Classic Computers Emulated Part 3: An Early History of GUI's on the PC.

 

We Will Look Into The Quest of Making PC's More Accessible And Easier to Use.

The calculator program from MS-Windows v1.0 running under PCEM.

Apple set the world on fire in January 1984. They revolutionized computing with the introduction of the Macintosh. This small computer sporting a 7MHz Motorola 68000, 128KB of RAM, and one of those new 3-1/2 inch floppy disk drives bestowed upon the world by Sony. The computer had a small monochrome screen. Yet, this computer had, for its time, a high-resolution bit-mapped display which would eventually make the Mac ideal for desktop publishing applications. The most revolutionary feature of the computer was its software. The Macintosh System Software (The term MacOS wasn't bestowed until the 90's) provided a simple to use, yet powerful GUI (Graphical User Interface) which made the computer very accessible. Anyone who never used a computer before found the System Software very intuitive to use. 
The Mini-vMac Emulator running the Guided Tour Disk that came with the 128k Macintosh.

Even before the release of the Mac, their have been attempts to bring GUI's to the PC. For example, VisiCorp released a product called Visi On in late 1983. This environment provided a GUI to run business applications. The product didn't catch on because it demanded a (for it's time) very powerful IBM PC/XT with 512KB of RAM and a 10MB Hard Disk. A configuration that would have cost around $5,000 in 1983. Not to mentioned that the GUI at times felt sluggish, especially in comparison to the character-based programs that were typical at that time. Visi On was lost to time until it was rediscovered by Nathan Lineback, who has done an awesome page covering this product in great detail on his website, which will be linked in the work cited below.

The PCE-PC emulator has no issues running this environment. On the ToastyTech page, their is a pre-built VM so the GUI can be tried. Visi On demands a IBM PC/XT. The software is very problematic on clone XT's. In the case of the emulators, very accurate emulation is needed. The GUI requires the use of a Mouse System mouse. This was a mouse protocol that uses the serial port and was widely used in the 80's, but eventually fell out of favor to the Microsoft Serial mouse. Microsoft mouses are not compatible with Visi On; neither in real life or on emulators.PCE-PE emulates the Mouse Systems mouse. Moving the mouse on the load screen calibrates it to the environment; thus the GUI loads afterwards with mouse support. The software also requires a hard drive with MS-DOS v2.0 formatted with the FAT12 filesystem. Any later version of DOS using the FAT16 or FAT32 filesystems cannot run this environment.
The Visi On load screen.
Visi On with some applications loaded.
The word-processor running. A spreadsheet application was provided as well.

Windows
Microsoft realized the merits of the GUI. DOS was meant to use little resources on PC's that had limited power. The main trade-off was sacrificing easy of use. DOS is a command-line OS which is complicated to use because the input is reduced to the lowest common denominator. Type text to execute software. In order to sport a GUI though, a graphical display had to be provided, along with the memory in order to support that graphical display and support running applications. Storage had to be provided to store the GUI, along with applications to run with that GUI, and user generated data as well. 

The Graphical User Interface was a very demanding proposition in 1984. Even Apple had to make concessions in order to get this type on environment running on their hardware. The System Software barely loaded into the 128KB memory space, was single-tasking, and lacked memory protection. Many parts were coded in Motorola 68000 assembly language. Design choices that made logical sense in 1984 would cause many issues for Apple later in the years to come. 

In the more immediate time-frame, Apple released an updated Mac that carried 512KB of RAM, which allowed software to run more smoothly and allowed bigger programs to run within that available memory space. The user became a "disk jockey", constantly swapping disk because the Mac only had one built-in floppy drive. An external drive was available as well. The original Mac couldn't accommodate a hard-disk, so that wasn't an option. Storage space was an issue on the early Macs. 

Microsoft was an early developer for the Mac. Apple witnessed how the sales of the Apple II skyrocketed after the release of VisiCalc, a spreadsheet mentioned in the previous articles. As a result, Apple wanted killer applications for their new platform, and enlisted Microsoft's help for the task. Multiplan, a spreadsheet on the PC, was quickly re-written to take advantage of the graphical capabilities offered by the Mac. They were already developing the  Excel spreadsheet to take full advantage of what the Mac offered. 

Microsoft Word, a word-processor for DOS, was re-written from scratch to take advantage of these GUI elements as well. Microsoft learned a lot in the process. At the same time, Apple was very concerned that their partner would try to incorporate GUI elements into their own programs on the PC. A deal was signed in which the company wouldn't release any software on the PC that used mouse technology until a year after the introduction of the Mac. One thing that was overlooked was that the contract didn't contain a floating date clause, which states that the date of introduction can be moved in case development issues arises. 

Apple originally believed that the Mac would be released in 1982, but because development issues arose and delays occurred, the computer wasn't released until early 1984. Because Apple didn't float the date and believed that the Mac would have shipped in late 1982, in late 1983, Microsoft announced Windows. The development of Windows took longer than expected, and didn't hit retail shelves until late 1985. Steve Jobs was livid in anger by Windows. After its release, Microsoft was sued by Apple. Microsoft in turn threatened that if Apple pursued the lawsuit, then the company would stop selling their Macintosh products. At the time, Mac sells were rapidly decreasing, and the reason why Apple sold the Macs that they did sell was because people were buying them to run the Microsoft applications. Apple was in a bind. 

The lawsuit was dropped, and John Sculley, the CEO running Apple, signed an Agreement with Microsoft in November 1985 which gave that company the right to use "design elements" of the System Software in their own products. Many argue that this was one of the first times that Bill Gates's ruthlessness in business dealings was witnessed. I've included links to the Folklore.org site that's run by Andy Hertzfeld, one of the co-creators/developers of the Mac who witnessed the events that played out during this time. He's done a awesome job documenting the early history of Apple. I've spent countless hours reading the anecdotes on Folklore.org.

