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Apple II FAQs Applications
The Csa2 (comp.sys.apple2) Usenet newsgroup Apple II FAQs originate from
the Ground Apple II archive, 1997-1999. Administrator: Steve Nelson
Csa2 FAQs-on-Ground ref: Csa2APPLICS.txt rev014 4/14/1999
Applications
001- What Operating System environments does the GS support?
002- What GS programs are there for viewing/converting graphics?
003- What is an Apple II emulator?
004- What is a good file copier program for the IIgs?
005- Where can I find PEEKs & POKEs and monitor routine info?
006- Where/how can I get new Levels for Wolfenstein-3D/gs?
007- Can I do Reverse Speech on my IIgs?
008- Is it possible to run PaintWorks from hard disk?
009- How can I read a single ProDOS block into memory under BASIC?
010- Is there an Apple II program for ham radio CW code practice?
011- Can my GS do file sharing with a Mac's hard drive?
012- How can I use a Mac as a network server with my GS?
013- How can I set up an Appletalk network for 30 IIgs's
014- How can I capture a GS super-res screen to disk?
015- What programming languages are available for the Apple ][?
016- How can I see and edit what's in a Text file?
017- How do I save a BASIC program in ASCII text form?
018- Where and how do I get System 6.0.1 from an ftp site?
019- Is a graphical user interface (GUI) available for 8-bit A2's?
020- Where can I get Applesoft shape table info and programs?
021- How can I get a Postscript file from a GS document?
022- How can I boot from my /RAM5 RAMdisk?
023- What is Copy II Plus and where can I get it?
024- What kinds disks can a TrackStar use?
025- How do I use/ where can I get trackstore 'disks'?
From: Rubywand, David Empson, and Richard Bennett
001- What Operating System environments does the GS support?
The GS can support several. Some of the more popular OS environments
include ...
DOS 3.3- usually Beagle's Prontodos or some other speeded version of the
original DOS 3.3. This is the 5.25" diskette-based disk operating system
used for years on earlier Apple II's. It's commands are designed for use
from BASIC programs or from the keyboard. Many old Apple II games and other
wares are on 5.25" diskettes which boot DOS 3.3.
ProDOS 8- e.g. ProDOS v2.0.3. This is a disk operating system which
supports a variety of devices (e.g. 3.5" drives, hard drives, etc.) and
allows sub-directories. Commands are very similar to DOS 3.3 and are
designed for use in BASIC programs or from the keyboard. BASIC and 'system'
programs can also utilize direct CALLs to well-defined ProDOS Machine
Language Interface routines.
Apple Pascal- This is an early 1980's implementation of USCD Pascal which
can run on 40-column and 80-column Apple II's.
System- Originally called "ProDOS 16" and later "GS/OS", the collection of
'system stuff' (which includes GS/OS) is today called "System". The System
Finder utilizes Toolbox routines to supply a super-res desktop,
Windows-like environment. Both ProDOS 8 programs and 'GS Applications'
(i.e. wares that need GS/OS to run) can be started from the desktop.
Depending upon factors such as installed RAM and presence of a hard disk,
System will usually be System 5.0.4 or System 6.0.1. System 5.0.4 is
appropriate for 1.25MB or smaller non-hard disk GS's. System 6.0.1 is
recommended for larger memory GS's with a hard disk.
____________________________
From: Dan DeMaggio and Rubywand
002- What GS programs are there for viewing/converting graphics?
The Graphics Exchange converts between many formats of graphics.
816 Paint's File Utilities work well for converting hires or double-hires
pics to GS super-res.
Prizm v1.0 Converts .GIFs, Amiga IFFs, Raw Files, and some other types to
Greyscale (very fast), 16 colors, 256 colors, and 3200 colors!
SuperConvert (now at version 4) loads all GS formats, plus GIFS and other
non-GS specific formats and saves in all GS formats including Finder Icon
files. It has more dithering options than most of the other programs, but
you may have to play with it to find the best one.
Platinum Paint is a commercial program that can import all GS formats plus
MacPaint. It can only save in SHR and Apple Preferred. Version 2.0 can make
Animations too!
ShowPic 6 is a shareware NDA that can display most GS formats. You can also
save the resulting graphic as a IIgs SHR painting.
SuperPac is a commercial program which can create/display SuperPac format
compressed pics and pic pieces
Dream Grafix supports all 3200 color picture types and also 16 color and
256 color pictures. This is a very impressive commercial paint program.
Convert 3200 will handle several popular PC and Mac formats in up to 256
colors.
Jpeg.Viewer can be used to view JPEG images in black & white.
____________________________
From: Rubywand
Related FAQs Resources: R026GSEMUS.html (HTML chart)
003- What is an Apple II emulator?
