The User Experience

Muscle Memory Mismatch

Standards have changed, and GEOS can seem a little weird. Some of the things you do automatically aren't going to work as you expect. A good interface should disappear. The moment you are reminded that you are USING A COMPUTER instead of doing the thing you want to do, something has gone wrong.

* trash can holds only 1 file and there is no empty trash option
* some windows and apps have close buttons but many do not
* can't rename a file by clicking on the filename
* keyboard shortcuts don't fit modern standards
* update instead of save in geoWrite
* non-intuitive drive management (ABC drag to set active)
* no persistent desktop
* input device limitations
* possible to get into unrecoverable states (damaged boot disk, no input driver)

What happens when you boot up with no input driver?

Once you have the C64U configured, it's time to launch GEOS. Locate your copy of GEOS Boot Disk.d64 and mount it on drive B (device 9). Exit to BASIC, and type LOAD"*",9,1. Once deskTop has finished loading, you should see the screen in Figure 1, displaying two drive icons—resembling floppy disks—to the right of the note pad. Drive A (our 1581) shows a question mark, indicating that there is no disk in that drive; Drive B (the 1541, highlighted as the current drive) is labelled "GEOS Plain Boot". Your next step will be to configure the RAM expansion.

Screenshot of the desktop showing two drive icons. — Figure 1: GEOS can't see the REU when you boot for the first time. Enlarged Image

Screenshot of the GEOS Configure application screen. The user has selected the DMA option. — Figure 2: Use CONFIGURE 2.1 to tell GEOS about your RAM expansion. Enlarged Image

Screenshot of the desktop showing three drive icons. — Figure 3: After configuring the REU, GEOS sees three drives. Enlarged Image

Locate CONFIGURE on page 1 of the disk note pad and double-click on its icon to launch the application. (It actually took me a couple of tries to get the double-click timing right with my joystick.) On the configuration screen, shown in Figure 2, you can see that GEOS has auto-detected Drives A and B as your 1581 and 1541. For Drive C, choose "RAM 1581" to give yourself a third virtual drive.

The RAM expansion input box shows "2048K", the maximum amount of memory that GEOS can see without additional modifications. Check the option for "DMA for MoveData" and leave the "RAM Reboot" option alone for now. In the file menu, choose "save configuration" and then "quit". When you return to the desktop, you will see "RAM 1581" as Drive C (Figure 3).

Make sure we have essentials: BOOT, TURBOBOOT, CONFIGURE 2.1, DESK TOP, input driver...

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