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- Path: brighton.openmarket.com!decwrl!waikato!not-for-mail
- From: sbh@cs.waikato.ac.nz (Stephen B Hodge)
- Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy,comp.sys.amiga.introduction,comp.sys.amiga.misc,comp.sys.amiga.programmer
- Subject: Re: What I want from new Workbench
- Followup-To: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy,comp.sys.amiga.introduction,comp.sys.amiga.misc,comp.sys.amiga.programmer
- Date: 11 Mar 1996 00:00:23 GMT
- Organization: The University of Waikato
- Sender: sbh@waikato.ac.nz
- Distribution: world
- Message-ID: <4hvqen$s0q@thebes.waikato.ac.nz>
- References: <2477.6641T698T2915@actcom.co.il> <VX8dy*3H0@mkmk.in-chemnitz.de>
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-
- Andre Weissflog (floh@mkmk.in-chemnitz.de) wrote:
- : In article <2477.6641T698T2915@actcom.co.il>, Ariel Magnum writes:
- : > 2. Workbench Arexx port - For playing sounds (UDP,MSD), managing Commdities,
- : > launching programs , and managing public screens.
- :
- : Yes, but: playing sounds ? No. Those who want it can use a
- : commodity.
- : Managing Commodities is the job of Exchange, not WB.
- : Managing public screens isn't the job of the WB either, IMHO.
- Workbench should have an Arexx port, but not for this.
-
- : Just OPEN, CLOSE, QUIT, UPDATE, VIEW/SHOW_AS, COPY, DELETE,
- : MOVE(!), and perhaps half a dozen other commands would suffice.
- Exactly.
-
- : > 3. Ability to edit menu without a hack that destoyes many others (toolsdeamon)
- : I like it the way GoldEd does it: offer a set of "kernel
- : commands", and let the user build the menus and hotkeys from it,
- : and make the same commands available through ARexx.
- Now if you have an Arexx port, then the menus can be created with Arexx
- macros. Very nice.
-
- : > 4. NewIcons patch to be implimented.
- : IMHO No.
- I think that graphics.library is going to have to implement pen sharing to a
- far greater degree, possibly including seperate palettes in each window. The
- icon format should be upgraded to include palette information.
- NewIcons is a kludge, and so it should not be included, rather the original
- problem should be fixed properly.
-
- : > 5. Make Wb open on a RTG public screen.
- :
- : RTG is irrelevant for an Intuition application like the Workbench is.
- : Better: Let the user open as many Worbenches as he wants on any
- : public screen.
- Yes.
-
- : > 6. Impliment Font densetive gui routines preferably MUI.I know its painfully
- : > slow at times but perhaps written in assembler and using RTG will become
- : > faster.A tottaly configurable GUI engine could push the Amiga far ahead
- : > of its competitiors.I must say that most gadgtools guis look very bad
- : > best examples are the preferences programs.
- :
- : Arguable (MUI), more font sensitivity would be fine however, especially
- : in the prefs editors.
- The GUI engine needs an overhaul, but adding MUI is not the way to do it.
-
- : > 7. Impliment Datatypes more into the workbench so that programs like deficons
- : > would not be needed.Also this will cut back on executable code.All object
- : > loading should be done via datatypes.Perhaps object saving as well.
- :
- : How do you define 'object'?
- deficons has nothing to do with datatypes. I like the deficons idea, and I
- think that datatypes should be used more. Particularly the use of datatypes
- write method should be looked at. Far more datatypes need to be able to write.
-
- : > 8. Making mutitasking a bit smarter - Settaskpre is definetly not idiot
- : > proof.
- :
- : What's wrong with settaskpri?
- AmigaOS needs a new scheduler yes. Executive is a good example of a nice one.
-
- : > 10. Text And image clipping from all windows.
- : If you mean Cut-Copy-Paste with "clipping"... there are
- : two ways, either the application provides support for it
- : (like text editors, etc.) or a global solution is used,
- : like PowerSnap, that works nearly everywhere. Since this
- : is a religious issue, this should be left to commodities,
- : so every user can choose whether he wants it or not.
- PowerSnap can be slow, and sometimes doesn't work as well as it could if there
- was more OS support. What should be happening is either powersnap or the
- application is used for cut/copy with the data always going to a clipboard.
- Then an application should be able to paste this data.
-
- : > 14. Distribute Java with the OS , along with Arexx.
- I would like to see this. Java is useful outside of the web.
-
- : My additional wishes for WB improvement:
- :
- : 1) Explicit Move and Copy through drag & drop + qualifier.
- : 2) WB windows updating automatically their contents
- : (changing file sizes, changes that have
- : been done by cli commands etc...).
- : 3) Smarter WB windows, especially the list view mode.
- : 4) More efficient file system navigation like keeping
- : in the same window, when opening a drawer with
- : doubleclick + hotkey. A 'close-and-up-to-parent'
- : qualifier etc.
- Yes to all of this.
-
- : 5) Make the ASL requester a Workbench Window object
- : and vice versa (so, whenever an ASL requester
- : is opened, basically a new Workbench is launched,
- : possibly in "One Window Mode", and with "Listview Mode"
- : turned on. The default mode attributes for ASL-WB-Windows
- : should be preferences settings.
- : That way, delete, makedir, rename etc... would
- : be automatically supported in ASL requesters
- : (as well as icon view if wanted).
- Now this is a _good_ idea. I would really like to see this.
-
- --
-
- Steve Hodge
- sbh@cs.waikato.ac.nz
- Computer Science Dept, University of Waikato,
- Hamilton, New Zealand
-