Windows 1.0 and Geneva Amateur Operatic Society: Difference between pages

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{{Wikify|date=March 2007}}

The '''Geneva Amateur Operatic Society''' (GAOS) is a large English-speaking operatic music society based in [[Geneva]]. Founded in 1971, the productions are mostly in English, but membership hails from many countries. Although an amateur group, some of the members have played in the professional theatre, which helps to present a high level of performance in singing, dancing and acting. GAOS puts on three major stage productions each year at theatres in an around Geneva. GAOS is a non-profit making society and its members receive no payment.

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== Productions ==

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*1985 The White Horse Inn 10th Old Time Music Hall Pinocchio

*1986 The Merry Widow Music Hall, Little Miss Muffet

*1987 (April) Pirates of Penzance (expts) (Spring) Oklahoma

*1988 Die Fledermaus Old Time, Music Hall Cabaret, Peter Pan

*1989 The Music Man Old Time Music Hall, My Fair Lady (excerpts) King Arthur, Old Time Music Hall, Aladdin

*1990 My Fair Lady, Old Time Music Hall, Cabaret 'Travelin', Humpty Dumpty

*1991 The Mikado, Old Time Music Hall, A.L Webber Story, The Ice Maiden

*1992 Salad Days, Old Time Music Hall, Jack and the Beanstalk

*1993 Gypsy Baron, Old Time Music Hall Carousel (expts) at 'FEST' Cat in the Chemist (Puss-in-Boots)

*1994 West Side Story, Summer Follies, Robinson Crusoe

*1995 Fiddler on the Roof, Old Time Music Hall, Santa in Space

*1996 La Perichole Another Summer Folly La Perichole (Waterford LOF) Cinderella

*1997 Anything Goes, The Wind in the Willows

*1998 The Pirates of Penzance, Cruising, The Wizard of Oz

*1999 Carousel, Old Time Music Hall, Babes in the Wood

*2000 Guys and Dolls, Thank You for the Music, Beauty and the Beast

*2001 The Gondoliers, A funny thing happened on the way to the Forum, A Slice of Saturday Night, Humbug

*2002 Me and My Girl, Showtime, Dick Whittington

*2003 High Society, A Slice of Saturday Night, The Water Nymph

*2004 Oliver, Joseph & the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Sleeping Beauty

*2005 Iolanthe, Old Time Musical, Grease, Alice in Wonderland

*2006 Hello Dolly!, To Hell With Opera, Annie, Ali Baba

*2007 Follies, Up The Empire!, Fiddler on the Roof

== External links ==

*[http://www.gaos.ch/ Geneva Amateur Operatic Society ]

*[http://www.theatreinenglish.ch/ Theatre In English ]

[[Category:Geneva]]

{{Infobox OS version

[[Category:Theatre companies]]

| name = Windows 1.0

[[Category:Swiss music]]

| family = Microsoft Windows

[[Category:Organisations based in Switzerland]]

| logo = Windows 1.0 logo-edited.png

| screenshot = Windows1.0.png

| caption = A typical Windows 1.01 desktop.

| developer = Microsoft

| website = [http://www.microsoft.com/windows/WinHistoryDesktop.mspx Windows Desktop Products History]

| release_version = 1.04

| release_date = [[April 8]] [[1987]]

| source_model = [[Closed source]]

| kernel_type = None

| license = Microsoft [[EULA]]

| support_status = Unsupported as of [[December 31]] [[2001]].

}}

'''Windows 1.0''' is a [[16-bit]] graphical [[operating environment]] released on [[November 20]] [[1985]]. It was [[Microsoft]]'s first attempt to implement a [[multi-tasking]] [[graphical user interface]]-based [[operating environment]] on the [[personal computer|PC]] platform.

==Features==

Unlike later versions, Windows 1.0 offered limited multitasking of existing MS-DOS programs and concentrated on creating an interaction [[paradigm]], an execution model and a stable [[Application programming interface|API]] for [[native mode|native]] programs for the future. Due to Microsoft's extensive support for [[backward compatibility]], it is not only possible to execute Windows 1.0 [[executable|binary]] programs on current versions of Windows to a large extent, but also to recompile their [[source code]] into an equally functional "modern" application with just limited modifications.

