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INFO-MAC Digest Sunday, 17 Jan 1988 Volume 6 : Issue 2 Today's Topics: HC questions and an answer SetLineWidth Revealed Revealed LaserDrivers 5.0, Appleshare, and Mac 512K,K/800's (long) ImageWriter PICT output? Re: Cmd-F output of PS file Laser printer screen dump needed PostScript question LaserWriterCopyCounts Mac/Novell interface query Connection of Mac to DEC printserver 40 PS printer Kermit file transfer problems on a VAX ftp and packed or binary files January 1988 Vaporware ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 14 Dec 87 09:24 EST From: <PORTERG@VCUVAX> Subject: HC questions and an answer Lots of questions and an answer This is my first posting to this list, so bear with any formatting problems. I am writing some stackware, and keep stumbling across limitations in HyperTalk. While not insurmountable, they cause me to waste a lot of processing time. 1. Is there any simple way to do indirect accessing in HC? For example: Fields A,B, and C all have a 1-to-1 correspondence with each other. I want line x of field C to get the item in line (line x of field C) of B, and return the item in line(line(line x of field C) of B) of A, or in HyperTalk terms, put line x of field C of field B of field A into it. The above syntax, of course does not work, forcing me to load line x of field C into y, put line y of field B into z, and get line z of field A. Are there any faster solutions out there? 2. Is there perchance any undocumented command that gives you the total of the numbers in a field? Assume 1 number per line, and only numbers in the field. Currently I use a repeat loop to add everything together, one of the slowest commands I have ever seen, or a line1+line2+etc., which in some cases is slower for me, as the number of items I have to add varies. 2a. On a similar note, can you get max,min and average commands to act on a field without specifying every single line of the field you want to check? 3. As a point of curiosity, does HyperTalk initialize non-global variables to 0 when first encountered in a script? Reliably? 4. On another topic, how well does shareware work? I've got some nice software through this system, and actually paid for the ones I use, but I would be interested to see the response some of the more popular shareware pieces have gotten. I'm doing a piece for a company which may not bite, so it may end up "shareware" rather than "buyware", and I was curious as to overall author satisfaction with the system. Last, a hardware answer. To the previous poster who had problems with getting multipage MacDraw pictures to line up, I had this problem early last year, with the following diagnosis. The print drum on the toner cartridges are not *perfectly* round, nor do they make exactly one revolution per page. This slight eccentricity means that you will get some irregularities on the long edge of the page. The only way to correct this is to manually remove the cartridge after each page and reset it to the exact same position. The LaserWriter rotates the cartridge when you close the machine, so in order for this to work you have to disable the open/close sensing switch. But, that's not all. The paper you use shrinks slightly when exposed to the hot fusing element of the LaserWriter, and does so in a non-regular manner, fouling up alignment of both edges of the paper. The only fix I have seen for this is to use something like Mylar, which has a very low coefficient of thermal expansion, and does not melt inside your printer (at least not mine:-). And if that wasn't enough, you can also get alignment errors from irregular feeding from the paper tray, but this doesn't seem to have quite the irregularity of the others. Final solution: There are drivers out there that let you hook your Mac to a D or E size pen plotter, and give very good resolution. If your work demands large illustrations, and perfect alignment, you should consider it. Greg Porter PORTERG@VCUVAX (Bitnet) ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 18 Dec 87 11:42:07 SET From: Guenther Blaschek <K331671%AEARN.BITNET@forsythe.stanford.edu> Subject: SetLineWidth Revealed Revealed A couple of months ago, I asked how to switch the LaserWriter from hairlines back to "normal" lines. Now I received the Tech Note #175, where the LaserWriter's SetLineWidth mechanism is described in detail. It helped me quite a lot, so I'd like to say THANKS A LOT to Scott "ZZ" Zimmerman. However, the Tech Note is not quite complete, yet. The procedures described in it do not work in every situation. At least, I discovered that QuickDraw interferes with the LaserWriter in a subtle way, when a picture containing SetLineWidth PicComments is created and subsequently sent to the LaserWriter. The following observations apply to pictures, but they may apply to direct printing too (I did not try it, yet): Let's assume, we want to create a picture containing a hairline followed by a normal line (of PenSize(1,1)). According to Tech Note #175, one would do the following (SetLineWidth(x/y) should be read as an abbreviation for adding the corresponding 182-PicComment): operation QD pen size LW pen size LW scaling factor PenSize(1,1); 1,1 1,1 1 SetLineWidth(1/4); 1,1 1/4,1/4 1/4 *draw first line* 1,1 1/4,1/4 1/4 SetLineWidth(1/1); 1,1 1/4,1/4 1 PenSize(1,1); 1,1 ?,? 