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~ CHATTING WITH GARY UTTER ~
~ GEnieLamp CONTEST WINNERS ANNOUNCED! ~
~ HOT MESSAGES - HOT FILES - HOT NEWS ~
~ IT'S ONLY MONEY ISSUE ~
\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\////////////////////////////////////
GEnie Lamp A2/A2Pro ~ A T/TalkNET OnLine Publication ~ Vol.1, Issue 6
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
Publisher............................................Kent Fillmore
Senior Editor........................................John Peters
Editor (AII).......................................Tom Schmitz
Co-Editor (AII).................................Phil Shapiro
~ GEnie Lamp MAC ~ ~ GEnie Lamp IBM ~
~ GEnie Lamp ST ~ ~ GEnie Lamp Elsewhere ~ ~ GEnieLamp A2/A2Pro ~
////////////////////////////////////\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\
>>> WHAT'S HAPPENING IN THE APPLE II ROUNDTABLE? <<<
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
~ September 1992 ~
FROM MY DESKTOP ......... [FRM] CONTEST WINNERS! ........ [WAR]
Notes From The Editor. Pass The Envelope Please.
HEY MISTER POSTMAN ...... [HEY] HUMOR ONLINE ............ [HUM]
Is That A Letter for Me? Python Fever Spreads in STRT.
PROGRAMMING CORNER ...... [PRO] ONLINE FUN .............. [FUN]
Apple II and You. A2 Pro News & Features.
WHO'S WHO ............... [WHO] FOCUS ON ................ [FOC]
Who's Who In Apple II. Computers As Therapy.
GAMES PEOPLE PLAY ....... [GAM] COWTOONS ................ [COW]
Bouncin' Ferno. Mooooooo Fun!
SOFTWARE SOLUTIONS ...... [SHA] APPLE II ................ [AII]
It's Only Money. Apple II History, Part 4.
THE ONLINE LIBRARY ...... [LIB] TELETALK ONLINE ......... [TEL]
Yours For The Downloading. Doing It Online.
LOG OFF ................. [LOG]
GEnieLamp Information.
[IDX] """"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
READING GEnie Lamp GEnie Lamp has incorporated a unique indexing
"""""""""""""""""" system to help make reading the magazine easier.
To utilize this system, load GEnie Lamp into any ASCII word processor
or text editor. In the index you will find the following example:
HUMOR ONLINE ............ [HUM]
[*]GEnie Fun & Games.
To read this article, set your find or search command to [HUM]. If
you want to scan all of the articles, search for [EOA]. [EOF] will take
you to the last page, whereas [IDX] will bring you back to the index.
MESSAGE INFO To make it easy for you to respond to messages re-printed
"""""""""""" here in GEnie Lamp, you will find all the information you
need immediately following the message. For example:
(SMITH, CAT6, TOP1, MSG:58/M475)
_____________| _____|__ _|___ |____ |_____________
|Name of sender CATegory TOPic Msg.# Page number|
In this example, to respond to Smith's message, log on to page
475 enter the bulletin board and set CAT 6. Enter your REPly in TOPic 1.
A message number that is surrounded by brackets indicates that this
message is a "target" message and is referring to a "chain" of two
or more messages that are following the same topic. For example: {58}
ABOUT GEnie GEnie costs only $4.95 a month for unlimited evening and
""""""""""" weekend access to more than 100 services including
electronic mail, online encyclopedia, shopping, news, entertainment,
single-player games, multi-player chess and bulletin boards on leisure
and professional subjects. With many other services, including the
largest collection of files to download and the best online games, for
only $6 per hour (non-prime-time/2400 baud). To sign up for GEnie
service, call (with modem) 1-800-638-8369. Upon connection type HHH.
Wait for the U#= prompt. Type: XTX99368,GENIE and hit RETURN. The system
will then prompt you for your information.
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
//////////////////////////////////////////// GEnie_QWIK_QUOTE ////
/ "Haven't you heard "patience is a virtue" and "all good things /
/ to those who wait"? :^)" /
/ /
/ "Sure I have... But where's the update?? <Grin>..." /
////////////////////////////////////// D.SEBERG / T.EVANS21 ////
[EOA]
[FRM]//////////////////////////////
FROM MY DESKTOP /
/////////////////////////////////
Notes From The Editor
"""""""""""""""""""""
By John Peters
[GENIELAMP]
TOP OF THE PAGE The big news this month is the announcement of the
""""""""""""""" GEnieLamp Computer Wars Contest winners. I am pleased to
report that we received many entries from many different computer
platforms. My thanks to everyone who participated in the contest.
I was surprised at how few entries came in from the larger platforms
and even more surprised at how many entries we received from the smaller
systems. If we were handing out an award based on how many entries we
received, the Apple II platform would easily take the prize. Strangely
enough, the IBM and Macintosh would be dead last. Perplexing.
You will find the 1st, 2nd and 3rd place winning articles elsewhere in
this issue. All other entries will be published in future issues of
GEnieLamp.
All-in-all, we had fun with the contest and we hope you did too.
NEW ALADDIN COLUMN I am happy to announce that master script writer, Jim
"""""""""""""""""" Lubin has agreed to start a monthly column about
Aladdin scripts. Each month in the IBM and ST Lamp there will be a "Cut &
Paste" script that you can add to Aladdin. This month Jim makes it easy
for you to check your GEnie Usage and Billing Data. With this script
getting this information is now just a click away!
ON A PERSONAL NOTE I received a somewhat frantic GE Mail message from
"""""""""""""""""" long-time GEnieLamp ST staff writer Richard Brown
[R.BROWN30] who wrote, "The hurricane is 16 hours and only 1.5 degrees off
making my house the bullseye. 2 hours sleep, massive adrenaline. You might
need to edit a little, sorry, but I'm bugging out. Online again ASAP."
Since then I've seen horrifying news reports of destruction and chaos from
Florida. From all of us here at GEnieLamp, our thoughts are with you and
your family, Richard.
GOOD TO KNOW! I'm afraid I have to agree with you about working with
""""""""""""" the phone company regarding line noise. I work for
Michigan Bell as a cable splicer, and before then I was a repairman.
For the past few years I've had a lot of battles with management
about this topic. I got nowhere with them either. There are two problem
areas. First, the vast majority of station repairman are not trained in
repairing problems related with data lines. It requires some special
equipment also. In our area, the only people with this knowledge and
training are the Large Business Technicians. These are generally
repairman/installers who do nothing but work for companies, and a lot of
their work is on data lines.
What you need to do is request (demand?) that the repair department
send out one of these people instead of a regular repairman. If you don't
get anywhere then demand to talk to a supervisor. If that doesn't help,
start calling your local public service commission. Unfortunately, in most
cases you have to make a lot of noise.
Here is another fact. The phone company will tell you that there is
nothing in the tariffs that say a "plain old telephone service" line will
support data. This is true. But the tariffs and the FCC regulations
require that the phone line come up to a certain requirements. If these
requirements are met your phone line should easily handle 2400 baud
service. When you run 9600 baud and higher you are at the very top of
those limits and it's not reasonable for Bell to supply every customer with
perfect lines. But there are ways to cure noise ratio and Db Loss problems
very simply. But that gets back to my first comment...the repairmen are
not properly trained to fix data lines.
I have found a simple way to cure most problems with data lines. It
doesn't solve them all but it's worked for me in 13 out of 15 attempts.
Ask your repair department to install an RF filter to reduce radio noise
coming through the phone lines, and also place a Db Pad (Bell calls them a
"97A Jack"). The pad is especially important if you live near the central
office (where the dialtone comes from). It may cost you a small
installation fee. If you just ask the repairman to install them he may
even do it just to get you off his back.
Some day the government will ease off the phone company and we will
start putting fiber optic cables directly to every home. Then you can
enjoy super fast data without any noise at all.
(G.CROSS, CAT8, TOP10, MSG:140/M474)
Until next month...
John Peters
GEnieLamp E-Magazine
/////////////////////////////////////// GEnie_QWIK_QUOTE ////
/ "I'm *sold* out & _all_ shipped out... Whew, 26 outa 32.. /
/ GEnie is a wonder!!!" /
//////////////////////////////////////////// T.EVANS21 ////
[EOA]
[WAR]//////////////////////////////
CONTEST WINNERS! /
/////////////////////////////////
Pass The Envelope Please
""""""""""""""""""""""""
By John Peters
[GENIELAMP]
>>> THE ANNUAL GEnieLamp COMPUTER WAR CONTEST! <<<
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
~ FIRST PLACE - $100.00 GEnie Online Credit ~
Brian McLean / [B.MCLEAN7]
THE BEST COMPUTER? I once visited a grocers' distribution data
"""""""""""""""""" processing center and was intrigued with the number
of silver disks hanging on the wall, appearing like trophies representing
best-selling record albums gone platinum. Only these weren't platinum
record albums encased in crystal, framed in silver: these were hard drives
nailed in effigy to the wall. And the head programmer described with
horror the sound of a hard-drive crashing, the sound of steel fingernails
dragging down some electronic chalkboard, a sound he knew too well.
There is no adequate answer to the question, which is the best computer.
The truth is, none of us really likes computers. They perform stupid
electronic tricks very quickly and with uncanny precision, as opposed to
humans, who perform stupid tricks slowly and often inaccurately.
The problem with computers lies in their ability to lull us into
complacency. Just as they become some dependable and predictable friend in
our lives, bringing order to chaos, they burn us by failing to save an
important file, or by destroying the hard drive, or by catching on fire.
Et tu R2D2.
Computers conjure up unrealistic expectations. Some believe that
computers are the harbinger of some 1984 Orwellian nightmare, and represent
the ultimate instrument of oppression. Still others believe that computers
will solve world hunger, bring world peace, or cure incurable diseases.
The sad truth is that computers do only what humans tell them to do.
Stupidly, quickly, and accurately.
The question of which computer platform is the best, then, is really
the wrong question. Computers in a vacuum, unplugged, are nothing at all.
It is the user or programmer that defines the platform. The flawed
question posed is analogous to asking which is the best musical instrument,
while ignoring the great instrumentalists. To make the question
interesting at all, one must answer it with a twist.
Which is the best computer? My buddy Kevin thinks it's the Macintosh,
which is arguably the coolest machine. Perhaps others would argue that the
IBM or its "compatible" is the politically correct choice. Still others
would embrace without question the innovative Cray. Or the vacuum-tubed
Sperry-Univac, on nostalgic value alone. My little brother might
convincingly argue Nintendo. But I think the proper answer to the question
is the modem, that little cross-platform device with no moving parts and
exaggerated warranties. The modem is the universal electronic medium. The
modem educates, it informs, it amuses, it distinguishes not between
seemingly incompatible platforms. The modem transfers and receives
electronic mail and makes a large, detached, cold world, a little smaller,
closer and warmer. The modem makes my IBM-compatible a universal platform.
And I do not expect to be nailing my modem to the wall any time soon. At
least not before the five-year warranty runs out.
Brian McLean owns and operates an IBM-compatible ZEOS 386-25 with
a relatively full 120 megabyte hard drive. Waiting to crash.
>>> 2ND PLACE - $50.00 GEnie Online Credit <<<
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
~ Paul Vega / [P.VEGA1] ~
THE HP-15C ADVANCED PROGRAMMABLE First, I want you to forget you saw
"""""""""" SCIENTIFIC CALCULATOR that word, "calculator." It brings up
""""""""""""""""""""" all sorts of bilious preconceptions of
gawky LED displays, Chiclet-style keyboards, and puny processing power.
Preconceptions are dangerous in a world groaning under the weight of
nuclear bombs.
So let us start anew, with fresh eyes, and examine this multi-
functional device, this affable helper, my friend, the HP-15C.
This machine has features which far outpace those of other members in
its class. Check out that full-width, ten digit display! In power-
conserving LCD, no less. This is sufficient for spelling out many words,
such as "07734," in the popularly used DUS encryption format. (To read DUS
("Down, upside") encrypted code, turn the HP-15C upside-down.)
The ergonomic keyboard boasts tactile feedback, and, in a bold move by
H-P engineers, completely breaks from the QWERTY layout which has had such
a stranglehold on the vast majority of typical personal computers,
condemning users to a servitude of tangled fingers, endless typing lessons,
and in some tragic cases, carpal tunnel syndrome. Indeed, by stripping the
keyboard of all alphabetic characters, leaving only the numeric and
mathematical/scientific function keys, H-P has virtually assured a new,
refreshing brevity in any report or paper typed on this machine. I
enthusiastically recommend that it be immediately installed in every legal
office in the country!
But let us not overlook the HP-15C's most obviously appealing
attribute--its gloriously tiny size. At 3 x 5", and a smattering of ounces,
the 15C was a palmtop before the word "palmtop" was invented! I could
carry it to the South Pole, if indeed I were going anywhere near there in
the foreseeable future.
Along with its portability comes endurance. The HP-15C uses relatively
ordinary alkaline batteries that make the nickel-cadmium ones, used in most
laptops, seem like ponderous aircraft carriers. And what sort of life
expectancy would you expect before the batteries powered down and had to be
replaced? Two hours? Four hours? . . . How about _six months_?! Worries
about whether one can continue working during that cross-country flight
vanish, like so much blue water down a 747's toilet.
Finally, let me describe a hidden, yet very special attribute of the
HP-15C. It turns out that most people are so seduced by the slim shape of
the 15C that they ask to borrow it--even to do rudimentary tasks, like
adding up lists of numbers. At this, I smile and sweetly ask, "Do you know
RPN?" When this elicits the puzzled, blank expression that it invariably
does, I know that once again my 15C will remain, shadowed in the warmth of
my breast pocket, safe from the barbarian hordes who don't even know how to
add numbers in Reverse Polish Notation.
The HP-15C. More than just a "calculator"--it's a great and good
friend. Shouldn't you get one, too?
>>> 3RD PLACE - $25.00 GEnie Online Credit <<<
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
~ Eric Tremblay / E.TREMBLAY2 ~
THE NeXT COMPUTER The NeXT is the choice of the future. Why? First of
""""""""""""""""" all for it's incredible software development tools.
Interface Builder sets a precedent in developers tools for the whole
software industry to follow. Object-oriented programming, now that's the
future! Development time reduced by more the 75%. Then there's
connectivity with thin and twisted-pair Ethernet ports which makes the NeXT
AppleShare and Novell network ready. So now you can mix a NeXT with a PC or
an Apple network without any problems. A user interface that sets the
standard for all workstations and personnel computers of the future. Unix
BSD which gives you multi-user and multi-tasking with many other advantages
that a Unix system gives you. Then there's Display PostScript which makes
the NeXT a truly "What you see is what you get" machine. Fax integration
that will blow you away! Let's not forget the 68040 and the DSP from
Motorola which also sets the standard in chip technology. The NeXT floppy
disk supports DOS 720K, 1.44 and MacIntosh formatted disks, plus the new
Extended Density 2.88 floppy disks.
On the software side of things, all the major players are there.
Lotus treated us with their incredible Improv spreadsheet and WordPerfect
is there with their industry standard word processor. We also have other
interesting software like the product called Simon Says which gives your
NeXT voice recognition and many many more applications. If that not enough
NeXT bundles a massive amount of software with each machine. These include
Interface Builder, C compilers, Digital Webster (with full word definitions
and pictures!), A text editor, Digital Librarian and a Mail application
that can include voice attachments and document attachments (like a
spreadsheet or graphics or ...) Which other vendors namely Sun are only now
emulating.
The future is bright for NeXT with it's multi-platform port of it's
NeXTstep environment.. NeXTstep has already been ported to the 486 and
ports to other platforms are planned for the near future. This gives the
user a wider choice of hardware to choose from and at the same time the
user is not at the mercy of a specific hardware or chip vendor. The NeXT
also has an very large public domain software selection which is growing
rapidly as each month passes, I'll also add that the pd software rivals
some commercial applications found on other platforms, all of this due to
the very advanced developers tools and a great programming community. All
of that and more for a lot less then you think! I really love my
NeXTstation, I would not trade it for any other computer and that includes
a Sun workstation!
