Announced over on EAB but as it's such a useful bit of Software, I thought it more than deserved a mention here.

OS3.2 dragging windows off screen feature is very useful especially on High Res Screens (miss it big time if I use a 3.1 machine). I thought we have a lot more usable screen space with that but GoVD gives you up to 8 Virtual Desktops ! Not tried it myself yet, it would be interesting to hear from anyone who has.

For more info & download (note - it's shareware):

https://www.bitplan.pl/govd/index.html

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@Tpod

Wow great news

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@Tpod

I run AmiKit XE using 3.9 and it did not work :(

@alanwall

It's an OS3.2 only app (although it may possibly work on OS3.1.4) as it makes use of improvements in the OS, so no go if your using 3.1, 3.5 or 3.9.

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general question.

why do you need virtual desktops when you can open
as much as you want public screens? or at least as much
as your chip ram allows you?

@amigagr

Flip that around. Why waste the chip ram?

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Doing stupid things for fun...

As I’ve mentioned elsewhere, the way to sort of accomplish something similar before, was by having a workbench screen larger than visible screen and then pan around. Some tools (like aavd and avwm) would then let you “jump� when panning, simulating the effect of virtual desktops of X11 window managers.

With newer Intuition it is now possible to hide just about any window, so managing virtual desktops becomes a matter of organizing which windows to display and which windows to hide. Which incidentally is exactly what virtual desktops with X11 window managers are all about too.

GoVD is great already, and I’m sure it will improve over time :)

I have a few possible improvements…
* specify size and position so it can appear to be in the screen bar
* hotkeys to jump between the VDs
* some way of “jumping� a window from one vd to another… hm, more hotkeys?

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@Karlos

Quote:

Karlos wrote: @amigagr Flip that around. Why waste the chip ram?

I know GoVD only needs a few kilobytes of Chip RAM (to display the buttons), then up to 50KB of other RAM ( i.e. Fast RAM if available).

Correct me if I'm wrong but are you saying because it uses such a small amount of Chip RAM using GoVD is a good way of saving some Chip RAM compared to a program opening it's own public screen!?

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A1200+Mediator+Voodoo3+040+130mbRAM+0S3.9
A2000+Supra28mhz+9mbRAM+OS3.2.2, CD32 & WinUAE

@Tpod

Quote:

Correct me if I'm wrong but are you saying because it uses such a small amount of Chip RAM using GoVD is a good way of saving some Chip RAM compared to a program opening it's own public screen!?

Yes. When you open a public screen, you've got a new bitmap allocation, which needs bitplanes for. As long as that screen is open, that chip ram is allocated.

It's not just chip ram. If you are on an RTG system, your VRAM may be allocated in a similar way. Generally, RTG may swap your hidden public screen back into fast memory of there's memory pressure. You would notice this as it taking longer to switch to it.

With a virtual desktop like this you are just displaying and hiding sets of windows. Depending on how those windows are redrawn (e.g. simple v smart refresh) they may consume additional memory anyway, but that is only increased by having additional public screens on top

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Doing stupid things for fun...

The exception would perhaps be when your public screen is small and has only 4 colours or something, whereas your workbench has say 64 colours and is bigger. In that case, a smart refresh window would probably need more memory when opened on your workbench than the dedicated public screen since the bitmaps used for buffering hidden bits would take more memory. The exception rather than the rule, I expect.

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@amigagr

Quote:

why do you need virtual desktops when you can open as much as you want public screens? or at least as much as your chip ram allows you?

I wouldn't go that way, but perhaps it would be interesting to keep all under the same UI. That way one would be able to choose any kind of screen be it virtual or a public screen under the same metaphor

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@alanwall

OS3.9 is an older, and unmaintained version of AmigaOS, (Made by Haage & Partner Computer GmbH, on a license or on behalf of Amiga Inc), as typical with AmigaOS a lot of stuff packed on the CD was contributions, and not created by or owned by the distributor. As result AmigaOS4.0 had to recreated lots of stuff, and as a result OS3.1.4 and OS3.2 contains back ports of part of AmigaOS4.1, there for OS3.2 is more of recreation based on newer code. Hyperion has negotiate with individual contributors of OS3.9, to obtain some of the source code.

Last edited by NutsAboutAmiga on 15-Oct-2024 at 09:27 PM.
Last edited by NutsAboutAmiga on 15-Oct-2024 at 09:25 PM.

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@Karlos

Well I was already impressed, now I know it can save me a bit of Chip RAM on the A2000 & when I eventually get around to installing OS3.2 on the A1200T, it will be good for VRAM too. I was almost certainly going to be giving it a try soon anyway but now it really is a no-brainer.

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A1200+Mediator+Voodoo3+040+130mbRAM+0S3.9
A2000+Supra28mhz+9mbRAM+OS3.2.2, CD32 & WinUAE