Info-Mac-Request@SUMEX-AIM.STANFORD.EDU (The Moderators) (03/30/89)
Info-Mac Digest Wed, 29 Mar 89 Volume 7 : Issue 59
Today's Topics:
Apple II assembler on Mac ?
How to build new desktop on server ?
How to find the Finder during bootup (should work w/international)
Info-Mac Digest V7 #56
Magnavox (Philips) 14" Color Monitor for Mac II
Other INFO Digest
Plotter Drivers
postscript converter
Questions about archives
TK/Solver as a Technical Tool: What Happened To It? (long)
Your Info-Mac Moderators are Lance Nakata, Jon Pugh, and Bill Lipa.
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].
Please send articles and binaries to info-mac@sumex-aim.stanford.edu.
Send administrative mail to info-mac-request@sumex-aim.stanford.edu.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Wed, 29 Mar 89 18:03 EST
From: "Harry E. Bates" <E7P2BAT%TOWSONVX.BITNET@forsythe.stanford.edu>
Subject: Apple II assembler on Mac ?
Hello List !
I have occasion to write assy. language progms. for the Apple IIe.
I really like the Mac interface. Does anyone know if there is a good
assembler for the Apple IIe (6502) that works on the Mac+ II etc.?
Thanks in advance for your help!
Harry E. Bates
Department of Physics
Towson State University
Baltimore, MD 21204
(301) 321-2441
HBATES@TOWSONVX
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 28 Mar 89 18:35 N
From: <KRAALING%HWALHW50.BITNET@forsythe.stanford.edu>
Subject: How to build new desktop on server ?
Dear Net,
Does someone know how to build a new desktop file on a server volume ?
We are running a 20 Mb disk with a special interface box called
Ferroshare. Somehow the desktop file got ruined. Any help is greatly
appreciated.
Daniel van Kraalingen
Department of Theoretical Production Ecology
Agricultural University of Wageningen
The Netherlands
kraalingen@hwalhw50.bitnet
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 25 Mar 89 04:15:57 EST
From: Alexis Rosen <decwrl!decvax!ccnysci!alexis@labrea.stanford.edu>
Subject: How to find the Finder during bootup (should work w/international)
Bill Lipa writes:
> This program may not work correctly on international systems because
> I do not know a robust way to determine the name of the Finder. The global
> called FinderName is not initialized at INIT time.
The Finder name is stored in the Boot Blocks of the boot disk. Don't
confuse that with the Startup File name. I don't remember the offset to
the Finder name offhand but a few seconds with any sector edtor should tell
you what you need to know. As far as I know, this method will work with
international systems also (but no promises).
Alexis Rosen
alexis@ccnysci.{uucp,bitnet}
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 27 Mar 89 01:54 EDT
From: JEFF WASILKO--PRESIDENT PRINTER'S DEVILS LOCAL 49 <JJW7384%ritvax.BITNET@forsythe.stanford.edu>
Subject: Info-Mac Digest V7 #56
Real Subject: Program to convert files from punch format.
Someone asked about a program to convert network files that are sent in the
Punch format. I have a program written by Eric Thomas that does the job quite
well. It's written in C and runs on our VAX/VMS systems quite well.
I'll be happy to forward it to anyone who sends me mail, or to the moderators
to be placed in the archive (if they desire it).
+----------------------+------------------------+-----------------------------+
| RIT VAX/VMS Systems: | Jeff Wasilko | RIT Ultrix Systems: |
|BITNET: jjw7384@ritvax|Rochester Inst. of Tech.| UUCP: jjw7384@ultb.UUCP |
| or try: +------------------------+-----------------------------+
|UUCP: {psuvax1, mcvax}!ritvax.bitnet!JJW7384 |'claimer:Nobody ever cares |
|INTERNET: jjw7384%ritvax.bitnet@cunyvm.cuny.edu| what I say. I guess |
| jjw7384%ritvax.bitnet@cornell.cit.cornell.edu| I don't need one. |
+-----------------------------------------------+-----------------------------+
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 25 Mar 89 14:09:34 PST
From: WHITNEY%CALSTATE.BITNET@forsythe.stanford.edu (Phillip R. Whitney ICC @ CSUB)
Subject: Magnavox (Philips) 14" Color Monitor for Mac II
I'm trying to get some information on the Apple Macintosh 13" color monitor
compatible made by Magnavox (Philips Consumer Electronics Company). The
model # is 9CM080 and is supposed to be "compatible" with the standard
Apple Macintosh II color card. The nearest location to view the monitor is
over 100 miles away ... a bit too far to drive just for a peek.
