info-mac@uw-beaver (03/12/85)
From: Moderator John Mark Agosta <INFO-MAC-REQUEST@SUMEX-AIM.ARPA>
INFO-MAC Digest Tuesday, 12 Mar 1985 Volume 2 : Issue 12
Today's Topics:
TOPS-20 MACGET/PUT
you can now Email your Megamax-C troubles [forwarded from USENET]
Software Update
VersaTerm review
Re: VersaTerm Review
Apple's Object Pascal and Niklaus Wirth
Any hardware MAC info available?
MacDraw formats?
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Mon 11 Mar 85 14:46:26-PST
From: Andrew Sweer <SWEER@SUMEX-AIM.ARPA>
Subject: TOPS-20 MACGET/PUT
People who have previously snarfed copies of MACGET and MACPUT
from <INFO-MAC> at SUMEX, and other interested parties should note
that there are updated versions available as:
<INFO-MAC>MACGET.EXE and .HLP and <INFO-MAC>MACPUT.EXE and
.HLP
Keep in mind that as long as the program announces itself as
version 0.99, it is a prerelease. Version 1.0 should be out "soon".
Andy
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 9 Mar 85 02:15:08 cst
From: werner@ut-ngp.ARPA (Werner Uhrig)
Subject: you can now Email your Megamax-C troubles [forwarded from
Subject: USENET]
From: tepj@osu-eddie.UUCP (Tom Phillips) Newsgroups:
net.micro.apple,net.micro.mac,net.lang.c Subject: Megamax-c user
problem person Date: Thu, 28-Feb-85 17:18:16 CST Xref: seismo
net.micro.apple:1809 net.micro.mac:752 net.lang.c:4704
Well, hi there again! First, thanks to all (18!) of the honest
Netters who replied to me 'bout the Megamax-C thing. All the necessary
info has been forewarded to Megamax and the plan to deal with it
accordingly. (I am still hopeful of no copy protection scheme)
Second, for all of the Megamax-C OWNERS out there I will be accepting
Bug-Reports on the Megamax-C Compiler/Linker, etc package. NOTICE I
said BUG_REPORTS, not programming questions, etc. If the programming
question has somthing to do with a bug or a fix there's a chance I can
help. I will provide this service for a while to see what kind of
turn out I get and as a disclaimer, I reserve the right to quit it at
any time, etc.
Flip /tom/ Phillips cbosgd!osu-eddie!tepj
Also:
This has nothing to do with the Ohio State Univ, Its employees, Its
children, its people, nothing...
--
Tom (Flip) Phillips
The Ohio State University
osu-eddie!tepj
[ I believe a valid ARPA-address is:
cbosgd!osu-eddie!tepj@UCBVAX.ARPA.
ask you resident wizard if that doesn't seem to work for you.
Werner ]
------------------------------
Date: Fri 8 Mar 85 10:03:31-PST
From: PIERCE@SRI-KL.ARPA
Subject: Software Update
Software Updates:
--- Finder ---
I just received a beta copy of the new finder. This one is
version 2.6 but a friend has a copy of 3.0. Mine had a few
bugs but a few very interesting features:
* Faster (less than a factor of two -- I will make some
measurements and report them later.)
* A print catalog feature
* A reject both disks and reset the machine on the special
menu
* A create empty folder on the file menu (no empty folder
appears on the desktop until requested)
While this version did bomb a few times, it looks like it is
close to release since there was a "install" application
already written.
--- Switcher ---
I just got version 1.1 of the switcher. I was able to make
it work with MacDraw and Word at the same time. It is still
buggy and crashes with MacWrite 3.96 and others, but for the
first time I could use the common clipboard, set the memory
sizes for the applications and REALLY USE IT! It is on the
way and Andy must really be working on it.
--- Thunderscan vs MacVision vs Micron Eye ---
Personal opinion only: Micron eye is worthless. MacVision
has limited worth (15 seconds for a scan is the bad part).
Thunderscan is great! Very slow but the lighting is no
problem, the enlarge features are great.
--- Upcoming meeting of interest ---
There is going to be a showing of the DRI's GEM (a mac-alike
on the IBM PC) at a meeting of the Software Entrepreneurs'
Forum Macintosh Developers Group. It will be held at 7pm
March 12, 1985 at Foothill College (room S-1) in Los Altos,
California. (40 miles south of SanFrancisco at the El Monte
Exit of 280). They charge $7.00 admission for non-members
but it could be a good look into alternatives to Macintosh.
