washingtonapplepijournal1991vol13no1

The Journal of Washington Apple Pi, Ltd. washington Volume 13, Number 1 L wtl \, le pi January 1991 oa) e WAP Artists WAP Mentors and protegés Chromatic %q Music Mouse Octatonic ew) Middle Eastern = Me jv Diatonic er Pentatonic Bt Fourths ey Add Patterns a Pattern Numbers # Transpose Down —-¥z Transpose Up eH LetterWriter Plus Zero Transposition %#c |v Chordal Treatment Arpeggio Line Improvise Super Story Tree And Much, Much More: and all the regular condiments... User groups as conduits, 15 * DocuComp 1.5 (review), 20 * PageMaker 4.0 (review), 24 ¢ CheckWriter II (review), 26 * Fractal Programming in C (book review), 28 * Correct Grammar (review), 34 * ChessMaster 2100 (howto cheat it),40 * The Handwriting Analyst (review),42 * MacBack(healthtips),46 * FromSAUCEto MESSYDOS (Part3),54 * GS+ Magazine (review), 67 * MathBlaster Mystery (review),68 * The “New” Graphic Exchange, 71 © Centauri Alliance (review), 73 * Apple II, IIGS & Macintosh Disk Libraries Edge to Edge Printing BOO dote per inch Patented Toner Recycling LED Printing Engine Ultra-Fine Screens Sharp Blacks Standard SIMMs Memory User Friendly Font Panel Separate Toner Cartridge Includes QuickEnvelope 200 Page Paper Tray BLP Il (4. PPM). BLP IIS (8 PPM) wu. $2595" Genuine Adobe Postscript 2 Meg Ram Standard Expandable to 4 Meg AppleTalk Interface Included SCSI Hard Drive Port. PLP Il (4 PPM) PLP IS (8 PPM) Fully Scalable Fonts QuickDraw™ Printer High-Speed SCSI Interface Memory Upgrades Mac Plus to Ilci eeGiuaranteed Lowest Priceee Mac lifx LaserWriter IIntx MicroLaser $199 per Meg Mac Portable... Call Free Installation ¢ While You Wait DataProducte LZR12601.. Tl MicroLaser PS-17 Tl MicroLaser PS-35 Panagonic (tlppm) NewGen 800dpi DataProducts LZR1260i... $4495, Non Postscript Printers GCC PLP I... $149* GCC Write Move + $569 Hard Drives & More Seagate 30 Meg 23ms.. Seagate 45 Meg 231s .. 170 Meg Quantum Int. 105 Meg Quantum Int. MicroNet 40 Portable Mass Micro Removable . Microtech Removable Syquest Cartridges All Drives are Pre-Formatted « Price reflects GCC Rebate = | Xerox Accutext... Scanners Xerox GS Plus Image Only ...... $1449 Xerox GS Plus Image & OCR .. $1549 Top Rated in MacWorld Review of Grey Scale Scanners! 256 Shade $499 Microtek 300Z Color: 1899 Includes Color&lmage Studio CAERE TYPIST... + $549 OCR & Line Art Hand Scanner Apple Upgrades Complete logic board youtr. is available a G1,565 ng you existing |e. nal -|Mac Classic Owners Get more for your dollars. Our Classic Kite include High Speed - Low Power Microtech Quantum 1/3 Height Drives, and offer faster access times and more capacity than the Apple Kit at the same price. 1 Meg & 50 Meg Internal 3 Meg & 50 Meg Internal .. a = o 2nd Meg Memory Modul. Accelerators SuperMac Speed Card (SE)... $199 Dove Marathon O30 (SE/+) Gemini 2Omhz 030 (Plus) Gemini 33mhz O30 (Plus. Gemini 2Omhz 030 (SE). Gemini 33mhz 030 (SE). Daystar 25mhz 030 (Iklx) . Daystar 50mhz 030 (Il,llx) ... $2,395 & Many More | Washington's most aggressive pricing on SuperMac Video ) SuperMac's ultra high quality line of video display subsystems. Call for complete pricing and options, E ColorCard 24 ...... ColorCard 24 w/Accelerator 2 PG Platinum Display. Spectrum 24 Series Ill. &-Bit 19" Color... | V.32, v.42, V.42bie, & MNP level 5 up to38,400 baud Modems Viva 2400 Baud ... Orchid MacFax...... Practical Peripherals 9600 ...6699 transfer rates, super new modem, Software Adobe Photoshop... MacCheese 24Bit Color Paint... AfterDark 2.0... ef SuperMac Accelerated Color Video Systems * MicroNet Hard Drives ¢ Fast Postscript Printers © EtherNet High Resolution Color/Greyscale Scanning * Optical Character Recognition « MasterCard & Visa Overnight Shipping Fax: (301) 907-9335 MacUpgrades 4336 Montgomery Ave. Mon-Fri: Bethesda, MD 20814 10-6 Saturday: 11-4 ervice & Repairs Phone: (301) 907-0300 o CELEBRATE THE NEW YEAR WITH UNBEATABLE Mac Corner PRICES! egreat 1991- m Mac corner orner The Macintosh Only Store GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES CAN BENEFIT FROM OUR GSA RELATED PRICES! CALL FOR DETAILS. ” 9653 Zetts Ave. G ithersburg, MD 20 301-948-1538 fax: 301-948-2107 Macintosh is a™ of Apple Computer Corporation Club News Journal page .. Corrections, Letters to the Editor membership bennies President’s Column... by Eric Rall/ What's happening WAP Hotline... WAP Calendar Index to advertisers Classified ads .... Tutorials—January Mentor program signup sheet .. ‘WAP membership form. SIGs and Slices TIGS SIG Columbia Apple Slice dPubSIG eee EASIG .... GameSIG. General Information WAP Artists in Review ... by Nancy Seferian/ Art byJ. Deny Fitzhugh User Groups as conduits es by Phil Shapiro/ Getting Giant and Safeway receipts translated into computers Mentor Program Update by Manny DeVera/ Still early days for an interesting effort Mentors—Another View by Carol Hyatt/ Other ideas on helping out 19 by Robb Wolov; Macinations about computing advances and DiskDoubler Volume 13 «+0004 wesgndsndeedbiten sosscessserecsssesesseveee JANUATY 1991 .ssesessseeseee aaa baaseleeona ssoeseeeee Number 1 Music Mouse ..... by Reinhard Weixler / Review of a music controller program PageMaker 4.0........ by Frank Potter/ Aldus does it again— getting it almost right Check Writer II by Frank Kistner/ Review of an automated check writng and budget- ing program Fractal Pro; i by Thomas Hoyt/ A book on C programs; not for the faint-hearted by Paul Schlosser/ Apple's Customer assistance; HyperCard 2.0; HP DeskWriter and new TCS files Correct Grammar moe by Dan Wahl/ Review of an fouling editor Bits & Bytes ... by Lynn Tri jotes from our flung correspondent The Handwriting Analyst by Christopher S. Lee/ An aaietirs program; nothing to build your life around Letter Writer Plus .. 44 by Tom Reynders/ Aword procesiag program as DA Apple III On the Trail of the Apple Il «sssasasesosu52 by David Ottalini/ What | goes around.. From SAUCE to 9 MESSY DOS reintricsteccerse 54 by Jim Suthard/ Making the transition from an Apple III, Round 3 Inpert's Corner +056 By Allan Bloom/ Segmenting files’ in EZ Pieces Apple II Byts and Pyces +58 by Gary Hayman/ Odds and endiion the Apple II 2 Washington Apple Pi Journal January 1991 View from the Cat House . by Frank Evangelista/ Should you subscribe? He thinks so. Math Blaster Mystery by Shari Sternberg/ Review of a math program The "New" Graphic Exchange by Gary Hayman/ A utility for graphic conversion Super Story Tree by Ron Evry! ganza for schools Games Centauri Alliance .. by David Granite/ An interplanetary adventure Disk Library Apple II Disketeria .... by Phil Shapiro IIGS Disketeri: by Chris Hutmire Macintosh Disk Library by Dave Weikert Macintosh disks and order form. Apple I/II disks wasting fyppepi This issue of the Washington Apple Pi Journal was created on a Macintosh IIfx, proofed on a LaserWriter IINTX and produced by electronic typesetting by the Publishers Service Bureau. The program used was PageMaker 4.0, the word processing program was Microsoft Word 4.0; the principal typeface is Adobe Garamond for the articles; and Helvetica and Condensed Helvetica for headlines, emphasis, and where it seemed appropriate or like a good idea at the time, or where we ran out of space, which also happens. We are exploring with Adobe Systems, Inc., the possibility of a series on typefaces and families, Watch this space for further details, unless you find a bunch of pages in new and exciting fonts, in which case you will probably figure it all out without our help. Editorial Staff Deadlines ing Editor Writers’ submissions Managin, Frank Potter (703) 620-8886 Graphics Editor Nancy Seferian(202) 333-0126 Apple II Editor Rick Zeman (301) 498-8531 Macintosh Editor Lou Pastura (703) 560-1477 Copy Editor Eugenia Potter (703) 620-8886 Calendar Editor Andy Shaw (301) 595-2539 | February March... February March... Ad space reservations Dec. 21 Jan. 25 Washington Apple Pi, Ltd. are $32; Camera-ready ad copy Postal Information Washington Apple Pi is pub- lished monthly by Washington Apple Pi, Ltd., 7910 Woodmont Avenue, Suite 910, Bethesda, MD 20814. Application to mail at second class postage rates pending at Bethesda, MD. Annual membership dues for of this amount $24 is for a subscrip- tion to the Washington Apple Pi Journal. Subscriptions are not available without membership. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Washington Apple Pi, 7910 Woodmont Avenue, Suite 910, Bethesda, MD 20814. January 1991 Washington Apple Pi Journal Officers and Board of Directors President Vice President-Apple Vice President-Mac Treasurer Secretary Directors Eric Rall David Wood Bob Shaffer Ed Myerson (301) 596-0004 (301) 827-8805 (301) 384-3724 (703) 759-5479 (301) 681-6136 (703) 818-9626, (703) 578-4621 (301) 897-5495 (301) 972-4263 (301) 220-0717 (301) 725-6281 (703) 860-4810 (301) 229-3458 (301) 963-0063 David Ottalini Manny DeVera Dave Harvey Mary Hockmeyer David Morganstein Leon Raesly Dale Smith Dana Schwartz Tom Vier* Bernard Urban David Weikert Library Volunteers *Noon to 6pm DOS 3.3 Librarian open Macintosh Librarian David Weikert Martin Milrod Pascal Librarian open ProDOS-CP/M Libr. open ligs Librarian John Ruffatto Richard Sanders Apple II Disks John Ruffatto Apple III Disks David Ottalini Mac Library Dave Benbennick Rick Capman Hampton DeJarnette John DeMarco Ben Frank Andy Gallant Mary Hockmeyer William Jones Fred Rodgers Tony Salerno Bob Soule Joe Swick (301) 963-0063 (301) 464-5981 (301) 735-4259 (703) 450-4371 (301) 735-4259 (301) 681-6136 David Condit Garry Elliott Gary Grey Ralph Mullendore Charles Sicard Bob Vandegrift Office Staff Office Manager Nancy Pochepko Office Assistant Ambrose Liao Group Purchases —_ Rich Wasserstrom* (202) 479-2516 Annapolis Slice Head Reading Lib. Walt Francis (202) 966-5742 President Ray Settle (301) 647-9192 Dealer Relations Comm. John Alden (202) 686-1656 V.P./Programs Seth Mize (301) 766-1154 Harvey Kaye (301) 493-6875 Secretary Kay Cave (301) 266-9752 Rich Wasserstrom (202) 479-2516 Treasurer/Membership _Bill Derouin (301) 647-0802 Legal Counsel Richard Wohitman AppleWorks Gary Hayman (301) 345-3230 Membership Dana Schwartz (301) 654-8060 Apple lIGS. Gary Hayman —_(301) 345-3230 SIGs & Slices Coord. Bob Shaffer (301) 384-3724 — Apple Ill David Ottalini (301) 681-6136 Telecom SYSOP Leon Raesly (301) 220-0717 Jim Jutzin (703) 790-1509 Journal Store Distribution © Andy Wallo (703) 430-1553 AVSIG Nancy Seferian (202) 333-0126 Publicity Joe Chelena Columbia Slice Chuck Sicard Presidents Ann MacKay — (301) 740-4482 Curtis Lauret 774-6721 Paul Retz (301) 596-2185 Director of Education Rob Clark (301) 937-2672 V. Presidents, Mac Ann Knust (301) 781-7587 Pat Cappelaere (301) 596-3989 *Call only evenings 7:00-9:30, M-F V. Presidents, Apple Tom Cook (301) 995-0352 Tom Crowley (301) 730-2319 Treasurer Neil Gordon (301) 381-5877 Secretary Steve Gaston (301) 992-0480 Apple Ambassador Tim Childers — (301) 997-9317 CADSIG deff Sutton (301) 270-6573 Database SIG EricGutsche (703) 379-1265 i ; DisabledSIG day Thal (202) 244-3649 Washington Apple Pi, Ltd. Desktop Publishing SIG Tom Piwowar (202) 223-6813 7910 Woodmont Avenue, Suite 910 EDSIG Phil Shapiro (202) 686-5465 Bethesda, MD 20814 Excel SIG Larry Feldman — (202) 546-9556 Business Office (301) 654-8060 Federal SIG Jim Manley —_ (703) 490-1034 Telecommunications System (301) 986-8085 Frederick Slice Scott Galbraith (301) 865-3035 GameSIG Paul Moore = (703) 532-1029 Office hours: M-Sat. 10-2:30* HyperCard Nancy Wallace (301) 530-2881 Tues. 7-9pm Mark Frazier (202) 546-8325 *The office will open at 1pm on HyperTalk David Mudd —_ (703) 683-1746 the day of the general meeting Mac Programmers Nancy Byrd (703) 978-3440 Bruce Jacobs (301) 439-7812 New SIG open NeXT SIG Hugh O'Neill — (202) 328-9510 User groups may reprint without prior permission any portion of the CS Peat es ore contents herein, provided proper author, ttle, and publication credits are Fayeas etn cig All i 301} 340-783 given, except in cases where the author has reserved copyright D an Levy (301) 340-7839 permission. In these cases, the author should be contacted directly. Works open Please send a copy to the editor. 