Re: 8-bit unzip utility

["Michael J. Mahon" <mjmahon@aol.com>]

Paul Schlyter wrote:

> There is a command line on the Apple II, but it doesn't take arbitrary
> arguments.  Any argument which doesn't follow the prescribed syntax
> are treated as syntax errors - and those arguments which do follow the
> prescribed syntax aren't passed by the program, but are consumed by
> the "shell" (i.e. DOS 3.x or ProDOS).

I have several times had a need to pass a small integer to a program
and thought it would be most convenient to pass it on the command line
that invoked the program.

ProDOS parses, converts, and ignores the "V" (volume) specifier after a
program name (which is interesting, since it should probably give a
syntax error).

This opens the possibility of passing a single-byte value, since values
of 0-255 are acceptable.

Unfortunately, ProDOS discards the value after converting it to binary,
so the program will have to re-scan the "V" parameter out of the input
buffer ($200) and re-convert it, but at least it's possible.

-michael

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