[HN Gopher] OpenGEM: Non-multitasking 16-bit graphical user inte...
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OpenGEM: Non-multitasking 16-bit graphical user interface (GUI) for
DOS
Author : ingve
Score : 69 points
Date : 2022-08-17 16:09 UTC (3 days ago)
(HTM) web link (www.opendawn.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.opendawn.com)
| gertrunde wrote:
| This brings back memories, GEM was the first GUI/desktop
| environment I used, around 1987-88-ish, on an Amstrad PC 1640
| (with dual 5.25" disk drives and no hard disk - such luxury...)
|
| If I remember correctly, after booting into MS-DOS on one set of
| 5.25" disks, you then had to swap the disks and launch GEM.
| watchdogtimer wrote:
| My favorite DOS GUI was PC/GEOS / GeoWorks[1]. It was the GUI
| behind the interface on the original AOL CDs. It had a nice
| office suite that ran very well on even low end hardware of the
| day.
|
| I thought it was far superior to Windows at the time, and never
| understood why it wasn't more popular. It too has been open-
| sourced and is actively maintained[2].
|
| [1]
| https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/GEOS_(16-bit_operating_syste...
| [2] https://github.com/bluewaysw/pcgeos
| FiddlerClamp wrote:
| I loved GeoWorks at the time, too. From what I remember, the
| dev tools were very difficult to use, and apps had to be coded
| in assembly language, so third-party apps never really took
| off.
| jaclaz wrote:
| >It had a nice office suite that ran very well on even low end
| hardware of the day.
|
| Yep, that was called first "newdeal office" and later "breadbox
| Ensemble", it wasn't shabby at all (but that had not any
| diffusion/success):
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GEOS_(16-bit_operating_system)...
|
| There are some screenshots on toastytech:
|
| http://toastytech.com/guis/nd32.html
|
| http://toastytech.com/guis/bbe.html
| andix wrote:
| I'm always speechless when I see something like that. People who
| are supporting such projects over years or even decades, that
| don't really bring some value, but are just beautiful to have
| around.
|
| It's probably like being an artist. They don't create useful
| things, but they create nice things.
| anthk wrote:
| FreeDOS shouldn't provide SEAL and such. If any, they should
| build and pack the full GEM software bundle.
| [deleted]
| andyjohnson0 wrote:
| This made me smile. Back in 1991 I wrote my masters dissertation
| in 1st Word Plus runnng in GEM on an old 8086 PC. Being able to
| see fonts, bold/italic, etc. actually on the screen felt like
| seeing into the future. Given the limitations of the hardware
| back then it was pretty remarkable really.
| raarts wrote:
| Your remark brought back memories. My wife studied precision
| engineering as one of few girls (5 out of 700) in vocational
| college in the late 80s. She wrote all assignments on 1st Word
| Plus on our Atari ST. And turned them in printed on a dot
| matrix printer. At a time when everyone else of course was
| using pen and paper.
|
| Needless to say she got lots of respect. Not only for this
| reason but that's for another post I guess.
| buescher wrote:
| I poked around, but didn't see any application software for
| OpenGEM/FreeGEM. Is there any or are the people that use it just
| using it as a graphical shell and file manager? Ports of Atari ST
| software maybe?
| xeeeeeeeeeeenu wrote:
| Unfortunately, most of the websites about GEM are offline now.
| These are good starting points:
|
| http://www.seasip.info/Gem/
|
| https://www.owenrudge.net/GEM/
|
| http://www.retroarchive.org/cpm/archive/unofficial/gemworld....
|
| https://web.archive.org/web/20030417043919/http://www.geocit...
| (there's a web browser for GEM there!)
| rjsw wrote:
| What kind of applications are you looking for?
|
| I have written applications and desk accessories for original
| GEM, also did language bindings to it for Lisp.
