Re: Prodos startup order?

[Phoenyx <quazar@dcnet2000.com>]

Well, I see several suggestions here, but most are too simple
unless it is a floppy and it will always boot in the same order.

I suggest setting up a program launcher. There are several to
choose from. The simplest is in the latest Prodos system and
will (should) start if there are no .SYSTEM files in the base
directory. This is an easy to use launcher. If however, you need
to load a clock driver or ram disk driver from a .SYSTEM file (or
worse a basic file) things get more complex. For example, I have
a disk which loads a ram disk driver then looks for the next
.SYSTEM file which must exist. In this case I have to use some
type of launcher.

There is another quick fix if you mostly use basic and sometimes
want another program. Create a simple menu which exits to basic
or quits to prodos. The menu name must be STARTUP. Something like
this.

10 home: d$=chr$(4)
20 vtab 10: htab 20: print "(b) exit to basic"
30 vtab 12: htab 20: print "(p) exit to Prodos"
40 get a$: if a$ = "B" or a$ = "b" then new
50 if a$ = "P" or a$ = "p" then print d$;"bye"
60 goto 40

This is a simple example off the top of my head but it can be
quite useful and expanded to run basic programs you may have.

As noted, there are quite a few program selectors available. Many
of which may serve your purposes better. I like Prosel myself
for menu purposes and it comes with a large variety of utilities.
There is also one called squirt. ECP8 is a command line shell
which can launch programs and is very useful. Some versions of
Copy2 Plus will let you build a program menu and others I'm
forgetting right now.

While I like Prosel :) I actually use ECP8 the most since I like
the power of the CLI, but many people prefer the simpler menu
method for standard use and Prosel is easy to setup. One of my
favorite features of ECP8, is it's ability to launch basic
programs. I don't program in Applesoft as much as I used to, but
I still have some nice programs I run once in a while.

-- 

Thank you for your time and interest. I hope it was helpful
or at least interesting.

Phoenyx,

Apple2 user since March 1984

Links to Phoenyx's pages:
preferred..... http://zip.to/Phoenyx_A2
alternate..... http://www.tinyangeldesigns.com/Apple2