OS3.9 "Maximize" Gadget Button

[Linchpin]

Hmm... im missing something in my amiga-knowledge bank..

Whilst playing with Ami Forever 6 last night, i noticed within OS3.9 there is no "Maximize" option within workbench windows, AmIRC, etc... Was there ever one? Was there some app I installed back "in the day" on my a1200? Ill be darned if i can remember.... :-)

Yours Most Faithfully.

Kev :-)

[Karlos]

The zoom gadget typically switches between a pair of sizes - if the interface is actually manually resizable it will typically toggle between the last manally  set size for each 'state'.

For other interfaces, it might just switch from a normal view to a collapsed 'titlebar only' view. Some applications do use it to switch between a maximised display and a smaller one. It all depends on the application really.

[Linchpin]

Sure, Zoom gadget is there.

Not sure if you catch me, basically on a Wintel box, the Centre gadget on all standard windows ...

[amipal]

IIRC, a "Maximize" gadget has never existed in AmigaOS. Close, Depth and "toggle size" are the standard gadgets,

[Noster]

Hi

by the way, what I really, really miss on every version of the damned windows and also every Linux desktop I've ever seen is the depth-arrangement gadget. How do you access a window that is completely covered by another one without minimizing the window in the front?
And how do you access an icon on the desktop without minimizing every window (it so easy with an Amiga to flip the Workbench to the top...)?

Noster

Noster wrote:
Hi

by the way, what I really, really miss on every version of the damned windows and also every Linux desktop I've ever seen is the depth-arrangement gadget. How do you access a window that is completely covered by another one without minimizing the window in the front?
And how do you access an icon on the desktop without minimizing every window (it so easy with an Amiga to flip the Workbench to the top...)?

Noster

1. Click it's icon on the deskbar.
2. RWin+M or RWin+D.

[Noster]

Hi

@mdma

> 1. Click it's icon on the deskbar.
> 2. RWin+M or RWin+D.
I'm still using a good old Cherry G80-3000 keyboard for my PC...so I have no Windows-keys :-)

Noster

[nicomen]

@Noster

alt+tab for switching between windows that are behind

most window managers let you "zip" windows so that only the title shows, letting you see behind it. Most Linux wms has it by double clicking the title bar, MacOS 9 had it too, not sure if the yellow button on OS X did that or if the title-doubleclick worked there too.

[Noster]

Hi

@nicomen

alt+tab only switches between different applications, but not between different windows of the same appliaction (e.g. two documents opened in word).

I don't want to "zip" the windows, I want to rearrange them in depth. This could be usefull if I work at the source of a program that is build from several modules and I need to have a look at a window in the background (where everything of this window is covered by other windows, so I cannot click on its titlebar) and still need to see most of window that is currently in front (e.g. to compare the source).
The Amiga has the great depth-arrangement gadget that Windows (and most/all? window managers at Linux) miss.
And there is still the problem to access the icons on the desktop, if several windows are open.

Noster

[Vincent]

Noster wrote:
alt+tab only switches between different applications, but not between different windows of the same appliaction (e.g. two documents opened in word).

Not strictly true.  alt+tab flicks between anything on the taskbar.  All the apps in Office 2003 (any version) are set up to open a new document in a new window that appears on the taskbar.

i.e. if you have two documents open in Word you'll have two Word buttons on the taskbar.  Alt+tab would flick between these as if they were seperate programs just like everything else.

Thankfully you can change this option to the old way in the prefs and only have one instance of Word open for 5 documents instead of wasting taskbar space.

[Noster]

Hi,

@Vincent

> All the apps in Office 2003 (any version) are set up to open a new document in a new window that appears on the taskbar.

But I use Windows 98SE and Office 97 :-(
The advantage is, I haven't patched the system, don't use an online virus-scanner (I use F-Prot from time to time -- perhaps once a month) and have never had any problems with viruses :-) (the computer is behind a Linux router with a firewall, but only the last two years, the years before it was connected direct to the internet), I don't want to have XP, that only leads to problems I don't have and don't want to have!

Noster.

[boing]

>what I really, really miss on every version of the damned windows and also
>every Linux desktop I've ever seen is the depth-arrangement gadget. How do you
>access a window that is completely covered by another one without minimizing
>the window in the front?

Excellent point.

 
  The OS 2.04 upper management folks really botched up when they ordered removed the discrete Front and Back gadgets from the Amiga's windows and Screens.  Having to hold down a key to get the "Back" function runs counter to human-factors design for a GUI-mouse interface.

  Taking away GUI choices from users is always a bad idea.  But because the Windows and Macs of that era had few gadgets, the CBM managers decided the GUI needed dumbing down.  Then poof, a few years later, Windows and Mac GUI's are full of creeping featurism and gadgets!  Ooops.

  At least the Amiga doesn't do that horrid "make the active window pop to front" behavior (which would be anathema to a multitasking GUI).


>And how do you access an icon on the desktop without minimizing every
>window (it so easy with an Amiga to flip the Workbench to the top.

I initially was mortified to see that 2.04 (and on) Workbench became a window that sits on the WB Screen.  But after a couple of years, i found it to be handy every so often.  I wonder about graphics efficiency though.


>2. RWin+M or RWin+D.

Excuse me while I pass gas.


>alt+tab for switching between windows that are behind

I think I just threw up in my mouth.  Talk about a retarded way of getting the job done.  Thank you Bill Gates.  People who think this is an intuitive or efficient approach should not breed.

[benJamin]

@boing:
quote () {
/*
I initially was mortified to see that 2.04 (and on)Workbench became a window that sits on the WB Screen. But after a couple of years, i found it to be handy every so often. I wonder about graphics efficiency though.
*/
}

From my understanding (I've been wrong before) you need a window to draw to, so the 1.x Workbench was a Backdrop window on the Workbench screen with a different Screen titlebar while selected.  So, in 2.04, they just added an option to turn the BACKDROP flag off, and the window then inheritted normal window functions, like the new zoom button and its niftiness, which I always thought an excellent reason to dump the back button (double click it, it doesn't hurt too much), which saves space on the window (designed to be viewed in 640x200x2).

@LinchpiN:

FKey has options for Minimise and Maximise functions on windows.

Maybe it was MUI programs you were thinking of, where you can Iconify, Minimize, Snapshot, etc., from a drop-down list whose gadget appeared in the title-bar nearby the zoom gadget.


My 2 cents...


benJamin
"Eeny, meeny, meiney, moe.
Is Homer a hero?
The answer is... no." - Kent Brockman