PD ROM 1/PD ROM Volume I - Macintosh Software from BMUG (1988).iso/Electronic Messages/USEnet Digests/USEnet Vol. 4/USEnet 4.76

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Usenet Mac Digest     Saturday, June 11, 1988        Volume 4 : Issue 76

Today's Topics:
     Prototypes in MPW C?
     NuBus Declaration ROM ?
     Ghost windows
     Can Word merge text into a document's header?
     Re: SCSI Accelerator in comp.binaries.mac seems OK.
     SCSI Accelerator Craches CMS140K!!
     Re: SCSI Accelerator in comp.binaries.mac seems OK.
     Re: Changing the pointer icon
     Foxbase question for Alexis Rosen
     Re: FullWrite Professional
     Mac carrying cases
     Re: FullWrite Pro stuff
     Re: BlockMove efficiency (2 messages)
     Re: ResEdit Clipboard Format?
     Any utilities for auto-running apps?
     Re: word stuff
     Re: PT109 (possible SPOILER)
     Re: Spoolers for the Mac/PM woes
     Re: Adobe fonts (was Re: FullWrite -- obliqued cursors are a major pain
     Re: FullWrite -- I'm sorry, but...
     Re: Question about multitasking on the mac
     Databases for the Mac

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

From: [e-mail] (Phil Sohn)
Subject: Prototypes in MPW C?
Date: 6 Jun 88 13:59:40 GMT
Organization: MIT Media Lab, Cambridge, MA

Is there anything in MPW C similar to LightSpeed C prototypes? (i.e.
something that checks the number and types of arguments in procedure
calls?


                [e-mail]


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

From: [e-mail] (Robert Krohn)
Subject: NuBus Declaration ROM ?
Date: 5 Jun 88 22:18:59 GMT
Organization: RMIT Comm & Elec Eng, Melbourne, Australia.

Im designing an Interface card for the NuBus to connect to a card cage
of  other devices. The card will contain a FIFO, Serial // converter,
Encoder/ Decoder chip etc. It is a slave board to the Mac II. The first
prototype won't have any slot Resources etc.

What is the minimum amount of information I need in the Declaration ROM.
Especially what should the BoardId be. Are there any other *must have*
pieces of info.

    Thanks in advance,  Rob.
--
=============================================================================
=                                                                           =
=       Robert Krohn  RMIT Comm & Elec Eng, Melbourne, Australia.           =
=                                                                           =
= ACSnet: s851736@gecko     UUCP: ...!uunet!munnari!gecko.rmit.oz!s851736   =
= CSNET:  [e-mail]  ARPA: [e-mail]@uunet.uu.net   =
= BITNET: [e-mail]@CSNET-RELAY                          =
=                                                                    =
=       'My God, it's Full of Stars'                                        =
=                                                                           =
=============================================================================


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

From: [e-mail] (Charles Lakos)
Subject: Ghost windows
Date: 3 Jun 88 06:39:35 GMT
Organization: Information Science, Uni of Tasmania, Hobart, Australia

In Inside Macintosh Vol1 p287, there is a tantalising reference to a
global variable GhostWindow which points to a windo will never be
considered frontmost.  What does this mean in practice - will you
receive activate, deactivaate events for this window?  Will
overlaps with other  windows be handled properly?  Can you use TextEdit
to write in the window?

Has anyone used this feature?

Charles Lakos.
--
[e-mail]
ARPA:   [e-mail]
UUCP:   {enea,hplabs,mcvax,uunet,ukc}!munnari!tasis.utas.oz!charles
Snail:  Information Science Dept., University of Tasmania,
    GPO Box 252C, Hobart, TAS, 7001, Australia.


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

From: [e-mail] (John O'Malley)
Subject: Can Word merge text into a document's header?
Date: 7 Jun 88 01:25:29 GMT
Organization: Personal Computing Learning Resource Center, Purdue University

Either I missed it in the manual or it can't be done in Word 3.02 ...
wouldya tell me which?

When using Word to do a mail merge for form letters, I'd like to put a
<<field>> in the document's page header ... the name of the person being
mail I can't get Word to print anything other than the actual
text, "field" surrounded by those special brackets.  I'm hoping that
Word can merge text into the header as well as the body of the form
letter document. Can it be done?

