[HEA]    _____________________   ___                                   _    |___   ______________| |   |                                 | |        |  | _             |   |                                 | |        |  || |            |   |                                 | |        |  || |            |   |                                 | |        |  || |            |   |   ____ _   _ _   _   ______     | |        |  || |            |   |  / __ \ | | / \_/ \  | ___ \    | |        |  || |__   ____   |   | / /  \  | |  /\ /\ \ | |  \ \   | |        |  ||  _ \ |  _ \  |   | \ \__/  | | | |_|| | | |__/ /   | |        |  || | | || |_||  |   |  \___/|_| |_|    |_| | ____/    |_|        |  || | | || |__   |   |____________________  | |         _        |__||_| |_|\____/  |________________________| | |        |_|                                                      | |         Lighting Your Apple II Path On Delphi        | |                                                      |_|-----------------------------------                       >>> WELCOME TO THE LAMP! <<<                       ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~                        THE LEAST YOU NEED TO KNOW                            Second in a Series                      by Ryan M. Suenaga, M.S.W, L.S.W.                             Opus ][ Ships!                           by Mike Westerfield                            OPUS II OVERVIEW                           by Mike Westerfield                              ABOUT OPUS II                           by Mike Westerfield             AND THE BEST OF THE A2 AND A2PRO MESSAGE BOARDS           "Teaching the Apple II user how to fish since 1998" :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: The Lamp!            An Onipa'a Software Production       Vol. 3, No. 12 :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: Publisher................................Ryan M. Suenaga, M.S.W., L.S.W. Editor.....................................................Lyle Syverson Internet Email, Publisher.........................thelamp@sheppyware.net Internet Mail, Editor..............................   lyle@FoxValley.net ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::                            TABLE OF CONTENTS                            ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~                            December 15, 2000HIGH ABOVE THE ROCK RIVER---------------------------------------------[OPN]     Opus II, an Outstanding Collection of SoftwareTHE LEAST YOU NEED TO KNOW--------------------------------------------[LYN]     by Ryan M. Suenaga, M.S.W, L.S.W.OPUS II OVERVIEW------------------------------------------------------[OTO]     by Mike WesterfieldABOUT OPUS II---------------------------------------------------------[AOT]     by Mike WesterfieldA2 DISTILLATIONS     New Owner for Syndicomm------------------------------------------[NOS]     A2Central.com Public Beta----------------------------------------[ACB]     A2Central.com Launch Party---------------------------------------[CLP]     A2Central.com Public Beta is Live--------------------------------[ACL]     Silvern Castle Comments------------------------------------------[SCC]     Silvern Castle v7.0----------------------------------------------[SCS]     THE BlueDisk Controller Pro and Con------------------------------[BDC]     X-10 Software----------------------------------------------------[XTS]     X-10 Hardware----------------------------------------------------[XTH]     Connecting a IIGS to a Lan Network With PCs----------------------[CTP]     Ninjaforce Website Updates---------------------------------------[NWU]     Shareware Solutions II - Cryptic Mode - ?------------------------[SCM]A2P DISTILLATIONS     Opus ][ Ships!---------------------------------------------------[OII]LETTERS TO THE EDITOR     No Letters to the Editor This Month------------------------------[NLE]     An Invitation----------------------------------------------------[LTE]KFEST 2001     Keep it in Mind--------------------------------------------------[KFT]EXTRA INNINGS     About The Lamp! ------------------------------------------------ [INN]                                [*] [*] [*]READING THE LAMP!   The index system used by The Lamp! is designed to make"""""""""""""""""   your reading easier.  To use this system, load thisissue into any word processor or text editor.  In the index you will findsomething like:EXTRA INNINGS     About The Lamp! ------------------------------------------------ [INN]To read this article, simply use your search or find command to locate[INN].  There is a similar tag at the end of each article: [EOA].[OPN]-------------------------------         HIGH ABOVE THE ROCK RIVER |------------------------------------From The Editor"""""""""""""""by Lyle Syverson <lyle@FoxValley.net>              Opus II, an Outstanding Collection of Software              ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~     November 21 was an a very special day.  At 6:30 AM, High Above theRock River, there was a simple scene of outstanding beauty.  The trees onthe eastern horizon were silhouetted against deep red... fading into white,then deep blue as your eyes searched higher and higher in the sky.  Thesurface of the river, partly frozen, partly open, lit by reflection fromthe sky, revealed a very pretty design.     Reading email, Delphi A2/A2P, and A2 usenet later that morning it wasevident that Mike Westerfield had been busy.  He announced that Opus II wasshipping.  A very impressive collection of software for the Apple II on aCD... and even the source code on a second CD.  See Distillations fromDelphi A2P and articles by Mike for details of this collection of software.[EOA][LYN]------------------------------        THE LEAST YOU NEED TO KNOW |-----------------------------------SECOND IN A SERIES""""""""""""""""""by Ryan M. Suenaga, M.S.W, L.S.W.        [rsuenaga@sheppyware.net]             APPLE IIE MODEM CABLE AND SUPER SERIAL CARD SETUP             ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~     Last time we took a look at making up a modem cable to get the humbleApple IIc online.  Now let's take a look at how to get the venerable AppleIIe online.VIVA LA DIFFERENCE!   What distinguishes the IIe from the IIc and the IIgs"""""""""""""""""""   is the fact that it lacks ports.  It does have slots,like the IIgs, but it lacks the built in serial ports that the other AppleIIs of the post-][+ generation have.  So the first thing you need to get isa serial interface--a Super Serial Card or equivalent.WHAT'S A SSC?   