Info-Mac-Request@SUMEX-AIM.STANFORD.EDU (Jon Pugh and Lance Nakata) (09/20/88)
INFO-MAC Digest Tuesday, 20 Sep 1988 Volume 6 : Issue 87
Today's Topics:
Draw II questions
MacDraw II question & comments
Mapping software desired...
software for theatre work?
Re: software for theatre work
MPW's Print command
In-use light for 800K drives
MacII audio port
Mac II ROM Query
Need to limit access to LaserWriters
Gateway to/from appleLink
MacApp versus LSP 2.0 Comments
PowerEdit DA LaserWriter Problem
Re: Multi dimensional Spreadsheet...
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Date: 20 July 88, 15:11:23 CST
From: Robert J. Brenstein (618) 453-5721 x 227 GA0095 at
From: SIUCVMB
Subject: Re: overhead projectors
This note is a response to discussion in May issues of Info-Mac. Those issues
were not distributed over Bitnet until this week, hence the apparent delay.
Down to the point. I have recently checked the market for devices allowing
to project Macintosh screen using overhead projectors. I came up with a list
of several companies selling such attachments. Here they are
product name company phone
QA-50 Sharp Electronics 800/be-sharp
MacViewFrame nView 604/873-1354
DataShow HR Eastman Kodak 716/724-3169
Mac-Screen Overhead Ask LCD 404/399-5208
FlatTop Network Specialties 212/995-2224
PC Viewer In Focus Systems 503/692-4968
Macnifier Comtrex Limited 714/855-6600
They are not listed in any particular order. I believe that Macnifier is
marketed the longest of them all. A few of them (like DataShow) will work
with Mac SE only. Others require a different board to purchased depending
on the Macintosh model. All of them have list prices of the order of $1600
plus/minus a 100 or so. Some include video board, others require you to
purchase them separately (ca. $200). They also differ on optional stuff.
I have seen only DataShow in real time. It appeared to work just fine,
although a good (bright) overhead projector is required for large
magnification. It also seemed to follow changes on the screen quite well.
The latter was the major complaint in the review published a few months ago
in MacWorld (or MacUser) covering 2 or 3 of those LCD devices. I would like
to learn about performance of any of these devices.
Robert (GA0095@SIUCVMB.Bitnet)
------------------------------
Date: 20 Jul 88 16:24:00 EST
From: "Charles E. Bouldin" <bouldin@sed.ceee.nbs.gov>
Subject: Draw II questions
Reply-to: "Charles E. Bouldin" <bouldin@sed.ceee.nbs.gov>
I just got Draw II. It has several notable flaws, or at least some features
that I need and can't seem to find. First, you cannot draw a circle, or a
rectangle with dashed lines or a variable pen pattern for the line. This
worked in the old Draw 1.9.5 and is essential.
Also, the zoom in/out tools are very nice, but there is no command key
equivalent for these things.
Am I missing something here? For what it's worth, NO I am not running the
newest, buggiest system 6.0 (or whatever the number is now) that was just
released. Does this matter?
[Moderator's Note:
Use the option key on a pattern to get the pen to use it.
Does that qualify as standard?
For other minor thrills, I dare you to get text to Flip Horizontal.
They added a lot of good stuff, but they forgot some of the basics.
The fellow I spoke to at MacWorld said that they were addressing
these and the PICT2 issue too.
-- Jon ]
------------------------------
Date: 9 Sep 88 21:09:00 EDT
From: "NRL::MCCOWAN" <mccowan%nrl.decnet@nrl.arpa>
Subject: MacDraw II question & comments
We just received our copy of MacDraw II the other day and
I'd like to pass on some comments and questions.
This is a good package. It should take care of most of the
design needs that I have. It's very much like old MacDraw
in operation, so it doesn't take long to learn. Some of the
features that make this package good are the zooming, the
layering, and the ability to rotate objects at arbitrary
angles. Also very useful are the ability to save various
rulers, line styles, and views. There are many other
features that make this a great improvement over MacDraw.
There are, however, a few things that could be improved.
Color support is only the old 8 color, fixed palette, with
mixing in patterns used to provide other colors. MacDraw II
should support full color.