//////////////////////////////////////// GEnie_QWIK_QUOTE ////
/ "Isn't it amazing how a $6 part can fix 100's of $$ worth /
/ of equipment?" /
/////////////////////////////////////////// D.GILLOGLY1 ////
[EOA]
[HEY]//////////////////////////////
HEY MISTER POSTMAN /
/////////////////////////////////
Is That A Letter For Me?
""""""""""""""""""""""""
By Thomas M. Schmitz
[TOM.SCHMITZ]
o Apple II ODDS & ENDS
o WHAT'S NEW?
o THROUGH THE GRAPEVINE
o APPLE HEADS WANT TO KNOW
o MESSAGE SPOTLIGHT
>>> Apple II ODDS & ENDS <<<
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
A2 UNIVERSITY PLANNED! The Apple II Roundtables (A2 and A2Pro) are
"""""""""""""""""""""" pleased to announce the fall term of A2
University, the GEnie classes you can take from your own home for just the
cost of GEnie time.
A2 University, abbreviated A2U, teaches courses of up to 12 weeks
duration so that you can learn the programming you want to learn. And not
just traditional programming either!
A2U's fall term features classes on two of the Apple II's hottest
topics by experts in their fields. The first course is "Ultra 4.0 to the
Max!", taught by world-renowned Ultra MacroWorks expert Will Nelken (read
his stuff in A+/inCider!). Will's got a 12-part course to show any
AppleWorks user how to get the most out of JEM Software's brand-new Ultra
4.0 package. If you like squeezing more power out of AppleWorks 3.0, this
course is for you!
And starting in October, A2U presents Andy McFadden (author of NuLib
and YankIt NuFX utilities) teaching a class on data compression. From the
concepts of how data is compressed to the specifics of today's common
compression standards, Andy's course can teach you how to make things
smaller.
For more information on signing up for either of these courses, see
the new category 22 in the A2Pro Bulletin Board! Classes start soon, so
prepare to expand your knowledge here with A2Pro -- teaching you what you
want to know! --Matt (A2Pro Head Sysop)
MORE K-FEST STUFF Well, everyone else has done a great job of summing up
""""""""""""""""" Kfest to date. Nobody mentioned the guys trapped in
the broken elevator, or the frisbee, or the SoftDisk pizza orgy (which
included a session of SoftDisk's "Word Search" game elevated to a contact
sport), the midnight runs of Bear's monster truck, or several other things
that occurred in the dorms, but what the heck.
The important point is that you people should come to Kansasfest even
if you aren't commercial programmers. I'm just a IIe guy who programs
mostly in Applesoft with the occasional small assembly extension. While I
thoroughly enjoyed the conference sessions that I attended, I didn't come
for the conference. I came for the chance to meet and talk with the movers
and shakers of the Apple II world. They are all terrific people, and as
Apple ramps down the GS program it seems to me that we are all growing
closer. I hung out in Roger Wagner's dorm room while he gave demos of
incredible prototypes of GS hardware (Roger has the neatest toys in the
known universe). I went to dinner with a large group that included several
Apple people, Roger Wagner, Uncle-DOS, and others, and spent much of the
meal having a great conversation with Joe Kohn. Peter Walker, one of the
Aussies, adopted some of us GEnie guys and it was neat learning what it's
like to live and compute in Australia. I spent one break listening to Greg
Branche (of Apple) tell stories about the life of a programmer at Apple,
Inc. I got to meet Silas Warner, Alan Bird, and many others. And on, and
on.
My favorite conference sessions were the "Old Timers" series:
o Tom Weishaar and Paul Statt ran an unstructured session
that turned into the "story hour" as Tom, Paul, and the
many old-timers in the audience took turns telling
anecdotes about the old days.
o Silas Warner's talk on the earliest days of Muse and the
Apple II software was fascinating. It's a whole other
world when you program for 4K and 16K Apples that don't
have disk drives! Silas gave us some insights into the
assembler that they invented that made code that was next
to impossible to disassemble.
o Alan Bird and Roger Wagner ran another unstructured
session that was largely about Bert Kersey and about
Roger's early days. Did you know that Bert's porch had a
trap door in front of the door of his house? Roger mused
about how he declined to publish Print Shop because he
judged it a stupid idea that no one would buy. Roger told
us that he originally was either going to buy a
motorcycle, a stereo, or a computer. He settled on the
computer because, "Once it's paid for, there's nothing
else to buy." There was lots more. Roger is a riveting,
hugely amusing speaker.
Some people from my User Group here in NC came all the way to Kfest
just for the Expo, and missed the conference. The Expo was swell, but it's
the conference that has the real action. Don't miss it next year.
-TomZ (T.ZUCHOWSKI, Cat. 44, Top. 7, Msg. 22, M645;1)
AND MORE K-FEST! That Ozzie's name was Peter Weller, not Walker (if I'm
"""""""""""""""" not mistaken). ;-) Funny stories? How about Don "The
Enforcer" Grimes hefting Roger Wagner likea sack of potatoes? Thought poor
Roger would have a heart attack right then and there.
My favorite bit was spending all night talking to Tammy Wolfgram
because she was locked out of her husband's room. Her husband (Marc
Wolfgram, the brains behind Foundation, the new IIgs resource editor and a
VERY hot product for programmers that I'm sure will be talked about in
detail over in A2Pro) was stone asleep. At some point I got tired of it so
I just walked up to the door and began pounding a very fast 4/4 in
triple-time patter, like a drummer, until a very astounded and
confused-looking Marc opened his door. ;-)
Ah, but wait, there's more. Can anyone forget the Australian
gentleman (whose name was Cameron, I believe) who accidentally kicked a
soccer ball into Matt Deatherage right in the dorm hallway? Matt let out a
yelp (he'd been hit in a rather sensitive area) and proceeded to bellow and
chase this poor Australian around the entire dorm.
It may have been covered already, but it was surely amusing. One A2
sysop walked up to Matt after the fact and asked loudly if he was abusing
the foreigners again. Everybody had a good laugh.
Guess you had to be there.
You people who didn't come missed a lot. I was way too busy myself
during the conference to have near as much fun as I'd wanted to and I still
had a blast. ;-) -Dean Esmay
(A2.DEAN, Cat. 44, Top. 7, Msg. 24, M645;1)
FAMOUS JOE AT K-FEST SPEAKS TOO! For me, the funniest thing that
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" happened at KansasFest happened when I
was sitting at the inCider booth. Someone approached and said something
like "Wow. You're Joe Kohn? You look different than I thought. Your
writing style is so formal, I expected someone very conservative looking
and I thought you'd be wearing a suit and tie".
Another funny thing happened when I asked Steve Disbrow to do me a
favor, and to sit in the inCider booth for a bit. He was most accommodating,
and did as I asked. He also got Noreen to take a picture of him, wearing
his GS+ t-shirt in front of the big inCider banner. If we're lucky, that
picture will be on the front cover of the next GS+, with a huge banner
announcing "GS+ Buys Out inCider". -Joe
(J.KOHN, Cat. 44, Top. 7, Msg. 25, M645;1)
Also a big thank you to Roger Wagner for all the good advice he
provided to me (& many others) while at the Expo. Its really great to have
such a cheerful person to talk for advice, always willing to share his
experience with those in need. Its no wonder that this is the person who
is almost single-handedly keeping a whole Apple product line alive. His
helpfulness was exceeded only by his wonderful wife who actually handled my
updates while answering a million questions from other attendees. Thanks,
Pam! (R.CHEVRIER, Category 32, Topic 5, Message 100, M530;1)
WHAT ABOUT THOSE YOUTHFUL PROGRAMMERS? I used to despair a lot about the
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" number of active younger
programmers who seem to turn out miles of code. Then I realized that they
have a rather protected environment, not having to maintain jobs to keep up
house payments, support families, etc. :)
It would be interesting to track the number of these folks that
continue to crank out work when they enter the work force. Some, like Andy
Nicholas, are good enough to go on to jobs where they can continue to use
their skills. Many might not.
Plus, sometimes it takes the discipline of a few years to come up with
the insight for finishing really important programs (like Pointless, though
Alan Bird isn't exactly an "old fogey"). The FTA wrote a lot of incredible
demos, but very little of a productive nature, and productivity is the
reason most people buy computers. Often age and cunning exceeds youthful
exuberance... :)
(A2-CENTRAL, Cat. 2, Top. 4, Msg. 64, M645;1)
FEEL INTIMIDATED BY A2PRO? Our recent conversations with those of you
"""""""""""""""""""""""""" who could benefit a lot from the services
A2Pro has to offer make us frown -- you tell us you're intimidated by
A2Pro, that A2Pro is for the "elite" and the "hackers", and that regular
home-type programmers are out of place there.
We don't care if it's true or not -- we're going to wipe it out. One
way we're starting is with an A2Pro Beginner's Night conference EACH AND
EVERY WEEK. At this real time conference, no programming question is too
silly, no development question is out of line and no questions about A2Pro
are out of line. Period.
We're going to hold these conferences every week on Thursday nights at
9:30 PM EDT (6:30 PM PDT, or 5:30 PM in Alaska) starting August 13th. And
to put our money where our mouth is, we'll be giving out FREE GENIE TIME to
random participants for the first four conferences.
(M.DEATHERAGE, Category 1, Topic 17, Message 9, M530;1)
A2PRO NEW USERS NIGHT CONTINUES ON 8/20 Our first new
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" users/beginners/folks-who-haven't-
been-in-A2Pro-but-that's too-long-to-use-as-a-title night last Thursday was
lots of fun -- people came, found out about what A2Pro has to offer, asked
some programming questions they had stored up and two folks won FREE GEnie
time.
What could be better? Why, we're doing it again this Thursday night
at 9:30 PM EDT, and folks will again win FREE GEnie time!
The new users' RTC in A2Pro will happen every Thursday from now on,
but only during the grand opening can you win GEnie time. Don't miss out
on all the fun -- more GEnie users are having fun in A2Pro than ever
before, and there's no reason you can't be one of them!
(M.DEATHERAGE, Category 1, Topic 17, Message 15, M530;1)
SO YOU FOUND A BUG BY APPLE? If you want to report the bug to _Apple_,
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""" no online service is the right place to do
it. Apple's bug reporting center can be reached by internet Email
(apple.bugs@applelink.apple.com), or you can US mail them at:
Apple Bug Reporting Center
Apple Computer, Inc.
20525 Mariani Ave., MS: 42-ES
Cupertino, CA 95014
But I'd strongly encourage you to check out A2Pro. I don't know and
can't change what your past experiences with A2Pro have been, but if A2Pro
can't reasonably help you out with your problem, we'll fix it.
That's all we can do.
--Matt (I speak for myself, not for Apple)
(M.DEATHERAGE, Cat. 9, Top. 6, Msg. 112, M645;1)
>>> WHAT'S NEW <<<
""""""""""""""""""
A2 LOST CLASSICS GETS APPLE WRITER 2.1 It's now official. Applewriter //
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" by Paul Lutus is now available as
Freeware in the A2 library (File # 19164). When I spoke with Paul, he
agreed to allow distribution subject to a few restrictions.
1. Any and all people may copy Applewriter // version 2.1
ONLY. Other versions are not included in the Freeware
statement.
2. No one shall sell Applewriter //. Nor shall anyone
include it on a disk with other software which is being sold.
3. The documentation provided with the program was produced
and is owned by Apple Computer Corp. The authority to
distribute Applewriter does NOT include any copyrighted
documentation.
4. The source code for Applewriter is still owned and
retained by Paul Lutus. He is treating it as 'trade
secrets' and therefore shall not disclose such source
code. This situation is unlikely to change.
5. Paul is allowing Applewriter to be distributed as
'Freeware'. This means that the software is still
copyrighted and still owned by him. It is within his
rights to pull Applewriter out of circulation at any time
he chooses. This also means that derivative works based
on Applewriter code may be in a legal grey area. So tread
carefully. :)
(A2.TIM, Cat. 7, Top. 6, Msg. 2, M645;1)
>>>>> I talked with Paul Lutus earlier this week and got a clarification
""""" on the 'give away but do not sell' problem.
Essentially, Paul has allowed Apple Writer to go Freeware, because
he has made enough money from it, but does not want anyone else to make
money from it at the expense of the users. TO this end, he wants it copied
freely with no charge being made for the program. You may charge for the
disk it is on, but this charge should be reasonable. For example, charging
$10 for a disk with Apple Writer would be out of line, but charging $2 or
$3 for a floppy is not. If a User's group routinely charges $3.95 for a
filled floppy, including postage, then $3.95 for a disk with Apple Writer
would be OK. But if they normally charge $3.95 and then charge $4.95 for
Apple Writer, then it is NOT OK.
Do you all see where I am going with this? :)
Following this reasoning then, having Shareware Solutions include
Apple Writer on its disk would not be in violation. Likewise the A2 on
Disk could add Apple Writer safely, because the disk averages less than $4,
and would be the same price whether or not AW were included.
If you have any further questions, please ask. :)
Hope this makes somebody happy. :)
Tim Tobin
A2 Head Librarian
(A2.TIM, Cat. 7, Top. 6, Msg. 48, M645;1)
SOUND ON YOUR II NON GS SoftDAC v2.0b1 is now available, pending release
""""""""""""""""""""""" by the A2 sysops as file #19192. The new
version offers improved sound quality--and it supports the RamWorks (and
compatible memory expansion boards) to allow you to play really long
sounds.
For those of you who have never heard of SoftDAC, let me explain...in
December 1990, I released a program for the 128K Apple IIe and IIc that
allows these machines to play sampled sounds. Sampled sound was previously
the exclusive domain of the Apple IIGS, Macintosh, and similar machines.
SoftDAC allows you to play sampled sounds on the IIe and IIc without any
extra hardware...and now it's even better, with RamWorks support.
As usual, if you have questions regarding SoftDAC, you may (1) leave
them in this topic or (2) send me email at S.ALFTER. Please note, however,
that the Skunk Works BBS is temporarily offline, pending replacement of a
dead power supply.
_/_
/ v \
(IIe ( Scott Alfter
\_^_/ (S.ALFTER, Cat. 13, Top. 9, Msg. 2,M645;1)
LISTEN UP! In recent issues, both A+/inCider and A2-Central printed
"""""""""" subscriber letters which state the HFS FST works fine under
System Software 5.0.4.
This is dangerously incorrect.
While Apple tries to keep the internals of GS/OS fairly stable from
release to release to minimize the opportunity for errors, GS/OS has always
required substantial internal changes when new read/write file systems are
added This was true in System Software 5.0 for AppleShare and is true in
version 6.0 for HFS.
The HFS FST may appear to work in normal circumstances (as the letters
indicate), but the older versions of GS/OS do not meet the demands of the
newer FST. The FST will almost certainly crash if you try to initialize
any disks.
Components from different system software versions do not mix and
match -- do not use older system software files with newer system software
versions GS/OS drivers are an exception -- they have a stable, documented
interface and will work fine with any version of GS/OS later than the one
for which they were designed, although some manufacturers may require newer
features of newer drivers. (For example, the System Software 6.0 Apple
3.5" driver supports SuperDrives attached to an Apple II 3.5 Disk
Controller Card -- while you can use the older version of the Apple 3.5
driver safely with System Software 6.0, you won't be able to use drives
connected to an Apple 3.5 Disk Controller Card.)
Mixing and matching system software in general is dangerous -- but
using the HFS FST under 5.0.4 will eventually crash and it may trash your
disks. Do not attempt this with any disks online that you want to keep.
Matt Deatherage
Apple Computer, Inc.
(AIIDTS, CAT5, TOP5, MSG:1/M645;1)
MS-DOS FST SOON TO BE A REALITY Apple publicly announces MS-DOS FST for
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" Apple IIGS A2 CENTRAL SUMMER CONFERENCE
1992 ("KANSASFEST"), KANSAS CITY, MO., U.S.A., 1992 JUL 23 (A2 ON GENIE)
-- Apple publicly announced today that they are working on an MS-DOS File
System Translator (FST) for the Apple IIGS. Currently the FST is
read-only, and writing ability is being worked on. It is not expected that
the writing ability will be ready in time for its initial release. The
MS-DOS FST is expected to ship with Apple IIGS System Software version
6.0.1.
