XWP v1.0.16

[Rich Walsh]

XWP v1.0.16 introduces some of the most significant Desktop usability improvements in years.

New Features

• Text Size
  With two clicks and a reboot, you can now set the text in folders, menus, titlebars, notebooks, and most dialogs to a size you can read. Use the first page of the Desktop's Properties notebook to try it out. In Test Mode, changing the text size will cause the notebook to resize and redraw itself so you can see what that size looks like. No changes will be made to your system until shutdown, so you can undo this at any time before then.
  
  Developed in conjunction with Alex Taylor, this feature relies on Alex's extended-size versions of 'System Proportional' and 'WarpSans'. The latest versions available will be installed by WarpIn if they appear to be newer than your current versions.
  
  Note: Text Size itself only affects programs that are aware of it. These include system components like PM, the WPS, XWP, Dynamic Icons, and a few others. Use Alex's newly-released Styler v1.20 to extend its reach to 3rd-party dialogs that don't specify a text size.
  
  
• Large Icons in XCenter
  XCenter's Properties notebook now gives you a choice of Large (full-size) or Mini (half-size) icons. The WinList widget extends this by letting you set its icon size separately from XCenter and by giving you the choice of text, icons, or both on its buttons.
  
  
• Low Battery Alert
  The Battery widget now has a Properties page to set up the widget's new alert. Set the level at which a warning should pop up (e.g. at 15%), and optionally, set follow-up warnings whenever the level drops another specified percent (say, 5%).
  
  

Updates and Bugfixes

• XStartup
  Large parts of the XStartup code have been rewritten for improved reliability. It should no longer be necessary to impose a long delay to ensure the first object starts properly. XStartup's notebook page has also been updated with XWP-Full's Boot Logo option getting its own page.
  
  
• XWP Help
  A Table of Contents has been added to the XWP Help system to organize its many pages into 21 top-level topics. Expanding a topic displays all relevant pages with no further nesting. Also, features not included in XWP-Lite should no longer appear in its Help file.
  
  
• Other Changes
  
  
  • XShutdown has been revised to invoke Text Size's shutdown processing when updates occur. Related code has been refactored.
    
    
  • An undocumented setup string has been added to XFldDesktop to enable Styler and other shutdown utilities to invoke Text Size's shutdown processing when changes are pending.
    
    
  • 'xwptrap.log' has been partially reformatted to make it less verbose.
    
    
  • 'h2i.exe' which converts HTML help to .INF format has been revised to support an optional "Table of Contents" mode.
    
    
  • 'xunlock.exe' has been added to the distro to ensure scripts always have access to an "unlock" utility. It returns 0 if the file is now unlocked and >0 if it remains locked or an error occured.
    
    
  • A rewrite of the Window List widget should ensure that its last button doesn't paint over the widget to its right.
    
    
  • Code to read the display's EDID has been added to support future Text Size enhancements.
    
    

Downloads

Until XWP's files have been cataloged, they should be available from /pub/incoming (the link for Styler v1.20 is already live).

• XWP v1.0.16 Full
  
  
• XWP v1.0.16 Lite
  
  
• Styler v1.20
  
  

[Martin Iturbide]

Thanks a lot Rich.

I will try it further, for the moment I'm very happy that I can enlarge the icons size of the xcenter.

Regards

[Martin Iturbide]

Text Size
With two clicks and a reboot, you can now set the text in folders, menus, titlebars, notebooks, and most dialogs to a size you can read. Use the first page of the Desktop's Properties notebook to try it out. In Test Mode, changing the text size will cause the notebook to resize and redraw itself so you can see what that size looks like. No changes will be made to your system until shutdown, so you can undo this at any time before then.

Developed in conjunction with Alex Taylor, this feature relies on Alex's extended-size versions of 'System Proportional' and 'WarpSans'. The latest versions available will be installed by WarpIn if they appear to be newer than your current versions.

