Mousehole Report

By Rusty Hodge, Contributing Editor, Mousehole BBS

Summary of the New Mac Announcements

From: Misc. Posts by David E. Smith

AppleShare, the Apple networking software, was announced at the Seybold conference, but it apparently requires it’s own dedicated Mac, which seems like you give up something here compared to TOPS. One thing is sure, networking has been given the green light by Apple and we can expect to see a busy market for high density “library” disks to service those networks.

Yesterday Apple put on a sneak preview of their new hardware. They had a couple of production units along with a prototype Mac II. Here are the details on the new machines expected at the March 2nd product roll out.

The “Alladin’s” official name will be Macintosh SE. The SE sits 1.5" higher than the Plus, to provide room for adding either a hard disk, or second floppy to the internal 800K floppy drive. Memory is expandable from 1 to 4 mb RAM. The CPU is not a 68020, but simply a 68000 running at the same clock speed as the Plus, 8 mHz. However, a single 16 bit 96 pin slot is available to add third party “Prodigy” type accelerator boards with 68020/68881 chips and several will be available shortly. It is possible these accelerator boards will also be able to increase the clock speed to 16 mHz. The slot is not user accessible which means you have to open the case to get to it. A knockout is provided for cables. The motherboard is similar in function to the Mac Plus, but a new design. ROM memory is increased to 256K, the internal hard disk option is supported by an internal SCSI bus in addition to the external SCSI port. Two serial ports are provided as are two Desktop Bus ports for the mouse and keyboard like the Apple II GS. This bus provides for chaining additional mouse type devices. The display is a 9" B&W monitor with 73 dpi but with an improved display sweep said to provide a 20% increase in screen updating. The battery is a 7 year battery contained in a soldered battery holder inside the machine. In other words, not easily replaced. The infamous power supply has been beefed up to 80 watts. The cabinet is platinum in color and similar in shape to the present Mac case. However, there will be no upgrade path from the Mac Plus. An ominous development is the availability of 5 1/4 inch disk drives for MS DOS, and third party 80286 accelerator cards.

The Mac II code named “Paris” is expected to be in limited supply until at least June. The features however, appear to be what everybody wants. The processor includes a 16 mHz 68020 with a 68881 FP co-processor. 256K of ROM same as the Mac SE, but with an additional 256K ROM socket for a page memory management unit. Memory will be expandable from 1 to 8 megabytes using 1 mbit chips! The open architecture consists of six NuBus type 32-bit slots. The I/O configuration is similar to the SE with 2 SCSI ports, 2 serial ports, and 2 desktop bus ports for the mouse and keyboard. Two keyboard options include 81 or 105 keys. The built-in 5 1/4 inch hard disk comes in 20, 40 or 80 mbyte configurations. A four voice stereo sound chip is included. The video options include a 12" Monochrome 640 by 480 display with 16 gray scales or a 13" Sony trinatron color monitor with the same resolution supporting 256 colors from a pallet of 16 million using an 8 bit plane. Quickdraw toolbox support provides for 32 bit planes for third party video cards. The vertical scan rate is 66.7 Hz. A 20" monochrome monitor with 1120 by 880 resolution is in the works for a December release. The notorious SANE floating point package has been speeded up by a factor of five in this machine. Calling the 68881 directly is expected to increase performance by a factor of 20. A UNIX system 5 release 2 operating system with Berkeley enhancements will be available with Sun network support. A 40 mb tape backup unit will also be available. Those who have seen the machine report they were “completely blown away” by the color and the speed of this baby.

Rumors on the new printer are that it will be a postscript printer, but not an Appletalk device. Also it won’t be available for a year yet.

A new version of MacTerminal (2.2) will support user defined macros or function keys. They reside on the bottom of the screen.

A new MacDraw will fix the old text bug, does free rotation and multiple scaling. And it will cost plenty!

From: The Atom

WHAT?

