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del Message 1290710 has been deleted. Message: 1290713, 673 lines Posted: 8:49pm EDT, Thu May 8/86, imported: 4:45am EDT, Fri May 9/86 Subject: Delphi Mac Digest V2 #18 To: Peter_Johnston@UQV-MTS, MacTechnics User Group, John Dorsey, Gavin Eadie, Abraham Vanderspek From: SHULMAN@RED.RUTGERS.EDU Delphi Mac Digest Thursday, 8 May 1986 Volume 2 : Issue 18 Today's Topics: PCPC's HFS Backup RE: PCPC's HFS Backup (Re: Msg 7688) RE: Need help with JCLOCK utility Mac SCSI connection problem MacPaint Pasting Problem good disk prices LaserWriter and VMS Re: Apology to Micah ROM Resources Bug in LightspeedC RE: Warning about HP disks (Re: Msg 7731) To John Bass cache setting RE: cache setting (Re: Msg 7775) RE: cache setting (Re: Msg 7779) Microsoft Updating Word... Re: Changing the default font Mac+ games HFS Backup bugs MacPCBridge Desperately Seeking Software LoadSeg problem Printing Errors Setting file protect bit in ResEdit RE: Setting file protect bit in ResEdit (Re: Msg 7883) RE: Setting file protect bit in ResEdit (Re: Msg 7893) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: RICFORD (7688) Subject: PCPC's HFS Backup Date: 1-MAY-16:18: Business Mac We have spent some more time with HFS Backup ($40) from PCPC (1-800-MAC-BUTT) and we're finding it very useful. Some of the key elements: - ability to do full, incremental, or selected-file-and-folder backups on HFS and MFS volumes - ability to back up files larger than a floppy disk - ability to save configurations of files and folders to backup ("Backup -sets") - automatically chooses 400K/800K for Mac-formatted disks (otherwise assumes 800K on a double-sided drive) - Macish, friendly, flexible, and quick - ability to scan and print disk directories (can't print directories without going thru backup/restore procedure) - no selection by file _type_; otherwise, flexible selection options - requires 128K ROMs (haven't tried it with RAM-based HFS) - does only one volume at a time - flexible options for checking disk integrity during backup - backs up to floppies only Ric Ford "MacInTouch" newsletter ------------------------------ From: JOHNCRANE (7696) Subject: RE: PCPC's HFS Backup (Re: Msg 7688) Date: 1-MAY-20:34: Business Mac Ric, I've also been checking out HFS Backup, and would like to footnote your observations. While it's true you go through the backup procedure, or at -least part of it, to get a catalog, you can then abort before actually carrying out the process. It worked fine with 64K ROM, and is now working on 128 ROM on the same machine. I backed up about 10MB on 14 400K floppies; that's about a 60 percent condensation factor. It took about an hour. I'm sure with the new drive and 800K floppies it would be much faster. It is _very_ picky when testing floppies; I had a large number rejected that are otherwise giving no problems - and of course this adds to backup time. Unless anyone gets the -wrong impression, the program does not modify the backup floppies when one does an update of the backup but rather adds the changes onto additional floppies. Of course, the real test would be to see how well it restores. - John Crane "MacNews" ------------------------------ From: PEABO (7697) Subject: RE: Need help with JCLOCK utility Date: 1-MAY-21:12: MUGS Online I think JCLOCK installs itself into your System File as an INIT resource that has the title JCLOCK. It should be easy to find and eradicate using ResEdit! peter ------------------------------ From: SCHAFE (7698) Subject: Mac SCSI connection problem Date: 1-MAY-21:43: Hardware & Peripherals Help! I have read somewhere that the Macintosh Plus's SCSI port is externally convertable to the 50 pin differential specified in the ANSI definition of SCSI. Is this true, and if so, how is this accomplished? I thought the task was as simple as matching up the signals from each side and ignoring all other lines, but I doubt this is the correct method. Any replies greatly appreciated. Thanx in advance. ------------------------------ From: DSACHS (7703) Subject: MacPaint Pasting Problem Date: 1-MAY-22:36: Creative Pursuits About