dave@mystie.webo.dg.com (David Kopper) (12/18/90)
(Pnews got me again... lets try posting this once more...) [Last edited on December 17, 1990] I would like to thank Larry W. Virden for his help with this document. ======================================================================== Hi! Welcome to the comp.sys.apple2 newsgroup! This article contains the answers to some Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) often seen in comp.sys.apple2. I am posting this article (once every three weeks or so) to help reduce the volume in this newsgroup and to provide hard-to-find information of general interest. I hope it answers some of your questions. Table of Contents: * What is comp.sys.apple2? What is INFO-APPLE? * What are the comp.binaries.apple2 and comp.sources.apple2 newsgroups? * What is BinSCII? What is Shrinkit? + What is a .Z, .bsq or .shk file? (some common filename extensions) * What is Kermit? * What is the current system disk? * What Apple II magazines are there? * What are technotes? What is FTP? What is BITFTP? * What are the Apple II FTP sites? * What is APPLE2-L? * What is APDA? * What is Executioner? + Recent Apple Computer Announcements and Changes * Future questions for the FAQ * Editors Notes + indicates questions new to this article * indicates questions/answers with changes of content since the last issue ======================================================================== Subject: What is comp.sys.apple2? What is INFO-APPLE? Comp.sys.apple2 is a Usenet newsgroup that was created for the discussion of the Apple II series of computers. This forum provides a way for interested people to compare notes, ask questions, and share insights about Apple IIs. It works by users posting a message via specialized software to a local file on their system, and that message being passed along to all of the 30,000+ other systems around the world that share Usenet files. INFO-APPLE is a mailing list that is maintained on some networks other than Usenet. Comp.sys.apple2 messages are sent to INFO-APPLE and INFO-APPLE messages are sent to comp.sys.apple2. The central location of INFO-APPLE is at apple.com Thank you, Apple Computer! I believe that the same kind of thing is being done for ProLine. Could someone please fill me in on some details? Does anyone know of other folks doing the same thing for other networks? On BITNET, LISTSERVers are available to distribute the mail messages. It works by maintaining a list of users who wish to see the messages in their mailbox. To subscribe (or (sadly) unsubscribe): send your request to info-apple-request@apple.com . Please do not send subscription requests to info-apple@apple.com!!!! To post a message to the thousands of readers of INFO-APPLE (and comp.sys.apple2) subscribers send their messages to INFO-APPLE@apple.com . There is no need for comp.sys.apple2 users to do this - they can use the standard posting features of Usenet. There is no need to subscribe to INFO-APPLE when you are getting comp.sys.apple2, since the messages are identical. Posting commercial/advertising is not only discouraged, it is not allowed under the rules of the Internet portion of the group. Since comp.sys.apple2 and info-apple are linked, commercial messages should not be sent on either of them. Instead, Usenet users can post their needs to misc.forsale.compute misc.forsale, or misc.wanted. Does anyone know what the Internet and BITNET folks are supposed to do? ======================================================================== Subject: What are the comp.binaries.apple2 and comp.sources.apple2 groups? Comp.binaries.apple2 is a newsgroup used to distribute public domain, freeware, and shareware Apple II software (executables, pictures, sounds, etc...). Software distributed on comp.binaries.apple2 is expected to be a BinSCII text file of Shrinkit archives. Comp.sources.apple2 is a newsgroup used to distribute public domain, freeware, and shareware Apple II source code. There are guidelines on the format in the comp.sources.apple2 newsgroup. Contact jac@paul.rutgers.edu for details. Discussions concerning the software posted in these groups, or the methods of accessing this software, or the archiving of this software, or any OTHER discussions that you could possibly dream of (and in fact many discussions that you would NEVER dream of seeing!) are to be held in comp.sys.apple2 . NO DISCUSSIONS, QUESTIONS, PLEAS FOR HELP, DISGRUNTLED OBJECTIONS, OR OTHER NON-RELATED MESSAGES ARE TO GO TO THESE GROUPS. Note: Distributing commercial software is a crime - just don't do it! ======================================================================== Subject: What is BinSCII? This is a program which takes an Apple file and converts it to a format suitable for transfer via email or 7 bit file transfer. The output is not self contained - one must use BinSCII on the receiving end to convert the file back into usable format. Advantages of BinSCII are that the files tend to be smaller (than the same file ran through Executioner, a similar program), and the conversion back into binary can be done without having to strip off mail headings, converting line feeds to carriage returns or executing a binary program that may not be a text decoding program. BinSCII also will break up your file into smaller pieces and is able to put the pieces back together without the user having to be careful what order he does things. Note 1: BinSCII does not keep track of what parts of what files you have and have not already decoded. This is a future enhancement. In the meantime, either watch that every segment is decoded, or use sciibin -v (show info only) to examine the text file before downloading and decoding. Note 2: Programs such as ShrinkIt do not currently know how to decode BinSCII. Use an un-BinSCII-ing program before attempting to extract the pieces. The current version of BinSCII is 1.0.3. The user interface isn't very pretty, but it's being worked on. Version 1.1 will be revamped and will support future enhancements pending in 2.0. Version 2.0 will change the encoding format drastically, making BinSCII portable to other systems. Encoded files will be interchangeable between any two implementations of BinSCII (for example: encode a file under Unix and decode the file on a Macintosh). When version 2.0 is available, its sources will be distributed (written in C). BinSCII was written by Dave Whitney <dcw@goldilocks.lcs.mit.edu, dcw@lcs.mit.edu or dcw@athena.mit.edu> of Zlink fame. Sub-Subject: Where can I get a copy of BinSCII? BinSCII is available via ftp from tybalt.caltech.edu (or any of the ftp sites listed later). BinSCII is occasionally posted to comp.binaries.apple2. One more place to find BinSCII is on the APPLE2-L listserver (file Apple2-L 89-01123). Todd Whitesel has re-encoded version 1.0.3 in a self-saving method similar to Executioner but more reliable. Grab that version (on tybalt) first and then you can easily decode future updates (which will be posted in both Executioner and BinSCII 1.0 formats). Sub-Subject: "Shrinkit won't do anything with the file I just spent X hours downloading. Why not?" If you have a text file in your hands that has some lines resembling: FiLeStArTfIlEsTaRt ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZabcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz0123456789() GBINSCII AQhmAAAAA8)4MIAI02DA9ARMQEDtAQhmAIVZ gYITA6u7xADA0MjM3YTNBlDOENkQwYURzITM2UDN5gzNDJUQGVERyEDM1QzM4cjN CFUOFR0QxAjR0MjM3YTNBlDOENkQwAQRzITM2UDN5gzNDJUQGVERyEDM1QzM4cjN .. then you've got something encoded by BinSCII. You must decode *all* the parts using BinSCII before attempting to extract using Shrinkit. On the other hand, if you have a file which resembles: start 666 nonsense.bny M4W5N3U,@4F5L96%S92 T+C$@*%-$4U0V,"D@(S@Z(%1U92!/8W0@.2 Q,CHS M...3HT.2!%1%0@,3DY, HT and more lines like that, followed by an: end then you have a uuencoded file. This is going to be tougher to decode. See the Apple II archives for at least one Apple IIgs uudecoder program. On the third hand, if you have a file which resembles: (This file must be converted with BinHex 4.0) :$&4)48C28N0&,P0*9!"6593K8dP8)3%!!!#L@!!!!!!Qie0*9#%!!3!!SPKb6'& e!3!!!!!!!!!#!!P8D'8J4QpbBf9P)IN33)(4$N#"d4K!JG%S!!!!!`!'VfJ!"VP then you have a BinHex file. This is going to be much tougher to decode. I don't know of a BinHex decoder for any Apple II. You will probably have to use a macintosh program to do the decoding (StuffIt, possibly BinHex). I believe there is a Unix implementation of BinHex called mcvert, but don't have the details here. Sub-Subject: Is there a Unix version of BinSCII? SciiBin is a C implementation of a BinSCII decoder. It works well under most Unix or Unix-like operating systems, AOS/VS and MSDOS. Note: SciiBin can only decode a BinSCII file! It cannot encode a binary file into BinSCII format. SciiBin version 1.10 was written by Marcel J.E. Mol. Version 1.20 had several corrections by Dave Whitney. The current version is 1.30 by Bruce Kahn. This version corrected a fair number of bugs and was a port to AOS/VS (where byte pointers are different than word pointers) and MSDOS (under Microsoft C v5.1). ======================================================================== Subject: What is Shrinkit? This is a program which takes one or more Apple II ProDOS files and 'archives' them into a NuFX archive. ShrinkIt typically shrinks the members of the NuFX archive with variations of the LZW (Lev-Zimpel-Welch) compression algorithm. Shrinkit has many options, such as whole disk compression, disk formatting, displaying text files, etc. Shrinkit also has the ability to extract BLU files members - more on BLU in a couple of questions. The current revision number of Shrinkit is 3.0.3. The IIgs version of Shrinkit is named GShk (the current version number is 1.0.3). GShk can do all that Shrinkit can do and more. Some of the additions are the ability to unarchive different archive types (Unix compress, PC Arc, Mac StuffIt) and the ability to create/extract Apple Single files - this is becoming more significant as resources are being used more frequently in IIgs software. GShk requires System Disk 5.0 . For specialized extractions, more than 1 meg of memory may be required. Shrinkit+ and UnShrinkit+ are two programs for the Apple II+. Shrinkit, GShk, Shrinkit+ and UnShrinkit+ were written by Andy Nicholas <shrinkit@apple.com>. Sub-Subject: What is nulib? Nulib is a C implementation of Shrinkit 1.0.2. It also works very well under most Unix or Unix-like operating systems. Nulib was written by Andy McFadden <fadden@cory.berkeley.edu>. Sub-Subject: What is BLU? BLU is the predecessor of Shrinkit. The goal of BLU was to take one or more Apple II ProDOS files and 'archive' them into a single Apple II file, maintaining the ProDOS file type information. It could perform a Huffman compression on the individual pieces if the user so desired. The resulting files were named Bunny files (.BNY). BLU files that were compressed were .BQY files. The current use of BLU is in telecommunications, where the filetype information is preserved. This is why you can find archives that are Shrinkit (or NuFX) archives wrapped in a BLU header. BLU was written by Floyd Zink, Jr., of Tex fame. ======================================================================== Subject: What is a .Z, .bsq or .shk file? (some common filename extensions) Filename extensions are simply the addition of more characters to the end of a filename (thus the extension). An example could be FRED.SHK. 