PD ROM 1/PD ROM Volume I - Macintosh Software from BMUG (1988).iso/Electronic Messages/USEnet Digests/USEnet Vol. 3/USEnet 3.086

Internet Message Format | 1988-04-08 | 32.9 KB | [TEXT/ttxt]

Date: Thu 22 Oct 87 09:13:20-EDT
From: Jeff Shulman <SHULMAN@SDR>
Subject: Usenet Mac Digest V3 #86

Usenet Mac Digest     Tuesday, October 20, 1987      Volume 3 : Issue 86

Today's Topics:
     Re: Hypercard
     Whither Arrays/Continental SW...
     Re: Parity on Apple memories
     Re: HyperCard stack multi-access
     Help buying Macs
     Re: Mac II Production Stopped?
     shipping Mac 2's
     hypercards - COLOR? - ROADMAP?
     Re: booting diskless macs on net
     HyperTalk messages (long)
     Re: YAHQ (Yet Another Hypercard Question)
     Microsoft File
     Wanted 3-D graphics system in C for Mac.
     Rumor of Color SE
     Re: Help needed with INIT's in MPW Pascal...
     CMKermit cursor
     Re: shipping Mac 2's
     Hypercard phone dialing bug
     Re: APDA - could someone tell them that they should get on the net?
     Re: Microsoft File
     HD question
     Re: HyperCard stack multi-access
     What percentage of Macs sold?
     Re: CMKermit cursor
     Re: Hypercard again (radio button)
     Re: cleaning mmouses (mice)
     Need advice on Coral Lisp and Smalltalk

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

From: [e-mail] (Jim Kateley)
Subject: Re: Hypercard
Date: 15 Oct 87 04:44:03 GMT
Organization: Apple Computer Inc., Cupertino, USA

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Paul Molenaar) writes:
>...
>Anyone any idea to prevent HyperCard from changing the cursor?
>...
>
>        Paul Molenaar
>
>    "Just checking the walls"
>        - Basil Fawlty -

Yes!  Don't figure out coordinates, let HC do the work for you.

In the button script, try:

on mouseWithin
    set the cursor to XXX
end mouseWithin

or, this might work (don't have HC in front of me to try it with :-()

on mouseEnter
    set the cursor to XXX
end mouseEnter

See page 6-1 of the HC Script language guide for the complete def. of
these system messages.

BTW, would anyone be interested in a little "game" you could play with
people with these commands?  As soon as I get it working I'll post
it....:-)

--

Jim Kateley
Applelink: kateley1
UUCP: {sun, voder, nsc}!apple!kateley
CSNET: [e-mail]

Disclaimer:  There are no good disclaimers left...

Remember:
When you smile :-), the world smiles with you,
When you frown :-(, the : and - keys think they are getting picked on


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

From: [e-mail] (Explaining is not understanding)
Subject: Whither Arrays/Continental SW...
Date: 15 Oct 87 20:40:26 GMT
Organization: Digital Equipment Corporation


    Help!

    Does anyone know the whereabouts of Arrays/Continental Software?
    They mak(d)e 'Home Accountant'.  Phones disconnected, etc.  Are
    they still alive??

    Thanks...Gary


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

From: [e-mail] (Gary)
Subject: Re: Parity on Apple memories
Date: 16 Oct 87 01:54:36 GMT
Organization: Olivetti ATC; Cupertino, Ca

Parity is pretty useless in the IBM-PC marketplace,  where it exists
more as a data-sheet compatibility issue than a technical one. After
all, when the system detects a parity error, it just halts. (Wow, how
useful -- it doesn't close files, or in the case of UNIX on the PC, a
SYNC)

So, if you want a system that is super-reliable, design-in ECC and
software that verifies bus/IO transactions.

There are a bunch of hardware/software safeguards that can be designed
into medical/financial computers, but each additional feature increases
the price a little and is not very high on most users priorities.

It wouldn't be hard to make a "secure Mac" -- but then, how do you guard
against bad code?

Gary


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

From: [e-mail] (Chuq Von Rospach)
Subject: Re: HyperCard stack multi-access
Date: 15 Oct 87 22:57:28 GMT
Organization: Fictional Reality, uLtd

>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!

MacUser has also consistently talked about the upcoming developer revolt
against Hypercard. With the exception of Guide, I haven't heard a word
of this anywhere else, here or in any of the press. They seem to hyping
up a rebellion that don't exist. There rumor mill has NEVER been very
reliable (to put it mildly)(.


