I've decided I want to teach myself 6502 assembly. I've also decided I want to learn it on an Apple II vs any of the other home micros of the time.
In terms of assembly language, the Apple II family has arguably the most approachable built-in tools for the assembly programmer. It's a good choice for that.
I've narrowed my choices down to either a IIc+,
The IIc+ is nice because it's almost all-in-one; and doesn't have a silly brick-on-a-rope power supply like the IIc does. The downside is that it has a 3-1/2" disk drive, which almost none of the regular 8-bit Apple software came on. And they can be a little hard to come by.
A very sensible choice - fairly plentiful, few socketed chips to go bad, plentiful floppy drives, boundless expansion options.
or a IIe card hosted by a quadra 605.
In this case, you have two computers to care for. I think you might find it more of a pain to care for than the single-purpose computer or emulator. Which brings me to an option you didn't mention you've considered: an emulator. You can use Virtual ][ or AppleWin depending on your modern operating system and get the full programmability of the Apple II line, with the keyboard and text editor you already know, and cut-and-paste convenience. You might consider starting there and moving up to real hardware when it becomes available.
I found a tech doc on the Apple site listing the differences between the card and a real II in terms of hardware differences when it comes to programming for the machines, but it was geared more towards the peripherals. What I would like to know is, are there any differences when it comes to the use of assembly for the 65c02 in the full apple IIs I mentioned and the chip on the IIe card? As far as I remember, the IIe card has a real 65c02 on it along with the rest of the consolidated circuitry.
No. There are a few different instructions here and there, but nothing of significance. All the books on general 6502 programming will be perfectly suitable for any 6502 derivative machine.
