INFO-MAC@SUMEX-AIM.STANFORD.EDU (Moderator Dwayne Virnau...) (04/21/87)
INFO-MAC Digest Tuesday, 21 Apr 1987 Volume 5 : Issue 80 Today's Topics: Re: Control key Re: juggler Thanks for the help and synopsis of Page size hasle... Re: Megamax incompatibility re: MEGAMAX C compatibility with MAC SE MacWrite/MacLighting interaction problem? contouring programs Source code for FKey fun Re: bigscreen Re: digest V5#79 - optical mice Request for TeX macros PostScript interpreters Request info on networking Macs MacFair II and the Macintosh II Usenet Mac Digest V3 #31 Usenet Mac Digest V3 #32 Delphi Mac Digest V3 #23 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 20 Apr 87 07:40:55 PST From: jww@sdcsvax.ucsd.edu (Joel West) Subject: Re: Control key I don't have an SE or II yet, but my understanding is that the Control key changes the ASCII value and not the keycode (I don't know about the modifier). The ADB section of IM Vol. V (at least the developer edition) has some info about the KCHR and KMAP resources. Between that, a copy of DeRez, and a System 4.0 disk (to get the resources) you should have enough to figure out what's going on. Joel West ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 20 Apr 87 07:43:15 PST From: jww@sdcsvax.ucsd.edu (Joel West) Subject: Re: juggler Apple has a new team working on Juggler. My understanding is that not a line of Servant was used in that product, although it does owe considerably to Switcher for its design. But then, my information could also be wrong, since I'm not officially in the know, either... Joel West ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 20 Apr 87 10:03:11 PST From: Marc Grondin <WCSCKCU@CARLETON.BITNET> Subject: Thanks for the help and synopsis of Page size hasle... This is a letter of thanks... and to say what I have found in making a page that is 17" long and 11" wide. The file that was found in the last info-mac for 17"x11" did the trick, all that had to be done was to copy and paste the resource using ResEdit (what is the most recent version?). The other Utility that exists on the MACSERVE@PUCC location is also useable. It offers a template to follow when changing the page size, but it appears that alot of dec-hex calculation is needed (So VERY tedious). One comment was "Find the most recent version of ResEdit". That sounds easier then it is around here... ANYWAYS, once you have this most recent version you can access the PREC resource in the ImageWriter driver file and it will ask you for the information that you wish to place in the PREC for page size, name,etc. Thanks to all who helped me change the page size. (P.S.: Steve Armstrong : Received your letter but can't return via that path it came by...) Marc Grondin <Marc_Grondin@CARLETON.BITNET>, <CKCU@CARLETON.BITNET> ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 20 Apr 87 07:49:30 PST From: jww@sdcsvax.ucsd.edu (Joel West) Subject: Re: Megamax incompatibility The problem with Megamax C was a 'bug'. It is, I believe, an incompatibility across the board with System 4.0. It was reported on comp.sys.mac (see Usenet Mac Digest V3 #29) for the Macintosh II as well. Despite what they might want you to believe, it was their fault: they used a low-memory global not documented as available, about #3 on Apple's all-time incompatibility list. It's good to see they're reacting so quickly to correct the mistake. Apple makes mistakes like anyone else. Sometimes they introduce an unintentional incompability. Sometimes they introduce one that they could have warned us about. Sometimes they deliberately introduce an incompatibility (like restrictions on OS trap calls under A/UX) because it provides signficant benefits and there's no technical alternative. However, it's very easy to blame Apple for many things that are actually the developer's own fault, and I don't think it's fair to give Apple the rap because they're a convenient target. If someone blames Apple for an incompatibility, ask them (or yourself) these questions: 1) Does most other software show this problem? 