Geneva'S MULTITASKING:
YOU DON'T NEED ANYTHING ELSE TO ACHIEVE IT

By Al Fasoldt

Geneva beta tester

August 2, 1993

(The author is systems editor of the Syracuse Newspapers and a 
syndicated columnist on consumer technology. He is the author of 
"Secrets of NeoDesk," "Secrets of Flash" and other texts in the 
"Secrets of ..." series, and has programmed for the Atari and
other platforms.)


Copyright (C) 1993 by Al Fasoldt. All rights reserved.



(Please feel free to distribute this widely)



Gribnif Software's Geneva and multitasking:

Geneva itself is a multitasking environment for the Atari line of 
computers. It does not need any third-party software to run many 
tasks (programs) at the same time. This means that Geneva does 
NOT need any specific replacement desktop or any other specific 
add-on software to do its job.

Period.

But why, then, is there so much talk about Geneva and NeoDesk? 
The common misconception is that Geneva needs NeoDesk in order to 
multitask, and that, as I have just pointed out, is not the case.

Here's the real story.

By itself, Geneva is a replacement for the built-in AES in Atari
computers. The AES is the Application Environment Services -- the
part of the computer's operating system that handles windows,
dialogs and things like that. The AES is a vital part of the
operating system, and is what gives GEM -- the Atari Graphics
Environment Manager -- its distinctive "look and feel."

Geneva doesn't have its own built-in desktop. That's the job of 
another part of the operating system. Usually, the desktop is 
also built into the computer, just like the AES. But when you run 
Geneva, you have to depend on an externally loaded desktop, one 
that Geneva itself loads.

And that's the rub. If you want Geneva to work with a desktop of 
any kind, you must decide whether you want the desktop to support 
multitasking. If it does not support multitasking, the desktop 
will run only ONE application at a time. Right now, the only 
add-on desktop that supports multitasking is the one that was 
developed by the same programmer who created Geneva, NeoDesk (and 
only NeoDesk 3.04 on up). Other desktops will support 
multitasking before long, but as of now, NeoDesk is the only one.

Let's back up and go over this entire issue of a desktop. Can you 
run Geneva without a desktop? Yes, with no problem at all. Does 
that mean you can buy Geneva and multitask to your heart's 
content without owning NeoDesk? Yes, indeed. To repeat, you do 
not need to use NeoDesk to multitask with Geneva.

But without a desktop, how can you open windows and work with 
file lists and click on icons and all that sort of thing?

Basically, you can't do "all that sort of thing" in just that 
sort of way. We like desktops -- or, most of us like desktops -- 
because of the way they integrate the image of a real desktop 
with the workings of the operating system. You see the icon of a 
folder and click on it and it opens to reveal files; you drag an 
icon to another one and drop it there, and magical things happen. 
The Mac, the Atari and Microsoft's Windows make this sort of 
thing very easy and very intuitive.

So how do you work with Geneva if you don't have a desktop under 
Geneva?

You use Geneva's own menu, which is the main GEM menu when you 
run Geneva by itself. You choose "Open" and select an application 
to run. You can even select FIVE applications to run, all at the 
same time, from Geneva's powerful item selector. (The item 
selector also lets you create folders and delete files, and it 
has an exceptionally powerful search feature. If it had one more 
feature -- the ability to copy files and folders -- it would 
compete with the champ in this area, MaxiFile.)

Or you use the Task Manager, which is a separate utility 
supplied with Geneva. It manages tasks, obviously; but it does 
much, much more, allowing you to customize Geneva in ways that 
can make any GEM application you run under Geneva look and behave 
like the best Windows application or the best Mac software. The 
Task Manager lets you put running programs to sleep instantly 
with a mouse click or a keypress. (In fact, Geneva can do that
itself without the need for the Task Manager's presence, if you
want to save a little memory and leave the Task Manager out).

Here's a typical scenario. You boot up with Geneva and nothing 
else -- not even any desk accessories. Want to have the Task 
Manager running? Open Geneva's item selector, and click on 
TASKMAN. (It doesn't matter whether TASKMAN is in the file list 
as a program or a desk accessory; Geneva can run a desk accessory 
at any time, even after your computer is booted up.) Want more 
desk accessories? Use the item selector and run them.

