Info-Mac 3/Info_Mac_1994-01.iso/Periodical/TidBITs/TidBITS#153⁄23-Nov-92.etx

Text File | 1992-12-08 | 27KB | 609 lines

TidBITS#153/23-Nov-92
=====================

 This week we have news about important updates to THINK C and
   FileMaker Pro 2.0, a note about a procedure that makes that new
   HP LaserJet 4M print correctly, a good buy on ClarisWorks and
   Quicken, and reviews of two snazzy programs, the shareware
   Frontier Runtime from UserLand Software and the freeware
   MacEuclid, an innovative hypertext program.


This issue of TidBITS sponsored in part by:

* Nisus Software -- 800/922-2993 x305 -- [e-mail]
    For info on Nisus or QUED/M contact us. Updates now shipping!

 For detailed information on Nisus Software and their products,
   please send email to <[e-mail]>. To receive all this
   information in one file, send email to <[e-mail]>.

 Copyright 1990-1992 Adam & Tonya Engst. Non-profit, non-commercial
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Topics:
    MailBITS/23-Nov-92
    THINK C 5.0.4 Update
    FileMaker Pro 2.0v2 Update
    ClarisWorks/Quicken Deal
    Frontier Runtime
    MacEuclid
    Reviews/23-Nov-92

[Archived as /info-mac/digest/tb/tidbits-153.etx; 27K]


MailBITS/23-Nov-92
------------------
  We'll be out of town for Thanksgiving, but because of our
  PowerBook 100, the trip will not interrupt the flow of TidBITS
  issues. It will prevent me from easily reading Internet mail (yes,
  I could work it out with AppleTalk Remote Access, but it's not
  worth the effort, especially since we are only bringing a 2400 bps
  modem), so please refrain from sending me unnecessary email until
  next week. If you need to contact me, I will read email on
  CompuServe, so use that address:

    [e-mail]

  The fileserver will be up and running, and I've even worked out
  this cool automation with QuicKeys, Nisus, and Frontier to reroute
  UUCP mailfiles that want to go to a host that can't receive mail
  from me. The UPS should protect against power outages, and
  hopefully I'll even be able to set MacsBug to automatically
  restart the Mac should something crash. In other words, please
  keep requesting the informational files from Nisus Software, but
  if you don't get them for a few days, wait until I get back -
  something may have gone wrong that I couldn't fix remotely.


HP LaserJet 4 and 4M Notice
  Mark H. Anbinder passes on this note from Hewlett Packard. "Be
  sure to follow step number 10 in the "Setting Up Your HP LaserJet
  4 Guide." The guide refers to two levers which need to be pushed
  down before operating the printer. These levers engage the fusing
  assembly. The print will not fuse to the paper and will smear if
  the levers are not pushed down. The documentation shows a picture
  of the back of the printer and the levers but tells the user to
  follow the instructions on the packaging material, which is not
  very descriptive. It is likely that this step will be skipped by
  many users and technicians alike."

  Information from:
    Hewlett-Packard


Microsoft Creativity
  Mark Zimmermann posted this to Info-Mac digest recently. "Saw an
  amusing quote in a New York Times wire service item earlier this
  week... In regards to Intel and Microsoft teaming up to sell
  full-motion video products for IBM-compatible PCs, Hugh Chang,
  Microsoft's manager for multimedia products said:

    'The Macintosh has been accepted by the creative
     community. That market isn't very interesting to us.'"

  [Yup, and remember, us creative Macintosh types can't write good
  either 'cause we be too busy playing with our cute little fonts.
  Apple said something about being pecked to death by ducks, I'd
  like to amend that to feeling like being pecked to death by
  turkeys, something I actually have some experience in, having
  raised turkeys in my youth. - Adam]

  Information from:
    Mark Zimmermann -- [e-mail]


Walnut Creek Fiasco
  Dale Baker writes:

  I thought I'd mention that Walnut Creek CD-ROM does not even own a
  Macintosh and when I spoke to the tech support guy he said "I wish
  we didn't even sell Mac CD-ROMs." This was after I immediately
  called about the Garbo CD-ROM (as mentioned in TidBITS#148).

