Open Apple Vol 5 No 04 MAY 1989

_A2-Central 2) A journal and exchange of Apple II discoveries formerly Open-Apple i; May 1989 Vol. 5, No. 4 ISSN 0885-4017 newstand price: $2.50 photocopy charge per page: $0.15 Desktop video arrives Apple introduced a new ‘genlock’ video card for the Apple lle and Jigs on April 3. Called the Apple Il Video Overlay Card, it allows users to display a full-color NTSC video signal (from a camera, VCR, or video disk) on their computer's screen and to combine color comput- er graphics with the video signal. The combined results are displayed on the computer's screen and can also be recorded on a VCR or broadcast for NTSC television. The card's suggested retail price is $549, The card isn't a ‘frame grabber'-it can't capture video images and store them inside the computer's memory. The only way to save the combined video/graphic images is on video tape. Likewise, the video images themselves can't be manipulated, except for standard TV-like tint and color adjustments. These adjustments are made using VideoMix software that comes with the card in both New Desk Acces- sory (for GS/OS) and stand-alone ProDOS 8 versions. The VideoMix software also provides control over video/graphic mixing, "NTSC’ describes the standard television signal used in North Amer- ica and Japan. Other parts of the world use other video standards. Apple's new card supports only NTSC. The new card can be used in two fundamentally different ways. First, it can be used in a ‘desktop video production" environ- ment. In this usage, the computer and its graphics are used to enhance materials created with a video camera, Enhancements can include the addition of titles, line drawings such as the footbalt-play analysis done by television commentator and former coach John Mad- den, graphics such as logos, or full-blown animation (during develop- ment, Apple employees used code names such as “Roger Rabbit’ and ‘Jessica’ to refer to this card). The second way the card can be used is to turn your computer into a ‘Multimedia Machine’. In this environment, television-quality video images (either still pictures or movie sequences) appear on your com- puter screen. The images that appear are controlled by commands you enter on the keyboard or with a mouse. This environment requires additional hardware and software, however. Required hard- ware, in addition to the video overlay card itself, include a con- trollable video source, such as a video disk player or perhaps some new type of CD-ROM. Required ‘software” would include both some- thing for the computer and something for the video source itself. In a Multimedia Machine environment, your computers monitor can take the place of your television screen, For example, by connect ing a VCR to your Apple ligs, you can watch Roseanne or Indiana Jones on your computer screen, Unfortunately, you can't also hear them, unless you hook your VCR up to your stereo system and turn that on, too, The video overlay card neither captures nor enhances the sound portion of the NTSC signal, but it does pass it through from video-in to video-out. Making the connection. On the ligs, the Apple [1 Video Overlay Card must be installed in slot 3. On the Ile, it may be installed in any slot except 1; slot 3 is recommended. Since the card includes no firmware, it doesn't interfere with the Apple I!'s built-in slot-3 80-col- umn firmware. Two short cables attach to the card. One brings two "RCA phone plug’ jacks to the back panel of the computer (video- in/video-out). The other brings a DB-15 analog RGB. connector to the back panel. If you have an analog RGB monitor, you must disconnect it from its normal position on the back of your ligs and plug it into the card's RGB connector, If you have a composite monitor, you must dis- connect it from its normal position and plug it into either the video- out connector on the card or to the video-out connector on the VCR you intend to record output on (in this case, you must also run a cable from the card's video-out to the VCR's video-in). When used on a Ile, the card can also function as an analog RGB card. In fact, the card can bring Ilgs-quality Super High Resolution graphics to the Ile, but no software has been written to support that feature. The card produces high quality video output and improves the display on both the Apple He and the Ilgs. When the card receives input that meets National Television Systems Committee RS-170A specifications, it produces RS-170A output which can be broadcast for NTSC television. VideoMix. The VideoMix software Apple provides with the card has three functions. First, it allows you to select a "key color’. You can select the key color from a color chart or by pointing to it in your graphic. All other colors are called 'non-key colors’. You create overlays by using the second function of VideoMix to make either the key color or the non-key colors transparent. The video source shows through the transparent colors. You can use VideoMix to independently set both the key and non-key colors to transparent (video shows through), opaque (graphics hide the video), or five levels of translucence (blends of video and graphics). The third function of VideoMix allows you to control the color and tint of the video image as it appears on your computer screen. Graphics for use with the video overlay card can be created with any existing Apple If graphics package. Expect to see these packages slightly enhanced for use with the card, however. For example, most of them need a feature to hide the cursor or mouse pointer. Other software may make more advanced use of the card. For example, the upcoming Hypercard-like HyperStudio from Roger Wagner Publishing will include commands for controlling video-disk players. Markets and Uses. In a press release announcing the product, Apple said it expects the card to be used primarily in elementary and “APPLE COMPUTER To DISCONTINUE APPLE I[,...O:K.,GO WITH IT.” 5.26 A2-Central high schools and in homes, the two markets with the largest installed base of both Apple Il computers and video equipment. The installed base of Apple II computers in homes and schools is almost 5 million machines. According to industry research firm Market Data Retrieval, Inc., 60 percent of the computers in U.S. primary and secondary schools are Apple Il computers, Apple said. According to Talmis, a Link Resources, Inc. subsidiary, 89 percent of U.S. public schools owned VCRs, and 9 percent owned videodisc players in 1988. Nielsen Media Research found 62 percent of U.S, households owned VCRS in- November 1988, and 15.2 percent of those also owned video cam- eras. Additional information about the card will be available from the Apple Programmers and Developers Association. The material will include a technical description of the card's architecture and a description of the Apple II Video 1/0 Toolset. Miscellanea While Apple itself is slowly retreating from the $1 billion-a-year Apple If market around the world, other companies have bequn to understand the potential that an easy share of this market could have on their bottom line. At an online conference on GEnie March 14, rep- resentatives of Laser Computer made it clear that they, at least, are happy with Apple's lack of interest in evangelizing the Apple II. Among other interesting things, the Laser representatives said that all outstanding legal issues between Apple and Laser's mother-compa- ny, Video Technology, had been settled. At the price of some persis- tence, | was able to obtain confirmation from Apple that the lawsuit the companies had been involved in, officially known as Video Tech- nology Computers y. Apple Computer, filed in the Northern District of Illinois, was quietly settled last summer. Apple said that as part of the settlement Video Technology obtained licenses to manufacture com- puters that use Apple Ii technology. Laser currently is importing three A2-compatible models, the origi- nal Laser 128, the Laser 128EX, and the Laser 128EX/2. All three are about the size of the Apple llc, except wider; each has an Apple ILike keyboard, including numeric keypad; and each has a single slot on the left side, The 128EX also includes an accelerator and a built-in memory board (1 meg max). The 128EX/2 adds a clock and a MIDI interface to the EX and gives the buyer a choice of either a 3.5 or 5.25 internal disk drive (other models are restricted to a 5.25 drive). The EX/2 isn't shipping in the U.S. yel, pending FCC certification, Laser also sells MS-DOS computers and other consumer electron- ics. About half its revenue