PD ROM 1/PD ROM Volume I - Macintosh Software from BMUG (1988).iso/Electronic Messages/USEnet Digests/USEnet Vol. 3/USEnet 3.089

Internet Message Format | 1988-04-08 | 28.0 KB | [TEXT/ttxt]

Date: Sat 7 Nov 87 09:42:21-GMT
From: Jeff Shulman <SHULMAN@SDR>
Subject: Usenet Mac Digest V3 #89

Usenet Mac Digest     Saturday, November 7, 1987     Volume 3 : Issue 89

Today's Topics:
     How to Trash a Folder?
     What is wrong with the Sumacc C compiler
     Re: BYTE MAG (We don't even rate...)
     Microsoft Fortran
     Re: Recommendation for a new "Paste" feature on ALL Mac So
     Re: Apple Tape Drive
     Asynch AppleTalk + Terminal Program ???
     Mac Pictures and Scrolling
     dBASE Mac
     Re: LSC and the bugs from hell
     Re: More specific Find in HyperCard
     Re: CMS Drives
     Re: Getting a vRefNum from a DirID
     Word Serial Printer Driver
     Looking for high performace disks and controller cards for Mac II
     Re: Color Ribbons
     Making sure PrGeneral exists
     Re: What is wrong with the Sumacc C compiler
     Re: Shareware (was Red Ryder)
     65816 C compilers
     Re: Mac Pictures and Scrolling
     What elementary educational software if available for Mac 512
     LightSpeedPascal Library Supporting MC68881

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

From: [e-mail] (Paul Nevai)
Subject: How to Trash a Folder?
Date: 22 Oct 87 13:50:10 GMT
Organization: University of South Carolina, Columbia


Please Help!!!

I have an empty folder which I can't get rid of. Whenever I try to
delete it using the trashcan or DiskFit I get the file busy message. I
tried to change all kinds of bits using ResEdit but nothing worked.

How can I throw it away?


Have Orthogonal Polynomials
Will Travel

Paul Nevai                                [e-mail] (PREFERRED)
Carolina Research Professor               .../!wright/!usceast/!pgn (UUCP)
Department of Mathematics                 [e-mail]
University of South Carolina              73057,172.Compu$erve
Columbia, S.C. 29208                      1-(803)-777-3776.office
U.S.A.                                    1-(803)-777-4226.secy

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

From: [e-mail] (David Phillip Oster)
Subject: What is wrong with the Sumacc C compiler
Date: 30 Oct 87 07:23:31 GMT
Organization: School of Education, UC-Berkeley

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Earle R. Horton)
writes:
>Perhaps someone would care to enlighten me as to why the sumacc compiler has
>apparently fallen into disuse.  Is it solely the inconvenience of having to
>download the compiled program (I can live with that) or is there something
>wrong with it?

Well, there are two things wrong with it:

1.) it is slow. Unless you have a Mac with an ethernet connection to a
_very_ fast machine, it is much faster to compile and link locally than
to compile on a remote machine, link, rmake, and down load the result.

2.) it is buggy.

You may have seen my shareware program, Calendar 1.9. It is loosely
based on a program that was broadcast to the net in, I think '84, that
was compiled in sumacc C. I liked the program, but it hhad an obvious
killer bug, as a result of the Sumacc compiler.  (The symptoms were, if
you used the Calendar desk accessory once, then you couldn't use it
again until you quit the current application.) After trying,
unsuccessfully to contact the author, I took over development of the
program, and have added many new features and fixed many old bugs.

The authors of the compiler seem to be unaware that on a Macintosh
executable code can move while the program is running. Unlike all
Macintosh compilers, they generate position _dependent_ code, and have a
funky loader scheme to resolve non-relocatable references at program
load time. Eventually, the code moves, and all that position dependent
code points at never-neverland.

Conclusion: Don't use sumacc C. Because of its authors' poor
understanding of the Macintosh execution time environment, the sumacc C
compiler generates incorrect code.

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

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

From: [e-mail] (Joel West)
Subject: Re: BYTE MAG (We don't even rate...)
Date: 29 Oct 87 02:42:08 GMT
Organization: Palomar Software, Inc., Vista, CA

I would note one point, at least, in Byte's defense.  They tried to put
out a special "68000" issue (Mac, Atari, Amiga) but they couldn't sell
enough ads to justify a new issue. So instead, they staggered the
contents throughout later issues.

