Path: senator-bedfellow.mit.edu!dreaderd!not-for-mail Message-ID: Supersedes: Expires: 27 May 2000 21:48:47 GMT References: X-Last-Updated: 2000/04/13 Organization: none From: rubywand@swbell.net Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple2,comp.answers,news.answers Subject: Apple II comp.sys.apple2 FAQs, Part 4/23 Followup-To: poster Approved: news-answers-request@MIT.EDU Summary: Comp.sys.apple2 (Csa2) is concerned with the Apple II series of computers. It is the net's largest forum for users to ask questions, discuss issues, and share ideas. The complete set of Csa2 text FAQs and Resource files is maintained on the U. Iowa Ground site and mirrors. The Csa2 html FAQs are maintained on the II Computing site. Originator: faqserv@penguin-lust.MIT.EDU Date: 13 Apr 2000 21:56:52 GMT Lines: 659 NNTP-Posting-Host: penguin-lust.mit.edu X-Trace: dreaderd 955663012 21252 18.181.0.29 Xref: senator-bedfellow.mit.edu comp.sys.apple2:158179 comp.answers:40434 news.answers:181462 Archive-name: apple2/faq/part4 Posting-Frequency: monthly Last-modified: 2000/4/1 URL: http://home.swbell.net/rubywand/A2FAQs1START.html The comp.sys.apple2 Usenet newsgroup Apple II FAQs originate from the Ground Apple II archive, 1997-2000. Administrator: Steve Nelson Csa2 FAQs-on-Ground ref: Csa2APPLICS.txt rev025 1 April 2000 Applications 001- What Operating System environments does the GS support? 002- What GS programs are there for viewing/converting graphics? 003- What is an Apple II emulator? 004- What is a good file copier program for the IIgs? 005- Where can I find PEEKs & POKEs and monitor routine info? 006- How can I boot a good GS System with no hard disk? 007- Can I do Reverse Speech on my IIgs? 008- Is it possible to run PaintWorks from hard disk? 009- How can I read a single ProDOS block into memory under BASIC? 010- Is there an Apple II program for ham radio CW code practice? 011- Can my GS do file sharing with a Mac's hard drive? 012- How can I use a Mac as a network server with my GS? 013- How can I set up an Appletalk network for 30 IIgs's 014- How can I capture a GS super-res screen to disk? 015- What programming languages are available for the Apple ][? 016- How can I see and edit what's in a Text file? 017- How do I save a BASIC program in ASCII text form? 018- Where and how do I get System 6.0.1 from an ftp site? 019- Is a graphical user interface (GUI) available for 8-bit A2's? 020- Where can I get Applesoft shape table info and programs? 021- How can I get a Postscript file from a GS document? 022- How can I boot from my /RAM5 RAMdisk? 023- Where can I get Apple II languages and programming info? 024- What kinds disks can a TrackStar use? 025- How do I use/ where can I get trackstore 'disks'? 026- How can I boot DOS 3.3 images on the Bernie IIgs emulator? From: Rubywand, David Empson, and Michael Gährken 001- What Operating System environments does the GS support? The GS can support several. Some of the more popular OS environments include ... DOS 3.3- usually Beagle's Prontodos or some other speeded version of the original DOS 3.3. This is the 5.25" diskette-based disk operating system used for years on earlier Apple II's. It's commands are designed for use from BASIC programs or from the keyboard. Many old Apple II games and other wares are on 5.25" diskettes which boot DOS 3.3. ProDOS 8- e.g. ProDOS v2.0.3. This is a disk operating system which supports a variety of devices (e.g. 3.5" drives, hard drives, etc.) and allows sub-directories. Commands are very similar to DOS 3.3 and are designed for use in BASIC programs or from the keyboard. BASIC and 'system' programs can also utilize direct CALLs to well-defined ProDOS Machine Language Interface routines. Apple Pascal- This is an early 1980's implementation of UCSD Pascal which can run on 40-column and 80-column Apple II's. System- Originally called "ProDOS 16" and later "GS/OS", the collection of 'system stuff' (which includes GS/OS) is today called "System". The System Finder utilizes Toolbox routines to supply a super-res desktop, Windows-like environment. Both ProDOS 8 programs and 'GS Applications' (i.e. wares that need GS/OS to run) can be started from the desktop. Depending upon factors such as installed RAM and presence of a hard disk, System will usually be System 5.0.4 or System 6.0.1. System 5.0.4 is appropriate fo r 1.25MB or smaller non-hard disk GS's. System 6.0.1 is recommended for larger memory GS's with a hard disk. ____________________________ From: Dan DeMaggio and Rubywand 002- What GS programs are there for viewing/converting graphics? The Graphics Exchange converts between many formats of graphics. 