SHULMAN@sdr.slb.COM (Jeffrey Shulman) (10/03/88)
Date: Mon 3 Oct 88 08:23:58-EDT
From: Jeff Shulman <SHULMAN@SDR.SLB.COM>
Subject: Delphi Mac Digest V4 #18
To: Delphi-List: ;
Message-ID: <591884638.0.SHULMAN@SDR.SLB.COM>
Mail-System-Version: <VAX-MM(218)+TOPSLIB(129)@SDR.SLB.COM>
Delphi Mac Digest Monday, October 3, 1988 Volume 4 : Issue 18
Today's Topics:
RE: New Jasmine Drives, Tape Drive (6 messages)
beginning MIDI (2 messages)
CAD PROGRAM (5 messages)
re: Finder I-Beam
Math query (5 messages)
Will Writing program for the Mac (2 messages)
HP DeskJet
RE: Graphics windows
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From: MACWEEKBOS
Subject: RE: New Jasmine Drives, Tape Drive (Re: Msg 27514)
Date: 23-SEP 13:01 Hardware & Peripherals
Chris,
I don't know much about how well the Jasmine hard drives will hold up. I
know they're using Rodime drives, but I don't know how long those
particular Rodimes have been tested in the field. One good thing about
Jasmine is that they include excellent software: SUM for recovering data
and doing other useful things, and Redux, a good backup program.
The tape drive is one they got from Tecmar. Last I knew, it wouldn't
backup to more than a single tape at a time. You should check that out
before buying it.
Ric Ford
P.S. What exactly broke on the CMS tape drives??
------------------------------
From: HALL
Subject: RE: New Jasmine Drives, Tape Drive (Re: Msg 27514)
Date: 23-SEP 21:58 Hardware & Peripherals
The Jasmine 70 interestes me. Since Jasmine switched over to all Rodime
drives, I have to wonder if it's really a 70MB drive. You see, Rodime
doesn't make a 70MB drive! They do make a 60, though. Maybe Jasmine's
exaggerating a bit. Anyway, they use Rodime drives, which should be
fairly reliable (though they aren't the best; CDC makes the best
drives); at least, quite a bit more reliable than the Seagates that CMS
uses (although, Seagate's new 3 1/2" drives should be quite a bit
better; they come in 30 and 50MB).
Brian (Oh, for a removeable media drive, I'd recommend one of the
Syquest 45MB drives; they're repackaged by DPI, Mass Micro, Peripheral
Land and MacProducts.)
------------------------------
From: HAMMEN
Subject: RE: New Jasmine Drives, Tape Drive (Re: Msg 27514)
Date: 24-SEP 01:13 Hardware & Peripherals
Chris,
I had ordered an InnerDrive 70/II for the machine at work. The drive
capacity (formatted) is 67 MB. I had *lots* of problems with Jasmine's
driver software (again, this is on a Mac II, and your mileage may vary).
I was forced to return the drive, because the machine was crashing every
few minutes, and Adobe Illustrator 88 wouldn't run. I tried everything -
removed all INITs, etc., but it just seemed unstable (hooking a Jasmine
DD80 up to the same machine worked fine; copied the system stuff from
the 80 to the 70 and rebooting, and all !##!@#@! broke loose).
The last version of the Jasmine driver software I tried was 1.06 (I got
1.02 with the drive). BTW, I still have a Jasmine 140 for my own
personal machine, but I reformatted it with different driver software
(which didn't work with the 70, alas), and it's been performing like a
champ.
It is nice to get SUM and Redux with the machine, though the PD and
shareware you get you may as well throw out (ancient versions of many,
many buggy programs that will crash your machine some more!)
Robert
------------------------------
From: CSTERRITT
Subject: RE: New Jasmine Drives, Tape Drive (Re: Msg 27517)
Date: 24-SEP 10:27 Hardware & Peripherals
Ric,
The first CMS's drive stopped turning on (there were two loud clicks
when the power went on, the fan turned on, but the drive itself didn't
-- you can EASILY tell, since they're SO noisy!). The second stopped
paying attention to the scsi port; I'd turn the mac on, and there was
absolutely no response from the drive; even booting from a floppy, you
expect a small squeak from the drive when the mac's powered on. I tried
both of the ports in the back of the CMS, reversing the cable, etc. No
luck.
