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Amiga computer related discussion => Amiga Software Issues and Discussion => Topic started by: evil_nerd on May 05, 2004, 05:12:31 PM
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Hello,
I wanna adapt WorkBench a bit, but I don't know if it's possible... When I look at those screenshots I see some pretty customations, but those all are Workbench 3.9 or something like that. I would really like to adapt it in some way, like other fonts, other icons, other colors. I know some of this can be done in WB itself, but how??? And if I wanna go back to the standards, is there some kind of reset or something? Or must I make a backup?
Using Workbench 1.2 :-P
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For sure, make a backup copy of the workbench disk. ;-)
There isn't much to make 1.x look better, though. Really, you're kind of locked to 4 colors. Granted, you can choose those 4 colors, to make something look different... But you're not going to be getting PNG icons and 24-bit backdrops out of 1.2. :-) There is a program on Aminet to add a line-art (single color) background to workbench 1.2, though. I remember I used to run it. :-)
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Line Art? Is it also named like that? :P Is that *art* also limited to 4 colors? And I understand I can't use png icons, but I've got a program IconMagic or something. I think I can make WB icons with it... And can I adapt the font of the title bar / menu and the one under the icons?
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@evil_nerd
other fonts
You can toggle between topaz 8 and topaz 9.
other icons
You can replace icon imaginary, but they're still limited to screen colors (4) and have fixed frame.
I've got a program IconMagic or something. I think I can make WB icons with it...
That wouldn't be MagicIcons? If so, it requires kickstart 2.0+
can I adapt the font of the title bar / menu and the one under the icons?
No.
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Is that *art* also limited to 4 colors?
Actually, it's limited to a single color. In other words you can use pen 3 (I think?) and pen 0, which is your background color.
As far as I know, the old 1.x loadwb only supports 4 pens (colors). To get more, you'd have to ditch loadwb and run a different workbench. But I don't think there were any (besides maybe one for a custom graphics card) that were for the 1.x roms. So, basically, you're screwed.
And I understand I can't use png icons, but I've got a program IconMagic or something. I think I can make WB icons with it...
Probably. Just remember workbench 1.x can only use the first 4 pens. The defaults are (pens 0-3)
blue(clear)/white/black/orange, IIRC.
And can I adapt the font of the title bar / menu and the one under the icons?
Yeah, you can change the default pens and fonts with the "Preferences" program, I believe. (The fonts may need a custom program, which should also be on aminet)
EDIT: upon reading Piru's post (which wasn't here a second ago!) I agree. The default program only allowed Topaz 8 or Topaz 9. I still think that there was a hack to allow others, though. Scour Aminet. In the really old stuff. ;-)
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I've got a program IconMagic or something. I think I can make WB icons with it...
That wouldn't be MagicIcons? If so, it requires kickstart 2.0+quote]
WTF :-o My Amiga has kickstart 1.2 and it has that program with it :-? Probably the previous owner was crazy, it was a copy he made probably from another Amiga user. It also came with Workbench 1.2 and 1.3 :-o :-?
Boy, that man was crazy :-P :lol:
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It also came with Workbench 1.2 and 1.3
Workbench 1.3 can run fine with a 1.2 ROM. In fact, Commodore apparently sold refirb'd A500s with this combination.
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Oh, then he's less foolish then I first thought :-P
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@evil_nerd
Unless you have really good reasons to stick with it, my main advice would be to ditch 1.2 and see about getting newer kickstart/wb. Even 2.05 is a huge improvement over 1.2 and you can get 3.1 before you have to consider getting a faster CPU (that is 3.5/3.9 need at least 68020).
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Actually, it's limited to a single color.
I'm sure I remember some little prog that might have come with an Amiga magazine that allowed 4-colour backdrops under 1.3 (dunno about 1.2) - IIRC it came with a pic of a butterfly as an example - I'll see if I can find what it was...
BTW do the little apps that use the copper to draw one of the pens (eg Magic Copper/Copper Daemon) need a newer WB? If not, that could be a way to get a nice effect with 4 colours :-D
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This could be useful: many years ago I made some NewIcons-like icons for my 8-color 1.3 Workbench, they are on aminet:
WB13Icons.lha pix/icon 43K 175 Some old icons for 640x256 screens
In the archive there are also tools for brush2icon conversion and a patch for an 8 colors workbench. I must also have somewhere on a floppy that patch for 4-colors backdrops.
Varthall
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Karlos wrote:
@evil_nerd
Unless you have really good reasons to stick with it, my main advice would be to ditch 1.2 and see about getting newer kickstart/wb. Even 2.05 is a huge improvement over 1.2 and you can get 3.1 before you have to consider getting a faster CPU (that is 3.5/3.9 need at least 68020).
