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APPLE II DEVELOPMENT FORUM CONFERENCE LOG
Tuesday, April 24, 1990  10:00 p.m. edt
Topic:  Apple IIGS Toolbox Programming
Forum Leader:  Dave Sugar  (AFL Dyfet)


AFL Dyfet  Okay, all sillyness aside, welcome to the Apple II Development
           Forum.  Tonight
AFL Dyfet  our topic is the Apple IIgs toolsets, which should mean plenty of
           questions for
AFL Dyfet  Dave L to answer :)...We will be using PROTOCOL tonight starting
           now, so if you
AFL Dyfet  have a question on tonight's topic, enter a '?' on a line by
           itself, and if you
AFL Dyfet  wish to comment, enter a '!' on a line by itself.  You will each
           be called in
AFL Dyfet  turn...the floor is now open for questions...
AFL Dyfet  Okay, Coach, you have the floor now...GA...
Coach101   In one of folders here a question was posted regarding the
           existence of
Coach101   a call/toolset/whatever that would do the "little red
           thermometer"
Coach101   operation.  A comment was made that it was a GS/OS call.  Is there
           such
Coach101   a call? and, how do you use it, if it exists, ?
Coach101   ga
AFL Dyfet  GA Dave...
Dave Lyons There's no direct support for it in the system, as far as I know. 
           The Finder happens
Dave Lyons to implement its little red bars as custom controls, and if
           somebody wants to write one,
Dave Lyons it would make a really good example of a custom control.  ga
Coach101   Thanks, and while I have the floor,
Coach101   Matt, many thanks for the excellent article on caching and how
           its
Coach101   done by GS/OS in the latest DEVELOP magaizine.   () () ()
Coach101   done
AFA Gary J (yeah Matt!!)
Matt DTS   <bow>
AFL Dyfet  GA Scott, (good work, Matt!)...
AFL Scott  Why custom controls, Dave?  One would think that a user item would
           be enough
AFL Scott  correct?
AFL Dyfet  GA Matt...
Matt DTS   User items are just fine as long as you're using the Dialog
           Manager for everything.
Matt DTS   If you're not, a custom control is the easiest way to go about
           such things.  GA.
AFL Dyfet  GA Gary...
AFA Gary J Can someone tell me what is the latest version of GSBug?  APDA
           Catalog says 
AFA Gary J it's 4.0b1.  The developers were sent 5.0d4, and the acutal GSBug
           Init shows
AFA Gary J 1.3d17.  I'm confused :)
AFA Gary J GA
AFL Dyfet  GA Matt...
Matt DTS   The version number of the *disk* bumped up to 5.0 from 4.0 when
           the system software did.
Matt DTS   The version of the debugger itself is still in the 1.3 range as
           released through APDA. GA.
AFA Gary J So the latest DISK version is 5.0d4?
AFA Gary J (If so, then why is APDA listed as 4.0b1?)
AFA Gary J GA
AFL Dyfet  Perhaps slightly out of date :)?
AFA Gary J Like a year off? :)
AFL Dyfet  Or maybe they are distributing with 4.0 for some other
           unfathomable reason...
AFL Dyfet  maybe an editing error??
AFA Gary J Probably the latter. Thanks.  GA
Matt DTS   I think a newer version will be forthcoming from APDA soon that
           will end all the confusion.
Coach101   I do not think APDA ever updated their debugging package
Coach101   to 5.0 stuff.
Matt DTS   The change in disk numbering to 5.0 never made it to APDA, as that
           package was never updated.
Matt DTS   <GA>
AFA Gary J Thanks.  That explains it. 
AFL Dyfet  Okay...do we have any other questions for tonight?
AFL Dyfet  GA Bytemaster, you have the floor now...
Bytemaster I'M NEW . Can somebody tell me what error $0003 in SysFailManager
           is?
AFL Dyfet  GA Dave, I knew you'd be first :)
Dave Lyons The SysFailMgr toolbox call can be called with any number from
           0-FFFF and any string, so you can't
Dave Lyons tell what it is just from the number.  (A lot of errors codes come
           directly from
Dave Lyons tool errors, but 3 isn't one of them.)  So, what we need to know
           is
Dave Lyons what program was tring to start up/etc when you got the error? 
