shulman@topaz.RUTGERS.EDU (Jeff Shulman) (12/08/85)
Delphi Digest Sunday, 8 Dec 1985 Volume 1 : Issue 11
Today's Topics:
RE: Usenet Digest Volume 1 Issue 12 (Re: Msg 3799)
RE: Usenet Digest Volume 1 Issue 12 (Re: Msg 3807)
re: 3799
hard
RE: hard (Re: Msg 3847)
RE: hard (Re: Msg 3847)
RE: hard (Re: Msg 3847)
RE: Usenet Digest Volume 1 Issue 13 (Re: Msg 3845)
RE: Usenet Digest Volume 1 Issue 13 (Re: Msg 3851)
RE: Usenet Digest Volume 1 Issue 13 (Re: Msg 3856)
VOLUME INDEXING
RE: Usenet Digest Volume 1 Issue 14 (Re: Msg 3895)
RE: pagemaker (Re: Msg 3911)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
From: PEABO (3807)
Subject: RE: Usenet Digest Volume 1 Issue 12 (Re: Msg 3799)
Date: 2-DEC-20:11: Mousing Around
Re: Graphics tables for the Mac --
Kurta Corporation
4610 South 35th ST
Phoenix, AZ 85040
(602) 276-5533
Penmouse+, a graphics tablet which interfaces through the RS-232 port.
This was on display at the August Macworld Expo, but the literature I
picked up said nothing about Macintosh ... evidently it was prepared
as a generic product for micros.
GTCO
<sorry, I don't have the address of phone number handy>
Summagraphics Corp
777 State St Extension
Fairfield, CT 06430
(203) 384-1344
MacTablet, a tablet with driver program to interface with the Mac.
These are the folks who are running the ad that says in part, "using a
mouse with MacPaint is a lot like drawing with a bar of soap".
[ The January issue of MacUser has an article on these two tablets - JSS ]
Re: Mac Workstations --
ExperTelligence is selling a customized Mac Workstation built around a Mac with
expanded memory, hard disk, and ExperLisp.
------------------------------
From: MOUSEKETEER (3811)
Subject: RE: Usenet Digest Volume 1 Issue 12 (Re: Msg 3807)
Date: 2-DEC-20:59: Mousing Around
I played with the Summagraphics Mactablet a few weeks ago. I thought
with the size and price (what, $495?) it might be a fine working
tablet. Not for me! If the mouse is a "bar of soap", the Mactablet
is a "bale of hay" to draw with. Oddly, it will track even when not
touching the surface of the tablet, making fine detail work very
difficult. One tester's view. Alfonso Qwerty.
------------------------------
From: BRECHER (3822)
Subject: re: 3799
Date: 3-DEC-04:37: Mousing Around
To: vishniac@wanginst.UUCP (Ephraim Vishniac) Re: MacSCSI problems
There is no need for a hard disk (non-Sony) driver to respond to Status calls.
As you're likely aware (but the original questioner may not be), one of the
amazingly large holes in the amazingly large number of holes in the driver (and
formatter) published in DDJ is a complete lack of I/O error checking.
------------------------------
From: PIZZAMAN (3847)
Subject: hard
Date: 4-DEC-23:01: Hardware & Peripherals
Anyone have the opportunity to use the new imagewriter II? would like some
input before settling on the I or II. barry
------------------------------
From: MOUSEKETEER (3853)
Subject: RE: hard (Re: Msg 3847)
Date: 5-DEC-00:50: Hardware & Peripherals
I have used an Imagewriter II, and was planning to get one to use at home,
taking my "I" to my store (I don't mind lugging the Mac nearly as much as the
printer). It is quieter in use than the "I", which was a primary reason to use
it at home (I currently lay a pillow on the printer at night... it helps, even
if Apple would probably laugh). Print quality is supposed to be better, but
seemed nearly identical to me. I then discovered that the Thunderscan (as is)
would not work with the II (though the new cart. supposedly will), and since I
only scan at home, I decided to hold off and see what the supposed Laserwriter
II comes out as. If you don't use the Thunderscan, I would think the quiet
would be worth getting the II, unless there is a price difference (is the "I"
being closed out?) Alf.
------------------------------
From: LOFTUSBECKER (3854)
Subject: RE: hard (Re: Msg 3847)
Date: 5-DEC-02:31: Hardware & Peripherals
Barry,
Go with the I. IW II has some nice features, but does a fandance
at the top of each page that exacerbates, not helps, the squinched lines
at the top problem; it does bidirectional printing in standard quality mode
which winds up making standard quality print look like it's written by a
drunk (try Geneva 10, Geneva 9, for samples). And it jams more easily than
the I.
Mayube I just have a bad one. But I've heard the same from others.
If you do buy a II, try out _the one you will get_ before you buy.
- Lofty
------------------------------
From: JFRYER (3871)
Subject: RE: hard (Re: Msg 3847)
Date: 5-DEC-22:35: Hardware & Peripherals
I have used the imagewriter // on both a mac and a //c it shows a very
large speed improvement on the //c but a very small one on the mac. I
think the reason for this is that the speed increase only effects
ascii files and the mac sends everything in bit mapped grapics. If
someone could write a D A that sent ascii file to the printer it
would(I think) improve the speed with the mac.
p.s. The 32k buffer has no affect when it is used with the mac.
------------------------------
From: PEABO (3851)
Subject: RE: Usenet Digest Volume 1 Issue 13 (Re: Msg 3845)
Date: 5-DEC-00:35: Mousing Around
Re: Borland's estimate of 20K lines of code per minute: the last time I heard
a report of a really fast compile speed it was for an *incremental* compiler,
where a good part of the compiling is masked by the interactive statement entry
time. I wonder if Borland is planning to release an integrated development
/debugging environment with the Macintosh Turbo.
