Jul 86 Mousehole
Volume Number: 2
Issue Number: 7
Column Tag: Mousehole Report
Mousehole Report 
By Rusty Hodge, Mousehole BBS
We're Back!
In case you didn't notice, we were gone last month so that we could play catch-up
with our period of down time to switch operating systems and software on MouseHole.
By the time you read this, we'll be running under ProDOS with the latest version
of the SnAPP Electronic Messaging System. In case you're not too familiar with the old
Apple //, the older operating system, DOS 3.3 is quite wimpy compared to ProDOS.
(ProDOS is quite similar to HFS on a low level. DOS 3.3 is akin to MFS running under
Finder 1.1g). So we're now faster and have more effecient storage.
Why don't we run MouseHole on a Mac you ask? A Mac is a terrible thing to
waste on running a BBS 24-hours a day. MH runs on an old Apple //+ in the utility
closet at our office. It has no monitor, just a Silentype printer (remember those?)
that spews forth reams of log information. Exciting, huh?
Onto the good stuff. There are rumors of the Cad-Mac floating around. According
to some, it has a 17 inch screen but the same pixel per inch density of the current Mac.
You can have several applications open at once in the size of normal Mac windows, with
plenty of left over room!
This month we have a lot of bugs and oddities to report. This is expected to go on
for a long while; I wonder if the whole (Mac) world will be moved to HFS by
Christmas?
The debate over the best terminal program goes on. Red Ryder is taking a lot of
abuse, but if it was really a bad program, no one would care enough to talk about it,
right?
-Rusty Hodge, Sys. Op.
Finder Quirks
From: Laser Dolphin
Finder 5.2 normally makes 400K disks MFS (non-hierarchical) volumes. Even
if you have formatted a 400K disk with the Option key down, thereby making it an HFS
volume, when you copy that volume in its entirety onto another 400K disk, the target
disk is a flat volume with "little pretend folders" instead of true subdirectories.
An undocumented feature of Finder 5.2 is that, if you hold down Option when
copying one 400K disk to another (by dragging the disk icon onto the other disk icon),
the target volume will become an HFS volume, regardless of whether it was formatted
that way in the first place.
From: MAC SCOTTY
In Finder 4.1 versions and later there is a resource called "LAYO". You can edit
that resource with the ResEdit and tell the Finder not use ZoomRects when opening and
closing windows or when launching programs. You can also tell it to have Icons always
align on the grid so you don't have to do a cleanup all the time to straighten things out.
You can also tell the finder not to ask you if it's OK to throw something in the trash or
not, I get tired of having to remember the option key down!!! Try this stuff!!!!!
Consulair news
From: DON
Just talked to Jay Friedland of Consulair Corp. this morning. For those of you
writing DAs in Mac C, there is good news. A linker option is coming that will create a
DRVR resource and header, and include a library of glue routines to the C open, close
and control functions. Until that time (probably early Summer, but I didn't get a firm
date) Consulair will continue to ship DeskMaker. However, they will also be shipping
my DA header and macro source, shown in the April issue of MacTutor, as an
alternative. They might also ship some other glue routines written by a few other
folks. I think they'll put this stuff on one of the examples disks, but I'm not sure. If
you're interested in a particular implementation of DA glue routines, now is the time
to write Consulair and tell them. But don't worry too much, whatever they finally wind
up using will be provided in source form for re-compilation.
For application programmers tired of writing all those glue routines for
packages and Pascal calls, Bill Duvall is working on the finishing touches of a library
which will cover ALL the functions now missing in Mac C. Bill is actually working from
a variation of the library compiled and written by the B.M.U.G developers group. I'll
be testing these new products, so I'll let you all know what's going on as soon as I can.
Warp Nine
From: ISOEMAC
The Warp Nine external 800k drive is professionally packaged and there was a
handwritten evaluation of the unit in the box. The Phaser 800K has all of the features
of Apple's drive and it comes with a manual eject button. I have run several tests
using both HFS and MFS and the drive works flawlessly. It is also extremely quiet. I
have found that this drive is one of the best MacValues around. They also offer a one
year warranty for $29.00 and a 30 day money back guarantee if not satisfied. If
anyone is interested, Warp Nine can be reached at 800-328-6795 ext 433.
MINIDINS
From: ROGER STEWART
The famous 8 pin Minidin connectors can be found at HB Associates (800)
423-3014.
ROM revisions (again, sigh)
From: STEVE BRECHER
At 400002, EE = Lonely Hearts (original) F4 = Lonely Hearse (rare) EA -
Lonely Heifer (final). Two bytes of code changed (between Hearts and Heifer --
hardly anyone has Hearse) seems too little to get worked up about. [Hmm, if it was
enough for Apple to pay the big $$ to make a mask change, it must have some
importance...-Ed.]
An Upgrade for us 'Lonely Hearts'?
From: HIGH ORDER BYTE
I heard a rumor that Apple was going to make an upgrade available for people
who have the older version of the ROM's. This is only rumor though. I can't see Apple
charging the consumer to fix their own goofs. That's why I don't think it will ever
happen. Wouldn't later versions of the System and/or Finder have patches to the ROM's
for any serious bugs?
