AppleII-LibA2 version 0.200, released August 1, 2015

LibA2 provides both end-user utilities and library modules for
accessing files on Apple II ProDOS disk images for use with most Apple
II emulators.

This is a BETA release of LibA2.  There's some documentation, but it's
not complete.  If you want to see the rest of the documentation, then
send email!  Otherwise, I'll probably never get around to writing it.
Until then, use the source, Luke!  There are still probably some bugs,
and the interfaces might still change.  Use at your own risk.  Keep a
recent backup handy.  Wait sixty minutes before swimming.

All this having been said, I'm not aware of any serious bugs in LibA2
(besides the ones listed in the BUGS section below).  Good luck!
I would very much like to hear from everyone who tries LibA2.  The
more comments I get, the more likely I am to do more work on it.
Please send comments and questions to me.  Bug reports and patches
should go to the CPAN RT for LibA2: <bug-LibA2 AT rt.cpan.org>, or
through the web interface:

 http://rt.cpan.org/Public/Bug/Report.html?Queue=LibA2

You'll find my email address at the end of this file.


The included utilities are:

   prodos              version 0.200
       `prodos' is the main end-user utility.  It provides a
       Unix-style shell for accessing ProDOS volumes.  This allows
       you to list the contents of disk images, create
       subdirectories, and copy files to & from disk images.  If you
       have installed the Term::ReadKey and Term::ReadLine modules,
       the shell will have better editing, command & filename
       completion, and a command history.

       The parameters for prodos are:
               prodos IMAGE_FILE


   pro_fmt             version 0.200
       `pro_fmt' creates blank ProDOS disk images.  The images are
       NOT bootable, because they lack the necessary code in the boot
       blocks.  You can copy blocks from a bootable disk image to
       fix this.  The parameters for pro_fmt are:
               pro_fmt [options] IMAGE_FILE


   pro_opt             version 0.200
       `pro_opt' removes unused space from ProDOS disk images.  This
       is most useful for reducing the size of hard disk images.  It
       doesn't use any form of compression; it simply moves
       everything to the beginning of the disk, squashing out empty
       space caused by deleting files.  Be careful with this, as it's
       likely to have some bugs left.  The parameters for pro_opt are:
               pro_opt SOURCE_IMAGE_FILE  DESTINATION_IMAGE_FILE


   awp2txt             version 0.200
       `awp2txt' converts AppleWorks word processor files into text
       files.  This is a bit out of place in LibA2, because it has
       nothing to do with disk images, but I included it because
       users of LibA2 may find it useful.  The parameters for awp2txt are:
               awp2txt FILE ...


   var_display         version 0.200
       `var_display' lists the contents of an Applesoft BASIC VAR file.
       Currently, it can only display string variables and string arrays.
       Like awp2txt, you must first extract the VAR file from the disk
       image.  The parameters for var_display are:
               var_display FILE


For people interested in writing their own utilities in Perl, LibA2
provides Perl 5 modules that supply classes for accessing ProDOS disk
images.  DOS 3.3 disks are not currently supported (except by
AppleII::Disk, which doesn't care what kind of data is on the disk).


The included modules are:

   AppleII::Disk       version 0.200
       `AppleII::Disk' provides block-level access to disk images.
       It's useful because there are two main formats for Apple disk
       images:  ProDOS order and DOS 3.3 order.  These formats do not
       refer to the operating system used on the disk, but to the
       order in which the data appears.  AppleII::Disk takes care of
       the differences for you.


   AppleII::ProDOS     version 0.200
       `AppleII::ProDOS' provides tools for accessing files on ProDOS
       disk images.  `prodos' is basically just a wrapper around
       AppleII::ProDOS.



INSTALLATION

To install this module, run the following commands:

       perl Build.PL
       ./Build
       ./Build test
       ./Build install

If you do not want to install the utility scripts (AppleII:: modules
only), then use "perl Build.PL --no-scripts" instead of "perl Build.PL".



DEPENDENCIES

 Package         Minimum Version
 --------------- ---------------
 perl             5.6.0
 Carp
 Exporter         5.57
 File::Glob
 Getopt::Long     2.10
 IO::File
 POSIX
 Term::ReadLine



CHANGES
   Here's what's new in version 0.200 of LibA2:
   (See the file "Changes" for the full revision history.)

       - Distribution renamed from LibA2 to AppleII-LibA2
       - No functional changes

       [NEW MODULE]
       [AppleII::LibA2]
       - Placeholder module matching distribution name to comply with
         the Lancaster Consensus



BUGS
   Documentation
       There isn't enough.  Yet.  If you'd like to read it, send
       email.  If I think people want to read it, I'm far more likely
       to write it. :-)  Until then, use the source, Luke.

   prodos
       There's no way to copy a file from a disk image under another
       name.  This may cause problems under MS-DOS when extracting
       files that don't meet its 8.3 filename limitations.
       Solution: Upgrade to a real operating system.

   pro_fmt
       The disk images it creates aren't bootable unless you copy the
       boot blocks from a bootable disk.



AUTHOR

Christopher J. Madsen <perl AT cjmweb.net>



COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE

This software is copyright (c) 2015 by Christopher J. Madsen.

This is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under
the same terms as the Perl 5 programming language system itself.

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