You mean the awesome SE we’ve been waiting for is simply a larger Mac+ with a single slot? WHOOPIE! I sure hope thats a rumor, since I can’t afford $5000 for a Paris and I was definitely looking forward to 16 mhz on some type of lower end machine. [Sorry Charlie , but the thrid party people will bail you out. -Ed.]

In my opinion, the SE is a step in a good direction...if you work for a big company. If you’re like most of us here....no, it stinks. It will sell and sell big. Our company already plans on buying more SEs than IIs and we’re buying lots of IIs. The SE is basically all that the + still lacks before it can become a truly systems oriented workstation. The main difference will be the Ethernet card, and later the addition of the CD ROM. The CD can contain Inventories, Tax tables, HUGE dBs while the Ethernet connection allows for REAL data and resource sharing and at high speeds. For an Engineer.....no, for an officeworker in any of hundreds of settings where they currently use PCs, or dumb terminals (I equate them) all tied together....a big yes.

Prototyper

From: Lsr

I talked to one of the people involved with Prototyper. (Either Smethers or Barnes, I forget which.) You can build an application very quickly, but as far as making it into a real program you have to work from the block diagrams that Prototyper generates. They don’t have any way of generating code or of getting a textual description of the interface. (My interest was in prototyping with Prototyper and writing a translator to Object Pascal/MacApp.)

On the other hand, ExperTelligence was demo-ing something called Exper-Interface-Builder. This is a system developed by a person in France that lets you prototype an interface. (I didn’t see the demo at the Expo, but I did see it once at a conference.) The difference here is that it generates Lisp code as output, so you can incorporate it into a real application.

From: Dr. Dog

Nevertheless, an application like Prototyper could be pretty helpful. I work at a medical computing department at the University of Utah. We have developed several Mac programs under grants from the National Library of Medicine. The hardest thing we do is trying to get the type of interface desired standardized. Usually, by the time the program is far enough along to test the interface on prospective end-users, hundreds of hours of code-writing have gone by. We often end up making major changes after getting user suggestions. I think Prototyper could be very useful to “dummy” up an application. One could then try out the “feel” of the program on the user before code writing even begins in ernest.

MPW ver 1.0

From: Randy Saunders

I just got my MPW update from APDA. I have new versions of MPW and MPW Pascal. What I am trying to figure out is, what’s new. It seems that nobody at APDA knows what bugs are fixed. At least I got a known bug list with the B2 version. The manuals are bigger, but the type is smaller and there is still no index. Almost all the files say they were created 9/4/86, with the interesting ones (Shell and Pascal) dates about 10/2. [MacTutor has also received our 1.0 MPW update. Thank you APDA! -Ed]

CricketDraw and GreyPaint

From: Macowaco

CricketDraw is far from complete. It takes too long to print the good stuff (probably for good reason), but more importantly it can’t read large Postscript files a la Pro3D for text annotation. Too Bad!

Try GreyPaint’s RubberStamp tool then Laserwrite it. It maintains the gradual grey scale the way Pro3D and Cricket do. It looks like someone smeared toothpaste on the paper!

MacExpo and various other things

From: Michael J. Wallace

At the Expo , there was a guy at the BMUG booth trying to get dealers to sign up and buy his service. What were these services ? Colored Macs: Green/Red/PINK!/Black/ Yellow/ Platinum/ White. Totally psychadelic ! I prefer Red or Pink. Then you go to C.ITOH and get one of their FIVE pack color Pastel disks (single now, double soon) and be totally for real.

Prototyper: I do want to see more. But they had a big booth and ONE repeat ONE lousy Mac. Won’t be ready until Spring - read June. Those who saw VIP think it’s pretty lousy! Good ideas, just bad implementation. [Others came by the MacTutor booth and said they thought it was great! -Ed.]

Mac Expo hits: Hard disks EVERYWHERE. The LOWEST is Jasmine at $585 for a 20 meg. Be REAL careful, they were collecting money with NO FIRM ship dates, everyone ELSE had them in the booth! I got a Reflex 30 meg for $895. Northern Calif. brand. Bit noisy, but just as fast. [A new company has announced a 10 Meg SCSI hard disk for just $399! The idea is to push it as an external disk drive replacement, same price. Watch for more info in MacTutor. -Ed.]