Every time a new version of something comes out, I get warnings of it. Like
Systems 3.0. "It has bugs... use 3.1". Then I read Cserve and Apple condemns 3.1, and
says to use 3.1.1. Then, I hear 3.1.1 has problems like trashing system files. Then, I
hear that the 'NEW' Font/DA Mover 3.1 had problems too. [Aldus just sent a postcard to
all Pagemaker registered owners that says that 3.1.1 can trash Pagemaker files and
that Apple is working on it...-Ed.]
Is it safe to use ResEdit to cut and paste these DA's in? What's the deal with
Apple? I mean, G's. Makes me feel like going back and using Finder 1.1g and System
.97. (Well, not really)
ResEdit D11
From: JIM REEKES
Can someone explain what this means..... Hold down the Command-Shift-Option
keys and choose 'About ResEdit...' What does "PIG Mode On" mean? Do it again and it
makes "PIG Mode Off" PS, I wish I could claim discovery of this, but it was passed on to
me by 'The Lone Falcon'.
ResEdit 1.0D11 Easter Eggs
From: LASER DOLPHIN
Various interesting "features" of ResEdit 1.0D7 and 1.0D11: Pig Mode
Pig Mode by holding down Command-Option-Shift and selecting "About ResEdit">:
When Pig Mode is ON, a 512K Mac with new ROMs takes much longer to open resources,
and keeps the drive running "forever" when a resource has been opened. On a Mac+,
ResEdit with Pig Mode on simply will not open resources, giving an error dialog
instead. WHAT THE HELL IS PIG? Option-Command plus selecting "About ResEdit
gives an acknowledgement box instead of the standard About box. The standard About
box has a picture of a bullet in it. If you have used the Chooser DA to give your system
a name, that name appears in the case of the bullet. There's only enough room for
about four characters. Is Apple saying there's a bullet with your name on it? The
various About boxes are in ALRT resources 144, 145, and 146 in ResEdit 1.0D11.
Happy hacking!
Servant? What's Servant?
From: DON
How 'bout that Andy Hertzfield anyway? Remember a few months ago I told you
all about a new Multi-Mac like version of the Finder that Andy was working on? Well,
he's got a name for the thing now: Servant. According to my sources close to Mr.
Hertzfield and inside the big Apple, Servant is now about 40% complete. It pretty much
has all the Finder's functions plus it of course allows multiple applications to reside
in memory and on the desktop at the same time. It is also only about 30K! No kidding. It
requires at least a 1 meg of memory though. Last month (I think) Andy sold the
first-look-at-the-source rights to Sculley and Co. for a mere six figures. He retained
100% of the publishing rights to Servant. Apple has the ball now. Andy told a Bay area
users group that Apple plans to create a new Finder using Andy's ideas. If Apple does it
right, Andy won't interfere or complete Servant. He's unofficially giving Apple a month
to come up with something, but he says he thinks our friends in Cupertino are going to
screw it up. And if this too comes to pass, he's going to complete Servant by the end
of '86 and sell it for about $40. Expect freebie betas to appear by the end of July
though. Overall I'd say this is pretty good news.
The main problem between Apple and Andy seems to be that Andy has a much
grander view of what an operating enviroment for the Mac should be. When Servant is
complete, Andy feels it should also have a resource editor built right into it. Along with
some other features, which I'll mention in a bit, Andy says Servant will wind up at
about 70K. It eats a lot of memory though, about 100K for screen buffers alone.
Personally, I'm not losing sleep over lost RAM.
By the way, Servant is at minimum, 4 times faster than the present Finder.
Andy acomplishes this by not using the Resource Manager, and since he wrote most of it
I suppose he can get away with this. Since the Finder bogs down keeping track of too
many resource maps, Andy's Servant 'unwinds' all resource information into one
gigantic array for easy traversing. No, I'm not sure what this means either, but this is
how it was explained to me. Anyway, Servant is fast.
Servant will also have a dandy query function. With this you'll be able to search
and sort files quickly on huge HFS volumes.
Andy is also one-upping DAs by introducing 'Servant Tasks,' functions that can
execute in the background. This means downloading, print spooling and other stuff.
Andy may even do away with the 'Apple' menu altogether and place DAs as icons on the
desktop. It boggles the mind. I'll keep you posted on further developments.
Tecmar's TDISK
From: BEAKER
News from Tecmar: TDisk, Tecmar's SCSI hard disk for the Mac+, has been
"temporarily" suspended. Originally targeted for release 2/28, then 4/30, problems
finding a "reliable 3 1/2 drive" caused the delays. The reason for the suspension
wasn't told to me. Although I can't say much about it, there is an alternative product
that is receiving alot of attention at Tecmar. Let's say "it requires the MacServe
software to be really useful." (and I quote). It's big and fits in the OLD MacDrive
cabinet. Drives are half high, using a new controller, and the current large capacity
(can't say) can be doubled by putting another drive in the cabinet. Can't say any more.
You didn't hear it from me.
MELTDOWN!
From: PAUL HELLER
Got a Plus and ImageWriter 2 the other day ... about an hour after I got
everything set up, I was fooling with the Mac when I heard some spitting sounds coming
from the direction of the printer. I looked over to my left to see a really
Referenced by (2):