INFO-MAC-REQUEST@SUMEX-AIM.ARPA (Moderator David Gelphman...) (11/06/86)
INFO-MAC Digest Wednesday, 5 Nov 1986 Volume 5 : Issue 6
Today's Topics:
editText updating bug
Fedit and Bundle bits (Re: custom icons for applications)
MacFortran 2.2 Bug
CAD-METALWARE.HQX
UTILITY-HP41C-ASSEMBLER.HQX
MacLab - psych lab program w/ millisecond timing
Tape Backup
Repository for Info-Mac archives
Optical Scanners and Text Recognition
AppleTalk/VAX LAN (Alisa)
Macintosh Meets A Cray
Reply: MSWord defaults (IM5.2)
Criticisms of FileMaker Plus and Reflex for Bibiographic Applications
Emacs like editors
Trashed MacWrite Files
Chemistry Fonts
MAC Pascal version 2.1 a reality?
Tiny-C for Mac?
SHANGHAI
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Mon, 3 Nov 86 18:51:33 EST
From: steve@harvard.harvard.edu (Kaufer - Lopez - Pratap)
Subject: editText updating bug
If the strings "^0", "^1", "^2", or "^3" occur in a dialog editText item
and the dialog window is redrawn after an update event by DialogSelect,
then the occurences of "^N" are substituted with the values (if any) that
were supplied by ParamText.
For example, if ParamText is called with "W", "X", "Y", and "Z", and if the
editText box originally holds "ab^0cd^1ef^2gh^3ij", then after being
updated the text will be "abWcdXefYghZij". If ParamText was never called
and if the dialog's editText box holds the text "abc^1def", then when it
is redrawn it will contain "abcdef". The "^1" mysteriously disappears.
According to Inside Mac (my version at least) the ParamText substitutions
are only supposed to happen for statText items, not editText items.
To overcome this bug at the beginning of my C program I inserted:
ParamText("\p^0", "\p^1", "\p^2", "\p^3") ;
This causes each occurence of the special strings "^N" to be replaced
by itself. This will not work, of course, if you are already using
ParamText to substitute in something else. -- Russ Lopez
------------------------------
Date: Sun 2 Nov 86 20:42:01-PST
From: Lance Nakata <K.Kirin@HAMLET.STANFORD.EDU>
Subject: Fedit and Bundle bits (Re: custom icons for applications)
> For those of you who missed this before, let me refresh you all:
> I am creating icons for applications. I create the resources and set the
> bundle bit and signature using FEdit. Only, the bundle bit never seems to
> be changed permanently. Once the doc is closed and FEdit is quit, the
> new icon never comes up, and when re-opened, the Bundle bit is off again.
With the new ROMs, Fedit 3.05 through Fedit Plus 1.0.7 have problems
retaining changes done to the LAST modified file. I have found that
it is best to:
1. Click on the bit you want to modify (e.g. FILE PROTECT or BUNDLE).
2. Click on CHANGE.
3. Then OPEN another file, something harmless like the desktop.
4. Now QUIT from Fedit.
Your changes will be preserved this way. I thought this problem would
be fixed with the release of Fedit Plus, but disappointment has
greeted me. Oh, well....
Lance
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 5 Nov 86 20:46:28 CST
From: wmartin@ngp.utexas.edu (Wiley Sanders)
Subject: MacFortran 2.2 Bug
Sender:
Reply-to: ngp!wmartin@ngp.utexas.edu (Wiley Sanders)
I am experiencing a rather frustrating bug with MacFortran 2.2, using external
functions. I have found that upon calling an external function:
Z=FOO(A,B,C)
where
REAL FUNCTION FOO(D,E,F)
FOO=D+E+F (etc etc)
and D,E, and F are not changed in the external function, that, upon return-
ing from the external function, the values of A,B, and C have been trashed
in the main program. This happens when the function is called the first time,
but not thereafter. I have a more detailed example program available if some-
one will contact me by mail, we can discuss this.
