PD ROM 1/PD ROM Volume I - Macintosh Software from BMUG (1988).iso/Electronic Messages/USEnet Digests/USEnet Vol. 4/USEnet 4.63

Text File | 1988-06-18 | 38.4 KB | 1,005 lines | [TEXT/ttxt]

Usenet Mac Digest     Friday, May 20, 1988           Volume 4 : Issue 63

Today's Topics:
     Re: Info on EMAC hard drives
     Kay's Vivarium Questions
     Re: FINDER 6.0 Icon problems
     Re: Fullwrite profesional
     Mac compatible vi??
     Re: Bibliography databases?
     RTF format
     Re: SoftPC
     I am looking for a PD dictionary file in 'ASCII'
     Re: Bibliography databases?
     Re: FullWrite on shelves
     Laserwriter / photocopier combo?
     Re: What's the best NETWORK?
     Sampling digitised sound via serial ports
     Re: Mac on airplanes
     Changing the icon to its mask
     Sources Needed
     SoftPC Speed
     Re: Mac on airplanes
     Mouse stops mousing....
     Re: FullWrite on shelves
     "not for Export" stickers on FullWrite boxes
     Re: ... how do you copy in/out from HFS disks?
     Re: Multi-launch under Appleshare  [was Re: What's the best NETWORK?]
     Re: FullWrite on shelves
     Memory that's allocated for the System
     Why are Tape Backup Units Outragously Priced?
     MS Excel recalculations
     Re: StartUpScreens Eats Memory!?

----------------------------------------------------------------------

From: [e-mail] (Ken Hancock)
Subject: Re: Info on EMAC hard drives
Date: 10 May 88 01:15:16 GMT
Organization: Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH

EMAC drives are very nice... Very quiet, reliable from what I hear. $525
is about the going price for the 20 meg.  Only disadvantage as far as
I'm concerned is it doesn't sit under the mac. They do, I believe, make
one which does sit under the mac.

As for the list price, all list prices are outrageous.  You never buy
anything for the list price unless you like spending extra money...
--
Ken

Ken Hancock                        |    UUCP: [e-mail]
Personal Computing Ctr. Consultant |  BITNET: [e-mail]
__________________________________/ \____________________________________
DISCLAIMER: If people weren't so sue-happy, I wouldn't need one!


------------------------------

From: [e-mail]
Subject: Kay's Vivarium Questions
Date: 10 May 88 01:05:00 GMT

What has Alan Kay's Vivarium been up to lately?

Does anyone have information on this program?

Lil' Stever


------------------------------

From: [e-mail] (Paul Suh)
Subject: Re: FINDER 6.0 Icon problems
Date: 6 May 88 20:58:42 GMT
Organization: GTE Laboratories, Waltham, MA

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Philip D.
Eckert) writes:
>Since I've changed to the new finder, version 6, I've noticed that alot of
>my icons have been acting differently when clicked on by the mouse.  For

>My question is, is this a bug with the icon masks or is this a feature?

This is a "Feature".  The purpose is to show the icons as 'grey-ed out'
while running under MultiFinder, so that you can easily see what
applications are open.  This has ruined a lot of neat icon/mask combos,
like Lightspeed C and Red Ryder.

A question: I can understand why this is necessary under MultiFInder,
but would it have been so much trouble to leave things the old way under
single Finder?

--

                                        --Paul

I'm goin' back ta duh Bronx, where it's safe ta talk normal...


------------------------------

From: [e-mail] (Paul Suh)
Subject: Re: Fullwrite profesional
Date: 6 May 88 21:07:16 GMT
Organization: GTE Laboratories, Waltham, MA

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail]
(David Palmer) writes:
>On the box it said something like "Not for export, for distribution in
>the US and Canada only."

>The only reason I can think of for this is if it uses technology on the
>"not to be exported" list.  Does Fullwrite include a DES encryption

The reason for thisis that software companies often put out a "quick and
dirty" release for US markets, qhich don't support the full set of
resources necessary for foreign keyboards, etc.  It gives them an
installed base very quickly, and they can then take their time and do it
right and fix bugs in the next update.

I don't know that this is really Ann Arbor's policy, but I would suspect
it very strongly.

Release 3.02 of Microsoft word was done this way, according to a guy I
know who programmed for Microsoft.

