PD ROM 1/PD ROM Volume I - Macintosh Software from BMUG (1988).iso/Electronic Messages/USEnet Digests/USEnet Vol. 4/USEnet 4.73

Text File | 1988-06-18 | 33.4 KB | 892 lines | [TEXT/ttxt]

Usenet Mac Digest     Saturday, June 4, 1988         Volume 4 : Issue 73

Today's Topics:
     Re: QuickFolder problems (was Re: shutdownsound/conflict)
     Re: Comments wanted on Expressionist equation editor.
     Micah hard drive experience?
     Re: PCPC WSI
     Re: Custom menu bars
     Re: DA question
     Printer Drivers?
     Re: Anybody using MacWorkStation?
     Vertical Retrace Queue Problem
     Re: Playboy virus - BEWARE!
     Re: MacRecorder
     Re: FullWrite/MakeWrite
     Re: Micah hard drive experience?
     Re: FullWrite bizzarity explained (really: dictionary and thesaurus)|
     Re: Perhaps something really *is* amis a Jasmine.
     moving trash & disk icons to the right
     menu conflict with On-Cue, HFS Navigator & Popkeyssages)
     Need Airport Database
     Re: menu conflict with On-Cue, HFS Navigator & Popkeys
     Can FullWrite do this?
     Re: WANTED! NOTE TAKING DA !!
     Re: Anybody using MacWorkStation?
     Re: Database toolkits
     Re: TESetStyle bug
     ResEdit pickers and editors
     Technotes in FullWrite???
     Optimal buffer size
     Re: DA question
     Re: Technotes in FullWrite???

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

From: [e-mail]
Subject: Re: QuickFolder problems (was Re: shutdownsound/conflict)
Date: 1 Jun 88 04:45:17 GMT
Organization: The Portal System (TM)

Yes, QuickFolder does cause the Dialog Manager to trash some data
registers. This caused a bug in a program that I had written and due to
its intermittent nature, it took me quite a while to track it down.
There is apparently a new commercial version of QuickFolder (v.2.0)
available from Greene Inc. in Monterey CA. I heard that this bug and
others have been fixed in that version.

If you have the shareware version of QuickFolder, throw it away...quick.
--
Michael Hauser
Hummingbird Software
Usenet: sun!cup.portal.com!hummingbird
Arpanet: [e-mail]


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

From: [e-mail] (Jim Meiss)
Subject: Re: Comments wanted on Expressionist equation editor.
Date: 1 Jun 88 22:27:12 GMT
Organization: UTexas Computation Center, Austin, Texas


    I just tried Expressionist, and was able to make it display fonts up to
96 points. It allowed larger sizes, but didn't display them on the
screen...
    It doesn't seem to have a limit on subcripting levels either, I just
made and equation with 7 levels, at which point the size of the 7th
level was 2 points! After that it continued to make 2point subscripts
automatically. Of course you can set the point size for subscripts to be
anything you like.


                Jim Meiss
                 [e-mail]
                [e-mail]


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

From: [e-mail] (Steve Wilson)
Subject: Micah hard drive experience?
Date: 1 Jun 88 20:46:00 GMT
Organization: Morning Star Technologies Inc, Columbus, OH

I'm considering buying a Micah XT-20 (or -40, or -60, depending on bank
supplies :-)) because it seems well-suited to traveling between my
wife's office and home (fits in the carrying case, has automatic park
and lock for the heads, shock-mounted, etc).  Does anyone have any
experience with these?  Do they live up to the admirable advertising
claims?  Should I be considering something else? -- Steve Wilson,
Morning Star Technologies, Inc.    ...!cbosgd!mstar!steve


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

From: [e-mail] (Jeff Shulman)
Subject: Re: PCPC WSI
Date: 2 Jun 88 13:42:30 GMT
Organization: Schlumberger-Doll Research, Ridgefield CT


I've had no problems with mine and would recommend it to anyone with an
old HD20 who doesn't want to buy a new SCSI disk.  It comes with a board
and a new cable.  The new cable is a DB-25 plugged directly into the Mac
port. The board provides a second DB-25 connector for expansion.  The
DiskTimer II results are:

          Write     Read     Seek HD20      1479      1304     60
HD20WSI    136       134     48 HD20SC     162       160     38

So in all but Seek time, it is even faster thanandard Apple SCSI
drive.

