Csa2 FAQs-on-Ground file: Csa2APPLICS.txt rev013 3/28/1999
Home is Main Hall-1 FAQs Contents is Main Hall-2
The Csa2 (comp.sys.apple2) Usenet newsgroup Frequently Asked
Questions files are compiled by the Ground
Apple II site,
1997 - 1999.
____________________________
001- What Operating System environments does the GS support?
002- What GS programs are there for viewing/converting graphics?
003- What's up with IIgs emulation on the Mac?
004- What is a good file copier program for the IIgs?
005- Where can I find PEEKs & POKEs and monitor routine
info?
006- Where/how can I get new Levels for Wolfenstein-3D/gs?
007- Can I do Reverse Speech on my IIgs?
008- Is it possible to run PaintWorks from hard disk?
009- How can I read a single ProDOS block into memory under
BASIC?
010- Is there an Apple II program for ham radio CW code practice?
011- Can my GS do file sharing with a Mac's hard drive?
012- How can I use a Mac as a network server with my GS?
013- How can I set up an Appletalk network for 30 IIgs's
014- How can I capture a GS super-res screen to disk?
015- What programming languages are available for the Apple
][?
016- What's the difference between an Apple ][, a II, and
a //?
017- How do I save a BASIC program in ASCII text form?
018- Where and how do I get System 6.0.1 from an ftp site?
019- Is a graphical user interface (GUI) available for 8-bit
A2's?
020- Is there a manual somewhere on creating BASIC shape
tables?
021- How can I get a Postscript file from a GS document?
022- How can I boot from my /RAM5 RAMdisk?
From: Rubywand, David Empson, and Richard Bennett
001- What Operating System environments does the GS support?
The GS can support several. Some of the
more popular OS environments
include ...
DOS 3.3- usually Beagle's Prontodos or some other speeded version
of the
original DOS 3.3. This is the 5.25" diskette-based disk operating
system used
for years on earlier Apple II's. It's commands are designed for
use
from BASIC programs or from the keyboard. Many old Apple II games
and other
wares are on 5.25" diskettes which boot DOS 3.3.
ProDOS 8- e.g. ProDOS v2.0.3. This is a disk operating system which
supports a
variety of devices (e.g. 3.5" drives, hard drives, etc.) and allows
sub-directories. Commands are very similar to DOS 3.3 and are designed
for use
in BASIC programs or from the keyboard. BASIC and 'system' programs
can also
utilize direct CALLs to well-defined ProDOS Machine Language Interface
routines.
Apple Pascal- This is an early 1980's implementation of USCD Pascal
which can
run on 40-column and 80-column Apple II's.
System- Originally called "ProDOS 16" and later "GS/OS", the collection
of
'system stuff' (which includes GS/OS) is today called "System".
The System
Finder utilizes Toolbox routines to supply a super-res desktop,
Windows-like
environment. Both ProDOS 8 programs and 'GS Applications' (i.e.
wares that need
GS/OS to run) can be started from the desktop. Depending upon factors
such as
installed RAM and presence of a hard disk, System will usually
be System 5.0.4
or System 6.0.1. System 5.0.4 is appropriate for 1.25MB or smaller
non-hard
disk GS's. System 6.0.1 is recommended for larger memory GS's with
a hard disk.
____________________________
From: Dan DeMaggio and Rubywand
002- What GS programs are there for viewing/converting graphics?
The Graphics Exchange converts between many formats of graphics.
816 Paint's File Utilities work well for converting hires or double-hires
pics
to GS super-res.
Prizm v1.0 Converts .GIFs, Amiga IFFs, Raw Files, and some other
types to
Greyscale (very fast), 16 colors, 256 colors, and 3200 colors!
SuperConvert (now at version 4) loads all GS formats, plus GIFS
and other
non-GS specific formats and saves in all GS formats including Finder
Icon
files. It has more dithering options than most of the other programs,
but you
may have to play with it to find the best one.
Platinum Paint is a commercial program that can import all GS formats
plus
MacPaint. It can only save in SHR and Apple Preferred. Version
2.0 can make
Animations too!
ShowPic 6 is a shareware NDA that can display most GS formats. You
can also
save the resulting graphic as a IIgs SHR painting.
