Re: No Buffers Available on Prodos -- How do I get past it?

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

In article <17MAR199515273954@cc.weber.edu>,
Michael Keeney <mkeeney@cc.weber.edu> wrote:
> This may be a stupid question, but in my quest to try to download 
> software from the 'net and then trying to get it to run, I always get
> a 'No Buffers Available' error when I attempt to execute any binary 
> file from prodos.  What gives and what do I  need to do to get those
> files to run?

It is rather unusual to be trying to launch downloaded files from
BASIC, unless they have been decoded and unshrunk to produce runnable
BIN files (which are rather rare).

I think you are doing something wrong.  It is rather hard to tell what
you should be doing, without knowing a little more about the files you
are downloading.  The usual procedure is as follows:

1. Download the file to your Apple II.

2. If it is encoded with BinSCII (e.g. postings on
   comp.binaries.apple2, or files from FTP sites with names ending in
   .bsc or .bsq), then decode it using BINSCII, GSCII+, DESCII or some
   other BINSCII decoder.

3. If it has been compressed, usually with ShrinkIt, the filename will
   end with any of .shk, .bny, .bxy, .bqy, or other rarer types.  Most
   Apple II compressed files can be decoded using ShrinkIt.  There are
   several versions of ShrinkIt, including ones specially for the IIgs,
   the enhanced 128k IIe (or IIc), and the II+ (or unenhanced or 64k
   IIe).  The IIgs version of ShrinkIt (GSHK) supports the most
   compression formats, the 128k enhanced IIe version supports nearly
   as many, and the II+ version supports the main ones (.bny, .bxy, .shk).

   After unshrinking, you will usually have a collection of related
   files, including a program and usually some documentation telling you
   how to use it.  In most cases, the documentation can be viewed using
   a simple text file reader, or an AppleWorks file viewer.  Many IIgs
   programs are supplied with documentation in Teach format, and there
   countless Teach file viewers available.

4. If it has been compressed with some other method (e.g. .arc, .zoo,
   .zip, .Z, .lha, .lzh, .gz) you will need to find an appropriate
   decompression program.  There are many "foreign" compression methods
   which cannot be decoded on an Apple II (there are more options for
   the IIgs than for 8-bit machines).

5. Run the program, usually from a program selector.


That is the general method.  Specific details will vary.
-- 
David Empson
dempson@actrix.gen.nz
Snail mail: P.O. Box 27-103, Wellington, New Zealand