PD ROM 1/PD ROM Volume I - Macintosh Software from BMUG (1988).iso/Electronic Messages/USEnet Digests/USEnet Vol. 3/USEnet 3.088

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Date: Sun 1 Nov 87 08:28:13-GMT
From: Jeff Shulman <SHULMAN@SDR>
Subject: Usenet Mac Digest V3 #88

Usenet Mac Digest     Saturday, October 31, 1987     Volume 3 : Issue 88

Today's Topics:
     Apple to GDSII format converter
     BUG in MPW C 2.0
     Computer Art Competition Entry Information
     Calling DAHandler
     Large Screen SE Monitors
     Re: Parity on Apple memories
     Apple Tape Drive
     Re: HyperCard arrays (2 messages)
     Re: Character recognition
     Still need remapping utilities
     Re: Funny Spacing in WriteNow
     Re: Interleaf on Mac II: Information wanted
     Multi-Scrap vs. SmartScrap
     Reducing fan noise from Macintosh II
     Re: Mac Software for children
     Re: How to find screen size.
     Need Bibliography Datebase
     Re: INITs
     LSC and the bugs from hell
     Multifinder features
     Re: Re: Color Ribbons
     Recommendation for a new "Paste" feature on ALL Mac Software

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

From: PSI%SNMSN1::PSI%DSAVX1::DSABB
Subject: Apple to GDSII format converter
Date: 22-OCT-1987 23:07

Does anyone have an Apple to GDS II graphics  format converter. We
particularly want one to use for Electronic Mask Design.

Richard Best

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

From: [e-mail] (Larry Hutchinson)
Subject: BUG in MPW C 2.0
Date: 26 Oct 87 18:46:48 GMT
Organization: Tektronix Inc., Beaverton, Or.


I was unfortunate enough to stumble across a nasty MPW C 2.0 bug that
was not present in the beta release.  I have been using the 2.0 release
for 2 months now but just now ran into the bug when a change to an
unrelated module triggered a recompile of a module left over from the
beta release. It took me a while to isolate the problem because it was
in a C translation of a Pascal routine that was itself a mechanical
translation of a Fortran routine!  Gag.

The problem can be easily demonstrated by the following simple program:

/******** this will screw up using MPW C 2.0 */ #include <stdio.h>

main(argc,argv)
    int argc;
    char *argv[]; {
    double a,b;

    a=1; b=2;
    a= a+b*b;
    printf("a= %g\r",a); }


It will print

a=1

.  If a is extended, then no problem.  If the assignment is:
    a= b*b+a; then no problem.


Looking at the code produced, I saw that the calculation was done
properly but the result was not stored back into a.  It was stored,
twice in fact, just not into a!

Is this a know bug?  If not, will this get to the right person? If so,
does anyone have any info on possible bug fix releases of 2.0?


Larry Hutchinson, Tektronix, Inc. PO Box 500, MS 50-383, Beaverton, OR 97077
{ decvax,allegra }!tektronix!tekgvs!larryh

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

From: [e-mail] (Bryce Nesbitt)
Subject: Computer Art Competition Entry Information
Date: 27 Oct 87 06:45:35 GMT
Organization: University of California at Berkeley


1988 Third Anual International Computer Art Competition

Moraga California January 9 to Febuary 21, 1988

Deadline : November 30, 1987
Entry Fee: $7 per slide  (Slides don't flicker :-)

Hearst Art Gallery
Saint Mary's College
PO Box AE
Moraga, Ca  94575

415-376-4411


For more information, use the address or telephone number above.


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

From: [e-mail] (Raymond Lau)
Subject: Calling DAHandler
Date: 27 Oct 87 00:31:10 GMT
Organization: The Big Electric Cat

OK...since my MultiFinder pkg was lost by FedEx and I'm waiting for a
replacement, here're two simple questions:

How do you tell if MF is running?  (I don't care if I'm in the
background or fore...)  I'd guess one can't just check for WNE as it may
be added in later to do nothing but call SystemTask and GNE when not
under MF...

Assuming that I've discovered that MF is running.  I want to have MF
sublaunch DA Handler, if it isn't already loaded....and then make it the
active application.  (without opening a real DA).  Any ideas on how to
do this?  This is needed to make a FKEY I  have compatible w/MF - it is
compatible w/DA Handler but not when other applications are active.  I
guess I'd need a way of deactivating DA Handler when I'm through - if it
wasn't the active application when I started.

