SHULMAN@sdr.slb.COM (Jeffrey Shulman) (05/26/87)
Delphi Mac Digest Tuesday, May 26, 1987 Volume 3 : Issue 29
Today's Topics:
MacCharlie (2 messages)
selection rectangles (6 messages)
TMON/SuperSpool conflict
Pseudo-128K Mac
MPW/Mac II
RE: HyperCharger 020
HabaWord (2 messages)
SANE in DA's (4 messages)
RE: ADDISON WESLEY
getting screen dumps
_Pack12 (Color Picker)
InBox Question
Mac II Batteries?
Monitors
development woes (2 messages)
RE: MAC II ARRIVED!
FKEY 3
Mac II problems (5 messages)
OpenCPort (2 messages)
smoothscroll (3 messages)
KeyTrans
PC NETWORK Chapter 11
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From: JIMWEINRICH
Subject: MacCharlie
Date: 20-MAY 05:58 Hardware & Peripherals
The problem: Getting Macintoshes into a currently all-IBM PC office.
The detail: For power- and office-politics reasons, we need the ability
to run OUR OWN software on OUR OWN machine if push comes to shove, and I
need to be able to assure my boss that WE WILL be able to deal with that
data in dBase III+ in all its relational glory if necessary. The
question: How does MacCharlie do these days? I know the earliest
MacCharlies, years ago, were inconvenient and buggy. But how about the
most recent one(s) for the Mac Plus? At $800 thru Icon Review,
MacCharlie seems downright affordable. Soooooo....Anyone had any
MacCharlie experience recently? Especially with dBase? Any help will be
much appreciated. Thanks! --Jim Weinrich
------------------------------
From: RICKLEPAGE
Subject: RE: MacCharlie (Re: Msg 20080)
Date: 20-MAY 11:27 Hardware & Peripherals
Jim,
while I haven't had any hard and fast experience, I just did a major
overview of MS-DOS Mac options. The current consensus is that
MacCharlie _has_ improved significantly. Perfektek has an MS-DOS card
for the Macs 512 and Plus. But the AST card for the SE might be the
best option for compatibility. The PC ROM BIOS was done by Phoenix
Technologies, the acknowledged leader in firmware cloning. You do have
to have an SE and 5.25 drive, so the price is nearly double that of the
MacCharlie, but I would probably go for the AST.
the other option is just to get one of the 5.25 drives available and
use your MS-DOS disks to import data into your own db. depending on the
application, that might be the best way to go.
rick
------------------------------
From: JIMH
Subject: selection rectangles
Date: 17-MAY 22:02 Programming Techniques
Could someone tell me is there some simple means of drawing a slection
rectangle and having it follow the mouse without screwing up the
background? Jim
------------------------------
From: BRECHER
Subject: RE: selection rectangles (Re: Msg 1621)
Date: 17-MAY 23:17 Programming Techniques
How about DragGrayRgn?
------------------------------
From: JIMH
Subject: RE: selection rectangles (Re: Msg 1622)
Date: 18-MAY 22:45 Programming Techniques
Steve, i want the gray region to grow as i draw draggrayrgn just pulls a
rectangexcuse me region around. Or is there a way to make it change the
region on the fly? jim
------------------------------
From: ASMCOR
Subject: RE: selection rectangles (Re: Msg 1624)
Date: 19-MAY 22:39 Programming Techniques
Jim,
I just set the penpat to gray, and xor the rect while following the
mouse. Use a 2 tick delay and it looks good.
Jan
------------------------------
From: JIMH
Subject: RE: selection rectangles (Re: Msg 1627)
Date: 19-MAY 23:48 Programming Techniques
Jan, thanks i will give it a try, what do you mean by a 2tick delay
thought? jim
------------------------------
From: ASMCOR
Subject: RE: selection rectangles (Re: Msg 1629)
Date: 20-MAY 20:36 Programming Techniques
Well, in C it's Delay(2L, &ticks); - it's a ROM call. I just found that
the 2 tick delay between drawing and erasing (using XOR) works well.
Jan
------------------------------
From: JOSEF
Subject: TMON/SuperSpool conflict
Date: 18-MAY 01:56 Tools for Developers
Has anyone else noticed a conflict between TMON and SuperSpool? I keep
getting a Trace Interrupt when the spooler is installed, at which point
the only solution appears to be a reboot. I have the freebie version
for DataFrame owners, Version 3.1d.
