Hi there, just to ask: in order to hobby learn programming an AGA Amiga with C/C++ and Assembly what are the programming environments/tools you would suggest me to use?
What are the best guides, tutorials, technical reference books I can read?

I'm an experienced programmer as I did it as my main job for 22 years, I've mostly programmed in Visual Basic, but I have basic understandings of Amiga Hardware, C programming, Object Oriented programming and X86 assembly (Yes... I know... I know... but nobody teached 68K assembly at school).

Thank you in advance.

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God created Paula so that Allister Brimble and Dave Whittaker could do music

Check my Amiga gameplays (ITA)!

@ErikBauer

There are quite a few guides on assembler coding on youtube, most of them use asm-one and phxass that you can download from Aminet, and addition there is HiSoft DevPac3, that is commercial. For C, you have vbcc that you also can find on Aminet, and various incarnations of gcc, though the commercial SAS/C is preferred by many. In addition, there is also other languages that are popular, such as Amiga E.

A few links... :)

http://aminet.net/package/dev/asm/PhxAss
http://aminet.net/package/dev/asm/ASM-One
http://aminet.net/package/dev/gcc/ADE
http://aminet.net/package/dev/c/vbcc_bin_amigaos68k
http://strlen.com/amiga-e

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=amiga+programming

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B5D6A1D019D5D45BCC56F4782AC220D8B3E2A6CC

This might be too basic for you since you have extensive expirience, but Photon has made a very good step by step ASM coding tutorial for Amiga.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p83QUZ1-P10&list=PLc3ltHgmiidpK-s0eP5hTKJnjdTHz0_bW

@ErikBauer

The Amiga Autodocs are also very useful to have as a reference (just in case you don't already know about them): http://amigadev.elowar.com/

While the hardware reference unfortunately doesn't cover AGA hardware, the 3.5 includes and autodocs do, providing a handy reference for using graphics.library from C for example.

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@ErikBauer

AMIGA CODERS CLUB DISKS (assembler disk tutorials/ demo asm/copper code)
Amiga FTP mirrors Commodore_Amiga/Collection/Coverdisk/ACC-Preservation/

https://archive.org
Amiga C & assembler books

Amiga Books/magazines at the bombjack site

Devpack 3 disks (Assembler programming)

Developer suite
amidevcpp

English Amiga Board Server File repository

amigadevhelp
http://amiga.sourceforge.net/amigadevhelp/

Unfortunately no one maintains an updated developer suite for 3.x systems

Last edited by asymetrix on 02-Nov-2016 at 05:00 PM.

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@asymetrix

Os3 crosscompiler toolchain:

https://github.com/cahirwpz/amigaos-cross-toolchain

@ErikBauer
The official Amiga Developer CD has autodocs and lots of examples:

http://amigakit.leamancomputing.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=212

Last edited by Xenic on 02-Nov-2016 at 07:12 PM.

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X1000 with 2GB memory & OS4.1FE

you could also register to eab.abime.net
This might help you if you wann bang the HW using C http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=82180&highlight=the+star+frontiers

You can also use the WinUAE demo toolchain :
http://www.pouet.net/prod.php?which=65625

A bit like Photon but with less content : http://vikke.net/index.php?id=copperbars-1

http://assembly68k.blogspot.fr/2014/07/what-is-asm-eng.html (on the left and side for the rest)


Kamelito

Last edited by kamelit0 on 02-Nov-2016 at 07:48 PM.
Last edited by kamelit0 on 02-Nov-2016 at 07:26 PM.

Thank you all, I'll have a look :)

_________________
God created Paula so that Allister Brimble and Dave Whittaker could do music

Check my Amiga gameplays (ITA)!

@ErikBauer

Your request here is too generic in the sense that it is not clear which way you want to go:

1) AGA programming through OS API calls (standard OS applications)

2) Direct programming of the AGA chipset (applications that have direct access to the hardware)

They are different options and thus require a different knowledge in terms of languages, tools and the hardware itself.

