Re: Goodbye GS/OS (was:Aliases in GS/OS)

[Jeff Blakeney <CUTjblakeney@sentex.net>]

On Sat, 14 Dec 2002 01:01:36 GMT, Simon Williams
<DON'Temail@luddite.ca> wrote:

>Thanks for all the help... I've got it running pretty lean - I see why
>running off floppies in not recommended, it really slows things down.
>
>After many hours of messing around I had the brainstorm of ditching GS/
>OS altogether (since I'm really only using 8-bit progs). Now I've got
>it booting Apple 2 DeskTop of a 5.25" and put all my ProDOS apps on one
>3.5" floppy (S-C Assembler, Program Writer, Copy II Plus 9.1, Mouse
>Paint, Multiscribe, Sound Editor, Basic System), which leaves one 3.5"
>and one 5.25" free for data disks or other programs.
>Probably not how the GS was meant to be used, but as a "peripheral" for 
>my 8-bit machines it's pretty slick.

When I first got a IIgs it was by upgrading my IIe to a IIgs so using
it as a faster IIe with lots of built in extras was only natural for a
while until I could afford to get all the other things I needed to use
it as a real IIgs (ADB keyboard, mouse, 3.5" drive and RGB monitor).

>Now here are a few further questions:
>
>The Apple-Ctrl-Esc control panel doesn't seem to remember it's settings,
>which I presume is because the battery is shot... I'm willing to bet 
>that Wal-Mart doesn't stock these batteries, so is there any modern 
>equivalent that can be shoe-horned into place?

I'm not sure if you've mentioned which motherboard you are using but
if you are using a ROM 3 you should be able to buy a replacement
battery in a number of different places and just replace the old with
it.  If you have a ROM 0 or 1 then there are fewer places you can get
an exact replacement but you should still be able to replace the
battery with practically anything you can find that is close to the
specs of the original battery.  Some people have even pulled out the
old battery and replaces it with a battery holder and newer batteries.

>Also, I noticed that A2 DeskTop won't run under ProDOS 2.x -- what are
>the big differences from 1.x ?

Can't help you there.  I know ProDOS 2.0 and above require a 65C02
processor but I can't see why that would cause A2 Desktop to no
function.

>And furthermore... (not sure if this is even a valid question) does the
>GS run P8 applications directly or is there some kind of emulator in
>ROM ???

The IIgs runs P8 applications pretty much exactly the same way they
are run on a IIe.  The 65816 processor can be switched into
"emulation" mode which makes it run just like a 65C02.  The IIe style
ROM (not 100% the same) is kept in the IIgs ROM and everything runs in
bank 0 of the IIgs' memory which is set up the same as the 64KB of RAM
in a real IIe.

>Additionally, I'm using the composite colour monitor that looks like it
>belongs on the GS, but doesn't give a very satisfactory image... would
>a real GS (RGB?) monitor be a worthwhile investment? Would it make a 
>difference to P8 or just GS/OS ???

An RGB monitor can make a huge difference.  Especially if you are
using the IIgs' Super Hi-Res graphics mode.  An RGB monitor also gives
you much clearer text (better 40 column and far better 80 column).
However, I'm pretty sure that an RGB monitor won't help much for
Hi-Res and possibly Double Hi-Res graphics.  There are some programs
that can get up to 12 colours on the Hi-Res screen by doing some
interesting tricks and I don't know if a IIgs with an RGB monitor can
reproduce those colours.  Besides, having started using the Apple II
line with a IIe, I find the colour bleeding for HR and DHR graphics to
be more "authentic".  :-)

-- 
 Jeff Blakeney - Dean of the Apple II University in the
                 Apple II Community on Syndicomm.com
 CUT the obvious from my address if you want to e-mail me