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ProntoDOS TM
Copyright @ 1982, TOM WEISHAAR
10026 Roe, Overland Park, Kansas 66207
913-649-0567

Published by BEAGLE BROS INC.
4315 Sierra Vista, San Diego, California 92103
619-296-6400

[Editor's note: There are several margin notes in the original
manual. I placed these in-line with the main text at the appropriate
points in square brackets.]

WARRANTIES AND LIMITATIONS OF LIABILITY
Beagle Bros Inc. warrants that ProntoDOS will speed up Apple disk access.
In the event that ProntoDOS does not meet this warranty or any other
warranty, express or implied, Beagle Bros will refund the purchase price of
this program. BEAGLE BROS' LIABILITY IS LIMITED TO THIS PROGRAM'S
PURCHASE PRICE. In no case shall Beagle Bros or the author be liable for
any incidental or consequential damages, nor for any damages in excess
of the purchase price of ProntoDOS.

The ProntoDOS disk Includes software, Apple DOS 3.3, owned by Apple
Computer, Inc. This software is used under license from Apple. Apple
makes no warranties, either express or implied, regarding Apple DOS, its
merchantability, or its fitness for any particular purpose.

DISTRIBUTION LICENSES
PRONTO-DOS, HELLO PRONTO-DOS, PRONTO UPDATE, and DOS-UP are
copyrighted programs. They are distributed without copy protection
because this makes them easier to use and more valuable to you, the
user. You, in turn, have been entrusted to honor our copyrights.

If you would like to publish programs on disks that include ProntoDOS,
a special publisher's version is available for public licensing for a flat
$250.00 per year. Licenses are also available to organizations that would
like to include ProntoDOS on disks distributed internally. Contact the
author -

TOM WEISHAAR
10026 Roe Overland Park, Kansas 66207
913-649-0567

[Inside front cover]

TABLE OF CONTENTS
PRONTO-DOS SUMMARY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
GENERAL INFORMATION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
CREATING NEW PRONTO-DOS DISKS . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
UPDATING EXISTING DISKS . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . 4
PRONTO-DOS ENHANCEMENTS (adding new features to DOS) . 6
HELLO PRONTO-DOS (when you can't boot ProntoDOS) . . 11
DOS-UP (moving DOS to high-memory) . . . . . . . . . 11
DO FID and DO RENUMBER .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
PRONTO-DOS AND OTHER PROGRAMS . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
PRONTO-DOS AND TEXT FILES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
PRONTO-DOS AND INTEGER BASIC APPLES . . . . . . . . . 17
SAVING ARRAYS IN FAST BINARY FILES . . . . . . . . .. 18
INDEX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

PRONTO-DOS SUMMARY

TO GET PRONTO-DOS IN MEMORY
* Boot the original ProntoDOS disk OR any disk you have
created using ProntoDOS.
TO REMOVE PRONTO-DOS FROM MEMORY
* Boot any non-ProntoDOS disk.
TO CREATE PRONTO-DOS DISKS
* CREATE NEW DISKS- Boot ProntoDOS, then INIT new
disks (which will contain 15 extra sectors), OR...
* UPDATE EXISTING DISKS- Boot ProntoDOS and RUN
PRONTO UPDATE (updated disks contain the standard
number of free sectors).
TO MOVE PRONTO-DOS TO HIGH-MEMORY
(requires Apple lie OR older Apple with Language Card)
* Boot ProntoDOS, then BRUN DOS-UP.

WARNINGS
* MAKE BACKUP COPIES of all disks before you update
them to ProntoDOS.
* NEVER UPDATE COPY-PROTECTED DISKS. You will ruin
them. Period.
* DON'T USE APPLE'S MASTER CREATE program on
ProntoDOS disks. Doing so will destroy data in the disk's
15 extra sectors.

[page 1]

PRONTO-DOS GENERAL INFORMATION
ProntoDOS is a set of assembly language modifications to
Apple's DOS 3.3. These modifications allow much faster handling
of Basic and Binary files. Text files are not affected,
although some bugs in Apple DOS pertaining to Text
Files have been removed. To use ProntoDOS, you need an Apple
II, II-plus or IIe with at least 48K and the Apple 3.3 (16-sector)
Disk Operating System.

ProntoDOS works exactly like Apple DOS. All commands
are the same. All error messages are the same. All
files and disks are the same. No conversion of files, "muffining",
or re-initialization of disks is necessary. Files created with
ProntoDOS are exact duplicates of files created with Apple
DOS. ProntoDOS will accept all pokes found in Beagle Bros
Tip Books and programs, Including DOS Boss, Key-Cat, Beagle
Menu, and so on.

[USING PRONTODOS IS ALMOST LIKE USING NORMAL APPLE DOS.]

Commands and file structure are fully-documented in
"The DOS Manual", which came with your Apple disk drive.
None of that Information is repeated here.

For some basic Information on how ProntoDOS does
what it does, see the article by Tom Weishaar, "DOS Be
Nimble, DOS Be Quick" In the March 1983 Softalk.

To get ProntoDOS running, boot the ProntoDOS disk or
any disk you have updated with ProntoDOS. It will load a
version of Apple DOS that includes the ProntoDOS modifica-
tions. You will then have access to ProntoDOS's speed until
you boot another disk or turn off your computer. If you boot
another disk, the DOS on that disk will wipe out ProntoDOS.
You can tell if ProntoDOS is active by typing the CATALOG
command. The area that normally says "DISK VOLUME ###"
will say "PRONTO-DOS V###".

