Info-Mac-Request@SUMEX-AIM.STANFORD.EDU (Jon Pugh and Lance Nakata) (08/17/88)
INFO-MAC Digest Wednesday, 17 Aug 1988 Volume 6 : Issue 75
Today's Topics:
MacWorld Report
My Ideal Disk backup program
New Special Interest Group
Temperament INIT -- for Word Temp files
Z-Calc
Continuum (6 parts)
SubLaunch.sit.hqx
McSink 5.0 (3 parts)
MacSpeedo.7
new version of REPORT-MACTUTOR-INDEX.HQX
BWIIC 1.1 - Mac II Color Resources (part 1 of 2)
Picture Menu Demo
GuardDog
Usenet Mac Digest V4 #101
Usenet Mac Digest V4 #102
Usenet Mac Digest V4 #103
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Mon, 15 Aug 88 17:32:43 PDT
From: PUGH@NMFECC.ARPA
Subject: MacWorld Report
Well, I'm back from the Boston MacWorld expo to take up the dirty duties of a
moderator and crank out a couple of digests for you. Your only task is to
read said digests starting with this bit of drivel about what you may or may
not have missed out on.
First of all, the Nth semiannual Netter's Dinner went off without any serious
hitches. The most confusing part about the whole thing was where to meet, so
we all sort of met at the restaurant. It was, once again, a delicious repast
of the finest Chinese delicacies, especially that poor fish who stared at us
while we devoured him, but it wasn't nearly as hot as the feast we had in
January in SF, nor was it as crowded. It was without a doubt worth doing and
I hope more of you will join us in January again.
The official list, for those of you that give a s**t, is:
Robert Hammen JimH
Barry Semo Pippen
Kent Borg Chris Vagnini
Barry Ward Stuart Schmukler
Peter Freund Richard & Steve Young
Stephen Sakamoto Keith Combs
Miles Weissman Kevin Willey
Guy Riddle Bill Hoffmann
Art Goodall Elliot Schlessel
David Rosenberg Ned Horvath
Peter Olsen Joel West
Jeff Shulman John Draper
David Dunham and me, of course.
Enough of that, on to the show. For me the show was quite predictable. The
only thing really being celebrated was Hypercard's first birthday with a very
loud party that lasted well into the sweltering Boston night. Of course, the
Westin was air conditioned so maybe that explains all the people. Of course
the free booze probably played a part too.
Since the Apple Scanner was so underwelming, (I mean, who really cares about
another scanner?) I was hoping some of the third parties would take up the
slack. There were some new software packages, but there were also the guys we
have all seen before. Lightspeed Pascal 2.0 was being shown. It is
everything you would expect it to be, at least until it gets into the hands of
users who will quickly discover what it is missing. It will be Object Pascal
although since they don't support MPW's segmentation directives they will be
creating a special version of MacApp to distribute.
There were video cards and genlock systems and Mac IIs everywhere. Adobe had
at least 15 Mac IIs in front of their large screen demo. Big booths were in.
The walls were covered by the little guys in their curtains covered with hand
lettered signs. There were suits everywhere. I thought it was quite stuffy
through the whole show and I don't mean the heat. The only people who would
stand and talk were either salesmen or ordinary folks. All the suits seemed
to be ignoring the commoners. Perhaps this is just my perception, but I got
a lot of unfriendly looks from suits and smiles from regular people wearing
shorts and tees. Oh, the longing for the good old days (like Scott Knaster
said at the BCS meeting, "It's a strange business where we can reminice about
the good old days a mere four years ago.").
At any rate, the best games of the show were Colony by Mindscape and
Shufflepuck from Broderbund. Colony is a simulated 3d environment with a
theme similar to Planetfall in that you are investigating a deserted colony
and you have to defeat the monsters and find the people. I haven't even
scratched the surface of this game yet, but it involves moving around in real
time in a wire frame world. Impressive speed and fast on a Mac II. Runs
under Multifinder too. Shufflepuck is airhockey. Fast and furious. If you
have hand-eye coordination, this game is for you.
