Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!iuvax!purdue!mentor.cc.purdue.edu!mace.cc.purdue.edu!asd
From: asd@mace.cc.purdue.edu (Kareth)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple
Subject: Re: System Disk 5.0 documentation
Message-ID: <2778@mace.cc.purdue.edu>
Date: 25 Jul 89 05:45:17 GMT
References: <8907230934.AA15695@crash.cts.com> <33446@apple.Apple.COM>
Organization: Purdue University Computing Center
Lines: 47

In article <33446@apple.Apple.COM> dlyons@Apple.COM (David Lyons) writes:

>In article <8907230934.AA15695@crash.cts.com> pnet01!pro-nsfmat!pro-pac!tsouth@nosc.mil writes:
>>Not to belittle the documentation staff at Apple, but are we to expect the
>>same type of documentation for the release 5.0 as was published in the 4.0
>>package?  It really was annoying to pay $40 something dollars for a finder
>>tutorial.  I would appreciate information on the file-types and drivers,
>>even if the hard technical (machine-level) specs are printed somewhere else,
>>such as in a programmer's reference.

>>Todd South

>The documentation you can buy from your dealer is Finder-tutorial sort of
>stuff.  If anybody told you you'd get developer-level documentation from
>your dealer, they were wrong.

I don't think Todd is looking for developer-level stuff.  I think he is
looking for a System Disk manual which is odd because I just checked (to make
sure) and the "manual" I have for 4.0 says:

Apple IIgs System Disk
User's Guide.

Yeah, right.  It should read, "Apple IIgs System Disk: Finder Tutorial."  The
only thing relevant to the the system disk I found was the pamplet describing
the Installer.  I blitzed through the "User's Guide" once so I knew for sure
what I was doing with the Finder, but I was EXTREMELY disappointed.  The guide
had NOTHING to do with the system disk.  I believe it mentions GS/OS once or
possible twice.

I think what Todd, I and probably lots of over folks are looking for is a
short guide to the system disk.  What directories are for what (like
/sysdisk/system/*), what do certain types of files do in general, what is
necessary and what isn't, where should we place things (like CDA's, NDA's,
Fonts, etc), do they have to be there or can they be someplace else, what are
icon files used for, where do they go (I spent a lot of time guessing around
to figure out exactly where to put icon files), and stuff like that.  Nothing
complex, just a simple guide to what the system disk is all about.  I figure
it wouldn't even have to be any bigger than the docs that were sent out for
the Installer program.  And it'd sure help out new users who might not have
any idea about anything about the system disk.  I'm hardly a neophyte to
Apple's, my family still has our old II+ back home, but I still get a bit lost
trying to figure out or understand what everything in the system disk is
about.  It'd be nice to understand, or at least know what all is going into
the running of all this nice GS/OS stuff, the basics of it that is.

-kareth.