INFO-MAC-REQUEST@SUMEX-AIM.ARPA (Moderator David Gelphman...) (10/02/86)
INFO-MAC Digest Wednesday, 1 Oct 1986 Volume 4 : Issue 123
Today's Topics:
Popup types in MacTutor article
MacIP sources
Misc. programming problems
Disk Driver Info?
User Interface Problem: Macintosh Alert Boxes
Re: MacMemory Upgrade Horror Story
September Tech Notes
Re: International modem and Problem with mouse freeze
pcLINK file server
VM/CMS-Mac communication
AB Switches
TeX on the Mac?
Macnix Unix VT100 Terminal
Statistics packages
Creating a statistics package
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Tue, 30 Sep 86 02:45 CDT
From: <BOYD%TAMLSR.BITNET@WISCVM.WISC.EDU> (Scott T. Boyd)
Subject: Popup types in MacTutor article
In the September MacTutor, a couple of typos made it into the source
listings for Unit OverView in the Advanced Mac'ing article. The
corrections follow:
In procedure OV_SaveBits starting on page 50:
...
with underScope do
begin
baseAddr := QDPtr( NewPtr( sizeOfOff )); <--- missing line
rowbytes := offRowBytes;
bounds := bitRect; {using HOME'd rectangle}
end;
...
It looks like the editor misplaced a line with PageMaker.
The second typo is in OV_RestoreBits (a little further down the page on
page 51):
...
begin
OffsetRect(underRect,-underRect.left,-underRect.top);
...
The second '-' is actually there, but it is incredibly easy to miss.
I apologize for not formatting my listing a little better. If I had
thought about it a little bit, I could have figured out that my listings
should have been formatted the same way as the article.
Credit for these bug finds goes to David Gelphman (DAVEG@SLACVM.bitnet),
a man who does a lot of work for very little credit as one of our
digest moderators. Thanks, David!
If anyone is interested in seeing OverView used in a semi-real application,
drop me a line. I've got one application that shows off how useful
it can be (no sources), and a small one that shows how
to do your own drawing and updating (with source). In addition, we're
working on a newer version of OverView, which is more robust and
more flexible (action procs and user-selectable window types).
scott t. boyd (BOYD@TAMLSR.bitnet)
The MacHax(tm) Group
What? No more Late Night Thrill Cam?
[ note from moderator: The Thrill Cam actually has returned to Late Night
now that they are back in their regular studio. Indeed the first time they
used it one of the audience members was beheaded! DAVEG ]
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 1 Oct 86 10:35:57 EDT
From: dms@HERMES.AI.MIT.EDU (David M. Siegel)
Subject: MacIP sources
Are they available? I'd like to use them as a starting point for
hacking some network code on the Mac.
-Dave
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 1 Oct 86 11:32:32 EDT
From: Mark Nodine <mnodine@labs-b.bbn.com>
Subject: Misc. programming problems
I have run into a couple of programming problems which it seems other people
must have faced, so I'd like to know how you handled them.
1. How do you open a resource file that is in a subdirectory without building
HFS- or ROM-specific stuff into your code? I am doing an SFGetFile to get the
name of a resource file. SFGetFile does not set the working directory to be
the directory from which the file was chosen, so when you do an
OpenResFile(<name>), it doesn't find it. Similarly, if you call SetVol with
the number returned as the volume reference number by SFGetFile, it returns an
error that there is no such volume. I know that there is a new call in the
128K ROM called OpenRFPerm which accepts a VRefNum, but I'm not even sure that
will work since there doesn't seem to be a volume created for the directory.
(Is there an implementation of the 128K ROM calls for SUMacC?)
2. How do you get the dialog manager to draw things in the order they are in
the item list? Normally, this doesn't matter, but if the rectangles for some
items overlap, you need to be able to specify which things are on "top", i.e.,
drawn last. For example, there are cases where it would be nice to have
radio buttons on top of a picture. The dialog manager seems to draw things in
an almost random order:
in a screen with the following seven items:
1 Command Button
2 Picture
3 Command Button
4 Radio Button
5 Check Box
6 Static Text
7 Edit Text
it first drew the cursor for the Edit Text item, then drew things in the order
4, 3, 1, 5, 6, 2, 7. Does anybody have a way of dealing with this?
Thanks in advance.
--Mark
"If questions were opinions, we'd have to do a lot more disclaiming"
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 1 Oct 86 18:05:31 PDT
From: hamachi@kim.Berkeley.EDU (Gordon Hamachi)
Subject: Disk Driver Info?
