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Text File | 1995-06-13 | 25KB | 553 lines

Welcome to MagiCMacø! "Because Every Mac Can Use a Little Magic!" Multitasking TOS Emulation for the Macintosh With The Enhanced Features of the EASE Desktop! MagiCMacø is a product of Application Systems Heidelberg All Rights Reserved This document is Copyright 1995 by Richard W. Brown YOU HAVE TEN MINUTES TO READ THIS FILE BEFORE THE DEMO QUITS! (It can also be opened/printed by Teach Text on your Mac) ----------------------------------------------------------------- By double-clicking on this file, you are experiencing one of the pleasures of the Atari TOS/GEM operating system - and something that doesn't exist on the Macintosh platform - a built-in system- level ability to examine ANY file WITHOUT needing the source program or a "Teach Text" equivalent. This power has ALWAYS existed on the Atari platform. To many, Atari conjurs up a dirty word - "GAMES" - which, although historically (and currently) accurate, there was a time when Atari meant "POWER WITHOUT THE PRICE" in the computing world. Atari offered the first serious 16 bit computers with color/monochrome capabilities and an operating system, TOS, designed to work exclusively with a robust Graphical User Interface (GUI) in the form of GEM, or "Graphics Environment Manager." To this day, even for Atari users who have tried or moved on to other systems, there lies, in the last analysis, the irrefutable knowledge that in the Atari they had found a better solution - but unfortunately, it was a solution missing... something. Many an Atarian moved on to the Apple Macintosh, but, alas, as the Mac attempted to "advance," it also became burdened with sluggishness. Now, the GEM/TOS combination can be a formidable addition to the Macintosh world, especially for woefully inadequate 68030 Macs attempting to run System 7 at a painfully snail-like pace. (For PowerBook owners - finally, the machine will be FAST!) Simply put, in Macintosh terminology: MagiCMacø/Ease = System/Finder on a MAJOR sugar/caffeine rush As it happens, contrary to popular opinion, Atari development is alive and well - in Germany (and other parts of Europe) - where the uniqueness of the platform actually gained some appreciation. Today, there are a variety of Atari programs that strongly equate to various Mac programs with one major difference: SPEED. Amongst these programs is the MagiCMacø Atari emulator from Application Systems Heidelberg which you are running now. Where programming in general on the Mac has long since parted from rapidly executable program code, MagiCMacø has stayed true to this ideal. Running a program in MagiCMacø removes all doubt, whether you are an Atari OR Macintosh user - MagiCMacø ZOOMS - much faster than ANY Atari ever made! Keep in mind the Power PC version of MagiCMacø is already in the pipeline - undreamt of power for any "personal computer." In my use of MagiCMacø, I'd estimate the "feel" of this superior OS seems about 10-15 TIMES faster than the given host Macintosh for crucial time-intensive tasks. USING MagiCMacø Macs, especially the PowerBooks, don't have standard keyboards. No function keys, help or Clear/Home keys, etc. For this reason, there are keyboard equivalents using modifier key combinations. FUNCTION OR KEY MagiCMacø EQUIVALENT -------------------------------------------------------- Toggle Between Atari/Mac modes Command-W (Apple-W) *************************************************** This will bring up the Mac desktop with a small, three button box on screen allowing you to re-enter Atari mode, eject or mount a floppy disk on the Mac desktop. Floppy disks may also be mounted within Atari mode by inserting the disk and double clicking onto the floppy icon. (Note: "Command" indicates the hieroglyphic "Apple/Command" Key FUNCTION OR KEY MagiCMacø EQUIVALENT -------------------------------------------------------- EJECT FLOPPY DISK in Atari mode: Command-Y ALTERNATE Option Function Key 1 Command-1 Function Key 2 Command-2 Function Key 3 Command-3 Function Key 4 Command-4 Function Key 5 Command-5 Function Key 6 Command-6 Function Key 7 Command-7 Function Key 8 Command-8 Function Key 9 Command-9 Function Key 10 Command-0 Delete Command-D Insert Command-I Undo Command-U Help Command-H Clr/Home Command-C Quit MagiCMacø (and the Demo) Command-Q Left Mouse Button (most common) Click normally Right Mouse Button emulation Command-Click Special keyboard equivalents in the EASE desktop Open an icon on the desktop Command-Click or Double-Click ******************************************************* Command Click requires setup in the boot configuration. Double Click requires enabling under the "Options" - "Settings" - "General" Menu. Open Drive Window Option-"drive letter" ******************************************************* This is a special function of the EASE desktop. Atari TOS version 2 and up have employed this keyboard shortcut, Alternate-"drive letter", allowing very fast access to the drives. The way TOS reads a drive is vastly faster than the Mac routine, something noticed immediately in the MagiCMacø Atari emulation. Example: to open Drive