PD ROM 1/PD ROM Volume I - Macintosh Software from BMUG (1988).iso/Electronic Messages/USEnet Digests/USEnet Vol. 3/USEnet 3.085

Internet Message Format | 1988-04-08 | 33.9 KB | [TEXT/ttxt]

Date: Thu 22 Oct 87 09:11:35-EDT
From: Jeff Shulman <SHULMAN@SDR>
Subject: Usenet Mac Digest V3 #85

Usenet Mac Digest     Tuesday, October 20, 1987      Volume 3 : Issue 85

Today's Topics:
     Re: HyperCard stack multi-access
     Re: hypertext vs. hypercards
     Re: Mac II Production Stopped?
     Mac II Crash
     Re: editing default window size
     Intermail shaft is complete
     Re: Mac II Production Stopped?
     Re: Possible LSC improvements
     Re: Intermail shaft is complete
     Re: Color icon in "Welcome to Macintosh" greeting
     Re: Looking for demo programs for Macintosh II
     Re: Hypercard question
     Re: "Pyro"mania/pack your "Suitcase" and go!
     Re: HyperCard stack multi-access (2 messages)
     Re: MacPlus resetting problem
     Parity on Apple memories
     booting diskless macs on net
     Mac II Wide Screen Graphics
     Re: Hypercard
     VIP graphic programming language
     Re: Mac II Wide Screen Graphics
     Re: hypertext vs. hypercards
     FullWrite Professional
     Re: Parity on Apple memories
     Re: HyperCard stack multi-access
     Re: Missing deactivate events

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

From: [e-mail] (Brian McElhinney)
Subject: Re: HyperCard stack multi-access
Date: 14 Oct 87 17:11:24 GMT
Organization: John Fluke Mfg. Co., Inc., Everett, WA

The auto-save feature appears to have been a "neat hack" with little
thought given to its actual use.  Now auto-save in itself is an
excellent feature, but it should NEVER alter the original file without
the explicit consent of the user.  I would be very interested in hearing
how this was justified.

One thing is for sure: auto-save will be "fixed" in some manner.
Otherwise Hypercard will never be able to open the much-hyped CD-ROM
stacks!



Brian McElhinney [e-mail]


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

From: [e-mail] (Robert Stanley)
Subject: Re: hypertext vs. hypercards
Date: 12 Oct 87 20:54:14 GMT
Organization: Cognos Inc., Ottawa, Canada

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Keith Rollin) writes:

>There are 2 methods suggested in the 1st and only issue of Windoid, Apple's
>Hypercard User Group's informal publication (it was posted here a couple of
>weeks ago).

>Method #1: Place a tansparent button over the word in question, or an
>           asterisk button after it. This has the advantage of not being
>           ambiguous, but it is not flexible (i.e. the button doesn't move
>           with the text, as in a scrolling field).

there is one really serious problem with this approach, and that is that
the font in which the text is displayed must not be altered.  I ran into
this in a big way with the first distributed version of HyperCard, where
the help stack uses a transparent button over a text asterisk to link to
additional information.  Whatever font the help stack used, I don't
appear to have on my system, and the asterisks displayed with only the
most casual of relation to the position of the buttons!  Absolutely
baffling to a novice user.

You can, however, write scripts capable of detecting specifici lines,
words, and words within lines, but it gets to be a lot of programming,
and is also susceptible to font changes (number of words per line
changes).

This is clearly one for Bill Atkinson, to allow a LIVE word within a
text string to be used as a sub-button or sub-field.
--
Robert Stanley           Cognos Incorporated     S-mail: P.O. Box 9707
Voice: [phone] (Research: there are 2!)           3755 Riverside Drive
  FAX: [phone]    Compuserve: 76174,3024          Ottawa, Ontario
 uucp: decvax!utzoo!dciem!nrcaer!cognos!roberts          CANADA  K1G 3Z4


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

From: [e-mail] (Joel West)
Subject: Re: Mac II Production Stopped?
Date: 14 Oct 87 18:41:44 GMT
Organization: Palomar Software, Inc., Vista, CA

In article <[e-mail]>, [e-mail] (Joel West)
writes:
> I heard a rumor that there will be a new ROM in a month or two.

I shouldn't have said rumor (and if @&&*&*^ news woulda let me cancel
this...)

A letter to NuBus developers from Apple dated September 1 says a new ROM
is planned in November; new machines will get the ROM and dealers will
do a ROM upgrade on any serviced/upgraded machine.

