Info-Mac-Request@SUMEX-AIM.STANFORD.EDU (Jon Pugh and Lance Nakata) (11/14/88)
INFO-MAC Digest Monday, 14 Nov 1988 Volume 6 : Issue 101
Today's Topics:
If some of these are turkeys, will they lay eggs?
Slide presentation software
Re: SUN Raster and Macpaint bitmap conversion - ERRATA
Unix mail for Macintosh
Re: INFO-MAC Digest V6 #99
Connecting A/UX to ethernet
Re: Do-It-Yourself Mac SCSI Hard Drive
File: "INFO-MAC MAIL" being sent to you
CSND sound files in HyperCard
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Date: Thu, 27 Oct 88 21:05:26 EST
>From: Murph Sewall <SEWALL%UCONNVM.BITNET@Forsythe.Stanford.EDU>
Subject: If some of these are turkeys, will they lay eggs?
VAPORWARE
Murphy Sewall
From the November 1988 APPLE PULP
H.U.G.E. Apple Club (E. Hartford) News Letter
$15/year
P.O. Box 18027
East Hartford, CT 06118
Call the "Bit Bucket" (203) 569-8739
Permission granted to copy with the above citation
Apple II - Macintosh Merger?
Apple engineers are said to be within a year of concluding a
top secret project to produce a hybrid of the Macintosh Plus
and IIgs. Code named "Golden Gate," the computer will run
both Apple IIgs (and older Apple II) and Macintosh
software. With an AST 80286 card, the versatile box can run
MS-DOS and OS/2 software as well. - InfoWorld 3 October
New Macs at January MacWorld.
The 16 MHz Macintosh IIx is seen by most observers as a
timid first step into the 68030 era. Soon after the first
of the year, Apple will release several faster Macintoshes.
Anticipated prices for these 68030 machines will start
around $7,000. The lapMac may continue its long history as
a mirage (most recent mentions last April and July's
columns) due to, as yet unresolved, software incompatibility
problems. With hard disk, large internal battery, and
floppy drive the portable Mac is so heavy it may be more
appropriate for power lifters than power users. All the new
Macs as well as 1989 versions of older models should be
shipped with Apple's new Superdrive which reads and writes
MS-DOS's 720K and 1.44 Mbyte formats as well as Apple's 800K
and new 1.4 Mbyte formats. A Superdrive upgrade for older
Macs which requires new ROM as well as drive replacements is
expected, but the price has not been announced.
- InfoWorld 12 and 26 September and PC Week 29 August
NeXt Year.
Steve Job's did announce his NeXt computer last month, but
you won't be able to buy one until the second quarter of
1989, and then only if you have access to the "higher
education market." The machine is nearly the rumored
version described last month. The proposed list price is
$6,500, the 256 Mbyte disk drive is by Canon USA, the gray
scale display resolution is 1,120 by 832, and there are only
three expansion slots. Software will have to be distributed
on magneto-optic disks that are expected to retail as blanks
for $50. The 400 dots per inch Postscript compatible laser
printer will only cost $2,000 because there will be no CPU
in the printer. The print image will be created by the main
processor using the Display Postscript in ROM.
- PC Week 17 October and InfoWorld 17 October
Bargain Basement 68030.
Atari plans to arrive at this Fall's Comdex with a 1-Mbyte
of RAM 68030 color computer running GEM and Imagen's Display
Postscript clone. Applications software is nearly
non-existent, but if Jack Tramiel can get this box on the
market at the proposed list price of $1,995 (including the
color display), the machine could become the Apple II
(hobbyist computer) of this decade. The prototype contains
4 slots, and a removable 44-Mbyte hard disk will be offered
as an option. - InfoWorld 17 October
New Laser Driver.
Phoenix Technologies is working closely with Microsoft and
QMS Inc. to develop laser printers driven by an emulation of
the Graphical Programming Interface (GPI) which is embedded
in the Presentation Manager. QMS, of Mobile, Alabama, hopes
to release a GPI printer by mid-1989 that will offer two to
five times the speed of the Postscript page description
language. Michael Dow, executive vice-president at QMS,
says the firm is developing a monochrome printer expected to
retail at $5,500 and a color laser that may break the
$10,000 barrier ($9,995 no doubt). Meanwhile,
Hewlett-Packard has licensed Adobe's Postscript interpreter
for use in the next generation of HP printers.