I'm writing a low level disk munger but can't find anything in Inside
Macintosh that explains how to determine which blocks failed a Verify.
Did I miss something, or is this an undocumented feature? Anybody have
any clues?
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 1 Oct 86 13:42:52 PDT
From: <DAVEG@SLACVM.BITNET>
Reply-to: DAVEG%SLACVM.BITNET@Forsythe.Stanford.Edu
Subject: User Interface Problem: Macintosh Alert Boxes
I've had a gripe about the Mac user interface for quite a while. The specific
problem is alert boxes which only have an OK button. These boxes are typically
used to warn the user that something has gone wrong during the processing
of some request by the user. A good example is the Finder. You drag
6 folders from one disk to another and go off to do something else while
the Mac is busy doing the copying. You return 1/2 hour later assuming that
the files have been copied, only to find that there is an ALERT box on
the screen which says " The file DAVEG.GOODIES cannot be written" or something
to that effect. (This particular message may be a bug in the current Finder
but that is not the point.) The only choice is to click OK and then the finder
continue to copy the rest of the files. You still must wait for the main
task at hand to finish since NO processing was going on while the Mac was
waiting for you to click OK (maybe vertical retrace tasks, etc)
I THINK THIS IS A SERIOUS PROBLEM WITH THE MAC USER INTERFACE. This box
is only intended to NOTIFY the user of some kind of problem and NOT to
ask the user to respond with some sort of choice. Basically this slows
down any user.
I can see the need for some kind of reporting mechanism so that the
user is aware of these messages (in the above case, I need to know that
one or more of the files hasn't been copied). I have thought a bit about
this problem and don't immediately see a simple minded solution. I am
interested in throwing this open to discussion, hopefully to generate
some mechanism which is reasonable.
David Gelphman BITNET address: DAVEG@SLACVM
Bin #88 SLAC ARPANET address: DAVEG@SLACVM.BITNET
Stanford, Calif. 94305 UUCP address: ...psuvax1!daveg%slacvm.bitnet
415-854-3300 x2538
usual disclaimer #432 applies: my employer apologies for the fact
that I have access to this net.
------------------------------
Date: Wed 1 Oct 86 21:04:08-CDT
From: Werner Uhrig <CMP.WERNER@R20.UTEXAS.EDU>
Subject: Re: MacMemory Upgrade Horror Story
let me add to the horror-story.
I have been running with a Mac+ with an internal Micah and a modified Max2
upgrade (using 2 1-Meg SIMs and not the carrier for the 4 Apple 256er-SIMs)
....
....until this last Tuesday. I had experienced several *WEIRD* crashes during
the days before (WEIRD in the sense that there was no reason for the crashes
to occur at the time as *I* was not doing something weird at the time - and
the bombs were of the strangest ID-types, which I usually do not see).
Anyway, I had volunteered to give a Mac-gospel presentations to my friends
at the University Credit Union, who are in grave danger to end up buying
IBM-PCs for their text-processing applications, and I wanted to "save" them
from that fate ....
Well, "Murphy's Law" was proven again, when 15 minutes into the presentation
I experienced my first crash, and 10 minutes later and after 2 more crashes
Mickey refused to boot - only showed a high-resultion checkered-pattern,
which I don't think has helped any to convince the audience that
text-processing should be done on the Mac rather than the PC.
When I took the machine apart 30 minutes later, I found that the plastic
tabs in the Molex socket holding the SIM in place, had broken under the stress
of the 68000-clip-on of the Micah .... when the Micah was installed I was told
that it was not possible to install the carrier for the four 256-er SIMs and
that, therefore, it was replaced with a second 1-Meg SIM from MacMemory - but
I had no idea that this was also under stress from the 68000-clip-on ....
I wished, I had done the installation myself as I would, probably, not have
gone through with it, and would not now stare at a motherboard
which has become unusable after efforts of replacing the Molex SIM-carrier
has not resulted in a healthy board again, which may require an expensive
replacement now ....
--
I had posted the above article before, but it was lost during the "shaky"
period Sep 26-29, as Dave indicated in the last digest. However, I had
sent a copy to Jon directly also, and his follow-up appeared in the last digest
already. Just in case you wondered what Jom (PUGH%CCV.MFENET@LLL-MFE.ARPA)
was talking about .....
--
I have a few bits and pieces of info to add to the story:
1) It was possible to revive the board by replacing the Molex SIM-carrier.
(deep sigh of relief ....)
