INFO-MAC@SUMEX-AIM.Stanford.EDU.UUCP (06/17/87)
INFO-MAC Digest Tuesday, 16 Jun 1987 Volume 5 : Issue 103
Today's Topics:
Using assembly language with Microsoft Fortran
RE: Get/SetTrapAddress and NGet/NSetTrapAddress
RE: Re: MPW Shell Bug/problem
LaserWriter 4.0 bugs?
Problems with manual feed of legal pager on LW+
more on Juggler 1.0d1
Re: A User's Impressions of DiskFit and HD Backup
Re: Some Macintosh II and IBM PC RT questions
re: Relational Database with MPW Pascal interfaces
model 100 <-> Macintosh
Tablet resolution
grey line sweeping down Mac+ screen.
Helix VMX Inquiry
VME
Adobe Screen Fonts?
Thunderscan
MacLine Upgrades
Postscript demos on Mac
Stepping Out and MS Basic
Ada and the Macintosh
Machack 87 Report
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Sat 13 Jun 87 17:10:05-PDT
From: Bill Lipa <P.PRIAPUS@MACBETH.STANFORD.EDU>
Subject: Using assembly language with Microsoft Fortran
Does anyone know a way to use an assembly language subroutine with a Fortran
main program? I am trying to combine code written in Microsoft Fortran 2.2 and
MDS assembler 2.0. The manual provides a sadly unclear appendix which does not
specify, for example, whether the linker is Rel-file compatible or not. Any
advice would be appreciated.
Bill Lipa
------------------------------
Date: Sun, 14 Jun 87 16:54:22 CDT
From: kkim@b.cs.uiuc.edu (Kyongsok Kim)
Subject: RE: Get/SetTrapAddress and NGet/NSetTrapAddress
I would like to intercept calls to an Operating System or
Toolbox routine (specifically, GetNextEvent) and do some pre- or
post-processing of my own. With 64K ROM, GetTrapAddress and
SetTrapAddress seem useful to do it; with 128K ROM, NGetTrapAddress
and NSetTrapAddress seem to do the same job.
Can anybody send or recommend any program in Pascal or C
demonstrating the usage of [N]Get/SetTrapAddress? And any comments
or hints as to doing my own processing in addition to the standard
Toolbox routine in general will be appreciated.
Please e-mail to me directly since my site does not subscribe to
this digest.
Thanks in advance.
Kyongsok KIM
Dept. of Computer Science; Univ. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
arpanet/csnet: kkim@a.cs.uiuc.edu
usenet/uucp : {seismo, pur-ee, ihnp4}!uiucdcs!kkim
------------------------------
Date: Sun, 14 Jun 87 09:18:36 PDT
From: digiorgi@Jpl-VLSI.ARPA
Subject: RE: Re: MPW Shell Bug/problem
cmd-. does nothing in this instance, which is inconsistent with its behavior
everywhere else in the Shell: it is the escape from Scripts, Tools, etc.
Godfrey DiGiorgi
digiorgi@jpl-vlsi
June 14, 1987
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 13 Jun 87 23:23 EST
From: Paul Christensen <PCHRISTENSEN%rca.com@RELAY.CS.NET>
Subject: LaserWriter 4.0 bugs?
Even though I've had the LaserWriter 4.0 driver and prep files for close to
a month now, today was the first time I've been able to use them, and wow
was I impressed! The speed improvement over LaserWriter 3.1 is more than
dramatic--it is awesome!!!! When printing MacWrite documents, the LaserWriter
seems to print at its top speed--it's done processing the next page by the
time it's finished printing the one before it. My rough estimations are a
two to three-fold speed improvement.
HOWEVER, I seem to have found a couple of bugs, and wondered if anyone else
had noticed them. Configuraton: MacPlus, 1MB, external 800K drive,
System 4.1, Finder 5.5, MacWrite 4.5, LaserWriter Plus--brand new (ie. it's
platinum color) on an AppleTalk network.
When the LaserWriter ran out of paper, pages were lost, as if the driver kept
sending the data, thinking it was being printed. By the time I replenished
the paper tray, 4-5 pages of my MacWrite document had been lost. I wasn't
near my Mac at the time (the printer is in another room) so I couldn't tell
if an error message was even printed on the screen (LaserWriter 3.1 used to
pause and beep annoyingly until you replenished the paper).
So, after losing part of my file the first time it ran out of paper, I decided
to play it smart...when I saw the paper supply tray running a little low, I
clicked the PAUSE button on MacWrite's print dialog box, went into the machine
room, restocked the paper tray, and clicked the resume button on MacWrite.
