May 1980 — Vol 2 No 5

Overview

Apple III unveiled. Bernard Urban attended Apple Computer Inc.'s pre-NCC preview in Anaheim as a guest — among the first to witness the launch — and reports in detail: "65028" (an emulated 6502) capable of addressing 128K and computing at 2× the speed, 80 columns, upper/lower case, 16 HI-RES modes, redefinable character set, three-drive daisy chain, exotic OS ("lets you write programs like the Woz himself"). Price: $4,300–$7,800. DOS 3.3 also announced (16-sector format like Pascal, ~$15, comes with an UPDATE 16 program to migrate 3.0–3.2 disks). Pi elections in progress; ballot mailing May 9, return by May 27, new officers June 1. Ken Silverman convened a special IAC Board session at Anaheim covering the Apple Orchard budget, advertising publishers, Constitution revision. Major technical content: Sandy Greenfarb's Integer↔ML linkage, Bruce F. Field's interrupt-driven Apple clock, Tom Woteki's Pascal→Paper Tiger driver, and Chuck Reinbrecht's deep comparison of The Source vs MicroNET.

Table of contents

Articles

Editorial — "Some Rambling Thoughts from the Editor" (page 3) — Bernard Urban

Two big stories. (1) Pi elections in progress — Urban knows some long-time members may have outgrown the club, but believes Pi will continue to grow. Reflects on the membership survey: Pi proves microcomputers are no longer the province of the elite professional. (2) Apple III unveiled. Urban attended Apple's pre-NCC user-group-rep preview, conducted across the country for IAC Board reps and dealers. Quotes Apple reps reassuring that Apple II remains the mainstay for the near future:

"I had expressed concern that the III represented to me a shift away from the hobbyist and towards the small-to-medium business firms. They responded that the II will be their mainstay for some considerable time."

New for Apple II at NCC: Pascal, FORTRAN, PILOT, the Silentype Printer, DOS 3.3, AppleWriter, and several business packages. Educational use expanding to British Columbia and North Carolina (adding to Minnesota).

Apple III details: - "65028" hardware emulation of 6502 at 2× speed, 128K addressable - 80 columns, upper/lower case, 16 HI-RES modes - Redefinable character set ("even to making your characters look like birds in flight") - Apple II "emulate mode" runs old programs (except those using game paddles, which need modification) - Built-in floppy + daisy-chain three more - Exotic OS "to let you write programs like the Woz himself" - Reset moved; requires Control+Reset combo - Needs 12″ B&W monitor for 80-col text readability; RGB for color - Software coming: Word Painter, Visicalc III - Pricing: $4,300 to $7,800+ - "Don't expect delivery for several months yet"

Ken Silverman convened a special IAC Board session. Outcomes: Board accepted Val Golding's budget and publication plan for the next three Apple Orchard issues; a subcommittee chaired by Mike Weinstock (VP of IPC) will investigate alternative publishers and advertising arrangements; 1981 meeting date/place TBD; Secretary Joe Budge will send IAC APnotes directly to member clubs (with paid help); Constitution rework pending Apple's lawyer review. Joe Alinsky (LA) hadn't completed video tapes from the March IAC meeting but will mail them.

Minutes of Pi 4/26/80 (page 2)

Nomination slate for elections:

Resumes requested; ballots mailed May 9, return deadline May 27, new officers June 1. Bulk purchase: Apple Language Card at $415 in group buy. Sue Zakar reported her Applesoft card got dislodged in a move — advises pushing all contacts firmly. 11 IAC disks in the offing, en route soon. Hersch Pilloff discussed the DOS append bug fix. Main program: Tom Woteki on the Pascal Language System with a live demo.

Letter to the Editor — DOS APPEND Bug (page 2) — Ron Dreyfus

Dreyfus discovered the same DOS Append bug Pilloff documented in April, in late December '79; he called the Apple Hotline. The person at Apple supposedly consulted the DOS authors and reported back that "they did not consider it a bug." Five months and a new DOS release (3.2.1) later, Apple has not publicized any fix. Dreyfus: "If Apple is suppressing this or failing to publicize it for marketing reasons, I feel that they are not properly supporting those who have made them what they are today."

NOVAPPLE Minutes 4/24/80 — Total Home Control demo (page 3)

Watts Hill demos his Apple-controlled house: lights, appliances, heat, hot water all on a dedicated clock board + 32K + disk. Apple programs >31K crash the system; the clock board polls hourly to handle interrupts without disturbing the foreground program. "If you need to know how to control your house, Watts Hill is the man to ask."

Theron Fuller has Forth interest-group docs available. Treasury at $186.35 (up $18 from the meeting). Membership cards considered but no dealer-discount benefit yet. Colonel Bill Harmon shared a letter from Nibble magazine about an interface-dependent trace program issue.

"Bytes from the Apple Pi" (pages 3–4) — Sandy Greenfarb

News column. Confirms Apple III: "a 6502 2 MHz machine with built in disk drive" upward-compatible with Apple II. DOS 3.3 ~$15, 16-sector format (Pascal-compatible), Master diskette contains UPDATE 16 to convert 3.0–3.2 disks. Trivia: thousands of apple varieties; US is world's leading producer; Washington state #1, NY #2.

Call-A.P.P.L.E. releasing May 15: Extended, Relocatable Integer BASIC in RAM plus improved TED II, $17.50. Primarily for Apple Plus owners but Apple II owners can enjoy too.

Greenfarb proposes a Library Documentation Committee (3–4 members) to systematically document and review club library disks — most needed for utility disks. Volunteers solicited.

