andwi@majestix.liu.se (Andreas Wickberg) (02/04/90)
Do you develop programs on a Mac ci? Will people try to run your programs on a SE or a Plus? How will it work? Wouldn't it be neat to have an init called "SE" that makes your MacSuper respond like a slow SE? Imagine a 'Clock Frequency' control, where you set the speed between 0 and 100% of full speed. And of course, it could also reduce your 19" color screen to a 9" B/W so you could see how dialogs and stuff will fit. Perhaps it could also emulate different ROM-versions, although that's probably difficult without violating Apple's copyright. Any volunteers?
tim@hoptoad.uucp (Tim Maroney) (02/05/90)
In article <1651@majestix.liu.se> andwi@majestix.liu.se (Andreas Wickberg) writes: >Do you develop programs on a Mac ci? Will people try to run your >programs on a SE or a Plus? How will it work? Probably very slowly.... >Wouldn't it be neat to have an init called "SE" that makes your >MacSuper respond like a slow SE? Imagine a 'Clock Frequency' control, >where you set the speed between 0 and 100% of full speed. It can't be done, I don't think. However, you could easily create an artificial slowdown at vertical retrace time. This might be worth doing. You can really tell when a developer has used fast machines exclusively for development when you run their programs on a slow machine (e.g., FullWrite). >And of course, it could also reduce your 19" color screen to a 9" B/W >so you could see how dialogs and stuff will fit. Good idea -- sort of a "Stepping In". >Perhaps it could also >emulate different ROM-versions, although that's probably difficult >without violating Apple's copyright. No, I don't think this is possible. And it points to the main problem with the idea (though even a limited version might be worthwhile). Most problems running 68020 or 68030 software on the 68000 machines are alignment problems that just can't be flagged on the better processors (unless you run in trace mode, which is probably even more slowdown that you want!) The second biggest problem is different ROM versions, which I don't think you could simulate even with a PMMU; software already installed at the time of the switch would be counting on the ROM version. So, it might be worthwhile to add a slowdown and screen-shrinker INIT, but you're still going to have to do extensive testing on the SE and Plus. Given that, you might as well not bother with the INIT; it doesn't save you much trouble. >Any volunteers? Heh heh -- what a kidder.... -- Tim Maroney, Mac Software Consultant, sun!hoptoad!tim, tim@toad.com "The time is gone, the song is over. Thought I'd something more to say." - Roger Waters, Time
nebel@wam.umd.edu (Chris D. Nebel) (02/05/90)
In article <1651@majestix.liu.se> andwi@majestix.liu.se (Andreas Wickberg) writes: >Wouldn't it be neat to have an init called "SE" that makes your >MacSuper respond like a slow SE? Imagine a 'Clock Frequency' control, >where you set the speed between 0 and 100% of full speed. > >And of course, it could also reduce your 19" color screen to a 9" B/W >so you could see how dialogs and stuff will fit. Perhaps it could also >emulate different ROM-versions, although that's probably difficult >without violating Apple's copyright. Hmm... I know there is an init called Screener that makes your Mac pretend to have a 9" screen. The other stuff could be kinda tricky. An idea for the 'Clock Frequency' bit, though: I seem to remember that at least some members of the 680x0 family have a trace mode in them: after every instruction, it executes a subroutine that you point it to. So in that subroutine, you could just spin your metaphorical wheels for a bit, thus slowing everything down to SE speed. Chris Nebel nebel@cscwam.umd.edu
beard@ux1.lbl.gov (Patrick C Beard) (02/05/90)
In article <10044@hoptoad.uucp> tim@hoptoad.UUCP (Tim Maroney) writes: #In article <1651@majestix.liu.se> andwi@majestix.liu.se (Andreas Wickberg) #writes: #>Wouldn't it be neat to have an init called "SE"... #>...And of course, it could also reduce your 19" color screen to a 9" B/W #>so you could see how dialogs and stuff will fit. # #Good idea -- sort of a "Stepping In". By the way, Stepping Out does support this. Just choose a smaller screen size in the cdev. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- - Patrick Beard, Macintosh Programmer (beard@lbl.gov) - - Berkeley Systems, Inc. ".......<dead air>.......Good day!" - Paul Harvey - -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
dce@smsc.sony.com (David Elliott) (02/05/90)
In article <10044@hoptoad.uucp> tim@hoptoad.UUCP (Tim Maroney) writes: >>And of course, it could also reduce your 19" color screen to a 9" B/W >>so you could see how dialogs and stuff will fit. > >Good idea -- sort of a "Stepping In". There's an INIT called ScreenMaster that was around a couple of years ago that did this kind of thing. It made it possible to run programs that were "toaster screen"-specific (as long as they weren't also 68000-specific). To be honest, I only used it once. I paid the shareware fee in hopes that the next version would be more automatic and solve my problems, but the upgrade (I think it was called Swan?) was not worth the money to me. I do have a copy if anyone needs it and can't get it from the info-mac archives. -- David Elliott dce@smsc.sony.com | ...!{uunet,mips}!sonyusa!dce (408)944-4073 "You see everything -- you're omnivorous."
gillies@p.cs.uiuc.edu (02/07/90)
/* Written 9:33 pm Feb 4, 1990 by dce@smsc.sony.com in p.cs.uiuc.edu:comp.sys.mac.programmer */ In article <10044@hoptoad.uucp> tim@hoptoad.UUCP (Tim Maroney) writes: >>And of course, it could also reduce your 19" color screen to a 9" B/W >>so you could see how dialogs and stuff will fit. > >Good idea -- sort of a "Stepping In". Actually, if I ever had some time, I was going to try and write one of these. It would make a 5-star MacTutor article. The main thing to do is to simulate 2 different screens on the same color screen. The "Monitors" control panel device would allow you to drag the second screen around, relative to the first screen, and change the color depth on different screens (probably impossible, unless you use some offscreen bitmap trickiness). You might have to allocate 128 color table entries per subscreen. This would be a great boon to people developing software for multiple monitors, who can't afford (or don't want to bother) buying a second monitor.
philip@Kermit.Stanford.EDU (Philip Machanick) (02/08/90)
In a very limited sense, it _is_ possible to "slow" a fast Mac to give some idea of execution on a slow one (though important aspects, e.g., toolbox performance) aren't affected. I take performance in LS Pascal (under the environment) with the Debug option on as a first approximation to performance of a standalone application on a slower Mac. Philip Machanick philip@pescadero.stanford.edu
isle@eleazar.dartmouth.edu (Ken Hancock) (02/08/90)
Here's a INIT that we really need -- a INIT that will patch _Eject to do an UnmountVol. We're in a workstation environment where people come and go all day and eject their disks and 5 minutes later the computer sticks up a dialog asking for the disk. Most people don't know about command-period so... If anyone has anything like this or can hack together anything, please let me know... Ken -- Ken Hancock '90 | DISCLAIMER: I'm graduating and looking for Consultant | a job, so I'll stand by my words. Computer Resource Center |============================================== Dartmouth College | EMAIL: isle@eleazar.dartmouth.edu