PD ROM 1/PD ROM Volume I - Macintosh Software from BMUG (1988).iso/Electronic Messages/Delphi Digests/Delphi Vol. 3/Delphi 3.35

Text File | 1988-04-08 | 25.1 KB | 704 lines | [TEXT/ttxt]

27-Jul-87 11:47:37-PDT,26400;000000000001
Date: Mon 27 Jul 87 10:56:46-EDT
From: Jeff Shulman <SHULMAN@SDR>
Subject: Delphi Mac Digest V3 #35

Delphi Mac Digest     Friday, July 24, 1987          Volume 3 : Issue 35

Today's Topics:
     Fortran 77 + 68881 for the Mac II (3 messages)
     RE: Using assembly language with MicroSoft FORTRAN
     RE: Do the PostScript strech... (3 messages)
     re: Control Panel vs. Chooser
     Selecting print quality (3 messages)
     SE video problems
     Re: Re: Control Panel vs. Chooser
     Re: Debugging frozen mouse problem (2 messages)
     Lisa (what's that?) hard disks
     RE: Mac II Beep SND
     RE: Region structure? (3 messages)
     synching to vidoo blanking (2 messages)
     Deactivating statictext (4 messages)
     Looking for an FKEY...
     Mac II w/multiple video cards
     color picker (2 messages)
     PageMaker 2.0 "features" (2 messages)
     SoundWave
     NEW Bernoulli drives
     RE: equation composers
     re:  Arrow keys and collapsing selection
     edititem disable (2 messages)
     cdevs

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

From: DWOOD
Subject: Fortran 77 + 68881 for the Mac II
Date: 14-JUL 20:48 Programming

Does anyone have any info on FORTRAN77 that supports the co-processor
for the Mac II.  I can't find the address for Absoft anywhere in my
office, so if you have it handy could you leave it here?  Or if you know
the latest dope on that please let me know.  I heard that they are going
to market it themselves -- the thought MS was not pushing it enough. I
have seen some other F77 compilers advertized -- are there any that you
would recommend?

Thanks in advance for the info ---                    Doug

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

From: YMUG
Subject: RE: Fortran 77 + 68881 for the Mac II (Re: Msg 21241)
Date: 14-JUL 21:19 Programming

Absoft,4268 N.Woodward,Royal Oak,MI,48072,Tel.[phone]. Don't ask.
;-)

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

From: DWOOD
Subject: RE: Fortran 77 + 68881 for the Mac II (Re: Msg 21242)
Date: 18-JUL 20:38 Programming

I also called the tech support line in Florida. They said that version
2.3 in in the second of weeks of Beta testing and no big problems had
come up.  WHen they ship they will have a 68881 option in the compiler.
Price: 495 list  Less 100 if you have MS FORTRAN or MacFORTRAN and want
to upgrade to 2.3 Absofts Fortran will compile on the Mac II, by the
way, if you have the latest toolbx.sub and f77.rl run-time library.  It
does not take advantage of the 68881, however. V2.3 is supposed to do
that. BTW: look for ver. 3 of Dan Kampmeier's wondeful McFace subroutine
that works on the Mac II and has many nice NEW features. -Doug

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

From: MALOY
Subject: RE: Using assembly language with MicroSoft FORTRAN
Date: 15-JUL 11:01 Network Digests

SUBJECT: Using assembly language with MicroSoft FORTRAN

  The MS FORTRAN linker is not REL-file compatible.  The Linker expects
SUB-files to have DATA forks containing executable code starting from
the beginning of the file, and MDS REL-files do not fit this
description. However, the MDS linker can be used to convert MDS
REL-files to MS FORTRAN SUB-files.
  As an example, suppose you wanted to create the DATE.SUB file from the
DATE.ASM file provided.  First, modify DATE.ASM to be MDS Assembler
compatible by changing the asterisk comment characters to semi-colons.
Then MDS Assemble the file to create a DATE.REL file.   Now, we're ready
to have the object code "linked to a data fork."  Create a file called
DATE.LINK containing the following:

 /DATA
 /TYPE '    ' '    '
 DATE.REL
 /OUTPUT DATE.SUB
 $

MDS LINK with this file as input and you will create a SUB-file which
can be dynamically linked at run-time or linked to a main program using
the MS FORTRAN linker.
                                                     Bill Maloy
                                                     NSTL, MS
                                                     [phone]

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

From: DDUNHAM
Subject: RE: Do the PostScript strech... (Re: Msg 21206)
Date: 15-JUL 03:08 Business Mac

Do the stretching after pasting the object into a word processor or page
layout program.