The problem is the Slot Manager won't recognize cards with > 1 Megabyte
of memory (can you say "24-bit video card?") because it doesn't run in
32-bit mode.  In the new ROM, the Slot Manager will run in 32 bit mode,
according to the letter.

Today, only the lowest 1 Megabyte of address space of a NuBus card is
visible to the Slot Manager.  Since declaration ROM has to be at the top
of the address space, if it uses > 1 Megabyte, the declaration ROM
"disappears".  Neat, huh?

Apple says that card developers should notify their customers if their
product requires the new ROM; they will be providing a ROM version
application to see whether you need to visit your dealer.
--
    Joel West  (c/o UCSD)
    Palomar Software, Inc., P.O. Box 2635, Vista, CA  92083
    {ucbvax,ihnp4}!sdcsvax!jww     [e-mail]


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

From: [e-mail] (Gary Davis)
Subject: Mac II Crash
Date: 14 Oct 87 19:38:41 GMT
Organization: UW-Madison Primate Center


     I recently had an interesting crash on my Mac II. I was working
with Acta and decided to look up a word with the WordFinder thesaurus
DA. Bang! Bus error, ID 01. I had just typed in a lot of material and
expected to lose it when I restarted the machine, the only option
available. Instead, when I clicked Restart  Acta threw up a Save dialog
and successfully saved my file before the Mac rebooted.

     I've never seen anything like that before. Could it be a feature of
Acta, the Mac II or System 4.1? Out of curiosity I repeated the same
sequence of events a second time, but I didn't pursue it further to see
what conditions it may occur under. It is too common for crashes on the
Mac II to mess up the PRAM, causing the Mac to forget about the hard
disk and the keyboard, rather of a pain. This was the only time I've had
a crash with commercial software, but I've had many with public domain
stuff. However, I have found it much easier to crash LightSpeed Pascal
on the II than on the Plus, where it's almost impossible to bring the
System down.

     I should say that I've been generally quite happy with WordFinder,
and it's worked nicely with quite a few programs, even LightSpeed
Pascal, which often doesn't deal well with DAs. I don't know that the
crash was it's fault. My only disappointment with WordFinder is it's
word selection. I bought it after seeing an ad featuring a
recommendation from Bill Buckley. I don't care for his politics, but I
do like his word usage, and I expected to find such words in the
thesaurus. It does have an extensive set of synonyms for most words I've
checked, but they're rather more sober and ordinary than I had hoped.



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

From: [e-mail] (Robert Gardner)
Subject: Re: editing default window size
Date: 14 Oct 87 17:00:23 GMT
Organization: Philips Research Labs, Sunnyvale, California

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail]
(David Phillip Oster) writes:
>Apple feels that it is important to let the user choose the settings
>for new windows.
>
>In my programs, I give each of my documents a resource: Type=WIND
>ID=128, and update it each time the user saves the file.

There are a few situations I can think of where this doesn't seem
practical.

One is programs that don't create documents (terminal emulators and
games, for instance).

Another is programs that have non-document windows, such as tool
palettes. Should these be moved every time a window is open or
activated?

Finally, suppose a user edits a document in one section of the screen,
quits, comes back later and starts editing a different document in a
different section of the screen and wishes to open the original document
for reference. Should it really come up in the old position? Or should
it come up near the current document? Similarly, what if you open a
document created by a different application that uses the WIND
convention given here? Where should it come up?

Maybe these complaints are easy to solve, but it's fun to throw mud in
the water!

Robert Gardner


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

From: [e-mail] (Kerien Fitzpatrick)
Subject: Intermail shaft is complete
Date: 14 Oct 87 21:27:27 GMT
Organization: Carnegie-Mellon University, CS/RI

Well, if there are any other people that were waiting for Intermail 1.5
upgrades you might as well try and find some sucker to purchase the
software and then go out and buy Inbox.  I talked to people at Microsoft
and they are not planning on releasing the 1.5 upgrade until some time
in December. The reason I stated that the shaft was complete is that the
1.5 upgrade will NOT have the ability to create aliases for groups of
people.

It is my opinion that Interactive Network Technologies (located in
Mass.) have not been honest in their dealings with me.  Promises were
not kept.  An example: I was promised that the first version would have
the create group ability.  This promise was subsequently repeated 2
months later and then 3 months after that.