comes from its A2-compatible products. One interesting comment the Laser representatives made was that they could sell separate MS-DOS and A2 machines for much less than a single machine that was compatible with both. Laser has dealers all over the world. There are over a thousand in the U.S, alone, including most Sears stores (550 E. Main St., Lake Zurich, IL 60047 312-540- 8911). Another company going after A2 market share is Zuckerman Computer. Kind of an ‘Applied Engineering’ of the MS-DOS and Tandy worlds, Zuckerman recently bought the rights to the A2 compatibles formerly made by Franklin computer. It has reintroduced them under the trademark Study Mate II (2160 Old Oakland Road, San Jose, CA 95131 408-433-0371), Apple has updated its 15-inch ImageWriter LQ to improve qual- ity and performance in the upper and lower areas of the page. Noise level has also been reduced. Current owners who are experiencing printing or noise problems and who purchased an ImageWriter LQ between August 11, 1987 and March 7, 1989 are eligible to receive a free exchange to the enhanced version. Exchanges are backed by a renewed 90-day warranty. The ImageWriter LQ can print 216 x 216 pixels to the inch whereas the ImageWriter’s maximum resolution is 160 pixels per inch horizontally and 144 pixels per inch vertically. Apple has yet to release a GS/OS printer driver that takes advantage of the additional resolution, however. Suggested retail price on this printer is $1,399. AppleFest update. The east coast AppleFest '89 is May 5-7 at Boston's World Trade Center. I'll be helping out at GEnie's exhibit, as will A2-Central staffer Tom Vanderpool. Tom Hoover, author of GEnie Master, an AppleWorks/UltraMacros/Talk Is Cheap ‘front end’ Vol. 5, No. 4 for quickly and easily accessing information from GEnie with an Apple IL, will also be there. Stop by and say, ‘Hi, Toms!" News from Claris. Claris has decided not to exhibit at Mays Boston AppleFest but will be going to Boston for the National Educa- tional Computing: Conference June 20-22. Claris is sending free updates to all registered AppleWorks GS users this month. The update includes faster printing, better handling of colors and cropping in imported graphics, and an enhanced ‘match records’ command that adds some:of the record selection rules available in AppleWorks. The update disk also includes.a‘stand-alone program for testing RAM chips for CAS before RAS problems, which Claris thinks is the problem at the root of many of the technical support calls it gets regarding AppleWorks GS. Claris also is planning a new educational site licens- ing program for both AppleWorks and AppleWorks GS. Expect an announcement within 90 days. And look for an AppleWorks 3.0 update later this year. Tidbits from Tech Tidbits. Sue Goodin and the technical support gang at Apple's Charlotte office produce an interesting little newsletter we get irregularly here at A2-Central. The last batch reminds us that: + llc or Ilgs users who complain that the letters that appear on their screen don't match the keys they're pressing on the keyboard probably have accidentally changed their keyboard to the Dvorak layout. To fix, press the button called "keyboard on a IIc or change the keyboard ‘option’ in the IIgs contro! panel. « the GS/OS Epson printer driver is supposed to support the RX-80, FX-100, FX-850, FX-1050, LQ-850, LQ-1050, and LX-800 printers. The 'parallel’ driver was designed for the Practical Peripherals Graphic Card (but can also be used with other parallel cards by changing an ID byte, see ‘GS/OS parallel driver’ in our February issue, page 5.6) + unlike the earlier IIc, the Ilc-Plus can use either Apple 3.5 or UniDisk 3.5 drives. Apple 3.5s should be connected first, then UniDisk 3.5s, then 5,25 drives. The Ilc-Plus will support three external drives in almost any combination (with a maximum of two 5,25s among the three, however.) The internal drive is configured to slot 5, drive 1 and can be booted with a PR#5. The first external 3.5 is configured to slot 5, drive 2, The first external 3,5 will boot when you turn on the power or press open-apple/control/reset (but not with PR#5), if the internal 3.5 is empty (great if you use Chinook’s CT-20c hard drive for the IIc). + Under GS/OS, if a 5.25 disk connected to the slot 5 SmartPort chain is write-protected, 3.5 drives appear to be write-protected as well. The opposite is also true. The cause is a bug in the APPLE- DISK5.25 driver. The result is that if you are copying between 5.25 and 3.5 disks using the Finder and you have write-protected the original disk to protect it during the copy process, the Finder will be unable to write to the destination disk because GS/OS will say it's write-protected. Until the bug is corrected, the suggested work around Is to go naked into the world and un-write-protect your orig- inal disk (quip). A number of adapters that allow Apple fs to use RGB color monitors are available from Telemax, P.O. Box 339, Washington, PA 18976 215-343-3000. Among the most interesting are the ‘Peacock’ module for the llc and IIc-Plus, which allows those machines to use either a digital or an analog RGB monitor ($199), and the VGA-1000 video distribution amplifier, which amplifies the ligs analog RGB signal enough to drive one local and up to three remote monitors ($295). Products for the Il-Plus and lle are also available. The adapters appear to be widely used with LCD overhead projector panels (see ‘A new generation of data projection panels,’ November 1988, page 4.74). Kodak. one of the companies behind those overhead projec- tor panels, has also come up with an infrared Apple Desktop Bus remote control. The infrared receiver is about the size of a mouse and plugs into the keyboard on a Ilgs (or Macintosh). The hand-held remote includes a touchtone-phone-like numeric keypad, four arrow keys, and two control keys. The remote transmits ‘up to 35 feet." Kodak developed the device for use with their projection panels during presentations, but it could be used with any type of software that can be controlled with the keys Kodak has made available. (We're not sure what those are, exactly-the dala sheet shows keys marked “menu, ‘sel’, '*', and ‘N' in addition to four arrows and 10 digits. The sheet says "** sends ‘*’ and ‘N’ sends ‘RETURN’, "SEL’ sends a signal to the receiver telling it to wait for the next key to see what to send May 1989 down the ADB," the sheet says. No mention is made of what 'MENU" does, but wouldn't it be wonderful if it sent ‘ESCAPE’? You can go pretty far in the Apple II world with four arrows, RETURN, and ESCAPE, but the Macintosh didn't even have an ESCAPE key until Apple stan- dardized its keyboards.) The device is officially called a Kodak Datashow Presentation Remote, catalog number 828 4671, from the Motion Picture & Audio- visual Division, Eastman Kodak Company, Rochester NY 14650. The internal 3.5 drive on the Apple Iic-Plus can't handle 400K (single-sided) disks. This isn’t a very big deal, since officially all Apple Il 3.5s are double-sided 800K disks. However, part of the infor- mation placed on a disk when its initialized is whether it's single or double sided, so single-sided disks are theoretically possible. The lack of support on the lic-Plus came to light because some versions of Central Point Software's Copy Hi Plus are distributed on single-sided disks. Since the UniDisk 3.5 and the IIgs can handle single-sided disks just fine, thank you, the solution is to copy Central Point's 400K disk from an external UniDisk to the internal IIc-Plus drive, or make a copy ona ligs. GEnie is changing its access charges as of May 1. Day time rates will be reduced nearly 50 per cent, 2400 baud non-prime rates will be reduced 20 per cent, and 1200 baud non-prime rates will be A2Central 5.27 increased 20 per cent. The new price schedule follows: Ginie 0.8. price schedule, effective May 1, 1989 baud rate non-prine prime 300 $S/tour —$18/hour 2200 $6/hour —§$18/our 2400 $10/nour ——$18/howr Non-prime time is 6 pm to 8 am local time, Monday through Friday, and all day on Saturday, Sunday, and holidays. Prime time is 8 am to 6 pm local time, Monday through Friday. The best way to take advantage of the new schedule is to obtain the shareware program GEnie Master, by Tom Hoover, It automatically logs onto GEnie and downloads exactly what you are interested in as quickly as possible. At 2400 baud it doesn't take long, You can then read and use the downloaded material offline, on your own time, using AppleWorks. GEnie Master requires AppleWorks v2.0 or higher and Talk ts