Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!dg!mystie.webo.dg.com!dave From: dave@mystie.webo.dg.com (David Kopper) Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple2 Subject: Frequently Asked Questions of comp.sys.apple2 (and answers) Keywords: FAQ Message-ID: <1224@dg.dg.com> Date: 17 Dec 90 22:01:33 GMT Sender: root@dg.dg.com Reply-To: dave@mystie.webo.dg.com (David Kopper) Organization: Data General Corporation, Westboro, MA Lines: 1313 (Pnews got me again... lets try posting this once more...) [Last edited on December 17, 1990] I would like to thank Larry W. Virden for his help with this document. ======================================================================== Hi! Welcome to the comp.sys.apple2 newsgroup! This article contains the answers to some Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) often seen in comp.sys.apple2. I am posting this article (once every three weeks or so) to help reduce the volume in this newsgroup and to provide hard-to-find information of general interest. I hope it answers some of your questions. Table of Contents: * What is comp.sys.apple2? What is INFO-APPLE? * What are the comp.binaries.apple2 and comp.sources.apple2 newsgroups? * What is BinSCII? What is Shrinkit? + What is a .Z, .bsq or .shk file? (some common filename extensions) * What is Kermit? * What is the current system disk? * What Apple II magazines are there? * What are technotes? What is FTP? What is BITFTP? * What are the Apple II FTP sites? * What is APPLE2-L? * What is APDA? * What is Executioner? + Recent Apple Computer Announcements and Changes * Future questions for the FAQ * Editors Notes + indicates questions new to this article * indicates questions/answers with changes of content since the last issue ======================================================================== Subject: What is comp.sys.apple2? What is INFO-APPLE? Comp.sys.apple2 is a Usenet newsgroup that was created for the discussion of the Apple II series of computers. This forum provides a way for interested people to compare notes, ask questions, and share insights about Apple IIs. It works by users posting a message via specialized software to a local file on their system, and that message being passed along to all of the 30,000+ other systems around the world that share Usenet files. INFO-APPLE is a mailing list that is maintained on some networks other than Usenet. Comp.sys.apple2 messages are sent to INFO-APPLE and INFO-APPLE messages are sent to comp.sys.apple2. The central location of INFO-APPLE is at apple.com Thank you, Apple Computer! I believe that the same kind of thing is being done for ProLine. Could someone please fill me in on some details? Does anyone know of other folks doing the same thing for other networks? On BITNET, LISTSERVers are available to distribute the mail messages. It works by maintaining a list of users who wish to see the messages in their mailbox. To subscribe (or (sadly) unsubscribe): send your request to info-apple-request@apple.com . Please do not send subscription requests to info-apple@apple.com!!!! To post a message to the thousands of readers of INFO-APPLE (and comp.sys.apple2) subscribers send their messages to INFO-APPLE@apple.com . There is no need for comp.sys.apple2 users to do this - they can use the standard posting features of Usenet. There is no need to subscribe to INFO-APPLE when you are getting comp.sys.apple2, since the messages are identical. Posting commercial/advertising is not only discouraged, it is not allowed under the rules of the Internet portion of the group. Since comp.sys.apple2 and info-apple are linked, commercial messages should not be sent on either of them. Instead, Usenet users can post their needs to misc.forsale.compute misc.forsale, or misc.wanted. Does anyone know what the Internet and BITNET folks are supposed to do? ======================================================================== Subject: What are the comp.binaries.apple2 and comp.sources.apple2 groups? Comp.binaries.apple2 is a newsgroup used to distribute public domain, freeware, and shareware Apple II software (executables, pictures, sounds, etc...). Software distributed on comp.binaries.apple2 is expected to be a BinSCII text file of Shrinkit archives. Comp.sources.apple2 is a newsgroup used to distribute public domain, freeware, and shareware Apple II source code. There are guidelines on the format in the comp.sources.apple2 newsgroup. Contact jac@paul.rutgers.edu for details. Discussions concerning the software posted in these groups, or the methods of accessing this software, or the archiving of this software, or any OTHER discussions that you