Re: Vindicate the Apple IIGS

[luvisi@andru.sonoma.edu]

tuvac@aol.com (Tuvac) writes:
[snip]
> Apple II (not Mac) formated floppy.  When I type 'cat' the IIGS reads the disk
> and tells me binscii.exe is there but when I type 'exec binscii.exe' I get a
> FILE TYPE MISMATCH error.  Under cat binscii.exe's type is $00 which I think is
> wrong.  

correct.

> 1. What did I do wrong?  

the same thing I did wrong not so long ago... you didn't know
everything ;-)

get yourself a copy of resedit for the mac (from ftp.apple.com
somewhere) and use the get file/folder info inside resedit to set the
file type to "TEXT" and the creator to "pdos" before copying the file
onto a prodos disk.

an alternative approach which I haven't ever tried is explained by
Rubywand in:
http://ground.ecn.uiowa.edu/apple2/useful.stuff/tchange.info.txt

there's also a utility called faz (file attribute zapper) somewhere on
ground which I have found really useful, but you'll have to use some
kind of trickery to get it onto an apple2 disk to begin with.

also, if you have a unix or dos machine handy, you'll want a copy of
nulib (unix version at
http://ground.ecn.uiowa.edu/apple2/unix/nulib325.tar.Z).  this will
allow you to pack disk images into shk files (check out the "cd"
option) for easy transfer to the gs, followed by extraction.  the best
sites to get disk images are
ftp://ftp.apple.asimov.net/pub/apple_II/images/ and 
ftp://apple.cabi.net/pub/ (mirrors asimov).

as far as terminal software goes, I've never tried ProTerm before, so
I can't comment on it, but the two I have tried are zlink and kermit.
zlink xmodem and ymodem transfers, but I have found it lacking as far
as the terminal emulation goes, it doesn't support any kind of flow
control (which is essential to go at 9600 baud with many apple2
models), it's shareware, and it doesn't come with source.  kermit has
excelent terminal emulation, is scriptable, works with both DOS and
ProDOS, allows you to specify the major and minor types to be assigned
to files you download (very nice feature), and supports flow control.
I haven't tried any others since I was fully satisfied with kermit.
there are disk images for both on asimov, but for kermit you can
download everything from kermit.columbia.edu in /kermit/a.  you'll
want the appaaa.hlp file to start with (it tells you what all the
other files are), and you'll probably want apple.doc as well
(installation and use guide).

> 2. Is there anyway I can download stuff to a PC and transfer it to her 3.5"
> 800K Apple IIGS floppy drive?  Some of my friends have Mac's on the net so I
> could download to their Mac's if it's easier than using a PC.  I've searched
> all over the net and found Apple II emulators and even played around with Apple
> II Oasis but I can't figure out how to get files that are on an MS-DOS file
> system to a Apple II disk image. I also have access to the Lynx OS on a PC if
> that would help.

people who know more than me say it can't be done because of the
capabilities of the pc controller card and the way apple encoded
information on the disks.

> 3. If no one can answer 1 & 2 or direct me to internet sites that help explain
> this, does anyone have ready to run Apple IIGS software for sale that can make
> use of the modem and dial up to an ISP for text-based internet and e-mail? BTW,
> she has no Hard Drive and the floppy that loads her GUI (that's GS/OS I guess?)
> is corrupt.

other people have pointed you to places to buy software.  also, you
can download much of apples stuff (including gsos and hypercardGS)
from ftp.apple.com.

> Any help is greatly appreciated.  My father, with his Pentium PC (and others
> that do computer work with Macs in the same school system with all those
> IIGSes), say that the Apple IIGS is "not even capable of getting on the
> internet or using a modem" and that she should just throw it out.  Help me
> vindicate the IIGS, I KNOW it is more than capable, I just haven't been!

it most definately is.  you may also want to check out something
called marinetti.  I doubt it'll be of much use to you if she doesn't
have a hard drive though...

you may want to check out:
www.allelec.com
www.mcpb.com

best of luck,
andru