INFO-MAC-REQUEST@SUMEX-AIM.ARPA (Moderator David Gelphman...) (10/29/86)
INFO-MAC Digest Tuesday, 28 Oct 1986 Volume 5 : Issue 3
Today's Topics:
Lightspeed Pascal and VBL tasks
The Last Word on MacDraw Font Bugs
GAME-GO.HQX
DA-MINIWRITER-12.HQX
cheap 68020/881 upgrade for the Mac
Re: Distribution of TK!Solver
Mazewars etc.
A desktop publishing problem
More on Tempo
Cooperative Effort to keep track of software versions, etc.,
What to clean the screen with
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Tue, 28 Oct 86 12:48 EDT
From: JDM%SMVL%rca.com@CSNET-RELAY.ARPA
Subject: Lightspeed Pascal and VBL tasks
I wonder if anybody out there has had any success at getting
VBL processes to run while in the LSP environment. Im doing an application
that is making use of the sound driver and I need to install a VBL process
to avoid the annoying (and well documented) "click".
My program (with VBL process) works fine outside of the LSP
shell, but crashes on GetNextEvent in the main loop inside LSP.
Just curious if anyone has tried any kind of asychronous/interrupt
driven process inside LSP and gotten it to work.
Joe
By the way, I think that LSP and LSC are the best conceived and executed
software projects I have ever come across in my software development/management
days. I am not associated with THINK other than to say that I am very
happy customer.
------------------------------
Date: 27 OCT 86 12:03-EDT
From: KURAS%BCVAX3.BITNET@WISCVM.WISC.EDU
Subject: The Last Word on MacDraw Font Bugs
Okay, folks, here's the last word on all the font bugs in MacDraw.
1. MacDraw stores font information based on a font's position in the font
menu, not on its ID number as it should. This poses problems when opening
files with different "System" files than they were created under. There
is no fix of which I am aware. The only workaround is to be sure the font
you want is in the System file you are using and to just change fonts.
(I know, it's a pain.) I have never experienced problems with font sizes
in MacDraw.
2. MacDraw is incapable of displaying more than 11 fonts in its font menu,
because the menu has the sizes in it as well. Luckily, there is a fix.
The fix is published in the November 1986 issue of MacUser on page 125.
It is there attributed to Jon Hardis of Washington. I had nothing to do
with this fix, but I can verify that it works with as many as 22 fonts
and maybe more, though I know there is a limit. You'll have to determine
where that limit is. If you're not using a Mac Plus, you'll need System
3.x for your 512K which allows mwnus to scroll.
FIX:
Using FEdit or a similar disk editor, make the following changes to the
Mac Draw application. Use a COPY ONLY and verify that it works before
replacing your old versions.
CHANGE TO IN THIS MANY OCCURRENCES
41ED FAD6 41ED F360 9
0000 0C60 0000 0CA0 1
000B FACE 0016 FACE 2
0014 6F02 7C14 001F 6F02 7C1F 1
70E1 709B 3
0001 00E1 0001 009B 3
10E1 109B 1
0C47 0015 0C47 0020 1
4E56 FFBE 4E56 FF9E 1
3. MacDraw does sometimes have trouble keeping text aligned properly with
graphic elements. Furthermore, the screen representation is not always
identical to what will be printed. This problem is more pronounced when
the text has been scaled. It also crops up sometimes with pasted-in bitmap
graphic elements. There is no fix. Just keep realigning things until
you see what you like.
4. The current version of MacDraw, should there be any confusion, is 1.9
5. I have not heard of any planned upgrades to MacDraw. If I do, I will
inform the readers.
Pat Kuras
<KURAS@BCVAX3.BITNET>
Boston College
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 27 Oct 86 15:30:37 PST
From: <LOGANJ@byuvax.bitnet>
Reply-to: LOGANJ%BYUVAX.BITNET@forsythe.stanford.edu
Subject: GAME-GO.HQX
[ note from moderator: This message is from the author (not the poster)
of the go game which was posted earlier but was corrupted. The new
copy has been verified OK and has been posted. Thanks to Jim Logan for
his sharp eyes and kindness in posting a new version. DAVEG ]
The posting that you received recently about my Go program was very
strange - I didn't post it, somebody else was probably trying to be
helpful. Anyway, I'm sending you a better version of my Go program
than you have in the archive. I tested the following BINHEX file by
unhexing it, and it works okay.
Please note: This is not the latest version! Why? My program is in
the International Go Tournament in Taiwan next month, so I'm being a
little protective until after the tournament - competition, you know.
After the tournament in November I'll be happy to put the latest version
in the archive.
