SHULMAN@sdr.slb.COM (Jeffrey Shulman) (10/17/87)
Date: Sat 17 Oct 87 09:42:01-GMT From: Jeff Shulman <SHULMAN@SDR> Subject: Delphi Mac Digest V3 #47 To: Delphi-List: ; Message-ID: <561458521.0.SHULMAN@SDR> Mail-System-Version: <VAX-MM(218)+TOPSLIB(129)@SDR> Delphi Mac Digest Saturday, October 17, 1987 Volume 3 : Issue 47 Today's Topics: Math typesetting (2 messages) RE: Hard disks.... (2 messages) RE: How to get info into HyperCard re: SE and mouse tracking DLOG/DITL on Mac II (2 messages) RE: Trouble with Power Station RE: Usenet Mac Digest V3 #79 BMUG MacToberFest fair smart quotes Hard disks... RE: MultiFinder Apple Earnings - GOOD News HyperTalk question (2 messages) Shutdown Mac II ROMs (several versions?) Searching for the message. (6 messages) RE: Usenet Mac Digest V3 #82 setting screen depth (2 messages) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: HAGIHARA Subject: Math typesetting Date: 10-OCT 03:32 Public Domain Hello. I have seen your program, Expressionist. While it has a lot of plusses, I find it extremely painful to go through italicizing the variables in the equation. Also while WYSIWYG approach is neat, I still like the precise action of TeX. Do you have any plan to implement code-oriented features in your program? By then I will be a registered owner ... Dave ------------------------------ From: DSACHS Subject: RE: Math typesetting (Re: Msg 22783) Date: 10-OCT 15:04 Public Domain One problem with Expressionist is the very porr representation of integral signs and braces. This is obvious when the graphics output of Expressionist Maceqn, MathType, MathWriter and Microsoft Word are displayed on a single page. I have disected the Expressionist integral sign into its 6 components, 4 arcs and 2 ovals. All the other programs use the Symbol font. MathType and MathWriter even use the mulit-part representations.. ------------------------------ From: PEABO Subject: RE: Hard disks.... (Re: Msg 22785) Date: 10-OCT 16:43 Hardware & Peripherals I'm very happy with my Jasmine 80. I bought it at the Expo and it arrived about 2 weeks later. Works perfectly, it's not very noisy, it's fast, and I recommend it to anyone. The driver software I have only works on the the Plus /SE, but at the time I bought it I asked about Mac II because I intended this to be the first part of my Mac II that I buy. Jasmine should have the Mac II driver software ready by now. I have heard that the CMS units are also very good, and not much different in price. peter ------------------------------ From: NATURAL Subject: RE: Hard disks.... (Re: Msg 22794) Date: 10-OCT 20:35 Hardware & Peripherals Bri and Peter... on some of the BBSs around, people have been complaining about the CMS drive, particulairly, the 80s, so be alert. ------------------------------ From: PEABO Subject: RE: How to get info into HyperCard (Re: Msg 22786) Date: 10-OCT 17:07 Network Digests >Date: Wed, 7 Oct 87 7:29:11 MST >From: Major John Buono >From: <buono%asbf-imp.huachuca-em.arpa@HUACHUCA-EM.ARPA> >Subject: How to get info into HyperCard [I don't have mail access, so I am posting this to the digest:] >That is, how can you easily get information into a stack without the very >time consuming venture of sitting at a keyboard and clicking aware. To >give an example. I recently completed a stack for keeping tack of my library >of books, records, video tapes and audio tapes. This collection is very >large (over 2000 books alone). Now that the stack is completed I have to >sit down for about 2 to 3 weeks of doing nothing but typing piece by piece >to get the information in. I have had in the back on my mind for the last ten years "putting my book titles etc on the computer". Although I may never get around to doing this, let me mention that I figured the best way to proceed is to buy one of those laptop machines (Tandy model 100's are very cheap these days, although you would want to beef up the memory) and use that to key in the data. That way I don't have to make a production out of bringing the Mac to the books or the books to the Mac and disrupting my workplace for a couple of weeks. Once the data is in the laptop, it's easy to transfer it to the Mac as a text file, print it out for proofreading, and so on. Then you use HyperTalk to read the text file and produce the stack. It's easy to write HyperTalk programs to accommodate your input format, and