could possibly dream of (and in fact many discussions that you would NEVER dream of seeing!) are to be held in comp.sys.apple2 . NO DISCUSSIONS, QUESTIONS, PLEAS FOR HELP, DISGRUNTLED OBJECTIONS, OR OTHER NON-RELATED MESSAGES ARE TO GO TO THESE GROUPS. Note: Distributing commercial software is a crime - just don't do it! ======================================================================== Subject: What is BinSCII? This is a program which takes an Apple file and converts it to a format suitable for transfer via email or 7 bit file transfer. The output is not self contained - one must use BinSCII on the receiving end to convert the file back into usable format. Advantages of BinSCII are that the files tend to be smaller (than the same file ran through Executioner, a similar program), and the conversion back into binary can be done without having to strip off mail headings, converting line feeds to carriage returns or executing a binary program that may not be a text decoding program. BinSCII also will break up your file into smaller pieces and is able to put the pieces back together without the user having to be careful what order he does things. Note 1: BinSCII does not keep track of what parts of what files you have and have not already decoded. This is a future enhancement. In the meantime, either watch that every segment is decoded, or use sciibin -v (show info only) to examine the text file before downloading and decoding. Note 2: Programs such as ShrinkIt do not currently know how to decode BinSCII. Use an un-BinSCII-ing program before attempting to extract the pieces. The current version of BinSCII is 1.0.3. The user interface isn't very pretty, but it's being worked on. Version 1.1 will be revamped and will support future enhancements pending in 2.0. Version 2.0 will change the encoding format drastically, making BinSCII portable to other systems. Encoded files will be interchangeable between any two implementations of BinSCII (for example: encode a file under Unix and decode the file on a Macintosh). When version 2.0 is available, its sources will be distributed (written in C). BinSCII was written by Dave Whitney of Zlink fame. Sub-Subject: Where can I get a copy of BinSCII? BinSCII is available via ftp from tybalt.caltech.edu (or any of the ftp sites listed later). BinSCII is occasionally posted to comp.binaries.apple2. One more place to find BinSCII is on the APPLE2-L listserver (file Apple2-L 89-01123). Todd Whitesel has re-encoded version 1.0.3 in a self-saving method similar to Executioner but more reliable. Grab that version (on tybalt) first and then you can easily decode future updates (which will be posted in both Executioner and BinSCII 1.0 formats). Sub-Subject: "Shrinkit won't do anything with the file I just spent X hours downloading. Why not?" If you have a text file in your hands that has some lines resembling: FiLeStArTfIlEsTaRt ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZabcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz0123456789() GBINSCII AQhmAAAAA8)4MIAI02DA9ARMQEDtAQhmAIVZ gYITA6u7xADA0MjM3YTNBlDOENkQwYURzITM2UDN5gzNDJUQGVERyEDM1QzM4cjN CFUOFR0QxAjR0MjM3YTNBlDOENkQwAQRzITM2UDN5gzNDJUQGVERyEDM1QzM4cjN .. then you've got something encoded by BinSCII. You must decode *all* the parts using BinSCII before attempting to extract using Shrinkit. On the other hand, if you have a file which resembles: start 666 nonsense.bny M4W5N3U,@4F5L96%S92 T+C$@*%-$4U0V,"D@(S@Z(%1U92!/8W0@.2 Q,CHS M...3HT.2!%1%0@,3DY, HT and more lines like that, followed by an: end then you have a uuencoded file. This is going to be tougher to decode. See the Apple II archives for at least one Apple IIgs uudecoder program. On the third hand, if you have a file which resembles: (This file must be converted with BinHex 4.0) :$&4)48C28N0&,P0*9!"6593K8dP8)3%!!!#L@!!!!!!Qie0*9#%!!3!!SPKb6'& e!3!!!!!!!!!#!!P8D'8J4QpbBf9P)IN33)(4$N#"d4K!JG%S!!!!!`!'VfJ!"VP then you have a BinHex file. This is going to be much tougher to decode. I don't know of a BinHex decoder for any Apple II. You will probably have to use a macintosh program to do the decoding (StuffIt, possibly BinHex). I believe there is a Unix implementation of BinHex called mcvert, but don't have the details here. Sub-Subject: Is there a Unix version of BinSCII? SciiBin is a C implementation of a BinSCII decoder. It works well under most Unix or Unix-like operating systems, AOS/VS and MSDOS. Note: SciiBin can only decode a BinSCII file! It cannot encode a binary file into BinSCII format. SciiBin version 1.10 was written by Marcel J.E. Mol. Version 1.20 had several corrections by Dave Whitney. The current version is 1.30 by Bruce