Shareware Solutions II Volume 4 Issue 1 1997 10 Kohn Joe US

Shareware Solutions II An Exciting Apple II Journey Into The Future Volume 4, Issue 1 Spring, 1998 Heard It Through The Grapevine A Moment Of Silence This issue is dedicated to Nancy Crawford, the newsletter editor for the Applebyters User Group, who died suddenly of a stroke on April 27, 1998, at age 55. Nancy, who lived in Le Claire, Towa, was a longtime Apple II user and supporter, and many of us knew Nancy from her partici- pation in various Apple II on- line forums. Fellow Applebyters club member Shawn Beattie knew Nancy personally, and he expresses the following heart- felt sentiments: “Nancy Crawford had a love for the Apple II in particular and a love of life in general that rubbed off on everyone around her. She exhibited a spirit that all Apple II users should try to follow; helpful and pleasant on- line, in person, and in print, she loved helping out new Apple II users. A longtime IIc fan, she was a recent IIGS convert her- self. She recently took great pleasure in acquiring a Ram- Fast SCSI card and a Zip Drive, and demonstrating the setup to our group. Nancy’s passing shocked local club members as I’m sure it has shocked the online community. I know that Nancy was proud to be a mem- ber of the Apple II community. Her memory should compel us to take the same simple pleas- ure in using the Apple II.” The Apple II community ex- tends sincere condolences to Nancy’s family, friends, and to the Apple II users of the Apple- byters User Group. We'll miss you Nancy! And The Winner Is In mid-February, one very for- tunate Shareware Solutions II subscriber was chosen in a ran- dom drawing to receive an All- tech Electronics’ Sirius II RAM card, fully populated with 8 megabytes of memory. And the winner is IGS user Harriet Hoxie of Quincy, MA. Several days after Harriet re- ceived her prize, she wrote back to express her appreciation and to share yet another interesting TIGS discovery with the rest of us. In previous issues of Share- ware Solutions II, Harriet has shared her Easter Egg discov- eries, but now she wants to tell you about a hidden message that she recently discovered in Bright Software’s game The Gate. Harriet writes: “Using a block editor that won’t choke on non- ProDOS volumes (I used Block Warden v2.3 by Glen Bredon), you can see a message aimed at those who use block editors. The message is located on block 1598 (hex $63E), starting at byte 256 (hex $100).” Following Harriet’s directions, I easily found the hidden trilin- gual message. It says: “Prin- cipally, I don’t like people who are so much interested in disk blocks! But never mind! Bonjour FTA. If you find a single tool call, I'll pack my suitcase(s). Bonjour Miami Beach Software. Merci beaucoup. Mir fehlen die worte, leute!” Shortly thereafter, I wrote to Bright Software’s founder, Hen- rik Gudat, to ask him about the concealed message, and sur- prisingly, he replied that he had absolutely no idea that it was there. According to Henrik, The Gate had originally been pub- lished by a French software com- pany, and Henrik wasn’t even aware that someone at Toolbox Publishing had surreptitiously added that hidden message to Henrik’s software. Henrik, whose native language is German, did supply a trans- lation for the last sentence of the hidden message. It means, “Tm at a loss for words.” Shareware Solutions II was more than thrilled to award the Sirius II RAM card to Harriet Hoxie, but was somewhat disap- pointed that there were no win- ners in “The Great Easter Egg Hunt.” In that contest, you were challenged to find some very well concealed Easter Eggs in several programs that are pub- lished by Seven Hills Software: Spectrum, GraphicWriter II v2.0 and Space Fox. Because no one was able to describe pre- cisely the sequence of steps it takes to activate the buried Easter Eggs in these programs, Shareware Solutions II and Seven Hills Software have de- cided to extended the contest deadline indefinitely. Shareware Solutions II 1 Shareware Solutions II Volume 4, Issue 1 Shareware Solutions II is pub- lished by Joe Kohn, 166 Alpine Street, San Rafael, CA 94901- 1008. Publisher/Writer: Joe Kohn Proofreader: Jane Kos Entire contents of Shareware Solutions II copyright (©) 1998 by Joe Kohn. All rights are reserved. Nothing may be re- printed or reproduced, in whole or in part, in any media without the prior written consent of Joe Kohn. Available by subscription only, several options are available: A) The first 24 issues: $75 for US/Canada; $100 elsewhere. B) The next 6 issues/Renewal: $25 for US/Canada; $40 else- where. Make all checks payable to Joe Kohn. US Funds Only. No charge cards, purchase orders or COD orders will be accepted. This newsletter was created entirely with an Apple IIGS. All articles written in AppleWorks Classic. Page Layout prepared in AppleWorks GS. Printing was done on a Hewlett-Packard LaserJet IIP Plus, connected to the IIGS courtesy of Harmonie. The use of TrueType fonts is courtesy of WestCode Soft- ware’s Pointless. E-mail Addresses: CIS: 76702,565 DELPHI: JOE_KOHN GENIE: JOE.KOHN INTERNET: joko@crl.com http://www.crl.com/~joko 2 Shareware Solutions IT To qualify for prizes in the Great Easter Egg Hunt, just de- scribe or define the triggers that activate the Easter Eggs in the various programs, and submit your entry to Shareware Solu- tions II via regular mail or by e- mail. Happy hunting! KansasFest ’98 On July 22, 1998, Apple II users from around the world will once again gather on the campus of Avila College in Kansas City to celebrate the magic of the Apple II computer. For the 10th year in a row, Avila will play host to the Apple II Summer Confer- ence, known more commonly and much less formally as KansasFest. The KansasFest Coordinating Committee got off to an early start this year, and plans for the 10th annual Apple II Sum- mer Conference are well under- way. A number of different speakers have already been re- cruited to lead sessions, and plans to conduct an exciting 12 hour programming contest — HackFest — are currently being finalized. The KansasFest Coordinating Committee has already an- nounced a tentative speaker list which includes Eric “Sheppy” Shepherd, Nathan Mates, Tony Diaz, Ewen Wannop, Geoff Weiss, and your humble pub- lisher Joe Kohn. As we go to press with this issue, additional speakers are currently being re- cruited. The title of Ewen Wannop’s ses- sion describes the content and scope of his 90 minute talk: “The First Steps In Spectrum Scripting Or Spectrum Scripting For Dummies.” My session has the whimsical title “The IIGS As A Printing Press Or Guten- berg Is Jealous Of My IIGS” and that will be a hands-on session devoted to showing people how easy it is to use a desktop pub- lishing program to create such practical or artistic items as greeting cards, post cards, bro- chures, letterhead stationery, mailing labels and disk labels. The focus of the sessions that are to be led by other speakers isn’t finalized yet, but it is ex- pected that Sheppy will speak about Wolfenstein 3-D, Nathan Mates will speak about GUPP and Twilight II, Tony Diaz will undoubtedly demo some rare Apple II hardware, and Geoff Weiss will most probably speak about Spectrum Internet Suite. Despite the fact that in its early years, KansasFest was geared entirely towards the Apple II programming and development community, the upcoming Hack- Fest programming contest is a new and exciting activity for those programmers who will be attending Kfest 98. A prelim- inary set of HackFest rules has been devised which state that all contest entries must be cre- ated entirely during the allotted 12 hours; no previously written source code may be used, except for sample source code printed inside Apple II programming reference books. The rules go on to state, “Entries will be judged on completeness, cleverness, and on the somewhat vague “cool” factor. Entries don’t have to be useful if they’re otherwise im- pressive.” Let’s hope that some “cool” and useful software will be born at the 12 hour HackFest! Other more traditional Kfest activities are also planned, in- cluding the kick off dinner at KC Masterpiece, the final dinner at Spring, 1998 Jess & Jim’s Steak House, a Saturday afternoon Vendor’s Fair, and the annual Roast during which Tony Diaz will be the object of lots of good natured derision from his many friends. Plans are also currently being made that will match those with questions with those who have answers, in much the same manner as the defunct National AppleWorks User Group used to offer their “members helping members” program. Volunteers with a particular area of exper- tise are currently being sought; if there is an area of Apple II computing in which you excel, whether it is monitor repair or setting up spreadsheets, and you will be attending Kansas- Fest, please contact the Kfest Coordinating Committee in order to offer your expertise to fellow attendees. For those of you who live in the Kansas City area, please be aware that the Vendor's Fair, scheduled to take place on Sat- urday, July 25th at 1 PM is open to the Apple II public and you are encouraged to attend this event where, surely, some wonderful Apple II hardware and software bargains will be found. As we go to press, more that two full months before Kfest starts, we’re more than pleased to learn that more Apple II enthu- siasts have already registered for Kfest ’98 than the total number of people who attended Kfest ’97. It’s not too late for you to make plans to attend the most fun and exciting Apple II event on the planet. If you’ve attended previous Kfests, you already know just how much fun it is. And, if you’ve never been to Volume 4, Issue 1 Kfest, what are you waiting for? Additional information about KansasFest can be found on the Kfest 98 home page on the world wide web, located at the following URL: http:/ /www.primenet.com/ ~adams/kfest.html The cost of attending KFest ’98 is $365, which includes meals and the use of a double room in the Avila College dorm. There are also a limited number of single rooms available for $465. Tf you wish to stay at one of the many hotels or motels near the college, the cost of the confer- ence itself is $265. KansasFest ’98 is being spon- sored once again by InTrec Soft- ware, the fine folks who brought us ProTerm. As sponsor of Kan- sasFest, InTrec is handling all