Tricks of the Mac Game Programming Gurus/TricksOfTheMacGameProgrammingGurus.iso/Information/CSMP Digest/volume 3/csmp-digest-v3-007

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C.S.M.P. Digest                    Volume 3 : Issue 7

Today's Topics:

        Drag Manager - where???
        Mac SerialPort programming
        Release of OpenTransport
        access to getinfo comments



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-------------------------------------------------------

>From [e-mail] (Chris Reid)
Subject: Drag Manager - where???
Date: Thu, 17 Mar 1994 14:32:19 +0000
Organization: University of Strathclyde

Hi everybody,

Does anybody know where to find more info on the new Drag Manager?

Thanks,


Chris


+-----------------------------------------------------------------+
|Chris Reid                            e-mail: [e-mail] |
|Dept. Computer Science, Strathclyde University, Glasgow, Scotland|
+-----------------------------------------------------------------+

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++

>From [e-mail] (Roby Sherman)
Date: 18 Mar 1994 10:24:04 -0500
Organization: The Tao of Programming

In <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Chris Reid) writes:

>Hi everybody,

>Does anybody know where to find more info on the new Drag Manager?

>Thanks,


>Chris

APDA sells the Drag Manager Toolkit for $75. It is fairly complete,
although I think the manual could have been written a little better.

--Roby
--
[e-mail]                    Roby Sherman

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++

>From Steve Bryan <[e-mail]>
Date: Fri, 18 Mar 1994 17:38:34 GMT
Organization: Sexton Software

In article <[e-mail]> Chris Reid,
[e-mail] writes:
>Does anybody know where to find more info on the new Drag Manager?

One location is develop magazine Issue 16. But to do any programming with
it you need to order the developers' kit from APDA. It comes to about
$80. If you are patient there are string rumors that it will be included
with System 7.5 (whatever that is) which would imply that the interfaces
might become more generally available. An 800 number for APDA is (800)
282-2732.
Steve Bryan                  InterNet: [e-mail]
Sexton Software            CompuServe: 76545,527
Minneapolis, MN                   Fax: [phone]

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++

>From [e-mail] (Sean J. Crist)
Date: 18 Mar 1994 15:52:47 -0500
Organization: University of Delaware

In article <[e-mail]>,
Roby Sherman <[e-mail]> wrote:
>In <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Chris Reid) writes:

>>Does anybody know where to find more info on the new Drag Manager?

>APDA sells the Drag Manager Toolkit for $75. It is fairly complete,
>although I think the manual could have been written a little better.

Oh, great.  I might just make enough shareware fees to pay for that. <grumble>

  \/ __ __    _\_     --Kurisuto  ([e-mail])
 ---  |  |    \ /
  _| ,| ,|   -----    For a free copy of the Bill of Rights, finger
  _| ,| ,|    [_]     this account.
   |  |  |    [_]

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++

>From [e-mail] (Peter Kocourek)
Date: Sat, 19 Mar 1994 19:44:46 +0100
Organization: (none)

Sean J. Crist wrote in a message on 18 Mar 94

 SJC> In article <[e-mail]>, Roby Sherman
 SJC> <[e-mail]> wrote:
 SJC>> In <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Chris
 SJC>> Reid) writes:
 SJC>>>Does anybody know where to find more info on the new Drag Manager?
 SJC>
 SJC>>APDA sells the Drag Manager Toolkit for $75. It is fairly complete,
 SJC>>although I think the manual could have been written a little better.
 SJC>
 SJC> Oh, great. I might just make enough shareware fees to pay for
 SJC> that. <grumble>

I find this one of the more curious aspects of Apple's licensing policy in
their Great System Jigsaw. For instance, things like the Thread Manager and
Speech Manager are available for ftp complete with docs for the API, yet
something that is IMHO far more useful, the Drag Manager, costs $75. A lot more
applications could benefit fairly easily from Drag Manager support, whereas I
see far fewer immediate benefits from the Thread Manager, for instance.

I know the old arguments that developing new system software capability costs
money, but Apple seems to be inconsistent on this point, with many System
enhancements being free, whereas you have to pay for others. I can see no
reason why you should be able to get the Thread Manager gratis, yet pay for the
Drag Manager.

Hopefully System 7.5 will improve matters somewhat (making the Drag Manager
more widely available to users). Then include the Drag Manager API docs on the
develop CD, and I'll be happy.

Just my two cents' worth.


YHS:QSI!

