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From: ralph@mit-atrp.UUCP (Amiga-Man)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: HackBench - a Workbench clone
Message-ID: <1369@mit-amt.MEDIA.MIT.EDU>
Date: Tue, 14-Jul-87 11:38:01 EDT
Article-I.D.: mit-amt.1369
Posted: Tue Jul 14 11:38:01 1987
Date-Received: Thu, 16-Jul-87 05:47:12 EDT
References: <160011@wsucshp.UUCP>
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Reply-To: ralph@ATRP.MEDIA.MIT.EDU (Amiga-Man)
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Organization: MIT Amiga Users Group c/o MIT Cognitive Info. Processing Group
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In article <160011@wsucshp.UUCP> kinner@wsucshp.UUCP (Bill Kinnersley ) writes:
>
>> I'll either fix it or write a new Workbench....Big project, but
>> big win.  Anybody doing this already (please ?...so I don't
>> have to ?).
>
>Well, OK, it sounds like a good idea so I did it.
>
Fantastic ! You've done a great deed by allowing us all to understand how
we can improve the system at least for ourselves. And perhaps CBM might
take a few hints from a good working example of an improved WB to put
in 1.3 (or is that too late now ?). I hope it's CBM's goal to make the
WB the best user interface in the business. It is already a major win
though the ability to multitask with th erest of the system.

I'd just thought I'd throw in a few conclusions I came up with about how
things could be improved:

- Cluster icons into a single file, so drawer opens are immediate. Don't
  indicate how hard it is for developers to manage their icons. What
  really counts is what the most USER-hours are spent doing !
  I know that FACC should help here, but that is a secondary solution.
  The first open will still be slow, and if you are searching for something
  you're out of luck.
  Unfortunately, I suspect this requires a cloned info.library, instead of
  a new WB. However, I suspect that even the present WB would work with a
  new library. Anyone up for that one ? It just needs to be "call" compatible
  with the present one. From looking in the documentation it may not be too
  hard.

- Support a new form of file requestor which lets you pop back to the WB
  and select the icon there, then pop back to the program. Heck, we
  started it from an icon, KEEP IT GOING FROM ICONS !
  Consistancy is *vital* in a good user interface.

- Support iconification of running programs, AND allow passing icon
  shift-selects into iconified programs. I.E. start my editor up again (from
  it's iconification) and open a buffer with THIS(pop to WB and shift-select
  file icon) file. The iconification should use the original icon too, maybe
  slightly modified, and would probably be out on the workbench.

- Allow a field in the "tool types array" of the icons, which let you
  designate the run-time priority of the program you are starting up.

- Support the running of CLI-type scripts from the WB. I know there
  are rough tools for this, but it should be supported naturally.

These ideas come from someone who uses the WB *ALL* the time, unless
I get *forced* to use the CLI (which happens way too much for a professional
icon based user interface). By the way, I consider myself a serious power
user, not a beginner, although a beginner would benefit from these
features too.

Note to CBM folks: please pass these ideas to the people there who think about
such things. Thanks !