INFO-MAC@SUMEX-AIM.STANFORD.EDU (Moderator David Gelphman...) (01/20/87)
INFO-MAC Digest Monday, 19 Jan 1987 Volume 5 : Issue 41
Today's Topics:
Need hard disk tech help
re:ibm vs mac
re: Information Please
Re: Porting IBM PC Applications
New version (port) of TransSkel for Pascal
Mac software version list
Other... 3.06
Mac PROLOGs
In-line MicroProcessor Emulators for Macintosh?
Cross assemblers for the mac.
Upcoming FCC decision on access fees for packet switching networks
Query for personal finance software
Mac generated greeting cards
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Fri, 16 Jan 87 14:55:02 PST
From: pweiss@Sun.COM (Paul Weiss pweiss@sun.com)
Subject: Need hard disk tech help
Hi. I want to hang a hard disk and controller (which I already own)
off a vanilla (old ROMs) 512K Mac. The disk is a Micropolis 1304 (41
MB formatted); the controller is an Adaptec ACB-4000. I'm new to the
Mac, but have written device drivers (including one for a SCSI disk)
for several other OS's, and have designed the device driver interface
for one OS, so I feel OK about tackling the job. The questions I need
answers for are:
1. Which upgrades do I need to have done to the Mac? Why? What are
the cabling and power issues I should be thinking of?
2. Where is the Mac device driver interface documented?
3. There is a shareware SCSI driver on INFO-MAC. Where is the documen-
tation for it archived? (Is my problem solved already?)
4. Is there a PD (or shareware) driver kicking around in source form?
5. Is this job do-able in finite time? (Just kidding....)
If this topic has already been discussed in depth at some past time,
pointers to the archived discussion and/or to the principals would be
helpful to me, and less boring to those who have sat through the
discussion once. Has anyone out there done this for him-or-herself
already? Thanks for the pointers - please email to me, and I'll relay
the responses to those others who indicate interest.
Paul
[ note from moderator: 1. you need the new Roms and a SCSI port installed
on your Mac (available from SuperMac among other vendors for ~$100.)
2. Inside Mac Volume 2 had information about device drivers and IM Vol4
specifically discusses the SCSI interface.
3. The program in the archives you refer to has documentation included so
have a look at that. 4. The July software supplement from Apple included
source for the driver. You should be able to obtain this from APDA.
5. Yes DAVEG ]
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 15 Jan 87 01:33:06 PST
From: digiorgi@Jpl-VLSI.ARPA
Subject: re:ibm vs mac
Mac VS Itty Bitty Machine & friends
Enter your message below. Press CTRL/Z when complete, or CTRL/C to quit:
I must admit that I am really getting kind of sick of hearing/talking-
about/defending the Mac vs the Clones and their friends. They are very
different machines, conceived with very different philosophies and concepts
in mind, but ultimately they are both designed to get work done for the
purchasers and make money for the producers. That they do this through
almost diametrically opposite means is a means of perceiving their designers
ideas in a new perspective.
InfoWorld's analysis (for once) was rather well done: the clones have
a great assemblage of hardware due to all the competition and a dogmeat
operating system. That some reasonably good programs that are usable
and saleable exist for them is a testimony to useful hardware and
perseverance on the part of many fine programmers.
The Mac has a very advanced (for a micro) operating system and rather
simple hardware. It is a good example of 'elegant' compromise and careful
cost consciousness. It was on introduction, and still is, a touch pricey,
but the system software allows very nice applications that prove useful
to be written with only a transitional pain to the programmer in learning
new program and environment. The end user has it pretty nice, but could
use more powerful hardware.
That both machines are being used by a range of people, from high-end
business folks to low-end hacker children, shows that the manufacturers
have mostly done what they desired: that is, make a product which sells
in a reasonably profitable fashion.
These machines are tools for getting work done, they can expand your ability
to create through their power to manipulate infomation.
As are all machines, they are dead things, limited to the constraints of
their manufacture and the technology of their time, and soon to be superceded
by the next time and technology. The parts that capture our imaginations
are the ideas that they allow us the time and freedom to create.
I like my Macintosh very much. This says that I feel the compromises of
its designers fits my notion of what sort of machine I find acceptable
for the purposes to which I intend to apply it. If you do not like your
Mac, why do you continue to use it? You have choice in the matter! I also
like my VAX and wish the Mac had its speed and power. I wish the VAX had
the Mac's ease of use and elegance.
PS:: I don't personally have a half a million to buy my very own VAX and
I suspect that not too many others on the net do either, so my
company owns that one and we do our big difficult jobs with it.
