INFO-MAC-REQUEST@SUMEX-AIM.STANFORD.EDU (Moderators Dwayne Virnau... and Lance Nakata) (01/18/88)
INFO-MAC Digest Sunday, 17 Jan 1988 Volume 6 : Issue 2
Today's Topics:
HC questions and an answer
SetLineWidth Revealed Revealed
LaserDrivers 5.0, Appleshare, and Mac 512K,K/800's (long)
ImageWriter PICT output?
Re: Cmd-F output of PS file
Laser printer screen dump needed
PostScript question
LaserWriterCopyCounts
Mac/Novell interface query
Connection of Mac to DEC printserver 40 PS printer
Kermit file transfer problems on a VAX
ftp and packed or binary files
January 1988 Vaporware
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Mon, 14 Dec 87 09:24 EST
From: <PORTERG@VCUVAX>
Subject: HC questions and an answer
Lots of questions and an answer
This is my first posting to this list, so bear with any formatting
problems.
I am writing some stackware, and keep stumbling across limitations
in HyperTalk. While not insurmountable, they cause me to waste a lot of
processing time.
1. Is there any simple way to do indirect accessing in HC? For
example: Fields A,B, and C all have a 1-to-1 correspondence with each
other. I want line x of field C to get the item in line (line x of field C)
of B, and return the item in line(line(line x of field C) of B) of A, or
in HyperTalk terms, put line x of field C of field B of field A into it.
The above syntax, of course does not work, forcing me to load line x of field
C into y, put line y of field B into z, and get line z of field A. Are there
any faster solutions out there?
2. Is there perchance any undocumented command that gives you the
total of the numbers in a field? Assume 1 number per line, and only numbers
in the field. Currently I use a repeat loop to add everything together, one
of the slowest commands I have ever seen, or a line1+line2+etc., which
in some cases is slower for me, as the number of items I have to add varies.
2a. On a similar note, can you get max,min and average commands to
act on a field without specifying every single line of the field you want
to check?
3. As a point of curiosity, does HyperTalk initialize non-global
variables to 0 when first encountered in a script? Reliably?
4. On another topic, how well does shareware work? I've got some
nice software through this system, and actually paid for the ones I use,
but I would be interested to see the response some of the more popular
shareware pieces have gotten. I'm doing a piece for a company which
may not bite, so it may end up "shareware" rather than "buyware", and I
was curious as to overall author satisfaction with the system.
Last, a hardware answer. To the previous poster who had problems
with getting multipage MacDraw pictures to line up, I had this problem
early last year, with the following diagnosis.
The print drum on the toner cartridges are not *perfectly* round,
nor do they make exactly one revolution per page. This slight eccentricity
means that you will get some irregularities on the long edge of the page.
The only way to correct this is to manually remove the cartridge after each
page and reset it to the exact same position. The LaserWriter rotates the
cartridge when you close the machine, so in order for this to work you have
to disable the open/close sensing switch.
But, that's not all. The paper you use shrinks slightly when exposed
to the hot fusing element of the LaserWriter, and does so in a non-regular
manner, fouling up alignment of both edges of the paper. The only fix I have
seen for this is to use something like Mylar, which has a very low coefficient
of thermal expansion, and does not melt inside your printer (at least not
mine:-).
And if that wasn't enough, you can also get alignment errors from
irregular feeding from the paper tray, but this doesn't seem to have quite
the irregularity of the others.
Final solution: There are drivers out there that let you hook your
Mac to a D or E size pen plotter, and give very good resolution. If your
work demands large illustrations, and perfect alignment, you should consider
it.
Greg Porter
PORTERG@VCUVAX (Bitnet)
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 18 Dec 87 11:42:07 SET
From: Guenther Blaschek <K331671%AEARN.BITNET@forsythe.stanford.edu>
Subject: SetLineWidth Revealed Revealed
A couple of months ago, I asked how to switch the LaserWriter from hairlines
back to "normal" lines. Now I received the Tech Note #175, where the
LaserWriter's SetLineWidth mechanism is described in detail. It helped me
quite a lot, so I'd like to say THANKS A LOT to Scott "ZZ" Zimmerman.