Windows 1.0 was often regarded as a "front-end to the [[MS-DOS]] [[operating system]]", a description which was also applied to subsequent versions of Windows. Indeed, Windows 1.0 was started from MS-DOS, Windows 1.0 programs could call MS-DOS functions, and GUI programs were run from [[.exe]] files just like MS-DOS programs. However, Windows .exe files had their own "new executable" (NE) file format, which only Windows could process and which, for example, allowed demand-loading of code and data. Applications were supposed to handle memory only through Windows' own memory management system, which implemented a software-based [[virtual memory]] scheme allowing for applications larger than available [[Random access memory|RAM]].

The treatment of Windows 1.0 as a "DOS front-end" fails to take into consideration that it was designed to be just a graphics environment used by applications, rather than a full-fledged operating system. Windows 1.0 included original [[device driver]]s for video cards, mice, keyboards, printers and serial communications. Applications were supposed to only invoke APIs built upon these drivers. Given that contemporary graphics support in MS-DOS was extremely limited and given the limited usefulness of the other services, MS-DOS applications had to go to the ''bare hardware'' (or sometimes just to the [[BIOS]]) to get work done. Therefore, rather than being a front-end to MS-DOS, Windows 1.0 complemented and partially replaced it. The level of replacement would increase in subsequent versions.

Nevertheless Windows 1.0 is a "DOS front-end", as it uses for example the file-handling functions provided by DOS and therefore cannot operate without a DOS environment. Another typical characteristic of a front end is that Windows 1.0 provides functions for applications which they can call, but the implementation of many of these functions will use less complex functions provided by a DOS environment. So Windows at that time was an intermediate between a front-end and an operating system.

==Version history==

[[Image:Windows 1.0.jpg|thumb|top|right|200px|The boxart of Windows 1.0, the first version Microsoft released to the public. The same boxart was used in other versions, such as 1.01.]]

The first release version was actually numbered 1.01. It has been rumored that version 1.00 was actually released but quickly pulled due to a severe flaw having to do with keyboard input. However, this rumour has now been fairly conclusively disproven through a number of reliable sources comments on the version history of Windows 1.x. For example, Ben Armstrong's (A program manager for Microsoft's Virtual Machine Technology Team) comments on Windows 1.0:

<blockquote>...few people know that Windows 1.0 was actually never released. Windows 1.0 was the version of Windows that was demonstrated at the '83 Comdex. It would be 14 months until Microsoft eventually released Windows 1.01 - which included some minor bug fixes - to the general public. [http://blogs.msdn.com/virtual_pc_guy/archive/2004/10/16/243262.aspx]</blockquote>

Version 1.02, released in May [[1986]] was international and had editions in several European languages.

Version 1.03, released in August 1986, was US-only, with enhancements making it consistent with the international release. It included drivers for European keyboards and additional screen and printer drivers.

Version 1.04, released in April [[1987]], added support for the [[VGA]] graphics adapters of the new IBM [[PS/2]] computers. At the same time Microsoft and IBM announced the introduction of [[OS/2]] and its graphical OS/2 [[Presentation Manager]], which were supposed to ultimately replace ''both'' MS-DOS and Windows.

Windows 1.0''x'' was superseded in November 1987, with the release of [[Windows 2.0]].

==Details==

The system requirements for Windows 1.0 constituted MS-DOS 2.0, 256 KB RAM, and 2 double-sided disk drives or a hard drive.

This first version of Windows ran a [[operating system shell|shell]] program known as MS-DOS Executive. Other supplied programs were [[Calculator]], [[Calendar]], [[Cardfile]], [[Clipboard (software)|Clipboard]] viewer, [[Clock]], [[Control Panel (Windows)|Control Panel]], [[Notepad]], [[Microsoft Paint|Paint]], [[Reversi]], [[Terminal emulator|Terminal]], [[Windows Write|Write]], and the [[command line|command prompt]].

One of the interesting aspects of the system were the non-overlapping windows, which were instead ''tiled''. Only dialog boxes could appear over other windows.

