PD ROM 1/PD ROM Volume I - Macintosh Software from BMUG (1988).iso/Electronic Messages/USEnet Digests/USEnet Vol. 3/USEnet 3.098

Text File | 1988-04-08 | 24.8 KB | 650 lines | [TEXT/ttxt]

30-Nov-87 08:51:05-PST,25958;000000000001
Date: Mon 30 Nov 87 10:16:20-EDT
From: Jeff Shulman <SHULMAN@SDR>
Subject: Usenet Mac Digest V3 #98

Usenet Mac Digest     Saturday, November 28, 1987    Volume 3 : Issue 98

Today's Topics:
     Warning!  Morons on the loose!
     4Dimension ???
     Where can I get NFS for the MAC II
     INIT code
     Re: Mac ][ Sound Samplers
     Re: APDA - any satisfied customers?
     Spinning Watch Cursor
     Review of Seikosha SP 1000 AP printer
     Best Combination: IW II, paper, ribbon?
     Multifinder System Memory Observations.
     Re: 4Dimension ???
     Some HyperText tricks
     APPLE: a minor HyperText enhancement request
     Re: Is borland abandoning Macintosh?
     12 and 16-bit Sampling Products for the Mac (a summary)

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

From: [e-mail] (Ted Johnson)
Subject: Warning!  Morons on the loose!
Date: 20 Nov 87 09:04:23 GMT
Organization: Hewlett Packard  DTC

I realize that "MacWorld" is a fluff magazine, but this latest issue
(Dec. '87) takes the cake.  They actually PAID someone for the following
"How to/Quick Tip":

    Tip:  When I first started using continuous-feed paper, the tedium
    of tearing off the edges almost did me in.  I've developed a system
    that about cuts the time in half.  First, you fold the printed paper
    into a stack the way it came from the box.  Then you loosely fold it in
    half lengthwise so the tear-off strips are together.  Now you can
    tear off all the edges together, and lickety-split you're off doing
    something better with your time.

        -Stephen Bradshaw
         Indianapolis, Indiana

    [the editor added the following comment...]
    If you have a thick pile of printed pages, separate it into smaller
    stacks before applying this method.

Can you believe the low IQ of these guys?!? "I've developed a
system...".  PLEASE!  Don't be so modest!          "that about cuts the
time in half." Really?!?

Are things really so SLOW in Indiana (and at MacWorld) that they
actually believe that mindless trivialities like the above are important
to Mac users?  Ignorance of that magnitude is scary!
--
    -Ted

************************************************************************
Ted Johnson
Hewlett-Packard, Design Technology Center
Santa Clara, CA
[phone]                   Disclaimer:  these are my own opinions,
UUCP: hplabs!hpcea!hpcilzb!tedj              so don't bitch at my boss!
************************************************************************


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

From: [e-mail]
Subject: 4Dimension ???
Date: 24 Nov 87 16:57:00 GMT

    Has anybody had any experience with 4Dimension.  It is a
    database program put out by Apple.  A couple of questions
    for you since I have only worked with the Demonstrator
    model?

    1.  Does this program import data from Excel and Micorsoft
        File?  How much work goes into this transfer and does
        the manual show how this is done?  The demonstrator
        really didn't go into much detail about this step.

    2.  What problems have you experienced that might cause
        me not to purchase this software.  So far, what I have
        seen, I am really impressed, but don't want to buy
        it if I will continue to have problems that are not
        supported.  I plan on using this with a Racet hard
        drive and about 4 mac's with dove boards.

    Any suggestions will be appreciated.

    bill wisell
    tech support UPBA


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

From: [e-mail] (Richard Robison)
Subject: Where can I get NFS for the MAC II
Date: 24 Nov 87 17:51:05 GMT
Organization: Center for Man-Machine Systems Research - Ga Tech

Where can I buy NFS for the MAC?  Is it even available?  Will it work
with a Kinetics AppleTalk/Ethernet gateway?

What about EFS from Stanford?  The folks that, according to Kinetics,
distribute the software have never heard of it (at least the sales
person I talked to did not know about it).