the problem with cutting and painting with MacPaint reported in the last info-Mac. Is it possible that the SYSTEM disk is either locked or low on -space - The latest software forces the clipboard to reside on the system disk. ------------------------------ From: RICFORD (7718) Subject: good disk prices Date: 2-MAY-11:55: Mousing Around Now that we're double-sided, it's time for new disks. We found double-sided Sonys, packaged 10 to a box, for $2.50 and under at ComputerWare in Palo Alto, CA. They come with labels and everything. There are further price breaks for larger quantities and bulk Sonys without the labels. 2nd day shipping to Boston cost us $6.00 for 100 disks. Although our experience is limited, this seems like a good store. 800-235-1155 (800-323-1133 in CA) Ric ------------------------------ From: JIMH (7735) Subject: LaserWriter and VMS Date: 3-MAY-15:19: Programming Is anyone out there using the Apple Laserwriter on a VAX under the VMS operating system? Adobe sells a product to use it under UNIX but not under VMS, does anyone sell an equivelent product for VMS? I can buya laserwritted for my mac at work if i can share it with the VAX, so i am kind of desperate for such a product. Thanks Jim Hopper ------------------------------ From: BRECHER (7737) Subject: Re: Apology to Micah Date: 3-MAY-16:05: MUGS Online > I don't know if this means that Micah's hostadapter just works > with a mac plus or that their hostadapter provides a 100% hardware > and software compatable external mac plus scsi port on a 512k system like -our > MacSCSI Plus hostadapter (anybody who has a Micah drive know?). I have a MicahDrive. MicahDrive is compatible with 512K Macs (plain or enhanced), and Mac Plus. It does not provide an external SCSI port on a 512K. > [Brecher's] goal is to build THE BENCHMARK that clearly states WHO IS BEST > on HIS definition of a STANDARD WORKLOAD. I do think a benchmark based on a "typical" workload approach would be of value for many prospective hard disk buyers. But "THE BENCHMARK," "clearly states WHO IS BEST" and "HIS definition" cannot have been derived from anything I've said. With respect to a Delphi message in which I said, "If speed is a criterion, forget Warp 9; it uses basically the highly-inefficient MacSCSI driver -software (it also requires a boot floppy)," Bass comments: > There was NO need to single us out ... My message was a response to a query by someone who solicited comments on hard disks specifically including the Warp 20, and who stated that speed was a criterion. > Mr Brecher's coments about "the highly inefficient MacSCSI driver" are both > WRONG and OUT OF LINE. Following is what the Aztec C (1.06g) compiler generates for the data transfer (read) routine in the DDJ article. I have confirmed with someone who owns a copy of the recent release of the MacSCSI driver that this routine has not changed significantly (if at all) since the DDJ version. Since only in the past few weeks has there been talk about Warp/Mirror converting the driver to assembly language, it is reasonable to assume that this code is what was running in the Warp/Mirror products I referred to in the message Bass cites. The numbers in brackets are 68000 clock periods required for the instruction: SCSIIn: Link A6,#-4 ;[16] MoveM.L D4-D7/A3-A4,-(SP) ;[56] Move.L $0A(A6),A3 ;[16] A3 = ptr (buffer addr) Move.L #$10,D4 ;[12] constant Move.L #1,D5 ;[12] constant Move.L #0,D7 ;[12] constant Move.L #$500000,-4(A6) ;[24] NCR base addr Move.L -4(A6),D6 ;[16] Add.L #$11,D6 ;[16] D6 --> Current SCSI Data register Move.L -4(A6),A4 ;[16] Add.L #2,A4 ;[16] A4 --> Initiator Command register Move.L -4(A6),A2 ;[16] Move.B $0F(A6),4(A2) ;[20] Target Command register := phase ; ----- ; [248] for setup ; Wait for REQ ; @0 Move.L -4(A6),A2 ;[16] A2 = NCR base addr Move.B $19(A2),D3 ;[12] D3 = (Current Bus Status register) Ext D3 ;[4] And #$20,D3 ;[8] Cmp D7,D3 ;[4] Bne @1 ;[10 -- assume branch] Bra @0 ;[0] ; ; bail out if not phase match... ; @1 Move.L -4(A6),A2 ;[16] A2 = NCR base addr Move.B $1B(A2),D3 ;[12] D3 = (Bus and Status register) Ext D3 ;[4] And #8,D3 ;[8] Cmp D7,D3 ;[4] Beq @2 ;[12 -- assume no branch] ; ---- ; [108] each time through loop, total = [6912] ; transfer 8 bytes... ; .Repeat 8 ;assume this assembler directive to save listing space Move.L D6,A2 ;[4] A2 --> Current SCSI Data Move.B (A2),(A3) ;[12] move data byte to buffer Add.L D5,A3 ;[8] increment buffer addr Move.B D4,(A4) ;[8] assert ACK Move.B D7,(A4) ;[8] deassert ACK .EndRepeat ; ---- ; [320] each time through loop, total = [20480] ; Loop if count not exhausted ; Sub #8,8(A6) ;[20] Cmp #0,8(A6) ;[16] Bgt @0 ;[10 -- assume branch] ; ----- ; [46] each time throuh loop, total = [2944] ; @2 Move.L #0,D0 ;[12] return 0 to caller MoveM.L (SP)+,D4-D7/A3-A4 ;[60] Unlk A6 ;[12] Rts ;[16] ; ----- ; [40] for termination ; ======= ; Grand total [30624] clock periods for 512 bytes -transferred Following is my hand-coded version. It is functionally identical except that it further unravels the loop: SCSIIn: MoveM.L D1-D4/A3-A4,-(SP) ;[56] Move.L $0A(A6),A3 ;[16] A3 = ptr (buffer addr) Move.L #$500011,A2 ;[12] A2 --> Current SCSI data register Lea 2-$11(A2),A4 ;[8] A4 --> Initiator Command register Lea $19-$11(A2),A1 ;[8] A1 --> Current SCSI Bus Status register Lea $1B-$11(A2),A0 ;[8] A0 --> Bus and Status register Move.B $0F(A6),4-$11(A2) ;[20] Target Command Register := phase MoveQ #0,D0 ;[4] constant (and returned value) MoveQ #$10,D1 ;[4] constant Move 8(A6),D2 ;[16] D2 = len Lsr #5,D2 ;[16] D2 = len/32 SubQ #1,D2 ;[4] adjust for Dbra MoveQ #5,D3 ;[4] constant MoveQ #3,D4 ;[4] constant ; ---- ; [180] for setup ; ; Wait for REQ ; @0 Btst D3,(A1) ;[8] Beq.S @0 ;[8 -- assume no branch] ; ; bail out if not phase match... ; Btst D4,(A0) ;[8] Beq.S @1 ;[8 -- assume no branch] ; ---- ; [32] each time through loop, total = [512] ; ; transfer 32 bytes... ; .Repeat 32 ;assume this assembler directive to save listing space Move.B (A2),(A3)+ ;[12] move data byte to buffer Move.B D1,(A4) ;[8] assert ACK Move.B D0,(A4) ;[8] deassert ACK .EndRepeat ; ---- ; [896] each time through loop, total = [14,336] ; ; Loop if count not exhausted ; Dbra D2,@0 ;[10 -- assume branch] ; ---- ; [10] each time through loop, total = [160] ; @1 MoveM.L (SP)+,D1-D4/A3-A4 ;[60] Rts ;[16] ; ----- ; [76] for termination ; ======= ; Grand total [15264] clock periods for 512 bytes -transferred The compiled code occupies 110 words; my assembler version occupies 128 words -( due to the further loop unravelling). If the entire driver were coded in assembly, the total net requirement would be much reduced from that of the compiled version. I think it reasonable to call a driver that takes twice as long as it should to transfer data "highly-inefficient." The inefficiency of its data transfer code, similar inefficiencies elsewhere in the driver, and the lack of provision for pseudo-DMA in the MacSCSI design combine to necessitate two disk revolutions to transfer each sector as indicated by the DiskBench results. Those results cannot be explained by reference to 11:1 interleave. > We showed Apple one of our boards early last summer and they > quickly added the NCR5380 onto the main logic board and offered it > as the MacPlus (clearly defining SCSI as the standard interface). Apple had prototype designs with SCSI interfaces in 1984 and early 1985. Perhaps Bass's use of the NCR 5380 influenced the final design as Bass claims; fortunately, Apple's design provides for pseudo-DMA. > [T]he Mac filesystem/OS or finder crawls into a hole with filesystem that > have 10mb or more of allocated files -- above 18mb bootup to the finder desk > top takes more than a minute on a system that took 7sec at 3mb. My MicahDrive, with 525 files totalling 8.5MB, takes 12 seconds from reset "bong" to a quiescent Finder desktop showing the startup volume's window containing 16 folders. With 18.5MB, 1078 files, 17 folders it also takes 12 seconds. (512K, 128K ROM, HFS volume, System 3.2b3, Finder 5.2) ------------------------------ From: DSACHS (7729) Subject: ROM Resources Date: 2-MAY-21:02: Programming Does anyone know which resources can be safely deleted from a system file that is to be used ONLY with a Mac plus. I have the following partial list of the