Conference hydra::amiga_v1

Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
Path: decwrl!decvax!ucbvax!ucbcad!ames!sri-spam!rutgers!seismo!mcvax!botter!ark!kleef
Subject: Re: The New 8-Bit Emulator
Posted: 30 Mar 87 23:52:34 GMT
Organization: VU Informatica, Amsterdam
 
In article <[email protected]> [email protected] (Adam C. Engst) writes:
>
>Alright, I'm game.  Is it possible to program an Amiga emulator for the ST?
>Wouldn't all the blitter routines give the ST major problems (until the
>
 
I have i have in my possession something that is called an Amiga Emulator.
It was produced by Metacomco (at least, that's what it says) and we all
know Metacomco had a *lot* to with the Amiga operating system.
 
I cannot check the working of the program, as it requires a blitter
installed in the ST. Whether it's a trick or not, I don't know. As far
as I know there are *very* few blitters outside of the Atari office
in Silicon Valley. So, where did 'Metacomco' get the blitter to
develop the emulator?
 
But then again, if it's true, it would make a nice gadget :)

In the USENET silly Atari ST post:

> I have i have in my possession something that is called an Amiga Emulator.
> It was produced by Metacomco (at least, that's what it says) and we all
> know Metacomco had a *lot* to with the Amiga operating system.
 
	Of course we Amigans know that Metacomco had a lot to do with
	AmigaDos, but if that's an operating system, I might just as
	well throw away my Amiga for a PeeCee :-)

	Life without intuition would be very tedious.

	Dave

    In all likekihood, the emulator referred to is a joke that was put
    out by some incredibly witty ST hacks.  The program boots a Workbench-
    like screen, and at the first mouse click, the machine 'Gurus'.
    
    In retaliation, some Amiga guys threw together an 'ST Emulator'
    that does the same thing; loads a GEM desktop, then throws up about
    six cherry bombs (the ST equivelant of a Guru).
    
    I would find it remarkable if an ST could emulate an Amiga; where
    would it find the extra 3,584 colors?  So far, even the IBM emulator
    for the ST has been such a dog that it makes Transformer look like
    the product of the century.

    It doesn't really seem likely that Metacomco, the company which
    wrote AmigaDOS (NOT Exec or the RKM), would be doing a realtime
    simulation of the Amiga on an ST.  From what I have heard, 1.3+
    might not even use AmigaDOS (rah!)  C-A has started working on
    their own DOS to replace it.  (This came from RJ Michael at the
    Commodore Show in San Fran last Feb.)  I would suspect Metacomco
    is busy trying to beef up AmigaDOS (aka Tripos) to keep one of
    their largest accounts!
    

Re: .4

>C-A has started working on their own DOS to replace it.  (This came
>from RJ Michael at the Commodore Show in San Fran last Feb.)

When RJ Michal have a talk in Boston a few weeks ago, he said that they
had been thinking of how they might be able to do it.  He definitely
gave the impression that this was something that the hacker types at C-A
would like to do, but there was no official support for at this time.
(He mentioned that there was only a few improvements scheduled for the
next release of Kickstart/Workbench/AmigaDOS.  About the only thing of
any note was booting from a hard disk.  There are no official plans to
do anything more with the Amiga system software in the next year or
so.)  Don't expect AmigaDOS to disappear anytime soon, if ever.

AmigaDOS has a reputation that is probably worse than it deserves.  It
only has two basic problems: it lacks resource tracking and it is slow
at taking directory listings.  It would be easier to fix both problems
than to throw AmigaDOS out.

Re: .*

By the way, for those folks that are confused:  Although the term "AmigaDOS"
is sometimes used to refer to all of the Amiga's system software, AmigaDOS
proper is little more than the file system, a layer on top the Exec task
structure, and the CLI and most CLI commands.  The multitasking, message
passing Exec was written by Amiga, Inc. not by Metacomco.  The programmers
at Amiga realized that they didn't have sufficient manpower to write all
of the needed Amiga software, so they contracted out the boring parts of
the system: the file system and device drivers.  Anything that was fun
(the multitasking Exec) or flashy (the graphics stuff) they wrote
themselves.

So, I find the Metacomco "emulator" hard to believe:  Metacomco may
have never even seen the code written by Amiga Inc. that performs
multitasking, graphics, menus, message passing, dynamic library sharing,
and windowing.  If Metacomco actually did see the code, they would have
no more ownership rights to it than a DEC customer that has a source
microfiche of VMS.

So, Metacomco could port Tripos (the Metacomco operating system that
shares the same file system with the Amiga) to the ST.  In fact, there
is already a generic 68000 version of Tripos.  However, the software
would only run on a dumb terminal, and could not run any Amiga software.
Metacomco doesn't even own the code that puts up a Guru message.

    re: the idea of an ST emulating an Amiga
    
    Tripos would be one way to get multitasking on the ST :-)
    
    Emulation is one of those interesting concepts, like 100% compatible
    pc clones.  Maybe Metacomco could write an Amigados emulator
    for the ST.... 880K per disk, no 40 folder limit, very strange
    command syntax..
    
    Emulating an ST on an Amiga might be lots easier - it helps to have
    a better hardware capabilities (Magic Sac on ST) than the
    system you are emulating.  A-COPY claims to be able to copy ST
    disks, the joke ST emulator shows that the screen display is
    possible.  Just a large matter of programming... ;-)
    
    Still waiting for Joust on the Amiga,
    -dave