New GUI for the Atari 8-bit

[ledzep]

I think my preferred behavior would just be to never allow the mouse pointer off the screen. I realize you'd have to do some more advanced checking than just that for the menu bar issue and such, but if the mouse pointer can't be dragged off the sides or bottom of the screen, neither can the windows. Of course, you've probably already thought of this, and there's just something deeper going on that I'm not realizing.

 

Come on, obviously the preferred behavior for an Atari 8-bit computer would have to be a wrap-around screen! I'm kidding but I think that would be a hilarious easter egg or hidden feature, having the windows wrap side-to-side or top-to-bottom, so 2600.

[flashjazzcat]

Come on, obviously the preferred behavior for an Atari 8-bit computer would have to be a wrap-around screen! I'm kidding but I think that would be a hilarious easter egg or hidden feature, having the windows wrap side-to-side or top-to-bottom, so 2600.

 

Heh... that's easy to implement as well: just remove the bounds checks and do away with all the clipping. The wrap-around effect (on the horizontal plane, at least) is exactly how the thing looked during the initial phases of getting the windows to slide off the screen.

[ToddUGA]

Did a quick mock-up of an Antic OS logo...

 

 

I like Antic OS because it both represents the graphics chip used in the 800 as well as one of the first Atari magazines.

[dmlloyd]

That way you can violate two copyrights at once

[ToddUGA]

Bah! We violate ten times that much here in a given month.

[+Stephen]

Yeah - it's only the Jag flamers (as in flame-wars) that care about copyright violations We can pillage and plunder here all we like.

[ToddUGA]

Yeah - it's only the Jag flamers (as in flame-wars) that care about copyright violations We can pillage and plunder here all we like.

 

Arrrrrrrr matey!

[atarixle]

How about "Antique OS" then? Nowbody can forbid to use this word.

 

On the other hand, it takes a lot of time to make "New GUI" an "Antique OS"

[jvas]

PreHistOS ?

[jacobus]

I'm rather partial to "Flash GUI"

[jmetal88]

How about 'The Screen'?

[potatohead]

XL-Desktop!

 

That is what this is. Now, it's gonna have a bit more under the hood than just a mere desktop, but unless I am mistaken, it's targeted at XL machines and up, right? (modded kits aside)

 

Desktop XL for Atari 8 bit XL / XE computers.

 

 

Fantastic work Jon. You are the shit. Seriously. I love checking in on this project.

 

Let's write some copy!

 

Desktop XL brings modern GUI interaction to your Atari XL/XE home computer. Use your supported mouse or joystick to navigate your filesystems and floppy disks with ease and modern features, like copy, rename, move, paste, delete.

 

With Desktop XL, you can be productive too! WYSIWYG document editing, featuring The Last Word, brings the world of fonts, clip art, and character attributes, including italic, bold, underline and various sizes and styles all viewable as printed on your Postscript or EPSON compatible printer.

 

(Don Lancaster did Postscript on an Apple //e, so why not?)

 

Use Desktop XL to show off your machine and perform basic computing tasks. Applications like Clock, Calculator, Text Editor, File Manager and Control Panel give you just the spiffy environment you need to get others excited about 8 bit computing. Desktop XL can run many legacy applications as well.

 

The Desktop XL API features all you need to create GUI applications and games in 6502 assembly language, and it's all easier than you think! Desktop XL took years to develop and delivers the maximum performance. Desktop XL is a robust computing environment that helps you get the most out of your Atari XL/XE personal computer, memory expansion and file storage peripherals. It's easy to author input device drivers for Desktop XL. If you can build it, you can connect it and use it easily with Desktop XL.

 

Order your copy of Desktop XL today!

[flashjazzcat]

Thanks for the copy, and all the suggestions. MrFish and I are due a catch up, and it might be a good time to discuss the product name again.

 

This subject of windows disappearing off the desktop came up again today, so just to reiterate - this is because the windows "snap" to byte boundaries, and a simple bounds check is required to ensure at least eight pixels of the window remain visible on the desktop. The mouse pointer never actually leaves the screen.

 

Desktop XL took years to develop...

 

One piece of copy we can definitely live up to.

[+CharlieChaplin]

Want some hype ?!?

And some blogs and the press reporting about your GUI ?!? And some letters from Apple and Mc Donald`s officials ?!? All you have to do then, visit Mc Donald`s, eat a Big Mac - flush, idea ! The GUI is then called Big Mac OS...

 

Apple will sue (don`t they always?) because of the Mac OS in your name, Mc Donald`s will sue because of the Big Mac in your name, but its all worth it. Lots of attention, PR and other nameless shit and your GUI is suddenly famous worldwide !!!

 

-Andreas Koch

Edited October 29, 2012 by CharlieChaplin

[flashjazzcat]

Been working on this in between numerous other bits of stuff:

 

 

It's basically a development of the text-mode UI used in the APT partition editor, and although it's intended for use with a forthcoming text editor, it's relevant to the GUI because the dialogue handler will form the basis of the GUI's dialogue code. The controls are implemented as state machines, and the GUI version will simply get mouse messages as well as keyboard messages from the controlling loop.

 

During a sleepless night, I also had occasion to skim-read most of "Operating Systems: Design and Implementation" (Tanenbaum / Woodhull), which I probably should have done some time ago.

[Wrathchild]

During a sleepless night, I also had occasion to skim-read most of "Operating Systems: Design and Implementation" (Tanenbaum / Woodhull), which I probably should have done some time ago.

 

Nice one... I recall having that as one of my uni textbooks

[+JAC!]

Weired people here - They create a graphics user interfaces and then add text mode :-)

[flashjazzcat]

Well, this way you end up with two UIs, instead of nuthin'.

[fernando marrin]

working great on Myide 2, amazing work

[Prodatron]

Hi Guys, already during the last few years I was a big A8 fan (consider it as the best 6502 machine ever because of a bunch of reasons...). Earlier this year I read a short article in a german retro magazine called "Return" about FJCs new GUI. That guided me to several YouTube videos and finally to FJC and this forum! To be honest I am absolutely impressed! I never saw such an approach of realizing a full flexible GUI on a 6502-8bit system before. But now Jon brought this dream to reality! And it absolutely differs from theses fake and/or cheap attempts we had in the past (GEOS was one of the most popular ones, and yes, I agree: in combination with the applications the result was absolutely awesome - but the GUI is still a fake compared to that what's going on today...)

 

I am the author of the Z80-based SymbOS operating system (here is a

, but 3x faster than the original machine, and another one

), and so I am very very interested in this project. I am looking forward to the progress of the new A8 GUI!

 

CU,

 

Prodatron

 

PS: @Jon, will write soon

Edited November 26, 2012 by Prodatron

[DracIsBack]

With one of the new Compact Flash carts, this is going to be sick!

[twh/f2]

Welcome Prodatron!! Good to see you here. I haven't seen your fantastic SymbOS for quite a while. What always impressed me is the amazing love for details. It looks certainly more powerful than modern Windows 8

[Prodatron]

@TWH: Nice to see you here SymbOS made a short break of only 5 years But Jons progress on the A8 GUI motivated me a lot to continue now! What's about coming to the Mittwinter-Meeting in Kirchen in Januar again? Haven't met you for a long time... And I hope someone will bring an A8 again (maybe "Forth"-Carsten S.).

(sorry for beeing offtopic)

 

CU,

Prodatron

[flashjazzcat]

Big thanks to Prodatron for making your presence felt here, and for all the interesting emails we've already shared. Prodatron has truly been there and bought the t-shirt, and any kind of collaboration or sharing of information between SymbOS and the A8 GUI has to be good news for both systems. And I'm very delighted that work is resuming on SymbOS, which I feel is the undisputable benchmark for any 8-bit GUI created today.

[flashjazzcat]

Dialogue manager in the text mode GUI is just about done:

 

http://youtu.be/HyY4xSu9qyY

 

This should make FDISK a little less cryptic in places, and here's a handy chunk of code I can use (in a modified form) in the GUI proper.

 

Regarding the GUI, I've made some important decisions during weeks of deep thought, reading, consulting and planning and I intend to make some quite fundamental changes over the next few weeks which - although involving much work - will completely solve the memory management problems I haven't quite been able to conquer yet. Effectively simplifying bulkier parts of the system, I believe this will speed completion in the long run, and with no practical downsides.

 

Thanks to some lengthy chats with Prodatron, I'm also now seriously considering having a crack at pre-emptive multitasking. The inherent drawbacks of the 6502 (most importantly, the fixed stack location) have been approached in several different ways in the past, and I believe some kind of workable compromise can be reached. And frankly, I find the prospect of doing things this way rather exciting.