Open Apple Vol 5 No 11 DEC 1989

-Central” A journal and exchange of Apple II discoveries Year of the rumor At the 1989 World Science Fiction Convention, respected science fiction and fantasy author Orson Scott Card conducted a panel session titled “A Thousand Ideas An Hour’. The purpose of.the session was to lake sugges- tions from the audience and use them to build a framework for a story. At every step the story, though fictional, had to exhibit a certain conformity to logical-examination so it would be believable enough to sustain the reader's {and the author's) interest. Orson Scott Card moderated by serving as the “reality filter’, asking the audience to comment about the plausibility of each premise, discarding those suggestions which made little or no obvious sense and encouraging the audience to pursue those that sounded interest- ing, I watched in awe, because the session was obviously making the mem- bers of the audience think better, in more detail. This not only makes better writers, but better, more perceptive, people. This type of thought process should be used to evaluate rumors. Even though a rumor, by definition, is not provable, it should be subjected to a reasonable “reality filter” that takes known facts into account, and attempts to resolve any associated rumors in the most logical manner that fits the known data. Though 1989 has certainly been the Year of the Rumor regard- ing the future of the Apple II (and specifically the Apple Iigs), most rumors surrounding problems with the Apple Il series computers quite simply don’t make it through reasonable reality filters. In 1989 we've heard various stories ranging from a new all-powerful ligs that will undermine the Macintosh, to a powerful, inexpensive Macin- tosh that Mac proponents within Apple will use to persuade the company to drop the Apple Il. impetus for the rumors comes from the rather confusing state of Apple's actions over the past few years, and possibly (only possibly) from occasional “leaks” within the company. Mostly, they are helped along by the determination of each camp's (Mac and Apple I!) “faithful” to seize upon any excuse to lambaste the other. Apple itself hasn't done a good job of trying to allay the antagonism, which has even divided some user groups. Some of the most damaging rumor mongering has been among the media, where the “reporting” of rumors seems intent on creating the very effect that they speak to. An example is the December 1989 Macl/ser “report” that the Apple 1! division will be spun off with Steve Wozniak al the helm, and a Mac SE with 20 meg hard disk will be released for $995. These “Journalists” are not reporting news, they are repeating statements not clear- ly based on facts and then adding an editorial opinion as if the rumor was fact. if allowed to spread without contradiction, a “domino effect” results. In an October 9 column syndicated by theWashington Post, staff writer T. R. Reid admonishes those participating in a promotion by Apple (which allows schools to collect and use, gee tapes from participating stores as credit for purchasing equipment) fo designate that their receipts only go toward the purchase of Macintosh computers in leu of the “anaclupnistic Apple ils". f Rumors have essentially one positive effect: if they actually are based in fact, they allow some foresight and planning. Without skeptical analysis, though, this “planning” may be based on someone's idle whim, and the effects can be devastating. In relation to commercial products (computers, software, and so on} the rumor, or even the announcement, of a new improved system may kill sales of a current system at a crucial time. Adam Osbome’s and John Dvorak's Hyperyrowth details how Osborne Computer was driven into bankruptcy by the pre-announcement of a vastly improved computer (the Osbome Executive); the company was caught between lag- ging sales of the older Osborne 1 while not yet able to produce enough of formerly Open-Apple 5 ee December 1989 Vol.5, No.11 ISSN 0885-4037 newstand price: $2.50 photocopy charge per page: $0.15 the new systems to meet orders. Another example is the market-wide slump which occurred before the introduction of the IBM PCjr as buyers waited to see what IBM would offer (it seems laughable now, of course). For this reason, Apple and many companies have adopted the “vow of silence” that IBM has long held; “we do not comment on unannounced products”. Apple’s use of this veil is not always consistent. Apple often discusses future directions for Macintosh technology (such as for Mac System Soft- ware 7.0), but does not eat the Apple fl equivaleritly; new features of GS/OS were not announced before the release of the operating system, for example. Apple is also not visibly aggressive in challenging statements such as those of the Fost article mentioned when it benefits their “prestige” com- puter to remain silent. If Apple truly wants to quell rumors, they should apply their “standards” equally. But the approach of “watch what we do, not what we say” is laudable, if adhered to across all of Apple's product lines. We hope Apple itself contacts publications that attempt to (negatively) influence sales of current Apple systems, Rumors such as those in MacUs- er are more puzzling, since they would appear to be more damaging to Mac sales than those of the Apple Il. A $995 Mac SE with 20 meg drive would probably greatly anger current Mac customers, who paid a relail price of over $3500 for the same system. Commercial Apple I! publications (including ourselves) are not immune to repeating rumors; it’s very hard to keep personal feelings out of the edito- nial task. But journalists need to be careful to distinguish what they report as news from opinions, and readers need to be analytical about what they read. Let’s analyze a few of the rumors of this year, and do some qualified quessing about what it means working with what we currently know about Apple and its users. "THESE KIDNAPPERS CLEVER, LIEUTENANT. LOOK AT THIS RANSOM NOTE, THE WAY THEY GOT THE TEXT TO WRAP AROUND THE VICTIMS PHOTOGRAPH. AND THE FONTS ! THEY MUST BE CREATING THEIR OWN MUST BE OVER 35 TYPEFACES HERE,» 5.82 A2-Central Consider first the perpetual rumor that Apple will (soon) release an “inexpensive color Macintosh” for the education market. Even a cursory knowledge of Apple Computer demonstrates that “inexpensive” and “Macintosh” never occur in the same sentence, unless we'e referring to the Mac Pus (any Apple II Plus users out there want to speculate on the future of its Macintosh namesake?) The Mac Plus is still viable, but it seems obvious that the SE is the basic Compact Mac platform of today, just as the Mac Ilcx is the basic compact modular system. Apple appears to consider the Mac to be a good value at current prices, and has been filling out the product line at the “high end’. Let's arbitrarily define “low cost” as a system retail price of under $2000. The “inexpensive Mac” rumor's reality check is easily accomplished by reviewing Apple’s current pricing policies for Mac video interfaces ($499.00 for the basic 4-bit color video card) and color monitors ($999.00 for the highzesolution color RGB monitor). Does it look credible that Apple will build a color Macintosh ‘thal, sill be. cost compelitive wilh*Apple"tt Or MS- DOS systems when the video display alone comes in at $1500? This pro- Jects Apple building the most expensive entrytevel system of the last decade, or (in the case of a dramatic cost reduction) devastating the rev- enue they've been making with the Mac in the business market. Consider also the rumors of a inexpensive “dual processor” com- bining the Apple Il and Macintosh. These rumors take the form of either the “Golden Gate” (basically a Mac with an Apple II coprocessor), a Mac run- ning Apple Il emulation software, or a “Mac coprocessor” for the Apple Il. ‘These all fail the reality check for various reasons. An inexpensive Mac with a Apple II hardware coprocessor is unlikely for the same reasons stated for an inexpensive color Mac: by the time you add up the costs for the hardware to emulate both the Macintosh and the Apple Tl (with color), you're out of the mass-market consumer and education price range {Tom likes to refer to this rumored system as the Brooklyn Bridge). There is also the problem of finding a market for a product that probably would not be either the best Apple Il or Mac it could be. Jean Louis Gassee has repeatedly said that Apple does not build “Swiss Army Knives"; this seems to be a wise strategy. As recenly as AppleFest San Francisco 1989, he also commented on the probable expense of such a system. To emulate an Apple ll in software at an acceptable speed using Comput- er Applications’ i! in a Mac requires a Mac with at least