816 Paint's File Utilities work well for converting hires or double-hires pics to GS super-res. Prizm v1.0 Converts .GIFs, Amiga IFFs, Raw Files, and some other types to Greyscale (very fast), 16 colors, 256 colors, and 3200 colors! SuperConvert (now at version 4) loads all GS formats, plus GIFS and other non-GS specific formats and saves in all GS formats including Finder Icon files. It has more dithering options than most of the other programs, but you may have to play with it to find the best one. Platinum Paint is a commercial program that can import all GS formats plus MacPaint. It can only save in SHR and Apple Preferred. Version 2.0 can make Animations too! ShowPic 6 is a shareware NDA that can display most GS formats. You can also save the resulting graphic as a IIgs SHR painting. SuperPac is a commercial program which can create/display SuperPac format compressed pics and pic pieces Dream Grafix supports all 3200 color picture types and also 16 color and 256 color pictures. This is a very impressive commercial paint program. Convert 3200 will handle several popular PC and Mac formats in up to 256 colors. Jpeg.Viewer can be used to view JPEG images in black & white. ____________________________ From: Rubywand Related FAQs Resources: R026GSEMUS.html (HTML chart) 003- What is an Apple II emulator? An Apple II emulator-- also called an "emu"-- is a program which lets a PC, Mac, etc. work like an Apple II and run Apple II software. Usually, the Apple II software is in the form of a "disk image" file-- a kind of virtual diskette. (Emulators which run on Macs may be able to access software from 3.5" Apple II diskettes because the drives are compatible. PC 3.5" and 5.25" drives can not read Apple II diskettes.) The most popular 8-bit Apple II emus are AppleWin, which runs under PC Windows, and Apple-PC, which runs under PC DOS. Both programs 'turn your PC into' an enhanced Apple //e running at least as fast as the real thing. There are also 8-bit Apple II emus for Macs. One, Catakig, emulates a II, II+, or IIe. For IIgs emulation, the current speed and compatibility leader is Bernie ][ The Rescue. Bernie is shareware which runs on the Mac Power PC. The chief competition for Bernie is XGS. Various versions of XGS run on PC's and Macs under a variety of OS's including DOS, Windows, and Unix. The newest XGS is XGS/32 for PC Windows. Other good looking IIgs emus are KEGS (Linux) and Sweet-16 (BeOS). On modern machines, both Bernie and XGS do well on benchmarks vis-a-vis an accelerated IIgs. To get some idea of how the GS emus stack up, see the benchmarks comparison chart by Gilles Tschopp in FAQs resource file R026GSEMUS.htm . (This benchmark is a bit old and does not take into account improvements to later versions of the emulators listed.) For more emulator information, check out the comp.emulators.apple2 newsgroup and visit some of the emu websites. Here are a few good ones: A2 Emulation Page http://www.saunalahti.fi/~profilon/net/emulators/apple2.html Apple II Emulator Resources Guide http://www.zip.com.au/~alexm/faq/ ftp://ftp.apple.asimov.net/pub/apple_II/emulators/ (in Text) Arrgh http://www.arrgh.co.uk/hardware/appleii/emulation.html Emulation Net http://www.emulation.net/apple2/index.html For details and software relating to a specific emulator see ... Apple2000 Amiga ref. ftp://ground.ecn.uiowa.edu/apple2/Emulators/ AppleWin 2 Project http://pages.ripco.com:8080/~wizwom/applewin/ Apple Oasis http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Lakes/4414/A4W.HTM Apple PC (DOS) ref. http://www.saunalahti.fi/profilon/index.html (under cnstr.) ref. ftp://ftp.apple.asimov.net/pub/apple_II/emulators/applepc/ ref: http://people.stdnet.com/jonathan/emu/apple2.htm setup- http://home.earthlink.net/~evin1/a2war/help.htm#aplpc AppleUni Page http://apple.doa.org/inside.html Bernie (F.E. Systems) http://www.magnet.ch/emutech/Bernie/ Catakig Page http://www.radix.net/~cklipsch/ctkgdoc/ iGS Home Page- XGS-style IIgs emu for Mac OS http://www.openprojects.rarcoa.com/~justmike/XGS-Mac/ KEGS http://www.psn.net/~kentd/kegs/index.html Stop the Madness (MAC) ref. ftp://ftp.apple.asimov.net/pub/apple_II/emulators/stm/ Sweet16 for BeOS http://www.sheppyware.net/products/beos/sweet16/ XGS-DOS Home Page http://classicgaming.com/xgsdos/ XGS/32 Home Page http://xgs32.emucamp.com/ YAE ref. ftp://ftp.apple.asimov.net/pub/apple_II/emulators/yae/ ____________________________ From: Mitchell Spector 004- I'd like to have a program for my //gs that can perhaps do more reliable file copies than Finder does, especially in the case of a damaged floppy. Any suggestions? I would recommend either ZZCopy or Photonix II, both are freeware and do a very quick and reliable job at duplicating 3.5 floppies (the former even works with 400K MFS and 800K HFS Macintosh disks). Either of the two programs work around damaged sectors on disks. ____________________________ From: kburtch@pts.mot.com, David Empson, Rubywand, The Enforcer 005- I'd like to do some 'serious' Apple II programming. Where can I find a information about soft switches (i.e. "PEEKs & POKEs"), monitor routines, and standard names used for these? You can find listings of Apple II soft switches and popular monitor routines in a manual for your computer-- e.g. the Apple II Reference Manual (for II and II+), the IIe Technical Reference Manual, the Apple IIgs Firmware Reference Manual, etc.. An excellent guide to many PEEKs & POKEs and monitor routines is the famous "Peeks, Pokes, and Pointers" poster from Beagle Bros (early 1980's). A fairly exhaustive guide to important memory locations in the Apple II is What's Where in the Apple II: An Atlas to the Apple Computer by William Luebbert (1981). For a good on-line listing of PEEKs, POKEs, pointers, and CALLs, see the comp.sys.apple2.programmer FAQs: html- http://home.swbell.net/rubywand/csa2pfaq.html#004 text- ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet/news.answers/apple2/programmerfaq/part1 ____________________________ From: Rubywand 006- How can I boot a good GS System with no hard disk? You can boot a decent System 5.0.4 or very modest System 6.0.1 from a 3.5" diskette. With two 3.5" drives, you can boot a decent System 6.0.1; but, disk swapping becomes a significant hassle when you want to run most applications. A much better solution is available if you have a 4MB mem expansion card installed. (Actually, you can make do with about 2.5MB of RAM.) You can use a utility named "Flash Boot" by Jerry Kindall. Flash Boot auto-loads System from one or more 3.5" diskettes to /RAM5 RAM disk and boots it. What you do is create a large enough /RAM5 to hold the System you want to boot. Next, you boot System as usual from diskette(s) and use the Flash Boot utility to prepare /RAM5 and install the auto-loader. Then, you copy the stuff you want to auto-load to /RAM5 and use the Flash Boot utility to create one or more 3.5" "image disks". To install and boot System you start by booting from the first image diskette and feed in any others as prompted. System then boots from /RAM5 and works very much as though it were on hard disk. You can find Flash Boot at ... ftp://tarnover.dyndns.org/Tarnover/Utilities/ . --------------------------- 007- Can I do Reverse Speech on my IIgs? Yes. Sound Studio and Sound Shop are two utilities which allow loading and reversing sound samples. (ref. David John Oates; http://www.reversespeech.com/ ) ----------------------------- 008- Is it possible to run PaintWorks from hard disk? Will it load files from an HFS partition? The Kzin Warrior published a block edit patch version in Computist #73 which lets you do this, at least on a ROM-01 GS. Using ProSel's Zap utility (also called "Block Warden") you search for $C9 08 00 D0 CE on the PaintWorks Gold diskette or a copy. (I found these bytes in Block $3D5 starting at byte $1DF.) Change the 08 to 7F and save the change. Copy Paintworks.Gold and the PaintTools folder (with its contents) to a folder on your hard disk. The Patch allows you to to start PWG under System 6 and use most PWG features. However, some Palette selection options will bomb the program. A few tests showed PWG will load files from an HFS partition. ---------------------------- 009- How can I read a single ProDOS block into memory using Applesoft BASIC? After booting ProDOS, you can do a CALL-151 to enter the monitor and type in ... 