Old Blue Workbench

Old Blue Workbench is a Workbench replacement for Amigas running Kickstart 1.3 written by Mats Eirik Hansen with the following features:

• Enhanced menus similar to Workbench 2.0.
• Enhanced Workbench window and drawer windows with support for:
  • Window menu and Icon menu as context menus.
  • Lasso for selecting multiple icons.
  • Default icons for showing all files and drawers.
  • Arranging icons by name or type.
• Browser windows for browsing the file system.
• Enhanced Info windows with support for changing icons and swapping their colors.
• User defined menus.
• Docks with support for drag and drop of icons.
• Support for launching tools at startup.

Requirements

• Minimum 1MB of memory.
• reqtools.library (version 38.390 for Kickstart 1.3 included).
• iffparse.library (version 37.1 for Kickstart 1.3 included).
• Default icons in ENVARC:Sys (included).

Installation

The included installation script will copy the required files but some changes must be made to S:Startup-Sequence manually.

Old Blue Workbench requires the ENVARC: assign for locating the default icons so add the following to S:Startup-Sequence if it doesn’t already exist.

C:Assign ENVARC: SYS:Prefs/Env-Archive

To launch Old Blue Workbench instead of the original Workbench when Old Blue Workbench has been installed in SYS:Tools/OldBlue replace the LoadWB command in S:Startup-Sequence with:

C:Assign OldBlue: SYS:Tools/OldBlue
C:Run <NIL: >NIL: OldBlue:LaunchDaemon
C:Stack 8192
C:Run <NIL: >NIL: OldBlue:Workbench STARTUPDRAWER SYS:WBStartup SHOWSTARTUP

The STARTUPDRAWER argument specifies the path to a drawer with tools and projects to launch at startup. The SHOWSTARTUP argument tells Old Blue Workbench to show a window with a progress bar while launching these tools and projects. The STARTPRI tool type can be set for each of the tools and projects to control the launch order.

LaunchDaemon is a background task that is used by Old Blue Workbench to launch tools and commands. It makes it possible to quit Old Blue Workbench without quitting all tools launched by it.

Workbench windows

There are three types of Workbench windows that are used for navigating the file system and share most of their behavior.

• Workbench window shows disk icons.
• Drawer windows show the content a drawer or disk.
• Browser windows are used for browsing the file system and can show all disks and the content of drawers and disks.

Mouse interaction

• Clicking the mouse’s select button when the mouse pointer is over the background and dragging will extend a lasso for selecting multiple icons.
• Clicking the mouse’s menu button when the mouse pointer is over an icon will deselect all selected icons and select that icon before showing the Icon menu as a context menu. If the SHIFT key is pressed when clicking the mouse’s menu button then no icons will be deselected.
• Clicking the mouse’s menu button when mouse pointer is over the background will show the Window menu as a context menu.

Keyboard interaction

Cursor keys can be used to scroll the content of the windows. Pressing a SHIFT key while using the cursor keys will scroll to the end points, and pressing an ALT key will scroll only a single pixel.

Workbench window

The Workbench window shows disk icons and can be a backdrop window or a normal window with a titlebar, resize gadget and scrollbars. Whether the window is a backdrop window or a normal window is set in the Project menu.

By default the workbench window will position icons without a saved position from top to bottom on the right side of the window but this can be changed in the Settings menu.

Drawer windows

Drawer windows show the contents of a drawer or disk and there will always only be one drawer window for a drawer or disk open. Trying to open another drawer window will only bring the existing drawer window to the front.

By default a drawer window shows only files and drawers that have an icon but this can be changed in the Icon menu.

Browser windows

Browser windows are used for browsing the file system. They have much of the same functionality as drawer windows but there are some major differences.

• A browser window has a Path text field where the path of the drawer or disk to show the content of can be set. A blank path shows all disks.
• A browser window has a Parent button than can be used for making the browser window show the content of the parent drawer or disk.
• A browser window will show all disks as the root of the file system.
• Opening a drawer within a browser window will just make the browser window show that drawer instead.

