Welcome to the exciting new world of personal computers.
As the new user of an Apple III computer system, you now have one of the most powerful tools
modern technology can provide.
You'll soon discover many ways to use this incredible system to enrich your occupation,
increase your efficiency, and add to your productivity.
But first, you must know how to operate it.
With this video program, you'll learn faster than by using only the manuals.
As a matter of fact, by the time this program is finished, you'll have learned all the fundamentals
necessary for years of successful Apple III operation.
We'll start by taking a look at the topics covered in this tape.
You'll learn about the various elements that make up computer systems.
That gigantic mainframe system at your local bank, as well as your Apple III, use similar
elements to do similar tasks.
You'll learn how a microprocessor performs most of the very same functions as a huge
mainframe processor like those found in the big IBM-type systems large corporations use.
You'll learn where the brain of your new system is, and where it remembers what it's supposed
to.
You'll learn the difference between RAMs and ROMs, and why it's important to know the proper
path name to get to a file.
We'll also cover the disk drive and how to use floppy disks.
You'll learn about drivers and devices and printers and modems.
You'll understand why SOS is the key to successful Apple III use and what happens when a kernel
is not found.
And most importantly, you'll learn about software and how easy it is for your Apple to use software
to make life and business easier for you.
I know you're anxious to get started, so the first part of this tape will give you some
hands-on experience right away.
First you'll learn how to interconnect your Apple III with a monitor and second disk drive.
Then you'll learn how to power up your Apple III and what the monitor display can tell
you about various functions your computer is capable of performing.
You'll then learn about floppy disks and how they should be used and handled.
We'll help you get familiar with your new keyboard and work with some of the additional
keys that let you control your Apple's potential.
There are quite a few new keys on your Apple III that make it different from an ordinary
typewriter.
We'll go over each of these.
We'll show you how to run the utilities disk and how to make copies of disks that you wish
to save.
You'll learn why it's important to format a disk and how to prevent your data from being
erased accidentally.
We'll take a look at your Apple III's powerful filing system and how to use path names to
get information to and from block and character devices.
You'll learn how to find specific files on a disk and how to manipulate files to serve
your needs.
We'll take a look at the internal software your Apple can work with.
You'll discover that there are various levels of language working inside your Apple.
It isn't necessary to know how to program a computer to use its full power.
We'll show you how you can use ready-made programs to help your business, education,
family, and hobbies.
Before you know it, you'll be writing some simple programs and beginning to enjoy the
almost unlimited power your Apple III can give you.
The chapter on programming will show you what a program is.
You'll write a few yourself.
By the time you're finished with this program, you'll be well on your way to mastering this
amazing new tool.
Just remember, you are in control.
Your Apple III will follow your commands and open a whole new world of information and
excitement for you.
Before we begin, we would like to mention that this program is not designed to replace
the various manuals you receive with your Apple III.
This program is designed to help you begin to use your system right away while you're
viewing it.
You'll have a very solid overview of your new system when you finish and will then find
the manuals far more helpful.
As we proceed, there will be times when it would be helpful to pause this program and
try one of the exercises.
When you see this symbol appear on the lower right-hand corner of your television screen
and hear these three beeps, it's time to put your video player in pause and then try that
particular exercise just described.
When you feel that you understand it and want to continue with the program, simply come
out of pause on your video player and proceed.
If you feel that you don't quite understand an exercise and want to go back over the explanation,
simply rewind this video program back to the beginning of the section that you want to
review and look at it again.
We'll be presenting quite a bit of material for you to learn.
It'll help you to use your new computer more efficiently and quickly.
In the next chapter, you'll be assembling your system.
When you're finished and everything is interconnected properly, it would be a good idea to position
your video player and its television set close to your Apple III system as we show here.
However, do make sure that your television set for your video player is on the left-hand
side of your Apple III, not on the right.
Placing a television set too close to a disk drive will cause interference and your computer
won't function properly.
You'll then have the best seat in the house for your new computer experience.
In this chapter, you'll get a look inside of your Apple III.
You'll learn how the circuits on the inside relate to the hardware on the outside.
The first so-called personal computers were largely do-it-yourself devices.
In the mid-1970s, several manufacturers designed kits made up of electronic components that
had to be assembled before any actual computing could be done.
Since these kits tended to be incomplete and had to be built, most people who were not
electronics hobbyists didn't get involved with personal computers.
However, all of these early kits did have one thing in common.
They were based on the development of a new kind of electronic device called a microprocessor
chip.
It is this microprocessor device that made the whole personal computer revolution possible.
Everything changed in June 1977.
Apple Computer, Inc. delivered a personal computer already assembled.
The Apple II was born.
It was a ready-to-run personal computer system available for mass consumer use, and it used
the technology of that single-chip microprocessor, an avalanche of new systems followed from
dozens of manufacturers.
The rest is history.
All of the work that your personal computer does is done under the control of the microprocessor.
It may look tiny, however, it contains thousands of transistors arranged in a specific way
so that it can control your entire system.
We're going to show you the inside of your Apple III to give you some idea of what goes
where.
Do not actually open your own computer because it is factory assembled and checked out when
you receive it.
You could void the warranty or cause expensive damage to your system if you do open it.
What we're going to show you looks exactly like yours.
On the left side of your Apple III is the power supply.
It is a sealed unit and provides the various voltages your computer needs for its various
circuits.
Don't ever tamper with the power supply.
Doing so might be dangerous and void your warranty.
On the opposite side, to the right, is the disk drive assembly.
This is the part of your computer that allows you to use pre-written programs and to save
your work for later use.
Directly under the disk drive is the main circuit board that contains many small electronic
components called ICs.
IC stands for integrated circuit.
On the main circuit board as well as on the separate memory board are many of these ICs.
The smaller ICs handle memory functions.
One of the large ICs with many flat wires attached to it is the brain of your Apple
III.
It is the microprocessor chip.
It is also known as the CPU or central processing unit.
As the brain of your computer system, the CPU is one of the three essential elements
common to every computer system, no matter how large or small.
These three essential elements are the CPU or central processing unit, the memory, and
input and output.
Basically, any computer system fetches instructions from a memory, performs those instructions,
adds information if required from input devices, and displays or transmits the results of
that process through output devices.
Your Apple III contains all of the basic elements and performs all of the basic functions much
in the same way as that big mainframe computer does at your neighborhood bank.
Those rows of smaller IC chips inside your Apple III on the memory board contain the
memory where instructions for the CPU are stored.
There are two types of memory inside of your Apple, non-volatile and volatile memory.
Volatile memory is made up of special ICs that have been programmed with information
at the factory where your Apple III was manufactured.
Volatile memory is forgetful memory.
These chips are filled when you load information into them when you are operating your computer.
But because this information is loaded into volatile memory, it will be lost when the
power is turned off.
The IC components that make up non-volatile or pre-programmed memory section are known
as ROMs for read-only memory.
These pre-programmed chips give your Apple III the ability to look for a disk drive and
start it going.
ROM always remembers.
Volatile memory is stored in chips known as RAM for random access memory.
It is these RAMs that you write into when you are working with your computer.
Since the contents of RAM can be written into or read out from, they are the memory chips
that you will be using most when you are working with your Apple.
But they will also forget that information when you turn your Apple off.
The keyboard is an input device you use to talk to your Apple III.
The monitor is the output device your Apple uses to communicate with you.
Together they form the console.
The console is a term you will be using later when you start to operate your Apple III.
So remember, the console consists of the keyboard and monitor as they are used together as a
combined input-output device.
The disk drive that is built into your Apple III is known as a peripheral.
Additional disk drives are also called peripherals.
A peripheral is any device connected to your computer that serves an input or output function.
Other kinds of peripherals may be a printer to output information and data onto a piece
of paper.
A modem, a device used to connect your Apple III to another computer, usually through telephone
lines.
A hard disk drive to give your Apple III expanded memory capability.
Or a plotter to physically generate maps, charts, and graphs.
As the personal computer industry grows, new kinds of peripherals are being developed for
new applications.
Your Apple III has been specifically designed to allow for expansion.
In the center of the inside of your Apple III is a row of four receptacles known as
slots.
These slots are available for various input-output devices.
Essentially, they allow the computer to grow with your needs.
Riffral connectors are located on the back of your Apple III.
Some of these are called ports.
A port is simply a place for information to leave to go to another destination.
The RS-232C serial interface connector in the color video port, the black and white
video port, and the audio port on the back of your Apple have been designed with expansion
in mind.
One connector on the back panel is especially important.
It is the disk drive connector and is labeled floppy disks.
Up to three additional floppy disk drives may be connected to your Apple III through
this connector.
Port A allows an Apple silent-type printer to be connected directly to your computer.
Other printers will have to be connected to either the RS-232C serial port or an interface
card which is plugged into one of the internal slots.
Your dealer can help you with specifics regarding the printer you may have.
There are also two joystick ports.
A joystick is a device that is like a control stick in an airplane.
There may be programs in your future where this will be a handy feature.
Two video ports are available to fit your particular needs.
A color port and a black and white port.
If you're using a standard Apple Monitor 3 with its green screen, you'll be connecting
it to the black and white port.
Your green screen monitor is really a black and white television monitor with a specially
designed green display screen.
The green color has been found to reduce eye strain.
If you're using a true color monitor or a more sophisticated RGB color monitor, you'll
be using the color video port to connect your display device.
Finally, there is the audio port.
Any sound you hear from your Apple III's internal speaker can be sent to an external speaker,
tape or cassette recorder, amplifier or other audio device.
That connection can be made here with a mini phone plug.
So far, we've been concerned with what's called hardware, the physical parts of your
computer.
The actual instructions that your computer uses and the data or information that it processes
is called software.
We'll deal with software in more detail after you've assembled your system and turned it
on.
This chapter should have given you a better understanding of the hardware components of
your system and how they relate to one another.
In this chapter, you'll start your first hands-on experience with your new Apple III.
First we'll review the way you should have the hardware interconnected for proper operation.
You'll connect an external disk drive and your video monitor.
Then you'll learn how to use your disk drives and the proper way to use and care for floppy
disks.
Right now, we'll interconnect your video monitor to your Apple III.
Be sure that you don't have the power cord plugged into an electrical outlet at this time.
We'll tell you when to plug it in.
Turn your Apple around so that you can work on the back panel where the connectors are.
Find the video cable that comes with your video monitor.
The cable will have a connector just like those on stereo equipment.
Plug one end of the cable into the video in jack on the back panel of your video monitor.
Be sure that you have the video cable uncoiled.
Sometimes a tightly coiled cable will cause a magnetic field to interfere with the video
signal going to the monitor.
Plug the other end of that cable to the black and white video connector on the back of your
Apple.
Now locate your second disk drive if you have one with your system.
Take the flat ribbon cable that leads out from the back of the disk drive and hold the
connector so that the ribbon cable is perpendicular to the floor and the raised bump is on the
top of the connector.
