Os 3.2 development preview

[paul1981]

Well, no scrollbars on the Shell, but at least it's not topaz/8 anymore.

This has always been changable from the font prefs as 'System Default' font. Looks like topaz 11 is being used here.

[paul1981]

Window Iconify.

[paul1981]

Hm, if the pic shows the real preferences, than it looks like one can add own 'variables/numbers' to the WB screen title, as the 'update' suggests... 

There goes another point. Yes, Marcus updated the workbench and provided a nice enhancement of the workbench prefs that allow you to customize the workbench title.

Will this allow the use of environment variables in the Workbench title? That would be a nice touch if implemented. Also a customisable clock with date and position settings would be nice. Could make it localised too to format the time/date to locale settings as in Thomas Igracki's ScreenClock on aminet. A simple alarm would also be needed, in which case I suggest a double click in the clock portion of the titlebar to open the alarm settings.

[paul1981]

Can you give the LoadWB command a NOWBSTARTUP option? Because, this would make it easier to disable all the WBStartup programs together for debugging boot issues or testing software etc. Currently I have a drawer inside WBStartup that I move them all into and then back out of again when I want them back. I do realise that I could simply rename or move the WBStartup drawer instead, but it is a system drawer and it doesn't seem quite right to do this.

[paul1981]

@kolla
Presets can already be loaded via scripts. Can you explain the need for more control from the command line? I've always liked the way AmigaOS handles prefs and I like the env/envarchive 'thing' which I think is rather elegant and efficient. Also, why would I want other software to be mucking around with my preferences? Any software mucking around with my preferences gets deleted!

@Matt_H
I didn't know about the SKIPWBSTARTUP feature in 3.5 and 3.9. I wonder why they called it SKIP instead of NO though.

[paul1981]

Seeing that there will be Workbench screen title bar customization, is there any small changes that could be done to the Drawer window title bar as well?

For example, instead of "Commodities" in title bar, maybe could add "Commodities in Workbench:"   This has always been a limitation when I'm trying to browse and I may have 2 drawer windows open with same name from different volumes and can't tell which is which.   Full path would be ideal but maybe too much text...

Not exactly what you've asked for, but have you tried DepthMenu with the Workbench module installed? This really helps with window and screen navigation to the point where you can't imagine your Amiga without it.

http://aminet.net/package/util/cdity/DepthMenu
http://aminet.net/package/util/cdity/DM_Workbench

It's so good I believe this should be part of the OS, or at least everyone should install it.

There's more modules and this one is of interest:
http://aminet.net/package/util/cdity/DM_MinMax

It's good also, but the control should be on the window zip button not depth. So personally I just have the Workbench module installed.

[paul1981]

@kolla
Though I don't feel as if I have a need for those features, those do seem reasonable requests for OS3.2, and it can be done without changing anything noticable to the average user too.

So it's tweaks to the prefs programs for command line control. Can it be done Thomas without too much difficulty?

[paul1981]

Or maybe an all-in-one Prefs-Launcher similar to the Mac OSX one, or MorphOS, same kind.

Or OS 1.x

I remember a 'Registry'-style preferences tool back in the days, dunno, if this was ever considered to be adapted. 'Registry' meaning all prefs' IFF chunks in one big prefs file together.

Also on OS 1.x, DEVS:system-configuration (if I remember correctly).

Note that one can still run old OS 1.x "Preferences" under OS 3.x and DEVS:system-configuration is still read on boot, even when booting without startup-sequence - I use it to set a different "deault" palette than the white/black/grey/blue of OS2 and 3.

Yes, it would be handy if the 1.3 prefs editor was included, being as though the system-configuration file has always been supported even up to 3.x. It could be thrown in the Prefs drawer or Tools drawer with no icon, to make it kind of a hidden tool.

Failing that, there is always Jonathan Potter's 'Preferable Preferences' aka PPrefs on fish disk 242, which is a direct replacement:

http://aminet.net/package/misc/fish/fish-0242

[paul1981]

Or maybe an all-in-one Prefs-Launcher similar to the Mac OSX one, or MorphOS, same kind.

Or OS 1.x

I remember a 'Registry'-style preferences tool back in the days, dunno, if this was ever considered to be adapted. 'Registry' meaning all prefs' IFF chunks in one big prefs file together.

Also on OS 1.x, DEVS:system-configuration (if I remember correctly).

Note that one can still run old OS 1.x "Preferences" under OS 3.x and DEVS:system-configuration is still read on boot, even when booting without startup-sequence - I use it to set a different "deault" palette than the white/black/grey/blue of OS2 and 3.

Yes, it would be handy if the 1.3 prefs editor was included, being as though the system-configuration file has always been supported even up to 3.x. It could be thrown in the Prefs drawer or Tools drawer with no icon, to make it kind of a hidden tool.

Failing that, there is always Jonathan Potter's 'Preferable Preferences' aka PPrefs on fish disk 242, which is a direct replacement:

http://aminet.net/package/misc/fish/fish-0242

Looking at 3.1 here...
When the system-configuration is unavailable, the actual defaults are topaz 9 for System Default Font and Screen Font, and topaz 8 for icons. I thought I'd mention this because for example, if no Prefs for fonts are saved via Font Prefs (ie no envarc font.prefs file at boot), then when you actually load Font Prefs it makes out that topaz 8 is currently selected for all three fonts which is false. It would be true if I were to click 'use' or 'save' but that's besides the point.
As we probably all know here, system-configuration (with editor!) allows you to setup your basic prefs, even when you select 'Boot with no Startup-Sequence' in the Bootmenu via the system-configuration file, it's odd how Commodore included the file, but no editor. Is the file still there for 3.1.4?
My only thought as to why it remains is that some old application software from 1.x days actually make use of the file to setup printer/serial/text/display. In which case I suppose it shall have to remain. 

[paul1981]

@kolla
"Super - though it sucks for those systems that don't have serial port, because "who in this day and age need that?" "

That's like saying Amiga - Who in this day and age needs that?

[paul1981]

I struggle to see the problem with correcting and extending the operating system in a backwards compatible way. Other than bugfixes, it's the entire point of making a new release.

Hear hear!