AWCTTYPA@UIAMVS.BITNET ("David A. Lyons") (03/04/89)
>Date: Fri, 3 Mar 89 00:18:33 GMT >From: Seymour Joseph <elbereth.rutgers.edu!joseph@RUTGERS.EDU> >Subject: GS/OS Compatability issues > >[...] Below is a list of some of the products I have purchased since >I bought my GS. NOT A SINGLE ONE OF THEM works properly when >launched from GS/OS. [...] (I haven't listed all the products Seymour did--just the ones I have something to say about.) > Paintworks Gold (won't launch) PaintWorks Gold requires nearly all of the memory available under GS/OS on a 1.25 meg system. It _does_ run for me under System Disk 4.0, but only with the RAMdisk set to 0 and with very few desk accessories or other utilities installed. If PWG can't allocate the memory it needs, it just crashes with the title screen showing, which is stupid. > From Spectrum Holobyte Tetris (won't quit back to GS/OS finder.) That's odd--it quits back to the Finder for me, but it crashes if I try to quit back to APW from it. The problem: Tetris shadows the super hires screen from bank 1. It correctly tries to allocate $012000 to $019FFF for this purpose, but it ignores the error code it receives if that memory was already in use; it uses it anyway. >AppleLink Personal Edition comes with a long list of control panel >settings that must be made in order to run it on a GS. These include >changing the PRINTER settings (I asked both Apple and Quantum why I >have to change the printer settings and neither has been able to >supply an adequate answer). There is no need to change the printer port settings. Just keep them how you want them. The instructions are wrong. >Seymour Joseph (joseph@elbereth.rutgers.edu) >Coordinator ACGNJ Apple II users Group >Micro Facilities Manager, Rutgers University
AWCTTYPA@UIAMVS.BITNET ("David A. Lyons") (03/11/89)
>Date: Thu, 9 Mar 89 16:53:00 EST >From: ALBRO%NIEHS.BITNET@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU >Subject: RE: Re: GS/OS Compatability issues > >Most commonly, the system crashes when I return to the finder from a >SYS program and try to select either BASIC.SYSTEM or any Basic >program. A reboot is required. If the problem occurs after the Finder has closed all open windows and is just ready to launch the next program, there was a real live and not-at-all-obvious bug I tracked down that would explain that--it's a "random" problem that depends on the contents of the first few bytes of zero page. It doesn't _usually_ cause any problems, but after running a program that uses the first few bytes of zero page (especially location 7), it can. I reported the problem to Apple, and presumably it will be fixed in the next System Disk. I summariezed the problem on GEnie a couple weeks ago, but I don't think I have here. The Finder calls Desktop to install its own routine for drawing the desktop (because it needs to draw icons on the desktop, not just a background pattern). The Finder opens its own QuickDraw port for doing that drawing. No problem. When it starts shutting things down, it calls ClosePort on that port, and then it calls WindShutdown (shuts down the window manager). Before System Disk 4.0, this was still no problem. But with 4.0, the WindShutdown calls RefreshDesktop, which calls the Finder's installed routine for drawing the desktop. That routine tries to use the port that was already closed. Now, a closed port has had its Clip Region and Visible Region disposed of. Regions are stored in memory blocks of their own and accessed through handles. A disposed-of handle points to NIL (0) (unless that handle has been reallocated). So data starting at 0 is interpreted as a region. Bytes 2 through 9 are interpreted as the bounding rectangle of the region, and it turns out that the rectangle is usually _empty_, so no drawing occurs. Rects are stored (Y1,X1)(Y2,X2), so if the value at 2-3 is greater than the one at 6-7, as it usually is, the rectangle is empty. Otherwise things understandably go south quickly. >Guaranteed to cause a crash - running TIC v.3.0, returning to the >finder, and selecting a Basic pgm. Z.LINK has some problems of its >own, but it will not run at all if GS/OS has been booted. That's odd--I don't remember having any trouble after running TIC. Z-Link also works fine under GS/OS, but _not_ after running TIC _with modem-port buffering turned on in the control panel_, unless you zero a particular screen-hole byte first (zeroing all of them is sufficient if it won't bother any of your other cards: 0<400.7FFZ in the monitor). >In contrast to Mr. Bazyar, my problems are not due to insufficient >memory. Has anyone noticed how amazingly long it takes to return to >the finder under GS/OS from a P8 SYS program? GS/OS gave me a speed >advantage over P16 only for P16 programs, with a major slow-down for >P8 programs. So I am now back to using the system disk 3.2 op >system. Yes, other people have noticed that. It's returning to GS/OS in general that is slow, not just returning to the Finder. I hope to see the speed improved, but there are also other things that are more important. The advantages of GS/OS will continue to become clearer as more applications come out to take advantage of it (including, hopefully, 16-bit versions of some of the SYS programs you use). >-Phil Albro- >ALBRO@NIEHS.BITNET --David A. Lyons bitnet: awcttypa@uiamvs DAL Systems CompuServe: 72177,3233 P.O. Box 287 GEnie mail: D.LYONS2 North Liberty, IA 52317 AppleLinkPE: Dave Lyons