga, and should offer periodic upgrades. So you do not leave Com modore behind in the computer store the day you bring the Amiga home. It's always there, hovering invisibly, occa sionally emerging into light, and it's thus worth knowing about. The Legacy: Jack Tramiel The story begins with World War II. In 1939, the Polish city of Lodz had 200,000 Jews. One of them was Jack Tramiel, then twelve years old. After the Nazi blitzkrieg, he labored on road gangs-it was one way to get food-and he claims he helped build the Autobahn. In 1944, the invaders shipped him to concentration camps, first Ausch witz, then Bergen-Belsen. At the war's end, he was one of 970 Jews from Lodz still alive. 3 CHAPTER ONE Tramiel arrived in the United States in 1947 with only five years of formal education.

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