--chris s.
------------------------------
From: JIMH
Subject: RE: New Jasmine Drives, Tape Drive (Re: Msg 27514)
Date: 24-SEP 22:14 Hardware & Peripherals
Chris, i have the tecmar qt40 tape drive which is identical with the
jasmine unit (they oem it from tecmar). i have had it about 1 year and
like it a lot. its fast and dependible (at least with tecmars software
dont know if jasmine supplies the same soft ware). It works across
appletalk networks and in the background, i usually continue to work or
play games while backup goes on. best
jim
------------------------------
From: JIMH
Subject: RE: New Jasmine Drives, Tape Drive (Re: Msg 27517)
Date: 24-SEP 22:15 Hardware & Peripherals
Rick, version 1.3 will cross tapes now though i havent tried it yet.
jim
------------------------------
From: CHUQ
Subject: beginning MIDI
Date: 24-SEP 03:05 Creative Pursuits
I'm looking for suggestions on what I ought to buy to put together a
MIDI system based on a Mac. Since I"m just starting to research this,
I'm not sure what I need, much less what is best, so I'm looking for any
and all feedback. What I'd like to do is be able to compose either on
the Mac or a keyboard, play it back, record it to cassette, print
scores, and generally muck with the sound once I get it onto the
computer.
I'd love to do all that for about $500. So, the questions:
What do I need/want? What would be a good system for about $500 that
would do what a beginner/hobbyist needs? (and is potentially
expandable?) What about a budget of $1000?
thanks,
chuq
------------------------------
From: SYNTHONY
Subject: RE: beginning MIDI (Re: Msg 27522)
Date: 24-SEP 23:05 Creative Pursuits
The proliferation of products in the price range(s) you mentioned would
take quite a while to describe in print. It will come down to what
features on the instrument you want, same with software, and still stay
in your price range. Some instruments that can play multiple sounds
(sorry, K1) at about $800, or something like a Yamaha DX100 with small
keys ($389). Of course, there are other instruments to choose from.
The software would be anything from a simple notator such as DMCS V2
($69) all the way up to Finale ($995). If you have the time, give us a
call at (800) 221-KEYS and we can better describe what different
instruments & software packages do.
Bill Synthony Music
------------------------------
From: LITEBULB
Subject: CAD PROGRAM
Date: 25-SEP 20:39 Business Mac
I have been a MS-Dos user for several years and have recently
changed over to a MAC in my new job. We are trying to locate
a CAD program (..note a CAD program not a DRAW program) for
use on our MAC's. This program must be able to do precision
graphics and printouts (4 decimal places Minimum). We
manufacture a product that requires mostly mechinical designs
with high precision parts. We are now evaluating POWER DRAW
from Enginnered Systems in Greensboro, NC. Does anyone use
this program? Does anyone know of or is using a program that
might suite our needs.
Any HELP, ADVICE, THOUGHTS, Etc.. to an old MS-Dos user
would be greatly appreciated!
Glenn Miller (Not the Band Leader)
AKA LiteBulb
------------------------------
From: RHOWELL
Subject: RE: CAD PROGRAM (Re: Msg 27537)
Date: 26-SEP 16:25 Business Mac
As a matter of fact I DO know of a good CAD program for the Mac. My
company uses Macs for a wide variety of applications, including design.
I have both a simple drafting application (MacDraft), and a VERY
powerful CAD program, VersaCAD /Macintosh Edition.
You may already be familiar with VersaCAD since it supports BOTH MS-DOS
and Macintosh. It can also be interfaced with UNIX and mainframes.
Accuracy to 16 decimal places, user-defined symbols, 5 snaps, auto
recovery for power failures and built-in drivers for most printers and
plotters.
Write or call: Versacad Corporation
2124 Main Street
Huntington Beach, CA. 92648
714-960-7720
I might mention that this is a bit on the "pricey" side, but for $1,995
retail, its a great addition to your engineering department. Give them
a call.
