BIG2 is a GEM library package for Atari developed initially by Claude Attard in 1993-2000 Claude Attard has agreed to render BIG sources public domain in 2010. The initial documentation of BIG was released as an help file in French to be read under Atari. I have therefore worked on converting the documentation in English and to help developer this documentation has been redone completely using Doxygen.
The BIG routines are guaranteed 100% pure GEM (no diversion of the AES is carried out), which ensures compatibility with the complete range Atari machines and their various graphical resolutions (including the TT and Falcon with Multitasking). They are the fruit of several years of programming (and use) of the GEM, and thanks to the accumulated experience, I think that they meet perfectly the needs for a developer eager to create aesthetic easy to use (ergonomic) software (that is important).
The BIG functions allow to manage the most current uses of the AES in few functions calls for a program or a desktop accessory. The application can works with an external or an integrated resource. They also allow to easily realize forms rich in innovations that only appeared with versions 4.00 and 4.10 of the AES. Or to create forms not provided by the GEM (like new windows, which was entirely redesigned), and this is possible even on systems with old TOS. Some bugs and missing features of the AES are corrected by using BIG. We can split these functions into two groups:
- those which work on the forms and the menus, and
- those which work on the windows. But the border between these two groups is fuzzy since it is possible to place forms or menus in windows!
For more information please go to BIG Web site http://info-coach.fr/atari/software/st-projects/big.php
BIG Documentation online http://info-coach.fr/atari/software/st-projects/_big/html/index.html
The BIG2 Library project is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 3 of the License, or (at your option) any later version. https://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html