registrations, and can accept payment by check or by Master- Card, VISA, Discovery, or Amer- ican Express credit cards. You can register via mail by sending your check, or charge card number with expiration date, to: KFest ’98 c/o Intrec Software 3035 E Topaz Circle Phoenix, AZ 85028-4423 You can register by telephone by placing a call to InTrec Software during regular business hours at 1-602-992-1345. You can Fax your registration, with credit card account number and expiration date, by calling InTrec’s Fax machine, 24 hours a day, at 1-602-992-0232. You can ever register by sending an e-mail, with credit card account number and expiration date, to: proterm@intrec.com Lastly, if you have questions about Kansasfest 98, you can direct them via e-mail to: adams@primenet.com Bug Or Feature? If you use an Apple IIGS, insert a blank 3.5" disk into your disk drive and format it using the Finder. Once the format is com- pleted, double click on the newly formatted disk’s icon. Look closely at the two numbers that appear at the top of the disk’s window; those numbers indicate how much disk space is used and how much remains free. Look a little closer, and you'll notice that they add up to 801K. This anomaly was reported as a possible GS/OS bug to Nathan Mates, the author of the GUPP set of bug-fix patches for System 6.0.1, yet his response indicated that the problem lies with the Finder. According to Nathan, “when for- matting 3.5" disks, 512 byte (1/2 K) disk blocks are used. I think that putting down space for boot blocks, volume bitmap, file- system, etc uses an odd number of blocks. I think it’s something like 7 blocks or 3.5K. With 3.5K used, that leaves 796.5K free. However, the Finder doesn’t like to print decimal points, so both get rounded off — 4K used, 797K free, for a total of 801K.” Nathan reassured me that the problem is really nothing to worry about. Bug Or Feature II? A year or more ago, Shareware Solutions II started to use Sony brand 3.5" Double-Sided, Dou- Shareware Solutions IT 3 ble-Density disks. Because we live in a computer world that is increasingly dominated by IBM PC clones, the packaging on these disks indicates that they have a capacity of 1 Megabyte when unformatted, or 720K when formatted. When the disks are inserted in- to a standard Apple 3.5" disk drive with an 800K capacity, GS/OS treats them — whether they are formatted for IBM PCs or not — as if they were blank disks. For that reason, I never gave the disks a second thought. That is, until a letter arrived from Carol Phillips of Ontario, Canada. In her letter, Carol wrote: “I noticed that you have done the impossible! You have success- fully reformatted IBM for- matted 720K disks to Apple II 800K disks. I verified the disks when I received them. All were A-OK. How did you do that?” I was completely perplexed by Carol’s comment, but I started to wonder if perhaps there were certain circumstances under which reformatting IBM 720K disks presented problems on an Apple II. So, I did what any wise Apple II owner with a technical question would do; I logged onto Delphi’s A2 forum and asked the experts. Within 24 hours, Peter Watson, the author of the MUG! New Desk Accessory utility that per- mits reading and writing to PC formatted disks on an Apple IIGS, verified that there is a problem, but stated that it would be seen only by those IGS users who have a Super- Drive Controller Card installed. According to Peter, “Dave Lyons (our man in Apple) admitted 4 Shareware Solutions IT that Apple knew about the problem in the SuperDrive ROM, but there wasn’t a lot they could do about it (given that Apple II related resources at Apple had just about dried up).” Several other Apple IIGS own- ers confirmed that they have difficulty reformatting 720K IBM disks on a SuperDrive that is connected to a SuperDrive Controller Card. However, a simple work-around solution has been found. Ap- parently, the first time a 720K IBM formatted disk is inserted into a 1.44K capable Super- Drive, an J/O error is reported. However, when that same disk is re-inserted into the same disk drive, you'll be able to suc- cessfully format it as an 800K ProDOS volume on the second attempt. Software Superstore For many years, the Apple II reigned supreme as the un- rivaled number one choice of computer used in institutions involved in the field of edu- cation. During that time, thou- sands of educationally oriented Apple II software programs were released, and many of the programs employed in schools a decade or more ago remain just as valuable and educational now as they were then. Unfortu- nately, Apple II using educators of today do not always have as ready access to that software as educators did a decade ago, when Apple II software could still be found in almost any re- tail establishment where com- puters were sold. Although a number of the com- panies which produced that software are long gone, and many of the educational soft- ware titles have long since been discontinued, the 1998 edition of the National School Products catalog continues to offer hun- dreds and hundreds of those hard to find educational soft- ware titles. On the first page of the catalog is an open letter to educators that states: “The Apple II fami- ly of computers is still the most prevalent computer in America’s schools. Many of you have class- rooms with Apple II computers in them. These machines are still working and providing a valuable resource within your in- structional framework. In to- day’s ever changing world, it is getting harder and harder to find software for these com- puters. An exhaustive search has gone into selecting the pro- grams gathered together in this catalog. We offer the largest se- lection of Apple software avail- able in the world today.” While looking through the ex- tensive and comprehensive 100 page catalog, it is clear that National School Products does indeed “offer the largest selec- tion of Apple software available in the world today.” In addition to the many educational soft- ware products, National School Products also lists, on page after page, discounted games, bar- gain-priced simulations, and closeout deals for productivity software. Whether you are a teacher or a parent looking for Carmen San- diego or a complete set of Sticky- Bear software titles, or a com- puter enthusiast looking for The Print Shop GS or Banner Mania, contact National School Prod- ucts and request that they mail you one of their free catalogs of Apple II software. Spring, 1998 National School Products 101 East Broadway Maryville, TN 37804 1-800-251-9124 (voice) 1-423-984-3960 (voice) 1-800-289-3960 (fax) The Apple Blossom It is with great sadness that we report that the newest Apple II oriented newsletter — The Apple Blossom — has announced that it will cease publication after Volume 3, Issue 6 is mailed to subscribers in late 1998. According to the front page edi- torial that appeared in the latest 12 page issue of The Ap- ple Blossom, publisher Steve Cavanaugh is “no longer able to keep up with publishing a bi- monthly newsletter” due to “various family, church, com- munity and work commit- ments.” The Apple Blossom will be sorely missed. At the time that the discontin- uation of The Apple Blossom was announced, Steve Cava- naugh expressed uncertainty about the future of the second publication that he is involved with — the HyperCard-based HyperQuarterly. Of that disk- based publication, Steve wrote that it “may or may not con- tinue for a second season, de- pending on subscriber interest and the ability of our scripting team to continue with the proj- ect.” As we go to press with this issue, Gareth Jones — one of the members of that HyperQuarter- ly scripting team — has just confirmed that HyperQuarterly will continue for a second vol- ume! With only two issues pub- Volume 4, Issue 1 lished to date, it means that at least six more two-disk issues of HyperQuarterly will be pro- duced. HyperCard IIGS enthusi- asts are thrilled by the prospect of receiving many more hyper- media articles, stacks, utilities and tutorials by the principle HyperQuarterly scripting team of Steve Cavanaugh, Gareth Jones, and HangTime. Ifyou have an interest in Hyper- Card, you too can be thrilled four times a year, for only $35 ($40 for overseas). Send sub- scription requests to: Apple Blossom Publishing PO Box 120434 Boston, MA 02112-0434 If you have questions about HyperQuarterly or The Apple Blossom you can get answers at the following URL: http:/ [people.delphi.com | appleblossom / Demise Of The DOM In mid-1994, Shareware Solu- tions II started to offer to sub- scribers the Apple II Disk of the Month that originated on the Genie online service. At the time, each monthly disk ap- peared like clockwork; it would generally appear no later than the 2nd or 3rd of the month. For years, the Genie Disk of the Month stuck so closely to its production schedule that Share- ware Solutions II went as far as to institute a Genie “Disk of the Month Club” whose pre-paid members received each and every DOM within days of its re- lease on Genie. Then, the Genie system was sold in early 1996 and Genie subscribers started to abandon Genie. That resulted in fewer messages being posted and fewer new software titles being uploaded to the Genie libraries. Due to those two factors, the ap- pearance of the Genie A2 Disk of the Month became more sporad- ic. Some months it would be re- leased on the 15th; other months it would not appear at all. Then, on the combined January/ February, 1997 issue, the fol- lowing ominous notice appeared: “It is also time to consider changing the name of the disks from DoM (Disk of the Month) to “Apple 2 Disk” because it just isn’t possible to pull a Disk of the Month out of the library each month (unless, of course, you want older programs or GIFs (there seems a never ending supply of GIFs).” That last DOM disk was re- leased at the end of February, 1997, and since then, there has been a deafening silence. No new Genie DOMs have been released, and not a word has been heard from the volunteer who compiles the disks. Due to the uncertainty of the status of the A2 DOM, Share- ware Solutions II now finds itself in a terrible quandary. After all, Shareware Solutions II accepted an obligation to sup- ply members of the DOM Club with a Genie disk each month, and there just hasn’t been any monthly Genie disks to send. Because no new