@database "MagicWB Documentation" @author "Martin Huttenloher" @(c) "Copyright © 1994 Martin Huttenloher" @$VER: MagicWB Documentation 1.4 (29-Jun-94) @font helvetica.font 13 @node main "Welcome to MagicWB" @font Helvetica.font 18 @{bg fill}@{fg highlight} MagicWB 2.0 @{fg text}@{bg background} Copyright © 1992-94 Martin Huttenloher All rights reserved - Released as SHAREWARE - @{" Table of contents " link toc} »@{" IMPORTANT " link important}« @{" Deutsch " link deutsch} @{" About " system AboutMagicWB} @endnode @node important "IMPORTANT!!!" @toc main @{fg highlight}@{b} I M P O R T A N T@{ub}@{fg text} This version of MagicWB (version 2.0) @{b}is protected and must NOT be distributed!@{ub} This means that you are not allowed to spread MagicWB 2.0 by making copies and giving them to friends, by uploading it to any Mail- Boxes, FTP servers or PD disk collections etc. @{b}MagicWB 2.0 is NOT a public release, it's for your personal use!@{ub} To prevent you from distributing MagicWB 2.0, your disk has been personalized, which means that @{b}your name and address are encoded in this package.@{ub} If you distribute MagicWB 2.0 your name & address will also be spread which will result in severe problems for you! Please, understand this and do not spread this version. For further information about legal rights, read the @{" LICENSE " link license}. Thank you! (Note: This AmigaGuide documentation is using special OS3.x features of AmigaGuide like proportional fonts. If you are working under OS2.x some parts of this text may not appear centered correctly.) @endnode @node toc "Table of contents" @toc main @font helvetica.font 11 @{b}1. INTRODUCTION@{ub} 1.1 @{" Short description " link description}..........................................................What is 'MagicWB'? 1.2 @{" Motivation " link motivation}..............................................................Why I created MagicWB 1.3 @{" System Requirements " link system}..................................What you need to use MagicWB 1.4 @{" Features & Information " link features}..........................................The MagicWB feature list @{b}2. INSTALLATION@{ub} 2.1 @{" How to install MagicWB " link howInstall}......................................How is MagicWB installed? 2.2 @{" After installation " link afterInstall}.........................................What to do after the installation @{b}3. TIPS & TRICKS@{ub} 3.1 @{" Icon management " link preserve}..............................How to preserve the Icon's attributes 3.2 @{" The fixed font XEN " link XEN}....................................Using the font XEN in the Shell @{b}4. BACKGROUND & DISCUSSION@{ub} 4.1 @{" MagicWB discussion " link b&d}................................Patterns, Colors, Fonts and Icons 4.2 @{" Patterns under OS2.x " link nick}...................How to use the patterns with 'NickPrefs' @{b}5. REGISTRATION@{ub} 5.1 @{" Why do I have to register? " link why}..................................How to support MagicWB 5.2 @{" How to register for MagicWB " system Registration}....................The SASG Registration Program @{b}6.@{ub} @{" LEGAL STUFF " link legal}.................................................Copyright, license and disclaimer @{b}7.@{ub} @{" CREDITS " link credits}..............................................Acknowledgements to all contributors @{b}8.@{ub} @{" CHANGES " link changes}........................................................................The MagicWB history @endnode @node description "Introduction" @toc toc @{b}@{u}1.1 Short description@{uu}@{ub} This is what @{b}you@{ub} have always been looking for. It is @{b}not@{ub} "just another useless Icon compilation"! It is far more different. Please, read on: This package contains @{b}all standard System-Icons@{ub} and more (actually 200 different Icons) painted in a new completely different style: They look very 3-dimensional, have @{b}8 colors@{ub}, have @{b}gradient fills@{ub}, feature @{b}click-and-push animation@{ub} if being clicked onto to simulate a pushed button and even more... To sum it up: They are simply magic! MagicWB invents a new standard for the AMIGA Workbench: Now, also the drawer Icons will get individual images wherever possible. Your SYS: partition will get these new Image-Drawers per default when installing MagicWB. Furthermore MagicWB provides @{b}over 50 Image-Drawers@{ub} for your individual use on other partitions. This enables a very nice diversified look on your Workbench screen. Second, you will find @{b}52 Background-Patterns@{ub} for your Workbench, also designed with the same 8 colors as the Icons. And as a bonus you will find four beautiful AGA-Patterns which you can use in con- junction with MagicCopper. They give your Workbench the look of a workstation with over 16,8 million colors. Simply magic... Furthermore this package contains @{b}9 different fonts@{ub} as a replacement for the most wanted WB-Fonts Helvetica, Courier and Topaz. These new Fonts have been intensively tested to provide the @{b}best readability@{ub} for your WB and to finally make the old (horrible) fonts obsolete. The fonts are @{b}complete@{ub}, i.e. ALL 256 characters are included in each font. Even symbols for control chars were added to these fonts. And with MagicWB you will have full @{b}Dock-Icons@{ub} support. Dock- Images are a very professional way of activating certain applications or complex environments via batch files. MagicWB 2.0 provides you with @{b}56 Dock-Images@{ub} for all needs. This makes the AMIGA look as professional as for example NeXT workstations. Programs like 'MagicWB-Demon' (which cares for the colors and patterns), 'IconUpdate' (for quickly converting old Icons to MagicWB- Icons) and several scripts (like the powerful new 'Update Drawers') will provide you with a full MagicWB support and complete this package. Finally this package includes an intelligent, interactive @{b}Installer@{ub} with which you don't have to worry about manually installing more than 300 different files in their respective drawers. NOTE: Also more experienced users @{b}should use the installer@{ub} because the installation of all Icons with their special tooltypes and their specific quantities is not a piece of cake! You can trust the Installer, it will @{b}not@{ub} make any mess to your system. For more information about how the installation will work, please read the section @{" Installation " link howInstall} in this document. @{b}If you are still not convinced to install this magic package, please take a look at the preview picture by double-clicking 'Show MagicWB'.@{ub} @endnode @node motivation "Introduction" @toc toc @{u}@{b}1.2 Motivation@{uu}@{ub} I simply didn't like the gray and abstract Icons provided by Commodore. Although they could use the color blue for their Icons they rarely used it. In fact, only white and black were used for these Icons. Rather boring, don't you think? Second, I wanted to see nice background patterns on my Workbench. Unfortunately there is no pattern pool existing in the AMIGA community, so I had to create them myself. Furthermore I didn't like the font topaz/8 for my shell environment or for any other programs using topaz/8; it was too fat. And I wanted to have a really tiny font for my Icons. Helvetica/9 was just the right font and the right size. BUT it was so small that you could hardly read the text, because it was not designed well. So I decided to make replacements for topaz and helvetica. As many users also like the Courier font I decided to refine it, too. The professional look of workstations by using docks for their applications was also never achieved (optically). Therefore I decided to exploit the possibilities of an 8 color palette and designed various Dock-Images for all purposes. To sum it up, I wanted to polish up the outer appearance of the AMIGA Workbench to probably outdo any other "Workbenches" on other computer platforms. I hope that I achieved this goal... @endnode @node system "Introduction" @toc toc @{u}@{b}1.3 System Requirements@{uu}@{ub} - Well, what can I say? @{b}Of course@{ub} you will need at least @{b}Kickstart 2.0@{ub}. MagicWB is supporting all Kickstart/Workbench versions beginning from version 2.0. - MagicWB supports OS3.x in a special way: OS3.x users will benefit from a better palette (which is only available under AGA or any graphics board), a better color handling and beautiful AGA- Patterns with hundreds of colors. - MagicWB needs a @{b}screenmode with 8 colors@{ub}! Don't be afraid if you have got a standard AMIGA with 7.14 Mhz: Practice shows that a screenmode in Hires-Interlaced with 8 colors on a standard AMIGA is still rather fast due to a really well programmed Workbench! (Thanks must go to all the ingenious AMIGA programmers!) - Beside the fact that you need at least 8 colors you should also use a @{b}'proportional' resolution@{ub} like Hires-Interlaced or higher! If not, the Icons will appear distorted because all Icons, Fonts and Patterns were designed in PAL Hires-Interlaced (640x512). Proportional resolutions are resolutions with square pixels. - And you should have