NetNews Offline 2/NetNews Offline Volume 2.iso/news/comp/sys/amiga/programmer/5903

Internet Message Format | 1996-08-05 | 18.6 KB

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From: Paul Kenneth Egell-johnsen <[e-mail]>
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.programmer
Subject: Re: Team AMIGA Wish List (LONG)
Date: Thu, 21 Mar 1996 17:53:10 +0100
Organization: UNINETT news service
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CC: paulken4

Gary Alan Peake wrote:

> Make Resident:

>    @ Snoopdos (or a substitute)

If you mean resident, as in putting it in the Rom, then this
isn't possible (putting it on CD-ROM AND having it resident, I
mean whats the point...). And you can make ANY program (or most
anyway) resident via the resident command.

> Improvements Needed:
>     *Requesters (ReqTools & Arq-like)

Arq like requesters (and Magic File Requester) would be nicer.
Even add easy ways to make your own anims and sounds with each
requester and...

>     *User-Configurable Pull-down Menus (with short-cuts)

Now, why don't you try out ToolsDaemon and Toolmanager?
ToolsDaemon let you put in as many menus as you have room for,
and Toolmanager does it more stylishly (but only as additional
items to the existing Tools menu).

Toolmanager with the flexibility of menus as supported by
ToolsDaemon (because ToolsDaemon has a rather akward system of
configuration) is my dream.

Let the user decide, the tools already exist.

>     *ClipBoard

PowerSnap. Let the user decide.

>      Expanded IFF support (for improved compression-ala PNG/Encap JPEG)

No more different systems, except if it's lossless and uses some
fractal or wavelet compression, then I might rethink.

>      Font Handling (with support for TrueType/Type1 fonts)

If we get PPC, then perhaps it's time for PostScript rendering
of all text?

>      More keyboard support/shortcuts

Yes, and make a rigid standard for everyone to follow.

>      Center text in requesters and get rid of excess white space.

Huh? Center text is the programmers job. Excess white space is a
contradiction, white space should always be there for
readability and better layout, hence it cannot be excess in most
cases.

>      Icon & Backdrop palettes independant of the WB palette

Why not?

>    @ Online 'Help' add flexibility and expand

Bubble help, a bit of Bebox system and such. Either expand
Aguide to include inline images and sound, or use HTML.

>      Customizable device drivers for the non-programmer

Examples...

>      More flexibility for MultiView (allow it to save to different formats)

Search capability.

>      HDToolBox (allow larger hard drive support)

Thats the OS.

>      Public Screen support (thru tooltypes so programs can open behind WB)

The programmers domain, I would think.

>      Control of GUI elements (window highlite colors, etc) thru Prefs

Mui... I would think.

>     *Wait pointer keeps us waiting too long at times

Thats not the pointer, but the programs.

>     *Give 'MORE' a file requester and ability to use keys for up-down

Why use MORE, when we have multiview? I really hate all programs
that come with more or less or whatever as tooltypes and which
forces me to do some changes.

>    @*"Ed, Edit, and Memacs" ... enhance one and get rid of the others

Or get CygnusEd (Elastic Reality, probably would like to get
some money for something which has been abandomed a long time
ago, when they wher called ASDG), fast, reliable and some
functions (like scripts) which I really miss from most (if not
all) editors I am unfortunate to suffer elsewhere.

>    @*Fancier screen savers

Lots of them.

>     *AM/PM Date/Time on the title bar

Possible even as we speak.

>     *Make the 'cancel' button on a copy to floppy work the first time when
>         it gets bad blocks or write errors

Better programming again, I would say.

>     *Toggle gadget on tooltypes instead of writing them in

This one I like! Very good suggestion, now that some programs
rely very heavy on tooltypes.

>     *Prefs program for Assigns (ala bind names)

Assigns is a prefs program, try it.

>     *Font sensitive gadgets

Programmers again.

>     *Multi-tasking drawer opening

Yes, I agree, more of the workbench should multitask.

>     *Memory defragmentation

I think there is programs which do this already (I might be
mistaken, just a buzz in my head).

>     *Dynamically created chip ram

You have to buy it, you can't create it from air, you know.

>     *Faster FastFileSystem

Try AFS or PFS or ...

> Remove:
>     *Icon Borders (make them user optional)

And add bevels around the Icon text (try a darkbackground image
with darktext on grey, and see why). Or make the background
transparent, so you can see the background image through the
`whitespace' around the text.

