Text content (OCR)
Open-Apple
Releasing the power to everyone.
Claris buys out StyleWare
Claris Corporation has purchased all the outstanding stock of Hous-
ton-based StyleWare, Inc. StyleWare currently publishes eight Apple I
products, but it was clearly number nine, GSWorks (see last month's
issue, page 4.46), that opened the purse at Claris.
Glaris has already renamed the product AppleWorks GS. Claris said
it will work with StyleWare's developers over the next few months to
complete development and testing of the program. It expects to ship
AppleWorks GS before the end of the year. StyleWare's operations will
be moved from Houston to Claris' California headquarters following
the completion of AppleWorks GS.
StyleWare was founded by Kevin Harvey, Dave Macdonald, and Alex
Perelberg in August 1985. It shipped its first product, MultiScribe, a
graphics-based word-processor for the Apple Ile and llc, in April 1986.
The company grew from three employees in 1986 to 35 employees in
1988. Sales volume usually doubled every four months, StyleWare
has shipped more than 45,000 copies of MultiScribe and 40,000
copies of a later ligs version of the program, MultiScribe GS.
Claris said it will sell MultiScribe GS under its own label, but has
not yet made a decision on the fate of StyleWare’s other
products—the Ile/lIc version of MultiScribe and its associated utilities
PictureManager, Desk Accessories, and eight Fontpaks; and the IIgs
programs TopDraw, DeskWorks, and Font Library. They could eventu-
ally be sold under the Claris label, be sold outright to another soft-
ware company, or just disappear from the market, like Apple Writer.
Kevin Harvey, formerly StyleWare's president and head program-
mer, is now Group Product Manager for the Apple Il at Claris. He will
assume responsibility for all Apple I! products at Claris, including
AppleWorks.
At an online conference on GEnie July 19, Harvey said that the
StyleWare acquisition shows that Claris does care about the Apple Il.
Claris intends to support and enhance both AppleWorks programs,
Harvey said. "Claris is a very new company and putting a GS develop-
ment team together would be impossible for them. They were waiting
for an acquisition that would give them a product and team that
would be significant,” Harvey said. StyleWare's team of ten Apple II
programmers will accompany Harvey to Claris. This means Claris is
now positioned to become a major Apple Il software company in
terms of development as well as in terms of revenue, and this should
be good news for the Apple II community.
As mentioned here last month, AppleWorks GS takes the best part
of AppleWorks—an integrated desktop—and mixes it with Apple's
desktop interface. In addition to a word processor, database, and
spreadsheet, AppleWorks GS will include a graphic draw/paint mod-
ule, a page layout (desktop publishing) module, and a telecommuni-
cations module. It will be priced at $249,
Incidentally, according to Claris, the Apple Ilgs is the number one
selling computer in retail stores. Half the computers (all brands) being
bought for K-12 today are Apple IIgs models, Claris says, as are 70
per cent of all sales in the Apple Educator Buy Program.
Claris also divulged that AppleWorks continues to hold a 25 per
cent share of the market for integrated software packages (all person-
al computers), but now plays second fiddle in this category to the 30
per cent share held by Microsoft-Works (an AppleWorks derivative for
Macintoshes).
August 1988
Vol. 4, No. 7
ISSN 0885-4017
newstand price: $2.50
Photocopy charge per page: $0.15
Miscellanea
Apple has diagnosed and fixed the Apple llgs disappearing disk
drive problem (August 1987, page 3.54; September 1987, page
5.61). Symptoms of this problem are that one or more disk drives
attached to a ligs will turn themselves on for no apparent reason and
stay on. Pressing control-reset stops the drive, but, after that, attempt-
ing to access any Apple 3.5 drives on the SmartPort daisy chain will
return a NO DEVICE CONNECTED message. The computer must be
turned off and back on to recover access to the drive. No permanent
damage occurs to the drive or the disk inside it.
The problem occurs only with Apple 3.5 drives (not UniDisk 3.5)
and only if 5.25 drives are connected to the SmartPort daisy chain. If
you don't use 5.25 drives, or if you have them connected to a disk
controller card in one of the slots of your ligs, or if you have Ile/IIc
compatible UniDisk 3.5s, you will never see this problem.
Apple's June 1988 service notice update (page 8.6.1) instructs
dealers to fix the problem on affected units at no cost to the owner.
The solution is to put a Revision B Daisy Chain Interface Board inside
the Apple 3.5 drive. The Revision B board can be identified by the
part number CDX 1085B on the gate array component located on the
Side of the board opposite the cable.
Apple has also discovered that some of its own Ilgs memory
expansion cards made during the last two weeks of 1987 and the first
week of 1988 have RAM chips that don't work fast enough. This can
cause the IIgs to lock up or exhibit other strange problems. The
boards with problems have a date code of "8751°, "8752", or 8801"
silkscreened on them and they use chips manufactured by NEC in the
UK. Dealers haven't yet been notified of this problem, but notification
is in the works.
The same problems often occur when dealers or users add third-
party RAM chips to Apple Ilgs Memory Expansion Cards, Apple
reports. RAM chips for these cards must have a speed of 150
nanoseconds or faster (indicated by an ‘-15" or a lower number
appended to the end of the part number), a configuration of 256K x
I, and CAS before RAS refresh. We've gotten lists from Apple and
from Checkmate Technology of chips that satisfy these requirements,
rea
OK NO — NAC KRISHNAS.”
4.50 Open-Apple Vol. 4, No. 7
Combining these two and adding a little personal experience we START S16 7-JUN-88 = 7-JUN-88 = S111 $0100
come up with the following: + SYSTEM. SETUP 1 DIR 21-JUN-88 16-FEB-88 $200 $0000
E = 1 $B6 21-JN-8B 21-JUN-88 $129 $0000
ei Higs/compalble\parts 61 $8C 21-d0N-88 Zi-swN-8e $7789 50000
Fujitsu wBe1256, MBEL257 28 SBC 21-JN-88 21-JON-8B $3548 $0000
itachi 450256, M5057 1 $86 16-JUN-88 22-APR-88 —SIF9._ $0000
Micron Technology — Mf1269 1 $62 16-JUN-88 16-JUN-88 $86. $0000
NEC bepat2séc * 14 SBC 16-JUN-B8. 20-APR-88 $191 $0000
OKI M41256 3 $BC 16-JUN-88 21-APR-86 $200 $0000
Samsung 4941256, Rad1257 46 $BC 21-JUN-88 22-APR-88 —$58E9 $0000
23 $BC 16-JUN-88 20-APR-8§ —$2A5A $0000
22 SBC 16-JUN-88 20-APR-88 © $28AE $0000
17 $BC 13-JUN-88 13-JUN-88 = S1EE9 $0000
2 DIR 24-JUN-88 16-FEB-88 $400 $0000
40 TOL 16-JUN-88 16-JUN-88 © S4COE $0100
20 TOL 16-JUN-88 16-JUN-88 $2528 $0100
18 TOL 16-JUN-88 16-JUN-88 © $212E $0100
33° TOL 17-JUN-88 17-JUN-88 © $3E3E $0000
25 TOL 24-JUN-88 24-JUN-88 © $2890 $0000
15 TOL 17-JUN-88 17-JUN-88 — SIBAE $0000
26 TOL 1?-JUN-88 17-JUN-88 $3054 $0000
7 TOL 27-JUN-88 17-JUN-88 $Bcé $0000
24 TOL 17-JUN-88 17-JUN-88 2B $0000
12 TOL 17-30N-88 17-UUN-88 = SISFC $0000
9 TOL 21-JUN-88 21-JUN-88 $881 $0000
27 TOL 17-JUN-88 i7-JUN-88 — $32ED $0000
$ TOL 16-JUN-88 16-JUN-88 secc $0100
5 TOL 16-JUN-88 16-IUN-88 $7az $0000
15 TOL 17-JUN-88 17-JUN-88 © $1a84 $0000
a
1
* NEC chips with 2 process code starting with
"K", "E", or "BP" aren't CAS before RAS.
