Moderators.David.Gelphman@ucbvax.UUCP (09/28/87)
INFO-MAC Digest Sunday, 27 Sep 1987 Volume 5 : Issue 116
Today's Topics:
MacTablet Warning
sysbeep and the sound manager on a macintosh II
Mac II Hard Disc Performance
File transfer in Pascal
snd resources
MPW & MacBottom Spooler
Problem with Quickdraw pictures in Lightspeed Pascal.
APL for the MAC
Mac money mgnt summary
Excel 1M Limit
Unix for the MAC II ?
BREAK KEY WITH MAC TERMINAL 2.2
patch 4.1
MacDraw 1.9.5 problem
Lisps for the MAC?
MacBrain for other Neurocomputing Simulations
DA which puts a MacDraw file onto the clipboard wanted
Dove RAM Upgrades
Font Catalog utility wanted
LaTeX on the Mac
Using a QuadLazer with a Mac..
JetStart on Mac II?
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Wed, 05 Aug 87 09:34:46 EST
From: "William E. Williams"
From: <BSQUARE%YALEVM.BITNET@forsythe.stanford.edu>
Subject: MacTablet Warning
I recently wrote a simple program to use Summagraphics's "MacTablet" for some
precise measurements. To my surprise and delight, Summagraphics publishes a
"Programmers' Guide," which they sent me free. It has a nice description of
their driver and instructions on how to access the tablet directly (without
just pretending it's the mouse). Unfortunately, the two most valuable
PBStatus calls described in the manual are numbered incorrectly! What the
manual describes as csCode 30 is actually what happens with csCode 31, and
vice-versa. I messed around with the tablet for several frustrating hours
before calling the company and getting it straightened out. They promise a
new guide, but I'm not holding my breath.
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 12 Aug 87 10:14:22 SET
From: Alexander Falk <K360950%AEARN.BITNET@forsythe.stanford.edu>
Subject: sysbeep and the sound manager on a macintosh II
Hello everybody,
I have been on vacation for the last 3 weeks, so I don't know if this
subject has been discussed yet.
On the Macintosh II the sound manager is capable of playing sounds
in the background while normal processing continues. this is done by
setting the async flag in a call to SoundPlay().
Unfortunately the ROM Code for SysBeep() on the Mac II does not
set this bit (I traced through the ROM and found a CLR instruction
just one line above the call to SoundPlay()). This is the reason
why some Control-Panel Sounds (I have adapted all the sounds from
my favorite adventures in my System Beep list) take a long time
to play. If you have installed Samrt Alarms (it beeps 5 times) and a
long System beep (e.g. Bottled Bach) then you may take a walk before
your Mac finished playing.
Is there any reason, why the ROM Code for SysBeep() uses an snychronous
call to SoundBeep(), which blocks the whole Mac??????
If not, I would like to see a patch (maybe I'll write it myself).
Alexander
[ note from moderator: I had the same complaint as above and I also found
that if one traps the call to SoundPlay and specifies asynchronous sound
for the SoundPlay you still get synchronous sound. I gather that the rom
code was frozen before the asynch stuff was finished. This appears to be
too bad since the Mac II has a sound chip so you should be able to do these
things easier on the II than on the Plus and SE! DAVEG ]
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 3 Aug 87 23:48:21 MET
From: norbert%germany.csnet@RELAY.CS.NET
Subject: Mac II Hard Disc Performance
As several persons in info-mac asked for figures, I did some
benchmarks for the internal 40 Meg HD of a Mac II. When FSWriting
a 1.2 MB chunk to the disk, the performance averaged at 580 KB/s,
FSReading came in at 620 KB/s.
When asked via the SCSI protocol, the disk identifies itself as a
50 Meg Quantum hard disk, but our local hard disk expert could not
find a way to make the missing 10 Megs accessible. Does anybody
out there know what's happened to them?
Norbert Lindenberg
Universitaet Karlsruhe, West Germany
------------------------------
Date: Sun, 2 Aug 87 23:10 EDT
From: <PETERSO%BCVAX3.BITNET@forsythe.stanford.edu> (Phil Peterson)
Subject: File transfer in Pascal
I'm working on a project where I need to be able to transfer binary files
across regular telephone lines in some standard protocols such as MacBinary,
1k blocks etc. I have a small terminal unit which does normal FSread/write
type things.
