Info-Mac-Request@SUMEX-AIM.STANFORD.EDU (The Moderators) (03/14/89)
Info-Mac Digest Mon, 13 Mar 89 Volume 7 : Issue 50
Today's Topics:
'PICT' to X Bitmap converter.
Acct'ing software for pub. co.
Canvas 2.0
Crunched Shell?
Exittoshell for Mac SE
Help needed with system error ID=12
Jasmine's Directprint
Jasmine DirectPrint
Mac II Error Codes
Preditor 1.0 Demo
PrintField xcmd
Soft Step
Sound manager
SU-Mac/IP and /MH
Transferring 1-2-3 files to a mac (WKS format?) [questions about excel]
WindowList 1.21
Wingz unsmooth contour charts
Wingz user interface problems (long)
Your Info-Mac Moderators are Lance Nakata, Jon Pugh, and Bill Lipa.
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----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Sat, 11 Mar 89 19:05:10 -0500
From: earleh@eleazar.dartmouth.edu (Earle R. Horton)
Subject: 'PICT' to X Bitmap converter.
This is XBitmap, a utility program I wrote to convert
Macintosh 'PICT' files, such as those created by MacDraw, into
bitmap files suitable for use with X Window System programs. It
can also be used to view X Bitmap files, view 'PICT' files, and
to save an image as a 'PICT' file. As a 'PICT' viewer, the
program is moderately useful even to those who have no dealings
with the X Window system (lucky dogs!)
This program exists to fill a gap in Jef Poskanzer's
"Portable Bitmap Toolkit" (pbm), which can convert a number of
formats to and from MacPaint files, but which has no way of
accessing 'PICT' files. Unfortunately for portability, I am
neither smart enough nor patient enough to write a portable C
program which can parse 'PICT' files on a non-Macintosh
computer. Therefore, I decided to let the Mac ToolBox call
DrawPicture() do all the dirty work, and wrote the program as a
Macintosh application. [HW]ell, chances are that if you have
'PICT' files, then you have a Macintosh to view them on.
This program is a first effort in writing a graphics
converter-filter program, and has a lot of shortcomings:
Saved 'PICT' files really contain a BitMap wrapped up in a
Picture. If you load an Object-Oriented 'PICT' file into
XBitmap, and then print out a 'PICT' file, all of the objects
are lost. You get the same image, but it can no longer be
scaled attractively, nor can separate objects be manipulated by
a drawing program.
Editing functions are non-existent. I just wanted a
converter. Although the program does allow you to view an
image, I included this mainly for debugging.
X format Bitmap files are huge. They should be compressed
before uploading them to your X client machine. Note: "Bitmap"
is correct for X, "BitMap" is correct for Macintosh, "bitmap" is
correct in the general case. X Bitmap is probably the worst
non-Mac bitmap format I could have chosen, but since I currently
do a lot of work on a machine running X Windows, and I just HAD
to have a certain MacDraw document as my backdrop on this
machine, I wrote the program this way.
The only bitmap format supported is "X Bitmap." Those
desiring to create other formats, e.g. Sun raster, could convert
first to X Bitmap, upload the file, then run pbm to get whatever
other format you desire. This is, admittedly, inconvenient.
The program is free. In lieu of releasing "versions" of it
with increasing version number, I plan to upload the source code
next, and wash my hands of it. I am sending the compiled
version now for the benefit of those with neither the
inclination nor the ability to compile C programs on the
Macintosh (more lucky dogs!)
Earle R. Horton. 23 Fletcher Circle, Hanover, NH 03755--
Graduate student, scientific programmer.
He who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is not fit for
the kingdom of winners. In any case, 'BACK' doesn't work.
[Archived as /info-mac/util/xbitmap.hqx; 29K
/info-mac/source/c-xbitmap.shar; 27K]
------------------------------
Date: Mon 13 Mar 89 12:17:55-PST
From: Brodie Lockard <I.ISIMO@lear.stanford.edu>
Subject: Acct'ing software for pub. co.
I'm posting this for a friend. Please reply to the net or directly to me.