However, the Tech Note is not quite complete, yet. The procedures described
in it do not work in every situation. At least, I discovered that QuickDraw
interferes with the LaserWriter in a subtle way, when a picture containing
SetLineWidth PicComments is created and subsequently sent to the LaserWriter.
The following observations apply to pictures, but they may apply to direct
printing too (I did not try it, yet):
Let's assume, we want to create a picture containing a hairline followed by
a normal line (of PenSize(1,1)). According to Tech Note #175, one would do
the following (SetLineWidth(x/y) should be read as an abbreviation for
adding the corresponding 182-PicComment):
operation QD pen size LW pen size LW scaling factor
PenSize(1,1); 1,1 1,1 1
SetLineWidth(1/4); 1,1 1/4,1/4 1/4
*draw first line* 1,1 1/4,1/4 1/4
SetLineWidth(1/1); 1,1 1/4,1/4 1
PenSize(1,1); 1,1 ?,? 1
*draw second line* 1,1 ?,? 1
Scott writes that SetLineWidth(1/1) followed by PenSize(1,1) makes sure that
the LaserWriter's pen size is set to (1,1). However, this only works if the
latest object was drawn with QuickDraw's pen size other than (1,1), since
QuickDraw is intelligent enough to suppress multiple PenSizes with the same
parameters in order to keep the picture as small as possible. In the above
case, QuickDraw omits the PenSize(1,1), so the LaserWriter continues printing
hairlines...
A dummy call of PenSize(2,2) followed by PenSize(1,1) does not cure the
problem, as QuickDraw delays the PenSize until an object is actually DRAWN
with a different pen size. In fact, my first brute-force solution was to
draw a (2,2) line outside of the picture frame. This works quite well, but
consumes a lot of space in the picture.
The real solution of this problem is to call SetLineWidth twice:
. . .
*draw first line* 1,1 1/4,1/4 1/4
SetLineWidth(4/1); 1,1 1,1 4
SetLineWidth(1/1); 1,1 1,1 1
*draw second line* 1,1 1,1 1
The first call scales the LW pen size back to (1,1) and sets the scaling
factor to 1. This alone would be sufficient, but makes subsequently drawn lines
of other pen sizes four times as fat as desired. So the second call is used
to set the LW's scaling factor back to 1 (because of the factor 1/1, it
leaves the LW's pen size alone).
If anyone out there had similar problems with SetLineWidth, try this trick.
Good luck,
e
gu
------------------------------
Date: 13 Jan 88 18:31:26 GMT
From: gergely@dalcs.UUCP (Peter J Gergely)
Subject: LaserDrivers 5.0, Appleshare, and Mac 512K,K/800's (long)
We have encountered a problem using LaserDriver 5.0, with Mac 512's,
Appleshare System, and Bitmap graphics. Please consider the following
as a tested bug report.
Configuration
Hayes Interbridge
Two Appletalk Zones, each with a Laserwriter Plus.
40 Macs (SE, Plus, 512K/800, and 512K)
1 Mac SE20i as Appleshare File Server
System on 512K, 512K/800
Default Appleshare System (System 3.3, Finder 5.4) with
LaserPrep 5.0 and LaserWriter 5.0.
Other Mac's.
System 4.2, Finder 6.0, Backgrounder on all Mac's with HD.
System 4.1, Finder 5.5 on all others except 512's.
LaserWriter and LaserPrep 5.0 on ALL MAC's.
Problem:
In our configuration (above), when any Mac 512K or 512KE
prints a bitmap image (embedded or otherwise) on a Laserwriter Plus
using the latest LaserWriter 5.0 Driver, the image is printed, and when
the dialog box is cleared, the Mac hangs. This problem occurs even
with a Laserwriter hooked directly to a Mac 512, with a 6 foot
appletalk network, and a true copy of the 512K appleshare installer
disk, but replacing the LaserDrivers to 5.0 from the System 5
Installation set.