The Super Serial Card (or SSC for short) was one of the"""""""""""""   pieces of equipment that Apple allowed third parties toclone (I found it interesting--they were adamantly against cloning theactual computers until very late in the life span of the 8-bit Apple II,yet certain pieces of equipment--"Slinky" memory cards, IIe 64k/80 columnauxiliary slot cards, 5.25 inch floppy disk drives and disk controllers,and Super Serial Cards--were cloned by dozens of companies).  There are,consequently, lots of different makes of serial cards, almost all of whichwill work fine with your IIe.  It just has to be placed in a slot and thetwo banks of DIP switches and the jumper set properly.JUMPING THROUGH DIPS   What's this about DIP switches and jumpers?  Well,""""""""""""""""""""   the Super Serial Card comes with two banks of DIPswitches and a jumper that must be set.  Let's start with the DIP switches.There are two sets of seven switches each.  As per the ProTERM 3.1 manual(as well as my personal experience), let's set these switches up like this:(ASCII art follows, for the visually impaired)________________  ________________|   x x x x x x | | x x x x x x   || x             | |             x ||_______________| |_______________|(End ASCII art)     Simply place all of the switches in the up position, except the veryfirst and very last ones.     In addition, there is also a jumper on the Super Serial Card that mustbe set properly for telecommunications use.  It is rather different inappearance than most jumpers you see on printed circuit boards.  It lookslike this:(ASCII art follows, for the visually impaired)   M O D E M_______________|             o\|      ^        ||     / \       ||     ---       ||_______________|  T E R M I N A L(End ASCII art)     For telecommunications use, you'll want the arrow pointing at "MODEM".If you need to change it, you can easily remove it with a screwdriver.  Becareful prying it up and work on both sides--there are 16 pins on thatjumper!THE EASY PART   Once you have your Super Serial Card set up, you'll need to"""""""""""""   get a cable.  The Super Serial Card has a DB 25 pin femaleconnector attached to it; the vast majority of external modems also have DB25 pin female connectors.  The cable is the easiest of all--a straightthrough DB 25 to DB 25 male to male cable will work fine and dandy(although some telecommunications programs, such as Talk is Cheap,recommend a different cable).  These can easily be had at large computerstores like CompUSA or even small mom and pop operations.THE END?   Again, this isn't the end--just a small stop along the way.""""""""   We'll keep doing whatever we can do to keep the Apple II alivein the 21st century![EOA]ASCII ART BEGINS_________  _                     _                                      _|__   __| | |                   | |                                    | |   | |    | |                   | |                                    | |   | |    | |___     ____       | |       _____   __ ___ _   _ _____   | |   | |    | ___ \   / __ \      | |      /____ \  | v   v | | v ___ \  | |   | |    | |  | | | /__\ \     | |       ____| | | /\ /\ | |  /   \ \ | |   | |    | |  | | | _____|     | |      / ___  | | || || | | |    | | |_|   | |    | |  | | | |_____     | |____  | |__| | | || || | |  \___/ /  _   |_|    |_|  |_| \______|     |______| \____^_| |_||_||_| | |\____/  |_|                                                            | |                                                            | |                                                            |_|ASCII ART ENDS[EOA]------------------------------------      DISTILLATIONS FROM DELPHI A2 |------------------------------------by Lyle Syverson <lyle@foxvalley.net>[NOS]NEW OWNER FOR SYNDICOMM"""""""""""""""""""""""ERIC "SHEPPY" SHEPHERD ACQUIRES SYNDICOMMNovember 14, 2000--After several weeks of discussion and planning, EricShepherd and Syndicomm have agreed that Eric Shepherd will take over theoperation of Syndicomm, the company that managed the Apple II RoundTableson GEnie and the A2 and A2Pro forums on Delphi.There are no plans to alter the staffing for any current Syndicomm forum,and Dean Esmay and Gary Utter, the previous Syndicomm management, willcontinue to be involved in operations for the forseeable future.Effective immediately, the new Syndicomm, with Mr. Shepherd at the helm,takes over the day-to-day operations of A2Central.com. In addition, theupcoming online services being constructed at A2Central.com will be thefirst in what will hopefully be a number of online communities provided bySyndicomm.Dean Esmay, former president of Syndicomm, said, "I am terribly excitedabout our agreement with Eric Shepherd. Syndicomm has been languishing thelast couple of years since we had to go back to work full-time, and webadly need a talented and committed individual to carry forward with thename. I know Sheppy's going to do a kick-butt job in taking Syndicomm intothe 21st century."Eric Shepherd, owner of Syndicomm, added, "With the Syndicomm name and itsfantastic, highly-experienced staff of volunteers, I expect A2Central.comto develop into the best place for Apple II users to meet online. I lookforward to working with Syndicomm's existing staff--and with new staffbeing brought on board for our new services. It's an exciting time forApple II users."(CINDYADAMS, 34025, GO COM A2)[EOA][ACB]A2Central.com PUBLIC BETA"""""""""""""""""""""""""A2CENTRAL.COM ONLINE SERVICE PUBLIC BETA TO START DECEMBER 8, 2000November 30, 2000--As the second millennium draws to a close, a new era isdawning for Apple II users online. A2Central.com, the popular web site andApple II user group, will launch an open beta test of its new onlineservice on Friday, December 8, 2000.The open beta test will consist of telnet access to our Real TimeConference area and our Bulletin Board system, with email service availableat or shortly after launch. Access to A2Central.com's services will be freeof charge during the month of December, 2000.File libraries will be added in the near future, as will web-based accessto the service and other services.PRICINGA Standard Account on A2Central.com, including access via both telnet andthe web to the Real Time Conference area, the Bulletin Board, and email,will cost US $10 per month beginning January 1, 2001.An Enhanced Account, which includes all the features of the StandardAccount plus a 10 MB personal web site and FTP access to upload files toyour personal web site, will cost US $15 per month once available. Theavailability date for Enhanced Accounts has not been set at this time, butfree upgrades from Standard Accounts to Enhanced Accounts will beavailable.To sign up for an A2Central.com account, please visit<http://www.a2central.com/join>.A2Central.com will also offer business accounts for Apple II programmersand vendors. These will be available starting early in 2001.If you have questions about our planned services, please email{<mailto:service@a2central.com> service@a2central.com}for additional information.Eric (Sheppy) ShepherdEditor, A2Central.comsheppy@a2central.comhttp://www.a2central.com(SHEPPY, 34252, GO COM A2)[EOA][CLP]A2Central.com LAUNCH PARTY""""""""""""""""""""""""""A2CENTRAL.COM LAUNCH PARTY THURSDAY AT 9:00 PM PACIFIC TIMEDecember 5, 2000 -- A2Central.com will open the virtual doors to its onlineservice at 9:00 PM Pacific Standard Time on Thursday, December 7 (midnightEastern Standard Time). Syndicomm will have staff in the Real TimeConference rooms on A2Central.com to answer questions and chat, and willhave at least one staff member in the A2 Forum chat room on Delphi to helpwith any connection problems that may arise.December is a no-charge public beta test period for the new A2Central.comonline service, but you still have to sign up to get online! Visit{<http://www.a2central.com/join> http://www.a2central.com/join} to sign up.People that sign up will receive email on Thursday, December 7, withhelpful information about how to use the service and how to log on.