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


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

From: [e-mail] (Richard E. Stuart)
Subject: Help buying Macs
Date: 16 Oct 87 04:21:53 GMT
Organization: Carnegie Mellon University



Hello there,

I have been trying to help a friend of mine buy some computers for his
medical supplies business.  He wants to blow ~$25,000.  I have been
trying to talk him into buying hardware that is on the upswing of its
"usefulness bell curve," that will be reasonable for him to maintain,
and that will be easy for his employees to learn.  Hence, I have been
trying to talk him into staying away from PC (DOS) trash and consider
Mac SEs in distributed environment.  I have had problems though.  First,
I have not been able to find a company in the Pittsburgh area that is
capable enough for the job.  Because there are an incredible number of
medical facilities in Pittsburgh the competion he faces is great, and he
cannot afford to waist time and money on something that will not really
do the job.  My friend needs to deal with a company that knows what it
is doing.  Secondly, one thing that I can say for the DOS turnkey
systems that I have seen is that there is a fair number of them that
seem to do the job well.  I have run into nothing of the kind for the
Macs.  What to do?

                            [e-mail]


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

From: [e-mail] (David W. Berry)
Subject: Re: Mac II Production Stopped?
Date: 16 Oct 87 02:50:43 GMT
Organization: Apple Computer Inc., Cupertino, USA

    National's large memory boards will "work" regardless of the operating
system.  However, initially only A/UX will be able to take advantage of
them.  The toolbox memory manager won't know about them although I would
assume that will be fixed "real soon now"  You can certainaly expect
(NOTE: SPECULATION ONLY!!!!!!!) to see a raft of programs to allow the
memory to be used as ram disks, ram cache, special versions of Excel
which can access it, etc.


--
    David W. Berry
    [e-mail]                   dwb@Delphi
    [e-mail]                   [e-mail]
Disclaimer: Apple doesn't even know I have an opinion and certainly
    wouldn't want if they did.


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

From: [e-mail] (Richard Cower)
Subject: shipping Mac 2's
Date: 15 Oct 87 16:44:41 GMT
Organization: Center for the Study of Language and Information, Stanford U.

I'm planning on shipping my Mac II, and wondering if the heads on the
disk park on power down. Is this something I should worry about? Also -
would you put that little yellow floppy protector in? I've heard they
cause more failures than they prevent.

thanks..Rich


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

From: [e-mail] (Mark Interrante)
Subject: hypercards - COLOR? - ROADMAP?
Date: 15 Oct 87 15:02:10 GMT
Organization: UF CIS Department

Does or will hypercards support color?

Is there a way to automatically generate the roadmap card in the help
stack? The roadmap card is the one showing the major help topic cards in
miniture with lines drawn to specify the links.


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

From: [e-mail] (Mark A. Verber)
Subject: Re: booting diskless macs on net
Date: 15 Oct 87 21:13:11 GMT
Organization: Ohio State University, Computer Science

As far as I know, no one currently has anything that will do this. Many
universities have hassled Apple about this, but it has stated very low
priority.  Only recently did we get an agreement that the MacII with
EtherTalk should have that capability (when running A/UX).

Two of the guys here have the basic design of a daughter board which
would sit over the ROMs.  It will use a programmable logic array to
patch key locations in the ROM and then have PROM for a network booter,
etc.  This will be finish as soon :-) as things calm down here.

If you had someone who was willing to put out a bit of work you could
hack something together yourself.  The easiest hack would be to build a
little SCSI device that would load in a network bootstrap and the go.

Cheers,
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Computer Science Department                     Mark A. Verber
The Ohio State University             [e-mail]
[phone]                  cbosgd!osu-cis!verber

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

From: [e-mail] (Glen Ditchfield)
Subject: HyperTalk messages (long)
Date: 14 Oct 87 16:11:04 GMT


I have some questions about HyperTalk's pre-defined messages.  I am
hoping that someone will tell me that HyperCard 1.0.1 is not the most
recent version, or that these are bugs that will be fixed soon, or that
the way HyperTalk works really does make sense.

