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Amiga News and Community Announcements => Amiga News and Community Announcements => Topic started by: amigakit on June 03, 2015, 12:08:24 PM

Title: Introducing MultiViewer & MultiViewerNG
Post by: amigakit on June 03, 2015, 12:08:24 PM
Introducing MultiViewer & MultiViewerNG
The ultimate Classic & Next-Generation AmigaOS file viewer
Cardiff 3rd June 2015

A-EON Technology Ltd (http://www.a-eon.com) is pleased announce the imminent release of  MultiViewer and MultiViewerNG, its advanced file viewer utility for Classic and Next-Generation AmigaOS systems.

As part of our ongoing commitment to developing quality software content for Classic and Next-Generation AmigaOS systems we contracted freelance AmigaOS developer Andy Broad and set him the challenge of creating the ultimate AmigaOS file viewer utility. We gave him outline specifications and the freedom to build the programme from the ground-up. Our only stipulation were that the software must integrate with our other A-EON Technology applications such as Personal Paint & ImageFX and to make sure that, wherever possible, the Classic version had most  of the features of Next-Generation version.

We are please to report that Andy has exceeded all of our expectations and the result is MultiViewer  a flexible application for viewing any type of file supported by the datatypes system. Two versions are being released: MultiViewer for the Classic AmigaOS and MultiViewerNG for the latest AmigaOS 4.1 systems.

Both of these programs provide the AmigaOS with many additional features, such as a tool bar, image scaling, slideshow mode together with file and image editing hotlinks to programs such as NotePad ,Personal Paint, etc. Both versions of MultiViewer may be run from the Workbench or from the shell. The programs behaviour is controlled by a range of options which may be defined as Tooltypes or command line switches. Default settings are loaded from the tooltypes in the main programs icon. A powerful ARexx interface and Scripting menu provides even more options. The default settings can be modified by the tooltypes in the projects icon or the switches and options provided on the command line. Additional tooltypes allow the defining of external editors and scripts which may be executed from a custom script menu. Once MultiViewer is running, additional features may be controlled via the tool bar, menu and keyboard shortcuts and multiple files. Full Ringhio support is also included and the NG version also includes multiple Tabs and the ability to view AMIStore screenshots.

We asked Andy to comment on his six months MultiViewer development effort. "It's been an interesting challenge exploring both the potential and limitations of the datatypes system in order to bring the original concept of MultiView up to date in MultiViewer. An additional challenge was exploiting the significant advances in the AmigaOS 4 Reaction GUI system whilst providing as much functionality in the relatively limited 3.X version as possible."

MultiViewer and MultiViewerNG will be available shortly from AMIStore & Amistore.net

MultiViewer to the future

http://www.a-eon.com


(http://a-eon.biz/images/multiviewer_icon_image.JPG) (http://a-eon.biz/PDF/News_Release_MultiViewer.pdf)


(http://www.a-eon.com/images/icons/multiviewer01.jpg) (http://www.a-eon.com/images/screenshots/multiviewer01.jpg) (http://www.a-eon.com/images/icons/multiviewer02.jpg) (http://www.a-eon.com/images/screenshots/multiviewer02.jpg) (http://www.a-eon.com/images/icons/multiviewer05.jpg) (http://www.a-eon.com/images/screenshots/multiviewer05.jpg)

(http://www.a-eon.com/images/icons/multiviewer03.jpg) (http://www.a-eon.com/images/screenshots/multiviewer03.jpg) (http://www.a-eon.com/images/icons/multiviewer04.jpg) (http://www.a-eon.com/images/screenshots/multiviewer04.jpg) (http://www.a-eon.com/images/icons/multiviewer06.jpg) (http://www.a-eon.com/images/screenshots/multiviewer06.jpg)
Title: Re: Introducing MultiViewer & MultiViewerNG
Post by: itix on June 03, 2015, 12:39:38 PM
What are differences to Multiview?
Title: Re: Introducing MultiViewer & MultiViewerNG
Post by: amigakit on June 03, 2015, 12:44:04 PM
Read the press release :)

Some of the differences are:

Toolbar, Slideshow, Arexx Scripts Menu, Search, Search Back/Forward, Crop Images, Compositing support, File Lister, Tabs, Magnify, Rotate image, Watch Drawer, Save as png, ilbm, jpeg etc
Title: Re: Introducing MultiViewer & MultiViewerNG
Post by: klx300r on June 03, 2015, 07:56:32 PM
GREAT NEWS!!! finally we are getting some much needed software & updates that we can use with all the new hardware(http://amigaworld.net/images/smilies/icon_biggrin.gif)

looking forward to updating my classic and NG miggies this weekend (http://amigaworld.net/images/smilies/icon_biggrin.gif)
Title: Re: Introducing MultiViewer & MultiViewerNG
Post by: Oldsmobile_Mike on June 03, 2015, 07:59:26 PM
Quote from: klx300r;790531
looking forward to updating my classic and NG miggies this weekend (http://amigaworld.net/images/smilies/icon_biggrin.gif)

