Re: A2 expansion card FAQ v00

[sbehrens@contech.demon.co.uk (Soenke Behrens)]

technoid@firefly.prairienet.org (Deven D. Atkinson) wrote:

>A while back someone suggested that a FAQ be developed about the
>boards that find homes in our Apple // expansion slots.

Sounds like a good idea. Put it on the web somewhere and have a link from
the A2 FAQ.

>My first task is to develop the category list.
>For example in my main //e I have card of the following SUGGESTED
>categories:
>RAM Cards  [AE Ramworks III]
>Video Cards (cross referenced) [AE Ramworks III]
>5.25 Floppy Disk Controllers  [Disk II controller]
>3.5 Floppy Disk Controllers  [Uni-disk 3.5 controller]
>I/O Serial Cards  [Apple SSC, a SSC compatible
>Multi-function Cards  [AST Multi I/O -serial, parallel, and clock]

Uh-huh. Add:

I/O Parallel Cards
Hard Disk Controllers
Sound Cards
I/O Cards: Switches (like the cards for X10, and the various cards with
just a lot of toggles on them, etc.)
AD/DA converters
Image acquiring cards (Digitiser, Scanner, etc.)
Cards for special hardware (like: card for SilentWriter ... bound to
exactly one piece of hardware, can't be used for anything but driving a
SilentWriter)
SCSI cards (I feel they deserve a category of their own because they are so
versatile: CD-ROM, tape, disk, scanner, printer, etc.)
Accelerator cards: TransWarp, ZIP, etc.
Coprocessor cards: FPE, NC, Z80, PCT (did I forget one?)
ROM cards
None of the above: For the stuff that does something else entirely again :)

Wow, there sure is a lot of neat hardware available for the II when you
think about it.

>This is going to be a mammoth task, and I will need lots of help.
>Please take the time to help me define the categories for the cards, and the
>format that the entries for those categories should look like.

A format ... oh my. Let's see, how about:

Name of card
Manufacturer of card
Date of release of card, date card was last actively sold
Contact information for manufacturer if still relevant
System(s) card can be used in
Software that came with card
Pointer to detailed description of card (if available)
Pointer to list of third-party software that worked/works with card (if
available)
Contact/email address for guru on card (if available)
Contact/email address of source where card might still be had (if
available)

Now, that's a lot of stuff. So, to keep the list manageable, the "pointer
to" should ideally be that: A cross-reference to another document. That
makes such a list ideally suited to the www, of course, although you could
still use it in ASCII/paper form (with references to ftp/www sites where
the detailed info resides).

Cheers
Soenke
--
I don't know what it is he's doing, it must be art