SHULMAN@sdr.slb.com (Jeffrey Shulman) (12/09/88)
Date: Fri 9 Dec 88 08:45:00-EDT
From: Jeff Shulman <SHULMAN@SDR.SLB.COM>
Subject: Delphi Mac Digest V4 #23
To: Delphi-List: ;
Message-ID: <597678300.0.SHULMAN@SDR.SLB.COM>
Mail-System-Version: <VAX-MM(218)+TOPSLIB(129)@SDR.SLB.COM>
Delphi Mac Digest Friday, December 9, 1988 Volume 4 : Issue 23
Today's Topics:
RE: But I wanna use \ for myself!
6.0.2 and Macro Maker
SoftStep SIMMs?
re: Tempo II and INIT macros: Recommenda
re: Re: ShowINIT (was: Re: My 256K ROMs
Re-opening pictures (2 messages)
MPW Editor question (2 messages)
re: Low Memory Globals, a summary
re: Need a clever idea...
re: InitCursor
burning macs (2 messages)
RE: Usenet Mac Digest V4 #162 (2 messages)
RE: Usenet Mac Digest V4 #168
RE: Usenet Mac Digest V4 #169
MacTools 7.2 Bug
PEINT SOFT (3 messages)
word counter upgrade>
----------------------------------------------------------------------
From: DWOOD
Subject: RE: But I wanna use \ for myself! (Re: Msg 2628)
Date: 19-NOV 00:26 Programming Techniques
I have come up with two solutions to my \ problem. The first is to use
pascal strings: Str255. Unfortunately this is a bit awkward when you
are writting in C and you can't use many of the nice utilities for
reading and writting numbers to strings. The second solution is to use
option-\ which produces a << character.
Thanks to the Mac for extended ASCII! It doesn't look as good as \, but
it will be a lot easier to code. Here is one potential problem: what if
the user enters \ characters from the keyboard. Do you think I should
trap them and replace them with << characters? I could have this be a
feature that she/he can set on or off. I find myself tring to see if I
can get comercial programs that I know are wrtten in C to misbehave with
\ characters. VTPRO will simply replace bad input with some defaults.
------------------------------
From: DAVE_S
Subject: 6.0.2 and Macro Maker
Date: 19-NOV 12:43 Bugs & Features
Has anyone else encountered any problems using the MacroMaker INIT with
6.0.2. I had it in my system folder for a while but found that
multifinder was very touchy. Program crashes rarely allowed a return to
multifinder. After removing the macromaker INIT I found that the
performance of multifinder expecially after crashes to be much better.
Also, after an Excell crash, macromaker trashed its own file.
Dave Salmon
------------------------------
From: ALLBERY
Subject: SoftStep SIMMs?
Date: 19-NOV 22:07 Hardware & Peripherals
I just saw an ad for SoftStep SIMM memory for the Mac SE. These
critters are piggyback 256K SIMMs, not the expensive 1M SIMMs -- you
plug your existing SIMMs into the sockets on the SoftStep SIMMs and then
plug the SoftStep's into the Mac.
Question: Do they work as well in practice as they look? (I'm aware
that they would be obsoleted if I ever expanded past 2MB -- but most
probably I'll have gotten something else by then anyway, given that
future System releases probably won't work on an SE anyway.) As far as
I can tell, 256K memory is a lot cheaper than 1MB memory....
++Brandon
------------------------------
From: DDUNHAM
Subject: re: Tempo II and INIT macros: Recommenda (Re: Msg 27827)
Date: 21-NOV 01:18 Network Digests
>From: nghiem@ut-emx.UUCP (Alex Nghiem)
>Subject: Tempo II and INIT macros: Recommendations?
>I'm trying to create the equivalent of an MS-DOS AUTOEXEC.BAT file on the Mac.
I've always considered the INIT 31 mechanism to be the equivalent. Each
INIT file (or cdev) is like a line in autoexec.bat.
Tempo is probably the only true macro package, in that it's got
conditional execution. I don't recall that QuicKeys has startup time
sequences.
--
David Dunham "We've got the best government money can buy."
Maitreya Design
------------------------------
From: DDUNHAM
Subject: re: Re: ShowINIT (was: Re: My 256K ROMs (Re: Msg 27827)
Date: 21-NOV 01:19 Network Digests
>From: urlichs@iraun1.ira.uka.de (Matthias Urlichs)
>Subject: Re: ShowINIT (was: Re: My 256K ROMs aren't smart enough)
>If programmers would put their showINIT code into some separate
>resource we could actually upgrade to the new version...