           Was there any message there besides
Dave Lyons the generic "Fatal system error"?
Bytemaster Yes. I got it after executing  a quit call (all tools shut down)
           It says UNABLE
Bytemaster TO LOAD NECESSARY TOOLS
Dave Lyons Okay, that was the Finder calling SysFailMgr
Dave Lyons when it had trouble starting up all the toolsets it wants.  That
           means the program you were quitting
Dave Lyons did not properly shut down all the toolsets it was using.  ga
Bytemaster Im unsure of the quit call paramaters
AFL Dyfet  You need to call shutdown on whatever tools you started in your
           application
Bytemaster I have i4'0' i2'0' ga
Dave Lyons Bytemaster,
Dave Lyons it's not the Quit parameters that are wrong.  For example, if your
           program starts up
Dave Lyons QuickDraw (using QDStartUp), you need to shut it down *before* you
           quit, using QDShutDown; same goes
Dave Lyons for all the other toolsets that you use.  What language are you
           using?
Dave Lyons (Duh, you're using
Dave Lyons APW Assembly...remind me to pay attention to your
Dave Lyons "i4"s :-)
AFA Gary J (Could be ORCA/M :)
Bytemaster orca/m
Dave Lyons I was just wondering if you were using ORCA/Pascal or something,
           where you had some stuff
Dave Lyons provided for you like StartDesk/etc that would confuse matters
           more, but never mind.
Dave Lyons You could possibly
Dave Lyons be shutting things down in the wrong order, too--there's a
           technical note on starting
Dave Lyons and shutting down toolsets, w/ recommended orders.
Matt DTS   (IIgs TN #12, by the way.)_
Dave Lyons Oh, and HeadCase points out that I should tell you to use
           StartUpTools and ShutDownTools, where are
Dave Lyons new with System Software 5.0 & documented in Toolbox Reference 3
           (at APDA).
Dave Lyons ga
Dave Lyons (StartUpTools & ShutDownTools take care of the details (like
           order) for you, making life simple.)
Bytemaster Thanks I thought I shut all down but I'll recheck all GA
AFL Dyfet  Okay, DL Davies is next and has the floor now...
DL Davies  This is for those with experience using LinkIIGS. The manual
           states that you...
DL Davies  can use wildcards in the script.  EX:  -lseg:code MAIN1  data/=
DL Davies  instead I have to do this....
DL Davies   -lseg:code MAIN1  data/data.root data/data.a
DL Davies  Any simple way to get around this....ALSO.......
DL Davies  what does everyone think of ZapLink, better or worse than
           LinkIIGS...GA
AFL Dyfet  GA Coach...
Coach101   I do not have an answer to your -lseg problem...  sorry...  the
Coach101   manual sure implies what you did should work.  On the ZapLink
           comment,
Coach101   the specifications I have seen for ZapLink indicate that it will
           not
Coach101   handle all of the cases that LinkIIgs handles.  I like a very
           "robust"
Coach101   linker so I will stick with LinkIIgs..   ga
DL Davies  Yes, I noticed!  You can't specifly segment types (code, data,
           etc.)
Coach101   or RTLs, which I play with..
DL Davies  :)
AFL Dyfet  RTL's?  Hmm...KRAM, Coach?? :)
Coach101   Yep...  50% converted to assembler/RTL
AFL Dyfet  Hmm...I have a network email program just looking for something
           like that :)
AFA JoeyS  (network email??  <eyes glaze over>)
Coach101   Has Joey had a tetanus shot?
AFL Dyfet  Yes, with gateways, Joey :)...
AFA JoeyS  :)
DL Davies  Oh...if we are on the subject of networks....
DL Davies  I have a little TALK program I wrote that splits the screen in
           two
DL Davies  and lets you talk to another person on the network. DONE! GA
AFL Dyfet  Hmm...Okay, Coach has the next question...GA Coach...
Coach101   First a correction, Dave informs me that ZapLink does work with
           RTLs
Coach101   so I must have mis-read the specs on ZapLink.  Sorry Mike!
