[HEA]
    _____________________   ___                                   _
    |___   ______________| |   |                                 | |
        |  | _             |   |                                 | |
        |  || |            |   |                                 | |
        |  || |            |   |                                 | |
        |  || |            |   |   ____ _   _ _   _   ______     | |
        |  || |            |   |  / __ \ | | / \_/ \  | ___ \    | |
        |  || |__   ____   |   | / /  \  | |  /\ /\ \ | |  \ \   | |
        |  ||  _ \ |  _ \  |   | \ \__/  | | | |_|| | | |__/ /   | |
        |  || | | || |_||  |   |  \___/|_| |_|    |_| | ____/    |_|
        |  || | | || |__   |   |____________________  | |         _
        |__||_| |_|\____/  |________________________| | |        |_|
                                                      | |
         Lighting Your Apple II Path On Delphi        | |
                                                      |_|

                       >>> WELCOME TO THE LAMP! <<<
                       ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
          IT'S BEEN EDUCATIONAL: Assisted Devices by Tee Cashmore
              AND THE BEST OF THE A2 AND A2PRO MESSAGE BOARDS
            "Teaching the Apple II user how to fish since 1998"

 ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
 The Lamp!            An Onipa'a Software Production        Vol. 2, No. 4
 ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
 Publisher & Editor.......................Ryan M. Suenaga, M.S.W., L.S.W.
 Internet Email....................................thelamp@sheppyware.net
 ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

                             TABLE OF CONTENTS
                             ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
                              April 15, 1999


OPENING PITCH
     Living On The Edge --------------------------------------------- [OPN]

A FUNNY THING HAPPENED                                                [FOR]
     The Heat Is On ------------------------------------------------- [HET]
     Miscellanea                                                      [MSC]
     Rumor Mill ----------------------------------------------------- [RMR]
     Public Postings                                                  [PUB]
     Best Of The Best ----------------------------------------------- [BOB]

A2Pro_DUCTIVITY
     Checking out A2PRO on Delphi ----------------------------------- [A2P]

IT'S BEEN EDUCATIONAL
     Assisted Devices by Tee Cashmore ------------------------------- [IBE]

EXTRA INNINGS
     About The Lamp! ------------------------------------------------ [INN]

                                [*] [*] [*]

READING THE LAMP!   The index system used by The Lamp! is designed to make
"""""""""""""""""   your reading easier.  To use this system, load this
issue into any word processor or text editor.  In the index you will find
something like:

EXTRA INNINGS
     About The Lamp! ------------------------------------------------ [INN]

To read this article, simply use your search or find command to locate
[INN].  There is a similar tag at the end of each article: [EOA].


         :: DISCUSSED ON DELPHI ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
         :                                                       :
         :      You have a real feel for the history of the      :
         :                   past, don't you?                    :

         :                                                       :
         ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: GSWOMBAT ::::::::


[EOA]
[OPN]------------------------------
                     OPENING PITCH |
-----------------------------------
From The Editor
"""""""""""""""
by Ryan M. Suenaga, B.A., M.S.W., L.S.W.
                [thelamp@sheppyware.net]

                            LIVING ON THE EDGE
                            ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

     Something's right in the world today, and I know what it is.

     A few weeks ago, the mainstream computing world was turned upside down
by Melissa.  Not a sexy supermodel, but an honest-to-God computer virus
that came via infected email and spread like wildfire through the
mainstream computing world.  Windows machines were left temporarily
useless, and some Macs were affected as well.

     Those of us with an Apple II were left unharmed.

     Life on the trailing edge of technology has all kinds of
advantages--you get to know things well.  There's a certain comfort to
still using an Apple II over 20 years later--like putting on a shoe that
you've used for years, or wearing a glove that fits you just right.

     Sometimes, there's just something right with the way we live: on the
edge.

                                [*] [*] [*]

     Pleased To Meet You Department: Although I would like otherwise, _The
Lamp!_ has not had a lot of guest writers.  I realize part of the problem
is that as a free publication it's just not possible to budget in any sort
of payment for writers.  Back in the _GEnieLamp A2_ days, "payment" for
writers was in terms of "free hours" for GEnie subscribers.  But with free
and flat rate accounts the norm, even that is not much of an incentive.

     Fortunately, the lack of payment hasn't stopped one of our loyal
Delphi faithful.  Tee Cashmore, a longtime Apple II devotee who is one of
the regulars in the A2 Forum on Delphi, has volunteered to educate us on
the use of assisted devices with the disabled population.  It's important
we remember that one of the strengths of the personal computer is that it
has leveled the playing ground for many people, including those with
disabilities.

     Thanks, Tee, for reminding us.

                                [*] [*] [*]

     Dance The Night Away Department: If I actually manage to get this
issue out on time, it'll be just hours before the KansasFest 1999 early
bird registration discount offer ends.  Join the fun of staying up all
night and having fun all day.  As always, check out the KFest Home page at
http://www.kfest.org for more information.

     If I don't manage to get this issue out on time, well, I'm not sure
how long it'll take to actually get it out.  I'm on Maui for the weekend
for a needed vacation of a few days.  I will have PowerBook in hand and
'Net access (well, in a roundabout kinda way), though, so all is not lost.
We'll see.

     I'll be stepping toward the edge, not away from it.

     And I'll be back.


Ryan
thelamp@sheppyware.net

ASCII ART BEGINS
_________  _                     _                                      _
|__   __| | |                   | |                                    | |
   | |    | |                   | |                                    | |
   | |    | |___     ____       | |       _____   __ ___ _   _ _____   | |
   | |    | ___ \   / __ \      | |      /____ \  | v   v | | v ___ \  | |
   | |    | |  | | | /__\ \     | |       ____| | | /\ /\ | |  /   \ \ | |
   | |    | |  | | | _____|     | |      / ___  | | || || | | |    | | |_|
   | |    | |  | | | |_____     | |____  | |__| | | || || | |  \___/ /  _
   |_|    |_|  |_| \______|     |______| \____^_| |_||_||_| | |\____/  |_|
                                                            | |
                                                            | |
                                                            |_|

ASCII ART ENDS


[EOA]
[OPN]------------------------------
     A FUNNY THING HAPPENED. . . . |
-----------------------------------
Checking out A2 on Delphi
"""""""""""""""""""""""""
by Ryan M. Suenaga, B.A., M.S.W., L.S.W.
                [thelamp@sheppyware.net]

       * The Heat Is On

              * Miscellanea

                     * Rumor Mill

                            * Public Postings

                                        * Best Of The Best

                              THE HEAT IS ON
                              """"""""""""""

     [*] General Chatter             ....... So How Old Is Your Apple II?
     [*] Vendors & Tech Support      ....... More On ProSel Public Domain
     [*] User Groups & Publications  ....... Virtual Printer Troubleshoot
     [*] Free Trade Zone             ....... Collectible Apple ][?



                                MISCELLANEA
                                """""""""""

THERE'S A REASON WE STICK WITH THE IIGS   Thought I'd post a nice
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""   message...

Spent a good bit of time this afternoon trying to get the Mac to receive a
fax. Finally gave up and switched on my long-forgotten copy of PMPFax.
Received fine, second try (the first try, the GS crashed, but I think
that's because AppleTalk had been screwed up by something I had done to
it).

Eric "Sheppy" Shepherd
sheppy@sheppyware.net
http://www.sheppyware.net
                        (SHEPPY, 21179, GO COM A2)


JUST HOW MUCH DOES SPECTRUM COST ANYWAY?   Prices do vary from time to
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""   time, as they often have special
or bundle offers. The Web site is not as up to date as emailing Seven Hills
direct at <sales@sevenhills.com>.

Spectrum upgrade info follows:

You can order now with a Visa/Mastercard/Discover card (give expiration
date) via email or by phone (850-575-0566) or mail a check/money order to:
Seven Hills Solutions Specialists 1254 Ocala Road Tallahassee, FL 32304

v1.0-v2.2 upgrade $25
v2.0-v2.2 upgrade $25
v2.1-v2.2 upgrade $25

New/Full v2.2 $85 (Special offers may be available - Contact SevenHills)
U.S.: Add 7% tax if in Florida. Add $3.50 shipping and handling.
Outside U.S.: Add $3.50 s/h for either upgrade; $5.00 for full version.

Contacting SevenHills online:
Mail: <sales@sevenhills.com>
Web: <http://www.sevenhills.com/applesoftware/>


 Ewen Wannop - Speccie - Mon 1 Mar 1999 - 142 days till KFest '99
 Delivered without using a IIgs by Spectrum 2.2 & Crock O' Gold 2.6
 Bernie ][ the Rescue 2.0 woofing on a PowerMac 8200/120
 http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/ewannop/
                        (EWANNOP, 20867, GO COM A2)


MORE HOT HUMOR FROM HABANERO   Well, it was... oh about 1974. We were
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""   working at HP's Palo Alto research lab on a
way to interface HP's newest programmable hand-held calculators to their
mainframe attached line printers, you know, the big beasties with the print
trains and the 16 inch wide ribbons with the rollers on either end.

We had completed the hardware part of the interface, i.e. the "black box"
that contained the circuit boards and the IC's and semiconductors et al.
and the power convertor and cables with the maxi-to-micro connectors, but
we were having difficulties with the "firmware". You see, the hand-held
calculators functioned in "reverse-Polish-notation" and the printers used a
proprietary version of "binary-coded-decimal-interchange-code". I know, I
know, you're thinking "why not just implement Kluge's theorem with the
extensions worked out by Richter and Thrush?" but don't forget this was
1974 (and it seems so easy now!)

By chance, when my colleague was in the head reading "Particle Physics and
Microwave Oven Technology Today", he stumbled upon a paper written by a
little known computer science professor at Harvard University named Randall
Gormly.

It seems Professor Gormly had worked out about 69% of what we needed
already. For those of you who are old enough to remember, Randall Gormly
had devised, between 1966 and 1971, the "Gormly Method" of implementing
algorithms into computer programs. Programs developed using the "Gormly
Method" shared three characteristics, namely: 1.) they were extraordinarily
minuscule in memory, which was important back then because the largest
mainframe computers only had 256k. 2.) They were exceedingly efficient. 3.)
They were 100% bug free.  In fact, in 13 years of teaching at Harvard, only
one pair of students completed his course with a buggy program. C & D
grade-level students were writing 100% bug free programs with his method,
which was the greatest testimony he could earn.

Anyway, to make a long story short, we convinced our project manager to
finagle a couple of plane tickets to Massachusetts so we could work with
Professor Gormly and hopefully overcome the challenges we faced,
software-wise, and get this printer project off our to-do list before
Christmas.

When we arrived at Harvard University, we, of course, went directly to
Professor Gormly's office, since it was his office hour between classes.
When we maneuvered our way into the building and finally found his office,
the door was slightly ajar and a mildly heated discussion was progressing
between Professor Gormly and two of his students. We decided to wait
outside in the hall until the students left.

Unfortunately, we could hear what was transpiring inside the office anyway.

"Look, Mr. Allen, you failed this project for two reasons. Number one, you
were supposed to do your work by yourself, not collaborate with another
student..."

"But professor, project management is an essential skill in the real world
work place.."

"But, Mr. Allen, this is not the real world, this is college. However, this
brings us to point two as to why you're being flunked, your program has
"bugs" in it."

"Sure it has some minor glitches, but the program is ESSENTIALLY CORRECT!
It only crashes sometimes. MOST OF THE TIME it completes successfully, and
when it does complete, the results are as EXPECTED!"

"Please lower your voice, Mr. Gates. "Essentially Correct" and "Most of the
Time" are not good enough, it shows a real lack of forethought and planning
and a poor implementation, neither of which will ever fly, in college nor
in the 'real world'"

"Ha! That just shows you what you know, Gormly. If we had used your method
it would have taken us five times as long to write the program, and ours
gets the same results as yours, except when it crashes."

"Mr. Gates, what will the user do when your program crashes? What results
will he use then?"

"Big f__king deal. If the computer crashes you just reboot it and then when
you run the program again you'll get the results because, like I said
before, the program is ESSENTIALLY correct."

"Mr Gates, I cannot believe what you are saying. ABSOLUTELY NO ONE in
business, industry, science, or academia would EVER use a program that
crashes, even if it is only one out of seven times it is used. If you tried
to market a program like that, you would not be in business for long. In
fact, I will make a prediction. IF You Write Programs That Crash For Any
Reason You Will Fail. I PREDICT THAT 25 YEARS FROM NOW, IN 1999, THAT
PROGRAMS USING THE GORMLY METHOD WILL BE IN USE WORLD WIDE AND THE GORMLY'S
WILL BE THE FIRST FAMILY OF COMPUTER SCIENCE. BILL GATES AND PAUL ALLEN
WILL BE PENNILESS PAUPERS SELLING PENCILS DOOR-TO-DOOR, OR HOMELESS
DERELICTS BEGGING ON THE STREET. Mark my words, you two, you are destined
to become complete failures if you don't program correctly, starting today.
Now get out of my office and don't come back until you have redone your
assignment, by yourselves, and without bugs."