This has to be done in LightspeedC...but Pascal examples are fine...or
just an outline of what to call, what globals to use, etc...

Thanks,


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

From: [e-mail] (sullivan jeffrey a.)
Subject: Large Screen SE Monitors
Date: 27 Oct 87 04:04:05 GMT
Organization: Univ. of Pittsburgh, Comp & Info Sys

I know this has been somewhat discussed on the net, but I was wondering
if people could post or mail me any experiences they have had with large
screen monitors on the SE.  Let me be clear in stating that I am NOT
interested in  those monitors which simply enlarge the 9" screen.  I am
looking for a screen that gives me more pixels.

I am interested in prices, performance, monitor size, and the like.  How
easily are they installed, do they slow it down any, etc.

..........................................................................
Jeff Sullivan                University of Pittsburgh
pitt!cisunx!jasst3            Intelligent Systems Studies Program
jasper@PittVMS (BITNET)            Graduate Student
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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

From: [e-mail] (Paul Cantrell)
Subject: Re: Parity on Apple memories
Date: 26 Oct 87 20:24:51 GMT
Organization: Alliant Computer Systems, Littleton, MA

Steve Falco stated that he would not like to trust Apple computers with
large sums of money, because of the lack of parity. Then

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

Sorry 'Gary', but I have to agree with Steve Falco about this. In my
mind, it is a real shortcoming that the Mac lacks main memory parity.
This was probably a reasonable decision for Apple to make on early
computers like the Apple II which had small amounts of memory, and was
not (often) being used to run nuclear reactors. However, as people begin
to use the Mac for engineering and financial purposes, and as memories
get larger and larger, I believe it is important for the main memory
system to have some checking built in.

Note that I don't think the Mac needs ECC memory as Gary suggested. I
don't want a super-reliable Mac that can keep running with half the
hardware smoked out. What I DO want to see is a Mac that detects that a
memory error has occurred, rather than one that may continue to run,
cranking out possibly erroneous results. At least if the system detects
a parity error and bombs, I know I have a problem to look into.

An example would be an engineer using his user-friendly MacStress
program to design  a bridge. A memory error in the current system might
cause a bug that would crash the Mac, or it might just alter some data
in a way which does NOT cause the Mac to bomb, but DOES cause the bridge
to fall down. People could be killed (or huge sums of money lost)
because Apple saved $50 on a $7,000 Mac II engineering system.

I'm sure readers of comp.risks could tell us of other hardware (and
software) failures which can cause large loss of life or money if
results of computer programs are believed without any cross checking for
reasonableness, however I think Apple is missing the boat by not trying
to detect one of the more common hardware failures.

                    PC


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

From: [e-mail] (Steven D. Leeke)
Subject: Apple Tape Drive
Date: 27 Oct 87 15:38:04 GMT
Organization: Stanford University

We've had our Apple 40SC tape drive for a couple of weeks now and I
thought a short note would be in order.

1) It has a fan - a bit quieter than an SE, I don't notice it on top of the II.
2) It looks like the HD20SC box with a tape slot in the front
3) 38.5MB/tape
4) 22min/20MB in volume backup => ~40min/cartridge - file backup is slower
5) With an 80MB Mac II and 50MB of files it is easier (faster) to use DiskFit
6) Software allows backup/restore by volume or file.
7) Backup changes only allowed when backing up by file
8) The software does NOT run in the background under MultiFinder
9) 40min to format a DC-2000 tape cartridge
10) SCSI cables are extra

If the software ran in the background under MultiFinder I would gladly
toss my smart set, but until then I will probably continue with DiskFit
- even it it takes 80 disks.

Steve Leeke

--
Steven D. Leeke, Center for Integrated Systems, Stanford University
    {ucbvax,decvax}!decwrl!glacier!leeke, [e-mail]

"I suppose they don't use money in the 23rd century?"