Because of the fact that all machines on an Appletalk should
run the same version of LaserDrivers, we really don't want to go back
to using 4.0, even though we know that it works fine with the 512's.
Currently, as a stop-gap measure, we have one Laserwriter
initialized with version 4.0, and one with 5.0, just to save the
reinitializations. This is proving to be unsatisfactory for those
of us that have offices very close to the wrongly initialized
Laserwriter.
At the current time, it is impossible to upgrade those Mac
512's to Plus'.
QUESTION:
Does anybody have any solutions, comments, or patches, to
allow the 512K's to exist harmoniously (without the hangs) on our
appleshare network using LaserDriver 5.0.
If possible, please reply directly to me at
GERGELY@DREA-XX.ARPA, and I will summarize any responses to this group
at a later time.
- Peter
Peter J. Gergely (DREA, P.O. Box 1012, Dartmouth, NS B2Y 3Z7 Canada)
ARPANET: gergely@DREA-XX.ARPA (preferred) or Peter@DREA-GRIFFIN.ARPA
DIALNET: Peter@DIAL|DREA-Griffin UUCP: gergely@dalcs.UUCP
CSNET: gergely%cs.dal.cdn@ubc.csnet GENIE: GERGELY
------------------------------
Date: 23 Dec 87 08:09:00 EST
From: "NRL::MCCOWAN" <mccowan%nrl.decnet@nrl.arpa>
Subject: ImageWriter PICT output?
Is there a way to have the imagewriter print driver write the QuickDraw calls
to a spool file, not print it, and leave the spool file (in PICT format) on the
disk? If not, is there is a printer resourse out there that will do this?
Thanks,
Bob McCowan
MCCOWAN@NRL.ARPA
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 28 Dec 87 11:09:20 EST
From: olson@harvard.harvard.edu (Eric K. Olson)
Subject: Re: Cmd-F output of PS file
In a recent INFO-MAC, Norbert Lindenberg - U Karlsruhe writes:
"It may seem ridiculous, but you have to hold down the cmd-f keys
until the LaserWriter driver comes up with its "Creating PostScript
File" message. I don't know what the driver really does to find out
about your keypresses, but it certainly does not ask for keyDown
events."
In fact, it looks at the keymap held in memory by the keyboard driver
(i.e., the "state" of key up/down-- Trap GetKeys(KeyMapPtr)). It
doesn't even check for the Cmd key - holding down F is sufficient.
Most Programs get the keydown event subsequently (since it did occur),
many ignore keydown events in their most-common windows.
-Eric
(defun maybe (x) (maybe (not x)))
Eric K. Olson olson@endor.harvard.edu harvard!endor!olson D0760
(Name) (ArpaNet) (UseNet) (AppleLink)
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 12 Jan 88 10:04 EDT
From: <MANAGER%SKIDMORE.BITNET@forsythe.stanford.edu> (Leo Geoffrion)
Subject: Laser printer screen dump needed
Does anyone have a PD or Shareware version of the laser screen dump Fkey
(such as laserkey.hex). The current version circulating (4.002)
won't work with version 4 of the laserwriter software. Incidentally,
it works fine with the older Version 3 software.
Does anyone have an update to this useful software?
===================================================================
Leo D. Geoffrion BITNET: MANAGER@SKIDMORE.BITNET
Associate Director for NYNEX: (518) 584-5000 Ext. 2628
Academic Computing
Skidmore College
Saratoga Springs, NY 12866
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 18 Dec 87 13:36:54 EST
From: Lap@UDEL.EDU
Subject: PostScript question
We are having a problem printing Macintosh II-generated PostScript
files on our Apple LaserWriter, which is connected through the
serial port of a SUN 3/50.
Background of the problem: Create a file in MacWrite or MacDraw.
