MICROS-SPARC UNIDOS 3.3 for Apple II: WHAT I NOW KNOW ABOUT IT. By Chris Hays (June 2005)

MICROS-SPARC UNIDOS 3.3 for Apple II: WHAT I NOW KNOW ABOUT IT.
By Chris Hays (June 2005)

UPDATE! I found a complete manual on line. It is located here:

My little dissertation is really a pretty good quick guide so I leave it here.
The only major thing I missed is the “CAT” command which is an enhanced CATALOG command
offering sorted listings (slow with a big directory) and the ability to do selective
listings using a file name and, if desired, use the ^ (up carret) as a wild card.
Sorted listings are enabled using CAT @@ (double at sign). This is a toggle. Using
the command again returns CAT to normal. Note that this command is unavailable after you
run INT.MOD as it uses the space used by the integer basic stuff in Dos 3.3. INT.MOD
can only be undone with a reboot. Another nice feature is if you call the CAT command in
80 column mode, it provides a two-column listing.

Here’s the quick guide

I found some 3.5 inch diskettes in my collection which had UNIDOS3.3 as the operating
system. This operating system was sold through Nibble magazine to support the new Apple
3.5 inch drive controller in the Dos 3.3 environment (support was automatic in Prodos,
but Apple provided no support for the older Dos 3.3).

I had lost my documentation in a move, and I decided to reverse engineer the system so
that I could deal with the files on the disk. I had long since migrated to a hard drive
on which I used the late Glen Bredon’s Dos Master which is a better choice if you are
starting out with this.

NOTE: this document assumes a basic knowledge of Apple II Dos 3.3. If you need a
refresher there are lots of places on the web (and older books) that can help you.

Here are my notes. I apologize for omissions and inaccuracies.

The system comes with the following:

UNIDOS3.3 (itself) is on the boot tracks, and can be created on a disk with the
INIT command. This is a patched DOS3.3 to support the 3.5 inch controller. Since
standard Dos 3.3 cannot support disks as large as a 3.5, this version is patched to
utilize the disk in 2 “partitions” of 1600 sectors (400kb) each. The scheme for
accessing the second partition is by creating virtual drive numbers 3 and 4.
Thus the first partition on the disk is D1 for the first partition on the first drive
on the slot, and D3 for the second partition on the first drive on the slot. So if you
had two drives attached, the partitions would be accessed as follows:

First partition on first drive = D1
Second partition on first drive = D3

First partition on second drive = D2
Second partition on second drive = D4

Comment: this is why it is probably best not to use this system if you are
just starting. The use of unconventional drive notation breaks all standard
DOS 3.3 utilities and some programs. Dos Master uses the more normal approach of
using the unutilized Volume number to access the partitions, and this is more compatible
with standard Dos 3.3 utilities. That said, If you only use the first partition, it will
be compatible.

The system comes with the following utilities:

HELLO.UNI: This is just an Applesoft startup program that displays a welcome / copyright
screen and does a catalog of the current disk.

COPY3.5 (and COPY3.5 instructions): This is self explanatory. It is a program
for copying entire 3.5 inch floppy disks. Unfortunately, it is not able to
use large ram cards to speed the process, so it requires A LOT of disk swaps.
It is a smart copier that only copies used sectors, so its fine if your disk is fairly
empty. If you have a large ram card and need to copy a more full 3.5 disk, and you have
any other utility which can use the big ram card (such as COPY II Plus or even the
Prodos System Utilities), use it instead.

ADD.DOS: This utility puts STANDARD (unpatched) DOS 3.3 onto a 5-1/4″ floppy.
I assume this was provided so that you could create floppies for distribution
with normal dos on them.

INT.MOD: This utility restores the INT command to UNIDOS. INT calls up the
original Apple II Integer Basic if it is available in ROM or RAM. It will be on
any Apple IIe, and on an Apple II or II plus with a firmware or language card. Except
for a romcard, you will need a copy of INTBASIC and a program to load it. Running
the ‘HELLO’ program from any dos 3.3 master will accomplish this. Restoring the INT
command loses the CAT command described above. The only way to undo this command
is to reboot.

FID: This is the Apple File Utility. This version is patched to permit the
unconventional Drive 3 and Drive 4 notation used by Unidos 3.3. It also has replaced
the = (equal sign) wild card character with the more conventional * (asterisk).
I have not investigated beyond just experimentation, so there could be other
things that are different from standard FID.

That’s it. This system was the only game in town for a while if you wanted to use
DOS 3.3 programs on your shiny new 3.5 inch disk drives. As I said, there are better
choices at this point, but if you have any disks around using this, the information
provided here should be sufficient for any current needs.

Have fun!

Chris Hays