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Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple2 Path: sparky!uunet!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!usc!sol.ctr.columbia.edu!destroyer!ubc-cs!unixg.ubc.ca!kakwa.ucs.ualberta.ca!ee.ualberta.ca!jpenne From: jpenne@ee.ualberta.ca (Jerry Penner) Subject: GEnieLamp Aug 1992 (Vol 1 No. 5) (5 parts) Message-ID: <jpenne.713864819@ee.ualberta.ca> Summary: part 3 Sender: news@kakwa.ucs.ualberta.ca Nntp-Posting-Host: eigen.ee.ualberta.ca Organization: University Of Alberta, Edmonton Canada Date: Sat, 15 Aug 1992 07:46:59 GMT Lines: 822 GEnieLamp Vol 1/Num 5 August 1, 1992 Part 3 of 5 This article first appeared on GEnie and I was asked to post it on the Internet. My GE-Mail address is J.Penner1 and my internet address is jpenne@ee.ualberta.ca if you need to discuss something regarding this posting. I don't work for GEnie or anything to do with the Internet. ----8<----8<----8<----8<----8<-- cut here --8<----8<----8<----8<----8<---- MORE KANSASFEST Dateline: KansasFest - The annual A2-Central Summer """"""""""""""" Conference. Thursday July 23,1992. This morning at 9:05 Kansas time, Resource Central Founding father, Uncle-Dos, otherwise known as Tom Weishaar, opened the Conference with a brief talk on the 15 years of the Apple Ii computer. Tom followed his talk with a surprise video of a telephone conversation with Steve Wozniak, taking Steve on a 30-year trip down memory lane, including discussions of 15 years of Pre-Apple II History. Steve praised many early contributors of the Apple II line. Mike Markula, Del Yocam, Mike Scott, Chris Espinosa, Randy Wiggington, and Rod Holt were all praised by Steve. The 150 Conference Attendees were suitably impressed by the video, and really enjoyed it (despite the large numbers of hangovers in evidence from the impromptu arrival parties which took place in the dorm rooms of Avila College last night). The NOMDA Conference Center has provided excellent facilities for the Conference, including an outstanding menu for lunches this year. Many participants enthusiastically commented on the menu. Following the break from Tom's opening and video, Tim Swihart - Manager of the Apple II Continuing Engineering Team - gave a talk on the status of the Apple II. Included was a review of the past year since the announcements made at last year's KansasFest. Three of the four product announcements were actually brought to fruition, including Apple IIgs System Software v6.0, the Apple Superdrive Controller Card, and Hypercard IIgs. Tim brought a few figures from Apple USA showing that there are nearly 1 million Apple IIgs' in circulation. Of these, nearly 2/3s are Rom 01s, and about 3/4s are in Education environments. Very few have been accounted as "Retired". Tim gave these figures to explain Apple's current direction with regard to the Apple II. The company has decided to reduce the level of staffing allocated to Apple II development and support. There are currently approximately a half dozen people with _some_ support staff assigned to the "Apple II Continuing Engineering Team", managed by Tim. Apple has decided to place its efforts to maintaining and supporting the established User Base, as listed above. With this in mind, APDA products have been turned over to Resource Central for distribution. What this means, is that the Apple II products from APDA will receive more attention from the distributor, and because Resource Central is already set up for it, there will continue to be WorldWide availability. Some products have been dropped from the line, such as APW-C. The Byteworks' ORCA/C is better maintained and supported, more bug-free, and it is felt that in the best interests of the developers and users, it was better to discontinue the products. Developers were informed that other decisions have been made which affect them in a hopefully more positive light, such as the granting of permission to the Byteworks to publish the Official System 6.0 Reference manual. It was stressed that proper development under 6.0 _required_ this reference. It is less time consuming and expensive to do this, than for Apple to continue publishing documents such as this, itself. Additionally, extensive effort has been put into updating the Techinical Notes. Steve Gunn was praised by Matt Deatherage of Apple's Developer Technical Support for taking on the thankless job of converting the Tech Notes into ASCII Text files for uploading to the major Online Services. The Apple II activity level at Apple, as previously reported, has been reduced, but it is certainly a non-zero level. The products fall under a "Continuing Engineering" group, which handles all post-release product issues. This includes handling bug reports, manufacturing difficulties, distribution difficulties, etc. The Apple II C.E. group, as time allows, plan _some_ new work. This has been identified