Workbench menus

When the Workbench window, a drawer window or a browser window is active is has the following menus:

• Project menu
• Window menu
• Icon menu
• Settings menu
• User defined menus

Project menu

• Backdrop sets whether the Workbench window is a backdrop window without any borders or a normal window with borders.
• Open Browser opens a new browser window.
• Open Drawer… opens a file requester for selecting which drawer to open and then opens the selected drawer.
• Execute Command… opens the Execute Command window for executing a command with or without arguments.
• Update All makes all drawer and browser windows to update their content.
• About… opens the About window.
• Quit quits Old Blue Workbench.

Window menu

• New Drawer… opens the New Drawer window for creating a new drawer in the active window.
• Open Parent opens the parent drawer of the active window. If the active window is a drawer window the drawer window for the parent drawer is opened. If the active window is a browser window the parent drawer will be opened in the active window.
• Close closes the active window.
• Update updates the content of the active window.
• Select All selects all icons in the active window.
• Arrange By arranges all icons in the active window.
  • Name arranges the icons in grid sorted by name.
  • Type arranges the icons in grid sorted by type and then name.
• Snapshot
  • Window saves the size and position of the active window. If the active window is a drawer window the size and position is saved immediately to disk. If the active window is a browser window the size and position will be used for new browser windows but the size and position will not be saved to disk until the settings are saved.
  • All saves the size and position of the active window and the positions of all icons in the active window.
• Show
  • Only Icons makes the active window show only files and drawers with icons.
  • All Files makes the active window show all files and drawers. Default icons are used for files and drawers without icons.

Icon menu

• Open opens selected files and drawers.
• Copy creates copies of selected files and drawers in the drawer they’re in.
• Rename… opens the Rename window for renaming the selected file, drawer or disk.
• Information opens Info windows for selected files, drawers and disks.
• Snapshot saves the position of selected icons.
• Unsnapshot clears the saved position of selected icons so that they’re positioned automatically the next time they’re read.
• Delete deletes selected files and drawers.
• Format format selected disks.
• Empty Trash deletes the content of selected trashcans.

Settings menu

• New Dock… opens the Edit Dock window for creating a new dock.
• Edit Menus… opens the Edit Menu window for editing the user menus.
• Default Icons… opens the ENVARC:Sys drawer where the default icons are located. Changes made in this drawer are not loaded automatically so Load Default Icons must be used before the changes have any effect.
• Load Default Icons loads default icons from the ENVARC:Sys drawer. Loading new default icons does not affect already open windows until their content is updated.
• Disk Icon Position sets where the icons for disks without icons or with icons without a saved position will be positioned.
  • Top positions the icons from left to right at the top of the workbench window.
  • Left positions the icons from top to bottom on the left side of the workbench window.
  • Bottom positions the icons from left to right at the bottom of the workbench window.
  • Right positions the icons from top to bottom on the right side of the workbench window.
• Use Default Tool Path set hows the path set in the Default Tool field in Project Info window is used when searching for the tool.
  • Only searches using only the full path. If the path is relative LaunchDaemon will search relative to the drawer the project is in and then relative to the search path when LaunchDaemon was started.
  • First searches using the full path and then using the tool name.
  • Last searches using the tool name and then using the full path.
  • Never searches using only the tool name.
• Load… opens a requester where a settings file to load can be selected and then loads the settings from that file.
• Save saves the current settings to the S:OBWorkbench.settings.
• Save As… opens a requester where a settings file to save the current settings to can be selected and then saves the current settings to that file.
• Last Saved loads the settings from S:OBWorkbench.settings.

User defined menus

Old Blue Workbench enables the user to define additional menus that are shown when the Workbench window, a drawer window, a browser window or a dock is active.

The user defined menus can have menu items of several different types:

• Browser for opening a browser window.
• Command for executing a command with arguments as if it was executed from the command line.
• Dock for opening a dock.
• Drawer for opening a drawer window.
• Tool for opening a tool as if it was opened from Workbench.
• Trashcan for deleting files or drawers, or moving them to a trashcan.

