Author Topic: XWorkplace Monster Revival ?  (Read 12556 times)

Martin Iturbide

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XWorkplace Monster Revival ?
« on: November 13, 2015, 04:32:14 pm »
Hi

I always dream of the revival of the XWorkplace monster.

I remember that on the past there was a complain that "you cannot put everything on XWorkplace, it will turn it into an un-manageable project". XWorkplace contains several WPS Classes (SOM components) and several PM applications combined into a single package. That is good for the user, since it gets a lot in a single package, but it is a pain for developers that has to merge all the different components on a single package.

I really hope that XWorkplace revive, but not as it is right now, as a software that get bugfixed eventually, but as a software that gets new features and functionality. I am starting to think that XWorkplace should not only be a software, but the desktop experience that the OS/2-ECS-BlueLion user should have. Maybe it can be said that my idea is stop looking to XWorkplace as a single project but as a combination of software that creates the "XWorkplace Experience".

XWorkplace Experience Friend Applications
Since talking is cheap, I was wondering what would I like to combine to the "XWorkplace Experience":
- LSwitcher - GNU GPL - The Alt+Tab switcher that is currently and stand alone app, maybe some other like the bar, but I like the Alt+Tab switcher :)
- Animated Mouse Pointer - Apache - I think that the WPMouse class needs some love and try to give it more life, and also needs improvements to support newer pointer animation standards.
- Bubblepad - BSD – I personally think that "Launchpad" was the ancestry of the "Mac OS Dock". BubblePad is a good candidate to improve the launchpad.
- CandyFolders - GNU GPL - We never saw this project to evolve. It offered "transparent" windows, which was a nice thing for people that like to tune their WPS.
- Doodle Screen Saver - GNU GPL - It is our default screensaver and should be integrated to the "XWorkplace Experience".
- HotCorners - BSD 3 Clauses – To manage special actions when the mouse goes to the corners.

Notice that all this projects are compatible with the GNU GPL license that XWorkplace has.  And, by the way, I did some quick mapping of XWorkplace related apps on the

A change of Focus on XWorkplace WPS - Become the Open replacement of Workplace Shell
For what I know about WPS Classes (which are SOM Classes) they are cool because they can allow you to expand a functionality of a WPS Class without having its source code, this is why XWorkplace can improve the WPS functionality without IBM’s releasing the source code. 
However, the issue remains, we do not have the source code of WPS and that is a risk. Right now, we have XWorkplace classes that are child from IBM’s Close Source WPS classes, so it still depends on close source. XWorkplace should also try to address that risk by slowly trying to take over the IBM’s WPS Classes and be a complete open source replace of them.

XWorkplace as Brand
If we stop seeing XWorkplace as a software and start looking it as an “experience”, we should think about turning into a brand, not a commercial brand, but as a name to organize the XWorkplace related components like:
-   XWorkplace Core (for the WPS classes)
-   XWorkplace Animouse (for Animated Mouse Pointer)
-   XWorkplace ScreenSaver
-   XWorkplace Hotcorners… etc

After that, it will not be a single big crazy project with a lot of code that is hard to manage, but maybe a group of components that are compiled and versioned separated, but belongs to a same “Experience”.

So, feedback?
I know that there are trolls that do not let you dream, or complain that “everything is impossible” without even evaluating any idea, or just replying sarcastic things. However, let’s put that aside and share what do you think it will be great to add/combine to the “XWorkplace Experience.”

- Do you have any app that you like on the WPS desktop?
- Do you have any screenshot of your Desktop that you want to share?
- Do you saw a good idea on other OSes desktops?
…just dream away.
« Last Edit: November 13, 2015, 04:44:06 pm by Martin Iturbide »
Martin Iturbide
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Andi B.

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Re: XWorkplace Monster Revival ?
« Reply #1 on: November 13, 2015, 08:25:44 pm »
Quote
Do you have any screenshot of your Desktop that you want to share?
Some may think it looks rather chaotic but 'A genius is seldom orderly, an orderly person is rarely of genius.' ;)

Sergey Posokhov

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Re: XWorkplace Monster Revival ?
« Reply #2 on: November 13, 2015, 10:35:59 pm »
THOSE FONTS...

Doug Bissett

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Re: XWorkplace Monster Revival ?
« Reply #3 on: November 18, 2015, 05:54:56 am »
Quote
I always dream of the revival of the XWorkplace monster.

Well, have you tried the latest (released recently)? ftp://ftp.netlabs.org/pub/wlan/xwp-3.unofficial-1-0-10.zip

Quote
- LSwitcher

XWP is designed for plugins. This is one of them, simply install it. There are many more. Like all software, some work well, and others don't.

Quote
- Animated Mouse Pointer

IMO, that is one feature that I hope we never see, but there are a few packages at HOBBES that do animated mouse pointers (not part of XWP).

Quote
- Bubblepad

This is another one that I hope we never see. If you actually LIKE that sort of thing the old LaunchPad still works. See my desktop for another alternative that XCenter makes available.

Quote
- CandyFolders

I am also not too sure why we would want this.

Quote
- Doodle Screen Saver

This works pretty well the way it is. Why would it be part of XWP? If anything, DSS needs better support from Panorama, and possibly ACPI.

Quote
- HotCorners

RMB on the XPager window, go to properties, then the Screen Borders tab. Set the corners, and the sides, to whatever you think you want to do. Note that the top and/or bottom, are used by the XCenter bars, by default. Be careful, and always remember that accidentally bumping the cursor into a hot spot will do whatever it is set to do.  That could become a PITA real fast.