the speed of an SE- 30, so let's place the minimum entry level for such a system al about $4500 relail. Immediately, we're out of the “low cost” bracket again. Of course, you give up color and the ability to read 5.25 disks at that price. A llgs emulation requiring greater speed, more hardware-specific features, and so on is right out of the question. Apple II users, of course, clamor that a Mac coprocessor for an Apple II could be a solution. Again, the Mac and Apple II hardware is rather distinc; the cost of such a coprocessor would probably exceed that of buying a Mac- intosh Pius at current prices. Buying the separate computer means you don’t have to tie up your Apple II while running a Mac program, or vice versa. None of this is to say that Appie may not develop some computer in the future that merges features of the Apple [I and Macintosh in a way that allows it to emulate either system. But if we look al the features and pricing of the two lines currently, they are rather distinct. Too distinct, reason tells us, to expect Apple to unveil a radically new “MacApple Swiss Army Knife” in the near future. Apple itself expects their theoretical Knowledge Navigator to be disctinct from either current model. ion should be tempered with a bit of logic, beginning with an analysis of what Apple needs to do to keep its lead in the educational market and gain a more secure foothold in the price-sensitive home mar- ket. Apple can claim “success” in the business market by making inroads against IBM, but they actually own a minority percentage after years of push- ing the Mac as hard as they can (and using a lot of Apple II revenue to do it). Would it be reasonable to assume that, under increasing competition from IBM and Tandy, Apple’s educational sales could decline to a.minority of that market as well? Let's move to the actual question: if educators currently using the Apple Il want to have Apple’s view of personal computing in an inexpensive pack- age, then, how could Apple most reasonably provide it in an way that Apple can market effectively? Mac proponents point to the success of the Mae in business (“success” is a relative term, of course), but education is a different market. Educational institutions do not expense equipment in the same way that businesses do; it can be assumed that initial cost and longevity. of service will be a major consideration, as well as the ability to use existing equipment and software. Vol. 5, No. 14 Much of this existing equipment will be Apple II related for many schools. Would you like to be the Apple salesman walking into a district meeting and telling the customer that bought 100 Apple Il systems from you a year ago that those systems must be “retired” and replaced with new, incompatible systems? If you were the school district's representative, would you be dial- ing 1-800-GOMSDOS? ‘The next question: whal is Apple’s strength in technology? Apple believes strongly in their desktop interface metaphor. Apple’s vision right now, based on what we saw at an Apple “Technology in Education” confer- ence in Overland Park last spring, seems to be leaning heavily toward hyper media and networking. Apple demonstrated these principles using Macin- tosh II systems costing upwards of $5000 retail, of course; not exactly mass-market pricing, even with educational discounts. (It was interesting to notice that of the Apple'Iigs systems present in Apple displays, none were ad ion. At Apple's booth at the 1989 Apple Fiesta, the Uc Plus they were using for demonstrations was not even set up proper ly; it was laid flat on a tabletop with no ventilation!) The conclusion is that Apple needs a‘mass-market alternative, and this started the “cheap color Mac" rumors. But we've already discounted the existence of such a system in the near future, Or have we overlooked something? (Warning! Rumor approaching; engage your reality filters!) This led me to a hypothesis that makes so much sense that | believe that Apple must be working on it, despite my doubt that Apple has enough respect for the Apple I to be developing such a product. | hope the latter feeling is the one that’s wrong; if Apple is working on this project, it will blow the doors off the creeping intrusion of MS-DOS machines into our schools, pravide the less myopic of the Mac devotees with an alternative they can live with for the future of personal computing, and transmute Apple's image among Apple Iigs users from lead to gold. Apple obviously has a lead in the use of hypermedia, primarily launched by the inclusion of HyperCard with Macintosh systems. But as you start adding features to the Macintosh to support what hypermedia involves (interactive audio and video, and so on), the price tag ends up out of range of the average user. With that $5000 Mac Il at the center of the AppleCD SCSI drive, Pioneer LaserVision player and Sony monitor employed for demonstrations, hypermedia is in a bracket most schools can’t justify as an expense. except In specialized circumstances, Apple has prided itself as “the personal computer company"; obviously, not too many persons can afford a $6000+ investment, If we go with a bare-bones “HyperCard engine” such as a Mac SE, we're only talking something over $3000 retail for the computer, Educational insti- tutions get a discount, of course, but many elements of Mac expandability are expensive, Look for an audio digitizer, for example, and you find Faral- lon’s MacKecorder at $295. Assume the school is willing to trade off some ease of use and capability for fiscal survivabilily, and you see MS-DOS emblazoned on the horizon. If you're Apple, you don’t want to let the MS-DOS faction get a foot in the door; ideally, you don't want it to be considered a viable option. You have to replace the “HyperCard” engine with something more affordable to educa- tional institutions; that “cheap color Mac” is needed in a hurry. But you can’t afford to get your current business customers angry with you by bringing out hardware with the approximation of Mac Il features in a price range that undercuts their investment severely. You also have to avoid walking into an education institution that has invested heavily in the Apple II and asking them to throw it all away and convert to Macintosh systems and peripherals. Apple is between a rock and a hard place. Unless they use the other Apple computer that already supports the desktop graphical user interface (in color, no less) and some of the other necessary peripherals: the ligs. Now we accept (necessarily without proof) that some recent rumors about Apple working on a ligs version of HyperCard are true. Assume that Apple will extend the compatibility of the two lines by making the ligs HyperCard data structure the same as the Macintosh version where possi- ble. Further assume that part of such a product will be a figs GS/OS FST to allow reading the Mac stacks directly from Mac disks; in this case we have the advantage of knowing that Apple has designed the capability of adding such an FST into GS/OS. We also have to assume that, as for the Macintosh version of HyperCard, the product will require a minimum of one megabyle of igs RAM memory. What would you call a color computer system that could execute Mac HyperCard stacks from a Mac disk? Apple will have wrought a new computer in a software package! No revolutionary new hardware for the ligs is required. Every current user of a IIgs with at least one megabyte of memory, an Apple 3.5 drive (to read Mac December 1989 disks via the FST), and (if desired) a color monitor will have the new Educa- tional Color Iigs (some misinformed people spell that “Mac’) for the price of a box labelled (for want of a better name, for now) * HyperCard GS". The cost of upgrading for CD-ROM becomes only slightly higher than for the Mac (the ligs requires an Apple [I SCS! Interface card; the Mac’s SCSI interface is built in). The cost of adding a color monitor itself is much less; the Iigs monitor is less expensive and requires no expensive interface. The cost of adding the video disk player is the same; unlike the Mac, where you would need to buy a separate monitor for the videodisk player, you can elect to spend the money on an Apple I Video Overlay Card for the Ilgs and use the Iigs monitor. Notice the latter option allows you to overlay video and computer displays for enhanced effects! Apple cuts the price of the hyper- media engine in half, possibly at the loss of some capablities, but with the addition of some others, Where does this leave MyperStudio? Probably with superior features; Roger Wagner himself says that HyperStudio was not designed as a clone of HyperCard for the Mac, which we have postulated is the tac an Apple HyperCard GS must take. As mentioned, a representative