SHULMAN@sdr.slb.COM (Jeffrey Shulman) (10/14/87)
Date: Sat 22 Aug 87 09:13:45-GMT
From: Jeff Shulman <SHULMAN@SDR>
Subject: Delphi Mac Digest V3 #40
To: Delphi-List: ;
Message-ID: <556618425.0.SHULMAN@SDR>
Mail-System-Version: <VAX-MM(218)+TOPSLIB(129)@SDR>
ReSent-date: Wed 14 Oct 87 13:35:50-EDT
ReSent-from: Jeff Shulman <SHULMAN@SDR>
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Delphi Mac Digest Saturday, August 22, 1987 Volume 3 : Issue 40
Today's Topics:
RE: boston expo (2 messages)
MPW version 2.0 (2 messages)
MacAsm to MDS (2 messages)
HyperCard notes (7 messages)
SE video problems due to fan?
4D random notes
Bust Out Racket
HyperCard PC ?!? (3 messages)
Xpressly UnCopyProtected.
HyperCard radio buttons (8 messages)
RE: Object-oriented C (2 messages)
New Lightspeed Pascal
Capps' (5 messages)
HyperCard Data Import (4 messages)
Quark Quirk.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
From: NWOLF
Subject: RE: boston expo (Re: Msg 21858)
Date: 15-AUG 02:17 Bugs & Features
Sounds like your not happy with the transcripts of the major addresses
made at the show either. To be sure there were'nt that many new
offerings being shown as there might have been in the past. The Apple
stuff is old news by now: HyperCard , ImageWriter LQ, etc. There were
several new products shown at the show which will not be shipping for
some time. Although I can't be sure of them all I can mention a few:
McMax, a dBase-compatible database which can read dBase-created files
(not just the ascii data) and has a language (nearly) identical to dBase
language for working internally - should be hot for the Tops-users
market as well as others; dBase Mac was shown by Ashton-Tate as well;
Odesta demoed a VMS version of Helix which looked hot; Circo's MDA
debuted to a receptive audience; in the desktop publishing area both
Scoop (Target Software) and Quark XPress were shown, although it appears
Aldus still has the upper hand with PageMaker 2.0... LetraSet was there
with RSG but it seems that the DTP wars have cooled off a little bit.
Not so in the Word Processing arena, however. Ann Arbor had a countdown
clock in their both showing how many hours left until FullWrite is
released (651 at show's end - that's about a 27 days) and it looks like
they'll be taking the lead in the race even this late in the game; Word
Perfect is close behind, however, and Microsoft may be running a distant
3rd by the end of the year. Storage media seemed to be the hottest thing
and there's no doubt that Jasmine had one of the hottest booths at the
show (especially Tuesday when the air- conditioning failed to function).
SuperMac also had lots of activity but a good deal of that could be
attributed to their 19" Monitor for the Mac II which appeared to be the
unit of choice for most exhibitors with MegaScreen running a close
second and E-machines Big Picture hot on their heels. In networking
there was quite a bit in evidence but how much was actualy new or being
announced at the show it's hard to say. Hayes showed their V-series 9600
Modem and their Modem enhancer and Farallon put in their 2 bits along
with DuPont (Fiber Optic system) but not much seemed to be really new.
Apple did show AppleShare PC, Tops was a big presence also. In business
there were a few new faces: Spectrum showed TrueForm, which looks like a
good contender for the fill-in-the-blank market; Contact Systems' Gyst,
billed as client management software, looks ideal for the job, although
there was also Client/Mac from Software Complement which, because it is
Omnis-based, may be more flexible and powerful; several new calendars
were present including Rendezvous from PMC Telesystems, among others.
