[Coco] drivewire suggestions

[Willard Goosey]

On Fri, Jul 16, 2010 at 10:35:44PM -0400, Steven Hirsch wrote:
> Yes, it's really terrific.  I was responsible for adding support for 
> so-called "short name" AFP (Apple Filing Protocol) to the open source 
> netatalk package.  That let's you provide file services from any Linux 
> box.  I can net-boot my IIe and IIGS directly from my server.

That's pretty cool.  I've never done classic Mac network setup, though
I have used Macs being served by netatalk.  If I can ever get an
ethernet card for my Performa, I'll be jumping in with both feet.

> The IIc has RS232 and game ports.  I strongly suspect that bit-banging the 
> game port will be faster than the built-in UART.  I might take a look at 
> the CoCo bit-banger code to see if it can be ported to 6502 assembler.

My, that's a pretty flexible joystick port!
> 
> Support for booting an Apple 2 from DW would require an add-on card with 
> ROM, but writing a loadable file system driver for ProDOS (8-bit) or GS/OS 
> (16-bit) shouldn't be too difficult.

Well, the IIC does have a built-in floppy drive, so that should be good
enough, as long as you have a boot disk and the drive works!  

The only other issue with DW supporting the Apple II series is the
virtual disk images.  Is there any special weirdness in AppleII
virtual disks, or are they just sector dumps?

Willard
-- 
Willard Goosey  goosey at sdc.org
Socorro, New Mexico, USA
I search my heart and find Cimmeria, land of Darkness and the Night.
  -- R.E. Howard