Thanks in advance.
We are looking for an accounting package for a publishing company that sells
textbooks and videotapes, along with trade books, to bookstores and universities
in the United States, Australia and Canada. We must keep track of several books
and eleven videotapes with various different discounts, according to quantities
ordered. We also must keep track of royalties to authors, credits to bookstores
>From previous returns, postage, numbers of books to one university that might be
serviced by several different bookstores, and professors at those universities
using the books. We would want the information posted on an invoice to be
automatically entered in the university account and in the bookstore account,
with the information going to a "ledger sheet" for each bookstore that would be
tallied at the end of the month for a balance sheet. We also would need to enter
returns and credits to the bookstore accounts.
We have an average number of 2500 bookstores and 350 universities that we must
keep track of. We would also want the address information on the bookstores
mergeable into mailing lists.
We would need an ongoing inventory of each book and videotape and want to search
out each book/video amount on hand. We would also need to search out accounts
receivable individually and collectively.
We would want to print out monthly statements of accounts due.
We are working with a Mac SE with a 45 megabyte hard disk.
We would need to print out the invoices, the statements and a monthly balance
sheet
Brodie Lockard
I.ISIMO@LEAR.STANFORD.EDU
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 13 Mar 89 10:52:23 EDT
From: Norbert Mueller <K360171%AEARN.BITNET@forsythe.stanford.edu>
Subject: Canvas 2.0
Hello,
just before we went out to buy Canvas 2.0 a visitor here wanted to print his
Canvas files on our ImageWriter LQ in color. While color worked Ok there were
big problems with text on the LQ. Has anybody had similar experience, or is
there a known fix to this behavior (wrong character spacing)?
We know it works with LaserWriters.
Thanks for any comments.
Norbert Mueller
Institute of Chemistry
Johannes Kepler University
A-4040 LINZ
AUSTRIA
------------------------------
Date: Sun, 12 Mar 89 16:23 EST
From: JURGEN E BOTZ <BOTZ@ecs.umass.edu>
Subject: Crunched Shell?
A couple of months ago, I saw a message posted to one of the digests that
the "Crunched Shell" collection of C source objects was available and in
the public domain. Could someone out there please post this to the info-
mac archives..?
Also, is it possible that someone could post the latest versions of ResEdit
and Macsbug? Or does apple frown on such activity now? Do we care?
Thanx in Advance...
Jurgen E Botz (Botz@UMAECS)
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 11 Mar 89 08:51:21
From: <LANGOWSKI%FREMBL51.BITNET@cunyvm.cuny.edu>
Subject: Exittoshell for Mac SE
The proper way to call exittoshell for ANY Mac is to type the following
two lines in the mini-debugger:
SM 0 A9F4
G 0
This will put an _Exittoshell trap instruction into location 0 and jump to it.
Always safe, and doesn't rely on absolute ROM addresses.
-jl-
------------------------------
Date: Sun, 12 Mar 89 21:29 N
From: <KRAALING%HWALHW50.BITNET@forsythe.stanford.edu>
Subject: Help needed with system error ID=12
Dear net,
About two weeks ago we installed system 6.02 on our MacII's (2 Mb). The system
however does not run without problems. In some occasions the Mac crashes
with an id=12 (unimplemented core routine error). This happens sometimes
when compiling FORTRAN code with Absoft 2.3 compiler and when changing
the message icon while using the Broadcast utility. Who can help us out
with this nasty thing ? Any help is greatly appreciated.
Daniel van Kraalingen
Department of Theoretical Production Ecology
Agricultural University of Wageningen
The Netherlands
kraalingen@hwalhw50.bitnet
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 10 Mar 89 14:32:52 PST
From: decwrl!sun!tc.fluke.COM!moriarty@labrea.stanford.edu (Jeff Meyer)
Subject: Jasmine's Directprint
In article <8903092311.AA06365@sumex-aim.stanford.edu> Greeny writes:
>Has anyone out there used, or heard anything good/bad about Jasmine's new
>"laserprinter" the DirectPrint?
>
>Problems, advantages, etc...
