Hi Bill Eaves,

On 26/10/2007, on the subject of "[DUniverse] Re: Any news ?", you wrote:

> Digital Universe v1.5 for Amiga OS4 is essentially complete. I am
> just awaiting Dan Charrois to set up an ordering and distribution
> system. Hopefully this will be ready soon but that part is out of my
> hands.

Wow, this is excellent news!

> The coding, documentation and installer for DU 1.5 is finished !
> Work is starting on v1.6 now.

Even better news!!

> Of course the lack of an online ordering and download system does not
> mean that a CD cannot be posted beforehand, I will work out the costs
> of doing this if anyone is interested. Let me know at
> bill@... or use the contact form at
> http://www.digitaluniverse.org.uk/contact.html

I'd prefer downloading it myself when it's available.

> See http://www.digitaluniverse.org.uk/history.html for details of the
> improvements since v1.03.

That's a lot of work, undoubtedly there was much more hidden development,
as you say.

--
Steve Bowman - Sydney, Australia

As far as I'm aware I'm not specifically banned anywhere in the USA, and
am rather depressed about it.  Surely some of you guys can do
*something?*

         -- (Terry Pratchett, alt.books.pratchett)

Hello Luca

On 26/10/2007, Luca Ricossa wrote:
> Hi, I dare to wake up this list, becouse I am interested in the new OS4
> version. Is anything going on ?

Digital Universe v1.5 for Amiga OS4 is essentially complete. I am just
awaiting Dan Charrois to set up an ordering and distribution system.
Hopefully this will be ready soon but that part is out of my hands.

The coding, documentation and installer for DU 1.5 is finished !
Work is starting on v1.6 now.

DU will be distributed both as an LHA archive which you unpack and run the
installer or as an ISO so that an install CD can be burned. This offers a
choice of a quick install method or a two step process but with a permanent
backup. Both files are about 24MB in size.

Of course the lack of an online ordering and download system does not mean
that a CD cannot be posted beforehand, I will work out the costs of doing
this if anyone is interested. Let me know at bill@... or
use the contact form at http://www.digitaluniverse.org.uk/contact.html


> And, on the other hand, will the old
> 68k version work also on the A1 ?

It does but with a few problems. The colours are rather corrupted but can be
fixed by creating an OS4 Screens Prefs setting for the DU_Screen. Finding a
star by name leads to a crash, and there are a few other bugs. All those
problems however are fixed in v1.5.

You can run the 68k version on OS4 but DU1.5 is far better :-)

See http://www.digitaluniverse.org.uk/history.html for details of the
improvements since v1.03.


Changing subject slightly, below are the elements for Comet Holmes to enter
into DU.


2007/05/04.5                2.053218
0.432564                    24.271200
326.864594                  19.112600

No magnitude info available.


I spotted it earlier tonight in bright moonlight, a very easy binocular
object. If not for the moon it should be naked eye visibility.


Regards,

Bill.
--

Hi, I dare to wake up this list, becouse I am interested in the new OS4 version.
Is anything going on ? And, on the other hand, will the old 68k version work
also on the A1 ?

Thanks, Luca

Hello

The helpful people at Aminet responded very quickly to my query about not
being able to upload DU and managed to do it for me. So the demo is also
availble now at http://aminet.net/package/misc/sci/dudemo


Regards,

Bill.

Hi Bill,

BE> A demo of the forthcoming DU v1.5 for Amiga OS4 has been released on OS4
BE> Depot.

BE> http://os4depot.net/share/utility/scientific/dudemo.lha

:-o

Wow

Ciao

Hubert
--

Hello DU Listers


A demo of the forthcoming DU v1.5 for Amiga OS4 has been released on OS4
Depot.

http://os4depot.net/share/utility/scientific/dudemo.lha


There will likely be an upload to Aminet too but their upload servers seem
to be playing up today !


Read more at Amigans.Net
http://www.amigans.net/modules/news/article.php?storyid=251

and AmigaWorld.Net
http://amigaworld.net/modules/news/article.php?storyid=3830




Regards,

Bill.

