Text content (OCR)
A2-Central’
.
A journal and exchange of Apple Il discoveries
formerly
Open-Apple
April 1991
Vol.7, No.3
ISSN 0885-4017
newstand price: $2.50
photocopy charge per page: $0.15
Miscellanea
Apple has announced an incompatibility between some igs
power supplies and the ROM 03 motherboard. The new mother-
board may not draw enough power from the supply, which can cause
some supplies to fail prematurely (that’s right, the new motherboard
may draw too little power for some supplies!).
The affected supplies are made by Dyna Comp (Apple also buys
power supplies for the IIgs from Astec) and can be identified by a
brushed metal case (Astec’s case is shiny) and a power supply serial
number beginning with “I...” (Astec’s start with “M..."). Dyna Comp
supplies that have already been adapted for the new llgs mother-
board have the red dot stuck on top to indicate they are ok.
Since the standard Apple warranty is only one year, Apple has
extended replacement coverage of power supplies failing due to this
problem to January 31, 1993. Note that even if you have one of the
affected supplies, you probably won't have a problem unless you've
never added any kind of card to your computer.
Updates to ProSel-16 are causing a change in the form of the
product. The addition of new ProSel utilities (appointment calendar,
text editor, calculator) and enhancements to the backup and disk
optimizer utilities have crowded the documentation off the 3.5 disk,
and manuals are being printed to replace the disk-based text files.
As of April 1, 1991, ProSel-16 will be sold as disk and printed man-
ual at $89.95. This package will be sold through mail-order channels,
Current ProSel-16 owners can update to the new disk and manual
package for $20; those who bought ProSel-!6 after November 1,
1990, only pay $10. ProSel-8 owners can update for $30 until April 1;
after April 1, the update price will be $50, (Add $5 shipping and han-
dling to all the above prices.)
Vitesse has packaged several of its utilities together into
Salvation-Supreme. Supreme includes Bakkup (disk backup utility),
Deliverance (disk and file recovery), Exorciser (virus detection and
elimination), Renaissance (disk optimization), and Wings (program
selector and utilities), The suggested retail price is $199.95.
You'd like a discount on the network version of Menu Master
(normally $169)? Until May 25th, Electronic Learning Systems will
allow you to send in your original of an Apple Aristotle program disk
for $60 off the normal price of Menu Master. Shipping and handling is
$3. The network version is compatible with all Apple Il networks
including AppleShare, Corvus networks, ELAN, VELAN, and DigiCard.
ligs System Software 5.0.3 and 5.0.4 changes. If you're curious
about system software updates, you'll want to know about the
changes mentioned in the Apple IIgs System Software Release Notes
for version 5.0.4. (These notes also accompany the System Software
packages sold through APDA.)
The two-disk installation process has undergone changes as the
system software has grown. The ACE (Audio Compression and Expan-
sion) toolset (TOOLO29) has been moved to the /System.Tools disk,
as has the Times.12 and Shaston.16 fonts. If you install the SCSI
Hard Disk option, these fonts, as well as the contents of the “Tutorial”
folder, will be deleted from the disk on which the SCSI drivers are
installed (this is to prevent a “disk full” on an 800K disk). Scripts that
install these fonts now copy them from the /System.Tools disk.
The release notes also cover several pages of technical descrip-
tions of bug fixes and minor changes in the system software. Among
the changes: users of internal serial devices (including internal
modems) that emulate the Super Serial Card should no longer see the
“greater than 65535 unclaimed interrupts” warning (if such a problem
occurs now, you'll see a message to visit your dealer), the printer and
modem port drivers have been enhanced (they should now accept
writes at rates up to 19.2 kilobaud), and the AppleTalk code has been
modified so that setting your ligs clock will no longer cause discon-
nection from the server.
There are remaining known bugs in the SCSI.Manager. The
SCSI.Manager asks peripherals to return up to 256 bytes of status
information into a buffer that turns out to be only 8 bytes in size.
Most devices don’t return more than 8 bytes of information, but if you
are the lucky owner of a device that returns more status information,
the extra bytes will wipe out the part of the Manager's code that fol-
lows the buffer. Such devices will cause a crash during boot. We know
people who use most major brands of hard disk mechanisms (Sea-
gate, Conner, Quantum, etc.) but if you have a less-than-mainstream
‘SCSI device that is always crashing on startup, add this to the list of
possible causes,
There are also two remaining known bugs in ProDOS 8 v1.9. First,
ProDOS 8 doesn’t handle seedling sparse files correctly (but such files
don’t normally occur). Second, if you issue an MLI SET_PREFIX call
with a volume name of “/" followed by a SET_PREFIX call with a vol-
RCT E=NNAAT
Y'KNOW, I DON'T MIND LIVING INA COMPSERIZED fe
“SMART HOUSE? BUTI DQ MIND BENG = fe
CALLED AN IDIOT BY THE TOASTER. _
a
7.18 A2-Central
ume name not beginning with a slash (that is, an invalid volume
name), the prefix will end up set to the first letter of the volume name
supplied for the second call.
Users should note that the recommended system software versions
for various “normal” minimum memory configurations are v3.2 for
systems with at least 256K, v4.0 for systems with at least 512K, and
5.0.4 for systems with at least one megabyte of memory. You should
be using the most recent version that you are able to run on your sys-
tem.
If you have a non-Apple SCSI card, don't add Apple's
‘SCSI.Manager to your boot disk. The SCSI.Manager installs an inter-
Vol. 7, No. 3
rupt driver when it is executed at boot up, but fails to remove it when
it can't find an Apple SCSI card. This will cause problems later when
some other program that's taken over the SCSI.Manager's memory
the Apple IIgs,
gets an unexpected interrupt call.
Zip Technology has announced pricing for the 10 MHz
upgrade to the Zip GSX. The 10 MHz 65816 upgrade is $100; fast
cache RAM for the upgrade is $50 per 32K.
Version 3.3 of Talk is Cheap (communications software for
ic, and 128K enhanced Ile) is shipping. Updates
are available through Quality Computers (800-443-6697).
Version 4.0 of GEnie Master (GEnie message processor) is
Ask
Apple I! Product Manager Tim Swihart sent
us some comments regarding the HyperCard
ligs article in last month's issue; one of the
more illuminating was that there is a variation
of the HyperTalk input command that will use
a standard file dialog to get the name of a file
for you:
ask file "My Prompt” with "nyDefaultPile”
This is one of the enhancements on the Iigs
version.
Readers have also reported an “Easter Egg’.
Pull down the Apple menu and select “About
HyperCard ligs..."Hold down the Option key
and wait as the screens flip by; you'll see an
additional screen of “Suspects”, including the
name you type in when you first run the
“Hello” stack.
The second Applesoft program on page
7.10 does a “GOSUB 50” in line 30; that needs
to be “GOSUB 60” for the program to do any-
thing semi-useful.
The table in the reply to “New improved(?)
drivers” (p. 7.15) lost its tabs somewhere in
translation; here's a more readable form. All
times are in seconds, Where there are two fig-
ures, the first is the time the ligs was busy
printing, the second is the time the printer was
busy. Where there is one figure, the printer
kept up with the computer and finished at the
same time:
‘Systeny/node Tet Graphics
5.0.2
Better text IL m
5.04
Rast 5 36/13
Standard 28/36 151/172
Best 50 139/160
Many readers had alternative suggestions
for finding a list of “GS/OS error codes’, but
the most practical seems to be the Super Info
NDA by Jim Lazar. For $12 you get an NDA
which will display a listing of error codes and
short descriptions as well as many other sys-
tem_ parameters and tables (current GS/OS
prefixes, an ASCII chart, memory usage, and
more). You can reach Jim at 1109 Niesen
Road, Port Washington, Wisc. 53074, or online
at “Winkie Jim” (America Online), “WINKIEJIM”
(GEnie), or 70401,2677 (CompuServe).