There was a demo of it the other night at the Seattle Mac dBUG meeting. I
can give you a breakdown of it's good/bad points (mostly from calling and
talking to Jasmine -- the presentation was one of the worst I've ever seen.
More on that later...).
GOOD:
* Runs at about the speed of a LaserWriter II NTX, but at the price of a
LW II NT. RISC architecture is the reason.
* Uses a liquid crystal shutter -- no rotating mirrors. Sharper, clearer
images (we tested a few things, and this seems to be the case, though
the difference wasn't as apparent to me as it was to some of my
companions who are graphic designers).
* Very lightweight and small.
* Standard LaserWriter font set comes with it (though they're not made by
Adobe, they're Bitstream fonts).
* "100% PostScript Compatable" We didn't get a chance to test this with
some complex SuperPaint documents, but they were taking all comers up
front, and nobody's stuff bombed.
BAD:
* Doesn't work with Adobe downloadable fonts. This is supposedly one of
the reasons things are so cheap -- no Adobe licensing fees. This isn't
a problem if you haven't invested in Adobe Font libraries (Bitstream
makes the same fonts for a good deal less $$, I understand from my G.D.
friends), but if you *have* bought into Adobe, it's a major drawback.
* Doesn't work with labels, transparencies or envelopes, according to the
Product Manager, just standard size paper (I don't know about legal
size, though).
* It's "new technology", i.e. the first one of the bunch. This wouldn't
worry me, but...
... the presentation that the Product Manager gave was so apologetic that I
was wondering whether this thing was buggy or not (he described it as "the
Mac 128K of LaserWriters", and kept talking about a) the bugs they'd had in
developing it and b) how they were working hard on the second generation of
LQS laserprinters). Two co-workers from Fluke who had come to see the demo,
and were thinking of buying one, didn't come away with a very comfortable
description of the product, and they both purchased Apple LW II NTs the next
day...
So I guess the conclusion is that it seems to be a very nice box for a lot
of people's needs, but from the presentation (and the presentation alone --
it seemed to be working alright), I'm a bit nervous about the machinary.
"For the love of
Jesus, Mr. Chiun."
"Now you've
done it."
"For Jesus? Oh, no.
We never got a
day's work from Him."
----
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! <*>
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 11 Mar 89 12:37 PDT
From: "BRIAN KLAAS, CH3 POLE J7, MAILSTOP CH3-69" <BKLAAS%CH3@sc.intel.com>
Subject: Jasmine DirectPrint
HOWDY!
I recently got some information on the QUME CrystalPrint Publisher, and I
beleive both are the same (but no guarantees) seeing as QUME is a huge
printer manufacturer, and, well, Jasmine just plain is not.
Marking Engine
Casio LCS-130
Processor
WEITEK XL-8200, a 32-bit, RISC architecture, raster image processor.
(I beleive I heard that it operates at 4 MHz?????)
Memory
Memory
1.5 Meg ROM, 3 Meg RAM
INTERFACES
Appletalk, RS-232, and centronics parallel
SIZE
15.7"W x 13.4"D x 9.1"h (35.2 lbs)
Fonts
Bitstream Dutch (times equivalent) (how close??? not sure)
Bitstream Swiss (Helvetica)
Courrier
Symbol
ITC Avante Garde Gothic
ITC Bookman
New Cent. Schoolbook
Bitstream Swiss Narrow (you guess it...New Helivitica Narrow)
Zaph Calligraphic (Palatino)
ITC Zaph Chancery
ITC ZAPH Dingbats
Printing Protocal
PostScript-compatable set (how compatable???? I just don't know)
Other
Allows downloadable fonts, says solid blacks (don't all print manufacturers?)
I have sent back for some sample printouts, but have not heard anything yet,
also do not know if it needs its own driver, or uses apples. (possible
incompatabilities in the future)
I will relay more information as I find it.
Brian Klaas
Bklaas%ch3%sc.intel.COM
BKLAAS%CH3%sc.INTEL.COM@relay.cs.NET
Disclaimer: No one beleives what I say anyway, so why should you?
