Moderators.Jon.Pugh;Dwayne.Virnau;Lance.Nakata@SUMEX-AIM.STANFORD.EDU (06/04/88)
INFO-MAC Digest Sunday, 5 Jun 1988 Volume 6 : Issue 55
Today's Topics:
DBMS callable from Hypercard
MacII B&W Monitor WANTED
How can I make use of accelerator boards?
June 1988 Demos at Computer Ware (of Macintosh products)
D&D 4.1 and Hard drives
Accessing AppleTalk network over phone lines
June Vaporware -- Fan the flame; send rumors!
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Date: Thu, 26 May 88 09:01:30 PDT
From: Dave Combs <COMBS@SUMEX-AIM.Stanford.EDU>
Subject: DBMS callable from Hypercard
Please pardon my ignorance, but any help with the following would be
appreciated.
Does there exist, or is there information on, or even rumors about, a
relational database management system for the Mac with the following
characteristics?
1) It has some type of functional interface, so that I might call it from
another program, in this case a Hypercard XCMD. Many current systems
seem to force you to use their interface, rather than allowing you to
build your own.
2) It supports a reasonably complete query language.
3) It supports multi-attribute keys for a particular table. (Lots of databases
currently available seem to have problems with this one). This is a
MAJOR requirement - for my application a system without it is useless.
4) It's not so slow that a user would complain while it grinds away for
minutes on some reasonably trivial search.
Note that I DON'T need simultaneous multi-user capability, or a particularly
interesting user interface (I won't use it), or many of the other bells and
whistles lots of the new systems seem to have.
Thanks for your help,
Dave Combs (COMBS@SUMEX-AIM.STANFORD.EDU)
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Date: Thu, 26 May 88 15:21:28 PDT
From: uhlik@sun-valley.stanford.edu (Chris Uhlik)
Subject: MacII B&W Monitor WANTED
I want to buy your old MacII black & white monitor.
Chris Uhlik (415) 328-6438 uhlik@sun-valley
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Date: Fri, 27 May 88 16:57:43 EST
From: "William E. Williams"
From: <BSQUARE%YALEVM.BITNET@forsythe.stanford.edu>
Subject: How can I make use of accelerator boards?
I'm contemplating buying an accelerator board with a floating-point processor
on it for my SE. I run a bunch of data-analysis programs that I wrote myself
and that take typically a half hour or so to process one batch of data. I use
Turbo-Pascal and Lightspeed C. Is there any way I can tell these languages to
generate code that can use the floating-point processor directly? Even
better, is there some way that I can check for the co-processor and use it if
it's there but use SANE if it isn't? Is there a lesson in, for example,
MacTutor about all this stuff? Do the boards usually come with replacement
SANE routines?
-B2
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Date: Sat, 28 May 88 18:02:33 PDT
From: Dorothy Bender <HK.DEB@Forsythe.Stanford.EDU>
Subject: June 1988 Demos at Computer Ware (of Macintosh products)
ComputerWare, a Macintosh store in Palo Alto, located at
490 California Ave. (corner El Camino Real), has announced the
following demos during June.
All demos are from 12 - 2pm. Call 415/323-7559 to verify.
Wed., June 1: In-House Accountant
Thu., June 2: Quark Xpress (desktop publishing)
Fri., June 3: Powerpoint 2.0 from Microsoft
Sat., June 4: Alchemy (16-bit stereo)
Tue., June 7: Fullwrite Professional
Wed., June 8: MicroPlanner 6.0
Thu., June 9: Ready, Set, Go! (desktop publishing)
Fri., June 10: Pagemaker 3.0 & Freehand (Aldus, desktop publishing)
Mon., June 13: Filemaker Plus (simple data base manager)
Tue., June 14: Tops (distributed Appletalk network)
Wed., June 15: Insight Accounting
Thu., June 16: Microsoft Word
Fri., June 17: McMax
Sat., June 18: Opcode (music software)
Tue., June 21: VersaCAD II
Wed., June 22: dBASE MAC
Tue., June 28: Image Studio
Wed., June 29: Word Perfect
Thu., June 30: Illustrator 88 (from Adobe)
In addition, ComputerWare will have their second annual "Mini-Expo"
and open house on Thursday and Friday, June 23 - June 24.