An Apple II emulator-- also called an "emu"-- is a program which lets
a PC, Mac, etc. work like an Apple II and run Apple II software. Usually,
the Apple II software is in the form of a "disk image" file-- a kind of
virtual diskette. (Emulators which run on Macs may be able to access
software from 3.5" Apple II diskettes because the drives are compatible. PC
3.5" and 5.25" drives can not read Apple II diskettes.)
The most popular 8-bit Apple II emus are AppleWin, which runs under PC
Windows, and Apple-PC, which runs under PC DOS. Both programs 'turn your PC
into' an enhanced Apple //e running at least as fast as the real thing.
There are also 8-bit Apple II emus for Macs. One, Catakig, emulates a II,
II+, or IIe.
For IIgs emulation, the current speed and compatibility leader is
Bernie ][ The Rescue. Bernie is shareware which runs on the Mac Power PC.
The chief competition for Bernie is XGS. Various versions of XGS run
on PC's and Macs under a variety of OS's including DOS, Windows, and Unix.
Another good looking IIgs emu is KEGS, which runs on Unix machines.
On modern machines, both Bernie and XGS do well on benchmarks
vis-a-vis an accelerated IIgs. To get some idea of how the GS emus stack
up, see the benchmarks comparison chart by Gilles Tschopp in FAQs resource
file R026GSEMUS.htm .
For more emulator information, check out the comp.emulators.apple2
newsgroup and visit some of the emu websites. Here are a few good ones:
Apple Emu Resource Guide
http://www.zip.com.au/~alexm/faq/
Emulation Net
http://www.emulation.net/apple2/index.html
A2 Emulation Page
http://www.saunalahti.fi/~profilon/net/emulators/apple2.html
Arrgh
http://www.arrgh.co.uk/hardware/appleii/emulation.html
AppleWin 2 Project
http://pages.ripco.com:8080/~wizwom/applewin/
Catakig Page
http://www.radix.net/~cklipsch/ctkgdoc/
F.E. Systems (Bernie)
http://www.magnet.ch/emutech/Bernie/index.html
XGS-DOS Home Page
http://classicgaming.com/xgsdos/
The XGS Project
http://www.inwards.com/xgs/xgs_resources.htm
____________________________
From: Mitchell Spector
004- I'd like to have a program for my //gs that can perhaps do more
reliable file copies than Finder does, especially in the case
of a damaged floppy. Any suggestions?
I would recommend either ZZCopy or Photonix II, both are freeware and
do a very quick and reliable job at duplicating 3.5 floppies (the former
even works with 400K MFS and 800K HFS Macintosh disks). Either of the two
programs work around damaged sectors on disks.
____________________________
From: kburtch@pts.mot.com and David Empson
005- I'd like to do some 'serious' Apple II programming. Where can I
find a information about soft switches (i.e. "PEEKs & POKEs"),
monitor routines, and standard names used for these?
Most of the names (assembler "equate" names) are listed in pairs, and the
comment on the first one often represents what the second actually does,
but refers to with what function the softswitch pair are associated.
SOFTSWITCHES
KEYBOARD = $C000 ;keyboard data (latched) (Read)
Bit 7 is set to indicate a keypress is waiting, with the ASCII
code in bits 6-0.
CLR80STORE = $C000 ;use 80-column memory mapping (Write)
SET80STORE = $C001 ; (WR-only)
CLRAUXRD = $C002 ;read from auxilliary 48K (WR-only)
SETAUXRD = $C003 ; (WR-only)
CLRAUXWR = $C004 ;write to auxilliary 48K (WR-only)
SETAUXWR = $C005 ; (WR-only)
CLRCXROM = $C006 ;use external slot ROM (WR-only)
SETCXROM = $C007 ; (WR-only)
CLRAUXZP = $C008 ;use aux ZP, stack, & LC (WR-only)
SETAUXZP = $C009 ; (WR-only)
CLRC3ROM = $C00A ;use external slot C3 ROM (WR-only)
SETC3ROM = $C00B ; (WR-only)
CLR80VID = $C00C ;use 80-column display mode (WR-only)
SET80VID = $C00D ; (WR-only)
CLRALTCH = $C00E ;use alt character set ROM (WR-only)
SETALTCH = $C00F ; (WR-only)
STROBE = $C010 ;clear bit 7 of keyboard data ($C000)
If read, it also provides an "any key down" flag in bit 7, with
the keycode in the remaining bits. (These features only apply to
the IIe and later machines.)
