# Using Proterm and Textalker

Category: Geeks r Us

## Post 1 by Eleni21 (I have proven to myself and the world that I need mental help) on Tuesday, 02-Jun-2009 15:36:12

So I'll be moving upstairs pretty soon and am bringing my Apple IIGS with me. I'm planning, with the help of a friend who's setting up a temporary shell account for me, on going on the internet with it using Textalker and Proterm. However, I don't know the first thing abouteither. I got the computer about seven years ago when my high school was gonna throw it out and then bought the software from APH but never used it. So has anyone ever done this? What do I need to know? How to set up these programs? Thanks.

## Post 2 by LeoGuardian (You mean there is something outside of this room with my computer in it?) on Tuesday, 02-Jun-2009 18:48:54

Don't know anything about the software specifically - my MAC experience is more of the System 7 and higher variety, but you sound like you're young enough to perhaps have never seen a shell account.
My daughter wouldn't know what one is.
Basically it is text-based with no graphical point-and-click interface. This means you don't need a TCP/IP client meaning anything that can dial a modem, act as a talking terminal, and output via TTY (or similar) to the screen and take any of the term inputs like vt100 for your input
You'll just need to use the dialer software, probably Proterm it sounds like, to dial the phone number. Your shell account will present you with username and password prompts, followed by either a menu system or just a straight shell - a command prompt usually a percent or dollar sign, into which you type your commands.
Your browser would be Lynx - like the cat l y n x and your email would be Pine.
If you're new to this, it's not like Windows at all, and for each software you will need to learn its own commands.
Looks like after a quick Google search the Apple II series stuff came out in the mid 1980s and beyond.
That means it probably doesn't have a hard drive, or at least a very small one. CPM and DOS boxes had them then but the Apple series did not. So you'll have to boot from a floppy, and I mean the 5-1/4 inch kind.
I wasn't even using a computer then, so I can't tell you what a screen reader from that era would look like or how well it will perform, but don't expect too much as the memory constraints for an intelligent piece of software are severely limited.
Are you doing this as a retro-computing hobby? That stuff can be fun and interesting.
What you'll find is how creative one must get to force the old machines to do what you want. Now all the new kiddies just sort of expect things to happen, wonder why they have to bother with installation instructions, and on and on. Might make some of them grateful if they had to use some of the old stuff for awhile. Memmaker or devicehigh, loadhigh, files buffers stacks,anyone? :0)

## Post 3 by Eleni21 (I have proven to myself and the world that I need mental help) on Tuesday, 02-Jun-2009 19:21:28

I was born in 1983 but love vintage computers and old things in general. I've got at least 13 machines (lol 14 if you count my typewriter from 1908) with different opperating systems from my Apple IIC with no hard dis,to my IIGS, to dos 6.22 on a few 486 Keynote Gold machines plus 3.3 on disk somewhere and tons of software, to windows 3.1 which I've never used, to windows 95, to windows 98, to Windows XP on a few machines to Leopard running on my Macbook. I even have some disks for a Commidor 64 but have never seen one of those. While I'm more familiarwith Windows and Leopard I've loved dos since I was a teenager (started on a 386 with 5.0 and WP 5.1 until it crashed). My first computer was an Apple IIE, which I don't own yet, though I still have the copy of Dr. Pete's Talking Writer disk that I used in Elementary school and it still works! I've been trying to get a shell account for about 11 years now so am really glad he's doing this for me, even if it's for a day. I love text-basedthings... Ijust hope I can figure it out.

## Post 4 by Eleni21 (I have proven to myself and the world that I need mental help) on Tuesday, 02-Jun-2009 19:22:45

Btw, anyone got a Commidor for me? lol

## Post 5 by LeoGuardian (You mean there is something outside of this room with my computer in it?) on Wednesday, 03-Jun-2009 0:20:54

BTW: its Commodore - two os not an o and then an i.
Just in case you look on Google: There are groups out there for Commodore, TI and Amiga enthusiasts, but I don't think the Commodore had any usable speech for a blind person.
Doesn't mean you couldn't collect it, though.
The SI99 did, if I recall support an Echo synthesizer, I think, or something similar. They may have shipped it. Anyway, I saw one on summer when I was in college in 1990, and you had to use cassettes. I didn't have money then for access technology, so was using a typewriter, and considered it a real luxury to be able to use the Kurzweil Personal Reader 7315 at the college campus.

## Post 6 by Eleni21 (I have proven to myself and the world that I need mental help) on Wednesday, 03-Jun-2009 0:45:29

My grandfather was never into computers but loved to fix radios, televisions and such. He gave me a cassette recorder that I adored. The microphone was perfect and it was lightning fast aat rewinding and fastforwarding. I remember when we opened the package, the instructions talked about plugging it into a computer. Stupid stupid me, I plugged the wrong cord into it and shorted it out. He gave me another vintage one and it works fine but I really loved that one. Hoping I could find the box and buy it again on ebay. When he died about three years ago, he left us with tons of cool tech so I might find a neat replacement. Thanks for the spelling of Commodor. I'll check it out. I believe I read somelace about accessibility but don't remember. But I did hear one synth on youtube that made my mouth water.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mRCeTBv2xB4
Considering it's age, the inflection was amazing and it sang too! lol I've never heard of the Si99. You're gonna make me broke!