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From: kent@swrinde.nde.swri.edu (Kent D. Polk)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: More 1.4 wishes. "If you wish upon ..."
Keywords: 1.4
Message-ID: <12104@swrinde.nde.swri.edu>
Date: 21 Mar 89 23:23:39 GMT
Distribution: usa
Organization: Southwest Research Institute, San Antonio, Texas
Lines: 101


Here is my 1.4 wish list: (As if anyone wants to know)

Some of these things could be provided outside of Commodore, but official,
consistent support would be nice.

--------------------------------------------------------
1) A 'CON:' with :

	a) Text memory buffer of user-definable size.

	b) A scroll gadget for accessing the above.

	c) Builtin clipboard support.
		Maybe just support text.
		Maybe just ascii text that is font independent.

	d) Redirect output of clipboard (or buffer or displayed part of buffer)
		using mouse at least.

	e) Be able to turn these features off or use two different 'CON:'s
		(Like Sun's Command Tool and Shell Tool)

2) Expanded text/graphic dump/print capabilities.

	a) Add support to Dump a specific window.

	b) Dump text window in text or graphic modes.
		(Support text or graphicmode dumps of the info in 1.d also)

	c) Allow printing of text in graphic mode using a specified font.
		Kinda like Enscript on the Suns. (This could be a something significant).

	d) Builtin CMD support.

	e) Menu/requestor oriented operation for this stuff.

3) Sockets (pipes). Dup filedescriptors.

	Not just for a shell (be nice), but for launching your own stuff.
	Makes simulations/debugging, other stuff much easier.

4) Wildcards & Shells (here we go):

	a) Don't require support for wildcards in programs.
		I hear that there will be better support for shells in 1.4.
		Let the shells determine how to expand wildcards.

		Thus, if you want traditional AmigaDos wildcards, use the shell
		which comes with the Amiga, which would expand wildcards & send
		them to the program. If you want Unix-style wildcards, get a
		csh/korn/whateversh shell to do it just the way you want.
	
	b) Handle redirection in the shell. Anywhere on the command line.
		(like Unix - ...oops)
	
	c) allow shells to run on top of either a 'Command Tool' type CON: or a
		'Shell Tool' type Con:. Let the user decide which to use.
	
	d) Shell Environment Variable (which shell to default to).

-----

5) Support input redirection & multiple filenames in ALL supported
	CLI programs, Please.

	a) SORT: Come on, how often do you sort a file? Ok, PIPE: can work
		here, but... 

	b) MORE: Why not support multiple filenames? Ok, I have this shell alias
		which foreaches all the filenames, but ... I can't quit once for all,
		and I can't backup.

6) Real Support for > 640 * 200 displays - OK, this is my pet peeve.

	I work in hires interlaced all day long.

	A 50 * 80+ window is just too good to give up, however... you ought to hear
	the comments here at work about the crummy washed-out colors I have to set
	to use these things (A500 at work, A1000 at home).
	It gives the Amiga a bad name, but I ain't gonna give up big windows just
	so's my display looks pretty.

	And, nope I can't get an A2000 and a flicker-fixer.
	($!*@#$!@!$)
	
	-----------------------------------------------------------------

	Ok, I really like my Amiga. Fix these things & were on our way to a
	real, competetive workstation. Just speeding things up doesn't make it
	a workstation. Look at the 386 PCs. I sure wouldn't call any of them 
	workstations when they are running MS-DOS.

	(Hey, maybe I oughta send this stuff to Max Toy!)

Thanks,

Kent Polk (Representing little green tree frogs being chased by dogs)

P.S. Thanks for the recent KeyMapEd. Now I have a repeatable Return key for
		working in vi! (More changes to follow).