PD ROM 1/PD ROM Volume I - Macintosh Software from BMUG (1988).iso/Electronic Messages/USEnet Digests/USEnet Vol. 3/USEnet 3.062

Text File | 1988-04-08 | 25.4 KB | 709 lines | [TEXT/ttxt]

29-Sep-87 08:52:08-PDT,26633;000000000001
Date: Fri 28 Aug 87 21:20:48-GMT
From: Jeff Shulman <SHULMAN@SDR>
Subject: Usenet Mac Digest V3 #62

Usenet Mac Digest     Friday, August 28, 1987        Volume 3 : Issue 62

Today's Topics:
     Re: Chinese for Mac?
     Re: Notification Manager
     Connecting Mac Appletalk and Sun Ethernet TCP/IP
     US MUGs Info?
     Re: Which Is Better: DMCS or Concertware+?
     ScripTEN Laser Printers?
     Mac II Transputer boards (by Levco)
     Re: Which Is Better: DMCS or Concertware+?
     Re: Alias Launchers
     Re: Early impressions of Suitcase
     Steve Capps speaks out at MIT
     Using WaitNextEvent for suspend/resume events
     Re: PowerPoint
     Thunderscan V4.0
     Re: Steve Capps speaks out at MIT
     SIZE resource
     Jasmine Backpac
     FzzPlot Purchasers Please Read!
     Re: Projecting a Mac screen
     Re: TextEdit and Arrow keys
     SE Internal Hard Disks
     MPW and MultiFinder

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

From: [e-mail]
Subject: Re: Chinese for Mac?
Date: 21 Aug 87 00:36:00 GMT

Is FeiMa the only chinese word processor available on the Mac?  I
haven't seen either the FeiMa or the Japanese word processor, any idea
where I can see one, I am not sure that I want to buy one after reading
the comments.


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

From: [e-mail] (Ed Tecot)
Subject: Re: Notification Manager
Date: 21 Aug 87 23:53:51 GMT
Organization: Apple Computer Inc., Cupertino, USA

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Gregory Dudek) writes:
>
>  I keep hearing about the notifier (mgr) too, but have no info.  Maybe
>some kind person could post a brief summary of the interface or basic
>functionality?

Please disregard all references to the Notification Manager.  This
software does not currently exist and will not appear in the form as
documented in early drafts of IM Vol 5.  We are working on something
similar, though.

                        _emt


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

From: [e-mail] (Steven D. Litvintchouk)
Subject: Connecting Mac Appletalk and Sun Ethernet TCP/IP
Date: 22 Aug 87 04:27:00 GMT
Organization: The MITRE Corp., Bedford, MA

In our department, we have our Macs connected together via Appletalk,
and we have our Sun workstations netted together via Ethernet & TCP/IP.

Can anyone give us some advice on a good way to connect the two networks
(Appletalk and Ethernet) together?  We would like to facilitate the
following:

    -- remote login from Macs to the Suns
    -- remote file access/transfer between our Macs & Suns
    -- electronic mail between our Macs & Suns

Please reply directly to me because I don't normally subscribe to this
newsgroup.  Thanx very much in advance!

Steven Litvintchouk
MITRE Corporation
Burlington Road
Bedford, MA  01730

Fone:  [phone]
ARPA:  [e-mail]
UUCP:  ...{cbosgd,decvax,genrad,ll-xn,philabs,security,utzoo}!linus!sdl

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

From: [e-mail] (Macintosh Users Group)
Subject: US MUGs Info?
Date: 20 Aug 87 13:44:14 GMT
Organization: RUNX Un*x Timeshare.  Sydney, Australia.

I need to know some details on the major Macintosh Users Groups in the
United States - their addresses, membership rates, Public Domain
libraries (and rates) and newsletters.