------------------------------
Date: 13 Mar 89 10:57 EDT
From: Joe_Murphy.CAC.CAC@a.darpa.mil
Subject: Mac II Error Codes
Is there a reference for the error codes that appear when you get the
sad Mac icon on a Mac II? They are in hex and the ones on the Mac II are
different from the older Macs. Also, on the older Macs you could do a
memory test by pushing the interrupt button before it booted. On the Mac
II when you does this it only beeps (actually it kind of plays a little
song). I cannot find a reference to these in Inside Mac or the Macintosh
Hardware Reference Guide.
Help Please!
Joe Murphy
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 9 Feb 89 12:58:53 pst
From: tomc@pdx.MENTOR.COM (Tom Carstensen)
Subject: Preditor 1.0 Demo
Preditor 1.0 is the complete programming editor for the Macintosh.
Some of its main features are: Tags (finds routine and type definiions)
True Rectangular Editing, Text Collapsing, Macros, Unlimited Undo/Redo,
integrated with MPW (marks and document positioning), 6 language support
(bolds reserved words, understands comment and quote delimeters, etc).
Grep-like searching, Complete tab support (example: convert all tabs except
those in comments), Excellent window management w/ Multifinder, and more.
Preditor is scheduled to be commerically released Febrary 17, 1989.
Preditor 1.0 Demo, Evatac Software, Copyright 1988,89.
[Archived as /info-mac/demo/preditor.hqx; 150K]
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 13 Mar 89 09:00 EDT
From: <PJORGENS%COLGATEU.BITNET@forsythe.stanford.edu>
Subject: PrintField xcmd
Greetings,
Has anyone out there gotten the PrintField xcmd (from Kevin Calhoun?) to print
more than one page? We are trying to use it to print a lengthy field to
AppleTalk ImageWriters. It prints a full page (if the field is that long) and
then stops. It exhibits the same behavior printing to the LaserWriter and
regular (direct connect) imagewriter.
I have also tried a printfield xcmd from Mark Scherfling which allows font,
size, and attribute specification, but it doesn't work at all (with AppleTalked
ImageWriters).
Any Idea?
Thanks,
Peter Jorgensen
Microcomputer specialist
Colgate University - Hamilton, NY 13346
AppleLink - U0523
BITNET - PJORGENSEN@COLGATEU
tel - 315-824-1000 ext 742
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 13 Mar 89 10:25 EST
From: "Thomas R. Blake" <TBLAKE@bingvaxb.cc.binghamton.edu>
Subject: Soft Step
Folks,
A couple of weeks ago, I asked for information on the Soft Step memory
upgrades. I got a number of requests for any information I received.
Well, I received no information. (Sorry).
Tom Blake
P.S. For those who may have missed the original message, Soft Step is a line of
memory upgrades which consist of SIMM's with 1 or More SIMM sockets built on to
them so that upgraders need not throw out their original chips. I.E. one
product comes with .75M worth of RAM. You put you .25M SIMM onto this SIMM,
and it becomes a 1M SIMM.
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 13 Mar 89 09:28:09 CST
From: CB Lih <CL06076%UAFSYSB.BITNET@forsythe.stanford.edu>
Subject: Sound manager
Hello, I'm passing this question along for a client of mine. He would
like to see some C source code that utilizes the soundmanager toolbox
routine. We would appreciate it if someone could send, or direct me to,
some sample code. Thanks,
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
=---> CB Lih <---= "Picked up for questioning."
Macintosh Support
BITNET: CL06076@UAFSYSB AppleLink: U0669 Phone: 501-575-2905
US Mail: ADSB 220, University of Arkansas
155 Razorback Road, Fayetteville, AR 72701, USA
------------------------------
Date: Sun, 12 Mar 89 11:20:06 EST
From: Richard Muller <rlm@camp.hampshire.edu>
Subject: SU-Mac/IP and /MH
Do these packages work for Macs connected to Unix mail hosts via
a Kinetics FastPath box? Other LocalTalk/EtherNet boxes?
