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State of the Executor Address: 3/1/92



Dear Folks,

	Executor-MSW V1.1 has been shipped to everyone (with the  
exception of an overseas order of 20 which will be going out Monday)  
that has previously purchased Executor-MSW V1.0.  [you may want to  
check out Jiro Nakamura's review in comp.sys.next.announce].  The big  
addition to V1.1 is printing.  However, in V1.1, bitmap fonts are  
used on the screen and even though the Adobe fonts are used when  
printing, the bitmap "metrics" are still being used so text that is  
"right justified" doesn't line up correctly.  This will be fixed in  
V1.2 which you will also get for free.

	The sad news is that Executor-MSW has been short-changing our  
friends across the puddle because it has not properly handled  
diacritical marks.  The good news is that we have fixed the problem.   
The sad news is that the fix came after 1.1 was released.  The good  
news is there's a new release, V1.1.1, which is what will be shipped  
to anyone that purchases Executor-MSW from this point on.  If you  
need diacritical support (nothing else has been changed), then we're  
willing to send you a copy of V1.1.1 for free.  Please don't ask  
unless you really need it.  The fix will be in V1.2 and you'll get  
that automatically just like you got (or will get shortly) V1.1.

	We still haven't made much progress listing what runs and  
doesn't run, since we've been working without sleep to get V1.1 and  
more importantly V1.2 out the door.  V1.1 doesn't help other  
applications run, however by the time V1.2 comes out I want the  
commonly used file utilities to work correctly (notably stuffit and  
compactorpro) as well as a couple of small programs that people have  
been asking for:  "Quicken" and "MacInTax".

	I believe we can use unmvax.cs.unm.edu for ftp'able material.   
I've sent a letter to the appropriate authorities to make clarify  
that, but unless they say no, I'll put a few things out there for  
general consumption:

setcreatortype.c		discussed below

Documentation/Executor-MSW	the current manuals for people who
				haven't yet purchased Executor-MSW
				to peruse

ReleaseNotes1.1.rtf		the 1.1 release notes for
				non-purchasers

	Work on Excel support is going well, a major breakthrough was  
made this weekend and we hope to be shipping copies to beta-testers  
within a couple of weeks.

	--Cliff

FOR POWER USERS/PROGRAMMERS ONLY:

	There has been some confusion about "Apple Double" format and  
"resource forks".  The problem is that there are programs like  
FloppyWorks and kermit that will cheerfully copy the "resource fork"  
of a Macintosh file if you ask for it, but then when you prepend a  
"%" to the fork and try to use it with Executor, you don't get  
anywhere.  This is because the files that Executor (and HFS_XFer)  
use/create that begin with "%" actually contain more than just the  
resource fork.  They contain other information that's needed as well.   
Still, there are some reasons why you may find yourself with a  
resource fork and want to turn it into something that Executor can  
use, so I wrote a quick hack of a program, called "setcreatortype"  
that will allow you to do just that.  The file "type" and "creator"  
are two important things that get thrown away when you use a program  
like FloppyWorks to copy data between a Mac and a UNIX system.  An  
example use of "setcreatortype" is:

% setcreatortype "PNC1" "APPL" < Norton_Util > %Norton_Util

That is the command that I used to check to make sure that  
setcreatortype works (I don't have any need for it, because I use  
HFS_XFer to push my stuff across).  The first argument, "PNC1", is  
what's known in the Macintosh community as the file "creator"; it is  
a special tag that identifies programs and data files written by  
programs.  I found out the proper creator for Norton Utilities by  
using the "ResEdit" program.  The second argument, "APPL", tells what  
type of data is in the file that we're using.  "APPL" stands for  
application.  Another common type is "TEXT".  If you know what all  
these are then you may want to pick up the setcreatortype program  
from unmvax.cs.unm.edu (I can mail it to you if you don't have ftp  
access).  It is a real hack of a program but some of you have been  
clamoring for it.