NewsBits

By Scott T Boyd, Editor

Software Escrow

Sourcefile offers software escrow services, serving as a neutral third party between a licensee and the developer of software. For more info, contact Sourcefile at 50 Crisp Plaza, Suite 700, San Francisco, CA 94124-2924. (800) 237-2769, (415) 715-2733 voice. (415) 822-4302 fax.

QuickApp™ Goes Native

Emergent Behavior™ is now shipping QuickApp version 1.8. It can be used to create PowerMac native applications., and adds support for AppleEvents. QuickApp takes the approach that less is more, with just the basic features you need to write basic Mac applications, but not much more. Fast compile times, small apps, easy to learn. A typical QuickApp application will be as small as 50k on disk. QuickApp works with Symantec C++ and CodeWarrior C++.

QuickApp supports multiple windows and documents, menus, dialog boxes, files, TextEdit, buffered offscreen graphics, and object persistence.

QuickApp $149. For more info, contact Emergent Behavior, 635 Wellsbury Way, Palo Alto, CA 94306. (415) 494-6763, internet: emergent@aol.com.

Drop What You’re Doing

Aladdin is shipping DropStuff with Expander Enhancer™, a compression application with a native PowerPCaccelerator. Check out their PictoGuide™ iconic user manual. $30 shareware. Also out is a new StuffIt Expander™, freeware which knows loads of formats. Internet: ftp://sumex-aim.stanford.edu/info-mac/cmp. CompuServe: “Go Aladdin” then (Library 2 + Browse + Download). eWorld: Go To Shortcut “Aladdin”, click on icon “Software”, open folder “Shareware & Freeware”. GEnie: MacPS RT/Library #1 (M606;3 - Library 1). For more info, aladdin@well.sf.ca.us or 408/761-6200.

Better Build a Stronger Bookcase

Also available are three new books on QuickDraw GX. Inside Macintosh: QuickDraw GXObjects, Inside Macintosh: QuickDraw GX Graphics, and Inside Macintosh: QuickDraw GX Printing Extensions and Drivers, listing for $31.95, $31.95, and $29.95, respectively. Four move volumes are expected soon (GX Programmer’s Overview, GX Typography, GXPrinting, and GX Environment and Utilities).

Addison-Wesley announces more volumes of Inside Macintosh. Inside Macintosh: AOCEApplication Interfaces and Inside Macintosh:AOCEService Access Modules. The first is 1376 pages long and lists for $44.95. The second is 480 pages long and lists for $29.95. A 1376 page paperback book comes in at approximately four inches thick. All are available at a discount through the Mail Order Store.

I Took A Few Hours in College

MicroTac Software is shipping the Language Assistant Series, a series of products which provide bidirectional document translation for Spanish, French, German, and Italian. Each lists for $99.95. For more info, contact MicroTac Software at 4375 Jutland Drive Ste. #110, San Diego, CA 92117. (800) 366-4170 or (619) 272-5700. (619) 272-9734 fax.

Just What You Need

If coffee just doesn’t do it for you, the makers of Gatorade say they’ve got what you need. SunBolt Energy Drink is a mix of fructose, glucose, maltodextrin, the vitamin C from a whole orange, and caffeine. “SunBolt meets a distinct consumer need by helping solve the energy crisis 80 percent of people experience every morning, every day,” said the President of Gatorade. Available first in NY, it will go national from there.

Advertise on CD

GlamourWare Software, Inc. announced that it will produce and distribute a CD-ROM of interactive ads from Macintosh software developers, targeted at consumer & small business markets.

The Wish Disk is a monthly CD-ROM available on a free subscription basis to consumers and small businesses who want more product information than is available in normal catalog or advertising formats. Featuring searchable keywords as well as multiple-page hyperlinked advertisements, The Wish Disk allows end users to browse a monthly catalog or look for a product to meet a specific need.

The Wish Disk allows enhanced electronic advertising at less than half the cost of direct mail. The lower pricing will give smaller developers a chance to reach a targeted audience of Macintosh owners at a more attractive price point than through traditional advertising, and helps level the marketing playing field with large companies.

Wish Disk ads include full color, multiple pages, digitized sound and music, and the ability for customers to directly dial the advertiser at the push of a button. The Wish Disk is scheduled to start shipping monthly in September.

Free disk requests WishDisk@aol.com, advertiser inquiries GlamourAds@aol.com. For more info contact Eric Weaver at (513) 575-4700 voice or (513) 860-1872 fax.

CodeWarrior Site Licensing

Metrowerks is now offering CodeWarrior site licenses, starting at a quantity of five and upwards.

Advantages of the site program include protection from price increases, quantity pricing, a “Master CD” to put on a server or copy to authorized users, one set of printed documentation, two updates included, and additional users can be added at the current price through the end of the year.

For details on a site license, contact Alison Guess. AppleLink SALESWERKS, internet at sales@metrowerks.ca or (512) 346-1935 direct.

4D

ACI announced release plans and upgrade policy for Power Macintosh versions of its products. ACI has finalized a new version of 4D Compiler that can produce native code for 601-based Power Macintoshes and 68K-based Macintoshes.

This compiler can be used in conjunction with current versions of 4th Dimension and 4D Server. When running a compiled database on a 601 Power Macintosh using the existing versions of 4D or 4D Server in emulation, users will notice performance gains for many operations. Other operations will perform at the same speed. Few operations may be slightly slower. The compiler provides major performance gains when used with a Power Macintosh-native version of 4D or 4D Server. 4D Compiler generates fat binaries.

The new version of 4D Compiler will be provided as a free update to all registered owners of version 2.0 or greater of 4D Compiler.