'FRED' is the base filename. '.SHK' is a filename extension that happens to indicate that the file is probably a NuFX archive and you will need to run ShrinkIt to determine/extract its contents. Sometimes you will find multiple filename extensions, simply take the filename extensions apart one at a time and you should be able to reconstruct the original file. The following is a table of some of the filename extensions that you may encounter during your trips to Apple II ftp sites: Extension What does it usually mean --------- ---------------------------------------------------- .SHK The file is usually a NuFX archive created by ShrinkIt. Use ShrinkIt to extract the files. .BSQ This is usually a BinSCII'ized ShrinkIt file. Use BinSCII to extract a NuFX archive, then use ShrinkIt to extract the files. .BNY This is usually a BLU archive file. ShrinkIt can be used to extract its contents. These were previously referred to as Bunny files. .BNX This is a BLU wrapped ShrinkIt archive. Use ShrinkIt to extract the files (it will automatically go past the BLU header to extract the NuFX archived files). Note: This filename extension is found on GEnie. .EXE The file is usually the output of Executioner. To extract the file, simply 'EXEC' it from Basic Note: You may need to use DOS 3.3... it depends on the file you are extracting (sometimes they will contain a note which will tell you). .Z The file was compressed with the Unix compress command (LZW compression). Use the uncompress command to get the file. Alternatives include using GSHK (GS ShrinkIt) to uncompress or the APW/ORCA UNCOMPRESS utility (available at ftp sites). .tar The file is a Tape ARchive created under Unix. Use tar to extract the files (tar xvf filename) or if you don't have to extract the files, simply run them through another program. .tar.Z The file is a combination of the previous two items. You would need to uncompress the file, then use tar to extract the members. I have found ShrinkIt archives as BinSCII files in a tar archive that was compressed. Seems strange, but you may find a XXX.BSQ.tar.Z file somewhere. Good luck in your file decoding! ======================================================================== Subject: What is Kermit? Kermit itself is a file transfer protocol invented by Frank DeCruz of Columbia University. Typically in this group when one talks about kermit, they are talking about a program which supports the kermit protocol. There is at least one commercial program which supports kermit - ProTerm. But many folks are using Ted Medin's Kermit 3 (currently 3.86), a freely distributable version of a telecommunication program which supports kermit, xmodem, vt100 emulation, and many Apple II configurations. Kermit was written by Ted Medin <medin-t@shark.nosc.mil> The latest official version of kermit is available from Columbia University via electronic mail or ftp. Send electronic mail to KERMSERV@CUVMA.BITNET, a one line message of HELP will get you started. For FTP users, the site is watsun.cc.columbia.edu (128.59.39.2) and the Apple II files reside in the kermit/a directory. ======================================================================== Subject: What is the current system disk? Current Revision Disk name Number ------------------------ -------- DOS System Master ...... 3.3 All Apple IIs ProDOS 8 system disk ... 3.2 All Apple IIs with 64k or more IIgs System Disk ....... 5.0.3 Apple IIgs with 1Meg or more (smaller memory configurations may work, although they are not supported/tested). ProDOS 8 ............... 1.9 Available on the ProDOS 8 and Basic.System ........... 1.4.1 IIgs System Disks. The system disks should be available from your local Apple Computer dealer, a local Apple Users Group or from a commercial information system (GEnie, America On Line, or CompuServe). ======================================================================== Subject: What Apple II magazines are there? [Note: This question needs to be completed...] GS+ is a bi-monthly magazine for the Apple IIGS published on an Apple IIGS. This magazine is not as polished as some magazines, but they are honest and put together very good reviews and software. If they see something that is junk, they call it junk (just the way it should be!). Their idea is to show what an Apple IIGS can do and they succeed very well at doing exactly that. Some of their software is just downright great - their EGOed NDA editor is great, I also like their Shuffle Init (shuffles the active window between all open windows). I'm not being paid for this favorable point of view - I'm simply a very happy subscriber. Address: GS+ Subscription Services c/o EGO Systems P.O. Box 15366 Chattanooga, Tennessee 37415-0366 Voice: (615) 870-4960 (Mon-Fri 9am-6pm EST) FAX: (913) 469-6507 gs-plus BBS: (615) 875-4607 (2400 baud, 8 data bits, no parity, 1 stop bit) Electronic mail: Internet: diz@pro-gsplus.cts.com (editor) Subscription Price: magazine $15/year, disk+magazine $36/year magazine $3/issue, disk+magazine $8/issue First class mail service for $1.50/issue, $9/year Tennessee Residents add 5.5% sales tax. Chattanooga Residents add 7.25% sales tax. Canadian/Mexican orders add $1 extra postage. All other foreign orders add $6 surface, $30 air. Nibble d e v e l o p - see the section about APDA for information on d e v e l o p. inCider/A+ is a monthly Apple II/Macintosh magazine. Address: inCider/A+ P.O. Box 56818 Boulder, CO 80322-8618 Subscription: $27.97/year $43/2 years HyperStudio Network is a quarterly newsletter about HyperStudio. Membership in HSN will get you the newsletter (HyperStudio Forum), an annual 'Best of HyperStudio' disk of stacks and availability of discounts on HyperStudio accessories (including HyperStudio). This network seems to be a great place for teachers to get information/stacks. HyperPostCards is their current big success. The idea is to get students to include information about themselves and to distribute the HyperStudio stacks from one school to another. It works much like postcards would. I don't have more details, so I'm stopping. Address: HyperStudio Network Box 103 Blawenburg, NJ 08504 Phone: (609) 466-3196 Subscription/Membership: $29 for 1 year, $55 for 2 years. Institutional Membership: $99 for 1 year, $189 for 2 years. Includes 20 copies of both HyperStudio Forum and the annual "Best of HyperStudio" disk. ??? - is the Basic (or was that Z-Basic) programmer's magazine (sorry about being vague... I just don't have the information with me... and never subscribed to a couple of these magazines) A2-Central publishes several Apple II magazines: A2-Central - The Apple II newsletter, there is an optional disk version. This is a monthly publication. All of their other publications are 3.5" disk based only. For the IIGS, the program to use is HyperStudio (they include the runtime version, in case you don't have HyperStudio). For other IIs, they include a text browser. Although any text browser will do the job. I don't know if this applies to all of the magazines or not (guess I should call again...). 8/16-Central - Monthly Apple II programmers disk magazine. 8/16-Central will include programs, sources and articles. Stack Central - HyperStudio-based disk. Each issue is a collection of HyperStudio additions. My guess is that it includes things like Clip Art/Sounds, XCMDs, PD Stacks and so on. There were some articles in the demo that I saw - I can't say any more than this. Except that there are two disks per issue - every other month. TimeOut Central - every other month - all about TimeOut additions and AppleWorks. Includes UltraMacros Macros, Templates and so forth. There is one disk per issue. Hyperbole - Will begin in January. This disk based publication is not about computers. It is HyperStudio based stories and poetry and so on. Address: A2-Central (or is it Resource Central now?) P.O. Box 11250 Overland Park, KS 66207 Voice: (913) 469-6502 FAX: (913) 469-6507 Electronic mail on GEnie: A2-CENTRAL, UNCLE-DOS, or DENNIS.DOMS The Road Apple - An Apple // "End Users" Underground Newsletter Published six times a year. Address: 1121 NE 177th, Suite B Portland, OR 97230 Telephone: (503) 254-3874. Subscription price: $9.95 per year (6 issues) Computist - a publication devoted to gathering and distributing information on removing copy protection from Apple II software. Address: P.O. Box 110846 Tacoma, WA 98411 Softdisk and Softdisk GS - monthly disk magazines containing a variety of software. Softdisk is available on 5.25" or 3.5" disks. Softdisk GS is available only on 3.5" disks. Address: Softdisk Publishing P.O. Box 30008 Shreveport, LA 71130-0008 Phone: 1-800-831-2694 1-318-221-8718 Subscription: Softdisk: $19.95/3 months Softdisk GS: $29.95/3 months Both: $39.95/3 months ======================================================================== Subject: What are technotes? [Note: I want to expand this answer, but haven't had enough time] Technotes are short topics addressing questions that Apple's Apple II Developer Technical Support staff members get from outside developers. Technotes are divided into various categories including (but not limited to): Apple IIc hardware, Apple II hardwaree, Imagewriter, Memory Expansion, ProDOS 8, GS/OS and IIgs hardware. The idea of technotes is to distribute information about Apple computers that isn't readily available from any other source. The hundreds of pages are well worth the effort to get. DTS really does a great job with technotes! (Thanks DTS!!!) You can find Apple II technotes on the FTP sites, or the commercial information systems. Another source of technotes is APDA, where one can order printed or diskette subscriptions to the technotes. ======================================================================== Subject: What is FTP? FTP is a program available to many schools and certain businesses which are connected to Internet. This program permits file transfers over a high speed international network. Note: FTP with remote hosts is a privilege! The remote sites can stop their FTP service if so they desire. Please try to restrict your FTP usage to off-peak hours. Some basic directions to get you started with FTP follow: Enter the FTP program (type FTP, if you get an FTP command prompt then you're in the FTP program). Type: open <site> ; This command will establish ; a connection to a remote site. Where <site> is the name or address of the remote FTP site from which you are trying to retrieve files. You will be prompted for a username. Type: anonymous ; The username anonymous is ; recognized by many FTP sites ; as a guest account. You will be prompted for a password. Type: your electronic mail address ; The password is usually your ; Internet return mail address. ; In my case it is ; dave@mystie.webo.dg.com Now you are logged onto the remote host. Some commands you might want to use after you log on follow: dir ; Show me a listing of the files ; in the current directory dir <directory> [<local filename>]; Put a copy of a listing of the ; files that are in directory ; into a file on my machine for ; later perusal. cd <directory> ; Change the current directory ; to <direcory>. pub is typically ; where the public's files are ; stored. type binary ; Change the way a file is sent ; from the default of ASCII ; (7 bits) to binary (8 bits). ; There are sometimes other ; modes, such as tenex. get <filename> [<local filename>]; Retrieve a file (named ; <filename>) from the ; remote host to your local ; host. If you supply a second ; argument, then the remote ; file is stored as that local ; filename. put <filename> ; Send a file to the remote ; host. mget <template> ; Retrieve multiple files ; according to the template. ; The README files of each host ; should explain templates. close ; Close the connection to the ; remote host. csh ; Start a local C shell ; (sometimes this is renamed ; to whatever the local command ; shell is named - here it is ; named CLI). bye ; Close any outstanding ; connection and exit the FTP ; program. ======================================================================== Subject: What is BITFTP? Contrary to popular belief, FTP is available from BITNET, in a way. There is a server at bitftp@pucc.BITNET (or bitftp@pucc.princeton.edu) which will process your requests. Mail a message there with the proper commands in it and it will attempt to FTP and send the results back to you in a mail file. The files you actually get are sent as BITNET NETDATA files to BITNET sites, or uuencoded for non-BITNET sites. Anyways, a sample file would be: ftp tybalt.caltech.edu user anonymous password {which can be anything, but is normally your address} cd pub dir cd apple2/uploads dir get cosmocade.a.bsq get cosmocade.b.bsq bye This will list the directories that you change into, and then get the files. What you receive back will be several pieces. First, everyone would receive back a mail message showing BITFTP attempting your transaction. Look at this closely, as any errors in the file names, as well as the results from the dir commands will be in this message. If you are on a BITNET site, your get commands will return the get files into your NETDATA queue. Each BITNET site implementation varies, so the description here will be specific to the VMS operating system. To get the files from the queue, simply use the 'receive' command. Binary files are a little special. They will require you to 'receive/binary', but there is still a problem because you will find a carriage return after every 255 characters (or so). Use 'EDT/FDL binftp.fdl' to edit an FDL (file definition language) file that has an option to turn off 'carriage control'. Finally, type 'convert/fdl=binftp.fdl inputfile.ext outputfile.ext'. This isn't as bad as it sounds, but it's more hassle than it should be. For non-VMS systems, you should contact your local BITNET administrator for assistance. Obviously, you need to know what the directories are before you get in them, which means that each time you need to send a new message. This isn't terribly exciting, but that's how it is. Internet's ftp is much easier, but the capability is still there for BITNET. [I'd like to Thank Henry Throop <THROOP@GRIN1.BITNET, throoph@jacobs.cs.orst.edu> for this set of answers.] ======================================================================== Subject: What are the Apple II FTP sites? Here is a list of the sites that have Apple II software available by anonymous FTP. It is current as of 11/5/90. Site Name Site Number Directory -------------------- -------------- -------------------------- apple.com 130.43.2.2 pub/DTS/aii ftp.apple.com 130.43.2.3 <future home for the above> ummts.cc.umich.edu 35.1.1.43 pc5: shark.nosc.mil 128.49.80.1 ker*mit. watsun.cc.columbia.edu 128.59.39.2 kermit/a brownvm.brown.edu 128.148.128.40 listserv.193 f.ms.uky.edu 128.163.128.6 pub/appleII wuarchive.wustl.edu 128.252.135.4 usenet/comp.binaries.apple2 tybalt.caltech.edu 131.215.139.100 pub/apple2 plains.nodak.edu 134.129.111.64 pub/appleII avalanche.berkeley.edu 128.32.234.22 pub/Apple2 isca 128.255.19.175 unix/apple2 [I'd like to thank Todd A. Bakal <Internet: Tabakal@ub.cc.umich.edu, Tab@terminator.cc.umich.edu, UUCP: ...!uunet!ub.cc.umich.edu!tabakal, BITNET: Tabakal@UMICHUB for this table of FTP sites] ======================================================================== Subject: What is APPLE2-L? [Note: This answer needs expanding too...] APPLE2-L is an archive of Apple II programs provided by a BITNET mail server (LISTSERV@BROWNVM.BITNET). Interactive BITNET messages are also supported. Send the following message to get help information: help index apple2-l Chris Chung <CHRIS@BROWNVM> administers APPLE2-L (Thanks Chris!) ======================================================================== Subject: What is APDA? [Note: This is another answer in need of more work... a decent explanation of Developer Express... next time it'll be better] The Apple Programmers and Developers Association (APDA) provides a way for developers to get development tools that are sometimes very difficult to find. For a year's membership ($20), you are sent a quarterly catalog of all the available software, manuals, etc. available through APDA. Developer Express is a way for non-APDA members to be able to order items from APDA. I don't have the details of Developer Express here... I believe that anyone can order Class 1 items (IE: XXX) from APDA through Developer Express. Software available through APDA include the following: MIDI Synth/synthLAB - MIDI Synth/synthLAB is a second generation note synthesizer for the Apple IIGS. By integrating a completely new sequencer, MIDI interface and synthesizer into one programming tool, MIDI Synth offers developers a powerful but simple solution to many of their sound needs. Because of this integration, most of the work required by an application is handled by the tool. synthLAB is a demo application that shows the power of the new MIDI Synth toolset for the Apple IIGS. synthLAB can be used to create the intruments needed for applications, either by modifying existing ones or by creating totally new and original ones. synthLAB's recorder can be used to record custom sequences used in applications. synthLAB is built around MIDI Synth and makes a great learning tool in understanding how MIDI Synth works. This package includes one 3.5" disk containing the MIDI Synth Tool set (tool 35) and synthLAB (a demo application that highlights the sheer power of the MIDI Synth Tool set). Also included is documentation on each of the tool calls within that Tool set, and a user manual for synthLAB. The APDA part number is 'A0250LL/A" (better known as "MIDI Synth/synthLAB Version 1.0B3"). The price is $25. [The above was stolen without permission from 8/16-Central, they took the information from A2Pro on GEnie.] Apple II Video Overlay Card Development Kit v1.1 - This kit provides basic design information about the Apple II Video Overlay Card. The notes include information on how the Apple II Video Overlay Card works with application programs, descriptions of the Vidio I/O Interface Tool Set routines for controlling the operation of the Apple II Video Overlay Card, and overview of the Apple II Video Expansion Bus (AVEB) architecture, and a description of the relevant new features incorporated into the Apple IIGS VideoMix desk accessory and the Apple IIe Video Setup program. The disk includes interfaces for the APW and MPW IIGS development systems and an object file for Apple IIe programmers. The disk also includes Tool 33 (ther Video Overlay Card tool), the VideoMix desk accessory (for the Apple IIGS), and the Apple IIe Video Setup program. APDA part number is 'A0221LL/B', price is $35. [The above is stolen from the Summer 1990 APDALog without permission]. GSBug and Debugging Tools v. 4.0B1 - This beta version of Apple Computer's machine-language debugger works on any Apple IIGS with System Software v. 4.0 or later. With GSBug, you can step through your code; save a trace history to a file on disk; define breakpoints and insert them into your code; define and use memory protection windows; and view the debugger's master display, which shows the contents of the 65816 registers, breakpoints, and memory-protection ranges that you have set, portions of the stack and memory, and a disassembly of your program's code. Also included with GSBug are the Loader Dumper, Memory Mandler, and Scrambler classic desk accessories (CDAs). Loader Dumper lets you see where in memory the System Loader has loaded each segment of your program and gives you information about the various tables and variables that the loader uses. Memory Mangler lets you execute a variety of Memory Manager routines and provides lists of the memory blocks that are in use, purged, and disposed of by the Memory Manager. Scrambler helps you find out whether your application has incorrectly dereferenced a memory handle by not having first locked the handle. The GS/OS Exerciser, also included with this package, lets you "exercise" GS/OS by practicing its calls from the keyboard. This utility is supplied as both an application and as a CDA. APDA part number is 'A0037LL/A', price is $30. [The above is stolen from the Fall 1990 APDALog without permission]. d e v e l o p - The Apple Technical Journal, contains articles and samples about creating hardware and software for Apple computers. The articles and code in d e v e l o p are intended to lead you into Insidr Macintosh. Each issue contains source code (provided on the CD-ROM disc) that you can use in your application. Each journal also includes questions and answers from the Macintosh and Apple II Developer Technical Support groups. All of the journal articles and source code are included on the compact disc that comes with d e v e l o p. The disc also includes essential tools for developers: international versions of system software, international HyperCard, Developer Technical Support Notes stacks, and electronic versions of selected Apple developer documentation, such as SpInside Machintosh. If you don't have a CD-ROM drive, you will be able to find the contents of the disc on AppleLine, the Apple FTP site on the internet, and other on-line services in the near future. If you're a certified developer, Partner, or Associate, you'll receive one copy of d e v e l o p every quarter as part of your developer package. A subscription to d e v e l o p is $27 for U.S. subscribers and $47 for international subscribers. The following back issues of d e v e l o p are available at a price of $10 per issue: M0901LL/A d e v e l o p issue 1 January 1990 M0902LL/A d e v e l o p issue 2 April 1990 M0903LL/A d e v e l o p issue 3 July 1990 M0904LL/A d e v e l o p issue 4 October 1990 [The above is stolen from the Fall 1990 APDALog without permission]. APDA is run by Apple Computer. Address: APDA Apple Computer, Inc. 20525 Mariani Avenue, Mail Stop 33G Cupertino, California 95014-6299 Phone: 1-800-282-2732 (U.S.) 1-800-637-0029 (Canada) 1-408-562-3910 (International) 1-408-562-3971 (Fax) 171-576 (Telex) Electronic Mail: APDA (AppleLink) A.DEVELOPER3 (GEnie) 76666,2405 (CompuServe) POSTROM (MCI) APDA (MacNet) ======================================================================== Subject: What is Executioner? Executioner was the standard program that converted Apple II files into text to be mailed/posted. It is no longer considered the standard on comp.binaries.apple2. Executioner was like BinSCII, in that it translated an Apple II file into text to be send via email or 7 bit wide transfer methods. Only the 4 bit mode was safe to use (other modes used characters that got translated incorrectly between machines on the network). Currently, Executioner is typically only used to distribute BinSCII. Some older files in the various archives