Info-Mac-Request@SUMEX-AIM.STANFORD.EDU (The Moderators) (02/16/89)
Info-Mac Digest Wed, 15 Feb 89 Volume 7 : Issue 33
Today's Topics:
32 x 32 background pattern
3D input device for Mac II?
Benchmarks comparing Apples & IBM's
DataDesk keyboard
Displaying Postscript
External Floppy Drive w/MacII
horoscope program
Logout -- Fantastic shutdown utility
MacEnvy 1.0 CDEV
MacEyes - A MultiFinder Toy
MidiMerger 1.0
More pictures
SCSI Reset kludge
Sounds in MicrosoftQuickbasic
Status of FzzPlot
Systems for the Visually Impared
Three Button mouse
TOPS/CG incompatible?
virtual and FullWrite Professional ar incompatible
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----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: 5 Feb 89 12:00:36 GMT
From: pa1087@sdcc19.UCSD.EDU
Subject: 32 x 32 background pattern
[32 x 32 background pattern]
I've wanted to post this for a while. This is what I use as my
standard background pattern for my mac II. It's a lot nicer than
the 8x8 the control panel only lets you have.
-Cris
[Archived as /info-mac/util/32x32-background-pattern.hqx; 3K]
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 15 Feb 89 09:21 EDT
From: "RCSDY::YOUNG"@gmr.com
Subject: 3D input device for Mac II?
I seem to recall discussion of a 3D input device for the Macintosh, that
allowed input of x,y,z points from a solid object, but I can find nothing
listed in any of my Mac buyer's guides. Does anyone have the name of the
company that might make such a device?
YOUNG@GMR.COM (csnet or arpanet)
YOUNG%GMR.COM@CSNET-RELAY.CSNET (other)
313-986-1471
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 15 Feb 89 16:15:23 EST
From: Susan Grajek <GRAJEK%YALEVM.BITNET@mitvma.mit.edu>
Subject: Benchmarks comparing Apples & IBM's
At the risk of being told that comparing Apples & IBM's is like comparing
apples & oranges, I'm looking for benchmarks that compare the performance
Apples & IBM microcomputers. If anyone has such benchmarks or specific
references to some, I would appreciate your posting the information.
------------------------------
Date: Wed 15 Feb 89 13:41:40-PDT
From: Rob Reesor <REESOR@intellicorp.com>
Subject: DataDesk keyboard
I'm curious if users of the DataDesk Mac-101 find it useful.
Rob Reesor
IntelliCorp
-------
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 15 Feb 89 23:28:09 BST
From: Paul Sutton <pcs%ELECENG.BRADFORD.AC.UK@forsythe.stanford.edu>
Subject: Displaying Postscript
Hello,
I have postscript files from various sources (Mac, IBM and
hand-written) and would like to display them graphically on the
screen.
Then I found out that Adobe Illustrator uses postscript to store its
graphics displays, so wouldn't it be possible to read in an existing
PS file, and it would display it graphically?
Unfortunately this doesn't seem to work. Looking at the AI files, they
have a lot of prologue statements and from the manual, it seems that
AI's description language isn't really postscript. Incidently, the PS
files I have been trying to display print out perfectly on the
laserwriter. I have tried various things like surrounding this PS with
Adobe Illustrator prologue and trailers. I have read the PS section of
the AI manual, and this seems to confirm that AI using a different
version of PS to save its own files.
My question is - it there a way of reading PS files into AI and
displaying them? Or is there a utility (preferably PD) that converts
normal PS into AI type PS? Or, going back to the original problem, is
there any other way of displaying PS?
Thanks,
Paul.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Paul Sutton | JANET: pcs@brad.marvin
Dept. of Electrical Engineering, | EARN/BITNET: pcs@marvin.brad.ac.uk
University of Bradford, Bradford, |
West Yorkshire, BD7 1DP, UK | Phone (home): +44.274.726263
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 15 Feb 89 02:35:48 EST
From: Gregor_Rittinger@um.cc.umich.edu
Subject: External Floppy Drive w/MacII
I just got a MacII in my office, right in the place it always
should have been. There's just one problem: it takes too much
space! I really want to have it under the desk, with just the
monitor and keyboard on top. However, when I tried that, I found
it really a pain to keep trying to use the floppy drive. After I
had formulated this great plan to put an external floppy on the
desk, too, I realized that that was not possible. How lame!
