Hi Guys

Long time silence from me, but thanks to Joel, I am back on track slowly.

Here comes my suggestion for AmigaOS start bar program called Excalibur.

Take a look at those 2 screenshots:

Excalibur original image [installed on my Amiga]:
http://www.djnick.rs/examples/Excalibur-Original.jpg

Excalibur skin by me, fully drawn in Photoshop:
http://www.djnick.rs/examples/Excalibur-Nick.jpg

I wish we can create something that will look nice [default skin] and usable. To me looks like AmiStart is not developing anymore so lets focuse on Joels excellent starting programs tool :)

My suggestion for the program:

- no need for Chip, Fast and other 2 memory scales.
- if scales are needed - let they be moved to the right, next to date and time and I would like to see only CPU and Memory usage
- I would like to see volume control somehow
- And left [where are now memory scales] would like to see smaller quick-icons, like Web browser [I prefer MuiOWB], AmigAmp [or other music player], text editor and AmigaShell icon.

Any suggestions and comments are welcome.

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@djnick

sorry to say it looks like windows. i dont know why to copy ms solutions. are never particularly elegant.

@wawa

agreed, even windows have abandonned thestart bar......

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@broadblues

was there for long enough. likely they replaced it with something worse. my point being, why try to mimic the looks of what pretty any other wannabe os tries to implement? try to imagine something genuine, and amiga-like!

@wawa

It is improved gfx for start meny only, not program design.

I have lots of ideas for layout too but the question is: who will develop it?

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nykk | deetronic.rs | youtube.com/djnykk | gfx.river | mamavolibebu.com

@djnick

Well, im not going to dislike it just cause it have similarities to windows.

One of the nicer features IS the start menu.
On my vista and windows7 machines i have changed it back to mimic xp/windows2000.

I personally like the screenshots.

@djnick

Its not my program but i like to use it. I dont like the subdocks in amidock. Here is the blog from the creator of Excalibur I also like the screenshots.

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@djnick

Your style is excellent, please continue

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@wawa, broadblues

To me its not big difference, between pull down menus and start-bars.
there are meny Linux distributions that have a start menu/start bar.
some people like the start menu, some don't and its for this people that like it I make it for not for the ones that don't like the start button/start bar solution.or

Should it replace AmiDock? no, Excalibur is just a option, a personal preference.

Last edited by NutsAboutAmiga on 01-Dec-2012 at 10:27 AM.

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@djnick

Back to DjNicks work, its excellent, some problems whit design, the logo that embedded in left border.

* The logo can only be outside the border or inside, it can not be on top (maybe I add that one).

The way its done in the orignal image is that you have left and right texture, but not on top button textures and corner have no textures, you can most likely make some thing like you have designed whit out the rounded corners.

* The picture shows different fonts, currently not supported, its on my TODO list.
* The Clock background can be changed, in the development, but not in one thats out in the free. so its comming in the next version.
* the memory bar does not support other colors, unless its solid colors, rendered in the old style XEN/3D style (XEN/3D style is not supported in current version, only the development version
), texture support is on the TODO list.

Last edited by NutsAboutAmiga on 01-Dec-2012 at 03:36 PM.
Last edited by NutsAboutAmiga on 01-Dec-2012 at 03:34 PM.
Last edited by NutsAboutAmiga on 01-Dec-2012 at 10:56 AM.

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@djnick

djnick's suggestions for the program:

Q: no need for Chip, Fast and other 2 memory scales.

A: You can turn it on or off.

Q: if scales are needed - let they be moved to the right, next to date and time and I would like to see only CPU and Memory usage

A: If and when I implement a plug-in, system then you can, until then its ether on or off.

Q: I would like to see volume control somehow

A: You can drag and drop the Mixer to the toolbar.
embedded Mixer volume is not going to be supported unless its a plug-in, and its not going to come soon.

Q: And left [where are now memory scales] would like to see smaller quick-icons, like Web browser [I prefer MuiOWB], AmigAmp [or other music player], text editor and AmigaShell icon.

