INFO-MAC-REQUEST@SUMEX-AIM.ARPA (Moderator Dwayne Virnau...) (07/04/86)
INFO-MAC Digest Friday, 4 Jul 1986 Volume 4 : Issue 82
Today's Topics:
bugs in C desk accessories
Re: TML Pascal and New System...
Re: uw question
GetIText and the string length byte
LightspeedC bug
dialog textEdit rightJust, ROM listings please
Edit and ResEdit
MACs as test instruments
HabaDisk and the new systems...
System folder bug?
announcing availability of new version of FastEddie editor (Vn 2.5)
Mac Magazines
C compilers and benchmarking floating point
Talk about easy!
ACTA outliner DA
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Mon, 30 Jun 86 14:09:26 pdt
From: oster%ucblapis@BERKELEY.EDU (David Phillip Oster)
Subject: bugs in C desk accessories
Newsgroups: mod.mac
Subject: Bugs in C on the Mac:
Summary:
Expires:
Sender:
Reply-To: oster@ucblapis.UUCP (David Phillip Oster)
Followup-To:
Distribution: net
Organization: University of California, Berkeley
Keywords:
1.) Do you write in C on the Mac?
2.) Do you write Desk Accessories?
3.) Do you use global variables?
4.) Do you occasionally pass pointer to C routines to the operating
system?
If you answered YES to all of the above, then you should know:
Ordinarily globals variables are referenced off of register A5.
The operating system guarantees to set up A5 correctly before calling your
procedure.
When you write a desk accessory, many language systems, particularly C
compilers, generate code to reference global variables off of A4.
The operating system MAY mess up A4 before calling you.
The solution:
LightSpeedC has two undocumented routines:
SetupA4(); and RestoreA4(); that are supposed to do the right thing.
they don't work all the time.
I will post my solution to the net soon.
--- David Phillip Oster -- "The goal of Computer Science is to
Arpa: oster@lapis.berkeley.edu -- build something that will last at
Uucp: ucbvax!ucblapis!oster -- least until we've finished building it."
------------------------------
Date: Thursday 26 June 1986 13.19 CST
From: Samir Kaleem <XSAK%IECMICC.BITNET@WISCVM.ARPA>
Subject: Re: TML Pascal and New System...
I too had problems using TML Pascal using any other Finder/System other
than 4.1/3.0. When they announced the new v1.11, I happily ordered it,
but to my dismay, found that that it still uses Finder 4.1. When I tried
it with newer Finder/System, it just didn't work properly. I think that
a call to them is required, or I'll post a gripe on their BB. As soon as
I get a response, I'll post a message here to let you know what happened.
Seems to be a lot of little bugs are creeping in with the Mac+...
BCNU...Samir BITNET: (XSAK@IECMICC.BITNET)
ARPA : (XSAK%ICEMICC.BITNET@WISCVM.WISC.EDU)
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 2 Jul 86 10:09:18 PDT
From: John Bruner <jdb@s1-c.arpa>
Subject: Re: uw question
UW consists of a Macintosh program and a UNIX server. A simple
protocol is defined through which these two programs communicate
a few commands. These commands perform functions such as window
creation and destruction; they also specify with which window
subsequent data is to be associated.
The Macintosh program manages (up to) seven windows. It
demultiplexes input from the host and sends the characters to
a "draw" routine which updates a per-window text buffer (24 rows
of 80 columns) and manipulates the screen by calling the
appropriate QuickDraw functions. It tags keyboard input with the
window number of the active window and sends it to the host.
The host program uses pseudo-terminals to provide the terminal
sessions. It demultiplexes the (keyboard) input from the Mac
and writes it to the master side of the appropriate ptys. It
reads from the ptys, tags the data with the window number, and
sends it to the Mac. (This actually is quite simple; I wrote
the first UW server in a day, and I've invested less than three
days total in the UNIX code.)
