SHULMAN@slb-test.CSNET (Jeffrey Shulman) (05/04/87)
Delphi Mac Digest Monday, May 4, 1987 Volume 3 : Issue 25
Today's Topics:
Help (3 messages)
DiskTimer II, MacBottom 40
Word 3.0
re: ScrapSaver INIT
re: Emacs and Scribe for Mac
ADB Optical Mice
watch cursor (3 messages)
MacMemory Upgrades
Scan 300 (2 messages)
Overvue 2.1 bug
MacApp license for free programs
system heap (3 messages)
Word 3 and Switcher
The Low down on LoDown?
TMON & System 4.1
SCSI sensing (3 messages)
Font Scaling
RSG 3.0 vs. Laserprep 3.3
Re: AutoBlack and SE
Re: Help! Mangled Hard Disk
Here are the headlines
MacWorld Rotterdam Rest
Words to program by
Keyboard differences
----------------------------------------------------------------------
From: VASMUG
Subject: Help
Date: 27-APR 05:27 Business Mac
Greetings
Can anyone recommend the best network mail service? Does InBox
work as well as they say? Is anyone using it?
Can anyone reflect on MacServe vs Tops?
Your help will be greatly appreciated. Fred <VASmug>
------------------------------
From: MACINTOUCH
Subject: RE: Help (Re: Msg 19422)
Date: 27-APR 15:23 Business Mac
The top two contenders for mail are InBox and InterMail. InterMail is
now being distributed by InfoSphere. I think both work well. Simple
mail functions can be handled with folders in TOPS. TOPS even provides
a password protection scheme.
Ric
------------------------------
From: NWOLF
Subject: RE: Help (Re: Msg 19422)
Date: 27-APR 23:59 Business Mac
Although my experience is somewhat limited as far as these things go,
I'll stick in my 2 cents worth anyhow. As far as InBox goes, I can't
help you. The difference between MacServe and Tops depends upon your
application. I have used both and they are fairly easy to use and
intuitive. Tops, however, has the ability to communicate back & forth to
MS DOS machines (and Vaxen, if not now, then soon) in a real neat way:
you can take files right off the machines' disk, hard disk, etc., read
it into your Mac (making changes, printing, etc.) then WRITE the changed
file back to the MS DOS machine! If you have a configuration with mixed
operating systems like this it's stupendous. And if the IBMs, etc., are
set up to create postscript files, they can print on a LaserWriter
connected to the system. I don't think there's any spooling software
built into Tops yet, however. (But it's sure top come.) MacServe, on the
other hand has all kinds of neat features that work well in the Mac
environment, including Laser spooling and so forth. In addition, they
are coming out with Modem Serve Real Soon Now, which will enable
machines on the net to share a modem. I believe this is a first.
InfoSphere is renowned for their steadfast attention to details. You
will not be disappointed with it. And as near as I know, they are not
about to be taken over by any other firms, unlike Centram, and so they
will most likely maintain their integrity in the future.
------------------------------
From: MACINTOUCH
Subject: DiskTimer II, MacBottom 40
Date: 27-APR 19:32 Hardware & Peripherals
I just ran DiskTimer II on both the MacBottom 40 SCSI and the ProApp
40S. The MacBottom got 75, 73, 16 (5 trials), and the ProApp results
were near John Mitchell's, at 162, 160, 24 (3 trials). The MacBottom is
quite nice, the same size as before, but now with a pushbutton SCSI
selector underneath and a Laser Spooler (proprietary; doesn't spool
PageMaker). It's quiet, but not as quiet as the tiny ProApp 40S.
Ric
------------------------------
From: DSACHS
Subject: Word 3.0
Date: 27-APR 20:11 Business Mac
Microsoft Has announced that an upgrade to Word should be available
about the end of June and will be FREE to registered owners of Word 3.0.