‘This is a conservative list. There are also chips from other manufac-
turers that satisfy the requirements.
Virus news: We've received and disassembled a copy of a virus
that attacks ProDOS 8 system files. The virus calls itself CyberAIDS,
Its a little buggy and far from ‘commercial quality," but is dangerous
nonetheless. We have no idea how widely distributed it is.
When a SYS file containing the CyberAIDS virus is executed, the
disk drive will turn off and then back on again. While the drive spins
the second time, CyberAids tries to replicate itself inside all of the
online SYS files that are in root directories. It doesn't look in subdirec-
tories, it doesn't (can't really) mess with write-protected disks, it does-
n't attack locked SYS files, and it doesn't attack the PRODOS file.
CyberAIDS also updates a counter stored in the last byte of the first
block of the disk directory. When this counter reaches 16, CyberAIDS
writes $FFs through the root directory of all online volumes and puts
a message describing what's happening on the screen.
If this happens to you, don't panic. The program Bag of Tricks 2, by
Quality Software, can recover your directory ($40, 21610 Lassen, #7,
Chatsworth, CA 91311 818-709-1721), MR.FIXIT, which is one of the
items in Glen Bredon's ProSEL package, also can recover all the sub-
directories (and what's in them) from directories damaged by
CyberAIDS. Unfortunately, MR.FIXIT cannot recover files other than
subdirectories.
The following program can identify SYS files that have been infect-
ed by CyberAIDS:
10 HOME : PRINT "CyberAIDS Detection Program"
DIR 23-JUN-88 23-JUN-88 $200 $0000
DIR 24-JUN-88 16-FEB-88 $200 $0000
45° $8B 24-JUN-88 24-JUN-88 $5787 $0001
45 $88 24-JUN-88 24-JUN88 —$577F $0001
73. $B 17-JUN-88 17-JUN-88 © $8F76 $0001
5 $BB 17-JON-88 17-JUN-68 $720 $0002
5 $88 17-30N-88 17-JUN-88 $762 $0002
7 $33 8-PEB-88 B-PEB-B8 = SABE $0003
$88 17-JUN-88 $450 $0300
20. PRINT $BB 17-JUN-88 $412 $0300
30 PRINT “Enter the name of the next SYS file to be checked." DIR 23-FEB-88 $200 $0000
40 INPUT F$ : IF LEN(PS)=0 THEN 2ND FON 27-NOV-86 §9p2 $0000
50 RINT CHRS 4) "BLORD";F$;"RS2000, 13,63, 75YS" ee eae oe
betas FON 27-NOV-6 sacs $0000
70 FOR ADR=8192 10 8194 s
$972 $0000
80 IF PEBK(ADR) <> 19 THEN DETECT=0
90 NEXT
100 IF DETECT THEN PRINT "This SYS file appears infected,”
110 IF NOT DETECT THEN PRINT "This SYS file appears to be OK."
120 GoTo 20
If you find any SYS files that are infected, simply delete them and
replace them with uninfected backups, You might also like to change
FON 27-NOV-86 © 7-MAY-87 $pp8 $0000
FON 22-APR-87 22-APR-87 $1556 $0000
FON 27-Nov-86 I1-MAY-87 $968 $0000
PON 27-NOV-86 11-MAY-87 $808 $0000
FON 27-NOV-86 11-MAY-87 $29 $0000
BIN 17-FEB-88 17-FEB-88 $221 A=$0000
102 S16 1-MAR-88 = 1-MAR-88 = $C9B8_ «$0100
4
4
1
6
1
6
6 FON 27-NOV-86
1
2
6
g
3
the last byte of the first block of the root directory (block 2), which is «-!AUNCHER 12 S16 1e-vmM-88 16-o0n-H8S14GC 90100
normally unused, back to zero. SYS. UTILS 1 DIR 3+MAR-GB 23-JUL-87 $200 $0000
‘Apple was in the process of releasing a new ligs System Disk --S'SUTIL.SYSTEH 3. SYS J+WAR-83 2-MAR-G—<S30E $2800
(V 3.2) during July. Software developers received copies of the disk --UTIL.0 87 BIN 3-MAR-B8 3-MAR-88 —$AROO A=$0900
mid-month. = UNIL.L 62 BIN 3-MAR-88 3-MAR-88 $7980 A=$0200
Whether you have a ligs or an older Apple, you'll want at least --FASTCOPY.SYSTEM 40 S¥S_ 17-JUL-87 17-JUL-87 $4DC6 $2000
some of the files on this disk. There are new versions of ProDOS 8 —BASIC.SYSTEM 21 SYS 14-DEC-87 14-DEC-87 $2800 $0000
(1.6), ProDOS 16 (1.6), Basic.system (1.2), Finder (1.1), and System BASIC. LAUNCHER 3 SYS 12-JUL-87 12-JUL-€7 $393 $0800
Utilities (5.1). The new version of ProDOS 16 isn't the new (16-bit) ver- APPLETALK 1 DIR M-JUN-BB 23-JUL-87 $200 $0000
sion of ProDOS 16 we're all waiting for. However, it does have modifi- _. CHOOSER. IT 3 SYS 1S-APR-68 i5-APR-88 © $3DF_ $0000
cations that allow it to boot over an AppleTalk network and to boot — . .cHOOsER.0 61 BIN 13-JUN-88 13-JUN-88 — $77E2 A=S0800
faster from any device. 4 NON 13-JUN-88 13-JUN-88 —-$5F4_— $0000
Here's a complete listing of the contents of the new disk: 5 NON 13-JUN-B8 13-JUN-88 — $7C0 $0000
Filename Blocks Type Modified Created Length Subtype on 6 NON 13-JUN-B8 13-JUN-88 — $8F4 $0000
propos 35 SYS U-JUNEBE M4-UN-88 $4300 $0000 = -CHOOSER4 OVR 7 NON 13-JUN-88 13-JUN-88 — $AD8_— $0000
cient 1 Ue Ame BI | Sap tte «= -CHOOSERS .OVR 8 NON 13-JUN-88 13-JUN-8@ © $CCB_$0000
sMTARBS.0 1 BIN 28-JUL-87 16-APR-G7 — $3BDE =$0800
1
- PB 2 SYS 13-dUN-88 “SUN-88 = $3C7D- $0000
«P16 16 $P9 13-JUN-88 13-JUN-88 —$94BB $0000
Downloaded from www.Apple2Online.com
3
. TWEM 61 TXT 18-APR-88 18-APR-88 $7715 R=S0000
August 1988
» NAMER. 11 3 SYS 15-APR-88 15-APR-88 $307 $0000
sURMER. 0 €1 BIN 14-JUN-88 14-JUN-88 $7650 A=$0800
1 DIR 26-FEB~88 26-FE3-88. $200 $0000
2 $C T-WUL-87 87 $2932 $0000
1 BAS 16-JUL-87 16-JUL-87 $24 $0801
Blocks used: 1529 Total blocks: 1600
Nunber of subdirectories: 9
Blocks free: 71
Wanber of standard files: 70
According to documents sent to developers, the changes to
Basic.system fixed a bug that concerned the number of entries in a
directory and a bug related to pressing control-S to stop a catalog dis-
play. No mention is made of a fix to the well-documented CHAIN bug.
Changes to ProDOS 8 include some interrupt-handling fixes and a
POSNERR if the 32 meg limit is exceeded.
In the SYSTEM/SYSTEM.SETUP subdirectory, the last eight files
have to do with AppleTalk networks. You can delete them if you don't
use AppleTalk. The TOOL.SETUP file now checks the ligs ROM version
number and, depending on the result, executes either TS1 (original
ROM) or TS2 (ROM V 1.1). This change saves between eight and ten
seconds of boot time, the documents report. Being able to delete one
or the other also saves a nice chunk of disk space. The old file
SOUND.INIT has been included inside the new TS files and is no
longer needed.