The auxilary program "uwtool" just opens a pseudo-terminal,
starts a specified command on the slave side, and passes the
file descriptor (via a UNIX-domain datagram socket) to the
server.
It has been a long time since I distributed UW v2.10. I am
working on a newer version, but as the size of UW has increased
my progess has slowed. I am now looking at mid to late August
for the release of version 3.x
(UW is available by anonymous FTP from S1-C.ARPA. It is
contained in the four files "uwdist3.[1234]".)
--
John Bruner (S-1 Project, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory)
MILNET: jdb@mordor [jdb@s1-c.ARPA] (415) 422-0758
UUCP: ...!ucbvax!decwrl!mordor!jdb ...!seismo!mordor!jdb
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 1 Jul 86 01:08:41 mdt
From: dlc%b@LANL.ARPA (Dale Carstensen)
Subject: GetIText and the string length byte
In an earlier posting, I accused GetIText of returning the string length byte
twice, but I was wrong. The DITL resource I was using is set up by the
Manx rgen utility, and one of the two tabs in the item text line was actually
included in the text line by rgen. It was a coincidence that the string was
9 characters long and the tab character is a hexidecimal 9, too. Now I
wonder why rgen doesn't strip all the leading white space from the string.
Also, I accused DialogSelect of not processing keyDown events. But the
instructions to process keyDown events, including a special case for tab,
are part of DialogSelect. Somehow, my program seems to skip those
instructions, but there must be some way to get it to work. In the meantime,
I can handle them just fine in my main event loop. (DialogSelect returns
false.) Another bogus occurrence is that after GetNewDialog(...,...,-1L),
the window previously in front gets an activate event telling it to
deactivate, but never another update event until the dialog goes away or to
the back. DialogSelect also returns false on both activate and update,
although the instructions to process them are part of DialogSelect, and the
update does get done. So, when I get an update for the dialog, I update the
other window! Simple, huh?
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 26 Jun 86 08:43:12 MDT
From: t-jacobs%utah-cbd@utah-cs.arpa (Tony Jacobs)
Subject: LightspeedC bug
Here is a bug my brother discovered. This bug still shows up after installing
the recient list of patches (6-11-86?).
#include <stdio.h>
#include <ctype.h>
/*
Author: Steven R. Jacobs
Computer Science Department
University of Utah
Salt Lake City, Utah 84112
(801) 581-8580
LightSpeed Libraries needed: stdio, unix, MacTraps
This program should print only the word "Works" when running correctly.
**MOVE THE FOLLOWING LINE OUTSIDE OF THE COMMENT TO DEMONSTRATE THE BUG** */
/* #define SHOWBUG */
#ifdef SHOWBUG
#define MIDSTRING(ch) ((isspace(ch) || 0) ? 0 : (ch))
#else
#define MIDSTRING(ch) (isspace(ch) ? 0 : (ch))
#endif
main()
{
char word[128], *readtoken();
printf("%s\n", readtoken("Works incorrectly!", word));
}
/*****************************************************************************/
/* returns first word from a string */
char *readtoken(t, str)
char *t, *str;
{
register int ch;
register char *s;
ch = *t++;
for (s = str; *t && (*s++ = MIDSTRING(ch)); ) /* NOT == */
ch = *t++;
*(++s) = '\0';
return (str);
}
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 1 Jul 86 23:49:47 mdt
From: dlc%b@LANL.ARPA (Dale Carstensen)
Subject: dialog textEdit rightJust, ROM listings please
As I mentioned in a previous posting, trying to keep dialog textEdit items
right-justified seems to be impossible. After 6 hours with MacNosy, I now
know why (at least with the 64K ROM, but if it is fixed in the 128K or some
INIT resource, even more of Inside Macintosh is suddenly and incompatibly
obselete.) Page I-408 of the Addison-Wesley hardbound book, at the very
bottom of the page, states,
Note: Actually, a single edit record is shared by all editText items;
any changes you make to it will apply to all such items. See chapter
12 for details about what kinds of changes you can make.
