From Dr.Kasten at t-online.de Mon Sep 5 13:19:24 2011 From: Dr.Kasten at t-online.de (M.Kasten) Date: Mon, 05 Sep 2011 20:19:24 -0000 Subject: [GEM Development] X/GEM Message-ID: <1R0fdO-1ktdp20@fwd11.aul.t-online.de> Dear Members, i?ve made a screen-photo from the X/GEM desktop, running on a Siemens PG 750 under FlexOS. I?m sorry about the poor quality, but i have no screen grabber running under the FlexOS system. As you can see it?s back to the roots. Multiple overlapping windows and the trashcan is appearing again. You can run up to seven programs in multitasking mode. The programs on the machine are: X/GEM Draw, X/GEM 1st Word plus, Adimens GTX (database), clock and Memgraph. Best regards, Dr.Michael Kasten -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.simpits.org/pipermail/gem-dev/attachments/20110905/f6f0f3a9/attachment-0001.html -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: FlexOS 003.zip Type: application/x-zip-compressed Size: 44245 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://www.simpits.org/pipermail/gem-dev/attachments/20110905/f6f0f3a9/attachment-0001.bin From topcatdrc at yahoo.com Tue Sep 6 18:35:04 2011 From: topcatdrc at yahoo.com (Thomas Clayton) Date: Tue, 6 Sep 2011 18:35:04 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [GEM Development] X/GEM In-Reply-To: <1R0fdO-1ktdp20@fwd11.aul.t-online.de> Message-ID: <1315359304.14552.YahooMailClassic@web181505.mail.ne1.yahoo.com> WOW! (amazing) Keep up the great work! Tom C --- On Mon, 9/5/11, M.Kasten wrote: From: M.Kasten Subject: [GEM Development] X/GEM To: gem-dev at simpits.org Date: Monday, September 5, 2011, 3:19 PM Dear Members, i?ve made a screen-photo from the X/GEM desktop, running on a Siemens PG 750 under FlexOS. I?m sorry about the poor quality, but i have no screen grabber running under the FlexOS system. As you can see it?s back to the roots. Multiple overlapping windows and the trashcan is appearing again. You can run up to seven programs in multitasking mode. The programs on the machine are: X/GEM Draw, X/GEM 1st Word plus, Adimens GTX (database), clock and Memgraph. Best regards, Dr.Michael Kasten -----Inline Attachment Follows----- _______________________________________________ gem-dev mailing list gem-dev at simpits.org http://www.simpits.org/mailman/listinfo/gem-dev -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.simpits.org/pipermail/gem-dev/attachments/20110906/7a91d1a9/attachment.html From jce at seasip.demon.co.uk Thu Sep 8 16:24:57 2011 From: jce at seasip.demon.co.uk (John Elliott) Date: Fri, 9 Sep 2011 00:24:57 +0100 (BST) Subject: [GEM Development] Update to SETTINGS.APP Message-ID: I've not been paying GEM the attention I should recently (and there's all sorts of GEM-related stuff in my Inbox I still need to get round to). But I was recently trying to load FreeGEM on an Amstrad 1640, and found a couple of bugs in SETTINGS.APP: * The colour selectors draw 256 colours, even if the system only supports monochrome or 16. And on an XT this is slooooow. * On a display that was 640 pixels wide (ie, just about anything) the colour selectors for cursors could end up partly offscreen. So I've fixed them. The new SETTINGS.APP can be downloaded from . Also, you may remember I did a patch for VGA support in GEM/1? Not strictly relevant to this list, but I've now done something similar for Windows 1. -- John Elliott From geneb at deltasoft.com Thu Sep 8 16:31:42 2011 From: geneb at deltasoft.com (Gene Buckle) Date: Thu, 8 Sep 2011 16:31:42 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [GEM Development] Update to SETTINGS.APP In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: On Fri, 9 Sep 2011, John Elliott wrote: > > I've not been paying GEM the attention I should recently (and there's > all sorts of GEM-related stuff in my Inbox I still need to get round to). > But I was recently trying to load FreeGEM on an Amstrad 1640, and found > a couple of bugs in SETTINGS.APP: > > * The colour selectors draw 256 colours, even if the system only supports > monochrome or 16. And on an XT this is slooooow. > > * On a display that was 640 pixels wide (ie, just about anything) the > colour selectors for cursors could end up partly offscreen. > > So I've fixed them. The new SETTINGS.APP can be downloaded from > . > > Also, you may remember I did a patch for VGA support in GEM/1? Not > strictly relevant to this list, but I've now done something similar for > Windows 1. > Awesome work John! g. -- Proud owner of F-15C 80-0007 http://www.f15sim.com - The only one of its kind. http://www.simpits.org/geneb - The Me-109F/X Project Some people collect things for a hobby. Geeks