Info-Mac-Request@SUMEX-AIM.STANFORD.EDU (The Moderators) (04/30/89)
Info-Mac Digest Sat, 29 Apr 89 Volume 7 : Issue 77
Today's Topics:
Answers to VCR Controllers
ASharePonder INIT
Can Imagewriter be used with IBM PC?
Cheap Fortran compiler required.
Default radio buttons in Word print dialog
Five years and counting!!
Making ARC files (was: MacArc)
MS Word 3.0 file format info needed
Rebuilding the Desktop File
start screen init
Your Info-Mac Moderators are Lance Nakata, Jon Pugh, and Bill Lipa.
The Info-Mac archives are available (by using FTP, account anonymous, any
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----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Fri, 28 Apr 89 10:17 EDT
From: <PJORGENS%COLGATEU.BITNET@forsythe.stanford.edu> (Peter Jorgensen - Micro Specialist)
Subject: Answers to VCR Controllers
There seemed to be some interest in controlling VCRs from HyperCard, so I'm
posting the responses I got to my query.
I received the following two replies to my VCR interfacing query on the nets.
----1---- from Internet
>From: GOV%"dru@MSR.EPM.ORNL.GOV" 13-APR-1989 13:09:59.79
Check out VIDEO-BUILDER, from TeleRobotics Int'l, Inc, Oak Ridge, Tennessee,
(615) 482-1900. VideoBuilder (a program that accompanies CourseBuilder) allows
you to program random access from a VCR. They have written a Mac-VCR interface
that includes a VCR-driver.
----2---- from AppleLink
Item 3279918 17-April-89 13:19
>From: TINDELL1 Tindell, Michael
To: U0523 Colgate U, Erving Pfau, P Jorgensen
Sub: Low-cost serial VCR control
There is at least one product that will connect to the 5-pin control jack that
is common on higher-end consumer VCRs and allow RS-232 serial control. The
controller uses the VCR's frame counter rather than timecode, so acurracy is
dubious; but for low-cost editing, etc., it is probably worth a look. The
company which makes it is FutureVideo Products at 29901 Weatherwood Ave.,
Laguna Niguel, CA 92677 Telephone 714-495-2621. Last I heard they were working
on a version that will use audio track timecode for improved accuracy. Let me
know about any other solutions for low-cost serial control that you know about.
Mike Tindell
Apple Advanced Technology Group - New Media
Link Tindell1 or
408-974-1961
A few phone calls also led me to this source:
BCD International, Inc.
Oklahoma City, OK
405-843-4574
They sell a product called VideoLink for 1295 (Cheap???) It uses "verbose"
ASCII commands like "FFWD 24" for fast forward 24 frames.
I am rapidly coming to the conclusion that I will be building my own interface
>From Radio Shack parts. I'll either be marketing it really cheap (like $100)
or just distributing plans and parts lists free. I think it's ridiculous that
I can get a 1200 baud modem for under two hundred bucks but have to pay over
five for something which does alot less.
Hope this information is of some use.
Peter Jorgensen
Microcomputer specialist
Colgate University - Hamilton, NY 13346
AppleLink - U0523
BITNET - PJORGENSEN@COLGATEU
tel - 315-824-1000 ext 742
------------------------------
Date: 28 APR 89 14:46:37
From: DERIDDER%SARA.NL@forsythe.stanford.edu
Subject: ASharePonder INIT
*
Here is ASharePonder, an INIT which takes the name from the AppleShare
Prep file and pastes it to the ChooserName. So if the user autologs on
a server the choosername will always be correct after logging in.
(Because ASharePonder runs before Responder the Network Manager
always sees the correct name.
Usage : %Place the INIT in a system folder. (Or a shared INIT folder.)
Notes : %The INIT has to be operated after AppleShare and before Responder.
%first release: 27 February 1989 Kees de Ridder.
Kees de Ridder,
Free University,
Chemical Dept.,
de Boelelaan 1083,
1081 HV Amsterdam,
the Netherlands.
deridder@sara.nl
tel. (0)20-5485347
[Archived as /info-mac/init/appleshare-ponder.hqx; 7K]
------------------------------
Date: Fri 28 Apr 1989 09:26 CDT
From: Fred Seaton - WIU 309/298-1681 <MUCM000%ECNCDC.BITNET@forsythe.stanford.edu>
Subject: Can Imagewriter be used with IBM PC?