Call 323-7559 for details.
To: MICRO-TECH, TIDBITS, OIS-CONSULT, BBOARD
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Date: Sat 28 May 1988 21:03 CDT
From: Samir Kaleem <XSAK%ECNCDC.BITNET@Forsythe.Stanford.EDU>
Subject: D&D 4.1 and Hard drives
Hello again everyone...
Remember the Dollars and Sense 4.0 problem that I mentioned not
too long ago? Well, the saga continues. On the suggestion of other
people on the net (thanx for the info...shows the power of using
the net) I called Monogram and asked them about 4.1 (which they
never bothered to send me any info about). They said that they
could send me 4.1 free of charge, but I have to send them a copy
of my receipt plus my registration before they send 4.1 to me. Seems
kind of funny that I had bought 4.0 just a month or so ago, and they
couldn't confirm that I am a valid user. To top it all, they sent me
v3.1 for the IBM rather than 4.1 for my Mac. Sheesh!!! Well, I've
sent the IBM version back, and hopefully they will send me the
correct version for the correct PC this time.
By the way, I have a Dataframe XP 60 that I have a question about.
Recently, I found that sometimes, programs would take a while before
they would boot. There seemed to be a lot of disk activity before
the program would boot (doesn't matter which program). I found that
my desktop was 160k. I thought that the large size of the desktop was
the problem, and re-building it would solve the problem. Well, re-building
brought the desktop down to about 109k, but that still didn't solve
my problem. So I re-initialized the hard drive and re-loaded everything
(using diskfit). I thought that the fragmentation might be bad enough
to be causing this, but even this didn't help. Any suggestions anyone?
Again, thanx in advance...
-- Samir <xsak@ecncdc.bitnet>
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Subject: Accessing AppleTalk network over phone lines
Date: Sun, 29 May 88 11:43:48 +0300
From: shmuli@humus.huji.ac.il
I've seen a number of different products that allow a user to dial into
an AppleTalk network e.g. at work, from home. Does anyone have more information
about them - capability (file and/or modem sharing), compatability - does it
work with TOPS a/o AppleShare a/o CAP, price. Anyone actually using one?
Liaison InfoSphere software
Silver Server La Cie software
TeleNode DataSpace hardware?
R-Server Solana hardware
Net-Serial Shiva hardware
For the hardware solutions, what software do you use?
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Date: Fri, 27 May 88 21:41:06 EST
From: Murph Sewall <SEWALL%UCONNVM.BITNET@forsythe.stanford.edu>
Subject: June Vaporware -- Fan the flame; send rumors!
VAPORWARE
Murphy Sewall
From the June 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
Premature.
Even in a business where vaporware is a way of life, Tandy's
surprise late-April announcement of the 550 Mbyte THOR-CD
(Tandy High-Intensity Optical Recorder Compact Disk)
rewriteable laser disk technology has been widely
criticized. Tandy's announced release date for an audio
recorder version (at less than $500) of 18 to 24 months in
the future already is regarded as optimistic, and a CD ROM
version (at a considerably higher price) isn't expected
before 1991, at least. - PC Week 26 April and 17 May
Optical-Magneto for Fall 1988.
Maxtor, of San Jose, California, already has demonstrated
two hybrid magneto-optic large capacity data drives which it
plans to offer for sale this October. The 160 Mbyte "Fiji"
will retail for $1,995 and disks will be priced at $85. The
gigabyte "Tahiti" will have an access time nearly three
times quicker than the Fiji with a price tag of $5,995 and
$250 disks. Sharp will introduce a 380 Mbyte SCSI
magneto-optical drive early next year.
- PC Week 17 May and InfoWorld 16 May
Look Ma, No Coprocessor.
