PD ROM 1/PD ROM Volume I - Macintosh Software from BMUG (1988).iso/Electronic Messages/USEnet Digests/USEnet Vol. 4/USEnet 4.03

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Usenet Mac Digest     Sunday, January 10, 1988        Volume 4 : Issue 3

Today's Topics:
     Statistical packages for the Mac?
     Re: Power Users (long)
     Stats on 68881
     Mac II Color Graphics Standard? (2 messages)
     Documentation needed for LISA
     Red Ryder 10.3 window size
     Apple's Annual Stockholders Report as HC-stack from 1-800-538-9696
     Re: Mac II Color Graphics Standard?
     Public domain C, Prolog, and Lisp
     Re: MultiFInder+MultiVideo+MultiMachine
     MSDOS Capabilities Of Mac II?
     Dvorak 3.0+
     MS Basic vs. ZBasic vs. True Basic
     5M vs 1M Mac II incompatibility?
     Excel problem...
     Naval Architecture Query
     Imagewriter II vs. PowerPoint
     C programmer's routines
     MacII basic question:  What tools for serious scientific stuff?

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

From: [e-mail]
Subject: Statistical packages for the Mac?
Date: 28 Dec 87 16:29:42 GMT

DataDesk II which will soon be coming out from Odesta looks very good!


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

From: [e-mail] (-- Byron B. Han --)
Subject: Re: Power Users (long)
Date: 5 Jan 88 23:11:38 GMT
Organization: Communication Tools Group - Apple Computer, Inc.

I would recommend that you look into the product QuicKeys - which will
do most what anyone would every want.  It allows binding of menu items
keystrokes, combinationes thereof, and other nifty things.  And yes it
will even work with Microsoft Word and almost any other application.

Available from CE Software.

This is NOT an official Apple endorsement.  I have no connection with CE
Software except as a satisfied customer.  I have no connection with
Microsoft except as a customer.
--
Byron Han, Communications Tool                              Apple Computer, Inc.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
CSNet: [e-mail]     UUCP: {sun,voder,nsc,decwrl}!apple!han     408-973-6450
                 "Without Macintoshes, life itself would be impossible." - anon.


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

From: [e-mail] (Jeff A. Hallett)
Subject: Stats on 68881
Date: 5 Jan 88 20:28:45 GMT
Organization: General Electric CRD, Schenectady, NY


Hey all you hardware jocks out there!! :^)

Does anyone know how fast the 68881 can do a multiply-add?
--
Jeffrey A. Hallett               (ARPANET:  [e-mail]
Software Technology Program       UUCP:     desdemona![e-mail])
General Electric Corporate Research and Development
"The needs of the few outweigh the needs of the many"    -- Kirk  (STIII)


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

From: [e-mail] (Thomas Summerall)
Subject: Mac II Color Graphics Standard?
Date: 5 Jan 88 02:45:18 GMT
Organization: Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH

Is there a standard way to move color/gray scale images from one
graphics program to another on the Mac II?  I was used to the macpaint
format standard on my old 512ke, so when I moved up to the Mac II I was
surprised to find that almost every color/gray scale program I have seen
seems to store its images using radically different formats.  These
include PixelPaint, the Paris color demo which shows ray-traced images,
ImageStudio, etc...

I haven't been able to get a copy of Inside Mac vol 5 yet, so I am
unfamiliar with different formats.  (I don't even know what a clut is,
but from my appleII programming experience I assume it stands for Color
LookUp Table...)

Is there a standard?  Can an image be ported from one program to another
in screen-sized chunks using an FKEY similar to the one which saved B&W
mac screens to disk, except do it in a standard format?  Is there such a
thing as a color PICT that any type of color image could be translated
to?

So Many Questions...So Little Documentation...

Thanks in advance...
--
==============================================================================
thomas@dartvax * [e-mail]  |  Thomas Summerall '88
                                                       |  H.B. 3445
"And all that the Lorax left here in this mess,        |  Dartmouth College
 Was a small pile of rocks, with one word: UNLESS"     |  Hanover, NH    03755
                                        -Dr. Seuss '25 |
==============================================================================


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

From: [e-mail] (David Fry)
Subject: Re: Mac II Color Graphics Standard?
Date: 6 Jan 88 04:21:36 GMT
Organization: Harvard Math Department

There is a new PICT standard, called PICT2, that is fully described in
Inside Mac Volume 5 and is adequate for storing any grayscale or color
picture.  Almost all graphics programs already support or will support
PICT2, which is a superset of the original PICT and will display as B/W
in programs (like MacDraw) that don't understand PICT2 or are running on
a Mac SE.

