Re: BASIC.SYSTEM and PRODOS

[Oliver Schmidt <ol.sc@web.de>]

Hi Jeff,

>I am curious too.  I see no reason to use anything other than ProDOS
>v2.0.3 with BASIC.SYSTEM v1.5, if you have a 65C02 or 65816 equipped
>Apple II, or ProDOS v1.9 and BASIC.SYSTEM v1.4.1 (or possibly v1.5,
>I've never checked to see if there are problems using v1.5 with non
>65C02 machines) if you don't.

Just an example:

As you probably know the older ProDOS versions have a dispatcher /
selector where you have to enter the prefix first and the program to
run afterwards. The newer versions have a much more ergonomic
dispatcher / selector that presents a menu of available programs.

The "new" dispatcher / selector only runs in 80 col mode so the even
the newer ProDOS versions have the "old" dispatcher / selector built
in to be used if no 80 col board is present.

So far so good. But the the "old" dispatcher / selector of newer
ProDOS versions hasn't really the same functionality as in the "only"
dispatcher / selector of older ProDOS versions as it doesn't prefill
the current prefix where you have to enter the prefix.

This seemingly little difference makes the "old" dispatcher of newer
ProDOS versions - at least in my opinion - totally unusable.

To cut a long story short: In machines without 80 col board you will
want ProDOS 1.8, the last version with "only" the old - but real -
dispatcher.

Oliver