NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #31/NN_1992_31.iso/spool/comp/sys/mac/digest/446

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Subject: Info-Mac Digest V10 #308
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Info-Mac Digest             Tue, 29 Dec 92       Volume 10 : Issue 308

Today's Topics:

      [*] Mac Ghostscript
      (A) HP4M problems with TrueType fonts? - NOT
      (Q)MacX info needed
      A kinder and gender-ler info-mac
      BBEdit Problem
      Bell Curving Marks (cont.)
      disappearing startup screen
      European complaints!
      Excel 4.0 page #s (bug) . . . NOT!
      Excel 4.0 page #'s (bug) . . . NOT! (R)
      Foriegn File Access Crash
      FTP video output for mac report
      FTP video output for mac report (part 2)
      HP4M printer and TT fonts (R)
      HP 4M printing problems with truetype fonts (A)
      HP LaserJet 4M and TrueType (C)
      Info-Mac Digest V10 #307 (2 msgs)
      Linguistics font
      MacOS/Disk Problem
      no GET INFO on trash (R)
      Partition Performance Addendum
      Powerbook Hard Drive made by IBM? (2 msgs)
      Practical Peripherals -- fax modems from hell
      RE BBEdit Problem
      recovering AD files (summary)
      Should I replace my LC "Classic" with a LC "III"?
      Software co v. Europeans
      VT320 emulators
      Word Finder, Word 4.0D, and System 7.1

The Info-Mac newsgroup is moderated by Bill Lipa.

The Info-Mac archives are available (by using FTP, account anonymous,
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Send administrative mail to [e-mail].
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: Tue, 29 Dec 92 17:11:21 -0800
From: [e-mail] (Martin Fong)
Subject: [*] Mac Ghostscript

29 December 1992


Subject: Macintosh Ghostscript

>  Your name was mentioned in the Ghostscript README file as being the
>  contact for information about the Macintosh port of Ghostscript.
>  I'm very interested in getting this software.  Can you give me some
>  more information?

Overview
 -------
Although the implemention presupposes the existence of 32-bit Color
QuickDraw (it doesn't make Gestalt calls), it *isn't* System 7, or
even MultiFinder, savvy.  Thus, if you're running System 7 and want to
"suspend" MacGS, you'll have to select "Hide Ghostscript 2.2.x" from
the menu bar's application list menu.

Unlike its predecessors, this version does not presuppose a 68020 or
better processor, nor does it presuppose the existence of a 68881 FPU.
(Because the previous versions were made on a Mac IIci, the associated
projects were built with this hardware configuration in mind.)

Finally, I've converted this project to THINK C 5.0.x (currently
5.0.4) because I was tired of turning off 32-bit addressing to run
THINK C 4.0.5.  This also eliminates a few header hacks need to coerce
THINK C 4.0.x into accepting ANSI C keywords.


Mac-Specific Features
 ----------- --------
Based upon Tony Cooper's Macintosh device driver, I've made a mod that
allows MacGS to save your PostScript output as a PICT file.  Once the
image is rendered, select PostScript output window and then select
Save... from the MacGS menu.  The output is saved as a file with the
name, "Picture<nn>", where <nn> is generated to avoid overwriting
existing files.

You should be able to Cut and Copy the image to the clipboard.

The arrow keys will scroll the graphics window.  On an extended
keyboard, the Page Up/Down and Home/End keys will scroll the image
appropriately; the addition of the Option key specifies the horizontal
scrollbar.


Untested Features (Caveat emptor!)
 ------- -------- ------- --------
Although I've implemented printing, I don't have a printer.  Thus, as
Donald Knuth says, "Although I've proven the code correct, I haven't
tested it."


Resource Hacking
 ------- -------
I've created a 'pref' resource (the associated TMPL resource is
included) that defines the size of the graphics output window and
whether you want MacGS to bring up a CLI interface.  If you want MacGS
to use something other than your screen's maximum size, select the
"Use resource" flag and change the resource's width and height fields.

If MacGS requires more memory than you have available, you can
consider changing MacGS' 'size' resource (-- caveat emptor!).

You may change MacGS' default paths by modifying the first string in
the STR# 128 resource.


Distribution Caveats
 ----------- -------
Even though I've not yet included the caveat in most of the source
code that I've generated, the distribution of the source code is
controlled by the Ghostscript General License.


Futures
 ------
There are other folks who are porting newer versions of Ghostscript
to the Macintosh (-- I got busy a while back, and so I never pursued
my port of version 2.4.)  If possible, I'll pass these mods on.  Who
knows,  maybe someone will be adventurous and create a PostScript-to-
EPS driver.  :-)

     Martin Fong                        [e-mail]
     Senior Software Engineer           [phone]
     SRI International, EJ209
     333 Ravenswood Avenue
     Menlo Park, CA    94025

************************************************************************

MacGS_2.2.x_Dev.cpt
 ------------------
This Compactor Pro archive contains the source code need to build
version 2.2.x of Macintosh Ghostscript that runs on a Macintosh with
lots of memory.  Because it does *not* contain the Ghostscript fonts,
you must copy these from the MacGS_2.2.x_Runtime.cpt archive.  Place
folder named "fonts" in the folder named "gs22" (located in
"Ghostscript 2.2.x f").  This placement is crucial because
Ghostscript's search path has been hard-coded relative to the location
of "Ghostscript 2.2.x" or gs22.pi.