VM Technologies, a Tokyo-based joint venture of several
Japanese PC companies, is designing a "breakthrough" CPU
that will be able to emulate more than one competing 32-bit
CPU. VM claims to have pioneered a technique based on
programmable logic arrays (PMAs) which will allow processor
emulation microcode to be downloaded. The VM8600S will then
be able to execute instructions in a manner identical to the
emulated CPU. VM is expected to ship sample quantities of
the VM8600S by the end of this year. Manufacturers could
use the chip to develop a microcomputer capable of being
both a Macintosh and PS/2 (80386) clone. - PC Week 17 May
Clone in Mac Clothing.
Six different Asian computer manufacturers are said to have
developed Macintosh clones which are awaiting copyright
clearance for their ROMs. In the meantime, a few are making
MS-DOS PC clones available in the Mac look-alike cases.
- Random Access 14 May
PS/?
Only a handful of vendors showed PS/2 clones at last month's
Comdex; none is ready to begin shipping product. Among the
reasons: 1) legal threats and licensing delays - IBM is
requiring that potential PS/2 licensees pay royalties on
past sales of PC, XT, and AT clones, 2) sluggish demand -
although IBM has shipped two million PS/2's, a substantial
number of those machines remain in dealer inventories, and
3) enigmatic technology - Micro Channel architecture is more
complex than that in the original PC line, and IBM has
labeled numerous PS/2 components as "reserved for future
use," making it impossible to certify a clone as "fully
compatible." - PC Week 17 May
Spin Control.
Earlier this Spring, IBM's Entry Systems Division president
William Lowe announced to the press the firm's intent to
replace the present Model 30 with an 80286 machine this year
and an 80386 model by the end of next year (last March's
column). Last month, Lee Reiswig, director of IBM's Entry
Systems Division laboratory in Austin, Texas affirmed the
company's continuing commitment to 8086 machines. Reiswig
says IBM plans to "add functionality" rather than cut
prices. Major announcements are expected from Big Blue this
month including the PS/2 Model 70, a desktop 80386 machine
with at 20 MHz clock. - PC Week 10 May and InfoWorld 16 May
Latest IIgs+ Rumors.
San Francisco AppleFest in September may be the time when a
faster version (with 1 Mbyte of memory standard) of the IIgs
(already rumored to be in the hands of select developers)
will be announced. Perhaps not, as rumors persist that some
very senior Apple marketing managers want to deep-six the
whole idea and concentrate as much energy as possible on the
Macintosh line. The introduction of the Apple CD ROM
creates a problem for Apple's current ProDOS operating
system which is unable to address a device with more than 64
Mbytes (two 32 Mbyte volumes). The fix is said to be
ProDOS/16 HFS which will port the Macintosh Hierarchical
Filing System (HFS) to the IIgs. As a side benefit, the
IIgs will be able to read and write disks in the Macintosh
format. A mid summer intro for the new ProDOS/16 is
possible. - Pro-Carolina.CTS (BBS) 6 May
The Alternate Interface.
IBM has signed an agreement with Metaphor Computer Systems
for a joint development of a new software interface using
graphics and icons. The joint-venture might be a way to
avoid dependency on Microsoft's Windows technology which is
the subject of litigation by Apple.
- Random Access 30 April
Vaporpatch.
Ashton-Tate broke new vapor ground last month by issuing bug
fixes for dBase IV, a product that doesn't exist
(officially) yet. - InfoWorld 16 May
Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow.
Although some industry rumor mongers tout June as "NeXt
month," when Steve Jobs oft' rumored workstation will debut,
others point out that software developers who had been
planning demonstrations at this month's PC Expo have been
told the machine will not be available. Odds are quoted at
9 to 5 that NeXt will not survive 1989 and 4 to 1 on 1990.
- PC Week 19 April and 3 May and InfoWorld 16 May
Sun Rise.
More than 100 software companies have announced Unix
versions of existing PC programs, including Lotus 1-2-3,
that will be able to run on Sun's new 386i workstations.
- PC Week 19 April
Color LCD.
