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From: peter@sugar.UUCP (Peter da Silva)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: well-behaved programs
Message-ID: <680@sugar.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 10-Sep-87 07:59:25 EDT
Article-I.D.: sugar.680
Posted: Thu Sep 10 07:59:25 1987
Date-Received: Sat, 12-Sep-87 16:25:13 EDT
References: <2897@hoptoad.uucp>
Distribution: na
Organization: Sugar Land UNIX - Houston, TX
Lines: 67
Summary: Degrees of behaviour...

>   1. Review be easily available, so that nobody could complain that
>      there was any favoritism, or difficulty in getting their software
>      considered.
> 
>   2. The technical standards be such that programmers of reasonable
>      technical ability could understand and implement them. After
>      all, how difficult is it to create software that doesn't require
>      you to re-boot each time you run it?
> 
>    3. etc???

3. There should be some indication as to what environment the program runs
   in:

	STDIO:	The program only uses 'C' stdio calls... can be expected
		to be ported to non-AmigaDOS environments. may be quite
		hard to verify if the source isn't available. Will be
		expected to run from AUX:

	DOS:	The program only uses AmigaDOS calls... no Intuition or
		ROM Kernel calls... can be expected to be ported to Sinclair
		QL or the rumored new Atari. Will be expected to run from
		AUX:

	CLI:	The program runs entirely from the CLI, and doesn't require
		mouse actions. Will be expected to run from AUX:.

	CON:	The program uses CON: windows only.
	
	RAW:	The program uses RAW: windows or sets * to raw mode. May be
		hard to distinguish from the next...

	console:The program uses console.device for all windows.

	WB:	The program runs from the workbench. This does not conflict
		with CLI, as the program may be designed to work both ways
		depending on how it's called.
	
	WBA:	Like WB, but the programs windows all use color 0 for
		background, color 1 for borders, and colors 2 and 3 for
		hilites.
		
	WBB:	Like WB, but the programs windows use some other color set.

	SCREEN:	The program opens its own screen.

	VIEW:	The program uses viewports directly, or else opens a screen
		without front/back or drag gadgets. Amiga-M should still get
		you the workbench.

	LACE:	The program uses interlace screens or views.

None of these means a program is necessarily badly behaved... just that it
does whatever it does. If the program needs to open its own screen and inhibit
dragging, that's cool. Also there are considerable degrees of overlap. For
example, a program may play with its own viewports yet run all its workbench
I/O though the console.device (Videoscape 3D). A program can even use all STDIO
and still open its own raw window (early implementations of HACK).

Personally, I think that if (frex) a disk catalog utility opens its own
screen, it's badly behaved. A text editor or terminal program can just get
away with doing that if that's what it needs to do to run 24 by 80. It
shuld ideally check the workbench size first to see if it can get away with
a window.
-- 
-- Peter da Silva `-_-' ...!seismo!soma!uhnix1!sugar!peter
--                 'U`  <-- Public domain wolf.