MacGS_2.2.x_Runtime.#1
MacGS_2.2.x_Runtime.#2
 ---------------------
This segmented Compactor Pro archive contains the runtime environment
needed to run MacGS, including Ghostscript's fonts and system files.
To test MacGS, type "(golfer.ps) run" and RETURN after the "GS> "
prompt.  You should also be able select golfer.ps (located in the
subdirectory gs22:(tests):) via the MacGS' Open File... menu item.


README.txt
 ---------
This file.


macGS.mail
 ---------
A text file contain various mail messages pertaining to MacGS.


Compact_Pro_1.33.sea
 -------------------
Compactor Pro 1.33 installation package.


[Archived as /info-mac/util/mac-ghostscript-dev.hqx; 867K
         /info-mac/util/mac-ghostscript-runtime-1.hqx; 1962K
         /info-mac/util/mac-ghostscript-runtime-2.hqx; 662K]

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

Date: Tue, 29 Dec 1992 08:56:52 -0800
From: [e-mail] (Sven M. Sorensen)
Subject: (A) HP4M problems with TrueType fonts? - NOT

In Info-Mac Digest V10 #307 [e-mail] asked:

>So my question is to those with the 4M, and is if they
>are printing truetype fonts.
>If so (or if not), what, if any difficulties are there?

I have been testing a 4M for a week from several Macs and PCs
with DOS 5.0 and Windows 3.1 - without any problems. TrueType
works well from both Mac System 7 and Windows 3.1.
However, you must use the HP supplied 4M LaserWriter driver
in the chooser; TrueType does not work with the standard Apple
LaserWriter driver.

The 4M is a nice printer, especially in a mixed PC and Mac milieu.
We hooked it on our ethernet with two interfaces at the same
time - a Dayna EtherPrint to the appleTalk I/O board and a
Datacom Series 8000 (IPX) to the Centronics parallel port.
One of the tests involved simultaneous printing in HPs PCL5
>From WordPerfect 5.1 under DOS 5 via a Novell print server,
>From Windows 3.1 in PostScript with TrueType fonts via the same
server, and from a Mac on ethernet with mixed PostScript and
TrueType fonts - and everything worked flawlessly.
And in 600 dpi with resolution enhancement!

We cancelled our order for an Apple LaserWriter IIg and kept
the 4M instead. It was cheaper, too.

/Sven   [e-mail]

Sven Meiborg Sorensen
Odense University
Denmark

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

Date: Mon, 28 Dec 92 23:07:28 CST
From: [e-mail] (Chan x5140 )
Subject: (Q)MacX info needed

Hello netters,

We have 2 Sparcs and 2 HP700's among 6 people, so we would like to get
a couple of X-terminals for the two unfortunate souls.
We are in the process of evaluating many different options, and one of
them is to get two Macs with MacX software. The question for you networking
gurus is what is the minimum (pricewise) system required to run MacX at a
reasonable speed? We will be using X-terminals for CCD image processing,
so the screen redraw should be fast enough (no slower than SparcIPC).

Thanks in advance.

- Chan Na -

[e-mail]

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

Date: Tue, 29 Dec 92 09:18:17 -0500
From: "Steve Marsh"  <[e-mail]>
Subject: A kinder and gender-ler info-mac

In info-mac v10-307, Charles C. Schneider wrote:

>Michel Eytan mentioned some frustration with the $$ treatment that
>Europeans (or people with European addresses) receive from
>folks at places like pegasus (CONNECT magazine).

>While some people might be impressed with her frustration over a
>matter of $20.00 or so, the problem is really very serious and
>worth some attention.

"Her" frustration? As I recall from French 101, "Michel" is a man's name.
Hope ***Mr.*** Eytan wasn't offended! Actually, I do sympathize. I have a
cat named Charlemagne, and its an ongoing effort reminding people that
HE's a BOY cat!

-- Just a bit of fluff for the slow holiday season :-)


- Steve Marsh  "[e-mail]"   ;-)

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

Date: Tue, 29 Dec 1992 08:41:27 -0600 (CST)
From: Ron Schmiege <[e-mail]>
Subject: BBEdit Problem

On Mon, 28 Dec 1992, Ken B. Kirdsey said:

> I was wondering if any other SE/30 users out there had any problem getting
> BBEdit to run on their machine.

Ken, I run BBEdit with no problems on an SE/30 with 5 Meg. of RAM. Maybe
you should try reinstalling BBEdit. You may also want to run some diagnostics
on your hard disk to be sure all is well. In particular, check for bad
blocks.

Ron S.

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

Date: Tue, 29 Dec 92 13:24:24 EST
From: [e-mail] (Prof. L.G. Leduc)
Subject: Bell Curving Marks (cont.)

Hello netters,

I've received only one reply to my question on how to bell curve
student marks. The person recommended JMP 2.0. Unfortunately, I don't
have this program and the demo version is very difficult to work with.
So, does anyone else have suggestions to offer?  I would appreciate
any help whatsoever.