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++

>From [e-mail] ([e-mail])
Date: 21 Mar 1994 21:50:20 GMT
Organization: Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH

In article <[e-mail]>
[e-mail] (Roby Sherman) writes:
> APDA sells the Drag Manager Toolkit for $75. It is fairly complete,
> although I think the manual could have been written a little better.

If you have the latest Developer CD March 94), the documentation is on
that.  The header files can be constructed from the DocViewer format.
Then, all you need is the Drag Manager extension, which can be had on
the Mac on RISC SDK CD among other places.  The Mac on RISC CD also
has drag.h, so you can get the "official" interface.

Neither CD has the sample code, which can be useful. Of course, if you
do not have these CDs, it is cheaper to get the Drag Manager Toolkit.

There is another option "strictly for testing and development
purposes", and in no way meant as a Drag Manager substitution (if you
are interested in this, send e-mail):

I have written a "false" Drag manager, which implements all of the
functionality of the real Drag manager except for the inter-app
communication.  This is handy when you want to use drag and drop in
your app, but your app might run under Sys6 or under Sys7 w/o the Drag
Manager installed.  The false Drag manager behaviour is as close to
the real thing as possible, but I don't claim that it works exactly
the same.  If the real Drag manager is installed, it is used instead of
the false one.  I wrote it from the ground up, before I had the Drag
Manager extension (just the docs), so the behaviour may deviate from
the real thing (it also means that I did not violate any copyrights).
This is a static link library, about 8K of (non-optimized) 68K code.

Oh, one thing that is different:  I use gray dithering for the hilite
region, even when color is available.  I have not been able to figure
out how to do this and produce the exact same results as the D.M.  The
problem is that the D.M. does not use the hilite color (the docs say
that the color of this region is "based on the hilite color"), but
instead seem to use one of the window colors from the Auxiliary window
handle.  Gray dither is good enough for me (for now), so I probably
won't change it.

No docs, no sample code, no inter-app dropping, you really should
buy the Drag Manager Toolkit.

Mark.

- --------------------------------------------------------------------
"On the Internet, nobody knows you're a dog."   Ice Peak Form Mice Elf
                    -- cartoon in New Yorker

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++

>From [e-mail] (Greg Landweber)
Date: 22 Mar 1994 16:52:04 GMT
Organization: (none)

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Peter Kocourek) writes:
   Hopefully System 7.5 will improve matters somewhat (making the Drag Manager
   more widely available to users). Then include the Drag Manager API
   docs on the develop CD, and I'll be happy.

I don't know about the develop CD, but the Drag Manager docs are
included on the Developer CD series (it first appeared on Northern
Hexposure in November).  You don't get the extension or header files,
though, for which you need to buy the $75 SDK from Apple.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++

>From [e-mail] (James Gardner)
Date: Tue, 22 Mar 1994 07:16:23 GMT
Organization: Garvan Institute of Medical Research

In article <2ml4qs$[e-mail]>, [e-mail]
([e-mail]) wrote:

> In article <[e-mail]>
> [e-mail] (Roby Sherman) writes:
> > APDA sells the Drag Manager Toolkit for $75. It is fairly complete,
> > although I think the manual could have been written a little better.
>
> If you have the latest Developer CD March 94), the documentation is on
> that.  The header files can be constructed from the DocViewer format.
> Then, all you need is the Drag Manager extension, which can be had on
> the Mac on RISC SDK CD among other places.  The Mac on RISC CD also
> has drag.h, so you can get the "official" interface.
>
> Neither CD has the sample code, which can be useful. Of course, if you
> do not have these CDs, it is cheaper to get the Drag Manager Toolkit.
>
> There is another option "strictly for testing and development
> purposes", and in no way meant as a Drag Manager substitution (if you
> are interested in this, send e-mail):
>
> I have written a "false" Drag manager, which implements all of the
> functionality of the real Drag manager except for the inter-app
> communication.  This is handy when you want to use drag and drop in
> your app, but your app might run under Sys6 or under Sys7 w/o the Drag
> Manager installed.  The false Drag manager behaviour is as close to
> the real thing as possible, but I don't claim that it works exactly
> the same.  If the real Drag manager is installed, it is used instead of
> the false one.  I wrote it from the ground up, before I had the Drag
> Manager extension (just the docs), so the behaviour may deviate from
> the real thing (it also means that I did not violate any copyrights).
> This is a static link library, about 8K of (non-optimized) 68K code.
>
> Oh, one thing that is different:  I use gray dithering for the hilite
> region, even when color is available.  I have not been able to figure
> out how to do this and produce the exact same results as the D.M.  The
> problem is that the D.M. does not use the hilite color (the docs say
> that the color of this region is "based on the hilite color"), but
> instead seem to use one of the window colors from the Auxiliary window
> handle.  Gray dither is good enough for me (for now), so I probably
> won't change it.
>
> No docs, no sample code, no inter-app dropping, you really should
> buy the Drag Manager Toolkit.

