PD ROM 1/PD ROM Volume I - Macintosh Software from BMUG (1988).iso/Electronic Messages/Delphi Digests/Delphi Vol. 3/Delphi 3.27

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Date: Tue, 12 May 87 08:56 EDT
From: Jeffrey Shulman <[e-mail]>
Subject: Delphi Mac Digest V3 #27
To: [e-mail]
X-VMS-To: @[.MAIL]DD

Delphi Mac Digest     Tuesday, May 12, 1987          Volume 3 : Issue 27

Today's Topics:
     RE: About Lap Mac (2 messages)
     RE: Detecting Quits.
     RE: VBL tasks, offscreen bitmaps, Lights (2 messages)
     RE: Re: VBL tasks, offscreen bitmaps, Li
     Re: Re: Detecting Quits.
     Re: Re: Change in "_Launch" interface...
     Re: Compatibility guidelines
     Finder feature
     FONTS RESEDIT AND FONTDAMOVER
     ScrapSaver problem with Juggler
     RE: System 4.1/Finder 5.5 Compatibility (3 messages)
     fun bugs
     Sound digitizers...
     SE PRAM (2 messages)
     LaserWriter "Faster Bitmap Printing"
     Laser Prep 4.0 patch/Miniwriter
     rubber SE screens (2 messages)
     SE mouse
     RE: DataFrame 40 problems

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

From: AESOP
Subject: RE: About Lap Mac (Re: Msg 19620)
Date: 9-MAY-08:30: Hardware & Peripherals

Tak,

I spoke with the folks at Dynamac (of Boulder Colorado) yesterday, and
while the man I spoke with was naturally positive, some of what he said
is possibly of interest:

- The Dynamac will begin shipping in about 3 weeks so that an order
  sent now would probably be filled in late July or early August.

- They are investigating setting up a dealer network but have not
  as yet done so.  If you want to order, just send in your order
  form.  Credit card order or checks are gladly accepted...8-{}

- While the flat screen has 40% more pixels, it is 'slightly more
  compressed' than the regular Macintosh (but of course a pixel
  density was not given).  I asked about "aspect ratio" and got a
  confused answer, but aspect ratio really is more applicable to
  LCD screens and Dynamac uses an electroluminescent display, which
  I am assured "is at least as good as the regular Macintosh."  I
  still do not understand why a Big Pictures E-machine interface is
  built in as a standard feature unless the vendor assumes most of
  the customers will want one...

- The 300/1200 baud built-in modem is a $295 option.  Considering
  that anyone with the means to afford a 2400 baud modem should buy
  one of those instead, I have to wonder why it's even an option...

- They _do_not_recommend_ using the battery pack they sell, as it
  is only good for up to a half-hour.  On the other hand, a heavy-
  duty 12V battery can provide several hours of service, and their
  interface cable to a automobile cigarette lighter "works very
  reliably".  This was my primary concern, as I generally am around
  either 112VAC or 12VDC when I find myself twiddling my thumbs.  I
  could also well use a portable package to take with me on jobs.

- The engineers are working on a portable package for the Macintosh
  SE but the company is not sure how to market it yet.  They hope
  to provide it as an upgrade, but I commented that to do so they
  would have to gut most of the electronics to do so, as the SE has
  much more than just a different motherboard (correct me if I am
  wrong) and the internal expansion has size implications as well.

- I forgot to ask about mouse vs. trackball (again!)  I guess I'll
  just have to call them up (again).  There are certain reasons one
  would not want to use the mouse in a moving car or other space-
  limited situations.  Well, when the price starts approaching new-
  car territory, one is entitled to a certain number of questions.
  Their literature did not show the mouse, so I was wondering.

Details at 11,

Laird

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

From: PEABO
Subject: RE: About Lap Mac (Re: Msg 19706)
Date: 9-MAY-12:05: Hardware & Peripherals

I can think of two hypothetical reasons for including an E-machines
interface: (1) it might not be very expensive, and (2) they may be
making the point that there would be no reason to have any screen
smaller than an E-machine attached to it (somewhat the reverse of your
implication).

peter

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

From: PEABO
Subject: RE: Detecting Quits. (Re: Msg 19711)
Date: 9-MAY-12:35: Network Digests

>From: [e-mail] (Andrew Betzis)
>Subject: Detecting Quits.
>Date: 30 Apr 87 14:19:14 GMT
>Organization: RUNX Un*x Timeshare.  Sydney, Australia.

>   The question is: Is there a standard way of detecting Application exits?

>   The root of the problem is to be able to re-Trap quits.