I don't think it's released yet.  Otherwise I'd be doing it right now.  :lol:
Title: Re: Introducing MultiViewer & MultiViewerNG
Post by: amoskodare on June 03, 2015, 10:16:41 PM
(http://amigaworld.net/images/subject/icon14.gif)

:drink:
Title: Re: Introducing MultiViewer & MultiViewerNG
Post by: apsturk on June 04, 2015, 01:45:30 AM
Thanks again to A-Eon for the commitment they continue to make to the Amiga platform
Title: Re: Introducing MultiViewer & MultiViewerNG
Post by: slayer on June 04, 2015, 08:45:31 AM
Excellent!

Popped in to buy but not available yet, will check over the next few days...

Good work to all!
Title: Re: Introducing MultiViewer & MultiViewerNG
Post by: AmiDude on June 04, 2015, 09:07:16 AM
Quote from: amigakit;790520
Read the press release :)

Some of the differences are:

Toolbar, Slideshow, Arexx Scripts Menu, Search, Search Back/Forward, Crop Images, Compositing support, File Lister, Tabs, Magnify, Rotate image, Watch Drawer, Save as png, ilbm, jpeg etc


That sounds nice, but all these features can also be accomplished with existing (classic) software from the 90's... Why should i buy this?
Title: Re: Introducing MultiViewer & MultiViewerNG
Post by: F0LLETT on June 04, 2015, 12:01:07 PM
Quote from: AmiDude;790569
That sounds nice, but all these features can also be accomplished with existing (classic) software from the 90's... Why should i buy this?


Well thats your choice. I for one would rather have one program that does everything, than having to get 10 programs to do the same thing.
This is what the problem is with the amiga today, you end up with lots of programs just to do one thing.
Title: Re: Introducing MultiViewer & MultiViewerNG
Post by: eliyahu on June 04, 2015, 03:14:27 PM
@AmiDude

it's a fair question. i guess it depends on people's work patterns. for me, i'm constantly reviewing multiple text files and/or graphics files in a given directory. being able to use one tool for this would really help me. as it is multiview is used on my machine a ton everyday, so, again, for me this tool is most welcome.

hopefully there are others that feel similarly. :)

-- eliyahu
Title: Re: Introducing MultiViewer & MultiViewerNG
Post by: Gulliver on June 04, 2015, 03:54:28 PM
So it is basically an image viewer/slideshow app + multiview?
So what is new?
Title: Re: Introducing MultiViewer & MultiViewerNG
Post by: Oldsmobile_Mike on June 04, 2015, 05:26:36 PM
And the negativity begins, LOL.

Release it.  I'll buy it.  Can't speak for anyone else, haha.  :lol:
Title: Re: Introducing MultiViewer & MultiViewerNG
Post by: amigakit on June 04, 2015, 05:51:30 PM
This first release of MultiViewer is a very solid foundation which can be built upon going forward and integrates with some of A-EON's other applications.

The hardest part is done after months of development from the ground up by Andy: MultiViewer is created and will continue to be actively developed.  How many other applications exist in the Amiga world today that are still being maintained?

A-EON announced last year that software development would be the emphasis and these foundations are important to creating more progressive modern software for our Amigas.
Title: Re: Introducing MultiViewer & MultiViewerNG
Post by: AmiDude on June 04, 2015, 06:03:14 PM
Quote from: F0LLETT;790576
Well thats your choice. I for one would rather have one program that does everything, than having to get 10 programs to do the same thing.
This is what the problem is with the amiga today, you end up with lots of programs just to do one thing.


I have two programs that can do the same thing: DirectoryOpus & Diskmaster.
I've configured it so that if i double click on any file (text, pictures, librarys e.o.),
I can see picture, text or info from versions of librarys and other programs. Heck,
i can even see the contents of lha, lzx, adf and dms archive files by double clicking
on the archive file.
So no need for another expensive "new" multiple viewer.
Title: Re: Introducing MultiViewer & MultiViewerNG
Post by: lionstorm on June 04, 2015, 06:16:39 PM
Quote from: AmiDude;790593
I have two programs that can do the same thing: DirectoryOpus & Diskmaster.
I've configured it so that if i double click on any file (text, pictures, librarys e.o.),
I can see picture, text or info from versions of librarys and other programs. Heck,
i can even see the contents of lha, lzx, adf and dms archive files by double clicking
on the archive file.
So no need for another expensive "new" multiple viewer.


if it is that good, why dont you send the config files to Aminet so that others can benefit from your finding ?
Title: Re: Introducing MultiViewer & MultiViewerNG
Post by: amigakit on June 04, 2015, 07:37:58 PM
@AmiDude

The great things about computers, and the Amiga is no exception in this respect, is that you can use them in a way that you are comfortable with doing.  So if DOpus serves the purpose for you, then that's great.
Title: Re: Introducing MultiViewer & MultiViewerNG
Post by: Thorham on June 04, 2015, 10:22:18 PM
Quote from: lionstorm;790594
if it is that good, why dont you send the config  files to Aminet so that others can benefit from your finding ?