While I'm at it, I'd like to add another person's applause for Think
Technology's handling of the foobar'ed advertisement.  Down with
vaporware!
--

                                        --Paul

I'm goin' back ta duh Bronx, where it's safe ta talk normal...


------------------------------

From: [e-mail] (Ray Terry)
Subject: Mac compatible vi??
Date: 9 May 88 17:10:43 GMT
Organization: Hewlett Packard, Cupertino

Does anybody out there know of a "vi" that runs on the Mac?

Yes, I know I'm crazy for liking vi, but I do...

If you know of one and where I can find it, please let me know.

Thanks.
--
Ray Terry
[e-mail]


------------------------------

From: [e-mail] (David M. O'Rourke)
Subject: Re: Bibliography databases?
Date: 10 May 88 03:40:57 GMT
Organization: Cal Poly State University -- San Luis Obispo

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Mark
Interrante) writes:
>I am looking for a database which is adept at handling bibliographys and

  This is quite what you asked for, but FullWrite has decent support for
Bibloigraphies built into the product.  It's a neat Word Processor, try
and find a demo to see if it will do what you want.

--
David M. O'Rourke

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
| dorourke@polyslo | Disclaimer:  All opinions in this message are mine, but  |
|                  |              if you like them they can be yours too.     |
|                  |              Besides I'm just a student so what do I     |
|                  |              know!                                       |
|-----------------------------------------------------------------------------|
|    When you have to place a disclaimer in your mail you know it's a sign    |
| that there are TOO many Lawyer's.                                           |
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++


------------------------------

From: [e-mail] (Mark Steven Sherman)
Subject: RTF format
Date: 10 May 88 13:45:54 GMT
Organization: Carnegie Mellon

I got the ~20 page document from Microsoft, but I thought that someone
earlier sent me a messge about a large (300 page?) document that was
supposed to give more details. At the time, I told him thanks, but we
have it on order from Microsoft, and when it came, we wound up with
another 20 page blurb. (And I threw away the message, so I can't ask
that same person again.) Anyone know if there is a complete RTF
specification somewhere?
                -Mark


------------------------------

From: [e-mail] (Ed Nather)
Subject: Re: SoftPC
Date: 10 May 88 14:58:24 GMT
Organization: U. Texas CS Dept., Austin, Texas

In article <[e-mail]>, [e-mail] (Rob Beckham) writes:
> I think it is sharp that the Mac can now run IBM software,
> while running Mac software!

Do you have any feel for how fast it runs, compared with (say) an XT?

--
Ed Nather
Astronomy Dept, U of Texas @ Austin
{allegra,ihnp4}!{noao,ut-sally}!utastro!nather
[e-mail]


------------------------------

From: [e-mail] (Mike Houle)
Subject: I am looking for a PD dictionary file in 'ASCII'
Date: 10 May 88 15:18:20 GMT
Organization: SOON to be, The Orginization of Procrastinators


  I've got a small (well, maybe big) problem.  I am planing on writting
a spelling checker for ascii files (TeX also) on the Macintosh.

  I was just wondering if anyone knows of a public domain dictionary.
Just a list of words, in ascii format.  I figured there must be
something like that out there somewhere.

   It doesn't have to be one the mac, actually since it is ascii, it
could  be anywere, and mailed over.  (maybe in pieces...)


   So, If anyone has the faintest Idea as to a public domain dictionary,
Please type 'r' now, so I can get more work done.

  Please mail all replys to me, and if someone asks, I will post a
summary, (not the dictonary.. :-)


   Thanks to All....

--
  Mike  Houle                         |
                                      | If I really had an opinion, and you
  ! UUCP ->   decvax!linus!mdh        | believed it.  Then it's your fault..
  ! ARPA ->   mdh%linus@mitre-bedford |             not mine.


------------------------------

From: [e-mail] (Actively Creates Leftovers)
Subject: Re: Bibliography databases?
Date: 10 May 88 19:56:34 GMT
Organization: University of California, Berkeley

Professional Bib. System (PBS) only reads to and writes from text-only
files, so it's not quite what you want, which is the importing/exporting
function.  Is that right?

I'm not too sure about Fullwrite Professional, but the bibliography
section isn't quite a database, per se...it's a paper-by-paper bib. I
got a demo disk from MacWorld Expo in January, and it didn't turn me on
like it has some of the other netters.

