Re: How many...models/types: APPLE ][ computers?

[dalloff@freenet.columbus.oh.us (Dave Althoff)]

Okay, some clarification on the early ]['s...

THE Apple ][ did NOT have Autostart ROM; that's what the screenfull of
question-marks was all about.  As for DOS 3.2, that was a limitation of
the Disk ][ drive, not the computer itself.  The first release of DOS 3.3
was shipped with a drive update chip to allow the Disk ][ to read/write
16-sector disks.  Since the machine was not shipped with a disk drive (NO
Apple ][ except the //c and //c+ included a disk drive, though drives were
usually bundled in sale packages).

As for color, the low resolution screen is 40x48, on a screen in memory
space shared with the text screen.  There are 16 colors (including black),
and each text character location represents two low-resolution graphic
blocks, stacked on top of each other.  Incidentally, this is why double
lo-res does not require a 128k ][e.

In high-resolution, I believe all Apples have four colors in
high-resolution mode, with restrictions--

HCOLOR=0:  Black
HCOLOR=1:  Green
HCOLOR=2:  Violet
HCOLOR=3:  White
HCOLOR=4:  Black
HCOLOR=5:  Orange
HCOLOR=6:  Blue
HCOLOR=7:  White

Of course, the early Apple ]['s had hi-res capability, but not the
Applesoft BASIC commands.  The restrictions have to do with the way colors
are mapped:  all ODD pixels are either green or orange, all EVEN pixels
are either violet or blue, and white is gained by lighting two adjacent
pixels.  Selecting color set is done by setting the high-bit of the screen
byte, which also shifts all the dots in that byte by one-half dot.

As for running DOS 3.2 programs on a 16-sector disk drive, the actual
program is BOOT13, but when the ][e was released, there was a maintenance
update to DOS 3.3.  DOS was modified to shut off the 80-column display
during boot, and the System Master was redone.  In it, the LOADER.OBJ0 program
was used for loading FPBASIC or INTBASIC into the language card, and the
HELLO program was modified so that on a ][e, the "MAKE SURE CAPS LOCK IS
DOWN" message would appear.  In addition, many classic programs such as
Little Brick Out, Animals, and Apple Vision were moved to the new "Sample
Programs" disk, allowing the System Master to be write-protected. 
Finally, short Applesoft loader programs were written for the classic
binary utilities.  While the old programs, BOOT13, FID, MUFFIN, and MASTER
CREATE remained on the disk, they were accompanied by the new Applesoft
loaders (which actually do nothing themselves but BRUN the binary
programs), START13, FILEM, CONVERT13, and MASTER respectively.

In other words, to those of you who argue about whether it is BOOT13 or
START13...you're both right!

--Dave Althoff, Jr.
(Oh...the ][e DOS release came with a pair of nice manuals to replace the
old "THE DOS MANUAL" too!)
-- 
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