OS4 GUI

[JurassicCamper]

jumpship wrote:

What about Aminet?

The only thing with Aminet is that people are free to put up thier own descriptions, which can make finding somethings diffacult. Having a website dedicated to textures and the like would be a nice idea... hmmm...

JS

I agree completely.

Winamps website for Skins is a great idea. You can get to see what they look like before you wast your time downloading them, installing them and deciding you dont like them.

@ rouge

Is there a theme directory for example.
Eg: Sys:prefs/themes

Eg theme for the wont of a better description has its own directory and gui.pref file or whatever in it.

Its would then be a standard place for themes to go
would make distribution of custom themes easier.

As i can bet no two people keep there birdie textures etc in the same place.

I like aminet and is great for classic software but for OS4 I think we need a site like download.com.

Maybe aminet.amiga.com if your reading HMetal

Some people hate it others love it. But you could log in. Search Items by author. Leave feedback on programs. Rate programs, discuss. etc.

[z5]

I was wondering...will all programs have the same GUI, meaning will all programs be converted to the reaction GUI now?

I remember that OS3.5 and 3.9 looked really messy because part of the tools (like the color window) were still based on the old gui.

Will programs like the new HDtoolbox, the tcpstack, all prefs and tools windows,... all have the same layout this time?

If i'm not mistaken, the screens released from HDprep looked to be based on the old GUI?

[chris]

z5 wrote:
I was wondering...will all programs have the same GUI, meaning will all programs be converted to the reaction GUI now?

Both GadTools and ReAction based GUIs will share the same look and feel, so it shouldn't matter (from a consistent look point of view) what GUI system programs use - unless they use MUI or something else that doesn't layout standard Intuition-based GUI elements.

Chris

[redfox]

Thanks for your comments Rogue.

Every time new screenshots come out someone sqawks about the colours, fonts, etc.

Alas ... we will need at least 12 different default looks to choose from ...  :-D  :hammer:

Just kidding ....
-----------------
redfox

[Mr_Capehill]

Well, IMO, if you like toys and teletubbies, X(tra) P(roblems) GUI might look fascinating. I'm so used to AmigaOS 3.x GUI that I simply hate Windows look.

I wonder if Microsoft is heading for the fashion seen in fiction movies, where computer GUIs are very toy-like, ie. you get a message with a font that is about height of a cat and one big button in the middle of the screen   :-D

BTW: why ReAction was chosen as official GUI? Programmers usually prefer MUI because it is more advanced(?). Please, note that I respect ReAction authors and don't want to start flaming - just a honest question.

[Kronos]

@Mr_Capehill

maybe because they couldn't get any exclusive deal for MUI,
or the money asked for licence to include a regged version
was to high (OS4 will come with unregged MUI).

Just my best guess.

[star1]

I do not know much about linux but what about KDE
and GNOME

They seem to have good GUI, can they be ported to os 4??
 ;-)

[N7VQM]

star1 wrote:
I do not know much about linux but what about KDE
and GNOME
They seem to have good GUI, can they be ported to os 4??
 ;-)

I suppose it could be done in theory.  But it would probably be ALOT of work.  It's just a guess but, I'd say the programming interface to Intuition is nothing like the interface to X.  If someone did write up a spiffy adapter class, it would be one helluva class!

[trgse]

wasn't OS4 going to use ZUNE instead of orginal MUI?

personally I hope that all MUI #### is dropped as soon as possible.
it's ugly, unresponsive (compared to reaction), the new skinning of OS 4 will only work on reaction/intuition which will make MUI programs stand out as a sore thumb.

anyone working on any OS 4 program... drop any ideas of using MUI as a part of that, it will only make your programs look uglier and be alot less responsive (remember that MUI will forever stay 68k, reaction will be PPC)

[Mr_Capehill]

[samdu]

Well, IMO, if you like toys and teletubbies, X(tra) P(roblems) GUI might look fascinating. I'm so used to AmigaOS 3.x GUI that I simply hate Windows look.