Richard Howell (RHOWELL)
------------------------------
From: PEABO
Subject: RE: CAD PROGRAM (Re: Msg 27540)
Date: 26-SEP 20:57 Business Mac
Can you transfer a file from the IBM version of VersaCAD to the Mac
version and back? Seems like that would be a great help for a shop that
already had IBM PCs and wanted to supplement them with Macs.
peter
------------------------------
From: LITEBULB
Subject: RE: CAD PROGRAM (Re: Msg 27540)
Date: 26-SEP 21:56 Business Mac
Thanks for the info about VersaCAD. I have never personally used
the program but w'ell get a copy and give it a try.
I assume you have never used or heard tell of POWER DRAW. The boys
in Greensboro, NC are really High on this program. But I guess
they should be since they wrote it.
Again thanks for you reply.
Glenn Miller AKA LITEBULB
------------------------------
From: RHOWELL
Subject: RE: CAD PROGRAM (Re: Msg 27542)
Date: 30-SEP 11:45 Business Mac
OH YES! I am quite certain that the guys at the The Computer Shoppe in
Greensboro think PowerDraw is superior. And yes, for a "next step"
upwardfrom MacDraft it IS>. But, software like VersaCAD and Pegasys are
in another class. I happen to prefer VersaCAD since more than one
drawing can be opened at any one time. It is simply MORE than just a
drafting program and will now support color and 3D. Also, it does NOT
show any of its "roots" from Ms-DOS days. So Glenn, short of getting
over-my-head with AutoCAD, the VersaCAD for my Mac is great!
Have fun...Rich Howell(RHOWELL)
------------------------------
From: DDUNHAM
Subject: re: Finder I-Beam (Re: Msg 27526)
Date: 26-SEP 00:12 Network Digests
>From: kent@lloyd.camex.uucp (Kent Borg)
>Subject: Finder I-Beam
Finder must use the System cursor -- the one in the System file. Now,
what _I_ want is for HyperCard to use the standard cursor, with the hot
spot at the top where it belongs (like the arrow), not its own private
one.
------------------------------
From: ROWLAND
Subject: Math query
Date: 27-SEP 21:57 Macintosh II
I've gotten tired of spelling out greek letters for variables in
Mathematica, so I decided to try putting them in a font and using that
font in Mathematica. According to the manual Mathematica considers ASCII
numbers from 160 - 255 to be legal alphabetic characters that can be
used in symbol names. Since it's not totally clear what ASCII and the
mac have in common I used the Mathematica function FromASCII to get what
characters it maps those ascii numbers into, looked it up in the font
and then tried using those keys.
No dice. Mathematica doesn't object, but it also ignores those
characters : as far as it is concerned it doesn't see them at all.
Am I doing something wrong ? Is there another way that I can use greek
letters as symbols ?
Mike Burns
------------------------------
From: PEABO
Subject: RE: Math query (Re: Msg 27546)
Date: 28-SEP 11:52 Macintosh II
I have the Mathematica book at home, so I can't look this up now, but it
seems to me that FromASCII ought to convert the other direction, from
ASCII to integers. ASCII characters range from 32 (blank) to 126
(tilde) with many conflicting informal conventions for the characters in
the range 128..255. ( There is also a standard for how to use those
codes which most personal computers don't conform to!) On the Mac,
codes in the range 128 to 230 or so are mapped into letters with
diacritical marks and various symbols, which you can see on the Keycaps
DA when you type with the option key down. If you are using Keycaps to
select a greek letter in this way, it might be or might not be in the
160..255 range you mentioned.