Apple IIGS System Software 6.0.1 is a maintenance release made
necessary by the Apple II Ethernet Card. When the Apple II Ethernet Card
ships, expected by the end of the year, System 6.0.1 will be made
available. Besides bug fixes to System 6.0, the only other major change
announced in System 6.0.1 is the addition of keyboard navigation to the
Apple IIGS Finder.
The MS-DOS FST will work on any MS-DOS volume that can be accessed by
the Apple IIGS. Currently, the access of MS-DOS 3.5" disks is limited to
720K and 1.44M MS-DOS 3.5" disks read via an Apple SuperDrive or
equivalent, connected to the Apple II SuperDrive Card (formerly known as
the Apple II 3.5 Drive Card). Other known methods to access MS-DOS data on
an Apple IIGS include MS-DOS formatted Syquest cartridges and MS-DOS 5.25"
floppy disks read via an Applied Engineering Transdrive, connected to an
Applied Engineering PC Transporter card.
(Lunatic E'Sex, reporting for A2, the Apple II Roundtable on GEnie)
-= Lunatic (:
(LUNATIC, Cat. 9, Top. 7, Msg. 1, M645;1)
MORE ON MS-DOS FST ][ talked to Greg Branche after the System 6.0 session
"""""""""""""""""" the following morning. It turns out that the MS-DOS
FST is based largely on the ProDOS FST! Greg started work on the MS-DOS
FST as a side project, after he had already transferred out of the Apple II
division. Once he got it to a certain point, he turned over the code to
Dave Lyons. They haven't even really started on the write portion, yet.
The big problem with writing to MS-DOS disks is forked files. There are
currently two or three completely different methods that are used to store
Mac forked files on MS-DOS volumes, and they don't know if they want to
choose one of those or try something else (there simply is no standard, and
it doesn't look like there's going to _be_ one).
Since the Atari ST uses a disk format almost identical to MS-DOS with
a few variations, Greg said it's likely the MS-DOS FST could read Atari ST
disks, as well, but he didn't have any ST disks to try out on it (if I can
scare up some Atari disks I think I'll run over to Monroe 4 and see if Dave
wants to try 'em out). I mentioned Amiga disks, but nothing conclusive was
decided about them.
|)
|\ight now, the MS-DOS FST uses file name/file type translation that
is identical to (and taken from) the High Sierra/ISO 9660 FST. For
example, FILENAME.TXT is translated into a text file. I suggested
assigning new aux types in the $E0 file type to certain common archive
types, such as .ARC and .ZIP, but they said they didn't want to do anything
with aux types, right now, just file types. Of course, anyone with the
GS/OS Reference can look in the chapter on the High Sierra FST to get the
data on Map Tables and create a new Map Table for the MS-DOS FST (like
assigning .DOC files to text files, as well). -= Lunatic (:
(LUNATIC, Cat. 9, Top. 7, Msg. 2, M645;1)
GraFORTH IS A LOST CLASSIC! It's now official. GraFORTH by Paul Lutus
""""""""""""""""""""""""""" is also now available as Freeware in the A2
library (File # 19206). When I spoke with Paul, he agreed to allow
distribution subject to a few restrictions:
1. Any and all people may copy GraFORTH.
2. No one shall sell GraFORTH. Nor shall anyone include it
on a disk with other software which is being sold.
3. The source code for GraFORTH is still owned and retained
by Paul Lutus. He is treating it as 'trade secrets' and
therefore shall not disclose such source code. This
situation is unlikely to change.
4. Paul is allowing GraFORTH to be distributed as
'Freeware'. This means that the software is still
copyrighted and still owned by him. It is within his
rights to pull GraFORTH out of circulation at any time he
chooses. This also means that derivative works based on
GraFORTH code may be in a legal grey area. So tread
carefully. :)
Tim Tobin / Lost Classics Coordinator
(A2.TIM, Cat. 7, Top. 6, Msg. 22, M645;1)
BUT WHAT DOES IT DO? GraFORTH is a DOS 3.3 based graphical version of
"""""""""""""""""""" FORTH for the Apple II. It also has music and sound
routines built in. Several demos are included as samples. These samples
include animation routines, and music. I particularly like 'Die Fledermaus'
which has a bat, with smoothly flapping wings, flying though the moonlit
night sky.
It is quite good, the only drawback being the fact that it is DOS 3.3.
Anything in particular you would like to know?
Tim Tobin / A2 Head Librarian
(A2.TIM, Cat. 7, Top. 12, Msg. 4, M645,1)
APPLENET ANNOUNCEMENTS Here are a couple of announcements concerning
"""""""""""""""""""""" AppleNET v2.0. First, thanks to Michel Donais, a
friend of mine, and a "sometime" developer for AppleNET v2.0, we'll be
using the auxiliary bank of Applesoft memory to store most system
variables. That means, we'll have plenty more memory space for the overall
system. The auxiliary memory partition, as it is now, will contain the
menu and configurable BBS variables, as well as (perhaps) data on system
events, accounting information, etc.. Once we're done with all the major
stuff, I'll see if I can stuff the message editor variables in there for
even greater memory space. But right now, the routine works like a charm!
(It uses the same syntax as MW 3.0's & STORE command.)
As well, unless any other suggestions are received for AppleNET 2.0's
"new" name, most of the people up here have agreed on AppleNET Pro v2.0 as
the program's "rebuilt" name. Didn't I say this was going to be a complete
rewrite from the ground up, including its name? <g>
And one more thing. If you are on Fidonet, I will soon be getting
access to a Fidonet node, so you'll see me there once again. So, if you're
an AppleNET sysop (or not!), feel free to drop me a line there once I do
get my account. I'll be offering updates, news, and support on AppleNET
Pro v2.0 and older versions of the BBS software. -Derek Fong
(M.POTTER4, Cat. 41, Top. 3, Msg. 64, M645;1)
BYTE WORKS RELEASES ORCA/C
"""" PROTOTYPED HEADERS (ALPHA VERSION) If you use ORCA/C and like the
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" ANSI C features, you may have
wished that the header files provided included function prototypes to help
you with your programming. Well, wait no more!
Mike Westerfield from the Byte Works has uploaded an ALPHA version of
prototyped headers for ORCA/C. You can download and start using them now,
and if you find any problems or have any suggestions, it's still well
within time to make suggestions to Mike for inclusion in the final product.
Note that since these are ALPHA releases, no one's promising they won't
change before final, so if you use any in final software, be sure to keep a
copy around so you can rebuild later.
You can find the ORCA/C header files in A2Pro's library in file #2796,
CHEADERS.BXY. Download them today and make ORCA/C work for _you!_
(M.DEATHERAGE, Category 1, Topic 17, Message 13, M530;1)
NEW HUMAN INTERFACE CATEGORY DEBUTS A2Pro's bulletin board has a new
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" category -- "The Human Interface and
You." This new category (#21) has room to discuss all the issues
programmers face when trying to make people understand how to use their
work. If you've ever had any questions or personal peeves you wanted to
discuss, Cat 21 in the A2Pro bulletin board is for you. Check it out!
(M.DEATHERAGE, Category 1, Topic 17, Message 14, M530;1)
>>> THROUGH THE GRAPEVINE <<<
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
IBM-GS ??? We are not sure where this started, but some reliable sources
"""""""""" are talking about a IIGS on a card for the PC and its
clones. Obviously such a development would make production of Avatar much
easier and there has been some sketchy talk of a licensing deal between the
developers. This has neither been confirmed nor denied by Bill Heineman,
Avatar's would be creator, at the time of this writing.
It should be noted that IIe's on a card already exist for the IBM PC.
This author wonders, if software can emulate the Macintosh on an Amiga, why
the same cannot be done for for the IIGS? And do not give the ancient
Esoniq chip excuse. If the IIGS can play a Mod, the Amiga can easily play
SoundSmith and other IIGS music systems. (Editor)
MORE ON IIGS EMULATOR FOR 386/486 COMPUTERS
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
Unfortunately, there's not a lot of info available, due (IMO) to
Apple, Inc.'s propensity for spending tons of money on rabid lawyers to
litigate the competition out of existence.
As for what software will run on the emulator; it uses active
translation at the ML level from 65816 code to 80386 code. The GS tools are
fully translated to Windows API calls, so it will run ANY GS specific
software that uses standard calls. Sorry, but I think that probably rules
out FTA stuff and maybe even IIe/c software. But there are already Apple II
emulators available.
Speed-wise, it runs GS software on a 25 MHz 386 just a little faster
than a standard (non-zipped) GS, so I'm sure an 8 Mhz GS will still blow
it's doors off.
Personally, I'm looking forward to seeing the full product!
(R.CLYDE4 [Niccolo], Cat. 1, Top. 4, Msg. 22, M530;1)
WHAT'S THAT? I have heard that Ken Franklin is about to release another
"""""""""""" dynamite ReliefWare program.
(A2.BEAR, Cat. 5, Top. 3, Msg. 36, M645;1)
TECH TALK I recall reading that for QuickDraw II version 3.x, the screen
""""""""" is guaranteed to be at E12000. I need to double check, but I
read it in an article by Mike Westerfield on filling areas in Call-Apple
very long ago. Depending on QDVersion, he either used QD calls or screen
memory directly.
Should CloseView alter the QD version in the chance that some apps
will change from directly accessing memory to using QD calls? -Jay
(J.KRELL1 [Jay], Category 15, Topic 4, Message 51, M530;1)
>>> APPLE HEADS WANT TO KNOW <<<
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
SOUND TALK |\|o, MODs are pretty sure to take the most processor time,
"""""""""" and SoundSmith songs the least. To play a MOD you usually
have to do a lot of swapping of instruments in the DOC RAM, since MODs can
have up to 128K instruments. The processor hit to play a MOD is probably
50-80% or even more. SoundSmith music playing takes very little extra
processor time -- lots of games use SoundSmith music. From what I
understand, you set everything up in the DOC RAM and then let a little
interrupt driven routine do all the work for you, while you go off and do
your animation/etc. MIDI Synth music has also been used in games (the
only one that comes to mind right now is Dragon Wars GS; I think Bill
Heineman wrote another one that uses MIDI Synth, too). Since it uses a
tool that's built in to the system, it should also be pretty easy to use.
That's not saying anything about getting the music INTO the software,
though. I'd say use MIDI Synth if you can spare the little extra processor
time, or SoundSmith if not. -= Lunatic (:
(LUNATIC, Category 11, Topic 11, Message 10, 530;1)
JUPITER PAYMENTS >> does anybody know if it's possible to
"""""""""""""""" >> pay the shareware fee with Jupiter
>> Systems by VISA-card?
The members of Jupiter Systems (Dan Wellman, Mike Fleming, Marco Busse,
Brian Clark, Jonathan Stark, Chris Trimble, and Rob Lathan) are all high
school students, and just aren't set up to take credit cards.
There are a few suggested ways for non-Americans to pay shareware fees
to American shareware authors. You may be taking a risk with unscrupulous
postal employees, but chances are that a carefully wrapped $10 bill would
make it through. Another method would be to find a local branch of an
American International Bank, and purchase an international check or money
order. Of course, you may have to pay a fee on your end, but Jupiter
probably wouldn't have to pay a fee on this end.The last method would be to
visit your local bank, and have them issue a check drawn on US funds.
Again, you may have to pay a fee on your end. -Joe Kohn
(J.KOHN, Cat. 2, Top. 4, Msg. 52, M645;1)
TRACKBALL PROBLEMS Kensington Turbo Mouse: Old versions worked as
"""""""""""""""""" trackballs, but attempting to use the mouse's
"chording" feature (pressing both buttons at the same time to issue a
macro) causes the computer to hang. The newest version tracks verrrrrrry
slooooowlllly on the IIGS (there is Mac software included to adjust the
tracking but the default tracking is much too slow on the GS).
CH Products RollerMouse: The extra buttons cause the computer to hang
in various programs.
Trackballs that should work all right on the IIGS:
Logitech TrackMan: Their MouseMan works fine, so I assume the TrackMan
would too. The two extra buttons generate left and
right arrow keys on the GS.
(QC [Jerry], Category 12, Topic 28, Message 8, M530;1)
ICON INFO There is no specific limit to the number of icons you can put
""""""""" in a file. There ARE several things to keep in mind, though:
1) The icon EDITORS may have a limit. Going beyond this
limit may result in an error, a crash, inability to
save the file, or worst of all, a corrupted file.
2) Earlier versions of Finder had problems loading in very
large icon files. Finder 6.0 is much better with this,
but I personally don't want to try pushing it.
3) Finder must allocate a single large block of memory for
every icon file it loads. If it can't allocate a large
enough block of memory, it won't load in the file.
I don't even want to guess what happens if it tries to load in a file
larger than one bank (64K) of memory.
_
(_)n the other hand, the fewer icon files you have, the faster Finder
starts up, and the less _fragmented_ memory becomes. My personal advice is
that if you keep to around 50 icons per file, you should have absolutely no
problems whatsoever. I have pushed a file up to near 80 icons, but all the
icons in that file were very small, keeping the size of the file itself
relatively small.
The way I, personally, organize my icons is in about five files:
o System.Icons (anything as shipped on a system disk,
including replacements for Finder's icons),
o Document.Icons (graphics files, sound files, word
processing files, etc.),
o Applic.Icons (icons for the applications themselves),
o Develop.Icons (icons for source code, utilities, etc.),
o and a file I call Last.in.Folder, to remind myself where
it should go (the most generic custom icons, like text
files, binary files, disks and drives, the trash can,
folders, etc.).
This way also keeps almost all icons for a specific type in a single
file (except for Last.in.Folder) so that they can all go in any order
within my icons folder (again, except for Last.in.Folder). -= Lunatic (:
(LUNATIC, Cat. 9, Top. 2, Mesg. 15, M645;1)
STANDARD LANGUAGE PRACTICE This will be a little long. There seems to
"""""""""""""""""""""""""" have been a lot of traffic here in the last
couple of days!
1. Jay: I'm not trying to play God when I implement a language, just
the opposite -- and that's why I'll never do what you suggested. That's
not the contradiction it sounds like at first. I feel very strongly that
if you pick up a package that says it's Pascal, it ought to be Pascal --
period. There is (or should be) a big distinction between a language
designer and a language implementor.
That doesn't mean you can't add to a language, and in fact, the Pascal
standard even addresses that issue. If you look in our Pascal manual,
you'll find all sorts of extensions, and more will undoubtedly come in the
future. When I extend the language, though, I do it with great care. I
feel like any extension should be clearly labeled as an extension -- and
our manual does just that. I feel you should be able to block any
extension (so you can write portable programs) and my compiler has a
directive to do that. I feel any extension should be compatible with the
language as a whole, never breaking the original language, and all of the
extensions I've added fulfill that requirement. Finally, I feel that any
extension to a language should be made in the spirit of the language. Each
language, after all, has a unique feel and basis. Pascal is safety. C is
staying out of your way. BASIC is simplicity. Ada is industrial strength
with rigid standards for portability. And so on.
Think about it from the other side: if you pick up a book that shows a
program for the IBM PC, don't you want to be able to type it in on your
Apple IIGS? If every compiler writer did what I do, and the program either
enforced the standard using some directive or encapsulated things like
graphics calls in easy to change subroutines, you could do that.
Unfortunately, far to many compiler writers do exactly what you suggest,
and far to few programmers have any idea what parts of a language are
standard and what parts are extensions. As a result, it's hard to use a
program on another computer. Even C, the "portable" language (what a
laugh!) has this problem -- more so than Pascal, in fact. I've been told
that Turbo C has four distinct compatibility modes: C++, ANSI C, K&R C and
UNIX C -- and that doesn't even count the different memory models, each of
which can cause problems. (And, keep in mind, UNIX C was always advertised
as _being_ K&R C, yet they needed two distinct modes!)
No, standards are there for a reason. It's a good reason. Compiler
writers owe it to you, me, and every other person to implement a language
faithfully. Add if you want, but only within the constraints of the
language, and only to solve specific problems (like toolbox access) that
can't be handled without the extension.
-Mike <standards 'R Us> Westerfield
(BYTEWORKS, Category 6, Topic 8, Message 86, M530;1)
WPL On Apple Writer WPL is the Word Processing Language built into
""""""""""""""""""" AppleWriter. Essentially, AppleWriter has a
built-in programming language, and a pretty darned powerful one. Randy
Brandt told me at KansasFest that part of the reason he wrote his first
macro program for Appleworks (he's the guy who wrote Timeout Ultramacros)
was because he AppleWriter had a programming language but AppleWorks did
not.
