23 Years Later: the Apple II Receives Another OS Update (arstechnica.com)

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Yesterday, software developer John Brooks released what is clearly a work of pure love: the first update to an operating system for the Apple II computer family since 1993. ProDOS 2.4, released on the 30th anniversary of the introduction of the Apple II GS, brings the enhanced operating system to even older Apple II systems, including the original Apple ][ and ][+. Which is pretty remarkable, considering the Apple ][ and ][+ don't even support lower-case characters. You can test-drive ProDOS 2.4 in a Web-based emulator set up by computer historian Jason Scott on the Internet Archive. The release includes Bitsy Bye, a menu-driven program launcher that allows for navigation through files on multiple floppy (or hacked USB) drives. Bitsy Bye is an example of highly efficient code: it runs in less than 1 kilobyte of RAM. There's also a boot utility that is under 400 bytes -- taking up a single block of storage on a disk. The report adds: "In addition to the Bitsy Boot boot utility, the ProDOS 2.4 'floppy' includes a collection of utilities, including a MiniBas tiny BASIC interpreter, disk imaging programs to move files from physical floppies to USB and other disk storage, file utilities, and the 'Unshrink' expander for uncompressing files archived with Shrinkit."

Comments

Re:I had Prodos on My Apple][e in 1983-84

[caseih]

Correct, there was ProDOS on Apple II. I remember using it. However according to the author himself, it was ProDOS 1.0. ProDOS 2.x apparently did not run on the Apple II. He says: "ProDOS 2.4 includes both the 6502 compatibility of ProDOS 1.x and the slot remapping functionality of ProDOS 2.x. Now Apple II programs can use a single version of ProDOS to boot any Apple II and access all storage volumes. ... For the first time, the features and improvements of ProDOS 2.x are available on 6502-based Apple ][, Apple ][+, and un-enhanced Apple //e computers."

Re:Bah....!

[ZorinLynx]

I recall that when Apple decided stop selling the Apple IIe, school districts were genuinely upset because they were still using them heavily. They had very large educational software libraries that would now become obsolete as they could no longer buy replacement systems.

If the market is there and willing to pay, Apple would have been foolish to not serve it. They could have probably continued selling IIe systems well into 1995 if they wanted. It's pretty crazy just how entrenched the Apple II was in schools.

Re:Bah....!

[Anonymous Coward]

Apple made an add-in card for Macintosh LCs (Popular in education) that let it run apple II software, and was designed to be IIe compatable. It was pretty popular and apple made a LOT of them - So many that I remember about a decade ago someone was selling off a warehouse of them for about 20 bucks each. (Should have picked one up. Now they go for 200)

Pretty clever bit of kit too. It had an interface for the older drives, and could use/create disk images as needed. (You could copy your entire library and run it off the mac hard disk) Some hardware was on the card, the rest was implemented in software. Ran great. Even emulated the color artifacts in the display hardware a lot of software relied upon to work properly.

Stupid kids .. yes there WAS lower case on the ][+

[UnknownSoldier]

> Which is pretty remarkable, considering the Apple ][ and ][+ don't even support lower-case characters.

Then why did Apple have a "Tech Note #141" describing how to install the Shift-Key Mod ???

* https://archive.org/stream/II_II-Shift-Key_Modification/II_II-Shift-Key_Modification_djvu.txt

Apple II and II Plus: Shift-Key Modification

Revised: 9/30/88
Security: Everyone

Apple II and II Plus: Shift-Key Modification

This article last reviewed: 26 September 1984

Probably all Apple II owners have heard of a mysterious "Shift-Key Mod". To
many it has remained nothing more than a rumor, possibly because most
modifications are thought to be costly additions. Not so the "Shift-Key Mod",
the most simple and least expensive addition anyone could do for their Apple
II. Of software recognizing this modification, there is a wide variety:
Apple Writer, most other word processing software packages, and the firmware
of most 80-column cards.

Software must recognize this alphabetic modification; the Apple alone does not
do it automatically. After modification, the shift key allows you to enter
uppercase characters as you do on a typewriter, without the need to precede
them with a press of the Escape key or some other control character. You can
still use the shift key to type the regular "shift" non-alphabetic characters,
such as &,*,(,), and so on.

With the "Shift-Key Mod", you use the shift key to signal the software from an
unused part of the Apple II Game port. The Port can address four separate
hand controls and three hand-control pushbuttons of which only two of each are
used by the standard game paddles and joysticks. This leaves unused two hand
control inputs and a hand-control pushbutton input. The "Shift-Key Mod"
exploits the address of this remaining pushbutton input. In practice,
software supporting the modification first reads the character value at the
address of the keyboard. Then, since joysticks use pushbuttons #0 and #1, the
software reads the state of the address of pushbutton #2 (PB2) . If the PB2
address is operated then the software simply makes the keyboard value
represent uppercase.

To keep things in perspective, please note that this does not modify the Apple
II to display lowercase nor enter lowercase characters into your programs when
the II is in its native 40-column mode. To read the shift key's new address,
the Apple II must have special software; without it, the II stays in 40-column
mode. Most 80-column cards have firmware to read the address and display
lowercase when in 80-column mode. When coding, you can easily enter lowercase

characters into your own program's output strings with 80-column cards
supporting the modification. However, when the program runs in 40-column
mode, lowercase characters will appear as "garbage" characters. Adding the
reasonably-priced "Lowercase Character Generator" on the motherboard allows
proper display of lowercase characters in 40-column mode. Apple Writer also
supports lowercase character generators.

Now to make the modification. Connect two micro test clips together with 8
inches of 28 AWG wire and solder the connections. Use micro test clips to
match the size of Radio Shack #270-370 clips. 28 AWG wire-wrap will do. Clip
size is most important; wire size and brands are less important. Once the
jumper cools, install it this way:

1. Clip one end to pin 1 of the IC located at motherboard location H14, a
74LS251 .

2. Clip the other end to pin 24 of the molex connector that connects the
keyboard electronics to the keyboard. Pin 25 of this connecter is at the
end away from the Apple's power supply. Pin 24 is to the left of pin 25.

Copyright 1988 Apple Computer, Inc.

Tech Info Library Article Number: 141