INFO-MAC@SUMEX-AIM.STANFORD.EDU (Moderator Dwayne Virnau...) (04/27/87)
INFO-MAC Digest Saturday, 25 Apr 1987 Volume 5 : Issue 81 Today's Topics: COPYING DIRECTORY STRUCTURES JUGGLER, AppleShare, PowerPoint, more - in today's InfoWorld Making the Mac OS multitasking ("Juggler") Floppy disk driver? RDrvrInstall? Switcher versus System 4.0 problem report: DF SuperSpool-3.1 and MaxRam-2.5 Request for help on shipping postscript to networked LW RE: Bigscreen ScrapSaver INIT CompleteDelete.hqx New Release of FzzPlot BEEPINIT sounds Emacs and Scribe for Mac Symbolics-bit-maps==>MacPaint-docs Symbolics-bit-maps==>MacPaint-docs Word 3.0 footnote bug and workaround (sort of) SE-WORD1.X PROBLEMS if you have a DataFrame you want to get the latest software Vn 5.0 Printing Labels and Imagewriter II mac question looking for text-database manager (comparable to Ask-Sam on PC) re: Keyboards Cricket Draw ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 21 Apr 87 11:04:22 SET From: Norbert Mueller <K360171@AEARN> Subject: COPYING DIRECTORY STRUCTURES RECENTLY THERE WAS A POSTING ON HOW TO COPY A DIRECTORY (I.E. FOLDER) HIERARCHY WITHOUT COPYING THE FILES THEMSELVES. (SORRY I DON'T REMEMBER WHO POSTED IT) BY CHANCE I JUST DISCOVERED A WAY TO DO THIS. I USED AN SE WITH SYSTEM 4.0. I STARTED A FINDER DISK-COPY BY DRAGGING THE SOURCE ICON INTO THE DESTINATION ICON. AFTER THE FILES/FOLDERS TO COPY BOX APPEARED I PRESSED COMMAND-PERIOD. THE COPYING PROCESS STOPPED AFTER A SHORT WHILE (NO MESSAGE GIVEN) AND ON MY DESTINATION DISK I FOUND A HIERARCHY OF EMPTY FOLDERS (I.E. CONTAINING NOTHING BUT EMPTY FOLDERS THEMSELVES) AS A PRECISE REPLICA OF MY ORIGINAL DIRECTORY HIERARCHY. I THINK THIS MAY BE USEFUL BUT DOES ANYONE KNOW IF THIS IS DOCUMENTED? NORBERT MUELLER INSTITUTE OF CHEMISTRY JOHANNES KEPLER UNIVERSITY A-4040 LINZ AUSTRIA ------------------------------ Date: Tue 21 Apr 87 05:21:40-CDT From: Werner Uhrig <CMP.WERNER@R20.UTEXAS.EDU> Subject: JUGGLER, AppleShare, PowerPoint, more - in today's InfoWorld [ today's InfoWorld (of April 20) covers some topics of interest ] RE: Juggler. front-page article states: "Mac OS Said To Offer True MultiTasking" it quotes some developers as saying that it "eventually" will provide true multitasking capabilities. oh well, not quite the way one would tend to understand the headline. Otherwise just lame speculation and hopeful rumour-mongering. no critical analysis of the rumours. RE: AppleShare - Review on page 62. compares it with TOPS and MacServe. positive evaluation. RE: Power Point slide generator - reviewed in column "First Look" on page 48 at $395 expensive but well worth it if you can afford it. Cringely rumours: Steve Jobs will give keynote speech at USENIX in Phoenix in June. no NEXT workstation expected by September. if lucky, maybe by Xmas (says the grapevine). note on Guy's departure from Apple to head ACIUS to put 4th Dimension on the shelves by July 15. Ann Arbor to send FullWrite Professional to beta-testers this week. buyout-rumours. Macintosh News: free software upgrade for MacTablets from SummaGraphics Open Mac Enterprises announces Mac upgrades: SCSI-port ($100); Plus-upgrades: to 2Meg = $300, 4Meg = $800. blurp on success of Sharware on the Mac WordTools is feing shipped (finally?!) Sigma to offer monitor, card for new Macs Experinterface Builder, uses AI to build Mac interfaces ------------------------------ Date: 22 Apr 87 10:52:45 PDT (Wednesday) From: Mackey.osbunorth@Xerox.COM Subject: Making the Mac OS multitasking ("Juggler") A cover story for the April 20th InfoWorld was about "Juggler". The title says "Mac OS Said To Offer True Multitasking" but the story says "an updated Macintosh operating system that will \eventually/ provide true multitasking capabilities." (my emphasis) The article goes on to say that one developer who has seen Juggler says that a true multitasking Juggler will be available by the end of '87. Given the excitement in the press, the misunderstanding of the term "multitasking", and the reasons for it (Gasse says it will mainly "sell RAM"), does anyone want to comment on the Mac OS (not something else, like A/UX) having multitasking? I'd like to hear comments from someone who is familiar with the guts of the Mac, particularly the memory manager, and multitasking operating systems. What it will take (or has taken) Apple to do to get multitasking? How long will it take them to do it? How much code will have to change? What changes will developers have to make to their programs? How will the Mac UI have to change? Kevin ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 23 Apr 87 22:15:33 EST From: sbm@purdue.edu Subject: Floppy disk driver? My worst fears have been realized. I have been working on a multitasking operating system for the Mac that disables interrupts to insure exclusive access to data structures during system calls. I found that interrupts were being enabled during system startup, and, after much hunting, I discovered that a call to GetFontInfo (which accesses the floppy disk) was enabling them. It looks to me like the floppy disk driver enables interrupts, since the problem didn't happen when I ran from a hard disk. Can anyone confirm this? Having found the problem, I am at a loss to solve it, short of writing my own floppy disk driver. I can't believe Apple was so sloppy here, especially since the rest of the ROM routines that modify the interrupt mask so carefully make sure that interrupts already masked don't become enabled (using "ori" instead of "move") and restore the mask afterward. I can see why the driver would restore interrupts, since it apparently disables them to poll the disk (isn't this wonderful hardware design?), but why would it *enable* interrupts? Comments, please. Am I jumping to a wrong conclusion again? Steve Munson sbm@Purdue.EDU sbm@Purdue.CSNET ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 23 Apr 87 22:42:40 EST From: sbm@purdue.edu Subject: RDrvrInstall? I have a program that wants to be very thorough in its initialization, so that it can restart no matter what state it is in without Launching itself. It is all pretty straightforward, but there is one catch. When the heap is reinitialized, all the DAs disappear, but, if any of them performed periodic actions, the next time SystemTask is called it will try to run those nonexistant DAs. There are many ways this problem can be solved: I can close desk accessories by looking through the window list for system windows or by looking through the unit table for open desk accessories. I prefer the latter, but I don't think either looks very attractive (because I can't find any documentation on exactly how to do it). Needless to say, this problem has to be dealt with by Launch and ExitToShell, and they seem to use a trap called RDrvrInstall to eliminate the desk accessories. RDrvrInstall is undocumented, though; apparently, Apple doesn't want us to use it. Does anyone know for sure what RDrvrInstall does and/or how Apple wants us to close all open desk accessories (including those without windows)? By the way, I am using RDrvrInstall as part of the initialization (after RsrcZoneInit and heap initialization), and it seems to do what I want. Steve Munson sbm@Purdue.EDU sbm@Purdue.CSNET ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 23 Apr 87 16:30:30 PDT From: PUGH%CCC.MFENET@nmfecc.arpa Subject: Switcher versus System 4.0 So, is it just me, or does Switcher not work under system 4.0? I have been trying to bring up the About box and it refuses to work. I keep getting an ID 2 as it draws the box. Could it be garfing on some renumbered system resources? I backed it up off of my Excel 1.03 disk, but when I checked to see what version it was it gave my screen a real fright. Any clues? Things to avoid? Jon N L pugh@nmfecc.arpa M A L National Magnetic FusionEnergy Computer Center F T N Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory E L PO Box 5509 L-561 C Livermore, California 94550 C (415) 423-4239 ------------------------------ Date: Tue 21 Apr 87 23:57:57-CDT From: Werner Uhrig <CMP.WERNER@R20.UTEXAS.EDU> Subject: problem report: DF SuperSpool-3.1 and MaxRam-2.5 I use an environment where I activate the PrintSpooler, then create a RamDisk, then install 4 Switcher-partitions, on of which is VersaTerm. If I create the RamDisk *FIRST* before activating the spooler, I lose my modem-port and cannot communicate with the modem anymore. Matter of fact when checking with PRAM, I find that the printer is assigned to the modem-port !!!! Only by rebooting and executing the Spooler before creating the RamDisk do I get to talk to you guys again ....