[YOU MUST BOOT PRONTO-DOS TO INSTALL IT IN YOUR APPLES MEMORY.]
[BOOT PRONTODOS, THEN INIT AS MANY DISKS AS YOU WANT.]

Any disk you Initialize with the DOS "INIT" command
WHILE PRONTO-DOS IS ACTIVE will have ProntoDOS written on
it. This means that whenever you boot these disks, ProntoDOS
will be loaded automatically.

When creating ProntoDOS disks with the INIT command,
it is highly-recommended that you DO NOT RUN ANY
PROGRAMS (with the exception of PRONTO UPDATE) between
the time you boot ProntoDOS and the time you INITialize your
disks. In particular, do not run any programs that install
themselves between DOS and its buffers, such as GPLE or
Flex Text.

Disks initialized with ProntoDOS have an additional
bonus- 15 extra sectors of free space, compared to disks
initialized with Apple DOS.

[page 2]

You can also update your existing disks to ProntoDOS.
To do this, boot the ProntoDOS disk and RUN the program
called PRONTO UPDATE. Select Option-2, "Update DOS on
Existing Disks". Instructions for using this option will
appear on your screen. NOTE: ProntoDOS must be active
in your computer when you update your disks. If standard
Apple DOS is active, your disks will be "updated" to
standard Apple DOS. For complete information, see Updating
DOS on the next page.

[ADD PRONTO-DOS TO DISKS THAT ALREADY HAVE DATA ON THEM.]

You can move DOS to a Language Cans or to the upper
reaches of the Apple IIe's memory with the program DOS-UP.
For complete Information see page 11.

If you use a special version of DOS that must be booted
from another disk so you can interface with hard disks, disk
emulators, clock cards, or other devices, BRUN HELLO
PRONTO-DOS after booting the other disk. This program will
poke the ProntoDOS modifications into the DOS in memory.
See page 11.

If you own a Standard Apple II (the Integer Basic version),
see the section called "ProntoDOS and Integer Basic
Apples" on page 17.

Memory Usage: Earlier versions of ProntoDOS used
empty spaces normally present within the pre-Apple IIe ver-
sion of Apple DOS. This caused conflicts with several pro-
grams that also tried to use this space. It also conflicted with
the Apple IIe version of DOS, which used one of these empty
spaces.

[PRONTO-DOS HIDES ITSELF WELL.]

The version of ProntoDOS on this disk hides itself in other
areas of DOS. It is very improbable that any other program
will poke changes into areas of DOS that have been modified
by ProntoDOS, with one exception. Programs that use the
empty space at location 47721-65 ($BA69-95) will overwrite
both the new Apple IIe version of DOS and ProntoDOS.

All problems with ProntoDOS reported to date, except
one, have been traced to programs that have modified this
area or other areas of DOS. Again, to be safe, it is highly
recommended you DO NOT RUN ANY PROGRAMS BETWEEN
THE TIME YOU BOOT PRONTO-DOS AND THE TIME YOU INITIALIZE
OR UPDATE DISKS you intend to boot (except, of course,
PRONTO UPDATE).

The only problem reported by ProntoDOS users not associated
with DOS modifications by alien programs is that ProntoDOS,
for very technical reasons related to a bug in the Apple
itself, will drive your computer crazy if you try to BSAVE a

[page 3]

range of memory that begins between $C100 and $C103. This
area is associated with software (or "firmware") on the
peripheral card in Slot 1, usually a printer driver. The
circumstances under which a user would want to access this
area with DOS are extremely rare. If you need to do it for
some reason, use standard Apple DOS. Do not attempt to
save this area using ProntoDOS.

The Apple APPEND command has always contained an
exotic bug that caused it to fail whenever the stars were
right. That bug has been removed in ProntoDOS. In addition,
a complex bug relating to the use of the "R" and "B"
parameters with Text Files has been fixed. If your programs
use these parameters, see "ProntoDOS and Text Files"
on page 16.

The standard Apple DOS skew pattern works best with
ProntoDOS. If you have used Quality Software's Bag of
Tricks (R), or another program, to re-skew your disks,
you will have to normalize them again to obtain maximum
ProntoDOS speed.

CREATING NEW PRONTO-DOS DISKS
Turn off your Apple if it's not already off. Insert the
original ProntoDOS disk or ANY ProntoDOS disk in your
drive, and turn your Apple on to boot that disk. Now you
may create new ProntoDOS disks using Apple's normal INIT
command. For example, insert a new (or erasable) disk, and type:

)INIT HELLO

(Any legal file name instead of "Hello" is, of course,
acceptable.) This will create a disk that, when booted, will
install ProntoDOS in your Apple's memory. For more details
on INIT, see your DOS MANUAL. For more on ProntoDOS's
INIT syntax, see page 10 of this manual.

UPDATING DOS ON EXISTING DISKS
To update existing disks, run the program PRONTO UPDATE,
which is on your original ProntoDOS disk.

)RUN PRONTO UPDATE

[page 4]

Option (1) will take you to the ENHANCEMENT MENU,
which allows you to customize ProntoDOS (see page 6).
Option (2) will update your existing disks so that your
personalized ProntoDOS will be active whenever those
disks are booted.