What _might_ be what you're looking for is "EndNote" from Niles &
Associates.  I hate to give a free plug like this, but I just saw a demo
of it today...it's very powerful, importing and exporting MacWrite, Word
and WriteNow file types.  No more plugging, but if you want info you can
call them up at [phone].  It's scheduled to be shipped in late
June, so there's a little wait; there's a possibility of WordPerfect
file format compatibility coming soon, and an IBM version in the works.

I thought I said no more plugging...oh, well...

acl     {ihnp4,backbones}!ucbvax!bartleby.berkeley.edu!alexlau "Statistics
are like bikinis...what they show is enticing, but
 what they conceal is vital."   - I forgot who said this.


------------------------------

From: [e-mail] (Chuq Von Rospach)
Subject: Re: FullWrite on shelves
Date: 10 May 88 18:32:28 GMT

>    It kind of grows on you, as you learn the program it keeps getting better.

This is very, very true. Cautionary tale time.

I was working with FWP last night redesigning my letterhead. Much to my
dismay, FullWrite doesn't support Word's concept of "First Header" and
"First Footer". I spent a good hour trying to muck FWP into giving me a
first header. You only want the letterhead on the first page, after all.
I finally gave up in disgust and started laying the letterhead out in
the main body of the document.

Almost immediately thereafter, I realized that if you put the letterhead
in a sidebar, and tied the sidebar to the top of page 1, you had a first
header. Even better, it was a good, generalized solution to the same
problem and rather than build a customized feature to support
letterhead, they built a generalized feature that happens to support it
as well as other things.

It works wonderfully, by the way.

By trying to force FWP into a Word paradigm, I had major problems. When
I stopped trying to reproduce my Word letterhead in a FWP document, and
instead designed a FWP document, the thing fell into place cleanly and
easily. And I'm more impressed with FWP than before -- general answers
to general problems are better than specific features. Sidebars are
really, really neat things. The more I play with them, the more I think
their power is still under-appreciated.

>    It's there to support background pictures.  You can have FullWrite print
> a picture on every page, or just the first page.  It's a simple way to add
> fancy boarders or letter head to a document,  and since it's a picture you
> don't have to worry about where it is in relation to text.

Here's an exceptionally stupid question. I can't get FWP to read either
a background picture or a background EPS file. I have to open them up
with MINIwriter. So how do your create/change/maintain these files in
FullWrite? It isn't documented, and I can't find the feature. Do I
really need a text-only DA to work with text so FWP can use it?

I'm starting to look forward to pulling Word off my disk. I don't think
it's going to be long, now....


Chuq Von Rospach                        [e-mail]            Delphi: CHUQ

       I come to preach to a religion that doesn't exist. It has no
members.
          It has no clergy.  It has no doctrine. It has no collection
plate.


------------------------------

From: [e-mail] (Garth Baulch)
Subject: Laserwriter / photocopier combo?
Date: 10 May 88 23:43:39 GMT
Organization: Cornell Univ. CS Dept, Ithaca NY


It would seem that since laser printers and photocopiers are basically
the same on the inside, someone would market a device that fulfills the
functions of both.  Indeed, I have seen such a creature from Xerox, but
it has no postscript interpreter.  My question is this: Does anybody
make a combined laser printer and photocopier that is postscript
compatable (i.e. I want to use it with a Mac.)?

Any information would be appreciated.....

--Garth


------------------------------

From: korn@eris (Peter "Arrgh" Korn)
Subject: Re: What's the best NETWORK?
Date: 11 May 88 00:30:53 GMT
Organization: What, me organized???

In <[e-mail]>, [e-mail] (Paul Steele) said:
>>My Mac is running diskless, ie my system resides on one of the Sun servers.
>>...
>I am curious about the diskless Mac workstation.  Does TOPS allow a Mac to

It is certainly possible to *run* a Mac with out a local disk.  It is
impossible to *boot* a Mac without a local disk, or without custom
hardware that has been added into a Mac to allow it to do so.  You need
to start out with a System file.  You also need to have a System file
that you are using all the time you are running MacOS.  You can, if you
want, switch System files in the middle, which is what was done with
Tops in the doubly quoted comment above.

The local disk that you boot from, however, needn't be a hard disk. A
floppy works just fine.