------------------------------
From: DDUNHAM
Subject: re: ScrapSaver INIT (Re: Msg 19426)
Date: 28-APR 04:05 Network Digests
>From: PUGH%CCC.MFENET@nmfecc.arpa
>Subject: ScrapSaver INIT
ScrapSaver was written by Paul Mercer (LOGICHACK on Delphi).
David Dunham "Whenever you see a sign 'No Exit,' it means
Maitreya Design there is an exit."
[ The latest version has been sent to INFO-MAC and
comp.binaries.mac. - Jeff ]
------------------------------
From: DDUNHAM
Subject: re: Emacs and Scribe for Mac (Re: Msg 19426)
Date: 28-APR 04:06 Network Digests
>From: Allan Doyle <adoyle@VAX.BBN.COM>
>Subject: Emacs and Scribe for Mac
JustText is a non-WYSIWYG LaserWriter (PostScript) formatter.
David Dunham "Whenever you see a sign 'No Exit,' it means
Maitreya Design there is an exit."
------------------------------
From: JEFFS
Subject: ADB Optical Mice
Date: 28-APR 19:19 Business Mac
I just found out the Mouse Systems (makers of the A+ Mouse) are
developing optical mice for the Apple Desktop Bus (IIgs, Mac SE, Mac
II.) The single button mouse is currently in the prototype stage. The
real interesting part is that they plan on developing a *3* button mouse
as well! This will be mainly for A/UX but will have interesting
ramifications with Mac software. They are currently working with Apple
on this. They hope to have this one out by the end of the year, no
prototypes exist yet.
Jeff
------------------------------
From: DDUNHAM
Subject: watch cursor
Date: 28-APR 21:21 Mousing Around
Is the rotating watch cursor provided by Servant, Finder 5.4, and
MacWait, a good thing? One article I read mentioned that its static
nature emphasized the fact that you're waiting on the machine and can't
do anything.
I read another article which says "some sort of placebo is ... necessary
for time-consuming operations." They use a Buddha icon, presumably to
make you feel relaxed and meditative mood rather than frustrated at the
delay.
------------------------------
From: LAMD
Subject: RE: watch cursor (Re: Msg 19462)
Date: 29-APR 01:55 Mousing Around
David: The moving hands would be fine if their rate of movement had any
relationship to what was really going on... as it is, I could do without
them. -Franklin
------------------------------
From: RMUHA
Subject: RE: watch cursor (Re: Msg 19462)
Date: 30-APR 01:06 Mousing Around
My feeling is that spinning the watch hands is wasting cycles that might
otherwise be used to do whatever it is you're waiting for. ie, it's a
waste of time.
on the other hand, I've often felt that the file copy progess dialog box
should be updated more often (say, for every file) and should show the
name (and perhaps the size) of the file currently being copied. It's
not really wasted cycles either, since the cost of updating the box is
probably a small fraction of the time to copy the file. I do feel that
it would make things seem faster. You would also be able to catch a
screwup sooner (eg, selecting the wrong folder).
ralph
------------------------------
From: MACBLACK
Subject: MacMemory Upgrades
Date: 28-APR 21:54 Hardware & Peripherals
Hey, all of you MacWorld and MacUser readers!! Open up the May issue of
either of these mags, and turn to the ads for Programs Plus. Now look
under the Upgrade section, in particular the Mac Memory upgrades Notice:
All MacMemory upgrades have a 2 YEAR warranty from Mac Memory. Now
checkout the 2 X 4 upgrade, that is 1 meg chips, yes 2 megs with 1 megs
chips for $519. And it is compatible with internal hard disks. If you
get this you actually get 2.5 megs of RAM, boy it is nice. I ordered
mine and got it in a week. About the Finder says 2560K, sweet. But look
at the ad directly beneath it. Yes you read right 4 megs for only $749.
That is 2 megs in 1 meg chips & 2 megs in 256k chips. I hope that this
was of some good to you. Happy Megging!
