May 87 Mousehole
Volume Number: 3
Issue Number: 5
Column Tag: Mousehole Report
Mousehole Report 
By Rusty Hodge, Mousehole BBS
Fax communication
From: Mysteray #432
Some months ago there was some stuff here about making the Mac into a FAX
machine. For those interested (in what a slotted machine can do), the current issue of
EDN has a special article on FAX cards designed for the ibm-pc [intentional lc]. They
seem to be around $1000. They offer special compression techniques and error
correction. There is even a product that can allow simultaneous editing by parties on
both ends, with the resultant graphical output file identical on both ends. Very
interesting reading for anyone interested in communications & graphics.
Might we see similar products for the Mac II within the next 9-12 months? I
would noy bet against it, for sure. Now WE can begin to flex our muscles and move into
the slotted world.
Finder bug
From: Mysteray #432
I just found a strange bug in Finder 5.3 that may provoke thought...
1. I grouped three files from my Ram Disk (Ram Start 1.21). These were small
MacDraw & MacWrite docs.
2. I dragged these to a floppy disk icon, my target.
3. A dialog box came up, approx: "not enuf memory to do copy; ungroup and drag
one-by-one
4. I did just that, but 2 (of 3) reportedly were already copied, but I clicked to
replace anyway, feeling suspicious. The 3rd reportedly couldn't be copied because
it was "locked or in use" (but in fact wasn't). (Too bad I didn't have a zap DA in
the system this time.) Also: the finder reported that the copies were of the right
size.
5. I ejected my target disk (by dragging the disk icon into trash). Then I
re-inserted it. IT CAME BACK WITHOUT THOSE NEW FILES. And the one still in
Ram Disk now was no longer "locked or in use".
6. I then dragged 'em individually, with no problems.
I'm now going to upgrade to the new Bloating-Trashcan Finder in hopes that
strange things like this have been fixed. (And maybe other strange bombs too.) [This
sounds very much like a RAM disk problem and not a Finder problem. -Ed]
What: Forth
From: Tim Hewitt #150
I am a Forth programmer, converting to C for my new job, but a Forth
programmer at heart. On the Mac, there is really only one Forth, and that is MacForth
Plus. It is a very mature, almost bug free product with tremendous developer support
and a terrific track record. The folks at PAS have done a very good job with Mach 2,
but it has yet to produce a completed serious Mac application, and it is still a product
in infancy.
A partial list of products developed in MacForth includes, Back to Basic
Accounting, Chipwitts, MacGDS (professional CAD), Easy 3D, Pro-3D, Total Music,
StudioMac, Digibase, PosteHaste, Mac Lion, MARS 2, Pro-Mac. All of these are off the
top of my head.
The support mechanism CSI has set up on Compuserve is superb, and the
development environment MacForth Plus presents to the programmer rivals anything
available for any micro. I have been working in MacForth for almost three years, and
really feel like I am stepping back into the stone age programming in LightSpeed C. I
abandoned Mach 2 after not being able to successfully compile and run a major
application, in an very immature environment.
What: Upgrade Paths
From: Zenomorph #353
I've been inside both new Macintoshs. There is no way in heaven you can expect
an upgrade to Macintosh SE from Apple. The SE is a total rewrite of everything in the
plus, new Logic board, new case, new spaceframe, new power supply, and new front
cover.
The one suggestion I can make is to pay off your Macintosh and use it or sell it
cheap (why cheap? beacuse everybody knows computers don't retain one 1/5 of their
value after two years!) and wait until next march to buy a new Macintosh. The prices
will have dropped and they will have lots of new software justifing a purchase. I'm
sorry if you didn't want to hear this but look at the facts.
What: SE Surprise
From: Scott Winders #465
If you have a Macintosh SE, hit your interupt switch and type in the following: G
41D89A. Sit back and watch the show! And you wanted to know what they did with that
extra ROM space...
What: FullWrite Pro Beta...
From: Jon Magill #382
FullWrite Professional just gave a demo last Friday and said that they would be
sending out Beta's to test sites by the end of the month. They also indicated that the
product would be shipping in 60 to 90 days. It is one of the hottest s/w products I have
seen. My notes from the demo include things that impressed me like: side bars, change
bars, dynamic references, linkable renumbering documents, auto indexes and tables of
contents, find window has its own menus, strikeouts, of course flow around irregular
objects, own drawing environment, mixed size multi columns on one page, tiled
windows with linked updates between them, sophisticated searches and replacements,
lots of other goodies and all very simple to use and Mac-like (unlike that other word
processor from Microsoft) no they didn't replace the mouse with keys on this package.
Price will still be $295.
What:Disk Interleaving on new Mac's
From: Zenomorph #353
Well gang I went out yesterday and sat down in front of a Mac Plus, SE, II and I
tried formatting a disk on each of the new machines. I then placed the disk into the
Plus's disk drive. I booted the Plus and opened Word 1.05 Remember I formatted this
800k disk on a Mac II with a 1 to 1 sector interleaf. The boot difference was no more
than 10 percent. Word 1.05 opened up in 24 seconds without the cache on.
