Re: who still uses DOS 3.3 (was Apple DES program)

[mnementh@netcom.com (David R. Villegas)]

shack@crash.cts.com (Randy Shackelford) wrote:
>>I use DOS 3.3 because the RWTS is simple and makes it easy to repair old
>>disks and crack programs so I have backups once the originals die in a few
>>years.  Softkeying a program using DOS 3.3 is easier than manipulating it
>>to work under ProDOS.

>I can't imagine how RWTS could be easier to use than the ProDOS block access
>calls. You don't even need to write code to do system calls if you have the
>ProDOS Exerciser program. I wrote a program that can display a DOS catalog
>using the read_block call. It can even handle nonstandard catalogs such as
>two track ones like you can make with some old Beagle Bros program whose
>name I've forgotten.

I guess I found manipulating DOS 3.3 and 3.2 RWTS to deal with non-standard
DOS's (altered data translate tables, half-tracks, faulty checksums, funny
sector skewing) pretty simple and stuck with it.  Maybe this view is just
the result of using Computist's Super IOB program time and time again.

Also, DOS 3.3 is easy to whittle down and relocate if you need to preserve
memory after a reboot (not everyone has a Senior PROM).

But for _normal_ disks and files ProDOS is definitely more elegant.