ASSIST - an assistant for AmigaOS users

[HelmutH]

03.06.2011 Assist V0.1 [OS4]



ASSIST: an 'assistant' for AmigaOS users

I started developing Assist to learn how to use Hollywood and also to create a
nice interface for my "Get the most out of your Amiga" guide. So far the
Hollywood application has some advantages over the PDF guide:
- one click downloading of software (requires wget)
- one click play back of YouTube videos (requires getVideo)
- opens relevant AmigaOS programs and drawers, e.g. ScreenBlanker prefs or
Dockies drawer
- a nice inferface which is hopefully more convenient to keep open while
working than a PDF and also easier to browse

The content in this release remains limited, please see
http://www.os4depot.net/share/document/ ... ya2011.pdf for the full PDF
guide.

WARNING: Although I have tested this and it has not crashed here, Assist is beta
and may crash your system, take care! Use at your own risk.

I would grately appreciate feedback on a bugs you come across. Please also feel
free to send suggestions and contributions to the guide.

To install simply copy the Assist drawer where you like. To run Assist as it was
intended you will need to have the following installed:
- AmigaOS 4.1 (Update 2)
- getVideo
- wget

A screenmode of at least 800x600 is highly recommended.

Plans for future release include:
- migration of all content and more from the PDF guide
- built-in progress indicator for downloads
- automatic unpacking of downloads
- search tool

[HelmutH]

08.06.2011 Assist V0.2 [OS4]

Changes in this version:

v0.2
- Reworked A-Z menu.
- Assist now checks for getVideo before attempting to play a video. If getVideo
is not present Assist will attempt to open the appropriate page on OS4Depot.
- First grabs of applications added: ADRipper and ArtEffect.
- Majority of crossfade effects removed for faster browsing.
- Added more content from Get the most out of your Amiga 2011.
- Added 'gtmooya' drawer with links to the PDF guide and video channel.

[HelmutH]

19.07.2011 Assist V0.3 [OS4]

v0.3 (19 July 2011)
- New layout with articles now integrated alongside the article lists, resulting in fewer mouse clicks needed by the user and fewer CPU cycles being used.
- Various cosmetic tweaks and enhancements.
- Flickering of the interface when browsing resolved.
- Back, forward and home buttons removed, instead the A-Z list is now available throughout.
- Cycle gadget added to the bottom right corner of the topics list, available where there are more than 15 topics.
- Five theme buttons added to the top of the interface. Clicking these will eventually show topics related to that theme. Relevant theme buttons are also shown when a topic is selected.
- Left clicking 'Assist' gives information about the program, e-mail feedback button, options and shows all five theme buttons. Right clicking 'Assist' reveals only the five theme buttons.
- Buttons added for fullscreen and windowed modes (click 'Assist' at top right to reveal). A button has also been added to show downloads (not currently working).
- Video button removed from the right of the information area. Videos are now shown as thumbnails in the information pane where available.
- All downloads are now saved to the RAM Disk.
- A short tour of Assist's features is now available from the start page.
- Assist shows it's own icon when iconified on Workbench.
- Grabs of applications removed for the time being.

[HelmutH]

22.07.2011 Assist V0.31 [OS4]

v0.31 (22 July 2011)
- Topics added to sections B, C and D.
- 'Show downloads' button now working.
- Verison number and release date added to the window title bar.

[HelmutH]

24.08.2011 Assist V0.32 [OS4]

Change in this Version:

v0.32 (24 August 2011)
- Topics added to sections E and F.

[gtmooya]

Assist 0.91 now on OS4Depot: http://os4depot.net/share/utility/misc/assist.lha

Hoping to make use of MUIRoyale in the near future.

[gtmooya]

Now up to version 1.42 with lots of new content added in recent updates and some nice new features such as optional integration with Jack's AppStore.

http://www.os4depot.net/share/utility/misc/assist.lha

[HelmutH]

07.01.2015 Assist V2.0 [OS4]

Changes in version 2.0:

- Added registration system, click the 'Register' link within Assist for further details
- New backdrop image and various button images updated from AISS 4.18
- New layout for applications including a short description, price, licence type and AmiCygnix or Qt icon if applicable
- Preview images reintroduced into the A to Z, for registered users clicking a preview image will open the original full size image
- Reworked the A to Z to make browsing faster and added a numbers category (0-9)
- Moving the mouse pointer away from a panel now leaves it highlighted until the pointer is over another panel
- The button of the currently selected theme is now unclickable
- Log button is now hidden unless logging is switched on and log file contains records
- If no downloads directory is found Assist now asks user to choose one rather than refering to Preferences
- Dependency downloaders updated to use Thoumas Hokka's 'Download'
- Search and currency options added to Preferences, 'Reset' option renamed to 'Reset to defaults' and icon added alongside
- Ringhio notifications are now switched off by default, see Preferences to switch these on
- Once in fullscreen it is no longer possible to switch back to windowed using F10, instead you must close and restart Assist
- The 'close gadget hides' option is now ignored when in fullscreen mode
- In fullscreen mode Assist no longer switches back to Workbench automatically when a file is auto unpacked
- Bug fixed that caused Assist to freeze if Assist attempted to unpack a missing archive, e.g. if download failed
- Fixed Ringhio notifications image (the image is now copied to T:Assist)
- Fixed AmigaOS wiki search
- Removed the description text from fullscreen mode's close gadget
- Removed 'WINDOW' ARexx command
- Removed getVideo installer
- Removed search engine options pop-up when right clicking the search button
- Added 21 new articles and updated many others
- A few minor updates to tutorials

[HelmutH]

22.06.2015 Assist V2.12 [OS4] by Daniel Hutchinson (gtmooya)

Changes in this new version:

- Fixed an issue with the use of WBRun to open drawers of auto unpacked downloads and the downloads drawer
- Fixed an issue in the AmiCygnix and Qt dependency checkers that resulted in a loop if the user opted to download when asked
- Added 15 new articles