There were a zillion cad programs, including a low end MacDraw challenger from
Broderbund called Drawing Tablet and the new Claris CAD program. Internal
modems were being shown, so that is about to task off. Once Apple decides how
to deal with more than two serial ports things should really fly.
Mac II users should check out Screen Gems from MicroSeeds. This package
includes Dimmer, ColorDesk, Switch-a-Roo, TN-3 (named after the robot in
Asimov's "Satisfaction Guarenteed"), and Globe. Dimmer and Switch-a-Roo have
been seen on the net but ColorDesk does as a cdev what DeskPICT does as an
INIT. ColorDesk is much more flexible and powerful in my eyes. TN-3 allows
you to change the Finder's color menu, but only to one of their preset color
combinations. If it gave me a the picker I would really have loved this
puppy. Globe is a beautiful color version of EarthIdle. Right now I have it
balanced on the tip of Mickey the Wizard's finger. Paul Mercer used some very
nice shading to make it look spherical.
APDA is shipping MacApp 2.0b5 which includes a new manual. According to Apple
this version is a lot easier to learn and substantially different. Typical,
huh? APDA is also shipping a lot of Hypercard stuff including the Appletalk
and Serial XCMDs and a couple of other "HyperTools" disks. Also shipping is
ResEdit 1.2b2 which is supposed to replace all other versions, as usual. I
want to know if we can still post this necessary MacHacker program. Any word
from anyone at Apple?
Well this is droning on. If anyone has any questions or comments about the
show, feel free to write.
Jon
N L pugh@nmfecc.arpa
M A L National Magnetic Fusion Energy Computer Center
F T N Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
E L PO Box 5509 L-561
C Livermore, California 94550
C (415) 423-4239
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 4 Aug 88 18:01:22 PDT
From: lars@ACC-SB-UNIX.ARPA (Lars J Poulsen)
Subject: My Ideal Disk backup program
Once upon a time when I was younger, I used to dream of writing better
software everytime I came up against limitations of the tools I use every
day; now I am resigned to passing the ideas on to somebody and hoping *they*
will write better software.
Both on VMS and on the MAC, I wish every day that somebody would make better
backup programs. I am not asking for anything that can't be done:
The Sperry Univac 1100 Series machines had this 15 years ago.
They called it the "SECURE" backup system.
What I want is a "virtual disk storage" integrated with the backup facility
and with an archival facility. The concepts apply equally to VMS, and to the
MAC and would probably fit UNIX also.
The system involves a new state that a file can be in: *UNLOADED*.
An unloaded file retains its identity, but the disk space it occupies
has been released.
1. A backup program allows a full backup or an incremental since
last backup. For each file, a note is made of the volume the file
was copied to. This note could be placed in the system file catalog
(if the OS people can be convinced this is a good idea) or in
a separate file which I'll call the Backup Journal.
A copy of the backup journal should be written to the last volume
of the backup.
2. On an incremental backup, the system should load the backup journal
from a previous backup, rather than using the currently online
backup journal.
This will allow you to first do a full backup, then do weekly backups
of "anything changed since the full backup". This will mean much less
storage for backup disks, because it is mostly the same files that
change.
3. The backup program should enforce a standard volume labeling for
backup volumes; 6 - 10 characters is probably reasonable, and allow
for some interaction to ensure against overlap.
(I like a 4-character system identifier and a 4-digit sequence number
that can only go up).
4. The backup volumes on a MAC should be valid HFS volumes. The backup
program should allow large files to be split, but should refuse to
split files smaller than half a floppy. A suitable algorithm might be
- sort all files by descending size.
- if the file is larger than a whole volume (or half one, if you are
tolerant), break it; after the whole file has been copied, continue
this algorithm.
- if the file will fit on the current volume, copy it to backup.
else set it aside for now and try the next one.
- at the end of the list, close volume and switch to next volume.
- on the new volume, start from the top again.
- at the end, copy out the backup journal.