You may update disks with plain old (uncustomized)
ProntoDOS, with Apple DOS, and with either of those after
modifying them with Beagle Bros' DOS Boss program (DOS
Boss allows you to rename DOS error messages and
commands for program protection- try "/" for CATALOG, for
example- and to personalize the Disk Volume heading,
among other useful things.).

It is only necessary to update existing disks that you
INTEND TO BOOT. Disks used only for program or data storage
do not need to be updated.

DO MAKE BACKUP COPIES of all disks before updating.
DON'T UPDATE copy-protected disks.
DON'T UPDATE disks originally initialized with DOS but from
which DOS has been removed.

To update your existing disks, choose Option 2 from the
Main Menu of PRONTO UPDATE. To update disks and keep
the same Hello File Name and "Run Command" as the original,
simply insert the disk to be updated and press RETURN. It
takes less than 3 seconds to update each disk.

If you would like to change the name of the Hello File on
the disk, or if you would like the Hello File to be BRUN or
EXECed Instead of RUN, press the SPACE BAR before pressing
RETURN. You will be prompted to enter the new Hello File
Name to be used as well as the new Run Command.

To remove ProntoDOS from a disk, boot standard Apple
DOS before running PRONTO UPDATE. You will then be able to
re-update a disk back to Apple DOS. Only disks that were
originally initialized with Apple DOS can be converted back
to Apple DOS. This Is because ProntoDOS disks use less room
for DOS than Apple DOS disks. If you could put Apple DOS on
a disk originally initialized with ProntoDOS it would overwrite
some of your data. Therefore, the Update feature will not
allow you to do this. You will also be unable to update a disk
that was originally INITialized without DOS.

[page 5]

PRONTO-DOS ENHANCEMENTS
The PRONTO UPDATE program allows you to make certain
helpful modifications to DOS. To use this Applesoft program,
insert your ProntoDOS disk, and enter:

]RUN PRONTO UPDATE

You will be asked to choose between the Enhancement
Menu and updating DOS on existing disks. Choose Option-1.
You will then see the following menu

PRONTO UPDATE
ENHANCEMENT MENU
(1) "TYPE" COMMAND ACTIVE . . . . . . . . . . YES/NO
(2) CTRL-C KILLS CATALOGS . .. . . . . . . .. YES/NO
(3) (ESC) KILLS EXECS & READS . . . . . . . . YES/NO
(4) AUTOMATIC VERIFY AFTER SAVE . . . . . . YES/NO
(5) FORCE LANGUAGE CARD RELOAD . . . . . . . YES/NO
(6) PRINT DISK FREE SPACE . . . . . . . . . . YES/NO
(7) PRINT BINARY FILE ADR & LEN . . . . . . . YES/NO
(8) INIT SAVES DOS & HELLO FILE . . . . . . . YES/NO

Either the "YES" or "NO" will be shown in inverse letters
for each item. The inverse lettering indicates the current
status of that item. By pressing the keys "1" through "8"
you are able to switch the status of the items from "YES"
to "NO" and back again.

Each of these enhancements modifies the version of
ProntoDOS active in your Apple's memory. You cannot
enhance or otherwise modify the DOS on a disk without also
using the Update feature, which was explained on page 4.

[EVERY TIME YOU PRESS A NUMBER, STAND BY; THE DOS IN
MEMORY IS BEING ALTERED.]

Some of the enhancements simply change existing DOS
instructions a bit. Others add new instructions to DOS as
well.

Those enhancements that require new instructions of
their own place these instructions in some empty spaces
inside DOS. These enhancements are not the first routines, nor
will they be the last, to try to capture this territory.

TEST ALL PROGRAMS that might use the empty spaces in
DOS- RUN the program first, then RUN PRONTO UPDATE. If the
program has modified an area of DOS, you will be unable to
turn on the affected enhancement.

KEEP BACKUP COPIES of your disks. Programs that modify
DOS empty space, when run AFTER the enhancements are
made, will cause your program to "hang up" or "crash"

[page 6]

when you access the enhancement and COULD DAMAGE YOUR
DATA. Please use care. In some sensitive situations, your
best choice may be not to use these enhancements.

(1) "TYPE" COMMAND ACTIVE
The "TYPE" command lets you display the contents of Text
Files on your screen or printer. With this feature active and a
disk with a text file on it in your drive, simply enter:

]TYPE fllename

The file must be a Text File. The contents of the file will
begin to scroll by on your screen. On most Apples you can
stop the scroll by pressing control-S. Restart the scrolling by
pressing control-S again, or ESC or most any key.

You can stop the display entirely and bring the TYPE
command to an early end by pressing ESC while the file is
scrolling. If the file has been stopped by control-S you have
to push ESC twice- once to restart the scroll (this keypress
gets eaten by a Pac-Man), and once to stop.

If you don't kill the display, It will expire naturally when
the end of the file is reached. If the file Is a Random Access
file, TYPE expires when it hits the first empty record. (Often
this will be the very first record of the file, Record-0, thus
limiting the display to nothing at all.)

Example: Once the TYPE command is active, you can insert
your ProntoDOS disk and see what's In the file "DO FID"
(the purpose of which is explained later). If you do, here's
what you will see:

]TYPE DO FID
POKE 2051, 96
BLOAD FID
POKE 2132, 169
POKE 2133, 120
CALL 2051

You can also use the "R" parameter with TYPE, just as you
can with EXEC. If you use "R", the display will skip R
lines before starting the display. For example:

]TYPE DO FID, R2
POKE 2132, 169
POKE 2133, 120
CALL 2051

To get a file to appear on your printer, simply use the
normal PR#slot command to activate your printer before
entering the TYPE command.

