Lee_Robert_Willis@cup.portal.com (10/25/90)
Along this thread is a lot of complaints about how Workbench 1.3 is "unprofessional". I _like_ WB1.3! I use Macs at work, and I don't find there interface more "professional" at all. My only complaint is the visible scan lines, and that's not the fault of Workbench. What is it specifically that people don't like about the old Workbench? Lee Lee_Robert_Willis@cup.portal.com
peter@sugar.hackercorp.com (Peter da Silva) (10/26/90)
In article <35239@cup.portal.com> Lee_Robert_Willis@cup.portal.com writes: > What is it specifically that people don't like about the old Workbench? As the author of a fairly popular workbench replacement (browser), I'd like to answer in two words: ".info files". Workbench 2.0 addresses the main problem: the inability to manipulate *all* files with the workbench. It's still single-threaded, which is a problem in a multitasking environment, but it's good enough I don't use browser at all any more. -- Peter da Silva. `-_-' <peter@sugar.hackercorp.com>.
navas@cory.Berkeley.EDU (David C. Navas) (10/27/90)
In article <6895@sugar.hackercorp.com> peter@sugar.hackercorp.com (Peter da Silva) writes: >In article <35239@cup.portal.com> Lee_Robert_Willis@cup.portal.com writes: >> What is it specifically that people don't like about the old Workbench? > >As the author of a fairly popular workbench replacement (browser), I'd like >to answer in two words: ".info files". Workbench 2.0 addresses the main And as an author of YAWBR (Jazzbench), I wouldn't mind putting in a few of my own: 1. Windows can't be closed while directory is loaded. - in the incarnation of 2.0 I have, this is not fixed. - it's expecially severe when you open C:, and it takes 11 seconds to load it (on my A3000!). Jazzbench takes about 4-5 secs. 2. Couldn't cancel any copy commands, and couldn't do anything while they were occuring anyway. 3. (#include more_ranting_of_the_same) In the new WB2.0 I see the following problems. 1. Directory listings of things like c: take far longer than they should due to what looks like a problem finding space to slip an icon into. 2. Show_All_Files has to go back to disk to get the directory. On a floppy, that's painful. 3. Copies, drawer openings are still single-threaded. 4. No access to devices like prt: par: ser: pipe:, etc. They did do a lot of things right, and improved somewhat the general feel of the program. But I'd like to be able to drag that text file onto my prt: icon. Either that or that idiot who wrote Jazzbench should write one that runs under 2.0 :) >but it's good enough I don't use browser at all any more. and not quite good enough that I still miss running jazz. Wish I knew why it crashed under 2.0.... David Navas navas@cory.berkeley.edu "Excuse my ignorance, but I've been run over by my train of thought." -me (and Calvin)
es1@cunixb.cc.columbia.edu (Ethan Solomita) (10/27/90)
In article <29244@pasteur.Berkeley.EDU> navas@cory.Berkeley.EDU writes: > >And as an author of YAWBR (Jazzbench), I wouldn't mind putting in a few of >my own: > 4. No access to devices like prt: par: ser: pipe:, etc. > It would be TRIVIAL to create an icon that would copy the file. Under 2.0 you can open a window or an icon which will recognize when an icon is dropped on it. If someone else doesn't do something like this (and I actually find some time in my life 8) I may try to do it myself. But as I probably won't have some time somebody: take this as a challenge. Use AppIcon and do it! > >David Navas navas@cory.berkeley.edu >"Excuse my ignorance, but I've been run over by my train of thought." -me > (and Calvin) -- Ethan Ethan Solomita: es1@cunixb.cc.columbia.edu GorbachevAwards++; free (SovietUnion); IndependentRepublics += 15;
navas@cory.Berkeley.EDU (David C. Navas) (10/29/90)
In article <> es1@cunixb.cc.columbia.edu (Ethan Solomita) writes: >In article <29244@pasteur.Berkeley.EDU> navas@cory.Berkeley.EDU writes: >> 4. No access to devices like prt: par: ser: pipe:, etc. >> > It would be TRIVIAL to create an icon that would copy the >file. Under 2.0 you can open a window or an icon which will >recognize when an icon is dropped on it. But the point is, it would have been even more trivial to include this into the Workbench in the first place. Out of all the OS's in existence now, the Amiga OS is probably the easiest to install the "drag file to prt: icon" idea. Mac users (I have heard) have hacks, because they want it. Our company wanted to put it into our (IBM) product, but couldn't manage it, etc. etc. IF they had multi-threaded the COPY command in the first place, a copy to device only requires a check for a DEVICE flag, and then a copy of the file without it's icon. IE. I never said it was impossible, I said it should have been in there to begin with. I just get frustrated when functionality of this marvelous machine is denied to folks who don't know enough about the CLI. These are usually the same folks who either haven't heard, or won't touch PD-type stuff. >take this as a challenge. Use AppIcon and do it! As long as you'r doing that. Might as well incorporate spooler functionality. And you're quite correct in saying that the new WB is better looking, and has some very interesting "hook" implementations. Here's a challenge for you: is there any way to install a picture as the background window's Layer-refresh-hook instead of the pattern fills? My limited knowledge has AppIcon, AppWindow and AppMenu, but no AppRefresh ;) > -- Ethan David Navas navas@cory.berkeley.edu "Excuse my ignorance, but I've been run over by my train of thought." -me (and Calvin)
es1@cunixb.cc.columbia.edu (Ethan Solomita) (10/29/90)