Yes probably. But does your 'false' manager disable context switching
during a drag? If not, please, please, please post it to the net. I just
can't stand not being able to debug my DM code in THINK Debugger.


--
James Gardner
Garvan Institute of Medical Research
Sydney, Australia
>From [e-mail] (Chris Reid)
Subject: Drag Manager - where???
Date: 17 Mar 94 19:32:19 GMT
Organization: (none)

Organization: University of Strathclyde

Hi everybody,

Does anybody know where to find more info on the new Drag Manager?

Thanks,


Chris


+-----------------------------------------------------------------+
IChris Reid                            e-mail: [e-mail] I
IDept. Computer Science, Strathclyde University, Glasgow, ScotlandI
+-----------------------------------------------------------------+

---------------------------

>From [e-mail] (LANKTON MARK)
Subject: Mac SerialPort programming
Date: 17 Mar 94 20:28:47 GMT
Organization: (none)

Organization: University of Colorado, Boulder

Several people have asked recently about entry-level code to open,
read, write and close the serial ports. Here are a few simple
examples of how to use the Serial Driver system calls. I have
yanked these lines out of two of my old applications; if there
are laughable inconsistencies in the variable names please just
laugh.

This should get people headed in the right direction.

shortgModemPortOutNum;
shortgModemPortInNum;
SerShkgModemPortHShakeRec;
char*gMyInputBuffer;

#define kMyAppropriateSize4096 /*use whatever size you need */

void
InitModemPort()
{
OSErrresultCode;

/*Wake up the serial driver and init the modem port. */
resultCode = OpenDriver("\p.AOut",&gModemPortOutNum);
resultCode = OpenDriver("\p.AIn",&gModemPortInNum);
/* error check */

/*Get space for a bigger-than-default input buffer. */
gMyInputBuffer = NewPtr(kMyAppropriateSize);

/*Tell the serial driver about the new input buffer. */
if(gMyInputBuffer)
resultCode = SerSetBuf(gModemPortInNum,(Ptr)gMyInputBuffer,
(short)kMyAppropriateSize);
}

/*Constants for these arguments are defined in serial.h. */
void
ResetModemPort(short theBaudRate,
short theStopBits,
short theParity,
short theDataBits)
{
shorttheConfig;
OSErrresultCode;

/*Configure input and output parameters. */
theConfig = theBaudRate + theStopBits + theParity + theDataBits;
resultCode = SerReset(gModemPortOutNum,theConfig);
resultCode = SerReset(gModemPortInNum,theConfig);

/*This was specific to a particular application, but it's an example. */
gModemPortHShakeRec.fXOn = useXOn;
gModemPortHShakeRec.fCTS = useCTS;
gModemPortHShakeRec.xOn = myXOnVal;
gModemPortHShakeRec.xOff = myXOffVal;
gModemPortHShakeRec.errs = hwOverrunErr;
gModemPortHShakeRec.evts = 0;
gModemPortHShakeRec.fInX = useXOn;
gModemPortHShakeRec.fDTR = FALSE;
resultCode = SerHShake(gModemPortInNum,&gModemPortHShakeRec);
resultCode = SerHShake(gModemPortOutNum,&gModemPortHShakeRec);

KillIO(gModemPortInNum );/* throws away any old data */
KillIO(gModemPortOutNum );
}

/*If you want to clean up after yourself before quitting the application...*/
void
CleanUpWorld()
{
/*This restores the default input buffer, if it matters. */
resultCode = SerSetBuf(gModemPortInNum,(Ptr)gMyInputBuffer,(short)0);
CloseDriver(gModemPortInNum);
CloseDriver(gModemPortOutNum);
}

/* OK, you are up and running. Has any incoming data arrived??? */
resultCode = SerGetBuf(gModemPortInNum,&count);

/*
if count > 0, you have data in the buffer, so read it into some local
storage.
*/
resultCode = FSRead(gModemPortInNum,&count,myLocalBuffer);

/* To write data from myLocalBuffer out through the port...*/
count = numBytesToWrite;
resultCode = FSWrite(gModemPortOutNum,&count,myLocalBuffer);


Good luck!!!