to include System Software enhancements, but nothing at all in the way of a Major (i.e. System 7.0) update. What is planned, are some new features, improved compatibility with 3rd party products, some enhancements for both the 8-bit and 16-bit platforms. Tim proceeded to provide a few "Sneak Peeks" at the future, including the one previously announced, but not-yet-released product - the Ethernet Card (announced at last year's KFest, but not mentioned since). The original design was discarded and the project was re-started. This, of course, wreaked havoc with the original schedule. As of this morning, the project was nearing Beta Testing, and plans are to begin Seeding this week (during late Alpha phase). Apple hopes to begin shipping a finished product by the end of this year. The card uses Friendlynet connectors. There is an expected significant speedup on crowded, multiple-machine systems. There is not expected to be that significant a speedup noticed on smaller, isolated workstations. The Ethernet card will require an Enhanced Apple IIe, or an Apple IIgs. On the IIgs, System Software v6.0.1 !!!! will be required. Apple IIgs System v6.0.1 is planned for release with the Ethernet Card. Support for the Ethernet Card is the Number 1 Priority. It will contain new drivers, updates to some Control Panels, and it is expected that there will be a few Low-Level changes, including bug fixes for compatibility problems. The focus of the release will be user-oriented, not developer-oriented (i.e. no new Toolsets). Apple is currently investigating an MS-DOS FST. It is currently a read-only FST, but it is hoped that upon completion, it will be a read/write FST. It hasn't been fully tested yet, and may very well be deferred beyond v6.0.1 rather than hold up release for supporting the Ethernet Card. Keyboard Navigation is being added to the Finder. What this means is you will be able to highlight a file in a window in the Finder by pressing a letter on your keyboard, as you are currently able to do inside applications when opening a file. A more in-depth peek at System Software updates will be forthcoming during the Apple Team's System 6.0 session on Friday morning. Following Tim's presentation was a lengthy Question and Answer period. One question was about which drives do the MS-DOS FST work with? The answer, provided by Apple's Greg Branche, was "Any way you get it into the computer, the FST will recognize it". However, it should be noted that a Disk II, or Apple 5.25 drive _cannot_ physically read an MS-DOS formatted disk. The Apple drives are only capable of reading the GCR encoding for the Low Level Format. MS-DOS disks are formatted with MFM encoding. Any MS-DOS formatted 3.5 disk can be read in a 3.5 High Density drive hooked up to an Apple SuperDrive Controller Card. If you have an MS-DOS formatted Syquest Cartridge and a Syquest mechanism in your SCSI bus, the MS-DOS FST will be able to read it. An MS-DOS 5.25 disk can be read from a 5.25 drive hooked up to an Applied Engineering PCTransporter card, if the driver for it is installed. Another question was whether the Superdrive Card supports 5.25 drives. The answer was categorically NO. Any Apple brand 3.5 drive, such as the Unidisk, 3.5 drive, or High Density 3.5 drive are supported. It was reported by a Conference Attendee that Applied Engineering's High Density drive works with the Superdrive Card. A participant asked for more information about the Ethernet Card. Tim explained that, because it does not support TCP/IP, a networking protocol, the engineers wanted to call the card the EtherTALK card. It was decided that, to avoid Customer Confusion, it would remain the Ethernet Card. Apple hopes to support TCP/IP in the future, perhaps with a ROM revision. There was much discussion, some of it with kind of vague direction, looking for clues about the future of the Apple II. Tim was not able to satisfactorily answer all of the concerns. Decisions concerning these questions are made at levels above Tim's area of responsibility. To be fair, Tim did the best he could. Unfortunately, many people appeared disappointed by his answers. KansasFest is off and Running! More information will be forthcoming as it becomes available! -Donald A. Grimes (DON.GRIMES, CAT44, TOP1, MSG:3/M645;1) >>>>> I have a pair of Roger Wagner Tie Reports: """"" Today, at NOMDA, Roger was wearing a mootiful Cow tie....Udderly ridiculous! This evening, during the Creative Black Tie Dinner, Roger managed to win 1st prize with his "SlideShow" tie. It was basically a tie made from some Film strip. Donnie (The Enforcer) Grimes (DON.GRIMES, Category 44, Topic 5, Message 25, M645;1) Last night, while wandering around, I happened upon Lunar Productions. I managed to get a sneak preview of the long-awaited Foundation. It appears at first glance to be a well thought out application....Light-years beyond Genysis. It was, at the