Odesta also showed Map/Access,"the first geographically intelligent data
manager " and AEC showed their Information Manager - a project-oriented
database. In the publishing field Macintosh Today took a good shot at
displacing MacWeek from the weekly top spot, and Robert Wiggins'
Macintosh Business Letter position s itself as the serious contender for
the upper-end executive market. There were a few new offerings in the
music/entertainment area also: Primera Software's Different Drummerand
Opcode's OvalTune and Music Mouse were good. Several new games were
shown by those who do such things, although this writer did not take too
much notice of them. Notably, there was a follow-up to Dark Castle;
Silicon Beach had a new offering; Broderbund was there with something
(but what??), Icom Simulations had previews of things yet to come, and
there were indeed others. Of course there were also a few new utilities
in evidence. Most notable among them was Steve Brecher's Suitcase and
Think Technologies' HFS navigator, both of which are destined to be
"must-haves" for everyone using a Mac.
Anyone care to fill in the things I've missed - I'm sure there must be a
lot.
------------------------------
From: PEABO
Subject: RE: boston expo (Re: Msg 21861)
Date: 15-AUG 02:58 Bugs & Features
PCPC had color monitors too. My impression after staring closely at the
big monitors was that you wouldn't be making a terrible mistake no
matter which one you bought. One interesting think about the PCPC
offering is that they have both the SONY Trinitron monitor and a
Mitsubishi shadow mask monitor for the same price. If you find the two
horizontal bars on the Trinitron annoying, the Mitsubishi might be the
right choice. The various models available differ somewhat according to
the amount of anti-glare treatment. Right now the big color monitors
all cost around $3000 (plus $1500 for the video card). but with the kind
of demand there will be for these, I imagine the volume will ramp up and
prices will fall.
I bought HFS Navigator and I'm very happy with it. THINK was also
selling Capps' (Capps Prime) an editor construction kit with an
application editor that does what the LightspeedC integrated editor does
(goodbye MDS Edit!) and a DA Editor with fewer features. Capps' also
allows you to put hooks into your own custom editor that allows for
boldface and so on. It is set up as a TextEdit replacement package you
can link to. (More when I get a chance to play around with it ...)
On Microsoft possibly coming in third in Mac WP by the end of the year:
it serves them right.
peter
------------------------------
From: PEABO
Subject: MPW version 2.0
Date: 13-AUG 00:32 Tools for Developers
Apple reports that MPW version 2.0 is shipping now.
I saw a couple demos of MPW 2.0 and I now have to take back all the
nasty things I said about MPW 1.0 -- this version has full online help
and some very nifty dialog-based command fill-in features.
The award for the most complicated MPW 2.0 command goes to "pasmat" if I
recall correctly. The Commando dialog for this has to be seen to be
believed, and you probably won't believe it even then ...
Apple also said that next spring they expect to release MPW 2.1, which
will incorporate a symbolic debugger and a source code control system.
peter
------------------------------
From: MARSHG
Subject: RE: MPW version 2.0 (Re: Msg 1972)
Date: 19-AUG 21:48 Tools for Developers
My only gripe about 2.0 is that to use direct ROM calls instead of the
"glue", you have to code the calls as upper-case names. My first
project will be a include file that will translate lower-case names to
upper-case...
At least you can now to \p for pascal strings.
Marsh
------------------------------
From: HALL
Subject: MacAsm to MDS
Date: 15-AUG 22:57 Programming
Is there any (fairly easy, without a lot of typing) way to convert
MacAsm files to MDS (2.1) files?
Thanks, Brian
------------------------------
From: JIMH
Subject: RE: MacAsm to MDS (Re: Msg 21870)
Date: 16-AUG 00:29 Programming
BRIAN, no macasm is very different. mayhaps someone has written a
translator porgram like mpw has to convert mds but i do not think so.
jim
------------------------------
From: MACWEEKBOS
Subject: HyperCard notes
Date: 16-AUG 13:01 Bugs & Features
- The Help disk was defective in my copy of HyperCard, and the Help
stack was unusable; another person's copy was OK. - The sample stacks
crash on a Radius-accelerated Mac SE when they attempt to create
phone-tone sounds - Although it's possible to incorporate
custom-programmed external routines into HyperCard, I can find no
documentation for doing this - not in HyperCard, not in the HyperCard
manual, and not in Danny Goodman's massive book. - The HyperCard manual
refers to an apparently non-existent "HyperCard Script Language Guide."
