Oh, I was working on an Assign manager myself, though it is a bit askew of the OpenAmiga requirements, being 68k and MUI based so I wouldn't want to stop others from creating an OS4/ReAction version.
As for the embedded menus one - is there really a demand for this? Having window borders free from menu clutter is one of the things that makes Amiga OS so nice for me... But I appreciate how it might help someone coming from Windows or traditional Linux desktops to get to grips with it.
It's priority is "Low". Dunno about demand, I doubt there was ever a usable opinion poll on the matter.
Personally I've always* thought that the top screen menu system in amiga os is one of the worst aspects of it. And I, apparently, don't "come from windows/linux". So presumably there's more that one opinion on why anyone would want embedded menus.
The MUI guys apparently thought it was a good option to add btw.
* well since about the 1980's anyway. The Atari ST I had before my first Amiga had the same crappy menu system. But back then most programs ran full screen only anyway. Which doesn't make much sense now with the resolutions and display sizes we have available now.
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As for the embedded menus one - is there really a demand for this? Having window borders free from menu clutter is one of the things that makes Amiga OS so nice for me... But I appreciate how it might help someone coming from Windows or traditional Linux desktops to get to grips with it.
As for the assignmanager The add/remove assigns possibility shpuld at least make it possible to "load" a bunch of assigns (say defined in some file) to "remove" a bunch of assigns (idem/selected from the list of "open"assigns)
As for the embedded menus one - is there really a demand for this? Having window borders free from menu clutter is one of the things that makes Amiga OS so nice for me... But I appreciate how it might help someone coming from Windows or traditional Linux desktops to get to grips with it.
I don't see a need for it. However, if it's a systemwide option that can be turned off by the user I don't care if it's implemented. All the OS4 menu stuff needs to have controls in a single prefs program or in the GUI prefs. I'm still trying to find some contextmenu prefs. I say let's perfect (finish) the stuff that's already part of OS4 before adding more stuff in a haphazard way.
Amiga X1000 with 2GB memory & OS 4.1FE + Radeon HD 5450
If i had the time to code an assignmanager in C & Reaction gui
i would start twith these specs. (With gui4cli they are in my reach) ==== Definitions An add assign is an assign created with the ADD directive. (assign s: path: ADD) An assignline is just a line defining some assign. It can be commented out or not An assignline can be live ( it has been executed) or sleeping And not fully equivalent: an assign can be active (exists) (with or without a still existing assignline ). or inexisting An assign-only script is a script consisting only of assignlines Such a script can be connected or not (execute...)to user-startup or startup-sequence or not at all
Such scripts can be executed directly from the assignmanager.
Basic functionality
The assignmanager can - launch a number of such scripts,and will memorise the launched ones. - Connect them or disconnect them - easily pick up connected & launched ones from a list and removed with all their assigns.
Memorising on quitting On quitting the launched scripts still open will be memorised The assignmanager will be able to define and launch temporary "loose" assigns.On quitting the assigns will be memorised. The user is proposed to save them in a assign-only script. Those assigns arentoconsidered"loose" assignsanymore On restarting the assign manager will propose the relaunching of those scripts and of those "loose" assigns
Sleeping assignlines Sleeping assignlines at boot; are those assigns that will not show up in the list produced by the command, Sys>assign They may be available as - loose assigns - commentedout assigns in user-startup & startup-sequence - assignlines in not connected assign-only scripts - commented out assigns in connected assign-only scripts
They may be made active in obvious ways - by selecting the script and in that script the assigns to be made active.
Live Assinglines - by selecting the their script live assinglines can be set to sleep or deleted The status of the assigns should be clearly visible when their script has been selected.(eg highlighted)
Views & their functionality
"Active" View Global List showing all active assigns with the following columns: 1. Assign 2. Path 3. If it's an add assign 4. If it's permanent or temporary 5. In which file a permanent/temporary assign was created
1."Script View" ( 2 of them) in which can be shown either - content of assign-only script + global status of the exript (active/non-active) or - assigns present in startup-sequence including the commented-ou tone's or - assigns present in user-tartup idem
Fields shown will be 1.2.3.4, -, 6
where 6 shows if the assign is active or not, preferable though the active assign will be highlighted. The (path)name of the file will bevisible above the 'View type2"
Edition of all defined assigns visible in View 1 & assignlines in View 2 Selecting an assign in "active view" will open the appropriate scriptview and position the cursor on that assign(line) for non togglong actions, allowing editing in situ
- Ability to edit name & path of any assign(line) - ability to toggle any assign between active/non active assignline between commented out or not - Ability to toggle if an assign ( is an add assign or not) => "is added or non active" - Ability to delete an assignline from the script containing it - Editing of an assign shall be done in the same place in the script where it was previously defined. - Ablity to add an assign
- All changes shall affect the system in real time, with no reboot required.