Create a 'junk' stack.  (I used the 'New Stack' menu item while I was in
the Address book stack.)  Go to a background card and put these messages
in the script.
    on newCard
        answer "New Card"
    end newCard

    on openCard
        answer "Open Card"
    end openCard
Close the script and create a new card.  I get the "Open
Card" dialog _before_ the "New Card" dialog.  This seems wrong to me.  I
want to use openCard to perform actions when a card is opened, based on
the values in certain card fields, and use newCard to initialize those
fields, but the current order prevents that.  My work-around assumes
that fields are initialized to "", and I don't like that.

(Example: Chuq's radio buttons.  An invisible field holds the name of
the button that should be highlighted for this card, and newCard
initializes it to the name of the default button.)

Next, create or select a background field.  (I used the "Name and
Address" field.)  Put these messages in the field's script.
    on openField
        answer "Open:" & line 1 of field "Name and Address"
    end openField

    on closeField
        answer "Close:" & line 1 of field "Name and Address"
    end closeField
Close the script and click on the field, then
immediately click elsewhere. I get the "Open" dialog, but not the
"Close" dialog.  Click on the field, type something, and click
elsewhere.  I get both dialogs.  This is exactly what I want: the
closeField message is sent only if the content of the field changed.

Now, click on the field, type something, and click somewhere else in the
_same_ field.  I get two "Open" dialogs, but no "Close" dialog.  This
seems wrong.  Either I have not re-opened the field, in which case I
should only get one "Open" dialog, or I have re-opened the field, in
which case I should have got a "Close" dialog, since I changed the field
contents before the second click.  (I prefer the first alternative.)

(Example: I want the contents of a field to be automatically entered in
an index.  The obvious solution was
    on openField
        -- save the current value of the field
    end openField

    on closeField
        -- remove the old value from the index
        -- add the new value to the index
    end closeField
but this doesn't work if the user changes the insertion
point while editing the field.)

The answers to my last questions are probably obvious to everyone but
me.
- Is there a better way to send a message with arguments than
    send "msgName" && quote & argString & quote to someThing?
- I don't think a field's name should be hard-coded into its scripts, as
  was done with "Name and Address" above.  "Line 1 of me" and "Line 1 of
  this field" don't work.  "Line 1 of the target" gives me the field's
  name, not the contents.  What is the correct incantation?
--
Glen Ditchfield                      {watmath,utzoo,ihnp4}!watrose!gjditchfield
Dept of Computer Science, U of Waterloo         [phone] x6658
Waterloo, Ontario, Canada               Office: MC 2006
If you grab the bull by the horns, you at least confuse him -- R.A.Heinlein

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

From: [e-mail] (Oliver Steele)
Subject: Re: YAHQ (Yet Another Hypercard Question)
Date: 16 Oct 87 16:16:56 GMT
Organization: University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

(I thought there might be general interest in this one, so I posted
instead of mailing.  I didn't want to try to ram stuff through the
typically recalcitrant mailers, anyway.)

[e-mail] (Joe Roberts) writes:
>Hello,
Hi.
>    [....]
>    I have tried using ResEdit to copy some icons to Hypercard. I have tried
>    to paste new icons into the ICON resource (this is where Hypercard stores
>    all it's icon ideas) but it does not actually get pasted into the ICON
>    resource but the ICN# resource.

When you're looking at a list of resource types within a file, or at a
list of resource numbers/names within a resource type, and you do a
paste, ResEdit pastes the resource(s) that was in the clipboard into the
file as whatever resource type was in the clipboard.  It will not
automatically convert the resource into whatever type you're looking at.
 It sounds like you've copied ICN#s, so they'll be pasted as ICN#s no
matter where you paste them.

What you need to do is convert an ICN# into an ICON.  Fortunately, this
is very easy because they're already almost the same; if you'd wanted to
convert a PICT (picture) or TEXT into an ICON you'd be in for some
trouble.

First of all, in ResEdit, look at the table of ICN#s that shows the one
you want to turn into an ICON.  Select, but don't open, the one you
want. Then choose "Open General" from the "File" menu.  (The short-cut
for this is probably option-double-click.)  You will see a hexadecimal
representation of the contents of that ICN#.  Since an ICN# ("ICON
list") is really two ICONs, one after the other, and the second icon in
the ICN# is just used for hilighting in the Finder and HyperCard doesn't
hilight the same way the Finder does, you just want to copy the first
half of the hexadecimal data.

Drag from the top left of either the middle column or the right column
downwards until you've selected the first sixteen lines, up to and
including the one labelled "000078", and then Copy.  You've now got the
information you want from the ICN#; what's left is to create an ICON and
paste the information in.