Immediately after clicking on "OK" in the Print dialog, hold down
the Command "K" key to direct the PostScript output to a file
(with a rather long header). Send the file to the SUN, then send
the file to the LaserWriter. The file looks fine on the SUN. My
understanding is that the LaserWriter requires initialization which
is normally done by the Mac over Appletalk. I have obtained several
public domain programs and headers from SUMEX intended to solve
the problem, but all are evidently out of date.
Any help in solving this problem would be greatly appreciated.
Larry Pearlstein (lap@huey.udel.edu)
University of Delaware
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 15 Jan 88 09:59:41 CST
From: "Larry Pickett, INFOREP"
From: <C4898%UMSLVMA.BITNET@forsythe.stanford.edu>
Subject: LaserWriterCopyCounts
Does anyone know how to get the LW to send the number of copies done to
date sent to a requesting station on Local(Apple)Talk? I'm most interested
in postscript code which could be sent to the printer. Any other PD or
ShareWa re application that give such control to nodes on the network?
Acknowledge-To: <C4898@UMSLVMA>
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 14 Jan 88 11:48 AST
From: <JNDPH%ALASKA.BITNET@forsythe.stanford.edu>
Subject: Mac/Novell interface query
I'm looking for software that will let a Macintosh SE with an Ethernet
interface board function as a workstation on an Ethernet LAN running Novell
Netware.
The Mac user is primarily interested in accessing to network to print
PageMaker documents on the spooled network laser printer (now a HP LaserJet+,
but likely to be replaced in the future with a Poscript printer).
I'd appreciate any suggestions for dealing with this problem... even if it
involves an Applenet/Ethernet + Netware bridge. I've just been unable to find
any information on this problem.
Please send messages directly to me, since I don't regularly read INFO-MAC.
I will be happy to send a summary of any useful information to the net.
Thanks!
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 13 Jan 88 12:38 EST
From: <RLF52%ALBNY1VX.BITNET@forsythe.stanford.edu>
Subject: Connection of Mac to DEC printserver 40 PS printer
Bob Frost at the History Dept. of SUNY-Albany (Bitnet:
RLF52@ALBNY1VX) here. Been trying for weeks to figure out how to
run PS files generated on a Macintosh via a VAX, onto a DEC
Printserver 40 (LPS40). Running MS Word, Pagemaker, MacDraw,
etc., the best I can get is for the LPS40 to read & find no errors in the
modified prolog file, but then it proceeds to print nothing; I receive no
error messages. Know anyone whoUs dealt with this? Thanx.
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 15 Dec 87 18:22 EDT
From: <MHOFFMAN%CLARKU.BITNET@forsythe.stanford.edu>
Subject: Kermit file transfer problems on a VAX
I am a student at Clark University trying to upload files that I have on a Mac
to a Digital VAX using VMS 4.6. I am using Red Ryder 9.2 with the Kermit file
transfer protocol, and the Kermit-32 program on the Vax. I have sucessfully
received and downloaded files from Bitnet using the same software setup. An
error I obtained from the VAX at one point was:
ACP File Extend Error ...
(??)
Also, I have tried sending both with and without Binhexing my files. Also, I
have tried standard ASCII text files created and saved in MacWrite as
"Text-Only" with and without binhexing - still no success.
Does anyone know how to use Macs with the VAX? Clark supports only DEC
equipment, that being Rainbows, and even then no one around here does much
transferring, so they don't know much about it!
Thanks in advance,
Mitch Hoffman
MHOFFMAN@CLARKU.Bitnet
------------------------------
Date: 21 Dec 87 23:15:56 GMT
From: WENCU@cunyvm.cuny.edu
Subject: ftp and packed or binary files
We here at CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU have recently been able to use the tcp/ip suite
through the vm/tcp machine.I has been running well thanks to our network
administrators.
I have used TELNET and been succeccful. Our problem comes when I use FTP
to transfer pc or macintosh executable programs in a binary or packed format.
