Re: Beagle Brothers

[nathan@visi.com (Nathan Mates)]

In article <32A8718F.3BD2@ccm.fm.intel.com>,
Peter J Torelli  <Peter_J_Torelli@ccm.fm.intel.com> wrote:
>What's the scoop on Beagle Brothers? Did they go under, get bought out,
>or stop writing software and retire on their profits?

   Mostly left the Apple II scene; their last real projects were the
4.x and 5.x updates to Appleworks.

>Maybe optimization was easy back then, but if they could write ProntoDOS
>and speed up DOS access 5x, I'd like to see what they could mods they
>could make with today's OSs.

   DOS 3.3 had a *lot* of inefficiencies; everyone and their brother
worth their salt in the early 80s had a DOS 3.3 speedup. These changes
were integrated into ProDOS so that ProDOS and such load files at
equivalent speeds to DOS 3.3. Today's big OSs probably don't have such
a single point of failure (or inefficiency) that can be easily tweaked--
they're just bloated with features and cruddy code.

>Also, are they any gif-scans of their 5.25" floppy sleeves out there?
>The pictorial do's and dont's of floppy care (dont toast them, feed them
>to gators, fold them into airplanes, play horseshoes... etc...)

   I did that almost a year ago. Drop by
http://www.visi.com/~nathan/a2/bbros.html

Nathan Mates

--
<*> Nathan Mates http://www.visi.com/~nathan/      <*>
# What are the facts? Again and again and again-- what are the _facts_?
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# think-- what are the facts, and to how many decimal places?  -R.A. Heinlein