Joe
------------------------------
From: PEABO
Subject: Pseudo-128K Mac
Date: 19-MAY 02:18 Programming Techniques
I don't know if anyone worries much about 128K Mac compatibility these
days but I just took the big step of converting my old 128K Mac to 512K,
so I decided to see how close the "pseudo-128K" Boot Blocks patch comes
to imitating the Classic Mac environment. Just in case I ever wanted to
test a program for compatibility, y'know?
Well, it's close, but there were only 10 bytes left in the boot blocks
after the patch code was installed, which may be why it cheats a little.
What it does is initialize the Mac normally (with a 512K-sized system
heap) and then adjust the high memory pointer to give about the same
number of bytes in the application heap as there would be in a 128K Mac.
I wanted to make it look a little more realistic, so I patched it to use
the 128K-sized System Heap (17152 bytes) for a 512K Mac and changed the
high memory patch from $022500 to $01A700. This gives the same
application heap configuration on my pseudo-128K boot as the real 128K
machine did. (Note that the $022500 was $100 too big ... I can't say
for sure this isn't due to something weird like the JClock I forgot to
deinstall this morning when I ran a little program to write an image of
the system fresh after boot out to disk so I'd be able to make this
comparison).
Note that even with the pseudo-128K boot, the screen buffer is still way
up in memory (the ROM has already initialized the hardware) so there
will still be some discrepancies from the real thing. Some of the
globals are set for a larger memory too (I haven't compared byte for
byte the memory images I made before and after the 128K->512K conversion
yet, but I've got the data if I ever need to check ...).
By the way, the magic incantation for making the pseudo-128K Boot Blocks
is to run a very ancient program called "Disk Utility" that was issued
by Apple a long time ago, and hold down the option-cmd keys while
pressing the button for writing boot blocks. The patches I mention are
applied to the version $14 boot blocks you get by doing this.
peter
------------------------------
From: RAMARREN
Subject: MPW/Mac II
Date: 20-MAY 02:11 Developers' Corner
I have been working with a couple of folks at my work who are looking
for a powerful desktop machine in an affordable price range for doing
fairly heavy scientific type computing. They need number crunching
power. The Mac II with its 68020 looks real good on the surface, but
there are a couple of sticky questions I am not yet able to answer:
- MPW and Mac II :: is there an update or set of libraries for
the 68881 available yet?
- Is there any word on the availability of an MPW FORTRAN compiler
yet? The Absoft compiler that currently runs on the Mac Plus
is a source of constant complaint from those that have tried it.
- Has anyone seen the TML Modula 2 product yet? (limited interest
for three people on Modula 2)
- Is there a 512 x 512 or 1024 x 1024 video board/monitor that can
work with the machine in the works yet? (The SuperMac 1024 x 768
is really nice, but a little 'weird' to quote one of my scientists.
I don't really know what he means ...) I am thinking of a display
with the sort of accessibility that a Ramtek has for high-level
library interfaces.
Sorry if these questions are a trifle simplistic, getting good
information on the Science oriented aspects in the heavily VAX and PC
biased world around here is a touch of a strain.
Thanks, Godfrey DiG
------------------------------
From: MACINTOUCH
Subject: RE: HyperCharger 020 (Re: Msg 20078)
Date: 20-MAY 08:52 Hardware & Peripherals
TAKE HEED! WEAR SAFETY GLASSES when working with a Mac SE!
By the way, when removing the power connector to the logic board, note
that the connector on the logic board has a *latch* as part of nylon
connector itself (a little tab), AND, it must be pushed *in* to release
it, not out, as would seem more intuitive.
Ric
------------------------------
From: PDNNOG
Subject: HabaWord
Date: 21-MAY 18:49 Business Mac
With all the griping(including mine) with Word 3.0, and with miniwriter
not yet the full wordprocesser we all want(but getting there), what the
devil happend to HabaWord? I saw a bet a version that was not half bad,
with things like global replace of font or style or size or all three,
and easy columns and so forth. Did it die?
------------------------------
From: RICKLEPAGE
Subject: RE: HabaWord (Re: Msg 20101)
Date: 21-MAY 20:53 Business Mac
as far as i knw, it died an ugly death in the beta wars...
rick
------------------------------
From: TSTOWERS
Subject: SANE in DA's
Date: 21-MAY 20:04 Programming
This may be duplicating a previous, I got dunmped with line noise.