Please reply directly to me.

Thanks a lot.

Leo G. Leduc
[e-mail]

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

Date: Tue, 29 Dec 92 18:50:04 -0500
From: [e-mail] (Frost)
Subject: disappearing startup screen

I just tuned up my internal hard drive (SpeedDisk) and cleaned out
some of the accumulated drek. Oddly, now when I reboot, the Startup
Screen appears, then diappears as the icons for the extensions and
control panels commence marching across the screen. From the timing
it seems to be at the moment the system begins looking in the exten-
sions folder. The unit is a IIsi with 17 megs RAM, sys 7.0 tuned,
and a mess of extensions and control panels. I had a similar problem
once under system 6.X, but I can't recall what I did to fix it. Advice?
Thanks in advance.

Bob Frost, History, SUNY-Albany.

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

Date: Tue, 29 Dec 1992 17:02:18 UTC+0200
From: Rafael Collantes <[e-mail]>
Subject: European complaints!

Hola a todos.
Regarding the message posted by Mr. Charles C Schneider regarding
european software prices and support policies, here is the situation
with Microsoft and their policy towards Macintosh software.
A few years ago, the University for which I work decided to legalize
the situation with the software and bought licences for Word 4.0 (at
FOUR times the price in USA).
Now, after Word 5.1 is in the market, we have tried to upgrade to
V 5.1, and that has not been possible. They have not translated the version!
The latest Spanish Word is 4.0. At most, they offer a Spanish Dictionary
for the 5.1 version.
At the same time, Windows Products are translated to Spanish in no time,
and sold at prices much lower than the Macintosh versions.(for some
products cheaper than in USA).
So what?
Microsoft lost a lot of the compilers Market when other company (Borland)
started offering better products at lower prices.
Here, we are probably going to buy the new WorPerfect for the Mac,
which has been translated to Spanish, and will avoid buying Microsoft
products as much as possible.

That's all.

Rafael Collantes
[e-mail]

P.S. Of course, I have no relation with any of the companies mentioned here.



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

Date: Tue, 29 Dec 1992 11:42:19 PST
From: [e-mail]
Subject: Excel 4.0 page #s (bug) . . . NOT!

Page set-up and print dialog boxes are a part of the printer driver chosen -
Laserwriter, Deskwriter, Stylewriter, etc. - NOT a part of MS Excel or any
other application. When you do Page Set-up, you call up the driver and tell it
about the physical properties of your page (with limitations being those that
your physical printer can handle). What page numbers you may or may not select
have nothing to do with any of the printing functions (i.e. of interest to you
and your application, but of no interest to the LaserWriter driver). Then you
go off and create something using MS Excel. Finally, you want to print it, so
you summon the printer driver once again. Laserwriter takes a copy of your
document, formats it into PostScript code (or whatever your printer is
expecting) and submits it down the wire to the printer. All it knows about (or
cares about) is physical pages. Logical page numbers are irrelevant. You are
blaming MS for not knowing what you want; what Apple delivers in it's drivers
is sufficient to make the hardware work as advertised. Because Apple software
doesn't read the internal portions of your application's output (other than to
transform it into a printer-acceptable language). perhaps you should flame
Apple.

Leave Microsoft alone; they are only using the tools provided by other
vendors,
as are (almost) all other application developers. I suggest you learn more
about how your Mac works before turning on the flamethrowers.

Ned (certainly NOT a Microsoft supporter other than as a licensee of several
of
their products).

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

Date: 29 Dec 1992 16:53:17 -0600 (CST)
From: "John A." <[e-mail]>
Subject: Excel 4.0 page #'s (bug) . . . NOT! (R)

I just received some mail from ned_reinhold (which he also posted
here) that I feel calls for a reply (more like a defense).

> Page set-up and print dialog boxes are a part of the printer driver chosen
> - Laserwriter, Deskwriter, Stylewriter, etc. - NOT a part of MS Excel or
> any other application.

Partly Correct. The printer resources are there to be used by the
application, but there is no reason (other than Apple programming
guidelines and convenience) that any application has to use them. Each
application can add elements to the standard dialogs provided by the
printer resources. For instance, MS Word adds "fractional widths" to
the "Page Setup"; MS Excel 4.0 adds headers, footers, page numbering,
print to fit, and so on.

> When you do Page Set-up, you call up the driver and tell it about the
> physical properties of your page (with limitations being those that your
> physical printer can handle). What page numbers you may or may not select
> have nothing to do with any of the printing functions (i.e. of interest to
> you and your application, but of no interest to the LaserWriter driver).

I don't agree. The main reason for page setup is so that the
appplication knows something about the printers capabilites, such as
which paper size, and so on. If I select envelopes from the page
setup, then the application has make sure it knows how to print to an
envelope (namely the page size, which is obtained from the driver), so
it can intelligently format what it later sends to the printer driver
(or what is put on the screen).

> Then you go off and create something using MS Excel. Finally, you want to
> print it, so you summon the printer driver once again. Laserwriter takes a
> copy of your document, formats it into PostScript code (or whatever your
> printer is expecting) and submits it down the wire to the printer. All it
> knows about (or cares about) is physical pages. Logical page numbers are
> irrelevant.