  Walnut Creek could not tell me why I was unable to see any files
  in the window to access the disc. Eventually I found that if I
  went through a file dialog box that I could find the programs;
  however I still had to convert from MacBinary and decompress the
  files.

  I wasn't impressed (to say the least) and am waiting for my copy
  of the Info-Mac CD. I expect it to be better due to the fact that
  Mac users created it for a Mac, on a Mac. Thank the gods for HFS
  CD-ROMs!

  I would steer Mac users clear of Walnut Creek until there has been
  a clear statement that they support Macintosh and own at least one
  Mac on which they test their product before selling it.

  Information from:
    Dale Baker -- [e-mail]


THINK C 5.0.4 Update
--------------------
  Symantec fixed the bug in THINK C 5.0.3 that we mentioned in
  TidBITS#149 and has made an updater available for FTP on <sumex-
  aim.stanford.edu> as:

    /info-mac/lang/think-c-504-tcl-112-update.hqx

  The update corrects problems with the Quadra, the code motion
  optimization, and other problems present in earlier versions. The
  file also includes a TCL (THINK Class Libraries) update that is
  identical to the one from the 5.0.2 and 5.0.3 updates. If you are
  currently using version 5.0 or 5.0.1 and use the TCL, you need
  this update.

  If you have any questions about this update, or about THINK C or
  THINK Pascal in general, please send them to Languages Tech
  Support at:

    [e-mail]

  Information from:
    Phil Shapiro -- [e-mail]


FileMaker Pro 2.0v2 Update
--------------------------
  by Charles Wheeler -- [e-mail]

  As a follow-up to my FileMaker Pro 2.0 review in TidBITS#150, note
  that Claris is now shipping FileMaker Pro 2.0v2. Several areas of
  improvement and squished bugs include Apple events, Browse Mode,
  Define Fields, Find Mode, Import/Export, Printing, ScriptMaker,
  and network operation. Specifics can be found in Claris support
  areas on major online services, and the details also ship with the
  update. This maintenance release is free to all registered owners
  of FileMaker Pro 2.0v1, but it is not automatic. You can order the
  update by calling Claris at the number below.

  My review mentioned FileMaker Pro's inability to dial phone
  numbers from within the application. The expected flood of little
  applications that would use Apple events to remedy this situation
  has yet to appear. What has appeared, however, is InTouch 2.0, a
  great little DA address book that does a multitude of things very
  well. It comes with a Control Panel called Snap*, which interacts
  with the DA from within other applications, even when InTouch is
  not open. Snap* can also dial a phone number from within any
  application by pressing a user-defined hot key. I've tested it
  with FileMaker Pro 2.0v2 on my extension-laden Mac and it worked
  like the proverbial charm. No hacks, macros, or Apple events
  required. You could even highlight the Claris number below and
  dial it from within this file. InTouch 2.0 is from Advanced
  Software, who seem to be taking their name seriously.

    Claris -- 800/544-8554
    Advanced Software -- 408/733-0745


ClarisWorks/Quicken Deal
------------------------
  If you're thinking about buying ClarisWorks soon, you might add it
  to your Christmas list. Until 01-Jan-93 every ClarisWorks box
  includes a free copy of Quicken, Intuit's popular personal finance
  program. I've never used Quicken personally (I started with
  MacMoney and these aren't the sort of programs you switch easily),
  but it's a pretty good deal if you need a personal finance
  program. Quicken normally lists for $69 and ClarisWorks for $299,
  but you can find them for as little as $42 and $199 pretty easily.
  It doesn't appear from a quick call to MacConnection that you get
  Quicken with the $95 ClarisWorks sidegrade offer.

    Claris Customer Relations -- 408/727-8227

  Information from:
    Mark H. Anbinder, Contributing Editor


Frontier Runtime
----------------
  In the history of the Macintosh, only a few programs have
  developed a strong, cult-like following. The last program to do
  this was HyperCard; I think the next program with cult potential
  is UserLand Software's commercial Frontier program and its loyal
  sidekick, Frontier Runtime, a $25 shareware program. Frontier lets
  wireheads create scripts that can do neat and extremely practical
  stuff. Frontier Runtime - which requires no head-mounted wires,
  less checkbook input, and half the RAM - executes those scripts.

