SHULMAN@RED.RUTGERS.EDU.UUCP (01/24/87)
Delphi Mac Digest Saturday, 24 January 1987 Volume 3 : Issue 7
Today's Topics:
RE: Porting IBM PC Applications
MacinTalk hack
RE: What bugs you about the Mac user interface
hard disk drives and tape backups (2 messages)
Apple-Link (3 messages)
RE: Bengali font
RE: Can a screen inch be a laserwriter inch?
RE: What bugs you about the Mac user interface
RE: Programming Language Update from Macworld Expo
LaserSpeed from Think
dataframe HD 20 (2 messages)
3Com buying Centram (3 messages)
RE: ChipWits availability
RE: accurate printing with MacWrite on a LaserWriter.
RE: Typing tutors for Mac
DA terminal programs
MacMemory has 1Mbit RAM expanders
Extending TextEdit (2 messages)
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From: DDUNHAM
Subject: RE: Porting IBM PC Applications
Date: 18-JAN 21:15 Network Digests
> From: carlile@trwrb.UUCP (Donald E. Carlile)
> Subject: Porting IBM PC Applications
I ported a good-sized program from DeSmet C on MSDOS to Aztec C on a
Mac. My biggest problem was with sloppy coding regarding the size of
pointers -- word on 8088, long on 68000.
------------------------------
From: LOGICHACK
Subject: MacinTalk hack
Date: 19-JAN 00:55 Hardware & Peripherals
Hi guys,
Good to see myself in print, especially in a pretigious journal like
MacInTouch. However, that MacInTalk patched that I posted a coupla
months back and reprinted in the latest MacInTouch is incorrect!
Here's the correct patch:
3b 7c 00 fa
00 20 26 78
02 66 60 16
1e 2d 00 46
3b 7c 00 78
The above sequence will appear twice in Macintalk. In both
instances, switch the places of the first $fa and the last $78.
This patched has been found by me personally to work on Levco
MonsterMacs and Prodigy's. Working on the Prodigy also requires the
instruction cache to be off (unless you are adventurous enough to know
how to turn off the cache only in immediate _Write's).
I would appreciate some feedback on this if anyone decides to try it.
By the way, if anyone found the Smalltalk .03 feature of disabling the
top line of your display annoying, I have a fix for that too!
Have fun,
Paul :)
------------------------------
From: PEABO
Subject: RE: What bugs you about the Mac user interface
Date: 19-JAN 22:59 Network Digests
>Date: Tue, 13 Jan 87 13:29 CDT
>From: "1208::SEABAUGH%ti-eg.csnet"@RELAY.CS.NET
>Subject: RE: What bugs you about the Mac user interface
>In response to Julian Lebensold - What bugs you about the Mac
>user interface?
> For those warnings where a default procedure cannot be
>defined, let any mouse or keystroke event remove the warning.
I disagree. I even have occasional problems with dialogs which accept the
Return key as an OK, because if one of these pops up while I'm using the
keyboard, I might inadventantly dismiss it before I see what it says! Letting
any keystroke dismiss the dialog would be a disaster.
peter "In any context, half of all references
PEABO @ DELPHI are local and half are global."
------------------------------
From: LSBG
Subject: hard disk drives and tape backups
Date: 20-JAN 00:02 Hardware & Peripherals
I am currently in the market for a hard disk and tape backup. I am
something of a novice and am quite unfamiliar with the different
manufacturers and their product quality. After some thought and
research I have narrowed it down to either a mirror magnet 40/40, an
AST 2000, or a lo-down combo 20/20 among the combined drives. Others
I am considering are an apple hd20 (since i get a good discount
through my university), a hyperdrive fx-20, or a peripheral pl20 for a
hard drive combined wi th a tape backup from either lodown, mirror, or
peripheral. Have any of you struggled with the same choices, or have
any of you had experience with any of these manufacturers? I would
greatly appreciate a of a good and CRITICAL review of available hard
drives and tape backups. thanks a lot, larry
------------------------------
From: MADMACS
Subject: RE: hard disk drives and tape backups (Re: Msg 16618)
Date: 21-JAN 19:28 Hardware & Peripherals
I would not recommend the AST 2000. I have a friend with one and its
tape mechanism really doesn't work well. It is clumsy to operate
and--with every time we have written a tape is writes the tape and
then puts up a dialog box that says "There was a Write problem" with a
cheerful "OK" button to press. She sent it back, they made a
'hardware' upgrade. She gave then specific instructions to test it
before shipping and when it returned the same problem Not too good, in
my opinion. And why not take your money and buy another hard disk for
backup (faster, easier to access) and invest in a floppy backup
program if you are really concerned. -Doug
------------------------------
From: SJL
Subject: Apple-Link
Date: 20-JAN 01:12 MUGS Online
I'm interested in the experience of others with Apple-link. Our user
group is evaluating the commitment to this resource and would like to
hear from both developers and user groups who have opinions as to its
utility. We are inter- ested mostly from a developer viewpoint. As a
user group, I don't think that we have access to tech support like
certified developers but do we have access to anything useful other
than tech notes? We are familiar and comfortable with using
Delphi/CIS/Genie for technical questions- what is Apple-Link like?
