
cOS on commodore 64: Modern user interface with optional touchscreen - doener
http://64jim64.blogspot.com/2015/09/cos-has-been-released-for-commodore-64.html
======
jim_64
Hey all - Jim_64 here (the author)

Nice to see the comments!

Yeah there is plenty of power in these old computers to pull off the simple
user interfaces that are popular right now. I think it's funny how the trend
has gone back to bold colors, blocky designs and full screen programs, all the
things we were limited to in the 80s.

I did write it in C, so if I did it in assembler, it would have been smaller
and faster.

And, no, I didn't retro bright my system. Bought the one in the video from
some 20 something dude in Chicago selling off his uncle's system. Seems it was
always kept under a cover, so no sun damage!

~~~
userbinator
_Yeah there is plenty of power in these old computers to pull off the simple
user interfaces that are popular right now. I think it 's funny how the trend
has gone back to bold colors, blocky designs and full screen programs, all the
things we were limited to in the 80s._

It's also funny and a bit sad that despite these extreme "simplifications" of
UI, software still seems neither faster nor smaller...

~~~
vidarh
> It's also funny and a bit sad that despite these extreme "simplifications"
> of UI, software still seems neither faster nor smaller...

It drives me crazy.

My "favorite" anecdote when it comes to the inefficiency creep:

One of my favorite text-editors is an Amiga editor called FrexxEd. I ported it
to run on AROS, a portable re-implementation of the AmigaOS API. AROS can run
hosted on Linux with X.

On my laptop, booting the Linux hosted version of AROS, that initializes the
full GUI etc., with the startup-sequence (a simple shell script that gets
started on boot) set to start FrexxEd at the end lets me "boot to FrexxEd"
faster than I can start even the terminal-only build of Emacs on the same
machine...

~~~
SwellJoe
Vim can lend you a few million cycles, if you need'em. Vim starts close enough
to instantly that I can't tell the difference. Modern Vim on a real Amiga is
probably pretty slow though.

~~~
nibnib
Can modern vim compile on an Amiga? I think I heard that the DOS version is
completely broken because a default vim requires too much memory.

~~~
SwellJoe
I think Bram stopped trying to maintain Amiga support after 6.x. But I don't
have an Amiga anymore and haven't paid attention in a long time. I was
surprised when it was still supported a few years ago.

------
CannibalHoliday
I know it's taboo to talk about the TRS-80 and its descendants in C64 company,
but did anyone else have a CoCo3? Loved that thing to death. Neatest feature
about it was that it had the OS in ROM, but dumped it to RAM. So you could
just use the OS designated RAM for your own flavor. Like getting the third-
party ADOS and going through the commented code to tweak your OS to your
liking, changing disk read times, etc. It was a lot of fun.

edit for typo

~~~
bradneuberg
I grew up on a CoCo3; loved that thing as well :) OS-9 Level II was where I
first learned a Unix-like OS (on a tiny 6809 machine!) OS-9 Level II was truly
a remarkable achievement for such a tiny machine: multi-tasking, windowing,
and more. Dungeons of Daggorath was also an epic game. Basic09 was an
interesting Basic-dialect that provided more structural programing to the
normal sprawling Basic program. And of course who could forget Rainbow
Magazine.

------
dang
Url changed from
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6mx7cjltsI](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6mx7cjltsI).
The video is fabulous, but so is the blog, and it seems nicest to send the
traffic the author's way.