  Frontier scripting offers functionality previously only available
  via extensions or not at all, but without the expense and
  potential conflicts brought about by extensions. Right now, the
  Frontier family is trying to cross the road of a chicken and egg
  situation, and to get to the other side, it needs more Runtime
  users and more script writers creating Frontier scripts.

  Frontier has gained some early popularity in large organizations
  where a network administrator can write scripts to provide extra
  functions to users, thus avoiding the cost and hassle of buying
  and installing commercial extensions and utilities. The next place
  I anticipate Frontier scripts catching on is on the Internet,
  where scripts can easily be stored and passed around, just like
  freeware and shareware utilities.

  But back to HyperCard for a moment, because there are some
  analogies. Imaginative authors have used HyperCard to create
  gigabytes of stacks ranging from the useful to the trivial, from
  the insightful to the inane. Yet many stack developers long for
  more power than HyperCard provides internally; hence the
  popularity of the XCMD and XFCN collections from developers like
  Frederic Rinaldi. Frontier and Runtime provide much of that power
  internally with hooks into the Macintosh operating system and what
  they lack can be made up with Apple event-aware programs like the
  StuffIt family.

  Unlike HyperCard, which can both read and create stacks, Runtime
  is a read-only tool, working with scripts created in Frontier.
  (However, we should remember that Apple is now shipping the read-
  only HyperCard Player with new Macs, at least in the US - they're
  not doing even that in Sweden.) Keep in mind that many people use
  HyperCard in a read-only mode much of the time, using stacks
  others create and distribute. Runtime could - with the proper set
  of circumstances - be even more useful (though perhaps not so
  occasionally silly) than HyperCard to the average Macintosh user.
  We'll look at Frontier and its power in more depth next week, but
  for the moment, I'm willing to venture that Runtime is more
  important.


So what exactly is it?
  Frontier Runtime is a moderately sized application, (it likes 512K
  of RAM, half of Frontier's 1,024K memory partition) and includes
  an Object Database that stores a number of types of information
  for use by scripts. Runtime runs most Frontier scripts, and can
  thus control most parts of the Macintosh operating system,
  including such tasks as copying, moving, deleting, and creating
  files, making aliases, checking file and folder sizes and
  contents, and so on. Special scripts, called agents, run at
  specific times, and other special scripts, called droplets, work
  on the file dropped on them in the Finder. Scripts can be made
  into stand-alone documents, or desktop scripts, for the ones that
  you only want to use occasionally with Runtime.


FinderMenu
  The product that makes Frontier Runtime compelling comes from
  Steve Zellers, who by day works for Berkeley Systems (the After
  Dark folks). In his obviously copious spare time, Steve created an
  ingenious hack called FinderMenu. It's a free utility composed of
  an extension and an application (probably destined to become a
  single faceless application) that places a Scripts menu in the
  Finder when Frontier or Runtime is active, no mean feat since
  Finder 7.0 is not particularly Apple event-aware. FinderMenu comes
  with a number of useful scripts immediately available, including
  one that allows you to click on a folder in the Finder and select
  a menu item or hit a command key to back it up to another folder.
  This is useful not just as a safety backup, but also as a logical
  backup that protects you from any deleterious changes you might
  make when playing. FinderMenu also has a synchronization script
  that is especially useful for PowerBook users, and includes
  scripts that can find text within files, set creators and types,
  create aliases in specific places (such as the Apple Menu Items
  folder, Startup Items folder, etc.), and create a list of
  applications to launch and folders to open from that single Finder
  menu.

  Those functions may not sound tremendously innovative, but
  consider what other utilities you would need to duplicate them.
  I'd probably back up individual folders only manually (and thus
  not at all), find text with Super Boomerang, set creators and
  types with DiskTop, create aliases with Alias Director, launch
  applications from a menu with Now Menus, and open folders from the
  Apple menu. You may or may not already rely on those utilities,
  but you must admit that it's an impressive feature set from a
  single extension and two applications. Most programmers I know shy
  away from running tons of extensions because of the uncertainty it
  brings to the Macintosh environment, and FinderMenu and Frontier
  Runtime can take over for a number of popular trap-patchers. I
  know that I'm ready to swear off some of them after suffering
  through a series of unexplained crashes.

