Re: Need apple /// help

[louiss@gate.net (Louis Schulman)]

In <1dq66ce.1dmeu8o1b4kzo4N@dempson.actrix.gen.nz>, dempson@actrix.gen.nz (David Empson) writes:
>Louis Schulman <louiss@gate.net> wrote:
>
>> In <1dq40cz.10yi8mgfvgapaN@dempson.actrix.gen.nz>, dempson@actrix.gen.nz
>> (David Empson) writes:
>> >
>> >I can't see anything clear about this in the manuals, but it appears you
>> >are supposed to boot from the appropriate disk to run applications on
>> >that disk.  I didn't see any examples which implied there was a standard
>> >program selector, but I assume something sensible happens if you quit
>> >from the utilities.
>> 
>> Wrong assumption.  Actually, the SOS has about the stupidest system for
>> changing drives in existence...you can't!  The current drive is always the
>> boot drive, which is always the internal floppy.  You can access DATA off
>> other drives.  If you want to run programs off other drives (like the
>> ProFile), they have to be installed with a special selector program.  That
>> program must be booted, and then you run the programs on the other drives
>> from its menu.
>
>Oh ... my ... God !!
>
>And I thought the "enter prefix" and "enter pathname" prompt of ProDOS
>1.0 through 1.8 was bad.
>
>> There were two main selector programs available, one by Quark
>
>Was this Catalyst, by any chance?  I've heard of this on the Apple II,
>but never encountered it on either system.

Yes it was.  And while it does allow programs to run from other drives
(mainly the hard drive), it is not an easy program to use.  The installation
procedure is not identical for every program, and some will not install at
all.  And should you lose the floppy, the installed program cannot simply
be copied back from the hard drive.  Yikes!  Evidently, Wozniak was in
Tasmania (or a coma) when this abomination was perpetrated.

Louis