Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Path: utzoo!mnetor!seismo!lll-lcc!well!ewhac
From: ewhac@well.UUCP (Leo 'Bols Ewhac' Schwab)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: Workbench improvements.. anybody disagree with this evaluation?
Message-ID: <2980@well.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 2-May-87 03:18:04 EDT
Article-I.D.: well.2980
Posted: Sat May  2 03:18:04 1987
Date-Received: Sun, 3-May-87 05:44:01 EDT
References: <8704292134.AA22507@cory.Berkeley.EDU> <5668@eddie.MIT.EDU>
Reply-To: ewhac@well.UUCP (Leo 'Bols Ewhac' Schwab)
Organization: Whole Earth 'Lectronic Link, Sausalito, CA
Lines: 77
Summary: I do, I do!

In article <5668@eddie.MIT.EDU> gary@eddie.MIT.EDU (Gary Samad) writes:
>In article <8704292134.AA22507@cory.Berkeley.EDU> dillon@CORY.BERKELEY.EDU (Matt Dillon) writes:
>>	Making an icon oriented interface supported at the filesystem level
>>is simply not feasible... it doesn't solve anything, and makes for big 
>>compatibility problems (like files are no longer simply files). 
>
>As you say, Matt, NO NO NO NO NO!
>
>Today, files are not simply files.  Files are TWO files!
>
>Solving this problem at the filesystem level (or at least at DOS level)
>is the most appropriate way.  [ ... ]
>
>It makes MUCH more sense for the user to choose a Preference at the system
>level to handle this difference and let the filesystem do the rest of the
>work.
>
>	Gary

	(NO!) ^ 37.

	Believe it or not, files *are* files.  What you perceive to be
schizophrenia is in fact the result of a design consideration for Workbench.

	Workbench could easily have been written to simply scan the entire
directory and display a standard icon for each and every file.  Perhaps it
might have also wanted to tickle some unused longword fields in the file
header to determine what type it was, so it could decide which of the
standard icons to draw.  Yes indeed.  Workbench could have been made to look
just like GEM (doesn't that make you want to sing and shout?).

	As it is, we have a bit more flexibility in telling Workbench what
our icons look like.  We can selectively make icons disappear without
destroying the program they point to.  We can define *any* icon image.

	I think what you want is the illusion of invisibility.  UNIX systems
have a form of this invisibility already.  It's called the "dot" file.  Any
filename beginning with a "." is not displayed when you ask for a directory,
unless you explicitly ask for it.  I imagine this was installed when people
such as yourself long ago complained that they got sick of seeing all their
.login, .logout, .profile, and .*rc files all the time.

	So.  All you have to do is write a 'dir' program that, while
collecting filenames, checks to see if the last five chars are ".info".  If
so, you ignore it and go on to the next one.  Thus, all your .info files
magically become invisible.

	One of the beautiful things about the Amiga is that there's always
some way to do what you want.  You want your .info files to be invisible.
You could hack the filesystem to pieces.  You could re-write the DOS (Oh,
Please!).  You could re-write Workbench.  Or you could write a new 'dir'
program that lets you fake invisibility.

	I guess this argument comes from the fact that we can choose our
user interface.  The Mac provides no such choice, and as far as the user is
concerned, it very well *could* be manipulating two files around when he
drags an icon (no corrective flames, please; this is an illustrative point).

	Sidenote:  The filesystem has already been hacked once to accomodate
the Workbench.  The block allocation algorithm was slightly perverted to put
the first data block of a file as close to the file header block as
possible, to save on disk grinding when putting up icons.  Check out the
disk layout with my file mapping program, 'fm' sometime.

	Once again, this is just me talking.....

_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_
 ________		 ___			Leo L. Schwab
	   \		/___--__		The Guy in The Cape
  ___  ___ /\		    ---##\		ihnp4!ptsfa!well!ewhac
      /   X  \_____    |  __ _---))			..or..
     /   /_\--    -----+==____\ // \  _		well ---\
___ (   o---+------------------O/   \/ \	dual ----> !unicom!ewhac
     \     /		    ___ \_  (`o )	hplabs -/       ("AE-wack")
 ____ \___/			     \_/
	      Recumbent Bikes:			"Work FOR?  I don't work FOR
	    The _O_n_l_y Way To Fly!		anybody!  I'm just having fun.H.