I don't know, I kind of like my XP look.  ;-)



And that IS Windows XP.

[samdu]

I do not know much about linux but what about KDE

The amount of programming involved in porting KDE or Gnome to AOS would be signicant. First there would have to be some sort of X implementation, then you'd have to port the toolkits for KDE (QT) or Gnome (GTK) (whichever you wanted ported) and then you'd have to port the actual interface system. Not a trivial task. Besides, X is kind of slow. It's really quite good for what it is, but slow nonetheless. It was really designed for a multiuser system and the Amiga (at least through the 4.x versions) will not be multiuser, AFAIK.

[Rogue]

JurassicCamper wrote:

@ rouge

It's "Rogue" BTW ;-)

Is there a theme directory for example.
Eg: Sys:prefs/themes

Eg theme for the wont of a better description has its own directory and gui.pref file or whatever in it.

I don't remember the name, but it was something in SYS:Prefs/. Each theme becomes its own directory with all files in it, and you specify a directory. Other things like window border textures can be configured separately, same for gadget textures and the like.

Its would then be a standard place for themes to go
would make distribution of custom themes easier.

There might be a theme installer of some sorts. Dunno 'bout that.

As i can bet no two people keep there birdie textures etc in the same place.

Most likely not. These are hacks, so most people just put the stuff where it suits them. I don't think that the GUI prefs program enforces any placement though.

I like aminet and is great for classic software but for OS4 I think we need a site like download.com.

Maybe aminet.amiga.com if your reading HMetal

Some people hate it others love it. But you could log in. Search Items by author. Leave feedback on programs. Rate programs, discuss. etc.

I agree that a bit more modern features would do Aminet some good. But the big advantage of it is that it is distributed. You almost never get a crowded server where you have to wait for half an hour to start your download, like is the case with fileplanet.com for example. Just use your local mirror.

I think Aminet is one of the things that kept the Amiga alive over the years, and it should be able to do so when OS 4 is out ;-)

[Rogue]

z5 wrote:
I was wondering...will all programs have the same GUI, meaning will all programs be converted to the reaction GUI now?

The preferences programs will use Reaction in any case, as do all of the new tools. The Media Toolbox and Partition wizard are no exception, same for the Network Preferences, dialer, AmiDock config, AmigaInput prefs, and so on. They'll use a new preferences framework class.

Things like IBrowse will continue to use MUI of course.

[Rogue]

Kronos wrote:
maybe because they couldn't get any exclusive deal for MUI,
or the money asked for licence to include a regged version
was to high (OS4 will come with unregged MUI).

Just my best guess.

Nice to finally see such a comment :-) If [i}that]/i] is your best guess

The reason why Reaction was chosen is twofold:

 For one thing, you have to pick one, and I personally like Reaction bettern than MUI. That is a matter of taste, of course, but I didn't like most GUI's I've seen in MUI using programs because they tend to look good on one configuration and horrible on the other.

Secondly, Reaction was already chosen for 3.5. We felt that it was a bad idea to agan change the GUI (GadTools->Reaction->MUI).

Exclusivity has nothing to do with it. Yes, the MUI version that comes with OS 4 will not be registered, it will however be preconfigured to roughly match the default look of Intuition V50, and I think the old key files will still work (for what it's worth, I have also registered MUI a few years back. Too bad there wasn't any regular update)

[Slash]

@trgse

You see, my opinion is the exact opposite of yours. I hope ReAction dies quickly, no disrespect to the authors but MUI is THE best GUI out there.

I'm writing an app for OS4 and there is no way I'd even consider using ReAction, I even told Fleecy Moss this, no f##king way!

As far as a programmer is concerned MUI is awesome for creating gorgeous looking GUI's. Quick and easy.

From your comments I suspect you've only used MUI on an AGA 030 Amiga. In which case I'll agree with you that it is slow and unresonsive, but on my 060 it's the complete opposite!