INFO-MAC-REQUEST@SUMEX-AIM.STANFORD.EDU (Moderators Dwayne Virnau... and Lance Nakata) (11/30/87)
INFO-MAC Digest Sunday, 29 Nov 1987 Volume 5 : Issue 141
Today's Topics:
Re: some library routines to watch out for in Lightspeed C
Re: How can I use a non-Apple PostScript device?
Two unrelated questions:
Animated watch cursor INIT
Re:HDBackup
Re: Hard Disk backup programs.
Re: Compuserve Navigator needed
CLI for macintosh?
Microtech Internal Disk Drives (Query)
TecMar MacDrives and Multi-Finder
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Sun, 29 Nov 87 16:16:03 CST
From: brian@sally.utexas.edu (Brian H. Powell)
Subject: Re: some library routines to watch out for in Lightspeed C
>Subject: INFO-MAC Digest V5 #140
>Date: Mon, 23 Nov 87 12:33:15 EST
>From: "Carl D. Howe" <cdh@bfly-vax.bbn.com>
>Subject: some library routines to watch out for in Lightspeed C
>I discovered some nastly little bugs in the libraries
>1: math library: acos() returns wrong results for all values other than
>1 and -1. You can fix this by changing the sources such that acos()
>returns (pi/2 - asin(same_angle)). The problem here looks to me like
>the code for some other routine got pasted in.
Actually, it looks like they were trying to use the algorithm suggested
in the Apple Numerics manual.
Arccos(x) = 2 * Atan(sqrt((1-x)/(1+x)))
The problem is that they left out the call to Atan. A better way to
change the code than described above would be:
(in math.c in the unmade libraries folder)
...
x = (1.0 - x) / (1.0 + x);
fp68k(&x, FOSQRT);
-> elems68k(&x, FOATANX); <- ADD THIS LINE
x *= 2.0;
return( x );
...
>2: unix library: time() returns the number of seconds since some
>time in 1904 rather than 1970. This is a bug in one of the #defines
>of TimeBaseDif which needs a (long) cast immediately in front of the
>expression (TUNIXbaseyr - TMacbaseyr); otherwise that definition ends
>up being constrained to an int which is only 16 bits and is too small
>to hold the result.
Yes. Must have taken quite a bit of sleuthing to find it.
>3: unix library: localtime(clock) assumes that clock is an unsigned
>long * rather than an unsigned long. It tries to indirect through the
>value you provide rather than use it directly, almost always resulting
>in a bus error. Change the definition to remove the *.
I'm not sure the routine is wrong on this. The 4.3BSD (and Sun 3.2) man
page for localtime says:
struct tm *localtime(clock)
long *clock;
The LSC manual says
tm *localtime(clock)
unsigned long clock;
The distributed LSC source says
struct tm *localtime(clock)
register unsigned long *clock;
I think BSD is right, so I think the LSC source is right, and the LSC
manual (and perhaps the code you were compiling) is wrong.
Brian H. Powell
UUCP: ...!uunet!ut-sally!brian
ARPA: brian@sally.UTEXAS.EDU
_Work_ _Not Work_
Department of Computer Sciences P.O. Box 5899
Taylor Hall 2.124 Austin, TX 78763-5899
The University of Texas at Austin (512) 346-0835
Austin, TX 78712-1188
(512) 471-9536
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 28 Nov 87 13:24:37 CST
From: brian@sally.utexas.edu (Brian H. Powell)
Subject: Re: How can I use a non-Apple PostScript device?
The lines of hex you pointed out are 68000 machine code for the
LaserWriter to use for smoothing bitmaps.
In the preceding line, there's a call to a postscript subroutine called
"ok". This procedure checks to make sure the product name of the printer
starts with "LaserWriter". This is because Apple wants to make sure their
machine code is really running on a 68000. There may be other
hardware-specific things done that would prevent the code from working even on
somebody else's 68000-based printer.
With a printer other than a LaserWriter, if you don't try to smooth
bitmaps, things _should_ still print okay. I'd delete everything in the
laser-prep starting with the "currentfile ok ..." stuff (right before the line
of hex digits) to the end of the file.
By the way, it doesn't hurt to wrap lines on the hex digits; I wrapped
them every 72 columns in the preps I modified.
(See sumex:<info-mac>unix-paintps*.shar for my modifications.)
