Info-Mac-Request@SUMEX-AIM.STANFORD.EDU (The Moderators) (07/29/89)
Info-Mac Digest Fri, 28 Jul 89 Volume 7 : Issue 131
Today's Topics:
8!XCMD Debugging
anon. ftp
Applecare seems to be required...
CLUT Resources and Apple ROM
Excel 2.2 performs poorly on the Macintosh Plus
Generation of 8-bit LUT's from 24-bit images.
Lightspeed and TML Pascals
LSC stdio window size
Mac games for 4 and 5 year-olds
Mac plus to Epson printing. Is it possible?
Ok.. several questions..
Password protecting a Mac...
POP2/SMTP mail client for Mac now available
PostScript -> QuickDraw -> PostScript (V7 I130)
Programming environments
Selling old Mac stuff
Serial Library posting
Snap 2.1 Screen Snapshot Utility (enclosed)
SoundMaster problems on the SEx
Your Info-Mac Moderators are Bill Lipa, Lance Nakata, and Jon Pugh.
The Info-Mac archives are available (by using FTP, account anonymous,
any password) in the info-mac directory on sumex-aim.stanford.edu
[36.44.0.6]. Help files are in /info-mac/help. Indicies are in
/info-mac/help/recent-files.txt and /info-mac/help/all-files.txt.
Please send articles and binaries to info-mac@sumex-aim.stanford.edu.
Send administrative mail to info-mac-request@sumex-aim.stanford.edu.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Fri, 28 Jul 89 07:57:57 EDT
From: FULIGIN%UMass.BITNET@forsythe.stanford.edu
Subject: 8!XCMD Debugging
>From: <BMEDIRAT%COLGATEU.BITNET@forsythe.stanford.edu>
>...Well, call me spoiled, but I
>am dying to find a way to cut down the number of steps necessary to
>create a XCMD. ...
You can remove one step from the process by using Steve Maller's free "ResCopy"
XCMD (Apple wants $25 if you use it in a commercial product) to create a button
on your card which will automatically update your XCMD. This eliminates having
to run Resedit for every iteration. Please note that "ResCopy" does not allow
you to change the stack that is currently open. One solution is to make your
ResCopy button go to a stack with nothing in it but the ResCopy XCMD, from which
ResCopy can affect your target stack.
If you are not using Multifinder, you can also create a button which will launch
Think Pascal for you ('open "Think Pascal" using "My XCMD Project"'). This has
the added plus of returning you to HyperCard when you quit Pascal, but it also
induces a known bug in GateKeeper (HyperCard does a sublaunch, which GateKeeper
can't handle). If you are using GateKeeper, it will forget about the privelages
you have granted to Think Pascal while it is sub-launched, so you must use
GateKeeper's override function. This is a pain, but only if (A) you are using
"UniFinder" and (B) you are also using GateKeeper.
The final option (which I am now working on implemementing for myself, though
in C) is to create a Test Harness in the LightSpeed environment that will
let you test your XCMD there, at least initially, without using HyperCard at
all. The idea is to supply your own stubs for whichever HC entities your
XCMD calls. In most cases the stubs don't have to do anything - they're just
there to let the test harness compile and to verify that your XCMD calls the
right things at the right times. I find that this solution makes my
life MUCH more pleasant, since the LSC debugger was able to gracefully catch
bugs in my code that HyperCard was much less pleasant about - i.e. it
froze my system and occasionally trashed my test stack as well.
Hope these suggestions are of some use to you!
-Peter E. Lee
lee@cs.umass.edu or fuligin@UMass.bitnet
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 28 Jul 89 11:38:57 -0700
From: jwk@scripps.edu ("Two Sheds" Kupec)
Subject: anon. ftp
Postmaster: could you please forward this to the appropriate person?