Note: Text Size itself only affects programs that are aware of it. These include system components like PM, the WPS, XWP, Dynamic Icons, and a few others. Use Alex's newly-released Styler v1.20 to extend its reach to 3rd-party dialogs that don't specify a text size.

[/li][/list]

It looks good and finally there is an easy way to change the text size in one shot.
Thanks a lot.

Regards

[andreas]

had a problem to start the wps after installing (same on both of my AN-partitions).
wps didn't build up and collapsed again and again. Reboot + shift helped though (using older ini).

[Rich Walsh]

had a problem to start the wps after installing (same on both of my AN-partitions).
wps didn't build up and collapsed again and again. Reboot + shift helped though (using older ini).

I'm sorry to hear you had problems with this. Are you now able to start up OK and get to the Desktop?

I know of one possible startup issue but it isn't something that could be fixed by reverting to an older INI. More likely, it would cause the system to hang (no one has reported the issue so far, so I really don't know what it looks like - hang/crash/just some beeps).

If anyone has a hang or crash at startup that can't be fixed by using an older INI, then it would be _really_ helpful if I could see the last few entries in 'x:\var\log\xwptrap.log'. If you can't boot the system normally, you can get to it by booting the AOS installer and using the System Management console. Or, you can use Alt-F1 at the boot blob to boot to a command line (under UEFI, select "Show Recovery Options" then continue - the following screen will offer "F2 - boot to command line").

[Rich Walsh]

Here are a few notes I forgot to put in the announcement:

* updated versions of ANXWP (AN's customized XWP-Lite) should be available from AN shortly - they typically send out an announcement to customers when it's ready.

* if you are simply upgrading from the previous version and not changing from, say, ANXWP to XWP-Full, then you can uncheck the options to "register classes" and "create objects". This will keep it from messing with your folder menus and the like.

* if you use Styler's shutdown feature rather than XWP's, you must upgrade to the new version of Styler (v1.20) to have any 'Text Size' changes take effect. Alternately, you can disable Styler v1.10's shutdown, reboot using XWP, then reenable Styler.

* suggestion: locate 'x:\sys\apps\xwps\bin\xunlock.exe', open its Properties notebook, and turn to the 'Association' page. Now, associate it with '*.DLL', '*.EXE', and '*.FON' (no need for a program object). Hereafter, if you need to replace a binary that is currently in use, you can select 'xunlock' from its "Open as" menu, then do the replacement. Of course, you'll still have to terminate the app or reboot to have the system use the new binary (in the case of a WPS dll, just select 'Restart Desktop').

[andreas]

I'm sorry to hear you had problems with this. Are you now able to start up OK and get to the Desktop?

So far everything works fine. Thanks for your effort btw.

[David Graser]

Here are a few notes I forgot to put in the announcement:

* suggestion: locate 'x:\sys\apps\xwps\bin\xunlock.exe', open its Properties notebook, and turn to the 'Association' page. Now, associate it with '*.DLL', '*.EXE', and '*.FON' (no need for a program object). Hereafter, if you need to replace a binary that is currently in use, you can select 'xunlock' from its "Open as" menu, then do the replacement. Of course, you'll still have to terminate the app or reboot to have the system use the new binary (in the case of a WPS dll, just select 'Restart Desktop').

Hi Rick
To begin, thanks for all you and Alex do and your efforts to improve XWP.  I look forward to each new release. I am like a kid waiting for more candy.

It along with Xit (its additional titlebar buttons and clock, Title (moves the folder or program back in the shown order, and Killfolder (allows me to kill all open folders) allow me whatever I want with the desktop.

Next, is the attached pic the correct way to do the associations?

[Rich Walsh]

associate it [xunlock] with '*.DLL', '*.EXE', and '*.FON'

is the attached pic the correct way to do the associations?

It looks like you left out the asterisk. Without it, this will only work for files named ".exe" or ".dll" - there aren't too many of them Remove them and re-enter.