Peter
--
Peter "Arrgh" Korn
[e-mail]
{decvax,dual,hplabs,sdcsvax,ulysses}!ucbvax!korn


------------------------------

From: [e-mail] (Jason Castan)
Subject: Sampling digitised sound via serial ports
Date: 10 May 88 03:59:26 GMT
Organization: Comp Sci, Melbourne Uni, Australia

I'm currently in the process of writing a SND and FSSD sound  utility
package. An important feature would be the ability to sample at 22k via
one of the serial ports. Does anybody have and ideas (and possibly
source) on how this might be done?

The 22k rate is faster than the max baud rate allowable, so I imagine
that you have to go deeper.

Any suggestions, or availability of source code would be greatly
appreciated.

                                Jason.


------------------------------

From: [e-mail] (Alex Heatley)
Subject: Re: Mac on airplanes
Date: 10 May 88 01:53:06 GMT
Organization: Computing Serv. Ctr, Victoria Uni., Wellington, New Zealand

As this (and other questions) seems to come up fairly regularly, perhaps
we could have a "frequently asked questions" posting for this group. We
could include answers to such questions as:

        1) Can I use my US Mac in foreign countries.
        2) what is the best way to ship a Mac by plane?
        3) What are the best extrenal drives for the Mac (a potentially
           emotive issue here).
        etc. etc. etc.

Is there anyone out there (for example, the man who never sleeps, Chuq)
who would be interested in maintaining and posting such an article on a
regular basis?
--
Alex Heatley                                Computing Services Centre
Domain: [e-mail]                 Victoria University of Wellington
Path: ...!uunet!vuwcomp!alex                P.O Box 600, New Zealand.
Trolls can often be found under bridges ... or in Computing Departments.


------------------------------

From: [e-mail] (Fernando Borcel)
Subject: Changing the icon to its mask
Date: 7 May 88 23:53:29 GMT
Organization: Oregon State Universtiy - CS - Corvallis, Oregon


Are there any routines for changing an icon (ICN#) to its mask?? Pascal
source code pieces ARE appreciated!!
--
Thanks alot...
Fernando
[e-mail]


------------------------------

From: [e-mail] (Fernando Borcel)
Subject: Sources Needed
Date: 9 May 88 08:56:43 GMT

I'm working on a program that will have a lot of finder features, such
as

        File manipulation/representation
        Directory (folder) creation/deletion
        Icons (just like in the Finder)
        Communications

If you have some source code I can borrow that uses one or more of these
features, *PLEASE* let me know.

Thanks a lot!!

Email me here:
--
[e-mail] (Fernando Borcel)
or to...
jacobs.cs.orst.edu!borcelf


------------------------------

From: [e-mail] (Greg DeMichillie)
Subject: SoftPC Speed
Date: 11 May 88 02:43:18 GMT
Organization: University of California, Davis


I saw a demo of SoftPC and it rated 1.3 on Norton SI (meaning it was 1.3
times as fast as a 4.77 MHz XT.  SoftPC certainly doesn't have the
computational speed of the Mac286, but as anyone who as actually used a
Mac286 will tell you, the screen updating is soooooo slow on it that it
is almost unusable.

The SoftPC updated the screen in a reasonable manner and seemed quite
usable for light MS-DOS activities (i.e. no compiling your next great
database application!)

And, it lists for $600 vs. $1500 for Mac286.
--
----------------------------------------------------------------
Registrar:
    from the latin "registrarum" meaning "screw the student"
----------------------------------------------------------------
Greg DeMichillie               |{ucbvax, lll-crg, sdcsvax}
[e-mail]      |      !ucdavis!lgdemichillie
AppleLink : ST0178             |
----------------------------------------------------------------


------------------------------

From: [e-mail] (Marty Lee)
Subject: Re: Mac on airplanes
Date: 11 May 88 00:50:42 GMT
Organization: Rick's Home-Grown UNIX; Portland, OR.

The Mac will fit with plenty of room under the seats of an L-1011 as
there really isn't an overhead bin.  TWA didn't even flinch when I
brought it on.

On Alaska, Contenental and America West (737) the SE fit in the overhead
with NO room to spare.  It will also fit under the seat if do not have a
window seat OR an isle seat.  NOTE: some of the Alaska 737s are also
used for cargo and DONOT have overhead bins that will hold a
Mac....you'll be lucky to get your hat in.

The Mac SE and the Imagewriter is a pain to carry through an airport
though.

