TSGui - Copy ADFs On Workbench 1.3 with GUI



TSGui - Amiga Application Review
Copy ADFs On Workbench 1.3 (and others) with GUI
2006 Thomas Rapp


I've previously had two main methods for copying Amiga floppy disk images (ADFs) to an actual floppy, and I've been fairly content with those. I originally used a free method through the use of ADF Sender terminal on a Windows PC, with transdisk on the Amiga via the shell. This method works flawlessly, but involves working with both the PC and the Amiga at the same time while typing in commands. I tried another method through the paid program of Amiga Explorer, which allows you to drag and drop an ADF through Windows to your Amiga floppy drives with little involvement from you on the Amiga end. This method again works fine, yet despite less steps it left me incredibly unsatisfied. Likely because the only actual involvement of myself on the machine I'm here for is double clicking on an icon; which allows Amiga Explorer to do its thing from Windows. 

With my installation of a GVP hard drive/8mb RAM for my Amiga 500 I started tinkering around, looking for a more satisfying way to copy these files. My long time main solution for ADF writing has been through a compromise of the previous methods. I now have a hard drive and more RAM, and I didn't feel like sitting around for ADFs to quite slowly make their way from PC to Amiga via serial port, along with the added time of the Amiga writing them. I started to wait until I had collected several images I wanted to write, and then putting them into a ZIP files through WinRAR (I had issues using the built in Windows ZIP tools). I found zipping the ADFs could halve their size, making their transfer to Amiga ever so much nicer. I would use Amiga explorer to send the ZIP file to my RAM disk, and then unzip them on the Amiga. I could then transfer them to my hard drive for longer storage, or write them straight from RAM to disk via transdisk. When using transdisk to write an ADF already on the Amiga, the operation takes less than a minute. While my preferred method may include some extra steps in zipping/unzipping files, I found the simple act of allocating time in the right way (send ZIP files to Amiga when you have other things to do, come back and it's done) and then writing the files on the Amiga itself not only saves me an unmeasurable amount of time, I in fact get much more enjoyment by utilizing the machine that I'm there for. Even if it is through the command line.
^TSGui on my hard drive, readme file, selecting an ADF and preparing to write to disk

Enter TSGui; A program I never really cared I didn't have, but that I now can't live without. When I first brought my Amiga back to life, I was looking for a program that would write ADFs and would use the Amiga to do this, but with a graphical interface. If such a program existed, I have no doubt it would have been stamped with the fine print of requiring Workbench/Kickstart 2.0 or above, leaving out the largest number of actual Amiga's, which use 1.3 - As the type of people who write newer freeware/shareware are power users who would be more likely to be interested in the newer Amiga operating systems. I'll proudly raise my hand as a 1.3 power user. This is where I have my fun at, and through command line or GUI, I'm proudly sticking with the operating system virtually all commercial software was written for; or at least compatible with.

TSGui offers a way for most Amiga users to write ADF files to disk via a graphical environment using their actual Amiga. It supports Kickstarts/Workbench 1.2 through 4.0, meaning every last real Amiga easily supports this program. I will say it's more of a power user type of program, given that its main use is to copy ADF files that are already on your Amiga to floppy disk. For this to be practical you'll at least need several megabytes worth of RAM, but ideally a hard drive. I feel my previously mentioned methods of ADF Sender Terminal or Amiga Explorer would still be best for systems without hard drives. You don't have to be a power user to have a hard drive, but getting into other areas like zipping/unzipping files really begs this program to be used with people who are are quite serious about their Amiga. ^Read carefully, writing ADFs to DF0:, DF1:, and the preference menu

If that includes you, I feel this program fills a void. A void that could have been filled since 2006 if I had dived a little deeper myself. Oh well... Perhaps the program is already quite well known out there, but despite being a thorough searcher of Aminet I hadn't heard about the program until Ms. MadLemon mentioned it to me. It's really as simple as double clicking the icon for TSGui, selecting the ADF file you want to write to disk (via nice file requesters), selecting the drive you want to write to, and clicking file -> disk. A graphical bar will show the write progress and the newly written disk will even automatically show up on Workbench when completed. I personally found myself exclusively writing to DF0: when using transdisk due to its needlessly complicated command to write to other drives; TSGui makes it a simple matter of a click.
^Creating an ADF file from an actual floppy disk, creating a hard drive HDF image for backup or emulation purposes

The program offers several other features you may be wanting to use. If you've got some of your original Amiga disks lying around, you can just as easily create an ADF image from your Amiga floppy disks as you could write those images to your disks. While in the midst of a review for the word processor Excellence I noticed I still had my disk for version 1 while I could only find versions 2 and 3 online. For the few interested I'll be attempting to put that ADF into some good hands. If you're wanting to preserve your disks and use them through emulation or simply back them up, this would be a fantastic way to stock pile several of them for later transfer to PC (at your convenience of course).

The program can write an image of your Amiga hard drives into an HDF file as well. This could be a full backup of your drive and could later be written back through this program if needed, or just for you to have access to your personal setups when dealing with emulators. I've really only played around with HDF files through WinUAE, and I found them to be a wasteful method compared to using simple folders on your actual PC hard drive. Through emulation HDF files take up the actual maximum storage capacity on your PC hard drive, regardless of if there's only 1 megabyte of that drive being used through Amiga emulation. Simply wasteful in my eyes. I'm not quite sure how imaging the drive would work using this program, as there's no way to transfer these HDF files to PC through the program itself. So I'm thinking you'd need a large flash solution in order to make use of this feature. I'm not interested in this particular form of backing up my hard drives, if you are you might want to look further into that. Take caution when dealing with ADF files that you don't accidentally select to write to your hard drive, as Ms MadLemon tells me it's possible, and that she had to revert to a backup to restore her drive.

If you find yourself in possession of a GZIP or DMS file, you may also use TSGui as an interface for use with the command line programs that deal with those files. I've yet to come across any GZIP files myself, but I have seen my fair share of DMS files, which are often used for extra compression in the Amiga demo scene. As with my past with ADFs, I've always had to enter the shell in order to write DMS files to floppy disk. This program will apparently allow you the use of its GUI as long as you also have the command line programs as well, though I've yet to try it myself. For NTSC users; it's impossible to actually save TSGui's preferences on your machine without rebooting into either PAL mode or high resolution interlace mode. While the program works flawlessly in NTSC med resolution mode, the preference menu was unfortunately designed for the extra resolution in PAL mode, making the save button inaccessible. Boot your system into PAL or interlace mode if you're wanting to save your preferences, and from then on you should be fine in regular NTSC medium resolution.

I enjoy the program because I feel like it's taking advantage of my Amiga. If a program can have a graphical interface, I feel it should as it's something that made the Amiga stand out. I feel this program will be an essential tool for this Workbench 1.3 power user, who tends to have lots of ADF files sitting on his actual Amiga to be used at a later date. I hope to have shed some light on this program for the many people who could be power users if they were simply pointed to the programs which might be useful to them. For a certain set of Amiga users, I do believe the'll find tremendous use for this program.

Please check out my video review for TSGui where I show it off in real time. If you're needing to figure out how to transfer files from your PC to Amiga, you may want to check out my video guide for that. Despite being quite a power user who tends to mostly find these programs himself through exhausting searches, sometimes we are nothing without our sources for help. Thanks to Ms. MadLemon who brought the program to my attention in a conversation.

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