(CINDYADAMS, 34301, GO COM A2)>>>>""""FREE A2CENTRAL.COM LAUNCH PARTY DOOR PRIZESDecember 6, 2000--As part of the A2Central.com launch party that will beginat 9:00 PM Eastern Standard Time on Thursday, December 7, A2Central.comwill give an A2Central.com mousepad to the first member to visit its RealTime Conference room 1, an A2Central.com T-shirt to the second member tovisit the room, and a ComputerEyes GS card to the third member to visit theroom.To attend the launch party, you must have an A2Central.com account. Accessis free for the remainder of the month of December. Visit{<http://www.a2central.com/join> http://www.a2central.com/join} and sign uptoday!Syndicomm and A2Central.com staff and their families are not eligible.(CINDYADAMS, 34303, GO COM A2)[EOA][ACL]A2Central.com PUBLIC BETA IS LIVE"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""A2Central.com chat and message areas are online and doing quite well.(Editor's Comment)[EOA][SCC]SILVERN CASTLE COMMENTS"""""""""""""""""""""""WEll, I am still using version 5.1.Progress report: Im moving smothly along having gotten stuck but thenaccidentaly discovered about going back up the stairs to otherwise closedoff areas. So I have found passwords, solved two of three riddles. I haventhad to pass the third riddle yet. I got by the beast. I think I havecovered most everything (got all of it mapped) on the first seven levels,maybe more.I am proceeding on level 10. It is getting too tough for my relatively newcharacters. I may have to switch to the level 22 guys.I have found a place where you can really rake in the dough. Saving justrenews the stash. Wow. Still going strong but I need to finish level 10.And parts of level 9 are not done.Bruce(BRB, 34053, GO COM A2)>>>>>"""""You'll want SC version 6.0 for the 3 dozen new items. I'm sending it toHoward Katz for release next week. I spent 3 intensive weeks testing,including creating 8 new parties from scratch to make sure everything worksand that the playability factor is still intact. I think I've tuned Silvernto perfection (I'm a little biased). :)Yes, you are really doing good. Did you think finding the elevator key wastoo hard; I mean with all the riddles?Have you discovered the identify of the "ancient enemy" yet?I have found that (with SCv6.0) that one can take a party "as-is" all theway to level 8 without having to use the change class feature, althoughhigh-level NPC's can be tough with their high-powered devices. My testmages only have 30-40hp, and with good fighting technique these levels arenot too bad, but one must not become careless.But you are right, level 10 is much tougher (how else are you going tochallenge your high-level characters?). If you want a tougher challenge,don't worry, the third scenario is for expert-parties only!Was this on level 10? Well, that lair was supposed to be tough and worththe loot!Caution, some areas thoughout this scenario are just "teasers". You reallycan't get into them (some you can!). Maybe I should include a "master key"in a future scenario to open those doors? Perhaps new scenario gateways?Let me know what you think of the finish,Jeff Fink(FINKSTERJ, 34061, GO COM A2)>>>>>"""""For help on Silvern, email may be directed at: {<mailto:finkjsc@yahoo.com>finkjsc@yahoo.com}Take care,Jeff(FINKSTERJ, 34097, GO COM A2)[EOA][SCS]SILVERN CASTLE v7.0""""""""""""""""""Re: Silvern Castle v7.0This update is due to be released in mid-December 2000.Here's the vitals:Bugs fixed:o Thanks to Bruce Baker for pointing out that a second scenario guardian  was missing!o Using I)nfo now matches all the definitions set forth in the Tome of  Knowledge "Equipment Notes" section.o Fixed possible error #107-5116 when using I)nfo.New Stuff:o AUTOMAP feature added! Press <TAB> in the maze to see overhead view of  the current level. Option included to save a standard Apple II hi-res  picture for later printing with a paint program.o The Extra's menu also has an option to view and save pictures of any  scenario level automap display without having to be in the maze.o 11 new items!o 4 new spells:  L3 (M) coldray: cold version of fireball  L6 (C) curmore: improved version of curmuch  L6 (M) acidfog: does up to 64hp of acid damage to all groups  L7 (W) deathray: improved STUN that affects one entire groupo Improved monster spell immunity. Some monsters are now fire, cold, acid,  electric, or energy-based, and are immune to similar attacks, although a  fire-based monster will take double the damage from cold attacks, and  vice-versa. Other improved immunities some monsters may have include  sleep, fear, and reversed cure-condition spells.o Your characaters now have partial immunity to monster fear spell attacks  (like sleep).o Chests may now hold more spells and potions. Also, most monster lairs now  always have chests instead of special goodies.Stuff Changed:o Incapacitated characaters cured in combat no longer can do parry  "special" actions in the same round.o Text mode maze support removed.o Cold-based devices now cast coldray incantations instead.o The Heat-Shield spell is now renamed as Breathe-Shield, and protects  against all breathe attacks, regardless of type.o Initial identification of the opposing monsters is now more consistent  based on your party's experience.o Called monsters now appear in the next round, not the same one (chance  none will respond). At the start of the next round, a message will  indicate how many monsters have joined the fight.o Monsters no longer will use cure-condition potions unless one of them has  the affliction the potion cures.Enjoy,Jeff(FINKSTERJ, 34305, GO COM A2)>>>>>"""""Once again I have added more stuff to Silvern Caslte after releasing thefinal change list. The next update will be v7.0 (not v6.1), and it will bedelayed until the end of December, 2000.Extra New Stuff in v7.0:o