Open to the file you want to put the ICON in.  If you see "ICON" in the
list of resources types, double-click it; if you don't, choose "New"
from the "File" menu, type or select "ICON", and press return.

Choose "New" again.  This will make a new (blank) ICON and bring up a
window for editing it.  You don't want to edit it as an icon, though;
you want to edit it as hexadecimal data.  So close the icon-editing
window, and choose "Open General" again.

First get rid of the old data, and then paste in the new data, which was
the last thing you Copy-ed.  (You'd thing you could just replace the old
with the new like you can in text fields, but all the ResEdits I've seen
sometimes have problems with this.) To get rid of the old data, choose
everything in the middle or right column, and press Backspace or Delete
(don't Cut; you want to use the last thing you cut).  Then click in the
middle or right column, whichever one you Copy-ed the data from the ICN#
from, and Paste.  Close the hex window, and you should be looking at
your ICON.

This is all easier than it sounds, especially after you've played with
ResEdit a while and get on a first-name basis with various resource
types. Good luck.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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] (Charles Blair)
Subject: Microsoft File
Date: 17 Oct 87 00:54:37 GMT
Organization: The University of Chicago


Is it possible to get Microsoft File to recognize a new font? It's
running on an SE with a 20 Meg hard disk. I believe it's an old version
of File (I'm posting for a friend).

Any replies would be welcomed (e-mail O.K.).

Thanks.

--
Bitnet:           [e-mail]
Internet:      [e-mail]
uucp:      ..!ihnp4!gargoyle!sphinx!cjdb


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

From: [e-mail]
Subject: Wanted 3-D graphics system in C for Mac.
Date: 15 Oct 87 02:54:11 GMT
Organization: Bell-Northern Research, Ottawa, Canada


This is a request for C source code for 3-D graphics on the Mac or  Mac
II.

I am currently building a co-processor card for the Mac II, and I am
interested in some fancy ooh - ahh graphics for a demo. Ideally it
should do  all the screen IO directly (none of the mac OS to slow it
down) and it  should be well partitioned. C source code is a must. Of
course if it is  written for another machine and the screen driver is
properly partitioned I'll rewrite the driver.

The co-processor should be able to turn many mips, and I'd like to  run
the 68020 head to head against it.

Shareware would be great but I beleive that funds might be available to
purchase the code.

Woops almost forgot- it must fit in (code and data) to 256K bytes.

please Email responses. Or if you like Ma Bell phone [phone]

--
Michael Takefman             If God could do what we can do,
Processor Exploratory                He'd be a happy man.
tak@bnr-rsc@bnr-vpa@utzoo....          (The Stuntman)
Bell Northern Research


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

From: [e-mail]
Subject: Rumor of Color SE
Date: 17 Oct 87 01:14:00 GMT
Organization: Indiana University BACS, Bloomington


"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."
                                                   -- Arthur C. Clarke

Anyone out there who can confirm, deny, or perhaps just speculate on a
rumor I've come across?

I am interested in purchasing a new personal computer in the near
future, and although I dearly love the Macs, good COLOR graphics are of
some importance to me, and my wallet does not allow me to buy a Mac II.

There's the Apple IIGS, but I feel it doesn't fully take advantage of
the newer technology (particularly speed) that is available nowadays.

'Tis a dilemna indeed, for I would sooner eat a bowl of IC chips than
buy a user-hostile IBM, no matter how many thousands of colors it has.
What am I to do?  But then one day. . .

I read an article in a computer magazine (almost a computer tabloid,
perhaps) which stated that a color SE could be pending from Apple
Computer Inc.  No estimated time was given.

Could this be true?  It would be an answer to my prayers if it is.
Anyone else out there facing a similar brain-grinding decision?
__________________________________________________________________

"May the forces of evil become confused on the way to your house."
                                                 -- George Carlin
Sincerely,
           Phaedrus
           Indiana University at Bloomington
           [e-mail]


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

From: [e-mail] (David HM Spector)
Subject: Re: Help needed with INIT's in MPW Pascal...
Date: 17 Oct 87 04:44:00 GMT
Organization: New York University


Well, I found the answer to my INIT question after perusing my
collection of  TechNotes.