while they may not be super efficient, you can always leave the Mac chewing at the file overnight. I think it's also a good idea to pursue this task incrementally. That is, don't take 2 or 3 weeks off to do it (you'll never get the time), but plan to take 3 or 4 months and do a little bit at a time, gradually building up the stack. This has the added advantage that you have something to show for your efforts right away, to cheer you on when it gets to be a drag. >Wouldn't it be nice to be sent a >hypercard stack of the index to a magazine that could be easily loaded (hmm >maybe the cauzin reader will pay off yet). The Cauzin reader is better than typing in the text, but for any file that takes more than two pages of the magazine (optimistically 60-70K at the highest density) it is much better to download the file from a telecomm service. HyperCard stacks are not bulky per se, but people have been taking advantage of the sound features and including very large 'snd ' resources in some of the stacks you have heard about. For stacks which really need 2 megabytes or more, I think the solution is to use disks as an exchange medium, not telecomm. peter "In any context, half of all references PEABO @ DELPHI are local and half are global." ------------------------------ From: PEABO Subject: re: SE and mouse tracking (Re: Msg 22787) Date: 10-OCT 17:27 Network Digests >From: mlwh%sphinx@Sun.COM (Martin Hall) >Subject: SE and mouse tracking >Date: 5 Oct 87 05:12:55 GMT >Is there a general problem with mouse tracking and Mac SEs? All the new mouses do tracking of position locally in the mouse, and send messages to the Mac with the position. Older ("classic" mouses) send digitzer pulses to the Mac, which tracks the mouse position. So, on an old Mac, when things get busy (principally disk I/O), the mouse is sluggish because some of the pulses are lost which interrupts are disabled. But on new Macs, the mouse gets "jumpy" instead, because the mouse position is accurately tracked but the screen position is updated less frequently. It gets worse though, because when the mouse is set to one of its accelerator modes (using the Control panel), jumpy coordinates get interpreted by the Mac as gross movements and the software assumes you want to move the mouse faster than 1:1. peter "In any context, half of all references PEABO @ DELPHI are local and half are global." ------------------------------ From: MWEASNER Subject: DLOG/DITL on Mac II Date: 9-OCT-23:03: Macintosh Developers While working on a new version of an application I came across something that seems rather strange. I hope someone can shed some light on this. The original version worked on the MacPlus, SE, and II without problems (don't know about the 64K ROM Macs). However, the new version would bomb on the Mac II with a bus error but still worked on the Plus and SE. After much head scratching I finally found the problem. I had changed a WIND resource to a DLOG resource but had neglected to add the item list ID or even add a DITL resource. Once this oversight was corrected, the program worked on the Mac II. Now, can someone tell me: 1. why a program with a DLOG but without a corresponding DITL works on the MacPlus and SE, and 2. why such a program doesn't work on the Mac II and gives a bus error of all things. Please post your answer here to save others the grief I went through. Thanks. Mike Weasner ------------------------------ From: PEABO Subject: RE: DLOG/DITL on Mac II (Re: Msg 2095) Date: 10-OCT 00:13 Macintosh Developers My guess is that it is dereferencing zero and location zero has different things in it on the Mac II vs. the older machines. You might try looking around with the debugger and seeing what would happen if the ROM tried to use zero as the address of a handle to the DITL. peter [ Also, referencing memory that doesn't exist will cause a bus fault on the Mac II (it wraps around on earlier Macs.) - Jeff ] ------------------------------ From: WISNERS Subject: RE: Trouble with Power Station (Re: Msg 22772) Date: 11-OCT 19:56 Creative Pursuits John I don't own Power Station, but I have discovered that the bug you refer to is not unique to Power Station. Apparently the routine that updates the Master Directory or Desktop on the floppies using System 6.0b-x has a flaw. Using MS Word 3.01 I thrashed 2 floppies using 6.0b. I guess that either Word or Apple