Also added spell RESISTANCE in addition to spell IMMUNITY (see previous  change list). Resistance imparts partial immunity (i.e. half damage or  lessoned affect).o Because chests now contain more stuff (see previous change list), except  for dragon lairs, you will now usually find (90%) chests instead of lair  special goodies on the deeper levels. Also, less animal-type lairs.o Changed the availability of enchanted equipment from commonplace to  uncommon AND limited the maximum enchantment range. Rationale: Originally  I made enchanted items commonplace (with a large range) as a catchall for  monster's to be able to be equipped with armour and weapons to match  their defined AC and damage ability, because I had no easy way to check  that valid combinations were available. Now that I wrote a utility to  validate each monster, I changed some monster definitions so that valid  non-enchanted combinations of weapons and armour are now availalble. In  consolation, chests now have a greater chance to contain lesser enchanted  items. This strikes a better game balance, especially money from selling  high-enchantment items.o New Extra's menu option: [4] Clear Enchanted Store Stock. This option  removes all enchanted items from the store. This does not affect any  enchanted items your characters possess.Extra Stuff Changed in v7.0:o Depending on level, greater chance for pups in dragon lairs.o When plants call, usually non-plants will now respond.o Double-checked all monsters, made the following changes:o All spirits are now incorporeal entities.o Generic monster-subtype creatures moved over to beast-subtype.o Added fiend-subtype for corporeal demons.o Moved some monster to correct subtype (i.e. manticore to beast).o Only NPCs and humanoid monsters are now equipped with weapons and armour.  Rationale: Undead equipment is mostly in rough shape, and giant stuff is  too large and crude to be usable.o Less chance to be drained more than one level at a time.o Instead of having each group outfitted with the same equipment and  devices, each individual monster now is equipped with its own stuff.  Item spoils are now listed with the exact monster it was found on.II Infinitum,Jeff Fink(FINKSTERJ, 34416, GO COM A2)[EOA][BDC]THE BlueDisk CONTROLLER PRO AND CON"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""Since it's yet to have been mentioned here, you should know there are bothadvantages and disadvantages concerning the BlueDisk controller:The obvious disadvantage is any floppy drive connected will require its ownpowersource (and likely external enclosure). This is ideal for IIgsmotherboards re-installed in a generic PC towercase but gets a bit trickyfor GS's still in their original cases. In that situtation you'll need tofind a suitable external enclosure for the PC drive(s) and a 36-pin floppycable long enough to reach between the two.Another disadvantage is the BlueDisk is only capable of accessing MFMformatted media--under no circumstance will you be able to read or writeApple 400K, 800K or 140K diskettes (GCR formatted). This problem is easilyovercome by leaving your Apple 3.5 and 5.25 still attached to the IIgsbackport for compatibility, though admittely I've done this with even theSuperDrive for despite its dual MFM/GCR compatibility, it doesn't alwaysboot old software.Where the BlueDisk comes ahead is its ability to use most _any_ PC floppydrives which are dirt cheap and widely available (including the cabling toconnect them to the BlueDisk card). You can connect PC 3.5 drives (720K,1.44M, 2.88M) and PC 5.25 drives (360K, 1.2M). ProDOS and Macintoshdiskettes formatted as 1.44MB are MFM, so they do not suffer any sort ofincompatibility with the BlueDisk which is certainly a plus. You'd be ableto share data with IIgs-SuperDrive, Mac and IBM PC users without anyproblems whatsoever.Mitchell Spector {<mailto:spec@total.net> spec@total.net}(SPECTOR1, 34149, GO COM A2)[EOA][XTS]X-10 SOFTWARE"""""""""""""It's been a while since I posted this request, but I am still interested inplaying with the stuff. I may have contacted you earlier in the year, notsure. However, if you have come across the stuff you said you might have Iam still interested in it. Drop me a note at {<mailto:snoopy@accessus.net.>snoopy@accessus.net.} And if you have information on how to get ahold ofthe guy named Art perhaps I could get in touch with him. Thanks again.Steve(SJACOBER, 34254, GO COM A2)>>>>>"""""Steve,You're in luck, I'm the guy named Art :) AND I was getting ready toreclassify my X-10 software from shareware to freeware in January. Contactme at artcough@concentric.net and I'll see about getting a copy of theX10NDA stuff to you.The entire X-10 Survival kit will be available free once I get my web pageup (February, if I get my lazy butt in gear), as well as the rest of myIIgs software, a couple of Mac Applescripts and screen shots from my homecontrol program.I need to make some changes to the docs to reflect freeware status andchanged email address, as well as fixing some minor cosmetic bugs.(This message has also been sent to snoopy@accessus.net asrequested).Art(ART_COUGHLIN, 34267, GO COM A2)[EOA][XTH]X-10 HARDWARE"""""""""""""As pointed out in the earlier postings a good source for education on theX10 hardware systems is smarthome.com.I am intending to play with a wireless interface called the "Firecracker".Apparently the normal interface into the house wiring (which is whatcarries the control signal throughout the house) is with an interface unitthat attaches to a serial port on the computer and then into a wall outletto provide a physical connection to the house wiring.The Firecracker does not physically plug into the wall. It connects to theserial port and then, by way of a wireless RF signal, sends the controlsignals to a module that plugs into the wall which in turn puts the controlsignal into the house wiring.According to what I have read it seems possible that software that workswith the physical interface should work with the Firecracker. I am figuringon giving it a try. The Firecracker unit is apparently not available atsmarthome, but is available at x10.com. The converter cable is notavailable at x10, but is available at smarthome. The Firecracker is a DB9set up and the GS is a MiniDin 8. The cable is about $10.00 and convertsfrom DB9 to MiniDin 8. The unit is supposed to have pass-throughcapability, as it has two DB9 connections.Plan to try to get this thing up and going shortly and use it to controlsome of the outside Christmas lights. It would sure beat bundling up andrunning outside in the snow/rain/sleet/cold to unplug the cords at night.Obviously a considerable amount of weatherproofing the outside units willhave to be done.I'll let you all know how it goes.Steve(SJACOBER, 34304, GO COM A2)[EOA][CTP]CONNECTING A IIGS TO A