Select Edit Menus… in the Settings menu to edit these menus.

Edit Menus window

This window has a list of the user defined menus on the left and a list of the items in the currently selected user defined menu on the right.

At the bottom this window has three buttons.

• Save closes the window, applies the changes and saves the settings. Note that this saves all settings not just the user defined menus.
• Use closes the window and applies the changes but does not save the settings.
• Cancel closes the window and discards the changes.

Menu list

The menu list has several buttons for operating on the list.

• Add adds a new menu.
• Remove removes the currently selected menu.
• Up moves the currently selected menu up in the list of menus.
• Down moves the currently selected menu down in the list of menus.

In addition the list has a text field with the name of the currently selected menu. Changing the content of the text field and pressing RETURN will rename the menu.

Menu item list

On the right side of the item list there are several several buttons for operating on the list.

• Add opens the Edit Menu Item window for adding a new item to the currently selected menu.
• Edit opens the Edit Menu Item window for the currently selected item.
• Remove removes the currently selected item from the currently selected menu.
• Up moves the currently selected item up in the list of items.
• Down moves the currently selected item down in the list of items.

Items can also be added to the list by drag and drop of icons from workbench, drawer and browser windows.

Edit Menu Item window

The content of this window depends on the menu item type but the following fields are common for all menu item types.

• Type is the menu item type. There are six types of menu items:
  • Browser for opening a browser window.
  • Command for executing a command with arguments as if it was executed from the command line.
  • Dock for opening a dock.
  • Drawer for opening a drawer window.
  • Tool for opening a tool as if it was opened from Workbench.
  • Trashcan for deleting files or drawers, or moving them to a trashcan.
• Name is the name of the menu item and is shown in the menu.
• Shortcut is an optional keyboard shortcut for the menu item.

Edit Browser Menu Item window

• Path is the path to the drawer to open in the browser window.
• Shows is what to show in the browser window.
  • Only Icons shows only files and drawers with icons.
  • All Files shows all files and drawers by using default icons for files and drawers without icons.
• Sort is how the icons shall be sorted in the browser window.
  • No does not sort the icons so that are shown in the order read from disk.
  • By Name sorts the icons by name.
  • By Type sorts the icons by type and then name.
• Layout is how the the icons are laid out in the browser window.
  • Workbench uses the position icon positions.
  • Grid positions icons in rows and columns.
  • Rows positions icons in rows.

Edit Command Menu Item window

• Path is the path to the command to execute when the menu item is selected.
• Action is what to do when the menu item is selected. There are three options:
  • Open executes the command with only the arguments specified in Arguments.
  • Open with… opens a file requester where the files and drawers to be added as arguments to the command can be selected and then executes the command with those arguments added to the arguments specified in Arguments.
  • Open with selection executes the command with any selected files, drawers or disks added to the arguments specified in Arguments.
• Arguments are arguments passed to the command.
• Console is an optional console specification. If not set the default, CON:0/11/640/189/Command Output, is used.
• Close console window when completed is whether the console shall close immediately when the command is completed or if the user must press ENTER to close the console.

Edit Dock Menu Item window

• Dock has an Edit… button that opens a Edit Dock window for the dock opened by this menu item.
• Close dock when deactivated sets whether the dock closes when the dock is deactivated or stays open. If it stays open this menu item is used to toggle between opening and closing the dock.

Edit Drawer Menu Item window

• Path is the path to the drawer to open.

Edit Tool Menu Item window

• Path is the path to the tool to open when the menu item is selected.
• Action is what to do when the menu item is selected. There are three options:
  • Open opens the tool with no arguments.
  • Open with… opens a file requester where the files and drawers to be passed as arguments to the tool can be selected and then opens the tool with those arguments.
  • Open with selection opens the tool with any selected files, drawers or disks as arguments.

Edit Trashcan Menu Item window

• Path is the path to the trashcan.
• Action is what to do when the menu item is selected. There are three options:
  • Open opens the trashcan in a drawer window.
  • Delete deletes all selected files and drawers.
  • Move to trashcan moves all selected files and drawers to the trashcan. Any selected files and drawers on a different volume than the trashcan will first be copied to the trashcan and then deleted.

