Amiga OS 3.3 top 3 "must have" features (Wishlist)

[amigang]

I think things like igame / whdload should be kept sperate what we need is maybe a third party diffentive addon pack that easy to install that add these things.

[DisasterIncarna]

I suppose my main real major gripe, esp when seeing someone on youtube try out an amiga for the first time or a regular user installing it for demonstration purposes for others, would be that "fresh out of the packet" workbench can look pretty rubbish.

Having something like AFA/VisualPrefs as part of the OS so its not an unstable dirty hack would be nice, same for ToolsDaemon functionality, to add more menus rather than jamming everything into the tools menu.

Thats 2 serious wishlist things i'd like to see, i suppose a 3rd would be a modified virus solution, if anything just something that doesnt see a modern OS3.2 and some often used patches/hackons as potential? maybe? problems, because, then, we the user (often clueless) have to best guess ourselves, and i dont trust my own judgement on such things, so when VirusZ for example pops up showing "SUSPICIOUS" entries, i am basically clueless if what its showing is "normal for OS3.2 + patches/hacks" or "im f*cked".

[mateusz_s]

Hi,
I dig up and merged some of my ideas from others topic,
that I could find helpful and useful. Probably some of them
are imposibble to implement or break up the foundations of AmigaOS,
but they are only ideas or hints for consideration.
I now that some of them can by installed by 3rd party apps
from Aminet - but yeah finding them already in OS would be great
and less time consuming to install, setup etc.


Anyway I am looking forward to see future AmigaOS updates


00. >> Additional AmigaOS install options <<
Because you want to keep the AmigaOS simple and also keep as much memory
as you can - especially on stock units without additional memory or cpu power,
some of my below ideas can by included as additional options during the OS installation...


01. >> LHA <<
Shouldn't the AmigaOS be equipped at least in LHA/unLHA command already in "c:" ?
All app from Aminet are LHA archived... even LHA itself xDD The lack of LHA
makes things a bit frustrating at beginning when the OS is clean


02. >> Ready to use PCMCIA CF setup <<
I think this one would be very helpful and important, (may be optionally during OS installation)
right now we need co copy CF0 (in Devs/DosDrivers), download and copy compactflash.device (in Devs)
and setup L:CrossDOSFileSystem..


03. >> Window area protection during selection <<
I think this one is important too - The selecting rectange should be limited to active window.
Sometimes we can by accident select some additional icons from different windows in the back,
and move them or delete them. I had some similar situations.


04. >> Cut/Copy/Paste/Duplicate <<
I really miss cut/copy/paste options. The Copy option only creates copy in the same place -
it could be renamed to Duplicate.


05. >> Simple rename <<
Renaming icon by clicking on its name.


06. >> Sticky menu <<
I would also loved to have options from MagicMenu avaiable,
like for example: sticky menu when right clicked.


07. >> One click to front <<
Use only one click to bring the window to the front (less clicks = better)


08. >> WB menu bar image <<
Option to put image at the begining of the WB menu bar,
the build in presets could be already boingball and checkmark.


09. >> Clock & Date at WB menu bar <<
Clock/date at the very right of the WB menu bar? Clicking on it
could display the calendar widget. There is a nice Commodity an Aminet
called ScreenTime by Kim Larsen.


10. >> System Prefs at WB menu bar <<
The WB menu bar could be additionally filled up by "Prefs" group that have all standard prefs apps listed
and if there are any additional 3rd party prefs apps - they would appear at the very bottom (under the separation line)
in the sub-menu: 3rd party - right now I am using a script that automatically makes such an additional menu.


11. >> Better desktop shortcuts <<
I think "Leave out / Put away" options can be merged into one menu command, like: "Make desktop shortcut".
The disadvantage of the "Leave out" option is that the icon dissapear from its original location which is confusing.
We actually don't know if the icon on the desktop is leaved out or just moved.
The leaved out icon could be also marked somehow - so we know that is the shortcut (or link).
it could be just deleted as normal icon if not needed. The original icon should stay in the original place.


12. >> GUI for wbstartup <<
Moving commodities to wbstartup may be not obvious, maybe better add a prefs app to turn on/off
the commodities.

13. >> GUI for adding WB menus <<
A simple GUI tool for creating MENUS would be great.
Manually adding lines to Arexx script takes time.
So 3rd party tools like ToolsMenu or ToolsDeamon wouldn't be needed.


14. >> Opening drawers <<
Maybe when clicking into drawer it shoud open in the same window?
Then we could have additional option in Window or Icon menu called "Open in new window".
Less windows = less mess especially on lowres screens.


