MacFormat 1996 January/macformat-033.iso/mac/Shareware City/Developers/VideoToolbox/Advice

Text File | 1995-11-08 | 58.1 KB | 1,148 lines | [TEXT/R*ch]

VideoToolbox:Advice
November 8, 1995

Advice to beginners,

If you want to do vision experiments on your Macintosh computer, and haven’t
programmed a Mac before, there are various things you should get for yourself.
I’ve listed what I consider essential. The stuff I use. There are lots of baby
books that hold your hand while you learn, but the ones that I’ve looked at
weren’t helpful for setting up vision experiments. They’re oriented towards
producing Mac-like applications with the right look and feel, which is
unimportant when the experimenter is the only person that will ever run the
program. Be warned that the bible, Inside Macintosh, is intimidating at first.
The classic comment about Inside Mac is that you have to have read the rest to
understand any part. Fortunately, the second edition is much more readily
assimilable. Mac programming is tough going at first, but I’ve come to like it,
as the Apple routines are generally intelligent solutions to complicated
problems. Anyway, by looking at the sources for the various demos in the
VideoToolbox you should be able to get going much more quickly than I did. Good
luck. -Denis Pelli, [e-mail]

The entire VideoToolbox (with a few inconsequential exceptions) now runs native
on the PowerPC. We're very happy with the PowerMacs and the Metrowerks
CodeWarrior Gold C compiler ($99 academic). The compiler and your code both run
native and fast!

•I recommend the PowerMac 7500 (best specs) or 7200 (best buy) over other models
to anyone that wants to buy a mac to show movies (i.e. copy images to the screen
in real time)--see the "Video synch" document.

NOTE: the archive addresses that appear throughout this document, e.g.
"ftp://...", are in a standard format called "URL" (Uniform Resource Locator)
that most internet-aware programs now prefer. To retrieve files from a URL, I
recommend Anarchie, which you can download from here:
    ftp://mirror.apple.com/mirrors/info-mac/comm/tcp/anarchie-16.hqx
(If you're using BBEdit to read this, and you're connected to the internet, then
you only need to hold the command (cloverleaf) key down while you click a URL to
initiate retrieval of the file.) TidBITS magazine says, "URLs constitute the most
common and efficient method of telling people where to find objects available via
FTP, the World-Wide Web, and other Internet services. You can specify URLs not
only for files and Web pages, but also for stranger things, such as email
addresses, Telnet sessions, and Usenet news postings."

ESSENTIAL BOOKS AND SOFTWARE:

Metrowerks CodeWarrior C Compiler on CD-ROM
The CodeWarrior C compiler, first released in January '94, is now at version 7
(June '95), and deservedly gets rave reviews. It's very popular. They copied most
of what Symantec THINK C did right, and then added their own improvements. There
are two flavors: Bronze $99 generates 68k code only; Gold ($399, $99 academic)
generates 68k, PowerPC, and Intel x86/Pentium code. (The academic price
is a great deal: $99!) New versions are issued 3 times a year; the purchase price
includes one year of updates. (Major updates are published as CD-ROMs; minor
updates are distributed only by ftp.) It comes without any paper documentation;
it's all on the CD-ROM, which you can print yourself, but I prefer to buy the
printed and bound manual: "Inside CodeWarrior 7" book $34.95.
     Metrowerks has been very responsive in accepting bug reports (issuing bug
numbers and promises to fix) and suggestions (which they forward to engineering
with no promises). Each subsequent release has fixed most of the bugs I'd
reported, and incorporated many of my suggestions. Unfortunately Metrowerks
doesn't publish a bug list. (I've suggested it several times, to no avail.)
     My current complaints (version CW7) are minor. If you include a .pch file
in your project and do a Make, it is often re-precompiled unnecessarily, e.g.
after you Remove Binaries (Bug No. BR5043, now reclassified as a "feature
request"). Sending the character '\r' to stdout, e.g. printf("Hello.\r"), doesn't
force an update of the SIOUX console, as '\n' does. fflush(stdout) moves the
console insertion point to the end of the line and discards pending keyboard
input. On PowerPC the long double type is supposed to be 16-byte, but is actually
implemented as 8-byte (i.e. a double), making it incompatible with Apple's long
double math library (Bug No. BR4547). The debugger says "Bus Error" if you ask it
to modify video RAM.
    The following bugs that I found in prior versions were fixed in CW7.
The debugger no longer says "Bus Error" if you try to read video RAM on a 68k
computer (Bug No. BR4705). A new much-requested feature: your program can now
determine what version of the compiler is being used.
     The following bugs that I found in prior versions were fixed in CW6.
CodeWarrior now recognizes the "%#s" printf format to print pascal strings
(thanks to Peter Lennie for letting me know). The debugger no longer interferes
with the use of GetNextEvent(). The PowerPC debugger is compatible with RAM
Doubler.
     The following bugs that I found in prior versions were fixed in CW5.5. The
CW5 console had a status line that you couldn't entirely get rid of. The
predefined compiler macro __option(fourbyteints) didn't work (Bug No. BR4702).
     The following bugs that I found in prior versions were fixed in CW5.
Assignment of structs larger than 32 KB didn't work (Bug No. BR4516). The
built-in console printed both linefeed and return as linefeed (Bug No. T509).
When the program asked for input from stdin, the user had to manually select the
console window if it wasn't already frontmost. iscntrl(0) returned 0 (Bug No.
BR4415). I was also happy to find several of my suggestions incorporated in CW5:
more console options, automatic re-precompilation (via .pch files), and checking
that the current compiler settings are consistent with those of the pre-compiled
header.
     The following bugs that I found in prior versions were fixed in version
CW4.5. The compiler generated bad code for the assignment a[i][j][k][!m]=1 (Bug
No. BR4183). Enum char arguments failed to be promoted (to int) when the
corresponding parameter was untyped (e.g. in printf) (Bug No. T517). In the
2-byte-int version of the Standard C library, the functions memset and calloc
crashed if asked to zero more than 64KB (Reference Nos. ES7266 and ES7268). The
console failed to print characters with ascii codes higher than 127 (Bug No.
T467), and crashed if asked to backspace '/b' beyond the left margin (Bug No.
T513).
    Metrowerks Corporation
    The MCC Building, Suite 310
    3925 West Braker Lane
    Austin, TX 78759-5321
    512-305-0400
    512-305-0440 fax
Orders:
    800-377-5416  (U.S. and Canada)
    419-281-1802  (International)
    [e-mail]
    [e-mail]
    [e-mail]
Distributed in the United Kingdom by Full Moon Software
    0727 844232 and 0628 660242
    0727 856139 fax
    [e-mail]
Updates to CodeWarrior
    http://www.metrowerks.com
    ftp://mirror.apple.com/mirrors/info-mac/dev/cw/metro-patches-61.hqx
    http://www.iquest.com/~fairgate/cw/cw.html
Active discussion of CodeWarrior
    news://comp.sys.mac.programming.codewarrior

Peter Lennie, [e-mail], writes, "I'm a recent and evangelical convert
to CW. The editing and project-management environment is in every way superior
to that provided by THINK C version 7, and provides features available only with
add-ons to Think Project Manager (for example the indispensable function list
pop-up menu for a source file; the editor coloring; the vastly better searching,
e.g., making a search list of the Universal Headers, so that you can find the
current definition of a toolbox call or a constant). It's altogether neat and
cleanly thought out. It also uses much less memory than Think Project Manager,
and does a far better job of checking that a source file you've modified other
than through the current project actually needs to be recompiled.
    There are other important CW compiler advantages too. For example, the
compiler provides far better warnings (about potentially serious programming
errors); if you're generating 68k code, you can write inline functions that use
floating point registers (a significant help in encapsulating code); the
libraries are properly organized to use fp.h.
    The CodeWarrior debugger is generally nicer, especially in the way it deals
with arrays, though it lacks a singular benefit of the Think C one, namely
being able to evaluate expressions involving types and constants that are
defined in your source code.
    BTW, for people who still have to do 68k programming, I've written some
inline functions that encapsulate saving and restoring registers in interrupt
routines, and set up a5 and recover pointers to vbl and timer tasks. I can
provide these to any users who want them."