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

From: MACINTOUCH
Subject: RE: Do the PostScript strech... (Re: Msg 21266)
Date: 15-JUL 20:34 Business Mac

I used to do this with MacDraw and PageMaker. Create the text in
MacDraw, save it in an Acta outline, and paste it into PageMaker, where
you can stretch the object horizontally or vertically.  MacWEEK uses the
technique for their headlines.

Ric

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

From: NATURAL
Subject: RE: Do the PostScript strech... (Re: Msg 21272)
Date: 15-JUL 23:38 Business Mac

but then when I paste back into SuperPaint (even using Acta as a
middle-DA), it still reverts.  I guess I'll leave it in PageMaker.

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

From: DDUNHAM
Subject: re: Control Panel vs. Chooser (Re: Msg 21214)
Date: 15-JUL 03:08 Network Digests

 >From: [e-mail] (Walter Smith)
 >Subject: Control Panel vs. Chooser

My guess is that Chooser chooses among files (printer drivers,
AppleShare driver), while Control Panel doesn't normally.  Note that
Startup Device deals with local hardware, the Chooser more with remote
devices.

 >From: [e-mail] (Joel West)
 >Subject: Re: Control Panel vs. Chooser

I have 30 DAs under my Apple menu (thanks to the forthcoming Suitcase
from Steve Brecher's Software Supply), and use most of them
occasionally.  I do think both are useful and different.

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

From: SOCCERKING
Subject: Selecting print quality
Date: 15-JUL 14:14 Programming Techniques

How does one go about selecting the print quality from within an
application, without going through the dialogs. Like the es one go about
selecting the print quality manually without having the user going threw
the dialog, like the {PrintOptions} variable in MPW.

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

From: DDUNHAM
Subject: RE: Selecting print quality (Re: Msg 1876)
Date: 16-JUL 22:28 Programming Techniques

If you do it, you risk being incompatible (isn't MPW burned by that one
with the latest drivers?).  If you just want to be draft, then you can
use low level printing (which actually looks much nicer than draft on an
ImageWriter), though I've heard rumours that Apple will stop supporting
low level printing in the future.

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

From: DWB
Subject: RE: Selecting print quality (Re: Msg 1876)
Date: 19-JUL 22:35 Programming Techniques

One way is to have a print record which get's read from a resource.  If
the resource doesn't exist, you can put up the dialog and have the user
select whatever options you think you need.  Then save the resource.
Whenever you need to print load the resource (or create it as above) and
validate it with PrValidate. That way you are guaranteed to be
compatible with whatever's going on in the current print driver and at
the same time the user is only required to specify o[ptions a minimum of
times.  Presumably you can even do the selection before you ship the
stuff so they will probably never see it needing to be done.

That cryptic enough for you...

David

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

From: MACINTOUCH
Subject: SE video problems
Date: 15-JUL 21:21 Bugs & Features

I think I've stumbled on one of the things that causes video problems
with the Mac SE. I've been opening the SE up a lot, testing accelerators
and hard disks, and noticed that the red wire from the flyback
transformer was touching the white ground wire. I separated them a
little, and the real-time- rubber-screen effect on the left side seemed
to get better - now it expands and contracts less. (You might have to
see it to understand).  Tweaking the brightness controls on the analog
board didn't seem to help anything much, not even the barrel distortion.

Ric

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

From: BRECHER
Subject: Re: Re: Control Panel vs. Chooser
Date: 16-JUL 02:35 MUGS Online

To: [e-mail] (Maurice Weitman) Subject: Re: Re: Control Panel vs.
Chooser

> The only real objection I have to Chooser being separate is the DA slot it
> uses, and that is something that will no longer be a problem, RSN, right
> Steve?