time, working over a netwoeve 4) files open at the same time. It seems that it is easily expandable, and will be a HOT item RSN. -Donnie (DON.GRIMES, CAT44, TOP9, MSG:1/M645;1) >>>>> I've been somewhat regretting trying to build excitement about our """"" coverage of this year's KansasFest. Why? Well, I'm being quite honest when I say that there hasn't been a lot in the way of "newsworthy" items. The first two days of the event were devoted to Apple IIgs "colleges," which were devoted to various aspects of Apple II programming. Unfortunately there's not a whole lot to say about them. People learned about programming with things like C and HyperStudio. Those who attended the colleges that we asked about them said that they enjoyed them and learned about how to program these environments, but otherwise not much can be said except that people had fun, learned things, and enjoyed meeting other Apple II users from across the country. It's been a great deal of fun renewing old acquaintances and meeting new faces. One of the neatest things about KansasFest is meeting people from across the country, especially meeting people I've seen many times here on GEnie for the first time. But the first two days were odd, because, well, the programming colleges were exactly that - colleges. People learned about how to do things with C, or with HyperStudio, or whatever. Not a whole lot to say about those. <wink> Yesterday KansasFest "proper" started with the hourly sessions and new announcements, and I think Donnie Grimes covered that real well. There are a few other things to talk about besides some of the things he mentioned. Probably the session that has the most people interested would be the one on Bill Heineman's Avater project. Avatar, for those who haven't heard, is supposed to be a "next generation" Apple IIgs computer. Boiled down to its essence, what was revealed about the Avatar was: A) It will use a 10 Mhz 65816 chip, B) It will use an Ensoniq chip for sound, perhaps the one Apple currently uses or perhaps a more advanced one, C) Instead of using Apple type equipment, such as ADB devices, it will rely extensively on off-the-shelf MS-DOS compatible equipment, D) It will use a complicated bus-arbitration scheme to share processing with other computers. Those last are probably the most interesting two. Avatar will use a great deal of IBM-style equipment, including four IBM "AT" style slots, IBM style keyboards, and IBM-style interfaces for such things as hard drives, disk drives, and CD-ROM drives. Avater is also designed to share processing with other, plug-and-play processing units. So, for example, you'll be able to plug in a card that uses an 80386 processor, and with software supplied by the manufacturer you'll be allowed to run MS-DOS software on it. But not just MS-DOS cards, it will be theoretically possible to design plug-in cards to run Macintosh (if the ROMs could ever be made to work), Amiga, Atari ST, Nintendo, Lynx, or other systems. Avatar will require its own custom operating system, which Mr. Heineman is anticipating having to "clean room" design (meaning, have someone write the software from the ground up, using programmers who've never even seen Apple's code but who have seen the publically available specifications to the system software). Bill said he is almost certain he'll get sued if he goes through with Avatar, in which case he says he hopes to either get Apple to license the toolbox to him, or to be able to weather the lawsuit if not. He also says that he hopes to have working prototypes available for programmers by the next KansasFest, and if all goes well he hopes to have it available for sale to consumers by spring of 1994. When asked where he was getting funding, Heineman was rather evasive, saying that he couldn't actually give full information on that. After the presentation, it appeared that a great number of people were skeptical. Programmers and engineers who saw the project stated that they thought the idea was all very interesting, but reactions ranged from, at its most negative, "I wonder who his drug dealer is," to, at its most positive, "it's an interesting fantasy, but I won't believe any of it until I see a working prototype." Heineman seems to think he can make his machine Apple IIgs compatible by using a whole lot of custom chips to duplicate or work around Apple's patents and copyrights without infringing on them, while at the same time offering a machine with a whole new purpose - a sort of "chameleon computer" that supports parallel processing that boasts the ability to have compatibility with many other systems, while starting with a base unit that already runs an established base of software - i.e. Apple II and Apple IIgs software. He said that he sees his main competition as being the Macintosh LC II, and that the education market appears to be his biggest potential market. Whatever the truth