                                                        Jeff
--
uucp:     ...rutgers!yale!slb-sdr!shulman
CSNet:    [e-mail]
Delphi:   JEFFS
GEnie:    KILROY
CIS:      76136,667
MCI Mail: KILROY


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

From: [e-mail] (Ed Tecot)
Subject: Re: Custom menu bars
Date: 1 Jun 88 02:04:10 GMT
Organization: Apple Computer Inc, Cupertino, CA

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] writes:
>I started working on a custom MBDF yesterday, and so for the first

Don't do it!  I strongly recommend that no one attempt to write a custom
MBDF. Since IM 5 was published, the standard MBDF has been changed
significantly; a new message has been added, and another one has been
expanded.  I expect it to continue to change in the future.  It is very
unlikely that any MBDF written will be able to deal with future system
software, including the one we currently ship.  It will have to evolve.

Hopefully, in the future, this will change; but for now, please do not
write your own menu bar definition functions.

                        _emt


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

From: [e-mail] (Dan Allen)
Subject: Re: DA question
Date: 1 Jun 88 04:02:13 GMT
Organization: Apple Computer Inc, Cupertino, CA

About DAs of the 70K size, written in MPW Pascal...

DAs do not have their own A5 World, ordinarily.  This means no global
data, no jump data (no code segments), and no own QuickDraw globals,
among other things.

If a desk accessory can save and restore A5 then these problems would go
away.  As I have mentioned in this forum previously, this was actually
under consideration here at Apple, but had problems.

The party line today is to not write DAs that big: just write an
application which **does** have its own A5 World, and use MultiFinder!

If this very simple solution to the problem (or sidestepping of the
problem) is not adequate, please tell me more.  We'd like to do what we
can in solving developer's problems.
--
Dan Allen
Software Explorer
Apple Computer


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

From: [e-mail]
Subject: Printer Drivers?
Date: 1 Jun 88 04:35:00 GMT


Please send me information about writing printer drivers for the
Macintosh.  I realize that MacTutor had an article on how to write a
daisywheel driver a few months (years?) ago.

I am most interested in writing a dot-matrix printer driver.  Many
commercial letter-quality printers are 24-pin and support 360*180 dots
per inch resolution.  Where else can I find out about writing this kind
of driver?

Does Apple discourages this?  They certainly don't go out of their way
to explain how to do this in Inside Macintosh, or in the Apple Technical
Notes.

Don Gillies {ihnp4!uiucdcs!gillies} U of Illinois
            {[e-mail]}


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

From: [e-mail] (Byron Han, Licensed To Dream)
Subject: Re: Anybody using MacWorkStation?
Date: 1 Jun 88 06:46:00 GMT
Organization: Communications Product Development - Apple Computer, Inc.

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (ephraim vishniac)
writes:
>
>Also, short of buying the whole package, is any technical
>documentation available that might answer questions such as the above?
>
Contact Apple Licensing for information.  I believe that there may be a
90 day free trial period going on right now.  You'd have to check for
sure.  This applies to corporations/institutions, not individuals.

Hope this helps.

