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Delete key doesn't work (?)

Submitted by MarioAllStar on August 14, 2008 - 5:02am. Apple II

I am new to the Apple II scene, so I'm not sure what to expect out of the systems, but for the life of me I can't figure out how to clear a character off my screen!

I turn on my Apple II and press Control+Reset. At the prompt, I type in some characters. Pressing delete just prints a square grid cursor.

When I'm in ADTPro, the delete key moves the cursor to the right, but doesn't delete the character. If the default name for a disk is "BLANK" and I want to call it "GAME" there's no way to get that ending "K" deleted (the rest of the characters can be overwritten).

So am I just ignorant to some Apple II conventions, or do I have a busted machine on my hands?

Thanks.

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mmphosis's picture

The delete key is working

Submitted by mmphosis on August 14, 2008 - 6:55am.

Some Apple II conventions are a bit strange compared to modern systems. The delete key didn't appear until the Apple IIe came out so often it does nothing or it prints the "delete" character which is a square grid cursor on the Apple II you are using.

Some software will do what you might expect the delete key to do, other software well... you've pretty much described it.

There are a number of ways to clear a character off your screen, press the left arrow key which usually allows you to move the cursor back over what you've typed. Mostly likely you can retype. One thing to be aware of on the Apple II is that often you must move the cursor to the end of the line before pressing return. Pressing return within the line of characters will often chop off the remaining characters.

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Thank you

Submitted by MarioAllStar on August 14, 2008 - 8:27pm.

Thank you so much for your help!

I never thought that the text after the cursor would be cut off after pressing enter, but sure enough it is.

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If its an hardware (as oppose

Submitted by arukum17 on August 14, 2008 - 8:28pm.

If its an hardware (as opposed to software) issue, contact cleaner worked wonders for my Apple ][

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