LAN NETWORK WITH PCs"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""> Is it possible to connect an apple IIgs to a lan network of two pcs?Yes, it is much easier now then it was a few months ago. The LANceGSethernet card (see {<http://lancegs.a2central.com/>http://lancegs.a2central.com/} for more information except that the addressisn't working at this moment, but I'm sure that will be fixed soon) is theeasiest way to get the Apple to communicate with the PC. Software on theApple IIgs side is very limited--at best, all you can do is use ftp whichmeans you need to set up a FTP server on the PC so the two machines cantransfer files. {<http://www.tucows.com/> http://www.tucows.com/} shouldhelp you find a FTP server.Geoff(SISGEOFF, 34352, GO COM A2)[EOA][NWU]NINJAFORCE WEBSITE UPDATES""""""""""""""""""""""""""December 11, 2000 IIGS Demo Scene reviewed What is the major difference ofthe Apple IIGS to its predecessors? Graphics and Sound, of course! It isChristmas time, a time when we become contemplative and think of the past.Join us at {<http://forums.delphi.com/m/> http://www.ninjaforce.com} whilewe take a special look at the Apple IIGS demoscene. And don't forget tovote for your favourite demos!-- Jesse Blue / NinjaforceE-MAIL: {<mailto:jesseblue@ninjaforce.com> jesseblue@ninjaforce.com}ICQ: 8895643WWW: {<http://www.ninjaforce.com> http://www.ninjaforce.com}(JESSEBLUE, 34376, GO COM A2)>>>>>"""""December 14, 2000NFC DemoDrive available for downloadFor emulator users, there is now a special NFC demo hard drive imageavailable.It combines the Revenge of the Bobs Demo, the Megademo, and the Megademo"Mekka/Symposium '97 special edition" on one easy to use bootable imagefile.Just go to: {<http://www.ninjaforce.com> http://www.ninjaforce.com}-- Jesse Blue / NinjaforceE-MAIL: {<mailto:jesseblue@ninjaforce.com> jesseblue@ninjaforce.com}ICQ: 8895643WWW: {<http://www.ninjaforce.com> http://www.ninjaforce.com}(JESSEBLUE, 34419, GO COM A2)[EOA][SCM]SHAREWARE SOLUTIONS II - CRYPTIC MODE - ?"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""<cryptic mode>You just never know, until you check out the Shareware Solutions II onlinestore, just what type of new or discounted products might be offered tofolks on a whim. In other words, if you like surprises or even, for thatmatter, low cost Apple IIGS products, it might behoove you to access thefollowing URL:http://order.kagi.com/?zs3</cryptic mode>Joe Kohnhttp://users.foxvalley.net/~joko(JOE_KOHN, 34420, GO COM A2)>>>>>""""">> cryptic modeHmmm. Let's try that again...On a whim, I made each of the two Resource-Central hypermedia CDs availableyesterday on my Kagi site for $25.It's not often that someone knocks $75 off the price of a product, but on awhim, that's exactly what I did.Maybe I'll wake up tomorrow or the next day and say to myself, "my gosh,what have you done?" I dunno.IOW, I'm not quite sure if this is a holiday sale, or a present, or apermanent price drop, or temporary insanity, or what? ;-)So, to quote the late-great Janis Joplin, "Get it while you can." Joe Kohn http://users.foxvalley.net/~joko(JOE_KOHN, 34430, GO COM A2)[EOA]------------------------------------     DISTILLATIONS FROM DELPHI A2P |------------------------------------by Lyle Syverson <lyle@foxvalley.net>[OII]Opus ][ Ships!""""""""""""""** OPUS ][ **     *  $1,680.00 worth of software     *  35 commercial applications     *  16 unreleased applications     *  Over a million lines of source     *  2 commercial applications no longer in print     *  9 unreleased upgrades, including ORCA/C and ORCA/Pascal     *  Over 50 user contributed programs, most with sourceThe Byte Works, Inc. announced a collection of every Apple II program everreleased on the Byte Works label, along with source code for all of theprograms that were developed at the Byte Works!This must-have collection includes all of the famous ORCA languages,including the ORCA/M macro assembler, and compilers for C, Pascal, IntegerBASIC and Modula-2. All of the support programs and courses are there toround out your development collection. You get the Quick Click spreadsheet,morph program, and movie player, too!Every program is included in three formats: Disk images you can move to800K floppy disks, a ProDOS disk image for use with emulators, and an HFSfolder that's directly accessible from any computer that reads HFS disks,including the Apple IIGS with System 6.0.1 and the HFS driver, as well asthe Macintosh.The documentation is there, too. Much of it has been reformattedspecifically for this release! Each of the 35 book length manuals isincluded in four different formats: Microsoft Word 98, PDF, RTF and ASCII.You can load, search, print or even annotate all 35 manuals!For complete information, see our web site at {<http://www.byteworks.org>http://www.byteworks.org}. If you have any questions at all, drop us a lineat MikeW50@AOL.COM or phone (505) 898-8183.(BYTEWORKS, 3229, GO COM A2P)[EOA][OTO]-----------------------------------                  OPUS II OVERVIEW |-----------------------------------by Mike Westerfield    MikeW50@AOL.COMThe Opus ][ collection appears on two CDs that can be purchasedindividually or as a collection. The CDs are in Macintosh HFS format, whichalso works on properly equipped Apple IIGS computers running System 6.0.1and the HFS FST. You can access the files from Windows machines if you havesoftware that allows access to Macintosh format disks.The software CD contains the most recent release of every commercialapplication published for the Apple ][ and Apple IIGS platforms by the ByteWorks, Inc. Both the programs and the documentation are included.The programs exist in three forms.1. Disk ImagesThis folder contains ShrinkWrap disk images, which are compatible withApple IIGS emulators like Bernie, as well as with ShrinkWrap and DiskCopy.These programs can create 800K disk images that you can carry to an AppleIIGS or Apple II that have an 800K floppy disk drive.There is one important caveat about creating floppy disk images. Applechanged the type of drive used in Macintosh computers, and eventuallydropped the floppy drive altogether. The external add-on drives I've testedfor USB equipped Macintosh computers will not create 800K floppy images atall. The recent Macintosh drives will not format a disk properly for an800K Apple IIGS drive. If the disk images you create don't work on an AppleIIGS, you'll need to find an older Macintosh, put a CD drive on the AppleIIGS, or format the floppy disk on the Apple IIGS, then copy the files on afile-by-file basis from the disk image to the floppy disk using theMacintosh Finder, which can mount both the disk images and the Apple IIGSfloppy. Strange as it seems, the recent Macintosh computers that still havefloppy disk drives are perfectly capable of copying files to an Apple