In addition to the commercial U.S. and
Canadian tax preparation software we men-
tioned last month, George C. Sherwood want-
ed us to mention that he has released a free-
ware set of AppleWorks templates that he
believes will meet the needs of many Canadi-
an taxpayers. The template has been uploaded
to GEnie as CANADATAX90.BXY (file #14801);
it may be available on other services as well.
Finally, | absent-mindedly pared William
Watson’s address (“Roll out the Apple”, p.
7.16) to the minimalist version; the full
address is: William Watson, 24 High Street
Wall Heath, West Midlands, England, DY6 OHB
—DJD
ligs solutions
I love my Apple Hc; I'll finally expand my
RAM with an Applied Engineering RAM Express
Il, With all the time I spend trying to make my
Ic work like a Mac, I should’ve invested in a
ligs.
The truth is, | really resented all the space
given to the llgs as it detracted from informa-
tion on the IIc. Having used a friend’s Ilgs (with
an older operating system), speed and how
much RAM one has seem to be the limiting fac-
tors. Maybe a price decrease along the lines of
the new Mac series is in order along with a new
ligs—a “IIgs Classic” that everyone can
afford—1 megabyte standard with hard drive.
And runs Mac software.
Roger Cucci
Poughkeepsie, N.Y.
We continue to operate on the assumption
that the several million Apple Il users that
bought Ile, lic, and ligs systems after the intro-
duction of the Mac had reasons for staying
with the Il, ligs buyers in particular had some-
thing in mind, since they obviously had some
desire for the “Mac-like” features of the ligs
and yet didn’t opt for the Mac.
We think the reasons for Apple Il users
selecting le and llc (or Laser 128) systems
imight be:
+ compatibility with existing software and
peripherals
+ mltiple slots
* availability of “pure text” mode vhen graphics are
not called for
We think Iigs purchases are due to the fol
lowing additional reasons:
+ wp to 8 neybytes directly addressable RIM nenory
.8 Miz acceleration and 16-bit processor
+ built-in expansion in addition to standard Apple IZ
slots
+ RIM (currently 1.125 megabytes in ROM 03
machines)
* clock
« serial ports
+ Appletalk
+ sound synthesizer
* super high-res graphics display
+ Apple Desktop Bus
+ the systen is expandable with more current technology
+ the system software includes enhanoenents supporting
new features
* control panel allows changes to hardvare such as repeat
key speed, RAMdisk size, international character
displays and keyboard layouts, sound volume and
pitch, and default screen colors.
Although many Apple Ile and llc users seem
nonplussed when faced with the ligs, add up
the cost of the extra capabilities and see
whether the IIgs (where the features are actual-
ly integrated into the design) doesn’t look like
the better long-range investment at this time.
There are other more select advantages to
the Apple Il; for example, the limited vertical
resolution, which is seen as a limitation by
some, allows NTSC compatibility; every Apple
I has a “video out” connector (the composite
signal used by non-RGB monitors) that can be
hooked to a video tape recorder.—DJD
IIgs support
| have a few comments regarding recent top-
ics.
Hypercard igs: | have always been utterly
bewildered about what HyperCard is good for
besides something that could be done much
more nicely with a slide projector (do business
people use it for anything?), but your article
finally begins to shed a faint light on it and also
the point of OOP. So thanks. My idea of a com-
puter program has always been something with
mathematical algorithms and a lot of data, so
we'll see what kinds of program are intended
for the “Applesoft of the ‘90s”.
Laser printers: We have just purchased an
Hewlett-Packard LaserJet IIP and are using it, so
far, with AppleWorks, GraphicWriter iI! (with
Independence), and with an MS-DOS laptop. It’s
pretty good, with the following comments.
Independence/GraphicWriter III have some
bugs they promise to fix. In 300 d. (best)
mode it takes something like 15 minutes per
page to print.
1 was hoping dearly that Independence
would work with Pyware Music Writer, but no
such luck. I'll be inquiring of both sides what
can be done.
Something that no one mentioned is that
AppleWorks will print quickly and flawlessly on
Downloaded from www.Apple2Online.com
April 1991
also now available, the new version is compatible with Apple-
Works 3.0. You can download a “locked” version of the program
from GEnie and send the author, Tom Hoover, $20 for instructions to
pply it on a 3.5 disk for’ $25,
Updates from earlier versions are available from Tom at 3014
Teakwood Drive, Garland, Texas 75044 for $10; you also need to
return the original disk or a copy of the sales receipt as proof-of-pur-
unlock it, or Tom wil
chase.
A2-Central's Jay Jennings has set up a BBS system. The soft-
ware is ProLine from the Morgan Davis Group, 10079 Nuerto, Rancho
San Diego, Calif. 91977-1736, 619-670-0563 (FAX 619-670-9643, or
want to give it a try.
A2-Central 7,19
BBS 619-670-5379). ProLine is capable of being woven into a net-
work with other ProLine systems; Jay hasn’t gotten to this stage yet,
but Pro-Central is up at 913-642-5397 (300/1200/2400 baud) if you
Eventually, we are hoping to have this available as an alternative
method of communicating with our modem-using readers. However,
some of us here are already finding it impossible to keep up with log-
ging into several services and we've had to cut back our on-line time.
Currently, Pro-Central is primarily a programmer's BBS (Jennings edits
8/16-Central, our programmers publication), and is not specifically
limited to Apple Il issues—DJD
the IIP using no special hardware. So far I've
done no tricks with it, but the output is beauti-
ful.
Since people are probably interested, the
actual cost to get into this printer was $1080
(sans tax), summed up as follows:
Printer: $730
‘Toner: $100
meg upgrade: $200
(necessary for full page graphics)
Independence: $30
Coble: $20
(serial port to 25-pin for printer)
If you hustle very hard. you can probably
shave ten percent off all of this, but it gives the
idea. For text-based programs (AppleWorks)
$200 extra for some fonts would probably be
desirable since the //P has only one. This does
not apply to graphics-based programs. For $500
you can get PostScript, too.
Dealers’ ignorance of the Apple Il: the most
infuriating thing about Apple II marketing these
days seems to be not what Apple is doing but
what all the dealers are doing. When shopping
for the above printer the stores (not Apple deal-
ers) told me matter-of-factly “the JP will not
work with the Ilgs” or “it requires an AppleTalk
interface ($250)" or “it requires PostScript’.
They couldn’t even tell me that an ordinary
word processor will drive it with a plain serial
cable.
Regarding Music Writer. I've used it a lot
although | haven't used the major update much
yet. The printed output is superb, and every
musical symbol you can think of is available,
and lyrics do work. Its ability to play back is a
little weak, but then its only purpose to me is to
check for mistakes. It doesn’t seem to access
the Ensonig chip. MIDI input is effective as long
as you avoid “real time” input (this may be bet-
ter on the update).
Martin D. Paquette
Bellevue, Wash.
