PD ROM 1/PD ROM Volume I - Macintosh Software from BMUG (1988).iso/Electronic Messages/USEnet Digests/USEnet Vol. 3/USEnet 3.082

Internet Message Format | 1988-04-08 | 26.9 KB | [TEXT/ttxt]

Date: Fri 16 Oct 87 19:08:04-GMT
From: Jeff Shulman <SHULMAN@SDR>
Subject: Usenet Mac Digest V3 #82

Usenet Mac Digest     Friday, October 16, 1987       Volume 3 : Issue 82

Today's Topics:
     Apple Hates You and other Misconceptions
     Re: [1] Apple Hates You and [2] Some questions
     HyperCard stack multi-access
     Re: Apple Monitors
     Versaterm printing bug?
     Printing Word Doc w/out Word - Summary
     Choplifter
     Re: What does access memory manager' mean?
     editing default window size
     Re: Missing deactivate events
     Hypercard
     Notification Manager (was Poor Mac Design Philosophy)
     Re: INIT 31 should be enhanced!
     MultiFinder Quit
     Help for a MPW newcomer ? - (nf)
     Re: Hypercard
     Need help making INIT
     Re: INIT 31 should be enhanced!
     Re: Mac II HD40 boot problems...

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

From: [e-mail] (bill coderre)
Subject: Apple Hates You and other Misconceptions
Date: 11 Oct 87 16:54:08 GMT
Organization: MIT Media Lab, Cambridge, MA

DISCLAIM: This is my opinion, not one of Apple or MIT.

Some common monitor ailments explained:

If your monitor "pops" (sharp click, "blooming" of picture), then that
is a high-voltage problem. If it's in warranty, dealer will replace. If
not, either a TV shop can fix, or just live with it. What happens is
that the Hi-V is arcing to ground. Could be fixed by cleaning the
insides, dust has been known to do this. DANGER: YOU WILL DIE if you zap
yourself with high-voltage. Be careful. Turn off the set. Let it cool
off. Follow the anode discharge procedure notated in many service
manuals. Let everything dry thoroughly before powering up.

If your monitor streaks, chances are it's a bad cable. Try another. If
that doesn't work, there is a component defect near the input stages of
the monitor, probably a broken capacitor.

If your monitor has rotten contrast, it could be the B+ voltage, or a
component failure.

If your monitor is defocused in some area, then it is probably a simple
yoke adjustment needing to be done. Same for rotation, and lateral
shift. It only takes a few minutes to fix. (Note: color monitors have a
fairly complex alignment procedure, involving two dozen or so
adjustments. I don't advise you align your own monitor without a
manual.)

All of the above can be easily fixed by your dealer or a TV shop. If
you've never fixed a TV, I don't advise you go out and try it yourself.
You can be KILLED. No foolin'.


AS FOR THIS BUSINESS OF APPLE "HATING" PEOPLE:

I honestly can't believe people who think that Apple would "unload"
inferior monitors on anybody. Seriously, why would Apple bother to ship
inferior product if they knew that it would reduce its company image and
also cost money since people will send broken stuff back? Apple doesn't
screen monitors into "crummy" and "good" piles. They buy them all built
and in the box from Sony (and other places) and ship them to you.

I have seen, personally, several dozen Apple BW monitors. All of them
were damn close to perfect. One or two broke, and we sent 'em back, no
prob. Several needed adjustments, but that's hardly surprising for a
delicate tube that's been shipped on a truck.

I have also seen two prototype and one "real" color monitors. The
finished product is without doubt the sharpest, has the purest colors,
and the nicest overall picture of any "consumer" product I've seen. I
can easily compare it to a TV studio monitor which costs $3k (and has
many other features). The reason for the delay is that Apple asked Sony
for better overall quality than Sony had ever delivered before, and that
took extra time. I honestly believe that anyone who A/B tests Apple
versus anything else will instantly prefer the Apple monitor. I wish I
could get one for my home TV set.