Mwa, probably not going to use WB to much... Its just fun to get it some nicer. Maybe it is nice and I'm going to buy 3.1 :-D Not yet :-P
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alx wrote:
Actually, it's limited to a single color.
I'm sure I remember some little prog that might have come with an Amiga magazine that allowed 4-colour backdrops under 1.3 (dunno about 1.2) - IIRC it came with a pic of a butterfly as an example - I'll see if I can find what it was...
BTW do the little apps that use the copper to draw one of the pens (eg Magic Copper/Copper Daemon) need a newer WB? If not, that could be a way to get a nice effect with 4 colours :-D
http://www.aminet.net/util/wb/copperfa.readme
maybe? :-?
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http://www.aminet.net/util/wb/copperfa.readme
Requires: OS3.x / AGA chipset
That one's not gonna work for ya... ;-)
I don't remember there being any for WB1.3, but don't quote me on it. There might be one out there. I don't remember the 8 color hack someone else mentioned, either, yet I believe them. ;-)
I'm sure I remember some little prog that might have come with an Amiga magazine that allowed 4-colour backdrops under 1.3 (dunno about 1.2) - IIRC it came with a pic of a butterfly as an example - I'll see if I can find what it was...
Hmm... Maybe. I just remember that I ran mine with a background color and line-art image. Maybe it was just because the other two colors didn't look right. ;-) I know that no matter what image you choose, you're stuck with the background color you choose in Prefs.
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Ok this may be a stupid question. Why is WB1.2 so UGLY :lol: The Amiga could show much more colors... Is there some kind of shell replasement? :-D
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evil_nerd wrote:
Ok this may be a stupid question. Why is WB1.2 so UGLY :lol: The Amiga could show much more colors... Is there some kind of shell replasement? :-D
Memory was expensive, so as few colours as possible were used so you would still have enough ram to run some programs. Remember the amiga originally shipped with 256K of RAM for all your OS, graphics and programs.
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Ok this may be a stupid question. Why is WB1.2 so UGLY
Well, look at the age of WB 1.2. We're talking about it being developed mostly in the mid 80's. As Bloodline mentioned, computing was different back then. And, the standards of what an OS should look like were different, too. The style of AmigaDOS 1.x fared quite well against Windows 2.0, MacOS 4, and GEOS 1...... Heck, I don't even think Unix X-Windows even had a real window manager, yet!
Is there some kind of shell replasement?
You'd need a replacement for the loadwb file. As far as I know, there weren't any for 1.x ROMS that didn't require custom graphics hardware.
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That's true, compared to Windoze 2 (YUK!!!) its quite nice actually :-D
Then I'm gonna do it with it 8-)
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alx wrote:
Actually, it's limited to a single color.
I'm sure I remember some little prog that might have come with an Amiga magazine that allowed 4-colour backdrops under 1.3 (dunno about 1.2) - IIRC it came with a pic of a butterfly as an example - I'll see if I can find what it was...
BTW do the little apps that use the copper to draw one of the pens (eg Magic Copper/Copper Daemon) need a newer WB? If not, that could be a way to get a nice effect with 4 colours :-D
So with this program it would be possible to do something like a Boing Ball or something to? Anybody knows the name of this app? :-)
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@evil_nerd
There is one program I definitely can remember called "WBStripes" or something, that made gradient stripes on you workbench backgound - it definitely worked with WB1.3 There are a few other eye candy things I've got around somewhere, like "Exploding Windows", which made windows do a little zoom effect when they opened or closed - hardly a subtle effect though :-D Reply/Pmail/Email me if you want me to have a dig around for them.
So with this program it would be possible to do something like a Boing Ball or something to? Anybody knows the name of this app? :-)
If it's how I remember it worked (that's a big "if") you could possibly have a simple boing-ball. Remember though that that would use up two of your available pens - two colours from icons, windows, WB apps etc would have to be red and white (probably not too bad if you changed the orange to red, maybe?)
---edit---
BTW I've no idea if both programs could run together (could be a nice effect if they did!) And I'd agree with other people that you really need to upgrade to do anything serious, even if that's just serious eye-candy :-P
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alx wrote:
@evil_nerd
There is one program I definitely can remember called "WBStripes" or something, that made gradient stripes on you workbench backgound - it definitely worked with WB1.3 There are a few other eye candy things I've got around somewhere, like "Exploding Windows", which made windows do a little zoom effect when they opened or closed - hardly a subtle effect though :-D Reply/Pmail/Email me if you want me to have a dig around for them.