Hello David


Thanks for trying out the insaller and the mini-review.


On 25/06/2007, David Rey wrote:

> Everything went out OK here, the installation worked without a hitch
> (though I don't think it makes much sense to copy the installer),

It was easier to copy it than not to but I have altered the script so the
installer is no longer "installed" :-)


> I didn't try printing

A pity as that is one area that has had a major overhaul since v1.03. No
more printing in bands, full screen prints are now landscape etc.



> PS.: Looking at www.syz.com, it seems that the entire manual is HTML
>      based.

Tha Mac version of DU does have HTML documentation, I am wondering whether
or not to do this for v2 or leave it as Amiga Guide.

HTML is more modern but I really don't like launching browsers to read docs
(Dan wrote a custom HTML reader for the mac version) rather than run
browsers. The HTML datatype on the Amiga is not really good enough to use
for this purpose IMHO and would mean downloading yet another 3rd party
utility. Amiga guide integrates nicely with MUI, but the guide could always
link to HTML somehow. Maybe something like an HTML.mcc (going to be used in
YAM maybe?) could be used to display docs in HTML format.



> I wouldn't mind giving it a complete translation to Spanish
>      at some point, but I have no idea how large it will be in the end.
>      Also, does DU support localization?

DU version 1 does not support localisation but it is one of the things I
intend to introduce in v2.




Regards,

Bill.
--

On Sun, 24 Jun 2007 22:35:33 +0100, Bill Eaves wrote:

> Basically all I want is confirmation that it installs, the Readmes make
> sense and all the assigns are set up so DU will run "out of the box".

Everything went out OK here, the installation worked without a hitch (though
I don't think it makes much sense to copy the installer), the readmes are
clear and concise (though some tend to abuse styles) and the program indeed
works out of the box. I couldn't even find a bad link in the documentation
or a duplicated keyboard shortcut anywhere (yet! ;^), the program works as
expected and feels rock solid so far, even with MemGuard running in the
background. I didn't try printing nor had the mpeg datatype installed, so
the intro had no sound, but worked just fine.

Overall, this looks very impressive and I have no reason to anticipate any
problems with OS4 final. IMO anyone giving this a look will be very pleased
with the results. Well done! :-)


PS.: Looking at www.syz.com, it seems that the entire manual is HTML based.
      I wouldn't mind giving it a complete translation to Spanish at some
      point, but I have no idea how large it will be in the end. Also, does
      DU support localization?

Hello Hubert

On 24/06/2007, Hubert Maier wrote:
> Hi Bill,

>> Anyone wanting to test the installation of the demo will need to have
>> Amiga OS4, preferably the final release. Not necessary but useful
>> would be to have the MPEGA datatype and the OpenURL library installed.
>> Some hard drive space would also be useful but these days I doubt that
>> will be a problem.

> Other than that one might need the PC data files of DU?


All the data files needed for the demo are included in the archive. No other
files would be needed. No point in releasing a demo if people have to go
hunt down new files !

Now the development and beta testing was a different kettle of fish. Ther we
reused the old files and updated tham as things went along. My DU1.5 drawer
is still called "DUTest", I must rename it one day ;-)

BTW. There isn't a PC version of DU, DU1.5 does re-use some of the Mac files
but those are obviously included in the Amiga package It is unlikely there
will ever be a PC version either. Neither Dan (now a Mac fanatic) nor
myself (still an Amiga fanatic) like nor use PCs.

> I don't have them, so i think i'm out of scope?

If you have OS4 you would be in scope but I'll send the archive to David as
he answered first. If it installed which I am sure it will, the demo
archive will be on OS4Depot and Aminet in a few days anyway :-)

> Congrats for getting so far and i'm looking forward to the full
> release. Goody program for OS4! :-)

Well DU has always been my favourite Amiga application and the only way to
get a modern version was to do it myself even if it did mean learning C
almost from scratch - I had only done Basic before.

The good news is that the learning curve for C and more specifically MUI is
now not so steep. So DU2 will probably not take as long as the update to
1.5 has done.


