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

[mahen]

Hi ! I would love the possibility to define aliases to automagically replace some tools defined in .info by others.

For instance, replace AmigaGuide by Multiview when opening a .guide. This wouldn't have to actually alter the .info. I tried to set aliases in user-startup but it didn't work.

I'm pretty sure this feature existed in another patch, but I cannot recall its name...

Cheers !

[Steady]

Yes, this already exists as the DefIcons Prefs editor in OS3.2.

[mahen]

Yeah, I mean, for projects which already have a specified tool in their .icon, which does not exist on the system. I mean : automatic substitution lists ? There was a patch in MCP or another super-patch for this ?

Cheers !

[Thomas Richter]

Why does that need a patch? Just create a link under the name of the target application to the desired application you want to use instead.

[Shaytan]

Originally Posted by Thomas Richter

Why does that need a patch? Just create a link under the name of the target application to the desired application you want to use instead.

Hi Thomas, can you please elaborate this a bit more? Thanks

[mahen]

I guess Thomas means making symbolic links (makelink). I had forgotten it was supported by Amiga filesystems actually.

Apart from links and aliases, another possibility would be to invoke deficons when specified tools are not present ?

[arti040]

I got one thing on my wishlist - some decent file-management under Workbench ;-)

[desiv]

Originally Posted by arti040

I got one thing on my wishlist - some decent file-management under Workbench ;-)

I've always thought a decent file manager was something sorely missing, especially from the original releases...
Less so with 2.x/3.x releases, but still...
I was glad when I got an external floppy drive, and it came with CLIMate; which wasn't great, but worked...
I know there were eventually lots of options, but I just felt it would have been much less confusing for some people if it just came with a basic one, like File Explorer on Win 3...
That said, I am so used to DirOpus that I don't think of it much anymore...

[wiser3]

I'm sure Amiga OS 3.3 features have already been discussed and settled on. But i'd like to mention my OS 3.3 wish anyway.

How about syntax highlighting in the shell window.

We have syntax highlighting in TextEdit. Can that same system be extended to the shell? For example; device/drive names, dirs, filenames, commands, command options, etc... each have settable colors/effects through the same interface that TextEdit gets it syntax highlighting settings.

One issue i can think of is whether all commands output text the same way so the syntax highlighter can tell what type of text each piece is.

Thanks for Amiga OS 3.2.2! Your work is appreciated!!!

[Steady]

@wiser3

That would be nice, but is likely too taxing for a 7Mhz machine which we are still supporting. We'll keep it in mind though.

Thanks for the suggestion.

[Gorf]

Would it be possible to support more than one WB screen?
And offer the ability to move windows from one WB-screen to the next (via iconification)?

[Bren McGuire]

the only feature i am interested in is the release to the public domain of the whole operating system and source code

[Reynolds]

PowerPC (WOS) support...
Warp3D/MiniGL/whatever API as one ultimate...

[arti040]

Originally Posted by Bren McGuire

the only feature i am interested in is the release to the public domain of the whole operating system and source code

Which would actually mean stop of any kind of serious and standardized development...

[Gorf]

Originally Posted by arti040

Which would actually mean stop of any kind of serious and standardized development...

sure, like the Linux kernel has no serious and standardized development for decades .... oh wait

and like there are no forks in closed source Amiga OS ...(p.OS, MorphOS, OS4, 3.9, 3.2)

[arti040]

Yea, and not to mention 100% free and open-sourced AROS... and their millions of users.

[Gorf]

Originally Posted by arti040

Yea, and not to mention 100% free and open-sourced AROS... and their millions of users.

the AROS team made some design choices early on that broke binary compatibility and was only fixed much later by the ABIv1 development
Not to mention they were at first only targeting x86 and there at first only hosted on linux ... all that was not really suited to attract amiga developers in the 90s, when there were still lots of them around. At the same time AROS alienated Linux/GNU coders, by not simply adopting the GPL license but creating their own...

And while PD software was widespread in Amiga-land there always was a weird mistrust towards real OSS. Maybe because Amiga PD software like Fish Disks predated the OSS movement of the 90s?

On Amiga we got got kind of a tradition to "show off" cool binaries, especially in the demo scene, without really showing or even hiding how it is done - and if you can't figure it out on your own, you are a "lamer".

This was for a very long time not the friendliest environment and in many cases it led to "reinventing the wheel" for a variety of the most basic things, while on Linux/GNU people could collaborate and improve existing code much easier..


But as for open sourcing Amiga OS 3.x : I am aware that this won't happen any time soon and it is very unlikely that Hyperion and Cloanto will ever come to such an agreement

[qz3fwd]

Never gonna happen while there is still money to be made. Follow the money.

[eXeler0]

Im usually pro Open Source, but seeing the latest years’ development, I’m confident that this (what we have now), is currently the best solution. The team has a focus, a vision and the determination to deliver without the drama.
If those who feel the urge to contribute could simply approach the current dev team and ask how they can help? That might shorten the time things take to be finalized or maybe, more likely, some of the ”nice to have” but not ”necessary” features could be added within the same time frame as they could be done in parallell, not distracting the core team.