Windows 1.0 was given a cold reception upon release. The tiled method that was utilized for window management made the computer awkward to use. The environment suffered from slow performance as well. Windows required a hard-disk, which was still an expensive proposition in 1985. It also required plenty of memory too; at least 512KB, which was a lot during that time. 

Windows supported the high-resolution mode offered by CGA (640 by 200, monochrome), but was practically unusable at that screen resolution. In order to take advantage of Windows fully, one needed a EGA (Enhanced Graphics Adapter) card which supported 640 by 350, 16 colors. Windows also had support for the Hercules Video Display Adapter, which allowed the environment to run in a high-resolution, bit-mapped mode, like the Mac. That set-up would have made that configuration ideal for desktop publishing software back in the day. Windows had a tendency to crash a lot. It left a lot to be desired. 

The MS-DOS Executive that loaded with Windows was a lousy application launcher  compared to the Mac Finder. With that said, some could argue that Microsoft made a serious attempt to make the GUI concept accessible for everybody. Also, Windows was compatible with DOS applications as well, which was another selling point. DOS compatibility was essential at this point.

Windows 1.01 load screen.
Windows 1.01 running. It's using the 16-color, 640 by 350, EGA drivers. The MS-DOS Executive is running.
Here is the tile management that I was telling you about.

Digital Research
Back then, as even today, many view Apple's products as inaccessible, expensive toys. As a result, products come along that try to replicate the capabilities offered by the Mac on lowered-priced hardware. In the middle 80's, Digital Research was trying to regain it's former glory. Known for it's CP/M operating system, DR was in a deep funk during this time. By 1985, CP/M was on it's death-bed, as MS-DOS had taken over the PC market. As a result, DR spotted a huge opportunity with providing a GUI environment on their own with GEM, which is a acronym for Graphical Environment Manager. 

This would be the GUI that would make the computer accessible for everybody. You didn't need to shell out $2,500 for a Mac. Just get a much more affordable XT clone and run GEM. You can have the easy-of-use and yet powerful capabilities of the Mac System Software on your PC. GEM was released in late 1985, around the same time that Windows was making its rounds. GEM found plenty of success early on. It was praised for being a much more capable product then Windows. 

Many attributed the reason for the success of GEM was that it replicated the look and feel of the Macintosh System Software. In fact, to Apple, it resembled their software too much. software. Apple sued DR, and in the aftermath, features that Apple considered offensive; like the trash can, re-sizable and movable windows, were removed. Not only that, their were always two permanent windows opened on the desktop that couldn't be closed. This re-release was dubbed the lawsuit-friendly edition by many.
DR-GEM v1.0 for the IBM PC. The computer is running in EGA graphics mode at the resolution of 640 by 350, 16 colors. This was how the desktop appeared before GEM got neutered by Apple.
Some of the applications bundled with GEM running.

Conclusion
If anyone ask why the GUI didn't catch on in the 80's, the response would be: the hardware and software at the time weren't up for the task. Plain and Simple.

The GUI environments on the PC didn't catch on for the rest of the 80's. While multiple attempts would be made throughout the decade, none would succeed. The problems presented was a combination of software and hardware issues. These environments were slow for the most part. Even GEM, one of the nicer environments, felt sluggish at times. The PC's of the 80's just were cut out for that sort of computing. Was it possible to run GUI's on the Intel 8088/8086, and 286? Yes, it was possible. Did those processors do a good job of powering those environments? Not really. Running the GUI's on PCEM confirmed this. 

Even when the emulated clone PC was given (for its time) a speedy processor like a 16MHz 8088, the GUI ran better. Their was still a lot to be desired though. It would have been painful to use these environments on a daily basis given the limited capabilities of 80's hardware. The fact was that GUI computing played by a total different set of rules. These environments needed lots of RAM, storage, and graphical capability for their day. 

Character-based programs only had to deal with characters on the screen, which placed a let less demand on the CPU and video display. Because the resources weren't there, it didn't matter how good these environments were. They were always going to suffer due to the hardware they were running on. This is the reason why character-based programs would persist on the PC for the rest of the decade. Without the resources, these GUI's would always be slow and buggy. They would always crash constantly. Not to mention due to the hardware of the day, these GUI's couldn't incorporate advance features until much later, like preemptive multitasking, multi-threading, memory protection, multi-user support, etc. 

It wouldn't be until the middle 90's that these features would work their way into the software. It wouldn't be until processors like the Intel 486 and Pentium were up for the task that it became a reality to run these demanding environments on a regular basis without issue.

Articles Of Interest:

PCEM - https://pcem-emulator.co.uk/

PCE - PC Emulator  - http://www.hampa.ch/pce/

Mini vMac - http://www.gryphel.com/c/minivmac/

Toastytech: VisiCorp Visi On - http://toastytech.com/guis/vision.html

Microsoft’s Relationship with Apple - http://www.mac-history.net/apple/2011-01-30/microsofts-relationship-with-apple

Folklore.org: Shut Up! - https://www.folklore.org/StoryView.py?project=Macintosh&story=Shut_Up.txt&sortOrder=Sort+by+...

Folklore: A Rick Neigbor Named Xerox - https://www.folklore.org/StoryView.py?project=Macintosh&story=A_Rich_Neighbor_Named_Xerox.txt&am...

Folklore: MacBASIC - https://www.folklore.org/StoryView.py?project=Macintosh&story=MacBasic.txt&sortOrder=Sort+by...

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