PD ROM 1/PD ROM Volume I - Macintosh Software from BMUG (1988).iso/Electronic Messages/USEnet Digests/USEnet Vol. 4/USEnet 4.02

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From: Jeffrey Shulman <[e-mail]>
Subject: Usenet Mac Digest V4 #2
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From: Jeff Shulman <SHULMAN@SDR>
Subject: Usenet Mac Digest V4 #2
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Usenet Mac Digest     Sunday, January 10, 1988        Volume 4 : Issue 2

Today's Topics:
     Re: Multifinder woes. DA's
     Red Ryder 10.3 Download Quirks
     Making the Mac send all screen graphics to an offscreen bitmap (HOW?)
     Status of Allegro Common Lisp? (2 messages)
     fuzzy fonts, anyone ?
     Re: Power Users (long)
     Mac questions
     smart fan
     Re: Chooser Strangeness (really printing options ugliness)
     Re: International Macs + new user interface = ?
     Indian Languages: any fonts?
     Re: Status of Allegro Common Lisp?
     Re: Multifinder woes. DA's
     Re: Red Ryder 10.3 Download Quirks
     Re: Power Users (long)
     Re: Red Ryder 10.3 Download Quirks
     Simple example of Color Quickdraw wanted.

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

From: [e-mail] (Phil Goldman)
Subject: Re: Multifinder woes. DA's
Date: 3 Jan 88 08:57:36 GMT
Organization: Apple Computer Inc., Cupertino, USA

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (William H. Jefferys) writes:
>In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Steve Ferry) writes:
>~
>~   I just bought a copy of Multifinder from my local dealer
>~and I'm upset by the way it handles DA's. I use a Datadesk
>~...
>
>More importantly, this behavior seems to me to be a failure of
>systems design on the part of Apple. In general, MF ought to
>behave in ways that are parallel to the way things work under the
>old finder.
>...
This is definitely true, when the parallels are clear and the benefits
outweigh the problems.  In this case neither is so.  The only benefit to
having the default be to open in the layer is to allow for easier use of
parasite DAs.  It seems as though the number of non-parasitic DAs is far
greater than the parasitic ones.  In addition many of the parasitic ones
are used with only one or a few applications (i.e. Spell Checkers for
word processors, Click Art Effects for MacPaint, etc.).  Therefore, the
logical choice seemed to be what currently exists:  normal open creates
another layer, Font/DA moving a parasitic DA into an application's
resource file is the easiest for the app- specific parasitic DAs.

This leaves the category of DAs that are parasitic but not app-specific.
Really, these should not be DAs at all, they should probably be INITs.
If they need an interface then this should be a DA (which will have no
problem at all existing in its own layer) or better yet an application.
For a good example of this, take a look at the Intermail elctronic mail
system, which combines an INIT and a DA.  The INIT allows for
notification in any layer, but the DA interface stays in the DA Handler
layer.

The primary reason for keeping the DAs in a separate layer is that many
applications simply cannot handle having a DA in its memory partition.
This is a very difficult (read impossible) job for developers who wish
to do comprehensive memory management.  There is simple no way to handle
a DA since it has arbitrary memory requirements at arbitrary times.  The
only real possibility is to increase the SIZE of every single
application, since any application might be subject to the memory
requirements of the DA. This would be a huge waste of memory, which is
already a scarce resource. Therefore, the only real solution is to
separate the DA from the app.

There are also obvious benefits to separating the DAs.  For example a DA
such as the alarm clock will stay open even if the app that it was
originally opened from is quit.  Also, it is a great deal easier to keep
track of a DA window since it is grouped with all other DAs, rather than
spliced into app's window list.

Hopefully the developers that have created these DAs will soon have a
chance to switch to INITs.  Also, we hope to add support for
inter-process communication, so that these products could be written
simply as apps.  This supports the desired ultimate end, because the
application model is clean and easy to support (from the point of view
of the developer and of Apple) while the DA model is not.

Of course, if the need is great enough there are ways for us to better
support the non-app-specific parasitic DAs in the short run.  Why don't
all of you out there in net-land let us know how often you use such DAs?
 The current belief here is that they are not used that often.

>
>Apple, are you listening?
>
>Bill Jefferys

Yes, we're always listening.  Always.  Merry Christmas.
--
-Phil Goldman
Apple Computer


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

From: [e-mail] (Macintosh Users Group)
Subject: Red Ryder 10.3 Download Quirks
Date: 31 Dec 87 03:34:58 GMT
Organization: RUNX Un*x Timeshare.  Sydney, Australia.


