Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!ames!pasteur!ucbvax!UIAMVS.BITNET!AWCTTYPA
From: AWCTTYPA@UIAMVS.BITNET ("David A. Lyons")
Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple
Subject: ProDOS 8 assemblers and reference material
Message-ID: <8903252138.aa08342@SMOKE.BRL.MIL>
Date: 26 Mar 89 02:21:00 GMT
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Organization: The Internet
Lines: 36

>Date:         Sat, 25 Mar 89 23:34:49 GMT
>From:         Edward Wang <edward@UCBARPA.BERKELEY.EDU>
>Subject:      More //c plus questions
>
>Is it possible to convert an old ][ program to use ProDOS? [...]

If you're talking about Applesoft BASIC programs with no machine
language subroutines, you can generally just use System Utilities
(or CONVERT or Copy II Plus or whatever) to copy the program to a
ProDOS disk.  Other stuff is more doubtful; would likely require
quite a bit of rewriting (without souce code you'd be pretty much
out of luck--ask the distributor if there's a ProDOS version of the
program).

>What's a good assembler for the beasty?  I would like a reasonable
>editor, ability (or information on how) to create sys files.

Merlin Pro is good.  It isn't the only one that's good, but it's the
one I'm most familiar with.  (Davex source code is currently
assembled with Merlin Pro.)

>What's a good source of information on things like disk layout (for
>both ProDOS and DOS 3.?) and file formats, and generally all the
>nitty gritties.

The _ProDOS 8 Technical Reference Manual_ from Addison-Wesley is
good.  It's the offical reference.  ISBN 0-201-17757-9.  Ask your
local bookstore, or order from A2-Central, or whatever.  There are
good third-party books, too, but I'd start with the Addison-Wesley
book.  For DOS 3.3 disk/file formats, try _Beneath Apple DOS_ from
Quality Software.  Not sure if it's still in print.

 --David A. Lyons              bitnet: awcttypa@uiamvs
   DAL Systems                 CompuServe:  72177,3233
   P.O. Box 287                GEnie mail:    D.LYONS2
   North Liberty, IA 52317     AppleLinkPE: Dave Lyons