Some of us do. (Of course, my startup icons already are in color...)
--
David Dunham "Efficiency is intelligent laziness."
Maitreya Design
------------------------------
From: DWOOD
Subject: Re-opening pictures
Date: 24-NOV 00:17 Programming Techniques
Since I am fearless at posting messages which reveal my 'hack' style of
programming here goes again: I am now working on recording a picture for
display on the screen. Don't worry, I have figured out how to record pictures
and display them. I have even managed to print them, with excellent results on
a LaserWriter. My probelem is this: I have a single picture that I am using to
repres]x; the content of a page. Periodically I would like to add new QD
elements to it. I read in IM that I can 'turn off' picture recording, but this
only works while the picture is being recorded. Question: How can you open an
existing picture and add elements to it? Do you have to open a new picture and
then draw the old one into it? This seems time consuming since the existing
picture is going to get larger and larger as the user adds things to it. Another approch would be to maintain a list of pictures that compose the whole page, but this seems cumbersome. I really only want to mess with one picture because when I need to up
date the screen I simply have to draw the single picture. It seems
much simpler to me. Is there some trick I can use to open an existing picture
and add stuff to it? Thanks again for putting up with my hairball progamming
problems. -Doug
------------------------------
From: DDUNHAM
Subject: RE: Re-opening pictures (Re: Msg 2639)
Date: 26-NOV 01:29 Programming Techniques
Off the top of my head, a single picture may not be the best design. Let's say
your picture contains 100 rectangles. The user opens the Alarm Clock, which is
a very small window, which only obscures 1 rect. When he closes the DA, you've
got to update that very small area. So you call DrawPicture, letting QuickDraw
clip to the updateRgn for you. This works, but it's real slow, since QuickDraw
has to draw all 100 rectangles, even tho all but 1 are clipped. If you didn't
combine everything into a single picture, you'd be able to test the coordinates
of each object, and only draw it if it's in the updateRgn. Admittedly, for
rectangles QuickDraw's probably faster at this, but you might be dealing with
more complex objects.
Separate objects also seems like it'd lend itself to layered objects.
You might be able to combine two PICTs by reading the tech note which describes
PICT format. This implies a minimal amount of opcode decoding, which I'd prefer
to stay away from. (Of course, you can include a DrawPicture inside a PICT
def...)
------------------------------
From: JEFFS
Subject: MPW Editor question
Date: 24-NOV 07:24 Macintosh Developers
There are times when debugging I want to effectively comment out a section of
code. For example I want to turn
program line 1
program line 2
into
#ifdef FOO
program line 1
program line 2
#endif
I want to do this be selecting the lines of code and issue a single replace
command. The problem is that I haven't figured out how to make the Replace
command imbed the selection in the replacement. I have come up with the
following macro that works:
alias HIDE 'Mark -y <opt-6> XYZZY "{Active}"; <opt-d>
replace <opt-j>XYZZY "#ifdef FOO<opt-d>n" "{Active}"; <opt-d>
replace XYZZY<opt-j> "#endif<opt-d>n" "{Active}"; <opt-d>
Unmark XYZZY "{Active}"'
but "Undo" will only undo the last replace. Has anyone figured out if it is
possible to do an embeded replace?
Jeff
------------------------------
From: MACEQUATION
Subject: RE: MPW Editor question (Re: Msg 2640)
Date: 27-NOV 13:45 Macintosh Developers
Dear Jeff,
Command substitution is the paradigm you seek. I think you will find the
solution pleasantly terse.
Regular expression tagging will not work because the current selection can not
be specified within a regular expression.
I have only tested it a little (as a menu command), but I would guess that it
will work anywhere within a context-free grammar. (though it may become
difficult to read because of the imbedded RETURNs)
Replace <opt-6> "#ifdef FOO<opt-d>n`Catenate
"{active}.<opt-6>"`<opt-d>n#endif<opt-d>n" "{active}"
The Catenate command can also be command substituted to define shell variables
from window selections.
Michael J Daniel
Daniel Scientific
------------------------------
From: DDUNHAM
Subject: re: Low Memory Globals, a summary (Re: Msg 27870)
Date: 30-NOV 03:44 Network Digests
>From: oster@dewey.soe.berkeley.edu (David Phillip Oster)
>Subject: Low Memory Globals, a summary
>>From darin@apple.com Wed Nov 2 20:35:44 1988
>>CurApName is unnecessary. Get the refNum of the application, and call
CurApName is the handiest global ever invented. How else can I tell which
program died under MultiFinder?