Bit seven of these "RD..." locations is 1 if the condition is true
RDLCBNK2 = $C011 ;reading from LC bank $Dx 2
RDLCRAM = $C012 ;reading from LC RAM
RDRAMRD = $C013 ;reading from auxilliary 48K
RDRAMWR = $C014 ;writing to auxilliary 48K
RDCXROM = $C015 ;using external slot ROM
RDAUXZP = $C016 ;using auxilliary ZP, stack, & LC
RDC3ROM = $C017 ;using external slot C3 ROM
RD80COL = $C018 ;using 80-column memory mapping
RDVBLBAR = $C019 ;not VBL (VBL signal low)
RDTEXT = $C01A ;using text mode
RDMIXED = $C01B ;using mixed mode
RDPAGE2 = $C01C ;using text/graphics page2
RDHIRES = $C01D ;using Hi-res graphics mode
RDALTCH = $C01E ;using alternate character set ROM
RD80VID = $C01F ;using 80-column display mode
TAPEOUT = $C020 ;toggle the cassette output.
SPEAKER = $C030 ;toggle speaker diaphragm
STROBE = $C040 ;generate .5 uS low pulse @ Game pin 5
If read, you get one half-microsecond low pulse on the Game I/O
STROBE pin; if write, you get two pulses. (IIe and ][+ only, not
available on the IIgs).
CLRTEXT = $C050 ;display graphics
SETTEXT = $C051 ;display text
CLRMIXED = $C052 ;enable full graphics
SETMIXED = $C053 ;enable graphics/text mixed mode
PAGE1 = $C054 ;select text/graphics page1
PAGE2 = $C055 ;select text/graphics page2
See IIe, IIc, IIgs manual for details on how these switches
affect 80-col bank selection.
CLRHIRES = $C056 ;select Lo-res
SETHIRES = $C057 ;select Hi-res
SETAN0 = $C058 ;Set annunciator-0 output to 0
CLRAN0 = $C059 ;Set annunciator-0 output to 1
SETAN1 = $C05A ;Set annunciator-1 output to 0
CLRAN1 = $C05B ;Set annunciator-1 output to 1
SETAN2 = $C05C ;Set annunciator-2 output to 0
CLRAN2 = $C05D ;Set annunciator-2 output to 1
SETAN3 = $C05E ;Set annunciator-3 output to 0
CLRAN3 = $C05F ;Set annunciator-3 output to 1
Note: "0" is near 0V, "1" is near 5V.
SETDHIRES = $C05E ;if IOUDIS Set, turn on double-hires
CLRDHIRES = $C05F ;if IOUDIS Set, turn off double-hires
TAPEIN or = $C060 ;bit 7 = data from cassette on Apple II,
PB3 II+, IIe. On IIgs bit 7 reflects the
status of Game Port Pushbutton 3--
closed= 1. (read)
OPNAPPLE = $C061 ;open apple (command) key data (read)
CLSAPPLE = $C062 ;closed apple (option) key data (read)
These are actually the first two game Pushbutton inputs (PB0
and PB1) which are borrowed by the Open Apple and Closed Apple
keys. Bit 7 is set (=1) in these locations if the game switch or
corresponding key is pressed.
PB2 = $C063 ;game Pushbutton 2 (read)
This input has an option to be connected to the shift key on
the keyboard. (See info on the 'shift key mod'.)
PADDLE0 = $C064 ;bit 7 = status of pdl-0 timer (read)
PADDLE1 = $C065 ;bit 7 = status of pdl-1 timer (read)
PADDLE2 = $C066 ;bit 7 = status of pdl-2 timer (read)
PADDLE3 = $C067 ;bit 7 = status of pdl-3 timer (read)
PDLTRIG = $C070 ;trigger paddles
Read this to start paddle countdown, then time the period until
$C064-$C067 bit 7 becomes set to determine the paddle position.
This takes up to three milliseconds if the paddle is at its maximum
extreme (reading of 255 via the standard firmware routine).
SETIOUDIS = $C07E ;enable DHIRES & disable $C058-5F (W)
CLRIOUDIS = $C07E ;disable DHIRES & enable $C058-5F (W)
For WR-enable LC RAM, the softswitch REQUIRES two successive reads
$C080 ;RD LC RAM bank2, WR-protect LC RAM
ROMIN = $C081 ;RD ROM, WR-enable LC RAM
$C082 ;RD ROM, WR-protect LC RAM
LCBANK2 = $C083 ;RD LC RAM bank2, WR-enable LC RAM
$C088 ;RD LC RAM bank1, WR-protect LC RAM
$C089 ;RD ROM, WR-enable LC RAM
$C08A ;RD ROM, WR-protect LC RAM
LCBANK1 = $C08B ;RD LC RAM bank1, WR-enable LC RAM
$C084-$C087 are echoes of $C080-$C083
$C08C-$C08F are echoes of $C088-$C08B
Bank 1 and Bank 2 here are the 4K banks at $D000-$DFFF. The
remaining area from $E000-$FFFF is the same for both
sets of switches.
