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Events   Events : AmiWest2005- SACC report
   posted by SACC-dude on 27-Jul-2005 18:54:46 (6757 reads)
AMIWEST 2005, Final Information Release

Official AmiWest 2005 Show Report

Here is the official show report for AmiWest 2005, July 23rd, 2005 in Sacramento, California. Our webpage at http://www.sacc.org/amiwest is being updated with all the latest show information, including photos of the show. We encourage you to visit our site to see the rest of the current and future information. We will be moving our website server within the next two weeks and may be offline for up to two days sometime during that time. Just check back later if the site is unavailable during that time.

Amiga Forever,

Sacramento Amiga Computer Club
AmiWest 2005 Committee


AMIWEST 2005

. . . "and a good (and very informative) time was had by all."

AmiWest 2005 collected Amiga enthusiasts from all over the United States
and Canada into an energizing, friendly gathering of very creative people
in Sacramento, California, USA on July 23, 2005. Travel arrangements had
placed most of our show exhibitors and vendors in Sacramento the day before
the show and that gave us an opportunity to meet new friends and renew
acquaintance with old friends.

FIRST. . .

We want to thank the fourteen volunteer AmiWest 2005 staff members who made
this year's show possible. Specifically, they are:

Jack and Rita McCann, Roger Berry, Chuck Washburn, Bill Clay, Brian Deneen, Michael
Salcedo, Charles Pickrell, Bill Borsari, Ray Washburn, Dan Kloczko, Kenny Smith,
Bruce Duncan, and John Neill.

No AmiWest show would happen without the outstanding work that each of these
people did in their respective areas of responsibility. Special mention is due
to Chuck Washburn, our operations manager, who was liason with the Clarion
Hotel Cal-Expo and our exhibitors as well as managing our finances. A HUGE
AmiWest 2005 THANK YOU TO ONE AND ALL FOR A JOB WELL DONE!

NEW THIS YEAR

Four new features were part of AmiWest 2005.

The JOHN ZACHARIAS MEMORIAL EXHIBIT included photos of John, his personal
A1200, and his Amiga software package AEmail all on display . An AmiWest
co-founder, life member and past president of SACC, John passed away on
February 5, 2005.

UPGRADED PRESENTATION EQUIPMENT was purchased jointly by the Sacramento
Amiga Computer Club and AmiWest 2005. An Epson S3 video projector (switching
automatically between 15Khz video and any other horizontal scan resoution up to 92Khz) and a 4-monitor switch (with 10-foot SVGA) cables made it possible to switch the
projector between the four different computers in use for video presentation
during the show. The resulting brilliant presentation results added measureably to the impact of the show.

A FEATURED DEVELOPER PRESENTER in the person of Richard Drummond was also a
first for AmiWest. Most of our featured guest speakers have been outside
of the development community per se (i.e., company officers). It was very
enlightening to hear from Rich about both OS4 and his personal development projects, especially E-UAE for Linux.

THE JOHN ZACHARIAS MEMORIAL AWARD for outstanding technical assistance to
Sacramento Amiga Computer Club members was instituted this year. Our
webmaster Bill Clay was the first recipient. Bill also produced several
CD's of the month for SACC full of Amiga technical reference as well as website
snapshots of Aminet and provided Amiga One update CD's for our four Amiga
One machines. This award to Bill is particularly fitting in that he was
also a regular encourager to John during the more than two and a half years
John spent in the hospital before his passing. Thank you, Bill, for all that you do!

WHO ATTENDED?

In addition to Rich Drummond, Steve Solie and Bill Borsari were there as
part of the core OS4 developer/beta-tester development team. We estimate
that we had about 10% of the total world-wide OS4 test team here at AmiWest
2005! It was very enlightening to hear them talk development progress and
what remained to be done with OS4 before release. And it was the first
time for AmiWest that so many developers were present and participating in
our show. Perhaps others were there (unidentified to us) as well.

