Date: Tue, 26 Oct 1993 23:52:33 -0500
Date: Tue, 26 Oct 93 13:22:45 EDT
From: Tom Coradeschi <tcora@Pica.Army.Mil>
Subject: PSPICE

Wally Patterson <patterwc@tigershark.ml.wpafb.af.mil> wrote:
>I'm looking for a MAC-based circuit simulator call PSPICE.
>Please, tell me where I can find it.

SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMS FOR THE MACINTOSH

[These opinions are posted by Professor A. E. Siegman, E. L. Ginzton
Laboratory MC-4085, Stanford University, Stanford CA 94305. Email responses
directed to siegman@sierra.stanford.edu on Internet or RW.AAP@STANFORD on
Bitnet will be welcomed.]

                 ----- 
    
Messages keep appearing on Mac newsgroups asking about analog and digital
circuit analysis programs and other EE-related educational programs for the
Macintosh. This is a brief summary of Mac-based digital and analog circuit
analysis programs I know about, plus a few additional programs that may be
of interest to electrical engineering students and teachers.

The programs reviewed here are:

* B^2 Logic: a moderately priced digital circuit analysis program.

* B^2 Spice: a very good moderately priced analog circuit analysis program
based on SPICE; RECOMMENDED

* CircuitMaker 3.0: commercial but relatively low-cost program (list price
$200) combining circuit layout and drawing tool and digital circuit
simulator. Haven't tried it, but review looks good.

* Design Center PSPICE: an expensive professional-grade version of PSPICE,
operable in the Mac but only in a primitive text-file-drive form.

* DigSim: a very neat little shareware digital circuit analysis program;
RECOMMENDED.

* Electronics Workbench: described as "powerful (and modestly priced)
software to build and simulate analog and digital circuits, on screen, with
click-and-drag capabilities for adding components and connecting wires".
Haven't had a chance to try it; but ads look good.

* : an OK but not great implementation of SPICE for analog circuit
analysi

* LogiMac: another quite good small digital circuit analysis program.

* LogicWorks: said to be a student version of DesignWorks -- haven't seen
this one myself.

* Micro-CAP II: student version of a SPICE-based analog circuit program; OK
but not great.

* Micro-CAP IV: commercial version of this SPICE-based analog circuit
program.

* PARAXIA: A package of laser beam and resonator analysis programs from my
own lab, now commercially available; RECOMMENDED??? - well, others like
it.

* PSpice:  A shareware version.

* TLS: A very good wave propagation and transmission line simulator;
RECOMMENDED.

The date of writing or updating is indicated for the more recent reviews
below. Undated reviews are from 1989, 1990 or possibly earlier, and may be
out of date at this point.

-----------------------

B^2 Spice
*********

(Version 1.1, review updated May 1992)

This is an neat small-scale implementation of Spice for the Mac from a new
small company, Beige Bag Software, located in Michigan. The program allows
you to graphically wire up an analog circuit on the screen and then analyze
the circuit behavior using PSPICE. At present only the dc sweep, ac sweep
and transient analysis capabilities of SPICE are implemented and the device
library is modest, but everything is in one integrated application, and
both the circuit and the graphical outputs from the analysis steps can be
sent directly to a printer.

The program also permits you to save a circuit wired up with the graphical
editor as a SPICE input deck, so that a circuit could be wired up using the
graphical circuit editor and the SPICE deck then transferred to a more
extensive SPICE program for more detailed analysis if desired.

I've used this program some and while it still has a few bugs both it and
the following B^2 Logic program look good and are being steadily upgraded.
They are available from:

        Beige Bag Software
        715 Barclay Ct.
        Ann Arbor MI 48105

        (313) 663-4309

        71620.3474@compuserve.com

List price is $130, with student versions around $35.


B^2 Logic
*********

(May 1992)

This is a companion digital circuit design and simulation program for the
Mac from the same company as B^2 Spice. The manual and description looks
good, but I haven't tried this program, only B^2 Spice. Both of these
programs are also available in PC versions.

CircuitMaker 3.0
****************

This is a commercial but relatively low-cost ($200) digital circuit layout
and analysis program produced by MicroCode Engineering (801-226-4470) and
favorably reviewed in the August 1993 issue of MacWorld. It allows you to
lay out complex digital circuits including digital and analog components
and wiring on a very large surface (48" square), including all standard
digital circuit components, switches, LEDs, and seven-segment readouts; and
then simulate the circuit operation, including observing the signals at
various points using scrolling chart displays, and watching the dynamic
operation of the LEDs and seven-segment displays.

Haven't had a chance to try this, but sounds good.


Design Center PSPICE
********************

(May 1992)

This is an extensive new professional-level implementation of PSPICE for
multiple platforms including IBM-PC with DOS, IBM-PC with Windows 3.0, DEC
VAX, SUN and Macintosh announced in 1992 by

        MicroSim Corporation 
        20 Fairbanks 
        Irvine CA 92718

        1-800-245-3022,
        (714) 770-3022 
        (717) 455-0554 (fax)

MicroSim also distributes (or used to distribute) the IsSPICE program
described below.

This package provides a very complete and extensive professional version of
PSPICE with extensive libraries including European devices, together with
schematic capture, PSPICE modeling of mixed-mode analog and digital
circuits, statistical analysis, stimulus generation, graphical waveform
analysis, and device characterization all in one package. However, the
Macintosh version of the package still operates only in a very primitive
text-file-driven mode on the Macintosh. In particular, while the Design
Center package apparently provides for graphical circuit editing and a
primarily graphical user interface in the PC Windows version, but _not_ on
the Macintosh.

The Macintosh version is priced at $550; versions for other platforms run
to multiple thousands of dollars. A free evaluation version with some
limitations was available to educators as of April 1992.


DigSim 2.0
**********

(Review updated May 1992)

DigSim is a shareware program written by Brian Rauchfuss, 8915 N 13th
Avenue, Phoenix AZ 85021 (this is an old address and is probably no longer
valid; information on an updated address would be appreciated). This
program is currently available as version 2.2 in the "app" section of the
info-mac archives at sumex-aim.

This is one of my favorite programs: small, neat, user-friendly, very
Mac-like, and cleverly done. When you open the program there is a palette
of standard digital components including toggle switches, LEDs, inverters,
and multiple kinds of logic gates and flipflops displayed at the side of
the screen. Using the mouse pointer (which neatly turns into a soldering
iron) you can click and drag these elements out onto the screen and wire
them up into a digital logic circuit of any complexity you wish.

Multiple wires can be connected to the "solder points" on each element, and
neat "square-corner" layout of the wires between any two circuit elements
is taken care of automatically by the program. A menu selection allows you
to turn the mouse pointer from a soldering iron into a pair of wire
clippers, which you can use to cut away any wires or elements you want to
remove.

As soon as the circuit is wired up you can use the mouse to switch any of
the toggle switches in the circuit ON or OFF; and by connecting LEDs to any
points of interest in the circuit you can watch the resulting logic values
at these points switch HIGH or LOW. As an example, if you want to
demonstrate one of DeMorgan's theorems, you just wire up a pair of switches
so that they drive the inputs to both forms of the logic statements
appearing on opposite sides of the theorem, and see visually that for every
possible combination of inputs, the LED responses at the outputs of the two
circuits are the same.

In addition, you can open a simulation window which will display the input
and output waveforms versus time at multiple selected points in the
circuit, just as they would be seen on a multi-beam oscilloscope. You can
draw arbitrary binary waveforms for each input point using the mouse, and
then see what the outputs will be at other points, with a choice of times
scales for the horizontal axis. There is even a small fixed logic delay or
switching time associated with each element, so that the effects of gate
delay can be envisioned.

Much more complex circuits can of course be wired up and tested, as well as
saved for future use; and in addition multielement circuits can be saved as
"black boxes" with multiple inputs and outputs for use as building blocks
in still more complex circuits.

All in all, this is everything a small educational or demo program should
be. Despite being written in 1986 (or earlier) it seems to run fine under
Multifinder. I recommend it highly as an "on-screen digital logic lab" for
class demonstrations, student experimentation, and the like.


Electronics Workbench
*********************

(Revised March 1993)

I've only seen advertisements for this program, not tried the most recent
version myself; but to judge from the brochures this is a relatively
inexpensive program (around $200 for the ``personal'' version) for wiring
up and analyzing analog and digital circuits on the Macintosh screen. The
program is described in a 1992 advertisement as "the electronics lab in a
computer" with "powerful software to build and simulate analog and digital
circuits on screen", including click-and-drag capabilities for adding
components and connecting wires. There are separate analog and digital
modules

In common with DigSim and in contrast to B^2 Spice, this program displays
all the available circuit components as icons in a scrolling "parts bin" at
the side of the screen; you select components from these, using the mouse
to drag components on the screen. There are also a number of test
instruments including a pulse and function generator, a ``Bode Plotter''
(swept frequency analyzer), and an oscilloscope in the analog module, and a
word generator, logic analyzer, and logic converter in the digital module,
which you drag on to the screen and wire into your circuit. The screen
graphics in the brochure look quite good.

