Dec 85 Mousehole
Volume Number: 1
Issue Number: 13
Column Tag: Mousehole Report
Mousehole report 
By Rusty Hodge , Mousehole BBS
FastEddie is Buggy Software
The Toolsmith
Watch out! I have tried using this program several times and had nothing but
grief! While it has potential, there are too many dangerous bugs to warrent using this.
The last time, I was creating a new file and had the autosave on. I hit cancel the first
time the file-name box came up without thinking, and when I quit, it bombed with an
ID=03 taking my Tecmar with it!! After some rather exotic manevers, I managed to get
the old HD back, but my file was shot for the evening; my first act after getting the
disk back was to trash FastEddie. Beware this program! When the bugs are out it'll be
good, but until then...
More Draw 1.9 Complaints
Bob Denny
Create a box, type some text while the box is selected, creating a centered text in
the box. Group it. Then grab the grouped "object" with the arrow and drag it around in
circles, 5 or 6 times. [watch what happens to your text!] You tell me... did they really
beta test this software?
QUED Editor 1.21 is out
Steve Brecher
QUED ("Quality Editor for Developers") version 1.21 is now available. Software
Supply at 4618 E. 6th St. in Long Beach (me) is a dealer for QUED. The new version
provides windows that can be split horizontally and/or vertically into independently
scrollable "panes", synchronized scrolling, show invisibles command for control
characters, ascii codes command showing characters in their ascii numeric code, tabs
and returns used as literals in Find/Change dialogs and it's compatible with the MDS
Exec system for those using MDS. QUED is $65 plus tax. Updates free to 1.1 owners.
Death of Typographer?
Tim Celeski
Microsoft has dropped the program [Typographer]. For those of you that don't
know what Typographer is... A text and graphics composition program somewhat on the
order of Pagemaker though much different in design. It has a pretty impressive
technique for handling the size and shape of text blocks and kerning an unlimited
document length that made it particularly suitable for manuals, catalogs, etc.
Typesetters loved it as it was precise and versatile. Alas, Typographer had problems...
bugs, bugs and more bugs... so Microsoft has decided to drop it and Broca Software, the
originators may come out with an enhanced version in the spring. I hope so. Though not
as easy as Pagemaker to design in, it di d have a number of valuable characteristics...
AppleTalk Release 39
Bob Denny
There is a new release of the AppleTalk drivers on CompuServe MAUG (MACDEV
PCS-7 DL8... how 'bout that for givverish!!). Anyhoo, there is a MacPaint file
ATLK39.BIN and INSTAL.APP is the new installer. Minor changes for inter-netting
(Apple actually tried it!)
Basic Compiler?
Gary Voth
Sorry, but the rumored compiler for Microsoft Basic is not yet available to the
public. The closest you can get is a 2.1 runtime interpreter, which will allow you to
create a double-clickable stand alone program [runtime license is $250 per year!].
The 2.1 upgrade is said to be somewhat faster than 2.0 however.
MacMemory Board is OK!
Michael Carlton
Memory upgrades by MacMemory to 1.5Mb are a great system. I'm running on
one and I love it. [So do I! -Ed.] Features include: 1. Ram disk software that gives you a
choice of 1 meg ramdisk with a 512K Mac or a 1 meg Mac with a 400K ramdisk. 2. No
roms, rom patches or rom changes needed. This system will work with the new Apple
roms, giving you a contiguous 1536K for heap space. [But will the software program
they supply need updating? -Ed.] 3. The ram is recognized by the Finder and other
applications. 4. No fan is required, as the board adds only 1.3 watts to power used. 5.
Best of all, the ramdisk is NON-VOLATILE! You can reboot and recover everything on
the ramdisk after a system crash as long as you don't turn off the power. [This feature
has been particularly great for me; in fact, it may be safter than disk since I've lost
files written to disk in MacWrite when Write crashes, whereas, if it gets on the
ramdisk, a crash dosen't bomb the file. -Ed.]
What is MacScheme?
Macowaco
Macscheme is much more than Common Lisp. While it is true that Scheme and
Common Lisp look the same and that Macscheme can do anything ExperLisp can with
regard to LISP stuff (not graphics, windows or menus), Macscheme contains First
Class Functional Objects. . These allow one to have an infinite number of functions that
are always available. It also allows functions to make functions to make functions to
make... etc. It is really heavy duty. Three major universities have already made it as
the standard Lisp for their CS depts. The toolbox access is coming soon too!
ROM Serial Driver Help
Michael Carlton
I'm trying to open the modem and write to it with Megamax C. So far I have been
very unsuccessful. It always hangs the first time I try to send stuff out. I'm using:
opendriver( ".AIn", &in );
opendriver( ".AOut", &out);
pbwrite( ¶mblock,0 );
after filling in all the blocks of paramblock. This always hangs. Is this the right way to
do it? IM isn't very clear about ROM drivers. [ We are looking into the ROM serial
drivers. Look for an article in the Jan. issue. -Ed.]
HD-20 Seen
David Robinson
Well, I finally saw one today at the MacFest at Cal Poly. All I can say is WOW! The
HSF Hierarchical Filing System as it is now being called is great! Get this, up to
65,536 entrys! The new mini finders (now being called browsers - shades of
smalltalk here too -) have pop up menus and you can flip through all levels of the
hierarchy from there. What this means is there is no more need for drawers! It's all
one big volume. When you ask to open documents from within an application you are
given a browser (mini finder) with all documents of that type on the disk. In other
words, it does a global search. The speed seems comparable to that of the Hyperdrive
and is supposed to surpass it when the number of files is large. Rumor has it that as
you know you can daisy chain another 3.5 dirve on the back, but it has already been
tried with 4 HD-20's chained and a 3.5 drive and a SCUZY interfaced drive too with no
problem! At $1495, you have my vote!
SCSI INTERFACE
Brett
In response to the questions raised on the C board, the SCSI interface is what has
been rumored (quite strongly) to be the manor in which Apple will implement an 'open
machine'. In fact, I can now address a few other rumors. The display of the new 'mac'
will be configurable as well as the memory. The new 'mac' looks more like an IBM, in
that it is a box with a keyboard that you attach a monitor to.
MacTutor's Sponsorsfor December 1985
MacTutor is grateful for the following companies who sponsored this month's
issue of MacTutor. Through their advertising, we are able to continue research and
development of the Macintosh programming technology through this publication. We
encourage you to contact them about their offerings and mention that you are a 'Tutor
fan.
Company Product Type Page
Alsoft MacExpress Devel. 31
A.I. Design Game 62
Atech memory upgrade 71
Bjorklund new editor 31
C-ware C Utilities 18
Capilano Computing Logic hardware 26
Clearlake Re search Basic Utilities 41
Computerware Mail order software 14
Consulair C compiler 22
Cross Tech. Memory upgrade 52
Dafax XL/Lisa upgrade 47
Dr. Tom's IM Reference Deck 71
FWB software copy utility 19
Infosphere Mac Networking 42
Invention Software Pascal Products 12
Kriya Systems Neon 48
LM Software New editor 47
MacMemory memory upgrade 3
MacNosy disassembler 53
Macscheme Lisp 31
Mac Underground Technical clearinghouse 30
Mainstay assembler 20
Maximum Mac memory upgrade 68
Megamax C compiler 14
Paragon new editor 62
Portable Software APL 70
Signiture Software assembler 42
Softworks Limited New Basic 2
Step-Lively pascal compiler 42
TML pascal compiler 13
TMON debugger 12
Unicom new fast finder 42
Referenced by (2):