------------------------------
From: RICKLEPAGE
Subject: Scan 300
Date: 29-APR 13:37 Business Mac
Just got a Scan 300 (from Abaton) to play around with for a while, and
while I haven't had a chance to do too much with it, i thought that
people might be interested to know that Abaton copy-protected the
scanning application that comes with the unit!!! I mean, let's be real
-- you just purchased a product with a $2500 hardware key system -- so
why copy protect it? It doesn't seem that there is much use for it
without the scanner -- the only possible explanation I can come up with
is that it might be usable with other scanners.
Other than that, it is a neat toy. Spent the morning digitizing a logo
and then creating a final camera-ready piece with Illustrator.
Illustrator is one cool program, and one that almost cries out for a
scanner.
I get further into it.
Rick
------------------------------
From: DWB
Subject: RE: Scan 300 (Re: Msg 19481)
Date: 30-APR 04:04 Business Mac
Since Abaton, MicroTek and a couple of other companies I can't think of
all sell the same scanner (made by MicroTek) the software would be
usable with any of them (or at least should be)
David
------------------------------
From: RICKLEPAGE
Subject: Overvue 2.1 bug
Date: 29-APR 13:48 Bugs & Features
Found a bug in the latest release of Overvue (2.1) that might be of
interest to those who put up with that program.
The bug concerns printing a report to disk. If you set up the Page
Length to equal 0 in a Report Template, and print that report to disk,
Overvue will hang at the point it supposedly finishes printing the
report. Everything looks fine -- you are prompted for a disk file name,
and get the "PRESS COMMAND AND PERIOD KEYS TO ABORT PRINTING" dialog,
but when it would normally finish the report and return control of the
keyboard to the user, it instead hangs, leaving rebooting the only
option. I have been able to return to the Finder by pressing the
interrupt switch (and typing G 40F6D8 <ret>), and the file has been
created, but has the Busy attribute checked. Most of the time, however,
pressing the Interrupt switch has no effect, and the file is not found
when the Mac comes back up.
(For those curious about why set the PL to 0, it ensures that there are
no blank lines of space set up in the file -- changing the top and
bottom margins to 0 still seems to leave 2 blank lines for every 66
(Overvue's default page length)
Hope somebody gets some help from this.
Rick
------------------------------
From: PEABO
Subject: MacApp license for free programs
Date: 28-APR 17:02 Distribution & Marketing
I was talking with Teri Drenker of Apple Licensing today, and she
confirms that, yes, it does not matter whether you are distributing a
program for free or selling it; if you build it with MacApp, you have to
license MacApp for $100/year in order to give away copies of your
program. The bright side is that the 100 bucks covers as many programs
as you can write, it's not $100 per program.
Apple Licensing will consider exceptions to the rules on an individual
basis. You can contact them at (408) 973-4667.
:-( peter
------------------------------
From: OTISB
Subject: system heap
Date: 30-APR 00:40 Programming
What does the system heap do? How does one change it? What are the
advantages to doing so? What are the problems? I have system
4.0/5.4...
------------------------------
From: PEABO
Subject: RE: system heap (Re: Msg 19495)
Date: 30-APR 01:45 Programming
The System Heap contains information that has to be preserved as you run
various applications. The applications run in the Application Heap, and
it gets wiped out (except for the clipboard) every time an application
exits.
Examples of information in the System Heap:
a record of files which are open
the resource map for the System file
a small amount of information for each disk that is mounted
patches which have been applied to the system at startup
patches which have been applied dynamically by some programs,
such as print spoolers
information needed by AppleTalk
code for the bomb box
small amounts of code and data set up by some INIT resources
when the system is started up
You would need an unusually large System Heap if you were running lots
of Switcher partitions at once, since there would typically be more
files open at once.
System 4.0 and future systems from Apple tend to make more use of System
Heap space than previous versions of the system, so that's why the
recommended size has been increased.
peter
------------------------------
From: MACINTOUCH
Subject: RE: system heap (Re: Msg 19495)
Date: 30-APR 08:51 Programming
The easiest way to change the system heap is with CE Software's Widgets
program (it comes when you buy the excellent DiskTop desk accessory).