The C Programming Language, Second Edition
by Brian Kernighan and Dennis Ritchie, Prentice Hall, 1988
This book describes the new Standard C, which most commercial compilers conform to.

Numerical Recipes In C Set for Macintosh, 2nd ed.
(textbook, example book, and disk) $90
Useful book and mathematical library in source form. You can read the code,
understand what’s going on, and modify it if necessary.
    Cambridge University Press
    40 West 20th Street
    New York, NY 10010-4211
    (800)-431-1580
    914-937-9600

Macintosh Programmer's Toolbox Assistant $89.95 from APDA or Addison-Wesley.
(It's included in the Apple Developer Mailing, below.) An online reference manual
summarizing most of the information in the Inside Mac books. Similar to THINK
Reference (now obsolete) but newer and therefore more up to date. Requires 25 MB
disk space. Even if you have the Inside Mac books (paper or CD-ROM) you'll still
want this to quickly look up details while you're programming. Highly recommended.
    ftp://ftp.altura.com/ftp/public/
    http://www.austin.apple.com:80/dev/MPTA.html
    ftp://ftp.info.apple.com/Apple.Support.Area/Developer_Services/Technical_Documentation/Toolbox_Assistant_Updates/
    Addison-Wesley Publishing Company
    1 Jacob Way
    Reading, MA 01867
    (617)-944-3700
    (800)-447-2226

APDA. Apple Programmers and Developers Association. Get an APDA catalog, since
some Apple software and documentation is ONLY available from them.
    APDA
    Apple Computer, Inc.
    20525 Mariani Avenue, M/S 33G
    Cupertino, CA 95014-6299
    1-800-282-2732 (US)
    1-800-637-0029 (Canada)
    716-871-6555
    716-871-6511 FAX.
    [e-mail]

Inside Macintosh, 2nd edition: Imaging with QuickDraw, Advanced Color Imaging, ...
Inside Macintosh CD-ROM $89.95 (includes 25 books in electronic form).
Designing Cards and Drivers, 3rd edition
Designing PCI cards and Drivers for Power Mac Computers $35
From Addison-Wesley or APDA (addresses above).
You’ll need these books, especially "Imaging with QuickDraw" and "Advanced Color
Imaging". The 2nd edition of Inside Macintosh is significantly easier to read
than the first (which is now obsolete) and includes examples in C, not just
Pascal. The CD-ROM is a good deal, offering a cheap way to have all the I.M.
books on hand.

STUFF THAT I DON'T USE, BUT WHICH YOU MIGHT WANT TO KNOW ABOUT:

Power Macintosh Programming Starter Kit by Tom Thompson, Hayden Books, 1994 (I
haven't seen this book, but the following review seems promising. dgp) "A good
introduction to MetroWerk's CodeWarrior, the other best programming environment
for the mac, the only one to use if you're building PPC code, and my current
favorite. The enclosed CD has a limited version of CodeWarrior (you can only work
on the projects included in the disc - can't create new ones), and example code.
Covers a lot of toolbox issues that are not explored in other introductory books
and the PPC architecture in detail. Assumes working knowledge of C, and the
toolbox." (Book review posted on [e-mail] by [e-mail]).

Symantec C
I used Symantec THINK C until mid 1994, but I no longer recommend it. (For another
perspective, see "On the other hand" below.) Unsupported software isn't
appropriate for serious work. THINK C is a C compiler and programming environment
(combined editor, linker, librarian, loader) for 68k Macintoshes only. THINK C
was very good, but it seems that Symantec has stopped supporting it in favor of
their C++. For more money you can get Symantec C++ for Macintosh or Power PC,
both of which include THINK C and Apple's universal headers as part of the
package. THINK C is only for 68k Macs. Symantec C++ for PowerPC includes a new
PowerPC C compiler, which seems to be unrelated to the THINK C compiler. Thus it
appears that Symantec's C compilers for 68k and ppc have different heritages,
which seems undesirable since I would have little confidence that the compiled
code would run identically. (In my lab we routinely produce fat applications and
run them on whichever computer is available.) VideoToolbox is pure C, and makes
no use of C++. The upgrade (see below) from THINK C 6 to 8 is free, but doesn't
include the universal headers.
     Version 7 (and 8, which is unchanged) of THINK C is hardly changed from
version 6. They slightly enhanced the user interface of the Symantec Project
Manager, and fixed a few bugs in the THINK C compiler. (There are a few extra
things--AppleScript support and Apple's Universal Headers--that are useful to
THINK C users, but which you'll get only if you pay for the full Symantec C++ 8
package.) In a pinch, you can use THINK C 5, but the upgrade from 5 to 7 is
inexpensive and improves the user interface significantly. It appears that
Symantec is basically dropping THINK C, since it hasn't changed (significantly)
since version 5, and since they haven't announced any plans to port it to the
PowerPC. (I've also heard that none of the authors work for them any longer.)
Symantec is concentrating on C++ (which is based on Zortech C++, not THINK C).
     Since 1993, my experience trying to give Symantec bug reports about THINK C has
been discouraging. In THINK C 7.03, 7.04, and 8.0 on a PowerBook 170, if you
evaluate exp(log(0.5)) you get INF, not 0.5 as you'd expect. (CodeWarrior gives
the right answer. The problem seems to be specific to THINK C on the PowerBook
170.) I reported the bug on July 11, and 20, 1994, but Symantec didn't
acknowledge that it's a bug and apparently will never fix it.
     ON THE OTHER HAND: Lew Harvey, [e-mail], writes "Dear Denis,
I was just reading your advice file in the latest VideoToolbox and think
that you are being too harsh on Symantec. I think their C compiler is great. It
is my understanding that Symantec is not abandoning C in favor of C++ and is
making continual improvements in both. I think it is true that they are putting a
lot of effort into C++, but since the ANSI standard libraries are written in C,
they still depend on a good C compiler. I have found them quite responsive to my
reporting of bugs in both the C and C++ 68k compilers. In any case I am very
happy with the development environment. From the comments I've read in various
newsgroups, I conclude that the Symantec C++ development environment is superior
to CW in several ways, including the handling of exceptions, Visual Architect and
the TCL class library. (I don't own stock in Symantec!)." [Note that Denis used
THINK C until 1994, while Lew is using Symantec C++, which appeared about then,
so the two views are compatible.]
     Lew adds, "There is a confusion about names for the compilers and the
project managers. Symantec is using the following naming scheme to distinguish
the various compilers and the processors they produce code for. To produce
PowerPC code: Symantec Project Manager 8.0.1, PowerPC C (C compiler) 8.0.1,
PowerPC C++ (C++ compiler) 8.0.1. To produce 68k Code: Think Project Manager
7.0.4, Think C (C compiler) 8.0, Symantec C++ (C++ compiler) 8.0"
    10/95: Lew qualifies, "I reread what I had written in 'Advice' and it seems
too strong. I still like using Symantec C/C++ largely because I have written
several programs using the Think Class Library and I don't want to make the
effort to learn another framework (i.e., PowerPlant). The Symantec Project
Manager (SPM), version 8.0.3, that produces code for the PowerPC is a pleasure to
use. The editor is very similar to that in CodeWarrior. The SPM browser makes
checking class relationships and functions easy, etc. But I am still using the
Think Project Manager (TPM), version 7.0.5, to produce code for the 68k Macs and
I must say that I am getting impatient to have the features of SPM v8 and
CodeWarrior. Symantec is supposed to be working on a single project manager that
will be used for both 68k and PPC development (like Metroworks already has) for
their next major release. I can hardly wait.
THINK C 6 $299
Symantec C++ 7 for Macintosh $299??
Symantec C++ 8 for Power Macintosh $299
Upgrade to C++ 8 $149.95 for registered users of Symantec C++ 7,THINK C,or Pascal.
Symantec Corporation
10201 Torre Ave
Cupertino, CA 95014
[phone] fax
[phone]
You can get Symantec's THINK C updates from:
http://www.symantec.com/
ftp://mirror.apple.com/mirrors/info-mac/dev/sym/
ftp://devtools.symantec.com/DTS Server Drive /ftp/Macintosh/Updates/DevTools/
"The 7.0.4 update contains patches to the THINK Project Manager and THINK
Debugger for System 7.5 compatibility, but is otherwise identical to the 7.0.3
update released on June 22." EDS (Essential Development tool Set) includes "the
THINK Project Manager, THINK Debugger, and the compilers." The THINK C upgrade
from 7.04 to 8.0 changes only the version number. Support questions can be sent
to Symantec at:
[e-mail]
[e-mail]