resource listed in TN 57 Safe to delete: FONT 12, PTCHs for other ROMs, MDEF 0, WDEF 0 Cannot be deleted: PACK 7, CDEF 0, 1, CURS 1, 2, 3, DRVR 2 ------------------------------ From: PEABO (7742) Subject: Bug in LightspeedC Date: 3-MAY-20:49: Programming Two bugs found in LightspeedC: ctype.h: treats iscsym() and iscsymf() the same. iscsymf() should not -include _digit_ in its definition. ctype.c: treats the value 128 as ASCII. This is wrong, since the high order bit is set. The documentation on page 13-32 of the manual is also wrong. peter ------------------------------ From: RSTICKLE (7754) Subject: RE: Warning about HP disks (Re: Msg 7731) Date: 4-MAY-12:19: Hardware & Peripherals Easy fix folks, Take your HP disk and turn it to the back side, you'll see a small plastic catch that fits in the sliding door cut-out. Now take a knife, something like an X-acto knife and cut the catch off so it's even with the -rest of the disk, and PRESTO, the sliding door can't catch and no more disk drive jams!! <grin> Rick ------------------------------ From: RDETCHELLS (7772) Subject: To John Bass Date: 4-MAY-23:00: MUGS Online This is directed to John Bass (DMS Designs), and regards the "new, improved" driver software I just got from Mirror Technology for the MagNet 20 (Which is, I think, identical to the Warp20). I don't know whether he had anything to do with the coding of this release, but if he did, I'm curious as to why things were done the way they were... The disk doees now indeed launch applications MUCH faster (about a factor of two in launch times). HOWEVER, it also now has the most incredibly extravagant disk allocation granularity that I've ever heard of: The smallest file I can find on the disk occupies 35K bytes (a rare occurrence), and most occupy at least 69K!~ I could understand a desire to reduce the size of the FAT (file allocation table, or whatever it's called on the Mac), to cut search times, but this is ridiculous! A disk contaiining 362K of MacWrite files occupied nearly 3 MEG when transferred to the MagNet20! At that rate, the MagNet could only hold the equivalent of 7 or 8 floppies! Is this the way the new software release is actually supposed to work, or is it a bug? (I have version 1.6 of the driver software from Mirror Tech.) Thanks for whatever info you might be able to pass on. BTW, kudos to you for your gentlemanly apology to Micah -- it was very well taken. Thanks, David Etchells, Perspect Systems (213) 821-7884 ------------------------------ From: PIZZAMAN (7775) Subject: cache setting Date: 4-MAY-23:20: Hardware & Peripherals I'm about to upgrade my 512 with the new ROM and 800 drive. I have system 3.1 and wonder whether the cache setting is anything I will need to play with. Is this something I will use with my 512, or is it just for the Mac+ with the extra memory? barry ------------------------------ From: BMUG (7779) Subject: RE: cache setting (Re: Msg 7775) Date: 5-MAY-02:34: Hardware & Peripherals It will work on a 512 though not as well. It loads certain things into the cache first then goes on to programs and such later. So it doesn't seem to make much differnce useing it. Your programs will run faster if they use alot of fonts ect. Steve Costa/BMUG ------------------------------ From: RICFORD (7790) Subject: RE: cache setting (Re: Msg 7779) Date: 5-MAY-10:40: Hardware & Peripherals I had the same experience on a 512K Mac. I kept forgetting whether the cache was on or off, because the speed gave no clues. Ric ------------------------------ From: MACINTOUCH (7793) Subject: Microsoft Updating Word... Date: 5-MAY-12:35: Business Mac Infoworld, 5 May '86: Microsoft Updating Word for the Macintosh Microsoft Corp. is reportedly working on a new release of the Macintosh -version of Word that will make the system similar to Word, version 3 for the PC, according to independant sources. Initial test copies of the new Macintosh version are now being completed, and beta test copies are expected to be delivered this summer, according to a -close source at the firm. "It's safe to assume that Microsoft could deliver a new release of Word sometime late this