Another program that will do it is Fedit Plus, where you "Edit Boot
Blocks".
Ric
------------------------------
From: MACINTOUCH
Subject: Word 3 and Switcher
Date: 30-APR 20:05 Bugs & Features
I just ran into a rather bizarre set of problems trying to do a simple
set up of Word 3 and Excel. Not finding the proper Switcher Set on the
disk, I started to create one. Every time I tried to install Word 3, it
came up with a default of 128K. Changing that to 768K and clicking
Install got the big bombola. Quite repeatable. (This is all with 2.5MB
of RAM). Finally, in desperation, I opened up ResEdit and looked at its
SIZE resource. The actual sizes were blank, so I changed them, and then
it worked (coming up with the proper default). Is this just cosmic rays
or has someone else had similar problems? (Switcher version is 5.1)
Ric
------------------------------
From: INC
Subject: The Low down on LoDown?
Date: 1-MAY-16:35: Hardware & Peripherals
I am interested in getting a LoDown Scanner and would like to know
user's experience with them. They look great from the leaflet and specs
but would like a first hand view.
Thanks.
joshua
------------------------------
From: LOGICHACK
Subject: TMON & System 4.1
Date: 1-MAY-18:27: Bugs & Features
Has anyone noticed that when using the General item in the System 4.1
Control Panel that it destroys something which causes TMON's
option-intterupt and _Debuggers to bomb with an illegal instruction?
Its definately the General Item because if you rename it to something
else so it doens't come up on default, everything will work till you
select General. Fortunately, the General file from System 4.0 seems to
work ok for me. And interupt alone works ok.
Has anyone noticed the bunch of little User Items under the Desktop
Pattern string in the General DITL resources? They don't show up on any
of the Macs I've seen (including at B7 ROM Mac II).
Just curious,
Paul :)
------------------------------
From: LOGICHACK
Subject: SCSI sensing
Date: 30-APR 04:25 Programming Techniques
I'm writing a small public domain utility and I need to sense the
presence of a device at a particular SCSI bus id. Since I'm not a SCSI
whiz (yet) I really don't know what to do after _SCSIGet and
_SCSISelect.
A small scrap of assembler would be greatly appreciated. Helpful hints
would be good too. Steve B, help!
Paul :)
------------------------------
From: BRECHER
Subject: RE: SCSI sensing (Re: Msg 1514)
Date: 1-MAY-04:49: Programming Techniques
If SCSISelect succeeds, there's a SCSI controller with the specified ID
out there. However, that controller is now waiting for a command, so
feed it one via SCSICmd. Six bytes of zero (Test Unit Ready) will do.
Then call SCSIComplete.
------------------------------
From: BRECHER
Subject: RE: SCSI sensing (Re: Msg 1526)
Date: 2-MAY-09:27: Programming Techniques
As I guess you found out, SCSINop is a command to the SCSI Manager's
command interpreter, telling it to do nothing; it is not a command to
the target out on the bus.
Test Unit Ready should be virtually instantaneous for most devices,
assuming there is a target controller out there. But there is a 250ms
timeout on selection (SCSISelect); that is likely what you're waiting
for. The 250ms timeout is that which is recommended in the SCSI spec,
and what the SCSI Manager uses. So each non-existent ID will cost you
about 250ms. If SCSISelect fails, you of course will not follow up by
sending a command.
The timeout on SCSIComplete is whatever a reasonable time would be for
the target to complete the command. For a disk Format Unit command, it
might be an hour or more for a very large disk. For a disk Test Unit
Ready command, one tick should be sufficient. The timeout should be
such that if a timeout occurs, one can reasonably conclude that the
target hardware is sick.