If anyone has any advice for this, whether in the form of experience or
code segments I'd be extremely grateful.
Please reply to me directly. thanks.
Phil Peterson
PETERSO@BCVAX3.BITNET
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 4 Aug 87 16:39:35 PDT
From: PUGH%CCC.MFENET@NMFECC.ARPA
Subject: snd resources
Does anyone know the format of the 'snd ' system resource present in the Mac
II? I want to add some of my beeps but just stuffing a digitized sound in
there doesn't cut it. It looks like there are some data fields prior to the
start of the sound data.
Also, where does the system keep track of which sound is active? I imagine it
is in another resource. None of this is covered in a Tech note yet, so what's
a boy to do?
On a related note, is there a version of ResEdit out yet that lets you deal
with data in chunks greater than 32K?
Jon
N L pugh@nmfecc.arpa
M A L National Magnetic Fusion Energy Computer Center
F T N Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
E L PO Box 5509 L-561
C Livermore, California 94550
C (415) 423-4239
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 5 Aug 87 17:10 EDT
From: <PAYNE%ITHACA.BITNET@forsythe.stanford.edu>
Subject: MPW & MacBottom Spooler
Does anyone know if there is a problem using the MacBottom
ImageWriter spooler under MPW 1.0?
Using the spooler under MPW, printing stops for me as soon as
MPW thinks it is finished printing, even though there is still
data in the spooler's buffer. The cursor returns to normal,
and within seconds the printer stops. Curiously, another line
or two will print each time the disk is accessed (e.g. to open
a file, save a file, etc.) but then the spooler hangs again.
The spooler DA shows that there is still data in the buffer,
ready to be printed.
This behavior does not occur under any other application I've tried.
I spoke with the MacBottom folks, who have not seen this problem,
but they're using MPW 2.0. So I thought I'd find out if anyone
else has seen it on MPW 1.0, or has a clue as to the problem.
My system: "Vanilla" MacPlus, 1 meg memory, MacBottom 20 meg,
internal 800k disk, external 800k disk (Apple), ImageWriter II,
System 3.2, Finder 5.3, ImageWriter 2.3, MPW 1.0, MacBottom Spooler
DA 1.0i.
Thanks for any help.
-John Payne
Bitnet: payne@ithaca
Internet: payne%ithaca.bitnet@wiscvm.wisc.edu
USPS: Academic Computing Services, Ithaca College, Ithaca NY 14850
------------------------------
Date: 7 August 1987 15:04:12 CDT
From: <PUDAITE%UIUCVMD.BITNET@forsythe.stanford.edu>
Subject: Problem with Quickdraw pictures in Lightspeed Pascal.
Problem with Quickdraw pictures in Lightspeed Pascal.
I am trying to use the Quickdraw picture routines in Lightspeed Pascal (v. 1.0)
on a Mac Plus (System 3.2, Finder 5.3). However, after creating a picture using
OpenPicture ... ClosePicture, the picture is only drawn if the destination
rectangle is _identical_ to the picture's picFrame. If I try moving and/or
rescaling the destination, nothing gets drawn. I have written a 'patch' that
allows me to offset the picture's location, but I can't re-scale the picture
using this patch. Also, this patch doesn't work inside OpenPicture ...
ClosePicture: apparently, calls to drawing routines are not affected by the
SetOrigin command when they are saved as the picture definition. Can anyone
help me? The following is a sample program with comments stating what happens
when I run it. Please send me a note directly if I am doing something stupid.