CLRC8ROM = $CFFF ;disable Slot card C8 ROM
Reading any location from $Cn00-$CnFF (where n is the Slot) will
enable the $C800-$CFFF area for that card, if the card supports
this feature. Reading $CFFF disables this area for all cards.
Example: To enable double Hi-res graphics, the following code will
accomplish this:
STA SETHIRES
STA SETAN3
STA CLRMIXED
STA CLRTEXT
JSR $C300
----------------------------
From: Rubywand
You can find listings of Apple II soft switches and popular monitor
routines in a manual for your computer-- e.g. the Apple II Reference Manual
(for II and II+), the IIe Technical Reference Manual, the Apple IIgs
Firmware Reference Manual, etc..
An excellent guide to many PEEKs & POKEs and monitor routines is the
famous "Peeks, Pokes, and Pointers" poster from Beagle Bros (early 1980's).
A fairly exhaustive guide to important memory locations in the Apple II is
What's Where in the Apple II: An Atlas to the Apple Computer by William
Luebbert (1981).
With very few exceptions, soft switches, monitor routines, and
important vectors have remained stable since early Apple II models. So,
although an old chart or listing may be missing some which are available on
a newer Apple II, the ones shown will almost always work.
____________________________
From: Dan Masterson
006- Where/how can I get new Levels for Wolfenstein-3D/gs?
You can find a whole bunch of levels at Sheppy's site. They are Mac levels
that you'll have to run through the converter, but they are in Apple II
friendly ShrinkIt format rather than Stuffit.
---------------------------
From: Rubywand
A good place to look for the new Mac-to-GS converter utility is
ftp://ftp.sheppyware.net/pub/apple_iigs/ . The new converter utility is
shareware named WolfCvt101.bxy. The same folder contains a Wolf scenarios
folder. It has a few ready-to-play Levels.
____________________________
From: Rubywand
007- Can I do Reverse Speech on my IIgs?
Yes. Sound Studio and Sound Shop are two utilities which allow loading
and reversing sound samples.
(ref. David John Oates; http://www.reversespeech.com/ )
-----------------------------
008- Is it possible to run PaintWorks from hard disk? Will it load
files from an HFS partition?
The Kzin Warrior published a block edit patch version in Computist #73
which lets you do this, at least on a ROM-01 GS. Using ProSel's Zap utility
(also called "Block Warden") you search for $C9 08 00 D0 CE on the
PaintWorks Gold diskette or a copy. (I found these bytes in Block $3D5
starting at byte $1DF.) Change the 08 to 7F and save the change.
Copy Paintworks.Gold and the PaintTools folder (with its contents) to
a folder on your hard disk.
The Patch allows you to to start PWG under System 6 and use most PWG
features. However, some Palette selection options will bomb the program.
A few tests showed PWG will load files from an HFS partition.
----------------------------
009- How can I read a single ProDOS block into memory using
Applesoft BASIC?
After booting ProDOS, you can do a CALL-151 to enter the monitor and
type in ...
300: 4C 09 03 03 60 00 20 00 00 20 00 BF 80 03 03 85 FF 60
Do a CTRL-C to get back to the Applesoft prompt and enter ...
BSAVE PROZAP.BIN,A$300,L$20
The routine does a ProDOS Machine Language Interface CALL which reads
the block into $2000-$21FF. It saves the Error# in $FF.
300: 4C 09 03 start
303: 03 3 parms in this parms block
304: 60 unit # DSSS0000 Drv 1 (D=0) Slot 6 (SSS=110)
305: 00 20 buffer start
307: 00 00 block # Low, High ex: block 256 is 307: 00 01
309: 20 00 BF JSR to do MLI command
30C: 80 command (80 for READ BLOCK; 81 for WRITE BLOCK)
30D: 03 03 loc of parms block
30F: 85 FF save error # (00= no error)
311: 60 exit
A BASIC program could use the routine by POKE-ing the block # into
$307,$308 (775 and 776 in decimal) and doing a CALL768. The MLI command
code is POKEd into $30C (780). If a PEEK at address $FF (255) gives a
result of zero, there is no error.
100 LOMEM: 8704
105 REM Sets start of var space above $2000-$21FF buffer
110 TEXT: HOME: PRINT CHR$(4)"BLOAD PROZAP.BIN"
115 B= 2
120 REM Sets block to read/write (block 2)
125 C= 128
130 REM Sets MLI READ command ($80); MLI WRITE is 129 ($81)
135 BH= INT(B/256): BL= INT (B-256*BH)
140 POKE 775,BL: POKE 776,BH
145 REM POKEs block to read/write
150 POKE 780, C
155 REM POKEs MLI command
160 CALL 768
165 REM Does the block read/write
170 PRINT "BLOCK ";B
175 E= PEEK(255)
180 REM E= error number
185 IF E<1 THEN 195
190 PRINT "ERROR ";E;"!";CHR$(7)
195 END
After running the program for a BLOCK READ, the block contents should
be at $2000-21FF.
