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Boost YOUR , GS’ POWER Make the Switch Q To System 6 INVESTIGATING HARD DRIVES reviews) Cc © Pointless © Macintosh LC Il © Secrets of Bharas © HyperStuff Collection © Bank Street Writer Mae 0°"74470'12066'"7' Lon Ng Z @ Business Management = inCider/A+ reviews a class act: The GS’ System 6 hits the big time with a souped-up Finder, new media controllers, simplified network access, performance-boosting desk accessories, and plenty of power tools for programmers and musicians. By CYNTHIA E. FIELD, Ph.! CONTRIBUTING EDITOR ometimes, it’s the little things that Ss: all the difference — like that extra hour of sunshine after you turn the clocks ahead, heralding the end of a long New England winter. Or, if you're a computer buff, any new prod- uct that saves you a few keystrokes, or a few minutes of precious productivity time here and there, may catch your eye. Take Apple’s new IIcs operating system, GS/OS 6.0, with its unique brand of clock control, for example. The first weekend in April probably found you grumbling through the house adjusting all your timepieces to play catchup with Daylight Savings. This year, though, if you had System 6, you didn’t have to bother booting up your machine and fiddling with your computer clock. All you had to do was remember to click on the Auto daylight savings check box in System 6’s new Time control panel some- time during the previous few weeks. (See Figure 1 for details.) Okay, so dealing with Daylight Savings Time isn’t a great dilemma. But this enhancement is just one of dozens of enticing new features that raise the level of convenience for GS users. Among other System 6 enhancements you'll enjoy are a performance-boosting Finder, restyled control panels, handy desk accessories, time- and money-saving s applications, and powerful program- mer’s tools. Probably no other software for the GS offers so much value. (See the accompanying sidebar, “On the Horizon,” for an in-depth look at System 6’s developer's tools.) So what's the catch? There is none. You can obtain a copy of System 6 for as little as $15 from authorized mail-order distributors such as those listed in the accompanying “Sources” box. Faster delivery requires a modem and a subscription to a computerized infor- mation service such as America Online, from which you can download System 6 for the cost of a phone call and some connect time. If you don’t own a modem or you don’t want to part with $15, any computer club that’s authorized by Apple to distribute System 6 can give you a copy gratis. (You may have to supply the half-dozen 3.5- inch disks to hold the new system soft- ware and its copious extras.) Apple’s own User Group Connection can put you in touch with organizations in your area. ‘ss i JUST DO IT Banish any misgivings you may have about installing System 6 — it couldn’t be easier. The system software's essential 4 Operator July 1992 « inCider/A+ © 35 — @ File Edit Windows View isk Special Color Extras Control Panels components still fit on a single 3.5-inch disk, and you can use the new system on a GS with only 1 megabyte of random- access memory. If you have a hard-disk drive and additional RAM, though, the extra room pays off when you want to = Hardt Day 107 of this veor. tiordDisk 253 das tl Chrigtaas. Onvmvw Oawen oS Swe O24 tour #97HW/00 2 gy (2) Standard Tine Lod @)Doylight Tine i Ee huto daylight savings 5 soup up your GS. Whatever your hardware configura- tion, start up your GS with the System 6 Install disk. Next, launch the Installer utility that’s included. Click on the Easy Update button. Then sit back while System 6 modernizes your start- up disk automatically. Installer prompts you to insert other Christm: Figure 1. Time control panel adjusts your GS' clock automatically to accommodate Daylight Savings Time. An faster egg” also tells you how many days there are until just click on the “days left in this year” area. System 6 disks — including System .Disk, SystemTools1, and SystemTools2 — as needed. Almost immediately, you'll be impressed by the software's smarts. For one thing, System 6 senses when you insert a requested 3.5-inch disk into a drive. No longer must you click on OK with the mouse or lift a finger to press the return key. And when you slip a blank disk into a drive while using a standard 16-bit GS program, System 6 responds by asking if you'd like to format the disk. Looking for even more convenience? To activate an array of file-system translators (FSTs), control panels (formerly called CDEVs, or Control Panel devices), desk accessories (DAs), and applications, just install the appropriate “scripts” by clicking on Installer’s Customize button. If you install the appropriate FSTs, for example, your GS will be able to read files stored on disks formatted with the Pascal operating system