MPW Pro (Macintosh Programmer's Workbench, Professional Edition) $295  ($75 to
upgrade from MPW) from APDA (address above). This is a new package from Apple,
providing a complete development environment (C, Pascal, and Assembler; 68k and
PowerPC) on one CD-ROM. (Includes Mac Programmer's Toolbox Assistant.) Apparently
it's the same CD-ROM that you would get by subscribing to ETO (minus Symantec
C++), without the printed manuals. Most people find MPW slow and clumsy, and
prefer CodeWarrior. (The only thing I use MPW for is CompareFiles.) However,
Apple includes pre-release tools on their ETO disks that might be handy.

Essential Tools and Objects CD-ROM (also called “ETO”) $795 for first year,
$250/year thereafter ($200 credit for owners of MPW Pro) from APDA. I don’t
subscribe to this--it seems too expensive--but you may want to. It’s updated 3
times a year and has the latest versions of Apple’s development tools, MPW, C,
etc. It includes MPW Pro, Symantec C++, Inside Mac CD-ROM, Mac Programmer's
Toolbox Assistant, and 21 printed manuals. Doesn't include the Developer
Mailings. (The important difference between MPW Pro and ETO is that ETO is a
subscription so they keep sending you the latest disk, 3 times a year, whereas
you buy MPW Pro once, no updates.)

SUBSCRIPTIONS:

CVNet is the Color and Vision Network. To join just send an email message to the
moderator, explaining your interest in vision. If you're accepted, your email
address will be added to the email distribution list. CVNet sends out about a
message a day about events of interest to people doing vision research: mostly
jobs, conferences, and solicitations of advice. Free.
    [e-mail]

TidBITS. A free weekly email newsletter about Macintosh software and hardware
published by Adam and Tonya Engst.
    [e-mail]

MacWEEK. Try to get a free subscription.
    Customer Service Department
    P.O. Box 5821
    Cherry Hill, NJ 08034
    (609)-428-5000

MacTech Magazine. The only paper Mac magazine for programmers.
    PO Box 250055
    Los Angeles, CA 90025-9555
    310-575-4343
    310-575-0925 fax
    [e-mail]

develop: The Apple Technical Journal. $27 in US, $47 outside US. From APDA
(address above). The develop magazine has four issues per year.
It has lots of examples and helpful in-depth explanations. I've learned a lot
from the magazine. The accompanying CD includes useful documentation: Tech Notes.

Apple Developer Mailing Subscription. Each month you receive a CD-ROM. $149/year
from APDA. These CDs are a very useful reference, including documentation and
sample code, for anyone developing Mac software. Includes Macintosh Programmer's
Toolbox Assistant.

Mac OS Software Developer's Kit ($149/year, 3 issues per year). Each issue is a
CD-ROM containing a fairly complete collection of Apple's software to interface
to components of the operating system, e.g. the Display Manager. I think most of
this stuff is included in the Developer Mailings CD-ROM, so it probably wouldn't
be worth subscribing to both.

Macintosh Associates Plus Program. $500/year. Apple engineers will answer up to
ten questions per year. Includes developer mailings. Call (408)-974-4897.

Macintosh Partners Program. $1,500/year. Only for people producing commercial
products for Mac. Apple engineers answer an unlimited number of questions.
Includes developer mailings.

ONLINE SERVICES:

Who can answer your Macintosh programming question? You can try posting it on
UseNet or Compuserve. Somebody knowledgeable might jump in. (Apple engineers
often participate in UseNet, occasionally in CompuServe.) For $500 you can become
an Apple Associate Plus (above) and ask 10 questions (over a year) of Apple
engineers, who will answer your questions by email, provided you've already
consulted the relevant manuals.

UseNet. The comp.sys.mac.programming.codewarrior UseNet news group has
knowledgeable active discussion. Experts often jump in with helpful answers to
thorny questions. You can participate in UseNet from your your Mac using telnet
(NCSA Telnet and MacIP are both free) to log into a local unix system. Or you
might use InterNews (available by ftp from the Info-Mac archive) if you can get
tcp/ip access to a net news server.

CompuServe Information Service. If you can’t join UseNet, then you may want to
join CompuServe, to follow the discussions and post your seemingly insoluble
Macintosh problems on the bulletin boards, MacPro, MacDev, or Symantec:THINK C,
to get free advice from experts. Buy the program Navigator from CompuServe, as it
makes CompuServe much easier to use. You’ll need a modem. A new wrinkle is that
CompuServe offers dialup PPP access to the internet, which may be a
cost-effective way of accessing your mail when you're on the road.
http://www.compuserve.com/new/news_rel/netl.html
P.O. Box 20212
Columbus, OH 43220
(800)-848-8199

eWorld. Apple’s original bulletin board and email system was AppleLink, which is
being phased out and replaced by eWorld. AppleLink provides some system software
updates and technical information. Most companies that make Macintosh products
have AppleLink accounts, and you can use the online directory to get their email
addresses. You’ll need a modem. I've tried eWorld, but so far (3/95) I haven't
found eWorld useful. Apple has just announced that they will provide
one-day-turnaround free customer support on eWorld, which may make it worth
subscribing. As of October '95, the word is that eWorld hasn't caught on.
[phone]
[e-mail]

SOFTWARE ARCHIVES ACCESSIBLE THROUGH THE INTERNET:

FTP is a file transfer protocol used to transfer files across the Internet. FTP
programs typically have very rudimentary user interfaces. Some of the bigger ftp
servers are now also Gopher servers. Gopher (developed at University of
Minnesota, originally for a campus-wide information server)  is sort of a
superset of ftp that provides a quite good user interface and allows access to a
wide variety of Internet resources. Public ftp servers require that you log in as
“anonymous and will accept any password, but it is considered a courtesy to
supply your electronic address as the password. If for some reason you can’t use
ftp or gopher, some of the sites will help you out by allowing you to request
transmission of files to you by email.

There are two ways to use ftp from your Mac. The traditional, indirect, approach
is to remotely log into a mainframe (preferably one running unix), use its ftp
facilities to move the file to it, and then download the file from it. The
modern, direct, approach requires that your AppleTalk network have a gateway to
the Internet, so that you can run an ftp program on your Mac (provided you have
Apple’s MacTCP init, included in System 7.5). I recommend Anarchie, TurboGopher,
Mosaic, or Netscape for downloading and Fetch 2.12 for uploading. All are free
from the Info-Mac archive.

