Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!shadooby!samsung!brutus.cs.uiuc.edu!apple!fox!portal!cup.portal.com!Bob_BobR_Retelle
From: Bob_BobR_Retelle@cup.portal.com
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.8bit
Subject: Re: G.U.I.
Message-ID: <24786@cup.portal.com>
Date: 7 Dec 89 07:39:08 GMT
References: <19010@watdragon.waterloo.edu>
Distribution: na
Organization: The Portal System (TM)
Lines: 35

Roy Wood asks about the Graphics environment programs for the 8-bit Atari..
 
I've used the Diamond O.S. cartridge a bit, and it's actually not bad
at all...   in fact, if it had been available for the 8-bit system a few
years ago, it might have gone a long way toward generating a lot of
new interest in the machines.\
 
Rather than "Mac-like" it's more "ST-like"...  it's obviously been modelled
after the GEM interface in the ST...  
 
While you _can_ use a joystick with it, it works best of all with a real
ST mouse..  (there's also a KoalaPad driver for it, but I never tried
using that).  With a true proportional mouse like the ST's, you can
do true "point and shoot" operations.
 
All the "Mac-like" operations are there, including windows, dragging icons
to copy disks and files, slider bars on the windows... things like that..
 
There are even "Desk Accessories" that can be called up from within other
programs..!
 
The cartridge came with docs showing how to program the "GEM-like" features
into your own programs...  a few minutes with the docs, and I was opening
windows with title bars and icons from Atari BASIC...  very nice..!
 
There was another Graphics interface cartridge that was being worked on
called "GOE"  (Graphics Operating Environment), but it seems to have
evaporated into the great vapor cloud in the sky...  actually, I liked
the demo version I played with better than the Diamond O.S. in many areas.
 
Like I said, if these things had come out a few years ago, things might
be different in the 8-bit world today.  When GEOS appeared in the
Commodore marketplace, it gave the Commodore-64 a new lease on life...
 
BobR