Genie DOM disks have been released since February, 1997, the time has come to accept the fact that the Genie Disk of the Month has ceased publication. And, for that reason, the time has come to disband the Disk Of The Month Shareware Solutions II 5 Club. If you are a pre-paid member of this club, you now have a credit on the books for any unmailed DOMs due you. Feel free to use this credit for anything avail- able from Shareware Solutions II, or if you would prefer a re- fund, please let us know. @ Modem Madness Spectrum Internet Suite v1.1 In mid-January, 1998, I re- ceived a somewhat cryptic e- mail message from Spectrum Internet Suite (SIS) co-author Geoff Weiss. In that e-mail, Geoff asked some general ques- tions about the method I used to access the Delphi online net- work, and after replying that I had full dial-up access to Delphi, Geoff asked me for some assistance. After agreeing to help in any way possible, Geoff instructed me to log onto Delphi and to ac- cess the Internet services menu. Additionally, he provided a se- ries of very specific commands that he wanted me to enter manually and he requested that I capture the online session in my scrollback buffer and send it to him. As soon as I saw the sequence of commands that Geoff wanted me to test on Delphi, it was more than apparent that he had once again teamed up with Sev- en Hills Software and Spectrum author Ewen Wannop and they were planning to update SIS so that it could be used to access the world wide web from the Delphi online network! As much as the SIS develop- ment team would have liked for the initial 1997 release of SIS to work from Delphi, it proved to be an insurmountable obstacle, at the time, because the Delphi 6 Shareware Solutions IT network resides on a DEC VAX computer system running the VMS Operating System, and it would have been just too time consuming and difficult to add VMS support to SIS v1.0. However, soon after the initial release of SIS, Geoff accepted an employment offer, and the computer system that he would be working on in his new job was a DEC VAX, and that VAX computer system just happened to be connected to the Internet. As a fun project, Geoff started to modify SIS to work with his employer’s VAX computer and soon realized that the changes he had instituted could also be used on other VAX systems con- nected to the Internet, such as Delphi’s. But, neither Geoff nor Ewen had the type of Delphi account that permitted direct dial up access, so that was when Geoff con- tacted me for assistance. Soon after I provided Geoff with the captured log of my online ses- sion, he sent me the first up- dated revision to SIS. Several revisions later, I was happily surfing the web from Delphi, using Spectrum Internet Suite! Before the end of 1998, it is anticipated that you will be too! However, it is important to re- member that from the time the initial version of SIS v1.0 was sent to the beta test team, it took four months of rigorous testing, and dozens of updates, before those involved with SIS felt that is was ready for public use. And, as we go to press with this issue, just keep in mind that SIS v1.1 has not even en- tered the beta test phase of its development cycle. There are several major en- hancements planned for SIS v1.1. First of all, Geoff and Ewen are committed to fixing any and all bugs that have been reported by users of v1.0. They have cor- rected those problems that they know about, but are concerned that perhaps some bugs have as yet gone unreported. So, if you have been using SIS v1.0 and have experienced any problems, please contact the SIS develop- ment team, via Seven Hills Soft- ware, at the following e-mail ad- dress: support@sevenhills.com Secondly, Geoff and Ewen are planning to make SIS work from Delphi and from other DEC VAX systems that run the VMS Oper- ating System. Thirdly, Geoff and Ewen are quite busy adding new features to SIS. Among some of the many improvements planned are: ¢ A new toolbar button, Single Click Internet Search, takes you to your favorite web search en- gine page, which will be user configurable. ¢ Support for Netscape cookies. Spring, 1998 ¢ The built-in Bookmark editor allows you to cut, copy, paste, and edit bookmark entries, and to import Bookmark files from lynx, Netscape, and the Mac version of Internet Explorer. ¢ The Bookmark Pull Down menu will have optional divid- ers that separate entries for a more orderly appearance. ¢ The new “Send Web Page Lo- cation Via E-mail” option will allow you to easily alert friends to sites you have found, and SIS will automatically generate and send the e-mail message for you. ¢ You can easily add a previ- ously prepared signature file as part of your outgoing e-mail messages. ¢ If you press down on the Con- trol key as you double click on a link, an information window is displayed, in which the link’s full URL is displayed. ¢ The SIS update will conform to HTML 4.0 security issues by providing warnings when trans- mitting non-secure data by e- mail or when sending data that is not encrypted. These options can be turned off. ¢ The User Interface has been updated to conform to the latest Apple Human Interface Guide- lines. ¢ Last but certainly not least, Geoff and Ewen are adding some genuine, honest to good- ness Easter Eggs to Spectrum Internet Suite. At this early point in the SIS v1.1 update cycle, no pricing has been set yet, and certainly, no release date is even being talked about yet. But, Geoff Volume 4, Issue 1 Weiss, Ewen Wannop and Sev- en Hills Software are all com- mitted to updating Spectrum Internet Suite, and although much more work on the update remains to be completed, it is anticipated that the SIS v1.1 update will be released before 1998 is over. As SIS v1.1 nears completion, Seven Hills Software will be updating their web site to in- clude important details such as feature lists, shipping dates and costs. So, as 1998 pro- gresses, make sure that you point your favorite web browser at the following URL: http:/ /www.sevenhills.com | applesoftware / Multi-System Chats After several delays caused by extreme technical problems, and a slight change of plans due to scheduling conflicts, on Mon- day night, January 26, 1998, Shareware Solutions II inaugu- rated the first of a weekly series of online chats conducted simul- taneously on more than one on- line network. Through the wonders of modern technology, Apple II users on Genie and Delphi’s A2 forums were able to enter their respec- tive chat rooms and were able to communicate with their fellow Apple II users from around the world, regardless of whether they were logged on to either Ge- nie or Delphi. Hosted and sponsored by Share- ware Solutions II, the weekly Monday night chats have been extremely successful and have been attended by many more Apple II owners than originally conceived. On most Monday nights, up to 25 people have been found in the chat rooms at any one time. At the beginning of March, the multi-system chat was ex- panded in order to include Apple II users on the CompuServe on- line network! It’s been a lot of fun to be able to partake in a weekly chat, and admittedly, it’s been a pleasure to be able to push the limits of technology and to be able to con- nect three independent online networks together. But, as those folks who followed my tales of woe online know, it took a lot of work to get everything set up just right. I couldn’t have done it alone, and would like to take this oppor- tunity to thank all those people who lent a hand behind the scenes. Thanks to Syndicomm and the sysops on CompuServe for allowing the chats to take place. Thanks to Tony Diaz for securing the computer hardware inexpensively and for running the sessions before I had that capability. Thanks to Jerry Cline and Greg Schaeffer of InTrec Software for the donation of software. Thanks to Dave Miller for writing the SimulBot software. Special thanks to Eric Shepherd for getting the system set up and running. But most of all, the people who deserve the biggest thanks are all those Apple II enthusiasts who have attended the chats, week after week. If you’d like to get together with fellow Apple II users from all over the United States, Canada, Australia and Europe, just ac- cess one of the Apple II forums on CompuServe, Delphi or Genie any Monday night at 10 PM EDT and enter the chat room. We'll be waiting with open arms Shareware Solutions IT 7 to offer a warm welcome to you, as you join this online extended Apple II family. Apple II Mailing Lists There are many different meth- ods available to assist those who disseminate information across the vastness of the Inter- net, and one technique that has recently been gaining in popu- larity within the Apple II online community is through the pro- cedure known as a mailing list. Mailing lists are actually one of the oldest methods available to broadcast information across the many computers that make up the global network, and in fact, mailing lists were first em- ployed on the Arpanet system that was operating decades be- fore the Internet, as we now know it, even existed. A mailing list is simply a pri- vate discussion group that is conducted entirely through e- mail. Generally, the focus of a mailing list is limited to a sin- gle topic, or to a single shared interest. When an e-mail message is di- rected to a mailing list, it is intercepted by one of several available Unix-based mailing list software programs that automatically forwards the message to each person who is a member of the mailing list. De- pending on how many members there are, and how active the participants of the list might be, a mailing list can some- times generate up to 20 or more e-mail messages each and every day. Because it can be very time consuming to read that much e- mail, active mailing lists some- times offer a “digest” version of the mailing list; a digest com- bines all of the day’s messages 8 Shareware Solutions IT into one daily composite e-mail. Lastly, some mailing list ad- ministrators set up a site on the world wide web and post all messages there, so that even those who do not subscribe to the mailing list can access the information. There are currently a number of different publicly accessible Ap- ple II related mailing lists to which you can subscribe: * Bernie ][ The Rescue: FE Sys- tems has set up two mailing lists for users of the Bernie ][ The Rescue IIGS