The print dialog is there only for the convenience of the programmer,
to provide a consistent way for the user to select what pages to
print, print quality, and so on. It is then up to the application to
**interpret** the information entered into the print dialog and send
appropriate information to the print driver. If it wants, the
application programmer can completely ignore what the user enters.

Consider an example. Enter a single line of text into Word, then a
page break, then a different line of text. Then tell Word to start
page numbering at page 2. To print only the first line, you have to
tell the print dialog to print from page 2 to page 2. Now enter the
same first line of text into cell A1 of an Excel spreadsheet, second
line of text into cell A120, and tell Excel to start numbering at page
2. To print the first line, you have to tell Excel to print from page
1 to page 1. This is consistent?

The Laserwriter (substitute your favorite printer driver here) knows
absolutely nothing about your document. At its simplest, a print
driver has to be able to interpret a single printed page at a time. It
just spits out page after page. Duplexing, spooling, and other neat
tricks don't really affect this basic printing process.

Your document is a collection of bytes that the application program
interprets and represents on the screen in some manner. To print, the
application has to open communications with the printer driver, and
tell it what to print. This is usually similar to what is on the
screen, but there is no requirement that it has to be.

> You are blaming MS for not knowing what you want; what Apple delivers in
> it's drivers is sufficient to make the hardware work as advertised.
> Because Apple software doesn't read the internal portions of your
> application's output (other than to transform it into a printer-acceptable
> language). perhaps you should flame Apple.

Why flame Apple? MS Word knows what I want if I tell it to print from
page 5, section 1, to page 3, section 2. Why doesn't Excel also treat
the page numbers entered in the print dialog as logical pages?

I suppose what I am getting at is that (IMHO) the Excel programmers
should translate the page numbers entered in the print dialog and
interpret them as logical page numbers, since they give you the option
of changing the logical page number of the first physical page. Isn't
that the Macintosh way? After all, I put a code in the header (or
footer) that says put the page number here, not the page number plus
one.

> Leave Microsoft alone; they are only using the tools provided by other
> vendors, as are (almost) all other application developers. I suggest you
> learn more about how your Mac works before turning on the flamethrowers.

Same to you!!!

I admit that I could learn more, but at least I am not under the
delusion that a printer driver can somehow figure out how to decipher
and application's document and figure out how it should be printed.

Logically, a spreadsheet is one big sheet of paper, onto which you can
enter information and do calculations. However, when you print, the
application (not the print driver), has to figure out how to subdivide
the vast amount of logical paper into finite amounts of real paper
output. It does this by using information provided by the printer
driver regarding the current paper supply, and so on.

The application then tells the print driver that it wants to print a
page, and what to put on the page. Then it does the same for the rest
of the pages. The print dialog is a convenient and consistent way of
getting information from the user regarding what to print and how. The
application then has to take this information and figure out what to
send to the print driver. It does *NOT* just give a copy of the
document to the print driver, and say "Here, you figure out how to
print page 2." When you are working with a document, there is nothing
that says you have to represent the data in terms of pages. Databases
are more easily thought of in terms of records. Spreadsheets are one
big virtual piece of paper.

Flames off. I think you should be getting the drift by now.

The intent of the original posting was to point out the inconsistency
of MS Excel's interpretation of page numbering. I am generally
satisfied with the MS products that I have, but I think that MS should
pay more attention to consistency between their own applications.

Enough said.            John A.

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

Date: Mon, 28 Dec 92 22:29:55 EST
From: "David G. Turnquist" <[e-mail]>
Subject: Foriegn File Access Crash

Extension Conflict Report:
     We have encountered an extension conflict between Gatekeeper and
a 'Foriegn File Access.' This is an extension supplied with Apples CD ROM
software versions 4.0, 4.0.1, and 4.0.2.
     This conflict causes our two Quadra 950s to hang when both
Gatekeeper and the Foriegn File Access are active. The hang occurs
when a file server is accessed. The screen freezes, and the lower
right corner of the Appleshare menu disappears. The mouse remains active
on screen, but the system locks up.
     Our workaround has been to disable the Foriegn File Access
extension temporarily. Has anyone else run into this, or know of a
more permanent solution?

   Here is the relevant systems information.

Apple System ver. 7.01 w System 7 tuner ver. 1.1.1
Gatekeeper version 1.2.6 of 9 July 92
Apple Foriegn File Access, System Extension ver. 4.0, 4.0.1, 4.0.2
Apple CD ROM extension ver. 4.01, 4.0.2

Thanks for your help,

Dave Turnqusit,
MIT OPERATIONS & SYSTEMS
internet [e-mail]

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

Date: 29 Dec 1992 16:46:35 -0700 (MST)
From: [e-mail]
Subject: FTP video output for mac report

Thanks to Michael Ross, there is now a site where you can get my
"video_out from a Mac" report.  I make no promisses of completeness,
however, it offers some basic information.

