workbench icons, windows not staying in position, etc..

[vertigo]

Sorry if this is in the wrong area but can't find a forum just for workbench, I can't understand this modern phrase "apps" to me its programs and utilities.

Anyhow, what it is I'm saving my windows and icon positions but a lot of time I go back and find the icons/windows have moved back to their default position. Is there a way of overriding this, some attribute I need to change?

Also, I have a drive icon that refuses to update to the magic workbench DHx default, I used a couple of programs but nothing changes it. Even manually copying an icon does not work. Its odd that when checking the icon info it actually shows the icon picture I want to use.

Any ideas?

[Jope]

Check the protection bits for the .info files.. If they are not RWED, Workbench will refuse to make snapshots.

[zipper]

Is the stubborn drive icon perhaps a PC floppy system?

[BigFan]

Originally Posted by vertigo

Sorry if this is in the wrong area but can't find a forum just for workbench, I can't understand this modern phrase "apps" to me its programs and utilities.

Anyhow, what it is I'm saving my windows and icon positions but a lot of time I go back and find the icons/windows have moved back to their default position. Is there a way of overriding this, some attribute I need to change?

Are these icons real or default icons ? Same question for the drive icon.

[vertigo]

They are magicworkbench defaults. Generally what happens is that I set a window and icons where I want them and save them but usually on a cold restart they then revert back to the original settings, it may even be ok for a few days, then back to default. I'm unsure if there's something set but I do check attributes and they look fine to me, its Just annoying really.

But some good news, I reformatted my Dh1 and the drive icon updated itself. So that's fine now.

I'm glad someone else thinks "apps" feels weird on an Amiga.

[BigFan]

Perhaps my question was a bit misleading.

A "real" icon has a file named #*.info according to the file/drawer it represents. A default icon has its file in envarc:, it will be used if there is no real icon. If you choose to show all content of a directory the default icons are used to diplay files without one. But you cannot store any informations like position as these will be taken from the "default" icon each time you restart.

I was thinking of this scenario:
you picked up a real icon for a drawer, selected "show all" and saved this to your "real" icon. Then inside opened a drawer that is represented by a "default" icon. Now you might have tried to work with a "default" icon, which will store position and layout in memory only.

It would explain your problems.

[vertigo]

OK, I'm still unsure what type of icons I'm using but its something I'm going look into as it can be a pain having to resize and adjust all the time. I just don't know if its the mishmash of little programs at startup or there's something like you suggest.

Thanks for your help.

[Daedalus]

It's hard to tell from Workbench, so try opening a shell and moving to the parent of a particular drawer that's not saving its positions. Say the drawer is Work:Stuff/Foo, you should:

CD Work:Stuff

then:

Dir Foo#?

That should list Foo (dir) and Foo.info. If there is no Foo.info file, the position of the window cannot be saved. Likewise for any other files or drawers.
Also worth a look is:

List Foo#?

which will give you the permissions of the .info file, which can be different from the main drawer or file itself. You need the w flag set to be able to snapshot icons.

It's possible that you've got some sort of patch running that affects the imagery of the icons, but regardless of what icon types you're using, the snapshotting is stored the same way so patches shouldn't affect it.