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· Amiga at Work
#Keep files hidden!
7 messages in this thread
You needn't try to imagine an argument against having all files visible
from workbench, because here it is for real:
I think having all files on my system disk visible from Workbench would be
an immense stupidity. I have half a dozen different startup-sequences, a
dozen system utilities run by those startup-sequences and never from an
icon-click, printer drivers, multiple font sizes, a dozen libraries and
handlers, etc. It would be absolute mindlessness to have them all pop up
when I opened a disk. My first step as a consultant would be to delete all
the .info files.
Getting a full directory listing should be something the user chooses
deliberately, with a directory utility, not a default.
I am _not_ being devil's advocate here. The mass of junk MS-Window 2.03
'Exec' shoves at the user is absolute data overload. The softfonts package I
use on my AT with my Laserjet Plus has nearly 100 files in its directory,
only one of which, the .BAT file, is of direct interest to the user. I have
to put all my .BAT files in their own directory under MS-Windows in order to
achieve the sort of orderly presentation Amiga Workbench makes so simple, and
then I have the cockeyed task of discouraging users from switching to the
Laserfont directory in order to run Laserfont.
It's true that MS-Windows _will_ permit me to 'display only programs,'
because the authors have realized the problem of dataglut, but I cannot make
that the default; I have to tell the user, each time s/he boots Windows, to
click on the Display Selected Files menu item in order to clear things up.
Even so, I cannot get the individual show-this-one-hide-that-one control over
files that I have with Workbench. Be like that? How retrograde!
Well, maybe it can be an option then if you feel so strongly about it.
However, the ability not to see many files from WorkBench means that the
user cannot GET to them, and that means that the user has to resort to
CLI. We're talking new user again, who've taken their Amiga home and don't
have a modem yet, or DIRUTIL. To do something simple like make another
WorkBench disk and eliminate some of the superfluous commands will require
going to CLI, which is particularly hideous with one drive.
I'm 100% with you so far as caring for the new user is concerned. The new
user _should_ have a DU on his WB when he opens the box.
Where we part company is in the idea that the best or brightest way to
accomplish this is to re-do WorkBench. There's a lot I'd like to add to
Workbench (see wishlist thread), but I'd much rather C=A license one of the
DUs and ship it. My only reservation is that this means one lucky guy
(whoever gets the license) and many unlucky guys (whoever doesn't) and I'd
be hard pressed to say the CLImate or Zing or DiskMaster or U7 should 'win'
and more or less eliminate the market for the 'losers.'
I'm 100% with you so far as caring for the new user is concerned. The new
user _should_ have a DU on his WB when he opens the box.
Where we part company is in the idea that the best or brightest way to
accomplish this is to re-do WorkBench. There's a lot I'd like to add to
Workbench (see wishlist thread), but I'd much rather C=A license one of the
DUs and ship it. My only reservation is that this means one lucky guy
(whoever gets the license) and many unlucky guys (whoever doesn't) and I'd
be hard pressed to say the CLImate or Zing or DiskMaster or U7 should 'win'
and more or less eliminate the market for the 'losers.'
Well, maybe it can be an option then if you feel so strongly about it.
However, the ability not to see many files from WorkBench means that the
user cannot GET to them, and that means that the user has to resort to
CLI. We're talking new user again, who've taken their Amiga home and don't
have a modem yet, or DIRUTIL. To do something simple like make another
WorkBench disk and eliminate some of the superfluous commands will require
going to CLI, which is particularly hideous with one drive.
OK, so not all files need to be visible. But we need smarter systems for
linking icons and data, the Mac has this down already, so let's go copy
them, seeing that they'll never sue CBM. 🙂 Why do so many programs
have invisible (icon-less) config files and data files, when the program
itself has an icon? Joe User gets smart, and tries to move it to another
disk, and whammo, it doesn't work anymore.
OK, so not all files need to be visible. But we need smarter systems for
linking icons and data, the Mac has this down already, so let's go copy
them, seeing that they'll never sue CBM. 🙂 Why do so many programs
have invisible (icon-less) config files and data files, when the program
itself has an icon? Joe User gets smart, and tries to move it to another
disk, and whammo, it doesn't work anymore.