Thanks for the comments all :)

Nohl
[e-mail]

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

Date: 29 Dec 1992 16:49:43 -0700 (MST)
From: [e-mail]
Subject: FTP video output for mac report (part 2)

oops, I forgot to tell you where the file is located.
Send mail to:[e-mail]
subject blank
message: GET pub video_out_info

It took me all day before the test arrived, but it does work.

Please send me any comments, maybe Michael will let me update it from time
to time.

Nohl
[e-mail]

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

Date: Tue, 29 Dec 92 08:30:14 -0500
From: [e-mail] (Bruce E. Wilson, ECCR-PA, B95-A, X8886
([e-mail]))
Subject: HP4M printer and TT fonts (R)

Regarging the question in Infomac 10#307 about HP 4M printers and
fonts.  We have one on evaluation loan, so I downloaded some
TT fonts from sumex (hilversum, cyrillic, flintstone, and Klinzhi),
borrowed a copy of Mark Anderson's wonderful Font Printer utility,
and printed out a sample sheet including those fonts on an HP 4M,
a LaserWriter II NT, and a QMS 2220.  The sort answer is that there
was no problem printing the sample sheet on the HP or QMS printers.
The Apple printer ran out of memory.  If anyone wants to send me a
SASE, I'll mail copies of the printouts, but I can tell you that the
HP printout is definitely clearer than the QMS.

Short answer:  the HP printer behaved just like a Mac printer ought to.
I selected it in the chooser, and couldn't tell that it was any different
>From the printer I had been using, except that the printout was cleaner.
This was not, however, more than a cursory test.

        Bruce Wilson ([e-mail])

(Eastman Chemical Company, Box 1972, Building 150, Kingsport, TN 37662-5150)

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

Date: Tue, 29 Dec 92 15:05:38 MEZ
From: Helmut ORTNER
<[e-mail]>
Subject: HP 4M printing problems with truetype fonts (A)

I use an HP laserjet IIIsi at work, which shows the same problems.
One thing that the IIIsi and the 4M have in common, is that they use a
RISC-processor instead of a motorola 680x0. As far as I understand when
the laserwriter driver encounters a truetype font, which has no postscript
equivalent, then it downloads the truetype font and a truetype rasterizer
to the printer. The rasterizer ist a program in 68000 binary-format, as such
it will not work on printers built with other processors.
The problem can be circumvented by converting the truetype font to a
postscript
font (e.g with metamorphosis) and by placing the resulting postscript fontfile
in the system folder. When the laserwriter driver sees the postscript fontfile
it downloads it to the printer instead of the trutype font.

Helmut

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

Date: Tue, 29 Dec 92 10:20:08 +0100
From: "CHRISTIAN F. BUSER" <[e-mail]>
Subject: HP LaserJet 4M and TrueType (C)

Mitch Cohen, [e-mail], asked:
>Roughly a week ago, someone posted a note concerning the HP Laserjet 4M
>and Truetype. This individual was unable to print truetype fonts from
>their Mac to the 4M. I'm currently thinking about the 4M and this would
>obviously throw a wrench into its use. I have not seen any response
>regarding this original note.
>
>So my question is to those with the 4M, and is if they are printing
>truetype fonts. If so (or if not), what, if any difficulties are there?

I must admit, that I don't know. It might be that the HP 4M does not
work with TruType fonts. But this would not be a serious problem - you
could convert your TT to PostScript Type 1 fonts using Font Monger
(commercial product from Ares Software).

Best regards, Christian.         [e-mail]

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

Date: Mon, 28 Dec 92 22:02:33 -0500
From: Bob Kerns <[e-mail]>
Subject: Info-Mac Digest V10 #307


    Date: Mon, 28 Dec 1992 12:36:09 -0500
    From: [e-mail]
    Subject: Partition Performance (A)

    [e-mail] asks:
    >Is there such thing as a rule of thumb on how to partition a disk for
    >best performance?

    Many months ago I submitted a scheme I have found effective.  The response
    at the time was sufficiently favorable that I repeat the bare bones here:

    Rule 1: The nearer to the (physical) edge of the disk, the faster the
    throughput (due to rotational speed).  This has nothing to do with "seek
    time", but once "found" the disk blocks will be read/written more
    quickly.

Err.  I don't know about all of todays drives (SCSI hides the
layout details), but at least until recently, this hasn't been
true, except for floppies.  Generally, there has been a fixed
number of sectors per track. Yes, the oxide moves by the head
faster, but the number of flux transitions per second remains
the same, and there is no speed difference between inner and
outer tracks.

I'll avoid making any flat statements though, as those are
generally wrong.  However, in general, don't count on it.
If timings were to show it is true for your particular
drive, though, go for it.

Besides, rotational latency is not the major issue; seek time
is.  In generally, you're better off putting the most-frequently-used
software in the *middle* of the disk.

    Rule 2: The most frequently accessed software is the System software.

I'd say the most used software is the application you're currently
running, followed by the System Software.  This would argue for putting
the applications next to the system software.

If you want to optimize startup time (application or system), put
the files application or system uses only during startup (such as
inits or preferences) next to the application or system.  Otherwise
put them further away.

    Rule 3: Smaller partitions degrade more slowly as fragmentation occurs
    (the
    fragments can't get too far apart, reducing total seek time to collect
    them
    all).

