[Blindapple] intro to the apple 2

Jayson Smith jaybird at bluegrasspals.com
Tue Oct 22 04:22:18 EDT 2013


Hi,

The following info from the Readme should be enough to get you started.
Jayson

Instructions for using DOS

If you boot a disk and the Echo says, "Ready," with no instructions in 
sight, that means the disk doesn't have a menu system. Here are some 
pointers to get you started with such disks.

To get a catalog of the files on the disk, type CATALOG and press Return 
or Enter. If the Apple beeps and says, "Syntax Error, Ready," you need 
to push your caps lock. After every eighteen files, it will pause. Hit 
the space bar to continue. You'll know the catalog is finished when it 
says "Ready" again.

There are several types of files on disks. For each file, the first 
thing you'll hear is a letter. If the letter is A, you can run that 
program by typing RUN, followed by a space, followed by the name of the 
program and pressing Return. Files with a file type letter of A are 
written in Applesoft BASIC, the most common form of BASIC.

After the file type letter, you'll hear three digits. This relates to 
how much space the file is using on the disk, you don't have to worry 
about that. Finally, you will hear the file name, which can contain 
spaces. For example, if the system said, "A zero zero two HELLO," you 
could type RUN HELLO to run that program.

If the file type letter is I, this is a program written in an older form 
of BASIC called Integer BASIC. To run such programs, you first need to 
teach your Apple computer Integer BASIC. To do this, type:
BRUN INTEGER
and press Return. When that command completes, the system will say, 
"Greater than." Now you can RUN Integer BASIC programs just like 
Applesoft programs. You can keep running Integer programs until you 
reboot, turn the computer off, or run an Applesoft program. Any of these 
things will make the computer forget Integer BASIC, so you'll have to 
BRUN INTEGER to teach it again if you want to run another Integer program.

On all disks included here, you'll see a few files you don't need to 
run. Every disk will contain an Applesoft program called HELLO. This is 
the program that runs when the disk is first booted, so you don't need 
to run it again. There will also be files with a file type letter of B 
called TEXTALKER.RAM and TEXTALKER.OBJ, or names similar to these. These 
are files relating to the Textalker software which makes the system 
talk. You don't need to worry about these.

If you need a quick reminder about all of this, boot using the 
egames.dsk disk. First it will ask if you want slow speech, press Y or N 
depending on your preference. Then it will tell you this disk contains 
games and programs in DOS 3.3, and ask if you want notes about using 
them. Answer Y here, and you'll be given instructions.

The disk called echocric.dsk contains lessons on using the Echo speech 
synthesizer. You should consult these lessons for information about 
controlling the Echo speech and reviewing the screen. Complete 
instructions are included.



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