IIGSdisk, they just can't create a full disk image.2. ByteWorksThis folder has all of the software. It is preinstalled, ready to run on anApple IIGS that has a CD-ROM drive. You'll get better performance, though,if you copy the contents of the folder to the root directory of a ProDOSformat hard drive. You can also access all of the files from a Macintosh orproperly equipped Windows machine.3. For EmulatorsThis folder has a 32M disk image designed for use with Macintosh Apple IIGSemulators like Bernie. It may work with other emulators as well, but Ihaven't tried it. The files are identical to those in the ByteWorks folder,but dragging this 32M image to your emulator folder is considerably easierthan dealing with the ByteWorks folder.The Documentation folder contains all of the documentation for thecommercial products. It's available in four different formats.1. WordAll of our recent documentation was created in Microsoft Word. All of thedocumentation has been moved to Microsoft Word 98 for the Macintosh,checked, and when necessary, reformatted. You will find some differencesbetween the documentation in this folder and our printed documentation,especially for older programs. That's because changes in fonts, MicrosoftWord itself, and printers occasionally forced me to reformat thedocumentation. For the really old stuff, Microsoft Word would not read theoriginal files, so I had to recover the ASCII and completely redo theformatting. For the truly ancient stuff, including most of the 8 bitsoftware, I didn't have any files at all, or the ones I had could not beread on any equipment I still own. Small-C is a good example. For theseprograms, we used OCR software to convert the documents to ASCII, thenredid the formatting. Watch for typographical errors in those olderdocuments, especially in source code.2. PDFAll of the documents were converted to PDF format using Acrobat Distiller.Use this format if you want to print a physical copy of the documentation.Most copy shops can print PDF files on 3 hole notebook paper.3. RTFAll of the documentation was saved from Microsoft Word in RTF format. Thisis a text interchange format that most text editors can load. It preservesmost of the formatting. Use this format if you are trying to read thedocumentation online, you don't have Microsoft Word, and you do have aneditor that recognizes RTF.4. ASCIIIf all else fails, there are the raw ASCII files. You loose all formattingand all figures, but at least the words are still there. ASCIIdocumentation can be read with practically anything, even the ORCAprogramming language editors.The source CD has the source code for all of the programs on the softwareCD that were developed at the Byte Works, Inc. It also has the unpublishedprograms, including some that were never completed. The uncompletedprograms do not appear on the software CD.Some of the software, like QCCalc, appears in individual folders. All ofthe ORCA related software is collected in the ORCA folder. The ORCAlanguages shared many common components, like the shell, linker and editor,so it didn't make sense to break these up by product. Bonus contains thesource code for all of the unpublished programs, while Beta has the sourcecode for commercial programs like the C compiler that were updated afterthe last commercial release. These beta versions are the ones I actuallyuse, although they have not been run through the complete test cycle I usedfor commercial releases.The test suites for ORCA/C and ORCA/M are included with the languages. Thetests for ORCA/Pascal were based on a commercially available ISO Pascaltest suite, so I could not put them on the CD.[AOT]-----------------------------------                     ABOUT OPUS II |-----------------------------------by Mike Westerfield    MikeW50@AOL.COMI've known and loved the Apple ][ for over two decades. I sold my only car,a fun little two seat convertible, to buy my first Apple ][ computer. Soit's both with sadness and nostalgia that I type the introduction to whatwill surely be my last significant contribution to the Apple ][. It's beena good ride, though, and the fact that I won't be able to do more projectsdoesn't mean that any of us will stop enjoying this wonderful platform!This opus is both a useful software collection and a history tour. Itstarts with Crypto, the first program ever published by the Byte Works. Idid this product more to learn how to publish a program than out of anyhope for commercial success, and I got what I expected.ORCA/M started as a summer project in 1979. I couldn't find an assemblerthat was worth 2 cents, and a friend and mentor talked me into writing oneof my own. Stupidly, I didn't see why the full-blown IBM 360 macroassembler would not work on an Apple ][, so I wrote one very much like it.That original version was published for DOS 3.3 by Hayden Software. It'sProDOS successor appears on this collection as II-03, and was the assemblerApple chose to become the standard development environment for the AppleIIGS. The Apple IIGS version is also on this CD as GS-04. In variousversions it was published by us under the ORCA label and by Apple as APW(Apple Programmer's Workshop).My educational background is in Physics, not computer science. For theyoungsters in the crown, you need to keep in mind that, while it's notnormal, it's also not uncommon for programmers in their 40's to havestarted in another field. Incredible as it seems, the Air Force Academydidn't even have a separate department for CS when I attended it was lumpedin with the Astronautics Department. Maybe it still is. In any case, myofficial training in CS amounts to a 3 semester hour course in introductoryprogramming using Algol. Writing the assembler whetted my appetite, though,and I hit the books.My first attempt at a compiler was an implementation of Pascal on the 8 bitApple ][. It was a failure; it just wouldn't fit. I tried again on theApple IIGS, creating ORCA/Pascal and then ORCA/C. While you will find somewarts in both if you dig through the source, I'm still pretty proud ofthem. Considering the budget and number of people involved, I'm stillrather amazed at what we accomplished.To this day, I have never used an implementation of Pascal I like better.Some of the environments are better now, and the generated code is oftenquite good, but the implementation of the language itself is as good inORCA/Pascal as it is anywhere. I'd stack it up against the offering fromMetrowerks or Microsoft in a microsecond.In all of my languages, I tried to observe existing standards or establishnew ones, and I succeeded in ORCA/C to an extent that actually annoyedpeople! ORCA/C is so ANSI compatible that one member of the standardscommittee used it to vet programs that used common extensions that ORCA/Cwould flag as errors or choke on. Even I relented, though. By