Apple IIc questions: Serial ports; Keyboard; drives; etc...

[acg@kzin.cen.ufl.edu (Alexandra Griffin)]

Hello,
	I just bought an old Apple IIc computer from a friend for
$100, being mainly interested in the Apple composite color display
that he included with it (it's the kind with the monochrome/color
toggle on the front panel, and displays excellent-quality pictures
from my VCR tuner, as well as 80-column text in monochrome mode).

Anyway, I've never owned an Apple II before and don't know much about
them, but I'm trying to set up the computer as a serial terminal for
my Linux machine.  It came with the ASCII-Express and ProTERM
communication programs on floppy, both of which *mostly* work.  I am
having a few problems, though:

1.	I can't get this system to reliably communicate at 19200 bps.
It works OK at first, but if a lot of text comes in at once characters
get "dropped" occasionally, resulting in misaligned columns & other
problems.  This doesn't happen with my Wyse terminal when it's
connected to the same port on the same host system, so I know it's the
Apple.  Are there any better comm. programs I might want to try that
have larger buffers or whatever?

2.	Is there any way to distinguish between cursor-control keys
and their ASCII equivalents (i.e. cursor-left and Ctrl-H; cursor-right
and Ctrl-U; Return and Control-M)?  The Apple comm. programs support
re-mapping the cursor keys to VT100-compatible codes, but their
matching control keys get changed as well.  This causes problems with
programs like Emacs which use control keys a lot and expect distinct
codes for all of them.

3.	Are there still any Apple II software archives available on
the Internet?  Could someone suggest a good site to check?

4.	I've heard that Apple II 3.5" drives can read Macintosh 800K
disks (which PC drives are incapable of doing because of the GCR/MFM
mismatch).  Will Macintosh or II-GS external 3.5" drives work on this
IIc?  The connectors look the same, but I've heard conflicting
reports.  I don't want to borrow someone's drive and end up frying it!
If these won't work, where's a good source for IIc drives?  The drive
connector on the back has a 3.5" disk symbol on a sticker next to the
engraved 5.25" symbol, so supposedly some kind of drive should work!

5.	Any chance of getting a cheap hard drive for this thing?  Even
better, are there any controllers around that allow an old MFM or
RLL-type hard disk to be used on this machine?  I've got several old
20 and 30-meg full height drives lying around with these interfaces
that would be ideal for the Apple.

6.	Does this computer support AppleTalk networking, and if so is
it compatible with the regular Mac appletalk?  Typing "PR#7" at the
BASIC prompt results in "Appletalk Offline." being printed on the
bottom line of the screen.  Can an Appletalk module (with the two
3-pin DINs on the back) be connected to one of the serial ports like
on a Mac?  If so, could someone post or e-mail the pinout conversions
between a IIc 5-pin DIN and a Mac 8-pin mini-DIN?

7.	Failing that, what are the prospects for hooking up the DB-19
drive connector on the back panel to another computer and using the
host machine as a virtual disk server, or simulated hard drive?  I've
heard talk of this being done for Commodore 64's... Are all of the
signals on that port standard TTL, or is there analog stuff there
also?  Please post or mail any technical specs. you have!

I guess that's about it for now.  Thanks in advance,
--
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 \  / / Alexandra Griffin /// acg@kzin.cen.ufl.edu /
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-- 
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\    / //////////////////////////////////////////////
 \  / / Alexandra Griffin /// acg@kzin.cen.ufl.edu /
  \/ //////////////////////////////////////////////