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