--
Byron Han,  Licensed to Dream.             Macintosh - One Small Step For Apple.
Apple Computer, Inc. MS 27Y                ----One Giant Leap for Humankind.----
ATTnet:408-973-6450     applelink:HAN1     domain:[e-mail]       MacNET:HAN
GENIE:BYRONHAN    COMPUSERVE:72167,1664    UUCP:{sun,voder,nsc,decwrl}!apple!han


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

From: [e-mail] (Newton Lee)
Subject: Vertical Retrace Queue Problem
Date: 1 Jun 88 17:05:33 GMT
Organization: AT&T ISL Middletown NJ USA

I've written a program that "VInstall" a function onto the vertical
retrace queue. The function does simple "PlotIcon". It works. Now
disabling VInstall, the main program calls "MacinTalk". It also works.
However, enabling VInstall, the whole thing suddenly stops working! Why?
I know there is a sound manager VBL problem in old System files. But I'm
using System File 4.2 that supposedly has fixed that problem.

Thanks for your help.

Newton Lee, ihnp4!mtund!newton, 201-576-3541


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

From: [e-mail] (David Phillip Oster)
Subject: Re: Playboy virus - BEWARE!
Date: 2 Jun 88 04:49:52 GMT
Organization: School of Education, UC-Berkeley

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Thomas Fruin) writes:
>Through a dealer I heard that a new Macintosh virus had been sighted
>here in the Netherlands, in Utrecht to be precise.  It was called
>Playboy or something similar, and after double clicking rapidly
>started showing you pictures of benevolent nude girls, while it was
>malevolently busy erasing your hard disk ...

Let us be precise with our terminology here:

1.) a virus is a program that runs itself without human intervention,
copying itself onto other programs, so that when they are run, the virus
will continue to propogate.

2.) what you describe is an application, run explicitly by the user that
does one thing, while secretly doing something else.  This properly
called a "trojan horse", or "trojan", which is particularly humorous in
this case since "trojan" is also an American slang word for ...


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

From: avalon@ssyx (Scott A. McIntyre)
Subject: Re: MacRecorder
Date: 2 Jun 88 03:19:14 GMT

    I bought a Impulse Audio Digitizer from the people that bought out
MacNifty and have made some improvements to the old hardware design.  I
was able to get this for 100 bucks, so it seemed worth it at the time
(Far below the cost of retail and MacRecorder).
    I really like it!   Here is a short list of what I consider to be the
pluses of the unit and the minuses:

    +  Seperate Mic input and Line input.  It does NOT have an included
internal microphone like McRecorder, but it does come with a plug in,
Radio- Shack quality microphone (which you can upgrade).
    +  The Mic and Line ports can be sampled from at the same time.  This
means that you can sing along, dub along, etc, very easily.
    +  The software has some neat features, like an oscilloscope display
that changes real time as you talk (NO DELAY, REAL TIME).  Kinda neat
for rough spectrum analysis.  I talked to a rep of the company, and he
said that they are planning on updating that function to make it a full
spectrum analyzer that can work full time.  One bug of the software...if
you have an SE or a II, it is Hypersensitive to mouse movement.  When
you are oscilloscoping, or sampling, it tells you to click to end, but,
all it takes is a subtle move- ment of the mouse, and boink, all done.
They say this will be corrected in the future.
    -  The software is Lacking in the really neat editing type features,
limited to mostly backwards, forwards, and some filtering.  The
SoundEdit program that comes with the Mac Recorder has superior special
effects.
    +  The SoundEdit program works with the Impulse, with one small bug.
On the Impulse, there is a small led that is red when you are not
sampling, and green when you are...kinda neat to watch.  When using
Sound Edit, the light turns green, and stays there.  I dont know if this
means that the data is still being read into the mac even though the
program has ceased to acknowledge it or not.  (anyone else know?)
    -  The unit itself.  Not performance, but aesthetics.  It's blue,
metal, and boxy.  It is basically two pieces of metal that fit together
with a couple of screws to keep it from falling apart.  the Mac Recorder
looks much more impressive with its smaller footprint and plastic
design.

It has a gain knob, which can be adjusted for sampling level, and some
other features, like the software is programmable, with a few examples,
that you can patch into the main part of the program....but you gotta
know C or Pascal.

I recomend it if you want the sounds, but not the high price of
McRecorder. I love it!