2) If not, why not? Did the developer make an unreasonable assumption? For example, it was always a reasonable assumption that the screen was rectangular and monochrome. It was never a reasonable assumption that it was 342x512. Joel ------------------------------ Date: 20 Apr 87 11:30 PST From: DAVEG@SLACVM Subject: re: MEGAMAX C compatibility with MAC SE I'm shocked that the Megamax problem affects the SE, I thought it was only the Mac II. In any case, does this problem affect the applications produced by MM C or is it just the compiler itself. If it is the applications that are affected then there is surely a whole crop of software out there which breaks on the II (and perhaps the SE?) only because it was compiled with Megamax. I consider this to be a problem. David Gelphman ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 20 Apr 87 13:14:43 edt From: levine@eniac.seas.upenn.edu (Jonathan M. Levine) Subject: MacWrite/MacLighting interaction problem? I'm having a problem with MacWrite 4.5, and I'm wondering if the problem is shared. I'm using System 3.2, Finder 5.3 (96K Cache), and MacLighting (the release that came free with the Mac a while back). With 'Lighting set in interactive mode, as I got past the 6th or so page, I'd get an occasional extra page break, or a new ruler with VERY, VERY garbled tab settings inserted IMMEDIATELY before another ruler. The new ruler deletes ok, but if you try to move a tab, you get a permanent watch. Query: whose problem is this? I'm inclined to believe 'lighting, since everything was peachy after I turned it off, but then I was also finished with the heavy-duty formatting at that point. Any suggestions about where to go from here (I'm thinking of Word 3.0, which is $90 with the Ed. discount...) Jonathan ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 20 Apr 87 11:10:31 CST From: liberte@b.cs.uiuc.edu (Daniel LaLiberte) Subject: contouring programs I have been working on a contouring program that does a 20 by 20 square grid of points in a minute or so. It uses integer math which is adequate for the mac screen resolution. One can scroll around and zoom in on any area of the plot. Other options: shaded contours and 3-D views with adjustable viewing angle. The program needs alot of work still. E.g., there is no data entry yet. I would be willing to work with someone to improve the program and distribute it as shareware or some otherware. Daniel LaLiberte 217-333-7937 University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign Department of Computer Science 1304 W Springfield Urbana, IL 61801 liberte@a.cs.uiuc.edu uiucdcs!liberte ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 20 Apr 87 14:43:21 EDT From: verber@prodigal.cis.ohio-state.edu Subject: Source code for FKey fun Title: myDialogSansRscr* Author: Paul Nevai Version: 1.0 Date: April 16, 1987 It's an FKey! It's a (Lightspeed) Pascal example of a Dialog created in memory with no resource templates whatsoever! It's instructional! It's fun! To simplify life, two compressed projects are included: one for programming, experimenting and debugging, and another for building the FKey source code. In addition, I also included zFKey ready to be installed into your system, or activated by a MasterKey type FKey. Thanks to: Lofty Becker, Steve Brecher, Carlos Weber, Joel West, the guys on the Net, How to Write Macintosh Software, Inside Macintosh, Lightspeed Pascal, Macintosh Revealed and MacTutor. This is a Use&EnjoyNetWare product, that is if you like it you must drop me a Thank Paul note. Have Orthogonal Polynomials Will Travel Paul Nevai pgn@osupyr.uucp ( PREFERRED ) Department of Mathematics nevai-p@osu-eddie.uucp The Ohio State University ...!ihnp4!cbatt!osupyr!pgn 231 West Eighteenth Avenue TS1171@OHSTVMA.bitnet Columbus, OH 43210, U. S. A. 1-614-292-5688 This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. DMS 84-19525. [ archived as [SUMEX-AIM.Stanford.EDU]<INFO-MAC>FKEY-SANSRSCR-EXAMPLE.HQX DoD ] ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 20 Apr 87 12:47:26 EST From: Mark Nodine <mnodine@labs-b.bbn.com> Subject: Re: bigscreen The Bigscreen which was posted does not work in conjunction with the screen saver that styles itself as Macsbug. Mark P.S. At least not on my Mac+. ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 19 Apr 87 20:17:24 pst From: mkhaw@teknowledge-vaxc.ARPA (Michael Khaw) Subject: Re: digest V5#79 - optical mice I agree with Jeffrey Hallett that MOST of the optical mice are inconvenient to use. All of them (that I've seen) have been Mouse Systems Corp. designs that require an orientation sensitive mouse pad. Xerox optical mice, however, are great. They require only some sort of patterned surface: wood-grain, your jeans, etc., and their "contact point" is near the fingertip end rather than the palm end -- which I find more natural for drawing purposes. Too bad Xerox doesn't sell these on the open market, with an interface compatible with the ubiquitous MSC optimice or the equally ubiquitous mechanical Logimice. (Xerox marketing folks, are you listening?) Mike Khaw ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 20 Apr 87 11:03:03 pst From: Bernard Aboba <bernard@ararat> Subject: Request for TeX macros I've recently purchased a copy of TeXtures for the Macintosh, and am generally pleased with it, finding it far superior to Word 3.0 in terms of its stability and power, although it is of course a much more complex product. I'm wondering if anyone out there has a nice set of macros to number figures, do sections, etc. , or knows where to get source code for same. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 20 Apr 87 07:44:58 PDT From: LAMONTS%SDS.SDSCNET@nmfecc.arpa Subject: PostScript interpreters Does anyone out there in NetLand know of any public domain PostScript interpreter source code? We've got this Dicomed, you see, and we'd like to be able to PostScript to it. It would certainly save me a lot of work if I could find a PostScript interpreter shell. Then I could just write the back end for it. Reply to me directly if convenient. Steve Lamont San Diego Supercomputer Center ------------------------------ Date: Thursday 16 Apr 87 5:05 PM CT From: Jay Cook <CEDJRCPA%UIAMVS.BITNET@wiscvm.wisc.edu> Subject: Request info on networking Macs Hello MacNetland! We're considering networking our Macs (enhanced 512, plus, and beyond?) to a laserwriter. The Macs (currently numbering about 10) are used by faculty members and are located in offices throughout a 3 story building. Any suggestions / recommendations on a good network? I've used Appletalk but nothing else. I've heard of a network called "Phonenet" (by Falon Software?) Are any other networks available which use existing phone wiring? Comments (good or bad) about any network will be greatly appreciated! Also, anybody out there use Cricket Draw? Any comments are appreciated. Please E-Mail responses to me. I'll summarize for the net. Thanks! Jay Cook BITNET: cedjrcpa@UIAMVS Phone: (319) 335-5587 USMail: 378 Lindquist Center The University of Iowa Iowa City, IA 52242 ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 19 Apr 87 13:16 EST From: Paul Christensen <PCHRISTENSEN%rca.com@RELAY.CS.NET> Subject: MacFair II and the Macintosh II Sorry I am late in posting this, but this has been a busy week for me. Nevertheless, I felt that this information was significant news for the Macintosh community. This (very extensive) report is by no means inclusive. Since it is based on my own notes and developer technical materials, I make no guarantee to the accuracy of the information presented here. Last Saturday (April 11, 1987) the DUsers, Drexel University's Macintosh user group, in conjunction with Drexel University, Apple Computer, and the University of Pennsylvania MUG, held the second MacFair on the campus of Drexel University in Philadelphia, PA. This event was the most major Macintosh-related event on the entire east coast this year, and it was one of the first general public exhibitions to demonstrate the pre-release Macintosh II in its full glory (more on that later). Over thirty Macintosh hardware and software developers had booths at MacFair II: Apple Computer was showing off the Macintosh II with a SuperMac 19" color monitor (1024x768 resolution). This machine is much more than you've heard. You have to see it to believe it. The graphics processing in eight-bit color mode was competetive with the Digital VAXstation GPX. You can change the font of an entire 85-page document in Microsoft Word 3.0 from 10-point Geneva to 24-point NewYork in less than 5 seconds! Unfortunately, the MacII in the Apple booth did not have a sound chip installed (Apple has recalled it, again). SuperMac, sporting their DataFrame 40/XP, was also showing their new line of 19" monochrome and color monitors and display cards for the MacSE (only monochrome) and Macintosh II. Retail price for their 19" color monitor (1024x768) for the Macintosh II is $3000, with their "Spectrum" video card (required) costing $1500. The display quality of the Spectrum 19" color monitor was absolutely fantastic, rivalling the clarity of the standard Macintosh Plus 9" screen! SuperMac is also offering a video card (with socket for an optional 68881 math co-processor) for the Macintosh SE. This card will drive monochrome monitors up to 21" and 1024x1365 resolution. SuperMac was also giving out free updates of their DataFrame utilities (the new Intializer was version 2.5). Ashton Tate had a SlideShow demonstration of dBASE Mac, but no actual product. We were told that the product is too slow, and is being modified. According to their sales brochures, however, it should be a really nice product when released (if it's fast enough). Imagine the power of dBASE III or Omnis3, the intuitive relational capabilities of Reflex, and the layout capabilities of FileMaker Plus with a consistent, highly visual interface. AnnArbor Softworks followed the vaporware tradition of Ashton-Tate by handing out colorful brochures on Full-Write Professional, but showing no product. This looks like the word processor that Word 3.0 should have been. It includes an outliner, glossary, 80000 word spelling checker, 40000 word thesaurus, automatic indexing and table of contents, kerning, leading, gutting, border lines, automatic text wrapping around irregularly shaped objects, multiple-column on-screen editing, and MUCH, MUCH more. Imagine search/replace by font, type size, justification, or just plain text! It even has a built-in graphics editor with a MacDraw-like interface with tools for: pointer, text, lines (horizontal, vertical, or freehand), rectangles, rounded rectangles, ovals, and curves. It looks like the graphics editor is limited to creating screen-sized images, though. Microsoft said that the next version of Excel (1.04) will support the Apple Filing Protocol (defined by AppleShare), among other enhancements, and will be FREE to registered owners, but no release date was mentioned. Other displays were less monumental. Borland international sold 300 copies of Mac TurboPascal for $20. Letraset is offering a $99 "upgrade" to PageMaker owners when they send in their manual cover. Of course, no mention was made of MacPublisher III owners. In addition to the developer floor, numerous lectures were given by guest speakers as notable as RonHochsprung (chief hardware engineer for the Macintosh II), John McEnerey (one of the developers of Lightspeed Pascal), and Michael Green (author of Zen and the Art of Macintosh), among others. Unfortunately, I only had enough time to listen to Ron Hochsprung's presentation: Much of Mr. Hochsprung's speech centered around the technical implementation of the Macintosh II hardware and software. This information is covered in a 17-page product preview in the April 1987 issue of BYTE magazine. But Mr. Hochsprung mentioned several things not covered in the BYTE article: The Macintosh II was developed over an 18-month period (organized during Sculley's reorganization) by a team of only 4 (yes 4) hardware engineers and 150 software engineers. In addition, a team of 90 people tested every piece of Macintosh software in the Apple library at every major revision of the machine, and accessing blame to problems in the MacII or programmer mistakes. The Macintosh II is truly revolutionary. Software written to take advantage of the 68881 math coprocessor chip will operate faster than a VAX 11/780 minicomputer with a floating point accelerator and over 40 times faster than the MacPlus. The SANE library has been rewritten for the 68881, and programs that use SANE will operate 3 to 4 times faster than the MacPlus. The power supply is fully international: it automatically configures itself to the input power (all you have to provide is a plug adapter) from 80 to 270 volts, 42 to 62Hz. Since a receptacle is provided on the back of the MacII for plugging in a monitor, you have only one power cord and one power switch. Apple has removed the power switch from this machine. You turn it on by pressing a key on the top rear of the keyboard. The only way to turn it off is to select "Shutdown" from the Finder. This assures that all volumes will be flushed and dismounted properly before power-off. If all else fails, you can use the main power switch in the back of