Ric Ford
------------------------------
From: MACWEEKBOS
Subject: RE: HyperCard notes (Re: Msg 21873)
Date: 16-AUG 13:47 Bugs & Features
The next thing I notice about HyperCard is its storage utilization. I
created a HyperCard folder and dumped the application and the sample
documents I had into it... 3 megabytes! Even though it's efficient in
its space usage, having all the neat documents that are available is
going to require hard disk megabytes galore. Looks like it'll be hard to
have fun with HyperCard if you don't have a hard disk, and it may be
terrible if you don't have at least two 800K floppy drives or a massive
RAM disk.
Ric
------------------------------
From: PEABO
Subject: RE: HyperCard notes (Re: Msg 21873)
Date: 16-AUG 17:01 Bugs & Features
Here's how you do custom programming:
You write code resources and install them into your stack with resource type
XCMD or XFCN (I have not determined exactly what the difference is, though
I assume it has to do with returning a value or not). The name of the
resource is used to figure out which code resource to invoke when you
use them in a script. (Take a look at the scripts in the Documents stack
to see how this works.)
When the routine gets control, it is called with a structure as its only
argument. This structure gets passed as the first argument of calls to
lower level routines, in particular to routines which make call-backs
into the HyperCard code. The structure layout looks something like this:
typedef struct
{
short xc_nargs; /* number of args?? */
long xc_arg[8]; /* arguments from hypercard to you */
long xc_unknown[8]; /* the count of 8 is my guess */
long xc_result; /* return result to hypercard */
short hc_unknown; /* dunno what this is */
ProcPtr hc_entry; /* entry point to HyperCard service rtne */
long hc_selector; /* selector code for function HC to do */
long hc_args[8]; /* arguments to HC function */
long hc_result; /* returned by HC function */
/* who knows what appears after this ... */
} hc_interface;
All this was determined by using MacNosy on the code in SoundCapMover
and the Documents stacks. I have a few of the HC selector codes, but it
is far from a complete list, and I haven't tried to document the calling
sequences yet.
I will know more soon. I figure that since I can't get the stuff from
APDA until later in the month, I may have it all figured out by then.
:-) peter
------------------------------
From: MACWEEKBOS
Subject: RE: HyperCard notes (Re: Msg 21881)
Date: 16-AUG 19:08 Bugs & Features
Good job poking around! All I found was the XCMD resource along with a
*MAP resource. Any idea what that is?
I'm pretty sure XCMD is "external command" and XFCN is "external
function." This maps into the manual's terms "function" and "command"
and, as you say, the difference is whether a value is returned or not.
What does APDA have coming for HyperCard?
Ric
------------------------------
From: PEABO
Subject: RE: HyperCard notes (Re: Msg 21884)
Date: 16-AUG 19:57 Bugs & Features
*MAP is mostly likely the same *MAP that Servant uses. That's how
Servant makes the interior of a resource file behave like a folder on
the desktop.
APDA supposedly will have some developer materials available around
August 25, according to a sign they had posted at the booth.
peter
------------------------------
From: MACWEEKBOS
Subject: RE: HyperCard notes (Re: Msg 21892)
Date: 17-AUG 00:19 Bugs & Features
Could you explain a little more about *MAP??
Ric
------------------------------
From: PEABO
Subject: RE: HyperCard notes (Re: Msg 21897)
Date: 17-AUG 01:39 Bugs & Features
It's a resource that Andy puts into any file that you open up with
Servant. It keeps track of where the resource windows are on the screen
and whether you have put any resources out on the desktop, such as DAs
or sounds (you can double click on them to bring up the DA or emit the
sound). Also, in Servant, DA windows stay put wherever you last
positioned them, instead of coming up in standard places all the time.
I have not examined the *MAP to see what's recorded in it.
peter
------------------------------
From: MACWEEKBOS
Subject: SE video problems due to fan?