If you thought you were alone in your confu-
sion about HyperCard, consider this quote that
Scott Alfter reminded us about:
If | were going to give an award for
Most Questionable Over-Exaltation of
a new computer product in the last
five years, it would have to go to
Apple’s aptly named HyperCard. Not
that the product isn’t important, mind
you, but the sight of the Macintosh
community falling all over itself in
reaction to software that was, at
heart, an advanced version of Beagle
Bros’ perrenial worst-seller, Frame-
Up (written by yours truly), seemed a
bit overdone to me.
-Tom Weishaar, A2-Central, June
1989, p.5.55
Scott of course wonders what changed in
our attitude to result in last month's lead arti-
cle. The answer is that everything Tom and |
had seen about HyperCard emphasized its
multimedia aspects, when the real power is in
the HyperTalk programming language. Maybe
Apple wanted to shy away from talking about
programming to Mac audiences.
We want to continue to emphasize that we
think the uniquely advantageous capability pro-
vided by HyperCard ligs is its ability to manip-
ulate data, including its own objects, under
script control. As a hypermedia product for
manipulating mostly text (with graphics and
sounds thrown in), Nexus has significant
advantages over its competition. For hyperme-
dia broadly encompassing the capabilities of
the ligs, HyperStudio has the edge. If you're
confused, look at all of them; comparison
shopping is encouraged.—DJD
Software construction kit
Do you know of a good invoice/database pro-
gram | can use for a small business?
We have been using pfs:File to enter and
print relevant information (bill to address, mail
to address, items ordered, print terms, our
address, status of payment, etc.) on two
screens (one page). The printout serves as
invoice and bill; the on-screen data serves as a
method to track sales, status of payment, etc. It
is not very flexible, but it is simple to use and
has been reliable over the past five years, The
program, however, is copy-protected and
requires a 5.25 “key disk” in slot 6, drive 1, that
is getting to be a real drag and liability. (Sooner
or later, the disk will malfunction and then
where will we be?) We also could use more flex-
ibility, better looking printouts, and easier
search capability,
AppleWorks Classic would be ideal as we are
all familiar with its commands and use it fre-
quently, but it doesn’t have enough fields per
record for our purpose.
| tried creating an AppleWorks GS template,
but after a couple of hours it hung when | tried
to save the template. It was rather discouraging
and time-consuming so | didn’t try it again.
The shareware version of DB Master looked
powerful, but the thought of learning a new set
of commands weakens me (the same for Pro-
Filer v4.0).
| thought HyperCard IIgs might serve the bill
(no pun intended), but know little about it other
than the information presented in A+/InCider
and what I can expect from having some famil-
iarity with the Mac’s version of HyperCard. I'm
especially interested in scripting, XCMDs, and
voice digitizing,
Rich Katz
‘Sunset Software
Scottsdale, Ariz.
My ligs system has what it takes to run
Apple’s new HyperCard Iigs, and I'm going to
buy this software package for at least a couple
of reasons. First, I’m intrigued by its impressive
power and the possibilities it brings to IIgs
users. The other reason is admittedly question-
able; it just seems like a good thing to do when
I think about the big picture and where the ligs
fits in.
Undoubtedly, most of us who are interested
in this software will be HyperCard ligs stack
users rather than stack writers. My hard disk
came with a neat HyperStudio demo installed,
and HyperStudio isn’t needed to run this partic-
ular software. Will IIgs users have to own Hyper-
Card ligs to make use of HyperCard lIlgs pro-
grams?
1 ques what I'm fumbling to ask is this: Who
should consider buying HyperCard ligs?
‘Stephen Gant
Manteca, Calif.
If you are an Apple Il user (even if you aren't
a Iigs owner yet), you should find a ligs system
running HyperCard and experiment with it.
Given that the ligs version is firmly based on a
very recent Mac version of HyperCard, and see-
ing that the llgs version has some enhance-
ments, it should be possible to do about any-
thing with the ligs version that has been done
with the Mac version. And, as with the addition
of color, sometimes more.
One “weakness” of HyperCard Iigs is that it
is new, and ready-made applications are
scarce. Apple has a set of utilities being sup-
plied to developers called HyperMover that will
aid in conversion of Mac HyperCard stacks to
HyperCard Ilgs. What users need to concen-
trate on is to finding Mac HyperCard applica-
tions that do what they want, and then asking
the company to do a ligs version. Some com-
Panies won't want to bother, but some will.
Those who do bother, we should try to make
tich.
If you have a programming aptitude, you
should get HyperCard Ilgs as a programming
environment and try to write your own applica-
tons. For those of you who have wanted a pro-
grammable database language, HyperTalk’s
ability to use “chunk” expressions (“put the
third word of line three of background field 10
into ProductName”) to manipulate lines, words,
or characters in larger amounts of text is close
enough to get a lot done.
I'm currently working on a set of linked
stacks that I hope will serve to handle my
phone, electronic, and paper mail at work as
well as keep information I need to manage
these at hand. Five stacks (a Worksheet for
generating mail, a stack of Addresses, a stack
April 1991
of Sources for products and other information,
a stack for processing Orders, and a stack for
PhoneSupport) will be linked so that informa-
tion needed in one stack can be imported
from another stack. For example, if lenter a
name on the outgoing address on the Work-
sheet but dont complete the rest of the
address, before trying to print the item (to the
printer or to disk) a script will detect the
address is incomplete (only one line) and try to
use the name to look the address up in the
Addresses stack and import it. If it isn’t found,
a prompt can be generated requesting the
complete address be entered (which can be
saved to the Addresses stack). With time at a
premium here | don’t know when or if this pro-
ject will be completed, but I have yet to run
into anything in HyperCard that indicates to me
that it can’t be done.
A similar project could be attempted in any
conventional language from Applesoft to C,
but using those languages is too intimidating
since a good portion of the work involves
designing the user interface, file handling, cre-
ating a command language, and so on; each
part of the project could take days or weeks:to
develop and debug. HyperCard’s objects let
‘you build the user interface rather painlessly (a
first cut at the “master” cards for the five
stacks was done in a couple of hours, includ-
jing some linkages); and HyperTalk is robust
enough to simulate the command language to
control the interaction of the various elements
{after all, controlling the interaction of objects
is the purpose of HyperCard scripts).
You can print cards, one per page or in
arrays of full (two per page), half, or quarter-
size images. If you split your form into two
cards (upper and lower “halves”), you could fill
it out on two screens and have it print as a
“single” page. There’s no comprehensive
“report generator” built in, but you do have the
ability to redirect output to a slot (similar to
Applesoft's “PR#” and “PRINT” commands). For
filling out many types of forms and other
reports, this should be enough.
The design of HyperCard Iigs does not allow
for a “runtime” form of the program. If your
intention is to develop stacks for distribution,
you can license the HyperCard Iigs program
itself for a modest fee to include on your disks
(contact Apple Software Licensing, 408-974-
4667 for details). Given the relatively low cost
of HyperCard ligs, you might also expect users
to buy a copy of HyperCard lgs if your stack is
very useful, as they might buy AppleWorks to
use spreadsheet templates.
If you want to write a billing system (boring,
true, but computers were originally designed
to take over tasks of drudgery), especially one
that can be easily modified without hiring a
programmer, HyperCard lIgs may be the tool of
choice for now.
HyperCard does not do everything that
HyperStudio does and vice versa; for exam-
ple, sound recording capability is not built into
HyperCard ligs. If your stack design require-
ments fit into Hy ‘s capabilities
(HyperStudio also supports its own versions
of XCMDs and scripting), I’m sure Roger Wagn-
er would be more than happy to see you use
fio for that purpose. Roger appar:
ently feels that the availability of the runtime
version of HyperStudio will trigger sales as
users see what HyperStudio can do. (Roger
convinces people to buy whole llgs systems to
run HyperStudio.) Above all, if HyperStudio
will do the stack better use it instead of
HyperCard. Use the proper tool for the
job.—DJD
Bad RAM karma
This is one of those bizarre things I'd
attribute to a virus, except that my ligs has
never been fed anything but out of the box soft-
ware.
