From: jaker@csugrad.cs.vt.edu (Jake Rose)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.misc
Subject: Re: Snapshotting icons, suggestions for PC disk formatting/handling
Date: 16 Dec 92 06:25:02 GMT
Organization: Virginia Tech Computer Science Dept, Blacksburg, VA

joeles@cup.portal.com (Joel Edward Swan) writes:
>DUH.  :-) That's the whole point.  You shouldn't need to "snapshot" an icon.
>If you move it, the new position should be remembered automatically.  I
>never move icons without wanting them to stay there.  So why force you to
>crap....  er, I mean snapshot?

The problem on the Amiga is a little different than on machines like the Mac
and the NeXT that snap all the icons to a grid automatically.  Since Amiga icons
can be of any funky size you like, this isn't practical, and if you accidentally
touch an icon, it might move (this happens to me enough that I wish there were a
"return to snapshot location" option on the Workbench).  OS/2 fixed this by
using different mouse buttons for moving and launching icons.  What I'd really
love to see would be a set of display preferences that would let you alter the
options under "View by..." so you could set different sorts of "text" listings
as well as set grids for icons to snap to or set icons and/or windows so they
always snap to the last size they were at.  I guess you could call it
"IconPrefs" or something.  It would be nice to save defaults there for new
disks, something which only a semi-experience Amiga user can do now by copying
the disk icon (after snapshotting its window) to ENVARC:.  [In fact, I do this
for my Ram disk, also, and copy its icon to RAM: before loading Workbench, so
that my Ram disk shows up where I like it and in a nice, "Show all by names"
format.  I also set my standard disk icon to do this, since I often read in
disks without icons, such as PC disks (using MultiDOS, still the best even if
CBM doesn't think so ;) ).]

Speaking of PC disks, I don't understand why CrossDOS has to use 2 icons - under
ADOS3, an options panel is presented when "Format disk..." is selected.  CBM
could just have a set of disk format datatypes or some other database of said
formats, and have a listview with all of the available ones in it... ...that way
you could pick IBM format from the listview just as you would when formatting
an AmigaDOS disk, and it would be more integrated, transparent to the user, and
all that good stuff that makes using a GUI worthwhile.

>>As for the "rest of the icon-based" systems, I can say that I *much* prefer th
>e
>>Amiga's snapshotting method over the Mac's (I have a Mac sitting on my desk at
>>work).  I realize this is personal preference - my preference is that icons
>>shouldn't snap unless I tell them to, just like file edits aren't written to
>>disk unless I select a Save command.  The Mac's method doesn't allow you to
>>undo your new view.  If you accidently clean up a window or select view-by-nam
>e
>>instead of icon, you're sunk since there is no Undo for this operation.

>If there's a wide divergence in what people would like, perha[s a prefs
>setting for auto-save or snapshot.

>-Joel
>-------
>   ========================================================================
>  / Joel E. Swan....Pres./...Media Specialties, Ltd., Oak Forest, IL.USA  /
> / & Senior Producer..../...Moody Broadcasting Network, Chicago, IL. USA /
>/ Portal ID: joeles..../...joeles@cup.portal.com                        /
>========================================================================
-- 
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Jake Rose               :: MS Windows: faster than a dead sea turtle crawling up
jaker@csugrad.cs.vt.edu :: the beach with a boxcar on its back, but only just.
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Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.misc