Info-Mac-Request@SUMEX-AIM.STANFORD.EDU (Lance Nakata & Jon Pugh) (12/04/88)
Info-Mac Digest Sat, 3 Dec 88 Volume 6 : Issue 106
Today's Topics:
ADB Keyboards
Appletalk XCMD
Data logging
Font Fooler
Hypercard startup
SFGetFile minor bug
somewhere upon the desktop
Various Mac Questions
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Date: Thu, 1 Dec 88 08:22 EST
From: "Kevin O. Lepard" <SASQUATCH%ALBION.BITNET@forsythe.stanford.edu>
Subject: ADB Keyboards
Does anyone know of an ADB keyboard with a built in trackball (or joystick)?
I really don't have space for a mouse, and would like to keep everything in
one neat, tidy package. I recall seeing a keyboard made by Wico (not ADB,
this was several years ago) that had a built-in trackball.
Does anyone know of any such thing?
Please e-mail back to me, I don't read this list regularly. I'll summarize
comments if there is any interest in me doing so.
Thanks in advance.
Kevin Lepard
Bitnet: Sasquatch@albion.bitnet
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Date: Fri, 18 Nov 88 12:47:39 -0900
From: <FTDKL%ALASKA.BITNET@Forsythe.Stanford.EDU>
Subject: Appletalk XCMD
Hello Netters,
Here's the scoop:
I NEED a Hypercard XCMD or XFCN that either I haven't heard of or that
does not yet exist.
I'm looking for something that send info from one hypercard application
on one Mac to another across a localtalk net.
It would be nice if it was like a modified send command.
One would be able to specify a destination stack on a host machine
that would receive a message. Is this beyond the scope of HyperCard
XCMD's.
I know it is beyond the scope of my ability at this point and I would like
to concentrate on the main scripting necessary for my project.
Besides receiving a lot of thanks from me one could probably sell
something like this for a tidy sum of $
Thanks, Dan LaSota
FTDKL@ALASKA
[Moderator's Note: APDA sells the Hypercard Appletalk Toolkit, which does
some similar stuff. Unfortunately, I can't post it. --Jon]
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Date: Sun, 27 Nov 88 10:24:39 MST
From: TRACY%CSUGREEN.BITNET@forsythe.stanford.edu
Subject: Data logging
I am interested in using a Mac as a data logger, but I don't
know where to look for hardware (and software). I need analog
to digital conversion at 12 bit precision, a variety of input
voltages (including thermocouples), many channels (i.e.,
multiplexer possibilities), speed is not so important when I use
several channels, and of course I need it all to be inexpensive.
Does anybody know of a source of such equipment?
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 2 Dec 88 09:52:18 EST
From: virus-l@spot.cc.lehigh.edu (Kenneth van Wyk)
Subject: Font Fooler
This came to me from the moderator of the BITNet VIRUS-L. Has anyone
else had any experience with this Trojan?
--- Joe M.
>Date: Fri, 02 Dec 88 09:17:19 EST
>From: Jim Kenyon <TGHVET@vm.utcs.utoronto.ca>
>Subject: Font Fooler (Mac)
>
>We have had two people that have been give a programme called
>Font Fooler (Mac) that was supposed to be a neat utility for playing
>with Fonts. When run, (after checking for the usual little critters)
>the programme finds Font files and trashes them.
>
>Anyone else seen this little gem?
>
>Jim Kenyon (TGHVET@UTORONTO
>Director, Veterinary Services
>Toronto General Hospital
>Lecturer, Department of Anaesthesia
>University of Toronto
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 2 Dec 88 19:39 EST
From: "Maj. Doug Hardie" <Hardie@dockmaster.arpa>
Subject: Hypercard startup
Why is there a difference in hypercard when starting on the Home stack
vs another stack? When i click the Home stack to start hypercard and
the go to the desired stack, everything works OK. When I click on the
desired stack, things are not correct: sounds don't make any sound,
some backgrounds are missing parts of the picture layer etc.
-- Doug
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Date: Fri, 2 Dec 88 17:31:31 PST
From: PUGH@nmfecc.arpa
Subject: SFGetFile minor bug
Here's another silly little bug I stumbled across. This one is in SFGetFile.
Open something... Double click on a file name, but DON'T let up the button
after the second click. Move the mouse along the highlited filename (not up
or down) until you are out of the box and the file name is unhilited. Now let
up the mouse. SFGetFile returns with a true in the SFReply.Good field, but the
file name is "". It happens in every program I've seen. Some ignore it,
while some return errors (like LSP 2.0) and some get really weird (like
Hypercard which displays my Home stack bug in this case too).
Of course, since no one has noticed it before now, I suppose it doesn't really
matter. I only found it while I was debugging a small program I was hacking
and I was playing the monkey. Of course, now that I know it is there...