Apple honestly believes that you will be buying more computers later,
and therefore wants you to be happy with your computer. If you are one
of the few that had a couple of bad monitors in a row, then you are
unlucky. A vast majority of people have no problems at all. I'm sure if
you explain your problems to the dealer or a TV jock, they can make you
happy in a few minutes. Good luck, eh?..........................bc


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

From: [e-mail] (Mike Newton)
Subject: Re: [1] Apple Hates You and [2] Some questions
Date: 11 Oct 87 23:10:12 GMT
Organization: California Institute of Technology


No, I really dont feel Apple hates me (after all they want my money :>)
), however, I really do feel there is a problem w/ the black and white
monitors.   (The color monitors are  beautiful).

Since posting the original article I've seen two others w/ streaking (as
the poster pointed out, warranty service was quite good for the
'poping').  The cable is the (very short) cable that comes w/ the
monitor.  The monitor is not sitting close to anything that should cause
RF interference (besides the very impressively shielded Mac II).

I stronly suspect that I notice the problem more because I tend to work
late at night at home -- and the room is noticeably darkened so my
girlfriend can sleep.  I'm going to look around today for an Init (?)
FKEY(?) or ??? that will reverse the screen (BW --> WB) on the Mac II,
as I suspect that will help.

Does anyone know of a program like this?

Speaking of which, is there a init/fkey/... that will change the default
system font size???  I really prefer 11 or 12 point fonts and the screen
is big enough...

Thanks for the help,

- mike--
[e-mail]    {ucbvax!cithep,amdahl}!cit-vax!newton
Caltech 256-80            818-356-6771 (afternoons,nights)
Pasadena CA 91125        Beach Bums Anonymous, Pasadena President

        I'm never biased...


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

From: [e-mail] (Kerien Fitzpatrick)
Subject: HyperCard stack multi-access
Date: 12 Oct 87 00:07:13 GMT
Organization: Carnegie-Mellon University, CS/RI

I was looking through the HyperCard manuals for information about
whether or not stacks can be viewed by more than one user at a time.  I
am interested in setting up an appointment book, address book, and phone
dialer stack that more than one person could access at the same time.
It seems this has been overlooked or the procedure required is
undocumented.  If it is not possible I would view this as an incredible
oversight by Apple.  Does anyone have any information that might allow
me to sort out how to accomplish multi-user stacks?

Any info would be greatly appreciated.

Kerien Fitzpatrick
Carnegie Mellon University
The Robotics Institute
Pittsburgh, PA 15213
[phone]

Arpanet: [e-mail]


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

From: [e-mail] (Dave Platt)
Subject: Re: Apple Monitors
Date: 11 Oct 87 23:11:26 GMT
Organization: Teknowledge, Inc., Palo Alto CA

The original poster of the "Problems with Apple Monitors" message noted
one symptom that I don't believe is the fault of the Apple monochrome
monitor.  Specifically, s/he mentioned that the screen background (gray)
appeared somewhat streaky and white immediately to the right of an open
window.

I can see the same symptom on my Apple color monitor, which is a rather
different beast than the monochrome monitor.  In fact, I can also see a
slight dark shadow to the right of the text within the MacKermit window
I'm looking at right now, so the problem isn't just one of "too bright".
 I'd hazard a guess that the slight streakiness I see is due to some
strange behavior in the Apple video card, or in an interaction between
card, cable, and monitor.  Impedence mismatch, leading to standing
waves, perhaps?

Can anybody from Apple shed a bit of light on this?


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

From: [e-mail] (Peter S. Wisnovsky)
Subject: Versaterm printing bug?
Date: 12 Oct 87 01:01:24 GMT
Organization: Princeton Univ. Computing and Information Technology


I have been noticing something strange about my Imagewriter (1) output
recently: namely, that when the printer is going from right to left in
draft mode when using Versaterm in ImageWriter (RS-232) mode that every
line that was printed from right to left is lighter then the lines
printed from left to right; since the lines get lighter farther to the
left, it looks like it is forgeting to advance the ribbon when going in
this direction. However, when I print using ImageWriter (IW Driver)
mode, it prints uniformly dark. Am I imagining this?

Than-que
--
Peter Wisnovsky        [e-mail]
        BitNet: pswisnov@pucc

Occasionally wrong, never in doubt.