Brian H. Powell
UUCP: ...!uunet!ut-sally!brian
ARPA: brian@sally.UTEXAS.EDU
_Work_ _Not Work_
Department of Computer Sciences P.O. Box 5899
Taylor Hall 2.124 Austin, TX 78763-5899
The University of Texas at Austin (512) 346-0835
Austin, TX 78712-1188
(512) 471-9536
------------------------------
Date: Sun 29 Nov 87 00:35:30-PST
From: Brodie Lockard <I.ISIMO@MACBETH.STANFORD.EDU>
Subject: Two unrelated questions:
Is anyone selling a color font editor yet?
What are the steps in converting a SoundCap or SoundWave
document to a 'snd ' resource that can be played as a SysBeep?
------------------------------
Date: 18 NOV 87 14:35-N
From: RICK%HASARA5.BITNET@forsythe.stanford.edu
Subject: Animated watch cursor INIT
W a t c h I N I T
This is THE animated watch cursor, but in a more
standard Apple way. Now it is an INIT31 file,
drag the icon into your System Folder and reboot.
From then on any time the cursor is a watch BOTH
hands will spin gently. For example when saving
a file in MacWrite or Binhexing a file! :-)
If you had installed the Animated watch cursor
before with the WatchInstaller, please Remove
the watch first (also with the Installer).
If you want to get rid of the Animated Watch just
drag the icon out of the System Folder.
If you hold down the mouse button at startup the running
watch will not be installed.
Note: WatchINIT5.0 has its own icon.
If you use the new Finder that also has a (BAD)
animated watch cursor (borrowed by Apple), you can
prevent the cursor from going wild by using the
Resource Editor to remove the hands from the cursors
in the Finder resource file. There are 8 cursors,
just clear their hands...
WatchInit is free, but I reserve all rights, so it is
NOT public domain software. (c) 1985,1987 by Rick Jansen.
Anyone need a Mac programmer? :-)
Share and enjoy,
-Rick Jansen
[
It's been a slow weekend, and I'm a sucker for small INIT's. This file
is also archived as [SUMEX-AIM.Stanford.EDU]<INFO-MAC>INIT-WATCHINIT-50.HQX
This file replaces WATCHINSTALLER.HQX and UTILITY-WATCHINSTALL.HQX in
the archives.
DoD
]
cut here ---- here ---- here ---- or here
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------------------------------
Date: Fri, 27 Nov 87 12:26:45 GMT
From: Paul Skuce <mcvax!hatfield.ac.uk!comtps@uunet.UU.NET>
Subject: Re:HDBackup
I too had problems with this software Apple Give away.
If you do a full restore it erases the HardDisk. It may seem like a good idea
but when running non standard equipment it could be dangerous (In my case it
took 1 hour to reformat my disk. Then it took 3-4 hours of putting files
back by hand. What about restore folder option?. I thought that it was
worse than useless.
I now use PCPB HFS backup. V1.1. I have v2 but it only works on the drives
it came with. I belive you can get a version that works on all drives.
I swear by it. It has full restore folder restore and selctive file restore.
I'd use HFS BackUp anyday over HDBackup
Regards
Paul Skuce
Hatfield Polytechnic, School Information Science, P.O. box109
College Lane, Hatfield, England, AL10 9AB
comtps%hatfield.ac.uk%mcvax%seismo%.. from States
comtps@hatfield.ac.uk JANET
------------------------------
Date: Sun, 29 Nov 87 21:07:43 -0800
From: David O'Rourke <eaiu268@orion.cf.UCI.EDU>
Subject: Re: Hard Disk backup programs.
Hello, here is a review for yet another Hard Disk backup program.
I have been using Fastback for the past month and have found it to be very
good. It's very fast and easy to use.
You can restore, one file, one folder, groupes, or just anything in general.
You can also restore to a particular volume, or folder on that volume. It
backs up files that are bigger than a disk just fine and restores them just
fine. It also is able to reconstruct about 10% of a disk in the backup set.
I have tested this by eraseing part of a disk, and fastback still was able to
restore that from that disk with no problems. The file was a text file that I
had the Mac create of sequental numbers. I backed up the file, blanked out
part of the backup disk, and then restored the file. It was all entact.
Fastback seems to take only about 1 disk more per 20 megs than other backup
programs. The incremental restore is useful also, and it allows you to restore
an older version of the file that might not be the newest, for example if you
have three copies of the same file, all different, fastback allows you to
pick whick one will be restored.