Docks

Old Blue Workbench supports docks which are windows with a row or a column with dock items.

Dock items are buttons that can show the item’s image, the item’s name or both and can perform different actions when clicked, when icons are dropped on them or from their context menus.

There are several dock item types:

• Browser for opening a browser window.
• Command for executing a command with arguments as if it was executed from the command line.
• Dock for opening a dock.
• Drawer for opening a drawer window.
• Tool for opening a tool as if it was opened from Workbench.
• Trashcan for deleting files or drawers, or moving them to a trashcan.

Keyboard interaction

When a dock is active the number keys can be used to perform the same action as clicking on a dock item. 1 is the first dock item, counting from the left or the top, and 0 is the tenth.

Edit Dock window

This windows has the following fields:

• Layout is the layout orientation of the items in the dock.
  • Vertical orders the items in a single column.
  • Horizontal orders the items in a single row.
• Border is whether and where the dock draws a beveled border.
  • None draws no border.
  • Around dock draws a single border around the whole dock.
  • Around items draws a border around each individual item.
• Position is where the dock is positioned.
• Show item as is how items are shown.
  • Image shows just the item image.
  • Name shows just the item name.
  • Image and name shows both the item image and name.
• Show dragbar sets whether a small dragbar is shown that allows the dock to be positioned manually.

At the bottom this window has three buttons:

• Save closes the window, applies the changes and saves the settings. Note that this saves all settings not just the dock.
• Use closes the window and applies the changes but does not save the settings.
• Cancel closes the window and discards the changes.

Edit Dock Item window

The content of this window depends on the dock item type but all types of dock items have these fields:

• Image is the item image and can be shown in the dock.
  • Select is used to select an icon or IFF ILBM brush to be used as the item image.
  • Reset is used to reset the item image to the default image if another image has been manually selected.
• Type is the dock item type. There are six types of dock items:
  • Browser for opening a browser window.
  • Command for executing a command with arguments as if it was executed from the command line.
  • Dock for opening a dock.
  • Drawer for opening a drawer window.
  • Tool for opening a tool as if it was opened from Workbench.
  • Trashcan for deleting files or drawers, or moving them to a trashcan.
• Name is the name of the dock item and can be shown in the dock.

Edit Browser Dock Item window

• Path is the path to the drawer to open in the browser window.
• Shows is what to show in the browser window.
  • Only Icons shows only files and drawers with icons.
  • All Files shows all files and drawers by using default icons for files and drawers without icons.
• Sort is how the icons shall be sorted in the browser window.
  • No does not sort the icons so that are shown in the order read from disk.
  • By Name sorts the icons by name.
  • By Type sorts the icons by type and then name.
• Layout is how the the icons are laid out in the browser window.
  • Workbench uses the position icon positions.
  • Grid positions icons in rows and columns.
  • Rows positions icons in rows.

Edit Command Dock Item window

• Path is the path to the command to be executed by this dock item.
• Action is what to do when the dock item is clicked. There are three options:
  • Open executes the command with only the arguments specified in Arguments.
  • Open with… opens a file requester where the files and drawers to be added as arguments to the command can be selected and then executes the command with those arguments added to the arguments specified in Arguments.
  • Open with selection executes the command with any selected files, drawers or disks added to the arguments specified in Arguments.
• Arguments are arguments passed to the command.
• Console is an optional console specification. If not set the default, CON:0/11/640/189/Command Output, is used.
• Close console window when completed is whether the console shall close immediately when the command is completed or if the user must press ENTER to close the console.

Edit Dock Dock Item window

• Dock has an Edit… button that opens a Edit Dock window for the dock opened by this dock item.
• Close dock when deactivated sets whether the dock closes when the dock is deactivated or stays open. If it stays open this dock item is used to toggle between opening and closing the dock.

Edit Drawer Dock Item window

• Path is the path to the drawer to open.

