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Workbench is the graphical file manager of AmigaOS developed by Commodore International for their Amiga line of computers. Workbench provides the user with a graphical interface to work with file systems and launch applications. It uses a workbench metaphor (in place of the more common desktop metaphor) for representing file system organisation. Confusingly, "Workbench" was also the name originally given to the entire Amiga operating system up until version 3.1. From release 3.5 the operating system was renamed "AmigaOS" and subsequently "Workbench" refers to the native file manager only. ==Overview== The Amiga Workbench uses the metaphor of a workbench (i.e. a workbench of manual labor), rather than the now standard desktop metaphor, for representing file system organization. The desktop itself is called ''Workbench'' and uses the following representations: ''drawers'' (instead of folders) for directories, ''tools'' for executable programs, ''projects'' for data files; and a ''trash can'' as a folder intended to contain deleted files. These representations may be considered somewhat unusual by a modern user, but at the time there were no commonly accepted metaphors and Commodore chose to use different idioms from their competitors (Apple had already pursued legal action to prevent other software companies from offering graphical user interfaces similar to its own). Additionally, in 1985 computer graphics capabilities were more common in high end "workstations", and the Amiga was a multimedia/'creative' machine rather than an office machine, which may have provided further inspiration for the metaphor. Workbench is a spatial file manager in the sense that it uses a spatial metaphor to represent files and folders as if they are real physical objects. Under this concept, each drawer (folder) opens in its own window, rather than within a single browser under the now more common navigational concept. Workbench utilizes the Amiga's native windowing system called Intuition to provide the graphical user interface. Intuition manages the rendering of screens, windows and gadgets (graphical elements, equivalent to widgets). Later versions of AmigaOS enhanced the interface with more complex object-oriented widget systems, such as ''gadtools.library'' and BOOPSI (AmigaOS 2.0 and later) and ReAction (AmigaOS 3.5 and later). Intuition also handles user input events, such as, input from the keyboard and mouse. Workbench requires a two button mouse, where right click operates pull-down menus and left click is used for all other purposes. The underlying AmigaOS allows the Workbench to launch multiple applications that can execute concurrently. This is achieved through Exec, the Amiga's multi-tasking kernel, which handles memory management, message passing, and task scheduling. Applications launched from Workbench could report their success back to Workbench, but this was not a requirement and few actually did. Workbench itself has always been a disk-based component, though much of the underlying functionality is stored in the Amiga's Kickstart firmware, usually stored in ROM. As a consequence, it is necessary to boot from a system disk to launch Workbench. This setup streamlines the process of launching games (which typically do not require Workbench) and ensures that memory is not used unnecessarily by the OS in memory-limited systems. Workbench was shipped with all Amiga models from Commodore. Workbench was provided either on floppy disk or later (as part of AmigaOS) on CD-ROM. Initially, Workbench was designed to be launched and operate from floppy disk (or other removable media). Later versions could be installed on hard disk, for which an installer was developed for use with AmigaOS 2.0 and later. AmigaOS (including Workbench) often came pre-installed on systems shipped with hard disks. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Workbench (AmigaOS)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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