Cheap v3.0 or higher. It's available in our library on GEnie—look for uploads by TOM.HOOVER. Hoover will also be demonstrating GEnie Master in GEnie's booth at Boston's Applefest. (And he'll be demonstrating how to write complicated UltraMacros pro- grams like this one at our developer's conference this summer.) Ask {or tell) Uncle DOS Whoops. Get a pencil and make the follow- ing correction/apology to last month's issue, page 5.21. Apple does provide dealers with technical information on changing the battery on the Hgs motherboard in Technical Proce- dures, Apple Hl Family, Volume 1. on page 5.2. The battery contains lithium, which is highly explosive if it comes in contact with water, and should be treated as hazardous waste. Dealers can retum old batteries to Apple for proper disposal. Apple does list llgs batteries separately in its dealer service parts list. Its part number Is #742-0007. One of our subscribers reports being charged $6.72 for a new one (plus a $25 labor charge to solder it in.) The bad news is that Apple doesnt require dealers to have service technicians who know how to solder. Apple makes it the dealer's option to repair dead batteries by soldering in new ones or by replacing the entire mother- board. if your dealer wants to replace your motherboard to fix a dead battery, we highly recommend getting a new dealer or using one of the tips in the following letters. ligs battery follow-up After writing you last month, | repaired my ligs myself by replacing the lithium battery with two AA alkaline balteries. [ purchased a battery holder from Radio Shack, clipped the old bat- tery leads, soldered the leads from the battery holder to the leads on the motherboard, and inserted the batteries. | taped the battery holder down under the power supply. It works great. Next time all I have to do is replace the two AA batteries. Leon Munn Inglewood, Calif. Let us know about how long the alkaline batteries iast between fill-ups. Two AA batteries supply 5.0 volts, which is 20 per cent less than a lithium battery. We can't find any data on what voltage the clock and baltery RAM on the ligs prefer. Apple Il kicks in France I'm well known as a guy who calls a cat a cat and a liar a liar. Many times I've asked Apple France for better support for the Apple II. How- ever, three of the letters you published last month are misleading, A French version of GS/OS isn't available at this time but the U.S. version Is sold by the French APDA clone: D.D.A. Prim'vert 36 rue des Etats Generaux 78000 Versailles, France telephone (1) 48 87 96 18 The UniDisk 3.5 is available in France directly from Apple France or from Brejoux SA. I dont know about the rest of Europe, but the Rev C SCSI ROM is sold in France as a replacement part for about 60 francs. It's diffi- cult to get from retailers but one may order one directly from Apple France. About 100,000 classic Apple IIs were sold in France and about 10,000 Apple Ilgs models, Apple France has published a free book, named Le Guide, that presents all kinds of information for people looking for programs, hardware, books, or other information about the Apple Il. It has.81 pages and says it's the ‘First Edition," allowing us to hope there will be more. Howev- er, So far Apple France has received fewer than 1,000 requests for the book. This low response may convince them that the Apple II market is dead. The llgs battery problem is slightly different here. Relailers generally know that the battery can be changed, but Apple seems to be sur- prised by the number of failures and they are out of stock. The problem isn't specific to the ligs, its the same for the Mac. An additional problem is that these are lithium batteries that must be returned to the vendor when buying a new one (environmental protection rule). For my own use, I've replaced the IIgs battery with three {,2 voll rechargeable batteries. This gives me 3.6 volts which seems to be close enough to the 3.8 volts delivered by the lithium battery. It works fine, it's cheap, and it's easy to reload. Incidentally, a friend of mine got a letter from Claris saying they are not planning to release a French version of AppleWorks GS. Yvan Koenig Vallauris, France Editing ink and SEG.PR After, reading your comments on the Macinker (‘Yorkshire ribbons,’ pages 4.93-4.94), I feel compelled to make a few of my own. | have used a ‘Universal’ Macinker for Epson-type and ImageWriter II ribbons for nearly three years, and | consider it one of my better invest- ments. The multicolor ‘adapter," however, deserves some caveals, Single color ribbons are very forgiving with re-inking errors. The opposite is true of ImageWriter multicolor ribbons. My first and subsequent attempts ended in disaster. The wider ribbon does not ride properly on the ink- ing head, and it ‘creases’ or curls up, neatly applying a color to the wrong band. The inks have different viscosities, which means erratic application to the band. There appears to be no way lo adjust the cassette/ribbon or “adapter' to work properly with my setup. | wrote to Com- puter Friends about this problem in December, and have received no reply. 1 quess it's another 50 bucks down the ‘black hole." On another subject...after updating my Extra Custom Printers utility recently (see December 1987, page 3.87, ‘Multiple custom printers’) to work with AppleWorks v2.1, f discovered a fan- tastic utility that will not only permit three (actually more) custom printers, it will allow one to enter, essentially, any printer option into any printer data table...including proportional print- ing {if you can use the proportional tables in SEG.PR}, slashed zeroes, half-height super/sub- scripts, colors, etc. It will resolve most of the custom printer questions which have appeared repeatedly in your ‘Ask Uncle Dos’ columns. 5.28 A2-Central The utility, written by Nevin Diener, is avail- able on GEnie in a file named SEG.PR.ED- ITOR.BNY. It will work with AppleWorks versions 1,2 through 2.1. This utility belongs in the library of every serious AppleWorks user. Garth Shultz, M.D. Kalamazoo, Mich. Some years ago | noticed that the printer head on my MX-80 makes a track about 20 per cent of the width of the ribbon, which does not have the Moebius twist. Once, when a ribbon began to grow faint, | thought maybe | could get more from it by twisting the exposed part of the ribbon and winding it back into the cartridge. i did succeed in printing on the other edge of the ribbon, but the printing was no darker. | con- cluded that, in normal usage, capillary action distributes the ink uniformly, so you don't really gain much by using the other edge. So | bought a Macinker, with the same highly satisfactory experience you describe. Paul Nix Summit. NJ. Yorkshire revisited Thanks for publishing my letter in your Jan- uary issue. I've had requests for the Cirtech reviews from France and Brazil and a reader in Australia sent an answer to my problem with the ImageWriter LQ black ribbon. This validates the theory that every problem with an Apple computer has probably already been solved by someone else and that many users already know the answers to other people's problems. That's the real value of A2-Central. It turns oul the problem with my printer was that the tab on a black ribbon was touching the ribbon-type microswitch sensor but not depress- ing it. I adjusted the position of the switch and the automatic ribbon shifting started working correctly. The best part is that a friend who lives only five miles away and who subscribes to A2- Central saw my letter and gave me the name of a Scotsman living in Yorkshire who reinks rib- bons for £1.50 each plus postage-Jack Birse, 178 Long Lee Lane, Keighley, West Yorks BD21 ATT England. | sent one and it came back print- ing denser than a new ribbon. Geoff Wood Stockport, U.K. We've leamed a few more details about how the LQ's ribbon shifting works. Apparently the shift from the top part of the ribbon to lower positions occurs on a page-by-page basis. When you turn the printer off, it restarts at the top of the ribbon. People who print nothing but a page or two each time they turn their printer ‘on might do better to leave the printer on all the time so it can remember what part of the ribbon to print on next. (And don't miss the announcement about Apple's ImageWriter LQ exchange program in this month's Miscel- lanea.) 