BTW some of the guys here at work ship their Macs using these big blue
armored cases that are about 2 X 2 X 1.5 feet and cost $500 each.  They
are lined with dense foam close to the outside and soft foam closest to
the Mac. Each Mac also has a non resetable G-meter attached to it so any
large impacts will be noted.  G-Meters come in non reset and reset types
from 1/4 G to 10 G. They are only a few bucks each $20-30 max and have
peel off backs to stick on any smooth surface.....its cheap insurance.

We just put the Macs into their MacPack bags and stick the bags into the
cases. Its been a year and nothing has gone wrong yet......let hope.....



              teksce           (Fastest path)
          /            \ tektronix!reed!  omen   !bucket!martyl  (Marty
Lee)
              \        /
               percival


------------------------------

From: [e-mail] (Lee Atchison)
Subject: Mouse stops mousing....
Date: 10 May 88 21:24:48 GMT
Organization: HP Technical Networks, Cupertino, Calif.

Hi!

I'm having a problem with my A+ optical mouse.  It all of a sudden
stopped working with my Mac.  Moving the mouse doesn't make the cursor
move, even the button doesn't work anymore.  In addition, I turn the
mouse over, and the light that shines out the bottom isn't working.

I plugged in my old Apple mouse and it worked fine.

Soooo, I brought the A+ mouse back to Egghead software where I bought it
from (plug for Egghead, they are VERY friendly when you come in with a
problem...., they were more than willing to help me out, BTW I have no
affiliation with them other than as a satisfied customer....).  They
plugged the mouse into their system and it worked fine.  They gave me a
new mouse anyway to bring home and try, but alas, no help.

Soooo, I have an A+ mouse which works fine (works on another Macintosh),
and I have a Macintosh that works fine (works with another, non-optical
mouse), but the two don't work together!!!!!!

Anyone have any ideas what's wrong?

BTW, I have a Macintosh 128k, upgraded to a 512k, upgraded to a Mac+
using the MacDoctor upgrade.  Other than the mouse problem, the system
works fine.  The mouse was working fine for a couple months before it
suddenly stopped working.

Thanks in advance for any help anyone can supply.

                        -lee
--
Lee Atchison
Hewlett Packard, Business Networks Division
Cupertino, CA 95014
[e-mail]


------------------------------

From: [e-mail] (David M. O'Rourke)
Subject: Re: FullWrite on shelves
Date: 11 May 88 07:36:46 GMT
Organization: Cal Poly State University -- San Luis Obispo

>Almost immediately thereafter, I realized that if you put the letterhead in
>a sidebar, and tied the sidebar to the top of page 1, you had a first

  Possible better solution.  Full Write allows you to have as many
header as  you want, if you define a header on the first page, it shows
up there.  If you define a header  on the next page that header takes
over all of the following pages up until the end of the document, or the
next header which then takes  over.

>Here's an exceptionally stupid question. I can't get FWP to read either a

  No question is stupid, answers are stupid sometimes, but never
questions. FullWrite will allow you to print *EXISTING* Paint, PICT, and
EPS pictures on a LaserWriter, if you are using an ImageWriter you can
only print Paint, PICT files.  This function doesn't show the pictures
on the screen first, you have to get hardcopy before you can see the
picture.  It's a pity you can't edit these files in FullWrite, but I
guess you have to draw the feature line  somewhere.
   For you lucky net hacker who have the documentation see page 3-37 &
3-38 in the "FullWrite Professional Reference Guide"

>I'm starting to look forward to pulling Word off my disk. I don't think it's
>going to be long, now....

   My copy of Word left my hard disk right after recieving the
Pre-Release, even with the bugs FullWrite was better than that other
Word Processor, now it's just superior!
--
David M. O'Rourke

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
| dorourke@polyslo | Disclaimer:  All opinions in this message are mine, but  |
|                  |              if you like them they can be yours too.     |
|                  |              Besides I'm just a student so what do I     |
|                  |              know!                                       |
|-----------------------------------------------------------------------------|
|    When you have to place a disclaimer in your mail you know it's a sign    |
| that there are TOO many Lawyer's.                                           |
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++


------------------------------

From: [e-mail] (John Aspden)
Subject: "not for Export" stickers on FullWrite boxes
Date: 10 May 88 13:55:55 GMT
Organization: Computing Laboratory, U of Newcastle upon Tyne, UK NE17RU

Recently it was reported that FullWrite had finally hit the shelves of
Computer stores in the USA, but that the boxes were adorned with
stickers saying something to the effect "For sale in US and Canada only
- not for export". It was speculated that this may be because the
program contained an implementation of the DES encryption standard.