In addition to the OS4 developers, AmiWest 2005 attracted other significant
exhibitors as well. Many thanks to these exhibitors for providing product
to buy and interest in things Amiga to our show attenders:

+ Amiga UGN
+ Amiga Users of Calgary, Canada
+ Computer Connection
+ Grasshopper LLC (Pagestream)
+ Hyperion Entertainment
+ Mr. Zoil Enterprises
+ Sacramento Amiga Computer Club
+ Software Hut

As is customary for AmiWest, AmiWest 2005 also attracted a very creative
and eclectic group of attenders. We had people attending our show from
Massachusetts, Illinois, Arizona, all over California, Oregon, Washington
state, Indiana, and Ohio as well as Canadian visitors from British Columbia
and Alberta! And those were just the people that I met! Among them were
software developers, writers, graphics artists, gamers, engineers, hardware
manufacturers, and independent business people. They are very talented and
were there to support and find out more about Amiga.

AMIWEST DISCUSSIONS

Much of our discussion centered around the progress that has been made on
OS4 and software being created for it, since even the best hardware and OS
combination needs great software to run. Then there was the speculation
about when hardware that will run OS4 natively will become more generally
available. In this context of open discussion, several points came to
light:

1) Entry barriers to software developers need to be lowered to encourage
broadly based, decentralized software development. Essentially this comes
down to providing more visually-oriented tools for OS4 software
development. The development of a "new BASIC" for OS4 was also proposed as
a way to encourage people who own Amiga Ones to write their own software.

2) Hardware development and production needs to be ramped up. The current
environment of uncertainty regarding hardware production is having a
chilling effect upon attracting new users to OS4. Existing hardware is
running OS4 well and can be produced in greater quantities as more
financial support for the partners (in the form of both product orders and
investment) is forthcoming.

3) OS4 needs to be released as a product. While developers understand the
shortcomings of the current state of OS4, people are becoming more
enthusiastic about buying OS4 and recommending it to their associates and
friends. The alternative that Amiga OS4 represents in the marketplace is
a substantial one that needs to be marketed first and refined in later
releases.

4) More financial support for both hardware and software developers needs
to be forthcoming. Independent developers could be working on "next generation"
desktop hardware and production if two conditions are met: a) licenses
from the partner companies and access to needed technical information is
provided at reasonable cost, and 2) an encouraging development climate can
be created and maintained. In addition, software developers need to be
paid adequately and regularly for their work in order to move OS4 projects
from a "when there is time" status to a "top priority project" status.

In the context of these comments and the enthusiastic frustration expressed
by AmiWest 2005 banquet guests and speakers, a challenge was issued to the
assembled guests by SACC President and AmiWest committee member Brian
Deneen.
THE AMIWEST CHALLENGE

Our 50 banquet guests were challenged to provide some of the needed support
to encourage OS4 development and re-start Amiga One hardware production.
The challenge is simple:

FIRST, AmiWest 2005 attenders were encouraged to email the partner
companies regarding their willingness to purchase Amiga One hardware and
a released OS4. These are to be individual emails from real people who
have real money to spend on real products. This reality orientation will
give the partner companies a real idea of real sales potential and
encourage them to plan production and product releases accordingly.

SECOND, AmiWest 2005 attenders were encouraged to fund software development
by contributing at least five dollars US monthly to a central OS4 software
development fund, to be dispersed among the developers who are working so
hard (and often unpaid) because they see the potential in these projects.
Alternatively, people were also encouraged to contribute directly to developers they know personally. Millions of dollars are raised on the internet for causes of all kinds
every year. The cause of Amiga software development is certainly worth at
least five dollars a month (and, obviously, a lot more!). The old expression, "Put your money where your mouth is!," applies.

Of course, there are details to be worked out for the second challenge, but
the first challenge can commence immediately. Hopefully an outpouring of
support can be generated that will jump-start our favorite desktop Amiga
computer platform and encourage the partner companies (that is, Hyperion,
Eyetech and Amiga Inc.) to continue with the desktop OS4 for everyone.

Another announcement that was made at the AmiWest 2005 banquet regards the beginning of the Open Aladdin Project. Nova Design has announced that Nate Downes is heading up the Open Aladdin Project to buy all the current and projected future developments now in existence for Nova's Aladdin 4D so that development can continue for this great software package. All the details will be available soon on
openaladdin4d.org (currently under construction).

