Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!cbosgd!ucbvax!bloom-beacon!athena.mit.edu!treese
From: treese@athena.mit.edu (Win Treese)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: M2Amiga demo disk problems (long)
Message-ID: <2012@bloom-beacon.MIT.EDU>
Date: 12 Dec 87 05:03:03 GMT
Sender: daemon@bloom-beacon.MIT.EDU
Reply-To: treese@athena.mit.edu (Win Treese)
Organization: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Lines: 78

Two and a half weeks ago, I ordered the M2Amiga demo disk.  It finally
arrived today.  Of course, I called them to complain this afternoon,
only to come home and find it.

"Pretty exciting," I thought.  "A chance to check out this supposed-to-be
wonderful new system."

Alas, it was not to be:

The package contained a single disk and a pamphlet on M2Amiga.  The pamphlet
described the advantages of Modula-2 and the features of this implementation
for the Amiga.  Still sounded good.  There was, however, no documentation
on how to run the demo.

"Hmm," said I. "Must be a self-explanatory demo on the disk."

But no.  First I tried to boot the disk, but it didn't work.  So I
booted my usual disk and started to look around on the demo disk using
the workbench.  One icon wanted to execute SYS:m2emacs so I could read
a file.  The other icons didn't work (it turns out you have to click on
the tiny white areas of those icons for them to work.  This was mentioned
in the documentation I couldn't get to because I couldn't find my past the
icons...)

So I switched to the CLI.  There were no useful files (e.g., "README")
at the top level, so I checked out the subdirectory M2AMIGA.  Finally,
a "README" file.  It told me that this disk wasn't bootable, and that
I should format a disk and run the program "DoMe" from the current
directory.

So I do this.  The "DoMe" program asks how many drives I have, asks to
put the newly-formatted disk in the boot drive, and promptly visits the
GURU.

"Maybe the new disk should be bootable," suggests one of my housemates.
So I reboot, run "install" and try again, also using a vanilla workbench 1.2
disk straight from Commodore-Amiga.

Now I get past the place where it GURU'ed the first time.  The next screen
displayed tells me that I need to run "install" on my new disk.  Thanks.
Then it grinds away for a while, and I end up with a bootable disk with
the demos on it.

So I boot it.  First time I try to do anything, it dies with a read/write
error.

I try to make another one.  5 attempts at this fail, all with the "DoMe"
program meditating.

"Well," I thought, "maybe I can put one together by copying the files over
by hand," and I give that a try.  Finally, I get another disk that I
can run with.

I boot that disk.  I now have to figure out how to run the editor, compiler,
and linker.  Fortunately, it's relatively straightforward for experienced
programmers used to obscure techniques.  Four hours after I started, I
have compiled one of the programs on the disk and it actually runs.

The editor seems to be derived from a relatively old microemacs, with
some extensions for handling Modula-2 (like auto-indent and chasing down
errors).  It was nowhere near as nice as, say, mg is these days.
It also runs in its own screen, so it's not easy to pop back and forth
between a CLI window to run the compiler in.

There doesn't appear to be a way to invoke the compiler and linker
from the editor, so another window is absolutely necessary.  The compiler
and linker must be run separately, so I figured I'd need to use 'make'
for anything useful.  The environment doesn't seem to be that much
easier to use than Aztec C, except for the minor editor hacks.  And any
emacs can be taught to do that...

After fighting with all this, I just can't see myself spending $250 for the
real product.  How's Benchmark Modula-2 look?

	Win Treese
	MIT Project Athena
	treese@athena.MIT.EDU
	...!{backbones}!mit-eddie!treese