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List (Unformatted): INFO-MAC DIGEST V6 #55 INFO-MAC Digest Sunday, 5 Jun 1988 Volume 6 : Issue 55 Today's Topics: DBMS callable from Hypercard MacII B&W Monitor WANTED How can I make use of accelerator boards? June 1988 Demos at Computer Ware (of Macintosh products) D&D 4.1 and Hard drives Accessing AppleTalk network over phone lines June Vaporware -- Fan the flame; send rumors! ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 26 May 88 09:01:30 PDT From: Dave Combs <COMBS@SUMEX-AIM.Stanford.EDU> Subject: DBMS callable from Hypercard Please pardon my ignorance, but any help with the following would be appreciated. Does there exist, or is there information on, or even rumors about, a relational database management system for the Mac with the following characteristics? 1) It has some type of functional interface, so that I might call it from another program, in this case a Hypercard XCMD. Many current systems seem to force you to use their interface, rather than allowing you to build your own. 2) It supports a reasonably complete query language. 3) It supports multi-attribute keys for a particular table. (Lots of databases currently available seem to have problems with this one). This is a MAJOR requirement - for my application a system without it is useless. 4) It's not so slow that a user would complain while it grinds away for minutes on some reasonably trivial search. Note that I DON'T need simultaneous multi-user capability, or a particularly interesting user interface (I won't use it), or many of the other bells and whistles lots of the new systems seem to have. Thanks for your help, Dave Combs (COMBS@SUMEX-AIM.STANFORD.EDU) ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 26 May 88 15:21:28 PDT From: uhlik@sun-valley.stanford.edu (Chris Uhlik) Subject: MacII B&W Monitor WANTED I want to buy your old MacII black & white monitor. Chris Uhlik (415) 328-6438 uhlik@sun-valley ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 27 May 88 16:57:43 EST From: "William E. Williams" From: <BSQUARE%YALEVM.BITNET@forsythe.stanford.edu> Subject: How can I make use of accelerator boards? I'm contemplating buying an accelerator board with a floating-point processor on it for my SE. I run a bunch of data-analysis programs that I wrote myself and that take typically a half hour or so to process one batch of data. I use Turbo-Pascal and Lightspeed C. Is there any way I can tell these languages to generate code that can use the floating-point processor directly? Even better, is there some way that I can check for the co-processor and use it if it's there but use SANE if it isn't? Is there a lesson in, for example, MacTutor about all this stuff? Do the boards usually come with replacement SANE routines? -B2 ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 28 May 88 18:02:33 PDT From: Dorothy Bender <HK.DEB@Forsythe.Stanford.EDU> Subject: June 1988 Demos at Computer Ware (of Macintosh products) ComputerWare, a Macintosh store in Palo Alto, located at 490 California Ave. (corner El Camino Real), has announced the following demos during June. All demos are from 12 - 2pm. Call 415/323-7559 to verify. Wed., June 1: In-House Accountant Thu., June 2: Quark Xpress (desktop publishing) Fri., June 3: Powerpoint 2.0 from Microsoft Sat., June 4: Alchemy (16-bit stereo) Tue., June 7: Fullwrite Professional Wed., June 8: MicroPlanner 6.0 Thu., June 9: Ready, Set, Go! (desktop publishing) Fri., June 10: Pagemaker 3.0 & Freehand (Aldus, desktop publishing) Mon., June 13: Filemaker Plus (simple data base manager) Tue., June 14: Tops (distributed Appletalk network) Wed., June 15: Insight Accounting Thu., June 16: Microsoft Word Fri., June 17: McMax Sat., June 18: Opcode (music software) Tue., June 21: VersaCAD II Wed., June 22: dBASE MAC Tue., June 28: Image Studio Wed., June 29: Word Perfect Thu., June 30: Illustrator 88 (from Adobe) In addition, ComputerWare will have their second annual "Mini-Expo" and open house on Thursday and Friday, June 23 - June 24. Call 323-7559 for details. To: MICRO-TECH, TIDBITS, OIS-CONSULT, BBOARD ------------------------------ Date: Sat 28 May 1988 21:03 CDT From: Samir Kaleem <XSAK%ECNCDC.BITNET@Forsythe.Stanford.EDU> Subject: D&D 4.1 and Hard drives Hello again everyone... Remember the Dollars and Sense 4.0 problem that I mentioned not too long ago? Well, the saga continues. On the suggestion of other people on the net (thanx for the info...shows the power of using the net) I called Monogram and asked them about 4.1 (which they never bothered to send me any info about). They said that they could send me 4.1 free of charge, but I have to send them a copy of my receipt plus my registration before they send 4.1 to me. Seems kind of funny that I had bought 4.0 just a month or so ago, and they couldn't confirm that I am a valid user. To top it all, they sent me v3.1 for the IBM rather than 4.1 for my Mac. Sheesh!!! Well, I've sent the IBM version back, and hopefully they will send me the correct version for the correct PC this time. By the way, I have a Dataframe XP 60 that I have a question about. Recently, I found that sometimes, programs would take a while before they would boot. There seemed to be a lot of disk activity before the program would boot (doesn't matter which program). I found that my desktop was 160k. I thought that the large size of the desktop was the problem, and re-building it