SuperPac is a commercial program which can create/display SuperPac
format
compressed pics and pic pieces
Dream Grafix supports all 3200 color picture types and also 16 color
and 256
color pictures. This is a very impressive commercial paint program.
Convert 3200 will handle several popular PC and Mac formats in up
to 256
colors.
Jpeg.Viewer can be used to view JPEG images in black & white.
____________________________
From: Rubywand
003- What's up with IIgs emulation on the Mac?
At present, there are three major GS-on-Mac
emulators. Most of the info
presented below comes from ...
http://www.emulation.net/apple2/index.html
Bernie ][ The Rescue
>>
Bernie ][ The Rescue (formerly Fast Eddie)
is the most promising source of
Apple IIgs emulation. Bernie ][ The Rescue is a third-party product
delivering
completely accurate IIgs emulation via a low-level emulator implementation
("emulating metal"). It's fast, stable and runs almost every Apple
IIgs
software program effortlessly. It's also very useful as an Apple
II emulator,
since the IIgs was backwards compatible with the older Apple II
series.
Bernie ][ the Rescue is also the only IIgs
emulator which can run
Wolfenstein 3D ....
<<
ref. Andre Horstmann and Henrik Gudat, authors of Bernie ][ The Rescue
http://www.magnet.ch/emutech/Bernie/index.html
XGS-Mac
>>
XGS is a port of a Unix-based Apple IIgs
emulator, which is free and in
the public domain. It includes tools for conversion of DSK and
DiskCopy disk
images, and should work well with most Apple IIgs applications.
XGS has definitely improved from its first
incarnation. Ensoniq support
works suprisingly well in a number of titles, and the disk image
conversion
process has been made much easier. The GS Finder boots up very
well under XGS,
although not quite as quickly as Bernie (which has been tuned for
PowerPC,
unlike XGS, a more portable application).
<<
ref. Joshua M. Thompson, author of XGS and Michael Bytnar, who ported
XGS to
Macintosh.
http://www.jurai.org/~funaho/emulators/XGS/
http://classicgaming.com/xgsdos/
http://www.cen.uiuc.edu/~m-bytnar/XGS-Mac/
GUS
>>
Gus is an Apple IIgs emulator for Power
Macintoshes. It is an Apple
project that many feel is a great Apple IIgs emulation package.
Currently,
Apple is giving away copies of Gus to schools who will sign a non-disclosure
agreement.
<<
http://www.apple.com/ (good luck!)
Since Bernie appears to be the current
GS-on-Mac front-runner, here is
some additional information from the F.E.Systems EmuTech web site:
>>
Bernie is the result of a major engineering effort. Optimized for
Power
Macintosh. computers, Bernie combines compatibility and speed in
an easy-to-use
package. This unique software-only emulator coexists with MacOS.
and runs
virtually any Apple II and 16-bit Apple IIGS software. In both
the MacOS. and
Apple II world, Bernie is a reliable tool that gets your job done
- on the Mac
but still using your favorite software: AppleWorks. Classic, AppleWorks.
GS,
GraphicWriter as well as hundreds of other applications, games
and tools. ....
Bernie's core module is a speedy 65816 emulator running at speeds
far beyond
that of a stock Apple IIgs (approx. 6 Mhz on 601/66Mhz machines,
well beyond
25Mhz on high-end Macs).
Bernie is distributed as shareware. For a fee of $25, you can register
your
copy and acquire a license for forthcoming versions 1.x for the
Macintosh.
<<
____________________________
From: Mitchell Spector
004- I'd like to have a program for my //gs that can perhaps do
more
reliable file copies than Finder does,
especially in the case
of a damaged floppy. Any suggestions?
I would recommend either ZZCopy or Photonix
II, both are freeware and do a
very quick and reliable job at duplicating 3.5 floppies (the former
even works
with 400K MFS and 800K HFS Macintosh disks). Either of the two
programs work
around damaged sectors on disks.
____________________________
From: kburtch@pts.mot.com and David Empson
005- I'd like to do some 'serious' Apple II programming. Where can
I
find a information about soft switches
(i.e. "PEEKs & POKEs"),
monitor routines, and standard names used
for these?
Most of the names (assembler "equate" names) are listed in pairs,
and the
comment on the first one often represents what the second actually
does, but
refers to with what function the softswitch pair are associated.