FullWrite Professional

From: Bob Denny

I am REALLY surprised to see no messages about FullWrite. I saw the demos at MacWorld & was blown away. It’s everything Word 3.0 is and more (MacDraw built in, auto wrap around irregular objects like RSG only better, VASTLY easier user interface and much more). Scott Weiner & gang have outdone themselves. Watch for this RSN.

LISA Hard Drive

From: mouseFur<tm>

To everyone who answered my plea for help about the hard drive problems, THANK YOU very much. I am still on hold and have been told that APPLE is not presently shipping parts, i.e.. the replacement H.D. (for Lisa) that I ordered. The truth is the dealer that I have using appears to be on hold for slow payment. It’s a shame that they couldn’t be more up front. Their situation would certainly be easy to understand in view of current day events.

Sun up in Utah has been heavily advertising all sorts of LISA configs. for sale. (& parts). When I called them, they said that a hard drive is only available in a machine purchased from them. Are they supposed to be the folks that bought up all of the remaining LISA goodies?

NetWorkers in San Leandro seems all LISA knowing and has a good supply of working information and parts. They are advertising a 20 & 40 Meg replacement hard drive as a LISA update. When I inquired, they reported they are still in the development phase!

NetWorkers does have a release version of a modified or fixed MacWorks that is reported to allow the finder to manipulate more desktop files than it was designed to do. Their fix is claimed to eliminate the crash to a dark screen, with a sad Mac icon and code F00064. I have ordered a copy and will keep M-Hole members advised if there should be any continuing interest.

F00064 Bomb

From: Rick Boarman

MacZap’s HFS Recover version 4.5 will fix the Sad Mac bomb on a Mac XL with no problems. It adjusts the entry tables as needed. I’ve had to use it several times myself.

MacZap Recover

From: Jim Reekes

Incredible utility! Every hard disk owner must purchase this program. I’ve recovered over 30meg (1525 files) with it.

This drive was not recognizable by the Finder, which only asked me if I wanted to “Initialize or Cancel”. I also had a backup data disk created by HFS Backup, but while restoring, the program gave me an ‘error while reading disk’. MacZap to the rescue. It recovered the file.

Also had a drive that bombed while rebuilding the desktop. Apparently the drive had a directory problem and the Finder couldn’t build the desktop. MacZap helped me again. It has a ‘kill the desktop’ function which allowed me to boot the Finder and copy the files.

Stepping Out

From: Don

I’ve just found out some interesting stuff about Stepping Out, a new program by Berkeley System Design. It installs a virtual large-screen display in memory. The size of the display is configurable and you scroll around it by simply moving the mouse pointer to the edge of the screen.

Presently, the virtual display is limited to 2048 pixels wide by 1368 pixels deep, or 16 times the size of a normal Mac screen. BSD is releasing an update in a few weeks that will allow a virtual display limited only by Quickdraw and available RAM. Personally I like just 700 by 900 pixels, enough to show an 8 and 1/2 by 11 inch document.

Wes Boyd, the president of BSD, has told me about a few other goodies in the future. One feat they will attempt will be fixed menus, i.e. always keeping the menu bar at the top of the screen. They will also try to get Stepping Out to work correctly with REAL large screen displays. I know it bombs something awful when you use it on an E-Machines’ The Big Picture.

I think it’s a great help for those graphics intensive programs where scrolling through documents by conventional means seems to take forever (Let’s see a show of hands for those with MacDraw polygonitis!).

New ResEdit Bug!

From: Ant Killer

There is a bug in the New ResEdit 1.1-d. I found it after adding and removing some resources from my System file. I had ResEdit in my external drive and my system disk in the internal drive and chose Quit from the menu without closing and saving each window I had opened (it used to work!). Anyway it didn’t ask if I wanted to save the changes, it just quit! Well, I shut down and tried to boot the disk, but it had thrashed my System file (Ah!). The moral: if you’re gonna use this version of ResEdit (it is nice otherwise!), close each window before quitting!