31 days hath October The ProDOS FST on GS/OS System Disk 4.0 refuses to recognize dates greater than 30. This can be a problem in months that have 31 days. Here's a patch that fixes the problem. From the Applesoft prompt, enter: PORE 768, 32 BSAVE /your.sysdisk.name/SYSTEM/FSTS/PRO.FST, ‘SBD, A768, L1, B§5CD Dont do this to the original copy of your Sys- tem Disk 4.0; you'll want that as a backup in case something goes wrong. | take no responsi- bility for the consequences if you type my patch wrong! Actually, | take no responsibility for it even if you type it right, but it works for me. David Lyons North Liberty, lowa Fonts and classic Apples With so much attention to the llgs these days, sometimes I'm not sure what applies to the Ile. Februarys article on fonts is a qood example. | assume your collection of fonts is strictly for the IIgs and wont work on my Ile. If fm mistaken, let me know, Joe M. Steele lowa City, lowa Is the Font Doctor program you mention in your February issue also for the Apple Ilc? What's the price? Franz Lindau Bern, Switzerland For about an hour after receiving my A2- Central February issue and disk | was in hog heaven converting all the fonts I've collected for use with MultiScribe so they'd also work with Publish {t! But what a great disappointment at printout time. All the characters in the fonts | converted were much narrower under Publish it! than they had been with MultiScribe. Is there any software that can make the necessary adjustments? Bobby Adrian Key West, Fla. Software is available for classic Apples that uses standard ‘Iigs* fonts, so our fonts article is relevant to He and Ilc owners. For example, Superfonts from Beagle Bros allows you to duplicate ‘Macintosh’ output on an ImageWrit- er, using an Apple Ile or llc (or ligs}, Apple- Works, and standard font files. Publish It! is another program for classic Apples that can use standard fonts (only a file-type change is required). Font Doctor, however, is a ligs-only pro- gram. But since our February issue was pub- lished we've discovered a ProDOS 8 font editor that will work on a Ue or lic. It's a shareware program and we included it on our April disk. The shareware fee is $20 (this doesn’t include a disk or shipping). The author is John Thomas, 38 Sunnybrae Blvd, Trenton, NJ. 08620. Those tall-skinny characters you get when printing with Publish It! are a result of the tall- skinny 11:5 pixels we have on the Apple Ul. Most ligs fonts are Macintosh conversions and were originally designed to look good with that machine's square !:1 fonts. MultiScribe lets you print at I: but it cant show you exactly what that will look like on the screen, Publish Itt, on the other hand, prints at 11:5 and dupli- cates what's on the screen exactly, What we need are more 11:5 fonts-fonts designed to look good when displayed with Apple Il pixels that are a little more than twice as high as they are wide-and fewer 1:1 Macintosh conver- sions. Our February fonts article explains all this in more (maybe too much?) detail. image manipulations I recently purchased Publish it! from Time- Works. | am considerably impressed with the capabilities of the program. My problem is that I Vol. 5, No. 4 have been trying to convert my numerous vol- umes of Print Shop graphics for use with Pub- lish It! | have been able to convert Print Shop graphics to high-res and then to ProDOS, but when viewed or printed by Publish It! the graph- ics are elongated. Do you know of a process or program to meet my needs? Keith Schlenker FPO New York Publish It! 2, the new version of the pro- gram (see February, page 5.7) includes the ability to import Print Shop graphics directly from DOS 3.3 disks. The Big Red Computer Club sells a program called GAP ($9.95) that can read DOS 5.5 Print Shop graphics and convert them to Pro- DOS single- or double-high-res. We don't know if it solves the distortion problem. The Novem- ber 1988 issue of Washington Apple Pi's newsletter includes a patch to GAP that inverts the graphics so they become dark lines on a white background. The neatest solution we've found, though, is The Graphics Exchange, by John MacLean, from Roger Wagner Software. It can read virtu- ally any Apple graphic file-whether DOS 3.3, ProDOS, or Macintosh MacPaint (including Print Shop, Print Shop GS, Newsroom cli- part, and Newsroom photos)-and convert to any other format (except Macintosh). It allows you to clip a portion out of a graphic, to rescale a graphic, to invert colors in a graphic, and to drop out background colors. it does require a 768K minimum ligs; however. For further information, see this month's A2-Cen- tral catalog, Self-made hard drives 1 would like to add to the generic hard drive discussion (‘An introduction to SCSI,’ December 1988, page 4.85; "Yes, you can do a low-level format of SCSI hard disks," January 1989, page 4.90; ‘Some stuff about SCSL* February 1989, page 5.7). Acting on the recommendation of one of your readers, | purchased a drive case from the Tulin Corporation in San Jose. Although most of the comments were true, other readers might be interested in several things { found out the hard way. The Tulin cases do not come with all the nec- essary hardware and cables that you will need (the AC power cord is optional as well as the brackets and connectors needed for a two-drive installation). However, these items are available at extra cost. What does come with the Tulin case is an internal SCSI cable, which is no more than a couple of standard connectors and a short piece of ribbon cable to run between the hard drive assembly and an external connector on the back panel of the Tulin case. Although a 30-watt power supply can handle two drives, it will be running near maximum output, which is a well-documented cause of power supply failure. If you intend to run two drives now or in the future, Tulin recommends a 65-watl power supply, which, incidentally, is the only one they had in stock when | called to place my order. Using the Tulin case requires a slight modifi- cation of the drive assembly. Although it's a simple modification, it could void the warranty. If you buy a drive assembly from Tulin they will do the modification for you, however, their drive prices are higher than other sources. May 1989 One point on which | differ with other com- ments is the appearance of the case. I can't call it beautiful’, it's functional at best. The appear- ance is ruined by a poorly designed front cover assembly. This consists of two pieces of stamped sheet metal held together crudely with two screws and spacer washers, which form a full-length quarter-inch gap in the center of the front panel. | assume the gap is for cooling. The power switch is located in this gap as is the power-on LED (the square LED is glued in place and one must take care not to break off the pro- truding leads). The front panel is held onto the rest of the case with three screws, which incidentally are the screws that must be removed to gain access to anything inside the case. These screws get covered by a decal supplied by Tulin. As the instructions that came with the case state, make sure everything works before applying the decal. If you want your finished drive to look homebrew or if you plan to hide it out of sight these concerns may not be important. I called Tulin to express my displeasure and discovered they do not accept returns of mer- chandise, period. They would repair any item that did not work under warranty, however. [ Offered to pay a restocking fee, no dice. There are other manufacturers selling less expensive drive cases. Wetex International (213-728-3119) has an ad in Computer Shopper offering a dual-drive case with 60-watt power supply for $79 versus Tulin's price tag of $169. Lou Wozniak Albany, N.Y. I have successfully put together a SCSI 64- meg drive for my Iigs, thanks to your newsletter. You might be interested in my experiences. In looking for a hard drive, | spent consider- able time reviewing information on various drives. Seagate was kind enough to send me a catalog (408-438-6550, 800-468-3472}. Although Seagate drives are not the very cheapest, they have been around a long time and have a very good reputation, This is impor- tant as | expect to have it many years and it will probably need repair someday, Seagate pro- vides a one-year warranty on all their products. Also, there are many people who will repair a bare Seagate drive and a generic power supply. The cheapest possible drive would be a 20- meg unit (ST-225N), which would run around $300. A 43-meg unit (ST-251N) would cost around $400. Although | didn't need so much storage, I settled on a 64-meg, 28 ms $T277N, at about $450, from LYCO Computers In central Pennsylvania (717-494-1670, 800-233-8760). They were recommended by the Seagate repre- sentative