
AmigaDOS Command Reference - doener
http://wiki.amigaos.net/wiki/AmigaOS_Manual:_AmigaDOS_Command_Reference
======
anexprogrammer
Apart from wondering where this sprang from, if anyone wonders why AmigaDOS
was such an ugly fit with the rest of exec and written in BCPL not C:

They'd contracted a SV company to produce CAOS, to a spec of Carl Sassenrath -
the creator of exec (OO multi-tasking kernel). As deadline got closer and
closer it was clear it wasn't happening, or even close. It was meant to get
resource tracking and some other features to integrate with exec.

Edit: Found the spec and story of CAOS:
[http://www.thule.no/haynie/caos.html](http://www.thule.no/haynie/caos.html)

It got AmigaDOS - a port of Tripos from UK company Metacomco. It got that
because no one else they asked believed they could deliver anything in the
remaining time. That's why there was all the BCPL weirdness with DOS.

~~~
a_thro_away
Thanks for that; that was so difficult for then young, untrained me to get my
head around, as well as reading the Amiga Reference Manuals - it was all so
foreign.

~~~
anexprogrammer
Tripos started on PDP11, but had already been ported to 68k - just needed the
exec glue code. Don't think the story ever properly came out but you get the
impression it was the week or weekend before. :)

The weird data thing was because of BCPL language - it only understood words,
not bytes.

------
magoon
I hadn't realized how ahead of its time the Amiga was for a personal computer:
TCP/IP, MIDI, SCSI, REXX, (screamtracker) MODs.

~~~
jandrese
I suspect this is a reference for a much later version of the OS. You probably
wouldn't see all of these commands on a machine from the Amiga's heyday.

~~~
a_thro_away
The A2000 was in it's heyday, I think; you would see most of those commands
(or their equiv) with an Amiga A2000 with the Amiga LANCE ethernet board A2065
and AS225 TCP/IP option, or maybe even the Amiga UNIX; there was even a DECNet
stack which worked quite well... AREXX was always there, right? There were
many SCSI commands as well to support the A2000 Zorro SCSI board.
"bigroadshow"? it was apparently part of the TCP/IP stack. I guess it just
depended on which system, boards, and options you bought at the time.

~~~
icedchai
ARexx wasn't included with the OS until 2.0. You could buy it as a third-party
add on for 1.3 and earlier.

~~~
ekianjo
2.0 was already in the amiga 500 plus and that was still very early in the
life of the Amiga.

------
cha-cho
It's been quite a while (the ole 2500 is in storage) but it seems like a
person could change directories without the "CD" command. Just type the path
in the CLI, hit return, and you moved to that directory. edit: Likely thinking
of the "implied CD" mentioned in the link.

~~~
bwldrbst
That's true (I've actually got an amiga shell window open in an emulator on
another workspace right now...) - the CD command is only needed in cases of
ambiguity.

I hope you removed the clock battery from your A2500 before storing it. By now
it would have started leaking corrosive gunk, a very common cause of death for
these old machines.

~~~
cha-cho
Nuts. I don't think I removed the battery and it's been in storage for almost
ten years. Then again if it can survive me naively washing the motherboard
with a garden house and letting it dry in the sun, I think the Amiga gods will
keep the battery intact for me. I hope so anyway.

~~~
bwldrbst
If you have the opportunity, it's worth checking it and cleaning it up.

I didn't know about this problem at the end of the 90s when I stopped using my
A4000 and the battery destroyed the motherboard.

------
csixty4
I'm not sure why this is on the front page of HN. But I'm starting to mess
around with Aros so this might come in handy I guess. Thanks!

~~~
wprapido
many of us HNers were / are amigans. some still owe them or at least use an
amiga emulator. the amiga community is still alive and kicking. don't mind the
impact amiga had on computing

~~~
jupiter2
As a non-amigan but a huge fan of alternate OSes, I am constantly impressed by
the enthusiasm and energy you guys still have for this system. It's contagious
in a non-annoying way. I upvote interesting Amigan stuff whenever I come
across it.

As an old-school DOS user, AmigaDOS, which I wasn't familiar with, looks
fascinating. I'll have to see if it's available next time I boot _Icaros
Desktop_.

~~~
wprapido
welcome to the club! AROS does have a decent amigaDOS support

------
Jaruzel
I've been hosting a similar site for years now, but in a more Amiga-Friendly
browser format (basic HTML):

[http://www.jaruzel.com/projects/AmigaDOS-Guide-
Help/index.ht...](http://www.jaruzel.com/projects/AmigaDOS-Guide-
Help/index.html)

There's also a zipfile for download.

------
mortenlarsen
Someting is messed up on that page:

    
    
      COUNTLINES
      Binds device drivers to hardware.
    
      CPU
      Counts how many lines a file is made of.

------
snvzz
Used to be a nice documentation site, until they decided to cover AmigaOS4,
ditching 3.

------
watmough
I still have a couple boxes of Amiga floppies. Including the source to NewTek
DigiView capture software in 68000 assembler hilariously enough.

Anyone know if there's a way to read them?

~~~
textfiles
Here and ready to help. Jscott@archive.org

~~~
watmough
I'll dig 'em and out and see what I have.