Regards,

Bill.
--

Hello David

On 24/06/2007, David Rey wrote:

> Sorry I didn't answer that email of yours yet, I was busy the whole
> weekend with a certain doc for a certain emailer ;-)

I wonder which that may be ;-)

> I can be your guinea pig if you want, but I don't have OS4 final
> installed yet, only an old beta where I can't even run MUI to
> change any settings so I'll have to use the defaults I have.

Well most of the work was done on old betas of OS4 anyway. I do not think
having OS4 final is an absolute must. Du ran fine on previous versions and
I don't think anything has been added that will rely on the final version.

> If you're still interested, let me know.

Basically all I want is confirmation that it installs, the Readmes make
sense and all the assigns are set up so DU will run "out of the box".

I will send a copy of the archive to you to try. It is about 11MB, I should
have mentioned that earlier. Not really something to download on a whim if
you are still on dialup.

> Also my congratulations for your work so far, I'm not into
> astronomy myself but I'll support every effort into bringing
> any useful application to AmigaOS!

Likewise - which is why I offered to help with the YAM docs.


Regards,

Bill.
--

Hi Bill,

BE> Anyone wanting to test the installation of the demo will need to have Amiga
BE> OS4, preferably the final release. Not necessary but useful would be to
BE> have the MPEGA datatype and the OpenURL library installed. Some hard drive
BE> space would also be useful but these days I doubt that will be a problem.

Other than that one might need the PC data files of DU?

I don't have them, so i think i'm out of scope?

Congrats for getting so far and i'm looking forward to the full release.
Goody program for OS4! :-)

Ciao

Hubert
--

Hey Bill,


Sorry I didn't answer that email of yours yet, I was busy the whole
weekend with a certain doc for a certain emailer ;-)

I can be your guinea pig if you want, but I don't have OS4 final
installed yet, only an old beta where I can't even run MUI to
change any settings so I'll have to use the defaults I have.

If you're still interested, let me know.

Also my congratulations for your work so far, I'm not into
astronomy myself but I'll support every effort into bringing
any useful application to AmigaOS!

Cheers,

David

Hello DU Listers,


A demo of Digital Universe 1.5 is ready for release. Before I do so, one
lucky person will have the opportunity to try it out first. The reason is
just to ensure the archive has all the files needed and the installer works
and puts the correct assigns in the user-startup etc.

I do not want any of my beta testers to do this as like me they may have
assigned things manually during the testing process. I want to test the
installer will do everything it needs to by itself.

So if some brave person contacts me I will send the archive which will
(assuming all works as it should - I am extremely confident it will) be
uploaded to OS4Depot and Aminet very soon.

Note this is only a DEMO version with all the same restrictions the original
DU demo had, so do not throw away your 68k version of DU yet. The two will
actually run at the same time and not interfere with each other.


Anyone wanting to test the installation of the demo will need to have Amiga
OS4, preferably the final release. Not necessary but useful would be to
have the MPEGA datatype and the OpenURL library installed. Some hard drive
space would also be useful but these days I doubt that will be a problem.


After the Demo I hope it will not be too long before the full version is
available. I am just waiting to hear from Dan regarding him setting up an
ordering system.

In the meantime, you can whet your appetite by visiting
http://www.digitaluniverse.org.uk

Yes, I know have not finished writing all the web pages yet !


Regards,

Bill.

Hello

Digital Universe 1.5  will be demonstrated at the AMIWEST 2006 show this
coming weekend in Sacramento, California. If anyone is going and wants to
see the PPC version of DU in action then Steven Sollie will be hosting a
specially compiled work in progress demo for use at the show.

Steven has never used DU before but seems quite impressed. If anyone with
experience in using DU is going to the show then please feel free to try it
out and give Steve a hand.

Steven's Micro Amiga One will have quite a few items of software for
demostration so if you do not see DU running when you pass his booth, ask
him to run it for you.


Regards,

Bill.

Hello Steve

On 04/08/2006, Steve Bowman wrote:


>> Looks like a design fault in the A1, the battery is not rechargeable

> Unfortunately some PC mobos suffer the same problem.

