hughesmp@vax1.tcd.ie (01/17/91)
This is some comments on !PlaceIt, the 'sticky desktop' application posted recently in comp.sys.acorn. I am posting it here for two reasons: first, I can't mail the author just like I can't mail most of England, and second I am wondering what other people would want out of such an application, just so the author will know and can implementit in his _next_ release 8-) The way of handling the background just like a filer window I think is much much better than the way, for example, than how !StickyBd copes with the idea, allowing for mass-drags, inverted icons, and so on. There are some points, which the author probably already knows, but which I wish to mention just in case he doesn't. Dear mr. Pop Mobility Freak (?????) 1> If you mass drag files onto the backdrop, they all appear on the one spot. Even just spacing the files all out a bit when a mass drag is done, would be great. 2> You redraw the entire screen when new sprites are plonked down. This looks ugly, and from !StickyBd, I presume, is unnecessary. 3> You do not allow sprite masks on sprites. Whether this is just having left a GCOL 8,0 out (in m/c) to allow for masks, or is deliberately done, it does not look very good when files are close together. I think those are the main problems I found with it, but ... when (if?) you put a background sprite on it, would there be any chance of having masked text ... as in, you can see the background in the gaps in letters. Another thing that annoys me about !StickyBd is the way it redraws the grey when you move a window before putting in the sprite. You might like to look at bypassing this, so it actually fills in the background with the sprite only, although this may not be too easy without re-writing the Desktop(?). Another fabulous feature, that would put it way ahead of its competitors, would be to make it a relocatable module, so that quitting Desktop, and doing a soft reset would not remove it. This is impossible(?) with BASIC versions, but being in code, it may not be too difficult to implement. If it was, it would be _FABULOUS_, as on the Desktop I have some programs that survive a soft reset, but !StickyBd (and !PlaceIt) sadly do not. The kind of applications which do survive are !SetDir, !Menon, and !Aidon. Merlin Hughes. (a member of SICK)
kvj@rhi.hi.is (Kristjan Valur Jonsson) (01/19/91)
In <1991Jan17.125623.7474@vax1.tcd.ie> hughesmp@vax1.tcd.ie writes: >I think those are the main problems I found with it, but ... when (if?) you put >a background sprite on it, would there be any chance of having masked text ... >as in, you can see the background in the gaps in letters. Another thing that >annoys me about !StickyBd is the way it redraws the grey when you move a window >before putting in the sprite. You might like to look at bypassing this, so it >actually fills in the background with the sprite only, although this may not be >too easy without re-writing the Desktop(?). Another point: Perhaps it would be a good idea to allow the background to be tiled with a smaller sprite, a la Windows 3.00, thus saving memory. >Merlin Hughes. >(a member of SICK) Kristjan Valur Jonsson