Press Release from Hyperion Entertainment.

Brussels, May 14, 2021

Hyperion Entertainment CVBA is very pleased to announce the immediate availability of AmigaOS 3.2 for 68K based Amigas.

AmigaOS 3.2 comes packed with well over 100 new features, dozens of updates that cover nearly all AmigaOS components and a battery of bugfixes that will undoubtedly solidify the user experience.

AmigaOS 3.2 is the result of more than 2 years of intense and relentless work from a team of over sixty people who have contributed to produce a new milestone in AmigaOS history.

Hyperion Entertainment CVBA has no words to express its gratitude to this talented and resilient team for its impressive work ethic.

The most comprehensive version of AmigaOS 3.2 is available now on CD-ROM and contains all the disks and AmigaOS Kickstart ROM sets for all Amiga machines ever produced allowing users to install AmigaOS 3.2 on multiple different types of Amigas at once.

Place your order now with your Amiga dealer of choice!

Digital (machine type specific) downloadable versions will follow.

AmigaOS 3.2 FEATURE LIST SUMMARY

  1. ReAction GUI toolkit integration
  2. Built-in ADF (Amiga disk file image) management
  3. Integrated Help subsystem
  4. Updated Data Type system
  5. Workbench and other user interface improvements
  6. Improved Tools, Utilities and System applications
  7. Enhanced Shell behavior
  8. New and reworked command set
  9. Touched up Preferences
  10. Polished MultiView
  11. Revamped Commodities
  12. Expanded BootMenu
  13. Inclusion and refinement of the AmigaOS 3.1.4 feature set
  14. Flexible delivery media
  15. Many remarkable additions

1. REACTION GUI TOOLKIT INTEGRATION

  • The incorporation of the ReAction GUI Toolkit not only opens up a plethora of existing applications for AmigaOS 3.2 users, it also ensures much easier portability and cross-development between different versions of AmigaOS
  • No additional installation required, it just works, even on low-end 68000 systems
  • A new multi-file text editor called “TextEdit” is included as a show-case
  • ReAction has its own Preferences editor which lets you set backfilled patterns for ReAction based programs
  • Fresh and bug fixed Classes backport from AmigaOS 4.x with many exclusive characteristics and brushed up aesthetics

2.BUILT-IN ADF (AMIGA DISK FILE IMAGE) MANAGEMENT

  • DAControl & trackfile.device provide unprecedented functionality, as they enable users to create, mount, insert and eject ADF files
  • ADF images are handled just like any physical floppy disk
  • On “Workbench” you can mount an ADF image by double-clicking on it
  • ADF handling can be accomplished via Shell through the use of an extensive set of available options
  • Accessing such mounted ADF disk image files is fast and requires very little memory
  • Multiple ADF disk images can be mounted at the same time
  • A shared cache system is available in order to speed up ADF operations

3.INTEGRATED HELP SUBSYSTEM

  • A complete “Reference Manual” covers all commands and most complex topics
  • An AmigaGuide based central “Help hub” is available by simply pressing the HELP key
  • The Help database can be quickly queried from the Shell/CLI
  • Preferences and many other programs contain Help menu items
  • In the WBStartup folder, MenuTools adds the “Help” menu item to the “Tools” menu but can be customized to add other Tools as well

4.UPDATED DATA TYPE SYSTEM

  • New AIFF uncompressed audio data type
  • New GIF image data type
  • New WAV audio data type
  • New JPEG picture data type
  • New PNG multi-platform image data type
  • New BMP data type for Windows/OS2 bitmap images
  • New Icon.datatype enables use of “.info” files as images
  • New ACBM picture data type (used in AmigaBASIC & SpectraPaint)
  • The AmigaGuide data type can now display inline images
  • Text data type with search functionality
  • Faster and more configurable CDXL and ANIM data types
  • Sound.datatype manages bit rate samples of 8, 16, 24 and 32 bit
  • Picture.datatype is now stunningly fast even on low-end 68000 processors

5. AMIGAOS WORKBENCH AND OTHER USER INTERFACE IMPROVEMENTS

  • Resize windows from any border
  • Window iconification
  • Workbench title bar customization
  • Maximize a window by holding down the SHIFT key and clicking on the window zoom gadget
  • The [ESC] key quits easy requesters
  • Scalable “GadTools” user interface adapting to different font sizes
  • Workbench menu “Open volume”
  • Menu Window -> Sort Order (Forward or Reverse)
  • Off-Screen windows is a built-in default that is now configurable
  • Scrollers and sliders now feature 3D-style embossed knobs and a darker container background
  • Newer Look menus: Palette Prefs “Menu Bright Edges” + “Menu Dark Edges”
  • Newer Look menus: sub-menu indicator changed from “»” to a black filled triangle
  • Newer Look menus: checkmark glyph replaced by a black filled circle in mutually-exclusive options
  • Workbench Prefs defines drawer placing in text mode

6.IMPROVED TOOLS, UTILITIES AND SYSTEM APPLICATIONS

  • Interactive partition “Mounter”
  • “Find” allows you to quickly search for file names or file content
  • “ShowConfig” now has aesthetically pleasing user interface and displays AutoConfig hardware in a human readable form
  • HDToolBox can now operate from read-only media if needed

7.ENHANCED SHELL BEHAVIOR

  • Configurable TAB autocompletion
  • Ability to drop icons into Shell windows
  • Shell error redirection
  • “Execute” is now an internal Shell command
  • “History” is a new internal Shell command
  • Shell operators && and || for AND plus concatenation operations
  • A debug variable sends executed commands to the serial port
  • Shell-startup has been adjusted for easier customization

