INFO-MAC-REQUEST@SUMEX-AIM.ARPA (Moderator David Gelphman...) (08/19/86)
INFO-MAC Digest Monday, 18 Aug 1986 Volume 4 : Issue 101
Today's Topics:
What about the Boston expo?
RE: Strange MacPlus?
LaserWriter-Apple talk-PC and AppleTalk-Ethernet
RE: Generating Break from the MacPlus keyboard
Lisa C HFS Interface
Anyone have a disk auditor? (LightspeedC bug)
Break the Bricks
RamDisk+
Delphi Mac Digest V2 #37
Usenet Mac Digest V2 #64
Usenet Mac Digest V2 #65
PHONE-NET
Interlace
Print spooling with the LaserWriter
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Mon 18 Aug 86 18:37:50-PDT
From: David Gelphman... <INFO-MAC-REQUEST@SUMEX-AIM.ARPA>
Subject: What about the Boston expo?
Let's hear from some of those people who have attended the MacWorld
Expo in Boston last week. What are the new products shown, the pricing,
etc. David Gelphman
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 18 Aug 86 08:18 pst
From: "pugh jon%e.mfenet"@LLL-MFE.ARPA
Subject: RE: Strange MacPlus?
The problem david a. belsley was having with a RAMdisk not booting to the
proper size probably has to do with the RAM cache. It allocates memory before
a RAMdisk gets to, so the RAMdisk will have to make do with less. RAMstart
probably should look before it goes. I'm still hoping that someone will
write a decent RAMdisk program for the 3.n system.
Jon
------------------------------
Subject: LaserWriter-Apple talk-PC and AppleTalk-Ethernet
Date: Mon, 18 Aug 86 09:02:33 -0500
From: tink@mitre-bedford.ARPA
MartinRR%multics.cardiff.ac.uk@cs.ucl.ac.uk recently requested information
on how he could connect to a LaserWriter from a PC and also concurrently be
connected to AppleTalk. You can't! But, what you can do is purchase either
TOPS for the PC from Centram Systems West, Inc or PC MacBridge from Tangent
Technologies. Both systems allow the PC to work with AppleTalk and, from
what I've seen and heard, the TOPS system is the best (I don't have pricing).
As I understand it, PC MacBridge allows the PC to transfer files over
AppleTalk (this includes communicating with the LaserWriter if you have PC
software which supports PostScript) but that's all you can do. "TOPS", on the
other hand, is a file sharing system over AppleTalk which lets you "Publish"
files and or Directories for access on the network - "TOPS for the PC" allows
the PC to become a member of the network, i.e., you can buy "TOPS" for a Mac
only network and/or add "TOPS for the PC" to add various PC's.
Leiner@RIACS.ARPA recently inquired about an AppleTalk - Ethernet Gateway.
Here there are (at least) two choices - the Lutsky-Bard gateway and the
Kinetics FastPath box. My understanding is that both devices convert
AppleTalk packets to Ethernet packets - so you need software at either end in
order to understand what the other guy sent. The Centram and Kinetics people
are apparently involved and committed to producing TCP/IP software for
AppleTalk and the FastPath box - the upshot of all this is that if you wait
till the beginning of the Year you should be able to purchase TOPS and a
FastPath box with TCP/IP software (MacIP, I believe) and Viola! instant open
system and communications. I don't know if the Lutsky-Bard people have the
same kind of plans, but I imagine they have something going so you should talk
to them directly.
Most of this information comes from the Boston MacWorld Exposition. I hope
this is accurate and helpful! If not, let me know!
-- Steve
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 18 Aug 86 09:17 EDT
From: Paul Christensen <PCHRISTENSEN%rca.com@CSNET-RELAY.ARPA>
Subject: RE: Generating Break from the MacPlus keyboard
Recently, I received a message regarding the posting I had made on the
info-mac mailing, regarding generating the BREAK sequence on the MacPlus
keyboard. This party claimed that option-enter did not generate the
appropriate sequence from MacTerminal on the Macintosh Plus. If you are
still having problems, you might find the following information useful:
Our site has been running MacTerminal version ***** 2.0 ***** and has
been able to successfully generate the break sequence needed to regain
the prompt of our local terminal servers, by holding down the option key
while pressing the enter key on the MacPlus keyboard. This seems to
generate the same Break sequence that was generated by simply pressing
the Enter key on the older Macintosh keyboards. We are running both
Macintosh Pluses and Macintoshes upgraded to the MacPlus, and have not
had any problems with using option-enter. As a matter of fact, we just
verified from our MacPlus that option-Enter DOES generate the break sequence.