David Dunham "We've got the best government money can buy."
Maitreya Design
------------------------------
From: DDUNHAM
Subject: re: Need a clever idea... (Re: Msg 27899)
Date: 4-DEC-02:00: Network Digests
>From: spector@vx2.NYU.EDU (David HM Spector)
>Subject: Need a clever idea...
>I am writing and DA (and later an application) that I want the user to
>be able to add functionality to by adding some files containing code
>resources of some kind into the system folder
Read my DA article in the Jan 88 MacTutor. I called this "feature drivers,"
tho my article specifically dealt with implementing "format drivers," which
handle file format conversion for Acta.
David Dunham "Efficiency is intelligent laziness."
Maitreya Design
------------------------------
From: DDUNHAM
Subject: re: InitCursor (Re: Msg 27899)
Date: 4-DEC-02:01: Network Digests
>From: rj0z+@andrew.cmu.edu (Robert George Johnston, Jr.)
>Subject: InitCursor
>Does anybody know of anything that a call to InitCursor does except
>set the cursor to the standard Arrow?
Yes, it resets the cursor level, which makes the cursor visible if it wasn't.
David Dunham "If it doesn't have Undo, it's not a Mac program."
Maitreya Design
------------------------------
From: DRITTNER
Subject: burning macs
Date: 4-DEC-02:17: MUGS Online
Well, I've written about it and heard about it, but Friday was experience first
hand. I was going to demonstrate to a new Macker the benefits of telecommuni-
cating. As we sat down, I placed my fingers on the keyboard and immediately
smoke started to gush from the tops vents of my Mac. I have been known to type
some lines at record speed but I didn't think I was fast enough to make my Mac
smoke. Sure enough, the smoke got darker, sweeter in smell and the top of the
Mac turned yellow brown. I quickly turned it off - another Mac bites the dust.
In defense, it is a 512E,originally born as a 128. It was spinning for months
without a fan I might add, but it has taught me a lesson. My BBS at home is no
longer a 24 hour BBS. It will not be on while I'm at work or away. My home is
just a little more important. Hopefully this will serve as a warning to all Mac SYSOPS who, like me, have placed too much confidence in that little grey box.
Don
------------------------------
From: NWOLF
Subject: RE: burning macs (Re: Msg 27904)
Date: 4-DEC-03:08: MUGS Online
If your Mac was originally a 128 it's not a little grey (silver, platinum, etc.,
etc) box at all, but, oh well, almond, tan, beige, olive, what-have-you. Anyway,
these older 512s especially, have an inferior (and smaller) version of the
flyback transformer. One can easily tell if you have this smaller version: there
are 2 sets of holes for the pins to mount the flyback transformer on most power
boards for the older machines. If yours is mounted in the inner circle of holes,
then it is the kind that is more likely to crash and burn. The sturdier variety,
which mounts in the outer holes, also has a little arm which kind of extends out
and over the top of the transformer. It LOOKS like a stronger unit, even. If you
have one of the smaller, weaker transformers, it's probably not a good idea to
wait much longer to get it replaced. The presence or absence of a fan is not
assurance that the thing will not burn anyway. Many fans do not adequately vent
the case. And most do not draw cool air in from the top vents, especially the
one most proximate to this transformer. Rather, they exhaust the hot air through
them. I would submit that pushing heated air from your logic board(s) past the
hottest part of the power board is not an effective means of providing cooling.
There are several other parts which apple used to save a few cents and which are
likely to cause trouble. There are a couple of caps - don't remember the numbers
without looking - but they are somewhat fat squat little things which are
located in the upper left-hand corner of the board. These are also known to
overheat and die, although there is little fire hazard if they do so. There's
also a resistor which should be routinely replaced which is associated with the
same area of the board. I'll se if I can find the part numbers and the
recommended replacements. It's been a while since these things have come up, as
most people are running Plusses and SEs and this problem went away with the
512e, in which they used the beefier flyback transformer.
Neil
------------------------------
From: MACLAIRD
Subject: RE: Usenet Mac Digest V4 #162 (Re: Msg 27827)
Date: 4-DEC-17:25: Network Digests
>From: jln@eecs.nwu.edu (John Norstad)
>Subject: Viral Resources
>Date: 16 Nov 88 20:20:09 GMT
Having recently been bitten by nVIR (having recently gone to a dealer for
an update to HyperCard, which apparently was the vector), I have to note
that you omitted one small point:
nVIR patches CODE 0 in infected APPLs to point to CODE 256 resource. It
does not always do this; I think that the ones that were not patched had
only two or three CODE resources.