didn't get that particular routine right-my guess is Apple. We'll see when 6.0 is "officially" released. Steve Wisner (WISNERS) ------------------------------ From: ASMCOR Subject: RE: Usenet Mac Digest V3 #79 (Re: Msg 22787) Date: 11-OCT 23:24 Network Digests To Ted Johnson- The high-pitched sound is called an 'alias' and it is normal. It is a function of the not-very-expensive sound chip in the Mac. There's no way to avoid it through software, at least not with the square wave generator. Even in four-voice mode it's noticeable at some frequencies. Jan ------------------------------ From: BMUG Subject: BMUG MacToberFest fair Date: 14-OCT 05:08 MUGS Online PLEASE POST AND PASS ON THIS ANNOUNCEMENT WHEREVER POSSIBLE! BMUG Presents: The Third Annual MMM MMM AA CCCC TTTTTT OOOO BBBB EEEEEE RRRRR MMMMMMMM AA AA CC TT OO OO BB B EE RR RR MM MM MM AAAAAA CC TT OO OO BBBB EEEE RRRRR MM MM AA AA CC TT OO OO BB B EE RR RR MM MM AA AA CCCC TT OOOO BBBB EEEEEE RR RR FFFFFF EEEEEE SSSSS TTTTTT FF EE SS TT FFFFF EEEEE SSSSS TT FF EE SS TT FF EEEEEE SSSSS TT MACTOBERFEST! The Show for USERS Thursday, October 22nd Pauley Ballroom UC Berkeley campus Berkeley, California 11 am - 7 pm Whether you're a true beginner or an ace programmer on the Macintosh, you'll be fascinated at MacToberFest. See the latest in Macintosh developments, demonstrated by end-users! There will be seminars, exhibits of high-end & exotic products, over $5,000 in door prizes (including a Macintosh system donated by Apple Computer), and much, much more! At 7:30 pm in Physical Sciences Lecture hall, BILL ATKINSON, author of HYPERCARD, will discuss his latest creation. The next day, there will be a 4th Dimension seminar by ACIUS at the BMUG office in Berkeley. ALL EVENTS ARE ABSOLUTELY FREE! Exhibitors include: Cricket Software Neuron Data Farallon Computing Palomar Software Interleaf Radius Kinetics Silicon Beach Software Letraset USA SuperMac Technologies LevCo TOPS National Instruments VersaCAD National Semiconductor For more information, contact BMUG at (415) 849-9114 anytime! ------------------------------ From: DDUNHAM Subject: smart quotes (Re: Msg 22826) Date: 14-OCT 21:20 Network Digests > From: PUGH@NMFECC.ARPA > Subject: Laser Quotes INIT While these INITs may be useful, I don't consider them truly smart, because they can't take into account context (i.e. you can't click an insertion point and type a quote and get it to curve correctly). The only way to do it right is to build it in to a program. It appears that Ann Arbor has been pressured into putting "smart quotes" into FullWrite. I suggest we all bug other word processor people to do the same. In act, I make my algorithm available to any publisher who wants it, in essence for free (I'd like to guarantee that everyone does it the same way). It only takes a few lines of code. ------------------------------ From: HALL Subject: Hard disks... Date: 14-OCT 22:47 Hardware & Peripherals I've been looking around at some hard disks (see my previous messages for the whole sordid story ;-) ), and of the fifteen or so companies I've contacted (or tried to contact), the NuData drive seem to be some of the best. (OK, the best, but I won't guarantee it...) Their prices are kind of high, but they seem to be well built, use good components, and the salesman knows what he's talking about. (They also give some pretty good developer discounts, in case any developers are interested... ;-) ) They make 20MB, 40MB, 90MB drives and up. In the 20MB and 40MB drives they use Fujitsu drives. (Non-RLL. They buy the controllers from SMS, SuperMac's parent company. They could get the same RLL controller that SuperMac is trying to use in their drives (not too successfully), but say they aren't good enough.) In the 90MB and bigger drives, they use CDC drives. I had them run DiskTimer II on the 90MB drive, and it was impressive. At 3 to 1 interleave, on a Mac II, it did 21 in the reads, 48 in the writes (they don't use a blind write like most people do), and 6 in the seeks. That's more than twice as fast (in the reads and seeks) than a DataFrame 60XP. Before I run out and buy one (or several), has anyone used a NuData drive? How reliable are the Fujitsu and CDC drive mechanisms? Thanks, Brian ------------------------------ From: STEVEMALLER Subject: RE: MultiFinder (Re: Msg 22828) Date: 15-OCT 02:19 Business Mac Yup. I