Is there anything you miss in current gen OS that you had in Workbench?

[amifan]

I use a Mac as my primary machine for work and one thing I realised that I miss a lot from using Workbench is the click to front window. Each time I click once on a window in Mac OS it comes to the front and I find that quite frustrating at times. In Workbench it does not come to the front unless you click the top right button and I realised this gives me more control over my system. So is there any feature of Workbench that you miss or wished you could do in a modern OS?

[roondar]

I always miss the way Amiga's dealt with volumes and especially the assigns. Such a useful way to order your files beyond just drives and directories.

[malko]

I miss the "lightweight" of the AmigaOS/Workbench. A feature by itself
The easy backup facility (copy files or 'lha' your partition and your are done).
Now, even editing a simple file like the "host" file in Wind@ws could be a pain

[Daedalus]

Yep, so many things, and not just with Workbench, but Amiga OS in general. For example:

- Windows not jumping to the front the instant you click them as you say. Double-clicking to bring them to the front (with the ClickToFront commodity) is a godsend so I can leave a window overlapping another and still read its contents while working in the main window behind it.
- Being able to move windows and requesters, even when the application is waiting on something. So often I need to cancel a file request dialog or similar just so I can see something that it's blocking.
- Dragging files and directories into file requesters to jump them to a location. Haiku offers something close to this.
- Filetyping based on file content rather than extension.
- Assigns and volumes as pointed out above.
- Intuitive keyboard shortcuts for text (e.g. shift+left to move to the start of the line, shift+backspace to delete to the start of the line, shift+right to move to the end, shift+delete to delete to the end).
- Intuitive keyboard shortcuts in general, with a primary shortcut key (Right Amiga+Q to quit etc.), and a separate OS shortcut key for overall functions like swapping screens, answering requesters, emulating mouse inputs (Left Amiga). Though, to be fair here the Mac has better shortcuts than other mainstream OSes.
- Intuition screens.
- Menus. Both the multi-selecting functionality and the hidden in the screen bar aspects.
- Spatial arrangement in directories. It's not always to everyone's taste, but I like it Other systems do sometimes have it as an option, but not quite as free-form as Workbench.

And I'm sure there are plenty more, but those are the main things that strike me when I'm using other systems.

[Dunny]

All of the above, and:

A disk space meter at the edge of the volume window
Icons that can be any size
Icons as files in their own right.

[amifan]

Oh yeah, the assigns is a great way for organising your files, the amount of times I have to go through a maze of folders to get to a file on the Mac is maddening at times. The menu as well seems better implemented, it is cool how much the Amiga Workbench still feels fresh when compared to newer OSs.

[Frogs]

1. Variable sized icons were one of my favorite parts of the Amiga. In fact, the whole way WB dealt with icons was really neat.

2. Multiple resolutions on a single desktop. That would be super helpful these days.

3. Resolution and desktop size being independent. There are ways to do this on Windows but it's not part of the OS.

4.

[Minuous]

Intelligent algorithmic gadget layouting/sizing.

[meynaf]

What has already been mentioned above.
The RAM disk that is always there.
The "enter command and its arguments" popup from double-clicking an iconless data file.
Fast booting.
No shutdown sequence ; just switch it off.
Use/save settings rather than "apply" that will save anyway.
Settings like icon positions that aren't saved behind your back so a blunder doesn't mess things up.
Scroll bars that don't lose the position when your mouse pointer ventures somehow out of the bar.

[fxgogo]

Arexx with ports into most programs. A system wide supported scripting language. Apple almost got it right with AppleScript, but not quite.