Tech Note 64 describes IAZNotify, which is a low memory hook called by
InitApplZone.  They describe how an application might use it, but they
fail to make a recommendation about stacking IAZNotify hooks so that
your hook propagates the notify to the previous hook, etc.  Thus, it is
not clear that a DA or FKEY can use this feature.  There is also a
caution that the IAZNotify routine should reside in your main code
segment.  Presumably this is to insure that it is locked in memory, but
there may be something else going on relating to the relocation of the
clipboard.

peter                          "In any context, half of all references
PEABO @ DELPHI                  are local and half are global."

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

From: PEABO
Subject: RE: VBL tasks, offscreen bitmaps, Lights (Re: Msg 19713)
Date: 9-MAY-12:53: Network Digests

>From: [e-mail] (Bruce Florman)
>Subject: VBL tasks, offscreen bitmaps, Lightspeed Pascal, etc.
>Date: 7 May 87 19:05:59 GMT
>Organization: Rand Corp., Santa Monica

>>1.  How does one get mBarHeight from Lightspeed Pascal?

>    According to Inside Mac, p I-341, "The menu bar is white, 20 pixels
>high, and as wide as the screen, with a 1-pixel black lower border.  The
>menu titles in it are always in the system font and the system font
>size." So it sounds like you can just declare a constant.

The advice in Inside Mac vol. I is obsolete.  The Radius FPD has an
option for a taller menu bar, and I would expect Kanji menus to require
a taller menu bar (and window drag bar) than normal.

peter                          "In any context, half of all references
PEABO @ DELPHI                  are local and half are global."

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

From: JIMH
Subject: RE: VBL tasks, offscreen bitmaps, Lights (Re: Msg 19718)
Date: 9-MAY-22:08: Network Digests

>From: [e-mail] (Bruce Florman)
>Subject: VBL tasks, offscreen bitmaps, Lightspeed Pascal, etc.
>Date: 7 May 87 19:05:59 GMT
>Organization: Rand Corp., Santa Monica

This is how you get the menubar height.

 type
    integerptr = ^integer;
    pointervariant = record
                       case boolean of
                         false:
                           (pointer: integerptr);
                         true:
                           (address: longint)
                     end;

  var
    i: integer;
     menusizeptr: pointervariant;



Procedure whatever;

begin
      menusizeptr.address := $BAA;
      MenuSize:= menusizeptr.pointer^ ;

end;

Jim

Delphi: JIMH
AppleLink: V0261

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

From: JIMH
Subject: RE: Re: VBL tasks, offscreen bitmaps, Li (Re: Msg 19729)
Date: 9-MAY-22:17: MUGS Online

Steve, after disassembling the initwindow trap i found out that
mBarHeight is set in this procedure to the height of the system font.  I
was trying to get rid of the menu bar by setting it to zero and it kept
getting reset.  I found another way to do it th ough.  jim

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

From: BRECHER
Subject: Re: Re: Detecting Quits.
Date: 9-MAY-21:03: MUGS Online

To: [e-mail] (Joel West) Subject: Re: Re: Detecting Quits.

> The right way is to look for a DRVRControl call of goodBye (-1), the
> so-called "goodbye kiss".  Set the block in the 'DRVR' header
> needGoodbye.  This is all well-documented in Inside Macintosh.

The question was how to determine when an application was quitting.
Looking for goodbye kisses doesn't work for two reasons:  (1) Kisses are
issued only to drivers which have dNeedGoodbye set in their DCEs; if
there are no such drivers installed, no kisses are issued.  (2) Kisses
are also issued by Shut Down.

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

From: BRECHER
Subject: Re: Re: Change in "_Launch" interface...
Date: 9-MAY-21:04: MUGS Online

To: [e-mail] (Fred Huxham) Subject: Re: Re: Change in "_Launch"
interface...

> The Finder is the application that should be used to launch applications.

..unless the user prefers a shell with a different interface and/or
certain advantages over Finder.  My product, PowerStation (currently in
beta test), is such a shell.  Since one of the pre-release users who
likes PowerStation and who has praised it in public as an interesting
example of an alternative to the Finder interface is an Apple executive
who has considerable influence in product development, I have reason to
hope that your statement does not reflect "official policy," and that I
can look forward to continuing support for third-party system software.

More generally some Apple folks -- not the ones in Tech Support --
sometimes project an attitude that only Apple provides system software
for Macintoshes; that third parties do only spreadsheets, database
applications, etc.; and that system software details should be revealed
to third parties only to the extent that is necessary to implement a
spreadsheet, database, etc.  The roots of this attitude lie in land
tilled during 1982-84 to germinate the closed architecture appliance
computer and in that context I can sympathize with it; but not in 1987
and beyond.  Once stated, I doubt anyone at Apple would disagree with
this; and I'm sure many at Apple would agree that what is needed is an
active and agressive policy of encouragement for third party system
software development and timely disclosure of low-level architectures to
ensure compatibility.  But it doesn't hurt to state it as antidote to
remnants of the closed architecture attitude that may remain.

