#MagicWB problem!
15 messages in this thread
I just downloaded Magic Workbench. I double click in the
"MagicWB.guide" icon and it says it can't find MultiView (I'm using an
Amiga 2000 with AmigaDOS 2.1.) I go over to my A1200 and borrow the
MulitView file, put it in the Magic Workbench directory and I get the
message "Not Workbench 3.0." Okay. I unLha the Magic Workbench file on
the A1200, make sure MultiView in in the same directory as MagicWB and I
get the message "Unknown data type for MagicWB.guide."
What's going on? I'm I doing something wrong? Can Magic Workbench be
used on an A2000 with ADOS 2.1? I'm concerned about installing something
that gives me so much trouble when simply reading the instructions.
Leslie,
as you've found out, MultiView will not work with AmigaDOS 2.1 at all.
This is not the fault of MagicWB, but of C= for having two completely
different DOS'es on each end of the Atlantic. Perhaps we'll get AmigaDOS
3.1 over here, someday. To fix your problem you will need to change the
default tool for any .guide files you run into from MulitView to
AmigaGuide. To do this, select the icon by clicking on it once, then
select Information from the Icons menu in Workbench. Click on the Default
Tool line and change it from MultiView to AmigaGuide, then click on Save
to save your change.
There are a few differences between the two, but minor from our point
of view. If you don't have AmigaGuide on your system, you can download it
from here as AMIGAG.LHA.
Brian
bjbart@watserv.ucr.edu
Thanks very much for the info, Brian. I made the adjustments to the
MagicWB.guide icon and all is okay. Have you used Magic Workbench? Have
there been any problems with it? I don't have an interlace monitor yet,
so will MagicWB work on a standard 640×200 non-lace screen?
Leslie,
I'm using MagicWB on my souped up A2000 (25 MHz '030, 9MB RAM, Retina)
and on an A500 (nothing addded beyond 2 MB Fast RAM). It works just fine
on a 640×200 display, although the icons are, or course, twice the size
they should be. As the A500 is mostly for use by my mother, it's just
fine, although if you are serious about using MagicWB on a non-interlace
machine, look at setting your workbench to a larger area. You can do this
in the ScreenMode preferences program. If you turn on AutoScroll, by
clicking on it, you should can get a pretty nice workspace without having
to invest in a de-interlacer until you can afford it.
One problem that some people have run into is that MagicWB can eat a
lot of your CHIP (graphics) RAM due to its use of more bitplanes to
describe the colors it uses. There's a patch in the libraries to fix the
icons, although I don't know if it's necessary with the latest version of
MagicWB. I'll have to look into that. Aside from that, so far there have
been no other reported glitches that I'm aware of.
I hope this helps.
Brian
bjbart@watserv.ucr.edu
My 2000 origionally had 512K but I instaled a MegAChip so I now have 2
meg of chip RAM (plus 4 meg 32-bit RAM and 8 meg of 16-bit RAM.) Memory
shouldn't be a problem. One more question, if I may. Naturally, not ALL
the icons are going to be converted. How do the non-converted icons look
on the MagicWB screen?
Leslie,
the non-converted icons do stand out as they are not up to par with the
MagicWB icons. If you'll nose around in the libraries, you'll see icon
files popping up. I found a pretty lovely AutoPilot icon in one.
You'll find though, as you go through converting icons, that many icons
are one of a few standard types, such as doc file, etc. I've invented a
C-Shell script that allows me to convert them with one command. I'll get
around to doing the rest, such as guides, etc.
Brian
bjbart@watserv.ucr.edu
Brian,
Hi. Two questions about MagicWB.
1) Have you found a Trashcan icon yet?
2) Have you found a way to make the icons a bit smaller? I think
they're a bit too big right now. I tried one of the scaling programs in
the Libs, but it butchered the icons when I tried to reduce them.
Thanks.
Dom Fontana
–> Sent from NY via AP <–
Dominick,
there is a pretty nice trashcan icon in MWBICO.LHA. It appears as the
universal symbol for recycling. Personally, I delete the Trashcan on any
disk on which it appears, but I do understand that some like having it.
I have yet to meet a icon reduction program that can successfully
reduce these icons. I think part of the problem has to do with the method
by which the icons were produced, i.e. paint program, anti-alias, etc.
Unless a program pays attention to those constraints, I don't think they
will do well with these icons.
Have you tried registering the file and/or contacting the author?
Brian
bjbart@watserv.ucr.edu
Thanks, Brian.
Actually, I really never use the Trashcan, but I keep one on each hard
drive partition.
No, I haven't contacted the author yet. I may do so in the future.
Dom Fontana
–> Sent from NY via AP <–
The new version of MWB still uses 8 bitplane icons, so they are much too
large and take up too much chip memory. You can fix them by using Dpaint
and IconEdit, but it takes a *long* time (a minute per icon). ALSO, he
provides a new iconupdate program to do automatic replacement of all your
icons w/o messing up your window sizes, placements, tooltypes, etc, AND it
seems to be sensitive to the exact contents and sizes of your icons. It
uses "magic" bytes from the icon to determine if this icon needs to be
replaced, and I am not sure what re-editing all of the distributed icons
would do to his install script.
That said, I will tell you that it is absolutely worth it in terms of how
much better it makes WorkBench!
(MWB icons look terrible on a 4 color lo-res workbench).
Joe: What is the difference between the older and newer versions of
MagicWB? I thought it wasn't a program, per se, but a collection of
icons…..
I'm currently using the older version, and I'm reluctant to download the
newer one (about 40 minutes at 2400bd) unless there is a major
improvement.
— Dave
New and slightly smaller drawer icon (replacing all my drawer icons with
the new one saved me over 200k on my WORK: partition). New installer
program (that I haven't used yet) that handles all types of icons, not
just drawers; some redone icons (some I liked better, some less), teasers
about stuff available with the registered version; more fonts in more
sizes. Unfortunately, the icons are STILL 8 bitplanes deep, (5 of which
are empty) making them big on disk and big in your chip memory. I have
picked out the new or improved ones that I liked, used DpaintIV and
IconEdit to put them back to 3 bitplanes, and used them.
One reason I haven't used his installer program is that the documentation
implies that it is sensitive to some magic values in the icons (that are
dependent on the icon imagery itself). Since I have repainted all of his
icons to reduce the bitplane count, I am not sure his install program will
work ok.
I really like MWB so I am going to save myself some work by sending in the
shareware fee and getting the registered version.
Joe,
I went back and checked the installation script and it appears to be
standard AmigaDOS script-building of copy commands. I can't see any
reason why you can't go ahead and use his installation script to install
the three-bit icons. This was exactly the approach that I took with the
last batch of fixed icons that came through. I replaced all the icons
with the three-bit ones in the XEN-ICONS drawer of MagicWB, and then
double-clicked on the install icon. Worked like a charm.
Brian
bjbart@watserv.ucr.edu
Brian,
Do you have any idea what is in AmigaDOS 3.1? I am currently running
2.0.4 and am concidering upgrading to at least 2.1. Do you think I should
wait for C= to release 3.1? Of course I know one shouldn't hold their
breath waiting for C= to release something, it could be hazardous to one's
health but is it worth it?
Jim Philippou
Jim,
I'm pretty ignorant when it comes to AmigaDOS 3.x, so I can't help you
there. As for waiting, well is there anything in 2.1 that you need today?
If not, then you may as well save the money for a future upgrade. If you
require one of the features of 2.1, then I'd updgrade.
Brian
bjbart@watserv.ucr.edu