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1992-06-10
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Path: ryptyde!baron!nosc!vela!m.cs.uiuc.edu!wupost!uunet!cis.ohio-state.edu!rutgers!njitgw.njit.edu!tesla.njit.edu!erh0362
From: erh0362@tesla.njit.edu (Elliotte Rusty Harold)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.misc
Subject: comp.sys.mac.faq Golden beta
Message-ID: <1992Jun8.201640.1@tesla.njit.edu>
Date: 9 Jun 92 01:16:40 GMT
Sender: news@njit.edu
Organization: New Jersey Institute of Technology
Lines: 1122
Nntp-Posting-Host: tesla
The following is the fourth and hopefully final beta version of
a FAQ for comp.sys.mac.apps, comp.sys.mac.system, and comp.sys.mac.misc.
I believe that I've incorporated all technical corrections suggested
by various people after previous releases. This version also contains a
number of stylistic improvements not the least of which are question
numbers and a completely rewritten section on translating files.
Since this is possibly the final beta version before it starts
being automatically posted if you spot any errors of fact please let me
know immediately. Similarly if there are any stylistic issues, you'd
like to comment on please do, especially things that are new with this
release, question numbers and the table in the section on decoding and
uncompressing files. I think I've responded to everyone who sent me
E-mail about previous versions and to some of you more than once, but if
you still feel that your concerns have not been addressed don't
hesitate to write me again.
There are three specific questions I'd like the net's input on
before the first non-beta release. First, the index of help files at
sumex: Should it remain in its present form, be deleted entirely, be
moved to an appendix, or be replaced with brief descriptions of the more
useful of those files?
Second question: Should the FAQ be split up into more than one
post? My mail has been running about 50-50 among those who commented on
this issue so let your voice be heard too. A brief and unscientific
sample of other newsgroups with long FAQ's showed about one third
splitting it up and two thirds keeping it in one piece.
Third question: I am considering posting comp.sys.mac.faq to the
three newsgroups this FAQ list covers and to news.announce at staggered
two week intervals (staggered so that people whose news servers have
three day expirations can find it in one or the other of these
newsgroups). Other people have suggested that it might be
easier on their newservers if instead I cross-posted it to all three
groups every couple of weeks. Another possibility is just posting the
table of contents and making the file itself available via anonymous ftp
as is done with the comp.sys.mac.programmer FAQ. Werner Uhrig even
suggested the formation of a FAQ newsgroup for the Mac hierarchy which
could hold this document and a number of the other FAQ and informational
files that exist on the net. Please let me know your preferences.
Please send all comments and criticisms to
erh0362@tesla.njit.edu. I am of course especially interested in
corrections of fact and suggestions for questions you think should be
added or deleted.
I've proofed comp.sys.mac.faq a number of times and run it
through a spelling checker, but since this is a more permanent document
than the average news post, I'd also like to hear everyone's quibbles
about spelling, grammar, unclear sentences, unfunny jokes, and so on.
I've been working on it for over a month, and I'm probably too close to
it to spot some real bonehead mistakes. However to spare the net details
of such a trivial nature and to spare me the personal embarrassment of
public castigation of my grammatical faux pas, please send these sorts
of corrections to me personally at erh0362@tesla.njit.edu. If you wish
to discuss more substantive matters about this FAQ on the net rather
than in private E-mail, feel free; but please make sure that you delete
the irrelevant portions of the FAQ before reposting it. There's really
no need to stuff the net with several copies of this 1000 line file just
to say you think More Disk Space deserves better treatment than it
gets.
Changes in version 2:
0. The formatting has been much improved. Thanks to everyone who made
suggestions about how to do this. One common suggestion, numbering of
questions, will likely be implemented in a future version just as soon
as I'm reasonably sure the ordering of the questions is stable. A
second suggestion, moving the various legal notices to the end, may be
implemented if I can determine that the position of these notices is
legally irrelevant.
1. Several JPEG viewers are now mentioned.
2. LaserWriter Font Utility has replaced SendPS.
3. The FAQ's "What's a good text editor?" and "Where did my icons go?"
have been added.
4. A very common misconception about printing PostScript files under
early versions of the LaserWriter driver was corrected.
5. Some non-American archive sites have made their way into the FTP
list. Rascal was removed because it seems to be slowly going off-line
Changes in version 3:
0. Mostly minor improvements here and there.
1. The section on decoding and uncompressing downloaded files was
substantially rewritten and moved to earlier in the file. It's now part
of a new section on FTPing files.
2. "Can I get shareware by E-mail?" was added to the list.
Changes in version 4:
1. Question Numbers!!!!
2. Rewrote and tablized the section on decoding and uncompressing
downloaded files.
3. Adjusted the security section to reflect the improved performance of
a newer version of MacPassword.
4. Corrected a mistaken identification of a null-modem cabe with an
ImageWriter II cable. (That only applies to Mac-to-Mac transfers.)
5. At the suggestion of more than one person I added an injunction
against cross-posting to the section on which newsgroup to post to.
And finally much thanks to everyone who responded to the first
two versions of the FAQ, and helped me improve it so much. I think
you'll all agree that version three is much improved. If you don't see
your suggestion here, despair not! I didn't have time to implement or
properly consider every change that was suggested and there will
certainly be more changes made before the final version is released.
And without further ado here's the FAQ:
comp.sys.mac.faq
Table of Contents
I. Introduction
1. What other information is available?
2. Posting Etiquette
II. The Question of the Year:
Why is my system using so much memory?
III. FTP
1. Where can I FTP Macintosh software?
2. Can I get shareware by E-mail?
3. What is .bin? .hqx? .cpt? .image? .etc?
IV. Viruses
1. Help! I have a virus!
2. Reporting new viruses
V. Printing
1. How do I make a PostScript file?
2. How do I print a PostScript file?
3. Why won't my PostScript file print on my mainframe's printer?
4. Why are my PostScript files so big?
5. How do I make my ImageWriter II print in color?
6. Why doesn't Print Monitor work with the ImageWriter?
7. Why did my document change when I printed it?
VI. System Software
1. What is System 7 Tuneup? Do I need it?
2. Do I need System 7.01?
3. How can I get System 7.01 on 800K disks?
4. Why do my DA's disappear when I turn on MultiFinder?
VII. DOS and the Mac
1. How can I move files between a Mac and a PC?
2. How can I translate files to a DOS format?
3. Should I buy SoftPC or a real PC?
VIII. Security
1. How can I prevent users changing the contents of a folder?
2. How can I password protect my Mac?
IX. Hard Disks
1. Help! My folder disappeared!
2. Why can't I throw this folder away?
X. Floppy Disks
1. Why can't my new Mac read my old Mac's floppy disks?
2. Can I turn a double-density disk into a high density disk by
punching an extra hole in it?