WHALA--BOMB! (ID=??). When I entered the debugger and typed SM 0 A9F4; G 0
to return to the Finder, it wouldn't even do that--another bomb greeted me.
Reluctantly I restarted the Mac, and was pleased that the only causualty of
the affair was my hardcopy--not the disk.
Has anyone else noticed this behavior? Is it a bug in LaserWriter 4.0 or a
problem with the LaserWriter Plus itself? My previous experience with
paper-out errors being correctly reported was on a regular LaserWriter
(not Plus).
Paul Christensen
CSNET: PCHRISTENSEN@RCA.COM
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 15 Jun 87 12:44 EDT
From: <JRCLARK%UTKVX4.BITNET@forsythe.stanford.edu>
Subject: Problems with manual feed of legal pager on LW+
I've been frustrated attempting to print legal size copies
using manual feed with LaserWriter Plus and Laser Prep version 4.0,
System 4.1 and Finder 5.5
All I get is the lower 8.5 inches of a legal page printed on the
upper portion of the paper. I'm using the most recent system, and
it seems to make no difference whether I print from a hard disk with
MacServe installed or boot from a floppy. I've had trouble in
RSG 3.0 and MacWrite, so I assume the difficulty is in either the
driver. Has anyone had the same difficulty?
Jim Clark
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 15 Jun 87 10:30 EST
From: Paul Christensen <PCHRISTENSEN%rca.com@RELAY.CS.NET>
Subject: more on Juggler 1.0d1
After a recent posting I made regarding a pre-release copy of the Juggler
package that our user's group had downloaded from a prominent bulletin
board service, I received a polite statement from Apple Computer informing
me that the copies of Juggler we have are ILLEGAL.
This somewhat surprised me, since I'm used to Apple releasing beta software
to the public for testing. Remember Switcher 2.0? Apple didn't end up
releasing Switcher until version 4.4! And when Apple redesigned MacWrite,
versions 3.0,3.1,3.5,4.0,etc where released to the public until the final,
stable version 4.5 was released.
Needless to say, ignorance is no excuse, so I've destroyed all copies of
Juggler that I have, and that I found. If you see someone with an
unauthorized copy of Juggler, remind them that whoever posted the package
originally did so without the blessing of Apple, and that all copies are
ILLEGAL (unless, of course, you're lucky enough to have a non-disclosure
agreement with Apple, which I am not).
Paul Christensen
CSNET: PCHRISTENSEN@RCA.COM
------------------------------
Date: 14 Jun 1987 00:42-EST
From: Duane.Williams@f.gp.cs.cmu.edu
Subject: Re: A User's Impressions of DiskFit and HD Backup
>DiskFit is deserving of the title "backup program", since its Finder
>readable format means that in an actual emergency you wouldn't be
>depending on a single piece of software remembering where it buried all
>its nuts.
Things aren't quite so simple as this. What if you have a file, e.g.,
the source to Apple's Smalltalk, that is too large to fit on one disk?
To back it up on 800K floppies requires splitting it. So you will need
a special program (either the backup program itself or some other
utility) to reconstruct it. Just because the files are in Finder
readable format doesn't mean that you can necessarily reconstruct a
usable version of them with the Finder alone.
>The subsequent backups are easy enough to actually do daily. Be honest
>with yourself: With another brand of backup software,....
I presume that the author of this message was only familiar with
DiskFit and HD Backup. He suggests that all backup software other than
DiskFit works the way HD Backup does. This just isn't true.
I use HFS Backup from PCPC and am very happy with it. HFS Backup is
easy to use, fast, flexible, and reliable.
Duane
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 15 Jun 87 23:27 N
From: <FRUIN%HLERUL5.BITNET@forsythe.stanford.edu> (Thomas Fruin)
Subject: Re: Some Macintosh II and IBM PC RT questions
Thanks for the many messages I got in reply to my Macintosh II and
IBM PC RT questions in Info-Mac digest #99. I summarize:
> Is there a Macintosh II video card that reimplements QuickDraw's
> low-level routines in hardware?
SuperMac is rumoured to be working on such a card, presumably using a
dedicated graphics chip such as the one from Texas Instruments. And
Apple seems to have told developers that it is actually working on
a graphics card that uses this TI TMS34xxx chip! Apparently many
QuickDraw calls mimic the calls on this chip...
> Is there an Ada compiler for the Macintosh II?