and were very easy to deal with. The drive came within a week and was sup- plied with a 12 inch cable and MS-DOS parti- tioning software. Instructions were simple and clear. The hardest part of building a drive turned ‘out to be selecting the case. I settled on the Apple Hive by Tulin Corp in San Jose (408-4352- 9025). This is a very nice unit, which is about the same size and color as the. ligs. They have sold many units for the IIgs and knew all-about it. The case comes with an internal cable, a back panel unit number switch set, a 30-watt power supply, quiet fan, on/off switch, and indi- cator light. (They said to hook up the indicator light to the drive, but | didn't want to remove the circuit board and clip the LED leads, so [ just hooked up the light as a power on indica- tor) The only trouble with the Tulin unit is that it's expensive-over $170 delivered. While the Apple Hive itself was only $119, I also spent $25 on a 6-foot SCSI cable, $4 on an (optional!) AC power cord, $20.21 on freight, and $6.57 on a bank card surcharge. They said there was a two-week back order and it was delivered in 15 days. Another possibility would be a power supply and cabinet from Walker Electronics in Dallas (214-339-8003). They'll provide a unit with cables and shipping for under $120. I got my Apple SCSI card from a Columbus Apple dealer for $129. They are hard to find-a special order would probably take five to six weeks, Its amazing just how fast my drive is. GS/OS loads in a few seconds. Although | have Pro- SEL-16, the Finder is almost as fast, easier to use, and it will run in 512K-which ProSEL won't. The Finder is a fairly good program selector, but a really great file utility. It excels at copying and moving files and programs. An Apple ligs with a 28 ms drive is much faster than the IBM.ATs [ have used. The only time that the AT would have an advantage would be in calculating a large spreadsheet or some other CPU-bound process. The only thing that still takes a signifi- cant amount of time is to return from ProDOS 8 to GS/OS. Ihave no use for 60-meg of space at present. | have loaded all of my programs and data files~ over 350 files-and have used only 10 per cent of the space. It is unlikely that ['l use much more unless 1 get into desktop publishing or sound, as graphics and sound data files take up a lot of space. Backing up the disk takes some time, however, the Apple Backup II program that comes with the SCSI card is very nice. It allows incremental backups and restoring of individual files. To get a system up and running, A2-Cen- tral's low-level disk format program is essential (January, page 4.90; also on our February disk- OTHER.PROGS/SMARTPORT.SCSI). If you have a ligs, you can then boot a system disk that includes Apple's SCSI.DRIVER in the SYSTEM/ DRIVERS subdirectory, use the GS/OS Advanced Disk Utilities to format (a second time-this puts ‘on the directories) and partition the drive, and then use the Installer to put GS/OS (don't forget SCSI.DRIVER) on the drive. Reboot and watch (dont wait): Power on to Finder 37 sec Finder to AppleWorks @ sec return to Finder 30 sec ProSEL-16 to Appleworks 9 sec returo to ProsEl-16 18 sec Ken Lessing Fresno, Ohio As you use more and more subdirectories on your 64-meg drive, ! suspect you'll be less and less happy with the Finder as a file utility. Copying a flie that's several subdirectories down on one disk to a subdirectory that’s sev- eral levels down on another disk can be trying~ newly opened subdirectory windows inevitably cover up one of the subdirectory windows you want to drag something to or from. Yes, you can solve this by moving windows around, but simply selecting the subdirectories you want from the trees that ProSEL and Copy Hl Plus offer is much easier. I purchased a complete hard drive from Tulin A2-Central 5.29 Corp. They sold me a 65-meg drive ‘kit’ which was already assembled and included cables, cabinet, formatting software and Apple's SCSI card, currently unavailable through dealers and mail order, at several hundreds of dollars less than comparable drives from leading manufac- turers, | don't know what I'll ever do with all that Space but give me time, Serendipity played its hand, for the May issue of A+, which includes an article about hard drives, arrived the day after the drive and before | could get it to operate {I had received a bad cable which Tulin promptly replaced; my knowing how to check continuily didn't hurt their response.) The cover story, ‘Home Brew Hard Drive," by Owen Linzmayer and Tim McGraw, pages 38-41, contained downright essential information for anyone wanting to know about hard drives. Not only did they review the very drive | purchased, but they wrote an excellent piece on formatting, They pointed oul that Apple's Advanced Disk Utilities by itself is a poor tool for low-level for- matting, a necessary first step in setting up the drive. They recommended two programs by Joe Jaworski, Hacker and DisktimerGS; Jaworskis files are available on GEnie (check for uploads by JVJAWORSKI) and CompuServe (73307, 310). Hacker allows choosing any interleave ratio for the drive where Advanced Disk Utility has few options; DisktimerGS tests the inter- leave, After using Hacker and DisktimerGS, then use Advanced Disk Utility for partitioning and high-level formatting, Hacker requires Apple's SCSI card. For no good reason | partitioned my hard disk into four sections and then discovered some limitations. My SCSI card is in Stot 7 and I boot from Scan. I have a 3.5 drive in $5, DI. a 5.25 in $6, DI, and /HARDI in S7, DI, /HARD2 in S7, D2. AppleWorks and Copy Il Plus will not recognize /HARD3 or /HARD4, but Prosel-16 will. If] put the SCSI card in Slot 5 then all parti- tions are recognized in slots 5 and 2, but my 3.5 drive disappears. Are /HARD3 and /HARD4 wasted space? Can you recommend a better configuration? Quentin Packard Troy, N.Y. GS/OS programs, such as ProSEL-16, can handle any number of disk ‘devices" or parti- tions per slot. ProDOS 8 (and software that runs under it, such as AppleWorks and Copy Il Plus) can handle only two per slot, except for slot 5. if more than two devices are found in slot 5, ProDOS 8 will ‘remap’ the third and fourth devices to slot 2. You can save /HARDS and /HARD4 for GS/OS files, or you can reparti- tion your drive so it has just two partitions. fm_ building a hard disk drive as you described in December (‘An introduction to SCSI" pages 4.85-4.86). Do you have any ideas ‘on how to park the heads before shut down? I am going to use a Seagate ST-277N. Lawrence E. Hott Dallas, Texas The ST-277N includes automatic ‘head park- ing’ so you dont need to do anything special before turning the unit off. AppleWorks and big RAMcards The problem you encountered with Apple- Works 2.1 crashing after you added more than two megabytes of memory to your standard-slot memory card (February, page 5.6) isn't new. It's 5.30 A2-Central been lurking inside AppleWork's. initialization routine since support for this type of memory card was introduced in AppleWorks 1.3. In a nutshell, the program expects the card to be formatted as a ProDOS disk, but provides for no more than one volume bitmap block. This means AppleWorks imposes an artificial limit of 4,096 blocks or...you guessed it...2 megabytes. Even ff the disk's volume header shows more than 4,096 blocks, AppleWorks still tries to use the same volume bitmap block. I can't give you all the gory details as to the manner of death, but I'm sure it's painful. The code that sets up the file SYS.DESKTOP is quite large, over 1K, and would require major surgery to fix this. John D. Smyth Blackburn, Vic. (Pssst, Claris, if you're listening-it's not really necessary to patch AppleWorks so it can use more than 2 megabytes for its desktop. What- ever memory is left in the first volume bitmap block is plenty for SYS.DESKTOP. Just don't crash on us when there's even more memory there. And Pssst, TimeWorks, if you're listening- -why did you also calf your desktop-expansion file SYS.DESKTOF? You may think people can't run AppleWorks and Publish It! at the same time, but with SoftSwitch you can and it would be neat. In your next revisions, in addi- tion to support of 4- (or even 16-) meg slinky- type cards, we'd like to see users have the abil- ity to specify how much expanded RAM your programs should grab-rather than you Just grabbing it all-and more original names for the desktop files. Thanks.) llc upgrade routes Town a lic and would like to double its mem- ory and speed it up. To date I haven't modified it in any way. Applied