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Rare Docs Show How Apple Created Apple II DOS
An anonymous reader writes with a link to this "CNET story about arguably the most important technical documents in Apple's early history: the source code, contract letters, schematics and notes for the creation of the Apple II Disk Operating System (DOS). From 1977 and 1978, these documents chronicle Apple's first OS and what made the Apple II into a serious computer for the masses, able to support killer apps like Visicalc and build the PC industry."
...I could never figure out what to do with an Apple-II at a prompt. It always came down to inserting the software disk and rebooting the machine.
It probably didn't help that the Packard Bell XT that dad bought had both "Teach Yourself DOS" and an MS-DOS 3.3 full command manual, and obviously the MS-DOS commands didn't work on the Apple...
Sometimes I shudder to think that Packard Bell instigated the turning point that led to my professional career...
Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
Were the documents Xeroxed as well?
"I've got more toys than Teruhisa Kitahara."
I wonder what it was like working for Shepardson Microsystems back in the day. Not only did they do Apple's DOS, they also did Atari DOS, Atari Basic, and some of their stuff even found its way into OSS products.
This is the Apple ][, not the Lisa.
Therefore your attempt at humor is invalidated by being factually incorrect.
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
The Apple II was really only one of three massively successful PC lines: the Commodore, the TRS-80 line, and the Apple line, all introduced in 1977. The Apple II and TRS-80 both received floppy drives in 1978. The Apple II did keep production costs down, but both the machines and its disk drives were pretty expensive, so Apple really didn't do anything to help the masses with its cost savings. In terms of market share, Apple II was always a smaller player relative to the others. So, like today, Apple was had a product with a smaller market share, a lot of proprietary technology, and a large profit margin. And like today, they probably received more credit for innovation than they deserve.
From 1977 and 1978, these documents chronicle Apple's first OS and what made the Apple II into a serious computer for the masses.
The computer for the masses has to be affordable.
The original retail price of the computer was US $1298 (with 4 kB of RAM) and US $2638 (with the maximum 48 kB of RAM). The original Apple II was discontinued at the start of 1981, having been superseded by the II+.
An estimated 40,000 machines were sold for its 4-year production run.
Apple II series
What cost $1298 in 1977 would cost $4848.66 in 2012. What cost $2638 in 1977 would cost $9854.21 in 2012. The Inflation Calculator
Following Visicalc's release, Bricklin and Frankston developed ports for the Atari 800 and Commodore PET, both of which could be done easily due to sharing 6502 CPUs with the Apple II and being able to recycle large portions of code. Other versions followed for the HP 150 and TRS-80 Model I and II. Finally, Visicalc was ported to the IBM PC and became one of the initial pieces of software available for it on its 1981 launch.
VisiCalc
Atari 400
HAHA, mebrane keyboard peasant. Full keyboard master race checking in.
actually, in this case, I think I'm pretty safe in assuming that the Joint Chiefs of Staff would concur...
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
Yes, that membrane keyboard was a pain (quite literally), but not nearly as bad as the pain from waiting 20 min for your game to load from a tape on the 410 only to have it error out at the last minute.
I wrote a little 6502 code that intercepted the keyboard input and every time it saw an "S" it spit out a "TH" to the system. I called it "LITHP".
It's too bad you weren't a little bit older, or you could have written an interpreter for a language with parenthesized syntax. You could have called it "Thcheme".
running Apple DOS 3.3.
http://porkrind.org/a2/
For those interested in reliving the memories of Apple DOS.... This emulator is all written in javascript. There seem to be quite a few ROMs present as well to try.
If you bleed in 6 colors and are a true Apple hacker, I have two words for you:
INIT HELLO
Cheers!
http://eugeneciurana.com | http://ciurana.eu
Try reading actual history, not fiction. Apple licensed Xerox's inventions after having been invited to view them... They also employed some of the key people at Xerox at Apple.
I can understand your confusion because of the GP's poor spelling, but - he meant he had the "me brain" interface. It was a prototype direct neural interface.
Only the coolest kids were allowed to own it.
#DeleteChrome
All these stories are precisely why I avoided early PCs like the plague. It was bad enough using a command-line interface on dumb terminals to interact with the mainframe at work. Who wanted to go home and deal with the same crap? But then, the Mac came along, and the WYSIWYG interface eased many of the intuitive problems with using computers.
Apple II used CPM, not DOS.
Pretty crazy to think he wrote an OS in 35 days. How long did it take Linus to write linux?
http://arstechnica.com/features/2005/12/total-share/4/
http://arstechnica.com/features/2005/12/total-share/5/
The commodore 64 vastly outsold the Apple II after 1982 and the Atari 400/800 and the TRS-80 outsold the Apple II before 1982
The length of time it took to write it needs to be put in perspective.
the source code, contract letters, schematics and notes for the creation of the Apple II Disk Operating System (DOS)
I did a good deal of assembly back in 'th day, and I ran Merlin Pro. I had decompiled FaskDiskOne (an optimized version of Dos 3.3) It featured optimized sector reading and interleaving. Nibbles were decoded on the fly, instead of after the sector was read, greatly improving read speed. After getting that fully loaded into merlin I could tweak it any way I liked. Though all I really ever ended up doing was implementing EA's copy protection in my main programming disk. Still, it was nice being able to directly modify your DOS.
I work for the Department of Redundancy Department.
accountant ... his Trans Am
Holy crap, the late 70's where a whole different country...
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
Apple built the PC industry? HAHAHA. Is it still April 1?
In addition to the disk controller, credited in the article as dramatically (and masterfully) reducing the parts count and expense, the Apple 2 was the first computer to use a switching power supply.
The design of the color graphics capability also demonstrated intelligent and practical engineering:
The Apple 2 showed the computer hardware engineering trade that much, much more could be done with less. I'm no Apple fanboi, but accolades earned and deserved should be recognized.
mebrane
Full keyboard master race checking in.
Oh, the irony is delicious! It makes me brane hurt.
I've heard different stories on why VisiCalc was developed on Apple first. In one interview, a key project person (I don't remember which) said it was simply because the Apple happened to be available at the time as the Pets and TRS's were booked up. Another was that Steve Jobs gave them discounts on Apples for porting one of the company's popular games to Apple sooner.
Table-ized A.I.
Why is slashdot still linking to CNET? I thought we learned a lesson about how truly rotten CNET is. Guess not.
Oh, you had an Atari 800?