SOFTSWITCHES
KEYBOARD = $C000
;keyboard data (latched) (Read)
Bit 7 is set to indicate a keypress is waiting, with the
ASCII
code in bits 6-0.
CLR80STORE = $C000
;use 80-column memory mapping (Write)
SET80STORE = $C001
; (WR-only)
CLRAUXRD = $C002
;read from auxilliary 48K (WR-only)
SETAUXRD = $C003
; (WR-only)
CLRAUXWR = $C004
;write to auxilliary 48K (WR-only)
SETAUXWR = $C005
; (WR-only)
CLRCXROM = $C006
;use external slot ROM (WR-only)
SETCXROM = $C007
; (WR-only)
CLRAUXZP = $C008
;use aux ZP, stack, & LC (WR-only)
SETAUXZP = $C009
; (WR-only)
CLRC3ROM = $C00A
;use external slot C3 ROM (WR-only)
SETC3ROM = $C00B
; (WR-only)
CLR80VID = $C00C
;use 80-column display mode (WR-only)
SET80VID = $C00D
; (WR-only)
CLRALTCH = $C00E
;use alt character set ROM (WR-only)
SETALTCH = $C00F
; (WR-only)
STROBE = $C010
;clear bit 7 of keyboard data ($C000)
If read, it also provides an "any key down" flag in bit 7,
with
the keycode in the remaining bits. (These features
only apply to
the IIe and later machines.)
Bit seven of these "RD..." locations is 1 if the condition is true
RDLCBNK2 = $C011
;reading from LC bank $Dx 2
RDLCRAM = $C012
;reading from LC RAM
RDRAMRD = $C013
;reading from auxilliary 48K
RDRAMWR = $C014
;writing to auxilliary 48K
RDCXROM = $C015
;using external slot ROM
RDAUXZP = $C016
;using auxilliary ZP, stack, & LC
RDC3ROM = $C017
;using external slot C3 ROM
RD80COL = $C018
;using 80-column memory mapping
RDVBLBAR = $C019
;not VBL (VBL signal low)
RDTEXT = $C01A
;using text mode
RDMIXED = $C01B
;using mixed mode
RDPAGE2 = $C01C
;using text/graphics page2
RDHIRES = $C01D
;using Hi-res graphics mode
RDALTCH = $C01E
;using alternate character set ROM
RD80VID = $C01F
;using 80-column display mode
TAPEOUT = $C020 ;toggle the cassette output.
SPEAKER = $C030 ;toggle speaker diaphragm
STROBE = $C040
;generate .5 uS low pulse @ Game pin 5
If read, you get one half-microsecond low pulse on the Game
I/O
STROBE pin; if write, you get two pulses. (IIe and ][+ only,
not
available on the IIgs).
CLRTEXT = $C050
;display graphics
SETTEXT = $C051
;display text
CLRMIXED = $C052
;enable full graphics
SETMIXED = $C053
;enable graphics/text mixed mode
PAGE1 = $C054
;select text/graphics page1
PAGE2 = $C055
;select text/graphics page2
See IIe, IIc, IIgs manual for details on how these switches
affect 80-col bank selection.
CLRHIRES = $C056
;select Lo-res
SETHIRES = $C057
;select Hi-res
SETAN0 = $C058
;Set annunciator-0 output to 0
CLRAN0 = $C059
;Set annunciator-0 output to 1
SETAN1 = $C05A
;Set annunciator-1 output to 0
CLRAN1 = $C05B
;Set annunciator-1 output to 1
SETAN2 = $C05C
;Set annunciator-2 output to 0
CLRAN2 = $C05D
;Set annunciator-2 output to 1
SETAN3 = $C05E
;Set annunciator-3 output to 0
CLRAN3 = $C05F
;Set annunciator-3 output to 1
Note: "0" is near 0V, "1" is near 5V.
SETDHIRES = $C05E
;if IOUDIS Set, turn on double-hires
CLRDHIRES = $C05F
;if IOUDIS Set, turn off double-hires
TAPEIN or = $C060
;bit 7 = data from cassette on Apple II,
PB3
II+, IIe. On IIgs bit 7 reflects the
status of Game Port Pushbutton 3--
closed= 1. (read)
OPNAPPLE = $C061
;open apple (command) key data (read)
CLSAPPLE = $C062
;closed apple (option) key data (read)
These are actually the first two game Pushbutton inputs (PB0
and PB1) which are borrowed by the Open Apple and Closed
Apple
keys. Bit 7 is set (=1) in these locations if the game switch
or
corresponding key is pressed.