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

From: [e-mail] (David Lassner)
Subject: Printing Word Doc w/out Word - Summary
Date: 12 Oct 87 02:56:30 GMT
Organization: University of Hawaii

In article <[e-mail]> I asked:
>I've got a one-page Word 3.01 document with some fancy
>formatting: side-by-side paragraph-graphics, boxes, bars,
>and a MacDraw picture pasted in.  I'd like to distribute
>it on diskette for people to print on their own printers,
>but obviously can't give out Word.  It won't paste into
>MacPaint or MacWrite properly, and can't be converted into
>ASCII text.  Any ideas?


The suggestions came in basically two categories: 1) Use Glue; and 2)
Distribute the PostScript source.

Glue works very well, but for this application I'm not really interested
in licensing the ImageViewer application to distribute with the
document.  I neglected to mention that my document was in landscape
mode, but it turns out that the Glue-generated MacPaint image can't be
read into MacPaint (or SuperPaint) properly.

So my solution is to distribute: 1) the original Word document, in case
the recipient has access to a system with Word; and 2) the postscript
file, generated from Word with Command-F, and the (free) SendPS
application which can be used if the recipient has access to a
LaserWriter.

Thanks all, for the help.

--
David Lassner, University of Hawaii Computing Center, 808/948-7351
INTERNET:     [e-mail]   PLATO: david/p/hawaii
UUCP:         {ihnp4,uunet,ucbvax,dcdwest}!sdcsvax!nosc!uhccux!david
BITNET/OTHER: [e-mail]


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

From: [e-mail] (Christopher North)
Subject: Choplifter
Date: 11 Oct 87 04:55:30 GMT
Organization: Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH

Hell out there! My favorite computer game of all time is Choplifter
which I have seen out for the Apple II.  Does anyone know if this game
will ever come out for the mac or will I have to write a similar game
for myself?


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

From: lippin@spam (tom lippincott)
Subject: Re: What does access memory manager' mean?
Date: 12 Oct 87 05:44:57 GMT
Organization: UC Berkeley Math Department

[e-mail] sez:
>In IM, it says that you can't use any
>routines that access the memory manager
>directly or indirectly from within
>things such as VBL tasks, system tasks, etc.
>Does this mean that any system call that
>can cause heap scrambles is disallowed?

Yes they're disallowed -- during the interrupt, you could be pulling
information right out from under the main program.

But wait, there's more!

Even calls that don't change the heap can cause problems -- most
quickdraw routines, in particular, are not reentrant.  If you make a
quickdraw call while the main program is making one, you'll probably
mess up that call. (I've tried this.  The bugs are Mostly Harmless, but
there.)

In the back of IM III there's a list of things not to call, which is
extended in IV, and likely will be in V when it gets finished.  But a
good rule of thumb is that *no* calls that do any drawing can be called
during the VBL interrupt.

                May the source be with you,
                    --Tom Lippincott
                    ..ucbvax!bosco!lippin

        "Release the blundering dolts!"


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

From: [e-mail] (Glenn T. Barry)
Subject: editing default window size
Date: 12 Oct 87 01:52:27 GMT
Organization: Math & Computer Science, Emory University, Atlanta

I have a question regarding that "other" hypertext program, Guide.
Actually the question is probably more generic, but my application is to
Guide.

When Guide opens, the default window does not fill the entire screen. If
I adjust the window using either the grow boxes in the bottom right or
the zoom box in the upper right, and then save the document, the change
in window size is not saved and when openned the next time, the document
will once again need to be adjusted.

My question is: can I use Resedit to change the parameters for the
dimensions of the default window so that when my guide document is
openned the window will automatically fill the entire screen? I am
preparing a document for use by students on campus, some of whom may be
Mac novices, and I would like to maximize the space available for use
while minimizing the dependence on the student to resize the window.

Any help would be appreciated. I have used Resedit but am not an expert
so please give specific instructions. Thanks.

