Re: trying to get an Apple II GS going for fun...

[supertimer@aol.com (Supertimer)]

wizard@direct.ca (Astro) wrote:

>HeLp!
>
>supertimer@aol.com (Supertimer) wrote:
>
>>1) Get ProTYPE from the following site.
>>2) Install ProTYPE
>
>Done...

Great!

>>3) Get ShrinkIt! GS from the following site (ftp in binary mode
>>   or right click with a Windows browser or click and hold with
>>   a Mac browser and select download link/file).
>>
>>http://ground.ecn.uiowa.edu/apple2/apple16/Comm/Utils/Shrinkitgs.v11/gshk11.1
>>http://ground.ecn.uiowa.edu/apple2/apple16/Comm/Utils/Shrinkitgs.v11/gshk11.2
>>http://ground.ecn.uiowa.edu/apple2/apple16/Comm/Utils/Shrinkitgs.v11/gshk11.3
>>http://ground.ecn.uiowa.edu/apple2/apple16/Comm/Utils/Shrinkitgs.v11/gshk11.4
>
>Grabbed 'em, they came in off the internet to my PC as "gshk11.1.txt"
>[etc] note: .txt or text files.

Oops, I didn't see that, sorry.  The problem is that ProTYPE depends
on the 3 letter extension to recognize the file as a binscii file, otherwise
it will not correctly convert the file.  In fact, if you pass a file with the
.txt extension through it, it'll try to type that file as a text file with NO
conversion.

Binscii files normally have the extension of .bsq or .bsc (I'm not really
sure of the difference, but if one does not work, use the other).
Therefore, rename them as gshk1.bsq, gshk2.bsq, gshk3.bsq, gshk4.bsq.
Pass these four files to ProTYPE, which will convert them and combine
all four segments into a single file named gshk.sea.  That's the self
extracting archive that will autoextract on the IIGS by double clicking
in the IIGS Finder.  Note: I'm not sure if ProTYPE recognizes both
.bsq and .bsc or only one of the two, so if .bsq does not work, rename
the files with the .bsc extension.

>>4) Pass all four gshk file archive through ProTYPE onto a
>>   ProDOS or HFS disk (preferably HFS if you already installed
>>   it.  ProTYPE will extract a single file.
>
>Well, for one thing, the Mac sees these files as "gshk11~1.txt" [etc]
>which at some point along the way was not a valid Mac format, so I had
>to remove the "~" in the filename. At first, before ProType, the icons
>for these 4 files were little white pages with lines [indicating text]
>on them. When I ran the files through ProTYPE, the icons changed to
>little blank pages. That's all that happened. It didn't prompt me for
>being able to pass the file[s] onto any disk at all. Assuming you
>meant they should end up on the disk, I dropped the 4 "converted" [?]
>files onto a ProDOS disk manually.

This almost went correctly and it is my fault because I did not
remember the need for the .bsq or .bsc extension.  Once on
the Mac, simply rename the four text files as gshk1.bsq through
gshk4.bsq and run them through ProTYPE.  You should get
gshk.sea, a single IIGS executable self-extracting archive out
the other end.  You may also want to shift click them to select
them and convert all four segments at once.

>>5) Take the ProDOS or HFS disk to the IIGS and double click
>>   on the .sea file's icon.
>
>GS/OS sees the files as .txt files.

That's because they had the .txt extension to begin with.  It
should work with the .bsq (and/or .bsc extension).

Good luck!

>P.S. I feel that ShrinkIt is the key to allow me to unlock the full
>useful potential of the GS cause it will allow me to start compiling
>software for the GS from the vast source of the internet.

That's true.  ShrinkIt! GS is to the IIGS as Winzip is to
Win 95/98, the key to extracting downloaded software.