Chapter 12 is, of course, the textedit chapter, and has no index entries
for the word "textEdit," so it must not have any traps that are not allowed
for dialog textEdit items, right?
Well, the note is very wrong. Don't bother to try to change anything with
a direct TE trap. When DrawDialog (which is called in case of an update
event by DialogSelect, or by ModalDialog) updates the currently active
textEdit item, it calls TEUpdate using the "single edit record." However,
when DrawDialog updates the remaining editText (or statText) items, it calls
TextBox. TextBox doesn't require a TERec handle, so it just does a TENew to
make its own TERec, then calls TEUpdate -- without any of the precious
changes you made to the "single edit record."
I hope I just saved you 6 hours and $85 for MacNosy. I wish Apple would
publish listings of the ROMs and INITs and PACKs. If some non-Apple computer
company were selling 10,000 M68xxx computers per month, it seems to me fairly
trivial to tell whether they used the Apple listing to develop their system.
On the other hand, if Apple loses 10,000 sales of Macintoshes per month
because programs are slow to appear because programmers are off on wild goose
chases finding out why they can't believe IM, it's nobody's fault but Apple's.
Or if the Macintosh programs have bugs because developers can't figure out
what's really going on in Macintosh traps, packages, etc., it's Apple's fault.
I don't mean that to discourage anyone from buying MacNosy or doing business
with Steve Jasik (Jasik Designs). I recommend MacNosy. I just happen to feel
Apple made a mistake in not publishing listings of Macintosh ROM, etc.
software, and obviously Steve thought Apple should have published the listings,
too, so he made a business of that niche. So, I hope Steve does well, but I
don't think it's too late for Apple to correct its mistake. Not only should
ROM, INIT, and PACK listings be published, but also listings of CODE resources
in the System file, and DRVR resources in the Imagewriter file, etc.
I don't see any need for listings of the Finder, but some things like the
"Get Info" text in the DeskTop file should be formally defined and support for
access by other applications should exist. Apple could make a profit on the
books, too. The reason developers need to be able to buy listings is that
Inside Macintosh is written in "natural" English, with all the ambiguities
and contradictions that come "naturally." We need a reference work that can
definitively explain why we can't get our program to work when we follow the
directions in IM, that's all.
------------------------------
Date: Sun 29 Jun 86 00:13-EDT
From: "Michael C. Adler" <GSB.MADLER%OZ.AI.MIT.EDU@XX.LCS.MIT.EDU>
Subject: Edit and ResEdit
Does anyone know if Apple has released a version of Edit more recent than
2.0D1? I need to use something compatible with HFS and have heard that
the 2.0D1 version is relatively unstable.
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 30 Jun 86 19:55:06 EDT
From: katsanos@harvisr.HARVARD.EDU (Nick Katsanos)
Subject: MACs as test instruments
Would like to know if anyone has information on using the Macintosh as an electronic test instrument.
-- Nicholas Katsanos (Harvard Univ.)
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 2 Jul 86 15:23:20 CDT
From: Scott Comer <wert@rice.edu>
Subject: HabaDisk and the new systems...
I have a 400K HabaDisk external drive, and when running System 3.1.1,
Finder 5.2, and HD 20 (to get HFS, no hard disk) I cannot read disks on
the HabaDisk. It puts up a dialog telling me that the disk is unreadable
and want me to eject or initialize. I click eject, and nothing happens
(that is, the disk does not eject). The finder then says that the disk is
unreadable, and...
These disks I can read without trouble using System 2.0 and Finder 4.1.
Clues?
scott
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 3 Jul 86 13:34:16 EDT
From: Meredith Lesly <mlesly@bbn-labs-b.arpa>
Subject: System folder bug?
I use WayStation as my finder, which I keep in my system folder. This means
that when an application returns, it goes back into WayStation. All this
is fine until I move WayStation onto the desktop. The finder still knows
it's in the system folder, since if I do "put away" it winds up there, but
when I exit an application I go back to the Finder. Is this a finder bug?
