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BASIC.SYSTEM replacement with DOS 3.3 i/o hook semantics?
I'm getting back to this after some investigation allowed me to port some
old MECC disks to ProDOS 8. Some time ago I proposed the concept of a
"DOS 3.3 to ProDOS port" and was advised that it would be unfeasible due
to programs which pounded too hard on DOS 3.3 itself, but most of what
I've been working with is mostly Applesoft, with a smattering of machine
code, and the latter is what causes trouble on ProDOS with BASIC.SYSTEM.
Often this is the fault of a chargen and sometimes a POKE 1002,96 will fix
things. In some cases, that isn't enough.
So I figured I'd want to try this again. (I've never really "gotten"
ProDOS though, even with Beneath Apple ProDOS, so :/)
In particular - the programs I want to port can be modified trivially to
work around file access semantics, filename limitations, etc. - but the
parts which crash BASIC.SYSTEM or cause it to malfunction can't be
patched. Necessarily this means the problem is related to differences
between the structure of the two systems. In some cases, e.g., if they do
not need to rely on text files, it is fully possible with adjustments to
run them on RDOS and also on PDOS.SYSTEM. That doesn't help every case,
however, so a BASIC.SYSTEM clone using the old DOS semantics is still
desirable.
So far, the programs in question are Elementary Volume 7 by MECC, and
Shifty Sam by Random House. (Why? Why not!)
-uso.