If you have an Image Writer II on your desk, I assume you have a Mac on
your desk too. What kind of programming work are you doing? Personally,
I would get a copy of SoftPC 1.3 which would let you Mac emulate a PC
and therefore, make full use of any attached Mac Printer. Granted, it
isn't as fast has a hardware version, but it's not bad. However, it does
require 2mb of RAM and at least a 68020 processor (Mac IIanything, SE/30,
or any accelerated machine). Educational price is $149; List price $399.
After seeing version 1.2, I ordered 2 copies of version 1.3.
Fred Seaton
Academic Computing
Western Illinois University
PS. SoftPC is from Insignia Solutions: 800-848-7677
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 28 Apr 89 22:28 EDT
From: V112PDL5@ubvmsc.cc.buffalo.edu
Subject: Cheap Fortran compiler required.
I was wondering if anyone knows of a good Fortran compiler in the 100-150
dollar range for a Macintosh Plus with 2 floppies and a meager 1 megabyte of
memory. All the other ones I've encountered seem to require MPW and cost
upwards of $250.
- Mark Crowmell
------------------------------
Date: 28 Apr 89 11:46 +0200
From: Stein Arild Stromme <stromme%rose.uib.uninett%NORUNIX.BITNET@cunyvm.cuny.edu>
Subject: Default radio buttons in Word print dialog
How do I change the setting of the default choice of radio buttons
in a dialog box? The particular one that I have in mind is the paper
feed option in the print dialog of Word 3.02. This always defaults to
"automatic", even if "manual" is selected earlier in the same session
and for the same document. I seldom use automatic paper feed in my
Imagewriter II, and would like to change this default.
Is it possible to edit the Imagewriter document such that the paper
feed option defaults to "manual" for all applications? (And, at the
same time, have the Laserwriter print dialog default to "automatic"?)
Thanks for any help. E-mail to me, and I'll summarize to the net.
== Stein Arild Stromme <stromme@rose.uib.uninett>
== Mathematical Institute or
== University of Bergen <nmasr@nobergen.bitnet>
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 28 Apr 89 22:01:46 EST
From: Murph Sewall <SEWALL%UCONNVM.BITNET@forsythe.stanford.edu>
Subject: Five years and counting!!
VAPORWARE
Murphy Sewall
From the May 1989 APPLE PULP
H.U.G.E. Apple Club (E. Hartford) News Letter
$15/year
P.O. Box 18027
East Hartford, CT 06118
Call the "Bit Bucket" (203) 569-8739
Permission granted to copy with the above citation
Fifth Anniversary.
This is the 5th anniversary issue of the Vaporware column.
May '84 - the earliest Apple IIx (became the IIgs) rumors.
May '85 - Jazz for the Macintosh is late (and disappointing
when it finally did arrive) and IBM PC-2 rumors
prove unfounded (or Big Blue got "cold feet?").
May '86 - Rumors of a cartridge that makes an Atari ST
Macintosh compatible (if you can find an Apple
dealer who'll sell genuine ROMs) and announcement
of the Migent "Pocket Modem" (both products now
exist).
May '87 - Details about Andy Hertzfeld's "Juggler" (became
MultiFinder) for the Macintosh and the
introduction of the nicely designed, but too late,
National Semiconductor 10 MIP, 32-bit 32532
processor (twice as fast as anything from Intel or
Motorola).
May '88 - More details about the Intel 80486 (now known as
the i486), Motorola announces a 33 MHz 68020
(never made it into a Macintosh), and MIPS
Computer Systems announces the M3000 family said
to be 20 times as fast as a VAX 11/780.
Son of SCSI.
The American National Standards Institute X3T9.2 Committee,
commonly known as the SCSI Committee is nearing completion
of a new SCSI-2 standard. Formal adoption of the new 32-bit
data path (the existing SCSI path is 8-bit) is expected in
1990 or 1991. The new standard offers a maximum transfer
rate of 40 Mbytes per second (the existing standard is 4
Mbytes), and features "command queuing" - a way in which a
controller can accept new commands while executing previous
ones. Interfaces for SCSI-2, which is upward compatible
(current SCSI devices will work on SCSI-2 interfaces), are
already being advertised by some vendors.
- PC Week 10 April
16 Mbyte Floppy Disk Drive.
Panasonic is preparing to ship a 3.5 inch floppy disk drive
with a storage capacity of 16 Mbytes per disk. The
Panasonic 3511 drive is SCSI compatible and has a 60
millisecond average access time and a 2M-bit-per-second data
transfer rate. The drive can achieve its extremely high
capacity only with special 35,000 bits per inch (542 track)
metal disks developed by Panasonic, but it can read disks
written on lower capacity (2 Mbyte) drives. The 3511 will
be available in limited quantities this month with mass
production scheduled to begin in July. The drive will sell
to manufacturers for about $500. - PC Week 20 March
PS/2 Model 55SX Delayed.
