From: das9674@usl.edu (Stephenson Daniel A)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy
Subject: Re: User interfaces--Workbench and WPS
Date: 15 Sep 92 21:14:54 GMT
Distribution: comp
Organization: University of Southwestern Louisiana

In article <1992Sep15.154223.2457@oracle.us.oracle.com> dnavas@oracle.uucp (David Navas) writes:
>In article <1992Sep14.133906.42978@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu> thompson@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu writes:
>
>>desktop model.  Is Workbench 2.0 object oriented?  
>
>That's another amusing thing.  Tell you what, you define what "object-
>oriented" is, and I'll tell you whether Workbench 2.0 is or isn't.

Perhaps I can give some examples.

In the WorkPlace Shell (WPS), dragging an object which represents a text file
to the printer and 'dropping' it starts a printout of the file.

In the WPS, to delete an object you drag it to the Shredder.  There are lotsa
options for prompting before deleting.

In the WPS, there is a folder called 'Templates'.  In is are the templates
to create different kinds of objects.  The object you can create include:

Programs
Font Pallettes
Color Palletes
Scheme Palletes (a 'scheme' is a WPS-wide settings.  You can recall other
schemes by dragging them to the desktop to change the way your WPS looks AND
operates)
Bitmaps
Data Files
Folders
Icons
Metafiles
PIF Files
Pointers
Printers

If in viewing through my 'drives' folder, going through a tree-structure
looking at file contents, and I see a 'readme.txt' file, doubling clicking
on it brings up the OS/2 System Editor, and displays the readme.txt file in it.

You can set .gif files, so I have heard, to associate with a gif viewer and click
ing on the .gif files displays the gif!  i haven't fooled with this too much tho'.


In short, every icon isn't simply treated as a program-launcher, like in Windows
(I dunno about WorkBench).  There are many, MANY different way one can alter/
configure/redraw icons of/etc variable setting of an object - and varying
depending on the TYPE of object.  Note that I do not say 'program' or 'icon' -
I say OBJECT.  

One more example ( a neat one), the whole WPS itself is an object!
When one clicks on on object with MB2, a popup menu appears.  Done on the
desktop, a desktop popup appears!  

Mine says:

Open  (with a 'conditional aroow indicating MORE information IF one clicks
       on the arrow button IN thepopup menu line)
Refresh
Help
Create Shadow (a shodow is an object that POINTs to a file)
Lockup Now (screen saver and security)
SHutdown
Find...
Select (select deskop objects)
Sort (many different ways)
Arrange (a defaulkt sorting)
Shells  ( *I* added this one! I clicking on makes a side-popup menu for
         OS/2 and DOS shells.
Programs ( *I* added this one too.  Clicking on it presents Reversi, Enhanced
Editor, 'Sticky Notes' thing, Calculator, the Chart program that comes with OS/2
, and Terminal - which calls up my comm program.

Those last two *I* added.  I didn't program a whit.  I when into the Menu page
of the desktop settings pages,Told it to name 'Shells' and 'programs' and
told it what programs to lauch under those menus.
Anyway, I liked that last part.

>>By the way, the CUA 93 specification will probably have voice recognition
>>and other neat stuff. 
>
>User access should be independent from input devices.  I'm not familiar
>with this CUA stuff, sorry.  So is this a spec about implementation, support,
>or yet another way to interact with your computer?  It would be fascinating
>if they got it even close to correct in '93 -- I mean, how many voice
>recognition systems have you seen around?  User testing?  ;)
>It'll be a good starting point, though, probably.

It WOULD be neat to say 'command line' and have a command line shell pop up!
Coolness!!

>David C. Navas						dnavas@oracle.com
>Working for, but not speaking on behalf of, Oracle Corp.


--
*Dan Stephenson   das9674@usl.edu  
*
* "To conquer death, you only have to die,..."                   
*                             -Jesus , from _Jesus Christ Superstar_
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy