GEM (for Graphics Environment Manager
) is an
operating environment
In computer software, an operating environment or integrated applications environment is the environment in which users run application software. The environment consists of a user interface provided by an applications manager and usually an app ...
released by
Digital Research
Digital Research, Inc. (DR or DRI) was a company created by Gary Kildall to market and develop his CP/M operating system and related 8-bit, 16-bit and 32-bit systems like MP/M, Concurrent DOS, FlexOS, Multiuser DOS, DOS Plus, DR DOS and ...
(DRI) in 1985 for use with the
DOS
DOS is shorthand for the MS-DOS and IBM PC DOS family of operating systems.
DOS may also refer to:
Computing
* Data over signalling (DoS), multiplexing data onto a signalling channel
* Denial-of-service attack (DoS), an attack on a communicat ...
operating system
An operating system (OS) is system software that manages computer hardware, software resources, and provides common services for computer programs.
Time-sharing operating systems schedule tasks for efficient use of the system and may also in ...
on
Intel 8088
The Intel 8088 ("''eighty-eighty-eight''", also called iAPX 88) microprocessor is a variant of the Intel 8086. Introduced on June 1, 1979, the 8088 has an eight-bit external data bus instead of the 16-bit bus of the 8086. The 16-bit registers an ...
and
Motorola 68000
The Motorola 68000 (sometimes shortened to Motorola 68k or m68k and usually pronounced "sixty-eight-thousand") is a 16/32-bit complex instruction set computer (CISC) microprocessor, introduced in 1979 by Motorola Semiconductor Products Sector ...
microprocessor
A microprocessor is a computer processor where the data processing logic and control is included on a single integrated circuit, or a small number of integrated circuits. The microprocessor contains the arithmetic, logic, and control circu ...
s.
GEM is known primarily as the
graphical user interface
The GUI ( "UI" by itself is still usually pronounced . or ), graphical user interface, is a form of user interface that allows users to interact with electronic devices through graphical icons and audio indicator such as primary notation, inste ...
(GUI) for the
Atari ST
The Atari ST is a line of personal computers from Atari Corporation and the successor to the Atari 8-bit family. The initial model, the Atari 520ST, had limited release in April–June 1985 and was widely available in July. It was the first pers ...
series of computers, and was also supplied with a series of
IBM PC
The IBM Personal Computer (model 5150, commonly known as the IBM PC) is the first microcomputer released in the IBM PC model line and the basis for the IBM PC compatible de facto standard. Released on August 12, 1981, it was created by a team ...
-compatible computers from
Amstrad
Amstrad was a British electronics company, founded in 1968 by Alan Sugar at the age of 21. The name is a contraction of Alan Michael Sugar Trading. It was first listed on the London Stock Exchange in April 1980. During the late 1980s, Amstrad ...
. It was also available for the standard IBM PC, at a time when the 6 MHz IBM PC AT (and the very concept of a GUI) was brand new. It was the core for a small number of DOS programs, the most notable being
Ventura Publisher
Ventura (Italian language, Italian, Portuguese language, Portuguese and Spanish language, Spanish for "fortune") may refer to:
Places
; Brazil
* Boa Ventura de São Roque, a municipality in the state of Paraná, southern Brazil
* Boa Ventura, ...
. It was ported to a number of other computers that previously lacked graphical interfaces, but never gained popularity on those platforms. DRI also produced X/GEM for their
FlexOS
FlexOS is a discontinued modular real-time multiuser computer multitasking, multitasking operating system (RTOS) designed for computer-integrated manufacturing, laboratory, retail and financial markets. Developed by Digital Research's Flexible ...
real-time operating system
A real-time operating system (RTOS) is an operating system (OS) for real-time applications that processes data and events that have critically defined time constraints. An RTOS is distinct from a time-sharing operating system, such as Unix, which m ...
with adaptations for
OS/2 Presentation Manager and the
X Window System
The X Window System (X11, or simply X) is a windowing system for bitmap displays, common on Unix-like operating systems.
X provides the basic framework for a GUI environment: drawing and moving windows on the display device and interacting wit ...
under preparation as well.
History
GSX
In late 1984, GEM started life at DRI as an outgrowth of a more general-purpose graphics library known as GSX (Graphics System Extension),
written by a team led by
Don Heiskell
Don, don or DON and variants may refer to:
Places
*County Donegal, Ireland, Chapman code DON
* Don (river), a river in European Russia
* Don River (disambiguation), several other rivers with the name
* Don, Benin, a town in Benin
* Don, Dang, a ...
since about 1982.
Lee Lorenzen (at Graphic Software Systems, Inc.) who had recently left
Xerox PARC
PARC (Palo Alto Research Center; formerly Xerox PARC) is a research and development company in Palo Alto, California. Founded in 1969 by Jacob E. "Jack" Goldman, chief scientist of Xerox Corporation, the company was originally a division of Xero ...
(the birthplace of the modern GUI) wrote much of the code. GSX was essentially a DRI-specific implementation of the
GKS graphics standard proposed in the late 1970s. GSX was intended to allow DRI to write graphics programs (charting, etc.) for any of the
8-bit
In computer architecture, 8-bit Integer (computer science), integers or other Data (computing), data units are those that are 8 bits wide (1 octet (computing), octet). Also, 8-bit central processing unit (CPU) and arithmetic logic unit (ALU) arc ...
and
16-bit
16-bit microcomputers are microcomputers that use 16-bit microprocessors.
A 16-bit register can store 216 different values. The range of integer values that can be stored in 16 bits depends on the integer representation used. With the two mos ...
platforms
CP/M-80,
Concurrent CP/M
MP/M (Multi-Programming Monitor Control Program) is a discontinued multi-user version of the CP/M operating system, created by Digital Research developer Tom Rolander in 1979. It allowed multiple users to connect to a single computer, each us ...
,
CP/M-86
CP/M-86 was a version of the CP/M operating system that Digital Research (DR) made for the Intel 8086 and Intel 8088. The system commands are the same as in CP/M-80. Executable files used the relocatable .CMD file format. Digital Research als ...
and
MS-DOS
MS-DOS ( ; acronym for Microsoft Disk Operating System, also known as Microsoft DOS) is an operating system for x86-based personal computers mostly developed by Microsoft. Collectively, MS-DOS, its rebranding as IBM PC DOS, and a few ope ...
(
NEC APC-III) would run on,
a task that otherwise would have required considerable effort to port due to the large differences in graphics hardware (and concepts) between the various systems of that era.
GSX consisted of two parts: a selection of routines for common drawing operations, and the device drivers that are responsible for handling the actual output. The former was known as GDOS (Graphics Device Operating System) and the latter as GIOS (Graphics Input/Output System),
a play on the division of CP/M into the machine-independent
BDOS (Basic Disk Operating System) and the machine-specific
BIOS
In computing, BIOS (, ; Basic Input/Output System, also known as the System BIOS, ROM BIOS, BIOS ROM or PC BIOS) is firmware used to provide runtime services for operating systems and programs and to perform hardware initialization during the ...
(Basic Input/Output System).
GDOS was a selection of routines that handled the GKS drawing, while GIOS actually used the underlying hardware to produce the output.
Known 8-bit device drivers
* DDFXLR7
Epson
Seiko Epson Corporation, or simply known as Epson, is a Japanese multinational electronics company and one of the world's largest manufacturers of computer printers and information- and imaging-related equipment. Headquartered in Suwa, Nagano, ...
and Epson-compatible printers
* DDFXLR8 Epson
lo-res
Image resolution is the detail an image holds. The term applies to digital images, film images, and other types of images. "Higher resolution" means more image detail.
Image resolution can be measured in various ways. Resolution quantifies how cl ...
, 8-bit
* DDFXHR8 Epson
hi-res
Image resolution is the detail an image holds. The term applies to digital images, film images, and other types of images. "Higher resolution" means more image detail.
Image resolution can be measured in various ways. Resolution quantifies how cl ...
, 8-bit
* DD-DMP1 Amstrad DMP1 printer (aka
Seikosha
was a branch of the Japanese company Seiko that produced clocks, watches, shutters, computer printers and other devices. It was the root of the manufacturing companies of the Seiko Group.
History
*1881 — Kintarō Hattori opens the watc ...
GP500M-2)
* DDSHINWA Printers using Shinwa Industries mechanism
* DDHP7470 DD7470
Hewlett Packard
The Hewlett-Packard Company, commonly shortened to Hewlett-Packard ( ) or HP, was an American multinational information technology company headquartered in Palo Alto, California. HP developed and provided a wide variety of hardware components ...
HP 7470 The HP 7470 was a small low-cost desktop pen plotter introduced by Hewlett Packard's San Diego division in 1982. It was the first small-format plot that moved the paper, rather than the pens.
It used a revolutionary "grit wheel" design which moved t ...
and compatible pen plotters,
HP-GL/2
* DDMODE0
Amstrad CPC
The Amstrad CPC (short for ''Colour Personal Computer'') is a series of 8-bit home computers produced by Amstrad between 1984 and 1990. It was designed to compete in the mid-1980s home computer market dominated by the Commodore 64 and the Sin ...
screen in mode 0
* DDMODE1 Amstrad CPC screen in mode 1
* DDMODE2 Amstrad CPC screen in mode 2
* DDSCREEN
Amstrad PCW
The Amstrad PCW series is a range of personal computers produced by British company Amstrad from 1985 to 1998, and also sold under licence in Europe as the "Joyce" by the German electronics company Schneider in the early years of the series' life. ...
screen
* DD7220 Hewlett Packard HP 7220,
HP-GL
HP-GL, short for Hewlett-Packard Graphics Language and often written as HPGL, is a printer control language created by Hewlett-Packard (HP). HP-GL was the primary printer control language used by HP plotters. It was introduced with the plotteHP-89 ...
* DDGDC DDNCRDMV
NEC µPD7220
The High-Performance Graphics Display Controller 7220 (commonly μPD7220 or NEC 7220) is a video display processor capable of drawing lines, circles, arcs, and character graphics to a bit-mapped display. It was developed by NEC in order to supp ...
* DDGEN2
Retro-Graphics GEN.II (
Ratfor
Ratfor (short for ''Rational Fortran'') is a programming language implemented as a preprocessor for Fortran 66. It provides modern control structures, unavailable in Fortran 66, to replace GOTOs and statement numbers.
Features
Ratfor provides ...
source code in ''Programmer's Guide'')
* DDHI3M
Houston Instrument HiPlot DMP
* DDHI7M Houston Instrument HiPlot DMP
* DDMX80 Epson MX-80 +
Graftrax Plus
Dot matrix printing, sometimes called impact matrix printing, is a computer printing process in which ink is applied to a surface using a relatively low-resolution dot matrix for layout. Dot matrix printers typically use a print head that moves ...
* DDVRET
VT100
The VT100 is a video terminal, introduced in August 1978 by Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC). It was one of the first terminals to support ANSI escape codes for cursor control and other tasks, and added a number of extended codes for special f ...
+ Retro-Graphics GEN.II (aka 4027/
4010)
* DDQX10
QX-10
The Epson QX-10 is a microcomputer running CP/M or TPM-III (CP/M-80 compatible) which was introduced in 1983. It was based on a Zilog Z80 microprocessor, running at 4 MHz, provided up to 256 KB of RAM organized in four switchable banks, a ...
screen
* DDCITOH
C. Itoh
is a Japanese corporation based in Umeda, Kita-ku, Osaka and Aoyama, Minato, Tokyo.
It is one of the largest Japanese ''sogo shosha'' (general trading companies). Among Japanese trading companies, it is distinguished by not being descend ...
8510A
* DDESP Electric Studio Light Pen (
Amstrad PCW
The Amstrad PCW series is a range of personal computers produced by British company Amstrad from 1985 to 1998, and also sold under licence in Europe as the "Joyce" by the German electronics company Schneider in the early years of the series' life. ...
)
* DDOKI84
Oki Data
, commonly referred to as OKI, OKI Electric or the OKI Group, is a Japanese information and communications technology company, headquartered in Toranomon, Minato-ku, Tokyo and operating in over 120 countries around the world.
OKI produced the fi ...
Microline
* DDBBC0
BBC Micro
The British Broadcasting Corporation Microcomputer System, or BBC Micro, is a series of microcomputers and associated peripherals designed and built by Acorn Computers in the 1980s for the BBC Computer Literacy Project. Designed with an emphas ...
screen in mode 0
* DDBBC1 BBC Micro screen in mode 1
* DDCITOLR
C. Itoh
is a Japanese corporation based in Umeda, Kita-ku, Osaka and Aoyama, Minato, Tokyo.
It is one of the largest Japanese ''sogo shosha'' (general trading companies). Among Japanese trading companies, it is distinguished by not being descend ...
8510A
lo-res
Image resolution is the detail an image holds. The term applies to digital images, film images, and other types of images. "Higher resolution" means more image detail.
Image resolution can be measured in various ways. Resolution quantifies how cl ...
* DDTS803
TeleVideo
TeleVideo Corporation was a U.S. company that achieved its peak of success in the early 1980s producing computer terminals. TeleVideo was founded in 1975 by K. Philip Hwang, a Utah State University, Hanyang University graduate born in South Kore ...
screen
* DDHP26XX HP 2648 and 2627 terminals
* DDMF GEM metafile
* DDPS
PostScript
PostScript (PS) is a page description language in the electronic publishing and desktop publishing realm. It is a dynamically typed, concatenative programming language. It was created at Adobe Systems by John Warnock, Charles Geschke, Doug Br ...
metafile
Known 16-bit device drivers
* DDANADXM Anadex DP-9501 and DP-9001A
* DDCITOLR
C. Itoh
is a Japanese corporation based in Umeda, Kita-ku, Osaka and Aoyama, Minato, Tokyo.
It is one of the largest Japanese ''sogo shosha'' (general trading companies). Among Japanese trading companies, it is distinguished by not being descend ...
8510A
lo-res
Image resolution is the detail an image holds. The term applies to digital images, film images, and other types of images. "Higher resolution" means more image detail.
Image resolution can be measured in various ways. Resolution quantifies how cl ...
* DDCNTXM
Centronics
Centronics Data Computer Corporation was an American manufacturer of computer printers, now remembered primarily for the parallel interface that bears its name, the Centronics connector.
History
Foundations
Centronics began as a division o ...
351, 352 and 353
* DDDS180 Datasouth
* DDIDSM IDS Monochrome
* DDLA100
DEC
* DDLA50 DEC
* DDOKI84
Oki Data
, commonly referred to as OKI, OKI Electric or the OKI Group, is a Japanese information and communications technology company, headquartered in Toranomon, Minato-ku, Tokyo and operating in over 120 countries around the world.
OKI produced the fi ...
Microline
* DDPMVP
Printronix
Printronix is an American supplier of line matrix printers. Printronix is based in Irvine, California, and operates across 14 offices worldwide.
Products
Printronix's printers are primarily used in industrial environments for printing high-volum ...
MVP
* DD3EPSNL IBM/Epson FX-80 lo-res Printer, see DDFXLR7 and DDFXLR8
* DD3EPSNH IBM/Epson FX-80 hi-res Printer, see DDFXHR8
* DD75XHM1
Regnecentralen
Regnecentralen (RC) was the first Denmark, Danish computer company, founded on October 12, 1955. Through the 1950s and 1960s, they designed a series of computers, originally for their own use, and later to be sold commercially. Descendants of the ...
RC759 Piccoline
* DDNECAPC
NEC APC
is a Japanese multinational corporation, multinational information technology and electronics corporation, headquartered in Minato, Tokyo. The company was known as the Nippon Electric Company, Limited, before rebranding in 1983 as NEC. It prov ...
* DDGSXM
Metafile
* EPSMONH6
* NCRPC4
NCR DecisionMate V
* IBMBLMP2 IBMBLMP3
IBM CGA monochrome mode
* IBMBLCP2 IBMBLCP3 IBM CGA color mode
* IBMCHMP6
* IBMEHFP6 IBMEHMP6 IBMELFP6 IBM
Enhanced Graphics Adapter
The Enhanced Graphics Adapter (EGA) is an IBM PC graphics adapter and de facto computer display standard from 1984 that superseded the CGA standard introduced with the original IBM PC, and was itself superseded by the VGA standard in 1987. In ...
* IBMHP743 Hewlett-Packard 7470A/7475A Plotter, see DDHP7470 and DD7470
* HERMONP2 IBMHERP3 HERMONP6
Hercules Graphics Card The Hercules Graphics Card (HGC) is a computer graphics controller made by Hercules Computer Technology, Inc. that combines IBM's text-only MDA display standard with a bitmapped graphics mode. This allows the HGC to offer both high-quality text an ...
(720×348)
* METAFIL6
Metafile
* PALETTE
Polaroid camera
Polaroid may refer to:
* Polaroid Corporation, an American company known for its instant film and cameras
* Polaroid camera, a brand of instant camera formerly produced by Polaroid Corporation
* Polaroid film, instant film, and photographs
* Polaro ...
* UM85C408AF UMC
VGA
Video Graphics Array (VGA) is a video display controller and accompanying de facto graphics standard, first introduced with the IBM PS/2 line of computers in 1987, which became ubiquitous in the PC industry within three years. The term can no ...
Graphics
The
DOS
DOS is shorthand for the MS-DOS and IBM PC DOS family of operating systems.
DOS may also refer to:
Computing
* Data over signalling (DoS), multiplexing data onto a signalling channel
* Denial-of-service attack (DoS), an attack on a communicat ...
version of GSX supports loading drivers in the
CP/M-86
CP/M-86 was a version of the CP/M operating system that Digital Research (DR) made for the Intel 8086 and Intel 8088. The system commands are the same as in CP/M-80. Executable files used the relocatable .CMD file format. Digital Research als ...
CMD format. Consequently, the same driver binary may operate under both CP/M-86 and DOS.
GEM
Intel versions
The 16-bit version of GSX 1.3
evolved into one part of what would later be known as ''GEM'', which was an effort to build a full GUI system using the earlier GSX work as its basis. Originally known as Crystal as a play on an IBM project called Glass, the name was later changed to GEM.
Under GEM, GSX became GEM VDI (Virtual Device Interface), responsible for basic graphics and drawing.
VDI also added the ability to work with multiple
font
In metal typesetting, a font is a particular size, weight and style of a typeface. Each font is a matched set of type, with a piece (a "sort") for each glyph. A typeface consists of a range of such fonts that shared an overall design.
In mod ...
s and added a selection of
raster
Raster may refer to:
* Raster graphics, graphical techniques using arrays of pixel values
* Raster graphics editor, a computer program
* Raster scan, the pattern of image readout, transmission, storage, and reconstruction in television and compu ...
drawing commands to the formerly
vector
Vector most often refers to:
*Euclidean vector, a quantity with a magnitude and a direction
*Vector (epidemiology), an agent that carries and transmits an infectious pathogen into another living organism
Vector may also refer to:
Mathematic ...
-only GKS-based drawing commands. VDI also added multiple
viewport
A viewport is a polygon viewing region in computer graphics.
In computer graphics theory, there are two region-like notions of relevance when rendering some objects to an image. In textbook terminology, the '' world coordinate window'' is the area ...
s, a key addition for use with windows.
A new module, GEM AES (Application Environment Services), provided the window management and UI elements, and GEM Desktop used both libraries in combination to provide a GUI.
The 8086 version of the entire system was first demoed at
COMDEX
COMDEX (an abbreviation of COMputer Dealers' EXhibition) was a computer expo trade show held in the Las Vegas Valley of Nevada, United States, each November from 1979 to 2003. It was one of the largest computer trade shows in the world, usually ...
in November 1984,
and shipped as GEM/1 on 28 February 1985.
=GEM/1
=
GEM Desktop 1.0 was released on 28 February 1985.
GEM Desktop 1.1 was released on 10 April 1985 with support for
CGA and
EGA displays.
A version for the
Apricot Computers
Apricot Computers was a British company that produced desktop personal computers in the mid-1980s.
Outline
Apricot Computers was a British manufacturer of business personal computers, founded in 1965 as "Applied Computer Techniques" (ACT), late ...
F-Series, supporting 640×200 in up to 8 colors, was also available as GEM Desktop 1.2.
Digital Research also positioned
Concurrent DOS 4.1
Multiuser DOS is a Real-time operating system, real-time multi-user multi-tasking operating system for IBM Personal Computer, IBM PC-compatible microcomputers.
An evolution of the older Concurrent CP/M-86, Concurrent DOS and Concurrent DOS 386 ...
with GEM as alternative for
IBM's
TopView
TopView is the first object-oriented, multitasking, and windowing, personal computer operating environment for PC DOS developed by IBM, announced in August 1984 and shipped in March 1985. TopView provided a text-mode (although it also ran in g ...
.
DRI originally designed GEM for DOS so that it would check for and only run on IBM computers, and not
PC compatibles
IBM PC compatible computers are similar to the original IBM PC, XT, and AT, all from computer giant IBM, that are able to use the same software and expansion cards. Such computers were referred to as PC clones, IBM clones or IBM PC clones. ...
like those from
Compaq
Compaq Computer Corporation (sometimes abbreviated to CQ prior to a 2007 rebranding) was an American information technology company founded in 1982 that developed, sold, and supported computers and related products and services. Compaq produced ...
, as the company hoped to receive license fees from compatible makers. Developers reacted with what ''
BYTE
The byte is a unit of digital information that most commonly consists of eight bits. Historically, the byte was the number of bits used to encode a single character of text in a computer and for this reason it is the smallest addressable unit ...
'' described as "a small explosion"; it reported that at a DRI-hosted seminar in February 1985, more than half of the attendees agreed that GEM's incompatibility with Compaq was a serious limitation. Later that month the company removed the restriction.
Applications that supported GEM included Lifetree Software's
GEM Write
A gemstone (also called a fine gem, jewel, precious stone, or semiprecious stone) is a piece of mineral crystal which, in cut and polished form, is used to make jewelry or other adornments. However, certain rocks (such as lapis lazuli, opal, ...
.
At this point,
Apple Computer
Apple Inc. is an American multinational technology company headquartered in Cupertino, California, United States. Apple is the largest technology company by revenue (totaling in 2021) and, as of June 2022, is the world's biggest company b ...
sued DRI
in what would turn into a long dispute over the "look and feel" of the GEM/1 system, which was an almost direct copy of
Macintosh
The Mac (known as Macintosh until 1999) is a family of personal computers designed and marketed by Apple Inc., Apple Inc. Macs are known for their ease of use and minimalist designs, and are popular among students, creative professionals, and ...
(with some elements bearing a closer resemblance to those in the earlier
Lisa Lisa or LISA may refer to:
People
People with the mononym
* Lisa Lisa (born 1967), American actress and lead singer of the Cult Jam
* Lisa (Japanese musician, born 1974), stylized "LISA", Japanese singer and producer
* Lisa Komine (born 1978), J ...
, available since January 1983). This eventually led to DRI being forced to change several basic features of the system.
(See also:
Apple v. Digital Research.) Apple would later go on to sue other companies for similar issues, including their
copyright lawsuit against Microsoft and HP.
In addition to printers the system also contained drivers for some more unusual devices such as the
Polaroid Palette.
=GEM/2
=
DRI responded with the "lawsuit-friendly" GEM Desktop 2.0, released on 24 March 1986, with support for
VGA
Video Graphics Array (VGA) is a video display controller and accompanying de facto graphics standard, first introduced with the IBM PS/2 line of computers in 1987, which became ubiquitous in the PC industry within three years. The term can no ...
displays.
It allowed the display of only two fixed windows on the "desktop" (though other programs could do what they wished), changed the trash can icon, and removed the animations for things like opening and closing windows. It was otherwise similar to GEM/1, but also included a number of bug fixes and cosmetic improvements.
In 1988
Stewart Alsop II
Stewart Johonnot Oliver Alsop, Jr. (born January 7, 1952) is an American investor who is a partner in Alsop Louie Partners, a venture capital firm. He was a general partner with New Enterprise Associates in Menlo Park, California. He was an edit ...
said that GEM was among several GUIs that "have already been knocked out" of the market by Apple, IBM/Microsoft, and others.
=GEM XM
=
GEM XM with "GEM Desktop 3.0" was an updated version of GEM/2 in 1986/1987 for
DOS
DOS is shorthand for the MS-DOS and IBM PC DOS family of operating systems.
DOS may also refer to:
Computing
* Data over signalling (DoS), multiplexing data onto a signalling channel
* Denial-of-service attack (DoS), an attack on a communicat ...
(including
DOS Plus
DOS Plus (erroneously also known as DOS+) was the first operating system developed by Digital Research's OEM Support Group in Newbury, Berkshire, UK, first released in 1985. DOS Plus 1.0 was based on CP/M-86 Plus combined with the PCMODE e ...
) which allowed task-switching and the ability to run up to ten GEM and DOS programs at once, swapping out to
expanded memory
In DOS memory management, expanded memory is a system of bank switching that provided additional memory to DOS programs beyond the limit of conventional memory (640 KiB).
''Expanded memory'' is an umbrella term for several incompatible techn ...
(XM) through
EMS/
EEMS or to disk (including
RAM disk
Ram, ram, or RAM may refer to:
Animals
* A male sheep
* Ram cichlid, a freshwater tropical fish
People
* Ram (given name)
* Ram (surname)
* Ram (director) (Ramsubramaniam), an Indian Tamil film director
* RAM (musician) (born 1974), Dutch
* Ra ...
s, thereby also allowing the use of
extended memory
In DOS memory management, extended memory refers to memory above the first megabyte (220 bytes) of address space in an IBM PC or compatible with an 80286 or later processor. The term is mainly used under the DOS and Windows operating systems. DOS ...
).
Data could be copied and pasted between applications through a
clipboard
A clipboard is a thin, rigid board with a clip at the top for holding paper in place. A clipboard is typically used to support paper with one hand while writing on it with the other, especially when other writing surfaces are not available. Th ...
with filter function (a feature later also found in
TaskMAX
DR-DOS (written as DR DOS, without a hyphen, in versions up to and including 6.0) is a disk operating system for IBM PC compatibles. Upon its introduction in 1988, it was the first DOS attempting to be compatible with IBM PC DOS and MS-DO ...
under
DR DOS 6.0
DR-DOS (written as DR DOS, without a hyphen, in versions up to and including 6.0) is a disk operating system for IBM PC compatibles. Upon its introduction in 1988, it was the first DOS attempting to be compatible with IBM PC DOS and MS-D ...
).
Digital Research planned to offer GEM XM as an option to GEM
Draw Plus users and through OEM channels.
The GEM XM
source code
In computing, source code, or simply code, is any collection of code, with or without comments, written using a human-readable programming language, usually as plain text. The source code of a program is specially designed to facilitate the wo ...
is now freely available under the terms of
GNU General Public License
The GNU General Public License (GNU GPL or simply GPL) is a series of widely used free software licenses that guarantee end users the Four Freedoms (Free software), four freedoms to run, study, share, and modify the software. The license was th ...
.
=GEM/3
=
The last retail release was GEM/3 Desktop, released on 3 November 1988,
which had speed improvements and shipped with a number of basic applications. Commercial sales of GEM ended with GEM/3; the source code was subsequently made available to a number of DRI's leading customers.
While GEM/2 for the PC still provided a GSX API in addition to the GEM API; GEM/3 no longer did.
=GEM/4 for CCP Artline
=
GEM/4, released in 1990, included the ability to work with
Bézier curve
A Bézier curve ( ) is a parametric curve used in computer graphics and related fields. A set of discrete "control points" defines a smooth, continuous curve by means of a formula. Usually the curve is intended to approximate a real-world shape t ...
s, a feature still not commonly found outside the
PostScript
PostScript (PS) is a page description language in the electronic publishing and desktop publishing realm. It is a dynamically typed, concatenative programming language. It was created at Adobe Systems by John Warnock, Charles Geschke, Doug Br ...
world. This version was produced specifically for
Artline 2, a drawing program from the German company
CCP Development GmbH.
The system also included changes to the font management system, which made it incompatible with the likes of
Timeworks Publisher
Timeworks Publisher was a desktop publishing (DTP) program produced by GST Software in the United Kingdom.
It is notable as the first affordable DTP program for the IBM PC. In appearance and operation, it was a Ventura Publisher clone, but it w ...
.
Artline 1 still ran on GEM 3.1.
=GEM/5 for GST Timeworks Publisher
=
Another version of GEM called GEM/5
was produced by
GST Software Products
GST was a group of computer companies based in Cambridge, England, founded by Jeff Fenton in June 1979. The company worked with Atari, Sinclair Research, Torch Computers, Acorn Computers, Monotype Corporation and Kwik-Fit, amongst others.
...
for
Timeworks Publisher
Timeworks Publisher was a desktop publishing (DTP) program produced by GST Software in the United Kingdom.
It is notable as the first affordable DTP program for the IBM PC. In appearance and operation, it was a Ventura Publisher clone, but it w ...
2.1. It contained an updated look with 3D buttons, along with features such as on-the-fly font scaling. It came complete with all the standard GEM 3.1 tools. This version was produced from GEM 3.13 with only the Bézier handling taken from GEM/4.
=ViewMAX for DR DOS
=
GEM Desktop itself was spun off in 1990 as a product known as
ViewMAX
ViewMAX is a CUA-compliant file manager supplied with DR DOS versions 5.0 and 6.0. It is based on a cut-down runtime version of Digital Research's GEM/3 graphical user interface modified to run only a single statically built applicatio ...
which was used solely as a file management shell under
DR DOS
DR-DOS (written as DR DOS, without a hyphen, in versions up to and including 6.0) is a disk operating system for IBM PC compatibles. Upon its introduction in 1988, it was the first DOS attempting to be compatible with IBM PC DOS and MS-DO ...
. In this form the system could not run other GEM programs. This led to a situation where a number of applications (including ViewMAX) could exist all with their own
statically linked copy of the GEM system. This scenario was actually rare, as few native GEM programs were published. In 1991,
ViewMAX 2
ViewMAX is a Common User Access, CUA-compliant file manager supplied with DR DOS versions DR DOS 5.0, 5.0 and DR DOS 6.0, 6.0. It is based on a cut-down runtime system, runtime version of Digital Research's GEM/3 graphical user interface mo ...
was released.
In these forms, GEM survived until DRI was purchased by
Novell
Novell, Inc. was an American software and services company headquartered in Provo, Utah, that existed from 1980 until 2014. Its most significant product was the multi-platform network operating system known as Novell NetWare.
Under the lead ...
in June 1991
and all GEM development was cancelled.
=X/GEM
=
Throughout this time DRI had also been working on making the GEM system capable of multitasking. This started with X/GEM based on GEM/1, but this required use of one of the multitasking CP/M-based operating systems. DRI also produced X/GEM for their
FlexOS
FlexOS is a discontinued modular real-time multiuser computer multitasking, multitasking operating system (RTOS) designed for computer-integrated manufacturing, laboratory, retail and financial markets. Developed by Digital Research's Flexible ...
real-time operating system
A real-time operating system (RTOS) is an operating system (OS) for real-time applications that processes data and events that have critically defined time constraints. An RTOS is distinct from a time-sharing operating system, such as Unix, which m ...
with adaptations for
OS/2 Presentation Manager and the
X Window System
The X Window System (X11, or simply X) is a windowing system for bitmap displays, common on Unix-like operating systems.
X provides the basic framework for a GUI environment: drawing and moving windows on the display device and interacting wit ...
under preparation as well.
=Ventura Publisher
=
Lee Lorenzen left soon after the release of GEM/1, when it became clear that DRI had no strong interest in application development. He then joined with two other former DRI employees, Don Heiskell and John Meyer, to start
Ventura Software
Ventura Publisher was the first popular desktop publishing package for IBM PC compatible computers running the Graphics Environment Manager, GEM extension to the DOS operating system. The software was originally developed by Ventura Software, a s ...
. They developed
Ventura Publisher
Ventura (Italian language, Italian, Portuguese language, Portuguese and Spanish language, Spanish for "fortune") may refer to:
Places
; Brazil
* Boa Ventura de São Roque, a municipality in the state of Paraná, southern Brazil
* Boa Ventura, ...
(which was later marketed by
Xerox
Xerox Holdings Corporation (; also known simply as Xerox) is an American corporation that sells print and electronic document, digital document products and services in more than 160 countries. Xerox is headquartered in Norwalk, Connecticut (ha ...
and eventually by
Corel
Cascade Parent Limited, doing business as Alludo (pronounced like "all you do"), is a Canadian software company headquartered in Ottawa, Ontario, specializing in graphics processing. Formerly called the Corel Corporation ( ; from the abbreviation ...
), which would go on to be a very popular
desktop publishing
Desktop publishing (DTP) is the creation of documents using page layout software on a personal ("desktop") computer. It was first used almost exclusively for print publications, but now it also assists in the creation of various forms of online c ...
program for some time.
Atari versions
Development of the production 68000 version of GEM began in September 1984, when Atari sent a team called "The Monterey Group" to
Digital Research
Digital Research, Inc. (DR or DRI) was a company created by Gary Kildall to market and develop his CP/M operating system and related 8-bit, 16-bit and 32-bit systems like MP/M, Concurrent DOS, FlexOS, Multiuser DOS, DOS Plus, DR DOS and ...
to begin work on porting GEM. Originally, the plan was to run GEM on top of
CP/M-68K
CP/M, originally standing for Control Program/Monitor and later Control Program for Microcomputers, is a mass-market operating system created in 1974 for Intel 8080/ 85-based microcomputers by Gary Kildall of Digital Research, Inc. Initial ...
, both ostensibly ported to
Motorola 68000
The Motorola 68000 (sometimes shortened to Motorola 68k or m68k and usually pronounced "sixty-eight-thousand") is a 16/32-bit complex instruction set computer (CISC) microprocessor, introduced in 1979 by Motorola Semiconductor Products Sector ...
by DRI prior to the ST design being created. In fact, these ports were unusable and would require considerable development. Digital Research also offered GEMDOS (originally written as GEM DOS), a DOS-like operating system aimed to port GEM to different hardware platforms. It was available for
8086
The 8086 (also called iAPX 86) is a 16-bit microprocessor chip designed by Intel between early 1976 and June 8, 1978, when it was released. The Intel 8088, released July 1, 1979, is a slightly modified chip with an external 8-bit data bus (allowi ...
and
68000
The Motorola 68000 (sometimes shortened to Motorola 68k or m68k and usually pronounced "sixty-eight-thousand") is a 16/32-bit complex instruction set computer (CISC) microprocessor, introduced in 1979 by Motorola Semiconductor Products Sector ...
processors and had been adapted to the
Apple
An apple is an edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus domestica''). Apple fruit tree, trees are agriculture, cultivated worldwide and are the most widely grown species in the genus ''Malus''. The tree originated in Central Asia, wh ...
Lisa 2/5 and the
Motorola
Motorola, Inc. () was an American Multinational corporation, multinational telecommunications company based in Schaumburg, Illinois, United States. After having lost $4.3 billion from 2007 to 2009, the company split into two independent p ...
VME/10
development system.
Atari decided in January 1985
to give up on the existing CP/M-68K code and instead port GEMDOS to the Atari ST platform, referring to it as
TOS.
As Atari had provided most of the development of the 68000 version, they were given full rights to continued developments without needing to reverse-license it back to DRI. As a result, the Apple-DRI lawsuit did not apply to the Atari versions of GEM, and they were allowed to keep a more Mac-like UI.
Over the next seven years, from 1985 to 1992, new versions of TOS were released with each new generation of the ST line. Updates included support for more colors and higher resolutions in the raster-side of the system, but remained generally similar to the original in terms of GKS support. In 1992 Atari released TOS 4, or
MultiTOS
MiNT is Now TOS (MiNT) is a free software alternative operating system kernel for the Atari ST system and its successors. It is a multi-tasking alternative to TOS and MagiC. Together with the free system components fVDI device drivers, XaAES ...
, along with their final computer system, the
Falcon030
The Atari Falcon030 (usually shortened to Atari Falcon), released in 1992, was the final personal computer product from Atari Corporation. A high-end model of the Atari ST line, the machine is based on a Motorola 68030 CPU and a Motorola 56001 dig ...
. In combination with
MiNT
MiNT is Now TOS (MiNT) is a free software alternative operating system kernel for the Atari ST system and its successors. It is a multi-tasking alternative to TOS and MagiC. Together with the free system components fVDI device drivers, XaA ...
, TOS 4 allowed full multitasking support in GEM.
Continued development
When
Caldera
A caldera ( ) is a large cauldron-like hollow that forms shortly after the emptying of a magma chamber in a volcano eruption. When large volumes of magma are erupted over a short time, structural support for the rock above the magma chamber is ...
bought the remaining Digital Research assets from Novell on 23 July 1996,
initial plans were to revive GEM and ViewMAX technologies for a low-footprint user interface for
OpenDOS
DR-DOS (written as DR DOS, without a hyphen, in versions up to and including 6.0) is a disk operating system for IBM PC compatibles. Upon its introduction in 1988, it was the first DOS attempting to be compatible with IBM PC DOS and MS-D ...
in mobile applications
as ''
Caldera View'', but these plans were abandoned by
Caldera UK
DR-DOS (written as DR DOS, without a hyphen, in versions up to and including 6.0) is a disk operating system for IBM PC compatibles. Upon its introduction in 1988, it was the first DOS attempting to be compatible with IBM PC DOS and MS-DO ...
in favour of
DR-WebSpyder
DR-WebSpyder is a DOS web browser, mail client and operating system runtime environment that was developed by Caldera UK in 1997. It was based on the DR-DOS operating system and networking components from Novell as well as the Arachne web brow ...
and
GROW.
Caldera Thin Clients
Lineo was a thin client and embedded systems company spun out of Caldera Thin Clients by 20 July 1999.
History
Caldera Thin Clients, Inc., had been created as a subsidiary of Caldera, Inc., on 2 September 1998. Caldera Thin Clients' original ...
(later known as
Lineo
Lineo was a thin client and embedded systems company spun out of Caldera Thin Clients by 20 July 1999.
History
Caldera Thin Clients, Inc., had been created as a subsidiary of Caldera, Inc., on 2 September 1998. Caldera Thin Clients' origina ...
) released the source to GEM and GEM XM under the terms of
GNU GPL-2.0-only in April 1999.
The development of GEM for PC continues as
FreeGEM
FreeGEM released in 1999 is a windowing system based on Digital Research's GEM which was first released in 1985. GEM stands for "Graphics Environment Manager".
Overview
FreeGEM is the free software/open source version of GEM developed after Cal ...
and
OpenGEM
FreeGEM released in 1999 is a windowing system based on Digital Research's GEM which was first released in 1985. GEM stands for "Graphics Environment Manager".
Overview
FreeGEM is the free software/ open source version of GEM developed after C ...
.
On the Atari ST platform, the original DRI sources were ported again to be used in the free and open source
TOS clone
EmuTOS
EmuTOS is a replacement for TOS (the operating system of the Atari ST and its successors), released as free software. It is mainly intended to be used with Atari emulators and clones, such as Hatari or FireBee. EmuTOS provides support for more ...
. New implementations of the AES portions of GEM have been implemented from scratch in the form of
XaAES
XaAES is a graphical user interface for the OS kernel MiNT (now known as FreeMiNT), and is aimed at systems that are compatible with 16/32 bit (hence ST) Atari computers such as the ST, TT or Falcon. The combination of MiNT and XaAES is the natur ...
, and MyAES,
both of which are fully re-entrant and support multitasking on top of the
FreeMiNT
MiNT is Now TOS (MiNT) is a free software alternative operating system kernel for the Atari ST system and its successors. It is a multi-tasking alternative to TOS and MagiC. Together with the free system components fVDI device drivers, XaAE ...
multitasking extensions to
TOS.
Description
The "full" GEM system consisted of three main parts:
#GEM VDI (Virtual Device Interface)
#GEM AES (Application Environment Services)
#GEM Desktop (an application providing drag-and-drop file management)
GEM VDI was the core graphics system of the overall GEM engine. It was responsible for "low level" drawing in the form of "draw line from here to here". VDI included a resolution and coordinate independent set of vector drawing instructions which were called from applications through a fairly simple interface. VDI also included environment information (state, or context), current color, line thickness, output device, etc.