1 recently upgraded AppleWorks 3.0 to
‘AppleWorks GS, just to have it. I've also recent-
ly added a Vulcan 40 megabyte hard drive and
I've got a TransWarp GS card, to give you the
whole picture. The first step in the AppleWorks
GS directions is to do a test of the RAM chips,
which my fairly old ligs flunked (we're talking
an AST one megabyte RAM board). This came
as no surprise, since I've had ligs programs
crash on me off and on during the years, and
maybe this has been the problem. In any case,
I ordered some more memory, but installed
AppleWorks GS anyhow before the new RAM
arrived. The program ran as well as anything
else ever has (except AppleWorks Classic,
which ran perfectly and never crashed when
booted from a floppy under ProDOS, but does
crash in GS/OS—come to think of it, 1 can’t
remember anything ever crashing on my old Il
Plus, but that’s another story entirely).
So here’s where things go kaflooie. We're in
AppleWorks GS trying to print an AppleWorks
GS SoftDisk magazine picture on the ImageWrit-
er, and we get told that there’s not enough
memory. Then the system hangs. We reboot.
And suddenly there's a dozen or so corrupted
files in my separate AppleWorks directory that
contains both versions of the program (the cor-
rupted files included AppleWorks GS itself,
some AppleWorks 3.0 files, even some directo-
ries/folders). Some of the corrupted files still
have their original names, but most of them
have new names made up of MouseText charac-
ters so they look like swear words in a Beetle
Bailey cartoon. AppleWorks 3.0 can see some
of these files, AppleWorks GS can see some of
them, GS/OS can see some of them, but none
of the three seems to be able to see all of
them. Okay, so | figure that the whole thing is
blamable on those defective RAM chips, and it's
no big deal (the damage is only in the directory
that was active at the time, and luckily my data
was recently backed up). All | have to do is
erase the files.
Right.
You cannot delete these files within either
version of AppleWorks (the files you can see,
that is, since both versions see different files).
If, on the desktop, you drag one of these cor-
rupted files to the trash can, they pop back out
the minute you drag in the next one, They can-
not be moved to another directory. You cannot
resize the window in which they appear or
move them within that window (the next time
you reboot the window is back to the old size
with the files in their old positions). You cannot
move the whole directory to the next hard disk
pattition. 1 keep getting messages like system
error #61, system error #51, and sometimes no
messages at all, just anomalies. Validating the
files simply says they're defective, Since all |
have in the way of utilities is GS/OS, which
refuses to delete these files, | decided to boot
up the old system disk with the old System Utili-
ties program on it, just in case a model T can
venture where a Taurus is not allowed. Here |
get pretty much the same results, error mes-
Vol. 7, No. 3
sages telling me I have defective subdirectory
names and the like. | get everything but deleted
files.
So two things. Any idea what the problem
is—does it sound like defective RAM or some-
thing else? And, is there any way short of refor-
matting the hard disk (ugh) to get rid of them?
Jim Menick
Peekskill, N.Y.
First, if the memory does not test “good”,
that can indeed explain all the problems. You
need to track down if your memory expansion
card has the wrong type of memory (non-CAS-
before RAS memory is a common problem), or
if something else in the hardware that is caus-
ing a problem. (There was also a bug in the
Iigs System Software 5.0.3 ImageWriter drivers
affecting printouts under low memory condi-
tions, but if your card failed the memory test
that’s a moot point.)
As far as eliminating the munged files,
ProSel’s directory sort command will let you
delete them; select the directory containing
the bad files, sort the directory so a bad file is
at the end of the list, then hit the “Delete” key
to remove it. Continue this until all the dam-
aged files are removed.
You then need to run ProSel’s Volume
Repair utility to remove the blocks assigned to
the files you forcibly deleted, and also to verify
the remaining file structure on the disk. This
won't guarantee that everything is “intact” with-
in the files, since if data is scrambled within
the file ProSel has no way to detect it. But it’s
as much recovery as you can do short of refor-
matting and restoring from a recent back-
up.—DJD
Backup out of range?
1 am having problems backing up my ProFile
hard drive to my 3.5 drive using a copy of Back-
up Il, | have an Apple fle (enhanced) computer,
an AMR 3.5 drive connected to a Central Point
Universal Disk Controller card in slot 5, two
Disk Il drives in slot 6 and a Profile 5 megabyte
hard drive in slot 7. The AMR 3.5 drive is sup-
posed to be functionally identical to an Apple
5.5 drive.
When I try to back up my Profile to the 3.5
disks using Backup II, 1 can format a blank disk
and the program operates properly constructing
a table of contents and writing information to
the disk, but the program doesn't seem to
know when the disk is full. Instead of stopping
and verifying the disk (as it does with 5.25
disks) it sends an error message of “Write error,
remove bad disk and replace with another
disk”. If | replace the disk the program starts
over again from the beginning and gives me the
same error when the disk becomes full again. If
| verify the disk using another utility program
(Copy Il Plus), | get no errors.
Has this happened to anyone else? Is it my
non-Apple equipment?
Gary DiPalma
Fairport, N.Y.
Steve Cunningham ran the problem down
and posted a message about it on GEnie.
According to Steve, Backup I depends on get-
ting a $27 (I/O error) error return when the
disk is full. Some Universal Disk Controllers,
for whatever reason, returns a $2D error
instead. Since the error doesn’t match what
Backup Il expects, it assumes the disk is bad.
April 1991
(A UDC we tried at the office didn’t exhibit this
problem.)
Steve also posted a patch. We've had a user
confirm that it works with the most current ver-
sion of Backup Il (v2.0):
PORE 32768, 234
‘BSAVE BACKIPTT, ASBOOO, 1, B§28C5, 7SYS
(All together now) Only apply this patch to a
backup copy of your Backup I! program, and
check the patched program with some expend-
able data before using it on a valuable
disk.—DJD
SCSI MS-DOS floppy
l have heard of a SCSI device known as the
Turbo Floppy 1.4 from Peripheral Land, Inc.,
that can read and write 1.44 megabyte MS-DOS.
and Mac disks. Can this be used with the Apple
High Speed SCSI card in an Apple Ile and ligs to
read and write ProDOS disks also?
Kenny Wong Che Yung
Tuen Mun, Hong Kong
We'd suspect so, but we haven't tried it. If
someone out there has tried it, we'd be inter-
ested in getting details to confirm it. We have
heard a confirmation that Peripheral Land‘s
CD-ROM drive will work on Apple’s card with
the current IIgs System Software drivers. Their
address is 47421 Bayside Parkway, Fremont,
Calif. 94538.—DJD
CDEV in space warp?
In the January 1991 A2-Central you stated
“Herb Hrowal has written a Control Panel Device
utility (available on GEnie) for the TransWarp
GS that allows setup and control through the
igs Control Panel New Desk Accessory.” |
searched for this in the main GEnie library and
Library #8, which covers desk accessories, but
was unable to find it. Was it pulled because of
some bug or am I not looking in the right
place?
George C. Sherwood
Sidney, B.C.
It’s still there. Currently, it’s file #9012.
