INFO-MAC@SUMEX-AIM.STANFORD.EDU (Moderator Dwayne Virnau...) (05/25/87)
INFO-MAC Digest Monday, 25 May 1987 Volume 5 : Issue 92
Today's Topics:
System 4.1/Finder 5.5 user notes
System 4.1: new rules for INIT's
System 4.1/Finder 5.5 is great, but what about 512Ke owners?
Re: Mac SE and System 4.0/Finder 5.4
(software compatibility with the SE)
FKEY'S DON'T WORK ON A MAC PLUS UNDER SYSTEM 4.1???
Weird mouse tracking problem in System 4.1
TOPS and Finder 5.5
MacZap Recover needs patching to run under System-4.*
MacWrite crashes on a Mac II / Parameter Ram
Mixing languages
Re: Mixing languages
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: 20 May 87 01:37:25 GMT
From: jww@sdcsvax.ucsd.edu (Joel West)
Subject: System 4.1/Finder 5.5 user notes
I receive the official developer distribution of 4.1/5.5 today. Here's the
compatibility chart:
AppleShare: 3.3/5.4 or later
Mac 128: 2.0/4.1 only
Mac 512: 3.2/5.3 preferred, 3.3/5.4 with AppleShare
Mac 512e: same as 512, except 4.1/5.5 ok to use WITHOUT AppleShare
Mac Plus: 4.1/5.5 preferred, 3.2/5.3 or later ok
Mac SE: 4.1/5.5 preferred, 5.0/5.4 ok
Mac II: 4.1/5.5 only
A few notes from the user standpoint:
1. Option-drag duplicates a file to another folder rather than moving it.
2. This comes with LaserWriter 4.0. There are major changes, nearly two
pages of bug fixes. Supposedly faster (I don't have an LW), special
bitmap speedup, an option to fix the 4% bitmap shrinkage problem is
fixed (everything shrinks 4%), options to flop output horizontally
or vertically.
LW 4.0 is recommended for use with earlier system files.
3. ImageWriter is 2.6, no noticeable changes. Still doesn't work in
draft mode with MPW or MS-Word 3.0 (I keep a separate printer driver
entitled 'IW 2.1' in my System Folder.)
4. It looks like FKEY #3 takes a snapshot for 640x480 screens, but I
don't have a machine to test it with.
Other versions include:
Find File 1.1
Chooser 3.1
Control Panel 3.1
Fond/DA Mover 3.5
HD Backup 1.0
Disk First Aid 1.2
Apple HD SC Setup 1.3 (formats any 20, 40, or 80Mb hard disk)
Finally, people complained about the size. One factor is the set of ROM
patches to retrofit old traps and add new traps. The resource sizes are:
'PTCH' 0 540 bytes all systems
105 5,696 Mac 512
117 26,884 Mac Plus, 512e
630 12,958 Mac SE
376 12,004 Mac II
If you really need to make a compact a Mac Plus-only version, strip out:
PTCH: 105, 376, 630
snd,snth,ADBS,cicn: all
That saves 40K in the System file. You could also make an SE version
by stripping the unused PTCH's an all but the ADBS. For the Mac II,
strip only the PTCH.
Joel West
{ucbvax,ihnp4}!sdcsvax!jww (ihnp4!gould9!joel if I ever fix news)
jww@sdcsvax.ucsd.edu if you must
------------------------------
Date: 20 May 87 01:46:12 GMT
From: jww@sdcsvax.ucsd.edu (Joel West)
Subject: System 4.1: new rules for INIT's
As the INIT fans of INFO-MAC know, a lot of programs have been placed
in the public domain to do all sorts of nifty things at system startup.
Many of these programs use high memory, moving down BufPtr. Such a program
kills any later use of the alternate screen buffer, such as for Dark
Castle. Worse, there's no way to later reclaim the memory.
The new system heap can be expanded at will at system startup. (This
is why the new system is not recommended for 512Ke's and AppleShare,
because the new system heap will hog a lot more memory.)
So any INIT designed to run under System 4.1 should instead install
itself in the system heap (using the appropriate resource bit.)