The TYPE command uses the position of the VERIFY command
in the DOS command name table. This means that if you
turn TYPE on, you will be unable to use VERIFY. If you try,

[page 7]

you will get a SYNTAX ERROR.

The TYPE command uses the DOS empty space at $BCDF.

(2) CTRL-C KILLS CATALOGS
[EXIT LONG CATALOGS WITHOUT RESET.]
This command is useful for long catalogs. The CATALOG
command normally stops when your screen is full of file
names and warts for a keypress before showing you another
screen-full. If this enhancement is active, pressing ctrl-C
will bring the Catalog to a natural end instead of continuing.
This keeps the file name you were looking for from scrolling
off the screen before you get a chance to type it in.

This enhancement uses the DOS empty space at $BA87-$BA91.

(3) (ESC) KILLS EXECS & READS
[PUT THE BRAKES ON TEXT FILES.]
If you've ever had an error in an EXEC file that caused it to run
amuck, or if you've ever started to READ a Text File 10 miles
long and then realized it was the wrong one, you'll appreciate this feature. In either case, pressing ESC will bring the EXEC or READ
to an end by telling it the end of the file has been reached. With
READ, this will cause an END OF DATA error; with EXEC, it causes
a natural death.

This feature is useful primarily to programmers creating and
testing programs. It is a dangerous feature to use with
finished software, since a misplaced keystroke could cause
incredible problems.

This feature uses the DOS empty space at $BCDF.

(4) AUTOMATIC VERIFY AFTER SAVE
[SAVE-SPEED IS INCREASED AN ADDITIONAL 10 TO 15%.]
Normally, both Apple DOS and ProntoDOS do an automatic
VERIFY right after saving Binary and Basic files. By turning
this feature OFF, you can increase the speed at which files
are saved by 10% to 15%. You do this, however, at some risk
of data loss.

The setting of this feature is completely independent of
the setting of the TYPE command, even though TYPE deletes
the VERIFY command. The automatic verification can still
take place even if you can't manually VERIFY a file.

This feature does not use any additional space inside DOS.

(5) FORCE LANGUAGE CARD RELOAD
Normally, both Apple DOS and ProntoDOS will modify one
byte ($E000) of a Language Card during a boot. This forces
the card to be reloaded each time DOS is booted. If you turn
this feature off (NO), the Language Card will only be loaded
if it needs to be. In a few circumstances, a DOS with this
feature off will fall to load the Language Card when it should.
The decision (and risk) is yours.

This feature does not use any additional space.

(6) PRINT DISK FREE SPACE
[FREE-SPACE IS DISPLAYED EVERY TIME YOU CATALOG.]
This enhancement shows you how many sectors are free on each disk you Catalog. For example:

]CATALOG
PRONTO-DOS V254 FS=123 <===;'FS" STANDS FOR 'FREE SPACE".

A 010 FILE #1

B 020 BINARY FILE
T 030 TEXT FILE

This enhancement requires a rather long addition of
assembly language instructions and also requires the
availability of Basic. If you are using a program that
installs itself on the Language Card and tricks DOS into
thinking it is Applesoft or Integer Basic, this enhancement
will cause a CATALOG to hang up your computer or worse.

The new instructions are normally placed at $B6B3. If this
area is already in use and the INIT command has been
modified (Item-8 below), they will be placed at $B74A. A few
other programs also use these spaces. In particular, the
Language Card version of GPLE uses $B6B3. See page 15 for
more information on GPLE.

(7) PRINT BINARY FILE ADR & LEN
[THE ADDRESS & LENGTH OF BINARY FILES ARE DISPLAYED EVERY
TIME YOU BLOAD OR BRUN.]
This enhancement causes the Address and Length of a
Binary File to be displayed in hexadecimal when it is
BLOADed or BRUN. For example:

]BLOAD DOS-UP
A$4000 L$05BF
]BRUN HELLO PRONTO-DOS
A$4000 L$0458
This feature uses the same DOS empty space as the Disk
Free Space enhancement. Because of this, you cannot
turn them both on at the same time unless you modify the
INIT command (next item) and use its space. Again, note
that the Language Card version of GPLE also uses the
space at $B6B3.

[page 9]

(8) INIT SAVES DOS & HELLO FILE
[DON'T PUT DOS ON A DISK IF YOU DON'T NEED IT.]
Normally, of course, INIT not only "formats" and erases a disk,
but it also puts DOS on it and saves a Hello File. Now you can
turn this off (NO). INIT will still work, but nothing will be put on
the disk. It will contain 528 empty sectors. The disk will not boot,
but it makes an excellent "Data Disk".

When you use this enhancement, some Internal DOS space at $B74A is
opened up. This space will be used if you turn both the Disk Free
Space and Binary File Address and Length enhancements on at the same time.

When item-8 is set to NO, a ninth enhancement will appear on your menu--

(9) MODIFY INIT SYNTAX
When this item is set to YES, the INIT syntax is changed to

]INIT

Notice that no file name is used as is normally the case. If a file
name is given, as in:

]INIT HELLO

you will receive a SYNTAX ERROR to remind you the INIT command has
been modified. This enhancement can be useful, but it also causes
programs that use the INIT command, such as COPYA, to fail unless
they are revised to use the new syntax. The choice is yours.