In fact Dr. P.K. said they would look into this.

>      2.1+ Error Messages (We want Guru Meditations again!)

Why would we? More stability, I say.

>     *32 bit pen specifiers

No, 8 bit red, 8 bit green, 8 bit blue and 8 bit alpha so that
we can look decently through the colours when we wish! Perhaps
we need 40 bits (8 bit genlock, too).

>     *Trashcan

Why? Can't you use available utilities at all?

> Standardize:
>      Installer/Uninstaller (half way there now with new release!)

Make it a requirement for developers, as much else should be a
requirement. In fact I had to laugh when I read in the
description of a recent upload at aminet (the last 3 or 4 days
in fact) that the programmer `didn't use asl or similar things,
because it was much more compatible (and NICER LOOKING)'. If
this is the attitude of some programmers, good riddance.

>     *Ability to password protect directories/volumes/ or on boot-up

Lots of possibilities in the public domain.

> Additions Needed:
>     *Bring back "Guru Meditations" with adjustable delay for reboot
>           and better translations of what caused the guru

Repeating ourselves, are we?

>      Retargetable graphics
>     *Retargetable sound

I think some great minds are working with this. (Statement by
Giles Bodouin, we closely cooperate with phase 5 in order not to
duplicate efforts, which I name only prudent, because AT saves
money, Phase 5 saves money and we get results faster...)

>      MIFF (Multimedia IFF ... hypertext, sound, graphics, animation,etc)

Whats this, an application.

>      Standardized 'MIFF' viewer (MultiView on steroids?)

Multiview can view hypertext, sound, graphics, animation,etc, as
you mentioned earlier. Probably you are talking about some Web
browser looking thing?

>    @ NewIcon type of Icon support

Well yes. But why can't icons be saved one place, and then let
the workbench decide which icon to use (I think this is how
NewIcon works), and here is the clue... THEN WE COULD GET RID OF
ALL THOSE SMALL ICONS LYING AROUND CLUTTERING ALL OUR
DIRECTORIES.

>     *Abort gadget for the 'disk copy' and other requesters

Thats `Cancel' BTW, and again it's the programmers fault.

>      Iconify gadget on the WB menus

??? I would like to see Menufy and Iconify which remebers their
statuses when you reboot!

>    @ System debugger that is accessible from a 'Guru Meditation' with
>           history

Try a link cable and an external terminal.

>    @ Magic Layers or Opaque Windows

Huh? Why not transparent windows?

>      Add an 'assign' requester (AssignX) when a program needs an assign

Are you totally alergic to programs which aren't supplied with
the workbench?

>    @ TCP/IP with extras and a basic terminl program (Surfer Option?)

Yes to tcp/ip.

>      DataTypes Needed:
>           HTML, AVI, MPEG, QT/MOV, MOD/MED, JPEG, GIF, WAV, VOC
>           Divide datatypes into separate types and program accordingly:
>                system-system files, text-text files, doc-document files,
>                inst-musical instruments, musi-musical files, pict-picture
>                files, anim-animation files, movi-movie
>                files,decom-decompression of files

We have the above, except for HTML and QT looks like some I
haven't seen (heh).

>    @ Magic Menus-like menu options

This should be standard, this one is good.

>      All corner sizing gadget for windows

Yes, get rid of gadgets below the Dragbar. Don't let windows
have bottom and right dragbars, they look awful.

Much better symmetry in making an external sizing bevel to the
whole window, then under the top sizing have the iconbar
(perhaps menubar, take a look at Dopus 5 and higher for some
nice ideas) of the window and then the work area.

>      Settable aspect ratio (1:1 or 2:1)

Why would we want other aspct ratios than 1:1? (except for video
work)...

>     *Cycle gadgets, button gadgets (ala MUI)

Drop down cycle gadgets (menu like).

>      KingCon instead of Cli/Shell with name completion (system-wide)
>         with scroll bar for cut/paste text

Agree, this should be standard.

>     *'XCopy' command that checks blocks/bytes before starting

XCopy, that ugly bitch?

>    @ Visual GUI programming ala Mac

MUIbuilder seems promising, don't it?

>     *8 bit pen specifiers for true 24 bit color

You earlier would like to remove 32 bit pen specification (or am
I confusing matters).