Paul R. Pudaite
BITNET: Pudaite at UIUCVMD
PROGRAM Picture_Test;
{August 7, 1987 by Paul R. Pudaite.}
VAR
dummy : boolean;
event : eventRecord;
destination : point;
rectangle, boundary : rect;
picture, picture2 : picHandle;
window : windowPtr;
PROCEDURE Pause_And_Erase (description : STRING);
{Click mouse to go on to next example.}
BEGIN
MoveTo(20, 250);
DrawString(description);
REPEAT
dummy := GetNextEvent(everyEvent, event)
UNTIL event.what = mouseDown;
EraseRect(window~.portBits.bounds);
END;
PROCEDURE Draw_Picture (picture : picHandle;
VAR destination : point);
BEGIN
WITH picture~~ DO
BEGIN
WITH picFrame, destination DO
SetOrigin(left - h, top - v);
DrawPicture(picture, picFrame);
END;
SetOrigin(0, 0);
END;
BEGIN
boundary := screenBits.bounds;
InsetRect(boundary, 4, 4);
WITH boundary DO
top := top + 34;
window := NewWindow(NIL, boundary, 'Window', true, 0, pointer(-1), false, 0);
SetPort(window);
SetRect(rectangle, 10, 10, 20, 20);
picture := OpenPicture(rectangle);
FrameOval(rectangle);
ClosePicture;
{This works OK:}
DrawPicture(picture, rectangle);
Pause_And_Erase('Original picture');
{If I change any of the fields of rectangle, nothing is drawn.}
{Example 1:}
OffsetRect(rectangle, 20, 20);
DrawPicture(picture, rectangle);
{Nothing more appears on my screen.}
Pause_And_Erase('Offset picture');
{Example 2:}
SetRect(rectangle, 10, 10, 20, 20);
InsetRect(rectangle, 1, 1);
DrawPicture(picture, rectangle);
{This doesn't produce any visible results for me either.}
Pause_And_Erase('Inset picture');
{My 'patch' works in the visible grafport:}
SetPt(destination, 80, 80);
Draw_Picture(picture, destination);
Pause_And_Erase('Patched picture');
{But doesn't seem to work inside OpenPicture ... ClosePicture:}
picture2 := OpenPicture(window~.portBits.bounds);
Draw_Picture(picture, destination);
ClosePicture;
DrawPicture(picture2, window~.portBits.bounds);
Pause_And_Erase('New picture defined by patched picture');
END.
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 06 Aug 87 07:45:27 EDT
From: "Thomas D. Schardt" <K3TDS%SCFVM.BITNET@forsythe.stanford.edu>
Subject: APL for the MAC
The following are the responses I received about using the MAC for
APL. We are looking at APL*PLUS from STSC, Inc. and hope to get
their demo disk ($10). Thanks to everyone who responded.
Tom Schardt
K3TDS@SCFVM.BITNET
=========================================================================
Tom,
A company in Rockville, Md. STSC, Inc. has a program out called
APL Plus for the Mac. It's the same APL they have out for almost every computer
from mainframes to the IBM PC. The package is great for standlone work,
but it also includes an APL terminal emulation mode, which allows the Mac's
re-mapped keyboard to serve as a mainframe APL terminal. I have found it to
be perfect for mainframe use ( I'm doing my mechanical engineering senior
research project on the Wharton School's Vax 8650 running APL).
STSC can be reached at 301-984-5000.
Good luck.
Mike Bell
Bell@Eniac.SEAS.UPENN.EDU
=========================================================================
Tom;
A few years ago one of our students wrote an APL emulator for the
Mac. He used a font maker, and simply substituted what he needed.
As far as I can remember, it worked really well. If you would
like to see if you can get a copy, send Bitnet to
"PAAAAAR@CALSTATE". That is the address for Dr. Dick Botting,
who supervised the project. I don't know if he will pass it out,
but it's worth a shot.
Rich McGee
California State University, Private Bag in the address above is like P.O. Box xxx, our P.O.
lets you rent such a thing and they deliver you a mail bag or two each
day to your street address.
=========================================================================
From: Guy LaRocque <Guy_LaRocque@UBCMTSG.BITNET>
About an APL terminal emulator...
You can actually transform your mac into an APL terminal
by using the apl versions of STSC and Spencer Organization.
Both companies sell very good APL versions for the MAC.
Not only can you work in a very powerful apl environment,
but you have access to several facilities for communications,
and files down-uploading. There are two other apl versions
available for the mac (MacAPL and MAC90), but I don't know
if they have a terminla emulator.