FWIW... it's perfectly OK to associate a specific file with an app. For example, in AOS 5.1 the new Multimedia Installer is associated with the file 'CONTROL.SCR'. This allows you to install an MMOS/2 package by doubleclicking this file rather than having to run minstall from the commandline.

[David Graser]

associate it [xunlock] with '*.DLL', '*.EXE', and '*.FON'

is the attached pic the correct way to do the associations?

It looks like you left out the asterisk. Without it, this will only work for files named ".exe" or ".dll" - there aren't too many of them Remove them and re-enter.

FWIW... it's perfectly OK to associate a specific file with an app. For example, in AOS 5.1 the new Multimedia Installer is associated with the file 'CONTROL.SCR'. This allows you to install an MMOS/2 package by doubleclicking this file rather than having to run minstall from the commandline.

Thanks Rich. I should have known.  I have to do the same thing when I am associating files in FM/3.

[David Graser]

Using almost all your new features.  Great job.

I may have found one small problem with the XWP Startup folder.

I copied all my start programs to the XWP Start folder.
I double click to open the folder.
The default icons size is small.
If I right click on the inside of the folder and select icons, the choices come up.
If I select Large, everything is find.

Now if I select Dynamic and select a size, ArcaOS hangs up big time which requires a soft boot.

[Eugene Tucker]

Smooth sailing no issues with anything.

[Martin Iturbide]

Hello.

It is not an issue of XWP, it is working fine here, but now I want to see if there is a way to hack the "XWorkplace Widgets Library" to support the larger icons.
I use the "HBShowDesktop"  widget (to minimize all windows at once) and even if I drop a bigger icon on the settings it does not show right.

I think that the XWorkplace Widgets Library source code is here (and also on hobbes):
http://trac.netlabs.org/xwpwidgets/browser

Workarrounds are also welcome, maybe there is a way to improve that widget icon size and I don't know.  Or maybe I should stop using "HBShowDesktop" if there is a widget I can put with the same functionality that I don't know.

Regards

[David Graser]

Using almost all your new features.  Great job.

I may have found one small problem with the XWP Startup folder.

I copied all my start programs to the XWP Start folder.
I double click to open the folder.
The default icons size is small.
If I right click on the inside of the folder and select icons, the choices come up.
If I select Large, everything is find.

Now if I select Dynamic and select a size, ArcaOS hangs up big time which requires a soft boot.

I found the original Startup folder does the same thing.  This is not just a XWP startup folder problem.  The easiest solution might be to disable dynamic icons for these two folders.

[Rich Walsh]

I may have found one small problem with the XWP Startup folder.
[...]
If I right click on the inside of the folder and select icons, the choices come up. If I select Large, everything is find.
Now if I select Dynamic and select a size, ArcaOS hangs up big time which requires a soft boot.

I tried this on 3 separate installations of AOS 5.1 (same machine) and couldn't replicate the problem. However, that's not to say that there isn't a problem with Dynamic Icons...

I recently found that if I drag a program object to an open folder set to "Dynamic", then Ctrl-drop to copy it, the Desktop seems to lock up. In fact, it's only the first thread (the one that handles most of the UI). XCenter, which runs on its own thread, continues to update the time and CPU monitor. After a bit, I can access open apps but 'TOP' is unable to kill the WPS.

While testing the Startup folder, I also tested this on the 3 installations. Two of them had the problem, one didn't. The difference was the drive each was on: the two problems were on my NVME drive, the one that worked was on a SATA-attached SSD. My guess is that this is a timing issue that arises when D.I. tries to query the .exe's icon. Because the SSD is "slow", some other operation completes before the drive returns the icon. In contrast, the NVME is so fast that it delivers the icon before the other activity is done, causing some sort of deadlock. (Like I said, just a guess...)

@DavidG, it would really help if you could try this again to see whether your XCenter widgets still update after the lockup. If they keep working, then we (probably) have the same issue.