It would be worthwhile finding out if the problem is in typing in a
symbol containing special characters or in displaying it. If it's the
latter, maybe you need to do something to select the font that has your
special characters in it?
peter
------------------------------
From: ROWLAND
Subject: RE: Math query (Re: Msg 27548)
Date: 28-SEP 20:55 Macintosh II
It's a strange combination which so far doesn't make a lot of sense to
me. In particular: 1. In the INPUT segment I can type in the character
and it is displayed OK. 2. I can ask for Head[.] of that character and
get back "symbol" so that I know it is getting a legit character that it
thinks is a symbol. 3. If I simply type the symbol on input (and it
hasn't been set to anything) you normally just get the symbol back
again; for these strange characters nothing is typed in the output
section (not even a label). 4. If I assign a value to that symbol - I
get in reply the value of the symbol in the output section - just as I
should; but if I type that symbol to be evaluated (in the next input for
example) - I get a blank reply (it doesn't object, it just doesn't print
anything). This is strange, because even if there is a problem with
printing the symbol, there should be no problem with printing the value
(a simple integer for example). 5. Even more strangely - if I type that
symbol (with defined value) and some operation like . + 1 : I get the
correct value printed out !?
I haven't come up with a simple explanation for this, except for a
programming bug. On the other hand I may not be sufficiently imaginative
...
Mike
------------------------------
From: ROWLAND
Subject: RE: Math query (Re: Msg 27549)
Date: 28-SEP 21:13 Macintosh II
I was too wordy. Take option-t as an example of the type of character I
am talking about - it gives a dagger when printed (Courier). The
following sequence comes out of mathematica (where the => denotes what
is in the output section.
1. opt-t => (blank)
2. opt-t + 1 => 1 + (blank)
3. opt-t + a => (dagger) + a
4. opt-t = 5 => 5
5. opt-t => (blank)
6. opt-t + 1 => 6
Mike
------------------------------
From: PEABO
Subject: RE: Math query (Re: Msg 27550)
Date: 28-SEP 23:14 Macintosh II
The difference between "(dagger) + 1" with (dagger) a free variable (I
assume, since it has no value yet), "(dagger) + a", and "(dagger) + 1"
after (dagger) has been given a value is interesting. It looks to me
like it is storing the expression in canonical form in the first two
cases, and constants appear before variables. Now the question is, why
is it able to print (dagger) when it appears before "a" and not when it
appears after "1". Maybe some more experimentation with more
complicated expressions would shed some light. Also, why is (dagger) in
front of "a"? If it's a bug, it might be related somehow to fetching
the first character of dagger signed instead of unsigned.
The decimal code for (dagger) is 160. Try some other character maybe?
peter
P.S.: I don't have the package, only the book, so I may not be able to
offer any more concrete suggestions than this whistling in the dark.
------------------------------
From: CAVALIER
Subject: Will Writing program for the Mac
Date: 30-SEP 14:15 Business Mac
Does anyone know of a public domain or shareware program that will allow
macusers the ability to write a legal will? The only thing I can find
is a program or two on some local boards for the "Big Blue" category of
machine. I just have a thing about going off in the hereafter and
leaving my Mac in probate. Any thoughts or ideas, let me know. Thanks,
CAVALIER.
------------------------------
From: JEFFS
Subject: RE: Will Writing program for the Mac (Re: Msg 27574)
Date: 1-OCT-07:30: Business Mac
WillMaker from Nolo Press is a commercial program with a full detailed
manual that also explains the details. I recommend it. As a matter of
fact, I used it just this week to do mine!
Jeff
------------------------------
From: ZCLUB
Subject: HP DeskJet
Date: 1-OCT-23:59: Hardware & Peripherals
I've been going thru a lot of hassle trying to get the new
Grappler.LS for the Deskjet. Last week, I talked to Orange Micro on the
phone. They did, in fact, say they were shipping the new Grappler.LS
for the HP. She explained that Suggested Retail price is $129. (too damn
high). Thumbing thru MacUser, street prices for the "LQ" are
significantly less. Upon calling MacConnection, Programs Plus, &
MacWarehouse they all denied the existance of the LS, and refused to try
to order it. The Mac Store spent two days trying to obtain permission
to sell me the LS until their distributor told them not to. The local
Apple dealer tried to order it, and the distributor refused to allow the
transaction (even though Orange said they would allow a dealer to order
from them).