It's probably not important, but I'm using system 3.2 and finder 5.3
on a enhanced Mac with a hyperdrive.
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 27 Jun 86 12:56:02 cdt
From: werner@ngp.UTEXAS.EDU (Werner Uhrig)
Subject: announcing availability of new version of FastEddie editor
Subject: (Vn 2.5)
[ below follow some notes describing the changes since version 2.3.
remember, the program I am permitted to upload is only a "castrated" version,
in that it is limited to small files only - 6K max, I believe. Enough to
check out most/all of the options.
I also feel obligated to point out the following:
When you purchase the program, you receive a personalized copy of the
full editor, as well as of the limited version. You are encouraged to
pass on the limited version by a "33% commission" of any follow-up sales
resulting from your "help". Given that the posted copy has my "serial-
number" in it, I would find it improper to post-and-profit, so I have
a) insisted that I get no "commission" of any orders
b) anyone making an order in result of my posting can take off
33% of the price themselves instead; please refer to me saying
so. Regular price is $48 (plus $5 for overseas postage),
which I consider more than fair. Which would make "your price"
$32, which is outright cheap for what you get.
I would consider it only fair, that, should you take the discount, that
you tell Daniel (the author) you also want no 33% "commission" of any
orders that might result of you distributing your Ltd-copy, but that is,
of course, up to you to do.
I also try to encourage Daniel to consider making the whole program into
ShareWare, but I am not sure if that is a recommendation which
would benefit or harm him. You may want to tell him your opinion on the
matter. Given that he distributes updates at cost (in my opinion, he
does it below his cost, actually; I think his time is worth more than he
charges for updates), if FastEddie would become ShareWare , updates could
be distributed over this net at great convenience to everyone.
Please also note, that the program is so powerful through its extension
capabilities, that unless you make some effort to explore this feature,
you will hardly be able to fully understand and appreciate the gem that
this program really is. It takes some understanding of the C-language
to take advantage of this, however, but you can't expect power without
some added complexity. In order to allow exploring this complexity
I uploaded all the files that I, legally, could - please don't ask me
to do more or expect me to have either the time or the knowledge to answer
questions.
Other than this article, look for 3 files which I will post shortly -
binhexed4 and PackIted2.
Cheers, --Werner
]
*** CHANGES between VERSIONS - 2.3 - and - 2.4 - of FastEddie : ***
*** NEW FEATURES: ***
<cmd><Option>-W now activates next window
<cmd><Option><Shift>-W now activate previous window
- optional hard TAB emulation
+ "TABS ARE SIMPLE" in options menu uses appropriate spaces
instead of TAB characters
+ "TABS ARE SMART" emulates "hard" tabs
- CURSOR KEYS on Mac+ or keypad control cursor position on screen
+ use <Option> for WORD and LINE movement
+ use <Shift> to EXTEND SELECTION
*** PRETIFICATIONS: ***
- "Untitled" default name of new files now without leading disk name
- HORIZONTAL SCROLL to home on change to wrap (simplifies code)
- HORIZONTAL SCROLL now disallowed in word wrap (simplifies code)
- FLUSHEVENTS on startup eliminated (eliminates problem with disk insertion)
*** MINOR BUGS FIXES: ***
- TRANSFER from TabsOut (V1.2) now works
- BREAK LINES in File menu disabled
- HORIZONTAL SCROLL slight misallignment fixed
*** CHANGES between VERSIONS - 2.4 - and - 2.5 - of FastEddie : ***
- "INSERT RETURNS" ...in display menu inserts carriage returns at
line breaks in selected text (use with word wrap
on to"freeze" line widths)
- "DELETE RETURNS" ...in display menu deletes carriage returns in
selected text (to undo "insert returns")
- <cmd><Shift><Enter> ...extends selection to the end of the file (my
answer to a request for "Select all")
- <Option><Shift><Enter> ...extends selection the to top of the file
and scrolls to the top of the file (ditto)
- CHANGE BUFFER in "find, change..." ...now understands "\n" and "\t"
- "ABOUT <file>" ...now has column number (requested by Fortran
programmers)
- AUTO SCROLL ...now works with Mac ROMs (The erradic behavior of
SelRect in the new ROMs caused much grief)
[
these files are archived as --
[SUMEX-AIM.ARPA]<INFO-MAC>DEMO-FASTEDDIE-25.HQX
[SUMEX-AIM.ARPA]<INFO-MAC>DEMO-FASTEDDIE-25-DOC.HQX
[SUMEX-AIM.ARPA]<INFO-MAC>DEMO-FASTEDDIE-25-UTILS.HQX
DoD
]
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 3 Jul 86 11:03:22 pdt
From: ucscc!ucsce.jais@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU (50610000)
Subject: Mac Magazines
I am look for a listing of informational magazines for the Macintosh.