XI. Miscellaneous
1. How can I preview a PostScript file?
2. How do I edit a PostScript file?
3. What does System Error xxx mean?
4. What is AutoDoubler? Is it safe?
5. How does AutoDoubler compare to other compression products?
6. What's a good text editor for the Mac?
7. Where did my icons go?
To jump to a particular question, search for
section-number.question-number enclosed in parentheses. For example to
find "How do I edit a PostScript file?" search for the string (11.2).
To jump to a section instead of a question use a zero for the question
number.
comp.sys.mac.faq is copyright 1992 by Elliotte M. Harold
Permission is hereby granted to distribute this unmodified document
provided that no fee in excess of normal online charges is required for
such distribution. Portions of this document may be extracted and
quoted free of charge and without necessity of citation in normal online
communication provided only that said quotes are not represented as the
correspondent's original work. Permission for quotation of this
document in printed material and edited online communication (such as
the info-mac Digest and Tidbits) is given subject to normal citation
procedures (i.e. you have to say where you got it).
Disclaimer: I do my best to ensure that information
contained in this FAQ is current and accurate, but I can accept no
responsibility for actions resulting from information contained herein.
This document is provided as is and with no warranty of any kind.
Corrections and suggestions should be addressed to
erh0362@tesla.njit.edu.
Apple, Macintosh, LaserWriter, ImageWriter, Finder, and
MultiFinder are registered trademarks of Apple Computer, Inc.
Linotronic is a registered trademark of Linotype-Hell AG, Inc. Quark
XPress is a registered trademark of Quark. PostScript is a registered
trademark and Illustrator and PhotoShop are trademarks of Adobe Systems,
Inc. PageMaker is a registered trademark of Aldus Corp. All other
tradenames are trademarks of their respective manufacturers.
====================
I HAVE A QUESTION... (1.0)
====================
Congratulations! You've come to the right place. The Usenet
community is a wonderful resource for information ranging from basic
questions (How do I lock a floppy disk?) to queries that would make
Steve Jobs himself run screaming from the room in terror. (I used
ResEdit to remove resources Init #11, WDEF 34, and nVIR 17 from my
system file and used the Hex Editor to add code string #A67B45 as a
patch to the SFGetFile routine so the Standard File Dialog Box would be
a nice shade of mauve. Everything worked fine until I installed
SuperCDevBlaster, and now when I use the Aldus driver to print from
PageMaker 5.0d4 to a Linotronic 6000 my system hangs. P.S. I'm running
System 6.02 on a PowerBook 170.)
However, since the comp.sys.mac.* newsgroups are medium to high
volume, we ask that you first peruse this FAQ file, check any other
relevant online resources (listed below), and RTFM (Read the Friendly
Manual) before posting your question. We realize that you are
personally incensed that the System is taking up fourteen of your newly-
installed twenty megs of RAM, but this question has already made its way
around the world three hundred times before, and it's developing tired
feet.
WHAT OTHER INFORMATION IS AVAILABLE? (1.1)
This FAQ list provides short answers to a number of frequently
asked questions from the newsgroups comp.sys.mac.system,
comp.sys.mac.misc, and comp.sys.mac.apps. Various Mac gurus have
written other files of excellent quality that go into more detail about
individual topics. Please check out any that seem relevant to your
problem before posting a question. All of the following are available
for anonymous FTP from sumex-aim.stanford.edu and its mirrors in the
/info-mac/reports or /info-mac/tips directories.
info-mac/reports info-mac/tips
800-phone-numbers.txt beginning-mac-programming.txt
alysis-resource-compressor.hqx downloading-binary-files.txt
at-connector-substitute.txt generating-postscript.txt
backup-to-unix.txt high-speed-modem-use.txt
color-monitor-survey.txt mailing-to-applelink.txt
compression-util-table.txt mailing-to-compuserve.txt
e-mail-gateways.txt mailing-to-macnet.txt
fax-modems.txt mailing-to-mci.txt
ftp-primer.txt modems-in-europe.txt
ftp-sites.txt no-hard-disk-icon.txt
hard-disk-formatting.hqx rebuilding-the-desktop.txt
how-do-i-find.txt refill-hp-cartridge.txt
human-interface-research.txt sys7-with-word-finder.txt
iici-cache-cards.txt
iisi-upgrade-options.txt
internet-access-11.hqx
large-color-monitors.txt
mac-discussion-groups.txt
mac-laser-jet-up-rev-11.txt
mac-laser-jet-up-rev.txt
mac-memory-guide.hqx
mac-plus-accelerators.txt
mac-plus-dead-screen.txt
mac-se-accelerators.txt
mac-secret-names.txt
mac-secret-trick-list.txt
mac-tcp-info.txt
mac-to-workstation.txt
maciisi-expandibility.hqx
modem-guide-10.txt
nisus-first-impressions.txt
power-glove-to-mac.txt
powerbook-170-tips.txt
powerbook-faq.txt
powerbook-solutions-guide.hqx
printing-booklets.txt
radius-rocket-upgrade.txt
se30-external-video.txt
se30-full-page-monitors.txt
se30-monitor-options.txt
sys7-compat-info.hqx
sys7-emergency-disk.txt
sys7-finder-command-keys.txt
system-7-goodies.txt
WHICH NEWSGROUP SHOULD I POST TO? (1.2)
Posting questions to the proper newsgroup will fill your mailbox
with pearls of wisdom (and maybe a few rotten oysters too :-) ).
Posting to the wrong newsgroup often engenders a thundering silence.
For instance the most common and glaring mispost, one that seems as
incongruous to dwellers in the Macintosh regions of Usenet as would a
purple elephant in Antarctica, asking a question about networking
anywhere except comp.sys.mac.comm, normally produces no useful
responses. Posting the same question to comp.sys.mac.comm ensures that
your post is read and considered by dozens of experienced network
administrators and not a few network software designers.
