Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!apple!agate!ucbvax!msdsws.enet.dec.com!secrist
From: secrist@msdsws.enet.dec.com ("Richard C. Secrist")
Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple
Subject: RE: Hmm...
Message-ID: <8907121655.AA02954@decwrl.dec.com>
Date: 12 Jul 89 16:55:17 GMT
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Organization: The Internet
Lines: 46


 ;	o Is it possible to use an Apple ][e without a disk card in  slot
 ;	6?   Without a disk card at all?  (I have a //c, so I've never been
 ;	able to try :)...) If  so,  can it  be  "booted"  from  another
 ;	computer...  say a Vax or another Apple?

Yes, it simply boots into Applesoft BASIC, where you can use cassette
for I/O.  Of course if you burned your own ROMs it could boot into
something else.  The only alternative ROM product I know about is FORTH
ROMs for a ][, ][+ (not //e,etal.).  If you had some of alternative
code stuck in a ROM at the disk card place you could boot into anything
you wanted like a LAN or something.  If you still wanted ProDOS though
this would get sticky booting it after you downline loaded it, and then
you'd have to have a net driver for it -- and you'd have to do all this
without tramping on ProDOS in RAM, and not use his zero page locations,
and so on... all this before you write the driver to use the net as a disk.
Most schemes have a local disk to boot with and then share a central hard
disk elesewhere for the big files.  Check out the Apple SchoolBus for
ideas, perhaps.

 ;	o Hows does an Apple ][e  deal  with  slots,  anyway?   As  extra
 ;	memory              locations?               As              just
 ;	something-to-throw-data-at-with-firmware?

The slots are reserved places in the memory map at $Cn00, where 'n' is
the slot number.  User space runs through like $BFFF, and backwards from
that are generally O/S buffers and what not.  Firmware kicks in at $D000
through $FFFF, and then you're out of memory (so you bank switch).  The
//gs layered some kind of brain damage on beyond that.

 ;	 
 ;	o In my //c tech manual it lists some differences between the //c
 ;	and  the  earlier models.  The //c doesn't have an "internal game
 ;	I/O connectory (hence no game output)." Game output?   Internally
 ;	controlled  switches  for  blinking  lights  or  some-such gizmo?
 ;	Anyone have any details on this?

There is a 14-pin (16?) DIP socket in real ][s with annunciator ports
that can be used to control gizmos -- the 9-pin on a //c is only a subset
of reality.  A friend of mine built a lights, swicthes, and joystick box
that could be run off the port, turning on and off LEDs with peeks and
pokes.  Details are in the //e ref. manual, and the old, old red Apple
manual that came with Rev. 0 Apple ][s (you could bit bang a slow serial
line off of one, for example.

rcs