emulator. The News Channel is a mailing list that the FE System’s pro- grammers use to send out an- nouncements and news from the Bernie development team. It is through this mailing list that Bernie users learn about up- dates. The News Channel list is a low volume list. To sign up for The News Channel List, you'll need to sign up via an e-mail message. In the subject line, enter the following: SUBSCRIBE “bernie- news” and then simply type your first and last name in the body of the message and send it to listserv@ncisc.org The second Bernie related mailing list is called the Tech- Talk List, and this list is both the primary method that FE Systems uses to provide tech- nical support to users of Bernie, and it also serves as a discus- sion group for Bernie users who want to learn as much as they can about operating Bernie. To sign up for the TechTalk List, you'll need to sign up via an e-mail message. In the sub- ject line, enter the following: SUBSCRIBE “bernie” and then simply type your first and last name in the body of the message and send it to listseru@ncisc.org Because the TechTalk List is a high volume mailing list, you may find your e-mail box over- run with messages about Bernie J[ The Rescue. If you don’t want to receive TechTalk, but do want technical information about Ber- nie, you should visit the List Archive, where each and every TechTalk message is archived, and can be read by any web browser. To access the List Ar- chive, point your web browser at the following URL: hitp:/ |www.design.ncisc.org | ~bernie / current index.html ¢ KansasFest: The KansasFest Coordinating Committee has set up a mailing list to discuss details about the upcoming con- ference with attendees and pre- senters. The Kfest mailing list has been, in a sense, an ongoing brain- storming session among all who want this year’s Kfest to be even better than last year’s. It was on this list that some of the rules for the programming contest were devised, and where the “members helping members” program was first brought up. You can subscribe to the Kfest mailing list by directing your Internet e-mail message to majordomo@trenco.gno.org and putting the words “subscribe kfest” into the body of the mes- sage. ¢ Marinetti: Richard Bennett has set up a developer support mailing list for the ongoing dis- cussion of Marinetti develop- ment issues, such as bug work- arounds and compatibility, and it is on this list that Richard Spring, 1998 provides coding assistance. Although anyone can join the Marinetti Developers List, please keep in mind that it is a forum for developers and pro- grammers, and it is not the ap- propriate forum for end-users of Marinetti to ask questions about how to set up a Marinetti logon script. On the other hand, if you've thought about writing a TCP/IP based Internet client program that works in conjunc- tion with Marinetti, then you need to join this list. You can subscribe to the Marin- etti Developers mailing list by sending an e-mail message to majordomo@gulink.net and put- ting the words “subscribe marinetti-devo” into the body of the message. ¢ SheppyWare: Eric “Sheppy” Shepherd has set up a Sheppy- Ware Discussion mailing list that people can subscribe to in order to learn more about Shep- py’s software. This is where you can find product announce- ments, progress reports on soft- ware updates, and where ques- tions about Sheppy’s software can be submitted. Sheppy has also threatened to “post some of the creative prose that definite- ly doesn’t qualify as literature that I’ve been known to write from time-to-time.” You can sign up for the Sheppy- Ware Discussion mailing list by sending an e-mail message to majordomo@sheppyware.net and then putting the words “SUB- SCRIBE SheppyWare-Talk” in- to the body of the message. Fine Tuning Spectrum A number of you have asked for assistance in resolving a minor problem that manifests itself Volume 4, Issue 1 while using Spectrum in VT-100 Emulation mode. The problem is caused by a host computer sending a Carriage Return and a Line Feed at the end of each line, and it manifests itself on the IIGS by Spectrum dis- playing a blank line in between each line of text. Apparently, not all Internet Service Providers send the cor- rect command to control the way that the VT-100 screen handles line feeds. Don’t worry though; it’s easy to fix. According to Ewen Wannop, if you write the following script and execute it from the Spec- trum Editor, it should resolve the double spacing problem for you: Set RemoveLFs ON Save Settings A2 Wish Lists The programming wonder from Down Under, otherwise known as Richard Bennett of Graphic- Writer III v2.0 and Marinetti fame, has recently added a new section entitled “A2 Wish Lists” to his home page and all Apple II owners are invited to visit that site and to participate in the several surveys that are posted there. Richard is attempting to create a central repository of Apple II product “wish lists” so that pro- grammers will be able to gauge exactly which new features us- ers of their software would ap- preciate most. At present, Richard is eliciting suggestions for new options or features to GraphicWriter III that users would most like to see added to a possible update to the program. To help him de- cide which features to add, he asks users to rank in order of importance such possible new features as the ability to have a floating tool palette or a window that contains user edited para- graph styles which could be se- lected from a simple list. In addition to the A2 Wish Lists, Richard has also posted a general survey that simply asks: “What do you spend most of the time doing on your Apple II?” Answers to that question may very well help to induce pro- grammers to create the types of software that would be used by the greatest number of people. Additionally, Richard has pro- vided instructions on how other programmers and developers can participate in a similar A2 Wish List so that they too can know what their customers want most. You can participate in Richard’s A2 Wish Lists at the following URL: hitp:/ [www.zip.com.au/ ~kashum | a2uwishlists / Seven Hills Online Seven Hills Software maintains an up-to-date online product cat- alog on the world wide web at the following URL: http:/ /www.sevenhills.com / applesoftware For those of you who do not have access to the world wide web but who do have the capability of re- ceiving e-mail messages, you can now also receive that same up- to-date product information from Seven Hills by sending an e-mail request to one of their two new autoresponders; one automatic response engine will Shareware Solutions IT 9 send you information about Spectrum Internet Suite while the other will send you informa- tion about all of the other Apple IIGS products available from Seven Hills Software. If you do elect to receive infor- mation from Seven Hills auto- responders, please keep in mind that an autoresponder is simply a software program with one purpose only; namely, to send you specific information. In other words, no human being will read your e-mail request, and the autoresponder software will ignore both the subject line and any message you might in- clude, so do not use these auto- responder e-mail addresses for anything other than requesting a product catalog. To receive the Seven Hills prod- uct catalog, address your e-mail request to: gsinfo@sevenhills.com To receive information about Spectrum Internet Suite, ad- dress your e-mail request to: sisinfo@sevenhills.com As before, if you would like to contact Seven Hills for technical support, address your e-mail message to: shss@ix.netcom.com Brutal Deluxe Online The French programming team of Olivier Zardini and Antoine Vignau, known collectively as Brutal Deluxe, has been pro- gramming Apple IIGS software since 1992. To their credit, they have released such wonderful and classic Apple IIGS pro- grams as Bille Art, the Tinies, Cogito, the Opale Demo, Block- 10 Shareware Solutions IT ade, the Tinies Construction Kit, Convert 3200 and Brutal Deluxe’s LemminGS. Just recently, team member An- toine Vignau has set up a Bru- tal Deluxe home page on the world wide web, and the site provides some fascinating tech- nical information about each of Brutal Deluxe’s software prod- ucts, including how many lines of code were generated, how long the project took, what types of graphics files are used and some history about the pro- grams. Of course, all of the Brutal Deluxe software titles that were released as freeware can also be downloaded from the site that is located at the following URL: http:/ | miage.isi.u-psud.fr/ ~vignau | Team member Olivier Zardini has set up a second Brutal De- luxe home page on the world wide web, located at the fol- lowing URL: http:/ /www.cyberstation.fr | ~zardini Staying In Touch It’s been said that “desperate times require desperate meas- ures” and the recent prolifer- ation of unsolicited Internet e- mail advertisements, commonly called “spam,” has caused many an Internet Service Provider (ISP) to institute desperate measures in an attempt to com- bat this highly invasive prac- tice. Abusive Internet e-mailers now have the ability to send out tens of thousands of unsolicited e- mail messages each hour, often with disastrous results, as the computers used as mail servers by many ISPs are failing in their struggle to process many more e- mail messages than they were ever originally designed to han- dle. With no anti-spam laws in effect to protect them, some of the large ISPs like America Online have instituted lawsuits against the largest volume spammers, claiming that spam clogs up their system and makes it near- ly impossible for them to conduct their business efficient- ly. Other ISPs, such as the one that Shareware Solutions II subscribes to, have instituted even more desperate measures in an attempt to stop the spam. An unfortunate result of the anti-spam measures is that some e-mail directed towards Shareware Solutions II using the joko@crl.com address never arrives, or to use Internet par- lance, the e-mail “bounces.” In an attempt to reclaim its mail servers for legitimate e- mail, crl.com has adopted a practice whereby certain do- mains have been identified as “spam friendly” and all in- coming e-mail from those do- mains is routinely refused by crl.com’s mail servers. Although this desperate meas- ure has cut down on some of the incoming