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del Message 1305148 has been deleted. Message: 1305150, 645 lines Posted: 1:55pm EDT, Sun May 18/86, imported: 4:49am EDT, Tue May 20/86 Subject: Delphi Mac Digest V2 #19 To: Peter_Johnston@UQV-MTS, MacTechnics User Group, John Dorsey, Gavin Eadie, Abraham Vanderspek From: SHULMAN@RED.RUTGERS.EDU Delphi Mac Digest Sunday, 18 May 1986 Volume 2 : Issue 19 Today's Topics: RE: Mac tote BIG mac Acta DA limit bug in lightspeed OpenResFile doc bug ZZZZZaaaaaaapppppp! MacPascal 2.0 PSHELL _DIZero problems... RE: _DIZero problems... (Re: Msg 8088) RE: Excalibur from Assimilation (Re: Msg 8115) RE: 64K ROM Versions (Re: Msg 7568) Mac+ Sound Problems scrapbook bug RE: scrapbook bug (Re: Msg 8199) RE: Mac+ Sound Problems (Re: Msg 8183) MacDraw 1.9 patches Assimilation down the tube Cortland??? getting screen dumps with menus RE: getting screen dumps with menus (Re: Msg 8243) Re: DA Number limit beware of PMSP if you access files Appletalk Question RE: Appletalk Question (Re: Msg 8278) RE: Appletalk Question (Re: Msg 8279) DeskTop Disasters ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: RICFORD (7923) Subject: RE: Mac tote Date: 8-MAY-23:32: MUGS Online In reply to: From: julian@riacs.ARPA (Julian E. Gomez) Subject: Mac tote I bought the Mac Tote quite a while ago; it had pockets for both an external drive and a modem, and seemed to be well designed. I've been very happy with it, and was amazed when the company sent me a new strap because a small percentage of their customers had complained of problems with the clips that connect the strap to the D-rings on the case (they seemed quite strong) -- a free new strap, unsolicited. I paid about $100 for the case, but have seen it discounted in a number of places. Ric Ford ------------------------------ From: DDUNHAM (7937) Subject: BIG mac Date: 9-MAY-02:48: Hardware & Peripherals A couple days ago, I gave a demo of Acta on a 1024x750 pixel screen. It was awesome (both Acta and the screen...)! The hardware is from Micrographic Images. For $3000 they'll selll you a high- comes out the video port. If you've got something else, you can probably attach it instead of their monitor...we were using a projection system, which could only go to 750 vertical. If you get the 1024x1024, you're more or less working with an area the size of six Mac screens! Many programs can take advantage of this...MacWrite could not, you could only drag the window to about the size of a Lisa screen. Clicking the Acta zoom box gave you an obscenely large window. Just think of seeing a whole screen at once with PageMaker! ------------------------------ From: RICFORD (7952) Subject: Acta Date: 9-MAY-16:11: Macintosh In Fact We have finally gotten a chance to look at Acta, the desk accessory outlining program from David Dunham. There's no longer any need to pay over $200 for a copy-protected, environment-sensitive, unfriendly application, when Acta does essentially eve rything ThinkTank 512 does and more for under $80. This outlining program can transfer data to MacWrite and text files in a reasonable format, with indentation and paragraph numbering - something ThinkTank hasn't managed to do in all the time it's been out. It supports pasting of graphics, it su pports different type styles within one document, and it's a Desk Accessory, always available. We haven't hit any bugs yet (and don't really expect to, knowing the programmer). One thing that's missing is a print function, but this isn't much of a -problem, because you can print easily from MockWrite or MacWrite or Word. There is -even a program ("Acta runner") for using Acta on a 128K Mac. Acta is owned by Maitreya design, David Dunham's company, and is being distributed by Symmetry Software. Let's hear it for high-quality, low priced, useful software, and let's tell Living Videotext where to put ThinkTank, with its $35 "upgrades," copy protection, non-standard interface, and ridiculous price/performance ratio. Ric Ford ------------------------------ From: DDUNHAM (7975) Subject: DA limit Date: 10-MAY 01:13 Macintosh In Fact From: Dan Winkler <daw%brown.csnet@CSNET-RELAY.ARPA> >Does anyone know why the Font/DA Mover refuses to put more than 15 DA's >in the system file? Because Apple doesn't