I am writing a DA in MPW Pascal. I want to format floating numbers for
output and scan them off input strings. I tried to use SANE calls to do
this but it causes various bombs (mostly 28's).
I redid the core stuff in MPW C and it bombs the same way.
I took the core routines and did them as an application and it works
just fine.
Is there some restriction in using SANE calls from within a DA?
I also tried to use sscanf in the C version but it wont link,
complaining of uninitialized data. In this case it sounds like the
stdio rotuines need global data. Sigh...
Am I reduced to writing my own floating input/output?
Thank ahead of time for any help.
Terry Stowers, hackin in NJ
------------------------------
From: DWB
Subject: RE: SANE in DA's (Re: Msg 20105)
Date: 22-MAY 04:50 Programming
If you're talking about trying to use library routines (as opposed to
SANE traps) then they won't work from within a desk accessory if they
have global data. At the time MPW was released Apple was still
wrestling with a reasonable way of solving the problem of some
applications the finder included which can patch traps in funny ways,
thus leaving strange values floating around. In short, the folks that
use the A$ kludge are playing with fire...
Other than that, SANE itself should have no problems being used from a
desk accessory.
David
------------------------------
From: TSTOWERS
Subject: RE: SANE in DA's (Re: Msg 20118)
Date: 22-MAY 21:02 Programming
That is probably my problem. I am using the SANE calls in one of the
MPW libraries not using the traps directly. I have since tried to use
Lightspeed C with the sscanf routine and it also bomb 28's. Digging
into the book, they say you shoulkd recompile any library routines to be
used with a DA so they use A4 for their globals. But how do you do
this?
So, my new question. I now have the DA in Lightspeed and would like to
use the sscanf/sprintf library. But I need to recompile it to use A4
based globals. I could drag all the files over into my project but there
are two lib's (STR2DEC and DEC2STR) that have no sources.
Either, how can I force a library to recompile with A4 globals?
Or, if you cant do that and I must drag the files into the project, will
those two libs (which I suspect are using the SANE traps anyway) cause
me grief?
Any help Lightspeeders?
T. Stowers with three versions, all of which bomb...
------------------------------
From: PEABO
Subject: RE: SANE in DA's (Re: Msg 20133)
Date: 23-MAY 15:47 Programming
You're right on the button ... drag the files to your project. To find
out if STR2DEC and DEC2STR use A5, try creating a dummy application that
does the following:
main()
{
.. put any local varibales you need here ...
Debugger();
Str2Dec(...whatever should go here...);
Dec2Str(...likewise);
}
Then look at the aplication with the debugger and see what is below A5.
There will be a number of QuckDraw globals, of course. By taking out
the calls to Str2Dec and Dec2Str and trying it again, you should be able
to spot any differences if any.
The reason those two routines don't have source code is that they are
provided by Apple (and run though RelConv to convert their object form
into LSC compatible format).
peter
------------------------------
From: PEABO
Subject: RE: ADDISON WESLEY (Re: Msg 20111)
Date: 21-MAY 22:57 Bugs & Features
I heard a rumor this week that there is a good reason why Addison-Wesley
is apparently not restocking IM vols 1-4: they are out of print. The
good news, I suppose, is that the entire set is supposed to be replaced
by a repackaged "Macintosh Library". No word on when this is supposed
to happen or how the new documentation is going to be organized.
peter
------------------------------
From: DDUNHAM
Subject: getting screen dumps
Date: 22-MAY 03:54 Developers' Corner
Once upon a time, Apple provided developers with a ROM override to allow
you to take screen shots with menus pulled down (and controls being
clicked, and windows being dragged). I haven't dared try this under
System 4.1, and I suspect it won't work. Anyone have more info?
------------------------------
From: DDUNHAM
Subject: _Pack12 (Color Picker)
Date: 22-MAY 03:54 Inside Mac
My APDA draft of IM 5, and the include files that come with it, don't
have any info on actually _calling_ the sucker. Like, what are the
selectors (the trap number is all I can find).
------------------------------
From: STEVEMALLER
Subject: InBox Question
Date: 23-MAY 02:14 Business Mac
Hey there folks...
At work we have AppleShare running in three zones feeding through two
bridges for around a total of 30 Macs or so. We use InBox (NO product
endorsement intended) in our work group. Here is the problem:
We have a couple users to add to our net. We have InBox version 1.3
and the Upgrade Disk to upgrade them to 2.0. Unfortunately, the Alert
box displayed says that the 1.3 installer can't find the server. That is
because the server is running 2.0! Unfortunately (again) we can't update
our personal nodes until they are installed. It appears to me that we
may have to bring the whole network down just to install these users.
