User`s guide

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From: Rubywand
022- How can I run DOS 3.3 programs from 3.5" disks and
hard disk?
You can run quite a few DOS 3.3 programs from 3.5" disk, a large RAM disk,
or hard disk. However, there are numerous DOS 3.3 programs which will not run
this way and which could even damage files and directories on the larger media.
Problems are especially likely when a program modifies and CALLs machine
code routines such as Read/Write Track-Sector (RWTS) and/or makes assumptions
about the physical locations on disk of important DOS 3.3 areas such as the
Volume Table of Contents, CATALOG track, and DOS itself. Using a special routine
to save "High Scores" to a specific Track/Sector is just one of many ways a DOS
3.3 program might create havoc on a hard disk.
On the other hand, you have programs which stick to using standard DOS
commands from BASIC such as, probably, most of your own DOS 3.3 programs and
most 'type-in' software from publications like SoftSide. Programs like these
should run fine using one of the techniques for accessing DOS 3.3 software from
3.5" diskette or hard disk.
There are two fairly popular approaches to running DOS 3.3 software from
3.5" diskette on an Apple II. One is to copy it to a specially formatted 3.5"
diskette which boots a modified "DOS 3.3" such as AmDOS or OzDOS. Typically, you
get two "400k disks" on each 3.5" diskette.
A very different approach is used by DOS 3.3 Launcher. It offers two
options:
1- You can save some DOS 3.3 programs to ProDOS disk (including 3.5" disk or
hard disk). These must be single-file programs that do not access the disk once
they are loaded into memory. DOS 3.3 Launcher's Copier is used to set launch
options.
2- Using the DOS 3.3 Launcher Copier, you can save an entire DOS 3.3 disk as a
disk image to a ProDOS 3.5" diskette, hard disk, etc.. According to 'Launcher's
docs:
>> Any disk that uses a standard RWTS (Read/Write Track/Sector) routine can be
copied in this manner. This includes not only DOS 3.3 disks, but also many old
games which use a standard RWTS, but are not actually DOS 3.3. They can then be
launched by DOS 3.3 Launcher, which "boots" the large file directly from your
hard disk. <<
To run a program from ProDOS-8, you start DOS 3.3 Launcher from a program
selector such as ProSel-8 which supports the ProDOS 8 startup protocol- - i.e.
it can make applications automatically open a data file. (The DOS 3.3 Launcher
docs tell how to setup a ProSel entry for a program.)
Running a program from the IIgs System Finder is much easier.