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From: mdavis@pro-sol.cts.com (Morgan Davis)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple
Subject: Re: Apple //c & Proline
Message-ID: <8910032347.AA29046@trout.nosc.mil>
Date: 3 Oct 89 22:58:39 GMT
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Network Comment: to #11692 by gem.mps.ohio-state.edu!rpi!nyser!rodan!djhill@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu

The IIc, one of Apple's worst incarnations of the Apple II, is not well suited
to run as a ProLine system.  ProLine requires that you have:

        o  A clock that doesn't interfere with the serial port

        o  A hard disk drive

        o  A decent Hayes-compatible modem

Everything you add to a IIc is a compromise, because the computer was never
designed to handle any peripherals beyond what the ports on the backplane
provided.  For a long time you couldn't get a decent hard disk drive (the disk
port, designed for floppy drives, has a terrible throughput rating).  The
serial port is difficult to work with because it deviates greatly from a
design suitable for a BBS modem (to provide carrier loss detection,
specifically).  Until the No-Slot Clock (and clones), the IIc was clockless
(the serial port clock design is a real loser).  No easy method is provided
for accessing the Day of Week (Sun...Sat) and seconds from the chip-based
clocks, as ProDOS supports only date, month, year, hours and minutes.

IIc owners who install enhancements into their machines also routinely have
trouble using the latest Apple II system software releases, because so many of
the enhancements require patches to ProDOS.  They usually keep running old,
buggy system software because they don't have access to the latest PRODOS with
the patches they need.  We cannot support ProLine adequately when used in
obsolete operating system setups.

The bottom line is that you *can* run ProLine on a IIc if you are a wizard
with your machine, handy with a soldering iron and the IIc serial port
pinouts, and your IIc is adequately equipped (as described above).  The reason
we do not advertise support for it is because we have run into trouble in the
past when less-knowledgable IIc owners expected their computers to operate
ProLine just as a II+, IIe, or IIGS does.  It is far more difficult to get
ProLine running on a IIc simply because of the hardware limitations.  We just
can't support the software in that environment for the majority of IIc owners.
Thus, the IIc configuration is discouraged.

--Morgan Davis
  President
  Morgan Davis Group

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