SHULMAN@RED.RUTGERS.EDU.UUCP (01/10/87)
Delphi Mac Digest Saturday, 10 January 1987 Volume 3 : Issue 3
Today's Topics:
Loading a HD (2 messages)
MPW 1.0.1
imagewriter II problems
The Macintosh in 1987
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From: MOUSE1
Subject: Loading a HD
Date: 9-JAN-20:47: Hardware & Peripherals
Just got my Dataframe 20 today and am already wondering how I lived
without a HD for so long! 1 question: What is the best way to load my
communications disks - e.g. Microphone and/or Smartcom 11? There are
no particular instructions that I can see in the manuals. Is it best
just to copy all the appropriate documents from each disk? Naive
question, Im sure, but then Im not a computer genius like most of you
-- I just cant live without it!
Judy
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From: MOUSEKETEER
Subject: RE: Loading a HD (Re: Msg 16259)
Date: 10-JAN 00:27 Hardware & Peripherals
Hi Judy,
As long as the program isn't copy-perverted, just load them onto the disk
as you would anything else, including any related documents, i.e. indivi-
dual files for Microphone setups, etc. (you know, of course, to not copy
or install more than one System Folder and contents of same onto the HD...).
Basically, you just treat the HD as a REALLY BIG external floppy with a thing
for speed.
A couple of "new HD owner" tips I'll toss along as well:
1) Keep a disk set up with a small System/Finder and the DA/Font Mover. If
like me, you start piling up lots of fonts into the HD System, it is best if
you boot the Mac from this floppy before installing new fonts. They tell
me here it has something to do with one's Heap staying in some strange
order, but as one who tried it the other way to many bombs, I suppose they
know more about Heaps than I do.
2) Call ComputerWare, MacConnection, or PCPC and get a copy of HFS Backup..
not tomorrow, or next week, but RIGHT NOW! Get into the habit of making a
full backup at least once per week, or more often if you spend a lot of time
on your Mac. While that DataFrame can hold a lot of files, it can just as
easily send them on a one-way voyage to the ozone...not without a good
reason, I suppose, but mine has never seen fit to clue me in as to why it
would do it.
Congrats on the new, rotating baby!
Alf
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From: JEFFS
Subject: MPW 1.0.1
Date: 9-JAN-21:52: Tools for Developers
Good News: I received MPW 1.0.1 and MPW C from APDA yesterday.
Bad News: I was under the impression that they would be distributing
the "final" product and "final" manual. It seems you get the final
product but NOT the final manual. The manual, marked APDA Draft, does
*not* have an index, does *not* have the final figures and does *not*
have a complete table of contents. The TOC only numbers (handwritten)
the page numbers of the major sections.
I suppose you get what you pay for (free update) but somehow I feel cheated. I
ordered MPW at work also, let's see if I get the same exact thing or they fill
in the TOC and index for those people who didn't buy the second beta.
Jeff
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From: TJPATRICK
Subject: imagewriter II problems
Date: 9-JAN-21:47: Hardware & Peripherals
I have had ny imagewriter II for almost a year now and continue to
have problems with the print about three quarters of an inch down from
the top of the page. The print in this area(or graphics) get squeezed
making letters or numbers on this line about hal f the height that
they should be. This problem consistently occurs regardless of the
software or system. My Apple dealer had no idea what the problem
was(typical Apple dealer support). Does anyone have any suggestuions
to help fix this problem?
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From: PEABO
Subject: The Macintosh in 1987
Date: 9-JAN-20:36: MUGS Online
The Macintosh in 1987, from the Macworld Expo, January 1987, San Francisco
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Reported by Peter Olson (PEABO @ DELPHI), based on handwritten notes.
Any inaccuracies are my fault, but I have tried to report the
substance of the talk to the best of my ability. This report may be
freely disseminated as long as it is reproduced in its entirety.
-------------------------------
A talk featuring Jean-Louis Gassee as main speaker, with contributions from
Stewart Alsop, Esther Dyson, Andy Hertzfeld, Philippe Kahn, Alan Kay, Cary Lu,
and Dave Winer, with David Bunnell of Macworld magazine as moderator.