or with DOS 3.3, an original Apple II disk-operating system. Perhaps best of all, System 6 includes an HFS (hierarchical file structure) FST. Once installed, this capability lets your Apple Ics read, write, and even format Macintosh disks. SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT UNDER SYSTEM 6 hile some software developers may be taking imme- Ve advantage of System 6, the good news is that many others won't have to. System 6 for the Apple llcs, unlike the Macintosh's System 7, is a mostly transparent upgrade that won't cause compatibility problems or require vendors to rewrite software. System 6's HFS FST (hierarchical file structure file-system translator) is probably the most obvious transparent improve- ment: All your GS applications will find and read Mac files with- out even trying. Notes Roger Wagner, creator of the premier GS multimedia authoring system, “Both our Graphics Exchange and Hyper- Studio will benefit immediately from System 6. Apple lis users of Graphics Exchange will be able to interconvert all sorts of graphics between the GS and the Mac, even if they don't have Macs. In a classroom, students creating a stack with HyperStudio will be able to share text information with other students working on Macs.” “('m especially pleased that the Macintosh and DOS 3.3 FSTs were included,” comments Dave Hecker, vice president of research and development at Seven Hills Software, “so that we can import text, fonts, and graphics directly into Graphic- Writer Ill, Font Factory GS, and SuperConvert.” In addition, System 6's improved file loading and saving menus work without modification in all your programs, as do the new control panels and the Media Control desk accessory. | And System 6 opens up the GS to people with physical and visual disabilities, as well, thanks to its revamped Universal Access suite: CloseView, which magnifies the screen; Sticky Keys, which handles key combinations by letting you press Command, Shift, Option, and Control in sequence (instead of holding them down); MouseKeys, which duplicates mouse action via the numeric keypad; and Video Keyboard, which lets you use a mouse or an alternative input device to access a graphics depiction of a keyboard on screen. The bad news is that we've heard of only a couple of brand- new applications that: utilize some of the other enhanced powers of System 6. The application program that takes fullest advantage of System 6 immediately is Apple's own HyperCard Iles. (See “Tools of the HyperTrade," May 1992, p. 34, for details.) Version 1.1 contains several features ‘specific to the System 6 environment. (If you run it under System 5.0.4, these features won't be available.) For example, version 1.1 will now detect disk insertions and respond appro- priately at idle time. If the disk is unreadable, a dialog box will ask you whether you want to format it. The application now | won't drop out of the super-hi-res screen while launching, executing another GS/OS application, or quitting to the Finder. This latest edition of HyperCard for the GS also includes Finder “info” resources containing icon, version, and copyright data as well as document types and paths. And, of course, HyperCard's partnership with System 6 lets you format data disks on the fly, compose self-scripting musical tunes with the mouse, and | operate multimedia hardware devices, including the Apple Il | Video Overlay Card, CD-ROM drives, and laser-disc players. | Foundation, a resource editor from Lunar Productions, was 36 * inCider/A+ * July 1992 Among other files you'll want to add to your working system disk (space permit- ting) are the 23 large typefaces supplied on the fifth System 6 disk, Fonts. Ifbig bit- mapped GS fonts — such as Couri Helvetica.42, and Times.96, to name | few — are available, programs such as AppleWorks GS can generate improved- quality text on non-PostScript dot-matrix printers such as the ImageWriter II or ink- jet models such as the Apple StyleWriter, the driver for which is now included in System 6. According to the literature, the StyleWriter can generate text at a resolu- tion of 360 dpi (dots per inch). By contrast, mainstream laser printers support 300 dpi. GETTING TO KNOW YOU When you restart your computer after System 6 installation (and customization, if desired) you'll immediately notice some changes for the better in your GS’ File Edit Disk Special Color _fxtras ability. The Finder's new Windows menu lists the names of open volumes and Picture Talk Test el. urease Stock Windows =] t 7 ORTICLES — 7i ara i HW 106 TENS = iy (f LETTERS DATA B.SMO freepddisk ley fea) MatLonop se ey |G rid hs i 7NBused 6 a folders (Figure 2). You can make a window active by choosing it from the menu in lieu of click- ing on it the “old” way. In addition, a Stack Windows fea- Figure 2. Windows menu helps you negotiate a