--
Larry Riddle        |  gatech!emory!riddle               USENET
Emory University    |  riddle@emory                      CSNET,BITNET
Dept of Math and CS |  riddle.emory@csnet-relay          ARPANET
Atlanta, Ga 30322   |  [phone]                    AT@T


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

From: lippin@spam (tom lippincott)
Subject: Re: Missing deactivate events
Date: 12 Oct 87 06:08:05 GMT
Organization: UC Berkeley Math Department

I don't know what happens to those events, but it doesn't really matter
-- they're not going to show up.  Even if they did show up, they would
be worthless because they couldn't be processed until the alert
(actually any modal dialog) went away, and they'd be just before the
activate event. The simple solution is to hang a flag off the refcon
which tells whether the window is active.  If it is, don't activate it
again.

                    May the Source be with you,
                        --Tom Lippincott
                        ..ucbvax!bosco!lippin

     "Mr. Spock does NOT say `eat hot plasma death, klingon scumbags!'"
                    --Berke Breathed


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

From: [e-mail] (Chuq Von Rospach)
Subject: Hypercard
Date: 12 Oct 87 06:41:20 GMT

[Warning: Hypercard is addictive. Warning: Hypercard is addictive.
Warning:]

I want to thank everyone for their ideas and feedback on my previous
questions. I now have radio buttons up and working, and also have a
heterogenous stack with linked lists in it working. If there is
interest, I'll post the code that handles linked lists (it can probably
be cleaned up pretty well, but it works). The stack I'm working on is
shaping up better than I'd hoped! I wasn't sure Hypercard could handle
what I want it to do (I'm building a stack that will handle my book
collection, all my review copy information, books received for
OtherRealms and a full review Index, plus report generation facilities
for various things to interface to ReadySetGo for layout into
OtherRealms) but I'm now sure that I'm STILL underestimating what it'll
do when I figure it out.

People should be warned. Hypercard IS addictive. For the first time, I
can simply point and push buttons and get the mac to do what I want it
to do -- without having to hassle trying to write the code or understand
Inside Mac. Whew. I've even figured out a way where I can (I think)
write Rogue in Hypercard. It wouldn't be neat, it wouldn't be fast, but
by damn it would work. I think. (No, I'm not planning on it).

Anyway, I've got (of course) a few more questions. My thanks in advance
to the group mind!

(1) Is there any way to realiably and completely trap out cloverleaf
    commands? I want to keep the user from doing things like creating
    new cards, deleting things, or using the clover-{1,2,3,4} keys because
    it really hoses out the linked lists (and EVERYTHING in this stack is
    linked). I've got buttons on the various backgrounds to do the
    equivalents, and the menubar is hidden, but if the user types %N it'll
    create a card that won't get linked in to any of the lists and get lost.
    God forbid they delete a card when I'm not looking, and
    First/Next/Prev/Last have little usefullness when you're talking about
    lists of lists. I've tried trapping newCard at the stack level to see if
    commandKey is down, but if they have quick fingers this isn't reliable.
    I still need things like New Card, but under program control. I suppose
    I can set global flags and refuse the newcard if the flag isn't set, but
    trying to do that for everything I wnat to control on the menu seems
    grotty. Since I want to release this thing to the Real World, I want to
    monkey proof it as much as possible.

(2) Hypercard seems pretty weak with invisible toys. Say I create a button
    or a field and make it invisible. How do I get HC to let me select it?
    It disappears, and HC doesn't seem to want to let me play with it unless
    I use the message box to make it visible again -- which is very tough if
    you forget the name you gave it....

One suggestion for a future enhancement. When you're in button or field
mode, and a new menubar item, either "Button" or "field" (or, if
possible, leave them both up all the time!). the items under the menu
will be the appropriate card/background items of that type for the
current card/background. Why? two reasons. First, you can then select
fields or backgrounds off the menu, even if they are invisible,
obscured, hidden, or hiding. Second, if you're editing a script, you can
click the menu and refresh your memory of exactly what you called the
silly thing you're trying to stuff a value into.

I hope the next release of HC has strong script editing facilities. This
area is still a bit weak, which I find disappointing. But the thing is
so neat! Like, wow!

chuq
Chuq Von Rospach                    [e-mail]
Editor, OtherRealms                    Delphi: CHUQ

Bye bye life!  Bye bye happiness! Hello, loneliness, I think I'm gonna
die.


