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From: binder@asd.DEC.COM ("Exit, pursued by a bear")
Newsgroups: net.micro.apple
Subject: Re: DOS 3.3 Applewriter and Corvus
Message-ID: <8610170732.AA05810@decwrl.dec.com>
Date: Fri, 17-Oct-86 01:36:00 EDT
Article-I.D.: decwrl.8610170732.AA05810
Posted: Fri Oct 17 01:36:00 1986
Date-Received: Fri, 17-Oct-86 07:05:55 EDT
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Organization: The ARPA Internet
Lines: 35

I don't think you can put DOS 3.3 Applewriter on a hard disk, or anything 
except a direct copy of the original, made with a tool like Locksmith.  I 
wanted to put it onto a Diversi-DOS floppy to gain the speed of Diversi-DOS.  
I spoke with Bill Basham, who wrote Diversi-DOS, and he told me that 
Applewriter uses a DOS that's so severely altered that there's just no point
in trying to deal with it.  

This DOS is able to read the image files for the HELLO program and the
APPLEWRITER program - these two are only protected files on the disk.  They
have oddball checksums or some other protection measure, along with a hidden
character in their catalog entries.  You can do a CATALOG using a normal DOS
and see what appears to be normal filenames, but if you do it with the
Applewriter DOS you'll see a flashing backslash as the second character
(H\ELLO and A\PPLEWRITER).  That flashing backslash is hex 1C - ASCII FS. 

My solution was to blow $130 for a MicroPro StarCard and WordStar 
Professional.  Best purchase I ever made.  There is no file compatibility, but 
the power was worth it - I transferred all the Applewriter files I wanted to 
save, over to CP/M and cleaned them up one time.

Cheers,
Dick Binder   (The Stainless Steel Rat)

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