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 Kopperdave@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 |