Writing drivers

I started piling some of my imaged disks onto a big ProDOS volume for use with Virtual ][, using Glen Bredon's DOS.MASTER, since nearly everything I'd ever done was in DOS 3.3. In the process, I came across an old text file I'd written called "Writing Drivers". Click the link if you want to see the whole thing, but it had an interesting bit of history in it concerning the Epson QX-10. I don't know when I wrote this, but it would have been around 1985 probably, apparently it was five months after I bought my Novation Apple-Cat ][. But, here's some of my QX-10 cred—something that I feel a bit compelled to provide, since I (unintentionally, honest!) scooped this QX-10 from @retroearl of the Retro Computing Roundtable. The first RCR podcast to air after I bought it (but which was recorded before) contains a bunch of heartbreaking discussion of how much he wanted it and how cool it was. (Sorry! Sorry!)

But, anyway:

When I started out, i had an Epson
QX-10.  They are business machines that
run CP/M and are not quite IBM
compatibles.  Since then, Epson has
come out with more in the QX series,
and the 10 is pretty much obsolete.

Anyway, it had a Comrex ComMunicator
modem, and one example program in
Microsoft BASIC.  I took the challenge,
and developed my first "driver," if
you can call it that, in Microsoft
BASIC on the Epson.  I continued, and
developed an entire board.  Shortly
after, however, I had to return the 
QX-10 to work, since I was borrowing it
from them, and they needed it back.

Because of that, i got more interested
in modems in general, and borrowed an
old acoustic modem (compatible with
the "Networker") from the school.  In
high hopes of buying an Apple-Cat, I
developed BBS software, and a machine
language driver for the networker.

Finally, about five months ago as of
the time of this writing, I got my 
Apple-Cat and converted my driver to
work with the Cat.