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Professional GEM

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Administrator: eZine
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Created 26 May 2022
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11 Articles

a bi-monthly columns written by Tim Oren

11 - GEM Hooks and Hacks + An Insider's AES Tricks

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Published in 
 · 28 May 2022
PROFESSIONAL GEM by Tim Oren Column #11 - GEM Hooks and Hacks + An Insider's AES Tricks Welcome to the eleventh episode of ST PRO GEM, which is devoted to exploring some of the little-documented, but powerful, features of GEM. Like the authors of most complex systems, the GEM programmers left behind a set of "hooks", powerful features which would aid them in enhancing the system later. I am going to lay out a number of these methods which have served me well in making creative use of the AES. You will find that most of them concern the object and form libraries, since I was most involved in those parts of GEM. There are probably many ...

10 - VDI Graphics: Text Output

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 · 28 May 2022
*PROFESSIONAL GEM* by Tim Oren Column #10 - VDI Graphics: Text Output This issue of ST PRO GEM concludes the two column series on VDI with a look at simple VDI text output, and ways to optimize its speed. There is also a Feedback section. You may find the associated download file under the name GMCL10.C in DL3 of the ATARI16 SIG (PCS-58). To keep the size of this first discussion of text within reason, I am going to restrict it to use of the mono-spaced system font in its default size and orientation. Discussion of alternate and proportionally spaced fonts, baseline rotation, and character scaling will become a later article in this serie...

9 - VDI Graphics: Lines and Solids

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Published in 
 · 28 May 2022
*PROFESSIONAL GEM* By Tim Oren Column #9 - VDI Graphics: Lines and Solids This issue of ST PRO GEM is the first in a series of two which will explore the fundamentals of VDI graphics output. In this installment, we will take a look at the commands necessary to output simple graphics such as lines, squares and circles as well as more complex figures such as polygons. The following episode will take a first look at graphics text output, with an emphasis on ways to optimize its drawing speed. It will also include another installment of ONLINE Feedback. As usual, there is a download with this column. You should find it under the name GEMCL9.C...

8 - User interfaces

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Published in 
 · 28 May 2022
*PROFESSIONAL GEM* By Tim Oren Column #8: USER INTERFACES HOMILY #1 AND NOW FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT! In response to a number of requests, this installment of ST PRO GEM will be devoted to examining a few of the principles of computer/human interface design, or "religion" as some would have it. I'm going to start with basic ergonomic laws, and try to draw some conclusions which are fairly specific to designing for the ST. If this article meets with general approval, further "homilies" may appear at irregular intervals as part of the ST PRO GEM series. For those who did NOT ask for this topic, it seems fair to explain why...

7 - Menu Structures

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Published in 
 · 27 May 2022
*PROFESSIONAL GEM* By Tim Oren Column #7 - Menu Structures HAPPY NEW YEAR! This is article number seven in the ST PRO GEM series, and the first for 1986. In this installment, I will be discussing GEM menu structures and how to use them in your application. There is also a short Feedback response section. You will find the download file containing the code for this column in the file GEMCL7.C in DL3 of the ATARI16 SIG (PCS-58). MENU BASICS In ST GEM, the menu consists of a bar across the top of the screen which displays several sub-menu titles. Touching one of the titles causes it to highlight and an associated "drop-down" to be drawn dire...

6 - Raster operations

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Published in 
 · 27 May 2022
*PROFESSIONAL GEM* by Tim Oren Column #6 - Raster operations SEASONS GREETINGS! This is the Yuletide installment of ST PRO GEM, devoted to explaining the raster, or "bit-blit" portion of the Atari ST's VDI functions. Please note that this is NOT an attempt to show how to write directly to the video memory, although you will be able to deduce a great deal from the discussion. As usual, there is a download with this column. You will find it in ATARI16 (PCS-58) in DL3 under the name of GEMCL6.C. DEFINING TERMS To understand VDI raster operations, you need to understand the jargon used to describe them. (Many programmers will be tempted t...

5 - Resource Tree Structures

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Published in 
 · 26 May 2022
*PROFESSIONAL GEM* Part 5 -- Resource Tree Structures By Tim Oren This is the fifth issue of ST PROFESSIONAL GEM, concluding our trek through GEM dialogs and resources with a look at the internal structure of object trees. Also, I'll answer a number of questions of general interest which have been received via the ANTIC ONLINE FEEDBACK. As always, there is a download file associated with this column: GEMCL5.C, which you will find in DL3 of the new Atari 16-bit SIG (type GO PCS-58 or GO ATARI16). Even if you have no immediate use for this issue's code, be sure to take the download anyway; some of the routines will be used in later ...

4 - GEM resource structure

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Published in 
 · 26 May 2022
**Professional GEM** by Tim Oren 11/7/85 Welcome to the fourth installment of ST PRO GEM. We are about to delve into the mysteries of GEM resource structure, and then use this knowledge to create some useful utilities for handling dialogs. As with the past columns, there is once again a download file. You will find it under the name GEMCL4.C in the ATARI 16-bit Forum (GO PCS-58). The first and largest part of the download contains a C image of a sample resource file. To create this listing, I used the GEM Resource Construction Set to create a dummy resource with three dialogs including examples of all object types, then enabled th...

3 - The dialog handler

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Published in 
 · 26 May 2022
**Professional GEM** by Tim Oren THE DIALOG HANDLER 11/7/85 A MEANINGFUL DIALOG This issue of ST PRO GEM begins an exploration of ST GEM's dialog handler. I will discuss basic system calls for presenting the dialog, and then continue with techniques for initializing and reading on/off button and "radio" button objects. We will also take some short side-trips into the operation of the GEM Resource Construction Set to assist you in building these dialogs. There are a number of short C routines which accompany this column. These are stored as file GEMCL3.XMO in DL 5 on SIG*ATARI. Before reading this column, you should visit S...

2 - Topic: Windows, part II

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Published in 
 · 26 May 2022
by Tim Oren Topic: Windows, part II 10/21/85 EXCELSIOR! In this installment, we continue the exploration of GEM's window manager by finding out how to process the messages received by an application when it has a window defined on the screen. Also, beginning with this column, sample C code demonstrating the techniques discussed will be available on SIG*ATARI in DL5. This will allow you to download the code without interference by the CIS text-formatter used by ANTIC ONLINE output. The file for this column is GEMCL2.XMO. All references to non-GEM routines in this column refer to this file. Please note that these files will not ...
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