Author Archives: Steven Solie

Amiga DevCon 2016

Posted by on September 12, 2016 Comments Off on Amiga DevCon 2016

blog_devAmiWest 2016 (October 7 to 9) is fast approaching and so is Amiga DevCon 2016 (October 6 and 7). The location is Sacramento, California, USA. Please note, as always, the DevCon is a 100% volunteer effort as is the AmiWest show itself.

Some information about the DevCon from the AmigaOS Documentation Wiki:

  • The anatomy of an Amiga disk device driver. We will be dissecting the p5020sata.device which is a SATA device driver used in the upcoming AmigaOne X5000. This isn’t just any custom made driver. It is melding between Linux libata and the traditional AmigaOS trackdisk device drivers.
  • Hans de Ruiter will be presenting his tutorials on Warp3D Nova. For anyone that wants to program for Warp3D Nova be sure to obtain/borrow/steal a card for the DevCon. See the Warp3D Nova press release for assistance on choosing a card.
  • Personal Projects. You are encouraged to bring your own personal projects to the DevCon where we, as a group, may be able to help you out.

See you there!

DCFS and LNFS Explained

Posted by on August 30, 2016 Comments Off on DCFS and LNFS Explained

blog_devThe AmigaOS Fast File System (FFS) was created back in 1988 and, believe it or not, is still in use today by some die hard enthusiasts who insist it is still pretty good. FFS has several modes which has enabled it to survive far past its expiry date. Two of those modes have never been described before. That is about to change.

Back in 1992, Randell Jesup added what is known as the Directory Caching File System (DCFS) mode to FFS. This was meant to speed up directory listings on floppy disks. A rarely used and mysterious mode with very little documentation.

Fast forward to 2001 when Olaf Barthel created a FFS reimplementation and added the Long Name File System (LNFS) mode. Up until this point users were stuck with 30 characters due to the original implementation.

Curious? Read all the gory details on the most complete and official AmigaOS Documentation Wiki.

AmigaOS 4.1 Final Edition SDK now available

Posted by on August 31, 2015 Comments Off on AmigaOS 4.1 Final Edition SDK now available

blog_devThe AmigaOS 4.1 Final Edition SDK is now available for download from Hyperion’s web site. The official press release can be found at http://www.hyperion-entertainment.biz/

This is a significant update to the SDK which will require a lot of developer support to use properly. New articles have already began to appear on the AmigaOS Development Wiki like Intuition’s new Menu Class article.

We are also planning tutorials and a workshop at the Amiga DevCon 2015 which is before the AmiWest 2015 show in Sacramento, California, USA starting October 15th.

Steven Solie
AmigaOS Development Team Lead

AmigaOS Documentation Wiki and Amiga DevCon 2015

Posted by on May 22, 2015 Comments Off on AmigaOS Documentation Wiki and Amiga DevCon 2015

blog_devThe AmigaOS Documentation Wiki (http://wiki.amigaos.net) is moving to a brand new server. The new server is quicker and also enables important upgrades to the underlying software driving the wiki.

It always takes a few days for the DNS propagation to complete so the URL may not work in your region yet. In the mean time, you can use http://78.47.81.180/wiki to access the wiki. You can monitor on the DNS propagation progress using services like DNS Checker.

Amiga DevCon 2015

Moving and upgrading the AmigaOS Documentation Wiki is just one small step towards Amiga DevCon 2015 which is taking place in Sacramento, California, USA on October 15 and 16 before the AmiWest 2015 show. With the release of AmigaOS 4.1 Final Edition there is a need for an updated AmigaOS SDK. The SDK includes some important AmigaOS API improvements and these will be covered at the DevCon and more.

Don’t worry if you can’t make the Amiga DevCon in person. All the presentation materials will be available on the AmigaOS Documentation Wiki in the Tutorials section.

Steven Solie
AmigaOS Development Team Lead

AmiWest 2014 Programming Jam

Posted by on September 26, 2014 Comments Off on AmiWest 2014 Programming Jam

blog_devWe are extremely pleased to be able to host the 3rd incarnation of the AmiWest Programming Seminar. This is a unique event in the AmiVerse, to bring together Amiga developers, programmers and users to learn from each other and create apps.

In previous years we have taken a more formal approach with seminars and fixed topics. Given the wide range of programming experience on the part of participants, we will try a more free-form approach this year.

To read more and get more information, check out this link:

http://www.amiwest.net/aosps/

Here’s the sign up form:

http://www.amiwest.net/survey/index.php/816728/lang-en

Paul Sadlik
AmiWest Programming Jam Organizer

FUSE and NTFS for AmigaOS

Posted by on February 10, 2014 Comments Off on FUSE and NTFS for AmigaOS

280px-FUSE_structure.svgFUSE is short for Filesystem in Userspace. FUSE was created to enable non-privileged users to run file systems outside of the kernel which is a big deal for Unix-like operating systems. In AmigaOS, everything runs in userspace so FUSE is not nearly as important for Amiga users. What makes FUSE valuable is all the file system implementations which use FUSE such as NTFS, ext2, ZFS, etc.

The Amiga Operating System implementation of FUSE has been realized via a project called Filesysbox by Leif Salomonsson. A special thanks goes out to Leif for allowing his hard work to be utilized.

Amiga programmer extraordinaire Fredrik Wikström was then commissioned to port Filesysbox over to AmigaOS. Fredrik took the original code and updated it to AmigaOS 4.1 standards. This work included utilizing advanced DOS features such as object notification and the new file system API which seeks to completely avoid the esoteric DOS packet interface. Colin Wenzel is the main man behind the advanced DOS features.