the releaseon this CD, you can use // comments and a few other common extensions,although you can also turn the extensions off if you want.ORCA/M, ORCA/Pascal and ORCA/C formed the core for our development tools,but there were many additional products. ORCA/Modula-2 joined the list offull-blown languages. It is also the only language written by an outsideauthor, Peter Easdown of Australia. Our biggest problem in bringing thisproduct to market was not communication or logistics, but transferringroyalties from US dollars to Australian dollars!This collection of languages has one feature that is probably not unique,but I can't name another system that duplicates it. All of these languagesshare a common set of run-time libraries, not just a common environment.That doesn't just mean that they can coexist, although that in itself ispretty unusual. You can write a program that has parts written in each ofthe languages, and the program will work just fine. Parameters will bepassed, arrays can be accessed across languages, records and structs arecompatible, and so forth. The (possibly) unique part is that the librariesare really the same at the lowest level. You can begin printing some textin one language and finish printing in another and it all works smoothly.And that's just one of the many examples of the libraries working together.Other languages include Integer BASIC, a toy compiler I wrote todemonstrate how to install languages in ORCA; GSoft BASIC, a pretty coolBASIC interpreter that runs under either the ORCA environment or from theFinder; and two versions of Logo, one stand-alone and one that is ascripting language for HyperStudio. There is also one incomplete languageon the source CD. Pilot is another toy language that I started to showpeople how to install interpreters under the ORCA environment. It's notcomplete, but it is far enough along to execute many Pilot programs. ORCA/Cwas also translated to run on MPW for use with the MPW IIGS crossdevelopment tools; that's the only Macintosh program you'll find on the CD.We added several support products for the 8 bit version of ORCA/M,including Small-C, which is available for the first time in years on thisCD; floating point libraries; a simple debugger; and the source code forthe subroutine libraries. While open source is a fad today, making thesource code for even the run-time libraries of a commercial productavailable for general sale was a pretty unusual move when we first did it,but we've done it with every product we ever released. In those days it wasmore common for a company to try to charge royalties for using thelibraries in commercial programs!Four of our programming add-ons for the Apple IIGS were created by outsideauthors. Design Master was, in it's day, a very cool precursor to today'sRAD environments. ORCA/Disassembler was one of the few products that eversurprised me by selling far more copies than I expected. We did three orfour print runs on that one. Talking Tools relies on a speech enginewritten by an outside company, and the support materials were written byBarbara Allred after she left the Byte Works. One of our most recentadditions is Marinetti, an implementation of TCP/IP for the Apple IIGS,which we released as a Byte Works product so people would have a reliableplace to come for the printed documentation. It's also available freeonline, of course.ORCA/Debugger is a source-level debugger for high-level languages. There isanother debugger in the desktop development environment, but it is limitedto 640 mode graphics and desktop applications, NBAs, and text programs thatare simple enough to use the shell window. I wanted a debugger that coulddebug anything. I'd been trying to get outside authors to write one forquite some time, and finally gave up and wrote my own. Within a few weeks,one of the aborted outside projects got going again, resulting in acompeting debugger. Geeze, if they had let me know, I would have left thefield clear for them! Anyway, the result was two debuggers, each basicallystrong products with their own strong and weak points.Merlin was the clear favorite for assembly language programmers on the 8bit Apple. We were fighting that market hold, eventually winning on theApple IIGS. Merlin to ORCA was a source code translator that we used tohelp convert Merlin fans to the ORCA fold. Roger Wagner, publisher ofMerlin and a future business partner, called me after it's release to pointout what he considered a pun in a review: The title was "Merlin In, ORCAOut." I don't get it.Merlin to ORCA was based on another source translator that we gave awayfree, so it never appeared in any literature. Edasm to ORCA translates fromApple's stock 8 bit assembler to ORCA/M. I wrote it in hopes of convincingApple to switch to ORCA/M. I never dreamed how well it would work. At myfirst meeting with Apple to explore ideas that eventually led to APW, oneof their project leaders brought up the point that they had a lot of sourcein Edasm that would be tough to convert. I think he was leading up toasking me to change the syntax of ORCA/M. Before he finished, I popped mybriefcase open, pulled out the Edasm to ORCA disk, and slid it across thetable to him. I told him it was a gift; the source code was there and theycould do whatever they wanted with it. He grinned, and dropped the wholeline of argument. Edasm to ORCA appears on the CD as well. By the timeMerlin to ORCA came out, though, I'd realized one of the dirty littlesecrets of marketing: Most people won't attach any more value to a productthan you do. If you give it away, they think it's worthless. We charged forMerlin to ORCA in part so people would take it seriously. As a result, itactually got the review Roger called me about.Utility Pac #1 is a collection of shell utilities. It never sold well, sothere was never a Utility Pac #2, although you'll find several coolutilities on the CD that would have been in that package had it ever beenreleased. The lack of a market didn't stop us from developing severalutilities for our own use! You'll find all but one that later became abuilt-in command on the software CD, and the source for all of them on thesource CD at /Source/Bonus/Utilities.Apple continued to create great additions to the System software as theApple IIGS waned. I urged them to collect the material and create a fourthvolume to the toolbox reference series. They declined, partly becauseAddison-Wesley was no longer interested and partly because some of theengineers didn't think the changes were extensive enough to justify a newvolume. I convinced them to let me create the volume from tech notes, withApple Engineers editing the final draft. The 468 page result convinced eventhe skeptics that there was enough material, so they let me do a 50 pageaddition for System 6.0.1. The result is