GUI - a graphical OS for the Atari 8-bitters.

[Gryzor]

Currently a WIP.


Features include:


A pre-emptively multitasking kernel supporting up to 16 processes

• Inter-process messaging system, supporting up to 64 open messages

• Completely replaces the Atari OS and DOS

• File system drivers supporting FAT12, FAT16 and FAT32

• Overlapping, movable, sizeable windows

• Cascading pull-down and pop-up menus

• Movable desktop icons and shortcuts

• Per-process and overall CPU load profiling

• Dialogue boxes with a rich control set (list boxes, spinners, sliders)

• 256 character fonts from 6 to 32 points

• Italic, boldface, and underline, outline, and shadow styles for all fonts

• Smooth, quick and responsive mouse control

• Desktop file manager with drag-and-drop support

• Comprehensive API and technical documentation for developers

• 
  [/color]Looks pretty, too!
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  More info here: GUI | Atari8

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It is actually really cool! 

[TFM]

Remembers me somehow.... MacOS 7.5.1 ?

[arnoldemu]

Looks like GEM to me the one used on the Atari ST.

[Fessor]

Definetly old MacOs. Atari GEM never had proportional System Fonts, also the Design of the Windows was completely different.

Nice Performance also.

[Prodatron]

You should have a look at some newer videos and status, which are even more impressive (and faster!):

New GUI for the Atari 8-bit - Atari 8-Bit Computers - AtariAge Forums

The task manager is the first fully working app inside the multitasking environment of the A8GOS, and it's performing in a great way as you can see.
It's definitely one or the coolest 6502 project I ever saw and it's one of the reasons why the A8 is my favourite 6502 machine. 2 years ago I couldn't "fully" imagine, that the 6502 is able to perform such a multitasking as well, but Jon proved it successfully!
I am following this project since 2012, and Jon and me had a lot of good and useful talks about all these kinds of methodes regarding multitasking and GUI stuff on 8bit systems. I just hope he will still make good progress and finish it!

[Prodatron]

A pre-emptively multitasking kernel supporting up to 16 processes

@Gryzor, just wondering, did you read about it here today?
A Graphical OS for the Atari 8-bit computers | Hacker News
It seems, that this thread reached a lot of people as the page views of Jons site increased a lot...

[robcfg]

It was also featured today in the spanish Zona de Pruebas forum (link here).

[FloppySoftware]

I knew of the existence of this GUI abot 2/3 years ago, and I was very impressed about its good looking.

I learned also, that Prodatron was giving the author some advice, and that make some important improvements.

It's very impressive to see the power of our little machines.

Some OSs could take a good note today, about how to do their job, without eating too much resources.

[Gryzor]

@Prodatron no, I don't remember where now, but not that thread...


Another vid from the AtariAge thread you suggested:

[arnoldemu]

Definetly old MacOs. Atari GEM never had proportional System Fonts, also the Design of the Windows was completely different.

Nice Performance also.

I see the differences now.

Very  impressive

[TFM]

It's an awesome piece of work!


However, there is one thing I personally will never understand. And this is the reason for using windows. There is IMHO no such a reason, they just make the screen smaller. And this becomes an major issue with smaller screens / resolutions. There are lots of alternatives. But people probably get scared from new ideas and stick with what they know. We got a saying: "Was der Bauer nicht kennt, das frisst er nicht!". That may describe it quite well.
Also interesting to me: How does the human nature (human flaws) influence our computing habits. But sorry for getting totally off-topic now.


So for this project: The choice of colors is very well, it's comfortable and doesn't burn in the eyes. The icons are nice drawn too. Great piece of work.