Please post to exactly ONE newsgroup. Do not cross-post. If a
question isn't important enough for you to spend the extra time to
figure out where it properly belongs, it's not important enough for
several thousand people to spend their time reading. Similarly
comp.sys.mac.misc should not be used as a catch-all newsgroup.
Questions about applications should go to comp.sys.mac.apps except
for queries about communications programs, games, HyperCard, and
databases all of which have their own comp.sys.mac.* newsgroups. Post
questions about non-communications hardware including questions about
what software is necessary to make particular hardware work to
comp.sys.mac.hardware. Questions about Mac OS System Software and
extensions belong in comp.sys.mac.system. Questions about A/UX go to
comp.unix.aux. Detailed questions about Appletalk belong in
comp.protocols.appletalk.
Direct questions about HyperCard including programming HyperCard
to comp.sys.mac.hypercard. Non-HyperCard programming questions and
questions about development environments should go to
comp.sys.mac.programmer. ResEdit questions may alternately be posted
either to comp.sys.mac.misc, comp.sys.mac.system, or
comp.sys.mac.programmer, but generally the netters who inhabit the
darker recesses of comp.sys.mac.programmer are considerably more
practiced at the art of resource hacking.
A general exception to the above rules is that any VERY technical
question about an application that actually begins to delve into the
hows of a program as well as the whats (Recent example: How does
WriteNow which is written entirely in assembly compare to other word
processors written in high level languages?) might be better addressed
to the programmer newsgroup.
For Sale and Want to Buy posts should go to comp.sys.mac.wanted
ONLY. We know you're desperate to sell your upgraded 128K Mac to get
the $$ for a PowerBook 170; but trust me, anyone who wants to buy it
will be reading comp.sys.mac.wanted. Anything not specifically
mentioned above, especially political and religious questions, (The Mac
is better than Windows! Is not! Is too! Is not! Is too! Hey! How 'bout
the Amiga! What about it? Is Not! Is too!) belongs in
comp.sys.mac.misc.
Finally don't be so provincial as to only consider the
comp.sys.mac newsgroups the appropriate fora for your questions. A lot
of modem questions in comp.sys.mac.comm are much more thoroughly
discussed in comp.dcom.modems. Questions about Mac MIDI often might be
better handled in comp.music even though these are not Mac specific
newsgroups. Shop around. Usenet's a big place and not everything
relevant to the Macintosh happens in comp.sys.mac.*.
================================================================
QUESTION OF THE YEAR: WHY IS MY SYSTEM TAKING UP SO MUCH MEMORY? (2.0)
================================================================
If today Apple changed About this Macintosh (About the Finder
under System 6) to report unusable memory in its own bar rather than
lumped together with the system, this would probably still be the most
frequently asked question of the year. Under system versions earlier
than 7.0 or under System 7.x without 32-bit addressing turned on the Mac
cannot handle more than eight megabytes of real memory. If you have
more physical RAM installed, the Mac knows it's there but can't do
anything with it. When you select About the Finder from the Apple menu,
the system takes all that extra memory that it can't access and reports
it as part of the memory allocated to the system.
To use the memory you need to get System 7 and turn on 32-bit
addressing. If you have a Mac with dirty ROMs (a II, IIx, SE/30, or
IIcx) you also need MODE32, free from ftp.apple.com or your local
dealer. If you have an original Mac II you'll also need to add a PMMU
chip. If you're staying with System 6, Maxima from Connectix ($45
street) will let you use the extra memory as a RAM disk.
If you have an LC or an LC II with four megabytes of RAM soldered
to the motherboard, you still need to add two four-megabyte SIMM's to
reach the ten megabyte maximum imposed by the LC ROM. This means you'll
always have two unused megabytes which About this Macintosh and About
the Finder report as part of the system memory allocation. Unfortunately
there is no current means of accessing this extra memory.
===
FTP (3.0)
===
WHERE CAN I FTP MAC SOFTWARE? (3.1)
The three major American Internet archives of shareware, freeware,
and demo software are sumex-aim.stanford.edu (36.44.0.6),
mac.archive.umich.edu (141.211.164.153), and wuarchive.wustl.edu
(128.252.135.4) which mirrors the other two sites and is often easier to
connect to. Wuarchive often holds on to files after other sites remove
them for space concerns, and still has files that were recently deleted
from the formerly important site, rascal.ics.utexas.edu. Rascal was
noteable for storing its files in MacBinary format rather than the less
efficient BinHex format common at the other archives. Unless otherwise
noted shareware and freeware mentioned in this document should be
available at the above sites.
To keep traffic on the Internet manageable, European users should
try connecting to ftp.funet.fi (128.214.6.100) or irisa.irisa.fr
(131.254.2.3) instead. Australian users should try to find what they
want at archie.au (139.130.4.6) which mirrors the info-mac archives at
Stanford. Japanese users can find sumex mirrored at
utsun.s.u-tokyo.ac.jp (133.11.11.11).
A fourth very important site is ftp.apple.com. This is Apple's
semi-official repository for system software, developer tools, source
code, technical notes, and other things that come more or less straight
from Apple's mouth. Some material at this site may not be distributed
outside the U.S. or by other sites that don't have an official license
to distribute Apple system software. Please read the various README
documents available at ftp.apple.com for the detailed info if you're
connecting from outside the U.S. or if you wish to redistribute material
you find here.
Michael Gleason's mac.ftp.list, a more comprehensive list of FTP
sites for Macintosh software, is available from sumex-aim in the info-
mac/reports directory as ftp-sites.txt. This list catalogs dozens of
sites and mirrors, both well-known and obscure.
If you can't find what you're looking for at one of those sites,
try telnetting to your nearest archie server or sending it an E-mail
message addressed to archie with the subject "help." Addresses include
archie.rutgers.edu (128.6.18.15, America), archie.mcgill.ca
(132.206.2.3, the original archie server in Canada), archie.au
(139.130.4.6, Australia), archie.funet.fi (128.214.6.100, the
continent), or archie.doc.ic.ac.uk (146.169.3.7, the U.K.). These sites
serve as indexes for the tens of thousands of files available for
anonymous ftp. Login as "archie" (no password is needed) and type "prog
filename" to find what you're looking for or type "help" for more
detailed instructions. For instance after connecting type "prog
Disinfectant" to search for a convenient ftp site for Disinfectant. If
the initial search fails to turn up your file, try variations on the
name. For instance if you didn't find Disinfectant, you might try prog
dis instead.