“Many of the files in the TOOLS subdirectory have had bug fixes and
several new tools are being released for the first time. These include
the ACE (Audio Compression and Expansion) Tool Set, a set of rou-
tines for compressing and decompressing digitized sounds; the MIDI
tool set, which, in conjunction with a MIDI interface and a newly sup-
plied serial port driver, allows applications to interface with MIDI
equipment; the Note Sequencer, which helps with MIDI recording and
playback; and the Note Synthesizer, which generates musical notes
and sounds.
The DRIVERS subdirectory now includes two MIDI drivers and an
IMAGEWRITER.LQ driver, Unfortunately, the latter does nothing but
allow printing to an LQ over an AppleTalk network. It does not sup-
port the higher-resolution printing that's possible with an ImageWriter
LQ. Meanwhile, the IMAGEWRITER driver has been completely rewrit-
ten. It is now faster and fixes a number of bugs. The LASERWRITER
driver has also been rewritten. The file called LASERPREP, which
appeared on System Disk 3.1, is no longer necessary, which makes
this new driver compatible with all Macintosh LaserWriter drivers.
A file called FONT.LISTS was added to the FONTS subdirectory.
Older versions of the Font Manager started up by opening every font
on the system disk to collect information on what was available. All of
this information is now contained in FONT.LISTS—the time consuming
opening of each font file will occur only if the FONT.LIST and the
FONT subdirectory have discrepancies in files or in file creation/modi-
fication dates and times.
The FINDER was changed so that it won't crash if memory gets
compacted.
Macintosh system software has been distributed by the national
online networks, under license from Apple, for several years. It has
been a sore point with many of us that similar licenses for Apple II
system software weren't available. However, with the help of old and
new Apple II champions inside Apple, that has changed. Consequent-
ly, you'll be able to get a copy of the entire System Disk 3.2, or select-
ed parts of it, from your favorite online service. You'll also be able to
get upgrades from your dealer. The actual date the online services
and dealers would have the disks wasn't known as we went to press.
It looks like for the Iigs will be here sooner than |
thought. Look for a ligs Hypercard-like package from Roger Wagner
Publishing between now and the September AppleFest.
Those of you who own RWP's Merlin assembler ought to send the
company $15 + $2 shipping for Merlin Extras, a new disk of goodies
that includes real toolbox macros for the Ilgs, a program that will
search through source code files looking for a specific label, a pro-
gram that will make sure your version of Merlin contains all the latest
patches, and a list of corrections to Wagner's book Apple ligs
Machine Language for Beginners (Roger Wagner Publishing Co, 1050
Pioneer Way, Suite P, El Cajon, CA 92020, 619-442-0522).
And in the local news...the Shawnee Mission school district wants
to be one of the most technologically advanced schoo! districts in the
Open-Apple 4.51
nation, according to an article in the July 13 Overland Park Sun (page
3A). The Shawnee Mission district embraces a number of mostly
wealthy suburban cities in the southwestern quadrant of the Kansas
City metropolitan area. It has about 30,000 students in 42 elementary
schools, seven middle schools, and five high schools. The district has
an annual budget of slightly over $100 million.
The district has just published a long-range plan called ‘Technology
in Education: A Bold Initiative for the 21st Century’. The plan is the
result of a year-long study by a nine-member team composed of
school administrators. What's surprising about the plan is that much
of it is all about putting computers on teachers’ and administrators’
desks, While the plan does call for additional computers for student
use, the bulk of it calls for:
~a testing system that would automatically score and record grades.
—providing teachers with access to a central database of curriculum
objectives, teaching strategies, resources, learning activities, and
tests.
—a financial management system for budgeting, payroll, bill paying,
and inventory control.
—a human resources data bank.
—an information service between district buildings that would
improve scheduling, planning, communication, and evaluation.
How can Apple expect to sell Apple Ils to a district like this without
evangelizing the Apple Il as a computer suitable for both education
and the office?
By the way, if you think IBM has given on up the education market,
IBM ‘lent talent and expertise at no cost to the district’ for creating the
report. The district's superintendent, Raj Chopra, estimated the value
of IBM's services at $200,000. Thomas R. Sprott, vice president and
area manager of IBM, said no other school district has attempted such
an ambitious project.
Apple is continuing its corporate restructuring. The newest
changes are the establishment of a Customer Satisfaction
organization, which is responsible for customer relationships—includ-
ing distribution, customer service, and customer support. The organi-
zation will be led by a manager to be named later, who will report to
Allan Z. Loren, vice-president, Apple Integrated Services. Loren is also
responsible for Apple's internal computer systems (called Information
Systems & Technology) and reports to Del Yocam.
In addition, Apple's product marketing and market intelligence
functions, previously part of the Apple USA marketing group headed
by Charles Boesenberg, have been moved under Jean-Louis Gassee,
whose group is now called Research, Development, and Product Mar-
keting,
“Product marketing’ has to do with keeping the people who design
Apples, the people who sell Apples, and the people who use Apples
all tuned to the same channel. The job isn't easy. The key to success
is keeping in touch with the users. They're the ones who ultimately
decide the wavelength. The designers and the sellers have a role in
telling the users what new things are possible. And they have to take
risks on new technologies that users don't know about. But, in the
end, it's the customer who decides whether the new technology will
succeed or fail.
Apple historically has been more lucky than good at Apple II prod-
uct marketing. The people who design Apple Ils and people who use
Apple Ils have been on pretty much the same wavelength, but over
the last ten years Apple has put its major design emphasis elsewhere.
Meanwhile, the people who sell Apple Ils have generally been out of
touch and have abandoned segment after segment of users long
before the users were ready to abandon the Apple II.
But things are looking up for the Il. Earlier this year, Apple persuad-
ed its Australian Apple Il Marketing Manager, Peter Sandys, to move to
California. Sandys bought his first computer in 1979—a 4K Tandy. He
later moved up to a Commodore Pet. He ran a computer dealership in
Sydney for three years, worked for awhile as Microsoft's Australian
Marketing Manager, and in early 1984 was hired by Apple as its Macin-
tosh Marketing Manager in Australia. Nonetheless, Sandys’ first job at
Apple was to introduce the Apple IIc to Australia.
‘As Macintosh Marketing Manager, in fact, Sandys introduced all the
Apple II products that followed the IIc—disk drives, memory cards,
monitors, and the Apple lIgs—to the Australian market. While we've
gotten used to seeing Apple's talented Apple Il people move over to
4.52 Open-Apple
the Macintosh, seeing talented Macintosh people cross over to the
Apple II is rare indeed. Sandys explained how it happened during a
seminar at the Arizona Apple Users Group's Apple Fiesta ‘88 in June:
Anybody with any brains wouldn't take our Apple II product man-
agement job, you know, because ‘the product's dying.’ We couldn't
find anybody to take that job. So basically | realized the only way I
was going to get any help was to take on the Apple II job myself and
find another Macintosh manager—which took a week.
My personal philosophy is that the Apple Il is a challenge. Any-
body can be a successful Macintosh product manager. The product's
on the rise, it's new, it gets a lot of attention—but as a career chal-
lenge, as a pure marketing challenge, if you can take a product that's
ten years old and pump life back into it, that will say more about
your marketing skills than anything I've ever done. So | started send-
ing memos back to Cupertino trying to get something going on the
Apple Il. Why aren't we doing this, why aren't we doing that? They
liked what I was saying so they offered me a position over here.
| believe that Apple is very committed to the Apple Il. And that is
from someone who's seen the inside, There has been a turn around
in the company. The company is very strongly trying to focus back
on the Apple Il. It will never be like in its heyday. It will never be as
much a focus as Macintosh has got. But it's the reason I came to
America. | looked at it very carefully. I've got three young kids and a
family—I've had to grab all those people and bring them over here
and resettle in another country. | wouldn't have done that unless I
firmly believed that Apple was 100 per cent behind the Apple IL...
