Hi! I recently received a Windows 98SE minitower and am hooking it up right now. I want to do some work and game-playing on it and my work includes programming using cc65. I should soon install CiderPress on it but might need to add files to Apple2 disk images from a batch file. Where can I find such a utility?
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I'm not sure CiderPress will run on that old of a version of Windows. I would suspect it may need at least XP.
OK, I checked... you'll have to install a very old version (3.x) to run on Win98.
https://a2ciderpress.com/index.htm
I believe I have such a version of CiderPress, but I'm also looking to add files to a disk image from a batch file. Thanks for the tip, though. :)
I just Googled and downloaded the file and then realized I already have it. I'm almost ready to install it on my Win98SE minitower but am the middle of stuffing floppies on it--even though its hard drive has >100GB capacity. BTW, I still want a command-line utility to do the job.
I tried looking for a command-line utility to do the job on Google but didn't find one. I have AppleCommander, but it requires Java, and IIRC, Win98 doesn't have Java.
Setting up a Win-98 machine is a special form of self-torture.
You're right, but I kind of like it. :)
There was Java at the time that would run on Windows 98, but you might have trouble finding it online anywhere these days. Maybe on an old CD or something.
As has been said... using Windows 98 these days is an experience not unlike self flaggelation.
Of course I believe ALL versions of Windows are garbage...
The fact that they managed to stay #1 in the desktop space worldwide pretty much since Windows 3.1 and in the last 10 years when the choice of OS has been completely democratized, suggests the opposite to be true: click!
Now as someone who has used every single version of Windows starting from 3.0 both at home and at work, I can tell from experience that some versions were better than others. Windows 98 SE was one of the OK ones. Not as good as Windows 7, but not as bad as Windows ME.
Popularity and market success often have as much or more to do with advertising, marketing and things like that as to qualtiy. Often the most successful products are just barely good enough.
McDonald's is by far the most popular hamburger... but I think you would't find too many people who would be qualified to give an opinion that they were the best hamburger on the market. They aren't even the cheapest or the best value. They're just everywhere, and they spend billions on advertising.
It gets more confusing when you talk about Microsoft since they've consistently used unethical and in some cases illegal monopolistic practices to force purchase of Windows like forced bundling (product tying), product dumping, coercive contracts, etc.
Quite frankly, they set the bar so low that to be considered "good", a version of Windows only has to not suck as bad as Windows ME, Vista or Windows 8.
Choice of OSes hasn't even close to become democratized. Try to buy most PCs without Windows. You pretty much can't. Very few makers offer a Linux option, and then only on limited configurations and they make it hard to find and order (usually believed to be required to be so by contracts with Microsoft). Only people who know how to build from parts or are willing to pay Apple's hardware prices or settle for the limited hardware configurations of Chrome Books can avoid paying the "Windows Tax".
You don't get to #1 and stay there that long by simply not sucking. You actually have to be pretty good.
When it comes to unethical business practices, it’s the job of various governments to punish them when they get out of line (and they have). As a consumer, I evaluate them only on the level of productivity I can achieve, ease of use, availability of software and other things like that. The moment a better OS comes along that improves those parameters, I would switch to it, but so far I haven't seen one.
I go back to DOS 2.0, DOS 3.x Windows 286 and 386 that preceeded Windows 3.0, used Linux or variants, and MacOS and iOS...none of them are the end all a be all, mainly because of the diverse and wide ranging opinions on what makes a good all-purpose "utility knife".
Back to the original question, I do not see how a DOS batch file can be used to "edit" an Apple2 disk image file without having some sort of binary code involved. Now, whether Ciderpress 3.x ( I use Ciderpress with Win10) running in Win98SE has provisions for doing DOS batch execution on A2 disk images is outside my wheelhouse.
I have a few 386 and 486 motherboards and IDE drives from my Win98 and XP days if anyone is interested, PM me.
“One person’s trash is another person’s treasure.”
Choice? It is challenging to:
• flash the ROM on an Android phone.
• buy a PC without Windows pre-installed. Buy a PC with an Intel chip that doesn't have MINIX, the most popular OS in the world, running on it on ring-3.