Alsys corp of France signed a contract with Apple Computer about a
month ago to produce its validated Ada on a card for the Macintosh II.
Info can be obtained from Mr. Robert Dawson, Apple's USAF Military
marketing manager in Reston, Virginia.
> What is true about BYTE's (and other magazines') rumours that the RT
> is being dropped from production?
This question elicited the most responses... several important facts are
important:
* According to InfoWorld only 5000 (yes, read that again: 5000) RTs have
been sold worldwide! You can imagine what that means for RT software
developement for example... and profits (or rather lack thereof) for IBM.
* Software availability is very limited and site licenses are outrageously
expensive as compared to PCs, someone commented.
* Someone else said IBM marketing representatives hinted that the RT would
be dropped if it couldn't hold its own against the Mac II and PS/2 Model 80.
Thanks again folks!
Thomas Fruin
FRUIN@HLERUL5.BITNET
thomas@uvabick.UUCP
Leiden University, Netherlands
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 15 Jun 87 16:44:00 PDT
From: Fat_Freddy's_Cat%SFU.Mailnet%UBC.MAILNET@MIT-Multics.ARPA
Subject: re: Relational Database with MPW Pascal interfaces
If you can hold on for a little while until the product which people call
Silver Surfer (see recent issues of Macworld) comes out, you'll have all
the programming language interfacing capability you'll ever need, from the
rumors I hear.
The current incarnation of what will become Silver Surfer (only available
in Europe) has a sort-of programming language interface, mainly good only
for setting up communications procedures. The one released in the US will
have its own high-level programming language that can have inline
procedures in most popular programming languages.
disclaimer All this is second, third, and fourth-hand. No guarantees of
accuracy.
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 15 Jun 87 19:03:58 PDT
From: oster%dewey.SOE.Berkeley.EDU@BERKELEY.EDU (David Phillip Oster)
Subject: model 100 <-> Macintosh
There is a rumor that PCSG, the Model 100 software vendor will be coming out
with a program that provides a Finder-like interface to the model 100:
You'll see a picture of the model 100 on your mac. desktop, and you'll just be
able to pick up and drag pictures of files between the two machines and
the real files will move to match.
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 15 Jun 87 19:09:57 PDT
From: oster%dewey.SOE.Berkeley.EDU@BERKELEY.EDU (David Phillip Oster)
Subject: Tablet resolution
I am partially responsible for the current release of the Kurta software.
Kurta tablets allow you to use the full resolution of the tablet by declaring
a piece of the tablet should map to a piece of the screen. If you map the
whole tablet to the whole screen, then you digitize quickly, but at screen
resolution at best. If you map a tiny square of the tablet to the screen, then
after you digitize that square, you scroll the screen and digitize another
square. You specify areas of the tablet and screen by pointing with the
digitizing pen, but, the numbers also appear as editable text, so you can
edit them to precisely the coordinates you want. Mappings can be saved and
restored as named disk files, using a desk accessory, so it is easy to remap
the tablet on the fly. The tablet software also has a whole macro package
built in, so that sequences of mouse motions and key downs can be assoiciated
with spots on the tablet. (Though the current release only supports this for
the larger tablets.) Macros are saved as text files, so it is easy to get
numeric coordinates out of the tablet.
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 15 Jun 87 21:07:00 EDT
From: hal@gvax.cs.cornell.edu (Hal Perkins)
Subject: grey line sweeping down Mac+ screen.
What does it mean when a faint grey line about 10pt high starts
sweeping from top to bottom of a Mac+ screen? It takes about 3 sec. to
do this and repeats. This just started today and the Mac+ is one of
the first shipments, with whatever problems that implies. Has anyone
else seen this before?
Probably best to reply by mail. I'll post the results if there is any
demand for it. Thanks.
Hal Perkins internet: hal@gvax.cs.cornell.edu bitnet: hal@crnlcs
Cornell CS uucp: {ihnp4|uw-beaver|decvax| most anywhere}!cornell!hal
------------------------------
Date: Sun, 14 Jun 87 16:35:40 PDT
From: digiorgi@Jpl-VLSI.ARPA
Subject: Helix VMX Inquiry
Has anyone got Helix VMX installed and running yet? I am looking for
correspondence regarding costs, hardware, bugs, and general utility value.
