Re: What is the quintessential Apple II?

["Charlie" <charlieDOTd@verEYEzon.net>]

"Michael J. Mahon" <mjmahon@aol.com> wrote in message 
uK2dnRE4FM139D7YnZ2dnUVZ_s-rnZ2d@comcast.com">news:uK2dnRE4FM139D7YnZ2dnUVZ_s-rnZ2d@comcast.com...
> Charlie wrote:
>> "Tempest" <tempest@atariprotos.com> wrote in message 
>> 1168316644.746383.233250@q40g2000cwq.googlegroups.com">news:1168316644.746383.233250@q40g2000cwq.googlegroups.com...
>>
>>>I actually have alot of trouble running Apple II software on my IIGS.
>>>True it's mostly pirated and cracked games that give me trouble, but I
>>>still find myself having the need to have both my IIGS and IIe hooked
>>>up.
>>
>>
>> I have found very little Apple II software that won't run on a IIgs and 
>> usually what doesn't run there won't run on an enhanced IIe or a IIc 
>> either. But I bet you'd have more trouble running IIgs software on any 
>> other II. <grin>
>
> Ah--*now* I see where you're coming from!
>

Yeah, my point, really was that you can't just take the one you like the 
best and compare all the others to it.  You have to compare each one to each 
of the others.

> But I never run IIgs software--and I have a IIgs!  (The exception that
> proves the rule is that a few years ago, I ran the Focus Disk partition
> utility on my IIgs--so I could use the Focus on my //e--because I had
> no choice.  ;-)
>

I used an Apple II+ exclusively for about seven years for hobbyist 
programming and like you I enjoyed making my programs do their thing within 
the constraints of that machine.  But eventually I wanted more.  I moved to 
a IIgs and it was a whole new world, with the added benefit that I could 
still artificially restrict myself when I wanted to.  I still think that 
most of the people who don't like the IIgs really don't like the GUI aspect 
of it, something that you don't have to use if you don't want to.  I looked 
at the GUI and took it as a challenge to make my programs work decently in 
that environment.  I wasn't very successful (due to my feeble abilities) but 
I did learn a lot about what Apple called "event driven" programming.  To me 
learning new stuff is what it's all about.  Incidentally, I learned enough 
to move easily and naturally into Windows programming ten years later.

Oh, and I did forget that the IIgs doesn't have a cassette port so score one 
for the others that do.

Charlie