got a @{b}harddisk@{ub} if you want to install the whole package (is there still anyone out there without one?) :-) Make sure that you have got at least 300 KB of free diskspace on your SYS: partition. @endnode @node features "Introduction" @toc toc @{b}@{u}1.4 Features & Information@{uu}@{ub} - All Icons have been painted with great devotion. They have been painted in a special design-style called 'XEN'. This style features very @{b}plastic/3-D Icons@{ub}. - Icons do appear to have more than 8 colors due to @{b}gradient fills@{ub}. - Icons do have the greatest possible detail-level due to manual 'pixel by pixel' @{b}anti-aliasing@{ub}. - Icons are not abstract symbols representing their function, they appear @{b}photorealistic@{ub} to fit the eyes' natural impression of an object. So the eye will no longer concentrate on the Icon-Text (because with the old Icons it was faster to search for the Icon-Text than for the Icon to find a specific file), it will concentrate on the Icon again (like it was intended to be!). - And the Icons also do have the typical and natural @{b}click-and-push animation@{ub} to simulate that the Icon was pressed down. - MagicWB features the @{b}complete replacement@{ub} for the old & obsolete Commodore-Icons. - MagicWB provides you with @{b}56 Dock-Icons@{ub} for the use with 'Tool- Manager' or any similar program. These Dock-Images will highly enhance the visual appearance of your Workbench! - Furthermore MagicWB features several @{b}Special-Icons@{ub} like RAM- Disk, Harddisk, CD, Syquest, Preset, ReadMe & AmigaGuide, various Commodity-Icons, special Prefs-Icons and finally templates for all Icon-Types to generate user specific Icons. - MagicWB features @{b}52 Background-Patterns@{ub} for "polishing up" your Workbench. I think that is enough to find your personal favorite Pattern. Four special Patterns are AGA-Patterns which will provide you with a 16,8 million color look in conjunction with MagicCopper. - MagicWB features a new standard for the AMIGA workbench: Image-Drawers! The whole SYS: partition gets individual drawer-icons and @{b}over 50 image-drawers@{ub} are supplied for your personal use. - MagicWB features 9 thoroughly tested new @{b}fonts@{ub} as a @{b}replacement@{ub} for the old imperfect fonts Helvetica/9/11/13, Topaz/8/9/11 and Courier11/13/15. These new fonts contain all 256 ASCII-Characters, which means that they are complete and all foreign characters are included. Even symbols for control chars were added to the fonts. The XEN-Font is the perfect replacement for a fixed font like 'topaz'. - MWB has become @{b}2-3 times faster@{ub} and needs 67% less chip-memory. - MagicWB features a very flexible @{b}Installer@{ub} (please consult the @{" Installation " link howInstall} chapter for full information about this feature) - MagicWB supports OS2.0, OS2.1 and OS3.x - MagicWB is truly magic... :-) @endnode @node howInstall "Installation" @toc toc @{b}@{u}2.1 How to install@{uu}@{ub} MagicWB is very easy to install: The installation is done via the Installer of MagicWB. Just double-click the 'Install' Icon and the Installer will open a window and explain how the installation will proceed. After the information you can decide whether you want to start the installation or not. @{fg highlight} @{b}NOTE: Please use the Installer to install MagicWB@{ub}! @{fg text}I strongly recommend this! You won't regret it. If you manually install MagicWB you will waste much time and you will probably install MagicWB not correctly to your system. The Installer @{b}preserves all Icon attributes@{ub}, such as Tooltypes, Default Tool, Icon position etc. Everything is being installed very logically for your convenience. Nothing will be overwritten. @{b}Also expert users should take the Installer into consideration!@{ub} For further information you can read the @{" details " link details} about the installation. @endnode @node details "Installation" @toc toc @{u}@{b}The details about the installation@{ub}@{uu} 1. The Installer will install several @{b}Icons@{ub} to replace the old Icons of your system. The Installer will @{b}preserve all Icon attributes@{ub} of your old Icons. Only the Icon images will be changed. This means that the Tooltypes, the Icon position, the stack size, the default tool and even the position of the window opened by a Drawer-Icon will be preserved. The Installer analyses your Workbench version and will only install the corresponding files. It scans your directories to look if it can find the Icons you should have for your specific Workbench version. It only replaces the existing Icons with MagicWB-Icons. 2. The Installer will install 9 new @{b}fonts@{ub} to your Fonts-directory: - XHelvetica/9 - XHelvetica/11 - XHelvetica/13 - XEN/8 - XEN/9 - XEN/11 - XCourier/11 - XCourier/13 - XCourier/15 These 9 fonts are thought to replace the existing WB-Fonts. But they have different names so that you still have got the old fonts on your harddrive. The file 'font.prefs' will be installed to ENVARC: so that you can already use these better fonts the next time when you boot your system. If you should not like the new fonts (what I cannot believe :)) then you can change it in the Font-Preferences. 3. The Installer will install @{b}two@{ub} of the @{b}52 Patterns@{ub} to your directory SYS:Prefs/Patterns. If you don't have this directory it will be created. Only two patterns will be installed to save diskspace! Finally the file 'WBPattern.prefs' will be installed to ENVARC: to ensure that you will see these patterns as backgrounds on your Workbench the next time you boot your system. This will only be done under OS 3.x. OS 2.x is not able to display these patterns as a background. Instead you will have to use the package 'NickPrefs' under OS2.x to use these patterns. For more information read @{" Patterns under OS2.x " link nick}. 4. The Installer will care for your User-Startup and Startup-Sequence. Appropriate entries are appended to these files to ensure that the RAM-Disk-Icon is displayed after a reset, the MagicWB: assign is done on the appropriate directory, the MagicWB colors are being allocated correctly after each OpenWB() and the patterns remap management will be performed without problems. NOTE: The entry to activate the MagicWB-Demon must be both in the user-startup @{b}and@{ub} startup-sequence. This will ensure that the colors are always allocated in the right way even if some bootpic programs open a screen before the WB opens. So, do not remove any entries which were done by the MagicWB installer! BACKGROUND: The MagicWB-Demon must be launched after SetPatch and the ENV: assign but before IPrefs in the Startup-Sequence. The second start of MagicWB-Demon in the User-Startup will be skipped if it is already running. This entry is thought as a precaution if the Startup-Sequence should be overwritten or deleted by mistake. @endnode @node afterInstall "Installation" @toc toc @{b}@{u}2.2 What to do after the installation@{uu}@{ub} 1. You may want to re-arrange certain Icons and snapshot them like for example the Harddisk-Icon(s) or certain Drawer-Icons. Just do this to fit your personal taste as the MagicWB Icons have different sizes compared to the older previously installed Commodore Icons. 2. If you are going to snapshot the RAM-Icon you should bear in mind that the next time you reset your system the snapshot-position will be lost! You will have to copy the 'Disk.info' from your RAM-Disk to the right place on the harddisk. For your convenience I have written a small script that will exactly do this task for you: @{b}Just double-click the 'Snapshot RAM-Icon'-Icon and follow the instructions that are given to you.@{ub} 3. As the main Installer only replaces the old drawers in your SYS: directory you might still find old drawers in other directories. And as you probably don't want to have several old Drawer-Icons on your harddisk I have also included another script that will replace/update the remaining old Drawer-Icons: @{b}Just double-click the 'Update Drawers'-Icon and follow the instructions.@{ub} 4. As only two patterns were installed to 'SYS:Prefs/Patterns' after the installation, you should take a look into the drawer 'MagicWB/Patterns' where you can find @{b}52 Patterns@{ub}. Try them out and copy the desired ones to SYS:Prefs/Patterns on your harddisk. The AGA-Patterns (#?_AGA) are thought to be used in conjunction with MagicCopper and its settings of the same name as the patterns. The installer will do this task for you if you do have the AGA chipset. Just copy the desired AGA-Patterns to SYS:Prefs/Patterns to use them with the WBPattern-Prefs program. More information about the AGA-Patterns in @{" MagicWB-Discussion " link b&d}. 5. MagicWB features over @{b}56 Dock-Images@{ub} for the use with a dock- supporting utility (e.g. ToolManager). These Dock-Images really give you the professional touch you have always wanted to outdo any other computer desktops! So, take a look into the drawer: MagicWB/XEN-Icons/Dock-Brushes There you will find further information about the MagicWB-Dock-Images. 