Anyone with any experience using the package please contact me.
thanks,
Godfrey DiGiorgi
digiorgi@jpl-vlsi
June 14, 1987
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 15 Jun 87 11:12:38 GMT
From: Paul Skuce
From: <sdcsvax!seismo!mcvax!hatfield.ac.uk!comt-ps@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU
From: >
Subject: VME
We are looking into getting a VME bus for our mac's and are intrested in other
users experience. If you have a VME on a mac PLEASE could you mail me your
comments, how much it cost and where you got it from.
I will post a summary of the replys.
Regards
Paul Skuce
Hatfield Polytechnic, School Information Science, P.O. box109
College Lane, Hatfield, England, AL10 9AB
comt-ps%hatfield.ac.uk%mcvax%seismo%.. from States
comt-ps%hatfield.ac.uk%mcvax%.. From Eur
comt-ps@hatfield.ac.uk JANET
------------------------------
Date: 16 Jun 87 07:24:00 EST
From: "NRL::MCCOWAN" <mccowan%nrl.decnet@nrl.arpa>
Subject: Adobe Screen Fonts?
I have seen a few references here and there to Adobe screen fonts
for their postscript fonts. Supposedly they look much better than
the standard screen fonts for the LW fonts. Does anyone know
anything about these? Thanks.
Bob McCowan
mccowan@nrl.arpa
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 16 Jun 87 13:28 N
From: <B127KLUI%HTIKHT5.BITNET@forsythe.stanford.edu>
Subject: Thunderscan
A recent issue of MacWorld mentioned new Thunderscan software with
4-bits a pixel info. I don't recall if the software was available yet or
RSN. Please let me know what is true about this. Updates are hard to get
overhere.
Thanks,
Ruud Kluivers
KUB The Netherlands
B127@HTIKUB5.bitnet
------------------------------
Date: 16 Jun 87 11:17 EDT
From: David A. Potter / McDonnell Douglas <DAP.MDC@OFFICE-1.ARPA>
Subject: MacLine Upgrades
The July issue of MacWorld (page 225) carried an ad from MacLine for (among
other things) memory upgrades. 128>512 $99, 512>1024 $169, 68020 $495, SCSI
port $89.... REALLL good prices. Question is, does anyone know anything about
them? They say they've been in business a bit over a year and are doing about
125-200 upgrades a month....
Any information -- good or bad -- would be most welcome.
Thanks -- David
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 16 Jun 87 16:35:17 edt
From: mss+@andrew.cmu.edu (Mark Steven Sherman)
Subject: Postscript demos on Mac
Does anyone know of a system that I can use to illustrate Postscript on a
Mac? I can hook my Mac to a large screen for illustration. I would like to be
able to type some Postscript and have it shown on the Mac (which would of
course then be projected). I don't need fancy features, just the basics for
illustrating the idea of a path, stroke, fill, characters, translation and
scaling.
------------------------------
Date: Sat 13 Jun 87 16:26:27-PDT
From: Tony Siegman <SIEGMAN@Sierra.Stanford.EDU>
Subject: Stepping Out and MS Basic
The large-screen capabilities of "Stepping Out" seem to work just fine with
MS Basic, i.e., you can draw LINEs and CIRCLEs and PSETs and do screen GETs
and PUTs all over the extended screen, in both interpreted and compiled
programs. In particular, you can draw an image in an "invisible" portion
of the extended screen, then GET and PUT it to the visible screen to
accomplish animation or fast redraw.
There is a real problem with the Basic interpreter's LIST window, however:
When Stepping Out is turned on, the Basic program listing shows up with some
numbers at the front of each line, which are sort of like line numbers, but
not exactly; and the position of the visible mouse cursor and the "real"
cursor or insertion point are off transversely by two or three character
widths -- for example, if you position the mouse cursor and click, the
actual insertion point shows up 2 or 3 characters away in the line. This
makes it essentially impossible to do editing or make corrections in the
Basic program while Stepping Out is turned on.
Note to Berkeley System Design: I would really also like to have a "Freeze"
command (OPTION + COMMAND + "F") that would freeze the portion of the full
screen displayed on the Mac display window. That is, in normal operation
of Stepping Out, as soon as you move the mouse even a little outside the
display window, the displayed portion jumps a 1/2 inch or so up or down,
or sideways, in an auto-scroll fashion. In many cases you don't want this
to happen -- for example, if you're moving the mouse over to a scroll bar
or a button that's close to the screen edge, and you overshoot slightly,
you get an auto scroll you don't want.
Otherwise, Stepping Out seems to work very well (except, so far as I know,
you can't directly print the expanded screen, even if it would fit on a
normal printed page.