4 Washington Apple Pi Journal January 1991 Journal page Alarums and excursions A problem with the Journal— specifically with the calendar—has been called to our attention, and there is not much to say except that we had (we hope that it is correct to put this in the past tense) a problem. Somehow or other, the date for the December Garage Sale, as printed, was wrong. We said that it would be on the 15th, and it was held a week earlier. Exactly how this happened is still not clear. The Calendar Editor, who does yeoman work in a thank- less task, was informed that it was on the later date, and that is the date we ran with. We are doing what we can to ensure that this kind of mixup doesn't happen again, and apologize to those of you who were put to inconvenience, or worse. Errata An inaccuracy crept past our usually-vigilant editorial process and found its way into Chris Lee’s article on page 28 of the November issue, “Lessons from a New Mac Owner,” which implies that Computer Age is not an authorized Apple Dealer. In fact Computer Age is an authorized Apple dealer and has been “for almost 10 years. The article could also be read to imply that Computer Age’s support is somehow not as good as that from other vendors in the area. While we can’t speak for Chris in this, our experience and that of many other WAP members, including some who have written us and whose letters have been pub- lished in the Journal (see the follow- ing Letter to the Editor from Len Shuttig), has been quite the contrary. Computer Age personnel have proven to be knowledgeable, helpful and willing to go above and beyond the call of duty on any number of occasions. In fact, on September 24, 1990 Computer Age received a Customer Service Award from Apple, Inc. “For .” Letters to the Editor I would like to bring to your atten- tion and the attention of the readers, a positive experience recently concerning a problem I was having with my mouse. The mouse button was binding and became annoying so I brought it to Computer Age Inc. (CAI) in Silver Spring where the Macintosh IIcx system was purchased in October 1989. I explained the problem to Mr. Earl Driscoll of the service department. He replaced the mouse with a brand new one, even though the part had been out of warranty for some time! The original purchase was made because I found CAI’s prices to be lower than even the mail order businesses and now I find their after- the-sale follow-up is excellent as well. There was not a bit of hassle either. I was most pleasantly surprised and would like you to know about the experience. Len Shuttig Tam writing this letter to thank all those people from the Washington Apple Pi and elsewhere who helped move Hewlett-Packard and Vitesse to provide printer drivers for Apple IIgs users. Approximately 18 months ago, I began a letter writing and calling campaign to Hewlett-Packard on behalf of the “neglected” half of Apple’s market...the Apple IT loyalists, who need better printer output than is possible with the nine- pin dot matric printers we have used so long. Ms. Lea Bailey, at H-P Customer Support, agreed then to take up my challenge. I told her that, through letters and phone calls, we could prove to H-P that there is a market for their printers amongst Apple II users, if only we could get the necessary drivers. As expected, the Apple II user community worldwide pulled together and convinced H-P to pursue solutions to our needs. In fact, according to Ms. Bailey, Apple II and IIgs users from around the world responded. She received in excess of 40,000 letters from places as far away as Australia, Sweden, and Kenya. The result, so far, is one package of drivers from Vitesse (IIgs specific) and another on the way from Seven Hills Software (also IIgs specific). Owners of other Apple II models may need to keep the pressure on for awhile, as I am not aware of drivers being written specifically for the Ile or IIc at this time. The important thing to note here is that through the concerted efforts of Apple II owners, a com- pany as large as H-P can be made to take notice. Perhaps even Apple Computer itself will get wind of this and improve their support of the installed base of Apple IIs. Once again, my thanks to all who wrote and called H-P. Asa single voice, I could have accom- plished nothing in this regard, but united, Apple II fans have “moved the mountain.” Dan Slaven January 1991 Washington Apple Pi Journal New Macintosh® Models At COMPUTER AGE Z @ Apple® Authorized Dealer ] Macintosh Classic Macintosh Ilsi non $1299 | NAY 51399] )\ winddy 52799] mn lOO" 52999 BF Macintost — Mouse & 4p Monitor & f Keyboard Keyboard °1.4MB FDHD SuperDrive eldeal Entry Level Personal System +1.4MB FDHD SuperDrive Small Footprint *Expandable Come See The Macintosh LC The Latest Of The New «Macintosh Models Macintosh IIci Macintosh Ilfx Wimieho. #4199 | gun 1005 +4399 JV wun 100 6209 [win 2005 «6649 ‘Weetonn RAM =a Monitor & Monitor & Keyboard Ll. Extra +1.4MB FDHD SuperDrive *1.4MB FDHD SuperDrive +Power With Room To Grow sHi-Perlormance *6 NuBus Slots SILVER SPRING BELTSVILLE (80)588-6565 Check The Weekly COMPUTER AGE Ad In Monday's Post ANNANDALE “Washington Business" Section For Our Latest Prices! (3011937-0300 (9642-2310 COMPUTER fice Now Features The Hewlett-Packard Line Of Personal Printers! ( Apple Printers He a $389 Person: taserWilter IISC $1299 Personal LaserWriter lIINT $2499 LaserWriterIINT $2999 LaserWriter IINTX $3999, LaserWriter Prices Always Include A Toner Cartridge! Macintosh Portable with 40“ Apple HD 33599 DI ga FDHD Sree All-In-One-Design SONY, 3.5" Disks DS/DD-Box of 10 wiabels $8: DS/HD-Box of 10 wiabois $19-% DS/HD-Boxof50 Bu Pack $89-%9 Also From Apple leCD SC Drive PP. Sag e At A Low Cost “Works: With A ll Apple Computers $699 Apple Scanner Ml 099 Me Our Weekly Ad In Monday's Post Silentwriter2 Model 90 SS NEC PostScript Laser Printer *35 PostScript Fonts *Six Pages Per Minute +2 MB RAM Included B (Upgradable to 4 MB RAM) 51589 *Compatible With Macintosh and IBM Personal Computers \ For Our Latest and Lowest Prices! microLaser PS35 % PostScript Texas INSTRUMENTS: Printer *35 PostScript Fonts rie Ike] 799 *Six Pages Per Minute *1.5 MB RAM Included (Upgradable to 45 MB RAM) “The clear winner in the personal-printer category."-MacUser RAM Ai External SCSI Hard D Microtek UPGRADES oe With Cables, Manual, 300ZS Macitosh SE SE, ee) Papo nin, Color/Gray | Macintosh Ilx, lex, Ic, isi. seagate Toa ocny 24-Bit Scanner . $59: P ER 20s $299 a err Built-InSCSI Interface |i MB § With MEGABYTE | | 80s $479 | 1G0ue 5649 Coorstucio | {ow PROFLE 40 MB $349 200 ms $999 image Studie : Removable a are Drive 45uB $649 $1 79 9 | es Too Ss 4 PSEC hr / & 9433 GEORGIA AVENUE 10606US ROUTE 1 4227 ANNANDALE ROAD |[___ Service Center is SILVER SPRING, MD _BELTSVILLE,MD -_ANNANDALE,VA—|“ci recom yn Aue 3011588-6565 91937-0300 642-2310 (301)565-9130 are the Apple logo, imager, Laser ier and Maciioah are regtoed rademaca of Apple Computer. Apple, SC, FOHD and SuperDrive Inc. Classic is a rogi stored trade jemark, fconsed to Apple Apple fo trademarks of Apple Computer, Inc. THIS AD WAS CORREST AS OF PUBLISFING DEADLINE, PRICES & SPECIFICATIONS SULIECT TO GHANGE WITHOUT NOTICE. CALL FOR UPDATES. Office News LS.O. It’s just the same old song here, we're still waiting anxiously for you good folks to lend a helping hand! Thanks go out this month to Freddi Gallo- way, Judy White and Brian Mason for their help in the office! .the elusive “volunteer” Software review The Learning Channel (TLC) will be airing a new cable television series beginning in December. They have scheduled 13 weeks of program- ming with the theme of reviewing software packages on the air. They plan to cover one of the main topics of computing such as Word Process- ing, Utilities, Home & Business Accounting, Telecommunications, etc. each week. Tune in on Tues- days at 6:30 p.m. EST or Saturdays at 10:00 p.m. EST beginning December 4, 1990 (each topic is repeated on the Saturday show). If you find that this new television programming is helpful, why not write an article for the Journal describing it to the rest of the members?!? It’s been quiet in the office this month, I guess everyone is trying to get their holiday shopping done. I look forward to seeing some new faces in 1991! by Nancy Pochepko WASHINGTON APPLE PI MEMBER DEALS AND DISCOUNTS MACBOTTOM HARD DRIVES We received a letter from Personal Computer Peripherals Corporation offering WAP members a 10% discount off the price of the MacBottom HD42 or HD84 External Drives purchased in November or December ( Mr. Robert Graves, Regional Sales Manager) has extended this offer through the end of January 1991. The normal price is $579 for the HD42, with the discount the price is $521. The HD84 is normally $789, after the discount it will be $710. They are also offering HFS Backup for $24.50 or NetStream Single User Backup for $44.50 with the order of a MacBottom HD42 or HD84. To place an order, receiva'a catalog or get a free demo copy of NetStream Network Backup, call PCPC at 800/622-2888. Be sure to tell them you saw it in the WAP Journal. INCIDER MAGAZINE ‘WAP members are eligible for a special subscription rate of $24.97 for a one year subscription for new subscribers (the regular rate is $27.97 for one year, $43.00/two years and $59.00/three years). To order, please send your check for $24.97 per one year subscription made payable to inCider to the WAP Office at 7910 ‘Woodmont Avenue, Suite 910, Bethesda, MD 20814. Also include mailing information. MACUSER MAGAZINE WAP members are eligible for a special subscription rate of $13.50 (50% off the regular rate of $27.00) To order; please send your check for $13.50 per subscription made payable to Ziff-Davis to the WAP Office at 7910 Woodmont Avenue, Suite 910, Bethesda, MD 20814. Also include mailing information. QUE CORPORATION BOOKS We ran this part of this para~ graph in the December issue, but the last few sentences didn’t make it. Thanks to Que Corporation, we have recently added their Macintosh and Apple II books to our library. They are also offering a 35% discount on all of their titles (except instructor kits) to WAP members. To place an order, call 1-800-428- 5331 x3476, fax 800-448-3804 or write Que Corporation, 11711 N. College Avenue, Carmel, IN, 46032 (ask for Debbie Hulse, and make sure you tell her you read about it in the WAP Journal!). Washington Apple Pi Journal January 1991 President’s Column Happy New Year With the holidays behind us and the new year just starting, it is appropriate to reflect about the past and anticipate the future. I'm often asked if all the “trouble” in WAP is a thing of the past. For the most part, I’m happy to say yes. We still have a few crazies out there that seem to have too much free time on their hands, but we all keep hoping that someday they'll take up photography or model building and forget about computer clubs as a political platform. The vast majority of our members are genuinely interested in computers and sharing knowledge about these 20th century wonders. Remember when 16K was a lot of RAM? Lou Pastura and Rick Zeman have done a wonderful job of bringing in more journal articles about computer related stuff. And Frank Potter continues to shape the journal to your needs and desires. John Ruffatto has really brought the Apple II disk library around and is continuing to add new volumes each month. Dave Weikert and all his helpers are still doing an incredible job with the Mac library. It is amazing how quickly Dave gets new programs into our library. The TCS has added echoes out to other systems through Novapple’s Proline system. Brian Mason has taken our reading library into hand and done wonders to straighten it out. He has sent letters to all of you that took out one of our books and “forgot” to return it for your fellow members to by Eric Rall enjoy. Our library has also been greatly expanded and updated by a donation from QUE Publishers. They were kind enough to give WAP one book each of their entire Apple II and Macintosh libraries. Our membership has been rising for the past several months and we anticipate that it will continue. Computer Age in Annandale and Computerland in Rockville are giving WAP applications with each new Apple II or Mac they sell. The search for better meeting accommodations continues. For now, we have settled upon the Holiday Inn in Bethesda as our regular monthly meeting site. We have been holding our garage sale over in Eleanor Roosevelt HS in Greenbelt. Our next one will be there in June. If you