1982 -Blit - the first multi-tasking desktop

[GreyGeek]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qwIAj...mbedded#t=174s

[Telengard]

Re: 1982 -Blit - the first multi-tasking desktop

Saw that. It looked pretty cool. Very retro, and quite impressive considering most computers of that era didn't have a GUI (an acronym which I don't think even existed at the time), much less multitasking.

Point of reference to demonstrate how far ahead of its time Blit was:

• X Windows System, 1984
• Mac OS, 1984, single tasking
• Amiga 1000, 1985, pre-emptive multitasking enhanced by powerful co-processors
• Windows 1.0, 1985, limited cooperative multitasking
• GEOS for the C64 , 1986, single tasking

[MoonRise]

Re: 1982 -Blit - the first multi-tasking desktop

Saw that. It looked pretty cool. Very retro, and quite impressive considering most computers of that era didn't have a GUI (an acronym which I don't think even existed at the time), much less multitasking.

Point of reference to demonstrate how far ahead of its time Blit was:

• X Windows System, 1984
• Mac OS, 1984, single tasking
• Amiga 1000, 1985, pre-emptive multitasking enhanced by powerful co-processors
• Windows 1.0, 1985, limited cooperative multitasking
• GEOS for the C64 , 1986, single tasking

I remember using GEOS on my C64. It actually was great. Did a term paper using it. The teacher didn't like it because I used a computer instead of a type writer. Actually wrote that comment on it. Never understood that.

[GreyGeek]

Re: 1982 -Blit - the first multi-tasking desktop

My first computer was an Apple ][+, purchased in the Summer of 1978. I switched to IBM running DOS in 1983 (or so). Later I was looking around for a good desktop and I tried Windows 287 (IIRC, or maybe it was Windows 1) and didn't like it, so I chose OS/2 because it was rock-solid stable and made Windows 3.0 stable as well. When Microsoft started "tweaking" Win3.0 to make it unstable or incompatible with OS/2 and DR DOS, I started looking for another OS. I considered Unix clones at the time and bought a book called "The Unix Hater's Guide". It discouraged me so I slipped into Win95 when I bought a new Sony for Xmas in 1997. Win95 was a piece of trash, but I'm not complaining because it prompted me to look again for another OS and I found Linux. IF there had been better documentation for Unix I might have been using it two or three years before I started using Linux.

[GreyGeek]

Re: 1982 -Blit - the first multi-tasking desktop

.... The teacher didn't like it because I used a computer instead of a type writer. Actually wrote that comment on it. Never understood that.

That teacher was a Luddite. Most of them were at that time because computers threatened their intellectual standing. I ran into a lot of that from teacher in the late 1970s and early 1980. I specifically purchased an Apple to solve some teaching problems I had encountered. Between 1978 and 1980 I was selling Apple's as a second job to supplement my teaching income, and I wrote several simulations, grade book, testing & grading, math drills and other programs.. When many saw how I used some of the programs I wrote for educational purposes most of the younger ones switched attitudes and jumped in. I was selling Apple's to JR & SR high schools in lots of 10 or more. The tail started wagging the dog and when, in 1980, the school board said they had enough money to give teachers raises, or purchase teaching supplies, but not both, I offered a third solution: tendering my resignation and starting my own computer consulting business.

[Telengard]

Re: 1982 -Blit - the first multi-tasking desktop

I remember using GEOS on my C64. It actually was great. Did a term paper using it.

It really was great considering what it had to work with. A 1 MHz processor with 64 kB RAM and a 320x200 display isn't really enough to get a good GUI desktop experience. GEOS users frequently invested in hardware enhancements (e.g. geoRAM) to improve performance and provide enhanced capabilities.

I never got into GEOS as deeply as I would have liked. My goal would have been to write my own GEOS applications. I have a copy or two of the GEOS Programmers Reference Guide stowed in a box somewhere with many bookmarks. It really looked pretty simple to create a GUI interface for your program by following a few guidelines (i.e. working around lack of memory protection).

[GreyGeek]

Re: 1982 -Blit - the first multi-tasking desktop

The Apple wasn't much hotter, if at all. 1 MHz CPU, 64Kb of RAM.

I had a pascal program that drew a hires picture of ONE iteration of a Mandelbrot set. It took the Apple 45 minutes to compute and draw it. The program I have installed now can draw about 150 iterations per second and as I scroll my mouse wheel in out out the graph changes smoothly.

[Telengard]

Re: 1982 -Blit - the first multi-tasking desktop

The Apple wasn't much hotter, if at all. 1 MHz CPU, 64Kb of RAM.

The amount of RAM in the Apple II series depended on which model you bought. Standard RAM complement was 48 kB in the Apple II+ and original IIe. Later Apple //e models made use of an 80-column text card which filled out the full 64 kB, and even later doubled that to 128 kB. Third party cards supported up to 1 MB memory.

The C64 did have a bit of an advantage over the Apple II series in graphics and sound, but not by much. There was a version of GEOS for Apple II, but I don't think it was successful.

[GreyGeek]

Re: 1982 -Blit - the first multi-tasking desktop

Ya, I was aware of that, having sold Apples for a couple years as part owner of a computer store, but I was just citing the specs of my Apple box. Apples were very expensive computers in the late 1970s and early 1980s, and very few people could afford a 64Kb board, but some businesses could.