SHULMAN@sdr.slb.COM (Jeffrey Shulman) (04/22/88)
Date: Fri 22 Apr 88 09:29:03-GMT
From: Jeff Shulman <SHULMAN@SDR>
Subject: Delphi Mac Digest V4 #8
To: Delphi-List: ;
Message-ID: <577704543.0.SHULMAN@SDR>
Mail-System-Version: <VAX-MM(218)+TOPSLIB(129)@SDR>
Delphi Mac Digest Friday, April 22, 1988 Volume 4 : Issue 8
Today's Topics:
anti-virus
Re: Vaccine and Font/DA Mover
new LW's (3 messages)
ImageWriter II Problem (2 messages)
RE: Usenet Mac Digest V4 #51
re: Ending a DA
Color Questions
re: Getting Full Pathnames
Char2Pixel()
Color Boot Problem
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From: JOSEF
Subject: anti-virus
Date: 13-APR 22:03 Business Mac
In light of all the recent publicity given to various viruses making the
rounds, particularly the infamous and malicious "Scores" virus, I would
like to propose a new feature that developers add to their applications
in the future: when your application first starts up, perform some
sort of checksum or CRC on all resources containing executable code. If
the checksum fails, give the user a message warning him of potential
problems. In addition, there should also probably some way to disable
the warning message and/or recompute the checksums.
I will probably add this feature to the next release of SoundEdit. It's
not foolproof, but it should make life considerably more difficult for
viruses that attempt to propogate via apps like the Scores virus does.
Any comments?
Joe
------------------------------
From: MACWEEKBOS
Subject: Re: Vaccine and Font/DA Mover (Re: Msg 26280)
Date: 14-APR 13:44 Network Digests
Re: Vaccine
I just tried to cause a problem running Font/DA Mover 3.6 with Vaccine
installed. I tried it with both System 4.2/Finder 5.1 and the current
System and Finder and could not get Vaccine to trigger, although it
could be triggered by other programs.
Ric Ford
------------------------------
From: JOSEF
Subject: new LW's
Date: 13-APR 22:04 Business Mac
I'm thinking about retiring my old ImageWriter I and getting one of the
new LaserWriters. After reading the MacWorld article, I decided the LW
SC was the way to go, since I don't use any hi-end graphics, and I will
be the sole user of it. Then, a couple of days later, comes the MacUser
article which claimed the print quality stinks and it's way overpriced.
Anybody got any opinions on this issue, or better
yet, some real experience with the SC?
Joe
------------------------------
From: MACWEEKBOS
Subject: RE: new LW's (Re: Msg 26308)
Date: 14-APR 10:14 Business Mac
Joe - I have been playing with the SC for a couple of months now, and
have very mixed feelings about it. One one hand, it is fast, well
integrated into the Mac system, and is easily upgradeable to higher end
PostScript printers. It is also (in my opinion) very expensive for what
it does.
I have had problems with it and printing in a few applications,
especially DAs. It is flaky with Acta, MacWrite, and a number of other
programs that I call essential.
The fonts are very limited, and unless you are a whiz with a bit-map
font editor, you will be limited to the Times, Courier and Helvetica for
high-q print.
I wrote a fairly long piece in MacWEEK about 3 weeks ago on the SC and
the new version of the GCC PLP software. If you don't have access to it,
let me know and I will send you a copy.
End result to me was that the PLP is a better printer, due to a large
numbr of factors - price, font quality, features - but it has its
problems too, largest of which is the necessity to have at least 2MB of
RAM if you want to print effortlessly.
Hope this helps....
Rick LePage
------------------------------
From: BBAKER
Subject: RE: new LW's (Re: Msg 26308)
Date: 14-APR 22:50 Business Mac
I don't have any experience with the LaserWriter II SC, but I did
recently purchase the General Computer Personal LaserPrinter, and
couldn't be happier with it. Like JIMH (cf. message 26322), I had my
doubts about General Computer and their willingness/ability to support
the product. (Indeed, the company's reputation was the principal
consideration I had before plopping out my $1,700. I've had my Mac since
early 1984, and have also followed the tribulations of HyperDrive, so I
shared a sense of suspicion.) But, so far at least, my fears have been
totally unfounded. I have contacted the company a couple of times to
inquire about the compatability status of several software packages, and
each time I have contacted them, I have been treated extraordinarily
well. On my request, they even acquired and tested some software
(Personal Bibliographic System), which I believed was not compatible. I
can't tell you what a surprise it has been to get a telephone call in
the middle of the day from their support staff, who have consistently
followed up on all of my inquiries.