6. MagicWB provides @{b}over four dozen@{ub} of amazing @{b}Image-Drawer-Icons@{ub} to achieve a more diversified and beautiful look on your magic WB. Some have already been installed to your SYS: partition. Please take a look into XEN-Icons/SPECIAL/ImageDrawers. There you can find the complete Image-Drawer-Pool which you need to convert other directories on other partitions to the new look. Make use of the program 'IconUpdate' and its very comfortable app-window feature to quickly change your old drawers. A few "drag&drops" and the convertion will be done. @endnode @node preserve "Tips & Tricks" @toc toc @{u}@{b}3.1 How to preserve the Icon's attributes@{ub}@{uu} When you copy an Icon over an older Icon, all original attributes (Tooltypes, stack size, default tool, icon position and window position) will get lost, because it is a simple copy procedure. Only replacing the images of an Icon is much more difficult. You could do this with the help of 'IconEdit' but it is much too time-consuming and unwieldy (and 'IconEdit' is still a little bit buggy). MagicWB 2.0 provides you with a special utility which was especially written for this task. Please take a look into the directory 'MagicWB/ Programs' where you will find this program and its documentation. It is called @{b}IconUpdate.@{ub} @endnode @node XEN "Tips & Tricks" @toc toc @{u}@{b}3.2 Using the font XEN in the Shell@{uu}@{ub} You may have noticed that the font XEN in your Shell environment is touching the upper and left black border of the Shell. As the font is also black it is hard to read the font because there is no space between the font and the border of the shell (i.e. the font is merging into the border). It doesn't look good. Here is the solution: You just have to tell the Shell that it should make a space between the font and the border of the Shell. This is done via escape sequences. Just follow these steps: 1. Load the file 'Shell-Startup' from your 'SYS:s' directory into an editor. 2. In this file you might see some "alias" command lines. At the end of the file you should see a line with the command "prompt" at the beginning of that line. Just place the following line @{b}before@{ub} the prompt line: echo noline "*e[1;1H*e[J*e[6x*e[15y" (You can copy this line from this document and insert it into the right place in your shell-startup, so you won't need to type it out) 3. Save the file 'Shell-Startup' This little escape sequence will tell the Shell to make a space of 1 pixel between the font and the left and upper border of the shell. @{b}Note:@{ub} The coordinate '6x' in the upper escape sequence will always work as the left border of the shell will never change in its size. But the coordinate '15y' must be changed IF you use another font than XHelvetica/11 as the SCREEN font. The coordinate 15y is only appropriate if you use an 11 point font. If you use another font that might be bigger or smaller, the window bar of the shell window will also be bigger or smaller. Just try out several values to find the correct value that will fit to your selected screen font. You may also use this prompt line if you like, instead of the old prompt line in your shell-startup: prompt "*e[1;31;47m%n*e[0m*e[31;47m.%s*e[0;31;40m>*e[0m " This is the prompt I am using in my Shell environment. @endnode @node b&d "Background & Discussion" @toc toc @{u}@{b}4.1 MagicWB discussion@{ub}@{uu} I would like to discuss certain things about MagicWB. So this chapter may be interesting for those who want to know more about this package. @{" The Patterns " link thepatterns} @{" The Palette " link thepalette} @{" The Icons " link theicons} @{" The Fonts " link thefonts} @endnode @node thepatterns "MagicWB discussion" @toc b&d @{b}@{u}The Patterns@{ub}@{uu} MagicWB features over 52 patterns which should get the best out of the eight available colors on your WB. A dozen new patterns were added to MagicWB 2.0. A few older and ugly ones were deleted to get enough space for the new ones. MagicWB provides you with some AGA-Patterns which you should use in conjunction with @{" MagicCopper " link copper} (MagicWB/Programs). With the copper ability of MagicCopper and these patterns you will get a 16,8 million colors look on your WB. You only need a 16 color screenmode (or more if you want) to get this beautiful 24-bit-workstation-look on AGA-Amigas. MagicCopper will be installed by the MagicWB Installer if you request it and do have the AGA chipset. It can be found in SYS:WBStartup and will therefore be activated after each reset. You can activate the control window of Magic- Copper by pressing the key combination CTRL-LALT-W. Here you will find four copper presets which do have the same name as the appropriate MagicWB AGA-Patterns. For best results use the effects with the same name as the selected pattern. Here you can also define your own gradients and save them. If you would like to create own gradient patterns load a MagicWB-AGA- Pattern into a painting program to get the right palette. Always use the deep blue color where you would like to see the gradient "shine through". Torsten Hiddessen (a friend of mine) has contributed some very nice back- grounds to MagicWB. Although we would have liked to supply the MagicWB users with all available MagicWB backgrounds we could only pick out a very special selection due to restraints in the maximum floppy diskspace. If you couldn't get enough and are interested in more MagicWB backgrounds feel free to contact Torsten under . @endnode @node thepalette "MagicWB discussion" @toc b&d @{b}@{u}The Palette@{ub}@{uu} The new palette of MagicWB 2.0 is highly optimized and improved. Since Commodore chose the 4-bit value <10,10,10> for the background gray I initially had to build all other colors (especially the gray colors) around this gray color. This resulted in a far too bright palette. Many must have noticed that the best way to achieve a good MagicWB-look was to decrease the brightness level of the monitor which (on the other hand) resulted in a screen that was far too dark when viewing pictures. So, the old MagicWB palette forced the user to an unbalanced setting of the monitor's black-level (brightness). Now, with the new palette the user will get a more vivid, better saturated (more colorful) 3-D-look with im- proved gray and brown gradients. This was only possible with the slight increments of the 8-bit-palette of the AGA-chips. AGA uses 8 bits per RGB gun. This results in an accuracy of 256 steps for each gun. Since the currently available graphic boards for the Amiga use a similar display chip as the VGA-graphic-boards on MS-DOS machines, they can only display 6 bits per gun which results in an accuracy of just 64 different steps per RGB gun. This will not cause any problems with the MagicWB palette. But still, only AGA users can experience the new palette to its full extent with all the fine nuances. Users of graphic boards have to deal with sort of a rougher setting for the new palette. As I checked this out myself I can assure you that the difference is very small. I can only recommend one little change in the MagicWB palette to the users of graphic boards: You may change the first color (color 0) in the palette preferences of the Amiga Workbench from the original value 37 to 36 for each RGB gun. This will compensate for the rougher display of the gradients. Note: Changing the last four colors of the MagicWB palette in the palette prefs program won't do anything to the actual colors on the WB screen. These last four colors are managed by the MagicWB-Demon, which is activated in the 'startup-sequence'. You should not change any of the original MagicWB colors if you don't know exactly what you are doing. If you intend to change the last four colors you will have to load the 'startup-sequence' into a text editor, search the line which starts the MagicWB-Demon and change those RGB 8-bit-values in that line. Since the MagicWB-Demon is started before its second start in the 'User-Startup', any color changes only take effect if they are applied in the 'startup- sequence'. The second start of the MagicWB-Demon in the 'user-startup' is only done for safety reasons (if the 'startup-sequence' should be some- how overwritten by mistake). @{b}Important:@{ub} Please remove all color allocation utilities/patches (like AdjustWBColors, ProcurePens, ShoveColors, PatchPens [Empy-Player] etc.) since they would get in conflict with the MagicWB color allocation system when running simul- taneously. The MagicWB solution is more improved and recommendable. @endnode @node copper "MagicCopper" @font Courier.font 13 @toc b&d @{u}LEGAL STUFF@{uu} Copyright ©1992-1994 by Christian A. Weber, Bruggerweg 2, CH-8037 Zürich, Switzerland. THIS PROGRAM IS SHAREWARE. IF YOU LIKE IT, SEND ME SOMETHING (US $10 IS APPROPRIATE) AND YOU WILL BECOME A REGISTERED USER. USE AT YOUR OWN RISK. NO WARRANTY. NO REFUNDS. NO CARRIER. IT IS ILLEGAL TO DISTRIBUTE THIS PROGRAM ON DISKS WHICH COST MORE THAN US $5 PER FLOPPY DISK, OR MORE THAN US $30 PER CD. DISTRIBUTION IN CONJUNCTION WITH 'MAGICWB' IS AUTHORIZED. @{u}DESCRIPTION@{uu} MagicCopper lets you create rainbow color effects