JEAN-LOUIS GASSEE Apple Computer, Inc.
Jean-Louis began his speech by talking about the expectations that
Apple believes are held by its prospects in 1987, saying that he
believes that "we will satisfy your expectations" (later in response
to a question from the floor he emphasized Apple's long standing
committment of working hand in hand with third party developers,
saying that the "we" he is referring to is Apple and the third
parties). He went on to say that he expected Apple to surprise some
people too. Apple's emphasis will be on engineering applications for
the increasingly powerful Macintosh successors.
Besides engineering applications, Apple will be putting a great deal
of emphasis upon networking, especially with the idea of "direct
access to information regardless of its location on a network". The
current difficulties people have with this kind of transparent access
is seen by Apple as a challenge and an opportunity. He said "the file
server we announced in 1985, which we will deliver in 1987, will be
one of the most beautiful pieces of Macintosh software ever written".
Although two years have elapsed, the time has not been wasted, and
Apple will interface with DEC equipment, IBM Token Ring, Ethernet, and
there will be a proliferation of AppleTalk based products. Some of
the enhancements planned include network management and diagnostic
tools.
He talked about the fact that it is now three years (less one week)
since the Macintosh was announced, and that we now see an immense
number of applications on the Macintosh, many of which were not even
imagined in the early days of the machine. He likes to be proved
wrong in his preconceptions (a reference to the fact that the Radius
Full Page Display proves wrong his assertion from a year ago that the
Macintosh in its present form was wedded to a small screen). Apple
will continue to be supportive of the small company with a good idea
(he talked about the spirit of the small computer 'industry' back in
the days when Bill Gates and Paul Allen were writing the first
microcomputer BASIC for the MITS Altair, later to become Microsoft
BASIC). He compared that effort with today's Erez Anzel company,
producers of engineering software for the Macintosh.
QUESTIONS:
Do you see anything comparable to desktop publishing in the music industry,
centered around the Macintosh? No, not to the same extent, although the
Macintosh will continue to play an important role.
Will there be a multi-tasking operating system? Not in 1987, at least not in
the sense of true multi-tasking. What will happen is that programs like
Servant, combining batch execution and interactive tasks, will provide most of
the capability needed. However, I don't say we will never do true multi-
tasking, just not in 1987.
What about the momentum of 80386-based systems? "I would spell
momentum differently, perhaps beginning with the letter B." (laughter
in the audience) He mentioned an observation by Andy Hertzfeld that at
the time the Macintosh was developed, the 68000 chip was the most
expensive of the microcomputer chips what were candidates for the
design, but Apple chose it anyway and is now reaping the benefits of
easy evolution to faster processors. The 68020 is only the beginning
of a line of new high performance 68000 architecture chips.
Apple has done a lot with relatively few people; how will this effect
customer support in the future? Apple has the highest revenue per
employee in the personal computer industry. We expect to support
engineering customers even more easily than business customers. My
prior experience (at Exxon Office Systems before working at Apple)
demonstrated to me clearly that the Macintosh is far superior to the
office systems which preceeded it, in ease of use and training, and I
expect the same to be true of our engineering products. I don't see a
need for any significant change in the level of our support.
Will an open Mac be sold without a monitor? Yes. In fact we may have
several Apple monitors to choose from as well as monitors from third
parties. My goal for the open Mac is to reincarnate the spirit of the
Apple ][ in Macintosh clothing.
--------------------------------------
The remaining presentations were much shorter than Jean-Louis Gassee's:
STEWART ALSOP PC Letter
"I'm worried that the Macintosh is getting boring." He mentioned
roaming around the exhibit floor and seeing scads of products not
thoroughly differentiated, booths populated by product managers and
funded by large amounts of ad money.
Nevertheless, there is an important distinction between Apple and IBM. Where
Apple makes computers for individuals, IBM still makes computers for
corporations, and that is where Apple has an immense advantage over IBM.
ESTHER DYSAN Release 1.0
Following Stewart's comments about the boring Mac, she wants
developers to know (and do something about) what it takes to keep the
Mac exciting. The answer is "computer support of cooperative work"
which is known in the commercial world as "work group computing".
