Re: Apple II Csa2 FAQs Applications

[Rubywand <rubywand@swbell.net>]

David Empson writes ...
> 
 ....
usage
> 
> > >GS/OS is the desktop, Windows-like environment utilizing super-res
> > >displays.
> 
> No it isn't.  GS/OS is the underlying operating system.  It has very
> little to do with the user interface - about the only places it
> interacts with the user are the boot display, error dialogs and similar.
> The System Launcher (in System 6.0 and 6.0.1) is also part of GS/OS, but
> it uses the toolbox for its display.
>

     Okay. I'll swap in "System" for GS/OS.
 
 
> You can have text-based or non-desktop graphical programs that use
> GS/OS.  ORCA/Shell and GNO/ME are the main examples of the former, and
> some games are examples of the latter.
> 
> The desktop environment is created by the IIgs Toolbox, which is mostly
> independent of the operating system, the main exception being the
> Standard File toolset (open and save dialog boxes).
> 
> Desktop applications like Finder are dependent on both GS/OS and the
> toolbox.
> 
 ....


________


 ....

> 
> >      The reason "ProDOS 16" is in quotes is that, from the start in
> > 1986, that is what everyone called the OS. Later on, GS/OS arrived and
> > we suddenly began to speak of ProDOS 16 as part of GS/OS. Apple
> > eventually went back and renamed the old "ProDOS 16" and GS/OS versions
> > as "System" this or that. All in all, kind of a mess.
> 
> Nope.  The only IIgs system software that wasn't called that on the disk
> label was the original "MouseDesk 2.0" disk, which was officially Apple
> IIgs System 1.0.  Every subsequent release was labelled "Apple IIgs
> System x.x(.x)", and included whatever version of ProDOS-16 (later
> GS/OS) and ProDOS-8 that were current at the time.
>

     All of my early system disks from Apple say "Apple IIgs System Disk" and, then,
somewhere, a version number. Not until the time of System 6 do we find "System"
widely used in a proper name for System, such as "System 6".

     However improper and/or inexact, users at club meetings, on BBS systems, in
articles, ... did normally refer to the collection of system stuff on early games,
etc. as "ProDOS 16". One reason for this usage is that when these diskettes booted,
the only system-related identifier was "ProDOS 16 v1.3", etc.. Another is that
popular magazine writers routinely referred to System as "ProDOS 16".

     When GS/OS arrived, the collection of system stuff was commonly called "GS/OS".
For example, in Exploring Apple GS/OS and ProDOS 8, Gary Little speaks of a "GS/OS
system disk" which includes all of the components we would call "System" today. Even
in one of the rare pre Sys6 uses of "System": the article "System 5.0 UPDATE: From a
Trot to a Gallop", inCider's West Coast Editor always refers to "GS/OS 5.0" in the
text and presents performance charts comparing "GS/OS 5.0" vs "GS/OS 4.0".

     Of course, common usage does not make something correct. It is sloppy to refer
to a System using the name of one of its components and the correction to the FAQs
will be made. On the other hand, users should be aware of terms used in the past.
For one thing, anyone who searches old magazine archives, etc. for mentions of
"System" whatever prior to Sys6 is going to miss 99% of the articles about these
earlier Systems because they are referred to as  "ProDOS 16" or "GS/OS". 



> There was added confusion because the operating system splash screen
> didn't indicate the System version until 6.0.
> 
> The public system releases that I know about are:
> 
> 1.0, 1.1, 2.0, 3.1, 3.2 (all ProDOS-16, up to version 1.6)
> 4.0 (GS/OS 2.0)
> 5.0, 5.0.2, 5.0.3, 5.0.4 (GS/OS 3.0x)
> 6.0, 6.0.1 (GS/OS 4.0x)
> 
> System 5.0.1 was released, but didn't last long and wasn't widely
> distributed.
> 
> I have official system disks for most of these (I don't have a full copy
> of 3.1), which I bought from APDA at the time they were released.  I
> wasn't a member of the developer program at the time, or I might have
> got even more intermediate versions.
> 
> I created an AppleWorks spreadsheet a few years ago that lists all the
> system releases, including the version numbers of each of the major
> components.  It was posted on comp.binaries.apple2 at the time, and I
> believe it made its way onto at least one of the FTP sites.
>

     That would be good to find. Thanks for the info and clarifications!



Rubywand