Al-Central^ 2 ^
February 1990
Vol. 6, no. I
ISSn 08854017
newstand price: $2.50
A journal and exchange of Apple II discoveries photocopy charge per page: $o. 1 5
Miscellanea
The spring 1990 AppleFest is moving from its previous Boston
location to the riew York metropolitan area. The show will take place
on May 4-6 at the new Garden State Conference Center in Somerset,
n.J., within an hour's drive of Manhattan. The date was advanced one
week to avoid a clash with the Apple Developer's Conference sched-
uled for May 7-11.
Cambridge Marketing, the company that organizes AppleFest,
expects to attract a larger number of attendees at the new location
and also hopes to reach a new audience. The new site is also expect-
ed to be less expensive than the Boston location; for example, hotel
rooms are anticipated to be 25-35% less than comparable rooms in
Boston.
ComputerFest, a new event, will be run in conjunction with Apple-
Fest to also allow reaching the increasing number of educational and
home users of MS-DOS machines. Apparently, just adding Macintosh
users to AppleFest didn't satisfy some exhibitors' goals. Attendees will
be able to participate in both events. AppleFest is expected to be the
larger of the two events.
The incorporation of an MS-DOS "adjunct" to AppleFest will no
doubt concern Apple Computer, Inc., but it certainly responds as well
to the attendee's desires as does the decision to incorporate Macin-
tosh products into what users perceive as the major Apple II trade
show. We will see how (and if) Apple responds to this challenge.
The First International Computer Forum, sponsored by the
International Computer Club, is being held June 14-17, 1990 at the
World Trade Center in Moscow, U.S.S.R. Complete details are avail-
able by writing to the address International Computer Club, Serova, 4,
Proyezd, Moscow, 101813, USSR, telephone 921-09-02. You'll want to
contact the ICC early, as the membership rates will increase stepwise
on March 1, April 1, and April 15.
Those who fondly remember the AST VisionFlus digitizer for
the Ilgs may be happy to know that the product is returning to the
market under the auspices of Silicon and Software, 18004 Sky Park
Circle, Suite 240, Irvine, Calif. 92714, (714) 250-8101. Mot only that,
the price has been lowered to $299 from the original price of $395.
Also available from the new company is a Ilgs RAM memory expan-
sion card expandable to 4 megabytes of RAM, and up to 640R of ROM
in the optional ROM card. Special pricing exists on these products
until March 31, 1990.
Ariel Publishing is consolidating its publications into 8/16, a
new monthly technical journal for Apple II programmers. The new
publication will be source code intensive. Monthly columns include
coverage of Orca/C, Micol Advanced Basic GS, Merlin 8 and 16 bit
assembly, Applesoft, and ZBasic. Other environments such as Pascal,
Orca/M, TML BASIC, etc., will also be examined frequently. A one-year
subscription (12 issues) will be $29.95. A companion disk will also be
offered which will contain the issue's articles and source code along
with additional articles, code, utilities, and product demos. The
diskette will be $69.95 per year, $39.95 for six months, and $21 for
three months. The first issue is expected in March 1990. For further
information, contact Ariel Publishing, P.O. Box 398, Pateros, Wash.
98846, 509-923-2249.
Apple itself has announced a new quarterly technical journal,
develop. The journal will go out to Apple Certified Developers, Part-
ners, and Associates, and is also available on a subscription basis. It
will consist of technical information and examples down to actual
code examples.
The journal is not Apple II specific, but will include Apple II arti-
cles. For information on develop, contact the editor, Louella Pizzuti,
at Apple Computer, Inc., 20525 Mariani Avenue, M/S 75-3B, Cuperti-
no, Calif. 95014 (AppleLink Pizzuti 1).
The first issue of develop will contain an article on the Apple
II Development Dynamo by Eric Soldan. Eric described this system
at the A2'Central Summer Conference in July 1989; it consists of a
run-time library and macro interfaces to allow using the (Macintosh)
MFW Ilgs cross-development system (and, we hope, eventually the
AFW development environment on the Ilgs) to develop applications
for the older Apple II systems. The Dynamo supplies many standard-
ized routines as part of the library, including manipulation of strings,
variables, arrays, and integer math. By using these routines, each pro-
grammer is freed from having to write these common utilities for him-
self. The Dynamo also includes a "builder" to create the application
from the programmer's modular code and data segments, and a
"loader" which takes care of the task of loading and relocating these
modules (even into extended memory on a 128K lie or lie) at run
time.
While the Dynamo is primarily an assembly language tool which is
currently limited to Apple's Macintosh-based MFW development envi-
ronment, it does provide a development functionality that has not
been present for the 8-bit Apple II systems and should ease the task
of writing large applications for these systems.— DJD
messages im A BRAINLESS NV0PA55 OF IMPECIPRBRABLE 00PE,MA5
JUST FILED A 'LOOK AMD FEEL' COFVWQKT SUIT AGAINST OUR
ltwquaqe arts software."
6.2 A2-Central
Vol. 6, no. 1
GS Numerics: graphic math
In the movie "Peggy Sue Got Married", the title character respond-
ed to an algebra instructor by explaining that she knew for a fact that
she would never have any reason to know algebra in the future. That
is probably somewhat true for most people, and the program about to
be described is not going to be of use to them.
For those people who never have, or will have, a use for algebra,
consider the program in the following light: a good deal of our future
depends on people who will have those skills, and the existence of a
program that can help the "algebra technicians" of the future learn
their trade well is an important step. And, in the broader sense, such
a program may indicate the type of use that computers should be put
to in education; as tools to make concepts more easily and quickly
understandable. The fact that this particular tool is aimed at a specific
segment of education should, if it is a good tool, make us long for
and seek to find similar tools in other areas.
In 1972, when I graduated high school, the state-of-the-art tool for
doing the very complex calculations of "higher" math and science was
the slide rule. What 1 originally found fascinating about a slide rule
was that I could see the way that logarithms worked. Though I had
worked with logarithms since junior high school, they were always
somewhat "magic". Having the slide rule's graphic representation of
the logarithmic "spacing" between the numbers used in the calcula-
tion gave me a concept of how an addition could become a multipli-
cation. I finally understood how logarithms mattered in mathematics,
rather than Just blindly using them as a tool.
The battle didn't stop there. With college came courses in engineer-
ing physics and calculus. Physics was so math-intensive that, even
using a slide rule to "assist" in working problems, a set of problems
could take hours to solve. 1 was lucky in that hand-held calculators
had appeared by that time, and quickly had dropped to a price of
"only" a few hundred dollars. The purchase of one of the leading
models at that time, a Hewlett-Packard MF-45 scientific model, cut
working physics problems from literally hours to minutes.
Calculus was more of a problem. Calculus involves many concepts
that are more visible when viewed graphically, rather than as cold
numbers on a page. But there was no equivalent of the pocket calcu-
lator to cut out the drudgery of producing those graphical representa-
tions. You created a graph by calculating a large set of points, plotting
them on graph paper, and connecting the dots.
GS numerics ($130 from Spring Branch Software, Inc., R.R. 2, Box
268A, Manchester, Iowa 52057, 319-927-6537) is a program that fills
that gap. It combines the features of a scientific calculator with an
integrated graphing program. In addition, several other types of math-
ematical quantities (matrices, systems of linear equations, complex
numbers) can be manipulated.
