Re: Finding Auxiliary File Types

["Michael J. Mahon" <mjmahon@aol.com>]

Brian Haskin wrote:
> I am trying to recover some files from a IIe that were written by a person who
> recently passed away. The family has no idea how to use the IIe, and they threw
> out all the software (a travesty!) before they were referred to me.
>
> I've obtained a ProDOS disk, and ProDOS Filer reports the filetype as $16. This
> page ( http://web.pdx.edu/%7Eheiss/technotes/ftyp/ft.about.html ) tells me that
> this particular file type belongs to PFS, which is apparently an
> office/productivity suite. This file type has multiple auxiliary types, one for
> each document type (word processor, spreadsheet, etc.). I need to find the
> auxiliary type of the files to determine exactly which PFS program to purchase
> (assuming I can find it for sale somewhere), and I haven't been able to find a
> way to do it.
>
> So, my question is this: how can I find the auxiliary type of a file on a Apple
> IIe?  If there's a way to do it with just ProDOS or Applesoft BASIC, that would
> be preferred, but I'm open to trying just about anything.

In many cases, the data that is desired is text data for some flavor of
word processor.

Most (but not all) Apple II word processors stored almost all text (with
the possible exception of shifted text) as either low- or high-ASCII,
which can be viewed by almost any file viewer.

Simple text editors, like FredWriter, can load these files (after
changing copies of them to TEXT files) and the formatting can then
be adjusted and the file can be transferred to a modern machine for
further restorative or other work.

-michael

NadaNet networking for Apple II computers!
Home page:  http://members.aol.com/MJMahon/

"The wastebasket is our most important design
tool--and it's seriously underused."