collect hobbies. ScarletDME - The red hot Data Management Environment A Multi-Value database for the masses, not the classes. http://www.scarletdme.org - Get it _today_! Political correctness is a doctrine, fostered by a delusional, illogical minority, and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a turd by the clean end. From topcatdrc at yahoo.com Mon Sep 12 11:27:26 2011 From: topcatdrc at yahoo.com (Thomas Clayton) Date: Mon, 12 Sep 2011 11:27:26 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [GEM Development] Update to SETTINGS.APP Message-ID: <1315852046.6475.YahooMailClassic@web181514.mail.ne1.yahoo.com> I remember the GEM 1.x patch's existence. Until three weeks ago I held onto EGA cardS and one monitor - just so that i could compare (never did) the two resolutions (EGA and VGA). Still have some cardS. I'm pretty sure I 'set the monitor free' (i.e. gave it to my friend Jeff who runs Unitec Recycling). Tom Clayton --- On Thu, 9/8/11, John Elliott wrote: > From: John Elliott > Subject: [GEM Development] Update to SETTINGS.APP > To: gem-dev at simpits.org > Date: Thursday, September 8, 2011, 6:24 PM > > ? I've not been paying GEM the attention I should > recently (and there's > all sorts of GEM-related stuff in my Inbox I still need to > get round to). > But I was recently trying to load FreeGEM on an Amstrad > 1640, and found > a couple of bugs in SETTINGS.APP: > > * The colour selectors draw 256 colours, even if the system > only supports >? monochrome or 16. And on an XT this is slooooow. > > * On a display that was 640 pixels wide (ie, just about > anything) the >? colour selectors for cursors could end up partly > offscreen. > > ? So I've fixed them. The new SETTINGS.APP can be > downloaded from > . > > ? Also, you may remember I did a patch for VGA support > in GEM/1? Not > strictly relevant to this list, but I've now done something > similar for > Windows 1. > > -- > John Elliott > _______________________________________________ > gem-dev mailing list > gem-dev at simpits.org > http://www.simpits.org/mailman/listinfo/gem-dev > From jce at seasip.demon.co.uk Tue Sep 13 12:37:01 2011 From: jce at seasip.demon.co.uk (John Elliott) Date: Tue, 13 Sep 2011 20:37:01 +0100 (BST) Subject: [GEM Development] Update to SETTINGS.APP In-Reply-To: from "John Elliott" at Sep 09, 2011 12:24:57 am GMT Message-ID: And here's the other little project I've been working on: a driver for the Hercules InColor card, because that's the only way you'll get a colour display higher than 640x200 resolution out of the Amstrad PC1512. If you're running GEM on a PC1512, the InColor card is a definite improvement over the motherboard chipset. 720x348 graphics rather than 640x200, and the card lets you do logic operations over all four planes at once so boxes, lines and text get drawn four times more quickly. While writing the driver I found and fixed a bug in the standard EGA/VGA driver, dealing with drawing dashed lines in REPLACE mode. I also created two new drivers for 8-colour and 4-colour VGA; these were mainly for my benefit, to test software at different colour depths. The new and corrected drivers can be found at . -- John Elliott From topcatdrc at yahoo.com Tue Sep 13 14:02:25 2011 From: topcatdrc at yahoo.com (Thomas Clayton) Date: Tue, 13 Sep 2011 14:02:25 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [GEM Development] Update to SETTINGS.APP Message-ID: <1315947745.44734.YahooMailClassic@web181501.mail.ne1.yahoo.com> Drat! I HAD had a book about programming graphics for the In-Color card. Back in 2007, when I moved out of house and into an apartment, I'd _LIKE_TO_ think I asked here about it and passed it on to you, John - but I _THINK_ I gave it to a local Friends of the Library group for their sale. Within the last month, I downsized my storage - from 10x25 to 5x15 (sq ft) - unit. (I did NOT, of course, get rid of my GEM "holdings".) It is possible that I left that book along with two others on programming PC graphics within one of the two 'GEM-stuff' boxes - but I doubt it. All three, as I recall, were discarded in the 2007 move. Like I said, "DRAT!" (I _DO_ try to think of others, but time often doesn't permit a "full" inquiry.) Sincerely, Thomas Clayton --- On Tue, 9/13/11, John Elliott wrote: > From: John Elliott > Subject: Re: [GEM Development] Update to SETTINGS.APP > To: gem-dev at simpits.org > Date: Tuesday, September 13, 2011, 2:37 PM > ? And here's the other little > project I've been working on: a driver for > the Hercules InColor card, because that's the only way > you'll get a > colour display higher than 640x200 resolution out of the > Amstrad PC1512. > > > > ? If you're running GEM on a PC1512, the InColor card > is a definite > improvement over the motherboard chipset. 