Desktop Publishing is a communication medium. Step beyond the
limitations of the paper medium, using outlining tools, hypertext, and
so forth. Instead of WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get), we need
"what I send is what you receive". Other tools include coordination
and calendar tools and project planning tools.
ANDY HERTZFELD Macintosh Wizard
"I disagree with Jean-Louis, I think we already have reincarnated the
spirit of the Apple ][ in the Macintosh." He went on to describe how
similar he feels things are today to what they were when, as a first
time user, he purchased an Apple ][ 6 or 7 years ago. He thinks every
single person should be able to program his computer (in some way), so
that the power of computing will be generally accessible. It is not
the presence of slots in a machine that make it open, it is the degree
to which someone can do what he wants with it and not be stymied by
the designers' preconceptions.
PHILIPPE KAHN Borland International
Philippe started by saying how he had applied for a job from Alan Kay
(then at Atari) when he first came to the US and was flat broke, and
how it was the best thing that ever happened to him that he didn't get
the job. He went on to talk about the "double competence" needed in
today's world. First the knowledge of how to do a job or trade, and
second, the knowledge of how to use a computer to do it better. He
wound up his talk by saying that in spite of what he said last year
about the Mac, he is now a firm believer in the future of the Mac, and
that Borland had proved it by running ads putting down
80386-MS-DOS-Windows as substitutes for the real thing.
ALAN KAY Apple Computer, Inc.
Master of perspective, Alan Kay asked us to think about what a real
personal computer would have to be, and recalled how at Xerox PARC the
research group had a definition in mind that a computer could not be
called a personal computer unless you would routinely use it for the
most mundane of tasks, such as organizing your grocery list, and that
you would then take it to the grocery store with you and BACK OUT with
two bags of groceries in your arms.
Obviously there are no personal computers in existence yet, and may
not be until they are woven into T-shirts. (At which point someone
commented that that would mean the guys who wear suits wouldn't be
able to use them any more).
He repeated a favorite saying of his that the Macintosh is the first personal
[sic] computer good enough to be criticized.
In closing, he talked about three aspects of literacy (in any field):
1. access (such as reading)
2. creation (such as writing for others)
3. genre (an understanding of differing creative styles)
Computer literacy today has only reached stage 1.
CARY LU Microcomputer Editor for High Technology magazine
Cary talked mainly about what the future holds for us. In addition to what
might be expected from simple extrapolation of what we have today (a computer
with a hundred megabytes of RAM, extremely fast processor, and optical disk
storage), he was very enthusiastic about the impact of digital tape recording,
speaking about a 700 megabyte writable storage in a catridge the size of a
current audio cassette. He predicted that such devices would be readily
available within 18 months, and that the market for them would be fueled by
computer applications, in contrast with the way CD ROMs are an offshoot of
consumer audio technology. He also said that digital video would not appear as
rapidly, but might be expected in the early 1990s.
Hardware is the easy part. Software is difficult, and will get much more
difficult in the future. The key to software is not to do it as we have been
but faster and bigger, but rather to break out into a new way of doing things.
He mentioned threaded document structures and databases as a fruitful
area of research, and talked about how a software package to be sold
in the millions could not possibly be programmed in a turkey fashion
because the designers would not be able to predict how that large a
variety of people would want to use the software.
In closing he cautioned that companies like IBM and AT&T will not invent this
kind of technology, they will just try to standardize it, so it is up to
independent developers to get there first and invent the tools that will be
necessary for the job.
DAVE WINER Living Videotext, Inc.
Dave talked about the startling success of MORE which had only been released 6
months ago, saying that when people tell him about IBM's marketing clout, with
80,000 sales people out there, that he pointed out that every Mac owner is a
Macintosh salesman. He said that 1987 will see very impressive hardware
developments and product ideas, and echoes Esther Dyson's comments about the
importance of the Macintosh as a communications tool, and especially a
Communications tool (meaning the human to human aspect of communications rather
than the technology).