understand how people really want to use the Mac. They decided to reserve some of the DRVR slots for dynamic allocation. So far, nobody's using them. It's possible to install more DAs using the DA Installer from Dreams of the Phoenix, or using ResEdit. (On a Mac+, it's possible to give DRVRs IDs from 32-47, so you can get enough DAs in to scroll!) (DOTP is working on DA Installer+, which will take advantage of the new slots onthe MAC+. These slots in the unit table are officially reserved by Apple, BTW.) ------------------------------ From: RMUHA (7981) Subject: bug in lightspeed Date: 10-MAY 05:23 Programming try running the temp conversion program (K&R page 11): main() { int f; for (f = 0; f <= 300; f += 20) printf("%d %f\n", f, (5.0/9.0) * (f - 32)); } I get some awfully funny numbers from this one. it works correctly, though, -if you compute i = f - 32 and print (5.0/9.0) * i simple programs are killers... ------------------------------ From: JEFFS (8022) Subject: OpenResFile doc bug Date: 10-MAY 20:11 Bugs & Features Inside Mac says the following about OpenResFile: If the resource file is already open, it doesn't make it the current resource file; it simply returns the reference number. Which is *not* what really happens! The resource file IS made the current resource file which effectively ignores any resource file opened after that file. The workaround is to record the current resource file BEFORE you call OpenResFile. If OpenResFile returns a resource number of a file you have already opened then you should call UseResFile on that recorded number. Jeff "Another one bites the dust" Shulman ------------------------------ From: MOUSEKETEER (8045) Subject: ZZZZZaaaaaaapppppp! Date: 11-MAY 00:24 Hardware & Peripherals I picked up a copy of "Chilton's Guide To Macintosh Repair and Maintenance" today, and present the follow quickie review: Unless you have need for one or two bits of technical info actually found in the book, you'll find it only frustrating. Say you get the case apart and your looking at the bright and focus pots on the analog board. The book gives the following helpful advice "Don't fiddle with either of them". It does outline how to remove a power supply (after a fashion), but if a novice were to follow some of the hints, they might well get to replace a lot more. "Even if you've let the computer sit for a while to drain off the high voltage, -short it yourself just to be sure - and safe!" This caption is under a picture of someone shoving a soldering iron and a screwdriver to the CRT connection and the frame. My favorite line was about testing for Incoming Power... "If power is obviously present (i.e., the cooling fan is running, or you hear the clicking) you can skip this first.....". Information about even the keyboard cable is unclear, for while the author does point out that a phone cord is quite different than the keyboard cable, he never states in what way, and then goes on to say that if you do use a telephone cable, to be sure that it has all four pins connected (which will hardly matter if they are not connected in the proper order, which the telephone cord wires are not). On the positive side, Appendix A devotes five pages to teaching you how to -make your very own "case popper" for under a dollar in less than ten minutes! All you need are two brass keys, a small brass hinge, solder, torch, vise grips, and a vise (hey, I keep that stuff in MY desk all the time!) "Chilton's Guide to Macintosh Repair and Maintenance", by Gene B. Williams, $12.50 (or cheaper if you want my copy... grin). Alf ------------------------------ From: CVARGAS (8069) Subject: MacPascal 2.0 PSHELL Date: 11-MAY 19:33 Programming I hope someone out there can help me with this. I'm writing my first ever program of any length with MacPascal 2.0, just as an exercise in learning Pascal and doing Mac type stuff like mouse down events, etc. Anyway, I have a program that runs beautifully under 2.0, with either the new or the old System/Finder. Well, when I save it as an "application" and try to run it with the PSHELL shell, it bombs like you wouldn't believe! Really awful looking. It runs fine, however, under PSHELL with the OLD System/Finder... it only bombs with new System/Finder (and yes, I'm using 3.1.1). (I