2) I nearly went bonkers when the board, after replacing the Molex, would
not work at first. I was testing it with the 1 Meg SIMs and always
got a sick sound and a checkerboard screen ..... until I tried to use
the old Apple 256er SIMs, which worked fine. I spent a night with
nightmares of being limited to 1 Meg, but I already suspected that
a jumper must be missing somewhere - and found a message from Jon
waiting for me the next morning, pointing out the same fact. Well,
the jumper had been removed when the 68000 clip-on was removed, and
I had assumed that it belonged to the Micah upgrade (well I was not
thinking very clearly at the time anyway, but was rather in panic mode)
3) I replaced the clip-on jumper which came with the Max2 to jumper pins 11 and
12 on the CAS Pal in location E3 with a wire "soldered" in place.
I kind of suspect now that this jumper might have worked itself
loose with all the travelling and Micah-commotion and that the broken
Molex was actually not the cause of the crashes in the first place.
*HOWEVER* .... I verified that the MacMemory carrier that comes with
the 2 Meg upgrade will *DEFINITELY* not fit in with the Micah clip-on,
and even using a 1Meg SIM from MacMemory (carrying 32 256ers) is
under pressure from the ribbon-cable of the Micah 68000 clip-on and
I, therefore, did not reinstall the Micah and recommend against
mixing Micah and MacMemory upgrade.
4) remember the Micah-problem I had reported on about 2 weeks ago, and how
I managed to revive it to recover the data? Well, I finally found
the time and mood to call Micah to ask about this and to request an
RMA-number. Upon reporting the problem, they instantly knew what the
problem was and recommended the "KickStart-procedure" I had already
used myself. They blamed unreliable drives and humidity and said
that they are using different drives now (forgot to ask which).
As they were backlogged they said to keep using the drive until they
could ship out a replacement later this week. Nice folks ...
In general, I appreciate MacMemory also, but I am under the impression that
they resell what others built and don't really have *THE* experts in-house,
which is too bad, of course. But their products are good quality.
OK, I had enough horror in one month (no, you don't know it all) - it's someone
else's turn to suffer and report on it ....(-:
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 26 Sep 86 21:39:35 EDT
From: Michael.Fryd@G.CS.CMU.EDU
Subject: September Tech Notes
The September issue of the Macintosh Tech Notes has just come out.
I have run each of the 12 files through BinHex 4. I am sending
each note as an individual message. Each .hqx file is less than
32K so there shouldn't be any mailer problems.
The 12 files are:
readme.hqx - list of fonts needed for printing tech notes.
tn00aboutmactns.hqx - list of notes (numerical and by subject)
tn27macdrawformats.hqx - MacDraw PICT file format
tn64iaznotify.hqx - re-issue of note 64 (major changes)
tn84mdsedit.hqx - MDS EDIT file format
tn85blinkinnote.hqx
tn86macpaintdocument.hqx - MacPaint file format
tn87fcbinfo.hqx
tn88hitsignals.hqx
tn89drawpicbug.hqx
tn90sanechanges.hqx
tnindex.word.hqx - index of all tech notes
-Michael Fryd
[ these technotes have been archived as:
[SUMEX-AIM.Stanford.EDU]<INFO-MAC>TECHNOTES-SEPT86-README.HQX
[SUMEX-AIM.Stanford.EDU]<INFO-MAC>TECHNOTES-SEPT86-ABOUTTN.HQX
[SUMEX-AIM.Stanford.EDU]<INFO-MAC>TECHNOTES-SEPT86-TN27.HQX
[SUMEX-AIM.Stanford.EDU]<INFO-MAC>TECHNOTES-SEPT86-TN64.HQX
[SUMEX-AIM.Stanford.EDU]<INFO-MAC>TECHNOTES-SEPT86-TN84.HQX
[SUMEX-AIM.Stanford.EDU]<INFO-MAC>TECHNOTES-SEPT86-TN85.HQX
[SUMEX-AIM.Stanford.EDU]<INFO-MAC>TECHNOTES-SEPT86-TN86.HQX
[SUMEX-AIM.Stanford.EDU]<INFO-MAC>TECHNOTES-SEPT86-TN87.HQX
[SUMEX-AIM.Stanford.EDU]<INFO-MAC>TECHNOTES-SEPT86-TN88.HQX
[SUMEX-AIM.Stanford.EDU]<INFO-MAC>TECHNOTES-SEPT86-TN89.HQX
[SUMEX-AIM.Stanford.EDU]<INFO-MAC>TECHNOTES-SEPT86-TN90.HQX
[SUMEX-AIM.Stanford.EDU]<INFO-MAC>TECHNOTES-SEPT86-TNINDEX.HQX
DAVEG
]
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 30 Sep 86 19:33 N
From: <INFOEARN%HLERUL5.BITNET@WISCVM.WISC.EDU>
Subject: Re: International modem and Problem with mouse freeze
To David - DWB@Delphi (International Modem):
Check out one of the SmarTEAM modems - from TEAM Technology - which were
advertised in Byte a couple of months ago. TEAM makes both American (Bell)
and European (CCITT) versions of their modems. They have a 300/1200 bps
and a 300/1200/2400 bps model. Both are Hayes compatible (they even *look*
like a Hayes Smartmodem).