At this point the two students stormed out of the office, the little pimply
faced kid muttering something about "I was going to quit computer studies
tomorrow and switch to something more profitable, like ceramic engineering,
but I'm going to show this b*st*rd!!!!" and the bigger one tagging along
behind saying something like "Calm down Bill, and I'll help you. I saw an
ad for some kind of home-computer gizmo, maybe we can write a basic
interpreter for it, or something like that."

Of course, when we went into Randall Gormly's office he was still upset and
wasn't in a frame of mind to see us just now. He asked us to come back
later, perhaps tomorrow. Besides, he had an appointment with his publisher
to print the definitive study on computer science, a series of books on the
Gormly Method.

Unfortunately, later that night, Professor Gormly was busted in a motel
room with two nude under-aged female students and a kilo of marijuana,
apparently partial payment by his publisher for his manuscripts. The
publisher apparently swiped the papers and burned them so as not to be
implicated, and Professor Gormly had his pencil neck broken by two thugs
sharing his cell. Apparently computer geeks were looked down upon by the
under classes back in 1974. Consequently, we were not able to finish our
printer project and the "Gormly Method" was never published. They had to
take a previously rejected manuscript by some dork named Donald Knuth.

And people say the sixties was a strange time.
                       (HABANERO, 21516, GO COM A2)


FIRST LOOK AT A NEW 'NET SEARCH ENGINE   At the latest Monday night chat,
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""   one of the many off-topic side
discussions led me indirectly this morning to a new search engine that
looks really promising. The name is "Ask Jeeves" and the URL is www.ask.com

It allows you to enter questions in English sentences, and I'm guessing
that it must use some type of Artificial Intelligence to determine what
information it is you're actually trying to find.

It works fine with lynx, too.

I used the word "promising" above, because I didn't quite get the answer to
the question I was asking, but then again, Ask Jeeves got me a whole lot
closer than Alta Vista did.

So, next time you're conducting a web search, try Ask Jeeves.

Joe
                       (JOE_KOHN, 21811, GO COM A2)


WHAT MAKES INTREC CABLES SO GOOD?   Technical Ability.
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
Most of quality control at your average cable manufacturer stops at
counting connector pins. Anything more would cut into profits.

Intrec, on the other hand, is so steeped in telecommunications; I recommend
the purchase of the ProTERM package just for the manual!

I will again say I would gladly edit a Intrec "Telecomm for Dummies Who
Wannabe Geeks" manuscript for FREE!

  __,2__    Mike Brouillette; the "Un-Dead Apple"
 / _   _\
 \(o)m(_,   Delivered via Spectrum v2.1 & Crock 'O Gold v2.5
  `boood    Wed 10 Feb 99 1:27:01 pm
                     (MBROUI11ETTE, 20936, GO COM A2)


TELL ME WHAT YOU KNOW ABOUT THE IMAGEWRITER II   Well you may find this
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""   interesting then. I've
been adding to, and editing this file whenever I run across some
information regarding the IW2 printer.

--- snip ---

Markings and identification for the Platinum ImageWriter II:

Top down view of the printer.
    ______________________
  _| ____________________ |___
 (_ (____________________( _)_)
   ||                    ||       1. Color Apple symbol followed
   ||____________________||          by "ImageWriter II"
   |                      |       2. Five buttons (power, select,
   |(1)                (2)|          print quality, line feed,
   |______________________|          form feed)

The White ImageWriter II only has the color Apple logo, it does not have
any other markings or identification at location (1).

The black lever adjuster on the inside of the printer near the right side
is for when you are printing on multi part forms, address labels, 3X5
cards... and so on, items that would be thicker than a normal sheet of
paper. Basically one click down away from the platen for each additional
paper thickness. Usually for single sheet thickness printing you would have
it raised up, as close to the platen as it will go.

You can also adjust the height of the print head slightly with respect to
the platen by turning the red adjusting ring on the small vertical cylinder
just to the right of the ribbon. Push down gently turn and release. This is
to compensate for the four color ribbons that have the color bands shifted
up or down slightly. Which causes the top or bottom of the line being
printed to have a different color than the rest of the line.

The ImageWriter II has several test modes. And they are easy to check.

Unplug the printer's serial cable while doing this testing. Plug it back in
when your done. Naturally for safety's sake, you don't make or break any
connection to your computer system while it or the printer is turned on.

You can run the printer's built in self test if you hold down the FormFeed
button while you turn the printer on. (Press and hold FormFeed, power on
the printer, wait for it to finish moving the carriage then release the
FormFeed button.) This will also read out the ROM revision number, the DIP
switch settings, which option card is installed, and how much memory it
has. Turn off the printer to stop the test.

Holding down the LineFeed button while you turn the printer on will cause
the carriage assembly to move back and forth without printing and without
any line feeds. Test can be stopped by pressing the LineFeed button. And
can be restarted by pressing the Select button. Turn off the printer to
stop the test.

You can run the printer's built in Loopback test (designed to test the I/O
circuits) if you hold down the PrintQuality button while you turn the
printer on. This will also read out the ROM revision number, the DIP switch
settings, which option card is installed, and how much memory it has. Then
it will start printing the test pattern. If a problem is found then the
message LOOPBACK TEST FAILS will be printed. For this test to work you need
an adapter plug that fits into the serial port socket that has pins 1&2 and
pins 3&5 connected together. Turn off the printer to stop the test.

You can put the printer in hex dump mode by holding down the Select button
while turning it on. Then print a test document on continuous feed paper.
You should be able to decipher the codes sent to the printer to see what's
going on. Control codes and character codes will all be out put as hex
numbers. Go get an ASCII chart that has the hex numbers listed to interpret
the codes. This is a great diagnostic aid to see what your program is
sending to the printer.

--- snip ---


Bartism: I will not drive the principal's car.
       _ _
      /:\:\
     /`./`/
 \_\_\:/./__
 (")})})})})}--
  ^ <<<<~~~~   Honeybee
                     (APISMELIFERA, 20882, GO COM A2)

>>>>>   There is a small lever on the right hand (looking from the front)
"""""   end of the printer slide bar which is meant to adjust for
multi-part forms. I'm assuming you know that and have already tried
adjusting it. You might not have noticed that loosening a couple of screws
that hold the lever assembly in place gives you a much larger range of
adjustment. :)

Gary R. Utter
                         (UTTER, 20939, GO COM A2)

>>>>>   There are 2 screws just in front of the head that can be carefully
"""""   loosened and this adjusts the distance the print head is from the
platen. I usually put in 20lb bond, then carefully push the head so that it
just touches the paper.

Another suggestion is to clean the heads overnight, are you sure they are
not gummed up a little?

Good Luck.

TTFN,
TeeC
                         (TEEC, 20940, GO COM A2)

>>>>>   They could still be dried out. Try carefully popping the top off
"""""   one of the ribbon carts (solid color only, NOT a multi-color
ribbon!) and lightly spraying the ribbon itself with some WD-40 (and I DO
mean lightly!) Put the top back on, and put the ribbon cart into a Ziplock
bag for a few days. (Rotate the ribbon advance knob a few turns each day)

If this ribbon works =noticeably= better, then you're running into dried
out ink.

-Harold
HdwrNut on EFNet and AIM
Posted by ProTERM Mac Messenger
The most damaging phrase in the language is: "It's always been done that
way."
                       (HAROLD_H, 20988, GO COM A2)

<<<<<   I agree with Harold in trying the WD-40 in the ribbon to make sure
"""""   you have a live one. and if that doesn't work for you, then read
on...

OK look at the platen adjust lever again. Looking closely at this lever you
can see that it really consists of two parts that move together. There is a
second part attached to it on the right hand side. That's also the side
where the head of the screw is located. :-( Loosening this screw lets you
change the print head adjustment range. Push the lever all the way down,
loosen the screw, move the lever a little more to the lower end of it's
travel and tighten. Now as you raise the lever back up the print head
should be a little closer to the platen than it was before. You'll need a
5.5mm open end wrench to turn that darn screw.

 >Is there any control over the power to the hammer drivers?

Not that I know of.

 >SW2-5 and 6 had no visible effect. :-(

They adjust vertical print height. It's most noticeable when you're
printing in high quality mode (both parts of the print quality light are
on). You'll notice that the vertical overlap drifts off as you go across
the page. The letters appear to be taller on one side of the page in
comparison to the other.


The shortest complete sentence in the English language is "I am".
       _ _
      /:\:\
     /`./`/
 \_\_\:/./__
 (")})})})})}--
  ^ <<<<~~~~   Honeybee
                     (APISMELIFERA, 21181, GO COM A2)

>>>>>   Actually switches 5,6 on an IWII make tiny adjustments in the pin
"""""   firing timing for bidirectional printing, so that text printed left
to right lines up right with text printed right to left. They have
absolutely NO effect on the vertical positioning, or on the size of the
print in any print mode (such adjustment is purely mechanical, and remains
the same for all print modes)

You can prove this easily. Note the current positions of the switches, then
print several pages with only the | (vertical line) character. Print some
in mono-directional mode, and some in bidirectional mode, playing with the
switches between each page. You will quickly see the horizontal shifting
done by these switches. Be sure to set them to the best alignment when done
(which MAY or may NOT be where they had been set originally)

These switches are needed due to slight variations in gimmler drive belt
and pulleys that move the print head, as well as the solenoid/hammer
spacing in individual print heads, as well as variations in spring tension,
power supply voltage and current capacity, etc.

SOME models of the IWII have one (two?) tiny trim pots that adjust the
current thru the print head, to adjust how hard the pins are struck. These
should NEVER be twiddled without proper knowledge and test equipment, else
damage can result to the print head, driver transistors (or monolithic
driver chip in some models, etc.) Even I shy away from tweaking these, and
I DO know what I'm doing and have the right kind of test equip.

FWIW your previous notes here about IWII stuff impressed me, and I'm not
easily impressed. Great job! :-)

-Harold
HdwrNut on EFNet and AIM
Posted by ProTERM Mac Messenger
The most damaging phrase in the language is: "It's always been done that
way."
                       (HAROLD_H, 21201, GO COM A2)


BEST AND WORST WAYS TO BACK UP A FOCUS DRIVE   Okay, here goes.
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
DUMP ARCHIVER.

The thing is buggier than a roach convention in a cheap motel.

If you're backing up to floppies (shudder), use Prosel-16, which is or
should shortly be available just about everywhere as (apparently, this is
still not clear to me) public domain.

Archiver will break your heart.  I guarantee it.

-
 Ryan M. Suenaga, M.S.W., L.S.W.  --  rsuenaga@apple2.org
 Editor and Publisher, _The Lamp!_, published monthly on Delphi
 Posted by PTMM v2.5 - The integrated information solution
                       (RSUENAGA, 20885, GO COM A2)

>>>>>   Archiver was a wonderful idea, and it's a nice-looking, reasonably
"""""   well-designed product. But it's not finished, and not ready for
real use. It's a terrible shame that Apple wasn't able to do another
version or two of it to work the bugs out; if they had, it'd be the backup
software of choice for a lot of Apple II people.

Eric "Sheppy" Shepherd
sheppy@sheppyware.net
http://www.sheppyware.net
                        (SHEPPY, 20888, GO COM A2)

<<<<<   Agreed on all counts.
"""""
At this point, there's no reasonable use for Archiver, aside from looking
nice.  There's no way anyone can trust it to reliably do backups.

-
 Ryan M. Suenaga, M.S.W., L.S.W.  --  rsuenaga@apple2.org
 Editor and Publisher, _The Lamp!_, published monthly on Delphi
 Posted by PTMM v2.5 - The integrated information solution
                       (RSUENAGA, 20889, GO COM A2)

>>>>>   Coming into this conversation late...
"""""
One alternative to Archiver that I used successfully for several years is
UtilityWorks GS.  Among its myriad of features are backup and restore
utilities.  I had a critical need of my backups once, and everything worked
flawlessly.  UtilityWorks only backs up to 800K floppies, so that may not
be for everyone, but it does work.

UtilityWorks is here in the Delphi library, and also available at several
ftp sites.  It is shareware, and worth every penny of the asking fee -
especially since you can download it and register for free now at the
author's web site.  Unfortunately, I don't have the URL handy, as I have
been a registered user for many years, and didn't take note when I saw the
announcement.

Don V. Zahniser (IronTooth)

            Try my off-line reader scripts for ANSITerm...
                          They're OLRight!
                       (DZAHNISER, 20949, GO COM A2)

<<<<<   Try:
"""""
        http://www.wilde.org/grwsystems/

-
 Ryan M. Suenaga, M.S.W., L.S.W.  --  rsuenaga@apple2.org
 Editor and Publisher, _The Lamp!_, published monthly on Delphi
 Posted by PTMM v2.5 - The integrated information solution
                       (RSUENAGA, 20953, GO COM A2)

>>>>>   The UtilityWorks program is too large to be used on a bootable
"""""   diskette. It fits on a floppy just fine, which means that you can
run it from a floppy-booted system if you need to.  However, the author
provided a smaller program that _will_ fit on a boot disk, expressly for
restoring a backed-up system.