Vol. 4, No. 7
I dont think any company would be very smart to try to limit one
of its products. That's a rumor that goes around a lot about
Apple—that we deliberately are limiting the ligs or the I! products to
make the Mac look good. | think that's a fallacy....put things in per-
spective. The Apple II represents a billion dollars a year coming in to
Apple. That's 25 per cent of our revenue coming out of Apple Ils.
You take ! billion dollars—that puts you between Prime and Tandy
on the Fortune 500—just for Apple I alone. So the Apple Il is a very,
very important part of our business...
The Apple Il is not going to go away. The Apple II will survive and
will continue and maybe in some ways it will continue in spite of
Apple. But it will continue and we'll keep developing that product
line.
Sandys will be a guest of GEnie at an Apple II RoundTable Tuesday
night conference on August 16, 9:30 Eastern. If you have any ques-
tions or comments about the marketing of the Apple II, this will be a
good chance to make sure Apple knows what they are.
Besides an accessible Apple I! manager who likes to play with com-
puters, the other thing Apple II product marketing suddenly has going
for it is the shadow of Jean-Louis Gassee’s wings. Like many of us,
Gassee believes Apple has built too many marketing fences around
the Apple Il. "I believe we should be even more open and let cus-
tomers and developers decide what's best for them,’ Gassee said at
online conference on GEnie July 12. ‘On the other hand, we are often
pressed to give ‘clear’ differentiation messages as to our two product
lines. The bottom line of my opinion is that we perhaps have to be
less rigid in segmenting product lines and market segments."
Ask
(or tell)
Uncle
DOS
Swinging between uses
| read your interview with Del Yocam in the
July issue. The discussion only confirmed my
opinion that we are witnessing the slow death of
the Apple Il. It is a nice thought that the Apple Il
should be directed toward education. | would
imagine that this strategy will work for awhile.
In the end, however, how many parents will
buy an Apple Il for a child only? | submit that
the majority of people buy a computer for a mix
of reasons, including education, word process-
ing, games, and, for a lot of people, the ability
to bring work home.
When I bought my Apple Ile about four years
ago it was the only machine capable of swinging
between all of these uses at a reasonable price.
At this time, however, it is still only acceptable
for games, education, and word processing, As
far as | can tell, the Apple Il environment is at
least a generation behind in computer lan-
guages, spreadsheets, and data bases. Further-
more, in terms of computing power, it has
become a very expensive alternative.
Thus, when | finally purchased another com-
puter, I was left with the choice of a Mac or MS-
DOS machine. | purchased a 10 MHz AT clone
with printer and hard disk for under $1,600. If I
had purchased a similarly equipped Apple ligs,
it probably would have been at least $500
more.
| have always enjoyed your newsletter, but
now have no reason to renew. How about start-
ing one for the MS-DOS world?
Alan B. Levy
Randolph, N.J.
Based on my interview with Yocam, | believe
his response would be that there isn’t an iden-
tifiable ‘home market’, so Apple has chosen to
aim the Apple I! at the institutional education
market. He sees the education-at-home market
as only a small part of this.
Traditionally speaking, the Apple II's essen-
tial characteristic has been its flexibility—its
capability to swing between uses. At Apple's
developer dinner before last fall's AppleFest,
John Sculley himself reported that Apple's
research shows that Apple II owners tend to
use and be familiar with far more software
Packages than either Macintosh or MS-DOS
owners. MS-DOS machines, in particular, are
often dedicated to a single application.
Apple stopped marketing the Apple II's flexi-
bility some time ago—even though AppleWorks
provides an excellent flexibility metaphor for
awakening the marketplace. We can only hope
that the new marketing faces at Apple under-
stand the Apple I's benefits better than the old
faces did. The Apple Il will not last long as a
dedicated ‘student’ machine. Teachers and
administrators are not interested in learning
how to use one computer for themselves and
another for their students.
(My goal is to live long enough to be writing
the last Apple II publication in existence. Since
I can barely keep up with the Apple II and
since I refuse to write about what I don't know
about, | have a hard time imagining myself
writing an MS-DOS newsletter. On the other
hand, | try to emulate the flexibility of the
Apple Il, So there's really no way to predict
what might happen as the months go by.)
The networked GS
The best thing that has happened to the
Apple il recently is networking with AppleShare.
GSWorks may also boost the popularity of the
ligs, but networking will open up niches in
every world from home to university to busi-
ness. I can envision the Ilgs in both educational
and business AppleShare and TOPS networks as
an inexpensive, smart workstation; an alterna-
tive to buying an entire Macintosh II for each
node. This will be even more possible if rumors
come true that a new version of ProDOS 16 will
be compatible with the Macintosh's HFS file for-
mat.
I'm looking at the Apple II from the perspec-
tive of the computer science department at a
major research university. This place has every-
thing—Project Andrew, IBM-Ethernet and
AppleTalk boxes everywhere, and so on.
Presently, most Macs are used simply as Laser-
Writer machines; the jobs they perform could
be performed just as easily by Apple lls with
the one exception of page layout.
Bigger and more ambitious applications
require much more memory and storage than
the standard Mac provides. The hope here is to
make a Mac Il run efficiently under the Project
Andrew Unix environment, which will demand 6
megs minimum of RAM. The incentive is that
such a fully loaded Mac would still be less
expensive than the other machines typically
required to run this network. if the Mac takes
off like this—and it will if the university comput-
er science students like the ones here have a
say in it, and they do—there will remain a mam-
moth place for the Apple Ilgs to fit in.
Apple Ils have been reliable and personal
machines and they deserve much wider recogni-
tion than they have now. Further, it seems that
the most innovative software has always
appeared on the Il first, such as VisiCalc; Apple-
Work's integrated design, which inspired
Microsoft Works; and now GS-Works. And | am
ever more impressed by the way an 8-bit IIc can
do the things it does when running Ultima 5 or
the latest Bard's Tale. The lesser power of the
6502 has forced programmers to utilize Apple's
hardware and firmware design to the utmost,
producing some results that put 68000-based
machines to shame. Macintoshes are good
machines only if they have the memory and
Storage to support them. This leaves a great
August 1988
Other interesting tidbits from the Gassee conference (the full
transcript is available in the A2 library on GEnie, search for the key-
word GASSEE):
On where chip development is headed for the next five years:
There are two interesting directions at this time: first, the ZIP Chip
represents the kind of improvements that can be made to the origi-
nal processor without too much disturbance to the existing software
applications. Secondly, there are vendors interested in supplying
65816s at a higher speed. Other than that we have no intention to
change the instruction set again.
On whether Ile and IIc users will be able to take advantage of large
storage devices (CD-ROM, etc.) after Apple releases its true ProDOS
16: Right now we are concentrating on making improvements to the
16-bit world as so eloquently requested by everyone. But there will
be some unexpected goodies for everyone, including the 8-bit side
of the Apple Il line.
On whether there are enough people inside Apple using Apple Ils:
That is a valid concern and you might want to know that we are
developing more Apple II CPUs and Operating System software than
at any time in Apple's history, so someone must be banging on the
product somewhere.
On the ‘this is progress?" effect, that is, the larger and faster the
computer, the larger and slower the software: | agree this is a prob-
lem and you better believe we don't want that to stay so. First, we
will speed the Ilgs program loading time in a future release of the
system. Secondly, in a more distant future, we have to make sure
that programming nice applications does not become a superhuman
Open-Apple 4.53
task as we make the computer bigger and richer (more peripherals
and media)....The general idea would be object-oriented program-
ming, both for normal people and for real men as well....Thirdly, we
will increase peripheral performance,
On how Apple plans to fight off the invasion of cheap IBM clones
from the Home/Education market: (Telling you) that would get me
into trouble as I currently do not hold the job of VP of Pre-Announce-
ments. But we have no intention to just watch. We'll fight with hard-
ware, software and networks!