avoided our garage sales in the past because of the crowded conditions, come by again. Eleanor Roosevelt is prefect for our garage sales. The Washington Apple Pi database has been moved over to 4th Dimension to handle our increasing needs. We weren’t the only ones to doing things last year. Apple had their share of changes. The most recent additions to Apple’s product line are especially welcome. New Macs. As all of you already know Apple recently introduced three new Macintoshes. There has been some real excitement generated with their releases. Unlike the previous high powered, high priced machines, these Macintoshes are priced to sell to consumers. Not so surprisingly, consumers have responded by breaking out their checkbooks. It is estimated that Apple’s sales jumped 50% in October. Half of those buyers are new to Macintosh. Many were leaning towards MS-DOS, but decided to buy Apple. If your one of those militant anti MS-DOS people, this has to put a smile on your face. The demand outstripped Apple’s wildest predictions. So right now, it will be tough to find discounts. For those to anxious to wait, expect to pay a premium. Perhaps more exciting than the Classic is the Macintosh LC. This color Mac is the first to make the bridge between the Macintosh platform and the Apple II platform. Eyen though the LC isn’t expected to be readily available until after the first of the new year, many of us are anxiously awaiting the Apple Ile emulation board. I can’t predict what you will think of this, but I’m excited. We own both Apple IIs and Macintoshes. The idea of having one machine capable of running all our software is fabulous. The Macintosh IIsi rounds out the package with color, speed, and low cost. If you’re looking for the power of a Macintosh II with less cost than an SE/30, the IIsi is positioned for you. Look for the new year to bring new Macintosh portables. At the January MacWorld, Apple is expected to introduce a newly revamped portable. It will be basically the same as the current one with a 16 mHz, 68000 Motorola microprocessor. The screen will be backlit and the high priced static ram will be replaced with lower cost (and higher power usage) dynamic ram. It January 1991 Washington Apple Pi Journal 10 is also expected to be slightly less weighty, but still on the hefty side.Pricing is also expected to drop between $500-$1,500 depending upon the configuration. September is expected to bring a light weight, color 68030 portable. The trackball will be gone. Apple will use the isopointing device that the Outbound uses. I wouldn’t count on this baby being cheap. If you absolutely have to have one of these, start saving now. HyperCard IIGS. The Apple II GS owners aren’t being left in the dark, either. On the latest Apple developer CD ROM, “The Night of the Living Disk”, there was a beta release of HyperCard IIGS. Now I haven’t seen this running, but I understand that there is a utility to convert Macintosh stacks over to HyperCard IGS format! If anybody out there has had a chance to see this in action, let me know so I can tell your fellow members more. Bringing HyperCard and the wealth of existing stacks over to the IIGS will strengthen Apple’s position in the education market. Of all the programming languages that I’ve seen, HyperCard is easiest to get up and going. I’ve watched young children pick up HyperCard will almost no effort. Moving it over to the IIGS platform is long overdue. RICOH 6000 - PS - Laser Printer - ~ HardDisks: CMS $2395.00 Ba * Daynafile « Adobe Storage Dimensions Postscript oi-Modeius & ¢ 2MB of Ram Communications: Abaton Expandable to coe 4MB Prometheus ¢ Parallel, Serial - 4 & AppleTalk as Monitors: <a Compatible pears Graphics 1 Year Warranty ¢ Printers: Postscript Cartridge for HP Lasers Initial 90 Day On-Site Repair Diconix Printer (Serial) Washington Apple Pi Journal January 1991 by Paul Tarantino Our palatial penthouse meeting room at NIH had one more decora- tion than usual for the November meeting; a Magnavox 14" compos- ite/RGB monitor was plugged into Gary’s GS system. The monitor (model number 1CM135) was brought to the meeting by Lorin Evans, who has (I think I heard this right) been involved in procuring them for a school which has Apple Tlgs machines. The picture was nice and bright (and large!), and the monitor has a swivel base and stereo speakers which will accept output from a stereo card. All this at a list price significantly less than that of the Apple RGB monitor, with potential for greater savings from discount sellers. Looks like a fine deal. The evening’s guest presenter was Bob Gurskey, whose subject was Cosmocade, a $10 shareware game (two games, actually) from Pangea Software, known and loved for Orbizone, Senseless Violence I and II, and other GS-specific gameware. Cosmocade comes on two 3.5" disks, both downloadable from the TCS and commercial boards like America OnLine (or copyable at our meet- ings!). Neither disk is self-booting, but documentation is included which provides instructions on which GS system files to copy to one of the Cosmocade disks (labeled “Pangea A”) to make it go; the Cosmocade files can also be easily moved onto a hard drive and run under system 5.0.3 from there. The two arcade shoot-em-up games accessible from the Cosmocade menu screen are called “Journey to Calibus” and “Naxos” (I have no idea if there is any mythological or other significance to the names). Calibus uses the joystick, and has ten successive levels, all involving flying a spaceship over scrolling terrain and blasting a wide variety of critters. The terrain varies from circuit boards to outer space to the desert and a farm, with creatures appropriate (sort of) to each. The targets include a wide range of, well, stuff, from pulsing blobs to bananas and flying pigs. Some shoot back; some spew out colored balls as they die which, if intercepted, can replenish one’s ammunition, increase weapon range or shield power, or speed one on to the next level. For those who prefer creativity to the mindless zapping of bad guys, Calibus also includes editing features which enable the ten scrolling landscapes to be modified by the user, or even replaced completely by scratch-built landscapes, constructed with a tile editor and a map editor accessible from the menu. Bob had, without yet having received the game’s instructions from the authors, managed to figure out most of the tricks involved in using these editors, as well as the inner workings of the games themselves, and shared his hard-earned knowledge with an eager audience, taking us through several levels of the game as it comes, one level he had designed himself, and a quick demo of the tile and map editors. Neat stuff, with a high addiction factor. Naxos, the other game in the set, is like an arcade shooting gallery set in a jungle, with targets that shoot back. This game is played with the mouse, and can be just as habit- forming as Calibus, but Naxos has no editing features, so what you see is what you get. Game speed in Naxos can be adjusted in the control panel (system slow is really too slow for any but the terminally clumsy) or with a Transwarp card for those who want a real challenge. (Calibus seems to ignore any tinkering with Transwarp speed settings.) Both games can be paused with the escape key, the pulsating music can be toggled on or off (S key) or raised and lowered in volume (use < or > as needed). Both are splendid arcade games, an absolute bargain at the price of $10. Bob was a hard act to follow, but Gary Hayman managed to dazzle us in a different way, with two software packages, one updated and one brand new, for the GS graphics maven. The update is version 4.2.1 of The Graphics Exchange, from Roger Wagner Publishing, a very powerful utility program capable of converting just about any Apple-formatted gtaphic (low-res, high-res, DHR, SHR, Print Shop, Mac graphics, etc., but not GIF or 3200 files) to any other format in its vast menu of selections, with cropping, shrinking or enlarging, selective color changes, color masking and a mind-boggling range of other options. TGE includes really elegant graphics file manage- ment functions (e.g. list all graphics of a given type on a selected volume) as well as a slide show display. Graphics can be converted singly or in batches, batch size being RAM- limited. A really powerful program and a great tool for the serious user of Apple graphic files, available at discount for $30 or thereabouts. Speaking of power, Gary's next demo was of Beagle Brothers’ Platinum Paint, a brand-new and exceptionally powerful GS-specific painting program, apparently designed to make us forget all about Paintworks and Deluxepaint. This program has every feature you’d ever want in a painting program, plus several more neat ones that hadn’t occurred to anyone yet. There was no time to go into all of Platinum Paint’s tricks and tools in one evening, so Gary just ran a few of the program’s features past us. The following is in no particular order, but that’s the way my notes came out... Platinum Paint has a familiar look to it, with an array of tool icons down the left side of the screen (they can be moved off-screen if they’re in the way) but many of the icons have multiple functions, depending on which side of the icon gets clicked on, or whether Shift, Option, or Command (Open-Apple) is being pressed when the icon is invoked. January 1991 Washington Apple Pi Journal 12 The pull-down menus across the top of the screen are jammed full; they go down to the bottom of the screen when opened, and often have “More” as the last selection. There are slick shadowing features, a complex gradient fill capability, adjustable perspective, shrink and expand for selected objects, and 3- and 4-point curve generators. A “squish” function was displayed to great audience enthusiasm, using a demo file on the disk called “Squish.Heads!” The last note in my trusty steno pad addresses the program’s ability to retain up to four different graphic files in RAM, with the ability to easily cut and paste among all of them. Pretty slick. Like all Beagle Brothers software, Platinum Paint is unprotected, and runs easily from a hard drive. The program lists for $99.95, but I have seen discounts advertised at $59 or so. Before Christmas (Is it too late already?) BB will sell the program for $50 plus $3 s/h if you can send them the first page of any other commercial Apple II paint program. The usual copying session followed our formal presentations; Cosmocade, ZZCopy 2.2, and System 5.0.3 were most in demand. (As always, members who had. remembered to format and verify their blank disks had head-of-the- line privileges.) The copying and discussion went on well past my bedtime; future topics for SIG presentations will include music and sound, more on AWGS, HyperStudio and HyperCard, hard drive speedup, Graphicwriter III, and lots more really good stuff. Join us! by Tim Childers Our November 8th meeting was exceptional, at least so far as the sheer number of things that went on. In addition to full blown demos of ThunderScan and FileMaker II we had elections, announcements, upgrades and all three of the new Macintoshes set up for hands-on evaluation. On the Apple II side Tom Cook gave a demo of the ThunderScan scanner for the IIe and IIGS. This device turns your Imagewriter I or II into a scanner by replacing the ribbon with a scanner head and scanning any artwork you roll into the platen. The cost is only around $120 which is cheap for a scanner. The Ile version requires 128K and the IIGS version requires 768K It can create files which can be used by PaintWorks Plus, PaintWorks Gold, and Deluxe Paint II. A Business- Works demo disk was also reviewed. Next months demo will be “Design Your Own Home” by Jim McCann. Paula Shuck gave a demo and tutorial of FileMaker II. She is a professional database developer and uses FileMaker extensively. To show the program she demonstrated a database she designed for her own use which she calls Personal Services. It embodies a full featured Address book, To-Do list and prints labels. She highly recommended FileMaker for its ease of use and power. While it does not have the relational power of a 4thDimension or Double Helix she felt its power was plenty for most individuals and would be easier to tap without having to become a programmer. She gave away