peter@sugar.UUCP (Peter da Silva) (12/25/87)
Time for the Expatriate Aussie to post his Top Three 1.3 wishes (the ones that haven't yet been responded to, even by a "we can't do that because..."). 1) Make WorkBench more useful: at least add a menu switch to have ALL files show up with some sorta default icons. Even having the names show up as the icons. Right now, it's almost a useful tool. Some sort of facility is needed, witness all the "disk utility" programs. 2) Make workbench more useful: let people drag windows partly off the screen. I can't think of any good reason to prevent this: almost all the code to do this already exists to handle the case of dragging a window behind another window. Think of it as a "virtual workbench". It'd also be a bonus for 90% of the programs that open their own screens! 3) Make workbench more useful: implement the "drop a file in kick-off". When you pick up a file and drop it on another icon, kick off the icon you dropped it in as if you'd clicked the first and shift- double-clicked the second. A lot of the code for *this* already exists to support dropping an icon in a directory icon. As an added bonus you'll add more distance between you and the Mac if Apple gets antsy about look-and-feel. I lied -- there are more than 3: 4) Add a preferences setting (or something) for "pop-up" menus. Instead of having the menu pop up at the top of the screen when you hit the menu button, you'd have it pop up under the cursor. Make the workbench much faster to work with *and* make the machine less Mac like. 5) Have PutIcon and PutDiskObject send a message to the Workbench to tell it to refresh its windows. -- -- Peter da Silva `-_-' ...!hoptoad!academ!uhnix1!sugar!peter -- Disclaimer: These U aren't mere opinions... these are *values*.
john13@garfield.UUCP (John Russell) (12/27/87)
In article <1307@sugar.UUCP> peter@sugar.UUCP (Peter da Silva) writes: > > 2) Make workbench more useful: let people drag windows partly off the > screen. I can't think of any good reason to prevent this: almost This one I have to disagree with. Consider: - you can do it with morerows (perhaps you mean add an option for a morerowed screen in Preferences? That one I could like.) - this would eat some chip memory, which is already in short supply for some applications - if it was done with morerows, a lot of windows would open to the full size of the window (partially off the screen) - windows that move around by themselves (eg the MCLI that WordPerfect does) or change their own size (eg DME windows when iconifying) or even just small windows could easily get lost off the edges of the screen. This one worries me the most as far as novice users are concerned, since I've seen many "lost" windows under morerows with a non-adjusted monitor and I'm uncomfortable with yet another feature to which a warning must be attached, "Don't do this unless you know what you're doing". Trust me, it's very confusing to someone who wants their computer easy to use to have to memorize a lot of caveats. Now, to be open minded: What sort of size limitations are imposed upon Mac windows? The way to code Peter's suggestion, it would seem to me, would be to prevent prevent the window from being moved partially off the screen unless Window->MinHeight > Screen->Bottom_Hidden_Area && Window->MinWidth > Screen->Right_Hidden_Area + CLOSEGADGETWIDTH so you would be guaranteed that at least part of the drag bar would always be accessible. John -- To preserve deniability, I have not informed the University of this posting. But if I had, they would have been 100% behind it, yessirree bob. This posting has statements that are evasive, misleading, and just plain wrong. But that is only because I love the UseNet with all my heart!
peter@sugar.UUCP (Peter da Silva) (01/02/88)
In article <4325@garfield.UUCP>, john13@garfield.UUCP (John Russell) writes: > In article <1307@sugar.UUCP> peter@sugar.UUCP (Peter da Silva) writes: > > 2) Make workbench more useful: let people drag windows partly off the > > screen. I can't think of any good reason to prevent this: almost > This one I have to disagree with. Consider: > - you can do it with morerows (perhaps you mean add an option for a morerowed > screen in Preferences? That one I could like.) Nope, you can't. A 24 line by 80 column window is too large for you to pull aside and expose the workbench disk icons, even with the most more-rowed screen I can stand. Interlace is out unless you like eyestrain. > - this would eat some chip memory, which is already in short supply for some > applications It would take up no more memory than having those same windows partly hidden behind other windows. Zero if no windows have been dragged off-screen or only simple-refresh windows have. > - if it was done with morerows, a lot of windows would open to the full size > of the window (partially off the screen) The full size of the workbench (and other) screen would not change. What would change would be the behaviour of ResizeWindow and MoveWindow (and whatever routines Intuition calls when you drag a window) so that windows would be clipped when you got to the edge of the screen instead of crashing the system. I see where you're confused, now. I'm not advocating increasing the size of the workbench screen. I'm advocating changing the way windows behave when they overlap the edge of the bitmap. As an experiment open three console windows. Arrange them like so: +--------+ |CON |||| +--------+ +----+ | | | | | | +----+ | | | | | | | | | | +-------------------------------+ |CON |||| +-------------------------------+ | | +-------------------------------+ Now click the little one to the back. Drag it so that it's partially behind the other two. Imagine that the other two ar the edge of the screen. Where's that window's bitmap now? Partially in a save space. Same thing would happen in my scenario. Since the mouse would still be constrained to the existing workbench area you couldn't size the sucker offsecreen and you couldn't drag it entirely offscreen. You'd have to have at least one pixel onscreen just from the mechanics of the thing. > - windows that move around by themselves (eg the MCLI that WordPerfect does) > or change their own size (eg DME windows when iconifying) or even just small > windows could easily get lost off the edges of the screen. Nope, because NormalDisplayRows and NormalDisplayColumns would stay the same, so MCLI and DME wouldn't know about the extra space. > What sort of size limitations are imposed upon Mac windows? I don't know. They're all simple-refresh, by the way, so they don't take up any space while offscreen. Since windows can't be dragged anywhere you can't move the pointer, there's no problem. If you could move the pointer there to drag 'em, you can move the pointer there to get 'em back. -- -- Peter da Silva `-_-' ...!hoptoad!academ!uhnix1!sugar!peter -- Disclaimer: These U aren't mere opinions... these are *values*.