Re: CD-Rom for Apple II & IIGS

[ustai@msuvx1.memst.edu]

In article <29l2om$mvk@r-node.io.org>, taob@r-node.io.org (Brian Tao) writes:
> In article <CErKGH.3Gy@eskimo.com>, Erik Kloeppel writes...
>> 
>> to begin with - the mechanism for the IIe and the IIGS is the same as 
>> that for the Mac.. SCSI.  It it works on a Mac, it will work o the GS
>> and IIe - IF you have drivers for it.
> 
>     That was my original point... are there enough //e's out there with
> SCSI cards *and* the correct drivers to warrant mastering the Apple II
> CD-ROM with PrODOS partitions?  If not, you might as well make it easy
> and format the whole thing as a single HFS volume.  It will be
> accessible to Macs, GS's and //e's over an AppleTalk network.  You also
> get to keep the original UNIX filenames.

	My two bits (and that's about what they are worth).  Personally, I was
thinking that the people who would be the most interested in these would be
those of us here on Internet, and the usergroups, especially those with BBS. 
The last list of official Apple II user groups had like 2000+ names, most of
them had some form of a BBS I think.  Of those, how many would have the
resources to house a CD-ROM?  If it's a lot, I think we would need P8
partitions or a for the IIe/c to read HFS.  Perhaps a utility can be written? 
After all, we do have the HFS and MS-DOS fst, and also tools to read/write/
format/use MS-DOS disks now...  Surely these authors can be persuaded to
release their codes to help out in this last bastion of the Apple II world or
be persuaded to write something that read HFS from Prodos-8.  Just read.  It
can even be a program (since everytime some such project is mentioned, every
says "But Prodos does not have enough space left for us to add this...") that
does a "DIR" and outputs to screen/printer/file/modem/whatever.  I should think
such a beastie is possible even on a 64k IIe.
	If (as some had suggested here), we get one of the Apple II third party
companies to press CD-ROMs, they can sell it for profit, if they provide

1) a percentage back to maintanance
2) a user interface for 8 bit Apple IIs.
3) a discount for the people who had donated either time or money to grind
   (hey, I would like to see some returns on _my_ $20... ;-)), a discount that
   even Joe Kohn's "such a deal" cannot beat!!! ;-) ;-), and of course, it has
   to apply for each pressing/release (so that I can keep up with the new
   stuff!  I know, I sound selfish, but like I said, it's my opinion - keep in
   mind that I don't even have a CD-ROM drive).
4) make it clear to them that they DO NOT own the archive, merely nonexclusive  
   rights to press and sell it, and anyone else can do that too (again, esp the
   original people who donated time/money to the project).
5) two versions, perhaps?
6) probably lotsa other things I've missed.

	Also, I've seen quite a few posts stating that they'd be interested in
the CD, if the Apple developmental tools can be on it.  I know the real power
users here has already have all those things, but itty bitty people like me
would like to get it too (side benefit, if this CD is available to the
Europeans, they may finally write programs that use GS/OS... programs that are
GS/OS friendly... Hi Ian... ;-))
	Again, for this, the software companies can probably write up some kind
of an interface (book reader?) for these development tools, perhaps with
indices and searches and such nice stuff.  I am sure there are enough
programmers here with enough savvy among them to make this project a success.  
	And btw, since a number of people _have_ stated that they would like to
see the APPLE STUFF [TM] on the CD, has _anyone_ even started asking around if
we can do it???  Notice, the way we put it up, it _would_ be as a programming
guide/development tool/whatever.
	About 3) from above, it'll be great if the company can provide 2
versions of the CD, one with all the jazz and bells, the other is a straight
copy of the archive (for those of us who know our way around - ie, those on
internet).  After all, we abhor such bells and whistles, right? ;-)  Anyway,
this "two version" opinion is based on the fact that someone said that it was
not that expansive to press CDs.  So, maybe they can press some at cost for the
original contributors to the archive (no bells, no whistles).  Then, they can
market the jazz and bells to all and sundry, esp Apple II user groups and make
some money. 
	Just my two bits....

-Tai
ps:  I would _REALLY_ like to see the APPLE STUFF [TM] on the CD, if it ever
gets of the ground...  REALLY!!!