Text content (OCR)
Open-Apple
Releasing the power to everyone.
Mainframe genie at your service
Those of you who have been subscribing to Open-Apple for awhile probably
remember the cartoon in our June 1986 issue, in which a fearsome looking JIc
genie is saying to a shaking human at the keyboard, “Yes, Master?" It’s always
been one of my favorites.
. _ Christmas morning (I know it’s strange to talk about Christmas in the Febru-
ary issue, but the January issue was already printed by Christmas morning, so I
couldn’t possibly tell you this story in it) the kids woke Kathy and me up and we
crept downstairs together. It got kind of steamy about half way down; by the
time we got to the Christmas tree it was obvious that someone besides Santa
had been there. | went to the fireplace and reached for my stocking, As I
touched it, there was a loud humming sound, like a modem pushing 2400
baud. Suddenly smoke was everywhere. Carolers were at our door singing out
passwords. A booming voice shook the house with, “Tom, let’s form a strategic
alliance.” | was sore afraid. It was the mainframe genie.
From a pocket deep within his flowing robes he pulled out a dipping from
the November 30th infoWorld and asked me to read it. I started to say that
Steve Gibson’s column was the only thing in InfoWorld worth reading, but
thought better of it. The clipping said that Apple was planning an on-line com-
munication network for Apple users. The network would be managed by a com-
pany called Quantum Computer Systems, which has a similar product for Com-
modore users. Quantum would operate Apple’s service, the clipping sald, which
would be sold under Apple’s logo. The new network would offer technical sup-
port from Apple itself. Subscribers would use Quantum’s own communications
software to access the service.
“Sounds great,” | said. “All the ll-family genies will be able to get together on
line and release the power to everyone.”
But as we talked, | could tell that this mainframe genie wasn't happy. The
smoke started to settle and his robes slowly became translucent. Through them
I could see a three-piece suit. Then it dawned on me. This wasn’t just any main-
frame genie, this was GEnie, the online network operated by General Electric.
GEnie had lost its Apple II manager to Quantum and wanted Open-Apple to
take his place. “No,” | said, “I don’t have time.”
“We'll pay you royalties,” the GEnie said. “They're not enough,” I responded
and negotiations were open. We wrestled. Mainframe genies are strong, but not
overpowering, | fired up AppleWorks and attacked him with memos and spread-
sheets. “I know how to deal with these suils,” I thought to myself.
The GEnie was about to raise its onetime sign-up fee for new users to
$29.95 from $18. | demanded no sign-up fees at all for paid Open-Apple sub-
scribers. “I'll do it,” the GEnie said, “but no free time and no free manuals’ (the
$29.95 includes a manual and two hours of free time).
[already liked the basic rate for connect time on GEnie; $5 per hour for non-
prime access (evenings after 6, mornings before 8, weekends and holidays) at
either 300 or 1200 baud; $12.50 per hour for 2400 baud. More importantly,
there are no minimum monthly charges. None of the major national networks
has lower rates; most are higher. GEnie can be accessed with a local telephone
call from almost 500 cities in the U.S. and four in Canada. “What about our
international subscribers?” | asked. “I'm a multinational company,” GEnie
responded, “expanding around the world.”
Self-actualization was starting to set in. Like the other national networks,
Genie offers news, shopping, airline schedules and fares, financial information,
and electronic mail. And, like the other national networks, the most popular
part of GEnie is its bulletin boards and libraries devoted to computers. On
QEnie these areas are called Roundtables. There are two active Apple I
Roundtables on GEnie-a general one and a second one for programmers and
February 1988
Vol. 4, No. 1
ISSN 0885-4017
newstand price: $2.00
photocopy charge per page: $0.15
developers.
Each Roundtable has its own bulletin board, conference rooms, and library.
The bulletin boards are organized into “categories,” the categories into “topics.”
Unlike other systems, a user’s message isn’t deleted after a few days, but stays
‘on until the area manager deletes it. Thus, the bulletin board consists of a large
number of “threads,” each on a specific topic, with tips, questions, and answers
going back, in some cases, two years or more. As negotiations progressed, {
started to think about editing these threads so that the older information in
them-was all solid, while the newer information toward the bottom of the thread
would contain today's questions and more tentative answers. ! could imagine
hundreds of Apple II users working together to release the power, each in his or
her own areas of interest. Then | realized | was imagining an issue of Open-
Apple that had come alive.
The conference rooms in each Roundtable can be used for online meetings.
A good example of the power of conferences is the Binary 1I file format for mak-
ing Apple 1 communications easier (see “Sending files by carrier bunny,” April
1987, page 3.17). Gary Little used the conferencing feature of one of the
national networks to discuss Binary II with other Apple II users interested in
communications protocols. These discussions led to improvements in his pro-
posed format and to its rapid acceptance in the Apple I! community once it was
finalized.
The libraries in each Roundtable hold public domain software and text arti-
cles, as well as many shareware programs that can be examined in the comfort
of one’s own home and purchased by sending the author the necessary fees.
Pictures and sounds also make up a portion of the Apple I! libraries.
As we wrestled, | was never able to persuade the GEnie into paying royalties
at a level high enough that I could hire a professional to manage the day-to-day
operations of the Apple Il Roundtables-even if the professional I hired got every
penny. But financial considerations have never been very high on the list of pni-
orities around here, and the potential of a GEnie/Open-Apple alliance for
releasing the power of the Apple II eventually overcame me and | signed on the
dotted line.
4.2 Open-Apple
It will be a few weeks yet before this alliance is settled and organized. ['m
still learning how to use GEnie’s system. I've been to an introductory confer-
ence in the Apple II area where the GEnie regulars (many of them already
Open-Apple subscribers) threw electronic pies at me. The procedure for
Open-Apple subscribers getting free accounts isn’t settled yet, but it will
involve calling a GEnie 800-number with your modem and providing your name
and credit card number for billing purposes. Stay tuned.
Starting with this issue, Opex-Apple will carry bits of information about the
software available in GEnie’s Apple Il libraries, news about upcoming confer-
ences, and tips and tricks gleaned from its bulletin boards.
If you're a GEnie user already, you can start sending mail to me (UNCLE-DOS)
and to Dennis (OPEN-APPLE) right now. See you online.
Miscellanea
Claris changed from egg to chick in mid-January. I've given Claris a
mighty hard time the last few months, but we have to live with Claris now, so
{'m declaring a unilateral cease-fire.
Claris started shipping a “slightly revised” version of AppleWorks in mid-Jan-
uary. The only revision I can detect from talking to them over the phone is that
they changed the disk label. They're calling it AppleWorks version 2.0. This in
itself is pretty special; you might remember that when Claris was announced,
Apple said Claris wouldn’t be allowed to use Apple trademarks.
To its credit, much of the Claris’s early efforts appear to be going into cus-
tomer service. It says it intends to provide customer support, which will be
quite a change from how Apple itself handled AppleWorks. The Claris version of
AppleWorks witl retail for $249. Upgrades from earlier versions of AppleWorks
are $75. For more information on the upgrade, call 800-544-8554 (8:30-5:30 M-
P Pacific time} and ask for an AppleWorks upgrade packet. They'll mail it to you;
use it to mail your check and original disk (as proof of purchase) back to them.
If you already have AppleWorks 2.0, save your money until we find out if
there are any real changes here. If you have an earlier version of AppleWorks,
this is your chance to get the latest. According to the Claris representative |
talked to on the phone, the upgrade can be made from any prior version of
AppleWorks. Availability of the upgrade expires September 30, 1988,
According to the Wall Street Journal (January 11, 1988, page 5) the upgrade
program “is not merely to win customer goodwill. When Apple itself handled the
marketing and support chores for the programs, it didn’t bother to keep
relurned warranty cards from software customers, much less lists of their
names. Claris’s discounted upgrade ‘will help us identify those customers,’ sald
Mr. Zeisler (John Zeisler, vice president of marketing}, who contends that suc-
cessful software companies cultivale repeat customers. ‘We really wish we knew
their names already.’”
Maybe Zeisler would like all of us who aren’t going to buy the AppleWorks
upgrade to send him our names (along with our wish lists of what we'd like to
see in future AppleWorks versions). If you do write to him, remind him that
about 80 per cent of his revenue is coming from Apple Il programs and about
90 per cent of his development dollars are going into Macintosh programs.
Then tell him what you think about that. His address is:
Jobn Zeisler
Claris Corp.
440 Clyde Ave.
Mountain View, CA 94043
If you'd rather just call and leave a message, the corporate phone number is
415-960-1500.