In article <29299@pasteur.Berkeley.EDU> navas@cory.Berkeley.EDU writes: > >Here's a challenge for you: is there any way to install a picture as the >background window's Layer-refresh-hook instead of the pattern fills? My >limited knowledge has AppIcon, AppWindow and AppMenu, but no AppRefresh ;) > It seems that the Amiga has a structure for every function! It would be almost impossible to be familiar with all parts of the Amiga's OS. I have just barely begun to learn any of them! >David Navas navas@cory.berkeley.edu >"Excuse my ignorance, but I've been run over by my train of thought." -me > (and Calvin) -- Ethan Ethan Solomita: es1@cunixb.cc.columbia.edu GorbachevAwards++; free (SovietUnion); IndependentRepublics += 15;
ken@cbmvax.commodore.com (Ken Farinsky - CATS) (10/29/90)
In article <1990Oct26.202218.23039@cunixf.cc.columbia.edu> es1@cunixb.cc.columbia.edu (Ethan Solomita) writes: >In article <29244@pasteur.Berkeley.EDU> navas@cory.Berkeley.EDU writes: >> >>And as an author of YAWBR (Jazzbench), I wouldn't mind putting in a few of >>my own: >> 4. No access to devices like prt: par: ser: pipe:, etc. >> > It would be TRIVIAL to create an icon that would copy the >file. Under 2.0 you can open a window or an icon which will >recognize when an icon is dropped on it...Use AppIcon and do it! This kind-of assumes a very simple file structure (can you say ASCII?). You could make your program more complicated and have it handle IFF files, but what would you do with word processor data files, 3-D objects, postscript, and the like? What happens when you copy a SMUS file to ser:? This all works only if you have very simple data files or a very smart program. -- -- Ken Farinsky - CATS - (215) 431-9421 - Commodore Business Machines uucp: ken@cbmvax.commodore.com or ...{uunet,rutgers}!cbmvax!ken bix: kfarinsky
mrush@ecst.csuchico.edu (Matt "C P." Rush) (10/30/90)
In article <15446@cbmvax.commodore.com> ken@cbmvax.commodore.com (Ken Farinsky - CATS) writes: >In article <1990Oct26.202218.23039@cunixf.cc.columbia.edu> es1@cunixb.cc.columbia.edu (Ethan Solomita) writes: >> It would be TRIVIAL to create an icon that would copy the >>file. Under 2.0 you can open a window or an icon which will >>recognize when an icon is dropped on it...Use AppIcon and do it! > >This kind-of assumes a very simple file structure (can you say ASCII?). >You could make your program more complicated and have it handle IFF files, >but what would you do with word processor data files, 3-D objects, >postscript, and the like? What happens when you copy a SMUS file to ser:? >This all works only if you have very simple data files or a very smart >program. Can you say "System Request"? If the spooler (something like this would HAVE to spool) doesn't understand a file type it should assume that it's ASCII (very nasty) or it should pop up a requester asking if it should be treated as ASCII or if it should skip it (the ever popular Retry/Cancel options would do). As far as Word-Processor files, the IFF-FTXT definition SHOULD take care of that, right? Seriously, though, with many word processors supporting AREXX the spooler could look at the default tool for the object, and attempt to start the default tool with an AREXX script that would force the tool to print the document (kind of like when you select a MacWrite document and pull down PRINT from the file menu on a Mac)... And people who try to print SMUS files deserve whatever happens :-) -- Matt *~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~* % "I programmed three days % Beam me up, Scotty. % % And heard no human voices. % There's no Artificial % % But the hard disk sang." % Intelligence down here. % % -- Yoshiko % % E-mail: mrush@cscihp.ecst.csuchico.edu % *~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~* This is a SCHOOL! Do you think they even CARE about MY opinions?!
joseph@valnet.UUCP (Joseph P. Hillenburg) (10/31/90)
ken@cbmvax.commodore.com (Ken Farinsky - CATS) writes: > In article <1990Oct26.202218.23039@cunixf.cc.columbia.edu> es1@cunixb.cc.colu > >In article <29244@pasteur.Berkeley.EDU> navas@cory.Berkeley.EDU writes: > >> > >>And as an author of YAWBR (Jazzbench), I wouldn't mind putting in a few of > >>my own: > >> 4. No access to devices like prt: par: ser: pipe:, etc. > >> > > It would be TRIVIAL to create an icon that would copy the > >file. Under 2.0 you can open a window or an icon which will > >recognize when an icon is dropped on it...Use AppIcon and do it! > > This kind-of assumes a very simple file structure (can you say ASCII?). > You could make your program more complicated and have it handle IFF files, > but what would you do with word processor data files, 3-D objects, > postscript, and the like? What happens when you copy a SMUS file to ser:? > This all works only if you have very simple data files or a very smart > program. > -- > -- > Ken Farinsky - CATS - (215) 431-9421 - Commodore Business Machines > uucp: ken@cbmvax.commodore.com or ...{uunet,rutgers}!cbmvax!ken > bix: kfarinsky It's simple. Have the icon for each file have something that says like this in the tooltype PRINTER=DRIVE:PATH/TO/PROGRAM The path is the path to a driver that explains how toprint that particular file type. The program that handles the printer icon reffers to that driver to have it help handle the file. You might want to make the driver as a shared library, like iffprint.library, asciiprint.librarty, smusprint.library. smusprint.library wouldn't print the song as binary, but interpret it and print out the notes, and hwat instrument was used, etc. -Joseph Hillenburg UUCP: ...iuvax!valnet!joseph ARPA: valnet!joseph@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu INET: joseph@valnet.UUCP