Dave Lyons Oops!  Hey,
Coach101   ga
Dave Lyons I wasn't talking about Run-Time Libraries...I was only talking
           about opcode $6B, RTL, the kind that
Dave Lyons goes with JSL!  ga
DL Davies  :) hehehee
AFA Gary J :)
Coach101   Pass the wet rag, my face is covered with EGG :)
Coach101   I owe you one Lyons :)
Coach101   My question is, suprisingly, sort of network oriented.  If I have
           a
Coach101   code module that is not part of the running application (for
           example, an
Coach101   Init, Driver, etc.), and that code wishes to, asychronously, put
           up
Coach101   a message to the user (kind of like "oops, your server went
           away"), what
Coach101   precautions do I need to take to assure that I do not mess up
           the
Coach101   running applications context, windows, etc.  ga
Dave Lyons Very good question...first, you should probably use the Scheduler
           to make your code get called
Dave Lyons when the BUSY flag is 0 (this way it's safe to make QuickDraw
           calls).  'course, then you
Dave Lyons have other cases to deal with, like text-based apps that never
           call
Dave Lyons INCBUSY and DECBUSY...your task could sit there forever waiting to
           execute.
Dave Lyons GS/OS provides Signals, which may be useful--write to DTS if you
           want more info on that, since I
Dave Lyons don't have it in my head.
Dave Lyons You'll want to preserve
Dave Lyons the bitmap under your window, probably, in case you're running
           under an app that doesn't know how
Dave Lyons to update all its windows.  (If they haven't even started up the
           window mgr, you might just use
Dave Lyons a text alert, like GS/OS does for the Format/Erase dialogs).  The
           Tool Locator has two calls that
Dave Lyons should be really handy for you:  SaveTextState and
           RestoreTextState.  ga
Matt DTS   And it gets even worse - if you use a Window Manager call while
           the application is in the middle
Matt DTS   of an update event, the Window Manager will eat the application's
           VisRgn and UpdateRgn for lunch.
Matt DTS   (This is a problem currently in the OS, as is discussed in a TN -
           if you need a disk, the OS may
Matt DTS   put up an alert window while your update region nad vis region are
           swapped - bad news since that 
Matt DTS   adds more to the update region, which is really the VisRgn, which
           is really a pain.)  GA.
Dave Lyons Ack!  Good point.  I was going to say that TaskMaster almost
           certainly keeps the BUSY flag
Dave Lyons incremented around the BeginUpdate, call the contDraw routine,
           EndUpdate calls, but that's no
Dave Lyons help at all if an app or DA calls BeginUpdate and EndUpdate
           separately.  Ick.  Also,
Dave Lyons if your code is getting called by a completion routine or
           interrupt routine, *don't* put it in
Dave Lyons a dynamic segment.  Two reasons:  (1) What Matt said, since the OS
           will put up a window to ask
Dave Lyons for the disk if it's not online.  (2) The Loader isn't reentrant,
           so you'll toast things if you
Dave Lyons happen to interrupt a Loader call already in progress.  ga
Coach101   Ok, thats a lot to digest....   
Coach101   I think I remember reading the TN and saying to myself "thats a
           lot to
Coach101   ask of an application"  and then thinking "Apple will fix this
           someday
Coach101   I hope, I hope" :)
Dave Lyons Which part, Coach?
Dave Lyons (Oh...VisRgn stuff...got it.)
Coach101   My code is memory resident so loader is no concern.  The
           scheduler, adn
Coach101    praying that the application is using Taskmaster seems to be the
           only
Coach101   reasonable approach for the moment.  (of course, GS/OS console
           driver
Coach101   if text screen is up).  Thanks for the info   ga.
AFL Dyfet  GA Cecil...
CecilFret  Thanks.  I suppose it was a screwy way to learn C but at age 53
           had to start...
CecilFret  somewhere.  I took on Lichty and Eyes book and converted their
           code to C....
CecilFret  Needless to say, it took a while.  So I have a disk available with
           all the c>>
CecilFret  c code.  Next, I took on Sandy Mossberg's series in Call
           -A.P.P.L.E.  In his
CecilFret  code and my c code we both call OsShutdownGs with a shutflag of
           2...
