March 1989 MAGazine Volume 5 Number 3

CALENDAR OF EVENTS - MARCH 1989

Saturday, March 11, 1989 - 1:00 PM - the General Meeting will be held in the Parrish Building, Room #6, which is east of Jenning's Hall on the campus of State Technical Institute of Memphis. We will discuss the results of the second member survey (included within this newsletter) and other topics of general interest to the group. Todd Rooks will continue his lessons about the CSI. Todd is the chairperson for the New Users SIG.

Editor's Note:

Due to the fact that we did not purchase a modem in time for last month's newsletter, we were unable to retrieve this letter from the bulletin board. Even though some of the information is dated, we are printing the note this month. Maybe things will get better as time passes.

FROM THE PRESIDENT'S KEYBOARD

Well, hello, everybody! We're off to another year, the third year of the Memphis Amiga Group, and as we all know from another President, this should be a "kinder and gentler year". At least I hope everyone is kind and gentle to ME.

The last weekend of January, the club officers met for a couple of hours to plan for the coming months. I'm sure several of the officers will have their own comments and impressions of how the year will/should go. The new Secretary/Treasurer Charles Williams, had been laid up with the flu, and couldn't make the meeting, but has been in close touch with me and keeps coming up with more ideas than we can implement at present. As with all changes in administrations, the officers are settling into our jobs, and, it may take a little while to get the fit right.

We're going to try to keep the actual formal meeting to an hour or less, that should give plenty of time for the officer's reports, the main presentation, and a demo or two. We are going to try to keep the demos under ten minutes, which should give the viewers enough time to get an impression, and after the meeting there should be some time for socializing between members.

One idea for the meetings was to have a "theme" for each meeting. The meetings will be geared toward a particular aspect of computing with the AMIGA. Suggestions far topics are wordprocessors, drawing programs, music programs, telecommunications, etc. Once the topic is decided upon, at the general meeting, I would hope several individuals would volunteer to make up a panel that will extol the virtues of their particular favorite. This format would give everyone, old members and new, to hear the latest on a wide range of titles designed to do the same. thing, and to ask about problems they may be having, or want to avoid having. All the officers hope we get volunteers for these meeting ideas, since we cannot do all of it every meeting.

The February meeting's theme will be "in search of a theme" - for March. We hope to present some more of our ideas at the meeting and get some feedback from the club members.

One last change, and you can get back to the comics (HEY, THERE'S AN IDEA!!). If we get the meeting time down, then the SIGS can have a little while to get together after the general meeting and, if they need to, and want to, use the computer before we pack it back up. This would also be a great time for the old(er) members to hang around and make themselves useful by helping the newer) members with whatever problems they are having. Ah, yes, there's nothing more massaging to the ego than having someone come to you with a problem that you find out you can actually ANSWER! Remember, folks, you don't have to know a lot about it, if you can operate the machine or program enough to do what you want to, then you have it all over someone who is trying to figure out how to get it to do ANYTHING.

Well, that's all I have for now. See you at the meeting - Mar. 11th.

Broadus Weatherall

MAGazine

Memphis Amiga Group
Box 17426
Memphis, TN 38187

MAGazine is published monthly by the Memphis Amiga Group (MAG), a nonprofit organization offering assistance to fellow Amiga owners and those interested in the Amiga. Membership in the Memphis Amiga Group is available for an annual fee of $20 per family. Memphis Amiga Group officers for 1989 are:

PRESIDENT
Broadus Weatherall
(901) 767-9239

VICE PRESIDENT
Todd Rooks
(901) 373-0198

SECRETARY/TREASURER
Charles Williams
(501) 655-8777

LIBRARIAN
Bill Bowers
(901) 756-8196

MAGazine EDITORS
Sean & John Kiss
(901) 365-1244

MINUTES FROM THE FEBRUARY MEETING

by Charles Williams

Broadus Weatherall brought his first meeting to order as 1989 president of the Memphis Amiga Group. Broadus spoke about plans to have specific themes for future meetings. Vice president Todd Rooks reported that the MAG logo T-shirts and sweatshirts were finished and were being distributed. The jackets with the MAG logo did not print well and the cost was reduced from $29 to $22 for those who still wanted to purchase one. Refunds are available for cancelled orders on jackets.

Five blank disks were given away in a drawing of all survey forms turned in from the February issue of the club newsletter, MAGazine. Sean Kiss was the lucky winner. We'd like to thank everyone who participated by turning in their survey forms.

Famed demo-master Rick Johnson demonstrated Falcon, the latest jet fighter simulator. Extra memory and sound was provided by Broadus Weatherall's Starboard II and Bill Bowers' Bose speakers. Rick also gave us a very brief look at Tetris, a strategy game of Soviet origin.

Bill Bowers demonstrated Universal Military Simulator, an open- ended strategy-battle game that lets you play military strategist.

Bill's newness to the job and some technical difficulties delayed the release of the disk-of-the-month. Bill said that he'd try to put together two disks for the March 11 meeting.

The second half of the Byte-by-Byte videotape on Sculpt-Animate 4D was shown, and Todd Rooks conducted a lesson for beginners on using AmigaDOS and the CLI.

Three new members were enrolled: John Chiego, David Bath and Robert Goff. Welcome to the club. Two members renewed their memberships: John & Sean Kiss and Tim Burford. We're glad to see you stick around.

"BASIC" TUTORIAL #1 CIRCLE

Most people buy Amigas for their great graphics ability. Luckily, these graphics are extremely easy to implement in programs. However, the manual sometimes is not very clear. Therefore, in these tutorials I will attempt to assist the beginning programmer with this and other aspects of AMIGA BASIC.