Mark Lankton ([e-mail])
Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics
University of Colorado

---------------------------

>From Frank Price <[e-mail]>
Subject: Release of OpenTransport
Date: Thu, 17 Mar 1994 05:59:57 GMT
Organization: Netcom

It seems very unclear what someone should do if one wants to write a
MacTCP based application these days.  APDA no longer carries the docs.
The seeding ftp site has d8 docs for OpenTransport and the MacTCP docs.
The OpenTransport stuff basically says to use it if you plan to develop
TCP/IP stuff.  But it isn't even available to be used!!  Sending email to
the site director has been fruitless, and based on the docs it doesn't
sound like it is in a state which could be used anyway.

Is OpenTransport going to be released soon?  Will it work with all
versions of System 7 (6??)?  These are clearly issues paramount to
developers wanting to use this.

-Frank
_______________________________________________________________________
| Frank Price   |  [e-mail]                        |
|_______________|______________________________________________________|

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++

>From [e-mail] (Pete Resnick)
Date: Thu, 17 Mar 1994 01:48:07 -0600
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

In article <[e-mail]>, Frank Price <[e-mail]>
wrote:

>It seems very unclear what someone should do if one wants to write a
>MacTCP based application these days.  APDA no longer carries the docs.
>The seeding ftp site has d8 docs for OpenTransport and the MacTCP docs.

The docs for good old MacTCP 2.0.x are out there on:

    ftp://seeding.apple.com//ess/public/mactcp/MacTCP_Dev_Kit

as is the rest of the developer's kit.

>The OpenTransport stuff basically says to use it if you plan to develop
>TCP/IP stuff.  But it isn't even available to be used!!

You should look at the OpenTransport stuff with an eye to the future, but
even the new OT stuff will have backwards compatible support for the old
programming interfaces, so if you are starting a project that will be
released in the next couple of months, I would stick to the old
interfaces. If it's going to be a year before you get it out the door
anyway, you might try to be the first kid on the block to have a MacTCP
3.0 product out.


>Sending email to
>the site director has been fruitless, and based on the docs it doesn't
>sound like it is in a state which could be used anyway.
>
>Is OpenTransport going to be released soon?  Will it work with all
>versions of System 7 (6??)?  These are clearly issues paramount to
>developers wanting to use this.

Write to Garry if you are seriously interested in trying out OT
programming. There is stuff that you can get started with.

pr
--
Pete Resnick        (...so what is a mojo, and why would one be rising?)
Graduate assistant - Philosophy Department, Gregory Hall, UIUC
System manager - Cognitive Science Group, Beckman Institute, UIUC
Internet: [e-mail]

---------------------------

>From [e-mail] (Tim S.)
Subject: access to getinfo comments
Date: 11 Mar 94 21:49:39 GMT
Organization: (none)

Organization: System Updates

In article <[e-mail]> Brian Foley,
[e-mail] writes:
>Is there a way to access the coments made in the finder's "Get Info"
>window?  I haven't been able to find anything in IM (though I probably
>just missed it)
>
>I just want to use it as a temp. storage for info about the file (i.e. I
>know
>that you loose the comments when you rebuild the desktop - but I still
>have no clue why the Apple people would want that to happen)


Pick up a copy of "Programming for System 7" (by Gary Little and me,
published by Addison-Wesley).  Look near the end of Chapter 9 (page 324
if you want to get picky).  Listing 9-8 shows the source in C for a
routine that will read a comment for you (it uses Std File to let you
pick the file whose comment you want to see).

If you order the disk for the book ($20 from Gary), then there's
additional sources on the disk that give you a nice clean routine that's
more useful than what's shown in Listing 9-8 (i.e.: the Std File stuff
has been taken out, you tell the routine what file's comment you want,
etc).

Also, the disk includes sources for modifying your app's Std File dialogs
to include a field for browsing comments (during Open dialogs) and
creating comments (during Save dialogs).  There are a couple of bugs in
the System Software that you have to get around to make this happen, so
it's worth the twenty bucks for the disk just to avoid having to figure
out those bugs yourself...  :-)


Tim S.
My opinions are my own. They're my feet and I'll put them in my mouth if
I want to. Do not expose to open flame. Some Assembly required. Remove
before flight. Under penalty of law, do not remove this tag. Caution,
contains silica gel, do not eat.  Do not read while operating a motor
vehicle or heavy equipment. In case of eye contact, flush with water.
This supersedes all previous notices.

---------------------------

End of C.S.M.P. Digest
**********************