copies of her sample program to anyone who wanted it. She even managed to squeeze in some information on the new FileMaker Pro which had arrived just that afternoon. Paula’s presentation was a hit and I’m sure everyone would like a future pro- gram on FileMaker Pro. At the December 6th meeting we plan to share suggestions for what Mac products would make great gifts. The demos were a bit shorter than usual because of the need to hold elections. We’re pretty informal but the bylaws required that officers serve no more than two terms so we really needed some new volunteers. After some restructuring of the positions and a bit of coaxing someone had accepted nomination for each position except Apple Vice President and Macintosh Secretary. I've been informed that after the meeting Bill Campbell and Norman Schmuff were contacted and ac- cepted their nominations as well. So, starting in January the new officers should be as follows: President —Tim Childers Vice President Apple IJ —Bill Campbell Vice President Macintosh — Ellen Baniszewski Secretary Apple II —Tom Cook Secretary Mac —Norm Schmuff Treasurer —Paula Shuck Henry Yee will continue to serve as our SysOp on the TCS. One position that there seems to be a need for is a disk librarian. If you have any ideas on what you would like to see the club do in the coming year please get in touch with the officers and let them know. We want to make the club fun for everyone. After a few brief announcements of special offers for User Group members the three new Macintosh computers were shown. These computers were announced by Apple on October 15th and one, the LC, will not be available till at least January. My sincere thanks to Leslie Morrissette at Apple Headquarters in Columbia. She went beyond the call of duty (and normal working hours) to provide these prototypes for our meeting. Apple Student Representa- tive Fred Taylor even came to the meeting and helped me present some technical details of the new ma- Washington Apple Pi Journal January 1991 chines. I’m sure there is more detail elsewhere in the Journal but I must say the more time I get to work with the Classic and LC the more im- pressed I am with what you get for your money. The SuperDrive and internal hard disk are nicer than my Plus and for the low price I can give up a slot. The LC gives a real color Mac CPU with a 68020 processor for a list price of about $2,500 and a discounted price of maybe $1,700. I think most home users are not going to miss the math coprocessor or the 68030 chip or notice the slightly lower screen capabilities of the LC’s built-in video versus the IIsi video. I think though, that any business user of the Ilsi will probably want the optional math coprocessor. After the meeting there were some sales of club disks and I upgraded the RAM in one Mac from 2.5 to 4 Meg. Our December 6th meeting will be at the Howard County Board of Education build- ing. NOTICE! The January 3rd meeting will be in the computer lab at Mt. Hebron High School. The February and March meetings will be back at the Board of Education building. by Larry Rat The October monthly dPub SIG meeting featured a demonstration of the not-yet-released Ventura for the Mac, presented by Sally Smith, president of NOVA-VPUG along with one of the developers of the application. Ventura will make some jobs which require extensive lists and references easier and faster than any currently available desktop publish- ing program. In the regular question and answer period, members tried to stump Tom Piwowar and Ron Moore with difficult problems, such as new viruses and font management problems caused by the proliferation of new type faces. Tom and Ron retained their status as superb problem solvers. There was a discussion about full 24 bit color painting on the Mac led by Larry Ravitz who described Oasis, a new high-end program being developed by Time Arts (creators of Lumina for DOS systems equiped with a Truevision card). Larry displayed a portrait that he painted with Photoshop using a Wacom pressure sensitive tablet; the portrait was printed on a Kodak 7700 continuous printer. by Tim Childers The November 15 EdSIG meeting brought together some fresh new faces, along with the regular EdSIG stalwarts. Attending their first EdSIG meeting were Bob Williams, a Montessori teacher from Alexan- dria, VA, and Dunham Swift, a parent interested in educational software. EdSIG veterans Bill Wydro and Lorin Evans graced us with their presence too. After introductions, Bob Williams inquired as to the best Apple II-compatible 5 .25 inch disk drive for the two Apple IIc+ comput- ers he uses at the Montessori school where he teaches. Suggested options include the Laser 5.25 inch disk drive, priced at about $90, or the Meiji 5.25 inch disk drive, priced at about $85. Lorin Evans offered the view that the Meiji drive is widely used, and can be repaired for under $40, if it should ever break down. The repair facilities for Meiji drives is apparently located in New York. Care must be taken to specify which computer you're buying the drive for, as the connectors are sometimes different (depending if you’re connecting the drive to a disk drive interface card, or to an external disk drive port.) Dunham Swift then related how he is planning on buying one of the Carmen San Diego geography disks for his kids. The consensus was that if you have a IIGS computer, it’s best to get the IIGS version. The en- hanced graphics and sounds are apparently worth the slightly higher cost. Bill Wydro told us all about the Apple IIGS he bought second-hand. Prices on second hand computers have been falling of late, and some- times you can find a real bargain. Of course, it helps to know about the various configurations of hardware before making any large purchases. Lorin and Bill then went on to sing the praises of the rumored Duet card, produced by Cir-Tech of Scotland. (For those who may be wondering, the company’s name is pronounced “Sir-Tech”). If the company comes through on their promised Mac emulation card, the Apple IIGS would get a real boost. Lorin called Scotland to find out further details, but the Cir-Tech people were tight-lipped as they said, “Sorry, Cir. No further details.” Following that we talked about online information services, and compared America On-Line to GEnie. Dunham and Lorin both subscribe to America On-Line, and neither had much favorable to say of the service. Yours truly subscribes to GEnie, whose new flat rate service seems to offer quite a lot. So we called up GEnie on the office’s Apple IIGS, and played with Grolier’s, electronic encyclopedia, sent some electronic mail to Lorne Walton, in British Columbia, Canada, and then perused the Education Roundtable. The meeting ended up with Bill Wydro proudly showing off the new Applesoft BASIC programs that his daughter has written. Jenny, his teenage daughter, had created some nice branching text programs , with unexpected surprises lurking around every corner. It’s obvious that computer talent runs in the Wydro family. January 1991 Washington Apple Pi Journal by Steven Payne Fresh from their Halloween revels, GameSIG regulars gathered on November 1, 1990 for their regular monthly meeting. This reporter soon discovered that in his absence over the past few months there has been a dramatic transition of power. Our new co-chairmen Dave Hakim (for the Apple games) and Dave Romerstein (for the Macintosh) nervously insisted that former leader Paul Moore was “in New Zealand on business,” though we all suspect that Paul is now enjoying a great view of the N.Y. Giants games with Jimmy Hoffa (unless, like co-worker Agent Cooper, he was wearing a bullet- proof vest). In any case, the meeting began with an abbreviated “new software report” from former chair-being Charles Don Hall—abbreviated, of course, because there was little to announce beyond the release of Three on Three (Miles Computing, Mac), the new entry in Cliff Johnson’s popular puzzle series that began with The Fool’s Errand and At the Carnival. Then, as part of our mission “to boldly go where every- body else seems to be heading,” the two Daves introduced us to some of Applied DeskTop Technology 2» -_SOURCES 703 860 1100 ¢ Fax/Modem 860 4529 11490 Commerce Park Drive @ #320 @ Reston, VA 22091 Dulles Access at Wiehle Exit the alternative gaming products that seem to be showing more signs of life these days than the Apple market. Dave Romerstein passed around his Gameboy (complete with Tetris and Super Mario Bros.); he announced a few new products for the Mac, including Armor Gallery from Three-Sixty Software, and a new joystick attachment (called, I believe, “The Gold Brick” —my hearing is deteriorating now that I’ve reached the ripe age of 40). Dave Hakim showed us the Genesis System (a cartridge-driven 16-bit system retailing for “about $180” with “better color and resolution than the IIGS”). We saw a brief demo of Electronic Arts’ Populous, a good copy of the MS- DOS version in which you get to pit your skills as a god against the evil computer. Dave H. also presented Sega’s Phantasy Star II, a new fantasy role-playing game which has actually received favorable reviews in some of the more traditional com- puter gaming magazines; in keeping with the theme of most other recent articles in the WAP Journal, though, we thought we should mention our outrage that the font used in the game’s text boxes had no true “descenders”; we're vigorously lobbying Adobe for a Gaming Font Manager. Yours truly distributed promo- tional flyers from Shari Mitchell of New CAD Workstation Technical Illustration & Graphic Design Services MACINTOSH DESKTOP MEDIA SERVICE BUREAU & LEARNING CENTER Appointments Recommended @ 8:30 a ~ 5:30 p Daily # Other Hours By Request Sir-Tech on Bane of the Cosmic Forge, their new fantasy/role-playing game “in the spirit of Wizardry” (though Sir-Tech insists emphatically that this is not just Wizardry V, but a new gaming system and series.) Unfortunately, the demo disks in the package were for the MS-DOS version, and there were no IBM. machines in sight in the WAP Offices. However, Sir-Tech promises that the Mac version of the game should be out by the time you read this (despite Dave Granite’s com- ments elsewhere in this issue!), and we trust they will send us a review copy. Watch this space for further developments (well, maybe not this space on the page exactly, which is unlikely to change much until your copy of the magazine yellows with age, but do keep an eye open for GameSIG reports in future issues). Lest we miss out on the national trend toward negative campaigning in this election month, we decided to end the meeting with a rousing bout of Robot Tanks. When the smoke cleared, only our new co-chairmen were left on the field, firing more than merely verbal charges at each other. Dave Romerstein emerged victorious, but who can tell what might happen in the future? Come to our next GameSIG meeting on the first Thursday of the month (7:30 PM in the WAP Offices) and find out! Washington Apple Pi Journal January 1991 User Groups as conduits Apple computer user groups serve many simultaneous functions: educating members on how to use computers and software; advocating the interests of end users to Apple Inc. and Apple dealers; and collect- ing, cataloging, and distributing shareware and public domain software. With the new shopping market receipts project instituted across the country, Apple user groups have taken on the added role of serving as a conduit for getting collected receipts distributed to the most deserving local schools. In some case, these donated receipts have given schools enough extra receipts to receive an entire Apple computer system. In other cases, the donated receipts have been used to buy some of the educational software offered through this project. The success of the supermar- kets receipts project brings to mind another philanthropic role that user groups can play. People who would like to donate older hardware and software need a mechanism for finding deserving schools, libraries, or community service organizations. Many older computers, such as the discontinued Apple II+, are perfectly functional in an elementary school setting. The Apple II+ could also find much use in an adult literacy setting. Older models of the Macin- tosh computer, such as the Mac 512 and 512e, have a lot of