Has anyone noticed that RR 10.3 downloads FASTER in the background than
in the foreground, under MultiFinder?

Jason Haines
--
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,uunet,ubc-vision,ukc}!munnari!runx.ips.oz!clubmac


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

From: [e-mail] (Greg Corson)
Subject: Making the Mac send all screen graphics to an offscreen bitmap (HOW?)
Date: 3 Jan 88 21:38:06 GMT
Organization: Math. Dept., Univ. of Notre Dame

I have an experiment I'm working on that requires me to "fool" the Mac
into redirecting all of it's graphics into an off-screen bitmap.  By all
graphics, I mean everything, Menu bar, all windows, mouse pointer...etc.
 Since this is just an experiment the method doesn't have to be able to
work for everything,  as long as I can run some word processing and
drawing programs with it  turned on.

I should mention that I need a method that works with color quickdraw on
a Mac II.

I would be particularly interested in a method that would allow the
offscreen bitmap to be bigger than the standard Mac screen.  Also, if
there was a way to trick the Mac into scaling up the fonts and menubars
so they came out bigger on the bigger screen it would be helpful.  (ie:
if the offscreen bitmap was twice the size of a normal Mac screen it
would cause 24 point fonts to be used instead of 12 point ones and the
menu bar would be twice as tall.)

The application is some visual preception experiments, the offscreen
bitmap will be processed slightly and copied back to the "real" screen
at regular intervals as fast as possible.
--
Greg Corson
19141 Summers Drive
South Bend, IN 46637
[phone] (weekdays till 6 PM eastern)
{pur-ee,rutgers,uunet}!iuvax!ndmath!milo



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

From: [e-mail] (Sukie Crandall)
Subject: Status of Allegro Common Lisp?
Date: 3 Jan 88 22:23:51 GMT
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill, NJ


Has anyone used Allegro Common Lisp (from Coral Software)? The review in
Byte (current issue) made it look promising. Specifically is there a
release > 1.0 and what are its features? What is the status of CLOS for
Allegro CL? What kind of upgrade policy do they have (eg. should I buy
now and trust them for inexpensive upgrades or should I wait for
something a little more finished)?
--
thanks for any info!
Steve Crandall
ihnp4!mhuxt!evans


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

From: [e-mail] (bill coderre)
Subject: Re: Status of Allegro Common Lisp?
Date: 4 Jan 88 06:12:25 GMT
Organization: MIT Media Lab, Cambridge MA


The current version is 1.1, and was free to registered 1.0 owners.

ACL runs IN THE BACKGROUND UNDER MULTIFINDER. (As if you had that many
spare cycles! Still, an incredibly useful thing. I now have Lisp and
Telnet both running on my Prodigy. The Mac that's almost a workstation.)

There is a dialog designer tool, which generates good lisp code for all
sorts of dialogs. You use it sort of like the Resource Editor dialog
designer section. It's still a proto, but pretty darn useful.

Although CLOS is not supported by Coral yet, I believe one could hack
the portable CLOS to run with little or no trouble. This means I think I
saw it done, but I didn't do it. Coral has mumbled that they intend to
support whatever is finally decided upon as the "official" common object
system.

I heard noise that Flavors was being supported, but I'm not sure if it
is in this release or next.

Many bugs were fixed, and a slight reorganization of functions (traps
are now a separate load file, stuff like that, no big deal).

You can always call Coral and ask questions.........................bc


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

From: [e-mail] (Hans-Martin Mosner)
Subject: fuzzy fonts, anyone ?
Date: 2 Jan 88 13:51:14 GMT
Organization: University of Dortmund, W-Germany

Has anybody out there seen a fuzzy font for the mac II ? Fuzzy fonts are
fonts which use grayscale pixels to give the illusion of higher detail
and less jaggies at the edges. The mac II should be able to do that, but
I don't know whether the font manager supports it.  So please stand up
if you know sucha font (and send it to me, please !)

    Hans-Martin
--
Hans-Martin Mosner        | Don't tell Borland about Smalltalk - |
hmm@unido.{uucp,bitnet}        | they might invent Turbo Smalltalk !  |
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Disclaimer: Turbo Smalltalk may already be a trademark of Borland...


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

From: [e-mail] (Paul Smethers)
Subject: Re: Power Users (long)
Date: 4 Jan 88 10:42:19 GMT
Organization: Dept. of Computer Science, Portland State University; Portland OR

I think the number one discipline anyone should take when building an
application for power users is to adhere to Apple's Standard Human
Interface Guidelines.  To adjust these for power users, I recommend that
you read Scott Knaster's new book "Macintosh Programming Secrets", which
has a very good introduction on guidelines for programming the Macintosh
(and I, for one, consider him to be a power user).

