info-mac@uw-beaver (info-mac) (10/03/84)
From: "David H M Spector" <SPECTOR@NYU-CMCL1.ARPA> I have had a number of requests for information on the release version of MacTerminal, so I thought it would be best to spill my guts for everyone at once instead of individually. So in no real order, here goes: The New (Release) version of Macterminal is marked as Version 1.1, and dated August 17, 1984. The release disk comes with the Terminal Application, and a number of Macterminal sample documents. Also included is a Macterminal document preset for use with AppleLine, and there is another application to deal with Apple's cluster controller. Older MacTerminal documents are (*Sigh*) incompatable with this release. The manual for this release is billed as "Preliminary", but included is a card for a "real" one when it comes out in mid-november. The manual, as it stands seems complete, and the only thing it is missing is the wire "o" ring binding.. There is an insert in the manual that advises one not to move Macterminal to a hard disk on the modem port, and gives instructions for using the printer port with the modem. Evidently, there is a problem with heavy I/O on the serial ports. This version seems to have all of the known bugs fixed. It even does the Clear-to-end-of-Line right. MacTerminal has also picked up the sometimes annoying habit of writing to the disk every now and then; I have been told that Terminal is taking snapshots of memory in case of powerfailures... One of the really nice things about this version, is that the zeros are slashed. (That was driving me crazy!) This version correctly transfers files (documents) and applications that have unknown (to YOUR desktop) icons. There is a marked decrease in the verbosity of most of the dialogs and menus. The buffering at higher baud rates seems much better handled, the screen moves more smoothly, but since there is a lot of buffering going on, ^S/^Q sequences entered from the keyboard my not be recognized until 2 or 3 screens later. The cursor positioning with the mouse stuff is still there, but now you get a new cursor when you press the OPTION key. There is also strange section in the manual about extracting lines saved off from terminal documents by selecting the application you want to place the lines in, and the terminal document, and all sorts of magic will happen. It was a little too bizzare to play with at the moment... I have (Unfortunately) found a few bugs too. It seems the reset is sometimes a bit reluctant to clear the terminal screen. It will beep, and reset all the settings to the startup defaults, but won't clear the screen, and you have to try again. As I said, this happens sometimes, other times it will reset OK. Also, I had the misfortune to have hit the reset on the programmers switch when in terminal, and found that when I tried to restart TERMINAL from the document I had been using, that it was ''damaged or edited...'', and had to reconfigure it from scratch. Finally, it seems that now matter where you have the IMAGEWRITER file, even if you have one on each disk drive, MacTerminal will complain about it being missing, and tell you that you can't print things. I event replaced the whole system folder on the startup disk, it still kvetched. Those are some of the highlights,...it is really a nice product. The bugs, with the possible exception the the powerfail thing, are no deadly.. Hope this answers a few questions for some people... David. -------