Thanks for the info.

-Richard

--
Richard Robison

UUCP:    [e-mail]        "Let's all be intellectual, why don't we."
        ...!{allegra,hplabs,ihnp4,ulysses}!gatech!gt-cmmsr!rr
INTERNET:    [e-mail]


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

From: [e-mail] (Chris Schmidt)
Subject: INIT code
Date: 23 Nov 87 19:01:27 GMT
Organization: Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School, Sudbury, MA

So let's say I want my SE's params set up a certain way everytime I boot
with a certain diskette.  And let's say I write code which sets those
params.  Now how do I package that code to turn it into and INIT?
Looking for a guru . ..

--
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Chris Schmidt/Lincoln-Sudbury High School/390 Lincoln Rd/Sudbury/Ma/01776
    [phone] ----->   mit-caf!lsrhs![e-mail]
(And for you, Mr. NSA Line-Eater: drugs, terrorists, Libya, 1984)


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

From: [e-mail] (Kelton Flinn)
Subject: Re: Mac ][ Sound Samplers
Date: 25 Nov 87 07:23:48 GMT
Organization: Kesmai Corporation, Charlottesville, VA

In article <[e-mail]>, [e-mail] (Jeffrey A. Sullivan)
writes:
> Does anyone know if the Impulse (?) sound sampler works on the Mac II, and
> if so, can you generate stereo samples?  What about the BMUG sampler?
>
   I bought the Impulse sampler about a month ago. It comes with 2
versions of the software, one labeled as for the Mac II. Although I
haven't done any recording on the Mac II, the software does run on the
II and edits and plays sounds fine. I assume it records properly also.
Needless to say the normal version records and plays fine on the Mac
Plus. I was quite impressed with the whole package; the software is
great and the hardware seems quite effective for the price. It has a
line level input as well as a microphone. It also comes with TML Pascal
source code to useful routines, which took a short time to translate to
C.
   I don't think it does stereo, at least not out of the box, but I
imagine you could cook up software to play two 'snd ' resources
simultaneously through different channels without too much work.

   Kelton


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

From: cca@pur-phy (Charles C. Allen)
Subject: Re: APDA - any satisfied customers?
Date: 25 Nov 87 00:41:36 GMT
Organization: Purdue Univ. Phys Dept, W.Lafayette, IN

> ACtually, the thing that really gets me is that they are not and do
> not plan to sell Hypercard.

Apple won't LET APDA sell HyperCard.  I believe Apple is doing this to
keep their dealers happy.  The general policy is that Apple won't sell
anything through APDA that you could buy at a dealer (MacWrite,
MacPaint, MacDraw, HyperCard, etc.).

> Also, another really ludicrous point is the Apple MWP.  If I
> understand the APDA ads correctly, you buy MPW for $200 or $150.
> However, to really do anything, you need to buy the compiler for
> another $150 (or so).  How STUPID!!!  They should at least charge a
> little more for MPW and then give you a choice of the languages.

Again, this is Apple's doing, not APDA's.  APDA just duplicates the
disks and documentation that Apple sends them.  They get no say in how
the pieces to MPW are bundled.

On this one, I agree with Apple.  What if you don't want one of Apple's
compilers?  There are several other compilers out there that run under
MPW.  I don't want to pay for a compiler from Apple if I'm not going to
use it!  Writing a compiler to run under MPW means that the writers
don't have to worry about also writing an editor, or linker, or any of
the other things that come with a programming environment.

As an aside, MPW does come with a very nice assembler, so it can be used
without a compiler, if you're an assembly hacker (I'm not).

> The nice thing is that they are selling Multifinder for 17.50.  That
> may make membership worthwhile ($20 + $17.50 = $37.50 instead of
> $49)

Read the catalog entry for this.  The Multifinder package from APDA is
not the same as the one the retailers sell.  The one from APDA contains
info useful to a developer, which you don't get with the dealer version.
 The one from a dealer contains the "user manual", which you don't get
with the APDA version.  Of course, whether you actually need the "user
manual" is for you to decide.