This is counterbalanced by the fact that the fragmentation in
nearly-full partitions occurrs more rapidly than in nearly
empty ones.  Further, if things which are used together are
in separate partitions, they are likely to be further apart.

    Rule 4: Separate the files that change (data files) from those that don't
    (apps, system, etc) to reduce the time and media needed for backups.

I think this rule outweighs most other considerations of efficiency.
Observing it will save you more time than you will ever get by
optimizing layout!  Especially if faster backups mean you back up
more often; a backup when you need it may save you a week's work.
It's awfully hard for disk optimization to equal that kind of savings!

    Based on the above, I put a minimal partition for the System Folder (~
    5-10MB depending on your needs) alone on the outermost edge of the disk, a
    partition for applications next, and then one or more partitions for data
    files <= 40MB each.  Use something like TimeDrive to figure out how your
    partitioning software decides which partition to build "outside".  The one
    with the fastest read/write is the outermost.

I'd say to put it in the middle.  Except what I actually do is to
put it in the low-addressed edge, because it saves me time when I resize
other partitions with Silverlining.  (I don't do this often anymore,
but I did for a while).  If you resize often, the optimium strategy
is to put the least-frequently-changed partitions at lower-numbered
addresses.

Again, this will save you more time than you'd get by optimizing
for performance.

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

Date: Tue, 29 Dec 92 01:02:31 -0500
From: [e-mail] (Brian Gaeke)
Subject: Info-Mac Digest V10 #307

>SCSIProbe tells me that the 120Meg hard disk in my new PB 180 is made by
>IBM. Hm!?

Yup, it seems Apple is installing Big Blue brand HD's in their recent
batch of CPUs...

(A friend who just got a Q900 said the same thing...)

Brian Gaeke ([e-mail])

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

Date: Tue, 29 Dec 92 11:10 EST
From: Jeffrey L. Needleman <[e-mail]>
Subject: Linguistics font

I'm helping edit a manuscript tracing modern languages back to their
prehistoric origins and need a font or fonts with strange meta-language
characters to make things easier. I'm speaking of characters for such
languages as Nostratic, Dene-Sino-Caucasian, Nilo-Saharan, Indo-Pacific,
North Khoisan, Uralic, Protaic, and the like.

An Archie search on the words linguist, linguists, linguistics turned up
zilch. An Archie search for fonts in general would turn up far too much...

Anyone have any suggestions? Thanks.

Jeff Needleman  <[e-mail]>

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

Date: Tue, 29 Dec 92 15:16:07 CST
From: [e-mail] (John F Bartlett (HDTV Consultant))
Subject: MacOS/Disk Problem

My disk is rebuilding the desktop every time it boots. The disk is an
external 213M Maxtor drive from APS, and may have been severely corrupted
by mountimage. I have run Norton Utilities on it, got a clean "Disk Doctor"
run, rebooted, and still it rebuilds the desktop every time. I deleted the
desktop DB files, booted using command-option to rebuild the files man-
ually files (so to speak), re-run Norton Utilities a number of times and
cannot get the disk to stop rebuilding the desktop.

Any suggestions? Thanks,
_jfb_

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

Date: Tue, 29 Dec 92 10:12:18 EST
From: [e-mail] (Mark Przeslawski)
Subject: no GET INFO on trash (R)

>Neither the command-I nor FILE/Get Info will produce the expected window

I have seen this problem on a couple of Macs that I installed some hard disks
in.  The problem was not only with the trash, but with the volume icons also.
Of all things, the solution I found was to install SCSI Probe 3.4 (3.5 is now
available) and check both "Install volume mounting init" and "Mount volumes
during bootup."  After restarting, the problem was gone but I still installed
the volume mounting init (cmd-space).  Why this works - I can only speculate
that the drivers for the hard disks were not Sys7 friendly.

Hope this helps,

Mark Przeslawski
E.R.I.M.

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

Date: Tue, 29 Dec 1992 11:02:58 -0500
From: [e-mail]
Subject: Partition Performance Addendum

Before (I hope :-) I get a flood of mail telling me the read/write rate is
fixed on hard drives and rotational speed is irrelevant, I retract the
statement I made yesterday as to the cause of the performance difference
among partitions based on physical location on the disk.  The cause MAY BE
variable numbers of sectors, or relativistic effects on the rim of the
disk, or G-d knows what.  The performance difference is, however, real if
you believe the timing data I get from the disk timing utilities.

Also, no I do not have rigorous benchmarks establishing the 32.0456783%
improvement in spell checking the Guggenheim Bible using Word 6.0 under
Buthanese 7.1.1.  Rules of Thumb are empirical by nature and may or may not
work for you.  If they make sense to you, try them.  In the absence of any
other guidance, they provide a starting point.  I believe my drives run
better using this scheme.  Whether the improvement is due to provable or
placebo effects, I don't know.  Any such scheme has limited benefit in a
real working environment due to the vagaries of applications, user habits,
etc.

Paul

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

Date: Tue, 29 Dec 1992 09:07:39 -0500
From: [e-mail] (Geoff Bronner)
Subject: Powerbook Hard Drive made by IBM?

