Re: AES replacements

[Simon Kagedal <simon@sdf.luth.se>]

On Thu, 14 Dec 1995, Xav wrote:

> I know about: AES 4.1 (Atari), Geneva, oAESys (correct spelling?), 
> XaAES, MiNA and N.AES - are there any others? If so, could anyone send 
> me any more details.

It's spelled oAESis. Last thing I've heard about XaAES is that it was 
going to be showed and released at the Atari World Show last sunday.
 
> What is the current status of MiNA? Last thing I heard, it was on 
> hold following a dead computer!

Got this text on gem-list:

[quoted stuff...]

Message-Id: <P54740@B.maus.de>
From: Andre_Leistner@b.maus.de (Andre Leistner)
Subject: MiNA, Sigma (new!)
To: gem-list@world.std.com
Date: Wed, 25 Oct 95 11:10:00 GMT

Kommentar zu A18470@H in der Gruppe Gem.ML

In Msg A18470@H, Simon Kagedal (simon@sdf.luth.se) wrote:
>I've heard about something like this called 'MiNA'.... does anyone know
>anything about this?

Martin Osieka (author of WINX and MiNA) had trouble with his Atari so he
couldn't develop it further. A week or two weeks ago he mentioned that he is
going to try to repair it again. However, many people offered to lend one of
their Ataris to Martin so that he could continue programming it.

On the other hand there's even a new project to write an AES 4.1 substitute
called Sigma. Jens Hiescher from Berlin, Germany is the author and here's what
he wrote just two days ago in newsgroup gem.ger (on MausNet, on Usenet this is
maus.sys.gui.gem or something like this, but it's a German speaking newsgroup)
[I've translated this into English]:-

--- cut here ---
- requires MiNT
- at the moment it needs some 105KB on hard disk
- needs some 280KB at runtime (880x624 at 16 colours, 240KB at 2 colours)
- external resources (windows, critical error messages, alert boxes, mouse
  shapes etc.)
- many things are configurable:-
  size of message pipe, quarter screen buffer [QSB], stack, optical  
presentation, pulldown/dropdown menus ...
- optional menu bar, i.e. an increased desktop area. The menu bar will only
  be shown when needed [software overscan ;-)]
- 68030 version for TT and Falcon
- keyboard shortcuts for window gadgets for all applications (fuller, closer,
  iconify etc.)
- hiding of applications
- AES 4.1 compatibility
- continued development

Other things:-
- no inbuilt desktop program
- very down-sized file selector
(since most people use an alternative desktop replacement and a fileselector
anyway, this saves a lot of memory).

Negative things:-
- shareware (limited), there is a pause from time to time
- documentation 0 bytes
--- cut here ---

This sounds quite promising to me.

There will be more information in the near future since he's still heavily
working on Sigma. Jens expects to release a first version to the public by the
end of October/beginning of November /this/ year. He also wrote that he's
exclusively been working under Sigma for the last 3 months (except polling news
from MausNet, due to MiNT's rather slow modem routines).

You can contact Jens at: jens_hiescher@b.maus.de but please obey the
16-KB/mail-limit of the MausNet. I don't know whether he possibly reads the
messages of this mailing list (which is some kind of a newsgroup on MausNet).

-andre

--
Andre Leistner -- Materials Science/Polymer Physics student
Usenet: alpldnia@sp.zrz.tu-berlin.de   MausNet: Andre Leistner @ B

[end quote]
 
> Has anyone used N.AES, and if so can they mail me - I'd like some 
> more details.

N.AES? Haven't heard of... It seems to be lots of projects going on to 
replace the AES. I put my trust in XaAES or oAEÓéó¬ éæ only they could be 
released (in a runable version)!

/simon