Amiga Coding WIKI

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Spellcoder
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Amiga Coding WIKI

Post by Spellcoder »

Halfway september I started with a project:
Amiga Coding WIKI ( http://www.amigacoding.com )

On this website I hope to gather knowledge for programming on the Amiga. This is not limited to one language, nor is it aiming for only beginners or experts. I hope to get more people interested in writing on this WIKI.


To get the project started I've started to write articles about AMOS and 680x0 assembler.

Because this month the AMOS-list is 15 years old, I've focused my energy on the AMOS part!! In honour of the 15th birthday I've added all
articles from the AMOSPro Help System to the Amiga Coding WIKI. This are about 900+ articles, mostly comprising of info on the 700+ instructions AMOSPro V2 knows.

Additionally it's now possible to get an @amigacoding.com email address. More info about that can be found on the website.


Anyway if anyone is willing to contribute to this project: you only need to register an account and you can start to edit.
SPeLLCoDER (_NiCeGuY_)

Zeb
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Post by Zeb »

Hey, I really like that site!

I also love the clean layout - smooth!!!

I've got knowledge of programming the Amiga for quite a few years in assembler, Amiga E, HighSpeed Pascal, PCQ Pascal, AmigaBASIC, HighSoft BASIC and I also rember buying an extension library for AmigaBASIC in the form of .library files.

I did dabble in others including AMOS but didn't last long with it as I really didn't like the interface and the chunky bulky code it produced. The way programs had to open on their own screen and not in a Workbench window. The file requesters had that annoying trait of making the mouse pointer invisible if you moved it out of the requester area. There were many things I didn't like about it.

I'd love to contribute to it but I really can't commit myself for many reasons - mainly because I have a very, very, very bad habit of starting things and losing interest half way through - just wanting to be honest. Some things I get a real ultimate driving force, plough into things and get stuck.

My last project I got stuck on was a program in Amiga assembler which I got inspired to write after meeting BuZz at Sundown. I've written the entire GUI, eror routines and the only thing left is the routine to convert ILBM files to PCHG palettes. I got stuck on understanding the PCHG structure and the project got put on hold.

I stopped coding when I changed to PC as I felt programming was for anyone and real coders were few and far between. There's no need now to understand how the computer was running as VB or C++ does everything for you - too much in fact.

I'm also extremely interested in seeing how the site pans out in the future as it certainly seems like it can go somewhere and after all, it's such a damn shame to see so much programming history of the Amiga become lost. It'd be great to see it preserved.

EDIT: Just been browsing and there's a typo "exapnsion" on the AmigaDOS error codes page.

Wow, does that lot take me back! I've found sites I never knew existed and have bookmarked. I think there's another error (I think) regarding AmigaDOS error code 103, I think it should read "Insufficient Free Store" but I'm not completely sure.

I've got a load of source I would love to submit (680x0 assembler, HS Pascal and Amiga E) if you want it? Some new CLI commands as well as a few utilities...

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BuZz
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Post by BuZz »

It is a nice idea, and a good resource, well done.
Are you aware though of the new exotica site ? It might be an ideal place for this, and would save having two projects, but i understand totally if you want to run your own thing. btw we are also based on mediawiki

http://dev.exotica.org.uk - 3 year in the making - but will be live soon, really, or xtc will cut off my balls.

Zeb
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Post by Zeb »

BuZz wrote:or xtc will cut off my balls.
:shock:

He wouldn't... would he... ?

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BuZz
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Post by BuZz »

Naaah. He will just whinge. I shouldn't post on forums when drunk ;-)

Spellcoder
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Post by Spellcoder »

Zeb wrote:Hey, I really like that site!

I also love the clean layout - smooth!!!
:D Thanks.
I've got knowledge of programming the Amiga for quite a few years in assembler, Amiga E, HighSpeed Pascal, PCQ Pascal, AmigaBASIC, HighSoft BASIC and I also rember buying an extension library for AmigaBASIC in the form of .library files.
Do you have more info about that extension library for AmigaBASIC ?
I don't think there's much information about AmigaBASIC online, since most people switched to other languages/basic's before the WWW existed. (maybe there's some info on older archives like Fish disks and newsgroups though)
The way programs had to open on their own screen and not in a Workbench window.
Yep, one of the downsides of AMOS :(
There were extensions to open normal intuition windows, don't know how good they were (one of them was expensive too).
I'd love to contribute to it but I really can't commit myself for many reasons - mainly because I have a very, very, very bad habit of starting things and losing interest half way through
I used to not finish a lot of projects too. So nowadays I tend to keep my mouth shut about large plans until I actually got something to show.