You're acting as if that's a hard thing to do :lol:
Title: Re: Introducing MultiViewer & MultiViewerNG
Post by: kolla on June 05, 2015, 03:33:13 AM
Does MultiViewer do the one thing MultiView doesn't do - does it handle streaming media, be it sound or video?
Title: Re: Introducing MultiViewer & MultiViewerNG
Post by: Gulliver on June 05, 2015, 03:59:36 AM
Quote from: lionstorm;790594
if it is that good, why dont you send the config files to Aminet so that others can benefit from your finding ?

It is not a finding. It has been done since a decade.
If you didnĀ“t know, Aminet has a search function.

Additionally you can use Magellan for the same purpose, which free, open source, still developed, and you can find a nice config that can be further customized in Amikit (which is also free).
Title: Re: Introducing MultiViewer & MultiViewerNG
Post by: QuikSanz on June 05, 2015, 04:59:59 AM
Quote from: amigakit;790592
This first release of MultiViewer is a very solid foundation which can be built upon going forward and integrates with some of A-EON's other applications.

The hardest part is done after months of development from the ground up by Andy: MultiViewer is created and will continue to be actively developed.  How many other applications exist in the Amiga world today that are still being maintained?

A-EON announced last year that software development would be the emphasis and these foundations are important to creating more progressive modern software for our Amigas.


Looks like a hint to me. Sounds a bit like "will be used in PPaint, Octamed and many other apps later" for an all around default.
Title: Re: Introducing MultiViewer & MultiViewerNG
Post by: broadblues on June 05, 2015, 09:46:47 AM
Quote from: kolla;790621
Does MultiViewer do the one thing MultiView doesn't do - does it handle streaming media, be it sound or video?


Sound and video would be directly supported by the datatype. So if you have a datatype that supports streaming it would stream, in practice there are few that do so (if any?) so the final answer is probably no, not at the moment, but it's not a limit of MultiViewer but rather of the underlying datatype.
Title: Re: Introducing MultiViewer & MultiViewerNG
Post by: broadblues on June 05, 2015, 09:54:12 AM
Quote from: QuikSanz;790628
Looks like a hint to me. Sounds a bit like "will be used in PPaint, Octamed and many other apps later" for an all around default.


I think he's refering to the editor function, where you can open the current document in your prefered editor, for images the default is PPaint, but that is configurable via the tooltype to any app (SketchBlock for example :-)) a couple of example alternatives are store in the initial tooltypes as disabaled tooltypes.

The idea is to allow intergration, not enforce it!
Title: Re: Introducing MultiViewer & MultiViewerNG
Post by: kamelito on June 05, 2015, 10:31:50 AM
@BroadBlues,

So the logical next step is to develop new datatypes isn't it?
Kamelito
Title: Re: Introducing MultiViewer & MultiViewerNG
Post by: chris on June 05, 2015, 10:39:23 AM
Quote from: broadblues;790633
Sound and video would be directly supported by the datatype. So if you have a datatype that supports streaming it would stream, in practice there are few that do so (if any?) so the final answer is probably no, not at the moment, but it's not a limit of MultiViewer but rather of the underlying datatype.


The MP3 datatype supports streaming.  Unfortunately this makes it entirely useless for using as a loader, as the two are mutually exclusive.

All the animation datatypes stream - it's basically enforced for those.
Title: Re: Introducing MultiViewer & MultiViewerNG
Post by: kolla on June 05, 2015, 09:41:22 PM
As far as I recall, multiview and/or the datatype loader requires an EOF before they will display anything.
Title: Re: Introducing MultiViewer & MultiViewerNG
Post by: kolla on June 05, 2015, 09:42:37 PM
Quote from: chris;790638
The MP3 datatype supports streaming.  Unfortunately this makes it entirely useless for using as a loader, as the two are mutually exclusive.

All the animation datatypes stream - it's basically enforced for those.


Hm, no. MultiView will load the entire animation file before playing it.
Title: Re: Introducing MultiViewer & MultiViewerNG
Post by: kolla on June 05, 2015, 09:45:00 PM
Quote from: broadblues;790634
I think he's refering to the editor function, where you can open the current document in your prefered editor, for images the default is PPaint, but that is configurable via the tooltype to any app (SketchBlock for example :-)) a couple of example alternatives are store in the initial tooltypes as disabaled tooltypes.

