Re: Apple ]['s Disk operating System?

[percim@odyssee.net (Mark Percival)]

On 22 Feb 1997 00:57:25 GMT, cplater@rattlehead.pass.wayne.edu
(Charles A. Plater) wrote:

>Edhel Iaur, Esq. (drsmooth@relex.com) wrote:
>: On 21 Feb 1997 00:31:10 GMT, nathan@visi.com (Nathan Mates) wrote:
>
>: >   No, Apple's DOS 3.3 and ProDOS were not done by Apple
>: ...
>
>: Who did make Apple's DOSs, then?
>
>Whoah - DOS 3.3 was written by Wozniak.  In fact, if I remember the story
>correctly, he finished the original dos the night before a computer show
>that was supposed to feature the new Apple ][ Disk Drive.  They finished
>up coding late that night, and went to make a backup disk, only they
>copied the blank disk on to the one with the DOS on it, and they had to
>start over from scratch.

Steve Wozniak and Randy Wigginton wrote the *original* demo to
illustrate to possibilities of the Disk II over their Christmas
vacation in 1977.  They had to have this ready for the Consumers
Electronics Show set for Las Vegas in the first week of 1978.

However, when it came to the actual production version, they
contracted Shepardson Microsystems to write AppleDOS.  Shepardson
Microsystems enlisted their crack programmer, Paul Laughton to produce
the code.  Paul delivered to Apple what would become Apple DOS 3.1
before moving on to other projects.

Check out http://www.laughton.com/Apple/Apple.html for all the
details!  Interesting stuff including the answer to that age old
qquestion, "Why was the first version of AppleDOS, version 3.1?".

So the answer to the question is;
No, Apple (or Wozniak) did not write AppleDOS v3.3.  The project was
subcontracted out.

Mark R. Percival
Montreal, Quebec
percim@odyssee.net

An Apple II fanatic since 1979.