The template for the circle command is as follows:

CIRCLE STEP (x,y),r,C,S,E,A

The STEP command and variables shown in capital letters are optional.

x = positions the circle x pixels over from 0 (the left) or from a previously created object if STEP were used.

y = positions the circle y pixels down from 0 (the top) or from a previously created objects if step were used.

r = the radius of the circle measured in pixels from (x,y), the center.

c = the color reference number, either one of the default values or referenced from a PALETTE command.

s and e = the beginning and ending angles measured in radians. If one value is negative, that end will be connected to the center of the circle. S and e are used mainly for construction of arcs.

a = the aspect ratio variable and is the ratio of the width of a pixel to its height. This is used to draw ellipses or more perfect circles if an Amiga monitor is not being used.

Examples:

CIRCLE (150,100),20

-> Prints a circle 150 pixels over and 100 pixels dcwn from (0,0), the upper left corner of the screen. It has a radius of 20 pixels.

Note: If an optional variable is to be left out but others succeeding it are in place, commas must be used to ensure the variable is used for the right purpose.

CIRCLE (150,100),20,3,,,.88

-> Prints the same circle, however, it is drawn using the third default color. If one is using a 640 by 200 pixel screen it should appear as an ellipse twice as wide as it is tall.

Sean D. Kiss

SCULPT ANIMATE 4

Update by X\Editor/ED

In last month's review I promised an update concerning the question of the relative speed of 3D versus 4D. I am happy to report that 4D is faster than 3D, but it depends on the complexity of the scene. Scenes with few faces process faster using 3D as can be seen in the following results.

SCENE

1 sphere
42 vertices
120 edges
80 faces
one light source
image size: full

RESULTS

As reported in last month's review, 4D's rendered results were much better than those obtained with 3D.

Now on to the big question, which is faster 3D or 4D? If the scene is large, large meaning many faces, and it has glass or mirrored surfaces, than there is no question but that 4D is faster. So much faster that I couldn't believe it. Check out these numbers.

SCENE

1131 vertices
3007 edges
1875 faces
1 light

RESULTS

How's that for a speed increase. Its almost like having a 3000 if there were such an animal.

TREASURER'S REPORT FEBRUARY

by Charles Williams

At the February meeting, 271 blank disks were sold for a total of $271, 17 club disks were sold for a total of $34 and 50 disk labels were sold for a total of $1.50. Dues collected for 3 new members and 2 renewals came to $100. Almost $80 was paid out in expenses for newsletter postage and refunds on prepaid logo jackets. I was reimbursed $350 for blank disks and office supplies. We paid Memphis State $37.50 for the use of their Delta Lounge for our Christmas party. The bulk of our checking account ($1600) was transferred to our savings account. Exactly $10.36 was left in checking, in the event of any fees, until that account can be closed out. That left us with a balance of $1875.73. We paid $25 in dues to the Memphis Area Computer Council (MACC). This allows us to exhibit in their next computer fair. We refunded Steven Nichols $25 for a disk order that was never delivered. I ordered and received 600 blank disks and 700 labels at $510, including shipping and handling, and also paid $6.23 for the little- baggier to put the disks in. We paid $1 for two money orders. The bottom line leaves us with $1308.50 and a paid up inventory of 600 blank disks. If blank disk sales continue to be as brisk as last month, then we most likely will need to keep at least $500 to $700 in the bank for cash flow purposes. This will still leave us with about $1000 to buy hardware. If you have any ideas in this area, please let Broadus know.

NOTICES

1. There will be 2 MAG Disks available at the March Meeting.

2. The Spring Computer Fair held at State Technical Institute is tentatively scheduled for Saturday, April 29, 1989.

3. The new mailing address for the Computer Club is as follows:

MAGazine
Memphis Amiga Group
P.O. Box 17426
Memphis, Tennessee
38187-7426

4. Todd Rooks will continue his lessons on the uses and advantages of CLI/Workbench. This is an excellent opportunity to learn more about the Amiga's operating system. Even if you are an experienced user, you may have some valuable input for the class.

ANNOUNCEMENT

Software, Etc. has announced that they will offer a 10% discount between the hours of 1:00 PM and 2:00 PM on Sundays for all members of the Memphis Amiga Group. This offer is for their Mall of Memphis an Raleigh, Springs Mall' Stores. You should be able to show some identification which matches with the current membership list.

ANNOUNCEMENT

Games and Gadgets has made the following offer to the Memphis Amiga Group. If you purchase $200.00 worth of merchandise (minimum of 3 items) you will receive a $25.00 Gift Certificate. (This offer does not include printers nor hardware.) You must present receipts of your purchases to take advantage of this offer.

NOTE: As with all offers, please check with the sponsor store for further details.

LOCAL STORES OFFERING DISCOUNTS

The Commadore Amiga Store (formally The 64 Store)

Software, Etc.
Raleigh Store
Mall of Memphis

Memphis Amiga Group Membership list as of February 25, 1989

***** Please pay dues by the SECOND SATURDAY of the month on your EXPIRE date *****
You may pay dues by mail by sending your $20 check made out to Memphis Amiga Group
to MAG dues. c/o Charles Williams. 13 Lake Drive. Wilson. AR 72395

The DUCK Pond BBS - 2400 BAUD - (24 hours)
Memphis, TN (901) 761-3729 "ask for Dewey"
Birmingham, AL (205) 822-0956 "ask for Howard"

Special Interest Group Chairpersons
John & Sean Kiss . . . . Sound
John & Sean Kiss . . . . Business
Keith Burns' . . . . . . Hardware