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