The Internet Starter Kit for Macintosh, 3rd ed, by Adam C. Engst. $29.95 USA
$37.95 Canada. For beginners. Includes lots of public domain software to help you access
the Internet. Hayden Books.
    [e-mail]

The Providers of Commercial Internet Access (POCIA) Directory contains hundreds
of entries for Internet providers, which include addresses, telephone numbers,
email addresses, and pricing. It is indexed by area code (for the U.S. and
Canada) and by country (for the rest of the world). (Courtesy TidBITS)
    http://www.teleport.com/~cci/
    ftp://ftp.teleport.com/vendors/cci/pocia/pocia.txt

ADVICE
Hans Strasburger's annotated list of available visual psychophysics software
    http://vision.arc.nasa.gov/VisionScience/VisionScience.html
Eye movements
    gopher://gopher.spc.edu:70/00/Academics/Ugrad/Ps/Faculty/Carmody/EYEMOV-L/Query/q_ober2more.txt
Displaying stereo images
    http://www.tisco.com/3d-web/index.html
Digital camera guide (e.g. Apple's QuickTake 150)
    http://rainbow.rmii.com/~jburton/PlugInSystems/DigitalCameraGuide.html

Faith Florer, [e-mail], published on CVNet 7/31/95 this list
of experimental psychology software packages compatible with the PowerMac.
(I deleted VideoToolbox and abbreviated the other entries. dgp)
MacStim - Simple text script. $300
    [e-mail]
    [e-mail]
Psychlab - Easy script-based language. $350
    Not developed for the power mac, but if problems appear the programmers will fix it.
    [e-mail]
PsyScope - Graphics and scripting. Recommended by six users. Free
    ftp://[e-mail]
    http://poppy.psy.cmu.edu/psyscope
    Cohen JD, MacWhinney B, Flatt M & Provost J (1993). PsyScope: A new graphic
    interactive environment for designing psychology experiments. Behavioral
    Research Methods, Instruments & Computers, 25(2), 257-271.
RSVP - Manipulation of simple C-level scripts, designed to run with the VideoToolbox. Free
    http://www.cs.yale.edu/HTML/YALE/CS/AI/TarrLab/tarrlab-top.html
    ftp://www.cs.yale.edu//pub/tarr/RSVP.sea.hqx.gz
    [e-mail]
SuperLab - Graphics and simple scripting. Recommended by BRMIC Vol.25(3)400-405. $500
    [e-mail]
    [phone]

ARCHIVES
Info-Mac archives is the largest collection of public-domain Mac software. (The
VideoToolbox is in /info-mac/dev/lib/). Unfortunately in 1994 user demand
overwhelmed Info-Mac's resources and it is now very difficult to access. However,
there are many "mirror" sites all over the world that keep more-or-less
up-to-date copies of Info-Mac and they're usually much easier to access. In 1995
I've had good luck with the AOL mirror site (below). The HyperArchive provides
MIT's web interface to accessing Info-Mac's file.
    http://hyperarchive.lcs.mit.edu/HyperArchive.html
    ftp://sumex-aim.stanford.edu/info-mac/
    gopher://Info-Mac Archives
    email://[e-mail]
    ftp://mirror.apple.com/mirrors/info-mac/
    ftp://mirrors.aol.com/pub/info-mac/
    ftp://amug.org/pub/ftp1/info-mac/
    ftp://wuarchive.wustl.edu/systems/mac/info-mac/
    http://wuarchive.wustl.edu/systems/mac/info-mac/
    ftp://src.doc.ic.ac.uk/packages/mac/info-mac/
    ftp://grind.isca.uiowa.edu/mac/infomac/
    ftp://ftp.uu.net/archive/systems/mac/info-mac/
MacPsych archives
    ftp://ftp.stolaf.edu/pub/macpsych/
    gopher://gopher.stolaf.edu:70/11/Internet%20Resources/St.%20Olaf%20Sponsored%20Mailing%20Lists/MacPsych
    email://[e-mail]
Alternative Collegiate Computer Assoc. of New Mexico State University.
Contains almost all freely distributable software mentioned in the FAQ lists for
comp.sys.mac.misc, comp.sys.mac.system, and comp.sys.mac.apps.
    ftp://rever.nmsu.edu/pub/macfaq/
Apple archives: (list courtesy of TidBITS)
    http://www.info.apple.com/dev/developerservices.html
    http://www.info.apple.com/dev/thirdparty/third_party.html
    http://www.info.apple.com/powermac/powermac.html
    http://www.info.apple.com/ppc/ppchome.html
    http://www.info.apple.com/
    http://www.apple.com/
    gopher://spinaltap.micro.umn.edu/11/computer/Apple/
    http://www.support.apple.com/
    ftp://ftp.support.apple.com/pub/Apple SW Updates/Macintosh/
    gopher://ftp.support.apple.com/11/pub/
    ftp://ftp.apple.com/dts/mac/
    ftp://seeding.apple.com/
    gopher://info.hed.apple.com/
    ftp://ftp.austin.apple.com/Apple.Support.Area/
    ftp://aux.support.apple.com/
    ftp://abs.apple.com/abs/
    ftp://ftp.cambridge.apple.com/pub/
    ftp://atg.apple.com/pub/
    http://qtvr.quicktime.apple.com/
    http://quicktime.apple.com/
    http://www.austin.apple.com:80/qtake/
    http://www.macfaq.com/vendor.html
University of Texas Macintosh Archive
    ftp://ftp.utexas.edu/pub/mac/
    http://wwwhost.ots.utexas.edu/mac/main.html

SEARCHING
Free searching of the whole world
    http://home.mcom.com/home/internet-search.html
    http://www.yahoo.com/
    http://www2.infoseek.com/
Search the Info-Mac archive:
    http://hyperarchive.lcs.mit.edu/HyperArchive.html
    http://www.tocnet.com/~baron/infomac/
    http://www.mid.net/INFO-MAC
Commercial searching services
    http://www.infoseek.com/
    http://www.hotwired.com/
Search back-issues of TidBITS:
    http://www.wais.com/wais-dbs/macintosh-tidbits.html
List of internet mailing lists. Sort alphabetically or by category
    http://www.clark.net/pub/listserv/listserv.html
Search a Dartmouth database of almost 6,000 mailing lists.
    http://alpha.acast.nova.edu:80/listserv.html
Search for documents on the internet. Lycos automatically catalogs all World-Wide
Web documents it finds, including titles and headings, significant keywords,
size, and the first 20 lines of the document. To date Lycos has cataloged about
three million Web documents and serves more than 175,000 search requests every
week.
    http://lycos.cs.cmu.edu/
NYNEX Yellow Pages for entire USA
    http://www.niyp.com/