With the recent developments, I decided to take a first-hand look at
Inbox. I saw a version with three connections and the response was
sooooo slow I thought the machine had hung.  It looks to me like the
Mac-based email is a no-win situation now, but hopefully it will get
better.  If anyone knows of better email software I would appreciate it
if they would send me the name of a person to contact.

Words to live by:  Base decisions on Reality and not Blue Sky.

Kerien Fitzpatrick
Carnegie Mellon University
The Robotics Institute
Field Robotics Center
Pittsburgh, PA 15213

[e-mail]


DISCLAIMER:  Opinions stated are my own (and have been tempered) and are
not  to be considered those of my employer.


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

From: [e-mail] (Richard Siegel)
Subject: Re: Mac II Production Stopped?
Date: 15 Oct 87 01:43:45 GMT
Organization: THINK Technologies, Inc., Bedford, MA

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Joel West)
writes:
>The problem is the Slot Manager won't recognize cards with > 1 Megabyte
>of memory (can you say "24-bit video card?") because it doesn't run
>in 32-bit mode.  In the new ROM, the Slot Manager will run in 32
>bit mode, according to the letter.
>
>Today, only the lowest 1 Megabyte of address space of a NuBus card
>is visible to the Slot Manager.  Since declaration ROM has to be at
>the top of the address space, if it uses > 1 Megabyte, the declaration
>ROM "disappears".  Neat, huh?
>
    That's *real* neat! What about those National Semiconductor NuBus
memory expansion cards that have 4, 8, or 16 MB of RAM on them? Does
this mean that they won't work either????!

    NSI's advertising isn't real clear, but were those cards intended to
function under the normal Mac OS, or is UNIX required?

        --Rich



**The opinions stated herein are my own opinions and do not necessarily
represent the policies or opinions of my employer (THINK Technologies,
Inc).

* Richard M. Siegel | {decvax, ucbvax, sun}!harvard!endor!singer    * *
Customer Support  | [e-mail]                * * THINK
Technologies, Inc.  (No snappy quote)                       *


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

From: [e-mail] (Richard Siegel)
Subject: Re: Possible LSC improvements
Date: 15 Oct 87 01:57:04 GMT
Organization: THINK Technologies, Inc., Bedford, MA

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Chuq Von Rospach) writes:
>Um, this is a straight line I can't refuse. Now that you've piqued our
>interest, what will LSC 3.0 have in it? Source level debugging? Have you

    The official line (quoted from Mike Kahl) is that "we are morally
committed to providing symbolic debugging for LightspeedC."

>folks thought seriously about adopting TransSkel (by Paul Dubois) into the
>standard LSC environment, or are you going all the way to MacApp
>compatibility?

    I honestly don't know the answer to that question. As I said, object
orientation is of low priority compared to things like revisions to the
code generations, MultiFinder compatibility, and a debugger.

>o give me the ability to take my TMON distribution floppies and feed them
>    to my dog, something I would do happily if there were only a decent
>    debugger for the Mac. (macNosy/Debugger doesn't count. If I wanted

        This will happen.

>    stuff at THAT low a level, I'd stick with Unix and ADB. I want
>    something from THIS century, something that looks like it ought to
>    exist on a Mac).

        My sentiments exactly, and I've never heard it said better.

>o MacApp or some kind of object oriented programming, so that that Mac and
>    the compiler do most of the programming grunt work.  Hypercard is
>    a GREAT example of how this works -- let IT worry about all thye
>    structures and thigns, and let me click on the silly button...

    As I said, possible but not likely in the next release.

>Anyway, that's what I want. What are we going to get?

    I don't know exactly what to promise, because I'm not familiar with the
plans for the product. (Besides, I'm covered by a confidentiality
agreement.) You can expect the obvious things, like a debugger and
MultiFinder compatibility, however...

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

        --Rich


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

From: [e-mail] (Richard Siegel)
Subject: Re: Intermail shaft is complete
Date: 15 Oct 87 02:02:59 GMT
Organization: THINK Technologies, Inc., Bedford, MA

    That's interesting. I've been using a Mac SE on an AppleTalk net
consisting of two message centers, about 40 Macs, and two Hayes
InterBridge units. The response was never slow enough to make me thing
the machine was hung up.

    Tell me more about the net; was the MC running in the background with
something else (AppleShare, for example)? Response is very good when the
MC is foreground.