Ad space dictating issue size and special reports, etc. is not just true
for Byte, incidentally.  It also applies to local newspapers, Forbes,
etc. etc.
--
    Joel West  (c/o UCSD)
    Palomar Software, Inc., P.O. Box 2635, Vista, CA  92083
    {ucbvax,ihnp4}!sdcsvax!jww     [e-mail]


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

From: [e-mail] (bcfl)
Subject: Microsoft Fortran
Date: 28 Oct 87 16:52:26 GMT
Organization: CERN, Geneva, Switzerland

Please, anybody known like use module product by the linker of the MPW
developer system of Apple (Assembler) to fortran program with the linker
of the Fortran of the Microsoft. I remember that for MDS is very easy
because the link use the /data option for the link the relocate module
to the output file.
                Thanks Fred


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

From: [e-mail]
Subject: Re: Recommendation for a new "Paste" feature on ALL Mac So
Date: 27 Oct 87 03:08:27 GMT

Well, I've only seen positive comments on this so far, so I'll put on my
Dvorak hat and play the devil's advocate:

When I want to paste three copies of something, I press command-V 3
times. The idea of typing numbers while in the middle of selecting from
a menu seems rather non-intuitive and clumsy (although I'll admit I
haven't come up with a better way of multiple pastes besides what I
already mentioned). I'd also be scared of making a mistake when I type
the repeat count.  If I type 99 instead of 9, I'm in big trouble.
(Unless the application was considerate enough to keep all 99 copies
selected so I could delete them.) A more user-friendly but
power-user-unfriendly option would be to have, say, option-paste bring
up a dialog box that asked how many copies you wanted to paste.

--Jim Taylor


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

From: [e-mail] (Dennis Grittner)
Subject: Re: Apple Tape Drive
Date: 28 Oct 87 14:45:50 GMT
Organization: City of St. Paul Public Works

We too have a 40 meg Apple SCSI tape.

In a few words - it stinks.

It's too slow, too noisy ( for being that slow ), and the software is
bad. It's not worthless, it does work, etc., but it sure as heck isn't
worth the great wait and $$$ that is cost us.

Top that off with the price of the tapes $$$.


--
Dennis Grittner        City of Saint Paul, Minnesota
[phone]        Room 700, 25 W. 4th St. 55102
"Let's just put Ollie, Ronnie, and the rest in jail!"


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

From: [e-mail] (Mike Ciaraldi)
Subject: Asynch AppleTalk + Terminal Program ???
Date: 29 Oct 87 17:39:11 GMT
Organization: U of Rochester, CS Dept, Rochester, NY

We had been calling from a Mac to a local VAX using  MacTerminal (and
sometimes Red Ryder) and a modem attached to the modem port.  No
problem.

We just added Asynch AppleTalk to connect the Mac to  a bulletin board
and electronic mail server in another building.  This allows the user to
access the mail etc. as if the two Macs were directly connected via
regular AppleTalk.

The problem is that it is now a pain to use the modem for anything but
automatically accessing the mail server. First, Asynch AppleTalk
requires that the modem be hooked to the printer port instead of the
modem port. So we told MacTerminal to use the printer port for phone
communications. If we try to run MacTerminal, MacTerminal sees that the
printer port is in use by AppleTalk and switches back to the modem port
automatically (but without telling us). Then it tries to dial out
through the printer, which is of course attached to the modem port!

The only way we seem to be able to use MacTerminal is by calling up the
Chooser and inactivating AppleTalk.  Then we start MacTerminal and it
works OK.  But then to turn AppleTalk back on again we have to pull down
"Shutdown" and hold the "I" key to make Asynch AppleTalk restart
properly.

Is there any way to make this easier? Some possibilities:

1) A way to let Asynch AppleTalk use the modem port?
2) A terminal program that works even if AppleTalk
   is assigned to the port?
3) A way to make that activating and deactyivating of AppleTalk
   automatic, like a batch file or something?

Thanks in advance for any help.

