Path: utzoo!utgpu!attcan!uunet!husc6!bloom-beacon!apple!well!ewhac
From: ewhac@well.UUCP (Leo 'Bols Ewhac' Schwab)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: 1.3 Now Available -- Time for 1.4 Rumors
Summary: ARP comments
Keywords: mild flame, file, requester, polystyrene
Message-ID: <7448@well.UUCP>
Date: 23 Oct 88 08:49:16 GMT
References: <10093@sunb.UUCP>
Reply-To: ewhac@well.UUCP (Leo 'Bols Ewhac' Schwab)
Organization: Display Hacks, Inc.
Lines: 58
Quote: "On Earth it is considered ill mannered to kill your friends while
	committing suicide."  -- Avon

In article <10093@sunb.UUCP> mclek@sunb.UUCP (Larry E. Kollar) writes:
>I got my 1.3 from my friendly north Atlanta dealer yesterday, and we got to
>talking about (what else?) 1.4 features.  Anyone want to add to the list of
>rumors?
>
>	- ARP included

	Maybe I shouldn't say this.  Every time I do, I'm accused of having
a personal vendetta against Charlie Heath.  I don't.  In fact, I admire the
guy for being able to put ARP together.  However:

	I refuse to use ARP until Charlie Heath learns how to write a file
requester properly.

	There, I said it.  This comment comes from an experience I had
recently when I was commanded to put a real file requester into Onion (it
used to say, "Please enter a filename.").  After exploring the Fish Disks, I
found three:  Peter da Silva's, -=RJ Mical's=-, and CHeath's.  -=RJ's=- was
too big, and PdS's was copyrighted, and he didn't make it clear whether or
not I could use it in a commercial program.  Rather than worry about it, I
elected to use CHeath's, since it was the smallest anyway.

	I found his code difficult to read, even after running it through
'indent'.  I found a variety of poor design decisions: The filenames were
stored in a fixed-size, statically allocated table; he opens a full fledged
window, and attaches it to your window's IDCMP port, which I thought was
unnecessary; he pulls all sorts of obscure rendering tricks; and HE DOESN'T
DO THE SCROLL BAR RIGHT.  There are tons of programs out there that use his
requester, and *all* of them have a broken scroll bar.  After looking at
ARP, I see that it's still not done right.

	However, there are a couple of features in his requester which I
really really really like: It displays filenames as they are found, and the
list scrolls dynamically as you drag the prop gadget up and down.

	I ended up rolling my own, taking features I liked from other
requesters I've seen.  My filename list scrolls dynamically, the filenames
are displayed in alphabetical order as they are found (alphabetical order as
strcmp() defines it), I have a "Parent directory" gadget (stolen from PdS's
requester, with improvements), and a device list gadget.  It ended up about
twice as big as CHeath's, though.  Sigh.

	Oh.  And the scroll bar is done right.  I don't know why I'm so
maniacal about it, but I am.

	Back to ARP: I've read the 'autodocs' for ARP, and am impressed with
the functions that are available.  If it becomes part of 1.4, I will
doubtless be pleased as punch to use it.  But I really do wish he'd get the
file requester scroll bar right once and for all, especially considering how
prolific his requester is.

	This pointless and wasteful flame brought to you by:

_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_
Leo L. Schwab -- The Guy in The Cape	INET: well!ewhac@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU
 \_ -_		Recumbent Bikes:	UUCP: pacbell > !{well,unicom}!ewhac
O----^o	      The Only Way To Fly.	      hplabs / (pronounced "AE-wack")
"Work FOR?  I don't work FOR anybody!  I'm just having fun."  -- The Doctor