should also note I do not have the 128K ROMs). Does anyone know whether PSHELL is compatible with the new System? I'd think it should be, since it was distributed with it. I hope someone can help. (P.S. -- I'm not doing anything that's obviously "risky"... my most advanced routines are waiting for button to = true, and doing some DrawStrings. I do save and read text files to/from disks, though) Thanks in advance. ------------------------------ From: LOGICHACK (8088) Subject: _DIZero problems... Date: 11-MAY 21:48 Programming Has anyone on this sig used the _DIZero trap much? I have been able to get it to work in the past but it refuses to work for my current project. I have my own device driver which accepts all the usual requests. I have been tracing this with TMON (for days, I might add) and the Disk Initialization Package (PACK 2) issues a bunch of write requests to write out the Master Directory block, volume bitmap, etc. but when it finally goes to do a _MountVol on the newly zeroed volume, it hangs forever. This is accompanied by a messed up cursor. And if I try to _Exittoshell, the sucker usually loops someplace in _Flushevents. I think it might have something to do with async routines... If anyone has info on this matter, please let me know. Thanx, Paul ------------------------------ From: DWB (8091) Subject: RE: _DIZero problems... (Re: Msg 8088) Date: 11-MAY 22:14 Programming I hacked RamStart to use DIZero so that it would initialize large ramdisks as HFS volumes. For that it seemed to work fine. You do have to make sure the size field of the device queue entry is correct. David ------------------------------ From: SYNTHONY (8153) Subject: RE: Excalibur from Assimilation (Re: Msg 8115) Date: 12-MAY 23:27 Hardware & Peripherals I tried to reach Assimilation today with no answer. I contacted Digidesigns concerning the Midi Conductor they had designed (distributed by Asm), and they informed me that indeed, Assimilation Process had filed for bankruptcy and had ceased all operations. For those looking for the Mac Midi interface, Digidesigns will be marketing the interface to dealers, after making several modifications. Bill SYNTHONY ------------------------------ From: MACINTOUCH (8158) Subject: RE: 64K ROM Versions (Re: Msg 7568) Date: 13-MAY 16:10 Macintosh In Fact A subscriber just confirmed the two different 64K ROM versions with different data at $400002 as described in previous messages here, and said that the -newer 64K ROMs do have a "-B" on the chip(s). He also had heard the rumor that the difference was to accomodate a change in the stepper motor in the Sony drive, and said that he'd had trouble occasionally with the old 64K ROMs not recognizing a disk inserted into the external drive. (that might be a random problem with the external drive). Ric ------------------------------ From: RANDOM (8183) Subject: Mac+ Sound Problems Date: 14-MAY 22:45 Bugs & Features Has anyone else had problems with sound generation on the Mac+. I just recently had my Mac upgraded to Plus, and discovered that there is now an annoying clicking noise going continuously when I run Racter. A friend of mine with a new Mac+ observes the same thing, so I don't think this is specific to my machine. Also, and worse, music played with ConcertWare+ now is often distorted by what also sounds like a series of clicks. Any comments or suggestions? ------------------------------ From: PIZZAMAN (8185) Subject: scrapbook bug Date: 14-MAY 23:05 Bugs & Features another little bug with my enhanced Mac. I have a number of things saved in my scrapbook. When I copy number 3 to load into Pagemaker, a mysterious old scrapbook entry materializes that was erased many moons ago. Outside of Pagemaker, the scrapbook works fine. For instance number 3 from the scrapbook copies fine to macpaint. Back in Pagemaker, however, the mysterious file shows up in the clipboard every time number 3 (new) is copied. Huh? ------------------------------ From: DDUNHAM (8237) Subject: RE: scrapbook bug (Re: Msg 8199) Date: 16-MAY 03:05 Bugs & Features Scrapbook still has the bug where PICT items for some reason get TEXT attached to them. I clean it out by pasting into Acta and then back. ------------------------------ From: ASMCOR (8188) Subject: RE: Mac+ Sound Problems (Re: Msg 8183) Date: 14-MAY 23:37 Bugs & Features Sure is - the free-form synthesizer in the Mac+ has a serious bug that causes it to go into an infinite loop and crash horribly. The symptoms are a continuous sound from the speaker that gets more and more distorted until finally the Mac crashes. MS BASIC is strongly affect by this bug, and you simply cannot use the SOUND statement at all. Other programs which use the free-form synth also will crash randomly (I've had problems with MacGolf, for instance). Jan ------------------------------ From: MACINTOUCH (8198) Subject: MacDraw 1.9 patches Date: 15-MAY 11:45 Bugs & Features Here's are some hot tips from AppleLink for patching MacDraw to handle fonts better: To get a set of fonts to work the same with different System files, and always be available in MacDraw, add those fonts to MacDraw itself with ResEdit, (FONDs and FONTs) and modify their names in ResEdit by choosing Get Info and prefacing each of the font names with a space. (This will move them to the top of the font menu in MacDraw.) Of course, there will still be problems of one font being translated to another unless everyone uses the same, patched version of MacDraw. To fix the problem of not being able to scroll the font menu in MacDraw *1.9*, try the following patches on a copy of it (I hope I got this right): CHANGE: 41ED FAD6 TO 41ED F360 (9 TIMES) 0000 0C60 TO 0000 0CA0 (ONCE) 0014 6F02 7C14 TO 001F 6F02 7C1F (ONCE) 000B FACE TO 0016 FACE (TWICE) 70E1 TO 709B (3 TIMES) 0001 00E1 TO 0001 009D (3 TIMES) 10E1 TO 109D (ONCE) 0C47 0015 TO 0C47 0020 (ONCE) 4E56 FFBE TO 4E56 FF9E (ONCE) END. Ric Ford ------------------------------ From: MACINTOUCH (8200) Subject: Assimilation down the tube Date: 15-MAY 16:07 Business Mac Last night at the Boston Computer Society Mac meeting, someone asked the presenters from MacConnection about the rumored demise of Assimilation. They said that they could no longer get any products delivered from Assimilation -and that the phones weren't being answered at all and that their representative -was no longer working there. Kinda wraps it up. Ric Ford ------------------------------ From: MOUSEKETEER (8207) Subject: Cortland??? Date: 15-MAY 20:24 Hardware & Peripherals (from Computer+Software News, May 12 issue) Apple's 4 1/4 Mbyte Cortland to be most powerful pc yet Apple's long awaited IIx, the vendor's most powerful pc, is set to debut this fall with a suggested retail of $1,600, Apple sources revealed. The unit, along with the Mac Plus, one of six CPU's Apple is expected to introduce this year, will pave the way for price cuts on the IIc and IIe, allowing Apple to dominate this year's Christmas selling season, dealers maintain. The IIx, code-named Rambo by Apple insiders, is better known as "Cortland" to domestic third-party developers and "Zeus" to international developers, sources said. The Cortland features 256K RAM, expandable to 4 1/4 Mbytes....features an upgraded 65C02 chip, the 16-bit 65816, enabling the unit to run three times faster than the IIc or IIe at 3.6 Mhz....built in networking and Appletalk, a detachable keyboard, four expansion slots and built-in color graphics like the Atari ST and Commodore Amiga.&.impressive sound. The machine will reportedly be sold with unbundled drives, allowing users to configure units with hard disk drives. The article goes on to describe other Apple introductions expected in the next 12 months, including an open-architecture Mac and VLSI IIe, the latter to be priced as low as $500 to schools. Two other CPU's are still under development, it continues. Compatibility or a "bridge" between the Cortland and Mac has not been decided, according to the story. It appears that while a "bridge" between the Cortland and Mac already exists at Apple (as a 3.5" disk drive and converter box) it may not be marketed if Apple believes it's release would strip market sales from the Mac (though the article states that if Apple doesn't market the bridge, a third-party developer probably would). Also, an IBM bridge is in the works for Cortland via a "small computer interface port". "Cortland was always intended to be Apple's most powerful product, insiders claim. It has been upgraded and redesigned three times over the past three