Please check these archives and ARCHIE personally BEFORE asking
where you can find a particular piece of shareware. If you follow the
above advice, you should almost never have to ask the net where to find
a particular piece of software.
CAN I GET SHAREWARE BY E-MAIL? (3.2)
The info-mac archives at sumex-aim are available by E-mail from
LISTSERV@RICEVM1.bitnet (alternately listserv@ricevm1.rice.edu). The
listserver responds to the commands $MACARCH HELP, $MACARCH INDEX, and
$MACARCH GET filename. You can retrieve files from other sites by using
the server at ftpmail@decwrl.dec.com. For details send it a message
with just the text "help".
WHAT IS .BIN? .HQX? .CPT? .ETC? (3.3)
Most files available by FTP are modified twice to allow them to
more easily pass through foreign computer systems. First they're
compressed to make them faster to download, and then they're translated
to either a binhex or MacBinary format that other computers can digest.
(The Macintosh uses a special two-fork filing system that chokes most
other computers.) Binhex files are 7-bit ASCII text files, while
MacBinary files are pure 8-bit binary data that must always be
transferred using a binary protocol.
How a file has been translated and compressed for transmission is
indicated by its suffix. Normally a file will have a name something
like filename.xxx.yyy. .xxx indicates how it was compressed and .yyy
indicates how it was translated. To use a file you've FTP'd and
downloaded to your Mac you'll need to reverse the process. Most files
you get from the net require a two-step decoding process. First change
the binhex or MacBinary file to a double-clickable Macintosh file; then
uncompress it. The details of decoding are covered in the table below.
****************************************************************************
Suffix: .sit .cpt .hqx .bin .pit .Z .image .s .zip .uu .tar
Extractors
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Stuffit | X X X
Compact Pro | X X
Packit | X
UUTool | X
MacCompress | X
SunTar | X X X X
BinHex 5.0 | X
BinHex 4.0 | X
SuperDisk! | X
UnZip | X
DiskCopy | X
****************************************************************************
A few notes on the uncompressors:
Stuffit is a family of products that uses several different
compression schemes. The recently released Stuffit Expander should
unstuff all of them.
Compact Pro is Bill Goodman's shareware file compression program
available from all the usual suspects. Compact Pro makes smaller
archives and works faster than any other archiving compression utility
for the Mac. It's a shame more FTP sites haven't standardized on this
format.
UUTool, MacCompress, and SunTar handle the popular UNIX formats of
uuencode, compress, and tar respectively. The UNIX versions are often
more robust than the Mac products, so use them instead when that's an
option.
You may occasionally run across a file in Disk Doubler format.
These files don't have any specific suffix, but the icons should have a
small "DD" in the lower left-hand corner. The freeware DiskDoubler
Expand will uncompress them.
A few notes on the compression formats:
bin:
These are MacBinary files. Always use a binary file transfer
protocol when transferring them; never use ASCII or text. Most files on the
net are stored as .hqx instead. Only rascal stores most of its files in
bin format. Most communications programs such as ZTerm and MacKermit
are capable of translating MacBinary files on the fly as they download
if they know in advance they'll be downloading MacBinary files.
image:
Typically this format is used only for system software, so that
online users can download files that can easily be converted into exact
copies of the installer floppies. Instead of using DiskCopy to
restore the images to floppies, you can use Steve Christensen's freeware
utility MountImage to treat the images on your hard disk as actual
floppies inserted in a floppy drive. MountImage has a reputation for
being buggy, so you should have some blank floppies and a copy of
DiskCopy handy just in case.
sea (.x, .X):
.sea doesn't merit a position in the above table because these are
self-extracting archives. They may have been created with Compact Pro,
Stuffit, or even Disk Doubler; but all should be capable of
uncompressing themselves when double-clicked. For some unknown reason
Alysis has chosen not to use this industry standard designation for
self-extracting archives created with its payware product SuperDisk!.
Instead SuperDisk! appends either .x or .X to its self-extracting
archives.
========
VIRUSES (4.0)
========
HELP! I HAVE A VIRUS. (4.1)
90% of all problems reportedly caused by viruses are actually due
to mundane bugs in software (and 90% of all statistics are made up :-) )
Before reporting a virus infection make sure you check your system
with the latest version of Disinfectant, 2.8 as of this writing, by the
excellent John Norstad and friends from Northwestern University.
Disinfectant is absolutely free and available from sumex-aim and all the
other usual suspects. It's easy to use and can completely protect your
system from currently knosystem or
applications being used; and even if you really have found a new virus,
there's nothing we can do about it anyway. You'll only succeed in
generating a lot of follow-up panic reports from other people who'll
blame every crash of Quark XPress on the new virus.
If your system is protected against known viruses by Disinfectant
or one of the other anti-virus packages and you suspect a new virus is
causing you trouble, first consult with the most knowledgeable local
guru about your problem. Nine times out of ten, he or she will identify
it as a boring, ordinary, known bug in the software. If you are the
local guru and still think it might be a new virus, and have thoroughly
checked out all other possibilities, then, and only then, send a
detailed description of your problem to j_norstad@nwu.edu. Check the
appropriate sections of the Disinfectant manual for procedures to follow
before reporting a new virus.
=================
PRINTING PROBLEMS (5.0)
=================
HOW DO I MAKE A POSTSCRIPT FILE? (5.1)
First make sure a LaserWriter driver is in your System folder. It
doesn't really matter which one although the latest from the System 7
Tuneup disk is the best. You don't need System 7 to use the System 7
LaserWriter driver. If you're using System 6, you'll also need a Laser
Prep file in your System Folder. Once you've verified that there is
indeed a LaserWriter driver in your system folder, select LaserWriter
in the Chooser. A dialog box will likely pop up informing you that the
LaserWriter requires Appletalk and asking you if you want to turn
Appletalk on. Whether or not you have AppleTalk click OK. Then select
Page Setup from the File menu to format your document for the
LaserWriter. Next select Print from the File menu.
