Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!clyde!att!rutgers!mailrus!cornell!uw-beaver!rice!titan!phil
From: phil@titan.rice.edu (William LeFebvre)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.tech
Subject: Re: Talking to Workbench
Summary: Icky?
Message-ID: <2268@kalliope.rice.edu>
Date: 2 Dec 88 21:45:54 GMT
References: <3039@sugar.uu.net> <6457@netnews.upenn.edu> <6458@netnews.upenn.edu>
Sender: usenet@rice.edu
Reply-To: phil@Rice.edu (William LeFebvre)
Organization: Rice University, Houston
Lines: 37

In article <6458@netnews.upenn.edu> ranjit@eniac.seas.upenn.edu.UUCP (Ranjit Bhatnagar) writes:
>(Commentary: I wish Workbench weren't so icky, because if it
>were better done, more people would support iconic interfaces 
>to their programs, and there are plenty of times that a visual
>interface is simply better and faster.

What about workbench do you perceive as being "icky"?  I think the user
interface is fine.  Some programs that open windows on the workbench
screen are better than others, however.  Workbench is a bit limited, and
could stand to have a few extra features (like an "applications" menu that
I can tailor to my own whims---much like Browser's "Tools" menu).  Now the
programmer interface is a different matter.....That can get "icky" pretty
fast.

>This ties in with my previous article:
>there is absolutely no way to install arexx, arp, or even 
>the 1.3 command set using only the workbench.)

In most cases, this problem can be solved rather easily by the
manufacturer.  Create a CLI script that does the installation (and another
to do a de-installation if desired) and use "iconx" (since it is now
officially part of the environment) to enable a Workbench user to do the
installation.  You *may* need several different scripts (or perhaps
tooltype options) for hard disk configurations, but probably not.  And
even under 1.2 this script would be helpful:  just tell the user to open a
cli and type "execute disk:script".  The script could even be interactive,
if that was needed!  You're right, tho:  utility software packages should
have easy (i.e.: Workbench oriented) ways to install and possibly
de-install themselves.

Automatically upgrading a Workbench disk from 1.2 to 1.3 seems like it
would be a little harder, however.

			William LeFebvre
			Department of Computer Science
			Rice University