On the concern that, with Apple marketing the II as useful only in
K-12, developers aren't interested and can't get capital for Apple II
programs—that even though the education plus work-at-home connec-
tion is a natural market for the II, Apple has turned that role over to
the Mac Plus: J realize that you reflect a wide-spread perception and I
agree that we have the potential in the Apple Il (c, e and gs) for a
combination learning and work at home. I'll convey your comments
as I believe they are right on the mark.
On The Information Exchange (a manual Apple provides to certified
third-party developers) drawing too hard a line between Macintosh
and Apple II applications: Agreed and this is my bailiwick.
On whether his new duties as head of Product Marketing portends
any changes in Apple II marketing strategies?: | intend, precisely, to
avoid excessive rigidity in positioning. | believe we're better off trust-
ing the fact we are dealing with a very intelligent marketplace, other-
wise we would not be here.
deal of room for the ligs to establish itself; in
the most ambitious case, as a color workstation
for Macintosh networks.
| would like to see Apple place the IIgs under
the Apple University Consortium. Presently, 1
can buy a two-drive Mac SE for less money than
an equally equipped ligs. This frustrates me to
no end and is my biggest negative argument
when considering whether Apple is truly sup-
porting the II line.
The most limiting factor of the ligs in the
eyes of this particular Computer Science
Department is the machine's speed (especially
considering that even 18 MHz RISC processors
aren't fast enough for what they want to do with
computers—however, these same people
believe that the ‘personal computer’ itself is
obsolete; their only interest is in a better ‘work-
station’), The other thing the IIgs needs to com-
pete is storage. Apple doesnt bundle the ligs
with a hard drive (Macs can't live without one)
and have never given Ils enough memory.
‘Jeremy Mereness
Pittsburgh, Pa.
Ils in education
Please dont be so hard on Apple lis in educa-
tion. If we don't do something to rejuvenate
education soon, the business world will die, and
no computer will survive. Of course Apple's
prices are too high and we should support all
efforts to reduce them (a la Central Point).
But if all our students learn on Apple Ils,
theyll be comfortable producing on them at
home and at work as they grow up. | sense a
resistance on your part to gain educational
savvy. You are too valuable to us to become a
pariah—grow with (and hopefully ahead of)
Apple, as you have to date.
Ken Franklin
Puyallup, Wash.
You misread me if you think I'm resisting
moving towards educational markets. What Im
resisting is moving away from the home and
small business markets. Steve Wozniak didn't
design the Apple II to be a student-computer,
he designed it to be an inexpensive general-
purpose computer—a personal computer. Stu-
dents and teachers are people, too, and I fully
support their use of the Apple Il.
Rethinking hard disks (cont.)
Why are hard drives for the Apple II so
expensive? I can get IBM-type hard drives for
less than half the cost of the cheapest available
Apple-type drive.
Jim Dorigatti
Dover, Del.
‘As another hard disk option, I've seen ads for
Apple-compatible controllers for IBM-type
‘ST506 hard drives. For example, there's an ad
‘on page 111 in the July A+ from Perlin Electron-
ics. At $195 for the controller plus about $400
for a 40 Meg drive it beats the SCSI options by
a bunch.
Bob Durst
Corvallis, OR 97353
Why does everything cost twice as much or
more for Apple type hardware than IBM? You
mention a 20 Meg hard drive for the Apple Il for
$650. I can get a Seagate 30 Meg for IBM types
for less than $300. The same holds for floppy
drives and many other hardware products. |
really would like to see a reasonable discussion
as to why the free market competitive environ.
ment is so effective in the IBM world and virtual-
ly non-existent in Apple land. Where are the
Apple clones? Finally, how tong will Apple con-
tinue to embarrass itself with a chintzy 90-day
warranty?
William Ingersoll
Shalimar, Fla.
Please—compare oranges to oranges. The
difference between the $300 IBM drives and
the $650 Apple I! drives is that with the Apple
Il drive you get a controller card, a finished
cabinet, a power supply, a cable, and disk
management software. All you get with the
$300 IBM drive is an unmounted hard disk
assembly and an instruction sheet that shows
how to install it into the IBM case. A 20 Meg
IBM-lype drive with controller and cabinet runs
about $400-$450 for a 65-msec access time
drive (read ‘slow’). In most cases you'd still
need to upgrade your operating system soft-
ware (MS-DOS is sold separately) and your
power supply. IBM-type drives are indeed gen-
erally cheaper than Apple Il compatible drives,
but the real difference is far less than the per-
ceived difference.
If you insist on trying to save the difference,
you can, as mentioned above, get a controller
that allows hooking an IBM-type drive to an
‘Apple II from a company called Perlin. We have
received two letters from readers who have
purchased this controller—the _ opinions
expressed ranged from negative to extremely
negative. Complaints revolved around the diffi-
culty of getting the setup to work and on a lack
of support from Perlin.
As to why competition isn't as fierce in the
Apple II kingdom as in Messdosistan, it has to
do with a number of things, Obviously, Mess-
dosistan has a much larger population than we
do. The people who control investment capital
tend to live in Messdosistan and are pretty
parochial about it—they think the Apple I! King-
dom is small and dying out. They're afraid to
invest any money here. Apple's market posi-
tioning of the I! encourages their discourage-
ment.
The companies that did attempt Apple It
clones generally made the mistake of copying
Apple's ROM code and Apple's lawyers man-
aged to shut them down. The one company
that didn't copy Apple's ROM and that got its
own Basic (Applesoft) license from Microsoft,
however, Video Technology, has done quite
well with its Laser series of Apple compatibles,
which provide more functionality at a lower
cost than Apple's own computers. Theyre the
Compaq of the Apple II kingdom.
Apple's 90-day warranty is less than the stan-
dard warranty in Messdosistan. They really
dont have any business reason to match the
norm, however, unless people start complain-
ing about it. Try writing a letter to Apple's new
Customer Satisfaction group (Apple Computer,
Inc., 20525 Mariani Ave, Cupertino, CA
95014).
4.54 Open-Apple
lic hard drives
Contrary to your statement in last month's
issue that IIc hard drives won't work with a igs.
(page 4.48), the fact is, they do.
Tused a ProApp 20 for about three years with
my llc and last year upgraded to a Iigs. | daisy-
chained the hard disk to the 3.5 drive and it
worked. By setting the control panel appropri-
ately, you can even boot from the hard disk. If
anyone would like to more about this they can
reach me on GEnie (J.KLINE) or call my bulletin
board, WESTEX // BBS, 806-796-1258.
Joseph Kline
Lubbock, Texas
Hard disk notcher
I know you can notch a floppy disk and flip it
over to get at extra 143K, Can I notch my Sider
hard drive, flip it over, and get another 10
megabytes of storage?
Doug Smith
Long Beach, NC
I had Dennis try it. He reports he got 10
megabytes less storage.
Bernoulli drives
Since you are recommending hard drives
now (July 1988, pages 4.45-4.46), what about
the various removable media drives? I've writ-
ten Jasmine about using their MegaDrive with
an Apple ligs and an Apple SCSI card; as you
indicated, they claim this combo doesn't work. I
haventt asked any other manufacturers. The ads
I've seen indicate that the data cartridges come
pre-formatted (for HFS, | assume). Could they
be reinitialized for ProDOS?
If so, this seems like the most viable ‘mass
storage’ system. A Bernoulli system allows
back-up and immediate reuse (no need to refor-
mat a crashed disk, just plug in the copy and
go); infinite expansion in 20 Megabyte chunks
without butting heads with ProDOS volume size
limitations; and for those who have to worry
about such things, lockit-up style security. You
also dont have to worry about head crashes
and parking, something that caused a lot of
grief to several of my (even if they are MS-DOS)
friends.
The cartridges I've seen run from $18 to
about $60 a shot and the Bernoulli drives them-
selves average under $1,200 list. While this is a
bit more expensive than a hard disk, you can
always add more cartridges instead of buying a
bigger, costlier hard disk when yours (inevitably)
fills up. A real boon for harried sysops, CPAs,
and club librarians.