went across the street today and picked up the "gold" masters. System 4.2 Finder 6.0 MultiFinder 1.0 Font/DA Mover 3.5 ...and so on Nice to see real software for a change. I suspect that we'll have 'em available here before too long. But be forewarned: the new stuff is big. For example, here is a directory from System Tools 1: Name Size Last-Mod-Date -------------------- ------ ----------------- DeskTop 13K 10/12/87 8:03 AM TeachText 23K 10/8/87 12:00 PM Clipboard File 1K 10/8/87 12:00 PM Color 3K 10/8/87 12:00 PM DAJHandler 6K 10/8/87 12:00 PM Easy Access 4K 4/14/87 12:00 PM Finder 99K 10/8/87 12:00 PM General 14K 10/8/87 12:00 PM Key Layout 4K 10/8/87 12:00 PM Keyboard 5K 10/8/87 12:00 PM Monitors 17K 10/8/87 12:00 PM Mouse 4K 10/8/87 12:00 PM MultiFinder 55K 10/8/87 12:00 PM Scrapbook File 12K 10/8/87 12:00 PM Sound 4K 10/8/87 12:00 PM Startup Device 3K 10/8/87 12:00 PM System 321K 10/8/87 12:00 PM Read Me 10K 10/12/87 8:00 AM Apple HD SC Setup 27K 10/8/87 12:00 PM Installer 32K 10/8/87 12:00 PM Macintosh II Script 6K 10/8/87 12:00 PM Macintosh Plus ScripI 5K 10/8/87 12:00 PM Macintosh SE Script 5K 10/8/87 12:00 PM GOOD GRIEF! Can you believe that the Finder is almost 100K? Oy vey! And imagine downloading the System (321K)? What do you'all think? Should we upload this stuff? Ciao, Steve Maller Apple Computer ------------------------------ From: STEVEMALLER Subject: Apple Earnings - GOOD News Date: 15-OCT 02:44 Business Mac Strong Sales and Earnings Gains Cupertino, California. October 14, 1987. Apple Computer, Inc. reported strong increases in net sales and earnings in fourth quarter and fiscal year results for the periods ending September 25, 1987. Net sales rose to $786.4 million during the fourth fiscal quarter, a 54 percent increase over the corresponding quarter in the prior year. Fourth quarter earnings climbed to $0.54 per share, a 116 percent increase compared to $0.25 per share, (as adjusted for a two-for-one stock split effected on May 15, 1987) , in the comparable period of the prior year. For the full year, Apple's sales rose by 40 percent to $2.66 billion from $1.90 billion in fiscal 1986. Net earnings for fiscal year 1987 were $217 million, a 41 percent increase above the $154 million recorded in fiscal 1986. Earnings per share were $1.65 per share compared to earnings of $1.20 per share, (adjusted for the two-for-one stock split) in fiscal year 1986. "Our new products are shipping in record numbers," declared John Sculley, chairman and chief executive officer. The Macintosh family of products is shipping at its highest level ever." "Our education sales remain strong", said Sculley. "The AppleIIGS has helped us maintain a leadership position in the kindergarten through grade 12 market by shipping in record volumes during this school year's first education buying season. The Macintosh family of products is selling very well in the higher education market. "We are very encouraged by the strength of demand for Apple products," added Sculley. "We have taken this opportunity to increase sales and marketing expenses in order to support further market expansion. During the current quarter we increased our field sales staff in the U. S. by approximately 25 percent from the end of the previous quarter." "Fiscal year 1987 has been a year of record achievement for Apple Computer," noted Sculley. "We successfully introduced many new products throughout the year. They have been well accepted, particularly in the business market. We have now completed the repositioning of Apple and enter fiscal year 1988 with strong momentum and a full complement of new products." ------------------------------ From: DEWI Subject: HyperTalk question Date: 15-OCT 03:35 Creative Pursuits I need to say something like "number of cards of background XYZ" in a stack I'm toying with. It doesn't seem to be possible for some reason. Anybody have any suggestions short of maintaining a count in a field somewhere? Many thanks, Dewi. ------------------------------ From: STEVEMALLER Subject: RE: HyperTalk question (Re: Msg 22861) Date: 16-OCT 00:21 Creative Pursuits In response to your question regarding how to get "the number of cards in background XYZ", I don't think there is a way to do it. Bummer, huh. Nevertheless, here is a script I just tested and it works fine for the same purpose. Not too fast, but it works... set lockscreen