Since the file numbers occasionally change,
the name is “TWGS.CDEV.BXY V1.4". It may
also be available on other on-line services
under this or a similar name.
Specifically on GEnie, make sure you are a
member of all libraries before searching for a
file, In some cases, users have disabled access
to some or all libraries (such as all ligs
libraries, if they don’t own a ligs when they
first log on to GEnie) and forget to re-enable
them when they later become interested in the
contents.—DJD
A better Paint
Several months ago a one-byte patch issued
forth from the mind of Jason Harper to clear up
amemory problem in DeluxePaint Il. This patch
solved a lot of problems with DeluxePaint Il and
later versions of GS/OS. | have been trying to
locate this patch again to no avail.
Lawrence Krupp
Collinsville, fll.
Try this from BASIC:
PORE 7661
‘BSAVE DELINEPADR?, $983, $300, $1, B519C12
Jason has so far saved us from memory
contingency problems of PaintWorks Gold
and DeluxePaint. Our own recommendation,
since neither of these programs is being active-
ly updated to our knowledge, is to look into
Beagle Bros’ Platinum Paint at your earliest
opportunity. Not only is it a superior paint pro-
gram, it comes from a company that we trust
for support.
The ligs super high-resolution (SHR) graph-
ics display supports two modes: one where the
screen supports plotting 320 distinct dots
(pixels’ or “picture elements’) across the
screen in each of the 200 horizontal display
lines, and one where 640 pixels can be dis-
played in each line. The choice of colors nor-
mally available in each mode is augmented by
the support of “dithering” (interspersing multi-
ple colors to give the impression of an inter-
mediate color, such as interweaving dark
green dots with white dots to give the impres-
sion of a light green color). Platinum Paint
supports both the 320 and 640 modes, and
has a “dither lock” option to keep dithered col-
ors aligned properly while drawing.
Platinum Paint gives you most of the com-
mon paint tools (geometric shapes, brushes,
Spraycan, eraser, and so on), but it puts some
extra spin on some of the features. For exam-
ple, you can make a brush out of any portion
of your graphic; an included example lets you
make a brush out of a drawing of a cactus so
you can draw multiple cacti by dabbing the
brush on your electronic canvas. You have
nine modes for the brushes so you can use
them to wash the color over existing graphics,
use the brush to smear as it draws, and so on.
You can map a brush image into the bound-
aries of another shape, such as contorting a
square image to fill a circle (like turning a map
into a globe).
There are several gradient options where
the intensity of the colors being used to “fill”
the interior of an object (or the screen) can be
varied as the fill progresses across, up, down,
radially outward, and so on. Objects can be
flipped, rotated, mirrored, shadowed...there
are so many options the “Edit” menu scrolls
about two screen lengths.
Our biggest complaint is that we've not
become accustomed to the fact that Platinum
Paint usually only operates within your current
field of view. For example, if you try to fill the
background, only the portion of the back-
ground within the viewable window will be
filled. Platinum Paint does allow you to toggle
to “full screen” and “full page” views, but we
haven't gotten the hang of remembering to do
this to check whether everything has been cov-
ered.—DJD
Apple RGB connections
In the March 1991 issue Huw Price asked
about using a Iigs RGB monitor with a IIc and
ile. | bought an adapter for this purpose about
three years ago from a company called Tele-
Max, Inc., 780 Lorraine Drive, P.O. Box 339,
Warrington, Pa. 18976, 215-343-3000. The
adapter they made is called the Peacock, model
CM2C. It is a small unit that installs in series
between the lic’s 15-pin video output port and
the RGB monitor. When ordering it | told them
what monitor I would be using it with and they
supplied the properly configured cable,
Roger Maltz
Evanston, Ill.
If you have the Apple lle, Applied Engineer-
ing’s ColorLink option for the RamWorks expan-
sion board works very well to drive the Apple
llgs RGB monitor. The combination works with
A2-Central 7.21
almost all software but some programs, notably
Tetris, come out in gray scale.
Vern L. Mastel
Mandan, ND.
More on Iigs monitor fading
T've just received my A2-Central for March
and | read your item about the Apple RGB mon-
itor. | also read last month's item.
As well as being a computer technician, | am
also a TV technician of some 32 years experi-
ence. (I'm not old, I just started young}). 1 have
had two of these monitors fail in this way here
in New Zealand and | definitely know what the
problem is.
First a little history. The monitors are made
by Mitsubishi for Apple. I surmise this because
all the parts are Mitsubishi and the printed cir-
cuit board bears Mitsubishi markings. (I'm also
a great detective!)
The problem does not lie in the yoke (I've
never come across a yoke that moved—ever). It
is actually a problem from within the line out-
put transformer. This is the device that pro-
duces the high voltage to feed the final anode
of the cathode ray tube. Another thing that it
does is produce a high voltage (about 5,000
volts) to feed the focus control. This is where
the problem is. These days, manufacturers
mold the focus control and the Al control (you
don’t need to know what that is) onto the body
of the transformer. Within that molding there is
a resistor that is etched onto a ceramic base, in
series with the focus control. This changes in
value as the monitor heats up and produces
drifting focus. The only cure is to replace the
transformer.
In New Zealand, the Mitsubishi agent is less
than helpful—in fact, next to useless—so I have
not been able to secure replacements. This is
where you guys may be able to help. The body
of this transformer bears two numbers: (1)
CP345P00901 and (2) GB275. The longer num-
ber is likely to be the one in question. If anyone
in the U.S. is able to locate this part, | for one
would be interested—Magnavox monitors are
US$465 here!
I'd also like to correspond with any computer
technicians out there. | am also president of the
Auckland Apple User Group which is 95 per
cent Apple Il. 1 believe in free information inter-
change, so if anyone has any problems | will be
more than happy to help in any way that | can.
Desmond R. F. Foulger
Electronic Enterprises
177 Sandringham Road
Sandringham
P.O. Box 10-220
Auckland 1030
New Zealand
To be clear, Roger only supplied his tech-
nique for coercing the monitor; any conjecture
was mine. If the problem indeed can be fixed
by replacing a relatively inexpensive compo-
nent, so much the better..—DJD
Cheap network limits
In looking over the November 1990 issue of
A2-Central, | noticed a letter asking for infor-
mation about the SyQuest removable hard disk
‘system. I have been considering such a drive,
for the same reasons as Mr. Dafoe: essentially
unlimited data capacity, and the possibility of
using one drive with several machines. After
reading your reply, I still have a couple of ques-
7.22 A2-Central
tions.
First, is it possible to cable several machines
to one drive simultaneaously? Could several
Apple lis use one drive simply by connecting via
SCSI (do the necessary protocols exist in the
‘SCSI system to avoid collisions)?
Second, have you had occasion to find a
source for the required Macto-SyQuest driver,
or can you suggest where it might be found?
On another topic, is it possible to transfer
data from one computer to another via modem
without a telephone line? | would like to inter-
connect several computers via telephone wiring
using two conductors, but without the need for
actual telephonetotelephone connection. It
would seem that this would allow use of any
type of computer, with BBS software, to be
accessed by any other kind of computer with
appropriate communications software (Time-
Out Telecomm comes ot mind) providing com-
mon access to files and peripherals. One could
use an old C64, CP/M machine, or II+ running
the “BBS LAN”, and access with anything else
handy. Iseem to remember something about
an AC Line modem (using the AC powerline to
cary data) in Byte several years ago, probably
by Ciarcia, but I can’t find it.