years. The original machine and two of it's revisions are said to be the brainchild of Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak. The first unit was shown to dealers in 1983, as an 8-bit machine. Then, in April 1984, it was upgraded to a 16-bit, 256K RAM expandable to 1 Mbyte - then to be the industry's first 1-Mbyte machine. However, the unit never made it to market, allegedly triggering Wozniak's departure from Apple." Alf ------------------------------ From: MACINTOUCH (8210) Subject: getting screen dumps with menus Date: 15-MAY 21:33 Bugs & Features I may have missed this before, but does anyone have a reliable method of getting screen dumps on a Mac Plus that include pulled-down menus? I just tried the Camera DA and it was a complete disaster, trashing my System file. hoping for something better, Ric ------------------------------ From: MACINTOUCH (8248) Subject: RE: getting screen dumps with menus (Re: Msg 8243) Date: 16-MAY 12:59 Bugs & Features Well, I looked on Q&D vol. I and found nothing like a camera DA, so I re- downloaded it from CIS, reinstalled it, ran HyperInstall on top of it and it worked! There may have been some other program involved in the System crash; I'm not sure. By the way, it seems not to work when run from MacPaint, although it didn't trash anything. (Current config. is Hyper20 with new software and hardware and 512Enhanced -Mac, System 3.1.1/Finder 5.2) Ric ------------------------------ From: BRECHER (8222) Subject: Re: DA Number limit Date: 15-MAY 23:59 MUGS Online To: CML5A9%IRISHMVS.BITNET@WISCVM.WISC.EDU Subject: Re: DA Number limit > It's not the font movers limitation, but a limit in the number of DA drivers > permitted in the system file. The limit is the size of the unit table in RAM (not the system file). One entry in the unit table is required for each device driver and desk accessory. The default size of the unit table, established by startup code in ROM, is 32 for 64K ROMs and 48 for 128K ROMs. It is Apple's policy to reserve certain unit table slots for device drivers; it is this policy, rather than any technical reason, that is behind Font/DA Mover's limit of 15. DA Mover, on Dreams of the Phoenix's Quick and Dirty Utilities Disk #1, -permits installation of more than 15 DAs. ------------------------------ From: MARSHG (8277) Subject: beware of PMSP if you access files Date: 17-MAY 23:25 Programming I just discovered a feature of HFS that every programmer MUST watch out for. -If you get back "no error" from a FS call, the file that you accessed will either be in the folder you thought it was or in the blessed folder (where the System and Finder are). Most of the time this is ok but if you assume that success means the file is where you thought it was--watch out. I have a program that copies files and was amazed when I was copying out of -the System folder, the "from" copy disappeared after the copy. To get rid of the destination file before copying, I was deleting it and ignoring any "file not found" errors. I hit the floor when the delete succeeded even though there wasn't any destination file!!! This behavior is caused by the Poor Man's Search Path or PMSP. Here's a description of how PMSP works from Mac Tech support: The PMSP is used for any call that can return a file not found error, such as PBOpen, PBClose, PBDelete, PBGetCatInfo, etc. It is not used for indexed calls (that is, where ioFDirIndex is positive) or when a file is created (PBCreate) or when a file is being moved between directories (CatMove). Here's a brief description of how the PMSP works. 1) The specified directory is searched (specified by dirID or WDRefNum or pathname); if no file is found, 2) the volume/directory specified by boot drive (low-memory global at $210 is searched IF it is on the same volume as the specified directory (see #1 -above); if no file is found, or the volume/directory is not on the same drive, 3) the 'blessed folder' is searched IF it is on the same volume as the specified directory (see #1 above); if no file is found 4) fnfErr is returned. Technotes will be fothcoming about PMSP. As you can see, you have to be really careful when doing things like copying. -I looked at the source for Util in net.sources.mac and, if you try to copy out -of your blessed