The reason would seem to be much less to do with "national security" and
much more with maintaining good profits.

In the May edition of the UK MacUser magazine there are a series of
pieces under the title "PRICING! THE MacUser OPEN FORUM", where various
contributors give their views on the fact that software sold in the UK
costs almost double the price of the same items in the States.

The following is quoted (without permission) from a piece by the
Managing Director of (probably) the largest UK Macintosh software
importer and distributor.

(He begins by explaining the selling chain - the US vendor sells to the
(usually sole) UK distributor, who sells on to the Apple dealers, who
then sell to the customer. He then tries to justify the price difference
by explaining that the UK distributor has to do the product marketing,
unlike in the USA where the marketing is usually done by the software
publisher. "Bootleggers"  disrupt this scheme by "selling a program on
the strength of the legitimate distributor's marketing efforts". This
reduces the demand for the product from the authorised (and more
expensive) distributor, which forces the price up further since with
lower sales volume the per-item profit needs to be bigger to maintain
the same total income....). The article continues...


"Without properly supported software for the Macintosh, Apple dealers
will find it harder and harder to persuade customers to take the
Macintosh seriously. Apple UK will suffer, as less Macintoshes are sold
(and why not bootleg the computers as well?). The whole Macintosh
community will suffer. If parasites are left to flourish, eventually
they can kill the organism they feed off. Then the parasites die as
well. That's scant consolation.

"This is one reason why we decided earlier this year, in conjunction
with some of our American suppliers, that the time had come to change
the rules of the game.

"In America, some of our suppliers are changing their contracts with
distributors to prohibit export sales. Non-removable stickers will start
to appear on the outside of packages declaring them for sale in the
United States only. Enlightened publishers realise that it is not in
their interest , any more than yours or ours, for bootleggers to get
away with it.

"Here in the UK, we are also making changes. Soon, you will be seeing
stickers on the boxes containing our software informing you that they
are the official UK versions. The stickers themselves will be serialised
to prevent others forging them."
--
So there you have it. Any comments?
----------------------------------------------------------------------
 John Aspden, University of Newcastle upon Tyne, England

 JANET: [e-mail]
 UUCP : [e-mail]
 ARPA : [e-mail]
 PHONE: [phone]


------------------------------

From: [e-mail] (John Gilmore)
Subject: Re: ... how do you copy in/out from HFS disks?
Date: 11 May 88 05:00:34 GMT
Organization: Grasshopper Group in San Francisco

[e-mail] (Phil Ronzone) wrote:
> Last - to be specific, and to see if we have left anything out, what
> do Y'ALL want in an A/UX <-> HFS transfer utility?

Full compatability.  The user should not care whether their data is
stored in an HFS or an A/UX format file system, same way they don't care
if the data is stored in Berkeley or Sys V file system format.  I should
be able to have all my HFS hard disk partitions and floppies "mounted"
on my A/UX box, exported via NFS, etc.  It might as well use the
AppleDouble format for Unix access, since Unix utilities for
manipulating Mac files are already used to this.  In other words, if a
Mac program called "foo" was in the system folder called "system", I
should be able to see "/mnt/system/foo" and /mnt/system/%foo" when I do
"ls" from Unix.  The usual way to implement this is with a "MacOS"
filesystem type under the vnode switch in the kernel.

On the MacOS end, of course, it should look the same:  full access to
Unix filesystems stored on local SCSI disks, via AppleDouble.  Why
should a MacOS program be able to access Unix files on remote disks,
while not being able to access Unix files on its own local disk?

One thing I do not want to see is a "rcp" model of program, where you
end up copying the stuff around with funny commands.  Another thing I
don't want to see is a fancy screen oriented puff piece for doing this
kind of stuff.  It should be built right in, so it works for all
applications -- the sharp pointy clicky kind as well as the command line
oriented kind.

If you mount a floppy, it should of course flush the buffer and inode
caches when the floppy is changed, so you can pop 'em in and out at
will.

By the way Sun Consulting sells something that does this for MSDOS SCSI
disks attached to Suns, and I presume it's in the 386i as well.  (You
don't get access to local Unix disks from MSDOS, but then again Sun
didn't write MSDOS the way Apple wrote the MacOS.  Apple has the power
to fix this, Sun didn't.)
--
John Gilmore  {sun,pacbell,uunet,pyramid,ihnp4}!hoptoad!gnu        [e-mail]
"Use the Source, Luke...."


