Re: Q: Any new GSoft programs?

[phoenyx <quazar@dcnet2000.com>]

Jeff Blakeney wrote:

> Applesoft is still a great way to throw together a quick hack.  For
> example, a couple years ago someone on Delphi pointed out that the IRS
> had the tax forms in self-extracting ZIP archives on their web site in
> a form that Apple II users could dump directly to printers using the
> PCL printer language (they may have had Postscript too, I can't
> remember now).  I threw together a quick Applesoft program to remove
> the self-extracting program portion of the archive to leave a standard
> ZIP file that Apple II unzipping programs could unpack.
>
> The program didn't run very fast but it did work.  Unfortunately it
> only worked with the self-extracting ZIPs created by the DOS version
> of PKZIP.  When I fixed that oversight I also took the time to add a
> small assembly routine to speed things up.  ZipStripper v1.1 still
> works quite well.
>
> I'll eventually end up converting that program to GSoft and I'm hoping
> to do so in a way that I can release an archive that shows the
> development process from v1.0 to v2.0 and how I converted the program
> from Applesoft to GSoft and how I would rewrite it from scratch using
> just GSoft.
>

That would be nice. Perhaps you can generate more interest in Gsoft. It
is certainly superior to Apple's GS Basic. We could use something to
bring back the old Apple II spirit and show these newcomers some of
the fun we had way back when.

IMHO, the best thing about Applesoft was the chance to learn from
other's programs. That and the fact that anything could be accomplished
with BASIC and a few M/L routines.

Phoenyx