Hatichi demonstrated a working color LCD display at Comdex
last month. A ten inch laptop version is expected to be
offered for sale within 18 months. No price estimates are
available at present. - PC Week 17 May
Video Capture.
Data Translation will offer an add-in card for the Mac II in
July that allows users to display live-motion color video
images. Called the Colorcapture, the 16-bit color card will
display 640 by 480 pixel resolution in 32,768 colors. The
product is intended for video production and advertising
applications and will be priced at $2,995.
- InfoWorld 9 May
AT Coprocessor for the Mac II.
Perfectek Corporation has announced an AT coprocessor board
for the Mac II for August shipment. The board will have a
12.5 MHz one wait-state CPU, 1 Mbyte of RAM, and IBM
compatible parallel and serial ports. The price is expected
to be about $1,500 (subject to fluctuating DRAM prices).
- InfoWorld 16 May
Multiprocessor Workstation.
In response to an Air Force RFP (Request For Proposals),
Zenith is developing a 15 MIP computer expected to use as
many as five 25 MHz Intel 80386 processors. The operating
system will be a custom version of Unix V. Commercial
versions of this workstation are expected to retail for
"considerably less than $20,000." - PC Week 17 May
Faster Macintosh II.
The good news is that a single DMD 29000 coprocessor add-in
board from Yarc Corporation will make a Mac II capable of 17
MIP performance and that four such boards could boost speed
to as much as 68 MIPS. The bad news is that the coprocessor
does not run standard Macintosh software. Yarc already is
working with developers to write graphics programs and other
processor intensive applications for the board which will be
shipped with 2.5 Mbytes of RAM and will retail for $4,295.
- InfoWorld 9 May
Power in the Next Decade.
Data General and Motorola have announced a joint development
pact to produce a 100 MIP computer using a version of the
new Motorola 88000 RISC chip series (see the April and May
columns) by 1991. - InfoWorld 25 April
New Laptop Technology.
In six to nine months NEC will be ready to market an 80286
laptop computer weighing only 6.5 pounds. Meanwhile, Sonic
Electric Energy of Atlanta has announced a revolutionary new
method of converting radio waves into electrical energy.
The company says they are developing a laptop computer that
will be powered by radio waves and won't need a battery.
- PC Week 17 May and Random Access 30 April
HP's Printer Control Language (PCL).
Hewlett-Packard marketing manager Bill McGlynn is quoted as
saying that the PCL language used in the firm's popular
Laserjets will not be upgraded to compete with Adobe's
Postscript. The next version of PCL, Level 5, is scheduled
for shipment this Fall. Level 5 will mimic some of the
popular features of Postscript but will fall far short of
Postscript's high-end functionality. - InfoWorld 25 April
Laser Typesetter.
Lasermaster Corporation plans to begin shipping a 2,400 dots
per inch laser typesetter within the next two months. The
LM-Typemaster will incorporate drivers for Ventura Publisher
and Aldus Pagemaker, making it possible to produce
high-quality, camera-ready output with PC desktop publishing
software. The printer will have 4 Mbytes of RAM upgradable
to 8 Mbytes and will cost approximately $30,000.
- InfoWorld 25 April
Microsoft's Macware Plans.
Microsoft has plans to enhance the firm's entire line of
Macintosh software during the next 12 months. Word 4.0 will
include full WYSIWYG, enabling on-screen document editing.
A revision of Excel will be along by the end of the Summer
with 48 new worksheet functions and 29 new macros. A later
version of Excel will support 3-D charts and up to 4 Mbytes
of memory. - InfoWorld 18 April
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Disclaimer: The "look and feel" of this message is exclusively MINE!
(subject to change without notice; void where prohibited)
ARPA: sewall%uconnvm.bitnet@mitvma.mit.edu Murphy A. Sewall
BITNET: SEWALL@UCONNVM School of Business Admin.
UUCP: ...ihnp4!psuvax1!UCONNVM.BITNET!SEWALL University of Connecticut
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End of INFO-MAC Digest
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