leue@galen.crd.ge.com (Bill Leue) (05/17/91)
I've now owned System 7.0 for about 24 hours, and my experiences so far have been fairly interesting, so I thought I'd share some of them. This will be sort of a "bad news, good news" report. I'll put the bad new first, but don't mistake this for a flame against Apple: I just think there are things that people should know. First, an important WARNING!! If you are using Suitcase II, make ABSOLUTELY SURE that it is disabled before you drag fonts in or out of any suitcase file or the System!!! If you forget, you WILL get a bomb (Bus Error), and if you had been moving stuff in the System, you may end up with a corrupted System and have to reinstall, or worse. This is the voice of sadder (but wiser) experience talking, so listen up. The saftest way to disable Suitcase (and other INIT's) is to restart the system with the Shift key held down. The "Welcome to Macintosh" message will say "No Extensions" if you have done it right. Please don't repeat my experience -- I had to clean up the disk structure with First Aid and completely reinstall the system to recover from one of the bombs. Note: this problem is NOT related to incompatibilities -- I am using Suitcase 1.29, which is listed as "Compatible". The problem is also not related to whether the Suitcase file you are opening is in use by Suitcase or not. With regard to upgrades and application compatibility problems: several of my applications were flagged as "Incompatible" by the Compatibility checker Stack you run before installing 7.0. The driver and application for the Apple Scanner must be upgraded. However, Apple has not yet announced when this upgrade will be available. Similarly, Microsoft QuickBasic 1.0 is incompatible. (You can run the interpreter, but compiled applications have problems) I talked to Microsoft Customer Service and the QuickBasic Support people, but they are unable to say when an upgrade will be available. If you own Claris CAD, you should call Claris and request 2.0v2 (assuming you own the 2.0v1 release). There will evantually be a 2.0v3 release that will be fully 7.0-compatible, but 2.0v2 will run ok for the time being. A few other things that I don't like so much: I think most people will want to lose the balloon help after about 0.02 nanoseconds. It's pretty obnoxious. Fortunately, you can turn it off easily. Unfortunately, the balloon control continues to take up room in your menu bar. I hope someone writes an INIT or patch that gets rid of it. The system is very big. I can see that a 5 mbyte IIcx isn' going to hack it very much longer -- I'm going to have to upgrade to 8 mbytes soon. There is a noticable slowdown, at least for certain applications. (Is 7.0 a secret conspiracy to sell memory and CPU upgrades? :-) Well, Apple has reduced the IIcx-to-ci upgrade price to the point where it's merely unaffordable, rather than cosmic, so maybe there's hope. A minor mystery: does anyone know what the "Startup" folder in the System Folder is for? The few INIT's that I decided to keep all went into the "Extensions" folder -- my Startup folder is empty. I had thought that since INIT's were called "Startup Documents" in the System 6.x view by name listings, they would go into the Startup folder, but NOOOO. I'd really like to know that kind of files are supposed to go there. Some INIT's, specificaly ATM, don't understand the new folder heirarchy in the System Folder. For ATM, you can put the ATM INIT into the Extensions Folder, but the "ATM68020" file has to be at the top level of the System Folder. This is too bad, since it conspires against Apple's admirable efforts to help you keep your system folder uncluttered. I am probably going to buy FontMonger to convert my PS fonts to TT, so I can eventually get rid of ATM. I've also noticed that some applications can't find their "preferences" files if you put them into the Preferences folder -- they want the files at the top level of the System Folder. Another minor hassle is with fonts. I wish the 7.0 installer scripts allowed you some choice over what fonts get installed. Both the TrueType and bitmap fonts are installed for Times, New York, Helvetica, Geneva, Symbol, and Courier. For Chicago, only the TT font is installed. Also, a few Palatino bitmap sizes are installed (for Hypercard, I think), but no TT fonts. I suspect that the bitmap fonts (9 to 24 points) are installed on behalf of slower machines so that their screen drawing is faster. I removed all the bitmap sizes except for 10 and 12 points, thus saving a bit of disk space, but it would be nice to avoid installing them in the first place. Another thing I think could be better arranged is the location of fonts in the System Folder. The 7.0 Installer puts PostScript Type 1 fonts into the extensions folder, and TT and bitmap fonts into the System. It would sure be nice to have a "Fonts" folder for the PS