C, hold down Option and type "C" Now that you have the key equivalents, the first thing you should note: MagiCMacø is FAST - many times faster than the host Mac's System and Finder. To recapitulate, MagiCMacø represents a vastly streamlined computing environment with an impressive list of capabilities that are even now only beginning to be found (or are missing) in the Mac universe. For example: * - Selecting a file or files in a desktop window displays the total allocated disk space on the status line for the file(s), whether viewed as icons or text. This is not possible in Mac System 7. You might say "not necessary, the Mac checks the disk space and warns you if you cannot accomplish a file copy." Ditto for MagiCMacø. * - Opening a drive window is very similar to the Mac, except extraordinarily faster, regardless of the number of items in the directory. There are also more controls available within the window, hereafter detailed. From the root directory, you can, in a single window, jump in and out of any directory or subdirectory, backing out with the top left button (the one that closes any Mac desktop window). If you are in the drive ROOT directory, then the "close button" will indeed close the window. Further, the Ease desktop adds another button below the close button at the top left corner of a desktop window. This is a "turbo" close button - even if you are six folders deep, you can close the window with one click instead of many. * - The information line also will indicate in "command line-ese" your exact location at any time. In a sense, an Atari drive window takes the best from DOS, the best from Mac, and adds valuable additional features unavailable to either competing system - and all this having debuted TEN YEARS AGO (when IBM clones hadn't even heard of a "window" or even a color display. Finally, note that the Atari allows in-depth directory exploration WITHOUT necessitating the cluttering of your desktop. You can even open multiple copies of the SAME drive window, plunge each into different subdirectories, and interactively copy or move files at your whim. * - File copies as well as file MOVES (hold down Control while dragging a file to its new destination to invoke a file "move") are at your discretion and under total control at all times, something also alien to the Mac, which likes to copy BETWEEN disks, and move within the SAME disk (which makes multiple versions of a file hard to do). * - A variety of desktop window options: - Display any combination of dates, times, and sizes with the file name in text mode. (Macs no can do.) - Sort directory by name, extension, size, or date. There is NEVER any confusion as to what you did when, which is the latest version, etc. - Toggle between text and icon mode or choose sizes of the display text via window-based buttons (Macs no can do once again.) Like the Mac, switching from icon to text mode and vice versa can also be accomplished from a drop down menu. - There are three methods to close desktop window(s): 1. From the root directory, click the upper left hand window button. 2. From any subdirectory, click the box directly under the top left hand button. Sort of a "CLOSE NOW!" button. 3. Select "Close" or "Close All" from the "File" drop-down menu. "Close All" will close all open desktop windows, much like the "Option-Click" in System 7. - Programs can be assigned to access the active desktop window upon launching to locate work files. - Programs can also be assigned to access only their own directory upon launching. - Select from 3 different font sizes for text display. The default Atari font size for desktop windows is extraordinarily easy on the eyes. - Automatically shrink or expand window to accomodate varying information configurations. - Minimize the current window to its smallest size. - Show file directory in multiple columns (plus in small text if you REALLY need to see a lot of files!) Macs do not offer this in System 7 and Windows/OS2 have a poor, clumsy implementation at best. - Iconize sub/directories for instant desktop access. The icon will become a desktop object, like an alias, deletable without affecting the parent data. * - Drag any item from a window to the desktop to instantly create an Atari version of the Mac "alias" with various capabilities: - Placing files on the desktop linked by extension to a program allows convenient Mac-like program loading via clicking on a file name. Unlinked files of any type will be opened via TOS/GEM's view facility upon double clicking. - Placing programs on the desktop allows instant loading via a simple double click (even though there are THREE OTHER ways to launch programs from the drop-down menus ALONE! (There are five ways to launch programs in the basic TOS/GEM environment - more if you add third party solutions, of which there are many.) - Any desktop alias can be used to copy its parent file to any location on a hard disk or floppy. The parent file may also be MOVED to a new location, but this will render the alias useless (and therefor must be deleted). - Deleting the alias by dragging it to the trash deletes the alias ONLY, and the parent file(s) thus remain intact. This