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 6 Aug 87 14:57:02 GMT+0100
From: Jon W McCombie <jmccombi@bbncc-eur.arpa>
Subject: Mac money mgnt summary
I promised a summary of the results of my query on Mac money management
software; here it is. There were three systems recommended: MacMoney,
Dollars & $ense, and In-House Accountant for the Mac. Here's a summary of
the results:
Pro Con Best Price Comments
MacMoney 5 0 $42 "a great product"
"integrates very well with MacInTax
for virtually painless income tax
preparation."
Dollars &
$ense 5 1 $81 "very weak in generating reports"
"doesn't do monthly cash flow --
must do that separately in Excel"
"doesn't do long-range planning
well."
"sometime gives incorrect balances."
"the class act in Mac personal fin-
ancial management."
In-House
Accountant 1 0 ?? "a new product, give it a try"
I believe that there were more responses re D&$ because it's been out
longer. The comments were more widely varied, from "the class act" to "I
tried it and was not favorably impressed". The comments for MacMoney,
however, were uniformly positive and full of praise. For my hard-earned
bucks, I'll buy MacMoney.
Now, how do I dial MacConnection from Germany... :-)
Jon McCombie
BBN Communications Corp.
Stuttgart, W. Germany
ARPA/MILnet: jmccombie@bbncc-eur.arpa
USEnet: ...!{inhp4, harvard, seismo}!bbn!jmccombi
Disclaimer: <Insert standard disclaimer here>
------------------------------
Date: 11 Aug 1987 15:42-EDT
Sender: LIZZA@A.ISI.EDU
Subject: Excel 1M Limit
From: LIZZA@A.ISI.EDU
I discovered, after recommending to a client that they upgrade to
2Meg, that Excel can only address 1Meg. Microsoft customer
support politely told me that they might someday extend the
address space if they get enought complaints like mine.
<flame on> I am amazed that a company with the reputation of
Microsoft has the audacity to build a program capable of
addressing 256*16384 cells in a spreadsheet when in reality the
software only allows a small portion of them to be actually used.
This smacks of another company who introduces new computer
systems without the operating system one needs to use it
properly. I feel much better now... <flame off>
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 10 Aug 87 12:25:54 MEZ
From: XMATroot%DDATHD21.BITNET@forsythe.stanford.edu (K.-Th.
From: Schleicher)
Subject: Unix for the MAC II ?
In germany there are rumours about UNIX for the MAC II.
Does anybody know details about
- what kind of UNIX will run on the MAC II,
- availability of compilers,
- release date,
- price ?
th darmstadt -- klaus-thomas schleicher
fb mathematik system administrator
schlossgartenstrasse 7
6100 darmstadt
federal republic of germany
[ note from moderator: Apple is supposed to release A/UX for the
Macintosh II sometime near the end of the year. It is supposed to be
System V with Berkeley extensions. I believe it will include compilers
for C and Fortran. I haven't heard a price point yet but you need the68851
MMU which currently costs ~$500 so that is the minimum price!
DAVEG
]
4-Aug-87 17:02:03-PDT,1013;000000000001
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 04 Aug 1987 16:34 PDT
From: GDCWOOD%CALSTATE.BITNET@wiscvm.wisc.edu
Subject: BREAK KEY WITH MAC TERMINAL 2.2
A colleague recently upgraded to MacTerminal 2.2 and is having trouble sending
a short break (or any break for that matter). The original Mac Terminal
used the ENTER key to the right of the space bar. What key does the
old keyboard (512E) use to send a break, and what key is used on the Mac Plus
keyboard to send a break?
Any help or direction would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advance for your time and help.
Dan Calderwood
Humboldt State University
BITNET GDCWOOD@CALSTATE
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 6 Aug 87 10:42 N
From: <B127KLUI%HTIKUB5.BITNET@forsythe.stanford.edu>
Subject: patch 4.1
I layed my hands on system 4.1 usa, however I have the old Uk type keyboard. I g
et a shifted bottom row of keys. Unfortunately Localiser doesnot work. I know it
is possible to patch keylayout or something like that. How ?? Any help is higly
appreciated.