the machine. Apple is aiming for 95% software compatibility when the MacII is finally released, which may be wishful thinking. However, Apple has done their best to maximize compatibility with older software. Since the video card is an option on the Macintosh II, a "fake" VBL interrupt is now generated from the second versatile interface adapter chip (VIA2) at the standard rate of 60Hz. This means that software can run on the MacII without a monitor (as would be the case in a dedicated fileserver). In addition, each NuBus card is capable of posting an interrupt. For further compatibility, the Macintosh II can operate in either 32-bit or 24-bit (compatibility) mode. See the BYTE article for more detail. Many enhancements are present in the new 256K ROMs: support for 24/32 bit modes, the 68881 and 68851, NuBus support (config ROM, booting, and slot interrupts), 6 new VBL queues, AppleDesktopBus, new drivers, and color QuickDraw. QuickDraw has been enhanced to support 48-bit color, and is independent of the output device. Color QuickDraw will automatically adjust itself to different output devices (pixel densities, color capabilities, screen sizes), and can split the Macintosh desktop between up to 6 monitors. You can even split windows between screens of different capabilities. Since QuickDraw has been rewritten to take advantage of the 68020, it is considerably faster than the standard (MacPlus) QuickDraw. You can scroll a monochrome image (ala MacPaint) quickly with absolutely NO screen flicker. It looks as if you're dragging a piece of paper on the screen. A color lookup table of 16.7 million colors can be modified by individual programs (if, for example, more emphasis is needed in certain color ranges). Apple still has not standardized an interface for building your pallette from the 16.7 million available colors. Mr. Hochsprung demonstrated one proposed interface that allowed fundamental colors to be mixed exactly like an artists pallete: more strokes of a color make it darker, "pulling" streaks of color from several different color pools generates a color that is a mixture of the colors, in proportion to the amount you mix. Since this program modifies the RAM-resident lookup table, all applications run subsequently would use the pallette you created. If needed, the default pallette can be restored from the control panel. In addition, the SCSI port now supports hardware handshaking. This realizes a twofold performance increase over the MacPlus. In addition, a program cannot read data that is not on a peripheral (unlike the MacPlus SCSI). Internal Apple benchmarks place the speed of the new SCSI bus at 1.4MBytes/sec. Also, the new SCSI Manager has the capability of partitioning physical volumes into separate, bootable (logical) volumes. Thus, you can partition a hard disk drive on the MacII into a volume for Unix, and one for Macintosh, with direct file-transfer capabilities. Here are some of Mr.Hochsprung's responses to questions from the audience: concerning differences between the 256K ROM's on the MacII and the MacSE: Apple has one large master source-code file for the Macintosh operating system, with conditional assembly directives for the different incarnations of the Macintosh ROM. Thus, when a specific ROM routine is modified, it will be modified on the ROM of ALL Macintoshes. The 256K ROM on the MacII is VERY different from the 256K ROM on the MacSE. The MacII ROM has many things not in the MacSE ROM: color QuickDraw, NuBus support for example. The MacSE ROM, on the otherhand, contains more resources normally found in the system file (such as font collections) than the MacII ROM. concerning 3.5-inch drives with capacities greater than 800K: "I can't reveal future products, but the IWM disk controller chip is socketed." concerning the graphics capabilities of IBM's PC/System 2 family: the PC/System 2 graphics are only capable of 4-bit color. The Macintosh II uses 32-bit internal color representation, rounded to the nearest available color for output devices less than 32 bits concerning new versions of Apple system and application software: a final, stable version of the System and Finder will be released with the Macintosh II. This software should be used on all newer Macintoshes: 512e, Plus, SE and II. New versions of MacPaint, MacWrite, and MacDraw will also be