Many versions of UtilityWorksGS that are out on ftp sites don't have the
restore program included.  The archive in the Delphi A2 database consists
of two shrunk disk archives.  One contains the programs (including the
restore program) and the other contains the documentation.  Try searching
for 'UWGS' in the database.  That should find it.  I really recommend UWGS
for many reasons.  The backup/restore capability is just one.
Don V. Zahniser (IronTooth)

            Try my off-line reader scripts for ANSITerm...
                          They're OLRight!
                       (DZAHNISER, 21157, GO COM A2)


TEXT ENCODING OF APPLE II FILES   "bsc" is a Binscii-encoded file that is
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""   *not* compressed with ShrinkIt. Binscii
is an old (rarely used these days) format for sending 8-bit binary data
files over 7-bit data connections by encoding them as text (very much like
uuencode, Binhex, or Base-64, which most email programs use for
attachments).

Dig up a binscii decoder to handle those files; ShrinkIt won't do it.

Eric "Sheppy" Shepherd
sheppy@sheppyware.net
http://www.sheppyware.net
                        (SHEPPY, 20892, GO COM A2)

>>>>>   Is Binscii really rarely used now?  Whenever possible I use Binscii
"""""   over any of the other methods because I seem to recall something
about it being better than the others.  :-)

I absolutely love the ability to split up a file into multiple segments
(for those people with small storage media and little memory) and being
able to decode the file no matter what sequence the segments are decoded
in.  This is especially handy if you have received part two of a file and
are waiting for part one to arrive.  You can decode part two, delete the
Binscii file (which is larger than the decoded section), and when part one
arrives, decode it in the same directory and your decoded file is complete.

Anyways, I was just curious if anyone is still using Binscii much.  I might
be able to tell by the replies that I get to this message.  :-)

 Jeff Blakeney |      Dean of the Apple II University in A2Pro      |
 --------------+----------------------------------------------------+
    sent via   |   HyperCard IIgs Course   |   GSoft BASIC Course   |
    COG v3.0   |      now in session       |    starts March 8th    |
                       (JBLAKENEY, 20918, GO COM A2)

<<<<<   Well, Binscii is totally unnecessary nowadays, so I assume it's
"""""   rarely used. :)

Eric "Sheppy" Shepherd
sheppy@sheppyware.net
http://www.sheppyware.net
                        (SHEPPY, 20921, GO COM A2)

>>>>>   I much prefer Binhex myself. . .
"""""
-
 Ryan M. Suenaga, M.S.W., L.S.W.  --  rsuenaga@apple2.org
 Editor and Publisher, _The Lamp!_, published monthly on Delphi
 Posted by PTMM v2.5 - The integrated information solution
                       (RSUENAGA, 20922, GO COM A2)

>>>>>   If you have a copy of Spectrum installed, you can decode BinSCII
"""""   files using the BinHQX XCMD. There are various other NDAs and
applications that can handle this file type as well.

But I suspect that if these are disk images of System 6.0.1, then you may
have no applications at all installed. :(

In which case you are going to need to get someone to send you the four
disks...

 Ewen Wannop - Speccie - Wed 3 Mar 1999 - 140 days till KFest '99
 Delivered without using a IIgs by Spectrum 2.2 & Crock O' Gold 3.0
 Bernie ][ the Rescue 2.0 woofing on a PowerMac 8200/120
 http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/ewannop/
                        (EWANNOP, 20927, GO COM A2)

>>>>>   I still usually generate a BinSCII copy of anything I upload, as
"""""   well as a plain ShrinkIt archive in a Binary II wrapper. I think
it's still the best way to send something by email to an Apple II user. Few
of us bother with the comp.binaries.apple2 newsgroup anymore, but if you
wanted to upload something there, you would probably use BinSCII.

It may be unnecessary in most cases, but it's still useful.

-- Michael
                          (SAR, 21100, GO COM A2)


WHICH IIGS RAM CARD IS YOUR FAVORITE?   This has been a very educational
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""   thread. It got me asking a question
though...

Which RAM board is *the* best, most compatible, most reliable one out
there?

I've got two GS machines that I use pretty often. One is a ROM 3 equipped
with a stock TWGS with a 32K cache module, PCT and a 2nd rev Sirius card. I
was advised by another guru that I needed to go ahead an install the 8th
SIMM (feedback on this is welcome). I'm planning to add a RAMFast to it
too.

My second ROM 3 GS is going to have a 12MHz 64K cache ZipGS, a RAMFast and
the most reliable RAM card I can find for it.

If anyone would care to share their advice on what I'm getting ready to do,
please jump in. Thanks in advance!

Sean
                        (SFAHEY, 21243, GO COM A2)

>>>>>   The CVTech Revision B card with the piggyback slot has always been
"""""   my personal favorite.

-
 Ryan M. Suenaga, M.S.W., L.S.W.  --  rsuenaga@apple2.org
 Editor and Publisher, _The Lamp!_, published monthly on Delphi
 Posted by PTMM v2.5 - The integrated information solution
                       (RSUENAGA, 21246, GO COM A2)

>>>>>   Like Ryan, my preference over the years was the CV Tech card, but
"""""   the one my client had kept corrupting DB files when loaded with
more than 5.5 megs, ie: 4 megs CV Tech + 4 meg Ram GS. It may be that the
CV Tech card has developed a problem, but I have since installed 3 Sirius 8
meg cards and, tough wood, no corruption or problems of any kind in 5 weeks
of 9 hour per day use, 5 DB AW5.0. files = 6.8 megs. Of course I now have 3
- 4 meg cards to dispose of, which no one seems to want; see Free Trade
Zone.

TTFN,
TeeC
                         (TEEC, 21252, GO COM A2)

<<<<<   I have a couple of Sirius cards... one seems stable most of the
"""""   time but on occasion GS/OS will crash to the monitor -- I can't
tell if it's the OS, the card or sunspots as it seems pretty random.

What I really wish for is a serious memory checker for the Sirius card
(pun?).  I've been told (or did I read it somewhere?) that Bitbanger is
buggy.

Thanks for the advice!
                        (SFAHEY, 21256, GO COM A2)

>>>>>   I have two CV-Tech cards and I've run into problems with the first
"""""   one I bought.  (I haven't had the second one long enough to know it
has problems. :)  The first one I bought I got had 1 MB installed on it and
I piggy-backed my Apple 1 MB card to it to give my ROM 01 machine 2.25 MB
of RAM.  However, the CV-Tech card had a slight curve to it when looking
down on it while it was installed in my IIgs.  I was running into some
weird problems and I finally ended up putting a plastic spacer between the
CV-Tech card and the Apple card to help straighten out the board and to
avoid any electrical contact between the cards.  This seemed to fix my
problem and I ran happily like this for years.

Later I ended up getting an old 386 motherboard for free and it had 4 MB of
1 meg x 1 RAM chips on it.  I took 3 MB from there and fully populated my
CV-Tech card to give me a total of 5.25 MB of RAM.  This continued to work
great up until late last year.

When I received a large shipment of Apple II stuff last year, I ended up
getting two complete IIgs systems.  One had a CV-Tech card with 1 MB
installed and a 4 MB GS-RAM and the other just had a 4 MB GS-RAM.  I took
one of the GS-RAM cards and put it in place of my Apple 1 MB card of my
CV-Tech card to give me 8.25 MB of RAM but I didn't put my plastic spacer
back in.  I also grabbed one of the RamFAST SCSI cards and threw it into my
machine at the same time because I was using some weird SCSI card possibly
made or distributed by AMR.

However, shortly after doing this I noticed that file copies of large
amounts of data would hang my machine and I had other flakey behaviour as
well.  I took out the GS-RAM and dropped down to 4.25 MB of RAM and
everything went back to normal.

Now I'm going to make sure my RamFAST's Transwarp and DMA settings are
correct as has been recently discussed and also put my plastic spacer back
in there and hopefully I'll be back to using 8.25 MB of RAM again because
it sure was nice when it worked.  :-)

 Jeff Blakeney |      Dean of the Apple II University in A2Pro      |
 --------------+----------------------------------------------------+
  sent using   |   HyperCard IIgs Course   |   GSoft BASIC Course   |
   COG v3.0    |      now in session       |    starts March 8th    |
                       (JBLAKENEY, 21278, GO COM A2)

>>>>>   The card that Bob Consorti made is probably IT. I don't remember
"""""   the name of it off hand, but I know someone who has one who would
probably sell.

Bob's mistake was in overbuilding the card. It's beautiful to look at (for
the trained eye), everything is JUST right. It's a three layer card with an
excellent job of finishing. (Hmmm, I think the name is On Board. Bob's
company was On Three, so that sounds right.)

I never EVER heard of anyone having a problem with this card, and I swear
half the Apple II people on CIS a decade ago were using one.

Gary R. Utter
                         (UTTER, 21287, GO COM A2)

>>>>>   Well, after extensive testing tonight, I've discovered that it was
"""""   my fault and not the CV-Tech card's that was causing my problem.

After playing around with different RamFAST settings, RAM disk sizes and
constantly rebooting after hangs, crashes and weird error messages from the
RamFAST, I started swapping memory cards around to see what worked and what
didn't.  Here is what I ended up getting things down to:

     o RAM-GS by itself worked fine
     o RAM-GS in 4 MB CV-Tech didn't work
     o RAM-GS in 1 MB CV-Tech worked fine
     o 4 MB CV-Tech card by itself didn't work

It was this last point that really got me.  At this point, I figured I must
have some bad RAM on the 4 MB CV-Tech.

However, for some reason I did yet another visual inspection of my CV-Tech
cards as I was thinking of starting to swap 1 MB at a time between my two
cards when I noticed that the jumper settings were the same on both cards
even though one had 1 MB installed and the other had 4 MB installed.  As I
couldn't find my CV-Tech documentation quickly I figured I would just be
logical about it and changed my jumper settings on the 4 MB card from:

       A B C              A B C
     2 ===       to     2   ===
     1 ===              1   ===

I then set up my machine with the RAM-GS in the 4 MB CV-Tech card and
everything worked fine.  This was with DMA = Yes and Transwarp = No in my
RamFAST settings, in case anyone was wondering.

I'm a happy 8.25 MB camper again.  :-)

 Jeff Blakeney |      Dean of the Apple II University in A2Pro      |
 --------------+----------------------------------------------------+
   sent via    |   HyperCard IIgs Course   |   GSoft BASIC Course   |
   COG v3.0    |      now in session       |     now in session     |
                       (JBLAKENEY, 21371, GO COM A2)


WEBWORKS GS FEATURES WANTED   Sheppy,
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""
I'm really enjoying WebWorksGS! Nice program.

Here's one suggestion though (you may have considered this already): I
think it would be nice if there was an option which allowed input of the
html codes <TABLE>,<H3>,etc... in a different text color. This would offset
them from the user's text in the source window. I think I recall BBEdit did
something similar to this (I haven't used BBEdit in a _long_ time
though...it may have been another editor :).

I realize that this would probably be easier to implement for the html
codes/commands input from the pull-down menus. It would be much harder to
implement for codes typed in directly by the user. Still, I think it might
be a nice touch. What do you think?

Just a suggestion. Now, I need to get over to an html web site to learn
more about what I can do with WebWorksGS!

Thanks!

Paul.

Paul Schultz
schultp@delphi.com
sent your way via Spectrum 2.2 and Crock O' Gold 2.6
                        (SCHULTP, 21114, GO COM A2)

>>>>>   That would be nice, wouldn't it. :)
"""""
I'll put that on the list of things to consider doing. Thanks for the idea.

Eric "Sheppy" Shepherd
sheppy@sheppyware.net
http://www.sheppyware.net
                        (SHEPPY, 21122, GO COM A2)


NOT SHIFTYLIST, SHIFTY LIST   I'd like to take a moment to correct an error
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""   I see a lot. People tend to incorrectly write
the title of my Apple IIgs utility Shifty List as "ShiftyList." There is a
space in the name of the product (and this is important to me, as I've
actually registered the copyright with the U.S. Copyright Office under that
name).

I'd appreciate it if people (especially those making recommendations or
printing articles) spell it correctly.

Thanks!

Eric "Sheppy" Shepherd
sheppy@sheppyware.net
http://www.sheppyware.net
                        (SHEPPY, 21473, GO COM A2)


DOS 3.3 REFRESHER COURSE   Unlike ProDOS, DOS 3.3 did not put the operating
""""""""""""""""""""""""   system in files that show in the directory.
Rather, the first three tracks of each disk contained the operating system,
and the catalog track was also fixed. From Basic, you would do an "INIT
HELLO[,S6][,D1]" to initialize a disk in the default drive or the drive
specified by the optional S(lot) and D(rive) parameters. This would format
the disk and put a copy of the operating system then in memory on the disk
and set up an empty directory. It would also set "HELLO" as the name of the
first program to run. (It didn't have to be "HELLO" but that was the
example given, and most people just went along.) There were utilities to
initialize "data" disks, which contained no DOS, and freed up two of the
three DOS tracks. These utilities usually put a small program on the first
track to put a message on the screen if you tried to boot from a data disk.
Converting a data disk to a boot disk required you do a complete reformat.