Time stopped for ProDOS 1.1.1 and earlier incarnations of ProDOS on Jan-
uary 1 of this year. Clay Ruth warned’us this was going to happen way back in
October 1985 (’Time short for ProDOS,” page 1.79). Sorry I forgot to re-men-
tion it a couple of months ago.
ProDOS 1.1.1 and earlier versions were designed to work with a clock card
(the Thunderclock) that didn’t keep track of what year it was. To compensate
for this, the clock routines in ProDOS 1.1.1 figure out what year it is by match-
ing the day-of-the-week with the date. It’s all very complicated, but it works....for
seven years. Then it doesn’t.
Since ProDOS 1.1.1 won't read the clock in the IIgs anyhow, if you have a
ligs the point is moot. If you have any other Apple without a clock in it-same
result. If you do have a clock in any other Apple Il, however, you'll notice that
all the files you've changed since the first of the year now have a last modifica-
tion date of 1982. If you try to use AppleWorks, you'll find that it won't even
accept 1982 when you try to get past the startup date-prompt. (One wonders
whether Claris updated the version of ProDOS on its new AppleWorks disks-
Apple’s last AppleWorks 2.0 disks still had ProDO$ 1.1.1 on them.)
Vol. 4, No. ¥
The best solution is to get ProDOS 1.4 from your dealer or from a friend who
has a ligs. On the figs system disk, ProDOS 1.4 is in a file in the SYSTEM folder
and is called P8, You need to rename it PRODOS and copy it into the root direc-
tory of all the disks you boot with. While you’re at it, you might as well get the
latest ProDOS system utilities, too. They're in a folder called SYS,UTILS on the
figs system disk and will work on any 64K Apple that can display 80-column
text.
ProDOS 1.4 solves the track 0 crash bug we:discussed at Jength in November
1986 {see “ProDOS bug found in Australia,” page 2.73) and Is the version we
now recommend using. We do not recommend either ProDOS 1.2 or ProDOS
1.3-both have bugs relating to the use of two 5.25 drives, among other things.
Incidentally, the track 0 bug described in November 1986 was always confined
to 5.25 inch disks, That bug has nothing to do with any 3.5 disk, hard disk, or
RAMdisk problem you may experience.
If you don’t have ready access to ProDOS 1.4, another alternative is to patch
ProDOS 1.1.1 as described in Ruth’s letter back in 1985. A public domain pro-
gram by Glen Bredon that installs a similar patch is in file #5047 in the GEnie
Apple Il library. These patches only work till 1992, however.
We've finally had time to start digesting the Beagle Bros Timeout appli-
cations around here. They're all good. Uitramacros is incredible. But Quick-
spell is a work of true genius. What makes Quickspell so great is its interface.
You prepare your document within AppleWorks. You press open-apple escape to
bring up the Timeout menu and scroll to and select Quickspell. It immediately
checks through an internal dictionary of most-used words, your personal cus-
tom dictionary, and an 80,000-word Random House Concise dictionary. Then it
lists on the screen all the words in your document that it couldn’t find in any of
the dictionaries. You can scroll through this list and select all the words you
want to ignore. Then you can scroll through it and select all the words you want
to add to your custom dictionary. You can also choose to replace misspelled
words in the list. The cursor point-and-select interface is at its finest in Quick-
spell.
(The Macintosh interface supports a similar system, but you have to use the
mouse button to both scroll the list and to select individual items. In the Apple
Il interface, the up and down arrows make the cursor scroll and the right and
left arrows select or deselect items. You can also select a single item with
Return, On the Apple Il, it is very easy to control the speed at which the list
scrolls and to select individual items. On the Macintosh, the list scrolls too
rapidly to stop exactly where you want and using the mouse button for two dif-
ferent functions causes lots of extra hand movement. Don’t expect to read
about this in Apple's Human interface Guidelines, however.)
At any lime, Quickspell also lels you look at your misspelled words in con-
text, in which case you see the whole AppleWorks screen with a small Quick-
spell menu at the bottom, From the in-context display, you can once again
choose to replace a word, ignore it, or add it to the custom dictionary. But from
this screen you can also request a suggested spelling. Quickspelf will then dis-
play a list of words spelled similarly to the one you have misspelled. Again, you
can scroll through this list and pick out the spelling you want with a simple
Return,
Quickspell can be set up so that it checks only a single word or screen
Tather than a whole document. It also checks for double words.
The two big problems I've always had with spelling checkers is the amount of
time they typically take to use and the large number of correctly spelled “mis-
spelled” works they find. Quickspell’s three-dictionary speed, the ease with
which you can deal with multiple words at one time, and the ease with which
you can add words to the custom dictionary solve all these problems. I love this
program. | now find myself spell-checking not only Open-Apple, but even the
simplest, shortest messages. (Timeout Quickspell, $69.95, Beagle Bros, 6215
Ferris Square, San Diego, CA 92121 619-452-5500.)
Updates for other programs in the Timeout series all require that you send in
your original disks as proof of purchase, a $2.50 handling charge, and...for
AutoWorks, MacroWorks, ot SuperMacroworks to UltraMacros-$20; for
SideSpread, SuperFonts, or the both of them to FontWorks-$10, $20, or $30,
respectively,
Turning Point Software now has an upgrade for Time Is Money that
allows it to work on an Apple fIgs. Back in August {’Cheap accounting,” page
3.51) | promised a review of accounting programs, but | haven't gotten very far
on that project. We have tried Manzanita’s BusinessWorks, but stopped looking
at it when we discovered it throws away all your transactions every month and
just keeps account totals. This is how professional accountants do it, | quess,
but a seat-of-the-pants operation like Open-Apple needs a little more Nexibi
than that, | also bought DAC Easy Accounting, but it was so slow once we got it
set up that nobody around here would use it. So we're still using Time Is
Money ourselves. For more on this program, see the last paragraph of my
February 1988
response to “The Sider and Software” in September 1985, page 70. (Upgrade
$15, program $100, Turning Point Software, 250 Western Ave, Boston, MA
02134 617-782-4877).
‘One of the least understood selections in the Apple llgs control panel
is the very first one-the “display type,” for which there are two choices, color
and monochrome. The user manual’s advice, which is essentially to use the
“color’ selection if you have a color monitor and the “monochrome” selection if
you have a monochrome monitor, is simplistic.
The manual doesn’t mention it, but this selection does totally different things
depending on whether your monitor is connected to the 15-pin RGB video out-
put or the round “RCA-type” composite output. The composite output is what
other Apple IIs use. On the Ilgs, this output does exactly what it does on other
Ils when the Ilgs “display type" is set to “color.”
When “display type” is sel to “monochrome,” on the other hand, all color sig-
nals coming from the ligs composite output are changed into gray-scale signals.
This slightly modifies the dot palterns that represent colors on a monochrome
screen from splotchy to regular, in all graphic modes, Internally, what the con-
tro! panel actually does is change bit 7 of the Iigs Monochrome/Color Register,
which is at $C021 (O=color, l=gray scale). Remember, however, that this regis-
ter affects only composite monitors.
If you have a composite monitor (either color or monochrome), our advice is
to leave the control panel's “display type” set to “color;” this will give you exact-
ly the same screen image that you'd get with your monitor if it was hooked to
any other jl. The gray-scale option does have the potential to clean up your
screen image slightly, so you may like to try it from time to time. But software
designers who put any thought at all into how color images look on
monochrome monitors will be working from the standard Il-family display; since
most llgs owners buy RGB monitors, hardly anyone has a system that actually
supports the IIgs gray-scale capability.
With the more popular RGB monitor, the color/monochrome selection does
have an effect, bul you have to be in exactly the right place to see it. That place
is double-high resolution graphics. Apple created standards for RGB double-
high-resolution graphics for the Apple II family when it released the Apple Color
64K Extended Memory card for the lle. These standards were discussed here in
Open-Apple way back in May 1985, page 36, and July 1985, page 54. On a lie
or Lc equipped with an RBG monitor, there are three double-hign RGB modes.
These are color (140 x 192 in 16 colors), monochrome (560 x 192 In black and
white}, and mixed (a combination of the first two). Keep in mind, however, that
these three modes are available on a Ile or IIc only when it’s equipped with an
RGB monitor; this, too, is rare. Without RGB, Ile/Ilc double-high-res appears as
560 x 192 black-and-white on a monochrome monitor and as 140 x 192 16-
color on a color monitor.
Unfortunately, Apple didn’t follow its own RGB standards on the IIgs. An RGB-
equipped IIgs supports color and monochrome double-high modes, but not the
llefllc mixed mode. In addition, the method for switching between color and
monochrome modes is completely new on the ligs, On the Ile and IIc, RGB dou-
ble-high-res mode-selection involves tickling several softswitches in certain spe-
cific sequences, as demonstrated here in 1985.