And can FullWrite do this
Please email responses.

Mac SE HD20/Sys 4.2/Find 6.0/Word 3.02
--
John O'Malley         \ Personal Computing       \ Purdue University \ (317)
mace.cc.purdue.edu!ajq \ Learninrce Center \ Computing Center  \ 494-9944


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

From: [e-mail] (Ken Mcleod)
Subject: Re: SCSI Accelerator in comp.binaries.mac seems OK.
Date: 6 Jun 88 09:32:15 GMT
Organization: People-Net [pnet06], Orange, CA

[e-mail] (Earle R.  writes:
>I got the SCSI Accelerator INIT from comp.binaries.mac, and since I just
>bought a Nova 30, and hadn't even started loading it yet, it seemed like
>a good thing to try out.

 I have tried using the SCSI Accelerator INIT (version 1.1) on my
Jasmine 20 (miniscribe drive). It doesn't do ANYTHING for performance;
the Disk Timer II numbers "before and after" were exactly the same. The
Jasmine formatting software doesn't let you set the interleave (v.2.34),
but I understood it to be 2:1, which was recommended by SCSI
Accelerator's aSo am I missing something, or does this INIT only
work on certain brands of hard drives?
--
Ken McLeod =========================     .......     ======================
UUCP: {crash uunet}!pnet06!thecloud     :.     .:    "Fear, surprise, and
ARPA: crash!pnet06![e-mail]   :::.. ..:::    ruthless efficiency.
INET: [e-mail]             ////


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

From: [e-mail] (Dean Benz)
Subject: SCSI Accelerator Craches CMS140K!!
Date: 7 Jun 88 03:53:40 Ganization: University of California, Riverside


     I have a CMS 140K external Hard disk attached to a Mac Plus, and
after installing SCSI Accelerator and rebooting, everything seemed OK.
HOWEVER, as soon as I loaded an aplication, the Drive light came on, and
ran forever! I  rebooted and found my Drive was thrashed! Doesn't boot,
can't be read etc. I was able to recover the drive using MAC ZAP!!!!! I
then retried SCSI Accelerator with a blank disk( read as only the Apple
supplied system) and experienced the same symptoms!!! Forever this time
was a measured 3 hours, at which point I restarted and the drive was
once again dead!
     I do not have an explination, but would like one if anyone has any
more info! I would also like to have a version that works on my large
CMS Drive!

     SO, I STRONGLY reccomend that you only test SCSI Accelerator on a
drive that is completely backed up!!!!!
--
UUCP: ucsd!ucrmath!hope!deano
USNail: Dean Benz, 1110 Blaine St. Apt. 108 Riverside Ca 92507.
Phone: [phone]        (U.C. Riverside: Home of, Ah, Well, Gimme a sec.)
UUCP: sdcsvax!ucrmath!hope!deano    ARPA: ucrmath!hope![e-mail]
USNail: Dean Benz, 1110 Blaine St. Apt. 108 Riverside Ca 92507.
Phone: [phone]        (U.C. Riverside: Home of, Ah, Well, Gimme a sec.)


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

From: [e-mail] (ephraim vishniac)
Subject: Re: SCSI Accelerator in comp.binaries.mac seems OK.
Date: 7 Jun 88 12:57:46 GMT
Organization: ng Machines Corporation, Cambridge, MA

The SCSI Accelerator INIT only has the opportunitrk on drives
which do all of their SCSI operations through the SCSI manager: there's
no way for it to trap hardware access.  In order to get decent
performance, the Jasmine software goes straight to the hardware on the
Mac Plus.  So, the INIT can't do anything for that drive that it doesn't
do for itself already.  Though I haven't examined it, I expect that what
this INIT does is replace Apple's tight loop for blind transfers with an
unrolled loop of some length.  This lets you tighten up your
interleaving one notch on many drives.

Defense of Apple: They chose the speed of blind reads and writes
deliberately to accomodate the varied timing of as many drives as
possible.  They certainly knew how to write a faster loop, but were
aware that it wouldn't work with many of the then-available drives.

Claimer: I wrote the Jasmine software up to version 1.95 or so.
--
Ephraim Vishniac                    [e-mail]
Thinking Machines Corporation / 245 First Street / Cambridge, MA 02142-1214

     On two occasions I have been asked, "Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put
     into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?"