System startup looks for a resource 'sysz' #0 with a 32-bit size
of how much space you need; place the resource in the same
file as any INIT's. For example
data 'sysz' (0) { $"4000" };
would reserve 4000 hex (16Kb) for the init's.
Incidentally, other parts of the developer docs refer to 'switcher
and twitcher'. The latter is some sort of context swapping system,
and may be the same as the rumored Juggler multi-tasking OS nearing
completion. I wonder if the new memory management is designed to
be multi-tasking friendly. :-)
Joel West
{ucbvax,ihnp4}!sdcsvax!jww (ihnp4!gould9!joel if I ever fix news)
jww@sdcsvax.ucsd.edu if you must
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 21 May 87 11:18 EST
From: Paul Christensen <PCHRISTENSEN%rca.com@RELAY.CS.NET>
Subject: System 4.1/Finder 5.5 is great, but what about 512Ke owners?
Well, I finally got my hands on the official System 4.1/Finder 5.5 disks
from Apple (officially named Macintosh System Tools 2.0 and Macintosh
Utilities 2.0). I must say that there are BIG improvements over System 4.0
and Finder 5.4. For example, the Shutdown manager is preloaded, so when you
select ShutDown or Restart, the Finder doesn't ask you to insert the boot
disk you ejected. When trashing files, you don't have to insert your boot
disk just so that the bulging trash can icon can be loaded. Overall memory
efficiency seems to be improved, although not quite to par with System 3.2
and Finder 5.3.
Easy Access, a file that will hold down modifier keys (shift, command, option)
for you and allows you to control the cursor using the keypad is FANTASTIC.
Now you can use the mouse for most of your needs, and use the keypad for the
single-pixel precision that has been lacking on most Mac programs (except
SuperPaint and SiliconPress).
For those who asked, the GENERAL, MOUSE, STARTUP DEVICE and KEYBOARD files
are actually resources used for the control panel. The KEY LAYOUT file
holds the information that enables KeyCaps to work on the many different
keyboards.
BUT NOW FOR A QUESTION, even though I've been using System 4.1/Finder 5.5
experimentally on my 512Kenhanced, the notes Apple posted say (and I quote):
Read Me First!
Copyright 1987 Apple Computer, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
New Macintosh system software is now available.
Finder Version 5.5 and System Version 4.1 is recommended for users of
Macintosh Plus, Macintosh SE and Macintosh II. Macintosh 512K and 512Ke
owners should continue to use Finder 5.3 and System 3.2, but may install
the new LaserWriter and ImageWriter drivers.
(end quote)
Now why, may I ask *shouldn't* I use Finder 5.5/System 4.1 on my dual-800K
512Kenhanced? I realize the system heap was increased from 47 to 65K to
accomodate the new system, but this doesn't seem major enough to tell 512Ke
owners not to use the new software.
Is there something I'm missing? Larry, are you listening?
If 512Ke owners can't use this new system software, then it seems like this
is a roundabout way of saying that Apple is abandoning the 512K and 512Ke
just as they did with the Lisa/XL and 128K. As a student, I'm not really
thrilled with the prospect of upgrading to 1MB of memory or (through Apple)
a MacPlus.
Paul Christensen
CSNET: PCHRISTENSEN@RCA.COM
By the way, since our only connection to the network is through a mailer, I
REALLY appreciate seeing small BinHex files on the Info-Mac mailings.
Thanks, Dwayne!
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 20 May 87 14:16:29 EDT
From: Tom Coradeschi - Army RD&E Center <tcora@ARDEC.ARPA>
Subject: Re: Mac SE and System 4.0/Finder 5.4
[This is directed to John Geis in response to his query of 12 May. Unfor-
tunately, he did not provide a complete address, so you will all have to read
my reply]
The files labeled GENERAL, KEYBOARD & MOUSE are used by the control panel to
set parameters for the mac, keyboard & mouse respectively. The KEY LAYOUT file
is used by the Key Caps DA. I honestly do not know what the STARTUP DEVICE
file is supposed to do. In fact, I don't even have it on my hard disk, and
I see no effect on performance. It may be used with external hard disks?