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

From: [e-mail] (Bill Faulkner)
Subject: Re: HyperCard arrays
Date: 26 Oct 87 15:09:50 GMT
Organization: Natl Ctr Atmospheric Research, Boulder, CO

One thing that would work, but isn't really elegant is to create an
invisable field and use the various lines as elements of the array. The
refernce to this would be similar to:

    add 23 to line k of field "Array"

You could even extend this to two dimensions by using the word of a
line, such as

    put 5 into word i of line j of field "2-D Array"

Does anybody know of a better solution?
--
Bill Faulkner * NCAR (Nat'l Center for Atmospheric Research)
PO Box 3000 * Boulder, CO  80307-3000 * 303-497-1259
UUCP:  [e-mail] or  ..!hao!scdpyr!faulkner
INTERNET: [e-mail]  ARPA: [e-mail]


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

From: [e-mail] (Herb Poppe)
Subject: Re: HyperCard arrays
Date: 26 Oct 87 19:33:56 GMT
Organization: Natl Ctr Atmospheric Research, Boulder, CO

Yes, you can use variables in a manner similar to fields to simulate
arrays.  For example, you can say "line 1 of data", where "data" is the
name of a local or global variable. For example:

put 1 into line 1 of data put 2 into line 2 of data put 4 into line 3 of
data put (line 1 of data) + (line 2 of data) + (line 3 of data) into
message

Of course, you can use variables instead of literals:

put 3 into n put line n of data into message

Instead of 'lines' you can use 'items':

put "ABC" into item 2 of data

For multiply-dimensioned arrays you can do:

put "ABC" into item 2 of line 3 of data

--
Herb Poppe      NCAR                         INTERNET: [e-mail]
[phone]  P.O. Box 3000                   CSNET: [e-mail]
        Boulder, CO  80307               UUCP: [e-mail]


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

From: [e-mail] (Bill Wilson)
Subject: Re: Character recognition
Date: 27 Oct 87 21:12:47 GMT
Organization: Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, Arizona


Flagstaff Engineering (602-523-6461) is currently writing character
recognition software for scanners and PC's.   You may want to give them
a call.


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

From: [e-mail] (Darren Jay Hacker)
Subject: Still need remapping utilities
Date: 25 Oct 87 18:15:33 GMT
Organization: Univ. of Rochester Computing Center

I have recently heard that QuicKeys has emerged, possibly as a cdev, but
nevertheless, it is needed here.  I believe that CE Software is
responsible, but before I commit myself to it, I am curious to know (a)
if there are other similar keyboard utilities (I have an Extended
Keyboard on my SE), (b) If QuicKeys is yet available (and how I to get
it), (c) is it shareware, as has been their previous products.  I have
seen some of their previous products, and although impressive, I have
either had no use for them or there existed a product elsewhere that
better suited my needs.  This is not to place my doubts in the company
(there products are rather "clean" in design), but before I invest, I
want to make sure that I am getting what I want -- I cannot wait until I
see a review in MacUser or MacWorld, I must go on the opinions and
reviews of you all in comp.sys.mac (I did buy SuitCase on the
recommendations of all who praised it -- thanks!).  Please e-mail me
whatever info you have (I have read TechNote 160, and I can't make heads
or tails of it).  All replies (flames excluded) are welcome, and if it
warrants, I will summarize and post to the net.  Thank you all very much
in advance.

=============================================================================
Darren Jay Hacker      Internet: [e-mail]
"The fault, dear Brutus,      UUCP: [e-mail]            \ / ,|.
 is not in our stars,           (or) ...{ames,cmcl2,decvax,rutgers}   X ( | )
 but in our software               !rochester!ur-tut!dhac        / \ `|'

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

From: [e-mail] (David Walsh)
Subject: Re: Funny Spacing in WriteNow
Date: 25 Oct 87 21:03:50 GMT
Organization: Univ. of Rochester Computing Center

  There are some very common mistakes that people make when using a
Laser Writer.  Mainly they use the space bar so that what they see in
their word processor lines up from line to line.  If you are doing this
and expect to get your output to match you are in for a big surprise.
The LaserWriter doesn't like that stuff, it seems to fiddle with the
spacing itself which is fine unless you want columns to line up.  The
solution is to use tab stops. The LaserWriter treats tab stops as the
holiest of holies, and will preserve column integrity if they are
tabbed.

  Another common problem, but it is not the fault of the user is that if
you are using a non-LaserWriter font and some of the words get chopped
off at the margin the font is corrupted.  All you have to do to fix it
is take the latest version of Font/DA Mover (I think 3.2 will do though)
and re- install the font.  It should print normally.  If it doesn't then
you have a bad font and shouldn't use that one.  Note that this also
will sometimes happen on an ImageWriter as well.  The fix is identical.

  Hope that this clears up the problem for all of you LaserWriter fans.
Good luck and may your disks never crash.