Toward the end of the year, ACI hopes to release Power Macintosh-native versions of the currently-shipping versions of 4th Dimension and 4D Server. These will be free updates to registered owners.

For more info, contact ACIUS at 20883 Stevens Creek Blvd., Cupertino, CA. (408) 252-4444.

OpenDoc Alpha Ships on Three Platforms

Alpha versions of OpenDoc were available as of June 27 for Windows, Macintosh, and OS/2.

For more info, contact Component Integration Laboratories, 688 Fourth Avenue, San Francisco, CA 94118. (415) 750-8352. cilabs@cil.org

Stop that Wretched Dancing

NoRad introduced JitterBox, a box that fits around your monitor to shield it from background magnetic field interference.

It’s made from a high magnetic permeability allow, and comes as a four-piece adjustable box. 9”-15” $395, 16”-17” 495, 19”-21” $595. For more info, contact NoRad at 1160 E. Sandhill Ave., Carson, CA 90746. (800) 262-3260 or (310) 605-0808. (310) 605-5051 fax.

Debug OSA Scripts

Full Moon Software announced ScriptWizard™, a scripting environment with testing and debugging facilities for any Open Scripting Architecture language. It features a handler/properties pop-up locator, variable watcher, single-step debugger, better event logger, toolbar, and enhanced dictionary browsers.

ScriptWizard $99 (ask if you can still get the promotional price). Full Moon Software, POBox 700237, San Jose, CA 95170-0237. (408) 253-7199 voice, (408) 252-2378 fax. mhopkins@netcom.com. European inquiries to Full Moon Software, POBox 116, STALBANS, Hertfordshire. AL1 2RL. England. (0727) 844232 voice, (0727) 856139 fax. sales@ctalk.exnet.com.

Translate English to Japanese

Want to break into the Japanese market, but don’t have a translator? Language Engineering Corporation offers LogoVista E to J, and automatic, high-quality translator. The basic dictionary has over 100,000 entries, and twenty-two technical dictionaries contain over 500,000. It has an interactive learning feature to allow you to guide it towards increasingly-better translations. Most of LEC’s staff hold advanced degrees in linguistics or computer science, and many are native speakers of Japanese.

LogoVista E to J $1995, technical dictionaries $495-$995 each. Language Engineering Corp., 385 Concord Avenue, Belmont, MA 02178. (617) 489-4000 voice, (617) 489-3850.

Making MacApp OSA Savvy

Savvy, from Michael Hogan at Vertical Software, adds OSAsupport to the MacApp framework. It includes attachability, recordability, scriptability, coercion, script execution, compilation, recording, idling, i/o, and editing with a built-in script editor.

Apple event support includes complex object specifiers, synchronous/asynchronous apple event handling, and apple event transactions for clients and servers. Documentation includes a cookbook, examples, technical overview, and method explanations as a 411 file.

You can choose your level of support. Savvy has the basic OSA functionality and apple event support for files, documents, windows, and the application. More Savvy extends apple event support to include most view types and text. Super Savvy gets you access to additional OSAfunctionality and includes a script editor. Savvy Quicktime adds specialized support for Quicktime.

Savvy $250, More Savvy $450 (includes Savvy), Super Savvy $700 (includes More Savvy), Savvy QuickTime $250. For more info, contact Software Frameworks Association at (408) 253-2765 voice, (408) 253-2767 fax, info@frameworks.org, or 10062 Miller Avenue, Suite 202B, Cupertino CA 95014. SFAmembers get discounts.

Drop Everything

Here’s a C/C++ preprocessor trick. Suppose you need to have two lists whose values are related. In one example, an enum whose elements correspond to a list of strings, i.e.:

/* 1 */
typedef enum {A, B, C} VALUE; 
char *NAME[ ] = {"Name of A", "Name of B", "Name of C"};

These lists will typically be in different source files, and there will be many more than three elements. The problem comes in keeping the lists synchronized (i.e. making sure that additions and deletions to one list are reflected in the other).

Create a new file containing both lists with some macros.

/* 2 */
#ifdef ENUM
 #define LIST(a,b) a #else
 #define LIST(a,b) b #endif

LIST(A, "NAME of A"), 
LIST(B, "NAME of B"), 
LIST(C, "NAME of C")

#undef ENUM
#undef MACRO
and modify the original lists:

 typedef enum
 {
 #define ENUM
 #include "ListFile"
 } VALUE;

char *NAME[] = 
 {
 #include "ListFile"
 };

Now you can maintain the two lists in one place!

- Mark Erbaugh, Microcomputer Enhancement

Tuning You Heap Requirements

In the Finder’s Apple menu, choose About this Macintosh. When your application is running, the About window will show how much of its allocated memory your app is using. Turn on balloon help, bring the About window to the front, then position the cursor over the memory bar for your app. The balloon will show a number for how much memory your app is using. That’s useful for tuning your app’s Get Info memory numbers.

- Spec Bowers

AppendDITLGotcha

AppendDITL is a routine available on any Mac with the Comms Toolbox installed (this is the case with System 7). It lets you append extra items from a dialog item list onto an existing dialog. Unfortunately, it has the side effect of modifying the item list you pass to it!

For example, if you ask it to position the new items below the existing ones in the dialog, it will modify the item rectangles in the item list before appending them. If you use the same item list handle for a second call, the items will end up positioned even further down!

To get around this, you can make sure to always pass a copy of your original item list. If the item list comes from a resource, you can use ReleaseResource after the append call, to ensure that you reload a fresh copy on the next call.

- Lawrence D'Oliveiro, Waikato University,