Re: More IIe questions!

[dalloff@freenet.columbus.oh.us (Dave Althoff)]

Nathan Olson (natolson@linkup.net) wrote:
: I've got a few questions that I know the readers of this newsgroup have the
: answers to..:^)

: I recently aqquired an enhanced Apple IIe with a 128K 80col card the same
: length of the slot and "unsloped" at the front.  I have an older Apple IIe
: (unenhanced) that has a 128K 80col card which is longer than the aux slot
: and slopes at the front with a jumper at one end.  Which is the better card
: to use?

The two cards are more or less equivalent in function.  The biggest
difference (apart from size) is the jumper on the longer (older) card.  If
you have a Revision A ][e motherboard, then that jumper must NOT be
installed.  You can tell if you have a Rev. A board by installing the
jumper and finding that your machine doesn't work.  8-)

Most ][e's are Rev. B or later, and should have the jumper installed, thus
enabling double-hi-res graphics (560x192).  I believe the short 80-column
card has the equivalent of the jumper permanently installed.

: Also, I have three 5.25 drives, one DuoDisk and the other a Disk II.
: If I were to purchase a ProDOS system disk and use just the Disk II will it
: load the OS into memory and allow me to format floppies, etc...
: (Or am I confused off in IBM land...).  I want to know if it loads ProDOS
: into memory allowing me to take the disk out and stick others in...  If not,
: can I use the DuoDisk and just leave the system disk in..:^)

Yes.  Both ProDOS and DOS 3.3 load completely into memory...they won't go
running back to the boot disk for command stuff like MS-DOG and other CP/M
variations.  Caution:  If you boot ProDOS into BASIC, you still can't
format floppies, as Apple left out the INIT command when they wrote
ProDOS.  But if you get a ProDOS system disk, it includes a set of basic
disk utiities (file and disk management).  Personally, I prefer DOS 3.3 on
a floppy-based system; I found ProDOS terribly cumbersome until I started
working with hard drives on my ]['s.  DOS 3.3 loads *entirely* into
memory, and includes commands for formatting disks.  Note that neither DOS
3.3 nor ProDOS includes commands for copying files.

: I've also got two boxes of 5.25 floppies.  They are Apple floppies but I'm
: wondering if they're even capable of being used in my IIe...
: Is there any way to tell?

If they are 5.25" disks, they are either single, double, or high density. 
Single or double density disks will work just fine as 143k
disks...PC-style 320k disks will also work.  The 1.2Mb high density disks
are the only ones that won't work.  Well, the Lisa Twiggies won't work
either, but I seriously doubt you have any of those very strange things... 8-)

: One more, I promise!  I've got two IBM compatible machines here at the
: house...and only this lonely Apple IIe.  If I download programs with the PC
: how in the heck am I going to get them to Apple formatted floppies usable in
: the Apple IIe..:^)

Any chance that ][e has a Super Serial Card installed?  If so, you could
use a null-modem cable.  Otherwise, you're kind of stuck.  8-(

--Dave Althoff, ][.

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