Kahn. This version corrected a fair number of bugs and was a port to AOS/VS (where byte pointers are different than word pointers) and MSDOS (under Microsoft C v5.1). ======================================================================== Subject: What is Shrinkit? This is a program which takes one or more Apple II ProDOS files and 'archives' them into a NuFX archive. ShrinkIt typically shrinks the members of the NuFX archive with variations of the LZW (Lev-Zimpel-Welch) compression algorithm. Shrinkit has many options, such as whole disk compression, disk formatting, displaying text files, etc. Shrinkit also has the ability to extract BLU files members - more on BLU in a couple of questions. The current revision number of Shrinkit is 3.0.3. The IIgs version of Shrinkit is named GShk (the current version number is 1.0.3). GShk can do all that Shrinkit can do and more. Some of the additions are the ability to unarchive different archive types (Unix compress, PC Arc, Mac StuffIt) and the ability to create/extract Apple Single files - this is becoming more significant as resources are being used more frequently in IIgs software. GShk requires System Disk 5.0 . For specialized extractions, more than 1 meg of memory may be required. Shrinkit+ and UnShrinkit+ are two programs for the Apple II+. Shrinkit, GShk, Shrinkit+ and UnShrinkit+ were written by Andy Nicholas . Sub-Subject: What is nulib? Nulib is a C implementation of Shrinkit 1.0.2. It also works very well under most Unix or Unix-like operating systems. Nulib was written by Andy McFadden . Sub-Subject: What is BLU? BLU is the predecessor of Shrinkit. The goal of BLU was to take one or more Apple II ProDOS files and 'archive' them into a single Apple II file, maintaining the ProDOS file type information. It could perform a Huffman compression on the individual pieces if the user so desired. The resulting files were named Bunny files (.BNY). BLU files that were compressed were .BQY files. The current use of BLU is in telecommunications, where the filetype information is preserved. This is why you can find archives that are Shrinkit (or NuFX) archives wrapped in a BLU header. BLU was written by Floyd Zink, Jr., of Tex fame. ======================================================================== Subject: What is a .Z, .bsq or .shk file? (some common filename extensions) Filename extensions are simply the addition of more characters to the end of a filename (thus the extension). An example could be FRED.SHK. 'FRED' is the base filename. '.SHK' is a filename extension that happens to indicate that the file is probably a NuFX archive and you will need to run ShrinkIt to determine/extract its contents. Sometimes you will find multiple filename extensions, simply take the filename extensions apart one at a time and you should be able to reconstruct the original file. The following is a table of some of the filename extensions that you may encounter during your trips to Apple II ftp sites: Extension What does it usually mean --------- ---------------------------------------------------- .SHK The file is usually a NuFX archive created by ShrinkIt. Use ShrinkIt to extract the files. .BSQ This is usually a BinSCII'ized ShrinkIt file. Use BinSCII to extract a NuFX archive, then use ShrinkIt to extract the files. .BNY This is usually a BLU archive file. ShrinkIt can be used to extract its contents. These were previously referred to as Bunny files. .BNX This is a BLU wrapped ShrinkIt archive. Use ShrinkIt to extract the files (it will automatically go past the BLU header to extract the NuFX archived files). Note: This filename extension is found on GEnie. .EXE The file is usually the output of Executioner. To extract the file, simply 'EXEC' it from Basic Note: You may need to use DOS 3.3... it depends on the file you are extracting (sometimes they will contain a note which will tell you). .Z The file was compressed with the Unix compress command (LZW compression). Use the uncompress command to get the file. Alternatives include using GSHK (GS ShrinkIt) to uncompress or the APW/ORCA UNCOMPRESS utility (available at ftp sites). .tar The file is a Tape ARchive created under Unix. Use tar to extract the files (tar xvf filename) or if you don't have to extract the files, simply run them through another program. .tar.Z The file is a combination of the previous two items. You would need to uncompress the file, then use tar to extract the members. I have found ShrinkIt archives as BinSCII files in a tar archive that was compressed. Seems strange, but you may find a XXX.BSQ.tar.Z file somewhere. Good luck in your file