for a selectable pen color number on the Workbench screen, using the entire 16 million color range of the AGA chips. You specify the color of the first and the last line of the screen, and MagicCopper will make a smooth color change by setting a new color value on every scanline. You can use the built-in configuration window to add or remove color effects. A set of built-in effects is provided for the use with the MagicWB-AGA-Patterns with the same name as the patterns. @{u}TOOLTYPES@{uu} MagicCopper recognizes the following tooltypes, which can be changed by clicking on the MagicCopper icon and selecting "Information..." from Workbench's "Icon"-menu: Name Example Function -------------------------------------------------------------- CX_POPKEY ctrl alt w Selects the key which will open the configuration window CX_POPUP Yes | No If set to Yes, the configuration window will open whenever the program is run. CX_PRIORITY 0 Not very useful. Just ignore it. COLORNUMBER 8 Pen number of the color to change. A value of 0 means background color, 1 is normally the text color, 3 is for window borders, etc. Must be in the range of 0 to 255. STEP 4 Number of lines between color changes. Defaults to 3. If you have a fast processor, you may set this to 2 or 1, which will look a tad better, but gives slower screen movement. BORDERBLANK If this tooltype is present, MagicCopper will change the border color to black. This is on by default. RANDOMFX If present, MagicCopper picks a random effect out of your effect list rather than using the active one. EFFECT These are the effect entries. You should use the configuration window to change them, and not edit the tooltypes directly. The effects are stored in the following format: EFFECT startcolor - A six digit hexadecimal number specifying the color of the first line of the screen. The first two digits select the red level, the next two digits the green and the last two digits the blue level. So a startcolor of 0xF765E3 would give you a nice pink (0xF7 for red, 0x65 for green and 0xE3 for blue; 00 is dark and FF is bright). endcolor - A six digit hexadecimal number specifying the color of the last line of the screen. flags - Bit 0: If set, this effect is selected. Only one effect may have this bit set at a time. Bit 4: If set, 'startcolor' is ignored and a random number is used as start color. Bit 5: If set, 'endcolor' is ignored and a random number is used as end color. name - The name of the effect. @{u}AUTHOR@{uu} Christian A. Weber Internet: weber@relog.ch, weber@amiga.icu.net.ch Limmat-NET: chris@limmat.net.ch CBMNET: chris@mighty.adsp.sub.org Snail mail: Bruggerweg 2, CH-8037 Zürich, Switzerland. @endnode @node theicons "MagicWB discussion" @toc b&d @{b}@{u}The Icons@{ub}@{uu} Aah, the Icons!! I have probably repainted them a hundred of times. I am now at the point where I am almost content with their design. The most important Icons (in my opinion) are the default Icons, because they are the ones you will probably see most of the time when working on your Workbench. So I probably redesigned them a thousands of times. :) Just a word to the Project-Icon: This was probably the most difficult one to create, because it is hard to symbolize the expression "project". What should I paint to fit this expression, I wondered? The final Icon is a capital 'P' that is being constructed with geometric objects. 'P' of course stands for "project" and the whole idea was taken from the typesetter's craftsmanship to design the letters of a font. I think it perfectly visualizes the expression "project", i.e. a sort of creation. (If you think this Icon has got any similarities with the PageStream logo, well, it should not... :) ) The Preset-Icon is a problem: Commodore did never include a def_preset Icon in the AMIGA OS. If a program generates a Preset-Icon it will always take the old standard Preset-Icon. So you can not tell the system to use your personal Preset-Icon. I hope that Commodore will fix this in the future! Anyway, if you want to have a Preset-Icon in the XEN style you can find it in your SYS:Prefs/Presets directory. It is called 'Preset.info'. If you want to replace the old Preset-Icon with this one, please follow the instructions explained in the chapter @{" How to preserve the Icon's attributes " link preserve} of this documentation. There are all different template icons included in the MagicWB distribution. Please use them to create your own personalized icons. You can find them in XEN-Icons/Special/Templates, in XEN-Icons/Special/ImageDrawers and XEN-Icons/Dock-Brushes. @{b}For the first time@{ub} you can use a @{b}feature@{ub} that should not be officially available for the AMIGA users: If you have ever tried to paint your own Disk-Icon and wanted to define it as a default Icon, you have probably noticed that the Workbench still was going to use the old and ugly Disk- Icon if you had inserted a NO-DOS-Disk. Only if you had inserted a DOS Disk you would be able to see your personal Disk-Icon. This is rather inconsequent and annoying! @{b}But:@{ub} There is an undocumented feature available already since OS 2.0 that unofficially allows you to use a different @{b}Icon for NO-DOS-Disks:@{ub} Each time you insert a NO-DOS-Disk the system looks for an Icon called def_Kick.info in ENV:Sys (don't ask @{b}me@{ub} why they called it 'Kick'!). This Icon must be a special Icon (it must @{b}not@{ub} be generated with 'IconEdit' because it is not a normal Icon with one of the available Icon-Types). Well, MagicWB is making this feature available to you for the first time. Now, if you insert a NO-DOS-Disk you will be presented with a special NO- DOS-Disk-Icon that is painted in the same style as the normal Disk-Icon. The only difference: The normal Disk-Icon has got a disk label and the new NO-DOS-Disk-Icon is just a blue disk without a disk label. So you can visually see which kind of disk has been inserted. Nice feature, eh...?! Well, it's a kind of magic..... :) @endnode @node thefonts "MagicWB discussion" @toc b&d @{b}@{u}The Fonts@{ub}@{uu} I worked hard to design all the numerals, letters and special letters in each font. I wanted to either make the @{b}complete@{ub} font or no font. As already mentioned the XEN-Font is the replacement for topaz. This font exists in three sizes: 8, 9 and 11 point. You will probably notice that XEN 8 and 9 are not very different in their sizes. XEN/9 is almost the same as XEN/8. The only difference: It is 1 pixel larger and therefore certain letters that reach below the baseline (like p, q, y, j, g) are looking better with XEN/9. Another advantage: The line spacing is bigger and so the font XEN/9 is very convenient for the Shell or for displaying texts because of its good readability! The font XEN/8 is perfect for user interfaces with buttons, because it perfectly fits into buttons without needing too much space. The XEN/8 is for example very useful in Dir- Opus for the 'Requesters', as a 'General' font, for the 'Clock/Memory' bar and for the path names, while the font XEN/9 will magically work in the 'Text viewer' and the 'Directory window' of DirOpus. Try it out and you will never want to miss it again! DirOpus is just an example of a program which supports the user in defining his desired fonts for the program. You can of course define the XEN-Font in any other program that supports font definition. The font XEN is the result of my goal to make the smallest possible non-proportional font for the Workbench. It is @{b}not@{ub} possible to make this font smaller without destroying its readability. It is highly elaborated and each pixel has its function in this small and thin font. I hope you like it... In addition you can find the font XEN in a 11 point size. This was done for AMIGA users with higher resolutions like 1024x768. There it won't appear so small like the XEN/9 font. For lower resolutions it's probably too big. Known problem: As you will probably install the XEN-Font as the SYSTEM DEFAULT font, some programs (that are not programmed well, i.e. programs that are not font sensitive) will display their interfaces a little bit strange, because they expected the font topaz and programmed their interfaces to only work with the dimensions of the topaz font. A program that was programmed like this is for example PageStream2.x. Anyway, the XEN- Font will be displayed properly and you can still work with the program's interface (only some spaces are not looking good). This is not the fault of the XEN-Font, it is the fault of the program! The fonts XHelvetica/9 and XHelvetica/11 are the result of my annoyance at the corresponding Helvetica fonts from Commo. As these two fonts both are very small, every pixel counts (as I mentioned above)! If one pixel is set at the wrong position in the font-grid it may destroy the optical appearance of the font. I designed both fonts with the same kind of perfection as the XEN-Font. Especially the XHelvetica/9 is now readable. Its use is clear: This is the perfect font for the Icons on the Workbench. I had to struggle with the small letters a,s,e,x and y because they were too small