Workbench (AmigaOS)
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With the Amiga computer, the name Workbench refers to the native graphical interface part of the AmigaOS operating system.
As the name suggests, the metaphor of a workbench is used, rather than a desktop; directories are depicted as drawers, executable files are tools, data files are projects and GUI widgets are gadgets. In many other aspects the interface resembles Mac OS, with the main desktop showing icons of inserted disks and hard drive partitions, and a single menu bar at the top of every screen. Unlike the Macintosh, the standard Amiga mouse has two buttons – the right mouse button operates the pull-down menus, with a Macintosh-style "release to select" mechanism.
AmigaOS itself has no need for Workbench to be loaded for software to run. In fact, AmigaOS can boot to a command-line-based AmigaDOS window, and then load programs from there. Workbench itself is launched just like any other Amiga application, with the AmigaDOS command LoadWB. Amiga software can thus be invoked from a command-line shell or from Workbench.
A unique feature of Workbench is multiple screens. These are conceptually similar to X Window System virtual desktops or workspaces, but are generated dynamically by application programs as necessary. Each screen can have a different resolution and colour depth. A gadget in the top-right corner of the screen allows screens to be cycled - as the OS stores all screens in memory simultaneously, redrawing is instantaneous. Screens can also be dragged up and down by their title bars. On older Amigas this functionality was provided by the custom chipsets specially designed for the platform, but since AmigaOS version 4 a new technique is adopted and the screens are draggable in any direction. Drag and drop between different screens is possible too.
Underlying the Workbench is the Intuition windowing system. This controls and draws screens, windows and gadgets, and handles input from the keyboard and mouse, passing messages to programs.
The Workbench name can also refer to the main OS floppy disk for AmigaOS versions 1.1 to 1.3 (the "Workbench disk"). This was due to an error of Commodore marketing. This fact led some Amiga users to believe that all of the AmigaOS was named "Workbench". Commodore re-introduced proper names for the AmigaOS disks, starting from version 2.0.
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[edit] Workbench 2.0 user interface improvements
Until AmigaOS 2.0 with its GUI Workbench 2.0, there was no unified look and feel design standard - application developers had to write their own widgets (both buttons and menus) if they want to enhance standard basic widgets, with Intuition providing minimal support. With Workbench 2.0 it was created gadtools.library, which provided standard widget sets, the Amiga User Interface Style Guide, which explained how applications should be laid out for consistency. Intuition was improved with BOOPSI (Basic Object Oriented Programming system for Intuition) which enhanced the system with an object oriented interface with a system of classes in which every class individuate a single widget or describes an interface event. It can be used to program Object Oriented interfaces into Amiga at any level.
The BOOPSI system led an evolution in which third parties developers realized each own his personal system of classes. So there were born MUI (Magic User Interface) and ClassAct which then evolved into ReAction. MUI became the standard GUI engine for AROS and MorphOS. ReAction it is now the GUI engine of AmigaOS 4.0. There are also modern interfaces based on XML, like Feelin.
Workbench 2.0 also added support for public screens. Instead of the Workbench screen being the only shareable screen, applications could create their own named screens to share with other applications.
Workbench 2.0 introduced AmigaGuide, a simple text-only hypertext markup scheme and browser, for providing online help inside applications. It also introduced Installer, a standard software installation program, driven by a LISP-like scripting language.
Finally, Workbench 2.0 rectified the problem of developers hooking directly into the input-events stream to capture keyboard and mouse movements, often locking up the whole system. Workbench 2.0 provided Commodities, a standard interface for modifying or scanning input events. This included a standard method for specifying global "hotkey" key-sequences, and a Commodities Exchange registry for the user to see what commodities were running.
[edit] Workbench 3.0, 3.1
Originally shipped with the A4000 and A1200 AGA machines.
OS3.1 would ship later, adding improvements, and with a new V40 ROM, supported the A2000, A3000, and A500 machines.
Introduced Datatypes. This was a mechanism that allowed any datatype aware application to add new features by simply installing a datatype. The datatype is a library that can be called by an application as needed.