PB2 = $C063
;game Pushbutton 2 (read)
This input has an option to be connected to the shift key
on
the keyboard. (See info on the 'shift key mod'.)
PADDLE0 = $C064
;bit 7 = status of pdl-0 timer (read)
PADDLE1 = $C065
;bit 7 = status of pdl-1 timer (read)
PADDLE2 = $C066
;bit 7 = status of pdl-2 timer (read)
PADDLE3 = $C067
;bit 7 = status of pdl-3 timer (read)
PDLTRIG = $C070
;trigger paddles
Read this to start paddle countdown, then time the period
until
$C064-$C067 bit 7 becomes set to determine the paddle position.
This takes up to three milliseconds if the paddle is at its
maximum
extreme (reading of 255 via the standard firmware routine).
SETIOUDIS = $C07E
;enable DHIRES & disable $C058-5F (W)
CLRIOUDIS = $C07E
;disable DHIRES & enable $C058-5F (W)
For WR-enable LC RAM, the softswitch REQUIRES two successive reads
$C080 ;RD LC RAM bank2, WR-protect
LC RAM
ROMIN = $C081
;RD ROM, WR-enable LC RAM
$C082 ;RD ROM, WR-protect LC RAM
LCBANK2 = $C083
;RD LC RAM bank2, WR-enable LC RAM
$C088 ;RD LC RAM bank1, WR-protect
LC RAM
$C089 ;RD ROM, WR-enable LC RAM
$C08A ;RD ROM, WR-protect LC RAM
LCBANK1 = $C08B
;RD LC RAM bank1, WR-enable LC RAM
$C084-$C087 are echoes of $C080-$C083
$C08C-$C08F are echoes of $C088-$C08B
Bank 1 and Bank 2 here are the 4K banks at $D000-$DFFF. The
remaining area from $E000-$FFFF is the same for both
sets of switches.
CLRC8ROM = $CFFF
;disable Slot card C8 ROM
Reading any location from $Cn00-$CnFF (where n is the Slot)
will
enable the $C800-$CFFF area for that card, if the card supports
this feature. Reading $CFFF disables this area for all cards.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Example: To enable double Hi-res graphics, the following code will
accomplish
this:
STA SETHIRES
STA SETAN3
STA CLRMIXED
STA CLRTEXT
JSR $C300
----------------------------
From: Rubywand
You can find listings of Apple II soft
switches and popular monitor
routines in a manual for your computer-- e.g. the Apple II Reference
Manual
(for II and II+), the IIe Technical Reference Manual, the Apple
IIgs Firmware
Reference Manual, etc..
An excellent guide to many PEEKs &
POKEs and monitor routines is the
famous "Peeks, Pokes, and Pointers" poster from Beagle Bros (early
1980's). A
fairly exhaustive guide to important memory locations in the Apple
II is What's
Where in the Apple II: An Atlas to the Apple Computer by William
Luebbert
(1981).
With very few exceptions, soft switches,
monitor routines, and important
vectors have remained stable since early Apple II models. So, although
an old
chart or listing may be missing some which are available on a newer
Apple II,
the ones shown will almost always work.
____________________________
From: Dan Masterson
006- Where/how can I get new Levels for Wolfenstein-3D/gs?
You can find a whole bunch of levels at Sheppy's site. They are
Mac levels that
you'll have to run through the converter, but they are in Apple
II friendly
ShrinkIt format rather than Stuffit.
---------------------------
From: Rubywand
A good place to look for the new Mac-to-GS
converter utility is
ftp://ftp.sheppyware.net/pub/apple_iigs/ . The new converter
utility is
shareware named WolfCvt101.bxy. The same folder contains a Wolf
scenarios
folder. It has a few ready-to-play Levels.
____________________________
From: Rubywand
007- Can I do Reverse Speech on my IIgs?
Yes. Sound Studio and Sound Shop are two
utilities which allow loading and
reversing sound samples.
(ref. David John Oates; http://www.reversespeech.com/)
-----------------------------
008- Is it possible to run PaintWorks from hard disk? Will it load
files from an HFS partition?