MACINTOSH
Macintosh, PCI
    http://www.mit.edu:8001/people/rajiv/PCI/
    http://www.manual.com/conflicts/
    http://rampages.onramp.net/~stevent/updates.html
    http://www.echonyc.com/~andrewj/drive-thru.html
    http://pilot.njin.net/~msproul/macintosh/OpenTpt.html
    http://pilot.njin.net/~msproul/macintosh/PCIcards.html
    http://www.gse.ucla.edu/staff/DEF/PCIpurge.html
Motorola PowerPC FAQ
    http://www.mot.com/PowerPC/lib/ppc_faq.html
Macintosh, Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
    http://www.macfaq.com/faq/generalfaq.html
    ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet/news.answers/macintosh/programming-faq
    ftp://sumex-aim.stanford.edu/info-mac/dev/info/beginning-mac-programming.txt
    ftp://sumex-aim.stanford.edu/info-mac/dev/info/csm-programmer-faq.txt
    http://king.tidbits.com/adam/FAQ.html
    http://rever.nmsu.edu/~elharo/faq/Macintosh.html
Macintosh vendor directories
    gopher://ocf.berkeley.edu/hh/gopherspace/Computer/Systems/Macintosh/PowerMac_Products
    http://rever.nmsu.edu/~elharo/faq/vendor.html
    http://thelist.com/
Mac programming
    http://www.class.com/MacTech/URLs.html
    http://www.mactech.com/
    http://www.freepress.com/myee/ultimate_mac.html
    http://www.cs.brandeis.edu/~xray/mac.html
    ftp://ftp.amug.org/pub/contrib/demos/Development
    http://www.astro.new.edu/lentz/mac/programming/home-prog.html
Mac information maintained by enthusiasts (source: MacTech magazine)
    http://www.pitt.edu/~nick/
    http://www.iquest.com/~fairgate
    http://acacia.ens.fr:8080/home/pottier/index.html
comp.sys.mac.programmer digest
    news://comp.sys.mac.digest
Well Connected Mac
    http://www.macfaq.com/
Welcome to Macintosh
    http://www.astro.nwu.edu/lentz/mac/home-mac.html
Mac archive of Adam Engst, author of The Internet Starter Kit and editor of TidBITS,
    ftp://ftp.tidbits.com/pub/tidbits/tisk/
    http://www.tidbits.com/tidbits/index.html

COMPANIES
AT&T phone directory for "800" numbers:
    http://att.net/dir800
Hayden books. Buy books online at a 20 percent discount. (Source: TidBITS)
    http://www.mcp.com/
MIT Press:
    http://www-mitpress.mit.edu
    [e-mail]
    [e-mail]
NASA's Computer Software Management and Information Center (COSMIC) "has over 850
computer programs available internationally that were originally developed by
NASA and its contractors for the U.S. space program.  Software is available for
a number of areas of interest including:  artificial intelligence, computational
fluid dynamics, finite element structural analysis, scientific visualization,
thermal and fluid flow analysis, and many more.  Programs are priced on a
cost-recovery basis and usually include source code."
    706-542-4807 fax
    [e-mail]
    gopher://gopher.cosmic.uga.edu
    http://www.cosmic.uga.edu
National Instuments (hardware and software for data acq. & control)
    http://natinst.com
PowerCity Online. Sales for Mac/PC. "Subject: Order Info" (Recommended by TidBITS.)
    [e-mail]

ACADEMIC VISION-RELATED SITES
Vision research: labs,groups,conferences,newsgroups,databases,source code,etc.
    http://vision.arc.nasa.gov/VisionScience/VisionScience.html
Psychophysics Software Overview by Hans Strasburger, [e-mail]
    http://vision.arc.nasa.gov/VisionScience/VisionScience.html
    http://www.med.uni-muenchen.de/medpsy/vis/psyphs/psy_soft.html
Tables of contents of selected recent vision journals
    gopher://eyesite.optometry.ohio-state.edu/
CVNet, Color and Vision Network. Also see CVNet under "EMAIL" below.
    http://vision.arc.nasa.gov/VisionScience/mail/cvnet/index.html
LOVNET low vision research
    http://vision.psych.umn.edu/www/lovnet/lovnet.html
Conferences on Medical Imaging and Computer Vision
    http://www.cv.ruu.nl/Conferences/
National Eye Institute (US)
    http://www.nei.nih.gov
National Institutes of Health (US)
    http://www.nih.gov
American Psychological Society Employment Bulletin
    http://oak.hanover.edu/psych/APS/aps.html
MIT
    http://www.mit.edu:8001/home-pages.html
MIT AI memos
    ftp://publications.ai.mit.edu/ai-publications/

SOFTWARE ARCHIVES ON CD-ROM:

Info-Mac CD-ROM $49.95 plus shipping. A recent snapshot of the
info-mac archive on a CD-ROM containing about 600 MB. (Includes recent
edition of the VideoToolbox.)
Pacific HiTech, Inc.
4760 Highland Drive, Suite 204
Salt Lake City, Utah 84124
800-765-8369 (orders only)
801-278-2042
801-278-2666 (fax)
[e-mail]

Apprentice CD-ROM $35 (includes shipping in US and Canada) 600 MB of
Mac source code and utilities. (Includes recent edition of the VideoToolbox.)
Celestin Company
1152 Hastings Avenue
Port Townsend, WA  98368
360/385-3767
360/385-3586 (fax)
[e-mail]
http://www.celestin.com/apprentice/

EMAIL:

Your email service ought to have a gateway to Internet; complain if it doesn’t.
Here’s how to send Internet mail to various commercial services when you only
know the person’s service-specific address:
America Online: “Adam Engst” becomes “[e-mail]”.
AppleLink: “DENIS” becomes “[e-mail]”.
BIX: “user” becomes “[e-mail]”.
CompuServe: “1234,567” becomes “[e-mail]”. Note: “,” becomes “.”.
GEnie: “username” becomes “[e-mail]”.
MCI: Joe Doe 123-4567 becomes “[e-mail]” or “[e-mail]”.
Prodigy: user ID “abcd12a” becomes “[e-mail]”

LONG ADB CABLES:

For long viewing distances it's nice to be able to move the keyboard and mouse
far from the computer. Carl Stone, 73260.1147.compuserve.com, writes, "I like to
work about 15' away from my computer so I investigated the availability of long
ADB cables. I went to a local electronics store that sells parts and bought a 20'
S-VHS cable for $8. It matches the ADB ports exactly, and works fine." Ric
Ford, (MacWeek) 72511.44.compuserve.com, adds, "S-VHS cables, in a wide variety
of lengths, are available from Markertek, in Saugerties, NY at 800-522-2025; fax:
914 246-1757."

HARDWARE:

We like built-in video because you can load images into built-in video about
twice as fast as through the bus, (this seems to be as true of PCI bus as it was
of NuBus). For the latest speed information, look at the "Video synch" document.

I suggest you get the built-in CD-ROM (most developer information now comes only
on CD-ROM disks) and get 16 MB of memory and RAM Doubler, since it makes
programming easier.

You’ll need a modem to call CompuServe or AppleLink, and to dial in from home and
elsewhere using AppleTalk Remote Access (ARA). 28,800 bits/s modems cost several
hundred dollars. (I'm happy with the 14.4 kb/s Global Village modem in my
PowerBook, and the 28.8 kb/s external Global Village modem for my PowerPC at
home.) Phone lines are still expensive though, so you may want to cost-share by
using a shared modem and a single phone line, in which case you'll want to buy an
AppleTalk Remote Access server to connect the modem to your AppleTalk network.

My former department, at Syracuse U., uses a single DAT tape drive (with
compression, from APS) and the Retrospect program to backup dozens of Macs every
night automatically. We were very happy with it. I've ordered a DAT jukebox
from APS that automatically juggles 5 DAT tapes. Retrospect maintains a historical
backup so you can go back to older versions of your data, many backups ago. Get a
sufficiently large-capacity tape drive so that you can do unattended incremental
backups without having to change the tape.
APS Hyper DAT $1,399
APS DAT Jukebox
APS Technologies
6131 Deramus
PO Box 4987
Kansas City, MO
(800)-354-1213
816-483-6100
816-483-3077 fax

At $30 per megabyte it’s worth buying enough memory to take your computer up to
at least 16 MB. (To show movies, we've taken several of our computers up to
40 MB.) This outfit has good prices.
Chip Merchant
9285 Chesapeake Drive
San Diego, CA 92123
(619)-268-4774
(619)-268-0874 fax

MONITORS:

We’ve done nearly all our research using Apple’s High Resolution Monochrome
monitors, which are no longer sold by Apple, but which were inexpensive and
adequate, though one could wish for higher luminance (100 cd/m^2 peak when new),
better high voltage regulation, and dc coupling instead of dc restoration. I
suspect that a color monitor might be better regulated and might be excellent
used as a monochrome monitor. Use with the ISR Video Attenuator would require
that you: 1. drive just the green (or red or blue) gun (easy), or 2. build a
video amplifier to drive all three channels from the single output of the video
attenuator (might be hard, depending on your familiarity with hardware), or 3.
snip two of the 75 ohm termination resistors inside the monitor and tie all three
channels together (not for the faint of heart--i haven't tried this).