With ProDOS, you need a utility program to initialize a disk, and by
default, it is a data disk. You can turn it into a boot disk by putting a
copy of the "PRODOS" file on the disk. ProDOS will automatically look for a
System file to run, and this will usually be "BASIC.SYSTEM" which provides
the BASIC disk commands and interface to BASIC.

On a GSOS boot disk, the PRODOS file is a program to start the GSOS boot
process, and the Real PRODOS is hidden in the System folder and named P8.
  --
 Carl Knoblock - Telephone Tech - Fri  5 Mar 99  10:18:14 pm
 cknoblo@novia.net - Via Spectrum v2.2 & Crock O' Gold v2.6
 Using Marinetti 2.0 - Transmit timing off.
 KansasFest 11, July 21-25, 1999 - 138 days till KFest
                        (CKNOBLO, 21056, GO COM A2)

>>>>>   I'd like to add one small clarification to that. The "boot" program
"""""   (HELLO in your example) that is saved to disk is whatever Applesoft
program is resident in RAM at the time the INIT command is issued.

For example, if one wants to make a bootable disk with a specific menu
program, one first loads the menu program into RAM, then performs the INIT
process.

Alternatively, once the INIT is done, the HELLO program can be replaced
with any new Applesoft program by saving it to the disk under the HELLO
filename.

I know that you know this already. I just wanted to make that a bit
clearer.

FWIW, I still use DOS 3.3 quite a bit in my Eamon gaming activities. Many
of the Eamon club members don't use their Apple II's for anything but Eamon
any more, and many of them never bothered to upgrade to the ProDOS versions
of the Eamon games (partly because less than half of the Eamon list was
converted.)

TomZ
                       (TOMZUSKI, 21105, GO COM A2)


HOW TO CONVERT FROM APPLEWORKS TO WORD   I'd say, try to read that files in
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""   to ClarisWorks (better the Mac
version). There should be saved/kept the original formats. Then, save the
new ClarisWorks files as WP files. That should work.

Good luck, Ulrich

[ Delivered by ProTERM Message Manager (PTMM) v2.5.3 ]
                       (UHAUSMANN, 21460, GO COM A2)

>>>>>   Guessing you're talking about an Appleworks 5 word processing
"""""   document, I'd use AWP to RTF by Kitchen Sink Software, a Macintosh
program, to make the file into an RTF file, then import it into the
appropriate word processor.

-
 Ryan M. Suenaga, M.S.W., L.S.W.  --  rsuenaga@apple2.org
 Editor and Publisher, _The Lamp!_, published monthly on Delphi
 Posted by PTMM v2.5 - The integrated information solution
                       (RSUENAGA, 21476, GO COM A2)

>>>>>   Or if you have a IIgs, you could use WebWorks GS to convert the
"""""   AppleWorks 5 file into HTML, then load that up in Word; I think
Word can handle HTML. :)

Eric "Sheppy" Shepherd
sheppy@sheppyware.net
http://www.sheppyware.net
                        (SHEPPY, 21495, GO COM A2)


COG 3.0 WOWS   This is my first message posted from COG3, and I just have
""""""""""""   to say, "Wow!"

I don't where to start ranting and raving ;-)

The Hierarchic Menus are way cool. The spell checker works great!

Actually, the first thing I noticed is just how much faster it seems. In
COG2, it seemed to take a few seconds for the next message to appear on
screen, but in COG3, it seems to take only a few microseconds for the next
message to appear.

There's a lot to explore here Ewen, and I look forward to checking it all
out ;-)

Thank you for COG3!

And, a note to those of you who own NiftySpell:

Now that the NiftySpell XCMD for Spectrum is actually being used, something
that Chris wrote in the NiftySpell manual makes a whole lot more sense to
me, now that I've finally seen it with my own eyes.

When a spell check is performed from within COG3 by choosing "Spell Check"
from the Edit menu, the NiftySpell XCMD is invoked from scripts, and that
works a little differently than if you'd chosen NiftySpell from the Apple
Pull Down Menu.

Although both access methods perform the same "Check Window" spell check,
when choosing to "Spell Check" from the Edit menu...if everything is
spelled correctly, you will not actually see the NiftySpell spell check
interface.

In other words, you will only see the NiftySpell spell check interface
window if you spelled something wrong. If everything is spelled correctly,
you'll see the watch cursor for a second or three, which shows you that a
spell check is being performed, and then you'll be returned to the Insert
cursor.

This method works much, much faster than if NiftySpell is called up via the
NDA. On the other hand, if you would prefer to see visual feedback and want
to see NiftySpell go through the process of spell checking, continue using
the NDA interface for spell checks.

Joe Kohn
                       (JOE_KOHN, 21248, GO COM A2)


AND WOBBLES   Please accept my apologies that you have had a problem
"""""""""""   installing COG3. However all is not lost (see below), as it
was only the Installer script that was at fault here! I have now fixed all
the problems, and posted a fresh update of the whole archive to my home
pages. This is now dated as 9th March. Hopefully I have caught the Delphi
librarian in time, so only the updated version will get posted here!

These bugs did not show up during Beta testing, as in the main we were drag
copying the files. The resource error was actually due to the updated XCMDs
not being copied over.

So for those few who downloaded the 8th March version of COG3, you need to
check these actions:

1. If you choose to update from COG2, drag a copy of the Taglines file in
   the 'Contributed:Jeff.Carr' folder to the 'COG2:Configs' folder of your
   existing COG before you install.

2. If you choose to use your existing phone number, it must have no spaces
   in it. Just edit any spaces to hyphens.

3. After you have installed COG3, but before you run it, copy the XCMDs you
   will find in the 'Add.Ons:XCMDs' folder of the archive into the
   'Add.Ons:XCMDs' folder of your working Spectrum 2.2.

All should be well after you have done that...

 Ewen Wannop - Speccie - Tue 9 Mar 1999 - 134 days till KFest '99
 Delivered without using a IIgs by Spectrum 2.2 & Crock O' Gold 3.0
 Bernie ][ the Rescue 2.0 woofing at 55Mhz on a G3/350
 http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/ewannop/
                        (EWANNOP, 21204, GO COM A2)

>>>>>   I don't know what I did wrong, but something bit me big time with
"""""   the update to 3.0.

It started when I couldn't download the file from Compuserve.  Actually, I
could download it using the Mac, but I couldn't figure out how to get the
GS to convert it to a .bxy file so that I could expand it.  I then
successfully transferred the file to Delphi, but couldn't download it from
my workspace (the transfers were all aborted by Delphi) using either Zmodem
or Xmodem and Spectrum.

I eventually retrieved the file from the library using Kermit (over one and
a half hours, yechh!).  This was of course recognized as a bxy file and
unshrunk readily.  I then could not get the installer to run (application
not recognized was the error message I think), so I ran the script from
within Spectrum.  Everything appeared to go fine, so I attempted to run COG
and got a "resource could not be load/unloaded" error message.  Rebooting
and trying again got the same message.  Running Start.cog from within
Spectrum gave the same error.

I am using Spectrum 2.2, but from within Bernie, so I may not have all the
files that I need to successfully run this update, especially as I noted
that the scripts appear to be compiled.

Does anyone have any suggestions about what I might be missing, or might
have done wrong?

 David R. Pierce
                     (DAVID_PIERCE, 21369, GO COM A2)

<<<<<   The files on my home pages are all BinSCII files, so they can be
"""""   downloaded over 7 bit links. The file uploaded to Delphi is a
standard .BXY file. To decode BinSCII (and BinHex 4.0, UUencode or Base64),
you need to open Spectrum and decode the file from the Decode item on the
Extras menu.

Once unpacked, you should have a folder called Crock.O.Gold. The Installer
is a Spectrum script which will start Spectrum when you double click it.
However if you have never started Spectrum by double-clicking in the
Finder, the Finder will now know which program to start! You only need to
do this once, and it to work for you every time after that.

But running the Installer from Spectrum is just fine. But you then got a
resource error. This sounds to me like the bug that hit the first version
of COG3 that I put on my web pages. That version should not have made it to
Delphi. The correct version of COG3 is dated 10th March. The bug caused the
Installer to not copy the updated XCMDs over to your working Spectrum 2.2
'Add.Ons:XCMDs' folder. Manually copying the files should solve that
problem.

Running COG3 from within Bernie causes no problems. In fact all the online
tests for COG3 were developed using Bernie...

 Ewen Wannop - Speccie - Sat 13 Mar 1999 - 130 days till KFest '99
 Delivered without using a IIgs by Spectrum 2.2 & Crock O' Gold 3.0
 Bernie ][ the Rescue 2.0 woofing at 55Mhz on a G3/350
 http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/ewannop/
                        (EWANNOP, 21379, GO COM A2)

>>>>>   So that is what I should have done :)  I'll have to try and
"""""   remember that for the next time something like this comes up.
Delphi is not the easiest place to get files from (:

As to the resource error:  I copied over the Add-Ons to Spectrum and I am
now writing this in COG3!  Whoo-we, boy is this thing fast!  The messages
just jump up, and replying is much improved (and I didn't think there
wasn't anything wrong with version 2.6).  I love the English "Queue".  It
fully captures just what that button should do. :)  Oh, yes, my version of
COG3 would appear to be dated March 10.  Does that sound right?

Unless something else shows up, this is one happy camper.

 David R. Pierce
                     (DAVID_PIERCE, 21383, GO COM A2)


TELL ME A LITTLE ABOUT THE TRANSWARP GS   The v1.8S ROM was, to my
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""   knowledge, the last ROM ever
released by AE, and is the one I have on all my own TWGSs.

TC4 and TC5 must be =cut= IF 32k of cache memory is installed. If 8k of
cache is installed then they must NOT be cut. You say you have the 8/32
cache card, but don't note the part number of the SRAMS installed on that
card, so I can't say if you have 8k or 32k of cache. (Note: All three SRAM
chips should be the same part number, make, and speed (and preferably same
lot number, though this is NOT as critical as type, make, and speed). If
they aren't then problems are very likely to occur)

FWIW, if you have 32k and TC4 and 5 are jumpered, the TWGS will crash. If
you have 8k and TC4 and 5 are cut, the TWGS will crash. This =might= be
your problem.

-Harold
HdwrNut on EFNet and AIM
Posted by ProTERM Mac Messenger
The most damaging phrase in the language is: "It's always been done that
way."
                       (HAROLD_H, 21365, GO COM A2)


AND NOW A FEW WORDS ON LOCALTALK   The quick & dirty way to set up a
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""   network with a Mac and GS:

1. The Hardware.

You need two localtalk network connectors and a cable to connect them. The
connectors have a short wire hanging out that plugs into any serial port on
your GS or Mac; you need one for each. They come in two flavors called
LocalTalk and PhoneNet. These work the same. The difference is that
LocalTalk connectors use a shielded coaxial cable, so they may work a
little better in an electrically noisy environment. PhoneNet uses standard
phone connectors, so it's cheap. You can get either one from just about any
Macintosh supplier.

2. The Mac.

Turn on file sharing. Under System 8.5 you use the File Sharing Control
Panel to do this. Enable sharing for the drives of folders that you want to
be able to access from the Apple IIGS. From System 8.5, you do this from
the Sharing... submenu of the GetInfo menu item in the Finder's File menu.
In System 7.5, I think there is a menu item right in the file menu, but I
don't remember the exact name.

3. The GS.

Turn on AppleTalk using the AppleTalk control panel. You'll see your Mac
listed by name; once you select it, you will see the hard drives that are
shared listed. You can sign on to any or all of them.

There are several steps involved in setting up the software, but the menus
I mentioned bring up dialogs that step you through it fairly well.

Once everything is set up, the Mac drives appear on your GS desktop as if
they were local disks, except the icon is a bit different. You can read
files, write files, delete files... anything you want to do that you gave
yourself permission to do when you set up sharing on the Macintosh.

Mike Westerfield
                       (BYTEWORKS, 21347, GO COM A2)


SO WHICH //E IS WHICH?   How to tell an original //e from a later //e:
""""""""""""""""""""""
Original //e

On boot it displays Apple ][e
Chip set includes:
CPU 6502
Video ROM 342-0133
EF ROM 342-0134
CD ROM 342-0135

Enhanced //e

On boot it displays Apple //e
Chip set includes:
CPU 65c02
Video ROM 342-0265
EF ROM 342-0303
CD ROM 342-0304

The Platinum //e are all enhanced and have an extended keyboard with a
numeric keypad on the right side. The CD and EF ROMs are combined into a
single chip. The 342-0265 Video chip is still used for the video display.
Instead of a 65c02 CPU chip you may find one labeled 6503. The eight RAM
chips were replaced with two chips. You may also find these motherboards in
some of the last beige //e.