The Mac in my office, like the one on my desk at home, does my
personal business and pleasure tasks, for which the VAX is
unnecessary.
Please, let this be the end of the long PC contention over which is 'best'.
There cannot be a 'best', only a measure of function and satisfaction
through a wide range of tasks to which we put these tools. After all,
I have a complete set of Sears Craftsman tools, with the addition of
Snap-On Phillips Head screwdrivers, because they do the tasks to which I
desire to put them.
Godfrey DiGiorgi
digiorgi@jpl-vlsi.arpa
... and according to one industry visionary, the personal computer doesn't
yet exist.
----
Another Cute Disclaimer:
If these ideas offend thee, strike them out! Exit
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 19 Jan 87 10:42:59 EST
From: Meredith Lesly <mlesly@labs-b.bbn.com>
Subject: re: Information Please
You're going to have trouble in that configuration no matter which compiler
you buy, but LSC does allegedly work with two 400k drives. In the 2.01
suplement is a list of recommended disk layouts, including one for your
configuration.
On the quality end, I would strongly recommend LSC. It is the fastest,
and most reliable compiler I have ever used. I've been using it (literally)
since day one and, while there were a few bugs in version 1.02, have been
tremendously pleased and much more productive.
Disclaimer: I'm friends with several Think employees and so might be
construed as biased. On the other hand, I met the Think folks because of
my strong fandom of LSC, not the other way around.
meredith lesly
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 19 Jan 87 10:25:25 EST
From: Meredith Lesly <mlesly@labs-b.bbn.com>
Subject: Re: Porting IBM PC Applications
_If_ a program ses nothing but stdio, it shouldn't be too hard. But that's a
big if. If the program does any C-specific I?O, like writing to the screen or
BIOS calls, you're in trouble.
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 17 Jan 87 21:54:00 EST
From: "Owen M. Hartnett" <omh%cs.brown.edu@RELAY.CS.NET>
Subject: New version (port) of TransSkel for Pascal
The following nine files are my port of the TransSkel package into
LightSpeed Pascal. TransSkel was originally written in LightSpeed C
by Paul DuBois.
For those unfamiliar with TransSkel, it's similar to SimpleTools and
the "extenders" which handle certain standard Macintosh functions for you.
Simply call the proper routine and TransSkel will keep track of your
menus, windows and dialogs. The code itself is fairly robust, although no
memory checking is done to speak of. You will want to keep track of this
from your main application.
There are actually three parts, each of which has three parts. For each
part, there is the code itself, a set of demo routines, and a documentation
package. The modules are TransSkel and two other modules which sit on
top of TransSkel to run: TransEdit and TransDisplay. TransDisplay may be
superfluous, as LSP's ShowText window and built in output routines already
provide most of its function, but was included anyway for the sake of
completeness. It provides a scrollable output window useful for a "Help"
type display. TransEdit is a Text file editor module which may be added
to provide TextEdit type editing to your applications, along with scrolling
windows and file support.
The port is a pretty straightforward translation of C to Pascal with not
much effort being put into optimizing for Pascal. The reason for this
is to effect a speedy port and to give people a reason to send me
suggestions. Also, the comments were directly imported from the C version
and touched up by hand, so if I forgot to change a "filename.c" into
a "filename.pas" please forgive it. Even if you don't use TransSkel.pas
you might be interested in the routines which allow you to run a procedure
given a ProcPtr to it. In C, that's trivial, but for Pascal, I had to
write "glue" routines for each different parameter combination.
TransSkel's Pascal Port, like its C sister, is completely public domain,
no fees, licenses or restrictions imposed. Use it to write your million
dollar best selling programs.
Note: the current versions of TransEdit and TransDisplay require that
range checking be turned off when in use. This is because of LSP's
lack of forgiveness in this regard. TransSkel doesn't suffer from this,
because I went in and sequenced the IF statement expressions correctly for
Pascal. Maybe I'll get to this in the next edition for Edit and Display.