Hello out there:
I have tried to download /info-macs/comm/ncsa-telnet-22.hqx with minimal
success. What I mean is that I can get the file to my sun via ftp, transfer
it to my 512ke via kermit, unbinhex it with 4.0, and unsit it with Stuffit
1.31. The text files are readable and the tellpass program works but the
main telnet application croaks with error 12 when I try to launch it from
the finder. I have gone through the entire download process twice to make
sure. Any thoughts or other complaints about this? Does the fact that I'm
using a 512ke make a difference. I haven't read the documentation for the
telnet/ftp suite as I don't have the proper software (apparently) to read
it. A response would be nice. How about telling me another source for this
stuff?
Thanks,
jwk (John W. Kupec, Programmer/Analyst, Scripps Research Foundation)
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 28 Jul 89 10:18:54 PDT
From: PUGH@ccc.mfecc.llnl.gov
Subject: Applecare seems to be required...
Well, just 10 days out of warrenty my SE/30 80Meg hard disk died. How
wonderful. Once again we see why Apple has a 90 day warrenty. Needless to
say, I am thrilled. I have a fairly helpful dealer, so I'll be able to get it
fixed, but it is still costing me a bunch of money for a brand new machine.
I'm going to be writing a letter to a few of the honcho at Apple to tell them
what I think. I recommend that others be wary too. I guess this also means
that you should add the cost of Applecare onto the cost of any new machine now
as they sure don't seem to be as reliable as they used to be.
Jon
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 28 Jul 89 9:18:53 cdt
From: "Rose,Eric R" <ROSEE%GRIN1.BITNET@cunyvm.cuny.edu>
Subject: CLUT Resources and Apple ROM
Calling all hacks:
I'm thinking of writing an Init, but before I do I need some background
information on the Mac II/IIx/IIcx color palettes. Having read Inside
Macintoh
V, I know that there are 5 color lookup tables in the Mac II family ROM -
reputedly the default color palettes for various screen depths. Does anyone
know how these resources are handled by the system? i.e., Are they loaded
into
RAM and then accessed directly, or is there a pointer/handle in the system
heap
which points to "The Default Palette?" What I am trying to do is reset that
handle or pointer (if it exists) to point to some other color palette - one
that I could load into memory and then lock into place - so that the system
color palette would never be used to draw the desktop.
Any ideas, tips, hints (helpful or otherwise) would be greatly appreciated.
Eric
(ROSEE@Grin1.bitnet)
------------------------------
Date: 28 Jul 1989 1008-PDT (Friday)
From: mcjones@src.dec.com (Paul McJones)
Subject: Excel 2.2 performs poorly on the Macintosh Plus
Am I the only one disappointed by the slowness and limited memory
capacity of Microsoft Excel 2.2 running on a 1MByte Macintosh Plus?
This new release of Excel has apparently been optimized for a
multimegabyte Macintosh II, resulting in bad performance and limited
capacity on 1 MByte, 68000 machines such as the Macintosh Plus.
In fact, although I paid $100 to upgrade to 2.2, I now intend to
continue using 1.5 (and will be quite skeptical about future Microsoft
upgrade offers).
It could be that all the power users have upgraded to larger machines,
but that is no excuse for Microsoft not to warn the rest of us about
realistic RAM and CPU requirements for version 2.2. They should
consider continuing to sell version 1.5 (or perhaps a "stripped"
version of 2.2) for owners of "entry level" machines. I'd like to
hear from others who have used Excel 2.2 on a Macintosh Plus or SE.
Send me email; I'll post a summary.
More detail: For common operations, including loading the application,
and opening, saving, and printing documents, Excel 2.2 is as much
as 100% slower than Excel 1.5 running on my 1 MByte Macintosh Plus
with DataFrame 20XP. I've also found that the size of the largest
document that can be handled has shrunk by about a third.
I ran benchmarks comparing versions 1.5 and 2.2. I found that loading
the application slowed from 9 seconds to 17 seconds (perhaps not
surprising since the size of the application grew from 451KBytes
to 729KBytes!). Opening a document (a "database"--no formulas, about
1000 rows and 4 columns) slowed from 8 to 24 seconds. Print Preview
slowed from 6 seconds to 14 seconds (to display the first page).
