Head To Head - Gemini Vs. Teradesk
                      By James Judge

Most people think that the ST's GEM (Graphical Enviromental
Manager) Desktop is pretty shoddy. Well I think it's OK and easy
to use but improvements are always welcome.

So, after reading a few good reviews of Gemini in the glossies
(the now defunct Public Domain and the good mag ST Review) I
decided to purchase it. Teradesk did not have much publication
but, through a friend, I obtained it. So here is my opinions on
both the programs and whether they're any good.

Both these programs are, as you might have guessed, replacement
desktops. They don't overwrite the GEM desktop but run as a self
booting program. This means that they both need a bit of memory to
run.

Gemini needs more than Teradesk, for reasons unknown to me, and is
impossible to use on a 512 machine. Even with a megabyte it's
still a bit hard using memory intensive programs.  Teradesk needs
half the amount of RAM so it is usable, just, on a 512 and above
that it's very easy to run.

Right, down to business.  Firstly a small review of Teradesk then
Gemini and the final view.

TERADESK

Upon loading you won't notice much that's changed apart from
different icons, an extra icon and, instead of Desktop, Teradesk
in the top left hand corner.  The different icons are far better
than the GEM equivalents with up to forty-five icons you can use
from pound signs to typewriters and the standard stuff (snore).
You can change the disk/hard disk/ ram disk/ trash can/ printer
icons to whatever you want and whenever you want. Unfortunately
you can't edit these icons.

From the Teradesk drop down menu you can find out about the program
and use any desk accessories that you've put on your boot disk.

The file menu includes all the old stuff as well as a few extra
bits and pieces including the ability to sort files by their
extensions or leave them unsorted (?).  You can also 'Cycle
Windows' which basically brings the bottom window to the top and
moves all the other windows one place downwards.

Another useful feature is the ability to select all the files and
folders in that window with a simple click.  Good bye, elastic
bands!

Also from the file menu you can get back to the GEM desktop.

The options menu gives you the ability to set the program to your
needs and then save the final configuration. There are loads of
extras that are too involved to go into here but some of the
simpler ones are the ability to change the icons and the way
window close etc.  There was one thing I wasn't able to figure out
and that was how to change the resolution.  Not that you need to
change it. It's just nice to know it's there.

Also you can't control the Blitter chip (if you have one) so back
to the GEM desktop if you want to be able to switch it off and on.

So far all these things are added thrills in my book. The really
good bit is the way Teradesk handles windows and the desktop.

Not only can you drag files to the desktop, you can open up to
seven windows at a time and every time you resize the windows,
Teradesk will change the position of the files so you can see the
most files possible at any one time.  If you select a file or a
group of files, the window info bar (where it normally says x
bytes used in y items) will change to tell you how large the
files/ block of files are.  If you opt to 'show' a text file,
Teradesk will, instead of giving you the GEM text view screen,
open another window, if there's any free, and convert it to a
viewer.

Viewers are the same as any other windows but they display text
giving you the ability to have six viewers on screen at once and
scroll, at will, forwards and backwards through all of them. Also
you can choose whether you wish to view the file in ASCII or
Hexadecimal code!

All GEM based software works with this except TTP programs which I
can't figure out how to run (bye bye, AGT adventures). If you have
any idea how to run them please get in touch with me (33 Chidley
Cross Road, East Peckham, Nr. Tonbridge, Kent, TN12 5BX).

Finally for all you speed freaks out there (me included), there
are keyboard short cuts for most things in Teradesk. Hoorah!  If
you couple this with a two meg machine, hard disk, ram disk and
two disk drives you'll have a wonderful operating system. Probably
one of the best replacement desktops you could hope to find in
Public Domain.

GEMINI

While this is loading you are greeted with a line drawing of a
monitor winking at you (no winking back, please) and when it's
loaded you will see a great difference with bigger and better
drawn icons than GEM or Teradesk.

The drop down menus have been changed to File, Show and Extras
with the file menu more or less the same as Teradesks.

'Show' is the menu you go to if you want to change the size of the
icons, change the icons to text or change the way files are sorted
(the same as Teradesk).

The 'Extras' menu is about configuring the program to your own
needs with the chance to alter the icons, change fonts (a good
idea), turn the blitter on and off and enter Mupfel (see the DOC
about Mupfel and what it means (or if you're German you'll get it,
hopefully)).

Mupfel is a bit like the PC's MS-DOS commands but I don't find
much use in it when you've got Gemini up and running. The
instructions say it gives you far more control over the computer
than a desktop program would give you so if you like that kind of
stuff, you've got it!  On the desktop side of things you've got
your obligatory drive icons, a clipboard (files are saved to it
for later use), a trash can (the same as the clipboard but the
file is actually wiped from the disk) and finally the shredder
(the equivalant of the GEM trash can).

As with Teradesk you can drag files to the desktop but text is
handled in a far poorer way.  A 'console' widow opens that has its
bottom edge connected to the bottom of the screen and you can only
drag it form side to side and change its height.  Also you can
open up to seven windows which act just like the GEM windows.
A major drawback with Gemini is GEM based software doesn't work
(at least the five I've tried) and TTP programs fail to run as
well because Gemini opens up a 'console' window and tries to run
the program in the window, still displaying the desktop (try the
Falcon, matey).

This programs is more of a cosmetic change with nothing really
useful except for the ability to drag files to the desktop and a
quick 'Erase Disk' option.

THE VERDICT

Teradesk is my favourite on all counts and has a lot of extra bits
and pieces that help especially if you do a lot of file handling.

Gemini is, on the other hand, more of a cosmetic change with
nothing really of great use to the serious user. I suppose if you
had a hard drive and it didn't take up as much memory, it would be
better but the major drawback is the incompatibility with
software, as far as I can see.  If you are looking for a worth
while replacement for the GEM desktop, Teradesk is your best bet
if you don't want to spend out on the commercial equivalents like
Neodesk.
            FINAL SCORE
            TERADESK 1 - GEMINI 0

@~Teradesk is on disk PD 538