We will probably have to sign-up and see if it is worth the $12.50/mo minimum
in addition to our normal addiction to Delphi et. all- however, any feedback
will be useful. Gracias, Steve LeClair
------------------------------
From: MACINTOUCH
Subject: RE: Apple-Link (Re: Msg 16620)
Date: 21-JAN 02:46 MUGS Online
Steve,
I've not been terribly impressed by the quality of information I've found
there. I think you get better stuff if you work for Apple and have access to
more areas in AppleLink. It does seem to be a great system for reaching people
though, a lot of interesting people have accounts there.
Ric
------------------------------
From: LAMG
Subject: RE: Apple-Link (Re: Msg 16620)
Date: 21-JAN 03:09 MUGS Online
Steve:
My group (LAMG) has had access to AppleLink since last May (we were
part of the AppleLink pilot project.) AppleLink's turned out to be
most useful as an E-Mail facility to contact people at Apple and other
MUG Officers - it's the cleanest such program I've yet seen. The lack
of technical support has not be a fault of AppleLink, but rather an
Apple policy (one which we hope will change in the future). I'd say
that all in all it's worth the 12.50 a month (minimum) if your group
can afford it.
Franklin Tessler, M.D. Executive V.P. and Editor Los Angeles Macintosh Group
------------------------------
From: NWOLF
Subject: RE: Bengali font
Date: 20-JAN 04:00 Network Digests
To: kah@mtuxo.UUCP (k.hossain) Subject: Bengali font
Many references are given in Wheels for the Mind on fonts available in
different languages. A bengali font is specifically mentioned in
connection with Dr. H. Hossain, Department of Environmental Planning,
University of Melbourne. Other possible sources are Radnell & Smith,
Dept. of Asian Studies, Australian National University; George Hart,
University of California at Berkeley; David Wyatt, Professor of
Southeast Asian History at Cornell (BITNET: T.RF4J@CRNL20A); and
various people at the University of Chicago - best contact William
Sterner, Lead Staff Analyst, Information Technologies and New
Services, Computation Center, U of C, 1155 E 60 St., Chi., IL 60637
(STAFF.BILL@UCHICAGO,A113)
------------------------------
From: DDUNHAM
Subject: RE: Can a screen inch be a laserwriter inch?
Date: 21-JAN 05:39 Network Digests
> From: tuttle@ernie.Berkeley.EDU (Mark S. Tuttle)
> Subject: Can a screen inch be a laserwriter inch?
Not in MacWrite. An inch on the LaserWriter is a Tall Adjusted inch on the
ImageWriter -- remember that with normal ImageWriter printing, circles come out
squashed.
------------------------------
From: DDUNHAM
Subject: RE: What bugs you about the Mac user interface
Date: 21-JAN 05:40 Network Digests
> From: "1208::SEABAUGH%ti-eg.csnet"@RELAY.CS.NET
> Subject: RE: What bugs you about the Mac user interface
I don't think your screen dump suggestion is very practical. For one
thing, how can a program tell if arbitrary data is supposed to
represent a bitmap? Another problem is that Mac files are often two
files, a data fork and a resource fork. And, programs like
MacWrite4.5 compress data, and it won't be readable as ASCII anyway.
If you just want to see a raw file, buy Fedit+.
I kinda agree with you about OK-only dialogs (in my programs, they
read "Sorry" or "Oh Well" instead of OK, since it's usually _not_ OK).
However, the positive step is probably necessary, because otherwise
type-ahead could cancel the message, and a user wouldn't realize that
an operation failed.