- unloaded files are merged in at the end of the backup set.
yes, this will create a lot of disk swapping for a single-floppy
system with a hard disk, but it economizes tremendously on backup
volumes.
5. A utility program allows the user to free up some percentage of disk
space by marking as *UNLOADED* files with a current backup that have not
been used recently. "UNLOAD UNTIL PERCENT = xx".
6. When somebody attempts to open an unloaded file, the
program is suspended while the file is restored.
On the MAC the right way to do this would be to have the "Insert Disk"
dialog box pop up and request the backup diskette.
7. The OPEN FILE system call should have an extra option to allow
people to specify that they do not want the file restored if it
is unloaded. (Really optional if there is a way to read the
archive pointer instead).
The requirements for supporting such a system are:
a. a hook to get called on every "OPEN" to see if the file is available
or needs to be restored.
b. at least one bit in the file header (master file directory entry,
i-node, whatever) for the *UNLOADED* flag.
c. space in a directory extension file for backup pointers,
number of times used since creation and date/time last used.
(To be used for calculating unload eligibility).
d. the ability to activate a restore utility when needed.
When will we see such a system ?
/ Lars Poulsen
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 3 Aug 88 14:01:49 pdt
From: mcdonald@loki.edsg (louis mcdonald)
Subject: New Special Interest Group
New Special Interest Group
==========================
INFO-FRAME ------- System Frameworks
---------------------------------------------------------------
This group is designed to provide information for software tool
developers that are responsible for integrating heterogeneous
software products. This can include in-house and vendor supplied.
Usually, the integration of the products is designed to provide
an environment that makes using the tools easier. The basic
issue is to build a `framework' around the tools that provides
a common and consistent view of the system.
The framework is not limited to homogeneous environments, but
also can span heterogeneous systems. Companies like EDA
and government sponsored projects like EIS are trying to
tackle this problem. This group can be viewed as a forum
for users and developers to voice their opinions on this subject.
Frameworks are common in the area of CAD/CAE, CASE and office
automation; but they are not limited to only these areas.
Topics open for discussion are:
Tool encapsulation Data Management Network Computing
User Interface Data Transfer Languages Tool Portability
Process Control/Flow Object Programming Anything Else
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Moderator: Louis McDonald; Hughes Aircraft
mcdonald%loki.edsg@hac2arpa.hac.com
Digest format; hopefully release a digest a week, but it is
dependent on amount of input.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
To be added to/deleted from/corrections made to list, send message to:
info-frame-request%loki.edsg@hac2arpa.hac.com
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
All other messages should be sent to:
info-frame%loki.edsg@hac2arpa.hac.com
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 1 Jun 88 21:29:51 AEST
From: munnari!runx.ips.oz.au!johnr@uunet.uu.net (John Rotenstein)
Subject: Temperament INIT -- for Word Temp files
Temperament version 1.0 by John Rotenstein 1/6/88
Temperament will automatically delete any of those annoying 'Word Temp'
files left around in your system folder.
Simply place Temperament into your System Folder and it will work
automatically every time you boot.
Note: Temperament checks the file type and creator. If the temp file is not
of the standard type, it will not be deleted.
Distributed under the HAPPIWARE System:
IF YOU LIKE IT, REMEMBER TO SMILE!
John Rotenstein Internet: johnr@runx.ips.oz.au
PO Box 165
Double Bay, NSW 2028. UUCP: uunet!runx.ips.oz.au!johnr
AUSTRALIA.
[archived as
[SUMEX-AIM.Stanford.EDU]<INFO-MAC>INIT-TEMPERAMENT-10.HQX
- Lance ]
------------------------------
Date: Mon 6 Jun 88 10:52:02-EDT
From: Jeff Shulman <SHULMAN@SDR>
Subject: Z-Calc
[ Uploaded from Delphi by Jeff Shulman ]
Name: Z-CALC
Date: 4-JUN-1988 17:35 by RJDAV
[ Updated 4-JUN-1988 17:35 by RJDAV to fix a transformer ratio bug. ]
Calculates the freespace input impedance of a dipole antenna. May be useful
to HAMS.