There are several FKEYs now, most notably one made by the author of
Pixel Paint, that will save the screen in a PICT2 file.

Programs that don't use PICT2 as their primary file type are probably
saving extra information, such as cluts, or are interested in better
compression schemes.  But PICT2 files are already compressed, albeit not
highly but efficiently, and all necessary clut information is already
contained within and merely needs to be extracted properly.
--
David Fry                [e-mail]
Department of Mathematics        [e-mail]
Harvard University            ...!harvard!huma1!fry
Cambridge, MA  02138


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

From: [e-mail] (Ed Wright)
Subject: Documentation needed for LISA
Date: 4 Jan 88 23:58:38 GMT
Organization: Little Shop of Computational Horror


I desperately need and have not been able to find documentation
schematics et al for the LISA. I am working (was working) on the video
section (monitor, board, wiring harness).

Any help would be appreciated. please reply via e-mail
--
     ucbvax!\
        sun!->  !zehntel !edw
     varian!/


phones 415 932 6900 x 432
       415 672 3037

Thanks
Ed Wright


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

From: [e-mail]
Subject: Red Ryder 10.3 window size
Date: 5 Jan 88 17:45:00 GMT

    Has anyone with Red Ryder 10.3 figured out a way to set the default
window size any larger than the original size? I couldn't find anything
in the manual about this. It would be nice to be able to have a window
size as part of the "settings" or even part of the procedure script.
--
Eisuke Muroga
University of Illinois
ARPA        [e-mail]
CSNET        [e-mail]
USENET        uiucdcsb!emuroga


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

From: [e-mail] (Werner Uhrig)
Subject: Apple's Annual Stockholders Report as HC-stack from 1-800-538-9696
Date: 6 Jan 88 13:37:48 GMT
Organization: The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas

the HyperCard-stack is supposed to be impressive!

this was mentioned in this week's "Computer Chronicles" on PBS ... I
have not gotten through to the number yet, but I understand it to be
available free and in limited quantities ....

BTW, remember that I gave the BUY-signal in late November for Apple
stock?

well, by buying options you could have doubled your money in less than a
month ....Apple's stock rose from ~30 to ~45
--
[e-mail]        (prefered address)
[e-mail]
[e-mail]  (or  ...!ut-sally!ut-emx!kraut)


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

From: [e-mail] (Eric K. Olson)
Subject: Re: Mac II Color Graphics Standard?
Date: 6 Jan 88 15:19:37 GMT
Organization: Lexington Software Design

Unfortunately, there are many formats for color and/or grayscale
information generated on a Mac II:

    The most general way to move PICT 2 (Mac II PICT) data is via the
clipboard.  This allows any program that opens multi-bit windows to pass
color pictures in and out of itself.  It doesn't require any special
file type, so it is supported most easily.

    A PICT file contains the same information as a clipboard PICT, but
stored in the data fork of a file.  Pixelpaint supports this format.
Some older Mac software (MacDraw) can also generate this type of file,
but not in color.

    A GrayView file contains the same information as a PICT file and a
clipboard PICT, but stored in a PICT #0 resource in the resource fork of
the file.  This is the format of a Mac II StartUpScreen, as well as a
DeskPicture for use with the DeskPict INIT.  If the file contains an
original Mac-screen size bitmap (uncompressed) in the data fork, that
bitmap will be used as the StartUpScreen on a non-Mac-II.

    The drawback of all the PICT formats is that they cannot be generated
easily on a non-Mac-II, and if PICT 2 data is displayed on a non-Mac-II,
it will be displayed as black & white, with white being > 50% luminance
(the same display you would get if you displayed them on a Mac II set to
2 color mode).  For this reason, there are formats which can hold
grayscale information useable by non-Mac-II's, also:

    TIFF is a "standard" scanner format, which can hold either a huge
bitmap containing 100% black and 100% white pixels (data from scanners
is usually in this format-- but sometimes in greyscale), or a grayscale
picture, a PixMap (multi-bit-per-pixel BitMap) containing pixels varying
in intensity (usually 16 or 256 gray levels per pixel).  It can also
represent color information, but without a lookup table (gray data
doesn't need a lookup table as much), usually 2 bits each for red,
green, and blue.  TIFF is an extensible format, so software written a
while ago sometimes cannot deal with newer TIFF file (for instance,
grayscale TIFF is newer than scanner TIFF).