As a pure calculator, OS numerics resembles the classic Hewlett-
Packard calculators, down to the use of the Lukasiewicz ("reverse Pol-
ish") notation for entering data without the use of parentheses. The
GS numerics calculation screen is divided into three major compo-
nents: the Register-Memory section, the Function section, and the
Conversions/Elements section.
In Lukasiewicz notation, the data is first placed into an ordered set
of four storage registers called the "stack"; when a data item is keyed
in, it is copied into the lowest register in the stack. Any items already
on the stack are "raised" to the next higher register position in the
stack, with the highest (fourth) item being crowded off the top of the
stack and lost. GS numerics keeps the stack visible at all times, so
you can not only see the value of the last number entered, but also
the values of all data on the stack and the changes that occur during
calculations.
The Hewlett-Packard calculators lack an "equals" ("=") key to indi-
cate that a calculation is to be performed, and instead use the
function key itself ("+", "/", "SIM", and so on) to perform the operation
on the required number of items at the bottom of the stack. For
example, if you wish to calculate the value of the expression:
1 + (2.35 * SIN(3.14))
you can use the sequence:
1 ENTER 2.35 ENTER 3.14 SIN * +
which tells the computer to "input 1, then push it up a level on the
stack, input 2.35, push it, input 3.14, take the SIM of the last entry,
multiply the lowest two numbers on the stack, and then add that
value to the next number on the stack (1)". It looks awkward com-
pared to the description we might use for the first expression: "find
the SIM of 3. 14, multiply it by 2.35, then add 1". Reverse Polish Flota-
tion was designed to eliminate the need for entering parentheses as
part of the expression; whether it is an improvement has been a mat-
ter of debate among scientific calculator users for years.
If you don't care for RPN, you can enter the first equation above
directly into the Input Register and 05 numerics will evaluate the
expression for you and put the result in the (stack's) x-register.
The Register-Memory section also contains a set of 26 memory reg-
isters labelled A-Z, each of which can store one value. The basic four
algebraic operations (addition, subtraction, multiplication, and divi-
sion) can be performed directly between the "x" and "y" registers of
the stack and the corresponding data in a selected memory register. A
two-value (X-Y) "CSTORE" register is also provided. This gives GS
numerics' calculator the ability to do (two-dimensional) vector arith-
metic directly, working with rectangular coordinates (and complex
numbers) or polar coordinates (using angular data in radians,
degrees, or grads).
The Functions section includes 48 "buttons", each labelled with a
mnemonic form of the corresponding function (e.g. "Sin(x)*",
"CADD"). Function labels that end with an asterisk can be used when
entering expressions into the Input Register, as with the example
above. Labels that are not marked with an asterisk, such as the
"CADD" ("complex number addition") cannot be entered in this man-
ner.
The Conversions/Elements section contains tables marked "Area",
"Length", "Mass", "Power", "Volume", and "Temp", each with a selec-
tion of buttons marked with various units for the section. Selecting
first one button within a table and then a second button in the same
table causes the contents of the x register to be converted according
to the relation between the two unit measurements. For example,
with "2.000000" in the x register, pressing the "Length" button "inch"
followed by "meter" converts the value in the x register to "0.050800"
(2 inches equals 0.050800 meters).
A key marked "Elements" in the lower right-hand corner of the Con-
versions section toggles that section's display to an alphabetical list of
elements. Pressing one of the element keys places a number repre-
senting the atomic mass of that element in the x register; for exam-
ple, pressing "C" causes the atomic mass of carbon (12.01 1000) to
appear in the Input Window and in the x register. When finished with
the elements list, pressing a "Conversions" key returns to the Conver-
sions display.
Among the menu items are more complex entry and calculation
operations to work with systems of linear equations, matrices, polyno-
mials, and regressions. The scope of GS numerics goes beyond what
can be described in detail here, but the general thrust of the opera-
tions is to allow the user to enter and edit the expressions, to solve
them, and (if appropriate) to send the results of the solution to the
calculator for further manipulation. In most cases you can also save
prepared data to a disk for reference in another session. You can
even record and save the operations performed during a session to a
disk file so they can be re-created later.
One item sorely lacking in the linear system and matrix dialogs is
an extended display of the current linear equation and matrix data.
The value at a specific column and row can be displayed by manipu-
lating "Col" and "Row" scroll bars, but a way of viewing the actual
equations would be welcome.
A major class of features in GS numerics involves graphing the
results of your manipulations. This is a wonderful tool for seeing the
"physical" entities that the mathematical expressions of calculus rep-
resent. It would be impossible to explain all the features here, but a
brief tour of a specific example follows. We'll explain a little of the
concept of the math as we go.
One classification type of mathematical functions is the polynomi-
al. A polynomial consists of a series of terms of the form "a*x^n",
where "x" is a variable value, "n" is an (integral) power applied to the
value of X, and "a" is a coefficient value that "x^n" is multiplied by.
Let's arbitrarily construct a polynomial function f(x):
M'Central 6.3
February, 1990
f(x) = xM -3*X"3 -8*x"2 +12*x +16
GS numerics allows you to enter the coefficients for the polynomial
and, as in most portions of 05 numerics, save the data for future ref-
erence. You can then ask 05 numerics to calculate and display the
graph of the function for a range of values for x.
Among the operations that 05 numerics can apply to a polynomial
is "taking the derivative". Without explaining the mechanics of this
operation, we'll just say that the operation results in another polyno-
mial function of x which we'll call "f'(x)", in this case:
f' (x) = 4*x"3 -9*x"2 -16*x +12
One of the qualities of the derivative is that, for any value of x, f'(x)
will evaluate to the slope (the rate of "ascent" or "descent", when
viewed graphically) of a line that only touches the curve at a 90
degree angle ("tangent to the curve") at the location of x on the graph
of the original function f(x). Piotice that most of the terms end up
being described in relation to a graph of the polynomial.
Confused? That's what the first few weeks of calculus are like. In
order to get a better grasp of the quantities being described, usually
calculus students are encouraged to actually sit down and calculate a
series of values for the original function at various values of x, and
then graph the results. Then the student may be asked to calculate
the derivative function f'(x) and also calculate and graph a similar set
of values for the derivative. As you can imagine, this can take hours,
especially if your initial guess as to an appropriate range of values for
"x" doesn't happen to generate a particularly useful graph.
With 05 numerics, you can generate the visual graph by entering
the coefficient terms for the polynomial and selecting "Polynomial"
from the "Graph" menu. The program will ask you to enter the lower
and upper boundary values for x, and then spend a few moments cal-
culating a series of values for f(x). Then OS numerics draws the graph
on the llgs screen.
As part of the options available before the function is graphed, you
have the opportunity to "overlay" the graph of the derivative of the
function by selecting an appropriate check box while entering infor-
mation for the graph request.
There is much revelation here. You can see the graph of the orig-
inal function. If you need to see detail, you can select a portion of the
graph and G5 numerics will re-draw that portion to a full-screen scale.
With the derivative overlaid, you can click on a single point in the
graph and see the value of f(x) at that point automatically calculated
and displayed (though 1 found positioning the mouse to exactly the
correct point was tricky). You can also exchange the original function
and the derivative as the "active" curve; selecting the derivative
allows you to look at the value of f'(x) and see how it relates to the
equivalent point in f(x).