Macintosh audio digitizer is $295. On a igs, you can buy HyperStudio with a digitizer includ- ed for less than half that, and have an enhanced hypermedia product to boot. HyperStudio will probably remain the premiere Iigs hypermedia tool for schools wanting to specialize in applications taking full advantage of the ligs. HyperCard GS would primarily be of interest to educators who are using Macintosh and igs computers in a shared environment; it would allow them to cross<develop stacks, and to add Macintoshes to the environment on a schedule they can live with according to their goals and fiscal abilities. Apple must be sensitive to the increasingly vocal Apple I! owners asking how the company intends to support them, The impact of a HyperCard GS upon Apple's credibility among current Ilgs owners would be profound. In the wink of an eye, many of the thousands of HyperCard “applications” attributed to the Mac become ligs applications, too. Apple immediately lends respectability to the ligs. Could even low-priced MS-DOS or Amiga sys- tems compete against a properly marketed IIgs that runs current Apple II software, newer IIgs software, and can utilize data files for the most preva Jent application for the Macintosh? Apple would, of course, have to follow this by encouraging other serious applications for the llgs; here we can’t honestly say that we have seen evi- dence of Apple doing this. One test will be whether Apple corrects the bal- ance of evangelism and marketing efforts on behalf of the Apple Il; educa- tion must reflect the real world, and Apple must quit directing all real-world applications to the Macintosh. Let the Mac be the high-end machine it was designed (and priced) to be, and the ligs can be the embodiment of the desktop metaphore for the rest of us (who dont have 6 figure incomes). Do any current facts run in conflict to this scenario? The reason for the new “slightly revised’ ligs would become apparent; the larger amount of minimum memory has made the “base” Iigs into a machine capable of run- ning this vital new program. If and when a faster IIgs anives, its advantages will be perceived, but the current ligs becomes the machine that revives the Apple {i's marketability. Older machines with the added memory share the wealth, It would also make AppleShare more attractive. Mac and Apple ligs users would have an important application in common that can use the same data files. Just put the file in a public location on the server and let the users share, It would also kick the various Mac publication's rumor mills in their col- lective teeth; Apple’s admonition for Apple Il users to “watch what we do” would be grandly justified in one tremendous step. After months of Apple II bashing and taunting, those conducting antiApple Il propaganda cam- paigns, imagine facing a new Color “Mac” in Iigs clothing, Other than the nameplate, the functionality of the system for HyperCard (other than run- ning Mac-dependent code) could be the same. The MacKrishnas will be left to explain why a computer that can operate like a Mac is a “toy”. And they'll finally look as bigoted as they are. If Apple is this smart (the thought “devious” comes to mind, In a good context), many of us should send Mssr's Sculley and Gassee a bottle of their favorite libation in place of the scornful confrontations they've had to endure this last year. Only time will tell. In the meantime, don’t take the rumors (including this One) to heart with- out qualification. Quoting from The Abyss (Orson Scott Card wrote the novel based on James Cameron's screenplay), “You have to see with better eyes than that.’"-DJD A2-Central 5.83 Miscellania Apple will be conducting several holiday promotions through the end of 1989 that include the ligs. The first is an option for a “Free Trial Run or Cash Back” on a qualifying Apple IIgs or Macintosh system from October 14 through December 31, 1989, Customers that meet Apple financing criteria and purchase a ligs sys- tem with Apple monitor and disk drive can get $150 cash back on an ImageWriter Il or LQ printer, LaserWriter ISC, IINT, or IINTX printer, external Hard Disk 20SC, AppleCD SC CD-ROM disc drive, Apple Scanner, or Apple Personal Modem (notice that ligsspecific drivers for the ImageWriter LQ, LaserWriter TISC, and Apple Scanner aren't available at this time; they appear to be there for Mac participants). Or the customer can shun the rebate for a peripheral and instead take the system home for a Free Trial Run, to be returned without cost between January 1 through 15, 1990, at no cost if the customer elects not to purchase the system. If a decision to purchase is made before December 31, 1989, and the purchase is not part of an Apple Operating Lease program, a $100 bonus is given off the price of the system, Several companies are also offering money-back offers on software tities in conjunction with the promotion. The software can be purchased or returned directly to its manufacturer if the Apple system is not kept; if the system is kept, the purchased software must be kept. Contact your Authorized Apple Dealer for further details. Apple igs System Software 5.0.2 has been released; it fixes many Teported bugs including the BASIC.SYSTEM bug mentioned in the Septem- ber 1989 issue of A2-Central. The software should be available from Apple dealers as well as from information services with licenses from Apple for electronic distribution (the version Apple provides for electronic distribution thoughtfully includes a smaller “update” disk for those who already have 5.0; this will save download time and dollars), We'll also have an update on this month's disk, The timely release of the revised system software indicates the committ- ment of the Apple I] teams at Apple. It may also Indicate an awareness of the Apple II reviving among the administration at Apple. Meanwhile, Apple Direct delivers a slap in the face from Apple's other hand. In an article titled “And the Survey Says...” by Lisa Raleigh (pages 13-14), noting “a relatively high percentage of responses from Apple Il developers”, we find a report of a count of 6598 Macintosh developers, 1019 Apple I developers, and 1769 developers for both computers. Then, in the best tradition of disinformation, the paragraph “interpreting” the num- bers says: The survey had a proportionally high response from Apple iI develop- ers (although many of the developers who said they were primarily Apple Iloriented may fall into the “Both” category). After several years of experience as a chemist, | have developed a great disdain for individuals that accrue data and then discard information that doesn’t suit their purpose. Either the respondents are Apple II developers, or they aren’t;.1 don’t see. a justification for why they “may fall into” another category. I also don’t see a similar condescending statement that Mac respondents “may fall into” the combined category. ‘The following sentence in the article notes that: Perhaps Apple II developers are especially motivated to respond to surveys like this! IL would seem to be a good survival tactic, since Apple pays little atten- tion to their numbers. Apple makes fife very difficult for Apple Il developers; having reduced their Evangelism and Marketing committment to the Apple Il by constraining the Apple II's "target market’, siphoning money from this induced loss of profitability by charging $500-$700 a year (the same as Mac developers) for the developer's programs, then using that money to print drivel like this. Is it any wonder Apple II developers want an independent association? Laser is taking advantage of Apple's callousness. Laser is offering to place a coupon pack made up of discountoffering ads from various developers in the boxes of the 10,000+ Laser 128 Systems they ship each month. Interested developers should contact Laser at (512) 540- 8086, extension 743 or 744, for further details. SoftView, the company that produces the TaxView program for Macintosh and MS-DOS , also sold a version for the IIgs last year. SoftView has sent a letter to Ilgs owners indicating the program has been dropped “due to decreasing sales of the Ilgs’. As far as we Know, decreas- 5.84 A2-Central ing sales are news to Apple; this will be a test for Evangelism, who should at least correct any mistaken impression on SoftView’s part. and (if they are mistaken) ask that Softview not make misleading and potentially damaging comments regarding the Apple II market. Ifyou want to use AppleWorks to do your taxes, 1040Works is a package of AppleWorks templates, macros, and other utilities that can compute Form 1040, Schedules A, B, C, D, E, F, R, and AE, and Forms 2106, 2441, 4562, 6251, 8582, 8606, 8615, and 8914 along with their worksheets. 