[GEM Development] Gem applications

[Ben A L Jemmett]

Hi Armand,

That’s interesting - I didn’t realise, or had apparently forgotten, that any of the SoftKey Key* series were GEM based.  A little while back I bought copies of GEM Draw and GEM Chart (as loose original disks) that arrived with backup copies of both those two DRI products and something labeled ‘Keychart’; the latter appears to be a SoftKey release (includes a SOFTKEY.EXE) but looks like a DOS application rather than GEM (all .EXE files, has its own drivers, etc.)  Unfortunately I couldn’t get a clean read of the disk so I can’t fire it up to see what it’s like!

Looking at Ken Mauro’s notes on known GEM applications c. 1999 (see http://www.deltasoft.com/gemnotes.htm for my HTMLified version), it appears that SoftKey also published a private-label version of Artline 2 as KeyDraw+ 2.  KeyPublisher 1.0 is listed as being a private-label edition of GST’s Publish-It 1.19 so it’ll be interesting to see if version 2.0 corresponds to version 2.x of that product too.

The same notes also mention the K-* series of programs, but as being from Kuma Software here in the UK; presumably not related to the SoftKey products.  It also includes a listing for the GEM Pascal product you’re looking for, along with GEM Fortran - again, I’d completely forgotten about these two, which are also relevant to Jeff’s question from Friday.  Would be very interesting if copies of these ever turned up; most PC GEM development would have been done outside the GEM environment.

A couple of other observations from things I’ve spotted lurking on eBay recently(ish):

- Psion released a PC (DOS) port of their Quill/Abacus/Archive/Easel suite of office products (originally for the Sinclair QL) as ‘PC-Four’; see https://sites.google.com/site/martin2reid/psion-organiser-ii/manuals/pc-four for details.  The GEM connection is the Easel charting program, which can be run either as a DOS application or under GEM - in which case it still looks like a DOS program, but it uses the GEM VDI (without AES) for better device/graphics support.  Thought this was a somewhat interesting approach!

- I’ve been on a bit of a buying spree lately (call it retail therapy) and now have original boxed copies of GEM WordChart, GEM Draw Plus and Artline 2 on my shelf.  There’s not much in there that wasn’t already available online, except for a few drivers that either aren’t on John’s list at http://www.seasip.info/Gem/Drivers/index.html or are there but not in the same version.  I’m working on digging myself out of a bit of an organisational hole at the moment but I’ll send a list of potentially-new files to the list once I’ve confirmed I’m not hallucinating.

Regards,
Ben A L Jemmett
http://flatpack.microwavepizza.co.uk/

> On 11 Jul 2023, at 21:31, Armand Colleye <armand.colleye at planet.nl> wrote:
> 
> Hi,
>  
> Via eBay I just bought Key-Publisher (version 2.0).
> There is another seller, for those who want to have this software. Round 11 US-dollars (ex. shipping). See https://www.ebay.de/itm/134504545461
>  
> As a good merchant makes eBay, has similar items which resembles my purchase.
>  
> Looking back on a mail conversation on this list, I refer to the message with the title "[GEM Development] GEM Apps" dated on Wed Jul 28 18:42:49 PDT 2004.
> In that message there was software mentioned as
> -K-Comm 2.0, 
> -K-Word 2.0 
> -K-Graph 2.0 
> -K-Spread 2.0 
> -K-Data 2.0 
> -K-Minstrel 2.0 
> -K-Spell 2.0
>  
> The BIG question is is it really spelled as e.g K-Word or is it Key Word Pro ? see also the link at eBay (https://www.ebay.de/itm/325548497210)
>  
> And the next BIG question is, is this list complete?
> I am still looking for GEM Pascal 1.72
>  
> Have fun
> =Armand=
>  
>  
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