Owen Hartnett
Brown University Computer Science
omh@cs.brown.edu.CSNET
omh%cs.brown.edu@relay.cs.net-relay.ARPA
{ihnp4,allegra}!brunix!omh
[ archived as
[SUMEX-AIM.Stanford.EDU]<INFO-MAC>UTILITY-TRANSSKEL-PASCAL.HQX
[SUMEX-AIM.Stanford.EDU]<INFO-MAC>UTILITY-TRANSSKEL-PASCAL-DEMOS.HQX
[SUMEX-AIM.Stanford.EDU]<INFO-MAC>UTILITY-TRANSSKEL-PASCAL-DOC.HQX
[SUMEX-AIM.Stanford.EDU]<INFO-MAC>UTILITY-TRANSDISPLAY-PASCAL.HQX
[SUMEX-AIM.Stanford.EDU]<INFO-MAC>UTILITY-TRANSDISPLAY-PASCAL-DEMOS.HQX
[SUMEX-AIM.Stanford.EDU]<INFO-MAC>UTILITY-TRANSDISPLAY-PASCAL-DOC.HQX
[SUMEX-AIM.Stanford.EDU]<INFO-MAC>UTILITY-TRANSEDIT-PASCAL.HQX
[SUMEX-AIM.Stanford.EDU]<INFO-MAC>UTILITY-TRANSEDIT-PASCAL-DEMOS.HQX
[SUMEX-AIM.Stanford.EDU]<INFO-MAC>UTILITY-TRANSEDIT-PASCAL-DOC.HQX
DAVEG
]
------------------------------
Date: Mon 19 Jan 87 14:08:37-EST
From: Carlos A Albuerne <CU.ALBUERNE@CU20B.COLUMBIA.EDU>
Subject: Mac software version list
This is the latest text file containing the Macintosh software versions and
replaces the existing <info-mac>software-versionlist.txt file.
It's date is 16 January 1987.
--Carlos Albuerne
[ archived as
[SUMEX-AIM.Stanford.EDU]<INFO-MAC>SOFTWARE-VERSIONLIST.TXT
This replaces an earlier version of this document.
DAVEG
]
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 19 Jan 87 15:08:38 EST
From: Gary P Standorf <standorf@CECOM-2.ARPA>
Subject: Other... 3.06
This is Other... 3.06. It is a desk accessory which allows running other
desk accessories which are not installed in the system file, but rather just in
a desk accessory file (1 DA per DA file). It is shareware, $15.
Gary Standorf
<standorf@cecom-2.arpa>
[ archived as
[SUMEX-AIM.Stanford.EDU]<INFO-MAC>DA-OTHER-306.HQX
DAVEG
]
------------------------------
Date: 17 Jan 1987 15:55-EST
Sender: VERACSD@A.ISI.EDU
Subject: Mac PROLOGs
From: VERACSD@A.ISI.EDU
I asked Tim Johnson some follow-up questions regarding his excellent review
of Mac PROLOGs which appeared in this mailing-list. My questions were
primarily motivated by a concern for how relevant his remarks were for 512K
Macs. I found his response very helpful, and at his request am posting
most of it here:
I ran all my AAIS Prolog tests on a MacPlus. I simulated a 512k Mac for
you by adding a 512 Ram disk to see if AAIS Prolog would be happy in 512K.
It did very well if you give it all of the 512k (don't add a RAM disk,
for example) on their program to solve cryptarithm puzzles such as:
DONALD SEND WRONG
+ GERALD + MORE + WRONG
------ ----- -----
ROBERT MONEY RIGHT
which generates DEEP backtrack
consumes memeory, but the amount of backtracking).
All of our research is conducted on a MacPlus, so I can't give you a first
hand report on how our stuff runs in 512K.
Their editor is first class and full featured. You can use any font, or
font size in their edit or query windows, but their print command only
prints window contents in draft mode (however, you can copy any window with
the Copy command and paste it into MacWrite to print in the same font
family as displayed on the screen). Since you have access to the entire
tool box, any program output you generate can also be placed on the printer
in any font family.
Furthermore, you can create your own windows during execution
and make up your personal interface.
-- Cris Kobryn
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 19 Jan 87 01:01:51 pst
From: Bernard Aboba <bernard@ararat>
Subject: In-line MicroProcessor Emulators for Macintosh?
I'd like to do some micro-processor hardware development, and was wondering
if anyone knew of a relatively cheap (<$500) cross-development system
for the Z80, 8035, 8088 or the like, that would include microprocessor
emulation, including hardware to replace a Z80 while breadboarding.
The systems I've seen are VERY pricey, and that goes for the digital
logic simulators, or PC board design programs too. What gives with this
stuff?
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 19 Jan 87 14:10:32 PST
From: <KNIGHT@maine.bitnet>
Reply-to: KNIGHT%MAINE.BITNET@forsythe.stanford.edu
Subject: Cross assemblers for the mac.
Received: by MAINE (Mailer X1.23) id 8921; Fri, 16 Jan 87 11:14:17 EST
Subject: Cross assemblers for the mac.
From: KNIGHT@MAINE (Michael Knight)
To: INFO-MAC@SUMEX-AIM.STANFORD.EDU
Date: Fri, 16 Jan 87 11:11:26 EST
Any one out there know where I could get a cross assembler the will
run on the mac that produces 6800 code. Thanks.