Now find the connector on the back panel of your Apple III labeled floppy disks.
Notice that there is a notch on the top middle of the connector that matches a raised bump
on the connector at the end of the ribbon cable.
Very carefully position the plug so that the notch and the bump are lined up and push the
connector into the plug.
Make sure that the notch and the bump are aligned correctly.
Plugging the connectors together in any other direction could damage your disk drive on
Apple III.
At this point you have mechanically configured the second drive to your system.
Since most people purchase at least one external drive to go with their systems, Apple Computer
has configured all Apple III systems shipped from the factory with proper operating instructions
to use two drives.
If you do have a second external drive to add to your system, you should connect its
cable to the floppy disk connector on the back of your first external drive.
This is called daisy chaining and it allows up to three drives to be connected to the
drive that is located inside of your Apple III's main chassis.
Your owner's guide will give you the proper procedure for configuring your software system
for that third drive.
If you have purchased a printer for use with your system, this would be a good time to
connect it.
Printer cables and connectors may vary so we won't show you how to connect all printers
and connectors.
Consult the manual that came with your printer to determine the proper way of connecting
it to your system.
If you have purchased a profile hard disk unit for your Apple III system, this would
be the time to connect it.
Your dealer should have already plugged in an interface card into slot number four on
the inside of your computer.
Plug the end of the connector coming from the profile into the connector on the back
of your computer as we show here.
Connect the power cord into the slot on the back of the profile.
Then connect the AC power connector from the profile unit into a properly grounded AC outlet.
Now turn the profile's power switch on.
You must wait 60 seconds for the profile unit to come up to full speed before you turn your
computer on.
Now plug your monitor's power cord into an electrical outlet.
Be sure you use an outlet that has a three prong grounding type plug.
This is for your own safety and will prevent any electrical shock potential.
Now locate the power cord for your Apple.
Plug the rectangular end of the cord as we show here into the power connector which is
next to the power switch on the back of your Apple III.
Now plug the other end into a properly grounded three prong electrical outlet.
If you have to use an extension cord for either the computer power cord or your monitor power
cord, make sure it is the kind with a three prong connector and is properly grounded.
Notice that we have plugged the various power cords from our units into a box like this.
This is a surge protector and is available from most computer dealers.
Surge protectors protect your components from sudden high voltage surges of electricity
that occur on electrical service to businesses and homes.
These surges can cause a loss of data or completely stop a program from running properly.
A recent study showed that the average business or home receives about three such hits as
they are called today.
As you are operating your system later and experience sudden losses of data or programs
that all of a sudden start acting strangely, you might want to explore the use of one of
several available surge protectors for your equipment.
By now you should have everything connected together and plugged into electrical power.
However, do make sure that your television set for your video player is on the left hand
side of your Apple III, not on the right.
Placing a television set too close to a disk drive will cause interference and your computer
won't function properly.
You'll then have the best seat in the house for your new computer experience.
When you do actually turn the power to your Apple III on, you will need to have a program
disk in the drive.
Right now though, we'll go over the proper way to care for and use disks.
Remember, a disk drive is a combination input-output device.
Instructions or data, called software, can be written magnetically on the so-called floppy
disks, much like the way a tape recorder records sounds by turning them into magnetic impulses.
This is an output function.
Instructions and data can also be read from the disks by your processor.
This is an input function.
The data is being inputted into your Apple's memory.
Another way of saying write is save, and another way of saying read is load.
You may save data on a disk by writing onto that disk, and you may read data from that
disk by loading it into random access memory.
The disk drive unit is nothing more than a specially designed tape recorder for handling
data.
In many models of personal computers, owners use audio cassette recorders to load and save
programs and data.
However, because an audio cassette recorder depends on a long piece of tape to record
or play back its contents, it takes a long time to read from or write on it.
It is also difficult to find places on the tape where specific programs were stored since
the only reference on the continuous length of tape is the beginning of that tape.
Another advantage to a disk system is the capacity of disks.
One floppy disk that you will use with your Apple III can hold about as much information
as about 45 pages of standard typewriter paper with double-spaced lines.
The floppy disks that you will use with your Apple are really just plastic disks coated
with a magnetic coating similar to the magnetic coating on an audio cassette.
We have taken this disk apart to show you the inside.
However, we don't recommend that you open a disk yourself because it will ruin it forever.
Because the disk is flat, tracks can be laid down in a circular manner side by side.
This makes it very fast to access different parts of the disk where data may be stored
or where you wish to save data.
In fact, to make it even easier to find specific places on a disk, the disk is further divided
into sectors by magnetic coating.
The actual disk itself is permanently enclosed inside of a plastic cover that has access
holes in it for the disk drive to make contact with the disk.
The cover protects the surface of the disk, allows it to rotate freely, and helps keep
it clean.
The whole package, the plastic cover and the disk itself, is sometimes referred to as a
diskette.
However, more and more manufacturers and users are calling diskettes simply disks.
We'll call diskettes disks in this video program.
Disks must be handled with extreme caution.
Never write directly onto the plastic cover with a ballpoint pen or pencil.
Put no pressure on the cover or the disk itself.
The proper way to label a disk is to write on the blank label that is supplied with the
disk.
Then carefully attach that label to the disk.
If you do have to write directly on a disk, use a felt-tip pen and write very lightly.
Disks should never be placed on or near anything that generates a magnetic or electrical field.
Keep your disks away from telephones, television sets, or stereo equipment.
Don't set your disks on top of your Apple III monitor, and don't set your telephone
on top of a disk.
Extreme temperatures can be dangerous to disks.
Keep them out of the sun, as they could warp or lose data.
The first visible sign of damage to a disk could be warping or bending of the disk cover.
However, the disk could have already lost data if it was near a magnetic field.
Don't ever let anything touch the gray or brown surface of the disk itself.
Just try to store your disks in the treated paper packet that came with it.
It helps to prevent static buildup on the disk, which could then attract dust.
And try to store your disks vertically in any one of several holders that are available
for this purpose.
Disks can last more than 40 hours if a reasonable amount of care is taken with them.
40 hours is a long time when you consider that they are used for only a few seconds
when you load or save a program.
To put a disk into a drive correctly, open the door to the drive by lifting it up.
Then hold the disk so that your thumb is pointing at the manufacturer's label as we show here.
With the large oval cutout on the top of the disk pointing toward the drive, insert the
disk.
Keep the disk as flat as possible.
Gently push the disk into the drive until it stops.
Never force your disk into the disk drive.
If you meet with any resistance at all when you are pushing the disk in, take it out gently
and try again.
Make sure you are inserting it with the label up and facing away from you toward the disk
drive.
Once the disk is in as far as it will go, close the door to the drive.
Don't force the door closed.
If you meet with any resistance, take the disk out and try again.
Sometimes, carefully centering the disk inside of the hole in the plastic cover will allow
the disk to go in properly after a first attempt has failed.
Don't ever insert a disk when the drive is running.
You can tell it's running by hearing the whirring and clicking sound coming from the drive or
by seeing the red light glow in the front of the drive unit.
In order for your Apple to use disks, it needs to know what the various peripherals are that
you have connected to your individual system, and it needs to be able to interpret various
languages that the programs contained on disk may use.
Your Apple III needs to have almost all of this information loaded into its random access
memory before it can let you use a program contained on a disk.
In order to know how to operate and use disks, your computer must get that information from
a disk.
How does it do this?
It's done with a process known in the computer world as booting.
Booting is a very important term.
It is used extensively with computers, and you'll soon run across an instruction in an
operating manual that simply says boot such-and-such a disk.
Not all disks have enough information on them to be called boot disks.
A boot disk must have three elements already programmed onto it.
The first element, an operating system, is the program that controls the computer's entire
operation in a uniform manner.
The operating system designed for Apple IIIs is called S.O.S., which stands for Sophisticated
Operating System.
Most people refer to it simply as S.O.S.
The second element a boot disk must have is a set of programs that tells what peripherals
you have connected to your particular system, where they are connected, and what unique
characteristics they may have.
These smaller programs for the peripherals are called device drivers.
They allow the operating system to communicate with various input-output devices such as
the console, your disk drives, a printer, modem, or hard disk.
The third element on any boot disk must be an interpreter program that lets your Apple
III run programs written in a specific language.
We'll get into languages in a later chapter.
Those three elements taken together are essential to operation of your computer.
If you try to boot your Apple III with a disk that doesn't have one or more of these three
elements, you'll get a message like this, or something similar from your computer.
The simplest way to boot a boot disk is with AutoStart.
With the power to your computer turned off, you simply insert the boot disk into the drive,
close the door to the drive, and turn the power to your Apple III on.
Here's what happens.
Let's assume that you have put a specially prepared boot disk into your disk drive.
When you first turn the power switch on, the drive starts to run.
Your Apple III has a program called AutoStart programmed into its ROMs.
There is just enough information for your Apple III to know where to look for a disk
drive and how to read the first bit of data from a boot disk in that drive.
So you put the disk in, and the first little piece of information loads into RAM.
And all the first piece says is how to load the second piece.
And the second piece loads the third piece, and so on until all the pieces that are necessary
are loaded.
And so, in a sense, it teaches itself how to read itself.
It's sort of like pulling yourself up to the moon by pulling on your own bootstraps.
Be sure you understand the concept of booting.
You'll be asked to boot a disk frequently.
Some computer system manufacturers call it starting.
Starting and booting are the same.
Will AutoStart boot a disk now?
Turn your monitor power switch on.
Now find the disk that came with your Apple III labeled system demonstration and insert
it into the drive right above the keyboard.
Close the door to your drive.
Now reach around the left side of your computer and turn on the power switch located on the
back panel.
You'll immediately hear some clicking and whirring sounds coming from the drive, and
the red in-use light will light up on the front of the drive unit.
In just a few seconds, your monitor screen will show a display similar to this.
In just a few more seconds, this display will show on your monitor.
Finally, this display will come up and start to show you a demonstration of the business
graphics ability of your Apple III.
Unless you hit the key on the upper left side of your keyboard labeled escape, this demonstration
will continue to cycle until you turn the power off to your Apple.
There is another way to boot a disk.
You'll use this method when you have already powered up your Apple III and want to boot
a different program.
Let's try it.
Turn the system utilities disk, then turn the power to your Apple III off.
Now remove the system demonstration disk you already have in the disk drive and replace
it with the system utilities disk.
Turn the power on.
After the disk drive has stopped running, this display will appear on your screen.
With the power to your Apple still on, remove the system utilities disk and put the system
demonstration disk back in.
Now you're ready to try the second way to boot a disk.
Find the control key on the left-hand side of your keyboard.
Locate the reset notch along the top of your keyboard right below the disk drive.
As you can see, the reset key is recessed and a little difficult to get to.
