Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!pasteur!cory.Berkeley.EDU!johnhlee
From: johnhlee@cory.Berkeley.EDU (Vince Lee)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: Icon sizes, Workbench hand (was Re: My AmigaDOS 1.4 wishlist)
Message-ID: <16334@pasteur.Berkeley.EDU>
Date: 16 Aug 89 05:34:06 GMT
References: <694@lpami.wimsey.bc.ca>
Sender: news@pasteur.Berkeley.EDU
Reply-To: johnhlee@cory.Berkeley.EDU.UUCP (Vince Lee)
Organization: University of California, Berkeley
Lines: 38

In article <694@lpami.wimsey.bc.ca> lphillips@lpami.wimsey.bc.ca (Larry Phillips) writes:
>In <2584@cbnewsm.ATT.COM>, nsw@cbnewsm.ATT.COM (Neil Weinstock) writes:
>
>I don't think the mistake was in allowing any sized icons. I might agree with
>you if you faulted the manner in which you have to fiddle with the arrangement
>of them, rather than having a smart algorithm built in to arrange them for you.
>I also do not consider large icons to be an abuse of the system, though I am
>not particularly fond of large icons. To each his own... if you don't like
>large icons, fine, but please don't try to restrict the preferences of others
>just because you want things a certain way.
>
I felt I've got to reply to this since I seem to have fueled much of the
debate with my initial posting.  I don't like large icons, but I think the
flatness of the icons is a larger problem.  It has been suggested that icons
be stretched in interlace mode, but this would require re-arranging the 
icons and larger windows to hold them.  The end result is that all of the
benefit of interlace mode would lost!

The cleanest solution I can think of is this:

1) include an extra flag in the info file CREATED_INTERLACE.  Any icons with
this flag would be assumed to be made in (for) interlace (of course.)  Thus,
info files would not be any larger, and the fix would be fully backwards
compatible, and current icons would remain unchanged on the default WB.

2) Include two new preference items:  Shrink_icons and Expand_icons.  If an
icon was created in your resolution, do nothing!
 -> If running in non-interlace, Shrink_Icons will cause interlace icons
    to be shrunk vertically; Expand icons will have them expanded horizon-
    tally (yuck!)
 -> If running in interlace, Shrink_Icons shrinks them horizontally;
    Expand_Icons expands them vertically.

3) Thus, this fix has the best of all possible worlds;  It does nothing on
current workbenches, it shrinks or expands (choice).  It is backwards-
compatible, and it doesn't make info files any larger.

-Vince