  Of course, there's nothing stopping you from adding other scripts
  to your Scripts menu except the availability of those scripts.
  Here are some ideas for Frontier script writers to consider
  donating to the Macintosh community. I download files in a number
  of formats, BinHex, StuffIt, Compact Pro, and so on, into a single
  folder, and it would be nice to have a script go through and,
  communicating with StuffIt Deluxe or StuffIt Lite, defunk those
  files no matter what format they are in. I've written the
  rudiments of such a script, and such a script could work as an
  item in the Scripts menu or as a desktop script, one that you
  double-click from the desktop to activate.

  Another idea is to create a script, probably a desktop script
  since it wouldn't be used all that often, that would clean out a
  System Folder after  an Easy Install. Wouldn't it be nice to
  quickly and automatically eliminate DAL, the AppleTalk LQ
  ImageWriter driver, and similar junk?. For safety, this script
  would move those items to a Junk Folder on the desktop rather than
  deleting them; that would give you a chance to double-check.

  Speaking of deleting files, a well-written script could do clever
  things like make it easy to delete files of certain names, types,
  or creators (like Word Temp files, perhaps, or maybe aliases
  without originals), again moving the files to a Junk Folder for
  manual checking. With a little work, a Frontier agent script might
  even be able to perform the same functions as TrashMan, which
  deletes files after they have been in the Trash for a specified
  amount of time.

  The possibilities are literally limited only by your imagination
  (and someone's ability to script in Frontier). In addition, if
  you're a network manager type, think of the utility of providing a
  core set of functions to everyone in your organization without
  continually purchasing, installing, and troubleshooting additional
  software. And of course, keep in mind that Apple events can travel
  a network, which further increases the possibilities, including
  scripts that ensure public hard disks contain only a specific set
  of files. More on that next week.

  If you wish to check out Frontier Runtime and FinderMenu (and I
  strongly recommend that you do), they (along with other Frontier
  scripts and related files) are available for anonymous FTP from
  <syrinx.kgs.ukans.edu> or <dartcms1.dartmouth.edu>. You can also
  get a list of files available from the Dartmouth machine (home of
  the Frontier LISTSERV, which we'll discuss next week) by sending
  email to:

    [e-mail]

  with this line in the body of the mailfile:

    INDEX FRONTIER

  CompuServe users can check out UserLand's GO USERLAND forum for
  all the latest and greatest, plus continuous discussion with Dave
  Winer and Doug Baron, co-developers of Frontier.

    UserLand Software Inc.
    400 Seaport Court
    Redwood City CA  94063
    415/369-6600
    415/369-6618 (fax)
    [e-mail]
    [e-mail]


MacEuclid
---------
  by Matt Neuburg -- [e-mail]

  The power of a computer is to store, manipulate, and retrieve
  information; the power of the Macintosh is to present visual
  representations of that information which can be directly
  manipulated by the user. To me, anyway, this describes the Mac at
  its most Mac-like.

  Contrary to popular supposition, the variations on this theme are
  far from exhausted. TidBITS has made a habit of calling attention
  to some of the more original and powerful contributions to the
  Macintosh info-processing world, with reviews of such hypertextual
  organizational milieus as Storyspace and Inspiration. Aficionados
  may now wish to look at a remarkable little freeware gem that has
  appeared on the nets, MacEuclid.

  MacEuclid is a thesis project, the brainchild of Bernard Bernstein
  at the University of Colorado at Boulder. It is intended for
  visual representation and databasing of arguments. When I say
  "argument," I don't mean just "a single organized line of
  reasoning" - MacEuclid is not an outliner. I mean "a knock-down
  drag-out debate." MacEuclid best handles data such as, "Person A
  uses evidence X to claim P, but Person B uses evidence Y to claim
  Q, which is supposed to refute P and support R." This may sound
  arcane to some, but to me, trying to notate scholarly debates for
  reference, for study, and for later incorporation into class
  lectures or published material, it's bread-and-butter stuff. I
  discovered MacEuclid when I was at wit's end because, try as I
  might, I could not stuff into an outliner in any convenient or
  meaningful form the scholarly debate on the nature and date of the
  arrival of the "Indo-Europeans" into Greece. Guess what? MacEuclid
  handles it.

