Re: Help me ID cards in my Apple ][

[valthoff@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu (Victoria M Althoff)]

C'm on, folks!

The AE Z-80 is definately a CP/M card.  We agree on that.

All Apple ]['s do color, and the video jack is an RCA pigtail, right?  So it's 
a ][+ 80-column board.  I can almost guarantee it isn't for RGB.
And it has nothing to do with color.

That card with the switch is a Slot 0 card.  The Language System is the typical
16k memory card built in to all e's c's, and gs's, with the little ribbon cable
to the main memory board.  I don't think there was a switch on that card.

Where you DO find a little toggle switch is on the Applesoft and Integer BASIC 
ROMcards.  Apple Pascal was never, to my knowledge, put on a ROM card.  The 
switch determines which BASIC the computer will start up into on a cold start.
On an Apple ][ (NOT ][+), without Autostart ROM, you get dumped into the 
Monitor.  If you type a ctrl-B<RETURN> with no ROMcard, you end up in Integer 
BASIC (">").  With the card installed and the switch properly thrown, you get 
dumped into Applesoft ("]"), which comes from the card.

If you boot DOS, either with the Autostart ROM or directly from the Monitor, 
the switch setting doesn't matter.  (DOS 3.3 here...) If Applesoft is present 
in the machine, either on the main board or on a ROMcard, AND the greeting 
program on the disk is in Applesoft, then DOS will override the switch setting,
and load the program in Applesoft.  That's why the old (pre-][e) System Master 
"Hello" program had that banner that said, "DOS VERSION 3.3   APPLE II PLUS OR 
ROMCARD/COPYRIGHT APPLE COMPUTER, INC.".  That program would search for a 
Language System, and if present, would load a copy of Integer BASIC onto the 
RAM card.  On a ][ standard with ROMcard, of course, no Language System would 
exist, and no language would be loaded.  No problem, unless you want to use 
Pascal.
If the computer is a ][-standard with a language system, DOS will get a 
"LANGUAGE NOT AVAILABLE" error as it tries to boot the Applesoft 'hello' 
program, so it tries to find a program called "APPLESOFT", written in Integer 
BASIC.  This program searches for a Language System, and, if present, loads 
Applesoft into it.  In any case--][ with Applesoft ROM card, ][+ with Integer 
BASIC ROM card, or ][ with language system--you end up (after booting a System 
Master) with two BASICs in memory.

By the way:  If the ][ in question does not have the Language System (the card 
is, as I suspect, a BASIC ROMcard), AND you want to program in ANY BASIC, then 
I suggest that you abandon any thought of using ProDOS.  Sure, you can run 
ProDOS without the upper 16k (where it usually resides), but you can't run 
BASIC.SYSTEM.  The easy solution is:  a.  Buy a used language card.  Solves the
ProDOS problem, but if your on-board language is Integer BASIC, it could be a 
hassle.  Or b.  Back up a generation, and join me in preserving DOS 3.3

--Dave Althoff, Jr.
(I like filenames like "{MORE} WILD PROGRAMMING TRICKS" that ProDOS can't 
handle.  Just see what a file transfer utility does with the Bag of Tricks 
filenames, all of which start with "BAG OF TRICKS ("!)