Hi all,

I use latest Ambient nightly builds.

Ambient is getting so good that soon I dont need to use DOpus anymore but here are some features I'm still missing. Perhaps some/all of them are there and I dont know how to use them.

I'd like to add the same comment to several files. If I select e. g. 10 files to add the comment then the info requester opens 10 times and I have to enter in each requester the comment I want to add. Is there another way of doing it in Ambient, like e. g. in DOpus where I select the files, hit the comment button and then I have the possibility to select "Ok" "All" "Skip" "Abort". If "All" is selected then the comment is added to all the files in one go.

The same applies for "Prodect" (Attributes) and for "Datestamp" (change date and time) here also it would be a lot of help if when selecting several files the would be one requester with "Ok" "All" "Skip" "Abort" like in DOpus.

Also is there a possibility to change the text in the Windowbar. I would prefer something shorther like 1.1 GB free, 2.6 GB used, 69 % full. Perhaps this could be editable by the user like "statusbarformat"

Also when creating a new drawer would it be possible to have the string empty instead of "Unnamed" because it has to be deleted nearly everytime before entering the real new name for the drawer.

Also would it be possible to perform actions on icons also e. g. like rename. If a file which has an icon is renamed the icon and the file should get the new name.

Hopefully I'm not the only one using these features and some/all are or will be integrated into Ambient.

Reagrds

Christoph

There is a feature request page as part of the Ambient sourceforge project. You should post your suggestions there unless you are looking for feedback to fine tune your proposals.

I had my ideas rejected but I did get a reply and reasons why.

@ koan

Thanks for your advice, that's what I did.

Regards

Christoph

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You can switch to list view, and press middle mouse button in the comments column. Then type in your comment, copy it, move with the cursor keys between the files, then paste it to the other files.

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At that level everything is possible, and maybe some of these (recursive protection editor for instance) will be implemented. However, don't forget that it's just the desktop and not a full-blown file manager, even if we tend to integrate some magellan features. :)

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It's certainly possible. But we have to be (more than we actually are) careful with options. Too many options, especially when they're unsorted, tend to bloat and make the software quite complex for the average user.

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The best way to conciliate both ideas is to mark the "unnamed" text.

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I guess you refer to list mode (with all or thumbnail submode) here. In that mode/submode, it's actually sensible in my opinion to let the user decide if he will only rename the icon. If you want to rename both at once, switch to list mode/icon submode and then file will be renamed together with its icon.


[ Edited by Fab on 2007/11/18 20:57 ]

@ Fab

Thanks very much for your feed-back


Quote:

At that level everything is possible, and maybe some of these (recursive protection editor for instance) will be implemented. However, don't forget that it's just the desktop and not a full-blown file manager, even if we tend to integrate some magellan features. :)


Yes i understand, though Ambient is getting really very good and for my needs it comes to a point where I dont need Magellan anymore.


Quote:

The best way to conciliate both ideas is to mark the "unnamed" text.

Yes that would be great.


Quote:

I guess you refer to list mode (with all or thumbnail submode) here. In that mode/submode, it's actually sensible in my opinion to let the user decide if he will only rename the icon. If you want to rename both at once, switch to list mode/icon submode and then file will be renamed together with its icon.

Thanks for your advice, I will try that.

Regards

Christoph

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I think that is already present on Directory Opus 4, which was released as GPL, which means that ir could be used as source for "how it's done" (although I guess that adapting it to Ambient way of handling data might be as complex as doing it from scratch)

Also, I think it would make a good option to be able to "Automatically change to All files viewmode, when there are no icons"

Also, why does "List view" automatically switch to "All files"?

Well, gotta see if I can dig my sf login information from somewhere, so that I could request these features also "officially"

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That kind of requester is already present in most ambient operations.

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I don't like too much when the program tries to be smarter than the user. It usually fails. :)

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You can choose which submode is default in lister prefs. In addition, you can snapshot any lister (columns layout, submode, icon size,...) on a per-path basis.

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If its not a glowicon :)

submode, column layout, sorting order, icon size & co in list mode don't depend on icon at all, it's not even stored there.

What you refer to is that view type itself is stored in icon (and not properly saved with glowicons). But once you're in list mode you usually stay in list mode by propagation, and that's the typical usage. So it doesn't really matter if view mode is stored or not. :)

Hi all,

does anybody know where I could get the info of how to name the images which are used by Ambient e. g. for the toolbar if I want to change the Bookmark image I have to rename it to tbar_bookmark.

I'd like to change the def_view image but this seem not to work. Any idea?

Something else, I try to change the Attrs for a disk.info of a hd partition e. g. I would like to clear "d". If I chose information... there is no possibility to change that. Only for folders or files...

Again something else, I have a shell program in C: which is called AutoPDF. To execute it I need the the following line:

AutoPDF Source:Out/ Destination:In/ -v

Now in Opus I installed a button which executes an AmigaDOS command for this. Could anyone help me please of how to do something like this in Ambinet?

AutoPDF creates automatically pdf files from ps files which are placed in a folder. As I use this very often per day I'd like to have a possiblity to just make one click or so.

Thanks for your help.

