Internet to Apple II

[Gavin.Haines@tesco.net (Gavin)]

Here is the proceedure

1. Log into the Internet using a Macintosh, download the disk images
using Internet Explorer, save onto a ProDOS formatted floppy disk.
2. On the GS, use "CopyIIplus 8.4" to make a duplicate of the 3.5" disk
3. Run "Unfork" to remove resource forks. This acts on an entire disk
which is why you have to copy it first. ProDOS cannot read forked files
which the Mac creates, often with empty resource forks. The data fork
contains the disk image.
4 "Dsk2file" does the transfer to 5.25" disks.
5. If you get "error -37" on the Mac trying to save a file to a ProDOS
disk, it is entirely due to the file's name. A name may be legal on a
Mac (HFS) disk but yet illegal on a ProDOS disk

 Here are the rules: 
HFS names may contain any character except the colon (:). Disk names may
be up to 27 chars long. File and folder names may be up to 31 chars
long.
ProDOS names must begin with a letter. They may be up to 15 chars long
and may contain letters, digits and periods.

If you get error -37, simply change the file name before copying.

There used to be a web site up which gave a step by step guide to
getting files off the net and onto an Apple ][ by various methods.
These instructions have now vanished, possibly because they allowed
owners of the original apple ][ to add to their disk libraries without
paying: Many small shopkeepers know little about computers and still
hold stock which they hope to sell. In the town where I live, there is a
"Tandy" shop where the owner is like this.  He's got a family to support
on just the takings from the shop and he's absolutely furious with the
Internet.  Out the back there are shelves and shelves of outdated stuff
for things like the TRS-80!

The law in some countries is very sympathetic to business, but in other
countries it favours the consumer.  Computer software can be declared
out of copyright in one country, but restrictions can still be in force
in another. The situation for the Apple ][ is that it was originally an
American computer, and in the US, you can be taken to court for damaging
a firm's business by supplying software for a machine which the
manufacturer has declared obsolete.  Although this isn't fair, there is
too little money involved to make it worth fighting a case.   If you
phone Apple Computer themselves and ask what the position on the Apple
][ is, they just say "That old thing?  It's all in the public domain."