Engineering sells two memory enhancement packages for the llc, RamExpress and Z-Ram Ultra, Which one would you suggest? Does RamExpress have a Zip Chip? Robert Waldo APO Miami None of the Applied Engineering products you mention includes a Zip Chip or other type of accelerator. You'll have to buy that separate- ly. Either a Zip Chip or a Rocket Chip will work in any lic except the Hic-Plus, which is already accelerated. Applied Engineering's 2-Ram Ultra series comes in three models. Ultra 1 is a memory card only, 512K maximum. Ultra 2 includes memory and a clock, 1 megabyte maximum. Ultra 3 has memory, a clock, and adds CP/M capability to your Hc, 1 meg maximum. (Applied Engineering also sells a card called Z- 80c that adds CP/M capability to a Ilc, but includes no memory or clock.) The Ultra cards are software compatible with Applied Engineering's RamWorks cards for the fle. These cards use the Ile's ‘auxiliary slot’. Our experience is that users have more diffi- culty taking advantage of this memory than memory on ‘standard slot’ cards, such as Applied Engineering's RamFactor for the He. Since RamExpress is software compatible with the easier-to-use RamFactor, we lean toward it. Applied Engineering also has a clock option available for RamExpress. lc-Plus users, inci- dentally, have no choice. They must go with RamExpress, as the Ultra series of cards won't work in that machine, RamExpress, however, does require a lic with an intemal memory expansion connector. Early ic’s didnt include one of these. To figure out if your lic has one, type the following at the Applesoft ')’ prompt: PRINT PEEK(64447). If the number that is printed is 255 or 0, you dont have one (your Apple dealer can upgrade your machine for you, however-last time we checked the upgrade was still free), If it's 3, 4, or 5, you already have an internal connector and don't need a motherboard upgrade. If it's anything else, you either typed the command in wrong, you're not using a lic, or the future has caught up with us. Checkmate Technology also makes a memo- ry-only aux-slot type card for the lic called the Multikam CX, 1 megabyte maximum. Check- mate is designing a RamExpress-like card for the internal lfc connector, but shipments wont Start till much later this year. Chinook IIc hard drive, cont. What do you mean (December, page 4.86- 4.87) when you write ‘If you trade your IIc later, Chinook can turn its CT-20c into a regular SCSI drive for you’? Could | put a stamp on my IIc, mail it to Chinook, and have them build a true SCSI host adapter into it instead of SmartPort? What changes must be made to get the Chi- nook hard ‘disk running on SCSI and SmartPort? My dream is to work in my office on my Ilc with a Chinook hard disk and then on weekends connect it to my Ife (with a SCSI card) at home. Is it possible to make such a modification, so this device will be switchable between Smart- Port and SCSI? Thomas Guth Ansbach, West Germany Chinook's CT-20c is a SCSI drive at heart. Chinook has developed a SmartPort fo SCSI converter that they build into the drive. Thus, turning a CT-20c into a true SCSI hard disk is a simple matter of removing this board, We sus- pect that building the card into the Uc rather than the drive is infeasible from either a tech- nical or marketing standpoint, if not both, but only, time will tell for sure, The simple solution to your problem is to buy a UniDisk 3.5 controller, rather than a SCSI card, for your lie. You can connect the CT-20c to that (or to the SmartPort drive con- nector on the figs) and it will work fine. Howev- er, the speed is closer to that of a 3.5 drive than that of the typical hard drive. If your pri- mary goal is to amass a lot of data on one device (rather than speed), this is an easy solu- tion. The CT-20c is smaller than the binder you keep your back issues of A2-Central in, so it’s very easy to move around if you buy an extra set of cables. You'll have to ask Chinook if they can provide a drive with a 220 volt power sup- ply (601 Main St, #655, Longmont, CO 80501 503-678-5544 800-727-5544), We havent tried our CT-20c on a He, but its worked flawlessly on a fic, a llc-Plus, and a Jigs. (But GS/OS currently has a problem with the CT-20c if it's the second drive on the ligs SmartPort chain; expect this to be fixed in upcoming versions of GS/OS.) Desktop video/llc power What software and hardware is available for the IIgs that can generate and mix text and graphics with a video source to create video titles and credits that can be recorded on stan- dard video equipment? How about software to Vol. 5, No. 4 produce and scroll large-sized text to simulate a teleprompter? Could you provide me with the pin diagrams for the IIc back-panel power input, its power consumption specifications, and a source for the plug itself? Also, what products are avail- able to make a llc completely portable? Keith Gillette St Croix Falls, Wisc. Apple's new Apple H Video Overlay Card, mentioned elsewhere in this issue, is a good lgs solution to the graphics/video mixing prob- lem, Any software that can create screen images of the text you want will work with Apple's card. Apple's card also works with the Ile. Similar, but more expensive, cards for the Ile ($1,795) and Il-Flus ($1,695) are made by Video Associ- ates Labs, 5933 Steck Ave, B109, Austin, Texas 78759 512-346-5781, Two sources for teleprompter software are John Stanley, 208 Charter Oaks Circle, Los Gatos, CA 95030 408-374-1235 and Beacon Software, P.O. Box 751, Milwaukee, WI 535201 414-355-4460, Staniey provides teleprompter services to video production companies in the San Francisco area using Apple ll-based equip- ment; he sells software and plans for building teleprompters using Apple's discontinued Small-screen Ifc monitors.. Beacon makes two products called AUTOPrompter+ ($295, 64K) and AUTOPrompter Deluxe (v2.0, $375, 128K). The deluxe version includes a word processor for writing scripts in two columns and ‘story list management’ software that allows you to bring up scripts in any order onto the teleprompter (used, for example, by radio stations for on-air advertising scripts). The word processor, AUTO- Scripter, is available separately for $95. According to Apple's Peripheral interface Guide, the 7-pin IIc power connector works like this: Pin § Signal —_Deseripticn 1 « no connection 2 oD signal ground 3 signal ground 4 sD shield ground 5 HBV #15 volts Dc 6 +1v +15 volts DC 1 WC ‘no connection No figure is given for power consumption, but a look at one of our {lc power bricks reveais the output rating is 15 volts DC, 1.2 amps, 18 watts. Since I've successfully used the lic for long periods plugged into a cars 12 volt cigarette lighter, 1 suspect the lic can adapt to a range of voltages. For the latest information and prices on making the IIc portable, including where to get the power supply connector, contact Roger Coats, P.O, Box 171466, San Diego, CA 92117 619-274-1253, AppleTalk questions I notice you sell AppleTalk connectors, What good are they for individuals? How do you write programs that use AppleTalk? Will an Applesoft program that prints using the PR#! command work with an AppleTalk printer? Jeff imig Normal, Ill. If you want to set up an AppleTalk network you need a ‘connector’ for each machine in the May 1989 network, The prices on Apple's own connectors and cables are amazing. We sell cheaper con- nectors that don't require special cables (interi- or telephone cable from a hardware store works fine). If you only have one computer, an AppleTalk network is pretty useless, They make sense for attaching several ligs comput- ers to one printer, particularly if the printer is an expensive LaserWriter that you can only afford one of. You can aiso use He's, but not Uc’s, on an AppleTalk network, but that requires a $249 Apple. Workstation Card in each Ile (enhanced Iie's only). The lgs has AppleTalk built in and doesnt require this card. LaserWriters also have AppleTalk built in. ImageWriters dont. For $139, however, you can get a card for your imageWriter that adds this ability. We tried a simple AppleTalk network in our office that included an ImageWniter, a ilgs, and a Macintosh SE. It worked, but it was impracti- cal for us because AppieTalk on the ligs enables some interrupts that conflicted with various software packages and because it effectively used two slots on the ligs. On the ligs, your programs print over AppleTalk just as with any other printer, but you must change your PR# command to PR#7 (instead of PR#I) because AppleTalk ‘appears’ in slot 7. For addi- tonal information, see