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Re: "Eagle Software GraphExt" ?

On Fri, 13 Jan 2012, Vladimir Ivanov wrote:



On Fri, 13 Jan 2012, Steve Nickolas wrote:


It's the same as CATALOG:

EAGLE SOFTWARE GRAPHEXT 2.8
___________________________

SLOT 6  DRIVE 1  VOLUME 254
First random image I found in my collection with Eagle GraphExt is version 2.9. 

Fun trivia - the underscores form a continous line on the Apple chargen.
Yeah. I used to use an imitation Apple font in CP437 as the master font for my emulators.
followed by a normal catalog and a free sector count. The type which DOS 3.3 reports as "Alternate B", and my own hacks report as "O" (for Other), is called G here. 

Yes, one of the "special" file types was used.


The one which almost nothing uses...except LISA assembler, iirc?
I noticed. And different versions show it in different places or in different formats. 

Example 2.9 status - "00 E R" in inverse. How different are the others?


The 2.9 I have says "11-0/R" instead of the expected "11 0 R".

2.8 is as you say.  Both have it on the bottom right.
3.0 has it with the dash and slash, in the TOP LEFT. (Which is odd... every other variant I've seen that shows the status does it in the bottom right.)
2.9 and 3.0 also beep around when I hit the keys. (Which is why I tend to prefer the 2.8 I dug off the disk image that comes with Appler.) 

This 2.9 I just booted is silent, i.e. normal.


I wonder if it was a common hack.
They also seem to have ONERR TRY AGAIN built into them. (Nice feature, though I'm not exactly a fan.) 

Some BASIC additon? Mine doesn't have such.


It's a hack on the DOS, so that instead of say

]

FILE NOT FOUND

]_

it would instead do something like this:

]_

FILE NOT FOUND
The Beagle Bros version of this is called "ONERR TRY AGAIN" and I think it's on Silicon Salad. 




"INIT" only rewrites DOS, does not format.


I... *cough* noticed that.
I find this behavior normal. Another fast DOS I was using, which printed track/sector/op in normal, also updated tracks 0-2 only without full format. Given how often these tracks were destroyed, or the need to "speed" some regular DOS diskette or populate DOS on Locksmith-formatted one, this feature was very useful to me.
And if I have to guess, the "INIT" formatting code was a good prime candidate for the additional space needed when enhancing the DOS. 

Prolly.  A lot of hacks zap INIT entirely.
Then there was some fast DOS which printed status like "R 01/6->A700 D1". It also just replaces DOS without full format. 

I have one that looks like "61FE 04 2 >> 36F4".




Here would prolly be the files in question:

ftp://ftp.apple.asimov.net/pub/apple_II/emulators/misc/appler.zip
ftp://ftp.apple.asimov.net/pub/apple_II/images/productivity/misc/Eagle%20Graphext%20DOS%202.9.dsk
ftp://ftp.apple.asimov.net/pub/apple_II/images/masters/Basic_Pravetz.dsk
Wasn't there a DOS/OS category on Asimov? The second one might be better there.
Which reminds me I have to start Asimov-related discussion soon. There are few things that need attention IMHO.
Another fun Eagle GrahpExt trivia - I have at least one DOS 3.3 virus, and it fails to migrate on this DOS. Upon boot the infected Eagle GraphExt fails to load and dumps to Monitor, so I guess it's considerably different than others, because the virus works on other fast DOSes.
It does look very different under the hood than most DOS hacks. More different, even, than DiversiDOS.
If you look at the hack I use on my disks, it's close enough that the vast majority of programs still work. (A notable exception was Terrapin Logo - a problem I traced to lobbing out the VERIFY command to make room for the TYPE code from ProntoDOS.)
The most obvious changes - I didn't implement every hack I wanted to - were the free space display, the TYPE command, different bootup behavior and (in the current version) 16 extra sectors. It's a mix of code I got from Apple Assembly Line and stuff I hijacked off ProntoDOS, plus a few mods I made myself. 

-uso.