Tom.Wood%cmu-ri-fas@sri-unix.UUCP (01/30/84)
st issue contains material on the Mac's
hardware, the "desk top metaphor," an interview with Bill Gates from
Microsoft, and reviews of MacPaint, MacWrite, Multiplan, and the Imagewriter
printer. Also included is a rather interesting (at times) series of
"reminiscences of the people who created the Mac," including Bill Atkinson
and Steve Jobs.
The MacHardware:
The 128K bytes of RAM are contained in 16 chips. 64K bytes of ROM with
the Macintosh ToolBox (more later). A 6522 VIA handles the mouse, keyboard
(which is software mapped), and real time clock. There is a penlight
battery to keep the clock going. The design also uses 6 PAL's to handle bus
timing, arbitration between the video display and the motherboard, etc.
There's a mouse of the optical variety.
According to MacWorld, there are two "RS-232/422 serial ports" with a
maximum speed of 230.4K baud. You've already heard about the 3 1/2" micro
floppies (400K bytes storage.) The drives can eject the floppies under
software control--there is no way for you to get them out unless the Mac
hands them to you. Supposedly, if you boot the Mac while holding down the
mouse button, the drive will eject a "stuck" floppy if all else fails.
The Mac's got a switching power supply (draws 60W) and a builtin speaker
for the 4 voice sound generator. The sound generator uses an 8 bit D/A
converter at a 22kHz sample rate that might (as an Apple brochure suggests)
deliver human speech. There is also an audio jack to plug into your stereo,
if you're into that kind of thing.
Main unit weighs 16 lbs, 8 oz. Keyboard 2 lbs, 8.5 oz. Oh, and the mouse
checks in at an impressive 7 oz.
The MacSoftware:
Overlapping windows, icons, pull-down menus (as opposed to pop-up.
There is a menu bar at the top of each window that you can pull-down to
reveal the menu contents), the works. This stuff seems to be handled by the
ROM ToolBox, which also contains drawing routines, resource management, a
segment loader, and pieces of a text editor. The windows can be moved
around at will and you can change their size and scroll vertically and
horizontally through them. The ROM also gives you a set of Desk Accessories
(if you like this kind of humor, it runs throughout the thing) that include
a notepad, an alarm clock, and a control panel that lets you modify some of
the attributes of the system (speaker volume, key repeat rate, etc.) There
is much more--I hope this gives you the idea.
MacPaint is the drawing "application." It is slightly reminiscent of
the Draw program on the Xerox Alto. Lets you paint freehand using a choice
of brushes, as well as draw straight lines and filled shapes. Shapes can be
filled with one of oodles of patterns, or you can mix your own. Major
drawback: while your finished drawing fits on an 8 1/2" x 11" piece of
paper, you can only see 1/3 of it on the screen at once. This means, for
example, you can't draw a circle with a diameter of more than 1/3 your paper
size. (Reminder: so says MacWorld.)
MacWrite is the word processor. It pretty much does what you expect:
you point with the mouse, make selections, change fonts at will, etc. At
least two problems: there is a definite (small) limit on the maximum
document size. MacWorld says 20 double spaced pages. And, it is a little
difficult to do things like centering one line of text, because you need to
insert new "rulers" when you change the flushleft/center/flushright
attributes of the text. You might get used to that, though.
Microsoft has a version of Multiplan that uses the mouse and all the
window controls. I know nothing about spreadsheets, but it seems reasonable
to me. The problem here might be the small size of the screen (9" diagonal.)
As an aside, one big difference between the Lisa and the Mac is that on
the Mac you can only have one application open at a time (i.e., one program
running) while I believe the Lisa lets you have multiple open applications.
The good news is that the Desk Accessories don't really count as programs,
so you can have your alarm clock on your desk while you are word processing.
MacExpansion:
Hardware: MacWorld lists the following (I include prices where they
were given): Apple: 300/1200 baud modems with auto-dial, auto answer ($225 for
300 baud, $495 for 1200); external floppy ($495); keypad ($99). Davong
Systems: many different Winchesters; streaming tape backup; LAN. Other
companies with hardware: Prometheus Products and Tecmar.
According to the article on the hardware, "memory can not be expanded
(yet)." I will leave it up to you to interpret this. It appears that all
expansion will take place through the RS-422 ports via the so-called
AppleBus.
Software: Apple: assembler/debugger, with editor ($99); MacDraw,
"a structured graphics editor," ($125); MacProject, a scheduling and planning
system ($125); MacTerminal, emulates a VT100 and VT52 ($99); Macintosh Logo
($99). Microsoft: many programs, ranging from budgeting to a word processor;
Software Publishing Company: PFS File, a data base program ($100); PFS
Report, some kind of report generator ($100); Volition Systems: a Modula-2
system ($495).