A few stats about the monitor from the glossy sent to me by the company:
14-inch (13 viewable) diagonal, .29 dot pitch CRT.
Image size 240mmx180mm (nominal)
Bandwidth: 26 MHZ Horizontal Frequency: 35kHz
Vertical Frequency: 66.7 Hz
I'm interested in the monitor because the retail cost is $695 as compared to
Apples monitor which is $999. The monitor also comes with a two year
warranty as compared to the non-standard 90 day from Apple. Street price for
the Magnavox is in the high five hundreds.
My questions are:
Has anyone SEEN one of these monitors?
How does it compare to the Apple (Sony) monitor?
Brightness, Contrast, Trueness of color, Bending of images, does the
resolution compare favorably with the Sony (Clearness of characters,
distortion, is a circle a circle on the screen)
Does the monitor make horrible noises or run hot?
Is there an observable flicker or scan?
And just general impressions!
Thanks for any info you can provide. Please respond directly to me and I will
summarize for the net.
Thanks in advance,
*****************************************************************************
Phil Whitney
Instructional Computing Coordinator
CSU Bakersfield (805) 664-2307
Bitnet: HPILLIP@CALSTATE
ARPANET: HPILLIP%CALSTATE.BITNET@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU
*****************************************************************************
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 29 Mar 89 14:46:33 PST
From: WEYH@chili.hac.com
Subject: Other INFO Digest
Does someone have a list of other INFO Digest such as INFO-MAC?
I know there are many of them but I don't have there net addresses.
I have a special intrest in Networking, VAX, PC's, HyperCard, and SQL/INGRES.
The addresses for the request of related (both specific and wider intrest)
would be appreciated.
Thank You,
Darwin C. Weyh Hughes Aircraft Co., EDSG
Phone: (213) 616-4836 ARPA: WEYH@CHILI.HAC.COM
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 28 Mar 89 00:25:39 CST
From: Jeff Balvanz <GR.JLB@isumvs.bitnet>
Subject: Plotter Drivers
I'm relaying this for a friend and consulting client here at
Iowa State. What Steve is looking for is a program that can take
either MacPaint or MacDraw format and convert it into LINE-DRAWING
commands for a Tek 4663 plotter. He already has a program
(MacDraft) that drives an HPGL plotter, but not the Tek plotter
(which is either larger or better resolution. . .I'm not sure
which). Anyway. . .what he wants to be able to do is either a)
drive the Tek 4663 plotter from MacDraw or MacDraft or b) find a way
to capture the stream going out to the HPGL plotter so that he can
write a translation program for HPGL to whatever the Tek plotter uses.
Does anyone have any suggestions?
Jeff Balvanz BITNET: GR.JLB@ISUMVS (preferred)
Senior Technical Consultant INTERNET: GMMPC@CCVAX.IASTATE.EDU
Microcomputer Services PHONE: (515) 294-8683
Iowa State University Computation Center USMail: 104 ATANASOFF* HALL, ISU,
AMES, IA 50011
*
Inventor of the digital electronic computer
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 28 Mar 89 08:41:15 PST
From: NESSETT@nmfecc.llnl.gov
Subject: postscript converter
Is there anyone out there that knows of a program that converts postscript into
a MacWrite or MS Word document? (NB: I don't mean bring in postscript so that
it can be printed. I want to edit the information represented by the
postscript file). Please E-mail me as well as responding to Info-Mac. Thanks.
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 28 Mar 89 10:11:12 est
From: dsill@relay.nswc.navy.mil
Subject: Questions about archives
Mac II, 4MB RAM, 40MB HD, Finder 6.1, System 6.0.2, Under Multifinder
I've recently been trying to download some of the files from the
info-mac archives and have encountered some difficulties.