Example:  A forthcoming Apple product was discussed at the Developer's
Conference last month.  I doubt that detailed low-level documentation on
the working of this product will be available before or at the time it
is released. I guess that the reason for the lack of such documentation
is not that it ought to be intentionally withheld, but simply that
resources have not been allocated to produce such documentation in
tandem with the software development.  If I'm wrong, and we can look
forward to such documentation, then ignore this message and thanks!

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

From: BRECHER
Subject: Re: Compatibility guidelines
Date: 9-MAY-21:06: MUGS Online

To: [e-mail] Subject: Compatibility guidelines

> How does one use QuickDraw globals if you are not the one that
> initialised it? (eg. from a DA). I have found at least 2 popular
> way to set up these globals, at 0(a5) and at -4(a5). This makes
> some DAs fail in the Finder.

InitGraf places its argument into the location pointed to by A5.  The
0(A5) you saw was probably a reference to the address of the QuickDraw
globals; it was certainly not an argument to InitGraf in working
software.

Since 0(A5) contains a pointer to the QuickDraw globals, a DA can always
get the address of the globals as follows:

                Move.L  0(A5),An        ;An points to QuickDraw globals

Actually, QuickDraw globals are allocated "backwards" -- from higher to
lower addresses -- and thePort is the global at the highest address. The
assembly language equate value of thePort is 0, and the offsets of other
Quickdraw global fields is negative. Hence to continue the example:

                Move.L  thePort(An),Am  ;Am contains thePort (a GrafPtr)

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

From: DDUNHAM
Subject: Finder feature
Date: 9-MAY-20:17: Programming Techniques

Apparently Finder 5.4 is closing working directories when you insert a
disk. This causes great difficulties with desk accessories that try to
be polite by not leaving files open all the time, instead just
remembering the WDRefNum and name (for later saving).

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

From: HARDISON
Subject: FONTS RESEDIT AND FONTDAMOVER
Date: 9-MAY-22:13: Developers' Corner

For a partial list of ResEdit bugs see cat 1 topic 49 on Genie. I think
that thhe system programmers must be trying to sabotage the ROM
programmers. Neither ResEdit nor Font/DAMover has heard of NFNT
resources!! If you try to use a seperate resource for bold etc. you
cannot move it. What a mess.

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

From: LOGICHACK
Subject: ScrapSaver problem with Juggler
Date: 9-MAY-23:20: Bugs & Features

Anyone testing Juggler should be advised that if Juggler is set as the
startup, Having ScrapSaver installed will cause Juggler to croak on
bootup.

I will have a fix as soon as I figure it out.

Paul :(

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

From: DSACHS
Subject: RE: System 4.1/Finder 5.5 Compatibility (Re: Msg 19751)
Date: 10-MAY 16:36 Business Mac

After deleting added fonts and Desk accessories, System 4.1 seems to be
about 60K larger than a similarly configured 4.0 system. Does anyone
know which resources can be safely deleted for use on a Macintosh Plus
only.

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

From: DDUNHAM
Subject: RE: System 4.1/Finder 5.5 Compatibility (Re: Msg 19741)
Date: 11-MAY 04:55 Business Mac

Some of the resources relate to color.  Others add new functionality
(like hierarchical menus).  Programmers are going to start using these
new features, assuming that 4.1 is "universal" enough to do so.

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

From: MACINTOUCH
Subject: RE: System 4.1/Finder 5.5 Compatibility (Re: Msg 19764)
Date: 11-MAY 09:26 Business Mac

I've found no difference in speed with System 4.1.  I've tested SCSI,
but haven't done benchmarks on anything else.

Ric

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

From: JOSEF
Subject: fun bugs
Date: 10-MAY 04:05 Bugs & Features

Those of you who just delight in finding new bugs in Word 3.0 are going
to love this one.  Try this:  fire up a Word document and then open a
couple of DAs that use up about half of the screen area (dCAD calculator
and 3-D tictactoe, for instance). Then fire up miniWRITER. Now click in
mW's close box and then quickly (before the screen has a chance to get
re-drawn) click on the File menu and select Open...  When the dialog box
comes up just click on Cancel and watch what you get (or rather, what
you don't get)  You may have to try this 2 or three times.  If you don't
have mW, I'm sure any DA that has a large modeless dialog box will work
just as well.

Joe

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

From: HALL
Subject: Sound digitizers...
Date: 10-MAY 20:23 Hardware & Peripherals

Question:  which digitizer is better, the MacNifty or the BMUG
MacRecorder II+?

