Currently in BeOS there does not exist a thorough method for shutdown notification and procedures. It is proposed a new standard message and response system be introduced. Additionally, mechanisms will be introduced to ensure needed services and applications remain open for use until dependant systems are closed.
Current System When a shutdown occurs currently each application is sent a B_QUIT_REQUESTED message in order to terminate it. As this message does not indicate that it must quit in the near future or be killed the application may choose to ignore it, unaware of the impending shutdown.
Body: The tabs on BeOS windows have been well known for their distinctive sliding ability. This could be extended by allowing extended areas for sliding, sticky tabs and fusing tabs.
Details Sliding Tabs should be allowed to slide all the way around the perimeter of any window, including hugging the corners of the window.
Sticking When placed in close proximity tabs in different windows will snap together, bringing the windows together.
Body: The current standard system of saving files from all applications should be replaced with a drag-and-drop mechanism combined with tracker windows.
Details While the current standard for most operating systems, the use of save dialogues can be considered an inconsistant design providing a seperate method for navigating the filesystem. The core uses for a save dialogue can be summarised as follows,
Providing a filesystem browser Filtering displayed files to a specified type (Often) remembers last save location Target filename specification However, many of the above uses can be filled through the system Tracker or extensions to Tracker.
Body: This article was started by myself, but it was extended by our users when it was placed on our wiki. The development team will have to review and discuss all suggestions.
Multi-User something similar to what Win2k does, where you try to do something and it says "you don't have permission to do that. If you are an admin, click here to enter the admin password for permission.
Body: This suggestion must be reworked. Maybe it will be completely rewritten.
We must reduce the number of apps that come with the base distribution. Look at Linux: most distributions are packed full of software (and many games) and I still can't get the most basic work done. Put the function first and then a list of apps that solve the task in an acceptable way (Haiku should replace each with one simple app per function).
Body: Usability Improvements Haiku R1 should be polished and not suffer from BeOS' insufficiencies. If we release a half-baked OS our userbase will turn away. This is a summary of many improvements discussed on the GE-list and elsewhere: TODO for R1 rework window zooming as it often does not work as one would expect add BTextView context-menu with "cut", "copy", "paste", "select all", "undo" improve BTextView keyboard-navigation: move to next/previous word, paragraph, beginning/end of file show the task switcher immediately upon hitting CTRL+TAB (seems to be an R5 bug which causes a too long delay) remove unneeded preferences (menu settings, scrollbar style) combine similar preferences apps (Appearance: UI+screen, Input Devices: mouse+keyboard+keymap, Media: audio+video+sounds, Networking: ppp+networking) modify apps in the source tree to match modifier key functions for lists: Shift-click selects a range, CTRL-click toggles one item parent menu items which don't have a message associated with them should not close the menu when clicked demo apps are not needed by default.
Body: Introduction This RFC describes an installation concept that aims to be more natural to the end-user than current package-based installers. The idea behind this concept is to get rid of the whole installation process. The complete application, including its dependencies and data files, is a single self-contained executable (one app, one file). There is absolutely no installation process. Just run and you're done. Delete and it's uninstalled. Replace and you've upgraded.
Body: Possible Candidates ZFS (very cool, snapshots, volume chaining (no more partition management...), interesting for query-only FS, compatible license)XFS (fast, proven, effective) roll our own (much work) Extended File Type System File types become more human-readable: Document, Image, Video, etc. In our local database we store the MIME translations for those types. Multiple-inheritance is supported, too (OGG would inherit from Audio and Video, for example). Instead of specifying attributes for each format individually (MP3 has its own attribute set) the attributes are inherited from the super type (Audio).
BodyLate last year, we decided to rewrite an important part of the Haiku app_server. Why was that? Let's start out with what the app_server is supposed to do: At the heart, it manages multiple applications simultaneously using the display device as a shared resource. Two of the important system objects through which this is organized are Windows and Views. Through views, the applications can draw information onto the screen, while a window is merely some sort of container for views.
BodyThe code discussed in this article can be found here.
The IO-Warrior24 device from Code Mercenaries is equipped with 16 general purpose I/O (input/output) pins. When enabling the so-called special mode functions, more or less pins are reassigned to serve a special purpose. You can select between:
I2C, IIC: a two-wire serial Inter-IC-Bus allowing connection to RAMs, EEPROMs, ADCs,DACs and a lot more. LCD: parallel communication with alphanumerics Liquid-Christal-Display units SPI: a four-wire serial Serial-Peripheral-Interface-Bus similar to I2C LED-Matrix: a serial communication bus to control LEDs in a multiplexed matrix configuration RC5IR: Infrared Remote control according to the RC5 code We'll now examine this impressive manifold of functions step-by-step.