The ability to draw objects from a center rather than a
corner is good, especially for circles. When drawing an arc
from the center, the center is apparently the centroid of
the shape, rather than the center of the circle of which the
arc is a part. When I draw an arc from the center, I want
to pin down the position of the center of the circle.
Dashed lines only work for lines. You can't make a dashed
circle or polygon.
Pattern fill works as it did on old MacDraw. A paint-bucket
type of fill would be useful for shading areas bounded by
arcs, etc. Maybe a polygon maker could do this: click in a
white area and the program would look for the edges of the
innermost enclosed area, and create a polygon from those
edges. Also, it would be nice to take two open polygons and
connect them into one. Splitting a polygon is easy, just
duplicate it and delete the undesired vertices.
More arbitrary alignment features would be good. For
instance, align selected points on objects (ie vertices on a
polygon)
MacDraw II has plotter support with the MacPlot driver. I
haven't been able to try it. Even though we have some
plotters, none of them are available to hook up, and the
driver seems unable to write to a file. Maybe someone's
written a cdev or whatever that will reroute the output to a
serial port to a file. There are problems with switching
back and forth between the Laserwriter driver and the
plotter driver. Quitting the program generally clears them
up.
One major problem that I see is the inability to save in a
published format that retains all of the information in the
document. Saving to the clipboard illustrates this problem.
Make a color drawing, cut it, paste it into another program,
copy it out and paste it back into MacDraw II, and the color
is lost. Even Pict format has 8 color built in. The rest
of the information should at least be implemented into PICT
comments.
I realize that some of my wants would be provided by a CAD
program, and this program is only $300.
All-in-all, MacDraw II is a good program, and it seems so
far to be bug-free, although I haven't tested it
thouroughly. Any help with writing plotter info to a file
so I can carry it to a plotter we have would be greatly
appreciated.
Bob McCowan
MCCOWAN@NRL.ARPA
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 16 Sep 88 20:58 EDT
From: <MANAGER%SKIDMORE.BITNET@Forsythe.Stanford.EDU> (Leo Geoffrion)
Subject: Mapping software desired...
My home town has recently formed an environmental commission. One of our
key missions is to map the environmentally sensitive areas -- that is,
areas easily subject to damage, of unusual quality, or particular
historical, recreational or scenic beauty. The information will be used
to help protect these areas before they become lost forever.
At present, we have many maps with features hand drawn, but the manipulation
and comparison of the maps becomes very cumbersome. I know that commercial
mapping systems exist, but the one's I've seen are very very expensive --
well out of the budget for most rural communities.
I'd like to locate some Mac software to facilitate our work.
Most of the maps are on standard topographic scale (7.5' quadrangle)
and I have easy access to scanners that can load the maps into the MAC.
I'd like software that can start with a background figure (basic map)
and then overlay various features (e.g. geology, land use, wetlands...).
Most importantly, it would support the capacity to zoom in or out in
order to examine the details in a map region. Since a 7.5 min topographic
map or town is about 3 ft. square, the ability to zoom out is essential
to avoid tunnel vision.
Does anyone have suggestions or leads for good software packages for the
Mac (without getting into the multi kilo-$$ systems)? We'd sure appreciate
tools to "fight back" from some of the strange ideas proposed by developers.
thanks in advance.
===================================================================
Leo D. Geoffrion
Associate Director for NYNEX: (518) 584-5000 Ext. 2628
Academic Computing BITNET:
Skidmore College MANAGER@SKIDMORE (for personal mail)
Saratoga Springs, NY 12866 LDG@SKIDMORE (for newsletters)
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 19 Jul 88 19:34 EDT
From: David Forster <FORSTER@cs.umass.edu>
Subject: software for theatre work?
Does anyone out there know of theatre software which runs on IBM-PC's,
Apple ][e's, Atari ST's, Mac's, or Amiga's? (Sorry for the broad cross-
posting, but it seems there's no net news group specifically set up for
things theatrical.)
A friend of mine does set design, and remarked that no program seems to have
been written with a set designer in mind. We got to talking about it, and
decided that choreography could be also made easier with a computer (instead
of having the whole cast out on stage running up and down doing variations of
a number). It strikes me that both could be helped a little by a good drawing
package which allowed the use of different perspectives and of animation, but
I imagine someone who does more theatre work would find a need for facilities
I haven't thought of.