Secondly, you have my vote for as many key commands as possible.  Please
never "replace" mouse commands for key commands, but have as many key
command substitutes as possible.  These are my feelings, as I learned
computers from the keyboard (not a mouse) originally, and still feel
much more productive issuing rapid key commands as opposed to reaching
for the mouse every other second (and yes, I have memorized and use
"every" Microsoft Word key command). In the past, however, I have come
to feel that my insistance on adding key commands to products is
unusual, as few people on the net seem to support my requests.

Finally, I hope that you don't make your application "cluttered".  I
hate long menus and would rather have more fuctional menus that lead to
simple dialog boxes (or hierarchical menus) for help.  Popup menus are
good for eliminating clutter also.  I am a big-screen user myself, so
I'm not asking for reduced clutter for screen reasons, but aesthetic
reasons.

By the way, what is this great product for power users?  Is it another
word processor?, or something to do with programming?  This may change
my viewpoint as I think that you can get away with less user
friendliness for power (to a minor degree) if you know that your
audience is technical.  Therefore, it would help if we knew if "power
user" can be applied to the guy who writes books and therefore uses
every command in his word processor (but is not technical), or if "power
user" applies only to those who have also programmed the Macintosh, and
are looking for great productivity tools but don't need the simple
user-interface frills of a program for novices.
--
Paul Smethers
SmethersBarnes


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

From: [e-mail] (Randy Buckland)
Subject: Mac questions
Date: 4 Jan 88 15:50:22 GMT
Organization: Research Triangle Institute, RTP, NC

I have questions about the PMMu for the MAC II.

    1. Where is the socket for it on the motherboard?
    2. I understand that it does not come on a standard MAC II. Is there
        something that occupies the slot it should be in?
    3. I have a MAC II with no empty sockets and a strange history. Is
        there a way I can tell if I have it installed? What does
        it look like? What are the numbers on it?

An unrelated question.

    Anybody have any idea when LightSpeed Pascal will work under
    multifinder?

--
                    Randy Buckland (919)-541-7103
                    Research Triangle Institute
                    [e-mail] [128.109.139.2]
                    {decvax,ihnp4}!mcnc!rti!rcb


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

From: [e-mail] (Phil Ngai)
Subject: smart fan
Date: 5 Jan 88 00:40:52 GMT
Organization: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc., Sunnyvale, Ca.


I see that Rotron now has a great idea in fans. It's a DC operated fan
with an extra two wires. The resistance you provide between the wires
determines the speed of the fan, with the intention being that you use a
thermistor to regulate the amount of air moved based on the temperature.
The power supply voltage is not a factor (within limits of course). This
is all done with PWM type stuff so that efficiency is very high.

I hope Apple takes note of this!

--
"how long will the machine be down?"
"as long as you stand there and bother me"

Phil Ngai, {ucbvax,decwrl,allegra}!amdcad!phil or amdcad![e-mail]


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

From: [e-mail] ( W. Harry Plantinga)
Subject: Re: Chooser Strangeness (really printing options ugliness)
Date: 5 Jan 88 02:05:56 GMT
Organization: U of Wisconsin CS Dept

>> Chooser does not re-initialize the serial port;
>> that's only done at reboot or startup time.... Apple
>> intended for you to use only one kind of device on the serial
>> port in between reboots.
>>
>> Hey, Apple, this is a bug!  I have a modem on the modem port,
>> an IW on the printer port, and I like to be able to hop into
>> LW to create PostScript files for uploading.  Any chance of a fix?

>Why not have a "printer driver" accessible from the Chooser (like the
>Glue software) that if chosen would save a Postscript file instead of
>really printing.

There's another thing about printing that really annoys me.  There are
options that can be chosen in the print dialog that affect the way the
page looks.  For example, in Word, selecting "fractional widths" makes
more text fit on each line.  However, having fractional widths selected
also makes the program run many times slower.  So what do I have to do
to preview a paper that is to be printed with fractional widths?  Select
print, select fractional widths, and hit "ok."  Then try to cancel the
printing before anything gets printed.

This is ridiculous.  I have to start a printing and abort it just to see
how the paper will look printed out?