A: Drag and Drop icons on the toolbar, supported.

Last edited by NutsAboutAmiga on 01-Dec-2012 at 10:58 AM.
Last edited by NutsAboutAmiga on 01-Dec-2012 at 10:54 AM.

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@djnick

Looks ok to me but I've given up on excalibur until a bug I found is fixed...

If you turn off the clock, clicking where it was still brings up the time prefs this also happens when you set the bar size to small which means you cant access the start button anymore

Edit: Another bug is that the memory bars are drawn incorrectly, it doesn't seem to like the 2gb ram I have. it looks worse using classic.

Last edited by Severin on 01-Dec-2012 at 11:38 AM.
Last edited by Severin on 01-Dec-2012 at 11:37 AM.

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I do like both startbars and amidock (except hate that when move amidock the subdocks dont update its position with it). With startbars i like that you can fill upp alot of small icons/images that does things, like cpumeters, clocks etc not taking up too much space. However i dont like backgrounds on startbars but everyone have different tastes. I will try and see if i can remove the background on my win7 system.

Here is how i used to have it before composition was added in os4. I used a beta of amistart but it doesnt work good with composition so i left it for amidock. It was overfull with settings, even alot not implemented in the gui so one had to use notepad to add/disable. You could add partitions, filesystem directories, files, dragging icons over, hiding of windows/apps in the startbar instead of WB. Normally when you hide iconify an app all its windows would iconify. Amistart you could choose for example having yam open while hiding only the write window etc. Also you could see tasks as icon, you could see screens and also when having mouse over see the screen in miniature over the icon. Scaling with different methods, changing images for icons etc. And alot of other stuff.
Amistart

If more interested see here inside zipped archive for more screenshots/settings etc.
zipped backgrounds

The author have been ill for many years so therefore we dont see any updates or replys to mails.

Sorry for writing about another startbar but i see some folks dont like startbars and i only show what can be made. Also maybe some ideas of some part for excalibur.

@DJNick

Images looks nice and i believe it will be better with the further work on excalibur. I think cooperation is nice like this. Im not using excalibur but im following every update too see what changed, whats new etc.

I hope there will be a more easy way to load skins in the future. Where is the skin djnick? :)

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@Severin

I have now upgraded memory variables from signed int32 to unsigned int64, should be fix the problem, in the next version.

I have only 512mb her on my old AmigaONE-XE.

I don't know if there is any 64bit OS function to return memory usage, it wont be problem until the OS turn 64bit anyway.

Should now support up to 4Gbytes of RAM.

Last edited by NutsAboutAmiga on 01-Dec-2012 at 03:00 PM.

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@Severin

Quote:

If you turn off the clock, clicking where it was still brings up the time prefs this also happens when you set the bar size to small which means you cant access the start button anymore

Found and fixed.

Wait for the next version of Excalibur.
Thanks for reporting bugs, its the only working way to find bugs.

Yes is possible create tests but you need to know what to test for, and its complicated in C.

Last edited by NutsAboutAmiga on 01-Dec-2012 at 03:18 PM.

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@Kicko

I agree here with you. And as usual - another program has no update. Thats why I think Excalibur might be good.

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@NutsAboutAmiga

Quote:

Thanks for reporting bugs, its the only working way to find bugs.

No problem. found another one...

When you list a partition in the menu, disk is displayed, clicking on it produces a DSI when it tries to CD to it. when trying a second time a console window opens with just a flashing cursor, clicking close put up:

EXECUTE: required argument missing
C:Execute failed returncode 20

closing the console a second time closes it.

I can see two choices to fix this... either filter out disk.info or use workbench's arexx port to open it's window.

Edit: after this happens clicking on ANY file produces the console window unless I quit and restart.

Last edited by Severin on 01-Dec-2012 at 04:31 PM.

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@Severin

Old bug fixed a long time ago, but not in public version.

Don't try to open programs or files from volumes and assigns its broken, opening files from directories works.

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@djnick

Not a program I use, but a smart looking theme all the same!

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