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Conference hydra::amiga_v1

Title:AMIGA NOTES
Notice:Join us in the *NEW* conference - HYDRA::AMIGA_V2
Moderator:HYDRA::MOORE
Created:Sat Apr 26 1986
Last Modified:Wed Feb 05 1992
Last Successful Update:Fri Jun 06 1997
Number of topics:5378
Total number of notes:38326

1143.0. "Any news on BRIDGEB._WARE ?????" by FHOOA::SPATOULAS (George Spatoulas Eng. Consultant) Mon Feb 08 1988 11:47

    
    
          ANY NEWS ON THE BRIDGEBOARDS YET ??????
        
    
    I have been waiting since Christmas for the D..#$%^ bridgeboards
    and nothing yet. Is CA going to ship those things or are they going
    to sent us the 286 cpu's right away ????
    
    Anybody any news on the matter.
    
    ...george...
    (a very frustrated AMI user(not with the machine but with CBM and
    the way they market the best machine))
T.RTitleUserPersonal
Name		DateLines
1143.1ELWOOD::PETERSMon Feb 08 1988 13:449
    
    
    	I don't understand why you can get one. I was at two
    computer stores this weekend and both said they have sold 
    them. One store even had one in stock ( List price ).
    
    
    		Steve Peters
1143.2Bridgeboard infoTOOTER::RIESFrank W. Ries Jr.Mon Feb 08 1988 17:4545
I bought a bridgeboard just before Christmas at the Memory Location in
Wellesley, Ma. They had more than one in stock at the time. I would like
to make several comments on the bridgeboard and its associated software
thought.

Conceptually, the bridgeboard is pretty nice, and installs easily. However,
the software has some very nasty problems.

If you have the PC window selected, clicking the right mouse button causes
garbage to be inserted into the PC's input stream. Most of the time, it just
shoves a carriage return into the stream, but sometimes you get another random
character.

The bridgeboard software allows you to create a virtual PC disk on any Amiga
disk (floppy, hard or RAM:), however its very SLOW. It also has a tendancy to
go "south" if you try and access a file on the virtual disk at the same time as
an AmigaDOS file on the same physical disk using the AREAD/AWRITE programs
(which transfers files between PC/DOS and AmigaDOS). The software croaks and
you get a DOS "error reading/writing drive". The virtual disk will now
be unusable until you reboot the PC (you don't have to reboot the Amiga).

The documentation for the bridgeboard is also terrible. It fails to mention
the /b qualifier used with the AREAD/AWRITE programs to transfer a binary
file. If you don't use the /b, it lobs off all nulls, which really screws
up ARC files! I was having problems transfering binary files, and just
guessed at the /b. Also, the JLINK program which is used to create/connect
to virtual disks wants its qualifiers in lower case only!!! The doc doen't
state this, and I wasted alot of time trying to make the thing work until
I finally tried lower case in desparation.

I have not played much with the color PC window (the mono window actually
gives you four colors). However, the few times I have tried it was with
some games, and have had mixed results. It is a bit slow, but it also has
a tendancy to hang the entire machine (PC and Amiga).

I guess its time for a nasty note to Commodore on this. Talking to the store
was a waste of time, and I don't think calling them will help much either.
By the way, the bridgeboard/software seems to be the same that they used in
the Sidecar. The board has a manufacture date of 1986 on it. It also has
several nasty ECO's.

Unless your desparate for one of these, it might be worth waiting awhile.

Frank
1143.3One more thingTOOTER::RIESFrank W. Ries Jr.Mon Feb 08 1988 17:507
Oh, one more thing. I tried using a command line editor program on the
bridgeboard (sort of like CONMAN for the Amiga) at the same time that
CONMAN was running on the Amiga. This causes the entire maching to hang.
Seems like you can have one or the other, but not both! Arrgh.

Frank