WPL is really quite remarkable. AppleWriter as a consequence is also
rather remarkable. There's stuff you can do with AppleWriter that you
still can't do with much more "advanced" word processors. Even AppleWorks
with souped-up macros can't do everything it can.
What's most interesting about it is that AppleWriter SEEMS deceptively
simple and lackluster. It doesn't look like much until you start exploring
what it can really do with WPL and a few other nifty features.
-Dean Esmay (A2.DEAN, Cat. 28, Top. 4, Msg. 47, M645;1)
IS JOE A DREAMER? The idea of setting up some type of Shareware Solutions
""""""""""""""""" Buddy program was just something that came off the top
of my head. If you remember some of the first messages I posted here, I
said that my Shareware Solutions column is mainly directly at those who
don't belong to user groups or own modems. That's still the case, and I
think it's a very safe assumption that the vast majority of people who
write to me for the shareware solutions companion disks have never used a
freeware or shareware program before. I really do believe that.
In the back of my mind, I thoroughly believe that the more people that
use freeware and shareware, the longer the Apple II lives. After all,
everyone reading this note has probably downloaded zillions of programs
from the A2 library and has more than enough software to last a lifetime.
But, what about all those other folks who use one or two programs? What
about those who still use AppleWorks v1.1? What about the GS owners using
System 1.1?
I believe many of them read inCider, and have to at least be a little
intrigued by the shareware goodies I write about. How can we get them
better connected? How can we get them to buy modems, or to join user
groups? How can we make them aware of freeware and shareware?
That's what got me thinking along those lines. Here's my fantasy:
Suppose we had people all over the country who were giving away great
Apple II software? Suppose they contacted schools in their area, and
offered to visit and supply them with freeware? Through my involvement with a
non profit organization (CompuMentor), I visit non-profits that use Apple
II's and give them free software, as well as providing free consultation.
A few weeks ago, I went to a homeless shelter in San Francisco that uses
Apple II's to teach basic computer keyboarding skills, and gave them
Charles Hartley's freeware Computer Keyboarding program. Since that
program is so superior to what they had been using, that homeless shelter
will now be able to get lots more mileage out of their Apple II's.
You may say I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one. I'd love to be
involved with setting up some kind of Shareware Solutions Outreach Group of
Volunteers who could provide software and who could answer questions about
using it.
This is not something that will happen today or tomorrow, as I am not
at all clear on how this could be set up, or how it would operate. It'll
take time, it'll take some talk, and it will take some other idealists
like me to get something like this going. Any thoughts? -Joe
(J.KOHN [Joe], Category 28, Topic 4, Message 49, M645;1)
UPDATE YOUR ZIP GS Someone recently asked me in e-mail how many chips
"""""""""""""""""" were required to update the cache on a Zip GS. Since
I thought other people might be interested in the information as well, I
decided to post it here.
To upgrade the cache on a Zip GS to 32K, you need two SRAM chips, one
for the TAG side and one for the DATA side. To upgrade the cache to 64K,
you need four SRAM chips total, two for each side. Since these chips are
32K each, you might wonder why you need two of the them for 32K or four
for 64K. The reason is that each side of the cache needs to be upgraded
to the full memory size. Since there's two sides to the cache, you need
twice the chips. -= Lunatic (:-
(LUNATIC, Category 22, Topic 10, Message 164, M645;1)
MODEMWORKS $ APPLENET !!! IMPORTANT !!! A couple of people have
""""""""""""""""""""" contacted me telling me that they can't get
ModemWorks 3.0 to work properly with AppleNET 1.5a and previous versions.
This is quite normal, and even easier to explain. Due to the new
architecture of ModemWorks 3.0, AppleNET 1.5a will not only not load MW 3.0
properly, but with the new command implementations in MW 3.0, you won't get
too far even if you -do- manage to get the loading sequence in there
properly (which isn't too hard, mind you).
As AppleNET 2.0 is so far into production right now (release date is
-- cross your fingers! -- next summer or earlier), I just don't think it
would be feasible to re-write AppleNET 1.5a to support ModemWorks 3.0, no
matter how much I'd like Zmodem transfers to work.
However, AppleNET 2.0 will FULLY support all of MW 3.0's newest
features, including Ymodem and Zmodem transfers, new terminal emulations,
and the whole kit-and-kaboodle (and AppleNET will remain as easy-to-use as
ever!).
So, to all those who are cursing me right now saying, "I bought
ModemWorks 3.0 to work with AppleNET 1.5a, and now I find out it's a waste
of my money!", HANG ON A SEC! Just hang onto the package, and wait for
AppleNET 2.0. I guarantee that you'll agree it's worth the extra wait....
-Derek Fong
(M.POTTER4 , Category 41, Topic 3, Message 63, M645;1)
>>>>> You're right. What we have planned for AppleNET 2.0 -is-
""""" too long to get out in one breath. But, here's the low-down on
what we currently plan on getting out in the final release version:
o Faster and more efficient than previous AppleNET versions
o Completely rewritten from the ground-up -- no more Kevin
D'Haeze/Larry Edwards program code
o Complete support for X/Y/Zmodem, and their subsets
o New fields
o (You asked for it, and got it) More bells and whistles
o The editors have all been improved at least tenfold
o We're planning on either writing our own AppleNET
network, or at least writing a patch to link to another
major network (ie: Fidonet or the Internet)
o Full screen editors and split-screen chat for PSE/ANSI users
o A full-fledged accounting system, much like GEnie and
CompuServe, which will allow sysops to charge users for
access to certain areas. You can also assign freeflagged
areas to certain users whom you may not want to charge for
entering a certain area...
o The new RAMDisk loader is GREAT! *blush*
o The new menu system will blow away previous AppleNET versions
o System events are now fully-configurable
o All this (and, as the old saying goes..) and a LOT LOT
more for the low shareware price of $20-30 US (haven't
decided yet), and $39.95 for ModemWorks Lite (all you'll
need to run AppleNET 2.0). -Derek Fong
(M.POTTER4, Category 41, Topic 2, Message 4, M645;1)
DECISIONS, DECISIONS Speaking of which, I've heard great things about
"""""""""""""""""""" the Shadow. But, is it really so great that I
should spend the extra $$ to get a Shadow instead of the TMS Pro External?
My desktop has enough space to accommodate a HD....
I'd avoid the 3.5-sized drives (such as the Shadow), if I were you.
They take their power from your computer's power supply. Hard drives
demand a great deal of power while starting up...probably more than you
should be pulling from a stock Apple IIe or IIGS power supply. When you
buy a drive in the larger (usually Mac-sized) case, the drive gets its own
power supply.
According to the Apple IIe tech reference, the +12 line on the power
supply is capable of supplying 1500 mA continuously. It can handle surges
up to 2500 mA for up to 20 minutes if followed by at least 10 minutes at no
more than 1500 mA. According to the tech manual for my hard drive (a
Conner CP-340), the drive draws 1000 mA for startup and 300 mA in normal
operation. That's 40% of absolute maximum for startup and 20% of operating
maximum at full speed--and you still have floppy drives, peripheral cards,
and the motherboard to share those 1500 mA with. With a 3.5" floppy drive,
a 5.25" floppy drive, and a hard drive spinning all at once, you might
overload the power supply...and when that happens, your computer will cycle
power until the cling power like that to a hard drive is a Bad Thing (TM).
If you have an Apple SCSI card, the problem is even worse. Recently,
one of the members of the local user group bought a drive and an Apple DMA
SCSI card from LRO. Apple's card only gives you up to a 3-second delay
before it starts looking for a device to boot. The average hard drive
takes about 10 seconds to spin up and go active. If your hard drive has
its own power supply, you can turn it on first and turn the computer on a
few seconds later. If the hard drive takes its power from the computer,
though, you're stuck with a Catch-22--the computer won't boot from the hard
drive until it's spun up completely, but the hard drive won't spin up until
you turn the computer on. Open-Apple-Control-Reset doesn't fix the
problem, either...if Apple's SCSI card doesn't find a drive, you'll have to
cycle power...and you're back to Square One.
Save yourself a lot of potential grief. Insist on a hard drive that
has its own power supply--preferably an internal power supply instead of an
external "brick."
_/_
/ v \
(IIe ( Scott Alfter
\_^_/ ------------
(S.ALFTER, Category 11, Topic 10, Message 64, M645;1)
>>>>> There is an external power supply available for the Shadow, just a
""""" little power cube that plugs into the wall. TMS recommends the
purchase of this thing for any Shadow that is to be used on a II, and so do
I. I think the thing is like $15-$20, but I could be way off on that
(either way :). -Gary R. Utter
(GARY.UTTER, Category 11, Topic 10, Message 66, M645;1)
PROBLEMS As far as I can tell, the only way to do this is to use one of
"""""""" the older printer drivers that has the "custom" page setup
option but if I remember right, they were REALLY slow. Does anyone have
any ideas??
The Claris folks couldn't figure out how to do what they wanted in the
Print Manager, so they cheated. They licensed Apple's ImageWriter code for
the express purpose of creating an Epson printer driver, which they did and
which Apple later purchased and included in the system software.
Unfortunately, they didn't stop there. They rebuilt the ImageWriter
driver as ImageWriter.CL and added a few new private commands to it for the
things they couldn't figure out how to do otherwise. Multiple horizontal
items on the page is one of them.
If you want to do these, you have no choice but to use the old .CL
driver because AWGS doesn't know how to use a real printer driver for these
things.
(This is also why Apple doesn't license printer driver source to
developers anymore -- the .CL driver was a support nightmare for dealers
and customer support people, especially once the newer ImageWriter drivers
came out and AWGS features didn't work with them, and Apple's not anxious
to repeat that mistake.)
--Matt (I speak for myself, not for Apple)
(M.DEATHERAGE, Category 17, Topic 17, Message 45, M645;1)
DISK ARCHIVES Here follows a few clarifications on doing "disk"
""""""""""""" archives:
A2 normally insists on "file" archives for all ProDOS and GS/OS
uploads. This is because we can't know what kind of hardware every
downloader may have, and because hard disk owners get downright irate when
they have to dust off their 5.25 drive and plug it into their GS just to
unpack a file that they will then have to transfer to their hard disk.
And I can't blame them. In fact, if the upload is a collection of related
files, we really prefer that they be placed in their own folder and the
entire folder be archived, though this is by no means a required step.
However, some things such as DOS 3.3 files, the TETRIS2 upload, etc.
cannot be placed on a ProDOS disk. Since ShrinkIt is a ProDOS program, the
only way it can handle such files is by shrinking the entire disk without
worrying about the contents.
Let's consider what this means. If you are archiving a well-used DOS
3.3 disk, much of the "blank" disk space will actually contain files that
have been erased from the disk catalog. Remember, deleting a file merely
removes it from the catalog; it does NOT remove it from the disk. That's
why "Undelete"programs are able to work.
Now, ShrinkIt cannot read this disk and has no way of telling which
disk sectors are in use and which are free, and archives all 560 DOS 3.3
sectors. This means that all those previously deleted files are ALSO
archived, even though they aren't in the catalog. Needless to say, this is
incredibly inefficient and you can easily wind up with a disk archive that
is larger than the unpacked length of the files you are uploading!
Some people have tried to get around this by transferring the DOS 3.3
files to a ProDOS disk and putting them in a "file" archive. This is an
ungood idea for several reasons. First, the downloader must convert it
back to DOS 3.3 to use. You'd be amazed how many people don't understand
how to do that or why it's necessary. The confusion factor is just too
much. Secondly, the files will have to be renamed to something that ProDOS
will take. All too often, the new name will cause the program to crash.
And the user will be unable to fix it because he won't know what the
original names were.
We also want to remember that DOS 3.3 uploads must not contain a copy
of the DOS 3.3 system software. Apple Corp. still owns it and frowns on
this practice. We check all DOS 3.3 uploads for this and do not release
the ones that still have DOS on them.
Here's how to fix all of these problems:
1) Format a blank DOS-less disk. I use Copy II+.
2) Copy all of the files to be uploaded to the new disk.
3) Archive the new disk.
The freshly formatted disk will have all unused sectors "zeroed out".
These "zeroed" sectors compress to an extremely small space, so that the
resulting "disk" archive is at most just a block or two larger than a
"file" archive would have been.
I hope this makes the reasoning behind our rules clearer to you.
-TomZ (T.ZUCHOWSKI, Category 2, Topic 4, Message 109, M645;1)
PRIME BBS - ROLL YOUR OWN With the rapid spread of the Prime BBS system
""""""""""""""""""""""""" since its introduction onto GEnie, I suspect
that there are some of you who want to start modifying your own BASIC
programs to run online with Prime. This is not nearly as hard as it might
seem on first glance and I highly recommend it as a fun thing to do as well
as an excellent way to get a handle on the Prime ampersand set.
Here is about all there is to it....
1. Look in your copy of the doc file. This is file 18837
on GEnie and it is called Prime.DOCS.bxy. On pages 57
to 69 you'll find a full description of all the amper
commands. Look carefully at & PRINT, & GET, & INPUT, &
AT, and & VLIN. These are about the only ones you'll
need for your first cut.
2. I use Program Writer to edit my BASIC files. Makes the
job a whole lot easier. You old timers like me might
prefer GPLE:) Go through the program and carefully
replace all the PRINT statements with & PRINT. This
results in the program printing to BOTH your BBS screen
and to the modem so the user can see it. A comma after
the & PRINT will print a carriage return. Ie, & PRINT
,,"This is a test" will print two carriage returns and
then "This is a test" to the screen and to your modem.
3. Replace all GET statements with & GET. This one always
killed me! This & GET tells the program to get a single
key input from EITHER the sysops keyboard or the modem.
If you leave a GET in there without the ampersand the
program will get to that point and wait for an input
from the sysops keyboard! Your user will be able to do
nothing and your system is hung until he hangs up! NOT
GOOD! So, look carefully for the GET statements. Same
thing replies to INPUT and & INPUT. Use the 'find'
feature of your editor to make sure that you got 'em
all.
4. If your program writes any data to disk, (ie, high
scores, etc.) then use the & AT command to set the
prefix to one of the BBS prefixes. You CAN hardwire the
prefixes with the normal BASIC commands, but I don't
recommend it since this makes the program useless to
other Prime sysops until they go edit it.
5. The & VLIN command can be used to restrict the allowable
input characters to any set you want to define. You
probably won't want this one often.
6. Lastly, you need some way to protect your system from
syntax errors you didn't catch before you put your new
gem online. In addition, you need to be able to protect
yourself against the rude user who drops carrier right
smack nab in the middle of your add-on external or game
program. Historically, this is done by a fairly
standard error trapping routine that does a few good
things for you.
o It hangs up the modem and resets to LOG if carrier is
lost
o It shows the user an error number and line if he runs
into a bug. The user can then report it to you so you
can go squash the bugger! The user is then returned to
the BBS.1 code.
o If you hit a control-C during execution of the program,
this routine will tell the user to hang on while you work.
I'll upload that little EXECable file with this TIP. When you make
your BASIC code, leave line 1 unused and don't use any line numbers above
60000. Drop into BASIC, load your file, and EXEC this file. It will add
the error trap to your program. Save the modified program as a PRG.XX or
GAM.XX file and you're ready to rock and roll! Take a few minutes to study
this code. In addition, take a few minutes to look at other PRG.XX and
GAM.XX that I have uploaded. It'll go a long way toward enhancing the fun
you can have with PRIME!
(W.GOOSEY, Category 41, Topic 4, Message 52, M645;1)
>>> MESSAGE SPOTLIGHT <<<
"""""""""""""""""""""""""
Category 9, Topic 15
Message 154 Tue Aug 11, 1992
GARY.UTTER [Dispatcher] at 05:39 EDT
Time for a lecture on heat.
Chips get hot. They heat the air at their surface. If that air
remains at the surface of the chip, then the chip just gets hotter and
hotter. If you can move the hot air away from the surface of the chip, and
replace it with air that is not so hot, then the chip can heat THAT air.