In comp.sys.mac.digest Herb Kroemer writes:

>SCSIProbe tells me that the 120Meg hard disk in my new PB 180 is made by
>IBM. Hm!?

Not a big suprise. The 160MB drive in my Quadra 700 has a big IBM label on
it as well. I've been noticing IBM drives in new Macs for over a year
now.

-Geoff

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

Date: Tue, 29 Dec 1992 10:56:18 -0700
From: [e-mail]
Subject: Powerbook Hard Drive made by IBM?

We have a Macintosh IIfx here with an IBM hard disk.  I'm not sure if Apple
delivered it that way or if Falcon Microsystems put it in?
>SCSIProbe tells me that the 120Meg hard disk in my new PB 180 is made by
>IBM. Hm!?

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

Date: 29 Dec 1992 10:11:26CST6CDT
From: "Michael S. Dawson"  <[e-mail]>
Subject: Practical Peripherals -- fax modems from hell

I've recently seen requests for experiences with different vendors FAX
modems (IM-307).  This is my experience with a Practical Peripherals
14400FXSA modem and the staff there at PP.  I'll try to make this as short
as possible while still not omitting some key details as to why they pissed
me off so bad.

The modem was purchased in July 1992 for approx 425$.  Thought it was a good
price.  At the time of purchase, the FAX software for the MAC  was not
available (only for PC).  So I waited around without fax capabilities for
about 4 months until they said some FAX SW was available.  I asked them to
send it to me (for 25$).  When I got the SW, a note saying "we have decided
to provide you with a complementary copy of Quicklink II/fax (version1.2.1)"
was in the box.  A week later I got my visa bill and sure enough, they
charge me for it.  I'm not one to snibble and I blew it off assuming it was
a mistake.  I JUST WANTED TO GET THE MODEM TO WORK WITH THE SW.

After several attempts to send/receive faxes, I determined that you could
receive OK but sending was another matter.  All of the send faxes were
reduced in size 30% to 60% (yes I have tried every setting).  So I call tech
support (4 times).  The first three times the guy comes on the phone saying
"I don't know anything about Macs and no one here right now that knows them
either".  When I asked to leave a message for someone to call me back he
informed me "the Mac guy is really busy and I don't think he'll have time to
call you".

After repeated attempts, I finally talked to a manager named Mark who told
me to talk to Dan.  Dan informed me that he had no problems on a IIsi (as is
my machine) but he didn't have 32bit and VM on.  After turning these on his
machine crashed.  In the mean time he sent me an EPROM version 1.15M to
replace my older one. Being an EE and having no choice, I swapped out the
EPROM easily.  Didn't help.  I called Dan a week later and he said he
finally got the machine running in 32bit mode but ==> HE TOO EXPERIENCED THE
SAME PROBLEMS I DID with the shrinking FAX.  I asked him if he told
development about it and he said NO, "they were kind-of busy".

Well after all of this, the thing still doesn't work and I've bitched so
loud that they've decided to refund my money.

My warning........ DO NOT BUY PRACTICAL PERIPHERALS modems for use with a
MAC.  They seem to work OK on PCs but not on Macs !  The staff doesn't seem
to give a crap either that they have a bad product !!#&*@%@#

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

Date: Mon, 28 Dec 92 20:11:03 -0800
From: [e-mail] (Donald R. Fredkin)
Subject: RE BBEdit Problem

Ken B Kirksey wrote

>I was wondering if any other SE/30 users out there had any problem
>getting BBEdit to run on their machine.  It runs fine on my IIx (with
>full complement of 20+ extensions) at work, but absolutely refuses to
>run on my SE/30 at home.

I have found a similar but more bizarre situation. I have original
II's at home and in my office with essentially identical software
(except that the office Mac has an ethernet card and runs MacTCP).
BBEdit runs fine on my home Mac, but it refuses to run on my office
Mac.

>In all cases when I launch BBEdit I get an illegal instruction error.

Me too.

I have been in touch with the author of BBEdit, but he had no
suggestions. Does anyone have any ideas?

Donald R. Fredkin
[e-mail]

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

Date: Mon 28 Dec 92 09:21:55-HST
From: Harold Miller <[e-mail]>
Subject: recovering AD files (summary)

In the past two weeks, I have had two seperate hard drives crash. All the
files
(except for those in the system folder) where compressed with AutoDoubler/Disk
Doubler. The files were "protected" by Norton's Filesaver, but when I tried to
recover them, I found myself staring at hundreds of files with no name and no
creator. The only thing I found that worked was to double-click on each file
in turn, and about 60-70% did open or run and I was able to figure out what
they
were and manually rename each file and assign the proper creator to each
file.
The AD people denied there was any incompatability problem with NOrton's
Filesaver, but the folks at Norton admitted that there was a problem and that
they were in dialog with the AD programmers to try to solve it. Essentially,
they admitted that it may not be possible to RECOVER or UNDELETE files
compressed with AD/DD.
I then purchased (and later returned) MacTools and Public Utilities, since
both companies said there utility "might" recover the files. They were not
successful.
In summary, I have these thoughts:
1. Of the three utilities, Public Utilities with their Prevention init
probably
has the best chance of recovering and undeleting AD/DD compressed files.
2. All three companies were very responsive to my situation and were willing
to
spend up to an hour walking me thru the recovery process, but in fact could do
no more than what I had already tried. There are no "hidden" "magical"
features
that will suddenly bring your files back.
3. I wouldn't use AD or DD until it is clear that they are recoverable and
undeletable using the standard utilities available.
Harold Miller  [e-mail]
 ------

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

Date: Tue, 29 Dec 1992 17:12:22 -0600 (CST)
From: Larry Rymal <[e-mail]>
Subject: Should I replace my LC "Classic" with a LC "III"?