Master_500pxIn order to test whether Filesysbox was working properly we needed a file system to go with it. NTFS-3G by Tuxera was chosen for this purpose. Fredrik also ported a full suite of tools to go along with NTFS itself.

Both Filesysbox and NTFS-3G are contributions being offered to registered AmigaOS users via AmiUpdate. The software licenses require that the source code be made available so registered users can download the matching source code from Hyperion’s web site in the downloads section.

blog_devIt is hoped that 3rd party developers will become interested in porting more file systems in the near future whether they are via the FUSE API or the new DOS file system API. The upcoming SDK will include everything you need. In the mean time, please feel free to utilize the provided source code and the AmigaOS support forum for assistance.

Finally, a big thanks needs to go out to the AmigaOS beta testing team for risking their hard drive partitions while testing NTFS-3G and Filesysbox. It is demanding and potentially destructive work that should not be taken for granted.

AmiWest 2013 AmigaOS Team

Posted by on October 24, 2013 1 comment

AmiWest2013-AmigaOS-Team1200AmiWest 2013 is now over and it was a heck of a lot of fun. We managed to grab a team photo this time.

From left to right in the front row sitting down we have Ken Wilde and Lyle Hazelwood. Next row back we have Bill Borsari, Flip LaFramboise, Trevor Dickinson and Tony Wyatt. In the back row we have Matthew Leaman, Val Marti, Paul Sadlik, Steven Solie and Alex Carmona.

A special thanks to Mike Brantley for taking the photo. Mike also took a lot more photos at the AmiWest 2013 show.

I think the big smiles on those faces says it all really.

I also took some time to update the AmiWest 2013 crowd on the current status of the Amiga Operating System which I will now summarize here:

  1. The netbook project initially announced at AmiWest 2011 has been cancelled. Below is an excerpt from an email to me from Ben Hermans dated October 10, 2013 on this matter.

    Despite best efforts by Hyperion and A-EON we were unable to get acceptable and stable conditions and terms from the Chinese supplier (price point, paying terms, required upfront, etc.)…

    The project was therefore cancelled in favour of a more future proof solution.

  2. A-EON Technology announces the Cyrus Plus Beta Test Programme. Follow the link for all the details and how to apply.
  3. Gallium3D Update
    • Software rendering completed
    • Working on the WinSys part of the implementation
    • Challenges encountered along the way:
      • Must be re-entrant, thread safe and multicore capable
      • Must run on a bare minimum system
      • Efficient
      • Possible to load non-Mesa and non-Gallium drivers
  4. X-Kernel Update
    • Task scheduler rewritten in C
    • Removed reliance on data structures (e.g. ExecBase task lists and ThisTask pointer)
    • Moving scheduler to run on auxiliary cores
    • All cores schedule tasks independently
    • Load balancing between cores
  5. AmigaOS 4.2
    • Depends on Gallium3D release
    • May or may not depend on multicore support
  6. AmigaOS 4.1 Update 7
    • Will be needed for Cyrus Plus product release
    • Consolidates all previous updates
  7. AmigaOS 4.1 Update 6
  8. FUSE and NTFS-3G
  9. New development team members since AmiWest 2012

We also had a chance to have a team meeting on Friday night in one of the hotel rooms while at the show. We had the usual Airing of Grievances and a lengthy discussion on where we are going and how to get there. At one point we were interrupted by an outsider who likened the gathering to a secret Masons meeting.

If you would like to come to AmiWest 2014 and join in the fun then keep October 24, 25 and 26 open. There is also a programming seminar planned for October 23 and 24. See you there!

An SDK Update (finally)

Posted by on October 12, 2013 Comments Off on An SDK Update (finally)

blog_devIt has been a long time coming but we finally got around to releasing an updated Software Development Kit (SDK) for the Amiga Operating System. You can download it from Hyperion’s server.

This SDK includes all the usual includes and autodocs you need to use all the latest released AmigaOS features. The AmigaOS Documentation Wiki contains all the higher level information you need and will continue to be updated to help explain everything. The wiki also has a new Frequently Asked Questions section where we will post the most common problems and solutions.

This SDK is also a tad incomplete because I ran out of time to prepare it before AmiWest 2013. Therefore, there will be another SDK update or two sometime after the AmiWest show which will include even more.

We will also try harder to provide an updated SDK much more regularly from now on. Thanks to AmiUpdate we now have a way to deliver all sorts of SDK updates as needed with minimal effort.

Support for the SDK is available from the official AmigaOS support forum. You may also want to give OS4Coding a try if you get stuck on something.

Have fun!

Preparing for AmiWest 2013

Posted by on October 2, 2013 Comments Off on Preparing for AmiWest 2013

blog_devAmigaOS fans may have noticed an abundance of updates appearing lately. There is also an updated SDK should be appearing soon as well.

One of the reasons for all this activity is AmiWest 2013. The show itself is October 19 and 20. There is also a “Classic Clinic” on the Friday night before the show where Amiga technicians will be available to help get your Amigas up and running again. AmiWest is also featuring a programming conference from October 16 to 18. The plan is to continue where we left off at AmiWest 2012 and focus on building useful applications with a GUI. It is the programming conference which is driving the bulk of the updates. We want everyone to be at the same API level and have all the latest updates so we don’t waste any time on working around any fixed bugs (for example).

Many AmigaOS core developers and beta testers will be attending AmiWest 2013. This is your chance to chat face to face with the experts that are building and maintaining the genuine Amiga Operating System. Hyperion Entertainment is also sponsoring the show and will have a table setup with various AmigaOS-based systems on display. See you there!

Steven Solie
AmigaOS Development Team Lead