would solve the problem. Well, re-building brought the desktop down to about 109k, but that still didn't solve my problem. So I re-initialized the hard drive and re-loaded everything (using diskfit). I thought that the fragmentation might be bad enough to be causing this, but even this didn't help. Any suggestions anyone? Again, thanx in advance... -- Samir <xsak@ecncdc.bitnet> ------------------------------ Subject: Accessing AppleTalk network over phone lines Date: Sun, 29 May 88 11:43:48 +0300 From: shmuli@humus.huji.ac.il I've seen a number of different products that allow a user to dial into an AppleTalk network e.g. at work, from home. Does anyone have more information about them - capability (file and/or modem sharing), compatability - does it work with TOPS a/o AppleShare a/o CAP, price. Anyone actually using one? Liaison InfoSphere software Silver Server La Cie software TeleNode DataSpace hardware? R-Server Solana hardware Net-Serial Shiva hardware For the hardware solutions, what software do you use? ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 27 May 88 21:41:06 EST From: Murph Sewall <SEWALL%UCONNVM.BITNET@forsythe.stanford.edu> Subject: June Vaporware -- Fan the flame; send rumors! VAPORWARE Murphy Sewall From the June 1988 APPLE PULP H.U.G.E. Apple Club (E. Hartford) News Letter $15/year P.O. Box 18027 East Hartford, CT 06118 Call the "Bit Bucket" (203) 569-8739 Permission granted to copy with the above citation Premature. Even in a business where vaporware is a way of life, Tandy's surprise late-April announcement of the 550 Mbyte THOR-CD (Tandy High-Intensity Optical Recorder Compact Disk) rewriteable laser disk technology has been widely criticized. Tandy's announced release date for an audio recorder version (at less than $500) of 18 to 24 months in the future already is regarded as optimistic, and a CD ROM version (at a considerably higher price) isn't expected before 1991, at least. - PC Week 26 April and 17 May Optical-Magneto for Fall 1988. Maxtor, of San Jose, California, already has demonstrated two hybrid magneto-optic large capacity data drives which it plans to offer for sale this October. The 160 Mbyte "Fiji" will retail for $1,995 and disks will be priced at $85. The gigabyte "Tahiti" will have an access time nearly three times quicker than the Fiji with a price tag of $5,995 and $250 disks. Sharp will introduce a 380 Mbyte SCSI magneto-optical drive early next year. - PC Week 17 May and InfoWorld 16 May Look Ma, No Coprocessor. VM Technologies, a Tokyo-based joint venture of several Japanese PC companies, is designing a "breakthrough" CPU that will be able to emulate more than one competing 32-bit CPU. VM claims to have pioneered a technique based on programmable logic arrays (PMAs) which will allow processor emulation microcode to be downloaded. The VM8600S will then be able to execute instructions in a manner identical to the emulated CPU. VM is expected to ship sample quantities of the VM8600S by the end of this year. Manufacturers could use the chip to develop a microcomputer capable of being both a Macintosh and PS/2 (80386) clone. - PC Week 17 May Clone in Mac Clothing. Six different Asian computer manufacturers are said to have developed Macintosh clones which are awaiting copyright clearance for their ROMs. In the meantime, a few are making MS-DOS PC clones available in the Mac look-alike cases. - Random Access 14 May PS/? Only a handful of vendors showed PS/2 clones at last month's Comdex; none is ready to begin shipping product. Among the reasons: 1) legal threats and licensing delays - IBM is requiring that potential PS/2 licensees pay royalties on past sales of PC, XT, and AT clones, 2) sluggish demand - although IBM has shipped two million PS/2's, a substantial number of those machines remain in dealer inventories, and 3) enigmatic technology - Micro Channel architecture is more complex than that in the original PC line, and IBM has labeled numerous PS/2 components as "reserved for future use," making it impossible to certify a clone as "fully compatible." - PC Week 17 May Spin Control. Earlier this Spring, IBM's Entry Systems Division president William Lowe announced to the press the firm's intent to replace the present Model 30 with an 80286 machine this year and an 80386 model by the end of next year (last March's column). Last month, Lee Reiswig, director of IBM's Entry Systems Division laboratory in Austin, Texas affirmed the company's continuing commitment to 8086 machines. Reiswig says IBM plans to "add functionality" rather than cut prices. Major announcements are expected from Big Blue this month including the PS/2 Model 70, a desktop 80386 machine with at 20 MHz clock. - PC Week 10 May and InfoWorld 16 May Latest IIgs+ Rumors. San Francisco AppleFest in September may be the time when a faster version (with 1 Mbyte of memory standard) of the IIgs (already rumored to be in the hands of select developers) will be announced. Perhaps not, as rumors persist that some very senior Apple marketing managers want to deep-six the whole idea and concentrate as much energy as possible on the Macintosh line. The introduction of the Apple CD ROM creates a problem for Apple's current ProDOS operating system which is unable to address a device with more than 64 Mbytes (two 32 Mbyte volumes). The fix is said to be ProDOS/16 HFS which will port the Macintosh Hierarchical Filing System (HFS) to the IIgs. As a side benefit, the