cluttered desktop more easily. Stack Windows command keeps all appearance and operation. For instance, the so-called “splash screen” (the cool-blue startup screen with thermometer) displays the system version — for the first time in GS history. An About the Finder option (pple menu) tracks memory usage and avail- ture prevents some windows from hiding behind others. Other window- dressing capabilities help neaten the crowded desktop. Choose a window, press the option key, pull down the Special menu, and select Clean Up. The Finder alpha- betizes the window's contents quickly as it aligns them along an invisible grid. A also written specifically for System 6. (A resource editor is a utility that lets you alter various aspects of an application's nesource fork, the area that defines the look and feel of icons, menus, windows, and so on.) Foundation should be of special interest to developers — but, like ResEdit for the Mac, it may also inspire a cult following among fanatic GS aficionados who want to make their machines unique. Foundation lets you edit as many as four resource files at a time, and features “intelli- gent" clipboard support for resources to simplify copying from one program to another: You can also write “scripts,” as with ResEdit on the Mac, to create a number of similar resources. Foundation's basic set of WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) editors includes Window/Control, Icon, Bundle, Sound, and Strings. A programmer's toolkit lets you create your own custom editors, as well. Foundation works in both 640 and 920 video modes, and has hooks in place for future expansion — Mac resource importation, for example. Other mini programs are also in the works. Adds Seven Hills’ Hecker, “Initially we'll be revising some existing software to take better advantage of System 6, yet still function with earlier systems. But in the future we expect to produce soft- ware written specifically for System 6 that will require it to operate. Actually we've already written one program that requires System 6: QuickLaunch, a Finder extension we're giving away free to celebrate the release of GS/OS 6.0.” Not only Finder extensions, but control panels (formerly Called Control Panel devices, or CDEVs) should also prove to be fertile ground for GS developers. Because the new Control Panel 2.0 software in System 6 is more compact, and because it no longer limits the number of control panels open ‘on the desktop or the width of a control panel, these utilities are no longer just for peripheral tasks. Look for larger, more powerful control panels that will do the kind of work that used to require a dedicated application. In fact, under System 6 each control panel is an application, which you run by double-clicking. You probably used System 6's new Installer 2.0 program to put the operating system into your GS — but you may not know that Apple has also published a Developer Version of Installer. It simplifies the rather complicated job of putting all resources, control panels, fonts, icons, and you-don’t-need- to-know-what-all-else into the proper folders. A programmer who puts the Developer Version of Installer 2.0 to work guar- antees that no user will be missing an icon or a font. Another great time saver for developers should be the Media Control suite, combining software tools and drivers for external devices such as videodisc players, plus the aforementioned control panel and desk accessory that give users control over all kinds of multimedia. No longer will every developer of a multi- media product have to “re-invent the wheel” for media control. The similarity of the Media Control toolset to its Mac counter- part, and the functional similarity of the Mac and GS versions of HyperCard, should inspire many developers of Mac multi- media products to make the easy switch to the GS. Perhaps System 6 offers the best of both worlds: It could keep the GS development community busy for months to come, but it’s comforting to know that thanks to GS/OS' comprehensive enhancements, your current programs won't really need to change a thing to still stay up to date. — Paul Statt, Senior Editor July 1992 * inCider/A+ + 37 Preferences dialog box (Special menu) lets you customize file information and icon coloring. A Preferences check- box option tells the GS to ignore 5.25- disk d upon startup. And for the first time on the GS, two Macintosh System 7 inch features — “tunnel- ing” and “reverse tunneling” — can with the mouse. also help reduce es Aww ef | 1 i J 1 ih 1 Figure 3. SynthLab music creation/editing application works with new MIDI control panel and MIDI Synth toolset. Wave- List Edit page (click on middle button on first SynthLab screen after title) includes piano keyboard you can play window clutter by let- (/@& File Edit indows View Bisk Special Color fxtras ting you