Does anyone know the solution to this problem? It seems to me that
all you'd need is the right cable to run between the floppy D-19
and the connector in the Mac. Is this possible?
It would probably be difficult, but I'm willing to try to make the
cable. Where does one get the info on the pinouts? Hardware?
Gregor Rittinger
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 15 Feb 89 16:13:06 EMT
From: EDMSL%NOBERGEN.BITNET@cunyvm.cuny.edu
Subject: horoscope program
Does anyone know a program that calculates the planetary positions
and houses needed for making horoscopes? The program should run on
a Macintosh.
Please reply personally to :
Stein Haakon Lygre:
EDMSL at NOBERGEN on BITNET.
------------------------------
Date: 9 Feb 89 16:00:24 GMT
From: johnr@runx.ips.oz.au (John Rotenstein)
Subject: Logout -- Fantastic shutdown utility
[Logout -- Fantastic shutdown utility]
Logout will tell you how much you've been using your Mac. Simply drop
it into you System Folder and the next time you ShutDown or Restart,
you'll receive the bad news.
Logout may be configured from the Control Panel.
Distributed under the HappiWare System:
IF YOU LIKE IT, REMEMBER TO SMILE!
johnr@runx.ips.oz.au (John Rotenstein)
[Archived as /info-mac/cdev/logout.hqx; 19K]
------------------------------
Date: 8 Feb 89 12:00:53 GMT
From: thecloud@dhw68k.cts.com (Ken McLeod)
Subject: MacEnvy 1.0 CDEV
[MacEnvy 1.0 CDEV]
MacEnvy is a freeware cdev ("Control Panel Device") that displays
detailed information about the hardware/software environment it is
running in. With machines being upgraded to various levels of
"in-between" functionality, MacEnvy is useful to quickly determine the
status of one's system variables. Items currently described include
machine type, total amount of installed RAM, processor type,
coprocessor type, presence of PMMU, monitor size, monitor resolution,
graphics model, keyboard type, attached storage devices, presence of
SCSI port, type and size of parameter RAM (clock chip), ROM size and
version, System and Finder versions, version of MultiFinder (if
present), file system in use, name & size of default volume, number of
files and free space on default volume, last backup date, name of
current DA shell, user name (from Chooser), currently selected printer,
AppleTalk driver version number (if loaded), and highest available
version number of the SysEnvirons call. There is also a minimalistic
implementation of Conway's "Game of Life" built in, "for your casual
amusement." Documentation is included.
========== ==========================================
Ken McLeod -------- uucp: felix!dhw68k!thecloud@ics.uci.edu
========== InterNet: thecloud@dhw68k.cts.com
==========================================
[Archived as /info-mac/cdev/macenvy.hqx; 24K]
------------------------------
Date: 12 Feb 89 20:01:23 GMT
From: sinclair@cs.glasgow.ac.uk (Duncan Sinclair)
Subject: MacEyes - A MultiFinder Toy
[MacEyes - A MultiFinder Toy]
Here is MacEyes.
There are three motivations for use:
1) A trendy wee MultiFinder utility which watches over your shoulder
at what you are doing and reports back to the Boss.
2) If you cannot find your mouse in your 6 screen Mac II display,
have no fears, follow MacEyes line of vision to find it.
3) It shows that your Mac is still MultiFinding smoothly.
Tested with System 5.0 & 6.0.1 only on a Mac+ & SE, I am sure it works
on a II.
Enjoy!
--
Duncan Sinclair Try one sinclair@cs.glasgow.ac.uk
Computing Science Student of these sinclair@uk.ac.glasgow.cs
...!mcvax!ukc!glasgow!sinclair
Witty Phrase : "Infamy! Infamy! They've all got it in for me!" - Carry On.
[Archived as /info-mac/app/maceyes.hqx; 12K]
------------------------------
Date: 10 Feb 89 00:00:30 GMT
From: nick@lfcs.ed.ac.uk (Nick Rothwell)
Subject: MidiMerger 1.0
[MidiMerger 1.0]
This is a StuffIt file containing Lightspeed C sources, an LSC library,
and assembly sources for driving a MIDI interface from a Macintosh. The
original assembly-code module was written by Kirk Austin, and is PD.