I'm not certain that this printer will continue to be supported to the
same degree it is now down the road three to four years, but I also
recognize that given the pace of change in hardware, I'm unlikely to
keep the PLP for much longer than that anyway. One other suggestion,
though, if you seriously consider purchasing the PLP. I wouldn't do it
unless you have at least 2 megabytes of RAM on your machine. I had
already installed an additional 1.5 megabytes of RAM in my Plus for
$499, but had planned on doing so anyway so that I could use Multifinder
and Hypercard. I think the PLP and my upgraded Mac Plus are an
appropriate and cost-effective system.
Cheers . . . Bob
------------------------------
From: HAMMEN
Subject: ImageWriter II Problem
Date: 14-APR 01:08 Hardware & Peripherals
I have a mechanical problem with my ImageWriter II. There is a thin
strip of aluminum foil-like material attached to the paper guide; the
"foil" is between the print head and the paper. In any case, this
material has ripped, and pages going through the printer now either
catch and tear, or are scratched by the torn material. I was able to go
to an Apple dealer and get a replacement paper guide for about $16, but
there is a problem. Apple has changed the design of the guide,
substituting another material for the foil-like stuff. They've also made
a few other changes to the plastic moulding around it. The end result is
that there is not enough clearance between the print head and the roller
for me to slip this guide into place and put in the screws. The only
obvious solution, to me, is to remove the print head, but doing that
isn't obvious. Can anyone give me some advice? The dealer won't look at
it for less than $60, and I think that's ridiculous.
Robert
------------------------------
From: MACLAIRD
Subject: RE: ImageWriter II Problem (Re: Msg 26309)
Date: 14-APR 05:02 Hardware & Peripherals
Robert,
I had very little real trouble removing and replacing the print head on
my ImageWriter II. I did have some beginners' fits and starts because
it did not look obvious, to be sure. Looking at it now, there is just
this plastic clip to the side of the head and some possibly painful
prying to remove the head. Reinserting it was, as I recall, the more
difficult part. It didn't help my problem, anyway, but I had a new
ribbon or three hanging around, and _that_ did the trick.
Laird
------------------------------
From: MACLAIRD
Subject: RE: Usenet Mac Digest V4 #51 (Re: Msg 26345)
Date: 17-APR 09:37 Network Digests
To: DCMCU@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU Re: Enabling my Lisa to run Mac+ software
>Does anyone know how I can get my Lisa to run Mac+ software I been
>trying for quite some time with no luck. I've been using Lisa Macworks
>and the Macworks System Diskettes, with no luck on running Mac+
>software. If I load a diskette formated on a Mac+ I get not Macintosh
>diskette intialize or cancel. I can create files on the Lisa made with
>MacDraw and look at them on a Mac+ or print them but I can't do the
>reverse. Can anyone help me out ? Any information would be greatly
>appreciated.
>--
>-------
>DCMCU@CUNYVM
>Dana C. Murray 2nd Shift Supervisor
>City University of New York Computer Center Telecommunication Dept.
>555 WEST 57TH STREET 16 FLOOR
>NEW YORK, N.Y. 10019 (212)903-3650
First, let me say that it sounds like you need *expert*advice* as the
MacWorks System Diskettes are *old*, or to get technical, downlevel.
My recommendation is for you to call Sam Neulinger at Dafax Processing
Corp. in Malba (part of Queens). The numbers are 718-746-8220 and
800-782-7823 (outside NY?). Sam has always given me a fair deal at a
fair price. I stubbornly use the Lisa and he steadfastly supports it.
Let's take this one sentence at a time. The disk drive in your Lisa
only uses the bottom side of disks, with a capacity of 400K. A
Macintosh Plus can use double-sided disks, with a capacity of 800K.
There is a double-sided drive sold for your Lisa. If you have a Lisa
2/10 (with an internal hard disk and accompanying fan) be sure to get
the Sony drive which fits in with the fan. I had terrible problems with
my hard disk (controller burnout) after I removed the fan to put the
Chinon drive in. Now I have a Sony DS drive which works fine.
Let's take this one clause at a time. The Macintosh Plus formats its
disks differently from the Lisa, running with the System files on the
MacWorks System disk. You need to get updated System files. Sam can
supply these also - they install the Hierarchical File System on your
computer. This is nice because the original Macintosh File System is
inefficient with large hard disk directories. A friend's Lisa would
take over a minute for the Finder to display his desktop. I was like a
policeman over my disk, discarding everything I could, and I would quit
to the Finder in seven seconds. The difference was the number of files
in the disk. With HFS, this is not a problem any more.
