Actually, Microsoft has nothing to do with GEM, it was made by Digital Research. Also technically GEM is/was very different from Windows (GEM relies on interrupts and can run only a single program while Windows was multitasking from the start, GEM apps can be made by any DOS compiler that can issue interrupts and has the necessary header files, Windows apps require special compilers, etc). You can check FreeGEM for an up to date version (the source code of GEM was released a while ago and some people fixed bugs and added a few features).
Both Microsoft and Digital Research were sued by Apple when their systems were released. DR decided to modify their 'desktop' program to disallow overlapping windows and removed the trash can (previously it looked very similar to Mac Finder) while Microsoft decided to counter Apple's claim. In fact Windows 2 was even more like Mac (overlapping windows vs Windows 1's tiled windows, more Mac-like colors, etc) and AFAIK even when Windows 3 was released, they hadn't settled yet on the case. Check http://toastytech.com/guis/guitimeline.html for a timeline, some history notes, screenshots, etc of various GUIs over time, from the first Alto to Windows 8.1 The site is slightly biased against Microsoft, but the historic comments are good. I've read about Microsoft's and Apple's history from a couple of books too (i like computer history) and i think whatever mentioned there is mostly right. I haven't checked everything in the site though and i believe it misses some aspects (f.e. Lisa introduced more than just pulldown menus - f.e. the whole concept of finder was something new at the time and Andy Hertzfeld's book on the development of Macintosh has images from other prototypes that show how much the Mac and Lisa teams actually came up with that today we take granted). On Mon, Dec 2, 2013 at 2:39 PM, Hans-Peter Diettrich <[email protected]> wrote: > Michael Schnell schrieb: > >> On 12/02/2013 10:55 AM, Mark Morgan Lloyd wrote: >>> >>> I think you're at risk of mixing layers again. >> >> Of course you are absolutely right and I do know this. >> >> But I replied to Microsoft being the inventor of the desktop we are using. >> And Microsoft does not use a (publicly) defined X layer but that layer is >> an integral part of what is perceived as the thingy that holds the programs' >> GUIs (and might be called "Desktop"). > > > The first MS desktop was GEM, borrowed from Digital Research borrowed from > Apple, I used it also on my Atari ST. License issues forced MS to create > something slightly different, named Windows. The major difference of Windows > (vs. GEM) is the added messaging system, with message pipes and loops, which > turned the GEM event polling model upside down. Next come menus, which were > moved from the screen into forms. The rest is technically almost the same, > with only a different look to convince judges in defense against Apple and > DRI claims. > > DoDi > > > > -- > _______________________________________________ > Lazarus mailing list > [email protected] > http://lists.lazarus.freepascal.org/mailman/listinfo/lazarus -- _______________________________________________ Lazarus mailing list [email protected] http://lists.lazarus.freepascal.org/mailman/listinfo/lazarus