spam, it also means that if you have an account on one of the systems that has been identified as “spam friendly,” your legitimate e-mail directed towards Shareware Solutions II will never reach its intended destination. If that happens to you, please re-send your e-mail to one of the other following e-mail addresses that is maintained by Share- ware Solutions IT: Spring, 1998 76702.565@compuserve.com joe_kohn@delphi.com joe.kohn@genie.com Apple II WebRing Syndicomm’s A2 Web site is quickly becoming one of the most popular Apple II web sites on the Internet, due in large part to Web Master David Ker- wood’s creative and visionary ef- forts to insure that A2 Web re- mains what he jokingly calls “The Mother Of All Apple II Web Sites.” A2 Web includes Apple II re- lated articles, the most exten- sive and up-to-date set of links to other Apple II sites available anywhere, message boards for the buying and selling of used Apple II equipment, Apple II in- formation and tutorials, and it even includes links to an Apple II download area. David Kerwood’s latest contri- bution to the A2 Web benefits everyone with an interest in the Apple II; he has recently insti- tuted the Apple II WebRing! The world wide web is experi- encing explosive growth, and the WebRing concept is just one of many new methods that has been devised to assist web surf- ers locate sites that may be of interest. In existence for just two years, the WebRing phe- nomenon has caught on like wildfire; there are now more than 40,000 different WebRings in operation! The non-profit WebRing Organ- ization explains: “Through navi- gation links found most often at the bottom of member pages, visitors can travel all or any of the sites in a ring. They can move through a ring in either direction, going to the next or Volume 4, Issue 1 previous site, or listing the next five sites in the ring. They can jump to a random site in the ring, or survey all the sites that make up the ring.” The Apple II WebRing currently consists of a group of two dozen web sites. If you'd like to use the Apple II WebRing as a navigational aid, visit A2 Web at the following URL: http:/ /www.syndicomm.com / a2web Tf you’d like to add your Apple II web site to the WebRing, just point your favorite web browser at the following URL: http:/ /www.syndicomm.com / a2web /a2webring.himl Where Are They Now? * The virtual Apple II museum that was set up by Tony Diaz to show off his massive collection of rare and one-of-a-kind Apple II hardware products has moved. The new URL is: Attp:/ /www.apple2.org * Prolific IIGS programmer Eric Shepherd has a new and greatly expanded site on the world wide web that, among other things, showcases all his freeware and shareware software, all of which can be downloaded from the new site. You can also read Sheppy’s technical reference materials for the Apple IIGS, and some of his satirical stories. SheppyWare Online can be accessed at the following URL: hitp:/ /www.sheppyware.net If you want to send Sheppy an e- mail, please be aware of his new e-mail addresses: sheppy@sheppyware.net sheppy@delphi.com Lastly, if you need to get in touch with Sheppy the old fash- ioned way, this is his latest ad- dress: Eric Shepherd 39120 Argonaut Way #525 Fremont, CA 94538-1398 ¢ Ryan Suenaga publishes a freeware electronic newsletter named The Lamp, which is a monthly compendium of infor- mation gathered from Delphi’s Apple II forums. The Lamp is the successor to GenieLamp, which is no longer published. The official home page of The Lamp can be found at the fol- lowing URL: http:/ /www.sheppyware.net / ~rsuenaga * Max Jones’ site for the Juiced.- GS newsletter has moved. It can now be found at the following URL: hitp:/ /www.wbwip.com/ juiced.gs ¢ Neil Parker’s extensive listing of Apple II sites on the Internet can now be found at the fol- lowing URL: hitp:/ /www.cstone.net /~rbraun | apple2 /a2ftp.himl ¢ Information and technical sup- port for GNO/ME can now be found at the following URL: hitp:/ /www.gno.org On The Horizon Richard Bennett, whose Marin- etti Control Panel currently al- Shareware Solutions IT i lows IIGS modem users to make a TCP/IP connection to the Internet using a SLIP proto- col, continues work on Marin- etti, as evidenced by the fol- lowing e-mail message: “Tonight at 7:19 PM, Wednes- day the 4th of March 1998, I logged on to Delphi using PPP (PAP was also negotiated for logon). Today it goes into testing with my beta folks, and should be ready by the end of March.” The end of March came and went, yet there was no an- nouncement of a Marinetti up- date that supports the PPP pro- tocol. However, Richard Bennett has proven several times in the past that he has a flair for dramatic product introductions, so there are high hopes that a Marinetti update will be an- nounced at KansasFest 98. @ Harmonie: A Second Look A Learning Experience When Shareware Solutions II took over from Vitesse as the Publisher of the Harmonie set of GS/OS printer drivers, Vites- se had been selling Harmonie for many years and was there- fore intimately more knowledge- able about all aspects of the program. In an attempt to catch up with Vitesse, the past six months have been an incredible learning experience for the new publisher, who has acquired a lot of information about Har- monie and the various printers that it supports. Based in large part on all the questions about Harmonie that have been submitted to Share- ware Solutions II, it’s time to take a second look at Harmonie and at the various types of high quality printers that it sup- ports. HP DeskWriters In the previous issue of the newsletter, not a word was said about using Hewlett-Packard DeskWriter printers with the IIGS. That oversight, however, was intentional. After all, the owner of Vitesse had stated that the current crop of Desk- Writers no longer worked on the IIGS, but as it turned out, that 12 Shareware Solutions IT statement was far from accu- rate. The DeskWriter series of ink jet printers is designed to work with Macintosh computers. Un- like the DeskJet and LaserJet series, DeskWriter printers are somewhat limited when used with an Apple IIGS, as they cannot be used from any Pro- DOS-8 based software, not even from AppleWorks Classic! But when used with Harmonie and GS/OS based software, the DeskWriter emulates the Desk- Jet, so beautiful color output and laser sharp text can be achieved. There is, however, one other major caveat to issue con- cerning the DeskWriter. For a very short period of time, Hewlett-Packard produced two models of DeskWriter that were specifically designed to work only through the redesigned and faster serial ports that are built into the newer PowerPC based models of Macintosh computers. These two models turned out to be incompatible with the older 680x0 based Macintosh, and since the IIGS accommodates the exact same serial ports that are found on the older non- PowerPC based Macs, they were also incompatible with the TIGS. Since they are no longer available, Harmonie author Bill Heineman states that any cur- rent DeskWriter for sale today will work with Harmonie and GS/OS-based software. On a related note, Hewlett- Packard also released several short-lived DeskJet models, such as the 820Cse, that are also incompatible with the IIGS. Fortunately, these incompatible DeskJets are clearly marked on the case as being “Windows” only printers. The basic rule of thumb there- fore regarding HP brand ink jet printers is: If a DeskJet works with MS-DOS, it will work on a IIGS with Harmonie, and if a DeskWriter works with an older 680x0 based Mac, it too will work on a IIGS with Harmonie. EpsonLQ Emulation Ever since IIGS owners have had the capability of using high resolution printers, the vast ma- jority of those who have already made the switch to inkjet and laser printers have migrated to Hewlett-Packard brand print- ers, or clones of HP printers that offer HP’s PCL3 emulation. PCL3 is HP’s printer language that is supported by Harmonie; any printer that includes PCL3 emulation — whether that print- er is manufactured by HP or not Spring, 1998 —can be used with Harmonie. PCL3 is just one of several printer emulations that has be- come a standard. Another com- peting standard that has been gaining in popularity in recent years is Epson’s ESC/P 2 print- er language which is built into all Epson brand printers, in- cluding the wildly popular Ep- son Stylus models. Recent feedback from a number of Apple IIGS owners indicates that Epson Stylus printers and others that offer ESC/P 2 emu- lation, such as a number of Canon BubbleJet printers, can be used with Harmonie and GS/OS software, at up to 360 dpi resolution, but that the out- put on those printers is limited to grayscale. In other words, when an Epson Stylus or Canon BubbleJet is used on a IIGS, it cannot output in color from GS/OS using Harmonie’s Epson- LQ drivers. Tronically, all reports indicate that Epson Stylus printers are capable of yielding full glorious color printouts from The Print Shop GS, using that program’s built-in Epson drivers. Decisions, Decisions Up until just a few years ago, Apple IIGS owners who wanted to purchase a Hewlett-Packard brand LaserJet, DeskJet or DeskWriter printer had very few choices to make, as HP sold only one or at most two different models at any one time. As soon as a new model of printer was released, older models were no longer available. That is no longer the case, and HP seems to be releasing new printer models every couple of months. That makes it very dif- Volume 4, Issue 1 ficult to recommend a specific model of printer, because by the time you might be ready to make your purchase, any recom- mended model may already be discontinued. Despite that, there are a number of general areas to address that, hopefully, will make the decision making process slightly easier for you when you are ready to purchase a high quality printer. To begin with, there are two totally different types of high quality printers that are sup- ported by Harmonie - ink jet printers and laser printers. Ink jet printers accommodate one or more ink cartridges that contain multiple, yet very fine sized nozzles that actually shoot a jet of ink onto a sheet of paper. Laser printers, on the other hand, employ a similar technol- ogy as is used in photocopy ma- chines. Rather than using ink or ribbons, laser printers use heat and toner to fuse output onto