Quality assurance problems have delayed the introduction of
IBM's 80386SX (the 16-bit bus version of the 32-bit 80386
processor) replacement for the PS/2 Model 50. IBM has
recently been embarrassed by a spate of defective Model
70-A21 machines failing at customer sites and, naturally,
wishes to avoid a similar experience. The new announcement
date, assuming production problems can be resolved, is May
16. the Model 55SX is expected to list for between $3,000
and $4,000. - InfoWorld 10 April
Accelerated Mac II?
Motorola has announced a 50 MHz version of its 68030 CPU.
The 12 MIP chip is a reduced geometry version of the 33 MHz
version of the same processor (the 68030 also is available
in 16 MHz and 25 MHz versions). The semiconductor industry
has not produced cache RAM chips with the 12 to 13
nanosecond access times needed to support a processor
running at 50 MHz. However, Motorola's technical marketing
manager for the microprocessing group, Jim Nutt says that a
one-wait-state design using 25 to 30 nanosecond SRAM will
still yield 10 MIP performance (approximately 2.5 times the
speed of the new Mac SE-030 and Mac IIcx). Apple is
expected to increase the speed of the Mac IIcx to 25 MHz - a
50% performance boost - in August (the SE-030 later in the
year). Sample quantities of the 50 MHz 68030 are priced at
$650. - InfoWorld 10 April
Fastest 803836.
The newly announced 33-MHz version of the 80386 CPU is the
last of the line (Intel's new processors are the i486,
previously known as the 80486). Notably absent from the
manufacturers showing 33-MHz PC's at last month's Comdex
were both IBM and Compaq; both are expected to release
models later this year. - PC Week 10 April
Prototype i486 PS/2.
The day after Intel's formal announcement of the i486 (aka
80486), IBM held a "technology" demonstration of a 25 MHz
version of the new processor (a pre-production sample
delivered in March) in a modified PS/2 Model 70 (upgraded in
only three hours). Preliminary benchmarks indicate double
the performance of the Model 70-A21 (25 MHz 80386).
Subsequent models of the i486 are expected to clock at 50
MHz, although IBM engineers are said to have been running
one at 64 MHz in a Boca Raton lab. Although i486 systems
are expected to be priced at $15,000 to $20,000, Brian
Roemmele, president of a New Jersey consulting firm, expects
competition to drive the price below $10,000 by 1991.
- PC Week 10 and 17 April and InfoWorld 17 April
PC Compatible Mainframe.
Intel and Prime Computer have announced joint development of
a "Emitter Coupled Logic" (ECL) implementation of the i486
processor design. The ECL i486 should be available as early
as 1992 and is expected to deliver 120 MIPS (eight times the
performance of the 50 MHz microcomputer version).
- InfoWorld 17 April
Apple IIgs+ and "Budget" Mac.
An enhanced Apple IIgs, with an improved user interface
toolbox and more built-in memory (but no mention of
increased processor speed), may appear as early as this
month's AppleFest. Apple insiders are saying this new
version will be the last member of the Apple II line. John
Sculley has been quoted once again as promising a "budget"
Macintosh Plus compatible for "under $1,000." Might that
product be a MacCard for the IIgs (see January's column)
creating the "Golden Gate" computer first described in last
November's column?
- BRCC Scarlett March and Random Access 1 and 8 April
Mac Compatible ROM's for the Masses?
Chips & Technologies (famous as a maker of PC-clone ROM
sets) has just about finished a set of Macintosh ROM clones,
and clone system software also is nearing readiness for
announcements. The chips are just what owners of Atari
MacCartridge (May 1986 column, see above) and the makers of
BlueMac and Akkord's "Jonathan" (see last month's column)
need. Akkord will begin shipping Mac clones (without ROM's
while awaiting customs clearance) within four months. Chips
& Technologies ROM's are expected to retail at about $100
and Akkord is planning a retail price for Jonathan
(initially a Mac+ compatible without ROM) at $800.
- PC Week 17 April
PC Compatible "Calculator."