Should you modify the INIT syntax, then later reset Item-8 so
INIT will save DOS and a Hello File, the INIT syntax will
be automatically normalized.

"---/NO" AND "??????"
If an Item shows "---/NO" at the right end of a line instead of
the normal "YES/NO", it means the feature cannot be turned on
because there is no space for it. You must turn some related
feature off first.

If an item shows "??????" it means the DOS you are working with
has been modified by some alien program. The location PRONTO
UPDATE looks at to determine whether a feature is active or not
is set to a value that indicates the feature is neither on nor off.

[page 10]

HELLO PRONTO-DOS
[LOADING PRONTODOS WHEN YOU AREN'T ALLOWED TO BOOT IT]
The program HELLO PRONTO-DOS is to be used only when a situation
will not allow you to boot a ProntoDOS disk. Few users will
encounter this problem.

The problem usually occurs when you must use a special DOS to
interface with a hard disk drive, a disk emulator, a clock card,
or other device. The problem is that these devices require you
to boot with their special DOS.

In this situation, you may BRUN HELLO PRONTO-DOS after booting.
This program checks to see if the locations used by ProntoDOS
have already been modified, and if not, pokes the ProntoDOS
modifications into the special DOS. If the special DOS is not
located at the normal 48K DOS location, HELLO PRONTO-DOS will
end with an error message.

If the special DOS was already using any of the memory
locations used by ProntoDOS, HELLO PRONTO-DOS will leave it
just as it is and give you a message that it was unable to
modify the special DOS.

If HELLO PRONTO-DOS was able to modify the special DOS
successfully, you will see a message saying ProntoDOS is
loaded and ready.

HELLO PRONTO-DOS does not change anything about the way disks
are initialized. If your special DOS allows you to INITialize
disks (most don't), you won't get the usual ProntoDOS
15-extra-sector bonus.

DOS-UP
[MOVING PRONTO DOS TO HIGH MEMORY OR LANGUAGE CARD]
DOS-UP is used to move ProntoDOS from its normal location in
memory to the Language Card (or "RAM Card") area ($D000-$FFFF)
of memory. This requires an Apple IIe OR a special card in
an older Apple's Slot-0. The advantage of moving DOS to the
Language Card is that Basic programs will have 10,415 extra
bytes of memory space to work with (a LOT of memory). If
space is a problem In your application, DOS-UP will help.
If space is not a problem, however, you will usually be
better-off leaving DOS in its standard location.

To use DOS-UP, boot ProntoDOS and then:

]BRUN DOS-UP

If DOS has already been moved, or if there is no Language
Card present, you will receive an error message.
Otherwise, the message "DOS NOW IN HIGH MEMORY" will be displayed.

[page 11]

Immediately after the message, DOS-UP attempts to RUN a
program named "Hello". This is done to create "Turnkey"
systems that automatically move DOS to high memory and
then execute the main program. When you BRUN DOS-UP
from inside a program, that program dies an unnatural
death after DOS is moved. The automatic running or
rerunning of "Hello" can bring it back to life.

[REASONS NOT TO MOVE DOS]
There are disadvantages of moving DOS to the Language
Card- One is that you can't use the card for an alternate
language. If you move DOS, the only Basic available to
you will be the one that is native to your computer
(usually Applesoft Basic).

Another disadvantage is that many assembly language
programs won't work correctly with DOS on a Language Card.
There are several reasons for this. Some assembly language
programs insert themselves between DOS and its buffers.
Few do this correctly with DOS on the Language Card.

Another problem is that many assembly language programs
poke an address into DOS to tell it what to do after a
disk error. But if DOS isn't where it's expected to be,
the poke has no effect. In this case, an error usually snatches
you from your program and drops you somewhere in Basic.

When DOS is in high-memory, the maximum MAXFILES value is 5
rather than the usual 16.

Yet another disadvantage is that the INIT command must be
modified when DOS is moved. If you haven't done this
yourself with PRONTO UPDATE, it will happen automatically
when DOS is moved. See page 10 for more.

Several other programs have been written to move DOS to
the Language Card. DOS MOVER by Cornelis Bongers,
published in the July/August 1981 Call-AP.P.L.E. served
as an inspiration for DOS-UP. However, DOS-UP has been
completely rewritten, because DOS MOVER and all other
programs like it that we have tested, have failed to move
ProntoDOS correctly.

To move ProntoDOS, you MUST use DOS-UP except when you
want to use the version of GPLE called "PLE.DM". For
more information, see page 15.

[HOW TO FIND DOS]
Your programs can tell if DOS-UP has already run or not
by PEEKing at location 978 ($3132). A value of 157 ($9D)
indicates that DOS is at its normal 48K location. When
DOS has been moved to the Language Card, this value
becomes 191 ($BF).

All ProntoDOS enhancements will work correctly from the
Language Card, but you must install them before running
DOS-UP. PRONTO UPDATE will refuse to run if DOS is not
at is standard 48K location.

[page 12]

If you would like to change the Hello-program name or
Run Command of the program DOS-UP runs automatically,
BLOAD DOS-UP and poke the new name in at 17262-17291
($436E-8B). The Run Command lives at 17205 ($4335).
Poke in a 6 for RUN; 20 ($14) for EXEC; 52 ($34) for
BRUN. Then:

]BSAVE DOS-UP,AS4000,L$5BF

[TECHNICAL INFORMATION FOR MACHINE LANGUAGERS]
Details, Details... The rest of this section presents
some technical details about DOS-UP. These are primarily of
interest to a handful of assembly language programmers.

