@All

Just received my module today.
Will rebuild the system very soon.

As I have not followed forums about AOS4 final and my system is still update4, my question is: is Final so different from Update4 to justify reinstalling it (I'm lazy and update4 is just good to me)?

Bye,
TMTisFree

Hi Chris

Good to hear that this has been furthered, I tried one of the alphas out ages ago but it stumbled very quickly over something in my (existing) E code.

Can this version cope with most E code without (major) modification? If so, I might try running Facts through it again.

Chris

@Snuffy

There was multiselection turned on on the poll. We're not giving up on Mattathias, we just needed to start over to be able to support the new extension format in development.

As for sdlBasic, it works and so on, but it isn't syntax compatible with AmosPro. I need something that's compatible with Amos for a project of mine. sdlBasic needs a compiler also, but once we get Mattathias rolling, it will be easy to slap another parser on the front-end of it to make sdlBasic compilation a reality as well.

Hi @Raziel

It sounded like normal 'coronet' to me.

@Snuffy
Yes, still 68k , but it is MUCH faster than older 68k releases. I decided to release this first Beta as-is, rather than delay it until I managed to make it PPC native. Rest assured that going PPC native is a top priority now!

Hi @ChrisH

A nice news article!! I hope this new development helps Chris Perver's "EvenMore" for an OS4 version.

Is it still running in 68K?

@AJS
Aaargh, not THAT question . Everyone you ask will probably have different opinions about every language! So on the understanding that this is just my opinion:

The difficulty of a language is strongly related to whether or not it uses pointers. Pointers give great power & efficiency, but they also make a language harder to learn, and easier to crash. But if you learn to use pointers, you probably won't want to stop using them.

The most well-known language to use pointers is C or C++. It is probably also the worst language to try to start learning to program on! PortablE is probably the simplest language available that uses pointers. Even simpler languages, like BASIC, REBOL & ARexx, do not use pointers. Java is a half-way house, in that it uses a simplified (but safer & easier) form of pointers.

But Java is not available for the Amiga. Neither is a recent version of REBOL. ARexx is a bad language to learn to program, because it does not force structure - which makes it as bad as BASIC.

So in my opinion, once PortablE is developed a bit further, it will be the best compromise between overly complex languages like C/C++, and overly slow/simplified languages like BASIC, especially for the Amiga. And you can bet that several people will disagree with me!

IF ANYONE WANTS TO DEBATE THIS FURTHER, PLEASE START A NEW THREAD, OR SEND ME A PRIVATE MESSAGE INSTEAD!

Hi @Samurai_Crow

I didn't answer to any of them. Lookes like an 'agenda', rather than a poll. SDLBasic was derived from WXBasic and WXWidgets iirc. I still would like to see a decent editor for SDLBasic.
I guess I misread the Mattathias postings. I thought you were giving up.

@ChrisH

Hi Chris, How easy is it for complete beginners? Is it suitable or does it have a steep learning curve?

@ChrisH

Well done Chris! You've clearly put a lot of time and effort into this.

I've never touched E before, but it looks intriguing. When it goes public I'll be sure to try it out.

Cheers,
Bean.

You can find some old discussions of PortablE here:
http://amigaworld.net/modules/newbb/v ... c&topic_id=18639&forum=15
http://amigaworld.net/modules/news/ar ... toryid=3202&order=0#41488

And I have made the manual available in several other formats:
PortablE.pdf (PDF format)
PortablE.odt (Open Office format)
PortablE.doc (MS Word format)

I thought I should make a small mention that my PortablE programming language has finally gone into Beta testing

What is PortablE?
It is a complete rewrite of the (once very popular) AmigaE programming language. Unlike traditional compilers it outputs code in C++ or other languages, with all your comments & formatting intact! It adds many modern new features, such as type checking, while trying to stay fairly backwards compatible.

As the name implies, the aim is to make it portable across many OSes, languages & CPUs, although currently it is limited to OS3 & OS4. This portability aim means that compatibility with the old AmigaE is not as high as it could be.

You can read the manual here.

What do you mean by Beta?
It has most bugs fixed, certainly all the ones that I could find. And it is close to being "feature complete", although it still has a few things missing (which I hope will be added sooner rather than later).

Where can I get it?
Please join the AmigaE mailing list, and ask for me for it there:
http://www.freelists.org/list/positron

What are the highlights of PortablE?
Compared to AmigaE, too many to list here! Even the pretty large manual struggles to cover everything. But here are a few examples:

* A fully automatic module compiling system, so you don't need any Make files or IDEs!

* Can generate code for both OS3 & OS4. Support for more OSes to be added later.

* Completely type checked, which makes it much easier for beginners to learn, and also much better for large object orientated projects. And type checking was really needed for the various kinds of lists, immediate lists, typed lists, copies of lists, strings, e-strings, etc, because before it was very easy to make mistakes.

* The type checking is better than you get in Java or C++, so it should get in your way less. One reason people liked AmigaE was that it didn't have a type system to annoy you. I hope to strike a balance between those two extremes!

* Rather better & more accurate error reporting, although I'm sure this can be improved even more.

* Much better support for modern Object Orientation (OOP), if you like that sort of thing (I do!). And OOP is far easier to learn & use, because of the type checking.

* Fixes lots of silly limitations of AmigaE, e.g. Globals can be declared anywhere, as can objects. e.g. RAISE works with user procedures *and* methods. e.g. You can type NEW 'string' to create an e-string copy.

How do you pronounce PortablE ?!?
You do ask difficult questions! While you could say "portable E", I tend to just say "portable".

It's name was really a play on words, but one I didn't think too hard about how you should pronounce. We already had "AmigaE" & "CreativE", so "PortablE" was about as far as my dim imagination went!

@T_Power

yes it runs under E-UAE and OS4 but the sound is crap without correct sound its just not the same

@Severin

Ooops, I have just uploaded a screenshot of Battlechess running under E-UAE, BattlechessII runs fine too. Please keep your youngster away from your machine -:).

The screenshot is in window mode, it is running from HD (not adf), runs very well indeed.

Enjoy the memories.


ace

Hi,

BattleChess was THE chess game back then.

I started playing that game in the age of 6.

Of course I still load it from time to time and play a match or two.

But I have a huge complain, when I set up the game and place cpu above/and level 3 the game is slower than death!
I have load it from DF0: on an A500+, I have load it directly from ram, I have installed it and run it from WHDload on an A1200, I have tried to do the same on various winuae cfgs on the pc side but the problem resists!
I have downloaded the same version of the game for DOS and it?s even slower!
(Btw, accidently I had downloaded and the remake of BattleChess!)

Anyway, if a port is going to occur I hope that someone knows how to speed up the chess engine..

Bye!

@T_Power

NO WAY is that even remotely possible...

The 10 year old would start hogging the A1, and the 4 year old Outcast would throw tantrums and sit in the corner sulking after the tears have dried up...

@magic

Congrats!!!
I c it's good to have daddy in the crew of the site. Youngest official Amigan

@AmiKit

You can't. Well except by keeping you browser open ;)

@Samurai_Crow

Ahh sorry about that, they are supposed to show up on the front page by default. Simply forgot to activate them.

How can I save my theme preferences?