  MacEuclid is easy to describe. In a window, you create Text
  Objects. Each has a text, of course, but also, optionally, a
  source (who says this?), and a type (what sort of utterance is it?
  "claim," "definition," "premise," "hypothesis," "observation," and
  "conclusion" are possible examples; none are included, you make up
  your own). The text objects are represented as boxes which you can
  resize and move around the window.

  Then you create Relations. These are essentially labelled arrows
  running from Text Object to Text Object, except that they can also
  run to or from other Relations, and any number of Text Objects or
  Relations can feed into or out of a Relation. Again, each has,
  optionally, a source (who says this?) and a type ("supports,"
  "refutes," and "therefore" are possible types; again, none are
  included, you make up your own).

  You can also create List Objects. These are essentially Text
  Objects consisting of sets of Text Objects. For example, if I have
  fifteen pieces of evidence that someone uses to show that the
  Trojans were Indo-Europeans, I might make a Text Object of each,
  then combine them all into a single List Object for simplicity.
  Now, MacEuclid is _not_ itself a logical analyzer. It knows
  nothing of the "meaning" of any Relations that you create; you
  can't use it to check whether a conclusion "really" follows from
  its premises. Indeed, that's the point; we're speaking here of
  arguments in which whether X is _really_ evidence for P is
  precisely what is at issue. So, apart from making pretty pictures
  of debates (which you could have done with a drawing program),
  what's it for?

  Glad you asked. First, you can have multiple windows on a
  document, and the very same object can appear in several windows,
  being updated automatically in all if changes are made in one.
  These windows are called displays, and each is stored as a
  separate file; the linkages across them are maintained by a master
  database file. The diagrammatic representation of the argument
  thus becomes three-dimensional. A window need never become too
  crowded; one part of the argument can live in one display, another
  in another, and so on. You can organize for convenience and
  simplicity in _each_ display, while links are maintained across
  _all_ displays.

  Closely related to this is MacEuclid's capacity to hide and show
  objects. You can select objects, and hide them: they become
  invisible. At any later time, you can show any or all of them,
  selecting from a list. More important, you can select an object,
  and ask that any or all of its "relatives" be shown (each relative
  is a Relation leading into or out of your object, plus all Text
  Objects attached to that Relation). And you can do this in any
  display, regardless of the display in which you originally created
  that set of relatives: in other words, any part of the argument
  which you have marked in any display as relevant to a particular
  object can be examined from within any other display showing that
  object. This aspect of MacEuclid is referred to by its author, not
  without some justification, as hypertextual.

  Finally, the whole argument, or a List object subset of it, can be
  queried as a database. As fields in your query you can specify
  text, type, source, Relations, and other features; found matches
  are gathered into a List object for you, and from there you can
  use the hypertextual features of MacEuclid to examine your results
  further. So once the argument is drawn up, it is easy to ask, in
  effect, "what observational evidence does Drews use to counter
  Kammenhuber's claim that the Indo-Iranians never ruled in
  Mitanni?", and have instant access to just that part of the
  argument that answers this question.

  A last feature of MacEuclid is one that I am not likely to use,
  but which may be one of its most powerful: an argument, as
  embodied in a database, can be worked on over a network by
  multiple users. Each user logs in to MacEuclid when starting it
  up, and can examine or add to any part of the argument, but can
  change only features of the argument which she or he created in
  the first place. Thus MacEuclid can be used not only to chart an
  argument, but to engage in an argument.

  MacEuclid has both simplicity and power - in short, it's downright
  elegant. It's a work in progress: bugs exist, but the author wants
  to hear about these, and to receive any other feedback the netting
  public wishes to offer. It merits serious attention.