of Avatar, it appears that a lot of experts are highly skeptical if not outright scoffing, and at best this machine can't possibly be available to consumers in less than two years or so. Time will tell. In the meatime, KansasFest has been an exciting even for Apple II users, serving as a meeting ground for Apple II users from all over the world, and a place where at least a few significant new announcements have been made. More in the next few days as things progress. By the way, be sure to check out A2Pro's bulletin board, especially Category 1, Topic 17, for some interesting programmer-related stuff on this year's KansasFest! ;-) -Dean Esmay (A2.DEAN, Category 44, Topic 4, Message 6, M645;1) >>>>> The Down Under crew are very talented programmers. The author of """"" Express, (his name escapes me at the moment) solved a printing problem I was having. They also had the neatest looking tie at the Black Tie dinner Thursday night but dye to sentimental reasons Roger Wagner won the contest. Last night Resource Central threw a buffet party in the cafeteria. Steve Dizzzbrooow was the MC of a "Roast" of Roger and a good time was had by all! Bill Heineman talked about his Avatar project at a well attended conference session. If you are interested in what he said, order the tape of the session from RC. Tape #AT2-09 price $3.00. I am not sure if that is a special price on the tapes to KFest attendees or not. Such a deal! Chester Page demonstrated PageWriterGS, a very impressive inexpensive ($35) word processor based on AppleWriter. There is a demo in the library, and they are trying to solve copyright confusion right now. The Lee Golden, Jay Jennings show on making billions was a treat. Not only is SoftDisk a great way for programmers to fine tune their skills, it should keep Jay in Shreveport for another year. The days festivities started off with Uncle DOS selling hot dogs to the hungry programming masses in the auditorium, and then a real treat. Tom had recorded a telephone conversation with our favorite engineer the Woz. Steve wanted to be here this year and but scheduling problems prevented it. He did say he wanted to come to a future KansasFest. -Bear (A2.BEAR, CAT44, TOP7, MSG:10/M645;1) >>>>> I spoke with a conference attendee from the user ranks. His """"" impression of the Avatar project is that it would be an exciting product, but he was not convinced that Heineman has the business acumen to bring the product to market and gain adequate market share to support a going business. He wasn't really negative, just uncertain. This is no time to be throwing wet blankets on any new possibilities in the Apple II world. I hope Avatar succeeds, and I'll be up front brandishing my MasterCard when the time comes. -Bill Dooley (A2.BILL, CAT44, TOP4, MSG:7/M645;1) >>>>> Last night, I wandered into Roger Wagner's room and wound up in """"" front of a video camera while Roger demonstrated some really nifty video tricks using new, inexpensive video chips for picture-within- picture effects. It's too early to tell if a new product will result from these experiments, but a few people in the room felt that a basic unit could be made to sell at under $200 list. I watched in amazement as Roger hauled the tools of his trade out of his shipping cartons while setting up the demo: a crazed rat's nest of cables and one gadget after another, including a breadboard video gadget, video camera, an 8mm VCR/color TV in a package roughly the size and shape of a 5 lb. sack of flour (didn't catch the maker), a Canon video still camera that stores 50 images on a 2 inch magnetic disk, and lesser items. He had composite and RGB monitors on the GS and a Video Overlay Card inside. Sitting amid this jumble, Roger enthusiastically demo'd the concepts he's working on to a crowd spilling out into the corridor. After a couple of hours, about 11:30, I got tired and went off to bed. Roger was still going strong. He can generate video letters on 8 mm tapes with a HyperStudio demo on the main screen and himself in the inset screen, or vice versa, and mentioned many variations on this theme. He has ideas for enhancements to HyperStudio that will enable preschoolers to use it with a mouse or even a touch screen, a purely audiovisual approach for non-readers. Roger's enthusiasm is catching, and representative of the overall mood at KansasFest this year. Few negative comments to be heard. We know what to expect from Apple now, and we're focusing on the new and nifty. Despite the lack of spectacular announcements thus far, there are plenty of new things happening to keep Apple II enthusiasts pleasantly and productively occupied. -Bill Dooley (A2.BILL, CAT44, TOP9, MSG:3/M645;1) >>>>> I thought some of you might enjoy a clip from some of our late """"" night follies. In this case it was a "Roger Wagner Roast". This was so incredibly funny, I really wish I could post an entire transcript of the event (I must admit I wasn't expecting it to be very funny at all, but _man_ was I surprised ... it was great!) , but not only doesn't one exist (yet, at least), but I wouldn't want to be the one to type it all in <grin>. What I _did_ do was write down an especially funny bit from MoMan's routine ... so without further ado: The Top 10 Reasons Why HyperStudio Crashes. 