After DOS Is moved to the Language Card, HIMEM is set at
$BEAF. The area from there to $BFFF is used for instructions
for switching the Language Card on/off, and other purposes.

One of those purposes is for storage of the HIMEM value
itself, which is at $BFFE-FF, in the normal backwards format.
If you would like to protect an assembly language program
from DOS and Basic, insert it just below HIMEM and revise the
value at $BFFE to reflect where your program starts. Then
coldstart DOS by calling the normal Page-3 vector at $3D3,
or use the DOS MAXFILES command. Either of these
automatically resets HIMEM to whatever is stored at $BFFE.

While your program is running, you may freely call Basic
and Monitor routines. You may also freely use the Page-3
DOS vectors. However, you cannot access other routines
inside DOS unless you turn the Language Card on yourself.
There is a subroutine that will do this for you at $BEAF.
To turn the card off again you can call $BEDE. Don't expect
the card to stay as you set it very long, however. Every time
a character passes through the Input/Output hooks, DOS
is activated to take a look at it. When DOS Is done looking
and passes control to the appropriate Input/Output
routine, the Language Card will be off again.

If you look at the DOS vectors on Page-3, you will find
that they all point to routines on page $BF. The IOB is at
$BFD5-E5 and the File Manager Parameter List is at $BFE6-FB.
These are the same locations used by Bongers' DOS Mover. Not
all programs that move DOS use these locations, however. You
should always use the Page-3 vectors at $3DC and $3E3 to locate
the Parmlist and IOB.
The internal DOS vectors normally at $9D56-61 have also been
moved. They are now at $BFC5-D0. Of particular interest are
the vectors at $BFC9 and $BFCD, which tell DOS where to go
after an error and a warmstart, respectively. You can poke
new addresses Into these locations to return control to your
program. Normally the addresses here send control to Basic.
If you change these locations, beware- A DOS coldstart or a
successful FP (or INT) command will reset the vector table
to the addresses for Basic, and your pokes will be lost.

[page 13]

DO FID and DO RENUMBER
[FOR USING APPLE'S FID AND RENUMBER PROGRAMS WHILE
PRONTO-DOS IS IN HIGH-MEMORY]
Two programs on your Apple System Master disk, FID and
RENUMBER, have strange bugs in them that normally prevent
them from being used when DOS is on the Language Card.
You can use them, however, if you execute them using the
EXEC files on the ProntoDOS disk called "DO FID" and "DO
RENUMBER". To use FID or RENUMBER while ProntoDOS is active:

]EXEC DO FID or...
]EXEC DO RENUMBER

Before DO FID and DO RENUMBER can be used, you must put them
on the same disk with FID and/or RENUMBER (use FID itself to
transfer programs while DOS is at its normal 48K location).

DO FID and DO RENUMBER load the specified program, poke
modifications into it, and run it. While DO FID is specifically
meant to use FID when DOS is on the Language Card, it also
works correctly when DOS is elsewhere.

DO RENUMBER, on the other hand, will only EXECute properly
when DOS is on the Language Card. Otherwise it will give you
a message saying "HIMEM IS ABNORMAL". If this happens when
DOS is in fact on the Language Card, you will have to start
over by rebooting DOS before you can renumber your program.
The only time you will usually see this message is if you
EXEC DO RENUMBER twice in one sitting.

You can thank Bongers for the information on how to fix these
programs. I certainly do. His fixes were included in the
original article mentioned above.

PRONTO-DOS AND OTHER PROGRAMS
In general, most programs will work with ProntoDOS, except for
some (usually copy-protected) programs that require you to
boot their particular brand of DOS. See HELLO PRONTO-DOS on
page 11 for possible help.

ALPHA PLOT
Beagle Bros' Alpha Plot may be used with ProntoDOS, but to
make it work, LINE 9 of the program ALPHA BOOT should read:

9 IF PEEK (115) +PEEK (116) *256 <> 38400 THEN
PRINT CHR$(4);"PR#";PEEK(43626)

[page 14]

BYTE ZAP
on the Beagle Bros Apple Mechanic disk refers to several
areas of DOS for possible alterations. ProntoDOS relocates
some of these areas

Item Normal DOS ProntoDOS
DOS COMMANDS . . . . . . Track-1, Sector-7 Track-1, Sector-5
ERROR MESSAGES . . . . . Track-1, Sector-8 Track-1, Sector-6
GREETING NAME . . . . . Track-1, Sector-9 Track-1, Sector-7
DISK VOLUME HEADING. . . Track 2, Sector-2 Track-2, Sector-0
FILE-TYPE CODES . . . . Track 2, Sector-2 Track-2, Sector-0

UTILITY CITY
Do not use the program KILL-CAT on the Utility City disk
with ProntoDOS. The PRONTO ENHANCEMENTS program provides
this same feature (Item-2 on the Enhancements Menu). Use
it instead.

G.P.L.E.
The Global Program Line Editor (by Nell Konzen, published
by Synergistic Software) is a program we couldn't program
without, and therefore highly recommend. If you don't have
it, buy it. But...

