Workbench ßeta v0.7 (27.3), 0.9 (29.2)

ßeta phase: August 1985 --
Features:
  • Came with some unusual commands in the c: directory:

    DiskEd - AmigaDOS Disk Editor version 3.2, binary disk editor
    Download - download version 2.1, Sun->Amiga transfer utility
    DumpObj - Displays executable hunks in hex
    Frags - Displays free memory size distribution (fragmentation)
    ObjDump - See DumpObj (appears to be an identical copy--oversight?)
    ReadPrefs - Load preferences data from :config/preferences
    SetPrefs - Preferences editor (similar to 1.x), "Edit Pointer" is ghosted
    Wack - Wack version 27.001, debugger, marked "For Internal Use Only"
    

  • Included narrator.device and translator.device, but no means for end-user produced speech (i.e. "Say" command)
  • Bundled with the first Electronic Arts demo for the Amiga, which crashes horribly a few seconds into the demo since this demo is known to be incompatible with the A500/A2000).
  • Included printer support for the following drivers:

    alphacom_pro101
    brother_hl-15xl
    cbm_epson
    diablo_630
    diablo_adv_D25
    diablo_c-150
    epson
    epson_jx
    mps_1000
    okimate_20
    qume_ltrpro_20
    

  • Came supplied with Textcraft development version 1.5 (6/24/85), and GraphiCraft V27 release 06 by Arktronics Corporation (see screenshots below).

Screenshot:

GraphiCraft (0.7)Textcraft (0.7)ABasic (0.9)
CLI (0.9)Image Editor (0.9)Workbench (28.2)
Hidden messages:

Timo Weirich found the following message in Kickstart v0.7 (27.3) at offset $010055:

"The Amiga Wizards bring this power to you"

Notes/comments:
  1. Rodney Hester notes: "I know for a fact that Electronic Arts showed their Amiga demo running on two floppy drives on AmigaDOS 27.4 (this is the mysterious 'it-only-runs-on-a-1000' demo)."
  2. Workbench was still unfinished at this stage, as loadWB, workbench.library and workbench.task were non-existent. This was CLI only (the contributor tried LoadWB from v1.0, and it failed with "Cannot find resident tag for workbench.task").
  3. Only sample available for study is Kickstart v27.3/AmigaDOS v27.5
  4. Released in 1985 (Consumer Electronics Show only?), 256k ROM.
  5. The only default assignment is SYS: (i.e. no C:, DEVS:, L:, LIBS:, etc.).