Thanks in advance,
                  Jason Haines, President

Club Mac Macintosh Users Group, Sydney, Australia
Telecom:   [phone]
Snail:     Box 213, Holme Building, Sydney University, NSW, 2006, Australia
ACSnet:    [e-mail]     ARPA:   [e-mail]
UUCP:{enea,hplabs,mcvax,prlb2,seismo,ubc-vision,ukc}!munnari!runx.ips.oz!clubmac

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

From: [e-mail] (Alan Perry)
Subject: Re: Which Is Better: DMCS or Concertware+?
Date: 22 Aug 87 18:45:15 GMT
Organization: The Unix(tm) Connection, Dallas, Texas

The above article requested information about which of those two I
preferred. I will answer that with Concertware+.  Now, if you really
want to know what I like best, it is Studio Session by MacNifty.  The
instruments are digitized so you get the best sound out of any music
program I know of for the mac. Also, you are allowed 6 (that's right,
not just 4) voices with promises of a new release which will support 8
voices.  The way they could do this was simple, they just rewrote the
sound driver for the Mac.

So, if you want a good (strike that, great!) music program for the mac,
try Studio Session.

- Alan

Disclaimer:  The opinions expressed are solely mine and do not
necessarily
            reflect those of anyone else living, dead or otherwise.


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

From: [e-mail] (Jeff Myers)
Subject: ScripTEN Laser Printers?
Date: 23 Aug 87 19:37:09 GMT
Organization: University of Wisconsin Law School

Anybody out there had hands-on experience with the ScripTEN Laser
Printer from Qume?  It's currently advertised by Icon Review for circa
$4k.

Here's what I'd like to know --

(1) Does it have the same identical fonts as the Apple Laserwriter?
(2) What version of Postscript is it running?
(3) Any compatibility problems run across?
(4) How easy is it to get service?
(5) General opinion as to quality.

Any and all responses gladly appreciated...  I would suggest posting to
the net, because this should be of general interest, but mail will be
gladly accepted.  Thanks, Jeff Myers (not to be confused with the
redoubtable Jeff Meyer).

--
Jeff Myers: University of Wisconsin Law School Nerds, Inc.
ARPA:       [e-mail]            BitNet: MYERS at WISCMACC

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

From: [e-mail] (Greg Corson)
Subject: Mac II Transputer boards (by Levco)
Date: 20 Aug 87 01:13:49 GMT
Organization: Math. Dept., Univ. of Notre Dame

I understand that, at the Mac expo, Levco was showing some accelerator
boards for the Mac SE and Mac II that used the Inmos "Transputer" chips.

There was some sketchy information about these boards in a recent Mac
Week but the article there really confused the issue about prices...etc.

Did anyone out there happen to get a good look at one of these boards or
get some information about what they are and how they are
used/programmed?

If you have any info please post it to the net, if the prices reported
by MacWeek are close to correct I'm sure a lot of people on the net
would be interested.

Greg Corson 19141 Summers Drive South Bend, IN 46637
...seismo!iuvax!ndmath!milo


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

From: [e-mail] (Joel West)
Subject: Re: Which Is Better: DMCS or Concertware+?
Date: 24 Aug 87 02:42:28 GMT
Organization: Palomar Software, Inc., Vista, CA

It's been a while since I evaluated these, but it seemed to me that
Studio Session did have the best sound, but DMCS had the best music
editor.  However, the DMCS copy protection was odious and like all copy
protection, crashed miserably on newer machines even with a legitimate
copy.

Last I'd heard, DMCS was due to come out on the IIgs, so if that's not
ready yet, I wouldn't hold my breath for a fixed Mac version.


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

From: [e-mail] (Peter "Arrgh" Korn)
Subject: Re: Alias Launchers
Date: 24 Aug 87 07:20:31 GMT
Organization: What, me organized???

In <[e-mail]>, [e-mail] (Dennis Cohen) posted:
>
>...[the binhexed source code to an assembly prog. to launch other
>    programs through a bit of aliasing]...
>
>Obviously, the application to which you're aliasing should be able to open the
>document that you're passing it.  Word is stupid that way, it can open a
>MacWrite document but can't open it at launch -- MindWrite can.

I'd been thinking about the problem for a bit myself, and just a few
days before Dennis kindly posted his program, I wrote my own (somehow I
think I'm not alone either...).  In any case, mine has no problem with
having MacWrite documents launch MS-Word w/the document automagically
opened. Simply using the LightSpeed C chain function works marvelously.
The souce code is small, and is included below.  A packit-ed binhex-ed
file containing both the source code and the compiled program (as not
all compilers allow in-line assembly, or support _Chain as a call-able
function) has been sent to the moderator of comp.binaries.mac.