fall or early 1987," the source said. Microsoft is considering adding greater capabilities in the word processor, such as spell check, outline processing, sytle sheets, desktop publishing capability, and automatic index and table of contents generation, according to the source. josh - MacInTouch ------------------------------ From: DSACHS (7838) Subject: Re: Changing the default font Date: 6-MAY-19:33: MUGS Online It is very easy to change the defaut (system font if you have a current version of the Resource Editor. Simply move your replacement font onto the system file with an ID OTHER THAN 12. Then edit the FOND 0 resource to point to the new font. This of course works with a Mac plus only. ------------------------------ From: LOGICHACK (7821) Subject: Mac+ games Date: 6-MAY-00:51: Bugs & Features This is for the people complaining about compatibility problems. I have been able to get both Megaroids and MazeWars to work on a Mac+ by using Fedit to change the code that refers to the hardware buffers. The primary screen is at $7a700, that should be changed to $3fa700 to be compatible with up to 4MB of memory (the max). The other strings to change are: $72700 to $3f2700 for the secondary screen, and $7fd00 to $1ffd00 for the primary sound buffer. I don't think too many people use the second sound buffer... Other advice: don't rename megaroids since it hard codes the name to do a re- launch to use the second screen. Also, for software that use the alternate buffers, be sure to turn your cache setting OFF or the system will bomb sooner or later. It seems that Apple doen't acknowledge you buffer requests in the launch block in respect to the cache memory usage. Hope this helps, Paul ------------------------------ From: RICFORD (7832) Subject: HFS Backup bugs Date: 6-MAY-14:03: Bugs & Features We have discovered some bugs in PCPC's HFS Backup program which prevent restoring some backed up files. This is in version 1.0b. PCPC is shipping an updated version which corrects some of the bugs. We'll have more details later. Ric Ford "MacInTouch" ------------------------------ From: MUSICWORKS (7875) Subject: MacPCBridge Date: 7-MAY-22:20: Hardware & Peripherals I just installed a MacPCBridge on one of the IBM XT on a client's office network with appletalk/Mac/Laserwriter... Installation is a snap just plug in a half slot card and plug in appletalk cable and the software is excellent ! just run the program and you can choose what kind of document (i.e. wordstar/multimate etc) and it will print it out to the laserwriter, although (most IBM wordprocessor) doesn't let you see what kind of fonts you're about to print but by specifying some control commands you can change fonts,size,style etc... It takes some memory about 30K from your main memory ( big deal... ) with the 2 programs you have to exe cute first before running the laserScript Program ( the printing and mail box program)... those two program will search for the available appletalk devices (like laserwriter/plus) so far it's been working like a charm ! Jundi ------------------------------ From: BKV (7899) Subject: Desperately Seeking Software Date: 8-MAY-18:05: Business Mac Am desperately seeking software that runs on a Mac for use in a video/audio retail business. It must be able to handle customers by name AND number, preferably be multi-user, bar-code compatible, password protection compatible, be able to generate multiple types of reports including mailing labels; customer updates; catalog updates and modifications; category, customer, format, etc. code updates; batch checkins; customer activity; title activity (slow titles, top titles, titles listed by format, price, etc.); system codes; weekly, monthly & yearly summary reports and a few more. It must also be able to send to an on-line printer a sales receipt for each sales and rental. I would like to use Omnis 3 or Double Helix since they offer password protection, but will consider others if they meet the above criteria. Any leads or info will be greatly appreciated as the store will be in operationshortly after June 1st. Brad Vautrinot ------------------------------ From: JEFFS (7869) Subject: LoadSeg problem Date: 7-MAY-19:51: Bugs & Features I finally tracked down the bug that had been bothering me for some time now. -I have an application that would go off to Mac heaven whenever I opened a -certain file. It would only go off the deep end whenever I would select a particular menu item. If I selected this menu item FIRST and then opened the file, all worked! (Very frustrating!) As I investigated further I discovered that it was hung in in the LoadSeg trap (the code for the menu item was in a different segment.) Now, why did this happen?? Well, it just so happens that the file I opened that caused the crash was another application. What was happening was the LoadSeg was looking for the CODE resources in THAT application and not mine! The moral of the story is that if your application opens other application resource files you should put something like the following before you call functions residing in another code segment: curRes = CurResFile(); UseResFile(myResNum); loadFooSeg(); UseResFile(curRes); Where loadFooSeg can be an empty function in the segment you want to load. Jeff ------------------------------ From: JEFFS (7870) Subject: Printing Errors Date: 7-MAY-20:07: Programming I want my application to be "friendly" about reporting printing errors like "disk full" or "disk locked". By this I mean it should tell the user the name of the disk that is full or locked. This seemed easy enough to do since the Printing Manager says it uses the default volume for the spool file if the iFileVol field of the TPrJob record is 0 (the default.) You should then be able to call CurVol to get the name of the volume that caused the error. To test this out I locked my boot disk and tried to print from my program. The error message said my OTHER disk (where the program resided) was the disk that was locked! What gives?? (When I lock that other disk and not the boot disk all proceeds OK indicating that the boot disk *is* the disk it is trying to spool from.) What do I do now? Does iFileVol = 0 *really* mean the System volume and not the default volume? Jeff ------------------------------ From: JIMWEINRICH (7883) Subject: Setting file protect bit in ResEdit Date: 8-MAY-06:27: Developer's Corner How can I set the Protect bit using ResEdit? I can set most of the file bits in the Get Info box, and the File Protect bit is displayed there, but when I click in the check box it doesn't toggle. Is there some special option-key combo I have to press? Some magic certified developer's password that I must chant in order for Apple to let me mess with things I shouldn't touch? SetFile, etc., don't work properly under HFS, and that's why I need to use ResEdit. Thanks!! --JimWeinrich ------------------------------ From: RICFORD (7893) Subject: RE: Setting file protect bit in ResEdit (Re: Msg 7883) Date: 8-MAY-13:33: Developer's Corner HFS directories don't support the same file info bits. I'm pretty sure the file protect bit is gone, making it impossible to use old techniques for defeating copy protection hassles on programs such as MS Word. The zap programs such as HDUtil and MacZap handle it though. Ric ------------------------------ From: OPPENHEIM (7910) Subject: RE: Setting file protect bit in ResEdit (Re: Msg 7893) Date: 8-MAY-19:48: Developer's Corner Seem to support them for me -- no disk editor I have seen gives access to them w/o dire straits, but set the byte two before TYPECREA and the byte immediately after to $C1. Than protects, locks and renders invisible the file. Set the first of those to $C9 for bozo, if necessary. Fedit 3.52 doesn't allow looking at the volume directory, but you can find the file with an ascii search for the name or type/creator string. If you're doing this on the Plus with floppies eject the volume BEFORE quitting to the Finder. Otherwise, for some unexplained reason, the changes are not recorded. Now I have one -- does anyone get 'Quit' in the 'Special' menu (Finder)? No Apple docs, of course... ------------------------------ End of Delphi Mac Digest ************************ ------- Next, history, delete, reply, help, etc.? @