On the ligs, on the other hand, RGB double-high-res mode selection is deter
mined by bit 5 of the Video Control Register, at $C029 (O=color, 1=
monochrome; if you change this bit from inside a program, use a read/modi-
fy/write procedure so that you don’t accidentally change the other bits in the
register)
‘As mentioned, changing the Monochrome/Color Register at $C021 affects
only the composite output, but changing the Video Control Register at $C029
has an effect on both the composite and RGB outputs. This is a little strange
because there never has been and still isn’t any such thing as a double-high-res
monochrome mode for composite screens (double-high-mono is an RGB-only
mode). But if you are looking at a color composite monilor with the
Monochrome/Color Register set to color and start flipping the Video Control
Register between color and monochrome, you will see a color shift on your dis-
play. It means the best strategy for programmers is to keep the two switches
syfchronized, that is, either both set to color or both set to gray-sca-
le/monochrome. The easiest way to do this is to enter the IIgs control panel and
toggle the “display type.”
‘The Desktop program from early IIgs system disks changes this bit to turn on
monochrome double-high-res. Notice that if you enter and exit the control panel
while using Desktop, the screen display turns to multi-colored mush if display
type is set to color You can play with this to convince yourself that the
color/monochrome setting really daes do something on an RGB-equipped Iigs.
There are many doubters, however, because the setting works only in dou-
ble-high-es. Many new RGB-ligs users are discovering problems with Il-family
software that uses standard (rather than double) high-resolution graphics. The
Open-Apple 4.3
problem is that many graphics programs were written by and for Il/Mle/IIc users
who had composite monochrome monitors. On color monitors, the nice blacks
and whites thal these programs are supposed to display turn into color smears,
If you use the control pane! to switch to monochrome, nothing happens. You
can fix all this, however. by tricking the IIgs into displaying double-high-resolu-
tion monochrome mode and then looking at just half the picture,
Setting up an Apple Il to display double-high-tesolution graphics requires that
you hil the softswitches at $C050 (graphics), $C057 (high-res), $COSE (double-
Tes), and $COOD (80 col), To look at just half the picture, go back to 40
columns (hit $COOC). Now, if you have the Ilgs control panel set to
Monochrome, you will see a standard resolution graphic on a lis RGB monitor
without the color blurs. It’s quite simple to modify existing 40-column Applesoft
programs to use this “new mode.” Simply add a POKE 49246,0 (doublees on)
to the beginning of the program. Now, as long as the control panel is set to
monochrome and your program stays in 40 columns, you will see a
monochrome single-high-res picture. To return to a standard-res cofor display,
either change the control panel setting or POKE 49247,0 (double-res off), This
trick comes from Apple's Appie Ligs Technical Note #29, so we can expect it to
work with future members of the Apple Il family, too.
The “first final” version of Apple Higs Workshop Cis now
available from the Apple Programmers and Developers Association for $75.
Updates to version 1.0 from beta versions are available for $17.75. The pro-
gram requires the Apple Programmers Workshop version 1.0, 1.25 megabytes
of memory, and two 3,5 drives or the equivalent.
CMS has a new ROM for its SCSI hard drives that corrects some problems
when using ProDOS 16 programs such as the Finder. The new ROM is free to
any CMS owner by calling 714-549-9111, ext 216.
Somebody took a search and replace sword to the January 1988 edition
of the £.A.C. Express, the newsletter of the Erie Apple Crunchers user group in
Erie, Pennsylvania. Every place the word “Apple” should appear there are
instead five underline characters. The editor explains:
“A major concern among user groups during the past year was the implemen-
tation of licensing agreements for our computer's operating systems and the
use of a certain company’s logos and trademarks. The position taken by this
company on the licensing of the operating systems is quite fair for all parties
involved, However, the permission to use the trademarks and logos comes with
quite a few strings attached. Basically, we are supposed to put the little TM’
mark after the first appearance of a product for which this computer company
holds a trademark. We are also supposed to use the little ‘r’ in a circle and so
on and so forth...We will try to comply with the trademark and logo restrictions
as much as possible in future issues. It's too bad that__ did not put a ‘TM,’
or ‘c’ ina circle, or an ‘r’ ina circle in their printers!"
Magnets in speakers placed too close to the igs analog RGB color
monitor can wash out or warp the colors on the screen. Just moving the
speakers farther away from the monitor doesn’t help immediately-you also have
to turn the monitor off for several minutes before it will correct ilself. This tip
comes from the January edition of the Washington Apple(TM) Pi newsletter.
The Desktop Publishing Newsletter is a new publication that will feature
techniques for producing effective publications on the Apple II for schools and
businesses. It will be published by Sage Productions, the same company that
publishes the AppleWorks Journal. The premier issue is expected in February
1988, later issues will follow every other month. A one-year, sixissue subscrip-
tion is $20 (5677 Oberlin Drive, San Diego, CA 92121 619-455-7515).
Apple has been working hard to make big sales to the federal govern-
ment. The problem is that most federal contracts require MS-DOS compatibility.
The slots in the Macintosh SE and Mac Il were supposed to solve that problem.
But Apple’s “first major victory” in the federal marketplace, according to Charles
Berger, Apple's vice-president of market development, was the sale of 4,000
Apple igs systems together with 4,000 of Applied Engineering's PC Transporter
cards, The computers will be used in 270 schools for dependents of U.S. mili-
tary personnel. The company that selected the Apple ligs for the government
said that it had received proposals from several computer suppliers and that
Apple was chosen because its bid represented the “lowest life-cycle cost,” 1
hadn't thought of that before, but the Apple II does have a much longer life-
cycle than your standard MS-DOS machine. The IBM-PC has come and has been
discontinued, yet we still have the Apple Il
As we begin volume 4 of Open-Apple, we're making a few adjustments
to our operation (in addition to the GEnie alliance) that | thought you might like
to know about. One problem we've had is that you, our subscribers, insist on
buying stuff from us. Now that, in itself, isn’t so bad. But we've never been set
up to provide you the kind of service you expect from a high-tech computer-
related company. You expect 24-hour order turn-around. Our system here, how-
ever, is modeled after what's typical in the magazine industry-four week turn-
44° Open-Apple
around if there are no snags. You've complained about it, I've complained
about it, and it has come down to either getting out of the book and back-issue
business or getting into it with all six feet.
Our current level of sales doesn’t justify all six feet. However, if my own
experience at trying to buy Apple Il-related books is any indicalion of what’s
going on in the world, the kingdom is badly in need of a mail-order retailer who
camies a large selection of Apple II books. We’ve decided to expand and
improve our mail order business and to try to fill that niche. We're working on
an order entry, inventory, and shipping system now and expect to be in full
operation by mid-summer. As part of the change, we're bringing our subscrip-
tion list back in-house (see May 1986, page 2.25) and we'll resume processing
it with Apple Ils. Unfortunately, all this has required that | give up being a cot-
tage industrialist. On December 1, Open-Apple began moving out of peoples’
houses and into 2,000 square feet of office/warehouse space in a top secret
location somewhere east of the Rockies.
An office needs to have people working in it to amount to much, Two of our
work-at-home consultants agreed to become office-based employees; one
wouldn't leave the cottage. Still with us are Dennis Doms and Sally Dwyer. The
other Sally, Sally Tally, our imaginary Circulation Manager, may or may not be
moving here from the fulfillment service in Syracuse N.Y. that we're about to
stop using; she hasn't decided yet. We have added the locally-renowned Apple II
and Mazda wizard Tom Vanderpool to our technicat-side staff. And our business-
side staff now includes Steve Kelly, an MBA who comes to us with very rare and
nearly unbelievable business credentials-he's been a Kansas farmer for more
than ten years and has a net profit to show for it.
Open-Apple has never had to pay rent before, postage rates go up this spring
for the second time since we started, and each direct mail campaign we do gets
a slightly lower response because our best prospects are already subscribers.
I've had to face the reality that Open-Apple’s subscription price must go up-an
ugly prospect. This will happen March 15, 1988. Our new prices will be $28 for
1 year, $54 for 2 years, and $78 for three years; free airmail worldwide, as
usual. Renewals at the old prices ($24, $44, and $60) will be accepted through
Vol. 4, No. 1
April 1.
Facing and accepting the financial limitations of Open-Apple has been
difficult, but accepting the philosophical limitations of my take-no-prisoners
position on copy protection (August 1987, page 3.50) has been gut wrenching.