Dave Walsh - hiding at the UofR  try: rochester!ur-tut!dmw3

DISCLAIMER:  As I am nuts nobody pays any attention to me, why should my
employers be any different?


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

From: [e-mail] (Brian Diehm)
Subject: Re: Interleaf on Mac II: Information wanted
Date: 27 Oct 87 18:59:49 GMT
Organization: Tektronix, Inc., Beaverton, OR.

>Personally, I find Interleaf to be an extremely abrasive product.

Boy, do you get some kind of award for understatement.

If indeed Interleaf for the Mac is fully compatible with Interleaf on
the Sun, then the product is about as far from Mac-like as you're gonna
get without wandering into Wordstar.

Their user interface design is poor, to say the least, and has obviously
"grown" with the product.  Their documentation is pretty bad, especially
the introductory material which is absolutely hopeless.

The problem seems to be that they grew into this market, not from a
publication background, but from a computer technology orientation.
Thus they developed an approach to the subject "all their own" without
reference to anyone elses ideas, not even typographers.  That's not all
bad, printing and typography are full of arcana from centuries of
history, and a lot of it should be thrown out. But, Interleaf seems
unaware of the strengths as well as the weaknesses of the traditional
approaches.  And by this I not only mean printing, but things like
PageMaker and Word.

If functionality and human interface concerns don't make the point,
Interleaf documentation does.  The comments about publishing tools in
the hands of those who don't know enough to use them all ring true here,
especially if you look at their user documentation.  It goes especially
for their annual report, which appears to have been produced by people
who don't know anything about the field they are producing tools for.
They brag that their own products did all of the stuff in the annual
report.  Look closely for yourself to see if these are the people you
think should be producing your layout, markup, and typography tools.

The product is unix-based, and every once in a while you need to dip
into the underlying unix to do things you should be able to do from your
desktop, like moving documents in from someone else's desktop.  However,
a clever system admin can cover for a lot of this stuff, and what he
can't cover for is made less odious because getting to unix from the
desktop is fairly easy.

Not all is bad.  The product is very powerful, and contains everything.
It is a draw tool, a word processor, and a page layout system all in
one.  It works fairly reliably.  It can do many things that requre
several current Mac pro- grams to do.  But in some cases, especially
side-by-side columns, you have to take what are essentially "bugs" in
their system and use them as features to get the desired results.  For
simple things it is WSYIWYG, sort of.  For complex things, it's about
60% WYSIWYG.  This is not an indictment, because WSYIWYG is not the
be-all and end-all of typography/layout.

After using Macs for several years, and then using Interleaf for about 3
months, I can say that the Interleaf is a little easier to accomplish
the task of some complex layouts we are using.  However, while it took
me 2 hours to learn PageMaker from scratch, and 6 hours to go through
Word 3.0 from a non-word background, it took me 2 weeks to learn the
Interleaf to the point where I could do anything beyond the trivial, and
I still don't know all the aspects of it 3 months later.  The
functionality that is there does not warrant this learning curve - it
should take about 2 days (16 hours) to learn a product of this
functionality completely.

All my comments on Interleaf come from usage of the Sun version, so take
them with a grain of salt.  I will be seeing a Mac II version sometime
in November, so I can report then.  However, they SAY that the Mac II
version is identical, and I tend to believe it because they are porting
from one unix to another.

Final disclaimer - these are my opinions only!  My employer has paid for
me to learn this system and use it, and satisfaction is high with the
system and with what is coming out of it - other than we have too few
workstations for the size of the department.  And I'm not saying it's a
bad product, I'm saying that if  you are used to friendly Mac programs
and systems, look closely at this before buying it.
--
-Brian Diehm     (SDA - Standard Disclaimers Apply)
Tektronix, Inc.
[e-mail]   or  {decvax,cae780,uw-beaver}!tektronix!tekig4!briand


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

From: [e-mail] (Jeff Meyer)
Subject: Multi-Scrap vs. SmartScrap
Date: 27 Oct 87 23:30:52 GMT
Organization: John Fluke Mfg. Co., Inc., Everett, WA

I've been reading reviews of SmartScrap -- a DA that works like
Multi-Scrap, except that you can search through it with keywords, and it
has a scrollable window for viewing the scrapbook items.  These are nice
features, and worth examining; but they're not enough to get me to shell
out $39 for SmartScrap while I have Multi-Scrap.