If you're using the System 7 LaserWriter driver, the Print dialog
box that pops up will have a radio button for Destination near the
bottom. Click on PostScript file. The Print button at the top should
change to a Save button. Click it and you'll get a standard file dialog
asking you what to name and where to save the PostScript file.
If you're using the LaserWriter driver 6.0x or 5.2, the procedure
is slightly more complicated. When the Print dialog box comes up, put
one finger over the F key. If you'll eventually print the file on a
non-Apple PostScript printer, especially one not designed with the
Macintosh in mind, use K instead of F. Using K includes some Mac
specific information non-Apple-oriented PostScript printers need to know
about. Next hit return or click OK with the mouse and then IMMEDIATELY
hit F or K with your other hand. Contrary to popular belief you do NOT
need to hit the Command key as well as the F or K keys. You've got
about one second to do this. If you see a message box that says
"Creating PostScript file," you did it right. If you don't see that
message, you weren't quick enough. Try again.
Once you've gotten the message "Creating PostScript file" you
should find a file called PostScript0 in the same folder as the
application you were printing from. This is the file you just printed.
Rename it before you forget what it is. If you print to disk (what this
whole process is officially called) more than once, the second file will
be called PostScript1, the third PostScript2, and so on. It really is
much easier to use the System 7 LaserWriter driver.
HOW DO I PRINT A POSTSCRIPT FILE? (5.2)
On a Macintosh you'll need the LaserWriter Utility available
on the TidBits disk from System 7 and from ftp.apple.com in
/dts/mac/sys.soft/imaging. LaserWriter Utility allows you to send files
to the LaserWriter in such a way that PostScript commands get
interpreted as PostScript rather than as text to be printed. If
you're printing to a PostScript printer connected to something other
than a Macintosh, you'll need to consult your local system gurus. A
simple "lpr filename.ps" works on my Sparc, but your mileage may vary.
WHY WON'T MY POSTSCRIPT FILE PRINT ON MY MAINFRAME'S PRINTER? (5.3)
Moving PostScript files between the Macintosh and other platforms
is as dark an art as exists in the Macintosh universe. You'll have to
experiment with your specific setup and see what works best for you. If
you're using the System 6 LaserWriter driver, try using K instead of F
to create the PostScript file so that the Laser Prep header is included.
System 7 includes this automatically though you can use Hugo Ayala's
shareware Control Panel device Trimmer to leave it out if you need to.
More importantly Trimmer lets you select which fonts to include in your
PostScript file. The upload to the mainframe from which the PostScript
file will be printed may also make a difference. Normally you need to
upload in pure Binary format, neither MacBinary nor ASCII. Try using
only genuine PostScript fonts, no TrueType or bitmapped fonts.
WHY ARE MY POSTSCRIPT FILES SO BIG? (5.4)
The System 7 LaserWriter driver automatically includes all the
fonts you use in your document plus the LaserPrep information plus the
TrueType engine (if you're using any TrueType fonts) in the PostScript
file. Thus a 3K document formatted in 90K worth of fonts can easily
produce a 300K PostScript file. If these fonts are present on the
system you'll be printing from, they don't need to be included in the
document; and you can remove them with the shareware control panel
Trimmer or the free utility StripFonts.
HOW CAN I PRINT POSTSCRIPT ON A NON-POSTSCRIPT PRINTER? (5.6)
You need one of the payware applications Freedom of the Press or
TScript. For most users who only want to print to common printers like
DeskWriters, StyleWriters, or Personal LaserWriter LS's, the Light
version of Freedom of the Press or the Basic version of TScript will
suffice. ($55 street for either). More expensive versions of both
products are available that work with more esoteric printers,
particularly color printers and very-high-end imagesetters.
HOW DO I MAKE MY IMAGEWRITER II PRINT IN COLOR? (5.7)
Applications such as SuperPaint 2.0 and MacWrite II that support
the original eight-color model for QuickDraw graphics, can print in
color with just a color ribbon and no additional software. The
shareware GifConverter can open and print a variety of graphics file
types in excellent dithered color. Jeff Skaitsis's $1 shareware
CheapColor can also dither PixelPaint and PICT2 files to an ImageWriter
II. For general purpose color printing from any application the only
solution is the payware MacPalette.
WHY WON'T PRINTMONITOR WORK WITH THE IMAGEWRITER? (5.8)
Ask the Apple Customer Assistance Center (20525 Mariani Avenue,
Cupertino, CA 95014, USA, 1-800-776-2333) this one. Meanwhile the only
current way to print spool to an ImageWriter under System 7 is with
SuperLaserSpool 3.0 from Fifth Generation Systems. This is a fully
commercial product. There are NO freeware, shareware, or other FTPable
solutions that work under System 7 so get out your credit cards. At
$98 street price for SuperLaserSpool and only $300 for the vastly
superior DeskWriter or StyleWriter you may want to forgo SuperLaserSpool
and buy a better printer instead.
If you're still using System 6 and have no plans to move to System
7, there is a shareware product called MultiSpool from Italy; but it is
not System 7 compatible and prints only under MultiFinder.
WHY DID MY PERFECTLY FORMATTED DOCUMENT LOOK LIKE GARBAGE WHEN I TOOK IT TO
SOMEONE ELSE'S COMPUTER TO PRINT? (5.9)
There are about a dozen different reasons this can happen. You
normally need to take account of all of these when formatting files for
someone else's printer. Far and away the most common problem is using
the wrong printer driver. BEFORE you start formatting your document,
make sure you have a printer driver for the printer you'll use for your
final draft in your system folder and select that printer in the
Chooser. Then do a Page Setup. This lets the application know what
sort of output it should try to match the display to.
The second most common problem is font confusion. Make sure you
know exactly which fonts are in your document; and, if you're printing
to a PostScript printer, make sure PostScript versions of these fonts
are available to that printer. On newer printers you might also be able
to use TrueType fonts; but PostScript is still the standard, especially
if you're eventually going to Lino for camera ready output.