Ruud Kluivers
B127klui@htikub5.bitnet
------------------------------
From: kf@mitre-bedford.ARPA
Subject: MacDraw 1.9.5 problem
Date: Fri, 07 Aug 87 09:10:04 EDT
Sender: kf@mitre-bedford.ARPA
We have an encountered a font problem with MacDraw 1.9.5 on one of our Mac
SEs. As background, the SE has the Apple internal 20MB HD with System 4.1
and Finder 5.5.
This is the problem:
There are 27 fonts installed in the System folder. However, when in MacDraw,
only the first 22 fonts are selectable. The last 5 fonts are dimmed (gray)
and cannot be selected. In two other programs that we looked at, MacWrite
and Excel, all 27 fonts are selectable. Also, all the fonts are available
when we use Key Caps to look at them.
When we started MacDraw with a file that already contained text that used the
dimmed fonts (in this case Times), we were able to continue adding text in
the Times font to the MacDraw text object. Therefore, it is clear that the
fonts are available, it's just a problem with being able to select it from
the font menu.
This is what we have tried to do to isolate the problem:
1) We removed the SE HD MacDraw and copied a new MacDraw 1.9.5 from a floppy
disk to the SE HD and same thing happened.
2) We removed the last five fonts from the SE HD System using F/DA Mover 3.5
and then reinstalled them. Same thing happened.
3) We restarted the Mac SE off of a floppy disk with the 27 fonts installed
and System 3.2/Finder 5.3, and still the same thing happened.
4) We removed one font and the same thing happened (22 fonts selectable, 4
dimmed).
The Notes for MacDraw 1.9.5 say that 54 fonts can be used. So what's wrong?
What is a reasonable explanation?
By the way, I notice something else (completely separate) that I thought was
kind of strange. After we started the Mac with the floppy and 3.2/5.3, I
opened the Font/DA Mover which was on the SE HD. Therefore, the Mac, as
usual, swapped System 3.2 on the floppy for System 4.1 on the HD, as
evidenced by a different set of desk accessories. Well, in 3.2/5.3, the
Special menu contains ShutDown and does not contain Restart. In 4.1/5.5,
both Restart and ShutDown are present. However, after closing Font/DA
Mover, the Special menu still only contained ShutDown, no Restart.
Is the Restart code in the Finder, and the Finder doesn't get swapped? Or
is the Restart code in the System and just doesn't get added to the menu?
What's up? Any explanations?
kf@mitre-bedford.arpa (Kevin Fong (617-271-8163))
------------------------------
Date: 3 Aug 87 15:30 PDT
From: newman.pasa@Xerox.COM
Subject: Lisps for the MAC?
I am looking at getting a Lisp for my Macintosh SE, and I'd like a
little input before I go for it.
I looked at release 1.0 of ExperLisp, and was not particularly
impressed. It looked like it had potential, but it was unfinished. I
have not used other MAC lisps. but I have read the article in MACUSER
about Experlisp, MacScheme, and Coral Logo.
What I would like to know is, have you used Coral Lisp, MacScheme, or
Experlisp on an SE or a MAC II? Were there any problems? Which did you
like more, and what other kinds of Lisp systems do you use (Xerox,
Symbolics, etc.)? How complete is toolbox support? Can you make
standalone applications, and how well-integrated is the system into the
Mac world? How is the debugger and the editor? Have you used the
system with a big screen? If so, how did it turn out? Some of these
questions are answered by the MACUSER article, but I would like to see
what you all think in comparison with the MACUSER people.
If you have used more than one of the three systems, which do you
prefer? If someone can explain to me why Coral has a brochure listing
three different Lisps, I'd like that also. Lastly, I am curious about
why MACUSER included Coral Logo in a review of Lisps. Admittedly, Logo
is a Lisp derivative, but it is not really the same thing at all. What,
if anything, do you think about Coral Logo or ExperLogo?
Thanks,
>>Dave
------------------------------
Subject: MacBrain for other Neurocomputing Simulations
Date: Wed, 12 Aug 87 16:40:40 -0500
From: weather%bert.mitre.org@gateway.mitre.org
I have heard talk of a software product called "MacBrain"
which is a neural network simulation. Does this or any
other such neurocomputing tools exist for the Macintosh?