our March 1988 issue, page 4.11. There are other ways to attach several com- puters to one printer besides AppleTalk. A number of companies make ‘automatic printer switches’ that can monitor a number of com- puters (usually up to 4 or 8) and automatically connect any computer that's trying to print to the printer. These switch boxes use the stan- dard serial connections on your computers and printers. Cables are relatively inexpensive, but are more complicated than AppleTalk to install. We've also set up a network using one of these; it includes an ImageWriter, a Ile, a Iic, a ligs, and Macintosh SE. None of the comput- ers ‘knows’ the switch is in use, so we've expe- rienced zero compatibility problems. AppleTalk can attach more computers to a printer (and can handle multiple printers as well), is a little Jess expensive. and is a lot easier to install than an automatic printer switch. Nonetheless, the printer switch solved our printer-sharing problem to our satisfaction; AppleTalk didn't. For more information, see “Mini-8 ImageWriter dealers’ in our October 1988 issue, page 4.70. You can also use an AppleTalk network to share a hard disk among several computers (see April 1988, page 4.17). This requires a Macintosh and AppleShare File Server 2.0 soft- ware. We're tentatively trying this system out now and comparing it to other methods of sharing a hard drive and its files among several computers, More on this another time. Guess who answered 911 I solved my problem with the Ilgs Fatal Sys- tem Error 0911 (July 1988, page 4.47) by buy- ing an IBM power supply ($70) and an IBM XT case ($35) and rebuilding the igs inside it. Steffan Plotnek Northfield, Mass. We havent heard of a definitive Apple solu- tion to the 911 error, but users have reported good results by either adding a cooling fan or changing to a more robust power supply. Modem skips characters My Applied Engineering modem keeps drop ping letters in received transmissions. What can Ido? Joel Weddig Waltham, Mass, This is a.common problem that has nothing to do with your modem. What you need to do is get enhanced ROMs for your Apple lle. The enhanced ROMs support interrupts better, and good interrupts will prevent characters from getting lost on their way into your computer. Lego vs. Fischer I was delighted to see more about Logo in your December issue (page 4.92). | am only mildly dismayed at your slim Logo coverage, because it was in your newsletter that | learned of both LCSI and ICCE (October 1987, page 3.70), for which | am grateful. These firms spe- cialize in Logo whereas you cover the entire Apple Orchard. The people at ICCE are very helpful with one’s problems. Maybe that's why you don't hear much from Logo sloggers. 1 was particularly interested in your further reference to Lego TC Logo. | have not bought it, because the price ‘makes me wince’ also (July 1987, page 5.45.}. This raises a very curious issue. Fischertech- nik also has a computer kit with interface, soft- ware (using Basic) and special pieces. 1 have purchased this kit-it's complete cost was $190, compared to the $450 you quoted for Lego's. It works fine and includes enough parts to make a preprogrammed robot, With a few additional parts | built a model that played a mean game of TicTacToe. The interface has eight digital and two analog inputs, which makes it powerful for many applications. A version of the Fischertechnik kit is also advertised as available in either Terrapin or LCSI Logo. | don't know the price because their dealers seem very slow to answer inquiries. | really want to know because ! like LCS! Logo very much, and | can hardly wait to crank up my Fischertechnik interface using Logo. But here is the mystery of mysteries. For $190 I got a big box of special parts plus an Apple II interface with four motor outputs (DC, polarity reversible), eight digital inputs, and two analog inputs. The higher-priced Logo interface has one fewer motor output (also DC and reversible) and just two inputs for sensors. Keith Cameron Spring Hill, Fla. The March 7th issue of the Wall Street Jour. nal had a major front page article on the Lego- Logo connection. The author gives a complete overview of where both Lego and Logo came from and how they got together. Incredibly, the article goes on for over 50 column inches with- out once mentioning the Apple I by name-it's just a ‘computer’. AppleWorks numbering, again When printing out a long text file~over 100 pages-with AppleWorks 2.1, the page incre- A2-Central 5.31 ments went 49, 49, 306, 51, 52. This has hap- pened to me twice now. The first time | thought I had done something wrong. This time I'm cer- tain that it's a bug in the program. Has anyone else run across the anomaly? Sidney A. Powers Valencia, Calif. We've heard about odd page numbering on long documents with previous versions of AppleWorks, but we've never been able to con- sistently replicate it. it's a difficult bug to catch because it fakes so much time and paper to est. If you have a file that will produce the bug consistently {particularly when printing to the screen as well as on paper} by all means, send it to Claris, I'm sure theyil be very interested. Apple-Mac file conversion At home I have an Apple tlc and at work | have a Mac SE. | often write things at home on the IIc that I'd like to take in to work the next day and print, using MacWrite. I'm looking for a program that can translate AppleWorks files to MacWrite files without losing all the layout infor- mation. I know I can print the AppleWorks document to a text file and then convert this to Macintosh format using Apple File Exchange (one of the Macintosh system utilities), but there must be a better solution that doesn't lose all the underlin- ing, indentations, and so on. Mario von Allman Ennetbuergen, Switzerland Are you aware of any translator file that can be used with Apple File Exchange on the Macin- tosh to convert AppleWorks word processor files to a Mac word processor such as MacWnite, or Microsoft Word? My schools LaserWriter is hooked up only to a Mac. Alan Hirshfeld Newton Highlands, Mass. The company that wrote Microsoft Works for Microsoft also wrote an Apple File Exchange translator that translates from Apple- Works to Microsoft Works without losing for- matting. Since its to Microsoft's advantage to limit the usefulness of AppleWorks, the transla- tor only goes one way-it won't transfer Microsoft Works files back to AppleWorks for- mat. Claris would be wise to provide a two-way translator for its Apple f/Macintosh products simply for competitive reasons, but hasnt done so that we're aware of. GS/OS damage detectors In your March issue a reader says that GS/OS sends ‘false messages that my disk is damaged” (page 5.13}. In fact, GS/OS is almost certainly detecting problems with one or more directo- ries, problems that are missed or ignored by ProDOS 8. For example, if the backward chain pointer to the previous directory is invalid, then QS/08 will complain, but ProDOS 8 will not. [ have found other such errors, but | cannot remember the exact details. The bottom line is that GS/OS is probably telling the truth. | have (very rarely) seen circumstances where reboot ing was enough to clear the problem (ie. memo- ty had been corrupt, not the disk), but if the problem still exists after a reboot, then copy the files to another disk under ProDOS 8 as soon as Possible (or maybe use a directory fixer such as FIXCAT from Bag of Tricks), It's worth noting that even ProDOS 8 had sim- ilar foibles. Once | couldn't understand why an apparently good disk wouldn't boot under Pro- 5.32 A2-Central DOS 6 (I think the symptom was that it could not find a .SYSTEM file that was present). The answer was that despite the fact that there were only three or four files on the disk, all four directory blocks were being checked for validity ad the fourth directory block had invalid data in it. Peter Watson Box Hill North, Vic. Now what do | do? In your January issue you say, ‘If you get an 1/O error...you'll have prepared your disk for slow but sure destruction, file by darker recesses of my mind somethi to correlate this with one or more inexplicable happenings for which | could find no reason at the time. Soooo-the first thought that comes to mind is, why don't you tell us what to do about it. It's kind of frightening to know you might be setting yourself up for a real headache and only be left with the ‘now what?" feeling. Keith Whaley Los Angeles, Calif. You need only worry (about this bug, any- how) if the 1/0 ERROR happens during an attempt to DELETE a