Re: disk stuff (Re: GS, //e, and mystery cards)

[nparker@cie-2.uoregon.edu (Neil Parker)]

In article <5nmaug$1h38@nntp6.u.washington.edu> dpeschel@u.washington.edu
(Derek Peschel) writes:
>[...]
>(BTW, I have *never* understood the reason for the existence of that BASICS
>disk -- anyone care to explain?)

Maybe because, for reasons known only to themselves, Apple didn't bother to
document BOOT13 until the Apple IIe came out in 1983, despite the fact that
it was on every System Master disk since ca. 1981?

Maybe because, in order to use BOOT13, you have to wait for the System Master
to boot, and then type "BRUN BOOT13", whereas with the BASICS disk all you
have to do is put in in the drive and turn the power on?

Of course neither of these guesses really explains anything, but they're
the only ones I can think of.


Useless trivia:  Once I tried boot-tracing my BASICS disk to see how it
works, and was amused to discover that it's a Pascal disk.  That struck me
as somewhat ironic.


For whatever it's worth, I have at least one 13-sector disk that neither
BASICS nor BOOT13 can boot--the 13-sector master disk for Microsoft Softcard
CP/M 2.20B (yes, I do have a Microsoft Softcard in my Apple II).  But the
BOOT.COM program on the 16-sector CP/M master disk has no problem booting
the 13-sector master, and it can also boot ordinary DOS 3.2 disks.

               - Neil Parker
-- 
Neil Parker, nparker@{cie-2,cie}.uoregon.edu, http://cie-2.uoregon.edu/~nparker
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