As I ran these benchmarks, I noticed several signs that version 2.2
is now "thrashing" on a 1Mbyte machine:
a) I repeated all my measurements three times. With version 1.5,
there was little difference in the three trials, but with version
2.2, the first trial was often much slower than the next two,
indicating that not all the code could fit in RAM.
b) When I reran the benchmarks with the Macintosh's RAM cache
set from 0K up to 64K, the version 1.5 times hardly changed, but
some version 2.2 times slowed down, indicating that Excel's
internal memory management no longer had enough RAM to work with.
Paul McJones
mcjones@src.dec.com
(allegra, decvax, ucbvax)!decwrl!mcjones
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 28 Jul 89 11:48 EST
From: JWK%OPUS@forsythe.stanford.edu
Subject: Generation of 8-bit LUT's from 24-bit images.
Is anyone aware of a program to automatically generate an 8-bit look up
table from a full 24-bit image? 32-bit quickdraw can perform the required
mapping for me once I have the 8-bit table, but I have to generate one
appropriate to the given picture in the first place. Thanks in advance.
Joe Klingler
Image Analysis Research Center
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 28 Jul 89 09:27 EST
From: <RICH%SUHEP.BITNET@forsythe.stanford.edu> (Richard S. Holmes)
Subject: Lightspeed and TML Pascals
In the discussion recently of recommended programming languages, there's one
thing I've missed: a head-on comparison of TML Pascal II 3.0 and Lightspeed
Pascal 2.0. Can anyone make such a comparison? Can anyone point me to
reviews of these products? (The latest reviews in MacUser are from 1986 and
1987 respectively). How does Lightspeed's programming environment compare,
both in ease of use and in useful features, to MPW? Finally, is TML still a
viable entity? I notice they don't advertise much these days.
Rich Holmes
rich@suhep.bitnet
rich@suhep.phy.syr.edu
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 27 Jul 89 21:00:31 EDT
From: CES00661%UDACSVM.BITNET@cunyvm.cuny.edu
Subject: LSC stdio window size
In Info-Mac Digest Volume 7, Issue 130 Glenn Sowell asks about resizing
the "UNIX IO" window in Think C. The following is from a
"most-often-asked-questions" file on Symantek's CIS forum:
4. Q. How do I resize the console window when using the stdio library?
A. The console normally shows as full screen when running under Finder, and
half-height when running under Multifinder. This allows for use of the stdio run
time library when using the source debugger. You can change the size to full
height when running under Multifinder by commenting out the #define _HALFWINDOW_
in the config.h file for stdio. Recompile the stdio project and bring your
project up to date by doing a Make or reloading the stdio library into your
project.
You can actually change the default size of the console window by opening
the stdio project (which is shipped in source code form), and opening the
printf-2.w.c file. Do a search for "NewWindow" and change the bounds parameter
to be the desired rectangle size.
Hope this helps,
Bob Rahe
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 28 Jul 89 12:59:40 -0400
From: Andy Malis <malis@bbn.com>
Subject: Mac games for 4 and 5 year-olds
Does anyone out there know of any shareware or freeware games for
4 or 5 year-old kids on the Mac? They may be educational, or
just fun. Pointers to games in an FTP-able archive would be just
great. Please mail replies to malis@bbn.com.
My 4 1/2 year-old son thanks you.
Andy Malis <malis@bbn.com> UUCP: {harvard,rutgers,uunet}!bbn!malis
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 27 Jul 89 18:31 EDT
From: MARK 'YANKIEKIWI' DODD <S71DDOD@toe.towson.edu>
Subject: Mac plus to Epson printing. Is it possible?
Hi all.
I am looking for a product that will let me use an Epson RX 80 or
an Epson FX286e printer from my Mac Plus.
So far I have only heard of an interface called Grappler C/Mac/GS.
>From asking dealers about it I have found out that it can have problems with
printing on the FX286e.