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

From: [e-mail] (Matthias Urlichs )
Subject: Re: Changing ther icon
Date: 6 Jun 88 08:14:44 GMT
Organization: CSD., University of Erlangen, W - Germany

I have written a small INIT, called "Color Cursor", which does exactly
this. It probably could be changed to use "normal" cursors easily.

The normal arrow cursor is, unfortunately, not in any resource (not even
in ROM). So what you do is to patch SetCursor to look at the cursor
image, compare it with the image of the standard Arrow you've stolen
from the QD Globals (by now, I stored it in a resource inside my INIT),
and if equal, call SetCursor (or SetCCursor) with your own cursor
instead.

I could mail the source (or post it to comp.sys.mac.programmer) if
anyone's interested (it's quite small).
--
Matthias Urlichs     CompuServe: 72437,1357  Delphi: URLICHS
Rainwiesenweg 9      Phone: +49+911-574180
8501 Schwaig 2       NetMail: [e-mail]
West Germany              or: (r)eply and (h)ope


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

From: [e-mail] (Mark Murphy)
Subject: Foxbase question for Alexis Rosen
Date: 6 Jun 88 19:47:11 GMT
Organization: People-Net [pnet06], Orange, CA


   I have had a demo copy of Foxbase+ for the last couple of weeks and
have not had a chance to look at it.  I too have programmed many hours
in Helix and 4th Dimension, wishing that something better would come
along.  From the way you speak, it seems as though you have found it.  I
have tried to ask other database programmers I know about FoxBase+, yet
no one seems to know much about it.  My question to you is, does
FoxBase+ support external routines? I do a lot of specialty databases
which deal with data collection thru telecommunication equipment.  It is
important that I am able to write my own externals for the database
system I use.  If anyone has an answer for this one, please let me
know....

mark
--
UUCP: {crash uunet}!pnet06!mark
ARPA: crash!pnet06![e-mail]
INET: [e-mail]


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

From: [e-mail] (Bradford L Knowles)
Subject: Re: FullWrite Professional
Date: 7 Jun 88 01:26:14 GMT
Organization: University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK

A hard disk is NOT required.  It is simply very handy if you want to do
any significant work.

My current setup:

    Mac+, 1MB, 2-800K floppies.
    FullWrite (on it's own disk).
    Two system disks--one for LaserWriter use, one for ImageWriter
        use.  The LaserWriter disk has VERY few fonts, and
        absolutely nothing extra than the LaserWriter 4.0 driver
        and anything else that is NEEDED to work.  The
        ImageWriter version is set up similarly, but I have the
        BOSTON-II-NY font set up on it (if you have it, use
        9 pt. where you would normally use 12 pt., alarly
        scale things down, and you will be ok).

    In both cases, I MUST leave about 250K or more free on the
    system disk (where I TEMPORARILY store my small working files),
    otherwise FullWrite Professional complains (loudly).

    FYI

-Brad Knowles
--
UUCP: ...!ihnp4!occrsh!uokmax!blknowle     ARPA: [e-mail]
SNAIL: 1013 Mobile Circle
       Norman, OK  73071-2522
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Philosophy of Boris Yeltsin: "If one wants to be unemployed, one will
    criticize ones' boss.  If one wants to be sent to Siberia, one
    will criticize the wife of ones' boss."
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-==-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Disclaimer: (The above opinions are my own.  They have nothing to do with the
        Univeristy of Oklahoma nor intelligance of any sort. :-)


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

From: [e-mail] (Now HE will ask the questions!)
Subject: Mac carrying cases
Date: 8 Jun 88 01:57:46 GMT
Organization: Digital Equipment Corporation

Hi,

 Can anyone relate experiences with carrying cases?

  I'm looking for one to transport my Mac back and forth to work -

  configuration is a Mac SE w/ internal 20 MB drive and Extended
keyboard.

  I'm currently considering the one  by MacConnection by, I
think, I/O Design.

  Important features are:

  Has room for the extended keyboard.
  Good padding (concerned about the hard disk)
  Space for miscellaneous (manuals, disks, etc.)

  Sorry if this has been recently discussed; I haven't been reading the
group lately.  Thanks much!

