mort@apollo.HP.COM (Stephen Moriarty) (05/08/91)
A nonprofit at which I volunteer may be able to acquire a few
Apple IIIs and I'd like to know what compatibilities with the II
line and other issues exist regarding these machines.
Specifically, do they run ProDOS? Is it a completely unique
architecture, software incompatible with any other Apple system?
Would we be religated to scavanging for bits and pieces of
software to run on them? The intended users would be physically
disabled children and adults and the IIIs would be used for
education and communication enhancement. Thanks.
ARPA: mort@apollo.hp.com UUCP: ...{decvax, umix, mit-eddie}!apollo!mort
Apollo, a subsidiary of Hewlett Packard, 300 Apollo Drive, Chelmsford, MA. 01824
Argue for your limitations, and they are yours.steveh@tasman.cc.utas.edu.au (Steven Howell) (05/09/91)
The apple /// is a legend apple piece of gear. It was actually the creator of proDOS (professional Disk Operating System), with its version S0S (Sophisticated Operating System). I used to work with machines about 8 years agon, when i was back in high school. I mainly repaired these units. From a hardware point of view they were not really designed for what that time era could allow. Apple attempted to use advanced techniques for the /// that simply ended up with a mass failure rate. Some of these were things like trying to squeeze 6 tracks between the pins of a chip, using mass memory boards, but because of low density memory, and the +/- power requirments and the bad tempory connections between the logic and memory boards, this created problems and ended up with general memory failures. The /// for its time, was advanced. On board clock, builtin disk controller serial ports, RGB, touch sensitive keys, hard disk, Joysticks, expansion slots . Everything. It was everything every one wanted in a //. But they made sure that it would never be fully // compatible because of the market and each machines catagorie. I think you should score this machine and check it out. Its ok to a degree, but after a while you may get bored with what power it has to offer. At least its // compatible. That was about the only thing going for it, as apple made sure (unintentionally) that its software base never got off the ground. steve h