____________________________
From: Joseph M Barbey
010- Is there an Apple II program for amatuer radio CW code practice?
I have a such a program at home. It's called QSO Kid. It requires a
IIgs, and from what little I've used it, it seems like a really good
program.
____________________________
From: Gabriel Morales
011- Can I can use a Mac's hard drive with AppleTalk to do File
Sharing just like it was a drive directly connected to the GS?
You can. Be aware however that some software may not like to be used
over an AppleTalk system.
This is more likely to be an issue for ProDOS-8 programs. The main
problem under ProDOS-8 is with programs that insist on referring to devices
by unit number (or slot and drive). Network volumes do not have a unit
number.
Another issue is with filenames. GS/OS programs which assume ProDOS
naming conventions will have problems with AppleShare or HFS volumes.
ProDOS-8 programs have more problems: unless the file server hard drive or
shared folder (and all relevant subfolders and files) are named using
ProDOS-8 naming restrictions, then the files in question cannot be accessed
by ProDOS-8 programs on an Apple II client.
A third issue (with both GS/OS and ProDOS-8) is with programs that
bypass the file system calls and try to do block-level access to the
volume. This is not permitted for file server volumes. (Examples: Copy
II+, many functions in Prosel.)
One caveat: transmission is slow. Assuming an otherwise unused
network, you get about the speed of a 3.5" floppy.
____________________________
From: O Aaland
012- How can I use a Mac as a network server with my GS?
In order to use the Mac as a server with a useable system folder you
will have to have AppleShare version 3 running on the Mac. It sounds like
you are wanting to use a local boot disk on the GS and then log on to the
Mac to use tha Mac hard drive. This will work with file sharing active on
the Mac. The disk you need to make for the GS is a Network: Local Startup
and not a Network: Server Startup disk. When booting from this disk you
will be able to log on to the Mac and will be left in the program launcher.
There is not enough room on a 800k disk for the finder along with the
network files. I believe that you will also need to add the HSF FST to your
statup boot disk also because it is not put there in the default install.
Check in the drivers folder to be sure.
On the Mac set up a folder for the GS to use and turn on file sharing.
On the GS, from the launcher get into the finder on your system disk and
then copy the finder to the new folder on the Mac. Now you should be able
to reboot the GS and after logging on the Mac, from the launcher, run the
finder on the Mac hard drive. You will now return to the Mac hard drive
when you quit your GS applications. You can put both applications and data
files on the Mac and run them from there just like it was a drive attached
to the GS. The speed in about the same as running from a 3 1/2 floppy,
maybe a little faster. You are limited in what you can put in your system
because of the 800k disk but having the finder on the Mac really helps.
If you can find a copy of AppleShare version 3 then you can boot
directly from the Mac without any disk on the GS and the system size can be
whatever the memory in the GS can handle.
____________________________
From: David Empson
013- How can I set up an Appletalk network for 30 IIgs's using a
donated LCII as a server? So far, I can get just 10 IIgs's
connected.
I assume you are using System 7.x File Sharing on the server? If so,
you've just discovered one of its inherent limits. Changing computers will
make no difference.
To be able to have more than ten clients, you will have to run the full
AppleShare server software.
If you use AppleShare version 3.0, the IIgses can even boot over the
network and won't require a local boot disk.
If you use AppleShare 4.0 or later, you lose the network boot capability,
but in theory the Apple IIgses should still be able to use the server (I've
never used anything later than 3.0).
You probably cannot run AppleShare 2.x on an LC III, because it only runs
under Mac System 6.x.
Apart from the number of users, the full AppleShare server adds many useful
features, such as administration tools, potentially acting as a print
server, and faster performance. It ties up more resources on the machine
than File Sharing.
AppleShare is commercial, but you might be able to get hold of a cheap copy
of version 3 from somewhere.
As far as the multiple server option goes: that should work fine. If you
have no need to communicate over the network between the servers, it would
be a good idea to break the network up into separate segments (server and
its block of clients). This will reduce confusion for the users (seeing
more than one server), and will improve network performance.
In particular, note that LocalTalk is only intended to support a maximum of
32 devices per network segment. If you want 30ish or more computers on the
same network, you should be using a router (which physically separates the
network segments).
____________________________
From: Rubywand
014- How can I capture a GS super-res screen to disk?
For super-res game screens and many other graphics displays an ancient
Classic Desk Accessory (CDA) known as "EA Screen Saver", "SDUMP.EA", etc.
works well. The CDA (named "ScrnCapEA.CDA") and a Text info file have been
uploaded to popular Apple II ftp sites. Look for a .SHK file named
"ScrnCap.SHK" or "ScrnCapEA.CDA.shk".
