High-Powered Wheels! by K. Dale Sidebottom Steve Grassman and I got to view first-hand the unveiling of Maurice Randall's new GEOS upgrade, called Wheels 64. We were all impressed! And why not? This program does everything but change the oil. Maurice demonstrated the installation process and then showed everyone why Wheels is a spectacular piece of software. We are all aware that GEOS 2.0 is now ten years old. Thus, many recent improvements in the Commodore scene have been ignored. Today, Commodore users need an operating system that will allow at least four drives, that will make maximum use of new technologies like the RAMlink and the SuperCPU's SuperRAM card. Many users have worried, "What's the advantage of having great new hardware from CMD if you have no operating system capable of taking advantage of it?" No longer a problem! Wheels does require extra memory in the form of 128K RAM. This is equal to the memory found in the 1700, the smallest REU that Commodore made. When you first boot up from a particular disk or partition, a dialog box asks you what RAM memory you want to use. There are four possible choices. 1. 17xx series REU 2. geoRAM/BBG Ram 3. RL/RD DACC Partition 4. SuperCPU/SuperRAM card. However, Wheels is a very smart program. It is able to figure out in advance which devices are available to you and which are not. Those that are will be listed in a bold typeface. Those that are not will be in italics. We teased Maurice about one thing in particular. He is also the author of geoSHELL. Well, I thought now that Wheels is rolling, geoSHELL would be put on the shelf. However, geoSHELL is an open operating system that invites modification. Thus, any future new improvements in the GEOS operating system may show up first in geoSHELL. So Maurice created within Wheels a desk accessory which will find geoSHELL anywhere on the four drives and memorize its location. Up to now, you needed a program called getshell on every disk and partition, if you wanted these advantages. Now, getshell is actually built into the Wheels system. Is Maurice secretly using Wheels to promote geoSHELL? [Hello, Bill Gates! :-) ] Think of your four drive devices as a 4-drawer file cabinet. It used to be that when you opened any drawer, all you found was one box! Just one undivided place to store your goodies. Now you can divide your file storage into partitions (folders), up to 255 in each drawer. Not only that, you can have separations within a folder (sub-directories) which allow you to more easily organize special projects. Wheels will allow only 4 drives (numbered 8-11) to be accessible at one time. However, it allow you to open up to 16 windows at one time. A window may represent a drive (drawer), a partition (folder), or a sub-directory (pocket within the folder). But Wheels departs from our model of the file cabinet when you create a system directory (abbreviated sys dir). GEOS has always used an area called the "border" as a way to move files from one page on the disk to another. The border area is therefore, accessible from any page on the disk. Wheels has upgraded the "border" idea to a sys dir, which can be used to store all the files you commonly use on every disk! For instance, my sys dir stores ALL my applications, printer drivers, input drivers, fonts and desk accessories (like photo manager). I establish this sys dir in nearly every new disk or partition I create. Then, if I want to make a sub-directory, I can use the same sys dir there that I have already established. I do not have to copy these same files into each sub-directory, thereby saving "tons" of memory. Remember the current method for creating GEOS work disks? By the time you load it down with all your applications, drivers, DA's, fonts, etc., there was hardly any space left to actually do your "work!" Wheels strives to alleviate this kind of duplication. The biggest breakthrough, however, is Wheels' ability to incorporate native mode partitions. CMD developed this new technology in order to create fuller utility of their large storage devices. While the 1541, 1571, and 1581 drives restrict us to 160K, 320K, and 800K respectively, CMD's native mode partitions can vary in size from 64K (256 blocks) to 16MB (16 million bytes)! Unfortunately for GEOS users, this advanced storage system has been difficult to use. Gateway was specifically developed for this purpose, but in my highly biased opinion, it has always been highly flawed. But Wheels makes this new technology as easy to use as a comb and a brush! You'll soon be wondering how you ever got along without them. Maurice took some pictures of the EXPO with his new digital camera and converted the pictures to PS format so that I could take them home. Just one picture can easily be 600K in size. By using Wheels, I can work from a 16MB partition which scoffs at such "tiny" objects and invites more to follow. If you are considering that you might want to own some Wheels of your own, keep in mind that it only requires an REU (or other RAM device), a single disk drive, and GEOS 2.0. (As of June 2000 the latest upgrade will run under GEOS 2.3!) However, this program really "struts its stuff" when you combine it with a CMD storage device, such as an FD-2000, a CMD hard drive, a RAMLink, or a SuperRAM card. If you want to order it, contact Maurice at arca93@delphi.com; maurice@ia4u.net; or visit his web site at http://www.ia4u.net/~maurice/ By mail or phone: Maurice Randall P.O. Box 606 Charlotte MI 48813 Ph (517) 543-5202 Monday-Friday 8 am - 6 pm You'll discover that this new Wheels is the greatest thing in racing...uh...er... Commodore!