- PC Week 17 October and InfoWorld 17 October
Apple Squashes HyperCard Clone.
An MS-DOS Microsoft Windows program with the "look and feel"
of HyperCard apparently has been written by
Brightbill-Roberts and Company. The program is unlikely to
be marketed soon as Apple has made it clear to Microsoft
that selling it would simply make it more difficult to
settle the existing Windows look and feel suit.
- PC Week 3 October
Mac TCP.
In the first quarter of 1989, Apple will begin offering a
complete implementation of the Transmission Control
Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) for the entire Macintosh
line (including the obsolete Mac 512e). The program
supports a throughput of of up to 3 megabits per second
(300K baud) over Ethernet. A site license for the program
will cost $2,500; a commercial license will cost an
additional $2,500. - InfoWorld 3 October
Big Blue's Price Cut Plans.
IBM plans to drive down prices of PS/2 machines dramatically
over the next 18 months in order to forestall competition
>From the EISA alliance (see last month's column). Jim
Clifford, IBM's director of investor relations, indicated
that by mid-1990, 80386 machine prices will fall to the
level of the present Model 30 (just over $2,000). Clifford
also was quoted as saying "You'll see the '286 pass the way
of the dodo in the next 12 to 24 months." However,
corporate spokesman Scott Brooks said later "We have no
plans to withdraw or discontinue any of these models at this
time." Which quote sounds more credible?
- PC Week 3 and 10 October
PS/2 Model 70 and 80 Clones.
Amid delays and cancellations of plans to market clones of
IBM's 80286-based models, several vendors, including
American Mitac and Advanced Logic Research, are promising to
bring both 20 and 25 MHz 80386 PS/2 compatibles to the Fall
Comdex show. Analysts say these announcements represent
clone makers' attempts to move into higher margin segments
of the market. - InfoWorld 17 October
Porting Word Perfect to Unix.
Word Perfect 4.2 has recently been introduced for seven
Unix-driven systems including Digital's Ultrix and Sun's Sun
3. By December, versions will be available for IBM's RT PC
under AIX and Motorola's 8000 computer line. Concurrently,
the company will be porting Word Perfect Office to Unix
platforms. Version 5.0, the current MS-DOS version, won't
be available for Unix systems until late 1989, according to
Scott Worthington, director of Unix products.
- PC Week 3 October
Late, Late, Late.
Lotus and Ashton-Tate seem to have fallen into a pattern. A
release date for new software is announced; there are months
of rumors that the date won't be met followed by an
announcement that the product has been delayed. Lotus has
confirmed rumors that Release 3.0 won't arrive in time for
Christmas by announcing a delay until the second quarter of
1989. To soften the blow, Lotus will bundle Funk Software's
Allways add-in that brings Excel-like presentation graphics
to 1-2-3 worksheets with future sales of Release 2.01.
Lotus also hinted at a possible significant upgrade to 2.01
sometime early in '89. Sure enough, Ashton-Tate did not
introduce dBase IV at the end of September (see last month's
column), and industry insiders doubt the program will make
it's latest deadline of October 31. One little dBase IV bug
that should already have been fixed is the boot-up
announcement that you are now using "dBase VI." Even though
OS/2 Extended Edition and Presentation Manager are scheduled
to ship before this column appears in print, IBM
representatives at the Japan Data Show in Tokyo in early
October indicated that neither is likely before December.
Ellen Hancock, IBM's vice president and general manager of
communication systems, says she's optimistic about the 16
MHz Token Ring appearing before the end of the year even
though it wasn't ready for its expected mid-October
announcement. MS-DOS 4.0 will be delayed until mid-November
at the earliest; PC-DOS 4.0 already is shipping with PS/2
systems, but numerous incompatibilities, particularly with
RAM resident utilities, affecting older software remain to
be corrected.