The Kzin Warrior published a block edit
patch version in Computist #73
which lets you do this, at least on a ROM-01 GS. Using ProSel's
Zap utility
(also called "Block Warden") you search for $C9 08 00 D0 CE on
the PaintWorks
Gold diskette or a copy. (I found these bytes in Block $3D5
starting at byte
$1DF.) Change the 08 to 7F and save the change.
Copy Paintworks.Gold and the PaintTools
folder (with its contents)
to a folder on your hard disk.
The Patch allows you to to start PWG under
System 6 and use most PWG
features. However, some Palette selection options will bomb the
program.
A few tests showed PWG will load files from an HFS partition.
----------------------------
009- How can I read a single ProDOS block into memory using
Applesoft BASIC?
After booting ProDOS, you can do a CALL-151
to enter the monitor
and type in ...
300: 4C 09 03 03 60 00 20 00 00 20 00 BF 80 03 03 85 FF 60
Do a CTRL-C to get back to the Applesoft prompt and enter ...
BSAVE PROZAP.BIN,A$300,L$20
The routine does a ProDOS Machine Language
Interface CALL which
reads the block into $2000-$21FF. It saves the Error# in $FF.
300: 4C 09 03 start
303: 03 3
parms in this parms block
304: 60 unit
# DSSS0000 Drv 1 (D=0) Slot 6 (SSS=110)
305: 00 20 buffer start
307: 00 00 block # Low, High
ex: block 256 is 307: 00 01
309: 20 00 BF JSR to do MLI command
30C: 80 command
(80 for READ BLOCK; 81 for WRITE BLOCK)
30D: 03 03 loc of parms block
30F: 85 FF save error # (00=
no error)
311: 60 exit
A BASIC program could use the routine by
POKE-ing the block # into
$307,$308 (775 and 776 in decimal) and doing a CALL768. The MLI
command
code is POKEd into $30C (780). If a PEEK at address $FF (255) gives
a
result of zero, there is no error.
100 LOMEM: 8704
105 REM Sets start of var space above $2000-$21FF buffer
110 TEXT: HOME: PRINT CHR$(4)"BLOAD PROZAP.BIN"
115 B= 2
120 REM Sets block to read/write (block 2)
125 C= 128
130 REM Sets MLI READ command ($80); MLI WRITE is 129 ($81)
135 BH= INT(B/256): BL= INT (B-256*BH)
140 POKE 775,BL: POKE 776,BH
145 REM POKEs block to read/write
150 POKE 780, C
155 REM POKEs MLI command
160 CALL 768
165 REM Does the block read/write
170 PRINT "BLOCK ";B
175 E= PEEK(255)
180 REM E= error number
185 IF E<1 THEN 195
190 PRINT "ERROR ";E;"!";CHR$(7)
195 END
After running the program for a BLOCK READ,
the block contents
should be at $2000-21FF.
____________________________
From: Joseph M Barbey
010- Is there an Apple II program for amatuer radio CW code practice?
I have a such a program at home. It's called
QSO Kid. It requires a IIgs,
and from what little I've used it, it seems like a really good
program.
____________________________
From: Gabriel Morales
011- Can I can use a Mac's hard drive with AppleTalk to do File
Sharing just like it was a drive directly
connected to the GS?
You can. Be aware however that some software
may not like to be used over
an AppleTalk system.
This is more likely to be an issue for
ProDOS-8 programs. The main problem
under ProDOS-8 is with programs that insist on referring to devices
by unit
number (or slot and drive). Network volumes do not have a
unit number.
Another issue is with filenames.
GS/OS programs which assume ProDOS
naming conventions will have problems with AppleShare or HFS volumes.
ProDOS-8
programs have more problems: unless the file server hard drive
or shared folder
(and all relevant subfolders and files) are named using ProDOS-8
naming
restrictions, then the files in question cannot be accessed by
ProDOS-8
programs on an Apple II client.
A third issue (with both GS/OS and ProDOS-8)
is with programs that bypass
the file system calls and try to do block-level access to the volume.
This is
not permitted for file server volumes. (Examples: Copy II+,
many functions in
Prosel.)
One caveat: transmission is slow. Assuming
an otherwise unused network,
you get about the speed of a 3.5" floppy.
