TMPLee@DOCKMASTER.ARPA.UUCP (11/23/86)
Have any of the GS technical manuals (other than the "GS Book" and one of the two volumes on the Toolbox) shown up anywhere? I can't even figure out from what I have how one sets up the Prodos equivalent of a Hello program. (INIT ... ain't in the vocabulary, as far as I can tell.) But I suppose its all my fault -- not migrating to Prodos on my II+ before taking the big plunge...
sipples%husc4@HARVARD.HARVARD.EDU.UUCP (11/24/86)
Standard, currently available ProDOS manuals are available. The equivalent
of a BASIC "HELLO" program is ProDOS BASIC's "STARTUP."
T.F.S.
BITNET: sipples@harvsc4.bitnet
sipples@harvunxu.bitnet
ARPA: sipples@husc4.harvard.edu
UUCP: seismo!harvard!husc4!sipplesTMPLee@DOCKMASTER.ARPA (11/24/86)
Thanks -- I'm aware of most of those -- the question still remains, how relevant are they to the ProDOS 8 and ProDOS 16 that come with the GS? (I've tried playing around with files named START and STARTUP with little success, but can't say I've tried everything. There is a clue in the system documentation that says if you want the DeskTop to be what starts up you rename /System/Start to Launcher; the only funny thing about that is that "Launcher" is in fact what starts up IF YOU DO NOT RENAME Start; when you rename Start as said, you get the DeskTop. All very mysterious. My guess is that it has code that says "if you don't find this do that, otherwise do something else..."
sipples%husc4@HARVARD.HARVARD.EDU (11/24/86)
Current ProDOS manuals are probably quite relevant for ProDOS 8. ProDOS
16, however, may have some undocumented features (bugs :-)).
Unfortunately, GS manuals will probably be slow in coming. Evolutionary
machines, in their early stages, usually lack documentation for extended
features.
As far as I can ascertain, ProDOS 1.1.1 and ProDOS 8 are virtually identical.
Only slight changes have been made. The rules for ProDOS 1.1.1 as far as
startup programs are as follows:
The file ProDOS boots first. Next, the first SYS file in the directory with
a .SYSTEM extension (e.g. BASIC.SYSTEM, BACKUP.SYSTEM) will run (the inter-
preter). One interpreter, BASIC.SYSTEM, will automatically run the file
STARTUP (BAS), if it exists.
Hope this information helps at all.
Timothy F. Sipples
BITNET: sipples@harvsc4.bitnet
sipples@harvunxu.bitnet
ARPA: sipples@husc4.harvard.edu
UUCP: seismo!harvard!husc4!sipplesTMPLee@DOCKMASTER.ARPA (11/25/86)
Thanks again -- that gave me enough clues to get something to work. Tried just having ProDos at the top level and a System directory containing only Basic.System -- that didn't work; not clear why (error msg was someting like ... "can't find xxx.System file" (I do remember the xxx.System specifically.) What I did instead, however, was to take the file called "P8" inside the System file (which is really Prodos 8), put that on a blank disc, rename it to be Prodos, and also include Basic.System. Worked fine -- looked for a Basic program called Startup and was off an running. Note that the final disk that worked didn't have any subdirectories at all -- just the ProDos file, the Basic.System file, and any Basic program named Startup. My guess is that the file called ProDos on the system disk is modified somewhat to make sure enough of the GS toolboxes etc get loaded, although there are several other programs (e.g., ProDos 16) on the disk that could also be doing that.
steves@ncr-sd.UUCP (Steve Schlesinger) (11/26/86)
Addison Wesley said that the "Technical Intro to the IIGS" would be available in December. Other manuals would be available starting with "Programmers Intro ..." in March '87 with others in April and later. Bantam has a book out on the Toolbox, but I haven't seen it yet. Anyone know anything else ?? steve schlesinger
ranger@ecsvax.UUCP (Rick N. Fincher) (12/02/86)
Prodos will run the first program in the directory that ends in ' '.SYSTEM', this is Basic.System when you run Basic. Basic will then run a program called STARTUP, if it exists.
ranger@ecsvax.UUCP (Rick N. Fincher) (12/02/86)
> and was off an running. Note that the final disk that worked didn't > have any subdirectories at all -- just the ProDos file, the Basic.System > file, and any Basic program named Startup. My guess is that the file The system program has to be in the root directory. Later you can change the prefix and run a system program out of any directory but the first one has to be in the root with the Prodos file. Prodos has no way of knowing about the location of other files unless you tell it, so it starts out in the root directory. If you are using Basic you can change directories using the 'Prefix' command, but to use Basic its system program must be. Sounds like a catch 22 but it makes sense if you follow the steps Prodos takes on booting up. This is all Prodos 8, can you install your working startup system on a Prodos 16 disk and make it work? I understand the startup procedure is slightly different, but I don't know what steps it takes. Rick Fincher