Regards

Christoph

Hi all,

one more: would it be or is it possible to have the following possibilities for the "Status Bar":

Directories: number of directories in the current directory (exists already) AND number of selected directories in the current directory

Which results in something like this: Directories 20/3

Regards

Christoph

@rms
>Which results in something like this: Directories 20/3

1. Ambient 1.43, Release from end 11/2007
see at:
ftp://ambient:ambient@geitathome.dyndns.org//betas/Ambient/
ambient-1.43_nightly-071130.tgz
ambient-1.43_nightly-071202.tgz
...

or

http://morphosambient.sourceforge.net/daily/
http://www.pegasosppc.cz/software/ambient-1.43_nightly-071205-nodebug.tgz
http://www.pegasosppc.cz/software/ambient-1.43_nightly-071205.tgz

2. got to:
Ambient Prefs/Window
Status Line /Format

3. set Format to:
%td%/%ns%
results in something like this:"20/3" :)

I prefer to:
%ns% from %td% Directories %tf% Files %i% Icons and %l% Links, %sdu% from %du% selected


[ Edited by mk on 2007/12/6 22:00 ]


[ Edited by mk on 2007/12/6 22:09 ]

@rms
> I'd like to change the def_view image but this seem not to work. Any idea?

1. devices ("my morphos")

view_icons_icons
view_dlist_icons

2. directories

view_icon_icons
view_icon_all
view_icon_thumbs

view_list_icons
view_list_all
view_list_thumbs

3..Picture Window

view_image_normal
view_image_scaled

4. Text Window

view_text


[ Edited by mk on 2007/12/6 22:04 ]

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def_view.info (used for iconified views and view switch panel button) is a deficon and thus is looked for in deficon path (prefs->misc->deficon path).

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Info window is just acting like workbench and magellan ones here. As i wrote earlier, there could be some protection editor later anyway.

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Currently there's no "custom action" button available in toolbar, but it may change. In the meanwhile, and as your action doesn't depend on the context, i guess you can just set a hotkey, or even create an icon/script.


[ Edited by Fab on 2007/12/7 0:20 ]

@ mk

Thanks for your feed-back

I always use the latest Ambient either from Geit's ftp or from the official site but what I have found missing was a possibility to have the number of selected directories shown. Something like 3 out of 20 but just for directories.

I prefer the following:

Directories: [%td%] Files: [%ns%/%tf%] Bytes: [%sdu%/%du%]

This is more or less like in Magellan, I've got so used to it and I find it very helpfull.


Thanks very much for the list of image names for the toolbar


Regards

Christoph

@ Fab

Thanks for your feed-back

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def_view.info (used for iconified views and view switch panel button) is a deficon and thus is looked for in deficon path (prefs->misc->deficon path).


Works fine, thanks.



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Info window is just acting like workbench and magellan ones here. As i wrote earlier, there could be some protection editor later anyway.


Really great, if so I'm looking forward to it.



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Currently there's no "custom action" button available in toolbar, but it may change. In the meanwhile, and as your action doesn't depend on the context, i guess you can just set a hotkey, or even create an icon/script.


It would be great to have something like this then, or why not a "User menu" possibility like in Magellan?

I know that Ambient is a desktop but it is getting so good that I nearly don't need Magellan anymore

In the meanwhile I will try it with a hotkey.

Regards

Christoph

@ Fab

Quote:

Currently there's no "custom action" button available in toolbar, but it may change. In the meanwhile, and as your action doesn't depend on the context, i guess you can just set a hotkey, or even create an icon/script.


Here just an info, a hotkey is not really the solution as Ambient gets blocked during execution of the program. Sometimes to create a pdf takes several minutes.

Regards

Christoph

@rms

Try RUN >NIL: YourProgram .

@Fab

How about def_bookmarks? View watcher panel item button is still using def_bookmarks.info instead of def_view.info .

[ Edited by Korni on 2007/12/8 15:07 ]

@ Korni

Don't know if I understand correctely but if you rename an image to "tbar_bookmarks" it will be used as bookmark in the toolbar.

Regards

Christoph

@rms
> Don't know if I understand correctely but if you rename an image to "tbar_bookmarks" it will be used as bookmark in the toolbar.

Korni wrote of an error in the _panel_ icons:

_Panel_ object "bookmarks" uses the same icon (def_view.info) as _panel_ object "show window". For _panel_ object "bookmarks" but would be a "def_bookmark.info" much better.

Hi all,

I installed a custom commands hotkey, f10, in Ambient settings with the following command:

AmigaDOS run >NIL: AutoPDF P3-Work:PSOut/ P3-AV:PDFIn/ -v

and only "Change working directory to source" is selected.

This seems though not to work without problems as I get the following errors:

"GURU - Line 1111 Emulator" and then "GURU - Illegal Instructions" and all the serial output as per attached log.

After this I have to reboot.

I don't know if this is due to Ambient but if I open a Shell and type exactely the same command or if I use the same command in Magellan I don't get any errors and it works without any problems.

I tried 2 Ambient versions, one is [nightly build: 10.12.2007 14:16:39 . geit] and the other one is this one: http://www.pegasosppc.cz/software/ambient-1.43_nightly-071205-nodebug.tgz

Any ideas?

Regards

Christoph

autopdf crashes in shell as well here.

@ Fab

no, really I just tried it again. I conveted a 200 MB postscriptfile to pdf and no problem and no serial output at all.

Regards

Christoph

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Isn't it a too small stack problem?