--
Laird J. Heal Programmers do it for money.
Delphi: MACLAIRD Hackers do it for fun.
MaBell: (603) 898-1406
------------------------------
From: NWOLF
Subject: RE: Usenet Mac Digest V4 #162 (Re: Msg 27907)
Date: 4-DEC-21:26: Network Digests
I believe there is a newer strain of nVIR about. From what I've heard it
operates somewhat differently than the original, though I'm not sure of the
specifics. If memory serves, the original either patched or created CODE 0 and
then created a high number CODE resource - usually 256, although I think there
was something about creating another, higher resource - say 264 - if 256 was
already present, which is extrememly unlikely. Other resources were also
created. Rumor has it that the new strain is not fooled by installing empty nVIR
resources in the system, and that it also messes with Apple's Rx as well as
Interferon and possibly other detection/eradication hacks.
If anyone has further information about this latest scourge I'd sure like to find
out more.
Neil
------------------------------
From: MACLAIRD
Subject: RE: Usenet Mac Digest V4 #168 (Re: Msg 27897)
Date: 4-DEC-17:27: Network Digests
>From: paryavi@harris.cis.ksu.edu (Saiid Paryavi)
>Subject: Help with Lisa
>Date: 29 Nov 88 21:40:34 GMT
>Organization: Kansas State University,
> Dept of Computing & Information Sciences
>I need help from someone who has experience with the Lisa.
>I have layed [sic] my hands on a Lisa and don't know anything about it. I
>think it is one of the earlier models, since it has two 5 1/4" drives
>and no 3 1/2". It does have 1 meg of RAM and a hard disk of unknown
>size!
You will have very great difficulty finding boot disks for the "Twiggy"
drives. Your cheapest shot would be to find someone with a Lisa in your
area and format the hard disk with their software. The Operating System
options would be: SCO Xenix, Lisa Office System, Lisa Pascal Workshop,
and MacWorks Plus, in order of worst to best. It would also be possible
to use MacWorks 3.0 either on a Lisa 2 or in conjunction with the Multi-
Port Install utility on a Lisa 2/10 with a parallel card.
I personally am located a little too far away from you to help you out. I
would guess, however, that your machine will run fine. The hardware is
really quite robust; the only problems I have had have been with the video
board (which I munged) and the ROMSwitcher I used to help munge the video.
You can get replacement drives from Sun Remarketing. They will sell you
a cage to slip into the drive bay, together with a replacement ROM. They
are also selling 30 MB hard drives and DS floppies, for a fair price. Tell
them you want to see if the machine works first, and they should be able to
get you a SS drive. You can also get MacWorks (3.0 or Plus) from them.
Another possible problem is that the hard disks can "lose factory format".
The ProFile controller has a built-in self-test. Sometimes it tests itself
without being connected to the Lisa, but normally you power the disk and then
turn the Lisa on shortly thereafter. A properly functioning drive will blink
quite deliberately for two or three minutes, apparently reading each track.
If your disk has lost factory format, after you power it up it should blink
about twice and then the drive light should stay on or off. The ProFile
controller expects very specific control information on the disk, and an
interleave of 7 or something like that: this is not at all to say speedy.
It still beats the pants off a floppy or the HD20.
Got any more questions?
--
Laird J. Heal The 1980's: the decade of hype.
P.O. Box 1485
Salem, NH 03079
(603) 898-1406
Delphi: MacLaird
Sorry no UUCP - but I'm a-working on it!
------------------------------
From: MACLAIRD
Subject: RE: Usenet Mac Digest V4 #169 (Re: Msg 27898)
Date: 4-DEC-17:30: Network Digests
>From: joseph@porthos.rutgers.edu (Seymour Joseph)
>Subject: MacXL compatible spreadsheet?
>Date: 1 Dec 88 22:21:57 GMT
>Organization: Rutgers Univ., New Brunswick, N.J.
>Some friends and I are using 1MB Macintosh XL computers at home. These
>are actually converted Lisa 2/5 systems. Can anyone recommend a good
>spreadsheet that runs on these beasties. Current versions of Excel
>don't, I don't expect WINGZ to work and I don't know of any others.
Get ahold of MacWorks Plus. It is Macintosh Plus emulation for the Lisa.
I would advise getting the double-sided floppy drive as well, and you can
also buy an internal hard disk drive.
