INFO-MAC-REQUEST@SUMEX-AIM.ARPA (Moderator William J. Berner) (02/25/86)
INFO-MAC Digest Monday, 24 Feb 1986 Volume 4 : Issue 16 Today's Topics: RamStart for MacPlus? Command set for MAC+ SCSI Mac+ Serial Cables Switcher 4.6 comment about QUED missing page in Inside Macintosh Scrolling suggestion what's Next? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 21 Feb 86 14:14:46 est From: cordy%qucis.bitnet@WISCVM.WISC.EDU Subject: RamStart for MacPlus? I have just started using my new MacPlus, and was trying to set it up with a large RamDisk using RamStart. The result was a system error of some kind every time RamStart tries to start up the Finder on the RamDisk. I have experimented with this and determined that the incompatibility is not with the MacPlus or System 3.0, since a RamDisk system using System 3.0 and Finder 4.1 works fine. The incompatibility is with Finder 5.1, presumably with the hierarchical file system. Does anyone know of a version of RamStart or equivalent that will work with Finder 5.1 and the heirarchical file system? Does the author or RamStart (the best free program EVER) know about this problem? Can it be fixed? Jim Cordy Dept. Computing & Info. Science Queen's University at Kingston Canada ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 23 Feb 86 15:23:11 est From: Ken Mandelberg <km%emory.csnet-relay.csnet@CSNET-RELAY.ARPA> Subject: Command set for MAC+ SCSI From what I read, the main issue preventing easy mix and match of SCSI disks is making sure that the driver uses the same command set as the controller. To this end the ANSI X3T9.2 Committee is considering a proposed standard called CCS (common command set). I have not gotten my December software supplement, so I as yet don't have any idea what is going on inside the Mac+. Does Apple supply a SCSI device driver, and if so what command set does it use? Is it CCS, homegrown, or perhaps the set command set used by a popular controller? If Apple is not supplying a device driver, do they at least publish some command guidelines that the third party SCSI suppliers are using? ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 23 Feb 1986 17:29 EST From: Dave Elbon <SYSDAVE%UKCC.BITNET@WISCVM.WISC.EDU> Subject: Mac+ Serial Cables I've located the Mac Technical Note (#65) with the Mac+ pinouts. The serial ports look like this: Macintosh Plus Serial Connectors Mini DIN-8 (Female Connector) * * * 8 7 6 * * * 5 4 3 * * 2 1 Pin Name Description/Notes --- ---- ----------------- 1 HSKo Output Handshake (from Zilog 8503 DTR) 2 HSKi/Ext. Clk Input Handshake (CTS) or TRxC (depends on 8530 mode) 3 TxD- Transmit Data 4 Ground 5 RxD- Receive Data 6 TxD+ Transmit Data 7 Not Connected 8 RxD+ Receive Data (ground this line to emulate RS-232) I've not had a chance to use this yet. What I need is some Mac+ to regular 25-pin RS-232 cables. My dealer didn't have anything like that and I don't know where to get the mini-8 connectors in town, so I bought a mini-8-to-mini-8 cable (called a Mac+ peripheral cable, I think), and cut it in half. Now I just need to add the 25-pin connectors and I should be ready to go. The cable is not a straight- through, I believe several lines are crossed so the color coding probably won't be the same on the two ends. Remember, I haven't actually done this yet, but it sounds good. Acknowledge-To: Dave Elbon <SYSDAVE@UKCC> ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 23 Feb 86 14:08:38 cst From: Kurt Hansen <hansen%uiowa.csnet@CSNET-RELAY.ARPA> Re: Speed 1. I read the ongoing discussion about transmission speed to/from the Mac with interest. I am about to hook up the Mac to a supermicro Unix workstation (1-8 users) with a null-modem type cable, and I was hoping to run at 9600 baud. I blithely assumed that it could handle this speed. To test whether it could or not, I took a large (94K) file into Apple's Edit program (straight text, Monaco 9 pt. font, so about 24x80 full screen). I scrolled through the file first to get it all into memory (I'm on a 512), then timed how long it takes to scroll through it. It took 2 minutes and 13 seconds, which converts to about 700 characters per second. This means that any terminal program which is about as efficient as Edit is at getting characters to the screen is limited to about 7000 baud, which agrees with the performance people have been reporting for commercial programs. 