Info-Mac-Request@SUMEX-AIM.STANFORD.EDU (Jon Pugh and Lance Nakata) (08/06/88)
INFO-MAC Digest Saturday, 6 Aug 1988 Volume 6 : Issue 71 Today's Topics: microsoft buttons How can I send Absoft Fortran graphics to a file ??? Which vt100 emulator uses cursor keys on a Mac II ?? External Hard Drives LaCie Ltd. Hard drives TeX Re: Bigscreen INIT incompatible with SE Request for posting to INFO-MAC CAPPS for Lightspeed Pascal Re: software for theatre work? Help Request Finder Peeve AppleFax problem .HQX ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 30 Jul 88 11:20:52 PDT From: <GA0095%SIUCVMB.BITNET@Forsythe.Stanford.EDU> Date: 30 July 88, 11:54:17 CST From: Robert J. Brenstein (618) 453-5721 x 227 GA0095 at SIUCVMB To: INFO-MAC%SUMEX-AIM.STANFORD.EDU at STANFORD Subject: upgrade from Microsoft Fortran to MacTRAN? DCM data products has recently circulated an offer for upgrading from MS Fortran 2.2 to their new MacTRAN ver 3.0. By sending in the original MS Fortran diskette and a check for about $100 you were getting (supposedly) a superior product. Well, it all sounded great on paper and MacTRAN's support for Mac II convinced us to go for it. This note is to warn everybody on the net to double-think before going for this deal. After struggling with MacTRAN for several days I am quite disappointed with this product. --> flame on <-- It has that distict feel of non-Macintosh program forced/patched to run on the Mac. The interface is very inconsistent and unMacish in many respects, the documentation poor and incomplete (the description of the Fortran lang. itself is decent, but that part I know pretty well anyway). The bottom line is that although MS Fortran is not an integrated environment, I found it more pleasing to work with. At least EDIT allows me to print the program or any part of it during work, show invisible characters, and so forth. You must be quite flexible with using word-processing DAs (like miniWriter, MockWrite, or JoliWrite) to do printing. I end up doing most of my editting in EDIT and just minor corrections in MacTRAN, which is not what we paid for. The compiler itself is very unfriendly. You can save the default compile options, but they are kept with the compiler not a given program -- I had a few suprises when trying to compile programs using INTEGER*2 instead of INTEGER*4 and vice versa. And I mean the example programs included with MacTRAN. The information about using your own resources and Macintosh i/o (disk) system is completely missing. They tell you how to create libraries (yuuck, this is definitely a DOS program), but omit how to use them. Even the basic compiler description is unclear and umbigous (unlike the MS Fortran manual). I still haven't fugured out when I need to request code generation and when to create REL files. I can go on and on. The bottom line is that unless you really need to produce Mac II specific code, think twice before going for their offer. I wonder whether Absoft or other Fortran's for Mac are more friendly. I have also already run into a problem with MacTRANS interpretation of Fortran. Since I am using it to convert programs from larger computers rather than develop them on a Mac, I suspect I will have to spend quite a lot of time inventing patches and workabouts. I have already several reports with problems and suggested enhancements ready for mailing. --> flame off <--- By the way, Has anyone who used MacTRAN managed to call standard file dialogs? cursor's from CURS resource? Assign TYPE to newly created file? Any hints would be appreciated. Samples of code most welcome. Send those directly to me. If responding to this part of this note, re: MacTRAN calling Macintosh. Robert (GA0095@SIUCVMB.Bitnet) Disclaimer: the above opinions are mine and only mine... ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 04 Aug 88 08:55:48 SST From: "Tai Hou, TNG" <ISSTTH%NUSVM.BITNET@Forsythe.Stanford.EDU> Hello. I wonder if anyone has working copies of the latest version of XLISP that work on the SE and Mac II (hopefully in color). According to the author in XLISP 1.7, the source code is available, but how can one get hold of it ? Thanks in advance. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 25 Jul 88 16:55 EDT From: JJ_KRAME%FANDM.BITNET@cunyvm.cuny.edu Subject: microsoft buttons I am posting this message for a friend. He does not subscribe to usenet so please reply directly to me..Joe Bitnet:JJ_kramer@fandm To whom it may concern: Over the past few weeks I've been writing a program which manipulates data produced by a Spectrometer or Flourimeter using True Basic. Although I like the language, it is no secret that its use of the Mac interface is less than noteworthy. Presently, users of my program must input many commands from the keyboard. However, I would like to display small circular buttons (often referred to as "radio boxes"(button id 3 in Microsoft basic)) on the screen and allow the commands to be input using them. My greastest difficulty in this is deciding what is and is not valid input. I understand that one may set up data structures to poll the mouse for appropriate x and y values. I do have access to a Toolbox disk for True Basic but I am a newcomer to the Macintosh, any assistance would be most appreciated. Thank you MJ_James ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 26 Jul 88 11:56 N From: <KRAALING%HWALHW50.BITNET@Forsythe.Stanford.EDU> Subject: How can I send Absoft Fortran graphics to a file ??? I will be using Absoft fortran to create graphics on a Mac II screen using the toolbox routines. Is there a way to save the screen in a MacPaint like document (or even better MacDraw like document) so that I can paste the graphics into a text file ??? Any help is greatly appreciated. Daniel van Kraalingen bitnet: kraalingen@hwalhw50 ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 3 Aug 88 10:57 N From: KRAALING%HWALHW50.BITNET@cunyvm.cuny.edu Subject: Which vt100 emulator uses cursor keys on a Mac II ?? I have problems using Versaterm Pro and Redryder as terminal emulators on a Mac II. The problem is that neither program scans the Mac II cursor keys. The big question now is which terminal emulation program works with cursor keys on a Mac II ????? Daniel van Kraalingen bitnet: kraalingen@hwalhw50 ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 3 Aug 88 12:05 EDT From: A. DARO <ACCAMD@HOFSTRA> Subject: External Hard Drives We are looking to purchase an external hard drive (20M) for at first one, then ultimately a dozen or so Mac Pluses on campus. The HyperDrive FX/20 has been recommended to us at a cost of about $800. Does anyone have experience with this particular product or any other that might be helpful? Thanks! A. Daro ACCAMD@HOFSTRA Hofstra University Hempstead, NY ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 25 Jul 88 15:59 EDT From: <JJ_KRAME%FANDM.BITNET@Forsythe.Stanford.EDU> Subject: LaCie Ltd. Hard drives Hello all, I am looking into buying a new Hard Drive. The model I am looking at is LaCie's 30 megabyte drive. I was wondering if anyone has any feedback on this drive or the company from which it emanates. Please reply to me directly on this one because I need to know soon.. Thanks in advance... Joe Kramer Consultant -- Franklin and Marshall college Bitnet: JJ_kramer@Fandm Genie: J.Kramer5 CI$: 74726,1333 ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 26 Jul 88 08:23:19 EST From: Alan Stein <STEIN%UCONNVM.BITNET@Forsythe.Stanford.EDU> Subject: TeX I just learned of a program called CDVI that takes a DVI file and allows it to be previewed on an IBM PC or compatible. (It's fairly inexpensive -- $35 -- and available from SullivanSFT, Box 292431, Lewisville, TX 75029.) Is there a similar program for a Mac? ARPA: stein%uconnvm.bitnet@mitvma.mit.edu Alan H. Stein BITNET: STEIN@UCONNVM University of Connecticut UUCP: ...ihnp4!psuvax1!UCONNVM.BITNET!STEIN at Waterbury CompuServe: 71545,1500 Genie: ah.stein Department of Mathematics ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 26 Jul 88 10:10:39 -0400 (EDT) From: "William M. Bumgarner" <wb1j+@andrew.cmu.edu> Subject: Re: Bigscreen INIT incompatible with SE Bigscreen INIT was replaced by the commercial product Stepping Out (now Stepping Out II). It is produced by a California based company (Berkely Software Design or something like it). It is a program of excellent design that is compatible with all Macs with 128K or greater ROMs (including the II). B.Bum +-----------------------------+--------------------------------------+ | Bill Bumgarner | EMail: wb1j+@andrew.cmu.edu | | Carnegie-Mellon University | | +-----------------------------+--------------------------------------+ | The box is ugly on a non mono-spaced font system. | +--------------------------------------------------------------------+ ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 26 Jul 88 10:38 EDT From: "RSVAX::RSVAX::MRGATE::\"A1::HOLLAND,STEVEN W\""@gmr.com Subject: Request for posting to INFO-MAC From: NAME: Steven W. Holland FUNC: Computer Science (50) TEL: (313)986-1510 <HOLLAND,STEVEN W AT A1 AT RSVAX> Subject: Info on Mac 3270 emulators sought I am looking for a good 3270 emulator program for dialing into IBM mainframes. MacTerminal offers a 3270 mode but doesn't offer all the nice features like: - use of