to make them readable, but I finally managed it. Because the Icon itself is more important than its text, the Icon-Text should be as small as possible. With the XHelvetica/9 you are using the smallest (and still readable) PROPORTIONAL font on your Workbench. (NOTE: Try it as the 'Buttons' font in DirOpus...) The XHelvetica/11 was designed because the original Helvetica/11 still was not perfect. XHelvetica/11 is the perfect SCREEN-FONT for the menus, requesters and user interfaces. XHelvetica/13 is useful as menu text for higher resolutions. It should replace the original font. The XCourier is a replacement for Courier, another preferred fix font for the use in editors and in shells, especially when running under a resolution of 1024x768 or higher. As requested by many users I also enhanced this font for the sizes 11, 13 and 15 points. Except of being very enhanced, these fonts also feature symbols for control chars (like 'escape' or 'form feed' etc.) to also get a visual feedback of ASCII values representing control chars. @endnode @node nick "Background & Discussion" @toc toc @{u}@{b}4.2 Patterns under OS2.x@{ub}@{uu} The following is only interesting for OS2.x users: If you want to use the patterns of MagicWB you will have to install the package 'NickPrefs' (by Nicola Salmoria) to your system, because Workbench 2.x does not support to load patterns with different and bigger sizes. You can find NickPrefs in the MagicWB/Patterns/NickPrefs directory. It is very easy to install. Please follow the instructions of the NickPrefs documentation to know how to install NickPrefs correctly. By default the MagicWB Installer installs only @{b}one@{ub} Pattern to the SYS:Prefs/Patterns directory. You can find the pattern Marble_CLASSIC there. You may configure NickPrefs' WBPicture program in the way that it uses this pattern every time you boot your system. Read the documentation. You can of course use all other Patterns in MagicWB/Patterns under OS2.x. @endnode @node why "Registration" @toc toc @{b}@{u}5.1 Why do I have to register?@{ub}@{uu} MagicWB has been and will be a time-consuming work for me. If you like this product you should support me with the registration fee. This will @{b}enable future versions of MagicWB@{ub}. There might be some people out there in the AMIGA community who think "It is absolutely ridiculous to pay for a bunch of Icons, Patterns and Fonts". Well, let me say this: MagicWB is truly not a program, that's clear. But why should a program be worth more than a package where the author probably invested the same amount of time as another author with his program. By the way: MagicWB in the actual version has grown far beyond being just an icon collection. And it has evolved to a standard for the Amiga WB. Anyway, MagicWB @{b}is software@{ub}. But in this whole discussion there is one thing being neglected that finally counts: Do I (the user) like this software or not? And if I (the user) @{b}use@{ub} it and @{b}enjoy@{ub} it, it surely @{b}is@{ub} worth the price. @endnode @node legal "Legal Stuff" @toc toc @{u}@{b}6. LEGAL STUFF@{ub}@{uu} The package "MagicWB" is: Created by Martin Huttenloher @{b}Copyright © 1992-94 Martin Huttenloher@{ub} - All rights reserved - @{" DISCLAIMER " link disclaimer} @{" LICENSE " link license} @endnode @node disclaimer "Legal Stuff" @toc legal @{u}@{b}DISCLAIMER@{ub}@{uu} This software is provided "@{b}as is@{ub}" without warranty of any kind, either expressed or implied. By using MagicWB, @{b}you agree to accept the entire risk@{ub} as to the quality and performance of this package. In no event (unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing) will the author of MagicWB be liable to you for damages, including any general, special, incidental or consequential damages arising out of the use or inability to use this package (including but not limited to loss of data or data being rendered inaccurate or losses sustained by you or third parties), even if such holder or other party has been advised of the possibility of such damages. Of course, MagicWB was tested extensively before it was released... @endnode @node license "Legal Stuff" @toc legal @{u}@{b}LICENSE@{ub}@{uu} 1. This license applies to the product called "@{b}MagicWB@{ub}", a package for the AMIGA computer, published by Martin Huttenloher under the concepts of @{b}Shareware@{ub}. The terms "Package", "MagicWB" and "Archive", refer to this product. The licensee is addressed as "you". This license does not apply to third party supplied programs, found in the "Patterns/NickPrefs" drawer of the original distribution archive. 2. You may use MagicWB for a period of up to @{b}14 days of evaluation@{ub}. After that, @{b}you have to register@{ub}. 3. @{fg highlight}This archive must NOT be distributed!@{fg text} You have purchased this product and have the right to use it on your computer system exclusively. This archive has been @{b}personalized to your address and name@{ub} to prevent you from distributing and spreading this package. Not a single file must be distributed! 4. Programmers and creators @{b}of FD-software@{ub} (freely distributable) are allowed @{b}exclusively@{ub} to include single @{b}Icons@{ub} of this package in @{b}their own@{ub} package-distributions. This @{b}does not@{ub} apply to the @{b}Patterns@{ub}, @{b}Fonts@{ub} or @{b}Dock-Images@{ub} included in this archive. The only conditions: - Be so kind and send the author of MagicWB a copy of your creation where his Icons are included. - Do not remove any copyright notices when distributing these Icons and do not forget to mention the author of MagicWB in the accom- panying documentation of your creation/package/program. - @{b}And@{ub}: Do not forget to include the Palette files for OS2.x @{b}and@{ub} OS3.x in your package! :) (found in Prefs/env-archive/sys of this archive) Any other conditions (except the conditions that are excluded by this condition) stated within this license do still apply to programmers and creators @{b}of FD-software@{ub}. 5. You are @{b}not allowed to manipulate any file@{ub} of MagicWB @{b}and distribute it@{ub} under any or no name. If you manipulate any part of this package (for example take an Icon from MagicWB and change/repaint it) you may do this for your private use but you may @{b}not@{ub} distribute this modified file! (Nevertheless the author would be happy if you sent him your modified file, so that it may serve as a basis for an inclusion in MagicWB) 6. If developers of commercial software would like to include certain parts of MagicWB in their commercial programs, they will have to contact the author of MagicWB first to ask for permission. 7. By using MagicWB you indicate your @{b}acceptance of this license@{ub} to do so, and all its terms and conditions. @endnode @node credits "Credits" @toc toc @{b}@{u}7. CREDITS@{ub}@{uu} I would like to thank the following persons for their invaluable help: Stefan Stuntz (for the chats and great help with MagicWB, especially the Demon and the THX gag :-) Gerri Körner (Motivator, A4000 beta tester, for 'IconUpdate') Christian A. Weber (for his contribution to MagicWB: MagicCopper) Martin Korndörfer (for your ingenious suggestions and programming help) Walter Dörwald (for his great suggestions and creative help!) Robert Wagner (my great motivator and AGA beta tester) Daniel Schwalbe (a good friend and betatester) Kai Iske (for betatesting and the cheerful chats) Dirk Federlein (for betatesting & his outstanding program DFA!) Torsten Hiddessen (for the contribution of some very nice patterns) Andreas Schildbach (for betatesting and for sharing the same hobby: LDs) Tomislaw Kitynski (for some nice ideas) Stefan Becker (for his ingenious commodity 'ToolManager') @endnode @node changes "History of changes" @toc toc @{b}@{u}H I S T O R Y@{ub}@{uu} ------------------------------------------------------------ MagicWB 1.0 ------------------------------------------------------------ Initial release (27-Jun-93) ------------------------------------------------------------ MagicWB 1.1 ------------------------------------------------------------ Update Drawers: Script didn't check correctly if the SYS:Prefs.info was overwritten when updating the drawers in the SYS: directory. The check routine was already integrated but the checking value was incorrect. Changed value from 2658 to 2657. Update Drawers: Script got in conflict with drawer names that included SPACES in their names. If so, it did NOT update the drawers and all drawers below this drawer (if in recursive mode). Fixed. The Installer now also updates Drawers with spaces included in their names. Several users complained about the behaviour that when a PC0/PC1 DOSDriver was activated (i.e. placed in DEVS:DOSDrivers) and an MSDOS-Disk was inserted, the MSDOS-Disk-Icon didn't show up. Well, this was done on purpose and is due to the Tooltype ACTIVATE=0 in the PC0/PC1 Icon. It will only show up when the user accesses the device for the first time (for example 'dir PC0:'). Then it is also activated and will present its Icon on the Workbench. As this confused several people I changed