------------------------------

From: korn@eris (Peter "Arrgh" Korn)
Subject: Re: Multi-launch under Appleshare  [was Re: What's the best NETWORK?]
Date: 11 May 88 21:54:00 GMT
Organization: What, me organized???

MacJANET works in generally the same fashion that the old Paradise hard
drives used:  You use a MacJANET utility to partion the hard drive on
your server into a MacJANET section, and a 'normal' section.  Within the
MacJANET section you then allocate fixed size partitions.  Users can
mount these fixed size partitions (no idea what the limit on # of vols.
is), and get at what's on them.  In your typical student environment,
most partitions will be locked, or read-only.

As far as I could tell, MacJANET doesn't do any magic when it comes to
apps. that want to modify themselves, or want to write to the directory
they are in.  They simply cannot.  So if, for instance, Macfoo, a word
procesing program of yester-year, decided it *needed* to create a
temporary file in the same directory that it is running from or die, it
will die.

Very few programs do this anymore.  Most, in fact, will create temporary
scratch files wherever they can.  If they can't do so in the directory
they are launched from, they'll try the boot volume, or the blessed
system folder (typically local, should always be writable).

HyperCard, in fact, works quite well with MacJANET (and not just version
1.2, which has some neat nifty new features for dealing with read-only
media). The trick is to put the Home stack on a writable volume,
preferable your local floppy (if we are assuming a typical student
environment).  The HyperCard application itself can reside on a locked
volume -- it doesn't modify itself.  However, unless you are using
version 1.2, all of the stacks that you access must be writable.

An excellent way to test if a program that you want to run will work on
a MacJANET locked volume is to go up to a 2 floppy system, put an
unlocked boot disk into one drive, and a locked non-boot disk with the
application you wish to test into the other drive.  If you can run the
application without problems in this configuration, you should have no
problems running it from a locked server volume.

>We like MacJANET because it provides a pretty secure environment for our
>software. In the next version due shortly it will also limit the number
>of copies of a program in use, allowing us to buy fewer copies and restrict
>the usage.

More magic I'll have to see before I believe...


By the way, all of the above statements reguarding run-ability of
applications applies equally well to AppleShare volumes.  If you were to
set up a system with an AppleShare server, you could easily make a
folder 'read-only'  (which, in AppleShare terminology is called 'no make
changes privilege') to students, and all software that runs from locked
local disks should work without problems from that AppleShare folder.
If that software has the 'shared' (often known as the 'cached') bit set,
it should multi-launch without problems from a 'read-only' folder.
However, software which attempts to *first* write temporary files to the
same folder that they're launched from will *not* multi-launch well from
folders that are 'write-enabled' unless their temporary file names are
unique.  That is to say, if Macfoo is launched from two different
workstations from a folder that is  'write-enabled', and it creates a
temporary filename 'temp.file' from both workstations in that folder,
we're going to get the workstation's work clobbered.    Hope I haven't
hopelessly confused people with a less than perfect explanation....


Peter
--
Peter "Arrgh" Korn
[e-mail]
{decvax,dual,hplabs,sdcsvax,ulysses}!ucbvax!korn


------------------------------

From: [e-mail] (Chuq Von Rospach)
Subject: Re: FullWrite on shelves
Date: 11 May 88 20:53:46 GMT
Organization: Fictional Reality

>FW documents saved in format "Stationary" are basically read-only formats

Much nicer than Word. One thing I wish they'd implement, though, is the
ability set a read-only bit on material IN a document. Set up your
letterhead, then define all of the pieces imported from the stationery
as unchangeable. So you can't delete or modify it accidentally.

It'd even be really nice to generalize this and be able to set something
like a sidebar (or some generic "thing" like a block of text) read-only.
So if you're working on something, once you get part of it into its
final form, you can freeze it cleanly.

>And yes, that's the only way to get EPS files into FullWrite.

Damn. I'd like to be able to load postscript into a random document and
download it. The way they have it, I probably will find other ways of
dealing with it.

>I know I want to write my
>articles in FullWrite, and hope that the rest of the world comes around
>soon.  But it's a crap shoot.

Not necessarily. I plan on shipping my stuff in both FullWrite and
MacWrite. As long as you're careful about formatting, you should be
okay. Most articles don't get that fancy that MacWrite can't handle
them...