  MacEuclid is currently posted at <sumex-aim.stanford.edu> as two
  files:

    /info-mac/app/euclid-11b14.hqx
    /info-mac/app/euclid-docs.hqx

  MacEuclid's author can be reached as [e-mail] or
  [e-mail].



Reviews/23-Nov-92
-----------------

* MacWEEK -- 16-Nov-92, Vol. 6, #41
    Adobe Premiere 2.0 -- pg. 77
    VideoFusion 1.0 -- pg. 77
    Works 3.0 -- pg. 77
    DiVA VideoShop 1.0 -- pg. 78
    Ardat Python 4352XP -- pg. 84
    MetaDesign 3.0 -- pg. 86
    TimeWorks Color It! 2.0 -- pg. 86

* BYTE -- Dec-92
    New Macs -- pg. 44
    HP LaserJet 4M -- pg. 209
    ExperVision TypeReader -- pg. 213
    Tektronix Phase II SD -- pg. 217
    XVT 3.0 -- pg. 224

* MacUser -- Dec-92
    Pixar Typestry and StrataType 3d -- pg. 50
    IntelliDraw -- pg. 52
    Managing Your Money 5.0 -- pg. 53
    Generic CADD 2.0 -- pg. 56
    PhonePro -- pg. 58
    Interactive Physics II -- pg. 70
    Resorcerer -- pg. 71
    StatView 4.0 -- pg. 73
    Expressionist 3.0 and MathType 3.0 -- pg. 77
    TypeReader -- pg. 81
    MasterWord -- pg. 89
    FlowChart Express -- pg. 89
    Just Grandma and Me -- pg. 89
    Retrieve It! -- pg. 90
    SnapBack -- pg. 90
    Macintosh IIvx -- pg. 126
    PowerBook 160 and 180 -- pg. 134
    Macintosh PowerBook Duo 210 and 230 -- pg. 144
    System 7.1 -- pg. 162
    PowerBook and SCSI Display Adapters -- pg. 172
      Envisio Notebook Display Adapter
      Envisio Notebook Display Adapter 030
      Computer Care BookView Imperial
      Outbound Outrigger Intelligent Monitor
      Sigma Power Portrait
      Radius PowerView
    Presentation Monitors -- pg. 190
      Mitsubishi Diamond Pro 37
      Sony RVP-6000Q

* Macworld -- Dec-92
    Macintosh PowerBook Duos -- pg. 192
    PowerBook 145, 160, and 180 -- pg. 200
    Macintosh IIvx -- pg. 206
    Tape Backup Devices -- pg. 218
      (too many to list)
    Cachet 1.0 -- pg. 240
    CompuServe Information Manager 2.0.1 -- pg. 242
    Omnis 7 1.1 -- pg. 244
    Kodak Renaissance -- pg. 246
    PowerPort/Gold -- pg. 248
    AutoCAD Release 11 -- pg. 250
    JobTracker 2.02 -- pg. 252
    Grade Machine 5.0 -- pg. 263
    Making the Grade 2.0 -- pg. 263
    EtherPrint, EtherPrint Plus, and EtherWrite -- pg. 264
    MacBreadboard 1.1 -- pg. 266
    Power Menus 1.0 -- pg. 266
    Expert Astronomer -- pg. 268
    Simulink 1.2 -- pg. 268
    The Castle of Dr. Brain -- pg. 270
    Headline Harry and the Great Paper Race -- pg. 270
    PersonalFont -- pg. 272
    Interactive Physics II 1.0 -- pg. 272
    PowerKey 2.0 -- pg. 274
    Sequencer 2.0 -- pg. 274
    The Diet Balancer 1.0 -- pg. 276
    NutriCalc Plus 1.2 -- pg. 276
    SnapBack 1.0 -- pg. 276
    Go Master 5.0 -- pg. 278
    TechWorks NetUtilities -- pg. 278
    Warlords -- pg. 280
    Office Manager 2.1 -- pg. 280
    UpDiff 1.0 -- pg. 282
    Comic Strip Factory 1.6 -- pg. 282
    Megatoons -- pg. 282
    Cordless SuperMouse -- pg. 284
    The Mouse Yoke -- pg. 284


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