        --Rich


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

From: [e-mail] (Richard Siegel)
Subject: Re: Color icon in "Welcome to Macintosh" greeting
Date: 15 Oct 87 02:07:05 GMT
Organization: THINK Technologies, Inc., Bedford, MA

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail]
(Dave Platt) writes:
>seen the Mac/keyboard/mouse icon in the "Welcome to Macintosh" startup
>screen appear in color (several different colors, in fact)... and yet
>when I boot the system nowadays it comes up in black and white.  Was I
>hallucinating when I saw it in color (too much Diet Coke, perhaps?) or
>does the icon appear in color under certain conditions?  If the

    The color settings are dependent on which disk you're booting with. If
you (for example) boot up with a floppy, set up the color screens, and
then boot from newly created hard drive, the settings are likely to
revert to the default.

    I too was surprised when a similar phenom happened to me, and  realized
then that the settings aren't stored in Parameter RAM.

    An aside: you consider 5MB with a 256-color card and a color screen
"Vanilla"????! Just what kind of car do you drive, anyway?? :-) :-)

        --Rich


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

From: [e-mail] (Michael Czeiszperger)
Subject: Re: Looking for demo programs for Macintosh II
Date: 1 Oct 87 20:46:53 GMT
Organization: OSU College of the Arts Computer Lab

Have you seen the demo of a program called DIMENTIONS?  It's a 3-d
design and rendering program which supports our 8bit graphics card. The
demo includes a bunch of nice color pictures created with the system
including a couple ray traced images.  It's the most amazing   thing
I've ever seen on a MacII.  The demo program will even allow you to
render your own versions of two complex 3-d objects.  (The  objects are
a 3-d mac, and the word dimentions spelled out in big 3-d letters)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 Michael S. Czeiszperger      | Disclaimer: "Sorry, I'm all out of pith"
  Systems Programmer I          | Smail: Room 406 Baker      (614)
   College of the Arts        |        1971 Neil Avenue      292-
     Computer Lab             |        Columbus, OH 43210     0895
The Ohio State University     | UUCP: {decvax,ucbvax}!cbosgd!osupyr!artsvax!mike
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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

From: [e-mail] (Kurt VanderSluis)
Subject: Re: Hypercard question
Date: 12 Oct 87 19:11:49 GMT
Organization: Boeing Mountain Network, Seattle WA

I have multiple stacks that have corresponding cards.  I could, I
suppose, link each card one at a time, but since they each have a field
with identical info i would like to say something like:

get field "name"
find it in field "name" in stack "new"

instead I have to write:

get field "name"
go to stack "new"
find it in field "name"

The problem with this is that I make a short stop at the top card of the
new stack.  I would rather just zip to the card I want.

Is there a better way?  I've looked and I can't find it.
--
Kurt VanderSluis                   *********************************
Boeing Computer Services           *   These opinions are mine,    *
M/S 6R-37  P.O. 24346              *   not the Boeing Company's.   *
Seattle, WA  98124                 *********************************


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

From: [e-mail] (John De Vries)
Subject: Re: "Pyro"mania/pack your "Suitcase" and go!
Date: 15 Oct 87 00:05:31 GMT
Organization: Los Alamos Natl. Labs, Los Alamos, NM

Be this as it may . . . I happen to like Oasis.  I like Oasis a _lot_.
I like Oasis more than lots of DAs, fonts, etc.

With Oasis as my startup and Suitcase installed, I consistently get
bombs (ID=19) just after Oasis draws its window.

So I don't use Suitcase.

Zozzles T. Freep


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

From: [e-mail] (Chuq Von Rospach)
Subject: Re: HyperCard stack multi-access
Date: 14 Oct 87 21:01:18 GMT
Organization: Fictional Reality, uLtd

>The auto-save feature appears to have been a "neat hack" with little
>thought given to its actual use.  Now auto-save in itself is an excellent
>feature, but it should NEVER alter the original file without the explicit
>consent of the user.  I would be very interested in hearing how this was
>justified.

A couple of reasons of the top of my head:

o Technical: Trying to save and batch changes would take an amazing
amount
    of memory and the overhead woul slow things down significantly.
    To do what Hypercard does at the speed it does, they had to do it
    this way.

o Design: A good claim can be made that every time you push a button (or
    type in a field, etc...) that you've made an impllicit agreement to
    save with the application, so an explicit save isn't necessary. Many
    applications work this way on the mac (one example: filemaker plus).
    it might be nice to have a hypercard option to make a backup of a
    stack on StackOPen (in fact, you can probably write it into the
    stack script) but it should be optional.

