BetterWB 3.8

[gulliver]

BetterWB 3.8 24th September 2014

This is a new version of BetterWB workbench pack, that aims to be an enhancement, an updated extension to AmigaOS 3.1, without all those hardware requirements typically associated with these kind of packs. It is indeed a better 3.1 than 3.1 itself!

BetterWB works on any Amiga. It installs on top of a clean AmigaOS 3.1 installation. It is distributed as a set of floppy images and occupies about 10MB of harddrive space.

Changes since last version:

-Charmap is a tool that helps dealing with all the characters of a given font
-Prepcard+ helps the user in managing other hardware on the pcmcia port (Wifi, ethernet, modems and card readers).
-Ned is a commodity that lets you close the active window by pressing the "Esc" key
-Freewheel is a commodity that help you in using the mouse wheel comfortably
-Updated HardWiz: Phase5 68060.library to latest v46.15
-Updated icon.library to 46.4.385
-Updated pfs3aio to v2.3 (28-05-2014)
-HDToolBox is back (Some users reported incompatibilities with HDinstTools)
-WhichAmiga now properly works with ACA accelerators (modrobert´s fix)
-EnvHandler is now offered as an option, and a warning message is displayed upon first install of BetterWB
-Tweaked Magic Menu Prefs: Pull-Down and Pop-Up menu usage is better as Smart Select. (Thanks Retrofan)
-A few more minor fixes and tweaks

You can download BetterWB from its homepage at:

http://lilliput.amiga-projects.net/BetterWB.htm

[Viceroy]

Thanks ;-)

[Nostromo]

Awesome, thanks! Will have a go.

[Peter]

Thanks for the update and continued work!

[prowler]

Site seems to be offline, ATM.

[gulliver]

Thank you for the support!

@prowler

It is online now

[prowler]

Still seems to be offline here.

Edit: Can't resolve the host.

[ma693541]

Thanks for the update, will make a quick Amiga Forever hack for it tomorrow.

[prowler]

Well, this evening I can access the site, but I have absolutely no idea why I have been locked out for the last two days.

I've just downloaded the latest update. I am in your debt again, Gulliver!

[PeterK]

It's strongly recommended to activate SwazInfo for the WBStartup drawer, because the preinstalled WBInfo-tool really is a color icon destroyer!

[gulliver]

Originally Posted by PeterK

It's strongly recommended to activate SwazInfo for the WBStartup drawer, because the preinstalled WBInfo-tool really is a color icon destroyer!

I am using by default the CBM original WBInfo-tool.
Is that the destroyer?
Could you please tell me under which circumstances (in general)?
Does workbench.library 45.x fix this when loaded?

TIA

[PeterK]

Everything that is based on old-style WB v40 planar icons is only capable to write back the planar images onto disk without a palette when you save any changes that you have made to an icon. WB v40 and all related tools don't know anything about the color mapped images of the OS 3.5 format. With a fixed palette you may not see the damage, but the extendxed OS 3.5 icon information will be cut off by most WB v40 icon tools.

SwazInfo is already clever enough to avoid writing back the complete old-style icon DiskObject-structure onto the disk when it detects a palette mapped icon. It will just change the tooltypes. the default tool, the stack size and the icon type, but it won't destroy the image.

It's correct that using the workbench.library v44+ will also fix this problem. With a workbench.library v44+ you can even drag and drop icons into the WBInfo window.

[ajack]

Was wondering what happened to BetterWB and when I checked this morning, I find out I am about a week slow... >_<

Thanks for the update!

[Retrofan]

That Prepcard+ program seems great. I don't find it on Aminet, where can I find it?

[gulliver]

I made it, exclusively for BetterWB.

But you are free to use it, distribute it and modify it the way you want, upload it to Aminet, include it in a distro, etc.


I need to get back home and I will make an archive of it. But in the meantime, you can grab it from BetterWB, as long as you are careful enough not to forget all its components because if not you will get a non working version.

[Retrofan]

Yep, I downloaded it from the adf and already "tried" (WinUAE) it. I suposse which are all the files, as you say it's just to be sure I don't miss any.

Thanks a lot, you told very few about it in your post and it's a great solution. Congrats for making it. Right now I will recommend it to a guy that was needing it, and yes I gladly will try to add it to my distro.

[Retrofan]

Gulliver I'm seing that few days ago Prism2 has been updated on Aminet http://aminet.net/package/driver/net/prism2v2

You should update it also in your program.

[gulliver]

@Retrofan

Thank you for the heads up regarding prism2 update.

Sorry for the delay, I have attached the complete updated version of PrepCard+ to this post.

I hope someone else finds it useful

[Hercules]

Originally Posted by gulliver

You can download BetterWB from its homepage at:

http://lilliput.amiga-projects.net/BetterWB.htm

Thanks gulliver for your work on this. Could you post up a screenshot of what things look like after installing ?

[ptyerman]

Originally Posted by Hercules

Thanks gulliver for your work on this. Could you post up a screenshot of what things look like after installing ?

He hasn't posted one as it looks just like Workbench 3.1. Unless you've never seen WB 3.1, I think you get the general impression.

EDIT:
It has so much more than a WB 3.1 install though that it may look like it, but it is SO much better.