functionality, too, when used in an educational setting. In addition to the older discontinued models are the recently discontinued models, such as the Apple IIc (discontinued in 1988 with the release of the Apple IIc+), and by Phil Shapiro the Mac Plus (discontinued in October, 1990, with the release of the Mac Classic). These two stalwart workhorses run thousands of programs, and could serve eminently in a school setting. The Apple IIc could do equally well as a public access computer in a public library, allowing children and adults to use creative programs and other educa- tional software. But to get these computers from charitable owners to deserving schools and organizations requires a little bit of organizing effort. It’s too much to expect a charitable donor to investigate in detail as to the most deserving local schools, libraries, or community service organizations. User groups are ideally situated to serve as an intermediary between charitably minded individuals, and deserving community charities. Some user groups perform such a role in an ad hoc manner, creating instantaneous little commit- tees whenever a hardware/software donor approaches them. However, this ad hoc method has potential flaws. One potential flaw is that in the rush of getting the hardware placed in a deserving organization or school, not all candidates are considered in a full and impartial manner. So it makes sense for user groups to set up a standing Commu- nity Affairs committee to deal with the distribution of charitably donated computers, peripherals, and software. The task of such a standing committee would be to make contact with local schools, libraries, and community service organizations. After contact is made, proposals could be solicited, where potential recipient would detail how the donated computers and software would be used, and why this recipi- ent would be the most deserving recipient of the donated hardware/ software. Such a committee could then set up a registry of potential recipi- ents. When a civic-minded donor stepped forward with hardware/ software to donate, a suitable match- up can quickly and efficiently be made. It’s possible to even give such donors full access to the registry of proposals, allowing the donor the chance of steering the donation towards the organization of his/her choosing. Alternatively, the donor could let the committee make the determi- nation as to the most deserving organization. To insure that the donated hardware/software is being used to its full potential, the commit- tee might request the recipient to provide the user group with a progress report six months down the line, describing how the donated hardware/software is being put to use. The Community Affairs committee could then share such report with the rest of the user group membership. Finally, it makes sense for such acommittee to help coordinate techical support for the donated hardware/software. Technical support might include helping set up the system, suggesting appropriate software, suggesting appropriate vendors from which to buy the software, and being on call to answer questions as the need arises. Everyone benefits when kind- hearted souls donate hardware and software to needy schools, libraries, or community service organizations. And such benefits are multiplied many times over when an appropri- ate distribution and support network is coordinated by a local Apple user group. The coordination effort is minimal, yet the positive benefits are likely to multiply goodwill through- out the community. January 1991 Washington Apple Pi Journal 16 “mil | IN il nal This column will look at the art and artists of Washington Apple Pi and the techniques and tools used to create the art. Artist Info: J. Perry Fitzhugh is a graphic designer who does freelancing, and owns his own business, Folly Productions, in Northwest, DC. He works with small companies and individuals doing graphics, desktop publishing and typesetting. He has an extensive art background. Art: Porgi (below), Timbersmith (right), and Juan (opposite) Tools: Mac Plus, Laser Writer IINT, MacDraw II and ReadySetGo. Procedures: “As an artist the computer interests me as a medium and a tool. In the past it has seemed as if there were a world of computer people that is separate from the world of art. I explore the capabilities of the Macintosh as an artist and try to make computer art available and accessable to the people I work with. ists on exhibit In, by Nancy Seferian in AVAILABLE ONLY THROUGH L. L. BEANIE WEENIE Timbersmith I often invite them into my studio to use my Mac and explore the programs on the computer just to Porgi have the experience. I think it’s important for people to have access to what is happening in this area on some level. “In the display graphics we see on TV the highest quality machines and programs available are used to create what we see, but the rest of us can’t compete at that level because it’s so expensive. We're at the beginning of the computer age. A lot of the programs are slow at this point. But you can expect it to get better and better. “Porgi was created on MacDraw II. I bought the fish at the market and brought it home, setting it on my desk as a reference and began to draw it. This method is the same used in art schoo for still life drawing. I draw straight into the computer using the mouse. I work as fast as I can so it will stay fresh Washington Apple Pi Journal January 1991 because I cook it in the microwave and eat it when I’m finished. Fish have been a recurrent theme in my art. “T use the smooth polygon tool to create the body of the fish adjusting until I get the proper profile of the fish. The adjustments are made by pulling on the control points until I’m satisfied with it. Polygons are defined by control points and are smoothed using the bezier curve. These curves can be adjusted simply by moving the control points. This technique of adusting the points to define the area being created is similar in MacDraw and Illustrator. “I begin with the main body and add the fin, the eye and the other details. I keep comparing the image on the screen with the fish itself. A lot of people think that having a computer with graphics capabilities means that the computer owner has graphic capabilities, but this ability comes with training and practice. “Timbersmith is a cartoon | created for friends of mine that I work with in Virginia. We use all those tools buidling the oak timberframe buildings. For this drawing I drew each tool separately and very large to make it easier to see them. Then I shrunk them down and rotated and placed them in position. I have planned two more — the deluxe model which can be towed behind your car and the super deluxe model which is self propelled. “Juan is a professional model at the Corcoran and the drawing, Juan, was drawn using him as a model. It was an exercise to see if I could draw a human from life. I drew the shape of the head and constantly adjusted it as I did for Porgi. There’s a line quality the computer produces, a type of curvature that is really neat which results from the mathematic formula the computer uses to define curves. That line quality is very difficult to get by hand and I like it very much. Juan To submit art by mail, senda copy on disk and a hard copy to Nancy Seferian 1425 Foxhall Road, NW. Washington, DC 20007. To submit art by modem to the TGS, dial (301) 986-8085. At e Main Menu select (F) for File Transfer Area. Then choose area 24 for Journal Submissions, and upload. ll January 1991 Washington Apple Pi Journal 7 18 zm >mm Making ig dijo a aun SEER LS ee neat re Mentor Program Update Survey Responses - I’m extremely pleased to report that responses to the mentor and protegé program (MAPP) are very encouraging. In last month’s Journal we asked for participants and twenty five mem- bers returned the survey sheets. That’s great! And the ratio of protegés to mentor volunteers is about 2 to 1—Not bad because I feared too few would volunteer to become mentors. Perhaps there was a built-in bias — those who wanted to be protegés were more inclined to filling out the response sheets. Guaranteed 6 Hour Delivery 4 Hour Service Free Software Network Service and Installation Competitive Rates For Prompt Bethesda, Md. Service Call: (301) 951-0811 by Manny DeVera Having fewer protegés isn’t a problem—we kind of expected it. And, we have assigned a mentor to each volunteer protegé. Several mentors volunteered to have more than two protegés. Our thanks go to those Pi members who graciously agreed to become mentors when we asked them. Now that’s what I believe this user group is all about. Pi isn’t much different than other organizations. Just personally asking other Pi members to be mentors was all that was needed. Proud member of abcd The microcomputer Industry Association Equipment on Hand ¢ Mac Plus ® Mac SE * Mac Il ® Mac Il CX Imagewriter II Printers @ Apple Laser Il NTs NT’s NTS ¢ 19” Color/Mono Mac II Monitors Baltimore, Md. Arlington, Va. (301) 576-8868 (703) 525-0455 In this short time, the mentor and protegé program has 66 partici- pants. From the looks of things, participants are becoming active and it sounds like MAPP might be one route for putting Washington Apple Pi back on the road toward recovery and growth. An interesting statistic is that there is even balance between men and women participants. Among the most popular social activity checked by participants was the Rock ‘n Roll Party followed by the family picnic. If there is more interest in the Rock ‘n Roll Party, please don’t hesitate to call me and let me know when you think the best time is to have one. ‘What should protegés expect from mentors? In order to keep and encourage more mentors in the program, I think that protegés should have reasonable and realistic expectations of the role of mentors. A mentor is an advisor, confidant, and helper who can assist in the user’s develop- ment of the Apple or Macintosh. He is also a Pi Volunteer. For the most part, many new members and users are genuine, sincere, and courteous. They are often enthusiastic about improving their computing skills using an Apple or Macintosh. However, there are some unrealistic expectations that some new members may have of mentors. Generally speaking, it would be a little unrea- sonable for the protegé to ask his or her mentor to set up and install the new Mac II Si system you bought through the Group Purchase; load 200 DAs and 1000 fonts, provide copies of his software, and then assure there are no viruses in your system! Perhaps, when protegés and mentors get together, it’s a good idea to share expectations and establish when and where to contact each other. fs If you are interested in volun- tering as a mentor or protegé, please call Nancy at the office and ask for the sign-up form or call me at (703) 818-9626 Washington Apple Pi Journal January 1991 — 2 Mentors—Another View Remember what it was like to be a computer novice? Can you imagine doing without your computer now? It’s not difficult for me to remember how overwhelming it felt to get started with computers I bought an Apple IIgs only three years ago, knowing almost nothing about computers. I wanted my kids (now age 7 and 4) to be comfortable using computers, and I was dismayed to discover that the local elementary school had no computer lab and less than one computer per classroom. If they were really going to learn to use comput- ers, it seemed I would have to be the ‘one to teach them. I bought Appleworks and a couple of educational games de- signed for preschoolers and just plunged in. The computer salesper- son recommended joining Washing- ton Apple Pi and gave me the membership material. The Journal was completely over my head; calling someone on the hotline would mean revealing my utter stupidity; classes and workshops were difficult to attend since my husband works very long hours. So I just fumbled along by myself. How much better it would have been to have had a mentor who could have answered my questions and shown me the computing basics. I was delighted to hear that WAP is initiating a mentor program. What a great idea! Have you all stepped forward to volunteer just a little time to help someone move a little further along on the learning curve? Just think of the impact we could have! There are an incredible number of adults out there who do