>One thing is for sure: auto-save will be "fixed" in some manner.  Otherwise
>Hypercard will never be able to open the much-hyped CD-ROM stacks!

I don't see this at all. Set the user level to 'browse' only, and you're
all set for CD-ROM. Since you can't change it, just let the user sniff
around.

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


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

From: robertj@yale-zoo-suned..arpa (Rob Jellinghaus)
Subject: Re: HyperCard stack multi-access
Date: 15 Oct 87 16:44:54 GMT
Organization: Yale University Computer Science Dept, New Haven CT

Actually, there may be a problem with this.  In Browse mode, the cursor
never becomes the I-beam.  Which means you can't select text within
fields.  Which means you can't copy text out of a stack when you're in
browse level...  This could be quiiite a handicap if you can't copy any
interesting text (or pictures, actually) out of a CD-ROM stack!!

It looks like there will *have* to be some extensions to allow you to
use the selecting tools (I-beam, lasso, rectangle) on a card without
having to auto- save the stack.  Browse mode only won't cut it...

The latest issue of MacUser had a rumor that Atkinson is already working
on another program.  Say it ain't so, Bill!  Hypercard ain't finished
yet!

Robert Jellinghaus             | "Check out Mr. Businessman, uh-oh...
[e-mail]      |     He got some Wild Wild Life"
ROBERTJ@{yalecs,yalevm}.BITNET | !..!ihnp4!hsi!yale!jellinghaus |
        -- T Heads


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

From: [e-mail] (Gary)
Subject: Re: MacPlus resetting problem
Date: 15 Oct 87 02:07:50 GMT
Organization: Olivetti ATC; Cupertino, Ca

Before changing the power supply's voltage adjust setting, be sure to
re-seat the connectors that carry the power from the analog board to the
logic board.

The connector contacts get oxidized after a while and they become
(relatively) high-resistance contacts.  Pulling the connectors of and
plugging them back in should help.  Be sure to do the both ends of the
cable assembly!

If the voltage is still too low (it should be from 4.9 to 5.1 on the
logic board) then re-adjust the power supply.

You'll need to find someone with one of those long-necked Torx drivers.

Gary (Not an employee of Apple Computers -- yet.)


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

From: [e-mail]
Subject: Parity on Apple memories
Date: 14 Oct 87 12:34:06 GMT

Has anyone noticed that most SIMMs have 8 chips and a very few have 9?
The obvious implication is that Apple doesn't believe in parity as a
means for detecting errors.  It would seem that particularly with 1
megabit DRAMS, the probability of soft errors will start to become
significant.  If the Macs are targetted at commercial users as well as
the home market, then some robustness ought to be designed in.  I would
hate to trust these beasts with tens of thousands of dollars worth of
data with no indication that it was corrupted (other than La Bomba :-).

Opinions?  Anybody know if "no parity" holds true for the Mac II?

    Steve Falco   moss!saf   [e-mail]


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

From: [e-mail] (David Lassner)
Subject: booting diskless macs on net
Date: 15 Oct 87 02:41:27 GMT
Organization: University of Hawaii

Does anyone know of networking products for the Mac which allow diskless
booting and operation of client systems from a server?

We're looking at setting up a partially unattended lab in which certain
software would be available  without requiring the use of floppies.  If
you've  used any such products, comments will be appreciated.

Mail replies to me, and I'll post a summary back here.
--
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] (Thomas Summerall)
Subject: Mac II Wide Screen Graphics
Date: 14 Oct 87 22:03:00 GMT
Organization: Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH

Does anyone know if there are any graphics programs as of yet which can
create and edit larger than MacPaint sized pictures?  Is there going to
be a new standard format now that the advent of widescreens and more
memory allows very large pictures to be edited easily?  I would
particularly like to be able to work on wider pictures so that I can
create a fullsized startup/ backdrop screen for my Mac II.

If there is a way to create larger-than-MacPaint images, will the "New
Backdrop" INIT adjust or will there also have to be a patch for that?

Thanks in advance...