it back to the Tooltype ACTIVATE=1. ------------------------------------------------------------ MagicWB 1.2 ------------------------------------------------------------ Added 'Intellifont' Icon (SYS:System drawer) to MagicWB for OS3.0 users. Added 'HDToolBox' Icon (SYS:Tools) to MagicWB (sorry, I forgot it :-) Added 'MEmacs' Icon (SYS:Tools) to MagicWB (forgot it, too :-) Improved 'HDBackup' Icon (Mini-Harddisk now looks better :-) HDBackup is no longer a special-Icon (its place is in SYS:Tools in the MagicWB package). Therefore the Install script had to be changed a bit. Improved Commodities Icons: Background gradient fill was changed to provide a more plastic impression of the Icons. ------------------------------------------------------------ MagicWB 1.3 ------------------------------------------------------------ The DRAWER Icon was repainted and highly improved: Now it is symmetrical and much smaller. Several people complained that it was too big and therefore used too much space compared to the old Commo drawer. Now it uses less space and less memory. (I saved 384 Bytes :-) The checking value for UPDATE DRAWERS (see top of the 1.1 history) had to be changed again to the value 2273 because I repainted the DRAWER Icon. Improved the INSTALL Icon. Completely painted the Commoditiy-Icons from scratch. The previous design of the Commoditiy-Icons was just terrible! They were not XEN-Style conform at all: They had the wrong gradients, thick borders, wrong size and just looked horrible... I wonder, what had possibly driven me to paint such a bullshit (my optic nerve must have been twisted somehow :-) Well, I probably invested so much energy into the default Icons and the Preferences-Icons (because they were more important), that I neglected the Commoditiy-Icons. And then I had to release MagicWB as soon as possible... So, here they are, the NEW Commoditiy-Icons: They have the same standard size as the Tools-Icons, have the original XEN-Style borders and gradients and were totally redesigned. I dropped the idea with the Monitor. I first included it to be compatible with the Commo-Icons. BUT, be honest, what has a Monitor in common with a Commodity??? Nothing! And the question and exclamation mark inside the monitor were just painted because the Icon painter (who painted the Icons for Commo) was probably just too unimagina- tive to visualize a Commodity. The new design represents a GUI (graphical user interface) with a mouse pointer below it selecting an option. I think this is the most typical thing about a commodity (beside the POPKEY), because nearly every commodity has got a GUI, giving the user the possibility to adjust its functions to his personal taste. This is the idea behind it. The new Icon also looks more plastic and its message is clearer. The same goes for the Commodities-Exchange-Icon: The letters 'CX' inside a monitor is not very imaginative! Now you can see a tiny GUI inside an exchange symbol. Well, I think they are far better than the older ones. I hope you agree. :-) ------------------------------------------------------------ MagicWB 1.4 ------------------------------------------------------------ Highly improved the default DISK-Icon (well, it was detail-work, so you may probably not immediately recognize the difference). It looks far more plastic and 3-dimensional (you would like to grab it :-). Especially the label-area now looks more realistic (because the label appears recessed now; the old one appeared raised). The Disk-Icon is now one of the most perfected Icons (that's why I like it the most) and I would not change it anymore (well, never say never! :-). Made the same cosmetical changes to the default NODOS-Disk-Icon. Improved Format-Icon in SYS:System. The disk is smaller, so it completely fits into the Icon now. Added a new ReadMe-Icon to the collection (in the SPECIAL directory). Improved the AmigaGuide-Icon. Highly improved the Document-Icon. The triple-border really was too exaggerated. :-) Trashcan-Icon added. There you have it, finally! (So many asked for it) Painted two versions: The default trashcan is rather pictorial/iconic (usually not my style, but that makes it special, I love it!). If you don't like it, you can find the second version in the SPECIAL drawer. ------------------------------------------------------------ MagicWB 1.5 ------------------------------------------------------------ Added 50 amazing general-purpose Dock-Image-Brushes to the MagicWB collection. So many users wanted to have general purpose Icons so that more and more old and ugly Icons could be replaced with XEN-Icons. But I decided to go one step further and design far more beautiful images by making them larger (as Dock-Images should always be larger) and by intending to design them for the use in Docks. This is far more professional and future- oriented. The times of "Leaving out" Icons on the Workbench or clicking through a jungle of windows should belong to the past. Stefan Becker has provided the AMIGA community with his brilliant commodity 'ToolManager', so why not supporting this much enhanced handling of loading procedures. That is why I am focusing my efforts on general-purpose Dock-Images. Please look into the "XEN-Icons/Dock-Brushes" drawer for more information. Added Prefs-Dock-Images to the MagicWB collection for memory/speed-purposes. Please consult the specific README file in the XEN-Icons/Dock-Brushes/Prefs- Brushes directory. The utility 'BrushExtend' was programmed for the MagicWB-Dock-Images. This utility will easily convert the Dock-Brushes to any screen depth, so that these brushes are being correctly displayed under the user's screen depth. Please take a look into the directory MagicWB/XEN-Icons/Dock-Brushes for detailed information about this nice feature. Improved 'Update Drawers'-Icon. MagicWB now has got the ultimate feature of being able to PRESERVE the tooltypes, icon position (if necessary), stack, default tool and the window position (used by Trashcan, Drawer and Disk) of the original Icons. So by now really nothing gets lost. The installer only replaces the images of the old Icons by the newer ones: Your personal settings will be preserved. NOW, you can launch the installer a hundred of times on your harddisk, nothing gets lost, everything will be preserved! :-) For this reason (see above) I no longer have to equip the MagicWB-Icons with the general tooltypes. By skipping them the Icons became approx. 5% shorter in file size. As a result of the above, the Installer and 'Update Drawers' had to be rewritten. A program named 'IconUpdate' was exclusively programmed for MagicWB. This utility will make the task of converting an old Icon to a new MagicWB-Icon much easier. Look into the directory MagicWB/Update and read the 'IconUpdate.guide' for further information. As a consequence I wrote 'IconUpdateWB' for the use via the Workbench. Improved Harddisk-Icon. Now it looks more photorealistic and finally is XEN-style-guide-compliant. :-) Improved the Devs/Monitors/Monitor-Icon. (reversed the gradient :-) Added several new Commodity-Icons to the MagicWB collection to satisfy the need of having MagicWB-Icons in the WBStartup directory. You can find them in the XEN-Icons/Tools/Commodities directory. (I guess there are too many gaps to stop... :-) Added several new Prefs-Icons to the MagicWB collection to achieve a uniform look in the Prefs-Directory. Please help me to stop this gap by providing me with old Prefs-Icons you have still found in your Prefs drawer. I guess there aren't too much, so it wouldn't be pointless to design some XEN-Prefs-Icons to replace ALL those old ones. I am providing you with Icon-Templates for general program Icons, Prefs-Icons, Commodity-Icons and MUI-Program-Icons. So you can easily convert your old exotic utility Icons by cutting out the main part and pasting it on the provided MagicWB-Template. If you are more experienced, you may want to design it from scratch by using the given template. But, please, do not expect me to design MagicWB-Icons for ALL tiny (and exotic) programs you have got on your harddisk. This would be really pointless for there are hundred of different programs out there for the AMIGA. Nevertheless, if you designed some MagicWB-Icons, I would be pleased if you sent them to me. Perhaps they may find their way into MagicWB if they are good-looking. I hope I could help you by including these templates. You can find the templates in XEN-Icons/SPECIAL. The MagicWB documentation is no longer anti-style-guide-compliant. It is now in the AmigaGuide-Format and therefore uses the screenmode and the font which the user defined to work with. Furthermore it is much more legible. It uses special OS3.x features of AmigaGuide. Redesigned and refined the MagicWB-Fonts and added XCourier in 11, 13, 15 points, added XEN/13 for higher resolutions, added XHelvetica/13. In addition, all fonts can display control chars. MagicWB 1.5 provides you with 52 Patterns! Several old ones from MagicWB 1.0 were deleted (only the ugly ones) and various new (better looking) ones were added. One of the best Patterns, the