Programmer's Reference for System6.0 and 6.0.1, the volume that would have been Apple IIGS ToolboxReference, Volume 4 if Addison Wesley had been interested.One of our most significant contributions to Apple IIGS programming was notactually a development tool. Our series of programming courses gave AppleIIGS fans entry level books that were tailored to the Apple IIGS. As far asI know, the books in the Learn to Program series are the only entry levelbooks created specifically for the Apple IIGS market. I'm not aware of anyothers that used a high-level language, and the assembly language bookswere really all transition books targeted at skilled 6502 programmers. Thecompanion Toolbox Programming series is still the best way to learn thetoolbox. Both are available for ORCA/Pascal and ORCA/C, and the learn toprogram course is also available for GSoft BASIC. All are on the CD. Evenif you don't need the courses, the 11 disks of source code are a valuablereference. Many of my later programs started by copying the files from oneof the toolbox examples into a folder and munging the source to fit the newdesign.We were always known for our programming tools, but we made several foraysinto other markets, too. There is Byte Paint on the 8 bit Apple ][ side,which is partly a mouse driven paint program and partly an amper packagefor Applesoft programmers; and Voyager, a product that is like opera music:more satisfying for the author or performer than the audience. We tried theeducation market briefly on the Apple IIGS with the Ugly Duckling TalkingStorybook, but McMillan showed up at the same AppleFest where we announcedwith a series of two similar programs. Who knows what would have happenedif we'd been six months earlier.Our last serious effort was the Quick Click programming series. Calc is apretty cool graphing spreadsheet. Morph was an attempt to cash in on atrend in graphics software that was sweeping the computer world; it'sactually a lot of fun to play with, but it is painfully slow on an AppleIIGS.There was a third program in the series called Draw, which was intended asa simple CAD program like the one in AppleWorks GS. Had the market held up,the intent was to fill out the product line with paint, word processing anddatabase programs, then tie them together with a multi-Finder-likeswitcher. Draw supports some pretty cool features, like the ability torotate all of its objects to arbitrary angles. I was working on theprinting commands, with just text, layers and libraries left when I startedto talk about it online to make sure I wasn't missing any little tweaksthat folks would really want. The basic message I got was, if it wasn'tAutoCAD on the GS, forget it. I ended up canning the project a few weeksbefore completion. I still wonder from time to time if I should havefinished the project.You'll find a few other noncommercial creations on the source CD. There isa copy of the executables for the first version of APW, along with a GSversion of Small-C and LINKED, the scripting linker we wrote for Apple.Apple insisted we write it in Small-C; the linker I later wrote for ORCAwas in assembly language. There is also an electronic version of the Skyand Telescope planet finder, an SHR screen dump utility and a quick littledebug break utility. Finally, you'll find one complete application. It's aprogram switcher written for System Disk 3.2, the very first one everwritten. I was trying to find another publisher to release it because Iknew by then that my expertise was in writing, not marketing. I thought Ihad a deal with two different companies, but both deals foundered.Incidentally, there were strong forces within Apple that disapproved ofthis program: They actually didn't want people to see this sort ofapplication on the Apple IIGS!So it's all here, pretty much everything I ever wrote or published on theApple ][ that was worth saving and wasn't published by another company.It's been a lot of things for me, including a livelihood for a number ofyears, an education, and an avocation. I hope you get some enjoyment out ofthis collection. I certainly got a lot of enjoyment from creating it!Mike WesterfieldAlbuquerque, New MexicoNovember 2000------------------------------------             LETTERS TO THE EDITOR |------------------------------------[NLE]NO LETTERS TO THE EDITOR THIS MONTH"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""The mail box for Letters to the Editor remained empty this month.[EOA][LTE]AN INVITATION~~~~~~~~~~~~~Express your opinions about the comings and goings in the world of theApple II computers.Send your comments to Lyle Syverson, Editor <lyle@FoxValley.net>The Editor reserves the right to edit any material submitted.The Editor reserves the right to reject any material he considersunsuitable for publication in _The Lamp!_.[EOA][KFT]KFest 2001""""""""""                                Plan Ahead                                ~~~~~~~~~~KFest 2001 is set for July 25-29 (early arrivals on July 24) at AvilaCollege.  Put it on your calender and start saving your money.  You will beglad you did.[EOA][INN]------------------------------                     EXTRA INNINGS |-----------------------------------About The Lamp!   The Lamp! is published on the fifteenth of every month in"""""""""""""""   the Database of the II Scribe Forum on the Delphi onlineservice (GO CUS 11).This publication produced entirely with real or emulated Apple II computersusing Appleworks 5.1 and Hermes.  Apple II Forever!     * The Lamp! is (c) copyright 2000 by Ryan M. Suenaga, M.S.W.  All       rights reserved.     * To reach The Lamp! on Internet email send mail to       thelamp@sheppyware.net     * Back issues of The Lamp! are available in the II Scribe Forum on       Delphi as well as The Lamp! Home Page,       http://lamp.sheppyware.net.>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>Opinions expressed herein are those of  the individual authors, and do  notnecessarily  represent  the  opinions   of  the  Delphi  Online   Services,Syndicomm, Inc.,  Ryan M. Suenaga, or Lyle Syverson.   Forum  messages  arereprinted verbatim and  are included  in this  publication with  permissionfrom  the  individual  authors.   Delphi Online Services,  Syndicomm, Inc.,Ryan M.  Suenaga,  and Lyle Syverson  do  not  guarantee  the  accuracy  orsuitability of any  information included herein.  We reserve  the  right toedit all letters and copy.Material published  in  this  edition  may not  be  reprinted  without  theexpressed  written consent  of the  publisher.   Registered  computer  usergroups, not  for profit  publications ,  and other  interested parties  maywrite the publisher to apply for permission to reprint any or all material.<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<[EOF]
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