fonts to keep clutter down in the Extensions folder. It would also be nice to allow a heirarchy of folders inside the System, since the number of fonts gets large very quickly. Now for some good news: Aliases work very well. I put all of my major applications folders inside an "Applications" folder, and made aliases for the actual application file that reside at the top of the directory tree. This means I can always see the applications without having to see all the supplementary files that go along with them. Also, the "drag and drop" technique works fine with aliases. And yes, you really can drag a MacWrite file into MS Word and have it opened. Yay! This works for MacPaint files with SuperPaint. You can also use TeachTool to open PICT files and MacWrite files. It's very easy to colorize icons using ResEdit. For instance, I colorized the MS Word icon in a few steps: first, I opened MS Word's ICON with Resedit and copied its bitmap to the Clipboard. Next, I created a new dummy file with Resedit and created a new CICN. Then I pasted the bitmap from the MS Word icon into the CICN editor. I then colorized it using the CICN editor, and copied the result to the clipboard. After exiting ResEdit, I opened up the Get Info dialog box for Word, selected the icon at the top, and pasted the color icon image from the clipboard. Voila! (If you have an existing alias, it doesn't automatically get its icon colorized if you change the file that it points to -- you have to delete and re-create the alias.) This icon business opens up a major can of worms for system managers. I can just see some prankster changing every icon on a disk to MS Word! Fortunately, a changed icon doesn't clobber the underlying ICON resource. To revert, just open the Get Info dialog, select the icon, and pick "Cut" from the Edit Menu. The System 7 Campatibility Checker Stack included with the user upgrade kit is quite nice. It prints a compatilibity report which includes the name and version of all your applications which aren't compatible, including the Customer Service phone number for the vendor. Of course, ShareWare and PD applications aren't on the list. All in all, I'm impressed with System 7.0. Stay tuned. -Bill Leue leue@crd.ge.com
leue@galen.crd.ge.com (Bill Leue) (05/17/91)
Thanks to all the thousands of people who have already sent me email explaining what the Startup Folder is for in System 7.0. You can stop now! :-) (For those who, like me, are too groggy from an all-nighter with 7.0 to focus on the Manual, the Startup Folder contains resources that you only access on system startup (makes sense) like sounds that get played on startup, StartUpScreen images, and applications to be launched automatically on startup. (Obviously, you use an alias here, and not the real application). Now that I've had my fourth cup of coffee, I remember a few other interesting tidbits. In my conversation with the Claris rep yesterday, I mentioned that the Hypercard 2.1 that comes bundled with system 7.0 doesn't have any documentation describing the changes from 2.0, She replied that this is, after all, the APPLE release of HC 2.1 (complete with crippled Home Stack), not the Claris release. She further said that Claris will mail HC 2.1 to all registered owners of the Claris version of HC 2.0 by the end of May. The Claris upgrade will be free and will contain documentation about the changes since 2.0. Maybe Kevin Calhoun will post a comprehensive list of the changes in his spare time :-). Also, in my discussion of creating a color icon (CICN) for MS Word, I forgot to mention that the icon which finally was produced came out with much darker colors than the ones in the ResEdit CICN editor. This was in spite of the fact that I was only using the 39 or so "canonical" colors. This is a bit surprising to me -- I thought that if you only used the standard Apple colors you were pretty much assured that they would be compatible with the color lookup tables that the Finder and other apps used. Another item: with system 6.0.7 and earlier, I used to use the Layout utility to customize the desktop look and feel. System 7.0 does away with the need for most of the things that Layout used to do -- stuff like always gridding drags, staggering icons, changing Finder fonts, etc. However, there's at least one thing that Layout did that 7.0 doesn't: Layout had an option to give you "solid" colors for icons. System 7.0 gives you "pastel" colors (looks like they're dithered with white). I've kind of gotten used to garish solid colors and might like to change back. Also, I wonder what new options are available in the Finder LAYO resource that aren't yet tapped by the user interface. Yet another item: I notice that System 7.0 has some new Finder beep sounds but not the 4 old standbyes. The System 7.0 installer is kind enough to copy those resources from your old system at installation time. Unfortunately, in the process of recovering from my disaster with Suitcase and dragging fonts, I lost the original System 7 and had to reinstall. Can I open a floppy containing a System 6.0.7 system file and copy the sound resources using System 7.0's capabilities? Or should I use ResEdit? - Bill Leue leue@crd.ge.com
