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ST-Computer Leser 2002 January
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<title="...forever...">
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8-BIT ATARI INFECTED BY WINDOWS VIRUS!
<link=g38.scr>S T A R N E T</l>
New exciting project from Closer to Home
The Atari 8-bit Desktop
Windows arrives... How nice.. It fits on 122 tapes and due to the 6502 slowness
it loads in three weeks. Naaah, not really. It's a new 8-bit desktop based on
Windows system! Closer to Home brings a lot of exciting news for the 8-bit
Atari. Their previous project was the UnZIP known from PC trabants.
Here is an example of what the desktop looks like with artifacting turned on.
While artifacting can be taken advantage of to get more colors for pictures, it
absolutly kills an 80 column font. It even messes up 40 column fonts if you are
not careful. This is what it looks like with artifacting on a TV.
This is what it looks like with artifacting turned off. You loose the colors
in the picture, but look at what you gain in the clarity of the 80 column font
The desktop has three main subsystems. The drive navigator, the windows, and
the object configurator. This is a screenshot of the first dialog screen of the
Navigator.
As you can see from the screen below, the Navigator supports cascading
directory lists. It can actually display a full Sparta DOS 3.2x directory of
127 files at one time! This would normally take up over 5 regular Atari screens
The Navigator understands many different file types. For example, if you click
on a HIP file the desktop's HIP viewer will display the picture. Also, if you
press the HELP key (page down in the emulator) you will get a helper menu that
is roughly analogous to the right click menu of Win/95.
As you can see the Navigator supports copy and paste operations.
The next of the three subsystems we will quickly glance at is the Configure
program. It is used for defining desktop objects and looks like this.
The last of the three subsystems of the desktop is the Windows. Here are some
screen shots of the Windows system of the desktop.
Here are some of the features of the desktop:
Configurable. You can specify which drives to use for it's objects and rasters.
Soon to be added are additional configuration parameters so you can optimize
your desktop setup.
You can run almost any program from the desktop and then return back to the
desktop. This includes desktop applications, regular applications, games, batch
files, etc.
If you run a program that locks you up, just reboot the computer and the
desktop will return just as you had left it before you ran the offending
program.
It comes with tons of standard icons.
Seamlessly integrate almost any Atari program in to the desktop.
For programmers there is a standard library for accessing the desktop's
objects and functions for MAC/65, CC65, Action!, and BASIC (MAC/65 and CC65 are
done, Action! and BASIC coming soon). A software toggle that works on any Atari
8-bit computer to turn on or off artifacting. Artifacts should be turned off
for text, but can be turned on for some types of graphic effects. (Partially
implemented, full implementation is coming soon). The fastest and clearest 80
column driver ever designed for the Atari 8-bit computer, bar none. By killing
the artifact you attain razor sharp 80 column text and proportional fonts. Here
are some additional screenshots of things I'm working on for the desktop. Check
out a proportional font with artifacting turned on below.
Now check out what the same font looks like without artifacting. Notice the
huge difference in legibility
Are you hungry for more? No problem, just check out the official
"Closer to Home" www-site:
http://cth.dtdns.net/
-- --- --- ---- -- ------------------------------------------------------------
CHOSNECK magazine contact us:
we're listenin' 2 da voice of da scene! atarimsb@wp.pl
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