According to the advertising Electronic Workbench uses SPICE as its
analytical engine. Both PC-compatible and Mac versions are available; I
would say that an earlier Mac version that I tried clearly showed its PC
origins, with the interface not being very Mac-like. Electronic Workbench
is available from

        Image Technologies 908 Niagara Falls Blvd North Tonawonda  NY
        14120-2060

        (416) 361-0333
        (416) 368-5799 (fax)

IsSPICE/PSPICE (Mac Classroom Version)
**************************************

IsSPICE/Mac is a commercial version of SPICE for the Macintosh available
>From MicroSim Corporation (see Design Center review for address) which was
available for $95 (no coprocessor version) or $295 (coprocessor version.)

MicroSim distributes a series of both student and professional versions of
PSPICE for use on a variety of Apollo, DEC, IBM DOS, Macintosh, OS/2, and
Sun machines. This student version of PSPICE for the Mac appears to be a
pretty complete professional-grade version of the well-known SPICE program,
except it's limited to about 10 transistors and 25 nodes and has a reduced
version of the SPICE library.

Unfortunately, what the program provides is just plain old 1970s-style
SPICE with the same antiquated text file data input and output methods; no
ability to wire up or view circuits as on-screen schematics; and little or
no adaptation of the program interface to the Mac. You also still have to
first run SPICE on the input data file to carry out the analysis and then
run another program, Probe, as a separate program to view the output
waveforms; and the viewing capabilities and command interface in Probe are
pretty primitive by modern standards.

SPICE itself is of course a powerful, highly developed, and widely used
piece of circuit analysis software. If you like SPICE itself, or if you
just enjoy running programs with IBM PC interfaces on the Mac, this will be
fine with you. But if you're looking for a _Macintosh_ circuit analysis
program, forget it.

[Could someone make up a HyperCard interface that would let you draw your
circuit and automatically prepare the associated input text file in
HyperCard, then launch SPICE and Probe from HyperCard buttons?  Might be
one way to put a Mac interface on this program.]


LogiMac 1.21 
************

LogiMac is a small digital circuit analysis program written by Chris
Dewhurst of Capilano Computing in Canada. It was formerly distributed by
Kinko's Academic Courseware Exchange, which is unfortunately defunct. It is
now available from the Intellimation Library for the Macintosh (see the TLS
description below for the address).

This is also a good program for digital and logic circuit analysis, perhaps
even a little more capable than DigSim. It comes with good documentation
and I give it a very favorable recommendation, though I like DigSim a
little better and therefore have used it much more. This is primarily
because the individual elements in DigSim are visible on screen in a
palette, while in LogiMac the elements are all listed in a long menu, and
you have to pull the menu repeatly to access a new element to add to the
circuit. Other than that the capabilities of the two programs are quite
similar.

One other problem is that the version 1.21 of LogiMac which I have is dated
1985 and will not run under Multifinder, at least not on my Mac II or SE/30
running System 6.0.5. On the SE/30 it gives the error message "Invalid
Illegal Instruction: ---- 3000". [Does that imply there can somehow be
"Valid Illegal Instructions" ?!?]  If a new version is or will be available
>From Intellimation, perhaps this problem will be solved.


LogicWorks
**********

(February 1993)

around $300 from

        Capilano Computing
        1168 Hamilton St.,  Ste. 501
        Vancouver BC V6B 2S2
        Canada

Substantial educational discounts are also said to be available.



Micro-CAP II (Student Version)
******************************

(Review from 1990 or thereabouts.)

This is an older student version of the analog-circuit analysis program
Micro-CAP IV which was originally developed (I believe) for the IBM PC
world. It's available commercially from Spectrum Software (see review of
Micro-CAP IV below for address). The price is right (around $40); the
general approach is right (you can wire up circuits on screen by selecting
elements from a palette and pointing and clicking on screen); and if the
details were just a little better executed, the whole program would be
just right. Unfortunately it isn't.

As mentioned, the program opens up with a Circuit Window; a Components
Window, i.e., a palette of standard components like RLC elements, diodes,
transistors, batteries, pulsed and sinusoidal time-varying voltage and
current sources, op amps, and so on; and a Library Window in which one can
select or define values for named components. Using a slightly awkward
approach one can click on an element in the palette to select it, click in
the circuit window to create a copy of the element there, and then type in
a numerical value or a logical name for the element.

Unfortunately the troubles start right there. If you want to create a 100
picofarad capacitor, after clicking to position the capacitor you have to
type "100PF" EXACTLY -- not "100 PF" or "100pF" or "100 pf". The program
will accept all of these other inputs, with no indication of any trouble --
but "100 PF" for example will give you 100 FARADS instead of 100
picofarads. Similar complications arise in trying to assign values to
resistances or inductances in ohms, kilohms, microhenries, and so on: "1K"
gives 1 kilohm, but "1 K" doesn't; I guess it gives 1 ohm. In general
neither adequate input error checking nor the "pico, milli, Mega" concepts
of SI have made it into this program yet.

To keep things interesting if hardly consistent, if you want to put in a
10-volt battery, you have to click and then type just plain "10", not "10V"
or "10 V" -- neither of which will be accepted at all.

Once a circuit is wired up on screen, you can insert, delete, or change the
value of elements, using the mouse; and then carry out transient, DC or AC
analyzes.

The transient analysis does a time-domain solution with single or repeated
pulsed signal inputs of various kinds. There are 16 adjustable parameters
(time scales, time steps, error criteria, output voltage points, etc.) for
the simulation; these can be edited (in a rather awkward fashion) in an
"edit window" which operates essentially like a Mac dialog box. You can
then run and display the transient analysis on screen, displaying 4
separate voltage waveforms versus time. The analysis parameters and the
output waveforms can also be printed or dumped to disk files.

The DC analysis finds the DC response of the circuit (which may be linear
or nonlinear) and displays a plot of the output voltage at one selected
node versus the input voltage at another selected node, with everything
else in the circuit held constant. Again there are multiple parameters,
such as choice of input and output nodes, input voltage range and step
size, and so on, that can be edited; and the results can be printed or
saved.

A third mode is an AC analysis or Bode plot which plots gain in dB, phase
shift in degrees, and group delay in time units versus frequency for
selected input to output points of a circuit. The frequency axis is on a
log scale with selectable lower and upper frequency values and frequency
steps.

The program also has user-defined waveform generation capabilities and a
Fourier Analyzer module, which I have not explored.

This program has the promise of being very valuable and useful, but
unfortunately the difficulties I mentioned above, plus others I'll mention
below, put me off sufficiently that I stopped trying to make any
substantial use of the program even though I teach an undergrad
intermediate electronics course in which it could be most useful.

My first effort, for example, was to use the MOS transistor model in the
program to wire up an elementary two-transistor enhancement-load MOSFET
logic gate such as we were analyzing in class. Neither the transient
analysis nor the dc input-output characteristics of this gate were
correctly simulated by the program. In an attempt to understand this, I set
up a simpler circuit just to display one curve (for one fixed gate voltage)
of the IDS versus VDS characteristic curves of a single MOS transistor.
That didn't come out right either. A call to the vendor revealed that this
can't be avoided, due to some problem in the MOS dc response related to the
way the body of the MOSFET is handled (though if the manual is to believed
this shouldn't even matter at all). (This may be corrected in newer
versions.)

Playing with other circuits gave somewhat better results; though in general
the numerical simulations using default parameter values seemed very crude
and inaccurate. Simulating the decay of a simple RLC circuit, for example,
gave transient results hardly recognizable as a sine wave, and with a very
inaccurate value of damping rate.

I imagine the program can probably be made to perform better with better
tuning of the parameters employed in the simulations, though probably at
the cost of considerable slowing down of the calculations. I'd want to see
a much more "bullet proof" and relia…

Showing first 20,000 characters of 26,898 total. Open the full document →

From: ADHunter@aol.com
Subject: NEC SuperScript 3000M (review)

I got my NEC SuperScript Color 3000M printer and have had a day to play with
it; here's the report--

<you may want to archive the following--it may be a bit long for inclusion in
the digest>

It comes with abbreviated sample dye and wax ribbons instead of the full
sized ribbons that one would buy as stock supplies for the printer.  This
makes sense when you figure that the purchaser will want to see what kind of
output the machine is capable of before committing to it, but it needs to be
taken into account when purchases are made, i.e., you will VERY shortly have
to buy extra ribbons if you intend on doing much printing.  The demo ribbons
are good for (according to the manual) 10 prints each, whereas regular
ribbons are good for 25 sheets (dye-sub) or 107 sheets (thermal-wax); you get
a dye-sub ribbon, a thermal-wax variable-dot ribbon, and a plain-jane
thermal-wax ribbon.  You also get two (not three, but also not just one)
ribbon carrier, which makes it easy to swap ribbons (the printer only holds
one type of ribbon at a time), and you can (apparently) order new ribbon
carriers if you think you will be using the printer in more than two
different modes.