The problem with my position is that it restricts the amount of software avail-
able for the Apple II (and thus the value of the Apple Il) in two ways.
First, obviously, those of us who simply refuse to buy or use any copy-pro-
tected software blind ourselves to a major share of what's going on in the king-
dom. Secondly, and far more importantly, Apple II software developers deserve
to be compensated for their work. The ethic that it’s all right to “make a copy
for my friend/colleague/students” pervades the kingdom, Thal ethic is wrong. If
the pervasive ethic was that asking someone to copy one of their programs for
you was the same as asking them to shoplift a memory card, we would be in a
better position to demand no copy protection. But that's not the pervasive
ethic. Have you ever noticed how much bigger and wealthier Apple II hardware
companies are than Apple I] software companies? Now you know why.
1am still against copy-protection. | will always buy or review an unprotected
program before I'll buy or review a protected one. But refusing to look at or use
any copy-protected software in a world where novice users expect to get all the
software they need for free is pushing logic too hard, (Experienced users, who
have a better appreciation of what it takes to write a good program, appear to
be much more likely to pay for their software.) 1 want to see an end to copy pro-
tection because it’s a nuisance to honest users. But the only way to achieve
progress on the copy protection front is lo achieve progress on the copies-for-
free front. It takes only a glimpse of holiday reality to realize that little progress
is being made there. With no copy protection at all, Christmas could become
nothing more than a time for families and friends to get together to cheat soft-
ware developers out of honest livings. Many novice users actually seem to
believe that if a program isn’t copy protected It must be public domain. We
have to get rid of those ideas. Until we do, honest users will simply have to
learn how to live with the developers who insist on using copy protection.
That's not, after all, impossible.
dust when they finally had a good excuse to use an
exclamation point, the gang at Nibbie ran out of them!
Look at the cover of their February issue! “Interview
with Tom Weishaar, Publisher of Open-Apple” Geez.
For more on this controversy, see “Miscellanea” in
June 1985, page 1.45, and "Nibble bytes tongue,” in
August 1985, page 1.63, In the interview I'm quoted as
saying once again that I'd like to see AppleWorks in
ROM on new Apple Is, I’m catching a lot of grief about
that one; everyone says it would be too hard to patch
that way and new versions couldn't be used. Sure
would be a big sale for Claris, though.
I thought we'd carried this correction before, but 1
can't find it anywhere. On April 1987's page 3.22, in
the program listing in the middle column, in the line
that begins 00/0304, the number after the colon
should be A2, not AD.
digs system disk 3.1 fallow up. Thanks to several
postal and GEnie comespondents, I've leamed a few
additional things about the new ligs system disk the
Jast couple of weeks. Please thank them when you
next see them. Meanwhile, pencil in a note on page
3.90 of last month's issue {hat says to look here for
additional information when you buy that new Iigs.
First, let’s set the record straight about the disk-
drive light-blinking many of you have been worrying
about while running the Finder. This is normal. The
only way the Finder can tell if you've taken a disk out
of a 3.5 drive is to repeatedly ask it. But each time a
UniDisk is asked for its current status its in-use light
blinks, Don’t worry about it.
Next let’s talk a bit about icons. Icons are those
Pictures that show up on your screen when you run the
Finder. The idea is that each file type should have its
own icon. Thus, you can tell a binary file from a text
file from an Applesoft fite by looking at its picture. in
addition, icons can be defined for specific files, For
example, a special icon could be created for an Apple-
soft program called HEARTBEAT.MATH. Just that one
program would be linked to the special icon; other
Applesoft programs would continue to use the generic
Applesoft icon.
All icons that the Finder uses come from special
Riles that are ‘hemselves file type $CA and that have a
file name ending in “ICONS” (no, I don't know what
the icon for an icon file is). In addition, aif icon files
must appear inside a folder (previously known as a
subdirectory) called ICONS.
The ligs system disk has an ICONS folder in its root
directory. In January, I insisted rather strongly that
this folder contained the same Kind of stuff as a bunch
of other folders on the system disk and that those
other folders were inside the SYSTEM folder. Thus,
using blind logic, | insisted ICONS should be inside
the SYSTEM folder, too. At the time 1 assumed that all
icons the Finder would ever use would be in the Sys-
tem Disk’s ICON folder.
However, subscriber David Lyons points out that
every disk you own can have its own ICONS folder.
The Finder will look for an ICONS folder on all the
disks it has access to. Since most disks don't have a
SYSTEM folder to put the ICONS folder into, it makes
more sense for ICONS to be in the root directory,
The file DIALOG.ICONS, which I gave a “what is this
and why is it here?” notation in the directory listing
on page 5.90, may or may not deserve the snotty treat-
ment | gave it. it contains duplicates of some dialogue
icons that are embedded inside the Finder program.
The Finder doesn’t use DIALOG.ICONS, but | sup-
posed it’s possible that other ProDOS 16 programs
could. But even so, why is this file cluttering up the
root directory instead of being in the System Disk
ICONS folder?
The file called BASIC. LAUNCHER in the root direc-
tory of the ligs system disk. on the other hand, has
value. Don’t drag it to the trash can as I suggested on
page 3.92. Don’t believe my notation in the aforemen-
tioned directory listing that “it takes longer to load
than to run.” BASIC.LAUNCHER is needed to startup
Applesoft programs from within the Finder.
If you double click on an Applesoft program icon,
the Finder is supposed to ran that program. To get to
that program, however, the Finder has to have a way to
Jeave ProDOS 16, startup ProDOS 8, startup Basic.sys-
tem, and, finally, startup the Applesoft program you
have selected. This requires a long reach. The Finder
obtains this reach by telling BASIC.LAUNCHER what
Applesoft program you want to run, and telling PQUIT
to start BASIC.LAUNCHER, This is how we get out of
ProDOS 16 and into ProDOS 8. BASIC.LAUNCHER, in
tum, loads Basic.system, embeds the name of the
Applesoft program you want to run in the STARTUP
position, and runs Basic.system. As you can see, with
out BASIC.LAUNCHER, you can’t start Appiesoft pro-
grams from the Finder. You can startup Basic.system
from the Finder by clicking on the Basic.system Icon,
but you can't tell Basic.system to run anything other
than the default program (STARTUP) without
BASIC.LAUNCHER.
Interestingly, the Finder knows to use BASIC
LAUNCHER with Applesoft programs because
“BASIC.LAUNCHER* is written in tiny print inside the
icon file. The icon for binary files, on the other hand,
doesn’t include this information. That's why you can’t
start up a binary file from inside the Finder. However,
using a buggy Apple program called Icon Editor, you
can add the information about BASIC.LAUNCHER to
the binary file icon, Neat, eh? Then novice users
could crash their systems whenever they wanted by
clicking on binary files that weren't actually pro-
grams. The same trick would allow you to EXEC text
February 1988
files from the Finder. Apple handed out a bela copy of
its Icon Editor to Apple I developers at AppleFest,
but, unfortunately, this tool hasn't surfaced at the
Apple Programmers and Developers Association yet.
(Actually, icons are even neater than this, You can
make an icon specifically for alf text files that have a
filename ending in “.EX,” for example. If all such files
are execable and you tei! the icon to use BASIC
.LAUNCHER, then you can exec these files from the
Finder without endangering novice users.)
While we're talking about the Finder, I'll pass on a
tip from GEnie user Bruce Gordon. Program icons can
be dragged onto the desktop and left there. Run one of
the programs (with the “write Finder data” option on),
and when you quit back to the Finder, the icons will
reappear on your desktop (if the programs can be found
in your drives). You can double-click on any program’s
desktop icon to run it without opening any windows or
folders. This trick should be most useful for hard disk
users. Don't bother teaching it to your Macintosh
friends; however, because their Finder can’t do that
unless all the programs come from the same window to
begin with.
A Finder limitation several people have reported
running into is that it won't copy the contents of a 3.5
disk onto /RAMS. As GEnie’s LINEFEED (Lou Flemal}
explains it, “the Finder uses the free RAM in the GS
Ram card to copy faster. But you are trying to use that
same RAM to copy TO. When Finder starts out, it sees
xxxK free, so it knows it can fit the disk you want
copied into /RAMS. But then Finder loads all it can
into the free RAM (same stuff} so it can copy faster.
When It goes to write the stuff to /RAMS, there isn’t
enough room, because it has used the space.”