IIgs will be able to read and write disks in the Macintosh format. A mid summer intro for the new ProDOS/16 is possible. - Pro-Carolina.CTS (BBS) 6 May The Alternate Interface. IBM has signed an agreement with Metaphor Computer Systems for a joint development of a new software interface using graphics and icons. The joint-venture might be a way to avoid dependency on Microsoft's Windows technology which is the subject of litigation by Apple. - Random Access 30 April Vaporpatch. Ashton-Tate broke new vapor ground last month by issuing bug fixes for dBase IV, a product that doesn't exist (officially) yet. - InfoWorld 16 May Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow. Although some industry rumor mongers tout June as "NeXt month," when Steve Jobs oft' rumored workstation will debut, others point out that software developers who had been planning demonstrations at this month's PC Expo have been told the machine will not be available. Odds are quoted at 9 to 5 that NeXt will not survive 1989 and 4 to 1 on 1990. - PC Week 19 April and 3 May and InfoWorld 16 May Sun Rise. More than 100 software companies have announced Unix versions of existing PC programs, including Lotus 1-2-3, that will be able to run on Sun's new 386i workstations. - PC Week 19 April Color LCD. Hatichi demonstrated a working color LCD display at Comdex last month. A ten inch laptop version is expected to be offered for sale within 18 months. No price estimates are available at present. - PC Week 17 May Video Capture. Data Translation will offer an add-in card for the Mac II in July that allows users to display live-motion color video images. Called the Colorcapture, the 16-bit color card will display 640 by 480 pixel resolution in 32,768 colors. The product is intended for video production and advertising applications and will be priced at $2,995. - InfoWorld 9 May AT Coprocessor for the Mac II. Perfectek Corporation has announced an AT coprocessor board for the Mac II for August shipment. The board will have a 12.5 MHz one wait-state CPU, 1 Mbyte of RAM, and IBM compatible parallel and serial ports. The price is expected to be about $1,500 (subject to fluctuating DRAM prices). - InfoWorld 16 May Multiprocessor Workstation. In response to an Air Force RFP (Request For Proposals), Zenith is developing a 15 MIP computer expected to use as many as five 25 MHz Intel 80386 processors. The operating system will be a custom version of Unix V. Commercial versions of this workstation are expected to retail for "considerably less than $20,000." - PC Week 17 May Faster Macintosh II. The good news is that a single DMD 29000 coprocessor add-in board from Yarc Corporation will make a Mac II capable of 17 MIP performance and that four such boards could boost speed to as much as 68 MIPS. The bad news is that the coprocessor does not run standard Macintosh software. Yarc already is working with developers to write graphics programs and other processor intensive applications for the board which will be shipped with 2.5 Mbytes of RAM and will retail for $4,295. - InfoWorld 9 May Power in the Next Decade. Data General and Motorola have announced a joint development pact to produce a 100 MIP computer using a version of the new Motorola 88000 RISC chip series (see the April and May columns) by 1991. - InfoWorld 25 April New Laptop Technology. In six to nine months NEC will be ready to market an 80286 laptop computer weighing only 6.5 pounds. Meanwhile, Sonic Electric Energy of Atlanta has announced a revolutionary new method of converting radio waves into electrical energy. The company says they are developing a laptop computer that will be powered by radio waves and won't need a battery. - PC Week 17 May and Random Access 30 April HP's Printer Control Language (PCL). Hewlett-Packard marketing manager Bill McGlynn is quoted as saying that the PCL language used in the firm's popular Laserjets will not be upgraded to compete with Adobe's Postscript. The next version of PCL, Level 5, is scheduled for shipment this Fall. Level 5 will mimic some of the popular features of Postscript but will fall far short of Postscript's high-end functionality. - InfoWorld 25 April Laser Typesetter. Lasermaster Corporation plans to begin shipping a 2,400 dots per inch laser typesetter within the next two months. The LM-Typemaster will incorporate drivers for Ventura Publisher and Aldus Pagemaker, making it possible to produce high-quality, camera-ready output with PC desktop publishing software. The printer will have 4 Mbytes of RAM upgradable to 8 Mbytes and will cost approximately $30,000. - InfoWorld 25 April Microsoft's Macware Plans. Microsoft has plans to enhance the firm's entire line of Macintosh software during the next 12 months. Word 4.0 will include full WYSIWYG, enabling on-screen document editing. A revision of Excel will be along by the end of the Summer with 48 new worksheet functions and 29 new macros. A later version of Excel will support 3-D charts and up to 4 Mbytes of memory. - InfoWorld 18 April --------------------- Disclaimer: The "look and feel" of this message is exclusively MINE! (subject to change without notice; void where prohibited) ARPA: sewall%uconnvm.bitnet@mitvma.mit.edu Murphy A. Sewall BITNET: SEWALL@UCONNVM School of Business Admin. UUCP: ...ihnp4!psuvax1!UCONNVM.BITNET!SEWALL University of Connecticut ------------------------------ End of INFO-MAC Digest ********************** ACTION>