It has been designed that way so that you will have protection against accidentally
hitting it and losing all of the data that you may have loaded and wish to save.
Now hold the control key down while you press the reset button in.
The main utilities menu disappeared and your Apple acted exactly like it did when you powered
up and did an auto start boot just a few moments ago.
This is the other way you can boot a disk.
The control reset function that you performed erased any and all data that was loaded into
RAM.
It's a handy function to use when you want to change entire programs and load new ones.
The control reset function that you performed erased any and all data that was loaded into
RAM from the utilities disk and then booted the disk you had loaded.
Do a control reset now.
As you can see, the system demonstration program was not affected at all.
Some programs will not allow a control reset to take place when you are running them.
That is for your own protection of data.
If you are finished running one of these programs and want to boot another disk, there is a
proper exit procedure that you must follow to back out of the program.
For more information, check the operating manuals for the programs you'll be working
with.
In order to exit the system demonstration disk, you'll need to press the escape key
to bring up the demonstration program's menu.
Press escape now.
You'll see this display on your monitor.
Notice the number 5, exit the demonstration, gives you a way to exit from this disk.
Now press the number 5.
This display should be on your screen.
You can now put another disk in and do a control reset.
For now, leave the system demonstration disk in the drive and reboot it by doing a control
reset.
This method of booting is preferred, especially with hard disk storage systems.
In addition, many newer programs take a long time to boot from a complete power off condition.
In this chapter, you should have learned how to connect your computer to the monitor, how
to use floppy disks, and how to boot a disk.
We'll take a look at your new keyboard and its many functions in the next chapter.
In this chapter, you'll learn how to use the keyboard and how to read some of the screen
displays.
Right now you should have the graphics show and the demonstration menu cycling on your
monitor screen.
We now want to work with the main demonstration menu.
So if the graphics demonstration is showing, press the key marked escape to bring up the
menu.
You'll encounter menus frequently during your work with computers.
Menus are just that, a list of choices from which you can choose options.
On the demonstration program's menu, you can run a program showing you the console demonstration.
You can try the type ahead buffer or adjust the video monitor or sit back and relax and
watch the Apple III graphics show.
We'll do the console demonstration now, so select the console demonstration program by
pressing the number one key.
This program will now show you a screen full of information to read.
Go ahead and read it, but don't hit the return key just yet.
The return key is probably the most frequently used key on your Apple III, and it is the
most important.
Basically, it is the signal to the CPU that you want the computer to understand and act
on the message you have just typed in.
It is sort of like the period at the end of a sentence.
It tells your Apple that you have a command and here it is.
Some computer manufacturers call it an enter key.
In fact, on most programs, the enter key on the lower right end of your keyboard near
the individual number keys can be used interchangeably with the return key.
Using the return key will become automatic for you soon.
In the meantime, if you have given your Apple a command and nothing seems to be happening,
be sure you have followed that command by pressing return.
Now press return to get to the next screen.
When you press a key on your Apple III, you'll find that if you do more than just tap the
key it will repeat.
We'll be specific later, but you'll need to be aware that if you hold the return key
down or press too hard, it will repeat the return message.
Since we have just asked you to press the return key to get to this screen, you may
find that your screen doesn't match and you have a different screen showing.
If this is the case, the reason is that the return key was held too long and it consequently
changed the screens a number of times.
To correct and get back to where we are, simply reboot your disk.
Press the key marked escape to bring up the menu.
Select the console demonstration program by pressing the number one key.
Then press the return key.
The next few screens will tell you a little about the console operation and how it differs,
depending on which language you are working in.
For the time being, we will be working only in Apple Business Basic, so don't worry if
the information on those screens gets a little confusing.
Simply press return at the end of each screen until your screen looks like this.
So far, you've had a chance to use some of the new keys on your Apple that don't appear
on a typewriter keyboard.
When you performed the control reset function earlier, you had to hold the control key down
first while you pressed the reset key.
The control key is always used in conjunction with some other key to perform some specialized
function.
Go ahead and type a few letters.
Now hold down the control key and press the X key.
Notice that the little box with the arrow moved down a line on the screen.
Also notice that a backslash was left at the end of the first line.
The control X command tells your computer you wish to ignore the line you've just typed,
so the computer puts a backslash on the line not to be used.
It then moves the box to the next line so you can start the line over correctly.
We'll get to other control letter combinations later on.
That little box, by the way, is called a cursor.
It tells you that your Apple III is waiting for you to tell it something.
It also shows you where on the screen the next character you type will appear.
You can move the cursor left and right with the two keys on the lower right side of the
keyboard labeled with arrows.
Go ahead and move the cursor left and right.
Then type a few more letters.
In some programs, it is helpful to be able to move the cursor up and down on the screen
also.
Depending on the particular program you may be working with or a particular language you
may be programming in, the cursor may be moved up and down with the two keys showing up and
down arrows.
Now press any letter key and hold it down.
Notice that the letter keeps repeating as long as you hold the key down.
You'll find this a very useful feature later.
It is called auto-repeat and is available on all the keys with letters, numbers, and
symbols.
In fact, on the arrow keys, there is a dual speed repeat function.
Go ahead, press the left-hand arrow key lightly and hold it down.
Then press the key more firmly.
The cursor moved faster when you pressed harder.
Now type a row of characters across the whole screen and continue typing when you get to
the end of the row.
Notice that the cursor came to the end of the row and then continued the characters
that you were typing on the next line.
This is called wraparound and it means you don't have to press the return key when you
come to the end of a row.
Your Apple III is capable of displaying 24 lines of up to 80 characters per line.
It is also capable of displaying lower as well as uppercase letters.
The shift keys at each end of the keyboard function just like those on a typewriter.
By holding down either shift key and striking another of the letter keys, the uppercase
or capital version of that letter appears on your display.
If you want to continue typing all capital letters, you can lock the letter keys into
uppercase by pressing the alpha lock key on the lower left side of the keyboard and then
typing.
To unlock it, simply press it again.
The symbol that appears on the top of the number keys and on top of some of the letter
keys can only be used by pressing the shift key.
The alpha lock key does not control their use.
You may have noticed that there are several new symbols that don't appear on an ordinary
typewriter keyboard.
Those symbols are the vertical bar, the backslash, the tilde, the grov accent or reverse apostrophe,
square brackets left and right, braces or parentheses left and right, angle brackets
left and right, and the caret or circumflex.
Many programming languages use these symbols for various functions and they add to the
versatility of your Apple III.
In most programs involving mathematics, it is necessary to use a symbol for multiplication
and a symbol for division.
The asterisk is usually used for multiplication and the forward slash is used for division.
The group of 13 keys to the right of the main keyboard is called the numeric keypad.
These keys are laid out like a calculator or adding machine allow you to enter numbers
faster than by using the top row of number keys on the main keyboard.
Now would be a good time to mention the letter O and the zero keys.
Your Apple needs a way to distinguish between the letter O and the number zero.
You should be careful that you don't type O when you mean zero or vice versa.
A program expecting a value zero will not recognize the letter O as anything other than
what it is, the letter O.
The same is true of the number one key and the lowercase l.
From your typing habits, you might try to enter a lowercase l when you mean the value
one.
Again, your Apple can't tell you mean a value one if you actually type it as a lowercase
letter l.
This could be another time when a program might not run correctly.
You've already used the control key, the alpha lock key, and the shift keys.
They're also known as modifier keys because they modify the function of other keys.
There are two other modifier keys, the open Apple key and the closed Apple key.
Both of these keys modify other keys depending on how a program is written.
One of the more common uses of the open Apple key is to use it with a question mark symbol.
Several programs are written so that you can receive help if you forget a procedure or
command.
Here's an example.
You might be composing a business letter on the Apple Writer 3 program and forget how
to save that letter into a file on a disk.
By holding down the open Apple key while you strike the shift question mark combination,
a menu will appear showing you the frequently used control functions available in Apple
Writer 3.
If you decide to go back to your letter in the Apple Writer program, you simply strike
the return key and the program will take you back to it.
The closed Apple key usually acts as a kind of speed shift key.
If you are holding down another key and doing a repeat function, pressing the closed Apple
key will triple the repeating speed.
The open Apple and closed Apple keys will become more useful to you as you start to
use your Apple 3.
Modifier keys modify the meaning of other keys.
This is an important point to remember because you'll use the five modifier keys frequently.
The control key is probably the most often used modifier key.
To use the control key, you hold it down while you strike the other key.
Manuals use one of three ways to signify a control function.
Sometimes you'll see the letters CTRL dash and the letter or a letter inside of two square
brackets or the circumflex or carrot sign and a letter.
Each of these three methods mean the same thing.
Do a control and the letter function.
The tab key functions much in the same way it does on a typewriter, moving the cursor
a predetermined number of spaces.
Finally, the escape key provides another special function.
As you saw earlier, when you used it to get to the demonstration menu, it is frequently
programmed to help you get from one level of a program to another.
In addition to the keys, your space bar is an important part of the keyboard.
You'll find that the location of spaces can be vital to successful programming and operation.
When you get to the point that you are copying someone else's program from a printed list,
pay particular attention to where the spaces are located and be sure you place them in
the same spot.
Someone might not run correctly if spaces are placed wrong or don't exist.
Now we'll show you how you can correct typing errors, then give you some time to try out
all of the keys we have just mentioned.
Go ahead and type about half a line of letters.
Now move the left pointing arrow key back over a few of these letters.
Press the return key.
Notice that the only letters that were saved after you hit the return key were those to
the left of the cursor.
Now type another partial line of letters.
Now use the left arrow key to move the cursor to the left over some of those characters.
Now start typing different letters over the old ones.
Notice how the new letters replace the old ones.
Now type the line.
Now is the time for all good, oh well, we had better go back and correct the word for.
Move the cursor back 12 spaces using the left arrow key until it is on top of the letter
I and the word for.
Then type the letter O over the I.
Now move the cursor back over to where you left off using the right arrow key and continue
to type.
When you come to the end of the sentence, press return.
You corrected the error in the word for by backspacing the cursor, over striking the
letter and using the right arrow key to move the cursor back to where you left off.
The right arrow key is also known as the retype key because it lets your Apple III think that
you had retyped the letters as it had passed over them.
The backspace, over strike and retype techniques you have just used are called non-destructive
backspace.
When you move the cursor back over the characters, they stayed on the screen.
Now go ahead and practice typing whatever you like.
Try the cursor movements and correction procedures, the uppercase and lowercase letters and symbols.
Feel free to type whatever you wish.
Spend a few minutes and get a feeling for the keyboard.
Look at each of the symbols and try whatever keys you want to.
Try the number keys on top of the keyboard as well as on the numeric keypad.
When you have filled the screen with lines of characters, come back to this program and
we'll cover two last aspects of console operation.
Start practicing any time.
The last two things we'll cover in this chapter are scrolling and the type ahead buffer.