Owen
                         (OWENA, 21810, GO COM A2)


GARY ON CHANGING A IIGS KEYBOARD KEYSWITCH   The keyswitch is soldered to
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""   the circuit board. They are
interchangeable. If this is the only key that has failed, you might want to
consider swapping it with another you don't use, perhaps something from the
keypad.

Gary R. Utter
                         (UTTER, 21755, GO COM A2)


SCSI ID JUMPER BASICS   The jumpers for SCSI drives ID selection are
"""""""""""""""""""""   virtually always a set of three jumpers which in
combination can yield any ID number 0 thru 7. So, the first jumper
represents the 'value' = 1, the second the 'value' = 2, and the third the
'value' = 4. Get some jumper blocks and experiment with your row of
jumpers. Then, go into your RamFast utilities (if you have a RamFast :) and
see what ID number the drive has.

The easiest method is to use a single jumper block and try one of the
positions on the end of your row of jumpers. If you get a valid SCSI ID
value you know which end of the row handles the SCSI IDs. The adjacent two
positions will handle the other 'values'. If you get an ID of zero (or your
drive behaves oddly), you have jumpered the positions not responsible for
SCSI ID selection, so go to the other end of the row of jumpers and you
should be set!

Remember, having no jumpers across the SCSI ID positions will give you an
ID of zero. If you don't have any other devices with this ID you could just
go ahead and format your drive and use it 'as is'. However, if you want to
have other devices on your SCSI chain it is probably worthwhile to do the
detective work and determine the SCSI ID positions.

Finally, your drive manufacturer may have the tech specs for your drive on
their web site. Check this first, it may save you the trouble altogether!

Good luck,

Paul.
schultp@delphi.com
                        (SCHULTP, 21808, GO COM A2)



                                RUMOR MILL
                                """"""""""

GOOD NEWS AND BAD NEWS FROM WDC   NEWS FLASH
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
I just talked to Western Design about ordering the 65816-14's.  There is
GOOD NEWS and BAD NEWS.

Good News first ... The price has dropped to only $6.18 each.

The Bad News ... They will only accept $100.00 minimum orders. ... and the
shipping to only one address will be about $5.00.

CHunk

CHunk_S

Your A2 Forum Host

Delivered by OLRight! (v4.0) scripts for ANSITerm for the Apple IIgs
                        (CHUNK_S, 21301, GO COM A2)


THINKING ABOUT SSII ON CD ROM   The following message is of the 'thinking
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""   out loud' variety...

For months, I've been toying with the idea of creating a brand new
Shareware Solutions II CD-ROM that, in a sense, picks up where Golden
Orchard and TABBS left off.

Since those two CDs have been released, a lot of new software has appeared,
and then again, I have a lot of really classic and wonderful software that
wasn't included on either of those CD-ROM collections. I'm also thinking
that the time has come for there to be a CD-ROM collection that would
include "ready to run" software that isn't compressed with ShrinkIt.

As it is, I've been distributing freeware, shareware and public domain
Apple II software for 12 years now, through the Source, and Big Red
Computer Club, and through Shareware Solutions II, and as you can imagine,
I've acquired quite a collection of Apple II disks over the years.

I don't yet know that I have a grand total of 650 megs of unique software,
but it's quite possible that I do have nearly that much that has not been
made available before on CD-ROM.

I have a little problem though, so I thought I'd mention it here...

I do not currently own the hardware that I would need in order to organize
the software, nor do I have a CD-R. So, I would need to purchase two pieces
of hardware for this project:

 - I would need to have a SCSI hard drive with a capacity of 700 megs (give
or take), and since the actual burning of the CD-R would take place on a 33
Mhz 68030 Mac, that drive would need to be AV rated. It would need to be
fully assembled, in a case with a power supply. As envisioned, the hard
drive would be formatted on the Mac, but all the organization and file
copying would take place on the IIGS...so the drive would have to work with
(and have drivers available for) the Mac and it would have to work with an
Apple High Speed SCSI Card.

 - I would also need a SCSI CD-R that burns CDs at 2X, and that would work
on, and have software for, the 33 Mhz 68030.

If you or anyone you know has, or will have in the future, such equipment
for sale, at a reasonable and affordable price, please get in touch with
me. Thanks!

Again, this is just an idea I am toying with.

Since I'm currently distributing the other CD-ROM collections, I think I
have a general idea about potential sales, and because of those
projections, the cost of the hardware will really be the prime determinant
as to whether this CD-ROM fantasy becomes a reality.

 Joe Kohn
 http://www.crl.com/~joko
                       (JOE_KOHN, 20978, GO COM A2)


BASIC INSTINCTS   What you want is something like Windows' MS-DOS prompt
"""""""""""""""   that can be either windowed or full-screen, right?  I've
wanted this for a long time myself.

I discussed this possibility on comp.sys.apple2 a year or two ago, mostly
with Nathan Mates, about how to go about it and how well it would work.
Nathan was of the opinion that is would be too slow to be worthwhile.  I
still think it is possible but I never got very far in my work on it.
Besides, I wasn't thinking of it being a replacement for dropping into
ProDOS but rather as a convenience feature so that you could run a ProDOS 8
program while remaining in GS/OS so that you can continue to use NDAs,
CDEVs and such.

I still have all the messages and probably a few other notes and stuff I
made lying around here somewhere and would like to go back to it again one
of these days but I have other projects to finish first.

As I am now a full-time, work from home, contract programmer, I should
finally start getting some of these projects off of my rather large to do
list.  :-)

If anyone wants to discuss the technical details of doing something like
this, I would like to suggest we talk about it in the A2Pro forum.  (I need
more stuff to add to the A2Pro web page come the end of the month. :)

 Jeff Blakeney |      Dean of the Apple II University in A2Pro      |
 --------------+----------------------------------------------------+
               |   HyperCard IIgs Course   |   GSoft BASIC Course   |
               |      now in session       |    starts March 8th    |
                       (JBLAKENEY, 21016, GO COM A2)

>>>>>   I'm in 100% agreement with Nathan. Since GS/OS and the toolbox
"""""   require full use of Bank 0, there is no way to run ProDOS 8
applications at the same time. To achieve running ProDOS 8 apps, you would
have write an Apple //e emulator for the IIgs. There is no way an
accelerated IIgs can emulate a //e as fast as a real //e to make this even
worthwhile (not to mention lack of screen resolution to put a 80x24 text
screen in a window and other stuff).

Geoff
                       (SISGEOFF, 21065, GO COM A2)

>>>>>   While this is true, it misses the point. Applesoft is not a ProDOS
"""""   8 application; only BASIC.SYSTEM is. Applesoft BASIC is actually a
rather polite set of code. It depends on hooks for I/O, and really only
uses pages 0 and 1 of bank zero. You would have to locate the Applesoft
program and variables somewhere in bank 0, but Applesoft isn't fussy about
_where_ you put them. In short, you could hack Applesoft to work in an NDA,
although as I pointed out earlier, you can't expect 8 bit based PEEK, POKE,
CALL, & packages or disk I/O to work, which reduces the usefulness of
Applesoft by a lot.

Mike Westerfield
                       (BYTEWORKS, 21127, GO COM A2)

>>>>>   Well, currently there are 2 options:
"""""
1) There is an Applesoft Basic CDA (written by Dave Lyons) which gives you
   Applesoft in the CDA menu, with a few limitations (no loading/saving, no
   graphics).

2) Use GSoft. Conceivably, you could run GSoft from GNO/ME via the tmterm
   NDA which would give you GNO in a window ala xterm or a dos box.
                          (KWS, 21031, GO COM A2)

>>>>>   Applesoft itself is actually pretty easy to hack to the point it
"""""   will run under GS/OS, or any other environment. The problem is that
Applesoft PEEK, POKE, CALL and & commands are likely to crash GS/OS,
assuming you can even load the & package, and BASIC.SYSTEM is not
available, meaning that you have no disk I/O at all. So yes, it can be
done, but it wouldn't be very useful.

If there was any reason, GSoft BASIC could be stuck into a window pretty
easily. It would run most of the Applesoft programs that didn't suffer from
the problems I already cited. On the other hand, it's already available,
runs from the Finder, and is free. Why put it into a window and suffer
decreased speed and decreased resolution?

Mike Westerfield
                       (BYTEWORKS, 21055, GO COM A2)

>>>>>   I could see a lot of potential for an NDA version of GSoft BASIC,
"""""   where you could do GSoft stuff in a window while using other
applications. A *lot* of potential.

Eric "Sheppy" Shepherd
sheppy@sheppyware.net
http://www.sheppyware.net
                        (SHEPPY, 21059, GO COM A2)

>>>>>   I can't see developing BASIC NDAs. This would essentially be
"""""   something that looked a lot like GSoft.SYS16, but running in a
window as an NDA, right? Of course, it would be limited. You couldn't run a
desktop program this way. To be safe, you might want to disable starting
and stopping tools, or at least have a preference that the user would have
to disable to allow tool startup and shutdown.

What would you use this for that wouldn't work just as well (and a lot
safer!) from GSoft.Sys16?

Mike Westerfield
                       (BYTEWORKS, 21129, GO COM A2)

>>>>>   I wouldn't expect to run desktop applications. But it would be
"""""   fantastic as a nice, easy scripting language for use in the Finder
and other Apple IIgs desktop applications. A BASIC program could be set up
easily to do IPC to interact with applications, delete, copy, and move
files, and so forth.

Kind of a poor-man's AppleScript for the IIgs. Have the NDA support running
GSoft programs upon receipt of an IPC message (tellGSoftDARunThis or
something), and you have an instant plugin manager for other software, that
would let users add simple addons to other software by simply writing code
in GSoft BASIC. GSoft programs wouldn't be able to set up their own menu
bars, but they could do straight text I/O, create their own windows and
dialogs, do disk and file I/O, printing, Standard File, and so forth.

It could also be a great debugging and testing tool. Write a little GSoft
program that sends IPC messages or posts events following a particular,
preprogrammed plan, to test out code in an application you're writing.

The possibilities are endless. These are all things people have been
wanting to be able to do -- there's a lot of advantage in having them
doable using a language we already have, instead of requiring some other
scripting language.

Eric "Sheppy" Shepherd
sheppy@sheppyware.net
http://www.sheppyware.net
                        (SHEPPY, 21136, GO COM A2)

<<<<<   Wasn't there an NDA that, when you ran your desktop program from
"""""   GNO/ME, would let you access the GNO command line?  If so, you
could always run under GNO/ME all the time and when in a desktop app, use
that NDA to access the GNO shell and use GSoft from there.

Just a thought.  I have no idea if this would actually work.  :)

 Jeff Blakeney |      Dean of the Apple II University in A2Pro      |
 --------------+----------------------------------------------------+
               |   HyperCard IIgs Course   |   GSoft BASIC Course   |
               |      now in session       |    starts March 8th    |
                       (JBLAKENEY, 21095, GO COM A2)


TIDBITS ON THE IIC+   A complete (that's subjective) and cosmetically
"""""""""""""""""""   preserved working //c+ will fetch $50 - $75, maybe
more depending on peripherals.
                        (SFAHEY, 20903, GO COM A2)

>>>>>   You're kidding. Somebody really paid $300 for a IIc+? That is
"""""   amazing. I hope they knew what they were getting.

IMHO (you get what you pay for, and that includes my opinions) a IIc+ plus
color monitor is worth about $30-50. And at that I would feel bound to make
sure that the prospective buyer understood what he was getting.

TomZ
                       (TOMZUSKI, 21106, GO COM A2)

>>>>>   Well Tom, I am soon to be in the market for a //c+. AFTER my
"""""   purchase of a friend's PB1400c. Why? With the PB1400c, Bernie to
the Rescue, the //c+, C-Vue screen, and a 5-1/4" drive; I figure I could
have ALL the bases covered as the Apple Librarian for my local User Group.

-and-

Avoid a Hernia...

- Fat Mike
                     (MBROUI11ETTE, 21160, GO COM A2)

>>>>>   At my local "Goodwill" store in Santa Ana, California, I recently
"""""   bought TWO Apple ][c+'s for $5.00 each.  Most of the people that
come into this computer store do not know what they are.  I like the Apple
][c+.  I have over the last two or three years found homes for the Apple
][c+'s with senior citizens that would like to get into using a computer.
With monitor and ImageWriter ][ and free tutoring, I sell this setup for
$80.00.

Apple used equipment is still useful to many people.

Mack Duncan
                      (MACKDUNCAN, 21215, GO COM A2)

>>>>>   The IIc+ might be more "common" than one might think. About two
"""""   years ago I was frequenting garage sales and managed to pick up 5
of these little gems. I paid in a range of $10-$40 depending on the extras.