not know by Carol Hyatt the first thing about computers and are pretty intimidated at the idea of learning anything technology-related. But with someone to “hold their hand” and gently help them see that it is not nearly so hard as they imagine, we can open up a whole new world for them. There is a need for outreach to those who are only beginning to toy with the idea that using a computer might be worth- while. They don’t know enough about what they can do with the technology to decide if it’s a good investment of their time and money. The problem with this vision of reaching the computer-illiterate masses is that right now we don’t have enough volunteers to serve even the newest WAP members. One way around this would be to develop a multimedia presentation for the computer novice. The first compo- nent would be a video to show how computers can be used at home in a variety of ways. The next step would be to produce a hypermedia stack for the Apple and the Mac, along with accompanying written materials. We could then make this package available to community groups, schools, senior citizens organizations, etc... Assistance is needed to plan the content of the video and to develop the stacks . Or, maybe you have some other ideas on how to approach this. Your help can make the difference between whether such a program happens or not. If you would be willing to lend a hand in any way, please call Carol Hyatt, (301) 948-3748. Toner Cartridges Remanufactured New supplies for most lasers at discount prices! Remanufactured supplies to save you more! Try our "Publisher" cartridge! Dark crisp blacks @ None other like it! Far better than new! (For SC, NT and NTX only) wy THE LASER'S RESOURCE A Remanufacturing cartridges since 1987 We buy your used EP-S (Series Il) toner cartridges (703) 437-0089 (301) 681-4516 (800) 444-6171 January 1991 Washington Apple Pi Journal 19 Eeofessiona! | Typography Desktop ‘Systems Do your computer-generated publications Jook computer-generated? Is your kerning more cosmic than calculated? Are you feeling boxed in by the “boxy” look? Does your output service seem to have trouble putting out? Are you answering “yes” to too many of these questions? Bet we can help! Full PC & Mac Support Ventura Publisher, Pagemaker, Quark XPress—we work with the major players in the electronic publishing arena. We can assist you with expert advice, publication setup, style sheet design, and training on today’s most widely used desktop publishing | systems. And most important of all, by combining our typographic expertise with our technical know-how, we'll turn you into a “desktop typesetter” in no time. Over 1,000 PostScript Typefaces We set them...we sell them. Carver now offers one of the most extensive PostScript typeface collections in the D.C. area, including the Bitstream, Monotype and Adobe PostScript font libraries. If you've got ‘em, we'll set ‘em. If you want ‘em, we'll sell ‘em. Call for a quote on your favorite PostScript face. Linotronic Output Service Carver is a full service output bureau running one Linotronic 300 and two 202s. Our photo imagesetters can process pages up to 11” x 17”, including scanned graphics or halftones, and any of the above-mentioned fonts. Standard turnaround on desktop publishing files is 24 hours. Call us any time for a quote on your next publication. Digital Scanning Service We now have first-rate black and white scanning capability. Our Microtek digital scanner can reproduce images to 300 dots per inch with a 256-level gray scale from original text, line or halftone images. No job is too simple or too complex—we'll scan it and print it, or make wholesale alterations if you wish. (703) 528-0772 Free Radio-Dispatched Courier Service for Jobs Over $100 Normal 24-hour turnaround ¢ 24-hour bulletin board service for telecommunications Carver Photocomposition, Inc. * 1025 N. Fillmore St., Arlington, VA 22201 * One DuPont Circle, Suite 30, Washington, DC 20036 Professional typographers since 1973 * Expert users of DTP systems since 1987 * Linotronic service since 1988 And still we move As a group, Apple loyalists seem a fickle lot. We love our computers and even evangelize them. Yet, sometimes we to dwell inordinately on all the things that are wrong (or perceived to be wrong) with Apple. System 7 is late...the Mac is still too expensive...the latest System 6 upgrade has bugs...System 7 is late...Apple is slow in releasing those insanely great innovative products we know they’re working on...System 7 is late... It’s nice to give an unconditional “well-done” for a change. This past November, for the fourteenth year running, Washington, D.C. hosted the Symposium on Computer Applications in Medical Care (SCAMC). Co-sponsored by the American Medical Informatics Association and George Washington University, SCAMC addresses the variety of computer applications in today’s medicine. Apple was there in force and strutting its stuff...cybernetically speaking. In the last decade, medicine has assimilated the small computer into all areas of practice. Patient monitor- ing, laboratory management, medical database acquisition, interdepart- mental communications, education and medical graphics, have all benefited from the small computer. Yes...even billing. SCAMC was a week long assemblage of physicians, scientists, educators and computer engineers who gathered to discuss the latest trends and solutions to medical problems being solved by computers. While SCAMC served as a forum for numerous universities, research centers and companies using assorted computer systems, it was gratifying by Robb Wolov to see the number of problems addressed by the Mac in particular. Granted, the use of computers in medicine may not be everyone’s main focus of attention. However, computer tools have a way of crossing boundaries between disci- plines. Or, did you think that only accountants use spreadsheets and. graphic artists use drawing programs? Medicine is a very graphic profession. We deal in photos of gross and microscopic anatomy and pathology as well as charts and diagrams of patient lab values. In this environment the Mac is a natural. One trend was the heavy use of CD-ROMS (compact disk read-only memory). The little silver disks were everywhere being used on numerous systems for everything from biblio- graphic databases to medical image retrieval. While used on non- Macintosh systems, it was on the Mac that the use of CD-ROM seemed to come into its own. It was HyperCard and HyperCard-like interfaces which seemed to unlock things, making the hundreds of megabytes of data this medium contains comfortably accessible. Though it worked on DOS boxes, the operative term is work, even with a graphical interface like Microsoft ‘Windows, the use of CD-ROM never seemed nearly as smooth as it did on the Mac. But, than again, I’m prejudiced. A number of the medical schools which comprise the Northeastern Medical School Consortium (of which we spoke in an earlier column) were present, showing off their latest educational projects. Here, Super- Card (from Silicon Beach Software recently acquired by Aldus) seemed the authoring environment of choice, showing up on numerous projects. And yes, Georgetown was there showing a few of our projects, including this author's. Thad the opportunity to try an intriguing device for myself—the DataGlove from VPL Research. This is a totally new type of input device which has the potential for some far- reaching applications—not just in medicine but in space exploration and the nuclear industry. The DataGlove is just as it sounds, a thin nylon glove, covered with fiber-optic sensors which are terminated and connected to the Mac. Once cali- brated to the wearer’s hand, the DataGlove can be used in a variety of ways. Occupational therapists (those physical therapists who specialize in rehabilitation of the hand) were shown how the DataGlove could be used to monitor and record hand function and measure incremental improvement in individual joints. The DataGlove also was used in a “virtual” environment. The wearer could watch a graphic representation of his own hand on the Mac’s screen as he moved about in the glove. It was then possible to “pick up” representations of 3 dimensional objects in this make believe world and move them about. It should come as no surprise that NASA is exploring the use of the DataGlove as a control device. An astronaut could use the glove to control a remote robotic device which would mimic his every action via telemetry, either from the ground or another space vehicle. It could also be used to control a maintenance robot within a nuclear reactor where no human dare go. I confess a bit of clumsiness with the glove due to some disorientation as I attempted to move three- dimensional objects depicted on a two-dimensional screen. However, this brings up the work being done at the MIT Media Lab (who are also working heavily with the glove) on creating three-dimensional “virtual” image projections. But this will have iA January 1991 Washington Apple Pi Journal ify ToNOOHZ-OPS to be for another time. The occasion is coming when we will not just gaze at our computers but be transported as if we were within them! DiskDoubler “You can’t be too thin or too ich...” Add to that old saw “...or have too big a hard disk.” Also, Wolov’s Seventh Law states “files expand to fit available disk space” with a corollary that “You can’t afford the size of hard disk that you really need or want.” There are all manner of new disk devices, from Syquest style removable media to hard disks and magneto-opticals in the gigabyte range (yep, that’s billions of bytes). But if you’re like me you have more storage require- ments then wallet. One way to mitigate this problem is to archive onto floppies the files that you rarely use. How- ever, once you do this you’re still left with files that you use often enough that you want to have them handy, yet would still like to save on space. After all, that’s one of the major Mastering the Macintosh January 28-29, 1991 Washington, DC 2 full days of training: v« Live demonstrations vx Workbook v« Shareware For program and registration information contact: USPDI 1734 Elton Rd., Suite 221 Silver Spring, MD 20903 301/445-4400 Fax301/445-5722 22 reasons for using a hard disk. A solution is to use one of the compression utilities routinely used to shrink files for transmission on electronic bulletin boards, such as Stuffit or Compactor. Both are effective in reducing the required storage space, yet are inconvenient for routine use. You must launch your compression application every time you want to decompress a file for use. You then have to click- launch on the newly decompressed file to launch its application. It works, but it ain’t fun. The theory is sound, but faulty in execution. Enter DiskDoubler by Salient Software, Inc. This compression utility is designed to perform dynamically while you are working within the Finder. It’s comprised of an init and an application. The init places a new “DD” menu item on your Finder's menu bar. All you have to do is click on a file or folder and pull down DiskDoubler’s menu to request compression or other DiskDoubler services. In a matter of seconds, DiskDoubler will compress your file or folder by an average of 50%. This percentage is Salient’s claim and to date it seems an honest average. Your mileage will vary depending on the type of file. Word processor documents are compressed the most, and binary applications the least. Like all other compression utilities, DiskDoubler works by finding repeating sequences of characters in your files and then substituting a smaller code to represent that sequence. There are a number of such compression formulas, some work better with certain data formats. DiskDoubler gives the user a choice of two methods with the additional options of allowing DiskDoubler to select the better of the two or always going through a test trial for the smallest possible compressed size (at the expense of speed). You lose the application-specific icon for a file processed with Disk- Doubler. However, if you double- click on such files, they will auto- matically expand and then launch the appropriate application. After you quit out of that file, it will automatically recompress. Very handy: DiskDoubler appears to be safe, and I’ve been comfortable trusting my data to it. There are two fail-safe mechanisms. A check-sum system which creates a code based on the characters of the file you are com- pressing and then checks to see that the code it expected is indeed generated. The second method is to simply not to erase the original file until the compression is complete and the check-sum test is passed. In the event of a power outage or hard disk head crash in mid stream, the original file is always intact. There is a down side to Disk- Doubler, but it seems fairly minor. While you can open DD compressed files within an application with the usual OPEN command, by Salient’s own confession, DD files can’t be opened from another favorite init of mine, On-Cue. But, most of the files I need to launch through On-Cue I probably wouldn’t both to compress anyway. A decompress-only version is also supplied which is intended to be given to your friends so that you can distribute compressed files. Disk- Doubler costs about $45 mail order and has given my 40 Meg drive new life until the day I can afford one of those humongous 660+ Meg drives. (dream on, Wolov!) Until next time... Happy New Year! Robert B. Wolov, M.D. isa pathology resident at the Georgetown University School of Medicine. His areas of interest, besides molecular and orthopaedic pathology, are digital microscopic image analysis and writing medical education software. He can be reached via InterNet at WOLOVR@GUVM.BITNET or BISTI@GUVAX GEORGETOWN.EDU Washington Apple Pi Journal January 1991 like a game anyway.) You can work with MUSIC MOUSE to educate M us i Cc Mo use yourself and your kids about many aspects of music-theory, and the serious composer/musician will certainly welcome the nice and easy features it offers when looking for by Reinhard Weixler several more variations of the main theme in a new piece. 