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From: ford@crash.cts.com (Michael Ditto)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: Telling Workbench about new icons
Message-ID: <2051@crash.cts.com>
Date: Sat, 28-Nov-87 15:42:08 EST
Article-I.D.: crash.2051
Posted: Sat Nov 28 15:42:08 1987
Date-Received: Tue, 1-Dec-87 02:07:48 EST
References: <1076@sugar.UUCP> <2826@cbmvax.UUCP> <1103@sugar.UUCP>
Reply-To: ford%kenobi@crash.CTS.COM (Michael Ditto)
Organization: Crash TS, El Cajon, CA
Lines: 48
Keywords: Workbench Icon
Summary: Please make general-purpose icons available

In article <1103@sugar.UUCP> schaub@sugar.UUCP (Markus Schaub) writes:
>In article <2826@cbmvax.UUCP>, carolyn@cbmvax.UUCP (Carolyn Scheppner CATS):
>
>> One probable future enhancement will be a way for other programs to tell
>> Workbench to reread a directory and refresh the icons.
>>
[ ... ]
>Please offer also a faster way then just rereading the directory! To write the
>icon I have my DiskObject structure already set up, there is no need to wait
>until Dos found all .info files. Or at least let me tell Workbench to look
>for 'myicon.info' only.

While you're giving workbench the ability to communicate, here's an
extremely powerful capability that could be added:  Have workbench maintain
other icons besides the ones read from ".info" files.  These icons could be
given to workbench be any program, and workbench would notify that program
when anything interesting happened to that icon.

This seems like something that the workbench's internal routines must
already have support for, less the communication aspects.  It should be
pretty easy for workbench to check the type of an icon when it is double-
clicked (or dropped on another one, etc.) and if it is not a ".info" icon,
just send a message to a message port associated with that icon, rather
than do the normal open/launch.

The first application that comes to mind is an "iconify" command for
programs that open their own windows.  When the user selects "iconify",
the program just closes its window, (saving away the bitmap if it wants to),
sends a message to workbench, and waits for a reply.  The user would see
the window be replaced by a small icon that could be moved out of the way
like normal workbench icons.  When the icon is selected, the program
wakes up, opens its window again, and restores its bitmap or refreshes it
in the normal way.

It sounds like a great user convenience that's consistent with the Amiga
user interface, easy for programmers to implement, and doesn't require
fundamental changes in workbench.  In fact, most of the work involved
will be in setting up the method of communication between random programs
and workbench, and apparrently, that is happening already.

Of course, as with all these "easy, backward compatible improvement"
suggestions, SOMEONE will find something wrong with it, so let's hear it!

-- 

Mike Ditto					-=] Ford [=-
P.O. Box 1721					ford%kenobi@crash.CTS.COM
Bonita, CA 92002				ford@crash.CTS.COM