Mike Ciaraldi
arpa: [e-mail]
uucp: seismo!rochester!ciaraldi

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

From: [e-mail] (Jay Norwood)
Subject: Mac Pictures and Scrolling
Date: 29 Oct 87 20:23:27 GMT
Organization: Motorola Inc. Austin, Tx

I've been experimenting with quickdraw calls using MPW c on a MAC II. It
seems that the sequence OpenPicture, ScrollRect, ClosePicture,
DrawPicture does not produce the desired scrolling.  Other graphic
operations seem to be stored correctly - only the scrolling seems to be
missed.  Did I miss something in the documentation, or is this a
bug/feature of the mac? Jay Norwood


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

From: [e-mail] (Cy Shuster)
Subject: dBASE Mac
Date: 27 Oct 87 06:17:17 GMT
Organization: Ashton-Tate, Torrance, CA

I'd like to solicit feedback on dBASE Mac that you may have. For those
of you with Compuserve access, there is a newly created subtopic for
this product as well (GO ASHTON).

--Cy Shuster--   UUCP: ...!seismo!scgvaxd!ashtate!cy
                 CIS: [74166,2027]


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

From: [e-mail] (David Phillip Oster)
Subject: Re: LSC and the bugs from hell
Date: 30 Oct 87 08:13:32 GMT
Organization: School of Education, UC-Berkeley

Here is an opinion you don't see everyday: I think Macsbug is better
than TMON.

Scott Knaster's "How to Write Macintosh Software" raves about TMON.  A
few months ago I took an afternoon out and sat down, read the TMON
manual from cover to cover, and tried to actually use it. I found it
clumsy to use, I couldn't make it do what I wanted, and the user
interface was so complicated and so lacking in self-consistancy that I
had to spend an immense amount of time just fighting TMON to do simple
things.

In addition, I'd already built a large personal set of debugging tools
on top of DebugStr(), and the TMON documentation lead me to believe that
TMON couldn't handle the DebugStr() tooltrap.

Conclusion: Please show me the error of my ways. Mail me a description
of how TMON makes you more productive. I'll consolidate and repost to
the net.


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

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

From: [e-mail] (Dan Freedman)
Subject: Re: More specific Find in HyperCard
Date: 28 Oct 87 23:40:31 GMT
Organization: U. of Calgary, Calgary, Ab.

In article <[e-mail]>, [e-mail] (Brian H. Powell)
writes:
>     Problem 1)  How do I "put" a double-quote?
>     Problem 2)  How do I position the cursor?
>
> Thanks.
>
> Brian
Ok, putting a double quote is as easy as including the constant "quote"
in the put command, and positioning the cursor is as easy as issuing the
"click at" command.  Something like this should do the trick:

    put "find " & quote & quote & " in field xyz"
    click at 123, 234

The arguments to click at will have to be found by experimentation, and
you might want to make them relative to the "loc of message box" so that
it will work properly even if someone moves the message box.  Also, I
don't have a mac in front of me, so I'm not sure whether "quote" is the
right  constant, but I think it is.  If not, then it's something
similar.

    Dan Freedman
    University of Calgary Computer Science Department


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

From: [e-mail]
Subject: Re: CMS Drives
Date: 30 Oct 87 04:34:00 GMT


Supposedly, the CMS drive is supposed to have more efficient firmware
than the Apple drive, making it incompatible with the Apple system
drivers.  My dealer's literature states the 80Mb CMS average seek time
is 26ms.  I've seen adds (MacWeek) that state the transfer rate is
exactly 1Mb/sec, fully saturating the SCSI port.

Can anyone confirm this?  Does anyone really know if this drive is
faster than Apple, and if so, how much so?  Does the apple backup
software (bundled w/Mac II) work with this drive?

Don Gillies {ihnp4!uiucdcs!gillies} U of Illinois


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

From: [e-mail] (Macintosh Users Group)
Subject: Re: Getting a vRefNum from a DirID
Date: 29 Oct 87 04:51:08 GMT
Organization: RUNX  Un*x Timeshare. Sydney, Australia.

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Tom
Carstensen) writes:
>Put simply, how do you get a volume reference number
>(like that return from a SFGetFile), from a directory
>ID?
>
>I've tried about everything!  help!

Since I asked the same question a couple of months back and with the
help of John O'Neill and Andrew Betzis, here is some LSC code to do the
job.

