Subject: REVIEW: Amiga Developer CD version 1.1
From: [email-masked] (Markus Illenseer)
Date: 8 Jul 1996 14:41:05 GMT
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.reviews

PRODUCT NAME

	AMIGA Developer CD V1.1

BRIEF DESCRIPTION

	Official Developer CD-ROM from Amiga Technologies for the Amiga
Computer.

AUTHOR/COMPANY INFORMATION

	Name:		Amiga Technologies GmbH
	Address:	Berliner Ring 89
			64625 Bensheim
			Federal Republic of Germany

	World Wide Web: http://www.amiga.de/

LIST PRICE

	DM 25.- (about 17$US)

	I got the CD for DM 18.- (about 12$US)

DISTRIBUTION

	Main places to buy the CD-ROM currently are:

	USA:

		Amiga Library Services
		610 North Alma School Road , Suite 18
		Chandler, Arizona 85244-3687
		USA

		Phone/Fax: (602) 917-0917

	Germany:

		Stefan Ossowski Schatztruhe
		Gesellschaft f|r Software mbH
		Veronikastra_e 33
		45131 Essen
		Germany

		Phone: +49 201 78 87 78
		Fax: +49 201 79 84 47
		Web: http://www.schatztruhe.de/

DEMO VERSION

	None

SPECIAL HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS

	HARDWARE

		Needs any Amiga equipped with a CD-ROM drive such as
		A570, A1270, CDTV, CD32 or any supported third party
		CD-ROM drive.

		Needs at least 512KB of RAM.  Recommended are at least
		2MB of RAM, best are 5 to 8MB.

		As some of the software package are intended to be
		copied or installed to hard disk if used more than once
		in your lifetime, you would be in need of a hard drive.

	SOFTWARE

		Requires at least WB 1.3, works fine with WB2.x;
		highly recommended is WB 3.0 or WB 3.1.

		Requires a suitable CD-ROM filesystem such as
		Asimware, AmiCDFS, AmiCD-ROM, Babel CDFS, Xetec CDFS.

COPY PROTECTION

	None.  You are requested to accept the Copyrights though.

MACHINE USED FOR TESTING

	Amiga 3000/25, 16 MB Fast RAM, 2 MB Chip RAM.
	A3640 CPU board
	A2065 Ethernet board
	AmigaDOS 3.1 and NetBSD-Amiga 1.1

	(...and several GB hard drives, CD-ROM, tape, graphic board, etc.,
	not important for the test.)

INSTALLATION

	Other than setting up the CD-ROM device driver on your Amiga is not
required to access the CD.

REVIEW

	Version 1.1?  I haven't seen Version 1.0 yet!

	This is about what I thought the first time I got the CD. Although
I knew what sort of material is on the CD, and how the CD was created, the
CD still left some surprises to discover.

	The Amiga Developer CD was compiled by Olaf Barthel.  Olaf is
known for his (in-) famous terminal program "TERM" and of course for
lot of other stuff.  In the time being, Olaf worked as consulting for
Amiga Tech.  Among other, far more important subjects, he started to
compile this CD-ROM.  When the VisCorp deal with Escom came up, his
project nearly died.  Because of high demand and many requests, a
solution had to be found.  Stefan Ossowski, publisher of many other
CD-ROM projects, such as Meeting Pearls, Gateway!, and Aminet, started
to help to make the CD round.  During months of legal suits, copyright
checks, trademark checks and much more, the CD was again revisited by
Olaf.  When nobody believed that the CD might come true, it came to
the surface.

	You can imagine that this CD was awaited long ago, and
supposed to contain quite a lot of important material.  The problem
was that most of the material published by Commodore Amiga before was
designated for certified developers and not the end user.  Some of
material of interest for developers is still not on the CD: for
example, the ROM Kernel Reference Manuals for OS and KS 3.x.  Olaf -
and of course Amiga Tech - had to sort out material which no longer
makes sense to be on a CD, and to find material which certainly is a
must for a developer CD.

	So, what's on the CD at all?

	The CD contains 50MB of material "only," most of which is guides,
references, manuals, technical notes and such.  I will not cite the entire
directory structure, but mention the most important areas.