to true push card go to first card of bkgnd 1 put 0 into numCards put the id of this card into cardOne put true into running repeat until not running if the number of this bkgnd is 1 then add 1 to numCards end if go to next card if the id of this card is cardOne then put false into running end repeat pop card set lockscreen to false put numCards && "cards in this background..." Understand? Good... Steve Maller Apple Computer ------------------------------ From: MACENGLISH Subject: Shutdown Date: 15-OCT 23:39 Bugs & Features When I select shut down, I get a messages that says "You may safely switch off your machine now." There is also a restart button. When I click on the restart button, sometimes it restarts my SE and sometimes it crashes, so I have to turn off the Mac. Any explanations? Debbie ------------------------------ From: INTECO Subject: Mac II ROMs (several versions?) Date: 16-OCT 15:52 Macintosh II It seems to me that there exists at least two versions of the Mac II roms! At least mine have no PaletteManager... ($AA90...) Uwe ------------------------------ From: NATURAL Subject: Searching for the message. Date: 16-OCT 17:27 Creative Pursuits No, this is not a moonie post. For some reason, when I search for the word 'message' in a script from a script, it doesn't seem to find it. Anyone know why? Is this a key word or something? Tx. josh ------------------------------ From: PEABO Subject: RE: Searching for the message. (Re: Msg 22876) Date: 16-OCT 19:53 Creative Pursuits It should work, but take note that "message" has more synonyms than any other HyperTalk word: message, msg, msg box, msg window, etc. You are putting "message" in quotes, right? If you don't it will take what ever is in the message box and use that as the search string. peter ------------------------------ From: NATURAL Subject: RE: Searching for the message. (Re: Msg 22883) Date: 16-OCT 23:55 Creative Pursuits Bingo. No quotes. That's it. ------------------------------ From: NATURAL Subject: RE: Searching for the message. (Re: Msg 22888) Date: 16-OCT 23:57 Creative Pursuits While on the subject of HyperQuestions... Is there anyway to recover from a disapearing field. It was transparent and I know it's there but I think it's hidden. Hmm, maybe a show all fields... Off to the HyperBible. ------------------------------ From: PEABO Subject: RE: Searching for the message. (Re: Msg 22889) Date: 17-OCT 01:34 Creative Pursuits put 0 in num repeat for the number of fields on this card show field num add 1 to num end repeat peter ------------------------------ From: STEVEMALLER Subject: RE: Searching for the message. (Re: Msg 22890) Date: 17-OCT 03:38 Creative Pursuits An easier way of showing all fields on a card... repeat with i = 1 to the number of card fields show card field i end repeat repeat with i = 1 to the number of bkgnd fields show bkgnd field i end repeat Steve Maller Apple Computer ------------------------------ From: DSACHS Subject: RE: Usenet Mac Digest V3 #82 (Re: Msg 22880) Date: 16-OCT 20:58 Network Digests RE: newton@cit-vax.Caltech.Edu (Mike Newton) request for larger file names from Finder: The public domain program "Layout" may be of some help. ------------------------------ From: JOSEF Subject: setting screen depth Date: 17-OCT 02:49 Programming Techniques I have an application which for reasons of speed, has to write directly to the screen. Before doing so, I would like to be able to set the screen depth momentarily back to 1. I cant find anything in IM-V about how to do this. Does anybody know? Joe ------------------------------ From: STEVEMALLER Subject: RE: setting screen depth (Re: Msg 2108) Date: 17-OCT 03:43 Programming Techniques Joe, It would be faster to write directly to an offscreen grafport that is one bit deep, then do a CopyBits(offMap,thePort^.portBits...) to the real screen. You see, if you are going to bump the Mac screen back and forth between 1 and n bits, you are actually going to take more time, expecially if MultiFinder is running. Haven't you ever done that on the Control Panel "Monitors" cdev? Takes a moment to figure it out. Let's face it: the days of direct screen access are numbered. If you are on a color system, you are going to have to suck it in and be a model citizen... Steve Maller Apple Computer ------------------------------ End of Delphi Mac Digest ************************ -------