Want to run Atari Works? Use the item selector (or the similar 
command in the Task Manager) and run it.

OK, now you have a bunch of desk accessories (any number -- 
Geneva has no limit) and Atari Works running. Need to receive a 
fax that is supposed to come in some time that evening? Go to the 
desk menu, choose Geneva, and Atari Works becomes a background 
application (with its windows, but not its main menu bar, still 
visible). Then run STraight FAX! from Geneva's menu. Set up 
STraight FAX! to receive a fax automatically, then go to the desk 
menu again and choose Atari Works. Atari Works' GEM menu bar 
reappears, and its windows come back to the foreground, and you 
can resume what you were doing in any of the three modules of 
Atari Works.

But then you realize you'd like a little music while you are 
writing. Drop down the desk menu and run Paula (the mod file 
player) as either a program or an accessory. Paula's window 
appears, you select a group of mod files, and then you switch 
back to Atari Works; Paula keeps playing all the time, and 
STraight FAX! keeps watching for that fax to come in.

When you have finsihed writing in Atari Works, you want to get 
all its GEM windows off the screen so you can play Breakout. No 
need to exit Atari Works -- you might want to use the database 
function later -- so you merely open the desk menu and hold down 
[Shift] while you click on the listing for Atari Works ... and 
Atari Works goes to sleep, its windows gone, its processor time 
released back to the system and its current status preserved for 
the moment that it is awakened.

Your fax comes in, and STraight FAX! alerts you with a tone and 
pops itself into the foreground, saves the fax, then disappears 
behind the Breakout window.

You return to the desk menu and click on the entry for Atari 
Works and is bounces back to life, returning to the exact state it 
was in when you gave it a sleeping pill. You do some more work, 
then decide to make a call with Aladdin.

Things get interesting at this point. Aladdin is not on friendly 
terms with a multitasking system; it thinks it owns the computer, 
and it definitely lays claims on the standard modem port.

But STraight FAX! (running on a Mega STe or TT) has an advantage; 
you already set up to use an alternate modem port, so Aladdin can
do what it wants at the same time. (Yes, you don't need to quit
STraight FAX! to run Aladdin or another telecommunications program
under Geneva, as long as you have more than one serial port.)

Geneva, through the Task Manager's setup, knows that Aladdin is 
uncooperative, so when you run Aladdin all the other applications 
are immeidately suspended -- put to sleep. When you are through 
with your call to GEnie, you go to the desk menu and click on 
Atari Works or STraight FAX!, and Geneva puts Aladdin to sleep 
while waking up the others.

Is this sort of thing true? Yes. Is it easy? Definitely. Do you 
need NeoDesk to do this? No. Geneva does it by itself.

...

But what happens if you decide to use your favorite replacement 
desktop under Geneva? Suppose you run HotWire; will Geneva 
coexist with HotWire?

Of course.

But will HotWire be able to launch one program and then run another 
while the first one is running?

No. HotWire was not designed to multitask.

So does that kill Geneva's multitasking?

Not at all. It only means that the replacement desktop can only 
run one program at a time, like it always operates under the
standard AES. But Geneva is still multitasking, and that means
that Geneva can be running other applications at the same time as
HotWire -- TWO HotWires, even, or one HotWire and one TeraDesk.
You get the point.

...

Much of the way Geneva works hasn't been touched on here. For 
example, you don't really need to go to the desk menu to switch 
to another application; Geneva lets you do this with a keypress. 
And I haven't even pointed out that Geneva lets you manipulate 
the windows and features of GEM programs that are running in the 
background, just by holding down the right button while you click 
and scroll with the left one. You can block off a section of text 
in Atari Works and save it to the clipboard with another 
application in the foreground, for example.

And, lastly, Geneva does all this without slowing your system 
down with a lot of overhead. It's lean, clean and mean, and is 
clearly the best single piece of software for the Atari since GEM 
was developed nine years ago. Your computing life under Geneva is 
about to take a dramatic new course.


Al Fasoldt