Please note, my program (engaging in a little bit of one-ups-manship)
can be easily modified by the non-programming user simply by editing
resource 'str ' #128--replacing the string that's there with the name
(and HFS path) of the program to be executed instead of MacWrite.

To make the program complete, one would want to check to make sure that
the string supplied is a valid path to the MacWrite replacing program,
and display a dialog box if not.


-----(the code)-----

/*
  This is a little ditty that will pretend it's MacWrite, and will get
  launched by double-clicking on a MacWrite document.  It will then
  launch whatever program is names in resource 'str ' #128, and pass to
  that program all the FinderInfo that was passed to this program.
  This program *has* to be in the same directory as the one that
  is named in resource 'str ' #128; -or- that resource string *has*
  to specify a full HFS path to the program to be launched.  Got it?

  Written by:  Peter Korn        [e-mail]
!ucbvax!korn

*/


/*    includes    */

#include    <MacTypes.h>
#include    <ToolboxUtil.h>
#include    <FileMgr.h>

/*    defines        */

#define    LAUNCHSTRING    128

main()
{
    StringHandle    launchTo;

    launchTo = GetString(LAUNCHSTRING);
    Chain(0, *launchTo);
}

-----(end code)-----

Peter
--
Peter "Arrgh" Korn
[e-mail]
{decvax,dual,hplabs,sdcsvax,ulysses}!ucbvax!korn

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

From: [e-mail] (Bill Russell)
Subject: Re: Early impressions of Suitcase
Date: 23 Aug 87 23:19:00 GMT
Organization: New York University

I have not seen any of the problems with Suitcase that you describe.
The startup setup in terms of files/folders is actually much more
flexible than your description states.  It is also possible to have
suitcase manage FKeys and "snd "'s.  Your use of the term "auto-loaded"
may mislead some to think that fonts are read into memory at boot time
-- this is not the case. The suitcase disk also includes the
state-of-the-art blanker, Pyro!. The sole shortcoming of Suitcase I am
aware of (and it's documented) is that you can't split a font family
across suitcase files -- in particular Geneva must have all its sizes in
the System file. Big deal.

I have no connection with Software Supply -- except that the authors are
friends of mine and excellent folks; I even paid for my copy!

-r (Richard Reich as russell@nyu)


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

From: [e-mail] (Joel West)
Subject: Steve Capps speaks out at MIT
Date: 24 Aug 87 15:00:31 GMT
Organization: Palomar Software, Inc., Vista, CA

In the better late than never department, here's a summary (from my
notes, not memory) of a meet-the-programmers talk that Steve Capps gave
at MIT during the Boston show.  The talk was sponsored by the Boston
Computer Society.

Steve followed a talk by two MacApp programmers, including Larry
Rosenstein (I arrived late, so I missed the first guy). Larry's pitch
for MacApp was impressive, and he had a nice set of tips for optimizing
QuickDraw performance (can you share these Larry?) but as a current
Apple employee, his remarks were, well, not as colorful as those of
Capps.

Steve seemed intent, in fact, on being controversial.  One of the first
things he said was "I think the IQ of Mac programs is going down fast."
By that, he meant, the newer programs seemed unimaginative and
conformist.  He held up SuperPaint as an example of a user interface
that was "ugly."

"Everybody says you have to follow Mac standards.  It's not using your
brains, it's using an excuse," he continued.

To illustrate a counter example, he pulled out Studio Session, and
showed its context-sensitive editing capabilities.  Instead of having a
separate tool palette for each function - selecting for the clipboard,
moving the note up/down, etc. - the tool was made context-sensitive.
You want to change a note, you grab it.  You want to select a passage,
click on the selection bar below the score and the score is selected.

(Also on Studio Session, he pointed out how he got 6 voices - and could
have had 8 - when the standard Sound Driver is only 4.  The standard
Sound Driver uses a 22 kHz sampling rate, but the -3 dB point of the
electronics is 8 kHz, so most of it is wasted; Steve said he used an 11
kHz rate instead.)

On the Macintosh, Steve said two people really deserved all the credit:
Steve Jobs and Bill Atkinson.  Although Andy Hertzfeld did QuickDraw, it
was a transcription of Bill's graphics code from the Lisa, according to
Steve.