Servant/Finder

From: Gary Voth

I was quite distressed to read the posts about Apple’s plans (or lack thereof) for Servant. I HOPE what this means is that Apple has no plans to release Servant as we know it as a Apple-labeled product-- but that Servant technology may still be incorporated in future versions of the Finder. (In my view, Apple MUST do this in order to compete with impending multi-tasking versions of MS-DOS and Microsoft Windows.) [Andy is committed to releasing Servant to the marketplace one way or another, according to published reports in InfoWorld. -Ed.]

I also concur in the criticisms of Andy’s user interface. Servant is a beautiful hacker’s product: full of “insanely great” things like the scrolling hand, multiple-magnification views of the directories, and a resource editor. Unfortunately, none of this stuff is anywhere close to the mainstream of Macintosh software design. The lack of scroll bars is simply unacceptable: if you want to provide “hand scrolling,” then do so via an option-key modifier (which has already been standardized in other applications), or let the user configure the program to his preference. FORCING you to do something in an “insanely great” way is rather similar to the attitude adopted by the original Macintosh designers, who gave us a computer that didn’t even have cursor keys!

Frankly, making an easy-to-use resource editor available to the end user is like giving a child a loaded gun. (This remark is NOT intended to be disparaging toward the abilities of end users, but to point out that it is simply inappropriate for their needs.) This can be a very dangerous tool. And as a software developer, I don’t particularly want people “customizing” my programs in funny ways. I’m also sick and tired of seeing MUTANT Mac desktops in half the Apple dealerships I’ve been in. Every kid who learns how to draw flies buzzing around the trash can icon has probably turned off potential business buyers.

I’ve put together a list of things that I’d like to see the Macdesktop metaphor evolve to. My list is obviously personal and subjective, but I have a great deal of experience with both the Mac and other personal computers to draw on. I’ve posted this list as the next message. Your comments are welcome.

Finder/Interface Extensions

From: Gary Voth

This is a list of extensions to the Finder and the Macintosh user interface. It is my opinion that Apple needs to hear these ideas and others from the development community. Anybody interested in participating in a “White Paper” on the evolution of the desktop environment and Macintosh user interface should post a message on this board. I’d be interested in hearing any and all comments...

In my view, the Macintosh Finder should evolve in a number of ways. It should of course incorporate Servant’s salient features: multiple application switching and management of a single desktop environment. But far more useful to people than Servant’s bells and whistles might be some of the following:

o Font and Desk Accessory Management

This is “appropriate resource editing” that end users really need. The Font/DA Mover is a utility that really should be part of the desktop environment.

o HFS Backup and Restore Capabilities

Of course this should be built into the Finder. 80% of all business computer systems are sold with hard disks. And Apple doesn’t even provide a SEPARATE utility for the HD 20!

o Background Print Management

As a true shell (running other applications in separate heaps), the Finder should intercept application calls to the Print Manager and handle all print queuing in the background.

o Expanded Desktop Management

How about the ability to sort your directories by date, size, kind, or name IN THE ICON VIEW? Or the ability to directly launch a named application without having to mouse through all the folders? Or putting the Find File DA into the Finder itself?

o User Interface Extensions for the Keyboard

You should be able to use the Tab key to select folders and applications within a window, then press Return to open one. Command/up arrow should move one level up in the directory, and Command/down arrow should go the other way, etc. The menus should also by accessible via the keyboard.

o Scripting

The lowly MS-DOS batch file can sure be a powerful way to shelter novice users from the complexities of the operating system. And for the experienced user, it can automate a lots of repetitive tasks: ask programmers, how many times have you wanted to do something like:”DUPLICATE all QUED documents in <folder> using <name.bak>; COPY all .REL files in <folder> to floppy; LAUNCH QUED using all TEXT documents beginning with “MyApp...”, all in one fell swoop?

o Optional Command Language Interpreter

Dare I say it...?

o User Interface Extensions for Windows

A Windows menu should provide tiling and stacking options. A command key should cycle through the open windows from front to back. Etc., etc.