A group of 40 people here in Holland have just ordered CCITT SmarTEAMs
straight from Taiwan where they are made and we've bargained a price just
above the dealer price of $ 85. However, you should expect to pay more if
you order from a dealer in the USA.
I've briefly tested the modem's Hayes compatibily and it worked fine with
Red Ryder, SmartCom and QDial. I've heard it there were some minor problems
when it was being used to drive a Fido BBS (on an IBM PC). We should be
getting our modems from Taiwan any time now and then we'll be able to check
them thoroughly. I'll post the results.
To julian@icarus.riacs.edu (Odd Mac behaviour):
A friend of mine had a similar problem with a mouse freezing on him whenever
he clicked a certain folder. He traced the problem to a particular file in
that folder by step-by-step removing every other file in the folder :-(. He
also had the problem when he tried to put too many files in a folder. What
is "too many" you ask? Ah...
-- Thomas
FRUIN@HLERUL5.BITNET
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 30 Sep 86 08:56:37 PDT
From: sml@Ford-wdl1.ARPA (Steve Lazarus)
Subject: pcLINK file server
I received information from Pacer Software, Inc (1900 West Park Drive;
Suite 280, Westborough; MA 01581; (617) 898-3300) on their pcLINK
package. What they claim to have is impressive. I'll summarize
below. It was surprising to me that, if they have what they say, they
haven't been discussed in this forum. Is anyone familiar with their products?
Their literature states that they have Mac file server (virtual disk),
and print spooling capabilities for VAX (VMS and ULTRIX), Stratus and
Prime. This currently operates over Omninet and asynchronous terminal
lines. An Appletalk/ethernet link using the Kinetics box is "2-3
months away". In speaking with them they indicate that the file
server over RS232 works and is useful for backups but not to launch
applications. (The thought of launching Excel over a 9600 baud line
is painful.) Their terminal emulators include VT220, VT100, TV950,
ADDS Viewpoint 60, V102, and PT200. They also have similar
capabilites with the IBM PC (yech!).
I'm told that Kinetics will be exhibiting at DEXPO the week of Oct. 6
and that there will be some interesting software demos in their booth.
One vender is expected to have a VMS product and there may be a UNIX
product. (I'm not giving names because I'm not sure that I am free to
do so.) I'll report on same.
Steve Lazarus (415) 852-4203
Ford Aerospace ...{fortune,sun}!wdl1!sml (UUCP)
MS X-20 sml@ford-wdl1 (ARPA)
3939 Fabian Way
Palo Alto, CA 94303
------------------------------
Date: 1 OCT 86 11:04-N
From: U212291%HNYKUN52.BITNET@WISCVM.WISC.EDU
Subject: VM/CMS-Mac communication
We are doing some modest file-transfer to and from a VM/CMS host now for some
time using MacKermit. We have to use the kermit since Kermit is the only
transfer-program available on the host. Shipping to Vaxes, however, we found
that Xmodem is very much more efficient. That why I wonder if there is any
other file-transfer-program for VM/CMS that uses Xmodem protocol (or something
very near to that) .
The efficiency of Xmodem could only be established in downloading from a Vax.
The uploading gets jammed after a short while, and I suspect the gate-selector
that functions inbetween is to blame for that. This Datus apparatus has to
take care of speed-conversion, and does so rather well for a terminal session
(although interrupts have a somewhat delayed effect coming from a1200-baud
modem), but not for file transfer. Anyone have similar experiences ? Or better
still: anyone know how to teach the Datus the right trick.
We have rather good experiences in using 7171-protocol conversion with
MacKermit. The small program CkmKey that comes with MacKermit enables you to
redefine every key, and to make PF-keys that send long character strings. The
desplay of your actions on the numeric keyboard using this program is not
correct, but the effect is there. I suspect that goes for the Plus keyboard as
well; I use an upgraded 512 myself.
Kees van Eekelen, Nijmegen University, Holland.
is there.