may also be encoded with this program. To translate an Executioner text file to an Apple II file required that you delete the mail headers/trailers, translated the newlines into carriage returns, download the file to your Apple II and from Applesoft Basic, type the command 'EXEC <filename>' where <filename> is the name of the file you downloaded. Note: After the last line of the Executioner text, there needs to be a blank line. This blank line indicates the end of the text that gets translated back into an Apple II file. Executioner was written by Glen Bredon, of ProCMD and ProSEL fame. Sub-Subject: Long directions to extract a file in Executioner format. (I'm assuming that you can edit a file before you download it. If this isn't the case, do all the editing after you download it and translate the new lines to carriage returns - kermit can do this translation for you). First lets determine if you have an executioner file. The first line after all the headers (mail addresses, text, etc...) will be: CALL -151 If you have found a CALL -151 then you probably have an executioner format file. Delete all the lines above the CALL -151 so that it is the first line of the file. Now edit the other end of the file. You should find something like a line string of numbers (and letters) followed by a blank line which is followed by a BSAVE command and then a E00G command. Make sure that the blank line contains no characters (other than the newline to get the blank line). Delete any lines that may follow the E00G command. These are typically signature lines. Make sure that there are no spaces before the text of each line (1,$<< in vi). Save the file to be downloaded. Note: If you edited the file on your apple, then you must make sure that you write a text file back to the disk (A save command from AppleWorks isn't good enough, you'll have to print the file to disk from AppleWorks). Now translate the new lines to carriage returns. On Unix systems the command is: tr '\012' '\015' < inputfile > outputfile Other possible methods to do the translation is to download using the kermit program (it can translate new lines to carriage returns for you) or a program on your apple. I believe that the davex shell has a TR command that can do the translation for you. I also believe that there are several other programs that can do the translation for you. List is a file browser that can print to disk. TextDragon works on the IIGS. Use whatever method you can, just get the new lines translated into carriage returns. Download the edited/translated file - I'm not going into any detail here. Just get the file downloaded. You may have already completed this step, if you had to edit/translate the file on your apple. Just get the edited/translated file onto a disk for your Apple. Boot ProDOS and get into Basic, then set the prefix so the edited/translated file is available. Now type 'exec filename', where filename is the edited/translated text file. You should see a ']' prompt followed by lots of '*' prompts. A while later, you will see couple more ']' prompts then everything should stop with a ']' prompt. You should see a new file in your directory. If the filetype is wrong (it may have to be a particular type, for BinSCII it must be type SYS), then you can try the EXEC command again - which will probably work the second time. An alternative (if EXEC doesn't do the trick) is to change the file type with file type changer. An example will probably help, so lets try to walk through one. The following is a 'edited' file that I just got from the APPLE2-L listserver (actually file APPLE2-L.87-00031) - my editing was simply to make its size manageable for this example. Note: The '****'s are to mark the start/end of the file and are not actually contained in the file itself. Here is the file: ************************************************************************* Date: Sat, 15 Aug 87 23:14 EST Reply-To: Apple II List <APPLE2-L@BROWNVM> Sender: Apple II List <APPLE2-L@BROWNVM> From: SEWALL@UCONNVM Subject: Chameleon 2 of 2 files cham.exe (EXEC under ProDOS)-----------Cut Here-------------------- CALL-151 E00:38 A5 FF D0 32 D8 20 8E FD AD 30 BF 8D 6A 0E 20 00 BF C7 6D 0E 0D 80 02 E18:D0 1D 20 00 BF C5 69 0E B0 15 AD 81 02 29 0F AA E8 8E 80 02 A9 2F 8D 81 E30:02 20 00 BF C6 6D 0E A2 08 B0 0E 20 00 BF C3 70 0E B0 06 A2 26 20 53 0E E48:AA 20 53 0E 4C D0 03 20 ED FD E8 BD 59 0E D0 F7 60 A0 F3 E1 F6 E5 E4 8D E60:00 C5 F2 F2 EF F2 87 8D 00 02 00 81 02 01 80 02 07 7E 0E 01 FF 00 20 00 E78:00 00 78 AE 00 00 0B C3 C8 C1 CD AE D3 D9 D3 D4 C5 CD 00 F00:D8 A0 00 84 FF 88 84 E0 A9 0F 85 E1 20 67 FD A0 00 A2 FF 20 2F 0F E6 E0 F18:D0 02 E6 E1 0A 0A 0A 0A 91 E0 20 2F 0F 11 E0 91 E0 45 FF 85 FF 90 E4 E8 F30:BD 00 02 09 80 C9 A0 F0 F6 49 B0 C9 0A 90 17 69 88 09 20 C9 FA B0 0C 68 F48:68 E0 04 B0 BF 98 91 E0 4C 69 FF 18 29 0F 60 F00G A90885A420732090242039FB2058FCA200BD9220F00620EDFDE8D0F5200CFDA9 008DF2038DF3038DF4036CFCFFE6A4A5A4C96F90CFA9008DFCBFA9018DFDBFA0 28B94D209900028810F74C0002A9028508A9088509A9C08506A9208507A000B1 . . . A0B7D1D78D8DDFDFDFDFDFDFDFDFDFDFDFDFDFDFDFDFDFDFDFDFDFDFDFDFDFDF DFDFDFDFDFDFDFDFDFDFDFDFDFDF8D002C10C02C00C010FB2C10C060CC BSAVE CHAM.SYSTEM,A$1000,L$4C3C E00G ************************************************************************* Since I found the CALL -151 command, I know its an executioner format file. Now I do all my editing on it and the result looks like the following: ************************************************************************* CALL-151 E00:38 A5 FF D0 32 D8 20 8E FD AD 30 BF 8D 6A 0E 20 00 BF C7 6D 0E 0D 80 02 E18:D0 1D 20 00 BF C5 69 0E B0 15 AD 81 02 29 0F AA E8 8E 80 02 A9 2F 8D 81 E30:02 20 00 BF C6 6D 0E A2 08 B0 0E 20 00 BF C3 70 0E B0 06 A2 26 20 53 0E E48:AA 20 53 0E 4C D0 03 20 ED FD E8 BD 59 0E D0 F7 60 A0 F3 E1 F6 E5 E4 8D E60:00 C5 F2 F2 EF F2 87 8D 00 02 00 81 02 01 80 02 07 7E 0E 01 FF 00 20 00 E78:00 00 78 AE 00 00 0B C3 C8 C1 CD AE D3 D9 D3 D4 C5 CD 00 F00:D8 A0 00 84 FF 88 84 E0 A9 0F 85 E1 20 67 FD A0 00 A2 FF 20 2F 0F E6 E0 F18:D0 02 E6 E1 0A 0A 0A 0A 91 E0 20 2F 0F 11 E0 91 E0 45 FF 85 FF 90 E4 E8 F30:BD 00 02 09 80 C9 A0 F0 F6 49 B0 C9 0A 90 17 69 88 09 20 C9 FA B0 0C 68 F48:68 E0 04 B0 BF 98 91 E0 4C 69 FF 18 29 0F 60 F00G A90885A420732090242039FB2058FCA200BD9220F00620EDFDE8D0F5200CFDA9 008DF2038DF3038DF4036CFCFFE6A4A5A4C96F90CFA9008DFCBFA9018DFDBFA0 28B94D209900028810F74C0002A9028508A9088509A9C08506A9208507A000B1 . . . A0B7D1D78D8DDFDFDFDFDFDFDFDFDFDFDFDFDFDFDFDFDFDFDFDFDFDFDFDFDFDF DFDFDFDFDFDFDFDFDFDFDFDFDFDF8D002C10C02C00C010FB2C10C060CC BSAVE CHAM.SYSTEM,A$1000,L$4C3C E00G ************************************************************************* I execute the 'tr' command on my Unix system and download the resulting file. Once I get it to my IIGS, then (from Basic) I type: EXEC FILE Lots of '*'s later I find CHAM.SYSTEM on my disk. (BEEEP) This concludes the test of the emergency executioner translation example. ======================================================================== Subject: Recent Apple Computer Announcements and Changes The Apple IIc+ was dropped from price lists (I really liked the //c+, I even bought my parents one). ProDOS 8 1.9 was announced in September 1990. System Software 5.0.3 was announced in November 1990. System Software 5.0.4 has not been announced (that I've been able to see), however it will be released very shortly. This system software will fix the bugs that stopped the distribution of system software 5.0.3. I believe that the bugs have something to do with printer drivers and low memory conditions - but this is just the rumor that I happened to see. HyperCard IIGS was announced in December at AppleFest. It will become available from Apple Computer Dealers in February 1991 for $99. HCGS will require 1.5meg (although 2meg is recommended). ======================================================================== Subject: Future questions for the FAQ This is the section where you get to peek into the future of the FAQ list. Here is where some questions that may take me a while to incorporate correctly. Since I have the questions I thought that I'd present them here. Where can I find Apple II software? Where can I get commercial hardware and/or software? Mention where to find listings (is there anyone doing decent reviews any longer?) Where can I find out how to do XYZ? (fill in the XYZ) Common Apple II general questions: Are there any free programming languages for the Apple II line? Mad Forth (other Forths?) Hyper-C - a shareware package with no one at the address to receive the money? Applesoft and various freeware and shareware extensions (mention some that are available on Apple2-l and comp.*.apple2) How do I get out of AppleSoft? Type 'bye'. Scheme (for the IIgs). What versions of BASIC are available for the Apple II line? TML Basic, Micol Basic, Z-Basic, Beagle Compiler What versions of C language are available for the Apple II line? Orca C, APW C, Manx Aztec C What versions of other languages (Pascal, Forth, Scheme, etc) TML Pascal, Orca Pascal, GS Forth, there was a Lisp at one time, Pecan Power Systems Pascal, FORTRAN, and BASIC What versions of assemblers are available? Orca/M, Orca/M GS, APW, Merlin 8/16+, Lisa, EDASM, others? ByteWorks : 1-505-898-8183 4700 Irving Blvd NW Suite 207 Albuquerque, NM 87114 Common Apple IIe specific questions: Common Apple IIc specific questions: Common IIgs specific questions: What does it mean when my IIgs crashes with a $0911 unclaimed interrupt? Redmond Cable has an ADB Y-connector cable for separating your mouse from the side of your keyboard (also can be used to work around a failing ADB port on the keyboard). Their address is: Redmond Cable Corporation, 17371-A1 NE 67th Ct, Redmond, WA 98052, (206) 882-2009. When your battery dies get a the 'Slide-On Battery Replacement Kit' from Night Owl Productions: Address: Nite Owl Productions Slide-On Battery Dept. 5734 Lamar Street Mission, KS 66202 Phone: (913) 362-9898 Price: 14:95 plus $2 for shipping ======================================================================== Subject: Editors Notes This is the second revision of the FAQ for comp.sys.apple2. I apologize in advance for any of the errors (typographical, logical, or otherwise). With you patience (and help!) this frequently asked questions (with answers) article will improve. I would appreciate hearing from you if you have an addition, correction, or to complain to me about what I did wrong. Please send me electronic mail at one of the following addresses: Internet: dave@mystie.webo.dg.com or: dave%dgc.mceo.dg.com@relay.cs.net GEnie: D.Kopper Apple II Forever!!!!! David Kopper
dave@mystie.webo.dg.com (David Kopper) (01/21/91)