I would like subscriptions addresses and costs along with comments on quality.
For example, what is the best for the developer? For the power user?
For the novice user? Any and all respones are welcomed!
Jordan J. Mattson
1803 Mission St., #525
Santa Cruz, CA 95060
408-425-1847 (Home, Work, Messages)
ARPA: jais.ucsce.ucscc.uucp@ucbvax.arpa
BITNET: jais@ucsce
UUCP: ucbvax!ucscc!ucsce:jais
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 28 Jun 86 23:02 EDT
From: BELSLEY%BCVAX3.BITNET@WISCVM.ARPA (DAVID A. BELSLEY)
Subject: C compilers and benchmarking floating point
Being an extremely satisfied Consulair Mac C user, I have been watching the
growing list of comments about Lightspeed C with detached interest. I chose
Consulair C after trying Aztec, Megamax, and (ha ha) Hippo. Overall, its
philosophy of implementation, ease of use, and flexability were, to my mind,
superior. Furthermore, its error handling ability (enacted with a Catch
Signal routine that avoids all the problems of having to pass error states
back through the various levels of nested functions) is worth the price of
admission many fold.
However, being an econometrician and statistician, the aspect of Consulair C
that really sold me was it floating-point facility. It is one of the few
(maybe only) C's that has extended the C data types to include "extended" and
"comp" and so to take full advantage of the Mac SANE environment. Even more
interestingly, it has it all over the others that I've tried in speed of
floating-point operations. To test this, I compiled the following table of
experiments:
Compiler Harmonic QR decomposition SVD (MINFIT)
Megamax 46.98 secs. 2.32 secs. >5 secs.
Aztec 36.33 " 2.23 " 4.62 "
Consulair Mac C 29.55* " 1.37 " 2.58 "
* with arrays typed as double, comparably to other compilers.
With arrays typed as extended, this figure is 25.60 secs.
Here, "Harmonic" indicates the harmonic sum of the first 10,000 integers,
i.e., SUM(1/i). "QR dcomposition" refers to a QR decomposition of a 20 by
3 matrix, and "SVD (MINIFIT)" refers to the singular-value decomposition of
a 6 by 5 matrix. These latter two matrix-decomposition calculations are of
interest because they comprise the heart of the calculations needed to do a
linear regression, a popular statistical estimation technique. The timings
were made using the Mac's TickCounts facility.
I am sure these figures will be of interest to a number of people on this
net. They certainly indicate that Consulair C is the C compiler of choice
if large numbers of floating-point operations are required.
I, however, am interested in seeing how Lightspeed C stacks up.
Unfortunately, the two matrix-decomposition routines are not generally
available (I have produced them in C if anyone is interested) and hence cannot
serve as general benchmarks. The harmonic sum, on the other hand, is readily
used as a benchmark. I would be interested if anyone could provide me with
the timing figures for Lightspeed C doing this problem.
I provide the usual disclaimer: I have nothing to do with Consulair, I just
like their product.
david a. belsley
boston college belsley@bcvax3.bitnet
------------------------------
Date: Sun, 29 Jun 86 18:35 pst
From: "pugh jon%e.mfenet"@LLL-MFE.ARPA
Subject: Talk about easy!