Pierce @SRI-KL
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 7 Mar 85 22:28:02 EST
From: Joel Malman <malman@bbn-labs-b>
Subject: VersaTerm review
MacPeople, I thought I would let you all know how it feels to use
VersaTerm. I am not connected with the programmer who wrote VersaTerm
or the organization selling VersaTerm, just a Mac user who bought
(read: asked my employer to buy me a copy) of VersaTerm.
First off: it is COPY PROTECTED. While this might turn off some
prospective users, they provide 2 copies; and will SELL you an
unprotected copy for $15 if you are already a registered owner and
promise to only use the UNPROTECTED copy on only ONE machine. Updates
are supposed to be provided to registered owners for 10 bucks.
The things I like VERY much about VersaTerm:
1. The character set is a whole lot better than MacTerminal. For
example, a cap I, really looks like a cap I (not an L). The only
character I hate is the lower l. It is really the pits.
2. There is a pull down menu for USER DEFINED Commands that are sent
to the host computer. Unix lovers can easily have VersaTerm send the
following sequence to the host directly:
who | grep malman > foo ; cat foo ; date ; logout
Up to 8 command strings (of 128 characters each, with pipes,
redirected output, etc.) can be saved (even something as simple as
telnet bbnv, or as complex as to require control characters i.e.
linefeed, is supported). Suggested TermCap and TermInfo's are
supplied. (This product seems to have been developed with Unix in
mind).
3. You can automatically have everything that prints on the screen be
printed on the Imagewriter.
4. The documentation says it supports Mac Put/Get but I have only
been able to use MacPut. I am almost positive the copy of MacGet on my
host is broken though. You can use the "save stream" VersaTerm command
to save host output into a Mac text file. MacTerminal users will be
releived to find that all the confusion over "Save characters off the
top" is no longer a problem. Either you are in "save stream" mode or
not.
5. VI and EMACS cursor controls are supported directly. I only wish
my BBN "Pen" editor was supported. Again, Unix people should be happy.
Note that Pen is almost supported -- since the full VT-100 command set
is implemented. You only lose the MacTermial/Pen feature of cursor
control.
6. There a is binding between the 'phone settings', i.e. 300 baud, no
parity, etc, BETWEEN EACH phone number you use. That is to say, you
can have your SmartModem set things like 1.5 stop bits, 300 baud for
The Source phone number, and 1.0 stop bits and 1200 baud for your
local Tac phone number. The phone number selection is a pull down
menu.
7. VersaTerm does not complain, a la MacTerminal, about NOT finding
an Imagewriter printer driver.
Well, for sure there are many things to like about VersaTerm, here are
the things that could be better:
1. The documentation is NOT typeset. It was created with
MacWrite/Paint. A pretty good job, but for $99.00, I expected
something typeset. On the positive side though -- it is pretty
complete, and it is obvious that someone spend A LOT of hours making
it what it is.
2. If you are wondering if you can run CALENDAR (sans the Corvus
version) you can not. Calendar STILL takes up too much memory.
VersaTerm is a bit more graceful than MacTerminal though .. A dialog
box says there is not enough memory -- rather than just the 'beep'
from MacTerminal.
3. Commands such as Cut, Copy, Paste, etc. do NOT have keyboard
equilvants. You have to use the pull down menu for these functions.
In summary, if I were InfoWorld, I would rate this product THREE
disks.
joel (Systems Adminstrator, BBN Labs Inc., Cambridge, Ma.)
ArpaNet: malman@bbnh or malman@bbn-unix
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 8 Mar 85 9:51:25 EST
From: Mark H. Nodine <mnodine@BBNH.ARPA>
Subject: Re: VersaTerm Review
I would like to add a few things to Joel's review of VersaTerm. It
has a number of advantages over MacTerminal that he didn't mention:
1. It does not gratuitously whirr the disk every fifteen seconds.
In fact, its operation seems to be silent except when you are
transferring a file, saving the settings, or saving your stream to a
file.
2. It allows you to specify whether the backspace key is supposed to
translate to backspace or rubout. Whichever you choose, Command
Backspace will do the other.
3. They have implemented Command Return = LineFeed.
4. It is possible to get at the keypad and arrow functions without
going through a clumsy menu selection. Command 1-4 translate to PF1
to PF4 and Command 7-0 translate to left,down,up,right.
5. VersaTerm makes it easier to select text for pasting back into
the input stream. In MacTerminal, the operation was to copy the
selection to the clipboard and then paste it back to the input stream
(whirring the disk). You can do the same in VersaTerm, except that
they have an additional menu item "Copy-Paste" to handle the common
case (without whirring the disk).