Yes, copying PC ways of doing things is not good ;-)

> Is there anything to look at yet, or will it be ready "when it's
> ready"?

I do hope to release a demo version soonish. That will be available to
everyone.

Then I hope to release v1.5 and have an upgrade path for existing users.

The couple of beta testers I have seem quite impressed with the OS4 version
so far :-)


Regards,

Bill.

G'day Bill Eaves,

On  3/08/2006, on the subject of "[DUniverse] Up and running", you spoke
thus:

> Looks like a design fault in the A1, the battery is not rechargeable
> like the ones on the old A1200 accellerator cards - the battery on my
> very old 1230 card still works fine but I could not use that in my A1
> :-(

Unfortunately some PC mobos suffer the same problem.  The battery is
usually a good place to start looking.  Good to see your A1 up and
running again, and looking forward to further DU progress :^).

Is there anything to look at yet, or will it be ready "when it's ready"?

--
Steve Bowman - Sydney, Australia

"Right, you bastards, you're...  you're geography"

         -- (Terry Pratchett, Guards! Guards!)

Hello DU Listers,


The good news is my Amiga One is up and running again so development of
Digital Universe can continue once again :o)

It was a stupid battery that ran out, only took six days to get a new one
delivered (3 actually so I now have spares).

Looks like a design fault in the A1, the battery is not rechargeable like
the ones on the old A1200 accellerator cards - the battery on my very old
1230 card still works fine but I could not use that in my A1 :-(

All that hair loss just for one little battery !

At least I got to take the whole thing apart (CPU module included) and then
put it back together again.


Regards,

Bill.

G'day billeaves2001,

On 27/07/2006, on the subject of "[DUniverse] Re: Any news? :)", you spoke
thus:

> Anyone any ideas or suggestions as to why my A1 will not boot up ?

As suggested, check for anything on the serial line.  This also sounds
like a flat battery - if the battery is flat the A1 will appear "dead"
and not boot at all.  If you lost power it may have run the battery down.
  Replace it with a fresh one and see if that helps.

Good luck!

--
Steve Bowman - Sydney, Australia

- "'S called the Vieux River."
- "Yes?"
- "Know what that means?"
- "No."
- "The Old (Masculine) River," said Nanny.
- "Yes?"
- "Words have sex in foreign parts," said Nanny hopefully.

         -- (Terry Pratchett, Witches Abroad)

Hi Bill

I hope you can get up your computers as soons as possible.

My A1XE G4 refuses too boot after I pull the plug during a
thunderstorm (I always do this because I already flamed one PSU this
way)
and put the plug back again.

That is the HD light stays on and nothing happens.

I have to switch on/off several times my A1 (Frontswitch).
Sometimes I have to switch ON/OFF the rear switch. But most times I
have to unplug the PSU cable from my A1 and switch the A1 on.

This happens always if I leave the A1 unplugged for several hours.
(As electricity has become very expensive these days with high oil
prices, I don't have my computers (A1 / Mac) running 24 hours /day
only my router and external HD)

I suppose if the A1 is switched off (Front) it still has current
which is enough for it's uboot to know where and how to boot. But if
current is absent it looses these infos. I think the internal battery
needs to be exchanged.

Don't know if this helps, but it could be.

bye

Manou


Am 27.07.2006 um 12:39 schrieb billeaves2001:

