🚀 go-pugleaf

I tried to mail you, but the letter bounced:


>GLOBAL CHANGE OPTION FOR THE WPS

I like this one.

>COMMON INSTALL PROGRAM

Very much needed. Also, see later...

>NEW FILE SYSTEM
>INSTALLABLE FILE SYSTEMS FOR REMOVABLE DEVICES
>MOVEMENT OF SHADOWS IN TO THE FILE SYSTEM
>MOVEMENT OF INFORMATION FROM THE OS2.INI TO THE FILE SYSTEM

All of these can be made the same. Take the "NEW FILE SYSTEM" as described,
and add a new file type "Abstract" (in addition to the two available, "File"
and "Directory"). The Abstract file type is for "shadows" (links), Program
objects, etc.

>LONG FILE NAMES IN FAT

Good, but probably difficult to implement with the current EA handling scheme.

>MULTIPLE INPUT QUEUES

Very much needed.

>A SIMPLE, ROCK SOLID INSTALL PROCESS

needed.

>RELIABLE WORKPLACE SHELL BACKUP/RESTORE (OS2.INI AND DESKTOP DIRECTORY)

Good, but automatically solved if the additional file type "Abstract" is
incorporated, and a file backup program.

>MAINTAINING THE NUMLOCK STATE (AS DEFINED BY THE BIOS)

Good.

>COLOURFUL ICONS

Agree. Changing the default colours and redrawing the icons did an awful lot
for WIndows 3.1.

>SCROLL-BACK BUFFER FOR OS/2 WINDOWS

Good.

>MOUNTING DRIVES INSTEAD OF HAVING DRIVE LETTERS

Desirable, but probably unrealistic, since just about any program aware of
drives would break :(

>MAKE "/" AND "\" ACT THE SAME FOR DIRECTORIES

Easy to implement on the operating system level, but can lead to enormous
difficulties with programs that are hard coded to take "/" as a flag separator
for arguments.

>SUPPORT WILDCARD EXPANSION IN THE SHELL

Good, but should be added to the file dialog boxes as well.

>COMMAND ALIASES IN CMD.EXE

Yes.

>TABLE OF EXECUTED COMMANDS

Very minor importance, but not too bad.

>LIST/KILL PROCESS COMMANDS

Yes.

>UNICODE

Very much needed.

>DATE AND TIME FORMAT

Necessary but not enough. OS/2 is unfortunately VERY lame on issues like this.
I can't make 4 digit year display the default, for example, neighter is there
any support for long date formats (Like "January 1st, 1994").

In addition to this, the API needs to be expanded and include functions for
converting date/time/floating-point-numbers/currency to/from string formats,
otherwise the settongs in the country setup are more or less useless, since few
programmers bother to parse the info (it's tricky as hell, especially with the
floating point numbers).

>FASTER BOOT OFF FLOPPY

At least some indication that the system is still alive and working.

>ADD SEPARATORS FOR NUMBERS RETURNED BY CHKDSK

Would be solved by adding the above mentioned functions to the API, and acually
USE them in all programs.

>RESIZABLE SHELL WINDOWS

Yes, and the default shouldn't always be 80x25, but something one can set
in the program object.

>RESIZABLE FONT FOR SHELL WINDOWS

Same as above, make it possible to set it from the program object, so that
different shells can have different font sizes on start-up.

>DISPLAY POSTSCRIPT

Disagree. Display PostScript is nice, but pig slow (talking from experience).
Maybe include a program that converts display postscript to something else,
in the development kits, so that the developers can work with display
PostScript (since it really is nice), but not have to bother about the
extreme slowness of it.

>DEFAULTS NOTEBOOK FOR SHELLS

Right.

>DEDICATED SWAP PARTITION

Whoeheartedly disagree, since a separate swap partition on the same drive
as the date/system will reduce performance. The better way to do it is to
simply make larger swap files the default.

------

Now for my own additions.

OPTIONAL DISABLING OF MENU DROP DOWN ON RIGHT ALT-BUTTON.

Odd, it may seem, but on many non-US keyboards, the right Alt button is
used when typing brackets and such, since many other countries have a few
additional letters in the alphabet. Now, when writing something, and a
bracket is needed, and you slip on the keyboard (happens once in a while)
that darned meny drops down, and it can be pretty annoying.

REFERENCE COUNTED RESOURCES

Users won't notice this, except for a (hopefully) increased performance, due
to reduced memory demands. As it is now, if you have an enormous lot of
fonts, and you run a program displaying all your fonts, the system will be
sluggish afterwards, until the next restart. This is because the system assumes
that since a font was once wanted, it just might be so in the future, and keeps
it in memory so that it can be used quickly. If, instead, a reference count is
incremented for each font when a process requests it for the first time, and
decremented when the process dies, the font can be unloaded when the count
goes to 0. While I haven't calculated on this, I'm convinced the performance
gains by not needing to have the fonts loaded will by far outweigh the
losses of having to maintain the reference counters. I'm not sure if the same
applies to other resources, but if they do, the same should apply to them as
well.

BACKGROUND COLOUR ON ICON TEXT

I'm surpriced this wasn't listed, since just about everybody that ever used a
background bitmap wants it.

CASCADABLE MENUES

I can add items to the object menues, even submenues, but I can't add sub-sub
menues. Why?

MORE DRAG DROP

It should be possible to drop a file on the PATH entry field of program
objects, a directory on the WORKING DIRECTORY on the same. To drop directories
on the PATH entry field of the search dialog and so on.

ASSOCIATE VIEW.EXE WITH .INF FILES

Comments unecessary.

STANDARD UNINSTALL PROGRAM

Most programs fill your system with files a little here and there, your OS2.INI
with some entries and such, and there's just about no way a user can clear
the system of a program, short of reinstalling OS/2. If there was a standard
uninstall program, and using it, from a developers pespectice, is simple and
well documented, the pain will be reduced severely (I know a lot of programmers
still won't bother, but if a few will a lot is gained).

HEAVILY INTEGRATED WPS APPLETS

The applets should be so neatly integrated with the WPS you won't ever see
the programs, just the data objects.

(as an addon, DEVELOPER DOCS ON HOW TO WRITE WPS APPS!!! How can lean WPS apps
be developed when the docs are so few and vague?)

   _
/Bjorn.
-- 
// Bjorn Fahller        Phone: +46 920 99719        <Team-OS/2>
// Professorsvagen 91   Keeper of the OS/2 archive at ftp.luth.se
// S-977 51 Lulea       (130.240.18.2). "Unemployed" due to lacking
// Sweden               disk space.