[Gordon]

Say

[lilwshu]

Originally Posted by Daedalus

Yep, so many things, and not just with Workbench, but Amiga OS in general. For example:

- Windows not jumping to the front the instant you click them as you say. Double-clicking to bring them to the front (with the ClickToFront commodity) is a godsend so I can leave a window overlapping another and still read its contents while working in the main window behind it.
- Being able to move windows and requesters, even when the application is waiting on something. So often I need to cancel a file request dialog or similar just so I can see something that it's blocking.
- Dragging files and directories into file requesters to jump them to a location. Haiku offers something close to this.
- Filetyping based on file content rather than extension.
- Assigns and volumes as pointed out above.
- Intuitive keyboard shortcuts for text (e.g. shift+left to move to the start of the line, shift+backspace to delete to the start of the line, shift+right to move to the end, shift+delete to delete to the end).
- Intuitive keyboard shortcuts in general, with a primary shortcut key (Right Amiga+Q to quit etc.), and a separate OS shortcut key for overall functions like swapping screens, answering requesters, emulating mouse inputs (Left Amiga). Though, to be fair here the Mac has better shortcuts than other mainstream OSes.
- Intuition screens.
- Menus. Both the multi-selecting functionality and the hidden in the screen bar aspects.
- Spatial arrangement in directories. It's not always to everyone's taste, but I like it Other systems do sometimes have it as an option, but not quite as free-form as Workbench.

And I'm sure there are plenty more, but those are the main things that strike me when I'm using other systems.

A lot of these things are available in a current gen OS if that OS is not Windows.

[Mathesar]

- multiple screens
- RAM disk
- save/use option on new settings
- assigns

Although the latter is something of a double edged sword. Some programs that were "HD installable" insisted of putting a bunch of assigns in your user-startup. Other than that the fact that you could type a quick "assign Foo: Work:bar" when a requester appeared "Insert Foo: in any drive" was something wonderful.

[Daedalus]

Originally Posted by lilwshu

A lot of these things are available in a current gen OS if that OS is not Windows.

Indeed, but usually with a slightly cumbersome implementation, or requiring a patch or add-on, or the use of a particular desktop, or faff with config files. MacOS does have a similar level of shortcut sensibility as I said, and Haiku has something close to the dragging-items-into-file-requesters and datatypes thing. Any stay-in-front implementations I've seen need a window to be pinned or otherwise designated to stay in front. Links, mount points and what not aren't quite as elegant as assigns. Multiple desktops are something like screens, but again, not quite. I don't know of any other system that has stackable menu actions or hidden menu bars without extensive customisation. Shortcuts for text editing are different everywhere, and while similar delete-to-end or delete-to-word type shortcuts do exist, they're rarely as intuitive. You can of course customise them in most cases, but then they tend not to apply in all cases and it ends up being an inconsistent mess.

But yes, Windows is probably the biggest offender, however it is a necessary evil for myself and so many others, and so naturally it's the OS on which the missed features will be most observed.

[Predseda]

RAM Disk. It was pure genius.

[gimbal]

I can't honestly think of anything really. Some nicety features, but I don't miss those. But then again I don't seem to care as much about the OS UI as other people seem to do, my interaction with any OS is mostly starting programs or managing a file, not exactly riveting stuff. I'm more motivated by how easy or difficult it is to keep the OS up to date and how high the risk is of a patch mucking things up.

[nogginthenog]

Originally Posted by fxgogo

Arexx with ports into most programs. A system wide supported scripting language. Apple almost got it right with AppleScript, but not quite.

Comes from IBM. My work experience was with Wellcome (now GSK). They had a bunch of IBM mainframes and sent me on a REXX course. IBM REXX can talk to applications just like AREXX.

These were multi-million pound machines

[Tigerskunk]

* I liked the double state differently sized icons. Gave lots of personality to the OS.
* I like the way how stuff can sound so literal in the CLI/Shell. "Copy a to b".

A lot of stuff in the OS feels a bit cumbersome these days, so I am really looking forward to OS 3.2 and what kind of new features it will have.

[Jope]

A working locale system would be nice. In windows it is a mess if you have English windows and a national keymap / regional settings.

Multi language programs often helpfully force themselves to display according to my keyboard language or regional settings, even though everything else is in English.

[jbenam]

Originally Posted by Jope

Multi language programs often helpfully force themselves to display according to my keyboard language or regional settings, even though everything else is in English.

This drives me totally mad when using Windows. Luckily enough it doesn't happen with macOS

What I miss most, as someone has already suggested, is the ability for the OS to show a completely different icon when clicked. It was used to great effect by most apps / games and gave the OS great personality