ScrnCapEA.CDA lets you capture game, etc. 320 or 640 mode graphic
screens as standard type $C1 GS unpacked Screen files which can be loaded
by Platinum Paint and many other GS utilities. To use the CDA to capture a
screen, you must be able to access the Desk Accessories menu via the usual
OpenApple-Control-Escape keypress.
Supertimer mentioned Clipit. This is a very nice capture New Desk
Accessory (NDA) which lets you grab a part or all of many super-res
displays, including desktop displays. The grabbed display is saved to the
Clipboard. You can get the pic from the Clipboard onto a Platinum Paint
work screen by going to Platinum Paint and doing a Paste.
A limitation of Clipit and similar NDA's is that you must be able to
get to the 'Apple' menu or some NDA activation list or, if there is one,
activate a 'Hot Key'. Also, these NDA's generally limit your grab to the
Clipboard. Usually, this means you end up with just one pic per game, etc.
session.
Games and other programs which shut off access to interrupts will,
often, be a problem. You will usually not be able to get to the Desk
Accessories menu and any screen capture 'Hot Key' keypresses will be
ignored. Usually, the 'Apple Menu' is not available, so screen capture
NDA's you use via the menu will not be available, either. Sometimes, these
programs include a built-in screen save feature; otherwise, capturing a
screen will take special measures.
One way to capture most otherwise un-grabbable super-res screens is
via a ProDOS-8 super-res utility which can save the super-res screen. The
utility must be one which does not, itself, change the super-res screen
upon startup (e.g. Nibble's SuperPac or a save/disp program you write
yourself).
Make sure your Startup Slot is set to Slot 5. Start the game, etc. as
usual. At some point insert a bootable ProDOS-8 diskette with the super-res
disp/save utility into Slot 5, Drive 1. When you see the display you want
to grab (and you are sure no Disk writes are occuring) do an
OpenApple-CTRL-Reset boot, start the disp/save program and save the screen.
Obviously, a disadvantage of this approach is that you get kicked out of
whatever game, etc. you are running at the time of the boot.
----------------------------
From: TWS
You can get the ScreenPrint NDA, and save the screen to a file, or
print it out.
----------------------------
From: Mitchell Spector
In addition to several CDA's and NDA's, you might want to try
Ninjaforce's PicRipper program (useful for games and demos that lock out
interrupts, rendering any desk accessories useless). It can grab
Super-Hi-Res images still in memory and save them to disk. It is available
at: http://www.ninjaforce.home.ml.org .
----------------------------
From: Boris Guenter
Try the SHR Capture CDA which allows you to enter the Control Panel
and save as many screen pictures as you want. For programs which disable
the Control Panel, you will need PicRipper2 or Antic's PicSaver, however.
Most of the screen capture programs mentioned here can be downloaded
from Uni-kl.de at ...
ftp://ftp.uni-kl.de/pub/apple2/gs/graphics/screensavers
or
ftp://ftp.uni-kl.de/pub/apple2/gs/graphics/misc .
____________________________
From: Rubywand
015- What programming languages are available for the Apple ][?
Quite a few, including Apple Integer BASIC, Applesoft BASIC, MD BASIC,
..., the BASIC-like MacroSoft from MicroSparc, a beta version of Apple's GS
BASIC, and the new (1998) Byte Works GS BASIC! Users who want to speed up
their AppleSoft programs can use a BASIC compiler such as TASC or Einstein.
Other Apple II languages are Apple Fortran, USCD Pascal, Orca
(ByteWorks) Pascal, Terrapin Logo, Apple Logo, two Logos from ByteWorks,
Isys Forth, Master Forth, (and many other Forths), Modula2, Aztec C,
Orca/C, ... . Hyperstudio and HyperCard let you create stacks.
To the above you can add several assemblers including Merlin, Orca/M,
an assembler from Ninja Force, and the MicroSparc Assembler.
You can find more languages information at Larry Virden's page:
http://www.purl.org/NET/lvirden/Misc/apple2-languages.txt .
For lessons to help learn BASIC programming check ...
http://www.iglou.com/qwerty/kb/dlfiles.html#53 .
For Orca manuals and to order the Orca languages contact Byte Works:
505-898-8183; http://hypermall.com/byteworks/bwad.html .
----------------------------
016- How can I see and edit what's in a Text file?
A handy utility for quickly viewing Text files under DOS 3.3 or ProDOS
is Copy II Plus.
On the IIgs under the system Finder (the usual "desktop" display
showing drives, folders, etc.) you can, probably, double-click on a text
file to start up an application (program) which will display the Text and
let you make changes.
Note: If you get an error message about not being able to find an
application, you will want to think about setting up a link between Text
type files and some Text editor program such as Teach or Shadowrite.
