DICE documentation

[StantheAmigaMan]

Hi gang!

Can anyone direct me tona source of DICE C compiler docs online? I can't get my system to boot yet and the disks have some documentation on them.

My apologies if this has been answered already, but my phone won't let me search.

Thanks!
Stan

[redblade]

https://aminet.net/package/dev/c/dice-3.15

Or was there a printed manual?

[Daedalus]

If you can find the book "Complete Amiga C" by Cliff Ramshaw, that came with the DICE compiler, and while it's a more general C book, it does use DICE compiler in its examples and explanations, so if you can find a copy (electronic or otherwise), it's a good place to start.

[StantheAmigaMan]

Originally Posted by Daedalus

If you can find the book "Complete Amiga C" by Cliff Ramshaw, that came with the DICE compiler, and while it's a more general C book, it does use DICE compiler in its examples and explanations, so if you can find a copy (electronic or otherwise), it's a good place to start.

Thank you for the info! Book pdf downloaded

[StantheAmigaMan]

Originally Posted by redblade

https://aminet.net/package/dev/c/dice-3.15

Or was there a printed manual?

I'll unpack the LHA file tonight and print the docs. So there will be a printed manual

[desiv]

Originally Posted by redblade

Or was there a printed manual?

I don't know about ever, but I bought DICE back in the day, and it arrived in the mail via floppy disks... No printed manual...
That was probably an older version, but I'm not sure DICE ever got a physical manual...

I just reinstalled DICE yesterday and was able to compile a couple of the examples...
I did notice that the vMake gui has some issues on my machine (A1200, 3.2.2).
Sometimes when I click the Make or Compile buttons, the app, my mouse, and keyboard freeze... Have to Ctrl-LAmi-RAmi to reboot it (so that is working).
But I have been able to Make and Compile from the menus, so I think it's just a glitch with the buttons in the app.
And I can compile with the command line too...

But vMake doesn't look familiar to me at all. ;-)
I am pretty sure back when I was using it, it was all command line, so I'm not bothered that it doesn't work...
I might try to find/grab the source and recompile vMake tho, to see if that would help for fun tho.
(Note: Quick compile didn't work. It is asking for a file (vmake-protos.h I think) that isn't in the source and I'm not back into C enough to know about manually creating that..)
Right now, I just have the 3.1, 2.0, and 1.3 includes, so I'll need to add the 3.2 ones to it for that...

[redblade]

The cost of hard printing a manual, A software manual for a programming language would be very expensive.

[davideo]

Amiga Shopper - Complete Amiga C

Came with the full version of Dice and talks about in the book.

[desiv]

Originally Posted by davideo

Amiga Shopper - Complete Amiga C

I thought I found that on Archive.org, but it turns out what I found was an excerpt that a magazine printed (two complete chapters!!). ;-)
Here's the full PDF it appears: https://gitlab.com/amigasourcecodepr...mplete-amiga-c
Looks like it not only came with the full version of DICE as mentioned, but also the Commodore includes, and it was only £24.95???
That would have been a steal!!!
(Just did the "adjusted for inflation" thing, and that would have been about £50 in todays money.. I think that's about what I paid for some of the more expensive games... Actually, less. I know I paid about $50 (USD) for at least one game back in the day, so this would have been much less... )

[malko]

I own a copy of this book but never knew it was coming from the future...
Look at the "year" by following link provided by desiv.

[...] Year: 19994 [...]

[desiv]

Originally Posted by malko

I own a copy of this book but never knew it was coming from the future...

I didn't notice that when I grabbed a copy!

[Futaura]

I still have the "Complete Amiga C" book - it came with DICE V2.0x disks (4). I later paid to upgrade to DICE V3.0, which I ordered direct from the developers in the US. It came on 5 disks with a hefty printed manual (around 1 inch thick), which has been well used. These are what I used to start programming on the Amiga and helped me learn C for my uni course . IIRC, DICE could even be run directly off floppy disk, without a hard drive.

[desiv]

Originally Posted by Futaura

I later paid to upgrade to DICE V3.0, which I ordered direct from the developers in the US. It came on 5 disks with a hefty printed manual (around 1 inch thick), which has been well used.

Nice!
Had no idea DICE ever came with a printed manual.
I ordered DICE back in the day, when ordering was sending an e-mail to Matt Dillon to register the shareware version I had.
I got floppies sent to me (wish I still had those), but no manual.

[redblade]

Originally Posted by Futaura

I later paid to upgrade to DICE V3.0, which I ordered direct from the developers in the US. It came on 5 disks with a hefty printed manual (around 1 inch thick), which has been well used. These are what I used to start programming on the Amiga and helped me learn C for my uni course . IIRC, DICE could even be run directly off floppy disk, without a hard drive.

Do you still have the manual? I'm guessing it was just print outs of the manual pages for each of utilities and maybe the standard C libraries?

[malko]

Originally Posted by redblade

Do you still have the manual ? [...]

If yes, would you mind considering scanning and uploading it to the zone ?

[davideo]

Gamesmith also came with Dice (V3.16) and does have a lot of documents included on the Discs

[redblade]

Originally Posted by malko

If yes, would you mind considering scanning and uploading it to the zone ?

That could be overkill if it's just a hard copy of the manual pages that come with each util but at least the Cover page and Contents would be nice

[davideo]

The Amiga Guide files have been converted to HTML http://aminet.net/package/dev/c/dicedocs3-html

[Daedalus]

Originally Posted by desiv

I thought I found that on Archive.org, but it turns out what I found was an excerpt that a magazine printed (two complete chapters!!). ;-)
Here's the full PDF it appears: https://gitlab.com/amigasourcecodepr...mplete-amiga-c
Looks like it not only came with the full version of DICE as mentioned, but also the Commodore includes, and it was only £24.95???
That would have been a steal!!!

Yep, it was very good value indeed. I bought it 2nd hand back in the day from a guy who used it twice and went back to playing games Think it cost me £10, and the book served me well all through uni.

[Futaura]

Originally Posted by malko

If yes, would you mind considering scanning and uploading it to the zone ?

I said it was hefty and around 1 inch thick . I'm not going to scan in 450 or so pages, from a perfect bound book, as it would take a very long time! Yes, I still have the manual and all the disks. I think most of the manual is a copy of the on disk documentation, but it was extremely useful in 1995 when there second screens were not so common. It is formatted in a simple organised way and much easier to follow than the .guide stuff.

I also found my invoice for it. $65 for "Student Purchase of DICE" + $5 international shipping in February 1995. I can't remember why I ordered it direct, rather than from the UK, but probably it was cheaper or maybe the printed manual was only available direct. There may also have been a promo where "Connect Your Amiga" by Dale Larson (IAM) was bundled free with it (although I might be getting that mixed up with some HiSOFT purchase). However, I do clearly remember that I got stung by customs when it arrived in the UK though .