I get garbage. Is there a problem with the transfer method? There are 3 'TYPE'
options: Ascii, Binary, Image. Which do we use?
Is the problem because the files are being sent through the vm mainframe and
are being translated before getting to the micro?
Is anyone also having this problem and found a work around solution?
As a lot of people are beginning to use ftp this problem is coming up more
frequently at our site. The questions fall on us.
Any help will be appreciated
Wendell P. Brown a.k.a. "Splash"
Senior Technician at
CUNY University Computer Center
Microcomputer Resource Laboratory
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 29 Dec 87 17:31 EST
From: SEWALL%UCONNVM.BITNET@forsythe.stanford.edu
Subject: January 1988 Vaporware
VAPORWARE
Murphy Sewall
From the January 1988 APPLE PULP
H.U.G.E. Apple Club (E. Hartford) News Letter
$15/year
P.O. Box 18027
East Hartford, CT 06118
Permission granted to copy with the above citation
Call the "Bit Bucket" (203) 569-8739
NeXt Month?
The week after the deadline for last month's column,
InfoWorld published a front page story containing details of
the NeXt computers scheduled for introduction during the
first quarter. There will be two computers in cubical black
magnesium cases. Both will be built around the 68030
microprocessor. The "Low-end" model ($5,000) will have
4-Mbytes of RAM, a 17 inch, flat-tension mask, monochrome
display and a 40-Mbyte hard disk. The more expensive model
($9,000) will have 8-Mbytes of RAM, a 16 inch, color
display, and a 200-Mbyte hard disk. Both computers will
feature a proprietary bus and use the Unix operating system
with Display Postscript. - InfoWorld 23 November
Accelerated Mac II.
Both MacPeak Systems of Austin, Texas and Dove Computer of
Wilmington, North Carolina plan to ship 20 MHz 68030
expansion cards for the Mac II in March. MacPeak has
announced a price of $1,995 for the board. AST Research of
Irvine, California, Radius Inc., of San Jose, California,
and TSI Inc., of Eugene, Oregon also are rumored to be
developing 68030 based expansion boards for the Mac II. AST
also will announce soon a 80386-based MS-DOS coprocessor for
the Mac II. - PC Week 24 November
Color Lasers!
By the end of next year, QMS of Mobile, Alabama expects to
be shipping a 300-dpi full-color laser printer. The bad
news is that it will weigh 200 pounds and cost $30,000.
- InfoWorld 30 November
New Laser Printers.
Apple Computer plans to introduce a new generation of laser
printers later this month. There will be three new models
including the long awaited (see November and December 1986
Vaporware columns) Personal LaserWriter based on Quickdraw
imaging and priced at roughly the same $2,500 as General
Computer's Personal Laserwriter which uses Quickdraw as well
(see last September's column). Taxan Corporation also has
announced plans to introduce a Quickdraw printer for
delivery this Spring. A second Apple printer will be an
enhanced version of the current Laserwriter built around
Canon's new "SX" engine (see last October's column). The
newest configuration will be a high performance model
equipped with a Motorola 68020 microprocessor.
InfoWorld 23 November
Accelerated IIgs.
Western Design Center of Mesa, Arizona reports that Apple
has been buying quantities of the 12-MHz version of the
65816 (so far the only machine it's used in is the IIgs).
Could the rumored IIgs accelerator board (see last January's
Vaporware column) finally be on the way? - InCider January
Mac Star?
Micropro, makers of the Word Star word processing program,
has announced a new Macintosh product for shipment in June.
The software will combine conventional word processing
functions with features of desk top publishing programs such
as graph importation and layout capability.
- Random Access 28 November
The IIgs Office System?
Look for lots of new integrated software for the IIgs this
Spring. If integrating three programs is good, wouldn't
integrating six be even better? Remember the "Lisa Office
System?" That was seven programs wasn't it? Hmmm.....
- InCider January
"Low-Cost" Mac Monitors.
