Classic Workbench installation on real amiga without Windows. Possible ?

[AMIGrAve]

Originally Posted by ppill

I guess I need to try CSH then. Which version you're using and where can I get it (there seems to be a lot of different ports floating around)?

I'm using Csh 5.31 but I don't think I downloaded it on aminet. (don't remember why) I'll also try the Csh 5.50 from aminet in order to see if it's the same because as you point it right, I think there are many different implementations. I'll try to find back where I downloaded it from.

Here's my .cshrc. It's temporary and uncomplete.

# Docs
set _man sys:agr/apps/utils/Csh-5.31/csh.doc
# Classes
class slave suff=.slave
class slave actions exec="wl"
# Alias
alias l ls
alias ll ls # TODO: pipe more
alias d ls -s
alias m cd :
alias b cd ..

alias less PPLess
alias fm sys:fm
alias fm2 sys:agr/apps/utils/FileMaster/FileMaster-2.1
alias fm3 sys:agr/apps/utils/FileMaster/FileMaster-3.0.68000
alias ced sys:agr/apps/utils/CygnusEd-3.5/CED
alias vz sys:agr/apps/utils/VirusZ-III-1.02/VirusZ

alias ep sys:agr/apps/music/Eagleplayer-2.03/EaglePlayer
alias dt sys:agr/apps/music/DeliTracker-2.32/DeliTracker2

alias wl "%a whdload $a preload"
alias wld "%a cd $a; wl *.slave; cd .."
alias whd "%a wl $a*.slave"

alias whdpack "%a cp $a $a.orig; ProPack p d -m 2 -o $a; echo $a >> packed.txt"

# Sets
set f10 wl "*.slave"^M

[BippyM]

Originally Posted by Bloodwych

iGame is nice, but the features come at a price - you need a fast computer and plenty of ram once the games start building up. Even in the docs, it suggests 16MB RAM minimum and an 030 being too slow!

Therefore it's too resource hungry for the base ClassicWB packs, but admit it's a great launcher if you've got the power.

My plan is to hopefully create a whdlauncher that is not mem hungry and resource hungry!

Tho a list of 1500 games would use some ram.. but I might find a way to spool it off the disk

[Bloodwych]

Nice one Bippy!

A simple text file like used in Lazybench is the way to go! For instance, a list of paths to 2000 games or so probably only takes up something like 100K, probably less. I'm unsure if using a custom/binary format is faster and more efficient, probably is.

I just did a "list" command on the contents of a classic workbench pack - the huge text document listed 6000+ files along with sizes, directory information, paths etc and it only came to 400K.

Then you'd need a fast way to sort them. Lazybench can sort them alphabetically really quickly as well as having other user definable display options in its tooltypes. Its simplicity, the fact it's a background commodity and the light footprint is why I think it currently makes a great solution. The only downside is the user has to add the paths to the text file themselves - anyone who knows shell should be able to create a complete list of whdload executables fairly quickly however, or just use it to add their fav ones. It would be nice to have a requester that adds single or multiple games quickly.

For snapshots, I'd just use the icon.info that comes with the game itself and perhaps list tooltype info. That should keep it resource light.

I'm no programmer however and I'm sure you have your own ideas. Just thought I'd have a quick brainstorm.

[BippyM]

Bloodwych:

A loOOooOng time ago I programmed a phonecode program for a BBS I was a member of.. The UK phonecodes file is 390kb and contains about 50000 codes..

It took a while to sort I'll tell ya!

Here is the history taken from the guide for it

Originally Posted by Bippy's phonecode prog manual

AmPCS Version History
----------------------

24/03/00
--------
v2.0 beta 7 Released to testers.

1). Removed the 2 text gadgets from the main window, they were useless
from the start (v1.0) as they displayed what the listview did!!

2). Program now uses the system default for all windows and gadgets,
this is because the window would sometimes open with the buttons
dodgy etc.

