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k/rTGA ie Guide -AMIGA, INCORPORATED AMIGA User Interface Style Guide Commodore-Amiga, Incorporated AMIGA TECHNICAL REFERENCE SERIES ▼▼ Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, Inc. Reading, Massachusetts Menlo Park, California New York Don Mills, Ontario Wokingham, England Amsterdam Bonn Madrid Mexico City Milan Paris San Juan Singapore Sydney Tokyo Writers/Editors: Dan Baker, Mark Green, and David Junod Confributors: Richard Buck, Peter Chema, Eric Cotton, Andy Finkel, Darren Greenwald, Alan Havemose, William Hawes, Paul Higginbottom, Ross Hippely, David Joiner, Willy Langeveld, Jim Mackraz, Keith Masavage, Bryce Nesbitt, Mark Ricci, Carolyn Scheppner, Jeff Scherb, Carol Sullivan, Martin Taillefer, Isabelle Vesey, Deanna Vincent, and Marvin Weinstein. Designer: Mark Green Copy editor: Susan West Cover designer: Hannus Design Associates Mouse illustrator: Wilson Harp Production Notes: With the exception of the outside cover, this book was desktop published on an Amiga 2500. PostScript files were output to a 2470- dpi lasersetter as film. Software used in this process included: AmigaDOS Release 2, Oxxi's TurboText, Carolyn Scheppner's Screen- Save v36.11, Electronic Arts' DeluxePaintlll, ASDG's The Art Department, and Gold Disk's Professional Page vl.31. Lasersetter output by Graphics Standard. Copyright © 1991 by Commodore Electronics Limited. All rights reserved. Printed in U.S.A. Many of the designations used by manufacturers and sellers to distinguish their products are claimed as trademarks. Where those designations appear in this book and Addi son-Wesley was aware of a trademark claim, the designations have been printed in initial caps. Amiga is a registered trademark of Commodore-Amiga, Inc. AmigaDOS, Work bench, and Kickstart are trademarks of Commodore-Amiga, Inc. AUTOCONFIG is a trademark of Commodore Electronics Limited. 68030, 68040, and Motorola are trademarks of Motorola, Inc. ARexx is a trademark of Wishful Thinking Development Corp. Commodore and the Commodore logo are registered trademarks of Commodore Electronics Limited. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopy ing, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. Printed in the United States of America from film supplied by the authors. Published simulta neously in Canada. Commodore item number: 368193-01 First printing, February 1991 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9-AL-95 94 93 92 91 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Amiga user interface style guide / Commodore-Amiga, Incorporated, p. cm. - (Amiga technical reference series) Includes index. ISBN 0-201-57757-7 1. Amiga (Computer) 2. User Interfaces (Computer systems) I. Commodore-Amiga, Inc. II. Series. QA76.8.A46A45 1991 90-23757 005.265-dc20 CIP WARNING: The information described in this manual may contain errors or bugs, and may not function as described. All information is subject to enhancement or upgrade for any rea son including to fix bugs, add features or change performance. As with all software upgrades, full compatibility, although a goal, cannot be guaranteed, and is in fact unlikely. DISCLAIMER: COMMODORE-AMIGA, INC., ("COMMODORE") MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EITHER EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED, WITH RESPECT TO THE INFORMATION DESCRIBED HEREIN, ITS QUALITY, PERFORMANCE, MERCHANTABILITY, OR FITNESS FOR ANY PARTICULAR PURPOSE. SUCH INFORMATION IS PROVIDED ON AN "AS IS" BASIS. THE ENTIRE RISK AS TO THEIR QUALITY AND PERFORMANCE IS WITH THE USER. SHOULD THE INFORMATION PROVE DEFECTIVE, THE USER (AND NOT THE CREATOR, COMMODORE, THEIR DISTRIBUTORS, NOR THEIR RETAILERS) ASSUMES THE ENTIRE COST OF ALL NECESSARY DAMAGES. IN NO EVENT WILL COMMODORE BE LIABLE FOR DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES RESULTING FROM ANY DEFECT IN THE INFOR MATION EVEN IF IT HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES. SOME LAWS DO NOT ALLOW THE EXCLUSION OR LIMITATION OF IMPLIED WARRANTIES OR LIABILITIES FOR INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES, SO THE ABOVE LIMITATION OR EXCLUSION MAY NOT APPLY. CONTENTS Preface _________________________________________________________________ v Introduction _____________________________________________________________ 1 Some Basics ____________________________________________________________ 9 Screens _________________________________________________________________ 33 Windows and Requesters ____________________________________________ 39 Gadgets 51 Menus _________________________________________________________________ 71 Workbench ______________________________________________________ 89 The Shell ______________________________________________________________ 101 ARexx _________________________________________________________________ 113 The Keyboard _________________________________________________________ 141 Data Sharing ___________________________________________________ 151 Preferences __________________________________________________________ 161 Glossary ___________________________________________________ 177 Commodore Addresses _______________________________________________ 