Rich


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

From: [e-mail] (Clive Steward)
Subject: Re: FullWrite Pro stuff
Date: 6 Jun 88 18:17:49 GMT
Organization: resident visitor

>From article <[e-mail]>, by [e-mail] Meyer):
[several good wishlist points for FullWrite]

Well, I surely agree with the ones you've mentioned.  Here are a few
more.  And a further opinion after reading Chuq's and Pierce's replies
to my earlier posting.

By the way, it's very hard, for me at least, to criticize the work of
others who obviously worked so hard.  Fullwrite bears quite a lot of
evidence for the trouble the programmers went to, and I really
professionally  respect what it must have cost them.  It's just that I
think Microsoft's people deserve  complete consideration for
their line of solution, which seems more and more as a very good (and
easily improvable over tiice of method tailored to the resources
available -- Mac+, not II,  computation power.

It's less evident that there was anyone guiding the FullWrite project
with a view towards actually producing other than brochure type
material, such as the demo files.  See if you don't agree, after reading
this list of  difficult situations.  In particular, it seems to shows an
'advertised feature' orientation, rather than a considered design for a
flexible and deep  integrated toolset for professional document
production.

In fairness, typesetting and its control is apparently a very tough
problem. Look what it did to Don Knuth.  And though the Mac interface
promises a lot, it's far from just a programmer's choice dilemma as to
how to offer abilities  in a facile and useful form.  It just seems
unfair that the advertising (which  certainly attracted me too), and the
tone of notes in this newsgroup suggest more than has presently been
achieved, and ignore that with it's faults, Microsoft's solution has far
greater speed and breadth of ability.

I do think FullWrite is a worthy competitor, for having brought new
ideas into view; doubtless boages will improve each other, and we
who in this field are users, will benefit.

I also think substantial upgrade will need to be seen before, for much
professional use, FullWrite is in the running as a serious alternative
to Word.  In particular, it's still very much a 'place/generate it
yourself'  program.  In other words, a great deal of manual worequired to get  anything not in the rigid pre-defined document model
done.  Try it, you'll find out.

Here are some examples of why I think this way, after substantial
investment of time with the program.  As always, tempered with the
awareness  that I may be missing knowledge of some 'magic' to accomplish
these things.

1) It's great that one can keep lists of arbitrary things, like figures,
and get automatic referenced citations.

It would be far more useful if FullWrite would allow actually placing
these lists in the document.  Right now, a List of Figures must be
manually compiled and laid out, with no help at all from the internal
citation list.

The Table of Contents abilities, unlike Word's, cannot be configured to
produce other than the one list.

2) Sidebars have some pretty limiting assumptions built into them.

    a)  A sidebar is defined per a single page.  Thus the user must cut
    up any text to be placed in them into chunks per page.  This is
extremely
    tedious, and also doesn't work the way sidebars are commonly used
    in magazines, for instance -- a separate line of continued thought.

    Stated another way, sidebar text does _not_ continue into a
    similar sidebar on the next page.  It crops.

    In particular, this overcomplicates any of the manuevers suggested
    in the manual and on the net, about putting odd-width columns, or
    differently formatted material such as program listings, in the
    sidebars.

    b)  Inter-paragraph spacing, and as mentioned, indent styles, are
    not possible to set in sidebars.  Everything must be manually worked
    out -- use the tabs and returns like a typewriter.

    c) Sizing and placing sidebars is emphatically not a wysiwyg
    process on the page -- there's no way to do it; no handles to
    manipulate, etc.  One is reduced to blind operations with size
    numbers entered in boxes, or hopeful stabs with miniature diagrams
    which are too small for easy judgement.

3)  The outlining is very slow, and quite awkward to use.  This has bad
consequences for just getting a layout or table of contents for any
document with numbered/letters section delimiters -- i.e. most technical
documents.

    a) I'll leave it to the manual reader to discover how to get more
    than one chapter in an outline, and hence be able to get numbered
    headers with the right numbers....one certainly won't discover it
    from the user interface.

    b) The whole outlining thing (which is required if you want any
    technical paper-style paragraph/section numbers, or attendant
    Table of Contents generation) is far too much trouble.  It's also
    a good example of what difficulty the 'do-it-my-way' approach causes
    throughout other areas in the program.

