CompuServe Thread

#Workbench 2.0?

7 messages in this thread
#90775From: Bryan GillsonFeb 18, 1990 8:45 PM
I thought of this while reading the 1.4 & Compugraphic stuff… Many have heard that version 2.0 of the OS is "where everything breaks," but I've never heard any speculation on what would be planned for such a release. I'd like to hear some ideas of what people want in the OS that may be tough/impossible to do without losing compatibility. (Remember this is Ramblings, not Rumors!)…Some things I'd like to see are: 1. Graphics independence. You want a 2K x 2K screen? You got it, and everything works honky-dory. None of this Hedley monitor kludge stuff. That's one place X-Windows and even OS/2 have us beat. 2. Memory protection, resource tracking, etc. Any other ideas?
#90826From: Michael A McCormickFeb 19, 1990 12:31 AM
I'd like to see an easier and more effective way of killing a task, none of the PD programs or Break ever seem to work. The ability to remove the 'file is being used' status on a file that's not closed properly by a program without rebooting. Generally, a way to manage what's going on within the machine and the ability to change them on the fly. Mike McC
#90831From: Norvel ReevesFeb 19, 1990 12:40 AM
I think memory protection and resource tracking are a pretty good bet for 2.0 (if not 1.5). I've read that 1.4 will have 'hooks' for memory protection and resource tracking would be pretty easy in an MP'd environment. Now here's a wild one. How about an intuition/layers facillity for swapping and inactive screen out of chip mem into available fast mem and back. This would be at the programmer's option when the screen was opened. Ramblings, indeed from,
#90856From: SyndesisFeb 19, 1990 8:46 AM
I think CBM should jump to 2.0 as soon as possible, and break everything in sight, as long as we get graphics independence. The lack of this will be the Amiga's death sentence in the next two-three years. Without the ability to have Workbench screens at any resolution, and the impetus for third-party developers to make higher-res boards without having to rewrite all of the Amiga's graphics operating system software, we'll be sunk when 1024 x 800 becomes a standard on business machines.
#90909From: Kevin DarlingFeb 19, 1990 6:07 PM
<clap! clap!> – Kev (another devotee of hardware-independence)
#90952From: Ethan SolomitaFeb 19, 1990 9:58 PM
John, the only way to jump to 2.0 for Commodore would be to run a 1.x line as well as a 2.x line. Commodore's bread-and-butter appears to be, for now at least, A500 sales. Those sales will drop dead if all current software is broken. In the time needed for the Amiga software industry to convert and recoup, we will lose many developers, owners and potential owners. DIG should be developed, but not by breaking everything. Let Commodore simply make a STANDARD. Most people would be happy with some Super-VGA-quality addon, something with 16.7 million colors, while those wanting more will probably want a frame-buffer.
#91186From: Wayne ColeFeb 21, 1990 2:06 AM
SInce we are in wish land how about this one: CBM ot become part of the effort to standardize graphic and animation file formats; The Amiga OS rebuilt in graphics area to recognize aand display any of these formats of the old Amiga file formats scaled in a best fit manner to the current display hardware in place? That would give you complete access to the graphic files created in other enviroments and allow for easy sharing of graphic files by different applications on different platforms….