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

From: [e-mail] (David Phillip Oster)
Subject: Notification Manager (was Poor Mac Design Philosophy)
Date: 12 Oct 87 10:19:23 GMT
Organization: School of Education, UC-Berkeley

Apple knows that the blinking apple from the alarm clock is pretty
lousy. There was supposed to be a new manager built into the system
toolbox for prgrams to use. It didn't get finished in time for System
4.1, but it is coming soon to a System file near you:

The Notification Manager.

This geezer is a uniform way for asynchronous tasks (like mail and
reminder service programs) to tell the operating system that it should
try to get the user's attention.  The operating system puts up a dialog,
or plays a tune, or emits a wolf whistle to get the user's attention to
a "click here" button. When the user clicks, he gets more information.

I'm glad the folks at apple are figuring out a standard user interface
for this kind of thing. I'm glad it is getting done, and I'm glad I
don't have to do it.

It was probably delayed to make real sure that it looked good in the
multi-finder environment.


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

From: [e-mail] (David Phillip Oster)
Subject: Re: INIT 31 should be enhanced!
Date: 12 Oct 87 10:48:05 GMT
Organization: School of Education, UC-Berkeley

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail]
(Christopher Chow) writes:

>I propose that Apple writes into init 31 some mechanism from which you can
>pick the list of inits which you want loaded.

Such a mechanism already exists. You start your machine. In the Finder,
you take all the INITs you don't want to run and drag them out of the
System Folder into some other folder. Re-boot the machine. Only the
INITs that you've left in the System Folder run. Simple.

--- David Phillip Oster            --A Sun 3/60 makes a poor Macintosh II.
Arpa: [e-mail] --A Macintosh II makes a poor Sun 3/60.
Uucp: {uwvax,decvax,ihnp4}!ucbvax!oster%dewey.soe.berkeley.edu

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

From: [e-mail] (Juri Munkki)
Subject: MultiFinder Quit
Date: 11 Oct 87 11:31:19 GMT
Organization: Helsinki University of Technology, Finland


I read that MultiFinder tries to quit applications by finding a menu
called "File" and an item called "Quit". As mentioned in a recent digest
it is clear that this approach doesn't work on international programs.

There is a simple solution that would require apple to slightly modify
their MultiFinder code. MultiFinder would first look for a resource in
the program. This resource would contain the name of the menu and menu
item. I first thought that the menu ID and item number would be enough,
but some programs keep making changes in their menus. (MacDraw for
example)

A really nice change would be to allow the user (or program) to change
the way the program quits. I might want to save all files automatically
in some programs and in others I might want to discard changes
automatically.

Juri Munkki [e-mail]

P.S. I'm still waiting for someone to explain why MacsBug slows down the
68881. (Maybe someone even knows a fix.)


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

From: [e-mail]
Subject: Help for a MPW newcomer ? - (nf)
Date: 11 Oct 87 05:11:00 GMT

Hello Net,

I'm new in this group (and on Mac) and Apple support in germany is
rather poor ! (APDA is a 1 man company here !) We have to port several
compilers to control a external Dig.Sig.Processor. These Compilers are
ready and now I have to fight with this Mac Userinterface , eg. creating
different  windows with lots of controls. I`d like to implement a
sliding potentiometer (similiar like the one in the contol field d/a)
... but how  ?

* Could anybody give me some hints (or code examples). A scroll bar would do it,  too.
* What does this "pass" routine in Lightspeed do ? (any GlobalToLocal stuff ?)
  (I have MPW).
* Could somebody post me the C syntax for the Controlmanager subroutines ?
  In Inside Mac there are only in pascal and it seems not always to
  be equivalent; eg. FindControl(thePoint ...) has to be "&point" ; sigh
* Is there an index of comp.sources.mac (especially an archive in europe ?)

thanks for answering
[a poor Apple Fan in Germany]
--
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
@                       @
@    Ralph Kessler               @
@    Quantec Tonstudiotechnik GmbH       @
@    (...!uunet!unido!qtecmuc!ralph)    @
@                       @
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@

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

From: [e-mail] (Ron Beloin)
Subject: Re: Hypercard
Date: 12 Oct 87 15:51:15 GMT
Organization: Cornell Theory Center, Cornell University, Ithaca NY

I put the follwing script into a card and it succeeded in doing what you
want (if I understand what you want correctly):

on idle
  if the commandkey is down then deadkey
end idle

on deadkey
  answer "Command-key items are not available" with "OK"
end deadkey

on domenu
  -- do not pass file
  -- do not pass edit
  -- do not pass go  :-)
  -- etc.
end domenu

note that to edit this script, you have to type
 "edit the script of this card" into the msgbox (or blind typing works also)
 I haven't tried this at the background or stack level.