Please respond by E-mail to "weather@mitre.org". Thank
you for your time.
Richard Weatherly
The MITRE Corporation
7525 Colshire Drive
McLean VA 22102-3481
(703) 883-7203
------------------------------
Date: Fri 7 Aug 87 08:25:45-PDT
From: Peter H. Mahowald <MAHOWALD@Sierra.Stanford.EDU>
Subject: DA which puts a MacDraw file onto the clipboard wanted
Has anyone seen a Desk Accessory which reads a MacDraw file and
puts it on the clipboard? The figures are on the disk, and I would
like to put them in the Word document. I have a 512K so Word and Draw
wont fit in at the same time. There is a very good DA for modifying
clipboard figures but it won't read a file from disk.
MAHOWALD@SIERRA
(415)-723-3209 lab
(415)-857-0539 home^C
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 12 Aug 87 13:08:30 PDT
From: IZZY047@UCLAVM (Gann Matsuda)
Subject: Dove RAM Upgrades
What has everyone heard about the Dove RAM upgrades? I'm specifically
interested in the Mac Plus 2 model, which will upgrade a Mac Plus to
2 megabytes using 256K chips. I know this may be a product that has
already been discussed on Info-Mac, Delphi, etc., but I haven't had
access to the net for about four months. I'd appreciate any info.
Thanks,
Gann Matsuda
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 4 Aug 87 15:26:11 edt
From: LARRAGA <larry@pyr1.acs.udel.edu>
Subject: Font Catalog utility wanted
What we need is a utility that will catalog fonts off of a disk
- a font librarian. Most of the utilities we've come across have
to have to fonts stored in a System File. If you want to catalog
a 500 or so font library, this is just not feasible. Font Display
prints an entire page of data on the font, and much too slowly for
this project. We just want a line of sample text per font printed
out, not even necessarily at every point size. Is there such a
program?
Larry Larraga
University of Delaware
Microcomputing Resource Center
152 Newark Hall
Newark, DE 19716
(302) 451-6782
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 4 Aug 87 20:10 CDT
From: <MAX%TAMLSR.BITNET@forsythe.stanford.edu>
Subject: LaTeX on the Mac
Does anyone out there have a working version of LaTeX running under
TeXtures from Addison-Wesley? How about AMSTeX?
Send replies to me, Ill summarize to the net.
Greg Marriott
max@tamlsr.bitnet
------------------------------
Date: Fri 31 Jul 1987 21:56 CDT
From: Samir Kaleem <XSAK%ECNCDC.BITNET@forsythe.stanford.edu>
Subject: Using a QuadLazer with a Mac..
Does anyone have any experience with using a QuadLazer with a Mac+? I'm
working in a heavy IBM PC environment group and am trying to convince people
the people there that there are computers other than just PCs that can do
wonderful things (they're now using my *personal* Mac for graphic layouts).
Anyhow, I convinced my boss into buying a Mac if it can be hooked up to the
QuadLazer that they are using over a Novell network. I know that the
QuadLazer can emulater an HP Lazerprinter that will let it do graphics (and
I've heard of people using the HP Lazerprinter with the Mac), so any suggestions
anyone?
That reminds me, a friend of my mine has finally succumbed to buying an IBM PC,
but he would like to use his Imagewriter II with the PC. Is there any driver
out there that will let the PC use the Imagewriter?
Appreciate any response that I can get.
On another note, is anyone interested in buying a Cauzin Softstrip reader?
I am selling one at a very reasonable price. I haven't found it much use.
Send me a mail message at the address below if you are...
-- Samir Kaleem
Bitnet: XSAK@ECNCDC.BITNET
Arpa: XSAK%ECNCDC.BITNET@WISCVM.WISC.EDU
------------------------------
Date: Thu 6 Aug 87 15:03:15-PDT
From: Brodie Lockard <I.ISIMO@MACBETH.STANFORD.EDU>
Subject: JetStart on Mac II?
Has anyone tried JetStart, SoftStyle's HP ThinkJet printer driver for the
Mac, on the Mac II? What are the chances of this working?
Brodie Lockard
brod@portia.stanford.edu
------------------------------
End of INFO-MAC Digest
**********************