Re: Apple ///

[mcsweesr@dcs.glasgow.ac.uk (Scot R McSweeney)]

mnementh@netcom.com (David R. Villegas) writes:

>In a nutshell, what's an Apple /// and is it compatible in any way with the
>other Apples?

It was Apple's first attempt at a "business" computer. It had a 6502 running
about twice as fast as a II+,a built in numeric keypad,  some expnasion
slots(4?) that were sort of compatabile with Apple II slots and a built in
5.25 inch disk drive.

It was sort of compatable with the IIs, in that you had to first run a
special emulation program, which would then boot the machine up as a II+.
One problem with emulation was that it could only use 48k (eg, no 
language card emulation). When emulating a II+, you could choose DOS 3.2
or 3.3. And you could select Applesoft or Integer Basic.

When it was in native /// mode, it had it's own operating system - SOS
the Sophisticated Operating System, and it's own basic - Business Basic.
ProDOS is desended from SOS- when Apple made ProDOS, they cut some bits
out of SOS and put it on the II. I've heard rumours that GS Basic is in
some way related to Business Basic, but I don't know how true that is. Also
there was an application called "Three-Easy-Pieces" that looks very, very
silmilar to Appleworks.

Hope this helps.

Scot
mcsweesr@dcs.gla.ac.uk