The third most common source of trouble is poor formatting,
especially in Microsoft Word. The Mac is not a typewriter, and you
shouldn't use it as one. Don't use tabs as a substitute for
indentation, and NEVER use spaces to position anything. If you're
writing a resume (far and away the most common source of formatting
problems for Word users), give serious thought to using the well-
formatted resume template that comes with Word to help you avoid
problems with your final printout.
===============
SYSTEM SOFTWARE (6.0)
===============
WHAT IS SYSTEM 7 TUNEUP? DO I NEED IT? (6.1)
If you use System 7 or the System 7 printer drivers, you need
System 7 Tuneup. The tuneup includes a number of fixes and enhancements
to System 7, including substantially faster printer drivers, a
StyleWriter driver that can be spooled, a fix that saves several hundred
kilobytes of memory on non-networked Macs, and, most importantly, a
vaccine for the disappearing folders bug.
DO I NEED SYSTEM 7.01? (6.2)
Officially if you don't have a Quadra or PowerBook, you don't need
System 7.01. Unofficially some changes were made that speed up SANE
(numerics) operations on 32-bit clean Macintoshes with a floating-point
coprocessor. These include all IIci's and IIfx's plus LC's and IIsi's
that have had a coprocessor specially installed. (Neither of the latter
machines ships with a coprocessor.)
HOW CAN I GET SYSTEM 7.01 ON 800K DISKS? (6.3)
You can't because all machines that gain any benefits from 7.01
come equipped with high density floppy drives. You can however use the
utility MountImage to mount the images of the 1400K System 7.01 disks
(available from ftp.apple.com) on your hard drive and install from the
image rather than a floppy. Be warned, however, that MountImage is
notoriously unreliable when doing installs. Be sure you make a complete
backup of your hard disk and have a set of System disks on genuine
floppies before attempting to install from mounted images.
WHY DO MY DA'S DISAPPEAR WHEN I TURN ON MULTIFINDER? (6.4)
You need to put the file "DA Handler" in your System Folder. It
should be on one of your System 6.0x disks. Under Finder the Desk
Accessories load into the memory provided by your application. Under
MultiFinder they load into their own memory space provided by DA Handler.
===============
DOS AND THE MAC (7.0)
===============
HOW CAN I MOVE FILES BETWEEN A MAC AND A PC? (7.1)
The simplest way to move files between a PC and a Mac is with a
null modem cable and a good communications program. You can get a null-
modem cable from any good electronics store. Make sure the cable you
buy has the appropriate connectors for the Mac and PC you'll be
connecting. Hook one end of the cable to the printer or modem port on
your Mac and the other to the serial port on the PC. This should work
just like a very high speed (57,600 bps) modem connection except that
you'll probably need to turn on local echo in your communications
program.
If the computers aren't within cabling distance, you can either
upload the files to an intermediary mainframe or put them on a floppy
disk. The Superdrive (see the section on floppy disks) sold since the
introduction of the IIx is capable of formatting and writing to 3.5 inch
PC floppies. Apple includes Apple File Exchange, a minimal program
capable of doing this as part of the System Software. Apple File
Exchange is complicated to use and violates at least half of Apple's
user interface guidelines. (Can anyone explain why no other software
company violates as many of Apple's user interface guidelines as Apple
itself does?) For details on its use please Read the Friendly Manual.
If you have a frequent need for using DOS floppies and you have a
SuperDrive, you may want to invest in a more transparent solution. The
three currently available are AccessPC from Insignia Solutions, DOS
Mounter from Dayna, and Macintosh PC Exchange from Apple, all of which
automatically mount and format 3.5 inch DOS floppies in a SuperDrive
without requiring you to run a separate program before you insert the
disk. MacPC File Exchange requires System 7. If you use DOS Mounter be
sure to increase your RAM cache to at least 256K. This will
substantially improve its performance.
HOW CAN I TRANSLATE FILES TO A DIFFERENT PLATFORM? (7.2)
With the increasing popularity of cross-platform development, many
Macintosh programs like Adobe Illustrator 3.0, Adobe Photoshop, and
Microsoft Word 5.0 are able to save directly to a format readable by DOS
or Windows programs. You'll still need to mount the DOS floppies in the
Mac drive using one of the products discussed above or do a default
translation from within Apple File Exchange.
Although translators for Apple File Exchange could theoretically
be designed to translate files made by applications without these
capabilities, AFE has never really caught on. The best solution is
a payware product by DataViz called MacLink Plus. MacLink Plus,
about $100 street price, can translate over 400 DOS, Windows,
Macintosh, and NeXT formats back and forth. As an added bonus
it comes bundled with a copy of DOS Mounter.
SHOULD I BUY SOFTPC OR A REAL PC? (7.3)
The various versions of SoftPC will run most PC software on a
Macintosh as advertised; but even on the fastest Macs, SoftAT will be
slower than an original AT. On any Mac slower than a IIci or with any
version of SoftPC other than SoftAT, you'll likely get performance at
best of twice the speed of an original XT. More likely you'll only have
the speed of an original XT. For today's software like WordPerfect 5.1
that's S...L...O...W.
Of course slow is relative. I've seen an AMIGA running a Mac
emulator running SoftPC running a CP/M emulator. That's slow! As part
of testing the 486 chip design, Intel ran DOS on a simulation of the 486
chip running on an IBM 3090 mainframe. It took them TWO WEEKS to get to
the C> prompt. That's slow. SoftPC on a Classic is actually about as
fast as the original IBM PC from ten years ago.
Furthermore SoftPC is known to have problems with certain
peripherals, both for the PC and the Mac. If you need to use any
external peripherals besides a floppy drive, you should get a real PC.
Moreover SoftPC's graphics are currently limited to at best EGA. If
you need VGA you need a real PC. Considering that SoftAT has a street
price only slightly less than a new AT clone complete with its own small
hard disk, floppy drive, and monitor, you're almost certainly better off
buying a real PC if you need to run any but the most trivial DOS
software.
========
SECURITY (8.0)
========
HOW DO I PREVENT PEOPLE FROM CHANGING THE CONTENTS OF
FOLDERS IN A PUBLIC MAC LAB? (8.1)
A first line of defense would be to use ResEdit, Disktop, or a
similar tool to set the invisible, locked, and nocopy (bozo) bits on the
folders, applications, and documents you want to protect. This won't
stop a knowledgeable or determined hacker, and protecting the system
folder in this fashion may cause problems under System 7; but it will
cure 90% of your random-user-moving-things-around problems.
