Re: Applesoft on Cassette wanted!

[nparker@cie-2.uoregon.edu (Neil Parker)]

In article <3tl164$pe0@acme.freenet.columbus.oh.us>
dalloff@freenet.columbus.oh.us (Dave Althoff) writes:
>Tara Bazler (bazler@expert.cc.purdue.edu) wrote:
>: 	I'm looking for a copy of Applesoft on cassette for my Apple II
>: 	 collection.  If anyone has ANY idea of where I could _begin_
>:  	 to look, would you please post or mail me and let me know...
>Do you want to have the genuine "Cassette Applesoft" on cassette?  Or
>would you be satisfied with a version of disk-based Applesoft?  If the
>latter would work, you could dig up a DOS 3.3 System Master, load the
>FPBASIC image at the appropriate address, and spool that to tape.

The version of Applesoft that you get that way is NOT the same as genuine
cassette Applesoft--not by a long shot.  The FPBASIC file on the DOS 3.3
System Master is an exact image of the Applesoft BASIC ROMs--i.e. it will
only run in memory locations $D000-$FFFF.

The original cassette Applesoft resides in memory locations $800-$2FFF.
Remember, it dates back to the days when almost nobody had a language
card to load ROM-image Applesoft into.

Also, cassette Applesoft isn't a binary file.  It's an Integer BASIC
program (!) that has the Applesoft binary image appended to it by the old
machine-language-in-the-BASIC-file trick.  When you RUN it, it installs
Applesoft into the correct memory locations.

When the Disk ][ first came out, Apple distributed a disk-based version of
cassette Applesoft, and DOS contained code to automatically RUN APPLESOFT
and hook it into the DOS hooks whenever you typed FP.  In fact this code is
still there today.

I have copy of diskette Applesoft sitting in one of my disk boxes.

>Note that there are differences between the disk-based and cassette-based
>Applesoft.  Off hand, I recall...

>o Cassette Applesoft does not support HPLOT x,y TO x1,y1 TO x2,y2 TO x3,y3

Hmm.  I'm sure I remember reading somthing like this somewhere (in
particular, I remember reading that in cassette Applesoft you can put only
one TO clause in an HPLOT command), but I can't seem to find any mention of
this in the Applesoft manual.

>o Re-entry from Monitor using *0G under Cassette Applesoft, vs. *3D0G under
>  disk-based Applesoft
>
>I'm sure that there are others (maybe I should dig up that old "Applesoft
>Tutorial" book...), but I have never worked with a cassette-based Apple. 

Another big difference:  Since cassette Applesoft resides partly within
hi-res page 1, you can't use HGR.  You can only use HGR2, and the
mixed-text-and-graphics mode is useless (since the four lines of text come
from text page 2, which is occupied by part of the Applesoft interpreter).

Of course all the interesting CALLs to internal Applesoft routines are
different--for example, CALL 62454 (which clears the hi-res screen to the
last plotted hcolor) becomes CALL 11250.

I have a vague recollection of reading somewhere that cassette Applesoft
contained a number of bugs that were fixed in later versions.

          - Neil Parker
-- 
Neil Parker, nparker@{cie-2,cie}.uoregon.edu, http://cie-2.uoregon.edu/~nparker

     "Evolution is vastly overrated."  -- Ambassador Delenn, _Babylon_5_