[Last edited on January 21, 1991] I would like to thank Larry W. Virden for his help with this document. ======================================================================== Hi! Welcome to the comp.sys.apple2 newsgroup! This article contains the answers to some Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) often seen in comp.sys.apple2. I am posting this article (once every three weeks or so) to help reduce the volume in this newsgroup and to provide hard-to-find information of general interest. I hope it answers some of your questions. * Table of Contents: (contents were reordered) What is comp.sys.apple2? What is INFO-APPLE? What are the comp.binaries.apple2 and comp.sources.apple2 newsgroups? What is BinSCII? What is Executioner? What is Shrinkit? What is a .Z, .bsq or .shk file? (some common filename extensions) What are the Apple II FTP sites? What is APPLE2-L? What is FTP? * What is BITFTP? What is Kermit? * What is the current system disk? What are technotes? What is APDA? What Apple II magazines are there? Recent Apple Computer Announcements and Changes Future questions for the FAQ * Editors Notes + indicates questions new to this article * indicates questions/answers with changes of content since the last issue ======================================================================== Subject: What is comp.sys.apple2? What is INFO-APPLE? Comp.sys.apple2 is a Usenet newsgroup that was created for the discussion of the Apple II series of computers. This forum provides a way for interested people to compare notes, ask questions, and share insights about Apple IIs. It works by users posting a message via specialized software to a local file on their system, and that message being passed along to all of the 30,000+ other systems around the world that share Usenet files. INFO-APPLE is a mailing list that is maintained on some networks other than Usenet. Comp.sys.apple2 messages are sent to INFO-APPLE and INFO-APPLE messages are sent to comp.sys.apple2. The central location of INFO-APPLE is at apple.com Thank you, Apple Computer! I believe that the same kind of thing is being done for ProLine. Could someone please fill me in on some details? Does anyone know of other folks doing the same thing for other networks? On BITNET, LISTSERVers are available to distribute the mail messages. It works by maintaining a list of users who wish to see the messages in their mailbox. To subscribe (or (sadly) unsubscribe): send your request to info-apple-request@apple.com . Please do not send subscription requests to info-apple@apple.com!!!! To post a message to the thousands of readers of INFO-APPLE (and comp.sys.apple2) subscribers send their messages to INFO-APPLE@apple.com . There is no need for comp.sys.apple2 users to do this - they can use the standard posting features of Usenet. There is no need to subscribe to INFO-APPLE when you are getting comp.sys.apple2, since the messages are identical. Posting commercial/advertising is not only discouraged, it is not allowed under the rules of the Internet portion of the group. Since comp.sys.apple2 and info-apple are linked, commercial messages should not be sent on either of them. Instead, Usenet users can post their needs to misc.forsale.compute misc.forsale, or misc.wanted. Does anyone know what the Internet and BITNET folks are supposed to do? ======================================================================== Subject: What are the comp.binaries.apple2 and comp.sources.apple2 groups? Comp.binaries.apple2 is a newsgroup used to distribute public domain, freeware, and shareware Apple II software (executables, pictures, sounds, etc...). Software distributed on comp.binaries.apple2 is expected to be a BinSCII text file of Shrinkit archives. Comp.sources.apple2 is a newsgroup used to distribute public domain, freeware, and shareware Apple II source code. There are guidelines on the format in the comp.sources.apple2 newsgroup. Contact jac@paul.rutgers.edu for details. Discussions concerning the software posted in these groups, or the methods of accessing this software, or the archiving of this software, or any OTHER discussions that you could possibly dream of (and in fact many discussions that you would NEVER dream of seeing!) are to be held in comp.sys.apple2 . NO DISCUSSIONS, QUESTIONS, PLEAS FOR HELP, DISGRUNTLED OBJECTIONS, OR OTHER NON-RELATED MESSAGES ARE TO GO TO THESE GROUPS. Note: Distributing commercial software is a crime - just don't do it! ======================================================================== Subject: What is BinSCII? This is a program which takes an Apple file and converts it to a format suitable for transfer via email or 7 bit file transfer. The output is not self contained - one must use BinSCII on the receiving end to convert the file back into usable format. Advantages of BinSCII are that the files tend to be smaller (than the same file ran through Executioner, a similar program), and the conversion back into binary can be done without having to strip off mail headings, converting line feeds to carriage returns or executing a binary program that may not be a text decoding program. BinSCII also will break up your file into smaller pieces and is able to put the pieces back together without the user having to be careful what order he does things. Note 1: BinSCII does not keep track of what parts of what files you have and have not already decoded. This is a future enhancement. In the meantime, either watch that every segment is decoded, or use sciibin -v (show info only) to examine the text file before downloading and decoding. Note 2: Programs such as ShrinkIt do not currently know how to decode BinSCII. Use an un-BinSCII-ing program before attempting to extract the pieces. The current version of BinSCII is 1.0.3. The user interface isn't very pretty, but it's being worked on. Version 1.1 will be revamped and will support future enhancements pending in 2.0. Version 2.0 will change the encoding format drastically, making BinSCII portable to other systems. Encoded files will be interchangeable between any two implementations of BinSCII (for example: encode a file under Unix and decode the file on a Macintosh). When version 2.0 is available, its sources will be distributed (written in C). BinSCII was written by Dave Whitney <dcw@goldilocks.lcs.mit.edu, dcw@lcs.mit.edu or dcw@athena.mit.edu> of Zlink fame. Sub-Subject: Where can I get a copy of BinSCII? BinSCII is available via ftp from tybalt.caltech.edu (or any of the ftp sites listed later). BinSCII is occasionally posted to comp.binaries.apple2. One more place to find BinSCII is on the APPLE2-L listserver (file Apple2-L 89-01123). Todd Whitesel has re-encoded version 1.0.3 in a self-saving method similar to Executioner but more reliable. Grab that version (on tybalt) first and then you can easily decode future updates (which will be posted in both Executioner and BinSCII 1.0 formats). Sub-Subject: "Shrinkit won't do anything with the file I just spent X hours downloading. Why not?" If you have a text file in your hands that has some lines resembling: FiLeStArTfIlEsTaRt ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZabcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz0123456789() GBINSCII AQhmAAAAA8)4MIAI02DA9ARMQEDtAQhmAIVZ gYITA6u7xADA0MjM3YTNBlDOENkQwYURzITM2UDN5gzNDJUQGVERyEDM1QzM4cjN CFUOFR0QxAjR0MjM3YTNBlDOENkQwAQRzITM2UDN5gzNDJUQGVERyEDM1QzM4cjN .. then you've got something encoded by BinSCII. You must decode *all* the parts using BinSCII before attempting to extract using Shrinkit. On the other hand, if you have a file which resembles: start 666 nonsense.bny M4W5N3U,@4F5L96%S92 T+C$@*%-$4U0V,"D@(S@Z(%1U92!/8W0@.2 Q,CHS M...3HT.2!%1%0@,3DY, HT and more lines like that, followed by an: end then you have a uuencoded file. This is going to be tougher to decode. See the Apple II archives for at least one Apple IIgs uudecoder program. On the third hand, if you have a file which resembles: (This file must be converted with BinHex 4.0) :$&4)48C28N0&,P0*9!"6593K8dP8)3%!!!#L@!!!!!!Qie0*9#%!!3!!SPKb6'& e!3!!!!!!!!!#!!P8D'8J4QpbBf9P)IN33)(4$N#"d4K!JG%S!!!!!`!'VfJ!"VP then you have a BinHex file. This is going to be much tougher to decode. I don't know of a BinHex decoder for any Apple II. You will probably have to use a macintosh program to do the decoding (StuffIt, possibly BinHex). I believe there is a Unix implementation of BinHex called mcvert, but don't have the details here. Sub-Subject: Is there a Unix version of BinSCII? SciiBin is a C implementation of a BinSCII decoder. It works well under most Unix or Unix-like operating systems, AOS/VS and MSDOS. Note: SciiBin can only decode a BinSCII file! It cannot encode a binary file into BinSCII format. SciiBin version 1.10 was written by Marcel J.E. Mol. Version 1.20 had several corrections by Dave Whitney. The current version is 1.30 by Bruce Kahn. This version corrected a fair number of bugs and was a port to AOS/VS (where byte pointers are different than word pointers) and MSDOS (under Microsoft C v5.1). ======================================================================== Subject: What is Executioner? Executioner was the standard program that converted Apple II files into text to be mailed/posted. It is no longer considered the standard on comp.binaries.apple2. Executioner was like BinSCII, in that it translated an Apple II file into text to be send via email or 7 bit wide transfer methods. Only the 4 bit mode was safe to use (other modes used characters that got translated incorrectly between machines on the network). Currently, Executioner is typically only used to distribute BinSCII. Some older files in the various archives may also be encoded with this program. To translate an Executioner text file to an Apple II file required that you delete the mail headers/trailers, translated the newlines into carriage returns, download the file to your Apple II and from Applesoft Basic, type the command 'EXEC <filename>' where <filename> is the name of the file you downloaded. Note: After the last line of the Executioner text, there needs to be a blank line. This blank line indicates the end of the text that gets translated back into an Apple II file. Executioner was written by Glen Bredon, of ProCMD and ProSEL fame. Sub-Subject: Long directions to extract a file in Executioner format. (I'm assuming that you can edit a file before you download it. If this isn't the case, do all the editing after you download it and translate the new lines to carriage returns - kermit can do this translation for you). First lets determine if you have an executioner file. The first line after all the headers (mail addresses, text, etc...) will be: CALL -151 If you have found a CALL -151 then you probably have an executioner format file. Delete all the lines above the CALL -151 so that it is the first line of the file. Now edit the other end of the file. You should find something like a line string of numbers (and letters) followed by a blank line which is followed by a BSAVE command and then a E00G command. Make sure that the blank line contains no characters (other than the newline to get the blank line). Delete any lines that may follow the E00G command. These are typically signature lines. Make sure that there are no spaces before the text of each line (1,$<< in vi). Save the file to be downloaded. Note: If you edited the file on your apple, then you must make sure that you write a text file back to the disk (A save command from AppleWorks isn't good enough, you'll have to print the file to disk from AppleWorks). Now translate the new lines to carriage returns. On Unix systems the command is: tr '\012' '\015' < inputfile > outputfile Other possible methods to do the translation is to download using the kermit program (it can translate new lines to carriage returns for you) or a program on your apple. I believe that the davex shell has a TR command that can do the translation for you. I also believe that there are several other programs that can do the translation for you. List is a file browser that can print to disk. TextDragon works on the IIGS. Use whatever method you can, just get the new lines translated into carriage