Now that you have filled the screen with characters, continue to type several more lines.
Notice that as you need more vertical space to type more lines, the screen display moves
up a line at a time to give you more space.
This is called scrolling.
You could actually move all of the text up and off the screen if you were to hit the
return key a number of times.
In some programs, such as Apple Writer 3, the up and down arrow keys actually allow
you to scroll in both directions.
Your Apple 3 has another handy feature related to the keyboard.
It is called type ahead buffer and allows you to type instructions into your Apple while
it is doing something else.
There's a very good demonstration of the type ahead feature on the system demonstration
disk you've been using.
By holding down the open Apple key, use the escape key to escape out of the console demonstration
program now on your screen.
Now select the type ahead buffer program and follow the instructions that are on your screen.
When you are through with the type ahead buffer demonstration, continue with this video lesson.
As you begin to practice with your Apple 3, don't be afraid to press any of the keys.
There's nothing you can do from the keyboard that will cause any major problems.
Many people are afraid of pressing a wrong key for fear of doing something to their computer.
Don't be afraid.
The worst thing that could happen is that you'll have to reboot a program from a disk
and start over.
A little later in this video program, we'll show you how to save data you've typed so
that it won't be lost if something happens.
However, there could be a problem if any liquid or powder gets spilled onto the keyboard or
disk drive.
This could cause your computer to malfunction.
Watch what you do with your coffee, tea, or soft drinks when you are near your Apple.
You have now learned about all of the special keys on your Apple 3 and how they function
as part of the console.
You have also learned how using some of those keys relate to your console monitor.
In the next chapter, you'll learn how to work with your disk drives and how to format and
copy a floppy disk you may wish to duplicate.
In this chapter, you'll get some more hands-on experience with your new Apple 3.
First you'll learn about configuring your system for different devices.
Then you'll find out how to format and copy a disk.
This will come in quite handy in the future when you want to protect work you may have
spent hours and hours preparing.
You'll format and copy disks frequently as you work with your computer, so they are important
techniques to learn.
There is a disk that came with your Apple 3 called System Utilities.
Find it now and have it ready.
The System Utilities disk is very important.
It allows you to do three kinds of operations on your computer.
It allows operations on devices, operations on files, and permits you to configure your
system so it knows exactly what devices you are using and where those devices are located.
Operations on devices include preparing a blank disk for data and copying the contents
of an entire disk onto another.
Operations on files include deleting files and renaming files.
Configuring your system essentially customizes your computer system to your own particular
needs based on the kinds of devices you are using with it.
Earlier we discussed boot disks and you learned that every boot disk must contain certain
information unique to your system.
The boot disk that you will use on your system must have information about all of the devices
connected to it.
The way in which boot disks get that information about your particular system is determined
from the data put into the system configuration program.
Most Apple dealers will configure your system for you when you purchase it.
We won't cover the system configuration program in this video presentation because the possible
combinations of printers, disk drives, and other devices is just too great.
If your system hasn't been configured for you, you will have to use the information
in your Apple III Owner's Guide and the standard device driver's manual that came with your
system or ask your dealer for help.
Apple III systems are shipped from the factory configured for a maximum of two disk drives
and a QMSPRINT 5 printer.
If you do have a different printer or modem or other devices, there is no easy way to
tell whether you are configured for those devices or not.
About the best you can do is to try to use one of these devices later as part of an applications
program.
For example, if you are running Apple Writer III and have a Diablo 630 printer and try
to print a letter you may have composed, the printer will operate correctly if your dealer
has configured the system for you.
If he hasn't, you will get an error message like this if the system configuration program
has not been set up for your particular make and model of printer.
If your dealer has configured your system for you, or you have done it successfully
yourself, you are ready to prepare a new blank disk for data right now.
This preparation is called formatting.
Formatting is a special procedure that must be done to every disk before any files can
be written onto it.
Essentially, formatting is the process of laying down magnetic tracks on the disk so
that data can be recorded onto those tracks.
It is sort of like building bookshelves in a room before any books can be placed on their
shelves.
Some computer systems call formatting initializing.
Initializing and formatting are the same thing.
When you format a disk, you are preparing it for future files.
You'll be running across the word volume frequently as you begin to work with your Apple III's
disk system.
Basically, a volume is a mass storage medium.
The most common mass storage medium used with Apple III's is a floppy disk.
However, volume can also mean the hard disk profile system available for Apple III's.
In this chapter, we'll be using volume as it refers to floppy disks.
Before you can actually copy one volume onto another, the destination volume must be properly
formatted.
Your system utilities disk has a program that lets you format a disk.
Insert your system utilities master disk into the drive on the main chassis of your Apple
III.
This drive is always referred to as drive one.
Now turn the main power switch on the back of your Apple off and then turn it on again.
After about 30 seconds, the system utilities program will be loaded into memory.
The first thing that will come up on your screen will look like this.
After a few moments, the following menu will be displayed.
Notice that in addition to the menu in the center of the screen, there is some other
information shown.
There is a title block on the upper left-hand corner that tells you what disk and what menu
you are on.
And the upper right is a line that tells you what version of SOS this boot disk is.
Programmers are constantly improving their programs and discovering bugs in them.
When they come up with an improved version of a program, they usually number it with
a higher number.
Don't be surprised to find a version higher than 1.1.
On the lower left side of the display is a prompt message that says press.
And if you follow the line to the right, you'll see the open Apple question mark symbol.
This is a handy prompt line available on many Apple III menus that will give you help if
you need it.
To use the help prompt, simply hold down the open Apple key.
Then hold down either shift key and press the question mark key.
Go ahead and try it now.
Below the prompt line is a comment that says, please select a command.
You'll notice that the phrase file handling commands is repeated from the menu above in
the middle of your screen.
Go ahead and press the vertical down arrow key.
Notice that the block of inverse characters moves to another line with each press of the
arrow key.
Also notice that there is a letter to the left of each line on the menu.
You can select any of the lines in the menu in one of two ways.
The first is by moving the inverse video block to the line you wish to select and pressing
the return key.
The second is by pressing a letter key that corresponds with the letter on the left-hand
side of the line you wish to select.
Select the device handling commands by pressing the D key.
The device handling commands menu will look like this when it comes up.
Remember volume is any form of mass storage medium, in this case the disk itself.
Notice that device handling commands contain six different programs.
You can copy one volume to another, rename a volume, format a volume, verify a volume,
list devices configured and set the time and date.
Select the format of volume program by using the up or down arrow key to move the inverse
video block to the format of volume line and press return.
At the lower left-hand corner of your screen you should now see this display.
The computer is asking you which device you're going to use to format the new volume.
We're going to show you how to format a disk and copy a disk using two drives in this video
program.
It is possible to use only one drive, however since most users have two drives we will show
you the more common method.
If you do have only one drive you should watch this section and the following one on disk
copying.
The procedures for using one drive are similar.
Your owner's guide will give you the specific commands to work with only one drive.
Leave the system utilities master in drive one and insert your new unused disk into the
external drive.
Don't press return just yet.
That external drive is named D2.
Notice that the cursor on your screen is sitting on top of the period to the left of the name
D2.
The program normally defaults to drive two because it assumes that most apple threes
are used with two drives and is most common to format a volume drive two.
The term default is a very common occurrence in computer work.
Essentially a default value is a value that someone who has written the program feels
will be the most common value people running the program will use.
In this case the default value of point D2 is asking you the following message.
You want to format a volume that is contained in disk drive number two.
In fact you could change this value to drive number one by simply typing point D1 at the
place where the cursor is now.
That's how you can format a disk using only one drive.
However since you are probably using two drives you can simply accept the default value of
drive two by pressing return.
Go ahead now and press return.
The program now wants to know what you want the name of the volume to be.
If you don't give the program a name in this step it will automatically give it a name
that says blank and a random number from 00 to 99.
We strongly recommend that you give each volume a different name once you start using your
system.
If your apple three has one or more external drives it is especially important to never
load two volumes with the same name and two drives.
If you do it is possible for the computer to load information onto the wrong volume
in the wrong place and to lose data that you might have wanted to save.
We'll be examining how to write volume names in the next chapter so for now just accept
the default name by pressing return.
If your new disk was truly blank to start with the disk drive will start roaring, the
red in use light will come on and the program will format the new disk for you.
In a few seconds this message will appear and your disk will be successfully formatted.
If you had previously used that disk for something else but were not concerned with saving the
contents and wanted to reuse the disk the program would have shown you this message.
You would simply have had to press the letter Y for yes or N for no.
If you had selected Y the formatting would have begun.
Here's a helpful tip whenever you get a new supply of blank disks go ahead and format
the whole batch.
If you don't have any formatted disks on hand you might find yourself ready to save a lot
of work you've done and no place to save it.
You must lose the current contents of memory in order to load the formatting program therefore
you would have to lose your work to format a disk.
So remember formatting is an easy way to prepare older used disks for reuse.
As you work with your computer you'll find yourself building up quite a collection of
disks.
Some may contain no data you wish to save and can be reused for new information.
From time to time as you build this collection you might want to go through and reformat
these older no longer useful volumes.
Taking a few minutes to reformat volumes will give you a new supply of ready to use disks
and save you some money.
We'll now make a copy of the system utilities disk on your new formatted volume.
It's important to make backup copies of all of your Apple III master disks.
If anything ever happens to that master disk you will always have a backup available.
As a matter of fact many people use the backup disk as the main disk to run on a day to day
basis and store their main masters in a safe place.
Backing up disks is extremely important.
If you make backup copies of your work frequently you'll always have a copy of your most recent
changes or corrections in case anything happens to the main disk or the data on that disk.
If you now have this message you are ready to copy your system utilities master onto
your new formatted disk.
Now press the escape key once to back out to the volume handling commands menu.
By either moving the inverse video block to the command you want and pressing return or
by pressing the letter C you should now select the command copy one volume to another.
Have your new formatted volume ready.
This is the disk we will copy the system utilities master onto.
Be sure the system utilities master, your source volume, is in drive one.
At the prompt section of the screen your computer is now asking you from which device you want
to copy a volume.
The default value of drive two, point D2, was programmed in when this particular program
was written.
However, since you now have your source volume in drive one you'll have to change the default
value to point D1.
The point or period just gets the Apple's attention and says hey I'm directing you to
a device, pay attention.
D stands for device, in this case the disk drive, and the number two for your second
drive in line.
To change the default value to drive one type point D1 as we show here.
Do it now, then press return.
The program has been written to assume that your destination volume would be in drive
two.
You can accept the default of drive two by simply pressing return.
Press return now.
Now the copy program is asking you to name the new volume.
Since you are going to make a backup of your utilities master volume you probably want
to accept the default name utilities.
The way you name your volume is very important, but we'll get into names in more detail in
the next chapter.
For now accept the name utilities by pressing return.