1a) The mouse moves slowly in the A , & Exit Pitch Content Opti 259: upper right hand corner of my SE's ch Content Options Controls Output 19:59:51 desktop. The lights on my Sound BSS Music Mouse - An Intelligent Instunet modules light up and the control Voiees: 1234 tpichan: 11 1 1 vg ATTA TTTTTT F Harmonie Mode Diatonio La. = monitors let me hear the pentatonic ‘Treatme| Ce = 4 i Transposttion: 0 f= = sequence I am creating. Each slight Nestea ; = = move up or down changes the Pattern: cro = athi Mouse Movement Parallel FS! = sequence within the key-range I have Paterntoverent:——Paratel FS = selected. “Very nice toy,” I am saying Articulation: Sn = tes, Loudness 190 = = to myself. My wife’s 10 year old Sound 1 = = ieigied Velocity 100 = = nephew, who is visiting, leaves the ponies . = = Nintendo set, comes over into my BreathControl 64 = = A F . FootControl 64 = = music lab, and while I try to explain Afiec Touch; us = = some of the features to him, he takes Perlaraehs e 2 7 — = control of the keyboard and the ig ij = = . fi Group = OFF Tempo! = 100 mouse, and dives deep into the MID1 Output ON Tempo2 200 magic world of music. Music Mouse 2.03 Main Screen The program that’s making all this possible, is MUSIC MOUSE, Options Co Output Controls Output teated, by Nei Nore Compost Ca #q = § siower - Pattern Symmetry 3s Pa musician Laurie Spiegel in 1986, 5 octatonic swt!" Faster et Direction ea Ht when the use of computers and 2| middle Eastern = Me | I music applications was still consid- 7 diatonic er =| Softer we tonmst Lat Pentatonic xt? 5 Louder Ee Group ered very unusual all over the world. *) fourths sey [i Of course this opinion has 1 f =| Velocity- Mu Legato dened d ically and 7 +| Add Patterns Velocity+ — #b Half-Legato anged dramatically, and computers pattern Numbers : are pretty much the backbone of ‘ ModWheel- nf: “) Previous Sound — uf: production in every professional Transpose Down ModlWheel+ — s¢m| Next Sound si FE recording studio or home-recordin, t), Hemnepose Ye S b S 8 ‘Zero Transposition Breath Ctrl- %h Sound off [spacebar] |. asement. Fi Breath Ctrl+ %j 7 r |v Chordal Treatment mf Now MUSIC MOUSE has been 1} arpegate rooette ey re-released and updated. The user a) Line : Foot Ctri+ Ps] interface is still as clumsy as it ever Improvise t 3 1 v was, and the manual moreover shows us emphatically that software authors Sample pull down menus of MUSIC MOUSE 2.03 should never write manuals them- selves. The program is (unlike most The sound source can be either MUSIC MOUSE is fortunately music applications on the market) the very basic sound-chip inside the 4 Very intuitive program. If you had not a sequencer, which allows you to Mac, or any Midi-module connected rely on the explanatory informa- save your work after a session. You _to the Mac. This feature makes tion in the manual, you would have a could say it is a controller program, | MUSIC MOUSE interesting fora _hard time getting anywhere. As I said another kind of input device, that wide range of users. before, don’t EVER let programmers lets you transform your ideas into You can play with the program WE manuals a music with the use of your mouse as if it were just another computer MUSIC MOUSE is being and the keys on your Mac keyboard. (Please turn to next page) January 1991 Washington Apple Pi Journal 23 ia | eview PageMaker 4.0 PageMaker 4.0 represents, at least in my view, an important step in the right direction. PageMaker’s biggest drawback in the past has been its awkwardness in dealing with text files imported from elsewhere, and that source of discomfort has been substantially reduced. It is not yet the perfect page layout program, mind you, but it is solid and it is satisfactorily speedy, at least on my Mac Ilfx. I haven’t run it ona Plus (and probably wouldn’t want to, since I suspect that it would bea little...cramped...with less than at least 2MB of memory) but I have heard no serious complaints from SE and Mac II users. So much for preliminaries: what does it do? Like earlier versions, PageMaker exists to ease the process of creating documents with graphics and multiple columns. If all you do is to create single-column docu- ments, with only a minimum of graphic inclusions, then you prob- ably don’t need it, or any page layout program (and you’re probably not reading this article anyway). But on the other hand, if you do need a (Continued from prevrious page) distributed by various software companies, which is very unusual; but so is the program. For this review, Dr. T’s version has been used. Research with local music stores and mail order sources shows that MUSIC MOUSE is available easily for a very modest price between 50 and 100 US Dollars. by Frank Potter program like this, it fits the bill nicely. Story Editor — Version 4.0 does a number of things that badly needed to be done. Principal among these is that it now allows you to check spelling, do global find-and- replaces (including type styles), and edit text in a separate Story file that will avoid the tedious (even with an fx) redrawing of pages on the screen. You simply triple-click any place within a story and that story appears transmogrified in a new window, showing styles and allowing easy text manipulation. No more exporting, editing and reimporting. This feature alone justifies the program. But it does more still... € File Edit Options Story Type Windows bizarre places. Which of course never showed up until you produced the final copy, racing to meet a deadline. You can now avoid this by placing lines, boxes, pictures or other graphic images as inline graphics, which will move right along with the text that they relate to. Overdue but nice. Table of Contents — Using the style capabilities of the program, you can now identify elements of a publication that you wish to include in a Table of Contents, which you can create at will. In fact, that is how the Contents in the Journal are created: every headline is written with a style that indicates that it is to be included in a table of contents. Then, at the very last moment (or what ought to be the very last moment but never is) you simply tell it to put the contents together, and off you go. Type specifications — Aldus has given you considerably more control over elements of your text than it ever had before. You can now control character width (to compress or expand type), tracking (character spacing), additional kerning control ee) Tanwar PH S555 2""""WqNceae AD repre: Body text substantially reduced. Body tot and Mac Il users. File Links — You can keep your PageMaker files somewhat smaller than before, if you use its ability to link graphics created elsewhere. ‘When you update those files, PageMaker will ask you if you want the changes made, either automati- cally or manually. Anchored graphics — Used to be, in earlier versions of PageMaker, that if you installed graphics in an article and then changed anything in front of those graphics, everything would shift, except those graphics, which would then appear in really Washington Apple Pi Journal PageMaker 4.0 represents, at least in my view, a giant step in thedight direction, PageMaker’ s biggest drawback in the past hasbeen its awkwardness in dealing with text files imported from elsewhere, and that source of discomfort has been Itisnotyet the perfect page layout program, mind you, but it is solid and itis satisfactorily speedy, at least on my Mac Ilfx. [haven't run iton a Plus (and probably wouldn’t want to, since I suspect that it would be alittle. .cramped...with less than at least 2MB of memory)but I have heard no serious complaints from SE (control spacing between two characters in either .04 or .001 em spaces) and you can specify character size and leading (pronounced ledding, and related to the space between lines) in fractional amounts. These may not seem like important additions, but take it from us, they are. Other changes — Aldus has incorporated several other features in this release, such as more control over alignment of text, ability to link documents in the printing lineup as a January 1991 EC Change Find what: [peasants ] Change to: [pheasants | Options: TQ Match case (Whole word Cone & find Search: © Selected tee © Current story ("Change all _} it “book,” longer documents (up to 999 pages in a single document, not that we would think of trying it), more control over hyphenation, tagging items to appear in an index, alternative forms of page numbering, the ability to specify particular Pantone colors, more printing control, ability to operate in a network of linked machines, and text rotation (of which more anon). We are as yet only marginally familiar with other entries in the Macintosh page layout field, which include Quark XPress, Design Vedi Executive Presentations Studio, FrameMaker and Ventura. The general word is still that Page- Maker is still the easiest and most intuitive of the lot. Candor requires us to add that we have been using PageMaker since version 1.1, and so the learning curve would naturally be expected to be, as it has in fact been, no real challenge. Drawbacks — While it is a good program, it is not yet perfect, at least to some finicky editors. Features that we would like to see in PageMaker (and which exist in other programs, THE COMPUTER GRAPHICS SERVICE BUREAU «& Mac slide imaging as low as $4.98 «© Up to 16.7 million colors «@ Slide scanning on the Nikon LS3500 «© Reflective art scanning at 600 dpi on the Sharp JX600 «© Custom color prints, Cibachromes, Duraflex & Duratrans prints «© (olor pre-press & color proofs 301-530-3679 0 Baltimore, 5 XPOsition Dec, 4 so we are not being that unreason- able) would include the ability to open other files at the same time, the ability to use different Master Pages (you get a Left Master Page and a Right Master Page, and that’s it, troops) and vertical justification (the ability to line things up neatly at the bottom of a page by doing artful and, ideally, imperceptible things to the spaces between lines and para- graphs. Oh (thought we had forgot- ten?) and text rotation. PageMaker 4.0 allows this, but only in incre- ments of 90 degrees. That’s probably enough for most applications, but it can be restricting. These aren’t big problems, though they would not exist in the ideal page layout program. Dare we hope that PageMaker 5.0 will address them? We dare. (We hastily add that we have no inside information to that effect.) Still, “(a) man’s reach should exceed his grasp, or what's a Heaven for?” Y 2-13 at h Choose from D.C.'s Widest Selection of Macintosh