300: 4C 09 03 03 60 00 20 00 00 20 00 BF 80 03 03 85 FF 60 Do a CTRL-C to get back to the Applesoft prompt and enter ... BSAVE PROZAP.BIN,A$300,L$20 The routine does a ProDOS Machine Language Interface CALL which reads the block into $2000-$21FF. It saves the Error# in $FF. 300: 4C 09 03 start 303: 03 3 parms in this parms block 304: 60 unit # DSSS0000 Drv 1 (D=0) Slot 6 (SSS=110) 305: 00 20 buffer start 307: 00 00 block # Low, High ex: block 256 is 307: 00 01 309: 20 00 BF JSR to do MLI command 30C: 80 command (80 for READ BLOCK; 81 for WRITE BLOCK) 30D: 03 03 loc of parms block 30F: 85 FF save error # (00= no error) 311: 60 exit A BASIC program could use the routine by POKE-ing the block # into $307,$308 (775 and 776 in decimal) and doing a CALL768. The MLI command code is POKEd into $30C (780). If a PEEK at address $FF (255) gives a result of zero, there is no error. 100 LOMEM: 8704 105 REM Sets start of var space above $2000-$21FF buffer 110 TEXT: HOME: PRINT CHR$(4)"BLOAD PROZAP.BIN" 115 B= 2 120 REM Sets block to read/write (block 2) 125 C= 128 130 REM Sets MLI READ command ($80); MLI WRITE is 129 ($81) 135 BH= INT(B/256): BL= INT (B-256*BH) 140 POKE 775,BL: POKE 776,BH 145 REM POKEs block to read/write 150 POKE 780, C 155 REM POKEs MLI command 160 CALL 768 165 REM Does the block read/write 170 PRINT "BLOCK ";B 175 E= PEEK(255) 180 REM E= error number 185 IF E<1 THEN 195 190 PRINT "ERROR ";E;"!";CHR$(7) 195 END After running the program for a BLOCK READ, the block contents should be at $2000-21FF. ____________________________ From: Joseph M Barbey 010- Is there an Apple II program for amatuer radio CW code practice? I have a such a program at home. It's called QSO Kid. It requires a IIgs, and from what little I've used it, it seems like a really good program. ____________________________ From: Gabriel Morales 011- Can I can use a Mac's hard drive with AppleTalk to do File Sharing just like it was a drive directly connected to the GS? You can. Be aware however that some software may not like to be used over an AppleTalk system. This is more likely to be an issue for ProDOS-8 programs. The main problem under ProDOS-8 is with programs that insist on referring to devices by unit number (or slot and drive). Network volumes do not have a unit number. Another issue is with filenames. GS/OS programs which assume ProDOS naming conventions will have problems with AppleShare or HFS volumes. ProDOS-8 programs have more problems: unless the file server hard drive or shared folder (and all relevant subfolders and files) are named using ProDOS-8 naming restrictions, then the files in question cannot be accessed by ProDOS-8 programs on an Apple II client. A third issue (with both GS/OS and ProDOS-8) is with programs that bypass the file system calls and try to do block-level access to the volume. This is not permitted for file server volumes. (Examples: Copy II+, many functions in Prosel.) One caveat: transmission is slow. Assuming an otherwise unused network, you get about the speed of a 3.5" floppy. ____________________________ From: O Aaland 012- How can I use a Mac as a network server with my GS? In order to use the Mac as a server with a useable system folder you will have to have AppleShare version 3 running on the Mac. It sounds like you are wanting to use a local boot disk on the GS and then log on to the Mac to use tha Mac hard drive. This will work with file sharing active on the Mac. The disk you need to make for the GS is a Network: Local Startup and not a Network: Server Startup disk. When booting from this disk you will be able to log on to the Mac and will be left in the program lau ncher. There is not enough room on a 800k disk for the finder along with the network files. I believe that you will also need to add the HSF FST to your statup boot disk also because it is not put there in the default install. Check in the drivers folder to be sure. On the Mac set up a folder for the GS to use and turn on file sharing. On the GS, from the launcher get into the finder on your system disk and then copy the finder to the new folder on the Mac. Now you should be able to reboot the GS and after logging on the Mac, from the launcher, run the finder on the Mac hard drive. You will now return to the Mac hard drive when you quit your GS applications. You can put both applications and data files on the Mac and run them from there just like it was a drive a ttached to the GS. The speed in about the same as running from a 3 1/2 floppy, maybe a little faster. You are limited in what you