a sheet of paper. When Apple IIGS users first started to use HP printers, la- ser printers were generally much faster and printed with much higher resolution than the ink jet printers. In fact, six or seven years ago, it wasn’t un- common to hear of ink jets jokingly referred to as a “poor person’s laser printer.” But in recent years, ink jet printers have become much faster and they can now output to the printed page with the same, or even higher, resolution as laser printers can. Ink jets have caught up to laser printers and, in many cases, when comparing the print quality achieved on an ink jet to that of a laser printer, it might take a magnifying glass to see any differences. Whether your next printer is going to be an ink jet or a laser printer, there are a number of choices that you'll face and some difficult decisions that you'll have to make. But first, it’s important to un- derstand that Hewlett-Packard produces printers that they proclaim are either IBM or Mac- intosh compatible. Despite what you might initially conclude, it is the line of printers which is of- fered for use on IBM and PC clones that are most compatible with the Apple IIGS. Before you purchase a new print- er, there are several critical questions that you will need to answer before you can go com- parison shopping: Do you want color printouts? If you want multicolored print- outs from GS/OS, then your choices are relatively easy, as color laser printers cost more than $5,000, and pricing for col- or capable DeskJets starts at a mere $149. Will you use the printer on more than one type of computer sys- tem? This is perhaps the most critical question that you will need to answer. If you also own a PC or Mac, then you might seriously want to consider purchasing an Epson Stylus printer. Despite the fact that on the IIGS the Harmonie EpsonLQ drivers will not permit any color printouts, when an Ep- son Stylus is used with a PC or Mac, its 1440 dpi resolution is a wondrous sight to behold! But if you want color output from GS/OS, then it’s the HP DeskJet series that will meet all of your printer needs. Shareware Solutions IT 13 The least expensive DeskJet, currently the $149 DeskJet 400L, comes with only a single Centronics parallel interface port. The least expensive HP LaserJet, currently the $400 (or less) 6L, also comes with just a single Centronics parallel inter- face port. If your DeskJet or LaserJet is going to be used exclusively on a TIGS, then that one parallel in- terface port will be sufficient to meet your needs, and you can therefore focus your search on those single port HP printers that are found at the lower end of the price scale. To use a parallel printer on your IIGS, you'll also need to pur- chase a parallel interface card. Currently, those are sold by Alltech Electronics (1-760-724- 2404) and by Sequential Sys- tems (1-800-759-4549 or 1-303- 666-4549). If, on the other hand, you want to connect your new printer to both a IIGS and to another type of computer system, you'll need to think about purchasing a multiport printer that could then be connected simultane- ously, as an example, via a par- allel card to the IIGS and via an Appletalk connection to a Mac- intosh. Of course, the more ports that there are on a printer, the higher the cost for that printer will be. Before reaching the conclusion that you will need to purchase a multiport printer, it’s important to note that there are ways to use a single port printer on more than one computer sys- tem. If, for example, you have an IBM PC sitting close to your TIGS, you could always purchase a $20 A-B Parallel Switch Box from Radio Shack or from any 14 Shareware Solutions IT well stocked electronics or com- puter store. When such a device is used, cables from each com- puter connect to the switch box, and a single cable connects the switch box to the printer; the switch on the front of the box can be turned from one position to the other, depending on which computer is sending data to the printer. If you have a Macintosh sitting near your IIGS, you can pur- chase the PowerPrint suite of printer drivers from Infowave (1-800-663-6222 or 1-604-473- 3600) and they will allow you to use “PC compatible” printers, such as the LaserJet 6L or a DeskJet, with a Macintosh. Yet another factor to consider is convenience. When the DeskJet was initially released, it could print in black only. The first col- or capable DeskJets required that you swap out a black ink cartridge and replace it with a three color cartridge. Later DeskJets could accommodate two cartridges at once — one for black ink and one for three col- ored ink. In recent years, how- ever, HP has offered both types of DeskJet. Now, their “bottom of the line” DeskJet 400 costs so little because it can only accom- modate one cartridge at a time. DeskJets that contain two car- tridges cost at least $100 more than the DeskJet 400. So, you have to decide if the added con- venience is worth spending an extra $100, and only you can de- cide that. Another factor you'll need to consider is the speed of the printer. Some HP printers out- put at up to four pages per minute, others output at up to eight pages per minute. The faster a printer is, the more ex- pensive it is. But in a sense, printer speed is not really that critical of an issue, unless the printer is going to be in constant use. So think about how often you really use your printer, and then decide whether it’s worth hundreds of dollars to save you 15 seconds here and 20 seconds there. After you’ve spent some time thinking about the above consid- erations, you still might not be any closer to making a decision about which printer model to purchase, so now is the time to visit an HP dealer. And fortu- nately for you, they are now lo- cated just about everywhere. Most computer stores carry HP brand printers, but there’s no need to subject yourself to high pressure computer dealers quite yet. In the past several years, ware- house type office supply super- stores have sprung up through- out the United States. This type of store offers the convenience of shopping locally but its pricing structure generally matches the low pricing offered by mail order discounters. So if you live near a Staples, Office Max, or Office Depot, you are in luck; they all stock HP brand printers. The LaserJets and DeskJets at those warehouse type stores are generally all set up in a demo mode; press the button and let your eyes tell you which printer you like best. Another advantage to the ware- house type of store is that it also sells lots of different types and grades of paper and generally have lots of sample sheets. Grab a handful of several different types of paper, and then com- pare printouts using the exact same type of paper run through the various different models Spring, 1998 that you are considering. Once again, let your eyes help you make your decision. In many of those stores, they have the printers set up to print on expensive ($1 per sheet) clay coated paper, so that all the sample printouts look great. Don’t let that fool you. You can “level the playing field” by printing from all the different models using the exact same grade of paper, thereby making comparisons possible. The very last things to keep in mind while shopping around for a new printer are the limits of the Harmonie drivers them- selves. Harmonie supports HP’s Printer Control Language level 8, which is commonly referred to as PCL3. Some of the more expensive HP printers nowa- days come with PCL5 built in. Because HP printers are back- wards compatible, the IIGS will work just fine with a PCL5 printer, but there will be abso- lutely no advantages to be gained by doing so, as Harmonie will still output data to the printed page using PCL3. If you intend to also use a PCL5 print- er with another computer plat- form, such as an IBM, then that other computer will be able to take advantage of some of the newer features and enhanced image resolution, but not the Apple IIGS. When Harmonie was initially released, the highest resolution printers were capable of print- ing at 300 dpi (dots per inch) resolution. Several years later, HP started to offer printers that supported 600 x 300 dpi resolu- tion. They have since released printers that can print at 600 dpi, or even higher. The Harmonie drivers for the Volume 4, Issue 1 LaserJet support a maximum resolution of 300 dpi, and the Harmonie DeskJet drivers sup- port a maximum resolution of 600 x 300 dpi for printing in black and 300 dpi for color printing. So, if you intend to use an HP printer on only a IIGS, you don’t need a printer that of- fers any higher resolution, as you just won’t be able to take advantage of the higher resolu- tions. Getting Started If you've been using an Image- Writer, you are going to have to get used to printing on a Laser- Jet or DeskJet, and that will not happen overnight. It’s sug- gested that when you first get an HP printer, experiment with it and try all of the various printing options available to you. It’s a good idea to experiment by printing out both text and graphic documents, and keeping notes as you go along. The main reason experimentation is so important is that Harmonie re- places Apple’s standard Page Setup and Print dialog boxes with its own, and the various options that are available through Harmonie are very dif- ferent from what you are used to seeing with Apple’s printer drivers. As an example, in Har- monie’s Page Setup dialog box, you'll be able to choose various Aspect Ratios that are labeled Normal, Condensed and Best; in Harmonie’s Print dialog box, you'll be able to control such op- tions as brightness, shading, contrast and dithering. In addition, you'll also have choices as to whether documents are rendered internally by the com- puter or externally by the print- er. Without trying out all of the various combinations, you can easily make some erroneous as- sumptions that could result in less than optimal printouts. As a user of Harmonie for more than four years, I’ve printed out tens of thousands of copies, and have decided from personal ob- servation that when printing graphics, I achieve the very best results possible by choosing the Normal aspect ratio and by ren- dering the graphic externally. On the other hand, I’ve determined that I can achieve the very best results possible for text printing by choosing the Condensed as- pect ratio