Get a GoStats hit counter
web page last updated Wednesday 26th November 2003 night
==== wed.26.nov.2003.pm =====
A 68040 FPU version is now available, download it
here.
Decompress it:
lha -xendar x gs8bin_040fpu.lha gs8:
to get gs8:bin/gs_2n which is in fact a 68040 FPU noixemul
version despite the name. This will override your existing version so
rename that away.
To simplify web-page navigation, all new versions of the program will be downloadable from the homepage manual.
==== tue.9.sep.2003.3am =====
Someone requested a no-FPU version of gs8, somehow I forgot to make an up to date version available. Anyway you can download an optimised 68020 noixemul NO-FPU version of the improved gs8 mentioned on wed.20.aug below:
ie this is a fully up to date no-FPU version generated on Monday night.
Rename your existing gs_2n, if any, if necessary,
and then decompress thus:
lha -radex x gs8release_020nofpu.lha gs8:
to get gs8:bin/gs_2n.
I timed how long it took to generate this: 17 hours to do the
full compile plus 15 minutes to link the program.
While gs8 is being generated I cannot use my computer
for anything else because gcc and its friends
will use any excuse to crash the setup and invalidate a drive.
eg if I even look at YAMs icon,
gcc starts preparing to nose-dive into the abyss.
The program would be generated in less than 10 hours if it were an
unoptimised version. Anyway you can
probably understand why during development I generally only work with
unoptimised versions.
A no-FPU version is probably the most important version as it really will run on all classic Amiga setups, so perhaps in future this will be the default version. So many different things to think about,
==== wed.20.aug.2003.#?am =====
GREATLY IMPROVED VERSION NOW AVAILABLE FOR DOWNLOAD:
gs8release.lha, all other versions have been removed as they are no longer up to date. Only when the main optimised 68020 fpu noixemul version has fully stabilised will other versions be made available, although I will probably also make available a no-fpu version.
Newest viewer features: for graphics cards you can now view in colour on a 256 colour WB, also now available are depth-8 colour custom screen viewers. Previously these features were only available for AGA, but as someone with a Picasso card requested these features they now exist.
Newest Turboprint features: the Turboprint specific command line options have finally been reactivated. Trying to reconnect these without malfunction the official GS way would have been a total nightmare instead they are reactivated by a fairly straightforward hack.
==========================================================
tue.5.aug.2003.530pm: Regarding new features for Picasso: the colour + b/w WB viewers for 256 colour WB functioned correctly, however some new problems emerged for at least the 16-bit-WB gray + b/w WB viewers, so further code changes and debug are being done to fix this before I can upload it.
I have now also put in a depth-8 colour custom screen viewer for Cybergraphics. :previously this option was only available for AGA. The tricky thing for such changes is the program flow logic rather than the feature itself. :the program follows a fairly complicated decision procedure to deal with all the different exceptional cases, eg depth-8 Cyber custom gray viewer requires graphics.library whereas the depth-16 version of this requires completely different cybergraphics.library calls.
Making these alterations seems to amount to making very carefully placed patches. Its about making the right patch to the right place. Select the wrong place for the patch and the required patch becomes quite horrendous. Patching seems to be an art in its own right.
sat.2.aug.2003.1230am: unwise to make promises! The standard memory overhead mentioned on Tuesday below unfortunately doesnt leave enough memory for the viewers to function on my machine so I am backtracking on that promise.
I intend to only upload versions which run all features on all machines.
I think that as the program is still taking shape I will now only have one download version. Otherwise every time I make a change I have to update all the versions which is too much effort.
In the meantime I am modifying the viewers for the special case of Picasso 256 colour WB's. ie to allow a colour viewer on a 256 colour WB. This facility is present for AGA however making the AGA colour WB viewer available for Cyber has proved tricky. Anyway I think I have done it and have sent it to a Picasso owner to test out. Provided it runs correctly on his machine then I will upload it. It certainly runs fine on my AGA machine.
I have put in other improvements such as env variable whooshw
makes the custom viewers use the Text Overscan dimensions as specified
via Prefs/Overscan instead of the nominal dimensions as currently happens.
Thus if you go down the screen list via Prefs/Overscan then the viewer will
fill very neatly the monitor!
These are technical tweaks which produce a better viewer experience.
===============================================
============================================
Tue.29.jul.2003 night:
The new version is now ready, I will in a few days make a standard memory overhead version available: this will be fast on eg 68060 setups with lots of memory.
Download new version gs8release.lha,
this has sufficiently many improvements to be redated, so this is the "Tuesday 29th July 2003" version. The new features are not yet in the other versions.
==========================================================
Tue.29.jul.2003: A lot of improvements to the viewers are coming, this is the reason for the delay to Sun.27 info below. Currently I am trying to fix some problems I ran into while trying to improve AmigaOS printing via gs8. I will try to generate a standard memory overhead version of the program. This may be very fast on 68060 setups with a lot of memory.
Sun.27.jul.2003: the tweaked version mentioned below on Fri.25.jul has been done. However by improving things for AGA I have run into some new problems, so I need to fix these things before I can make an upload. See AGA viewer feedback page for further info.
Fri.25.jul.2003:
I am generating a cleaned up and tweaked version of the main release, hopefully to upload it by tomorrow, possibly tonight.