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Amiga MA Magazine 1998 #6
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tronhan
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wbngfaq.txt
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1997-11-07
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WorkbencNG (called WBNG in this text) FAQ - under construction.
1. What is WBNG? A new OS?
WBNG is a filemanager/programlauncher like the old WB and DOpus5.x.
It is NOT a new OS in any way, NOR does it enhance any OS-related features
like OS-specific-GUI (windowborder...) or DOS.
NOTE: many have commented on the "cool" borderpatterns shown in the 3rd
screenshot on the WEB site. This is NOT WBNG! It is a borderhack I wrote
for fun for CGFXV3! It has nothing to do with WBNG really, but it was
running when I took the screenshot. It is not available to public, because
it's supposed to be a part of a coming CGFX V3 commodity. (anyway, the hack isn't
100% working yet either..)
2. Is WBNG available yet?
No.
3. Can I become a betatester?
No. (unless you have a very special reason :) I have had enough testers
since sep. 96.
4. Why haven't a public beta been released yet, even though you hinted about
it around christmas 96?
Two reasons:
- I've spent very little time developing WBNG compared to what I had planned.
(I program my Amiga in my spare time, when I feel like it. I've also been
programming superlayers for CGFX V3 and other minor stuff too instead of
only focusing on WBNG)
- The development of other WB-replacement (like Scalos, Dopus Mag. and MBench
have made me change some of my plans. Lots of rewrite that I was planning for
a V2 is being done already, and I'm also trying to make WBNG "different" than
the others. It's no point in having lots of identical WB's, when we could
have different ones suited to a particular taste, system performance....
5. What's WBNG features?
See the website, www.stud.ntnu.no/~tronhan/wbng.html. As of writing this, the
feature page hasn't been updated in a LONG time, but it will give you an idea.
6. Will you implement <insert a feature you long for> into WBNG?
Maybe. First I need to get a beta out that includes the essential stuff (from
my point of view). Then I'll look at it.
7. Will WBNG have a new iconformat?
Maybe. If I make something up, it will first be an optional feature for those
users that can and would want to try it out. I've been talking to the author of
Scalos about a new format, so hopefully there will not appear two (or more!)
new formats.
8. Will WBNG be shareware?
I don't know yet. The first public version(s) will definitly be Freeware.
9. Does WBNG support CGFX aswell as P96?
Ofcourse. There's no difference really. P96 supports the standard
cybergraphic.library calls that WBNG uses.
10. What does such CGFX support mean, anyway?
It means that WBNG "knows about" and "understands" the use of hi/truecolor
displays, so that patterns, old icons and newicons is rendered with the
correct pixelformat. It also means that WBNG can in hi/truecolor modes explore
the use of such nonpalette-display to generate effects like real transparency
when dragging icons.
11. Does WBNG use MUI, like the screenshots on the website suggest?
Yes and No. WBNG is built up of Genies which add functionality to WBNG.
(like ListGenie (built in), IconGenie (built in), ReqGenie, FileGenie,
ArexxGenie, MenuGenie......) The core of WBNG does NOT use MUI, so
you could live without it. BUT, as of now, only my own Genies exist, and
some of them (those that opens windows for some reason) uses MUI.
That's why the screenshot shows a MUI "About window", "Execute Command
window". These are windows created by my ReqGenie. One could write a new
ReqGenie (replace the old, or just run it at a higher priority inside the
Genie-list, in which case those Requesters you don't support will be
created by the existing ReqGenie) using GadTools or whatever. Another
way is to explore the use of my EventGenie, in which case you would
have EventGenie launch a external program instead of having WBNG itself
do anything. (you could for instance launch the ClassAct "Execute Command"
modulo written for Scalos) This way you don't have to code anything, just
edit the EventGenie prefs.
NOTE: The windows of the WBNG-core itself (the actual wbwindows where the
icons/dirs are shown) is NOT MUI.
12 Why does your Genies use MUI?
Because I have a sexual relationship with SASG! har! Seriously, it's
the best GUI system on earth. :)
13 What is this Genie stuff anyway?
Simply explained, the Genies does the stuff WBNG tells them to, or they
listen to events and act on they own for various reasons. Genies can also
draw directly to WBWindows, so one could write a WEBGenie, that lets you
browse the WEB with WBNG (like the new Windows.. note: I doubt anyone will
write that since making such a browser is a lot of work :) A more
simply Genie that uses WBWindows directly, could be a DataTypeGenie. When
you doubleclicked on a file (with no other special action tied to it)
the DataTypeGenie (like MultiView) would "show" the file, but inside the same
WBWindow!
14 Why don't you code WBNG instead of wasting time on IRC, writing this
crap FAQ and updating the WEB-page?
Good question.
15 I feel cheated! You haven't released shit! You suck!
This WBNG-shit is just bad joke, right?
No. It's true, just not done yet. Get a life.