Has anyone heard of, or is currently using the Grappler C/Mac/GS
interface that can tell me of its performance. Is it worth the money?
Also does anyone know of any other produces that can acomplish this
serial to parallel conversion??
Thanx in advance for any advice or comments
Mark Dodd
Bitnet: s71ddod@towsonvx (or whatever ends up in the header)
Genie: M.DODD4
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 28 Jul 89 02:39:36 EDT
From: Wonko%UMass.BITNET@forsythe.stanford.edu
Subject: Ok.. several questions..
I am working on setting up a moderate size database (100's of records
but not 1000's) on a mac. I will have to do light searches on many
different fields. Here is the setup I am considering.
1) Mac SE. (not a SE/30 because Im NOT going to be doing heavy computation
at all.. just heavy I/O) Am I correct in assumin gthe SE/30 will not
get my much for speed?
2) The new HP ink Jet that was mentioned a few days ago on this list..
what is the quality of landscaped fonts?
3) Everex EMAC 60/60 60 meg Hardrive and 60meg tape backup. I can get
one for a little over $1000.. What are peoples experiences with these?
are there any better? more reliable?
4) Ok.. Here is the hard part.. what Database package should I use?
I remember 4th dimension was Hailed as the greatest before it came out
but then it Fizzeld.. I am leaning towards Dbase mac but only because
its semi popular, not too expensive, and a recognized name.. What
are my other altenatives?
Please reply to me and I promis to sumerize it all for the network.
=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=
'But the machine told me to hit "any key" to coninue and my
regular apple keyboard doesnt have an "Any key"!!!'
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
As I was instructing this one freshmen student I instructed her to
'take the mouse'. and she picked it up and held it in mid air and looked
at me niavely for my next instruction.. I laughed for almost an hour,
soo much for professionalism...
=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 27 Jul 89 23:56:56 EDT
From: dmg@lid.mitre.org (David Gursky)
Subject: Password protecting a Mac...
There is an application called "Nightwatch", which password encrypts the
directory of the disk you apply it on. This prevents the disk from being
accessed by anyone without a valid copy of Nightwatch and the password.
A word of warning. Nightwatch was originally very incompatible with System
6.0.x, and the manufacturer took their time with issuing an update. This is
not to say the same thing will happen when System 7.0 comes out next year,
but you should be warned.
David Gursky
Member of the Technical Staff, W-143
Special Projects Department
The MITRE Corporation
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 28 Jul 89 10:46:36 CDT
From: Farhad Anklesaria <fxa@boombox.micro.umn.edu>
Subject: POP2/SMTP mail client for Mac now available
We recently finished developing and testing a HyperCard stack
that acts as a POP (Post Office Protocol) e-mail client for the Macintosh.
The stack is called POPmail and uses Apple's MacTCP drivers to
send and recieve SMTP e-mail by talking to a POP2 server.
With the POPmail stack, Macintosh users connected to an Ethernet network
(either directly or via a fastpath or gatorbox) can send and recieve E-mail
>From people elsewhere on the Internet. The POPmail stack hides the complexity of
standard mainframe environment so non-technical users are comforatable using
SMTP mail. In fact, we are using POPmail to provide e-mail access for the top 50
administrators (deans, provost, vice presidents, president) at the University of
Minnesota.
The idea behind POP is that a machine which is running all the time and is well
connected (such as a Unix host) can act as a post office for people with
accounts on the machine. The POP server holds mail until a user connects to the
POP server. When the user connects to the server, he fetches his mail and then
reads it on his machine. Because the POP client need only connect to the POP
server for a few seconds to fetch his mail, POP does not consume a lot of
resources on the POP server, so it is very possible to use a small Unix
workstation as a server for 50 - 100 users.
To run the basic POPmail stack you need a 1MB Mac. If you wish to be notified
when new mail arrives at the mail server, you will need enough memory to run
HyperCard under MultiFinder (ie more than 1MB).
