Amiga Programming

Hello to all,

I'm new here and new to the Amiga. I've watched some AmigaOS videos on YouTube. Those were too exciting, and pushed me to buy a Sam System.
Since I'm also new on programming I want to ask what language is best for developing on the Amiga. C or C++? Is StormC 4 available on some store? What's the difference between StormC4 and CubicIDE, which one do you recommend?

thanx in advance

Donald

@McDonald

You don't need stormC4 and CubicIDE, all you need is GCC and notepad

Download the OS4 SDK and start hacking.

"C" it takes a lot of experience to make some useful, and SDK does not describe every thing, you will need ask for help to get started.

Check out:

http://utilitybase.com/

@McDonald

Hi!

Welcome to the Amiga world

I personally love programming on the Amiga, but I guess it might be an acquired taste.

I use the CodeBench IDE. The current public release has a few bugs and quirks, but the next version will improve on it a LOT.

@McDonald

Greetings McDonald, you surely belong in a fairytale regarding your progress to the AmigaOS platform I'm not complaining just didn't expect someone to just jump straight on it without some prior history...

Anyway, Enjoy, you won't regret it!!!!

And yes, with my limited compiling expertise I use gcc also...

@McDonald

Storm C version 4.0 only works on AmigaOS 3.9 and earlier on the Motorola 680x0 series processors and only treated PowerPC chips as a coprocessor. AmigaOS 4.x has its own version of GCC for the PowerPC processor which is a free download.

The 680x0 based Amigas had a custom graphics chipset that is not available for the Sam 440 series so you might end up running a cross-compiler and EUAE to emulate the old graphics chips, if that's what interests you about the Amiga.

@McDonald

Hi, read here:

http://shinkuro.altervista.org/amiga/guida/english/index.htm

@McDonald

Download the latest sdk. I use notepad and gcc for what i do. There are irc channels you can ask in and there is www.utilitybase.com which is a forum for amiga devs.

Oh,and welcome and you'll enjoy the sam. I do.

@McDonald
I assume that you are already familiar with C/C++? If not then there are other languages available for programming the Amiga.

Anyway, C is by FAR the most common way of programming the Amiga (all it's APIs are basically procedural, even if OS4 attaches them to one object per library). This should not stop you writing C++ programs, but the standard functions are just C.

The free OS4 SDK comes with GCC (and G++), so you just need a decent text editor to get started. Commercially I recommend CygnusEd if you can live without syntax highlighting, otherwise CubicIDE. But be aware that there ARE free alternatives which offer syntax highlighting (or not). I wouldn't touch OS4's built-in text editor (too basic).

There is a free SDK viewer somewhere, to make searching the SDK's docs easier.

I would not bother with StormC v4 - hasn't been developed in a long time (AFAIK).

@McDonald

A new user? Wonderful. Welcome!

The SDK is here.

As an editor I would use GoldED (not sure if still in development but it is an extremely nice editor with syntax highlighting, 3 different copy+paste buffers etc.), and as was
said gcc as compiler (gcc supports both C and C++). You might also check www.os4depot.net and www.hyperion-entertainment.biz for SDK and additional libraries archives.
You will find a lot of library packages known from Linux and other Operating systems in Amiga OS 4 versions there (SDL, a GL implementation, ODE, libjpeg, libpng, zlib,...).

Depending on preference you can either compile on your Amiga (which enables you to use
GoldED which I find personally ways superior to any programmer editor on PC platforms) or
you can compile on a PC (Win/Linux/etc.), connect the two machines using Samba. This
has the advantage that if you produce some crashy executables, you can reboot your Amiga
without having to open all editor windows again or losing your shell's history. Both has it's
advantages and disadvantages.


MagicSN

@MagicSN

GoldED/CubicIDE has hugh problems with the new SDK, its next to useless as IDE for OS4.x (but is still a nice editor).

@McDonald

Good day McDonald,

Since you said you were also new to programming, I thought I'd recommend the basics...

1) Kernigan, Brian and Dennis Ritchie, The C Programming Language

2) Kochan, Stephen, Programming in C (the book I am using to learn C on AmigaOS4)

and for advanced Amiga programming...

1) Amiga Developer CD v2.1 (older but most up-to date ROM Kernel Reference Manuals)

2) Amiga Style Guide (great reference for any programmer of any OS for building easy to use interfaces).

@ZeroG

Hmmm ? I'm using it daily for all my developments with the latest SDK without any problem at all. What sort of problems

@abalaban

AFAIK, the C/C++ addon install script of Cubic wont work with the latest SDK. Problem for new customers is, that there is only the newest SDK available for download, so no pre install with the older one is possible -> no functional C/C++ addon for OS4 yet.

Is your first name "Ronald" ?.

Welcome as a new user :)

@all

Thanx a lot for all the answers, suggestions and the warm welcome.
I'll try look into each of your answers.

@xeron
CodeBench looks very interesting. I found its very informative website, but no link where I can download it from. It seems like I have to contact the author.

@Slayer
Ooh there is some history! I remember playing DefenderOfTheCrown back in 1989..

@Samurai_Crow
Thanx for the explanation but as far as the internet tells, there is no more 680x0 harware being build? Please correct me if I'm wrong. I bought a Sam, so for what I can tell, ATM I see no point in learning to code for past hardware.

@ShInKurO
Thanx will look into that.