------------------------------
From: JEFFS
Subject: Font Scaling
Date: 1-MAY-19:31: Macintosh Developers
I have a font in two different sizes in two different font files. The
problem I'm having is that the Font Manager always scales one of them to
be the size of the other instead of just using the other font itself.
How can I force the Font Manager not to scale the font it most recently
drew in but go look for the other font?
I have tried playing with UseResFile to "force" the search and I have
tried setting FScaleDisable to 1 to disable scaling but neither of these
work.
Very perplexing :-(.
Jeff
------------------------------
From: CHUQ
Subject: RSG 3.0 vs. Laserprep 3.3
Date: 1-MAY-23:07: Bugs & Features
I talked to the RSG 3.0 folks today (letraset, not Manhattan Graphics)
because of some continuing problems I'm having with RSG 3.0. I found
out two interesting things:
There are really TWO releases of RSG3. The original november binary has
a number of bugs all over the place -- in tabs, in textedit (my problem)
and all sorts of other things wrong. If you have a binary created in
November, you ought to call them and set up an upgrade to their new
reelease, dated in December (or find a friend with a december bvinary,
which also has a new and improved dictionary).
They also let me know that (surprise surprise) Postscript blocks do not
work with laserprep 3.3, the current release. I already knew that, of
course, but they told me the reason was bugs in the Laserprep file (not
in RSG3) and that Apple was going to ship a new Laserprep in about 30
days to take care of the problem. This is the first I've heard of this,
and I"m somewhat skeptical -- can anyone shed any light on this matter?
As an aside, I was not terribly impressed with them. They didn't want
to admit that RSG3.0 existed without the serial number on my disk, and
getting information (once I got through that was, since it took me a
week of intermittent calling to get to a voice) was like pulling teeth.
sigh.
Anyway, I'm going to set up an upgrade Monday for the improved RSG3, but
I want to know if I really should downgrade back to the previous
Laserprep -- is what they are saying really true?
chuq
------------------------------
From: JIMH
Subject: Re: AutoBlack and SE
Date: 1-MAY-23:49: Network Digests
>Date: Mon, 27 Apr 87 13:30 EST
>From: Tom Dowdy
> <CML5A9%IRISHMVS.BITNET@wiscvm.wisc.edu>
>Subject: Re: AutoBlack and SE
Tom, you may want to talk to the tops people i got an update from
centrum in march that works fine with autoblack on both and SE and a +.
jim
Our company motto in the depths of large software dev. programs.....
Lifes a bitch, and then you die!
------------------------------
From: AESOP
Subject: Re: Help! Mangled Hard Disk
Date: 2-MAY-04:04: Network Digests
To: John Major <major@SPCA.BBN.COM>
Re: Help! Mangled Hard Disk
You didn't list a phone/address - maybe you should have.
What you want is "Hard Disk Mount V2" available from Macintosh Technical
Support, or from someone who can make a sector copy. Rather than making
your friend bother them, I'd be happy to pass it along.
"Hard Disk Mount" is a limited version of MacWorks that will, in
general, mount the hard disk if at all possible. In your friend's case,
he should prepare for a great deal of copying and then reinitialize the
disk.
If that "BBN" means what I think it does, give me a buzz.
Laird J. Heal
P.O. Box 1485
Salem, NH 03079
(603) 898-1406
Delphi: AESOP
MACLAIRD
Sorry, no ARPA: anyone willing to pay me for the privilege is invited
to!
------------------------------
From: VASMUG
Subject: Here are the headlines
Date: 2-MAY-07:10: MUGS Online
And here are the headlines. . . COMMERZBANK TO BUY LINOTYPE
Yes folks, it's the continuing saga of hi-res shuffle. . .
Allied-Signal has reached an agreement to sell its Linotype Group unit
to Commerzbank, West Germany. . . Linotype is headquartered in Eschborn
WG and had 1986 sales of more than $200 million. . . this is part of a
$598 million acquisition. Will you still buy that Linotron?