Scott

--
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
        [e-mail]        ARPA/Internet \
                 or                            > Me!
        [e-mail]                Bitnet    /
    "Hey, when you can't trust your basic Pulse Rifle when hunting down a
                  Xenomorph, what's the Universe coming to?"
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=


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

From: [e-mail] (David Phillip Oster)
Subject: Re: FullWrite/MakeWrite
Date: 2 Jun 88 04:58:57 GMT
Organization: School of Education, UC-Berkeley

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail]
(Old Sneep) writes:
>I am told that someone asked here whether FullWrite can take a plain
>text file with embedded formatting commands and produce a document
>with the ask-for formatting.

Microsoft has a standard file format for an ascii file with embedded
formatting codes. It is called Microsoft's Rich Text Format.

It is supported by many Mac Word Processors and page layout programs,
which isn't surprising since Microsoft is giving the specs for the
format away (I tried to pay for it, and they sent my cash back.)  If you
insist on paying for it, the format can also be found in:


"More FIle Formats for Popular PC Software A Programmer's Reference"

by Jeff Walden,

$24.95 from John Wiley & Sons 605 Third Ave., New York, N.Y. 10158-0012

Kind of neat for sending formated files to someone who has microsoft
word on a PC, or for opening the RTF as ascii text, editing the format
codes, then turning it back into a fonted Word document.


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

From: [e-mail] (Steve Masticola)
Subject: Re: Micah hard drive experience?
Date: 2 Jun 88 03:43:22 GMT
Organization: Rutgers Univ., New Brunswick, N.J.

Executive summary: I own a Micah XT-20. I had some initial problems, but
am quite satisfied with it now.

I bought an XT-20 about two months ago. I liked their performance
numbers (they claim 26 ms average access; I've clocked it at 35 using a
PD utility), shock mounting, head park on power down feature, 2-year
warranty, and 800 service number.

When I received my XT-20, the drive wouldn't boot unless it had been
running for about 5 minutes. I sent it back; they sent it back to me
without having fixed the problem. (In all fairness, I'm not sure I
really communicated the problem to the tech very well, and it's an easy
one to overlook in testing.)

In any case, I had sent the drive back for a refund and called Jasmine
to order one of their 20-meg drives. Then I looked again. Jasmine has no
hardware head parking, no shock mounts, no 800 number, a 1-year
warranty, and much worse rated performance for their 20-meg drives. I
called Micah again, and got them to agree to test the drive by powering
it up twice from an 8-hour power-off period. They must have found
something wrong the second time, because they shipped me a new drive
which works perfectly.

Micah really seems to be dedicated to reliability and customer support
rather than slick advertising, which I like very much. On the minus
side, the manual is rather mediocre, and their chief engineer has some
wierd ideas which border on the doctrinaire. (For instance, the drive
contains no MOVs; his claim is that they can explode and damage the
drive 'tronics. My claim is that they'd only blow up if _really_
overstressed, and that the explosion could be contained by placing the
MOV strategically.) Micah is also a small company; how long will they be
around? Who can tell?

Despite these minor shortcomings, I think they're doing pretty well, and
I'm happy with their product.

- Steve Masticola ([e-mail])


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

From: [e-mail] (Simon Tortike)
Subject: Re: FullWrite bizzarity explained (really: dictionary and thesaurus)|
Date: 2 Jun 88 02:25:51 GMT
Organization: U. of Alberta, Edmonton, AB

