RIDDCJ@KIRK.ASTON.AC.UK (05/14/89)
I just bought Spectre 128 for my 1040! It really is strange watching a Mac on your ST screen! I've had a couple of problems so far with it, can anybody help? 1) My hard disk always has a floppy disk shaped icon in the Finder. Inside the 'file selector' dialogs, it appears as a proper small hard disk icon (small rectangle). Is there any reason why I shouldn't wade in to the Finder with ResEdit? 2) The system gets confused if you autoboot off a hard disk with a Spectre floppy in the drive - the floppy isn't recognised by the Finder. Eject it, and the Finder/Spectre have a fit (seeing a disk come out, I guess)! 3) Any changes I make to the Control Panel (System 6) don't seem to survive a reboot (usnig Shift-Help to restart the ST after ejecting the hard disk). This is really bad news! Yep, all my system files are unlocked. 4) Shift-Undo doesn't reboot Spectre. 5) Shift-cursor keys don't work, at least not in MS Word 3.01b. 6) Word has real memory problems - I have to save every few minutes when Word warns of low memory. Thanks, Chris ______________________________________________________________________________ / \ | JANET: riddcj@uk.ac.aston.kirk | | ARPA: riddcj%kirk.aston.ac.uk@cunyvm.cuny.edu | | UUCP: ...psuvax1!cunyvm.bitnet!kirk.aston.ac.uk!riddcj | | BITNET: riddcj@kirk.aston.ac.uk@ukacrl | \______________________________________________________________________________/ / "The voice from the Outer Worlds..." \ \______________________________________________________________________________/ / fprintf(stderr, "Standard disclaimer...\n"); \ \______________________________________________________________________________/
weber_w@apollo.COM (Walt Weber) (05/16/89)
In article <8905150756.AA25014@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU> RIDDCJ@KIRK.ASTON.AC.UK writes: > > I just bouught Spectre 128... I've had a couple of problems so far with it It would be helpful if you indicate the version of system/finder you're running, and the options you check in the Spectre menus (memory, cache, etc.) >1) My hard disk always has a floppy disk shaped icon in the Finder. Mine also - I have always assumed that was due to the ability to "eject" the hard drive partition from within Spectre, which isn't possible with a Mac hard drive. Presumably, the Spectre software is setting some state bit to true which the Finder then shows as a floppy, since it "knows" ... >2) The system gets confused if you autoboot off a hard disk with a Spectre > floppy in the drive - the floppy isn't recognised by the Finder. Eject it, > and the Finder/Spectre have a fit (seeing a disk come out, I guess)! Never saw that one - does the floppy have boot blocks but no system/finder on it? I almost always autoboot off the hard drive without confusion. What behavior do you mean when you say "confused" and "fits"? >3) Any changes I make to the Control Panel (System 6) don't seem to survive a > reboot (usnig Shift-Help to restart the ST after ejecting the hard disk). > This is really bad news! Yep, all my system files are unlocked. Yup - standard behavior, since the control panel changes (mouse/click speed, volume control, etc.) are writted to the ParameterRam on the Mac hardware (it is battery-powered off the 3-year battery, so it "remembers" across boots). There is a public-domain "init" which will intercepts the changes and stores them in a file which fixes this for Spectre users (and Mac users with a dead battery :-) -- it is called DiskParam, and is on CI$, GENIE, Delphi, and some of the ftp archive sites here. >4) Shift-Undo doesn't reboot Spectre. I've seen the same problem at home, but I don't use it. I remember one time where it did work as expected, the rest of the times I tried the screen went blank, gave a short version of the boot "bell", and stayed that way forever. It might have something to do with whether the boot disk is ejected or not. >5) Shift-cursor keys don't work, at least not in MS Word 3.01b. >6) Word has real memory problems - I have to save every few minutes when Word > warns of low memory. Version 1.9F of Spectre software has some Word fixes (this from fuzzy memory, may not be right) but many Mac users are critical of Microsoft, claiming that their attitude is "Toolbox?? We don' need no stinkin' TOOLBOX!!". ...walt... -- Walt Weber Apollo Computer (508) 256-6600 x8315 People's Republic of Massachusetts -The views expressed herein are personal, and not binding on Apollo-
dlm@druwy.ATT.COM (Dan Moore) (05/16/89)
in article <8905150756.AA25014@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU>, RIDDCJ@KIRK.ASTON.AC.UK says: > 1) My hard disk always has a floppy disk shaped icon in the Finder. > Inside the 'file selector' dialogs, it appears as a proper small hard > disk icon (small rectangle). Is there any reason why I shouldn't wade > in to the Finder with ResEdit? The Finder hard disk icons are stored in a resource located in some "hidden" sectors at the start of the hard disk. The resource is loaded by the Mac SCSI driver code during boot. The Spectre does NOT support the Mac SCSI driver, it uses a different method to hook the ST hard disk partitions in. So the resource containing the icon is never loaded. Editing Finder probably isn't going to help much. > 2) The system gets confused if you autoboot off a hard disk with a Spectre > floppy in the drive - the floppy isn't recognised by the Finder. Eject it, > and the Finder/Spectre have a fit (seeing a disk come out, I guess)! Mac floppy drives use the media change signal to tell the Mac if a disk is present or not. The ST ignores that signal, it relies on checking the disk write protect status every vblank to check for a change. So the Spectre can detect a change of disks (removal or insertion) but not that a disk is already there. On startup it doesn't think a disk is present, so the change in write protect status when the disk is removed is seen as a disk insertion. It will then try to read the disk that it believes was inserted. You can use the function keys to force the Spectre to see a disk insertion or removal, check your manual for details. That will cause it to see the disk that is already in the drive. > 3) Any changes I make to the Control Panel (System 6) don't seem to survive a > reboot (usnig Shift-Help to restart the ST after ejecting the hard disk). > This is really bad news! Yep, all my system files are unlocked. Control panel information is not stored in the system files, it is stored in battery backed up RAM. The ST doesn't have any battery backed up RAM. There are some Mac INITs that will read the data from disk instead of the battery backed up RAM. Dave is also considering changing the Spectre so it can store the data on hard disk. > 4) Shift-Undo doesn't reboot Spectre. Shift-Undo has worked in all versions of the Spectre I've used, from early beta copies through version 1.9. Exactly what is or is not happening? > 5) Shift-cursor keys don't work, at least not in MS Word 3.01b. Cursor keys weren't fully supported till version 1.9. (See the next answer for more info on MS Word.) > 6) Word has real memory problems - I have to save every few minutes when Word > warns of low memory. MS Word 3.01 has some real bugs in the memory management code. These problems seem to be worse with the Spectre than with a real Mac, but no one seems to know why. The new version of Word (currently in beta test) doesn't have these problems so Dave has quit trying to find them in 3.01. You might want to email Dave if you are still having problems. He can be reached at: boulder.Colorado.EDU!tcr!gadgets!dsmall or hplabs!well!dsmall Dan Moore AT&T Bell Labs Denver dlm@druwy.ATT.COM