This BBS structure should prevent problems
of simultaneous access of resources, and most
BBS software has security features to protect
the integrity of the system data against error or
mischief. Compared with other LAN alterna
tives, cost can hardly be a problem (you would-
n't even have to buy a Macintosh!) and it would
allow all the E-mail and other services common
to BBS software.
This would not eliminate the need for disk
drives and software on the “workstations”, but |
don't think that restricting individual control
over each machine is a valid reason for using a
LAN—others will surely disagree. This idea must
be too simple to work? It would be great for
schools and small businesses.
Leonard Lanigan
Browns Valley, Calif.
We continue to get many letters from users
trying to find a cheap way to implement a full-
function LAN. To which we can only quote
Heinlein: “There ain't no such thing as a free
Junch’. In your case, you seem to have identi-
fied distinct purposes: sharing a hard disk for
program storage and transferring files, transfer-
ring messages, and so on.
LAN technology probably will become less
expensive just as computers have. But the
overiding problem is the complexity of provid-
ing a protocol to insure that two users can’t
modify the same data at the same time. If you
sit down and try to come up with a foolproof
method of allowing two people to access (for
example) the same file on the same disk drive
at the same time without either knowing the
other person is there, you'll see it gets very
complicated in a hurry. The cost of a LAN is
directed toward solving that problem.
It’s important to realize that AppleShare is
not simply a hard disk, a Mac, and some spe-
cial cables. There is also an entire set of con-
sistent software protocols that have to be
implemented for each device on the network.
The workhorse portion of those protocols is
currently handled by the server software for
the Macintosh, which spends all of its time
monitoring network requests and arbitrating
them. Dispensing with the Macintosh forces
those protocols to reside elsewhere.
With SCSI hard disks, there are protocols to
allow two computers to access the same hard
disk. The problem is that implementing LAN-
like Support through these protocols on a sys-
tem affordable to an end user is not practical
in most cases. The simplest solution is to force
each user to “log onto” the drive and partition
needed and only allow one user the ability to
write to the drive. Cirtech and CMS support a
simple technique like this with their SCSI inter-
faces, But it is not a LAN in the sense that
AppleShare is,
Removable media is obviously not going to
work well at all in this environment; you can’t
take the chance on the network going into
“infinite hold” if the needed volume is taken
offline while one of the users is working with it.
A BBS is not a “LAN’, either. BBS systems
allow the transfer of files and messages to and
from the BBS, and also usually run some type
of “host” program that supervises these trans-
fers. But BBS’s don’t “transparently” allow files
of different systems to be transferred to and
from their hard disk as if it was attached direct-
ly to the computer you are using. Instead,
there is usually some type of file processing
required (such as using Binary Il on the Apple
Hor MacBinary on the Mac to preserve file
attributes), a transfer protocol in employed to
“copy” the file to and from the BBS, and the
file cannot be executed from your computer
while residing on the BBS. And, in fact, you
neglect that dedicating a computer to a BBS
requires you to invest a significant fraction of
the cost of AppleShare for somewhat less flexi-
bie capabilities.
It may be possible that all you need is some
method of sending files from one computer to
another; it’s conceivable that some implemen-
tation of a multi-user BBS would handle that.
assuming the distances involved are small,
serial cables would suffice in place of
modems. (Power line modems are not a less
expensive alternative to a LAN; the cost per
unit is several hundred dollars, and a few
would exceed the cost of a Mac Classic config-
ured as an AppleShare server.)
Sharing a hard disk, transferring files, send-
ing and receiving messages; all of these things
are possible. Doing them all at once as if the
shared hard disk was attached directly to each
system and constantly available for your use is
much harder, and that's why LAN software (cur-
rently) is relatively expensive.
(Speaking of expense, we finally bought a
Macintosh driver for the SyQuest from a local
hard disk supplier for $100. Can you say
“Ouch!"?)—DJD
Users gathering in France
Mémoire Vive is a French Apple User Group
in existence since 1987. We support both Apple
land Macintosh machines. We started our own
internal publication four years ago,
We are organizing for June 15, 1991, the
Apple Il National Convention in Beauvais and
would like to invite your readers to join us.
Please make our address available to anyone
willing to send us copies of their application
development and creations.
Club Mémoire Vive
An affiliated Apple User Group
c/o Jean Claude Andrieux
65 Résidence Jeanne Hachette
60000 Beauvais
France
Vol. 7, No. 3
Tastes great vs. less filling
[have been a subscriber since the first issue
and have them all filed—but I'm a “user” (vs. a
“hacker’) and still use Ile’s with AppleWorks
and (occasionally) AppleWriter or other pro-
grams. A2-Central has become a llgs hacker
journal. Diminished returns force me to give it
up. Thanks for past favors.
Fred H. Olin
‘San Antonio, Texas
I've been an 8-bit Apple user since 1980,
and now | have two Il Pluses and a Ile. The Ile
has an 8 MHz Zip Chip, one megabyte of auxil-
iary slot RAM, a 40 megabyte Vulcan hard disk,
modem, mouse, 3.5 drives, 5.25 drives, Quick-
ie, MIDI, you name it. | use it to run AppleWorks
for home word processing, databases, taxes,
etc., but mostly I use it for enjoyment—recre-
ational programming,
You would call me a power user, but I'm an
Apple hobbyist at heart, I've built hardware and
software for the Apple and enjoyed it immense-
ly. I've even sold some of my efforts, but I’ve
done it for love, not money. | sense the same in
you, although you have made a business of
too.
With each new generation of hardware, the
Apple has become less friendly to experi-
menters. The Il-Plus was all “Kadio Shack”
parts—you could observe every signal. The lle
went to a higher level of integration and
became somewhat less accessible to the hard-
ware hacker. (Still much better than other
machines, though.) The IIc was a “sealed box”
obviously designed for “end users” who want it
to work, but don’t care how. All of the 8-bit line,
though, was relatively accessible for software
experimentation.
The genius of the Apple Il was that it was a
hacker's machine. Not like the Mac, which is
just as clearly a user's machine. The problem is
that there are so many more users than there
are hackers! Where’s a cowboy to go when the
countryside is filled with sodbusters?
The latest step in the Apple II evolution, the
ligs. is very difficult to play with. The toolbox is
great for mass-marketed end user applications,
but it really ups the ante for those who want to
write simple, elegant code that makes your
Apple do something really neat! (I don’t consid-
er emulating a Mac to be a neat Apple trick.)
So | would like to make a modest proposal:
let the users go to the user's side of the room,
and let the hackers/hobbyists go to the other.
Users are concerned about the future of the
Apple Il line, just as Chrysler owners are con-
cerned about theirs—they don’t want to own a
“lemon’. Users depend on others to (profitably)
produce the applications they live on, and so
must see that the line extends into the future.
Hackers, on the other hand (side?), don’t
care much whether their machine is an orphan.
In 1980, hackers had to write their own pro-
grams and share them to make their machines
fun. If Apple drops the Apple Il, then hackers
will be right back in that position. You probably
remember that it was lots of fun before Apple-
Works, even before VisiCalc (in fact, before we
developed the maddening propensity to capital-
ize inside words!), It will be plenty of fun again,
if only we can get those whining “end users”
upstairs and out of the basement!
If | want to use a computer, | have what
already exists on the Apple, plus everything that
will exist on PCs and unix workstations—all of
this will be Mac-priced in the next couple of
April 1991
years. But if | want to play with a computer, the
last ten years hasn't improved on the Il Plus and
I no longer expect it to. (This attitude, by the
way, makes me unwilling to shell out $300 for a
package 1 only intend to fool around with.