The POPmail HyperCard stack works with standard POP2 servers as well
as an extended POP2 server we developed. We weren't happy with the standard POP2
server because when it validates a user, the user's name and password are
sent over the network in cleartext. We added DES encryption of the username
and password. So... users of the POPmail stack don't ever have their usernames
and passwords sent over the net in the clear. We are currently running
this extended POP2 server daemon on our SUN workstations, a NeXT computer,
and on Mac IIs running Apple's A/UX implementation of Unix.
While the software is done, we are still working on the manual... a preliminary
manual is available now with the software. The final version of the manual will
be done sometime next week. If you are interested in the POPmail HyperCard stack
for the Macintosh or the extended POP2 server daemon, you can retrieve them by
anonymous ftp from the directory pub/POPmail on boombox.micro.umn.edu
[128.101.95.95].
Our site license does not permit us to distribute Apple's MacTCP drivers outside
of the University of Minnesota. Consequently, you will have to obtain the
drivers yourself to run the POPmail stack. Apple will be happy to set you up
with a site license. You can get a single user copy of the MacTCP drivers from
APDA.
George Gonzalez grg@boombox.micro.umn.edu
Farhad Anklesaria fxa@boombox.micro.umn.edu
Mark McCahill mpm@boombox.micro.umn.edu
Microcomputer & Workstation Networks Center
University of Minnesota
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 28 JUL 89 07:43:49 PDT
From: "Micro Mauler" <MICRO2.SCHWER@crvax.sri.com>
Subject: PostScript -> QuickDraw -> PostScript (V7 I130)
Z A friend is laboriously programming a VAX laser printer in Postscript and
Z can't see the effect of changes until printing. We would like to know if there
Z is any application that will perform a Postscript to Quickdraw to Postscript
Z file conversion. He wants to edit the file on a Mac and then download to the
Z VAX for printing.
Z Any ideas? Tom Schmidt (BITNET address COMB5@UMDC)
The product LaserTalk from Emerald City Software allows
viewing of PostScript programs either during creation or
imported PS files. The host Mac must be connected to a
PostScript printer, which does the interpretation. An
excellent product and a must for serious PostScript
developers or novices who don't want to kill a tree
while learning. --Len Schwer Micro2.Schwer@crvax.sri.com
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 28 Jul 89 01:06:37 CDT
From: auvhess@cssun.tamu.edu (David Hess)
Subject: Programming environments
In the recent digests, there has been a lot of talk about programming
languages and which was best suited for what. During this Think C seemed to
get the most praise and remarks. The other environments looked familiar (I
fell into the Turbo Pascal trap also) but what got my attention was that
nobody ever mentioned Apple's own Macintosh Programmer's Workshop.
My question is: Is anybody using MPW? Do they wish they were using
something else? Or are only hard core developers using it? (There is plenty
of stuff for it in the archives.)
I am looking at investing in a programming environment soon and had
always leaned towards MPW (I have worked with version 2 before) but have never
really been able to sit down and compare Think C against it.
Any comments and suggestions would be appreciated.
Dave Hess
auvhess@cssun.tamu.edu
Texas A&M University
[I use MPW a lot and like it. However, it reminds me more of a Unix machine
with a nice editor than of a Macintosh programming environment like Think
Pascal. It has a great deal of power but a less friendly feel. I also find
debugging with Think products easier. But if you need the power (and by
this I mean things like scripts and project management), you ought to go
with MPW. -Bill]
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 28 Jul 89 07:33:51 CDT
From: Eddie Mikell <eddie@cc.msstate.edu>
Subject: Selling old Mac stuff
Does anyone have some suggestions on good places to advertise things you want
to sell related to Mac products?
I know it's illegal (immoral... whatever) to advertise over this net, so I'd
be interested in hearing where others have had luck selling diskdrives,
scanners, etc. I have tried the local newspaper, but it has a rather small
group of Mac readers, and thought there might me a bbs, net-group, periodical,
or whatever that might help.