Paul Beckmann, [e-mail], asks, "The lab's Apple Monochrome monitors
are losing brightness. Apple no longer produces the monitor. Do you know of a
MONOCHROME monitor that will take its place using the old standard Mac video
timing?" ANSWER: I'm deciding among 3 choices:
1. buy used Apple monochrome monitors from Shreve for $150. We've bought 4 before.
2. buy new apple or sony color monitors. (See note above regarding ISR Video Attenuator.)
3. buy a fancy monochrome monitor: Dotronix, $1450.

Here's what I know about high-frame rate and bright monitors. (Fast and bright
are both interesting, separately and together.) Does anybody have anything to
add?

A company called Dotronix is supposed to be coming out with a high resolution
(150 MHz) bright (300 cd/m^2) 21" multisynch gray scale monitor (ASM2400 21"FS)
for about $1450. Dotronix [phone].

I know very little about color monitors, but people keep asking me to recommend
one. Tom Robson of Cambridge Research Systems gave me a brochure for what
appears to be a rather nice color monitor: Sony 20-inch Trinitron Multiscan
GDM-2038. Field rate of 50 to 160 Hz. Max luminance 160 cd/m^2. Costs $2,500.

John Troy, [e-mail], writes, "We are using a Sony Trinitron
Color Display Multiscan. The model we use is the GDM-17SE1 (a 17" monitor). There
is a sister 20" monitor (GDM-20SE1) whose properties are presumably similar.
Although ours is a color monitor we have only used it so far as a white stimulus.
(We've made accurate measurements of chromaticity.) We run the refresh rate at
153 Hz (Line rate:  82.3 kHz, Dot rate: 108 MHz); the capacity to run this fast
was what attracted us to the monitor. [John is not using a Mac--he's using a
Cambridge Research Systems VSG board in a PC.] At that rate, in our hands, the
mean luminance is 82 cd m^-2. At that luminance with a 5 mm diameter pupil we
find that the cat ganglion cells we've studied so far resolve around 70-75 Hz; if
the screen luminance were higher, we'd need a faster frame rate to satisfy the
Nyquist criterion. According to the Sony spec-sheet, at 155.30 Hz the display has
640 dots X 480 lines (82 kHz line rate). We have currently only displayed
one-dimensional patterns (e.g., sinusoidal gratings, edges). We've achieved very
good control over stimulus contrast and accurate generation of sinewave gratings.
We are very satisfied with it. It was priced quite reasonably at $999."

We bought Apple's 17" Multiscan for about $900. It's a Sony Trinitron. Peak
luminance is about 100 cd/m^2. Using the Monitors control panel, or the new
Display Manager, you can select among several resolutions.

Does anyone know what the differences are between the Sony GDM-2038 and the
GDM-20SE1? They're both 20". Apple's 17" and 20" multiscan monitors are
made by Sony. Does anyone know whether they'll run at 150 Hz, like the
Sony GDM-2038 and the GDM-20SE1?

John Troy, [e-mail], writes, "I came across a new monitor,
Optiquest 2082DC, this weekend which might be better than the Sony.  It is a 20
inch color monitor with an advertised price of $1399. It has a 90 MHz dot rate.
Like the Sony, it has a shadow mask and various energy-saving features that may
be troublesome.  I don't have much information yet. Optiqest Inc., Walnut, CA
91789. (909)-468-3750."

Harry Orbach, [e-mail], writes "I have noticed that some monitors
(NEC  XP15,  XP17, XP21 and Panasonic  C1791E) are advertised in MacMall to run
at 160 Hz."

MacLiberty Adapter is a small 15-pin-D to 15-pin-D adapter that programs the
video sense lines to mimic any monitor, to fool your video card. (Costs ten or
twenty bucks; I forget.) I bought my MacLiberty Adapter from Enhance Cable
Technology, but apparently they are now strictly wholesale. Tom Busey writes,
"The only dealer I found is MacMall, at 1-800-222-2808. I would advise people to
be very clear about what they are ordering. I have yet to receive a correct order
from them the first time, although they do always eventually get it right."
Enhance Cable Technology
730 North Ninth Street
San Jose, CA 95112
800-343-2425
408-293-2425
408-293-2468 fax

MacWeek (4/10/95) says, "MacFly is a $25 universal adapter that allows users to
switch on the fly among all supported Mac and VGA resolutions. [It] has single
switch for moving between Mac and VGA resolution families; all changes within a
family are handled by the standard Monitors control panel.... works with all
third-party cards that support the Mac Display Manager and the Apple Multiple
Scan 20 Display."
MacAdapt, El Cerrito, 510-525-0789, 510-525-5740 fax, [e-mail]

LCD GLASSES:

Displaying stereo images
    http://www.tisco.com/3d-web/index.html

Stereographics Corp. sells LCD glasses.
[phone]
[e-mail]
"CrystalEyes is a high-quality (60 frames per second per eye) product with good
transmission and blocking characteristics, and it's light-weight, too. Silicon
Graphics bundles them with their 3D workstation packages so I guess I'm not the
only one who like them."

Lafayette Instruments
Sells LCD glasses.

3d-tv
Michael Starks, President
415-479-3516
Sells a variety of different kinds of LCD glasses.

"The archive for the virtual reality newsgroup has more information on other
manufacturers. It's a bit out of date, but it still has good pointers to
equipment manufacturers."
ftp://ftp.u.washington.edu/public/virtual-worlds/faq/commercial/

"The book 'Garage Virtual Reality' has a list of sources. It's a cool book as
well."

(Source: Dan Costin, [e-mail], via MacPsych, who is quoting Rob Douglas,
[e-mail], Hisham A. Abboud, [e-mail], Tom Busey,
[e-mail], Blake Sobiloff, [e-mail], and Chris Chase,
[e-mail])

Mats Lind, [e-mail], writes, "3-D Max, a Swedish company, working with
a Korean supplier, has just started to deliver attractively priced LCD-shutter
glasses and accessories giving binocular stereo capabilities to PCs. Their
product received enormous attention at the Ce-Bit fair in Hannover last week. The
estimated retail price in the US will be less than $180 USD (including some extra
software like 3-D games) and will probably reach a high market share. 3-D Max, is
very interested in entering the Apple market segment as well, but to do so
requires the usual 120+ Hz."

Tom Busey, [e-mail], adds, "I have just finished writing code that
displays color stereo 3-d pairs for use with LCD glasses. This code uses
sequential-frame presentations synched with LCD glasses controlled via the serial
port to provide the illusion of depth. While this technology is old, what is new
is my code takes two PICT files and reduces the millions of colors to what
amounts to 4 bits per red, green and blue channel for each picture (on monitors
with millions of colors) or 2 bits per channel for monitors with thousands of
colors. I add the two pictures together and I use clut switching to switch
between them. The stereo 3-d code uses calls from (not surprisingly) the
VideoToolbox code library. As with all the code I write, this code is freely
available to anyone who wants it. I'm currently working with LCD glasses
distributors to have it distributed free to purchasers of LCD glasses (which cost
about $150). The software may be downloaded from:"
ftp://ftp.psych.indiana.edu/pub/busey/AdjustStereoPicts.sea.hqx

COLLECTING ANALOG DATA:

Michael Bach, [e-mail], posted the following
on MacPsych in 1994, "We use 2 setups to get data into the Macs
    1. National Instruments has several analog i/o boards, and these can be
programmed directly or with their high-level language called "LabView". Expensive, but
good. See upcoming paper in Vision Res for motion vep measurements where this
was used :-).
    2. MacLab: Only 8 channels, box connects to scsi so any mac can be used, very
nice strip chard and scope applications. Much cheaper than LabView, works right
away. For better analysis transfer to Igor or whatever is advised."