All of the info on INITs, FKEYs, et al can be found in TechNote #110
entitled: "MPW: Writing Standalone Code in MPW Pascal"

And for those wanting to see an INIT in person, excerpted below is the
INIT example from the TechNote:

Into a file called "Init.p" place:


UNIT MyInit; {standalone code is written as a UNIT}

INTERFACE
  USES
    {$Load PasDump.dump}
    Memtypes, QuickDraw, OSIntf, ToolIntf;

{NOTE: We cannot use global variable, since we are writing standalone
code}

PROCEDURE BeepTwice;

IMPLEMENTATION

PROCEDURE BeepTwice; VAR finalTicks : LongInt;

Begin {BeepTwice}
  SysBeep(1);
  Delay(120, finalTicks); {Delay two seconds}
  SysBeep(1); End;  {BeepTwice}

End. {UNIT}



Compile this with "Pascal Init.p", which will result in a file Init.p.o.

Next,  Link the Init with:

link -rt INIT=0 -m BEEPTWICE -o MyInit Init.p.o "{Libraries}"interface.o

This will give you an INIT in the file "MyInit" which will run when put
into the System Folder and you Macintosh is rebooted.



TechNote #110 also covers FKEYs and WDEFs and provides a number of
caveats on what NOT to do when writing such things.  I believe that this
TechNote is available from Sumex-Aim and I _know_ its available from
(ick) APDA.


    Dave Spector

David HM Spector                New York University
Senior Systems Programmer            Graduate School of Business
[e-mail]                    90 Trinity Place
...!{allegra,rocky}!cmcl2!spector        New York, NY 10006

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

From: [e-mail] (Erazm J. Behr)
Subject: CMKermit cursor
Date: 17 Oct 87 08:55:55 GMT

Has anyone successfully modified the heavy black cursor in MacKermit?
It's getting on my nerves a little bit. I tried ResEdit, but I can't
find it in the resources anywhere. I can live with it, but it would be
nice......                              Thanks, Eric.
-----------------------------------------------------------
          >>>>--------------->         [e-mail]


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

From: [e-mail] (jeff t. segawa)
Subject: Re: shipping Mac 2's
Date: 17 Oct 87 05:01:35 GMT
Organization: U. of Hawaii, Manoa (Honolulu)

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail]
(Richard Cower) writes:
>would you put that little yellow floppy protector in?

Yes. I dropped my old Mac Plus once, and it didn't have that protector
in it at the time. After it ate an astonishing number of floppies, I
figured out that the heads must have gotten scratched when they were
smacked togther. Needless to say, I replaced the drive. As for the hard
drive, some park  automatically when the power is turned off, while
others, like teh Seagate ST225N, do not. You have to specify which brand
and model of  hard disk you have.


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

From: [e-mail] (Dave Fritzinger)
Subject: Hypercard phone dialing bug
Date: 17 Oct 87 13:44:58 GMT
Organization: Public Health Research Institute, NYC, NY

Has anyone noticed the following bugs in the way that Hypercard dials
the  phone?  If you try to get it to dial a number such as 815-XXXX
(just to site an example of something I tried to do last night), it
interprets the 815 as an  area code, and puts a 1 in front of the
number, which Ma Bell doesn't like.  If you try to get around this
problem by changing your preferences in the phone  stack so that long
distance numbers don't start with a 1, and you put a 1 in  front of all
your long distance numbers, Hypercard doesn't recognize the  first one
in the number.  This is especially annoyoying for me, since when I  try
to call NYC from NJ, I have an easy access code that starts with the
number 10, which Hypercard refuses to recognize.

Okay, all of you hypercard people out there.  Is there anyway to get
around this problem?  Other than that, Hypercard seems great,
considering the little work that I've had a chance to do with it.

BTW, thanks to everyone who sent me messages about the Cricket Graph bug
that I reported.  Opening another type of graph first really does work.
Cheers
Dave Fritzinger allegra!phri!fritz
PHRI 455 First Ave. NY, NY 10016
212-578-0855

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

From: [e-mail] (Roger L. Long)
Subject: Re: APDA - could someone tell them that they should get on the net?
Date: 16 Oct 87 21:20:37 GMT
Organization: FileNet Corp., Costa Mesa, CA

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Werner Uhrig) writes:
>                     Of course, it would be nice if
>they would lower their prices instead, but without competition, what
>can you expect ..... (yes, I do think that they are more expensive
>than they should be.  remember, that they charge a membership fee -
>totally unjustified, really, as their margins are quite sufficient;
>but that's another story ...

