INFO-MAC-REQUEST@SUMEX-AIM.ARPA (Moderator David Gelphman...) (08/12/86)
INFO-MAC Digest Monday, 11 Aug 1986 Volume 4 : Issue 98
Today's Topics:
Re: disc fragmentation
Disk Optimizer for Mac Hard disks
RE: Generating breaks and ^_ on MacPlus
The MS-Word file format explained (2nd edition)
re: MacWrite Bug
RE: MacWrite bug
ever have problems with Hayden software?
MacSUN comms.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Mon 11 Aug 86 07:04:15-CDT
From: Werner Uhrig <CMP.WERNER@R20.UTEXAS.EDU>
Subject: Re: disc fragmentation
FEDIT+ does indeed list a fragmentation index, but I have not seen any
documentation of its meaning yet. given that it listed the fragmentation
index of my brand-new DataFrame as 0.33, I wonder though ... On my Micah-20,
which must be fragmented like anything you've ever seen (I'm in the process
of copying everything to the DFrame "real soon now" ...), the index was 0.22.
Unless someone else beats me to it (likely), I'll post additional wisdom
about this as it hits me (like a brickwall, most likely).
In the mean-time, I advise everyone to create several volumes on their
'hard-ones' as follows:
SYSTEM-VOLUME: first one on the disk, at least 2 Meg. rebuild when mucking
around with the System-file.
ACTIVE-VOLUME: second one on the disk. keep all those data-files here, which
you change&save all the time (fragmentation!!!!); also, load those
files here, which you keep on disk, usually, and only put online
occasionally (what? you don't need to do that? you haven't run out of
hard-space yet? you must have an AST-4000 ....)
SCRATCH-VOLUME: third (my preference) volume. at least as big as the larger
of SYSTEM or ACTIVE (yes, you copy everything here, then recreate
the former, copy everything back). I sure hope that Andy Herzfeldt
(sp?) or anyone else writing the future OS for the Mac-family
knows about and uses the concept of SCRATCH-space, especially useful
for those of us already with 2 (or more) hard disks online.
BTW, if the concept of file-aliases is not found on whatever "next"
OS that may come out, I'll scream and holler like you have not heard
anyone doing yet. I really wished that Andy and others would
actively solicit input from the "general public" and put their
designs into a RFC (Request for Comments) rather than putting things
into concrete behind closed doors, determining what oversights we all
will have to live with for the next couple of years. but I digress,
sorry ....
RESIDENT-VOLUME: where you keep your "stable" program and data files.
Of course, with all the updates coming out all the time (I'm not
complaining - quite the opposite), stable files may be far and few
between.
Now, if someone could confirm or disclaim that it is necessary to DELETE and
reCREATE a volume to 'de-fragment' the space (rather than just deleting all
files - which, probably, does not result into joining adjacent free space
into larger junks), we would all benefit. hard to believe that there is no
utility program available yet that does disk-space management as a background
job (self-installing INIT to be put into the system-folder, similar to
AutoBlack or MacsBugs), or a DA ...
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 11 Aug 86 16:52:04 PDT
From: shebanow@ernie.Berkeley.EDU (Mike Shebanow)
Subject: Disk Optimizer for Mac Hard disks
The September issue of MacUser has an ad on page 113 for "DiskExpress(tm)",
an HFS/MFS disk optimizer just like the ones for the IBM PC. It is from
Alsoft, who make the MacExpress programmer's package, and it only costs
$29.95 ("special introductory price"). I haven't seen it, but I plan to
order one sometime this week.
I have seen signifigant speedups on my HD20 after optimizing the hard way
(backing up, reinitializing, and restoring), so I expect that this product
will be worth the 30 bucks.
I have no connection with AlSoft whatsoever.
Andrew Shebanow
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 11 Aug 86 11:03 EDT
From: Paul Christensen <PCHRISTENSEN%rca.com@CSNET-RELAY.ARPA>
Subject: RE: Generating breaks and ^_ on MacPlus
In info-mac vol. 1, issue #97, Mark S. Sherman asks...
> I'm afraid the answer is obvious, but I couldn't find it. How does
> generate either "break" or control underscore (^_) on a MacPlus
> keyboard when using MacTerminal? "Enter" used to do the trick on my
> old 512K Macintosh, but the MacPlus seems to map it into a simple <cr>.
You are correct in noting that the MacPlus keyboard maps the Enter key
differently. Since there used to be two enter keys (one on the main
keyboard and one on the optional numeric keypad) this was not a problem.
However, with the MacPlus keyboard, which only has one Enter key, you
must hold down the option key while you press the Enter key. This will
generate the "break" key sequence that you want.
- Paul Christensen
CSNET: PCHRISTENSEN%HENRY@RCA.COM
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 11 Aug 86 14:11:32-0100
From: Dolf Starreveld <mcvax!uva!dolf@seismo.CSS.GOV>
Subject: The MS-Word file format explained (2nd edition)
Reply-to: uva!dolf@seismo.CSS.GOV (Dolf Starreveld)
There have been a lot of requests for an explanation of the format of
Miscrosoft Word document files. Not a single response showed up however.
This made us decide to explore the contents of such files in order to
discover the necessary details. We have succeeded in this and below
follows a binhexed version of a MS Word document explaining all we know
at this moment, which means almost everything there is to know.
We encourage everyone to make use of the information provided, but we
expect you to be fair and place every program you develop based upon
this information in the public domain, or at least make it a shareware
product. (Free for us of course !). Also we would like anybody who
discovers new facts about the format, or who finds errors in our
explanation to inform us.