So, to sum up, does anyone out there know what's available for theatre work,
particularly set design and choreography, but also lighting, or anything else
you can think of.
Please send replies directly to me, as I don't subscribe to all of these
digests.
Thanks in advance, David
ARPA/MIL/CSnet: forster@cs.umass.edu
BITNET: forster@umass
UUCP: ...!uunet!cs.umass.edu!forster@uunet.uu.net
------------------------------
Subject: Re: software for theatre work
Date: 3 Sep 88 21:07:22 EDT (Sat)
From: cboard!ostroff@oswego.oswego.edu (Boyd Ostroff)
Regarding the request for theatre software, you might be interested to
know about "The CallBoard", a BBS which exists for the purpose of
serving the performing arts.
You will find information about employment, upcoming events and other topics
of interest as well as Usenet news and email. Lots of effort has been
devoted to making the system easy to use for novices; all functions are
menu-driven and online help is always available.
You can call 24 hours daily at (315) 947-6414: set your system for 300 or
1200 baud, 8-bits, no parity and one stop bit. When you connect, just
type a single, lowercase letter "n" at the Login prompt to let the system
know you're a new user, then follow the simple online instructions to
explore and enjoy. You can request a personal account while you're on -
it's free.
If you need any additional information, feel free to contact me at the
address below.
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
:: Boyd Ostroff, Technical Director :: System Operator, "The CallBoard"
:: Department of Theatre, SUNY Oswego :: - Serving the performing arts -
:: Internet: ostroff@oswego.Oswego.EDU :: (315) 947-6414, 300/1200 baud, 8N1
:: Voice: (315) 341-2987 :: UUCP ...sunybcs!oswego!cboard!ostroff
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 21 Jul 88 09:28 CDT
From: Mark Roseman <ROSEMAN%ccm.UManitoba.CA@Forsythe.Stanford.EDU>
Subject: MPW's Print command
Recently, I had to write a printer driver to "Appletalk" data to a
print server we put together on our Vax.
Anyways, I seem to be having a bit of a problem with printing from
MPW occasionally. I'm not sure, but by the looks of things, MPW's
Print command doesn't seem to be setting up the first and last page
fields of the print job subrecord. Instead, those fields seem to
be randomly filled-in (presumably not filled in).
What I assume it wants is for my driver to just print everything that
it sends it, which is fair enough. What I'm doing is "properly"
trapping out invalid page numbers (page numbers out of range, first
page greater than last page, etc.) and in those cases defaulting to
print all the pages that are sent. However, if MPW "sends" me some
page combination like 85-113, I have no way of knowing that these
numbers are wrong, so I print those pages, which usually means
printing nothing at all, since most documents are a lot shorter than
85 pages to begin with!
I guess the basic question is, what am I doing wrong, if anything?
Is there some way to tell that an application is just asking for you
to print everything? I haven't found any documentation to that
effect, which of course doesn't say much.
Any help would definitely be appreciated. Please send responses to
myself directly, as I'm not part of the list distribution. I will
summarize any findings to the list afterwards.
(While I'm posting anyways, does anyone have any comments on the
public domain Modula-2 compiler "packaged" as MOD1.HQX-MOD13.HQX?)
Thanks in advance.
Mark Roseman
University of Manitoba
(ROSEMAN@ccm.UManitoba.CA or ROSEMAN@UOFMCC.BITNET)
------------------------------
Date: 12 Sep 88 10:25 EST
From: PCHRISTENSEN%ATL.decnet@GE-CRD.ARPA
Subject: In-use light for 800K drives
Ever since I got my MacII, I've wanted to attach an in-use LED to each
of my 800K floppies. There are times when certain programs use more than
one floppy (ignoring the hard disk), and I'd really like to know what is
going on. This is particularly important for me since I frequently use
II in a Mac, the Apple II emulator, which will let one or both floppies
operate like Apple II Unidisks.