On another topic, FORTH programmers with
a ligs should check out GSI6FORTH. It has no
licensing fees or royalties. Ive even used it to
write New Desk Accessories. The manual is
sparse and bit disorganized (they assume you
know the language or have a good learning text
available), but relatively complete.
Daniel Morris
San Vito Air Station, Italy
We don't have any experience with Bernoulli
drives—the relatively high cost compared to
standard hard disks has always scared us off.
But you make some good points. Does anyone
out there know anything about using these
drives with an Apple I?
GSI6FORTH comes in three pieces, the
main package and two optional packages. Each
piece can be purchased with an on-disk manu-
al (the cheaper version) or with a hardcopy
‘manual, You can also buy the whole works at
once at a special price. The main package is
$29,95/$59.95, an optional toolbox support
package is $29.95/$.59.95, and a floating point
package is $9.95/$16.95. The whole works is
$57.50/$82.95 and shipping is $1.50/$5.00
(GSF, 1529 Torre Ct, San Jose, CA 95120).
Speaking in tongues
Which 6502 assembler do you recommend?
Where can | buy Apple Pascal? Do you know of
a COBOL or C compiler for the llc?
Carlos Diuk
Capital Federal, Argentina
The four primary assemblers available for
the 6502 are Merlin Pro, LISA, ORCA/M, and
the $-C Assembler. All support 6502, 65C02,
and 65802 instructions; all but Merlin Pro
additionally support 65816 instructions. The $-
C Assembler is unique in that S-C Software
sells, at extra cost, a number of cross-compiler
modules for it that allow you to develop soft-
ware for a broad range of microprocessors
using an Apple Il.
Each of the four uses slightly different syn-
tax and is stronger than the other three in
some areas. Personal preference plays a large
role in determining which is ‘best’. | use the S-
C Assembler, Dennis uses Merlin Pro; we'd
probably be just as happy with one of the oth-
ers if we had learned the other first.
If you are planning to migrate to a Iigs even-
tually, you might like to start with an assembler
that can generate ProDOS 16 ‘OMF' (Object
Module Format) program files. There are ver-
sions of LISA (LISA816) and Merlin (Mer-
in8 16) that will generate these files and that
will run on a 128K Ile or Ilc as well as a ligs
(Merlin 816 requires that you replace your
He/lic microprocessor with a 65802).
ORCA/M also comes in a version that can
generate OMF files, ORCA/M GS, but it will
only run on a ligs. Also in the ligs-only category
is the Apple Programmer's Workshop, sold
by the Apple Programmer's and Developer's
Association, which includes an assembler
based on ORCA/M. A feature of these two pro-
grams is that they support installation and use
of other languages, in addition to the assem-
Dler. They use a library format that allows link-
ing together OMF files originally written in dif-
ferent languages. (At least, that was the original
idea, but it seems to be getting lost in the
implementation; for example APW C uses
lower case names for variable segments. But
the assemblers default to upper case. And the
linker, the program that combines all this stuff,
is case sensitive.)
ORCA/M seems to be developing faster than
APW. ORCA/Pascal is available now from the
publisher, Byte Works, and ORCA/BASIC is
under development. At AppleFest, Byte Works
announced a new graphics-based desktop that
allows you to edit and debug programs written
in any of its languages.
Apple's releases for APW, on the other
hand, have thus far been limited to an assem-
bler and Ay ax C. There is some
concern in the developer community that
Apple has abandoned the Apple Program-
mer's Workshop in favor of Macintosh-based
ligs programming tools—earlier this year Apple
announced a Macintosh 's Work-
shop (MPW) version of IIgs C. An MPW Ilgs
assembler is also under development. Howev-
er, Jean-Louis Gassee said at GEnie's confer-
Vol. 4, No. 7
ence that the MPW tools were written to
encourage Macintosh developers to write for
the Ilgs, not to encourage IIgs developers to
buy Macintoshes. He said the MPW tools would
not detract from Apple's efforts in native ligs
Janguages. Nonetheless, nearly two years after
introduction, Apple has yet to provide a high-
level language for ligs owners other than APW
which is a real slow-poke at compilation and
linking. Of course, we're still waiting for a true
ProDOS 16, too.
TML Systems offers APWcompatible ver-
sions of its THL Pascal and TML Basic.
‘Apple Pascal is available through APDA.
The C language is also available for the lle
and lic, in several different versions, from a
company called Manx. Apprentice C, C’Prime,
and Aztec C65-d are DOS 3.3-based versions;
Aztec C65-d is ProDOS-based.
The only versions of COBOL we know of for
the Apple Il family would require a CP/M capa-
bility, which you could add to your llc with
Applied Engineering's ZRAM or Cirtech’s CP/M
Plus system for the Ic. The expensive version
is Microsoft COBOL, a cheaper version is Ellis
Computing’ Nevada COBOL, which is men-
tioned in a following letter.
Here are the relevant addresses:
S-C Assenbler S-C 8
e Corp
Prod0S $100.00 2331 Gus Thonasson, #125
00S 3.3 $100.00 Dallas, 1x 15228
both $120.00 214-324-2050
Nerlin Pro § 99.95 Royer Wagner Publ. Co.
Merlin&lé $124.95 1050 Pioneer Way, Suite P
1 CA 92020
0522
RAL Labs
(00S 3.3)
18342 Dallas
USABl6 5.0
oRca/ $99.95 Byte Works, Inc.
ORCAIM GS § 69.95 4700 Irving Blvd mi, #207
ORCA/Pascal $125.00 Albuquerque, 1M 87114
ORCA/Desktop § 60.00 905-898-8183
Desktop#Pascal $150.00
2H
BH C Ht ABrd St
ABW debugger ton, WA 98085
tei 106-251-6548
ew Is
wea
Apple 1
‘™ML Pascal $125.00 TL Systems
‘TML Basic $125.00 8837-B Goodby's itive Dr
Jacksonville, FL 7
904-6. 92
Apprentice C$ 19.00 Manx Software Systens
C'Prime $75.00 1 Industrial Way
Aztec C65-d $199.00 Eatontown, NJ 07724
Aztec C6S-c $299.00 201-542-2121
Apprentice C
| use a $19 compiler from Manx Software
Systems called Apprentice C (DOS 3.3 only). It's
full Kernighan & Ritchie with lousy docs, but,
like Integer Basic, you can do an astounding
amount of good with it. Do any other Open-
Apple readers use it? Has anyone added bit-
fields and related operations?
Do you know of any way to patch VisiCalc
Advanced Version so it will run on an enhanced
lle or a Ic without MouseText problems?
August 1988
Donald Drews
Brown Deer, Wisc.
Dennis owns an unprotected DOS 3.3 copy”
of VisiCalc Advanced Version that was sold
directly by Software Arts before they were pur-
chased by Lotus. It works with MouseText. We
havent heard of any patches for your earlier,
copy-protected, VisiCorp version. The other
option is to fix your computer so you turn
MouseText on and off (see Feb 1987, page
3.7).
Manx has added bit-fields and related opera-
tions, but you have to buy their expensive ver-
sions of C to get them.
Cheap languages
I suspect there are a number of people who
are interested in learning new computer lan-
guages but who can't justify the cost of the high-
priced packages. I wish that | had known about
the sources available when | first started explor-
ing new languages. Here is a sample of what
can be obtained for less than $50.
FORTRAN, COBOL, Pascal, and C, are all lan-
‘guages that are well known and are fairly com-
mon. Furthermore, most of them are popular
on microcomputers. Even though FORTRAN and
COBOL are more often thought of as belonging
on mainframes, they are also available for many
small computers, including Apples, if the Apple
has a CP/M card installed.
‘There is a variety of sources for CP/M cards. |
bought mine from a discounter who sold the
Applied Engineering 2-80 Plus, which comes
with its own operating system, a CP/M work-
alike called CP/AM. | have seen ads for it recent-
ly for around $100. That is the largest single
expenditure required. The language systems are
all much less expensive.
