Re: System 6.0.2?

[phoenyx <quazar@dcnet2000.com>]

> It's my understanding that they wanted Apple to bundle it with 8 bit machines, but
> for some reason the deal fell through. They did make a deal with the Laser people
> though.

At that late date in the II history, Apple just didn't care enough about
II income. I
think it would have boosted sales all over again if they had accepted
the deal. Sadly
Apple Inc was never very good with marketing or demographics.

There were several possibilities presented to Apple Inc regarding the 8
bit systems.
One of the others had the new 8 bit system with an Appleworks OS. Of
course this
would have to have the features of the Beagle Bros Timeout series,
especially the
programming/macros ability. All of this would have been included in rom,
probably
bank switched as needed to max desktop memory. Out of all the text
interfaces, this
was the most user friendly. I'm not sure how this interface would be for
programmers
though.
 
> I think that they did a super job in giving the 8 bit II a point and click
> interface in every way but one... it is just about the ugliest interface I've ever
> seen. Quark's last version of Catalyst was much more Mac like, even though it was
> only a shell.

They were actually trying to keep the exact interface from the C64
version on which
it actually looked pretty good. Of course until then the C64 program
interfaces left
a lot to be desired.

Considering it was for a single mouse button, monochrome, dhr, 128k
system, it was an
amazing adaptation. It must have been rather difficult to port the C64
version with
all the hardware differences between the two systems. Even though the
128k IIe had
more to work with, the hardware design made it more difficult to use.

> > bad that they never released the BASIC that was mentioned.
> 
> I wonder what shelf it's sitting on? The company still exists though they mostly
> work with cell phones and other pocket gadgets you can see them at
> www.geoworks.com, or the Geoworks web ring at
> http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Platform/4373/index.html The GeoWorks for
> the PC is still alive and well, it's now called NewDeal, and has a full web suite
> for any machine that is 286 or higher. Cool huh? Now, if it were only possible to
> do something similar with the IIGS....

There's no telling where or if it is stored anywhere. What I remember,
they had it in
beta but found some nasty bugs which were difficult to fix. Now I'm may
not be the
best programmer in the world, but surely this couldn't have been that
difficult to
make. Then again, if they were trying to make the basic run inside the
GUI, it may
have been memory problems. I would imagine the gui required a lot of
resources.

> > application suite with no possible future.
> 
> Unless someone could make them shake loose... they do have a deal with a company
> to sell and support the Commodore version....

Well, if you have any specific info on the company, pass it along to the
folks in the
reclassification project. I'm sure they would appreciate it. Even more
so if you made
the first phone call.

-- 

Thank you for your time and interest. I hope it was helpful
or at least interesting.

Phoenyx,

Apple2 user since March 1984

Links to Phoenyx's pages:
preferred..... http://zip.to/Phoenyx_A2
alternate..... http://www.tinyangeldesigns.com/Apple2