Another way to view and edit Text files is to run a Text editor or
word processor program and load in the file. On 8-bit Apple II's, some
choices include Screenwriter II, AppleWriter, and, depending upon machine,
some versions of Appleworks. On the IIgs you have many choices including
Teach, Shadowrite, CoolWriter, and Appleworks.
____________________________
From: David Cross
017- How do I save a BASIC program in ASCII text form?
The following line added to the front of your Applesoft BASIC program will
save it in a Text file named "LISTFILE". It works in DOS 3.3 or ProDOS.
1 HOME:PRINT CHR$(4)"OPEN LISTFILE": PRINT CHR$(4)"WRITE LISTFILE": POKE
33,33: LIST 2,: PRINT CHR$(4)"CLOSE": END
POKE 33,33 causes the text display routine to not insert any unneccessary
spacing into your BASIC program listing, which cleans up the text file
output nicely.
____________________________
From: Rubywand
018- Where and how do I get System 6.0.1 from an ftp site?
You can download the System 6.0.1 disks from Apple Computer at ...
ftp://ftp.apple.com/Apple_Support_Area/Apple.Software.Updates/US/Apple_II/Apple_
IIGS_System_6.0.1/
Each disk is in the from of a Macintosh self-extracting archive (.sea) of a
Disk Copy 800K ProDOS disk image. According to Apple's directions: " To
use, download, double-click the downloaded file (this decompresses it), and
use Disk Copy to create a disk Disk Copy can be found in the Utilities
folder posted here."
A possible hitch is that Mac .sea files are not IIgs-compatible!
(GS-ShrinkIt can create and compress .sea files; but, these are not the
same as Mac .sea files.)
Fortunately, users can download the shrinked disk files and Install
directions from Apple Cabi.net at ...
ftp://apple.cabi.net/pub/applegs/System/Sys601INSTALL/
There is a text file with installation directions plus the six System disks
in plain shrinked disk form. The .sdk files just need to be unshrinked to
3.5" diskettes via GS-ShrinkIt or 8-bit ShrinkIt.
____________________________
From: Paul Schultz
019- Is a graphical user interface (GUI) available for 8-bit Apple II's?
For the 128k Enhanced //e and //c series, the ones which come to mind
are GEOS, Quark's Catalyst, and MouseDesk (aka Apple II Desktop).
GEOS was probably the most popular of the three although it never
reached the popularity it gained on the C64 platform. The downside with
GEOS is that it isn't ProDOS compatible. So, you are stuck with only using
the GEOS compatible programs (GeoPublish, GeoCalc, GeoWrite,....)
Catalyst and MouseDesk are both very similar. They provide a ProDOS
compatible version of the familiar Apple desktop GUI. MouseDesk was
purchased by Apple and renamed Apple II Desktop. This was included in the
original System Disk which shipped with the Apple IIgs. While shipped with
the 16bit IIgs, A2 Desktop is an 8 bit program which works very well with
my IIc+. I assume it would work with your IIe :-)
----------------------------
From: Supertimer
Actually, GEOS is ProDOS compatible, at least in the sense that
Catalyst, MouseDesk, and Apple II Desktop are. GEOS can act as a program
launcher for ProDOS programs. Obviously, for GEOS programs, GEOS acts like
the full OS (much like GS/OS on the IIGS and MacOS on the Mac, actually),
but it can do everything MouseDesk can do in regards to launching ProDOS
programs. On the GEOS desktop, the files show up as icons stamped with
"ProDOS; and, the user can copy and delete ProDOS files.
One neat thing about GEOS is the ability to expand the root directory
past the 51 file limit on a ProDOS disk. If you have a bunch of stuff
converted from DOS 3.3 to ProDOS you may find that things don't fit on the
root directory of the ProDOS disk. Using GEOS, you can copy all the files
to the root directory.
____________________________
From: Rubywand
020- Where can I get Applesoft shape table info and programs?
Go to the Ground archive's Beagle Bros folder at ...
ftp://ground.ecn.uiowa.edu/2/apple2/apple8/Beagle.Oldies/
and download SHAPE.MECH1.SHK and SHAPE.MECH2.SHK
____________________________
From: Sandy
021- How can I get a Postscript file from a GS document?
To get a Postscript file from any GS document, press OpenApple-F when
clicking "Ok" in the LaserWriter driver. This'll kick out a Postscript file
in your */system/drivers folder.
____________________________
From: O Aaland
022- How can I boot from my /RAM5 RAMdisk? All the files are there
but it just beeps at me and says 'check startup device'!?
Before you install a bootable system on the RAMdisk you need to format
it. Although you can use the disk for file storage with the formatting that
is done when GS/OS boots, the boot blocks for ProDOS are not written to the
RAMdisk. That is why you can not boot from it if you just copy files or
install a system on it without formatting first.