returns. Download the edited/translated file - I'm not going into any detail here. Just get the file downloaded. You may have already completed this step, if you had to edit/translate the file on your apple. Just get the edited/translated file onto a disk for your Apple. Boot ProDOS and get into Basic, then set the prefix so the edited/translated file is available. Now type 'exec filename', where filename is the edited/translated text file. You should see a ']' prompt followed by lots of '*' prompts. A while later, you will see couple more ']' prompts then everything should stop with a ']' prompt. You should see a new file in your directory. If the filetype is wrong (it may have to be a particular type, for BinSCII it must be type SYS), then you can try the EXEC command again - which will probably work the second time. An alternative (if EXEC doesn't do the trick) is to change the file type with file type changer. An example will probably help, so lets try to walk through one. The following is a 'edited' file that I just got from the APPLE2-L listserver (actually file APPLE2-L.87-00031) - my editing was simply to make its size manageable for this example. Note: The '****'s are to mark the start/end of the file and are not actually contained in the file itself. Here is the file: ************************************************************************* Date: Sat, 15 Aug 87 23:14 EST Reply-To: Apple II List <APPLE2-L@BROWNVM> Sender: Apple II List <APPLE2-L@BROWNVM> From: SEWALL@UCONNVM Subject: Chameleon 2 of 2 files cham.exe (EXEC under ProDOS)-----------Cut Here-------------------- CALL-151 E00:38 A5 FF D0 32 D8 20 8E FD AD 30 BF 8D 6A 0E 20 00 BF C7 6D 0E 0D 80 02 E18:D0 1D 20 00 BF C5 69 0E B0 15 AD 81 02 29 0F AA E8 8E 80 02 A9 2F 8D 81 E30:02 20 00 BF C6 6D 0E A2 08 B0 0E 20 00 BF C3 70 0E B0 06 A2 26 20 53 0E E48:AA 20 53 0E 4C D0 03 20 ED FD E8 BD 59 0E D0 F7 60 A0 F3 E1 F6 E5 E4 8D E60:00 C5 F2 F2 EF F2 87 8D 00 02 00 81 02 01 80 02 07 7E 0E 01 FF 00 20 00 E78:00 00 78 AE 00 00 0B C3 C8 C1 CD AE D3 D9 D3 D4 C5 CD 00 F00:D8 A0 00 84 FF 88 84 E0 A9 0F 85 E1 20 67 FD A0 00 A2 FF 20 2F 0F E6 E0 F18:D0 02 E6 E1 0A 0A 0A 0A 91 E0 20 2F 0F 11 E0 91 E0 45 FF 85 FF 90 E4 E8 F30:BD 00 02 09 80 C9 A0 F0 F6 49 B0 C9 0A 90 17 69 88 09 20 C9 FA B0 0C 68 F48:68 E0 04 B0 BF 98 91 E0 4C 69 FF 18 29 0F 60 F00G A90885A420732090242039FB2058FCA200BD9220F00620EDFDE8D0F5200CFDA9 008DF2038DF3038DF4036CFCFFE6A4A5A4C96F90CFA9008DFCBFA9018DFDBFA0 28B94D209900028810F74C0002A9028508A9088509A9C08506A9208507A000B1 . . . A0B7D1D78D8DDFDFDFDFDFDFDFDFDFDFDFDFDFDFDFDFDFDFDFDFDFDFDFDFDFDF DFDFDFDFDFDFDFDFDFDFDFDFDFDF8D002C10C02C00C010FB2C10C060CC BSAVE CHAM.SYSTEM,A$1000,L$4C3C E00G ************************************************************************* Since I found the CALL -151 command, I know its an executioner format file. Now I do all my editing on it and the result looks like the following: ************************************************************************* CALL-151 E00:38 A5 FF D0 32 D8 20 8E FD AD 30 BF 8D 6A 0E 20 00 BF C7 6D 0E 0D 80 02 E18:D0 1D 20 00 BF C5 69 0E B0 15 AD 81 02 29 0F AA E8 8E 80 02 A9 2F 8D 81 E30:02 20 00 BF C6 6D 0E A2 08 B0 0E 20 00 BF C3 70 0E B0 06 A2 26 20 53 0E E48:AA 20 53 0E 4C D0 03 20 ED FD E8 BD 59 0E D0 F7 60 A0 F3 E1 F6 E5 E4 8D E60:00 C5 F2 F2 EF F2 87 8D 00 02 00 81 02 01 80 02 07 7E 0E 01 FF 00 20 00 E78:00 00 78 AE 00 00 0B C3 C8 C1 CD AE D3 D9 D3 D4 C5 CD 00 F00:D8 A0 00 84 FF 88 84 E0 A9 0F 85 E1 20 67 FD A0 00 A2 FF 20 2F 0F E6 E0 F18:D0 02 E6 E1 0A 0A 0A 0A 91 E0 20 2F 0F 11 E0 91 E0 45 FF 85 FF 90 E4 E8 F30:BD 00 02 09 80 C9 A0 F0 F6 49 B0 C9 0A 90 17 69 88 09 20 C9 FA B0 0C 68 F48:68 E0 04 B0 BF 98 91 E0 4C 69 FF 18 29 0F 60 F00G A90885A420732090242039FB2058FCA200BD9220F00620EDFDE8D0F5200CFDA9 008DF2038DF3038DF4036CFCFFE6A4A5A4C96F90CFA9008DFCBFA9018DFDBFA0 28B94D209900028810F74C0002A9028508A9088509A9C08506A9208507A000B1 . . . A0B7D1D78D8DDFDFDFDFDFDFDFDFDFDFDFDFDFDFDFDFDFDFDFDFDFDFDFDFDFDF DFDFDFDFDFDFDFDFDFDFDFDFDFDF8D002C10C02C00C010FB2C10C060CC BSAVE CHAM.SYSTEM,A$1000,L$4C3C E00G ************************************************************************* I execute the 'tr' command on my Unix system and download the resulting file. Once I get it to my IIGS, then (from Basic) I type: EXEC FILE Lots of '*'s later I find CHAM.SYSTEM on my disk. (BEEEP) This concludes the test of the emergency executioner translation example. ======================================================================== Subject: What is Shrinkit? This is a program which takes one or more Apple II ProDOS files and 'archives' them into a NuFX archive. ShrinkIt typically shrinks the members of the NuFX archive with variations of the LZW (Lev-Zimpel-Welch) compression algorithm. Shrinkit has many options, such as whole disk compression, disk formatting, displaying text files, etc. Shrinkit also has the ability to extract BLU files members - more on BLU in a couple of questions. The current revision number of Shrinkit is 3.0.3. The IIgs version of Shrinkit is named GShk (the current version number is 1.0.3). GShk can do all that Shrinkit can do and more. Some of the additions are the ability to unarchive different archive types (Unix compress, PC Arc, Mac StuffIt) and the ability to create/extract Apple Single files - this is becoming more significant as resources are being used more frequently in IIgs software. GShk requires System Disk 5.0 . For specialized extractions, more than 1 meg of memory may be required. Shrinkit+ and UnShrinkit+ are two programs for the Apple II+. Shrinkit, GShk, Shrinkit+ and UnShrinkit+ were written by Andy Nicholas <shrinkit@apple.com>. Sub-Subject: What is nulib? Nulib is a C implementation of Shrinkit 1.0.2. It also works very well under most Unix or Unix-like operating systems. Nulib was written by Andy McFadden <fadden@cory.berkeley.edu>. Sub-Subject: What is BLU? BLU is the predecessor of Shrinkit. The goal of BLU was to take one or more Apple II ProDOS files and 'archive' them into a single Apple II file, maintaining the ProDOS file type information. It could perform a Huffman compression on the individual pieces if the user so desired. The resulting files were named Bunny files (.BNY). BLU files that were compressed were .BQY files. The current use of BLU is in telecommunications, where the filetype information is preserved. This is why you can find archives that are Shrinkit (or NuFX) archives wrapped in a BLU header. BLU was written by Floyd Zink, Jr., of Tex fame. ======================================================================== Subject: What is a .Z, .bsq or .shk file? (some common filename extensions) Filename extensions are simply the addition of more characters to the end of a filename (thus the extension). An example could be FRED.SHK. 'FRED' is the base filename. '.SHK' is a filename extension that happens to indicate that the file is probably a NuFX archive and you will need to run ShrinkIt to determine/extract its contents. Sometimes you will find multiple filename extensions, simply take the filename extensions apart one at a time and you should be able to reconstruct the original file. The following is a table of some of the filename extensions that you may encounter during your trips to Apple II ftp sites: Extension What does it usually mean --------- ---------------------------------------------------- .SHK The file is usually a NuFX archive created by ShrinkIt. Use ShrinkIt to extract the files. .BSQ This is usually a BinSCII'ized ShrinkIt file. Use BinSCII to extract a NuFX archive, then use ShrinkIt to extract the files. .BNY This is usually a BLU archive file. ShrinkIt can be used to extract its contents. These were previously referred to as Bunny files. .BNX This is a BLU wrapped ShrinkIt archive. Use ShrinkIt to extract the files (it will automatically go past the BLU header to extract the NuFX archived files). Note: This filename extension is found on GEnie. .EXE The file is usually the output of Executioner. To extract the file, simply 'EXEC' it from Basic Note: You may need to use DOS 3.3... it depends on the file you are extracting (sometimes they will contain a note which will tell you). .Z The file was compressed with the Unix compress command (LZW compression). Use the uncompress command to get the file. Alternatives include using GSHK (GS ShrinkIt) to uncompress or the APW/ORCA UNCOMPRESS utility (available at ftp sites). .tar The file is a Tape ARchive created under Unix. Use tar to extract the files (tar xvf filename) or if you don't have to extract the files, simply run them through another program. .tar.Z The file is a combination of the previous two items. You would need to uncompress the file, then use tar to extract the members. I have found ShrinkIt archives as BinSCII files in a tar archive that was compressed. Seems strange, but you may find a XXX.BSQ.tar.Z file somewhere. Good luck in your file decoding! ======================================================================== Subject: What are the Apple II FTP sites? Here is a list of the sites that have Apple II software available by anonymous FTP. It is current as of 11/5/90. Site Name Site Number Directory -------------------- -------------- -------------------------- apple.com 130.43.2.2 pub/DTS/aii ftp.apple.com 130.43.2.3 <future home for the above> ummts.cc.umich.edu 35.1.1.43 pc5: shark.nosc.mil 128.49.80.1 ker*mit. watsun.cc.columbia.edu 128.59.39.2 kermit/a brownvm.brown.edu 128.148.128.40 listserv.193 f.ms.uky.edu 128.163.128.6 pub/appleII wuarchive.wustl.edu 128.252.135.4 usenet/comp.binaries.apple2 tybalt.caltech.edu 131.215.139.100 pub/apple2 plains.nodak.edu 134.129.111.64 pub/appleII avalanche.berkeley.edu 128.32.234.22 pub/Apple2 isca 128.255.19.175 unix/apple2 [I'd like to thank Todd A. Bakal <Internet: Tabakal@ub.cc.umich.edu, Tab@terminator.cc.umich.edu, UUCP: ...!uunet!ub.cc.umich.edu!tabakal, BITNET: Tabakal@UMICHUB for this table of FTP sites] ======================================================================== Subject: What is APPLE2-L? [Note: This answer needs expanding too...] APPLE2-L is an archive of Apple II programs provided by a BITNET mail server (LISTSERV@BROWNVM.BITNET). Interactive BITNET messages are also supported. Send the following message to get help information: help index apple2-l Chris Chung <CHRIS@BROWNVM> administers APPLE2-L (Thanks Chris!) ======================================================================== Subject: What is FTP? FTP is a program available to many schools and certain businesses which are connected to Internet. This program permits file transfers over a high speed international network. Note: FTP with remote hosts is a privilege! The remote sites can stop their FTP service if so they desire. Please try to restrict your FTP usage to off-peak hours. Some basic directions to get you started with FTP follow: Enter the FTP program (type FTP, if you get an FTP command prompt then you're in the FTP program). Type: open <site> ; This command will establish ; a connection to a remote site. Where <site> is the name or address of the remote FTP site from which you are trying to retrieve files. You will be prompted for a username. Type: anonymous ; The username anonymous is ; recognized by many FTP sites ; as a guest account. You will be prompted for a password. Type: your electronic mail address ; The password is usually your ; Internet return mail address. ; In my case