Edit Tool Dock Item window

• Path is the path to the tool to be open by this dock item.
• Action is what to do when the dock item is clicked. There are three options:
  • Open opens the tool with no arguments.
  • Open with… opens a file requester where the files and drawers to be passed as arguments to the tool can be selected and then opens the tool with those arguments.
  • Open with selection opens the tool with any selected files, drawers or disks as arguments.

Edit Trashcan Dock Item window

• Path is the path to the trashcan.
• Action is what to do when the dock item is clicked. There are three options:
  • Open opens the trashcan in a drawer window.
  • Delete deletes all selected files and drawers.
  • Move to trashcan moves all selected files and drawers to the trashcan. Any selected files and drawers on a different volume than the trashcan will first be copied to the trashcan and then deleted.
• Drop action is what to do when icons are dropped on the dock item. There are two options:
  • Delete deletes all dropped files and drawers.
  • Move to trashcan moves all dropped files and drawers to the trashcan. Any dropped files and drawers dragged from a different volume than the trashcan will first be copied to the trashcan and then deleted.

Dock menus

When a dock is active is has the following menus:

• Project menu
• Dock menu
• Settings menu
• User defined menus

In addition the Dock Item context menu is shown when clicking the mouse’s menu button when the mouse pointer is over a dock item.

Dock menu

• New Item… opens a Edit Dock Item window for adding a new dock item to the active dock.
• Edit… opens a Edit Dock window for editing the active dock.
• Delete or Close deletes the active dock or closes it depending on whether the dock was created by New Dock… in the Settings menu or opened by a dock item or menu item.
• Snapshot saves the position of the active dock.

Dock Item context menu

• Open opens the browser, dock, drawer, tool, trashcan or executes the command depending on the dock item type.
• Open With… opens a file requester for selecting arguments before opening the tool or executing the command with those arguments.
• Open With Selection opens the tool or executes the command with the selected files, drawers and disks as arguments.
• Empty deletes all files and drawers in the trashcan if the dock item is a trashcan.
• Edit… opens the Edit Dock Item window for the dock item.
• Delete removes the dock item from the dock.
• Edit Dock… opens the Edit Dock window for the dock.
• Quit quits Old Blue Workbench.

Info windows

Info windows show info about an object where the object can be a file, drawer or disk.

All info windows shows the icon in a recessed rectangle in the top left corner of the window. An icon can be dragged and dropped in this recessed rectangle to change the icon. This recessed rectangle also has the Info window Icon menu as its context menu.

All info windows have the following fields:

• Name is the name of the object. Changes to this name will cause the object to be renamed when the changes are saved.
• Type is the type of the object.
  • Disk for disks.
  • Drawer for drawers.
  • Tool for files that are tools.
  • Project for files that are projects.

At the bottom all info windows have two buttons:

• Save saves updated info to the .info file, renames the file, drawer or disk if the name has changed and closes the info window.
• Cancel closes the window and discards the changes.

Disk Info window

• Blocks is the number of blocks on the disk.
• Used is the number of blocks in use on the disk.
• Free is the number of block available for use on the disk.
• Block size is the number of bytes in a block on the disk.
• Default tool is the default tool for a disk and is not used by Old Blue Workbench.

Drawer Info window

• Script is set if the file is a script.
• Archived is intended to be set when a file or drawer has been archived and reset when changed so that it can be used determine whether the file or drawer needs to be archived or not.
• Readable is set if the file or drawer is readable.
• Writable is set if the file or drawer is writable.
• Executable is set if the file or drawer is executable.
• Deletable is set if the file or drawer is deletable.
• Comment is a comment that the user may set to whatever he/she wants.

Project Info window

This window is the same as the Drawer Info window but with the following fields added.

• Stack size is an optional stack size for the default tool. If not set the default stack size, 4096 bytes, is used.
• Default tool is the path to the tool to open with the project file.
• Tool types is a list of tool types that can be read by the tool. Selecting a tool type will put in the text field so it can be changed. The Add button will add the content of the text field as a new tool type and the Remove button will remove the currently selected tool type. Double clicking a tool type with the mouse’s select button will wrap the tool type in parentheses or remove those parentheses if the tool type is already wrapped in parentheses.