____________________________
From: Rubywand
023- What is Copy II Plus and where can I get it?
Copy II Plus is the best general purpose utility for copying disks and
managing files on DOS 3.3 and ProDOS diskettes. Good versions which handle
both DOS 3.3 and ProDOS files are 7.x - 8.x.
Note: Versions 9.x run only on a IIgs and have a few notable bugs. Version
9.0's Catalog Sort option can mess up your directory. Neither version 9.0
nor 9.1 works correctly with the /RAM5 RAM disk. The best added feature of
Version 9.x is being able to compare files.
No version of Copy II Plus will copy files which include a resource
part, usually called a "resource fork". In some cases the copy may seem to
be successful; but, it will be a mess. Only some, relatively new, IIgs
files include a resource fork. No DOS 3.3 files or files intended for
access under ProDOS 8 have resource forks.
The most versatile releases of the utility are, probably, Versions 7.1
and 7.2. They include the capability for creating disk images. The images
are not compatible with popular emulators; but, they are a handy way to
archive DOS 3.3 disks on a hard disk.
You can download Copy II Plus in a ShrinkIt shrinked disk (.sdk) file
from the Apple.Cabi.net archive at ...
ftp://apple.cabi.net/pub/applegs/Utilities/ .
Asimov maintains more versions of Copy II Plus. Mostly, these are in
Zipped disk image (.dsk.gz) form at ...
ftp://ftp.apple.asimov.net/pub/apple_II/images/utility/disk_utils/ .
On a PC, use WinZip to get a pure .dsk file. To use the .dsk file on an
Apple II, transfer it and use DSK2FILE to convert the .dsk file to a
diskette.
----------------------------
024- What kinds disks can a TrackStar use?
TrackStar can use several kinds of disks and virtual disks (files on
your PC that TrackStar treats like disks). On most TrackStar setups, a
user will be able to access ...
o- regular Apple II 5.25" diskettes via an attached Apple II disk drive
which can be set for Slot 6, Drive 1 or Slot 6, Drive 2 (using the
tsutilit.com utility).
o- at least one virtual hard disk (up to 10MB in size) created via
tsutilit.com and assigned to Slot 7. The virtual hard disk will, typically
have a name ending with ".hd1".
o- virtual "trackstore" disks. These are actually 260k files with names
ending in ".app", such as Startup1.app. TrackStar can access trackstore
files as 140k DOS 3.3 or ProDOS disks at Slot 6, Drive 1 and/or Slot 6,
Drive 2.
o- 5.25" diskettes in PC drives (requires special connector; not compatible
with all PC drives)
----------------------------
025- How do I use/ where can I get trackstore 'disks'?
Here are some 'nice to know' things about trackstore "disks":
o- The terms "disk" and "drive" become a bit mixed up when talking about
trackstore disks. Actually, TrackStar generally treats a trackstore disk
like a Disk ][ drive which has a 140k diskette inserted-- i.e. a drive +
diskette.
o- You can have any number of trackstore (.app) disk files. These can be
created using tsutilit.com or you can duplicate an .app file by copying and
renaming-- easy on your PC using a utility such as Xtree.
o- All of your trackstore disks (.app files) should be in the same PC drive
and folder as your other TrackStar files. Usually, this will be a folder
named "TS", "TStar", etc. on you PC's C: hard drive.
o- The TrackStar 'Help' menu accessed by pressing F1 followed by ESC, lets
you freely swap in whatever trackstore disk you like as the Slot 6, Drive 1
or Slot 6, Drive 2 disk so long as the particular Slot 6 drive has already
been set up (via tsutilit.com) as a drive which uses trackstore disks.
o- Tsutilit.com lets you set up your drives so that you can boot from a
trackstore disk. This is very handy for getting a TrackStar system 'up' and
going when little useful software is available on regular Apple II
diskette. Trackstore disk files with good file handling utilities, etc. can
be downloaded, unzipped and moved into your TrackStar stuff folder. These
'disks' can be booted or used to get programs onto your TrackStar's virtual
hard disk (or moved to an actual Apple II diskette).
o- To have a choice of trackstore disks to boot from after starting
star.com, you must remove trackstore (.app) files named "startup1", etc..
from your TrackStar stuff folder or rename the files to some name besides
"startup".
Note: Trackstore .app 'disk' files should be zipped (e.g. using WinZIP)
before uploading to an ftp site. Uploading plain .app files results in
corruption.
There are some bootable trackstore disk files with ShrinkIt and other
utilities available on the USA2WUG site in .zip file form at ...
http://www.grin.net/~cturley/USA2WUG/TrackStar/TrackstoreImages/
To use a downloaded file, unzip it using WinZIP and move it to your
TrackStar stuff folder.