Date: 16-AUG 16:48 Bugs & Features
The jitter in Mac SE screens, which is generally worse on the left side,
may be caused by magnetic interference from the cooling fan. See
"MacTutor" Aug. '87, p. 84. The speed of the fan can be manipulated by
holding your hand over the outlet vent; if the jitter changes with the
speed, it's a good proof of the hypothesis.
Ric
------------------------------
From: MACWEEKBOS
Subject: 4D random notes
Date: 16-AUG 16:55 Business Mac
Here are a few random notes on the 4th Dimension database generator,
triggered by a meeting last week in Boston:
When you create a layout procedure in flowchart form, there's apparently
no way to get it into listing form, or create a new listing form
procedure for that layout, without deleting the layout. The same is
true if you create a listing procedure and want to change to a flowchart
form.
You do *not* want to try to control a lot of stuff from a layout
procedure. The layout procedures work best as sort of "slaves" to
controlling global procedures. The crux of the problem is that you can't
fool around with any command that changes the current selection in the
current file, in a layout procedure. (The result, to put it politely, is
"undefined.")
The runtime version of 4D is about 360K in size. There is currently no
way to create a completely compiled runtime application... the
protection against having your runtime application listed and/or
modified is to use passwords or embed code into external routines (not
fun).
Additional examples are on their way, along with additional tech notes.
Support is "ramping up."
Ric
------------------------------
From: BIGCHEESE
Subject: Bust Out Racket
Date: 18-AUG 19:37 Hardware & Peripherals
You may have seen ads for COMPUSYSTEMS CO. advertising PC stuff at
unbelievable low prices. This week's INFO WORLD has an article saying
they are a fraud. A Bust-Out operation is one where they advertise
merchandise at low prices, collect a lot of money, and then they "bust
out" (meaning they close up shop and quickly disappear.) Several
reputable publications were taken in including Byte, Info-World, and
Compuserve's magazine! No one got any merchandise and since they sent
checks or money orders, there is virtually no chance they will see any
of their money back. You should only order from someone who takes credit
cards so you can write the credit card company (within 60 days of
billing) and get your money refunded.
------------------------------
From: NATURAL
Subject: HyperCard PC ?!?
Date: 19-AUG 09:03 Business Mac
Here is a summary of an article I found in the current issue of PC
Week...
OWL TO BUILD PC VERSION OF MACINTOSH-BASED HYPERCARD PC Week - 18 August
1987
BOSTON-A PC version of Apple Computer Computer's HyperCard could be
demonstrated as early as next month, according to officials of the
company developing the new PC program, Owl International of Bellevue,
Wash. Owl's PC version of HyerCard will be based on one of its existing
products - Guide, a text-retrieval program - which runs under MS Windows
2.0 said Allan Boyd, Owl's president. Mr. Boyd promised that by the end
of the year, his company will deliver a PS/2 version of HyperCard which
will be able to exchange data files with Apple Computer's HyperCard
Macintosh program. A separate version of the program containing
additional features is planned for the OS/2, he said. Pricing for the
HyperCard work-alike has not yet been determined, company officials
said.
Hmmm...
------------------------------
From: MACWEEKBOS
Subject: RE: HyperCard PC ?!? (Re: Msg 21926)
Date: 19-AUG 09:10 Business Mac
Let's talk about hardware requirements in the PC world. Heck, PC's can't
even *address* enough memory to support Atkinson's tight code!
Ric
------------------------------
From: RICKLEPAGE
Subject: RE: HyperCard PC ?!? (Re: Msg 21927)
Date: 19-AUG 10:47 Business Mac
yeah, but the new PCs will be able to do that sh*t...
rick
(who wouldn't want you to be too big of a booster!) :-)
------------------------------
From: NATURAL
Subject: Xpressly UnCopyProtected.
Date: 19-AUG 10:19 Business Mac
Hey, guess what... Quark is now sending _ALL_ registered users a
non-copy protected version of Xpress. Free! Wow. So another copy
protected company gives in. Right on.
Rumor has it from a reliable source is that they did this because they
lost a Mouse in the mac user rating.