Right.  The revolution starts in booth 1321 at MacWorld Expo, Boston.

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

From: BRECHER
Subject: Re: Debugging frozen mouse problem
Date: 16-JUL 02:35 MUGS Online

To: [e-mail] (Paul Smethers) Subject: Re: Debugging frozen
mouse problem

> I'm having problems finding a bug the freezes the mouse.  Has anyone found a
> good debugging method for finding these bugs (i.e. is there some way with
> some tool to trap the memory access to the bogus address)?

Find a Mac II and run your code on it; the offending code will likely
cause an immediate bus error trap into the debugger.

I know of no other debugging technique for this problem.

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

From: DDUNHAM
Subject: RE: Re: Debugging frozen mouse problem (Re: Msg 21281)
Date: 17-JUL 06:45 MUGS Online

I've had a frozen mouse on my II; I suspect it happened because
interrupts got disabled (couldn't enter TMON either).

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

From: HALL
Subject: Lisa (what's that?) hard disks
Date: 16-JUL 17:04 Hardware & Peripherals

Is there any way to use a Lisa internal hard disk on a Mac?  What kind
of interface does the Lisa use?

Thanks, Brian

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

From: NATURAL
Subject: RE: Mac II Beep SND (Re: Msg 21312)
Date: 17-JUL 15:41 Macintosh II

> [e-mail] (Matthew Grayson)
> Subject: Re: Mac ][ First Impressions...
> Date: 23 Jun 87 15:52:05 GMT
> Organization: Math Dept. UCB

Matt, thanks for that great Mac II SND tip.  One quick question
though... I would like to modify SoundWave to save SND resources as
yours does. Can you post the patch or send it my way?

Thanks.

Joshua Wachs Natural Intelligence Consulting

Delphi: NATURAL MCI   : NATURAL

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

From: SOCCERKING
Subject: RE: Region structure? (Re: Msg 1875)
Date: 16-JUL 18:50 Developers' Corner

The structure of a region is given in the book "Hidden Powers of The
Macintosh" by Christopher L. Morgan. It is put out by The Wait Group.
Instead of making you buy it I will be a nice guy and give it a shot.

The data that defines the shape of a nonrectangular region is a list of
integers that makes up a sequance of fields, each specifies the corner
points
 of the shape that lie along one horizantal line in QuickDraw's
coordiante system. Each field begins with a y coordinate that uniquely
specifies the height of the horizontal line, followed by a sequence of x
coordinates that specify the horizontal positions of its corner points.
Each field terminates with an integer whose value is 32767, and the
entire list terminates with an extra 32767. The field are given in
increasing order of theri y coordinates, and the x coordinates within
each field are also given in increasing order.

 Now lets try an example!
 visualize this... A L shaped figure with corner points
 (100,100) - (200,100)
 (200,200) - (300,200)
 (100,300) - (300,300)
 ok the region in memory would look like this
 100, 100, 200, 32767, 200, 200, 300, 32767, 300, 100, 300, 32767, 32767
 put that in a understandable format and you get
 100, 100, 200, 32767
 200, 200, 300, 32767
 300, 100, 300, 32767
 32767
 Gee thanks Mr. Morgan!
 Now maybe some one can help me with selecting the print quality?
 Brent.

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

From: HPP
Subject: RE: Region structure? (Re: Msg 1878)
Date: 19-JUL 02:03 Developers' Corner

I also found a ref to quichdraw regions on another net( all right there
are others..not as good of course) by DADLER where he mentioned that
Apple had patented their region structure in the UK and maybe USA..and
described as a series of short words: 1)size   2)rgnBBox 3) a series of
lists Y1,X1,X2..0x7fff Y2,X22,X23,X24..0x7fff .. 0x7ffff as a fence as
end of Y.lists. Each Y,X iverts all points to the right and below as to
beinog IN or OUT of the region. Im interested to know whether a hardware
can enhance graphic ops on macs...Phil Peterson

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

From: PEABO
Subject: RE: Region structure? (Re: Msg 1888)
Date: 19-JUL 16:24 Developers' Corner

Hmmm ... it would be interesting to know what claims Apple patented.
Patents are never issued on an entire thing (pardon the imprecise
wording here). Instead, the patent lists a number of claims, or aspects
of the process, which are subject to the patent.