1 used the options in the Polynomial menu to calculate the slope of
f(x) at a specific point. One of the options allows the entry of a sec-
ond polynomial, so (with a little algebra) I supplied the equation need-
ed to draw the tangent line representing the slope. Selecting "Polyno-
mial" on the graph menu allowed me to graph the function, and this
time 1 selected to overlay the graph of the second polynomial. Select-
ing "Print" from the "File" menu gives me the hardcopy of the graph in
a fraction of the time that it would have taken me to produce by
hand.
1 wish this tool, and equivalents for other subjects, had been avail-
able when I was in school. It probably would not have reduced the
amount of time spent in education, but it would have greatly
increased the productivity of that time.— DJD
The AppleCD SC drive
In their most practical sense, computers are meant to be informa-
tion manipulators. They are used as tools in other ways, but informa-
tion manipulation is their most unique skill among machines. We
attempt to use computers to amplify the quality and quantity of our
decisions by having them remember and manipulate more informa-
tion than we can easily handle ourselves.
Three limits we run into with computers are limitations in time (the
speed of the actual CPU system), limitations in their ability to dupli-
cate our thought processes (the suitability of their programming to a
task), and the amount of data they can access (mass storage).
We seem to always run up against these limits no matter how fast,
"smart", or large the system we are currently using is. The $1199
AppieCD SC is a product from Apple that is intended to address one
of these problems.
The AppleCD SC is a mass storage device using CD-ROM tech-
nology. "CD-ROM" splices together the two acronyms "CD" (compact
disc) and "ROM" (read-only memory). Physically, the CD-ROM media
exactly resembles the popular audio compact discs (CD). Like the cur-
rent audio discs, a CD-ROM disc can be read ("played") but not written
to ("recorded"); hence the application of the term "read-only". CD-
ROM media uses an optical format, rather than magnetic fields, to
store information, and is read with a beam of laser light.
Why would anyone use a read-only disk when a normal hard drive
allows you to both read and write data? CD-ROM gives you the ability
to store over 550 megabytes (dependent upon the storage mode) of
data on a plastic disc 12 centimeters (about 4.7 inches) in diameter
and slightly over one millimeter (0.05 inches) thick. That translates to
the equivalent of 14 40 megabyte hard disks, 688 800K (ProDOS 3.5
format) disks, or 3929 140K (ProDOS 5.25 format) disks, or 270,000
pages of single-spaced text all on one light-weight transportable disc.
Since a CD-ROM disc is designed as "read only", the data on the
disc cannot be accidentally or intentionally altered by a user. This is
an advantage when there is no need to revise the data, or the produc-
er of the data does not want the information altered. The disc itself is
physically less volatile than the magnetic diskettes commonly in use;
stray magnetic fields won't damage the data, the disc surface is not as
prone to damage by abrasion (though it isn't indestructible), and
since the disc is only accessed by a beam of laser light there the only
significant point of wear is the (dataless) disk hub.
Since the CD-ROM disk is physically identical to an audio CD, tracks
of audio information (distinct from the computer data sections) can
also be included on the diskette, newer laser video disk players also
accept video information on CD-sized disks. A CD-ROM can indeed be
multi-media, with computer, audio, and video data components.
The large amount of storage makes CD-ROM ideal for holding
space-eating audio and graphics information, whether in computer-
readable form or on a multi-media disc designed to be used with
ancillary video and audio equipment. For example, a computer could
read and display data from the CD-ROM's "computer data" area while
commanding the CD-ROM drive to play a short video section and
soundtrack through an external video monitor and speakers. Comput-
er data, video, and audio information can be accessed under control
of the computer or someone operating the computer. This is the con-
cept of "interactive media"; a user can use the computer to select a
function and the computer can access many types of data to carry out
the function.
The cost of mastering and mass-producing CD-ROM discs is higher
than for diskettes, but the large amount of available storage makes
the cost per megabyte much lower. The cost of making the CD-ROM
master for duplication is much higher than duplicating a diskette
(which only requires the computer used to create the disk and a blank
diskette), so the cost of starting production is several thousand dol-
lars rather than the few dollars it takes to start producing diskettes.
Yet it may be feasible to make 1000 CD-ROM discs for a few dollars
each though, as for diskettes, the retail cost of a CD-ROM will be
largely affected by other factors: marketing, licensing fees, perceived
value, and so on. Eventually, a larger market for the discs should
drive the costs of physical production down (the more disks you can
create and sell from a single master, the less you have to make per
disc), but currently CD-ROM suffers from the "chicken and egg" syn-
drome: in order to sell more discs, enough CD-ROM drives have to be
sold to provide a market, and in order to sell drives you have to have
software to convince consumers the drives are valuable.
CD-ROM is then best suited for products where a large amount of
data is involved, where it is acceptable (or desired) for the data to not
be altered on the distributed disk, and where the demand for the data
Justifies the production cost.
Since the CD-ROM can store so much data, it is feasible for it to
contain data for several different computers. For example, it's reason-
able to imagine a disk containing an encyclopedia and also a program
to access the encyclopedia's information from MS-DOS, Apple II,
6.4 A2-Central
Yol. 6, No. 1
Macintosh, and other systems. There is plenty of room on the CD-ROM
disc for the multiple formats.
But what if the encyclopedia itself takes up 90 percent of the disc?
Does that force us to have only one computer supported per disc,
since there is not room to duplicate the encyclopedia's information
separately for each computer type?
Obviously, the sane solution is to put the encyclopedia's informa-
tion in a format that every computer can read, and then to use the
remaining space for any computer specific areas that are needed.
Then all that's left to decide is what format should be used for the
"common" area containing the encyclopedia.
One of the formats Apple has chosen to recognize is defined as
ISO 9660/fligh Sierra, intended to be a computer-independent specifi-
cation. The programs that run on an Apple 11, llgs, Macintosh, or non-
Apple system to access the CD-ROM drive will have to be specific for
each model of computer, but the High Sierra data file itself should be
accessible to all of those systems. It would be possible to create a
CD-ROM with the encyclopedia in the High Sierra format taking up the
bulk of the disc storage, and then have specific ProDOS, QS/OS, Mac-
intosh, or other sections on the disk (each "invisible" to the other
computers' sections) to contain software to read the High Sierra
portion. You can obtain a document describing the ISO 9660 stan-
dard by writing HISO, National Bureau of Standards, Administration
101, Libraiy E-106, Gaithersburg Maryland, 20899. Unfortunately, like
many "standards", all High Sierra formats may not be equal. Apple's
AppIeCD SC Reference manual defines Apple extensions to the ISO
standard that Apple considers necessary to allow its computers to
interact with the "generic" CD-ROM format. Apple explains the method
of applying these rules to the creation of ISO 9660 files that can be
accessed by their computers' operating systems, without conflicting
with the ISO definitions. Files that do not contain these extensions
may be problematical for Apple systems, however.
The AppIeCD SC drive communicates using a SCSI interface, it
can be attached to an Apple II through an Apple II SCSI interface, or
to a Macintosh Plus, SE, or II model through the built-in SCSI interface
supplied on those systems. Apple's manual, advising that "removable
media like CD-ROM disks can cause identity problems for other
devices in a SCSI chain under ProDOS", recommends that the drive
be assigned the lowest priority SCSI device identification number (0)
and that only one removable media device be connected in the SCSI
chain. This precludes booting from the AppIeCD SC if you also have a
hard disk (or other disk device) attached to the SCSI chain, since
Apple mentions that the system will attempt to boot from the highest-
numbered device.