and by rendering the text internally. But since beauty is in the eye of the beholder, you'll need to determine through lots of experimentation which options are the best for you. As you experiement with all of the various Harmonie settings, please keep in mind that a printer driver is a complicated piece of software that interacts with hardware, several various components of the IIGS System Software, different application programs and even with dif- ferent types of fonts. The poten- tial for problems does exist, and the odds are great that you will, at some point, encounter some unexpected results from your printer. As an example, a Desk- Jet’s dip switch in the wrong po- sition could result in tiny sized print, a monospaced font might result in unacceptable spacing problems, or a particular propor- tional font might not justify properly. Give yourself at least a few weeks time to gain enough ex- perience and to understand how all of the various options avail- able while using Harmonie can affect your printouts. As you experiment, just remember the old adage: “practice makes per- Shareware Solutions II 15 fect.” Within just a few weeks, you too will be using your new high resolution printer with just as much ease as you've come to expect from using your trusty old ImageWriter with the IIGS. End Notes Shareware Solutions II believes that an informed shopper is a smart shopper, and that a smart shopper rarely regrets his or her decision. And since a printer can be an expensive pe- ripheral, it’s best to consider all possible options before making a purchase. Whether you plan to purchase a low end DeskJet 400, a high end LaserJet 5MP, or anything in between, you'll be joining the tens of thousands of ecstatic TIGS owners who are already using GS/OS-based software and high resolution printers to create high quality newsletters, attractive brochures, beautiful looking correspondence, artful stationery, colorful signs, and creative greeting cards. Although there are many factors to consider and decisions to be made, one thing should be clear: Hewlett-Packard brand printers and the Apple IIGS were made for each other, so no matter which Hewlett-Packard model of printer you purchase, you just can’t go wrong! @ Studio City Clip Art Every other month for nearly five years, Resource Central’s HyperStudio-based Studio City publication provided Apple IIGS enthusiasts with wonder- fully creative interactive hyper- media software. In addition to providing com- pleted and polished hypermedia software, Studio City also fur- nished many other resources on disk and these resources could be freely used by subscribers in their own hypermedia creations. Most issues of Studio City in- cluded at least one or two files that contained beautiful and professionally designed 640 x 200 mode Super Hi Res clip art graphics. The very best clip art that ap- peared on the Studio City disks was created by Mary Ann Trzy- na, and in an attempt to make her art work more readily avail- able to more Apple IIGS users, Shareware Solutions II has re- ceived permission to distribute all of Mary Ann’s stunning art work on a one disk “Studio City Clip Art” collection. 16 Shareware Solutions IT Such A Deal! This “Studio City Clip Art” col- lection is “copyright friendly.” The clip art remains copy- righted, but you are free to use the clip art from this collection in any of your projects, private or commercial, at no additional cost. The only thing that is re- quested is that you give credit to Studio City and its artists somewhere in your project’s doc- umentation. Included on the clip art disk are 50 Super Hi Res graphic files. Each file contains at least two, and in some cases five or six, smaller colorful graphic images that share a common theme. The themes are quite general and encompass graphic repre- sentations of such things as ani- mals, people, holidays, parties, tools, and common household objects. All of the graphics are of a $CO filetype and are all in 640 mode, so they are ideal to use with your HyperCard or HyperStudio projects, or they can just as easily be loaded into any paint or desktop publishing program. The cost of the Studio City Clip Art disk is $10, and that in- cludes postage to anywhere in the world. Shifty List Conflicts between IIGS Desk Ac- cessories and/or Init files can cause such havoc on IIGS com- puters that beginning with Sys- tem 6.0, Apple provided the means to disable all Desk Ac- cessories, Init files and Control Panel Devices by introducing what is commonly referred to as the Shift-Boot. Holding down the Shift key just before GS/OS starts to load will disable all system extensions. If you have a conflict between two Desk Accessories, the Shift-Boot is a convenient and easy diag- nostic tool; if your system be- comes rock sold after a Shift- Boot, then it’s safe to assume that there is conflict on your sys- tem. The generally accepted method of finding out exactly which Desk Accessory or Init is causing the conflict is to remove all of them, and then add them back into your System folder, one by one. After each Desk Ac- cessory is added, you should run Spring, 1998 your system and if it is well behaved, then add yet another Desk Accessory to your System folder. Eventually, the problem will return when the DA or Init that is causing the conflict is added back into the system. Although in theory this method works great, it is also very time consuming and tedious. A number of years ago, Eric “Sheppy” Shepherd created the truly wonderful utility program ShiftyList which was published by Softdisk G-S. ShiftyList is a GS/OS utility that allows you to choose which items you want loaded after doing a Shift-Boot. As good as ShiftyList v1 was, Sheppy had wanted to update it by adding new features, but those plans were put on hold when Softdisk G-S ceased publi- cation. Then in late 1997, Shep- py announced that the update was completed. ShiftyList v2.0 allows you to es- tablish lists of Finder Extras, Desk Accessories, Control Panel Devices and Inits that will be loaded and available for use after a shift-boot. But Shifty- List does so much more than that, as you can include extras like sounds, graphics, and even Control Panel settings in your boot scripts. As Sheppy explained when he released the update, “You need to see and experiment with ShiftyList to fully understand the possibilities,” and for that reason, he created a demo ver- sion that is available from Shareware Solutions II on a re- cent IIGS library disk entitled “Power Tools GS.” In the documentation for the ShiftyList demo, Sheppy di- rected people to send him $20, Volume 4, Issue 1 and in return, they would re- ceive the complete ShiftyList v2.0 program either via e-mail or by more traditional mail. It was then that Sheppy con- tacted Shareware Solutions II, and proposed an arrangement that resulted in Shareware So- lutions II mailing out all copies of the full version of ShiftyList. More recently, Sheppy has pro- posed that Shareware Solutions II become the worldwide dis- tributor of ShiftyList v2.0. If you haven’t seen the Shifty- List demo, you can download it from the world wide web at the following URL: fip:/ | ftp.sheppyware.net / pub / apple_iigs /SLDemo2.0.bxy If you’ve already downloaded the ShiftyList v2 demo and de- cided that it is a “must have” utility, just ignore Sheppy’s in- structions to send him $20, and instead, send it to Shareware Solutions II. By return mail, you'll get the complete version of ShiftyList v2.0. Golden Orchard CD-ROM Although there have been a number of different CD-ROMs released that can be used on an Apple IIGS, only one has been created that takes full advan- tage, exclusively for Apple II and IIGS software, of the stag- gering 600+ Megabyte capacity available on a single CD-ROM disk. There are several types of soft- ware collections available on CD-ROM that can be used on an Apple IIGS, including the Disc- Quest series, the several Re- source Central Collections, and several hybrid CD-ROMs that contain both Mac and Apple II software. But it is only the Gold- en Orchard CD-ROM from Jim Maricondo’s DigiSoft Innova- tions that is literally filled to the brim with more than 600 Megabytes of Apple II and IIGS software! If you own a CD-ROM drive, the Golden Orchard CD-ROM will overwhelm you with software, and give you a collection of Ap- ple II and IIGS freeware, share- ware and public domain soft- ware that will, in all probability, rival the size of the software library maintained by your local Apple II user group. The Golden Orchard CD-ROM contains the equivalent of al- most 800 3.5" disks, and it con- tains every conceivable category of software including games, fonts, sounds, programs, Apple- Works files, graphics and just about anything else you can pos- sibly imagine. The complete con- tents of the Golden Orchard CD- ROM can be viewed at the fol- lowing URL: hitp:/ /www.hypermall.com / digisoft | digisoft /contents.html Long lauded as the largest col- lection ever assembled of Apple II and IIGS freeware, share- ware, and public domain soft- ware, the Golden Orchard CD- ROM has been difficult to find in recent months, but that’s about to change! Shareware Solutions II has just concluded negotiations with Jim Maricondo that names us as the exclusive worldwide distributor of the Golden Orchard CD-ROM. And in typical fashion, we have immediately dropped the price from $65 all the way down to $25, and the new low cost even includes postage to anywhere in the world! Such a deal! Shareware Solutions IT 7 Shareware Solutions IIGS Bernie ][ The Rescue v1.3 Bernie ][ The Rescue, the soft- ware emulator from the Swiss programming team FE Sys- tems, allows owners of Macin- tosh PowerPC computers to run virtually any and all Apple II and IIGS software on their Mac computer system. Originally released in late 1996 as Fast Eddie, Bernie’s latest release contains a spectacular breakthrough — the successful implementation of serial port support! Since the original release of Fast Eddie, FE Systems has re- leased a sizable number of up- dates to Bernie (with several more expected in the future), with each update offering more and more options and features than the previous release. The usefulness of Bernie, therefore, has grown incrementally with each subsequent release. The Shareware Solutions II library has kept up with all the Bernie updates, so that if you