Go to the first, previous, next, last section, table of contents.

# Introduction to the AmigaOS 3.5 (V44) Release Notes

PRELIMINARY - last revised on 24 October 1999

Copyright (C) 1999 Amiga, Inc. All rights reserved.

This document describes the relevant changes and new features introduced in AmigaOS 3.5 (release V44) since AmigaOS 3.1 (release V40). Developers are invited to read this guide carefully and check their products against the issues hereby discussed.

This AmigaGuideŽ file is generated by Makeinfo-1.68. It is formatted for viewing with AmigaGuide V40 or later. Please send comments, suggestions and corrections for this text to Bernardo Innocenti @email{bernie@cosmos.it}.

Overview
- Workbench Version: How to determine the Workbench version Updated Subsystems
- Workbench: The Workbench program and `workbench.library`
- Icon Library: The `icon.library`
- ASL Library: The `asl.library`
- Picture Datatype: The `picture.datatype`
- Installer: The `Installer` program
- Shell Commands: Updated shell commands
- SetPatch: New `SetPatch` features Indices
- Function Index: Index of library functions
- Tag Index: Index of tags, structures and definitions
- Concept Index: Index of all topics by concept

# Determining the Workbench version

An important point to mention is how to determine if a system is running V44 instead of V40 or an earlier Workbench release. The recommended approach is to open `version.library`, and check its version. For example:

    struct Library *VersionBase;

    if (VersionBase = OpenLibrary("version.library", 0))
    {
        if (VersionBase->lib_Version >= 44)
        {
            /* user is running at least V44 Workbench */
        }
        else
        {
            /* user is running at most V37 Workbench */
        }
    }
    else
    {
        /* can't tell what the user is running, assume the minimum version
         * that your application supports
         */
    }

The above technique lets you determine which general version is in use for the disk-based software. Never assume this is a reflection of every other library in the system. For example, if you need features of the `asl.library` that are only present since V44, you must explicitly check the version of `asl.library` before using them. The same goes for all other system libraries.

Go to the first, previous, next, last section, table of contents.