I spoke with the people selling these computers and each of five sellers
said that they had gotten the computer "free" for opening an account at a
local bank (I imagine it was a year or two after the IIc+ came out). So, I
still haven't found anyone that "bought" one new.

Due to pressures of a new job and a wife that does not understand the
pleasure of collecting computers, I've had to taper off my purchases.
                        (JDKEIM, 21772, GO COM A2)



                              PUBLIC POSTINGS
                              """""""""""""""

NOW WHAT WAS THAT TABBS CD ROM AGAIN?   TABBS is an acronym for The Apple
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""   Bulletin Board System, the British
based BBS system that was operated for many years by none other than Sir
Ewen Wannop. That BBS, which is no longer in operation, was run to benefit
the members of several different Apple User Groups in the UK.

When the BBS was shut down, Ewen collected together every file that had
ever been uploaded to the BBS and/or made available for download. He then
added every user group library disk that had been distributed by those
British groups, and before he was finished, he also added all of the
monthly HyperStudio-based newsletters and Disk of the Months from the
British Apple IIGS User Group.

And, that's the TABBS CD-ROM.

With little fanfare, Ewen released the TABBS CD-ROM at Kfest '98, and it's
been available ever since from Shareware Solutions II, for $25, which
includes postage to anywhere.

Ewen himself refers to the TABBS CD-ROM as a historical collection. And
indeed it is, as it contains software and information collected over an 18
year period. And, because it consists of files that had been uploaded to a
BBS, most of the files are ShrinkIt archives.

TABBS consists of a single HFS partition, and in addition to the Apple II
and IIGS software, there's also some historical Mac and PC software that
had also been uploaded to the BBS.

Orders for the TABBS CD-ROM can be sent to:

 Shareware Solutions II
 166 Alpine St
 San Rafael, CA 94901

 Joe Kohn
 http://www.crl.com/~joko
                       (JOE_KOHN, 21066, GO COM A2)


SSII IN REVIEW   I was a little surprised to hear at the Monday night chat
""""""""""""""   that several folks had never heard of the LemminGS game.
For that reason, I've put together a listing of all the commercial software
available from Shareware Solutions II.

You can find many more details, including costs and ordering info, from the
Shareware Solutions II site at http://www.crl.com/~joko (or feel free to
ask about anything here).

- Shareware Solutions II is a 20 page Apple II newsletter that has been
  published since mid-1993.

- NiftySpell is an amazing and useful New Desk Accessory for the Apple
  IIGS that adds a spell checker to all standard GS/OS programs!!!

- The TABBS CD-ROM is a massive collection of Apple II software that was
  collected by the British-based Apple II BBS over a span of 18 years! The
  TABBS CD-ROM was compiled by Ewen Wannop, author of Spectrum.

- WebWorks GS is an HTML editor for the Apple IIGS written by Eric
  (Sheppy) Shepherd.

- The Golden Orchard CD-ROM for the Apple II computer is considered by
  many to be _the_ Apple II CD-ROM to have.

- Shifty List 2.0.2 is Eric Shepherd's wonderful GS/OS utility that gives
  you complete control over what Inits, DAs, Extensions, graphics and
  sounds will be loaded by GS/OS during a Shift-Boot.

- Harmonie is a set of GS/OS printer drivers that allow the use of HP
  DeskJet and LaserJet printers on an Apple IIGS.

- Pointless allows you to use TrueType fonts in GS/OS.

- Addressed For Success is a IIGS desktop-based mailing list and labeling
  program.

- CheckWorks provides a complete checking account system for use within
  AppleWorks Classic v3 - v5.1

- Script-Central was Resource-Central's HyperCard based newsletter on
  disk. All back issues available on 3.5" disk or CD-ROM.

- Studio City was Resource-Central's HyperStudio based newsletter on disk.
  All back issues available on 3.5" disk or CD-ROM.

- Contacts GS is a name and address database contained within a New Desk
  Accessory.

- Brutal Deluxe's Convert 3200 is the fastest IIGS graphics conversion
  program ever written for the IIGS. The source code is available.
  Included as a FREE bonus is "Brutal Deluxe's LemminGS," a truly wonderful
  game.

- Better Safe Than Sorry is a HyperCard IIGS based stack that teaches
  children about safety.
                       (JOE_KOHN, 21657, GO COM A2)


CROCK O' GOLD 3.0 HITS THE STREETS   As announced in the RTC last night:
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
 Crock O' Gold version 3.0
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 Major upgrade to the Delphi OLR for Spectrum
 Now fully compatible with Marinetti 2.0
 Improved message parsing speeds up message reading
 Improved handling of 'Next thread' function
 Improved 'Search' function
 Auto-extract for encoded mail files
 Compiled scripts for extra speed
 Many cosmetic changes to give a cleaner interface
 Option items are now in Hierarchic menus
 Many more custom options to tailor COG to your needs
 Powerful new 'Threads' feature to read individual messages
 Main and Alternate Forum option lists for flexible sessions
 Auto session abort if 'synchronising' fails
 Faster posting of mail and messages
 Improved manual abort of a running session
 Improved dialogs assist message creation
 Improved interface for 'attached' files
 Improved handling of 'Nicknames'
 Improved Address Book functions
 New 'Housekeeping' feature to handle archived files
 Powerful 'Search' feature of 'cleaned' files
 Support for 'Tagfiles' of any length
 New 'Log' file keeps a record of your sessions
 Auto monthly archiving of Billing and Log files
 Internal support for NiftySpell
 Installer optionally updates from an existing COG 2.x
 Many other improvements, which are all explained in the...
 Totally rewritten !Help! documentation

 COG3 requires Spectrum 2.2
 COG3 represents a quantum leap in your favourite OLR

 Download COG3 from Delphi or my Home pages:
 http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/ewannop/
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Watch out for its release later this week. If you have yet updated to
Spectrum 2.2, get your order to <sales@sevenhills.com> immediately...

 Ewen Wannop - Speccie - Tue 2 Mar 1999 - 141 days till KFest '99
 Delivered without using a IIgs by Spectrum 2.2 & Crock O' Gold 3.0
 Bernie ][ the Rescue 2.0 woofing on a PowerMac 8200/120
 http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/ewannop/
                        (EWANNOP, 20887, GO COM A2)


GSAIM UPDATE   gsAIM Updated to Version 1.1
""""""""""""
gsAIM, the Apple IIgs AOL Instant Messenger-compatible NDA, has been
updated to version 1.1! This $10 shareware desk accessory lets you carry on
up to 20 one-on-one conversations with friends or colleagues, right on your
Apple IIgs desktop. All you need is an AOL account or a free AIM account,
System 6.0.1, and Marinetti 2.0 (with a working connection to an ISP, of
course).

This new version of gsAIM fixes a couple of bugs (so more people should be
able to get connected) and supports "warnings." If someone sends you an
inappropriate message, you can now "warn" them. If they get warned too many
times, their account is closed. This innovative feature of AOL Instant
Messenger is one of the nicest things about it; it helps keep the wilder
element of the Web off your desktop by giving you the power to respond when
someone is out of line. Of course, you can be warned, too, and gsAIM 1.1
will tell you if it happens.

(This is of course a standard AIM feature; gsAIM just did not previously
provide access to it).

You can try a limited version of gsAIM -- without support for saving buddy
lists or your preferences -- by visiting
<http://www.sheppyware.net/software/gsAIM/>.

After you've tried it, just fill out the included registration form and
mail it in, or visit my online ordering page at
<http://order.kagi.com/?QGC> to pay the fee by credit card online.

Note to users that have already registered the software: your current
registration code is still valid, just replace the gsAIM NDA with the one
from this package.

If you have questions about gsAIM, don't hesitate to email me:
sheppy@sheppyware.net.

Eric "Sheppy" Shepherd
sheppy@sheppyware.net
http://www.sheppyware.net
                        (SHEPPY, 20937, GO COM A2)


IMAGEMAKER DEBUTS   Create Disk Image Files on the Apple IIgs!
"""""""""""""""""
The latest SheppyWare creation, ImageMaker 1.0, lets you create DiskCopy
4.2 and Universal Disk Image (also known as 2IMG or 2MG) files right on
your Apple IIgs. Simply select a disk to create an image of, and ImageMaker
will create the image file in the format of your choice. For the first
time, you can create standard disk images from your Apple IIgs disks
without using a Macintosh!

DiskCopy 4.2 supports floppy disk formats (800k and 1440k) only. Universal
Disk Image format can be used for any size disk, from floppies to hard
disks, in any GS/OS mountable format (including ProDOS and HFS both).

Both of these disk image formats can be mounted in emulators such as Bernie
][ the Rescue in Mac OS and Sweet16 in BeOS.

ImageMaker is shareware, and costs $5.00 in US currency. You can register
your copy by visiting <http://order.kagi.com/?QGC>. If you find this
software useful, please pay the shareware fee, to support my continuing
efforts at creating fine Apple II software.

Visit <http://www.sheppyware.net/software/imagemaker_gs/> for more
information and to download your copy.

Eric "Sheppy" Shepherd
sheppy@sheppyware.net
http://www.sheppyware.net
                        (SHEPPY, 20958, GO COM A2)


SPRINGTIME MAKES A MAN'S THOUGHTS TURN TO JUICED.GS   GreetinGS!
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
Let's see now. It's March, and the middle of the month is here. That means
a new issue of Juiced.GS should be arriving in subscriber mail boxes RSN.

Could that, in fact, be true?

YES! YES! YES!

The March '99 issue (Volume 4, Issue 1) was delivered to the printer on
Friday morning. The printer (bless their hearts) reported the job would be
finished on Monday. If, indeed, I am able to pick up the magazines Monday,
they will be prepared for mailing and dropped at the post office beginning
on Tuesday morning.

Goodness, Juiced.GS is darn near as reliable as the IIGS it supports. :-)

I'll report back on the status of the mailing process Monday or Tuesday.
Meanwhile, I think everyone is going to enjoy this issue. Our usual
contributors (and a few new ones) worked very hard preparing outstanding
material for this issue, and I'm real anxious to get their work into
subscribers' hands. I hope you all will enjoy reading it as much as I
enjoyed putting it together.


 Max Jones
 Juiced.GS
 http://www.wbwip.com/juiced.gs
                       (JUICEDGS, 21412, GO COM A2)

<<<<<   Announcing ...
"""""

=====  Juiced.GS, Volume 4, Issue 1  =====


The March 1999 edition of Juiced.GS, the Apple II world's premier
IIGS-specific magazine, is now in subscriber mail boxes.

This issue was mailed to 210 subscribers in 44 states and numerous points
around the globe.

Here's what you'll find in this issue:

============


FEATURES

Cover Story:  The Virtual GS ... Ryan Suenaga introduces you to the best
and most complete Apple IIGS emulator for the Power Macintosh, Bernie ][
The Rescue. This article traces the history of Bernie development gives
users a primer on using disk images to get the emulator up and
running.

Programming:  Delving deeper into GSoft BASIC ... Part 2 in our in-depth
tutorial from Eric "Sheppy" Shepherd on the latest, greatest BASIC
implementation for the GS. The author again offers advice and direction to
both beginners and advanced programmers who want to learn more about what
GSoft BASIC has to offer and how it performs its coding magic.

Hardware:  An Ethernet solution ... Geoff Weiss, better known co-author of
Spectrum Internet Suite, shares his experiences in getting his IIGS
connected to his home Ethernet network using Marinetti 2.0 (TCP/IP for the
IIGS) and an Internet router from Cisco Systems.


COLUMNS

Telecommunications:  Playing the "Shell" game, Part 2 ... Tony Ward
explains the fine points of reading Usenet newsgroups from the IIGS using
Unix newsreaders available from your Internet Service Provider's shell.

My Home Page:  Emulation expands our horizons ... A few thoughts from the
editor on the new issue of Juiced.GS and its interesting and informative
contents.

II Be Named Later:  Our columnist, Ryan Suenaga, goes retro with his '70s
computer.


DEPARTMENTS

Shareware Spotlight:  gsAIM, the Instant Messenger program for the IIGS and
Marinetti 2.0, is in the spotlight with a review from none other than Tony
Diaz, everybody's favorite Apple II technician for Alltech Electronics.

DumplinGS:  Lots of news from around the Apple II world, including details
about Kfest '99, the public domain release of ProSel 16 and ProSel 8, and
the upgrade of GSoft BASIC to Version 1.2.

Letters from the Land of Rom: Juiced.GS readers ask questions, get answers,
wax eloquently about the human condition and otherwise tell us what's on
their minds.

============

Juiced.GS is a quarterly, printed publication available by subscription
only.

A subscription for 1999 is $14 in the U.S., Canada or Mexico, $20
elsewhere.

SPECIAL OFFER:  Order a new 1999 subscription to Juiced.GS, and the get the
final issue of 1998 FREE!! This free issue ships with a disk containing the
free version of GSoft BASIC!

To subscribe, send a check or money order in U.S. funds to:

 Max Jones
 Juiced.GS
 2217 Lakeview Drive
 Sullivan, IN  47882

Make checks or money orders payable to Max Jones. Sorry, no credit cards or
purchase orders can be accepted.