The copy program has a safety feature to prevent you from inadvertently destroying valuable
data.
If the volume you insert is not blank the program will check the name on that volume
and ask you if you want to destroy the volume name it finds on that volume.
If you have made a mistake and inserted the wrong volume you can safely back out of the
copy program by typing the letter N for no.
If you do wish to destroy the data on the destination as you will do when you copy another
volume onto it you should type the letter Y for yes.
Since you do want to copy the entire contents of your source volume onto your destination
volume go ahead and type Y right now.
The disk drive will start to make a copy of your system utilities volume.
Notice the red in use lights alternating between drives as the source disk is copied onto the
destination disk.
When the copy program is finished this message will appear on your screen.
Basically the copy program works like this.
Data is read from the source volume temporarily stored in RAM then written onto your destination
disk.
It does this by taking several blocks of data at a time from the source disk storing it
then writing it on the destination disk until all of the data has been transferred.
In order to transfer all the data on the source disk this part of the copy program is repeated
several times.
If you had used only one disk drive you would have had to change disk twenty or thirty times
during the program.
You should now have an exact copy of your utilities disk.
You'll need to label it.
Here are some tips.
Don't write directly on the disk.
Write on your label.
Then attach it to the disk and be sure not to cover the notch.
If you must write on the label after it's on the disk use a felt tip pen and press very
lightly.
We recommend that you label your new copy properly and use it whenever you need to run
anything from the utilities program.
Just a word about that notch you didn't cover when you labeled your disk.
There may be a time when you want to protect a disk from accidental erasure or to prevent
any new information from being written onto that disk.
There is a feature on disks that allow you to protect a disk similar to the way you can
protect your video cassettes by breaking off the little plastic tabs.
Only with disks you need to add a small piece of paper adhesive tape.
Here's how to do it.
As you hold a disk in the direction you would insert it into the drive.
Notice that there is a notch or cut out on the left side of the disk.
That cut out can be used to write protect an entire volume and its contents.
Stick on adhesive labels are provided when you buy blank disks.
They may be placed over the cut out like this.
When they're in place over the cut out you cannot write any data on or change the contents
of that disk.
However if you do decide at a later time to change something on the disk you can remove
the adhesive label and unwrite protect your disk.
Some disks come with no cut out.
Take a look at your system utilities volume.
It was write protected when it was manufactured.
You don't want to lose or change the contents of that disk because it is your master.
Many commercial software packages come with master disk write protected.
If you try to save or write any data onto a write protected disk you will get this error
message.
In this chapter you learn how to copy your utilities disk.
Basically you use the same procedure to copy any volume you may wish to duplicate.
The only difference is that when you are copying another volume you must have that new source
in your source drive before you begin to make the copy.
The proper stage in the procedure to take out the utilities master and insert the new
source volume is right after you have selected the copy one volume onto another command.
Since the copy program itself is already loaded into RAM at that point you have no further
use for the system utilities master.
Remember too that the utilities master also has a file copy program if you only want to
make a copy of only a specific file.
You'll find the file copy program quite useful as you begin to use your computer more.
It's located under the file handling commands on the main utilities menu.
In this chapter you have learned how to copy a disk with two drives and how to format a
disk.
These are very common procedures and you'll find that you are using them quite frequently
in your future computer operations.
In the next chapter you'll get some more hands on experience as you learn about the powerful
disk filing system in your Apple III.
Right about now you may be feeling a bit overwhelmed with the material presented so far.
Don't feel that you must complete this video program in one sitting.
You may find for instance that taking a break then getting back to the program is more in
keeping with your own learning speed.
There is no pressure for you to complete the program in anything but the time you feel
most comfortable with.
In this chapter you'll learn about the disk filing system your Apple III uses to give
you very powerful control over your information.
You learn about character and block devices and directories and path names.
In the last chapter you learned how to copy the entire contents of a volume.
However as you begin work with your Apple III you'll need to be able to find specific
sections of disks where information is stored.
Those sections are called files.
Essentially a file is an orderly name collection of information.
Files must have names so you can find them easily.
We'll show you how a properly written path name can allow you to quickly locate any file
on a volume or any volume in your collection of disks.
However when you are running a program such as Apple Writer III for example you might
want to arrange your correspondence according to the date you wrote certain letters or by
the names of the people you wrote letters to.
Or in VisiCalc you might have a cash flow statement for one department in your business
and a construction budget estimate for a new building.
By using the proper device and path names you could file each of these different collections
of information under their own names on a volume.
All applications programs that you'll be running on your Apple III such as Apple Writer
and VisiCalc use the filer the same way.
This chapter is important because you will be working with procedures that we'll cover
here every day.
The first thing we'll do is examine the contents of the system demonstration disk you are using
for the console demonstration.
It'll give us an example of the way individual files are contained on any volume.
Take the system demonstration disk and hold it aside for a moment.
Go ahead and reboot your system utilities by holding down the control key while you
press the reset key.
We're going to work with the file handling commands right now so select the line labeled
file handling commands.
Notice that after a few seconds a new menu comes on the screen.
The upper left screen display tells you that you are in the file handling commands menu.
The prompt line tells you to press escape if you don't want this menu and want to get
back to the main menu.
It also still shows the open Apple question mark command for help.
The inverse video line once again can be moved up or down and is repeated along the bottom
of your screen as you move the box.
Since you have already loaded the contents of the utilities disk into random access memory
of your Apple, you don't need the disk in the disk drive anymore.
You're now running the utilities program from RAM.
So remove the utilities disk from the built-in drive and replace it with a system demonstration
disk and close the door.
We're now going to take a look at the files on your system demonstration master disk.
Use the upper down arrow key to select the command list files from the menu.
When you have selected that line, press return.
The prompt line now tells you to press return to accept or press escape to exit to the file
menu.
Now notice that the inverse video block has moved down to the right of the left bracket
and the characters period D2.
And again, the prompt is telling you to press return to accept this default value.
Don't press return.
In this case, the default value of point D2 is asking you the following message.
Do you want to list the directory information of the files contained on disk drive two of
your computer?
Since we're only using the built-in drive for this exercise, you need to change the
default value to point D1.
Type in point D1 now and press return.
Now the program is asking you how many directory levels you want to list.
We haven't defined directory levels just yet, so let's just ask for all levels.
Press return to accept the all default.
Now the program is asking you where to send the listing.
The default value will send the listing to the console.
However, you could send the directory listing to the printer to make a paper copy of the
files by typing period printer.
Or to a silent type printer by typing period silent type.
Or to another disk file by typing period D2 slash and the name of the file.
For now, let's just list to the video display by pressing return to accept the default value
point console.
Press return.
The disk drive should start whirring, the red end use light comes on, and after a few
seconds this display is on your screen.
It is the listing of the files contained on this particular volume.
Let's examine this listing of the files and what that list shows.
Notice that the top line contains a slash symbol, then the title of a particular disk
you have in the drive.
That is called the volume name.
Volume is the name given to each disk.
On pre-programmed software packages, it is a name pre-programmed by the writer.
On your own disks, it is a name you could assign to the disk.
Or a name you could change at any time by running another utility program from the device
handling menu on your utility's disk.
The volume name is followed by a series of column headers.
Right below the volume name is a list of the files contained on your disk.
Notice that the first three files have file names that sound very familiar.
Right there at the beginning is a listing of the three essential files for any boot
disk.
The sauce kernel file, the sauce driver file, and the sauce interpreter file.
Following the file names is a column called size.
This column tells you the number of blocks of characters taken up by a particular file.
A block consists of 512 characters.
Rather than simply moving a character at a time, some of the devices used with your Apple
move data in blocks of 512 characters.
Those devices are called block devices.
Your disk drive is a block device.
Neither your keyboard nor monitor are block devices because they deal with characters
around one at a time.
When you type on the keyboard, you are typing one character at a time.
The console therefore is called a character device.
The next two columns show a date and a time.
These columns get that information from a program on your utilities disk called set
time and date.
You can use this program every time you start a new session with your Apple 3 to give the
date and time.
This is helpful since it will update all the files you use during that session and you
will have a record of when you last updated.
And that will be your default date until you update again.
The file type column can tell you quite a bit of information about the program residing
in that particular file.
There can be several file types.
SOS file means the file contains the operating system files.
The word data means the file is written in binary data.
You'll learn about binary data in the next chapter.
Past text means it is a file of characters written in Apple Pascal containing certain
formatting data.
Ask code means it is a machine language file, a step up from on-off binary pulses.
Basic prog means the file is written in the language basic.
ASCII is a file of characters corresponding to the industry standard ASCII code.
Directory means that it is a subdirectory file or has many parts.
Font means it is a character set or alphabet letters file.
And photo means that it's a screen image or picture file.
The column EOF means the number of characters that can be read from the last block in the
file and physical size tells the number of blocks physically occupied by the file.
Remember a block is 512 characters.
You can find out more detailed information in the SOS reference manual.
The list of files that's on your screen now is only the first part of the file listing.
The rest can be scrolled up by pressing the Y key in response to the question on the bottom
of the list.
Go ahead and press the Y key now.
The file listing is also called a catalog, and that's really what it is, a catalog of
information and data contained in a specific volume.
In fact, in the Apple Writer 3 program, you can call up this directory of files by simply
doing a Control O command, then selecting number 1 to get the catalog.
You'll see the directory.
So far, we've been concerned with the files that are contained on a disk volume which
can be also called a block device, but files can be stored in other places in your Apple.
Character devices can also hold files.
Your operating system treats data and information held on such devices as the console, the printer,
and the serial port as files.
You can output a file to a printer or transfer a file from the console to a printer.
Or if you're using your Apple 3 as a remote terminal connected by telephone lines to another
computer, you can transfer files from that other computer onto a volume in a disk drive.
Your Apple 3 operating system is very sophisticated as its name implies and will allow you a lot
of versatility once you get accustomed to it.
One of the most important concepts to understand about your Apple's filing system is the use
of path names to locate and direct files and transfers of files.
A path name is a specific route you give your Apple 3 to search for a file that is located
at a specific location.
Whether the file is on a block device such as a disk or on a character device such as
your console, there is a specific way to tell your Apple to find that file.
You can think of the way path names work by imagining the outline form you used in school
when you had to outline a chapter or a book.
Remember how you were taught the order in which sections were supposed to be listed.
Each individual element fit into an order that could be broken down into a list.
A quick glance at any part of the list told you where something was located.
Your Apple 3's filing system works very much the same way.
And a path name is simply a string of local names separated by slashes that can identify
where a particular section is located.
To find tomatoes on your outline, you could have specified a path to tomatoes like this.
Main title, chapter 2, intro, second paragraph, tomatoes.
Remember how you told your computer to find the volume that contained the directory you
were looking for when we started to list the files in the last exercise?
You started by telling your computer that it could start to find that file by looking
on disk drive 1.