Capps told several stories about how things were designed, for example,
the iterative design of the Standard File dialog by Atkinson and Capps.
  There wasn't any theory, but just a series of designs that were being
presented to Jobs for the yeah-or-nay approval.  In retrospect, he
wishes the ellipsis were used in the middle of a long file name, not the
end.

Capps also felt that the Finder had evolved through accretion and was
long overdue to be thrown out and started over. "It's like a grandma
you're keeping on a life-support system." There was too much code, he
contended, that was left over from the days of the 128K Mac that should
be removed.  His favorite finder was 4.1, which had more features than
its predecessor (1.1g?) but was smaller or nearly the same size.

On the relationship of Hertzfeld's Servant and Apple's new MultiFinder,
Capps joked "Ripping off is the sincerest form of flattery" to which a
heckler replied "...if they pay you six figures."

Steve showed his graphics/sound demo that was used at the Mac II intro.
He confessed that it required a special high-speed hard disk and 8 Mb of
memory.  And, in fact, for technical reasons he was unable to explain,
the system was a little slow for the demo and the sound track finished
before the video portion.


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

From: [e-mail] (Richard Siegel)
Subject: Using WaitNextEvent for suspend/resume events
Date: 24 Aug 87 17:05:03 GMT

Could someone in the know explain exactly how to detect suspend/resume
events using WaitNextEvent in Juggler? The docs I have sort of explain
it, but I'm not real good at bit-twiddling, so any explanation would be
helpful -- I'm using Pascal.

(Oh yes -- I *am* a seed site for Juggler.)

        --Rich


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

From: [e-mail] (Jeff Harrow, NCSE BXB1-2/E02 DTN=293-5128)
Subject: Re: PowerPoint
Date: 24 Aug 87 17:20:30 GMT
Organization: Digital Equipment Corporation

I too have the problem of loosing text and other items when printing in
reduced views on the Imagewriter, BUT ONLY IN "BEST" MODE!

I contacted the PowerPoint support folks who said yea, we know about it,
but it's a bug in the Apple Imagewriter driver.  It'll be fixed when
Apple fixes the driver...

Hummmmm, where have I heard that before?  I'm just a bit skeptical since
this is the only program I've seen that reacts like this; anyone else
have any ideas?

Jeff Harrow DEC 617/264-5128



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

From: [e-mail] (Jeff Harrow, NCSE BXB1-2/E02 DTN=293-5128)
Subject: Thunderscan V4.0
Date: 24 Aug 87 17:29:34 GMT
Organization: Digital Equipment Corporation

I just tried using Thunderscan's new software (V4.0) on the Mac II.  All
seemed to work fine until I tried re-halftoning an image I had just
scanned in...

Immediately after it finished the re-halftoning, la bomba!

This is consistent behavior.  Has anyone else seen it or heard from
Thunderware?

Jeff Harrow DEC 617/264-5128


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

From: [e-mail] (Matt Dillon)
Subject: Re: Steve Capps speaks out at MIT
Date: 24 Aug 87 19:42:39 GMT

>(Also on Studio Session, he pointed out how he got 6 voices -
>and could have had 8 - when the standard Sound Driver is only
>4.  The standard Sound Driver uses a 22 kHz sampling rate,
>but the -3 dB point of the electronics is 8 kHz, so most of
>it is wasted; Steve said he used an 11 kHz rate instead.)

    An interesting note since people have been discussing sound a bit:

A good rule to follow is to sample at double the maximum frequency you
will you will ever output.  In actuallity, you want to go a little
faster.  Any frequencies above MaxF/2 create what is called 'aliasing'.
This is why CD's sample at such a high frequency.

Aliasing is considered a worse problem then 'bits'.  If you had the
choice between 8 bits at 44Khz and 16 bits at 10Khz, the 8 bit sound
would be audibly better (*much* better).

The standard method to remove aliasing when sampling at low frequencies
is to have an anti-aliasing filter.  The implementation of such a filter
digitially usually requires a 2:1 or 4:1 oversample (which defeats the
purpose in many applications).  Thus, such filters are usually analog
and placed after the DAC.  With such a filter installed, you can easily
output frequencies at MaxF/2 (though it is still about 3Db down, I
believe), and frequencies above that don't cause as much distortion as
they do otherwise.