==============================================================================
thomas@dartvax * [e-mail]  |  Thomas Summerall '88
                                                       |  H.B. 3445
"And all that the Lorax left here in this mess,        |  Dartmouth College
 Was a small pile of rocks, with one word: UNLESS"     |  Hanover, NH    03755
                                        -Dr. Seuss '25 |
==============================================================================

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

From: [e-mail] (David Ackerman)
Subject: Re: Hypercard
Date: 15 Oct 87 07:42:14 GMT
Organization: California Department of Water Resources


All this discussion about the difficulty of manipulating stacks while
you develop them got me to thinking: why not a "HyperWorkshop" or some
such application? The basic problem seems to be this: by trying to make
your stack as monkey-proof as possible, you end up getting in your own
way. An invisible button, restricting user access to most menu actions,
intercepting command-key events...all these will make your stack less
vulnerable to tampering, but will also get in the way as you are working
on it. One solution to this would be an enhanced version of Hypercard
that would *always* show buttons, fields, etc. One problem this might
present is if it could mess with stacks that were password protected.

If the multi-access problems were solved, you could run "HyperWorkshop"
in one window to hack on a stack, while running Hypercard with that very
stack in another window to test it.

Hey Apple, how about putting the source for Hypercard on
comp.sources.mac? I'm sure someone could write such a beastie in a
matter of months. ( very large :^) )


David Ackerman                             California Department of
Water Resources     ucdavis.edu!caldwr!ack  (Internet) "It's the water,
and a lot more..."       ...!ucbvax!ucdavis!caldwr!ack  (UUCP)

         The opinions expressed above are mine, not those of the State
         of California or the California Department of Water Resources.


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

From: [e-mail] (Michael Czeiszperger)
Subject: VIP graphic programming language
Date: 12 Oct 87 01:54:12 GMT
Organization: College of the Arts Computer Lab, OSU

Has anyone tried the VIP graphic programming/flowchart software?

You are supposed to be able to describe a program's flow chart, and then
actually have the program run, without having to translate the flow
chart into code.  It also claims to transfer the flowchart to pascal or
C code for later compilation.  I have several questions:

1.  This sounds nice, but how to you include complex algorithms,
    or low level code which doesn't really flow chart easily?

2.  Does it really work?

Thanks for any response, if this works, I'm going to try VIP as an
alternative to spending many tedious hours writing C code.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 Michael S. Czeiszperger      | Disclaimer: "Sorry, I'm all out of pith"
  Systems Programmer I          | Smail: Room 406 Baker      (614)
   College of the Arts        |        1971 Neil Avenue      292-
     Computer Lab             |        Columbus, OH 43210     0895
The Ohio State University     | UUCP: {decvax,ucbvax}!cbosgd!osupyr!artsvax!mike
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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

From: [e-mail] (Joel West)
Subject: Re: Mac II Wide Screen Graphics
Date: 15 Oct 87 15:44:15 GMT
Organization: Palomar Software, Inc., Vista, CA

The standard format for Mac II pictures is the 'PICT' file.  Rather than
invent a large color version of the MacPaint format, Larry Rosenstein
(co-author of Apple's influential demo color painting program ATG Paint)
went ahead and used the format built into the Mac II, color QuickDraw
pictures.  This is also the standard interchange format for color
drawing programs as well.

PixelPaint and Modern Artist are two color painting programs that
support importing and exporting PICT files.  Although not released yet,
you can also bet that the color versions of MacDraw and SuperPaint
support PICT, since the black & white ones do.

Of course, I might be a little biased, since I'm a big PICT fan (it's a
reasonable standard) and our Colorizer application takes B&W PICT files
and makes them into color ones, while our color screen-dump FKEY creates
color PICT files.

> I would particularly like to be
> able to work on wider pictures so that I can create a fullsized startup/
> backdrop screen for my Mac II.

The color startup screen displayed by Apple at boot time is a 'PICT'
resource, so any program to create it has to get it into PICT format
anyway.  (Colorizer does it for you, but you can also roll your own by
adding a 'PICT' #0 resource to file 'StartupScreen' in your System
Folder.)

> If there is a way to create larger-than-MacPaint images, will the "New Backdrop"
> INIT adjust or will there also have to be a patch for that?

