3 ms·

Because that's what the logo looked like: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Smithsonian_National_Museum_of_American_History_-_Apple_II_computer_at_the_Sm

• News-Dog 4y ago
  And followed by the Apple ][ plus I think you could purchase a kit with a replacement ROM and case face plate to convert the Apple ][ to an Apple ][ plus Edit Add; Integer BASIC : https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Integer_BASIC https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Integer_BASIC Applesoft BASIC : https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Applesoft_BASIC https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Applesoft_BASIC Officially Woz : http://www.woz.org/letters/apple-basic/ http://www.woz.org/letters/apple-basic/
  • TedDoesntTalk 4y ago
    ...and followed by the //e which only used that string on boot-up if you had the enhanced chipset installed.
• joezydeco 4y ago
  It's kind of a fun shibboleth for those of us that hacked on the systems back in the day. The ROM used ][ instead of II and we used that string when we discussed the computer online. I still type it that way just out of pride. It's kind of like C64 hackers that say KERNAL instead of "kernel" since that's what Commodore docs called it.
  • dhosek 4y ago
    And for added fun, although ] and [ were in the ASCII subset that the Apple ][ used, they were not on the keyboard. I remember writing a program in AppleSoft Basic that was a very limited word processor that used the ctrl key as shift and displayed uppercase using inverse (which was a bad choice because then the return key gave M as its output rather than a new line), and finding that I could get half the logo through the esc key.
  • balls187 4y ago
    > those of us that hacked on the systems back in the day. Thanks for letting us stand on your shoulders :)