Re: A matter of History & questions

[Edhel Iaur <drsmooth@baldcom.net>]

Ley Cash wrote:
> 
> I have just inventoried the Apple Lab at my school. I have Apple// +,c,e,
> and gs. Can anyone tell me which came when in developmental order and what
> the strengths and weaknesses of each are? Is there any reading matter on
> the Apple // other than the manuals? I have a pile of manuals 20" high to
> try to wade thru! And what does the little "enhanced" button on the
> keyboard mean?

This is a pretty big question, and I probably won't cover everything.  
Here goes:

The Enhancement Kit is a set of 4 chips, which don't really change a 
whole lot of stuff.

Order of production from oldest to newest:
Apple ][+, Apple //e, Apple //c, Apple IIgs

Apple ][+
unless modified, it has:
48K of RAM
no lowercase letters
text screen is 40 x 24
Enhancement Kit is (difficult/problematic/impossible?) to install

Apple //e
unless modified, it has:
64K of RAM
upper & lowercase letters
*The //e's are likely to have been upgraded with an Expanded 80 Column  
 card, which gives 128K of RAM, 80 x 24 text screen capabilities, and
 double-high-resolution graphics
*The Enhanced //e's appear almost identical, but are able to run
 programs that require your //e to be Enhanced.
*The //e's probably have other expansion cards in 'em, but since
 they were added after their construction, I don't know which ones
 are in there

Apple //c
unless modified, it has:
128K of RAM
upper & lowercase letters
80 x 24 text screen capabilities
double-high-resolution graphics capabilities
2 serial ports, a disk drive port and a mouse/joystick port
can run stuff that requires an Enhanced //e (usually)
*The //c is not very expandable.  About all that can be added (on the
	inside) is: 1024K of RAM, a clock, a Z-80 processor, an
	8x speed boost, and/or a 65C816 processor (not all that useful
	in a //c)

Apple IIgs
unless modified, it has:
256K-1024(?)K of RAM
upper & lowercase letters
80 x 24 text screen capabilities
double-high-resolution graphics capabilities
super-high-resolution capabilities (better than
	320 x 200 x 16 colors or 640 x ??? x 4 colors)
2 serial ports, a smart port (like a disk drive port, but better),
a mouse port on the keyboard (IIgs mice & keyboards are Mac compatible)
a joystick port
can run stuff that requires an Enhanced //e (usually)
an approximate 2 1/2 x speed boost
the ability to run programs that require a IIgs
a built-in clock
32 voice sound (usually only 15 are used?)
a control panel that allows for easy adjustment of colors, sounds,
	baud rates, startup slots, RAM disk, speed, etc.
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