Charlie Allen        [e-mail]


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

From: [e-mail] (Jim Meiss)
Subject: Spinning Watch Cursor
Date: 25 Nov 87 01:42:50 GMT
Organization: UTexas Computation Center, Austin, Texas

    This is probably a stupid question, but then if such questions were
never asked, then....
    How do you get the watch cursor to spin? I assumed you'd just need to
call SystemTask() and it would be taken care of... I don't have  IM Vol
4 yet (no flames please), and the answer's probably in there, isn't it!
Well, any answer will be appreciated.
                        Jim Meiss
                        [e-mail]


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

From: [e-mail] (Russell Owen)
Subject: Review of Seikosha SP 1000 AP printer
Date: 25 Nov 87 18:53:21 GMT
Organization: U of Washington Astronomy, Seattle

The Seikosha SP 1000 AP printer is claimed to be Imagewriter compatible,
and can be mail-ordered for less than $200. We just bought one, and here
is an initial report.

     Basics

 - scaling is excellent -- slightly more accurate than my IW I
 - print quality is better than the IW I (dots are smaller)
 - speed is awful -- 2-3 times slower than an IW I (see below)
 - I haven't used it enough to accurately judge compatibility,
  but initial tests had mixed results:
  - MacWrite and MacDraw appear to work
  - VersaTerm appears to hang using "IW Driver", but work using "IW
RS-232"
  - the Seikosha has pull tractor feed and so cannot do large backups;
    hence presumably some Mac stuff will fail (munging your paper)

Overall, I'm not thrilled. The emulation appears to have a few flaws,
and it's just too slow. However, if you're desperate to save money, it
probably will do the job, and it does have very nice output.

     Speed (details)

 prtr              A       B        C
                 (m:s)   (m:s)  (char/sec)
 IW 1            2:15    1:37      63
 Seikosha        6:27    3:08      29

 A: one sparse MacDraw page (graphics and a bit of text); high quality
 B: same page as A, but "faster" mode
 C: a page of plain text (54 lines, 65 characters each); draft mode

*the Seikosha printed left-to-right, whereas the IW 1 printed
bi-directionally; this presumably explains the extra discrepancy in time

Why is draft text so slow, despite advertisement of 100 cps? Because the
different draft fonts built into the printer run at very different
speeds, and the Mac standard draft font is slow. The Seikosha manual
claims 75 cps for Elite (monospaced), 37 cps for Pica (monospaced). (I
measured approximately 50 and 29, respectively).

     Other Stuff

 The Seikosha:
 - is quieter (but whinier)
 - auto-loads cut paper (I've not tried this)
 - can accept a sheet feeder
 - has NLQ mode (I've not tested it)
 - has friction-held tractors (i.e. they are not locked in place)

Overall, the Seikosha is built more like an Epson than an IW I--light &
small. However, I have no guess as to which is more reliable.

--
            Russell Owen
    [e-mail]    uw-beaver!uw-june!phastvax!owen


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

From: [e-mail] (Mike Klein)
Subject: Best Combination: IW II, paper, ribbon?
Date: 25 Nov 87 16:49:09 GMT
Organization: Sun Microsystems, Mountain View, CA

The ImageWriter II does a pretty good job when used in Best Quality
mode, but has anyone tried various combinations of paper and ribbon that
give particularly good output quality?  This would be for writing
letters, term papers, etc.  For example, is there anything like a carbon
film ribbon?  I assume that a very white, quality bond paper will do
well, too. -- Mike Klein        [e-mail] Sun Microsystems,
Inc.    {ucbvax,hplabs,ihnp4,seismo}!sun!klein Mountain View, CA


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

From: [e-mail] (Christopher Chow)
Subject: Multifinder System Memory Observations.
Date: 25 Nov 87 22:19:58 GMT
Organization: Cornell Theory Center, Cornell University, Ithaca NY

Has anyone noticed that when you run under MultiFinder the memory
allocated to the "system" grows and grows and grows without every
getting smaller?

I noticed it recently when I decided to format a box of disks.  I'd
format a disk and then use cmd-shift-1 to eject it and pop in a new
unintialized disk.  Naturally, by the time I finished I had a whole
bunch of greyed out disk icons.  I then threw the icons into the trash.