--ron.
 Ron Beloin, Ecosystems Research Center, Corson Hall, Cornell, Ithaca,NY 14853
 >> opinions << BITNET:BELOIN@CRNLTHRY; INTERNET:[e-mail]
 >> are mine << UUCP:{cmcl2,shasta,uw-beaver,rochester}!cornell!tcgould!beloin

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

From: [e-mail] (David Walsh)
Subject: Need help making INIT
Date: 6 Oct 87 20:18:22 GMT
Organization: Univ. of Rochester Computing Center

I am trying to create an INIT resource with Lightspeed Pascal v1.0, but
it will only create DRVR's and CODE resources.  Is it possible to create
say a  DRVR and modify it with Resedit to make it an INIT?  Is there
another way to create an INIT in Lighspeed Pascal?  I haven't found
anything of use in Inside the Macintosh about the format of the INIT
resource and I haven't found the Lightspeed manual too helpful on this
topic either.

Any help that anyone could give me would be greatly appreciated.  Source
code for a pre-made INIT would be of great benefit, especially anything
written in Lightspeed.

Thanks a lot.

Dave Walsh - trying to be a real Mac hacker


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

From: [e-mail] (Christopher Chow)
Subject: Re: INIT 31 should be enhanced!
Date: 12 Oct 87 18:18:05 GMT
Organization: Cornell Theory Center, Cornell University, Ithaca NY

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail]
(David Phillip Oster) writes:
>In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Christopher Chow) writes:
>
>>I propose that Apple writes into init 31 some mechanism from which you can
>>pick the list of inits which you want loaded.
>
>Such a mechanism already exists. You start your machine. In the
>Finder, you take all the INITs you don't want to run and drag them out
>of the System Folder into some other folder. Re-boot the machine. Only
>the INITs that you've left in the System Folder run. Simple.
>
>--- David Phillip Oster            --A Sun 3/60 makes a poor Macintosh II.

This is exactly the method which I rather not put up with!  If I know
about INIT 31 then I know about this method :-)  Do you really think
this is a _elegant_ way of doing thing when you have lots of init files
(& other files) in your System Folder?

It seems that something as fundamental and as simple choosing (on
occasion) what customizations you'd like to boot up with shouldn't
entail changing the contents of the system folder.  Not to mention this
method takes alot longer if some of your inits crashes your machine.
Note that sometimes these inits can crash your machine during the boot
up process, which means that you have to start from a different startup
disk just to move files around, and then reboot.  I think it's a lot
easier if something like what I suggested is implemented.

Christopher Chow

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

From: [e-mail]
Subject: Re: Mac II HD40 boot problems...
Date: 12 Oct 87 18:51:00 GMT
Organization: Indiana University CSCI, Bloomington


This happens to me, also...but after I use the HD installer and 'test'
the hard disk, I can shut-down, re-boot, and the hard disk is recognized
again.

This usually happens as a result of me using software that bombs in the
Mac II...about 3 times out of ten (if it's a severe bomb), the hard disk
becomes lost to the system.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|  Jon W. Backstrom             "Yah sure...we gonna have fun, you bet!"      |
|  Computer Science Department                                                |
|  Indiana University           UUCP: {ihnp4,pyramid,rutgers}!iuvax!viking    |
|  Lindley Hall 101             ARPA: [e-mail]             |
|  Bloomington, IN  47405                                                     |
|                               "The world has arrived at an age of cheap     |
|  [phone] (Office)       complex devices of great reliability; and    |
|  [phone] (Home)         something is bound to come of it."           |
|                                                 - Vannevar Bush (1945)      |
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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End of Usenet Mac Digest
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