folder, you will distroy the file you're copying when Util opens the "new" file and truncates it (assuming that there is no "new" file). Hope this helps. ------------------------------ From: BKV (8278) Subject: Appletalk Question Date: 17-MAY 23:47 Business Mac I'll be moving to the Western part of the country in about a week and will be opening my own business. I would like to use 2 or 3 Macs in this venture via AppleTalk but am unsure as to how to go about it. The business is video and audio and I've found a programmer who wrote a terrific template that uses Omnis 3. I'm using a Plus and would like to have other Mac(s) hooked into the system via AppleTalk connectors. Do they all have to be Pluses or can one be a Plus and the other(s) 512K Macs; does Omnis 3 have to be present in all of the Macs or can it just be in the Plus and the others act as terminals; will I need fileserver software, such as MacServe or will multi-user Omnis 3 be enough? All Macs will be accessing an Apple HD 20 for starters. Will I need any additional hardware? Hope these questions aren't too dumb, but I just need some clarification on a multi-user Mac set-up. Thanks Brad ------------------------------ From: MUSICWORKS (8279) Subject: RE: Appletalk Question (Re: Msg 8278) Date: 18-MAY 00:36 Business Mac Hi at the present time (Multiuser version) of OMNIS 3 only works with the corvus networks and the just released version for the Ethernet 3Com (Very Expensive but much faster Network) Unfortunately up to now as far as I know you can not just tie several Macs together and make them as a 'terminal' for the other that is running and application, maybe somebody would be interested in writing some kind of application for that Like the MacDB debugger ? Well I hope I've been helpful , good luck Jundiu Jundi w/o the u ------------------------------ From: MACINTOUCH (8282) Subject: RE: Appletalk Question (Re: Msg 8279) Date: 18-MAY 10:54 Business Mac Brad, 1) You can use Mac 512's and Mac Plusses together on AppleTalk, but you must run the same System/LaserWriter software on all Macs. 2) Omnis must be present on each Mac. The way it works is that you buy a multiuser version of Omnis that is a kit allowing you to use it on up to 5 -Macs (bigger kits are available). It's cheaper than buying 5 copies of the single-user Omnis (which wouldn't work, anyway). 3) Omnis will work on OmniNet (high-speed, recommended), MacServe (not quite out yet, but also well thought-of at Omnis/Blyth), and HyperNet (not out yet). It worked on OmniTalk, but that was a bad system that has been dropped. The 3Com solution turns out to be as slow as other AppleTalk solutions -- as I understand it, 3Com uses the fast ethernet only for external communications, not for communicating between Macs. See the review of the 3Server in "InfoWorld" a month or three back. 4) For extensive multi-user appliations, OmniNet seems to be the only way to go. For low-load applications, MacServe or HyperNet should be ok. MacServe gives you the advantage of being able to choose any hard disk, so you can choose one with fast access times (such as the Bernoulli box or AST 4000) for better network performance. Ric Ford ------------------------------ From: MACINTOUCH (8285) Subject: DeskTop Disasters Date: 18-MAY 11:05 Bugs & Features Since Acta supports MacWrite 2.2 formats, I thought I'd dredge up the old version and play with it. I copied it into the same folder with MacWrite 4.5 (they had different names). Both icons disappeared. I then tried to open a Red Ryder 9.2 document in another folder. RR bombed. I restarted the system and looked at RR9.2 It was a bloody MacWrite document instead of an application! When I tried to open it from ResEdit to change the type and creator, ResEdit bombed. Status: munged ryder. Pulling out my trusty HFS Backup and three boxes of disks containing my full and incremental backups, I proceeded to restore RR9.2 and trash the old MacWrite. We're back to normal now, but I ain't gonna try _that_ one again! Ric P.S. This is the second time I've been bailed out by HFS Backup. I like it' -a _lot_. Version 1.1b4 or something like that. ------------------------------ End of Delphi Mac Digest ************************ ------- Next, history, delete, reply, help, etc.? @