1040Works has been updated for AppleWorks 3.0, runs on a 128K ma chine, and costs $24.95. 1040Works-X includes some enhancements but requires at least a 90K (expanded) desktop, it costs $27.95 (both prices are. for 5.25 disks; for 5.5 versions, add $3). Both are available from Personal Financial Services, P.O. Box 1401, Melville, N. ¥. 11747, Claris announces a long-awaited upgrade to AppleWorks GS. Ver- sion 1.1 addresses several complaints, including speed of loading the mod- ules, speed of printing, compatibility with Ilgs System Software 5.0 and the new ROM 03 Iigs. Draft mode printing has also been enhanced, AppleWorks 3.0 files can now be imported, and custom dictionaries for the spelling checker may now be larger. The suggested retail remains at $299; regis- tered AppleWorks 1.0 users can obtain the new version for $29 (those who purchased AppleWorks GS after September 15, 1989, will be upgraded at Vol. 5, No. 11 The “ ‘complete” version of HyperStudio is shipping to registered users who have bought the previous versions. If you haven't registered your copy with Roger Wagner Publishing, send in that warranty card! We believe HyperStudio may be the program that “makes” the IIgs, as VisiCalc did for the Apple Il, AppleWorks did for the lle/lIc, Lotus 1-2-3 did for the IBM PC, and Pagemaker (and other desktop publishing programs) did for the Mac. (See this month's catalog for an important announcement.) Applied Engineering has a new 300/1200/2400 modem called the Datalink Express. It’s an external model that has a unique Line Engage indi- cator to tell you if the phone line the modem is connected to is in use, a very handy item if you're using the modem on an extension. The modem includes telecommunications software for Apple Il, Macintosh, and MS-DOS systems, has a five-year warranty, and retails for $249. Options include MNP- error correction ($89) and a send-only FAX chip (not yet available), How do you repair a Macintosh drive? American Educational Services, 7611 Allman Drive, Annandale, Vir. 22003, (703) 256-5315 manufactures a Drive Exerciser for $269 that allows you to use a Dysan Analog Alignment Diskette (also available at $50) to test and align Mac 400K and 800K 3.5 drives as well as Apple I 5.25 drives. Of course, we wouldn't be mentioning it here unless it worked on an Apple II; the listed requirements are a Ile with 5,25 or 3.5 drive, an oscilloscope, and the alignment diskette-DJD no charge). For upgrade information, call Claris at (800) 544-8554. Ask (or tell) Uncle Corrections and amplifications The database program in the last issue is a little too sincere about letting you abort “Packing the database. If you select to “P’ack and then answer “No” to the “ls this what you want? (Y/N): ” prompt, the program will crash with a BASIC.SYSTEM “FILE BUSY’ error. The problem is the program branches to the rou- tine to re-open the files used by the program whether or not packing was performed. We can fix this by changing line 1360 to read: 1360 IP C8 = "PY OR C§ = “p” TEEN GOSUB 1920: ON P +1 GOTO 1290, 1160: REM pack to let us select where we should go based on the value of P, and then adding the line: 1955 P = 0: REM no pack yet to signify we haven‘t packed the file (yet), and: 2035 P = 1: REM now packed to indicate the file has been packed. Triad Software is now advertising their Ultra.Invoice program (mentioned in the September A2-Central) at $75. Triad also plans to offer a separate inventory program in December 1989 for $75. BASIC style 1 feet that you have done a disservice to inexperienced Applesoft programmers on at least two counts and could have been more helpful on a third. In your BASIC database, you use variable names of more than two letters without any mention of the fact that Applesoft only recog- nizes the first two. I much prefer to use a num- ber of REMark statements at the top of my pro- gram listings that explain the use of all vari- ables. It has helped me immensely when | later “improved” them. It also allowed others to modify my programs for changed conditions (I have used this technique when programming in languages that recognize more letters because it is a big help to have all variables defined in one place.) You also use subroutines for code that is only used once. This only complicates the list- ing and makes it harder to follow. Code that is used only once should be put directly where it is used. In your answer to John Rohan’s letter (5.78¢) you did a good job of what OPEN does but you beat around the bush on what READ and WRITE do, Why not say "READ redirects all INPUT and GET statements so they obtain their input from the specified OPENed file until the next PRINT ControlD is encountered. In like manner, WRITE directs all PRINT statements to the file until the next Control-D, Note line 1260 in the BASIC database redirects input to the keyboard. As an aside, line 1320 of the BASIC database is simpler if written: 1320 IP LEN (CHS) >1 THEN R = VAL (MIDS (CDS, 2}) The result is the same since, without the third operand, Applesoft uses all of the string from the second operand to the end of the string. J.E. Douglas Baton Rouge,.La. The explanation of OPEN could have con- tained more detail on the importance of con- trol-D. Your explanation (and the example using line 1260 of the database program) makes a good point. | prefer to try and use “mnemonic” variable names, Applesoft programmers should recog- nize that only the first two characters are sig- nificant in differentiating the names for each variable type; at least, we haven't received a letter claiming confusion (yet), A more fully self-documenting version of the program could include a full description of the variable use. The line between describing the particular pro- gram presented and teaching Applesoft alf over again has to be drawn; we depend on comments like yours to keep us “honest”. The use of RIGHT$(CMD$,LEN(CMD$-1)) rather than MID is also personal preference; I read it as “return the right part of the string excepting the first character’). Your MID$ example is more compact (and possibly faster to execute), but it seems tess explicit to me. I'd have to disagree about the structure of the database program in general though this certainly falls into subjective preferences for the style of a program. [attempt to modularize a program as much as possible because it follows the way ! plan a program (and presented this specific program); 1 develop the overall scheme of operation, construct the minimal skeleton, and then fill in the details. Such top-down design isn’t very critical for a short program like the database example, but it definitely makes the program’s structure and operation easier (for me) to inter- pret when | come back weeks (or months) later to make revisions. if you look closely, each of the subroutines is executed only once each time It is called, but it can be called many times as the “command interpreter {in lines 1280-1460) is repeated, Attempting to do the same thing in linear coding would result in GOTOs branching throughout the program: the dreaded “spaghetti code". GOTOs should be reserved for simulating conditional branching operations that Applesoft doesn’t inherently support through its keywords. The use of subroutines was also intended to allow the various modules of the program to be revised. Fach module can be treated as it’s own “subprogram’”, and this limits the scope of the code that is directly involved in changes. There are some limits to this independence in Applesoft; for example, there are no local vari- ables so that the effect of a subroutine chang- ing the value of a variable on the rest of the program has to be considered (and this would be a good reason to document the use of vari- ables in REM statements within each subrou- ine). Actually, the program was written with the idea that it eventually would not be done in Applesoft; IIgs owners may want to take advantage of their extended memory and code the program in decidedly modular languages such as C or Pascal. For some reasons to revise the program, we can look to a professional who does these things for a living...