------------------------------
Date: 15 Jun 1987 02:03:07 PDT
Subject: Ada and the Macintosh
From: Edward V. Berard <EBERARD@ADA20.ISI.EDU>
Currently, there are a number of vendors who are developing Ada-related
products for the Apple Macintosh series of machines. These products include
compilers (for the Plus, SE, and the II) and software development tools.
[Those of you who think that "Ada is too big for the Mac," might be
surprised to learn that the third Ada compiler to be validated (Western
Digital/Gensoft, validated in August of 1983) required only 128K of memory
-- all the machine had.]
Apple itself is taking some steps towards an "Ada strategy." (See, e.g.,
Computer Systems News, June 1, 1987 issue.)
Our company, EVB Software Engineering, Inc., is developing a product called
"Ada MacHost." Ada MacHost is a software product which allows a software
engineer to create Ada applications on a host machine (e.g., a DEC VAX)
which can interact with the Macintosh environment. Ada MacHost appears to
the software engineer as a set of Ada packages. These packages allow the
user to create and manipulate all the items in the Macintosh environment.
For example, from within an Ada application running on the VAX, the
software engineer can create a dialog window, display the dialog window on
the Mac, and respond to any interactions the user might have with that
dialog window (e.g., "pushing a radio button," or entering text).
Initially, Ada MacHost will be configured for the DEC VAX under VMS.
However, Ada MacHost will be ported to a number of other host systems,
based on demand. The first deliveries of Ada MAcHost are scheduled for the
fourth quarter of 1987.
If you want more information, or you wish to be considered for a beta test
site, please contact Roberta Visaggio at EVB.
Ed Berard
EVB Software Engineering, Inc.
5320 Spectrum Drive
Frederick, MD 21701
(301) 695 - 6960
ARPA: EBerard@Ada20.isi.edu
(r) Ada is a registered trademark of the U.S. government (AJPO)
P.S.: EVB Will be demonstrating Ada MacHost at AFCEA, June 16-18, in
Washington, D.C. See us at the Apple booth.
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 16 Jun 87 16:29 CDT
From: <BOYD%TAMLSR.BITNET@forsythe.stanford.edu> (Scott T. Boyd)
Subject: Machack 87 Report
MacHack 87 Report
We just returned from a mighty good trip to Ann Arbor for MacHack 87.
Of the 125 attendees, three were women. (This can't be the _real_ ratio,
can it?) Anyway, the conference was great. The pace was slightly under
hectic, we all went without sleep, and a good time was had by all.
The conference started out with a keynote speech from Doug Clapp.
His talk was gripping. He pointed out that most of the uses for computers
(so far) seem to be aimed at a very limited audience. He encouraged us to
keep our minds open. Look for ways to affect the world with what you do.
If you choose to, you can have a profound effect on the world. He told
us of a simulation where, if you can solve some of Ethiopia's hunger problem,
you qualify to join a panel of experts engaged in the very real business of
trying to alleviate Ethiopia's hunger.
When's the last time you used your Macintosh for something that important?
One of the more exciting sessions was a tools and languages session.
Since the conference was attended by mostly full-time developers, the
concerns voiced reflected many of the problems we have in the day-to-day
process of getting our ideas out of our heads and into our Macs. The
session quickly moved from discussing the available tools and environments
to the problems we have with the tools we use.
It became apparent that MPW is widely used. As with most development
tools, it's a love/hate relationship. Many of the comments focused on how
to improve MPW. Other comments focused on how to improve the working
relationship between developers and Apple's tech support and system software
people. Apple's _sole_ representative, Jordan Mattson, took careful notes
and suggested that we have an official "Bash Apple Session" on the final day
of the conference. Jordan showed the energy, listening, and leadership skills
of several people. For his tasteful handling of all the heat and suggestions,
I hope Apple appreciates this guy!
Other interesting talks included a presentation of 4th Dimension; case
studies of FullWrite, MacSpin, TMON, and others; and a group discussion
of MacBots (Macintosh Robots). Dave Feldt presented 4th Dimension
(formerly known as Silver Surfer). It certainly was the subject of a great
deal of hype. The audience reaction was mixed. It's obviously a powerful
product. We'll just have to wait and see how well it does.
The story of the development of MacSpin included everything from tales of
how to sponge off of relatives to how to convince your investors to invest
even more money right after you missed a target delivery date. Andrew
Donoho, the author of MacSpin, provided the presenter with a number of
assembler routines he created to augment his Pascal code. These included
routines for intelligently unloading any segments not currently in the
call chain.