[archived as
[SUMEX-AIM.Stanford.EDU]<INFO-MAC>Z-CALC.HQX
- Lance ]
------------------------------
Date: 28 Jul 88 12:00:31 GMT
From: rwilson@polya.stanford.edu (Randy Wilson)
Subject: Continuum (6 parts)
[Continuum - 6 parts]
Here is a little game that I've hacked up over the last 3 years. It's
called Continuum, and we think it's fun.
Compatible with: Not Compatible with:
Mac II System 6.0 on a Plus or SE
All systems before 6.0 Multifinder
128K Mac
Some Ramdisks and -caches
Apple has promised to fix the bug in 6.0 that uses the second graphics
screen. It should then work with later systems.
Randy Wilson
rwilson@polya.stanford.edu
[archived as
[SUMEX-AIM.Stanford.EDU]<INFO-MAC>GAME-CONTINUUM-PART1.HQX
[SUMEX-AIM.Stanford.EDU]<INFO-MAC>GAME-CONTINUUM-PART2.HQX
[SUMEX-AIM.Stanford.EDU]<INFO-MAC>GAME-CONTINUUM-PART3.HQX
[SUMEX-AIM.Stanford.EDU]<INFO-MAC>GAME-CONTINUUM-PART4.HQX
[SUMEX-AIM.Stanford.EDU]<INFO-MAC>GAME-CONTINUUM-PART5.HQX
[SUMEX-AIM.Stanford.EDU]<INFO-MAC>GAME-CONTINUUM-PART6.HQX
- Lance ]
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 6 Jun 88 11:25:20 PDT
From: moriarty@tc.fluke.com (Jeff Meyer)
Subject: SubLaunch.sit.hqx
SubLaunch is a collection of shareware programs which launch SuperPaint or
Microsoft Word when MacPaint, FullPaint or MacWrite are double-clicked. You
need to edit strings inside the application with ResEdit. A shareware fee
of $10; frankly, I find it overpriced, especially as the documentation had a
major error in how to set up the applications (I have fixed it). Still,
they are awfully handy...
They're in StuffIt format...
"Hey, Flaming Carrot!...
What makes you so
brave?"
"It's my birthday. Now
get outa here!"
---
Moriarty, aka Jeff Meyer
INTERNET: moriarty@tc.fluke.COM
Manual UUCP: {uw-beaver, sun, microsoft}!fluke!moriarty
CREDO: You gotta be Cruel to be Kind...
<*> DISCLAIMER: Do what you want with me, but leave my employers alone! <*>
[archived as
[SUMEX-AIM.Stanford.EDU]<INFO-MAC>SUBLAUNCH.HQX
- Lance ]
------------------------------
Date: Mon 6 Jun 88 10:50:06-EDT
From: Jeff Shulman <SHULMAN@SDR>
Subject: McSink 5.0 (3 parts)
[ Uploaded from Delphi by Jeff Shulman ]
Name: MCSINK DA V5.0D
Date: 4-JUN-1988 10:42 by DMCWHERTER
Version 5.0d of the McSink DA. McSink is a shareware text editing DA. This
version considerably improves printing capabilities, adds a few
enhancements, and fixes some bugs.
[archived as
[SUMEX-AIM.Stanford.EDU]<INFO-MAC>DA-MCSINK-50D-PART1.HQX
[SUMEX-AIM.Stanford.EDU]<INFO-MAC>DA-MCSINK-50D-PART2.HQX
[SUMEX-AIM.Stanford.EDU]<INFO-MAC>DA-MCSINK-50D-PART3.HQX
- Lance ]
------------------------------
Date: Tue 7 Jun 88 09:47:38-EDT
From: Jeff Shulman <SHULMAN@SDR>
Subject: MacSpeedo.7
[ Uploaded from Delphi by Jeff Shulman ]
Name: MACSPEEDO.7
Date: 6-JUN-1988 18:02 by MACWEEKBOS
[ Updated to version 7 6-JUN-1988 18:02 by MACWEEKBOS. ]
[MacSpeedo version 5; updated to add calibration for 16MHz 68000
accelerators and remove shareware designation. Configuration information
has more detail.]