The higher-level MIDI merging routines are by me, and PD also.
The StuffIt archive contains a README file which describes the modules
and documents the procedures provided.
--
Nick Rothwell, Laboratory for Foundations of Computer Science, Edinburgh.
nick@lfcs.ed.ac.uk <Atlantic Ocean>!mcvax!ukc!lfcs!nick
[Archived as /info-mac/source/c-midimerger.hqx; 44K]
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 15 Feb 89 20:23:40 EDT
From: ULMO031%FRORS12.BITNET@cunyvm.cuny.edu
Subject: More pictures
I'm looking for images for the Mac II. Especially GIF pictures
because I know there are plenty of them on Compuserve I think.
Recently, a moderator has posted a few pictures...Nice. Would it
be possible to go on and have in <info-mac> a lot of them ? I mean
only the nice pictures....Those that look great.
Another question : CVirtual sounds like a nice product. I believe
Apple will soon make something that looks like Virtual. The only
problem is : Virtual can work with 2Mb, but will Apple product work
with that few ? And when will I see it ? (By the way, what is the
address of the one that seel Virtual ?)
Alain Raynaud <ULMO031@FRORS12.BITNET>
[We'll take any GIF pictures that aren't copyrighted. -Bill]
------------------------------
Date: 15 Feb 89 1403 PST
From: Tovar <TVR@sail.stanford.edu>
Subject: SCSI Reset kludge
The Macintosh Technical Note #96 (SCSI Bugs) has an answer for this:
> In the process of looking for a bootable SCSI device, the boot code
> issues a SCSI bus reset before each attempt to read block 0 from a
> device. If the read fails for any reason, the boot code goes on to
> the next device. SCSI devices which implement the Unit Attention
> condition as defined by the Revision 17B SCSI standard will fail to
> boot in this case. (...) If no other device is bootable, the boot
> code will eventually cycle back to the same SCSI device ID, reset
> the bus (causing Unit Attention in the drive again), and try to read
> block 0 (which fails for the same reason).
We had a problem like that on an older MacPlus (actually an upgraded Mac), and
ended up using a solution recommended by the company which packaged the drive
(i forget who actually manufactured it). I'm not sure i recommend the
solution myself, particularly if you have more than one device on your SCSI
bus, but perhaps it might help someone out. They suggested disconnecting the
SCSI RESET line. There's an easy way of doing this, which i will explain,
but you'll have to look up in I-M IV which pin to do this to, so i can be
sure that people who attempt this will at least have some vague understanding
of electricity (and also because i'm lazy).
Go down to your friendly neighborhood electronics supply (e.g. someone better
than Radio Shack) and get two 25D ("EIA") connectors, one of each sex. Make
sure one is the solder type and the other intended for wire-wrap use (with
shorter tails if you have a choice). It doesn't matter which is of which sex
as long as they are different. Cut the off most of the wire-wrap pin
corresponding to SCSI reset. Then, insert the remaining 24 wire-wrap pins
into the corresponding solder connections of the other sex of socket, and
solder all 24 pins. If you got the shorter type of wire-wrap connector, this
will be reasonably strong mechanically, but others may want to improvise.
By the way, the same technique works great for fixing things up when a
manufacturer gets confused about the RS232 standard. Cut the confused pins
in half. Wrap on one side and solder the other. One usually swaps TD&RD,
RTS&CTS, and DTR&DSR. Solder the remaining pins. Other times (DIN8 adapters
in particular), RTS/CTS don't support RTS/CTS. In that case, jumper these to
the other on each sex of connector and don't cross connect. Of course, these
hacks do not work with two connectors of the same sex.
--- Tovar
------------------------------
Date: 15 Feb 89 10:54:00 EST
From: "STC::EJN" <ejn%stc.decnet@stc10.ctd.ornl.gov>
Subject: Sounds in MicrosoftQuickbasic
I am interested in finding if (or how) I can put digitized sounds recorded with
MacRecorder (from Farallon) into callable routines from Quickbasic.
E. Nall
<EJN@ORNLSTC>
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 15 Feb 89 10:01:26 EST
From: siegel@harvard.harvard.edu (Rich Siegel)
Subject: Status of FzzPlot
It has been a long time since I've upgraded FzzPlot; the latest version
available is 7.2, and it's long out of date.