Marble_CLASSIC, was completely redesigned to make it even better. Now you have got 5 variations of this marvelous Pattern! An 'IntelOutside' Pattern was added for your fun (and it really looks great!) in 3 variations and many other new Patterns (Clouds, Granite, Wallpaper, Spots, Parchment etc.) were included. Release date: 12-Dec-93 (only for registered users!) ------------------------------------------------------------- MagicWB 2.0 ------------------------------------------------------------- MagicWB has become an SASG product. Therefore the distribution had to be changed to fit the SASG regulations. MagicWB now features an easy-to-use registration program. Consult this program for more details about the SASG. TO ALL PROGRAMMERS: MagicWB sets an environment variable called 'MagicWB' when being installed. It contains the version number of the currently installed MagicWB. Installation scripts can now determine if MagicWB is present and install the appropriate files/icons in this case. Other programs can adapt themselves to the MagicWB palette and the new format. ATTENTION: The MagicWB-TEMPLATES have been changed and improved! All MagicWB-Icons have been reworked: The blue border at the right and bottom side of all Icons was too annoying. Now, the blue border is replaced by a border in the color halfshadow (color 4) for all MagicWB-Icons. Please use the new templates (without the blue border) when creating Icons. The ReadMe-Icon was improved. Now it looks more realistic. TO ALL FD-AUTHORS: Please use this new icon for your distributions. Installer now handles CD-ROM-DOSDrivers correctly. Installer now handles Monitor-Drivers correctly. So, there you have it. Something impossible became reality: MagicWB is now more than twice as fast as all previous versions of MagicWB. This means that your @{b}WB is now 2-3 times faster than before@{ub}, nearly as fast as with Commodore 4-Color-Icons! MagicWB needs over 50% less diskspace on your harddisk now. AND: Now MagicWB needs over @{b}67% less Chip-RAM!@{ub} So, with MagicWB you are using the probably most beautiful 8-Color-WB and simultaneously the fastest and most resource-saving WB ever! And still: MagicWB works under ANY screenmode and screen depth. The colors will never look abnormal and all third-party-icons will now also have the right colors under a screenmode with more than 8 colors! Since the last four MagicWB colors are allocated at position 4-7, the user can define his personal colors in the Multicolor-Settings of Palette-Prefs. This enables the feature that the user can define his own colors for his cursor again (the last two colors in the Palette-Prefs) when he uses a screenmode with at least 16 colors. Added a german short documentation to MagicWB.guide. Added a tool called 'MagicCopper' to the MagicWB distribution. This is an improved version of the famous 'WBVerlauf' by Christian A. Weber. Thanks to Christian for contributing this nice 24-bit Copper effect to MagicWB. Added AGA support: If you wish MagicWB will install a special pattern which will make use of the smooth copperlist ability of AGA-AMIGAs. Combined with MagicCopper you will have a WB with more than 520 colors while only using a 16 colors screenmode. This feature will make your AMIGA look like a 24-bit workstation with only using 50KB of memory and having the speed of 16 colors! Removed 'BrushExtend' from MagicWB. It's no longer of any use since MagicWB works under any screen depth due to color allocation. The drawer UPDATE was renamed in PROGRAMS. The MagicWB-Update is now done via the main Installer (it will recognize a previously installed MagicWB). The CHANGES file is now included in the MagicWB.guide. The Patterns now do have a standard color format which will work under OS3.x as well as under OS2.x. Therefore OS2.x users won't have any problems with extra converting these patterns to the OS2.x format, they can now use them right away. With a little trick IPrefs is forced to not remap the patterns anymore (a nasty behaviour of IPrefs especially when working under a low-color-WB). This will avoid the dirty color remapping for the MagicWB patterns on OS3.x. OS3.x users will be surprised how fast the new patterns are being displayed on their WB screen! Make the test with some big MagicWB patterns; you will definitely see the difference compared to the older patterns! Due to that trick, you can now alter the colors of the MagicWB palette without getting in conflict with the pattern's color palette. The patterns will automatically adapt to the altered palette! Improved several scripts of MagicWB. Added a misc directory (MagicWB/Programs/Misc) with some MagicWB-style settings for other programs and preferences (this drawer will grow in time). New Drawer-Design: Many wanted it, now you have it. A new drawer standard is born where the drawers themselves represent their contents by their specific images. Therefore drawers don't look the same anymore. Drawers now do have a decent metal look and a special image at the right side. Drawers which don't have an image will get the default drawer. This step in the MagicWB design makes it complicated to fill all gaps. Therefore you can find many different drawers in the XEN-Icons/Special directory and the very important Template-Icon for the Image-Drawer for your own creations. Make use of them to personalize your own special MagicWB with the new design. Prefs-Icon has been changed to comply with the new Image-Drawer size. The "Update Drawers" script is now able to recognize the new MagicWB-Image- Drawers and won't overwrite them with the default drawer in this case. The default drawer was changed. It has got the same size as the Image- Drawers and features a better gradient (a double-gradient for more depth). Changed and improved the Icons of the distribution package. MagicWB features a new XEN/11 font. It is highly legible and has got the full character set. Now, users with higher resolutions should have no problems by using the XEN font. Skipped the XEN/13 font (the XEN font becomes ugly in greater sizes, better use the Courier instead). The main purpose behind the creation of the XEN font was to provide a fixed font with the slim and noble look of the proportional Helvetica font. MagicWB features an impressive built-in gag which will appear very rarely. Brace yourself for the real kick when it blows away your apartment... :-))) (This should remain a secret but I finally couldn't resist mentioning it) IconUpdate now offers a better WB usage: The source and destination icon(s) can now be dropped on an App-Window. The signature is no longer added to the tooltypes list if IconUpdate is used via the App-Window. A dozen new patterns have been added to the new distribution. Due to the limited size of the MagicWB archive some older (only the rather ugly) patterns were removed to provide space for the new ones. Four of the new patterns are AGA-Patterns which have to be used in conjunction with MagicCopper (MagicWB/Programs) to achieve a special 24-bit color-look. Added several new Dock-Images. Many older Dock-Images have been improved. The classic MagicWB-Palette has been altered, especially visible for users of the AGA-Chipset or graphic boards. Since Commodore chose the 4-bit value <10,10,10> for the background gray I initially had to build all other colors (especially the gray colors) around this gray color. This resulted in a far too bright palette. Many must have noticed that the best way to achieve a good MagicWB-look was to decrease the brightness level of the monitor which (on the other hand) resulted in a screen that was far too dark when viewing pictures. So, the old MagicWB palette forced the user to an unbalanced setting of the monitor's black-level (brightness). Now, with the new palette the user will get a more vivid, better saturated (more colorful) 3-D-look with improved gray and brown gradients. This was only possible with the slight increments of the 8-bit-palette of the AGA-chips. OCS/ECS-users won't be able to experience this improved palette though they will also get a better (one step darker) palette. Please consult the chapter "MagicWB Discussion/The Palette" for more information about it. All Device-Icons are now exactly 40 pixel in heigth to ensure perfect horizontal arrangement. Due to the above the HD-Icon was changed and improved (gradient). Also the RAM-Icon was adjusted to the new standardized height. The RAM-Icon is now as big as the Disk-Icon. The Syquest-Icon was stupid. Like the Disk-Icon it makes more sense to display the media and not the drive. Therefore you can now see a Syquest cartridge in the same standardized size as the Disk- and the RAM-Icon. Added a new (improved) Trashcan-Icon as Default-Icon. Added new device Icons: CD-ROM.info, Network.info New def_xxx.info Icons: def_MUI.info, def_KingCON The normal def_Icons have been reworked: They now carry better information about the dimensions of the default disk, trashcan and drawer windows. Release date: 15-Jul-94 (only for registered users!) ------------------------------------------------------------- The future: Well, it depends on you! If enough people support the idea of MagicWB by registering for it, I might take a 16 color MagicWB into consideration... and more... @endnode @node deutsch "Deutsche Kurzanleitung" @toc main Willkommen zur deutschen Kurzanleitung. Da doch einige Deutsche eine deutsche Anleitung haben wollten, habe ich mich nun dazu überwinden können, eine die wichtigen Punkte umfassende deutsche Anleitung zu schreiben. 