Joshua
------------------------------
From: PEABO
Subject: HyperCard radio buttons
Date: 19-AUG 13:59 Programming
I was experimenting with simulating a dialog box that had a lot of radio
buttons, using HyperCard, and discovered a few interesting things. One
is that the round rectangle buttons have a slight drop shadow which
makes them not match exactly the buttons of a dialog. This only seems
to be a problem if you are outlining the OK button, since you can't get
the HyperCard button to sit nicely inside the outline.
The other thing I figured out how to do was to implement a group of
radio buttons. I began by putting a script in each button of the group
that said something like:
on mouseUp
global current_button
set hilite of card button current_button to false
put 7 into current_button -- (this is different number for each one)
set hilite of card button current_button to true
end mouseUp
After getting this working, I decided to figure out how to optimize the
code to get rid of all the verbiage in the eighteen radio buttons. So
what I did was change them to say:
on mouseUp
setRB(7)
end mouseUp
and then define in the card script a message handler saying:
on setRB
global current_button
set hilite of card button current_button to false
put param(1) into current_button
set hilite of card button current_button to true
end setRB
So far, debugging in HyperCard has been pretty painless. My worst gripe
seems to be that I am forever forgetting to say 'into' and 'in' is not
an acceptable abbreviation for that syntax. Guess I'll get used to that
in time.
Say, anyone want to do a interactive spelling checker for HyperCard?
:-) peter
------------------------------
From: DDUNHAM
Subject: RE: HyperCard radio buttons (Re: Msg 21931)
Date: 21-AUG 01:29 Programming
Yah, that difference between HyperCard buttons and normal ones bothered
me, too; didn't realize it messed up the outline. I'd taken to using
shadow buttons because they look better. And here's a question: should
buttons auto-highlight? I sort of think they should, to be like dialog
buttons. It works well with icon buttons, but transparent ones tend not
to highlight very aesthetically.
Any debugging tricks? I've used put to write debugging messages.
------------------------------
From: PEABO
Subject: RE: HyperCard radio buttons (Re: Msg 21960)
Date: 21-AUG 02:40 Programming
Ok, now I have a more complicated setup. I have a card with 5 groups of
radio buttons, which I want to have work in the usual way. So in the
script of each button, I put
setRB g,b
where g is the group number 1 to 5 and b is the button number on the
card. I keep the current value of each button in card field 3, which is
hidden but which
(for debugging) I have left on the screen where I can see it. (Note in
the previous example I said setRB(b) but it turns out that the ( ) are
expression delimiters and not argument delimiters!! You get a syntax
error if you try to say "setRB(g,b)" because it is looking for a right
paren before the comma.
The card script says
on setRB
put param(1) into rbg -- radio button group
put line rbg of card field 3 into cb -- current selected button
if cb <> param(2) then -- pressing a different button
set hilite of card button cb to false -- shut off the old button
set hilite of card button param(2) to true -- turn on new one
put param(2) into line rbg of card field 3 -- remember selected button
end if
end setRB
After getting it working I type the command
hide card field 3
and forget about it.
peter
------------------------------
From: NATURAL
Subject: RE: HyperCard radio buttons (Re: Msg 21967)
Date: 21-AUG 11:56 Programming
And, is there anyway to create odd sized buttons for odd sized graphics?
------------------------------
From: PEABO
Subject: RE: HyperCard radio buttons (Re: Msg 21970)
Date: 21-AUG 13:34 Programming
What do you mean? Do you want a huge radio button or something?
peter
------------------------------
From: NATURAL
Subject: RE: HyperCard radio buttons (Re: Msg 21974)
Date: 21-AUG 16:13 Programming
No, I don't want a radio button but say for example I had a map of
america and I wanted you to be able to click _anywhere_ within each
state for info. This doesn't seem possible with its standard sized
buttons.
Josh
------------------------------
From: PEABO
Subject: RE: HyperCard radio buttons (Re: Msg 21976)
Date: 21-AUG 18:50 Programming
Yeah, I haven't figured out how to do that either. You need a way to
match the mouse click against regions, which HyperCard has no built-in
support for.