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

From: [e-mail] (Ed Tecot)
Subject: Re: International Macs + new user interface = ?
Date: 5 Jan 88 02:44:08 GMT
Organization: Apple Computer Inc., Cupertino, USA

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail]
(David Phillip Oster) writes:
>Two questions about writing compatible macintosh software:
>
>How do international issues effect <Cmd>-?
>How do international issues effect the function keys on the large
>    keyboard?
>
>1.) How do international issues effect <Cmd>-?.
><Cmd>-? is an evolving standard for help in the Macintosh environment,
>yet, if the user actually holds down the <Cmd> key and hits the question
>mark key, the system software shows my application a <Cmd>-/ keyDown
>event.  I am capable of writing <Cmd>-/ as a synonym for <Cmd>-?, but
>what about non-American keyboards? Surely the '?' is not above the '/'
>on every keyboard Apple will ever sell, anywhere in the world?
>How do I do the right thing for all the foreign language keyboards that
>Apple might introduce. (I want my software to work, well into the future.)

You are correct in stating that the '?' is not above the '/' in every
keyboard that Apple might sell, especially when Europe is considered.
This is a significant problem, and you might argue that command-? should
always return command-?, even when the keys are shifted.  I did.
However, several applications (e.g. FullPaint) expect to get
command-shift-/ and broke when they were given command-? instead.  So...
the correct solution is to accept BOTH command-? and command-shift-/ to
operate any command-? feature.

>2.) How do international issues effect the function keys on the large
>    Apple Desktop Bus keyboard?
>...

Whenever decoding a keystroke on the Macintosh, always use the character
code first, and only if you need more information, go to the key code.
So, if you see a character code of $1B, and you need to know if it is
clear or escape, then and only then should you examine the key code.
The same goes for the function keys.  Under no circumstances should you
ever modify the KMAP, as this is intended for the use of the keyboard
manufacturer only.

                        _emt


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

From: [e-mail] (Simon Tortike)
Subject: Indian Languages: any fonts?
Date: 5 Jan 88 02:40:08 GMT
Organization: U. of Alberta, Edmonton, AB


My supervisor would like to obtain fonts for any of the languages from
the Indian subcontinent.  Would anyone who is able to give us some
information please send a note to the Bitnet address below. PostScript
and bitmapped fonts are both of interest. Many thanks.
--
W. Simon Tortike
Dept Min, Met &    UUCP:   {ubc-vision,ihnp4,mnetor}!alberta!simon
  Petroleum Engg   BITNET: stortike@ualtavm
Univ. of Alberta   AGT:    [phone]
Edmonton, AB
Canada T6G 2G6


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

From: [e-mail] (Gavin Hemphill)
Subject: Re: Status of Allegro Common Lisp?
Date: 5 Jan 88 00:21:01 GMT
Organization: Math, Stats & CS, Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS, Canada

    I've been using the Allegro Common Lisp since it first came out, and
the simplest answer is that it is a FULL Common Lisp which works very
well on the Mac (I'd recommend at least 2.5 Mbytes of RAM though).  I'm
currently running CLOS (The Dec 8th version from the coral directory at
parcvax) and have had no problems to speak of.  The current version is
1.1, which provided a few minor bug fixes and Multifinder awareness.
Its great being able to do software development at home, then simply
transfer the code to the Symbolics at work and have it run, the only
difference being speed.
    As for specific features, I particularly like the logical pathname
scheme and the ease of access to the toolbox routines -- now if we only
had the stand alone compiler available (which is supposed to happen
sometime this year) I'd be really happy.


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

From: [e-mail] (Wayne Pollock)
Subject: Re: Multifinder woes. DA's
Date: 5 Jan 88 07:35:29 GMT
Organization: University of South Florida at Tampa

First of all, thanks, Phil, for the detailed response; its always nice
to know that people at Apple really listen!

As to you query about "parasitic" DAs, I believe they are more common
than you think;  I often use my spelling checker in conjuction with my
terminal emulator, and even with my text editor.  So installing it in my
word processor wouldn't work.  In addition to spelling checkers, there
are other word related tools, art grabbers, journal makers, work
loggers, and some useful but older DAs which won't work unless opened in
the application's memory space.

As you suggested, future evolution of the mac should make this a
non-issue; most of the problematic DAs will be rewritten as Inits or
CDEVs or simply as applications.  In the meantime, judging by the
discussion here, this is a problem for many users; a better answer than
the option key trick is needed.

It seems to me the whole issue can be simply resolved.  Macintosh
designer's had the tremendous foresight to structure files into seperate
pieces.  They knew that there would be additions/changes and they
provided a nice mechanism to allow for them.

Why not add a resource type, recognized by the system software, that
would tell the system where to install a DA?  A few lines of code in the
DA opening sequence, a technote telling people what resource to add to
DAs to modify the behavior, and viola! the problem is gone.