For some reason, Apple does not like including in-use lights on their
floppy disk drives for the Macintosh. The purpose of these indicators on
other machines is to let you know the disk is being used and shouldn't
be removed until the light goes out. But it's still pretty important to
know when it's in use on the Mac.
Apple DOES include an in-use LED on their 800K "Apple 3.5 drive", but
that's only because the drive is used on both Apple IIGS and Macintosh.
And unfortunately, you can't connect an external floppy to the MacII. I
managed to get a "peek" inside the Apple 3.5 external drive at a local
dealer. In addition to the standard Sony drive/controller combination
used on all Apple 800K mechanisms, the external drive has a "piggy back"
board which attaches between the drive controller and the external cable.
This board (which has a SONY part #) provides a connection for a drive
LED, a connection for an intelligent manual eject button, and a "pass-through"
port for chaining additional drives (on the Apple II). Looking up this
part in Apple service literature puts its price at ~ $65.00!
I've done a little probing with my DVM, but am unwilling to connect an
LED without prior knowledge. A friend of mine tried attaching an LED to one
of the leads on the IR head sensor pair, and ended up blowing his drive (and
spending over $300 to fix his damage).
So my question is, has anybody successfully attached an in-use light to
their 800K drive? I know there were a set of drawings for doing this on
the 400K drives, but the boards for the 800K drives are different. I have
the LED's (small rectangular Telefunken brand), but am not willing to
play around finding a connection. What I'd like is a set of detaild
instructions (including current-matching or other warnings) of where to
connect the LED, what other devices (resistor values, caps, transistors?)
to attach between the board and the indicator.
Thanks in advance!
Paul Christensen
GE Aerospace/Advanced Technology Laboratories
: :
: PCHRISTENSEN%ATL.DECNET@GE-CRD.ARPA :
: :
------------------------------
Date: 12 Sep 88 10:29 EST
From: PCHRISTENSEN%ATL.decnet@GE-CRD.ARPA
Subject: MacII audio port
When Apple introduced the Macintosh II, I was under the distinct impression
from Apple's own engineers that the sound capabilities of the MacII were
significantly better than the MacPlus and SE. For one, the MacII allows
sampling rates of up to 44KHz, as opposed to 22KHz on the Plus/SE. This
allows for accurate reproduction of sampled frequencies as high as 22KHz.
But this would be expected for a higher-speed processor such as the 68020.
(Unfortunately, the standard serial ports aren't capable of transferring
the data from sounds sampled at greater than 22KHz).
The MacII also includes a specialized sound chip, and a line-level audio port.
I had heard that Apple includes a set of Sony pre-amps on the motherboard, and
that the audio port is a mini-stereo jack of the type used in stereo walkmans.
However, the Apple Interface Guide for service engineers shows the pinouts for
the MacII. This guide lists the MacII audio port as a MONORAL mini phone jack
of the type used on the SE, Plus, and earlier Macs.
So I have two questions:
1) Is the MacII audio port a mini-stereo or standard monoral phone jack?
If it is monoral, how do you have to buy a special card to get stereo sound?
2) With the advent of System 6.0 (forget about the sound bugs), and the Inside
Mac Vol.5 Sound Manager implemented in RAM on the Plus and SE, what advantage
does the Apple custom digital sound chip in the II offer? I haven't seen any
MacII-specific music software, or am I missing something?
Thanks in advance!
Paul Christensen
GE Aerospace/Advanced Technology Laboratories
: :
: PCHRISTENSEN%ATL.DECNET@GE-CRD.ARPA :
: :
------------------------------
From: math%wri.com@uxc.cso.uiuc.edu
Subject: Re: Mathematica Information...
Stephen Wolfram has posted some up-to-date information about Mathematica
for Macintoshes, Suns and other machines on comp.newprod.
(Mail responses to math%wri.com@uxc.cso.uiuc.edu)
------------------------------
Date: 10 Sep 88 20:37:00 EDT
From: "Charles E. Bouldin" <bouldin@sed.ceee.nbs.gov>
Subject: Mac II ROM Query
I have a Mac+ with a Novy Systems 68020 accelerator board. One option in the
support software is "copy ROM into high-speed 32 bit RAM". I use that option
routinely and it makes a very large performance difference. Which leads to
the questions about the Mac II ROM:
1. Is it 32 bits wide?
2. Is it accessed at full processor speed?
I would *guess* that the answer to those questions is yes, but Apple has cut
so many corners in the past that I am not sure. Anyone know ? If the answer to
either question is NO, then copying the ROM into RAM may speed up the Mac II.