In article <[e-mail]>, [e-mail] (Dennis Cohen) writes:
>
> No need to worry about having "broken" anything.  The Thesaurus and Dictionary
> were licensed from and delivered by Microlytics.  They came with the bundle bit
I just got my copy of FullWrite Professional, for sale in the USA and
Canada only.  Only one thing: I'm stuck with a US-style dictionary and
thesaurus. We use British convections on spelling frequently, so this is
very  inconvenient when only the US dictionary is available.  I cannot
use the user dictionary because the document style and spelling will be
inconsistent.  Does anyone know how to obtain the British versions of
the dictionary and thesaurus?  Microsoft were very thoughtful when they
released both types of  dictionary with WORD v3.0, could Ashton-Tate do
the same?  I prefer using FWP to MS WORD by far, but I cannot make as
much use of it as I would like without the alternative dictionary and
thesaurus.
--
W. Simon Tortike
Dept Min, Met &    UUCP:   ...{ubc-vision,ihnp4,mnetor}!alberta!simon
  Petroleum Engg   BITNET: stortike@ualtavm
Univ. of Alberta   AGT:    403/432-3338
Edmonton, AB
Canada T6G 2G6


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

From: [e-mail] (Ken Wallich)
Subject: Re: Perhaps something really *is* amis a Jasmine.
Date: 1 Jun 88 21:09:27 GMT
Organization: Ardent Computer

Interesting.  I also had heard nothing but good things about Jasmine,
until just recently.  A friend bought a Jasmine 80 for his beige plus,
and after  waiting 5 weeks (1 week longer than promised), he got a
platinum drive.  The  shipping order said beige, the box said beige, but
the drive was platinum.   They seemed happy enough to exchange the
drive, but it took ANOTHER FIVE WEEKS before they shipped out the
correct one.  Supermac is looking better and better...
--
Ken Wallich
Ardent Computer Corp.
ubvax ------\
hplabs ------+-->!ardent!kmw
decwrl -----/


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

From: [e-mail]
Subject: moving trash & disk icons to the right
Date: 2 Jun 88 05:55:00 GMT
Organization: UCLA Computer Science Department

Desktop real estate is getting scarce.  I prefer to have the disk icons,
and the trash icon, fully to the right, touching the right edge of the
screen, just to give me that much more room to work with. I can move
them by hand, but when I reboot they are at their former less right-wing
oriented positions.

How can I make the disk & trash icons stay flush right on the desktop?

thanks, Margot Flowers   [e-mail]
...!{ucbvax|ihnp4}!ucla-cs!flowers


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

From: [e-mail]
Subject: menu conflict with On-Cue, HFS Navigator & Popkeys
Date: 2 Jun 88 06:08:07 GMT
Organization: UCLA Computer Science Department

Based on recent recommendations, I just got & installed On-Cue & HFS
Navigator.  I already have popkeys installed, and I have Pyro.  There
seems to be a popup menu activation conflict.

Pyro & On-Cue both want the upper right hand corner as an activation
location.  Since Pyro is configurable, that was easy, I just moved
Pyro's activation corner.

Previously the upper left corner was the Popkeys activation location.
Now the upper left corner activates the On-Cue menu.  I've tried
combinations with shift, control, option, command keys but On-Cue is
what I get:

1) How can I get on-cue to activate only at the upper right, or how can
I get popkeys to activate another way?

Next, HFS navigator patches the open file dialog box.  Clicking on
folder name with option provides the original heirarchical file display.
 Clicking on the folder name with command is supposed to bring up a
command menu for HFS Navigator that has things such as find file, new
folder, etc.  However, now it gives me the lost PopKeys menu.

2)  How can I get the HFS Navigator command menu to pop up?

An interim solution I think would be to remove popkeys, but I actually
use a few of them so would like to keep that functionality.

thanks, Margot Flowers   [e-mail]
...!{ucbvax|ihnp4}!ucla-cs!flowers


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

From: [e-mail] (Margot Flowers)
Subject: Re: menu conflict with On-Cue, HFS Navigator & Popkeys
Date: 2 Jun 88 06:16:01 GMT
Organization: UCLA Computer Science Department

In article <[e-mail]> I write:
>1) How can I get on-cue to activate only at the upper right, or how
>can I get popkeys to activate another way?