~-DJD December 1989 Too quick and dirty? Having read your “Quick and Dirty Database” article, I thought your readers might be interest- ed in a few comments on ISAM systems and a new product that fits almost all of the criteria you are looking for. ISAM (“indexed sequential access method”) has almost as many definitions as there are database management systems that claim to use it, The system you described has several disadvantages. Among them: + The records are not stored in a useful order-they must be sorted for any meaningful reporting functions other than the order in which they were entered. + While your search by record number is fast. searching for any other criteria (last name, client number, part num- ber, etc.) will be very slow. « If an edited record is larger than its orig- inal length, it must be added to the end of the list, leaving another inactive record. + The index file grows proportionally with the main file, At nine bytes per record, the index for your test file of 3,430 records would be over 30K - already too large to fit in RAM with your pro- gram. A file of 50,000 records would require an index of nearly half a megabyte! Here's how the “ISAM” system in DB Master works (keep in mind that most of this is totally invisible to the DB Master user): The first field (or fields) in each record are defined as the “primary key”. Records are stored in “data blocks". Each data block can hold from one to as many vari- able-tength records as will fit. In our case, the size of a data block is 4K, so they typically hold up to 30, 40 or more records. The records with- in each data block are stored in primary key order. There is an “index” that includes the highest key in each data block, and a pointer to where thal dala block can be found within the file. Note that that reduces the number of records thal must be indexed by a factor equal to the average number of records per dala block. To locate a record by its primary key, the pro- gram merely has to do a quick search of the index entries (which are in RAM) to find out which data block holds the record. It then loads that data block, and does another quick in-RAM search to find the record. That's fine as far as it goes, but the index for 50,000 record file is still going to be too large for a 128K computer. So we add a second level of indexing: we divide the file into "volumes", each with its own “volume index”, and we add a “master index” which includes the highest key in each yolume. Now to do a primary key search the program has to: * search the master index (in our case, never more than 50 entries) in RAM to find out which volume holds the record + load that volume’s index into RAM (unless, of course, it’s already there} * search the volume index (again, no more than 50 entries) to find which data block the record is in * toad the 4K data block (assuming we don’t have It already) + find the record To find the next or previous record in the pri- mary key order, you don’t even have to refer back to the index. Now, that may all sound a bit complicated (it is), but look what we've accomplished: We can index an entire additional 200K volume for just a few bytes (the key length plus some over- head). And we can index a 10 megabyte file (the number of records doesn’t matter), and never need more than about 5K of RAM for indexes, even with a 50 byte primary key! And of course this is all written in machine language, so it’s fast. Note that the total differ- ence between searching for the first and last records in a maximum size file (by their primary keys) is a few compares in looking at the master index - a tiny fraction of a second. To add a record, the program figures out where it belongs, loads that block, and inserts the record. To delete a record, the program merely clos- es up the hole in the data block, and, if it was the highest record in the block, adjusts the index. Records can grow or shrink as needed. If a record won't fit in the data block where it belongs, you simply split the block in two, arid adjust the index accordingly. (Well, OK, it’s not really that simple, but I’m not about to give away all of our secrets!) As you can see, there’s quile a difference between ISAM systems, Meanwhile, if anyone has bothered to read this far, you may be interested in the new prod- uct that should be available by the time you read this. Once you've created a file with DB Master, the Basic Programmer's Pak will let you search, add, edit and delete records in that file from your own Applesoft Basic programs. With the necessary binary files, indexes, etc. loaded, there is room over 25K of Basic code and vari- ables. All filing operations are done via a few simple ampersand calls, and the program com- municates with your code using normal Apple- soft variables, With two exceptions, the combination of DB Master and the Basic Programmer's Pak meets all of your goals: files can grow up to 10 megabytes, data is stored in a highly compacted form, the full ASCII character set is supported, access is very fast, and the commands and data format are as “extensible” as your Basic skills can make them. The data files are not, however, stored in a standard text format, and the Pak cannot create its own files - that requires DB Master. Barney Stone Maple Glen, Penn. The system I described for the sample pro- gram would hardly be called ISAM by real-world programmers. Obviously, a “hidden criteria* is that the article describing the technique had to fit in a single issue, with all of the limitations Bamey described in explaining the advantages of his carefully designed commercial program. Hashing operations are-a subject unto them- selves, The Basic Programmer's Pak is available from Stone Edge Technologies, Inc., P. O. Box 3200, Maple Glen, Penn. 19002. It selis for $129.-DID Forms generation The irony of this note is that it is being writ- ten on an IBM (at work) about a good machine... ['ve got a friend who has bought a lic-Plus; A2-Central 5.85 now she wants to use it in her real estate busi- ness. She's ordered AppleWorks 3.0, but there are many specialized forms that the real estate business uses: forms for HUD and the like. She showed me a catalog which lists several IBM programs to print these forms. None were listed for the Apple. If you don’t know of programs like this (not property management, but sales and appraisal forms) could you ask your readers for help? You may publish my address in A2- Central if you wish. Commentary: Some time ago you had a few articles on CP/M and Logo. I'd like to see more of that type of thing. 1 don’t know enough to contribute to them, but I'd like to learn more - not just beginner information. For example, | have Ace Calc, which is the same as Magicalc. It uses the 64K on my CP/M card without a pre- boot. How? I'd like to know how to do that in my own programs and, perhaps, how | could adapt unprotected commercial programs to do the same. My copy of AppleWorks 2.0 doesn’t do that; could | modify it to do it? Keep up the good work. If mailing rates were based on information content instead of weight you couldn't afford to be in business. Willard Seehorn Columbus Computer Services P.O. Box 602 Whiteville, N.C. 28472 Forms generation is certainly something the Apple is capable of, but we’ve not seen a great many of them on the market. For AppleWorks, the solution would proba- bly be to create a word-processor document equivalent to the form and use the built-in mail-merge functions to fill the form from a database. If AppleWorks’ mail-merge can’t keep up, you may need to go to something like TimeOut ReportWriter, or to a database pro- gram (have we mentioned DB Master recent- ly?) that has more detailed forms generation. The use of AppleWorks does assume that the form Is jaid out in the manner of a typewrit- ten page. and that AppleWorks can either satis- factorily duplicate.the form or fill in a preprint- ed version of the form. A product called GRIDS+ prints lined forms, grids, and other forms designs using SuperFonts. AceCale and its oiher variations contain routines to check for various types of memory expansion cards; there’s no “magic” in the use of the memory on your CP/M card other than the program contains the necessary informa- tion to know how to access the card. There was a discussion of RAM card protocols in “A concise look at Apple I] RAM’ in the December 1986 issue; if your CP/M card RAM doesn’t conform to one of these then you'll have to see if the manual defines the access method or if someone else knows...and can tell; some- times such information is only revealed to those that sign non-disclosure agreements. The PlusWorks program may allow Apple- Works to recognize the RAM on your CP/M card; contact Norwich Data Services, Ltd., P. O. Box 356, East Norwich, N.Y. 11752, (201) 679- 0594, to see if your card is supported.-DJD AppleWorks and the li-Plus In your July issue, you discuss AppleWorks 5.0, but neglect to mention whether or not it will run on a ILPlus. I'm presently using v2.0 that has been modified with PlusWorks to run on my Franklin 1000. Will there be a compara- ble program from FlusWorks to modify v3.0? 