had sent in an order for Fast Eddie, you would have received the latest version of Bernie ][ The Rescue. But until now, it didn’t seem necessary to document each and every updated release. The v1.3 update is so significant, how- ever, that we simply had to tell you all about it! The implementation of serial port support makes Bernie much more useful than ever be- fore, as support is now included for two very important peripher- als: printers and modems. With the release of Bernie v1.8, it is now finally possible to use Ap- ple II telecommunications soft- ware with Bernie ][ The Rescue! Initial reports indicate that ProTerm and Spectrum now work with Bernie, and Ewen 18 Shareware Solutions IT Wannop reports that even his Crock O’ Gold offline reader for Delphi also now works with Ber- nie |[ The Rescue. Bernie also now offers a much more complete range of printing possibilities and options than ever before. Previous versions of Bernie permitted printing via InkMeister from AppleWorks Classic, but with the release of v1.3, printing is now supported in many more programs than ever before. Bernie v1.3 has also been op- timized for speed and initial re- ports posted online indicate that on speedy new Macintosh G3 machines, Apple IIGS soft- ware now runs even faster than on a real IIGS with a souped up TransWarp or Zip accelerator. The FE Systems’ programmers claim that real world perform- ance of Bernie on a G3 computer is roughly equivalent to a IIGS that operates at somewhere be- tween 35 to 50 Mhz! Compared to a stock IIGS which runs at 2.8 Mhz, it’s no wonder that some Bernie users are now claiming that running Apple II and IIGS software on Bernie v1.3 is even better than running it on a real IIGS. Although Bernie ][ The Rescue is Macintosh software, it is en- dorsed by this Apple II only publication. After all, with no new Apple IIs being released by Apple, Bernie ][ The Rescue pro- vides the only viable alternative for IIGS users who want to own a lightweight laptop computer. With Bernie installed on a PowerPC PowerBook, it is no longer just a Macintosh; it’s a super fast IIGS, capable of run- ning just about any Apple II or IIGS software program ever written. Bernie ][ The Rescue is a $25 shareware program and it is important to note that not all features are available until the shareware fee is paid. Bernie requires a PowerPC Mac- intosh with 4 megabytes of free RAM, or a minimum of 16 mega- bytes of total RAM. Addition- ally, you will need to copy a ROM image from a real IIGS to the PowerPC; instructions on how to do that are included in Bernie’s documentation. Bernie ][ The Rescue v1.3 is available from the Shareware Solutions II Library for $5. Ber- nie and all the documentation is supplied on two 3.5" HD disks. Wolfenstein 3-D Several times during the past few years, Apple II program- mers and developers who live in or near the San Francisco Bay Area have gathered together for informal PizzaFests, and it was during the last PizzaFest in January that Eric Shepherd pro- claimed that if he could devote three entire days to program- ming his Apple IIGS, he would be able to complete Wolfenstein 3-D. In between bites of pizza, Sheppy expressed hope that he’d be able to find the time needed so that he could debut the com- pleted Wolf 3-D program at KansasFest ’98. Sheppy found that time much sooner than anticipated, and the long wait for the most eagerly awaited IIGS game of all time, Wolfenstein 3D, is finally over! The Wolfenstein 3-D project was started five long years ago by Bill Heineman, and although Bill had nearly completed the core engine of Wolf 3-D, his work commitments prevented him Spring, 1998 from completing the game that he had started. At the time, Bill and Sheppy worked together at LogicWare, so Sheppy offered his programming skills to com- plete the Wolf 3-D project. By November of 1996, work had progressed to such a point that Sheppy released a one disk “beta test” version that was far from complete, but playable nonetheless. That version fit en- tirely on one 800K 3.5" disk and included only the first three levels of the game; there were no sound effects and a planned new set of improved graphic screens had not yet been incorporated into the program. Since that time, Sheppy contin- ued working on the code, but he delegated responsibility for the sound and graphics to the Ger- man JIGS programming team known as Ninjaforce. Ninjaforce painstakingly improved upon all the graphic screens by loading every single one of the original graphics into Platinum Paint, where they then used a fat-bits mode to beautify every single graphic representation seen in the entire game. Ninja- force also recorded and digitized the many sound effects found in the completed game, lending a real air of authenticity to the words spoken by the many Nazi guards who inhabit the maze- like world of Wolf 3-D. The scenario of Wolf 3-D is de- ceivingly simple. As the game begins, you are informed that you are BJ Blazkowicz, the greatest spy the Allied forces of World War II has ever known. You were sent on a mission to infiltrate a Nazi fortress, but you failed. You were captured and taken to the Nazi prison at Castle Wolfenstein for ques- tioning and certain execution. Volume 4, Issue 1 You were tortured and confined to a cell deep in the dungeons beneath the castle. Trapped within the bowels of the Nazi prison, you must escape. The action in Wolf 3-D is of the classic shoot ’em up genre, so the only real strategy necessary is to just shoot everything that moves. The game, however, is deceptive because there are hid- den rooms, doorways, and pas- sageways that dot the Wolf 3-D landscape and while you're not engaged in mortal combat with the Nazis, you'd be well advised to find those hidden areas. Please note that, in addition to the Easter Eggs that were pre- viously reported within these pages after the beta version was released, there are several new ones in this version that, if dis- covered, will grant you ad- ditional powers. If you have dif- ficulty finding these Eggs, just enter Eric Shepherd’s nickname and his wife’s name Sarah to activate them. The completed Wolf 3-D ships with six different scenarios and a total of 90 different levels. In addition to the game itself, Sheppy has also completed a $5 shareware Wolfenstein Scenario Converter that allows IIGS players of Wolf 3-D to download scenarios created for the Mac version of the game and to con- vert them to a format that will be recognized by the IIGS ver- sion of the game. Wolfenstein 3D requires an Ap- ple IIGS with at least 4 mega- bytes of RAM memory and a hard drive. The four disk set that includes the complete Wolf 3-D v1.1 game and the Scenario Con- verter is available from the Shareware Solutions II Library for $12. In an effort to extend more than just a word of thanks to Sheppy for completing Wolfenstein 3-D, $4 of the $12 cost of Wolf 3-D will be donated to Sheppy. If you would prefer to download Wolfenstein 3-D, you can do so from the following URL: http:/ /www.sheppyware.net | software /wolf3d_gs/ Twilight I Twilight II is a IIGS screen blanking utility that provides an elegant and fun method to pre- vent costly phosphor burn from ruining your monitor when the same image is left on screen for too long. Twilight II allows a JIGS user to select from a variety of more than 60 dazzling full color animation and special effect modules that automati- cally display when no user inter- action has taken place for a user defined period of time. Some of the animated special ef- fects included with Twilight II are dazzling color fireworks, 3-D fractal mountains, plasma cloud generation, rotated and scaled 3-D wireframe animations, ana- log and digital bouncing clocks, worms taking over the screen, a simulated trip through the uni- verse, melting screens, kaleido- scope type effects, moire effects, games and a module that allows you to create an animation with any IIGS paint program. It even includes a random mode that al- lows a different animation to be displayed each time the screen is blanked. Twilight II is a Control Panel Device for use with System Disk 6.0 or 6.0.1. It requires 1.125 Shareware Solutions IT 19 megabytes of RAM memory, but 1.5 megabytes of RAM or more is recommended for optimal performance. It also requires two 3.5" disk drives or one 3.5" disk drive and a hard drive. Twilight II has been, for many years, a commercial software product that had a suggested re- tail price of $39.95, but thanks to the largesse and generosity of DigiSoft Innovations’ founder Jim Maricondo, and to the pro- gramming skills of Nathan Mates, Twilight II has recently been updated and reclassified as freeware! Twilight II v1.99 is considered to be beta software. Although it has undergone a rigorous beta test process, it is not guaran- teed to have been tested with every Init and Desk Accessory, so it is always possible that some lingering bugs remain to be uncovered. Despite that pos- sibility, Apple II users who are online have not reported any problems at all with Twilight II. Twilight II is available from the Shareware Solutions II Library, on four 3.5" disks, for $12. Download Delights When you have a modem con- nected to your Apple II, every- day can bring you new software and information about the com- puter you love. This disk in- cludes a representative sample of delightful downloads from 1998. Included on this disk are the first five 1998 issues of The Lamp newsletter, each one fil- led with valuable hints and tips gleaned from Delphi’s Apple II forums. Also included is GUPP 1.0.7, Nathan Mates’ latest version of bug-fixes for System 6.0.1. There is the long awaited freeware release of Audio Zap v2.0, the ultimate IIGS sound editor from Ian Schmidt. There’s also MidiConvert, which is a wonderful utility program from Japan that converts MIDI music to SynthLab format. There’s FontP*mp, a demo IIGS pro- gram that converts Windows’ TrueType fonts to a format that can be recognized by Pointless on the IIGS; the demo version can only convert one font at a time. Lastly, there’s Ewen Wan- nop’s updated BinHQX that cor- rects a problem in the previous version of this useful Spectrum XCMD file decoder. The Download Delights disk is available from the Shareware Solutions II Library for $5. @ Joe Kohn Shareware Solutions II 166 Alpine Street San Rafael, CA 94901-1008 FIRST CLASS - AIR MAIL