is due to the fact that the Atari desktop is NOT a folder (the Mac desktop IS). * - Drag and Drop (files on programs to launch and load). * - Desktop "Post-It" notes up to 5 lines of 40 characters in three font sizes. Notes can be edited/deleted by double clicking on a note, then editing or selecting "delete," and can also be delete by dragging a note to the trash can. * - Desktop picture - replace the background not with boring tiles, but with a full-screen picture. (Tiles are also possible, but the tiled image can be of ANY dimensions, not limited by the constraints normally required within the Mac universe.) * - Drag and Drop Printing (not suported in the demo). However, for PageStream owners with a Mac hooked to a PostScript printer, a hint: select PageStream's "Configure Printer" and choose the PRINT TO DISK option. You CAN print to disk, then upload the file directly to the PostScript device via any Mac "send through Appletalk" utility, like "Drop PS" available on many online services. It works perfectly, although sometimes it will print a blank second page, a quirk that does not occur when printing directly in MagiCMac'sø full version. * - View ANY FILE as ASCII simply by double clicking. You will NEVER see "The document "Whatever" could not be opened, because the application program that created it could not be found." Basically, all things are viewable at all times, and this includes files originating on Mac, PC, SGI, Sun, Atari, Amiga, etc. ad infinitum. While it isn't "Can Opener" it is very convenient and part of the OS itself. Further, you can link files to programs via file name extenders. The Atari and DOS markets use an 11 character naming convention: FILENAME.EXT where the ".EXT" is an EXTENSION which can be made to be recognized by a program, allowing auto loading of the particular program by clicking on the program file. There are no "owners" or "program specific" files on the Atari, allowing far more flexibility in file use. Extensions can be any combination of alphanumerics, sometimes even special characters - so the possibilities, even with only three characters, are in the thousands. * - Load and Save different Desktops or Icon files (edit Icons as well in the full version). Handy if you intend to use many different desktop pictures. (On CompuServe and GEnie, look up the keyword "Dynastar" to find "The MagiCMacø Picture Shuffler," a neat AUTO folder utility that will change your desktop picture every day, provided you have the pictures.) * - Preemptive Multitasking: run many programs at once with familiar, Mac-like hide and show program commands. Unique to the Atari: sophisticated programs are SMALL and thus occupy a fraction of the RAM necessary to do the same tasks on the Mac. Meaning? You can run sophisticated DTP, Word Processing, Spreadsheet, and Modem programs comfortably with just 4 Mb RAM and NO virtual memory needed! * - Create and manage a drop-down list of oft-used programs directly without resorting to aliases. (Never requires an "Alias Boss" or similar alias management programs used the Mac.) * - Set any program to autoload on startup. * - You can also switch between the Atari and the Mac with a hot key to enjoy what you need, instantly from either platform. The key is "Command (Apple)-W." * - MagiCMacø can read Atari, DOS, and Mac file names, though the Mac name will be truncated (but not damaged). Many Atari programs can utilize Mac files directly (especially true of graphics from Photoshop, Illustrator, Freehand and the like). * - Read many floppy disk formats: MagiCMacø Atari emulation is best on a Mac with a properly configured floppy "super drive" with "PC Exchange" running under System 7. You will find the following floppy formats are readable: Atari standard DS/DD and HD formats Macintosh DS/DD and HD formats IBM/DOS DS/DD and HD formats The oddball 828K and 916K Atari DS/DD formats are not supported. * - Find out what a REAL portable computer is SUPPOSED to be: Unlike the Mac, the MagiCMacø environment is NOT hard disk dependent! This means that when using MagiCMacø, you can set the Macintosh side to "sleep", and this will also affect the MagiCMacø side. The beauty lies in the fact that the sleep mode on the Mac allows the hard disk to shut down while keeping the screen on - and even "wakes up" from its slumber (while in MagiCMacø mode) by turning on the screen - and NOT the hard disk. This means PowerBook owners should get obscene life out of their battery supply! You can literally work for hours without calling upon the hard drive, leaving it off until such time that you need to save or load a file. PowerBook 145B SPEED BENCHMARKS Running Ofir Gal's GEM Bench program on the PowerBook 145B (under MagiCMacø), and then on an Atari TT both with and without software acceleration shows how favorably MagiCMacø performs: Listed in order of Fastest to Slowest, the results: 1. ATARI TT030 with WARP 9 ACCELERATION GEM Bench v3.02 Ω Ofir Gal 24.7.93 ================================================== TT 030 TOS 3.06, MiNT not present CPU: 33 MHz 68030 Blitter not present, NVDI not present Video Mode = 1280 * 960 * 2 Colours LineF FPU installed Reference = ST, No Blitter ================================================== Test Mark: 100% = Atari ST ================================================== GEM Dialog Box: 1.170 722% VDI Text: 0.390 3437% VDI Text Effects: 0.795 2955% VDI Small Text: 0.420 2372% VDI Graphics: 5.460 474% GEM Window: 0.535 731% Integer Division: 0.775 1160% Float Math: 0.000 0% RAM Access: 0.545 578% ROM Access: 0.705 447% Blitting: 1.820 643% VDI Scroll: 0.935 1410% Justified Text: 3.705 370% VDI Enquire: 1.100 241% ================================================== Average: 1195% Graphics: 1335% Other: 728% ================================================== Overall % Faster than Stock Atari ST: 1086% next, 2. MagiCMacø ATARI EMULATION, POWERBOOK 145B GEM Bench v3.02 Ω Ofir Gal 24.7.93 ================================================== ST TOS 3.00, MiNT not present CPU: 25 MHz 68030 Blitter not present, NVDI not present Video Mode = 640 * 400 * 2 Colours FPU not present Reference = ST, No Blitter ================================================== Test Mark: 100% = Atari ST ================================================== GEM Dialog Box: 1.175 719% VDI Text: 0.625 2144% VDI Text Effects: 1.230 1910% VDI Small Text: 0.760 1311% VDI Graphics: 2.695 961% GEM Window: 1.145 341% Integer Division: 1.220 737% Float Math: 0.000 0% RAM Access: 0.885 356% ROM Access: 0.655 481% Blitting: 2.340 500% VDI Scroll: 3.690 357% Justified Text: 2.420 567% VDI Enquire: 0.495 536% ================================================== Average: 840% Graphics: 934% Other: 524% ================================================== Overall % Faster than stock Atari ST: 766% ** Keep in mind that NVDI Acceleration is available to boost the performance of MagiCMacø much in the same way that Warp 9 accelerated the TT in the first example - probably even faster than the TT/Warp 9 combination listed above! ** and slowest: 3. ATARI TT WITH NO SOFTWARE ACCELERATION GEM Bench v3.02 Ω Ofir Gal 24.7.93 ================================================== TT 030 TOS 3.06, MiNT not present CPU: 33 MHz 68030 Blitter not present, NVDI not present Video Mode = 1280 * 960 * 2 Colours LineF FPU installed Reference = ST, No Blitter ================================================== Test Mark: 100% = Atari ST ================================================== GEM Dialog Box: 3.165 266% VDI Text: 4.340 308% VDI Text Effects: 7.240 324% VDI Small Text: 4.080 244% VDI Graphics: 5.875 440% GEM Window: 1.025 381% Integer Division: 0.765 1175% Float Math: 0.000 0% RAM Access: 0.540 584% ROM Access: 0.700 450% Blitting: 1.740 673% VDI Scroll: 2.865 460% Justified Text: 3.970 345% VDI Enquire: 1.095 242% ================================================== Average: 453% Graphics: 368% Other: 736% ================================================== Overall % Faster than Stock Atari ST: 519% RECAP OF SPEED COMPARISONS ---------------------------------------------------------------- Atari TT/Warp 9 : Overall % Faster than Stock Atari ST: 1086% MagiCMac Emulator: Overall % Faster than stock Atari ST: 766% Atari TT/straight: Overall % Faster than Stock Atari ST: 519% Keep in mind that a stock Atari ST is in many ways faster than the PowerBook 145B (and even many faster Macs), especially at the desktop level. The speed comparisons above in no way relate to Macintosh performance. They reflect Atari performance only. Comparing the "feel" of speed, the Atari TT easily compares with Power Macs. The Power PC version of MagiCMacø has yet to be tested by me, but judging from current experience, it will be computer nirvana. In my actual use (of a full working copy of MagiCMacø, the one in which I am, in fact, writing this README), MagiCMacø emulation "feels" about 10-15 times the speed of the PowerBook 145B in Mac mode based on the crucial "finger and toe tapping" criteria (time spent waiting on the computer) - especially during the most rudimentary tasks. "Tapping time" is the true measure of a system's performance in that no CPU can make up for the time lost if the computer takes 10 seconds or more just to read the directory of a floppy! These lost seconds, an unfortunate fact of Mac life, represent an eternity of CPU time whereby even a slowpoke 16 bit processor will eventually outrun a fast 32 bit counterpart - quite analogous to the proverbial tortoise and hare. I'VE GOT A MAC, WHY BOTHER? TEN REASONS: 1. Speed. 4. Speed 7. Speed 10. Because most of the 2. Speed. 5. Speed 8. Speed programs you REALLY need 3. Speed. 6. Speed 9. Speed already exist for this OS! USEFUL UTILITIES (OR, WHY I WROTE THIS) My company has found MagiCMacø so intriguing that we are dedicating our programming staff to MagiCMacø development. Search the file directories on CompuServe and GEnie under the key word "DynaSTar" to find a continuing supply of excellent shareware and postcardware for your use in MagiCMacø. Currently available: * The MagiCMacø Keyboard Editor - make the keyboard dance! * The MagiCMacø Desktop Picture Shuffler - says it all, eh? Coming soon: * Private Thoughts - hypersafe encrypted personal journal. * Telephon Plus - the ultimate phone book with calendar. * ScreenWriter - write your own "Citizen Kane."