Next - yes it's time for the "blueish" folks to launch that big mac
attack - Adobe Systems has contracted with IBM to license postscript for
that new IBM Publishing Systems Business Unit. IBM spokesman Dr Charles
Geschke sez "PostScript will be one of the key elements of our preferred
environments for IBM electronic publishing products." Isn't that swell!
To end on an up tempo: Are you ready for Color? . . . Johnny, tell
them what they've got coming. . LightSpeed Inc. has announced a color
desktop page layout system for the new Mac II. They are selling it as a
turn-key system along with its 19 inch color monitor, a color input
scanner, and software. The option I like (as shown at AppleWorld in
March) was their awesome color thermal transfer printer. The system is
compatible with high end color design workstation which is based on Sun
Microsystems hardware. "This product will link the world of DTP with
the world of color eletronic prepress" states Lightspeed spokesman Paul
Jolicoeur. More on this later. . . . That's all for now folks, watch
for my serial which starts in June: FREDS DESKTOP PUBLISHING TIPS OF THE
MONTH which will include more of this totally worthless trivia! cao
------------------------------
From: INTECO
Subject: MacWorld Rotterdam Rest
Date: 3-MAY-18:47: Business Mac
Sorry for the delay of the rest of MacWorld Rotterdam report:
KMW System International LTD., Great Britain, released MATCHBOX 3XLINK
($1500), a combination of hard- and software to support IBM 3X line of
computers. The Macintosh will look exactly like an IBM peripheral.
Features are IBM terminal and printer emulation, as well as a File
Transfer package.
list Srl, Italy, showed MacNix a desk accessory which gives full access
to an Unix host via serial line or Appletalk (with Kinetics FastPath).
You have full icon display of Unix files and folders on the desktop. A
file transfer to/from Unix is like the usual copying of a program on the
desktop! Different Unix file types are represent by unique icons. A
single file system allows users to store the Macintosh data on Unix and
share there the stored data. (prices depend on the number of Macs with
educational discounts available, starting from $1000 for 2 Macs and the
Unix host software). A similar package for VMS hosts was introduce
(Makeasy, $1400 host, $400 Mac).
MacDesigner, New York, displayed a program with the same name ($1999)
which is the new version of a program formerly known as EZ-Draft.
SMADAR MICROCOMPUTER Ltd., Israel, showed MGMstation ($799) a CAD
package which looks very complete on the side of the tools (Dimensions
with tolerances ,Fillet,Splines) but unfortunately it does not follow
the user interface in all points (e.g. displaying choices in the menu
bar). For different type of c.n.c. machines MGMstation CAM takes a draft
for manufacturing. MGMstation Simula allows the prior simulation of this
c.n.c. files on the Mac.
AM TECHNOLOGY introduced VITEX Telex ($3000), which gives the Mac full
background telex access.
THE CAD/CAM Journal for the Macintosh Professional is a new bi-monthly
publication (38 Pounds) available from Desktop Engeneering Systems,
Pembroke House, 5-9 Pembroke Road, Ruislip, Middlesex, HA4 8NQ Great
Britain.
Uwe
------------------------------
From: PEABO
Subject: Words to program by
Date: 3-MAY-20:54: Programming
I'm reading the book "Programming Pearls" by Jon Bentley, which is about
how to jog your mind out of wrong and buggy approaches to programming
problems, and I thought I'd pass along a quote from Gordon Bell (famous
computer systems architect) about the value of simple designs:
"The cheapest, fastest and most reliable components of a computer
system are
those that aren't there."
peter
------------------------------
From: INTECO
Subject: Keyboard differences
Date: 3-MAY-18:52: Programming Techniques
I have the following problem, for special reasons the keys on the keypad
should produce a different value if a special window is up but act
normal otherwise. Now I found that with the SE the keycodes changed
again but keycodes are the only way to distinguish, is there a
universial way to handle this or is there a way to recognize what
keyboard is there?
Uwe
------------------------------
End of Delphi Mac Digest
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