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 29 Sep 86 16:53 PDT
From: PUGH%CCV.MFENET@LLL-MFE.ARPA
Subject: AB Switches
Does anyone know where I can get an AB switch box for my Mac+? Yes, I want
a DIN 8 out and two DIN 8 in (was that explicit enough? Two female & 1 male,
hmmm, sounds too explicit). I haven't seen any advertised. Right now I have
two modem lines and two printer lines to manage and I'm getting sick of pulling
cables.
Which brings me to a related point. I have an HP ThinkJet printer hooked to
my Mac and I prefer it to the Imagewriter for printing digitized bitmaps.
The density is higher and the print method used does not leave those nasty
ribbon streaks. I am using a printer driver from SoftStyle and it works fine.
You just install it once (they pop a bit into the parameter RAM for some reason)
and then use the Chooser to select which driver to use. The aspect ratio is
different, so circles are somewhat flattened, and text is smaller due to the
higher resolution, but it is quiet, which the Imagewriter is not. All in all,
it's better at some things, but not others, so I guess I keep both. Now for
the damn switch box! Where is it?
Jon
------------------------------
Subject: TeX on the Mac?
Date: Tue, 30 Sep 86 10:50:23 -0800
From: Kathleen Huddleston <gregory@ICSE.UCI.EDU>
I know this has been discussed here before......
I need a list of versions of TeX developed for the Mac and information
about where to aquire them, price, and comments about quality. We are
interested in getting TeX, and of course, we'd prefer to get the version
that works best--- Do any of them work well?
If you have used any Mac versions of TeX or LaTex, please reply to
info-mac or send me mail at gregory@ics.uci.edu
Thanks,
Kathleen
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 30 Sep 86 10:49:30 GMT
From: "Jay A. Rolls" <jrolls@bbncc-eur.ARPA>
Subject: Macnix Unix VT100 Terminal
Does anyone have any information or comments on Macnix, by Eurosoft
International, Saratoga, CA? According to Data Communications magazine (Sept
'86) "Macnix is an icon shell built on top of Unix, providing Unix users with
Macintosh-like fields." Sounds great.
Jay Rolls
BBN Communications Corp.
Stuttgart, West Germany
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 26 Sep 86 17:57:42 edt
From: "I. D. Martin - Biology"
From: <idmartin%watdcsu.waterloo.edu@CSNET-RELAY.ARPA>
Subject: Statistics packages
My statistics needs are mostly for ANOVA, regression and PCA rather than
time series, but I've had problems finding a decent package to do that too.
Statfast is fast but lacks many things (statistically) as well as a
decent Mac interface. Numbercruncher is written in MS-basic ('nuff said?).
Statworks (from the Cricket people) is a nice implementation and is very
similar to Cricket Graph. I don't think it does time series though.
I now have SYSTAT 3.0 (Univ. Waterloo has a site licence for PC's and Macs.
The user cost is CAN$ 95, with full individual registration for an
addithional US$ 100 when you leave the site). It is not a complete Mac
interface but it is by far the most powerful statistics package I have
had for the mac. It does do time series, and (I think) stepwise regression.
The author, who seems to be a statistician, flogs his own philosophy X{ a
bit on things like post hoc tests, but in general (for the price) I am
very pleased. It needs 512k, and the command syntax is similar to SAS.
You can run interactive or batch, read ASCII files, do text (but not bit)
graphics, and scroll output. Only some of the commands (mostly file
management and editing and help) are available on menus, but typed commands
can be cut and pasted. Hopefully a better mac interface is coming, but I
can live with it the way it is now. I haven't used Statview, Stat80, or
heard any rumors about MacSAS.
Good Luck,
Ian Martin
Dept. Biology
Univ. Waterloo
Waterloo, Ontario
CANADA N2L 3G1
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 1 Oct 86 15:57:49 PDT
From: woody@Iago.Caltech.Edu (William E. Woody)
Subject: Creating a statistics package
This message may sound a little wierd, but...
I was wondering how much interest there would be out there if I were to
create a statistics package for the macintosh, and simply release it,
source and all, into the public domain? See, I got a friend who wants
me to write something to replace a program created inhouse here at Caltech,
and as I can't think of anything else to do for my next Mac project, I
was wondering if there would be any interest.
Please reply to me directly; any comments or suggestions of what to put
into this program are greatly desired. Also, any references to any good
statistics books are desired; I have access to a couple, but I don't know
how good they are.
I have nothing but Math classes this year and I'm finding myself restless
unless I hack for at least a couple of hours a day...
- William Woody mac > /|\ && ][n
woody%romeo@hamlet.caltech.edu
------------------------------
End of INFO-MAC Digest
**********************