It also prints lables, and gives an exact count of the number of disks you will
need for the backup. If you have two drives it's even faster, and if you have
a SCSI device it will be reading from the SCSI drive while it's writting to the
floppy drive. Backing up 15 megs takes just over 10 min.
Problems.............
Fastback does a poor job of remembering window alignment in the finder.
Although I think window alignment is part of the desktop file, and I never
restore the desktop {better to rebuild it anyways}, so if you were to restore
the desktop file this problem might go away.
And the Disks are NOT, repeat NOT, finder readable. You must have fastback to
restore for it's backup set.
These are the only two problems that I can find in an otherwise stable, good,
fast, and powerful backup program. I would appreciate any other comments or
problems other people have had, because I am using this program to maintain
about 60 megs worth of hard drive and would like to know about any problems.
David M. O'Rourke
------------------------------
Date: Fri 27 Nov 87 08:48:36-PST
From: David L. Edwards <DLE@csl.sri.com>
Subject: Re: Compuserve Navigator needed
I had downloaded the navigator many weeks ago but only got around to
using it yesterday. I couldn't believe how GREAT it was! It takes
a while to figure out it's features and abilities but it is well worth
the experimenting (esp. since all the experiments are offline...)
Basically, it works by letting you configure which news groups/data
libraries you are interested in (including age, keywords, for you etc).
You also set compuserve phone numbers etc.
Next, when you are ready, I suggest you review what it plans to do using
the review option. It will tell you everything it intends to do. If
you are satisfied, give the run option and then go away for a while. When
you return it will have all the information stored on a disk file and
it will allow you to interactively review the info it obtained.
Now, click on the items you want it to download, compose messages,
reply to messages etc. When you are finshed, turn off the scan option,
and run again. It will perform all the actions you have requested.
I was able to list all data library entries for the last 15 days in
both MACUS and MACDEV using only 7 minutes of connect time. A new
version in the works is supposed to use the new B+ protocol which
should speed up downloads.
dle
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 27 Nov 87 10:38 PDT
From: Kelly Hall <CS47011%IDCSVAX.BITNET@forsythe.stanford.edu>
Subject: CLI for macintosh?
[]
I know this may sound like heresey, and maybe it is, but I am looking for a
simple-but-useable command line interpreter for my mac plus. Something like a
Unix shell would be nice, but not required. A simple batch language might also
prove valuable. Maybe a MS-DOS shell? Ugh, the things I say...
Any help/advice/comments would be appreciated. (Keep it clean, huh folks?)
Kelly Hall
CS47011@IDCSVAX.BITNET
[]
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 27 Nov 87 02:46:17 EST
From: alpert@harvard.harvard.edu (Rich Alpert)
Subject: Microtech Internal Disk Drives (Query)
Has anyone had experience with Microtech Internal Disk Drives? I am
considering their 45Mb internal drive (for an SE with 2Mb and IBM/PC card).
You may respond to me directly if you wish. Thanks.
Richard Alpert
Harvard University
ARPA: alpert@endor.harvard.edu Aiken Computation Lab
UUCP: ...{ihnp4!think,seismo}!harvard!alpert Harvard University
Cambridge, Mass 02138
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 27 Nov 87 13:10 CST
From: "Nancy Calafati, Microcomputer Laboratory Support"
From: <NANCY%nuacc.acns.nwu.edu@forsythe.stanford.edu>
Subject: TecMar MacDrives and Multi-Finder
I recently won an old TecMar MacDrive in a raffle. The computing center
where I work thought that giving them away as prizes would be a good way to
get rid of an old problem. It works better with the new system software
than it did with Finder 5.5, but it won't let me use Multi-Finder. Anytime
I try to launch it I get an error saying "There is not enough memeory to
work with Nancy's Tecmar" and then my Mac + reboots. Does anyone out there
have experience with these dinosaurs? Is the only solution a memory upgrade
for my +, or won't even that help me? Is TecMar still around and supporting
this piece of hardware, and if so, is there a system upgrade available...the
latest version of the TecMar Volume Manager I have is v.2.2....and where
can I get it considering I am not the original, registered owner of this
beast? There are at least 27 other Mac/TecMar owners in the same predicament
on Northwestern's campus alone (We gave away or sold 28 to students, faculty
and staff) so if anyone has an answer, you will have a rather large fan
club here in Evanston, Illinois
Nancy Calafati
Academic Computing and Network Services
Northwestern University
Evanston/Chicago
Nancy@NUACC.acns.nwu.edu
------------------------------
End of INFO-MAC Digest
**********************