------------------------------
From: Paul Skuce <mcvax!hatfield.ac.uk!comtps@uunet.UU.NET>
Date: Thu, 21 Jul 88 12:51:19 GMT
Subject: Need to limit access to LaserWriters
We need to limit access to our laserwriters either locally or on other zones.
Is there any software/hardware to do this???
Regards
Paul Skuce
Hatfield Polytechnic, Computer Science, P.O. box109
College Lane, Hatfield, England, AL10 9AB
comtps%hatfield.ac.uk%mcvax%seismo%.. UUCP
comtps@hatfield.ac.uk JANET
comtps%hatfield.ac.uk@NET.CS.RELAY EARN
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 14 Jul 88 19:07:19 GMT
From: jamison%lockhd.span@Sdsc.BITnet (John L. Jamison (415) 424-3457)
Subject: Gateway to/from appleLink
Apparently there is a gateway to AppleLink accessible from the interNet.
Does anybody have any more information than this?
John Jamison
jamison%lockhd.span@star.stanford.edu
jamison%Lockhd.span@sdsc.bitnet
[Moderator's Note:
From Bitnet to Applelink:
To: XB.DAS@STANFORD.BITNET
Subject: USER1@APPLELINK!Optional Actual Subject
From Applelink to Bitnet:
To: DASNET
Subject: USER1.ADDRESS@STANFORD.BITNET!Optional Actual Subject
--Jon]
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 7 Sep 88 20:01:26 PDT
From: PUGH@NMFECC.ARPA
Subject: MacApp versus LSP 2.0 Comments
I spoke with the developers of LightSpeed Pascal 2.0 at MacWorld and then took
Dave Wilson's MacApp class wherein we spoke a bit about LSP versus MacApp.
Here's the situation as I understand it.
LSP cannot handle either the conditional compilation directives or the
segmentation directives of MPW Pascal (TML Pascal II can). The LSP people
said that they were hacking/getting a version of MacApp that would be
specially treated for LSP. Dave Wilson said he thought that might fly but
that Kurt Schmucker apparently lambasted the LSP people saying that no one
wanted to buy another version of MacApp, which is quite true. I've paid
enough for all the various versions of MacApp that I haven't used. :-)
Apparently the segmentation problem is the more massive one as LSP places an
entire unit into a segment while MPW Pascal and MacApp can and do place any
routine into any segment. For example, all the methods of an object are
defined in the same unit, but the debugging routines all go into the
debugging segment, printing routines into the printing segment, etc.
Only time will tell...
Jon
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 08 Sep 88 08:24:59 PDT
From: GFA0009%CALSTATE.BITNET@Forsythe.Stanford.EDU
Subject: PowerEdit DA LaserWriter Problem
I have been using the PowerEdit DA, a simple but powerful text editor, to
edit long files. (PowerEdit can handle files >32K). The text appears on the
screen as Monaco (I think). When I try to print it on our LaserWriters, it
comes out as Chicago, whether I leave "font substitution" checked or unchecked;
except once it printed out as Geneva (Helevetica if font sub on.)
I am puzzled as to what's happening; I would like it to print in a
monospaced font like Monaco or Courier so that numbers in tables line up
properly. Can anyone suggest why it isn't attempting to use the screen font to
print? Is there any simple modification I can make to the program/system to
make it print in one of the monospaced fonts? (I tried installing Monaco into
the DA but that made no difference.)
I am using System 4.2 and LaserWriter/Laser Prep 5.1.
Thanks very much in advance,
Andre Lehre
GFA0009@CALSTATE.BITNET
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 8 Sep 88 11:34:26 EDT
From: spratt%lti.com@bu-it.BU.EDU (Lindsey Spratt x24)
Subject: Re: Multi dimensional Spreadsheet...
Perhaps Trapeze would serve as a multi-dimensional spreadsheet?
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End of INFO-MAC Digest
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