The AppIeCD SC also includes audio outputs consisting of a stereo
pair of RCA phono connectors on the back of the unit that can be
connected to an external amplifier, and a miniature stereo headphone
jack and volume control on the front of the unit.
To place a disc in the drive, the disc to be used is first inserted into
a (provided) cartridge, and the cartridge is inserted into the drive. The
only control for the disc drive (other than the power switch) is an
eject button.
For the llgs, the QS/OS System Software supplies an Installer script
to add the AppIeCD SC support files to your boot disk. The necessary
files include an FST (file system translator) for the High Sierra/ISO
9660 data format, and a "CD Remote" desk accessory that lets you
control the AppIeCD SC as an audio CD player when it is not being
used as a data drive. The Apple He software supplied also includes a
"CD Remote" application, but access to the ISO 9660 format requires
that the disc supplier include a He application that can explicitly read
the information.
Apple provides the CD-ROM Explorer demonstration disc with
the drive. The disc includes a ProDOS partition with distinct demon-
stration programs for the Apple He and the llgs, a Mac partition, and
some audio tracks used by the demonstrations for both computers.
For the Apple llgs, Apple recommends booting the Explorer disc
since the demonstration is incompatible with the QS/OS System Soft-
ware now commonly in use (the provided system on the disc is an
older version of ProDOS 16). This is a bit problematical if the CD-ROM
is not the only disk drive on the SCSI chain; one of the easier solu-
tions appears to be to boot ProDOS 8 from another device, then set
the prefix to the Explorer volume and "-PRODOS". When the disc
boots, it will detect the machine (He or llgs) it is running on and load
the appropriate version of the demonstration program.
The demonstrations are remarkably similar among the three sys-
tems, though there is some variation among the types of demonstra-
tion programs provided. In keeping with the graphics-intensive theme
in Apple's approach to hypermedia, the basic demonstration consists
largely of a series of graphics "pages" which have active "buttons"
that can be selected by the user. Selecting a button can take you to a
new page for further information and possibly a further selection, or
carry out another action (such as playing an audio track). The inter-
face program used for the Macintosh is HyperCard; the He and llgs
screens mimic the Mac demonstration in functionality though their
interface appears to be custom made for the demonstration.
The core of the Explorer disk is a tour and demonstration of the
features of CD-ROM, much like a computerized "slide show" with all of
the available enhancements such as sound, animation, and so on.
Two special demonstration menus are included; a set of musical
audio samples, and a suite of demonstration programs.
The audio samples (also playable on a standard audio CD unit)
show both the quality and the utility of the CD-ROM drive as a sound
source; when not being used as a data drive, the AppIeCD SC is a
competent (though costly) audio CD component. The inclusion of the
CD Remote utilities allows you to use the AppIeCD SC as if it were a
low-end audio CD player; the features of the "remote" are sparse (but
necessary, the drive itself has no controls!) but adequate, including
controls to skip to various tracks, a time/track display, a "scan" fea-
ture, an "Eject" button, and some rudimentary track programming.
One irritating problem we had on the llgs "CD Remote" accessory was
that the scan function always jumped to the first audio track on the
disc; it wasn't actually possible to "scan" within a selection other than
the first one on the disc. Also, pressing the "Eject" occasionally result-
ed in the "CD Remote" reporting "No Disc", but not ejecting the car-
tridge.
The number of demonstration applications increased as you went
from Apple H to Hgs to Mac. For the He, the applications were Book-
Brain, HouseCall, and Public Domain Software.
BookBrain (The Oryx Press, 2214 North Central, Phoenix, Ariz.
85004, 602-254-6156) helps a young reader (grades 4-6) select possi-
ble reading material by asking what type of book the reader is inter-
ested in and recovering a title with the requested criteria from a
database. The program also supplies a brief description of the sug-
gested book's topic. Housecall (Rocky Mountain Medical Corporation,
5680 Greenwood Plaza Blvd., Greenwood Village, Colo. 80111, 505-
775-1257 and 800-255-5556) is a database containing medical infor-
mation on a wide variety of subjects in text format. Public Domain
Software (Facts on File Publications, 460 Park Avenue South, New
York, N. Y. 10016, 212-685-5544) is a selected set of Apple H pro-
grams. Though intriguing, these programs did not seem to illustrate
anything startling about the capabilities of CD-ROM other than the
ability to work with large amounts of on-line data.
The Hgs application menu added Visual Dictionary (also from Facts
on File), which allows a user to search for a keyword and displays an
image on the computer which includes the word of interest among
the item labels. Using the mouse to click on an item generates an
audio pronunciation of the item's name (through the Hgs sound cir-
cuitry), in multiple languages if you prefer. The heavy use of graphics
and sound necessitate the use of CD-ROM's massive storage capacity.
But the Hgs application that most clearly demanded the features of
CD-ROM was Stardate (The University of Texas, RLM 15.508, Austin,
Texas 78712), a visual database of the solar system produced by the
University of Texas McDonald Observatory. Beginning with a map of
the solar system, the user is asked to select a planet. After the selec-
tion is made, Stardate presents a series of illustrative slides with infor-
mation about the selected planet, accompanied by audio descriptions
played through the AppIeCD SC drive's audio circuitry.
Stardate was also present on the Macintosh partition, with the Mac
version using the same audio soundtracks. We briefly experimented
with the Mac side of things to see how the other half lives; the tech-
nology doesn't seem to be particularly better suited to the Mac than
the Hgs. The He doesn't seem far behind; it lacks some of the detail in
the graphics display and sound of the Hgs, but "general" applications
February, 1990
A2-Central 6.5
such as the encyclopedic databases may not require a graphics inter-
face, and the use of the AppleCD SC audio output allows the lie to
duplicate function without an equivalent to the Ilgs's sound circuitry.
Our other test disc was Fhil and Dave's Excellent CD (named
after Phil Williams and Dave Szetela at Apple Developer Services), a
disc distributed to Apple developers containing ProDOS and Macin-
tosh partitions with extensive technical documentation, system soft-
ware, tools, sample code, and other goodies. The disc is essentially
an on-line reference resource for developers. The remaining portion
of the disk is fluffed out with audio tracks of advertising samples and
musical segments.
The disc is a great idea, in theory. Having such items as Apple II
Technical Piotes, sample code, AFW interfaces, and system software
on-line in a single volume puts a large number of important resources
in a single place. But after playing with the disc a few days, it became
obvious that the data just wasn't useful in such a unique way that we
could Justify buying an AppleCD SC to access it. The total amount of
data in the ProDOS partition added up to about 15 megabytes, which
would fit on a standard hard disk drive with room to spare.
So the question arises: why distribute this on a CD? Well, it is less
costly than sending out twenty 5.5 disks with the same information.
But a further justification is apparent when you look at the Mac parti-
tion, which shows over 180 megabytes worth of data. Obviously, mail-
ing out that many floppies to all developers would be infeasible.
There is a lot of Apple 11 information on the Mac partition, including
many "compressed" Apple II disk images, but accessing it requires
adding the price of a Mac to the price of the CD-ROM drive (and devel-
oper's fees). That's a very expensive peripheral; again, Apple compro-
mises the utility of Apple 11 information by supplying it in a "foreign"
format.