Heat that is transferred to the air in this fashion is heat that is not
giving the chip itself a problem. Without a fan, the only way that air
moves is by convection. (Hot air rises, remember that from high school
science? :) Generally speaking, convection is not going to move enough air
to keep the chip cooled to within its normal operating temperature range IF
the ambient air temperature is much above 75 degrees, especially if you
have a lid on the machine.
This is why god made fans.
A fan will move the hot air off the chip, and allow it to be replace
with air that is less hot, thus allowing the chip to be cooled. So long as
the air that is moving across the chip is cooler than the chip itself,
this will keep the the chip within its operating temperature range. The
variables here are how hot the outside air is, and how fast it moves across
the chip. If you move enough air, then the chip will have no problems until
the ambient air temperature is higher than the operating temperature of the
chip. The operating temperature of the chip is certainly a lot higher than
YOURS. Which is to say, when the outside air becomes hot enough that it
cannot cool the chip with a good fan, it is so hot that you will have NO
interest in computing, or anything else except escape, if you aren't
already cooked, literally.
(Wordy tonight ain't I ? :)
Anyway, the answer to your problem (assuming you are correct in it
being heat related) is a FAN, or SEVERAL fans. I myself have three high
capacity fans sitting on top of my CPU (with the lid on). They are mounted
in a board (actually a sheet of plexiglass that I happened to have on
hand), and the board is cut to the size of the top of the GS and has a
gasket of weatherstripping around the bottom edge, so it sits nice and
airtight on the GS. This thing sucks so much air that I need both hands to
lift it off the case when the fans are running.
I do NOT have heat related crashes. Period.
A Kensington System Saver or AE Conserver is the minimum level of
fannage you should have on your machine, and if you have a serious problem
with high temperatures in the area in which you must run your GS, you need
MORE fannage. The absolute minimum I would suggest in a high temperature
environment is a System Saver or Conserver in which the fan has been
replaced by a higher capacity fan from Radio Shack. A lot of people here
have made that particular modification with good results.
However, if you do not have to have your monitor sitting on top of
the CPU, I would recommend several fans in some type of enclosure like I
built. I was at a local electronics surplus house this afternoon, and saw a
whole big box of these "muffin fans" at $5/each.
Gary R. Utter
[*][*][*]
While on GEnie, do you spend most of your time downloading files?
If so, you may be missing out some excellent information in the Bulletin
Board area. The messages listed above only scratch the surface of
what's available and waiting for you in the bulletin board area.
If you are serious about your APPLE II, the GEnie Lamp staff strongly
urge you to give the bulletin board area a try. There are literally
thousands of messages posted from people like you from all over the
world.
//////////////////////////////////// GEnie_QWIK_QUOTE ////
/ "I agree with everybody else. There, that should just /
/ about cover it. :)" /
/////////////////////////////////////// FAIR-DINKUM ////
[EOA]
[HUM]//////////////////////////////
HUMOR ONLINE /
/////////////////////////////////
Python Fever Spreads in STRT
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
By T.J. Girsch
[T.GIRSCH]
TOPIC COP HEADACHES! Most of you who frequent the message bases in the
"""""""""""""""""""" ST Roundtable have almost certainly experienced it.
You're browsing through the messages, looking for ways to minimize your LZH
difficulties, when suddenly you see a totally out of place message:
< Your mother wuz a hamster anda your father smelled of elderberries! >
The first thought that runs through your mind is "What the heck is
this person talking about?!?" And the next thought, "IGN PERM," is
synonymous with the next message:
< Run away! Run away!!! >
These thoughts undoubtedly pass through your mind, UNLESS you've seen
"Monty Python and the Holy Grail." If you've seen it, then your first
reaction is not one of confusion, but of hysterical laughter. The mere
quotation of a line from the film puts you in a fit.
If you're reading this, and you have already encountered these quotes
and reacted with confusion, your next question is almost inevitably "What
does any of this have to do with the Atari ST?" The answer: almost
nothing. But once the craze was started, it proved nearly impossible to
extinguish the flame.
If you're wondering how it started, it's really quite simple. In the
CATegory __, TOPic __ there is a "M.U.L.E. for the ST" topic, in which
Network 23 Software (represented by Rod Martin) would regularly give news
briefs and ask for feedback regarding his ST MULE clone, "Dromedary," which
is currently under development. After a while, the topic seemed to be in
danger of "disappearing" due to a seeming lack of interest. In a last
ditch effort to save his topic, Mr. Martin released a 2 A.M. update on the
development. His post, probably due both to a strong desire to save the
topic and to the simple fact that it was 2 A.M., included a quote from the
film "Monty Python and the Holy Grail."
Immediately about a half-dozen GEnie users replied with their favorite
quotes from the film, to which there were counterreplies, and replies to
the counterreplies. In short time, the fever had grown to exponential
proportion, resulting in possibly the worst occurrence of topic derailment
in GEnie history. The difference here was that no one who frequented the
topic seemed to mind one bit. What's more, about once every two weeks, Mr.
Martin would still post an update, "relevant" to the topic.
The problem with all this is that any newcomers to the topic may be
scared off, because they wonder what "< What is the airspeed velocity of an
unladen swallow? >" has to do with M.U.L.E. Plus, these "Python posts"
began to spread to other areas of the RoundTable. So, in an effort to
address these problems, I submit the "Atarians Guide to Python Awareness."
I. How To Identify a Quote Identification of Python quotes, or any TV
"""""""""""""""""""""""""" Show/Movie Quote, is fairly simple, thanks to
a convention which most of the "offending" posters (myself included) have
adopted. An irrelevant quote is generally enclosed by a less than sign ( <
) and a greater than sign ( > ), as in:
< Stop that, stop it!! There won't be any singing while _I'm_ 'ere >
Note Be aware that the Holy Grail is not the only film that is quoted in
"""" this fashion. It has also become common to quote Star Trek: The
Next Generation in a similar manner.
II. How To Read Grail Quotes In order to get the "full effect" of a
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""" Grail quote, it must be read in the proper
manner: with a thick British accent. The one notable exception to this
rule is in cases where the enclosed text is a stream of insults, for
example:
< You stupid English pig-dogs! Now go away, before ah taunt you a
zecond time! >
In these cases, a pseudo-French accent should be used.
III. How To Understand a Grail Quote The best advice I can give here is
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" to watch the movie. "Monty Python
and the Holy Grail" can be found at video rental outlets everywhere, and is
excellent for a lot of laughs. And you don't need to be a big Monty Python
fan to appreciate it.
Two things to bear in mind before watching the movie:
1) A general knowledge of the Legend of King Arthur is
helpful in understanding some of the humor.
2) If you don't like extremely off-the-wall slapstick, in
the tradition of the Zucker brothers (Airplane, The
Naked Gun), then this film is probably not for you.
IV. How To Reply To a Grail Quote Replying to Grail quotes requires that
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" you have seen the movie. For example,
without seeing the movie you would not know that the proper response to "<
But I've cut your arm off! >" would be "< No you haven't! It's a flesh
wound. I've had worse! >"
If you have seen the film, however, and you wish to reply to a Grail
quote, feel free! More are always welcome. Just use the "greater
than/less than" convention described above, and try not to stray too far
from the topic, lest the topic police come and spank you!
Note We apologize for the abrupt end to this article. Those responsible
"""" have been sacked. The rest of this issue of GEnieLamp has been
completed in a totally different style and at great expense.
//////////////////////////////// GEnie_QWIK_QUOTE ////
/ "ACCKK.. I've been arrested by the Topic Police!!! /
/ Did da judge set bail?" /
/////////////////////////////////// D.D.MARTIN ////
[EOA]
[PRO]//////////////////////////////
PROGRAMMING CORNER /
/////////////////////////////////
Apple II And You
""""""""""""""""
By Darrel Raines
[D.RAINES]
>>> THE SHAREWARE CONNECTION <<<
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
I want to start this month's column by giving an example of what I
consider to be a bad marketing and project development decision. We will
spend some time during the course of this article discussing a way to make
sure that software written for the Apple II is wanted by the user
community. I saw an advertisement for a product that, in my opinion, is
not going to be useful to the common software buyer. SoftPC has developed
a package that works on the Macintosh series of computers. It will allow
you to run any Windows compatible software product on the Mac. (Windows is
a IBM/clone version of the Mac operating system. Much of the current
Windows software has been ported over from the Mac.) Does this strike
anybody as a case of trying to sell California wine to a French wine
connoisseur? Who in their right mind would want to buy something that will
make IBM/clone software run on a Mac just like native Mac software? Buy
the Mac software and be done with it. I do not understand why anyone would
develop a product like this.
In last month's article, we explored the future of software for the
Apple II platform. I put forth the prediction that most of the software
developed for Apple II's would come from Shareware sources. I explained my
reasons for these ideas and encouraged readers to take heart in the fact
that certain advantages are to be gained from using Shareware and Freeware
programs. Chief among these advantages is the ability to guide the
development of software that you want to use by paying for software that
you find useful and asking for software that you want to use. This
arrangement can work to the benefit of both the developer and the end user.
The next question, and the one that I want to answer this week, is
how do you get a software package developed if you really need one. The
flip side to that question is how does a developer find out what users want
to use (and pay for) on their computers. One way that doesn't usually
happen is for luck to bring together the user and the developer in the same
place at the same time. "Ha", you say. "It will never happen", you say.
I think that you are correct.
A much more likely circumstance is that a user seeks out a developer
with a program idea and asks for software to be built to his
specifications. The transaction usually requires an up-front fee and a
guaranteed fee upon completion of the package. This is expensive since it
requires one potential user to absorb the entire cost of the project. A
much more financially reasonable plan calls for the joining of like-minded
users that are willing to pool resources and contract for a program to be
built. This begs the question of how you find other users who want the
same software that you want. We can see that there are problems with this
approach also.
A third alternative is available when we consider the online community
available through a service like GEnie. (Please excuse references to a
nationally advertised alcoholic beverage in the rest of this paragraph.)
Wouldn't it be great if you could register your software needs in a forum
visited by both users and developers? And wouldn't it be great if other
users could add to your ideas and produce a program specification that the
group would be willing to pay for if the software was ever developed? And
wouldn't it be great if the developers who were looking for their next
project took these specifications and built the software that so many users
were wanting to see? And wouldn't it be great if the result of all of this
synergism was some of the best software that the Apple II had ever seen?
Wouldn't it be great?
Okay, I feel better now. Sometimes I get these flashes of inspiration
and I just have to let them run their course. However, I hope that you saw
something you liked in that last paragraph. I laid out, in brief detail,
what I envision as a public clearing house for program ideas and software
development. An entity can be created that will meet the needs of the
software user and creator in a way that is beneficial to both. Perhaps a
user can identify a software need that a developer was wanting to create
anyway. Such a meeting can serve as a spark to get the developer started
on the project.
I can see that some software wants will be too big for a single
programmer to tackle. Such programs (that are deemed worthwhile) could be
broken down into sub-projects that are handled by individual programmers.
A project lead would be established to manage getting the pieces built and
put together. On the other hand, many programmers like to work by
themselves. This can certainly be accomplished by allowing software
package ideas to be "checked out" by a programmer indicating that it is
currently being worked on. Profits, for shareware packages, would be
distributed according to who worked on the project and to what extent.
Users would be much more likely to pay for a software package that they
helped bring to life by establishing what the package would do. A promise
sheet could even be created which tracks the people willing to pay a
certain shareware fee if a package is finally produced.
I can hear the nay-sayers now. "This idea will never work since it
requires people to pay shareware fees." "Who would write these programs?"
"I only wanted to read a game review and got lost in the wrong article!
(Oops)" I will grant you that this is a radical idea and certainly
requires more thought before being put into action. However, the
investment is small for everyone concerned. All the users have to do is
register their software needs. All the developers have to do is write
programs that they want to write. If the idea works, then many people may
be happy. If the idea does not work, then no one loses. The argument that
the developer loses his valuable programming time can be countered with a
quick check to see how many people have registered shareware programs by
some of the prominent Apple II authors. Putting a program without a
guaranteed audience on the market will produce mixed results. Writing a
program with an established audience can go a long way toward maximizing
profit.
Since there is so much to gain, and so little to lose, why don't we
get started right away? I will volunteer to gather program ideas that
users want to see written for the Apple II. If you have such an idea,
please send a brief statement about what you want to my online address (see
bottom of article). I will tabulate these ideas and find a good way to
distribute them to the programming community. I am not sure that GEnie
Lamp is the proper way to get these ideas in front of the Apple II
community as a whole. Therefore, I will explore the possibility of getting
something going on the A2/A2Pro Bulletin Boards.
I would like to hear from any person who has suggestions concerning
the information in this article. If you have an inspiration on how to
establish such an idea/program exchange, I would be glad to hear about it.
If you want to tell me how ridiculous I sound, then blast away. If you
want to volunteer to write some of these new programs, then step right up.
If you have a catchy name that will get peoples attention and focus it on
what we are trying to do, then by all means send it to me. I do not live
in a vacuum. I am connected to GEnie and hopefully you are too.
I am out of breath for this month, so let us stop for now. I have
probably launched more ideas than I have distributed information. Next
month I will try to swing more to the other side. We will discuss the ins
and outs of the Apple Human Interface Guidelines. Until then, let me know
that you are out there and reading this by sending e-mail (its free). I
will attempt to respond to every letter that I receive.
[*][*][*]
Author: Darrel Raines [D.RAINES] welcomes any feedback or
comments via electronic mail to the listed user name.
///////////////////////////// GEnie_QWIK_QUOTE ////
/ "But I think it's great.. I love GEnie, and the /
/ diverse personalities that I meet here, for /
/ better or for worse.. <Grin>.." /
////////////////////////////////// T.EVANS21 ////
[EOA]#66
[FUN]//////////////////////////////
ONLINE FUN /
/////////////////////////////////
Search-ME!
""""""""""
By John Peters
[GENIELAMP]
SEARCH-ME! Welcome to Search-ME, our new monthly puzzle program. Each
"""""""""" month we will have a different theme. This month the
Search-ME! puzzle contains 21 keywords that are associated with MIDI.
This month's list of words was sent to us by Scott Garrigus. [S.GARRIGUS]
Thanks, Scott!
>>> MIDI! <<<
"""""""""""""
U U W D G D H W E F D U Y Y U T L G S O G S W
C V L Q X N H P P C S S O I R E F B U M O P F
P R G V H C L E F C K E B Q K E P O A E P D U
R D J O V S J K Q T W B C D K S C P D G M B P
Q E W D O M C P E P J R W N W H W N Y A B J R
H B C S C D G K C Y E O L O M E F Y E E Z M O
T I N M E Q H R B H W Z B D X F R L C U L J T
N X V L J W H I X M Q O B U A S Q X D S Q Q E
Y U A E Q C R Q V S Q S R T P X P S V O B E U
S Y R M Y V U K L E H L S D W R S C N Z U G S
R M X R U X Q B Q Y W U I O O Y J A J T N B V
T A D E Z T M I A H Z G M L H R I X N O Q C M
J P M V R Y D M X S R J A O B P O V I P W O N
X H C E W B A S S I E N A I W Z C T S X W V V
C G B R W H N S C E D H H K X T A W A B U B Z
P C G B A R E E K M Z P Q F Q T N Z K T V C R
K T L G M J W L T M E J F E O U C P Y O O E T
Y H O R D E R H H O Z P R N S S T K B P X N Y
T X K O M D O G S H N S J V F U L R X I P G D
Z H S K X L O B F R Q D X E T S O F M E X O A
[*][*][*]
CLEF CUBASE DAT
DELAY EQ FOSTEX
KEYWORD KORG MIXER
NOTATION NOTATOR NOTE
OMEGA PIANO PROTEUS
REVERB ROLAND SEQUENCER
STAFF SYNTH YAMAHA
GIVE UP? You will find the answers in the LOG OFF column at the end of
"""""""" the magazine.
If you have an idea of a theme for Search-ME!, send your list of
keywords to GENIELAMP. Lists selected that are used in this column will
get you one hour of GEnie credit. Cool!
This column was created with a program called SEARCH ME,
an Atari ST program by David Becker.
[EOA]!!@
[WHO]//////////////////////////////
WHO'S WHO /
/////////////////////////////////
Who's Who In Apple II
"""""""""""""""""""""
>>> CHATTING WITH GARY UTTER <<<
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
~ Apple II Guru ~
GEnieLamp > Gary, how did you first get interested in the Apple II
""""""""" computer?