released. (both MacPaint 1.5 and MacWrite 4.5 do not work on the MacII) concerning multi-tasking: not available until next year at the earliest. Possibly coincident with the release of the Macintosh II will be a new version of the Finder, with an interface similar to Servant and rudimentary background tasking. This Servant-like Finder will work on ALL newer Macintoshes (512e, Plus, SE, II) and will not require the 68851 PMU chip (as InfoWorld claimed this week). concerning Apple's A/UX UNIX: A/UX is a FULL implementation (TCP/IP networking and all) of Unix system 5.2 with Berkely 4.2 enhancements and direct support for the entire Macintosh toolbox. One day before Apple's March announcements, one developer took the entire source code for Unix X-Windows and compiled it on the Macintosh II. He was demonstrating the working X-Windows the next day at AppleWorld. To boot Unix from the Macintosh II, you must launch a Macintosh application. You may not quit to the Macintosh environment, though. You must first shut off the machine. However, because of A/UX's Macintosh toolbox support, Apple *may* release an object library that will allow WELL-BEHAVED Macintosh executable images to be transferred directly to Unix! Unfortunately, barely 2% of existing Macintosh software is "well-behaved" enough to survive this transfer. Unfortunately, the Unix shell cannot access the Macintosh toolbox. Thus, a user must launch a Unix application from the shell, and if it is written for the toolbox, the program itself will have a Macintosh interface. The Mac interface is lost when the user returns to the shell environment. That's my report on Horizons: MacFair II! Please direct any questions/comments to: Paul Christensen CSNET: PCHRISTENSEN@RCA.COM ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 20 Apr 87 08:59 EDT From: Jeffrey Shulman <SHULMAN%slb-test.csnet@RELAY.CS.NET> Subject: Usenet Mac Digest V3 #31 Usenet Mac Digest Sunday, April 19, 1987 Volume 3 : Issue 31 Today's Topics: Optimal Cache Size? Appleshare -- why a MacPlus? Postscript does work with RSG3.0... Re: Runlist from Finder icons Hard disk survey Help, I can't print! Dark Castle on an SE reducing the video-refresh processor burden SCSI cable question, please HELP! Re: UPDATE: MAC SE Mouse Double-Clicking problem Graphing Programs (2 messages) Re: SCSI cable question, please HELP! TML Pascal Optimal Cache/RamDisk Size? Disappearing print drivers? DMCS Re: 1200 baud modems YA MacFortran Bug - TRIM(), blanks, and relational exp... Okidata Laserline w/Mac? Re: DMCS [ archived as [SUMEX-AIM.Stanford.EDU]<INFO-MAC>USENETV3-31.ARC DoD ] ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 20 Apr 87 09:00 EDT From: Jeffrey Shulman <SHULMAN%slb-test.csnet@RELAY.CS.NET> Subject: Usenet Mac Digest V3 #32 Usenet Mac Digest Sunday, April 19, 1987 Volume 3 : Issue 32 Today's Topics: Servant Re: Hard Disk Backup blunder Neat Control Panel bug Summary: MacFans Re: Optimal Cache Size? (long) How to use 'non-include-ed' ROM calls in MSFortran? Re: DMCS Can MAC II export to Japan? Picky chooser Summary: Master Dir Block Trashings HELP!! Interchanging Spreadsheet Files ie DIF <> SYLK or WKS?? Modula-2 on a Mac? HD Backup directories Mac SE terminal emulation RE: STUDIO SESSION ON MAC SE Re: DF problems [ archived as [SUMEX-AIM.Stanford.EDU]<INFO-MAC>USENETV3-32.ARC DoD ] ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 20 Apr 87 09:01 EDT From: Jeffrey Shulman <SHULMAN%slb-test.csnet@RELAY.CS.NET> Subject: Delphi Mac Digest V3 #23 Delphi Mac Digest Sunday, April 19, 1987 Volume 3 : Issue 23 Today's Topics: Administrivia - Oooops :-) RE: Bernouli Box (2 messages) RE: AppleShare RE: 4th Dimension (1st report) (6 messages) DF 20 & Human Touch/etc. Fragmented Disks (2 messages) Mac Parallel Printing re: Optical Mouse for the Mac ? (2 messages) RE: Rolodex and Quickfile re Optical Mouse for the Mac ? serial port Keyboards (2 messages) Init File (2 messages) Request for Donations weird (Finder?) bugs... Halftone tmon Debugging on the Mac II (2 messages) sound problem (2 messages) MPW how can you tell if a font will download RE: how can you tell if a font will down IDD/MacDraft (2 messages) DiskTop 2.0 bug [ archived as [SUMEX-AIM.Stanford.EDU]<INFO-MAC>DELPHIV3-23.ARC DoD ] ------------------------------ End of INFO-MAC Digest **********************