info-mac@uw-beaver (08/05/85)
From: John Mark Agosta <INFO-MAC-REQUEST@SUMEX-AIM.arpa>
INFO-MAC Digest Tuesday, 6 Aug 1985 Volume 3 : Issue 29
Today's Topics:
Font selection from the keyboard
ThinkTank hack
Re:Write->Word
The future of honorware
MacWorks XL 3.0 Oophorectomizes Lisa 2/10
BTW documentation
Where is the AppleTalk Printer Access Protocol ?
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From: munnari!fac1.anu.oz!smynmath@seismo.CSS.GOV
Date: Sun, 21 Jul 85 14:07:00 AEST
Subject: Font selection from the keyboard
From recent comments in Info-Mac (about the inconvenience of
selecting fonts using the mouse) I gather that people over there have
not discovered a rather neat trick we use with our ANUMath
mathematical fonts.
ANUMath is a set of fonts which we use in combination with Geneva.
Changing fonts all the time by pulling down the menu is of course a
real pain; Martin Ward, of ANU math dept, found a way to make fonts
selectable by command-key equivalents.
For each font that you want to be selectable by command key
equivalent, create a "dummy" font, size 0 only, of course with a
distinct ID number. Thus we have Geneva, ANUMath1, ANUMath2 etc, for
which the dummy fonts have names Geneva/0, ANUMath1/1, ANUMath2/2 etc;
the dummy font has name <fontname>/X . (Should that slash be
backslash ... never can remember ...) When command-X is pressed, the
MenuManager goes looking for a Menu item for that key, finds
<fontname>, passes it to the FontManager, and voila. (It's not good
enough to rename the original font, because then the Fontmanager won't
be able to find font <fontname> ). The number keys are an excellent
choice for equivalents, they are easy to remember and do not conflict
with any known application uses. The trick should work with any
application using a Font menu (not MS-Word). The only drawback is
that the fonts appear TWICE in the menu, once with the command key
appended; selecting EITHER however still works!
With judicious cutting and pasting, you can make the numbered fonts
appear in correct order at the top of the menu.
Neville Smythe, Maths, Australian National University
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Date: Sun 30 Jun 85 18:36:16-PDT
From: rik <RIK@SU-CSLI.ARPA>
Subject: ThinkTank hack
If you're frustrated because ThinkTank's copy-protection scheme is
so poorly done that it won't even let legitimate users print on a
laserwriter, here's a trick:
Boot ThinkTank from Switcher instead. As long as Switcher has a laserwriter
system installed on its disk, thinktank gets fooled into spooling its
print jobs to the laserwriter. Remember to print the document in
high resolution mode.
I haven't tried it yet, but I bet the same trick would work for MacForth,
Neon, and other programs which don't do LaserWriting quite right.
------------------------------
Subject: Re:Write->Word
Date: 04 Aug 85 18:47:25 PDT (Sun)
From: Peter Korn <cc-20%ucbcory@Berkeley>
Yes. Someone has written a program that converts Macwrite files (both formats)
to MS-Word format. The people to talk to are MicroSoft. The program you
want to purchase is MS-Word. It seems that, if you are in MS-Word,
and choose open from the file menu, you will get a mini-finder (the original
one), which will list both Word, and WRITE files. Simply choose to
open a MacWrite file, and Word will automatically convert it for you,
putting it into an untitled document window. All formatting, fonts, etc.
are preserved!
Peter Korn
------------------------------
Date: Fri 2 Aug 85 14:44:18-CDT
From: CMP.BARC@UTEXAS-20.ARPA
Subject: The future of honorware
It was announced to the Univ. of Texas UMUG last night that Don Brown and CE
Software are going out of the honorware business, due to poor response to the
concept. They have found a publisher and will release future software in the
standard "money up front" manner. If this report is true, it would seem to be
a sad commentary on the attitudes of computer users towards software, sug-
gesting that we won't acknowledge that software developers are due anything for
their efforts. However, I wonder what the whole story is. I thought that the
Desk Accessory Mover was a nice product, but I never sent in my money for it.
