From Newsgroup: comp.sys.apple2

OK, this is going to sound REALLY stupid.

One thing I've found when trying to do ProDOS ports of DOS 3.3-based
software is that BASIC.SYSTEM really does NOT interact well with anything
that hijacks the I/O vectors. Sometimes, as with "Word Attack", that can
be hacked around. Other times, the best that can be done is to port it to RDOS and then use PDOS RDOS instead of BASIC.SYSTEM.

Another option specific to hard disks, or if something is small enough to
use a sparse file, is to use the MECC.SYSTEM approach, which actually uses
a hacked DOS 3.3 and reads software out of a floppy disk image.

I've thought of the possibility of actually *ProDOS-cracking DOS 3.3*,
such that the filesystem code is replaced with calls into ProDOS-8.
Enough of the system would be left alone that most BASIC stuff can still
work exactly as before. INT can be replaced with BYE, and do what is expected. This might require some work beyond what I'm capable of doing
but I could try it - it would open up a world of ProDOS ports, especially
of a ton of edutainment software which was principally written in BASIC
and used the likes of HRCG or MECC's HPRINT to write on the screen.

(Remember: ProDOS ports can be put on 3.5" disks and hard drives/flash
drives more conveniently than the original DOS 3.3 versions.)

-uso.
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From Newsgroup: comp.sys.apple2

https://github.com/a2-4am/probable
runs DOS disk images from ProDOS. Maybe start there?
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From Newsgroup: comp.sys.apple2

On Wed, 26 Nov 2025, Peter Ferrie wrote:

https://github.com/a2-4am/probable
runs DOS disk images from ProDOS. Maybe start there?

That sounds like what I call the "MECC Method" - use a disk image to run
DOS 3.3 software but replace RWTS with ProDOS calls. For something like
Ae, (using the "AppleWorks" method of doing boot/program with ProDOS-8)
this could be the best way to implement the second side of the disk (but
some additional code would be needed to implement the front/loader side).

(Part of the answer to Ae is sparse files; back in 2019 I attempted to filecrack it myself and was able to create a disk image with the back side
of the game disk and 3.5K to spare, but I wasn't able to actually create
the loader.)

What I was trying to do was something a bit more complex: hack into DOS
3.3 at the level of - I think it's referred to as the File Manager. Implementing the CHR$(4) hooks would be a lot easier but it would only
work for a few programs - this would theoretically work for something like Railroad Works, which does seem to rely on the filesystem, but doesn't use
the CHR$(4) hooks.

-uso.
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