[found two notes about the system disk in Apple’s
AppleLink technical library. One says that anyone
who upgrades to the 1.1 ligs ROM should then only use
the system software on system disks 2.0 or 3.1. The
other says that the Finder ‘has a practical limit in the
number of files per folder it can handle. Though Hav-
ing 200 or more files in a folder will not cause a sys-
tem crash, the Finder slows to where even the sim-
plest of operations becomes unacceptably time con-
suming.” Dennis has demonstrated this has nothing to
do with the Finder itself, however, but happens to all
programs using ProDOS. For example, try this, and
pee how slow things get as we approach the 200th
files
‘10 PRINT CHRS (4) ;"CREATE BIG.DIR"
20 PRINT CERS (4) ;"PRERIX BIG.DIR"
30 FoR I=1 20 200
40 ; PRINT "Sow on file *
50 : PRINT CHR$ (4) ;"SAVE
60; wax?
The slow speed results from ProDOS thrashing
around loading the same old directory blocks in and
out of buffers. The moral: use more folders (subdirec-
tories) so that you don’t have more than about 50 files
In any single folder.
Subscriber Steve Busey points out that you can set
up a two-volume hard drive so that the first volume
(/HARDI, for example) boots into ProDOS 8, while the
second volume (/HARD2, for example) contains the
ProDOS 16 system files. To startup ProDOS 16, you sin
ply set the prefix to /HARD2 and execute PRODOS.
You can easily do this from a program selector such as
ProSEL, if you want.
Subscriber Wilber Mardis points out that once
you've created a system disk, you can copy many Pro-
DOS 16 application programs onto 5.25 floppies. Once
you get all the tools, fonts, and print drivers onto the
system disk, older floppies often have enough room
for the actual programs. “I have, for instance, copied
‘MultiScribe GS {0 one side of a 5.25 disk and Top-
Draw to the other.”
Getting down to business
I've read comments in your publication about using
Apple Ils in “commercial productivity" applications. Let
me tell you about how we do it.
We utilize eleven enhanced Apple lic machines-all
using AppleWorks-to operate an electronic instrumen-
lation business. We acquired our first machines in late
1984 and have taken advantage of improvements in
AppleWorks itself (version 2.0), and in various hard-
ware (Z-RAM Ultra Ill, UniDisk 3.5) and software add-
ons (PinPoint, Point-to-Point, and TimeOut, for exam-
ple). We're experimenting with some relatively new
AppleWorks file-compatible accounting software, too. If
alc fails, we have a couple of extras, so we just whup
it out an’ drag the broken one down to the local Apple
boys for service.
Every single business day, we use word processing,
spreadsheets, and data base operations, and accesso-
ty programs for communications and spell-checking,
exchanging disks and files, filling in standard order
and invoice forms, making mailing labels, using infor-
mation from our Tics. We have a portable IIc (a laRoger
Coats, in San Diego} utilizing a Prairie Power battery
pack, an LCD display, a Diconix battery-powered print-
er and a ProCom modem, which we regularly carry to
our Aberdeen, Scotland office to communicate with
the home office network. We plan to put a laser printer
on line this month. Several employees have personal
lics at home, which they readily use to do the "home
work” reqularly done by successful businessmen today
(although several of our guys admit that they have to
share the home machine with their families). My
daughter at college regularly exchanges files with the
business network and with our home machine using
her enhanced Ic.
We've solved lots of minor software and hardware
problems to make our system work and grow, but
Apple support people-local and regional-were, and
are, no help at all, It’s a real pity that other businesses
who would like to do what we do (and save the money
that we've saved) are shunted off to Macintosh-land by
the locals, who steadfastly deny that a Ic can be pro-
ductive. And, worse than that, many of these fine
potential II users become convinced by others that
only MS-DOS'II do it, and we don’t hear much from
them anymore (yes, we do have one MS-DOS unit in
the corner, and, yes, it'll soon be connected to the net-
work as well), We know the limitations of the llc CPU
and graphics, but let’s face It-those limitations mean
very fittle in actual, real daily business transactions,
Now, don’t get me wrong. The local Apple folks
didn’t actually fight with us as we bought, or inquired
about, the various components we needed. They just
said “We don’t know about that,” nearly every time we
asked a question. It was too much to expect the Apple
locals to know about enhancing AppleWorks, or
enhancing Ilcs, or doing a bit of networking, I guess.
After a bit, we, like other slightly knowledgeable
Apple business users, bought our goodies by mail
order (we succumbed to the “Why pay more from
someone who won't help you?” syndrome), causing
the locals to decide that there wasn’t enough Apple I]
business around to warrant their attention, as they
leaned further toward MS-DOS contraptions. It's a dog-
gone shame that we businessmen must also be com-
puter experts, and work against the local Apple sales
effort to get the job done, while the MS-DOS boys
down the street will gladly sell you the whole lot.
Our business network operates just fine. We don't
brag about it-we just use it: It's nothing fancy, but 11
machines with compalible, integrated software that is
easy for new employees to learn and a varied collec-
tion of accessible printers-Apple and otherwise-is
nothing to sneeze at, my friend, Macintosh, MS-DOS, or
Open-Apple 4.5
otherwise.
To top things off, we developed and built a cheap
standby rechargeable power pack that operates each
IIc for 2 hours during power glitches and outages. It
lets us really ulilize llc RAMcards and RAMdisks. It
costs 30 bucks to make, and any Apple lic user can
Get all the parts at Radio Shack. Some folks sell them
for as much as $169. This little gadgel, if sold or mar-
keted by Apple, would allow more folks like us to use
Iles as solid productivity computers. If anyone would
like a Radio Shack parts list and schematic for our IIc
Standby power unit, just drop a SASE to us, and we'll
fix ‘em up.
How many more businesses operate Apple Il office
systems like we do? Why has Apple deliberately cho-
sen lo ignore us, and our needs? Why can’t we get info
on how to link Iles together, or to laser printers, from
the local Apple boys? We've been tempted to find, or
start, an Apple II “business only” users group. Maybe
there is such an organization, and we're further behind
than | thought, Oh, well, back to exchanging files and
graphics with Scotland, as we prepare our 400K one
year operating plan spreadsheet, and print it out on
the laser printer as the Customer Service guys run a
database failure sort for a customer who has asked
Marketing for a big re-quote, while Engineering fiddles
with...
George Smith, President
Electto-Mlow Controls, inc.
P.O, Box 870
Missouri City, TX 77459
Useful computing, ordinary people
I have often pondered why the Apple II has such
appeal to me after using a I-Plus then a lle. It has
been very difficult to actually pin down the reasons for
my loyalty. Certainly much has to do with accumulated
knowledge bul there is much more to it than that.
Probably the major factor, and one which goes against
conventional wisdom in the computer world, it that
“simpler can be better.” This leaves me feeling in con-
trol of my computers (one at home and one at work}
and not feeling overwhelmed and useless when some-
thing unpredictable happens.
I regard myself as a serious user. | work in the area
of youth policy and often write reasonably lengthy doc-
uments, a regular newsletter, and a welter of short doc-
uments.as well as maintaining a number of smallish
databases, | use my computer every day at work and it
really is a personal productivity tool rather than an
embellishment on my desk.
It strikes me that many people writing about com-
puters are people who write about nothing but com-
puters. As such they are ali too infatuated with “new*
and “powerful* and “fast” and “complex” and so on.
This is wonderful if you have nothing to do all day but
play with the latest 386 monster and explore the intri-
cacies of OS/2 but what about us folks who use a
computer as a means to an end rather than as the
end? Similarly, | find many people using MS-DOS com-
puters equally hung up on these marketing concepts
and nol actually doing much at all with that power and
complex software. The price they pay is a most
unfriendly operating system, a plethora of standards
(which DOS versions?....which graphics standard?
«what format word processor files?}, and noisy fans.
If there is one thing than an Apple (and AppleWorks)
can do well, it is make useful (rather than esoteric)
computing available to ordinary people.
I'd also like to endorse the comments of every sec-
ond writer to Open-Apple and lament the lack of
knowledge of dealers. They are no better here than
anywhere else. I recently had to tell one about the Ile
to Ilgs motherboard upgrade option among a number
of other things.
4.6 Open-Apple
A possible solution to the chronically inadequate
support provided by many dealers would be for them
to enlist local Apple Il aficionados as “experienced
customer advisors” to speak to potential or actual pur-
chasers about the possibilities of their computers.
Something as simple as giving a potential customer
the name of an experienced Jocal user as a support
person would be of enormous value to the dealer; the
local support person could receive special discounts
as payment. Every happy user is worth a great deal to
Apple. Conversely, every unhappy user who puts their
system away in frustration is a mini-disaster. |, for one,
would be quite happy to be involved in such a
scheme.
