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And, of course, the GEOS system files themselves. The deskTop enhancements
will be discussed below. For now, suffice it to say they are even more
powerful than the enhancements to GEOS 64 2.0
Required/recommended hardware:
According to the documentation, the following is required:
: Commodore 128 or 128D computer.
: compatible monitor. Note that the geoWrite and geoSpell applications
included with this version are 80-column only.
: One 5-1/4" disk drive.
: the package itself.
: blank 5-1/4" floppies.
Additionally, the following is recommended:
: 1750 or 1764 REU
: additional disk drives (1541, 1571, and/or 1581)
: GEOS-supported printer.
Enhancements:
The desktop has received extensive enhancements. Many will be familiar to
GEOS 64 2.0 users, but many others will be a pleasant surprise. Like GEOS 64
2.0, the printer icon has been moved to the lower left of the screen, to
minimize the chance of accidentally dropping a file intended for the printer
into the garbage. The last file deleted can be recovered, if no other activity
has taken place since the deletion.
As with GEOS 64 2.0, the most useful changes to the desktop are the addition
of many keyboard shortcuts, which can be used in combination with the desktop
menu, or with other keyboard shortcuts.
Keyboard shortcuts in common with GEOS 64 2.0 are:
Any number of files on a disk, from one to all, may be selected for `group'
processing, so that the same action may be taken on all selected files.
Run the selected application, duplicate selected file(s), rename selected
file(s), display info on selected file(s), print the selected file, delete
selected file(s) (if multiple files are selected for deletion, you will be
prompted to be sure this was what you wanted), and undo the last deletion.
Open the disk, close the disk, rename the disk, copy the disk, GEOS validate
the disk, erase the disk (short format), format the disk (full format), open
drive A, open drive B, reset all drives, swap drive C with A and open, swap
drive C with B and open, add a new directory page, delete this directory page
(if there are files on a directory page to be deleted, you will be prompted to
confirm the deletion)
Multi-file processing can be halted with the RUN/STOP key.
You can also navigate thru the directory and select your input driver from
the keyboard shortcuts. Input driver selection was the first keyboard
shortcut, added with desktop 1.3. It seems to have been a popular item.
In addition, the following 128-only keyboard shortcuts have been added:
Copy selected files to drive A, copy selected files to drive B, move
selected files to border, move selected border files to page, and a complete
set of commands to move the mouse around the desktop menu, and select options
from it.
Another useful 128-only desktop enhancement is file selection from the
View menus. You do not need to be displaying the file icons in order to
select a file for any operation. In addition, even in this mode,
clicking an Application Data file will cause GEOS to attempt to load the
appropriate Application, and bring the data file into it. While this isn't
quite the Command Line Interface that some had hoped for, it's a very useful
item.
As with GEOS 64 2.0, three drives can be used, although only two can be
active at once. The swapping commands mentioned in the keyboard shortcut
discussion above are used to quickly set which two drives will be active at
any given moment. Note that this feature can only be used if you have an
REU.
Unlike GEOS 64 2.0, an REU is not required for mixed disks. In GEOS 64 2.0,
you must have an REU to have an Application on one type of disk access
Application Data files on a different type of disk. This is not the case in
GEOS 128 2.0
Problems:
While GEOS supports the 1581 drive for all functions except booting, there
are a couple of annoying limitations to this support. First, subdirectories
are not supported. Second, while the 1581 in GEOS mode has up to 37
directory pages of up to eight files each (40 sectors minus two BAM sectors
minus one border sector), GEOS only supports the first 18, as though the
drive were a 1541 (20 sectors, minus one BAM sector minus one border sector.)
This is not likely to be a serious limitation, since GEOS files tend to be
large, but it can restrict an orderly placement of files on the directory,
and, in the case of a library of relatively small files, fonts, for instance,
may result in space being wasted.
No CONVERT program is included. While this is not a major problem for
owners of the original GEOS 128, or any version of GEOS 64, it does mean that,
at present, someone who has purchased GEOS 128 2.0 as their first and only