Yep.  That's my gripe with them and why I didn't renew.  Besides the
high prices and the membership fee we have a minimum shipping fee of
$6.00 for guaranteed second-day delivery, while MacConnection and
Programs Plus offer next-day delivery for $3.00.

On top of that, the second-day delivery from APDA is a joke.  They often
don't get around to processing your order for a couple of weeks, so
what's another couple of days.  When I've ordered from MacConnection,
they processed the order and put it in the mail that day.

Why Apple didn't contract with MacConnection or somebody else already in
the high-volume mail order business, I don't know. --
    Roger L. Long
    FileNet Corp
    {hplabs,trwrb}!felix!bytebug


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

From: [e-mail] (Chuq Von Rospach)
Subject: Re: Microsoft File
Date: 17 Oct 87 17:12:11 GMT
Organization: Fictional Reality, uLtd

>Is it possible to get Microsoft File to recognize a new font?

No.

>I believe it's an old
>version of File (I'm posting for a friend).

There is no other version.

Take a hint from all the other ex-File users. Find a new database. It's
been over two years since Microsoft last updated File, and from my
attempts to get an answer out of them over it, they seem to have no
intention of doing any further support on it.

Go get Filemaker+. It's a good, inexpensive little database with very
strong report writer features.

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

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

From: [e-mail] (Paul Larson)
Subject: HD question
Date: 16 Oct 87 21:20:50 GMT
Organization: U of Waterloo, Ontario

Oh no, not another hard disk question!!

The only Mac supplier in this city is selling the General Computer FX 20
(the lunch-box) for $1300 (Canadian).  I have two questions. 1.) Is this
a fair price for a new 20 Meg HD? 2.) Is this a good drive?

Any relevant information or anecdotes would be appreciated.

Thanx for your time,
    Johan Larson.


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

From: [e-mail] (Paul Molenaar)
Subject: Re: HyperCard stack multi-access
Date: 17 Oct 87 16:44:31 GMT
Organization: Nikhef-K, Amsterdam (the Netherlands).

During a meeting in Amsterdam (you know, in Holland) Bill Atkinson said
something about using HyperCard in combination with a CD-Rom device.

In short: HyperCard saves the _changes_ you make to a CD-Rom on disk
(harddisk most likely) and when read again, reads the 'image' from
CD-Rom and applies the changes made to it (reading them from disk,
naturally).

I agree the AutoSave 'feature' is annoying, but it seems no problem when
used in combination with CD-Rom.

        Paul Molenaar

    "Just checking the walls"
        - Basil Fawlty -

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

From: [e-mail] (gordan)
Subject: What percentage of Macs sold?
Date: 17 Oct 87 07:17:30 GMT
Organization: The Ancient Order of Modern Troglodytes

A few weeks ago, someone posted an estimate of how many Macs were being
sold, as a percentage of the total of all computers sold to business.

I don't recall the exact figure, although it was surprisingly high.

To help settle a computer war on a local BBS (albeit a highly literate
and polite one as these affairs go), I would like to be able to get as
exact a figure on this as possible.

Once again, of all computers sold to business in some recent time-frame,
what percentage were Macintoshes?  North American figures or world
figures would be equally interesting.

-> Please send e-mail <-  and I will summarize to the net.

The value of your response will naturally be greater if you can be as
detailed as possible (what geographic area, what time-frame, does your
figure cover all computers sold or just those sold to business, is there
a reference you can quote from some magazine), although sheer rumor and
hearsay will do in a pinch.

I confess I don't own a Mac, but my friend and computer-war interlocutor
works as a systems analyst for a bank and IBM has him eating out of its
hand.  I think he is in some fearful need of enlightenment, which could
best be delivered in the distilled form of a percentage figure
(preferably massively backed up and documented so he'll believe it).

--
          Gordan Palameta     ...uunet!mnetor!lsuc!maccs!gordan
Experience, n.  The wisdom that enables us to recognize as an
undesirable
                old acquaintance the folly that we have already
embraced.
-- Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary


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

From: [e-mail] (Dave Platt)
Subject: Re: CMKermit cursor
Date: 18 Oct 87 01:27:19 GMT
Organization: Teknowledge, Inc., Palo Alto CA

The cursor in CKMKER isn't done via a resource (either a CRSR or a FONT
character).  Instead, it's done by a specific InvertRect call that
toggles the screen-bits that lie under the cursor location.  As far as I
can tell, there's no way to change its appearance without going in with
a code-patching utility and altering the code that calculates the
dimensions of the rectangle.