____________________________
From: O Aaland
012- How can I use a Mac as a network server with my GS?
In order to use the Mac as a server with
a useable system folder you will
have to have AppleShare version 3 running on the Mac. It sounds
like you are
wanting to use a local boot disk on the GS and then log on to the
Mac to use
tha Mac hard drive. This will work with file sharing active on
the Mac. The
disk you need to make for the GS is a Network: Local Startup and
not a Network:
Server Startup disk. When booting from this disk you will be able
to log on to
the Mac and will be left in the program launcher. There is not
enough room on a
800k disk for the finder along with the network files. I believe
that you will
also need to add the HSF FST to your statup boot disk also because
it is not
put there in the default install. Check in the drivers folder to
be sure.
On the Mac set up a folder for the GS to
use and turn on file sharing. On
the GS, from the launcher get into the finder on your system disk
and then copy
the finder to the new folder on the Mac. Now you should be able
to reboot the
GS and after logging on the Mac, from the launcher, run the finder
on the Mac
hard drive. You will now return to the Mac hard drive when you
quit your GS
applications. You can put both applications and data files on the
Mac and run
them from there just like it was a drive attached to the GS. The
speed in about
the same as running from a 3 1/2 floppy, maybe a little faster.
You are limited
in what you can put in your system because of the 800k disk but
having the
finder on the Mac really helps.
If you can find a copy of AppleShare version
3 then you can boot directly
from the Mac without any disk on the GS and the system size can
be whatever the
memory in the GS can handle.
____________________________
From: David Empson
013- How can I set up an Appletalk network for 30 IIgs's using a
donated LCII as a server? So far, I can
get just 10 IIgs's
connected.
I assume you are using System 7.x File Sharing on the server?
If so, you've
just discovered one of its inherent limits. Changing computers
will make no
difference.
To be able to have more than ten clients, you will have to run the
full
AppleShare server software.
If you use AppleShare version 3.0, the IIgses can even boot over
the network
and won't require a local boot disk.
If you use AppleShare 4.0 or later, you lose the network boot capability,
but
in theory the Apple IIgses should still be able to use the server
(I've never
used anything later than 3.0).
You probably cannot run AppleShare 2.x on an LC III, because it
only runs under
Mac System 6.x.
Apart from the number of users, the full AppleShare server adds
many useful
features, such as administration tools, potentially acting as a
print server,
and faster performance. It ties up more resources on the
machine than File
Sharing.
AppleShare is commercial, but you might be able to get hold of a
cheap copy of
version 3 from somewhere.
As far as the multiple server option goes: that should work fine.
If you have
no need to communicate over the network between the servers, it
would be a good
idea to break the network up into separate segments
(server and its block of clients). This will reduce confusion
for the users
(seeing more than one server), and will improve network performance.
In particular, note that LocalTalk is only intended to support a
maximum of 32
devices per network segment. If you want 30ish or more computers
on the same
network, you should be using a router (which physically separates
the network
segments).
____________________________
From: Rubywand
014- How can I capture a GS super-res screen to disk?
For super-res game screens and many other
graphics displays an ancient
Classic Desk Accessory (CDA) known as "EA Screen Saver", "SDUMP.EA",
etc. works
well. The CDA (named "ScrnCapEA.CDA") and a Text info file have
been uploaded
to popular Apple II ftp sites. Look for a .SHK file named "ScrnCap.SHK"
or
"ScrnCapEA.CDA.shk".
ScrnCapEA.CDA lets you capture game, etc.
320 or 640 mode graphic screens
as standard type $C1 GS unpacked Screen files which can be loaded
by Platinum
Paint and many other GS utilities. To use the CDA to capture a
screen, you must
be able to access the Desk Accessories menu via the usual
OpenApple-Control-Escape keypress.
Supertimer mentioned Clipit. This is a
very nice capture New Desk
Accessory (NDA) which lets you grab a part or all of many super-res
displays,
including desktop displays. The grabbed display is saved to the
Clipboard. You
can get the pic from the Clipboard onto a Platinum Paint work screen
by going
to Platinum Paint and doing a Paste.
A limitation of Clipit and similar NDA's
is that you must be able to get
to the 'Apple' menu or some NDA activation list or, if there is
one, activate a
'Hot Key'. Also, these NDA's generally limit your grab to the Clipboard.
