Queens bits editor? Blimey. Trimming the Queens bits must be a highly paid job! I know I wouldn't want to do it

Anyway, the only reason 24bit icons aren't a standard in OS4.0 is that they don't wish to mess with the already horrible icon and workbench libraries too much when they're due for a rewrite in 4.x ...

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Playstation Network ID: xeron6

An excellent article, well argued and constructive.

"Of course it requires the use of Elena Novaretti's Power Icons ...
It's not difficult.
It causes no overhead and doesn't interfere with any of the functions of the OS.
Hell, it even works well with OS3.9 on an accelerated A2000.
I don't see any reason for it not to be built into the system in the final release.
The improvement that can be had in the look of Workbench is astounding.
In short, there is no excuse whatsoever for OS4 on anyone's machine to look like the tired old Workbench."

So does PowerIcons actually work with OS4. Why isn't it built in?

Quote:

So does PowerIcons actually work with OS4. Why isn't it built in?

- Yes.
- Because it's time wasting to integrate such solution now whereas there will be a better solution for 4.1

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Philippe 'Elwood' Ferrucci
Sam460 1.10 Ghz
AmigaOS 4 betatester
Amiga Translator Organisation

Quote:

So does PowerIcons actually work with OS4.

There is a special version designed for OS4, which is actually more system friendly than the 3.x patch because icon.library has been written with powericons in mind.

Quote:

Why isn't it built in?

I don't really know.

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Playstation Network ID: xeron6

@xeron:

"There is a special version designed for OS4"

Do you have a link please?

@RedMelons

errrm... no. I thought it was released to the public, but it seems its another one of the things only the betatesters have I hope i'm wrong and someone posts a link, though.

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Playstation Network ID: xeron6

Hi all

no it isn't public.

It will be bundled (as Contribution), in the official OS4 release.

Bye

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Quote:

So does PowerIcons actually work with OS4.

Yes. It will be part of the update. You need updated workbench and icon libraries.

Quote:

Why isn't it built in?

It was considered and rejected. PowerIcons does a fine job at it, if you want PNG icons on your machine. Workbench will get a major overhaul in the future, and therefore little to nothing is actually added to it.

It will also not make it into the final release (that is, PNG support in workbench). Like I said, PowerIcons does a good job at it if you want it. No need to add yet another patch to the already overly patched icon system.

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Seriously, if you want to contact me do not bother sending me a PM here. Write me a mail

Quote:

Like I said, PowerIcons does a good job at it if you want it. No need to add yet another patch to the already overly patched icon system.

As Powericons is a patch (I presume), isn't there a contradiction?

@warface

He just said that adding powericons to the system would mean even more patches to the icon system if made built in. But they don't want more patches to it in the standard distribution. If people want to patch even futher themselves then fine, but it won't be a default part of the standard system.

/Björn

I see. Hopefully the new icon.library will have support for it without patches.

So, that means we have an A-Patchy icon system!

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Excellent Article

Really fun and well written. Lou Vidal and QAUG still keep the Amiga Spirit Alive! With monthly meetings and cool demos more New York Amigans should come to the event!




realize

My opinion is quite simple: not the look defines how modern an OS is. You can have plenty of patches in an OS3.x system, even PNG icons. Does it mean it is more modern than before? Simply not.

I don't want to imply that the look of the user interface isn't important, but not the most important point. I prefer wise planning over gathering everything and let's see what happen just to be my Workbench shiny.

PNG icons is a very good example: PNG format is no way fulfilling the needs of the Amiga icon system. It is a major hack. A special format with much more planning for the future would be a lot better solution. (Eg. animated icons, or capability of reacting graphically to certain situations, etc. How could you fit this into the PNG format? I can tell you: more hacks.)

I hope this question (among others concerning the GUI) will be addressed in AOS4.1 finally.

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Álmos Rajnai

"PNG format is no way fulfilling the needs of the Amiga icon system. It is a major hack."

It seems to that a lot, if not most of the advancements in the Amiga OS have come about through third-party 'hacks'.
Intrepid developers have found ways to do things which the original OS programmers dodn't intend. Even OS4 has now incorporated features which started out as 'hacks', but which most Amigans now regard as essential 'upgrades'.

Most of us ran NewIcons, MagicMenu etc on OS3.x but don't need to because the functionality is now built into OS3.9/4.0.
I don't see any problem with running PowerIcons on 4.0 until an integrated, or improved solution is provided in OS4.(0+x).

Quote:

As Powericons is a patch (I presume), isn't there a contradiction?

No. PowerIcons is an external patch, I was talking about adding source code patches to icon library and declare them standard.

_________________
Seriously, if you want to contact me do not bother sending me a PM here. Write me a mail

Quote:

It seems to that a lot, if not most of the advancements in the Amiga OS have come about through third-party 'hacks'.

I guess this speaks more for the fact that there hasn't been any updates in the OS for quite some time, just look at the time it took between 3.1 and 3.5.

_________________
Seriously, if you want to contact me do not bother sending me a PM here. Write me a mail