(-: Configuration: Mac+, 2 Meg, Finger-5.4, System-4.0, DataFrame-XP20, DataFrame Software Version 5.0 ... any thoughts, anyone? ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 23 Apr 87 09:12:54 +0300 From: Tamir Weiner <UMFORTH@WEIZMANN> Subject: Request for help on shipping postscript to networked LW Without success we've been trying to send a postscript file to a networked LaserWriter for printing. The Laserwriter is sitting as a server on a Sun3 network and seems to handle file printing as straight text or postscript instructions just fine. Not being a postscript programmer, what I have tried to do is generate a postscript file using the option K feature from either MacDraw or MacWrite and I get what seems to be a complete postscript file including a lengthy header for initialization of the printer (BTW I've tried sending files without Apple's header using the option F feature, but without success either) After transfering these text only files to a VAX and putting them on Magtape, then we transfered the now unix files to the Sun network. Seemed a pain but we haven't the software to support phone line transfer to the Sun network. Upon attempting to print the files on the LW operating as a server, it just dumps these files as text without interpreting them as Postscript instructions. There must be some simple sequence which gets the files recognized as Postscript instead of straight text. Looking at postscript files which succeed in printing as postscript we tried inserting a %! at the begining of the file. This didn't work either. Seems like someone on the net must have encountered this problem before... How does one send Mac generated Postscript files to a LW on a SUN network? Any ideas? If possible write me directly as I don't always keep up with INFO-MAC Digest material. Thanks in advance to anyone who can help. Tamir UMFORTH@WEIZMANN.BITNET ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 23 Apr 87 13:54 EST From: <EWING@TRINCC.BITNET> (The Byte Busters) Subject: RE: Bigscreen "Autoblack", the nifty screen saver that installs itself as MacsBug, also causes Berkeley Design System's Stepping Out program to fail (read: BOMB!) Seems that Autoblack want's full control of the screen situation and assumes 512x342 screen size, which directly conflicts with the bigscreen emulators. Also, Autoblack's design is to blank to secondary video buffer, and bring it to front when the time comes, thus it will also never work on a Mac SE (which doesn't have a second screen buffer), much less on a Mac II. Sigh... (it was such a nice screen saver too) Richard Ewing Trinity College EWING@TRINCC.BITNET EWING@YALEVM.BITNET ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 21 Apr 87 15:39:43 PDT From: PUGH%CCC.MFENET@nmfecc.arpa Subject: ScrapSaver INIT Here is a must have for your System Folder. This is ScrapSaver, an INIT that retains your Clipboard across crashes and reboots. It work flawlessly for me and I cannot live without it now. I have no idea where it came from since I got it off a BBS without any documentation. Jon [ archived as [SUMEX-AIM.Stanford.EDU]<INFO-MAC>INIT-SCRAPSAVER.HQX DoD ] ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 22 Apr 87 17:32:52 MST From: t-jacobs%ced@cs.utah.edu (Tony Jacobs) Subject: CompleteDelete.hqx REALLY erases a file! Complete Delete is for really getting rid of a file. When invoked, it zeros out the designated file and THEN deletes it. The effect is PERMANENT and irreversible; use it with caution. This file was packed with PackIt III. [ archived as [SUMEX-AIM.Stanford.EDU]<INFO-MAC>UTILITY-COMPLETE-DELETE.HQX DoD ] ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 21 Apr 87 12:48:59 