Well, I just found the right option box for On-Cue to uncheck, which
answers 1).  2) is still a problem:

>2)  How can I get the HFS Navigator command menu to pop up instead of
the PopKeys menu with command-click in the open file box?

thanks again, Margot Flowers   [e-mail]
...!{ucbvax|ihnp4}!ucla-cs!flowers


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

From: [e-mail] (Al Peterman)
Subject: Need Airport Database
Date: 2 Jun 88 06:31:07 GMT
Organization: Qic Laboratories, Portland, Oregon.


  Does anyone know where to acquire a database of airport information.
What we need is the information in the Airports Facilities Directory in
a format that can be converted to MacIntosh Hypercard.  Essentials
include latitude, longitude, airport name, identifier and hopefully
runway lenghts. It would be nice to have any other info available such
as radio frequencies, altitude etc.

  If neccessary, we can convert from IBM format data, if we can get the
data in IBM format.  That will require some conversion work, but ought
to be possible...

  Please mail me any leads, or feel free to call my work number from
8:30 to 4:30 PDT.  If there is some cost involved, we probably can pay a
reasonable amount for the data...

Thanks    -   Alan Peterman
--
Alan L. Peterman     Aero Air  Hillsboro, OR   (503)-640-3711 wk
                                               (503)-684-1984 hm
                     Airborne N33291          Cessna Cardinal RG
                     Net      !tektronix!(psu-cs,reed)!qiclab!al


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

From: [e-mail] (Rich Siegel)
Subject: Re: menu conflict with On-Cue, HFS Navigator & Popkeys
Date: 2 Jun 88 19:14:22 GMT
Organization: Symantec/THINK Technologies, Bedford, MA

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] () writes:
>2)  How can I get the HFS Navigator command menu to pop up?
>

    I don't have PopKeys, but I used to use it, and if I remembe, it's
possible to change the activation region for PopKeys and to change the
key combination required to bring it up. If you have the proper utility
to do so, it should solve your problem.

    Alternatively, you can use ResEdit to put Command-key equivalents into
HFS Navigator's command menu, then you won't need to pop it at all. This
should serve until you get the rest of the details ironed out...

        --Rich
--
Rich Siegel
THINK Technologies

Rich Siegel
Quality Assurance Technician
THINK Technologies Division, Symantec Corp.
Internet: [e-mail]
UUCP: ..harvard!endor!singer
Phone: [phone] x305


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

From: [e-mail] (Fang Zhong)
Subject: Can FullWrite do this?
Date: 2 Jun 88 18:45:54 GMT
Organization: Duke University Physics Dept.; Durham, N.C.


       I want to have a superscript directly above a subscript in a line
of  text. I realize that I can do this in Expressionist or MacEqn then
paste it into the text, but this is not acceptable. The problem is that
the subscript is aligned with the text line while the character being
subsripted and  superscripted is shifted up. Is there any solution to
this problem using FullWrite?


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

From: [e-mail] (Dave Waller)
Subject: Re: WANTED! NOTE TAKING DA !!
Date: 1 Jun 88 16:37:06 GMT
Organization: Hewlett-Packard TCG Tech marketing, Sunnyvale, CA

Acta is very nice, however there is a shareware DA that is considerably
cheaper called "NotePad II" floating around out there. I pulled it off
of Compuserve, and, after playing with it awhile, decided I didn't need
the capability to save large amounts of stuff on my notepad, so I got
rid of it in deference to the Author's request. However, it does have
the following features:

+ Scrollable, unlimited sized notes.

+ Notes separated by topic -- i.e. you can create a new note subject
  and it's text will be grouped separately from others.