------------------------------
From: DDUNHAM
Subject: RE: Programming Language Update from Macworld Expo
Date: 21-JAN 05:40 Network Digests
> From: gould9!joel@nosc.ARPA (Joel West @ Western Software Technology)
> Subject: Programming Language Update from Macworld Expo
You missed Manx, whose new debugger will be available RSN, and who will be
licensing MPW Shell and making their C compiler a tool thereof.
------------------------------
From: MACINTOUCH
Subject: LaserSpeed from Think
Date: 21-JAN 20:39 Business Mac
I just want to say that I've been using Think's new laser spooler, LaserSpeed,
rather heavily the past few weeks, and it's working flawlessly. $99 list, or
get one for everyone on the LaserWriter for $499. What an improvement over the
old way of doing things! (PageMaker compatible).
Ric
------------------------------
From: MOUSE1
Subject: dataframe HD 20
Date: 21-JAN 20:40 Hardware & Peripherals
Im having a very minor but annoying problem in booting with my HD20. When I
turn it on and the Mac immediately after, I get a "question mark" mac. If I
wait until the two flashing lights stop and the steady green one is on - same
thing. It seems as if I have to catch it just as the dataframe is reaching full
power, while both lights are flashing, and then, quick, turn on the mac. This
does not seem right to me. I called my dealer and he said the same thing
happened to him and then stopped! I called Supermac and they suggested maybe I
need a new Hd to Mac cord - but this doesnt seem right, as the problem is
incosnsitent. Shouldnt you just be able to boot with with dataframe, turn on
the mac and get the desktop? any suggestions? As I said, a minor but annoying
problem.
Judy
------------------------------
From: MACINTOUCH
Subject: RE: dataframe HD 20 (Re: Msg 16650)
Date: 22-JAN 12:06 Hardware & Peripherals
Judy, that's the correct procedure, but I've heard the same complaint
from other people, too. What I do is turn both on at the same time,
and it works for me, but it probably varies from unit to unit.
Ric
------------------------------
From: MACINTOUCH
Subject: 3Com buying Centram
Date: 22-JAN 17:18 Business Mac
News flash: 3Com and Centram Systems have reportedly signed a letter of
intent, whereby 3Com would take over Centram. We'll have more specifics
soon. Other networking news will be coming next week at the Seybold
conference.
Ric Ford
"MacInTouch"
------------------------------
From: BMUG
Subject: RE: 3Com buying Centram (Re: Msg 16671)
Date: 23-JAN 03:02 Business Mac
I got the word today, at about 1 PM, direct from the Horse's mouth. Nat
Goldhaber and other Centram employees confirmed it. It is not a hostile
takeover, and in the joint press release, Bill Campbell of Apple praised the
deal (he's Exec VP of Sales) and murmured about "complete lines" and such now
offered by 3Com. I believe (this is NOT confirmed at all) that there was a
"golden parachute" of some sort for the EARLY founders of Centram, but nothign
at all for the many people who have been there since "day 2". Definitely, more
details next week.
-- Raines Cohen / Team BMUG
------------------------------
From: NETMAN
Subject: RE: 3Com buying Centram (Re: Msg 16689)
Date: 23-JAN 08:13 Business Mac
More news on the 3Com/Centram buyout.....
They deal will supposedly go through by the end of the month. 3Com is looking
at Centram to provide them with a smoother line of integration from small
inexpensive systems to larger, server-based networks. They also have a part-
icular interest in the UNIX work that's being done at Centram. Centram's
president Nat Goldhaber will become a vice pres. at 3Com.
Frankly, I'm real excited about the news as 3Com/Centram should really
be poised to offer some workable network environments for businesses
with many Macs and PC's and offer smooth integration of these two
different workstations in a _real_ network environment. I'm also
anxiously awaiting some 3Com EtherNET interfaces for the Mac+ and
?Mac2? so that the link level won't be a real bottleneck for
transaction oriented multi-user databases running on the 3Server3
serving both Macs and PC's.
We should be hearing a good deal more after the Seybold Desktop Communications
Conference next week.
Jonathan Oski ("MacInTouch Newsletter")
------------------------------
From: MOUSEKETEER
Subject: RE: ChipWits availability
Date: 22-JAN 22:19 Network Digests
To: kc@rna.UUCP (Kaare Christian)
Subject: ChipWits availability
Organization: Rockefeller Neurobiology
To clarify the earlier messages, I contacted BrainPower for the following:
After the original author/s declined to update ChipWits for the Mac+, rights
to the program were granted to BrainPower who had a Plus compatible upgrade
done. Owners of the original version can receive the new version at $15.00 and
return of the original master disk to BrainPower, Inc. 24009 Ventura Blvd,
Suite 250, Calabasas, CA 91302. This version is either now or shortly is to be
available from dealers, as well.