- PC Week 26 September and 3 October and
InfoWorld 26 September and 10 October
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 31 Oct 88 08:52:26 MST
>From: ewilts%Janus.MRC.AdhocNet.CA%UNCAEDU.BITNET@CORNELLC.ccs.cornell
>From: .edu (Ed Wilts, CanadianOxy)
Subject: Slide presentation software
We are currently investigating Mac II`s to produce slides in our drafting
department. Having absolutely no experience with Mac's, I am requesting
information from the net on software/hardware combinations that might do
the job for us.
Requirements:
- Business slides (pie,bar, line charts, etc)
Various text in various fonts/point sizes
- External raster/vector file integration
Information will come from our existing Intergraph system
We can convert the vector or raster information to whatever format
the Mac software requires, but we need the file formats defined
- Output to film recorder (onsite or offsite).
- Output to local color printer to proof the slides on both paper
and transparencies.
- Ideally output from the above software would be able to be integrated
into a desktop publishing package such as PageMaker.
We have looked at Genigraphics on their PC clone, and find that their software
should do the job. A similar package for the Mac II would be ideal.
As I do not subscribe to this list, please e-mail all responses to me.
Thanks in advance.
.../Ed (ewilts%janus.mrc.adhocnet.ca@uncaedu.bitnet)
Ed Wilts
Sr. Systems Analyst
Canadian Occidental Petroleum Ltd.
Calgary, Alberta, Canada
(403) 234-1007
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Date: Mon, 31 Oct 88 21:07:22 PST
>From: minneman.pa@XEROX.COM
Subject: Re: SUN Raster and Macpaint bitmap conversion - ERRATA
There is a bitmap conversion utility called 'bmx' that will
do what you need. It supports 20 different formats (some are fairly
obscure). The author, Juergen Wagner, has made it available for anonymous
ftp from csli.stanford.edu (in pub/Gandalf) and he also posted it to
comp.sources.unix. TIFF and FAX formats are almost ready.
The ('bmx') package is *NOT* in the public domain. The copyright remains
with the author.
The entire package may be copied and redistributed in any form provided
that the copyright notices are not changed or removed. It must, however,
not be used in any licensed software without the author's consent.
Any software containing this package as a whole, or parts of it, has to be
distributed free of charge (possibly with a reasonable fee for copying and
shipping), and machine-readable sources of this file have to be made
accessible.
Scott Minneman
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Date: Wed, 02 Nov 88 10:26:28 -0600 (CST)
>From: David Wilson <WILSON/DAVID@scarecrow.waisman.wisc.edu>
Subject: Unix mail for Macintosh
In reponse to my request for information about Stanford SMTP, "Farhad
Anklesaria" <fxa@berlin.acss.umn.edu> sent a copy of a posting they
had made to info-appletalk last week. It might also interest readers
of info-mac.
--------clip---
For all you UNIX/Mac E-mail fans out there, here is a free, easy to use
mail link between Macs and UNIX boxes: our simple (relatively) Piece
Mail package. This had been posted to info-appletalk earlier this
summer as a proof-of-concept; this posting describes how the complete
package works and how to get it by anonymous ftp.
What is Piece Mail?
-------------------
Like lots of schools, we have Unix boxes running CAP, file serving for
Macs (via KIP on FastPaths). We also have needed an E-Mail solution
that would provide easy access to Mac-to-Mac and Internet mail for
users that don't know (and don't want to learn) UNIX. Ideally, a
Mac-based mailer that could put SMTP packets on Ethernet is desired,
and we're working on that as a longer term solution. However we
noticed that almost all the parts necessary for Mac-UNIX mail already
existed and we just had to put the building blocks together, to produce
such a mail system.
We came up with something called "Piece Mail" which basically
consists of:
1. A modified CAP AppleShare server on a UNIX machine.
2. A (bkgnd, user-level) csh script run by CAP.
3. UNIX mail.
4. A tiny Mac application that runs in the background
under MultiFinder (System 6.0+)
When a user mounts a CAP volume (using Chooser) on his Mac, the aufs
daemon forks a process that handles the afp requests from the Mac. If
the CAP user has a file called .pmail in his login directory, the
modified aufs daemon will also run that file.