>From what you descibed as your needs, I think this DA would suffice. As I
remember, the author was asking $10 or $15 for it.
--
Dave Waller
Technical Computer Group
Hewlett-Packard Co.
Pacific Technology Park
Sunnyvale, CA
[phone]
[ucbvax!]hplabs!hpdstma!dave


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

From: [e-mail] (Paul Rekieta)
Subject: Re: Anybody using MacWorkStation?
Date: 2 Jun 88 00:43:03 GMT
Organization: Apple Computer Inc, Cupertino, CA

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (ephraim vishniac)
writes:
>
> (Stuff about MacWorkStation)
>of work).  So my question is, how good is MWS?  I'd like to hear the
>good and the bad from anybody who's worked with it.
>
    MWS is being used by many internal MIS development teams. Some, such as
CITIBANK in New York, have been written up in the Mac weeklies. Others
are using it for internal projects. A particullarly interesting
application at a "major northern university" is a campus wide mail and
directory system, as well as a campus map which shows the building the
professor is in.

>I'm especially interested in how well it can handle a situation such
>as the following:
>
> (Description of an information retrieval system)
>
>Will MWS allow us to carry on this kind of background activity?  Does
>it use error-detecting/correcting protocols?  Does it allow
>transmission of binary data or are you restricted by the underlying
>network?  What's the performance like on bulk data transfer?
>
    MWS is perfect for the type of application you describe. You would
first create a list window with the article titles. Then you can begin
creating invisible windows (for your pre-fetched articles) and send text
to those windows in 512 byte messages. User events will be sent as they
occur.  Your remote program must be prepared to accept a limited number
of user events.

MWS itself is protocol independent. We do not yet offer an error-free
protocol, but expect to soon. Binary transmission is protocol dependent
but again could be implemented in a custom communications module.

>Also, short of buying the whole package, is any technical
>documentation available that might answer questions such as the above?
>

Documentation may be available from APDA soon, contact Apple Software
Licensing for more information.


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

From: [e-mail] (Dan Allen)
Subject: Re: Database toolkits
Date: 1 Jun 88 20:57:36 GMT
Organization: Apple Computer Inc, Cupertino, CA

Using the Resource Manager for a database manager is *** NOT RECOMMENDED
**. PERIOD.

The Resource Manager is moderately good at doing what is was designed to
do: handle a few dozen MENUs, DLOGs, CODE segments, etc.  The Resource
Manager was speeded up quite a bit from the 64K ROMs to the 128K ROMs,
but it still is largely a linear critter.  Binary trees and the like are
definitely needed for writing good database stuff, and the Resource
Manager simply doesn't do it.

You may not expect the following recommendation, but depending upon what
your data is, Apple does supply a very nice database tookit for the
Macintosh: HyperCard.  It has **VERY** sophisticated search techniques
and supports text, graphics, and sound quite nicely.  You can use XCMDs,
written in C and/or Pascal, to extend HyperCard.

Now I know that HyperCard is not the answer to many database problems.
It is certainly **NOT** a relational database.  If you are looking for
those kind of database toolkits, then the BTrieve/generic C type stuff
is probably as good a canned stuff as you are going to find.  And I know
very little about those, so I can't help you with them.
--
Dan Allen
Software Explorer
Apple Computer


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

From: [e-mail] (Ed Tecot)
Subject: Re: TESetStyle bug
Date: 1 Jun 88 21:58:07 GMT
Organization: Apple Computer Inc, Cupertino, CA

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Freek Wiedijk) writes:
>Why doesn't TESetStyle behave the same was as the Style menu in MacWrite does?

It does now, with the "doToggle" bit in the "mode" parameter of the
TESetStyle call.  Otherwise, the given attributes are applied to the
entire selection.

>Also: Is it possible to obtain the style information of the selection when it
>is longer than one character, without checking all individual characters with
>TEGetStyle?

Yes.  With the new call "TEContinuousStyle", you can test for style
information continuity across the selection (i.e. is the _whole_
selection italicized?) Otherwise, the most cost-effective way to handle
style analysis is to step through the "runs" array of the TEStyleRec
structure.  It is kept in sorted order by character position of the
start of each unique style (so you can do a binary search to find the
style element for the first character, and search linearly over the rest
of the selection.)

A technical note on these additions is being written and should appear
in the next batch.