can put in your system because of the 800k disk but having the finder on the Mac really helps. If you can find a copy of AppleShare version 3 then you can boot directly from the Mac without any disk on the GS and the system size can be whatever the memory in the GS can handle. ____________________________ From: David Empson 013- How can I set up an Appletalk network for 30 IIgs's using a donated LCII as a server? So far, I can get just 10 IIgs's connected. I assume you are using System 7.x File Sharing on the server? If so, you've just discovered one of its inherent limits. Changing computers will make no difference. To be able to have more than ten clients, you will have to run the full AppleShare server software. If you use AppleShare version 3.0, the IIgses can even boot over the network and won't require a local boot disk. If you use AppleShare 4.0 or later, you lose the network boot capability, but in theory the Apple IIgses should still be able to use the server (I've never used anything later than 3.0). You probably cannot run AppleShare 2.x on an LC III, because it only runs under Mac System 6.x. Apart from the number of users, the full AppleShare server adds many useful features, such as administration tools, potentially acting as a print server, and faster performance. It ties up more resources on the machine than File Sharing. AppleShare is commercial, but you might be able to get hold of a cheap copy of version 3 from somewhere. As far as the multiple server option goes: that should work fine. If you have no need to communicate over the network between the servers, it would be a good idea to break the network up into separate segments (server and its block of clients). This will reduce confusion for the users (seeing more than one server), and will improve network performance. In particular, note that LocalTalk is only intended to support a maximum of 32 devices per network segment. If you want 30ish or more computers on the same network, you should be using a router (which physically separates the network segments). ____________________________ From: Rubywand 014- How can I capture a GS super-res screen to disk? For super-res game screens and many other graphics displays an ancient Classic Desk Accessory (CDA) known as "EA Screen Saver", "SDUMP.EA", etc. works well. The CDA (named "ScrnCapEA.CDA") and a Text info file have been uploaded to popular Apple II ftp sites. Look for a .SHK file named "ScrnCap.SHK" or "ScrnCapEA.CDA.shk". ScrnCapEA.CDA lets you capture game, etc. 320 or 640 mode graphic screens as standard type $C1 GS unpacked Screen files which can be loaded by Platinum Paint and many other GS utilities. To use the CDA to capture a screen, you must be able to access the Desk Accessories menu via the usual OpenApple-Control-Escape keypress. Supertimer mentioned Clipit. This is a very nice capture New Desk Accessory (NDA) which lets you grab a part or all of many super-res displays, including desktop displays. The grabbed display is saved to the Clipboard. You can get the pic from the Clipboard onto a Platinum Paint work screen by going to Platinum Paint and doing a Paste. A limitation of Clipit and similar NDA's is that you must be able to get to the 'Apple' menu or some NDA activation list or, if there is one, activate a 'Hot Key'. Also, these NDA's generally limit your grab to the Clipboard. Usually, this means you end up with just one pic per game, etc. session. Games and other programs which shut off access to interrupts will, often, be a problem. You will usually not be able to get to the Desk Accessories menu and any screen capture 'Hot Key' keypresses will be ignored. Usually, the 'Apple Menu' is not available, so screen capture NDA's you use via the menu will not be available, either. Sometimes, these programs include a built-in screen save feature; otherwise, capturing a screen will take special measures. One way to capture most otherwise un-grabbable super-res screens is via a ProDOS-8 super-res utility which can save the super-res screen. The utility must be one which does not, itself, change the super-res screen upon startup (e.g. Nibble's SuperPac or a save/disp program you write yourself). Make sure your Startup Slot is set to Slot 5. Start the game, etc. as usual. At some point insert a bootable ProDOS-8 diskette with the super-res disp/save utility into Slot 5, Drive 1. When you see the