Sound programs can design around the aliasing problem by carefully
calculating the waveforms of the instruments.  Voice and digitized
(anything) almost require the filter if you are not sampling at a high
enough rate.

Antialiasing filters are low-pass filters, BTW.

                -Matt


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

From: [e-mail] (Tom Carstensen)
Subject: SIZE resource
Date: 24 Aug 87 18:25:14 GMT
Organization: Mentor Graphics, Beaverton OR

Can anybody either explain, or point me in a direction about what
exactly the SIZE (ID = -1) resource is supposed to contain, in terms of
min/max size, and the other fields?

:------------------------------------------------------------:
: Tom Carstensen              Usenet: [e-mail] :
: Mentor Graphics             GEnie:                         :
:------------------------------------------------------------:

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

From: [e-mail] (Alan Takahashi)
Subject: Jasmine Backpac
Date: 25 Aug 87 02:46:46 GMT
Organization: Bell Northern Research, Mtn. View, CA

I've been looking around at some hard disks for the Macintosh, and ran
across the BackPac 40 from Jasmine.  This is a hard disk which mounts on
the back of a Mac Plus, and connects via the SCSI port. (Also doesn't
have a fan, as far as I can tell).

I was wondering if anyone has had any experience with this drive. Is it
good?  Bad?  Noisy?  {Whatever adjective you want to use}?


Thanks in advance,

Alan Takahashi *at* ...!{hplabs,amdahl,3comvax}!bnrmtv!takahashi


)X---------------------------

From: [e-mail] (Richard Siegel)
Subject: FzzPlot Purchasers Please Read!
Date: 25 Aug 87 12:19:32 GMT


Attention all FzzPlot purchasers:

    I am almost ready to release a new version of FzzPlot to registered
owners. The problem is, my database was accentally destroyed (not my
fault). I have a few letters from people who sent in their registration
fee, but by no means do these letters represent my entire user base.

    Therefore, I need anyone who has sent in their registration fee to
write me a letter, and enclose some proof of registration -- a Xerox
copy of your cancelled registration check will be fine, or send me the
cover page of your documentation. (There are some people who have not
recieved the documentation; I apologize for that; it was lost along with
the database.)

    If you can't find proof of registration, just write me a letter.

I will provide a new version of the program, along with updated
documentation.

I sincerely apologize for this inconvenience. There will be no charge
for the update to registered users. Please not that the next public
release of FzzPlot will *not* be on the networks, but will be available
directly from me upon request.

(I will explain the reasons for this if requested to....)

Thanks.

        --Rich

R-Squared Development Systems 134 Horseshoe Drive Williamsburg, Virginia
23185 [phone] [After 6pm eastern time only]

Arpanet: [e-mail] Uucp: {your fave
gateway}!seismo!andrew.cmu.edu!rs4u

Disclaimer? I don't even KNOW 'er!

"Do you wanna be a cop or a lost cause?"
    -- Sean Connery, in "The Untouchables"


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

From: [e-mail]
Subject: Re: Projecting a Mac screen
Date: 24 Aug 87 15:05:00 GMT


Take a look at the Limelight projector made by:

    VIVID Systems, Inc.
    41752 Christy St.
    Freemont, CA 94538
    415-656-9965

This is a fairly lightweight (maybe even portable, if you have a strong
arm or are not going too far...) and very clear projection system.  If I
remember correctly, the Electrohome is massive.  I've used a Limelight
successfully with the room lights on, but only with a high-quality
projection screen.  Lights-off is much better.

As for datapads, there is supposed to be a composite video adapter that
allows the QA-25 (Kodak?) to be used with the Mac.  I've been quoted a
price on the adapter ($119).  Unfortunately, I have not heard a peep
about this since, don't have the manufacturer name, etc.  It does
require mods to the Mac (but so do the Limelight & Electrohome). Has
anyone heard of adaptors of this sort for using datapads with Macs
(Kodak, VIVID LCD, or any other datapad)?