Windows 1.0 executables, while having the same .exe [[filename extension|extension]] and initial file header as [[MS-DOS]] programs, did not yet contain the so-called ''MS-DOS stub'' which prints the "This program requires Microsoft Windows" message and exits when the program is run outside of Windows. Instead, the file header was formatted in such a way as to make DOS reject the executable with a "program too large to fit in memory" error message.

From the beginning, Windows was intended to multitask programs (although this originally only applied to native applications and for many versions the multitasking was [[co-operative multitasking|non-preemptive]]), so Windows programs always had their own [[menu bar]] rather than switching a single menu bar at the top of the screen like [[Apple Computer|Apple]] [[Apple Macintosh|Macintosh]]es did.

Originally Windows was designed to have the pull-up menus at the bottom of windows, as it was common with the DOS programs of the time; however, this was changed before the first release.

==Competitors on the IBM PC platform==

The history of Windows dates back to [[September 1981]], when the project named "Interface Manager" was started. It was first presented to the public in [[November 10]] [[1983]], renamed to "Microsoft Windows"; the two years of delay before release led to charges that it was "[[vaporware]]". The initially announced version of Windows had features so much resembling Macintosh interface that Microsoft had to change many of them: overlapping windows, although supported by the GUI engine, weren't allowed for exactly this purpose. The announcement of Windows' imminent arrival in [[1985]] probably did not help the sales of [[VisiCorp]]'s [[Visi On]] environment which debuted at the same time. However, even when finally released, Windows 1.0 aroused little interest as well, showing the market was simply not yet ready for a switch-over from MS-DOS.

Another GUI for the PC platform at the time was [[Graphical Environment Manager|GEM]]. It had a nicer look, notably because it copied more aspects from the [[Apple Macintosh|Macintosh]] [[GUI]], for example the [[trash can]] concept (which Microsoft would in turn copy in future Windows releases) and more generally the desktop interaction. GEM was eventually used as the standard GUI for the Atari's [[Atari ST|ST]] range of [[68k]]-based computers, which were sometimes referred to as [[Jackintosh]]es as a slurry of thought (the company being run by [[Jack Tramiel]]). GEM's resemblance to the Macintosh OS later caused legal trouble to the manufacturer, [[Digital Research]], who were obliged to seriously cripple the desktop's appearance and functionality (applications were not affected).

But GEM was not multitasking, so users had to close one program in order to run another one. Collections of related programs, like [[GEM Draw]], had tricky File menu items like ''Close (to Edit)'' to facilitate switching.

An alternative multitasker released shortly before was [[DESQview]], a successor of [[IBM]]'s failed [[TopView]] from [[1984]]. It did not have graphical capabilities initially, but was able to multitask DOS applications in windows as long as they were well-behaved or had a specially written "loader" which could fix them on the fly.

As the result of this heavy competition, Windows gained very little market share &mdash; until [[Aldus PageMaker]] shipped in [[January 1987]] with a Windows executable. This was the first [[WYSIWYG]] [[desktop publishing]] program available on the PC platform, and it finally gave people a reason to buy Windows. Later Windows compatible products included [[Microsoft Excel|Excel]] and [[Corel Draw]].

==See also==

*[[ViewMAX]]

*[[GEOS (16-bit operating system)|GEOS]]

*[[Software Carousel]]

==External links==

*[http://www.guidebookgallery.org/guis/windows/win10/ GUIdebook: Windows 1.0 Gallery] – A website dedicated to preserving and showcasing Graphical User Interfaces

*[http://www.sambadance.com/squeegee/ Windows 1.0 "teaser" press kit] – Microsoft promotion for the original Windows launch in 1983

*[http://www.charlespetzold.com/etc/Windows1/index.html Windows 1.0 and the Applications of ''Tomorrow''] – by [[Charles Petzold]].

*[http://blogs.msdn.com/virtual_pc_guy/archive/2004/10/16/243262.aspx Windows 1.0 Release History Facts] - by Virtual PC Guy (Ben Armstrong)

{{History_of_Windows}}

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