display you want to grab (and you are sure no Disk writes are occuring) do an OpenApple-CTRL-Reset boot, start the disp/save program and save the screen. Obviously, a disadvantage of this approach is that you get kicked out of whatever game, etc. you are running at the time of the boot. ---------------------------- From: TWS You can get the ScreenPrint NDA, and save the screen to a file, or print it out. ---------------------------- From: Mitchell Spector In addition to several CDA's and NDA's, you might want to try Ninjaforce's PicRipper program (useful for games and demos that lock out interrupts, rendering any desk accessories useless). It can grab Super-Hi-Res images still in memory and save them to disk. It is available at: http://www.ninjaforce.home.ml.org . ---------------------------- From: Boris Guenter Try the SHR Capture CDA which allows you to enter the Control Panel and save as many screen pictures as you want. For programs which disable the Control Panel, you will need PicRipper2 or Antic's PicSaver, however. Most of the screen capture programs mentioned here can be downloaded from Uni-kl.de at ... ftp://ftp.uni-kl.de/pub/apple2/gs/graphics/screensavers or ftp://ftp.uni-kl.de/pub/apple2/gs/graphics/misc . ____________________________ From: Rubywand and Michael Gährken 015- What programming languages are available for the Apple ][? Quite a few. Apple Integer BASIC (in-ROM on the first Apple II's), can be loaded into II+ and later models. Applesoft, a floating point BASIC, is in-ROM on all models starting with the II+. Older Apple II's can load-in Applesoft or, via a plug-in board, access it from ROM. Then, there is MD BASIC, the BASIC-like MacroSoft from MicroSparc, a beta version of Apple's GS BASIC, and the new (1998) Byte Works GS BASIC! Users who want to speed up their AppleSoft programs can use a BASIC compiler such as TASC or Einstein. Other Apple II languages are Apple Fortran, UCSD Pascal, Orca (ByteWorks) Pascal, Terrapin Logo, Apple Logo, two Logos from ByteWorks, Isys Forth, Master Forth, (and many other Forths), Modula2, Aztec C, Orca/C, ... . Hyperstudio and HyperCard let you create stacks. To the above you can add several assemblers including Merlin, Orca/M, an assembler from Ninja Force, and the MicroSparc Assembler. For Orca manuals and to order the Orca languages contact Byte Works: 505-898-8183; http://www.byteworks.org/ . ---------------------------- 016- How can I see and edit what's in a Text file? A handy utility for quickly viewing Text files under DOS 3.3 or ProDOS is Copy II Plus. On the IIgs under the system Finder (the usual "desktop" display showing drives, folders, etc.) you can, probably, double-click on a text file to start up an application (program) which will display the Text and let you make changes. Note: If you get an error message about not being able to find an application, you will want to think about setting up a link between Text type files and some Text editor program such as Teach. Some Text editor New Desk Accessories (like Shadowrite) will automatically establish a linkage. Another way to view and edit Text files is to run a Text editor or word processor program and load in the file. On 8-bit Apple II's, some choices include Screenwriter II, AppleWriter, and, depending upon machine, some versions of Appleworks. On the IIgs you have many choices including Teach, Shadowrite NDA, CoolWriter, and Appleworks. ____________________________ From: David Cross 017- How do I save a BASIC program in ASCII text form? The following line added to the front of your Applesoft BASIC program will save it in a Text file named "LISTFILE". It works in DOS 3.3 or ProDOS. 1 HOME:PRINT CHR$(4)"OPEN LISTFILE": PRINT CHR$(4)"WRITE LISTFILE": POKE 33,33: LIST 2,: PRINT CHR$(4)"CLOSE": END If you have a line 1 which you'd like to leave alone, you can enter the above at Line 0 and change LIST 2, to LIST 1,. POKE 33,33 causes the text display routine to not insert any unneccessary spacing into your BASIC program listing, which cleans up the text file output nicely. ____________________________ From: Rubywand 018- Where and how do I get System 6.0.1 from an ftp site? You can download the System 6.0.1 disks from Apple Computer at ... ftp://ftp.apple.com/Apple_Support_Area/Apple_Software_Updates/ . Look in the English-North_American/Apple_II/ folder Each disk in the Sys 6.0.1 folder is a Macintosh