gaynor@agvax2.ag.ohio-state.edu (05/17/91)
In article <19650@crdgw1.crd.ge.com>, leue@galen.crd.ge.com (Bill Leue) writes: >First, an important WARNING!! If you are using Suitcase II, make >ABSOLUTELY SURE that it is disabled before you drag fonts in or out >of any suitcase file or the System!!! If you forget, you WILL get a >bomb (Bus Error), and if you had been moving stuff in the System, you >may end up with a corrupted System and have to reinstall, or worse. A-ha! That may very well be why my fiancee gets "System File is damaged" when she tries to open up her System File - she's a Suitcase addict, and I'm willing to bet she left it on... >A minor mystery: does anyone know what the "Startup" folder in the >System Folder is for? It's for defining applications that you wish to have startup automagically upon startup. Put the app (or an alias of it) in the "Startup Folder", and when you reboot it'll start right up. (I'm using this for Darkside Of The Mac...) >The 7.0 Installer puts PostScript >Type 1 fonts into the extensions folder, and TT and bitmap fonts into the >System. If it isn't a bitmap or TrueType font, it's definitely a 2nd class citizen. People are definitely going to prefer TrueType just for the convenience factor (drag to install, double-click to examine). --- Jim Gaynor - AgVAX System Manager - Academic Computing - Ohio State University VMS:<gaynor@agvax2.ag.ohio-state.edu> UNIX:<gaynor@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu> Disclaimer : All opinions expressed here are mine and only mine. So there! Witty Quote: "Think, think, think, think..." - Winnie-the-Pooh, Taoist Bear.
Charlie.Mingo@p4218.f421.n109.z1.FidoNet.Org (Charlie Mingo) (05/18/91)
leue@galen.crd.ge.com (Bill Leue) writes:
BL> A minor mystery: does anyone know what the "Startup" folder in the
BL> System Folder is for? The few INIT's that I decided to keep all went into
BL> the "Extensions" folder -- my Startup folder is empty. I had thought that
BL> since INIT's were called "Startup Documents" in the System 6.x view by
BL> name listings, they would go into the Startup folder, but NOOOO. I'd
BL> really like to know that kind of files are supposed to go there.
Applications you want to run at startup. This is a replacement to the
"Set Startup" choice in Finder under System 6.0.X.
* Origin: mingo@well.sf.ca.us mingo@cup.portal.com (1:109/421.4218)n_hays@fennel.cc.uwa.oz.au (05/18/91)
In article <19650@crdgw1.crd.ge.com>, leue@galen.crd.ge.com (Bill Leue) writes: > > A few other things that I don't like so much: I think most people will > want to lose the balloon help after about 0.02 nanoseconds. It's pretty > obnoxious. Fortunately, you can turn it off easily. Unfortunately, the > balloon control continues to take up room in your menu bar. I hope > someone writes an INIT or patch that gets rid of it.... And a little later... > > A minor mystery: does anyone know what the "Startup" folder in the > System Folder is for? The few INIT's that I decided to keep all went into > the "Extensions" folder -- my Startup folder is empty. I had thought that > since INIT's were called "Startup Documents" in the System 6.x view by > name listings, they would go into the Startup folder, but NOOOO. I'd > really like to know that kind of files are supposed to go there. Try using the balloon help - that's what it's for. :-) > -Bill Leue > leue@crd.ge.com Neale Hays
dmt@palace.uucp (Darryl Trujillo) (05/21/91)
leue@galen.crd.ge.com (Bill Leue) writes: >A few other things that I don't like so much: I think most people will >want to lose the balloon help after about 0.02 nanoseconds. It's pretty >obnoxious. Fortunately, you can turn it off easily. Unfortunately, the >balloon control continues to take up room in your menu bar. I hope >someone writes an INIT or patch that gets rid of it. Baloon help might get more interesting as more apps begin to support it... >A minor mystery: does anyone know what the "Startup" folder in the >System Folder is for? The few INIT's that I decided to keep all went into >the "Extensions" folder -- my Startup folder is empty. I had thought that >since INIT's were called "Startup Documents" in the System 6.x view by >name listings, they would go into the Startup folder, but NOOOO. I'd >really like to know that kind of files are supposed to go there. The "Startup" folder is for stuff you want run at system startup time: apps, cdevs, da's, whatever. Another place where aliases are nice. -- palace!dmt@everexn.com "Don't lend your hand to raise no Piner Palace flag atop no ship of fools." Sonoma County, Ca.