Jan Wright
Ballarat, Australia
Stone Solid Apple
I've been reading your comments and letters about
the future of the Apple Ii with interest. Where will new
Apple II productivity software come from? From fools
like me who stil] believe in the Apple If)
Fools who believe that if you can write a decent
database manager for a 48K computer, you should be
able to write a great database manager when you have
128K to work with,
Who believe that people are interested in fast, pow-
erful programs that don’t use graphics and sound,
even if Apple Computer generally isn’t.
Who love the Macintosh and the Apple II, but sus-
pect that trying to turn an Apple Ii into a color Macin-
tosh simply costs too much in both speed and memory
to make sense for a lot of applications.
Who are willing to buck all of the trends and go it
alone, without big-bucks financing (the way we did it in
the “old days", when personal computer software was
a vibrant, innovative cottage industry) producing high-
powered applications software for a computer that
“conventional wisdom” says won't pay off.
Who understands that first time computer users
soon become experienced computer users, with needs
that often can’t be met by software designed for first
time users. (But they're still computer users, not com-
puter programmers. And a good program designer
should be able to give those people the power they
need without forcing them to become programmers.)
Fools who are willing not only to produce software
for the Apple I, but to make a commitment to it.
Stone Edge Technologies is committed to making
DB Master Version Five and Version Five Profession-
af the high-power data base managers for the Apple Il.
With multifile relational capabilities, multi-user ver-
sions, and one of the most powerful report generators
available for any personal computer, we're giving the
Apple Il market a chance to prove that the pundits are
wrong-that there is a market for high-powered soft-
ware for the Apple Il.
Barney Stone
Stone Edge Technologies, Inc.
P.O, Box 200
Maple Glen, PA 19002
Blessed are the disk rescuers
You mentioned Pete Johnson as a source of disk
repair in an earlier issue (November 1986, page 2.76).
1 have had, unfortunately, several occasions to need
his services. tie has always done well for me. The last.
time, I needed help FAST. | express-mailed the disk to
him; | had it back the third day. I heartily recommend
him.
Brian Eastman
Cincinnati, Ohio
Johnson's address is P.0. Box 5, New London, MN
56275.
Solving for double-blanks
A simple way to get around the “calculated double-
blank @NA” problem mentioned in “Multiplan update”
in December 1987, page 3.85, is to create a duplicate
of what you want to print on the right side or the bot-
tom of your work area. To create this duplicate, where,
for example, cell A101 corresponds to the original Al,
use the formula @IF(A1=0,@NA,A1). Using the copy/rel-
ative command it takes just a few keystrokes to create
this duplicate spreadsheet, provided you have enough
space.
| found in practice that I want the cosmetics of
blanks substituting for zeros only in that part of the
spreadsheet that | print into a report. And that is usual-
Sy only the summary. The bigger the part with the cos-
metics, the slower will be the speed of calculation.
That's why I try to keep the cosmetic part as small as
possible.
Another possibility, when there are just a few
columns or rows that contain calculated double
blanks, is to use the @IF function to determine where
the blanks are. For example to add A10 and All when
either could contain a double blank, use
GIF(A10-0,A11,@IF(A11-0,A10,A10+Al 1),
Werner Kubelka
Niteroi, RJ, Brazil
Use a “flag cell” to blank zero entries in worksheets
(December 1987, page 3.85; June 1987, page 3.39).
Set the flag to 99 to see the spreadsheet as it would
normally appear and to caiculate totals. Set the flag to
zero and recalculate to blank out the zero cells for
printing,
In the data cells, use @IF with a formula such as
@IF(@ANDiflag-0,result=0),@NA,result), where “flag”
points to the cell you will use as a flag and “result” is
the formula that gives the data you want displayed in
this cell.
In cells that make calculations using these data
cells, use a formula such as GiF(flag-0,self,caicula-
tion), where “self” causes the cell to return its own
value and “calculation” returns the data you want dis-
played in this cell. Force calculation of the worksheet
with the flag sel lo 99 to obtain the correct results,
then set the flag to 0 and recalculate to replace the
zero cells with blanks.
For installing custom printers, a word processor file
of printer code macros would be ap efficient distribu-
tion medium. The macro could start at the point where
you give the printer a name.
tias anyone noticed that Randy Brandt is licensing a
muntime version of UltraMacros to support task files?
You published a letter of mine in September
(‘Thinking about databases,” page 3.63) in which I
said the AppleWorks word processor Find and Replace
commands take about 10 per cent longer with version
2.0 than with version 1.3. My AppleWorks 2.0 word
processor was slower because it had escaped my per-
mutation heap untabeled with AutoWorks on it, In real-
ity, the 2,0 word processor is slightly faster.
| second the motion for a discussion of what a 16-
bit (or any) AppleWorks could and should do. For
example, version 2.0 still cannot handle a DIF file with
optional headers, a bug you exposed in detail in
August 1986 (‘AppleWorks DIFficulties,” page 2.56).
Robert Ericson
North Providence, RI
Along with his letter, Ericson sent us a copy of a
new, second edition of his book AppleWorks Tips
and Techniques (Sybex). | liked the first edition of
this book so much (January 1986, page 1.97) that part
of what I said ended up on the back cover of the sec-
ond edition. The new edition was just generally
spiffed up with new tricks, expanded to include all
the new stuff in AppleWorks 2.0, and has a whole new
chapter on macro programs. Here's a typical Ericson
insight from the macro chapter, “The Beagle Bros man-
ual draws no line between macros and control pro-
Vol. 4, No. 1
gams. This makes macros appear to be more compli-
cated than they really are.”
if you buy just one book about AppleWorks, this is
the one to get.
AppleWorks, 8 & 16
Your ongoing discussion of what the next version of
AppleWorks should do is intriguing. However, the focus
of the discussion has been on the ligs and what a 16-
bit AppleWorks should be like. Why not bring any
enhanced version of AppleWorks to the 8-bit Ile and llc
too?
Both 8-bit and 16-bit versions of AppleWorks should
be included in the same box. The 16-bit version
should use the 16-bit code for improved performance,
not new features, as you have suggested. To the user,
and to AppleWorks add-ons like Timeout, both ver-
sions should seem identical. To allow add-ons to be
compatible with both versions, the developer hooks
should be written in 8-bit code.
Now, how should the program itself be Improved?
For one thing, the three AppleWorks applications
should be enhanced to bring them up to stand-alone
quality. In the word processor, for example, how about
Tight justification, a way to print either formatted or
unformatted text files without using a custom printer,
and wildcard and carriage return options for Find and
Replace?
A way to embed special printer codes in word pro-
cessor documents is needed. Why not allow ten cus-
tom character strings per printer? In the word proces-
sor, select U(ser)0 through U9 to select these strings,
which would appear as carets in the text. These com-
mands would be sent to the printer (but not counted in
the line length) during the printing process.
The data base needs more flexible reporting capa-
bilities and the spreadsheet needs more functions and
string-handling ability. As Lowney suggested, a path-
name selection menu should be included and should
be invokable any time a disk is accessed. AppleWorks
should display subdirectories when loading a file and
allow the user fo open them and look inside. Text and
DIF files should be loaded from a menu. Mouse sup-
port, in the AppleWorks spirit, that does not replace
the standard AppleWorks interface, would make Apple-
Works simpler for new users.
AppleWorks should recognize and use any combina-
tion of aux-slot, standard slot, and ligs memory, but
should be smart enough to leave RAMdisks alone. We
need more word processor lines, data base records,
spreadsheet cells, and a larger clipboard. The desktop
should be able to hold a larger number of files.
Finally, AppleWorks needs something similar lo Bea-
gle Bros’ Timeout manager built in, to support applica-
tions that run within AppleWorks. Add-on programs.
should be able to access every necessary AppleWorks
1/0, disk, and memory feature. New applications
should be able to appear’on the Add Files to Desktop
Menu and should be activated when you load a partic-
ular file type. And, of course, AppleWorks developer's
information should be made available in the form of a
technical reference manual.
Jerry E. Kindall
Grove City, Ohio
75-file bug
Ihave all of my AppleWorks files carefully arranged
in subdirectories on a Sider 10 meg drive. Some of
them are getting rather full. One of them,
/AW/DATA/LETTERS/COMFUTER, currently has around
75 files. When | attempt to load any of them into
AppleWorks 2.0 on my IIgs, everything proceeds fine
until the last file specified is loaded. AppleWorks then
tells me it is getting errors trying to read “* (empty dou-
ble quotes). At the bottom of the screen is the “Press
February 1988
spacebar to proceed” message.