It would be nice if you had the time to do that, but I'd suppose you can use your time in a better way :-P
Only prob is that I can't find anything for WB1.2/1.3 on Aminet... :-(
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It would be nice if you had the time to do that, but I'd suppose you can use your time in a better way :-P
Actually, you're lucky - they're both on a disk that I've disk2FDIed onto my PC - I'll see if I can seperate them out and email them (I'm assuming you can transfer stuff to your Amiga - do you want an ADF or an LHA?)
---edit---
I see no copyright issues with 15 year old PD, so I've uploaded them for you all to enjoy (a bit of sarcasm there - although they do actually work on modern systems, you'd probably be crazy to use them :-D ) Exploding Windows (http://yourdreamnet.co.uk/amigacentre/hosted/ew) Stripes (http://yourdreamnet.co.uk/amigacentre/hosted/stripes) ("stripes 0 1 0 0 0" seems to give a reasonable effect and "stripes 2 5 1 8 0" tints your menus (BTW if you've got an NTSC system the last number should be 1) - run the program with wrong parameters to view help). If these have Amiga or windoze viri don't blame me.
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There were some patches for the 1.2-1.3 WB.
Like a rainbow effect on the background (using the cooper), plus moving stars field (optional). This was popular in several utilities disks.
Another one was a 3D look for the windows, as it added a shadow.
Edit the colors and the pointer to customize to your personal taste.
I think there are some icon editors, or other utils that import/convert ilbm pics to 4-colored icons.
________
Marijuana Strains (http://strainindex.com)
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alx wrote:
It would be nice if you had the time to do that, but I'd suppose you can use your time in a better way :-P
Actually, you're lucky - they're both on a disk that I've disk2FDIed onto my PC - I'll see if I can seperate them out and email them (I'm assuming you can transfer stuff to your Amiga - do you want an ADF or an LHA?)
---edit---
I see no copyright issues with 15 year old PD, so I've uploaded them for you all to enjoy (a bit of sarcasm there - although they do actually work on modern systems, you'd probably be crazy to use them :-D ) Exploding Windows (http://yourdreamnet.co.uk/amigacentre/hosted/ew) Stripes (http://yourdreamnet.co.uk/amigacentre/hosted/stripes) ("stripes 0 1 0 0 0" seems to give a reasonable effect and "stripes 2 5 1 8 0" tints your menus (BTW if you've got an NTSC system the last number should be 1) - run the program with wrong parameters to view help). If these have Amiga or windoze viri don't blame me.
I'm testing it in an emulation, but I can't figure out how to use it :-( Must I use CLI? How do I enter the hardfile that they are in :-? Must I use a run command?
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They're not hardfiles - they're just the actual programs. You need to get them into your emulation environment somehow - one way would be to put them in a directory and mount that as a hard drive under UAE (no idea if WB1.2 would recognise a hard drive, so you might have to use a more recent version).
To run them, you could then go into the cli and go to their drawer. Then type in "ew" or "stripes" (with parameters, as above). You could launch them from the WB (by double-clicking them, entering in arguments and clicking "OK", but they don't have icons and IIRC WB1.x cannot view files without icons.
To make them load up whenever you load a disk, edit s:startup-sequence with notepad or whatever the WB1.x texteditor is and add something like:
run stripes 0 1 0 0 1
run >nil: ew
That's assuming that they're in your C: drawer
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Workbench 1.3 looking boring????
friggin' hell, I I had to work with monochromous ASCII DOS (command line only) 'till 1994 or so (and even after, I hardly used it for games 'till 1997), because Windows just consumed a hell of a lot memory and did not add much functionality.
No, Workbench was the best, compared to it's competitors.
Maybe you should get an A1200 with WB3.1, besides your A500 to fancy stuff up :-) (plus you got good compatability for more games, with OCS, ECS and AGA)
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alx wrote:
They're not hardfiles - they're just the actual programs. You need to get them into your emulation environment somehow - one way would be to put them in a directory and mount that as a hard drive under UAE (no idea if WB1.2 would recognise a hard drive, so you might have to use a more recent version).
To run them, you could then go into the cli and go to their drawer. Then type in "ew" or "stripes" (with parameters, as above). You could launch them from the WB (by double-clicking them, entering in arguments and clicking "OK", but they don't have icons and IIRC WB1.x cannot view files without icons.
To make them load up whenever you load a disk, edit s:startup-sequence with notepad or whatever the WB1.x texteditor is and add something like:
run stripes 0 1 0 0 1
run >nil: ew
That's assuming that they're in your C: drawer
Yes, I'd add the directorie. But how to enter the drawer? CD or something? :-o
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Speelgoedmannetje wrote:
Workbench 1.3 looking boring????
friggin' hell, I I had to work with monochromous ASCII DOS (command line only) 'till 1994 or so (and even after, I hardly used it for games 'till 1997), because Windows just consumed a hell of a lot memory and did not add much functionality.