Mac II function keys (vs. pull down and inconvenient ones) this is particularly critical in the full screen IBM environment where you constantly need to push the program function keys - login scripts to get past the typically complex sequence - text capture and send Some of the commercially available emulators require expensive packages to be run on the mainframe Replies sent will be summarized and posted back to INFO-MAC. Sincerely, Steven W. Holland General Motors Research Laboratories, Warren, MI CSNET/ARPAnet: holland%gmr.com@relay.cs.net Telex: 910-250-8831 (ESL UQ) ------------------------------ From: TEREBESS%UVVM.BITNET@Forsythe.Stanford.EDU Date: 26 July 88 14:53-PDT Subject: CAPPS for Lightspeed Pascal Date: 26 July 1988, 14:51:22 PDT From: Paul Romaniuk (604) 721-7088 TEREBESS at UVVM To: INFO-MAC at SUMEX-AIM.STANFORD.EDU SUBJECT: CAPPS for Lightspeed Pascal Can anyone out there explain to me what CAPPS for Lightspeed Pascal is, and what I would use it for? Thanks. Paul Romaniuk (TEREBESS @ UVVM) ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 28 Jul 88 9:47:47 EDT From: Don Cotabish <dcotabis%amc1@amc-hq.arpa.amc> Subject: Re: software for theatre work? I would also be interested in receiving any replies concerning theatre software. Also, thanks in advance. -Don ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 28 Jul 88 17:19:23 ADT From: Rick Wightman <jordan%unbmvs1.BITNET@Forsythe.Stanford.EDU> Subject: Help Request Sender: <JORDAN%UNB.CA@Forsythe.Stanford.EDU> I'm presently working on a Pascal programming project as part of my thesis research. I would appreciate any hints that you INFO-MAC readers might have on scrolling through a window containing a matrix of "cells", where each "cell" contains a text edit record and a pushbutton. This seems to be akin to the problem one might face with scrolling through a spreadsheet. From what I can gather, this can be done by using a "pic" record, but after this point I get lost. What would the procedure be, and how would the "pic" record be generated, modified or updated? Reply directly to Rick Wightman; jordan@unbmvs1. Thanks in advance. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 28 Jul 88 15:28:21 PDT From: PUGH@NMFECC.ARPA Subject: Finder Peeve Here's another peeve that is aimed at the Finder (and/or it's authors). Why can't I place a diskette into a folder on my hard disk? It is quite intuitive, especially once you get that dialog saying that the disks are of different sizes so it's going to make a folder. Save me the trouble, I know it is going to become a folder, please let me put it where I want it. Is that too much to ask? (Don't even think it!) Jon ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 1 Aug 88 18:15 PDT From: BARON%MAX.ACS.WASHINGTON.EDU@Forsythe.Stanford.EDU Subject: AppleFax problem Greetings from the Mighty U of W. (Just kidding, sortof) Has anyone else had problems getting their AppleFax to auto-answer on the fourth ring, like the manual and the AppleFax application claim it will? When I'm in the AppleFax application and there is an incoming call, a dialog box saying "Someone is calling! (sic) with an Answer and a No Answer button comes up. It also says "AppleFax will answer on the fourth ring." Alas, after the fourth ring, another box saying "AppleFax is disconnecting" flashes and then nothing happens. Clicking on the Answer button answers, but I don't want to have to sit at my Mac waiting for a phone call to come in, you know? The AppleFax does take the AT command set, and I did do an ATS0=4 from Red Ryder before getting into the application in an attempt to force the AppleFax to auto-answer. However, the application seems to reset the S0 register to 0 (no auto-answer) upon launch, and the AppleFax manual does say that S0 is set to 0 by default (how it's supposed to answer on the fourth ring as advertised then, i dunno either). Help help help! Only one Seattle dealer has received their AppleFax, and they haven't set it up yet. Can anyone in the net world relate? Thanks David Wu Washington Technology Center ------------------------------ Date: Tue 2 Aug 88 03:35:16-PDT From: JOHN R. THOMPSON <WOOLFORD.THOMPSON@BIONET-20.ARPA> Subject: .HQX Could I bother someone for a brief description of what I need to deal with the HQX files. How do I get started? Second Question; Fullwrite seems very popular. Can it read and write Word format files? I'm in an office situation where Word is the standard but I am personally not thrilled with Word. Thanks in Advance, John R. Thompson <Woolford.Thompson@bionet20.arpa> ------------------------------ End of INFO-MAC Digest **********************