Atari is set to begin shipping the CPC Folio, an 8 inch by 4
inch by 1 inch pocket PC compatible very similar to the
$2,000 Pocquet (last month's column). The Atari, which will
operate for six to eight weeks on three AA batteries, will
retail for $299. The one-pound CPC Folio includes a word
processor, dairy, calendar, calculator, communication
program, and Lotus 1-2-3 compatible spreadsheet in ROM. The
128K of RAM is large enough to permit a spreadsheet of up to
127 columns by 255 rows. The supertwist LCD can display 8
lines of 40 characters or act as a "moving window" for an 80
by 25 character screen.
- InfoWorld 20 March and Random Access 1 April
NeXT OS Release 1.0
One software developer, working with the developer's version
of the NeXT operating system (currently Release 0.9) says
"Today, it crashes every 30 minutes. Two weeks ago, it
crashed every 30 seconds. That's a logarithmic rate of
improvement." It remains to be seen whether all of the
remaining bugs can be swatted by the scheduled delivery date
of the first general release (called 1.0) of the operating
system scheduled for 1 July. - InfoWorld 10 April
New Quickdraw Features.
Apple will be adding the ability to create and manipulate
scalable outline fonts to QuickDraw. The new feature will
give Macintoshes with as little as 1 Mbyte of memory many of
the same features as Display PostScript. - PC Week 3 April
AppleLink Macintosh Edition.
Apple and Quantum Computer Services are promising to make an
AppleLink (Personal Edition) available for Machintosh users
before the start of Summer. - InfoWorld 20 March
Programmable Mouse.
Enough of this debate about whether computer mice should
have one, two, or three buttons. Later this month, Prohance
Technologies will begin shipping their 40 key Powermouse 100
($195). Frequently used commands such as copy, erase, and
format can be executed from the mouse (without users having
to shift their hands to the keyboard). The Powermouse 100
works with IBM PC, XT, AT, PS/2 and compatibles and includes
preprogrammed definition tables for Lotus 1-2-3.
- InfoWorld 3 April
Supermicro Supercomputing.
By 1991 Intel plans to deliver a prototype of its massively
parallel Touchstone supercomputer. The long term goal is to
build a 2,000 CPU system using Intel's i860 RISC processors
(code-named N-10 before being announced in March - see
February's column) each with the number crunching power of a
Cray-1, to deliver a total performance 1,000 times more
powerful than anything now available from Cray. The $28
million prototype for the Defense Advanced Research Projects
Agency will probably have "only" 512 processors.
- Business Week 17 April
Extended Data Services for DOS LAN Stations.
In a moderate change in strategy, IBM is placing more
emphasis on OS/2 Extended Edition as a server product. IBM
says it is committed to providing "Remote Data Services"
under OS/2 which will permit DOS workstations to utilize
Extended Edition's data access facilities. Thus, network
sites can install Extended Edition on a network server while
permitting workstations to continue using DOS.
- InfoWorld 17 April
Plastic Energy.
Rumor has it that the LapMac (when it finally appears) will
be very heavy (17 pounds) due to the weight of the battery
needed to make it truly portable. That problem may be
greatly reduced once commercial versions of plastic
batteries become available. Plastic batteries were
discovered at a Japanese university a decade ago but have
languished in laboratories all over the World awaiting an
application suitable for their capacity. Plastic power
packs for laptop computers which can hold a charge (shelf
life) for years are expected to be one-third the weight of
conventional batteries. - PC Week 3 April
IBM's Color LCD.
IBM and Toshiba have jointly developed a 14 inch, 16 color
Thin Film Transistor (TFT) active matrix display with a
resolution of 720 by 550 pixels. An IBM spokesman said
plans have not yet been made for a specific product using
the display. Toshiba executives say not to expect a color
laptop until 1991.
- PC Week 27 March and Random Access 1 April
Optical Memory.
NEC has announced the first practical optical memory. While
this first chip stores only 1,000 bits, that is about the
capacity of the first silicon DRAM chips of the early 70's.
Optical memory processes as well as records, much as a human
eye, but unlike the imaging chips in a video camcorder, the
image can be retained almost indefinitely while consuming
very little power. - Business Week 24 April
Lateware.
More than a year after its first preview, Lotus's Notes, a
workgroup productivity product, remains at least six months
away from release. The OS/2, DOS Windows software is a
workgroup information manager closely related to Lotus's
Agenda, a personal information manager. MicroPro, maker of
Word Star, has filed suit against the subcontractor hired to
develop a Macintosh word processor. The as yet unnamed
program (Mac Star?) is on indefinite hold. MicroPro has,
however, announced Word Star 5.5 with some additional
desktop publishing-like features. OS/2 Presentation Manager
applications are few, but Microsoft's OS/2 product marketing
manager, Mark Mackaman, says 7 more applications will be
added to the 3 now available within three months. He also
noted that 370 of 850 announced OS/2 applications now are
shipping.