Gary Utter > Back in the early days, a friend of mine who was in the Navy
"""""""""" left his black Bell and Howell II+ clone here while he was on
sea duty and stationed in Japan. I played with it a bit, but after finding
a bug in Wizardry that let me build up an incredible number of character
points in an hour or so, I kind of lost interest. When my wife decided,
back in '87 or '88 that she needed a computer for her small business, I
looked at Apples first, because I was SLIGHTLY familiar with them.
I also looked at IBM (clones), Macs, and Amigas. I settled on the
Apple because it seemed to have the best support, most ease of use, and
because I had friends who had Apples. I did not, however, BUY an Apple, I
bought a Laser 128EX. It seemed silly to spend the money for an Apple IIc
when the Laser was just as good and half as expensive. (And I still feel
that way. :)
GEnieLamp > At what point did you realize that your casual hobby had
""""""""" evolved into something more than a "casual hobby"?
Gary Utter > When, in the course of 3 weeks, I had spent well over 150
"""""""""" hours "getting the computer set up" for my wife, and when I
had gone out and purchased an additional meg of memory (just before the big
price jump), a mouse, a printer, additional disk drives, literally hundreds
of blank floppies, etc.
At that point, I decided that my best course was to upgrade, and I
took the Laser back to the dealer and swapped it (and a bunch of cash) for
a GS. I was still trying to be cheap, so I didn't get a 3.5 drive. :)
Over the course of the next five months, I upgraded from 1 meg of memory to
3.75 megs on a RamKeeper, added an Apple 3.5 drive, replaced my Laser
drives with Apple brand 5.25s, upgraded to a color printer, and finally, at
the end of the five months, got a used ProFile 5 meg hard drive. After
that, it was all over, my "enhancement curve" went vertical. :)
Somewhere in there (at about the 2 month point, as I recall) I got a
modem and accounts on The Source, CIS and GEnie. That REALLY pushed me
over the edge. :) At that time, I was running a combined bill on those
services in excess of $300 a month, and I was spending ALL of it combing
through the Apple II areas for information and downloads. (No time for
Chat, no time for Games, just information and more information. :)
I am now up to a 5 meg GS, with Rev D RamFast, 240 meg Quantum, 44 meg
Syquest, a pair of 3.5 drives, Magnavox color monitor (larger and brighter
than the Apple), Zip GS (only 8 mhz though), 9600 baud USR modem, DeskJet
printer, and tons of software. Expense wise, it has been ugly, but fun.
GEnieLamp > In the past few years, Gary, you've assumed a leadership
""""""""" position in the national Apple II community. Please tell us
a little about how this came about.
Gary Utter > Simple, I read everything I can get my hands on,
"""""""""" (electronically speaking), and forget very little of it. I
experiment with the information when it is appropriate (just because I want
to KNOW) and I seem to be able to synthesize it well. I'm not afraid to
ask questions, and, more importantly, in terms of the question YOU asked,
I'm not afraid to answer questions.
GEnieLamp > What do you consider your most proud accomplishment?
Gary Utter > Being one of the best police dispatchers in the US. :)
""""""""""
GEnieLamp > Who do you look up to as your mentors?
Gary Utter > Loren Damewood, David Winograd, Marc Farnum Rendino, and a
"""""""""" bunch of the regulars on MAUG. Due to the lack of a front
end for GEnie (i.e. a 16 bit front end, specifically CoPilot), I was a lot
more active on CIS than on GEnie during my "formative years" online. Now
that I have CoPilot, I am a lot more active here than there. GEnies
pricing has something to do with that, as GEnie is more active these days
than CIS. I've been trying to persuade "the guys" from CIS to come on over
here, but so far without much luck. I tend to go where the action is,
which is to say (no offense to GEnie) that if CIS was busier than GEnie, I
would probably spend more time there than I do here (that just applies to
A2, of course). But, I wouldn't cut back on my time here, just spend more
time online overall.
GEnieLamp > Gary, you've been very active in the Apple II Roundtable on
""""""""" GEnie, answering questions and leaving pithy messages on a
regular basis. Where do you see the future of telecommunications moving in
the next five to ten years?
Gary Utter > Hmmm, I can't really answer that. I don't see any
"""""""""" SIGNIFICANT change coming, just incremental improvements
(widespread availability of 9600 access, better front ends, etc). It is
likely that there will BE some significant change, but it is not something
that I can predict.
GEnieLamp > What sorts of things do you like to do for fun (i.e. non-
""""""""" computer hobbies)?
Gary Utter > For fun? I like to sleep.
""""""""""
GEnieLamp > Are computers a part of your daytime job? Please tell us a
""""""""" little about what you do between 9 and 5.
Gary Utter > I dispatch police cars for the Office of Emergency
"""""""""" Communications in beautiful downtown Rochester, New York.
We use computers all over the place, but we don't really get to WORK with
them, all the software is "canned", and runs off mainframes. They are just
tools.
Our center presents probably THE most intense dispatching environment
in the US, but explaining what that means is, I suspect, well beyond the
scope of this profile . (It would take a LOT of background. :) Let's just
say that it is intense, and stressful, and a whole lot of fun if you have
the right attitude, and SERIOUS work. (If I screw up, people can DIE.)
GEnieLamp > How long have you been a member of GEnie? What new services do
""""""""" you think GEnie should provide its subscribers?
Gary Utter > Jeez, memory does not serve in this case. It seems to me
"""""""""" that it was July of '87 when I got my first modem, and
August when I discovered GEnie and CIS.
As for new services, I would like to see widespread availability of
9600 baud nodes, along with v.32 capability. I would also like to see
Prime Time eliminated, but I don't know that I would say that is something
GEnie SHOULD provide. I think it would be a Good Thing, but I am not at
all sure that it would be practical. :)
GEnieLamp > What one piece of advice would you pass along to a new Apple
""""""""" II telecommunications enthusiast?
Gary Utter >
""""""""""
1. Get the fastest modem you can possibly afford, and make sure that
it has MNP 1-5 and V.32 and v.42bis. (Of course, to be reading
this, they will already HAVE a modem....)
2. Get a GOOD communications program. I personally would recommend
either TIC or ProTerm v3.0. I understand there are some new things
coming down the pike, so I don't want to limit myself too much
here, but I don't know anything specific that I can talk about.
3. Get a good front end program. I am not going to make any
recommendation at all on that. Anyone who knows me knows that I am
a heavy CoPilot user, but basically, all the front end programs
currently available are good choices, so I think which one you get
is up to personal preference.
Gee, that is THREE pieces of advice, isn't it? (And I didn't even
mention the dedicated phone line. :)
GEnieLamp > You've worked as chief assistant in the Jerry Pournelle
""""""""" Roundtable for a while. How did you come into getting this
job? What aspects of the work do you find most interesting?
Well, originally I was a heavy poster in the Pournelle RT, and I was
almost always on at 3, 4, 5 in the morning. This is a REAL good time to do
maintenance tasks in a RoundTable, and Howard Rosenman, who was then the
Assistant, needed someone to do maintenance, so he asked me. As the
situation wound up, Howard got a new job shortly after that (with GEnie)
and I moved up into his slot.
What I find most interesting about it is the ability to increase usage
by making the RT more interesting to the USERS. Just how that is done is
something really hard to explain, but I seem to have a knack for it.
Fascinating work, overall, but it cuts into my sleep severely. :)
////////////////////////////// GEnie_QWIK_QUOTE ////
/ "Hmmmm.......... Curiouser and Curiouser........ /
/ SOMEONE around here must have slipped the Topic /
/ Cops a fiver to look the other way." /
//////////////////////////////////// SAM-RAPP ////
[EOA]
[FOC]//////////////////////////////
FOCUS ON... /
/////////////////////////////////
Computers As Therapy
""""""""""""""""""""
By Phil Shapiro
[P.SHAPIRO1]
>>> HOW APPLE II COMPUTERS ARE BEING USED FOR COGNITIVE THERAPY <<<
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
From the time when computers were introduced into schools about a
dozen years ago, teachers have had an opportunity to watch closely how
students interact with these wondrous machines. It's no great surprise
that computers have been seen to assist intellectual growth. But what is
surprising is how computers can help boost student self-esteem and
self-confidence.
As students interact with computers, they are given constant feedback
as to their current progress. With well-designed educational software they
can almost feel their minds growing. As students develop a mastery of
several educational computer programs, their sense of self-esteem and
self-confidence naturally rises. Thus, the very act of interacting with
computers may change the students' sense of self.
If, then, computers can help strengthen the self-image of
schoolchildren, shouldn't they also be able to strengthen the self-image of
other people, as well? This very question was asked and answered by
occupational therapists at St. Elizabeth's Hospital, a publicly-funded
psychiatric hospital in Washington, D.C.
About eight years ago the hospital bought two Apple IIc computer
systems for use by staff and residents. Along with the computers they also
purchased a wide selection of educational computer software.
The aim of the computer project was to bring residents to the computer
lab in small groups, giving them the opportunity to interact with both the
computers and with one another. Suzanne Pickering, the occupational
therapist supervising the computer project, explains that the residents
take a strong interest in working with the computers. The software engages
their minds, providing a welcome intellectual stimulus within their daily
routine.
Pickering further explains that the nature of the software program
being used seems less important to the residents than the fact that they're
just using the computer itself. Residents of the hospital take pride in
simply sitting at the computer and using whatever software is available.
Yet choosing which software to use with the residents is no easy decision.
The two categories of software most often used are drill-and-practice
software and creative expression software. In the drill-and-practice
category are the math, spelling, geography and problem-solving games most
frequently used with elementary and middle level students. In the creative
expression category are programs such as Print Shop and AppleWorks.
Pickering explains that her objective is to get the residents quickly
involved in a computer activity that's not overly complicated. While the
residents have great enthusiasm for using computers, their attention spans
are not always long. For the maximum beneficial result, residents need to
be given software that allows them to achieve actual, demonstrable success
within the first few minutes after booting the program. The programs need
to coax them along to greater and greater challenges, all the while giving
them positive and encouraging feedback. The goal is to produce small
intellectual fireworks in their brains as they develop greater and greater
skill at a given cognitive activity. The object is to facilitate and
encourage the growth of new neural links in their minds. An interesting
analogy is offered by Pickering.
Just as doing sit-ups can help strengthen lower back muscles, so too
can doing cognitive drills help strengthen a person's sense of self. And
once a person's sense of self is strengthened, once they have a stronger
and renewed sense of their own being, a positive spillover effect results.
By strengthening one group of mental muscles, the spillover effect
strengthens them all.
In terms of the creative expression software, the goal of the project
is to reinforce their self-concept as artistic creators. A simple Print
Shop sign serves as visible proof of their creative powers.
To help celebrate the residents' creativity, the walls of the computer
lab are adorned with their handiwork. What started as a small computer lab
has grown to become a small art museum as well. Extra printed copies of
their creative work are given the residents to show others.
Sadly, the popular Print Shop software has been missing for over two
years. (The residents were using the original Print Shop software, with
its easy menus and interface.) Keeping software secure in an institutional
setting is always a serious challenge.
The hospital staff has been talking about new software they'd like to
add to their collection. High on their wish list is the Children's Writing
and Publishing Center. With limited funding for the project, software
purchases are made very carefully.
When asked how other Apple II users might be able to support this
interesting computer project, Pickering commented that the hospital could
really use another copy of the original Print Shop disk. (The New Print
Shop might present too many confusing options, and disk swapping, for the
residents.) Other items on her wish list include standard computer
supplies: floppy disks, ImageWriter ribbons, and disk storage cases.
Donations to the hospital are all tax deductible, Pickering hastened to
add.
In discussing the great potential for success in this project,
Pickering mentioned that she's interested in hearing from occupational
therapists in other cities who might be doing similar work. It makes sense
to share ideas and experiences in this fledgling new field of mental
therapy.
The operations of the human mind remain one of the great mysteries of
all time. Yet you need not be a neuroscientist to realize that
computer-assisted cognitive therapy may have long-lasting positive effects
for those suffering from mental illness. If the sole result of these
computer interactions is to bring an interesting new focus of interest into
these people's lives, that alone can make this project worthwhile.
Somehow, I suspect, this project will accomplish much more.
Contact
"""""""
Suzanne Pickering, Occupational Therapy
St.Elizabeth's Hospital, 2700 Martin Luther King Ave., SE,
Washington, D.C. 20032
Phone: (202) 373-6901 and (202) 373-6909.
Recommended Reading
"""""""""""""""""""
Turkle, Sherry. The Second Self: Computers and the Human
Spirit. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1984.
[*][*][*]
Phil Shapiro Shapiro is the founder of Balloons Software, a
"""""""""""" new Apple II educational software company. He can
be reached He can be reached via electronic mail on GEnie at:
P.Shapiro1; on America Online at: pshapiro
///////////////////////////////////// GEnie_QWIK_QUOTE ////
/ "I drink to that, one narrow minded person to another." /
/////////////////////////////////////////// T.MCCOMB ////
[EOA]
[GAM]//////////////////////////////
GAMES PEOPLE PLAY /
/////////////////////////////////
Bouncin' Ferno
""""""""""""""
By Darrel Raines
[D.Raines]
GOOD NEWS / BAD NEWS This month's topic is the final (sigh) program to be
"""""""""""""""""""" released by that amazing and sometimes frustrating
French organization: Free Tools Association (FTA). FTA has produced some
of the most beautiful graphics and sound demonstration programs that have
been seen on the Apple IIgs. They have produced a number of exciting game
programs. Perhaps best of all, they have released most of their software
in the public domain as freeware. However, FTA has developed all of their
software "free from the restrictions of Apple's toolset". This has meant
that you usually have to load the software from floppy disk and that the
software did not always work after updates to the system software. The
claim, I believe, was that use of the toolset slowed programs down to the
point that they were not useful.
For better or worse this seems to be the last of the FTA programs
that we will be seeing. If a person wants to be known by their best
efforts, then this game may be the lasting image people have of FTA. This
game is, just like its creators, both amazing and frustrating. Perhaps I
have gotten ahead of myself. First I should describe the game and then I
will tell you my impressions of the software.
The Introduction Yes, the introduction of this game deserves a separate
"""""""""""""""" section. Like all of the previous FTA offerings, this
one has great sound and graphics. All of the music is on the first screen.
The main title is displayed with an impressive graphics-as-letters image of
a roaring fire. A scroll line appears in the middle of the screen with a
long line of credits and other semi-useful information. A ball (or marble)
appears at the top of the screen and then things really start to happen.
[*][*][*]
As the stereo music starts to play the ball drops from the top of the
screen. It hits the scroll line and BOTH the ball and the scroll line
bounce to reflect the collision. While reacting to the collision, the
information line continues to scroll as if nothing had happened. This is
some of the smoothest graphics that I have seen in quite some time. When
you finally get tired of watching the pretty pictures, you can hit the
mouse button to move on to the game.
[*][*][*]
The Game The first thing to greet your eyes after the introduction
"""""""" screens is the main control panel for Bouncin' Ferno. You can
choose all of the game options from here. A joystick can be selected and
calibrated from this screen. You can also choose to use the mouse
(default) as an input device. You may choose to play a new game, select
the maze (labeled Level) to be played, or start the editor. The editor is
discussed below. FTA has provided you with three demonstration mazes. The
first maze is a good introduction to the game. The other two are monsters
that are probably well beyond your skills for quite a while. You will want
to stay with maze (Level) 0 until you are much more familiar with the game.
Bouncin' Ferno has been likened by many to the old Electronic Arts
program Marble Madness. I cannot compare the two since I never owned a
copy of MM. The object of the game is to move a small ball (or marble)
around a three dimensional maze and collect the small containers of fluid
that keep you alive. You must continue to collect fluid since you are
continually draining your current supply. This fill and drain activity is
monitored by a crystal ball on the right/lower portion of the screen. As
you collect containers, the fluid level rises in the crystal ball. As you
progress in time, the fluid is slowly drained until the crystal ball will
eventually crack if it ever becomes dry. When this happens, the game is
over.