I am working on the next version,dubbed FzzPlot Prime. It offers
considerable improvements over both the old FzzPlot and over Cricket Graph,
to wit:
- An integrated text editor for preparing data files. The text
editor can handle anything that can fit into memory (i.e. no 32K
limits).
- The graphing section has been enhanced and speeded up considerably;
it's about an order of magnitude faster than the previous FzzPlot,
and supports multiple graphed datasets, mixing of line and scatter
graphs, varying point marker styles, movable titles, use of the
mouse to format the graph on screen, and true WYSIWYG - a graph
can be displayed at full-page size, and scrolled to bring invisible
parts into view.
- graphs can be printed at full resolution on the LaserWriter.
- color is supported on machines so equipped.
- the user interface has been greatly improved.
I'm considering making the next stable alpha version publicly available,
subject to requests from the net.
R.
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 15 Feb 89 10:57:28 PST
From: PUGH@nmfecc.arpa
Subject: Systems for the Visually Impared
Someone requested information about systems for the visually impared a while
back and a friend gave me this company's name to post:
Telesensory Systems, Inc.
PO Box 7455
Mountain View, CA 94039
They apparently have been dealing with PC clones for quite some time and are
supposed to be very knowledgable. Good luck.
Jon
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 15 Feb 89 16:25:37 -0500
From: James J Dempsey <jjd@bbn.com>
Subject: Three Button mouse
Now that we have Mac products like X Windows (under A/UX or White Pine
Software's eXodus under MacOS), MacIvory, and MicroExplorer -- all of
which want a 3 button mouse -- is there anyone out there selling a
three button mouse for the Macintosh?
If so, is it compatible with all products which want a 3 button mouse
or is there currently no standard way to handle 3 buttons?
--Jim Dempsey--
BBN Communications
jjd@bbn.com (ARPA Internet)
..!{decvax, harvard, wjh12, linus}!bbn!jjd
------------------------------
Date: Wednesday, 15 February 1989 10:19am
From: zoda537@uta3081.cc.utexas.edu ("Josh Hayes")
Subject: TOPS/CG incompatible?
I'm posting this for a friend who is wealthy enough to have
enough computers to need TOPS. His network consists of four
Mac Pluses, three with hard drives (two Jasmine 20s, one Apple
20), and a Laserwriter II. When working on a document in
Cricket Graph, my friend opens a document to print it, then
when he closes it asks if he wants to save the changes. He
says yes, it then tells him that someone has written to the
file since he opened it, does he still want to save those
changes? He says no. It reverts to the first dialog box,
do you want to save changes, and so forth. After going around
this circle a couple times he gives in and says sure, save the
mysterious changes. Bomb id=02. The same application running
on a single Mac without TOPS prints fine. System is 6.0.2,
as far as I know no weird inits or anything (although they
do have vaccine and pyro running). Is there a record of
Cricket Graph not working with TOPS 2.0? It's the most
recent CG, I believe 1.2.....any help would be appreciated.
Please send e-mail to me, or post to the digest if it's of
general interest (I doubt it). Thanks!
Josh Hayes, Zoology Dept., University of Texas, Austin TX 78712
zoda537@uta3081.bitnet
j.hayes@uta3081.cc.utexas.edu
zoda537@uta3081.cc.utexas.edu
or drive out and tell me in person......
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 15 Feb 89 16:03:01 +0100
From: Sigurd Meldal <sigurd@eik.ii.uib.no>
Subject: virtual and FullWrite Professional ar incompatible
The subject line says it all: When I try to print in FWP while Virtual
is doing its thing the Mac bombs.
Whatever is it with the FWP programmers? The program looks clean, but
it seems to break whenever somebody comes up with a nifty init or
cdev.
Well, back to Word I guess (I fear).
Sigurd Meldal
Hard mail:
Department of Informatics | Arpa:sigurd@eik.ii.uib.no
Allegt. 55 | meldal@anna.stanford.edu
N - 5007 Bergen | Uucp: ...decwrl!glacier!shasta!meldal
Norway |
phone: +47 5 21 27 10
fax: +47 5 21 28 57
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End of Info-Mac Digest
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