A Patch Utility for the Applied Enginerring PC Transporter
Public-Domain Software by Bruce A. Mah
Overview
This program is a utility designed to make the use of the PC Transporter's RAMdisk as convenient as possible. It consists presently of three patches which may be installed and de-installed on a system file which has been patched with the PC Transporter pre-boot.
Background
Besides the PC Transporter's obvious function of turning any slotted Apple II series computer into an Messy-DOS (excuse me, MS-DOS) box, it also has the capability to function as a RAM disk under ProDOS.
The PC Transporter's RAM disk operations have never been as easy as one would like. A pre-boot must be installed on a system file (almost always this is the "PRODOS" file on a boot disk). Once the RAM volume is operational, there are still several shortcomings which make it occasionally inconvenient to use as a general purpose RAMdisk, such as those provided on the Apple IIgs or Applied Engineering RamFactor.
Fortunately however, the Transporter's RAMdisk driver is supplied on disk; consequently it can be easily modified to make its use easier and more transparent to the user.
Use of Transporter Chief
I assume that you've already patched a "PRODOS" file with the PC Transporter's disk drivers, in accordance with the PC Transporter manual. This allows the PC Transporter to act (sort of) like a RAMdisk under normal ProDOS operations.
Simply run the program "TRANSPORT.CHIEF". After pressing Return at the title page, you'll be asked for the full pathname of the pre-boot patched system file. I have the pre-boot installed on the "PRODOS" file of my hard drive, called "HARD1", so at this prompt I would enter "/HARD1/PRODOS".
Transporter Chief will check the file for prior applications of patches and then present you with a menu listing each of the patches available. In general, you type the letter of a patch to either install it (if it is marked "Normal") or de-install it (if it is marked "Installed"). Exceptions are noted below in the description of each individual patch.
The Patches
[A] Disable PC Transporter disk drives
Anyone who's ever tried to use the PC Transporter's RAM disk with the GS/OS Finder will appreciate this! The GS/OS Finder polls every disk drive in the system while it's operating, including, unfortunately, any PC Transporter TransDrives attached to the disk connector. For a number of technical reasons, it takes an incredibly long time to poll the TransDrives. The result makes the use of the Finder almost impossible, at the very least, incredibly annoying.
This patch turns off access to the Transporter's disk drives under ProDOS ONLY, while retaining access to the /RAMAEPC volume. You can, of course, access the disk drives normally while running MS-DOS.
[B] Keep PC Transporter RAM disk contents on reboot
One of the most annoying features of the /RAMAEPC volume is that its contents disappear every time you re-run the patched system file containing the pre-boot. This patch checks to see if the RAM disk driver is already installed. If so, it leaves the contents of the RAM volume intact.
A note on the Apple IIgs: The PC Transporter's RAM volume, when patched with this patch, will survive even a "frigid boot" of the computer. For the uninitiated, this is a technique developed by Bill Basham of DSR, Inc. and implemented in my "Reboot" utility. It does a more complete reset than a Control-Open Apple-Reset (on the IIgs only!) and re-initializes the Control Panel's RAMdisk.
[C] PC Transporter RAM disk volume name
If you don't like calling the PC Transporter's RAM disk "RAMAEPC", here's your big chance to change it. Any ProDOS volume name will be accepted. Changing the volume name to "RAMn", where n is the slot number of the PC Transporter, will make the card look a little more like a standard-slot memory expansion card (i.e. Applied Engineering RamFactor) and may improve its compatability with some programs.
Miscellaneous
I should note that for the most part the changes installed by this program will not take effect until the patched system file is re-run. If you've installed patch "B", which keeps the PC Transporter contents intact through cold boots, you'll probably need to power the computer off in order to make the patches take effect.
This program performs all the functions of, and supercedes, my two previous PC Transporter patches: "Inst PC Devs" and "AEPC Patcher". The former is rendered obsolete by one of the patches in Transporter Chief, and the latter has been included verbatim. If you're technically inclined, however, you might want to download these programs anyways, there's some quasi-useful technical information in their documentation files.
Transporter Chief has been tested with both versions 1.20 and 1.30 of the PC Transporter System Disk with no problems.
If anyone else out there has developed any other patches for the PC Transporter, I'd also appreciate hearing from you.
I can be reached on the following information services: CI$ (72406,350), GEnie (B.MAH), AppleLink Personal Edition (BruceAMah). Boost my ego--send me mail!
Acknowledgements
I'd like to express my thanks to Mr. John Link. Even though he doesn't know it, he helped considerably in the development of Transporter Chief. His SuperPatch program, which installs and de-installs twenty-nine different AppleWorks patches, has set the standard for Apple II patch programs in terms of both convenience and data safety. I have attempted to model the general workings of Transporter Chief after those of SuperPatch; hopefully I have succeeded in producing a patch program which is almost as easy to use.
Leh-Wen Yau and Mike Montgomery were very helpful and patient with a bug which eventually resulted in this revision to Transporter Chief.
Release Notes
Version 1.0--Original release of Transporter Chief.
Version 1.1--Fixed a devious bug which caused the /RAMAEPC volume to lose its contents on reboot (despite the "B" patch being installed). Thanks to Leh-Wen Yau and Mike Montgomery for their help in fixing this one.