This is the July 86 posting of my Go program (version 1.0A3, with the
following improvements over the Spring '86 postings to USENET:
- Two new playing modes: Computer vs Modem Port & Human vs Modem Port
- Compatibility with HFS
- Print option, including laserwriter support (resize to 150% looks great)
- Icons for the desk top (you might have to set the bundle bit after unhexing)
- Game documents have their own icon
- You can now click on the game documents to start the program
- Capability to add and remove handicap stones
- Better estimation of territory (not perfect yet), which improves lookahead
- Other minor fixes
This file is about 81,xxx bytes, and the unhexed version is about 59,920 bytes.
Regards,
Jim Logan (email: loganj@byuvax.bitnet)
[ archived as
[SUMEX-AIM.Stanford.EDU]<INFO-MAC>GAME-GO.HQX
DAVEG
]
------------------------------
Date: 28 Oct 86 19:18:04 EST
From: Jeffrey Shulman <SHULMAN@RED.RUTGERS.EDU>
Subject: DA-MINIWRITER-12.HQX
[ Uploaded from Delphi by Jeff Shulman ]
Name: MINIWRITER PACKAGE
Date: 17-OCT-1986 20:27 by DDUNHAM
[ Updated 16-OCT-1986 21:41 by DDUNHAM to 1.2. New version prints to AppleTalk
ImageWriter. No other files changed. ]
[ Updated 21-SEP-1986 05:14 by DDUNHAM to 1.1. New features include
faster Undo, the ability to open files over 30K, better printing
options (including PostScript), and better Servant compatibility. If
you've already paid for an earlier version, this one is free. Only
files 1 and 2 have changed, all others are still the same. ]
miniWRITER(tm) is a TEXT-processor desk accessory with Undo and deluxe
printing at draft speed. In addition to the desk accessory itself,
this package contains the following files:
miniWRITER.doc describes the miniWRITER desk accessory. It's in MacWrite 2.2
format. miniWRITER.appendix goes into detail on ImageWriter printing. Part of
the miniWRITER(tm) package.
imageWRITER font. Use with miniWRITER desk accessory for what-you-see-is-what-
you-get printing at draft speed.
Two templates for printing envelopes with miniWRITER. For best
results, install the imageWRITER font before using them. These
templates work with the ImageWriter printer.
A ResEdit TMPL (template) resource useful for customizing the miniWRITER desk
accessory is included in the "suitecase file."
Copyright (C) 1986 Maitreya Design. SHAREWARE.
[ archived as
[SUMEX-AIM.Stanford.EDU]<INFO-MAC>DA-MINIWRITER-12.HQX
DAVEG
]
------------------------------
Date: 28 Oct 86 16:02:00 EDT
From: <bouldin@ceee-sed.ARPA>
Subject: cheap 68020/881 upgrade for the Mac
Reply-to: <bouldin@ceee-sed.ARPA>
Novy Systems Inc. now has an 020/881 upgrade for the Mac and Mac+. The 68K is
desoldered and replaced with a socket, then a daughter-board with an 020 and
optional 881 are mounted on the socket. The Mac still runs at 8 Mhz and no
memory is added.
Running Absoft fortran, a standard Mac does 43K single precisions whetstones
and 18.5K double precision whetstones. With the Novy 020/881 and a patch to the
fortran runtime library, these numbers are 151K single precision and 104K
double precision. With the addition of the Absoft 68020/881 code generator
this should improve to an estimated 200-225K single precision whetstones. In
Whetstone performance, this upgrade will provide about 40% of prodigy 4 speed
for about 20% of the price.
Prices are: 68020 only - $595. 68020 and 881 $749. Absoft 68020 code generator-
$495. Installation is available for $49. A patch to SANE is expected in about 1
month so that any application that uses SANE should see a large increase in
speed. The SANE patch is free.
For details:
Novy Systems Inc.
69 Ravenwood Court
Ormand Beach, Fl. 32074
or, Absoft Tech. Support at (904) 423-7587.
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 28 Oct 86 14:14:23 PST
From: <DAVEG@slacvm.bitnet>
Reply-to: DAVEG%SLACVM.BITNET@forsythe.stanford.edu
Subject: Re: Distribution of TK!Solver
A recent article in info-mac asked who is distributing TK!Solver.
The Sept/Oct. issue of MacInTouch indicates it is being sold and
supported by Universal Technical Systems in Rockford, Ill. Their numbers
are 800-435-7887 and 815-963-2220.
David Gelphman
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 27 Oct 86 10:26 EST
From: GKN3M2%IRISHMVS.BITNET@WISCVM.WISC.EDU
Subject: Mazewars etc.
Just a note to relate our experiences with Mazewars. We run
about a dozen Mac+'s over Appletalk. All the Macs have MacServe
installed into the system file. Mazewars runs flawlessly and has
chewed up quite a bit of our research time. However, if we boot
a Mac+ with a system that does not contain MacServe, Mazewars will
not recognize other players on the net.