Monitor vendors Power R and CTX both recently announced new
monochrome displays for the Mac, and CTX said it is readying
a (relatively) low-cost color display. "Mac Larger" from
Power R is a 12 inch, monochrome display for $449 that
provides 70% more image than the internal Mac screen while
retaining the 512 by 342 pixel resolution. CTX's $399
monochrome monitor will be twice the size of the Mac
display. Their color monitor ($799) provides 800 by 600
resolution, accepts Mac II analog video, and has a 35-KHz
scan rate. - InfoWorld 23 November
Color Laptop.
A host of Japanese firms are developing color LCD flat
screens for laptop computers. Today's best guess is that
economical computers (only $400 more than monochrome
versions) using these screens won't be available for at
least two years. - PC Week 24 November
New "Flat" Screens.
Tektronix has announced a new "hypertwist" Liquid Crystal
Display (LCD) which expands the twist angle from the 180
degrees of supertwist technology to 270 degrees. In
addition to higher contrast and a wider viewing angle, the
new display has a lower power consumption. Two new
Electroluminescent Displays (ELD) will be out later this
year for under $800. A company from Finland has
demonstrated the 600 by 640 pixel "Finlux" screen on a
Dyna-Mac (the "Flat Mac"), and Planar Systems has announced
an ELD with a 160 degree viewing angle and power consumption
under 10 watts. - Random Access 12 December
4-Mbit Dynamic RAM.
Toshiba America has begun limited manufacturing of the next
generation of memory chips. Production shipments of the new
4-megabit chips (four times the size of today's largest
production memory chips), which several other firms also
have under development is scheduled for the third quarter
(can the 32-Mbyte RAM personal computer be far away?).
- InfoWorld 30 November
Bigga than a Giga.
IBM's Almaden Research Center in San Jose has announced a
breakthrough in recording technology that will make it
theoretically possible to store up to 1.25 gigabytes of data
on a 3.5 inch disk. Current recording heads cannot take
full advantage of the new technique which involves using
semiconductor fabrication (electron beam photolithography)
methods to etch 0.5-micron-wide tracks onto a disk surface.
- InfoWorld 23 November
Micro Floppy Drives.
Sony has announced a 1-Mbyte, 2 inch disk drive for use in
laptop computers, and Hitachi plans to introduce a 2.5 inch
floppy drive. - Random Access 12 December
Assorted IBM Rumors.
Coming in April - a PS/2 Model 90 with a RISC (Reduced
Instruction Set Coprocessor) expected to operate at 32-MHz
and run PC Excel seven times faster than the Mac II
version. Big Blue also is poised to roll out a true "what
you see is what you get" 8.5 by 11 (page size) display with
incredibly sharp graphic resolution especially for desktop
publishing applications. Wyse Technology's lawyers have put
that firm's Micro Channel clone motherboard on hold while
they examine IBM's patents more carefully. The President of
Word Perfect says the cost of OS/2 along with the added
memory and other add-ons needed to take advantage of its
features will be so high that few users will benefit.
- PC Week 24 November, InfoWorld 30 November and 7 December,
and Random Access 21 November
Self-Serve Software.
Brother International is beta testing a software "vending
machine." Although it looks like a soda machine, it's
really a computer terminal and disk copying machine tied to
a mainframe. It has a catalog of 1,500 titles which can be
demonstrated on the built in display. Software can be
ordered with a bank credit card and downloaded on either 3.5
or 5.25 inch disks. Brother expects to begin installing the
machines in the U.S. later this year.
- Random Access 28 November
Reach for the Sky.
The US Department of Agriculture has encountered an
unanticipated difficulty in its project to develop robot
fruit pickers. To contain costs, the robots were designed
with monochrome scanners. Unfortunately, to the robots, an
orange has the same size, shape, and brightness as a small
cloud. Current robot pickers are often hung up literally
reaching for the clouds. The USDA says it's back to the
drawing board - this time using color.
- Random Access 21 November
------------------------------
End of INFO-MAC Digest
**********************