A while later I tried to run Canvas, and to my surprise Multifinder told
me that I didn't have enough memory (this on a 2Mb Mac II w/ VersaTerm
3.1 being the only other program in memory)!  Looking at "About the
Finder" told me that the "System" memory was taking up >600k.  Normally,
its only abut 293k or so.

I tried using DiskInfo's compact memory but all it did was to decrease
the amount of memory used within the 600k system partition -- only about
250k was being used, but the system partition was still 600k!  How do I
get the system to realize that it should shrink its partition size?

BTW, I just purchased my Mac II last week, but I didn't get Multifinder,
nor did I get a card that said I can get multifinder for free.  What's
going on here -- is my dealer (Cornell Univ.) ripping me off?
--
Christopher Chow
/---------------------------------------------------------------------------\
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| Usenet:    ...{uw-beaver|ihnp4|decvax|vax135}!cornell!batcomputer!chow    |
| Bitnet:    [e-mail]                                           |
| Phone:     [phone],  USPS: 7122 N. Campus 7, Ithaca, NY 14853      |
| Delphi:    chow2            PAN:  chow                                    |
\---------------------------------------------------------------------------/


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

From: [e-mail] (David W. Berry)
Subject: Re: 4Dimension ???
Date: 25 Nov 87 21:21:08 GMT
Organization: Apple Computer Inc., Cupertino, USA

In article <54300005@upba> [e-mail] writes:
>    Has anybody had any experience with 4Dimension.  It is a
>    database program put out by Apple.  A couple of questions
    Actually, it's put out by Acius, another company in Cupertino,
currently headed by Guy Kawasaki, who used to an Evangelizer for Apple.
Note that this is yet another company besides Apple and Claris, Apple's
recent software spinoff.

It's performance is right up there with boats to china, for more
information check some recent magazine (unfortunately I don't remember
which, probably Nov. MacWorld) which had a review of another database,
which I also don't have the name of (gee I certainly am helpful today,
aren't I?) but whose major schtick was speed.  Other than that, it seems
to be incredibly powerful.
--
    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] (Mark Mendel)
Subject: Some HyperText tricks
Date: 25 Nov 87 21:14:58 GMT
Organization: Network Systems Corp., Mpls. MN

Here are a couple of short, usefull tricks.

1. The q() function: a solution to "& quote &" proliferation

 function q
   put quote & param(1) & quote into theResult
   repeat for i = 2 to the paramCount
       put comma & quote & param(i) & quote after theResult
   end repeat
   return theResult
 end q

This little function can shorten your scripts considerably, if you use
the "send" or "do" command at all.  Search for "quote" and "comma" in
your scripts and try rewriting the line using q().  For example,

    do cmd && quote & arg1 & quote & comma & quote & (v1+v2) & quote
        & ",constant"

translates to

    do cmd && q(arg1,v1+v2,"constant")

2. Radio button handling.

 on radioClick fieldName
    -- Each button in a radio button set calls radioClick on mouseUp
    -- events. [Not mouseUp, at least Apple does it that way].
    -- <fieldName> is the
    -- short name of a background field that will always contain the
short
    -- name of the selected button.
    -- the radio buttons should be background buttons.

    set the hilite of bkgnd button (field fieldName) to false
    set the hilite of the target to true
    put value(short name of the target) into field fieldName
 end radioClick

 on radioInit
    -- Usage: radioInit <field>,<button 1>,<button 2>,...,<button n>
    -- Call this on openCard events to initilize the buttons.
    -- <button 1> will be on for newly created cards.
    if field param(1) is empty then put empty into field param(1)
    repeat for i = 2 to the paramCount
    set the hilite of bkgnd button param(i) to false
    end repeat
    set the hilite of bkgnd button (field param(1)) to true
 end radioInit

The <field> should probably be hidden.
--
Mark G. Mendel, ihnp4!umn-cs!hyper!mark,  Network Systems Corporation
(612)-424-4888 x2779


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

From: [e-mail] (Mark Mendel)
Subject: APPLE: a minor HyperText enhancement request
Date: 25 Nov 87 21:45:15 GMT
Organization: Network Systems Corp., Mpls. MN

HyperText is a wonderfully designed language!

