Amiga World Official AmigaDOS 2 Companion - eBook-ENG

Page 53

Workbench Basics

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in action, select the one on the Utilities drawer. It removes the drawer from the Workbench. Drag Gadget: The drag gadget is the thick horizontal bar at the top of a win dow that doubles as the window's title bar. (Note that the name of its icon is the same as the name of its window.) The drag bar lets you move a window around on its screen. To do so, first, reopen the Utilities drawer, then position the pointer anywhere on the title bar. Next, press and hold the select button. Now, move the pointer. Note that the window moves as if hooked to the pointer. This is called dragging the window. In general, pressing and holding the select button on an object, and then moving the object, is called dragging. The drag bar of a disk window and a drawer window differ in one respect only. A disk window has more information in its drag bar than the window name. For example, the Workbench disk window on my Amiga 2000 says "Workbench2.0 97% full, 29K free, 850K in use." The figures tell you the amount of space you have left on the disk to store files. An abbreviation for kilobyte, K is a measure of computer storage that corresponds roughly to 1000 bytes. Each byte can hold a single character, such as the letter N.

Note that because the Amiga allows for multiple screens at the same time, screens also can have drag gadgets in their title bars so that you move a screen to see the one behind it.

Zoom Gadget: On the right side of the drag bar, you'll find two gadgets. The left-most one is the zoom gadget. Commodore's documentation on the zoom gadget is among the most non committal writing I've read. According to the manual, the zoom gadget "changes the size of a window." Well, not necessarily. It also states that "the zoom gadget on the Workbench2.0 disk window expands the window to the

full width and height of the screen." This is only true part of the time as well. To use a zoom gadget correctly, you have to remember that each one has a memory. More precisely, each one has access to the information the system maintains about its window. It uses this information to decide what to do when you select the zoom gadget.

To see what I mean, select the zoom gadget on the Utilities window. The win dow shrinks to its minimum size. Now, select the gadget again. The window opens to its original size. The zoom gadget, therefore, is similar to a toggle switch.

The confusion comes from the fact that you can set how big or small the win dow becomes andwhtrc the window appears when you hit the zoom gadget. For example, with the Utilities window at its original size, drag it as far as you


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