If you want to lock out more sophisticated users, a number of
payware utilities are available that allow you to password protect
individual folders. They include FileGuard from ASD Software ($140
street), FolderBolt from Kent Marsh ($75 street), and Empower II from
Magna ($155 street). The registered version of Art A. Schumer's
MacPassword ($35 shareware) is also capable of this, although the
FTPable demo version is not. You might also consider Brian Bechtel's
freeware LockDisk 1.0, a cdev that makes the boot disk read only.
However this can cause problems with some applications that can't run
from a read-only disk.
HOW CAN I PASSWORD-PROTECT A MAC? (8.2)
Dr. Ralph Martin's shareware Password 1.3 provides a minimal level
of protection for your hard disk, but can be bypassed by the simple
expedient of booting from an unprotected floppy. Art A. Schumer's
shareware MacPassword cannot be bypassed that easily, but the demo
version available by FTP expires after sixty days. Some hard disk
formatters also offer optional password protection. Noteable in this
category is FWB's Hard Disk Toolkit, about $125 mailorder.
A number of more powerful payware utilities are capable of this
and a lot more though with great security comes great danger. The more
secure a product is the more chance you have of accidentally locking
your hard disk so tight that you yourself can't recover your data.
Notable commercial products in this category are DiskLock from Fifth
Generation ($127 street), Empower I from Magna ($90 street), and
NightWatch II from Kent Marsh ($95 street). Be especially wary of the
last one. Recent discussions on the net indicate that NightWatch
carries a certain risk of locking up your hard disk so tight, it can't
even be reformatted, leaving you with a several hundred dollar
paperweight. NightWatch II is known to be incompatible with Drive 7 and
Hard Disk Toolkit formatting software and is likely incompatible with a
number of other hard disk formatters as well.
=================
HARD DISK PROBLEMS (9.0)
=================
HELP! THE FOLDER CONTAINING ALL SOURCE CODE FOR MY COMPANY'S BIG PROJECT
JUSTDISAPPEARED FROM OUR SERVER; WE HAVEN'T BACKED UP IN A WEEK; AND IF
I CAN'T GET IT BACK I'LL BE FIRED AND MY COMPANY WILL GO BANKRUPT! (9.1)
Try a Find File on the missing filenames; and, if they turn up,
move those files to the desktop (Command-M). In the meantime have a
friend call a good bankruptcy lawyer. There are no surefire solutions
to this problem although at least one utilities vendor is rumored to be
working on a fix. You can, however, prevent this from happening again.
Run Disk First Aid, back up your disk (what's left of it), reformat it,
reinstall System 7, and then install System 7 Tuneup 1.1.1 which fixes
the disappearing folders bug. Apparently the larval form of this bug
was gestating in several earlier versions of the Mac OS but didn't
actually hatch and bite anyone until 7.0.
WHY CAN'T I THROW AWAY THIS FOLDER? (9.2)
Possibly the folder contains items that are locked or in use and
can't be thrown away. Turn off file-sharing (if it's on) and quit all
applications. Then try to throw the folder away. If that doesn't work,
hold down the option-key and drag the folder into the trash. Holding
the option key while you drag lets you throw away locked items. If that
doesn't work restart the computer, hold down the option key, and then
drag the folder to the trash. If you still can't throw away the folder,
try throwing away the items in the folder (if any) one by one until you
find the ones giving you trouble. Remove them from the folder, and then
throw the folder away. If you still can't throw the folder away, you've
discovered a "Folder from Hell." It can be fixed with John Jeppson's
HellFolderFix utility, available from the usual FTP sites.
============
FLOPPY DISKS (10.0)
============
There have been three kinds of floppy disks in the history of the
Macintosh. The original 128K Thin Mac (which used to be called a
classic Mac before the advent of the much superior Mac Classic) and the
subsequent 512K "Fat Mac" used 400K, single-sided double-density
diskettes. These disks are outdated, and it's highly unlikely you'll
actually see any. If you need to exchange data with an older Macintosh,
you'll need to use disks formatted as one-sided. Since very few, if
any, stores still sell one-sided 3.5 inch disks anymore, it's fortunate
that all Macs deal quite happily with double-sided disks formatted as
single-sided. Just click the button labeled "One-sided" after you
select "Erase Disk" from the Special menu.
***Neat Trick alert*** Sometimes disks that fail formatting as
double-sided can be formatted as single-sided. Even neater trick: Under
System 6.0x the shareware init BAD can map out bad sectors on a floppy
disk which lets about 70% of bad disks be formatted. (System 7 does
this automatically.) Neatest trick of all: All name-brand diskettes
(SONY, Maxell, etc.) come with lifetime warranties. A lot of offices
keep a bad disk box for everyone to dump their bad disks in and send the
disks in for replacement when they collect ten or so; but it's been my
experience that if you return just a single bad disk these companies
will send a whole ten pack as a replacement.
With the introduction of the Mac Plus in 1986, Apple also
introduced a larger disk drive capable of reading and writing 800K,
"Double-Sided Double-Density" disks, DSDD for short. The only way to
tell these disks from the earlier, one-sided diskettes, is by the label
on the metal cover. Unformatted these are identical to the 720K disks
common in the IBM world. With the Mac IIx Apple introduced what's
alternately known as the Superdrive or "FDHD," short for "Floppy Drive,
High Density." The FDHD (pronounced Fud-Hud) can read and write all of
the previous kinds of diskettes plus double-sided high-density disks
which are distinguished by two holes in the disk case rather than the
normal one. The FDHD uses the extra hole to recognize a high-density
disk.
WHY DOESN'T MY MAC CLASSIC (SE/30, QUADRA, IIci, etc.) READ
THE DISKS FROM MY OLD PLUS? (10.1)
The Macintosh Plus and earlier machines along with most original
Mac II's and some SE's do not have the high density FDHD drive necessary
to properly read and format a high-density disk. If you insert a blank
high-density disk in a low density drive, the Mac, not knowing the
difference between a double-density and a high-density floppy, will
happily format your expensive 1.4 meg disk as a cheap 800K diskette.