    ThunderScan GrayMap format can represent up to 64 gray levels per
pixel.  I find it useful for backwards compatibility.  ImageStudio can
read this format.  Thunderscan can include a grayscale map (pixel value
to  intensity lookup table, also called a transfer function).

    RIFF (Raster Image File Format) is the native format for ImageStudio.
It can store grayscale information up to 256 grays per pixel, and can
store color information with a color lookup table (although I know of
nothing that will read a color RIFF file).

    Since ThunderScan and ImageStudio both run on Non-Mac-II's, GrayMap and
RIFF files are somewhat more universal than anything using a PICT
format. TIFF is quite universal (even when moving to IBM-PC's, although
byte-ordering may become a problem if the importing application isn't
careful), but can contain so many different kinds of information you
never quite know what you'll get.

Hope this helps.
--
-Eric
                      (defun maybe (x) (maybe (not x)))
Eric K. Olson     [e-mail]     harvard!endor!olson     D0760
   (Name)                (ArpaNet)                 (UseNet)        (AppleLink)


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

From: [e-mail] (Winnie Williams)
Subject: Public domain C, Prolog, and Lisp
Date: 6 Jan 88 19:20:39 GMT

I'm interested in playing around with C, Prolog, and Lisp on a Mac SE or
Mac II.  Are there varieties of these languages available public domain?
If so, from whom?  Please send responses directly to me and I will post
a summary if the response merits it.
--
Winifred I. Williams
Image Analysis Systems Group
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
[e-mail]


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

From: [e-mail] (David Goldsmith)
Subject: Re: MultiFInder+MultiVideo+MultiMachine
Date: 6 Jan 88 18:38:21 GMT
Organization: Apple Computer Inc., Cupertino, USA

Thanks to David Oster for his article on dealing with window restoration
on multiple monitors.  I just wanted to add one thing:

For any loop over the set of GDevices on a multiple-monitor machine, it
is necessary to test the GDevice for being a screen and being active
before you assume it is a monitor you can put a window on.  Non-screen
GDevices (such as printers or off-screen GDevices) can appear in the
list, and even screen devices can appear but be inactive.  The latter
case occurs when the user connects a new monitor but has not yet
configured it via the Monitors cdev.  QuickDraw will not normally draw
on an inactive device.

So any loop you have (such as the one David gave) should contain the
following test:

 if (((**gd).gdFlags & (1<<screenDevice)) &&
    (((**gd).gdFlags) & (1<<screenActive))) {
    ... whatever you want ...
 }

around whatever you want to do for each active monitor.

--
David Goldsmith
Apple Computer, Inc.

AppleLink: GOLDSMITH1
UUCP:  {nsc,dual,sun,voder,ucbvax!mtxinu}!apple!dgold
CSNET: [e-mail], dgold%apple@CSNET-RELAY
BIX: dgoldsmith


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

From: [e-mail] (Samuel P. Moore)
Subject: MSDOS Capabilities Of Mac II?
Date: 6 Jan 88 21:37:26 GMT
Organization: NCSU Computing Center, Raleigh, NC


The Mac II is suppose to have a 286 co-processor board isn't it? Or some
way of running MSDOS, PC programs.

I have a friend that would like to know about the Mac II's MSDOS
capability. He is in the market for a home micro and is split between a
Mac for his son and a PC for him.

Any info on the subject is appreciated. Please em ail to him:

    Marty Withrow
    OCLC
    sppy00![e-mail]

He can't post to the net - company rules.

Sam


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

From: [e-mail] (Paco X)
Subject: Dvorak 3.0+
Date: 6 Jan 88 15:16:58 GMT
Organization: Shrewsbury Twp, NJ

I tried to use a desk accessory called "Dvorak 3.0+" on my Mac Plus.
Hmmm...  A new item called "Keyboard" shows up on my Apple menu, but it
doesn't seem to do anything when selected.  The DA didn't have any
documentation along with it, just a MacPaint file showing a Dvorak
layout on a Mac keyboard.  Ollie, ollie, oxen free...  Would someone
mind commenting about this software?   Thanks.  Wash warm, tumble dry -

UUCP:  ihnp4!homxc!paco


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

From: [e-mail] (Mike Khaw)
Subject: MS Basic vs. ZBasic vs. True Basic
Date: 6 Jan 88 23:54:09 GMT
Organization: Teknowledge, Inc., Palo Alto CA

I haven't looked at, let alone touched, BASIC since the dark ages ...
but now my sister is taking a (ack! thpt! :)) REQUIRED class in BASIC at
her community college and is looking for a Mac BASIC interpreter or
compiler (makes no difference to her).