glenn@gla-aux.uucp (Glenn Austin) (05/24/91)
In article <19650@crdgw1.crd.ge.com>, leue@galen.crd.ge.com (Bill Leue) writes: > this problem is NOT related to incompatibilities -- I am using Suitcase 1.29, > which is listed as "Compatible". 1.2.9 isn't compatible! There is an update to 1.2.10 to solve compatibility problems with the final 7.0. I've been using System 7.0 and Suitcase 1.2.10 for almost a week now, dragging DAs to and from suitcases and the system and haven't had any problems yet... > A minor mystery: does anyone know what the "Startup" folder in the > System Folder is for? Applications, sounds, and other things (or their aliases) you want opened "at startup" are placed in the Startup folder. I've simply created an additional folder for all the aliases to my applications, and created an alias for this folder and the Startup Items folder and placed them in the Apple Menu Items folder. This way I can quickly get to these folders from anywhere. =============================================================================== | Glenn L. Austin | "Turn too soon, run out of room. | | Macintosh Wizard and | Turn too late, much better fate." | | Auto Racing Driver | -- Jim Russell Racing School Instructors | |-----------------------------------------------------------------------------| | Usenet: glenn@gla-aux.uucp | CI$: 76354,1434 | | GENie: G.AUSTIN3 | AOnline: GAustin | ===============================================================================
ashwin@gatech.edu (Ashwin Ram) (05/24/91)
In article <1991May21.035848.3364@palace.uucp> dmt@palace.uucp (Darryl Trujillo) writes: > leue@galen.crd.ge.com (Bill Leue) writes: > > >A few other things that I don't like so much: I think most people will > >want to lose the balloon help after about 0.02 nanoseconds. It's pretty > >obnoxious. Fortunately, you can turn it off easily. Unfortunately, the > >balloon control continues to take up room in your menu bar. I hope > >someone writes an INIT or patch that gets rid of it. > > Baloon help might get more interesting as more apps begin to support it... Yes. But I would rather have Help be under my control, rather than be always on or always off. For example, instead of having all possible Balloons popping up as I move my mouse, why not allow me to point to what I want help on and hit the HELP key on my keyboard? It is pretty tedious to go to the menu bar, turn on balloons, go back to the item I want help on, read the balloon, go back to the menu bar, turn off the balloons... Furthermore, since help-on-demand (via the HELP key) is not obstrusive, it can always be left on. (It is also pretty counter-intuitive to have a help key on your keyboard that doesn't do anything.) Finally, the balloon help icon on the menu bar could easily be replaced by a "Help" item in the Apple Menu. In short, I like the balloons but I don't like the user interface. Another nice feature would be to have a "documentation" button in the balloons which you could click to get to the appropriate section of the manual for full documentation. (Many applications have on-line documentation already, and this would be a nice way to get to it.) -- Ashwin.