decoding! ======================================================================== Subject: What is Kermit? Kermit itself is a file transfer protocol invented by Frank DeCruz of Columbia University. Typically in this group when one talks about kermit, they are talking about a program which supports the kermit protocol. There is at least one commercial program which supports kermit - ProTerm. But many folks are using Ted Medin's Kermit 3 (currently 3.86), a freely distributable version of a telecommunication program which supports kermit, xmodem, vt100 emulation, and many Apple II configurations. Kermit was written by Ted Medin The latest official version of kermit is available from Columbia University via electronic mail or ftp. Send electronic mail to KERMSERV@CUVMA.BITNET, a one line message of HELP will get you started. For FTP users, the site is watsun.cc.columbia.edu (128.59.39.2) and the Apple II files reside in the kermit/a directory. ======================================================================== Subject: What is the current system disk? Current Revision Disk name Number ------------------------ -------- DOS System Master ...... 3.3 All Apple IIs ProDOS 8 system disk ... 3.2 All Apple IIs with 64k or more IIgs System Disk ....... 5.0.3 Apple IIgs with 1Meg or more (smaller memory configurations may work, although they are not supported/tested). ProDOS 8 ............... 1.9 Available on the ProDOS 8 and Basic.System ........... 1.4.1 IIgs System Disks. The system disks should be available from your local Apple Computer dealer, a local Apple Users Group or from a commercial information system (GEnie, America On Line, or CompuServe). ======================================================================== Subject: What Apple II magazines are there? [Note: This question needs to be completed...] GS+ is a bi-monthly magazine for the Apple IIGS published on an Apple IIGS. This magazine is not as polished as some magazines, but they are honest and put together very good reviews and software. If they see something that is junk, they call it junk (just the way it should be!). Their idea is to show what an Apple IIGS can do and they succeed very well at doing exactly that. Some of their software is just downright great - their EGOed NDA editor is great, I also like their Shuffle Init (shuffles the active window between all open windows). I'm not being paid for this favorable point of view - I'm simply a very happy subscriber. Address: GS+ Subscription Services c/o EGO Systems P.O. Box 15366 Chattanooga, Tennessee 37415-0366 Voice: (615) 870-4960 (Mon-Fri 9am-6pm EST) FAX: (913) 469-6507 gs-plus BBS: (615) 875-4607 (2400 baud, 8 data bits, no parity, 1 stop bit) Electronic mail: Internet: diz@pro-gsplus.cts.com (editor) Subscription Price: magazine $15/year, disk+magazine $36/year magazine $3/issue, disk+magazine $8/issue First class mail service for $1.50/issue, $9/year Tennessee Residents add 5.5% sales tax. Chattanooga Residents add 7.25% sales tax. Canadian/Mexican orders add $1 extra postage. All other foreign orders add $6 surface, $30 air. Nibble d e v e l o p - see the section about APDA for information on d e v e l o p. inCider/A+ is a monthly Apple II/Macintosh magazine. Address: inCider/A+ P.O. Box 56818 Boulder, CO 80322-8618 Subscription: $27.97/year $43/2 years HyperStudio Network is a quarterly newsletter about HyperStudio. Membership in HSN will get you the newsletter (HyperStudio Forum), an annual 'Best of HyperStudio' disk of stacks and availability of discounts on HyperStudio accessories (including HyperStudio). This network seems to be a great place for teachers to get information/stacks. HyperPostCards is their current big success. The idea is to get students to include information about themselves and to distribute the HyperStudio stacks from one school to another. It works much like postcards would. I don't have more details, so I'm stopping. Address: HyperStudio Network Box 103 Blawenburg, NJ 08504 Phone: (609) 466-3196 Subscription/Membership: $29 for 1 year, $55 for 2 years. Institutional Membership: $99 for 1 year, $189 for 2 years. Includes 20 copies of both HyperStudio Forum and the annual "Best of HyperStudio" disk. ??? - is the Basic (or was that Z-Basic) programmer's magazine (sorry about being vague... I just don't have the information with me... and never subscribed to a couple of these magazines) A2-Central publishes several Apple II magazines: A2-Central - The Apple II newsletter, there is an optional disk version. This is a monthly publication. All of their other publications are 3.5" disk based only. For the IIGS, the program to use is HyperStudio (they include the runtime version, in case you don't have HyperStudio). For other IIs, they include a text browser. Although any text browser will do the job. I don't know if this applies to all of the magazines or not (guess I should call again...). 