| paulryanrogers wrote:
| This just appears to be a mirror of the Wikipedia article on
| OpenGEM
| codedokode wrote:
| Don't you think that the UI is not very good? First, there is no
| *quickly* accessible home screen with icons like in Android or
| iOS. Second, there is no quick search so that you can start any
| app by typing 3-4 letters like in Gnome. Instead, the UI makes
| you make lot of unnecessary gestures to perform a task. If you
| want to copy, copy the latest ideas and not make a clone of
| Windows 3.1.
| codedokode wrote:
| Also, windows do not make much sense on a small low-resolution
| display. Windows are made for people with huge expensive high-
| resolution monitors; for DOS era screens you should use either
| full-screen or half-screen windows.
| hakfoo wrote:
| Back in 2003, I decided I should bring in a 486 laptop for note-
| taking at uni. This was rather exotic at the time, even in a CS
| program.
|
| I ended up running FreeDOS+GEM, because a Linux setup that took 5
| minutes to boot was overkill and full of fun distractions. Also
| tried OS//2 3.0, but it was a bit poky on a 40MHz DX2 without L2
| cache,
| cmrdporcupine wrote:
| Related: Lee Lorenzen's (original GEM architect/author) 1982
| pitch to Xerox for a downsized version of their Star office/GUI
| tech to run on PC-class hardware. After they rejected/ignored his
| pitch, he went to Digital Research to create GEM.
|
| (Then later to found Ventura Publisher, a successful DTP program
| based around GEM. Which eventually became property of... Xerox)
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EMBGRZftS30
| wenc wrote:
| I remember Ventura Publisher! I used it to typeset school
| newsletters. The alternative was Aldus PageMaker but that ran
| on either Mac or Windows 3.1 and I only had a PC XT then, so I
| ran Ventura on DOS.
|
| It definitely looked like a GEM app. I don't know if it could
| actually run under GEM or if it used a GEM runtime underneath
| (it came as a standadalone). But it was my gateway DTP app --
| it was quite powerful and full-fledged for a DOS GUI app. I
| later moved to PageMaker and then QuarkXPress (all of these
| predated InDesign).
| mhd wrote:
| Those early DTP applications all made good use of graphical
| interfaces, so a few others used GEM, too (e.g. Office
| Publisher).
|
| It's been a while, but didn't early versions of PageMaker
| even include Windows (2.0), if you didn't already have it? On
| IBM PCs, you couldn't really expect anything, so bundling
| makes sense. I think some mice (Genius and/or Logitech)
| included simpler DTP applications, too.
|
| Ventura Publisher was pretty great. I think it fared better
| with multi-column layouts than most other applications,
| including InDesign until rather recently (spanning
| headlines).
| cmrdporcupine wrote:
| They bundled their own (forked probably) GEM runtime with it.
| No Desktop or ability to launch other apps.
|
| And I don't know if they ever bothered providing a standalone
| version that would work with DR's GEM.
|
| Also not sure why they never ported to the Atari ST. Would
| have been probably quite trivial.
|
| TimeWorks Publisher also ran under GEM. And looked a lot like
| Ventura. And existed for the Atari ST as well.
| teh_klev wrote:
| > It definitely looked like a GEM app. I don't know if it
| could actually run under GEM
|
| From my own memories, circa ~1986 I got introduced to Ventura
| Publisher and it definitely ran under GEM; GEM/2 seems to
| ring a bell. We were also using lower end PC's at the time
| but it was quite snappy to use. It was the first time I'd
| ever used a mouse having been a hardcore WordStar (under CP/M
| and DOS) user for all my word processing needs previously :)
| lproven wrote:
| Happy to see this getting mentioned.
|
| It's a distro of FreeGEM:
|
| http://www.deltasoft.com/Default.htm
|
| _Lots_ more info:
|
| http://www.seasip.info/Gem/
| xyproto wrote:
| Has the colors been chosen by a colorblind person?
| cmrdporcupine wrote:
| https://moddingwiki.shikadi.net/wiki/EGA_Palette
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(page generated 2022-08-20 23:02 UTC)