Region operations can be extremely slow.  Tony Nelson's Apple-shaped
windows demonstrate this nicely (I think when you move them).  What I'd
suggest you do is analyze region operations for a couple of properties:

  1.  CPU time compared to the size of the region (this would give you
      an idea of how much overhead is inherent to the amount of memory
      taken ... no matter how fast the hardware is, a region with more
      corners will take longer to process)
  2.  Use of the stack (I don't know if region operations are
recursive).
  3.  Generality.  QuickDraw implements a subset of graphic operators,
      and you might want to have more operators available.
  4.  Pathology.  It should be possible to construct some regions that
      cause blowups.  This was definitely the case with the 64K ROMs
      because some fixups were made in the 128K ROMs.

Once you get through this, you'll probably know more about regions than
anyone except Bill Atkinson. :-)

peter

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

From: JIMH
Subject: synching to vidoo blanking
Date: 18-JUL 02:03 Programming

Paul, i dont think i understand how you synch to the vido blanking for
the mac II?  you seem to be installing your task in a vbl queue for the
card. does that mean there is a seperate vbl queue for each card so it
does synch with the card video blanking. I got a neat little hack in
progress to use multiple screen aninimation on the mac II. works great i
can have up to 4 screens now (8 with expansion) and dont have to violate
any of the IM rules and it will work on any video card that follows
apple video dr iver specs :-)  i am finding some bugs in the video
driver though (i belive) which i am trying to work out with apple tech
support on link.  anyway when its fully functional will send you code if
interested.  might be interesting to use it on globe instead
 of blitting bitmaps to screen.  best jim

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

From: LOGICHACK
Subject: RE: synching to vidoo blanking (Re: Msg 21326)
Date: 18-JUL 02:45 Programming

Yeah, since each video card can have a totally different video blanking
time, Apple added at VBL task queue to each card.  Its pretty sensible.
If you check out the VBL.a file in Globe, you'll see that all my task
does is increment a counter on every vbl.  The main Globe code merely
waits for this counter to increment before drawing, if the Sync to VBL
option is chosen.  Let me know if you need more clarification.

Please send your video stuff.  I'm always on the lookout for neat hacks!
Gee, with expanded video, can't you do about 15 or more pages or mono
stuff?  Or do the page bounds have to lie at certain boundaries?

Feel free to hack up Globe as much as you like.  Please keep me up on
how you're improving it.  I was just thinking the other day and realized
that I spend a sigificant amount of time just just doing normal event
loop stuff.  You'll see how fast quickdraw really is if you move the
Globe window to the lower right of the scree, align the window, and then
pull down the About... box.  The About... box has a really small event
loop and the globe spins much faster.

Best,

Paul :)

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

From: RABBIT
Subject: Deactivating statictext
Date: 17-JUL 23:38 Programming Techniques

   I am having trouble finding a (simple solution) to a small problem. I
am writing an application that has a dialog box which contains
StaticText that must be deactivated (dimmed).  I figure i could use a
pattern transfer but that seems to be to much (since the mac usually has
nice little routines for such things). Is there any simpler technique or
am I stuck with the pattern transfer. In this dialog there are 20 items
which must be activated and deactived so that's why I'd rather not do a
pattern trans.
                             Scott

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

From: JIMH
Subject: RE: Deactivating statictext (Re: Msg 1880)
Date: 18-JUL 02:07 Programming Techniques

Scott, hi i couldnt find any good way.  i finally settled for HideDItem
to hide the active text items.  if you want to be compatable with old
old roms ;-)  you can move the dialog item off the screen.  best jim ps
using patterns are ok unless you need to do an update then old pattern
shows up and tab still goes there.

