mikec@tekred.UUCP (Mike Combs) (11/17/86)
I still don't know if the line-eater really exists... I'm using a 3.5" drive from Central Point Software (CPS) in my Apple //e with the Universal Disk Controller (UDC), also from CPS. It's installed in slot 6. Sometimes I have a 5.25" disk installed as drive two and the 3.5" disk as drive one, and sometimes they are installed the other way around. (To find out why, read on...) Here is a rundown on software compatibilities: o UCSD Pascal can access the drive, although you are limited to 77 files per volume. This means that there is a lot of room that cannot be used on the 800K disk. However, Apple does provide a patch to divide the disk into two 400K volumes. This patch is published in their tech notes. I've also found a patch for hard disks that expands the number of files per volume. I haven't tried either of these yet, but let me know if you want these. The second method sounds like the best. o UCSD Pascal will only boot from the 3.5" drive if it is connected as drive one. Otherwise, you get the "...can only boot from slot 4,5, or 6" message. o ProDOS will boot from either drive, regardless of which is connected as drive one. o Dos 3.3 will only boot from the 5.25" drive if it is connected as drive one. This makes Dos 3.3 and Pascal use incompatible as far as booting up goes, unless you don't mind switching the drives' connections to the UDC. o I have not purchased UniDOS 3.3, or any program to allow DOS 3.3 to use the 3.5" disk, so I currently cannot store DOS 3.3 programs on the 800K drive. o I am told the drive will work with Applied Engineering's CP/M card. Microsoft's CP/M card does not allow me to use the 3.5" drive. I'm still looking for a software patch for this one... CPS's tech support is polite, but not generally knowledgable about the products at this time. They are working on Pascal utilties for it, to expand the 77 file limit, for example. But I couldn't even get a 'Real Soon Now...' quote from them. They need to provide more software support for it, like Applied Engineering provides for their RAM cards. Ideally, I should be able to get all the utilities to make this work for various OS from them. The drive is LOUD. And 3.5" drive aren't much faster than 5.25" drives. But the extra storage is great. Here's to Kyan Pascal and other ProDOS based development systems... ..mac -- ----- Mike A. Combs -------------------------------------------------- ^--the "A" is for: "Ain't got no middle initial." GEnie: mike.combs MCI: m.combs tektronix!tekgen!tekred!mikec