Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.multimedia, comp.sys.amiga.applications
Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!caen!cumin.engin.umich.edu!baronz
From: baronz@caen.engin.umich.edu (Aaron L Richards)
Subject: Re: HyperBook vs. CanDo?
Message-ID: <1991Mar18.215829.6802@engin.umich.edu>
Followup-To: comp.sys.amiga.multimedia comp.sys.amiga.applications
Summary: CanDo can do
Sender: news@engin.umich.edu (CAEN Netnews)
Organization: The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
References: <SDL.91Mar18132327@lyra.mitre.org>
Distribution: comp
Date: Mon, 18 Mar 1991 21:58:29 GMT

In article <SDL.91Mar18132327@lyra.mitre.org>, sdl@lyra.mitre.org (Steven D. Litvinchouk) writes:
> 
> Specifically: Do both HyperBook and CanDo support 640 x 400 interlace
> mode?  How about overscan?
> 
> How easy would a simple animation (i.e. some boxes moving around the
> screen) be to do in each?

	I have used CanDo extensively (Over 10 hours a day for
5 days, and 6 hours a day for another week) and it will do 640X400
interlace with little problem.  Let me state that I was using
version 1.02 with an Amiga 1000 w/1.5 MB RAM and no hard drive.
	The version I had would not do overscan, and did not even offer
the option.  It would easily  move boxes (Dpaint brushes) in linear
paths on the monitor in three script statements (which includes a
statement to load the brus.)  

	The v1.02 was very touchy however.  If I did not give it the
disk it wanted when it wanted it (during the development stage of
my program) it would pop up a requester stating 
 "CanDo internal error" blah blah blah, and give me the option
of quitting CanDo, or saving my current project and then quitting
CanDo.  I also had problems originally trying to set up a
high-res 16 color interlace screen.  CanDo eats up so much
chip memory for its development system (I had only 512K of chip)
that I had many frustrating moments (hours!) spinning my wheels.

	I had the local Amiga dealer loan me a 3000 to do a 
demo for a professor of mine of a special project  that I was
using CanDo to work on and lo-and-behold but CanDo wouldn't
run on the 3000.  According to INNOVAtronics, the current version
of CanDo will run on the 3000.

	INNOVAtronics is releasing version 1.5 of their 
CanDo product even as we speak.  It has I was told
floating-point support, multiple windows per screen (the earlier
version would not do this), will run on the 3000, has data-base
support, etc.

	From my personal dealings with the package, I would not
recommend using CanDo unless you have a hard drive, 1 Meg of chip
ram.  If your system fulfills those requirements, CanDo seems
to easily, and quickly make good programs 
   What I mean by this is thaCanDo easily allows you
to set up screens and windows, gadgets with text and graphics,
control Dpaint brushes/animations, IFF pictures, 
sound, the serial port, scrolling lists with sliders, and lots
of Intuition features easily.  If you are familiar with basic,
or programming concepts in general, you will find CanDo a 
breeze.
	Once you run your CanDo "Deck"  it seems to take up 
a reasonable amount of memory, and it executes fairly rapidly.
Even on my stock 68000, I was never upset by the performance
of the stand-alone programs produced by CanDo.  Granted,
I was not computing fractals, or doing large matricies 
but the performance was good. 



--
*	President MACRO on Campus			  	    * 
*       (Michigan's Amiga Computer Resource Organization)           * 
*	Senior Computer Consultant -> Organizational Studies Lab    *
*	Amiga Student Representative on Campus		 	    * 
*	baronz@caen.engin.umich.edu 			   	    *
* 	Aaron_l._Richards.ubmts.cc.umich.edu		   	    *