These commands were then examined by GDOS, whose task it was to send the commands to the proper driver for actual rendering. For instance, if a particular GEM VDI environment was connected to the screen, the VDI instructions were then routed to the screen driver for drawing. Simply changing the environment to point to the printer was all that was needed (in theory) to print, dramatically reducing the developer workload (they formerly had to do printing "by hand" in all applications). GDOS was also responsible for loading up the drivers and any requested fonts when GEM was first loaded.
One major advantage VDI provided over the Macintosh was the way multiple devices and contexts were handled. In the Mac such information was stored in memory inside the application. This resulted in serious problems when attempting to make the Mac handle pre-emptive multitasking, as the drawing layer (
QuickDraw
A quickdraw (also known as an extender) is a piece of climbing equipment used by rock and ice climbers to allow the climbing rope to run freely through protection such as a bolt anchors or other traditional gear while leading.
A quickdraw ...
) needed to have direct memory access into all programs. In GEM VDI however, such information was stored in the device itself, with GDOS creating "virtual devices" for every context – each window for instance.
GEM AES provided the window system, window manager, UI style and other GUI elements (widgets). For performance reasons, many of the GUI widgets were actually drawn using character graphics. Compared to the Macintosh, AES provided a rather spartan look and the system shipped with a single monospaced font.
AES performs its operations by calling the VDI, but in a more general sense the two parts of GEM were often completely separated in applications. Applications typically called AES commands to set up a new window, with the rest of the application using VDI calls to actually draw into that window.
GEM Desktop was an application program that used AES to provide a file manager and launcher, the traditional "desktop" environment that users had come to expect from the Macintosh. Unlike the Macintosh, the GEM Desktop ran on top of DOS (
MS-DOS
MS-DOS ( ; acronym for Microsoft Disk Operating System, also known as Microsoft DOS) is an operating system for x86-based personal computers mostly developed by Microsoft. Collectively, MS-DOS, its rebranding as IBM PC DOS, and a few ope ...
,
DOS Plus
DOS Plus (erroneously also known as DOS+) was the first operating system developed by Digital Research's OEM Support Group in Newbury, Berkshire, UK, first released in 1985. DOS Plus 1.0 was based on CP/M-86 Plus combined with the PCMODE e ...
or
DR DOS
DR-DOS (written as DR DOS, without a hyphen, in versions up to and including 6.0) is a disk operating system for IBM PC compatibles. Upon its introduction in 1988, it was the first DOS attempting to be compatible with IBM PC DOS and MS-D ...
on the PC, GEMDOS on the Atari), and as a result the actual display was cluttered with computer-like items, including path names and wildcards. In general, GEM was much more "geeky" than the Mac, but simply running a usable shell on DOS was a huge achievement on its own. Otherwise, GEM has its own advantages over Mac OS such as proportional sliders.
Native PC GEM applications use the file extension .APP for executables, whereas GEM desktop accessories use the file extension .ACC instead.
All desktop accessories (and also a few simple applications) can be run under ViewMAX without modification.
See also
*
Atari TOS
TOS (The Operating System) is the operating system of the Atari ST range of computers. This range includes the 520ST and 1040ST, their STF/M/FM and STE variants and the Mega ST/STE. Later, 32-bit machines ( TT, Falcon030) were developed using a ...
*
EmuTOS
EmuTOS is a replacement for TOS (the operating system of the Atari ST and its successors), released as free software. It is mainly intended to be used with Atari emulators and clones, such as Hatari or FireBee. EmuTOS provides support for more ...
*
FreeGEM
FreeGEM released in 1999 is a windowing system based on Digital Research's GEM which was first released in 1985. GEM stands for "Graphics Environment Manager".
Overview
FreeGEM is the free software/open source version of GEM developed after Cal ...
*
OpenGEM
FreeGEM released in 1999 is a windowing system based on Digital Research's GEM which was first released in 1985. GEM stands for "Graphics Environment Manager".
Overview
FreeGEM is the free software/ open source version of GEM developed after C ...
*
GEM character set The GEM character set is the character set of Digital Research's graphical user interface GEM on Intel platforms. It is based on code page 437, the original character set of the IBM PC, and like that set includes ASCII codes 32–126, extended co ...
*
Atari ST character set
The Atari ST character set is the character set of the Atari ST personal computer family including the Atari STE, TT and Falcon. It is based on code page 437, the original character set of the IBM PC, and like that set includes ASCII codes 3 ...
*
Resource construction set (RCS)
*
Pantone Color Computer Graphics
Pantone LLC (stylized as PANTONE) is a limited liability company headquartered in Carlstadt, New Jersey. The company is best known for its Pantone Matching System (PMS), a proprietary color space used in a variety of industries, notably graphi ...
*
GEMSID/
SID86 (variants of DRI's
Symbolic Instruction Debugger including special support for GEM)
References
Further reading
*
https://archive.org/download/hack42_Apricot_Portable_Technical_Reference_Manual_Sections_text.pdf] (228 pages)
*
https://archive.org/stream/bitsavers_digitalResGraphicsExtensionProgrammersGuideSep83_2557741/5000-2024_GSX_Graphics_Extension_Programmers_Guide_Sep83_djvu.tx
External links
GEM- history, documentation and links to various open-source GEM projects
*
- a distribution of Atari OS components (consisting of for exampl
EmuTOS, aimed specifically at ARAnyM
AranymAtari Running on Any Machine: an open source emulator/virtual machine that can run Atari GEM applications
*
Creating of TOS (part 1) Landon Dyer, one of original member of "The Monterey Group"
Creating of TOS (part 2) Landon Dyer, one of original member of "The Monterey Group"
GEM demo 1985 Most of the program is about the MAC*
{{File managers
Atari ST software
Desktop environments
Digital Research software
DOS software
File managers
Formerly proprietary software
GEM software
Operating system APIs
Windowing systems
1985 software