> --- In DUniverse@yahoogroups.com, Steve Bowman <stevebow@...> wrote:
>
>>
>> Look forward to seeing DU ported to OS4.
>
> At the moment it looks as if nothing will get ported to OS4 by me.
>
> Last night we had thunderstorms and a power cut during the night. I
> can't boot my Amiga One now. I get no signal to the monitor, the hard
> drive does not fire up, it looks as if it may be well and truly
> knackered. So unless I can get my A1 going again its curtains for any
> DU port to OS4 :-(
>
> The PSU seems OK, I wonder if the UBOOT flash rom could have been
> erased, or even worse the CPU dead. As no cards seem to get
> initialised and I have no visual output it is rather difficult to
> trace the problem, not that there is any replacement hardware around
> at the moment. To say that I am rather fed up is an understatement !
>
> Using a Mac is just not the same and of course all my important data
> is on my Amiga One, I am rather stuck at the moment.
>
>
> Anyone any ideas or suggestions as to why my A1 will not boot up ?
>
>
> Bill.
>
>
> PS. Just to rub salt in the wounds I can't seem to send emails from my
> Mac, the SMTP server is OK maybe its my ISP. Now reduced to using
> Yahoogroups awful webmail to send this bad news :-(
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> <sb>Digital Universe Mailing List
> Please don't post HTML, don't crosspost to this list.
> When replying trim ALL unnecessary material including THIS footer
> and any egroup advertisements.
>
> Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>
>
>
>
>






___________________________________________________________
Der frühe Vogel fängt den Wurm. Hier gelangen Sie zum neuen Yahoo! Mail:
http://mail.yahoo.de

Hello Bill

Oh no, what a catastrophe.

I suppose the first thing to do would be to see if you can obtain any serial
output from your A1?

I'm very sorry to hear of this news, but as usual Bill, if you need any help
at all, please get in touch. I'll do whatever I can.

AFN

Lee.




On 27/07/2006 10:39, you wrote:

> --- In DUniverse@yahoogroups.com, Steve Bowman <stevebow@...> wrote:

>>
>> Look forward to seeing DU ported to OS4.

> At the moment it looks as if nothing will get ported to OS4 by me.

> Last night we had thunderstorms and a power cut during the night. I
> can't boot my Amiga One now. I get no signal to the monitor, the hard
> drive does not fire up, it looks as if it may be well and truly
> knackered. So unless I can get my A1 going again its curtains for any
> DU port to OS4 :-(

> The PSU seems OK, I wonder if the UBOOT flash rom could have been
> erased, or even worse the CPU dead. As no cards seem to get
> initialised and I have no visual output it is rather difficult to
> trace the problem, not that there is any replacement hardware around
> at the moment. To say that I am rather fed up is an understatement !

> Using a Mac is just not the same and of course all my important data
> is on my Amiga One, I am rather stuck at the moment.


> Anyone any ideas or suggestions as to why my A1 will not boot up ?


> Bill.


> PS. Just to rub salt in the wounds I can't seem to send emails from my
> Mac, the SMTP server is OK maybe its my ISP. Now reduced to using
> Yahoogroups awful webmail to send this bad news :-(

--- In DUniverse@yahoogroups.com, Steve Bowman <stevebow@...> wrote:

>
> Look forward to seeing DU ported to OS4.

At the moment it looks as if nothing will get ported to OS4 by me.

Last night we had thunderstorms and a power cut during the night. I
can't boot my Amiga One now. I get no signal to the monitor, the hard
drive does not fire up, it looks as if it may be well and truly
knackered. So unless I can get my A1 going again its curtains for any
DU port to OS4 :-(

The PSU seems OK, I wonder if the UBOOT flash rom could have been
erased, or even worse the CPU dead. As no cards seem to get
initialised and I have no visual output it is rather difficult to
trace the problem, not that there is any replacement hardware around
at the moment. To say that I am rather fed up is an understatement !

Using a Mac is just not the same and of course all my important data
is on my Amiga One, I am rather stuck at the moment.


Anyone any ideas or suggestions as to why my A1 will not boot up ?


Bill.


PS. Just to rub salt in the wounds I can't seem to send emails from my
Mac, the SMTP server is OK maybe its my ISP. Now reduced to using
Yahoogroups awful webmail to send this bad news :-(

G'day Bill Eaves,

On 25/07/2006, on the subject of "[DUniverse] Re: Any news? :)", you spoke
thus:

> But maybe I will get DU 1.5 out before IBrowse 2.4 though !

LOL!

Look forward to seeing DU ported to OS4.

--
Steve Bowman - Sydney, Australia

No one was avoiding him, it was just that an apparent random Brownian
motion was gently moving everyone away.

