In the November 1997 issue of Amazing Computing, I covered several Workbench replacements, namely Directory Opus Magellan and Mbench. Since then, another Workbench replacement has been released, called Scalos. Scalos, programmed by Stefan Sommerfeld, stays very close to the look and feel of the original Amiga Workbench, while adding many new features and power. As with the Magellan and MBench, Scalos features a fully multitasking Workbench, with each window having it's own task. Open a Window with many icons, or drag and drop a file from one window to another, and you can keep working, unlike the standard Amiga Workbench.
Scalos requires MUI for the preferences, and several third party addons to be fully functional. These are listed on the Scalos Home Page and are all available for free download on the Internet.
See Figure 1 for a screenshot of the Scalos Workbench replacement, with windows showing NewIcon support and the "view as text" enhancements.
Some Scalos features:
- 100% Workbench replacement, all functions should work like the WB ones
- 64bit arithmetics for Harddisksizes
- all Icon-imagetypes are supported such as Backfill or Complement
- full multitasking, every window has it's own task, while loading icons
any windowfunction (e.g. Drag&Drop) is available
- icon datatype system, newicon datatype included
- cybergraphics and 24bit datatypes support
- unlimited windowpatterns, configurable via tooltypes
- optimized backgroundpatterns routine
- directory-notification
- Menu-Preferences to have full configurable menus (includes ToolsDaemon and
Parm import)
- big Application interface, anything is possible from outside
- custom Palette and Pattern preferences program
- nearly all WB-preferences will be used, install and uninstall is very easy
- plugin system to exchange or add features
One thing that both MBench and Magellan have that Scalos lacks is a progress gauge when copying files. This is one area where Scalos sticks a little too close to the original Workbench. on the other hand, one very welcome feature is a Workbench Menu designer, with a nicely laid out GUI. This is one of my favorite parts of Scalos, right after the multitasking! See Figure 2 for the menu preferences program, and Figure 3 for the Scalos take on the Execute Command, Rename, and Delete requesters.
Figure 2:Scalos Preferences
Figure 3:Scalos Requesters
I was somewhat disappointed with the lack of documentation. The small readme file is adequate to get Scalos installed, but far from complete. Of course, much of Scalos is identical in usage to the Amiga's Workbench, which obviates the need for much of the documentation, but more thorough coverage is still needed.
Scalos is very compatible with most all the little goodies I've presented over the course of The Old Workbench, including Magic Menus, MCX, and Newicons. I found it to be reasonably stable, though keep in mind this is a pre-release, and thus may have a few bugs to work out. If you are finding the Amiga's original Workbench limiting, you should definitely check out the Scalos demo.
Scalos
Shareware
ALiEN DESiGN
Stefan Sommerfeld ([email protected])
WWW: www.cs.tu-berlin.de/~zerocom/aliendesign.html
Requires: Kickstart 3.0 or higher and MC68020 or higher, MUI 3.x (for prefs)
Also supports: guigfx.library (available at http://tek.flynet.de or the Aminet)
popupmenu.library - which is needed to use the popup menus (available: Aminet
util/libs/pmuser.lha or http://www.algonet.se/~henisak/pm/pm.html)
newicon.library (available: Aminet)
Newicons v4
There are a lot of new things about Newicons v4. New authors, new icon imagery, and a slew of new features, Newicons is a must see for those interested in workbench enhancement. And it's still free!
For those unfamiliar with New Icons, this system offers many advantages over the stock Amiga handling of icons. Primarily, Newicons offers a method of keeping the Icon colors consistent, regardless of palette or screen mode. The Amiga's standard system makes no provision for an icon's palette, an carefully crafted icon can turn to instant mush by copying it to a friends Amiga, or even by changing screenmodes. Newicons inserts palette information in the icon, as well as patching the Amiga's system to recognize that information, so the icons will maintain their colors as close as possible. In addition Newicons supports up to 256 color icons.
The first thing you'll notice is an improved installer. One nice feature is a graphical interface for installing drawer and disk drive icons. See Figure 4.
Figure 4:Newicons V4 Installation
Some new features include transparent areas for icons, including transparent dragging, support for Cybergrafx and RTG, font outlining for better visibility, and an option to remove the borders from icons. All these options are accessible using a Class Act based GUI. See Figure 5 for the New Icons Preferences.
Figure 5:Newicons V4 Preferences
In addition to the technical stuff, many of the icons have been given a facelift. Also improved is the DefIcon system, which improves upon the Amiga's fake icon system, which display default images for files without icons. DefIcon includes icons for LZX, PNG and other new files. See Figure 6 for the new default icons.
Figure 6:Newicons V4 DefIcons
If you are using Newicons, rush to Aminet and download the latest version right away! If you haven't tried Newicons, you really should. If you don't care for the included Icons, Newicons can be used with any style of icons, from plain to MagicWB. It takes a little work to convert them, but you might find the benefits well worth it.
Newicons V4
Programming for Newicons V3 and up: Eric Sauvageau ([email protected])
Documentation, installer, and artwork for Newicons V3 and up: Phil Vedovatti ([email protected])
Aminet: util/wb/Newicons41.lha
Official Web site: http://www.amiganet.org/Newicons/
Well, that's it for this episode. See you next time.