First, although I have StuffIt 1.13, I've been trying to get 1.5.1. I
un-binhex the archive and get "StuffIt 1.5.1 Extractor". When I run
the extractor I get an error message saying that 117k is required and
that I'm 33,000,000+ bytes short. If I go ahead and continue the
extraction, the StuffIt I get doesn't seem to work right, it bombs out
with "File ended unexpectedly" errors.
My next problem concerns Fade-to-Black. I unpack it and follow the
directions, but it seems to fail during the "Add...". It gets to
"Closing the system file" then beeps. If I chose the DA it just
beeps.
Some of these archives include doc files, e.g. "Fade to Black doc".
If I double click on the doc I get the ever-so-helpful message "Could
not be opened, application busy". What application's busy? If I try
to use TeachText to read it, the file doesn't even show up in the list
of choices. Getting "info" on the doc file is no help either. How's
a mere Homo Utilitatus (user) supposed to read the doc?
General Gripe: Why don't ALL of these archives include a readme file
that says what they are and how to install and use them? I've
downloaded several other things that I was unable to figure out, and
there was documentation to help.
Any help would be appreciated.
========
dsill@relay.nswc.navy.mil
"The ultimate metric that I would like to propose for user
friendliness is quite simple: if this system were a person, how long
would it take before you punched it in the nose?"
-- Tom Carey
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 25 Mar 89 13:44:29 PST
From: siegman@sierra.stanford.edu (Anthony E. Siegman)
Subject: TK/Solver as a Technical Tool: What Happened To It? (long)
In Germany in 1984 a colleague showed me a version of "TK/Solver!"
(sp?) for the Macintosh which ran on a 512K Fat Mac, and impressed
me very much. You typed all the equations for a given problem into
an Equation Window. These did not have to be simple assignment
statements, or be entered in any special order; you could type
equations like
sin(2*pi*x+theta) + c = a*x^2 + b*y^2
with functions and variables on both sides of the = sign.
As you typed equations into the Equation Window, all the variables
you used were automatically collected in a Variables Window, where
you could either assign values to them, if they were intended to be
inputs, or leave them unassigned if they were intended to be
outputs. There was full editing in both windows, and a simple
procedure to step any of the input variables through a sequence of
values or a range with controlled limits and step size.
When you had everything entered, you clicked a "SOLVE" button and
the program implicitly solved the complete set of equations using
the specified inputs to find all the unknown outputs, assuming you
had enough equations to determine a solution. No programming or
worrying about how to do the iterations was involved. If the input
contained a sequence of values, the output could be a table of
outputs versus inputs, or an auto-scaled plot of any variable
versus any other variable. The program had all the usual
capabilities for Saving and Opening sets of equations, exporting
results, printing results, and so on, and the whole system seemed
to work beautifully.
It seemed to me this program was obviously going to be the analog
for the scientific and engineering world of the spreadsheet for the
business and financial world -- the VisiCalc for the slide rule
set. I would have sworn that it would spread like wildfire -- I
had visions of students doing problem assignments with zero
brainpower by just typing in all the equations in the textbook and
values for all the known variables, and letting SOLVE find all the
unknowns.
Instead, this version of TK/Solver! was never widely distributed
and now seems to have disappeared completely (I gather there were
commercial difficulties with the software firm involved). More
surprisingly, no major competitors have appeared, even though this
would seem to have been a natural, and even though versions of
TK/Solver! exist for other machines, e.g. for hp desktop machines.
The only similar program I know of for the Mac is Borland's
"Eureka", which seemed to me to be a poorer-quality version of what
I remember seeing in Germany, and which does not seem to have had
much success either.
Of course Mathematica and other considerably more complex programs
are becoming available now, though Mathematica is very much more
expensive and requires a fully loaded Mac II. But why did
TK/Solver! or some similar program for the Mac never take off the
way spreadsheets did? Are there just a lot more business and
financial spreadsheet customers than scientific and engineering
customers out there? Or was it just a fluke that this idea did not
get picked up by others and spread more widely? Even with
Mathematica today, I'll still like to have a small, simple,
inexpensive TK/Solver! descendent to run on my Mac Plus. What
happened?
--------
A. E. Siegman siegman@sierra.stanford.edu
A. E. Siegman siegman@sierra.stanford.edu
------------------------------
End of Info-Mac Digest
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