MacSpeedo is a HyperCard 1.1 stack that tests the performance of your
Macintosh. It will compare your Mac's performance to the performance of
standard systems.
[archived as
[SUMEX-AIM.Stanford.EDU]<INFO-MAC>HYPERCARD-MACSPEEDO-07.HQX
- Lance ]
------------------------------
Date: 7 Jun 1988 01:08 EDT
From: Duane.Williams@ME.RI.CMU.EDU
Subject: new version of REPORT-MACTUTOR-INDEX.HQX
This is an up-to-date version of my MacTutor index. It includes all
the articles that have appeared in MacTutor from the first issue
through vol. 4, no. 5, excluding the "Mousehole Report" and "Letters".
The file is in RecordHolderPlus export format (an ascii format).
(The sizeof the HQX file has shrunk since the previous version due to
StuffIt compression, but there's a year's worth of new data.)
[archived as
[SUMEX-AIM.Stanford.EDU]<INFO-MAC>REPORT-MACTUTOR-INDEX.HQX
- Lance ]
------------------------------
Date: 28 Apr 88 02:47:00 GMT
From: aucs!ifocs9d@jessica.Stanford.EDU (Rick Giles)
Subject: BWIIC 1.1 - Mac II Color Resources (part 1 of 2)
[BWIIC 1.1 - Mac II Color Resources - part 1 of 2]
BWIIC (Black & White to Color) is a Macintosh II utility program for
adding color to alerts, controls, dialogs, dialog item lists, menus
and windows of other applications.
Rick Giles
[archived as
[SUMEX-AIM.Stanford.EDU]<INFO-MAC>BLACK-WHITE2COLOR-11-PART1.HQX
[SUMEX-AIM.Stanford.EDU]<INFO-MAC>BLACK-WHITE2COLOR-11-PART2.HQX
- Lance ]
------------------------------
Date: 27 Apr 88 04:25:09 GMT
From: steele@cs.unc.edu (Oliver Steele)
Subject: Picture Menu Demo
[Picture Menu Demo]
Here's a simple demo program showing an alternate way to show small
About boxes. Copy the MDEF and a hierarchical menu from this program
into your own program. Give the menu a menuId the same as a resID in
your program.
Oliver Steele ...!uunet!mcnc!unc!steele
steele@cs.unc.edu
[Moderator's Note: Requires System 4.1 or later. - Roger Long]
[archived as
[SUMEX-AIM.Stanford.EDU]<INFO-MAC>DEMO-PICTURE-MENU.HQX
- Lance ]
------------------------------
Date: 19 May 88 04:52:28 GMT
From: moriarty@tc.fluke.com (Jeff Meyer)
Subject: GuardDog
[GuardDog]
GuardDog is a shareware cdev which, when set, prevents anyone from renaming
or moving files on the desktop. Great for those who have young tots around
their Macs.
"A child is a person who can't understand why
someone would give away a perfectly good kitten."
-- Doug Larson
Moriarty, aka Jeff Meyer
INTERNET: moriarty@tc.fluke.COM
Manual UUCP: {uw-beaver, sun, microsoft}!fluke!moriarty
CREDO: You gotta be Cruel to be Kind...
<*> DISCLAIMER: Do what you want with me, but leave my employers alone! <*>
[archived as
[SUMEX-AIM.Stanford.EDU]<INFO-MAC>CDEV-GUARD-DOG.HQX
- Lance ]
------------------------------
Date: Sat 6 Aug 88 10:04:03-EDT
From: Jeff Shulman <SHULMAN@SDR.SLB.COM>
Subject: Usenet Mac Digest V4 #101
Usenet Mac Digest Friday, August 5, 1988 Volume 4 : Issue 101
Today's Topics:
Re: 4 Meg-SIMMs
Symbolic Algebra Systems
Too many data points
Re: 2 systems on 1 hard disk
Will there be revised INSIDE MACINTOSH manuals?
