Subject: Re: Apple II/e newbie - please help
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From: Phoenyx <quazar@dcnet2000.com>
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Date: Tue, 04 Jul 2000 22:35:43 -0500
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Well, besides all the recommended reading from Rubywand, I
suggest you try Byteworks. Mike's site offers lot's of goodies
for the II series. Including system disks and manuals to help
you get started. After you learn a bit more, you can try some
of the other web sites.

www.byteworks.org

The Applesoft prompt is a ] (bracket) it will have a cursor by
it when you reset the machine. In forty column mode (the IIe
default) it is normally a flashing checkerboard.

The aux slot card is probably an 80 column board. To test this,
type PR#3 from the prompt (on an empty line) and press return.
The screen should clear and you should see a smaller solid
cursor at the top left corner. PR#3 init's the slot 3 hardware.
This card may also have an extra 64k of memory. Many programs
may not use it and Prodos uses it as a ram disk by default.

I guess I might explain the operating systems too.

Originally, Apple used it's own Dos 3.x. Ok, at first they used
a cassette system and the commands are still in the firmware of
most II variants. When the disk drive came out, they needed an
OS and developed DOS. It is very different from the MS-Dos you
may be used to except that it handles commands from the user and
handles the hardware.

The original Dos was tied directly to Applesoft. It was a good
system in many ways and lots of software was distributed on it.
Early versions had a different disk format but I doubt you will
have to worry very much about this. Dos 3.3 was the last version
and was succeeded by ProDos. ProDos was a big change from Dos in
many ways. For example, Dos 3.3 booted with Applesoft, ProDos
itself was just a kernel and required another file to actually
do anything. In many cases, this was Basic.System but could be
any system file as long as it followed the correct format. IE,
it had to be executable machine code which loaded at $2000 
(0x2000 for PC types). If you use the Apple long enough, you
can learn more about this stuff.

For Prodos, you will need a utility disk. Unlike Dos 3.3,
ProDos can't init a disk. There are many sites with Apple II
files on the net. As you may have guessed from some of the
threads here, some have pirated disks. Personally, I leave this
issue up to the user as only they know their moral character.
Anyway, there are many usable programs (a few of which are mine)
you can transfer to the Apple with the right hardware. For this
you need a serial card, preferably a Super Serial Card. You
may have this already. I don't know what input that printer
requires offhand. You will also need a null modem connection.
This is all described in the FAQ's at Rubywand's site.

In spite of what many people think, the II had a lot more uses
than game playing, which it does very well. :-) I like to
program on it and experiment with many of the early programming
systems as they were in their infancy. To this end, you can find
basic compilers, C compilers, Forth, assemblers and even a few
systems specific to the Apple and of course, Applesoft.

Applesoft was created by Microsoft and licensed by Apple for the
II series. You may hear some bad things about it, but all in all
it's not that bad. When I first started out, Applesoft was all
I had to program with. If you decide to program in it, there
are ways to enhance it too.

Many consider the II to be a toy or an old system not worth
their time. IMHO, you have the BEST 8 bit system ever made. It
can do almost anything you want it to even if it isn't as fast
as the newer systems.

Speaking of hardware, you will most likely want to expand the
system. It can already connect to a television via RCA plug or
RF modulator. It can also connect to a VCR, so if you set things
up right, you could make a mini movie. :-) You can also get a
hard drive from a company called Alltech. While Dos 3.x can't
use it, ProDos was designed with large media in mind. There are
specialty cards you may run across in the used market, if you
are unsure, feel free to ask here. There was even controllers
for the X10 home control systems, and even a simple robot that
you could send commands to. In fact, one of our readers has
created his own robot using Apple IIe parts and hand coded
software.

I could probably go on and on about the II, but I guess I'll
give you a break for now and let someone else brag about it.

-- 

Thank you for your time and interest. I hope it was helpful
or at least interesting.

Phoenyx,

Apple2 user since March 1984

Links to Phoenyx's pages:
preferred..... http://zip.to/Phoenyx_A2
alternate..... http://www.tinyangeldesigns.com/Apple2