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

From: RABBIT
Subject: RE: Deactivating statictext (Re: Msg 1881)
Date: 19-JUL 23:03 Programming Techniques

Jim,
     Thanks for the response.  At one time I tried the HideDItem type of
solution... But it just didn't look right.  The dialog looked like it
had gaping holes in it.  Another problem I have is trying to make
editext items look deactivated (at least not respond to mouse clicks and
key strokes) but I'll have to save that till I get the deactivated text
out of the way !  I guess I might have to do it the hard way (in the old
days using the toolbox routines would have been considered to easy...
funny how things change)...
                                Scott

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

From: RABBIT
Subject: RE: Deactivating statictext (Re: Msg 1882)
Date: 19-JUL 23:13 Programming Techniques

     I appreciate that response!  I should have said more about my
application so you didn't have to write all of that for me.  The items
that will be deactivated will be selected by the user.  I know that IM
doesn't like this kind of stuff but I am going to have the user click on
the statictext to enable and disable a database field (which contains
edittext below each statictext item). This was the best solution to a
very crowded screen. I will set up a loop to keep track of deactivated
items in the database file so they can be deactivated upon creation of
the dialog.  I just can't beleive that apple didn't provide a simpler
way (I guess I'm asking for to much now).  I'm doing the APP in assembly
language (don't ask, I'm just a nut).
      Any ideas on how to keep an edittext item in a dialog to keep from
responding to mouse and keyboard events since they all share the same
text record?
                                        Thanks...Scott

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

From: M_DELUGG
Subject: Looking for an FKEY...
Date: 18-JUL 08:17 Bugs & Features

Hi gang,

Camera DA gives me trouble now and then (maybe I have an older one?)...
But I was *really* wondering if anybody had done this number in an fkey
flavor? I'm probably having trouble with CAMERA cuz I'm running EZ-Menus
and just bout anything else I like <smile>, including all kinds of fkeys
and inits (what the heck can you do on a "PC" that even approaches the
'mad-cap' computing we do on our MACs?!?)

OK, I'm biased, anyhow... Since the 128k roms WON'T ALLOW me to snapshot
a menu, and I'd rather keep my DA & EZmenu status quo, is there a fix?

                              - Mikey

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

From: DDUNHAM
Subject: Mac II w/multiple video cards
Date: 19-JUL 03:53 Macintosh II

If you're using a Mac II with multiple video cards, be sure to use
multiple monitors, too.  Otherwise you can drag the mouse pointer off
into never-never land.  Apparently Apple's cards don't know if a monitor
is actually attached.

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

From: METASOFTWARE
Subject: color picker
Date: 18-JUL 19:17 Tools for Developers

anyone seen the new color picker for the MAC II? it didn't seem to be be
in MPW. what's entailed?

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

From: DDUNHAM
Subject: RE: color picker (Re: Msg 1885)
Date: 19-JUL 03:54 Tools for Developers

I used get_color(where,prompt,inColor,outColor) Point where; char
*prompt; RGBColor *inColor, *outColor;
{
   asm {
        clr.w   -(SP)
        move.l  where,-(SP)
        move.l  inColor,-(SP)
        move.l  outColor,-(SP)
        move.w  #9,-(SP)
        dc.w    0xa82e  ; _Pack12
        move.w  (SP)+,D0
        }
}

from LightspeedC.  Pascal programmers might be able to use some sort of
inline thingy for the move.w and the _Pack12.

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

From: DDUNHAM
Subject: PageMaker 2.0 "features"
Date: 22-JUL 21:20 Bugs & Features

Some bugs in PageMaker 2.0:

PageMaker doesn't like an empty Clipboard.  Open a desk accessory that
supports text selection and copying (Acta, Calendar, miniWRITER, Phone
Pad, etc.), and while the cursor is a flashing insertion point (i.e. no
text selected), choose Copy.  Now click the PageMaker window back to the
front and enjoy the "Cannot paste from Clipboard Error -102" dialog.

PageMaker doesn't draw colorized menus properly on a Macintosh II.

If you select a picture in PageMaker and copy it to the Clipboard, you
can't paste it into MacWrite (you _can_ paste it into the Scrapbook).
PageMaker is writing a defective Clipboard.