Through this mechanism, Amiga web browsers that supported datatypes were the first to support PNG. The programmer didn't have to concern himself with supporting multiple image formats. By simply employing datatypes, the application could add new image types as the datatype became available.
One application of note was Multiview. Its capabilities were directly related to the datatypes installed in Devs:Datatypes.
This section is to be expanded
[edit] Workbench 3.5
This section is to be expanded
[edit] Workbench 3.9
This section is to be expanded
This version of Workbench was created in 1998 with AmigaOS 3.9 by German Amiga software manufacturer and reseller Haage&Partner. Copyright date is 2000.
System requirements to install OS3.9 were a 68020 CPU, minimum, with hard drive, CD-ROM drive, and 6 Megs of RAM. Was never made available on floppy disks, only on a CD. Many users complained about the lack of install floppies, and the '020 and CD-ROM requirement[citation needed].
[edit] Workbench 4.0
This section is to be expanded
Along with AmigaOS 4.0 the Workbench 4.0[1] was entirely rewritten starting from AmigaOS 3.1 by Belgian firm Hyperion VOF.
[edit] Workbench icons
The icons that Workbench uses to represent the files in a volume or a drawer are stored in special .info files, with the name of the .info file matching the name of the file it represents. For example, the icon for NotePad, a text editor, is found in the file NotePad.info.
The .info file includes the graphical representation of the icon and its position in the volume or drawer window. The icon also specifies the type of the file, as used by Workbench. Workbench recognises five different file types[2]:
- Tool: An executable program.
- Project: A data file of an executable program. The program which created the file is named in the icon file, double-clicking on the icon loads the program that created it.
- Drawer: A directory containing files, and other drawers.
- Volume: A physical disk or a RAM disk.
- Garbage: The Trashcan - a deleted file backup, which works in a similar way to the 'Recycle bin' in Microsoft Windows.
An additional three file types are available and are intended for future expansion:
- Device: designed for displaying information about attached devices
- Kick: The icon of a bootable disk
- App Icon: An icon which will be used as (part of) the GUI for an application
Of these three file types, only "App Icons" currently are used by any part of Workbench/AmigaOS.
Tool files can include "tool types" in the .info file. These are used as configuration options for the program. Each tool type is a single line of text, which can optionally include parameters, written after an = sign. Tool types can be commented out by writing them in parentheses. For example, the tooltype "CX_POPKEY=ctrl alt f1" says that the application (a Commodity) will pop up the user interface in response to the key sequence Ctrl-Alt-F1.
The colours used in the icon are normally only stored as indices to the Amiga Workbench screen's current palette. Because of this, the icons' colour scheme is inherently tied to the chosen hues in the screen's palette, and choosing non-standard colours can give the icons an ugly appearance. This problem was party solved by a third-party system called NewIcons, which adds additional features to the standard .info files. Unlike normal Workbench icons, NewIcons include actual RGB colour information, and the system tries its best to match the icons' colour hues to those in the screen palette.
Since AmigaOS 3.5, Workbench supports icons with up to 256 colors. This release of AmigaOS features the Glowicons icon set by Matt Chaput. With AmigaOS 3.5, a screen-palette-independent system is used. The 4.0 icons, designed by Martin Merz, can use a palette of 32 bit each.
Notes:
- ^ AmigaOS 4.0 Image included in this article it is intended for fair use. Neither Hyperion VOF (Belgium), nor Amiga Inc. (USA) never opposed in the past to publishing in internet sites of AmigaOS4.0 screenshot kindly donated by users. Owners of Copyrights are free to register and write in the talk page of this article to ask for the removing of this image from article, and to ask also for its deletion from Wikipedia images.
- ^ "Official AmigaDOS 2 Companion" book, by Bob Ryan, 1990, IDG Books, ISBN 1878058096
[edit] External links
- The Workbench Nostalgia Page
- Amiga University - Amiga Workbench Replacements
- All versions of Workbench explained on AmigaHistory site
- How it works BOOPSI at Codewiz.org
- functioning of BOOPSI at The Flux Research Group, University of Utah.
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