Re: Where do I get a newer DOS?

[dempson@atlantis.actrix.gen.nz (David Empson)]

In article <40lhts$t88@hydra.acs.ttu.edu>,
Michael J. Mettler <mmettler@ttmath.ttu.edu> wrote:
> I recently acquired a couple of Apple //c machines along with some
> circa 1984 software, including the original System Utilities, which
> have ProDos 1.0.2 on them.  Browsing through robot.asimov.net, I've
> found master disk images (.DSK files) for Dos 3.3 and ProDos 4.2.

DOS 3.3 is a much older operating system than ProDOS.  The original
Apple II disk operating system was DOS 3.0.  It was steadily updated,
getting as far as version 3.3, in about 1981.  There were several
minor patches made to DOS 3.3, and the last version came out in 1983
when the IIe was released.

ProDOS is the current mainstream operating system for the Apple II.
Version 1.0 came out in late 1983, and it has been steadily upgraded.
The latest version is 2.0.3, which came out in 1993.

I don't know what the "4.2" version you quoted is.  Possibly the
version the system disk itself, which isn't directly related to the
operating system version.  I think "4.0.2" is a recent Apple II system
software version.

The system disk includes ProDOS and other system files such as
BASIC.SYSTEM (Applesoft BASIC support under ProDOS) and the System
Utilities (file and disk management).


By the way: any copies of ProDOS or DOS 3.3 on FTP sites except Apple's
ones are illegal.  From what I've heard of it, it sounds like
robot.asimov.net is full of pirated software, mainly for the benefit
of people running Apple II emulators on other platforms.

The only legal FTP-able copies of Apple II system software are on
ftp.apple.com (the latest versions of the IIgs and Apple II system
software are available there).

> I'd like to get these (I assume) newer DOSs into a form usable by
> the //c, but am not sure how to proceed.  Any suggestions?

If you don't have any Apple II comms software, it could be a bit
tricky.  You need to get several utility programs to be able to
download Apple II files from FTP sites.  In particular, you will need
some version of the ShrinkIt program, which is used for nearly all
Apple II file compression.  You might also need the "BinSCII"
program, which is used for ASCII encoding files transferred via
E-Mail, the comp.binaries.apple2 newsgroup, and some FTP sites.
-- 
David Empson
dempson@actrix.gen.nz
Snail mail: P.O. Box 27-103, Wellington, New Zealand