>PS  The one feature no one seems to mention is that the Change/Replace
>option not only allows you to specify text to change, but also look
>for/replace specific styles/fonts of text.  Very, very handy...

yeah...

Two more comments:

o There are places where Fullwrite is Sludgy. Reading/writing files and
        program startup are my two big gripes. Another one is when you do
        a page break, because of the WYSIWYG stuff. Word might have been
        ugly, but FullWrite is a lot slower at going to the next page.

o Plan on buying QuicKeys, and if you haven't considered it, get a
Datadesk
        keyboard. You're going to want to set up function keys for a lot of
        stuff -- or plan on using the mouse a lot. Lots of fairly common
        functions aren't mapped to the keyboard, like page/column breaks,
        printing, etc....

        Of course, you want QuicKeys anyway. neat stuff.

Chuq Von Rospach                        [e-mail]            Delphi: CHUQ

        Robert A. Heinlein: 1907-1988. He will never truly die as long as we
                           read his words and speak his name. Rest in
Peace.


------------------------------

From: [e-mail] (Tom Carstensen)
Subject: Memory that's allocated for the System
Date: 11 May 88 20:03:12 GMT
Organization: Mentor Graphics Corporation, Beaverton Oregon

When normally booting up, NOT running under Multifinder, the System
typically uses approx. 120K or so.  I finally determined, the when I
replaced the old black and white - normal startup screen with a color
one (color PICT) that the memory allocated for the system rose to 400K
!!! - but was only really using a small portion of it.  Before it was
really using all of its allocated (120K) space.

What's going on here?  The startup screen is no longer needed after it
is displayed, so what's it affecting?
--
:------------------------------------------------------------:
: Tom Carstensen         Usenet: [e-mail]      :
: Mentor Graphics                Delphi: CARSTENSEN          :
:                                GEnie:  CARSTENSEN          :
:                                                            :
:     Predictable really I suppose, it was an act of pure    :
:     optimism to pose the question in the first place.      :
:                             - Monty Python (Cheese Shop)   :
:------------------------------------------------------------:


------------------------------

From: [e-mail] (Tom Carstensen)
Subject: Why are Tape Backup Units Outragously Priced?
Date: 11 May 88 22:35:19 GMT
Organization: Mentor Graphics Corporation, Beaverton Oregon

Why are tape backup units SO expensive.  You can buy a DECENT VCR for
around $300, why should tape backup systems be any different?  Even
extra-fancy VCR's are around $600.

Why can't there be a simple, cheap, tape-backup unit - even if it has to
be slow or lacking in features???
--
:------------------------------------------------------------:
: Tom Carstensen         Usenet: [e-mail]      :
: Mentor Graphics                Delphi: CARSTENSEN          :
:                                GEnie:  CARSTENSEN          :
:                                                            :
:  . . . I don't wan't to start any blasphamous rumours, but :
:  I think that God's got a sick sense of humour and when I  :
:  die, I expect to find him laughing.                       :
:                                       - Depeche Mode       :
:------------------------------------------------------------:


------------------------------

From: [e-mail] (Doug Moore)
Subject: MS Excel recalculations
Date: 12 May 88 04:19:27 GMT
Organization: Cornell Univ. CS Dept, Ithaca NY

I don't own Excel, but advise someone who does.  So I don't have the
manual.

Excel 1.04 is being used to maintain a database and keep some statistics
derived from it.  The database has 7 or 8 columns of input and 4 columns
calculated from the other 7 or 8.  The daily routine is (a) Insert 10 or
so new lines into the database (b) Wait, while each of the 4 columns is
recalculated, to no purpose,
    for each of the entries already in the database. (c) Add the new
entries, etc.

How can we avoid step (b)?  How does Excel decide when something must be
recalculated?  Suggestions?  Or is this what one deserves for buying
from MSoft?

Doug Moore ([e-mail])


------------------------------

From: [e-mail] (Dan Allen)
Subject: Re: StartUpScreens Eats Memory!?
Date: 10 May 88 18:08:32 GMT
Organization: Apple Computer Inc, Cupertino, CA

Most startup screen INITs that I have seen do NOT allocate their memory
on the system heap, but rather put the startup PICT in high memory and
adjust the low memory global BufPtr accordingly.  Apple's RAM caching
scheme and MacsBug the Debugger both also use this method.
--
Dan Allen
Software Explorer
Apple Computer

------------------------------

End of Usenet Mac Digest
************************