open and close folders along a path When it’s time to shut down (or simply regroup), you can selectively. close all open win- dows by option-click- ing on a close box. The new Finder supports a host of other time-saving keyboard commands, as well. For speedy \ Calculator — On a wa Boon OG Dege ao a | HG [Seo fftex) desktop manage- ment, for example, press the command (open apple) key while you click on the title bar of an active window. A pop-up menu appears listing the sequence of open folders that includes the currently active window. At-your-service convenience is a pre- eminent feature of System 6 — and the SetStart control panel just one more example that’s especially valuable if you use a particular application extensively. When your GS boots, SetStart proceeds without hesitation to the desired program. ‘To return to the Finder, quit the application as you usually do — pressing Command-Q or choosing Quit from the File menu. Individual conveniences such as these can save a lot of time, but System 6 is also inherently faster than previous versions of the operating system. A quick look at inCider/A+’s benchmark test results is proof, (See the accompanying Table.) For 9B * inCider/A+ + July 1992 Figure 4. System 6 puts a colorful four-function calculator desk accessory at your fingertips. Click on zoom box for hexadecimal conversions. example, the time elapsed between start- up and the appearance of the Finder screen shows an eight-second difference between System 6 and System 5.0.4. THAT’S ENTERTAINMENT ‘Thanks to System 6's Media Control suite you can operate multimedia hard- ware devices such as laserdisc players and CD-ROM drives from the comfort of your GS. The Media Control DA (which works like a universal remote control), control panel, toolset, and stack (included with HyperCard Ics 1.1) make for a powerful collection of tools for multimedia devel- opel and classroom teachers alike. omputer hobbyists and gadgeteers, Adding sound effects to your GS easier than ever before with the new Sound control panel. This nifty System 6 enhancement lets you assign sound effects such as Doorbell, Frog, and Sosumi to the System Beep and 22 other “events.” Start up the Finder with a trumpet voluntary. when you insert a disk — and the hsoohW sound play when you eject one. Clicking on a special check box in the Sound control panel makes the sci border flash whenever This visual indicator is handy not only for hearing-impaired users, but for those of us who like to fiddle with the GS in the wee t pla library. Just reduce the GS’ volume — a Make the Whoosh sound pl en. sound effect such as the school hours or in q tug on the volume slider in the Sound control panel does the trick. Still another System 6 control panel is the MIDI (musical-instrument digital inter- face) program that helps both amateur and professional musicians configure and use MIDI keyboards and other instruments with the . Team up the MIDI control panel with the MIDI Synth toolset and the impressive SynthLab application (provided on the sixth System 6 disk) and you can compose, record, edit, and play GS music to beat the band (Figure 3). SynthLab supports eight audio chan- nels and includes ready. sounds (some traditional, some electronic) as well as a handful of iliar musical selections for your listening pleasure. Just click on SynthLab's Play button — it looks a lot like a pushbutton on a stereo. Whether or not you plan to use Synth- Lab's music-edi design features, you can have fun using made instrument ng and instrument- the mouse to tickle the ivories on the program's graphics piano. The user's guide is stored in the Reference file on the SynthLab disk. PRODUCTIVITY BOOSTERS Printing the SynthLab manual — or milar ReadMe files that accompany other applications — is a snap thanks to Teach, a mini word-processing program included em 6 treasure trove. Besides in your Sy reading, printing, and saving text files, Teach can import files from AppleWorks 3.0, AppleWorks GS, and MacWrite 5.0 if you have the Mac HFS FST installed. ‘Although Teach supports GS fonts in the customary sizes and styles and offers find/replace options, this handy note — maker doesn’t feature formatting rulers or a spell checker. Archiver, a third application provided free with System 6, backs up and restores important files in compressed format on floppy disks or on Apple Tape Drive cassettes. If you have a hard-disk drive and you're not backing up your data regularly, you're playing with fire. Suffice it to say that Archiver is an economical alternative to costlier backup utilities. System 6 also includes a special produc- tivity booster, EasyMount, for AppleTalk users — still another feature borrowed from the Mac’s System 7, EasyMount lets you create aliases — duplicate icons — of your network's file-server volumes on your GS’ Finder, thus