Re: Apple //c and Word processing

[voss@i40s16.ira.uka.de (Stefan Voss)]

In article <24tjce$r38@vela.acs.oakland.edu>, minnebo@probe.acs.oakland.edu (Brian P. Minnebo) writes:
|> Greetings,
|> 
|> Background:
|> 
|>  [stuff deleted]
|> 
|> Questions:
|> 
|>  - Aside from tearing it apart (I did this), how can I tell how much
|>    memory it has?  it appears to have 16 memory chips, or at least,
|>    all the chip sockets were full.  I forget the chip # of course, and
|>    exaclty how many sockets there were (either 8 or 16).

A stardard Apple //c has 128K RAM memory. If you haven't found another
RAM board inside the //c, that's all there is.

|> 
|>  - When I turn it on the disk drives kicks in, the machine beeps and 
|>    and displays "Check disk drive".  Does this mean "check and make sure
|>    you have a bootable disk in the drive" or "I think the disk drive is
|>    broken, better check it out"?   My guess is the former, and that the
|>    drive is ok.

That's the normal behaviour. You're right. It means "check and make sure
you have a bootable disk in the drive"

|> 
|>  - Assuming the drive IS ok,  what will I need to get it to do any
|>    word processing?  I've heard (on this newsgroup/list) that AppleWriter
|>    is now freely available and/or shareware.  Can I do anything useful
|>    with just the 5 1/4" drive?

You need a bootable disk with ProDOS 8 on it and AppleWriter itself. Having
only one 5.25" drive is a bit cumbersone (sp?) but still useful. ProDOS 8
(consists of just one file named PRODOS) and AppleWriter are both small
enough, so they can be placed on the same disk. 

|> 
|>  - If so, does it (AppleWriter) live on a bootable disk, or do I need a
|>    seperate bootable disk, and an AppleWriter disk, and a data disk, or
|>    some comibination of the three mentioned above?

All combinations work. I'd advise to put ProDOS 8 and AppleWriter on the same
disk and have another disk as data disk. I think AppleWriter doesn't require
to have its program disk online. The startup process would be: 
a) Insert the boot disk with ProDOS and AppleWriter on it and switch on the 
   computer. You can automatically boot into AppleWriter if you want.
b) Insert the data disk and start working.


|> 
|>  - And finally, how do I get initial copies of software, and what kind
|>    of disks does it want (Double Sided Double density  etc)

It can read/write single density, but I use double density. It's safer.
The disk drive has just one read/write head, so it can only access one 
side at a time, but with a small modification you can use the back side
of the floppy, too, so I use Double Sided Double density disks. I can't
describe the modification in English, sorry. Maybe this little picture
clarifies it.


  Every disk has a little gap here.
      |    ___________
      |   |_         _|
      -->  _|       |_  <-- Make a rectengular cut here.
          |     _     |
          |    / \    |
          |    \_/    |
          |     _     |
          |    | |    |
          |    | |    |
          |    |_|    |
          -------------

    
|> 
|> Much thanks in advance.
|> 
|> Brian

Stefan Voss
(voss@ira.uka.de)