1 *draw second line* 1,1 ?,? 1 Scott writes that SetLineWidth(1/1) followed by PenSize(1,1) makes sure that the LaserWriter's pen size is set to (1,1). However, this only works if the latest object was drawn with QuickDraw's pen size other than (1,1), since QuickDraw is intelligent enough to suppress multiple PenSizes with the same parameters in order to keep the picture as small as possible. In the above case, QuickDraw omits the PenSize(1,1), so the LaserWriter continues printing hairlines... A dummy call of PenSize(2,2) followed by PenSize(1,1) does not cure the problem, as QuickDraw delays the PenSize until an object is actually DRAWN with a different pen size. In fact, my first brute-force solution was to draw a (2,2) line outside of the picture frame. This works quite well, but consumes a lot of space in the picture. The real solution of this problem is to call SetLineWidth twice: . . . *draw first line* 1,1 1/4,1/4 1/4 SetLineWidth(4/1); 1,1 1,1 4 SetLineWidth(1/1); 1,1 1,1 1 *draw second line* 1,1 1,1 1 The first call scales the LW pen size back to (1,1) and sets the scaling factor to 1. This alone would be sufficient, but makes subsequently drawn lines of other pen sizes four times as fat as desired. So the second call is used to set the LW's scaling factor back to 1 (because of the factor 1/1, it leaves the LW's pen size alone). If anyone out there had similar problems with SetLineWidth, try this trick. Good luck, e gu ------------------------------ Date: 13 Jan 88 18:31:26 GMT From: gergely@dalcs.UUCP (Peter J Gergely) Subject: LaserDrivers 5.0, Appleshare, and Mac 512K,K/800's (long) We have encountered a problem using LaserDriver 5.0, with Mac 512's, Appleshare System, and Bitmap graphics. Please consider the following as a tested bug report. Configuration Hayes Interbridge Two Appletalk Zones, each with a Laserwriter Plus. 40 Macs (SE, Plus, 512K/800, and 512K) 1 Mac SE20i as Appleshare File Server System on 512K, 512K/800 Default Appleshare System (System 3.3, Finder 5.4) with LaserPrep 5.0 and LaserWriter 5.0. Other Mac's. System 4.2, Finder 6.0, Backgrounder on all Mac's with HD. System 4.1, Finder 5.5 on all others except 512's. LaserWriter and LaserPrep 5.0 on ALL MAC's. Problem: In our configuration (above), when any Mac 512K or 512KE prints a bitmap image (embedded or otherwise) on a Laserwriter Plus using the latest LaserWriter 5.0 Driver, the image is printed, and when the dialog box is cleared, the Mac hangs. This problem occurs even with a Laserwriter hooked directly to a Mac 512, with a 6 foot appletalk network, and a true copy of the 512K appleshare installer disk, but replacing the LaserDrivers to 5.0 from the System 5 Installation set. Because of the fact that all machines on an Appletalk should run the same version of LaserDrivers, we really don't want to go back to using 4.0, even though we know that it works fine with the 512's. Currently, as a stop-gap measure, we have one Laserwriter initialized with version 4.0, and one with 5.0, just to save the reinitializations. This is proving to be unsatisfactory for those of us that have offices very close to the wrongly initialized Laserwriter. At the current time, it is impossible to upgrade those Mac 512's to Plus'. QUESTION: Does anybody have any solutions, comments, or patches, to allow the 512K's to exist harmoniously (without the hangs) on our appleshare network using LaserDriver 5.0. If possible, please reply directly to me at GERGELY@DREA-XX.ARPA, and I will summarize any responses to this group at a later time. - Peter Peter J. Gergely (DREA, P.O. Box 1012, Dartmouth, NS B2Y 3Z7 Canada) ARPANET: gergely@DREA-XX.ARPA (preferred) or Peter@DREA-GRIFFIN.ARPA DIALNET: Peter@DIAL|DREA-Griffin UUCP: gergely@dalcs.UUCP CSNET: gergely%cs.dal.cdn@ubc.csnet GENIE: GERGELY ------------------------------ Date: 23 Dec 87 08:09:00 EST From: "NRL::MCCOWAN" <mccowan%nrl.decnet@nrl.arpa> Subject: ImageWriter PICT output? Is there a way to have the imagewriter print driver write the QuickDraw calls to a spool file, not print it, and leave the spool file (in PICT format) on the disk? If not, is there is a printer resourse out there that will do this? Thanks, Bob McCowan MCCOWAN@NRL.ARPA ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 28 Dec 87 11:09:20 EST From: olson@harvard.harvard.edu (Eric K. Olson) Subject: Re: Cmd-F output of PS file In a recent INFO-MAC, Norbert Lindenberg - U Karlsruhe writes: "It may seem ridiculous, but you have to hold down the cmd-f keys until the LaserWriter driver comes up with its "Creating PostScript File" message. I don't know what the driver really does to find out about your keypresses, but it certainly does not ask for keyDown events." In fact, it looks at the keymap held in memory by the keyboard driver (i.e., the "state" of key up/down-- Trap GetKeys(KeyMapPtr)). It doesn't even check for the Cmd key - holding down F is sufficient. Most Programs get the keydown event subsequently (since it did occur), many ignore keydown events in their most-common windows. -Eric (defun maybe (x) (maybe (not x))) Eric K. Olson olson@endor.harvard.edu harvard!endor!olson D0760 (Name) (ArpaNet) (UseNet) (AppleLink) ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 12 Jan 88 10:04 EDT From: <MANAGER%SKIDMORE.BITNET@forsythe.stanford.edu> (Leo Geoffrion) Subject: Laser printer screen dump needed Does anyone have a PD or Shareware version of the laser screen dump Fkey (such as laserkey.hex). The current version circulating (4.002) won't work with version 4 of the laserwriter software. Incidentally, it works fine with the older Version 3 software. Does anyone have an update to this useful software? =================================================================== Leo D. Geoffrion BITNET: MANAGER@SKIDMORE.BITNET Associate Director for NYNEX: (518) 584-5000 Ext. 2628 Academic Computing Skidmore College Saratoga Springs, NY 12866 ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 18 Dec 87 13:36:54 EST From: Lap@UDEL.EDU Subject: PostScript question We are having a problem printing Macintosh II-generated PostScript files on our Apple LaserWriter, which is connected through the serial port of a SUN 3/50. Background of the problem: Create a file in MacWrite or MacDraw. Immediately after clicking on "OK" in the Print dialog, hold down the Command "K" key to direct the PostScript output to a file (with a rather long header). Send the file to the SUN, then send the file to the LaserWriter. The file looks fine on the SUN. My understanding is that the LaserWriter requires initialization which is normally done by the Mac over Appletalk. I have obtained several public domain programs and headers from SUMEX intended to solve the problem, but all are evidently out of date. Any help in solving this problem would be greatly appreciated. Larry Pearlstein (lap@huey.udel.edu) University of Delaware ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 15 Jan 88 09:59:41 CST From: "Larry Pickett, INFOREP" From: <C4898%UMSLVMA.BITNET@forsythe.stanford.edu> Subject: LaserWriterCopyCounts Does anyone know how to get the LW to send the number of copies done to date sent to a requesting station on Local(Apple)Talk? I'm most interested in postscript code which could be sent to the printer. Any other PD or ShareWa re application that give such control to nodes on the network? Acknowledge-To: <C4898@UMSLVMA> ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 14 Jan 88 11:48 AST From: <JNDPH%ALASKA.BITNET@forsythe.stanford.edu> Subject: Mac/Novell interface query I'm looking for software that will let a Macintosh SE with an Ethernet interface board function as a workstation on an Ethernet LAN running Novell Netware. The Mac user is primarily interested in accessing to network to print PageMaker documents on the spooled network laser printer (now a HP LaserJet+, but likely to be replaced in the future with a Poscript printer). I'd appreciate any suggestions for dealing with this problem... even if it involves an Applenet/Ethernet + Netware bridge. I've just been unable to find any information on this problem. Please send messages directly to me, since I don't regularly read INFO-MAC. I will be happy to send a summary of any useful information to the net. Thanks! ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 13 Jan 88 12:38 EST From: <RLF52%ALBNY1VX.BITNET@forsythe.stanford.edu> Subject: Connection of Mac to DEC printserver 40 PS printer Bob Frost at the History Dept. of SUNY-Albany (Bitnet: RLF52@ALBNY1VX) here. Been trying for weeks to figure out how to run PS files generated on a Macintosh via a VAX, onto a DEC Printserver 40 (LPS40). Running MS Word, Pagemaker, MacDraw, etc., the best I can get is for the LPS40 to read & find no errors in the modified prolog file, but then it proceeds to print nothing; I receive no error messages. Know anyone whoUs dealt with this? Thanx. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 15 Dec 87 18:22 EDT From: <MHOFFMAN%CLARKU.BITNET@forsythe.stanford.edu> Subject: Kermit file transfer problems on a VAX I am a student at Clark University trying to upload files that I have on a Mac to a Digital VAX using VMS 4.6. I am using Red Ryder 9.2 with the Kermit file transfer protocol, and the Kermit-32 program on the Vax. I have sucessfully received and downloaded files from Bitnet using the same software setup. An error I obtained from the VAX at one point was: ACP File Extend Error ... (??) Also, I have tried sending both with and without Binhexing my files. Also, I have tried standard ASCII text files created and saved in MacWrite as "Text-Only" with and without binhexing - still no success. Does anyone know how to use Macs with the VAX? Clark supports only DEC equipment, that being Rainbows, and even then no one around here does much transferring, so they don't know much about it! Thanks in advance, Mitch Hoffman MHOFFMAN@CLARKU.Bitnet ------------------------------ Date: 21 Dec 87 23:15:56 GMT From: WENCU@cunyvm.cuny.edu Subject: ftp and packed or binary files We here at CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU have recently been able to use the tcp/ip suite through the vm/tcp machine.I has been running well thanks to our network administrators. I have used TELNET and been succeccful. Our problem comes when I use FTP to transfer pc or macintosh executable programs in a binary or packed format. I get garbage. Is there a problem with the transfer method? There are 3 'TYPE' options: Ascii, Binary, Image. Which do we use? Is the problem because the files are being sent through the vm mainframe and are being translated before getting to the micro? Is anyone also having this problem and found a work around solution? As a lot of people are beginning to use ftp this problem is coming up more frequently at our site. The questions fall on us. Any help will be appreciated Wendell P. Brown a.k.a. "Splash" Senior Technician at CUNY University Computer Center Microcomputer Resource Laboratory ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 29 Dec 87 17:31 EST From: SEWALL%UCONNVM.BITNET@forsythe.stanford.edu Subject: January 1988 Vaporware VAPORWARE Murphy Sewall From the January 1988 APPLE PULP H.U.G.E. Apple Club (E. Hartford) News Letter $15/year P.O. Box 18027 East Hartford, CT 06118 Permission granted to copy with the above citation Call the "Bit Bucket" (203) 569-8739 NeXt Month? The week after the deadline for last month's column, InfoWorld published a front page story containing details of the NeXt computers scheduled for introduction during the first quarter. There will be two computers in cubical black magnesium cases. Both will be built around the 68030 microprocessor. The "Low-end" model ($5,000) will have 4-Mbytes of RAM, a 17 inch, flat-tension mask, monochrome display and a 40-Mbyte hard disk. The more expensive model ($9,000) will have 8-Mbytes of RAM, a 16 inch, color display, and a 200-Mbyte hard disk. Both computers will feature a proprietary bus and use the Unix operating system with Display Postscript. - InfoWorld 23 November Accelerated Mac II. Both MacPeak Systems of Austin, Texas and Dove Computer of Wilmington, North Carolina plan to ship 20 MHz 68030 expansion cards for the Mac II in March. MacPeak has announced a price of $1,995 for the board. AST Research of Irvine, California, Radius Inc., of San Jose, California, and TSI Inc., of Eugene, Oregon also are rumored to be developing 68030 based expansion boards for the Mac II. AST also will announce soon a 80386-based MS-DOS coprocessor for the Mac II. - PC Week 24 November Color Lasers! By the end of next year, QMS of Mobile, Alabama expects to be shipping a 300-dpi full-color laser printer. The bad news is that it will weigh 200 pounds and cost $30,000. - InfoWorld 30 November New Laser Printers. Apple Computer plans to introduce a new generation of laser printers later this month. There will be three new models including the long awaited (see November and December 1986 Vaporware columns) Personal LaserWriter based on Quickdraw imaging and priced at roughly the same $2,500 as General Computer's Personal Laserwriter which uses Quickdraw as well (see last September's column). Taxan Corporation also has announced plans to introduce a Quickdraw printer for delivery this Spring. A second Apple printer will be an enhanced version of the current Laserwriter built around Canon's new "SX" engine (see last October's column). The newest configuration will be a high performance model equipped with a Motorola 68020 microprocessor. InfoWorld 23 November Accelerated IIgs. Western Design Center of Mesa, Arizona reports that Apple has been buying quantities of the 12-MHz version of the 65816 (so far the only machine it's used in is the IIgs). Could the rumored IIgs accelerator board (see last January's Vaporware column) finally be on the way? - InCider January Mac Star? Micropro, makers of the Word Star word processing program, has announced a new Macintosh product