It is also possible to get CP/M cards for under
$40. The main problem with these is that they
rarely come with an operating system. There are
some public domain CP/M-type systems around,
but you will need a friend who has a running
system to get yours up and running,
CP/M is very different from either DOS 3.3 or
ProDOS. On the other hand, if you have any
experience with MS-DOS you'll find learning
CP/M pretty simple. MS-DOS was a take-off of
sorts on CP/M. Get a few good reference books
at your local bookstore because the documen-
tation that comes with the CP/AM system is
rather sparse. A reference such as the CP/M
Bible by Waite and Angermeyer is a sound
investment.
There are some additional things you may
want to include that will make things easier. A
64K machine seems to be sufficient for most, if
not all, of the languages | have found. But a
RAMdisk and 3.5 inch disks help to speed
everything up and allow you to keep all related
files on the same disk. Newer versions of CP/M
written for Apple IIs support these devices.
Now to the languages. The company with the
most low-cost CP/M language packages is Ellis
Computing (5655 Riggins Court, Suite 10, Reno,
NV 89502 702-827-3030). | have used their
Nevada FORTRAN and Nevada COBOL. They
also have produced Nevada versions of Basic,
Pascal, and Pilot.
Nevada FORTRAN is a subset of FORTRAN IV.
It comes with a manual of which roughly 170
pages are devoted to the language and the way
it is implemented under CP/M. An additional 50
pages cover the assembler module and its use.
An 8080/Z-80 assembler is included in the
package. No tutorials are supplied, but there are
several example programs listed for both the
FORTRAN section and the assembler section. If
you want to learn FORTRAN with this package
you would do well to-get at least one good text-
book/tutorial for the language. Nevada FOR-
TRAN includes several extensions to the ANSI
standard, but also omits several ANSI standard
components such as double precision and
EQUIVALENCE statements.
Naturally, you shouldn't expect full main-
frame capability on a 64K system. On the other
hand, this package provides a great deal of
power for the money. When you master this sys-
tem you will not need much additional work to
feel at home with a full implementation.
Nevada COBOL sold for about $40 but unfor-
tunately has been discontinued. It appears to
me to be a subset of COBOL 74, The 170 page
manual contains a brief introduction to the lan-
guage, a short primer, and several example pro-
grams. Once again, you will be best off if you
get a good textbook/tutorial to use with this ver-
sion.
if you are going to use the Ellis packages,
you will want a text editor of some kind. Ellis
sells an EDIT program that is considerably bet-
ter than the primitive editing programs that
come with the CP/M system (ED or TED). There
are other editors that | prefer, but this one is
not at all bad and has several desirable fea-
tures.
When it comes to Pascal, everyone has prob-
ably heard of Borland International's Turbo
Pascal. It is a very good, fast, forgiving system.
It frequently sells at a discount for less than
$40, although the latest prices that I have seen
are slightly higher. It comes with a 375-page ref-
erence manual (some of which is given over to
MS-DOS commands) that covers the Turbo sys-
tem, including the editor; the Pascal implemen-
tation (with numerous examples); CP/M infor-
mation, differences between Turbo and UCSD
Pascal, and several appendices covering such
topics as installation for specific hardware sys-
tems, compiler directives, errors, and so forth.
The editor that comes with the Turbo Pascal
package is good enough to use for a lot of
things, not just writing Pascal programs. I have
used it instead of the Ellis editor for FORTRAN
and COBOL. It is Wordstar-based, so if you are
familiar with that command structure you will
feel right at home. If you don't like the key map-
ping, you can change it to whatever you want.
If you want to learn C, | really doubt if there
is a bargain to match the package available
from Mix Software (1132 Commerce Drive,
Richardson, TX 75081 214-783-6001). For
under $40 you get the language, linker, and
compiler system; a split-screen editor; and
assembler. The deal is unbeatable. The system
comes with a 450-page manual that includes
both tutorial and reference sections. It appears
to be a full-featured, standard implementation
of the Kernighan and Ritchie C compiler, suit
able for development systems used by begin-
ning- to intermediate-level programmers. There
are a few extensions to the standard and only
one restriction.
The editor Mix gives you is so good I use it
for all the programs | write under CP/M. It has.
even more features than the Turbo system and
also follows the Wordstar protocol. In fact, the
editor is worth the price of the whole package.
This software was voted a Best Buy by Comput-
er Shopper magazine and with good reason. It
would be worth buying a CP/M card just so you
Open-Apple 4.55
could run it.
For a minimum initial cost you can explore a
host of new languages. If you enjoy mapping
new territory, if you want to root around in the
world of computer languages, or if you just
want to keep your hand in with some of the lan-
guages you once learned and have nearly for-
gotten, you can do what you want, for not much
money, on an Apple Il.
Michael J. Paris
Atkinson, Neb.
CP/M kick start
1 recently acquired a 2-80 card and am inter-
ested in learning about CP/M and obtaining
some CP/M software. | was wondering if you
could recommend a good CP/M manual and a
good source of CP/M public domain software.
The titles of some commercially available CP/M
packages would also be helpful.
Michael Borkum
Chestnut Hill, Mass.
We published ’A CP/M Primer’ right here in
Open-Apple back in June 1985, pages 1.44-
1.45. CP/M is waning as far as new systems are
concerned, but there are a lot of older systems
still in daily use and software is available. The
publisher of Wordstar, perhaps the most wide-
ly-used CP/M program, recently updated that
Program to version 4.0,
Note that CP/M runs on a great many differ-
ent machines that all use different disk for-
mats. You must be sure that any software you
get is on Apple-CP/M-format disks. You won't
be able to use disks in other formats. Since
the Apple Il, believe it or not, is one of the
most popular CP/M machines ever made, you
shouldn't have too much trouble finding disks
in the right format. And there are places that
will convert disks from one CP/M format to
another for a fee.
See the previous letter for a book recom-
mendation. Dennis recommends The Osborne
/McGraw-Hill CP/M User's Guide, 3rd Ed, by
Thom Hogan ($19.95, Osborne/McGraw-Hill,
2600 Tenth St, Berkeley, CA 94710) and The
CP/M Handbook by Rodnay Zaks ($15.95,
Sybex, 2021 Challenger Drive, #100, Alameda,
CA 94501). There are hundreds of public
domain CP/M programs available. A good place
to start is in the CP/M area on GEnie or another
of the national online services. See ‘Download-
_ing_CP/M. programs’ in our June issue, page
4.39, for more information on this.
Blazing Applesoft
I first learned about the Beagle Compiler
when you wrote about it in February 1987 (page
2.97). Working with the compiler is an absolute
Joy. It opens up whole new programming vistas
for us Applesoft die-hards. It's like strapping five
Saturn V booster rockets to your humble Apple-
sott code. ProDOS-based Applesoft programs
that used to sputter along now roar from RUN to
END in record time.
The compiler gives you so much power that
you have to spend your time thinking of ways to
give your computer more things to do at the
same time—a dream come true. You can let
your imagination run wild, knowing that there is
at least a possibility of putting your ideas to
work in Applesoft.
Not that all programs benefit a lot from being
compiled. Some programs—typically those that
rely on a lot of floating point operations such as
trig functions, log functions, division, and good
4.56 Open-Apple
old RND—don't show any change in speed. But
the programs that do benefit from the compiler
benefit in a big way. We're talking about gains in
speed of five to fifteen times. That's like boost-
ing the Apple Ile's | megahertz clock to 5 to 15
megahertz.
Phil Shapiro
Washington, D.C.
The important point here is that in many
cases you can do much more for the speed of
a computer by fine tuning the software than
you can by doubling or tripling the speed of
the hardware. Entirely too much emphasis is
put on processor speed in the computer com-
munity today, not nearly enough on software
speed,
Incidentally, one of the best examples of the
thisis-progress? syndrome is floating point
math, Although the Beagle Compiler doesn't
speed up Applesoft's abilities, raw 8-bit Apple-
soft does floating point calculations about four
times faster than the 16-bit SANE toolbox in
the llgs (see ‘Apple llgs Compiler Timings," by
Ken Kashmarek, in the June 1988 Call -
AP.P.LE., pages 19-26). If fast floating point
on an Apple llgs is your desire, the high-level
programming language of choice still seems to
be Applesoft.