QUESTIONS:
When will there be an affordable color laser printer? (GASSEE) Not in the near
future; Apple is keeping an eye out for developments in this area, but at
present the least expensive practical units would cost over $25,000 and would
not have the kind of trouble-free operation that characterizes the LaserWriter.
Don't expect any real breakthroughs before 1989.
What about software rental? (KAHN) Borland has always emphasized two things:
affordable prices and a 60 day guarantee. If more companies did that, there
would be very little need for people to rent software to try it out. (DYSON)
When I hear about 'software rental', it always reminds me of how people used to
talk about 'sex before marriage', years ago. Most of the time, marriage never
came. It's really 'sex outside marriage'. (ALSOP) I recommend Egghead
Software, which has a two week return policy.
When do we get Servant? (HERTZFELD) Servant .89 is available on all the major
bulletin boards and through user groups, and is pretty stable. I haven't done
any work on it since, because I've been working on some neat enhancements to my
Thunderscan software, but I expect to resume working on it in a week or two.
Look for another release around mid-February, and a pretty solid one in April.
[A heated argument ensued about whether Servant would have a View by Name like
the current Finder or whether users would be stuck with icons for everything.]
What about portable Macs? Will it always be necessary to buy a whole
Mac Plus to get the parts to build one? (GASSEE) Dynamac has a
working relationship with Apple, so they don't have to buy entire Macs
to get the logic board. The problem with Apple doing a portable Mac
is that it is still too hard to do it they way we want to do it. I
want a portable Mac very badly, but I want a Mac that I can take
outside and sit under a tree and be creative.
What about Apple's policies on dealer support and customer support?
(GASSEE) There is an acknowledged problem with education of computer
dealers (not just Apple dealers). "Don't support cheap dealers!" The
laws make it very hard for us to do what we feel is the right thing to
promote high quality support for our customers. We cannot cut off a
dealer for selling the product so cheaply he cannot afford to give
adequate support. (CARY LU) The solution is to get support from your
local user group. [A flame ensued about some problem where a person
was referred to Apple by his dealer, and Apple referred him back to
his dealer, but it was impossible to hear the details because the
person complaining was not on mike.]
Now that there are more than a million Macs out there, have we reached critical
mass? (GASSEE) I don't worry about critical mass. When you have enough cash
(we do) you can keep working at it until you get it right.
What is needed to propel computer literacy into the creative and genre
stages mentioned by Alan Kay? (HERTZFELD) Visicalc was a first step
towards increasing computer literacy, because it let people program a
computer without having to know machine code. I think you'll see some
really great programs come out this year, like the one by Bill
Atkinson that I can't talk about now. (KAY) The problem with this is
that we have to invent part of the solutions to problems that we don't
have a good grasp of yet. Imagine for a minute what it would be like
if you took MS WORD or MacWrite and had some way to "open up the
hood". Like a "hood latch menu" off to the right that you could
invoke if nothing else would do what you needed. Today, if there were
a menu like that, all you would see is thousands of bytes of machine
code, but imagine if you could open up a view into the lower level
algorithms used by the word processor and reprogram it yourself. What
we have to do is take all these well-known applications and reprogram
them some way that opens them up to manipulation by the end user in
this very flexible fashion. Experience has shown that there are
enormous numbers of people willing to do their own programming if they
are offered tools in a suitable style.
Has Apple learned its lesson from the troubles with the System 3.0 upgrade?
(GASSEE) I suppose you mean the release of the new ROMs too. The reality of
business is that you don't decree the speed of light, or the speed with which
the programming can be written. I don't think you would have wanted to wait
three more months for the Macintosh Plus. It is the nature of the beast, and I
will apologize in advance for any problems which may occur when we release the
new machines, but I think you will find the result to be very, very good.
What can you say about the success of the Macintosh in international
markets? (GASSEE) In Europe the Macintosh has always been more
successful that in the US. In Japan, we got off to a slow start, but
once we had the Kanji Mac, and the unique keyboard with the coding of
Kanji from keystrokes, and the ideographic printer, we began doing
very well. Australia is a good market as well. In other places we
don't do as well, partly because of local difficulties getting a
support network established.
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End of talk.
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End of Delphi Mac Digest
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