self-extracting archive (.sea) of a Disk Copy 800K ProDOS disk image. According to Apple's directions: "To use, download, double-click the downloaded file (this decompresses it), and use Disk Copy to create a disk Disk Copy can be found in the Utilities folder posted here." A possible hitch is that Mac .sea files must be executed on a Mac to self-extract. (Yes; GS-ShrinkIt can create .sea files which self-extract on a IIgs; but, these are not the same as Mac .sea files.) Fortunately, users can download the shrinked disk files and Install directions from the Tarnover archive at ... ftp://tarnover.dyndns.org/Tarnover/System/Sys601INSTALL/ There is a text file with installation directions plus the six System disks in plain shrinked disk form. The .sdk files just need to be unshrinked to 3.5" diskettes via GS-ShrinkIt or 8-bit ShrinkIt. Sys601 in a single .zip file (System601.zip) is on Asimov at ... ftp://ftp.apple.asimov.net/pub/apple_II/incoming/ . ____________________________ From: Paul Schultz 019- Is a graphical user interface (GUI) available for 8-bit Apple II's? For the 128k Enhanced //e and //c series, the ones which come to mind are GEOS, Quark's Catalyst, and MouseDesk (aka Apple II Desktop). GEOS was probably the most popular of the three although it never reached the popularity it gained on the C64 platform. The downside with GEOS is that it isn't ProDOS compatible. So, you are stuck with only using the GEOS compatible programs (GeoPublish, GeoCalc, GeoWrite,....) Catalyst and MouseDesk are both very similar. They provide a ProDOS compatible version of the familiar Apple desktop GUI. MouseDesk was purchased by Apple and renamed Apple II Desktop. This was included in the original System Disk which shipped with the Apple IIgs. While shipped with the 16bit IIgs, A2 Desktop is an 8 bit program which works very well with my IIc+. I assume it would work with your IIe :-) ---------------------------- From: Supertimer Actually, GEOS is ProDOS compatible, at least in the sense that Catalyst, MouseDesk, and Apple II Desktop are. GEOS can act as a program launcher for ProDOS programs. Obviously, for GEOS programs, GEOS acts like the full OS (much like GS/OS on the IIGS and MacOS on the Mac, actually), but it can do everything MouseDesk can do in regards to launching ProDOS programs. On the GEOS desktop, the files show up as icons stamped with "ProDOS; and, the user can copy and delete ProDOS files. One neat thing about GEOS is the ability to expand the root directory past the 51 file limit on a ProDOS disk. If you have a bunch of stuff converted from DOS 3.3 to ProDOS you may find that things don't fit on the root directory of the ProDOS disk. Using GEOS, you can copy all the files to the root directory. ____________________________ From: Rubywand 020- Where can I get Applesoft shape table info and programs? Go to the Ground archive's Beagle Bros folder at ... ftp://ground.ecn.uiowa.edu/2/apple2/apple8/Beagle.Oldies/ and download SHAPE.MECH1.SHK and SHAPE.MECH2.SHK ____________________________ From: Sandy 021- How can I get a Postscript file from a GS document? To get a Postscript file from any GS document, press OpenApple-F when clicking "Ok" in the LaserWriter driver. This'll kick out a Postscript file in your */system/drivers folder. ____________________________ From: O Aaland 022- How can I boot from my /RAM5 RAMdisk? All the files are there but it just beeps at me and says 'check startup device'!? Before you install a bootable system on the RAMdisk you need to format it. Although you can use the disk for file storage with the formatting that is done when GS/OS boots, the boot blocks for ProDOS are not written to the RAMdisk. That is why you can not boot from it if you just copy files or install a system on it without formatting first. ____________________________ From: Rubywand 023- Where can I get Apple II languages, programming software, and programming info? Byte Works (505-898-8183; http://www.byteworks.org/ ) develops and publishes the Orca series of Apple II and IIgs languages including Pascal, C, Assembler, and the new IIgs BASIC. Byte Works also sells manuals, learning packages, and other language materials. You can find several very good collections of Apple II languages and programming software plus loads of programming information on the net. A few major sources include ... Asimov