1. @{" WICHTIG " link wichtig} 2. @{" System Voraussetzungen " link voraus} 3. @{" Installation " link wieInstall} 4. @{" Was nach der Installation zu tun ist " link nachInstall} 5. @{" Wie bewahre ich die Piktogramm-Attribute " link bewahren} 6. @{" Patterns unter OS2.x " link nickprefs} 7. @{" Über MagicWB/Registrierung " system AboutMagicWB} @endnode @node voraus "System Voraussetzungen" @toc deutsch - Selbstverständlich benötigen Sie mindestens Kickstart 2.0. MagicWB unterstützt alle Kickstart/Workbench Versionen ab Version 2.0. Sollten Sie immer noch Kickstart 1.3 nutzen (welch eine Schande!), dann sollten Sie schleunigst aufrüsten! - MagicWB ("magische Werkbank" :-) benötigt einen Bildschirmmodus mit mindestens 8 Farben. - Außerdem sollten Sie einen proportionalen Quadratpixel-Bildschirmmodus benutzen (z.B. 640x480, 800x600 etc.). Hires (650x256) ist kein Quadrat- pixelmodus, darum könnten die Piktogramme und Schriften etwas verzerrt aussehen. - Und Sie benötigen eine Festplatte. Vergewissern Sie sich, daß Sie mindestens 300 KB Platz auf Ihrer SYS: Partition frei haben. @endnode @node wieInstall "Die Installation" @toc deutsch MagicWB ist kinderleicht zu installieren: Die gesamte Installation wird unter Zuhilfenahme des Installers vollzogen. Doppelklicken Sie einfach das Piktogramm "Install" und der Installer öffnet ein Fenster, das in Kurzform noch einmal erklärt, was gemacht wird. Drücken Sie sooft die RETURN- Taste, bis die Aufforderung "Start the installation?" kommt, dann geben Sie "j" ein und betätigen die Taste RETURN. Nun folgen Installationsmeldungen, die genau erklären was gemacht wird. Nach gewisser Zeit wird (nur wenn sie einen AMIGA mit OS3.x besitzen) die Frage "Do you have the AA Chipset?" auftauchen, die Sie, sofern Sie das Chipset besitzen, mit "j" beantworten. Dann wird Ihnen erklärt, daß MagicWB Ihnen einen speziellen, sehr schönen AA-Hintergrund installieren kann. Wenn Sie sich nicht entscheiden können, beantworten Sie die darauf folgende Frage auf jeden Fall mit "j". Nachdem der Hintergrund installiert wurde, müssen Sie im erscheinenden Screenmode-Prefs nur die Farbtiefe auf 16 Farben einstellen und abspeichern. Sollte eine Systemmeldung erscheinen, ignorieren Sie diese indem Sie den Requester einfach auf die Seite schieben, sodaß er nicht mehr stört. Nach kurzer Zeit erscheint die Meldung "Do you want the HardDisk-Icon installed to other partitions?". Wenn Sie noch andere Partitionen oder Festplatten besitzen und dafür ein MagicWB-Piktogramm haben möchten, geben Sie hier nun "j" ein, gefolgt von RETURN. In der nächsten Abfrage geben Sie den Namen der Partition/Platte ein, z.B. DH1: oder HD1: etc. Ist auch dies vollzogen können Sie diesen Vorgang sooft wiederholen wie Sie Festplatten besitzen oder mit "n" quittieren. Dann geht es weiter. Bei der Frage "Do you have a SYQUEST?" geben sie "n" ein, wenn Sie keine SyQuest besitzen (Nicht zu verwechseln mit "SeaQuest" :-). Zuletzt kommt die Frage ob Sie die MagicWB-Dock-Images installiert haben möchten. Der Installer kopiert sie in das Verzeichnis SYS:Prefs/Dock-Images und fügt dann noch einen speziellen Assign in die User-Startup ein, sodaß Sie nur noch die mitgelieferte Konfiguration (die als XEN-Icons/Dock- Brushes/MagicWB-Docks zu finden ist) in ToolManager mit der Funktion APPEND hinzufügen müssen um in den Genuß der MagicWB-Docks zu kommen. Wenn Sie die Dock-Images installiert haben möchten, bestätigen Sie die Frage mit "j". Achtung: Die Dock-Images sind in Verbindung mit dem Programm ToolManager vorgesehen. Sollten Sie das Programm nicht haben, muessen Sie es sich zuerst besorgen um die Dock-Images zu verwenden. Das war's! Der Installer verfügt über eine eigene "Intelligenz", die es ihm erlaubt zu erkennen, ob ein Piktogramm eine fixe Position hat und welche Attribute und ToolTypes es enthält. Dadurch wird nichts überschrieben. Alle früheren Attribute Ihrer alten Piktogramme bleiben erhalten. @endnode @node nachInstall "Was nach der Installation zu tun ist" @toc deutsch 1. Nach der Installation möchten Sie vielleicht ein paar Piktogramme nach Ihrem ganz persönlichen Geschmack neu anordnen. 2. Wenn Sie das RAM-Piktogramm fixieren wollen, gehen Sie so vor: Fixieren Sie es wie ein normales Piktogramm, aktivieren dann das Piktogramm "Snapshot RAM-Icon" in der MagicWB-Schublade und bestätigen die Abfrage mit "j". 3. Da das Hauptinstallations-Programm lediglich die Schubladen auf Ihrer SYS: Partition erneuert, kann es sein, daß Sie noch alte Schubladen auf anderen Partitionen finden. Um auch diese zu erneuern nutzen Sie bitte das Programm "Update Drawers" in der MagicWB-Schublade. 4. Da nur ein oder zwei Patterns in das Verzeichnis SYS:Prefs/Patterns kopiert wurden (je nach Betriebssystem), können Sie es in Erwägung ziehen, die restlichen Patterns zu begutachten. Sie befinden sich im MagicWB/Patterns Verzeichnis. Die Patterns mit der Endung #?_AGA sollten in Verbindung mit dem MagicWB-Tool 'MagicCopper' unter AGA verwendet werden. Sofern Sie es bei der Installation wünschten, wurde dieses Programm installiert und läuft bereits. Über die Tasten- kombination ctrl-lalt-w können Sie das Hauptfenster von MagicCopper anzeigen lassen und einen voreingestellten Effekt auswählen, der zum Namen des ausgewählten Patterns paßt. 5. MagicWB bietet Ihnen eine Auswahl an vielen schönen Dock-Bildern für die Einbindung in "ToolManager". Sie befinden sich im XEN-Icons /Dock-Brushes Verzeichnis. Alles weitere lesen Sie bitte in der deutschen Anleitung zu ToolManager nach. 6. MagicWB bietet auch noch über 4 Dutzend Bild-Schubladen an. Diese können Sie im Verzeichnis XEN-Icons/Special/ImageDrawers finden. Alte Schubladen können Sie im Handumdrehen mit dem mitgelieferten Programm IconUpdate durch die neuen Image-Schubladen ersetzen. @endnode @node bewahren "Wie bewahre ich die Piktogramm-Attribute" @toc deutsch Wenn man ein Piktogramm über ein anderes kopiert, gehen die alten Piktogramm- Attribute gänzlich verloren. Um hierbei Abhilfe zu schaffen, wurde das Programm "IconUpdate" ins Leben gerufen. Es ist vollkommen intuitiv zu bedienen. IconUpdate befindet sich im Verzeichnis MagicWB/Programs. Wenn Sie also nachträglich ein paar alte Piktogramme mit neuen MagicWB- Piktogrammen ersetzen wollen, lassen Sie zuerst das alte Piktogramm auf das erscheinende Fenster fallen (es wird daraufhin zentriert angezeigt), dann das zu ersetzende Piktogramm auf das Fenster ziehen und schon hat das alte Piktogramm ein neues MagicWB-Piktogramm bekommen. @endnode @node nickprefs "Wie bekomme ich die Patterns unter OS2.x zum Laufen?" @toc deutsch Um die Patterns auch unter OS2.x zum Laufen zu bringen, müssen Sie NickPrefs installieren, zumal das Betriebssystem dies nicht unterstützt. Im folgenden die genauen Installationsschritte: 0. NickPrefs befindet sich im MagicWB/Patterns/NickPrefs Verzeichnis. 1. Kopieren Sie das WBPicture-Prefs nach SYS:Prefs 2. Kopieren Sie das File NickPrefs nach C: 3. Verändern Sie die User-Startup-Datei in S: folgendermassen: run > NIL: nickprefs Sodaß dieser Eintrag in irgendeiner Zeile zu sehen ist. 4. Stellen Sie via WBPicture-Prefs das Pattern "MarbleClassic" in SYS:Prefs/Patterns ein (am besten mit dem Filerequester, der auf Knopfdruck des Knopfs NAME aufgerufen wird). Dann aktivieren Sie noch die Option TILE PICTURE und drücken dann SAVE. 5. Jetzt booten Sie Ihr System und freuen sich über einen wunder- schönen Hintergrund. @endnode @node wichtig "WICHTIG!!!" @toc deutsch @{fg highlight}@{b} W I C H T I G@{ub}@{fg text} Diese Version von MagicWB (Version 2.0) @{b}ist geschützt und darf unter keinen Umständen verbreitet werden!@{ub} Dies bedeutet, daß Sie MagicWB 2.0 nicht weitergeben dürfen, indem Sie Kopien für Freunde erstellen, indem Sie es in irgendeine Mailbox oder FTP Server kopieren, oder auf PD-Disketten verbreiten. @{b}MagicWB 2.0 ist NICHT für die Öffentlichkeit bestimmt, es ist nur für Ihre privaten Zwecke gedacht!@{ub} Um zu verhindern, daß MagicWB 2.0 verbreitet wird, ist Ihre Diskette personalisiert worden, was bedeutet, daß @{b}Ihr Name und Ihre Adresse in diesem Programmpaket verschlüsselt sind.@{ub} Wenn Sie MagicWB 2.0 verbreiten, wird Ihre Adresse und Ihr Name somit auch verbreitet, was ernsthafte Probleme für Sie nachziehen würde! Bitte, haben Sie dafür Verständnis und verbreiten Sie diese Version nicht. Für weitere Informationen über rechtliche Aspekte, lesen Sie die @{" LICENSE " link license}. Vielen Dank! (Anmerkung: Diese AmigaGuide Dokumentation unterstützt spezielle OS3.x Eigenschaften des AmigaGuide, wie etwa proportionale Schriften. Wenn Sie unter OS2.x arbeiten, werden diese Eigenschaften nicht unterstützt. Daher können einige Teile dieses Textes unzentriert wirken.) @endnode