info-mac@uw-beaver (01/14/85)
From: Hans.Moravec@CMU-RI-ROVER I just read Cowan's message on my Mac, and activated the control panel. My date, untouched by man or mouse, read Jan 12, 1985, as it should, not 1984. There is a problem I've been meaning to report on for months now. I have a habit of slowing my keystrokes, including the down phase, when thinking while writing. This interacts badly with auto-repeat, so I prefer to leave the turtle/bunny parameter on 0, the turtle rail, to suppress the repeat. This parameter is not initialized properly when programs are started from disks inserted into a newly powered up Mac. For instance, if I insert a disk, wait for it to boot, then lean on the "A" key, the disk is renamed to aaaaaaaaaa... If I run MacWrite, I'm likely to type ccooommpppuutteeerr instead of computer; same problem with most other programs. When I fetch the control panel the repeat parameter is where I left it, at turtle 0. If I simply close the control panel, the problem is still there. However, if I mouse over to this parameter's slider and simply click it at its 0 setting, even without moving it, the auto repeat disappears until the next cold boot. This problem exists on all versions of the system I've used (the original, the one on with MacWrite 2.2, the one on the MacDraw/MacProject disk). My experience is only with skinny Macs so far. Also, I wish MacPaint and MacDraw could rotate objects by arbitrary angles, but that's another story. -- Hans Moravec