No, Workbench was the best, compared to it's competitors.
Maybe you should get an A1200 with WB3.1, besides your A500 to fancy stuff up :-) (plus you got good compatability for more games, with OCS, ECS and AGA)
You're apsolutely right! It was beatyfull for it's time, and I would first go for functionality, but it's just fun to have at least a nice backgroud... Yes, I should get an A1200 with Harddrive, CD-Rom, AmigaOS 3.9 (that's soooooooooooooooooo nice :-D ) and all the things, but first let me discover the A500 :-D
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Yes, I'd add the directorie. But how to enter the drawer?
I'd imagine that "cd DRAWERNAME" and just "DRAWERNAME" should work...
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I'm pretty sure you need to use the CD command in 1.x. I don't think it was assumed until 2.0 and newer.
But, you can go straight to an assigned directory, or type it longhand. (ie, "cd C:" and "cd sys:c" will take you to the same place.)
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I remember finding a program on Aminet with the description 'MagicWB for Workbench 1.3!!' or something like that. I would put that program in the startup sequence and it would let me use magicwb icons. and it also got rid of the blue background.
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Ilwrath wrote:
I'm pretty sure you need to use the CD command in 1.x. I don't think it was assumed until 2.0 and newer.
But, you can go straight to an assigned directory, or type it longhand. (ie, "cd C:" and "cd sys:c" will take you to the same place.)
Yes, that's what I thought. But it isn't a drawer, I think. It is an appart harddrive it's not on the WB disk, so the question should be, how do I enter another disk/HD?
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It is an appart harddrive it's not on the WB disk, so the question should be, how do I enter another disk/HD?
With CD command. This is not MS-DOS with its' braindead limitations.
For example:
cd df1:
cd df0:devs
cd somevolume:somedir/otherdir
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Cool! :-D
Piru wrote:
With CD command. This is not MS-DOS with its' braindead limitations.
No, it's AmigaDOS. But it's a DOS version... There are a lot of DOS'es outa there, and I thought they all worked a bit the same... AmigaDOS, ofcourse, is much better 8-) :-) :-D
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evil_nerd wrote:
You're apsolutely right! It was beatyfull for it's time, and I would first go for functionality, but it's just fun to have at least a nice backgroud... Yes, I should get an A1200 with Harddrive, CD-Rom, AmigaOS 3.9 (that's soooooooooooooooooo nice :-D ) and all the things, but first let me discover the A500 :-D
You can also get a plain second-hand A1200 next to your A500
No, it's AmigaDOS. But it's a DOS version... There are a lot of DOS'es outa there, and I thought they all worked a bit the same... AmigaDOS, ofcourse, is much better
You mean, the CLI (Command Line Interface) or shell?
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Speelgoedmannetje wrote:
You mean, the CLI (Command Line Interface) or shell?
Oh yes, we where talking about the CLI... That's something different :-)
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Yes, but what exactly do you want with it? I did not get your question.
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Speelgoedmannetje wrote:
Yes, but what exactly do you want with it? I did not get your question.
How can I start a program from the CLI (from which I have to start it, don't I?) when the program is on an seperate disk (mounted folder in WinUAE in this case)?
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Oh, I think the real problem (beside the question how CLI works) is that I dunno how the file system works on Amiga... You have C:, S: Sys:... What's all those about?
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the c: (directory, tis no drive) is for system commands (format etcetera)
the s: is for the startup-sequence (similar to autoexec.bat)
from floppy it's
cd df0: (or df1:, or df2, you get it)
from harddisk it's
cd dh0: (dh1: etc.)
and then:
cd /
As far as I know the Amiga does not have specific extensions alike .exe to display executables (maybe there's some commando to do such but I do not know that) so you'll have to guess I think
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Brings back happy memories!
I quickly grew bored of the blue/orange/black/white theme of my Workbench and got adventureous.... First thing I changed was the colour scheme to turquoise (more tasteful than it sounds) / dark green / white / black. I got creative and drew a shadow under the mouse pointer and found a few hacks to brighten up my shell scripts I created for demo compacts which I'd swap with my mates.
We'd swap demo disks and create our own compacts. There was loads of little shell programs that would do all kinds of things, eg adding a blue gradient backdrop, scrolling stars, fades etc.
One guy was very clever with his creations. They'd load smart looking boot pictures and he even managed to play samples each time a number key was pressed to select a demo ("one", "two" etc). There was only room for three or four intros, but they were well presented...
:-)