It comes also with abbreviated paper supplies instead of the full sheaf of
paper that you would buy as stock.  Again, you get 10 sheets of dye-sub paper
and 10 sheets of thermal-wax paper.  The plain-jane thermal-wax process can
be used with plain old Hammermill-type photocopier-grade paper, but the other
modes require the special paper.  A regular sheaf of dye-sub paper is 25
sheets, whereas a regular sheaf of thermal-wax (variable-dot) is 200 sheets.

The printer is downright cute in appearance for a printer of its class--it
looks like a StyleWriter's big brother, perhaps because of its predominantly
vertical orientation.  It fits elegantly onto desktops and other surfaces
that would be significantly more swamped by a DeskJet or a LaserWriter.
 Hookup is simple enough to forego a peek at the manual, although when it
comes to hooking up a $1000 peripheral I'm more inclined to look anyway, and
did; and the instructions are clear and uncluttered.  Took 20 minutes to
connect it to the PowerMac including the time it took to open the shipping
box.

Software is a regular Chooser device (rdev) and the Print and Print Setup
dialog boxes are sparse and clean despite an assortment of options (such as
speed versus number of colors, saturation controls, printing mode, etc.).
 Irritatingly, the dialog box that lets you pick the printing mode gives new
and potentially confusing names to the printing modes that are described in
advertisements and other product literature:  to print in dye-sub mode, you
pick "PhotoColor"; to print in thermal-wax variable-dot mode, you choose
"GraphicColor"; to choose regular plain-jane thermal-wax mode, you simply
pick "3-color" or "4-color" or "Monochrome", depending on what type of ribbon
you have in the machine.  The interface for printing mode, however, is an
example of an exceptionally well-thought-out Macintosh dialog box:  with so
many options, instead of cluttering up the screen with radio buttons, for
instance, NEC gives you a pop-down menu like a fonts menu.

Once I was hooked up, I quickly printed up a handful of my own art projects,
things I had been working on in Photoshop and Canvas.  I was impressed with
the speed, even in dye-sub mode, which I first used to print a monthly
community electric bill from Canvas; it ran faster than prints of similar
size and complexity in greyscale had been printing on my old StyleWriter.  My
concerns about long long printing time evaporated, even though the
SuperScript doesn't utilize background printing through the PrintMonitor.  It
ran astonishingly fast when I tried out the low-end plain-jane thermal-wax
mode, processing the printing of a full-page Photoshop document in a couple
of minutes and printing it in less than a minute total.  However, I had
chosen a composite photograph with many gradations of color and people's
faces, and the output in this mode was definitely not useable--not even to
check colors.  The same document that produces such a bad print in plain-jan
thermal-wax mode, however, looked surprisingly good in variable-dot
thermal-wax mode.  Instead of gaping holes in various color areas
("graininess" is an understatement), the output was smooth and the image was
clean and impressive.  You can tell the different between the variable-dot
and the dye-sub prints, but it is less formidable a different than the
difference between plain-jane thermal-wax and variable-dot thermal-wax.  At
least with photographic documents.  I intend to try it out again with some
simple SuperPaint color logos that use continuous color rather than
gradations and see if if plain-jane thermal-wax mode is useful for that.  

The SuperScript comes with a Photoshop Plug-in that lets you bypass some of
the duplicative processing that the main (Chooser) driver uses, and instead
rely on the innate capacities of Photoshop, which speeds up printing.
 However, this looks to be an idea that was released in early beta format.
 You can't print in landscape view (the ReadMe file advises rotating the
image in Photoshop 90 degrees instead); you can't print CMYK documents at
all; and, when I tried to print an RGB document from the Plug-in that had
been resampled to 300 dpi, I was informed that there wasn't enough memory to
complete the task.  I have 35 MB allocated to Photoshop and this was the only
document open at the time and there's not enough memory?  I switched to the
regular Print dialog (which works fine in Photoshop although not as fast as
the Plug-in) and in this manner printed the document I should have printed
first--Adobe's configuration file "Ole no Moire".  

Halfway through the Magenta process (it prints one process at a time and
sucks the sheet back in for the next one, much like the Fargo Primera), bang!
 My Back-UPS blew its button and killed everything.  Check fuse box, reset
the button, restart, reopen document, try it again.  Once again, bang!  So if
you have your system on an uninterruptable power supply, you may need to
split the NEC SuperScript off of it and onto a separate surge-protector, or
else upgrade your UPS to some serious electrical capacity.  Having no other
immediate options, I replugged the SuperScript into a strip outlet surge
protector independent of the UPS and printed a third time (Carmen Miranda has
now eaten three of my sample dye-sub prints!).  Great color saturation!  (I
had been worried after seeing some of my own art printed up; now I have to
worry about my art practices, but the washed-out colors are not a problem of
the printer if Ole no Moire is to judge).  But why are there some funny
pixelated areas around the lettering in the color-sep boxes where it says
"CM", "MY", "CY", etc?  And why does the banana lady seem to have blue under
her eyes and lipstick stains on her teeth?  Uh oh...maybe a printing problem?
 I reopend the document and use the magnifying glass.  Sonuvva...never
noticed this before.  This gal really DOES have lipstick stains on her teeth
and blue marks around her right eye!  Same with the funny pixels around the
lettering in the color sep boxes...they're in the document itself.  Okay, I'm
suitably impressed.  It prints color nicely.

-Allan Hunter
<ADHUNTER@aol.com>
<AHUNTE@ccvm.sunsyb.edu>

Info-Mac Archive File Name and Placement Conventions
revision 17 Jul 93: DRAFT VERSION

--- File Names ----------------------------------------------------------

File Names Must:
  Contain ONLY lowercase letters, numbers, and dashes.
  Begin with a letter, not a number or dash.
  Be 50 characters or less with its directory name(s).
  Use dashes where words are separated (but not too much).
  Exclude periods from version numbers.
  Exclude references to compression software.
  End with one of the following suffixes:
    .hqx  Binhexed
    .txt  text 
   .shar  Unix shell archives
     .uu  Unix uuencoded
    .bin  MacBinary format (rarely used)
    .etx  Setext (only for Tidbits issues)
  Some examples:
    DrawNothing 1.41 -> draw-nothing-141.hqx
    doIt Now 0.9b    -> doit-now-09b.hqx
    QuickTime 2.0    -> quicktime-20.hqx

Specific File Format
  To identify the format of the file more specifically than the suffix
  does, use an extension JUST BEFORE the suffix. Some common ones:
  -msdos  MS-DOS program
   -unix  Unix program
     -ps  Postscript code
    -etx  Setext text format
    -msw  Microsoft Word
   -fkey  Mac fkey utility
     -hc  Hypercard stacks

Descriptive Extensions
  Some info about files should be placed in file name extensions:
   -demo  incomplete version for demonstration purposes
   -updt  a utility to update a file to a newer version

References to Common Mac Things
  System software: sys607, sys7, sys701, sys71, sys7-finder
              Not: system-7, system-seven, system7, finder7, finder-7
  Mac models: mac-512, mac-plus, mac-se, mac-ii, se30, iici, lcii
              mac-portable, powerbook, centris-610, quadra-700
         Not: power-book, pb, ii-vx,
  Other software: resedit, quicktime, mactcp
  System operations: startup, shutdown

Date Format
  The format for dates is
    "file-name-YY-MM.???"
  where YY and MM are the numbers of the year and month,
  respectively.  If necessary "-DD" (the day) may be added
  after the month.

Conventions for Specific Directories
  app/ Filemaker stuff should begin with "filemaker-"
  per/ File names should include an issue number or date (not both)
  dev/a4d/ File names should end in one of the following extensions:
     -ext  externals
    -demo  commercial demos
      -db  example databases
    -info  documentation and information
    -util  utilities that don't plug directly into 4D or a database
     -src  native 4d source code
  dev/src/ File names should end in one of the following extensions:
       -c  C source code
     -pas  Pascal source code
    -plog  Prolog source code
  info/ Software and hardware company info should begin with "vendor-"
  info/hdwr/ Specific mac model info should begin with the model name

--- File Placement ---------------------------------------------------

Things should be archived by topic as much as possible.  Some
directories are more specific than others, text/ and prn/ are quite
definite, whereas app/ and cfg/ are more general.  Things should be
placed in the most specific directory appropriate, ie: printer drivers
in prn/, not cfg/.

Generally, information files about software should be archived
together with applications, whereas data (such as sounds and pictures)
should be archived separately.  For example, a picture goes in grf/,
the utility to display it goes in grf/util/ and a review or collection
of tips about that utility also goes in grf/util/.

Hypercard stacks, desk accessories and other apps that provide info
ABOUT MACS should be placed in the appropriate info/ or topic
directory, not in card/ or app/.

--- Archive Directories ------------------------------------------------

A directory at the archive has many components:
+ An entry in directory-contents.txt with a description of the
  directory's intended contents.
+ The directory itself, which is a short 3 or 4 character name.
+ A link to the directory that resides in the same directory as the
  real directory.  Its name is descriptive and capitalized.  If its
  name is two words normally separated by a space, the 2nd word is also
  capitalized.  If its name is 2 words that represent different
  concepts, the 2nd word is capitalized and separated from the 1st by a
  dash.
+ An abstract file in the directory (an empty one must be created when
  a directory is installed).
+ A link to the abstract file that resides in help/abs/.  Its name
  begins with the descriptive name of the parent directory (if any)
  followed by the descriptive name of the directory.  Dashes are used in
  this name to separate words as they are in normal archive files.
+ A directory in the backmod/ar/ hierarchy whose name is the same as
  the directory's actual name.

