Help w/IIgs

[ab772@Freenet.carleton.ca (Ron Marcil)]

    My brother just bought an Apple IIGS. I will have to install this
machine. This causes some problems since a)I have never touched a IIGS and
b)because he does not live in Ottawa, I will have the machine here only
for a few hours.

    I would very much appreciate the help of all you compassionate souls
in answering the following questions.
 
    The system:

        * Apple IIGS (I have no idea what ROM)

        * Unknown RAM size, possibly 1 meg

        * Modem in slot 2 (at least a card with 2 phone connections)

        * Mouse in slot 4 (I presume slot 4)

        * 3.5" drive connected to slot 5

        * Duo drive? (2 5.25" drives) in slot 6

        * 20? meg SCSI hard drive in slot 7 (external)

        * One 3.5" floppy with a GS/OS of unknown version

    
    The problems:

        1) I may have to format the hard drive. A boot up with the system
under scan mode doesn`t boot if there are no floppies. I had my brother
try to get a catalog using Copy II+ v8.3 under Prodos 1.2. This resulted
in an error that I suspect was caused by the old Prodos.

    Is this possible?

    If I do have to format the hard drive, what program should I use?

    Will Copy II+ v8.3 do the trick?

    Is there a formatting option under the GS/OS?

        2) A modem is very nice but I don`t have any comm program for an
Apple II. I saw a few programs in the file library of this board.

    Do you have any suggestion that does not involve large sums of money?

        3) The IIGS will mainly be used to run programs I've written to
run on a IIc. I've made very little use of the ROM so there shouldn`t be
any problems there. The programs do run on an unenhanced IIe, an enhanced
IIe and the IIc. The only problem with the unenhanced IIe is the lack of
mousetext chars.

    Do you know of any incompabilities between the IIc ROM and the IIGS ROM?

        4) There are many files for the GS on this board, unfortunately
the info on them is pretty sparse.

    Are there any of these files no self-respecting IIGS owner cannot do
without?

        5) With the introduction of the GS, Apple came out with Prodos8,
and Prodos16. I think Prodos16 is different from the GS/OS.

    If so, does applesoft run under Prodos16? (I assume not)

    My assembler is Merlin 8/16. Would it be possible to re-assemble my
Merlin 8 source under Merlin 16 and end up with a program that runs under
Prodos16?

        6) As you must realize from these questions I am totally
unfamiliar with the IIGS. I would really appreciate your comments and
suggestions.

-- 

     Ron Marcil 
     Vanier, Ontario, CANADA
     ab772@Freenet.carleton.ca