You changed the default value of point D2 to point D1.
And when you wanted to list all of the files to the console, you used the default value
of point console.
The period got the Apple's attention.
Remember the old story about slapping the donkey to get its attention?
Once you've got your Apple's attention, you can tell it on which device it can find
the data.
In this case, you abbreviate D for drive.
A slash symbol is always used within path names to break up the parts of the path names.
Following the slash, the volume name comes next.
For instance, if you were to direct your computer to a disk that you had named Jack's files
and placed in drive 2, the first part of the path name would look like this, point D2 slash
Jack's files.
Notice however, that there is no apostrophe in Jack's name.
Also notice that there is a period between the word Jack's and files.
A path name must never contain any spaces between letters.
In addition, a path name must not start with a number, also a path name cannot contain
an apostrophe, nor may individual local names between the slashes contain more than 15 characters.
These three path names are legal because they follow the rules of syntax governing path names.
Notice that upper and lower case letters can be mixed.
Actually, you can mix them or use only upper or only lower case letters.
Your computer doesn't read whether a path name is in upper or lower case.
It only reads the letters.
You could type in a path name one time in all capital letters, then type in the same
path name at another time in all small letters and get to the same place in your files, assuming
of course that the syntax that you used is correct.
Incidentally, syntax is very important in all computer work.
When you start to work in programming, you'll find that the exact usage, placement, and
order of characters, numbers, words, even spaces can be vital to the program's success.
The proper and exact usage is called syntax and is as important as knowing a language
for programming.
As a matter of fact, proper syntax is a good part of computer programming.
So far, we've written a device name and a volume name.
The next part of a path name is its directory name.
A proper path name to locate the specific file labeled SOS driver would look like this.
So far, this path name could be used to tell your computer to locate the SOS driver file
on the system demonstration disk located in drive one.
This would be a proper path name by the rules of syntax, but it actually contains more information
than your computer needs to find that file.
Here's why.
Your Apple III's filing system automatically assumes that if you are calling for a directory
file on a particular device, that you have inserted the correct volume into that device.
If you haven't, you'll get this error message when you type in the path name with only the
device name and directory name, but don't have the correct disk in the drive.
If you do have the correct disk in the drive, your Apple will not require the volume name
and will take you right to the directory level or the subdirectory level that your path name
has asked for.
Therefore, the correct path name to get to the SOS driver file could look like either
this or this.
Your Apple III's filing system will automatically look for the SOS driver file on the volume
located in drive one if the path name looks like this, or with this path name, it will
search through every device available to find a volume name specified this way.
Your Apple III's filing system has the ability to organize files even further.
Suppose you had a correspondence file that had this path name, and you wish to file a
letter that was written to the Smith brothers.
A further subdirectory file path name could be added that might look like this.
And even further, you could file a specific letter written on a particular date with this
path name.
Here's how it might look if you listed that volume's files on your console screen.
By using the path name, you can send your computer first to the device, then to the
particular volume in that device, then to the specific directory on that volume, then
to specific subdirectories under the main directory, then to a specific file in a subdirectory.
Each of the names after the volume name is called a local name, so you can have a very
sophisticated filing system, yet access specific files in that system quite easily by using
the path names.
Your Owner's Guide manual has a section devoted to using prefix and partial path names to
speed your work along.
As you start using your computer more and find long path names bothersome, we recommend
that you consult your manual for this simplified system.
Many individual applications programs have their own modifications to the filing system
to help you get into files easily and quickly.
You'll begin to get familiar with them and to recognize the similarities and requirements
of your Apple III filing system as you work with them more.
Just remember that a path name is the route your computer must take to get to a specific
place you want to go, and that you must use the proper rules of syntax when writing a
path name.
And don't forget that path names are used for all devices connected to your Apple III,
not just the disk drives.
If you want to print the contents of a file onto paper on your printer, just use the file
handling command program on your utility's disk.
When the program asks you where you want to copy the file to, you type in point printer
as the device if you are using the RS-232 serial port, or point silent type as the device
if you are using the silent type printer.
In this chapter, you have learned how your Apple III handles files and interacts with
devices connected to it.
You also found out what a path name is and how to read directory information.
In the next chapter, you'll find out more about software.
This chapter will introduce you to the various levels of software used in your Apple III.
You won't have to work with the information presented in this chapter every day, but as
you progress with your new computer experience and as you read new computer magazines and
news articles, you'll find that knowing about the levels of software will help you understand
your own system better.
It will also help you to understand the sophisticated operating system, known as SOS.
That makes your Apple III one of the most powerful personal computers ever designed.
You've heard the word program used extensively when talking about computers.
Program is a pre-written set of instructions that tells your computer to perform a specific
task.
That task may be as simple as telling the disk drive to start running or as complex
as allowing you to do a five-year financial projection for your company.
A program is a set of instructions written in a language that your computer understands.
Instructions are generally referred to as software, and they can be written in various
levels of language depending on how and where they're used within your computer.
Generally, software can be divided into two categories, application software and operating
system software.
Application software means applying a program to do a specific function or task or to solve
a specific problem.
Application software could be used for inventory control or financial projections for a company.
Most of the pre-programmed commercially available software packages, as well as programs you
may generate to do a particular task you need done, fall into the category of application
software.
We'll deal with application software in further detail in Chapter 8.
Operating system software is a more internal kind of software.
An operating system is essentially a way for your computer to know how to get information
from the keyboard, send it to the screen, and to manage the various other devices connected
to your Apple III.
The operating system you're using is called SOS, pronounced SOS, and it stands for Sophisticated
Operating System.
Some other operating systems available on other computers are DOS, which stands for
Disk Operating System, and CPM, which stands for Control Program for Microprocessors.
And there are other systems.
CPM is a very popular operating system that has many applications programs written for
it.
You can add the CPM operating system to your Apple III.
If you do, you would then be able to run any programs written to run on that system, as
well as programs written for your Apple III's SOS.
Many people think of the operating system as a traffic cop, directing the flow of traffic
from many different directions into many other directions.
The operating system allows you to work with application software and frees you from worrying
about the hardware.
Your sophisticated operating system contains a group of smaller programs called device
drivers.
Each device connected to your Apple III has its own driver.
Remember your operating system, as it communicates with the various driver programs, manages
the hardware of your Apple III.
In Chapter 3, we found out that three groups of programs were essential for each boot disk
to boot up correctly.
In addition to the sophisticated operating system and the device driver file, an interpreter
program forms the third element necessary for your Apple III's operation.
An interpreter program deals directly with languages.
Languages are the electronic words that programs use to run.
There are various levels of language used in your computer.
The highest level languages are those that you interact with directly.
In fact, these languages use words or instructions that are very much like English commands.
Languages you give your computer, like run, load, save, and close, are examples of high
level language words.
But at the other end of the scale, down at the electronic component level, your computer
responds only to a series of on and off pulses to do its job.
When you type in high level language words, those words must be read by smaller programs
called interpreters.
These interpreters translate them into what's called machine and assembly language.
It is in the machine and assembly language level where the work is done.
Therefore, your Apple III boot disks need an interpreter program to translate the high
level language that you work with into the low level language that the individual components
work with.
Apple Business Basic and Apple Pascal are two of the high level languages available
for your Apple III.
Basic stands for Beginner's All-Purpose Symbolic Instruction Code, while Pascal is named after
a French inventor and philosopher of the 17th century, Blaise Pascal, who invented a mechanical
calculator when he was 18.
Other languages used in computers today include FORTRAN, which stands for Formula Translator,
COBOL, which stands for Common Business Oriented Language, and PILOT, which stands for Programmed
Inquiry, Learning, or Teaching.
There are other languages also.
These languages all serve different purposes and need interpreters to translate their commands
into machine and assembly language.
It might be helpful to think about the relationship between the operating system, device drivers,
and the language systems this way.
You and a friend are in a new country and your friend wants to get to a place 20 blocks
away.
You hail a cab.
You are the application software.
You have the necessary information, how to get from one part of the city to another,
calling a cab, but you can't speak the local language.
The cab driver is the system software.
You ask an interpreter to tell the cab driver where your friend wants to go, but you don't
have to tell the driver how to get there.
His knowledge of the city and his ability to drive the cab is the operating system.
The language you speak to tell the interpreter where you want to go is the language software.
The translation that the interpreter does is the interpreter program.
The cab driver, the operating system, tells the engine how fast to run by pressing on
the accelerator, the device driver.
The machine and assembly language tells the parts of the engine, the crankshaft and pistons,
when to go up and down.
The machine and assembly language is the lowest level of communication within your computer.
However, it's at this level that all information and data is reduced to the very simple form
of binary codes that enable your computer to function.
At its simplest level, binary coding is a method of taking a number or letter and reducing
it to a series of on and off electrical impulses that represent that letter or number.
If you were to switch the light switch in your room on, then off, then on, then off
again, you would have created a code that could be represented like this.
In binary coding, you would have expressed the number 10.
Since we can reduce any number into a code of pulses that consists of either an on or
off, positive or negative state, we can use this ability to store these pulses in electronic
circuits.
There are tens of thousands of tiny storage chambers inside each integrated circuit chip
where simple on or off electrical impulses are stored.
We won't get into the mathematics involved in binary coding in this program because you
really don't need to use machine or assembly language to use your Apple efficiently.
However, you might want to know what the 128K or the 256K stands for when it's used to describe
the amount of memory in your Apple III.
Early computer programmers decided to assign a number to every letter in the alphabet as
well as to certain symbols.
And since binary coding reduces every number to a series of on and off pulses, these letters
and symbols can now be expressed as a series of on and off pulses.
Each individual pulse is called a bit.
A positive or an on pulse is a bit and a negative or an off pulse is a bit.
A standard code was developed that could express all the letters of the alphabet and some signs
and symbols by eight bit arrangements of on and off pulses.
We call these different eight pulse combinations words.
They're also called bytes.
Eight bit arrangements are used because they can form 256 different combinations, which
is more than enough for all the letters, numbers and symbols.
The eight bit bytes are organized into kilobytes, a thousand bytes.
For technical reasons, however, a thousand bytes is really 1024 bytes.
But the computer industry rounds off those extra bytes and refers to multiples of kilobytes
in one, two and three digit numbers.
Therefore, if your Apple III has 256K of RAM, it can store 256,000 eight bit words in active
memory or 2,048,000 individual on or off pulses.
Of course, by storing blocks of bytes on disk and only using active memory for what you
are currently working on, you can gain a tremendous amount of usable memory.
Each disk that you can use with your Apple can store about 140,000 bytes or about 1,144,000
on and off pulses.
That's roughly equal to 45 double spaced typewritten pages.
This chapter should have given you a better understanding of how the various levels of
software interact inside of your Apple III.
You won't have to be concerned with all of this information every day, but an understanding
of it will help you understand how your computer relates to other systems you may read about.