automating network access by eliminating several steps in the log-on process. (For details, see “Round 6,” this month's Bridging the Gap, p. 18.) Among System 6’s handy new desk accessories is a colorful four-function calculator— just click on its keys with the mouse (Figure 4). Click on its zoom box, and the calculator widens to accommo- date hexadecimal/decimal conversions. The Find File DA, also included with System 6, is well named. It can locate a document, drawing, or database on a big, stuffed hard drive faster than you can say, “Where the heck . . . ?” Keeping DAs well organized is a System 6 talent, too. A new check-box option in the General control panel alphabetizes them for you. A collection of Universal Access enhance- ments for the GS mimics a similar set of func- tions available on the Mac. Visually impaired users can install the CloseView DA to magnify the GS screen. MouseKeys lets disabled users duplicate mouse actions with the keys on the GS’ numeric keypad. Invoke Sticky Keys and any GS user (earlier incar- nations excluded ROM 01 users from this function) can press modifier keys such as Command, Control, and Option in sequence instead of simultaneously, The Video Key- board DA lets you “type” characters with- out ever touching the physical keyboard. Instead, use the mouse or an alternative input device to press the keys on a graphics keyboard appearing on screen. RUN, DON’T WALK Want to learn more? The System 6 Tips and Shortcuts file (included on the Start up GS to Finder Start up GS, launch HyperCard lics 1.1 automatically via SetStart Close three nested windows by clicking on each close box in sequence Table. Speed tests: System 6 versus System 5.0.4 (all times in seconds; n/a = not applicable). Unaccelerated 4MB ROM 01 Apple Ics connected to SCSI hard drive with Appl High-Speed SCSI Card. All tests repeated three times using ‘stopwatch; results rounded to nearest second. SystemTools disk) provides additional information. In addition, the Finder offers on-line help describing eight impor- tant new functions, including “Pop-up: Window Titles” and “Moving Inactive Windows.” An “Odds & Ends, Hints & Tips” selection contains still more infor- mation. A second document file on the SystemTools2 disk lists dozens of people who helped bring System 6 to fruition. Among them is a programmer named Greg Branche, who updated AppleBowl, a hi-res-graphics bowling game included in a Goodies folder on the Fonts disk. GS users who are comfortable with the “Columbus” approach to personal com- puting may find these electronic resources adequate for discovering System 6’s innumerable new fea- tures — and Easter eggs (surprises). But if you're as manual dependent as I am, consider purchasing the System 6.0 User's Reference when you acquire the software. Resource Central sells the disk/manual package for $39; oth- er sources may offer a similar bundle. For more information, be sure to call Apple's Customer Assis- tance Center. Whether adjusting the clocks twice a year messes with your biorhythm or gives you a head start on a brand-new season, you should run, not walk, to your phone and order (or download) GS/OS 6.0 today. An abundant assortment of new Finder tricks, pop-up DAs, fonts, control panels, device drivers, speedy processing enhancements, and freebie applications make System 6 a “best buy” for any GS user. You may not need that Auto daylight savings feature that gave me such a kick, but you'll have the time of your life customizing your GS the 6.0 way. O Write TO CONTRIBUTING Eprror CyNTHIA E. Fieip AT 60 BorDER Drive, WAKEFIELD, RI 02879. ENCLOSE A SELF-ADDRESSED, STAMPED ENVELOPE IF YOU'D LIKE A PERSONAL REPLY. SOURCES America Online GEnie Quality Computers 8619 Westwood GE Information Services 20200 Nine Mile Road Center Orive 401 North Washington St. ‘St. Clair Shores, Mi 48080, Vienna, VA 22182 Rockville, MD 20850 (800) 443-6697 (800) 827-6364 (800) 638-9636 (313) 774-7200 (818) 774-2698 fax Apple Computer, Inc. LRO Computer Sales $29.95 GS/OS 6.0 20525 Mariani Ave. 665 West Jackson St. Cupertino, CA 95014 Woodstock, IL 60098 Resource Central (408) 996-1010 (800) 869-9152 RO. Box 11250 (800) 538-9696 x500 (615) 338-8746 Overland Park, KS 66207 User Group Connection tech support (913) 469-6502 (800) 776-2333 (615) 338-8658 (813) 468-6507 fax Customer Assistance international $24 GS/OS 6.0 (815) 338-4332 fax with Developer Red Computer Club $39 GS/OS 6.0 Release Notes disk 423 Norfolk Ave. $15 A2-Central disk Norfolk, NE 68701 National ‘subscriber price GS/OS 6.0, (402) 379-4680 Users Group no DRN $15 GS/Os 6.0 Box 87453 $39 GS/OS 6.0 Canton, Mi 48187 with System 6.0 CompuServe (313) 454-1115, User's Reference manual RO. Box 20212 (313) 454-1965 fex Columbus, OH 43220 (615) 359-8238 BBS (800) 848-8199 $25 + $2 shipping GS/OS 6.0 July 1992 » inCider/A+ » 39