Richard Muller
Hampshire College
Amherst MA 01002
rmuller%hampvms.bitnet@mitvma.mit.edu
rlm@camp.hampshire.edu
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 11 Mar 89 23:52:59 EST
From: Jordan Hayes <jordan@cs.columbia.edu>
Subject: Transferring 1-2-3 files to a mac (WKS format?) [questions about excel]
Hi,
I have a MacIIx with a PC-5.25" drive, and i'm able, using Apple File
Exchange to read and write files of a few formats, but I can't seem to
get WKS files to work in Excel. Every reference I have seen to this
says that Excel "knows how" to read WKS files, and indeed it can
*write* to that format, but the Open File dialog box does not display
WKS files I copy over from my PC. Is there a problem with using the
"default translator" in AFE for WKS files? Is there a special
translator for this? Is it available PD? Am I just doing something
stupid?
Thanks.
/jordan
Jordan Hayes
CitiCorp, NA
(guest of Columbia University)
------------------------------
Date: 12 Mar 1989 04:32 EST
From: mystone@sol.engin.umich.edu
Subject: WindowList 1.21
WindowList is an INIT that allows the user to pop up a menu of open windows
by command-clicking in the title of the current window. This allows for
easy access to windows that are totally obscured by windows in front of it.
WindowList carries a Shareware price tag of $5.
-- Dean Yu,
Author
[Archived as /info-mac/init/windowlist.hqx; 7K]
------------------------------
Date: Sun, 12 Mar 89 22:25:08 DNT
From: Jakob Nielsen Tech Univ of Denmark <DATJN%NEUVM1.BITNET@forsythe.stanford.edu>
Subject: Wingz unsmooth contour charts
Does anybody know how to get completely unsmoothed contour charts in
Wingz? I have tried to select the object/chart info command and
unchecking smooth, but it still seems to do some kind of interpolation
of the values. A related issue is that the legend contains patterns
for a continuous range of values while my data only has three discreete
values.
I want a contour chart which retains one square for each point in the original
data.
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 13 Mar 89 17:00:28 DNT
From: Jakob Nielsen Tech Univ of Denmark <DATJN%NEUVM1.BITNET@forsythe.stanford.edu>
Subject: Wingz user interface problems (long)
I bought Wingz a few days ago and discovered the following user interface
problem while trying out the program:
I had generated a bar chart and tried to change the scale of an axis:
Select the axis and choose the Axes>Scale Info... command from the
Graph menu. Unfortunately I entered some erroneous numbers into the
resulting dialog box which meant that upon clicking OK, my chart
disappeared and was replaced with the error message
Scale min must be < max.
This message is fine in itself (precise, not condemning of the
user error, and almost constructive) but unfortunately
it overpaints the entire graph area. Now, if I had immediately
reissued the Graph>Axes>Scale Info... menu command, my axis would
still have been selected and I would have been able to change the
scale min value. However (like the stupid user I am) I panicked
and clicked elsewhere first before going to the menu. This meant
that the axis was no longer selected and therefore could not
be changed. And since the error message overpaints the entire
graph area, I could not click on the axis to select it...
As a result, I was now in a user interface deadlock, where I could
not select the axis to remove the error before the error had already
been removed; but at the same time I could not remove the error
without selecting the axis first.
Another problem is not so much a user interface problem for the
interactive user of Wingz as is is a user interface problem for the
"user" of the information generated by Wingz (e.g. a reader of output
>From the program).
The problem is that you can generate graphs containing several pie
charts which are then scaled relative to the size of the values
they represent. All very nice until you realize that the scaling is
done by making the *radius* of the circles proportional to the underlying
values rather than making the *areas* of the circles proportional to
those values.
Of course anybody with a minimum understanding of geometry will immediately
realize that this means that the areas of the pie charts are proportional
to the *square* of the underlying values. Usually it is the
area of a circle which is used to estimate its "worth" by eye
(just consider how you would estimate how many people could be served
>From a real pie) and this again means that the graphs generated by
Wingz can be misleading for the casual, non-mathematician viewer.
------------------------------
End of Info-Mac Digest
******************************