Contents Comparison of AES functions and WinDom functions AES rectangle list
Programming guideline of WinDom

More about GEM ...

GEM is a GUI ie a Graphical User Interface. it was developped by Digital Research during the eighteen. It was probably the first multitasking GUI with X-window. GEM was originaly developped on C/PM (an Digital Research operating system) on PC compatible computers. Then GEM was adapted to MS-DOS and DR-DOS, Atari-ST with GEMDOS and even MacIntosh Lisa ! Although PC-GEM and ST-GEM are compatible, there are some differences and the evolution of ST-GEM due to Atari Corp is different to PC-GEM. The last version of PC-GEM is GEM/3 (in 1989). The last version of ST-GEM is MultiTOS on Falcon computer (in 1993) and they are different. Now, the PC-GEM (bought by Caldera) is a free software.

GEM is divided in two parts :

VDI is devoted to handle all graphical peripherics (screen, printer, graphic palette) and more. It uses drivers and offers many function to drawn graphics primitiv, display texte with font. AES is devoted to handle the user interface. It offers windows, formulars, menu, desktop and an event manager.

The next table list the different version of TOS, AES and GEMDOS. The convention used fir number version is: a x.0y version denotes a x.y version. For example, 1.06 is 1.6 and 1.62 is 1.62 !

Differents version of TOS, GEMDOS and AES
TOS Date GemDos AES Computer
1.00 11-20-1985 0.13 1.20 ST, STM and STF
06-02-1986 - - (There are two versions)
1.02 04-22-1987 0.13 1.20 STF and Mega-ST
1.04 04-06-1989 0.15 1.30 STF, Stacy (Rainbow TOS)
1.06 ? ? ? STE (preversion)
1.62 01-01-1990 0.17 1.40 STE
2.02 ? ? ? STE
2.05 ? ? 3.10 Mega-STE, Stylus (a)
2.06 11-14-1991 0.20 3.20 Mega-STE (floppy 1.44M), ST-Book
3.01 ? ? 3.00 TT030, (floppy 720k)
3.05 12-05-1990 0.19 3.10 TT030, (floppy 1.44M)
3.06 09-24-1991 0.20 3.20 TT030, (final version)
4.01 ? ? 3.31 Falcon030 (prototype without DSP)
4.02 ? ? 3.40 Falcon030 (prototype)
4.04 03-08-1993 0.30 3.40 Falcon030
4.92 06-22-1993 0.30 4.10 Beta version of TOS 5.00
(Falcon040)
4.97 ? ? ? ??
MiNT (b)
MultiTOS - - 4.00 All computers
MultiTOS - - 4.10 "
Geneva - - 4.10 "
Naes - - 4.10 "
Magic (c)
same TOS version 11.02.97 3.19 3.99 version 5.11

(a) The Stylus TOS is a special version of TOS 1.04 including an extension to handle the pen : PenOS.

(b) MultiTOS, Naes and Geneva replace the AES part of your OS. Nvdi replace the VDI part of your OS. MiNT remplace the GEMDOS of your OS (For GEM, GEMDOS is the operating system as MS-DOS DR-DOS or C/PM). Notice that MultiTOS of Naes need MiNT to run. Geneva can run with or without MiNT.

(c) MagiC is a complet TOS including its own AES and GEMDOS part. Actually, it is not a TOS but a TOS compatible system.

Emulators and computers TOS compatible
Computer/Emulator TOS version
Falcon Mark I, II and III 4.04
Hades 040 3.06
Hades 060 3.06
Milan 040 5.0x
Milan 060 ?
Gemulator ?
TOS2WIN ?
STonX see the TOS image used
MagicMac see MagiC
MagicPC see Magic
Falcon Centurbo II 7.00 (*)

(*) Centek uses the 7.00 TOS number version to designe their own extension of the 4.04 falcon system, but this choice is very strange and the TOS version number should not be used to test the Centurbo II presence (prefer the cookiejar).

For more information consult the internet site : http://ic.net/~tjh/computers/atari/