bill@hao.UUCP (Bill Roberts) (10/14/86)
Has anyone on the net used "Graphics Magician"? Can anyone attest to its quality? Their ad states that the animation sequences (movie?) can be called from Lisa Pascal, MDS, MS-Basic (argh!!), and LighSpeed Pascal. Since TML Pascal is supposed to be way compatible with Lisa Pascal, can the "movies" be call (directly) from TML Pascal? If not directly, then I suppose they can be called indirectly via a Pascal call to an 68K MDS assembly language routine. Are there any other animation programs out there that can be called from high level languages? Thanks in advance for any info. Bill Roberts NCAR/HAO Boulder, CO uucp: !hao!bill csnet: bill@ncar.csnet
bezanson@gumby.WISC.EDU (Brian Bezanson) (10/16/86)
In article <254@hao.UUCP>, bill@hao.UUCP (Bill Roberts) writes: > Has anyone on the net used "Graphics Magician"? Can anyone attest to its > quality? Their ad states that the animation sequences (movie?) can be called > from Lisa Pascal, MDS, MS-Basic (argh!!), and LighSpeed Pascal. Since TML > Pascal is supposed to be way compatible with Lisa Pascal, can the "movies" be > call (directly) from TML Pascal? If not directly, then I suppose they can be > called indirectly via a Pascal call to an 68K MDS assembly language routine. > > Are there any other animation programs out there that can be called from > high level languages? Thanks in advance for any info. First, a minor correction, MacPascal/not Lightspeed, but since Lightspeed is from the same authors as MacPascal, all should be fine. I own both, and their is no problem going from MacPascal to Lightspeed, but on to your question... Here is my story, I bought the Graphics Magician back in April after calling Penguin/Polarware and asking a 'technical person' if it was compatible with TML pascal, he said 'sure is'. I bought the package, had a lot of fun designing pictures/animation routines (I bought it to add some quick/fast sequences to some programs). When I ran the MS Basic examples, except for some pathname problems, they seemed to work okay, but when I tried using the MacPascal or Assembler routines, it was problem city. The Pascal routines griped about inline routines and the MDS example wanted non-existant Macros. As far as Lisa-=>TML pascal, it came with a Lisa .rel type module and declarations. Since I never used Lisa Pascal, I didn't know if the Lisa .rel type file could be transfered (still don't-any help on this). By this time I was a little frustrated, so I called Polarware and talked to the same 'technical' person, I asked him again about TML compatibility, then he asked me if TML and MacPascal were the same, he thought so. I was a little bit angry by this point, so I figured I had wasted $60 and thought I'd try some more. I tried using the MacPascal routines from TML (converting the inlines to open the resource file used by the MacPascal program, etc...) Still no luck, so I wrote a letter to Peggy Smith, P.R. Director. On May 6th, 1986 she sent me a letter saying that she was forwarding my letter to the author, Eagle Berns. Mr. Berns called soon after and told me to send my copy of the program to him, a few days later he called back. He said his version worked okay, (we were trying the MacPascal & MDS examples). We had virtually the same systems (MacPlus, HD20, - I was using MFS MacServe part- itions, etc...) When he tried the examples shipped with the program he found that I was correct, they didn't work. He told me that he had someone else write the interface and example files, and that he would talk w/them ASAP and get the situation fixed (this was in May folks). Mr. Burns also told me that he would be sending me a few extra disks of examples that he had personaly written. I was in good spirits now, my letter had been answered very quickly and Mr. Burns's responses were positive, so I awaited for a working version. (I forgot to mention another problem, the MacPascal routine also wanted some animation files that weren't even on the examples disk! I substituted other one - worked with the Basic demo). I waited, and waited. Finally on June 26 I wrote again requesting my copy of the program back (or a refund - which was suggested by Ms. Smith). Nothing happened... I finally was mad enough to call her directly late in July, I told her my problem and she said that she would send me a new copy and would talk to Eagle again. Well I did receive a new copy, but it was identical to the original - missing files and non-functioning demos. I look back and see that I spent $50 for the program and $10 more on phone calls, plus several hours invested in trying to make the product work. I am very disappointed. I think I'll write again - prompted by your message here, to see if I can get anything done. At the very least I would like to get my money back, and the best, a working copy. The graphics magician had a lot of potential when used under a powerful language (TML or Lightspeed Pascal). Maybe if Polarware or Mr. Burns reads the next, we may see some action. So far, all I have seen from him were 2 calls in early May, a patch lately on Compuserve for MacPlus compatibility in one of the graphics editors, and that he has been hired on by Apple. If anyone else has actually fixed their copy, PLEASE let me know. Until that time, I couldn't advise anyone to buy the program. [Standard Disclaimer: I have no affiliation w/Penguin/Polarware, but am a DISatisfied user.] -- Brian Bezanson {seismo,ihnp4,allegra,topaz,harvard}!uwvax!gumby!bezanson Manta Software Corp. bezanson@gumby.wisc.edu
bezanson@gumby.WISC.EDU (Brian Bezanson) (10/16/86)
In article <419@gumby.WISC.EDU>, bezanson@gumby.WISC.EDU (Brian Bezanson) writes: Hey, I'm replying to myself. Here is some new light on what I found out tonight w/Graphics magician, MacPascal & Lightspeed Pascal. > ...The Pascal > routines griped about inline routines and the MDS example wanted non-existant > Macros. As far as Lisa-=>TML pascal, it came with a Lisa .rel type module > and declarations. Since I never used Lisa Pascal, I didn't know if the > Lisa .rel type file could be transfered (still don't-any help on this). > Well I did receive a new copy, but it was identical to the original - > missing files and non-functioning demos. > I'll write again - prompted by your message here, to see if I can get > anything done. The graphics magician had a lot of potential when used > under a powerful language (TML or Lightspeed Pascal). Well, it looks like I made a BIG mistake in my complaint, it does work with MacPascal 2.1 and Lightspeed, but you do need to modify the file to include the volume name and you have to rename the appropriate test files that the program needs. I went and rechecked this, so yes the program does work under MacPascal and LP, LP is almost TOO FAST in execution. But there is no way to have it work with TML, except writing MDS glue code. But since I'm not much of an assembly person (yet-learning stages now), I don't have the knowledge to do that. I did have a friend who is very good in 68000 assembly on the Mac play with it, he got the program to compile, but when it ran it would bomb at different memory locations. We gave up after a half hour since at least the MacPascal demo ran. I am looking forward to using the package now and seeing what it can do, but it still makes me mad that Polarware couldn't have provided better documentation (only stuff on programming is in MacWrite file - small) and the examples aniamtion files that the program wants aren't even on the disk! I still hope to hear from penguin about calling the routines from MDS (and maybe TML pascal/MPW). -- Brian Bezanson {seismo,ihnp4,allegra,topaz,harvard}!uwvax!gumby!bezanson Manta Software Corp. bezanson@gumby.wisc.edu
heins@orion.UUCP (Michael T. Heins) (10/17/86)
In article <254@hao.UUCP> bill@hao.UUCP (Bill Roberts) writes: >Has anyone on the net used "Graphics Magician"? Can anyone attest to its >quality? ... I bought Graphics Magician a few months ago and discovered that it didn't work under HFS. They may have come out with a fix for this, but I haven't received any update announcements from them. -- ...!hplabs!sdcrdcf!trwrb!orion!heins We are a way for the universe to know itself. -- Carl Sagan