15. >> Window border sticks <<
Option to enable/disable windows sticks to the screen border before moving out of the screen.
Or maybe smaller delay before we can move it further - it just stops the window if we want to
move it out side - a bit frustrating.


16. >> Window resize <<
I got problems rezising the windows when try to find the border-end.
I think the test-area is too small for the pointer. I am using 1600x900 resolution in RTG
so maybe this is why.


17. >> Multiview / Image view <<
Maybe a few additional options for Multiview, so the OS could have a better picture viewer build it,
like for example: up/down scaling images (could be by 2,4,8 for performance), next/prev image, image info, etc.


18. >> TGA <<
Targa (TGA) datatype?


19. >> Quit <<
It does nothing actually. Because always it says like: "there are some launech programs".
I noticed that this mostly corresponds to Commodities that run in the background.
I think Commodities that runs can be listed and closed automatically - of course if they are
well coded - so maybe automatically closing most of them could be enough to Quit the System.
Also the disc activites should be stopped before. But I guess noone is usung Quit anyway..


20. >> Reboot in wb menu bar <<
Adding REBOOT option in WB menu would be useful..
(could be instead of QUIT or before it)


21. >> Trashcan <<
I think Trashcan is a bit useless. We have to manualny put things there. Also the deleted thing shoud
Be put there automatically (just like trash on win or mac)


22. >> Auto arrange icons <<
Shouldn't the "auto arrange icons" be in the Clean Up Menu instead of Tools?


23. >> Another installation form <<
As the AmigaOS grows up the floppy installer is bigger.
No problem when installing from CD.
Maybe additional form of instaling would be to compress all files into some kind of
split archive - the fresh System takes less than 10MB when zipped.


24. >> Arexx bug? <<
I think I might have found a BUG in Arexx.
When the drawer is empty or there are no icons
I can't get informations about number of displayed icons or selected icons.
Also works when Show All Files is on and some no icon files appear.

I am using:
GETATTR WINDOWS.ACTIVE VAR file_path;

and then I got error code 10 when using:
GETATTR WINDOW.ICONS.SELECTED.COUNT NAME file_path VAR selected_icons_count;
or:
GETATTR WINDOW.ICONS.ALL.COUNT NAME file_path VAR selected_icons_count;

[ShK]

It would be a nice if not all windows on the workbench stop updating content when you move one window or open a menu with the right mouse button.

[Daedalus]

Many of these options sound like you want to replicate the behaviour of Windows, which is fine, but I don't think changing well established behaviours for no reason other than copying other systems is a good thing, moulding it into generic banality when the system has so much personality. There have already been some changes of this nature that are jarring when you're used to earlier iterations of the OS and switch between versions frequently. Besides, many of the behaviours of the OS are actually things I would like to see in other systems.

Originally Posted by mateusz_s

01. >> LHA <<
Shouldn't the AmigaOS be equipped at least in LHA/unLHA command already in "c:" ?
All app from Aminet are LHA archived... even LHA itself xDD The lack of LHA
makes things a bit frustrating at beginning when the OS is clean

Indeed, while it's well known (and you don't actually need lha to unpack lha from Aminet), it's a nice feature of 3.9 and 4.1 that archive handling with a nice, simple GUI is built in.

02. >> Ready to use PCMCIA CF setup <<
I think this one would be very helpful and important, (may be optionally during OS installation)
right now we need co copy CF0 (in Devs/DosDrivers), download and copy compactflash.device (in Devs)
and setup L:CrossDOSFileSystem..

Yeah, not a bad idea, but probably needs a lot of work on the driver side of things, since the commonly-used cfd device isn't necessarily available for inclusion with the OS, and even if it is, doesn't have very good compatibility.

03. >> Window area protection during selection <<
I think this one is important too - The selecting rectange should be limited to active window.
Sometimes we can by accident select some additional icons from different windows in the back,
and move them or delete them. I had some similar situations.

Oh no, this is one of the features that I really like about Workbench and often wish Windows had.

04. >> Cut/Copy/Paste/Duplicate <<
I really miss cut/copy/paste options. The Copy option only creates copy in the same place -
it could be renamed to Duplicate.

Indeed, I'd like this too, and it's added as an option in OS4. I added it with ARexx though, which does the job for me.

05. >> Simple rename <<
Renaming icon by clicking on its name.

I guess... But is RAmiga-R too much to do when you're going to be using the keyboard anyway?

06. >> Sticky menu <<
I would also loved to have options from MagicMenu avaiable,
like for example: sticky menu when right clicked.

There are some compatibility issues to be taken into consideration, but I guess such changes could be made - similar functionality is found in OS4.