file. Nonetheless, we should have added to the origina! report that ProSEL's Mr.Fixit will verify and fix the volume structure if it happens, Or you can simply use any file-copy program to move all the files except the one you were trying to delete to a new disk, Then erase the old one. A2-Central : © Copyright 1989 by A2-Central Moet nights resarved. Al programe published in A2Cemtral are pubic comain ard may be coped and dried witout aye, Aap user groups and sgrifcant others may obaan permission fo repdrt aris fom ime Wo me by specie wien request. ‘Wate, ected, and published by: Tom Weishaar with Relp trom: Dennis Doms Sally Dwyer Dianne Plumberg Tom Vanderpool Steve Kelly Joyce Hammond Dean Esmay Jean Welshaar A2-Central —ed Open Apple trough January, 1988—Nas been pab- Ished morthly since Jaruayy 1965. Workbwre prices (n US. doles: ar elvery induced a no ackitonal charge): $28 for 1 year S54 or 2 years: $78 or 2 years. Al bark ssuas are curently avaebl for $2 each bounc, edexed Fons of our tet out volumes are $1495 each. Yolanes enc withthe dary issue an ie fe ps voU ince wh the February issue “The fl text ofeach issue ot A2-Cemtralis avalabo on 3.5 disks. along witha selection ofthe best new public domain ard shareware lies ad of0- ara, for $84 a year (newseter and disk combina). Single disks are $10 send al correspondence io A2-Central P.O. Box 11250 Overland Park, Kansas 66207 U.S.A. A2-Central i sid in an unproiected lormat fr your convenience. You se encouraged to make back-up archival copes or easy o-ead enlarged copes for your own use witout charge. You ay a0 copy A2-Central or <srbuton others. The distribution eis 15 certs per page pe cony i- trite WARRANTY AND LIMITATION OF LIABILITY. | warrant that ost of he inlormalion in A2-Cendrals useful and cores, athough drvet and mis- tokas are indded from ke to Irmo. usualy uristentonaly, Unsaid subscribers may cancel ther subscipden at any bme and receive @ full relund of thet last subscrision payment. The unfiled portion of any pad subscnplion wil ba refunded evento salisfod subscribers ypon request. MY LIABILITY FOR ERRORS AND OMISSIONS 1S LIMITED TO THS PUBLICATION'S PURCHASE PRICE, Inro case shal | or my coritibutors be liable for any incdenial or consequential dartages. nor fr ANY dam ages in excess ofthe fas pad bya subscribe’, ISSN 0805-4017 GEnie mail: A2-CENTRAL Printed in the U.S.A. 913-469-6502 International situation, cont. | bought a ligs here in Australia in November. GS/OS wasn't supplied. I just purchased it. The Australian price was $99-about $80 U.S. Per haps one of your sources can explain the amaz- ing markups for Apple Australia products. It's enough to drive you to purchase overseas! T.C. Dawbarn Spring Bluff, Qld, We in Japan second the concerns expressed by you and your readers. All Apple Il and Macin- tosh owners ought to write Apple urging them to support all Apple computers. Lack of support means loss of sales and defection of loyal Apple owners. This means a weaker company and less interest on the part of third-party developers. Urge Apple to support the Il and Mac worldwide. Ron St. Pierre Kobe, Japan | am the proud owner of an Apple fle but lately I'm becoming more disenchanted with Apple USA. | had planned on upgrading my Ile to a Iigs, but after hearing how Apple is aban- doning the Apple li in Europe | wonder what's next. So I'm giving the Commodore Amiga seri- ous consideration. Michael Hall Rancho Cucarrorga, Calif. The problem of lack of Apple II support (April, page 5.23-5.24) exists right here in the U.S,, too. | tried to buy a LaserWriter for my Ile and every dealer [ talked to-even Apple computers ‘technical support’ line-told me it wouldn't work, One dealer refused outright to sell me the printer even after | assured him | knew how to operate it with my system. The technical people at Apple and another dealer told me a Ile could- nt do PostScript! So | went out and bought a NEC PostScript printer for my Apple [le and am having a ball with it. It turned out to be a hecku- va lot cheaper than Apple's anyhow. Rumor has it that the next flgs will be the last Apple Il and that the Apple Ii line will be discon- tinued within a year, This comes from MacWeek; you've probably read it. I've talked to so many Apple ll people who refuse to move to a Macintosh that { don't see how Apple can con- tinue to profit without them. Im doing every- thing possible to keep my Iles and ligs healthy. When they die. it's gonna be IBM for our family. C. Roberts Lafayette, Calif. The idea that you can't hook a LaserWriter to an Apple If is part of the great Macintosh mythology. Look at the following excerpt from the new book West of Eden: The End of Innocence at Apple Computer, by Frank Rose: Woz had gone to work at the Triangle Building that morning and found the engi- neers in a bad stale because theyd been left out of the (1985) stockholders’ meeting the day before. They'd wanted to show that an Apple ll could run a LaserWriter as well as a Macintosh, but the demonstration had been yanked at the last moment. Instead, the II had barely been mentioned all morn- ing. Woz himself was used to this kind of treatment-the II had been shoved aside for years, first in favor of the ill, then for Lisa, now for Macintosh. But the others werent, and it made him angry to see them so demoralized. Some of them were saying Vol. 5, No. 4 they were going to write a protest letter to Sculley. When he heard that, he went straight for the phone, because he knew his voice would be heard. When Sculley got on the line, Woz said, ‘As Apple's thirddargest stockholder for the past eight years...’ fe knew that would get the quys attention. And he knew that the thing the board of directors-any board of directors-feared the most was a lawsuit alleging deceptive actions. So he told Scul- ley that the stockholders’ meeting had pre- sented a deceptive and fraudulent portrayal of the company’s earnings (a year after the Macintosh was introduced, the Apple fle was the only Apple hardware product exceeding sales projections and was sup- porting the entire company). He told him that the people who own the company ought to be given an accurate picture of where their earnings were coming from. John tried to tell him it was just event mar- keting-that the Apple II had gotten its day in April at Moscone Center (when the Apple lc was introduced) and this new product announcement just happened to coincide with the annual meeting. Woz pointed out that Jobs had had plenty of time to talk about Macintosh at the Moscone event, and besides, the I! wasn't even mentioned dur- ing the formal business session, when the officers got up to report on the state of the company. John tried to arque; Woz would- nt have it. John tried to tell him they were providing the analysts with the numbers: There, at least, the Il was getting fair credit. But he found himself talking to a dial tone. Woz had bung up on him. The continuing success of the Apple Il is very troubling fo the Macintosh community. They've learned to live with the idea that the Macintosh isn't going to wipe out MS-DOS, but the fact that thousands more Christmas buyers went with the Apple figs than with the cheaper Macintosh Plus gives them ulcers. MacWeek isn't the only magazine having some success at trying to do in the Apple II. I spoke on a panel of computer journalists at the 10th anniversary of the Washington D.C. Apple user group, Washington Apple Fi, in December. Each of the Panelists was asked to spend a couple of min- utes introducing himself, then we were to take questions as a group. The editor of MacWorld introduced himself by saying the Apple II had at most a year of life left before Apple discon- tinued it. That's how much the Apple I's suc- cess bothers these people. The Apple lI produces $1 billion a year in revenue for Apple. If you pulled the Apple it out of Apple Inc., the spin-off would be the 527th largest company on the Fortune 500. it would be twice the size of all of Atari and 45 per cent larger than Cray Research. The year before John Sculley came to Apple, the whole company’s revenues were only half of what the Apple If afone produces today. If you really believe Apple is going to discon- tinue the Apple Il, you should invest everything you own in a Hong Kong stock called Video Technology Holdings Ltd. On the other hand, those who believe Apple is doing more than a mediocre job of promoting the Apple Ii, enhancing it, and pushing it into new markets should invest their money in U.S. Savings Bonds before some fast-talking promoter takes advantage of their gullibility.