5.86 A2-Central Even though | can run v2.0 on my machine, and the program takes advantage of my | meg RamFactor (Applied Engineering) card, none of the macro programs will run on my machine. All they will say is something like “requires modi- fied He". Do you know of any way of getting Beagle Bros’ macros to run on my set-up? (Or comparable programs?) In your August issue (p. 5.54), you mention patches for AppleWorks, in particular John Link's Superfatch program. But you say “If you want a patch for AppleWorks 1.x or a patch to make AppleWorks running on a Il-Plus do some- thing, we don’t know where to send you”. | just want to mention that | used Link’s SuperPatch 3.1 to modify AppleWorks by going back to the original, unmodified version of the Program. | ran SuperPatch first, and made the changes. Then | ran PlusWorks to configure the program for my system. It works fine, and i'm looking forward to trying v5.0 of SuperPatch. John, by the way, was quite helpful when I had some initial problems. It turns out | was using an old version of BASIC.SYSTEM. When I installed the later version (v1.2; 14 Dec 87), SuperPatch worked perfectly. Michael Wogan, Ph.D. West Collingswood, N.J. AppleWorks 3.0 will require an “expander” for the Apple H-Plus, as for earlier versions. With AppleWorks 5.0 only out a few weeks, it may take a while for one to appear. The macro programs are probably looking for an enhanced Ile at a minimum; whether the program can be patched (in a manner simi- lar to AppleWorks) to work on an Apple Il-Plus is unknown to us. Randy Brandt (author of TimeOut UltraMacros) has indicated to us that the program assumes the memory configura- tion of a 128K Apple Ile or equivalent; Apple Il memory expansion cards do not mimic a 128K He, Thanks for the information on the suitability of SuperPatch for the Il-Plus. The problems you were having with BASIC.SYSTEM may relate to the difference in the way vi.0 and later versions handled =the = BSAVE command.-DJD Fixing a date I believe I have another solution to Keith J. Scala’s problem with truncating of 1989 to 89. When | use the database for dates that need to be written out, | use a separate column for the year. Then | “Arrange chronologically” on the Date column, followed by “Arrange 0-9” in the year column. My print layout takes care of the correct right Justification spacing by way of open-apple~J. Date Yr 1960 1989 1988 1978 Feb 29 Mar 15 Apr 21 May 26 is is how data is first entered Date Yr Feb 29 1960 May 26 1978 Apr 21 1988 Mar 15 1989 (printed) < finished product Liz Anderson Mt. Holly, N. J. Periodically | make an AppleWorks database file from a mainframe-generated text file. The file consists of personnel data of about 900 individuals. | copy the records from this file to the clipboard and move them from the clip- board into another AppleWorks database file which has the correct category names, report formats, etc. I’ve written a macro to convert entries in date fields to a format that Apple- Works can sort chronologically. T've discovered that if | copy the records to the final ADB file rather than move them Apple- Works 3,0 automatically converts entries going into date fields to the appropriate format. | don’t believe this feature is mentioned in the manual, I keep discovering little features like this that suggest that the modifications to version 3.0 were made by people who understand Apple- Works and the people who use it. Leigh S. Rockwelt Wyomissing Hills, Penn. When the chips are down Whenever I booted into Prodos 16, | would get the error message “Unclaimed Sound Inter- rupt- O8FF* and the bouncing apple behaved very erratically. It looked sorta spastic, moving part way to the left and then restarting. Prodos 8 would boot just fine, except when I went into the control panel, the machine would die at ran- dom intervals in the ‘control panel. Sometimes it would quit at the main panel, giving the error message as above, and leaving the time and date (f} on screen. Other times it would die in the sub sections, for example, in the RAM disk settings panel. No rhyme or reason, it just quit. The fix: remove the Engsonic chip (the large one on the lower left by the RAM card connec- tion). It helps to remove the trim strip with the power on light. (That is done by gently bending the locking pins on the bottom of the case) After the chip is out, carefully clean the pins with an ink eraser. Reset the chip. I have had no problems since I did this. Jim Coffey Coram, N.Y. If you fear the eraser is too abrasive, you can ty a commercial “contact cleaner“ sold at electronics stores.-DJD TDD information In the October 1989 A2-Central (p. 5.69), James Ketchum of Kalamazoo, Mich. asked about communicating between Telephone Devices for the Deaf (TDDs) and Apple Ils. While not an expert in the area (of either), | may be able to offer some assistance. As 1 understand, TDDs normally com municate in Baudot format, a five bit code. ‘Since Apple Ils use ASCII format instead of Bau- dot, a direct communication between Apple ils and TDDs would not be possible. Mr. Ketchum’s only hope, as | see it, is that the individual with whom he is communicating possesses a TDD that incorporates an “ASCII key”. Such a key enables the TDD user to communicate with almost any computer system, assuming is pos- sesses a modem and the appropriate communi- cations software. If he, or other A2-Central readers are interested, this and other informa- tion is available in an article by Michael Pflaum entitled “The California Connection: Interfacing a Telecommunication Device for the Deaf (TDD) and an Apple Computer’. This article appeared in the September 1982 edition of The Ameri- Vol. 5, No. 11 can Annals of the Deaf (pages 575-584), I hope that this answers some of Mr. Ketchum’s questions and provides an additional resource to those interested. E. W. Testut, Ph.D. Associate Professor of Audiology Ithaca College Ithaca, N. ¥. In reference to James Ketchum’s request for TDD information, | have something that may help. TDD’s communicate at 45.5 baud and use Baudot code. This is a five-bit code. Instead of going to all the trouble to modify his modem and write his own communications software, he could try to find an old Novation Apple Cat Hl. This modem could be modified {one jumper, done free al the factory) to be used as a TDD. The software to support this was called DeafWare and was sold by Novation for about $30. Until being sent to Germany, [ used my Apple Cat for a TDD terminal for six years, first in a IlPlus, then a Ile, and now my Ilgs. There shouldn’t be any compatibility problems with whatever machine he has. I have never seen another modem that could be used for TDD. Hope this helps. Keith W. Higgins Landstuhl, West Germany Quantum hard disk formatting 1 have read in one of the GEnie BBS’s that Mac hard drives using the Quantum mecha- nisms are formatted with a 1:1 interleave which can't be altered. | have a IIgs and am consider- ing a MAC HD (40 MB). What effect will this have on a llgs’s performance (i.e. access speed, etc.)? John T, Chiao Hughesville, Penn. Chris Adams of Chinook Technology points out that the Quantum Pro series drives (40, 80, and 105 MB capacities) have a built-in cache that should remove any influence of the inter- leave on the access speed. Judging the best interleave for your disk drive is complicated; it depends on many fac- tors down to the software you use most often. Unless you're anxious to spend quite a bit of time testing boot, save, and ioad times with your usual software with various possible inter- leaves, consider if the speed of the “standard” formatting is adequate for you to live with.-DJD Megaboard found In reply to Mr. Thomas J. Scott’s letter pub- lished in the November issue of A2-Central, the manufacturer of the Megaboard is: Prisma Datensysteme Grblt Strade 30 6839 Oberhavser-Rheinhausen WEST GERMANY The U.S.A. distributor is now: ‘ FAK When you buy this product, you must specify the Apple Ile or Ilgs version, as there Is a differ- ence in one of the PAL’s. DMA supplied the nec- essary software with the llgs version and should be able to solve Mr. Scott's problem. I use a Megaboard on my ligs with a Seagate ST-125 20 megabyte drive (28 ms.) and a separate power December 1989 supply. In Brazil there is no after-purchase ser- vice for Apple hard drives (InSider, Vulcan, etc.), so the Megaboard was my best option and I'm very satisfied with it. David James Rotenberg San Paulo, Brazil Another (not so bloody) virus If you've experienced strange color changes of the border after releasing open-apple-control- reset or color changes of the background and the border, you've got a virus in your system. The virus will delete blocks 0 and 1 on 3.5 disks in October. Furthermore the screen will turn read and the following message will be dis- played: Systen failure in ++ 08 The number means seconds and is counted down, Reaching 00, the screen will turn green with the border cycling through the colors and the following message will appear on your screen: 0013 Copies Distr: Artistes Associes = 1 RR Prenier Virus HON-DESTRUCTEUR su 1168 par SUPER BACKER & SHYRKAN x MASTERS CRACKING SERVICE 1988 Lyon ‘The virus copies blocks 0 and | of 3.5 disks and can be identified through the bytes $01 A9 50 at the beginning of block, Block 1 contains the code for the color changing. An uncorrupted block 0 begins with the bytes $01 38 BO. In this case block 1 is either empty {containing all 00's) or has reference to the SOS operating sys- tem of the Apple Ill. The virus installs in RAM and can be deleted only by shutting down the system power or by initiating the built-in self-test routines of the Tigs. if in RAM the virus installs itself on every unaffected 3.5 disk in the drive with every open-apple-control-reset. It seems it installs only on the disks in the boot drive. | have some data disks which I usually put into the second 3.5 drive which were not affected, although the pro- gram disk was, To eliminate the virus from the disks is rather simple. Just use a sector editor (like Copy II Plus) to overwrite blocks 0 and I with the same blocks from an unaffected disk. Udo Huth Wittmar, West Germany The virus does seem to be relatively innoc- cous; overwriting blocks 0 and | but leaving the rest of the disk unaffacted. When it "goes off” it forces you to boot from an uninfected diskette and restore the boot blocks of ail infected disks; it’s an irritant more than any- thing else. We've included a fix on this month’s disk which was. provided by Brian McCaig, who was one of the first to report the virus in the U.S. To explain the difference in the contents of block 1: originally, the boot code blocks 0 and | contained code to allow the disk to boot on an Apple il using ProDOS or an Appie Jil using SOS. When GS/OS arrived, the boot code was modified -DJD GS/OS and third party software Js there a way in which to use GS/OS with programs like Rocket Ranger? It seems that the tools on the /System.Disk work fine, including the System.Setup directory, but the program seems to be incompatible with something else. It boots fine but stalls after displaying the first graphics screen. Also, what is the use of the FSTs directory and which ones in this are essential for booting the computer? Shantul Nigam Southington, Conn. The size of GS/OS (with all associated files) may preclude installing it on a floppy with another large program. Some vendors may elect to include GS/OS_on its own disk (as was done with AppleWorks GS); some may even- tually elect o supply just the program, leaving the user to start up his computer with his own system disks. Among the Installer scripts for 5.0 is an *Lat- est Sys. Files (No Finder)” option; such an installation takes about 641K of disk space. If you can make a backup of your program disk (some may be copy protected, which precludes this), you can try this installation on a copy of the program disk to see if it works. If not, you'll have to do the disk shuffle unless you have multiple drives or a hard disk. We've noticed programs that do not work properly with later versions of GS/OS, or with certain environments such as AppleShare. it's important to let the manufacturer know about these compatibility problems so they can attempt to solve them. Manufacturers that complain about “poor ligs sales* should evalu- ate whether compatibility problems of their own doing are contributing to some consumer resistance. Programs that don't run with Apple- Share and current system software versions get shelved fairly quickly here; this includes prod- ucts that use copy protection schemes that preclude hard disk or network installation (for a single user, within the product's terms of use), The FST’s (file system translators) are GS/OS’s method of communicating with vari- ous devices in a standard way. You need to have the FST‘s for the file system(s) you use (normally ProDOS; possibly AppieShare or oth- ers) and for the devices that may need support (CHAR.FST for character devices, such as the keyboard), Normaily, installer should install the ones you need.-DJD Joy(stick) with a mouse You_might advise Mr. Pagani (5.58a) thal Happ Electronics, 3850 N. Main Street (or 4640 Island View), Oshkosh, Wisc. 54901, (414) 231- 5128, make several “socket extenders” for Apple Il Plus, Ie and IIc models, These include ones that allow more than one joystick or mouse to be attached to the Ilc at once. While typically sold to allow more than one joystick to be active at once for multi-player games, they would probably work for what he wants, Con- tact Rick Happ, president of the company, for more information and current pricing. Ihave been using one of the extenders they make for the lle/llgs for a couple of years now with no problems, and my experience with sup- port for other programs they sell has been excellent. I recommend them highly. Jack Countryman Greenburg, Ind. in response to the question posed by Mr. A. Pagani in the November 1989 issue, page 5.78, “Joyful mouse”, an additional solution is the Moustik Switch. This small, solid-state device A2-Central 5.87 plugs into the joystick/mouse connector on the back of the Ilc and provides two separate con- nectors into which a joystick and mouse can then be inserted simultaneously. Pressing either the “fire button” or “mouse button” allows easy alternate selection of either device. My Moustik Switch has worked flawlessly since purchasing it over two and one-half years ago. The price at that time was $29.95. The switch is manufac- tured and sold by Southern California Research Group, P. O. Box 593-R, Moorpark, Calif. 95020, {805} 529-2082. | recently called to verify their continued existance and production ‘of the switch. Roger A. Maltz, M.D. Evanston, ill. Font Conversions Are there any programs for converting Macin- tosh fonts into Apple Il fonts? I have a unique font I'd like to convert! Robert Kozlowski Concord, Maine The font file format is described in the Jan- uary 1989 issue (‘Fonts: on screen and in print”). A2-Central Font Librarian Mark Collins can convert the font for you and assign it a num- ber, if you deign to send him a copy. You can reach Mark at: Pebble Valley Software 2511 Pebble Valley Road Waukesha, Wisc, 53188 When the IIgs was introduced, Apple Com- puter sent some developers a Mac utility called Font Munger that could be used to prepare fonts to be copied to a ligs disk and used, but it was never released as a product. It fell into the limbo of copyrighted products that were never released, and therefore can’t be dis- tributed legally except by the copyright holder. Chris Budewig (a.k.a. Kevin Flynn) has written a BASIC program titled FONT.MUNGER that can assist in converting a Mac font once you isolate the resource fork from the Mac file containing the font to a ProDOS disk using a utility such as John Wolf's MacTrans. You will have to sup- ply some information to FONT.MUNGER, you can extract most of this information from the font resource using Chris’ RESLIST utility, Chris’ files include the basic instructions with the program, But if you want a font number from the A2-Central Font Clearinghouse, you will still need to contact Mark.-DJD Affordable(?) laser printing lwas seriously considering purchasing a LaserWriter SC for my ligs (just to play around). But I found out that it was not a PostScript device. Would an older LaserWriter (used) at $1895 be a better buy? Or a LaserWriter Plus (used) at $2395? Or the: LaserWriter SC at $1980? Joe Schmidt West Milford, NJ, Do you recommend the LaserWriter NT to print with AppleWorks GS and Publistuit! 2.0, or should one wait and see what develops in terms of higher-quality printing? Horst Moehrke San Diego, Calif. 5.88 A2-Central We have been (very happily) using a Laser- Writer NT, but the price will scare off most people. We have seen a $695 cartridge adver- tised for the Hewlett-Packard LaserJet series I! ptinters that supposedly adds “PostScript” (Aldus's page description language) compatibil- ity using Phoenix Technologies’ PhoenixPage interpreter and 35 ‘LaserWriter NT-equiva- lent” fonts; the product is called PacificPage and is sold by Pacific Data Products, 6404 Nancy Ridge Drive, San Diego, Calif. 