It is just as bad on an AppleShare network. The Mac-specific files
are only accessible by another Macintosh on the network which is
able to run the applications needed to access them. The "foreign" Pro-
DOS partition does not appear. For a CD-ROM to be useful in the cur-
rent AppleShare environment, the Apple 11 (ProDOS) partition informa-
tion would have to be duplicated in the Macintosh partition in the
form accessible by the AppleShare server.
The Developer Services CD-ROM is still evolving though, and we
can hope that this "failure to communicate" will be resolved.
One unknown quantity is just how many other CD-ROM discs are
available that are usable for prospective Apple 11 AppleCD SC pur-
chasers. Apple publishes multimedia guides for the Macintosh, but
have not been as visible in disseminating information for the Apple 11.
Apple Developer Services does produce The CD-ROM Development
Resource Guide, a directory of companies providing services to aid in
CD-ROM production.
The utility of the AppleCD SC (or any CD-ROM drive) is determined
by Apple's commitment to support it for the Apple 11 customer. We
find the technology's potential impressive, though at this point we do
not see sufficient utility to justify Apple's premium price for the tech-
nology for individual Apple 11 owners.— DJD
Corrections and amplifications
The "file count correction" in line 2120 of
"directory reader" program in last month's
issue is incorrect. Deleting the incorrect line
corrects the problem.
RepairWorks author Gary Morrison saw the
comment about using AppleWorks GS to
recover damaged AppleWorks database files
("Data Transfer Revisited" on page 5.95 of last
month's issue). Although RepairWorks was
mentioned, Gary knows of no reason why his
program would not be able to recover such a
file under the same situation that AppleWorks
GS would be able to read the file. We assume
Jim Hirsch was being a bit poetic in his intro-
duction.
Regarding the use of Tinder to copy large
files such as AppleWorks.GS ("Miscellanea" in
last month's issue), it appears that the prob-
lem is not universal. Further testing indicates
my hard drive (interfaced through an Apple II
SCSI interface and using System 5.0.2) is the
only target device to exhibit the problem con-
sistently. Copying the file to other types of
drives (such as a RAM disk, or an AppleShare
volume) with Finder consistently resulted in a
working copy of the program.
Since this is the February issue, there is no
catalog this month; instead , you'll find an
index for Volume 5 of A2‘Ceniral enclosed
with your newsletter. We do have a few new
items, though, taken from requests from past
letters. For those who work with AppleWorks,
we have SuperFatch 6,1 (#QC-00/; $39.95)
and The UltraMacros Frimer (#fiA-00I;
$19.95). We also have the Hite Owl Slide-On
Battery (^FIO-OOI; $14.95), Don Elton's popu-
lar Talk Is Cheap communications sokware
(IICS-OOI; $40, which includes Tom Hoover's
GEnie Master program to simplify use of
GEnie) and, for those who don't want to spend
the time downloading fonts from GEnie, an 8-
disk Font Collection (I^FC-OOI) assembled by
Mark Collins, keeper of the A2-Central Font
Clearinghouse .—DJD
GS/OS Resources
Ahhh, System 5.0, what an operating system!
We like it!
Is there a good Ilgs version of the Macintosh
ResEdit program? Is Apple going to do one or
has some mind-manglingly clever hacker beat-
en them to it in the shareware or public domain
arena?
Phil Tyler
Manchester, England
Originally, ProDOS 8 supported three stor-
age types for files: seedling, sapling, and tree.
The difference between the formats essentially
lies in their use of indexing blocks to locate
the portions of the file containing data:
seedling files (the smallest, 512 bytes or less)
have no index blocks (the file consists of one
data block), sapling files (intermediate) have a
single index block which contains pointers to
all the data blocks of the file, and tree files
(the largest, up to 16 megabytes) contain
index blocks which point to other index blocks
which point to the actual data blocks.
GS/OS introduced a new "extended" storage
type, which contains an "index" block that
actually points to two different "forks" for the
file, a data fork and a resource fork.
"Resources" are special forms of information
in the file that can be accessed by a single
manipulation tool, the Resource Manager sup-
plied starting with Ilgs System Software 5.0.
Manipulations of extended files are not sup-
ported under ProDOS 8, which was not
designed to recognize their structure, so most
ProDOS 8 utilities will refuse to work correctly
with this type of file.
We are a little thin on our comprehension of
resources, but we understand that the intent of
their use is to allow a program to access these
particular items of information (requesting it
via the Resource Manager) without having to
know the exact form that the data is stored in
on disk. This facilitates allowing a utility to edit
the item (resource) without having to alter the
way that the program accesses it.
Imagine a program that has several items of
text defined within data tables for the program.
If the data tables are changed, the program
itself would have to be reconstructed to
accommodate the change. If the same data
could be stored externally in a resource, then
the information could be easily changed with-
out the program having to be altered as long
as the number and type of data items con-
forms to the information the program expects.
This gives a user more control over customiz-
ing some aspects of a program, because it is
not necessary to delve into the program itself
to make the change. Instead, a resource editor
can be used.
Apple has not released a Ilgs equivalent of
the Mac ResEdit utility. A resource compiler
(REZ) and de-compiler (DEKEZ) for the AFW
and ORCA environments is available in the
new Frogramming Tools and Interfaces
package ($50) from:
APDA
Apple Computer, Inc.
20525 Mariani Avenue, M/S 33-G
Cupertino Calif. 95014
(408) 562-3953
(800) 282-2732
The following companies have announced
products that will allow editing resources:
6.6 A2-Central
Vol. 6. No. 1
Byte Works, Inc.
4700 Irving Blvd. NW
Suite 207
Albequerque N.M. 87114
(505) 898-8183
Desigimaster ($95)
Simple Software Systems International
4612 North Landing Drive
Marietta Ga. 30066
(404) 928-4388
Genesys ($125)
So What Software
10221 Slater Avenue
Suite 103
Fountain Valley Calif. 92708
(714) 964-4298
(714) 963-3392
Call Box ($99)
Call Box is the only one of these products
that we have seen in a release version, and its
implementation of resources was neither com-
plete or totally consistent with those of REZ
and DEREZ.
The new TMIL Pascal // compiler ($125) also
contains a resource editor as part of their desk-
top development environment:
TML Systems, Inc.
8837-B Goodbys Executive Drive
Jacksonville Fla. 32217
(904) 636-8592
Resources on the Ilgs are still evolving, so
we expect the editors will also be improving
some in the coming months —DJD
Hard decision
I'm buying a hard drive; any good books on
them?
Paul Christianson
Lancaster, Calif.
Buying a hard disk is a major purchase deci-
sion; unfortunately, we do not have a wide
variety of makes and models from which to
make absolute recommendations. You should
consult with dealers that sell a variety of
drives, and also obtain specific information on
any drives that interest you from the respective
manufacturers.
Quality Computers, 15102 Charlevoix,
Grosse Fointe, Mich. 48230, (313) 331-0700,
sells The Hard Disk Buyer's Guide for $6
which describes several hard disk features
users should evaluate when buying a drive. If
you buy the drive from Quality Computers later
the cost of the guide is refundable; if not, it
still is an inexpensive way to get general infor-
mation before a purchase.— DJD
Kudos for Interactive
Concerning a letter in your Jan. 1990 issue
(page 5.93), about using analog to digital cards
(ADCs), you recommended several companies,
including Interactive Microware. I've used two
products from Interactive Microware and can
vouch for the quality and usefulness of both.