I reformatted the same disk on the Macintosh Plus and then placed it into the Mac
II after moving Word 1.05 to the disk. Word 1.05 opened up in 14 seconds. My
conclusion is that the Interleaf variation between machines is not a problem.
What: TurboMax
From: Max #406
Just received a "pre-release" version of Mac Memory's TurboMax upgrade for
the Mac Plus and 512e. Includes a separate board, with a 68000, 2-megs of RAM, a
16 Mhz clock, and a 68881 co-processor. Features a separate power supply, a fan, a
high-speed SCSI port, will accept a 40-meg internal hard drive, has an output for a
(future) big screen card, and will expand to 4-megs.
The speed increase is AMAZING... and no software incompatibility (MS Works, MS
Excel, MS Word 3.0, Jazz, SuperPaint, RedRyder 10.0, MacDraft 1.2a). Thus far,
it's running fine under System 4.0/Finder 5.4. I will soon run bench-tests against a
stock Mac Plus, and a Levco Prodigy-4 enhanced Mac. This might be a really good
product: Retail price (without 68881 and internal hard drive) is only
$1300+install.
Anybody else out there running a similar pre-release test for Mac Memory? I'd
be interested in any feedback (E-mail or whatever) anyone has on this piece.
What: Mc Face
From: Blacksmith #540
Dan Kampmeier (the developer of Mc Face) is probably the most helpful and
accessable (developer) I have had a chance to speak to.
About Mc Face. This is really a nice piece of code. Basically it provides a very
credable Macintosh interface without forcing the Fortran programmer to learn any of
the toolbox calls. No fun if you are a dedicated Mac Hacker but great if you just want to
get your Fortran stuff working quickly on the Mac. If you have your heart set on
getting into the toolbox he will sell you the source code for a reasonable price. If you
are writing Fortran on the Mac I think this is a steal!
What: System 4.0
From: Rick Boarman #377
I've been using System 4.0 since mid Feb with no problems whatsoever. I have
it on a Mac+ with a ProApp 40S and on a MacXL. Word 3.0 runs fine along with every
other application I've tried. I would suggest that anyone who likes the features of the
new System/Finder combination to go ahead and use it. Just be sure to have some
backups around.
From: Kerry #102
We have been running Finder 5.4 and System 4.0 for awhile now. If something is
going to bomb it will bomb on our system. We have 4 Macs and an IBM running TOPS,
Intermail, SuperLaserSpool, usually a Network game each day, every Mac has a
different hardware configuration (i.e. RAM, hard drives, etc.). The new system works
fine for us except for running NetTrek from a hard drive. We have to boot up a floppy
(we use the new system) and run NetTrek from a disk.
From: Jim Reekes #583
On a Mac+ it loads mucho data into the system heap. If you're gonna run a
program that hogs memory, then you're in trouble. Boot up w/4.0 and run Omnis III+,
a spectacular bomb. The universal installer scripts are not ready yet. If anyone is
running an AppleTalk net, then every Mac must run the same system version. If you're
using Switcher, or similar util, don't use 4.0 on your Mac+. Generally, if you have a
SE, or are using 4.0, your a beta tester. [Maybe but I've used Omnis III+ with 4.0
without any problems. I think your being a little pesimistic. -Ed]
From: Mark Chally #561
I've been using 4.0 on my Jasmine for a couple weeks now, and on an HD20 for a
couple days before that...it works without a hitch. (my copy was the Jan 15 version).
I think it's great.
On interleaving...my Jasmine is set up at 2-to-1...so is a friends. The earlier
software he had was for 3-to-1...neither one seems to have any problems...oh, by the
way, the Jasmine is REAL fast--hard to beleive they're using a Seagate 225 (ick) in
there--I get 106, 107, and 36 on DiskTimer II..that's about 250kb/sec read/write
and 45ms seek over 1mb!
MPW Pascal & Macintalk
From: Jaff #314
MPW Pascal seems to have omitted interface and objects for the talking Mac.
Anyone have a solution? I built an interface file, tried to convert my TML Speech.rel,
but no success in linking. Help!
From: Cpettus #484
APDA sells a new(er) version of the MacInTalk Development package which
includes MPW bindings for the driver. It ISN'T perfect (with MPW 1.0, it required a
bit of editing before it would compile correctly), but it works when twiddled with...
MPW Help
From: Power Hopeful #323
I need some expert advice... I can't seem to get the exact syntax of an IMPORT
statement in MPW assembler.
I want to import either a specific template definition, or a module containing
many RECORD templates. I'd be most appreciative of anyone's time in helping!
From: Jim Reekes #583
PH, try this in the main file:
TheRecord RECORD EXPORT
field1 DS
field2 DS
ENDR
and then this in the seperate file:
TheRecord RECORD IMPORT
field1 DS
field2 DS
ENDR
But, don't use the '0' after the record statement unless you really know what it
means. Templates cannot be IMPORTed, you should make a file of template definitions
and then include it at assembly time. If you use the '0', then that record is really a list
of offsets based on the location counter. No data structures will be generated. If you
use the EXPORT option, then data will be generated. So data structures can be
EXPORTED to other files, but templates cannot.