Thanks
Eddie H. Mikell
------------------------------
Date: Thu Jul 27 18:38:54 1989
From: microsoft!t-atulb@uunet.uu.net
Subject: Serial Library posting
The following file contains sample macro sheets and worksheets for
Excel 2.2. These macro sheets provide a set of external routines
to access the serial ports from within Excel macros, called the
Serial Library. Documentation is enclosed in a Microsoft Word 4.0
format file.
The Serial Library is used in a sample macro sheet entitled
CompuServe (also enclosed). This macro, given a column of stock
symbols, will log onto CompuServe and get the latest information
on those stocks.
The Serial Library will work only on Excel 2.2 (and higher) because
of the added CODE/REGISTER macro commands.
The source code for the Serial Library is being distributed in a
separate archive.
Enjoy!
Atul Butte
Microsoft Corporation
uunet!microsoft!t-atulb
[Archived as /info-mac/app/excel-22-serial-library.hqx; 87K
/info-mac/source/excel-22-serial-library.hqx; 74K]
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 28 Jul 1989 9:27:21 PDT
From: Vaughan Johnson <vjohnson@sumex-aim.stanford.edu>
Subject: Snap 2.1 Screen Snapshot Utility (enclosed)
Knowledge Source, Inc. is releasing a shareware screen snapshot
utility, Snap 2.1 for the Macintosh, enclosed in this email.
Snap 2.1 runs under MultiFinder to let you take a snapshot of any
rectangular area of the Macintosh screen(s). A snapshot window can be
inverted, moved, copied to the Clipboard (and pasted into applications
such as HyperCard, MacDraw, or WriteNow), saved as a PICT file,
printed, or just left hanging around on-screen for reference. Snap
2.1 handles color, multiple monitors, and multiple snapshots. It runs
under MultiFinder so the user can take a snapshot of any running
application. Snap 2.1 adds these enhancements to version 2.0:
- updated virus detection
- revised memory handling so you can take more snapshots
- an expanded Help screen
- a Get Info command in the File menu that shows the size of a selected
snapshot, in pixel height, width, and depth.
Vaughan Johnson
Knowledge Source, Inc.
(415) 326-1374
[Archived as /info-mac/util/snap-21.hqx; 122K]
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 27 Jul 89 10:20:18 PDT
From: decwrl!apple!iuvax!uiucuxc!fluke!moriarty@labrea.stanford.edu (Jeff Meyer)
Subject: SoundMaster problems on the SEx
In article <8907252129.AA08659@sumex-aim.stanford.edu> dmg@retina.mitre.org (David Gursky) writes:
>Subject: Sound Master
>
>We're having problems using the Sound Master cDev on our SE/030s. When we
>try to use it, the Mac bombs with an ID = 33. As it works on our other
>Macs (albeit we have not other 030s to test it on), does anyone have a
>suggestion to make this work?
SoundMaster works on my SE/30 with no problems... with the exception of
intermittent silences from other applications that use sound under
MultiFinder. For instance, if I have SoundMaster installed, and open
SoundEdit to play a sound, it plays the sound the first time, but when I
open a second sound, the sound will not play through the speaker (though
SoundEdit seems to think that it's playing the sound.)
Two questions: What's the latest version of SoundMaster? Is Bruce Tomlin,
the fellow who created SoundMaster, still updating it? I paid my shareware
fee for it many moons ago, and was wondering what the status of SoundMaster
was -- I like it quite a bit.
"I went to a Grateful Dead Concert and they played
for SEVEN hours. Great song."
-- Fred Reuss
---
Moriarty, aka Jeff Meyer
INTERNET: moriarty@tc.fluke.COM
Manual UUCP: {uw-beaver, sun, hplsla, thebes, microsoft}!fluke!moriarty
CREDO: You gotta be Cruel to be Kind...
<*> DISCLAIMER: Do what you want with me, but leave my employers alone! <*>
------------------------------
End of Info-Mac Digest
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