From: Alex Santos 100MB Neostrada Mail (izabella.misiewiczsantos_at_neostrada.pl)
Date: Sat Aug 14 2004 - 17:11:47 PDT
Hi Jon, I read that some time ago.
Actually you would be surprised as there was something very interesting
on the market running on DOS PCs with 640K back in 85
Look at
this…http://www.digibarn.com/collections/software/elixir/gallery/
index.html#desktop
It was very revolutionary, and it still exists today!
http://www.elixir.com/
These products could all run on an original 640K IBM PC/AT system,
driving 120 DPI monitors from Sigma Designs. They were built with the
GEM (Graphical Environment Manager) from Digital Research (creator of
CP/M) and ran as a full graphical OS application shell on top of good
old DOS. The Elixir Desktop and its applications converted ordinary
PCs into graphical workstations to create document jobs for large
printing systems from Xerox and other manufacturers, a task the Xerox
8010 Star and Viewpoint 6085 systems failed to do.
The Elixir desktop was and is the most successful (and one of the only
surviving) direct renditions of the Xerox STAR 8010 interface. The
Elixir Desktop and its associated applications were built using Borland
Turbo C driving Digital Research's GEM (Graphical Environment
Manager), an early PC graphical user interface platform (touted at its
release in 1985 as the "Mac killer"). By opting for GEM on the original
AT platform without any special cards (as were used by its competitors
such as Tyrego of Minneapolis MN), Elixir was assured of a smooth path
porting its products to clones and taking advantage of higher speed
systems as the 80s progressed. Icons were taken from Star/6085 and
scaled up for the higher resolution Sigma and Wyse monitors. I built a
complete windowing system and custom icons were designed by Ed Regan
of Down East Technologies in Searsport Maine.
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