Here's where it gets weird. If | press the space bar,
the program crashes hard. So hard that a Timeout con-
trolreset will not recover the program. But,...if | press
Escape instead of the space bar, | go back to the main
menu and al of the files | have specified have been
properly loaded. This happens even if I specify only
one file.
| have done some tests to try to figure out the
source of the trouble. I've tried several copies of
AppleWorks 2.0 under several versions of ProDOS.
Always the same. However, under AppleWorks 1.3 1
never have a problem.
Rex Creekmur
Grandville, Mich,
We can’t explain it either. We've had reports that
problems like this happen with as few as 64 files in a
subdirectory (July 1987, page 3.45) and reports that
‘AppleWorks 2.0 is designed to handle a maximum of 85
files in a subdirectory (August 1987, page 3.56). We
‘once a carried a patch to expand this (also page 5.56),
but it doesn’t work, as I ruefully admitted on page
5.69. | suspect the only short-term answer is to put
fewer files in each subdirectory. Since Claris has big
plans for customer support, perhaps we can look for a
fix to this problem from them.
Database fixer
I've also experienced the AppleWorks 2.0 database
file bug reported by Eugene Whitehouse and Sidney
Powers (December, page 3.87; January, page 3.96). |
don’t know what's causing it, but I've gotten quite
good at recovering the files. If Copy If Plus is used to
copy a damaged file to an otherwise empty disk, the
database file header will be found at track 0, sector 1.
Byte 38 ($26) in this sector gives the number of report
formats in the file. I've had success at both trial and
error changes to the value and at studying the first 50
lines or so of a word processor “text” file load of the
database file to determine just how many report for-
mats are left.
Robert L, Hildebrandt
Pleasant Ridge, Mich.
Those who would rather use ProSEL’s Block.War-
den to make the change need to tell it to Froliow) the
correct file, then change byte $26 in the file’s first
block.
Another copy machine
Another way to make more than nine copies of a
word processor document without having to patch any-
thing (“AppleWorks as copy machine,” October 1987,
page 3.71} is to create a database file with just one
category. Put a single word from your document in this
category, then copy the record until you have as many
records in the database as you want copies of your
word processing document. Use mail merge to insert
that word back into the document from the database.
AppleWorks 2.0 will print the exact number of copies
that you want.
Lamy Jones
El Paso, Texas
ADB.READER bug found
There's a bug in your ADB.READER program in the
March and June 1987 issues. AppleWorks database
records begin with a two-byte length, When a record
starts in the very last byte of the buffer, however,
ADB.READER gets only the first byte of the two-byte
length. The second byte is whatever garbage happens
to be one byte past the end of the buffer. To.fix this,
the end of buffer pointer (BEN) should be aimed at the
last byte of the buffer rather than one byte beyond the
end of the buffer. Change line 1052 on pages 3.11 and
3.35 to:
1052 BEN = BBG + 16384 - 1 : REM BEN-end of buffer.
In March’s line 1052 you divided the 16384 by 2; in
June you said this wasn’t necessary, so | didn’t do it
here.
dim Luther
Kansas City, Mo,
A sneaky right-justify
Here's how to get page numbers (or any other text}
right justified inside an AppleWorks header: Use open-
apple-O(ptions) HE to start a page header, and JU to
force full justification. Enter the text to be right justi-
fied, a blank space, and then about 10 sticky-spaces
(open-apple-space bar). If you. want the rest of your
text to be unjustified, return to open-apple-(O)ptions
and enter LW. Now, put the insert cursor at the begin-
ning of your header text and press the space bar until
the sticky spaces drop to the second line of the head-
er. Your AppleWorks screen should now look some-
thing like this:
page *
AABAAAAAAA
eee Tnjustitied
The caret after the word “page” is the page number
caret, the other carets are sticky-spaces. AppleWorks
allows only one line of text in a header. The idea here
is to push the sticky spaces into the second line,
where they won't be printed. But they will drag the
page number to the right margin because the header is
being printed with full justification. This right justifies
the page number even if it grows to a two- or three-
digit number,
If you are using one of the proportional typestyles,
you may have to use more spaces in front of the text
(until the text is about halfway across the second line}
and more sticky spaces to get the trick to work. This is
because the space is a very narrow character with pro-
portional typestyles.
You can also use this trick outside of headers-for
example, in a table of contents-but in this case the
sticky spaces will actually be printed as a blank line.
So you have to plan your printout so that it appears
the output is (at the least) double spaced, because
every line following a right-justified line must be blank.
Hans.Juergen Kuehne
Garbsen, West Germany
AppleWorks passwords
I was wondering about the possibility of patching
AppleWorks 2.0 to add a password routine to prevent
casual accessing of sensitive files. This valuable fea-
ture is available on Symphony and it would be a good
addition'to AppleWorks.
John M. Klein
Spring, Texas
The best solution we can think of is Beagle Bros
Timeout DeskTools, which contains a routine called
File Encrypter that can be used to encrypt files from
within AppleWorks, You load any type of AppleWorks
file you want to keep secret onto your desktop,
encrypt it using a password of your choice from one to
ten characters long, and then save it. Encrypted files
took like gibberish. To decrypt, Joad the file onto the
desktop, reenter your password, and the file will be
restored. If the file is still gibberish, you entered the
wrong password. At this point you can try to guess the
Tight password, but it may take some time to enter all
Open-Apple 4.7
60,000,000,000,000,000,000 possible combinations.
Desktools also includes a calendar, calculator,
notepad, dialer, envelope addresser, clock, clipboard
converter (for moving data directly between database
format and spreadsheet format, or vice versa, without
using DIF files), upper/lower case converter, word
processor page preview, word counter, and, of course,
4 puzzle. Timeout DeskTools is $49.95 from Beagle
Bros, 6215 Ferris Square, San Diego, CA 9212! 619-
452-5500.
aedi revelc A
| was recently approached by an associate who
operates a small business. He has a number of data
disks that are vulnerable to unauthorized copying or
use. He wanted me to assist him in the selection of an
encryption system.
After considering his request, | decided to simply
Teverse the direction of the drive motor in his second
Grive, which is where he always puts his data disks.
Once the direction change was made, we used Copy
I-Plus to copy his disks from the normal drive to the
reversed drive. The system and software don’t know
that a change was made. But the disks made on the
reversed drive can't be read by a normal drive. The
major benefit of this encryption system is that the user
has no added steps, pre-boots, or operator interven-
tion, so there’s no clue that something is different. 1
put a switch inside the drive, operable through a hole
in the bottom, so that normal operation of the drive
can be achieved without disassembly.
To make this modification, take a drive apart and
locate the drive motor, There are normally four wires
connected to the motor, two for DC power and two for
speed control. Disconnect one of the pairs and see if
the drive motor will come on. If it does, you've discon-
nected the speed control wires and you should recon-
nect them,
Once you've figured out which pair of wires provide
the DC power, look at the back of a DPDT switch and
you'll see six places where wires can be connected,
three on the right side and three on the left side. Sol
der the power lines from the circuit board to the two
top connectors, one to the right and one to the left.
Also attach a wire from the top right connector to the
bottom left connector and from the top left connector
to the bottom right connector. Finally, solder new wires
going to the drive motor to the two middle connectors,
‘one on the right side and one on the left side. With the
switch in one position, the drive runs normally, in the
second position it is reversed. Move the switch only
when the drive motor is off.
Len Powell
Finksburg, Md
ProDOS time
T want to access the Apple igs clock from Applesoft
under ProDOS. | tried PEEKing at locations 49042
($BF92, minutes) and 49043 ($BF93, hours), but
these tocations are only updated during disk access,
Do I need a machine language routine to call the llgs
toolbox, such as the one you published back in April
(page 3.21), or is there an easler way?
Glenn Calderone
Fountain Valley, Calif.
The easy way is to use the ProDOS Machine Lan-
guage Interface GET_TIME call. This call updates the
locations you mention with the current time. Using
this call, rather than a Iigs toolbox call, makes your
program compatibie with any Apple Il
Here's a short program that Dennis wrote to show
how to do this:
10 POXE 768,32 : REM 0300:20 00 BF JSR §AFO)
20 PORE 769,0 : REM 0303:82 DA #$62
30 PORE 770,191 : REM 0304:00 00 — .DA $0000
40 PORE 771,130 : REM 0305:18 cue
4.8 Open-Apple
50 POXE 772,0 : REM 0306:60 RIS
60 PORE 773,0°: HEM
10 PORE 774,24 : REM $62 is GET IDE call §
80 BORE 775,96 °: REM no parameter List
90 CALL 768
100 PRIN? "Tine is ";PEEK(49043) ;":";PEER (49042)
Printing pastels
| found this hint quite by accident, but now | use it
any time } want to print pastels, rather than vibrant cok
ors, with my !mageWriter II. Simply set the printer's
paper thickness control for one additional sheet of
paper, This makes the printer print lighter than it nor-
mally does, something you might want to use with a
baby announcement or shower invitation. The one
problem is that black won't be as black as it should
be.