Folks,

    I have a "classic" Mac LC, am happy with it, and am drooling over the
really neat third party peripherals that are showing up in the
advertisements.
    Enough items, such as Lapis 16 and 24 bit video cards, and PDS
expander boxes (3 PDS slots on the LC, new top, new power supply by
DGR for $349.00) make me hesitate to look at the upcoming LC "III" that
might be revealed in February.
    My initial plans were to sell my LC and get the "III".  Now, I'm not
sure.  Earlier reports here mentioned that the "III" was rumored to be,
more or less, a VX motherboard.  I sure would like some comments and
views on this.  Yes, I know about the improved 32 bit data bus.
    If that is the case, I then have a question and comment about the
audio.  The current LCs take STEREO sound files and mix them to monaural
audio output.  You don't lose your sound.  In fact, I was surprised that
the recently submitted sound file, "Apocolyptic Beginning", is in
stereo.  I discovered this by accident by playing Apocolyptic Beginning
on a local Sears demo LC and likewise, on a VX at an adjacent display.
Even the salesperson noticed the difference.  Apocolyptic Beginning sounds
better on the LC than the VX. Examining the file with SoundEdit Pro does
show two separate channels.  Playing the left channel is the audio that
I heard on the VX.  If the LC III is "crippled" in this way, I have little
interest in it.
    So, with that in mind, here is another question.  Several years
ago, the Atari ST was discovered to more or less be doing the same thing
on stereo audio files (not digital).  A company produced a hardware hack
which allowed one to place a circuit board on top of the ST's sound chip,
connect audio leads to the board, and get audio stereo.
    Now I can't even imagine hacking on a computer with surface mount
chips (the Atari ST of the mid-80's did not use such), but could it be
possible that the audio on the LC could be intercepted prior to the mixing
stage and that a hardware device allow one to have Mac-type stereo?
    If anyone could give some comments and opinions, I sure would
appreciate it.

--Larry Rymal <[e-mail]>

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

Date: 29 Dec 92 19:31:46 EST
From: "Frederic A." <[e-mail]>
Subject: Software co v. Europeans

In info-mac v10 #307, Charles Schneider complains of the treatment he gets, as
a resident of Europe, from some US software houses.  It's impossible to defend
the rude and shabby treatment he got from Quark, Adobe, and Aldus.  However,
some thoughts, based on what I remember of the international marketing advice
Apple has been giving developers:

Most software publishers that want to do business in Europe cannot operate
offices there.  Companies that don't actively sell out-of-country will simply
rely on European customers to get the boxes across the Atlantic on their own,
and let them worry about import/export rules, localization, etc.  The up side
for the customer is that CE Software or Symantec don't care where a support
call comes from:  European customers are on the same footing as Americans.

Actively selling and supporting a product outside the U.S. means having an
entity in the target country that is subject to all the tax, labor, and
product
regulations of that country. A less-than-huge publisher has to hire local
distributors.  A distributor gets a monopoly in its territory, because the
cost
of doing business is high, and the single-language market for any one product
is tiny:  Compared to U.S. sales, fewer copies of a package have to support a
proportionately larger cost of operation.  The monopoly extends to making sure
that no out-of-market (e.g. U.S.) version of the software comes in to
compete.
The distributor takes on all of the marginal risks of its market, and demands
all of the market in exchange.

The market is further shrunk by piracy:  An Apple executive told me that in
France, software purchases run barely more than one package per Macintosh.  He
wasn't sure whether that included Hypercard.  Other European markets were
similar.  Outrageous prices, at the margin, increase piracy, but it would take
a braver businessman than most to look for higher volume by experimenting with
negative margins.

Distribution monopolies undoubtedly drive European software prices up, either
through waste or greed.  But, even in a perfect world, software in Europe
would
be more expensive than in the U.S., because the expenses are higher and the
markets smaller.

   -- F

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

Date: Tue, 29 Dec 92 16:28:18 PST
From: Gary Liberson <[e-mail]>
Subject: VT320 emulators

Does anybody know of a VT320 emulator for the Mac or PC?

Help,
Gary Liberson
[e-mail]

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

Date: Mon, 28 Dec 92 23:35:52 -0500
From: Arel Yizhak Weisberg <[e-mail]>
Subject: Word Finder, Word 4.0D, and System 7.1

Is anyone out there using Word Finder inside Word 4.0D with System 7.1?
I can't get it to work.

Thanks in advance for your help,
Arel Weisberg
[e-mail]

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

End of Info-Mac Digest
******************************