As noted by RSTICKLE on Delphi, and confirmed by BrainPower, the new version
will NOT run on non-enhanced 512Ks or Mac 128Ks.
Alf
BTW, if you are interested in how ChipWits was developed, the January '84
issue of The MACazine has a 6-page article on the authors and program. This
is the issue that was lost in a time warp, as the cover date shows.
------------------------------
From: DSACHS
Subject: RE: accurate printing with MacWrite on a LaserWriter.
Date: 22-JAN 21:48 Network Digests
Re: the user who could not get accurate printing with MacWrite on a
LaserWriter.
Use ANY OTHER word processor. MacWrite IGNORES the print size information
supplied by the print drivers, and is accurate ONLY with the ImageWriter in
NORMAL (no tall adjusted) mode. Microsoft WORD works properly.
------------------------------
From: MOUSEKETEER
Subject: RE: Typing tutors for Mac
Date: 22-JAN 22:18 Network Digests
To: alex@vuwcomp.UUCP (Alex Heatley)
Subject: Typing tutors for Mac
Organization: Comp Sci, Victoria Univ, Wellington, New Zealand
Hi Alex,
When I was looking for a typing tutor for the Mac to be used by my
daughter, I finally settled on Typing Tutor III, by Kriya Systems, Inc.,
published by Simon & Schuster. It has some excellent features, including
drills centered around keys that are giving the user some specific trouble,
number key drills, reports of Speed and Accuracy, and a silly but addictive
Letter Invaders game. It's a nice package, discounting to $35 or so at the
mail order houses, is not copy-perverted, and upgrades so far have been
freebie with return of master disk.
Alf
------------------------------
From: MACINTOUCH
Subject: DA terminal programs
Date: 23-JAN 11:42 Telecommunicating
I find MockTerminal indispensible, but two things bug me: I can't remap the
Backspace key to Delete (for a VAX) and I can't see information (not even 5
screens worth) that has scrolled off the top of the window. Is there any DA
terminal program which solves these problems??
Ric
------------------------------
From: MACINTOUCH
Subject: MacMemory has 1Mbit RAM expanders
Date: 23-JAN 13:57 Hardware & Peripherals
I talked a while ago about Dove's RAM upgrades for the Mac Plus which use 1Mbit
RAM chips. Dove still has not come through with a sample for us to evaluate,
and it seems that now MacMemory is also selling upgrades that use 1Mbit chips.
Both Dove and MacMemory are currently *not* using SIMM chips because of
availability problems, but the circuit cards are little larger than Apple Mac
Plus memory cards.
What I found interesting is that MacMemory is pricing the cards at $400/MB,
instead of Dove's $500/MB. This means that you can get 2 cards for $800,
bringing your Mac Plus to 2.5MB, for $800 list, hopefully discounted by the
dealer.
I have ordered two cards and will report more when they arrive.
Ric Ford
"MacInTouch"
------------------------------
From: LOGICHACK
Subject: Extending TextEdit
Date: 23-JAN 23:34 Programming
A topic cropped in forum a while back regarding TextEdit extentions. The
possibility was mentioned that several interested parties might collaborate on
it and release it to the public domain.
I have just begun work on such a thing at work (Applied Logic
Systems)' as part of a comprehensive Prolog development system. My
aim is to make this extended editor as close to TE as possible. I
will be using the same data structures making changes where only
neccessary. Since its a programming editor, I have no current plans
to support non-left justification, word wrapping, multiple fonts/sizes
in the same document, etc. It will, however, be extremely fast (even
with large files), support tabs, and handle more than 32K of text.
Anyone with comments and other input should identify themselves at
this time. I am very interested in comments regarding how this
project can be done 'right' and I'd like to keep your thoughts in mind
so that extensibility will be easy.
I will be discussing the possibility of putting my code (Pascal & assembler)
into the public domain with the boss in the next week or so.
(Hope this will liven up the forum at bit)
Paul :)
------------------------------
From: PEABO
Subject: RE: Extending TextEdit (Re: Msg 16707)
Date: 24-JAN 01:03 Programming
Without word wrapping and at least one kind of character accenting
(underline or boldface) it wouldn't help me out that much.
peter
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End of Delphi Mac Digest
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