Date: Tue, 8 Mar 1994 18:44:03 -0500
From: Scott Kaplan <sfkaplan@cs.amherst.edu>

I received email from a Chunsheng Ban <cban@math.ohio-state.edu>, who passed
on some additional information about the state of TeX/LaTeX on the Mac.  For
anyone concerned, I figured it would be worth the time to update this file
by including the rather useful paragraph below.  The rest of the file, beyond
this paragraph, contains the same group of replies I got when I asked the net
people about TeX implementations on the Mac.

Scott Kaplan
Amherst College
sfkaplan@cs.amherst.edu

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

From: Chunsheng Ban <cban@math.ohio-state.edu>

The current version of OzTeX is 1.6. It has been a shareware since
version 1.5. You can print DVI files on a QuickDraw printer without
using a separate utility. It has a new format NFSS LaTeX which
replaces the Times-LaTeX format. You can use many PostScript fonts
in addition to Times (NFSS=New Font Selection Scheme). It adds virtual
font capability to OzTeX.

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

From: pjakobse@estsa2.estec.esa.nl

I can highly recommend the freeware OzTeX package found on midway.uchicago.edu.
OzTeX is a no-nonsense, but robust (at least under System 7.1) Mac
implementation of TeX 3.14 that'll let you preview the .dvi files and print
PostScript to printers or files. If you don't have a PostScript printer,
there's also an application called DVI72-MAC that will let you print to at
least some QuickDraw printers (it works like a charm with my StyleWriter at
home producing an output that rivals that of the (DEC and Apple) laserprinters
at work - hard to believe, I know.). And yes, it also supports lobotomized TeX
(a.k.a. LaTeX), INITeX and hence any other format you may care to dream up
yourself. 

I use the OxTeX package (along with the no-nonsense freeware text editor
BBedit) all the time on my PowerBook and LC at home as a portable alternative
to my main (VMS VAXstation) TeX implementation. I have yet to encounter any
compatibility problems in transferring .tex .dvi and .ps files back and forth
between VMS TeX and OzTeX. The same combination oughta work just fine with
Sun/Unix Tex as well. 

Peter Jakobsen
European Space Agency

pjakobse@estsa2.estec.esa.nl

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

From: "Dr Alun J. Carr" <AJCARR@ollamh.ucd.ie>

First, if you're a novice, stick to LaTeX. Read Lamport's book. {\em Don't}
under any circumstances read Knuth's `The TeXbook' until you need the
information that is in it.

As for software, what you want is OzTeX. This is available by anonymous FTP
from

    midway.uchicago.edu.

It is freeware, written by Andrew Trevorrow.

OzTeX comes with a full set of 300 dpi Pk-format Computer Modern fonts for
TeX and LaTeX, but not the AMS fonts. Also included is LaTeX 2.09.

OzTeX has a DVI (the compiled output from TeX) file previewer built in, so
you can see what your document looks like before committing it to paper.
OzTeX will generate Postscript files from a DVI file, or print direct to a
Postscript printer.

If you want to print a DVI file to a QuickDraw printer you need to use
either James Walker's DVIM-72-Mac DVI printing application (an old-ish
version is bundled with OzTeX; the latest version is available by anonymous
FTP from bigbird.csd.scarolina.edu, where you can also pick up the word-wrap
patches for BBEdit), or OzPSPrint. Note that with DVIM-72-Mac, if you
include a PICT graphic in your document, you must explicitly leave space for
it (if you don't, OzTeX will preview it OK, but DVIM-72-Mac will place it in
the wrong position on the page). It's probably worth turning OFF the `draw
offscreen' option in DVIM-72-Mac, as I've found it produces bizarre bugs on
my Centris 650. DVIM-72-Mac will not use TrueType or Postscript fonts, but
OzPSPrint will (though the quality of PICT bitmaps is reduced to 72 dpi with
this application, which is a problem---for some reason OzTeX will take a 400
dpi bitmap and render it at 72 dpi in the Postscript file it outputs).

The editor of choice is Alpha (available from sumex-aim.stanford.edu, 25 US
dollars shareware) which, when you edit a file with a `.tex' extension, will
put up a menu which allows you to insert templates for most of the LaTeX
commands (it's almost like using a word processor---if you want to emphasize
a word (let's say: Fred), just double-click on it, select Emphasize from the
LaTeX menu, and the appropriate formatting information will be put in place
(i.e. Fred becomes {\em Fred\/})).

Also available from sumex-aim is the Excalibur spelling checker (freeware)
for LaTeX documents. My problem is that it has an American English
dictionary).

If you want a more sophisticated version of LaTeX, check out AMS-LaTeX (from
e-MATH.AMS.com). The font-handling in this is superior to ordinary LaTeX.

For maintaining BIBTeX databases, use HyperBIBTeX (sumx-aim) a hypercard
stack which makes the construction of BIBTeX databases very easy. You will
also need MacBIBTeX.

I picked up a copy of MacMakeIndex from somewhere as well...

You may be interested in looking at DirectTeX (shareware, 100 US dollars) as
well, which runs under MPW. It's nowhere near as friendly as OzTeX and the
documentation is appalling. But it does have a nice method of using METAFONT
to generate PK-format fonts that you don't have (handy if you're moving up
to a 600 dpi printer).

The bottom line is that while TeX is a grossly un-Mac-like concept, the Mac
is one of the best-served platforms for TeX-ing documents.

Hope this helps.

Contact me if you need any more information.

Regards,

Alun

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

From: halvers@sol.crd.ge.com (peter c halverson)
 
Both OzTeX and Textures are standalone TeX/LaTeX implementations that also
provide on-screen previewing.  Textures is a commercial application from a
place called Blue Sky Research.  OzTeX is freeware; the best place to get
it is midway.uchicago.edu.

I've used both; Textures is somewhat faster, and has smoother factilities
for dealing with TeX and Macintosh fonts; OzTeX, on the other hand, uses
the more general PK format for fonts, which is good if you're trying to
keep things the same across different platforms, but a bit clunky when used
in conjunction with other Mac fonts.  OzTeX is also somewhat easier to
configure, and, of course, is free.

>From the comp.text.tex FAQ:

    OzTeX is a free version TeX for the Macintosh.  Version 1.3
    corresponds to TeX 3.0, and can be configured in "large" versions
    that can handle huge macro packages, e.g. LamsTeX.

    OzTeX uses standard pk fonts and tfm filesand creates standard dvi files.
    Includes a DVI previewer, and PostScript driver.

Hope this helps.

Pete Halverson                                      INET: halverson@crd.ge.com 
GE Corporate R&D Center                       UUCP: uunet!crd.ge.com!halverson
Schenectady, NY

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

From: tom prusa <TPRUSA@CCVM.sunysb.edu>

  i have used TeX on the macintosh for almost 5 years now and let
me tell you that the macintosh is an extremely friendly
environment to work with TeX.  As you probably know, LaTeX is
just a set of TeX macros so any real TeX implementation will
also work with LaTeX (once LaTeX has been configured for that
implementation).
   for the mac there are two implementations.  first, there is oztex.
oztex is a FREE version of tex.  i used it for about a year or so.
it is excellent (far better say than the expensive versions my
colleagues here use on their PCs). it is available via ftp from
tank.uchicago.edu under the pub/OzTeX subdirectory.  given the
price, it is hard to beat OzTeX.  second, there is Textures.  Textures
is a commercial implementation of TeX.  I use Textures, but that
is mostly because I bought an earlier version of it before oztex
was available.  A couple of years ago I actually thought that
oztex was superior and I switched.  Since then textures has been upgraded
(twice) and I switched back (at the cost of a $99 upgrade fee).  okay,
why did i switch?  well, first of all, textures has a bit nicer
user interface (less like a mainframe, more like a macintosh). second,
the upgrade included the CMR fonts in postscript format, which allows
me  to use them with other programs, like Canvas. textures is
available from blue sky research at 800-622-8398 (pacific time zone).

oh, by the way, both versions are unbelievable slow on 68000
level machines (like my MacPlus at home) so I hope you have
a 68030 machine or above.

Tom Prusa
Asst. Professor
Dept. of Economics
SUNY at Stony Brook

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

From: lawry@maths.ox.ac.uk (James Lawry student tel 2-70511)

OzTeX is what you want. It is available by ftp from
a number of places - ftp.tex.ac.uk, midway.uchicago.edu,
and I'm sure mac-archive.umich.edu has it somewhere as well.
It's up to about version 1.42 or v1.43 now, but I have
v1.3 and have yet to notice any missing features that I need.

The program is basically a .dvi compiler and viewer rolled into
one. I run it under system 7 with a text editor and my file open,
and OzTeX running as well.

What sort of printer do you have? Or are you not worried about
printing from your Mac? If your printer is PostScript, the OzTeX
program will print directly to it. I'm not lucky enough to have
a PostScript printer, so I don't know how well this works.