Usually, this means you end up with just one pic per game, etc.
session.
Games and other programs which shut off
access to interrupts will, often,
be a problem. You will usually not be able to get to the Desk Accessories
menu
and any screen capture 'Hot Key' keypresses will be ignored. Usually,
the
'Apple Menu' is not available, so screen capture NDA's you use
via the menu
will not be available, either. Sometimes, these programs include
a built-in
screen save feature; otherwise, capturing a screen will take special
measures.
One way to capture most otherwise un-grabbable
super-res screens is via a
ProDOS-8 super-res utility which can save the super-res screen.
The utility
must be one which does not, itself, change the super-res screen
upon startup
(e.g. Nibble's SuperPac or a save/disp program you write yourself).
Make sure your Startup Slot is set to Slot
5. Start the game, etc. as
usual. At some point insert a bootable ProDOS-8 diskette with the
super-res
disp/save utility into Slot 5, Drive 1. When you see the display
you want to
grab (and you are sure no Disk writes are occuring) do an OpenApple-CTRL-Reset
boot, start the disp/save program and save the screen. Obviously,
a
disadvantage of this approach is that you get kicked out of whatever
game, etc.
you are running at the time of the boot.
----------------------------
From: TWS
You can get the ScreenPrint NDA, and save
the screen to a file, or print
it out.
----------------------------
From: Mitchell Spector
In addition to several CDA's and NDA's, you might
want to try Ninjaforce's
PicRipper program (useful for games and demos that lock out interrupts,
rendering any desk accessories useless). It can grab Super-Hi-Res
images still
in memory and save them to disk. It is available at:
http://www.ninjaforce.home.ml.org .
----------------------------
From: Boris Guenter
Try the SHR Capture CDA which allows you
to enter the Control Panel and
save as many screen pictures as you want. For programs which disable
the
Control Panel, you will need PicRipper2 or Antic's PicSaver, however.
Most of the screen capture programs mentioned
here can be
downloaded from Uni-kl.de at ...
ftp://ftp.uni-kl.de/pub/apple2/gs/graphics/screensavers
or
ftp://ftp.uni-kl.de/pub/apple2/gs/graphics/misc .
____________________________
From: Rubywand
015- What programming languages are available for the Apple ][?
Quite a few, including Apple Integer BASIC,
Applesoft BASIC, MD BASIC,
..., the BASIC-like MacroSoft from MicroSparc, a beta version of
Apple's GS
BASIC, and the new (1998) Byte Works GS BASIC! Users who want to
speed up their
AppleSoft programs can use a BASIC compiler such as TASC or Einstein.
Other Apple II languages are Apple Fortran,
USCD Pascal, Orca (ByteWorks)
Pascal, Terrapin Logo, Apple Logo, two Logos from ByteWorks, Isys
Forth, Master
Forth, (and many other Forths), Modula2, Aztec C, Orca/C, ... .
Hyperstudio and
HyperCard let you create stacks.
To the above you can add several assemblers
including Merlin, Orca/M, an
assembler from Ninja Force, and the MicroSparc Assembler.
You can find more languages information at Larry Virden's page:
http://www.purl.org/NET/lvirden/Misc/apple2-languages.txt .
For lessons to help learn BASIC programming check ...
http://www.iglou.com/qwerty/kb/dlfiles.html#53 .
For Orca manuals and to order the Orca languages contact Byte Works:
505-898-8183; http://hypermall.com/byteworks/bwad.html .
----------------------------
016- What's the difference between an Apple ][, a II, and a //?
None. ][, II, and // can be used pretty
much interchangably for any model
of Apple II computer, although, practically speaking, there are
a few usages
which may provoke a correction.
"][" is the original Apple II symbol. It appears
on all early II's and
II+'s as well as on the Disk ][ drive. It is, easily, the most
attractive and
distinctive II symbol; but, it is also associated with _old_ Apple
II 's. So,
"][e", "][c", etc. are very likely to be viewed as grossly incorrect
by many
users. Conversely, the "//" usage is often associated with newer
e and c
models. "//+" would be as much an error as "][c".
The plain "II" symbol is the one most widely
accepted as 'correct', or, at
least, 'okay', for all Apple II models.