Errgh!!!
Question: is there any easier way to do this? I don't think we even
have the 1.3 server software any more. What can we do?
Thanks,
Steve Maller
Training Development
Apple Computer
------------------------------
From: LAMD
Subject: Mac II Batteries?
Date: 24-MAY 01:32 Hardware & Peripherals
Anyone have hard info about the reported problem with batteries in the
II? I've been told that they fail quickly, and, since they're soldered
into place, putting in a new one = changing the motherboard.
-Franklin
------------------------------
From: DDUNHAM
Subject: Monitors
Date: 24-MAY 03:28 Bugs & Features
For a grin, click on the version number in the 'Monitors' control panel
extension.
------------------------------
From: DDUNHAM
Subject: development woes
Date: 22-MAY 21:14 Tools for Developers
Aztec C gives bomb 1 on my Mac II. TMON also crashes (tho there's
supposed to be a brand new version).
------------------------------
From: ASMCOR
Subject: RE: development woes (Re: Msg 1644)
Date: 22-MAY 23:35 Tools for Developers
I didn't try tmon yet, but Lightspeed seems to work. I haven't given it
a real full test yet, though.
Jan
------------------------------
From: LOGICHACK
Subject: RE: MAC II ARRIVED! (Re: Msg 1646)
Date: 23-MAY 00:59 Macintosh Developers
Here's a brief list of stuff that I think will be useful on the Mac II:
A _Launch trap INIT that knows the preferred pixel depth of the screen
fo an app so that we can run MacPaint, SuperPaint etc without having to
set the bit depth manually with the control panel.
I have an idea on a fake drive light for internal hds.
A real screen dimmer.
Color backdrop/startupscreen. (easy)
Those are the ideas I have on the top of my head. On another note, do
you know if its possible to read the power key programmatically? Sure
would be nice to use it as an interrupt/reset key combination ala Apple
/ GS. Maybe that's a hardware hack.
Paul :)
------------------------------
From: LOGICHACK
Subject: FKEY 3
Date: 23-MAY 01:04 Inside Mac
Anyone notice that screen dumps with FKEY3 will rotate the picture to
fit a MacPaint doc if its done on a Mac II?
Nifty huh?
Paul :)
------------------------------
From: ASMCOR
Subject: Mac II problems
Date: 23-MAY 14:13 Inside Mac
I'm having trouble getting my Mac II to print to my Imagewriter I.
Word 3.0 just spools a print file and quits without printing anything.
Same with Acta, More 1.1. I managed to get Acta to print in draft mode,
but my own DeskWriter ( it uses text streaming) prints about 5 lines and
then the Imagewriter kicks into headline mode and starts overprinting
all the lines! I've tried replacing the Imagewriter driver, checked all
the cables, etc. Got any ideas?
Also, two of my most-used programs, TMON and Microsoft Works, crash
with ID = 01 errors when I try to run them. I've heard that Aztec C does
the same thing. Macsbug won't load, so I can't even figure out where
they are crashing! Is there a generic problem of some kind that can
cause a bus error on the II? And, is there a debugger that works!?
Thanks.
Jan {{{{{{{{{{{{
------------------------------
From: PEABO
Subject: RE: Mac II problems (Re: Msg 1655)
Date: 23-MAY 15:35 Inside Mac
Sounds like a flow control problem. Try fooling with the DIP switch
settings in the Imagewriter (remember how they were set originally) to
see if that helps. In theory, the serial driver should respond to either
hardware or software flow control, but you never know.
peter
------------------------------
From: JIMH
Subject: RE: Mac II problems (Re: Msg 1655)
Date: 23-MAY 18:57 Inside Mac
Jan, call Icom Simulations, for $50 they will give you a copy of an
interem TMON that works with the II. Best jim
------------------------------
From: LOGICHACK
Subject: RE: Mac II problems (Re: Msg 1655)
Date: 23-MAY 22:19 Inside Mac
There is a new version of MacsBug in the MPW 2.0B1 package from APDA.
It works on the II but TMON is (as we all know) much better.
You are using system 4.1, right?
Paul :)
------------------------------
From: ASMCOR
Subject: RE: Mac II problems (Re: Msg 1656)
Date: 23-MAY 23:56 Inside Mac
Weirdly, it started working when I copied the *appletalk* imagewriter
driver into the system folder, even though I'm using a direct
connection. Don't ask me why, it makes no sense to me. But, it works now
so I'm not complaining.