• jailbreak an iPhone
• buy a Mac without macos
As of November 2022, Android, an operating system using the Linux kernel, is the world's most-used operating system when judged by web use. It has 42% of the global market, followed by Windows with 30%, Apple iOS with 18%, macOS with 6%, then (desktop) Linux at 1.0% also using the Linux kernel.These numbers do not include embedded devices or game consoles.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usage_share_of_operating_systems
mmphosis wrote:
Yes, when you include tablets and smartphones Android dominates today. But I don't think any of the OSes above are trash. Actually they are all pretty good.
mmphosis wrote:
These two do not belong on the same list. The first is just barely challenging, the second is impossible.
Putting in my two cents here..
I actually used every version of windows since version 2.0 and actually bought most of them and I actually bought almost every version of DOS as well back to IBM v2.0.
If tomorrow every program I use was made natively available on Linux I would dump Windows, currently none of the software I use is available on Linux, not one, everything is Mac and Windows.
My current Mac is High Sierra and the PC is Windows is 10, which is better, for people who need an idiot proof computer I say Mac, for those who like to build their own PC and pick and choose the parts, it's PC obviously, it all comes down to what do you need a computer for and which is best that you can afford.
I apologize for my way off-topic politcal flame-war about OSes. I would say some aspects of Operating Systems are trash and other aspects are treasures.
There are new and older C compilers that build Windows98 programs! tdm-gcc BCC32C and maybe some older version of mingw32. Maybe some old DOS C compilers:: DJGPP Open Watcom
https://github.com/AppleCommander/AppleCommander
# dskbsave --helpUsage: dskbsave DOS33PARAMETERS FILESave standard input as a DOS 3.3 Binary file within FILE.DOS33PARAMETERS: f, Aa [,Vv]Creates or overwrites a file name f with starting address a.f file name is from one to 30 characters. Spaces or visible 7-bitASCII except the comma may appear in a file name. The firstcharacter must be a letter of the alphabet or @[\]^_ character.a address in RAM. The parameter is required. a specifies the startingApple memory address for BSAVEing or BLOADing binary information.a must be in the range 0 to 65535.v volume number of a diskette. v must be in the range 0 through 254.FILE: An Apple DOS 3.3 image file in DOS sector order. 143360 bytes35 tracks, 16 sectors per track, 256 bytes per sector.https://archive.org/download/dskbsave.com/dskbsave.com.zip
Windows98 can’t run
dskbsave.combecause cosmpolitan needs x86_64Just use Cadius: https://www.brutaldeluxe.fr/products/crossdevtools/cadius/
You can download the precompiled 32-bit version at the very bottom of the page, which should run on Windows 98.
I just looked there, but the page says that it doesn't support .dsk files and only 2GS iages. :(
It supports .2mg, .po and .hdv. You can use all of them from AppleWin.
CVT, I thank you for your input, but I have pre-existing .dsk images on my Apple2/cc65 programs. I can use A2Tools for DOS 3.3 programs but don't currently have any. I plan to port my AdvSkelVic65 program to the Apple2+/DOS3.3 system, though.
Here is a Python script that converts back and forth between .po and .dsk: https://github.com/paulhagstrom/dsk2po
Installing Python on a Windows 98 machine and calling scripts from a batch file is trivial.
CVT, I thank you for your input, but I really want to handle ProDOS-format .dsk images directly. Other than what CiderPress can do, I just need to add cc65 programs to the disk image from a batch file.
BTW, please excuse the SPAM, but I like to use my Template Creator for DOS and Windows programs to create new disk images that aren't totally empty. They are general-purpose and can do the same with most document formats. I also have empty ProDOS and GSOS system disk images online. Is anybody here interested?
If they are ProDOS images, Cadius can handle them directly, even if their extention is .dsk instead of .po. All you have to do is rename them.
I can do that. It would be awkward, but I can do that. Thanks! I'll look for Cadius now. :)
I downloaded it. BTW, Is there an easy way to create a new Apple2 disk image other than Template Creator?
Cadius can create new disk images. Actually it's the very first thing they list under Key Features.
Oh. Thank you. BTW, I'd like to create new disk images from Windows using the ShellNew menu.
Simply drag and drop your batch file on the Start button. It will then appear on the very top of the Start menu.
I could create a batch file to create an Apple2 disk image using a specified name and add it to the Windows ShellNew menu via the Registry. Or, I could create a front-end for Cadius that will also set the disk label, the type of image and any programs to be written to it, but, for that, I need to know how to execute a command from a WinAPI program. For now, I kind of like using Template Creator for Windows to create new disk images. It merely makes copies of the original file, but that can help.