Re: 8-bit GUI desktop organizers and launchers

[David Wilson <david@uow.edu.au>]

obsbedia2@aol.com (Obsbedia2) writes:
><< Is 13 the maximum possible? I used to use A2DeskTop all the time on my
>GS, but now I've got a 800MB "GarberDrive" with 16 Partitions plus 2 -
>3.5's and 2 - 5.25's (so now I'm stuck with GS/OS)... sure would be nice
>to have DeskTop running on it :) >>

>Ten is definitely the max on MouseDesk 2 and Apple Desktop II on any system. 
>The MD1 limit of 13 volumes is based on the 8-bit Apple II architecture.  It'll
>be interesting to see it on the IIgs.  I imagine that it would be possible that
>more volumes would be recognized, but I've not yet tried it.  Time to pull out
>the FOCUS drive.
>JaY

14 is the maximum ProDOS allows (slots 1-7 and drives 1-2) and you lose one
drive for any slot with a drive controller card in it that only has 1 drive
(eg a Disk ][ controller in slot 6 will prevent remapping a smartport drive
into S6,D2 even if you only have 1 5.25" drive). I have found that it is
possible to use slot zero drive two [if you manually modify the drive table
and vectors] but the drive table encroaches onto the copyright notice
(not a problem) and many programs that allow you to type slot numbers refuse
to accept zero as a valid input.

Interesting history note - in the original ProDOS Technical Reference Manual
(loose leaf Workbench edition) the 64KB aux memory /RAM drive was listed as
being in slot 0 drive 2. This would have been a good place for it IMHO.

This error was fixed in the ProDOS 8 hardback manual.
-- 
David Wilson  School of IT & CS, Uni of Wollongong, Australia