Does everyone know you can return to the Finder
from the Applesoft prompt on the Ilgs by just typing
“BYE"?
Lowell Lutz
Phoenix, Ariz.
Hello Good Bye
| have just received a copy of ProDOS 8, version 1:4
‘on a. commercial program disk. | would like to know of
a standard way to install Alan Bird's Bird's Better Bye
quit routine into the various versions of ProDOS 8,
H.W. Madison
Bellingham, Wash.
Bird's Better Bye will work with any version of
ProDOS 8. You need to lift a copy of it out of your cur-
rent version, lay it into the new version, then BSAVE
the new version with Bird's program embedded in it.
Here are the details you need to know to do this.
‘The program has a fength of $500. in versions 1.2
Is writen, edited, publisned, and
© Copyright 1988 by
Tom Weishaar
‘Tom Vanderpool Sally Dwyer
Dennis Doms Steve Kelly
Most rights reserved. AE programas published in Oper-Apple aro public
domain and may be copied and distributed without chame. Apple user groups
and Sgrifeant others may obtan permission ta repaint ates from time to fine
‘by specitic writen request.
with help from
Openrdpple fis been monthly sce January 1985, Wore
prions (n US. cokes; ata deivey included stro acon cexge} $24 or
Year $44 or 2 yeas, $60 ‘or 3 years. Al beck isues ae curenty avalabe for
‘2 each; bow indexed effons of ox fs ree voles ae $1496 each Vo-
mes enc wth tho January issu: 7 dex for te por volume sine wth
‘he Fabry bse.
lease send all eoTesponderce lo
‘Apple
P.O. Box 7651
Overland Park, Kansas 66207 U.S.A.
Oper Apple is avaible on disk tor speech symthsize users trom
Enerptiss, RO. Box 7985, Houston, Texas (719-461-1668)
‘copies lor your on use witout
stibuton to others. The cstibxaon fe is 15 cents por page per copy da
‘routed.
‘WARRANTY AND LIMITATION OF LABILITY. | warrant thal most of he
Information in Open-Appie is vselu! and corect, enough drivel ac mis-
takes ae included fom fire to ime, usualy unintentionally. Unsatisied
subscribes may cancel ew subscription al any time and receive 2 fll
refund ofthe last su payment. The uniled potion of any paid
‘sbscrigton wil be refunded oven to sated subscribers upon request
MY LIABILITY FOR ERRORS AND OMISSIONS |S LIMITED TO THIS
PUBLICATIONS PURCHASE PRICE. In ro casa shal | or my contibutrs
be lab for any incidental or consequent darrages, not for ANY dam-
ages in exdess of he ous paid by a suoscribet,
{SSN 0885-4017
Printed inthe ULS.A
GEnie mei: OPEN-APPLE
through 1.4 of ProDOS, it lives at $5900 if you bload
PRODOS at $2000. In versions previous to 1.2 it lives
at $5700. So, for example, to move the program from a
version |.1.1 PRODOS file to a version 1.4 PRODOS
file, do this:
insert disk with PRODOS 1.1,1
BLOAD PRODOS,A$2000,7SYS {oad Prob0S 1.1.1)
insert a backup copy of a disk holding PRODOS 1.4
SAVE BIRDS.BYE, A$5700,2$300 (save quit code)
BLOAD PROOOS, A$2000,78YS (Load ProD0S 1.4)
BLOAD EIRDS.BYE,AS5900 (overlay Bye)
SAVE PRODOS,A$2000, SYS (xe-SAVE Pro00S 1.4)
Bird’s program isn’t sold separately. It's part of the
ProDOS Image on most Software Touch and Beagle Bros
products.
Duplicate pathname problem
Copy i! Plus users, beware! The program will allow
you to rename a file to that of one which already
exists. If you then try to manipulate the renamed file
and it happens to be farther down in the directory than
its namesake, you'll be manipulating the wrong file.
EXEC files make a good alternative to the Basic
Copy program in your July 1985 issue. In my applica-
tion, the last thing that my STARTUP program needs Lo
do is to transfer some files to /RAM. | put all the
LOAD/SAVE's, BLOAD/BSAVE’s, and the RUN MA-
IN.PROGRAM into a text file (with my word processor),
save this as a text file, and then have my startup pro-
gram EXEC the filename and END.
To overcome the annoyance of an *)* being printed
for every command executed, POKE 768,216 and
769,96 then do a PRINT DS;"PR#A768". What you get
Is a short routine (CLD, RTS) that will consume all char-
acters sent through the output hook, (The CLD is
required by ProDOS.) My main program resets output
with a PRINT D$;"PR#3".
Paul Lucas
Levittown, N.Y.
ZBasic amplifications
You got a couple of points wrong about ZBasic in
your reply to “Basic choices” in December, page 5.88.
You said our DOS 3.3 version runs on any 64K
Apple. While compiled DOS 3.5 ZBasic programs will
run on any 64K Apple, our DOS 3.3 version requires a
128K Ile, IIc, or Iigs for program development.
Our ProDOS version comes in two flavors, 64K and
128K. The 64K version will run on any Apple that has
at least 64K (this is required for ProDOS), as will the
programs compiled with it. The 128K version requires
at least 128K and a 65C02 or newer processor. In
addition, any program compiled using the 128K ver-
sion also requires 128K and a 65C02.
When a compiled program is distributed to others,
the ZBasic runtime support files may accompany the
stand-alone file without royalty payments or credit to
Zedcor, However, the Editor, Compiler, and associated
files cannot be legally distributed as your article
implied.
Greg Branche
Zedcor
Tucson, AZ
On rereading my response | find | did imply that the
whole package could be redistributed, but | didn’t
mean to. My goal was to compare the cost of actually
distributing programs written with each of the various
Basics.
G(uess) S(yntax) BASIC?
In the November Open-Apple you mentioned
Apple's figs BASIC (page 5.80).
I have had it for a month and have two problems
wilh it, First, there seems to be no way to warm start
it. Contro-reset brings up a bouncing Apple screen.
Second, LiSTing a program to an ImageWriter {1
seems impossible, | can LIST to the screen, or print
the output of a program or a CATALOG, but ! can’t
OPEN .PRINTER as a file in immediate mode. In
deferred mode, the error “RESERVED WORD" comes
up when LIST is used in a program.
R.C. Allison
Punta Gorda, Fla.
Dennis responds: The beta version figs BASIC man-
ual is woefully deficient; we've had a copy fora while,
too, but have decided not to review it until a passable
manual surfaces,
‘An example of the manual‘s problems is that file and
device I/O isn’t covered except in the reference sec-
tion descriptions. This means you have to discover
things in bits and pieces. I found one clue for listing a
program under the syntax for the “OUTPUT#" com-
mand. Then | found out that the syntax given for the
OPEN command is incorrect when opening a device.
‘The example given is:
OPEN .CONSOLE, FOR OUTPUT AS #1
The correct syntax includes quotes around the
“filename”:
OPEN “.CONSOLE’, FOR OUTPUT AS #1
That solved, i scanned the GSBASIC.SYS16 program
file with Block.Warden to find out what the other
(unspecified) device names were; | found CONSOLE,
PRINTER, MODEM, NETPTRI, NULL, and MEMBUFR.
NULL is probably a dummy device for sending output
off into the ether, NETPTRI is probably for AppleTalk
devices, and MEMBUFR is described in the GS-BASIC
manual as a "256 byte pseudo-character device” (Tom
says they must mean a “256-byte pseudo character-
device;” he says a pseudo-character would have to be
a character with the high bit set to two).
Anyway, you can get an immediate mode printer
listing like this:
OPEN "PRINYER", FOR OUTPUT AS#L
QOTPOTS#1 : LIST : OUTPOTAO
Clase#L
This is pretty Klunky; what's more, ! haven't figured
out how to get rid of a superfluous linefeed as each
line “wraps” at the printer. You may want to enter the
commands into an EXEC file; | find typing “EXEC
LIST’ is a tot easier than entering the above every
time f want a hardcopy.
J also haven't figured out how to use LIST from with-
in a program. This feature may seem useless, but, for
example, several of the Applesoft programs on the
DOStalk Scrapbook Program Disk LIST themselves
so that the user can see them and Jeam how they work.
The answer to the control-reset situation is trivial.
dust never include any bugs in your program that
would make the program hang. If you do this, you'll
never need controbreset.