2. The above speed I will call the scrolled-display speed. To be honest, I expected this speed to be higher. After all, the Mac is supposed to be fast, right? Well, I have worked on lots of systems, and actually this is pretty fast. This speed only needs to be as fast as the user can comfort- ably skim the material scrolling by. On this supermicro, I run the termi- nals at 9600 baud, and really this is too fast for comfort. As I see it, this scrolled-display speed doesn't need to be any faster than it is on the Mac. 3. Naturally, there are other speeds which should be higher. For example, we want file transfer speed to be as high as possible. However, most programs I have seen (on any system), don't show you the file as it is being transferred. Thus, transfer speeds may be a lot higher than the scrolled-display speed. Another speed which should be higher is the speed for a full screen editor. In this case, you are simply writing over characters that already exist, or clearing whole lines or the whole screen. If you think about it, a lot of effort is required for a scrolled-display: all the current lines must be moved up, then the new line must be drawn. This means that it is a lot faster to do something like a full-screen display than a scrolled-display. Hence the Mac and any other bit-mapped display ought to be able to handle a full-screen, non-scrolling type display at a higher speed, possibly much higher. 4. When I get the new ports for our supermicro, I will post the results of connecting, transferring, and doing full-screen work with the Mac to the net. Kurt Hansen ------------------------------ Date: Mon 24 Feb 86 07:30:24-PST From: William J. Berner <INFO-MAC-REQUEST@SUMEX-AIM.ARPA> Subject: Switcher 4.6 Several people have had trouble with Switcher 4.6; therefore, I have removed it from the <info-mac> directory. If I get my hands on another, or if the kind soul who posted it the first time could mail me another copy, I will replace the version that is there now. Bill Berner Moderator ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 24 Feb 86 11:44:52 PST From: <DAVEG%SLACVM.BITNET@Lindy> Reply-to: DAVEG%SLACVM.BITNET@SU-Forsythe.ARPA Subject: comment about QUED Date: 24 February 86 11:32-PST From: DAVEG@SLACVM To: INFO-MAC@SUMEX-AIM Subject: comment about QUED Date: 24 February 1986, 11:25:18 PST From: David M. Gelphman 415-854-3300 x2538 DAVEG at SLACVM To: INFO-MAC at SUMEX-AIM.STANFORD Subject: comment about QUED I too have the QUED editor and while I am impressed by some of the things it has, unfortunately it presently has 2 serious shortcomings. For me it is currently nearly unusable (version 1.3). It seems to have a problem when SWITCHER and HFS are both operating. In this configuration, it wants to make a backup of your file after every save (whether you request it or not) and after the file is backed up once, the backup file cannot be overwritten for the next backup. In other words, you can't make frequent saves. If you close the file before you switch it seems to solve the problem but overall this problem makes life difficult. I have spoken with them about the problem but have not received a solution yet (after 1.5 weeks). The deficiency this editor has which all editors I've seen for the Mac also have is the lack of ability to search using wildcard characters. I asked them about this and they said I was the first person who had requested this! I guess many of the people using their product have never used an editor on a computer which is not as user friendly as the Mac. David Gelphman DAVEG@SLACVM.BITNET ------------------------------ Date: 24 FEB 86 17:46-CST From: BOYD%TAMLSR.BITNET@WISCVM.WISC.EDU Subject: missing page in Inside Macintosh I just received a letter from Addison Wesley, publishers of Inside Macintosh. Someone had asked earlier whether they would provide a correction for the missing page II-91. Well, they actually did! In the interest of helping disseminate the corrections, the page follows. If you are wondering how they got my address, I won my copy of IM at the Macworld Expo in San Francisco. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- The File Manager Result codes noErr No error bdNamErr Bad file name dupFNErr Duplicate file name and version dirFulErr File directory full extFSErr External file system ioErr I/O error nsvErr No such volume vLckdErr Software volume lock wPrErr Hardware volume lock FUNCTION FSOpen (fileName: Str255; vRefNum: INTEGER; VAR refNum: INTEGER) : OSErr; [Not in ROM] FSOpen creates an access path to the file having the name fileName on the volume specified by vRefNum. A path reference number is returned in refNum. The access path's read/write permission is set to whatever the file's open permission allows. Result codes noErr No error bdNamErr Bad file name extFSErr External file system fnfErr File not found ioErr I/O error nsvErr No such volume opWrErr File already open for writing tmfoErr Too many files open FUNCTION OpenRF (fileName: Str255; vRefNum: INTEGER; VAR refNum: INTEGER) : OSErr; [Not in ROM] OpenRF is similar to FSOpen; the only difference is that OpenRF opens the resource fork of the specified file rather than the data fork. A path reference number is returned in refNum. The access path's read/write permission is set ot whatever the file's open permission allows. NOTE: Normally you should access a file's resource fork through the routines of the Resource Manager rather than the File Manager. OpenRF doesn't read the resource map into memory; it's really only useful for block-level operations such as copying files. Result codes noErr No error bdNamErr Bad file name extFSErr External file system fnfErr File not found ioErr I/O error nsvErr No such volume opWrErr File already open for writing tmfoErr Too many files open High-level File Manager Routines II-91 [THIS MESSAGE HAS BEEN ARCHIVED AS [SUMEX]<INFO-MAC>INSIDEMACPAGEII-91.TXT -BB] ------------------------------ Date: 24 Feb 1986 16:00-PST From: Steve Deering <deering@su-pescadero.ARPA> Subject: Scrolling suggestion (I submitted this note to INFO-MAC in November, just after the mailing list went on vacation. It didn't show up in the issues after the hiatus, so here's another try.) Clicking on an arrowhead in a scroll bar is supposed to cause its associated object to scroll by one line (or other applicable small unit), whereas continuous pressing should cause continuous scrolling by lines. However, in many places where scroll bars are used, it is necessary to click very quickly to avoid scrolling two or more lines. A good example is the font list displayed by the Font/DA Mover -- I find that it often takes me several tries to get the window scrolled to exactly the place I want because I keep overshooting. The same problem almost always arises when scroll bars are used to set the value of a numeric parameter, such as the size of a RAM disk. It looks as if applications are responding to the downstroke of the mouse button by performing a single scroll step, and then continuing to scroll if the button is still down. If the single scroll step takes very little time, then the button will probably still be down even if it was just a "click". (I am not a Mac programmer, so this is pure speculation.) I suggest that scrolling should work just like keyboard auto-repeating. That is, the downstroke should cause an immediate single scroll step and then, ONLY if the button remains down longer than some threshold, continuous scrolling should occur. Perhaps the Control Panel settings for keyboard repeat threshold and repeat rate should also determine the scrolling threshold and maximum scrolling rate, or maybe there should be separate scrolling parameters. I wonder if it is too late to get this into the new ROMs? :-) (This joke made sense in November.) Steve Deering deering@SU-Pescadero.ARPA ------------------------------ Date: 24 FEB 86 18:27-CST From: BOYD%TAMLSR.BITNET@WISCVM.WISC.EDU Subject: what's Next? Hey, what's Steven up to now? Good 'ol Mr Jobs just bought a controlling interest in Pixar and will become chairman of the board, according to this week's Infoworld. For those of you unfamiliar with Pixar, it's a spinoff of Lucasfilm that builds absolutely incredible graphics machines. So far, it's one of the hottest things on wheels. Their next project is, according to an insider at Pixar, targeting a machine that can handle dealing with 800 million polygons in a scene. That's not high-resolution, that's Near-Reality resolution. And they've been working on it for some time... What do you think he has up his sleeve? It's gotta be good. ------------------------------ End of INFO-MAC Digest **********************