10) "Something you did" 9) "It must be a bug in your System" 8) "It must be a bug in the System Software" 7) "Ummmm, define 'Crash' " 6) "We can't seem to reproduce it" 5) "Next time, try exporting the scripts first" 4) "It's not a 'Crash', it's just a detour into GSBug" 3) "Real programmers don't use 'goto' " 2) "Oh yeah ... 'goto' doesn't" 1) "We've got an update coming up for that RSN" (A2.GUEST, CAT44, TOP9, MSG:4/M645;1) ////////////////////////////////////// GEnie_QWIK_QUOTE //// / "Congratulations on your honorary membership in SPUDS. / / (Semi-Professional Users and Developers Society) <grin>" / /////////////////////////////////////////////// MUSE //// [EOA] [FOC]////////////////////////////// FOCUS ON... / ///////////////////////////////// SHARED MINDS Book Review """""""""""""""""""""""" By Phil Shapiro [P.SHAPIRO2] >>> SHARED MINDS: THE NEW TECHNOLOGIES OF COLLABORATION <<< """"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" Michael Schrage Random House, NY, 227 pages, $19.95 ISBN 0-394-56587-8 Each one of us is born into the world with different talents and skills. Most of us spend a lifetime trying to hone and develop these native born talents to maximize both our own potential and our contribution to the greater social good. But rarely can anybody these days maximize his or her talents working cloistered and alone. In this world of increasing specialization and complexity, rare indeed is the individual who achieves great success working independently on his or her own. Long ignored and overlooked, the wonders of collaborative creativity are just beginning to be understood and appreciated. In an important and revealing new book, Shared Minds: The New Technologies of Collaboration, syndicated columnist Michael Schrage examines both the nature of the collaborative process and methods of "fanning the collaborative flame." With frequent reference to legendary creative collaborative teams of the past (Orville and Wilbur Wright, Watson and Crick, Jobs and Wozniak, Lennon and McArtney), Schrage articulates truths that well deserve to be lifted to the forefront of our consciousness. How This Book Came to be Written Initially Shared Minds was to be a book """""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" about the social dynamics of business meetings, and how new technologies can help streamline these dynamics. But the author soon realized that the most interesting group work doesn't occur in large business meetings, but in small, energetic teams. So instead of writing a book about business meetings, he decided to closely examine the nature of creative "small group" collaborations. After interviewing many famous scientific and artistic "collaborative teams," Schrage spent a year as a visiting scholar at MIT's Media Lab synthesizing the ideas in this book. The Personal Attributes of Successful Collaborative Teams One of the probing questions """""""""""""""""""""""""""""" examined in this book is: "What personal attributes contribute to successful collaborative joint ventures?" How is it that the family team of Orville and Wilbur Wright worked so well together, when other sibling pairs find it a struggle to order pizza together? And what role did Orville and Wilbur's parents play in fostering their creativity and perseverance. (Apparently Orville and Wilbur's mother played a decisive role in showing her sons the methodology of creative invention.) Along the same lines of thought, what personal qualities allowed Watson and Crick to work together to formulate their landmark three-dimensional model of DNA? True, they had differing and complementary scientific backgrounds. But more than that, they both had a hunger to understand the physical structure of DNA. That intellectual hunger united them in a focused scientific quest. Speaking on the subject of collaboration, Crick, in his memoirs, sheds light on the nature of his successful teaming with Watson: "Our...advantage was that we had evolved an unstated but fruitful methods of collaboration....If either of us suggested a new idea, the other, while taking it seriously, would attempt to demolish it in a candid but nonhostile manner." Good collaborative teams, therefore, have a tacit understanding that individual ego must necessarily be subsumed to the larger team goal. Examples of How a "Sharing """" Ideology" Can Develop Another subject examined in the book is the """"""""""""""""""""" similar "sharing ideology" used by great artists and great scientists. There comes a time when human beings