The AI-13 card is a very fast, 12-bit, 16 chan-
nel ADC that 1 use to digitize physiologic data in
medical research. The company supplies an
excellent manual and examples on disk to
demonstrate how to access the card from
assembly language, Pascal or BASIC. The card
uses the memory space allocated to the slot in
which it resides: to activate the card in BASIC,
you POKE in a value that sets both the channel
and gain, and then PEEK the result in two bytes.
The ATIADATA card is a single channel, 12-bit
ADC that 1 use to digitize data from a liquid
chromatograph UV detector. Interactive
Microware supplies software to digitize and
manipulate chromatographic data. That soft-
ware will run on a 48K Il-Plus or higher under
DOS 3.3. We have found the software to be
both friendly and robust.
Interactive Microware also supplies digital to
analog cards and a host of other special input
cards, and supplies some specialized scientific
software for data acquisition and analysis. We
have found IM to be very helpful with tech sup-
port, though they don't know much about the
Ilgs, and haven't upgraded their Apple II soft-
ware to use either ProDOS or the Ilgs. They do
have software to allow the Apple II to drive a
number of scientific instruments, such as chro-
matographs, spectrophotometers, etc.
Thanks for continuing to answer questions
and produce a super resource for the Apple II.
Steven R. White
LaQrange Park, 111.
TransWarp with more byte?
Can the TransWarp with the 65C802 option
work with 16-bit programs on a He?
riono Porcu
Brossard, Quebec
The 65802 is a processor that recognizes
the same instructions as the 65816 used in the
Apple Ilgs, but is compatible with the 6502
used in the older Apple ll models (Apple //, lie,
and lie) and clones (see "A 65802/65816 pre-
boot" and "Introduction to the 65802/65816",
Open- Apple, August 1986). If you have a
65802 that can operate at the 3.6 megahertz
clock speed of the TransWarp (most 65802's
we've seen are rated for at least 4 megahertz
operation), the socketed 65C02 in the Tran-
sWarp can be replaced with the 65802. You
could also replace the slower 6502 on the
motherboard in the same manner.
What you gain is somewhat nebulous unless
you have software that specifically uses the
extended command set of the 65802. One
example is the Merlin 8/16 assembler version
for the lle/llc, which is specifically written to
take advantage of the extra commands. But
overall, such software is rare.
If by "16-bit programs" you mean Ilgs soft-
ware, the answer is no. One of the concessions
for the 65802's hardware compatibility with
the 6502 is the limitation of the 65802 to
access only 64R of linear memory as opposed
to 16 megabytes for the 65816. But the larger
problem is that the Ilgs hardware has been
expanded beyond the features of the older
models, and the Ilgs System Software environ-
ment (and programs that operate with it)
depend upon those extended hardware fea-
tures.— DJD
Time for Business Card
1 have a Street Electronics Business Card
installed in my Apple He. It is a multifunction
card, supporting serial output for a printer and
modem, along with a clock. Because all my
slots are used, 1 use a specially patched version
of ProDOS 1.1.1 which came with the hardware
that recognizes the clock in slot 1. Standard
ProDOS does not look for a clock in slot 1.
When time ended for ProDOS 1.1.1, I patched
this version of ProDOS to go beyond the time
limitation.
Because Street Electronics no longer manu-
factures this card, they have no plans for a
patched version of ProDOS 8 which would rec-
ognize the clock in slot 1. My most recent call
to the company about two weeks ago confirmed
this. While it might not be financially sound to
go through the cost of developing such a
patched ProDOS 8, it may make good sense to
develop such a patch to foster customer good
will and loyalty. While Street Electronics does
continue to manufacture Apple peripherals, I
would find it hard to recommend a company
which does not offer continued support.
Is there anyone who has patched ProDOS 8
to recognize a clock in slot 1? While I continue
to use ProDOS 1.1.1, I know that its time will
come to an end. I believe the date patch
allowed ProDOS 1.1.1 to recognize another five
years.
Dennis A. Ziomek
Chicago, 111.
Apple's standard FroDOS clock driver will
recognize a Thunderclock-compatible clock
card in any standard slot (1-7). The problem is
more likely that the clock driver required for
the Business Card needs to be transferred
from the patched FroDOS l.l.l to the newer
version. Ferhaps a reader has a suggested
fix.-DJD
More hypermedia
In the last issue of AFDALog, there are two
hypermedia products listed for the Apple 11 fam-
ily of computers with the following characteris-
tics:
HyperStudio Ilgs only $115 4 3.5 disks
Mor-Tech (v2.6) any Apple II $195 3 5.25 disks
Since 1 have an Apple He, I am interested to
know about the Tutor-Tech product. According
to the description which appears in AFDALog,
both products do more or less the same. But
the following questions come to me:
Four 3.5 disks contain a lot more code than
three 5.25 disks. But 195 bucks is more than
115. Why?
HyperStudio has received a lot of praise in
the press in the last three months because they
say that "It adds hypertext capabilities to the
Apple Ilgs, which are new to it", but 1 have not
seen any comments about Tutor-Tech, which
seems to be an older product than HyperStu-
dio. If Tutor-Tech is the original hypermedia
product for the Apple H family, why has it not
been reviewed in that way?
Is Tutor-Tech ProDOS based and can it use
3.5, hard drives, or RAM disks, or is it copy pro-
tected?
Can you help me solve this puzzle? Can you
give me some advice about this?
Juan 1. Cahis
Santiago, Chile
To answer the latter questions first: Tutor-
Tech not only predates HyperStudio, it pre-
dates HyperCard for the Macintosh. We men-
tioned the product ourselves back in March
1988 ("A month of firsts", page 4.10); it is an
authoring system that uses the basic "card and
button" application interface popularized by
HyperCard, but lacks the extended features of
HyperCard and HyperStudio. The product is
FroDOS based and not copy protected, and a
recent revision has been released. Tutor-Tech
is available from Tech ware Inc., F.O. Box
1085, Altamont Springs, Fla. 32715, 305-834-
3431.
February, 1990
As for why Tutor-Tech is not getting recent
acknowiedgement in the press, it probably
relates to the way the product is marketed.
We've seen Tutor-Tech being primarily pro-
moted for the educational market; you don't
see ads for the product in end-user magazines
like inCider and ISibble, for example, flyper-
Studio is being pitched to a much wider audi-
ence as a user application.
We wouldn't presume to judge the relative
costs of the products. /Is a practical matter, we
believe HyperStudio is a more powerful pack-
age for llgs owners, and the fact that it costs
slightly less (the suggested retail price on
HyperStudio has escalated to $150) should set
the pointer firmly in its favor for llgs owners.
But creating an application designed to run on
a 128B lie/llc with much of the functionality of
programs which have the resources of a more
powerful llgs or Macintosh system is no easy
feat, and the cost of software is affected by its
perceived value. Apparently Techware believes
the price to be reasonable, and is receiving
enough sales to keep it there.— DJD
More keyboard options
Thanks to the lead given by Steve Marker in
the riovember issue of A2-Central, after
installing System 5.0 1 experimented with press-
ing the option key and each of the other keys in
turn. Option-a gave me a, option-e gave a,
option-i gave a, option-o gave 0, and option-u
the umlaut as stated. I also obtained g by press-
ing option-c, but please, what do I press to get
the grave accent which is so frequent in
French?