When you move this disk to a more advanced machine with a FDHD drive,
the newer drive will recognize the disk as a high-density floppy by its
extra hole. Since the disk has been formatted as 800K instead of as
1400K, the FDHD drive will misread it and ask you if you want to
initialize it. As a temporary workaround place a small piece of scotch
tape over both sides of the extra hole on the high-density disk to trick
the Mac into treating the disk as a double-density disk. This is a
temporary fix only, and the disk should be reformatted to the proper
size as soon as possible.
CAN I MAKE A HIGH-DENSITY DISK BY PUNCHING AN EXTRA HOLE IN A
DOUBLE-DENSITY DISK? (10.2)
Yes you can, but I certainly wouldn't trust any data I intended to
keep for more than the next minute or two to such a diskette. The extra
hole is not the only difference between a double-density and a high-
density disk. The magnetic media on a high-density disk is a different
type that is much more susceptible to formatting. Double-density
diskettes should only be formatted as 800K. With the plummeting prices
of real high-density disks, this really shouldn't be an issue anymore.
=============
MISCELLANEOUS (11.0)
=============
IS THERE A UTILITY TO VIEW POSTSCRIPT FILES ON THE MAC? (11.1)
Net godhood awaits the first person to write a shareware or
freeware solution to this problem. The payware products Canvas 3.0 and
TScript allow viewing PostScript files on the Mac, but both are large
packages with other purposes and cost over $50 each.
IS THERE A UTILITY TO EDIT POSTSCRIPT FILES ON THE MAC? (11.2)
In the most basic sense PostScript files are just ASCII text, so
if you're familiar with the PostScript programming language you can edit
PostScript in any good text editor. If you want to edit the PostScript
files graphically, the only utility currently capable of that on some
level is Canvas 3.0.
WHAT DOES SYSTEM ERROR XXX MEAN? (11.3)
Typically it means nothing at all of any use to you. Your time is
much more usefully spent trying to figure out what actions in which
application caused the crash so that you can avoid them in the future
rather than deciphering system error numbers. After all, knowing that
Error 16 means a math coprocessor is not installed doesn't help you much
in fixing the problem. Knowing that this happens in Quark XPress 3.0
every time you try to link two text boxes on a master page when copies
of those text boxes already contain text does. (And in this case the
error message isn't even accurate.) If you really want to know what that
number means, get Dr. Pete Corless's System Error 7.0.1 utility
available in the usual places.
HOW CAN I USE A PICTURE FOR MY DESKTOP? (11.4)
You need to get the init DeskPict, available from the usual FTP
sites. DeskPict works only on Macs with Color QuickDraw in ROM (Mac II
and later machines). A slightly improved and less buggy version called
DeskPicture is part of the payware Now Utilities.
WHAT IS AUTODOUBLER? (11.5)
Salient Software's AutoDoubler is a transparent file compression
utility that compresses most files on your hard disk and uncompresses
them automatically when you open them so that your hard disk appears to
be a much larger disk. Ideally you won't know it's there once you've
installed it. The net consensus seems to be that AutoDoubler is fast
and safe. The only common known conflicts are with Norton Filesaver
version 1.0 and 1.1, with the File Search function in Microsoft Word
5.0, and with Macintosh PC File Exchange. The first has been fixed by
Symantec in the recent release of Norton Utilities for the Mac 2.0; the
second is Microsoft's fault, not Salient's; and the third can avoided by
turning off the "Show DD on Compressed Files" option in AutoDoubler's
Control Panel.
HOW DOES AUTODOUBLER COMPARE TO DISK DOUBLER? TO MORE DISK
SPACE? TO STUFFIT SPACESAVER? (11.6)
Disk Doubler, also from Salient Software, is a cross between
AutoDoubler and Compact Pro. It can uncompress all AutoDoubler
archives; (but so can AutoDoubler) and unlike AutoDoubler Disk Doubler
compressed files aren't automatically uncompressed when copied to floppy
or sent via modem. Like AutoDoubler DiskDoubler can automatically
uncompress files when needed, but the decompression isn't nearly as
transparent or fast as AutoDoubler's.
More Disk Space is a competing product similar in functionality to
AutoDoubler. The various comp.sys.mac newsgroups have heard quite a few
more reported problems with More Disk Space than with AutoDoubler. It's
also been argued that More Disk Space severely violates a certain
programming edict from Apple which makes it very likely to break under
future versions of the System.
Stuffit Spacesaver from Aladdin Systems promises to be another
competing automatic compression utility, but is not yet shipping.
IS THERE A JPEG VIEWER FOR THE MAC? (11.7)
Storm Technology's Picture Decompress shows JPEG's on all Macs
with 32-bit Quickdraw. Aaron Giles' JPEGView previews JPEG files on
System 7 Macs with Quicktime installed. PictPixie, a QuickTime
development tool from Apple, also allows Macs with 32-bit QuickDraw and
QuickTime to display JPEG's but requires enormous amounts of memory.
All are free; the first two are available from the regular archive
sites, the last from ftp.apple.com in /dts/mac/quicktime. JPEGView and
PictPixie not only display JPEG's but can also convert them to QuickTime
format.
One more free product worthy of mention is Jeff Lewis's
Imagery/JPEG which converts JPEG format files to GIF's albeit with some
loss of resolution. They can then be viewed with any Gif viewer like
QuickGif or GifConverter.
WHAT'S A GOOD TEXT EDITOR FOR THE MAC? (11.8)
Available shareware and freeware text editors include BBEdit, Edit
II (with grep style searching), Alpha (particularly nice for use with
TeX files), Stevie (for fans of vi), and microEmacs. The feature sets
of these editors overlap somewhat but are not identical. Since all are
available via anonymous FTP, there's no reason not to try them all and
find the one you like best. Also worth noting for its search and
replace features is the payware QUED/M from Paragon Concepts (the folks
who brought you NISUS, the kitchen sink package for search and replace),
about $85 street price.
WHERE DID MY ICONS GO? (11.9)
Your icons have passed on to a better place, but with a little
magic it's normally possible to resurrect them. Several utilities
including Norton Utilities for the Mac and the freeware drag-and-drop
utility Save-A-BNDL should retrieve your icons. Rebuilding the desktop
(Hold down the Command and option keys while starting up.) should also
return your icons.