Unless... how fast is SmartScrap and going from Scrapbook item to
Scrapbook item?  Multi-Scrap is a *pig* -- it often takes four or five
seconds for it to release control back to the user, after scrolling to a
new item.

Thanks in advance for any information you can provide...

                            Vaya con Dios,

                                        Moriarty, aka Jeff Meyer
INTERNET:     [e-mail]
Manual UUCP:  {uw-beaver, sun, allegra, hplsla, lbl-csam}!fluke!moriarty
CREDO:        You gotta be Cruel to be Kind...
<*> DISCLAIMER: Do what you want with me, but leave my employers alone! <*>

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

From: [e-mail] (Dave Platt)
Subject: Reducing fan noise from Macintosh II
Date: 27 Oct 87 21:46:47 GMT
Organization: Teknowledge, Inc., Palo Alto CA

I spoke this afternoon with Larry Dziegielewski of Micah about hard
disks.  I happened to mention the noisiness of the Mac II's fan;  he
suggested a procedure that he has used successfully in reducing the fan
noise.

Larry pointed out that most Mac IIs are set up with the video card
(Apple or otherwise) located in slot #1, closest to the power supply. He
suggested that putting the card in this location tends to obstruct the
fan's air duct, thus causing turbulence and generating quite a bit of
noise.  He suggested that moving the video card over to slot #6 (as far
away from the power supply as possible) would cut the fan's noise
significantly.

I haven't tried this yet, but plan to do so when I have the opportunity;
I'll report back about the results.

CAUTION: if you do this, be _sure_ to power off the Mac, wait for the
power supply to cool down, and _ground yourself_ momentarily before
unplugging the video card... the rumor mill has reported that the Apple
video card is quite sensitive to electrostatic-discharge damage. If
you've got an approved wrist-grounding strap, it'd probably be a good
idea to use it.


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

From: [e-mail] (Greg Stephens)
Subject: Re: Mac Software for children
Date: 27 Oct 87 16:06:32 GMT
Organization: Hewlett Packard, Cupertino

I also have daughter who will be 3 this christmas and have been looking
for appropriate software.  Sounds like you have already found some.  Any
recommendations?  I am looking for software that will help with ABC's
and Numbers in particular.


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

From: [e-mail] (Joel West)
Subject: Re: How to find screen size.
Date: 28 Oct 87 15:50:41 GMT
Organization: Palomar Software, Inc., Vista, CA


The variable screenBits.bounds gives the size of the screen for an XL,
128/512, 512Ke/Plus and SE; it gives the size of the main screen (the
one with the menu bar) on the Mac II.  If you want the size of all
screens on the II, it gets more complicated.

The height of the menu bar is given by routine GetMBarHeight, declared
in the Script Manager interfaces in MPW Pascal and C, version 2.0.  You
can also use low-memory global MBarHeight (location $0BAA).  In both
cases, this is not valid unless this is a Mac Plus or later, such as
indicated by SysEnvirons or ROM85.
--
    Joel West  (c/o UCSD)
    Palomar Software, Inc., P.O. Box 2635, Vista, CA  92083
    {ucbvax,ihnp4}!sdcsvax!jww     [e-mail]


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

From: [e-mail] (Alex Heatley)
Subject: Need Bibliography Datebase
Date: 26 Oct 87 22:27:44 GMT
Organization: Comp Sci, Victoria Univ., Wellington, New Zealand

Dear Mac people,
                I have a group of librarians that want to use the Mac to
keep track of their books and papers. They need to be able to do the
following:

1) Have multiple keywords per entry (for both searching and sorting)

2) Be able to produce a MS Word or MacWrite file from the database,
   retaining such things as style and formatting.

3) Produce an index of entries, suitable for placing in MS Word or
MacWrite.

We've tried MS File and Filemaker+ and are about to look at Reflex.

Can anyone out there suggest any other package (they have already
rejected professional bibliography) ?

Any help people can give on this one would be appreciated. Please e-mail
to the address below (please *don't* use the bang path this message
took) and I'll summarise to the net if there is sufficient interest.

Regards

--
Alex Heatley : CSC, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand.
Domain: [e-mail]                Path: ...!uunet!vuwcomp!alex
Trolls can often be found under bridges ... or in Computing Departments.