The user's .pmail file is a csh script that periodically transfers
incoming UNIX mail to his PieceMail CAP directory (afpvol called "Mail"
on the Mac). If the Mac user has mounted this volume on his desktop
and wants to be notified when new mail arrives, he can run a small
application called Nag in the background under MultiFinder. Nag uses
the Notification Manager to inform the user that mail has arrived.
(Nag peeks in any selected volume/folderevery so often looking for new
files). The Mac user just drags the new mail file (it's a text file)
over to his local disk and proceeds to read it with his favorite Mac
editor or word processor. Guess he could also read it in-situ.
To send UNIX mail, the Mac user creates a text file with Mac editor or
word processor. The first line of the file must contain the user name
of the recepient (standard mail syntax eg: john@host). The second
line should contain the subject. The rest of the file constitutes the
content of the message. The user just drags the file into a specified
CAP folder ("SendMail"). The .pmail script also periodically peeks
into a this "SendMail" subdirectory and submits any files it finds to
the UNIX mailer.
When the user unmounts the CAP volume (drags it to the trash), his UNIX
afp server process dies and kills the user's .pmail process also.
Note that this technique is not limited to UNIX. A similar approach
should also work on VMS VAXen, since AppleShare fileserver software is
available to run under VMS. The advantage of this approach is that
naive users can work in an environment they know (the Mac OS) using a
word processor that they already know (MacWrite, Messy Word) and still
send mail to users on larger machines.
We have been using Piece Mail here for several months and it has been
working reliably. It ain't SMTP mail for the Mac, but it sure beats
trying to teach adminstrators and secretaries how to use UNIX (or VMS)
so that they can read/send mail...
Another nice thing about Piece Mail is that its free...
The patches to CAP, the assorted scripts, sources to Nag, and building
instructions are available for anonymous ftp from
berlin.acss.umn.edu (128.101.193.1)
Look in the pub directory for piecemail.tar.
(Use binary transfer...)
As usual, flames to /dev/null
Farhad Anklesaria fxa@berlin.acss.umn.edu farhad@UMNACVX.BITNET
George Gonzalez grg@berlin.acss.umn.edu grg@UMNACVX.BITNET
Mark McCahill mpm@berlin.acss.umn.edu mpm@UMNACVX.BITNET
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 02 Nov 88 14:26:31 EST
>From: Joe McMahon <XRJDM%SCFVM.BITNET@Forsythe.Stanford.EDU>
Subject: Re: INFO-MAC Digest V6 #99
winner%cuavax.dnet@netcon.cua.edu asks:
>1) Is there any way to have the operating system reconfigure the computer when
>it boots from our disk to match our settings?
This is a challenging problem. I'm guessing that you are might be a Mac
programmer; if you aren't, please accept my apologies. How about a CDEV or INIT
which restores the PRAM at startup? This would keep the system settings from
being changed from your desired defaults. Also, you could try (though I don't
know if it would work) removing most of the CDEV files. This way most of the
interesting stuff could not be updated by the users. You might also want to
remove DA's that fool with the System. If this is not acceptable, see below.
>2) Is there any reasonable way to protect the operating system disk from being
>altered?
Two things can be done. Take a very sharp knife or pair of scissors and cut off
the corner of the disk. You can then remove the slider tab, making it look like
it is write-protected. Second, set up a system RAM disk (see below).
>3) Any suggestions on how to get the operating system to fit on the diskettes
>with the applications without loosing a lot of the functionality of the Macs?
If you have memory to burn (512K, or a meg), run a RAM disk in it. You "set
startup" to the RAM disk program, have it load all of the System files into
the RAM disk, and then transfer to either Finder or MultiFinder when it is
done. This loses you some memory, but you've got a whole system available and
both disks free. I've been using it on a Plus since our hard disk died; it's
quite usable.
If you do it this way and permanently lock your disks with the trick mentioned
above, you won't have to worry about viruses, either, as long as your original
systems were clean.
In either case, you can solve the system problems easily. The parameter RAM is
harder.