	- CD32 developer package - including the goodie "BuildCD" CD writer
		package.

	- Quite a lot of 3rd party material from well known contributors such
		as Ralph Babel, Heinz Wrobel, Angela Schmidt, Mike Sinz,
		Dale Larson and Michael B. Smith.

	- Information, guides and "codeguide" for upcoming versions of the
		AmigaOS.  Thinking of the PowerPC mainly, this section
		covers "musts" and "don't!" for programmers.

	- Developer packages:
		- BOOPSI gadget classes
		- (Big) Part of the NDK 2.04
		- Complete set of IFF forms, including all IFF packages
			published by Commodore Amiga.
		- MIDI developer kit
		- SANA-II networking developer kit
		- Installer V43.1

	- NDK 3.1, Native Developer Kit

	- The AmigaMail Vol. 1 and Vol. 2 covering all important stuff for
		developers from 1987 to 1993

	- Includes and Autodocs

USAGE

	The CD is easy to use.  The supplied Guide file let you browse
through the entire archive without needing to touch more than
one icon.  All material is well documented, or is documentation itself
for a supplied package.

	The instructions how to use those packages are detailed and
explain how to install, program or work with this package.

DOCUMENTATION

	The CD contains a small insert describing the legal nature of
the CD. The back describes the content of the CD.

	There is no explanation how to use the CD, or where to
start. It is silently assumed that you know how to deal with CD-ROMs
and how to click on a README Icon.

LIKES

	I like the material supplied on the CD.  This material was not
accessible to non-certified developers before.  For instance the
AmigaMail and the NDK 3.1 provide you with a huge knowledge base.

DISLIKES AND SUGGESTIONS

	Well, I would have expected more demonstration packets. There
are few source code examples supplied, mostly fragments which do not
work unless implemented in a real program.

	I should mention that even if the Includes are supplied, a
compiler isn't. You are left alone to get this one. This is not a true
dislike, but a mere fact.

	A suggestion would be to include more debugging tools. I miss
important ones. AT missed the opportunity to define "standards" for
debugging tools available as 3rd party product. This might be a
SnoopDos, ARTM, Xoper, and many more. There is _plenty_ of space on
the CD.

COMPARISON TO OTHER SIMILAR PRODUCTS

	There is only one CD you can compare this one to: the former
developer CD. Unfortunately I cannot complete this task because I
never was a certified developer and I never got ahold of the CD.

	I only can compare this CD with developer CD from other
computer companies.  For instance Apple distributes a CD-ROM to their
certified developers which contains by far more material, better
revisited and more documentation ever available for the Amiga.  The
same applies to Microsoft Windows 95 and Windows NT developer CDs.
All these companies live from their 3rd party software developers and
did a fine job to support them. The quality of the stuff exceeds the
quality of the Amiga Developers CD with ease. 

	On the other hand, you don't often get Developer Material for
a computer which is almost dead. 

BUGS

	There where no bugs I could find within the few	weeks I have
the CD now. There is only a saucer-cup full of programs, and they all
worked OK. As for the texts, I cannot say whether there are bugs or
not - far too much to read.

VENDOR SUPPORT

	There is no such support available.

WARRANTY

	Standard warranty is applied. This means, you get a new CD-ROM
if you can prove it arrived with a defect.

CONCLUSIONS

	Hard to say. I expected more. This CD comes too late. But it
came. I must admit that the supplied material is what I expected to
see, but I expected more than that.

	I give this CD a rating of 3 stars out of 5. Another star can
be achieved if you supply the long-awaited RKM 3. Yet another if they
supply more debugging and developing _tools_.

COPYRIGHT NOTICE

		Copyright 1996, Markus Illenseer

	This review represents my honest opinion; your mileage may
vary, so tell me about it!  If you use this review in any way -
republishing for example, the author requests at least a copy of the
used media.  Commercial reuse is prohibited unless written permission
is given.

	You can contact the author at:

		Markus Illenseer
		Rathenaustr. 75
		33102 Paderborn
		GERMANY

		[email-masked]
		http://www.teuto.de/~markus/

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