Many thanks for the wonderful service pro-
vided by A2-Central.
Bob Symonds
Bromley, Kent
England
The llgs manuals still don't supply the infor-
mation, but the Mac SE manual had some
clues (on page 139), as did the AppleWorks
GS vl,l manual addendum. You've found all
of the "prefix" codes except the more obvious
Option-', which gives the grave accent a, and
Option-n, which add the "tilde" a.
Fiotice that the characters produced by the
option-key combinations may vary among char-
acter sets, so use the above as a guide, not a
set of hard ruies.—DJD
Catalog to text
Do you know a way I can print the contents
of my disk directories to text files so 1 can use
them with AppleWorks or Fublish-Itf? 1 have
Copy ll Plus, but that seems to only let me print
the directories out.
Dan Goldblatt
Highland Park, M.J.
for FroDOS directories there are several
alternatives, including writing your own pro-
gram to read and print the directory informa-
tion to a text file (see "Reading /RAM from
BASIC" in the last issue for an example of how
to read a directory). One problem you will run
into is that you must READ the complete direc-
tory before you try to OFEFi and READ another
directory (even a subdirectory on the same
disk); BASIC. SYSTEM uses a special routine to
READ the directory information that doesn't
retain its position within the directory informa-
tion if you try to suspend reading the informa-
tion in order to READ another file.
There are also commercial utilities that will
create a file from directory information for use
by another program. The Information Desk
utility from Glen Bredon's FroSel package can
direct its output to a disk File, for example.
If you specifically want to create an Apple-
Works database from the information. Beagle
Bros TimeOut FowerFack has a utility named
File Librarian that will load the directory infor-
mation (including all files in subdirectories)
into an AppleWorks database.
Another useful utility is LastCat from Living
Legends Software, F.O. Box 4313, La Mesa,
Calif 92044, 714-676-1940, which can read
standard FroDOS, Apple Fascal, CF/M (5.25
formats only), and DOS 3.3 (5.25 format only)
directories and create a text file or AppleWorks
database form of the information.— DJD
Clock timed out
1 would like to tell A2-Central about a soft-
ware problem 1 had, and the solution, in the
event that others are having it too. The problem
was that whenever 1 tried downloading files with
AppleWorks GS on QEnie, 1 was getting about
30-50% errors in XMODEM (about 30 blocks out
of 100 transmitted). This was happening all the
time, every time 1 called. It also started happen-
ing while calling CompuServe. 1 found out
through elimination that the problem is the new
Beagle Bros desk accessory called Menu Clock
from their 05 Desk Accessories disk. When
deleted from my system, everything works fine.
Please let anyone else out there know. It took
me quite a while and cost a considerable
amount of on-line time to figure this out.
Tim Crossman
Manamio, B.C.
PaintWorks Goldik
Is there any hope of anyone getting Faint-
Works Gold to work with System 5.0? Activision
has stated that they are not working at updating
any of their productivity software. Is there any-
thing we can do?
C. S. Buback
St. Charles, Mo.
Graphics guru Jason Harper has been circu-
lation a patch to allow FaintWorks Gold to
work on a llgs with at least 1.5 megabytes of
memory. From BASIC, try applying this patch
to a backup of your FaintWorks Gold pro-
gram:
POKE 768,127
BSAVE FAINTWORKS . GOLD, T$B3, A$300, Ll, B$1FFE0
As far as encouraging Mediagenics (Activi-
sion) to re-enter the Apple II market, about all
we can suggest is to write a letter to the com-
pany letting them know you regret their deci-
sion.— DJD
No Slot Clock fix
Here is some information on the Tio Slot
Clock {PiSC) which your readers will appreciate.
1 have been disassembling and commenting the
HSC utilities mentioned below. A friend was
unsuccessful in trying to get the PiSC to work
with ProDOS 8 vl.8. This is the fix 1 came up
with for him. By the way, you have a terrific
newsletter.
Systems Manufacturing Technology's (SMT)
Pio Slot Clock {PiSC) utility diskette is successful
in patching ProDOS versions 1. 1-1.7 to poll the
PiSC upon request. However, my version of the
utilities, dated 4/27/87 and supplied with Pro-
DOS 8 vl.2, fails to patch Version 1.8 correctly,
although the utility "thinks" it has been success-
A2'Central 6.7
ful. The problem comes about because the utili-
ties, by necessity, have to patch ProDOS code
that Apple has not guaranteed to remain at
fixed locations for all ProDOS version. With the
creation of vl.8 around August of 1989, these
location changed. Since my utilities were creat-
ed about 2.5 years prior to vl.8, the patch was
not successful on this latest version.
To fix the problem type the following patch
into IHSTALL, located on your backup copy of
SMT's Pio Slot Clock Utilities diskette. This will
result in a utility that successfully patches Pro-
DOS versions 1. 1-1.8.
UNLOCK INSTALL
LOAD INSTALL
157 IF PEEK(X) <> 76 AND PEEK(X) <> 96 THEN
X=20742: R=10294: IF PEEK(X) <> 76 AND
PEEK(X) <> 96 THEN PRINT CHR$(7) "DON'T
RECOGNIZE PRODOS - UPDATE ABORTED": END:
REM ProDOS vl.8
158 HOME
SAVE INSTALL
LOCK INSTALL
How reboot the SMT PiSC utilities and select
"PATCH A PRODOS DISK" and follow the instruc-
tions. The utility now will successfully patch
disks with ProDOS versions 1. 1-1.8, however it
will also notify you if it does not recognize the
version of ProDOS you are asking it to patch
and abort the update to ProDOS.
Frank Shirk
Florissant, Mo.
No ROM 02?
I have an Apple llgs, with ROM vl.O. I've read
that the new ligs's have ROM v3.0. When did I
miss v2.0? Am I entitled to an upgrade? What
changes were made?
Rami Levy
Brooklyn, H. Y.
To our knowledge, there was no "ROM 02"
released. The changes between ROM 00, ROM
01, and ROM 03 are documented in Apple
llgs Technical Hole #26, "ROM Revision
Summary". Apple has not provided a "ROM
only" upgrade for previous llgs models
because some features of the ROM are tied to
features of the new llgs hardware. We have
models of both the old (ROM 02) and new
(ROM 03) ligs's here and we agree with the
assessment that, for most users, the improve-
ments are not significant. Almost all the func-
tionality of the "new" llgs can be created on
the older ligs's by upgrading the memory to at
least one megabyte and using System 5.0.2.
Given the cost of Apple's original lie to llgs
motherboard upgrade, the cost of a mother-
board exchange to get the "new" llgs probably
would not be competitive with selling your
older llgs CFU and putting the money toward
the new CFU box.
There is also the problem that some llgs
memory cards that use more than 4 rows of
memory may not work correctly in the newer
machines due to the way that the one
megabyte of standard memory is accessed.