. . . AND AMIWEST 2006

As is customary at AmiWest, next year's show was announced. We are
considering a date change to a time with better weather and less cost.
Just about everyone I spoke with said, "See you next year!" Be sure to
watch for continuing information releases and plan to attend AmiWest 2006.
We have never cancelled a show and have always had significant guests for
the enlightenment of the Amiga community. Plan to attend now by reserving
your tickets now!

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
So remember,

AmiWest 2006 is announced! Keep watching these releases for a new date for
next year's show and tell everyone that you know - the Amiga and the Amiga
community is alive and well!

All AmiWest information release are copyright © 2002-2005 by Brian Deneen. All trademarks are the property of their respective owners and are used for information only.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Remember to watch our website at http://www.sacc.org/amiwest for continuing news
and information regarding AmiWest 2005 and AmiWest 2006!
    

STORYID: 2468
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PosterThread
tomazkid 
Re: AmiWest2005- SACC report
Posted on 27-Jul-2005 19:39:51
#1 ]
Team Member
Joined: 31-Jul-2003
Posts: 11694
From: Kristianstad, Sweden

Sounds like a good event


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Interesting 
Re: AmiWest2005- SACC report
Posted on 27-Jul-2005 19:41:33
#2 ]
Super Member
Joined: 29-Mar-2004
Posts: 1812
From: a place & time long long ago, when things mattered.

Quote:
Sounds like a good event


would still like to see the video.


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Hondo 
Re: AmiWest2005- SACC report
Posted on 27-Jul-2005 19:59:24
#3 ]
Super Member
Joined: 10-Apr-2003
Posts: 1370
From: Denmark

Wow! - I've been waiting for this show for ages, hoping some cool news would hit my eager Amigamind. I'm truely dissapointed about the lack of Amiganews. After all, this is the one show where Amiga.Inc should be present (if they have a physical representative) -

I'm still dreaming about Bill McEwen smashing through the wall in a gigantic 18-wheeler boing coloured monstertruck. Then jumps out and start shouting FANTASTIC news to everybody!

This years Amiwest was a big waiting turnoff. Maybe not for those attending the show, who probably had a great time, but for all of us who hoped for something else......like unveiling the mystery device perhaps......sigh!

Well at least there was a show. Great to see the community doing what their mothercompany should do. But at least Amiga.Inc should have attended......freaks!

Last edited by Hondo_DK on 27-Jul-2005 at 08:00 PM.


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wegster 
Re: AmiWest2005- SACC report
Posted on 27-Jul-2005 20:02:10
#4 ]
Elite Member
Joined: 29-Nov-2004
Posts: 8554
From: RTP, NC USA

Good write-up, although questionable as to if 2 people are '10% of the beta-testers worldwide'

Did tekmage save the video for release?

Also, you have mail regarding 'challenge #2.'


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Interesting 
Re: AmiWest2005- SACC report
Posted on 27-Jul-2005 20:36:45
#5 ]
Super Member
Joined: 29-Mar-2004
Posts: 1812
From: a place & time long long ago, when things mattered.

Quote:
Wow! - I've been waiting for this show for ages, hoping some cool news would hit my eager Amigamind. I'm truely dissapointed about the lack of Amiganews. After all, this is the one show where Amiga.Inc should be present (if they have a physical representative) -


From what I saw of the pics available, this was like several amiga clubs coming together. Fifty or more in attendance is good when you consider little new hardware etc. Keep in mind that the uA1 is double the UK price in the US! AmiWest was a 3-400 attendance show in prior years.


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MagicSN 
Re: AmiWest2005- SACC report
Posted on 27-Jul-2005 20:43:50
#6 ]
Hyperion
Joined: 10-Mar-2003
Posts: 708
From: Unknown

>development. The development of a "new BASIC" for OS4 was also proposed as
>a way to encourage people who own Amiga Ones to write their own software.

I don't understand this. Actually with C/C++ where you have tons of libraries which "simplify life" it's much better using C/C++ than using any other programming language. Basic is really a thing of the past IMHO... what would it offer what more modern languages don't ?

Steffen

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Interesting 
Re: AmiWest2005- SACC report
Posted on 27-Jul-2005 20:50:22
#7 ]
Super Member
Joined: 29-Mar-2004
Posts: 1812
From: a place & time long long ago, when things mattered.