-w
Wiley Sanders
wmartin@ut-ngp.UTEXAS.EDU
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 3 Nov 86 11:58:10 pst
From: oster%lapis.Berkeley.EDU@BERKELEY.EDU (David Phillip Oster)
Subject: CAD-METALWARE.HQX
Enclosed is Metalware, a simple shareware cad system for specifying
machined objects.
The nifty thing about Metalware is that if you send its data files to
Mark Thorson, the author, he will get your designs fabricated for you.
The following file must be decoded with BinHex of XBin, then unpacked
with any version of PackIt. It consists of the program, the manual
as a MacWrite 4.5 file, and three short examples.
[ archived as
[SUMEX-AIM.Stanford.EDU]<INFO-MAC>CAD-METALWARE.HQX
DAVEG
]
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 3 Nov 86 21:48:30 PST
From: woody@Juliet.Caltech.Edu (William E. Woody)
Subject: UTILITY-HP41C-ASSEMBLER.HQX
Gee, I didn't know this little kludge would be so popular. So, by popular
demand, I "finished" the HP41C assembler, by including support for macros,
header files, and output control.
Appended to this message is ASM41C, the cross assembler for the
HP, BCPRINT, and documentation and files on all of this. This program
produces program barcode for an HP41C calculator equiped with a bar wand
reader.
This is free stuff--no strings attached. However, if you really do want
to throw money at me...
- William Woody mac > /|\ && ][n
woody%romeo@hamlet.caltech.edu
[ The author requested that the original version of this program be
replaced by this newer version. The name is unchanged and is the
latest version is archived as
[SUMEX-AIM.Stanford.EDU]<INFO-MAC>UTILITY-HP41C-ASSEMBLER.HQX
DAVEG
]
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 5 Nov 86 23:25:14 EST
From: duc@harvisr.harvard.edu (Dan Costin)
Subject: MacLab - psych lab program w/ millisecond timing
This is a demo of MacLab, a program that turns the Macintosh into a powerful
psychological laboratory machine. The posting is made up of two files,
the demo program (the real program with some rather strict limitations),
and the current manual (the manual is in Times font)..
One has to try out MacLab to find out what it really does, and how much
easier it makes running experiments. It takes MacPaint format files
and uses them as slides. It can put them up for as little as 33 milliseconds
(2 ticks) for a rate of 30 frames per second. It also measures subjects'
responses using a millisecond timer (not any of the published ones - this
part was written a while ago). Subjects can respond via keyboard or mouse.
All of the features are described in the manual.
If you try it out and you like it, you may find out more from
DC Software
1430 Massachusetts Ave., Suite 306-R
Cambridge, MA 02138
(Price range $100-$200)
The author is me, Dan Costin, a Harvard senior, majoring in a mix
of Artificial Intelligence, Neurobiology, and Cognitive Psychology.
Any grad school out there want me?
Enjoy.
duc@wjh12.harvard.edu
[ archived as
[SUMEX-AIM.Stanford.EDU]<INFO-MAC>DEMO-MACLAB.HQX
DAVEG
]
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 4 Nov 86 08:32:45 AST
From: PAUL%Acadia.BITNET@WISCVM.WISC.EDU (Paul Steele - Acadia
Subject: Tape Backup
I am trying to find a tape backup unit (20 Meg) that will work on both
a Macintosh and a IBM PC. Because of the Macintosh, it will obviously
have to be a SCSI device, so what it basically comes down to is if there
is any SCSI tape controllers for IBM PC's that might work with one of the
MAC tape units. If anyone has any suggestions as to how this might be
done, please let me know. I can't justify a backup unit for both machines,
but sharing one unit seems a reasonable way to go.
==> Paul@Acadia.BITNET
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 3 Nov 86 16:09 EDT
From: <JCLARK%UTKVX1.BITNET@WISCVM.WISC.EDU>
Subject: Repository for Info-Mac archives
After being on the mailing list for Info-Mac digests for only a couple
of weeks, it's apparent that lots of good programs are available.
