Apple III & Profile

From: Doug Spence <ds_spenc_at_alcor.concordia.ca>
Date: Sat Aug 15 04:53:16 1998

On Wed, 12 Aug 1998, D. Peschel wrote:

> > > SOS (Sophisticated Operating System - <fart>) is the pre-cursor to ProDOS.
> > ^^^^
> > Yeah, I'm not impressed either. ;)
>
> That may be (I've never seen it). However, I've heard that the file data
> structures are exactly the same between SOS and ProDOS. (That is, the format
> of directories, volumes, etc. are compatible). ProDOS does have definitions
> for many more of the 256 (255?) allowable file types -- SOS defined fewer.

I don't know about the file types, but I believe you are correct about
filesystem structure. However, I don't run ProDOS on any of my other
systems. I had an Apple ][+ clone in my early teens and I used DOS 3.3,
and never had a reason to use anything else. I never even ran across a
ProDOS disk the whole time I was an Apple user.

> So be a little thankful. :)

Perhaps the SOS/ProDOS similarity will become useful in future, yes. In
fact, that's what makes xferring the disk images I've got, to the III,
even possible. If I couldn't use a II to reconstruct the disks for the
III, I'd be completely stuck.

> > Nope, I've just been using /UTILITIES because that's the only truly
> > bootable disk I got with my III. I also seem to have half (?) of Pascal,
> > which boots sometimes but not others, but not all the way into Pascal
> > because it looks for something on .D2 which I don't have. :/
>
> Pascal (for the ][, anyway) consists of four sides: 0, 1, 2, and 3.
> Sides 0 and 1 are two sides of the same disk; ditto for sides 2 and 3.
> Put side 1 in drive 1 and side 2 in drive 2. Then you should be able to use
> the menu system, editor, and the compiler. (Of course, you may be missing one
> or more of those sides.)

I guess I'm missing two of those sides, but I'm also missing the second
drive. It seems to need a disk in .D2 specifically, but I don't *have* a
.D2.

(With SOS, disk labels start with "/", and device names start with ".".)

[re: disk image source]
> Is that the same source that is mentioned in http://www.emulation.net/ or
> somewhere else?

Somewhere else. I know how freaked-out Apple users can get about piracy
(I used to read comp.sys.apple2) so I'm not naming my source lest s/he
gets lynched or mailbombed.

> > Does anyone know how ShrinkIt works? I think that's the format of these
> > disk images. I'd like to write a ShrinkIt->.dsk image converter, and then
> > I can cut out all kinds of messiness. I might even be able to write the
> > files directly to disk on my Amiga.
>
> Shrinkit is an archive program (like PKZIP, gzip, etc.) though it does have
> a special mode for compressing entire disks. I think it uses a file format
> called NuFX and there is supposedly a compatible C library for UNIX (nfxllib?
> nfxtools? something like that).

The C library might be interesting. What I really want to know is how it
*works*, not how to use it or what it does. I want to be able to write a
deShrinkIt program for my Amiga that takes ShrinkIt files and builds valid
.dsk images.

Currently the only xfer software I have for the Apple ][ only deals in
.dsk images. I wrote the software myself in '93 or '94, in order to
preserve my Apple ][ software collection from bit rot. It was especially
cool later on when I found an Apple emulator that used the same file
format and even the same ".dsk" extension, because I already had a large
library of disks on file. :)

Now I've got an A1020 drive for my Amiga, though, and I was planning on
writing a .dsk writer this summer, but I accidentally wound up employed
and didn't have the time to do it. <s> I should probably just get in
touch with the guy that wrote the Apple disk READer and ask him to make it
WRITE as well, though. :)

> You know, I just happen to have a disk with Shrinkit on one side and ProTERM
> on the other. Perhaps it would save you a lot of time if I sent it to you?
> (I have another copy of the same disk, so I can spare a copy. Though it's
> been a LONG time since I booted it up, so I don't know what shape it's in.)

Thanks for the offer, but that is uneccessary. I can't yet use ProTERM,
and ShrinkIt is available on the 'net. I did manage to get it onto a
ProDOS disk, but that corrupted on me, so I'll have to do it again. I've
still got Apple III disk images on Apple DOS 3.3 disks, though, so some of
the transfer work is already done.

> -- Derek
> dpeschel_at_u.washington.edu

Doug Spence
ds_spenc_at_alcor.concordia.ca
http://alcor.concordia.ca/~ds_spenc/
Received on Sat Aug 15 1998 - 04:53:16 BST

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