- InfoWorld 27 March and 17 April and Random Access 14 April
/s Murph
I bought the latest computer;
it came fully loaded.
It was guaranteed for 90 days,
but in 30 was outmoded!
- The Wall Street Journal passed along by Big Red Computer's SCARLETT
FAX it to me at: 1-203-486-5246
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 28 Apr 89 15:27:05 EDT
From: "Chris Davis" <smghy6c%buacca.BITNET@forsythe.stanford.edu>
Subject: Making ARC files (was: MacArc)
> Does anyone know of anything that will create/extract IBM .ARC
> <SEA ARChives>? I have MacArc V .003, but that won't create them.
ArcMac (keeping these two straight isn't too easy, is it?) will create
ARC files. It will also unARC them, of course. I believe it is available
>From the ftp archives on sumex-aim.
*****************************************************************************
* Chris "Data" Davis ! BITNet: smghy6c@buacca.bitnet ! NCC-1701D *
* Student Consultant ! InterNet: ckd@bu-pub.bu.edu ! ___ *
* Boston University ! smghy6c@buacca.bu.edu ! ---===========--- *
*---------------------+---------------------------------+ o \|/ o *
* DISCLAIMER: I said it and nobody else is responsible. ! `-< * >-' *
* "If you had an off switch, would you inform anyone?" ! *
*****************************************************************************
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 28 Apr 89 20:02:04 +0200
From: "Andreas Zell" <unido!ifistg!zell@uunet.uu.net>
Subject: MS Word 3.0 file format info needed
We urgently need information about the internal file format of MS Word
3.0 documents on the Macintosh. One of my students wants to write a
document conversion program Word <-> LaTeX and needs information about
Word's file format. Or does such a conversion program exist already?
Does anybody know how to obtain such information about Word 3.0? We
have written to Microsoft Germany but haven't received an answer so far.
Any kind soul around who could e-mail or s-mail us a specification?
Many thanks in advance,
Andreas
============================================================================
Andreas Zell uucp: zell@ifistg.uucp
IfI, Univ. Stuttgart, Azenbergstr. 12, D-7000 Stuttgart 1, FRG
============================================================================
------------------------------
Date: 28 Apr 89 11:38:37 +0000 (Fri)
From: munnari!utscsd.oz.au!gregw@uunet.uu.net (-a8000033-g.webb-cen-200-)
Subject: Rebuilding the Desktop File
Does anyone know of a utility, public domain or otherwise, that will
rebuild the Desktop file without loosing the Get Info information.
I currently save a copy of the FCMT resource with ResEdit, rebuild the
Desktop file with CMD and OPTION held down while rebooting, and
finally paste back the saved resource. This is not only time
consuming, but also inefficient because comments from deleted files
remain in the FCMT resource.
Any help will be much appreciated.
Greg Webb
+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+
UUCP : {mcvax,uunet,ubc-cs,ukc}!munnari!utscsd.oz.au!gregw
Bitnet : gregw%utscsd.oz.au%munnari.oz@cunyvm.bitnet Greg Webb
JANET : munnari!utscsd.oz.au!gregw@uk.ac.ukc Computing Services Div
ARPA : gregw%utscsd.oz.au@uunet.uu.net University of Technology
ACSnet : gregw@utscsd.oz PO Box 123 (15-73 Broadway)
AppleLink: AUST0231 BROADWAY NSW 2007 Australia
Telex : AA-75004 (NSWIT) Fax: +61-2-281-2498 Telephone: +61-2-218-9580
+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+
(Postmaster:- This mail has been acknowledged.)
------------------------------
Date: 28 APR 89 10:45:13
From: DERIDDER%SARA.NL@forsythe.stanford.edu
Subject: start screen init
Here is an init which shows a message (which is placed on a server) during
System startup.
Usage :
Place the INIT in a system folder (or a shared INIT folder).
Place a textfile made with Edit on a server.
With ResEdit make STR 129 in the INIT the full pathname to that file.
That's all!
When there is no textfile the INIT will do nothing.
Free University,
Chemical Dept.,
Kees de Ridder,
de Boelelaan 1083,
1081 HV Amsterdam,
the Netherlands.
DERIDDER@SARA.nl
[Archived as /info-mac/init/display-startup-text.hqx; 7K]
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End of Info-Mac Digest
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