rise above the possessive attitude of "that's an idea I thought of first" to the grander attitude of "that's an idea I had a part in creating." One moving anecdote about collaborative artists occurred when Picasso and his close associates stopped signing their paintings for a brief period in their lives. These artists worked so closely together in producing new art that they genuinely believed that signing any of their paintings would be a misrepresentation of "authorship." In this case, keeping track of who produced which paintings became subservient to the group goal of producing excellent group paintings. Thoughts About "Idea Development" At another point in the book Schrage """"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" examines the concept of "idea development." How is it that ideas get developed from nascent whims to full-fledged notions? Quoting a modern expert on the subject, John Cleese (the gifted comic writer of Monty Python fame): "The really good idea is always traceable back quite a long way, often to a not very good idea which sparked off another idea that was only slightly better, which somebody else misunderstood in such a way that they then said something which was really rather interesting.... [That's] actually why I have always worked with a writing partner, because I'm convinced that I get to better ideas than I'd ever do on my own." One perceptive observation in Shared Minds is that some of the best collaborative work occurs in informal, playful settings. The proverbial doodle, hastily sketched on a cafeteria napkin, serves as a forceful reminder of how creativity can best be unleashed in informal settings. Likewise, brainstorming sessions in a formal conference room seldom yield memorable creative results. All in all, Shared Minds is an important, thought-provoking book. If you've ever spent time thinking about the wonders of collaborative creativity, you ought to find a rich vein of ideas to mine in this book. The very act of reading the book ought to stimulate those areas of the brain responsible for the "open-minded" reception of new and interesting ideas. Want To Know More? If you're interested in reading further about the """""""""""""""""" subjects of creativity and collaboration, you might be interest in some of the recommended readings at the end of Shared Minds. Here is a list of some of the juicier sounding titles.] Bijker, Wiebe E., Hughes, Thomas P., and Trevor Pinch, eds. The Social Construction of Technological Systems: New Directions in the Sociology of and History of Technology. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1987. Boettinger, Henry. Moving Mountains: The Art and Craft of Letting Others See Things Your Way. New York: Macmillan, 1969. Briggs, John. Fire in the Crucible: The Self-Creation of Creativity and Genius. Los Angeles: Jeremy P. Tarcher, 1990. Crouch, Tom. The Bishop's Boys: A Life of Wilbur and Orville Wright, New York: W.W. Norton, 1989. Eisenstein, Elizabeth L., The Printing Press as an Agent of Change, New York: Cambridge University Press, 1979. Gardner, Howard. The Mind's New Science: A History of the Cognitive Revolution. New York: Basic Books, 1985. Heim, Michael. Electric Language: A Philosophical Study of Word Processing. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1987. Koestler, Arthur. The Act of Creation. New York, Macmillan, 1964. Levine, Howard, and Howard Rheingold, The Cognitive Connection: Thought and Language in Mind and Machine. New York, Prentice-Hall, 1987. McLuhan, Marshall. The Gutenberg Galaxy: The Making of Typographic Man. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1962. Nelson, Theodor, Computer Lib/Dream Machines. Self-published, 1974. Stent, Gunther. Scientific Genius and Creativity, San Francisco, W.H. Freeman, 1975. Turkle, Sherry. The Second Self: Computers and the Human Spirit. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1984. Winograd, Terry and Fernando Flores. Understanding Computers and Cognition. Norwood, NJ: Ablex, 1986. Zuboff, Shoshana. In the Age of the Smart Machine: The Future of Work and Power. New York: Basic Books, 1988. [*][*][*] Phil Shapiro (Shapiro is the founder of Balloons Software, a """""""""""" new Apple II educational software company. He can be reached at Balloons Software, 5201 Chevy Chase Parkway, NW, Washington, DC 20015-1747, or via electronic mail on GEnie at: P.Shapiro1, on America Online at: pshapiro) ///////////////////////////////// GEnie_QWIK_QUOTE //// / "I think you misspelled that, I believe the correct / / spelling is "THPPPT" or "THPTHPT" (at least / / according to Bloom County)." / /////////////////////////////////////// T.GIRSCH //// [EOA] [SOF]////////////////////////////// SOFTVIEW A2 / ///////////////////////////////// A2 Software Reviews """"""""""""""""""" By Mel Fowler [MELSOFT] MUSIC LOVERS TAKE NOTE I was asked to write a review of some of the """""""""""""""""""""" programs currently in the A2 Software Library. So what I decided to do was to write an article reviewing three music programs, NoiseTracker GS 1.0, SoniqTracker 0.5, and MODzap 0.8. This is not a review in the strictest since of the word because I am not a programmer nor a musician and also SoniqTracker and MODzap are not completed programs. This article is written from the stand point of a music lover and an Apple IIGS fanatic. First a bit of back ground concerning the Apple IIGS and music programs. Music Construction Set was one of the first, followed by Music Studio. Music Construction Set was mostly just a music player were as Music Studio was more a word processor for music. Both programs had there limitations and regardless how hard they tried they still didn't sound like violins or horns. Mostly they sounded like organs trying to sound like violins or trumpets. They did fairly well with pianos and guitars but when it came to holding long notes or adding color to the music, forget it. The music sounded like computer generated music. We were happy with these programs at the time because they sounded great when compared to previous Apple II music programs. Diversi-Tune sounded a bit better but again was mostly just a play back program, although I loved the bouncing ball. The next great music composition program was SoundSmith. The first to incorporate a spreadsheet like front-end for the IIGS, SoundSmith made writing original and cover music relatively simple with a minimum of complexity. As its newer versions progressed, new features were added making it possible to breathe greater life into the music. And while the professional software community often ignore d the effort, SoundSmith quickly became the new standard in IIGS music. Recently, the SoundSmith fairy tale came to a bitter end when a beta tester for a commercial version broke the non-disclosure agreement and caused the author to abandon work on the application. Then came NoiseTracker GS from the french base group the Free Tool Association or FTA. With its rich, full basses and quality, high fidelity, and full dynamic range of instruments this was indeed the next generation in music software for the Apple IIGS. This was the first music program to break the 64K size barrier for instruments and could provide full rich sounds never before heard on any Apple computer. NoiseTracker GS is SoundSmith compatible so all the available SoundSmith songs and instruments could be used. NoiseTracker GS also includes an editor which can be used by musicians to create a full range of musical sounds only limited by their imaginations. Just about any sound can be made into an instrument including human voices. Even a novice like myself can re-orchestrate compositions with the Instrument Add, Replace and Delete features of the program. I was able to setup the stereo effects that I wanted by setting instruments to the right or left channels or both. I was also able to set the tracks to a desired right or left channel. If the bass drum is too loud, just lower the volume on that one instrument. Does the song seem to be playing to slowly for you, change the tempo. The main difference between NoiseTracker GS and all previous music programs was its ability to sustain long notes and the ability to import Amiga Mods. Music can be saved in two different formats, a songs file with a separate instrument wave file or as modules which include the instruments in one file. Speaking of modules, Amiga MODs. It is somewhat limited in this capability in that NoiseTracker does not support all the special effects required by Amiga MODs. However, you can load in an Amiga MOD file and save it as a NoiseTracker module. If you then load the NoiseTracker module you can use the NoiseTracker program to change tempo, change instruments, etc., as with any other NoiseTracker son g. The music editor screen is well organized and easy to use. To play a SoundSmith or NoiseTracker song you simply "Open Musicfiles" from the Music pull down menu, then select the "Scrolly Player" which shows you a 15 channel VU meter. Like all FTA software there are "Easter Eggs" hidden inside the program. Click on the Scrolly Player and notes will come flying around the screen. Click on the song title location and the program changes colors, gray, blue, green or black. There appears to be a running gun battle between SoniqTracker and MODzap as to who can write the best Amiga MOD player for the Apple IIGS. Both programs have jukebox features and you can load in a list of your favorite Amiga MOD songs and listen for hours on end. I like the "Dancing Lights" in SoniqTracker and the more conventional look of the player. The Player controls are more in line with those of a standard CD player with Volume control and Mono or Full Stereo or even 25%, 50%, or 75% Stereo. In Jukebox mode the N key takes you to the next song. The