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Re: Apple //e HardDrive

Paul Schlyter wrote:
> 
> Does this mean you always have to boot on the same device, unless
> you swap some cards around?

On the GS, no. Just change the ROM settings or better yet, get ProBoot.
ProBoot will let you temporarily boot another device either at startup
or through the GSOS Extras menus. It even allows for adjusting system
speed.

> I did some work on such a Corvus system once: it was expensive, big
> and noisy!  Those 5 MBytes on the Corvus was partitioned into 35
> different "areas" of 140K each, where each "area" could hold one
> Apple DOS volume.  The volume was selected by supplying the
> appropriate volume number - thus doing:
> 
>    CATALOG,S5,D1,V2
>    CATALOG,S5,D1,V13
> 
<snip>

Sounds like you have a lot of Dos experience. Early on, I fooled with it
but Prodos was the standard on my 2c. I just ignored directories unless
I had a lot of files to place on the disk.

> Yes, for bigger disks.  I played around with ProDOS a little, but
> never used it that much.  First I didn't see the need for
> subdirectories on a 140K or even a 640K floppy.  Second, ProDOS meant
> that you lost Integer Basic, which perhaps wasn't such a big deal
> except that I had replaced Integer Basic with the S-C Assembler, and
> the loss of that assembler in the Language Card I perceived as a
> bigger deal.

Because of the root directory file limit, I can see the need for
directories on a 640k disk if the system treated it like one disk.
Unfortunately, Prodos is just as difficult to add a disk driver to
that can be used in an universal fashion. At best, you would have
to replace the /RAM driver and use some aux memory. If the driver
only had to run in Basic.system you would not have these limitations.

I do agree about the ease of swapping languages in DOS. I think that's
one of my favorite things about the Apple II, it's adaptability.

-- 

Cheers and best wishes,
Phoenyx

Have you fed your Apple today?

Phoenyx's Pages are back online...

It seems the ZIP.TO link was down for a while.
It is now working again. This is the preferred
link to my site. You may also use the direct link.

http://zip.to/Phoenyx_A2
http://www.tinyangeldesigns.com/Apple2