CecilFret  That is the power down call.  THe thing crashes.  As I was sitting
           here
CecilFret  waiting I noticed neither Sandy nor I shut down the tools we have
           started.
CecilFret  we only did a DeskShutDown.  Could this be the problem, not
           shuttin down the
CecilFret  tools???????    GA
AFL Dyfet  GA Dave...
Dave Lyons You should be okay not shutting down the tools, since I don't
           think the Finder shuts much down
Dave Lyons before it calls OSShutDown either.  Once upon a time,
Dave Lyons there was a problem where it would mess up if you had the Window
           Manager started up but had *no*
Dave Lyons open windows (even an invisible one would save you).  I believe
           that was fixed in 5.0, tho.  Any 
Dave Lyons ideas, Matt?  ga
Dave Lyons Well, what sort of crash is it?  Is the address
Dave Lyons in any of your GS/OS drivers, for ex?
Matt DTS   That was fixed in 5.0.  I watched Steve fix it.
Matt DTS   I just did it from the Monitor and it worked fine for me from in
           the middle of the Finder.
Matt DTS   Sorry, Cecil.  GA.
Dave Lyons Cecil, can you successfully shut down your system from the
           Finder?
CecilFret  Ok, first of all I am using ProSel, not the finder.  Second, I am
           using a
CecilFret  dialog box from which I tell user to to a warm start or a Power
           down.
Dave Lyons (If not, then you've got mismatched versions of drivers or
           FSTs.)
CecilFret  I am in 80 column mode at the time.  The message comes back fine
           about
CecilFret  do you wish to restart, The restart button is there.  When I click
           itI get
CecilFret  the dreaded bong and have to three finger salute.
CecilFret  ga
Matt DTS   You're in 80-column text mode with the desktop tools started?
CecilFret  No, hirez Matt, sorry.
CecilFret  No window open
Dave Lyons Is there anything on the screen w/ the Bong, Cecil?
CecilFret  ga
Dave Lyons (I like hex numbers.)
CecilFret  No, dave.  Just the button
CecilFret  No hex, no code, just bong
Dave Lyons Very weird.  You didn't turn off text-page shadowing, did you?
CecilFret  not that I know of.  Like I said i do a destshutdown and that's
           it.
CecilFret  the screen goes blank and I get the message, etc.
CecilFret  ga
Dave Lyons Wait!
Matt DTS   (we're waiting)
Dave Lyons Why are you doing a DeskShutDown if you aren't supporting New Desk
           Accessories?
Dave Lyons (But Darn...that's not going to cause his problem.  DeskStartUp
           would cause problems, but shutdown
CecilFret  My About box shows control panel plus aobut who did it.  ga...
Dave Lyons should be fine, since the system keeps doing that anyway [during
           Quit & at boot time].)  Hmmm.
Matt DTS   When does this dialog show up, Cecil?
CecilFret  wait!
Matt DTS   (and is it a text dialog or desktop dialog?  I'm still confused on
           this.)
Matt DTS   (we'
Matt DTS   (we're waiting)
CecilFret  I am trying to find the right magazine.  I thought it was winter
           quarterly.
CecilFret  The dial shows up as a result of pulling down a menu item.  ga
Dave Lyons In *regular* hi-res, right?  No QD or Menu Mgr or anything.
CecilFret  Running QD.  Plain vanilla.  Just like Hodgepodge
CecilFret  ga
Matt DTS   HodgePodge uses all the tools, Cecil.  now are you or are you not
           using SUPER Hi-Res and the desktop
Matt DTS   tools?
CecilFret  Hmm.  Not sure.  On shaky grounds right now.  I open it 640. ga
Matt DTS   <ay caramba>
CecilFret  The code is in the Winter Quarterly of Call -A>P.P.L.E. ga
Matt DTS   It crashes in Sandy's version also?
CecilFret  that is a big 10-4 Matt.  BTW, we are calling modaldialog with a
           filter. ga
Matt DTS   Do you close the dialog before calling OSShutDown?