3). If the window width (When combined with font width) is greater than
your actual screen width, the program will say and will then default
to using TOPAZ 8

4). When printing the Global print list, the search headings will be in
bold.

5). The program now works out how wide the font actually is, and sets
the window width from this. Before it used the fontheight, which
would sometimes give odd results.

6). Fixed a bug from the print window, when using the string gadget to
enter a path to print to (Instead of using the button and reqtools)
the program used to overwrite the code file :-( it has now been
fixed.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

11/03/00
--------
v2.0beta 4 Released to testers.

1). Complete rewrite from scratch now Smaller, faster and more features

2). Now asks for confirmation if you enter less than 4 letters when
doing a search, as it could take a while to do the search

3). Now searches all the place name for the match, the search might
return DERby, LondonDERry if searching DER.

4). Uses Reqtools library directly now, much quicker.

5). You can add results to a global print list or simply print the
results of your search

6). Added a better print screen, can print to any named file, or
printer.

7). Program not limited to 3 code files now, will allow user to load any
file they have on disk.

8). Added an ID header to the code files, if you have an older file
simply put !AMPCS as the first line in the code file.

9). Added menus to the program

10). Program now uses your system font, no longer the damn Xen Font

11). Program adapts window size to fit the font, some fonts might make
the window look cramped, or not fit the screen properly.. Simply
change the font, or use a bigger screen size.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

19/01/00
--------
v1.7 Released

1). Because of my own hind-sight, I assumed all codes in all countries
would start with a 0, unfortunately life isn't that simple, and when
I started the usa codes, i realised this wasn't the case. So some of
the code was completely re-written to take this into account!!

2). Added Australia and USA codes..

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

02/11/99
--------
v1.6 Released / Fifth Public Release

1). Fixed a Bug in the Print option

2). Fixed Quit Option.. It would give you the Options of selecting
different code files then Quit ?!?!?

3). Now automatically activates the String Gadget and Removes the last
code/place inputted so the user doesn't have to select it, then
delete the contents

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

17/10/99
--------
v1.5 Released / Fourth Public release

1). Fixed the Freeze bug..

2). The program no-longer loads the codes into memory.. Instead it reads
them from the file off disk, the offshoot is there is a slightly
longer delay when searching.

3). When using the windows close gadget to quit, and then cancelling to
return to AmPCS the program would lock-up Fixed this.

4). You can now have 3 Codes Files and change from one to another during
use.. See @{" Code Files " link CREATE}

5). Optimised the code alot, it now uses one sub-routine to do all the
searching, before it used one routine for Area's and another to
search the codes!!

6). Changed the format of the code files slightly.. This means the old
code files are no longer valid Sorry....

7). The program is about 2k larger with all the additions

8). Added more info to the INFO requester..

9). Completely Updated the guide.

10). Fixed a bug when outputting your results, If entering say a code
that produces 20 results, and then did another search which
produced less than 20 results, and then output results to ram: (Or
wherever, then the outputted file would have 1 to many results...

11). A Bug in previous versions would cause the info requester to
display the incorrect results, it would report double the number of
occurances, this now reports the correct value.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

15/10/99
--------
v1.4 Released / Third Public release

1). Reshaped the window slightly.. The listview is now bigger

2). Now displays codes upto 20 digits.. Useful for BBS ads in the codes
file (Enter Stingent as a search to see), or your own private numbers.

3). Filesize is yet again smaller.. It's about 600bytes smaller!

4). Fixed a bug in the display.. If a place had the same letters at the
end it wouldn't display them properly (eg HILL would display as
HIL). (Thanks to Alan Richardson)..

5). It's No longer beta )

6). Removed Makecode.. It was REALLY unreliable and pretty useless!!