Inputs and Outputs «© 8k imaging on the Solitaire film recorder ter Conference & looth 925, M A Cc l N T Oo S) H «@ Postscript & PICT 35mm slides, 4x5's & 8x10's Fax: 530-3663 ‘© Complete Macintosh production & support «= Introducing PICT & Postscript imaging on the Canon CLC-500 Color Laser Copier at 400 dpi Located in the Camalier Building, 10215 Fernwood Road, Bethesda, Maryland 20817 «© Dye Sublimation prints on the Nikon LP3000 »& Color Thermal Prints & Vugraphs at 300 dpi January 1991 Washington Apple Pi Journal 25 ify M A Cc I N T oO iS) H re review CheckWriter Il CheckWriterlI, by Aatrix Software, is an automated check writing and budgeting program for the individual or small business. It allows you to enter both recurring income and recurring expenses, and it provides a reminder when the expenses are scheduled to be paid. CheckWriterlI provides additional features includ- ing: * Multiple checkbook support *° The ability to print on custom designed checks ¢ Paperless transaction support (service charges, debits, etc.) © Reports (Income vs. Expense, Cash Flow, Address Book) ¢ A link to MacInTax and other programs ¢ CheckWriter Desk Accessory ¢ An INIT that reminds you when bills are due * A novel context sensitive help system Demo Disk Included The CheckWriterll package comes with a demonstration disk which allows you to try out a limited version of the software to determine if the program meets your needs. As long as the seal on the actual pro- gram disk package is not broken, the program can be returned within thirty days for a refund. Support Aatrix provides thirty free days of technical support from the date of your first call the technical support line. After the free support period has expired, Aatrix offers a variety of support packages. by Frank R. Kistner Software Installation Ifyou intend to operate CheckWriterlI in a floppy disk environment, you should make and use a working copy of the original program diskette. Installation of the CheckWriterlI software on a hard disk is quick and simple: * Create a CheckWriter folder on the hard disk * Copy the files from the program disk into the new folder * Install the CheckWriter Desk ‘Accessory (DA) ¢ Install the CheckWriter INIT in the System Folder. CheckWriter Setup Utility If you intend to print checks with CheckWriterlI, the Checkform Designer utility must be used to specify the dimensions of the checks, as well as the location of each line of check information such as check number, date, payee, amount, and memo. You can even copy a picture from your Scrapbook file onto the check for a more personalized check Three check templates are provided as examples. Setting Up Checkbooks, Budgets, and Preferences Completing the installation and setup process involves: * Entering the system password in the dialog box on the main screen in order to access the CheckWriterll software * Opening new ledgers and entering the beginning balances for each ledger to be used * Creating a list of the budget types to be used and the monthly budget amount for each type of income and expense * Setting CheckWriter preferences, which consist of passwords, date, and language (English or French Canadian) Using Check WriterII Using CheckWriterII is as simple as: * Opening the desired checkbook or “Ledger” * Filling in the check “form” * Using the “breakout” feature if the check covers multiple expense categories * Queueing the check for printing. The amount, payee, and other relevant information are recorded in the check register as well as on the check. The amount is also posted to one or more budget categories for use with actual versus budget reports and cash flow reports. Deposits are entered via separate menu. There are several nice features of CheckWriterll, including: * Printing the address of the payee on the check for use with window envelopes * Printing mailing labels for standard business envelopes ¢ Alink to MacIntax for recording taxable income and tax deduct- ible expenses in a format that can be used by MacInTax © Context-sensitive help The context-sensitive help, which is a new feature, is accessed by pressing CMD-? at any time. When you do this, a small dialog box pops up at the top of the screen and the mouse pointer changes to a question mark. Moving this pointer to any field on the screen causes text about that particular field to appear in the dialog box. Clicking outside the window changes the shape of the cursor back to an arrow. You can print on custom or personal checks to any Apple printer including the Apple Laserwriter Washington Apple Pi Journal January 1991 using CheckWriterlI. I tested check printing using a Laserwriter II and checks that were created using the checkform designer. Everything worked as expected. CheckWriterII also allows you to enter checks and paperless transactions without printing. This is useful for entering checks into the ledger that were written while you was away from the computer or while the computer was out of service. Deposits, Reconciliation, and Adjustments To record a deposit using CheckWriterlI, you fill in a form similar to the one used to write checks. Just as you can break out a check into various expense catego- ties, a deposit can be broken out by various income categories. This feature is useful when you has several sources of income and has a require- ment to keep track of the amount of income by type. To reconcile your checkbook with CheckWriterlII simply “click” on a check box in the check register for all cleared checks and deposits, make any unrecorded adjustments such as service charges, and enter the ending bank balance from the bank statement. If you have recorded everything correctly, the CheckWriterII “cleared balance” will be the same as your ending bank statement balance. If you cannot get the ending bank balance and the “cleared balance” to agree, CheckWriterII provides an option to automatically compute and record the amount of the adjustment to bring the two numbers into agree- ment. While this appears to be a convenient feature, it allows you to perpetuate errors throughout your checkbook. The CheckWriterII INIT If you installed the CheckWriterlI INIT, and you entered recurring bills such as a monthly mortgage payment that is due on the first of the month, CheckWriterII will remind you that the payment is due when the system is started up on the first of the month. If the system is started up on a day that no recurring payments are due, the CheckWriterII INIT will print a greeting upon system start up, indicating that “no recurring pay- ments are due today.” The CheckWriterll DA You can use the CheckWriterlI Desk Accessory to write checks and record them in the check ledger. The DA allows you access to most CheckWriterlI features. This DA is convenient to use in situations where a check is needed quickly and you do not want to quit out of an applica- tion that is currently running in order to start up the CheckWriterII program. Backing Up Ledgers CheckWriterII provides the ability to back up your ledger files. It allows you to specify maximum file sizes of 380K, 780K, or 1380K bytes, depending on the type of diskette and diskette drive being used. Reports CheckWriterII supports several report types including: ¢ A “Tax Item” Summary * Printing of the Check Register * Income versus Expense Report * Cash Flow Summary ¢ Summary of Budget Income and Expense Types ¢ Summary of Recurring Payments and Deposits ¢ Printing of the Names and Addresses for Recurring Pay- ments Each report can be printed to the screen, a text file, or to the printer. Recommendation CheckWriterl] is easy to use and effective at doing what it’s documen- tation claims, making check writing easy. The CheckWriterll INIT provides an excellent reminder if bills are due on the day that the system is started up, and the reports are an ify NEW VENTURE WILL NEED MS Works Instructor part time Mac Repairman experienced (301) 530-4172 January 1991 Washington Apple Pi Journal 27 a) TanNOodZ-OFPFS 28 Fractal Programming in C A Menagerie of Fractals: A Zookeeper’s Handbook. Lions, Tigers, Bears, Snowflakes, “Monsters”, Phoenix, and Dragons. “Strange” attractors, “psychotic” curves, self-similar spirals, bizarre recursions, bifurcated interation upon chaotic interation, fractional (?) dimensions. Alice in Wonderland? No, just the vast zoological park of fractal curves as described in Fractal Programming in C, by Roger T. Stevens. If you are a slick C pro- grammer, interested in discovering new realms of graphic creativity, and not intimidated by a little college level mathematics, this is the book for you. However, if you approach the monthly balancing of the checkbook with fear and trembling and your burning programming interest is in building the next Great American Excel Macro, then your $24.95 might be better spent re- upping with Fortune magazine for another year. From the introduction, Stevens leads the programmer gingerly into the somewhat arcane and compli- cated world of chaos theory and fractal geometry. After a short discussion about the mathematical underpinnings of chaos and several classes of fractal curves, the author identifies in detail these fractal classes in several chapter groupings. The chapters themselves consist of a mixture of mathematical theory and complete programming examples in C that implement the graphing of the type of curve being discussed. When I say “complete exe amples,” I do mean that in every sense of the term. As Stevens simplifies the mathematics involved, by Thomas Hoyt he also rigorously details coding techniques in a comprehensive fashion, even to the point of illustrat- ing his arguments with assembly language additions. However, this thorough treatment leads one to the biggest drawback of the book, at least for the Mac programmer: the code samples, indeed, the entire treatise, is intended for use on IBM AT- compatible machines equiped with a VGA graphics adapter. The author employs an entire chapter discussing a method of saving and manipulating fractal graphics as PC-Paint files. He implements his lowest-level drawing routines as IBM BIOS traps. He centers his scheme for coloring his chaotically precise creations around the VGA-standard color palette and various VGA settings. There is an entire appendix devoted to reimplementing a graphics “toolbox” which he created for use on the Hercules Graphics Adapter. Naturally, this is not an insurmountable problem, but the Mac programmer nevertheless has a challenging port ahead of him. Fortunately, the Macintosh lends itself well to the redevelopment of the author’s custom graphics routines, because it comes with ROM aalls that can create the most convoluted of graphics. Mastering Color Quickdraw in order to reproduce the spectacular colors of the majority of fractals would require the mst time. Fortunately, the fractal algorithims themselves are the same no matter what machine one runs them on. The principles of math- ematics, being factory equipped, are not proprietary. Stevens’ major contention in his description of fractals is that they are a family of curves that illustrate the inner workings of “chaotic” systems. Chaos theory is the effort of math- ematicians to develop meaningful models of certain physical phenom- ena that are neither random nor entirely cyclic. Certain physical events, such as the weather, liquid in motion or population behavior produce, when graphed, models of curves that are orderly and predi- cable, but are never the same. They also have a “fractional” dimension of somewhere between one and two. Intuitively, they are more than a line, but somewhat less that a two dimensional planar object. Other types of fractal curves have their own identifying character- istics. These “monster” or “psy- chotic” curves can have a tendency to be self-similar; i.e., they are generated by replacing each part of a regular curve (like a square or five-side star) with another pattern, ad infinitum. These self-similar or “interated” curves can also be created using interated equation systems. These are equation sets where the current value of the system is plugged right back into the system in order to compute the next value, again, ad infinitum. The plotting of these values is the method by which the most famous of fractals, the Mandelbrot set, is computed. The different colors in this set, as well as its cousins, the Jul