Re: Disk Catalog programs?
Re: Manx Release Atzec C 3.6 and the Source Level Debugger
Re: Need info on Shiva net devices.
usenet mail and news for Mac II
Re: SoftPC
Re: TI/Apple MicroExplorer
Re: Mirror hard disks
Plotting accurately: only with PostScript?
Re: ADB Trakballs
News From Home: LSC 3.0 and Mac II Arrive
Re: CHEMDRAW
Re: Fourth Dimension, is it any good? - Yes! (No!)
SuperMac vs. CMS media
FullWrite Question
Re: Fourth Dimension, is it any good? - Yes! (No!)
SONY CCDV9 --> Mac image
Re: News From Home: LSC 3.0 Manual
Translating MacDraw/Paint to Postscript
Re: ClikLoop & Scrollbars
MPW & C standard input
Re: A few questions about Ticks
ATPGetRequest
Help with setting pixel color
Reading chars from serial port
Re: Help with setting pixel color
[archived as
[SUMEX-AIM.Stanford.EDU]<INFO-MAC>USENETV4-1O1.ARC
- Lance ]
------------------------------
Date: Sat 6 Aug 88 10:05:08-EDT
From: Jeff Shulman <SHULMAN@SDR.SLB.COM>
Subject: Usenet Mac Digest V4 #102
Usenet Mac Digest Friday, August 5, 1988 Volume 4 : Issue 102
Today's Topics:
Re: Reading chars from serial port
Re: flicker-free drawing
Bug in MPW C v2.0.2 Menus.h file
Register saving conventions
Will there be a release 3 AUX
Re: 2 systems on 1 hard disk (responses digest)
Re: spontaneous renaming of Mac files
moire bugs and fixes
Re: Suitcase crashes?
Re: Mathematica - I like it (really Matlab)
Format of embedded PostScript (EPSF) files
Re: Hooking PC's to AppleTalk??
Re: Font trouble on Mac II
Re: Network!? What's that?
Re: Mac II Problems
Making backups to streamer
Re: Format of embedded PostScript (EPSF) files
APL for 68000; MAC APL
Re: Version number questions (2 messages)
Laserwriter print queue question
How do you write "friendly" color applications?
Re: Register saving conventions
MPW scanf bug
Re: Register saving conventions (2 messages)
Re: what the heck is "reentrant"?
[archived as
[SUMEX-AIM.Stanford.EDU]<INFO-MAC>USENETV4-1O2.ARC
- Lance ]
------------------------------
Date: Sat 6 Aug 88 10:06:33-EDT
From: Jeff Shulman <SHULMAN@SDR.SLB.COM>
Subject: Usenet Mac Digest V4 #103
Usenet Mac Digest Friday, August 5, 1988 Volume 4 : Issue 103
Today's Topics:
Re: Help with setting pixel color
Getting reaction times on Mac II.
Bug in MPW Pascal
Re: Register saving conventions
Unmounting in shutdown takes a long time
Re: X available for A/UX?
Re: A/UX nroff -ms doesn't work
Re: A/UX [nroff -ms] doesn't work
Re: Unmounting in shutdown takes a long time
Re: Supermac Dataframe XP60 hard drive
Re: SuperMac vs. CMS media
Mac games [Was: Crystal Quest]
HELP!!! --- Transparency Management
VIP Question
Re: disk squeak
appleshare hassle question
Jasmine Flower Icon Patch
Re: appleshare hassle question
Re: Mac games [Was: Crystal Quest]
Re: Register saving conventions
Sound Manager
Word 3.02's vers resource
Printers...
Desktop Express
Crystal Quest Critter Editor
Re: appleshare hassle question
Symbol-Bold for Apple LaserWriter
[archived as
[SUMEX-AIM.Stanford.EDU]<INFO-MAC>USENETV4-1O3.ARC
- Lance ]
------------------------------
End of INFO-MAC Digest
**********************