This is meant only as a hint to more experienced Mac'ers
to cure their Mazewars headaches. I have no idea why Mazewars
behaves this way.
If you have doubts about your version of Mazewars, give our
bbs a call and download our working version (PACKIT II format).
Evan Bauman
Dep't of Chemical Engineering
University of Notre Dame
gkn3m2@irishmvs (bitnet)
MacCHEG BBS 219-283-4714; NON-Business hours only, please.
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 27 Oct 86 16:32:11 pst
From: Mike Wirth <mcw@lll-crg.ARPA>
Subject: A desktop publishing problem
OK, all you Mac gurus out there. Here's a "simple" problem for you. I have
a fixed-format text file on the Mac (125 char. per line, followed by a carriage
return), downloaded from a host computer, which contains phonebook info. That
is each line has (in fixed columns) a name, an extension, a room number, a
secretary's name, etc. What I want to do is to "prepare" this file, so that
I can flow it into a PageMaker column so that I can publish a company phonebook
that looks better than the current lineprinter listing.
Here's the tough part: I want each item on a line to have a different text
"property," e.g., names and extensions in bold face, secretary's name in
italics, etc. That's easy to accomplish in MacWrite or MS Word, manually(!!!)
one line at a time. But how can I accomplish the transformation automatically
for a thousand lines?
Some observations and possible approaches:
1) Use MEDIT and macros to shuffle the items around in a line and insert tabs
between them -- that's the easy part. Problems: I have to do it in chunks,
MEDIT only takes 32K char. at a time. Also, there is no way to insert text
"properties" (attributes), as opposed to simple text, itself.
2) Once I have the items in each line tab delimited, I can load the file into
Excel or some database package (e.g., Omnis 3+). In Excel, I can set individual
item columns to bold and print the file from Excel. But any file output from
Excel (or any database I know of) is simple text, not a MacWrite or MS Word
file with embedded text attributes.
3) From Excel or a DB, I can produce multiple files, one for each item column.
Then in PageMaker, I can set up narrow, parallel columns and flow each file
into the correct one. But with a thousand lines (i.e., many pages), it'll
undoubtedly be a mess to make sure that the rows stay in sync, especially as
I edit the layout to add alphabet labels, etc.
Looks like this is a case where WYSIWYG fails badly vrs. procedural text
formatters. With a regular expression pattern matcher and embedded control
codes for font changes (as in UNIX TROFF, etc.), this would be duck soup.
4) Oh, yes. What about using Tempo to format one line in MS Word, then turning
it loose on the rest of the file. Is it smart enough to keep track of
character positions within a line?
Please send replies to me or post them on Usenet or Delphi.
Thanks,
Mike Wirth
MCW@LLL-CRG.ARPA
------------------------------
Date: Tue 28 Oct 86 01:43:12-CST
From: LRC.HJJH@R20.UTEXAS.EDU
Subject: More on Tempo
Better evidence that Tempo is \not/ perfectly reliable. But in all
fairness... this time it m-a-y not be the software's fault.
I'm compiling a glossary for a foreign-language textbook, and fairly
often I need to mark where some item of information is missing. For
this I click at the vulnerable spot and activate a macro which inserts
a string of underlined underscores. Out of the few hundred times I did
this, maybe a dozen times the result was underlined hyphens, instead.
In defense of Tempo-- the manual says to use only the Tempo installer
to copy macro's. And I was using a back-up disk which had been
copied-as-a-whole from an original master start-up disk.
Just a caution, for Tempo is still right up there next to COPY II in
\my/ exteem.
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 28 Oct 86 08:50:10 PST
From: chuq@Sun.COM (Chuq Von Rospach)
Subject: Cooperative Effort to keep track of software versions, etc.,
> We all would like to know the status of some software package sometimes and
> what the latest version does and what the new features are. Does anyone have
> a collection of such data already?
Such a thing is done on compuserve. I've got the most recent on floppy
somewhere, and I suppose I could upload and post it if there is
interest. I'd als be willing (I guess, unless someone else volunteers)
to get information from the net onto compuserve for future updates.
chuq
------------------------------
Date: Tue 28 Oct 86 02:21:42-CST
From: LRC.HJJH@R20.UTEXAS.EDU
Subject: What to clean the screen with
Every few months I've given my Mac a good external clean-up with some
stuff sorta like Windex and given it a rub-down with anti-static fluid.
Recently I ran across a warning NOT to use Windex and the like on the
screen because they could have an ill effect on that ribbed surface
which is just a coating, not glass. "Horrors! What had I almost done",
I thought, getting a reassuring roughness as I felt the screen. So
\this/ time I put away the Windexy-stuff and got a bowl of good warm
water, dipped in a fresh cloth and cleaned Mac's face.
Now I have a nice, shiny, SMOOTH screen. <sigh>
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End of INFO-MAC Digest
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