ASCII Express - AE Pro

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ASCII Express - A Complete Telecommunications Package - written for the Apple II series of computers when the use of the bulletin board system (BBS), or even telecommunications in general wasn't a common use of the Apple II. It was the choice among telecommunication users throughout much of the 1980s.

ASCII Express "The Pro" or "AE Pro" was a collaboration between Bill Blue and Mark Robbins. It was a command-line driven telecomm program, including scripting, YMODEM and ZMODEM, terminal emulation, and support for Apple ProDOS 8. AE Pro can also be used as a pseudo-BBS when configured as a host, allowing a user to dial-in and exchange files.

Earlier versions of AE Pro were distributed by Roger Wagner of Southwestern Data Systems, and later by United Software Industries (founded by Mark Robbins, Bill Blue and others). Greg Schaefer converted AE Pro from Apple DOS 3.3 to Apple ProDOS in an afternoon, and received US$5000. In 1985 Joe Holt and Greg Schaefer rewrote AE Pro for the Apple II taking advantage of the platform's new mouse and MouseText features.

Platform: Apple II, II Plus, IIe 48Kb RAM Disk 5.25

OS: DOS 3.3

Apple-compatible RS-232 asynchronous serial interface

16Kb RAM card in Slot 0; Keyboard enhancer; Apple-compatible 80-column card

System Software (SS:) Utility Program (UP:) Communications

Version: 1984