Edit: plus it lured him in here :)

~~~
jim_64
Yes - Thank you!

------
vidarh
Modern in the sense of looking like a smartphone/tablet, which ironicaly makes
it easier to make work on a C64 than many of the user interfaces that were
actually used on the C64, like GEOS.

It's quite fascinating that systems like GEOS with "proper" windows etc. looks
more dated than a menu system similar to ones you might have found on a real
C64 app (e.g. Koala Painter had a full screen full of rectangular "icons" to
pick tools etc.)

One of the ones that impressed me at the time, was the GUI of The Final
Cartridge III (the irony of there being a 3rd "Final" cartridge...) [1] which
had "proper" windowing system in ROM with a look that was inspired by AmigaOS
1.x. Unfortunately pretty much no software supported it, so the GUI bit went
mostly unused (wasn't typically why you'd buy it anyway - these cartridges
were "freezers" used to pirate software and/or for their built in fast loaders
and machine code monitors)

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Final_Cartridge_III](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Final_Cartridge_III)

------
dingdingdang
Great, I remember seeing full home automation system implemented with a C128 -
its not the hardware holding us back! :) Also, impressive as this is, I think
the author should team up with some of the peeps from the demo scene, since
there's no reason why this OS shouldn't have full fluid-animation screen
changes -
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DzQVECn3tY8](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DzQVECn3tY8)

~~~
orionblastar
The hardware is not holding us back, it is the way that the software is being
developed.

Keep in mind that Apple made the Macintosh in 1984 and had to use a lot of
expensive hardware to get the GUI to work. Then a year later GEOS was
developed for the Commodore 64 that made almost the same GUI and apps for a
fraction of the cost of a Macintosh.

When Windows was released in 1985 it ran on 8088 DOS PCs.

Over the years Windows and Macintoshes have added feature after feature and
require state of the art systems in order to function properly. Most people
don't even need the functions that got added, and it slows down things with
each feature added.

I like the fact that GNU/Linux can run on older hardware with less RAM and run
faster as well. It is developed differently than Windows or Mac OSX is
developed.

When I had a Commodore 64 in the 1980s, I got laughed at by people who had an
Apple II or IBM PC, but we could only afford a Commodore 64 because our family
was poor. The C64 BASIC was primitive, but it forced me to learn machine
language to get stuff to work.

------
CannibalHoliday
Cool! I wish I still had the hardware I picked up at an auction a few years
ago. A full C64 with monitor and drive, plus a couch and a desk for $9 :) But
I moved around too much and shed a lot of luggage. I just picked up an Asus
T100 tablet since they're cheap now, run Win10 and also capable of side-
loading Linux. I wonder if the touch mechanism would translate through to the
emulation on the tablet. What a geek triumph that would be: "Like my new
tablet? It's runs Commodore VBASIC"

~~~
bradneuberg
I bought a Commodore 64 + monitor a few years ago on eBay and played the
original Ultima IV on it to completion.

------
chromaton
I love how the disk drive and keyboard/CPU look like they're brand new.

~~~
gaius
[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Retr0bright](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Retr0bright)

~~~
bobochan
Whoa! Thank you for posting that. Looks like my Apple ][e is getting a bath!

~~~
PhasmaFelis
Be aware that there's recent news suggesting Retr0bright treatment only lasts
for a few years--see the citations for paragraph 3 at the Wikipedia page. You
can redo it, though.

------
jlundberg
Great video and software! :-)

For anyone interested in another modern & capable operating system for the C64
I would really recommend Adam Dunkels Contiki - [http://www.contiki-
os.org/](http://www.contiki-os.org/)

------
yummybear
Love the disk doubler on the table. The disk double would double the capacity
of 5 1/4 inch disks by snipping off a little square so you could use the other
side of the disk.

~~~
mrspeaker
My friend had a disk doubler - I was so jealous: Every once-in-a-while I'd
borrow it to try and clean up the messes I'd made with my regular old hole-
punch.

~~~
vidarh
I just used to use a pair of scissors...

------
josteink
Seeing this is one of those fabolous "you have got to be kidding me" moments.

Great job.

------
mwcampbell
Is there source code for this somewhere? I wonder what it's written in. 6502
assembler?

~~~
sandebert
From the comments, he wrote it in C using cc65.

~~~
jim_64
This is my only C program I've ever written. A second goal was to pick a
project to force me to learn C. I'm a run-time BASIC guy from the 80s, never
used a cross developed or compiled language before!

