According the the "Feature Requests" list at Sourceforge, Kiero is working on a "Workbench like view" mode for Ambient (priority=9, which I'm assuming is high), that would allow user control of icon positioning, etc. again.

Since Itix has said that this wouldn't happen, I'm wondering if this is just outdated information or if the Ambient team has had a change of heart?

[ Edited by klesterjr on 2006/3/1 8:19 ]

Imho, Ambient needs to get "workbenchified" ASAP. I think that it is something that should happen.

Speaking for myself, i really don't miss the old view so much. It would be good to have something similar, but for everyday work, i don't miss it. But that's just me, and i'm not a die-hard workbench lover.

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I've gotten used to the current method -- but I really miss the "old" method.

Saw that request (and the assignment to Kiero) and thought I'd ask about it.

Just want to know if it's something I can look forward to.

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IIRC, kiero indeed took a look in it, and he figured out that there's still code in Ambient for the old view, it's just not working, and needs major rewrite to work again. My opinion is that don't hold your breath , but never say never.

Problem with Workbench mode is icon scaling. That is, for example, if icon positions are saved for 48x48 icons and they are used in a system with 64x64 icons as a minimum then icons overlap each other...

On the other hand I appreciate icons are sorted alphabetically by tthe default rather than in no any order...

Edit: and by looking into layout code again... Ambient detects overlapping icons and moves overlapping icon to somewhere else. So in the end saved icon positions are not respected even without autolayout. In order to make Workbench mode to work it probably should layout icons in two passes, first layout snapshotted icons and then find space for non-snapshotted icons. It probably should let icons overlap in Workbench mode... that is how original Workbench it did anyway.


[ Edited by itix on 2006/3/1 18:19 ]

@itix

That certainly makes sense (doesn't make me happy -- but makes sense ).

I use Glow Icons (which are 46x46) and the current configuration spaces them really far apart (presumably for larger PNG icons).

As an alternative -- would it be possible to add an icon spacing option (or at least automatic 'scaling' of the spacing depending on the icon size)?

I 100% agree.
I always hayed old Workbench positioning mode: it made user desktop totally disorganized and ugly. I love the new Ambient automatic one and I wayted for it for ages!! thanks to dev-team.

Obviously I could not negate to other people to come back to the old method if they prefer it (but why!? ) so dev-team it should make it selectable. Obviously if it needs time and resource in codeing this thing should have low priorities in front of more important ones (see list, mimetypes, toolbars..).

My 2 cents.

The method which Workbench used I like very much, and never get used the method that the 1.4 and 1.42 Ambient did ...until a few weeks ago. The latest builds have a really nice icon layout, it is fast, icons are always in order, and I can find everything really fast.

What I don't like in this view now is the different sizes of icons. It'd be really good if MOS had an own style, with uniformized icon look (and size). (Including toolbars, MUI images, etc.) I think, it's very disgusting when 10 styles of icons are in the same drawer (OS2.x, MWB, NewIcons, MOS icons, GlowIcons, KDE icons, Gnome icons, OSX icons...). I personally like GlowIcons very much, but sadly I didn't found any remake in 32 bit, what I like. :( Some of the icons on the MOS CD are beautiful, but I don't like most of them. :(

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There is an alternative MorphOS icon set available on download.morphos-team.net which you might like to try out.

You want something that tastes like WB, try Scalos. It's worth installing/testing. I've been using it since the first MorphOS release.