Norm Vinson, [e-mail], 613-765-4992, posted the following on MacPsych
(8/95), "Here's a summary of the responses I received about the post I made for a
package containing a set of medical devices, software and hardware that [I can
connect] to a Mac to take real-time measures of physiological parameters. I
looked at biopac and that seems very good.  However, a cursory examination seems
to indicate that SuperScope II and LabView are comparable to biopac. Didn't look
at MacLab."

Biopac MP100 for the Mac (they have a windows version too).
    Biopac Systems
    275 South Orange Avenue, Suite E
    Santa Barbara, CA  93117
    phone [phone]
    fax [phone]
    [e-mail]
    [e-mail]
LabView
    National Instruments
    800-433-3488
    http://www.natinst.com/
Customization for National Instruments available from Solutions
    John Bouwens
    Solutions And Projects
    Turfschip 198
    NL-1186 XS Amstelveen
    The Netherlands
    Phone [phone]
    Fax   [phone]
    [e-mail]
MacLab
    [e-mail]
SuperScope II
    GW Instruments
    35 Medford St.
    Somerville MA USA 02143 - 1237
    Tel: 617 / 625 - 4096
    Fax: 617 / 625 - 1322
    [e-mail]

CALIBRATED IMAGES ON PAPER OR TRANSPARENCY:

YiXiong Zhou, [e-mail], asks, "have you ever calibrated transparency or
printing paper?"
    Well, yes, John and I did do that when producing the Pelli-Robson chart. It's
hard. The problem is that the printing industry universally assumes that
invisible errors are negligible, whereas psychophysics is affected by these
errors.
    Laserwriters (pennies per page) vary a LOT with amount of toner in the cartridge,
across the page and from page to page. Linotypes ($8 per page) use a laser to
expose photographic paper or transparency film, which is pretty well controlled,
EXCEPT that the developing solution is POORLY controlled, so that density is
strongly dependent on how long it's been since the developer was last
replenished. Halftone printing (to print many copies) has variations over the
page and over time; it's hellish to control to psychophysical standards.
    For producing a few images, you can do quite well by calibrating the output of a
Lintotype just before printing your final copies. You should be able to find a
Linotype by looking in the Yellow Pages for Graphics Printing, or something like
that. It's usually easier if you bring your own computer with you and connect it
to their network and print directly from your machine. You will need to create
test patterns, and you'll need an appropriate densitometer (reflection or
transmission), which cost one or two thousands of dollars. The graphics workshop
might have one they'd let you use in-house.

RECOMMENDED SOFTWARE:

A few items are "not tested"; I include them only because I think others may want
to check them out. Let me know. The free & shareware stuff is available from
Info-Mac or CompuServe or both. You can use Anarchie to quickly search most of
the world's ftp sites. To search Compuserve use their “GO MACFF” command.