    Select the text (which you can't do across chapter boundaries).  Ask
    the program to outline it.  Wait, for apparently nothing to happen.
    Then ask the program to do the actual numbering.  Wait substantially
    again.  Then go back in and try to adjust the header levels, which
is
    not too bad until you decide not to number below a level.  What to
do.
    Flatten, as seems obvious?  Now your outline is split into two
    new outlines, around the flat area.  Same for every flat area.

    Scrap the first try, bring up your backup.  Outline again.  This
    time, skip the program doing the numbering, and use the menus or
    keyboard equivalents to set the headers only yourself.  Now notice
    that the headers have lost whatever inter-paragraph spacing you
    had set, so your text is not formatted.  Use further manual
formatting
    on each individual header to a) set their face look b) trick with
multiple
    spacing setting, so that they have some inter-paragraph look.  You
    can use substyles to help with this.

    Now, notice that you have no option to use boxes or other framing
    etc. to make the headers stand out -- these are features of
sidebars,
    not ordinary paragraphs.

    And further, you have now outlined a chapter.  Do it for another,
    and the numbering system starts over.  Yes, you can adjust this.
    But the method looks oh-so-like chained files, which are justly
    criticized when others use them....

    Other programs do all this just a little more readily....

4)  Index and other-than-outline Table of Contents entries are made with
little text boxes.  Sounds better than in-line invisible text, but is it
really?  I agree it should be, but it'll need a better design:

    a)  Index entries can be self-writing:  select text, command key
    (%4%8 -- numeric menu order, not mnemonic keys), and then....
    You can't get rid of the box, so have to use the mouse to hit the
    close box.  Suddenly it's awkward.

    b)  Table of Contents looks just the same.  Except for some reason
    you aren't allowed the auto-entry -- have to type everything
    yourself.  Same problems getting rid of the box.

5)  Speed.  It's slow.  And resources.  Takes a lot.

Not much to say here, except that the update of viewed area is very
quick; looks like the programmers worked extremely hard.  And that
response to doing anything other than scrolling through the document is
not good.

Seems there shouldn't be any reason for the sidebars, or draw windows to
come up so slowly.  This and other speed areas suggest that a tasking
system is used to background a lot of off-screen updating, and that it's
not calibrated properly to let user-window events completely over-ride
it.  If so, this could be easily fixed.  But for now, it's sluggish.

Even in simple text entry.  Try it in sidebars; try a backspace or two.


6)  Contrary to appearances, the mixed text/graphics model really isn't
really so well supported.

    a)  Text wraps only around one side of an included object.  Note
    that all the demonstrations use 2 columns when text is on both
    sides.  Perhaps this is a minor point, but...

    b)  Using drawing with text is at least no better than building a
    the same information with a separate drawing program like
    Superpaint, and pasting in the results.  You have to do basically
    the same thing, except using 2 levels of depth -- sidebars, with a
    picture on that.

    And here problems start.  The size of the sidebar, and it's
    placement, non-wysiwyg.  And neither is the picture size.  More
    setting of sizes with dialogs and entered numbers.  Really.
    Now get the two of them straight together, or change both when you
    need a bit more room to draw.

    Seems Multifinder/paste suggests a better use of resources.


Well, I'm going to sign off; this is getting far too long.

I wish, once again, both Microsoft's and Ashton-Tate's teams best
fortune in their endeavors.  They're working on better solutions in the
main area that most people have use for the 'electronic paper' a Mac
provides.

If I had suggestions, they would run along these lines.  Multiple
controls  (rulers) and arranging out of context (placement dialogs)
aren't fun; push  and shove (the object around), or touch object and
immediately select magic, are.  Object orientation, which Word has, is a
very, very powerful paradigm, and one which can readily support growth.
(Controversy flag) Modes aren't a crime at all, only those which aren't
intuitively evident, and  which require constant switching -- conclusion
for this case, that separate text and placement modes may be a necessary
and even user-desirable feature.

Excuse the wind.


Clive Steward

P.s. to Ashton-Tate developers -- 2 bomb bugs (otherwise things seemed
pretty clean -- good work!)

a) delete an index reference, while it's window is showing.  Then close
the window.  Clearly the window should vanish w/reference, fixing
dangling pointer problem...

b) run out of disk space during a Make Outline (or was it numbering
paragraphs).  Space used by left over Virtual Mem file from previous
bomb.  Suggest oldies of these should be automatically zapped, which
Word could stand to do as well.  Users shouldn't have to check their
system folder for unknown files after a bomb.