720x348 graphics > rather than > 640x200, and the card lets you do logic operations over all > four planes > at once so boxes, lines and text get drawn four times more > quickly. > > ? While writing the driver I found and fixed a bug in > the standard > EGA/VGA driver, dealing with drawing dashed lines in > REPLACE mode. I also > created two new drivers for 8-colour and 4-colour VGA; > these were mainly > for my benefit, to test software at different colour > depths. The new and > corrected drivers can be found at > . > > -- > John Elliott > _______________________________________________ > gem-dev mailing list > gem-dev at simpits.org > http://www.simpits.org/mailman/listinfo/gem-dev > From ben at jemmett.me.uk Tue Sep 13 14:19:49 2011 From: ben at jemmett.me.uk (Ben A L Jemmett) Date: Tue, 13 Sep 2011 22:19:49 +0100 (GMT Daylight Time) Subject: [GEM Development] Update to SETTINGS.APP In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: On Tue, September 13, 2011 8:37 pm, John Elliott wrote: > And here's the other little project I've been working on: a driver for > the Hercules InColor card, because that's the only way you'll get a colour > display higher than 640x200 resolution out of the Amstrad PC1512. > > Nice work, sir! Always liked the idea of the Hercules InColor; when I had a machine with an HGA card GEM looked pin-sharp on it. (And wow, I've never seen an SD model 'in the flesh', would've expected a beige blanking plate on the left similar to the Winchester front panels I've seen on HD models.) Have been playing with my two Amstrads recently; the PC1512DD that introduced me to computing and a PC1640HD30 I picked up later. Alas the floppy drive in the latter is dead and the hard drive was on its last legs -- I just about managed to scrape some files off onto a handy NetWare server but after GEM crashed hard during startup I had to kill the power. Non-self-parking heads are a bit of a drag... At least both drives in the 1512 work, especially after a dose of head cleaner; had a bit of a play with GEM for nostalgia's sake, but then the machine started acting very weirdly with Lotus 1-2-3 bombing to DOS a few seconds after starting and Infocom's Cornerstone going from "working fine" to "crashing during database exports" to "totally failing to start". I idly suspect the RAM (Memtest86 is misnamed, it needs a 386!), might reseat the chips at some point but for now they're both back in the garage with the VAX and the Alphas and the AS/400 making them look a little quaint. Aaanyway... Out of interest, does your InColor-equipped 1512 make the interesting chirping noises that the stock one does when updating the screen? I never managed to track down whether it was coming from the video circuitry or suchlike in the System Unit, or something in the monitor. -- balj. From jce at seasip.demon.co.uk Tue Sep 13 14:22:21 2011 From: jce at seasip.demon.co.uk (John Elliott) Date: Tue, 13 Sep 2011 22:22:21 +0100 (BST) Subject: [GEM Development] Update to SETTINGS.APP In-Reply-To: from "Thomas Clayton" at Sep 13, 2011 2:02:25 pm GMT Message-ID: > Drat! > > I HAD had a book about programming graphics for the In-Color card. Well, you don't need it now. SDHIC9.EGA will do all the drawing for you :-) -- John Elliott From jce at seasip.demon.co.uk Tue Sep 13 14:34:03 2011 From: jce at seasip.demon.co.uk (John Elliott) Date: Tue, 13 Sep 2011 22:34:03 +0100 (BST) Subject: [GEM Development] Update to SETTINGS.APP In-Reply-To: from "Ben A L Jemmett" at Sep 13, 2011 10:19:49 pm GMT Message-ID: > Nice work, sir! Always liked the idea of the Hercules InColor; when I had > a machine with an HGA card GEM looked pin-sharp on it. (And wow, I've > never seen an SD model 'in the flesh', would've expected a beige blanking > plate on the left similar to the Winchester front panels I've seen on HD > models.) The left-hand blanking plate in SD models seems to be part of the moulding; to remove it, you'd have to cut through half-a-dozen plastic 'bridges'. It also has a mount point for a hard drive activity LED, though in the pictured PC1512 (which does incorporate a third-party hard drive upgrade) this hasn't been used. > Aaanyway... Out of interest, does your InColor-equipped 1512 make the > interesting chirping noises that the stock one does when updating the > screen? I never managed to track down whether it was coming from the > video circuitry or suchlike in the System Unit, or something in the > monitor. I don't hear anything, though I suppose it may be drowned out by the hard drive. -- John Elliott