This list could obviously go on. I haven’t even touched on some of the capabilities that Unix or Pick users enjoy. Obviously, the challenge is to build in a rich level of functionality WITHOUT adversely affecting ease of use or intuitive operation. The Mac designers did a great job in the beginning, but the Finder has remained essentially stagnant since 1984. Today’s users are demanding a lot of their computers, and the software technology exists to provide it. Let’s get to work, Apple!

MacApp and Licensing

From: Bill Evans

The fear of Big Brother (a little like Big Blue, I guess, or Too Big For His Britches) may be based on fact. December 1986 MacUser, page 43, says: “Apple is actively urging game publishers to publish for the IIGS and not the Mac. The only Mac games in 1987 will come from smaller, ‘maverick’ publishers. But there are some really great ones already in beta test.”

One has to wonder when Apple’s interest in “actively urging” people not to publish software which is incompatible with Apple’s marketing strategy will spill over into the MacApp licensing process. Anybody out there want to make himself a bundle by producing a MacApp substitute and license it to anybody who wants to publish anything they want? It would have strong appeal, I’ll bet to a lot of free spirits out there, even if they haven’t had any difficulty licensing the use of MacApp yet. Apple’s uppity attitude gives me the creeps.

MicroPhone wish list

From: Bill Evans

I’m using MicroPhone 1.0, so my wish list may not reflect what’s already in it, but here goes:

1 -- While you’re in the Finder, it’s possible to double-click a MicroPhone document, and MicroPhone will then (if you’ve set up the script right) dial the service, log you in, and place a “quit” button at the bottom of the screen. So when you’re finished, you can click the quit button and MicroPhone will log you out. Too bad you can’t tell the “Quit” script also to exit MicroPhone, leaving you back in the Finder where you started.

2 -- It’s possible in a script to “Send Text String”. It would be nice to be able to “Send Hex String” as well.

From: Frank Boosman

My personal wish list for Microphone:

o That the communications language become more generally powerful. For example, it would be great to have variables for use in scripts.

o That scripts be able to control communications parameters. The inability to change things like baud rate is a big drawback.

o I would like to see Dennis abandon the “window that isn’t a window” at the bottom of the screen--the area where he puts up control buttons. It’s non-standard and I would rather see him use a palette-like arrangement. And if he goes to a palette-like window, why even have buttons? Make it a scrolling list for more flexibility.

o I think Microphone uses “funny” memory allocation. Try reading a bunch of messages, enough to fill up memory. When you get close to running out of memory, Microphone suddenly slows to a crawl. It gets especially bad if you then open up a desk accessory. Dennis needs to include a feature to allow users to select how much text to save off the top, and a command to clear lines off the top.

o Microphone’s “Save Selection As...” command works fine, but selecting text screws up the scroll bar setting for a moment. It’s difficult to explain; just try it and you’ll see what I mean.

Of course, none of this means that Microphone still isn’t the best communications program around for any microcomputer--but it could use some touching-up.

From: Bill Evans

Another MicroPhone wish: When Microphone dials a service, and the service doesn’t connect, MicroPhone always waits about 30 seconds before it gives up. It would be nice if it gave up when it got a message from the modem saying “NO CARRIER” or (for those who can manage this miracle) “BUSY” or the like. That way, we can use the S7=whatever command to wait for longer or (heh, heh) shorter than 30 seconds, and have MicroPhone figure out what we’re up to. This one I haven’t written to MicroPhone yet, so if you could put it in the wish list, that would be very nice.

