I have returned from my hiatus feeling refreshed and ready to bring you the creme de la creme of information, that only you deserve. I'm therefore rewarding your loyalty with a bumper edition (flashback from the 80's there) of Think Andrew to make up for my absence.
 
I've been working hard upgrading my Disk Copy Scripts. Since they are out there now, as is a brand new version of Disk Copy, I thought I'd give you some details on them right from the horses mouth. In addition to that my favourite little interface enhancer Extensions Strip has under gone an overhaul too. New looks seem to be 'in' this coming fall with the iMac making the 52xx/53xx range look like the Mac Plus, Mac OS 8.5 making Mac OS 8 look like System 7, my new Disk Copy Scripts 2.1 making my original scripts look rather amateur and Extensions Strip 1.8 following the 'theme' of changes. Change for the better is evolution. We must evolve to keep ourselves ahead of the rest; to survive. Wow, I kind of lost it there heading into some sort of philosophical monologue. Anyway, let's crash on...
 
The choicest distribution format. It's the one Apple uses. It's safe, it's fast, it compresses and it's Mac OS through and through. Disk Copy, one of the oldest applications known to Mac, is now better than ever. You downloaded several of those ".smi' files that could mount a disk image all by themselves and wondered if you could make them yourself. Quite plainly, you couldn't. You'd be breaking copyright laws if you hacked one and you sure as hell couldn't get Disk Copy 6.2 or earlier to cook one up for you. Well they couldn't hold back the crowds beating down the doors at Cupertino demanding that the SMI (self-mounting image) capable Disk Copy be set free and hence the arrival of Disk Copy 6.3 on the Apple FTP sites in early July. Also new in version 6.3 is Navigation Services support; ability to duplicate a floppy; various improvements to AppleScript support; fixed possible data loss issue when imaging a folder from an HFS+ volume; imaging a folder with less than 32MB of data from an HFS+ volume results in an HFS formatted volume and various interface improvements. Disk Copy works on System 7.0.1 and later. You definitely need to upgrade to Mac OS 8.1 or later to be able to make self-mounting images.
 
 
Could those graphics BE any bigger ? I'm not one to show-off...excuse me while I clear my throat...but I'm very proud of my latest release of my Disk Copy Scripts. I first created them back in February this year and I've been working on them ever since.
Apple had begun distributing on-line software packages on NDIF disk images and with the release of the Mac OS 8.1 Update we were introduced to segmented images. NDIF disk images are clearly a better way to ensure safe quality delivery of files; much more so than previously used distribution formats. When mounted, disk images actually work faster than your hard disk and appear not to use any RAM at all; making them good substitutes for RAM disks and ideal for software installations. That's not all; they can also be compressed within themselves. A huge 10MB disk image volume and its contents can be reduced in size by around 5 times in my experience. The resultant disk image file is 2MB, but when mounted as a volume it contains 10MB of data and a little free space.
Disk Copy 6.2 was released with Mac OS 8.1 but there didn't seem to be a command for segmenting images. It turned out that the segmenting feature was only available via AppleScript. AppleScript is a fantastic automation facility that has been built-in to the Mac OS for many years now but until recently wasn't hyped enough. It therefore went unnoticed by the average user. I had been becoming more and more impressed with the new Disk Copy and I was determined to get it to segment any disk image I wanted it to. I succeed and I wanted to share my achievement with the Mac community at large. I had always wanted to be a product developer but I did not have an idea for a product before that I could be happy with. An idea that I could believe its possible success.
The original release was very successful, but there cropped up several issues I had not considered in my haste to release. Cheered by the creator of Disk Copy, but only because he 'got' them. He comprehended how they worked, as did many other intelligent users, but unfortunately there was a handful of confused users who had simply missed the point of my scripts' existence and were basically playing around with them. Although if it wasn't for them future releases wouldn't be possible. They show up the gaps that could easily be filled to make your product airtight and infallible at least for a while anyway. The previous releases were only adequate at best. Disk Copy Scripts 2.1 lay down the securest foundation yet for their function.
Previously the main components of my scripts were Segmenter and Image Floppier. They used very similar script code and it would be more efficient to have them share their similarities. SegmentSMIer was born back in April, but it had a lot of maturing to go through to reach the stage it is at today.
SegmentSMIer can instruct Disk Copy to : segment images into your chosen number of parts, so that you can choose the size; segment images into 1.4 MB floppy disk sized parts, for floppy archiving an image; and make a NDIF disk image or first segment into a self-mounting image or 'SMI'.
DropMakeSMI is a 'droplet' which you drag a NDIF image onto and it induces Disk Copy to make a SMI of that image on the desktop of your startup disk. It's quicker than SegmentSMIer for the same task, but it isn't as flexible.
ImageCheck, also a droplet, gets Disk Copy to use a special 'image health check' which can tell you if there is something wrong with your image that you may have missed.
Last but not least, Floppy Archiver will have Disk Copy create a compressed image of any 1.4 MB floppy dropped onto it on the desktop of the startup disk.
New features since the previous releases are : the two new droplets added "DropMakeSMI" and 'ImageCheck', you can now pay your tip via the reputable Kagi Payment service, a new easy-to-use button-oriented interface; data entry verification so that you can only choose to make between 2 and 128 segments and can't enter anything other than a number between 1 and 129 (which is the current restrictions); ability to make images self-mounting, i.e. images independent of Disk Copy; ability to choose where you want the output files to go; correct handling of all cancellations; Navigation Services are used with Disk Copy 6.3 when available; further technical tweaking; compatibility with Mac OS 8.5 tested; and finally the Read Me is now in PDF format so that it looks prettier and the exact same for everyone.
The system requirements are simply : System 7.0.1 or later; AppleScript 1.1 or later installed; Disk Copy 6.3 or later for segmenting; Mac OS 8.1 or later for making self-mounting images.
For more information, please read the PDF Read Me file within the package.
Available from <http://www.patsy.demon.co.uk/Downloads/>. US$7.00 Tipware.
 