Unfortunately the MacServe file server at BITNIC appears to have nothing
available for access after May of 1985. Can anyone shed light as to
any other repositories of INFO-MAC archives, or availability of files
short of calling bulletin boards (long distance?)
------------------------------
From: Michael Mattock <mattock%tp4@rand-unix.ARPA>
Subject: Optical Scanners and Text Recognition
Date: 05 Nov 86 11:47:29 PST (Wed)
Does anyone know of an optical scanner that will recognize text for less
than $10,000 ? I want to use it to enter several thousand pages of numeric
data, so I want a scanner that is fast and needs little human intervention.
It would be nice if it could cope with japanese letters.
-- Michael Mattock
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 3 Nov 86 09:28 EDT
From: CNNMJ%BCVAX3.BITNET@WISCVM.WISC.EDU (M.J. CONNOLLY
Subject: AppleTalk/VAX LAN (Alisa)
Just been reading a new product description in Digital Review
(13 October 1986,p.39) about AlisaTalk, a HW- (Kinetics/ Walnut
Creek CA) and SW- (Alisa Systems/ Pasadena CA) package with
partial Apple funding which "bridges multiple AppleTalk LANs to
an Ethernet network so that a VAX system can function as a
file-server". They point out that they're in a different arena from
Apple's file-servers. Here the VAX winds up looking like another AppleTalk
node, the operation is peer-to-peer and not PC-to-mainframe, and
Alisa has a Laserwriter spooler so that PostScript files on the VAX
can be printed on the LWr.
Price range $3.75K/VAX, $2.25K/mVAX. Details from:
Alisa Systems
221 E. Walnut St.
Suite 230
Pasadena CA 91101 tel: (818) 792-9474
Disclaimer: The usual. Just passing on some news. Up to now I've
been a relatively happy Macs'n'Vax user. Does anyone out there know
how this works with clustered VAXs (incl. Ethernetted DECSAS) and whether
the spooling applications go the other way (Mac through VAX to new DEC PScrLA)?
(Prof) M.J. Connolly
Slavic/Eastern
Boston College / Carney 236
Chestnut Hill MA 02167 (617)552-3912 cnnmj@bcvax3.bitnet
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 5 Nov 86 09:44:35 EST
From: bills@CCA.CCA.COM (Bill Stackhouse)
Subject: Macintosh Meets A Cray
Imagine looking at the Finder's desktop, the disk icons are replaced
with icons that look like computers, Mac, DEC, IBM (big) IBM PC, and
a CRAY. When you click on one of these icons a window opens and you
see something that looks like the "view by name" Finder window but
of the files that you own on that computer. To copy a file(s) from
one computer to another, just drag the file around as you do today.
To start a program on any machine, just double click on its name in
the window for that computer. Sounds like a dream, well it is not.
Yesterday I went to a lecture at MIT by Dr. Larry Smarr, Director,
National Center for Supercomputing Applications, Urbana, Illinois.
Smarr lecture, titled "Hide the Cray" talked about projects like this
that are aimed at allowing researchers to have easy access to the
Cray(s) at the center from IBM PC, Macs, Suns, and other workstations.
They already allow you to define disks on a PC that represent other machines
and are now working on the MAC. Currently a researcher can use Versaterm
to move data generated on the Cray to the Mac and copy/paste it in
Mac applications such as Cricket Graph and MS Word. They also have
some great color applications for the PC.
Sounds like all you need is a NSF grant that includes supper computer
time and you will have access to this software. I asked if there was
any chance this will be distributed and he said that when they
had the resources to support that, they would. That means that
even if you don't have or need a Cray, that you will be able to
move/execute things on your IBM 3090 or VAX/UNIX from your Mac
someday. (I should note that this is a joint effort with all the
vendors, Apple, IBM, Sun, Dec, ... to do this).
Really great stuff. You should have seen the color graphics of flying
through the Grand Canyon with all the images generated by the Cray. Or
how about a simulation of an instantaneous crush of a metal bar and watch
a crack form along with the vibrations of the metal surrounding the
crack.