If you are unable to generate a Break, check the following list to verify
you are running under the same conditions that we are:
1) You must be using MacTerminal version 2.0. If you are still
using version 1.1, take your original disk to a local dealer
and he will upgrade it for you. Version 2.0 has significant
improvements, some designed to take advantage of the new 128K
ROMs, although it works properly on older (64K ROM) Macintoshes.
One of these improvements is the mapping of option-enter as the
break sequence from the Macintosh Plus keyboard.
2) Check that you are pressing the option key first, and while
holding that key down you are pressing the Enter key. This
is a mistake frequently made by many people (including me)
when they are in a rush.
3) If you are still unable to generate the break sequence, contact
your local dealer or support rep. and attempt to determine the
problem. If you've tried all of the above and are still unable
to generate the Break sequence, you may have a defective keyboard
or a corrupted copy of MacTerminal or the system files on the
MacTerminal disk. We are running under System 3.2, Finder 5.3,
MacTerminal 2.0, and are using this setup on Macintosh Pluses
(both brand new and upgraded) with either 800K disks or Apple
Hard Disk 20s. Are you using the MacPlus keyboard from an older
(64K ROM) Macintosh? I have heard reports that some keys on the
numeric keypad of the MacPlus keyboard will not work properly
unless it is connected to a machine with the new 128K ROM.
For your information, I connected one of the old keyboards to the MacPlus, and
indeed its Enter key still generates the Break sequence you have been used to.
Please let me know how this works for you, and if you have any further
problems.
- Paul Christensen
CSNET: PCHRISTENSEN@RCA.COM
NOTE: I tried to mail this directly to "MSLG@ANDREW.CMU.EDU" but the message
failed to be routed correctly ... so I'm posting it on the info-mac mailing
just in case someone else has encountered this difficulty also.
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 18 Aug 86 15:51:57 EDT
From: "Leigh L. Klotz" <KLOTZ@AI.AI.MIT.EDU>
Subject: Lisa C HFS Interface
Does anyone out there use the Lisa/Green Hills C compiler? I have
a copy, and I'm trying to use some HFS functions with it. The December
'85 software update claimed that the HFS/Mac+ Rom interface functions
would be out soon, but when I asked I found out that they're never
coming out. Today I got an unsigned letter from Apple that said I
would have to either write assembly language glue routines or link
to Pascal code.
Should I be doing extern Pascal declarations to call the functions,
or will that cause me to link in the entire HFS Pascal interface when
all I really want is a couple of the param block instructions? Also,
does anybody have the declarations for the HFS parameter block data
structures in C? All I have is intrfc/osintf.text, and I don't want
to convert it to C by myself if someone else already has.
Thanks,
Leigh.
------------------------------
Date: 16 Aug 86 1503 PDT
From: Tovar <TVR%CCRMA@SU-AI.ARPA>
Subject: Anyone have a disk auditor? (LightspeedC bug)
I knew when i bought it, about the "feature" of defining type 'int'
(the default type for C) as a 'short' (16 bit integer), but i didn't quite
expect this to byte as badly as it did. And bite it did! It bit off
about 40% of my Dataframe 20, in spite of my hitting the interrupt switch
after seeing the select light on the disk on for more than a few hundred
milliseconds! Macsbug didn't stop extinguish the light either, so less
than a second later, it was the boot button. Fortunately, no files were
lost, but i was left with little free space. Now i am faced with the
problem of how to get the space back without having to dump and restore
the entire disk, and/or losing any desktop comments i might have...
A little debugging determined that because of typing confusion in
a function call ('long int' vs. 'short int'), i had inadvertently asked
to write 8388608 (2^23) bytes instead of 128 (2^7) bytes! Now, Apple
probably should have had some sanity check in FSWrite, at least checking
against total available memory, but that's another story.
C is not as portable as some might think, but the design decision to
make 'int' be a 'short' is particularly fraught with difficulties when
trying to port code written and debugged under another compiler. It can
also be quite troublesome for new code, as well. I can respect their
desire to come up with a fast compiler that generates good code. I don't
delight in it, but i am willing to paw over all of my declarations
looking for 'int' declarations and deciding whether it matters which type
they end up being. This point is dealt with in their excellent manual.
If this were sufficient, then there probably would be few problems.
The difficulty has to do with arguments to (and also results of)
function calls. LightspeedC pushes different numbers of bytes on the
stack depending on the argument type, while other 68000 compilers that i
have used always push the four bytes per argument. For the Machintosh
Toolbox and OS calls, it can check argument types and this works fine.
But ordinarily, C prvides no type checking on arguments, and it is very
easy to stumble into it (see example code at end of this [which may end
up archived on a separate file]). One also gets in trouble with routines
that return 'long' results, as they now need to be declared in advance of
usage, which is not required elsewhere.