In New York, Dafax Processing Corp. have been very active in the support of
the Lisa. However, they just returned my $15 update prepayment for MacWorks
Plus with no other comment; I will call on Monday to see why. They are in
Malba/Queens at (718) 746-8220. In my experience, Sam Neulinger, who runs
Dafax, is a rock-bottom decent businessman. He will try to talk you out of
what he thinks you don't need. He deserves support, as he has stood by the
Lisa during some very lean years. The toll-free number is (800) 782-7823.
The Lisa Shop, who have been a hardware and software developer, are now
moving from Minneapolis to Silicon Valley. I spoke with them on Friday,
and their new address is P.O. Box 969, Woodland, CA 95695. Their old
telephone number was (612) 874-8596, and I expect there will be a message
on that number with the new one. I sent them a card asking for a product
list, and I encourage you to do the same. They were in the middle of all
their moving as I called; it made me wish I were in Minnesota to pick up
all the pieces.
One of their products is a <=4MB RAM/(your chips) upgrade, and the move
apparently is in order to produce a 16MHz accellerator. There is also a
some kind of an external floppy interface card (and an Apple Hard Disk 20,
should you care to plug it in there). The Lisa Shop also have their own
version of MacWorks: it "should have all of the features of MacWorks Plus
and more" by January or February.
--
Laird J. Heal The 1980's: the decade of hype.
P.O. Box 1485
Salem, NH 03079
(603) 898-1406
Delphi: MACLAIRD
sorry no UUCP: but I'm a-working on it!
------------------------------
From: BRECHER
Subject: MacTools 7.2 Bug
Date: 6-DEC-13:11: Bugs & Features
MacTools 7.2 contains a bug that can cause a crash when Pyro! 3.1 is installed
(or possibly without Pyro! 3.1), when the Undelete Files menu item is chosen and
then the Save Deletes button is clicked. Technical description of the bug:
MacTools passes the contents of an uninitialized variable to SetPort. If it
doesn't crash, it's just luck; the presence of Pyro! 3.1 may happen to make
MacTools 7.2 unlucky (depending on which other INITs are installed). On my
system, the patch does not occur if TOPS is also installed, but does occur if
TOPS is not installed. With respect to the bug, this is just coincidence.
To fix the bug in MacTools 7.2, apply the following hexadecimal patch. If you
use MacTools to make the patch, be sure to patch a copy of the program instead
of patching the program that is actually running.
The patch is located in block 198 (C6 hexadecimal) of MacTools 7.2 at offset 70
hexadecimal bytes within the block:
old contents: 206E 0008 2050 3F10 206E 0008 2050
change to: 3F10 4868 000A 486E FFF8 A874 6004
Note for users of other patching utilities: the "old contents" is not a unique
pattern within the file; the instance to be patched is the second occurrance.
------------------------------
From: 2TOM
Subject: PEINT SOFT
Date: 6-DEC-23:49: Creative Pursuits
I pan to buy a paint program but I don't know what is the best (or better) paint
software. Do you have any suggestion? Thank you for your attention.--2tom
------------------------------
From: DDUNHAM
Subject: RE: PEINT SOFT (Re: Msg 27927)
Date: 7-DEC-21:33: Creative Pursuits
If the size of your painting doesn't need to be larger than a Mac screen, then
HyperCard is the best paint program around.
------------------------------
From: NWOLF
Subject: RE: PEINT SOFT (Re: Msg 27927)
Date: 7-DEC-22:57: Creative Pursuits
nothing like openin a can of worms... Which software you buy depends entirely
upon what you intend to do with it. For ordinary everyday and casual use, Full
Paint will fit the bill - MacPaint might even do for extremely casual use - but
why bother. SuperPaint is about the next step up, and combines object oriented
graphics with bit maps. A very handy program, not expensive. None of these run
in color. Aldus FreeHand is a wonderful offering but is more for someone who
uses it everyday or for a professional. Numerous programs exist for the color
market but it doesn't sound to me like that's what you're looking for, At least
not yet.
Neil
------------------------------
From: LEHRMAN
Subject: word counter upgrade>
Date: 9-DEC-00:20: Public Domain
Is there an upgrade to Andrew Page's WordCounter DA? I've been using it for a
couple of years, and it's been great for both MacWrite and text files, but under
System 6.0.2 it won't run under Multifinder (it worked fine under MF is System
5) -- in fact, it crashes spectacularly. Anyone know if ther's been an upgrade
or a comparable program by someone else?
Thanks, Paul Lehrman
------------------------------
End of Delphi Mac Digest
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