Apple II
Technical Notes
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                                                  Developer Technical Support


Apple IIc
#1:    Mouse Differences on IIe and IIc

Revised by:    Matt Deatherage                                  November 1988
Revised by:    Cameron Birse                                    February 1986

This Technical Note explains differences between the IIe and IIc when working 
with a mouse and how to write programs which function properly on both 
machines.
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If you use the mouse firmware routines (i.e., SetMouse) to control the mouse, 
then these routines will perform the same function on the IIc as they do on 
the IIe.  However, a program which uses the mouse may not behave the same on 
both computers, and there are two reasons for the possible differences.

If a program does not properly set the environment prior to calling the mouse 
firmware routines, it is possible for a program to work on one machine and not 
the other.  In addition, there are differences in machines and although the 
ROM routines perform the same functions, there may be a noticeable difference 
in the mouse behavior between the two machines.

This Note explains the fundamental differences between the way the mouse works 
on the two machines.  We point out precautions that you need to take to ensure 
your assembly language programs work properly on both machines.  (With the 
exception of mouse movement scaling described below, neither BASIC nor Pascal 
programs need be concerned with setting the proper environment.)

The Apple IIe mouse card has a microprocessor on it which constantly polls the 
mouse to get status and position information.  This data is kept on the card 
and is available whenever the program requests it through the ReadMouse 
routine.  If the mouse is in passive mode, this information will be picked up 
by the main program  whenever it gets around to it.

The SetMouse routine can set the mouse card to issue interrupts under certain 
conditions.  When the mouse card determines that such conditions exist, it 
issues an interrupt.  This interrupt stops the main computer and goes to 
whatever interrupt handling routine has been prepared.  This routine then 
reads the information from where the card processor saved it and puts it in 
the screen holes.  When using a mouse on an Apple with a mouse card, your 
program is only interrupted if you have requested it, and the data in the 
screen holes is changed only when the program's interrupt handler or polling 
routine calls ReadMouse.  In addition, enabling and disabling interrupts does 
not affect the card's microprocessor from updating the mouse information.

The Apple IIc mouse does not have a card microprocessor, so mouse information 
is collected by interrupting the microprocessor of the IIc itself.  When the 
interrupt occurs, the firmware captures it and processes it, which includes 
updating the screen holes.  The interrupt is passed only if SetMouse set up 
the conditions to do so.

Having the mouse interrupt the computer's microprocessor also means that your 
program is being constantly interrupted, which affects program timing.  This 
interruption also means that the screen holes are constantly updated with X 
and Y information, even in passive mode, since this information must be stored 
somewhere and there is no card to keep it in.  If you have disabled 
interrupts, the mouse can never interrupt the microprocessor, so the X and Y 
values are never updated and calling ReadMouse will indicate that there has 
been no mouse movement.

Since the Apple IIc is constantly interrupted while the mouse is on, the 
program's performance may be affected.  To minimize this effect, the IIc 
responds one-half as frequently to mouse movements as does the mouse card, 
which means the mouse must be moved twice as far to create the same on-screen 
effect.  If you want the same behavior on both machines, multiply the IIc X 
and Y values by two and the clamping value by one half.  You do not need to 
make any changes to these values if your program is running on a IIe.

With this exception for mouse movement, your assembly language program can 
ignore which machine it is running on by following the precautions listed in 
Mouse Technical Note #1, Interrupt Environment with the Mouse (you must take 
these conditions into account if you want your assembly language program to 
behave similarly on both machines).  If you are working in BASIC or Pascal, 
these conditions are already handled for you.


Further Reference
o    Apple IIc Technical Reference Manual
o    Mouse Technical Note #1, Interrupt Environment with the Mouse