Bill Stackhouse
bills@cca.cca.com
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 4 Nov 86 09:08 EDT
From: CNNMJ%BCVAX3.BITNET@WISCVM.WISC.EDU (M.J. CONNOLLY
Subject: Reply: MSWord defaults (IM5.2)
R.Omond asks in 5.2 (27 October) about the problem, which many of us
have also faced, of MSWord's startup defaults. The mags are full
of quick and fairly clean ways to alter the defaults, and these should
quickly find their way to Omond, I have no doubt. But before, in effect,
localizing your copies of Word, consider the gentle solution: a template
document. This avoids most of the 'pain' involved in changing and
actually is a very flexible way to run a multi-user facility.
Create a document, set all the defaults, including font, to whatever
your heart desires, save the (not really empty) document as, say, A4
or some useful descriptor string, (the Word application disk itself
is the best place to save it), then exit to the finder and lock the
template file (now=read-only).
Now, when you want to produce an A4 document of that type, simply
2click the template file A4. As soon as it opens, select <save as>,
save under the name of the new document to whichever disk you like,
then type away. We've found this a reasonable and disciplined, but
not time consuming, approach. Among other virtues, it forces the user
to 'save as' at the earliest instance.
This method is, of course, simply a variation on what most people do
when they use configured MacTerminal documents for communicating with
different devices and at different configurations.
In lieu of a disclaimer: If one of you sends this into a 'guess-what'
mag without proper credit, you'll owe me $25/2.
(Prof) M.J. Connolly
Slavic & Eastern Languages
Boston College / Carney 236
Chestnut Hill MA 02167 (617)552-3912 cnnmj@bcvax3.bitnet
[ note from moderator: one thing to note if you create a 'template' document
is that the 128K roms now allow you to REALLY lock a file by locking it
in the finder GETINFO box. In that case, you are warned when you open the
document that it is READ ONLY and you cannot save changes to it. This is
great since you can lock your template and be sure not to save over it!
( I wonder what happens if you call your template 'Untitled'?) DAVEG ]
------------------------------
Date: Tue 4 Nov 86 13:54:07-PST
From: Tony Siegman <SIEGMAN@Sierra.Stanford.EDU>
Subject: Criticisms of FileMaker Plus and Reflex for Bibiographic
Subject: Applications
Either FileMaker Plus or Reflex might seem to provide a handy program
for maintaining a data base of journal article citations, perhaps
with a structure like:
Author: John J. Jones
Title: Effects of noise on problem-solving ability
Journal: Journal of Comparative Psychology
Volume: 15
Pages: 1024-1029
Date: June 1986
where the first word in each line is the field name and the rest of
the line is the data in that field.
To use this data as references or footnotes in other publications
or bibliographies, one would obviously like to be able to search for
and find selected records, sort them by date or author, and then
output these citations to a text or MacWrite file in the format
required by a particular journal, for example
John J. Jones, "Effects of noise on problem-solving ability,"
Journal of Comparative Psychology 15, 1024-1029 (June 1986)
or perhaps for a journal having different reference style
John J. Jones, Effects of noise on problem-solving ability,
Journal of Comparative Psychology, vol. 15, pp. 1024-1029, June 1986.
Unfortunately, this simple but widely necessary task is beyond the
capabilities of either FileMaker Plus or Reflex.
First of all, both of these database programs accept dates only in
full day-month-year format, whereas some journals use day-month-year
dating, some use only month-year, and some even use only year.
Therefore the Date: field cannot have date format, only text format.
But then one cannot sort the references by date.
More seriously, neither of these programs provides for any kind of
formatted output directly to a text file. You can create output in
something like the above output formats to go directly to a printer,
but not into a text file. Output to a text file is possible only
in spreadsheet style (tabs between each field element), so that one
must run this output through some additional program to accomplish
the desired formatting.
