Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!seismo!sundc!pitstop!sun!decwrl!labrea!agate!pasteur!cory.Berkeley.EDU!akuo
From: akuo@cory.Berkeley.EDU (Augie Kuo)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple
Subject: Re: Apple2L, GEOS, CP/M
Message-ID: <2431@pasteur.Berkeley.Edu>
Date: 16 Apr 88 06:41:27 GMT
References: <8804121515.AA05003@wpi.local>
Sender: news@pasteur.Berkeley.Edu
Reply-To: akuo@cory.Berkeley.EDU.UUCP (Augie Kuo)
Organization: University of California, Berkeley
Lines: 44

In article <8804121515.AA05003@wpi.local> DSEAH@WPI.BITNET writes:
>GEOS:
>A friend of mine has GEOS 128 for his (gasp!) Commodore 128.  It kind of
>sucks, but is pretty good for a Commodore application.  Has anybody
>purchased it yet?  I am interested in hearing how it is on the II.
>

As a GEOS developer, I guess if you thought the 128 version sucked, then the
Apple version may impress you just as much. However, it does support ProDOS
so it has a hierarchical file structure, but since it has about the same reso-
lution graphics as the 128 and only running at 1Mhz (vs 2 on the 128) it's
rather slow.

{
For those of you who don't know what GEOS is, it's basically a macintosh-like
operating system on the //e and //c. Unlike the Catalyst program, GEOS has num-
erous applications already on the market, 5 of them being included in the base
GEOS package (three disks total with an interrupt management card for people
without mice) - a paint program, a word processor, a spelling checker, a merge
utility, and a text grabber for other word processors. We are currently working
on porting a desktop publishing program, a spreadsheet (like EXCEL) and a data
base program which should be released by summer.
}

Of course, I think that the novice user (ie kids in school, teachers, etc.)
will find GEOS a lot easier and better than the original APPLESOFT operating
system ever was. geoWrite (a WYSIWYG word processor like MacWrite) is easier to
use and learn than APPLEWORKS, and since it can read APPLEWORKS files, there's
no reason not to use it. True, it may be slow, but I think it's advantages -
being able to "paste" in pictures from PrintShop, NewsRoom, etc., change styles
and fonts (exactly like mac fonts - not weird looking ones from MultiScribe)
"paste" text from other files - outweigh the fact that text word processors
blitz when displaying text compared to geoWrite.

Other than that, go see the program for yourself and decide whether or not
you really like it.  Looking at something like GEOS really gives you mac envy...


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