AmigaOS 3.1.4 successor wishlist
 

This outta get a fight going ;)


Here is my wishlist for AmigaOS 3.2

1. truetype font support (this would really make everything more readable and generally better looking)
2. utf-8 text encoding support (full set of modern text characters)
3. less RAM required to validate drive partitions
4. modern full featured USB support
5. redo input.device to support things like multiple mouse inputs
6. i'm sure the devs have a bug list they would like to pare down
7. more gadtools expansion
8. resize windows using borders

OK, that's a lot of work and i tried to keep it small and realistic


Where are your priorities?


BTW; i'm not associated with the developers of AmigaOS 3.1.4 or any of the companies vying for Amiga IP

Regarding point 3. Say no to FFS.

The next version is 3.1.41, no?

why would TrueType support be any better than the already present IntelliFont support?

UTF-8? USB? Do you understand how much work it would require, and how much UTF-8 would have increased the memory/CPU requirements for comfortable work?

[edit] And given the fact, that there are just 2 developers working on OS 3.1.4, it would be better to keep some features separate from OS (like Poseidon USB stack); otherwise we will be waiting another 20 years for the next release.

1. While Truetype support would give access to countless TTF-format fonts, in general they're not that much use for Amiga interfaces. TTF fonts can already be used by installing ttf.library - I suppose this functionality could be included with the OS by default, but I don't understand how you think it will improve readability. Especially on low-resolution screens, vector fonts depend on font anti-aliasing for the clearer type you might be thinking of on other platforms, and OS3 and below lack this. Hand-crafted bitmap fonts are far more legible when used at one of their provided sizes. On top of that, using such fonts on a 68K CPU is very slow, since it has to be scaled and rendered to a bitmap font on the fly. Even a top end 060 will take a couple of seconds to open a font, and that delay when opening a new window or something would be quite annoying.

2. Yep, that would be nice.

3. Probably not easily done or it would've been done already. Use a different filesystem, smaller partitions, or larger block sizes (which will also speed many things up with FFS)

4. Quite a big ask, but one of the current stacks could be included as a contribution in order to keep the standard requirements down for the vast majority who don't have USB.

5. There are already mechanisms for feeding alternative mouse movements into the input stream... Not sure what you're looking for here.

7. GadTools is a pretty limited system For a complete rewrite with more modern features, using an alternative engine would probably be a better approach. E.g. ReAction from OS 3.5+. Other than that I'm not really sure what you mean.

8. Fiddly, but I can see why some people would use it. Would be doable using a qualifier key.

None of these are relevant as long as all the copyright trolling and insane 'businesses' are involved.

I hope Roadshow68k will be included in the future, even though I bought it.
But it would make the OS a bit more complete out of the box.

Please add Blazemonger support to my wish list of wanted AmigaOS features.

3.1.4.1, and then 3.1.4.1.5, and...

Just call it version 22/7 and be done with it?

Oh god, please NO!!!
Before you know it, we will be on 3.1.4 Update 100, ;).

With all this legal madness over Amiga IP I would be surprised to see even the bugfix releases from two only remaining OS developers. I know this would sound like total blasphemy to many but developers and users should put much more effort and support in open source solutions (like Aros 68k) and let those IP trolls to finally die ...

Why? I think it is a good idea that we discuss what we would like to see in the future. :great

Oh please dont put any version numbers, otherwise Thomas is going to have another MetaFont bad joke and give us version 3.2.7182818 :laughing

This is my personal opinion on your points:

1- I do understand the benefits of ttf, but why waste development resources and reinvent the wheel? We already have two free ttf implementations on Aminet: one that hacks Compugraphics/Intellifont fonts and another one that is a clean implementation. On the other hand, ttf requires more computational power which a modest Amiga will struggle to deliver.

2- Whilst I am particularly against utf-8 for several reasons, I do acknowledge we urgently need to adopt a standard to access non latin character sets and other text encodings.

3- Ah... Validation, a feature that is so rigid that it ends up being an annoyance. I hate validation as it is. I have suggested to make it far more flexible, but my claims fall on deaf ears. If it bothers you too much, you should go the PFS route.

4- Again, why reinvent the wheel? We have Poseidon that supports every usb Amiga hardware under the sun, and then we have Anaiis which is open source and extremely low on requirements.

5- Are you an octopus? :laughing

6- The bug lists we currently have is not very extensive for now, and will be addressed before any new version, in a free update to 3.1.4. (In 3.1.4.1 :cheese :banghead).

7- I am all in for something like ReAction and/or MUI.

8- Not really a must for me. Plus it has the potential to cause issues with horizontal and vertical window scrollbars when borders are thin.

I do think the same way.

Please dont underestimate other developers which have done work and contributed to 3.1.4. It is not only Thomas and Olaf.

Still manpower is low and your point remains valid.

Anyway, Thomas is an insane coding machine, sometimes I feel that he has a doppelganger and that he breathes in a hidden amiga library offset. :crazy

So what exactly prevents use of Reaction?

Everyone is commenting on my wish list, which wasn't supposed to the focus of this thread.

I'm more interested to know, what YOU think should be done/changed/added.

Thanks

Manpower is low and 3.1.4 was supposed to be a minor update to 3.1 with just big drive support and some bugfixes.

It ended up being a major rehaul of the internal core structure of the OS with a huge quantity of bugfixes and a couple of new features that came along the way.

There is not a traced roadmap ahead yet, just a collection of ideas we would like to implement. It is still too soon for that yet, as we need to focus first on the task at hand: find, test, report and fix current 3.1.4 bugs (and we are now doing this).

So ReAction may be a suitable candidate, but it certainly has it flaws and its detractors for good reasons. When the time comes we will surely need to find the best solution, or the less worse one to address on how to extend the GUI. :agree

open source and put it on github.