6. They have done quite a nice job with the 4014 emulation (nicer,
from what I have seen, than TekAlike). It properly scales everything
to the Mac screen, handles the various text sizes OK, and handles the
overstriking correctly.
7. It is still a product that is open to improvement. The version I
have (1.42 from February 20: hot off the presses!) has some dimmed out
menu items in the File menu which are never enabled nor described in
the manual called "Save Graphics" and "Restore Graphics". Presumably
they are open to other enhancements as well.
8. One thing which I'm not sure is clear after what Joel said: you
don't have to worry about a lot of configuration files, because
VersaTerm keeps all the information for eight different phone numbers,
etc. That means that you don't have to close a document file and open
another one just to change phone numbers.
9. VersaTerm gives you additional flexibility about what kind of
dialing modem you can use, by allowing you to specify the sequence of
characters to be sent for each place you connect to (and a more
mnemonic name which appears in the menu). For example, for a Hayes
equivalent modem you specify something like "ATDT 555-1212", but for a
direct connection to a computer you might specify your login name, or
for a direct connection to a TAC, you might specify the sequence
needed to open a particular computer (e.g., "@o 2/9").
On the negative side:
1. They can only handle up to 7200 baud in VT100 mode without
XOn/XOff.
2. It would be nice if they had yet another method for mousing
around which would send the arrow key equivalents rather than sending
the emacs or VI commands.
On the neutral side:
It is clear why none of the commands are bound to keyboard
equivalents: nearly all the command-key combinations are already
taken. The alphabet is taken for sending control characters, eight of
the numbers for sending keypad codes, escape bound to ` (BTW,
VersaTerm will send a tilde if you do Shift-`; you don't have to do
Command-Shift-` as in MacTerminal), etc. The remaining keys would
probably not be very mnemonic...
In short, I feel they really took a lot of effort to do it "right". I
am ordering a version for my personal use at home, so I can have it
both for work and for play.
As usual, I have no affiliation with VersaTerm, MacTerminal, Apple,
etc., etc. I have nothing to gain from their successes or failures,
and I'm getting tired of disclaimers.
Mark
------------------------------
From: joel@decwrl.arpa (Joel McCormack)
Date: 5 Mar 1985 1705-PST (Tuesday)
Subject: Apple's Object Pascal and Niklaus Wirth
Classcal might best be described as some Smalltalk object concepts
hacked onto the separate compilation features of UCSD Pascal, which
were in turn some Ada package concepts hacked onto an earlier version
of UCSD Pascal, which in turn was a bunch of system programming (and
other) features hacked onto a Zurich p-code compiler. And I do mean
hacked: in each case capabilities of the model being stolen from were
left out, and the syntax was not necessarily nice and clean.
As I understand it, Larry Tesler asked Niklaus Wirth to look over
their implementation of these ideas and help clean up the syntax.
Niklaus made some suggestions which Apple followed, resulting in
Object Pascal.
While Wirth has taken an interest in object-oriented concepts
lately, I think implying that Apple's Object Pascal has been blessed
by him is taking things a little too far. I understand that he still
thinks Apple's stuff is overly complex.
Of course, as far as getting real object capabilities in a
strongly-typed language, it's the only game in town. I would use
Object Pascal before Lisa Pascal, assembler, or C.
- Joel McCormack {ihnp4 decvax ucbvax allegra}!decwrl!joel
joel@decwrl.arpa
------------------------------
From: mknox@ut-ngp.ARPA (mknox)
Date: Tue, 5 Mar 85 20:38:40 CST
Subject: Any hardware MAC info available?
For the hardware hackers among us, does anyone have any pointers to
the hardware information about the MacIntosh? Things like memory
addresses for various I/O devices? A schematic!!! APPLE is obviously
holding off on releasing such info as long as possible. But someone
by now MUST have done some *reverse engineering*. Any leads?
[Before anyone *flames on*, yes, I am aware that even asking such a
question may violate the philosophy of the MAC design. But I *LIKE*
knowing how my machine works!]
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 2 Mar 85 23:41:34 est
From: Velu Sinha <velu@maryland>
Subject: MacDraw formats?
Does anyone know the format of MacDraw save files?
I'd like to be able to print out MacDraw files on an HP Plotter, and
am wondering about how to decode the saved file format.
Thanks in advance.
------------------------------
End of INFO-MAC Digest
**********************