If you have a QuickDraw laser, StyleWriter, HP DeskWriter,
ImageWriter ... anything not postScript, then you need a separate
program to print out. It's called DVIM72-Mac, and most sites store
it with OzTeX. Warning! Get the latest version: I had difficulties
with the program at first, and I posted to the UseNet group
comp.text.tex asking about it. The author of the program, Jim Walker
promptly mailed me back (isn't the InterNet great?) and told me
that the latest version is 1.9.6, available by ftp from
bigbird.csd.scarolina.edu. It works a treat for my StyleWriter.

Incidentally the whole printing business is a little fiddly because
the program doesn't use the Macintosh system fonts, and the fonts it
does use are not in the Mac format and are bitmaps, rather than outlines.
Now before you say "What a primitive program!", this is to maintain
compatibility with other versions -- the printouts I get on my StyleWriter
are indistinguishable from the ones on the Laser printer at our
department, running of a network of Sun-4's.

The font files are called PK-files. Being bitmap fonts, you need an
awful lot of them! And which ones you use depends on the resolution
of your printer. If your printer is 300 dpi it's not too bad: all the
files are readily available. You'll see all these files in the ftp
archive like pk300.sit, pk329.sit,pk360.sit, pk432.sit etc. You'll
probably only need those four. (There are bigger sizes, but I don't
seem to ever use them. Anyway they take up megs of disk space).

If you have a StyleWriter or other 360dpi printer, you'll also need
one which is pk394. This was kindly uploaded to ftp.tex.ac.uk the
other day, but I haven't downloaded it yet. The DVIM72 program is
reasonably clever at substituting fonts if you haven't got a particular
size, but it doesn't actually scale the characters up, it just spaces the (small) letters to the spacing the larger size would have had.
Nevertheless that's fine for proof prints at home for me and I can
bring the .tex file or.dvi file into the office to print on the laser.

The only problem with both programs is resources. The OzTeX package
takes about 2.5 Mb of space on my hard disk, and that's after throwing
away all the PostScript parts and a lot of the big fonts. I wouldn't
like to run it on a less than 4 Mb machine as well. The DVIM72 program
doesn't take up much space (and the latest version doesn't require
much of a partition either); but on my system, which has the StyleWriter
on the standard Apple print spooler, the temp files are about 1.5 Mb!
I suppose the program has to generate huge 360 dpi bitmaps. But the
thing refused to print when I only had 1Mb free on my hard disk,
because it couldn't create the spool file.

Nevertheless I find this system most satisfactory for TeX. It handles
LaTeX as well: you say you're a complete TeX novice, so excuse me if
you know this already, but LaTeX is to TeX what BASIC is to assembly
language, i.e. LaTeX lets you get the job done fairly well by making
common tasks easy while the real pros can fiddle around in TeX to
their heart's content. If you've just started using TeX, then I expect
it's LaTeX you're using.

James Lawry.

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

From: ELOISE%MAINE.BITNET@amherst.edu (Eloise Kleban)

You've probably had responses to your question about TeX on the Mac,
but just in case... There are commercial TeXs available, but they
are expensive.  The only free version that I know is OzTeX.
One warning - it's *big*.  You need lots of disk space - my TeX folder
is 10.2 meg.  Enclosed below is an item on OzTeX that was posted some
time ago:
***********
Date: Fri, 18 Jan 91 21:28:57 EST
From: dmrrsn@math.duke.edu (David R. Morrison)
Subject: OzTeX
 
Mark Perry recently asked for comments about OzTeX.  I've been a daily user
for 18 months now, and I wouldn't be without it.  It is the only public domain
version of TeX for the Macintosh, and it is much closer than its commercial
cousins to the implementations of TeX which exist on other platforms.  OzTeX
reads and writes standard dvi, tfm and pk files, which can be exchanged (in
binary) with unix boxes and presumably with other machines as well.  It produces
PostScript output, which can be sent directly to a LaserWriter or saved to disk.
There is also a facility for using built-in PostScript fonts in place of the
standard TeX fonts.
 
The interface is not completely Mac-like, but then again, TeX itself is a
rather un-Mac-like thing.  There is no integrated text editor, so you must
either use a DA (\SigmaEdit is supplied with OzTeX), or your favorite word
processor to generate the input files.  TeX itself runs in a window with
a command-line interface, although it is started with a menu selection.  Once
the document has been processed, there is a nice previewer (in a separate
window) which provides several different magnifications.  The display is not
perfect in the previewer, since it is based on 300dpi bitmaps.  However, I
believe that the maximum magnification is a 300:72 ratio, so that you can see
the final product accurately (although larger than life).
 
The most recent version, OzTeX 1.3, has implemented Knuth's final standard
version of TeX:  TeX 3.0.  It has also provided an easy way to change the
amount of memory which TeX uses, and expand the capacity considerably.  (This
is really necessary to use new macro packages like LamsTeX, AmS-LaTeX, and
even AmS-TeX 2.0.)  In this larger size, it requires a couple of megabytes
to run, but the smaller configurations will run comfortably on a 1 meg Mac.
 
My OzTeX folder (which contains a rich selection of fonts and input files, not
just the basics) currently occupies just under 8 megabytes on my hard disk.
 
The major drawback I am aware of vis-a-vis the commercial products:  the
commercial products run a bit faster during document processing, and TeXtures
uses Macintosh fonts which produce a better screen display (although they are
less compatible with other versions of TeX).
 
OzTeX 1.3 can be acquired by anonymous ftp from midway.uchicago.edu, and several
other sites.
 
     David Morrison
     (dmrrsn@math.duke.edu)
*************************
Hope this is useful!
Eloise Kleban
eloise@maine.maine.edu

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

From: Neal Carothers<carother@andy.bgsu.edu>

	There are public domain versions of the TeX program available
for just about any machine/system under the sun.  A (free!) version
for the Mac, called OzTeX, is available through anonymous ftp at
midway.uchicago.edu (and probably other sites, too).  The full package
includes the capability of processing Plain TeX and LaTeX files.  In
order to use the whole mess, though, you'll need roughly 10 MB of free
disk space...  TeX uses a ton of fonts, and these take up a lot of
room.  In actual practice, though, you won't need them all.  With
some experimentation, you'll easily be able to trim that down to
just a few megs (I use a stripped down version at home that takes up
only about 2 MB, and a larger version at work).  
	As a former novice myself, I can tell you one of the pleasant
things about TeX.  Everything about it is free!!  There are several
large TeX archives on the 'net, with lots of free goodies.  Helpful
hints for beginners, along with fancy stuff for experts.  Check out
the ftp site: niord.shsu.edu.  You should be able to find several
beginner's guides there; I would recommend "A Gentle Introduction to
TeX", by Michael Doob (called gentle.tex in the archives), and the
Univ. of Oregon TeX Primer (author and archive filename escapes me
just now...).  Either of these will help you get started using Plain
TeX.  After you've gotten your feet wet, you may want to invest in one
of the many books available about TeX.  A good choice for a novice is
"A Beginner's Book of TeX" by Seroul and Levy, Springer-Verlag, 1991.
	LaTeX is another animal altogether...  In brief, LaTeX is a
huge collection of Plain TeX macros which have been designed to make
TeX easier to use (the name LaTeX is supposedly short for "Lazy TeX",
or so I'm told).  The only drawback with this scheme is that LaTeX is
not compatible with Plain TeX.  In addition, it lacks some of the
flexibility of Plain TeX.  But that's not to say that it isn't the
better choice.  Just a word of warning about the differences.  I only
know of one beginner's guide to LaTeX available on the 'net.  It's
called "Essential LaTeX", but it's very brief and doesn't cover any of
the technical stuff like typesetting mathematics and the like.  
	As you can probably tell, I use Plain TeX myself and don't
know very much about LaTeX.  I think it's fair to say that with either
choice this much is true: It's not too tough to get started composing
simple documents.  You could be up and running in a few days.  But it
may take you months to feel really comfortable with it; there is a
decidedly high learning curve for doing _complicated_ things with TeX.
Personally, I think it's well worth it.  As a mathematician, I've
found no other way to typeset the things I want printed.  And as
someone who corresponds with other mathematicians through e-mail, I've
found no other way to send complicated ideas as pure text (you can't
depend on anyone having access to MacWrite or Word or whatever, but
everybody has access to TeX).
	I hope this helps.  If you have questions, feel free to ask.
You might also want to check out the newsgroup comp.text.tex devoted to
TeX, LaTeX, and related issues.  In particular, look for their FAQ
file in news.answers.  It might save you some searching.  

Neal Carothers
carother@andy.bgsu.edu

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

From: herchen@navier.stanford.edu (Harold Herchen)

No, you are not offbase at all.  It is not stated in your message, but I presume
your machine at home is a Mac.  Since it is presumeably not a Quadra 950,
speed might be a consideration.  In that case, I would strongly recommend
Textures version 1.5, which is three times faster than its closest competition.
This is because Textures is written in assembler, not C or Pascal.  It is
easy to create dvi files in it.  Just do a Save As from the typeset window
and select the dvi option.