My other big gripe besides DA hostility, it turns out, is that fact that
you can't paste a PICT onto a card. I know it is not as efficient as
the fancy 4-level graphics that Bill has, but even a transparent PICT
would be great. I haven't come up with any scheme for faking it in an
external command either (you need to be able to handle update events
...).
peter
------------------------------
From: MACWEEKBOS
Subject: RE: HyperCard radio buttons (Re: Msg 21979)
Date: 21-AUG 21:43 Programming
Do you mean you can't paste a PICT into a *field* (no picture fields?)
or you can't paste a picture onto a card?
Ric
------------------------------
From: RANDOM
Subject: RE: Object-oriented C (Re: Msg 1955)
Date: 20-AUG 21:47 Tools for Developers
As for the pointer vs. handle problem, I recall that this has been
addressed, but I don't remember the exact details...I think they added
some new keywords to
make it possible to allocate Object Pascal style objects as well as C++
(pointer) style objects. - Dennis D.
------------------------------
From: PEABO
Subject: RE: Object-oriented C (Re: Msg 1982)
Date: 21-AUG 01:26 Tools for Developers
Yes, I found out (by asking Harvey Alcabes last week) that the way it
works is that there are two kinds of generic objects: pointer-based
objects and Handle- based objects, and so all you have to do is declare
your own objects as subclasses of the Handle-based object and everything
works. This is how MacApp in C++ will do its objects for compatibility
with Object Pascal.
peter
------------------------------
From: JHODGSON
Subject: New Lightspeed Pascal
Date: 20-AUG 22:59 Tools for Developers
Let me clear up a rumor that seems to have been circulating lately.
Whatever you may have heard THESE are the facts: Next week THINK
Technologies, Inc. will release a new version of its Lightspeed Pascal
development environment. This new version will be numbered 1.1 The
upgrade will address three areas: 1. Mac II compatibility. In version
1.1 the entire environment (compiler, debugger, etc.) will be compatible
with the 256k ROMs, 68020 processor and System 4.1. LSP 1.1 will
generate 68000 (sixty-eight thousand) code. 2. Version 1.1 will include
support for Inside Mac volume 5 routines as supported by MPW 2.0 beta.
3. Included will be a .O converter for including MPW object files in LSP
projects. This new version will be in the form of a "patcher" program
that can be applied to copies of LSP 1.0. It will also consist of new
libraries and the .O converter. It will be posted for distribution
through online services like Compuserve, Delphi and other commercial and
private services. It will also be available directly from THINK for $10
(to cover shipping and handling and stuff) (call THINK customer
support). Owners of copies of LSP that are under warranty will can
receive the upgrade at no charge (i.e. there's no reason to delay buying
LSP now and upgrading later, quite frankly, version 1.1 probably won't
be in the stores for over a month, so buy 1.0 now and download the
upgrade). If anyone has any questions about this upgrade or any THINK
product you can call me during the day at 617-275-4800.
Jack Hodgson Product Manager
------------------------------
From: LOGICHACK
Subject: Capps'
Date: 20-AUG 00:37 Programming
Ptr,
Since you bought the C version of Capps', can you tell me a little more
about it? Does it seem well written? Do the data structures
reasonable? How big are the sample programs that come with it (both
source & object size)? What kind of licensing requirements, if any, are
involved?
You info would be mucho appreciated.
Paul :)
------------------------------
From: MER
Subject: RE: Capps' (Re: Msg 21941)
Date: 20-AUG 18:53 Programming
I'll let Peter answer the rest of the questions, since I'm prejudiced
(having been heavily involved in the product) but I'll answer one
question: there's no licensing requirements. I think the usual
copyright stuff applies (that is, you must enforce our copyright if
someone steals the code, or something like that, not the old license
agreement where you had to put THINK in your about box).
------------------------------
From: LOGICHACK
Subject: RE: Capps' (Re: Msg 21949)
Date: 21-AUG 01:15 Programming
The new licensing (if true) requirements sound great. If you don't mind
my asking, in what capacity were you involved with the Capps'? The
reason I ask is that if I do use it, I will no doubt have questions. It
would be great to have someone online for help.