- Select in which startup file (startup-sequence/user-startup) a new permanent assign is created by using "script view" or Quick button for editing user-startup or startup-sequence
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Management of the "assign-only scripts" - Those scripts can be placed anywhere - When loaded once, their name&path will be memorised -The list of memorised scripts can be shown with their status (active or not/connected or not)) in order to easily - change their status - load them & manipulate the assigns they contain
[b] Use of doublescript view to copy/move assignlines between scripts[\b]
@JosDuchIt Really? All that just to add, remove or change an assignment? Until recently, the only assignment changes on my Amigas were made by OS updates and program installers. That's since 1987.
Amiga X1000 with 2GB memory & OS 4.1FE + Radeon HD 5450
Still maybe i am overdoing it here, as in Gui4Cli i always work bottom-up i start with what's most interesting & stop when there is not much togain any more. Having a plan of the road helps though.
True, each to their own I guess. If there are those who like it then why not have it as an option. Just never crossed my mind really, and whenever I accidentally turned on the MUI version by double-clicking a border I always cursed it for making it cluttered looking. Having said that, ever since getting a graphics card for my Amiga I've used Magic Menu for the popup function to save the trek up to the top it the screen.
@JosDuchIt Wow, that is a lot of functionality, far more than I was planning. I was thinking of only supporting the startup-sequence and user-startup, and having simple double-clicks to enable, disable, activate, deactivate, toggle deferred, non-binding etc. If you add a temporary assign, you can make it permanent by adding it to the user-startup, but that's about it. Most of that is done already, but we'll see what might be worth adding when I'm finished with the core stuff.
I did not realise the project was allready on the rails. Good to hear.
Getting rid of most of the assigns that accumulate by splitting them up in separate files , calling such a file up to execute them for one session (of computer usage or for a session of work on some project ), is the essence & most easy to integrate.
Manually you can just do the following
sys> assign >t:assigns dirs and split just up that output. You can use the same files to remove the assigns as well as to restore them Unfortunately you get the fullpaths & not the assigns as they were defined, not so pretty in a listview.
Wonder if an assign command being able to record the original definition is doable. Would be nice.
Thanks! As far as the original definition is concerned, my app parses the startup-sequence and user-startup so it would be easy to use the original definitions, but I decided the full path was more useful (if a bit long for a listview as you pointed out). Maybe I'll make it an option to switch between the full path and the original definition...
mmm... dunno if I've to post it here but... I noticed that on smartbuttondocky you cant choose to get program icon info as on standard AmiDock happens...that was really needed to me but also like to use smartbuttondocky...any way to add that feature?
I would suggest you report it to the author. Bug reports for components (in or out of) the Open Amiga project are not relevant in this thread.
Simon
Comments made in any post are personal opinion, and are in no-way representative of any commercial entity unless specifically stated as such. ---- http://codebench.co.uk
Something that makes it more difficult (or scaring) to contribute for non-experienced programmers in this more controlled environment is the use of a version control system. The probability that more than one programmer will contribute to a project seems rather low to me.
Personally i am acquainted only with putting my source or part of it on some forum & asking for help. If you are stuck that's probably what you have to do anyway. I did refer in my suggestion to ReqList.c(uses Reaction) which, with much help was put together & works nicely now.
I don't see where i would best upload the source. Right now it compiles (thanks to Joerg vande Loo - BareEd author) also for 68k ystem It looks even better under 68 k using gradient coloring (somethng i did not even dreamt about) JvdLoo ran into problem with backfill hook under OS4. and he thinks it has to do with GUI preferences.
Some general comment: if more programs (say preferences programs) would allow both CLI & gui usage, scripting would be much more powerfull, more users would gain confidence in using available script languages (DOS, arexx, Gui4Cli, Pythhon...) and would produce more powerfull programs fast.
The svn isn't a strict requirement. It's preferred but you can host the source on github, os4depot, openamiga project file uploads or wherever you wish as long as it's available.
Something that makes it more difficult (or scaring) to contribute for non-experienced programmers in this more controlled environment is the use of a version control system.
If you can cope with programming in C then learning simple SVN operations should not be too daunting. Once you are working with version control you'll quickly find it invaualble, even if a solo progrmmer as if you commit little and often, you can get back to a working version after messing up your code, which everyone does from time to time.