Maybe software companies could sell more
cheaply to those who promised not to do any-
thing “useful” with their software!) Someday |
may lust after fancier toys, but so far the per-
mutations and combinations of II Plus and Ile
behavior are plenty—and the complete docu-
mentation won't crack my bookcase.
Now for the finale: A2-Central is part of that
corpus of 8-bit documentation that 1 plan to
take to my grave(!). Yet it seems that an increas-
ing fraction of it is consumed by “user” worries
and instructions on how to type “Ctrl-I”. I guess
I'd like to know whether you'd like to serve the
hackers or the users? Experience has shown
that you can't do both—there are too many of
them and too few of us. If the answer is users,
then you can enjoy a large circulation for a
while, followed by an exponential tail off as they
move on to more “useful” machines (which
there certainly are). If the answer is hackers,
then you can look forward to a much smaller
but more stable circulation made up of creative,
playful crazies who like to show off a lot as long
as it doesn’t cost (or make) too much money.
It is a fateful decision, Perhaps the better
part of valor is to go both ways: A2-User and
A2-Hacker. | could live with that! (By the way, |
sampled 8/16 both before and after your acqui-
sition, and { find it tipped very strongly toward
the ligs—it should be called 16/8!).
Now you know how I see the Apple II world. |
would love to pay for 8 pages of mind-bending
programming and wire-bending hacking, and |
know I'm not alone. But the 5,000 hacker voic-
es are lost in the 5,000,000 user's voices.
PS. I've got some simple but interesting code
for a shift register pseudorandom number gen-
erator that’s both fast and well-behaved. Hack-
ers love that kind of stuff! Interested?
Michael J. Mahon
San Jose, Calif.
During very busy days, we sometimes joke
that business would be a lot easier if it weren't
for all these customers. Of course, that's not
really the case.
if | had my choice, I'd be writing the hacker
stuff all the time, but probably with an eye
toward including a good amount of “practical”
information (a random number routine defi-
nitely has practical applications). ! bought my I
Plus back in 1979 and spent the first several
months in the monitor and miniassembler. My
job at that time (operating and maintaining
instrumentation for chemical analysis) involved
working at the lower level of the software spec-
trum. | bought the Apple II to figure out how
this stuff worked. I've been through two
upgrades (a Ile and a ligs) trying to keep pace.
A2-Central has been perceived both as a
“hacker” newsletter and as a “user” newsletter.
In truth, Tom Weishaar actually designed it as a
forum for the exchange of ideas so Apple iI
owners could empower each other with knowl-
edge about their systems, In the early days,
that meant a lot of programming discussion,
and tricks and tips regarding software like
AppleWorks. It still does, except the number of
tricks and tips we receive seems to be getting
‘more esoteric. With our primary driving force
being reader mail, our emphasis areas have
tended to shift as the direction of our sub-
scriber base shifted.
Since we're not sure the mail tells the whole
story, we did something drastic late last year
and included a survey page in the 24-page cat-
alog we mailed out. We've counted up 500 of
the returned surveys, and here's some of the
results,
‘About two-thirds of those responding use a
igs as their primary computer. A little under a
fourth use 8-bit Apple I! or compatible systems
as their primary computer (Laser systems were
about 2 per cent of the respondents), with the
remainder using non-Apple Il systems (the
Jargest category being “other’).
In terms of all computers used, the Ilgs
and 8-bit systems came out even at about a
third of the total each. The remaining third was
divided among non-Apple I! systems (MS-DOS
narrowly beat out Mac systems at 12 per cent
versus 10 per cent)
In terms of programming, the numbers
break down something like this:
@-bit programing
Assembly 6
Ioplesoft «318
Ultvanacros 124
Other &-bit 3%
‘igs programing
Iesebly
SIC 8
Pascal n
c 8
The survey was sent out before HyperCard
ligs was announced, or HyperTalk would have
been on our list. We expect to see a following
build there on the ligs side.
With regard to applications, the breakdown
is like this:
Sbit prograns
Ippletoris 568
Utranacros 2%
Other TimeOut «18
Print. Shop 598
Publish-It! 208
Other DIP rk
16-bit prograns
aS om
Byperstudio Im
We didn't exclude Iigs users from writing
down their 8-bit preferences, and we really
didn’t track the results that well (don’t assume
there is anything scientific about this survey).
But looking at our overall numbers, those inter-
ested in programming appear to be a minority.
We will try to continue to serve as an
exchange point for those who want to send us
information. Users continue to complain that
we have too much “hacker” information; hack-
ers continue to complain we have too much
“user” information. All we can do is keep on
typing.
Incidentally, many readers wildly overesti-
mate the number of subscribers we have. The
total for A2-Central (including both hackers
and users) is currently just under 7,000 and
the total for all of our publications put together
is well under 10,000.—DJD
SuperWriter 924 interface
| have noticed that there have been several
questions on how to connect 9 and 24 pin par-
allel printers to Laser 128, Apple ligs, llc, Iic+
and all Mac systems. One of the solutions that
we have successfully used is the SuperWriter
A2-Central 7.23
924 (however, other options are available) intel-
ligent serial to parallel converter cable made by
Xetec, 2804 Amold Road, Salina, Ks. 67401,
915-827-0685. The interface first of all converts
serial format information that is sent out of the
earlier mentioned computers into parallel for-
mat information that many 9 and 24 pin print-
ers require. The connector on one end of the
“cable” is a mini DIN 8, and an included adapter
turns this end into a DIN 5 connector for the
Laser 128 or llc {an adapter for DB-9 connec-
tors for older Macs is also available from Xetec).
On the other end of the “cable” is a standard
Centronics connector.
However, the conversion from serial to paral-
lel information often is not the compatibility
problem many users run into. The problem usu-
ally is a lack of software support from software
vendors for a particular printer, and by printer
manufacturers that have come up with so many
different standards. The second function that
the SuperWriter 924 can perform is the ability
to convert Apple ImageWriter, ImageWriter II,
and ImageWriter LQ code that is widely support
ed in Apple software into code that a particular
9 or 24 pin parallel printer may require. The
SuperWriter 924 therefore addresses the two
major reasons for printer incompatibility. An
incomplete list of printers that the SuperWriter
924 supports is; Blue Chip, Cltoh 8510,
8510S and ProWriter Jr. Plus, Epson MX, RX,
FX, JX, and LQ-1500, Fujitsu DL and DX,NEC
8023, Okidata 192 and 292, Panasonic KXP-
1124, 1524, 1624, 1180, 1191, 1192, 1080,
1091, and 1092, Prowriter, Star Micronics (old),
NB24-10/15, X1000, NX1000R, XB2410/-
2415, and XR1000/1500.
I have tested the Panasonic KX-P!124 24-pin
printer and SuperWriter 924 with llgs System
Software 5.0.2 and AppleWorks GS v1.1, Apple-
Works v3.0 and v2.1, Print Shop, Print Shop GS,
and haven't incurred any difficulties. Xetec, the
manufacturers of this product, are considering
discontinuing the product so it may be a good
decision to purchase your SuperWriter 924 and
printer soon. Depending on the printer, CPU,
and software you are using, there are several
other printer related products that we also offer
from Applied Engineering, Apricorn, Cirtech,
GDT Softworks, Orange Micro, Practical Periph-
erals, Sequential Systems, Thirdware, Vitesse,
and others that may meet your needs. However,
some of the features of the Superwriter 924 are
unique and not available elsewhere. As for laser
printing, the Panasonic PX-P4455 PostScript
laser printer is our favorite and the printer we
use to print the text for our catalog along with
AppleWorks GS. | am most familiar with the
Panasonic line of printers because we offer this
line of printers and others to our customers.