There are three main windows in Textures.  One for the input text and TeX
or LaTex commands, one for any pictures you may include, and finally the
typeset page(s) window.  This is where Texture…

Showing first 20,000 characters of 28,348 total. Open the full document →

Date: Tue, 4 Jan 1994 08:46:11 -0600
From: monty-hampton@uokhsc.edu (Monty Hampton)
Subject: Renote Access (Summary)

Thanks to all of those who responded to my inquiry regarding remote access.
Special thanks to Alan Hewat, Bruce Goldstein, Matthew Ahrens, Subbarayudu
Darisipudi and Dennis D. Davison.  

The results are summarized below. 

>Is there an A/B switching device available that will automatically switch
>to the modem for incoming calls or is there another solution to the A/B
>situation (short of always having to switch back and forth each day)?

Mixed reviews here. Some suggested manual switching (which I wanted to
avoid). There are auto-switching devices, but no on responding had
experience with them.  

>Is it best to purchase a modem capable of booting the system or should I
>leave my system on and just turn off the monitor (or leave the monitor on,
>too)?

Suggestion here was to go with PowerKey/PowerKey Remote for turning the CPU
on/off. If not and the host CPU is to stay powered, it has been suggested
that the monitor be turned off. 

>Should I go with ARA or Timbuktu?

Most of the respondents explained that there is a difference between these
two apps. 
Alan Hewat reprinted a previous post:

>I use ARA and have tried ScreenLink and Timbuktu, which is similar but
>(much) more expensive and (a little) more powerful.
>
>Neither ScreenLink nor Timbuktu are meant to replace ARA.  You can
>use them without ARA, but you can also connect with them through ARA.
>They allow you to see and control the desktop of another Mac over
>Appletalk or a modem connection  (or even ethernet).  With a 14.4k
>modem they are quite usuable when you get used to the slow screen
>re-drawing and mouse movement.
>
>ARA is different.  It allows you to connect to appletalk via a modem.
>Then you can mount the disk of the remote Mac on your local Mac's
>desktop using system 7 filesharing.  You still have to transport files
>over a relatively slow modem, but you can use applications on the
>local Mac to edit them etc, which is usually much faster than
>transmitting the quickdraw screen re-drawing via the modem.
>
>ARA is extremely useful if you want access to files on your remote
>Mac.  If you put Appletalk on your Unix machines, you can also manage
>and edit Unix files remotely. You can simultaneously connect a terminal
>emulator (Versaterm) through ARA.  Apple have announced ARA 2 and
>an ARA server nubus card that will serve up to 4 remote users -  you
>can put up to 4 such cards in nubus slots in the server Mac.
>
>So get ScreenLink - at $30 its a great deal - but think about getting
>ARA as well.  (If you need to see the remote screen in color or to
>connect to PCs, you'll need Timbuktu instead of ScreenLink).

I might add that it has been further explained to me that ARA works like an
extension of the MacOS, whereas the other programs operate on top of the
MacOS at both locations and since they transmit quickdraw screens, they are
slower and clumsier than ARA.

Hope this helps others as well. I will now embark on the expensive and time
consuming process of trying to setting something up.

Cheers!

####
#### List of last week's uploads to the Info-Mac Archive
####
#### For questions about this list of files send mail to
#### moderator@info-mac.org.  Questions for the Info-Mac
#### Digest readership should be sent to digest@info-mac.org.
####
#### This file is /info-mac/help/the-weeks-uploads.txt.  It is
#### generated each Saturday morning.
####
####           The Moderators <moderator@info-mac.org>
####
#### Current Date: Sat Mar 19 00:00:50 EST 2005
#### Listing of info-mac files new in the last 7 days.
####
####
TinyBooks v2.1.0 - Mac Small Business Accounting
/info-mac/app/bus/tiny-books-21.hqx
Size: 312K
 
QIF Master 4.9
/info-mac/app/bus/qif-master-49.hqx
Size: 4616K
 
ThumbsUp 4.1
/info-mac/gst/grf/thumbs-up-41.hqx
Size: 272K
 
PhotoStickies 5.4
/info-mac/gst/grf/photo-stickies-54.hqx
Size: 1176K
 
AudioTools Pro 5.1
/info-mac/gst/snd/audio-tools-pro-51.hqx
Size: 456K
 
XMenu 1.5
/info-mac/gui/x-menu-15.hqx
Size: 160K
 
/info-mac/per/tb/tidbits-jp-769.etx
Size: 39K
 
/info-mac/per/tb/tidbits-770.etx
Size: 34K
 
photoprinto 1.1 - faster import, export PDF, and more
/info-mac/prn/photoprinto-11.hqx
Size: K
 
photoprinto 1.1J - Japanese Version
/info-mac/prn/photoprinto-11-jp.hqx
Size: K
 
HTML-Optimizer 9.0 (OSX)
/info-mac/text/html/html-optimizer-90-x.hqx
Size: 2192K
 
HTML-Optimizer 9.0 (Classic)
/info-mac/text/html/html-optimizer-90-ppc.hqx
Size: 1680K
 
HTML-Optimizer Pro 4.0 (Classic)
/info-mac/text/html/html-optimizer-pro-40-ppc.hqx
Size: 1904K
 
HTML-Optimizer Pro 4.0 (OSX)
/info-mac/text/html/html-optimizer-pro-40-x.hqx
Size: 2504K
 
#### End of list.

From: april@macb033.rrzn.uni-hannover.de
Subject: make-turkish-fonts-20.txt



This documentation describes in detail how to access the special Turkish
characters, which are contained in all of Apple's Roman TrueType fonts.
As a bonus, you get a multiplication sign for the useless lozenge.

Andreas Prilop
<april@macb033.rrzn.uni-hannover.de>
July 1997



You need only ResEdit.
<ftp://ftp.info.euro.apple.com/Apple_Support_Area/Apple_SW_Updates/US/Macintosh/Utilities/>


(1) Duplicate a font suitcase and remove all bitmap fonts from the copy.

(2) Open the font suitcase with ResEdit.

  * Rename the 'FOND' and all 'sfnt' resources (menu "Resource :
    Get Resource Info"). For example, change "Times" to "Times TR",
    "Times Bold" to "Times TR Bold", etc.

  * Open the 'FOND' resource (menu "Resource : Open Using Hex Editor").
    Replace the first letter of the font name with an "X"
    (menu "Find : Find ASCII..."). For example, change "Times" to "Ximes".
    Thereby your modified fonts will not be substituted by resident
    printer fonts.

  * Open an 'sfnt' resource.
    Change the hex string (menu "Find : Find Hex...")
    "B9BABBBCBDBEBFC0C1" to "F0BABBF8F9FAD7FBFC".
    Repeat for all 'sfnt' resources in this suitcase.

(3) You can find a keyboard layout and international resources in
    "Eudora Central/East Europe"
    info-mac/comm/inet/mail/edr/eudora-centeast-europe-12.hqx.

Date: Tue, 5 Dec 89 16:36:44 EST
From: zben@umd5.umd.edu (Ben Cranston)
Subject: Serial port document (long)

MIT EE claims it is benign but confusing.  Caveat Solderor...

This document contains notes on the Macintosh serial port and its use, with
concentration on hardware interface issues.

***  DANGER WARNING WILL ROBINSON!!!  ***
The DB-25 on the back of a Macintosh is NOT a serial port!  It is a SCSI
parallel port.  Any attempt to use this connector as a serial port will NOT
function correctly and may cause damage to the Macintosh and/or the equipment
being connected.

The two serial ports of a Macintosh are mini-Din-8 connectors which are
labeled with a telephone (the "modem port") and a printer ("printer port").
This is the pinout of the serial connectors.  We are looking at the back
of the Macintosh (or alternatively at the BACK of a male plug):

             Macintosh Plus Serial Connectors (Mini-DIN-8)

       /------###------\         1 HSKo          Output Handshake
     /        ###        \                        (Zilog 8530 DTR pin)
   /                       \     2 HSKi / Clock  Input Handshake or extern clk
  /     [|]   [|]   [|]     \                     (Depending on 8530 mode)
 /       8     7     6       \   3 TxD-          Transmit data (minus)
|                             |
|                             |  4 Ground        Signal ground
|     ===       ===    ===    |
|      5         4      3     |  5 RxD-          Receive data (minus)
|                             |
|                             |  6 TxD+          Transmit data (plus)
 \----+    ===   ===    +----/
  \###|     2     1     |###/    7 N/C           (no connection)
   \##|                 |##/
     \|                 |/       8 RxD+          Receive data (plus)
       \------###------/
              ###

Note this is a RS-422 interface so the signals come in a balanced pair,
a positive (plus) and a negative (minus), for each data signal.  As we shall
see below, there is an easy method for matching this to RS-232.

We buy the mini-Din-8 connectors at our local electronics surplus store.
They cost just under four dollars each, but are not quite as nice as the
Apple molded plugs (for example, they don't have the nice orienting-D shape).
We are now carefully removing the pins from the connector, soldering the wires
to the pin, then replacing the pin in the connector body.  We fan out the
end of the (stranded) wire into a little umbrella around the head of the pin,
then we solder all around.  A "third hand" reduces this task from impossible
to merely tedious.