I don't like it much, either... and if/when I succeed in porting CKMKER
into Lightspeed C, I may decide to create an alternate cursor shape
and/or set up a nonblinking cursor.


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

From: cca@pur-phy (Charles C. Allen)
Subject: Re: Hypercard again (radio button)
Date: 18 Oct 87 00:59:48 GMT
Organization: Purdue Univ. Phys Dept, W.Lafayette, IN

Well, I've yet to see the following method appear, so I'll toss it out.
It has the advantage of not having to loop through all the buttons in a
cluster at any point.

    *    Create a new background field (named "direction" here).  This
    should probably be hidden.  It's just a place to store info.

    *    Create a new, named background radio button.  Setting
    autoHilite works well.

    *    Include the following in the button's script:

    on mouseUp
       setDirection the short name of me
    end mouseUp

    *    Duplicate the button as many times as you need (don't forget
    to rename the clones).

    *    In either the background script or the stack script, include
    the following handlers:

    on openCard
       set hilite of bkgnd button field "direction" to true
    end openCard

    on closeCard
       set hilite of bkgnd button field "direction" to false
    end closeCard

    on setDirection dir
       set hilite of bkgnd button field "direction" to false
       put dir into field "direction"
       set hilite of bkgnd button dir to true
    end setDirection

This avoids having to loop over the buttons in the cluster at any point,
and you can add a new button to the cluster by just cloning an existing
one.

It looks reasonable with radio buttons, but icon buttons flash when
chosen with this method.  Handling icon buttons properly is left as an
exercise for the reader :-)

Charlie Allen        [e-mail]


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

From: [e-mail] (Erazm J. Behr)
Subject: Re: cleaning mmouses (mice)
Date: 17 Oct 87 20:25:18 GMT

Not really about cleaning: our department has some of those rubberized
fabric mouse pads and the mice riding on them gather an enormous amount
of gunk on the rollers; every day the mouse gets completely stuck which
is very annoying (the rollers are hard to hold in place for cleaning).
When I bought my own Mac I decided to experiment a little and for the
past year I've been using a $2 vinyl "dish placement mat" or whatever
the official name is - the thing that goes under the hot plates on a
glass top dinner table. I wash it with water/soap every week and,
believe it or not, my mouse's rollers and balls have not been cleaned
once since I got it and they look factory new. Try it. Eric

-----------------------------------------------------------
          >>>>--------------->         [e-mail]


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

From: [e-mail] (T. Govindaraj)
Subject: Need advice on Coral Lisp and Smalltalk
Date: 17 Oct 87 22:32:25 GMT
Organization: Center for Man-Machine Systems Research - Ga Tech

I would like some help on configuring a Mac II. I am likely to get a
subsidy towards purchase of a Mac II and I would like to use this
opportunity to get a nice Mac II.

I plan to use Lisp and Smalltalk80 (from Parc Place Systems), in
addition to word processing etc. I would appreciate any comments on
Coral Lisp. (I have heard from a usually realiable and very
knowledgeable source, i.e., a friend who knows what he is talking about,
most of the time.) Therefore I have decided to buy Coral Lisp. But,
before I buy I would appreciate any advice and comments, both pro and
con, when there is still time.

Should I get Coral Lisp or Allegro Common Lisp? (My lisp experience is
with Franz Lisp and Interlisp-D.) Should I get extra memory, more than
the 1 MByte that is standard? (2 MByte/$450.00) Do I need extra memory
or is it for better performance?

What are the memory requirements for Smalltalk80? Am I better off with
more memory?

I do plan to get A/UX (and a hard disk) when they A/UX becomes
available. So I can't affor to spend all my money now! (Currently I plan
to buy the basic CPU, an extra internal floppy drive, extended keyboard,
and color stuff. I plan to buy MacWrite ($59))

Please reply via e-mail since I will be out-of-town for a couple of days
and this newsgroup gets many many messages before I return. Thanks.

govind

--
T. Govindaraj

Internet:    [e-mail]
uucp:    ...!{decvax,hplabs,ihnp4,linus,rutgers,seismo}!gatech!gt-cmmsr!tg

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

End of Usenet Mac Digest
************************