So I got an Apple II plus with a CPM card and a thunderclock card (I understand needed to I don't have to enter the date and time when I start CPM)
The question I have is... If I already own an Altair and a Sol-20 which both can run CPM if I want to, what can I do with an Apple II CPM Card that I can't do with them? I'm trying to decide if I should keep both the CPM and Thunderclock cards.
Thanks,
Corey
There's nothing special about Apple's CP/M, and it's even a little harder to get code onto Apple formatted disks to run it. (Of course, every flavor has its transfer difficulties.) But if you get rid of it - you'll regret it.
Well Corey,
it depends to the availiable additional Hardware..... the bigest difference is the fact that you can run additional hardware under CP/M and use different programming languages - depending to the task that shall be performed....
it´s difficult to understand but i´ll just show some examples....
first example... i have a Nucleon PAL-programmer running on Apple IIe..... so you can programm chips like the HAL-chip 18V8 in the Apple IIe which is responsible for the timing .... the software for the programming and developing of that chips works with so called equations..... the programming language that matches such demands best is FORTRAN ( mostly used for technical developments, because you can easily enter equation in the programming code )
a code that uses in FORTRAN 2 pages would cause - if programmed in Basic - more than 13 pages because you would have to translate each equation to it´s own subroutine - as result that nothing compareable is availiable in BASIC....
second example: if you have a 32bit AD card for lab-use or if you want to use the gameport for driving real-world electronics for repeating / cycling measurement this is solved best in PASCAL under CP/M - because under the UCSD system you must first develop your own drivers to operate such cards in the UCSD system.... under CP/M you can adress that cards same like in Applesoft.... but Applesoft would not be very handy to program long term non intermitting cycles like in PASCAL.... and integrating assembler is much easier in PASCAL than in BASIC
Under APPLE CP/M there are much more different programming languages available than under any other CP/M System:
PL1 ( preciously used before FORTAN was developed and mostly for technical applications ) , ADA ( mostly used in control of rocket-science and at NASA for Apollo-programs ), COBOL80 ( mostly used for commercial business programming like tax and loan ), MT-PASCAL, LISP ( one of the first languages for development of artificial inteligence ! ), PROLOG ( another language for artificial inteligence structures - but also good for robotics and so called "selflearning" / "fault-tolerant" systems ), FORTH ( used for graphical systems like mandelbrot graphics or virtual reality systems ( later called SFX in the movies ) same like later C - not to forget the various special "dialects" of programming languages just for example GraFORTH for graphics.... C++ for Object oriented programming was availiable 5 years earlier at Apple CP/M (!) before you could use it on the Atari.... ( Aztec-C ).... throughout the years i have been working with and collecting more than 40 different compilers and interpreters under CP/M....
I don´t know any other 6502 based computer with such a library of various programming languages....
it´s nearly as wide choice of languages, like the variety of choice for interfacing the system....
just for LAB and science there are more then 100 (!) different interfacecards availiable for the Apple II family just depending to the demands to the interface - for another example the first so called sythesizers for ROCK-Groups like the MOOG or Roland have been working with apple II based systems on the MIDIport....
... can you give me the name of any comparable system within the 6502 platform with that range of varieties?
sincerely speedyG
This thread interests me, as I have a MicroSoft SoftCard on the way. I have used CP/M on my C128 before, so I am somewhat familiar with it. I wonder if the CFFA3000 will work under CP/M. I have mine in slot 1 currently, so probably not, as I think the drives for CP/M have to be in slots 4,5,or 6, even if CP/M would recognize the CFFA as a disk. I am hoping to be able to make a real floppy from the .dsk images I downloaded. I might even set up one of my unused //e's as a CP/M machine. I have extra floppy drives I can use. Would be fun to play around with.