Complete sets of 1996, 1997 and 1998 issues are available for $14 each ($20
overseas). If you would like to purchase only a specific single copy (or
copies) of back issues, they are available for $4 each ($6 overseas). An
index and brief description of articles published in '96/'97'98 are
available on the Juiced.GS web site. See URL below.

Apple II Forever!


 Max Jones
 Juiced.GS
 Delphi: JuicedGS -- Internet: juicedgs@delphi.com
 World Wide Web:  http://www.wbwip.com/juiced.gs
                       (JUICEDGS, 21736, GO COM A2)



                             BEST OF THE BEST
                             """"""""""""""""


21206 9-MAR 07:22  General Chatter
     RE: Humor? (Re: Msg 8492)
     From: MBROUI11ETTE To: ALL

Windows 98, Texas Edition

It has come to Microsoft's attention that a few copies of the Texas edition
of Windows 98 may have accidentally been shipped outside of Texas.  If you
have one of the Texas editions you may need some help understanding the
commands.

The Texas edition may be recognized by looking at the opening screen. It
reads WINDERS 98 with a background picture of the Alamo super-imposed on
the Texas flag.

It is shipped with a Leann Rimes screen saver.
Also note the Recycle Bin is labeled Outhouse.
My Computer is called This Infernal Contraption.
Dialup Networking is called Good Ol' Boys.
Control Panel is known as the Dern Dashboard.
Hard Drive is referred to as Wheel Drive.
Floppies are them little ole plastic disc thangs.

Other features:

Instead of a error message you get a winder covered with a garbage bag and
duct tape.

OK = ats awright.
Reset = aw shoot.
Yes = shore.
No = naw.
Find = hunt fer it.
Go to = over yonder.
Back = back yonder.
Help = hep me out here.
Stop = ternit off.
Start = crank it up.
Settings = settins.
Programs = stuff 'at does stuff.
Documents = stuff I done done.

Also note that Winders 98 does not recognize capital letters or punctuation
marks.

We regret any inconvenience it may have caused if you received a copy of
the Texas Edition.  You may return it to Microsoft for a replacement
version.




[EOA]
[A2P]------------------------------
                   A2Pro_DUCTIVITY |
-----------------------------------
Checking out A2PRO on Delphi
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
by Ryan M. Suenaga, B.A., M.S.W., L.S.W.
                [thelamp@sheppyware.net]


SHEPPY WRITES NEW APPLE II TECHNICAL NOTES--FILETYPES TO FOLLOW?   I've
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""   begun
writing some new technical notes for the Apple II. The first two are
available at http://www.sheppyware.net/ToolboxGS/ (follow the links to get
to each one).

They are:

#200: New Request Codes - documents new IPC codes created since Apple last
updated their documentation. Currently only one new code is documented;
others will be added as information becomes available.

#201: Identifying Emulators - covers identifying whether or not your
application is running on an emulator, and, if so, which one.

Eric "Sheppy" Shepherd
sheppy@sheppyware.net
http://www.sheppyware.net
                       (SHEPPY, 2504, GO COM A2PRO)

>>>>>   Cool. Mind if I mirror those on my site, or would you prefer if I
"""""   just include a link?

BTW, another much needed update would be a new list of file types to
replace the one in the current File Type Notes.

Mike Westerfield
                      (BYTEWORKS, 2505, GO COM A2PRO)

<<<<<   Go ahead and copy those to your site if you want, Mike, no problem.
"""""
I'm working on getting the latest file type information so I can do a
filetype note update; that will take a while to do some research.

If there are any issues that anyone knows need clarifying (either
documentation errata, new topics, recent discoveries, bugs, etc), let me
know and I can add more technical notes on these issues.

Eric "Sheppy" Shepherd
sheppy@sheppyware.net
http://www.sheppyware.net
                       (SHEPPY, 2507, GO COM A2PRO)

>>>>>   Sheppy... Do you want to just stick to Apple's codes here, or do
"""""   you want to add codes that other applications may send that could
be useful to other applications?

I am thinking of a bunch of useful ones that Spectrum puts out, and also
the one Twilight II responds to. There will be others...

 Ewen Wannop - Speccie - Tue 2 Mar 1999 - 141 days till KFest '99
 Delivered without using a IIgs by Spectrum 2.2 & Crock O' Gold 3.0
 Bernie ][ the Rescue 2.0 woofing on a PowerMac 8200/120
 http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/ewannop/
                       (EWANNOP, 2508, GO COM A2PRO)

>>>>>   When we asked for filetypes for Spectrum, we had to get them from
"""""   the official 'keeper of the types'. That person did seem to move
around a lot, but they should be within the Delphi home somewhere...

 Ewen Wannop - Speccie - Tue 2 Mar 1999 - 141 days till KFest '99
 Delivered without using a IIgs by Spectrum 2.2 & Crock O' Gold 3.0
 Bernie ][ the Rescue 2.0 woofing on a PowerMac 8200/120
 http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/ewannop/
                       (EWANNOP, 2509, GO COM A2PRO)

<<<<<   1. IPC codes
"""""
The first type documented is actually one we created for Marinetti apps to
use:

$3680 - askAnyoneOpenURL. This IPC code can be sent out to find someone to
process a string containing an URL. gsAIM will use it eventually, for
instance, when people double click links in received messages, so that FTP
NDAs or apps can work, SIS could follow links if gsAIM is in use while
running SIS, Spectrum could follow telnet:// links, and so forth.

The intent is to document any and all public IPC codes. However, this
particular note is intended for codes for general usage (ie, stuff that
would be both sent and received by any number of applications).

If you'd like to publicly document the Spectrum codes, send me the
information, and I'd be happy to write up a technical note covering them
for you.

2. File type database

I'm talking with Tim Tobin, the official holder of the database. A small
group has been set up to oversee allocation of things like filetypes,
resource types, and so forth. We're trying to get the databases for these
things out of the hands of one person and into a group environment which
can be more responsive (especially since Tim's so busy :).

Eric "Sheppy" Shepherd
sheppy@sheppyware.net
http://www.sheppyware.net
                       (SHEPPY, 2510, GO COM A2PRO)

>>>>>   There are quite a few of them, so I will need to go through and
"""""   extract only those that would be of direct interest to other
applications. For instance I used two of them to control the Desk Alarm NDA
while Spectrum is running.

> 2. File type database
> A small group has been set up to oversee allocation of things like
> filetypes

The Spectrum ones should be on file with them already, as we got official
types allocated some time ago. If not, then when the list has been sorted
out, I can give you the details.


 Ewen Wannop - Speccie - Wed 3 Mar 1999 - 140 days till KFest '99
 Delivered without using a IIgs by Spectrum 2.2 & Crock O' Gold 3.0
 Bernie ][ the Rescue 2.0 woofing on a PowerMac 8200/120
 http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/ewannop/
                       (EWANNOP, 2513, GO COM A2PRO)

<<<<<   I haven't seen the database yet, so I don't know, but I'm sure it's
"""""   fine.

Eric "Sheppy" Shepherd
sheppy@sheppyware.net
http://www.sheppyware.net
                       (SHEPPY, 2514, GO COM A2PRO)

>>>>>   Sheppy,
"""""
You may like to rip out the Express tech note which is included in the
Express Utility Pack, and I don't think there'd be a problem including the
GraphicWriter III technical reference either, although I'd have to double
check if you were interested in it.

Regards,
 Richard
                      (RICHARD_B, 2519, GO COM A2PRO)

>>>>>   I think he means the Express Utility disk that is available for
"""""   download from various places.  I have it here if it isn't available
elsewhere.

The only catch, which shouldn't be a problem for you, is that you have to
unshrink it onto an HFS partition.  Otherwise you have to rename most, if
not all, the files as you unpack them.

 Jeff Blakeney |      Dean of the Apple II University in A2Pro      |
 --------------+----------------------------------------------------+
               |   HyperCard IIgs Course   |   GSoft BASIC Course   |
               |      now in session       |    starts March 8th    |
                      (JBLAKENEY, 2524, GO COM A2PRO)

>>>>>   Two or 3 years ago I had exchanged a couple of E-mails with Tim
"""""   Tobin (I think it was him) about putting information about New
Print Shop file formats into the File Type Notes. I had obtained permission
from Broderbund to have the New Print Shop formats released in this
fashion. I sent him the format of several of those files, but I don't know
what he ever did with it. Maybe we can put that information into the File
Type Notes.

Gerry (the Applesoft-aholic)
gerrywright@delphi.com
                     (GERRYWRIGHT, 2530, GO COM A2PRO)

<<<<<   If you get me the information, I'll see to it.
"""""
Eric "Sheppy" Shepherd
sheppy@sheppyware.net
http://www.sheppyware.net
                       (SHEPPY, 2532, GO COM A2PRO)

>>>>>   Okay. I will gather the information I have. I think (I hope!) I
"""""   have it all in one place, so it should be fairly easy for me to put
together a package for you. I have formats for several, but not all the
data files for New Print Shop and Print Shop GS. I will shortly be figuring
out some of the ones I don't have, so I will send them to you as I get
them. If you wish, I can also send you information on the person I talked
to at Broderbund about releasing the file formats.

Since Broderbund considers the file formats to be proprietary, there are
some restrictions we must reserve. I only got permission from them to
release data formats for the Apple II version of New Print Shop and Print
Shop GS, so we cannot release data files for any other version of Print
Shop under this agreement. Also, the agreement only covers the data files,
not any source code or disassembly of the programs themselves. They can be
released as part of a collection of File Type Notes (say, in the Genie or
Delphi library), but I do not believe that I or anybody else has permission
to post them separately as messages on the Genie or Delphi forums, or on
csa2. I also believe that neither I nor anyone else has permission to
publish them separately in a magazine or newsletter. If you are becoming an
official distributor of File Type Notes, then you will be able to put them
on your web page as part of the File Type Notes. Others are not allowed to
post them separately on their web pages. I was given permission to
privately distribute the information to individuals via something like
E-mail, but I believe that others who wish to have that permission must
talk to Broderbund themselves.

It may be wise to put a disclaimer explaining these restrictions where the
formats distributed. That way, if someone redistributes the information in
a way that annoys Broderbund, we can claim that we warned them of the
restrictions and they misbehaved on their own. I don't expect Broderbund to
really care about this, but you never know. Best to make sure things are
done by the book on this end.
                     (GERRYWRIGHT, 2541, GO COM A2PRO)

<<<<<   Well, I'm creating a technote and file type note repository on
"""""   Syndicomm's behalf; they may eventually set up an official site for
them.

Remind me of the distribution restrictions when you provide the
information, so I don't forget. :)

Eric "Sheppy" Shepherd
sheppy@sheppyware.net
http://www.sheppyware.net
                       (SHEPPY, 2543, GO COM A2PRO)


SHEPPY REORGANIZES SHEPPYWARE TECH DOC REPOSITORY   I'm reorganizing my
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""   Apple II technical
documentation site today; files will be moved around. Don't panic; most of
the URLs will change, but the stuff is still there.

At some point today, the root level of my technical repository will move to
<http://www.sheppyware.net/tech/>. I'm working on getting the uppercase
letters out of these URLs; they're annoying. :)

Eric "Sheppy" Shepherd
sheppy@sheppyware.net
http://www.sheppyware.net
                       (SHEPPY, 2511, GO COM A2PRO)

<<<<<   The switch is made. My technical references page is now at
"""""   <http://www.sheppyware.net/tech/>.

Eric "Sheppy" Shepherd
sheppy@sheppyware.net
http://www.sheppyware.net
                       (SHEPPY, 2512, GO COM A2PRO)


TIDBITS ON THE GSOFT BASIC COURSE   For all of you in the Learn to Program
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""   in GSoft BASIC course, here's the
assignment I'd like you to complete before next Monday, which is our first
online meeting:

Read Lesson 1 of "Learn to Program in GSoft BASIC." Work the problems at
the end of the lesson.

In the first class, we'll cover how things will work and answer any
questions that come up when you're completing Lesson 1.

BTW, if you ordered the course by Friday, it's already in the mail and
should arrive before the weekend. If it doesn't arrive by this coming
Friday, let me know, and I'll send you a copy of Lesson 1 by e-mail.

See you on Monday the 8th!

Mike Westerfield
                      (BYTEWORKS, 2506, GO COM A2PRO)

>>>>>   Well, the first Learn to Program in GSoft BASIC chat took place on
"""""   Monday and I haven't seen anything posted since so I guess no one
is having any problems that weren't solved during the chat.  :-)

I have uploaded the first transcript but have a few questions to ask you
about how you would like to see future transcripts.

In the first transcript, I did very little editing.  Because I was late
getting to the chat, I used a capture of the chat that Sheppy was kind
enough to provide to me.  The only editing I did was to remove some private
messages that had been sent to Sheppy (don't worry Shep, there was nothing
incriminating :-) as well as the responses from a few commands that Sheppy,
as the moderator of the chat, saw.