P.s. to Pierce and Chuq

Thanks for the replies.   Pierce, I had already tried the trick, but
good idea, and you pointed out some features of FW I'd missed (auto
return-to-original rulers).  Chuq, thanks also, but your tone!  I resist
suggesting about teaching your grandmother to milk ducks (as my
Norwegian grandmother taught to me).  Au contraire, do not think of FW
or any other program as Word, thus frustration.  Simply couldn't get it
to (readily) produce end results desired.  Cheers.


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

From: [e-mail] (Larry Rosenstein)
Subject: Re: BlockMove efficiency
Date: 6 Jun 88 22:58:18 GMT
Organization: Advanced Technology Group, Apple Computer

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail]
(Earle R. Horton) writes:
>
>BlockMove isn't bad for general purpose use, and I probably couldn't
>do better.  For specific cases, however, there is certainly room for
>speed improvement.  BlockMove uses "move.b" for all moves, and strings

The last statement doesn't appear to be true in looking at the Mac Plus
& Mac II.  It uses MOVE.B's only if the exactly one of the source and
destination addresses is odd.  The code uses MOVE.W and MOVE.L where
possible and on the 68000 uses MOVEM.L if the number of bytes is greater
than 160.

You are right, however, that in some special cases you can do better
than BlockMove, since BlockMove is written for the general case.  The
code distinguishes a few different cases which takes a few cycles.  Also
remember that if you call BlockMove via a trap it takes a few
microseconds; you can get the address of BlockMove at the start of the
program and JSR directly to the code to eliminate this overhead.
--
         Larry Rosenstein,  Object Specialist
 Apple Computer, Inc.  20525 Mariani Ave, MS 27-AJ  Cupertino, CA 95014
        AppleLink:Rosenstein1    domain:[e-mail]
        UUCP:{sun,voder,nsc,decwrl}!apple!lsr


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

From: [e-mail] (Dan Allen)
Subject: Re: BlockMove efficiency
Date: 7 Jun 88 05:32:13 GMT
Organization: Apple Computer Inc, Cupertino, CA

BlockMove was considerably enhanced in the MacPlus over the original
Mac, and the new improved version has been present on all machines since
the Mac Plus.

The new improved BlockMove uses a MOVE.L loop when possible and for
blocks of memory larger than 124 bytes will use a VERY FAST 12 register
MOVEM.L instruction that is about as optimized as possible: result?
_BlockMove is good for both general purpose and many specialized calls.
In fact, MultiFinder even uses BlockMove to do its low memory context
switching.  You can't get much better.  And what is neat is that it has
different strategies depending on how much you are moving.

Everyone ought to go out and call _BlockMove today!
--
Dan Allen
Software Explorer
Apple Computer


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

From: [e-mail] (David O'Rourke)
Subject: Re: ResEdit Clipboard Format?
Date: 7 Jun 88 06:50:35 GMT
Organization: Cal Poly State University -- San Luis Obispo

  The "problem" with ResEdit isn't that it doesn't post to the clipboard
in a "known" format, it's that it doesn't covert the data to a "common"
format.

  It is my understanding that the format of the data on the Clipboard is
just the same as the resource that was copied.  So if you were to copy a
"BNDL", ResEdit would put a resource of type "BNDL" on the clipboard.
Now most applications don't support "BNDL" data types, so they don't
allow you to "import" them.

  Most applications only import things from the clipboard such as "TEXT"
or "PICT" resources, and selected custom resource formats.

  Hope this helps.  I believe the information about to be accurate, but
I've been wrong before, and with so many different versions of ResEdit
running around you never know what they're going to do.

--
David M. O'Rourke

Disclaimer: I don't represent the school.  All opinions are mine!