8/16-Central - Monthly Apple II programmers disk magazine. 8/16-Central will include programs, sources and articles. Stack Central - HyperStudio-based disk. Each issue is a collection of HyperStudio additions. My guess is that it includes things like Clip Art/Sounds, XCMDs, PD Stacks and so on. There were some articles in the demo that I saw - I can't say any more than this. Except that there are two disks per issue - every other month. TimeOut Central - every other month - all about TimeOut additions and AppleWorks. Includes UltraMacros Macros, Templates and so forth. There is one disk per issue. Hyperbole - Will begin in January. This disk based publication is not about computers. It is HyperStudio based stories and poetry and so on. Address: A2-Central (or is it Resource Central now?) P.O. Box 11250 Overland Park, KS 66207 Voice: (913) 469-6502 FAX: (913) 469-6507 Electronic mail on GEnie: A2-CENTRAL, UNCLE-DOS, or DENNIS.DOMS The Road Apple - An Apple // "End Users" Underground Newsletter Published six times a year. Address: 1121 NE 177th, Suite B Portland, OR 97230 Telephone: (503) 254-3874. Subscription price: $9.95 per year (6 issues) Computist - a publication devoted to gathering and distributing information on removing copy protection from Apple II software. Address: P.O. Box 110846 Tacoma, WA 98411 Softdisk and Softdisk GS - monthly disk magazines containing a variety of software. Softdisk is available on 5.25" or 3.5" disks. Softdisk GS is available only on 3.5" disks. Address: Softdisk Publishing P.O. Box 30008 Shreveport, LA 71130-0008 Phone: 1-800-831-2694 1-318-221-8718 Subscription: Softdisk: $19.95/3 months Softdisk GS: $29.95/3 months Both: $39.95/3 months ======================================================================== Subject: What are technotes? [Note: I want to expand this answer, but haven't had enough time] Technotes are short topics addressing questions that Apple's Apple II Developer Technical Support staff members get from outside developers. Technotes are divided into various categories including (but not limited to): Apple IIc hardware, Apple II hardwaree, Imagewriter, Memory Expansion, ProDOS 8, GS/OS and IIgs hardware. The idea of technotes is to distribute information about Apple computers that isn't readily available from any other source. The hundreds of pages are well worth the effort to get. DTS really does a great job with technotes! (Thanks DTS!!!) You can find Apple II technotes on the FTP sites, or the commercial information systems. Another source of technotes is APDA, where one can order printed or diskette subscriptions to the technotes. ======================================================================== Subject: What is FTP? FTP is a program available to many schools and certain businesses which are connected to Internet. This program permits file transfers over a high speed international network. Note: FTP with remote hosts is a privilege! The remote sites can stop their FTP service if so they desire. Please try to restrict your FTP usage to off-peak hours. Some basic directions to get you started with FTP follow: Enter the FTP program (type FTP, if you get an FTP command prompt then you're in the FTP program). Type: open ; This command will establish ; a connection to a remote site. Where is the name or address of the remote FTP site from which you are trying to retrieve files. You will be prompted for a username. Type: anonymous ; The username anonymous is ; recognized by many FTP sites ; as a guest account. You will be prompted for a password. Type: your electronic mail address ; The password is usually your ; Internet return mail address. ; In my case it is ; dave@mystie.webo.dg.com Now you are logged onto the remote host. Some commands you might want to use after you log on follow: dir ; Show me a listing of the files ; in the current directory dir []; Put a copy of a listing of the ; files that are in directory ; into a file on my machine for ; later perusal. cd ; Change the current directory ; to . pub is typically ; where the public's files are ; stored. type binary ; Change the way a file is sent ; from the default of ASCII ; (7 bits) to binary (8 bits). ; There are sometimes other ; modes, such as tenex. get []; Retrieve a file (named ; ) from the ; remote host to your local ; host. If you supply a second ; argument, then the remote ; file is stored as that local ; filename. put ; Send a file to the remote ; host. mget