The only color or Mac II backdrop I'm aware of has been worked on by
Paul Mercer (who did the Programmer's Key for TMON.)  I don't know what
the status is, but Paul is very clever and he was having a bitch of a
time with it, so it looks like it may be difficult (or impossible) to
get it to work reliably.  Don't forget that any simple-minded backdrop
will get blown away by the new MultiFinder rules, since writing to the
desktop (at least in the previous way) is a no-no.
--
    Joel West  (c/o UCSD)
    Palomar Software, Inc., P.O. Box 2635, Vista, CA  92083
    {ucbvax,ihnp4}!sdcsvax!jww     [e-mail]


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

From: [e-mail] (Ron Beloin)
Subject: Re: hypertext vs. hypercards
Date: 15 Oct 87 19:43:51 GMT
Organization: Cornell Theory Center, Cornell University, Ithaca NY

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Robert Stanley)
writes: (oops, I deleted his text).. that font changes would upset the
number of words on a line in hypercard fields, thereby confounding
programming attempts to look at what word the user might be clicking or
whatever. In fact, hypercard considers a "line" to be the chars between
carriage returns (or thebeginning and end of field text), regardless of
the word wrapped appearance of the text, so font changes will not change
the number or position of words in a line. It can get confusing,
however, if the user is entering text, and some end lines with cr's, and
other users allow word wrapping. In that case, it is probably important
to have separate fields designed to prevent such occurrences. 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] (Jan Harrington)
Subject: FullWrite Professional
Date: 15 Oct 87 13:14:15 GMT
Organization: Scholastech, Inc., Waltham, Mass.

flames on ...

I just looked carefully at my Visa statement.  On September 8th I was
charged $105 by Ann Arbor Softworks.  I'm assuming that the charge is
for FullWrite. However, it's more than a month later and to the best of
my knowledge, not a single copy has shipped.

We are not amused ....

flames off ...

Has anybody else been charged?  What's going on here?

Jan Harrington, sysop
Scholastech Telecommunications
ihnp4!husc6!amcad!stech!sysop or allegra!stech!sysop

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

From: [e-mail] (Oliver Steele)
Subject: Re: Parity on Apple memories
Date: 15 Oct 87 23:11:39 GMT
Organization: University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

Keep in mind that the circuitry for parity error detection is more
complicated, and, of course, requires a higher chip count.  This means
that your system may detect errors more frequently, but that it will be
more error prone as well.  As long as your memory problems aren't
intermittent a single test at boot time works better, and this is
exactly what Apple has.

(This should spark some debate :-)

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Oliver Steele                  ...!{decvax,ihnp4}!mcnc!unc!steele
                            [e-mail]

    "'As it were' means 'I think that I sound very erudite.'
     'Per se' is Latin for 'as it were.'  As it were."


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

From: [e-mail] (Oliver Steele)
Subject: Re: HyperCard stack multi-access
Date: 15 Oct 87 23:33:43 GMT
Organization: University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

You can still command-click and command-drag on text in fields, unlocked
or not.  Pictures you can catch with shift-command-3 or one of several
DAs.  You're right about multi-line text, though, and there should be
some more intuitive way of doing this.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Oliver Steele                  ...!{decvax,ihnp4}!mcnc!unc!steele
                            [e-mail]

    "'As it were' means 'I think that I sound very erudite.'
     'Per se' is Latin for 'as it were.'  As it were."


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

From: [e-mail] (Larry Rosenstein)
Subject: Re: Missing deactivate events
Date: 15 Oct 87 17:13:32 GMT
Organization: Advanced Technology Group, Apple Computer

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Brian H. Powell)
writes:
>
>     For your code, just do a deactivate (really a fake deactivate, see below)
>before you call an Alert.  Dialogs don't cause this problem because the
>activate/deactivate events are generated by [Get]NewDialog and not by
>ModalDialog.  There are exceptions to this, such as SFGetFile and SFPutFile.
>Those guys handle their "own" events, so you need to do a fake deactivate
>before calling them.

Dialogs are not completely immune from this problem.

The action of making a new window (dialog or not) frontmost will
schedule a pair of deactivate and activate events.  The next call to
GetNextEvent will return a deactivate event, and the following one an
activate event.

If ModalDialog makes the first call to GetNextEvent, it will throw away
the deactive, since it won't be directed to a dialog window.  If your
code makes the call, you can process the event normally.

In the case of alerts or Std File, it is not possible to run any of your
code between bringing up the dialog and calling ModalDialog.  In these
cases, you can use an event filter proc to catch the event.

--
Larry Rosenstein

Object Specialist
Apple Computer

AppleLink: Rosenstein1
UUCP:  {sun, voder, nsc, mtxinu, dual}!apple!lsr
CSNET: [e-mail]

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