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

From: [e-mail] (Peter Espen)
Subject: Any utilities for auto-running apps?
Date: 7 Jun 88 07:06:40 GMT


    I know this is asking alot BUT..... Are there any utilities that will
allow a Mac to run applications AND specicfic operations in the
applications un-attended at a specific time of day?
--
    Peter Espen
    (espen@well)


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

From: [e-mail] (Andy J. Williams)
Subject: Re: word stuff
Date: 7 Jun 88 14:40:10 GMT
Organization: Kiewit Computation Center, Dartmouth College

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail]
(Pierce T. Wetter) writes:
>
>   Guess what I got in the mail today! Some free software from MicroSoft.
>(Something about my being such a nice guy, they felt they should send me
>something.)

Yes, I got this little bit of fun too...

>  Included were, AutoMacIII and WordFinder.
>  Review: AutoMacIII is a mini-macro package. At first I was enthused about it
>and tried to configure the finder to automatically launch some applications
>but when it was unable to double click I dumped it.

um, AutoMac is an INIT which means you stick it into your system folder
and it comes up when you reboot.  It sticks a very small "A" in the menu
bar just to the left of the Apple.  When you click this, it brings up
the macro commands screen.  I must say, this INIT is a beautiful example
of how to completely and totally throw the Macintosh User Interface
Guidelines out the window.  My first impression: JUNK!  Yes, it has some
rather nice features that Quick Keys doesn't do very well, but the
interface is crap.  I did not want to sit there and fight with it.  So,
I dumped it and re-installed QuicKeys. (If you don't have QuicKeys, then
AutoMac III will do the job, but I find it hard to believe that they
were able to get up to version III with such a shoddy interface.)  Sorry
if I am being overly harsh, but I hold to the maxim that programs on the
mac should be intuitive, and you should be able to figure out what the
hell is going on in a short amount of time.  AutoMac failed.

>   WordFinder is the same thesaurus that's in FW, the version they give you (its
> a Desk Acessory) only works in word (and for some bizarre reason the Finder)
> but its still not enough to make me switch back from FullWrite.

I think the working only in word is somewhat obnoxious, but oh well.  It
also will not make me switch back from Fullwrite.  But, since I only
have a 1mb machine, I use Fullwrite for only fancy stuff.  Paper writing
and stuff still gets done in word because of speed.  I really like FW
but until I get an upgrade of more memory... *sigh*  (I keep getting
"Not enough memory..." messages...

--
-Andy


Andy J. Williams '90   |Ack Systems: [e-mail]|   _   /|
Software Development   +--------------------------------------+   \`o_O' ACK!
Kiewit Computation Ctr |Hello. Set $NAME='Iinigo Montoya' You |     ( )  /
Dartmouth College      |kill -9 my process. Prepare to vi.    |      U


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

From: cca@pur-phy (Charles C. Allen)
Subject: Re: PT109 (possible SPOILER)
Date: 3 Jun 88 18:11:39 GMT
Organization: Purdue Univ. Phys Dept, W.Lafayette, IN

In article <[e-mail]>, [e-mail] (Jeff Meyer) writes:
> 2)  Very easy to win at level 1.  I mean, a PT boat killing 7 destroyers?

Actually, this can happen at level 4 also.  Sometimes, the enemy never
seems to notice you if you keep your muffler on.  Just get in formation
with 'em and start plugging away.  Gets boring real quick.

The gun effectiveness seems way out of line.  You can sink a destroyer
in less than a minute with 1 50cal machine gun.

The view of ships from the cockpit is pretty useless for firing
torpedoes.  The ships appear much larger than they should, so I end up
using the radar display to see when I should fire.  Weird.

Nice game concept, but they need to work on it a little more....

Charlie Allen            [e-mail]


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

From: [e-mail]
Subject: Re: Spoolers for the Mac/PM woes
Date: 6 Jun 88 21:01:35 GMT
Organization: The Portal System (TM)


    Our poroblem here is with Pagemaker files... Yes, Yes, I know there
is a little box that if selected converts output to Apple , but our
paper uases a lot of screens, etcc. and the Apple driver just won't get
it.
    TOPS offers a buffer of sorts, but if you print more than a
half-newspaper page at a time, the spoll folder fills up and I have to
wait and wait, and wait.
   My question is: Can you increase the size of the spool folder in TOPS
or is there a spooler out there which WILL spool Pagermaker files?

       Greetings from Saipan, home of the 5% income tax!