We are currently working on a skeleton program which will provide
functions to read an MS word document and store all formatting
information in memory, so that with the addition of a few user defined
procedures things like mw2troff (msw2troff) can be made. Expect the
source of this program (AZTEC C) in net.sources.mac in the future.
description
Dolf Starreveld / Maarten Carels
Department of Computer Science, UvA
Usenet: {dolf,maarten}@uva.uucp
{seismo,decvax,philabs}!mcvax!uva!{dolf,maarten}
Snail mail: Dolf Starreveld
Department of Computing Science
University of Amsterdam
Kruislaan 409
NL-1098 SJ Amsterdam
The Netherlands
Telefone: In Holland: 020-592 5137/5022
International: 31-20-592 5137 or 31-20-592 5022
Telex: 10262 HEF NL
[ archived as
[SUMEX-AIM.Stanford.EDU]<INFO-MAC>MSWORD-FORMAT.HQX
DAVEG
]
------------------------------
Date: Sun 10 Aug 86 23:44:38-PDT
From: Lance Nakata <K.Kirin@LOTS-B.STANFORD.EDU>
Subject: re: MacWrite Bug
>This is an old bug but I have not heard any comment on it.
>Whenever a file is opened by MacWrite(4.5) the "last modified" parameter
>is updated. This happens even if the file is merely read, and not modified
>or resaved.
>It is a very annoying bug, as it makes it difficult to keep track of multiple
>versions of a file, which could otherwise be sorted out by date. It should
>be an easy bug to fix. Does Apple know about it?
>
>Leslie Ballentine, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby B.C., Canada
I just checked this using MacWrite 4.5, System 3.2, and Finder 5.3, but
could not duplicate the error. You might want to get copies of the
latest system software (if you don't already have them) and perhaps a
new copy of MacWrite 4.5. If the problem persists, then I'd be at a
loss to explain it (barring strange hardware/software behavior).
Lance
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 11 Aug 86 11:30 EDT
From: Paul Christensen <PCHRISTENSEN%rca.com@CSNET-RELAY.ARPA>
Subject: RE: MacWrite bug
In volume 4, issue 97, Leslie Ballentine remarked on a bug in MacWrite 4.5
that changes the modification date of files each time they are opened,
even if no modifications are made and no changes are saved.
Since its introduction in April of 1985, I too have noticed this problem
with MacWrite 4.5. After a little investigating, I discovered that the
older RAM-based version (2.2) of MacWrite did not have this problem. Each
time you open a file from version 4.5 of MacWrite (which is disk-based),
three new files are created on the volume: ScrapFile, UndoFile, and NewFile.
If you are editing a file that has already been saved to disk the NewFile is
not created.
As far as I can tell from my investigations, MacWrite version 4.5 appears
to write temporary information (apparently to the data fork) to any file
it is editing. Since it is a disk-based editor, this may be its way of
keeping track of selections, positioning, etc. Here's a little proof
that may surprise you: when you create a new file and save it to disk,
it will have a certain file size. However, if you later modify it, even
if you make no major changes, the file size will GROW! If, however, you
also save the file using SAVE AS... and give it a different file name, you
will notice that this new file is smaller! In most cases this will not
make any difference, but I have had 33K files grow to 37K when modified
and SAVEd, but when saved using SAVE AS..., they've shrunk back to 34K.
My suspicion is that the difference in file sizes results from temporary
information being written to the file itself while it's being edited.
When simply saved, this information is not purged, but when SAVEd AS, it
is not included as part of the file.
I know that this is not logical, since Microsoft WORD, which is also
disk-based, does not modify the modification date of its files unless
they have actually been changed. Perhaps Apple should let Encore
Systems (writers of MacWrite) know about this problem, and write the
temporary information to another file on disk.
The way I have gotten around the problem is by DUPLICATing the file from
the Finder before opening it with MacWrite. But this is a rather weak
solution to the problem, especially when you are running from limited
disk media.
- Paul Christensen
CSNET: PCHRISTENSEN%HENRY@RCA.COM
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 11 Aug 86 18:55:32 EDT
From: David A. Levitt <levitt@MEDIA-LAB.MIT.EDU>
Subject: ever have problems with Hayden software?
Have you ever had problems obtaining service or software from Hayden
on MusicWorks, Videoworks, or any other Hayden product? If you have,
PLEASE take a moment to write MacroMind and let them know.
Reluctantly, MacroMind is filing a lawsuit against Hayden.
Macromind has several complaints against Hayden, including reports of
mishandling of Musicworks and Videoworks, and of Hayden's failure to
market M.U.D. (the MacroMind Utility Disk -- ever hear of ArtGrabber+,
CheapPaint, Sound->Video, Videoworks Projector ? -- many people
haven't). There have even been complaints on INFO-MAC. But because
peoples' complaints often stop at Hayden, MacroMind needs your help --
contact them directly if you've had a bad experience. Write to:
MacroMind
1028 West Wolfram
Chicago, IL 60657
(MacroMind's phone # is (312)327-5821, but phone calls are hearsay.)
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 11 Aug 86 10:26:41 WET
From: I Freedman <freedman@Cs.Ucl.AC.UK>
Subject: MacSUN comms.
Our SUN3 workstations are heavily used.
After reading a paper on the MacApollo and MacShell projects,
we wondered what effort was needed to interface 3 or 4 Macs
to the SUN.
At this stage an RS232 link with global symbol remapping might
be adequate...
I. Freedman
ALVEY MMI-137 (Real-time 2.5D Vision Systems)
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End of INFO-MAC Digest
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