    David McNabb    ...!ihnp4!uiucdcs!mcnabb    [e-mail]


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

From: [e-mail] (Brian H. Powell)
Subject: Re: TextEdit and Arrow keys
Date: 25 Aug 87 19:05:44 GMT
Organization: U. Texas CS Dept., Austin, Texas

In article <[e-mail]>, [e-mail] (Ed Tecot) writes:
  <Concerning the use of shift-arrow keys...>
> There is one major problem with that approach:  The user will not be able to
> use the =, /, *, and + keys on the numeric keypad section of the MacPlus
> keyboard (as well as the separate keypad that some users have).

     Let me quote from IM-IV, page IV-5.  "If the use of Shift-arrow for
making selections is more important to your application than the numeric
keypad, the following paragraphs describe how it should work."  (&c.,
the following paragraphs describe what shift-arrow is supposed to do.)

     First of all, the statement by Ed Tecot is not correct, at least in
my implementation.  My code only looks at the key-codes if the shift-key
is held down (and as I mentioned in my previous message, only if the
machine I'm using has the 64K or 128K ROMs).  On a Mac-Plus keyboard, if
the user hits (keypad) '*', he gets an asterisk.  If the user hits
shift-(keypad)asterisk, he gets shift-right-arrow.  On a Mac-Plus
keyboard there is some question as to why the user would press
shift-asterisk on the keypad.
     The problem occurs with the old separate numeric keypad.  There,
the only way to generate an '*', '+', '/', and ',' on the keypad is with
the shift-key held down.  The quote from IM-IV above applies here.  It's
more important for the TextEdit portion of my application to support
shift-arrow keys than it is to support special characters on the old
numeric keypad.
     So, in conclusion, the only thing my code doesn't support is the
special characters on the old separate numeric keypad.  On the Plus
keyboard, shift-keypad characters can result in shift-arrows, but I
consider shift-keypad keydowns to be of questionable use.  On the ADB
keyboards, and any future keyboards for the SE, II or any future
machine, shift-keypad keydowns will result in whatever the event manager
feels appropriate.  This means that Apple could add, at some later date
on some future keyboard, characters to be entered for shift-keypad
events, and my program will support them.

Brian H. Powell
        UUCP:    {ihnp4,seismo,ctvax}!ut-sally!brian
        ARPA:    [e-mail]

   _Work_                     _Not Work_
  Department of Computer Sciences        P.O. Box 5899
  Taylor Hall 2.124                Austin, TX 78763-5899
  The University of Texas at Austin        [phone]
  Austin, TX 78712-1188
  [phone]


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

From: [e-mail]
Subject: SE Internal Hard Disks
Date: 25 Aug 87 23:28:00 GMT


I'd appreciate any advice on the relative merits of internal hard disks
for the SE.  I want to buy a fast 40MB hard disk, as long as I'm
convinced that it's fairly robust.  I've gotten quotes for disks by CMS,
Rodime, and Mirror Technologies.  When I asked, I was informed that the
drives in use were by Conner, Rodime, and Fuji, respectively. Does
anyone have any idea as to how robust each of these are?

Please send replies by mail, and I'll summarize for the net.

----
KiYun Roe    [e-mail]
        {mit-eddie, ihnp4, wjh12, cca, cbosgd, seismo}!mirror!kiyun
Mirror Systems    2067 Massachusetts Avenue  Cambridge, MA  02140
Telephone:    [phone] Ext. 140

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

From: [e-mail] (Doug Moen)
Subject: MPW and MultiFinder
Date: 25 Aug 87 06:09:58 GMT
Organization: U of Waterloo, Ontario

Lots of Amiga-types have been pointing out the benefits of performing
compilations in the background while doing other stuff.

I'd like the answers to 2 questions:
1) Will MPW (Macintosh Programmers Workshop) be compatible with MultiFinder?
2) Will the necessary calls to GetNextEvent (or whatever) be inserted
   into the MPW C compiler so that it can run as a background task under
   MultiFinder?

Since the dance notation editor that I am working on takes an hour and
40 minutes to recompile under MPW, it would be *really nice* if I could
use the Macintosh for other purposes while the compile is running.
--
Doug Moen
University of Waterloo Computer Graphics Lab
UUCP:     {ihnp4,watmath}!watcgl!kdmoen
INTERNET: [e-mail]

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

End of Usenet Mac Digest
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