I haven't used it all that much (not at all for several months), but intended
to send in my money the next time I used it (I prefer it to ResEdit and Apple's
own mover, which I've been using recently.). The Mock DA's didn't have some
key features that I demanded (and they caused mysterious crashes). I suspect
that others felt similarly about these DA's and didn't send CE any money
because they couldn't quite find a use for the products (nice, but no niche).
I'd like to think that honorware is a robust concept and that users are willing
to pay reasonable amounts for useful, useable (e.g., well-interfaced, well-
documented and unprotected), openly distributed software that can be evaluated
at leisure and without risk.
CE is apparently going out of the honorware business with real class. They are
offering at least two more products -- programs to convert old DA's into new
ones and to reconfigure MockTerminal. Let's wish them luck in their new
endeavors.
Dallas Webster
P.S.: If my remarks are going to provoke responses and further discussion
(i.e., flames), perhaps our moderator would prefer that it be directed to
info-micro or human-nets.
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 2 Aug 85 13:04 PDT
From: johnholly.ES@Xerox.ARPA
Subject: MacWorks XL 3.0 Oophorectomizes Lisa 2/10
MacWorks XL 3.0 Oophorectomizes Lisa 2/10
One of my colleagues was trying out the program called EXAMPLE that came with
the "5/85" software supplement from Apple. (We received it the end of July).
It was running on our Lisa 2/10 under MacWorks XL 3.0, which came in the same
software supplement package. The screen froze except for the cursor. We
restarted it with the button on the rear. Ever since, we've been in deep
trouble.
When the Lisa is restarted or turned on, it checks itself out, boots Macworks XL
from the hard disk, and tries to load the system file from the hard disk. It
doesn't get far. The disk icon with the question mark turns into the Mac icon
with the smiling face, and there it hangs. (The little rectangle below the icon
reminds us "MACWORKS XL 3.0, COPYRIGHT 1985 - APPLE COMPUTER"; how I've learned
to hate it!)
We've left it running like that for 14 hours; nothing changes. It never makes
it to the startup screen, "Welcome to Macintosh."
When we force Lisa to boot MacWorks XL from a floppy, the same thing happens.
If we force MacWorks XL to look for a startup system on a floppy (instead of the
hard disk), the same thing happens.
If we boot an older version of MacWorks from a floppy, everything works
normally, but there's no hard disk. If we run the early version of Hard Disk
Install, it says "This disk is unreadable, damagaed or not a Macintosh disk: Do
you want to initialize it?" Could this be because part of the disk now contains
MacWorks XL, a Lisa program?
If we run the latest version of Hard Disk Install it says "Sorry. . .this
version of Hard Disk Install must be run with MacWorks XL."
Naturally, we have files on the hard disk that aren't backed up on
floppies--files that would be expensive to recreate. Even if we bit the bullet
and erased the hard disk, I would not feel comfortable reinstalling MacWorks XL
on it without knowing how to avoid recurrance of the problem. Besides, saving
files to floppies every 15 minutes or so is not practical, and recreating the
hard disk is no fun either. (We had used MacWorks XL for less than a week when
our problem arose.)
Can anyone out there offer advice? Any solutions or clues would be greatly
appreciated.
John H. Holly
------------------------------
Subject: BTW documentation
Date: 24 Jul 85 23:14:29 EDT (Wed)
From: zim@mitre.ARPA
I've done further work on BTW, my HyperText/TextNet/NoteCards/etc. effort
on the Mac, and have another MacFORTH program to share, which documents the
essential ideas and methods of BTW using a network of 20 windows in BTW
itself. The file is about 20K in CONVERT format (31 FORTH screens, some
of them blank).
[ The Forth code can be found on the info-macforth@harvard bboard.
This is an experiment in documenting BTW, written using BTW,
multi-window information presentation system by Mark Zimmermann....
For further discussion, contact Mark at (301)565-2166,
as "zim@mitre" on the arpanet, or at 75066,2044 on CompuServe.
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 2 Aug 85 09:13:03 CDT
From: Rick Watson <rick@ut-ngp.ARPA>
Subject: Where is the AppleTalk Printer Access Protocol ?
Does anyone know where the Printer Access Protocol lives? Even a pointer
to where the object is supposed to be on the Workshop would help.
Rick Watson
University of Texas Computation Center
rick@ut-ngp.arpa
...ut-sally!ut-ngp!rick
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End of INFO-MAC Digest
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