07. >> One click to front <<
Use only one click to bring the window to the front (less clicks = better)

Nope, double-click because I want to decide the order of my windows, not the OS. I hate losing a window behind another because I clicked on it. However, the ClicktoFront commodity from OS4 has a tooltype that allows you to set the number of clicks, should be easy to add to the current commodity too.

11. >> Better desktop shortcuts <<
I think "Leave out / Put away" options can be merged into one menu command, like: "Make desktop shortcut".
The disadvantage of the "Leave out" option is that the icon dissapear from its original location which is confusing.
We actually don't know if the icon on the desktop is leaved out or just moved.
The leaved out icon could be also marked somehow - so we know that is the shortcut (or link).
it could be just deleted as normal icon if not needed. The original icon should stay in the original place.

Another thing that sounds like just being like Windows/Linux/Mac for the sake of it. Temporarily leaving out icons that I want to put away again is another nice Workbench thing I'd love to see in Windows. OS4 has an icon indicator to show that it's left out.

Adding a Make Link option might be doable, it can then be left out for the effect you're looking for. But links like that are dependent on the underlying filesystem IIRC so might not work everywhere.

12. >> GUI for wbstartup <<
Moving commodities to wbstartup may be not obvious, maybe better add a prefs app to turn on/off
the commodities.

Yeah, I have mixed feelings about this in OS4, but on the whole I think it works well there and could easily be added to OS3.

13. >> GUI for adding WB menus <<
A simple GUI tool for creating MENUS would be great.
Manually adding lines to Arexx script takes time.
So 3rd party tools like ToolsMenu or ToolsDeamon wouldn't be needed.

3.9 had THE, which did this job very well. It added menu items and hotkeys via an ARexx script that ran from WBStartup, so is a good fit for the current system (if available as a contribution).

14. >> Opening drawers <<
Maybe when clicking into drawer it shoud open in the same window?
Then we could have additional option in Window or Icon menu called "Open in new window".
Less windows = less mess especially on lowres screens.

Another Windows-alike thing that doesn't really fit with the Workbench paradigm, since icon layouts, window size etc. are per-drawer, so the window would either be constantly resizing or the defined layout of the window would be ignored. Instead, why not use the shortcut of holding down RAmiga when opening a drawer? That closes the parent drawer automatically.

15. >> Window border sticks <<
Option to enable/disable windows sticks to the screen border before moving out of the screen.
Or maybe smaller delay before we can move it further - it just stops the window if we want to
move it out side - a bit frustrating.

Yeah, that should be easy to add, again like OS4, which lets you set the bump stop from 0-10 pixels. I find the default setting in 3.2 to be just right for my liking though

16. >> Window resize <<
I got problems rezising the windows when try to find the border-end.
I think the test-area is too small for the pointer. I am using 1600x900 resolution in RTG
so maybe this is why.

Yeah, the resizing on any border is sometimes hard to hit (I'm using 1920x1200), so I tend to just stick with the bottom right corner anyway. Part of the issue though is that a program can reasonably expect input from any part of the window, so widening the catch area might cause issues for some applications. Perhaps an option to widen the borders à la VisualPrefs (which would also widen the hit area) would solve it.

17. >> Multiview / Image view <<
Maybe a few additional options for Multiview, so the OS could have a better picture viewer build it,
like for example: up/down scaling images (could be by 2,4,8 for performance), next/prev image, image info, etc.

Agreed, there have been some big changes to Multiview in recent updates, maybe we can expect some more like this in the future.

18. >> TGA <<
Targa (TGA) datatype?

Is TGA really that common that it should have core OS support? Given the choice I'd use PNG for its much more widespread support in general, but there are TGA datatypes that can be added for anyone that needs it.

21. >> Trashcan <<
I think Trashcan is a bit useless. We have to manualny put things there. Also the deleted thing shoud
Be put there automatically (just like trash on win or mac)

The trashcan is optional. Being able to easily retrieve a deleted file is nice, though things get confusing when you're frequently dealing with removable media, since moving files to the trashcan doesn't free up the disk space, and then that space is missing when you move that volume to another platform. Having split behaviour (e.g. only moving to trash on a hard drive) is asking for trouble, and having a separate trashcan for each volume is little different from what we already have. The .recycled / .deldir option of SFS and PFS is nice for this though, and doesn't try to be a desktop feature.

22. >> Auto arrange icons <<
Shouldn't the "auto arrange icons" be in the Clean Up Menu instead of Tools?

Perhaps, but it's an ARexx script, so it gets added to the Tools menu. There's no current method for modifying the existing menus (without patching the OS), though maybe adding such functionality to the ARexx interface would be a good idea.

