Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!batcomputer!cornell!uw-beaver!Teknowledge.COM!unix!hplabs!ucbvax!cis.ohio-state.edu!sample.eng.ohio-state.edu!purdue!news.cs.indiana.edu!spool.mu.edu!sol.ctr.columbia.edu!hamblin.math.byu.edu!hellgate.utah.edu!dog.ee.lbl.gov!lbl.gov!jnmoyne From: jnmoyne@lbl.gov (Jean-Noel MOYNE) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.programmer Subject: Re: ResEdit for the Amiga? It's not impossible... and it's desirable Message-ID: <14224@dog.ee.lbl.gov> Date: 13 Jun 91 01:17:00 GMT Distribution: comp.sys.amiga.programmer Organization: Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory Lines: 63 [about a ResEdit for the Amiga] Well, creating such a thing for the Amiga doesn't look as impossible as that. Think about the WB 2.0, and the way it handles windows, screens and gadgets: tags. It wouldn't be impossible to let's say .... number these series of tags (representing a serie of gadgets, or a window+gadgets, or a screen+window+....), call them resources, put them in a different chunk, and then slightly modify Intuition routines so they can accept 'resources' numbers instead of a pointer to a suit of tags (just load the tags out of the chunk in mem before you call the 'old' intuition routine). Then, at this point, you could write an Amiga ResEdit to create/modify windows/screens/menus ... This would be quite a good improvement (IMHO). I've programmed quite a lot on both systems (even if Amiga is by far the one I know and like the most), the Mac is really a hard computer to program (in front of the Amiga), but it has a lot of very good ideas, and ResEdit is one of these (at least for window, gadget, menus). When I think about how much time we (developpers) had to wait before a program like power windows appeared, and then when you think how buggy and really hard to use (because of the bugs) this program was (like the first version wouldn't allow you to create a PAL sized window, like the one after would crash during the generation of the code, so you had to sort-of cut your stuff in 2 parts, and then jungle with the 2 resulting sources files that have the same variable names ! )-:). Mac programmers had ResEdit really long ago.... I can say I'm still jealous ! Especially when you know the way you have to create gadgets on the Mac. Intuition is so much more powerfull, that a (well done) ResEdit on the Amiga would really be a kick, and a great improvement, would help a lot the programmers, and would make the programs easier to use for the end users (the first and quite only reason of the Mac's success). Another thing, in it's documentation, Apple spends quite a few pages to explain guidelines of user-interface creation. Most of the Mac programmers follow these guidelines, and that's one of the reason Macs are so easy to use. The main functions are the same from one program to the other, if you're used to one program, you can use another one very easily, you won't be lost by a completely different user interface. Now that CBM has finished with 2.0, it's time to think about the next version (2.1 ? 3.0 ?). It would really be a good idea to try to implement what I've described here (ResEdit-like possibilities + a small booklet: 'guidelines to building an Amiga User Interface'). By posting here, I'm doing like a pray to God (i.e.: anybody_important_or_smart@commodore.com (-:). I'll go burn a candle just after ! (-: And I don't think that having a ResEdit kinda information in a separate file is a good idea, makes the file harder to just copy or move, it's too easy to loose on the way and the program can't work without it. And it's the same thing as the .info files, ends up creating a mess of small files in the dir, redondancy when you use dir or list in the CLI... baaaad ! (-: JNM (doing the easy part: asking! (-:) --- #include JNM: jnmoyne@lbl.gov - The postmaster allways pings twice (soon in your mailbox!)