Quote
they are cool because they can allow you to expand a functionality of a WPS Class

That is the magic of Object Oriented software. You can not only expand functionality, you can replace any part, or all, of it. You probably do need to keep the original, but you don't have to actually use any of it.

Quote
If we stop seeing XWorkplace as a software and start looking it as an “experience”

It is software. Nothing more, and nothing less. You can "look at it" in any way that you like. It won't change the fact that it is software.

Quote
- Do you have any app that you like on the WPS desktop?

One of the magical parts of OS/2, Presentation Manager, and the WPS, is that it is difficult to tell what is doing the magic. I do like the WPS file manager (as modified by XWP, or not). I do NOT like Audio/Data-CD-Creator (personal choices).

Quote
- Do you have any screenshot of your Desktop that you want to share?

See Desktop.jpg

Quote
- Do you saw a good idea on other OSes desktops?

Not yet...

Quote
…just dream away.

Sometimes, you give me nightmares... :-\

Martin Iturbide

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Re: XWorkplace Monster Revival ?
« Reply #4 on: November 18, 2015, 03:22:48 pm »
Hi Doug.

I'm sorry to give you nightmares, you should check a professional about that. But thanks for sharing your screenshot and your personal opinion.

Regards
Martin Iturbide
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Martin Iturbide

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Re: XWorkplace Monster Revival ?
« Reply #5 on: November 27, 2015, 02:33:48 pm »
Hi

I also forgot to list:
- Styler/2 - GNU GPL V3 - User interface enhancer.
- Nice Enhancer - BSD 3 Clauses - PM Interface extender.
- WPS-Wizard - GNU GPL - Classes to add unique features to the WPS.

There are a lot of stuff that can be combined, improved, bugfixed to have a better OS/2 desktop experience.

Regards
« Last Edit: November 27, 2015, 02:47:30 pm by Martin Iturbide »
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Pete

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Re: XWorkplace Monster Revival ?
« Reply #6 on: November 27, 2015, 03:38:42 pm »
Hi Martin

I am hoping that you mean a fixed, working version of WPS Wizard?

I say this as, like many other people, I could never get it to work properly on any system that I tried it on.


Regards

Pete

Martin Iturbide

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Re: XWorkplace Monster Revival ?
« Reply #7 on: November 27, 2015, 08:22:39 pm »
Hi

I can say that WPS Wizard is unstable, but it offers a good concept on how to improve the GUI and include a toolbar on the GUI windows. It is available for anybody to grab the source code at the Netlabs SVN and fix it.

Regards
Martin Iturbide
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Andy Willis

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Re: XWorkplace Monster Revival ?
« Reply #8 on: November 27, 2015, 08:32:21 pm »
I can say that WPS Wizard is unstable, but it offers a good concept on how to improve the GUI and include a toolbar on the GUI windows. It is available for anybody to grab the source code at the Netlabs SVN and fix it.
I had pulled the code and tried to build it, it looks like there is a dependency on the cwmm source code that is not available:
#The base dir for additional functions for the MM helper programs
export COMMONSRC   =   H:/cwmm/common_functions
It looks for that code very early in the build process.

Martin Iturbide

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Re: XWorkplace Monster Revival ?
« Reply #9 on: November 27, 2015, 09:10:31 pm »
I had pulled the code and tried to build it, it looks like there is a dependency on the cwmm source code that is not available:
#The base dir for additional functions for the MM helper programs
export COMMONSRC   =   H:/cwmm/common_functions
It looks for that code very early in the build process.

...bummer :(
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Andreas Schnellbacher

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Re: XWorkplace Monster Revival ?
« Reply #10 on: November 27, 2015, 09:18:08 pm »
Just ask Chris for the sources. (BTW: I don't have an email address, but that shouldn't be too hard to find out, as there belong still some people to the OS/2 scene who know him.)

Note that he was pissed-off by the type of criticism he got. For me, it was never unstable and it always worked together with XWP.

The reason that I don't install it on my systems is that it eats too much lower shared memory, nothing more. I would like to have WPS Wizards' features at no cost of fewer shared mem. BTW: I don't want the eye candy stuff of it, but the rest is great.
« Last Edit: November 27, 2015, 09:31:17 pm by Andreas Schnellbacher »

Martin Iturbide

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Re: XWorkplace Monster Revival ?
« Reply #11 on: November 27, 2015, 09:50:05 pm »
Hi

I installed recently WPS-Wizard on my test VM.
The PNG support to show it as icon looks nice, but I don't know how to assign a PNG icon to a file yet.  But the idea and how it is embedded on the desktop GUI is very good.

Regards
Martin Iturbide
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David McKenna

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Re: XWorkplace Monster Revival ?
« Reply #12 on: November 27, 2015, 09:53:53 pm »
 I also use WPSWizard with no problems, and I like the eye candy too. Able to use highmem to load the wpswizard DLL's high without any apparent problems as well (eCS 2.2). Hope you can get the source for all of this - maybe it can be continued...

Dave Yeo

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Re: XWorkplace Monster Revival ?
« Reply #13 on: November 28, 2015, 01:54:58 am »
Probably be good to update WPSWizard to use the Moziila Cairo code which Rich improved quite a bit. There should be an RPM for it soon.