ZBasic vs. MS Compiled Basic

From: Dave Kelly

The Feb. MacTutor has my observations on the new MS Compiler. However, Zedcor has just phoned me to complain about the MS Benchmarks which were sent out to all press. They (Zedcor) thinks that some of the benchmarks are fraudulently in favor of MS Compiler. They are sending me a list of the problems with the benchmarks in the next few days. ZBasic is really working much better lately. I have version 3.04 beta. It turns out that a lot of the problems I have found have been partly because I’ve been trying to program ZBasic in the same way that I do with MS Basic. They are NOT the same nor do they claim to be. The next few months should show more about which compiler will come out on top... Zedcor’s ZBasic, the little guy on the block or Microsoft with their big corporate image.

Pascals...

From: Greg Kostello

I’ve worked with TML, Borland and (a little) MPW. For speed nothing can beat Turbo. You simply write your program and run it. It compiles and runs most programs faster than Apple Pascal could interpret them. At UC Irvine, where Macintosh programming was taught, our Prof. asked us which pascal we preferred, TML or Turbo. Approximately 85% of the class chose Turbo, 10% TML and 5% MPW. TML is a more complete and advanced pascal. For instance, if you want to use object pascal TML 2.0 supports it. Turbo does not do object based programming but they say they are planning it for the future. MPW is incredible. It has a million tools. If you like UNIX you will Love MPW. The problem is it is so damned slow. You can sleep thru a compile. Now, if I only had a Prodigy this would not be a problem. Enough said.

From: David Valentine

I’ve been working with LightSpeed Pascal for the past month and find it fantastic for writing little snipets of code that you may have wanted to write in in a compiled language but didn’t feel like spending the time debugging so you wrote it in basic. LSP has some tools that are indispensable when learning the Mac, like source level debugging and lights bug debugger. I love it, now if it only had objects.

MPW THINGS

From: Cpettus

I’ve noticed two strange interactions between MPW and TMON, and wondered if perhaps anyone here could give some guidance. First, it is apparently not a healthy course of action to install TMON from the Shell; I’ve had a high bomb rate when I’ve done so.

Second, with TMON installed (either from the Finder before launching the shell or from the shell) the rate at which the Shell responds to typing slows down very noticeably. Normally, the Shell can just keep up with me; with TMON installed, I can easily outrun the shell editor.

Also...

Just to save anyone the hair-pulling I went through, there have been some changes to the syntax of certain items in Rez from version 1.0b2 to 1.0 of MPW which render syntactically incorrect some of the .r files used in sample programs and MacApp.

First, in ALRTs, the four alert stages were previously written out explicitly; now they are array items. What this means is: (a) before the first item of the first stage, put a {; (b) after each of the three-item groups in each of the four stages except the last, put a semicolon instead of the current comma; and, (c) end the group with a }.

Second, to get the document window with a zoom box, the previous symbol in WINDs was zoomProc; now, it’s zoomDocProc (*sigh*, changes, changes). Either #define zoomProc to be zoomDocProc, or do a global replace.

If anyone can elaborate on this, or has related comments, I’d like to hear them...

Best Pascal?

From: Bugs

I’m using TML Pascal 2.02 and like it. I’ve tried MPW and LightSpeed. LSP is good and the debugger is nice... but I DON’T like pretty printing. Some of the syntax requires that you make conversions coming from Apple II UCSD or Lisa Pascal. MPW... memory hog... I’ve only got 512K. So for me TML is quite ok. PS: rev 2.02 fixes a lot of bugs.

AztecC & Ram disks

From: The Shadow

To run Aztec C on a ram disk :

1: Set up a MiniFinder with the Ram disk program & the Shell on it 2: Set up the Ram disk prog to automatically copy the Shell & the System files into memory. When it finishes let it return to the MiniFinder.

3: Eject the original floppy disk. IMPORTANT!

4: Double click on the Shell icon and Go!

I have been using this for months on a Mac+, you should see it FLY! If you fail to eject he floppy the Mac wants to use the System file from the floppy, so remember to eject.

Quarks XPress

From: Greg Kearney

I have a beta copy of the pagination program XPress from quark and it’s the best I’ve seen. I work at a newspaper which has a Linotype typesetter and it will do a 78 pica page with no problem. It gives you the kind of control that only a typesetter of the Just Text variety offered before. It will even do color plates with registration marks.