You do not have to include the control panel or key caps files in your ramdisk
unless you plan on using them. (ie, if you are the type who sets the control
panel up and then deletes the DA to make room for another, or just doesn't
mess around with it once it is set, or you can delete it and use PRAM5.0
(shareware $10) to set up the mac). An interesting and useful feature the
new control panel has is the ability to use any number of files like the
ones you asked about. There has already been one posted on INFO-MAC which
will allow you to look at the SCSI bus. As to your question about running the
system on a 512k mac, have no fear. That is what I am using at the moment,
and knowing Uncle Sam's procurement system, will be using for some time to
come. The only <minor> problem is that the system is slightly larger than
sys 3.2/finder 5.3 was, but that is of no real concern (unless you are stuck
using floppies maybe). So, that's about it.
Oh, one other thing you probably found out already. Try the control panel.
The appletalk switches are back there where they belong <yee-ha!>.
Regards,
tom c
------------------------------
Date: 22 May 87 08:04 PDT
From: Newman.pasa@Xerox.COM
Subject: (software compatibility with the SE)
In the spirit of the posting about what works and what doesn't work with
the MAC II, I'd like to see some postings on what works and what doesn't
on the SE. For what its worth, here are my two cents worth (note that
I'm still using Finder 5.4 and System 1.0 as I haven't installed the new
ones yet):
NO GOOD:
Quintet (the copy protection screws you up!)
Moose Phraser
MegaRoids
Rolodex DA
SpaceWar
GOOD:
RedRyder 9.4
Write Now 1.0
Talking Moose
SuperPaint 1.0
MacPaint 1.5
MacWrite 4.5
Dungeon of Doom 4.0
AutoBlack
Fedit +
Resedit
Turbo Pascal
SideKick 2.0
QUESTIONABLE:
Copy II Mac. (can anyone confirm this either way?)
>>Dave
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 20 May 87 10:35:42 SET
From: Alexander Falk <K360950@aearn>
Subject: FKEY'S DON'T WORK ON A MAC PLUS UNDER SYSTEM 4.1???
I ENCOUNTERED A STRANGE THING, WHEN RECONFIGURING SYSTEM 4.1 FOR
THE GERMAN KEYBOARD AND INTL RESOURCES. THIS IS WHAT I DID:
I USED SYSTEM 4.1, FINDER 5.5 FROM A NEW MACII SYSTEM DISK
THEN I COPIED THE ADBS, KCHR, KMAP AND INTL'S FROM A GERMAN
SYSTEM 4.0 DISK INTO MY NEW SYSTEM 4.1 (I REALLY LIKE THE ENGLISH
FINDER AND SYSTEM, BUT HAVE TO USE THIS GERMAN RESOURCES, SINCE MY
KEYBOARD IS CONFIGURED FOR GERMAN KEYS)
THIS IS WHAT HAPPENED: THE FKEYS WORK FINE, IF I RUN THIS SYSTEM 4.1
DISK ON A SE OR MAC II, BUT ON A MAC PLUS OR MAC 512 THEY FAIL TO WORK.
I COULD GET A WORKAROUND FOR THIS PROBLEM BY JUST WRITING 00 TO THE
LOW MEMORY GLOBAL SCRDMPENABLE, WHICH TELLS THE MAC, IF FKEYS ARE
TO BE USED, OR NOT. THIS IS DONE BY A NEW STARTUP APPLICATION, BECAUSE
IT DOES NOT WORK IN AN INIT.
COULD ANYBODY PLEASE TELL ME, WHY THIS HAPPENS?????
THANKS
ALEXANDER
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 21 May 87 11:08:50 EDT
From: Mark Nodine <mnodine@labs-b.bbn.com>
Subject: Weird mouse tracking problem in System 4.1
There is a weird problem (bug?) with mouse tracking in System 4.1. When you
track the mouse over to the right edge of the screen, the new system will
allow you to track to one pixel _beyond_ the right edge if you are moving
slowly (this does not happen if you move fast enough). It happens with all
of the mouse tracking settings. You can notice it by tracking to the right
edge of the screen and continuing to move slowly. The cursor will "jitter" at
the right edge between two positions. This did not happen with System 3.2,
even using Finder 5.5.
