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From: powsner@csb1.nlm.nih.gov (Seth M Powsner)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.misc
Subject: Re: GEM desktop
Keywords: GEM Desktop GUI PC DRI
Message-ID: <1991Jan5.001918.9218@nlm.nih.gov>
Date: 5 Jan 91 00:19:18 GMT
References: <91Jan3.122458est.259@ois.db.toronto.edu>
Sender: usenet@nlm.nih.gov (usenet news poster)
Organization: Yale Univ Sch of Medicine
Lines: 27


I use GEM Desktop and GEM Draw quite a bit. Others in my office group
have gotten good use out of GEM WordChart and GEM Graph. There's not
much GEM Shareware (though there may be more in Europe and more for the
Atari). Best place for info is the DRI (Digital Research Inc) support
forum on CompuServe. Can also try the Atari ST related forums (Usenet
and CompuServe). Best catalog is from Digital Research (UK) Limited,
Oxford House, Oxford Street, NEWBURY, Berks RG131JB, UK, phone 44 635 35304
The US Hq is DRI, 60 Garden CT, PO Box DRI, Monterey, CA 93942.

Main reason we use GEM is that it gives quite acceptable performance on
plain old XT's with Hercules Graphic cards (and tolerable appearance on
even CGA displays). It can be used as a graphical shell to regular DOS
programs (double click a WordPerfect file and end up in WP with it loaded).
Allows technophobes to survive in a MS-DOS work environment if you add
a mouse package including pop-up menus and Extended Batch Language.
The plain Desktop is probably going for <=$50.

I've actually developed some GEM software using TurboC and the GEM
Developer's Kit (about $500). Not easy, but not as tough as Windows from
the reports I've read. AND, the final program can run on simple PC's.
My impression is that if you like programming for Xwindows or the Mac
you won't mind GEM too much. A >=12mHz AT makes a fine development system.
Can develop packages for Atari ST if you're inclined.

Hope that answers your questions. 
---Seth M Powsner  powsner@nlm.nih.gov powsner@yalemed.bitnet