CAUTION: NEVER INITIALIZE A DISK WITH PLE.48 LOADED. This
applies to standard Apple DOS as well as ProntoDOS. If
anything is between DOS and its buffers when you do an INIT,
the new disk will leave space there whenever it is booted.
This will cause many mysterious problems.

GPLE comes in three versions, all on the GPLE disk--

PLE.48, the "standard" version of GPLE, is completely
compatible with ProntoDOS and its enhancements. To use
PLEAS with ProntoDOS:

1. Boot a ProntoDOS disk.
2. BRUN PLE.48.

PLE.LC puts GPLE on a Language Card and uses the empty
space in DOS at $B6B3. This means you cannot normally
use PRONTO UPDATE's "Print Disk Free Space" or
"Print Binary File Address and Length" options at the
same time as PLE.LC. Otherwise, the use and loading of
PLE.LC is identical to PLE.48.

PLE.DM is used when both DOS and GPLE are placed on the
Language Card. PLE.DM comes with an associated program
on the GPLE disk called PLE DOS MOVER. To use PLE.DM,
you must move DOS to the Language Card with PLE DOS MOVER.
Unfortunately, this program won't move

[page 15]

ProntoDOS correctly unless it is modified.

To use PLE.DM, you must put "PLE DOS MOVER" from the GPLE
disk and "DO FILE DOS MOVER" from the ProntoDOS disk
on the same disk. Then:

1. Boot a ProntoDOS disk.
2. Insert the disk with PLE DOS MOVER and DO PLE DOS MOVER.
3. EXEC DO PLE DOS MOVER.

The EXEC file will load PLE DOS MOVER, modify it as
necessary, and run it. PLE DOS MOVER will move ProntoDOS
to the Language Card and then try to run a Basic file
named "Hello".

Neither "Print Disk Free Space" nor "Print Binary File
Address and Length" from the PRONTO UPDATE program work
correctly with PLE DOS MOVER. The other enhancements
work fine.

PRONTO-DOS AND TEXT FILES
ProntoDOS does not speed up access of Text Files because
text files are handled one byte at a time. The bytes are
passed back and forth between DOS and the current input or
output routine. This process is relatively slow and
unaffected by the ProntoDOS speed-up technique.

Both pre- and post-Apple IIe DOS 3.3's have bugs in the
handling of the APPEND command. The two bugs are
different. Both have been removed in ProntoDOS.

Both versions of DOS also have a bug relating to the use
of the "R" and "B" parameters with Text Files. This bug is
complex, and if you never use the "R" or "B" parameters,
you may want to skip the rest of this section.

The "R" parameter is allowed with READ, WRITE, POSITION,
and EXEC. The "B" parameter is allowed only with
READ and WRITE.

When used with POSITION and EXEC, the "R" parameter causes
DOS to move forward through a file counting "carriage
returns". It stops at the first character following the
Rth carriage return. There are no bugs here.

When used with READ and WRITE, "R" has a completely different
meaning. In this context, it is to be used only with
Random Access Text Files, and it orders DOS to go to the Rth
record in the file (where the first record is 0, the second 1,
etc.). There are no bugs here.

[page 16]

The "B" parameter is also used with READ and WRITE.
Whenever you give a READ or WRITE command with either
an "R" or "B" (or both), DOS immediately moves its file
pointer to the byte that equals:

(R * L) + B

where L equals the length parameter given when the file was
opened. If no L was given (as with Sequential Files), L will
default to 1.

If you give an R parameter alone, or if you give both the R
and B parameters, DOS will always make the calculation
correctly. In the first case, where you give the R parameter
alone, the B parameter will default to zero.

Here's the bug: If you give the B parameter alone, the
default of the R parameter is uncertain under standard Apple
DOS. Under ProntoDOS, it is certain- if R is not specified, it
will always default to zero. This fixes a bug in Apple DOS
whereby the B parameter, used alone with Sequential Files,
performed erratically.

When using Random Access files, you should never use the Byte
parameter without also giving the Record parameter. If you do
not specify R when using B, the file pointer will be moved to
the Bth byte of record-zero. Under standard DOS, the pointer
usually, but not always, moves to the Bth byte of the last
record specified.

[SKIP THIS SECTION IF YOU NEVER MET THE FILE MANAGER.]
Programs that call the File Manager (a program within DOS)
directly, must use ONE-BYTE Reads and Writes when working
with Text Files, just as DOS itself does. Under ProntoDOS,
the File Manager's Read- and Wrlte-Range routines will not
return an End of File error, nor do they keep track of
Random Access file position. This is a concern only with
programs that call the File Manager directly and use the
Read- and Write-Range routines on Text Files. Programmers
who only use DOS commands such as OPEN, POSITION, READ
and WRITE should ignore this paragraph.

PRONTO-DOS AND INTEGER BASIC APPLES
This section pertains to owners of Standard Apple II
computers who use the version of Applesoft known as
"cassette" or "RAM" Applesoft.

[NOTE: APPLE QUIT MAKING INTEGER BASIC APPLES IN 1980.]

It doesn't apply to those who have an Apple II-Plus or
who never use Applesoft or to users of "ROM" Applesoft cards
or users of "Language Cards". If you have an Apple II-Plus or

[page 17]

never use Applesoft or if you use one of the "card" versions,
you may Ignore the rest of this section.

Still reading, huh? There are not many like you left in
Appledom!