Basic.system.80
You guys really amazed me with your answer
to Larry Jorgensen’s question about having
Basic.system startup‘in 80 column mode rather
than 40 (Printing revisions, page 4.38). From
the Applesoft prompt, just type:
is written, edited, published, and
© Copyright 1988 by
Tom Weishaar
with help from
"Tom Vanderpool Sally Dwyer
Dennis Doms Steve Kelly
(Most rights reserved. Al programs published in Oper-Apphe are public
‘domain ard may be copied and dstrbuted without charge. Apple usergroups.
ard sorteant oes may oan permis orp aris rom te ne
by spectic written roquest
‘Opex-Apple has been published monthly since January 1985, Wort-wide
ees (n U.S. dollars: airmail deivery cuted at no additional charge): $28 for
‘year, $54 for 2 years; $78 for 3 years. All back issues are curently avaliable for
$2 each, bound, indexed ecitions of our frst three volumes are $14.95 each. Vol-
Unser wih he Januar se, an indo rhe por volume is ued wh
the Fedruay ise.
‘Pease send al eorespendence to:
P.O. Box 11250
Overland Park, Kansas 66207 U.S.A.
Open Apple s availabe on disk for speech symhesizer users rom
‘Speech Enerprses, PO. Box 7986, Houston, Texas 77270.
‘Open Apple sold in an unprotected forma for your convenience. You
are encouraged to make backup achiral copies or easy tovead enlarged
copies fr your awn use without charge. You may also copy Open-Apple fr
<isnbton to ers. The distribution fe is 15 cents per page per copy dis-
tnbutd,
‘WARRANTY AND LIMITATION OF LIABILITY. waren that most ofthe
information in Open Apples uslul and corect. athough diel and mis-
takes ate incuded from time to time, usualy unintentional, Unsaid
subsorbers may cancel their subscription at any time and receive a ful
round of thr lst subsrgton payment. The unl porton of sny pad
subscroton wil be refunded even to sais subscribers upon request.
MY LIABILITY FOR ERRORS AND OMISSIONS IS LIMITED TO THS
PUBLICATIONS PURCHASE PRICE. Inno case shal or my controtors
be lable for any incidental or consequemtal damages, nor for ANY dar-
‘ages n excess ofthe foes pai by a subscriber
ISSN 0685-4017
Génie mei: OPEN-APPLE
Printed in the U.S.A. 913-469-6502
BLOAD BASIC, SYSTEM, AS2000,7SYS
POKE 8304, 00
POKE 8305, 195
BSAVE BASIC. SYSTEM, AS2000, SYS
This changes a JSR HOME to a JSR $C300 in
Basic.system's lization routine and starts
up 80 columns.
Robert Brady
Haverstraw, N.Y.
Initializing Applesoft
1 am writing a program in assembly language
that counts the number of words in a TXT file. I
store the number of words as a two-byte he)
adecimal number but want to print it as deci-
mal. | decided to use Applesoft’s LINPRT
($ED24) routine to do this. This worked perfect-
ly when I saved the resulting program as a BIN
file and executed it from Basic.system.
Then | turned the BIN file into a SYS file so
that I could put the file on my word processor
disk and quickly switch back and forth between
the two programs. When | run the program as a
SYS file, the first time that LINPRT is called
either garbage is printed or the program hangs.
If it doesn't hang, further calls to LINPRT work
ok. The program also works ok if I run Bas-
ic.system and then run my SYS file. Going to my
program directly from my word processor or
PRODOS doesn't seem to work, however, Do
you know why this is happening?
Chris Younger
Yarrawonga, Vic
Jf you want to use an Applesoft routine,
you'd better make sure Applesoft is initialized
before you start. Basic.system does this for
you. Without Basic.system, you have to do it
Initializing Applesoft is a little tricky. One
part of the initialization routine clears the
Stack, so you can't call it with a JSR and expect
control to return to you. You should also take
care to have nothing stored in the stack when
you make the call. Basic.system, and DOS 3.3
before it, solve the problem by putting a return
address in the Apple's ‘I/O hooks" at $56-39.
After Applesoft is finished with its initialization,
it tries to put its ‘" prompt on the screen.
That's your opportunity to regain control of the
computer. Here's some example code:
2000: AS 36 IDA $36 save value now
2002: 80 15 20 STA $2015 in output hook
2005: AS 37 WDA $37
2007: 8D 16 20 STA $2016
200A: Ad 17, WA #7 put $2017 in
200: 85 36 STA $36 ‘output hook
2008: Ad 20 ‘LDA #20
2010: 85 37 STA $37
2012: 4C 00 EO IMP $2000 initialize Applesoft
2015: 00 00 DA 0000 storage space
2017: AD 15 20 LDA $2015 replace original
QOL: 85 36 STA $36 ‘output hook
2O1C: AD 16 20 LDA $2016
Q01F: 85 37 STA $37
Exponential squeezing
To save space in one or two line programs,
you can use scientific notation. For example,
FOR A=I to 6E3 is the same as FOR A=1 to
6000, For a loop that runs virtually forever, try
FOR A-0 to 9E9,
Wd. Currie
Mordialloc, Vic
Vol. 4, No. 7
Videotape titles
1BM has it, Amiga has it, Apple promised it!
1 want a system that can put high-quality,
gentocked, lettering over live action scenes shot
on videotape. I've been reading all | can about
the Apple ligs but | still haven't seen even a hint
of it. Is there such a system for the llgs yet?
Bob LeBar
Hartsdale, N.Y.
We dont know of a system, but we'll put our
subscribers on the lookout for one.
Formatter for Basic.system
| have investigated several possible sources
you sent me for a way to reliably format blank
ProDOS disks from within Basic.system. After
corresponding with Beagle Bros and Living Leg:
ends, | purchased Glen Bredon's ProCMD pack-
age ($25) to find that the FORMAT command
would only work on slot 6, drive 1. | wrote back
to him and within three weeks had a revision,
which works on both 5.25 and 3.5 drives, It
works by adding the following command to
Basic.system:
FORMAT volune. name, Sn, Dn
The search has been long and difficult
enough to be of interest to Open-Apple read-
ers.
Peter Davis
Kent, England
Statistics, part IV
Tm another statistician who carries on his
business with an Apple Ile. The majority of my
applications involve multivariate procedures
such as principal components, factor analysis,
multidimensional scaling and multiple regres-
sion. As one of your readers pointed out, these
involve many subscript manipulations and a lot
of these are best handled with matrix algebra
techniques. (Matrices are two-dimensional
arrays.) | am more concerned with ease of writ-
ing programs than run time because | write a
large number of small programs for manipulat-
ing these arrays in connection with various sta-
tistical operations.
l use Microsparc's Ampersoft, which provides
a set of macros to be used in conjunction with
Applesoft. For instance, you can multiply two
matrices together with a single command as
compared with the seven or eight commands
ordinarily required in Basic. Matrix inversion,
usually an extensive subroutine, is also a single
command. In addition, Ampersoft treats these
arrays as binary files rather than text files and
loads or saves them with a single command.
Other features include print formatting and sort-
ing,
While not in the same league as Gauss, used
on IBM-compatibles, it covers a lot of territory
and is a lot cheaper. In fact, it has been avail-
able since 1982, making it one of the world's
better kept secrets. For those who are involved
with matrix applications, the book Compact
Numerical Methods for Computers: Linear Alge-
bra and Function Minimization, by J.C. Nash, a
Wiley publication, may be of use. It contains a
number of algorithms, given in such detail that
converting them into Basic is practically auto-
matic.
J. Edward Jackson
Rochester, N.Y.
Microsparc’s address is 52 Domino Drive,
Concord, MA 01742,