The new thing about a WIKI is you can allways add some small things or do some updates. If you got some larger plans you can allways first edit large articles in a textfile. Or start an article on the WIKI without linking to it on the mainpage.
To do that either use your userpage (click on your accountname in the top-right menu when logged in) to create links to your unfinished pages. Or type the name for your page in the search and instead of clicking a result, click on 'create this page'.
I've written the entire GUI, eror routines and the only thing left is the routine to convert ILBM files to PCHG palettes. I got stuck on understanding the PCHG structure and the project got put on hold.
Nice :). Reminds me of the 24 bit pictures to HAM8 rendering thread on English Amiga Board.
I'm also extremely interested in seeing how the site pans out in the future as it certainly seems like it can go somewhere and after all, it's such a damn shame to see so much programming history of the Amiga become lost. It'd be great to see it preserved.
I think it could grow out to be great, but it depends on how much time I and others have to contribute and how much interest there is for it.
EDIT: Just been browsing and there's a typo "exapnsion" on the AmigaDOS error codes page.
Since it's a WIKI, you can fix typo's and mistakes you find ;). (you need to make an account though)
I've got a load of source I would love to submit (680x0 assembler, HS Pascal and Amiga E) if you want it? Some new CLI commands as well as a few utilities...
Sounds interesting. I havn't quite decided yet what to do with sourcecodes yet. (like how to categorize them and whether to have multiple CLI command sources in one archives or split). But feel free to upload them and add your credits in the summary on the upload page.
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Spellcoder
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Post by Spellcoder »

BuZz wrote:It is a nice idea, and a good resource, well done.
Are you aware though of the new exotica site ? It might be an ideal place for this, and would save having two projects, but i understand totally if you want to run your own thing. btw we are also based on mediawiki

http://dev.exotica.org.uk - 3 year in the making - but will be live soon, really, or xtc will cut off my balls.
Yeah I've seen it and I had allready linked to it on the Amiga Coding WIKI. (see Other/Amiga Wiki's). Hope you don't mind, I didn't know it wasn't ment to be live.

I'd have to think whether it's a good plan to integrate the Amiga Coding WIKI in the Exotica WIKI. Although it would be a nice central page for information, some plans might not fit Exotica. (like mass imports like done with the AMOShelp and some ideas which I have which will require additional MediaWIKI extensions).
What also might be nice is if it where possible to share user logins (maybe with the OpenID extension for MediaWIKI, which I want to try when I have the time to)
( http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:OpenID )
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XtC
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Post by XtC »

Zeb wrote:
BuZz wrote:or xtc will cut off my balls.
:shock:

He wouldn't... would he... ?
He heh! :twisted:

XtC - always been a part of eXoTiCa
Cheers!

Zeb
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Post by Zeb »

XtC wrote:XtC - always been a part of eXoTiCa
I thought it was! I only recently figured it out when I discovered you did the graphics and then noticed the lower case "t" in your name on here was also in the logo :P

Zeb
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Post by Zeb »

spellcoder, I've contacted HiSOFT (yes, they still exist!) and asked them about their AmigaBASIC expansion library. As soon as I receive a reply I'll let you know.

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Post by XtC »

Ey up!
Zeb wrote:I thought it was! I only recently figured it out when I discovered you did the graphics and then noticed the lower case "t" in your name on here was also in the logo :P
Actually, ExoticA was up and running a few months before I'd even heard of it.

Call it a coincidence...

...or fate! :wink:
Cheers!

Zeb
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Post by Zeb »

Feels like a Twilight Zone moment...

doody doody doody doody...

Spellcoder
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Post by Spellcoder »

Zeb wrote:spellcoder, I've contacted HiSOFT (yes, they still exist!) and asked them about their AmigaBASIC expansion library. As soon as I receive a reply I'll let you know.
Yes, please do :)
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kyz
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Post by kyz »

That is an excellent wiki site with lots of good stuff!

Have you seen the 68000 condition codes chart I wrote?

http://www.aminet.net/dev/asm/CondCodes.txt

I've been using it to remind me what the right condition code are for, hmm, 16 years now.

Do you have a copy of all the extensions listed in the AMOS extensions pages? I want to extract their tokens for my portable AMOS source code dumper.

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Post by Spellcoder »

kyz wrote:That is an excellent wiki site with lots of good stuff!

Have you seen the 68000 condition codes chart I wrote?

http://www.aminet.net/dev/asm/CondCodes.txt

I've been using it to remind me what the right condition code are for, hmm, 16 years now.

Do you have a copy of all the extensions listed in the AMOS extensions pages? I want to extract their tokens for my portable AMOS source code dumper.
Yes, in fact I considered contacting you about using the list.
I like the fact it not only lists signed/unsigned, but also with what instruction the condition code is usefull.
So it would be great if I can use the list :D.

I know the guy who made that list and I think he got a large part of the AMOS extensions in the list. Funny thing, I was thinking about making either an AMOS program or PHP script to extract the list of commands and their syntax (that's what you mean by tokens I think?). Such a thing can be especially usefull in case of extensions without documentation. Or to lookup which extension might have been used in a AMOS sourcecode (based on extension slot and if the used commands/syntax conform with any known extension).
SPeLLCoDER (_NiCeGuY_)

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