8.NEW AND REWORKED COMMANDS

  • C:Eval properly groups operations
  • C:Copy gains a FORCE option to overwrite targets
  • C:Protect gains USER, GROUP, OTHER, CLONE, CLEAR, FILES, and DIRS
  • C:SetDate can copy the date FROM a file
  • C:List provides FLAT, SORT, USERS, GROUP, LFORMATQUOTE options
  • C:Mount SHUTDOWN attempts to shutdown handlers
  • C:Assign incorporated DENIED and DISMOUNT switches
  • C:Type supports AUTO, TEXTONLY, WIDTH and BUFFER options
  • C:Reboot restarts your Amiga but waits for any ongoing write operations to prevent validation issues
  • C:Group and C:Owner commands added for networked environments
  • C:MD5Sum calculates and compares checksums of files and volumes
  • C:MountInfo command helps in the creation of MountLists
  • C:Break and C:ChangeTaskPri NAME handle wildcards options
  • C:DefIcons identifies files and applies a default icon to them
  • C:AssignWedge allows users to create or deny an assign on the fly
  • C:LoadMonDrvs simplifies and quickly starts monitor drivers.

9.TOUCHED UP PREFERENCE EDITORS

  • Custom printer output device and unit number
  • WBPattern has layout options for Backdrops, Screens and Windows which include both color and dithering
  • PointerPrefs has been overhauled to support 40 different pointer types
  • Font Preferences comes with Shadow and Outline font options
  • IControl received a massive makeover which introduced new functionality such as Window and screen border aspect ratios customization

10.POLISHED MULTIVIEW

  • A new “Edit/Paste” menu item opens the contents of clipboard unit 0 (thus complementing “Edit/Copy”)
  • The “About” window now reports the width, height and depth of the currently displayed picture or animation
  • The names of ARexx scripts for user menus can now be up to 40 characters long and may contain “spaces”
  • Pressing the [Shift] key while the “Save as…” menu item is selected, forces MultiView to save the displayed document in IFF format
  • Now lists pattern matching in its ASL requester that, if removed, can also display icons (useful in conjunction with the new icon.datatype)

11.REVAMPED COMMODITIES

  • “RAWBInfo” is an improved replacement of the icon information tool
  • “AsyncWB” is an AmigaOS Workbench enhancement Commodity with divers functionality
  • “AutoPoint” KEEPSTRINGS prevents this Commodity from automatically stealing focus from a window with an active string gadget
  • “ClickToFront” TOBACK_QUALIFIER selects a qualifier for sending windows back (with a single click)
  • “ClickToFront” no longer brings Workbench windows to the front when double-clicking on an icon
  • “NumericPad” allows numeric pad keys to be remapped to the standard keyboard
  • The “AutoArrangeIcons” Commodity-like set of scripts automates the ordering and snapshot of icons in the active window

12.EXPANDED BOOTMENU

  • An option to trace the Startup-sequence line by line is now available
  • The user can disable ROM Module updates by clicking on a gadget
  • The hardware expansion screen displays expansion board addresses and sizes
  • A new option to redirect serial port output to a file is available with the “Enable System Log” option
  • The “Failsafe” boot gadget starts the Amiga in a robust and safe environment to carry out maintenance and troubleshooting tasks
  • More keyboard shortcuts for the majority of options
  • Displays AmigaOS Kickstart version numbers

13.INCLUSION AND REFINEMENT OF THE AMIGAOS 3.1.4 FEATURE SET

  • Support for storage media bigger than 4 GB
  • Modernized AmigaOS Workbench
  • DiskDoctor for disk diagnostic and salvage operations
  • Native support for pipes, softlinks, hardlinks and long filenames
  • CrossDOS supporting FAT 32 and long filenames
  • CD-ROM file system that supports Rockridge and Joliet extensions as well as UDF and now also Macintosh HFS
  • Both FFS (FastFileSystem) and the CD-ROM file system are now smarter, faster, and multi-threaded
  • Fully reworked and bug-fixed printer drivers
  • Built-in GlowIcons support as an installable option
  • More than 2100 icons in GlowIcon style included on the AmigaOS 3.2 CD-ROM

14.FLEXIBLE DELIVERY MEDIA

  • The distribution AmigaOS 3.2 CD-ROM contains ADF disk images that can be transferred to physical floppy disks or Gotek-type drives
  • All Modules disks perform as emergency boot disks too
  • The DiskDoctor disk can help users to quickly get back on their feet when facing disk failures
  • The AmigaOS 3.2 CD-ROM content can be copied “as is” to an Amiga formatted hard drive and booted right away for installation thanks to the “Amiga Preinstallation Environment” (AmigaPE)
  • All Amiga model disks and AmigaOS Kickstart ROM set images are available on the AmigaOS 3.2 CD-ROM
  • Attractive printable labels are available for all your favorite AmigaOS 3.2 storage media variants (AmigaOS 3.2 CD-ROM version only)
  • Experimental CD-ROM-based Amiga CDTV and Amiga CD32 support

15.MANY REMARKABLE ADDITIONS

  • Wheel mouse support for scrolling on AmigaOS Workbench windows
  • IPrefs stacks multiple changes and refreshes the screen only once
  • IPrefs points out names of blocking windows when refreshing
  • No more DF0:???? icons as disk.resource now does proper checking
  • Increased ROM Modules flexibility by loading more modules from disk without requiring an additional reboot for them
  • “HappyENV/ENV-Handler” functionality reimplementation incorporated
  • No more MaxTransfer values required for built-in Commodore and other well-known hardware controllers from various manufacturers
  • “Installer” is more compatible with previous AmigaOS versions
  • Multiple input events are supported by input.device
  • Two new alerts report module issues for easier system diagnosis
  • New API features for developers
  • Optional generic processor support libraries for 68K CPU boards

 

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