Well, I must offer my apologies. ProntoDOS doesn't
support cassette Applesoft. If you like, you may return
ProntoDOS, or you could try to pick up a used Applesoft ROM
card (these should be available in many cities for next-
to-nothing), or get a 16K RAM card.

Even though ProntoDOS doesn't support cassette Applesoft,
it still will automatically run an Integer file called
"Applesoft" when you tell it to run a program written in
Applesoft. If this file is, in fact, cassette Applesoft, you will
shortly find yourself in a big mess. Don't do it.

If the Integer program, "Applesoft", instead loads FPBASIC
into a language card, however, all will be right with the
world.

SAVING ARRAYS IN FAST BINARY FILES
[USE BINARY FILES INSTEAD OF TEXT FILES TO TAKE ADVANTAGE
OF PRONTO-DOS'S INCREDIBLE SPEED.]
The normal method for saving numerical arrays is in Text Files.
This can be quite time-consuming with large arrays, however,
because of the slow speed at which DOS handles Text Files.

There are certain locations you can PEEK to find out where
an Applesoft array starts, and a simple formula that will
give you the array's length. Using this information, you can
BSAVE the numbers in the array in just a few seconds. In
addition to saving time, you will also find you save disk
space. An array saved in a Binary File is usually shorter
than the same array in a Text File.

This file can be BLOADed back into the same program or into
any other program that includes an array DIMensioned to the
same size as the original array.

How to determine the ADDRESS of arrays: Applesoft keeps the
address of the last variable used at memory locations
131-132 ($83-84). Retrieving this value is a bit tricky,
however, since any variable used in the statement retrieving
the value becomes the "last variable used". Here are two
ways to do it. In this example "A( )" is the name of
the target array.

METHOD 1: A(0) = PEEK (131) + PEEK(132) * 256

In this method, the address of the array is stored in the
zero-th element of the array itself.

[page 18]

METHOD 2: A(0)=A(0) : POKE 78,PEEK(131) : POKE 79, PEEK(132): AA=PEEK(78)+PEEK(79)*256

In this method, the address of the array is stored in the
variable AA. Don't separate the parts of this method, as the
intermediate memory locations it uses are scrambled by
various routines.

Note that the reference to the array must be to its zero-th
element in order to get the starting location correctly. For a
multi-dimension array, the reference should be, for example,
"A(0, 0, 0, 0)".

How to determine the LENGTH of arrays: This is simple. The
length is five-times the number of elements in the array for
Floating Point arrays, and two-times the number of elements
for Integer arrays. The only trick is that the "number of
elements" is always one more than the number you DIMensioned
the array with, because of the zero-th element. Some examples,
where "S" represents the size of the array and "AL"
represents the array's length:

Floating Point Arrays: DIM A (S) : AL= (S+1) *5
Integer Arrays: DIM A% (S) : AL= (S+1) *2
Multi-Dimensioned Arrays: DIM A (S1, S2, S3, S4)
AL=(S1+1)*(S2+1)*(S3+1)*(54+1)*5

All Together Now... Once you have DIMensioned an array and
used these formulas for determining its Address and
Length, the following commands will load or save it
where AA equals the Array Address; AL equals the Array
Length; F$ equals the Name of the file; and D$ is our old
friend, control-D.

To Load: PRINT D$;"BLOAD ";F$;",A";AA
To Save: PRINT D$;"BSAVE ";F$;",A";AA;",L";AL

Most people already know this, but I was surprised after
using Apple DOS for many months to find out the A and L
parameters in the above commands can indeed be decimal
(OR hex) numbers.

This information on arrays comes from a letter in the June
1980 Call-AP.P.L.E by Wayne Throop and a sample program
by Richard C. Horsfall in the January 1981 issue of the
same magazine. Horsfall also includes information on
saving Integer Basic arrays.

[page 19]

PRONTO-DOS INDEX
Alpha Plot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
APPEND . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4, 16
Apple DOS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Apple Mechanic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
arrays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18-19

B parameter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16-17
Bag of Tricks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
binary files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9, 18-19
Byte Zap . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

cassette Applesoft . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17-18
CATALOG 8
clock cards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3, 11
commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
customizing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-10

disk emulators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3, 11
disk free space . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3, 9
DO FID . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-8, 14
DO RENUMBER . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
DOS Boss . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
DOS-UP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11-14

enhancements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-10
ESC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7, 8
EXEC, killing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

FID . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
file manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
file structure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
free space . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3, 9

GPLE@ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15-16

hard disks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3, 11
HELLO file . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5, 13
HELLO PRONTO-DOS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
HIMEM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

INIT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2, 4, 10, 11
Integer Basic Apples . . . . . . . . . . . 3, 17-18

KILL-CAT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

language card . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3, 9, 11-14
liability . . . . . . . . . . . . inside front cover
licenses . . . . . . . . . . . . inside front cover

MAXFILES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
memory usage . . . . . . . . . . . . 3, 6-10, 11-14

---/NO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

PLE@ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15-16
print disk space . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
print binary adr . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
PRONTO UPDATE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-10

?????? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

R parameter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-8, 16-17

Random Access files . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7, 17
READ, killing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
RENUMBER . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Run Command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5, 13

skew . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
syntax for INIT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
syntax for TYPE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Text Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7, 16-17
TYPE command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

updating disks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Utility City . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

VERIFY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8, 8-9

warranty . . . . . . . . . . . . inside front cover
Winchester disks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3, 11