The, generally, preferred designations are ...
Apple ][, or Apple II (i.e. for pre-II+ models)
Apple ][+ or Apple II+
Apple //e or Apple IIe
Apple //c or Apple IIc
Apple IIc+
Apple IIgs or GS
Just "A2" is fairly common when referring
to series-wide products or
concerns as in "Old, out-of-print A2 wares should be preserved
and archived for
easy access by every user".
____________________________
From: David Cross
017- How do I save a BASIC program in ASCII text form?
The following line added to the front of your Applesoft BASIC program
will save
it in a Text file named "LISTFILE". It works in DOS 3.3 or ProDOS.
1 HOME:PRINT CHR$(4)"OPEN LISTFILE": PRINT CHR$(4)"WRITE LISTFILE":
POKE 33,33: LIST 2,: PRINT CHR$(4)"CLOSE": END
POKE 33,33 causes the text display routine to not insert any unneccessary
spacing into your BASIC program listing, which cleans up the text
file output
nicely.
____________________________
From: Rubywand
018- Where and how do I get System 6.0.1 from an ftp site?
You can download the System 6.0.1 disks from Apple at ...
ftp://ftp.apple.com/dts/aii/sys.soft/gs.system.6.0.1/
The disks are in the from of binscii (.bsc)
files of ShrinkIt disk archive
files which include a Binary II header (i.e. binscii-ed .bxy files).
As a test, I downloaded sysdisk.bsc, transferred
it to the GS via
NUll-modem, and converted it to diskette form. All of the files
Validated as
Okay.
Since Apple maintains each disk in binscii-ed
.bxy form, the conversion
process takes two steps. First, you need to run binscii on the
.bsc file. I
used Jawaid Bazyar's GSCII Plus NDA to un-binscii sysdisk.bsc.
This produced
sysdisk.bxy, a Shrinked disk archive with a Binary II header.
Next, GS-ShrinkIt was used to unShrink
sysdisk.bxy to an 800k 'diskette'--
I used an empty 800k /RAM5 RAM disk for the target diskette because
things go
faster than with an actual diakette. This produced the System 6.0.1
System.Disk. (From here I could have done a whole-disk copy to
get the
System.Disk from RAM disk onto an actual 800k diskette.)
The above procedure should work fine for
the other .bsc disk files in the
set.
____________________________
From: Paul Schultz
019- Is a graphical user interface (GUI) available for 8-bit
Apple II's?
For the 128k Enhanced //e and //c series,
the ones which come to mind are
GEOS, Quark's Catalyst, and MouseDesk (aka Apple II Desktop).
GEOS was probably the most popular of the
three although it never reached
the popularity it gained on the C64 platform. The downside with
GEOS is that it
isn't ProDOS compatible. So, you are stuck with only using the
GEOS compatible
programs (GeoPublish, GeoCalc, GeoWrite,....)
Catalyst and MouseDesk are both very similar.
They provide a ProDOS
compatible version of the familiar Apple desktop GUI. MouseDesk
was purchased
by Apple and renamed Apple II Desktop. This was included in the
original System
Disk which shipped with the Apple IIgs. While shipped with the
16bit IIgs, A2
Desktop is an 8 bit program which works very well with my IIc+.
I assume it
would work with your IIe :-)
____________________________
From: Rubywand
020- Is there a manual somewhere on creating Applesoft BASIC
shape tables?
Go to Charles Hartley's Apple II BASIC info and Software site at ...
http://www.iglou.com/qwerty/kb/dlfiles.html#53
He has one or two lessons on using hires graphics; and, you can
download some
software for creating shape tables.
____________________________
From: Sandy
021- How can I get a Postscript file from a GS document?
To get a Postscript file from any GS document,
press OpenApple-F when
clicking "Ok" in the LaserWriter driver. This'll kick out a Postscript
file in
your */system/drivers folder.
____________________________
From: O Aaland
022- How can I boot from my /RAM5 RAMdisk? All the files are there
but it just beeps at me and says 'check
startup device'!?
Before you install a bootable system on
the RAMdisk you need to format it.
Although you can use the disk for file storage with the formating
that is done
when GS/OS boots, the boot blocks for ProDOS are not written to
the RAMdisk.
That is why you can not boot from it if you just copy files or
install a system
on it without formating first.