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1994-08-22
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Path: news.uh.edu!barrett
From: nick@mentaur.demon.co.uk (Nick Ridley)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.reviews
Subject: REVIEW: Magic Workbench version 2.0
Followup-To: comp.sys.amiga.misc
Date: 22 Aug 1994 14:41:52 GMT
Organization: The Amiga Online Review Column - ed. Daniel Barrett
Lines: 457
Sender: amiga-reviews@math.uh.edu (comp.sys.amiga.reviews moderator)
Distribution: world
Message-ID: <33adfg$c0d@masala.cc.uh.edu>
Reply-To: nick@mentaur.demon.co.uk (Nick Ridley)
NNTP-Posting-Host: karazm.math.uh.edu
Keywords: Workbench, icons, background patterns, graphics, shareware
Originator: barrett@karazm.math.uh.edu
PRODUCT NAME
Magic Workbench version 2.0 ("MagicWB")
BRIEF DESCRIPTION
Magic Workbench is a package consisting of carefully drawn icons
which directly replace all those supplied with the original Workbench
package, and many more for other programs are included too. There are a
large number of backgrounds suitable for using in windows or on the main
Workbench screen, as well as dock icons for use in conjunction with a
program such as Tool Manager by Stefan Becker. New with version 2.0 are
several other things such as 'image-drawers' and a few support programs:
MagicWB-Demon and Magic Copper (for AGA users).
AUTHOR
Name: Martin Hottenloher
Address: Am HochstraB 4
89081 Ulm
Germany
E-mail: xen@magic.in-ulm.de
LIST PRICE
Dependent on the terms of the SASG (Standardised Amiga Shareware
Group). At time of writing this was:
US$20,- DM30,- UK15,- FF120,- SFr30,-
There are local registration sites available outside Germany in Great
Britain, the US and Australia.
I ordered my copy directly from the author.
SPECIAL HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS
HARDWARE
300K disk space required on your SYS: partition.
In theory, no other special hardware is needed in order to
use this package, though in practice some things are a good
idea:
a) A hard disk is recommended. The enclosed Installer script
expects you to have a hard drive with Workbench on it. For
floppy systems with at least 1.5 MB RAM, it is certainly
possible to unarchive MagicWB to RAM: and then copy by hand
to a floppy, but I don't recommend it. Practically speaking,
I suspect that people who want to run a high resolution
Workbench will have hard disks.
b) 1MB+ of CHIP RAM is recommended, though by no means
necessary. I imagine that an Amiga with only 0.5MB of Chip
RAM would be seriously limited if MagicWB was installed. An
8 colour Workbench plus a higher resolution screen-mode uses
several hundred kilobytes of Chip RAM, and that doesn't
count the RAM usage of detailed icons.
c) A monitor capable of displaying the required screen modes
without flicker will make life more pleasant, but is again
not required. I have been running an interlaced MagicWB on
my Philips CM8833 monitor for 8 months now, and I have
survived the flicker. :)
SOFTWARE
Version 2.0 or higher of AmigaDOS is required.
A proportional screenmode with at least 8 colours should be
used in order for MagicWB to look right. Of course you can
use neither of these, but then you will be wasting your time
with MagicWB. :)
A proportional screenmode is one where the pixels are
square. The most obvious example of such a screenmode is
Hi-Res Interlace.
COPY PROTECTION
There is no visible copy protection, though the author maintains
that every copy of MagicWB is personalised, and thus pirated copies would be
immediately traceable.
MACHINE USED FOR TESTING
Amiga 1200 2MB CHIP RAM with Kickstart 3.0 (v39.106)
and Workbench 3.0 (v39.29)
GVP A1230 Series II 50Mhz 68030 plus 4MB FAST RAM
GVP A1291 SCSI2 interface
Quantum Pro 410MB SCSI2 Hard Disk Drive in external case
BASIC INSTALLATION
MagicWB 2.0 arrives archived on a single floppy disk. There is a
personalised message warning you not to distribute MagicWB and a
self-extracting archive which prompts you for a destination directory,
reminding you that you will need 1.5MB of disk space. Resist the temptation
to unpack this to RAM: as you will need access to all these files in the
future.
From these files, you can run the real installation program, but
since this is in essence what MagicWB is all about, I shall discuss this in
the review proper.
INTRODUCTION
When Edge Magazine published two pictures comparing the Amiga
Workbench to the Apple Mac Desktop it made me feel quite ill. Why was that?
The Amiga shot they showed was a beautiful black and white picture of the
default Workbench being run on a high-resolution screen, and so it looked
horrible. Many Amiga owners know that they do not have to put up with an
environment like that since MagicWB has been available for quite some time.
It has steadily become accepted throughout the Amiga community, it seems, as
THE replacement icon scheme, as more and more shareware and Public Domain
software comes with MagicWB style icons. Those not in the know may well
have wondered what those strange colourful icons were all about. Read on.
MagicWB2 is not strictly shareware, as it is only available if
ordered from the author or a SASG registration site. A demo consisting of
example screenshots is available (e.g. on Aminet - MagicWB20d.lha in
biz/demo). The previous archive, version 1.2, was available in the past, and
registered users had access to version 1.5. Due to the availability of this
demonstration archive, I have not produced any example screenshots to
accompany this review, so I advise that you download the archive.
DETAILED INSTALLATION
One of the first things that strikes you about the MagicWB2
package is the standard of presentation. The disk icon for the install
floppy is very striking and introduces the MagicWB logo. Having unarchived
the disk, you should have a directory on your hard disk which contains the
package. On opening this drawer you will immediately notice how carefully
all the icons and windows have been arranged - real care has been taken here.
The real test of the package is how well the install routine
works, though. Previous versions had an odd quirk or two, though it is no
wonder - no two people have their Workbench partitions set up identically,
so any install program has to be moderately intelligent. It is on this
point that I can forgive the author for not using the Commodore Installer
utility, as perhaps it was not flexible enough for his purposes. I still
would have preferred to see Installer used though, simply for the sake of
standardisation.
The installer program does its job very well, and I uncovered no
problems at all. In theory, I was updating my installation from version 1.2,
but I cannot see that there would be any problems. Those curious to know
precisely what the program is doing can find rough details of what is going
on in the documentation.
If you have an AGA machine the installer asks you if you would
like to install the special 'Magic Copper' program and its associated
backdrops. More of this later. A subtly different palette is used if you
have an AGA machine.
The final thing the installer suggests you do is to change the
default Workbench screenmode. As mentioned before, at the very least this
should be HiRes interlaced. 8 colours are needed too; though if you have an
AGA machine and intend to use Magic Copper, you will need 16 colours.
Running a high resolution screenmode with 8 or more colours will slow your
machine's ability to open windows, etc. The author claims that MagicWB2 runs
'2-3 [times] faster and needs 67% less chip-memory' than previous versions,
and that even on a standard 68000-based machine, operation is still fairly
speedy. I was unable to test this, though.
Once the installer has changed all the icons in your Workbench
partition, you are free to update the icons elsewhere on your hard disk
yourself. A couple of utilities are available to aid you in this venture.
The first is 'update drawers' which changes all the drawer icons to the new
MagicWB2 style icon, and the second is 'IconUpdate' which is a very simple
utility for changing single program/drawer icons. I did have a