Some companies have been able to provide
upgrades to their memory boards to solve
this.— DJD
6.8 A2-Central
Vol. 6, No. 1
AAFES pro and con
Apple certainly needs a roast after pulling
their products from the military base
exchanges. This tiff seems to be over their
(AAFES, exchanges, and catalog order) wanting
to give the best possible deals to their some-
what captive and transient customers (Apple
says they could deal with local dealers... what if
one goes to another base?) to package systems
and discount as they decide in their bulk pur-
chasing. I have a vested interest in that, I pur-
chased my Ilgs and accessories through an
exchange, and my wife was to the point of (for
shame!) looking at a Mac.. .now??? The comput-
er area (Scott AFB, 111.) now offers only IBM
clones (Tandy, Epson, Commodore, etc.),
Ataris, and video games.
Joseph Yanko
Webster Grove, Mo.
I have just recently returned from Korea
where 1 had the "pleasure" of working with
AAFES in the computer section of the store. The
situation as 1 understand it is that the actual
Apple dealership is, in the typically efficient mil-
itary manner, held by the same company that
also holds the Tandy and Commodore franchis-
es. This company by the way is located some-
where in Texas, Dallas I think. As a result your
AAFES "Apple Dealer" is in actuality only a retail
re-distributor.
This is a relationship somewhat similar to a
corner gas station, i.e. their attitude is "hey, we
only sell the stuff". 1 originally got involved with
AAFES in an effort to help make their computer
A2'Centi^
m
©Copyright 1990 by
A2-Central
Most rights reserved. All programs published in A2-Central are public
domain and may be copied and distributed without charge. Apple user groups
and significant others may obtain permission to reprint articles from time to time
by specific written request.
Edited by:
Dennis Dorns
with help from:
Tom Weishaar Sally Dwyer Dean Esmay
Joyce Hammond Steve Kelly Jay Jennings
Tom Vanderpool Jean Weishaar
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section a place you could go to for help. It was
a totally frustrating experience. The bottom line
here is this may actually be a blessing in dis-
guise. There are Apple dealers in the economy.
There is also a current, up to date source of
software and hardware through the mail order
houses. It will take a little effort on your part to
find alternate sources but you will find as I did
that the effort is well worth it.
The real reason, in my opinion, that Apple
has discontinued this particular franchise is the
volume of complaints about the lack of service.
This is a very positive sign that at long last
Apple is starting to listen to its customers.
Mark Snyder
Pemberton, M.J.
Apple's "dealer support" has always been a
tricky issue. Apple has historically tried to limit
sales to "Authorized Apple Dealers" and to
specifically exclude mail order sales so that
users would have a local dealer to help solve
their problems. Of course, if you buy an Apple
product and then move to an area where a
local dealer is not available, you're on your
own. The same thing can occur if the local
dealer (or even Apple office) decides that a
computer model is not worthy of continued
support; we have received and published these
types of complaints in the past.
But there is sometimes encouraging
news...—DJD
More news from overseas
Once again. Pm firing up my word processor
to exchange some Apple 11 discoveries.
Recently, AppleWorks 3.0 did arrive here too,
followed by UltraMacros 3.0. My opinion? WOW!
A zillion cheers or so for the Beagle gang. It's
this kind of evolution that's giving weight to the
"Apple II Forever" yell.
About some lights in the darkness of the
Apple II position here in The rietherlands. A
bunch of persistent Apple-lovers has taken vari-
ous initiatives, which has resulted in some very
nice things.
The Dutch national Apple users group
"Klokhuis" ("apple core") formed a Special
Interest Group for AppleWorks. This SIG is offer-
ing every possible service for all AppleWorks
users. The kernel of the SIG comprises experts
in all territories. Interested readers should con-
tact Theo Bakker, VIedderdiep 28, 1509 WZ
Zaandam.
At last, a dealer is again providing hard- and
software (Apple and others) at reasonable
prices. Headed by a nice guy who knows what
Apple IIs can do, this is the service all Dutch
Apple users have been missing for too long a
time. You might remember Kees Buys, the
"boss" of SEA Software; he was at your Develop-
er's Conference last June (address: Qude
Wouwsebaan 33, 462 1 JE Bergen op Zoom).
The black hole continues to fill. Another
Apple II expert. Disk Kronemeyer (don't you
love those Dutch names?) is not only manufac-
turing all kinds of interface cards (among them
a Ilgs color video-digitizer for PAL video!) but
has taken up an Applied Engineering dealer-
ship, too. He is supplying bargain prices;
address: Kronemuis ("crown mouse") Interface
Technology, Pinksterbloemweide 14, 3448 TH
Woerden.
A bunch of Ilgs users who are also program-
mers has formed the GS/OG, the acronym (in
Dutch) for Apple Ilgs/Developers Group. This
provides a platform or forum for any other Ilgs
user or "weekend programer" who is in need for
assistance as far as programming is concerned.
Quite some expertise is found within the
GS/OG; the creator of SDE {Software Develop-
ment Environment; an assembler that surpasses
quite a few others), one of the beta-testers for
Applied Engineering, and a guy that has written
a complete bookkeeping/accounting program
for the Ilgs with pull-down menus, graphic desk-
top, mouse control and all other stuff (of course
this program is made according to all of the
Dutch tax rules). The GS/OG can be contacted
through Kees Buys of Sea Software (address
above).
Another group of Apple II fanatics, targeting
mostly the II+, lie, and lie users, has formed an
"Apple II Support" service; "support" in the
widest sense of the word. Contact Frans Ver-
schoor, Hoorderhavenkade 26c, 3038 XH Rot-
terdam for more details.
And, as if this isn't positive enough yet, even
Apple rietherlands is showing a little shifting
towards the Apple Il(gs). Its existence is not
neglected anymore, the managing director even
committed to supporting the Il-line in a recent
interview, and in the Dutch headquarters a few
employees are spotted who know that Apple
has more 11s than the Mac II alone. The wind is
not much more than a tiny breeze, but to
rephrase Bob Dylan: "For the times, they are
changing...".
By now you should have received the Fho-
tonix copier for the Ilgs, as Guy Spirytus from
Paris told me he would send you a copy. It is
made by the same wizards that wrote Nucleus
and is another outstanding example of what
smart programmers can do with the Ilgs capabil-
ities. According to FOMS, the French Apple
Journal, nucleus was running on a big screen at
the latest Apple Expo in San Francisco and
greatly impressed all visitors. Apple should put
both products in the box with every Ilgs! Yes, in
"la douce France" nice things are going on for
the Apple II.
John L. Tegelaar
Hieuwkoop, The rietherlands
We have indeed received Fhotonix. Along
with nucleus and some other demos we have
seen from France, it is quite impressive for
measuring the potential of the ilgs. Fione of
these products use the ilgs tools in the GS/OS
environment, however, which limits their real-
world utility. The versions of nucleus and Pho-
tonix we have seen won't even operate on the
newer (ROM 03) ilgs CFU's.
We are very happy to hear all of the stories
regarding both the efforts of Apple 1 1 enthusi-
asts to support and promote the machine, and
that some of this enthusiasm may be swaying
officiai Appie support in your area. Apple is not
so large a company that it can drive the market
solely on its own, but if Apple chooses to only
support the Macintosh and there is no "grass
roots" effort to combat the lack of Apple 11 sup-
port, then the Apple 11 market can languish in
silence. An example is the reported slow "holi-
day season" sales of Apple's low-end systems
(both Apple 11 and Macintosh!) in the US, where
Apple only ran glossy television advertisements
where the high-end Mac Ilex was usually fea-
tured. The media here has been criticizing
Apple's wisdom in apparently ignoring lower-
end markets that originally built the compa-
ny.— DJD
