Apple ProDOS (the
Professional Disk Operating System) was arguably the most popular
operating system for the Apple II series of computers upon its release
in 1983.
ProDOS was released by
Apple to
address specific issues relating to connecting peripheral devices such
as hard disk drives and third-party non-Disk II floppy disk drives.
ProDOS also addressed earlier
DOS 3.x problems with hardware interrupt signals, difficulties in
assigning memory areas as protected memory, and special function
customization. With the release of ProDOS came the end of support for
Integer
BASIC, which by 1983 had been effectively replaced by
Applesoft
BASIC.
ProDOS, unlike earlier Apple
DOS 3.x versions, has its developmental roots in SOS, the
operating system for the ill-fated Apple III computer released in
1980.
Eventually ProDOS was renamed to ProDOS 8. ProDOS 16
was written to support the new Apple IIgs computer, although it was
soon replaced by GS/OS.