Dne Sun, 12 Mar 2000 23:57:23 -0600, Glenn Gilbreath, Jr. napsal:
> Michael (xChaos) ;-),
> I was just curious as to whether you had ever given any thought to maybe
> using some parts or all of the Arachne GUI as a full fledged GUI
> Menu/File management system for DOS based computers? With its ease of
> use and navigation, I think this would be a fantastic way for a user not
> so comfortable with writing their own menu batch files to manage their
> entire system, launch programs, along with having the option to dial up
> their Internet when needed! What do you think? Have I lost it again,
> or is this a good idea? I would be happy to help, though I'm not a good
> programmer. I could help you test it though, maybe send you some
> utilities I've done in the past to incorporate into the project...I have
> a file/directory management tool I re-worked last December (checking
> for any Y2K problems) along with a simple CRC 32 bit check, a
> rudimentary antivirus scanner (but it is effective, detects over 46000
> viruses at current) along with a few other small tools. Arachne as a
> complete "desktop environment" for DOS or Linux could be just what the
> Wizard ordered! Let me know what you think.
> See you later!
> Wizard57M
Yes, I am thinking about it.
You will see that new Arachne has even more mousy tricks in it, eg.
putting of multiple lines of text or URLs to clipboard, and chance to
delete multiple URLs in clipboard (used in INBOX).
There is also almost full copy-and-paste support in editor, and I added
mouse-drop event to enable marking text blocks by mouse.
Arachne is no very close to phase, when it will be possible eg. to
drag multiple links (eg. links to local files) from one frame to
another, where it will be used as input for some kind of DGI skript
(eg. some copy.dgi, move.dgi or trash.dgi).
But there is one problem: I don't think DOS users need desktop -
every DOS user will anyway always use Norton, Volkov, FAR or Dos
Navigator instead. Simillary, in Linux you have Midnight, GNOME and KDE.
I am thinking about using Arachne in devices like cell phones or MP3
walkmans (in fact, I would like to combine both of them to one device;-)
Such devices need completely different desktop from normal PCs - so I
don't want to waste time by re-inventing wheel, and I am rather thinking
about very minimal Arachne running in 640x200xmono mode. This is where
Netscape or MISE has no chance to compete. Desktop war is lost before
it started, at least for Arachne.
But of course, I would like to add more desktop-like elements in future
versions of DOS/Linux Arachne, but I don't believe that Arachne users
are type of people which would really like to use drag-and-drop
style desktop.....and in grapahics mode there is little chance to compete
text mode file managers like Midnight Commander or Dos Navigator.
I was thinking about adding option to Arachne to behave simillar to
those traditionall two-window file managers, which may be chance to
reclaim desktop. Let me suggest something:
< > H + ? ...
+--------+-------------------+
| | |
| narrow | wide window |
| window | at least 640 pxl. |
| *dir | icon view |
| tree | message view |
| or | HTML view |
| hotlist| |
| INBOX | |
+--------+-------------------+
URL=file:C:\>
or in Linu
URL=file:/home/user/>
Let's explain my ideas:
1) Users don't like overlapping windows: it is good to have all
productive content on the screen all the time.
2) There is urgent need for integration of file manager, e-mail reader
and web browser. The way Windows and other desktops are doing it weird,
and it don't really enable full potential of computer, which is to be
MORE than your desktop, not just immitation of desktop
3) I am thinking about starting with extending hierarchical view of
your computer the same way as Windows do - eg. hotlist items are
equivalent to files. But let's do something more: let's make also
e-mail messages equivalent to files, not only mail folders to
directories. This means that display method for left column must be
really radically different from traditional "one-item-per-line" scheme
4) Clicking anything in "tree window" would always cause target to be
"wide window", while clicking in wide window will keep objects opening in
the same window.
5) There would be easy, Norton-commander-compilant way to copy between
two windows: eg. if you open FTP site, either as tree expansion in
narrow column, or fullscreen in wide column, you would be able to to
select multiple local or FTP files and copy or move them to opposite
window using F5 or F6 key and delete then with F8. But same will be
possible even with e-mail attachments: both ways. Imagine marking image
on web site, selecting object of type "message in outbox" in hierarchy
tree and copying the image from web to e-mail attachment directly,
without storing as temporary file. Of course, I count with exploring
ZIP files like if it were directories, or so.
This is probably what Arachne 2.0 will be about (besides running in WebTV
or PDA mode, of course). I think that in the "every object tree" in the
narrow window should appear even category "Downloads in process", so if
you will move to different object (directory, mail messsage...) without
stoping unfihished transfer, it will appear in category "http pages" in
"root directory" when finished. Of course, more intensive caching of
downloaded pages should be possible (maybe full caching of screen images
and caching of pre-processed HTML atoms), so switching of pages is as
fluent as minimizing and maximizing of traditional windows.
Additionaly, it would be nice to combine command line and URL prompt.
It would somewhat append your input to existing URL, so eg. if prompt
will be "file:C:\images\" and you type "someimage.gif", the GIF will
appear on screen, and same would work for online files, with logical
warnings like "cannot execute command on remote filesystem", or so.
!!! Don't expect these features before version Arachne 2.0 !!! ;-)
It would be nice if you can send me some comments to this scheme, or
maybe better ideas.
--
Michael Polak: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Arachne Labs: http://arachne.cz/
My mobile phone - up to 160 characters: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