Jon
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Date: Fri, 2 Dec 1988 14:54:52 EST
From: Andrew Gilmartin <ANDREW%BROWNVM.BITNET@forsythe.stanford.edu>
Subject: somewhere upon the desktop
HELLO OUT THERE
There has been some interesting discussion here lately concerning what
Apple might do to improve its desktop interface and how the Finder might
take advantage of the changes. What I am surprised at is the lack of
comments as to Microsoft Windows and NeXTStep with regard to several of
the proposed changes--the menu bar in the window vs the pop-up menu bar,
etc.
Microsoft Windows has had a rough maturation, but it has matured. Many
of its innovations are now even being borrowed even by Macintosh
developers. Look at CE Software's DialogKeys and you immediately see
its roots in Microsoft Windows' standard dialog handler. Under Windows,
pressing the Tab key each item can be selected in turn, pressing the
Return key can then be used to change that item's state. For example,
tab-ing into a check box and pressing return with select it, pressing
again will un-select it.
NeXTStep, that wonderful interface on the NeXT machine, has very many
evolutionary improvements. However, time must tell whether those
changes are indeed better.
IMPROVEMENTS & USERS
When you consider changing an interface first think about the user of
the system and survey how they like (or have been forced to use the
system).
I am thinking in particular of those users who like to browse with the
mouse and others that like to browse with the keyboard. When I am
browsing through my mail in the morning I really don't want to take my
hand off the mouse so the keyboard shouldn't be used at all in this
situation. (I have my coffee in the other hand by the way.) Similarly,
other users would prefer a purely keyboard approach to browsing through
their mail. In focusing on this you will have a better chance of
designing something that answers the needs of both audiences.
Microsoft Windows has produced a very satisfactory user interface to
my mind: The user in all cases can use the mouse *or* the keyboard in
a consistent manner to interact with the pantheon of user-interface
object (windows, menus, dialogs, buttons, scroll bars, etc). NeXTStep,
on the other hand, seems to have ignored the keyboard entirely by using
a two button mouse.
WINDOW MENUS
Microsoft Windows is a multitasking environment so no application can
own a single menu bar, therefore each application window has its own
menu bar. For the user to work with the menu bar it requires that the
user to first *visually find* the menu bar, then carefully mouse to it,
and click to drop a particular menu. The first two actions are what
makes menu bars on windows acquired. As mentioned sometime ago in this
digest, having the menu bar at the top of the screen it is far easier to
access and use as all you have to do is jam the mouse to the top of the
screen and mouse down. No real hand-eye coordination here!
Under NeXTStep, the menu bar and its menus are each an object that floats
anywhere on the desktop (a kind of window). So you could position
it--in remembrance of the Macintosh menu bar--at some edge of the screen
where it would always be and so immediately accessible.
NEWS FROM THE FRONT
As these machines on our desks evolve--rarely can we restart, it's just
too expensive--look at what tasks their users' are headed towards.
Obviously, multitasking (at least non-preemptive) is here but how does
this affect the users interaction between applications and between
windows. Is the desktop metaphor overkill on very large monitors (the
people who wrote KMS think so)? What about the idea of an interacting
suit of applications working within a virtual room: What would it be like
to have Switch *and* Mulifinder together? How would the user even find
running applications (here I am thinking about NeXTStep's concept of a
dock and the Microsoft Windows screen background)?
LOOK & FEEL FOR A WHILE
Like all interface issues, pictures and action have more meaning than
words so take a look and think about how you are going to navigation
through a virtual workspace in the coming years. Then start thinking
about how to navigate though all the megabytes of unprocessed
information that we see looming on the horizon.
-- Andrew Gilmartin
Academic & User Services, Brown University, Providence, RI 02912
(401) 863-7305
bitnet ANDREW@BROWNVM
Internet andrew@brownvm.brown.edu
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 2 Dec 88 16:47 EDT
From: A. DARO <ACCAMD@HOFSTRA>
Subject: Various Mac Questions
1) Does anyone have experience with transferring files between a DecMate
word processor and PageMaker on the Macintosh? Right now we are sending
the files from the DecMate to a Vax 8530 as ASCII, then using Kermit to
bring them down to the Mac. Is there a better or cleaner way to do this
to retain more of the original formatting?
2) I'm using Kermit 0.9(40) for the Mac. Is there a more recent version?
If so, where can I get it (I know its Columbia but I need an address and
contact).
3) In a campus student lab setting, any ideas on maintaining the hard
disks? Users are constantly storing their own stuff, renaming folders,
etc. etc.
4) ImageWriter LQ printer seems to jam too frequently. I've been told
its "sensitive" and maybe we'd be better off using an ImageWriter II
in the lab (students are using Macs mostly for word processing so we
don't need high res or wide carriage). Any comments?
Thanks in advance for your help. Please reply directly to me and I will
summarize if people are interested.
Anne Daro
Hofstra University Computer Cente5r
Hempstead, NY 11550
BITNET: ACCAMD@HOFSTRA
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End of Info-Mac Digest
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