Re: Help with Apple 2e

[shack@onyx.southwind.net (Randy Shackelford)]

Nathan Mates (nathan@visi.com) wrote:

: >The //e uses ProDOS (by Bill Gates) or if earlier DOS 3.3 by the same author.

:    Wrong on both counts. Gates and Microsoft had nothing to do with
: Apple II DOS 3.3 (which has nothing in common with MS-DOS 3.3) or
: ProDOS. [If they had something to do with it, they woulda remembered
: to make both have some OS basics-- file copy commands from command
: line, and let DOS 3.3 be user-extensible by external command programs;
: ProDOS got that half right.]

Time for a contribution to the clue for Nathan cause: ProDOS 8 only has
"commands" such as OPEN, GET_TIME, SET_BUF, ALLOC_INTERRUPT, and the like.
It's up to the SYS program in question to provide the appropriate function-
ality. Some people confuse BASIC with the operating system. BASIC exists
only to provide support for Applesoft programs; it was never intended to
be a command shell. You run Filer or some other app to manipulate files.

: >The //e was a good little machine because they have Applesoft Basic (also by
: >Bill Gates)

:    Correct here; Applesoft is a modified version of the MS Basic being
: sold to 8-bit system developers in the late 70s. Thus, any idiots who
: claim to have Apple IIs and are "microsoft free" have (1) ancient
: Apple IIs with Integer Basic (by woz) only, (2) burned their own ROMs
: after paranoidly rewriting stuff from scratch, or (3) are in serious
: denial about a molehill they've made into a mountain.

I was inclined to compare this to your irrational dislike of Apple, but with
another look, it doesn't compare. While Apple merely supplanted older products
with newer ones, MS' business practices are wrecking the industry. Consider
their efforts to eliminate competition (e.g. the licensing deal with hardware
makers in an attempt to monopolize the browser market), their subversion of
standards (e.g. mutilating Apple's human interface to make their software
resemble the crappy-ass Windows equivalents), strong arm tactics to gain
market penetration (e.g. coercing Dell to switch their web site from 
WebObjects, an Apple technology, to one of their concoctions), and generally
piss poor coding standards (e.g. littering your system folder with extensions
specific to their apps, like the 1 mb OLE extension), their typical support
for old hardware (no 68K version of Office 98 is in the offing), and many 
other examples.

I own Apple IIs, and I'm aware of the MS copyright on Applesoft. I also have
a MS language card in my Bell & Howell box. But I refuse to use any of their
current products. I have a copy of Office 4.2 in my closet which I will not
install because I will not have their stuff on my Mac. And I got it for free.
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