Jason Haines, President

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

---
#include <HFS.h>
#include <stdio.h>

/* Given a working directory refnum, return the volume refnum and dirID.
    This assumes that HFS is installed on the machine.  */

OSErr GetDirID(vRefNum,dirID)
int        *vRefNum;
long    *dirID;
{
    WDPBRec    pb;
    long    result;

    pb.ioCompletion = NULL;
    pb.ioNamePtr = NULL;
    pb.ioVRefNum = *vRefNum;
    pb.ioWDIndex = 0;
    pb.ioWDProcID = 0;
    pb.ioWDVRefNum = *vRefNum;
    result = PBGetWDInfo(&pb, FALSE);
    *vRefNum = pb.ioWDVRefNum;
    *dirID = pb.ioWDDirID;
    return(result);
}

/* This is the reverse */

OSErr DirID2VRefNum(VRefNum,dirID)
int        *VRefNum
long    *dirID
{
    WDPBRec        theWD;
    OSErr        err;

    theWD.ioCompletion = NULL;
    theWD.ioNamePtr = NULL;
    theWD.ioVRefNum = 0;
    theWD.ioWDDirID = *dirID;
    theWD.ioWDProcID = 'ERIK';
    err = PBOpenWD(&theWD,FALSE);
    *VRefNum = theWD.ioVRefNum;
    return(err);
}
---
Hope this helps.

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

From: [e-mail] (Peter Steele)
Subject: Word Serial Printer Driver
Date: 30 Oct 87 12:22:38 GMT
Organization: School of Computer Science, Acadia Univ., Nova Scotia

Has anyone out there had any experience with using the serial printer
driver with MS Word 3.01. The French department has a Qume Letter Pro
and is using the serial driver, but the on-screen font is always Geneva,
even thought he printer result is effectively mono-spaced. The problem
this causes is that if they create a document and use multiple spaces to
align text in some way, when the document is printed, the alignment is
lost because the printer's "spaces" are a lot than Geneva spaces. My
question is this: Does anyone know how to patch the serial driver that
comes with word to make to make it use Monaco or Courier on screen
rather than Geneva. As it is now, even if you select Monaco, the font on
screen is still displayed as Geneva. Any help would be greatly
appreciated.


Peter Steele Acadia Univ. Wolfville NS Canada B0P1X0 [phone]x121
UUCP:{uunet|watmath|utai|garfield}dalcs!aucs!Peter BITNET:Peter@Acadia


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

From: [e-mail]
Subject: Looking for high performace disks and controller cards for Mac II
Date: 30 Oct 87 18:21:13 GMT
Organization: UC Berkeley Math Department

. I will need a high performance disk, controller, and device driver for
the Macintosh II.  I will not be using it under A/UX, so things that
work only under A/UX are not interesting.  Ideally this combination
should: provide 1.5 megabytes/second sustained transfer rate, be able to
DMA to any other NuBus device without much CPU intervention, have a
capacity of at least 200 megabytes, and it should look like just another
disk to the Mac.

Is this impossible?  Not yet available?  If so, then what is the
fastest/largest disk that one can hook onto the built in SCSI port and
how fast would this disk be able to talk to a NuBus device?

Thanks much,

Tom Erbe ([e-mail] [e-mail])


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

From: [e-mail] (Juri Munkki)
Subject: Re: Color Ribbons
Date: 29 Oct 87 06:58:11 GMT
Organization: Helsinki University of Technology, Finland

>but HOW DO YOU PRINT IN COLOR FROM MACWRITE????

You can't color the text, but you can paste color pictures into
MacWrite. I just used MacWrite as a printing interface for my Mandelbrot
desk accessory. This only proves that it doesn't require anything
special from a program for it to be able to print in color.

Now that there is a Desk Accessory Draw, someone might write a
colorizing FKEY that would color a picture in the scrap. This would
provide an easy way to make colored headlines in MacWrite (or Word or
whatever) documents.

Juri Munkki
[e-mail]
[e-mail]

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

From: [e-mail] (Bill Lipa)
Subject: Making sure PrGeneral exists
Date: 30 Oct 87 20:26:59 GMT

PrGeneral is a new feature of the ImageWriter (versions 2.5 and later)
and the LaserWriter (version 4.0) drivers which provides extensibility
through a simple procedure call. I need to determine inside my
application whether the print software the user has selected with the
chooser has this feature implemented. Is there a reliable way to get the
version number of the driver in use? If not, is the PrGeneral trap equal
to the unimplemented trap in earlier software?