The reason I noticed this is that someone pointed out to me that the Autoblack
3-second activation does not take place if you are off the right edge of the
top-right corner. Gone are the days of just flicking the cursor to the top-
right corner and expecting Autoblack to do its thing; now you have to look to
be sure you're not too far over.
Mark
P.S. I also noticed that Finder 5.5 crashes (System error 2A = 42) if I
have TMON installed and do a Shut Down. Everything is, in fact, dismounted
at that point, so it is safe to turn off the machine. I have a Mac+ with
an Apple HD20 (disk port) hard disk.
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 20 May 1987 15:25 EDT
From: Jim Griffin <IJDG400%INDYCMS.BITNET@wiscvm.wisc.edu>
Subject: TOPS and Finder 5.5
I have an update on my report on the TOPS/Finder5.5,System 4.1 problem.
I had orginally reported that TOPS would not work unless the Cache was turned
off. I have since discovered that TOPS cannot install itself from the INIT
resource at system startup time, the Cache has nothing to with TOPS crashing
when the MAC is started. The version of TOPS I am using is V1.01. I received
it last March.
The way I can get TOPS to work is to hold down the SHIFT key or CAPS LOCK key
when the MAC is rebooted. This causes the TOPS INIT ask the question
Do You Want To Start TOPS?. Click on the NO option. After the Finder is
running I can launch the START TOPS application which will then start TOPS
without crashing the MAC. Curiously the Interbase INIT can install itself
when the MAC boots without causing a crash, so when it asks if I want to
install interbase I can click on YES and it will do its thing.
Jim Griffin
IJDG400 at INDYCMS.BITNET
------------------------------
Date: Thu 21 May 87 00:46:00-CDT
From: Werner Uhrig <CMP.WERNER@R20.UTEXAS.EDU>
Subject: MacZap Recover needs patching to run under System-4.*
"MacZap Recover" and "MacZap Recover HFS" must be patched as follows to work
with the latest System 4.*:
with your favorite hacking tool, open the file and search for and replace 2
occurences of "02B6" with "0A78".
Note that this is the same "generic" patch described in recent Delphi-digests
which are needed for most programs which had been compiled with Megamax-C.
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 22 May 87 08:46:53 PDT
From: franz!ficl!jkf@ucbarpa.Berkeley.EDU (John Foderaro)
Subject: MacWrite crashes on a Mac II / Parameter Ram
Regarding the problems with MacWrite on a Mac II:
I had a similar experience running MacWrite: the program crashed right
away and when I rebooted the system didn't find my hard disk. However
after booting from a floppy, I found that my hard disk was in fine
shape, no files had been trashed.
The problem was that MacWrite had written over the parameter ram
and in such a way the that the boot process never looked for a hard
disk. The solution was to clear the parameter ram. Since you can't
remove the battery on a Mac II, clearing the parameter ram is done by
holding down the control, option, command and shift keys and bringing
up the control panel desk accessory. It will ask you if you want to
clear the parameter ram and you click 'yes'. Now the system should
boot from the hard disk.
Next, you'll probably want to bring up the control panel in the
normal way and set your preferences since you've just erased them.
John Foderaro
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 19 May 87 11:26:21 edt
From: magill@eniac.seas.upenn.edu (Operations Manager)
Subject: Mixing languages
>> ... What I think we need is a version
>> of FORTRAN for MPW so that you can do your calculations in
>> FORTRAN, your string manipulation in C, your interface programming
>> in Object Pascal, and your vertical retrace tasks in asssembly,
>> all linked together by a real linker. What a concept, I wonder
>> if IBM ever thought of that :-)
>
>No, they didn't, but DEC did: have a look at the VAX/VMS calling
>standard sometime.
