Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!ncrlnk!ncrcae!hubcap!gatech!rutgers!bellcore!faline!thumper!ulysses!att!cord!nsw
From: nsw@cord.UUCP (Neil Weinstock)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: Yet Another Entry In The 1.4 Wish List...
Keywords: 1.4 Enhancement Wish List Picture Boot
Message-ID: <733@cord.UUCP>
Date: 10 Mar 89 22:28:38 GMT
References: <504@morgoth.UUCP> <3453@amiga.UUCP>
Reply-To: nsw@cord.UUCP (Neil Weinstock)
Distribution: na
Organization: The Flying Squid Patrol
Lines: 85

In article <3453@amiga.UUCP> jimm@cloyd.UUCP (Jim Mackraz) writes:
>In article <504@morgoth.UUCP> steve@morgoth.UUCP (Steve Hall) writes:
>
>Well, I wasn't going to get involved in this wishlist business, since
>there is a proper forum for enhancement requests (which is mail to
>cbmvax!bugs).  But, I decided the heck with it ...

Oh boy, here we go... ;-)

[ suggestion to replace the "insert workbench disk" hand picture ]

>The key point here is that the roms are 256K big and have been full
>for two releases now.  This, along with human resources (if you can call
>us that) demand that we pick and choose our fights very carefully.
>
>We actually did discuss a contest to replace the hand, and listed a
>number of good criteria, but one of them was "833 bytes maximum, code
>and data" or something like that.

I'll bet (pure speculation) that there are many people who would love to 
see what they can do with 833 bytes.

>I'd like 'vi' style editing, actually.

YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES
Boy, would that be great.  Would love to see it in ConMan.

>)	3) One last thing (for now :-)  I know there are utilities out
>)	   there that can shrink a window to the minimum or expand it
>)	   to the maximum.  Could something like that be implimented?
>)	   I would be nice to able to shrink my CLI or Shell to reveal
>)	   the WorkBench screen behind it by hitting one function key.
>
>Do you really want that, Steve?  What will you give me for it?

;-)

I was actually hoping for a general iconification capability.  I can't say
exactly how it should work, but here are a few ideas.

1)  A standard system iconify gadget for Workbench windows.  Clicking the
    gadget iconifies the window.  Double clicking the resulting icon would
    reopen the window.

2)  Applications could specify an icon to "become" when iconified.  The icon
    would appear on the Workbench background, along with the disk icons.  In
    order to be useful at all, there would need to be some way to see the icons
    that are hidden by windows on the Workbench screen.  Heck, this is much
    needed anyway!

3)  The window's IDCMP port would be receive some new messages to let it
    know it's being iconified or reopened.  Maybe there should also be 
    ICONIFYVERIFY.

4)  If we want to be studly, we could allow applications to do fun things from
    within the iconified state.  Frinstance, let's say that if you drag a 
    file's icon onto the application's icon, then the application would get
    a message with a pointer to the file or something like that.  This would
    make implementation of the "printer device icon" trivial.  If you wanted,
    you could pop the device's window open and change some settings, or 
    whatever.  Sounds like some kind of fun, eh?

The key is that right now, window's can make themselves small, but can't
actually work with Workbench's icon functionality.  The stuff described above
would act as a bridge.  For sure, I haven't thought through all the 
implications of this too clearly (or at all, for that matter).  Does it make
any sense???

>)	4) That brings up another thing...  How about a section in
>)	   Preferences to allow the user to map the function keys to
>)	   anything they want?  Or is this better left to a seperate
>)	   utility program?
>
>Separate program.  I just saw an announcement of a free keymap editor
>go by.  Mapping keys on a per-window or per-application basis is
>a little trickier, but should be possible someday.

I agree, a separate program.  Ideally, it should be available from a Workbench
menu (a la Mac desk accessory) for ready access.  Or, it could be iconified
and laying around on the Workbench ;-).

 /.- -- .. --. .- .-. ..- .-.. . ... .- -- .. --. .- .-. ..- .-.. . ...\
/ Neil Weinstock | att!cord!nsw     | "One man's garbage is another     \
\ AT&T Bell Labs | nsw@cord.att.com | man's prune danish." - Harv Laser /
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