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

From: cca@pur-phy (Charles C. Allen)
Subject: ResEdit pickers and editors
Date: 2 Jun 88 00:56:58 GMT
Organization: Purdue Univ. Phys Dept, W.Lafayette, IN

I've exhausted my local resources, so I'll ask the net:  Where can I
find info on writing ResEdit pickers and editors?  IM 1-5 and the Tech
Notes don't reveal anything.  Does MPW come with this info?  Do you need
to be a developer and get that info?

Charlie Allen            [e-mail]


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

From: [e-mail] (Eric Behr)
Subject: Technotes in FullWrite???
Date: 2 Jun 88 06:17:45 GMT

After unBinHexing the Technote index I got a FullWrite file. Am I
required by law to own it in order to read the notes? :()  (I feel silly
asking the question, because I'm not even close to being a developer,
but I still think it sucks; are there any *good* reasons for abandoning
MacWrite?)
                                                       Eric


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

From: [e-mail] (Paul Larson)
Subject: Optimal buffer size
Date: 1 Jun 88 20:06:35 GMT
Organization: U of Waterloo, Ontario


Could someone tell me what the best size is for reading in blocks from
the disk drives? Does it even matter, with disk casheing?

Thanks in advance.

Johan Larson, Programmer Aspirant


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

From: [e-mail]
Subject: Re: DA question
Date: 1 Jun 88 16:46:00 GMT


    It is possible to creeate DA's which are larger thatn the 32K limit
that is imposed by the size of resources (of which the DRVR is one).
This is  apparent when you try to install such DA's as DiskTop or
DiskTools.
    The reason taht you are 'normamly' limited to 32K is that DRVR resourcw
which contains your code is limited to 32K. To get around this problems
(as I have  recently in SigmaEdit) what you must do is to use the DRVR
for your main code and any code that uses a LOT of globals and put all
thre rest of your code in other code type resources.  I use PROC's, but
it does not matter as long as they are compiled as code resources.  You
then just load these up as need be and call them.  What you need to do
is to simulate the _LoadSeg trap.  Rich Siegel (our local Think rep)
gave an example of doing this from LSP, and the same would how true for
MPW Pascal.
    The only place that I have seen this discussed was in an old article by
David Dunham in MacTutor (I believe that it is reprinted in Best of Mac
Tutor Volume I)
    Hope this helps...
--
+---------------------------------+-----------------------------------+
+                                 +  Any thing I say may be taken as  +
+   Leonard Rosenthol             +  fact, then again you might decide+
+   President, LazerWare, inc.    +  that it really isn't, so you     +
+                                 +  never know, do you??             +
+   [e-mail]     +                                   +
+   GEnie:  MACgician             +                                   +
+   Delphi: MACgician             +                                   +
+                                 +                                   +
+---------------------------------+-----------------------------------+


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

From: [e-mail] (J. Chris Cooley)
Subject: Re: Technotes in FullWrite???
Date: 2 Jun 88 20:44:32 GMT
Organization: The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas

In article <[e-mail]>, [e-mail] writes:
> Why even put out tech notes in MacWrite, much less FullWrite?  What's
> wrong with just plain text files?

Because the Tech Notes look prettier than just plain text.

Every wordprocessor for the mac has the MacWrite format as one of its
importing formats.  Besides, even if you haven't bought an application
that will read MacWrite, there exist both a de-macwrite-ify utility and
a few shareware/PD things that will read in the MacWrite format and
maybe even print it out in the MacWritely "beautiful" form.


> James Moore                | B'fhearr don net mura mbeadh
> [e-mail]        | Bearla ar bith ann.
> #airigh "leithsceal caighdeanach"    |             :-)

--
J. Chris Cooley                         |  husc6! -\
Computation. Center (COM 1)             |   im4u! -->-ut-sally!ut-emx!jcc
Univ. of Texas at Austin                |  uunet! -/
Austin, TX  78712                       |

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

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