Worm in the Greenapple: A bug in Andy Rose's maze article — CLR doesn't initialize dimensioned variables. Provides the optimized initialization routine using POKE manipulation of variable pointers + CALL -468. Warns: "the '7' in line 20 represents the number of characters in the variable name (MAZE)+3."

Good Guy Department: Mike Harvey (Editor/Publisher of Nibble Magazine) responded to a program complaint with "impressive" replies and program changes. "I could not test them as I am now two weeks past Apple's announced delivery date for their Silentype Thermal Printer and am still waiting."

SIG News: SIGAMES held its first outside meeting May 6 — less than two months after Al Gass started it. Three similar cards on a local store bulletin board asking for stock/investment SIG members — "all it takes is for one person to initially act as a focal point."

Word for Today: synergism.

"Personal Information Networks: A User's View" (pages 5–6) — Chuck Reinbrecht

Comprehensive side-by-side of The Source vs MicroNET (CompuServe):

Both bill via Visa or MasterCharge. MicroNET introduces MicroQuote stock/bond data. H&R Block has agreed to buy control of CompuServe. Reinbrecht is the SOURCE coordinator for A.P.P.L.E. (Puget Sound, 3000 members worldwide).

Detailed electronic mail comparison: MicroNET via Bulletin Board system; The Source adds cc, bcc, forward (with comments), acknowledge-on-read, reply-requested, express mail (immediate display), plus file interaction and scheduled future delivery ("Great for birthdays and special occasions"). Source mail response times are "fair to poor"; promised improvements appearing. "Mail may not appear a likely reason for using a network. But as one uses it more value becomes apparent and new uses occur."

"Some Integer Basic / Machine Language Linkages" (page 7+) — Sandy Greenfarb

Greenfarb continues his BASIC-internals reference series with techniques for ML callable from Integer BASIC.

"Interrupt Your Apple (For the Time)" (page 9+) — Bruce F. Field

Cover-highlight article. Building an interrupt-driven real-time clock for the Apple II — likely uses an external clock chip and the Apple's interrupt vector.

"Blaise Away: The Pascal to Paper Tiger Connection" (page 11+) — Tom Woteki (Dr. Wo)

Cover-highlight. How to drive the IDS 440 Paper Tiger from Apple Pascal — the Paper Tiger graphics drivers Pilloff wrote in 1979 were for BASIC/ML; this brings Pascal users along.

"A Page from the Stack" (page 14+) — David Morganstein

Librarian's continuing review series.

Club news / events / announcements

• Apple III unveiled at NCC Anaheim
• DOS 3.3 announced; UPDATE 16 utility on master disk
• Pi elections in progress (ballots mailed May 9)
• May meeting on May 31 (5th Saturday, dodging Memorial Day weekend)
• 11 IAC disks coming
• Apple Language Card at $415 (group buy)

Notable advertisements

• Computerland Tysons Corner (now with THE SOURCE Information Utility and SANYO added to the sub-ad block) — page 2

Key quotes

• "Yes, Virginia (and DC and Maryland) there is an APPLE III and a DOS 3.3" — Sandy Greenfarb (page 3)
• "Although APPLE III is now unveiled, and will soon be on display at computer stores in our area, I personally have been reassured by representatives of Apple in attendance on May 18, 1980, that APPLE II is still their main computer system and will continue to be so in the near future." — Bernard Urban (page 1)
• "Word for Today: Synergism — the simultaneous action of separate agencies which, together, have greater total effect than the sum of their individual effects." — Sandy Greenfarb (page 4)
• "If Apple is suppressing this or failing to publicize it for marketing reasons, I feel that they are not properly supporting those who have made them what they are today." — Ron Dreyfus (page 2)

Entities

People: Bernard Urban, John Moon, Genevie Urban, Robert Peck, Mark L. Crosby, Susan Eickmeyer, Sandy Greenfarb, David Morganstein, Rich Wasserstrom, Dave Efron, Dana Schwartz, Scooter Conrad, Theron Fuller, Tom Jones, Hersch Pilloff, Sue Zakar, Ron Dreyfus, Tom Woteki, Bruce F. Field, Chuck Reinbrecht, Ken Silverman, Val Golding, Mike Weinstock, Joe Budge, Watts Hill, Colonel Bill Harmon, Mike Harvey, Al Gass, Andrew Rose, Phil Eastman, Nicholas B. Cirillo, Gerald Eskelund Topics: Apple III, DOS 3.3, NCC 1980, Time-Sharing for Apple Owners, Electronic Mail, Apple Real-Time Clock, Pascal Printer Drivers, Pi Elections 1980 References: Apple III, DOS 3.3, Silentype Printer, AppleWriter, Visicalc III, Word Painter, Apple Language Card, The Source, MicroNET, CompuServe, MicroQuote, Nibble Magazine, Telenet, Tymnet, Telecomputing Corporation of America

Connections to other issues

• Apple III rumored in 1980-02 — V02 N02 (Bits and Bytes), confirmed here
• DOS 3.3 rumored in 1980-03 — V02 N03 (Faire roundup), confirmed here
• DOS Append bug from 1980-04 — V02 N04 gets letter-to-editor confirmation
• Reinbrecht's Source/MicroNET comparison extends his March '80 (1980-03 — V02 N03) Source piece
• SIGAMES (started 1980-04 — V02 N04) holds first outside meeting May 6

Open questions

• Did the H&R Block / CompuServe acquisition complete?
• Real Apple III delivery date — when does it actually ship?
• DOS 3.3 release date and any bugs?