> > He also gave a good front end for everything, which was very > > much on a par with Windows 3.x > > Was this the ICE environment I've seen mentioned with the Thor? I haven't > found anything on the web about this yet, but then I suppose google isn't > 'the web' yet :) ICE was an Icon Controlled Environment from a company called Eidersoft, who were big in the early days of the QL. I think (might be wrong here) that it was the work of a guy called David Jones.
ICE was used with the Eidersoft mouse system, a custom mouse system which I think was only useable with Eidersoft software. If you could gett it to work, it was pretty good in fact as some of the early software went, but it didn't last long and not much software specifically supported it. There have been several attempts at GUI's of some form for the QL over the years, some better than others it has to be said. Some were not really GUI's in the same sense as say Windows and the front end systems on other computers and OSes, but were more like simple 'Task Swappers' which let you switch between programs and saved and restored screen displays and so on. When Tony Tebby's pointer environment systems came along this improved matters drastically, screen handling improved, task swapping became easier and more automated, it even helped with true multitasking (as distinct from simple task swapping where you suspend one program and switch to another). Real multitasking lets several programs get on with things at the same time, on-screen clocks can run at the same time as you are typing into a word processor at the same time as a CAPS LOCK program is showing on the screen at the same time as something else is printing in the background at the same time as a spreadsheet is doing a major recalculation...the only thing you couldn't realistically do was copy files at the same time as running something else. Of course, front end systems are now a bit more realistic on the QL. Since we now have high colour systems (8-bit and 16-bit colour) on selected QL systems, we are all sat back waiting for Jim Hunkins's QDT (hi Jim, still playing with your QDT stateside???) to make our systems right for the 21st century. Of course, while we wait for Jim, we have to make do with a tatty Welsh effort called Launchpad .... (plug plug, demo version on my website, plug plug) ;-) And to prevent boredom waiting for QDT, you could always subscribe to QL Today magazine (plug plug again). [Geoff Wicks for Quanta chairman or editor if he retires from trading, now that Robin Barker is stepping down!!!] -- Dilwyn Jones