On the original 128K and the 512K upgrade machines (which have a DB-9 connector
instead of the mini-Din-8) the Output Handshake line was held in a "marking"
condition by hardware (a small resistor to the appropriate power supply rail).
On later Macintoshes there are logic and a line driver for this line.  This
change introduces the following incompatabilities:

1. SOME of the older terminal programs don't have the code to explicitly
   drive HSKo high.

2. SOME terminal programs drop HSKo when they close down.

3. SOME modems require DTR and will drop carrier if DTR goes away.

If the cable design given below, mapping HSKo to DTR, is used, there are two
recognized pathological conditions which can happen:

A. Cannot use modem at all, because of 1 and 3 together.

B. Modem drops out when switching between terminal programs, 2 and 3 together.

Of course, some people consider B a feature, in that it will hang up the
phone when you switch off the computer.  Personally, I hang up the phone when
I am done and I like to switch from terminal program to terminal program.
If one of the above conditions happen, there are only three alternatives.

I.   If at ALL possible, set your modem up to IGNORE DTR and stay connected.
     Look for a DIP switch for this.  I personally made this choice.
   
II.  Use only terminal programs which "properly" drive HSKo.
     You get to operationally define "properly" :-)

III. Drive DTR from DSR at the modem end of the cable, as described below.


Macintosh to modem (or other DCE device):

       DIN-8 MALE                       DB-25 MALE

       GROUND 4 O--+--------------------O 7  GROUND
  RECV DATA + 8 O--+

  RECV DATA - 5 O-----------------------O 3  RD (Receive Data)
  
  XMIT DATA - 3 O-----------------------O 2  TD (Transmit Data)
  
HANDSHAKE OUT 1 O--+
HANDSHAKE  IN 2 O--+--------------------O 20 DTR (Data Terminal Ready)

Note that in RS-232 the data signals are inverted (marking is minus) while
the control signals are not (marking is plus).  Thus the transmit data
minus signal from the Mac is just right for driving the modem.  Leave the
transmit data plus signal disconnected.  If you ground this you will short
out a driver, and it will probably get hot.  Similarly the receive data
signal from the modem/DCE is inverted, so it can drive the Mac's receive
data minus line, but in this case the receive data plus line is grounded to
prevent any extraneous signals from being induced into the circuit.

Note also that we are driving both HSKi and DTR from HSKo so the problems
described above can happen.  An alternative arrangement would drive these
signals from the modem/DCE's source of DSR, like this:
  
                                     +--O 6  DSR (Data Set Ready)
HANDSHAKE  IN 2 O--------------------+--O 20 DTR (Data Terminal Ready)

Some dumb modems might require Request To Send (RTS) which one would wire
like this:

                                     +--O 6  DSR (Data Set Ready)
HANDSHAKE  IN 2 O--------------------+--O 20 DTR (Data Terminal Ready)
                                     +--O 4  RTS (Request To Send)

Finally, if you have only 3-wire cable and don't need DTR handshake, you
can wire each side to be happy like this:

HANDSHAKE OUT 1 O--+                 +--O 6  DSR (Data Set Ready)
HANDSHAKE  IN 2 O--+                 +--O 20 DTR (Data Terminal Ready)
                                     +--O 4  RTS (Request To Send)


Macintosh to terminal (or other DTE device):

       DIN-8 MALE                      DB-25 FEMALE

       GROUND 4 O--+--------------------O 7  GROUND
  RECV DATA + 8 O--+
  
  RECV DATA - 5 O-----------------------O 2  TD (Transmit Data)
  
  XMIT DATA - 3 O-----------------------O 3  RD (Recieve Data)
  
HANDSHAKE  IN 2 O-----------------------O 20 DTR (Data Terminal Ready)

The same analysis applies with respect to the data signals, except that
in this case the transmit and receive are switched around, since one guy's
transmit should be the other guy's receive and vice versa.  Note receive
data plus is grounded while transmit data plus is left disconnected.

For this particular cable we have wired the terminal/DTE's DTR back into
the Macintoshes HSKi to implement a hardware handshake.  Assume the
terminal side is a printer that is being overrun.  One of the things these
printers can do is drop DTR.  By wiring it through to the handshake input
we make it possible for the Macintosh software to temporarily pause in
sending, until the printer's buffers empty out and the printer reasserts
the DTR signal.

Some terminal devices may need to see DSR (Data Set Ready) or CD
(Carrier Detect) or CTS (Clear to Send), in which case they may be driven
>From an appropriate source.

                                     +--O 20 DTR (Data Terminal Ready)
This is probably appropriate         +--O 6  DSR (Data Set Ready)
for a communications terminal        +--O 8  CD  (Carrier Detect)
in which DTR is a totally static				     
signal and does not move.            +--O 4  RTS (Request To Send)
                                     +--O 5  CTS (Clear To Send)

or

                                     +--O 4  RTS (Request To Send)
This is probably appropriate	     +--O 6  DSR (Data Set Ready)
for a printer that flaps DTR         +--O 5  CTS (Clear To Send)
as the buffer fills and empties.     +--O 8  CD  (Carrier Detect)
				     
The logic is to drive from whichever of DTR or RTS is NOT flapping around
as buffers fill and empty or as the terminal transmits and receives...

To connect directly to an IBM PC we believe CD must be asserted.  That is,
an IBM PC will not accept data unless it also sees the CD signal.


128K/512K MACINTOSH

Somebody on comp.sys.mac.hardware asked for cables for a 128K/512K Mac!
I didn't know there were any more of those out there!!!  :-)  Here are
the corresponding connections, please use these in conjunction with the
analysis and suggestions provided above:


128K/512K Macintosh to modem (or other DCE device):

      DB-9 MALE                       DB-25 MALE

     GROUND 3 O--+--------------------O 7  GROUND
RECV DATA + 8 O--+

RECV DATA - 9 O-----------------------O 3  RD (Receive Data)
  
XMIT DATA - 5 O-----------------------O 2  TD (Transmit Data)
  
 + 12 Volts 6 O--+
  HANDSHAKE 7 O--+--------------------O 20 DTR (Data Terminal Ready)


128K/512K Macintosh to terminal (or other DTE device):

      DB-9 MALE                       DB-25 FEMALE

     GROUND 3 O--+--------------------O 7  GROUND
RECV DATA + 8 O--+

RECV DATA - 9 O-----------------------O 2  TD (Transmit Data)
  
XMIT DATA - 5 O-----------------------O 3  RD (Receive Data)
  
  HANDSHAKE 7 O-----------------------O 20 DTR (Data Terminal Ready)


FINAL CLOSURE

On the DB-25 pin 1 is the FRAME ground and pin 7 is the SIGNAL ground.
Equipment that requires connection to pin 1 is badly designed (IMHO).
As a very last resort you might try a 1 to 7 jumper.

As you can imagine from seeing all these alternatives, an RS232 breakout
box is real handy, since you can try all these patches without having to
warm up a soldering iron.  The only other thing I can say is:

IF IT DON'T WORK, DON'T LEAVE IT TURNED ON LONG ENOUGH TO GET HOT!

Communications driver chips are built very ruggedly and will stand an
amazing amount of mistreatment for a short period of time.  But if you
let two drivers fight for an hour one or both of them will burn out...

I've read this over a dozen times to make sure there aren't any totally
glaring errors, but I cannot be responsible for anybody's smoked hardware.
Let's be careful out there!

Ben Cranston <zben@Trantor.UMD.EDU>
Network Infrastructures Group
Computer Science Center
University of Maryland at College Park
of Ulm

Date: Thu, 16 Dec 1993 18:28:32 -0800 (PST)
From: Brian Amira <brian@scs.unr.edu>
Subject: Fax STF v3.0 Info (By Request)

I have now used every Fax program made for the Mac and think Fax STF 3.0 
is by far the best. Thus I will not talk about the others.

Is Fax STF Pro worth the extra moeny?
-------------------------------------
Hummm, well the PRO version is not out yet so it is kinda hard to tell. 
STF Pro adds AutoOCR - if you need fax OCR then this is good, if not is 
is a waste. AutoPrint - Auto printing of faxes, I don't really need this. 
Bacground Fax Imaging - Something nice to always have, but it will be 
slower. FaxView - Improved on screen viewing of faxes, the one thing I 
feel I would use most often. System 7 PRO PowerTalk Support - Useless to me.

As you can see it is really on a do you need it basis. I don't need PRO, 
but I might get it if it is a VERY CHEEP upgrade from normal STF.


How about some info about Fax STF 3.0?
--------------------------------------
At $39 mail order I would say buy it. When you do use the fax it will save
you alot of time. As far as whats new this could be rather long so I will
make it short and sweet. STF Tech can fax you more detail I would think. I
will be the first to admit that STF Tech is weak, but I have descovered
how to get good tech support from them after months of dealing with them,
DON'T CALL - FAX! When you fax them it gives them time to get the right
answer from the right person, if you call they crack under pressure. If
you need any help with STF please feel free to contact me and I will see
how I can help. When all else fales, ask STF tech. I am in now way related
with STF, I just hate to see a great product ruined by bad tech support. 