edt From: rs4u#@andrew.cmu.edu (Richard Siegel) Subject: New Release of FzzPlot A new release of the FzzPlot program is ready for distribution. This release (numbered 7.2) provides many enhancements over version 3.95 (the first release). For example: Much faster loading and processing of data. Much lower bug count. On-Line help Completely rewritten documentation This update will be sent free to registered owners. For those of you who don't know what FzzPlot is: FzzPlot is a shareware ($15) program that does simple plotting and data analysis. It loads data much faster than Cricket Graph, and has a larger data capacity that Microsoft Chart. If you are interested in trying the program, send me your name and US Mail address and I will mail you a copy of FzzPlot with a tutorial. (This is a fully function al program; no "teaseware") Because the program is 70K and the tutorial is another 70K, I will not be uploading these files for archiving. But as I said, anyone can get a copy simply by asking. DO NOT SEND MONEY. Simply send me your mailing address. Rich Richard M. Siegel Materials Characterization Instrumentation Section Mail Stop 231 NASA/Langley Research Center Hampton, Virginia 23665 (804) 865-3036 Arpanet: rs4u@andrew.cmu.edu Uucp: {your fave gateway}!seismo!andrew.cmu.edu!rs4u Disclaimer? I don't even KNOW 'er! ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 21 Apr 87 13:25:48 EDT From: cperry%bert.mitre.org@gateway.mitre.org (Chris Perry) Subject: BEEPINIT sounds Does anybody have a comprehensive list of BEEPINIT sounds? Where can I get them? Thanks. Chris Perry (cperry@gateway.mitre.org) ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 23 Apr 87 8:08:50 EST From: Allan Doyle <adoyle@VAX.BBN.COM> Subject: Emacs and Scribe for Mac Is there an Emacs out there for the Mac? Is there a text formatter that does not do WYSIWYG on the Mac? (I know this is blasphemy but give me FinalWord or Scribe over Word any day!) Allan Doyle [ there are two versions of EMACS for the Mac available in the archives. MICROEMACS-BETA-0PT6.HQX UEMACS.HQX Both label themselves as preliminary versions, but I have not seen later releases. DoD. ] ------------------------------ Date: 22 Apr 1987 12:29-EDT From: VERACSD@A.ISI.EDU Subject: Symbolics-bit-maps==>MacPaint-docs I'm interested in converting Symbolics screen dumps into MacPaint documents. Theoretically, this appears *straightforward*, but I suspect it may be hairy. I would appreciate hearing from anyone who has experience (or even solid suggestions about ) doing this. Thanks, Cris Kobryn VERACSD.CK@A.ISI.EDU ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 23 Apr 87 20:56+0100 From: "Juergen Christoffel" <unido!gmdzi!LISPM-1!JC@seismo.CSS.GOV> Subject: Symbolics-bit-maps==>MacPaint-docs Date: 22 Apr 1987 12:29-EDT From: VERACSD%A.ISI.EDU%unido@gmdzi I'm interested in converting Symbolics screen dumps into MacPaint documents. Theoretically, this appears *straightforward*, but I suspect it may be hairy. This really should be straightforward. See the June 1986 issue of Byte; there appeared an article describing how to convert MacPaint files to a format suitable for IBM PC's. It explained the format used by MacPaint to compress its data, which is rather simple. Obviously the 'format' of Symbolics' bitmaps is as simple as one could whish(?). But doing it this way limits the size of bitmaps you may use. There might be a better solution. I assume that you want to include those bitmaps into text produced on the Mac: You may take the PostScript output produced by the Symbolics and take the PostScript output produced by your Mac editor and combine them to produce the output you want. We actually do this with output from TeXtures, which runs on a Mac. JC ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 22 Apr 87 14:30:09 -0400 From: Joel B Levin <levin@CC5.BBN.COM> Subject: Word 3.0 footnote bug and workaround (sort of) I don't recall seeing this specific one noted, but for general information: If you are using footnotes, before you print your document check Page Preview and verify that none are missing. Occasionally