So, I'm appealing to net.wisdom:  what are the pros and cons of the 3
flavors of BASIC named in the subject line >>>for use in an introductory
programming class<<<?  They're the ones we can buy in local stores, and
their prices are about the same, if you're talking MS BASIC Interpreter
rather than MS BASIC Compiler, but if there's another Mac BASIC out
there that beats the pants off these three (e.g., it's shareware or
freeware) we're certainly willing to consider it.

Thanks, Mike Khaw
--
internet:  [e-mail]
usenet:       {uunet|sun|ucbvax|decwrl|uw-beaver}!mkhaw%teknowledge-vaxc.arpa
USnail:       Teknowledge Inc, 1850 Embarcadero Rd, POB 10119, Palo Alto, CA 94303


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

From: [e-mail]
Subject: 5M vs 1M Mac II incompatibility?
Date: 7 Jan 88 01:51:00 GMT

   I have a game called "Patton vs. Rommel" by Electronic Arts, and it
works fine on a 1M mac II, but can't get it to load (freezes up) on a 5M
machine. Did all the normal control panel changes, to no avail (color
must be off on the 1M machine for it to work). The only differences
between the two machines: Working machine: 1M memory, color monitor, no
printer. Non working: 5M memory, b/w monitor, laserwriter. Any clue as
to how to fix this? Can the mac II be fooled into thinking it only has
1M memory?
--
Eisuke Muroga
University of Illinois
ARPA        [e-mail]
CSNET        [e-mail]
USENET        uiucdcsb!emuroga


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

From: [e-mail] (Brian Matthews)
Subject: Excel problem...
Date: 7 Jan 88 02:27:41 GMT
Organization: Computer X Inc.

I'm using Excel 1.05 on a MacPlus with the latest system, and am
experiencing a problem.  I have a macro sheet, and around R100C1, the
following:

 =SELECT(!RC)
 =RETURN()

When I select another worksheet, and run this macro, it selects R100C1,
which is the current cell in the macro sheet, instead of selecting the
current cell in the worksheet (in other words, not moving the active
cell).

In reading the description of SELECT in the macro manual, it says that
!RC should be relative to the active cell in the active worksheet.

Has anyone seen this?  Is it a bug, or am I not reading the manual
correctly?  Thanx for any info you can provide.

--
Brian L. Matthews                               "A power tool is not a toy.
...{mnetor,uw-beaver!ssc-vax}!cxsea!blm          Unix is a power tool."
[phone]
Computer X Inc. - a division of Motorola New Enterprises


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

From: [e-mail] (jholland)
Subject: Naval Architecture Query
Date: 6 Jan 88 18:06:24 GMT
Organization: University of Victoria, Victoria B.C. Canada

    We would like to receive E-mail from any Naval Architects using a
Macintosh who are willing to tell us what software and hardware they
find most useful.

A wooden boat building friend who has made a study of Naval Architecture
now wishes to use a computer to design boats.  We would like to hear
from       users of MacSurf, a software package from Australia, plus any
other CAD package useful for this kind of thing.

                    John Holland
--
John Holland, University of Victoria
USENET:  {alberta,seismo,utai,uw-beaver,watmath}!ubc-vision!uvicctr!jholland
BITNET:  [e-mail]


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

From: [e-mail] (tom royer)
Subject: Imagewriter II vs. PowerPoint
Date: 7 Jan 88 15:31:26 GMT
Organization: Sanders Associates Inc., Nashua, NH

A couple of weeks ago, I posted an article relating a problem I'm having
with PowerPoint (a presentation preparation tool, in case you're
unfamiliar with it).  Briefly, I find that when I print speaker's notes
or handouts -- anything involving a reduced version of my overhead
slides -- PowerPoint omits alternate words of the slide text; graphics
seem to come out OK.

Now I find that if I request printing of the speaker's notes or handouts
at "faster" quality (as opposed to "best" which I use for full sized
slides) everything comes out alright (except for the quality, of
course). I can live with this as long as I keep a fresh supply of
printer ribbons but am curious -- and DO want an answer.

I doesn't seem reasonable that PowerPoint would care what printer
quality I've selected (does it even see the printer dialogue box?), so
now I'm beginning to suspect the Imagewriter driver.  Anyone hear of
such a problem?