jyp@wucs1.wustl.edu (Jerome Yvon Plun) (05/24/91)
leue@galen.crd.ge.com (Bill Leue) writes: >A few other things that I don't like so much: I think most people will >want to lose the balloon help after about 0.02 nanoseconds. It's pretty >obnoxious. Fortunately, you can turn it off easily. Unfortunately, the >balloon control continues to take up room in your menu bar. I hope >someone writes an INIT or patch that gets rid of it. Before throwing it away, use it to learn about the system folder (cf 10 lines below). >A minor mystery: does anyone know what the "Startup" folder in the >System Folder is for? The few INIT's that I decided to keep all went into >the "Extensions" folder -- my Startup folder is empty. I had thought that >since INIT's were called "Startup Documents" in the System 6.x view by >name listings, they would go into the Startup folder, but NOOOO. I'd >really like to know that kind of files are supposed to go there. Ballon Help on the Startup Items Folder: "Startup Items Folder To have an item open automatically when you start up your computer, put it in this folder" It could be a little clearer but it gives hints on the purpose of the folder. Jerome Jerome Plun [] Is it a crime to want something else? jyp@wucs1.wustl.edu [] Is it a crime to believe in something different? Washington University [] St Louis, MO [] "Smalltown England", New Model Army, Vengeance
cluther@supernet.dallas.haus.com (Clay Luther) (05/27/91)
ashwin@gatech.edu (Ashwin Ram) writes: >Yes. But I would rather have Help be under my control, rather than be always >on or always off. For example, instead of having all possible Balloons >popping up as I move my mouse, why not allow me to point to what I want help >on and hit the HELP key on my keyboard? It is pretty tedious to go to the >-- Ashwin. In part, I agree. However, I am sure that some enterprising programmer will program an init that will toggle help on and off when you hit the help key. -- Clay Luther, Postmaster cluther@supernet.dallas.haus.com Harris Adacom Corporation cluther@enigma.dallas.haus.com Voice: 214/386-2356 MS 23, PO Box 809022, Dallas, Tx 75380-9022 Fax: 214/386-2159 Your mileage may vary. Void where prohibited.
chai@hawk.cs.ukans.edu (Ian Chai) (05/27/91)
In article <1991May26.185508.12379@supernet.dallas.haus.com> cluther@supernet.dallas.haus.com (Clay Luther) writes: >In part, I agree. However, I am sure that some enterprising programmer will >program an init that will toggle help on and off when you hit the help key. Hmm, I wonder if I can get QuickKeys to do this? Worth a try when I get to my mac. -- Ian Chai Internet: chai@cs.ukans.edu Bitnet: 665instr@ukanvax I don't believe in flaming. If I appear to be flaming, either (a) it's an illusion due to the lack of nonverbal cues or (b) my sprinkler system has suffered a momentary glitch, so just ignore me until it's fixed.
hillman@uservx.afwl.af.mil (05/28/91)
In article <1991May26.185508.12379@supernet.dallas.haus.com>, cluther@supernet.dallas.haus.com (Clay Luther) writes: > ashwin@gatech.edu (Ashwin Ram) writes: > >>Yes. But I would rather have Help be under my control, rather than be always >>on or always off. For example, instead of having all possible Balloons >>popping up as I move my mouse, why not allow me to point to what I want help >>on and hit the HELP key on my keyboard? It is pretty tedious to go to the >>-- Ashwin. > > In part, I agree. However, I am sure that some enterprising programmer will > program an init that will toggle help on and off when you hit the help key. > > -- To bad MacroMaker is no longer supported, it would be a cinch, especially if help on and help off was a toggle.
danno@css.itd.umich.edu (Daniel T. Pritts) (05/29/91)
In article <1991May28.135818.22894@uservx.afwl.af.mil> hillman@uservx.afwl.af.mil writes: >In article <1991May26.185508.12379@supernet.dallas.haus.com>, cluther@supernet.dallas.haus.com (Clay Luther) writes: >> ashwin@gatech.edu (Ashwin Ram) writes: >> >>>Yes. But I would rather have Help be under my control, rather than be always >>>on or always off. For example, instead of having all possible Balloons >>>popping up as I move my mouse, why not allow me to point to what I want help >>>on and hit the HELP key on my keyboard? It is pretty tedious to go to the >>>-- Ashwin. >> >> In part, I agree. However, I am sure that some enterprising programmer will >> program an init that will toggle help on and off when you hit the help key. >> >> -- >To bad MacroMaker is no longer supported, it would be a cinch, especially if >help on and help off was a toggle. now on mac.archive.umich.edu: Help Meister. Toggles balloon help when you press control-help. Also, for those wondering how to get back to the "old way" of switching apps (click once on the icon in the upper left...), justclick. both in mac/system.extensions/init