Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!mit-eddie!uw-beaver!tektronix!decvax!ucbvax!fizbin.DEC.COM!binder
From: binder@fizbin.DEC.COM (A glotoun of wordes)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple
Subject: RE: Apple IIe Roms and VisiCalc
Message-ID: <8801301626.AA19220@decwrl.dec.com>
Date: 30 Jan 88 19:04:00 GMT
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Organization: The Internet
Lines: 43

From pyramid!fmsrl7!nucleus!tjt@hplabs.hp.COM (Tim Thomas):
 
> A friend of mine recently installed some new ROMS in his Apple IIe
> to support a mouse.  However, when he tries to run VisiCalc all 
> inverse fields become garbage and unreadable.
 
I just made the same upgrade.  The Apple //e Enhancement Kit comes with a
User's Guide that explains the features of the upgrade.  It spells out
your friend's problem quite clearly on page 11:

(The following material is reproduced without permission.)

    Check Your Software
    ----------------------------------------------------------------------

    [paragraph deleted]

    Of the few programs that are affected by the IIe enhancement, most are
    only superficially affected: in some programs, highlighted uppercase
    characters are displayed as pictorial characters instead.  Here's why: 
    The original character generator ROM had two identical sets of
    highlighted upercase characters.  The enhanced character generator ROM
    has only one set of highlighted uppercase characters, and replaces the
    other set with pictorial characters [the Mousetext characters].  Hence,
    programs that used the other set of highlighted uppercase characters
    now display pictorial characters in their place.  

VisiCalc is an *old* program, not even intended to run on a //e - if it
were a //e program, it would have 80-column provision.  It uses the second
set of inverse characters, and so far as I know there is no easy patch or
fix for the problem.  There is a rather cute hardware kluge that can be
installed if your friend is handy with a soldering iron.

For what it's worth: if your friend is not aware of this design change,
either he didn't read the documentation supplied with the upgrade kit or
he is in possession of illegal copies of Apple's copyrighted ROMs.

Cheers,
Dick Binder   (The Stainless Steel Rat)

DEC Easynet:	FIZBIN::BINDER
uucp:		{ decvax, allegra, ucbvax... }!decwrl!fizbin.dec.com!binder
Internet:	binder%fizbin.DEC@decwrl.DEC.COM