These are both nice programs in other ways; I wish the vendors would
provide the elementary capabilities required to make them useful for
handling biblographic data bases. (It would also be very useful if
each program came accompanied by a desk accessory that allowed one
to simply read data files written by that program, so that one could,
for example, look up an address or phone number in a data base file
while in another application, without having to quit the other
application and open the data base program just to read one number.)
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 3 Nov 86 16:36 EST
From: Eric Wolf <eric-wolf@WAIKATO.S4CC.Symbolics.COM>
Subject: Emacs like editors
There is an Emacs like editor called BRIEF which was written by folks I
know at UnderWare Inc in Boston.
Currently, BRIEF is one of the most popular program editors available
for the IBM-PC. The authors have been hard at work on the Mac verson
and hope to be in beta test shortly.
Some of BRIEF's features (which I assume will be in the MAC version, too):
-unlimited, REAL, undo
-multiple windows
-a good macro language which you can use to create
editor modes and commands
-the ability to re-bind any key on the keyboard
-the ability to compile from within the editor
Eric
Disclaimer - I am not associated with UnderWare except as a friend
of the principles involved.
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 3 Nov 86 13:48:32 EST
From: Richard Alpert <alpert@BU-CS.BU.EDU>
Subject: Trashed MacWrite Files
Does anyone know how to recover from a disk a trashed (pre 4.5, 512e Mac)
MacWrite file? Nothing has been done to the disk since the trashing. Thanks.
Rich Alpert
alpert@endor.harvard.edu
alpert@bu-cs.bu.edu
[ note from moderator: There are a few utilities to recover trashed MacWrite
files, one of them is in the archives as UTILITY-WRITERECOVERY.HQX. Are
you listening Apple? It is time for a more reliable version of MacWrite! DAVEG] 5-Nov-86 11:43:34-PST,1117;000000000001
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 5 Nov 86 14:40:53 est
From: jonathan@mitre-gateway.arpa (Jonathan Leblang)
Subject: Chemistry Fonts
Does anyone know of fonts (preferably public domain) that are optimized
for writing chemical equations (reaction arrows, super & sub scripts above
each other), or of any PD or shareware or University Consortium programs in
the area of chemistry or biochemistry. I would appreciate any help.
Also, does anyone know if there are further releases of servant availible,
since the last one 'turned into a pumpkin' last friday night.
Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks in advance.
Jonathan Leblang
jonathan@bert.mitre.org (arpanet)
------------------------------
Date: 3 Nov 86 11:02:06 PST (Monday)
From: Pugh.ES@Xerox.COM
Subject: MAC Pascal version 2.1 a reality?
In the latest IEEE Micro I ran across an announcement concerning MAC
Pascal version 2.1. The local computer stores do not know anything
about this update (why am I not surprised). Does this update really
exist? If so, what new features are acquired when updating from 2.0?
/Eric
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 4 Nov 86 18:56:56 PST
From: gunther.pa@Xerox.COM
Subject: Tiny-C for Mac?
Tiny-C is the >> interpreted << subset of the C language that gave rise
to the Small-C compiler for CP/M machines and more recently the IMBpc.
Anyone know if it's available for the Mac?
Aside: I recently saw a book called "Tutorial-C" (or similar) which had
accompanying software for the Mac. I don't know if this is related to
Tiny-C. Has anyone used this system?
Neil.
------------------------------
Date: 4 Nov 86 15:55 EST
From: STERRITT%SCOM15.decnet@ge-crd.arpa
Subject: SHANGHAI
If you've seen the ads and fascinating (if slightly uninformative) reviews
of the new puzzle-type game Shanghai, and don't know if you actually want
to shell out for it, the following is for you. In the back pages of the
latest MacUser there is a free-for-three-dollars offer of 'one Shanghai
game on Disk' if you send $3 and your address to:
Activision, Inc.
P.O. Box 7287
Mountain View, CA 94039
I'll repost when I get mine.
------------------------------
End of INFO-MAC Digest
**********************