Michael Knight
Knight@maine.bitnet
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 17 Jan 87 23:05:47 pst
From: Bernard Aboba <bernard@ararat>
Subject: Upcoming FCC decision on access fees for packet switching
Subject: networks
An upcoming FCC decision may tack on a $3 to $4 PER HOUR ADDITIONAL
ACCESS FEE TO LOCAL CALLS TO PACKET SWITCHING NETWORKS. This includes
COMPUSERVE, PC-PURSUIT,THE SOURCE, TYMNET, TELENET, etc.
Unless users write the FCC voicing outrage, this may well go through, setting
back telecommunications by several years. Everyone who owns a computer
and feels strongly on this issue should take a few minutes to send a letter
to the FCC. The ruling will likely be made by late January or early February!
PLEASE don't tell yourself that enough letters will probably be sent
without yours! Write letters to:
.
. Honorable Mark Fowler
. Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission
. Washington D.C. 20554
.
Refer to Computer Inquiry III in your letters. State clearly, in your
own words, that competitive packet switching services should not be
re-regulated or subjected to carrier access charges, and then explain
why not. Explain that reregulation of packet services will destroy an
existing fair market for these services, and will increase your costs,
not decrease them, especially for residential users.
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 16 Jan 87 17:42:57 est
From: mayerk@eniac.seas.upenn.edu (Kenneth Mayer)
Subject: Query for personal finance software
I am looking for recommendations, opinions, etc. on personal
finance software. Some required features are: check book
reconcilliation, balance sheet, cash flow, and net worth calculations.
In addition, I would prefer simplicity over power, since the person
who will use this is not very knowledgeable about computers. (She has
an old 128K and doesn't even want to know about the upgrades.) I've
worked with Dollars and Sense and I like it, but it might be too
complicated to use. Has anyone used any of the following packages, or
some other package (shareware perhaps?). I'd appreciate the help. Of
course, I will post the responses.
Ken
Application Publisher
--------------------------- -------------------
Check Book Manager RW Software Co.
Dollars and Sense Monogram
The Home Accountant Haba Systems
Lasser's Your Money Manager Simon & Schuster
MacCheck Innovative Software
MacMoney Survivor Software
Personal Accountant Softsync
/|---------------------------------------------------------------|\
/ | ARPA: mayerk@eniac.upenn.seas.EDU | \
| | USnail: Kenneth Mayer | |
| | University of Pennsylvania, Moore School of Eng.| |
- | 305 S. 41st St | -
| | Philadelphia, PA 19104 | |
| | GENIE: MAYERK | |
\ | CIS: [73537,3411] | /
\|---------------------------------------------------------------|/
"It's a sky-blue sky, "The future is a place,
Satellites are out tonite, About 70 miles east of here,
Let X = X..." Where it's lighter..."
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 16 Jan 87 18:13:06 est
From: mayerk@eniac.seas.upenn.edu (Kenneth Mayer)
Subject: Mac generated greeting cards
I saw this today in the Gallery in downtown Philadelphia:
The Magical Poet
Make your own personal greeting card
The machine is a mac (without the mouse) mounted into a
cabinet with a speaker and some kind of printing device.
It is prominently displayed in the entrance of the store
so it is ready for high traffic. I didn't see any lines
but I'm sure that before Valentine's day, it may see more
use.
The user is lead through a number of screens; the name of
the person your sending the card to, what type of card
(holiday, I love you, some risque stuff, etc.), and
personality characteristics of the recipient. Then the
computer generates two cards. You can reject the first
or both, but you will only be charged for a printed card.
It does say, "If you press N now, this unique card will
be lost FOREVER. touch yes. TOUCH YES." Which seemed
rather high pressure for a greeting card. The verse was
ok. It rhymed, but the content was pretty sappy. I
can't say anything about the print quality because I
didn't want to pay $2.95 for a card to a fictional person.
The company the built, and apparently markets this to
greeting card stores is the Computer Poet Corp.
(702) 831-8800.
/|---------------------------------------------------------------|\
/ | ARPA: mayerk@eniac.upenn.seas.EDU | \
| | USnail: Kenneth Mayer | |
| | University of Pennsylvania, Moore School of Eng.| |
- | 305 S. 41st St | -
| | Philadelphia, PA 19104 | |
| | GENIE: MAYERK | |
\ | CIS: [73537,3411] | /
\|---------------------------------------------------------------|/
"It's a sky-blue sky, "The future is a place,
Satellites are out tonite, About 70 miles east of here,
Let X = X..." Where it's lighter..."
(usual disclaimers apply...I appologize for not having an employer to
appologize for.)
------------------------------
End of INFO-MAC Digest
**********************