The idea is to allow intergration, not enforce it!


How do you specify disabled default tool as a tooltype?
Title: Re: Introducing MultiViewer & MultiViewerNG
Post by: broadblues on June 06, 2015, 01:17:26 AM
Quote from: kolla;790670
How do you specify disabled default tool as a tooltype?


I'm not sure if you read that correctly. I'm refering to the editing tool specified like so:

EDITPICTURE=Appdir:PPView "%s"
(EDITPICTURE=Appdir:SketchBlock "%s")
(EDITPICTURE=Appdir:ImageFX "%s")

The alternative examples are disabled by brackets.
Title: Re: Introducing MultiViewer & MultiViewerNG
Post by: Tenacious on June 07, 2015, 04:32:25 AM
It is outstanding that Amiga Classic was included!  How many times have things been updated and improved, BUT, only for NG Amigas?  I'm impressed.

Is there a minimum spec (CPU, memory, RTG, etc) for Multiviewer or will it even run on humble classic machines (too much to hope for?)?  :)

Have there been any optimizations for speed over the old Multiview?  OTOH, the speed of the original was mostly dependent upon the speed of the datatype.
Title: Re: Introducing MultiViewer & MultiViewerNG
Post by: broadblues on June 07, 2015, 07:45:22 AM
Quote from: Tenacious;790722
It is outstanding that Amiga Classic was included!  How many times have things been updated and improved, BUT, only for NG Amigas?  I'm impressed.

Is there a minimum spec (CPU, memory, RTG, etc) for Multiviewer or will it even run on humble classic machines (too much to hope for?)?  :)

Have there been any optimizations for speed over the old Multiview?  OTOH, the speed of the original was mostly dependent upon the speed of the datatype.


The classic version will require at least datatypes library 45 and the later versions of some of the Reaction Classes so we are talking a 3.9 / 3.X version with RTG. It's not going to work on a stock a1200 I'm afraid, but should work well on a WinUAE setup or an expanded system with gfx card.
Title: Re: Introducing MultiViewer & MultiViewerNG
Post by: Oldsmobile_Mike on June 07, 2015, 08:00:09 AM
Safe to assume it's been tested with the WarpDT's (http://www.warpdt.co.uk/)?
Title: Re: Introducing MultiViewer & MultiViewerNG
Post by: broadblues on June 07, 2015, 08:16:55 AM
Quote from: Oldsmobile_Mike;790729
Safe to assume it's been tested with the WarpDT's (http://www.warpdt.co.uk/)?


It has, but WarpDTs are just picture datatypes so should work anyway. They don;t support saving, but as Oliver pointed out in another thread they don't use the same basename so saving to new formats is still supported via the OS4 datatype.
Title: Re: Introducing MultiViewer & MultiViewerNG
Post by: Tenacious on June 07, 2015, 04:25:07 PM
Great Job!  This helps to rejuvinate my faith.

If the Amiga is middle aged, its most obvious "gray hair" is the spotty inability to cope with some modern file types.  If this movement grows, it could take us to a more capable and relevant Amiga.  ;)  It might even spill over and put a shot in the arm of low spec Amigas.  I can dream. :)
Title: Re: Introducing MultiViewer & MultiViewerNG
Post by: amigakit on June 07, 2015, 04:55:26 PM
@Oldsmobile_Mike

I have Oliver's WarpDT on my A1200 here and found no problems yet with the 68K version of MultiViewer.
Title: Re: Introducing MultiViewer & MultiViewerNG
Post by: Thorham on June 07, 2015, 08:23:00 PM
Quote from: broadblues;790727
The classic version will require at least datatypes library 45 and the later versions of some of the Reaction Classes so we are talking a 3.9 / 3.X version with RTG.
That's a little disappointing. For speed, meynaf's image viewer V (check EAB) is probably the best available. Supports all the common image formats, is fast, renders in HAM8 in good quality and requires AOS3.0. Needs 68020+.
Title: Re: Introducing MultiViewer & MultiViewerNG
Post by: Oldsmobile_Mike on September 21, 2015, 05:39:28 PM
Soooo, any updates on the classic version?  ;)
Title: Re: Introducing MultiViewer & MultiViewerNG
Post by: amigakit on September 21, 2015, 07:42:42 PM
Here is a picture of MultiViewer AmigaOS 3 version.  We have a few issues with dynamically adding the clicktab gadgets - it seems that the OS3 version of the clicktab needs updating.

(http://www.a-eon.com/images/multiviewer_os3.png)
Title: Re: Introducing MultiViewer & MultiViewerNG
Post by: Oldsmobile_Mike on September 21, 2015, 07:50:16 PM
(http://vector.me/files/images/7/3/736732/facebook_like_icon.png)