         -- (Terry Pratchett, Reaper Man)

Hello David

On 25/07/2006, David Rey wrote:



> Bill, any news on DU development, or is it too hot there to do anything
> productive? :-)

Not much news at the moment.

You do correctly assume I am busy with things that can only be done in
summer, whereas programming can be done during the less pleasant weather.
Not that it is all that hot or rain free in northern Scotland, all the more
reason to make the most of some good weather when we get it ;-)

Also at this time of year my mind wanders away from astronomy as it never
gets dark. Try putting in latitude +58:38:30 in Du and enable twilight and
you will see what I mean, you just don't even think about astronomy at this
time of year up here.

Its been a while but work is still (or will be again) going on. There is an
experimental Arexx port, not many Arexx commands and it may get left for v2
but I have proved it will work.

Its mainly just the boring stuff like tidying up the GUI, squashing the
remaining bugs, and writing the manual and installer. I do hope to release
a demo version soonish, which in Amiga timescales means don't hold your
breath ;-)

I am also changing ISP so for those without access to the yahoogroups files
area, unbookmark my current website address that holds the pictures. At
least I can use the excuse of changing ISP to write a proper web page about
DU and the work in progress. I'll post the new URL "when its done".

Hey even software that has an organised and experienced team seems to take
forever, I am just one guy and still trying to learn MUI at the same time.
But maybe I will get DU 1.5 out before IBrowse 2.4 though !



Regards,

Bill.

Hello,


Bill, any news on DU development, or is it too hot there to do anything
productive? :-)

Hello


The update to OS4 was out today :-)

Using the new JIT Petunia it is now possible to run the FPU version of DU
once more. This should make running the classic version of DU so much
better. It is also a bit faster than with the old 68k emulation but not as
fast of course as the native PPC alpha version !



Regards,

Bill.

Hello

Two new files menu1.png and menu2.png have been uploaded to the files area
at
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/DUniverse/files/OS4/

These show the updated menu layout for the OS4 version of DU, including the
new Redo View and Sticky Windows entries.

People not able to access the files area can view the images at
http://www.users.zetnet.co.uk/eaves/DU/


Regards,

Bill.

amiga@...

On Sun, 08 Jan 2006 17:03:26 +0000, Bill Eaves wrote:

> Yes I know that -  but you already know to look at the copies at
> http://www.users.zetnet.co.uk/eaves/DU/

> That address I did post to this list a while ago - and you must have read
> it as you sent an email to the list on 16/09/05 which said "Thank You" :o)

Oops... Deja vu here :)

The images look very cool Bill, congratulations!

/me actually bookmarks the page now :)

Hello David

On 07/01/2006, David Rey wrote:
> On Sun, 01 Jan 2006 16:15:38 +0000, Bill Eaves wrote:

>> This has since been deleted and replaced by the more meaningfully
>> named gui.png

> No one of these pictures is reachable for people without a YahooID.


Yes I know that -  but you already know to look at the copies at
http://www.users.zetnet.co.uk/eaves/DU/

That address I did post to this list a while ago - and you must have read it
as you sent an email to the list on 16/09/05 which said "Thank You" :o)

The images have incidentally been at the above URL longer than the copies I
put up on the DUniverse list files area, the only difference is that the
files area does have a bit of text to accompany them.

Regards,

Bill


BTW.   Amiga enquires about Digital Universe can be now sent to
amiga@...

On Sun, 01 Jan 2006 16:15:38 +0000, Bill Eaves wrote:

> This has since been deleted and replaced by the more meaningfully named
> gui.png

No one of these pictures is reachable for people without a YahooID.

Hello,

This email message is a notification to let you know that
a file has been uploaded to the Files area of the DUniverse
group.

   File        : /OS4/gui.png
   Uploaded by : billeaves2001 <bill.eaves@...>
   Description : No strange colours anymore in the GUI when using the "Like
Workbench" Screens option.

You can access this file at the URL:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/DUniverse/files/OS4/gui.png

To learn more about file sharing for your group, please visit:
http://help.yahoo.com/help/us/groups/files

Regards,

billeaves2001 <bill.eaves@...>