Bill Lipa

Bitnet: p.priapus%hamlet@stanford

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

From: [e-mail] (Brian H. Powell)
Subject: Re: What is wrong with the Sumacc C compiler
Date: 30 Oct 87 20:00:29 GMT
Organization: U. Texas CS Dept., Austin, Texas

In article <[e-mail]>, [e-mail]
(David Phillip Oster) writes:
> 1.) it is slow.
> Unless you have a Mac with an ethernet connection to a _very_ fast machine,
> it is much faster to compile and link locally than to compile on a remote
> machine, link, rmake, and down load the result.

    Agreed.  I think a 9600 baud connection would be tolerable, though.

> 2.) it is buggy.

    Agreed.  Buggy but usable.  I only ran into one code generation bug.
The problem you describe is a feature, not a bug.

and let me add 3) you can't do segmentation.

    Segmentation, as we all know, is a means of getting around the problem
that the mac has with segments of code that are larger than 32K.  This
meant that you couldn't write a program in SUMacC that was larger than
32K.
     As I recall that was a bug in the resource manager (you couldn't
have a resource (e.g., CODE) that was larger than 32K.)  I don't know if
there are still inherent limitations that prevent a CODE resource from
being larger than 32K.  Comments anyone?  (Aside:  an advantage of
limiting code to 32K chunks is that a compiler can always set aside 16
bits for an offset; it will never have to set aside 32 bits, since
everyplace it would ever want to jump (or jsr) to is within 32K of where
you are.)  (I would bet the SUMacC compiler is probably intelligent
enough to use the right size offsets (16 bits normally, 32 when
needed.))
     I seem to recall, back when I was coordinating the updates to the
SUMacC "rmaker" resource compiler, that someone said they had added
segmentation to the SUMacC compiler.

> The authors of the compiler seem to be unaware that on a Macintosh
> executable code can move while the program is running. Unlike all Macintosh
> compilers, they generate position _dependent_ code, and have a funky
> loader scheme to resolve non-relocatable references at program load
> time. Eventually, the code moves, and all that position dependent code
> points at never-neverland.

    SUMacC does indeed do run-time relocation (once, the first time the
code is called).  If anybody ever wants to know how it works, you can
ask me.  (That's what the "longruns" are when you rmaker the file.)
     This works fine for applications written in SUMacC because they are
only one segment.  The main segment is always locked in memory, so it
never moves. This doesn't work for desk ornaments, as described in the
parent article. Once closed, they are unlocked.  The next time the DA is
opened, it's locked again, but it may have moved in the meantime.  Boom.


     I consider SUMacC to be outdated, and I don't think it should be
used as a development environment for anything serious, especially
something like kermit.  SUMacC was great back when it was the only way
other than the lisa to develop programs for the mac.  It was also great
for those of us who only had 128K macs.  (Ever try to develop software
on a 128K Mac?  I have.  Remember the old megamax compiler that used the
screen memory...  Those were the good old days...)
     For SUMacC to be competitive, it would have to generate
position-independent code, and it would have to provide segmentation.
It's code generation is among the best (if not the best) considering it
does a reasonably good job at optimization.

Brian H. Powell
        UUCP:    ...!uunet!ut-sally!brian
        ARPA:    [e-mail]

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


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

From: [e-mail] (Robert Gardner)
Subject: Re: Shareware (was Red Ryder)
Date: 30 Oct 87 20:08:29 GMT
Organization: Philips Research Labs, Sunnyvale, California

This posting is not intended to offend shareware providers...

I think a lot of people who provide shareware post their stuff in an
incomplete stage thinking that if interest warrants (i.e. enough dollars
come in) then they will finish the product, support it, re- release it,
etc. However, I get the feeling that most shareware USERS refuse to pay
for incomplete, buggy software. So they don't pay, the provider doesn't
think it's worth his/her time to polish the product, and shareware gets
a bad reputation, both from the provider's and the user's standpoint.

I once heard a successful developer (I believe it was Chris Crawford)
comment that it's the final 10% of polishing that makes the difference
between a fun, usable program (he was talking about game software) and a
flop. I think that what makes commercial software seem so much better is
just that final 10% of effort and beta testing that shareware rarely
gets because people don't want to pay for incomplete, buggy software.
It's a vicious cycle and I'm not sure how to break it. Ideally, you
would think that shareware would be a great place to beta test and
polish a product, if only you got the impression that it would pay off.
It takes a lot of time and effort to polish a product and I don't think
people want to (or should be expected to) do it without promise of
pay-off. If anyone has any ideas on how to make it work, please share
them! Some of the most interesting to me are providing source code or
more features to those who register. But this still assumes that your
initial posting is reasonably polished and bug-free!

