Re: More dumb questions from GS "newbie"

[dalloff@freenet.columbus.oh.us (Dave Althoff)]

Michael Elliott (cv985@FreeNet.Carleton.CA) wrote:

: I am in the process of aquiring a GS and have some "dumb"
: questions. I have used a IIe and ProDOS 8 for years, but some
: of the finer points of the GS elude me. I have read Nathan's
: faq, but still am unclear about:

: 1) How are the slots "used" when attaching devices to the
: ports (for instance, if I plugged in a printer, modem, 3.5 and
: 5.25" drives, and hard disk, how many slots would I have "left"?

On a ROM 01 GS, the slots are used as follows:
Printer Port:  Slot #1
Modem Port:  Slot #2
80-column display:  Slot #3
ADB port:  Slot #4
3.5" SmartPort:  Slot #5
5.25" SmartPort:  Slot #6
AppleTalk:  Slot #7

If you are using an AppleTalk printer, then stick your hard drive in Slot
#1 and set the control panel option for Slot #1 to "Your Card."  If you
are not using AppleTalk, then Slot #7 is available to you.

In addition, if you want to put a card into Slot #4, you can set that slot
to "Your Card" and still use the ADB mouse from GS/OS; but ProDOS-8 and
DOS 3.3 programs won't be able to find a mouse with a card in Slot 4.

Some comm programs access the GS modem port directly rather than through
the firmware, which means that you can set Slot #2 to "Your Card" and
still use the modem port.

The dearth of slots with all of the ports filled is one reason that I went
with a SCSI hard drive instead of a Focus IDE drive...with the SCSI card,
I can hang additional devices off of it instead of trying to find an open
slot.

I believe that on the ROM 03 machines, the AppleTalk network port has been
remapped to Slot #1, but I don't know that for sure.

: 2) I know an ADB mouse is preferable, but will a IIe mouse card and
: mouse work in a slot on the GS? (at least for ProDOS 8 programs)?

It will work; in fact, I think I have read that it will work for the
Finder under GS/OS.  The trouble comes from programs that address the ADB
firmware to read the mouse, since the ][e mouse card doesn't talk to the
ADB bus.  But for ProDOS-8, the ][e mouse card should work fine.

Someone who knows more about these things than I do will doubtless give a
more complete answer...
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