In addition to programming HyperCard with it, I have been using it as a
psuedo-code language in design specifications at work.

I have found it far superior to any other language for specifying
communicating  parallel processes.  [In my case, various components in a
network]

One complaint, however.  The "put" command is just to wordy and hard to
read.  For my psuedo-code, I have found the more traditional '='  to be
much more readable, particularly for sequences of mathematical
assignments. For boolean expressions, I alway use "is" and "is not" to
avoid confusion.

The "put" form is nice in some situations, particulary when "put ...
after"  is later used on the same variable.  But I'd really like to see
the "=" form as alternative in the next version of HyperCard.  Please?
--
Mark G. Mendel, ihnp4!umn-cs!hyper!mark,  Network Systems Corporation
(612)-424-4888 x2779


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

From: [e-mail] (Howard A. Landman)
Subject: Re: Is borland abandoning Macintosh?
Date: 25 Nov 87 17:58:04 GMT
Organization: Intel Corp. ASIC Systems Organization, Chandler AZ

In article <17000069@clio> [e-mail] writes:
>    Considering that Borland just created a WHOLE NEW DIVISION dedicated to
>Macintosh development, I think that you have very little to worry about.

Boy, talk about naivete!  When one is considering selling off a portion
of one's business, *the* *first* *step* is often making a separate
division out of it.  That way you can do separate accounting, move them
into a different building, etc., etc.  I would view this fact as
confirming, not denying, the rumor.

--
    Howard A. Landman
    {oliveb,hplabs}!intelca!mipos3!cpocd2!howard
    [e-mail]
    "Press here"


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

From: [e-mail] (Julian Vrieslander)
Subject: 12 and 16-bit Sampling Products for the Mac (a summary)
Date: 26 Nov 87 05:20:35 GMT
Organization: Cornell Theory Center, Cornell University, Ithaca NY

This is in response to Greg Corson's request for info on 12 and 16-bit
digitizers, but since my reply became a rather general summary of analog
interface products, I chose a new subject line.  I have been shopping
for high-quality DAC/ADC products for the Mac and Mac II, and this is a
synopsis of the stuff I know about.  Things are looking up for us Mac
addicts who need sampling.  Until recently, all we could do is groan and
buy a PC....

MacLab System
   ADC and DAC in a box that connects to modem port of any Mac.
   Sample rates to 40k/sec.  Sample width = ?
   Comes with wave display and wave statistics software.
   WPI Instruments, Inc.
   375 Quinnipiac Ave.
   New Haven, CT 06513   [phone]

LabMaster II
   NuBus board for Mac II.
   12-bit ADC, Two 12-bit DAC's, 24 lines of digital I/O, Five 16-bit
   counter/timers.  Sample rates to 40k/sec. (100k/sec. with TM-100
   option).  Comes with "device drivers for multi-language application
   development."
   Scientific Solutions
   6225 Cochran Rd.
   Solon, Ohio 44139  [phone]

MacAdios 411
   Add-on box that connects to modem port of Mac 128, 512, Plus or SE.
   12-bit ADC and DAC, with 8 differential input channels and 4 output
   channels.  Sample rates to 20,833/sec.  16 digital input lines, 16
   digital output lines.  Interface code in Microsoft Basic and Aztec C,
   library of data acquisition/analysis routines.
   GW Instruments, Inc.
   P.O. Box 2145
   264 Msgr O'Brien Hwy
   Cambridge, MA 02141  [phone]