For example, the presence of an owned resouce 'DAH ' in a DA could cause
the DA to be opened by the DA handler; otherwise use the default
(application memory space).  If you prefer, use 'DAAP' to instruct the
system to put the DA in the application's space have use the DA handler
by default.  And of course the option key trick would still be available
as an overide.)

I have this same suggestion for 'SIZE' resources; it should be possible
to put a SIZE resource in a document, which would override the SIZE in
the application (which would be used as a default).  As you pointed out,
memory is a scarce resource it it is a shame to waste it by having a
spreadsheet program request enought memory for a large spreadsheet when
all I'm using is an itty-bitty one.

A smart application could put the SIZE resource in each document it
creates, and adjust it as the document grows and/or shrinks.  This ought
to work whenever the application is started by double-clicking one of
its documents; naturally the default SIZE would be used if the
application were launched directly.

--
Wayne Pollock (The MAD Scientist)    [e-mail]
Usenet:        ...!{ihnp4, cbatt}!codas!usfvax2!pollock
GEnie:        W.POLLOCK


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

From: [e-mail] (Wayne Pollock)
Subject: Re: Red Ryder 10.3 Download Quirks
Date: 5 Jan 88 07:45:24 GMT
Organization: University of South Florida at Tampa

This has been discussed a great deal lately on GEnie.  The reason
apparently is that in the foreground, RR spends a great deal of time
checking for events (like DA activation) and even more time in quickdraw
for the fancy indicator.  I'm certain that there will be an option in
the next version of RR for a very fast, no frills type download.  In the
meantime, for large downloads, you can put RR in the background if you
have multifinder, or use RR with something like the BackDown DA if you
don't.
--
Wayne Pollock (The MAD Scientist)    [e-mail]
Usenet:        ...!{ihnp4, cbatt}!codas!usfvax2!pollock
GEnie:        W.POLLOCK


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

From: [e-mail]
Subject: Re: Power Users (long)
Date: 5 Jan 88 05:39:00 GMT


Just one small point:

I would like to have a fair degree of control over my interface to any
tool;  specifically I would like to be able to set/change my own
keymaps.  Emacs is of course the best example of this, but so is X
windows. Given just about any Mac product I have used (MacWrite,
MacDraw, MacScheme, Word) extensively, it is very irritating that I
cannot rearrange the order in which things appear on menus, bind
frequently used commands to simple key sequences, etc.  None of the
systems (even word) I have used on the Mac give any support for this.
It means that my use of the system cannot "grow" as I become more mature
on it.

An example:  In word I would like one command-key combination to get my
font changed to courier (because I write a lot of program + text type
stuff).  This isnt something that I expect Word to provide as standard
(command-shift-e fontname return) does not hack it -- too much typing,
and a similar 1-keystroke command to get things changed back.  I should
be able to add this feature to word.

That's why I use Emacs and X under Unix;  because I have that
customizability power.  No Mac application I have ever seen allows me to
do this.  (And no I dont think that editing resource forks should be
necessary to tailor my applications, given the level at which that
editing must be done).
--
Simon Kaplan
([e-mail])
(any major node)!{seismo, ihnp4}!uiucdcs!kaplan


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

From: [e-mail] (Werner Uhrig)
Subject: Re: Red Ryder 10.3 Download Quirks
Date: 5 Jan 88 19:13:07 GMT
Organization: The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas

    ...and that VersaTerm downloads (nearly) twice as fast ??!!
    at least that is my experience when accessing local BBSes running
    RRhost ... I use the RR-script to get on, start the download with
    type 2 (other), then switch to VersaTerm and receive in MacBinary ...
--
[e-mail]        (prefered address)
[e-mail]
[e-mail]  (or  ...!ut-sally!ut-emx!kraut)


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

From: [e-mail] (Greg Corson)
Subject: Simple example of Color Quickdraw wanted.
Date: 5 Jan 88 18:29:07 GMT
Organization: Math. Dept., Univ. of Notre Dame

Does anyone have some simple source code examples of using Color
Quickdraw on a Mac II?  I am going to do a few test programs soon and
some examples of manipulating the color pallette would be very helpful.
I need to be able to set the actual values in the pallette to specific
real values for displaying pictures and then be able to restore the
default palette when I leave.

Any examples would be appreciated, preferably in MPW C but I'l take
whatever I can get.
--
Greg Corson
19141 Summers Drive
South Bend, IN 46637
[phone] (weekdays till 6 PM eastern)
{pur-ee,rutgers,uunet}!iuvax!ndmath!milo

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

End of Usenet Mac Digest
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