Thanks, Brian

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

From: MACINTOUCH
Subject: SE PRAM
Date: 10-MAY 20:44 Bugs & Features

I don't have this nailed down yet, but it gives me a bad feeling:

I went away for the weekend and took the new Mac SE with me.  When I
booted it up at the destination, the clock was wrong.  Uh oh, battery?
7 years? Well, I had it off for about 7 hours today (a record?), and it
kept the time alright this round.  But I'm a little worried.  The only
other cause I can think of, and it seems pretty obscure, is that I used
it with an ungrounded plug for a few minutes before I got the adapters
hooked up.

Anyone else?

Ric

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

From: PEABO
Subject: RE: SE PRAM (Re: Msg 19767)
Date: 10-MAY 20:54 Bugs & Features

How wrong was the clock?  Was anything else in the Control Panel set in
a strange state?

peter

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

From: PEABO
Subject: LaserWriter "Faster Bitmap Printing"
Date: 10-MAY 21:07 Business Mac

Definitely be careful of specifying the "Faster Bitmap Printing" option
in your Page Setup dialog if you are also using multiple fonts.  Faster
Bitmap Printing apparently requires more memory.  I had a page which was
printing OK until I moved a large bitmap from the top of the page to the
bottom.  It failed with a 'virtual memory' error duing printing after
that until I remembered to try shutting of fast bitmap option.

peter

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

From: PDNNOG
Subject: Laser Prep 4.0 patch/Miniwriter
Date: 10-MAY 21:09 User Supported Software

Again, thanks for the patch. I'm not a terrific programmer, but I can
hack pretty well, and I found a few additions needed for your patch for
laserprep 4.1. Specifically:

Change:
J/|______Helvetica /Helvetica true fr 10 fz 0 fs 2 F/
|______Helvetica fnt

to

P/mark T /Helvetica /|______Helvetica 0 rf 10 fz 0 fs 2 F/
|______Helvetica fnt

Note the change in the J to P to account for the increase in string
size; also note that the first /Helvetica does NOT have a space after
the slash. At this rate, I might eventually know a little about
programming..heehee.

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

From: MACINTOUCH
Subject: rubber SE screens
Date: 11-MAY 10:12 Bugs & Features

Just started using a Mac SE, and have found a worrisome anomaly with the
screen.  It bows in and out depending on what you're doing on the Mac. A
good test case is to run Red Ryder and drag-select an area of the screen
-- on this SE, it causes the screen to bow inward in the reversed
sections, and moving the selection up and down gives a rubber-screen
effect.  Since it's not random, it doesn't seem to be a problem with bad
hardware, but rather a design "feature."  Folks on CompuServe have been
talking about the same phenomenon, so (hopefully) it's not just this
particular SE.  This one, by the way, has the internal 20MB hard disk
(as, apparently, do 85% of the units being ordered).

Ric Ford

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

From: PEABO
Subject: RE: rubber SE screens (Re: Msg 19800)
Date: 11-MAY 11:59 Bugs & Features

That means the accelerator potential is sensitive to the amount of
current drawn from the electron beam.  The more black there is on the
screen, the less current is drawn, and therefore the higher the voltage
is, and the straighter the beam and the smaller the linear dimensions of
the scan.

The fix is to improve the regulation of the high-voltage supply in the
Mac.

The same kind of thing happens on other Macs, to varying degrees (in
fact many personal computer CRT displays exhibit this phenomenon).

peter

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

From: MACINTOUCH
Subject: SE mouse
Date: 11-MAY 10:16 Hardware & Peripherals

More impressions of the SE:  I love the way the mouse feels (after I
hacked the black ball-ring to make it smoother so it doesn't catch the
ball), but I can't get used to the shape.  It pulls back easily, but
seems awkward to push forward.  It also seems a little slower than the
Mac Plus mouse when used with System 4.0 or 4.1.

Ric

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

From: MACINTOUCH
Subject: RE: DataFrame 40 problems (Re: Msg 19713)
Date: 11-MAY 10:24 Network Digests

>To: [e-mail] (Joel West)
>Subject: Re: Damaged XP 40 directory

I'm curious about these DataFrame 40 problems...  I've been using a 40XP
which has a NEC drive inside, I believe (5") for something like 6 months
with no problems at all.  It makes an odd sound when seeking, but always
has (I assumed it was some voice coil mechanism), and it has developed
tiny additional noises after being transported (I usually leave it on
all the time, reasoning that power/heat cycles are bad), but it has been
the most reliable drive I've used since 1984.  And it's definitely the
fastest out of all the ones I've seen, and out of all the ones tested by
DiskTimer II.

Reliability is the crucial, overriding factor on which to base disk
purchases, so let's hear more about these potential problems.

Ric Ford

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

End of Delphi Mac Digest
************************