Also, are you a Pascal or C (or both) person? And, how much code does
Capps' take up in the resulting application.
One more question, any hope of ever using this with MPW?
Thanx,
Paul :)
------------------------------
From: PEABO
Subject: RE: Capps' (Re: Msg 21941)
Date: 21-AUG 01:35 Programming
Well, PEdit, an editor built with the PE package and the grep/file
search routines, produces an application about 65K big (not much larger
than MDS Edit).
The DA version (which has fewer features) is about 21K. The source code
is about 130K with 10K resources. The DA source is about 42K, with
about 3K of resources.
The manual describing PE is done in exactly the same style as the Inside
Mac chapter on TE. Too bad Inside Mac doesn't come in 3-ring binder
format any more :-) The PERec is a bit larger than a TERec, but only
the way you'd expect it to be.
peter
------------------------------
From: MADMACS
Subject: RE: Capps' (Re: Msg 21961)
Date: 21-AUG 19:54 Programming
Actually, the Addison-Wesley people said that Inside Mac was going to
return to the three-ring binder format. One of the reasons for it was
that there is a lot of information in IM 1-3 that is now outdated in IM
4 & 5. Robert Hammen Madison Macintosh Users Group
------------------------------
From: OSKINTOUCH
Subject: HyperCard Data Import
Date: 20-AUG 08:34 Programming
Does anyone know how one would go about importing or exporting DATA
to/from a HyperCard stack. The manual only describes import/export of
Paint docs but says nothing about data....
Mebee you just can't do it....I haven't found any HyperTalk commands
that would handle this either...at least not in a straightforeward
manner.
Thanks,
Jonathan
------------------------------
From: PEABO
Subject: RE: HyperCard Data Import (Re: Msg 21945)
Date: 20-AUG 12:06 Programming
You can read and write text files. It's not clear whether you can read
and write arbitrary 8-bit bytes (the manual doesn't say you can't, but
it doesn't mention it explicitly), but it is clear that you can only
access the data fork of the file, not the resource fork. For exporting
and importing from most databases this should not be a problem, since
they usually can also read and write text files.
While there isn't an automatic command for dealing with tab-delimited
text, it shouldn't be hard to program it. The read command allows you
to input either a fixed number of bytes or bytes up to a given delimiter
character such as TAB, comma, or RETURN.
peter
------------------------------
From: OSKINTOUCH
Subject: RE: HyperCard Data Import (Re: Msg 21947)
Date: 21-AUG 08:14 Programming
Thanks for the info. I didn't think to search for Read/Write in the
help stack...I was lookin' at import etc.. The manual doesn't seem to
cover this too well and I don't have Goodman's book yet.
Do you (or anyone else) feel constrained by the reporting capabilities
in HyperCard? From what I can see you can 1. print cards, 2. print
columnar reports, or 3. print labels......what about some more flexible
alternatives? ( you can probably get around these limitations with some
pieces of HyperTalk code but I haven't investigated this thoroughly yet.
Thanks again,
Jonathan
------------------------------
From: PEABO
Subject: RE: HyperCard Data Import (Re: Msg 21968)
Date: 21-AUG 13:26 Programming
I won't have an opinion about that for a while yet, since I'm more
interested in using HyperCard as a free form database than a structured
one. I think you could do something with an external command that would
maybe use a card as a template for printing, but it would probably have
to call the print manager itself and I don't know how it would handle
bitmaps.
peter
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From: NATURAL
Subject: Quark Quirk.
Date: 20-AUG 16:30 Business Mac
Ah, a great 'feature' of XPress...
You know that great little command key character, that's right, the
chicago font one that can be generate by a control-q on the SE and II
keyboards. Well XPress doesn't like it, not at all.
When getting a document that has one of these characters Xpress just
stops, not even bothering to skip over that illegal character.
They told me that I could modify the font in resedit and put it
somewhere else. Would this moving of the character work since it is
chicago and has no laserwriter specific fiont?
thanks
joshua
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End of Delphi Mac Digest
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