In the next chapter, we'll take a look at the many types of pre-written application
software available to you for your computer.
You probably purchased your Apple III to solve a specific problem or to assist you with tasks
that you had heard personal computers are able to do.
This chapter will identify the subjects addressed by commercial pre-written software and show
you how to begin to use two of the most common packages.
You'll also learn how to use programs written for Apple II computers on your Apple III.
And you'll learn the meaning of more words in this new computerese language you're beginning
to understand.
There are five general categories currently addressed by commercially available pre-written
application software.
Word processing, database management, financial forecasting and budgeting, accounting, telecommunications
and electronic mail.
Word processing packages allow you to write letters and reports, correct what you have
written before you print it, instantly move words and paragraphs around, merge mailing
lists into letters, check spelling errors, even search and replace specific words or
phrases.
There are several word processing packages currently available for your Apple III and
more are becoming available almost monthly.
You can have a wide range of features and capabilities that make the newest correcting
electric typewriters obsolete.
Database management programs allow you to create your own customized electronic file
cabinet.
You could then access those files in a large variety of ways largely determined by your
own particular needs.
The most common example of a database management program is an electronic mailing list file.
In that file, you could have the names, addresses, even telephone numbers of everyone you need
to correspond with.
For example, if you run a small business, you could tell your Apple III to sort through
the mailing list of your customers by zip code.
The program would arrange that order of addresses, then print the labels in that order so you
can have the most efficient stack of envelopes to send to the post office.
Or you might want to write to only those customers whose last names begin with the letter B.
Your database manager could give you a list of those customers almost instantly.
Essentially, a database management program files data and information in such a way as
to allow access from many different directions.
A word processor application program, on the other hand, stores data sequentially, usually
allowing access in only one direction.
But suppose you wanted to merge a mailing list and a form letter.
You could get another software package that would allow that merger to take place.
You've heard the names of many of the best-selling application software packages.
You probably have one or more of them yourself.
Apple Writer III and Word Juggler are popular word processor packages available for your
Apple III.
Personal Filing System, Mail List Manager, and PFS Report are three database systems
that are extremely flexible and adaptable to your own needs.
VisiCalc is one of the best-selling financial forecasting and budgeting packages.
It allows financial projections and manipulations on numbers to be performed quickly and easily.
Great Plains Hard Disk Accounting Series and Executive Accounting System are two accounting
packages designed for businesses.
Most systems for accounting provide general ledger, accounts payable, and accounts receivable
and payroll functions.
Telecommunications and electronic mail offer another exciting way to use your Apple.
With the addition of a modem, which stands for modulator-demodulator, you can literally
use the telephone line coming into your business or home to call up another computer.
That other computer can be another personal computer or a giant mainframe that offers
a broad range of services to personal computer users.
You may have heard of services such as CompuServe, The Source, and Thou Jones.
They offer access to more than a thousand databases where information is stored and
available to you on your Apple III.
You can get Breaking World, National, State, and Local News and Sports from UPI, stock
market quotes from Thou Jones, shop at home from a computerized catalog of products, send
mail by computer to other parts of the country, check airline schedules, read movie, wine,
and restaurant reviews, even sell and buy almost anything on computerized bulletin boards.
Many local newspapers around the country are available on your Apple when you use it as
a remote terminal tied to another computer.
You can even send electronic mail to other personal computer owners and receive mail
from them.
And then there are games and learning programs and tutorial packages to learn just about
anything there is to know.
Four-year-olds can learn basic math or reading skills.
People of any age can expand their horizons, create new opportunities for themselves, and
access an unlimited wealth of information.
Let's take a look at a typical applications program package.
One of the most popular in all of personal computing today is VisiCalc.
It has been called the tail that wags the dog because so many personal computers have
been sold so that people can use VisiCalc.
VisiCalc is produced by a company called VisiCorp, which offers a wide range of software packages.
VisiCalc is an electronic spreadsheet.
It allows users to input letters and numbers at intersections of columns and rows.
VisiCalc's fantastic power lies in its ability to allow formulas to also be placed anywhere
on the sheet.
When you first open the box for Apple III VisiCalc, you'll notice that there are two
ring binders, four disks in their own packages, and a folding reference card.
That is a very typical packaging system for software for your Apple III.
The four disks are two main program disks, one for backup in case anything happens to
the first one, a VisiCalc sampler, and a blank disk for your files.
The user's manual is very comprehensive.
It shows you what every possible command does when you run VisiCalc.
It's divided into four sections.
The first section of the user's manual is an introduction.
The second is a tutorial that takes you step by step through the most common features and
operating commands.
The third section is a comprehensive reference of the commands available in VisiCalc.
The fourth is a brief chapter giving you system configuration information for use with your
system configuration program.
And the fifth is a look at the special VisiCalc DIF filing system for advanced application.
The VisiCalc sampler is a collection of templates which will allow the user to quickly use VisiCalc
before they've learned how to design their own templates.
There are templates for a personal budget, a departmental budget, a construction estimate,
the time value of money, and a depreciation schedule.
These templates may be adapted or modified for your own use and could save you considerable
time as you begin to use VisiCalc.
The VisiCalc 3 program disk is a boot disk.
Getting up on the program is simply a matter of booting the master disk by turning the
power to your Apple 3 on or doing a control reset from the keyboard.
When the blank electronic spreadsheet first appears, you're ready to begin to develop
your own use for this amazing application program.
At this point, you're on your own.
Hopefully you will have learned enough basic computer skills with this program so that
the manuals are easier to understand.
By following the tutorial in the user's manual carefully, you'll be working VisiCalc like
a pro in a few short hours.
It's really quite easy to learn and to adapt to your own needs.
The best way to use VisiCalc is to figure out exactly what it is you want to do on paper
before you begin.
VisiCalc is a blank sheet that calculates.
You must give it the formula.
Do remember to have a disk already formatted if you want to save any work that you might
generate with VisiCalc.
One of the most common first-time user errors occurs after someone has put a lot of time
and effort to build a sizable amount of data.
They get ready to file a data on a volume only to discover that they haven't formatted
a disk for that particular program.
They must lose their work to format a disk.
Have your volumes ready for whatever particular program you're working with before you begin
that program.
Let's work with another popular applications program, Apple Writer 3, a word processor.
After we boot the Apple Writer 3 boot disk, the first thing to come up is this screen.
It is then followed by this screen telling us to press return to continue.
When we press return, we get a menu of the most frequently used control commands.
Apple Writer 3 uses control letter combinations frequently to change functions within the
program.
VisiCalc, on the other hand, accomplishes function changes with the prefix of the slash
character.
Both methods work well with their own program, but you must learn a whole new set of commands
for each particular applications program.
It won't take long, but it does require a careful examination of the manual for each
program.
With Apple Writer 3, you need only press the return key again to get to the text editor
display.
That is the main display that shows you what you were writing and allows you to edit your
text.
If you want to examine your files while you're in Apple Writer 3, you need only do a Control
O command, and the program will take you to a menu that enables you to use some of the
source commands.
Once you're at this menu, you need only type the number one for catalog and a drive number
if you are using more than one drive, and the program will show you the directory of
your files.
When you're finished examining the directory, you need only press return to the end of the
catalog, and you'll be back in the text editor mode, ready to continue word processing.
Here's a helpful reminder for you.
Whatever the applications program you're using, don't forget to backup your disks.
It's a good idea to save your progress on disk every 10 or 15 minutes.
Remember the work you're currently doing is held in volatile memory.
That means that any power failure, no matter how brief, could erase any work that you haven't
saved.
Some users make it a habit of frequently revising a backup disk as well.
All it takes is a tiny bit of dust to cause problems with a disk.
If you have a backup, you could save yourself hours, maybe even days of work.
We won't show you how all the different software programs operate on this tape.
It would be impossible.
Just remember there are a few standard commands.
Each commercial application program was programmed to serve its own function, and the preferences
of the programmer are usually what determines how they run.
You may find, for instance, that a control K command may take you to a disk filing system
in one package, or start your printer printing in another.
You must read the manuals carefully to fully understand an individual application program.
There's a trend in the personal computer industry toward easier-to-understand manuals.
Early manuals tend to be written at a level that most first-time users could not understand.
You'll hear the term user-friendly use when referring either to the manuals or programs
themselves.
The people who developed your new application software program hope that it is user-friendly
and easy for you to follow.
Most manuals will give you the specific technical information you need to use that program.
You'll be able to find out how much RAM is required, how many disk drives and other peripheral
devices are needed, and what system configuration is necessary.
An in-depth description of the software may follow, or a tutorial that will lead you step
by step through the various features as usually included.
There is also the copy protection feature.
Some programs can be copied using the standard copy volume program available on your system
utilities disk.
Other programs may be so proprietary that the packager may want to prevent unauthorized
copies.
They have programmed secret codes into the program to prevent your Apple III from making
a duplicate copy.
If that's the case, be extremely careful with both your master and backup volumes.
You might not be able to get replacements very quickly.
Be sure to fill in whatever licensing agreements or warranty cards come with an application's
package.
Sending in these cards will help packagers identify you if you do need to get a replacement
volume.
And many software manufacturers even have hotline telephone numbers for users' questions
or problems.
Your personal computer dealer can't keep up with every aspect of every program on the
market, but a reputable software house can stand behind their product and most do.
Software is constantly being improved upon.
Programmers are forever finding bugs in programs.
You'll see the new version of a particular program being made available as these bugs
are discovered and fixed.
There are more and more applications programs becoming available for your Apple III every
month.
You have a very versatile personal computer that will grow with your needs and whose usefulness
will get greater and greater as more programs are developed.
There are also thousands of programs already written for the Apple II.
In fact, the Apple II probably has more programs designed for it than any other personal computer.
You can run many of the programs written for an Apple II on your Apple III.
Included in the diskware you receive with your Apple III is a disk called Apple II Emulation.
This disk enables your computer to run most Apple II software.
When you use this disk, you do lose many of the advanced features of your Apple III and
programs will also run slower.
But you can take advantage of the many programs available for the Apple II.
For those of you who already have Apple II software or are planning to run Apple II software
on your Apple III, check out the section in your owner's guide on the Apple II Emulation
Disk.
It'll get you up and running with Apple II software on your Apple III quickly.
We have now covered all of the steps required to boot commercially available software and
get it running on your Apple III.
You should now be able to use your computer for almost any kind of common application
you may have purchased it for.
However, you may want to learn about programming to develop your own software customized to
your own application.
If that's the case, the last chapter of this tape will give you a very brief introduction
to programming.
One of the common myths about computers is that you need a very extensive background
in mathematics to program a computer.
That just isn't so.
The following chapter will show you that clear, logical thinking is the only prerequisite
for successful computer programming.
In this chapter, you'll learn what a program is and how to write a few simple programs.
Programming programs is a specialized aspect of using a computer.