for shipment in June. The software will combine conventional word processing functions with features of desk top publishing programs such as graph importation and layout capability. - Random Access 28 November The IIgs Office System? Look for lots of new integrated software for the IIgs this Spring. If integrating three programs is good, wouldn't integrating six be even better? Remember the "Lisa Office System?" That was seven programs wasn't it? Hmmm..... - InCider January "Low-Cost" Mac Monitors. Monitor vendors Power R and CTX both recently announced new monochrome displays for the Mac, and CTX said it is readying a (relatively) low-cost color display. "Mac Larger" from Power R is a 12 inch, monochrome display for $449 that provides 70% more image than the internal Mac screen while retaining the 512 by 342 pixel resolution. CTX's $399 monochrome monitor will be twice the size of the Mac display. Their color monitor ($799) provides 800 by 600 resolution, accepts Mac II analog video, and has a 35-KHz scan rate. - InfoWorld 23 November Color Laptop. A host of Japanese firms are developing color LCD flat screens for laptop computers. Today's best guess is that economical computers (only $400 more than monochrome versions) using these screens won't be available for at least two years. - PC Week 24 November New "Flat" Screens. Tektronix has announced a new "hypertwist" Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) which expands the twist angle from the 180 degrees of supertwist technology to 270 degrees. In addition to higher contrast and a wider viewing angle, the new display has a lower power consumption. Two new Electroluminescent Displays (ELD) will be out later this year for under $800. A company from Finland has demonstrated the 600 by 640 pixel "Finlux" screen on a Dyna-Mac (the "Flat Mac"), and Planar Systems has announced an ELD with a 160 degree viewing angle and power consumption under 10 watts. - Random Access 12 December 4-Mbit Dynamic RAM. Toshiba America has begun limited manufacturing of the next generation of memory chips. Production shipments of the new 4-megabit chips (four times the size of today's largest production memory chips), which several other firms also have under development is scheduled for the third quarter (can the 32-Mbyte RAM personal computer be far away?). - InfoWorld 30 November Bigga than a Giga. IBM's Almaden Research Center in San Jose has announced a breakthrough in recording technology that will make it theoretically possible to store up to 1.25 gigabytes of data on a 3.5 inch disk. Current recording heads cannot take full advantage of the new technique which involves using semiconductor fabrication (electron beam photolithography) methods to etch 0.5-micron-wide tracks onto a disk surface. - InfoWorld 23 November Micro Floppy Drives. Sony has announced a 1-Mbyte, 2 inch disk drive for use in laptop computers, and Hitachi plans to introduce a 2.5 inch floppy drive. - Random Access 12 December Assorted IBM Rumors. Coming in April - a PS/2 Model 90 with a RISC (Reduced Instruction Set Coprocessor) expected to operate at 32-MHz and run PC Excel seven times faster than the Mac II version. Big Blue also is poised to roll out a true "what you see is what you get" 8.5 by 11 (page size) display with incredibly sharp graphic resolution especially for desktop publishing applications. Wyse Technology's lawyers have put that firm's Micro Channel clone motherboard on hold while they examine IBM's patents more carefully. The President of Word Perfect says the cost of OS/2 along with the added memory and other add-ons needed to take advantage of its features will be so high that few users will benefit. - PC Week 24 November, InfoWorld 30 November and 7 December, and Random Access 21 November Self-Serve Software. Brother International is beta testing a software "vending machine." Although it looks like a soda machine, it's really a computer terminal and disk copying machine tied to a mainframe. It has a catalog of 1,500 titles which can be demonstrated on the built in display. Software can be ordered with a bank credit card and downloaded on either 3.5 or 5.25 inch disks. Brother expects to begin installing the machines in the U.S. later this year. - Random Access 28 November Reach for the Sky. The US Department of Agriculture has encountered an unanticipated difficulty in its project to develop robot fruit pickers. To contain costs, the robots were designed with monochrome scanners. Unfortunately, to the robots, an orange has the same size, shape, and brightness as a small cloud. Current robot pickers are often hung up literally reaching for the clouds. The USDA says it's back to the drawing board - this time using color. - Random Access 21 November ------------------------------ End of INFO-MAC Digest **********************