Tool Info window

The tool info window is the same as the Project Info window but with the Default tool field removed.

Info window menus

Info window Project menu

• Open… opens a requester for selecting another file, drawer or disk to open a info window for.
• Save saves updated info to the .info file, renames the file, drawer or disk if the name has changed and closes the info window.
• About… opens the About window.
• Quit closes the info window.

Info window Icon menu

The menu is also available as a context menu by clicking the mouse’s menu button on the icon in the info window.

• Import icon opens a file requester for selecting a .info file to load the icon from and replace the icon in the info window.
• Swap colors swaps color 1 and 2 in the icon. Useful for making icons from Workbench 2.0 and later look right with Workbench 1.3 colors.

Other windows

Execute Command window

This window is shown when Execute Command… is selected in the Project menu.

• Command is the command line to execute. The file button can be used to open a file requester for selecting the command.
• Add selection as arguments set whether the path to selected files, drawers and disks are added as arguments to the command line.
• Close console window when completed is whether the console shall close immediately when the command is completed or if the user must press ENTER to close the console.

New Drawer window

This window is shown when New Drawer… is selected in the Window menu.

• Name is the name of the drawer to create.
• Create icon is whether an icon is also created for the drawer. By default the default drawer icon is used but the icon can be changed by dragging and dropping an icon to the recessed icon are on the left of window.

Rename window

This window is shown when Rename… is selected in the Icon menu.

• Old name is the current name of file, drawer or disk to rename.
• New name is the name to rename the file, drawer or disk to.

Default icons

Default icons are used for files, drawers and disks without icons and must be located in ENVARC:Sys. Old Blue Workbench supports the same default icons as Workbench 2.0.

• def_disk.info for disks. If this icon is not present, Old Blue Workbench will not show disks without icons at all.
• def_drawer.info for drawers. This icon is also used when creating a new drawer.
• def_tool.info for executable files.

For all files that are not executable Old Blue Workbench will search for a default icon in the following order:

1. If the file is an IFF file and there is an .info file named def_project. followed by the IFF FORM ID, i.e. def_project.ilbm.info for an IFF ILBM image file or def_project.8svx.info for an IFF 8SVX sound sample file, then it will be used as the icon.
2. If there is an .info file with the same extension as the file, i.e. def_project.txt.info for a file with the .txt extension, then it will be used.
3. If there is a def_project.info file then it will be used.

Feedback

Please help this project by reporting any issues to mats.hansen@triumph.no.

History

Version 1.0.1

• Added a Use Default Tool Path setting in the Settings menu for setting how the path in Default Tool for project icons is used when searching for the tool.
• Made the CLI created by LaunchDaemon when launching commands inherit the search path when LaunchDaemon was started.
• Made LaunchDaemon use the search path when LaunchDaemon started as the search path when launching tools with a relative path. This affects icons with a default tool with a relative path.
• Fixed an issue where a drawer/browser window reloaded the icon position when an icon was changed.
• Fixed an issue where a drawer/browser window reloaded the drawer size and position when updating the window or changing between Show All Files and Show Only Icons.
• Fixed an issue where the icon was not removed from a drawer/browser window when a file that is only an .info file is deleted.
• Fixed an issue with context menus not showing when clicking the mouse’s menu button in the area of a drawer/browser window with negative coordinates.
• Fixed an issue with Snapshot Window being disabled when a browser window was showing disk icons.
• Fixed an issue with Close in the Window not being disabled for the Workbench window.
• Fixed an issue where dropping a file or drawer icon did not copy the file or drawer to the disk.
• Fixed an issue with executing commands failing when using standard CON: or NEWCON: handlers.
• Fixed an issue with the disk icon being shown as part of the disk content if the Disk.info file was not capitalized like that.

Other projects

If you’re into Amiga or C64 music and using macOS, you may also be interested in one of my other projects, RetroPlayer, which is a music player and management application supporting music formats for old computers and games consoles.