Anarchie - quickly find and get any file in the world's public ftp archives. Free.
    ftp://mirror.apple.com//pub/info-mac/comm/tcp/anarchie-16.hqx
Apple Bug Reporter - report bugs to Apple. Free.
    ftp://ftp.info.apple.com/Apple.Support.Area/Developer_Services/Utilities/Apple_Bug_Reporter_1.6.sit.hqx
ApplWindow - INIT helps you go quickly go to any window of any application. Free.
    ftp://mirror.apple.com/mirrors/info-mac/gui/appl-window-202.hqx
ARA Commander - streamlines use of Appletalk Remote Access. $35.
    ftp://mirror.apple.com/mirrors/info-mac/comm/tcp/ara-commander-202-demo.hqx
ATM 3.8.3 - Adobe Type Manager, $40 from Adobe at 800-521-1976 x4400.
    ftp://ftp.adobe.com/pub/adobe/Applications/ATM/Macintosh/Updaters/ATM_3.8.2_Updater.sea.hqx
    http://www.adobe.com/Software.html
BBEdit 3.5 - best text editor (not word processor). $99/$79 if you own CW or THINK C.
    [e-mail]
    ftp://ftp.std.com/pub/bbedit/bbedit-31-demo.hqx
    ftp://ftp.std.com/pub/bbedit/bbedit-pricing-info.txt
Claris Emailer - best email client i've ever used. $89
    ftp://ftp.claris.com/pub/USA-Macintosh/Trial_Software/ClarisEmailer1.0.hqx
    ftp://ftp.claris.com/pub/USA-Macintosh/Updaters/
    gopher://spinaltap.micro.umn.edu:70/1/computer/Claris
    http://www.claris.com
    800-544-8554
    http://www.eskimo.com/~ravensys/emailer-talk.html
Compression - List of programs to decompress anything on any computer
    ftp://ftp.cso.uiuc.edu/doc/pcnet/compression
Conflict Catcher 3.02 - best startup manager. $70
    ftp://mirror.apple.com/mirrors/info-mac/cfg/conflict-catcher-301-demo.hqx
    http://www.casadyg.com/Welcome.html
ConvertProjects - from THINK C to CodeWarrior C. Free.
    ftp://ftp.netcom.com/pub/bb/bbsw/freeware/convert-projects-10b6.hqx
Disinfectant - remove viruses. This is the best. Free.
    ftp://ftp.acns.nwu.edu/pub/disinfectant/disinfectant36.sea.hqx
DocuComp - compare versions of a Word or WordPerfect manuscript. $179.
    MasterSoft
    8737 E. Via de Commercio
    Scottsdale, AZ 85258
    (602)-948-4888
    800-624-6107
    602-948-8261 fax
    [e-mail]
    http://www.chaco.com/~mastersoft/
Dots & Pixels (not tested) - C++ classes to generate random dot displays.
    ftp://mirror.apple.com/mirrors/info-mac/dev/lib/dots-and-pixels-cpp.hqx
Easy Errors - explains all the Systems errors. Free.
    ftp://mirror.apple.com/mirrors/info-mac/info/easy-errors-111.hqx
EndNote Plus & EndLink - copy DIALOG or Grateful Med references into your paper.
    http://www.niles.com/
Excel - massage data before plotting it.
    http://www.macis.com/MacOffice/mac_apps/mac_home.htm
Fetch 2.12, 3.0b6 - ftp downloading & uploading. Free.
    http://www.dartmouth.edu/pages/softdev/fetch.html
    ftp://ftp.tidbits.com/pub/tidbits/tisk/tcp/fetch-212.hqx
    ftp://ftp.dartmouth.edu/pub/mac/Fetch_3.0b6.hqx
File Buddy - handy way to change file type & creator. $25 shareware.
    ftp://mirror.apple.com/mirrors/info-mac/disk/file-buddy-32.hqx
Fontographer - design your own fonts. $$
    http://www.macromedia.com/Toys/Resources/Fontographer/updates.html
Gestalt Selectors - fuller documentation of  Apple's Gestalt() trap.
    ftp://mirror.apple.com/mirrors/info-mac/dev/info/gestalt-selectors-31-etx.hqx
    http://www.bio.vu.nl/home/rgaros/gestalt/
Grateful Med - cheaply search National Library of Medicine (MEDLINE).
    800-638-8480
    ftp://gmedserv.nlm.nih.gov/grateful/pc/setup_guidelines/internet-use.txt
Internet Config - simplifies configuration of MacTCP-based programs. Free.
    ftp://mirror.apple.com/mirrors/info-mac/comm/tcp/internet-config-11.hqx
InterNews - access UseNet news. (Haven't tried it yet.) Free.
    ftp://ftp.tidbits.com/pub/tidbits/tisk/tcp/inter-news-104.hqx
Kaleidagraph or DeltaGraph Pro or CricketGraph III - plot data.
Kermit - exchange files between different computers. Slow but universal. Free.
    http://www.columbia.edu/kermit/
Klutz - view the contents of the clut (Color Lookup Table). Free.
    ftp://src.doc.ic.ac.uk/packages/mac-umich/system.extensions/da/klutz.sit.hqx.gz
MacsBug 6.5.2 - Apple's low-level debugger. Free.
    ftp://ftp.info.apple.com/Apple.Support.Area/Apple.Software.Updates/US/Macintosh/Utilities/MacsBug_6.5.2.sea.hqx
Mathematica - modeling. $495
    Wolfram Research Inc.
    100 Trade Center Drive
    Champaign, IL 61820
    800-441-MATH
    217-398-0747 fax
    ftp://mathsource.wri.com
    http://www.wri.com/mathsource.html
    gopher://mathsource.wri.com
Mathematica: Cinematica - show grayscale movies from within Mathematica. Free.
    http://vision.arc.nasa.gov/mathematica/Cinematica/Cinematica.html
MathType - create equations for use in any word processor, especially Word. $70?
    http://www.mathtype.com/mathtype/
MATLAB - analyze data and filter images. Crude but effective. $1,000+
    ftp://ftp.mathworks.com
    http://www.mathworks.com
    [e-mail]
    508-653-1415
    508-653-2997 fax
MATLAB: UCSB Toolbox - use the VideoToolbox from within MATLAB. Free.
    ftp://lifesci.lscf.ucsb.edu/pub/mac/brainard/UCSBToolboxes.sea.hqx.
MODE32 - allows old Mac II computers to do 32-bit addressing. Free.
    ftp://mirror.apple.com/mirrors/info-mac/cfg/mode32-75.hqx
Netscape - internet browser. Free.
    ftp://ftp.netscape.com/netscape1.1/mac/netscape-1.1N.hqx
    http://home.netscape.com/comprod/mirror/index.html
Network Time - control panel uses any Unix time server to set Mac clock. Shareware.
    ftp://ftp.tidbits.com/pub/tidbits/tisk/tcp/network-time-201.hqx
NewsHopper - news reader works well off line (rec by TidBITS.)
    ftp://ftp.tidbits.com/pub/tidbits/tisk/tcp/
NIH Image - image processing. Free.
    ftp://zippy.nimh.nih.gov/pub/nih-image/nih-image157.hqx
Norton Utilities - Disk Doctor repairs disk directories $100
    http://www.symantec.com/
NotifyMail - helps Eudora and Emailer retrieve new mail immediately. $18
    ftp://ftp.znet.com/access/sgruby/NotifyMail.sit.hqx
Now Up To Date - first appointment calendar (and to-do list) that I like.
    ftp://ftp.nowsoft.com/nowsoft/updates/now_up-to-date_35_to_351_update.hqx
Now Utilities 5 - SuperBoomerang+NowMenus=indispensable. $100/$40 ed. MacWarehouse
    ftp://mirror.apple.com/mirrors/info-mac/gui/now-utilities-501-demo.hqx
    ftp://ftp.nowsoft.com/nowsoft/updates/
PageMill - html editor has gotten rave reviews. $99
    http://www.adobe.com/Apps/PageMill/
    http://www.adobe.com/Apps/PageMill/orderform.html
    http://www.blueworld.com/lists/pagemill-talk/
    800-411-8657 or 206-628-2749
PopChar - access any character in the current font. Free.
    ftp://mirror.apple.com/mirrors/info-mac/gui/pop-char-271.hqx
Programmer’s Key - use your keyboard’s power key to invoke the debugger. Free.
    ftp://mirror.apple.com/mirrors/info-mac/cfg/programmers-key-142.hqx
PsyScope (not tested)
    http://poppy.psy.cmu.edu/psyscope
    Cohen JD, MacWhinney B, Flatt M & Provost J (1993). PsyScope: A new graphic
    interactive environment for designing psychology experiments. Behavioral
    Research Methods, Instruments & Computers, 25(2), 257-271.
PS2EPS+ - converts plain PostScript to an EPS file, i.e. adds a PICT preview. Free.
    ftp://mirror.apple.com/mirrors/info-mac/grf/util/ps-to-eps-plus-10.hqx
QC - control panel stress tests your application's memory management. $100.
    [e-mail]
QuickDEX II - like a RoloDEX, keeps addresses and phone numbers. Lightning fast.
    Casady & Greene Inc.
    22734 Portola Drive
    Salinas, CA 93908-1119
    [phone]
    [phone] fax
    [e-mail]
    [e-mail]
    http://www.casadyg.com/Welcome.html
RAM Doubler 1.6 - seems to double RAM memory. Highly rec. $55
    http://www.connectix.com/
    http://www.pcworld.com/connectix/files/RAM_Doubler_1.6_Updater.hqx
    ftp://mirrors.aol.com//pub/info-mac/cfg/ram-doubler-16-updt.hqx
ResEdit CODE editor - disassemble video drivers. Free
    ftp://ftp.apple.com/dts/mac/tools/resedit/
Retrospect/Retrospect Remote 10-pack - best backup program. $139/$139
RTF-to-HTML converters (not tested) - most word processors can Save As RTF
    http://www.physics.auburn.edu/html.html
    http://www.yahoo.com/Computers/World_Wide_Web/HTML_Editors/Macintosh
SCSIProbe - mount and unmount SCSI disks. Free.
    ftp://mirror.apple.com/mirrors/info-mac/disk/scsi-probe-35.hqx
ShrinkWrap - easiest way to deal with Apple's disk-image files. Free
    ftp://mirror.apple.com/mirrors/info-mac/disk/shrink-wrap-142.hqx
    ftp://hyperarchive.lcs.mit.edu/info-mac/_Disk_%26_File/shrink-wrap-142.hqx
SoftwareFPU/SoftwareFPU.fat/PowerFPU - emulates 68881 floating point unit. Free/$20/$75.
    ftp://mirror.apple.com/mirrors/info-mac/cfg/software-fpu-303.hqx
    [phone]
    [phone] fax
    [e-mail]
    [e-mail]
StuffIt Expander & DropStuff - popular universal decompression and compression. Free & $30 shareware
    ftp://ftp.aladdinsys.com/pub/StuffIt_Expander_3.5.2.hqx
    ftp://ftp.aladdinsys.com/pub/DropStuff_with_EE_3.5.2.hqx
StuffIt Expander - this version runs under Microsoft Windows
    ftp://ftp.aladdinsys.com/pub/SITEX10.UUE
    ftp://ftp.aladdinsys.com/pub/SITEX10.EXE
Synchronize!/SynchronizePro!- merge updates of folders on different computers. $30/$100
    ftp://mirror.apple.com/mirrors/info-mac/disk/synchronize-329-demo.hqx
    ftp://mirror.apple.com/mirrors/info-mac/disk/synchronize-329-pro-demo.hqx
Word 5.1a - only word processor fully compatible with MathType and DocuComp.
    gopher://gopher.microsoft.com/
    http://www.macis.com/MacOffice/mac_apps/mac_home.htm