>
>Greg Hamm
>Rutgers Molecular Biology Computing Lab
Actually I believe IBM did. I know that the concept goes back even further than
DEC to where a LOT of VMS ideas came from. In the late 60's RCA's Spectra
series (The "Octiputer") pioneered a great many interactive computing
time-sharing concepts, including calling standards which allowed "object
modules" from many different languages to be linked together into a single
program. The operating system was known variously as TSOS, VMOS, and VS/9
(after Sperry bought them out in 1972). The Spectra machines were IBM/360
look-a-likes or in today's terminology - clones. And I suspect that if one
were to examine things in detail one would find that IBM had its own calling
conventions and that linker of the time also supported such things.
I know that PL/I and FORTRAN be combined, and that APL allows subroutines in
Fortran and PL/I.
As Grace Hopper (she's the grandmother of computing, if you don't know who she
is) has often pointed out, we seem to have forgotten many of the lessons of the
early days of computing in the course of confusing change with progress.
And, if Ira is still out there listening, I still think that EDT is the BEST
line-oriented editor I have ever used even if you don't think so.
(Apple has at least one ex-RCA-er in their Pascal development group -
or did have, who was responsible for some of the best RCA software.)
It is interesting to observe that both Xerox and RCA had products which were
truly advanced beyond their years but were unable to do anything with them.
Those products didn't fit into the then-current defintion of what data
processing "should look like".
It took Apple and DEC to realize what was really there and to give us
the MAC and VMS.
It will be interesting to see if APPLE now suffers the same way with AU/X.
If they can only make AU/X as "user friendly" as the MAC, they might have
a useful product. EVERYBODY and ANYBODY who likes the MAC can only shudder
at the thought of giving up the MAC interface just to run Unix(tm). Unless,
of course, they have never been forced to deal with the menmonic nature of
Unix commands. Just imagine, instead of having all your files displayed at
the click of a mouse, one has to type "ls" just to get their names.
Or "ls -Fl" to find out things like size and date. "Ls" could be considered
an almost intuitive command, providing one does not wish for a "directory"
of their files, but only a "list". I want a little windowshade to pull down
so that I can print something. I don't want to have to remember
"lpr -PLaserWriter -w132 frogdust" just so that I can print a file called
frogdust in lanscape mode.
Granted, we're still waiting for our copy of AU/X (we only got our II two
days before the announcement) but every one I've talked to says that "it's
Unix, not the MAC/os. It doesn't do windows. You have to write application
programs to do windows."
William H. Magill
Operations Manager
Computing and Educational Technology Services (CETS)
(formerly Moore School Computing Facility - MSCF)
School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS)
University of Pennsylvania
Office Mailing Address:
William H. Magill 215/898-4707
CETS
200 South 33rd Street
Philadelphia, PA 19104-6314
Network addresses:
SEASnet: Magill@eniac
PENNnet: Magill@eniac.seas
Internet: Magill@eniac.seas.upenn.edu -or-
Magill@cis.upenn.edu
BITnet: Magill@pennlrsm
------------------------------
Date: Wed 20 May 87 10:07:21-PDT
From: Rich Alderson <ALDERSON@Sushi.Stanford.EDU>
Subject: Re: Mixing languages
>Date: 14 May 87 15:48:00 EDT
>From: <hamm@biovax.rutgers.edu>
>>From: Tom Dowdy <CML5A9%IRISHMVS.BITNET@wiscvm.wisc.edu>
>>What a concept, I wonder if IBM ever thought of that :-)
>No, they didn't, but DEC did: have a look at the VAX/VMS calling standard
>sometime.
>Greg Hamm
>Rutgers Molecular Biology Computing Lab
As much as I hate to defend IBM, you should check out your history before you
make blanket statements like this. On the System/360-series machines (all the
way through the 3090), the linkage editors for the various operating systems in
use have ALWAYS had the ability to mix modules from various languages. The
family is coming up on its 25th anniversary next year; Vaxen are hardly 10
years old.
I can't say what the status is for their PCs, since I've considered them a
waste of silicon and epoxy ever since I tried to write a decent Lisp for them.
Rich Alderson
Alderson@Sushi.Stanford.EDU
------------------------------
End of INFO-MAC Digest
**********ime,-MAC K tK