92121, (619) 552-0880. We can't recommend the LaserWriter SC for multiple reasons; the lack of a figs driver, lack of PostScript, and lack of AppleShare network support, The LaserWriter SC also depends on the host computer to do more of the work in laying out the page image; which requires more of the host computer's (RAM and processor time) resources. At about $2800 retail for the LaserWriter SC, the LaserJet/PacificPage combination looks like a more attractive investment, if it works. A used LaserWriter or LaserWriter Plus is also more attractive. There will no doubt be better (and hopefully cheaper) high-quality printers in the future, but buying decisions have to be made in the pre- sent. It breaks down to looking at the features and deciding if they justify (to you) the cost. PostScript files and you How do I save an AppleWorks GS file so that i can print it at the local printers shop that uses a Macintosh and a LaserWriter? Will my page Pp : © Copyright 1989 by A2-Central Most fghts reserved. All programs pubisved in A2-Cemtral are pubic omain and may be copied arc distributed without charge. Apple user groups ad sgnfear thers may obtain permission to rept aries Fom ime ote by specie wnten request. ted by: Dennis Doms veh hep rom: Tom Weishaar Sally Dwyer Dean Esmay Joyce Hammond Steve Kelly day Jennings Tom Vanderpool Jean Weishasr Open-Apple tech Jaruay, 1920 —has been puo- lished mochiy sn January 1385. Workers pices (in US. dla, armel elvery nde a no adore cary: $28 for 1 year, $54 fr 2 years; $78 for 3 years. Al back issues ar curenty avaiable fr $2 each, bound, indeed tons of or rs four volumes ae $14.5 each. Voumes ond wi he Jaruary issu; anirdex forthe prior vem i icuded wit he Februay isu ‘The hl et ofeach issue of A2-Centrals avaiable on 3.5 disks, long with 2 seleton of tne best new pubc dorian and shareware es and oro ‘grams, for $842 year newslter ard dk combined), Single disks are 1°, ease Sand af comespondence 0: A2-Central P.O, Box 11250 Overland Park, Kansas 66207 U.S.A. A2-Central's sold in an unprotected format for your convenience, You are encouraged to make back-up archival copes or 235) 10 ead enlarged copies for your own use witout charge. You may also copy A2-Cemtral ct <istrbution to alers. The distribution fee i 15 cents par nage per copy s+ ‘ibued. WARRANTY AND LIMITATION OF LIABILITY. | warant thal most che information in A2-Cemtral is uselul and correct, athough drivel ard is- takes are inclied (rom tme to tie. usualy unirtenionaly, Unsatsed subecribe's may carce’ thei? subsrinion at ary time and receive 2 tll fefund of their ast subscription payment. The unfiled porton of any nad subscrigton wil be relunced even to satisfied subscibers upon request. My LIABILITY FOR ERRORS AND OMISSIONS IS LIMITED TO. THIS PUBLICATIONS PURCHASE PRICE. In no case shal of my contibiors be liable for ary incerta! o consequent damages, nor for ANY dam ‘ages inexmess ofthe fees palo by a subscriber 18H 0685-4017 Printed inthe U.S.A. GEnke mall: A2-CENTRAL Voice: 913-480-6502 Fax; 913-469-6507 layout be thrashed? Will 1 lose all graphics images? Will the fonts be the same? Alan flansen Des Moines, lowa The Apple ligs LaserWriter driver will gener- ate a text file of the PostScript program need- ed fo produce your printout. You can then download this program to the LaserWriter later to generate your document. First you need to install the LaserWriter driver on your boot disk. Then, from a desktop application (such as AppleWorks GS), pull down the “Apple” menu and select the Controf Panel desk accessory. When the Control Panel window pops up, click on the LaserWriter icon. A window with “Select a LaserWriter’, “AppleTalk Zones", and “User Name” will pop up. if you have a LaserWriter connected, select the printer and AppleTalk zone as usual. if you do not have a LaserWriter connected to your system, the “Select a LaserWriter” win- dow will be empty; click inside it anyway to tell the Control Panel that you indeed want to use the LaserWriter driver. Enter a user name if the one shown is incorrect, and close the Con- tol Panel window. Next, select “Page Setup” from your pro- gram’s “File” menu to make sure you have the page layout established correctly. Accept the settings when correct and, with your document loaded and ready to print, select “Print* from the “File” menu. The LaserWriter print dialog should appear. To create the PostScript file instead of sending the document to the printer, press and hold open-apple-F as you click on the “Print” button; continue holding open- apple-F until a dialog telling you that the driver is “Creating PostScript file...” appears. The file will be created in the SYSTEM/DRIVERS/ folder, and will be given the name “POST- SCRIPT.GSxx", where "xx" is the number of the file being created (“POSTSCKIPT.GSO!* for the first, and so on), These names aren't descrip- tive, so you'll want to keep track of the con- tents of each file and rename it to something recognizeable (like “LetterToMom.PS") later. There isn’t a standalone PostScript file downloader for the ligs presently, though Mark Collins hopes to have one completed before the new year. Since you plan to try and print the document from a Macintosh, you can use one of the Mac font/PostScript file download- ers such as the one Adobe supplies for down- loading its (commercial) printer fonts. The place you go to print may have such a program available. You'll also need a way to wansfer the file from a ProDOS disk to the Mac. Apple File Exchange's “default” translation works; it's faster and simpler than the “text* translation since the file is known to be text the Laser- Writer can deal with. Another option is modem or serial port transfer. If the ligs, LaserWriter, and Mac are on AppleShare, you can just copy the text file from the ligs to an AppleShare server volume that the Mac can also access. The page layout problems are the same that you experience with IIgs programs in general; the converted Mac fonts most IIgs programs use print as tall, skinny letters unless you print using the “condensed” option. If your docu- ment also uses graphics, then the “condensed” mode will compress them to half their dis- played height. Currently, their is no overall solution to this; the workaround is to “stretch” the graphic to twice it’s normal height with a Vol. 5, No. 11 graphics utility program, then print everything condensed, or to not use condensed print and live with tall letters. (See the February issue for an explanation of this.) Graphics imported (or drawn) as bitmapped images {images consisting of a series of on/off dots) will look like they are made of visible dots, somewhat as they appear on a dot matrix printer (admittedly, a very nice dot-matrix print- er); you'll notice things like a “jaggedness” to diagonal lines. Graphics produced as “objects” (images described mathematically rather than as a pattem of dots) wil! print without the Jaggedness. As an example, the drawing tools of the “Paint” module of AppleWorks GS pro- duce bit-mapped images, while the drawing tools within the “Page Layout” module produce objects. This correlates to the Macintosh; “paint” programs (such as MacPaint) often are distinct from “drawing’ programs (like Mac- CAD, nee’ MacDraw) in this regard, though programs such as SuperPaint can produce either type of image. The capabilities of ligs programs may change as they are revised. The management of fonts is a little compli- cated; the rule of thumb is that if you want the best quality (with perhaps a little loss of "what you see is what you get”) you should select fonts that exist in the LaserWriter, The original LaserWriter contains the Courier, Helvetica®, Symbol, and Times® font families as built-in fonts; the LaserWriter Plus, NT, and NTX also contain Helvetica Narrow, ITC Avante Garde®, ITC Bookman®, ITC Zapf Chancery®, ITC Zapf Dingbats®, New Century Schoolbook, and Palatino®. (fonts can be added to the NTX via an expansion board.) Addtitional fonts must be downloaded; Mark Collins' PostScript down- loader for the flgs will also be designed to han- die fonts. If the “laser” font (internal or downloaded) does not exist, a bitmapped generation of the font will be used, Checking the “Smoothing?” item in the “Page Layout” dialog box will cause the system to attempt to ‘smooth’ the bitmapped image for the output. You can also elect to use the “Font Substitution” item to force the LaserWriter to use the intemal fonts Times, Courier, and Helvetica in place of the fonts New York, Monaco, and Geneva respec- tively if the fatter fonts are not present in the printer.-DJD It's serious, folks Thanks for your continuing terrific work. | have a IIgs, which | use extensively in my law practice (mainly business litigation). 1 whole- heartedly agree with your view that the Apple II can be a sophisticated business tool. I am typi- cally involved in complex litigation, which requires amassing, sorting, and analyzing lots of documents and data, and then doing detective work (e. g, searching for intentional misrepre- sentations in financial statements, insurance company claim payment records, and the like}. I simply could not do this sort of thing as easily and carefully without the Ilgs. There is no good reason why Apple does not tell people that the Il can do this sort of thing, and do it well; | think better than the Mac or the IBM PC's. Gary Young Madison, Wisc.