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

From: [e-mail] (Juri Munkki)
Subject: Re: INITs
Date: 27 Oct 87 06:59:23 GMT
Organization: Helsinki University of Technology, Finland

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail]
(Paul Larson) writes:
>A wild urge to write an INIT recently came over me.  The problem is that I have not been able to find any documentation as to how to go about it.  The LSP
>Release 1.0 Supplement claims that code resources, a set in which INITs are
>included, are documented in Inside Macintosh.  I have not been able to find any referece to them among these hallowed pages.

You really don't need much documentation anyway. Just imagine you're
writing for an ancient computer that has never heard of initializing
managers or loading programs dynamically...

Ok...I'm not an expert in INIT resources, I've only written three of
them. Here's a really short init. It is in Lightspeed C 2.11 and works
only on a Mac II. You should set the file type and make the INIT
resource locked. I also make it preload, but I guess that doesn't mean
anything for an init. It "randomly" plays a 'snd ' resource. You can put
the resources in the file, but it might play one of your beepsounds.

/* StartupSound.c */ #include <MacTypes.h>

void    main() {
    Handle        foo;
    Ptr        channel;
    unsigned long    time;
    int        theid;

    theid=CountResources('snd ');
    GetDateTime(&time);

    foo=(Handle)GetIndResource('snd ',time % theid + 1);
    SndPlay(0,foo,0);
}

Juri Munkki
Helsinki University of Technology Computing Centre
[e-mail]
[e-mail]

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

From: [e-mail] (Brian Rauchfuss)
Subject: LSC and the bugs from hell
Date: 21 Oct 87 16:02:07 GMT
Organization: Hewlett-Packard - Fort Collins, CO

    I am working on some programs in LSC, and I am getting frustrated
with the debugging facilities.  MacsBug is fine and handy, but it is
difficult to determine where in a procedure you are and hard to figure
out where on the stack variables are.

Is there a way of generating assembly language output from LSC so I can
see where I am?

Is TMON worth the money?

Brian Rauchfuss


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

From: [e-mail] (Tony Jacobs)
Subject: Multifinder features
Date: 28 Oct 87 16:48:41 GMT
Organization: University of Utah ME Dept

 The release Multifinder has a couple of nice features.  You can now
click on the small icon in the upper right corner to page through the
current applications. That is sure a lot easier than having to dig
through windows or scroll clear down to the bottom of the apple menu.
 You can also force a DA to open up in the application space rather than
the DA handler by holding down the option key while selecting from the
apple menu. I bet the spell checker people had something to do with that
being implemented.

 The release version seems to use less memory and work faster to me,
anyone else have the same impression?

Tony Jacobs
Center for Engineering Design
University of Utah
[e-mail]

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

From: [e-mail] (Gary)
Subject: Re: Re: Color Ribbons
Date: 23 Oct 87 01:19:56 GMT
Organization: Olivetti ATC; Cupertino, Ca

>
> I was wondering the same thing.  Unfortunately, the only way
> I can think of using the color ribbon is to write
> your own program and use the color QuickDraw commands in the
> 128k ROM. :-(  Does anyone out there have any clues?
>
>     -Ted

I use a package called ColorPress from Unibrite in Berkeley. Combined
with Superpaint (for example), it allows the use of either multi-color
ribbons or multi-pass single color ribbons. One can  also compose the
different color layers in sepparate files and ColorPress will merge them
for output to the printer. They also make T-shirt heat transfer ribbons
so you can  have your favorite files on your favorite clothes.

Gary

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

From: [e-mail] (J. Collymore)
Subject: Recommendation for a new "Paste" feature on ALL Mac Software
Date: 21 Oct 87 13:45:20 GMT
Organization: AT&T CSEd/CET, Piscataway, N.J.

OK, Apple developers (and employees) on the net, here is my suggestion
for a VERY useful feature for ANY software that uses Clipboard "Cut &
Paste" features (which means ALL Mac programs).

In any new or upgraded software, the Paste feature should contain the
feature of doing MULTIPLE pastes of whatever is on the Clipboard.  This
could be done by writing the code so that when a user pulls down the
edit menu and holds down a number key while selecting paste, the program
will know that the user wants X number of copies of the item on the
clipboard to be pasted into the document.

For example, I'm in Superpaint and I have just copied a circle to the
clipboard. I go to the edit menu and select "paste."  Before I release
the paste selection, I press the number "3" key, THEN I release the
mouse button.  I then have appear on the screen THREE circles!

This could be a REAL time saving (and a nice upgrade) feature!

So what do you think, people?


                        Jim Collymore

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