it is ; dave@mystie.webo.dg.com Now you are logged onto the remote host. Some commands you might want to use after you log on follow: dir ; Show me a listing of the files ; in the current directory dir <directory> [<local filename>]; Put a copy of a listing of the ; files that are in directory ; into a file on my machine for ; later perusal. cd <directory> ; Change the current directory ; to <direcory>. pub is typically ; where the public's files are ; stored. type binary ; Change the way a file is sent ; from the default of ASCII ; (7 bits) to binary (8 bits). ; There are sometimes other ; modes, such as tenex. get <filename> [<local filename>]; Retrieve a file (named ; <filename>) from the ; remote host to your local ; host. If you supply a second ; argument, then the remote ; file is stored as that local ; filename. put <filename> ; Send a file to the remote ; host. mget <template> ; Retrieve multiple files ; according to the template. ; The README files of each host ; should explain templates. close ; Close the connection to the ; remote host. csh ; Start a local C shell ; (sometimes this is renamed ; to whatever the local command ; shell is named - here it is ; named CLI). bye ; Close any outstanding ; connection and exit the FTP ; program. ======================================================================== Subject: What is BITFTP? Contrary to popular belief, FTP is available from BITNET, in a way. There is a server at bitftp@pucc.BITNET (or bitftp@pucc.princeton.edu) which will process your requests. Mail a message there with the proper commands in it and it will attempt to FTP and send the results back to you in a mail file. The files you actually get are sent as BITNET NETDATA files to BITNET sites, or uuencoded for non-BITNET sites. Anyways, a sample file would be: ftp tybalt.caltech.edu user anonymous password {which can be anything, but is normally your address} cd pub dir cd apple2/uploads dir get cosmocade.a.bsq get cosmocade.b.bsq bye This will list the directories that you change into, and then get the files. What you receive back will be several pieces. First, everyone would receive back a mail message showing BITFTP attempting your transaction. Look at this closely, as any errors in the file names, as well as the results from the dir commands will be in this message. If you are on a BITNET site, your get commands will return the get files into your NETDATA queue. Each BITNET site implementation varies, so the description here will be specific to the VMS operating system. To get the files from the queue, simply use the 'receive' command. Binary files are a little special. They will require you to 'receive/binary', but there is still a problem because you will find a carriage return after every 255 characters (or so). Use 'EDT/FDL binftp.fdl' to edit an FDL (file definition language) file that has an option to turn off 'carriage control'. Finally, type 'convert/fdl=binftp.fdl inputfile.ext outputfile.ext'. This isn't as bad as it sounds, but it's more hassle than it should be. For non-VMS systems, you should contact your local BITNET administrator for assistance. Obviously, you need to know what the directories are before you get in them, which means that each time you need to send a new message. This isn't terribly exciting, but that's how it is. Internet's ftp is much easier, but the capability is still there for BITNET. Note: I have some reports that there are some BITNET sites that do support FTP. Try the FTP command to see if you BITNET site has it. [I'd like to Thank Henry Throop <THROOP@GRIN1.BITNET, throoph@jacobs.cs.orst.edu> for most of these answers and Evan R Aussenberg <erast1@unix.cis.pitt.edu> for the pointer that some bitnet sites do have ftp] ======================================================================== Subject: What is Kermit? Kermit itself is a file transfer protocol invented by Frank DeCruz of Columbia University. Typically in this group when one talks about kermit, they are talking about a program which supports the kermit protocol. There is at least one commercial program which supports kermit - ProTerm. But many folks are using Ted Medin's Kermit 3 (currently 3.86), a freely distributable version of a telecommunication program which supports kermit, xmodem, vt100 emulation, and many Apple II configurations. Kermit was written by Ted Medin <medin-t@shark.nosc.mil> The latest official version of kermit is available from Columbia University via electronic mail or ftp. Send electronic mail to KERMSERV@CUVMA.BITNET, a one line message of HELP will get you started. For FTP users, the site is watsun.cc.columbia.edu (128.59.39.2) and the Apple II files reside in the kermit/a directory. The latest version of Kermit-65 is 3.87 available at ummts as CO.KER387 (with the accompanying DO.KER387 doc file) and all other FTP sites. ======================================================================== Subject: What is the current system disk? Current Revision Disk name Number ------------------------ -------- DOS System Master ...... 3.3 All Apple IIs ProDOS 8 system disk ... 3.2 All Apple IIs with 64k or more IIgs System Disk ....... 5.0.4 Apple IIgs with 1Meg or more (smaller memory configurations may work, although they are not supported/tested). ProDOS 8 ............... 1.9 Available on the ProDOS 8 and Basic.System ........... 1.4.1 IIgs System Disks. The system disks should be available from your local Apple Computer dealer, a local Apple Users Group or from a commercial information system (GEnie, America On Line, or CompuServe). ======================================================================== Subject: What are technotes? [Note: I want to expand this answer, but haven't had enough time] Technotes are short topics addressing questions that Apple's Apple II Developer Technical Support staff members get from outside developers. Technotes are divided into various categories including (but not limited to): Apple IIc hardware, Apple II hardwaree, Imagewriter, Memory Expansion, ProDOS 8, GS/OS and IIgs hardware. The idea of technotes is to distribute information about Apple computers that isn't readily available from any other source. The hundreds of pages are well worth the effort to get. DTS really does a great job with technotes! (Thanks DTS!!!) You can find Apple II technotes on the FTP sites, or the commercial information systems. Another source of technotes is APDA, where one can order printed or diskette subscriptions to the technotes. ======================================================================== Subject: What is APDA? [Note: This is another answer in need of more work... a decent explanation of Developer Express... next time it'll be better] The Apple Programmers and Developers Association (APDA) provides a way for developers to get development tools that are sometimes very difficult to find. For a year's membership ($20), you are sent a quarterly catalog of all the available software, manuals, etc. available through APDA. Developer Express is a way for non-APDA members to be able to order items from APDA. I don't have the details of Developer Express here... I believe that anyone can order Class 1 items (IE: XXX) from APDA through Developer Express. Software available through APDA include the following: MIDI Synth/synthLAB - MIDI Synth/synthLAB is a second generation note synthesizer for the Apple IIGS. By integrating a completely new sequencer, MIDI interface and synthesizer into one programming tool, MIDI Synth offers developers a powerful but simple solution to many of their sound needs. Because of this integration, most of the work required by an application is handled by the tool. synthLAB is a demo application that shows the power of the new MIDI Synth toolset for the Apple IIGS. synthLAB can be used to create the intruments needed for applications, either by modifying existing ones or by creating totally new and original ones. synthLAB's recorder can be used to record custom sequences used in applications. synthLAB is built around MIDI Synth and makes a great learning tool in understanding how MIDI Synth works. This package includes one 3.5" disk containing the MIDI Synth Tool set (tool 35) and synthLAB (a demo application that highlights the sheer power of the MIDI Synth Tool set). Also included is documentation on each of the tool calls within that Tool set, and a user manual for synthLAB. The APDA part number is 'A0250LL/A" (better known as "MIDI Synth/synthLAB Version 1.0B3"). The price is $25. [The above was stolen without permission from 8/16-Central, they took the information from A2Pro on GEnie.] Apple II Video Overlay Card Development Kit v1.1 - This kit provides basic design information about the Apple II Video Overlay Card. The notes include information on how the Apple II Video Overlay Card works with application programs, descriptions of the Vidio I/O Interface Tool Set routines for controlling the operation of the Apple II Video Overlay Card, and overview of the Apple II Video Expansion Bus (AVEB) architecture, and a description of the relevant new features incorporated into the Apple IIGS VideoMix desk accessory and the Apple IIe Video Setup program. The disk includes interfaces for the APW and MPW IIGS development systems and an object file for Apple IIe programmers. The disk also includes Tool 33 (ther Video Overlay Card tool), the VideoMix desk accessory (for the Apple IIGS), and the Apple IIe Video Setup program. APDA part number is 'A0221LL/B', price is $35. [The above is stolen from the Summer 1990 APDALog without permission]. GSBug and Debugging Tools v. 4.0B1 - This beta version of Apple Computer's machine-language debugger works on any Apple IIGS with System Software v. 4.0 or later. With GSBug, you can step through your code; save a trace history to a file on disk; define breakpoints and insert them into your code; define and use memory protection windows; and view the debugger's master display, which shows the contents of the 65816 registers, breakpoints, and memory-protection ranges that you have set, portions of the stack and memory, and a disassembly of your program's code. Also included with GSBug are the Loader Dumper, Memory Mandler, and Scrambler classic desk accessories (CDAs). Loader Dumper lets you see where in memory the System Loader has loaded each segment of your program and gives you information about the various tables and variables that the loader uses. Memory Mangler lets you execute a variety of Memory Manager routines and provides lists of the memory blocks that are in use, purged, and disposed of by the Memory Manager. Scrambler helps you find out whether your application has incorrectly dereferenced a memory handle by not having first locked the handle. The GS/OS Exerciser, also included with this package, lets you "exercise" GS/OS by practicing its calls from the keyboard. This utility is supplied as both an application and as a CDA. APDA part number is 'A0037LL/A', price is $30. [The above is stolen from the Fall 1990 APDALog without permission]. d e v e l o p - The Apple Technical Journal, contains articles and samples about creating hardware and software for Apple computers. The articles and code in d e v e l o p are intended to lead you into Insidr Macintosh. Each issue contains source code (provided on the CD-ROM disc) that you can use in your application. Each journal also includes questions and answers from the Macintosh and Apple II