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

From: [e-mail] (Josh Hodas)
Subject: Re: Adobe fonts (was Re: FullWrite -- obliqued cursors are a major pain
Date: 7 Jun 88 13:58:07 GMT
Organization: University of Pennsylvania

>If you have a laserwriter or laserwriter+, you really want to get the Adobe
>versions of the bitmaps. They are SIGNIFICANTLY better than the ones shipped
>by Apple. And if you're using a program that reads .AFM files (Freehand and
>FullWrite are two I know of, offhand) you want those, too.

These bitmaps are terrific.  I think they produce the BEST imagewriter
II  output Ive seen bar none.  As long as the limited number of sizes is
ok (I  only use 12pt as there is a 24pt in the set) you get really
beautiful characters.  Anyone of them is better than all the shareware
fonts Ive used. Garamond and Garamond Italic have become my standard
bitmap font.

Anyway, what Im saying is that you should get these bitmaps even if you
dont have a Laser printer.
--
Josh Hodas    ([e-mail])
4223 Pine Street
Philadelphia, PA 19104

[phone]   (home)
[phone]   (school office)


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

From: [e-mail] (Ken Cooper)
Subject: Re: FullWrite -- I'm sorry, but...
Date: 7 Jun 88 17:59:07 GMT
Organization: University of California, San Diego

In reference to outlining in FullWrite, I have one complaint. My
interpretation of outlines may be false, but I was expecting a skeletal
outlining facility,  i.e. a system which allowed one to gradually work
from a rough skeleton of key phrases to a working document. This would
require of course that the skeletal phrases themselves could be
eliminated when appropriate.  FullWrite's  outlining seems to be more of
a free form enumerating system. Word 3.0.2 has the facilities I
mentioned above; is there a simple way to coerce  FullWrite into the
same behavior?

Disclaimer:  I *love* FullWrite, and won't be going back.

Ken Cooper
--
ARPA:            [e-mail]
UUCP:            ...!ucsd!sdcsvax!cooper
COMPUSERVE:        71571,407


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

From: [e-mail] (Phil Goldman)
Subject: Re: Question about multitasking on the mac
Date: 7 Jun 88 18:33:32 GMT
Organization: Apple Computer Inc, Cupertino, CA

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (David O'Rourke)
writes:
>In article <[e-mail]> medix![e-mail] writes:
>>Hi,
>>
>>Here's the problem: I start 4th Dimension on one database, then go to
>>the finder and attempt to start a second 4th Dimension process on a
>> good descriptiion of the problem.
>
>
>   Simply answer.  The Macintosh doesn't do Multi-Tasking!!!
>
>   Multi-Finder simply allows you to do context switching between loaded
>Applications.  It sort of a method to preload all of the software that you
>wish to work with ahead of time, and then quick switch between the already
>loaded software.
>
>   There is no concept of a process on the Macintosh, so you can't do what
>you were asking.  Despite user expectations, the Mac and personal computers
>in general are still single treaded beasts, and will be that way for at least
>one more year.

This is not quite true.  It is possible to start up multiple processes
from a single application in MultiFinder.  The caveat is that since each
process must be tied to a (unique) backing application you must have
multiple copies of the application on your disk.  MultiFinder enforces
this because the current launch interface is used by certain apps
(including 4D in fact) to clear out their application heaps when they
call _Launch on themselves (they certainly don't want another copy!).

Using multiple copies of apps is very useful under MultiFinder,
especially for single-window apps like MacWrite and HyperCard.  Copying
the app is as easy as selecting its icon in the Finder and typing cmd-D
(or using the Duplicate command in the File menu).
--
-Phil Goldman
Apple Computer


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

From: [e-mail] (Rudi Jay Halbright)
Subject: Databases for the Mac
Date: 7 Jun 88 16:59:44 GMT
Organization: Carnegie Mellon


  I'm looking for a powerful, programmable, relational Database system
for the Mac.  It should be comparable to Dbase III+ on the IBM PC in
terms of flexability and power.
 Double Helix II and 4th Dimension look like good options, but
FoxBase+/Mac is tempting as it offers compatibility with Dbase on the
PC.  The completed database will be distributed (for free) to the
Psychology community so it is important that whatever we use can be used
without the database system.

   I'd appreciate any info on these databases or any other suitable
ones.
 Thanks....


                                     -Rudi Halbright
                          Dept of Psychology
                          Carngie Mellon University

                          [e-mail]

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

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