[*][*][*]
The maze itself is a very large chamber that is broken up into
individual rooms. The rooms are arranged in a five by five matrix. Your
position in the matrix and how many containers are left will be shown at
the top of the screen in the upper/left area. You begin in the upper-most
(on the map), left-most room in the matrix. You can only go into other
rooms via a transporter. Transporters are marked as small triangles on the
floor. If you start in the first room and land on a triangle on the right
side wall, you end up in the upper-most room second from the left. The
ball will only travel one room in the direction of the transport.
[*][*][*]
Once you are in a room you may move freely about the room and try to
pick up any of the fluid containers that you can reach. A mouse or
joystick may be used to accelerate your ball on the playing field. The
ball will accelerate in the direction that you move the mouse/joystick and
will continue to accelerate until you stop moving. I have practiced with
both input devices and find the mouse offers better response. The faster
you move the mouse, the more acceleration you will get. A nice, slow
movement is wanted for most of the obstacles. I believe that you can
progress to the next maze if you manage to get every container on the
current maze. I cannot check this guess since I have never quite finished
a level. I will have more to say on this subject later. You need the
containers anyway since you must replenish your fluid level in the course
of play. Therefore, it is a good idea to get every container, if you can.
The floor of each room is a purple slab that is marked with a grid to
help the player see proper angles. On top of the purple slab can be a
number of different surfaces which have varying characteristics. A red
square indicates fire and will drain your fluid very rapidly. Stay away
from these at all costs. A green, orange, or brown square is part of a
ramp or higher surface. These are not bad for you except that any incline
will be more difficult to go up than flat ground and will accelerate you on
the downhill slopes. Some squares (of any color) will contain a centered
straight line which represents a spring mechanism. Landing on this square
will send you sky-rocketing into the air. This may be useful for reaching
upper levels of the current room.
A blue colored square indicates a glide region. Once you enter a
glide region, you cannot control the movement of the ball until you touch
another type of square. Therefore, a combination of blue and red squares
can be deadly since you cannot change direction on the blue once you have
started toward a red square. There are also invisible squares which act
just like one of the other purple, green, orange or brown squares. I
understand that there exists (but have not encountered) an invisible square
that acts just like a blue surface. These could be even more dangerous.
The one maneuver that I have not mentioned so far is what I call the
"marble hop". The ball that you control is capable of a very short hop
whenever you press the mouse button. I have not found this to be all that
useful. There are certainly a couple of rooms that require this feature.
However, the marble hop is so low that I have found the major usefulness of
this feature to be during a jump from a high level. Pressing the mouse
button will help break your fall and keep you from bouncing so high.
Each room can play like an individual puzzle. Think of it as a
real-time test of your ability to solve mazes, but with a twist. The
puzzle can involve figuring out how to get to the can of fluid. It can
involve determining how to get to the next room. One devious little quirk
that I have failed to mention until now is that a time limit exists for
each room. No timer is visible. However, if you stay in a room long
enough, it begins to fill with water. This is not immediately detrimental
to your ball. The effects are that the ball does not have the friction it
used to have with the various surfaces. Your crystal ball will drain about
twice as fast while you are in a room filling with water. I am not sure
how much the room will fill. One of the interesting things that I have
discovered is that the water will sometimes stop filling the room and the
room will retain the water that it had received until that point. I cannot
decide why the water stops flowing into the room. I also fail to
understand why it stops at different levels during different games.
When you put all of this together, you get a good picture of what
goes on during a game of Bouncin' Ferno. You roll, hop and slide your way
through a series of traps, ramps, hidden surfaces and other obstacles
trying to reach the next can of fluid or the next room. Multiple room
puzzles are possible and even exist on some of the more difficult rooms in
the demonstration mazes. If you get tired of trying to complete the room
you are in you can always go to the next room. There is nothing to prevent
you from passing through all of the rooms and not getting any of the fluid
containers (although that would not do you any good). The best reason for
using this capability is to skip difficult rooms until after you have
captured easy containers in later rooms.
There is of course the mandatory high score name board. These exist
for each maze, so you should get to type your name in quite often. There
does not seem to be a way to save a game in progress. There is supposed to
be a way to quit play during a game, but it does not always work for me.
The Editor I don't plan on going into much detail here on the editor. I
"""""""""" simply wanted to say that it exists and can create any maze
that you are able to conceive. The instructions are written in French so
you will need to download another file that has a translated version of the
instructions. The interface is mostly via the keyboard. You will see the
rooms as you build them, but the construction is done from keyboard
commands. You can test any level as you build it. The editor looks to be
very complete.
A Review Bouncin' Ferno is one of the best Freeware games that I have
"""""""" seen anywhere. It is also one of the best games that I have
experienced for the Apple IIgs, period. It does have its faults, however.
The game can run a bit on the long side for one sitting. I have played one
maze for almost an hour. Therefore, a save game feature would be very
useful. Along those lines the quit command should work at all times during
the game. I would also like to see a pause feature added so that the kids
can get my attention without my fluid draining slowly away. ("Not now
honey, daddy's in the middle of something important.")
Other minor faults include the lack of music other than the main title
screen. FTA is known for its music demonstration programs, right. It
would also be nice to know how much time is left for you to finish a room.
Perhaps a clock could show up in the upper/right corner to count off you
last minute before the water starts filling a room.
The game play is smooth and realistic. The ball acts just like I
would expect a marble to act on the surfaces and inclines that you go over.
I have no complaints in this area other than to say that the marble hop
seems to be of limited use. I think that a cumulative effect would be
appropriate for the hop feature. What I have in mind is a second button
press bounces you higher than the first. The third press would send you
higher and so on. However, this is a minor gripe and merely a suggestion
for improvement.
Now we come to the area where I have the biggest complaint. The game
can be VERY difficult when the mazes are constructed without proper care
concerning how they can be traversed. I suppose that this may have been
the area that FTA was still working on when they disbanded. For whatever
reason, the level 0 maze is barely playable (toward the end) and the other
two mazes are ridiculously hard. I am a fairly good arcade game player. I
have been unable to finish the level 0 maze in over a dozen attempts. My
wife cannot even complete half of the maze. I have "solved" every one of
the rooms in the maze at least once, but never within the same game. Four
of the rooms are very difficult and I run out of time on at least one of
them every time I play.
This concern is the source of the statement I made at the beginning of
this review. Bouncin' Ferno is both amazing and frustrating. The graphics
and playability are fantastic. The frustration at being unable to win even
the simplest maze is enough to drive you crazy. There is hope on the
horizon, however. Both A+/Incider and GEnie are conducting contests for
the creators of the best mazes for this nifty game. All a person has to do
is use the built-in editor to create a maze for the game and that creation
can be entered in both contests. If enough people put their talents to
this task, we should see enough good levels to make this game one of the
all-time classics for the Apple IIgs. Until more mazes exist, I can only
say that the game has the potential to be a classic.
The exciting thing about all of this is that the reader of this column
can directly take part in the action. All he/she has to do is download the
files listed at the end of this article. After playing a few rounds of the
introduction maze, select the editor from the main menu and let your
creative juices flow. There are many prizes to be won and recognition
awaits the creators of any worthy mazes. There is nothing to lose and a
good time to be had by any participant. Until next month: Roll carefully.
Bouncin' Ferno:
Review Rating: 8 out of a possible 10.
Entertainment Factors: (See August article/ALMP0892.ASC GEnieLamp RT)
Skill Development: Minor mouse abilities are developed.
Playability: This game is very playable and somewhat addictive.
Stimulation: The maze editor is the only creative outlet in this game.
Random Events: None supported in this game.
Computer Player Modes: N/A.
Fun Factor: This game is a blast (and could be even better).
Files: (GEnie A2 file numbers, of course)
18711 BF.DOCS.BXY by J.WILLETT size is 5888
Desc: ENGLISH DOCS FOR BOUNCIN' FERNO
18948 BOUNCNFERNO.BXY by LUNATIC size is 458496
Desc: Bouncin' Ferno game from the FTA!
[*][*][*]
Author: Darrel Raines [D.RAINES] welcomes any feedback or
comments via electronic mail to the listed user name.
//////////////////////////////////////// GEnie_QWIK_QUOTE ////
/ "Hey, you're WAY off topic here, fella!! Jeff W. (SYsop), /
/ here's your chance to nail the 'sucker'... <Grin>.." /
///////////////////////////////////////////// T.EVANS21 ////
[EOA]
[COW]//////////////////////////////
COWTOONS! /
/////////////////////////////////
Moooooo Fun!
""""""""""""
By Mike White
[M.WHITE]
HINT: Clip and Load King Kowngs into the DOS 5.0 editor (or any editor)
and quickly press page-down & page-up to see King Cowng change
dispositions. (An animated CowTOON!)
[*][*][*]
/\ (__) ___
<> (oo) ____ / |
/---<>----\/ |,=-~| l--==---/ |
/ | <> || |'===| l--==------V
* ||/~~\--|| ----
/~~~~~~\
_/~~~~~~~~\_
| == == == |
| === === |
| ======== | " King Cowng "
| === === | ~~~~~~~~~~
| ======== |
/ ==== ==== \ On the empire state building.
| == ==== == |
| ==== ==== | [M.WHITE25]
| == ==== == |
| ==== ==== |
| ========== |
| == ____ == |
|____| |____|
/\ ___
<>(|__|) ____ / |
<> (oo) |,=-~| l--==---/ |
<>_(/\)__ |'===| l--==------V
/~~\ .. _ | ----
/~~~~~~\ | |
_/~~~~~~~~\_| |
| == == == |[m]
| === === |
| ======== | " King Cowng "
| === === | ~~~~~~~~~~
| ======== |
/ ==== ==== \ On the empire state building.
| == ==== == |
| ==== ==== | [M.WHITE25]
| == ==== == |
| ==== ==== |
| ========== |
| == ____ == |
|____| |____|
[*][*][*]
(__) CowTOONS? Mike took us up on our offer
(oo) and sent us this month's CowTOONS
/-------\/ ________ selection. Thanks, Mike!
/ | ||_|/ O _______
||----| -- If you have an idea for a CowTOON!, we
^^ ^ would like to see it. If we use it here
Cow Catcher in GEnieLamp, we will credit your account
with 2 hours of GEnie non-prime time!
//////////////////////////////////////////// GEnie_QWIK_QUOTE ////
/ "Haven't you heard "patience is a virtue" and "all good things /
/ to those who wait"? :^)" /
/ /
/ "Sure I have... But where's the update?? <Grin>..." /
////////////////////////////////////// D.SEBERG / T.EVANS21 ////
[EOA]
[SHA]//////////////////////////////
SOFTWARE SOLUTIONS /
/////////////////////////////////
It's Only Money
"""""""""""""""
By Kirk Hollingsworth
[HOLLINGSWRTH]
>>> YOUR MONEY MATTERS <<<
""""""""""""""""""""""""""
~ Programmer: Steve Peterson o Software Solutions ~
YOUR MONEY MATTERS This is a home/small business accounting program for
"""""""""""""""""" the IIGS. It is extremely flexible and fast in its
operation, and, for the most part, follows the normal Apple Interface
guidelines so that its operation is relatively intuitive for IIGS users.
(There also are enough keyboard equivalents to make operation that way
pretty simple.) It not only provides quite flexible handling and reporting
of the data, but permits exporting it to Appleworks or AWGS so that it can
be massaged further via spreadsheets or an additional database.
First The Bad News it does not have many of the additional modules
"""""""""""""""""" which, for example, Managing Your Money does. It has
no modules for calculating loans, for example, and thus no way of
automatically separating out equity from interest payments for mortgages:
the user has to secure this data and input it himself. There is a
capability included for investment management, but it is seriously
compromised by the lack of any method to input new asset values/share
prices to change the value of the investment. The module is therefore of
little value to anyone who has securities or mutual fund investments: it
will mainly be useful to keep track of savings accounts, money market
funds, and the like. Additionally, YMM has no equivalents of the MYM
Insurance or for the Calendar modules.
The Good News however, is that what YMM does do it does very well indeed.
""""""""""""" Perhaps its most salient feature is its flexibility: all
transactions go into a single transaction file, and this file can be very
simply sorted and/or selected from in virtually any way a user could ask.
The main transaction file has the following fields:
o Base account (e.g. Chase Bank, cash, Savings) *
o Transaction Type (e.g. Check, Refund, Cash exp etc.) *
o Reference number (e.g. check number)
o Date
o Paid to
o Distribution Account (e.g. Household, Medical, Groceries)*
o Tax ID (e.g. medical expenses, interest) *
o Cleared
o Amount
o Memo
* User constructed ahead of time
One can sort and/or select based on any combination of these fields:
all Savings, or all Savings after August 1, or all Grocery expenditures of
more than $25, or all checks to Joe Smith. The dialogue box involved in
setting up multiple selects is ingenious and works well.
There are a few additional "files" within the database (there's
actually only a single datafile, though - no directories full of different
files):
o Accounts (base and distribution)
o Account addresses
o Recurring transactions, and
o Payee addresses.
New accounts can be easily added at any time during the span of the
year (unless cramped storage facilities require "extending" the data base
[probably similar to the dreaded MYM scrunch?]: once the database is
extended no new accounts can be added).
There are separate windows available for viewing transactions, all of
the above subsidiary "files", plus other transaction fields, including
o Account budget (for setting up new budgets)
o Account monthly (shows actual vs budget [ but not the net
of the two ] vs. history [generally last year] month by
month for any account).
The windows are shown, normally, in list form. Fields are, in the
case of text fields, truncated so that all the fields will always fit on
the screen at one time: the user has no flexibility about changing field
size or hiding fields. There is, for most of the windows, a single-record
"Form" display easily available: it's nicely made, but there seems little
use for it since in list mode you can, as in AWGS, read the entire contents
of a truncated text field by putting the cursor on it.
Adding new transactions is very simple. One opens the transaction
window, and puts the cursor on the last record of a particular transaction
type (the last check, for example) and hits Apple-I, and gets a blank next
line. Hitting Return for the base account, transaction type and/or date
fields (instead of entering new data) dittos the previous record's entry
for that field; hitting Return on the Ref Number field increments the
previous check number (if any) by one. (It is not absolutely necessary to
find the last record of a particular type: one can put the new record
anywhere and it will be automatically sorted at the next access. However,
choosing the logical place for it does give useful automatic dittos from
the prior record. )
The Payee entry always checks the Recurring Payments file, so that
there's no need to enter more than two or three letters of a frequently
used payee: if you pay the Chintzy Mortgage Company $745.86 per month,
writing "Chi" (or however many characters you need to make it unique) will
fill in the name, the amount, allocate the amount to Mortgage (with some to
Insurance and Taxes if you account it that way), and add your account
number to the Memo field, all instantaneously.
It is also possible to copy several frequently made transactions at
once from the Recurring window to the Transaction window. I keep my
regular monthly transactions with a dash before each payee's name, so
they're sorted together: then I just select them all with the cursor, and
copy them into the Transaction window. Note that both windows must be open
for this, however: despite the existence of Apple-like menus, there is no
clipboard.
Split transactions are easily handled, and the splits can be routinely
shown or not shown in the Transaction file as desired. (One oddity in
this, though. When marking transactions as "cleared" the marking takes
effect only for the Total part of the record. If you select, as I do to
minimize the "current" transaction file, only uncleared transactions to be
shown in the window, cleared split transactions will also continue to show
unless you list the splits and clear each split individually).
As noted above, there's also a Payee address file. If you're going to
use checks with window envelopes, the address will be searched for the
payee and printed.
There is a relatively limited number of reporting possibilities at
this point, and report formats cannot be modified by the user. However,
reports can be written easily to disk, and are written with Returns between
records and Tabs between fields - so importing them to AWGS is a breeze.
(With one caveat, however: the reports are written to disk as formal
reports, so that one must first use a text editor to delete the column
headers and subtotal lines for the import to go through properly.) I use
this feature a lot: for reasons noted later, I'm currently using AWGS to
print my checks, and I also keep a hard copy of my checkbook register done
that way. It is really very simple to use (even with the necessary
editing).
The current checkwriting format (listed under Reports) is very
limited, but undergoing revision at the moment. Currently one can print
(1) a personal check, with no address and no voucher, but with the ability
to move the fields around, or (2) a continuous commercial check in a fixed
format(the same NEBS check format used for MYM) with address and voucher.