Also, I moved a few lines around so that people's "thoughts" didn't get
broken up by other people's messages.  This happened quite a bit to Mike
Westerfield as he was trying to get lots of information across.  I simply
took these separate lines and made sure that they were contiguous in the
transcript so that it is easier to follow what someone is saying.

Now to the future.  In the current transcript, each line can be up to 80
characters long and ends in a carriage return so if someone typed something
that took two or three lines to display, it takes two or three lines in the
transcript as well.  Unfortunately, using a IIgs text viewer using certain
fonts, some of those single lines get word wrapped and this ends up making
the file look awful.  Kind of like this:

     .Mike> Hi guys. Sorry I'm so late, but my access seems slow. I
     actually started
     10 minutes ago. :)

This can be fixed if I make what each person says into a paragraph.  Would
this be something that people would fine useful?

Also along these lines, sometimes people type more than 255 characters
which ends up causing the last part of what they typed to appear as if it
was a second this that the person typed.  Kind of like this:

   .Jeff> All through my schooling I was constantly correcting my
     computer programming teachers. From high school through college.
     I learned to program by reading a text on Waterloo Structured
     BASIC before there was even a high sc
   .Jeff> hool course I could take. :)

This can be fixed by just deleting the second instance of the name and
appending the extra text to the previous text.  This would work well in
conjunction with the paragraph fix above and would have the added benefit
of grouping the large sections of Mike's messages (at one point there is
ten messages in a row from him) into nice easy to read paragraphs with
Mike's name at the beginning once and not appearing multiple times.  :-)

Let me know what you think and also let me know of anything else that could
be done to improve the transcripts.

By the way, I'll do my best to make sure these transcripts are available by
Thursday of each week from now on.

 Jeff Blakeney |      Dean of the Apple II University in A2Pro      |
 --------------+----------------------------------------------------+
   sent via    |   HyperCard IIgs Course   |   GSoft BASIC Course   |
   COG v3.0    |      now in session       |     now in session     |
                      (JBLAKENEY, 2545, GO COM A2PRO)

>>>>>   Just a reminder and to make sure that everyone has the correct
"""""   information about the GSoft BASIC course as some of you may have
come across some conflicting information.  I would have had this posted
yesterday but something was wrong with my net account.

COURSE:

     Learn to Program in GSoft BASIC

REQUIREMENTS:

     1) A Delphi account of any type, including the free web based
        accounts.
     2) A copy of GSoft BASIC, either the free version or the
        commercial version.
     3) A copy of the Learn to Program in GSoft BASIC text.

     The text and programming language are available from the Byte
     Works.  Information, the free version of GSoft BASIC and
     ordering info for the commercial version of GSoft BASIC is
     available from the Byte Works web page at:

          http://www.hypermall.com/byteworks

WHERE:

     The conference (chat) area of the Apple II Programmer's Forum on
     Delphi.  For information about how to access the conference area
     of A2Pro, read message 2495 in the A2Pro forum.  For those with
     web access, you can read this message by using the following URL:

     http://forums.delphi.com/m/main.asp?sigdir=a2pro&page=1&mid=2495

WHEN:

     The conferences will take place starting at 9 pm Eastern.  That
     is 8 pm Central, 7 pm Mountain and 6 pm Pacific.  The conferences
     will last approximately two hours.

 Jeff Blakeney |      Dean of the Apple II University in A2Pro      |
 --------------+----------------------------------------------------+
               |   HyperCard IIgs Course   |   GSoft BASIC Course   |
               |      now in session       |    starts March 8th    |
                      (JBLAKENEY, 2517, GO COM A2PRO)

>>>>>   Of course, I would have to go and forget to put the date but at
"""""   least it was in my signature.  :-)

For those who didn't read my signature, the course starts on Monday, March
8th and will continue weekly after that.

Check out the Apple II University web page if you want all the details:

     http://www.delphi.com/a2pro/

then click the A2 University link.

Oh, and if you are going to be taking the course, why not post a reply to
message 2491 to let everyone know.

See you Monday.

 Jeff Blakeney |      Dean of the Apple II University in A2Pro      |
 --------------+----------------------------------------------------+
               |   HyperCard IIgs Course   |   GSoft BASIC Course   |
               |      now in session       |    starts March 8th    |
                      (JBLAKENEY, 2523, GO COM A2PRO)

>>>>>   It is in the A2 University database and on the A2 University
"""""   download page.

To use the A2Pro database you need a paid account and you need to connect
using telnet, sprintnet or direct dial.  Once you are connected you can
type "GO COM A2PROp dat a2" without the quotes to get to the A2 University
database in the A2Pro forum.  Then type "read" and you should get the first
transcript listed.  At the next prompt you can type "down" to download it
by following the next few prompts or you can press return to get the
description of the next file and have the same options again.

Just experiment.  If you go past a file you wanted just type "exit" and
then (if memory serves me) type "dat a2" to get back to the first file in
the list.  There are other commands too and you can get help by typing
"help".

If you don't want to bother with all that, just point your web browser to:

     http://www.delphi.com/a2pro

On the left side of this page is the navigation bar.  Click the A2
University link and on the A2 University page, find the A2 University
Download Page link and click it.  (I still need to put this link in a
better place to make it easier to find.)

Once on the Download Page, scroll down to the Learn to Program in GSoft
BASIC Transcripts section and click on the transcript(s) you are interested
in.  The transcripts are being made available as a standard Apple II text
file (lines ending in carriage return) that has been compressed with
ShrinkIt and put in a Binary II wrapper (*.BXY) and as a standard PC text
file (*.TXT) (lines ending in carriage return/line feed) so web browsers
can view it directly while online or you can save it to disk and strip the
line feeds later if needed.

I hope this helps.  Look for the second transcript to be made available on
Thursday.

 Jeff Blakeney |      Dean of the Apple II University in A2Pro      |
 --------------+----------------------------------------------------+
   sent via    |   HyperCard IIgs Course   |   GSoft BASIC Course   |
   COG v3.0    |      now in session       |     now in session     |
                      (JBLAKENEY, 2548, GO COM A2PRO)


HOW TO LOAD A FILE INTO A DEREFERENCED HANDLE   Just skip the dialog box
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""   step and go straight to the
opening, reading, and closing of the file. You don't have to use Standard
File to get a filename, just hard-code it in your program.

Eric "Sheppy" Shepherd
sheppy@sheppyware.net
http://www.sheppyware.net
                       (SHEPPY, 2556, GO COM A2PRO)


IF ANYONE CAN MOUNT DISK IMAGES UNDER GS/OS. . .   Actually, Harold, I
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""   think I've figured a way
to do disk images on the Apple IIgs. ie. Be able to mount them under GS/OS.

I know we discussed this many years ago, but I think I may have found a
solution.

When my IIgs gets back online, I might give it a go. Would anybody be
interested in such a utility?

Regards,
 Richard
                      (RICHARD_B, 2518, GO COM A2PRO)

>>>>>   Heck yeah. :)
"""""
Eric "Sheppy" Shepherd
sheppy@sheppyware.net
http://www.sheppyware.net
                       (SHEPPY, 2521, GO COM A2PRO)

>>>>>   You bet.
"""""
-
 Ryan M. Suenaga, M.S.W., L.S.W.  --  rsuenaga@apple2.org
 Editor and Publisher, _The Lamp!_, published monthly on Delphi
 Posted by PTMM v2.5 - The integrated information solution
                      (RSUENAGA, 2522, GO COM A2PRO)

>>>>>   yes please!
"""""
Kevin Noonan
gswombat@delphi.com
                      (GSWOMBAT, 2528, GO COM A2PRO)


Yes, this would be fantastic!

Paul.

Paul Schultz
schultp@delphi.com
sent your way via Spectrum 2.2 and Crock O' Gold 2.6
                       (SCHULTP, 2531, GO COM A2PRO)




[EOA]
[IBE]------------------------------
             IT'S BEEN EDUCATIONAL |
-----------------------------------
Assisted Devices
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
by Tee Cashmore (TeeC in Delphi A2)
               [teec@execulink.com]

                             ASSISTED DEVICES
                             ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

     What are "Assisted Devices"?  Everyone here with a computer uses one,
probably a mouse or track ball.  If you're lucky and rich enough, maybe you
have a newer laptop, in which case you probably use the built in figure
pad.  Accountants like separate numeric keypads.

     This may not seem like a topic for everyone, but wait until you get
older and your fine motor skills start to wane, or perhaps, God forbid, you
get into an accident and find that you can no longer control your right
hand; same in reverse for lefties.  My clients tend to have somewhat severe
deficiencies, such as Cerebral Palsy, head injuries of various types and
degrees, Muscular Dystrophy, Post Polio Syndrome and Parkinson's, to name
the more common ones.

     Cerebral Palsy users mostly have to have a special keyboard, such as a
"Bliss" board. The keyboard is about 3-4 times as large, the keys are quite
large and can be programmed to input words and commands, rather than
letters.  Severe cases may have to have headbands that control input onto a
special screen by means of a tough probe, if they are lucky enough to still
have control of their head movements.

     In head injury cases we tend to try to use regular keyboards, but the
software is specially designed to reteach the brain to learn commands, so
the software becomes the assisted device.  Some have to use the devices I
have already mentioned.

     Muscular Dystrophy patients generally use similar devices to the
Cerebral Palsy ones, but the degree of the disease affects everyone
differently, so it all depends on what skills they have left, or skills
that can be relearned.

     Some Post Polio cases have recently found an increasing problem.  Many
people who had Polio years ago, often as children, are suddenly finding
that the disease has returned after years of having no symptoms.  One of my
clients in his late seventies has great difficulty controlling his finger
movements.  Every time I see him there are many empty folders on the
desktop, simply because a finger hit the wrong key by mistake.  He has
found that his PowerBook's pad is a godsend, as he can control his finger
if he puts pressure on it, but he can't control the pressure on a mouse and
therefore the pad became an assisted device!

     Many people with Parkinson's may find that the pad is their salvation
too.

     Personally, I use a "Little Mouse" and have found it a useful device
for many of my clients, especially those with limited arm movement, or
Arthritis, as the pad is much smaller and the pointer is controlled by a
laser beam.  The mouse rides very smoothly on a metallic pad and I can
reach from one side of the screen to the other in about 7-10 cm (3-4
inches).  I don't have a disability that I know of, but I really like my
"Little" mouse.

     Talking computers and computers that answer to spoken commands are
also examples of assisted devices and have been around since the early
80's.

     You may be interested in the history of all of these devices,
including the numeric keypad.  Back in the days of Apple II's, the
advantage was that the 7 slots allowed for numerous cards to control
devices and many different aids were produced, mostly by 3rd party
manufacturers, to work on an Apple //e, and later a IIgs's.  There are
thousands, if not millions of Apple II's still in use in American schools
and hospitals, nobody seems to know how many in Canada, but it is certainly
in the thousands.  An Assisted Device Card to control special keyboards
still retails for $750, the Bliss board for another $750.  Applied
Engineering of Texas made an excellent speech card, which is still in use
in many therapy areas and I installed one 3 years ago in a IIgs at a
hospital speech therapy clinic in Sarnia.

     This is just a quick overview of computer assisted devices, but if
you use an Apple II, 10-1 you are using one.



         :: DISCUSSED ON DELPHI ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
         :                                                       :
         :       Double your drive space!  Delete Windows!       :
         :                                                       :
         ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: LUMITECH ::::::



[EOA]
[INN]------------------------------
                     EXTRA INNINGS |
-----------------------------------
About The Lamp!   The Lamp! is published on the fifteenth of every month in
"""""""""""""""   the Database of the II Scribe Forum on the Delphi online
service (GO CUS 11).

This publication produced entirely with real or emulated Apple II computers
using Appleworks 5.1 and Hermes.  Apple II Forever!

     * The Lamp! is (c) copyright 1999 by Ryan M. Suenaga, M.S.W.  All
       rights reserved.

     * To reach The Lamp! on Internet email send mail to
       thelamp@sheppyware.net

     * Back issues of The Lamp! are available in the II Scribe Forum on
       Delphi as well as The Lamp! Home Page,
       http://lamp.sheppyware.net.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Opinions expressed herein are those of  the individual authors, and do  not
necessarily  represent  the  opinions   of  the  Delphi  Online   Services,
Syndicomm, Inc.,  or  Ryan M.  Suenaga.     Forum  messages  are  reprinted
verbatim and  are included  in this  publication with  permission from  the
individual authors.   Delphi Online Services,  Syndicomm, Inc. and  Ryan M.
Suenaga  do not guarantee  the accuracy or  suitability of any  information
included herein.  We reserve the right to edit all letters and copy.

Material published  in  this  edition  may not  be  reprinted  without  the
expressed  written consent  of the  publisher.   Registered  computer  user
groups, not  for profit  publications ,  and other  interested parties  may
write the publisher to apply for permission to reprint any or all material.
<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<



[EOF]