While LINT is usually used to check typing, it isn't available here,
and i'm not sure what checking it does in case of integers. I'm also
not convinced that some people might feel that the cure is worse than the
disease!
What is particularly insidious about this "feature" is that you can't
tell by looking at a function call whether the typing is correct or not
without having to look up the definition of each variable used (which may
actually be in another file). Furthermore, it means that if you change the
definition of a variable or field from a 'short' to a 'long' (or vice versa),
you may need to check every usage of it to determine if you've accidentally
gotten the stack out of sync.
I hope that the writers of LightspeedC will reThink this one, and come
up a solution that is more blunder resistant. The safest thing is probably
to take the 'long' stack approach, which also make it alot easy for a
debugger to print a backtrace which includes arguments. If the space/speed
advantage is that important, adding a 'long' stack option and/or an option
to define 'int' as 'long' might be a good alternative.
-- Tovar (A satisfied but grumpy user)
/*------------------------------- Example 1 -------------------------------*/
#include <stdio.h>
char c1=1; short s1=1; long l1=1;
char c2=2; short s2=2; long l2=2;
char c3=3; short s3=3; long l3=3;
char c4=4; char c5=5; char c6=6;
short s4=4; short s5=5; short s6=6;
long l4=4; long l5=5; long l6=6;
_main()
{
printf(" chars %%x: %x,%x,%x,%x,%x,%x\n",c1,c2,c3,c4,c5,c6);
printf(" shorts %%x: %x,%x,%x,%x,%x,%x\n",s1,s2,s3,s4,s5,s6);
printf(" longs %%x: %x,%x,%x,%x,%x,%x\n",l1,l2,l3,l4,l5,l6);
}
/* Prints as:
chars %x: 1,2,3,4,5,6
shorts %x: 1,2,3,4,5,6
longs %x: 0,1,0,2,0,3
*/
/*------------------------------- Example 2 -------------------------------*/
/* Receive a record for either data or resource fork */
MacTGet3(x,p1,n)
register XMSptr x;
char *p1;
long n;
{
int err;
/* Do the write now! */
err = FSWrite(x->xms_fref,&n,p1);
...
}
...
MacTProc1(x)
register XMSptr x;
{
...
/* Process data */
(*x->xms_proc)(x,x->xms_pkt.data,sizeof(x->xms_pkt.data));
...
}
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 18 Aug 86 10:05:46 edt
From: kalagher@mitre.ARPA (Richard Kalagher)
Subject: Break the Bricks
Here's a version of a classic programmed in LightspeedC.
[ archived as
[SUMEX-AIM.Stanford.EDU]<INFO-MAC>GAME-BREAKOUT.HQX
DAVEG
]
------------------------------
Date: 17 Aug 86 23:42:06 EDT
From: Jeffrey Shulman <SHULMAN@RED.RUTGERS.EDU>
Subject: RamDisk+
[ Uploaded from Delphi by Jeff Shulman ]
Name: RAMDISK+ 1.2
Date: 13-AUG-1986 22:31 by ASMCOR
This is a very nice Ramdisk program from Roger Bates. One warning, don't run it
from the desktop of a hard disk - it tries to load everything that's in it's
folder, so it will try to load your entire hard disk into the ramdisk. It's
smart enough to know when to quit, but it's not what you want to do.
Uploaded with permission by Jan Eugenides.
[ archived as
[SUMEX-AIM.Stanford.EDU]<INFO-MAC>UTILITY-RAMDISK-PLUS12.HQX
DAVEG
]
------------------------------
Date: 17 Aug 86 23:29:21 EDT
From: Jeffrey Shulman <SHULMAN@RED.RUTGERS.EDU>
Subject: Delphi Mac Digest V2 #37
Delphi Mac Digest Monday, 18 August 1986 Volume 2 : Issue 37
Today's Topics:
RE: Medical Uses of a MAC (Re: Msg 11564)
RE: Medical Uses of a MAC (Re: Msg 11634)
RE: INFO-MAC Digest V4 #97 (Re: Msg 11603)
RE: INFO-MAC Digest V4 #97 (Re: Msg 11652)
RE: char speed (Re: Msg 577)
RE: char speed (Re: Msg 582)
RE: char speed (Re: Msg 587)
RE: char speed (Re: Msg 577)
RE: char speed (Re: Msg 588)
RE: Paranoia Vindicated (Re: Msg 573)
RE: Paranoia Vindicated (Re: Msg 573)
Apple ][ picture conversion
RE: Apple ][ picture conversion (Re: Msg 11672)
RE: Apple ][ picture conversion (Re: Msg 11714)
Red Ryder peculiarity
Appletalk printing on IWII
RE: INFO-MAC Digest V4 #98 (Re: Msg 11676)
RE: MacTechGrp summary (Re: Msg 11763)
RE: MacTechGrp summary (Re: Msg 11764)
RE: MacTechGrp summary (Re: Msg 11775)
3 in 1 touch board
[ archived as
[SUMEX-AIM.Stanford.EDU]<INFO-MAC>DELPHIV2-37.ARC
DAVEG
]
------------------------------
Date: 18 Aug 86 16:29:58 EDT
From: Jeffrey Shulman <SHULMAN@RED.RUTGERS.EDU>
Subject: Usenet Mac Digest V2 #64
Usenet Mac Digest Monday, 18 August 1986 Volume 2 : Issue 64
Today's Topics:
Query: $195 800K drives
Address?