 David Dunham     "Whenever you see a sign 'No Exit,' it means
 Maitreya Design   there is an exit."

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

From: MADMACS
Subject: RE: PageMaker 2.0 "features" (Re: Msg 21425)
Date: 22-JUL 21:46 Bugs & Features

Some more PageMaker 2.0 bugs/problems: It doesn't print shadowed type
correctly.

It also won't print legal size paper correctly to the LaserWriter Plus
(and I assume LaserWriter also) if you manually feed the legal size
paper in (i.e., not

using a legal size paper tray). And the HUGE file sizes, but Aldus
considers that a feature I guess :-) I've also had some problems going
from IBM-> Mac via TOPS. Bitmaps can get scrambled, and in one case all
of the Zapf Dingbats characters were lost in a transfer. Don't know if
this is Aldus or TOPS: Aldus had never heard of the problem (they
claimed).

Robert Hammen Madison Macintosh Users Group

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

From: MADMACS
Subject: SoundWave
Date: 23-JUL 01:12 Macintosh II


I just got the update to SoundCap (called SoundWave) from Impulse
(formerly MacNifty). I've played with it for about 5 minutes and have
already crashed the machine twice (although I'm only using a 512e). It's
"programmability" is in the form of swci resources you can create - they
provide Lightspeed Pascal source for a sample swci resource, but claim
you can use most any compiler (i.e. one that supports FKEYs) to produce
these resources. I'll report more info when I have it. Robert Hammen
Madison Macintosh Users Group

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

From: JIMWEINRICH
Subject: NEW Bernoulli drives
Date: 24-JUL 02:06 Hardware & Peripherals

So, guys, does anybody have any experience with the NEW Bernoulli-style
drives for the Mac?  I've gotten answers about the Iomega (original)
Bernoulli box, but at least 3 other companies seem to be doing them now,
judging from ads in the Mac magazines. Thanks for your help! --Jim
Weinrich

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

From: DDUNHAM
Subject: RE: equation composers
Date: 24-JUL 05:19 Network Digests

A local prof who has looked at 4 different equation composers says that
Expressionist is the "least bad" of them all.  That means, he likes it,
but (like most programs) it's got some flaws.  It's $55.

(I could have told you this quicker if you'd left the note on Delphi!)

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

From: DDUNHAM
Subject: re:  Arrow keys and collapsing selection (Re: Msg 21457)
Date: 24-JUL 05:19 Network Digests

 >From: [e-mail] (Brian H. Powell)
 >Subject: Arrow keys and collapsing selections

I like handling Up or Down as in TextEdit.  I think LsC works that way,
and it's handy if you've found text, and want to insert something at the
beginning or end.  An actual move would require the cursor to be moved
back.  Actually, Left and Right might be handled that way, too.  So go
with solution 2.

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

From: RABBIT
Subject: edititem disable
Date: 23-JUL 23:32 Programming Techniques

    The SetDItem worked very well!!  I forgot to read the section in the
SetDItem explanation that said it didn't redraw the control.  If the
first item in the EditText list is disabled though I have to put a
special check in or else
the EditText item will still be active after an update event.
I think I am going to write two routines DimStatText and DisEdItem
for any future programs, it looks like they could be quite usefull.
I did find one interesting thing.  I did a GetPort and GetPenState
and then a SetPort and SetPenState to save the current port and PenState
(I originally thought that the penstate was part of the portrec).
However, unless I restore the penstate before the port _evidently_  the
penstate isn't updated properly.
                                         Scott

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

From: PEABO
Subject: RE: edititem disable (Re: Msg 1909)
Date: 24-JUL 01:48 Programming Techniques

If you restore the port before the penstate, then what you are doing is
setting the pen state of the port you saved rather than the port whose
pen state you altered!

peter

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

From: DDUNHAM
Subject: cdevs
Date: 24-JUL 00:24 Programming Techniques

Are there any tricks to writing a cdev?  When I switch from mine to
General, General's font turns into Chicago 12.  I'm using Geneva 9 in my
own cdev, so I'm confused.


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

End of Delphi Mac Digest
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