Remember, you don't have to know how to program to use your Apple III.
If you do, however, you can increase your productivity and enjoyment of your personal
computer.
So we'll point you in a programming direction.
If you find that you enjoy it and want to learn more, you certainly want to explore
the various languages available for your Apple III.
Actually, much of the application software available for your Apple III is written in
Pascal, but in order to write programs in Pascal, you'll need some additional software
that doesn't come standard with every Apple III.
In fact, another language designed for your Apple III, Business Basic, requires a software
disk.
We can't be sure whether you have the Business Basic software or not, so we're going to do
some exercises in standard Apple Soft Basic that was designed for the Apple II.
All Apple III users have Apple Soft Basic software on their emulation disk.
So find the Apple II emulation disk and boot it.
After the disk stops whirring and your screen shows this display, hit the return key once.
At this point, the program is asking you to insert an Apple II disk and press escape.
You're not going to use a disk for this chapter.
In fact, all we're using the emulate disk for now is to take advantage of the language
software available on this disk.
So by pressing the reset key only, you'll get the program to emulate an Apple II personal
computer with Apple Soft Basic loaded in RAM.
Do not hold the control key when you press reset.
Just press the reset key.
Go ahead and do it now.
At this point, you should be seeing a flashing cursor at the lower left corner of the screen
and a bracket.
That bracket is called a prompt character and shows you the line where you will be typing
first.
Essentially, a program is a logical and sequential list of orders you give to a computer to tell
it how you want it to do what you want done.
The important thing to remember about writing new programs is to understand and plan each
and every step that must be done.
Your computer will do exactly what you program it to do, nothing more.
You must tell it all it needs to know to accomplish your task.
If you leave out even the smallest instruction, your computer will not run a program correctly.
Remember your computer is really very dumb until you tell it what it needs to know to
operate.
You're going to write a few programs now, so let's start with a clean screen.
With the cursor, type the word home and hit the return key.
Your screen should have cleared and the cursor and prompt character moved to the upper left
corner of the screen.
The word home is the so-called reserved word.
It is one of the many specific English words that your language has programmed in.
These reserved words are frequently used commands that would take many more keystrokes to execute.
Rather than requiring you to type in several lines of instructions to clear the screen,
move the cursor to the leftmost edge, and then to the topmost edge, home simply does
it all for you.
Now type the word new, then press return.
New is another reserved word that tells your computer that the next set of instructions
it receives from the keyboard will be a new program and that it should forget any previous
programs.
Clicking the word new at the prompt clears the memory.
Then type this exactly as it appears, 10 space print space bar shift quotation mark
H E L L O shift quotation mark.
Then press the return key.
Be sure you use the double quotation mark sign and not the apostrophe.
When you enclose words inside of quotation marks, the program will later print out what
you have written within the quotation marks exactly as you have written it.
Now type 20 space bar print space bar shift quotation mark goodbye shift quotation mark.
Then press the return key.
Now type 30 space bar end return.
Now type list return.
There is a new list of what you have just entered.
Now type run return.
Your Apple followed your instructions and printed exactly what it was told to print.
Nothing less, nothing more.
Now type list return.
Let's examine the program.
The number 10, number 20, and number 30 are called line numbers.
They tell your computer the order in which commands should be executed.
It's a common programming practice to leave blocks of numbers between line numbers.
Later with more complex programs, you might want to add one or more commands in the middle
of a program between two or more lines.
For example, type the line 15 space print space shift quotation mark eat E-A-T shift
quotation mark return.
Now type list return.
Notice how the line number 15 has been added in the proper order to your list.
Now type run return.
And the program was executed exactly as you modified it without rewriting all the old
lines.
Incidentally, the word print as we've used it here means to output to a device.
In this case, your monitor screen.
It doesn't necessarily mean to print only on your printer.
Remember to, if you make a typing error, move the cursor back over your mistake and retype
to the end of the line.
If you've already pressed return and realize you've made a mistake, as we did when we typed
the word eat, simply retype the line number and the rest of the line correctly.
The new correct line will replace the old incorrect line in memory.
Now type home return.
Now type new return and 10 space bar print space bar five plus four return.
Then type 20 space bar and return.
Then type run return.
Notice that the program added the five and four and printed only the total.
That's a simple example of an arithmetic function already available in a language program.
It might be of interest to you to know that language software has certain functions already
programmed and ready for your use.
The addition you just did is available in Apple soft basic.
Other operations most basic language versions offer are subtraction, multiplication, division
and raising to a power.
Now let's get rid of that program and do another one.
Type new return.
Then type 10 space bar print space bar shift quotation mark I love space bar shift quotation
mark semicolon return.
Then type 30 space bar go to 10 return.
Then type 20 space bar print space bar shift quotation mark U shift quotation mark return.
Now type list return.
Notice what happened.
The list command automatically arranged each line in your program in the proper numerical
order.
You will find that a very useful feature as you learn to write longer and longer programs.
Now type run return.
Don't panic.
Just type a control C to stop the program.
That go to command on line 30 caused a loop to be created.
Your Apple merely did what it was told.
Went back to line 10 and did it again and again and again until you stopped it.
Let's take a moment and examine a few of the things we just did.
First and foremost you wrote three small programs and then ran them.
Each time you wanted to start a new program you typed new.
That command told your computer to forget forever any previous program in memory and
lets you start a complete new one.
You then assigned a number to each line.
This told your computer in what order you wanted the execution to take place.
You also asked your Apple to list the program you had just typed in.
When it did list it automatically placed any lines that were typed out of sequence into
the proper numerical sequence that you desired since you gave each line a number.
Of course you asked the computer to run your new program.
The last program had what's called a loop in it.
When the program came to the line that had a go to command it looped back to the previous
line.
The loop just kept going round and round until you interrupted the program with the control
C command.
When you did the control C command your Apple told you where it stopped.
You used several reserved words when you were programming run, list, go to, new and print.
There are many other reserved words that are available to help make programming faster and
easier to understand.
However because some words are reserved for certain functions and commands you must be
careful you don't use them out of context when you're programming.
A complete list of the reserved words for a particular language usually comes with a
language reference manual when you purchase that language program.
Let's try a new program.
Take the cursor home by typing home, return and clear the memory for this new program
by typing new then pressing return.
Here's our next program type 10 space n space equal sign space value one return.
Then type 20 space n space equal sign space n space shift plus sign space one return.
Next line type 30 space print space n return.
Then type 40 space go to space 20 return.
Now list your program.
Now run your program.
Remember how to stop it?
Control C will do it.
In this program you assigned a variable number to a letter then told your computer to print
the number that represented the letter.
You also told it to increase the value of the number by one each time it looped back
to line 20.
In computer programming any value number or letter on the right of the equal sign gets
put into what's on the left of the equal sign.
Don't let your previous experience with algebra fool you here.
We'll do one more somewhat complicated program for now.
Follow very carefully and type in each line exactly as we show it.
If you make a mistake on a line simply retype that line's number and retype the line correctly.
Here goes.
Clear your screen.
Type new return.
Now type 10 space input i n p u t space shift quotation mark.
What is your name?
Question mark space shift quotation mark semicolon a shift dollar sign return.
Check it against ours.
Now type 20 space input space shift quotation mark name an animal shift question mark space
shift quotation mark semicolon b shift dollar sign return.
Is it exactly like this one?
Then type 30 space print space shift quotation mark hello comma space shift quotation mark
semicolon a shift dollar sign semicolon shift quotation mark space.
You look like a space shift quotation mark semicolon b shift dollar sign return.
Last line type 40 space n e n d return.
Before you run this program, list it.
Type list return.
Check your list against ours one last time.
Now run it.
Type run return.
Follow the directions you've programmed in and answer the questions as they come up.
That's the last program we'll do here.
It's more complex than the earlier ones, but by programming standards it contains a lot
of common functions and commands that you will soon discover come easy to you once you
become better acquainted with basic programming.
That's what computer programming is all about.
Step-by-step instructions on how to solve a problem in logical sequences written in
computer language.
Let's take a moment and examine a few of the things we just did.
Your program has four parts.
Part one, initialization.
Part two, the body.
Part three, the output.
And part four, the conclusion.
During part one, the initialization, constant and variables are defined and given starting
values.
Part two, the body, is where the work is done.
In this part, the program will ask for data from an input device such as your keyboard.
It will then process that new data with respect to the set of constant and variable values
that were programmed in the first step.
The program will make any decisions that it has been programmed to make.
It will then send the results of that computation to an output device such as your display screen
or a printer.
This is the third part or output stage of the program.
Part four, the conclusion, is just that, the end of the program.
And so you see, we're right back to where we started in chapter two.
The computer fetches instructions from memory, performs those instructions, adds information
if required from input devices, and displays or transmits the results of that process through
output devices.
The speed of that process, combined with the number of steps the computer can do with one
batch of information in its memory at a given time, determines how powerful your computer
is.
Just remember, the huge mainframes and your micro all do the same thing over and over
and over again.
You are always the master, and you're always in control.
In this chapter, we've worked with a version of the programming language called Apple Soft
Basic, originally developed for the Apple II.
A more powerful version of Basic called Business Basic is available for your Apple III.
If you're interested in programming, you can get more information from your dealer.
Also, a somewhat different and very powerful language called Pascal is available.
Pascal is a very efficient language in that it has an operating system of its own to compress
and condense instructions into a more direct form of machine and assembly language.
It allows very long and complex programs to be stored in a minimum amount of memory space.
Programming can be extremely complicated, but not necessarily difficult once you've
learned the language.
Essentially, it's very straightforward and logical.
If you feel that you would like to go further with programming, get a hold of any of the
currently available programming manuals, a language software program for your Apple III,
and have at it.
It can only be learned by doing.
But always keep in mind, you don't have to know how to program to get full value from
your personal computer.
Other people are writing programs every day that will extend the usefulness of your computer
for years to come.
You now have learned all you need for years of rewarding and interesting interaction with
your personal computer.
As a new personal computer user, you've just begun an exciting journey into the information
age.
What we've presented in this video program is an overview of your system and enough hands-on
experience for you to learn some of the essentials of operating your new Apple III.
It's not complete by any means.
You can spend days, even weeks, just following the tutorials presented in the manuals that
come with the system.
However, we found that most people want to get going right away.
You'll pick up a lot of new information once you get started.
If you followed each chapter and done each exercise successfully during this program,
you've learned the fundamentals that will enable you to begin to use commercially available
software packages on your new computer system right now.
If you still feel a little shaky in some areas and feel you want to review some sections
further, simply rewind this program to that section and play it again.
We have presented a lot of information in a short time and don't expect anyone to get
it all the first time through.
We wish you luck with your personal computer experience and hope that the time we've spent
together helps you to enjoy a very rich and rewarding lifetime of computer-assisted activities.
Thank you very much.