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SAM440EP-FLEX @ 733 Mhz, AmigaOS 4.1 Update 1

Yes, you're right.
The idea would be to be able to bang the HW but at the same time have some handy OS API at disposal to handle things like HDD/CD file access. I admit ignorance so I do not know if it is even possible, so I'm asking for generic documentation.
Once I made my mind up I can ask more specific questions.

_________________
God created Paula so that Allister Brimble and Dave Whittaker could do music

Check my Amiga gameplays (ITA)!

@ErikBauer

Quote:

The idea would be to be able to bang the HW but at the same time have some handy OS API at disposal to handle things like HDD/CD file access.

In a game or demo is perfectly legal, for example, allocating memory and loading data through the OS library calls and then disabling the OS for direct hardware access ... .
I did this many times using C and the SAS/C compiler.

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SAM440EP-FLEX @ 733 Mhz, AmigaOS 4.1 Update 1

@Massi

Yes, it would be mostly for gaming. Question: is it possibile to bang the HW and in the meanwhile accessing to OS Library calls? I'm thinking a dynamic loading routine from HDD in order to pump up Sprites, Backdrops and Bobs in RAM dinamically a little short before they have to be displayed
(Similar to the trick used in Silkworm)

_________________
God created Paula so that Allister Brimble and Dave Whittaker could do music

Check my Amiga gameplays (ITA)!

@ErikBauer

In my C code for the demo scene, when directly accessing the hardware, the OS itself is disabled and I don' t use OS library calls until the OS is restored.

I guess Silk Worm does access the floppy disk drive at hardware level not through the OS.

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SAM440EP-FLEX @ 733 Mhz, AmigaOS 4.1 Update 1

@ErikBauer

Clearly, you need to enable and disable multitasking, when you need that.

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@NutsAboutAmiga

... that was unexpected... well, I'll see. For now it's just a concept of an Idea.
Surely while reading the techinical docs and learning things it will take shape.

Last edited by ErikBauer on 05-Nov-2016 at 09:18 AM.

_________________
God created Paula so that Allister Brimble and Dave Whittaker could do music

Check my Amiga gameplays (ITA)!

@ErikBauer

Some hardware has something.resource, by taking control over that something.resource, you are granted exclusive access to the hardware. The ciaa.resource for example, the issue with this is that now you have dependency on hardware component that might not always be there.

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@NutsAboutAmiga

Yes, that's understood. I guess/hope all AGA Amiga have the same chipset components (well, a part from the AKIKO chip used by CD32), this way I'll have something to rely on when banging the HW.
And I understand that the I/O devices would be different, that's why I'm willing to use OS Libraries to load data from disk.

My goal is to write something that runs on no less than an A1200 with 2+2Mb of RAM + HDD and takes advantage of anything more than that (More Fast RAM, faster CPU).

Last edited by ErikBauer on 05-Nov-2016 at 01:38 PM.
Last edited by ErikBauer on 05-Nov-2016 at 01:35 PM.

_________________
God created Paula so that Allister Brimble and Dave Whittaker could do music

Check my Amiga gameplays (ITA)!

@ErikBauer

You can take control of the screen. For example blanking it with LoadView(0) and using a function like OwnBlitter(). Or even using OS to setup screen and then using that as your base of operations. Then use DOS when you need.

In case you want to take over completely you can Forbid() and poke hardware as you like. Then Permit(). And use DOS to load in more data.

It can be easier using a hybrid of functions. For example the system will setup a copperlist for you at the user prefs screen offset. Rather than building your own on a default offset. And you can add your own instructions. You can open a backdrop window on a screen to get benefits of using screen bitmap but easily detecting keys. Or load a display in with graphics.library which will block all other screens.

@ErikBauer

Amiga 1200 with Fast RAM has cpu faster than chipset and if You target Amiga 1200 with Fast RAM or better You will end doing everything by cpu.
Because cpu is faster.
There is no reason to bang hardware when everything is done by cpu.
Use OS.

If You want to play with real true amiga retro You should target Amiga 500 with 1 MB RAM and fdd/gotek.
Make game on non dos disk - there is no problem with this we have gotek.
After booting take control on Amiga and don't use OS at all.
Just like in the good old days.