ftp://ftp.apple.asimov.net/pub/apple_II/images/utility/programming/ Ground ftp://ground.ecn.uiowa.edu/apple2/apple8/Languages/ ftp://ground.ecn.uiowa.edu/apple2/apple8/Beagle.Oldies/ ftp://ground.ecn.uiowa.edu/apple2/apple16/Languages/ Tarnover ftp://tarnover.dyndns.org/Tarnover/Programming.and.Languages/ The comp.sys.apple2 Usenet newsgroup The comp.sys.apple2.programmer Usenet newsgroup For Applesoft BASIC information, also see Q&A in Main Hall. For more details and links, see the Apple II Programmer FAQs at ... http://home.swbell.net/rubywand/csa2pfaq.html ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet/news.answers/apple2/programmerfaq/part1 ---------------------------- 024- What kinds disks can a TrackStar use? TrackStar can use several kinds of disks and virtual disks (files on your PC that TrackStar treats like disks). On most TrackStar setups, a user will be able to access ... o- regular Apple II 5.25" diskettes via an attached Apple II disk drive which can be set for Slot 6, Drive 1 or Slot 6, Drive 2 (using the tsutilit.com utility). o- at least one virtual hard disk (up to 10MB in size) created via tsutilit.com and assigned to Slot 7. The virtual hard disk will, typically have a name ending with ".hd1". o- virtual "trackstore" disks. These are actually 260k files with names ending in ".app", such as Startup1.app. TrackStar can access trackstore files as 140k DOS 3.3 or ProDOS disks at Slot 6, Drive 1 and/or Slot 6, Drive 2. If you have the special connector and cable required (not easy to find) and a 5.25" PC drive which is compatible with TrackStar, you can R/W non-protected Apple II 5.25" diskettes in the PC 5.25" drive. ---------------------------- 025- How do I use/ where can I get trackstore 'disks'? Here are some 'nice to know' things about trackstore "disks": o- The terms "disk" and "drive" become a bit mixed up when talking about trackstore disks. Actually, TrackStar generally treats a trackstore disk like a Disk ][ drive which has a 140k diskette inserted-- i.e. a drive + diskette. o- You can have any number of trackstore (.app) disk files. These can be created using tsutilit.com or you can duplicate an .app file by copying and renaming-- easy on your PC using a utility such as Xtree. The standard size of a 5.25" .app file is 266,240 bytes. o- All of your trackstore disks (.app files) should be in the same PC drive and folder as your other TrackStar files. Usually, this will be a folder named "TS", "TStar", etc. on you PC's C: hard drive. o- The TrackStar 'Help' menu accessed by pressing F1 followed by ESC, lets you freely swap in whatever trackstore disk you like as the Slot 6, Drive 1 or Slot 6, Drive 2 disk so long as the particular Slot 6 drive has already been set up (via tsutilit.com) as a drive which uses trackstore disks. o- Tsutilit.com lets you set up your drives so that you can boot from a trackstore disk. This is very handy for getting a TrackStar system 'up' and going when little useful software is available on regular Apple II diskette. Trackstore disk files with good file handling utilities, etc. can be downloaded, unzipped and moved into your TrackStar stuff folder. These 'disks' can be booted or used to get programs onto your TrackStar's virtual hard disk (or moved to an actual Apple II diskette). o- To have a choice of trackstore disks to boot from after starting star.com, you must remove trackstore (.app) files named "startup1", etc.. from your TrackStar stuff folder or rename the files to some name besides "startup". Note: Trackstore .app 'disk' files should be zipped (e.g. using WinZIP) before uploading to an ftp site. Uploading plain .app files results in corruption. There are some bootable trackstore disk files with ShrinkIt and other utilities available on the USA2WUG site in .zip file form at ... http://www.grin.net/~cturley/USA2WUG/TrackStar/TrackstoreImages/ To use a downloaded file, unzip it using WinZIP and move it to your TrackStar stuff folder. ____________________________ From: Charles T. Turley 026- I'm running the Bernie IIgs emulator on my Mac. How can I boot DOS 3.3 disk images? I've tried everything and nothing works! Using my Mac PPC, I just change the file type of any 5.25 DOS 3.3 disk image to this: New Type: DSK5 New Creator: Gus! Then, I drag and drop it over the icon of either Gus or Bernie. Both launch just fine for me in this way (assuming that the disk image is actually a boot disk).