SBTCVM Bench: Groundbreaking rework (v0.2.0)

 

New Features:

• Instant return from desktop from Bench apps (doesn't include SBTCVM-DOS)
• new wallpaper via PLRLE image compression technology.
• Newly reworked with the new SBTGA Plotter Buffer System for more impressive graphics.
  

SBTCVM Bench: A single-taskng GUI for SBTCVM

basic 'desktop' layout.

SBTCVM Bench is a SBTVDI-disk based GUI for SBTCVM Gen2-9.


Its feature set is currently sparse, but it does have a lot of promise to be an interesting program.

It currently has about & credits screens, and a 'launcher' that loads up SBTCVM-DOS.

Expect more posts on this & SBTCVM-DOS in the coming months...

To run SBTCVM Bench, just type
run bench
in the XAS Shell (xas.py)

The SBTCVM Desktop

SBTCVM's central launcher and its recently added "mini tools" are now much more:

Presenting a new and upcoming part of the SBTCVM suite: The SBTCVM desktop.

Featuring a multi-windowing enviornment, with resizable windows, additional applications as plugins, and powerful builtin utilities, along with integration with SBTCVM's powerful backend. Best part is, like the rest of the SBTCVM suite, its OS-agnostic, and very portable, and powered by python and pygame.



Builtin applications (often called SDAs, or SBTCVM Desktop Applications, for short) include:

• Shell, a shell interface used to create a veriety of CLI interfaces, such as a System Shell (center) and a math shell (right)
• taskman, manages the various tasks that are running. (top left)
• fileman (not shown) a compact variant of the larger fileview.
• and more on the way.

The Plugin system also provides some applications as SDAPs (SBTCVM Desktop Application Plugin)

• The Math shell mentioned before is implemented as an SDAP, it features the same math functions as the command shell.
• Scribble started as a mouse coordinate test and grew into a simplistic paint program (keyword: simplistic).
• the scrolling credits shown is a port of the same code used in the credits window accessible via the VM's file menu.
• as with the builtin SDAs, more SDAPs are in the works.

As mentioned in the recent, "new system of things" post, Themes are supported, and several are provided, along with various backgrounds.