Alan Hansen, President
Standard Peripherals
P.O. Box 65187
West Des Moines, lowa 50265-0187
515-225-7055,
WP-2 revisited
This letter is in response to the letter from
Bob Varettoni regarding the use of the Tandy
WP-2 portable word processor. | have found the
WP-2 to be invaluable; there is no need for an
Apple notebook computer. | can take notes in a
meeting and then transfer them to my Apple
7.24 A2-Central
computers for formatting and printing,
Tupload to a lle, a llgs, and a Macintosh
SE/30 using the following settings on both the
Tandy and the Apple: baud rate 9600, data size
8 bits, one stop bit, no parity, and XON/XOFF
enabled. On the WP-2, the other settings under
F2-T are device = RS252C, printer echo off, half
duplex, (shift-PgDn) transfer = CRC-XMODEM,
incoming = CR, outgoing = CR, mode = origi-
nate. On the Apple, receive the file as “XMO-
DEM’.
Attached to the RS232C port is a null
modem, then a size changer, and then a
modem cable plugged into the modem port on
whichever Apple computer you are using. | use
MouseTalk on the IIc and ligs and Microsoft
Works on the Mac.
On the Tandy, go to “Files”, highlight the file
you want, and press FI-A to make it into an
ASCII file (do not select it again or it will change
back). Then choose F1-U (“Upload”), select
“From memory”, and type in the actual name of
the file with ".DA” at the end. When you are fin-
ished, select “Exit”.
There is one line of garbage at the end of the
file, but other than that, all is wel].
Hope this helps.
Andrew Barlow
Toronto, Ont.
We received several letters on this; thanks
to all.
Null modem and other cable adapters are
usually available at most stores that sell com-
puters, including Radio Shack,—DJD
A2-Central’
7
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Too many characters
My problem is that I can’t find a control char-
acter finder program for ProDOS. | have not
seen one in years in the magazines, but I did
find one for DOS 3.3 in Tom Weishaar's and
Bert Kersey’s book, The DOSTalk Scrapbook,
‘on page 69. It runs only in 40 columns on my
Apple lic.
Joseph A. Homsher
Cerritos, Calif.
ProDOS Inside and Out has a program on
Page 70 that shows how to use BASIC.System’s
enhanced “PR#” command to redirect output
to your own routine. You could use this com-
mand to add an output filter to detect and dis-
play control characters.
This won't work for the purpose of a classic
Apple DOS 3.3 “contro! character finder” pro-
gram: to locate invisible control characters that
DOS 3.3 would allow you to enter in filenames,
BASIC. Control characters were sometimes
added on purpose as a way of “formatting” the
display (for example, inserting backspaces to
overprint the filetype and size information at
the beginning of a DOS CATALOG entry) or as a
way to “protect” the program from being indis-
criminantly LOADed or DELETEd (you had to
type the exact filename, including control char-
acters, to use DOS commands on it). But
sometimes they were generated by a finger
fumble on the keyboard when typing a file-
name, and then it required some detective
work to find out what you really entered as the
name of the file.
BASIC.System (and ProDOS itself) doesn’t
et you enter control characters (or spaces, or
special characters other than the period) within
ProDOS filenames used in its commands; try it
and you'll see "SYNTAX ERROR" spit back at
you. So the only way we know of to end up
with contro! characters in a ProDOS filename is
to either “zap” them into a directory block on
disk directly on purpose, or for the directory
data to somehow become (usually accidental-
Jy) corrupted. In the former case, we'd normal-
ly assume you'd know how to “unzap’ the file-
name; in the latter, we hope you realize that
the damage may not be solely to the directory
entry (that is, fixing the filename may be the
least of your problems).
This is all just as well, because it’s harder to
make BASIC.System’s input and output rou-
tines relinquish control characters in the data
stream to us than it is in DOS 3.3. I couldn't
make a routine similar to that in ProDOS
Inside and Out (modified to “mark” control
characters) work because BASIC.System kept
grabbing some of the characters from me. But
BASIC.System does have another feature that
helps us; you can OPEN and READ the directo-
ry contents as a text file. So | took that alterna-
tive approach, electing to display control char-
acters found in the filenames as inverse char-
acters,
The following program prompts you for the
name of a directory to read, opens it as a text
file (notice the *,TDIR” in line 1010; this tells
BASIC.System we wish to OPEN a directory file
rather than a text file).
1000 TET "iat path?: “PS
‘1010 PRINT CARS
1020 PRINT CERS (
1030 INEUT "A$: GOSUB 2000: TF AS <>" THEN
com 1030
1040 INPUT "™";A$: GOSUB 2000; IF A$ < >" THEN
Vol. 7, No. 3
Gono 1040
1050 TiPur *";A$: GOsuB 2000
1060 PRIWT CARS (4); "CLOSE"
1099 BD
2000 TF Ag = "™ SHEN GOO 2070
2010 FOR 10 LEK (28)
2020 : C = ASC ( MID$ (AS,1,1)):0C = 0
2025 : IP (C < 32) OR ((C > 127) AMD (C < 160))
THN OC = 1
TF OC SHEN INVERSE
PROMT CER} (C + (CC * 64});
2050 : TP OC THEN NORKAL
2060 + Weer 1
2070 PROM
2099 RETR
Line 1030 reads the header lines up until
the first blank line (the line following the direc-
tory header); line 1040 reads the body of the
directory (the filename entries); and line 1050
reads the statistics line displayed at the end of
a CATALOG, Each of these lines sends the
input line to a subroutine beginning at line
2000 for parsing.
The subroutine first checks to see if the
input line is empty; if so, it just skips down to
line 2070 to PRINT and return.
If the line isn’t empty, we start a FOR-NEXT
loop to scan all the characters in the line.Each
character is converted to its ASCII equivalent
in line 2020, and we set a flag (CC) to “0” indi-
cating that we haven't identified it a control
character-yet. Line 2030 takes care of the
identification; if the character's ASCII value is
in the controlcharacter ranges (0-31 or
128-159), CC is set to “1”.
Lines 2050-2050 print the character. If it's
been identified as a control character, it’s
printed in INVERSE and shifted to its upper-
case equivalent (Control-D becomes inverse
“D*, for example). Otherwise, it gets printed
as-is,
This program should get you by. The only
glitch is if you try it on /RAM (the 64K RAM disk
created on 128K system by ProDOS); some-
thing in /RAM’s directory causes an “OUT OF
DATA” error before it reads the status line. You
could use an ONERR routine to get around this;
that’s left as an exercise.—DJD
Connoisseur
Excellent choice of glue! A fine accompani-
ment to paper or stamps. A heady body with
aroma yet. delicate enough to have only
a lingering aftertaste. Flinty yet not too “hoofy’.
It has an unctuous texture with a deep intense
spicy note; a delicate layering with a subtle fin-
ish that seems to stick with you. Such exquisite
glue is generally only found in the rare and
famous vintages of Early Mustang and Olde
Clydesdale.
29:
20H):
Roy Hershey
Schenectady, N.Y.
Gee, and Tom’s only comment. when he
originally designed the self-mailer’s glue mark-
ing with “YUM!” at the end was “I just hope the
stuff doesn’t taste too bad.,.".—DJD