In addition, (though these were not listed in the same section of the
magazine as the above) Apple has MacBasic and MacPascal, and Microsoft
provides MBasic. All of these languages can interface with the ToolBox
(though it is a bit more painful in MBasic.) AND, all of these languages
are interpreted--MacPascal even boldfaces keywords and does automatic
indenting for you. You might not consider this a feature.
"For now, most serious programmers will write Mac applications on a Lisa
development system." There might be hope, though. Supposedly, a C compiler
will be available within six months, and will allow program development on a
single Mac.
My Opinions:
It is a lot smaller than you expect it to be. And, personally, I did
not find it ugly at all. It does look different, though. I tried MacPaint,
and was very impressed. I did not have to touch the keyboard once, and I
didn't miss it. The software controlled floppy eject is quite amusing.
And, while the display is small, it is very crisp and readable. Anyhow, I
liked it. It is obvious a great deal of work went into this machine.
If only someone could tell me that you really will be able to put more
memory in it someday . . .LCAMPBELL%dec-marlboro@sri-unix.UUCP (02/02/84)
From: Larry Campbell <LCAMPBELL@dec-marlboro> I went to the big splash the Boston Computer Society put on Monday night. Jobs, Wozniak, and about nine of Mac's developers were on hand; they put on a *really slick* multimedia show that was quite fun. Before the main session there were handson tutorials; I got about twenty minutes to play. I have only a few things to add (Tom Wood's message was complete and 99% accurate): 1) The ONLY memory expansion planned is the replacement (for a fee) of the 64K chips with 256K chips, yielding 512K. 2) The "upgrade" from Lisa 1 to Lisa 2/5 (which consists of replacing the two 5-1/4" drives with one 3-1/2" drive, and a new skin) is free, not $595 as previously reported. (A friend of mine, who paid $10,000 for a Lisa 1 eight months ago, is not impressed.) 3) Don't know if this software is generally availble, but at the show they had Mac speaking to the audience. The quality of the voice was pretty good. 4) The T-shirt the girl in the commercial wore has an impressionistic sketch of a Mac on the front, and the word "Macintosh" (the 'i' is lower case) on the back. They were giving them out before the show; I'm wearing mine now. 5) And yes, although I wish it had more memory, it's an impressive accomplishment. Prediction: they'll sell a million of them. --------
phil@amd70.UUCP (Phil Ngai) (02/05/84)
"Prediction: they'll sell a million of them (Macintosh)."
And inside each one will be an AMD 8530 SCC.
(the 1 megabaud serial expansion port)
--
Phil Ngai (408) 988-7777 {ucbvax,decwrl,ihnp4,allegra,intelca}!amd70!philrobertm@dartvax.UUCP (Robert P. Munafo) (02/07/84)
x<--- This is for the bug in all of us
A few things are wrong with what has been said recently about the
Macintosh computer. All the things I'm saying here are from the
February BYTE. [ Which I have received! (-: ]
The serial ports can each handle 1 megabaud with an 'External clock'.
Whether this means that one port has to be used to supply the clock
signal, and the other for data I don't know. It might just be another
communications standard (rs-422?) which allows a clock line separate
from the data line.
As Mike Caplinger said, there is a tiny hole near the right-hand
end of the floppy-disk slot where you can stick a paper clip for immediate
mechanical floppy eject. You can see this hole if you look at a picture
of the Mac. Ejecting the disk while windows pertaining to it are still
open can be dangerous (open files lost, probably.)
The desk accessories include a calculator (+,-,x,/,and scientific
notation), the scrapbook (for storing pictures and text to transfer
between programs), the clock, the "control panel" (lots of system
attributes), the notepad (like scrapbook - text only), and the puzzle.
[ This is a square with 15 tiles in it numbered from '1' to '15' - you
slide the tiles around to reach a special pattern - I'm sure you've
seen this puzzle. This is really neat - I appreciate being able to
waste a little time every now and then! ] All of these things can be
on the screen (at the same time) along with the current applications
program.
The memory will be expandable to 512K, provided that 256K RAMS
eventually become a reality. This is likely to happen in 2-3 years.
The 'cloverleaf' key (there are actually two such keys) is
similar to the control key on most other computers. This is probably
exactly what it is.
The Macintosh will print text on the Imagewriter using hires mode,
which uses the full resolution of the printer to print really nice
fonts.
Most of this info can be gleaned from the Mac articles in the February
BYTE. The stuff about the paper-clip hole and the list of desk accessories
I found out about by using a Macintosh at a computer store in this area.
Robert P. Munafo ...|{decvax,linus}|dartvax|robertmrobertm@dartvax.UUCP (Robert P. Munafo) (02/07/84)
Sorry, that's two Option keys, not two cloverleaf keys - and the Option
key is used for control characters on the terminal program.
Robert P. Munafo ...|{decvax,linus}|dartvax|robertm