How much can you compress?
Re: Flopping line in MacPaint
Advice Needed
FullPaint
SetFile 3.3 Desk Accessory
Re: LaserWriter toner Cartridge refill inquiry
Hard Disks for Mac+
Re: SetFile 3.3 Desk Accessory
Re: LaserWriter toner Cartridge refill inquiry
Re: problem with regions
Re: I want a bridge program for a macintosh
Re: Aztec C (Unix enviroment) and Mac Toolbox
laser writer oddities
Re: Flopping line in MacPaint
Re: Icon port to Macintosh
Re: Aztec C (Unix enviroment) and Mac Toolbox
Re: Icon port to Macintosh (the stack sniffer)
plotter output on the mac
[archived as
[SUMEX-AIM.Stanford.EDU]<INFO-MAC>USENETV2-64.ARC
DAVEG
]
------------------------------
Date: 18 Aug 86 16:30:54 EDT
From: Jeffrey Shulman <SHULMAN@RED.RUTGERS.EDU>
Subject: Usenet Mac Digest V2 #65
Usenet Mac Digest Monday, 18 August 1986 Volume 2 : Issue 65
Today's Topics:
comicworks
Re: RE: 9600 baud terminal emulator (Re: Msg 11381)
LoDown drives?
Re: The "Next Mac" (bitmap conpression)
programming help
Re: Icon port to Macintosh
Re: Mac HardDisks
Re: Delphi Mac Digest V2 #36
Re: Medical Uses of a MAC
Re: medical uses of a MAC
Re: Init Resources in another file...
Re: Aztec C (Unix enviroment) and Mac Toolbox
Re: Init Resources in another file...
Re: Aztec C (Unix enviroment) and Mac Toolbox
Re: Re: Flopping line in MacPaint (rubberband line)
800K Floppy Disk Makes Strange Noise
Analog to Digital on the Mac???
Inside Switcher
Re: Consulair Mac C and Apple (really Greenhill) MPW C
[ archived as
[SUMEX-AIM.Stanford.EDU]<INFO-MAC>USENETV2-65.ARC
DAVEG
]
------------------------------
Date: Sun, 17 Aug 86 15:36:34 pdt
From: Bernard Aboba <bernard@ararat>
Subject: PHONE-NET
I am using PHONE-NET to set up a network of around 5 Macs, a LaserWriter,
and a few HD-20's, and so far have had no problems related to the
PHONE-NET plugs, adapters, etc. I have had quite a few problems with
Radio-Shack supplied parts, though. For some reason I have not yet
figured out, only one of the two types of modular phone boxes that
Radio Shack makes seems to work with PHONE-NET. Another weird thing
is that I haven't been able to make any working telephone cables with
the Radio-Shack crimping tool I got. Zero. They don't work with
phones either, so at least I assume it's the tool... Purchased
cables work fine, though. Would be interested if anyone has an
idea what is going on...
------------------------------
Date: Sun 17 Aug 86 21:31:31-PDT
From: Brad A. Silverberg <SILVERBERG@CSL.SRI.COM>
Subject: Interlace
Just to follow up on the Borland acquisition of Singular Software
by Borland: all of the Singular developers joined the R&D staff
of Borland and are continuing full speed ahead on future releases
of Reflex for the Mac, nee Interlace. Of course, the product
is no longer copy protected, and now priced at $99.95.
Brad Silverberg
Borland International
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 15 Aug 86 11:59 EDT
From: Thomas D. Schardt <K3TDS%SCFVM.BITNET@WISCVM.ARPA>
Subject: Print spooling with the LaserWriter
What have peoples experiences been with print spooling files to
be printed on a LaserWriter?
------------------------------
End of INFO-MAC Digest
**********************