csc@watmath.UUCP (Computer Sci Club) (12/06/84)
Does anyone know anything about Digital Research's new operating system/environment GEM (Graphics Environment Manager). According to Infoworld it is part of the operating system used by the soon- to-be-announced new atari machine... It is supposed to be very Mac'ish with pull-down menus, icons, etc... As they say... Thanks in advance. David Rowley ...watmath!csc
keithd@cadovax.UUCP (Keith Doyle) (12/11/84)
>Does anyone know anything about Digital Research's new operating >system/environment GEM (Graphics Environment Manager). According >to Infoworld it is part of the operating system used by the soon- >to-be-announced new atari machine... It is supposed to be very >Mac'ish with pull-down menus, icons, etc... > David Rowley We had a little demo of GEM recently, it ran on a P.C. (under DOS i think) and we have an evaluation copy that we can use as soon as we get the Mouse Systems mouse that we need to go with it. Initial impressions? Well I can't STAND the Mouse Systems mouse. You always have to be aware of the orientation of the mouse to the pad. All inputs are mouse position relative to pad position, so if you move your hand horizontally, but the pad is slightly off-kilter, the screen pointer moves diagonally. With the MAC mouse, or the Microsoft mouse, you don't have to worry about this at all. As far as GEM goes, I suppose I should reserve judgement until I can test it further. It seems that most of the problems I had may have been unfamiliarity with the mouse. However, at first glance it did look similar to the MAC (more similar than I might have expected). Apparently, when you click on any icon, it can be configured to start up a batch file that does whatever you want it to do. Unlike the MAC however, you normally click on an application icon (word processor, spreadsheet, drawing program, etc.) first, then direct that program to load any previously defined file that you intend to edit. With the MAC, you click on the file, and the file knows what application should be loaded to edit it. I got the impression, with the batch file mechanism, that you could do this under GEM too, but it also occured to me that most text files are used by multiple applications. For example, f you edit a source file, and then you want to compile it, you are using the editor in one case, and the compiler in another. Come to think of it, I don't even know how the MAC deals with this sort of thing. At present, GEM talks directly to the P.C. hardware for its windows, icons, and similar features. Digital Research made a bit deal about 'well behaved' applications in its initial Concurrent DOS demos, but GEM seems to be one of the 'ill behaved' type. I expect a new type of BIOS is necessary, (in addition to the GIOS) to port it to other hardware. That's all I know about transportability right now, I'm still trying to find out more from them. I'm primarily interested in GEMs applicability to 68000 based workstations, and so far I haven't even got a Real Soon Now. I thought the drawing program was very difficult to use, though again, it could have been the mouse. When we get our mouse, I'll be evaluating it more thoroughly, and I'll post more reviews, if there's any interest. Keith Doyle {ucbvax,ihnp4,decvax}!trwrb!cadovax!keithd "One reviewers Opinion" P.S. I am really fond of Atari's 800 product, and am anxious to see what they've got new, but if they've gone for the Intel 86 family, they just lost me.