--- Joe M.
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 2 Nov 88 16:32:54 EST
>From: John Major <major@SPCINK.BBN.COM>
Subject: Connecting A/UX to ethernet
Has anyone in netland had experience connecting A/UX
to an extensive ethernet? We would like to use rcp, rsh,
etc., but have heard that the Apple ethertalk board does
not do very well on a large net. Have you used the kinetics
product? Is there anything else out there? Dove, maybe?
Thanks,
John Major
BBN Software Products corp.
major@spcink.bbn.com
617/873-8165
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Subject: Re: Do-It-Yourself Mac SCSI Hard Drive
Date: Thu, 03 Nov 88 16:43:45 -0800
>From: Alastair Milne <milne@ICS.UCI.EDU>
> There is a problem remaining. I am unable to get the Finder to mount the drive.
> The disk is formatted, and the driver works (I am able to mount the drive using
> the SCSI Bus cdev), but Finder can't find it. (I know you can't boot with the
> earlier versions of the MacPlus ROM's, but even if I disable the Unit
> Attention, the drive won't mount from a floppy startup.)
Sounds familiar. I had exactly the same problem with a Seagate-based
60Meg internal hard drive I bought a few months ago for my Mac II.
Fortunately, the manual that came with it had a trouble-shooting section
where I learned:
- if you try to boot, but the system can't seem to find the disk, and
the disc's access light keeps blinking on and off (had to take the top
off again to see this), then
you may have overwritten the Mac's parameter RAM, damaging some
parameters needed for SCSI access. Try clearing the PRAM:
- pull down the DA menu
- hold down ALL 3 SHIFTS ( shift, option, and command)
- select the control panel
Before the panel comes up, you'll receive an offer to clear the PRAM.
Say yes (you'll lose your highlight colour, if you have one, but that's
life; if you really want to keep it, make a note of its values from the
colour selector dialog). As for the control panel itself, just close it.
The manual says you may have to do this a couple of times, but I found
just once worked alright. At the next boot, it choose the hard disc.
One of the few drawbacks of trying out shareware grabbed from info-mac is
that sometimes things crash, or overwrite memory. I've been obliged on 2
or 3 occasions to repeat the treatment, when something trod on the PRAM
again. Tends to give you heart flutters, but so far, I've been lucky.
Nevertheless, I keep at least one separate boot full of every SCSI
utility I can find.
> If anyone knows the solution, I would sure like to hear from you. If anyone
> want more details, I will forward them to you.
I've a better idea: I'll cc this back to the net, and anybody who's
interested can see it there.
Good luck.
Alastair Milne
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Date: Thu, 3 Nov 1988 19:53 EDT
>From: Revised List Processor (1.5n)
>From: <LISTSERV%POLYGRAF.BITNET@Forsythe.Stanford.EDU>
Subject: File: "INFO-MAC MAIL" being sent to you
Received: from YALEVM.YCC.YALE.EDU by graf.poly.edu (Mailer X1.25) with BSMTP
id 9406; Thu, 03 Nov 88 19:52:38 EDT
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Date: Thu, 03 Nov 88 17:41:56 EST
>From: Greg Mouning <GAM@YALEVM>
Subject: MAC or PC scanners
To: INFO-MAC@POLYGRAF
I heard there is a MAC scanner which uses a program called OMNI for optical
character recognition. Has anyone seen a demonstration? Is there one
available for the IBM PC? Is there another list available I should subscribe
to related to scanning in general? Any information would be appreciated,
thanks.
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Date: Wed, 02 Nov 88 21:20:22 CST
>From: "jon hall" <C390136%UMCVMB.BITNET@Forsythe.Stanford.EDU>
Subject: CSND sound files in HyperCard
How can I convert 'CSND' sound files into 'snd ' files? Has anyone done this
before? I heard of a sound resource extractor (converter?) that had been used
with Crystal Quest and Beyond Dark Castle. The CSNDs are those on the demo
disks for Illustrator, FreeHand and PageMaker 3.0, and are all used with the
VideoWorks player.
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End of INFO-MAC Digest
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