Extensions Strip 1.8 is a fabulous, easy to use replacement for Apple's Control Strip. Once you are used to Extensions Strip, in conjunction with Control Strip Menu, you will never want to go back to Control Strip. Unlike Control Strip, Extensions Strip is actually an application that creates a floating window. It doesn't cause system conflicts which Control Strip has been made infamous for.
It's best "under the bonnet" feature is its ability to dynamically load and unload Control Strip Modules and now its new 'Theme' files. This means you can swop modules in and out, at will, and they are made available straight away; no need to restart.
ES features a special extended API for module developers. This allows them to produce modules that can do a lot more than modules made for Control Strip alone.
The miniature modules option allows you to minimise modules to make strips as neat and small as possible.
Yes that's right, you can have multiple strips; not just one.
The great new feature to make using Extensions Strip (ES) even more enjoyable is similar to Mac OS 8.5's new themes. ES now has its own new look themes :
Classic Windoid
 
Control Strip (for those experiencing withdrawal symptoms)
 
No Theme loaded
 
Blank
 
Green Spot
 
Last but not least, my favourite Scherzo Icon
 
All of the above pictures are how I have ES setup with a yellow background, but you have a whole range of ways to make ES look, unlike Control Strip. You can choose the background colour of ES and I have adjusted mine to suit the Scherzo Icon theme that I now currently use. You can of course totally customise it to suit your personality, just as you can adjust Mac OS 8.5.
As you can see, there is a range of tiny application icons on my strip. This is Control Strip Menu (CSM). With Control Strip, CSM is just a text-based menu, but with ES it comes completely to life. You have a folder in your System Folder that contains aliases to the applications you use most of all. Then when you need to use them you just click once on their little icon. It's fabulous and I feel wholly dependent on the partnership of ES and CSM. The way I use ES is very unintrusive, but you can have the icons at full size, along with the whole strip should you prefer it that way.
Extensions Strip is out now available to download from
<http://www44.pair.com/ammon/skidperfect/es/>. Get CSM at <http://www.kagi.com/authors/vincenttan/>. Both packages are shareware.
Think Andrew, the column that brings you the info with realistic personality.