Developer Technical Support groups. All of the journal articles and source code are included on the compact disc that comes with d e v e l o p. The disc also includes essential tools for developers: international versions of system software, international HyperCard, Developer Technical Support Notes stacks, and electronic versions of selected Apple developer documentation, such as SpInside Machintosh. If you don't have a CD-ROM drive, you will be able to find the contents of the disc on AppleLine, the Apple FTP site on the internet, and other on-line services in the near future. If you're a certified developer, Partner, or Associate, you'll receive one copy of d e v e l o p every quarter as part of your developer package. A subscription to d e v e l o p is $27 for U.S. subscribers and $47 for international subscribers. The following back issues of d e v e l o p are available at a price of $10 per issue: M0901LL/A d e v e l o p issue 1 January 1990 M0902LL/A d e v e l o p issue 2 April 1990 M0903LL/A d e v e l o p issue 3 July 1990 M0904LL/A d e v e l o p issue 4 October 1990 [The above is stolen from the Fall 1990 APDALog without permission]. APDA is run by Apple Computer. Address: APDA Apple Computer, Inc. 20525 Mariani Avenue, Mail Stop 33G Cupertino, California 95014-6299 Phone: 1-800-282-2732 (U.S.) 1-800-637-0029 (Canada) 1-408-562-3910 (International) 1-408-562-3971 (Fax) 171-576 (Telex) Electronic Mail: APDA (AppleLink) A.DEVELOPER3 (GEnie) 76666,2405 (CompuServe) POSTROM (MCI) APDA (MacNet) ======================================================================== Subject: What Apple II magazines are there? [Note: This question needs to be completed...] GS+ is a bi-monthly magazine for the Apple IIGS published on an Apple IIGS. This magazine is not as polished as some magazines, but they are honest and put together very good reviews and software. If they see something that is junk, they call it junk (just the way it should be!). Their idea is to show what an Apple IIGS can do and they succeed very well at doing exactly that. Some of their software is just downright great - their EGOed NDA editor is great, I also like their Shuffle Init (shuffles the active window between all open windows). I'm not being paid for this favorable point of view - I'm simply a very happy subscriber. Address: GS+ Subscription Services c/o EGO Systems P.O. Box 15366 Chattanooga, Tennessee 37415-0366 Voice: (615) 870-4960 (Mon-Fri 9am-6pm EST) FAX: (913) 469-6507 gs-plus BBS: (615) 875-4607 (2400 baud, 8 data bits, no parity, 1 stop bit) Electronic mail: Internet: diz@pro-gsplus.cts.com (editor) Subscription Price: magazine $15/year, disk+magazine $36/year magazine $3/issue, disk+magazine $8/issue First class mail service for $1.50/issue, $9/year Tennessee Residents add 5.5% sales tax. Chattanooga Residents add 7.25% sales tax. Canadian/Mexican orders add $1 extra postage. All other foreign orders add $6 surface, $30 air. Nibble d e v e l o p - see the section about APDA for information on d e v e l o p. inCider/A+ is a monthly Apple II/Macintosh magazine. Address: inCider/A+ P.O. Box 56818 Boulder, CO 80322-8618 Subscription: $27.97/year $43/2 years HyperStudio Network is a quarterly newsletter about HyperStudio. Membership in HSN will get you the newsletter (HyperStudio Forum), an annual 'Best of HyperStudio' disk of stacks and availability of discounts on HyperStudio accessories (including HyperStudio). This network seems to be a great place for teachers to get information/stacks. HyperPostCards is their current big success. The idea is to get students to include information about themselves and to distribute the HyperStudio stacks from one school to another. It works much like postcards would. I don't have more details, so I'm stopping. Address: HyperStudio Network Box 103 Blawenburg, NJ 08504 Phone: (609) 466-3196 Subscription/Membership: $29 for 1 year, $55 for 2 years. Institutional Membership: $99 for 1 year, $189 for 2 years. Includes 20 copies of both HyperStudio Forum and the annual "Best of HyperStudio" disk. ??? - is the Basic (or was that Z-Basic) programmer's magazine (sorry about being vague... I just don't have the information with me... and never subscribed to a couple of these magazines) A2-Central publishes several Apple II magazines: A2-Central - The Apple II newsletter, there is an optional disk version. This is a monthly publication. All of their other publications are 3.5" disk based only. For the IIGS, the program to use is HyperStudio (they include the runtime version, in case you don't have HyperStudio). For other IIs, they include a text browser. Although any text browser will do the job. I don't know if this applies to all of the magazines or not (guess I should call again...). 8/16-Central - Monthly Apple II programmers disk magazine. 8/16-Central will include programs, sources and articles. Stack Central - HyperStudio-based disk. Each issue is a collection of HyperStudio additions. My guess is that it includes things like Clip Art/Sounds, XCMDs, PD Stacks and so on. There were some articles in the demo that I saw - I can't say any more than this. Except that there are two disks per issue - every other month. TimeOut Central - every other month - all about TimeOut additions and AppleWorks. Includes UltraMacros Macros, Templates and so forth. There is one disk per issue. Hyperbole - Will begin in January. This disk based publication is not about computers. It is HyperStudio based stories and poetry and so on. Address: A2-Central (or is it Resource Central now?) P.O. Box 11250 Overland Park, KS 66207 Voice: (913) 469-6502 FAX: (913) 469-6507 Electronic mail on GEnie: A2-CENTRAL, UNCLE-DOS, or DENNIS.DOMS The Road Apple - An Apple // "End Users" Underground Newsletter Published six times a year. Address: 1121 NE 177th, Suite B Portland, OR 97230 Telephone: (503) 254-3874. Subscription price: $9.95 per year (6 issues) Computist - a publication devoted to gathering and distributing information on removing copy protection from Apple II software. Address: P.O. Box 110846 Tacoma, WA 98411 Softdisk and Softdisk GS - monthly disk magazines containing a variety of software. Softdisk is available on 5.25" or 3.5" disks. Softdisk GS is available only on 3.5" disks. Address: Softdisk Publishing P.O. Box 30008 Shreveport, LA 71130-0008 Phone: 1-800-831-2694 1-318-221-8718 Subscription: Softdisk: $19.95/3 months Softdisk GS: $29.95/3 months Both: $39.95/3 months ======================================================================== Subject: Recent Apple Computer Announcements and Changes The Apple IIc+ was dropped from price lists (I really liked the //c+, I even bought my parents one). ProDOS 8 1.9 was announced in September 1990. GS/OS 5.0.3 was announced in November 1990. HyperCard IIGS was announced in December at AppleFest. It will become available from Apple Computer Dealers in February 1991 for $99. HCGS will require 1.5meg (although 2meg is recommended). ======================================================================== Subject: Future questions for the FAQ This is the section where you get to peek into the future of the FAQ list. Here is where some questions that may take me a while to incorporate correctly. Since I have the questions I thought that I'd present them here. Where can I find Apple II software? Where can I get commercial hardware and/or software? Mention where to find listings (is there anyone doing decent reviews any longer?) Where can I find out how to do XYZ? (fill in the XYZ) Common Apple II general questions: Are there any free programming languages for the Apple II line? Mad Forth (other Forths?) Hyper-C - a shareware package with no one at the address to receive the money? Applesoft and various freeware and shareware extensions (mention some that are available on Apple2-l and comp.*.apple2) How do I get out of AppleSoft? Type 'bye'. Scheme (for the IIgs). What versions of BASIC are available for the Apple II line? TML Basic, Micol Basic, Z-Basic, Beagle Compiler What versions of C language are available for the Apple II line? Orca C, APW C, Manx Aztec C What versions of other languages (Pascal, Forth, Scheme, etc) TML Pascal, Orca Pascal, GS Forth, there was a Lisp at one time, Pecan Power Systems Pascal, FORTRAN, and BASIC What versions of assemblers are available? Orca/M, Orca/M GS, APW, Merlin 8/16+, Lisa, EDASM, others? ByteWorks : 1-505-898-8183 4700 Irving Blvd NW Suite 207 Albuquerque, NM 87114 Common Apple IIe specific questions: Common Apple IIc specific questions: Common IIgs specific questions: What does it mean when my IIgs crashes with a $0911 unclaimed interrupt? Redmond Cable has an ADB Y-connector cable for separating your mouse from the side of your keyboard (also can be used to work around a failing ADB port on the keyboard). Their address is: Redmond Cable Corporation, 17371-A1 NE 67th Ct, Redmond, WA 98052, (206) 882-2009. When your battery dies get a the 'Slide-On Battery Replacement Kit' from Night Owl Productions: Address: Nite Owl Productions Slide-On Battery Dept. 5734 Lamar Street Mission, KS 66202 Phone: (913) 362-9898 Price: 14:95 plus $2 for shipping ======================================================================== Subject: Editors Notes This is the third revision of the FAQ for comp.sys.apple2. I apologize in advance for any of the errors (typographical, logical, or otherwise). With your patience (and help!) this frequently asked questions (with answers) article will improve. I would appreciate hearing from you if you have an addition, correction, or to complain to me about what I did wrong. Please send me electronic mail at one of the following addresses: Internet: dave@mystie.webo.dg.com or: dave%dgc.mceo.dg.com@relay.cs.net GEnie: D.Kopper Apple II Forever!!!!! David Kopper [Last edited on January 21, 1991]
ifar355@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu (David H. Huang) (01/22/91)
In article <1259@dg.dg.com> dave@mystie.webo.dg.com (David Kopper) writes: |[Last edited on January 21, 1991] | | |I would like to thank Larry W. Virden for his help with this document. | |======================================================================== [large quantities of stuff trashed] | | BLU is the predecessor of Shrinkit. The goal of BLU was to take | one or more Apple II ProDOS files and 'archive' them into a single | Apple II file, maintaining the ProDOS file type information. | It could perform a Huffman compression on the individual pieces | if the user so desired. | | The resulting files were named Bunny files (.BNY). BLU files | that were compressed were .BQY files. | | The current use of BLU is in telecommunications, where the | filetype information is preserved. This is why you can find | archives that are Shrinkit (or NuFX) archives wrapped in a | BLU header. Actually, the .BXY file (which is what ShrinkIt calls them, I've never seen it called .BNX before, but I've never been on Genie before either) is wrapped in a Binary II header, not a BLU header. Binary II is a public domain header by Gary Little. | BLU was written by Floyd Zink, Jr., of Tex fame. BTW, what Tex fame is that? Isn't TeX the equation typesetter by Donald Knuth? Or are you talking about another Tex? -- David Huang | Internet: ifar355@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu | "My ganglion is stuck in UUCP: ...!ut-emx!ccwf.cc.utexas.edu!ifar355 | a piece of chewing gum!" America Online: DrWho29 |