Also, Dr. Dobbs has had a series of letters recently about non-standardness of
Turbo Pascal (especially with respect to GET and PUT statements) in Cortesi's
column, if I recall. Does anyone have any comments about this? Particularly
with respect to the idea of being able to compile Workshop Pascal programs?
Also, from Rumor Central at the BCS MacTechGrp tonight (Wednesday, Dec
4): our rumors say a January upgrade for about a kilobuck ... $700 of
it going to a swap of the digital board for a 1 meg board, and $300
for an upgrade of the internal floppy to 800K. Which portion pays for
the 128K ROMs is uncertain. Oh yeah ... a new case is bundled in the
with digital board swap. Also, our correspondant was amused to see
Levco at the Apple 3rd party exhibit at COMDEX.
While on the subject of COMDEX ... Lutzy-Baird had a very impressive exhibit of
Ethernet-AppleTalk-VAX-IBMPC-Mac all happily computing away.
------------------------------
From: BRECHER (3856)
Subject: RE: Usenet Digest Volume 1 Issue 13 (Re: Msg 3851)
Date: 5-DEC-03:26: Mousing Around
True compile speeds of 20K+ lines per minute are possible, at least on a hard
disk. FAD, my custom-language compiler that's currently on the shelf while I
earn the rent, does about 24K lpm from a HyperDrive.
------------------------------
From: OLIBO (3857)
Subject: RE: Usenet Digest Volume 1 Issue 13 (Re: Msg 3856)
Date: 5-DEC-13:26: Mousing Around
Don't forget, on the ibm pc borland's compiler is RAMbased. so it
doesn't matter which kind of storage medium you use. sample: an 10MHz
AT&T PC 1500 lines in 5.4 seconds. robi
------------------------------
From: RABBIT (3858)
Subject: VOLUME INDEXING
Date: 5-DEC-18:52: Programming
After trying several methods of trying to find my bug (of using
_GetVolInfo with indexes) i found somthing VERY strange... If you do
not clear the Volume name field of the volume paramter block, the
system will successfully hunt for volume reference numbers by using
indexes, but will cause random bomb's when the first non disk trap is
executed. This is really strange since in the Tech notes #24 I do not
remember them clearing the volume name... As soon as the volume name
is cleared it works fine. No problems at all... Strange isn't it ?
Scott
------------------------------
From: PEABO (3904)
Subject: RE: Usenet Digest Volume 1 Issue 14 (Re: Msg 3895)
Date: 7-DEC-19:16: Mousing Around
Re: Chuq's bug report about 'stuck' keys when a disk access occurs in
MacWrite 4.5. I agree ... a true irritant, but probably not
MacWrite's fault. It has happened to me in MacTerminal and Microsoft
WORD. I think it has something to do with the way the disk I/O
routines service other devices in the middle of disk transfers ... the
serial A port is serviced, but I bet the keyboard port is not, and
hence can lose events.
Note that not any old disk access will trigger this one ... you have to be
typing fast, and the access has to satisfy the Finnagle Inequality with respect
to the baseline of the keyboard and the hypoteneuse of the event queue brace.
peter
------------------------------
From: PMARTIN (3912)
Subject: RE: pagemaker (Re: Msg 3911)
Date: 7-DEC-21:02: Business Mac
I'm writing as someone who's been using JustText for a while (v 1.09).
In some ways it's remarkable - the kerning and hyphenation and
justification is certainly the best I've seen on a mac. Bill Bates,
the author, sat down with me and turned a MacWrite document into a
finished newsletter. The format we were using was the same as one done
by my employers on an Atex system and a Linotron - and the
JustText/Laserwriter version, when printed up on an offset-litho press
was almost indistin- guishable from the Atex/Linotron version. Since
then I've used JustText myself for a few projects and found it easy to
master, since I'm reasonably familiar with the conventional
typographical terms that JustText uses. If I had a Laserwriter to work
with, I think it would be a doddle. But I have to take my disk to
someone who prints it out, and because there is no WYSIWYG quality at
all to JustText it's easy to forget (eg) to turn boldfacing off and
end up with the whole of a four-page document in boldface. JustText
will allow you to incorproate graphics (I think - I haven't tried it)
and there's a special utility to allow you to incorporate Thuderscan
images. For real enthusiasts, one if the neatest features is likely to
prove an easy way to send pure PostScript calls through to the
Laserwriter, and thus do all sorts of exotic things.
JustText costs something like $195 and is available from Knowledge Engineering
GPO Box 2139 New York NY 100116.
One final note: I just typeset a change of address card and got it write on my
second go - and the quality is really remarkable. It's the equivalent of a $100
dollar typsetting job (at NY prices) - and all I had to pay was the few bucks
for a LaserWriter printout.
Regards, Peter Martin
------------------------------
End of Delphi Digest
********************darin@ut-dillo.UUCP (Darin Adler) (12/09/85)
> After trying several methods of trying to find my bug (of using > _GetVolInfo with indexes) i found somthing VERY strange... If you do > not clear the Volume name field of the volume paramter block, the > system will successfully hunt for volume reference numbers by using > indexes, but will cause random bomb's when the first non disk trap is > executed. This is really strange since in the Tech notes #24 I do not > remember them clearing the volume name... As soon as the volume name > is cleared it works fine. No problems at all... Strange isn't it ? > Scott This behavior is not strange at all, considering what _GetVolInfo does with the name field. If this field is NIL, it does nothing at all, however, if it is non-NIL, it returns the volume name in the provided storage (regardless of the method used to look up the volume). Thus, leaving this undefined guarantees that you will trash some random memory. -- Darin Adler {gatech,harvard,ihnp4,seismo}!ut-sally!ut-dillo!darin