a footnote disappears completely from output (it is still in the document, though). In Page Preview, if you twiddle the margins (1/8th inch change was enough), the footnote will appear. I suppose if you have lots of footnotes, there may exist no margin setting where some footnote isn't missing... The file in which I noticed this had lots of 'Keep with Next Paragraph' in force, but I don't know if this affects probability of the bug. I called Microsoft Tech Support, and they already know about this. /JBL ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 23 Apr 87 14:07:03 SET From: Norbert Mueller <K360171@AEARN> Subject: SE-WORD1.X PROBLEMS I JUST WISH TO REPORT AN OBSERVATION (PROBABLY A BUG) ON THE SE USING MS WORD (1.15 GERMAN, 1.09 ENGLISH). THE RELATIVE SCALING OF PASTED PICTURES (FROM MAC DRAW) AND THE WORD TEXT IS DIFFERENT ON THE SE AND THE MAC+. I WAS NOT ABLE TO USE THE SAME DOCUMENTS WITH EMBEDDED PICTURES (CONTAINING TEXT) WORKING ON A MAC PLUS AND ON A MAC SE, THE ONES GENERATED IN ONE OF THE CONFIGURATIONS FAILED (I.E. THE TEXT PART OF THE PICTS WAS DISTORTED) ON THE OTHER. AH, I REMEMBER NOW I HAD TO REDRAW IN MACDRAW SO IT IS PERHAPS NOT A PROBLEM OF WORD BUT OF TEXT HANDLING IN MACDRAW. I HAD TO USE SYSTEM 3.2 ON BOTH MACHINES AS WORD 1.X DISPLAYS GARBAGE WHEN USED WITH SYS 4.0. IT SEEMS TO ME THAT THERE IS NOT ONLY ADD ON ROM IN THE SE BUT ALSO SOME CHANGES TO THE LOWER 128K |? N. MUELLER INSTITUTE OF CHEMISTRY UNIVERSITY LINZ/AUSTRIA ------------------------------ Date: Tue 21 Apr 87 06:35:28-CDT From: Werner Uhrig <CMP.WERNER@R20.UTEXAS.EDU> Subject: if you have a DataFrame you want to get the latest software Subject: Vn 5.0 SuperMac has distributed the latest software versions in a folder with the version number 5.0. They have dropped the SupeBackUp software and recommend that you not use it anymore (I've heard reports that you may not be able to complete a backup or restore your backup). The replacement program is called DiskFit. But until you hear good things about it, you may want to consider using HFS-Backup, which gets the best reviews in my neck of the woods. All the software and version numbers distributed are: Initializer 2.5 Change ID 1.4 DiskTimer II.a SuperLaserSpool SLS 1.01 df SuperParker 1.3 SuperSpool 3.1 df I also have a SuperSpool 3.2 since January, but I don't trust it and suspect it to be the cause of some crashes I've experienced. I tried 2 DataFrames on an SE last week, one a 20, the other a 20XP, and neither would work with the SE's hard-disk until I installed the 2.5 driver. (one had the 2.1 driver, the other the 2.2). Also, there seems to be some incompatibility again between DeskTops under Finder-5.4 and 5.3 which may have you lose your DeskTop GetInfo comments if you're not careful (lucky??) SuperMac has allowed that their software is made available online at some other nets and if I can get confirmation that they permit it being made available here, it will be archived at SUMEX (or elsewhere) for FTP-access. Cheers, Werner ------------------------------ Date: 21 Apr 87 13:07 EST From: Hallett@ge-crd.arpa (Jeff) Subject: Printing Labels and Imagewriter II Hi all! There was some talk a while back about problems printing labels in the IW2 and some even said not to do it. Well, I'll throw in my two cents. I have had no problems printing great labels in my IW2. Using SuperPaint or ColorPrint, I've created some nifty color labels for my VHS tapes, notebooks and other things. Also, using myDiskLabeller from William&Macias I've done some really great diskette labels too. The disk labels are on tractor feed backing while the VHS labels are just inserted by themselves. So, for the more adventurous of you, try it, but don't blame me if you have a problem. My IW2 is one of the "2nd generation" ones correcting a bug in the first version of IW2. Maybe you need to watch out if you have an older one. Jeffrey Hallett Software Technology Program General Electric - Corporate Research and Development ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 23 Apr 87 14:00 EDT From: <TAM@MCOIARC.BITNET> Subject: mac question Are there any MAC user's out there using their MAC systems in an image processing environment? Paul Tam TAM@MCOIARC (bitnet) ------------------------------ Date: Tue 21 Apr 87 04:54:27-CDT From: Werner Uhrig <CMP.WERNER@R20.UTEXAS.EDU> Subject: looking for text-database manager (comparable to Ask-Sam on Subject: PC) this week's InfoWorld reviews Ask Sam Version 3.02, a text-database manager for the PC-world. A lawyer-friend is in danger to buy a PC to get the program's facilities. Is there hope for him? Is there any Mac-product that will provide him with the capabilities of a TEXT DATABASE MANAGER? Anything in the wings? I couldn't come up with anything comparable .... S.O.S. Werner @r20.utexas.edu ------------------------------ Date: 22 Apr 87 09:59 PST From: DAVEG@SLACVM Subject: re: Keyboards This is in response to BBAKER on delphi who was wondering about the DataDesk keyboard he ordered due to the MS Word flyer. First of all the DataDesk people are big in the PC world and have been around for a while. I played with their Mac keyboard at the West Coast Computer faire and really liked the feel. The layout is PC style with LOTS of keys (if you like that sort of thing) and looked somewhat like the Apple Extended keyboard (the Aircraft carrier as Lonnie Abelbeck calls it). Personally I would probably buy this keyboard instead of the Apple Extended keyboard if those were the choices since the tactile feel was good and Apple never has been very good at keyboards. They have two models, one for the Apple Desktop Bus in the SE and Mac II and another model for the Classic Macs. David Gelphman BITNET address: DAVEG@SLACVM Bin #88 SLAC ARPANET address: DAVEG@SLACVM.BITNET Stanford, Calif. 94305 UUCP address: ...psuvax1!daveg%slacvm.bitnet 415-854-3300 x2538 usual disclaimer #432 applies: my employer apologizes for the fact that I have access to this net. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 21 Apr 1987 10:43 PST From: CADS079%CALSTATE.BITNET@wiscvm.wisc.edu Subject: Cricket Draw I have it, and I guess I can say that I like it. The interface is comparable to all the other object-oriented programs, but the degree of control is better by at least an order of magnitude. One nice thing is the ability to control shading and line width numerically. In other words, if you want 65% gray scale shading, or a .5 pica line width, you can have it. And if you're using a laserwriter, this program really shines. You can shade an object using a GRADUATED gray scale, i.e., the top of a box can be shaded at 10%, and the bottom can be shaded at 70%, with a smooth transition in between. You can even shadow text in this manner. Text is handled well, although I had problems with bit-mapped (i.e., non-laserwriter) fonts. Full justifcation is supported, as well as style and font changes within a block of text. You can also do fancy things like rotate and tilt text (or anything else), and those of you who have been hankering to wrap text around curves can stop waiting. What else... The fatbits mode works flawlessly (down to 8X)... You can edit your document by tweeking with the PostScript (if that's what turns you on)... It has a new kind of curve called a "bezier", which I find quite handy for data-flow diagrams (bubble charts)... You can create you own guide lines... The program has a few (very few) flaws. Screen refresh is slow, especially during scrolling (must be an upward-compatibility compromise). I've had problems with imported bitmapped objects, and bitmapped fonts. So... if you have a laserwriter, and need a program that handles objects well, I recommend Cricket Draw over any other purely object-oriented program. However, it does not replace Superpaint, or any of the high-power desktop publishing programs. I guess the bottom line is this: For the past year or so, I have been waiting for a product that would allow me to toss both MacDraw AND MacDraft, and Cricket Draw seems to fit the bill. Richard S. Smith BITNET: CADS079@CALSTATE ARPA: CADS079%CALSTATE.BITNET@WISCVM.EDU ------------------------------ End of INFO-MAC Digest **********************