Jan
------------------------------
From: METASOFTWARE
Subject: OpenCPort
Date: 23-MAY 17:05 Inside Mac
got our Mac II's this week so we're off to implement color. MacTutor had
an article about the new Quickdraw color Traps this month, but
unfortunately did not include those for OpenCPort & CloseCPort. does
anyone know what the trap #'s are, and their respective arguments?
------------------------------
From: ASMCOR
Subject: RE: OpenCPort (Re: Msg 1657)
Date: 23-MAY 23:59 Inside Mac
I got this from Carlos Weber:
This info is from the Alpha version of IM 5 I received from APDA:
OpenCPort and CloseCPort both take a single argument of type CGrafPtr,
defined as ^CGrafPort. Their usage is analogous to the corresponding old
traps, OpenPort and ClosePort. The trap words are $AA00 and $AA02
respectively.
Jan
------------------------------
From: JIMH
Subject: smoothscroll
Date: 23-MAY 19:04 Programming Techniques
I wrote a simple Idle program for a program i am working on, and i am
having a bit of trouble with it, perhaps someone can help me out? The
idle scrolls the current time in a rathr large size down the screen
horizontally centered. I update the time in an offscreen bitmap and
copyit to the screen during vertical refresh. Everything works great
and the time scrolls really smoothly until it approches the center of
the screen. in a fairly narrow region close to the center of the screen
the text flickers as it is updated. But it only happens in this region.
does anyone have any idea why it flickers only here? jim
------------------------------
From: LOGICHACK
Subject: RE: smoothscroll (Re: Msg 1661)
Date: 24-MAY 21:58 Programming Techniques
I just wrote some CopyBits code to do the Sun spinning globe and it
sounds like you are getting clobbered by yourself because your 're
taking longer than a vbl to do the drawing.
Contrary to conventional wisdom, QD, and CQD do work significantly
better when its dealing with word and longword aligned data. I assume
your offscreen bitmap is an integral longwords wide. Try blitting it to
different places horizontally on the screen. Start with x = 0 till
maybe x = 32. I found a weird spot (x=18) for my window which nearly
doubles the drawing rate.
Let me know if what I just wrote makes any sense at all.
Paul :)
------------------------------
From: JIMH
Subject: RE: smoothscroll (Re: Msg 1677)
Date: 24-MAY 22:11 Programming Techniques
Paul, yea i already found out about aligning it horizonatlly making a
diff and took care of that. it was teh vertical position that took
different amounts of time. I know other things are done by system in
vbl so there might be something going on at a pa rticular rate that eats
up more time than others i was kind of curious as to what it might be.
thanks for the suggestion. jim
------------------------------
From: JEFFS
Subject: KeyTrans
Date: 24-MAY 15:51 Inside Mac
The ADB Keyboard Driver Specification note sent along with IM Vol 5
mentions that the function KeyTrans is the new way to translate keycodes
to ASCII codes. My questions are:
1) What is the trap number of KeyTrans?
2) I assume it is contained in the System File so that it works on ALL
Macs using System 4.1?
3) What KCHR resource to you pass to it? 0? or is there some global
that indicates this?
4) It looks like you have to first map your keycode to a "virtual
keycode" by using the KMAP resource. Which ID do you use here?
5) The note mentions that applications *may* also use this trap in lieu
of the "prehistoric" Key1Trans and Key2Trans routines. To me it looks
like these may be easier since you don't have to get the KCHR resource
nor map the actual to virtual using the KMAP resource. What would be the
reasons *not* to go this route (besides knowing which to call when)?
6) Where can one get the keycode mappings for the new keyboards?
Jeff
------------------------------
From: SYNTHONY
Subject: PC NETWORK Chapter 11
Date: 25-MAY 18:07 Business Mac
Saw in the paper today that Personal Computer Network has filed for
protection under chapter 11. The article said that they list 15,000
customers who have not received more than $3 million in equipment that
has been on backorder for months. These customers will be listed as
unsecured creditors in the bankruptcy filing. In addition, the company
owes $1.5 Million to about 20 electronics manufacturers, hardware and
software suppliers, distributgors and several large computer magazine
publishing firms. Sorry about the typos, but I am trying to get used to
my new SE's keyboard.
Bill (SYNTHONY)
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End of Delphi Mac Digest
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