@MagicSN

Quote:
I don't understand this. Actually with C/C++ where you have tons of libraries which "simplify life" it's much better using C/C++ than using any other programming language. Basic is really a thing of the past IMHO... what would it offer what more modern languages don't ?


might want to ask ssolie about this, it came from his presentation. " Looking for a very simple system to learn/start programing under OS4." Something along those words.

Last edited by Interesting on 27-Jul-2005 at 08:52 PM.


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wegster 
Re: AmiWest2005- SACC report
Posted on 27-Jul-2005 20:50:24
#8 ]
Elite Member
Joined: 29-Nov-2004
Posts: 8554
From: RTP, NC USA

@Steffen
Can't speak for the original intent, and I MUCH rather prefer C, C++, python, java etc to anything like BASIC, but I'm assuming this was meant towards the 'bedroom coder' who may yet find C a bit daunting.

Personally, I think Python in combination with a few AOS specific modules and a UI builder could be a really nice thing on AOS...


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GuruMeditation 
Re: AmiWest2005- SACC report
Posted on 27-Jul-2005 20:52:12
#9 ]
Regular Member
Joined: 6-Apr-2004
Posts: 281
From: Gothenburg, Sweden

the learning curve might be shorter with basic. But, to shorten that curve, I'd learn Python instead.. a modern language with lots and lots of online resources and it's in use today on many, many operating systems.


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sundown 
Re: AmiWest2005- SACC report
Posted on 27-Jul-2005 21:07:51
#10 ]
Elite Member
Joined: 30-Aug-2003
Posts: 5120
From: Right here...

So where are the photos, link please.

Last edited by sundown on 28-Jul-2005 at 03:00 AM.


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ssolie 
Re: AmiWest2005- SACC report
Posted on 27-Jul-2005 21:38:09
#11 ]
Elite Member
Joined: 10-Mar-2003
Posts: 2755
From: Alberta, Canada

@wegster
Quote:
Good write-up, although questionable as to if 2 people are '10% of the beta-testers worldwide'

Actually there were more than 2 beta testers present. We had spies in the crowd...


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wegster 
Re: AmiWest2005- SACC report
Posted on 27-Jul-2005 22:06:44
#12 ]
Elite Member
Joined: 29-Nov-2004
Posts: 8554
From: RTP, NC USA

@ssolie

Quote:
Actually there were more than 2 beta testers present. We had spies in the crowd...


Lol, and yet you somehow didn't get one of them to do the 'surprise speech'? (You know...'hey, do the speech and I'll give you an 'early early beta')


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TheDungeonDelver 
Re: AmiWest2005- SACC report
Posted on 28-Jul-2005 4:04:44
#13 ]
Cult Member
Joined: 17-Apr-2004
Posts: 815
From: Unknown

Quote:

I don't understand this. Actually with C/C++ where you have tons of libraries which "simplify life" it's much better using C/C++ than using any other programming language. Basic is really a thing of the past IMHO... what would it offer what more modern languages don't ?


I'll take a nice flat procedural language over one that freaks out if you've got a curly bracket in the wrong place any day of the week..!


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sundown 
Re: AmiWest2005- SACC report
Posted on 28-Jul-2005 4:22:51
#14 ]
Elite Member
Joined: 30-Aug-2003
Posts: 5120
From: Right here...

@wegster

Hehe, Steven never had time to find anyone else to do it. The big mistake was putting the show schedule on the screen where he could read it. They probably thought he would run if he knew about it.


@ssolie

Saw you in the bar when I left. Just wondering how many drinks it took to get over the shock.


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VidarL 
Re: AmiWest2005- SACC report
Posted on 28-Jul-2005 6:53:16
#15 ]
Member
Joined: 16-May-2003
Posts: 75
From: Unknown

Quote:
I don't understand this. Actually with C/C++ where you have tons of libraries which "simplify life" it's much better using C/C++ than using any other programming language. Basic is really a thing of the past IMHO... what would it offer what more modern languages don't ?


While I agree that Basic is basically a thing of the past, I don't agree that it's better using C/C++ than any other language.. C is not good enough for real object oriented programming, and C++ is WAY to complex for hobby developers to master. A managed language with bindings to Reaction/MUI is absolutely essential to increase the number of developers IMO.