MacAdios II
   NuBus board for Mac II.
   12-bit ADC and DAC, with 16 single-ended input channels
   (8 differential) and 2 output channels.  Sample rates to 142k/sec.
   8 digital input lines, 8 digital output lines. 3 15-bit
counter/timers.
   Up to 3 optional daughter boards can be added:
      12-bit, 833k/sec ADC
      12-bit, 142k/sec ADC
      16-bit, 100k/sec DAC
      16-bit, 16k/sec DAC
      16-bit, 50k/sec ADC
      Multiplexor card (additional 32 single-ended, or 16 diff. inputs)
      Digital I/O (additional 16 digital inputs and 16 digital outputs)
      Analog filter (programmable lowpass)
      Prototype card
   Interface routines callable from Aztec C, Consulair C, Microsoft
   Basic, DCM Fortran, Lightspeed Pascal, Lightspeed C, library of data
   acquisition/analysis routines.
   GW Instruments (see above)

National Instruments NB-MIO-16
   NuBus board for Mac II.
   12-bit ADC with 16 single-ended input channels (8 differential).
   2 12-bit DACs, 8 digital I/O lines, 3 16-bit counter/timers.
   Sample rates to 40k/sec.  Up to 111k/sec with optional convertors.
   Can be set up for DMA if used with NB-DMA-8 controller card.
   National Instruments, Inc.
   12109 Technology Blvd.
   Austin, TX 78727-6204  [phone], (800)IEEE-488 in Texas

National Instruments ?????
   NuBus board for Mac II.
   2 16-bit DACs, 2 16-bit ADCs, plus on-board antialiasing filters,
   and additional features yet to be decided.
   Sampling rates equivalent to consumer digital audio (CD, DAT).
   This is a product under development, not available until sometime in
   1988.

Strawberry Tree ACM2-12 and ACM2-16
   NuBus boards for Mac II.
   Each has ADC and DAC.  Number of analog and digital I/O channels
   depends on board option selected. Sample rates up to 500k/sec.
   ACM2-12 is 12-bit, ASCM2-16 is 16-bit.  On-board counter/timer.
   Strawberry Tree Computers
   150 North Wolfe Rd.
   Sunnyvale, CA 94086  [phone]

Strawberry Tree ACSE-12 and ACSE-16
   Plugin boards for Mac SE.
   ADC with 8 differential input channels.  10k/sec. sampling rate.
   ACSE-12 is 12-bit, ACSE-16 is 16-bit.
   8 digital I/O lines.  On-board counter/timer.

Southworth Music ?????
   High performance sampling/playback product.  24-bit (??) sample
   processing.  Motorola digital signal processing chip (56000?).
   Product under development.  Available in mid-88.
   Southworth Music Systems  [phone]

If anyone is aware of any other analog sampling devices that are
compatible with the Mac and/or Mac II, I would like to hear of them.

Out of the above listed products, I have had personal experience only
with the GW Instruments MacAdios 411 box, which is a competent, if not
remarkable product.  I have also seen their MacSpeech Lab software and a
demo version of MacSpeech Lab II for the Mac II.  The latter is a superb
piece of software for analyzing and editing digitized waveforms,
especially speech or animal vocalizations.  It has time domain waveform
displays, FFT, LPC, envelope and energy displays, and a grayscale
spectrogram display that rivals the Kay Sonograph for much less $$.

The GW hardware and the boards from National Instruments can be used
with the LabView software package from National.  That's the highly
Mac-ish system for configuring data acquistion systems by connecting
icons in a dataflow diagram.  Strawberry Tree has a somewhat similar
software package called "Analog Connection Workbench" that works with
their own hardware.

One bit of warning for anyone considering the purchase of a 16-bit
sampling device that plugs into a computer slot.  Just because the board
has 16 bits of resolution does NOT mean that you can obtain 16-bits
worth of wideband signal-to-noise ratio from it.  That takes some very
careful design work.  One of the folks from GW instruments was quite
open about this when I asked about their 16-bit cards; he said that they
did not try to optimize for that kind of compact-disk-like noise level.
Maybe the folks at National or Southworth will do better with their
forthcoming boards.
--
Julian Vrieslander    [phone]
Neurobiology & Behavior, W250 Mudd Hall, Cornell University, Ithaca NY 14853
UUCP: {cmcl2,decvax,rochester,uw-beaver,ihnp4}!cornell!batcomputer!eacj
ARPA: [e-mail]     BITNET: eacj@CRNLTHRY

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