199 Index __________________________________________________________________ 201 Preface Like any written work with a distribution wider than a personal letter, this style guide attempts to be many things to many readers. After much deliberation we developed the following profiles of the average reader: a current Amiga developer working alone or with one partner; a developer from another platform who would like to develop for the Amiga; a first-time developer; a graphic artist designing a user interface for a developer; a team of developers working for a medium-sized company... the list goes on. So our intention was to write a manual that introduced the Amiga from basics - in terms a non-technical reader could understand. The GUI sections were espe cially targeted for the layman. Other sections, such as the ARexx chapter, were structured more like reference guides since they will likely be used by readers with more of a technical background. Release 2 Assumed This book was written with Release 2 of the Amiga operating system in mind. All functions, examples and elements herein refer to Release 2. The Gender Question It's also worth noting that, no, we did not make mistakes in some places and insert feminine pronouns where we meant to put masculine. English doesn't have a good, genderless, third-person pronoun and it's very awkward to avoid using one. So instead of just using the masculine throughout or alternating chapters with masculine/feminine/masculine/ etc., we've changed Preface v or alternating chapters with masculine/feminine/masculine/etc., we've changed genders at random. That way it best mimics reality where some of your users will be men and others will be women. If you find yourself being startled by this shift - maybe you needed to be. No business can afford to alienate a customer by being unaware of her. Amiga Mail Updates Of course this manual, especially in its first edition, isn't the final word on style for Amiga applications. Interim updates may be published in Amiga Mail, the bi-monthly newsletter for Amiga developers. Anyone may subscribe to Amiga Mail. If you live in North America and want more subscription information, send a self-addressed stamped envelope to: CATS-Information 1200 Wilson Drive West Chester, PA 19380-4231 Elsewhere, write to your local Commodore office. See Appendix B in the back of this manual for addresses. A vi Amiga User Interface Style Guide chapter one INTRODUCTION The most we can hope for is that the oftener things are found together; the more probable it becomes that they will be found together another time, and that, if they have been found together often enough, the probability will amount almost to certainty. - Bertrand Russell The purpose of this book is to describe how the user interface of a standard Amiga application should look and operate. It is intended to be read by current Amiga developers as well as developers who are considering writing and/or designing application software for the Amiga. This book assumes some familiarity with computers and their interfaces in general, and with the Amiga's graphic user interface (GUI) in particular, but, for the most part, you do not have to be a programmer to understand the material. Only the behavioral guidelines for an Amiga application are presented here. The details of how to implement them are covered in other volumes of the Amiga Reference Series. Introduction 1 WHAT'S IN THIS BOOK This document provides the following information: • the benefits of a standard user interface; • an overview of the components of the Amiga user interface; • specifications showing how to use the components of the Amiga user interface to create a standard Amiga application. The Amiga hardware and system software provide the basic building blocks of the user interface: a mouse and pointer, windows and icons, menus and requesters and more. But it is your software that combines these elements and ultimately determines how the machine will be used. Non-Stifling Standards In one sense, this style guide can be considered a book of rules for you to fol low when designing application software for the Amiga. It describes the best ways to combine and use elements of the Amiga system software to communi cate with the user. This manual describes the Unlike rule books such as a state's driving code or a company's employee best ways to handbook, the style guide's originators don't suggest penalties for violators. In communicate with the user. fact, penalties of that sort would be counterproductive. The aim of this book is to establish standards for Amiga applications without stifling creativity. New ver sions of the Amiga and new types of applications will probably require refine ment and expansion of these standards in the future. That's not to say no penalties exist. In a free, competitive market the only real penalties are financial and self-inflicted. This book has been created under this premise: standardized software will be better for reasons described later in this chapter, and thus, in a competitive situation it should sell better. In short, these standards were devised to improve your program and the Amiga platform in the eyes of the user. 2 Amiga User Interface Style Guide