Personally, I like Java and C¤ a lot. A port of Mono, with added binding to MUI, something like MUI#, would be cool..

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BigBentheAussie 
Re: AmiWest2005- SACC report
Posted on 28-Jul-2005 7:52:40
#16 ]
Super Member
Joined: 28-Oct-2003
Posts: 1690
From: Melbourne, Australia

@Steffen
Quote:
I don't understand this. Actually with C/C++ where you have tons of libraries which "simplify life" it's much better using C/C++ than using any other programming language. Basic is really a thing of the past IMHO... what would it offer what more modern languages don't ?


I find it a little scary that you don't get it......This isn't to tell you off or anything, but you must recognise that not everyone is an 37337 hax0r like you. (did I get it right?...sorry). We can't have the attitude that if you don't know how to program in C/C++ then you have no business writing AmigaOS software. Some people just don't want to invest the time and have already invested it in basic anyway.

There are a hell lot of a lot of Microsoft Visual Basic programmers out there and there is more growth there than arguably any other language(at least that I can see in the Australian job indexes). Some people prefer high level code and believe it to be more productive, and indeed, at least they are more productive in it. What if I don't want to know how to allocate memory and when to release it for instance? Why can't things be automated for me?....I don't care if you call me a sloppy programmer...I'm getting the job done and that is more important. And pointers and references....c'mon man. Really a lot of devs even consider C/C++ as a thing of the past.

And yes, while there are libraries that make C/C++ life easier you still have to know what they are and why you need them....which usually means you need to be a C/C++ programmer in the first place. I mean.....where the hell do you start? Where's the documentation?

I dunno, while BASIC is nice I wouldn't have put it at the top of the list, I would have put the creation of a Developers Book for AmigaOS or AmigaOS4 there at the top of the list. I think it better if it contains tips on maintaining compatability with Classic, MorphOS and AROS too for greater penentration and interest.

Oi....this was not intended to start a flame about what language is best. Just that there are others interested in an alternative and it would be great if they were catered for.

Ok. Going back to my happy place now.


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TrebleSix 
Re: AmiWest2005- SACC report
Posted on 28-Jul-2005 8:43:31
#17 ]
Elite Member
Joined: 6-Sep-2004
Posts: 3747
From: Pembrokeshire, Wales

@MagicSN

Quote:

don't understand this. Actually with C/C++ where you have tons of libraries which "simplify life" it's much better using C/C++ than using any other programming language. Basic is really a thing of the past IMHO... what would it offer what more modern languages don't ?


A quick turn a round for software development. Something like VisualBasic.Net would be great and anyone with a good idea for an application, could knock it up very easily. It's pretty easy to learn BASIC.


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sg2 
Re: AmiWest2005- SACC report
Posted on 28-Jul-2005 13:15:55
#18 ]
Regular Member
Joined: 16-Jun-2004
Posts: 223
From: Lyon, France

Steffen,

My 10 years old son has written various things in BASIC, like a PacMan game, while if he had to take care of pointers being valid, he would still be debugging his first "hello world"...

BASIC is the perfect language for beginners (made for that, eh).

We need a good BASIC indeed (plus, there is no reason it would not be open to using any os4's library interfaces).

Regards,
--
Stéphane Guillard

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Samurai_Crow 
Re: AmiWest2005- SACC report
Posted on 28-Jul-2005 15:53:54
#19 ]
Elite Member
Joined: 18-Jan-2003
Posts: 2320
From: Minnesota, USA

Hollywood and Hollywood Designer is good for beginners but a little short on some of the file handling functions. (It was not designed to handle databases.) It is Amiga specific but not OS4 specific, however.

As for the GUI and GUI builder for Python we would only need WXWidgets to be ported to the Amiga and we could then reuse WXGlade which was written in Python using the WX extension.

We'll see what Mattathias Basic comes with when Sidewinder comes out with it. It's supposed to be an object-oriented Basic compiler with a C backend. He's a little busy with work, however...

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Nibunnoichi 
Re: AmiWest2005- SACC report
Posted on 28-Jul-2005 21:49:08
#20 ]
Cult Member
Joined: 18-Nov-2004
Posts: 971
From: Roma + Milano, Italia

Any news on Pagestream? Was it demoed?


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