On a somewhat related not, I think the amount of money asked can be
important, but perhaps differently than people might think. I get
annoyed at shareware that asks me to send "what I think it's worth" or
similar and I also don't like ones that ask for $5 or less! (Maybe even
$10 or less.) Why? Because it hardly seems to be worth it to go to the
effort of making out a check, sending it in the mail, etc. just to give
someone enough money to go to a movie. It also makes you wonder what
kind of an opinion the author has of their software and what the chances
are that they'll really do anything else with it. Is this a strange
attitude? Are marketing practises also a concern in shareware?

Robert Gardner


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

From: [e-mail]
Subject: 65816 C compilers
Date: 30 Oct 87 20:27:45 GMT
Organization: DataVision, Huntsville AL

I need info on C compilers for the 65816.  The only compiler I have been
able to find runs on the apple IIGs and I need to run in either the
macintosh or an ibm environment.

thanks
--
Live: Robert Walker
Uucp: {uunet,clyde}!madhat!robert
Bell: 205-895-6598 205-533-2663

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

From: [e-mail] (Richard Siegel)
Subject: Re: Mac Pictures and Scrolling
Date: 30 Oct 87 22:53:06 GMT
Organization: THINK Technologies, Inc., Bedford, MA

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Jay Norwood) writes:
>It seems that the sequence OpenPicture, ScrollRect, ClosePicture, DrawPicture
>does not produce the desired scrolling.  Other graphic operations seem to

    I usually first create the picture, then use ScrollRect, and then
handle the update event by offsetting the picture's drawing rectangle by
the desired amount, then call DrawPicture.

        --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]                *
* Symantec, THINK Technologies Division.  (No snappy quote)         *

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

From: [e-mail] (Winnie Williams)
Subject: What elementary educational software if available for Mac 512
Date: 30 Oct 87 21:43:41 GMT
Organization: Image Analysis Systems Grp, JPL

I am interested in knowing about any educational software intended for
elementary school children which will run on an Apple Macintosh 512K.
I'd like anything you know about it including who wrote it, what you
think of it, where I can get information on it, how much it costs, how I
can get it.  I don't have any leads at this time so any information is
helpful.  I am particularly interested in math tutorial or practice
software.

Please send responses to me personally at [e-mail] and I
will post a summary.

thanks!

--
Winifred I. Williams
Image Analysis Systems Group
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
[e-mail]


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

From: [e-mail] (Magnus Bondesson)
Subject: LightSpeedPascal Library Supporting MC68881
Date: 29 Oct 87 10:54:26 GMT
Organization: Dept. of CS, Chalmers, Sweden


In LightSpeed Pascal V1.11a there is no support for the floating point
processor MC68881 in the Mac II. This is to announce that I have made a
small library supporting MC68881 and callable from LSP. I am prepared to
distribute it freely to the net if there is any interest. It right now
supports arithmetic with reals (i e no doubles) only.

I decided to make the library after comparing execution times for part
of an application as indicated in the following table. I couldn't accept
to have to write programs in FORTRAN once again.

     Absoft FORTRAN/68020      5 Tickcounts
     LSP V1.11a              210    -"-
     LSP V1.11a+Library       15

The day after the library was completed I received TML Pascal 2.5 and
got the result
     TML Pascal 2.5           38 Tickcounts
However the problem is very
unfavorable to the TML since their library only supports the type
extended.

To add two reals you write e.g.
     c:=FADD(a,b);
This is of course not the most proper way; the same
metod is used in TML Pascal. Absoft FORTRAN supports the notation c=a+b.

I guess that other people have written similar libraries and perhaps
there is one which is more complete.

I have  included a function
     FUNCTION MandelIter(z,c:complex;max:integer):integer;
which performs a number of iterations of the form
     z:=z*z+c

Let me also mention that I sometimes experience problems when using
userwritten libraries in the LSP environment, although there are no
problems when the same program is run as a separate application.


Magnus Bondesson
Dep of Computer Science
Chalmers University of Technology
S-412 96 G|teborg
SWEDEN
UUCP: ..!mcvax!enea!cs.chalmers.se!bond

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