Waldemar Horwat, the principle author of TMON, presented the TMON Case
Study. He was accompanied by Darin Adler, the author of the popular
Extended User Area. Paul Snively rounded out the group. Although he now
works for ICOM Simulations, the company that brought you TMON, Paul was
the first person to write a nice review of TMON. He assures us that
he is frequently told that the review had nothing to do with his being
hired!
Waldemar told us some really fascinating things about the development of
TMON. For instance, he wrote the entire program in assembler on the Lisa.
That is to say that he wrote the entire program before he assembled it
even once. After every assembly, he advanced the version number. I
leave it as an exercise to find out just how many times he assembled
prior to TMON's release. Another interesting fact is that Waldemar was
fourteen when he started coding TMON!
The "Bash Apple Session" was well attended. In the interest of improved
communications, it was videotaped. Jordan promised to show it to as many
Apple folks as possible. Although I slept through it (forgot to leave a
wake-up call!), everyone said it went very well, with quite a few people
making eloquent appeals and providing good suggestions.
What would conferences be without parties? Dave Feldt sponsored one the
night before the conference began. Since he had been teaching the
preconference programming class for two solid days, his voice wasn't
at the party. The class, by the way, was booked solid with something
like forty-five attendees. If they hadn't put a ceiling on attendance,
there would have been even more! Anyway, Ann Arbor is a nice place to
have an outdoor party. After consumption of large quantities of food
and drink, someone had the unbelievably good taste to put "Buckaroo Banzai:
Adventures Across the 8th Dimension" on the VHS player. I've never seen so
many people who knew all the lines!
There were other parties, and, of course, a number of private showings
of such things as FullWrite and other software under development. A good
time was had by all.
What's a hackers' conference without a forum for good hacks? In the
spirit of quick and dirty or simply fun little programs, The MacHax
Group sponsored the First Annual MacHack Hack Contest. After untold
hours of careful consideration, we decided on the following hacks as
prize winners. All winners received the praise and adulation of untold
grillions.
From Fritz Anderson comes HeapInit, an INIT and CDEV pair which permit
you to resize your system heap. It comes complete with source code and
all necessary documentation. Since he hijacks INIT 31, he rewrote INIT 31
in C so Apple couldn't complain. Looking at the modification dates on
his files, it's obvious Fritz lost a little sleep over this baby. Great
display of spirit, Fritz! Congratulations. This comes at a very good
time for some of us. We'll see about uploading it asap.
From Paul Snively comes SetPaths. Now, many of you have probably seen
this one already. In case you haven't, SetPaths lets you specify your
Poor Man's Search Path (PMSP). The PMSP is the set of directories your
Mac looks through when asked to find a file without specifying a path
name. Had Paul known about the contest beforehand, he would have
certainly held back on its release. So, to be fair, we permitted its
entry, and a fine entry it is! Now not everything has to go in the
System folder!!!
Darin Adler, Mitch Adler, Leonard Rosenthal, and Paul Snively created
an interesting category with "The Best Hack Implemented in a Nonexistant
Product." It's simply a small hack that speaks numbers. For example,
Macintalk says 1004 as "one, zero, zero, four." Blech. Their hack
says "one thousand four." It can handle numbers so extremely large that
it's kinda funny. They were planning to teach it to say
12443987598745987345983498234897234 as "twelve grillion and change..."
Mother Nature and NASA won an overwhelming vote when they jointly launched
three rockets through an unscheduled lightning strike.
Next year's MacHack will benefit from two very well run meetings. Count
on some fine speakers, entertaining discussion groups, and an abundance
of code exchange. The logistics of the conference have been masterfully
executed thus far, and we can expect similar performance next year.
Since we are announcing the MacHack Hack Contest, sponsored by The
MacHax(tm) Group and Jordon Mattson (wearing his personal, not affiliated
with Apple hat), you have plenty of time to prepare your own hack. What's
a hack? Fun or neat code. It cannot be a commercial product (which
excluded Tempo, a fine contender full of really neat hacks). Source
code should be provided as long as you aren't using unannounced products.
If you missed MacHack 86 or 87, don't miss MacHack 88! (BTW, its name will
be modified to something like MacHack88 - The Macintosh Technical
Conference)
scott t. boyd
The MacHax Group
MacHack 87 is not affiliated with The MacHax(tm) Group, but we're all
pretty good friends.
------------------------------
End of INFO-MAC Digest
**********************