>     *Allow spaces in file names without using quotes

Ok, picture this. You are going to use a command called foo. It
takes several arguments, among them a too and from file. Now
look at this:

foo work:Pauls wonderful sexy smile add amiga:And the rest of
his body

now, how does the program foo decide if smile, or add or
wonderful or whatever is an argument?

foo "work:Pauls wonderful sexy smile" add "amiga:And the rest of
his body"

is a nice and easy solution which you just have to add two extra
symbols ("") each time you use a file name. The alternative
would be something like this

foo -i work:Pauls wonderful sexy smile -add amiga:And the rest
of his body

or

foo work:Pauls wonderful sexy smile, add, amiga:And the rest of
his body

both which are feasible, but then you have a much stricter
syntax, you have to ALWAYS (even when you don't use files) type
extra symbols.

>    @*Buy the rights to a compression method and include in the OS
>    @*Xpk support

Let us use Xpk (with nice gui, better preferences and such).

>     *Adjust sound thru software

Are there other ways? If I wan't sound I have to use software.
(Thats `period'.)

>    @*Virtual Memory

Would be nice, needs a bit of concideration (pros and cons).

>     *PCMCIA driver

A1200 has it, the rest of us don't need it. Probably you are
talking about specific drivers for specific cards, which are a
totally different matter, and strictly speaking not the domain
of AT.

>     *Support localization for non-Romanized laguages (Japanese/Chinese)

Of course.

>     *Selectable Kickstart modes from startup for 'old' programs
>     *Patch for 68020+ DataTypes to run on a 68000 3.1/ECS
>     *AGA to ECS retargetting

All these are supported by different programs (if I understood
the 3rd item correctly).

>    @*Bare bones file manager

DOpus rules, esp. workbench replacement mode (except that
ToolsDaemon don't function after that).

>     *Bottom screen bar with clock, calendar, and text/icon fields for
>         starting programs from (like 'shell')

You wanted the clock at the top earlier! And text/icon fields
sound like... Toolmanager

>     *'Locate' command that uses (d) dir, (f) file, (b) both switch then
>         transfers you to the file/directory it finds

Or gives you all the directories containing that file/directory
with pertinent commands (test for equality, taking you to one of
those directories, etc. etc.).

But the Bebox Filedatabase seems like a good idea (make indexes
and then you can find files and such very fast).

>     *Cron Program

Then you have to log on and off and leave the computer on
continually.

>     *Combine 'Dir' and 'List' with interactive mode

A directory program? The tab function of KingCon?

>     *Multi-tasking on Workbench and pull-down menus

We've agreed on better multitasking under workbench, haven't we?

>     *Check for open/changed files on reboot or 'guru'

Save them before guruing (as a totally weirdnamed file in temp)
and then tell me that those files are accessible (and are named
after such and such file which was a work in progress when we so
ungracefully kicked you out), and then if I double click on a
file the apropriate application should open and I should be able
to continue working where I left.

>     *Cli command like 'openwindow HD1:' that would work from
>         s:user-startup

Now heres something which needs a bit refinement. Why don't we
add `Open dh0: in window' and `move mouse to 400x200', `double
click mouse', `when opening window play [soundname]' and such to
arexx? Make it more versatile as a (global) scripting language,
take a look at applescript and how you in fact can make scripts
which accesses different applications, from [the record script
place] one menu item.

>     *Scroll bar in the Cli

... you know the comment.

>    @*DiskSalve
>    @*Reorg

Very important.

>     *MPEG decoding

Make it rtg, so that those with better economy could buy better
hardware. In fact there are bound to be several formats (AVI,
QuickTime etc.). So my suggestion is that the datatypes should
either be a datatype (as they are now) or hooks which could
redirect the stream to the correct hardware, and then the
hardware could redirect the output to the [calling] application
again.

Now doesn't this seem very feasible? Then we of course have to
make programs which don't assume this and this screenmode, such
or such soundoutput (und so weiter), but leave everything to the
OS. The OS gives us resources, the datatypes interpret streams
an direct the streams to correct executioner which then returns
the result back to the caller (now I am repeating myself).

>     *Mouseclick brings window to front and makes it active

SunMouse? Thats not going to be the default way of handling
things, and here is why:

You have one program in a window which aren't active (say
CygnusEd) on the workbench. And you are viewing a textfile in
another window (not active, just at the top). Now you would like
to write something in CygnusEd WHILE you are reading the file
(at the top). Click in the CEd window (to make it active, and no
fucking way would I like it at the top at this point) and write.