The Fax Print is the same PLUS GREYSCALE, but it no longer contains the 
settings. To change the settings you run a Settings app. or call them up 
from within Fax Manager. This makes for MUCH FASTER settings control. 
There is no loger that delay between clicking the setup button and the 
options coming up. It also suports Line Manager for Data and Fax 
reception with ARA. Also, if you don't choose a person to send to, the 
button says Save instead of Fax and the fax will just be created but not 
sent. It can then be placed in Include or Archive folders (see below).

Fax Status now has neat color Icons in it.

FaxMonitor init no longer puts the modem to Auto Answer, it just looks 
for the ring signal (A big improvment to me).

Quick Fax Does the same thing but has changed to support new features 
listed below. It also has a better interface and the ability to choose 
High or Low rez for the QuickFax.

Here is were the changes really start. FaxManager now STF Manager, has an 
entirely new interface and display of windows. It is in NO WAY like the 
old Fax Manager. The Activity Log is now a fully formated document with 
VERY percise control over what it desplays. It is important to understand 
that EVERY window I talk about from this point on functions like a 
spreadsheet. You can rearange the collums of information and sort by any 
of them. The activity log is now an interactive document as is EVERY 
window. You can delete specific entries without clearing the whole thing, 
and can get detailed info about that fax transmission/reception by dubble 
clicking on a entrie. The log now has collums desplaying: In Or Out icon, 
Name, Who, Result, Date/Time, # Pages, Elapsed Time, Speed, # Dialed, 
Station Message, From. All of there collums can be rearanged in order and 
sorted by any.

There is now a window displaying all the Fax Phonebooks. It has buttons 
and stuff that are of no sence for me to describe. When you open a fax 
phonebook it creates a new window with collums and stuff like the 
Activity Log and it has buttons & such for use.

There are now seprate folders for Fax In, Out, Hold, Include, and 
Archive. Each has a corrisponding window that you can drag and drop 
between to move faxes and/or send etc. Double click on any fax and you 
get info about it like who from, to, stuff like that. The whole interface 
is now Drag and Drop so if you have a fax in hold that you want to send 
out, you drag it from hold to send. You then drag and drop onto the fax 
the names of who you want it sent to. When you send faxes you can have 
them deleted, put into Archive, or into Include. Include is a place to 
store faxes you use alot and they can be attached to any fax you send 
out. Archive is self explanitory

The whole program now has alot of info to offer. What to know how manny 
errors there were in a fax, maby view them? Number of scan lines? Percent 
of errors? This is just a sample of the control you now have.

If I did not cover something you were interested in please feel free to 
ask me for more info.

<| Brian M. Amira  | Internet E-Mail: Brian@scs.unr.edu |>

Date: Wed, 20 Oct 1993 10:00:36 +0100
From: Dominique Petitpierre <petitp@divsun.unige.ch>

Lloyd Wood <L.H.Wood@lut.ac.uk> (Receipt Notification Requested) (Non Receipt
Notification Requested),
K A Sturrock <antkasx@gsusgi2.gsu.edu> (Receipt Notification Requested) (Non
Receipt Notification Requested),
John Armstrong <jarmst@kaiwan.com> (Receipt Notification Requested) (Non Receipt
Notification Requested),
Sam Sheng <ssheng@glacier.berkeley.edu> (Receipt Notification Requested) (Non
Receipt Notification Requested)
Subject: SUMMARY: Is the Apple 8*24 GC video display board worth something?


Here is a summary of the answers I received and informations I found out about
my question:  "Is the Apple 8*24 GC video display board worth something?"

In short:

It is not worth buying it.  Acceleration is not compatible with System 7 (my
problem) nor with 68040 CPUs.  24 bit colors works only on 13" monitors.

In long:

Here is my original message:

>From: petitp@divsun.unige.ch (Dominique Petitpierre)
>Subject: Is the Apple 8*24 GC video display board worth something?
>Summary: Why do the MacWorld benchmarks show no real acceleration?
>Should I buy the card?
>Keywords: video display card, 24 bit color, graphic acceleration
>Date: Fri, 15 Oct 1993 13:11:45 GMT
>
>I have the opportunity to buy a second hand accelerated color video display
>board, the Apple 8*24GC, to use in my MacIIx with an Apple 13" monitor.  It
>seems a good deal:  it is sold for $ 400 when the list price is $ 1340.
>
>But then I read the review "24-bit Color Graphics" in the February 1993 issue
>of MacWorld (p 153).  Their benchmark table show no real improvement between
>the non accelerated and accelerated Apple boards:  (+ 10% to + 20% for
>low-level QuickDraw tests, at best +10% in real-world tests, even 6% slower
>for horizontal scrolling). But the boards description claims Quickdraw
>acceleration by a factor 5 to 30?
>
>Where is the mistake?
>
>On the board there are two slots for DRAM.  The description is quite vague
>about their purpose:  some programs can use this memory to store "off display"
>images.  What programs know how to take advantage of this?  Is it worth buying
>the DRAM for it?
>
>I intend to use this card for graphic applications such as FreeHand,
>Illustrator, PageMaker and Photoshop, with images from Kodak CDs and from a
>256 levels of grey scanner (HP Scanjet).  Will this card really speed
>operations of these tools?


Some relevant facts from the specification sheet from an Apple authorized
dealer:

- Name:  Macintosh II Display Card 8.24 GC (I believe this is what appears in
	 the window when you click the "Options" button of the "Monitors"
	 Control Panel.)
- resolutions:
         max 16.7 million colors on a 640 x 480 pixels monitor
         max 256 grays on a 640x870 pixels monitor
	 max 256 grays on a 1152x870 pixels monitor
- video: RS-343 and RS-170 (NTSC, interlaced); only 256 colors with "Apple
         convolution" for flicker free display.
- extensibility:
	 2 SIMMS slots to add up to 8 MB extra memory for "processing
         large off screen graphics" (retranslated back from French :-),
         notice that it won't let you use a larger monitor).

Facts from Larry Pina's book "MacIntosh Repair and Upgrade Secrets", Simon &
Schuster (pp 132, 140, 142,144, 149, 169):

- special software (p 139):
         needs a 32 bit Quickdraw extension in your system on a Mac II/IIx/cx.
- compatibility with Virtual Memory (p 169):
	"Early versions of the MacIntosh Display Card 8.24GC (graphic
	accelerator) don't work unless the accelerator is disabled"
- DRAM upgrade (p 140):
        Official Apple Macintosh Display Card DRAM Kit (part M0505LLA/A, 2
	1MB SIMMS) or generic SIMMS up to 8MB total. 

Vague information:  it seems that the extra DRAM memory is called "GWorld".  I
don't know what it is or what it means.

Answers received by Wednesday October 20th:

>From:       John A. Feinberg <feinberg@acsu.buffalo.edu>
>
>The price of $400 for the 8*24GC + the Apple monitor is a steal; the monitor
>alone is probably worth $300!  The 8*24GC is not as valuable as it once was,
>since it does not work in accelerated mode on a 68040 computer.  Since you
>are using a IIcx, that is not a problem.  The SIMM slots are more likely
>for the purpose of supporting more colours on larger monitors.  You don't
>need to bother filling them if you are going to be using a 13" monitor.  The
>card will have enough memory on it already to support millions of colours at
>640x480.

Just to clarify things:  the prices quoted were only for the board and did not
include the monitor (sorry for my ambiguous English); and I have a IIx not a
IIcx.


>From:        Lloyd Wood <L.H.Wood@lut.ac.uk>
>
>The acceleration on the GC is incompatible with System 7. You have to turn
>it off.

Might be related to the problem with virtual memory mentioned in Larry Pina's
book.  This probably explains also why the benchmarks of MacWorld did not show
any significant acceleration.



>From:        (K A Sturrock) <antkasx@gsusgi2.gsu.edu>
>
>You don't want it.
>
>The Accelerated 8*24GC board is highly buggy and support for it has
>dissapeared since System 7 has arrived.
>
>Many older programs (including Apple stuff like Apple File Exchange) crash
>the machine or work in weird ways (like having your text disappear under an
>older copy of ATM with Pagemaker....). The current init for the board really
>does nothing and acceleration is minimal.
>
>Also, the board won't support 24bit color on anything bigger than a 13"
>AppleColor.
>
>The 8*24GC was the worst purchase I've ever authorized....


Conclusion: I will not buy the board, even for $400.

What I find quite infuriating is that these compatibility problems were not
mentioned by the Apple authorised dealer that wanted to sell the new board to
me; The other Apple authorised dealer that is selling the second hand board
(which they were using it until a week ago) mentioned the incomptibility with
68040 CPUs but not with virtual memory or System 7, he even said that the
extra DRAM could be added to allow for larger monitors which is false.

Moral of the story: don't trust dealers even if they are authorized by Apple!

--
Mr. Dominique Petitpierre / ISSCO, University of Geneva, Switzerland
petitp@divsun.unige.ch/ S=petitp;OU=divsun;O=unige;PRMD=switch;ADMD=arcom;C=ch