HFS Issues
Volume Number: 2
Issue Number: 7
Column Tag: Fortran's World
HFS Issues and Answers 
By Mark McBride, Miami University, Oxford, Ohio, MacTutor
Contributing Editor
This month's columns covers a variety of topics and issues, some of which I have
come across and some which readers of MacTutor have sent in. Readers can contribute
easily by sending suggestions for future column topics, bug finds, or general questions
about programming the Mac in Fortran. Send all inquiries to me care of MacTutor.
Now, on to the topics.
Version 2.1 and the Mac+
A more correct title for this section is Version 2.1 and HFS. As reported in
MacTutor (Vol. 2 No. 5 May 86), Microsoft Version 2.1 does not work with HFS. [See
Microsoft's reply in the box at the end of this article. -Ed] The compiler eventually gets
lost in locating its files, even when all files are on the desktop and no folders reside on
the disk. But do not completely despair, because you can run V2.1 on the Mac+ and on a
rom upgraded 512k Mac if you use MFS under Finder 4.1.
To convince myself of this, I conducted a test of V2.1 on several machine
configurations. I used four different machine configurations. Table 1 summarizes the
results. In the following configurations, MFS system refers to MFS formatted diskettes
with the old system (pre-Version 3.0) and Finder 4.1, while HFS system refers to HFS
formatted diskettes with the new system (Version 3.1.1) and Finder 5.2. All tests
were conducted with MS Fortran Version 2.1.
Configuration A was a 512k Mac with the rom upgrade and a two disk (400k
each) MFS system. Configuration B was a 512k Mac with the rom upgrade and a one
disk (800k) MFS system. Configuration C was a Mac+ with a one disk (800k) MFS
system. Finally, configuration D was a 512K Mac with the rom upgrade and a one disk
(800k) HFS system.
In case the reader was wondering how an 800k MFS system was created, here are
the steps necessary (This tip was passed to me by Absoft tech support. Absoft tech
support hadn't tried this, but it was suggested to them by another user):
800k MFS Diskette
1. Initialize an 800k diskette with the new system (3.1.1) under Finder 5.2.
2. Boot a system disk with the old system and Finder 4.1.
3. Eject the old system disk and insert the initialized 800k diskette in the 800k
internal drive.
4. Choose 'Erase' from the 'Special' menu of Finder 4.1.
5. Move the old system, Finder 4.1, MS Fortran, and all other files onto the 800k
MFS diskette, then reboot. You now have an 800k MFS system for use on a 512k
Mac with the rom upgrade or on a Mac+.
In addition to trying four different machine configurations, I also tried three
different types of programs. The first program was the Shell program presented in
MacTutor (Vol. 1 No. 12, November 1985). This program uses several toolbox
routines and has an event loop structure. The second program was an old Probit
regression program I transferred down from the mainframe. The code structure is
sequential from start to stop. The reason for picking this program was that the
program opens a data file on a disk using a hard-coded 'diskname:filename' in the
source, i.e.,
open(25,status="KEEP",file="Probit.Data")
[Note: The standard JCL used on mainframes to link a Fortran file number with a
physical device does not exist on the Mac. Instead, that association is done directly in the
Fortran code with an open statement. -Ed]
The third program was the Probit regression program modified to use the 'stdfil'
subroutine (see MacTutor Vol. 2 No. 2, Feb. 86) to get the data file name to open on the
disk, i.e.,
ok=stdfil(1,'',fname,1,'TEXT')
if (ok) then
open(25,status="KEEP",file=fname)
else
goto 13
endif
The reason for doing this was to check for the ability to run the resulting
compiled and linked application under MFS or HFS using the standard getfile and putfile
routines as used by 'stdfil', with the new ROMS!
As shown in Table 1, each combination of program and machine configuration is
tested for compiling/linking, running under MFS, and running under HFS. The
'running under HFS' category meant that the fully compiled and linked program was
moved over to an 800k HFS system and run under System 3.1.1 and Finder 5.2
As can be seen from Table 1, Version 2.1 will run under MFS, even on a Mac+ or