Of course, there will still be some programs that will not run on the
Lisa, at least until a version of MacWorks is released with Macintosh
Plus (512e actually) emulation. The release of this is imminent. I
expect it to coincide with an announcement that Apple will discontinue
selling the Macintosh Plus, for political reasons. Apple have their
customers who want to keep supported, and their bored directors, who
want to shave face. Anyway, this is to say that you cannot run the very
latest software like HyperCard, MPW 2.0, or MultiFinder. You will just
have to stick with MotherFinder for now.
To sum up, you can read and write Macintosh Plus disks with the extra
hardware you can get from Dafax, whom I prefer, or Sun Remarketing in
Utah. It will set you back about $400. You still cannot run every
program for the Macintosh Plus (Adobe Illustrator comes to mind) but
even such new releases as MS Word 3.0* run fine. As a final comment,
the Apple Screen Modification Kit is a bargain at any price, but for
under $100 turns MacDraw circles into MacWorks circles.
--
Laird J. Heal "inertia is never an excuse"
Delphi: MacLaird "LisaLaird sounds too funny"
------------------------------
From: DDUNHAM
Subject: re: Ending a DA (Re: Msg 26346)
Date: 17-APR 23:20 Network Digests
> From: merchant@eleazar.Dartmouth.EDU (Peter Merchant)
> Subject: Ending a DA
You can call CloseDeskAcc(dcePtr->dCtlRefNum). Works just fine from DAs.
David Dunham "Whenever you see a sign 'No Exit,' it means
Maitreya Design there is an exit."
------------------------------
From: INTECO
Subject: Color Questions
Date: 18-APR 17:21 Programming Techniques
I have a window which has a color palette with tolerant and animating colors.
The colors are defined in a resource of type "clut". I made some observations
which led me to a couple of questions: The colored apple symbol gets sometimes
inversed colors. Do I miss something in my code that prevents this? The window
color table is seperated from my palette, isn't it? I observed is someone
changed with the color cdev the appearence of the windows also the colors in my
windows changed, so I added 5 more elements in the beginning of my palette... I
observe a flickering on the screen while using animated colors. Does the palette manager not synchronice to the vertical retrace of the screen?
This is part of my initializing code:
wpal := NewPalette(numcolpal,GetCTable(256),pmtolerant,0);
SetEntryUsage(wpal,backcol,pmAnimated,0);
FOR i:=startvarcol TO numcolpal DO SetEntryUsage(wpal,i,pmAnimated,0);
SetPalette(wptr, wpal, True);
ActivatePalette(wPtr);
Thanks Uwe
------------------------------
From: DDUNHAM
Subject: re: Getting Full Pathnames (Re: Msg 26362)
Date: 20-APR 21:09 Network Digests
> From: STERRITT%SDEVAX.decnet@ge-crd.arpa
> Subject: Getting Full Pathnames
Hopefully you've been answered already by a more direct route, but this is a
frequent enough question it's worth answering anyway. There is no way to put a
pathname into a string -- Pascal strings are limited to 255 characters, and
paths are not. To remember a path, use the directory ID (long), plus the volume name and file name. The dirID remains the same even if the user moves or renames the folder, so this is better anyway.
If for some reason you want to display a path, trace up ioFlParID with
PBGetCatInfo, but be sure to use ellipses if you're using Str255s!
David Dunham "The more laws there are, the more people are
Maitreya Design inclined to break them"
------------------------------
From: DDUNHAM
Subject: Char2Pixel()
Date: 20-APR 21:10 Programming Techniques
Has anyone successfully used Char2Pixel to measure the width of text? I did
manage to figure out that you should _NOT_ use the _Char2Pixel trap; the
Char2Pixel routine calls _ScriptUtil with a selector. Anyway, I'm always
getting a result of 0 for the width.
clr.w -(SP) ; space for return
move.l A0,-(SP) ; textBuf
move.w D0,-(SP) ; textLen
clr.w -(SP) ; slop
move.w D1,-(SP) ; offset
move.w #1,-(SP) ; direction = smHilite
move.l #(1<<31)+(0x020C<<16)+smChar2Pixel,-(SP)
_ScriptUtil
------------------------------
From: INTECO
Subject: Color Boot Problem
Date: 21-APR 17:39 Programming Techniques
The first time after a fresh boot of my Mac II I start my program which has a
dialog with color palette with tolerant and animating colors. The colors are
initialized ok in the system palette as can be verified by the Klutz DA. If I
try to change one of the animating colors with Klutz it beeps and nothing
happens and obviously the colors do not appear in the window... But if I start
the program another time they do appear and I can change my colors with Klutz !
What might be wrong? Uwe
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End of Delphi Mac Digest
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