23. >> Another installation form <<
As the AmigaOS grows up the floppy installer is bigger.
No problem when installing from CD.
Maybe additional form of instaling would be to compress all files into some kind of
split archive - the fresh System takes less than 10MB when zipped.

I guess the aim was to still have a functional system when booting from floppy, which isn't possible if everything's compressed into chunks.

24. >> Arexx bug? <<
I think I might have found a BUG in Arexx.
When the drawer is empty or there are no icons
I can't get informations about number of displayed icons or selected icons.
Also works when Show All Files is on and some no icon files appear.

I am using:
GETATTR WINDOWS.ACTIVE VAR file_path;

and then I got error code 10 when using:
GETATTR WINDOW.ICONS.SELECTED.COUNT NAME file_path VAR selected_icons_count;
or:
GETATTR WINDOW.ICONS.ALL.COUNT NAME file_path VAR selected_icons_count;

Yeah, that seems to be a long-standing bug/feature since OS 3.5 IIRC, and carried on into OS4 too. I'm not sure if there's a proper way to detect an empty window, but the documentation would suggest that you should expect a 0 result if there are no icons in the window.

[Mr-Z]

Auto saving of window sizes and icons within a window instead of using snaphot icons or snapshot all.

[daxb]

Does it mean that the error code 10 is stored in VAR, or VAR contains 0 if the drawer is empty or doesn't contain icons?

[Daedalus]

Originally Posted by Mr-Z

Auto saving of window sizes and icons within a window instead of using snaphot icons or snapshot all.

Might be nice, but definitely shouldn't be the default. Frequent writes aren't generally expected with Amiga OS, and would be especially troublesome with floppy disks.

Originally Posted by daxb

Does it mean that the error code 10 is stored in VAR, or VAR contains 0 if the drawer is empty or doesn't contain icons?

An error code 10 is reported (i.e., ARexx opens a console window and outputs the error) and the var doesn't actually contain anything, so evaluates as the name of the variable instead of 0.

[Thomas Richter]

Originally Posted by mateusz_s

21. >> Trashcan <<
I think Trashcan is a bit useless. We have to manualny put things there. Also the deleted thing shoud
Be put there automatically (just like trash on win or mac)

BenchTrash exists in Aminet, just get it there. It does what you want to do.

[daxb]

Originally Posted by Daedalus

An error code 10 is reported (i.e., ARexx opens a console window and outputs the error) and the var doesn't actually contain anything, so evaluates as the name of the variable instead of 0.

Ok thanks! At least this can easily workaround but a fix would be nicer.

[Firestone]

TCP/IP stack integrated is my number one for sure.

[cv643d]

1. Theming support
2. Glowicons as standard
3. Auto remember icon positions/windows positions without snapshotting. Easy fix, do a "10 run snapshot; 20 goto 10" .. perhaps fixes that.

[mateusz_s]

Also the very first thing I do in fresh OS is replacing icon.library to @PeterK version from Aminet.. its just much faster and optimized and supports every icon standard which is important to me while using RTG.. maybe could be possbile to also include/integrate the latest version in future OS release or as option during installation..

[Thomas Richter]

I wouldn't suggest doing so - to my knowledge, the library still does not handle long file names properly. Something changed there from 3.1.4. onwards, and the code needs to be monitor where a file system truncates the name instead of relying of a now obsolete user setting.

[ShK]

Originally Posted by ShK

It would be a nice if not all windows on the workbench stop updating content when you move one window or open a menu with the right mouse button.

Btw, MagicMenu prevents opening menu to freeze everything else. Probably there is also a 3rd party app to do same when moving windows around.

[Thomas Richter]

"Prevents" is probably not the right word... Anyhow, "MagicMenu" is one of the programs that cannot fully work due to the way how it interacts with intuition and its inner workings. One of the things I recall it didn't do right is to implement IDCMP_MenuVerify correctly.

[ShK]

Yeah, it would be nice to keep OS multitasking without external apps.

[Thomas Richter]

The intuition menu does not disable multitasking, not the least. It only blocks tasks from accessing the same screen the menu is drawn on.

[spudje]

CDROM support (on 2nd IDE) for AtapiMagic

[Thomas Richter]

The CDROM support as such is not much of the problem, it is just using ATAPI, which means "SCSI commands over an IDE interface", and there is documentation on how this works. The problem is the second IDE channel. It's not that I haven't tried, but there are too many incompatible solutions how to access the second IDE channel to make this working reliable. There is a small tweak of the scsi.device that enables the second channel - just use LoadModule to load a dummy resident module named "ATAPIismajik" (it doesn't have to do anything, it just needs to be present), and you have the second channel - maybe, depending on your hardware.