Track Meter is also a nice feature. The Volume control is especially nice for those of us without external volume controls on our speakers. SoniqTracker is indeed an impressive program and plays Amiga MOD song with crisp, clear sounds and superior channel separation. The documentation is adequate but a bit preachy. MODzap is more technically oriented and supports more features in setting up the player. For example there is a "Force 31 Inst" and "Force 15 Inst" in the "File" pull down menu. I have never had an occasion to use these selections but they are there. Another feature is the ability to loop the music so if you like a particular song you can have it played over and over in a continues loop. Under the Option menu are options such as Ignore Tuning and Ignore Arpeggiatos, also Turbo, Normal, Enhanced and Premium. The documentation is not very clear as to what Tuning or Arpeggiotos means or when to use these options. Turbo, Normal, Enhance and Premium has to do with the quality of the play back. However again the documentation is not to clear as to what the differences are between them or when to use them. MODzap version 0.8 added a keyboard so that you can select an instrument from the currently load Amiga MOD and play it on the keyboard. The sound quality is superior on some selected Amiga MODs but t his mostly has to do with special effects such as bends up and down. Overall the music outlook for the Apple IIGS is tremendous. SoniqTracker and MODzap are still in there development stages but already show a great future for music on the Apple IIGS. The developers of these two wonderful programs are to be congratulated and encouraged. Although both of these programs are currently freeware, your monetary considerations would help to keep things going. The dream music program would be a combination of all three of the music programs. Compatible with Sound Smith, NoiseTracker GS and play Amiga MODs with all the required special effects. Editing capabilities currently available in SoundSmith and NoiseTracker GS should be compatible with all formats. Hopefully this is what the developers of soniqTracker and MODzap are working towards. We can only hope. [EOA] [COW]////////////////////////////// CowTOONS! / ///////////////////////////////// Moooooo Fun! """""""""""" By Patrick Hart [P.HART4] ______ | | | (__) | | (OO) | | \/ | | | ====== "Cow Caught at Bootup" _________________________________________________ | ______ | | | | | | | (__) | Welcome to MacCOWintosh | | | (OO) | | | | \/ | | | | | | | ====== | |_________________________________________________| _________________________________________________ |_____________About This MacCOWintosh_____________| | | | System COWware 1.0.7* | | MacCOWintosh IIcow (c) Cow Computer, Inc. | | | | Total Memory: 307,200K Largest Unused Block: 1K | |_________________________________________________| | System Usage: 307,199K |||||||||||||||||||||| | | |_________________________________________________| _________________________________________________ | ______ | | | | The application 'unknown' has | | | (__) | unexpectedly quit, because an error of | | | (OO) | type C occurred. ______ | | | \/ | | | | | | | | OK | | | ====== |______| | |_________________________________________________| _________________________________________________ | ______ | | | | Force The Cow to quit? | | | (__) | System failure will occur. | | | (OO) | ___________ ________ | | | \/ | | | | | | | | | | Force Out | | Cancel |J| | ====== |___________| |________| | |_________________________________________________| _________________________________________________ | ______ | | | | The application has unexpectedly quit. | | | (__) | The Cow suggests user error. | | | (OO) | _________ | | | \/ | | | | | | | | Restart | | | ====== |_________| | |_________________________________________________| _________________________________________________ | ______ | | | | | | | (__) | There is not enough memory to open | | | (OO) | TapplicationU (100,000K needed, 1K | | | \/ | available). | | | | | | ====== To make more memory available, try | | adding more RAM. ______ | | | | | | | OK | | | |______| | |_________________________________________________| [*][*][*] (__) CowTOONS? Patrick took us up on our (oo) offer and sent us this month's CowTOONS /---------\/ selection. Thanks, Pat! / | x=a(b)|| * ||------|| If you have an idea for a CowTOON!, we ^^ ^^ would like to see it. If we use it here Mathematical in GEnieLamp, we will credit your account Cow with 2 hours of GEnie non-prime time! (developer of cow-culus) /////////////////////////////////////////// GEnie_QWIK_QUOTE //// / "Question from the floor is: If the "Gno/Me" gang is writing / / the system software for Avatar, will it be called "Gno/Way"? / ///////////////////////////////////////////////// A2.GUEST //// [EOA] -- Jerry Penner jpenne@ee.ualberta.ca | "Wanna buy a duck" (Hi Joe :)