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

04/09/99
--------
v1.3 Last beta release / Second Public Release

1). Added option of printing results. Will print to either your Printer
or to a specified file

2). AmPCS Window now opens in the centre of your screen

3). A bug existed, If you simply pressed return in the codes place the
program would enter a continuous loop, and a reset was required...
Now fixed.. Thanks to Bill Clark for spotting this

4). Can check for codes that don't start with a 0

5). Fixed an error in this guide, it called AmPCS - Fixguide (A previous
program of mine)

6). Added some custom Icons.. Supplied by Mike Hill

7). This guide is spell checked (By Mike Hill) <Well it was >

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

28/08/99
--------
v1.2 Third beta release / First Public Release

1). Changed the way it stored the codes, now only 1 array is used (As
opposed to 4), and it searches an offset from that array..

2). Because of the above, reading the stdcodes.txt file is now nearly
600% faster It takes 9.8-12secs on my 040 as opposed to 30+secs

3). When quitting the program only freezes your system for max 10secs
(on 040) instead of 30+secs, again because of the arrays

4). Searches are now timed, and results placed in the INFO requester

5). The sort routine is fixed again

6). Search routine maybe /slightly/ slower.. probs 1-2secs slower max

7). Changed a lot of the code, program is now 2k bigger with all the
timer additions

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

24/08/99
--------
V1.1b Second Beta Release

1). Fixed bug in the Window that pops up.. text would disappear off the
window.. Simple call to use the correct font and a.Ok (Thanks to
Bill Clark and Alan Richardson who both spotted this roughly the
same time.)

2). Name changed to AmPCS.. This is because the beta testers didn't like
the PC <- part of the original name ;-)

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

20/08/99
--------
V1.0b First beta release - - Sent to the Beta testers

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

19/08/99
--------
V1.0 interim version

I included it all cuz I can't be arsed to read, I just remember it having speed issues sorting etc..

[AMIGrAve]

Originally Posted by bippym

Bloodwych:
I included it all cuz I can't be arsed to read, I just remember it having speed issues sorting etc..

Maybe it should be coded in assembler ?

I dropped asm coding on amiga since 1995 so I wouldn't be able to do it after more than 10 years of abstinence. Besides, I never coded anything in AmigaDOS.

[BippyM]

Originally Posted by AMIGrAve

Maybe it should be coded in assembler ?

That was always my plan, only I need to have a better understanding of ASM and I discussed a few idea's with Killergorilla.. Though he's doing his own interface now in amiga-e I believe!

Hello. I just noticed this thread, after I installed a Classic WB
on my A3000 using Linux only with no problems. I see
from the thread that you had permission problems after
copying all the files over to an Amiga disk from Linux.
I just want to point out that "zip" (or at least the Info-Zip
version of "zip" that's on my computer) preserves permissions
just fine, so you can zip up the mounted HDF directory tree,
move it over to a physical amiga HD, and then use Bloodwych's
install disk. Works perfectly, as far as I can tell.

Sorry if I'm repeating what might have become obvious after Bloodwych's
responses to the original post.

Regards,
Larry

[Bloodwych]

Thanks for the info bluby! Oh, and welcome to EAB.

Thanks for the welcome, and of course for a great desktop
package. I'm pretty new to Amigas in general, and have been
having a lot of fun with them. Sometimes the ancient hardware
drives me a little nuts, but that's half the fun.

By the way, not to beat a dead horse, but there's another
more direct way to transfer the files
with correct permissions from the mounted HDF file to a real Amiga
partition. If you mount the HDF file with a loop device
e.g. mount -t affs -o loop=/dev/loop System.hdf /mnt/foo
and the physical Amiga partition normally
e.g. mount -t affs /dev/sdaXYZ /mnt/bar
then you can just use tar. Go to /mnt/foo, and do
tar cf - * |(cd /mnt/bar ; tar xfp -)
(note the parens around the commands after the pipe!)
Tar is automatically recursive, the "-" tells it to send its
output to stdout, and the "p" tells it to preserve permissions.
This will be much faster than using unzip on the real Amiga.
I haven't actually tried this with ClassicWB,
but it's a standard way to clone filesystems in Unix-like
OS.

Regards,
Larry