I called Orange Micro back and explained it all to them; they
suggested that I purchase the LQ and send it in for free upgrade (lots
of down time due to shipping). Finally I called a San Diego VAR dealer
who has been working for the last 3-4 days to procure an LS for me, and
he doesn't plan to give up. If you plan to send your's back for the free
upgrade to the LS, you might want to try to get them to agree to send
you the LS first to keep from having a long down-time.'
Why does purchasing something have to be so difficult?
------------------------------
From: JIMH
Subject: RE: Graphics windows (Re: Msg 2580)
Date: 3-OCT-00:01: Programming Techniques
Sorry this took so long but i been a bit on the busy side lately!
I dont claim to be an expert in the area, i just kind of worked out some
code that does its thing basically the way i want it. Right now i am
more interested in does it work then is it elegant. once the program is
working, i typically go back and start optimizing so please keep in mind
this is from work in progress.
zooming is really fairly easy to do. if you have stored your image in
an object as a PICT just scale its framerect accordingly. With bitmaps
you can simple scale the destination rectange. If you have maintained
your own set of data structures (which i think is good as then you can
mod them without worring about apple changeing the PICT format on you,
or has apple finally put out a finished spec?) you just apply the scale
factor to the individual primatives. thus you need a
scaleline,scalerect, ect. example for scale rect might be:
If Scale > 0 Then
SetRect(r,r.Left*Scale,r.Top*Scale,r.Right*Scale,r.Bottom*Scale)
Else
SetRect(r,r.Left Div (-Scale),r.Top Div (-Scale),
r.Right Div (-Scale),r.Bottom Div (-Scale));
these routines should be called during an update event before each
object is drawn. to zoom set scale then inval the entire screen. You
also need to reset the scroll bar limits by scaling them as well to make
scroll bar settings consistant. I typically leave the data structures
alone and only scale a copy of the object so that i do not lose accuracy
during repeated scale downs then back up.
My application does not create color pictures, it simply manipulates
them and allows overlays which are text or black and white graphics
(sorry i really cant be more specific about that) so i dont deal with
palette manager or the internals of PICT2s however to simply display
color images you just need to check for color quickdraw availability and
open a color window instead of a standard window.
Reading and writing pictures is pretty simple there are two formats of
pictures, data fork pict which is macdraw format and is documented how
to read and write in the tech note on draw pict format. and resource
fork picts which is are the more normal (?) case use addresource to
write and getpicture to read.
Cut and paste of pict resources are a lot simpler than i thought they
would be for paste:
newPicture:= PicHandle(NewHandle(1));
Size:= GetScrap(Handle(newPicture),'PICT',Offset);
for cut/copy
Size:= GetHandleSize(Handle(thePicture));
anErr:= PutScrap(Size,'PICT',Pointer(thePicture^));
I would not keep my images in terms of bitmaps, if you are going to
write to a laserwriter better to keep them as objects which can be drawn
using quickdraw primitives which will maintain the resoulution
appropriate to the printer. Offscreen bitmaps can be very large and
hard to deal with, unless you are very sure you need the speed dont
depend on them. even if you use them be sure and allow for low memory
case and allow it to degrade to no offscreen bitmaps.
Basic design philosophy, well....;-) actually i started from a shell
that i have developed through several projects which handles the basics,
then started adding features as the customer came up with them. not you
typical top down structured development, but as i said i tend to get it
working, figure out all the technical issues then go back and do it
over. This is not recommended software development procedures.
However, i do always seem to end up with working software, which is more
than i can say for many of the proponents for strict software
methodology. ( i work for a govt contractor that develops simulation
and flight software for the military among other things). Basically, i
guess the most important thing is "dont be afraid to start over".
currently my program works the customer is happy, it showed concept
enough to let people see it at boston, and best of all it only took me
about 300 hours to develop a rather huge program. now my customer has
funding for a larger effort and i am doing it over correctly this time
as i wont have any technical hurdles to jump through. Jim
Ps! my opinions on rigid structured software development methodologies
are mine alone and my employer would be horrified to know i dont worship
them!
pss sorry if i sound cynical, i am in charge of our offices first ada
development effort and i am getting a might put out about it!
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End of Delphi Mac Digest
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