Re: Apple /// software

[dempson@actrix.gen.nz (David Empson)]

<touchstone> wrote:

> On 2008-01-24 00:57:45 -0700, rob <rob@nospam.net> said:
> 
> > On Wed, 23 Jan 2008 17:12:43 -0800, jjj <daddie@mac.com> wrote:
> > 
> >> OK let me rephrase. Is there anywhere the software can be downloaded? I
> >> was not uh, too eager to spend anymore money on this thing before I've
> >> tested it with some actual software like a word processor to make sure
> >> it actually works properly.
> > 
> > Have a look here:
> > 
> > ftp://ftp.apple.asimov.net/pub/apple_II/unsorted/
> > .
> > Business Basic
> > Apple /// Confidence Tester
> > Apple /// Diagnostics
> > Three EZ Pieces Disk 1
> > Three EZ Pieces Disk 2
> > SOS 1.1 System Utilities
> > SOS 1.3 System Utilities
> > Apple /// System Demo
> > SOS System Utilities Data
> > Apple ][ Emulation Disk
> 
> 
> since prodos and sos are closely related, will any of this run on a //e
> or a //gs.

No.

ProDOS and SOS share a file system and run on the same microprocessor.
They have little in common apart from that. ProDOS borrowed a few design
ideas from SOS but it is much simpler.

If you compare an Apple /// running SOS with an Apple ][ running ProDOS,
they differ in areas such as the structure of the system software on
disk, entry points in the operating system and firmware, memory layout,
interface to the hardware and screen memory, etc. A SOS application
cannot run on an Apple ][ (or on ProDOS), and a ProDOS application
cannot run on an Apple /// in SOS (but might work on an Apple /// in
Apple ][ emulation mode, if you were running ProDOS 1.0.)

GS/OS on the IIgs has many significant improvements over ProDOS-8, which
leapfrog the capabilities of SOS, but the structure of the operating
system and hardware are completely different.

There is no point running /// EZ Pieces on an Apple ][, as AppleWorks
1.0 is very similar (as far as I am aware - I haven't seen /// EZ Pieces
since about 1984, and have barely ever used an Apple ///).

As for the others:

- Apple /// Business Basic was much better than Applesoft BASIC. Apple
got as far as a beta release of GSBasic, which is probably similar in
capability to Business Basic and might even be based on the same code.
There was a third party BASIC compiler for the IIgs which used the same
syntax as GSBasic. I forget which one it was.

- Don't know what the confidence tester is.

- Apple /// Diagnostics, SOS System Utilities, System Demo and Utilities
Data are no use unless you are running SOS and an Apple ///.

- The Apple ][ emualtion disk is also useless on a real Apple ][. It is
required on an Apple /// to run that machine's Apple ][ emulation mode
(which basically emulates a 48K Apple ][+ with very limited expansion
capabilities).

Not listed above, but Apple /// Pascal was a big improvement over the
Apple ][ (UCSD) Pascal, mainly because of having a lot more memory
available. I believe it used SOS rather than the Apple ][ Pascal file
system, but it was similar in operation to Apple ][ Pascal.

-- 
David Empson
dempson@actrix.gen.nz