I'm running a Mac+ with 1 Meg, HD20SC, System 4.1, Finder 5.2,
Imagewriter  Driver 2.6.

Thanks for the suggestions.

--
Tom Royer              Sanders Associates, A Lockheed Company
                       MER24-1283, CS2034          (603)-885-9171
                       Nashua, NH  03061-2034


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

From: [e-mail] (Kevin Damour)
Subject: C programmer's routines
Date: 7 Jan 88 14:24:38 GMT
Organization: MIT Lincoln Laboratory, Lexington, MA

Hello,
    Could anyone suggest any MAC programming packages to be called
    from C for the following tasks?

        1. Data base routines for index storage (B-tree).  I am
        pleased with Btrieve from Softcraft on the PC and would
        like to know what could be used on the MAC.

        2. Interrupt driven serial communications.  I used
        Greenleaf communications on the PC since it provides
        hardware interrupt I/O.

I will summarize any information sent.

Thank you,
  Kevin Damour
  MIT Lincoln Labs
  [e-mail]


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

From: [e-mail] (Earle R. Horton)
Subject: MacII basic question:  What tools for serious scientific stuff?
Date: 7 Jan 88 00:35:27 GMT
Organization: disorganized

HELP!

I have been awarded use of a MacII for six months for the purpose of
developing a graphical simulation of stellar electromagnetic fields and
radiation patterns.  I hope to put together a program which will allow
scientists to input physical parameters (mass, rate of rotation,
magnetic field strength, etc.) into one window, and view changes in the
star's behavior in another window.  I would like some advice from MacII
users on "What is the best choice of programming tools to use?"

Here is what comes with the MacII:

    Color Monitor (with 8 bit video card)
    80 MB Internal hard disk
    Ethertalk Card
    A/UX and Macintosh Operating System
    MPW and MacApp
    HyperCard
    (Sorry, no more details available yet.)

Here is a digest of my resume:

    Learned to program on a Cyber with strict ANSI Fortran 77.
    Extensive programming experience on the Mac in C (LightSpeed).
    Extensive programming experience with 4.3 BSD.
    No MacII experience (I think I saw a prototype once).
    Wrote a DA in TML Pascal once, then scrapped the code and rewrote
     everything using MDS.
    Have a vague idea of what MacApp is.
    Enough Assembler to write glue if I need it.

I am pretty confident I could do the project in Lightspeed C according
to the specifications, and using only the Macintosh native OS, assuming
that LightSpeed works well on the MacII, doesn't crash too often, and
produces workable code (68881 support?)  I could also spring for a
Fortran compiler, if there is a good one that supports the 68881 and the
ToolBox.  I KNOW I could do a bang-up job in Fortran.  I am not at all
well informed about the other options.  I know what the physics at the
base of the problem are, and have some idea of what the computing
capabilities of the MacII, but I simply have no idea how well the tools
offered work.

Can anybody answer these questions?

    A/UX:    Do I get "CC" and "F77"?  If so, how good?
        Is this a stable OS? (Arrives in two weeks.)
        How good is ToolBox support?
    MacApp: Is it suited to a project of this type (heavy numerical
        analysis)?
    HyperCard: Would this be of any use?
    MPW:    What will this do for me?
        I know csh, is it as good?  (Csh is better than popup
        menus, as far as I am concerned!)
        How well do the "tools" it comes with work?  (As well as
        the utilities that come with 4.3 BSD?)
    LightSpeed C: Is this good on a MacII?
    Fortran: Is there a zippy Fortran that works on the MacII?

    With my experience, is there something else I could buy that would
     work better than any of the above? ($500, tops, unless it is
     REALLY good, and EVERYBODY says to get it.)

The machine and software are being shipped January 15, and the project
is supposed to be COMPLETED July 31.  I would love to use A/UX, but I
plan to make heavy use of Mac things (windows, menus, controls) and I do
not see myself as a beta-tester.  I want to start off with a compiler
that is at least as solid as LightSpeed C is on a Mac Plus, or as "CC"
and "F77" are with UNIX.  (You can make fun of F77 if you like, and you
can deride weird UNIX shell syntax, but these things work on the
machines I have used, and they work well.)  Perhaps I can get enough
advice from net-land to minimize the surprises after I open the box...

What would you do?

(Btw, I don't mean to imply that non-scientific stuff is not "serious",
but each field does have its unique requirements...)
--
*********************************************************************
*Earle R. Horton, H.B. 8000, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH 03755   *
*********************************************************************

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

End of Usenet Mac Digest
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