The Apple II Shell Game at the AppleOldies Website

Bill Buckels

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Jan 6, 2010, 9:30:28 PM1/6/10

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Please visit the following link:

http://www.appleoldies.ca/index.htm

Apple II Unix-like Shells Etc.
Aztec Apple II DOS 3.3 Shell - Manx Software
Aztec Apple II ProDOS 8 Shell - Manx Software
Randy Hyde's ANIX Shell, Lazer Pascal and the LISA Assembler
David A. Lyon's DAVEX Shell
KYAN Pascal and the KIX Shell
Michael J. Pender Jr.'s ProDOS Shell and ProBlock Block Copier
The Phade Shell for Apple II DOS by Phade de Grass (Frank Gadegast)

Happy New Year!

Bill Buckels

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Jan 7, 2010, 8:06:01 AM1/7/10

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The Aztec Museum also has a new page devoted to the Aztec Shell and
Other Shells which will be expanded as required. I expect more shells
in shortly and the possibility of a MacIntosh 68K Aztec C Shell and
Compiler from a couple of different sources. In the meantime please
visit the following link andalso read the blurb below:

http://www.aztecmuseum.ca/shell.htm

Introduction

The various versions of the Aztec C Shell address the lack of a decent
(or "sufficiently robust") command interpreter in computers like the
Apple II. Manx's solution was to make these computers look and act
like "little Unix" systems. They were not alone in this either.
Several others wrote Unix-like shells as general working environments
or for various compilers "back in the day".

The Aztec C Shells for Apple II computers running DOS 3.3 and ProDOS
are up for download from the link above. You do not need Aztec C to
use these. However please also note that the native mode compilers for
the Apple II listed on the compilers page all come with the Aztec C
Shell for their respective target OS's, be they DOS 3.3 or ProDOS 8.

"Curating" the Aztec C Shells for the Apple II was not a solo effort
by any means. Phoenyx and Rubywand and Paul R. Santa-Maria provided
most of the pieces of this perfectly enjoyable puzzle. If you have not
yet experienced just how well-done James Goodnow's efforts in making
the Apple II into a Unix-like environment were "back in the day", you
really must play with these even if you are not a programmer.

Please see the ReadMe's below and the Docs in the ZIP files for
additional details. The SHELL commands for the ProDOS shell version
are also described at the following link in the Shell Commands
sections:

http://www.aztecmuseum.ca/cat2.htm

As noted above, it was not only Aztec C who made these Unix-like
shells and several more are also available from here and others will
be added as time permits.

Bill Buckels

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Jan 7, 2010, 8:15:59 AM1/7/10

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On Jan 7, 7:06 am, Bill Buckels <bbuck...@escape.ca> wrote:
> "Curating" the Aztec C Shells for the Apple II was not a solo effort
> by any means. Phoenyx and Rubywand and Paul R. Santa-Maria provided
> most of the pieces of this perfectly enjoyable puzzle.

Michael J. Mahon rewrote the following over a month ago and I
propagated his corrections to all the applicable documents on my
websites. Thank you Miike for your unfaltering attention to detail (or
was that obsession to detail:)

See link and blurb below but please note that I have not updated the
asimov copy of the mini-manual or any other copies that may exist
elsewhere (even I have limits so have no intention of doing so):

http://www.aztecmuseum.ca/docs/D33Shell.txt

D33Shell.txt

Manx Aztec C SHELL for Apple II DOS 3.3
Version 2.4
from Manx Software Systems, 1983

Introduction

This document is excerpted from AztecC_minimanual.txt (AKA
C65DOS33manual.txt) which was produced by Rubywand (Jeff Hurlbert). It
is intended to describe the Aztec C SHELL program for Apple DOS 3.3
and is focused primarily on the features of the SHELL rather than
Aztec C's other features.

AztecC_minimanual.txt can be referenced for details about the
compiler and libraries and the other Aztec C utilities. It also
contains information about configuring the SHELL for use and a rather
in-depth tutorial about using the Aztec C DOS 3.3 Native Mode
compiler in the SHELL environment.

The Aztec C SHELL is relatively Unix-like in nature and those
familiar with Unix commands will find it straight-forward to use.

Bill Buckels
August 2008

Corrections by Michael J. Mahon
November 2009