Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Path: utzoo!mnetor!seismo!ut-sally!husc6!husc7!hadeishi
From: hadeishi@husc7.HARVARD.EDU (Mitsuharu Hadeishi)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: Attached-file icons vs. Font/DA Mover
Message-ID: <1710@husc6.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 21-Apr-87 13:58:16 EST
Article-I.D.: husc6.1710
Posted: Tue Apr 21 13:58:16 1987
Date-Received: Wed, 22-Apr-87 04:23:24 EST
Sender: news@husc6.UUCP
Reply-To: hadeishi@husc7.UUCP (Mitsuharu Hadeishi)
Organization: Harvard Univ. Science Center
Lines: 46
Summary: Problems


	One thing I've noticed about Mac users is that they find the
Desktop metaphor very useful.  Something I HAVE noticed, however,
is that the non-technical among them don't even know the Font/DA Mover
exists, and they don't know how to handle fonts and desk accessories.

	There are advantages to this approach.  Having lots of
icons for all the fonts is probably too messy and not advantageous.
In this case, you might want to have something like a Font/DA Mover
(call it Font Mover.)  This is simply because fonts really should
be treated differently from support data directories or support
libraries, in that any application can use them, and it is easier
to perhaps manipulate a list of fonts in a Font Mover program
than to move tens of little font icons around (although the font icons
could be made to look like the font, which would be cute.)

	However, one can implement both strategies.  For things like
font management, you might want to implement something like a Font/DA Mover.
For device drivers, libraries, printer drivers, data directories attached
to an application, and so on (in particular the last use) you really want
to use an attached-files icon approach.  This approach has the advantage
of using the same visual metaphor and reduces the amount of technical
knowledge the user needs in order to play with his/her Amiga and configure
it to his/her needs.  I might be convinced that printer drivers should
be put under the aegis of a Font/DA Mover, but this is not the way
the Mac does it (there is a little icon for each printer driver in
the System folder.)  Also, the Workbench user who only uses one
printer (I suspect this is the majority of users) could simply delete
all the printer icons that s/he didn't need.  I've already suggested
a Device Manager or Device Mover should be implemented to allow the
Workbench user to select which devices should be mounted or not.
One small problem arises with vd0: and suchlike devices which must
be mounted first, before other tasks have a chance to mess up memory;
perhaps a special devices-to-be-mounted-at-startup list should be
provided and scanned at startup.  vd0: also needs to be polled, as in
a DIR command or something-can this be worked around, Perry?  Can
vd0: be changed to wake up at Mounttime rather than at first poll?
Perhaps the system software should initialize the device when it
is mounted, rather than just adding it to the device list.  Alternatively,
a "prepend" function (i.e., prepend to startup-sequence) could be
added (in addition to "append").  Of course, "prepend" is more
messy and in general isn't what you want.  So some sort of
explicit system support for mounting and initializing devices on
startup would be nice.

				-Mitsu