Dave Lyons (Cecil, 320x200 and 640x200 are *both* Super-Hires.  Ya confused
           me by saying "hirez" [280x192].)
Dave Lyons (Does that matter?)
CecilFret  Looking!
CecilFret  The answer is no, Matt ga
Matt DTS   (It might - the Dialog Manager might get confused by the Window
           Manager messing with the desktop
Matt DTS   behind its back.)
Dave Lyons Matt, bring up a modal dialog in the Finder & try OSShutDown with
           it up.
Dave Lyons I don't see how it's going to get confused, considering the Dialog
           Manager is never going
Dave Lyons to get control of the machine again.
Matt DTS   Where does the Finder use the _ModalDialog tool call?
Dave Lyons Matt, the Finder uses ModalDialog when you click the About...
           button in my Memory Bar NDA.
Dave Lyons (Should be an okay test, no?)
CecilFret  I think you have givenme some ideas.  I will try both shutting
           down the
CecilFret  tools and closing the dialog box.  Enough for me for now ok? 
           Thanks guys ga
Dave Lyons Cecil, be sure to check that your machine shuts down successfully
           from the Finder--it could be
Dave Lyons that your system is installed Weird.
Matt DTS   It works just fine with a Modal Dialog in front.  Reboots with no
           message.
Matt DTS   More importantly - make sure your system shuts down from Finder
           *after* your program's been run.
CecilFret  Hmmm.  REloaded with 5.02 after a disk crash...ga
Matt DTS   You might be trashing memory in the OS.  I believe C was designed
           to facilitate this.
Dave Lyons Eh?
CecilFret  AMEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  and wipe control panel stuff!!!!!
           ga
Micol Sys  C was designed to facilitate trashing memory in the OS?
CecilFret  Needless to say I trashed a lot with C.  Darned pointers!!!! ga
Dave Lyons I don't think anyone who has intentionally done a
           DisposeAll($3000) is allowed to take whacks like
Dave Lyons that at C. :-)
Coach101   :0
Coach101   :)
Matt DTS   But I did it from assembly, where at least I could see what was
           happening.  <nyah>
CecilFret  Thanks guys.  It is late in Iowa
AFL Dyfet  All we need is memory protection...and virtual memory, while we're
           at it, and
AFA Gary J hehe
AFL Dyfet  C behaves fine :)
Matt DTS   "It's morning in America..."
CecilFret  Phooey to you AFL DYfet
CecilFret  I could learn to hate C yesterday. ga
Dave Lyons Matt, can you say "asm { brk 0 };" ?  I knew you could. :)
Tamira     :)
Matt DTS   Yeah, to see what's going on you have to use the inline assembler.
            Reinforces my point.
Dave Lyons Okay, FINE.  Here's how to BRK without using inline assembly.
Dave Lyons blah() { int x=0; *((void *)&x)(); };    And then you adjust S and
           step from the RTL address.  :)
AFA JoeyS  You're sick, Dave.  :)
Matt DTS   And you call that readable.  Take some pills, Lyons.
AFL Dyfet  Matt, you can always #define Dave's mess into a simple BRK :)
Dave Lyons #define I_WISH_TO_BRK_HERE asm { brk 0 };    No prob.
Matt DTS   Yeah, at least I didn't write a P8 shell that uses illegal
           filetypes and steps on reserved memory.
Matt DTS   <nyah>
Dave Lyons Feature war!  My shell doesn't step on reserved memory out of the
           box, but you can write your
Matt DTS   <dave and dave are trying to figure out which one of them I'm
           talking about>
Dave Lyons own command to do it!  :-)
Micol Sys  Don't you just love the friendly spirit of co-operation between
           Apple employees
Tamira     lol
AFL Dyfet  Actually, other than $300, I found a nice chunk that AppleWorks
           overlays in the
AFA JoeyS  LOL Ron :D
AFL Dyfet  banked ramcard around $d100-$d400 :)
Matt DTS   We know AppleWorks does it too.  We pick on them just as much as
           we do you.
Dave Lyons (Matt, be sure to point you that you haven't writen a shell that
           steps on reserved memory.)