Nice and easy and clean.

If you dig pervertial things like sunmouse and sunkey and a host
of other dumb utilities then use them, but I RELY on my Amiga to
do the above, it's the MAIN advantage of the Amiga because it
can help do some WORK. These things are impossible under Motif,
Windows and Mac.

Now any flames are welcome, because I really can't see why you
could do any arguments against the above (which makes sense,
besides releaving you of some work).

>     *A 'Leave Out' option for an entire window

Thats something like Iconify and/or Menufy, I would say? (They
need to remember this after reboot, though).

>     *Global tooltypes, rather than pregram specific tooltypes

Thats what def_icon.info are for, aren't they?

> Hardware Related:
>      More Sound Channels (8)

Why not 32? Usually they all come out through two stereo RCA
jacks, so really, most standard hardware deliver 32 channels at
this point.

All channels:

individual panning, individual volume, individual playback.

If it came out through more jacks, then we could talk about
specifics, else I just want as many soundchannels as possible
(with the added RTG, of course).

>      Coprocessor for sound/graphics

Use standard elements (now we should probably think about,
MPEG/JPEG decode, 3d accelerators, graphics accelerators, sound
chips, midichips etc. Read againg my ideas on RTG above (quite
few lines above, in fact).

>      Clock/Calendar in every Amiga

Wich goes beyond 2000 :)

>     *PCMCIA drives

Thats slots, and are really only good in a portable.

>     *OS on CD ROM and on floppies

No floppies, perhaps Zip, or Jaz or something from Syquest.
(ESCOM will deliver zip drives as standard, so should AT (or
rather Jaz drives, in my opinion)).

>     *Three-button mouse support built-in to the OS

Works now.

>     *Midi port

There are some new things now, Zipi I think one is named,
perhaps we should be the first computer with support?

> Programming/Text Related:
>    @*More in-depth user manuals (AmigaDos, Arexx)

Add some online manuals too. (Much more should be online,
manuals, help, wizards, hints and tips).

>     *Easier to understand 'C' program options (switches,etc) current manuals
>           are vague and confusing to the normal user

Thats the compiler manuals fault, there are several different
compilers, how would AT find the time to do all?

And why can't we jump on to C++, it's very easy to program,
learn and understand.

>    @*RKM's on a CD Rom Disk with search function

Agree, a CD-Rom which contains documentation would be a good
idea, but you could do it now (yourself) it doesn't strictly
have to be AT doing this job (it probably shouldn't, as such
administrative work will put a strain on other efforts).

>    @*Service Manuals for 500, 1200, 2000, 3000, 4000 series

Reprintings, I presume.

>     *Improve Installer docs

I've seen it online.

>     *Full Arexx manuals

I got one with my A3000T.

Generally you have repeated yourselves too often. Also there are
several inconsistencies in your wishes. I suggest you go through
it one more time, and correct them.

Many of the wishes are relevant. Some I have marked in a `mee
too way' some as `use the relevant utility'. Either way, if the
future OS comes on CD or Zip, then AT could distribute most of
the programs with the OS...

Now, I too would like to have more of these as an integrated (as
made by AT) part of the OS, but why should AT at this time when
is's [time] paramount, do this?

What need be done is a better CX broker. And better CX awareness
of programs. Example, in dir opus you may define your own
hotkeys for different actions. Now, have you ever defined the
same hotkey combinations? Sometimes the results are amusing, and
sometimes more dire.

Hotkeys, screennames, arexxports, processes everything should be
viewable (and changeable where apllicable) from a better CX. And
everyone changing hotkeys or opening processes, whatever, should
register with the OS (or CX or however this functions).

When AT gets around to include options for tear off menus,
Sunmouse(shiver), Sunkey(shudder) and other more `nice too have'
options, I am sure that it will be more efficient and we would
be grateful, but for now, support those who already have done
the effort and give them thanks!

Replys gratefully received.

Paul K Egell-Johnsen,

mailto:[e-mail]
http://afrodite.kih.no:8001/studenter/paulken4/frames/

BTW, I trust some at AT have followed this thread? Perhaps some
should compile a synopsis of this thread in due time?