Conference hydra::amiga_v1

    I am writing a video game.  It looks sort of like asteriods that
    scrolls and you meet both friendly and hostile beings and can buy
    and sell cargo to make money to improve the capabilities of your
    own ship.  (All one sentence).
    
    I use XLISP to do my homework for my A.I. course.   The performance
    is resonable.  
    
    I'm attempting to port Kyoto Common Lisp to the Amiga.   KCL has
    a lisp compiler that actually compiles LISP functions to C and then
    invokes the systems C compiler to produce an object module, then
    the objet module is linked into the image (this is the tricky part
    of the port).   If I ever finish this, the Amiga will be the only
    personal computer that runs KCL (as far as I know).  I would like
    to work on a interface between KCL and Amiga Graphics/Sound etc.
    One of these days...
    
    I have some synthesizers and a MIDI setup.  I compose music but
    have no actual talent.  It's alot of fun.
                        

    I am always looking for a better BASIC for the amiga.I have thought
    about getting sam basic or true basic.I am looking for a basic like
    Activisions Game Maker but more flexible.I have programmed on many
    computers but each computer has its good and bad points.
    
    ATARI 800XL-Has good sound command and many colors,but almost
    impossible to make PM graphics and 4 colors on screen at the same
    time.
    
    COMMODORE 64-nice graphics and sound,but everything is so complicated.
    
    2600-stupid!!!
    
    TI/99/4A-Not made for serious programming.
    
    APPLE //E-Bad graphics and sound,but nice and simple.
    
       I am working on a adventure game. It is like Ultima II without
    the graphics.
    
    
                                                           M.A.H
    

    I've mentioned this before but I'm sure that noone will mind if
    I explain a bit more about what I trying to do.
    
    A friend who is an archeologist and working for the Museum of London
    does a fair bit of geophysical surveying to help other archeologists
    to decide the where to dig next.  The principle of this form of
    surveying involves a setup of rather large electrodes being plunged
    into the ground and an electric potential being applied to them.
    I'm not a physisist so I can't be 100% sure about this explaination
    (I let him do the explaining to me!) but the resulting sets of
    resistivity readings can be used to determine the density of the
    soil etc. below the surface.  If this data is processed correctly
    it can give  a valuable insight into what may or may not be there.
    
    The plan is to use an Amiga to store, process and display this data
    in a useful form.
    
    i) Data Storage
    ---------------
    
    The readings are collected in 20x20 grids and range in value from
    1 to 999. The average site will probably be made up of 50-150 grids
    (20,000 -- 60,000 readings).
    
    The data is usually collected using an Epson handheld computer but
    is occasionally recorded manually.  It is planned that there will
    be
     a) An option to download data from another machine via RS232.
     b) Another option to enter data from the keypad using an onscreen
        free format grid editor.
    
    Option (b) will provide the user with the ability to enter data
    after selecting postions on the grid, cut, paste and edit previously
    entered data.  Another idea is that the background colour of the
    data in its particular cell of the grid should be set to reflect
    the level of the reading as a grey(maybe colour) scale.
    

    ii) Processing
    --------------
    
    I've not gone into this part in to great detail at present since
    I don't know the mathematics for the image processing (yet?!).
    The general aim to to allow several forms of smoothing etc. functions
    to be applied to the data. (I'm still waiting for the calculations
    for this).
    
    
    iii) Display
    ------------
    
    The plan for display of grid data is for grids to be displayed as
    16 levels of grey or colour shades. The user should be able to choose
    to look at a selection of grids fitted together onscreen as they
    were taken, view one grid alone or zoom-in on a particular aspect
    of a grid or set of grids that may be of interest.
    Finally they data displayed upon the screen may be dumped to a suitable
    colour printer.
    -----------------------------------------------------------------------
    
    Well, rather ambitious, don't you think.  Especially seeing as (wait
    for it), I am initially writing it in Amiga Basic. Not my choice
    really but (a) I can't afford a decent compiled language and (b)
    Basic will do for prototyping the system.
    
    This is my current project and it may never be finished but I find
    it interesting enough to keep my mind occupied while I am getting
    no programming work in my job.(End User Tools Consultant).
    
    Hope I've not bored you too much,
    
    Steve Peake    
    

    Has anyone tried my ORBITS program?
    
    Also, use my Amiga 2000 for satellite tracking, talking to work,
    communicating with my packet terminal node controller, publishing
    a 12-page monthly newsletter, maintaining a database, and general
    writing. Couldn't do it all without the multitasking and expandability!
    
    Paul