In case someone hasn't heard, FullPaint from Ann Arbor Softworks, is the
program to use in place of MacPaint. It has the ability to open four files
at once, has the ClickArt effects built into the Edit menu, and can use the
entire screen, with or without the menus. The palattes are movable and with
a click of the space bar they disappear completely. You can stack or tile the
windows for side by side comparisons and you can use the entire screen in
Fatbits. All in all it is worth the trouble to change.
Now comes the point of this letter. There are a lot of programs out there
that manipulate MacPaint files. They will work as well with FullPaint files
except that they have a different creator field, so you may run into trouble
with things like PaintCutter (which still cuts, pastes and rotates selections
larger than the screen). Here's a simple solution...
Take good old FEdit and open the program that you want to use FullPaint files
instead of MacPaint files. Find the string "MPNT" and change it to "PANT".
Write the sector to disk and Quit. Voila. Now the program will deal with
FullPaint files instead of MacPaint files. I did this to my Thunderscan and
Paintcutter programs and it works marvelously. It is, of course, strictly
forbidden to do this, but who cares as long as you don't go passing the thing
around. What you do in your own home with your own disks should be your own
concern. Especially when it makes your life so much easier. Now to finish
that program that modifies the creator field on all the files...
Jon
------------------------------
Subject: ACTA outliner DA
Date: Mon, 30 Jun 86 12:48:44 -0800
From: Kathleen Huddleston <gregory@ICSE.UCI.EDU>
I recently purchased ACTA, the new outliner DA recently released by
Symmetry Corporation (761 E. University Drive Mesa, AZ 85203) - the folks
who brought us Picture Base. I am very pleased with it and recommend it
to anyone who uses or would like to use an outliner.
Features: Acta is a DA which makes it convenient to use for lists and
outliners when working with other applications. It's Macintosh interface
is excellent giving mouse, menu and keystroke equivalents for most
commands. Creating an outline is intuitive. The basic unit is called a
'topic' which can hold up to 32K of text. Rather than having a separate
annotation space, the topic word-wraps to fit the current window size. Hard
returns are permitted within topics. Topics are related as mothers,
sisters or daughters and are easy to create and move. Acta supports all
available fonts and sizes with the restriction that a topic must have one
typestyle, but you can have different ones for each topic. A nice feature
for handling annotations is the shrink command which shrinks a topic to
it's first line. This gives the same effect as Think Tank, hiding
annotations. Acta can sort sister topics alphabetically or numerically -
in ascending or descending order. A topic can be either text or hold
a graphic pasted from the clipboard (but not mixed). Further, Acta
can convert Think Tank files to its format.
Acta cannot print (in the current version), but you can save an Acta
document AS a MacWrite (4.5 or 2.2) or text-only document that
preserves the structure and also allows you to add labels (bullets,
no-labels, I. A. labels, or 1.0, 1.1 labels).
So far, I have not encountered any bugs. Documentation and support seem
excellent. In fact, I received a call from Symmetry this morning asking
how I like ACTA and letting me know they would welcome comments or
suggested improvements for a new version they will be working on this
summer. When was the last time a software company called you? (They
are aware of the printing deficiency - even though it's not difficult
to use a word processor for this - and will undoubtedly put this feature
in their next release.)
Acta is compatible with Mac512 and Plus. With new Roms it supports
cursor keys for moving around. It is marginally compatible with 128K -
you can run it as a stand-alone but not as a DA. I wouldn't recommend
it to 128K users.
From Symmetry it costs about $60, but I expect it will be discounted
when the mail order houses get it. If you want an outliner, watch for
it or order directly from Symmetry.
I am not affiliated with the company, of course. Just a satisfied
customer.
Kathleen Huddleston (gregory@ics.uci.edu)
------------------------------
End of INFO-MAC Digest
**********************