[Info-vax] OT: About Digital and divisions

[Neil Rieck]

On Nov 24, 12:19 pm, JF Mezei <jfmezei.spam... at vaxination.ca> wrote:
> Neil Rieck wrote:

>
> I had never heard of Apple II compatible machines. In fact, even the
> diskettes were proprietary because Woz had devices his own way to dump
> data to them.
>
Up until now, I was under the impression that you, too, started out as
an 8-bit Apple user.

Apple floppy drives would accept any 5 1/4 inch media and could read
foreign formats (with special software). DOS 3.x could reformat any
disk from any manufacturer for so-called native Apple use. (I remember
needing to buy preformatted RX01 media from DEC at this same time)

The main difference between DOS 3.2 and 3.3 was a modified byte-to-
nibble mapping in order to increase the number of sectors written to
disk. In those days, economy minded programmers (me) would routinely
reformat a floppy disk to increase the number of usable tracks from 35
to 40 or remove DOS from the first three tracks (so you would end up
with 43). How did copy protection work? Game manufacturers would
routinely format, then use, areas normally considered to be "between
tracks" (this was called half-tracking). Vanilla disk copying programs
would see these disks as defective (unreadable) but programs like
Locksmith could be used to analyze a disk to find various weirdness.

People wishing to learn more about this ancient technology should
locate a copy of "Beneath Apple DOS" on eBay. They are cheap and
ubiquitous. "Beneath Apple ProDOS" is just as useful.

People wanting to learn more about the Apple ][ family should check
out this Wikipedia article.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_II_family

I still own an Apple //e Platinum edition with Z80 Softcard.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_//e
(scroll down to see picture)

Last year I learned there were companies still producing new adapter
technology for Apple ][. This company:
http://www.bootzero.com/
makes an adapter which enables the connection of an IDE (PC) Harddisk.

###

Two years ago I met WOZ at a breakfast sponsored by RIM in Waterloo,
Ontario. The planners initially expected 80 people but they had to
move the venue several times as the number of RSVP responses soared to
700. Lots of engineering nerds showed up with stuff for him autograph
like "Macintosh Mice", etc. I brought along my copy of his book "iWoz"
and will always remember the look on his face when he asked me how to
sign it and I replied "to: 8-bit forever. Woz"

NSR