The checks are printed (at least, on my DJ 500) with uncondensed Shaston -
hardly elegant, and of limited value because of the difficulty of fitting
the result into an envelope window. However, all of this will change
within the next month or two: the author, Steve Peterson, is currently
working on a new checkwriting module which will allow a great deal more
flexibility. (I hope to be able to use, for example, 3-on-a-page
Quicken-type checks with no vouchers and with choice of fonts.)
In the meantime the exporting to AWGS is so simple and trouble-free
that (assuming you pay virtually all your checks at one time in the month,
as I do) it works very efficiently as a part of the package to print the
checks with AWGS.
Other improvements in the works include
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
o allowing the user to specify fonts used in a window,
o permitting sending of control codes to the printer for
printing in text mode,
o permitting the Match Record dialogue to be shown
automatically before accessing Transactions, and
o some improvements in the monthly account report.
There are also graphs (in color) available showing account amounts
(e.g., assets vs. liabilities, expenses vs. income - user's choice), cash
flow, and net worth. These can only be printed via a "hard-copy-of-screen"
facility, and they cannot be printed to disk.
The program seems to be very efficiently written: it's quite fast,
particularly considering that it's always drawing and re-drawing graphic
text screens. I have a RAMFast and a 8 mhz Zip: it took 8 seconds to load
the program, and only another 11 to load a complete transaction window
(with graphic lettering) with 500-plus transactions (cutting it to current
transactions brought it down to 9 seconds) . Comparable figures with the
Zip off were 11 and 21 seconds respectively. Quitting the program (unlike
MYM) is virtually instantaneous. The only slowness is in the saving of the
datafile when backing up: it's a very sparse file (users of the Prosel 16
appointment calendar will know what I mean) which (for me) runs currently
over 4 megabytes (but only 214 on disk). When backing up a hard disk with
Prosel it takes several seconds of apparently no action to get past the
datafile.
Despite its relative newness, I have found no bugs in the current
version after virtually daily use for several months. Perhaps every few
dozen accesses I may get a crash to monitor when leaving the program, and I
have two records which mysteriously are accounted a month earlier than the
month entered (and deleting and reentering doesn't solve the problem):
other than that, no problems.
The manual is superb: orderly, readable, and very complete - with page
by page illustrations of windows.
The Bottom Line is that this is a program which any IIGS user looking for
""""""""""""""" a small accounting/checkbook management program should
seriously consider. It is, as indicated, very flexible, and once you get
used to the data structure it is also fast and simple to use (a lot simpler
to use than Managing Your Money) - and very intuitive. There are a few
things I'd like it to have that are not currently planned: I'd like to be
able to enter my data into a single record form without accessing the
Transaction window, (preferably with the form knowing what day it is), I'd
like a bit more flexibility in report formats, and I'd like some more
graphs (being able to see Actual vs. Budget for total Expenses or total
Income would be nice, for example). But but these are relatively trivial
needs: the program is a wonderful addition to the IIGS arsenal, and I
expect to use it, happily, for a long time to come.
[*][*][*]
Note It should be recognized that the author of this review is not
"""" totally objective. Although he did not participate in the formal
beta testing of YMM, he was (by his own request) an early user of the first
post-beta version, and has corresponded fairly energetically about the
program with the author, Steve Peterson, over the past several months. He
also saw the manual in draft and provided input on that.
//////////////////////////////// GEnie_QWIK_QUOTE ////
/ "Anyway, I'm dead tired. Gotta go. Too bad, I'm in /
/ rare form tonight." /
///////////////////////////////////// R.MARTIN22 ////
[EOA]
[AII]//////////////////////////////
APPLE II /
/////////////////////////////////
Apple II History, Part 4
""""""""""""""""""""""""
By Steven Weyhrich
[S.WEYHRICH]
>>> APPLE II HISTORY <<<
""""""""""""""""""""""""
Compiled and written by Steven Weyhrich
(C) Copyright 1991, Zonker Software
(PART 4 -- THE APPLE II, CONT.)
[v1.1 :: 12 Dec 91]
INTRODUCTION As the Apple II History moves on, this month we continue the
"""""""""""" discussion about the design of the original Apple II,
concentrating on the contributions made by people other than Steve Wozniak.
We will also see its introduction at the First West Coast Computer Faire in
April 1977, just over fifteen years ago, and see how it was for the first
Apple buyers way back then.
[*][*][*]
THE APPLE II: OTHER DESIGN FEATURES Since Steve Wozniak was the designer
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" of the Apple I and II, exactly what
contribution did Steve Jobs make to the effort? Unlike Wozniak, who would
not think much of extra wires hanging out of a computer that worked
properly, Jobs had an eye for the appearance of the final product. He
wanted the Apple II to be a product that people outside the Homebrew
Computer Club would want to own:
"Jobs thought the cigar boxes [housing the home-made computers] that
sat on the ... desk tops during Homebrew meetings were as elegant as fly
traps. The angular, blue and black sheet-metal case that housed Processor
Technology's Sol struck him as clumsy and industrial ... A plastic case was
generally considered a needless expense compared to the cheaper and more
pliable sheet metal. Hobbyists, so the arguments went, didn't care as much
for appearance as they did for substance. Jobs wanted to model the case
for the Apple after those Hewlett-Packard used for its calculators. He
admired their sleek, fresh lines, their hardy finish, and the way they
looked at home on a table or desk."<1>
The final case design made the Apple II look quite different from most
of their competition. The other computers looked like they had been
assembled at home (and many of them were). The Apple had no visible screws
or bolts (the ten screws attached at the bottom). It had the appearance of
some variation of a typewriter, but still looked futuristic enough to be a
computer. The friendliness of the design even extended to the lid, which
popped off easily to allow access to the expansion slots, almost inviting
the user to look inside (unlike most electronic devices that held the
warning "CAUTION! NO USER SERVICEABLE PARTS INSIDE").<2>
Other aesthetics to which Jobs paid attention were the color of the
keyboard, vents for heat dissipation (avoiding the need for a noisy fan),
and a shape and color that would blend in with other items in a home or on
a desk. He also hired an engineer who was good with analog circuitry (not
Wozniak's area of interest) to design a reliable, lightweight power supply
that would stay cool. The engineer, Rod Holt, was working at Atari at the
time, but was convinced to help Jobs and Wozniak. He developed a new
approach (for microcomputers) by taking household current and switching it
on and off rapidly, producing a steady current that was safe for the
expensive memory chips. The final design of this switching power supply
was smaller than a quart carton of milk and was quite reliable. Holt also
helped design the television interface for the Apple II.<3>
The new company was racing to have the Apple II ready for the First
West Coast Computer Fair in April of 1977. Some last minute bugs had to be
eliminated; because of a static electricity problem affecting a sensitive
chip, the keyboards went dead every twenty minutes. Chris Espinosa and
Randy Wigginton, two high school students who were early employees of
Apple, had written programs to demonstrate the computer's color and sound.
They were hurriedly working to duplicate these programs on cassette.
People at Apple were working to fix blemishes in the computer cases that
had returned from the plastics molding company. The name for this new
computer was also finalized as "Apple II", following the example of Digital
Equipment Company, who had given each newer version of its PDP series a
higher number (PDP-1, PDP-6, etc.). They stylized the "II" in the product
name by using right and left brackets, and displaying it on the case as
"][". The final product bore the mark of each person at Apple:
"The computer that appeared at the West Coast Computer Faire was not
one person's machine. It was the product of collaboration and blended
contributions in digital logic design, analog engineering, and aesthetic
appeal. The color, the slots, the way in which the memory could be
expanded from 4K to 48K bytes, the control of the keyboard and hookup to
the cassette recorder, and the BASIC that was stored in the ROM chip--in
effect the motherboard--was Wozniak's contribution. Holt had contributed
the extremely significant power supply, and Jerry Mannock the case. The
engineering advances were officially recognized when, some months later,
Wozniak was awarded U.S. Patent #4,136,359 for a microcomputer for use with
video display, and Holt was given Patent #4,130,862 for direct current
power supply. But behind them all Jobs was poking, prodding, and pushing
and it was he, with his seemingly inexhaustible supply of energy, who
became the chief arbiter and rejecter... [Finally,] the combination of
[Mike] Markkula [Apple's first president], Jobs, and the McKenna Agency
turned Apple's public bow [at the West Coast Computer Faire] into a
coup."<4>
THE APPLE II: PRODUCT INTRODUCTION As they prepared for the display at
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" the First West Coast Faire, it was
decided to create a new corporate logo. The original one, used in sales of
the Apple I, was a picture of Isaac Newton sitting under an apple tree,
with a phrase from Wordsworth: "Newton...'A Mind Forever Voyaging Through
Strange Seas of Thought...Alone.'" Jobs had been concerned that the logo
had part of the slow sales of the Apple I, and the Regis McKenna Agency was
hired to help in the design of a new one.
"Rob Janov, a young art director, was assigned to the Apple account
and set about designing a corporate logo. Armed with the idea that the
computers would be sold to consumers and that their machine was one of the
few to offer color, Janov set about drawing still lifes from a bowl of
apples ... He gouged a rounded chunk from one side of the Apple, seeing
this as a playful comment on the world of bits and bytes but also as a
novel design. To Janov the missing portion 'prevented the apple from
looking like a cherry tomato.' He ran six colorful stripes across the
Apple, starting with a jaunty sprig of green, and the mixture had a
slightly psychedelic tint. The overall result was enticing and warm ..."
"[Steve] Jobs was meticulous about the style and appearance of the
logo ... When Janov suggested that the six colors be separated by thin
strips to make the reproduction easier, Jobs refused."<5>
For the Faire, Markkula had ordered a smoky, backlit, illuminated
plexiglas sign with the new logo. Although Apple had a smaller booth than
other companies displaying their products at the Faire, and some of the
other microcomputer makers (Processor Technology, IMSAI, and Cromemco) had
been in business longer, Apple's booth looked far more professional, thanks
to Markula's sign. Some of the other participants, companies larger than
Apple, had done no more than use card tables with signs written in black
markers.
Because they had been one of the first to commit themselves to
displaying at the Faire, Apple's booth was near the entrance and was
visible to everybody entering the convention center. They demonstrated a
kaleidoscopic video graphics program (possibly an early version of "BRIAN'S
THEME") on a huge Advent display monitor, catching everybody's attention.
But, after the Faire its organizer Jim Warren (Homebrew club member and
editor of DR. DOBB'S JOURNAL) didn't think that Apple was a strong
exhibitor. Byte magazine, in their report of the show, failed to even
mention Apple. Despite these early opinions by influential people, over
the next few months Apple received about three hundred orders for the Apple
II, over a hundred more than the total number of Apple I's sold.<6>
THE APPLE II: COST Prebuilt systems were also sold by Commodore (the
"""""""""""""""""" 6502-based PET, for $595), and Radio Shack (the
Z80-based TRS-80, for $600). This was quite a bit less than the Apple II's
premium price of $1,298 for a 4K computer, a pair of game paddles, and an
audio cassette with demo programs. This price did not include a cassette
recorder or monitor (which both the PET and TRS-80 did include). The
hardware limitations and lack of expandability of those machines, however,
offset some of the price difference. Also, one other hardware introduction
for the Apple II that happened in mid-1978 set it well ahead of its
immediate competitors; we'll get to that shortly.
THE APPLE II: EXPERIENCES OF EARLY USERS The original manual for the
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" Apple II was sparse. It
consisted of thirty photocopied pages, including some handwritten notes
from Woz. The over stated, "simplicity is the ultimate sophistication:
introducing Apple ][, the personal computer." In early 1978 these original
photocopied manuals were replaced with the new "Apple II Technical
Reference Manual" (also known as the "Red Book"), and copies were mailed to
previous customers. Steve Jobs realized that people often viewed the
quality of a product by the quality of its documentation, and so he took
pains to get manuals that were easy to read and had a professional
appearance.<7>
Setting up an early Apple II was fairly simple. The lid popped off
easily, and one of the first things you would attach was the Sup'r Mod (RF
modulator). This was plugged onto two pins sticking up from the back rear
of the motherboard, near the video output jack (assuming that you did not
also buy a REAL computer monitor). The game paddles were two small black
boxes, with a knob on the top attached to a potentiometer (similar to
volume controls on a radio) and a tiny black button on the side. These
boxes were attached via a narrow cable to a plug that looked (and was)
fragile; this plug also went into a small socket in the motherboard.
Lastly, you attached your data storage device (the cassette recorder) to
the input and output jacks in the back of the computer.
After turning on the Apple II, the first thing to greet you was a
screen full of random alphabetic characters and symbols, and possibly some
colored blocks (lo-res graphics mode might be turned on). Here you had to
press the RESET key in the upper right hand side of the keyboard, which,
after releasing the key, would cause a "beep!" and an asterisk to appear in
the bottom left-hand corner of the screen. (If the lo-res graphics mode
had been on, it would now be off). Next to the asterisk (which was a
prompt to show that you were in the Monitor) was a flashing box, the
cursor. To get into BASIC, you had to press the "Ctrl" key and the "B" key
simultaneously. Now you would see a different prompt, one that looked like
a ">".
At this point, you could either begin entering a BASIC program, or try
to load one from cassette. To load from cassette was not always easy; it
took time to get the right volume and tone settings on the tape player in
order to avoid getting the "ERR" or "*** SYNTAX ERR" message. (And if you
didn't have much memory, you might get a "*** MEM FULL ERR" message!) When
you got it properly loaded, you could type RUN and see what happened.
Beyond that, it was more or less up to you to actually find something to DO
with your new toy.<8>
THE APPLE II: EARLY HARDWARE ADD-ONS Aside from the M&R "Sup'r Mod" that
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" allowed early Apple II users to run
their computer on their color TV's, some other enterprising hackers
designed their own versions of modulators. One used by an early member of
an Apple user group in Washington State (Apple Pugetsound Program Library
Exchange, or A.P.P.L.E.) was somewhat better shielded than the "Sup'r Mod".
It had its own power supply and plugged into the video output jack on the
back of the Apple. The "Sup'r Mod" was by far the biggest seller,
however.<9>
At first, there were no interface cards for any of Woz's eight slots.
With the limited funds that computer purchasers had then (and now) there
was not much they could afford after shelling out anywhere from $1200 to
$1800 just to get their own Apple II. But they were innovative, and like
many other hardware hackers of the day managed to make do with old or
surplus parts. Some people, for instance, had gotten their hands on used
teletype printers, such as the ASR-33 (called "battleships" because they
were so rugged and heavy). Since there weren't any printer interface cards
to plug into the slots to allow the computer to communicate with the
teletype, they used a trick they learned from Woz himself. The Apple II
had four single-bit output pins on the game controller socket that could be
used for various purposes. A schematic floated through the various user
groups that showed how to connect the teletype to an annunciator pin; along
with it was a machine language program that re-directed output from the
screen to that one-bit port, and on to the printer.<10>
[*][*][*]
NEXT INSTALLMENT The Disk II
""""""""""""""""
NOTES
"""""
<1> Michael Moritz, THE LITTLE KINGDOM, p. 186.
<2> Steven Levy, HACKERS: HEROES OF THE COMPUTER REVOLUTION, pp.
263-264.
<3> Moritz, p. 189.
<4> Moritz, pp. 190-191.
<5> Moritz, p. 188.
<6> Moritz, pp. 192-193.
<7> Philip Chien, "The First Ten Years: A Look Back", THE APPLE II
REVIEW, Fall/Winter 1986, p. 12.
<8> -----, APPLE II BASIC PROGRAMMING MANUAL, 1978, 1979, 1980, 1981,
pp. 1-19.
<9> -----, "A.P.P.L.E. Co-op Celebrates A Decade of Service",
CALL-A.P.P.L.E., Feb 1988, pp. 12-27.
<10> Val J. Golding, "Applesoft From Bottom To Top", CALL-A.P.P.L.E.
IN DEPTH #1, 1981, p. 8.
///////////////////////////////////////////// GEnie_QWIK_QUOTE ////
/ "Read my lips. No new political messages in the Falcon Topic!" /
/ - Candidate Jeff Williams. /
///////////////////////////////////////////////////// JEFF.W ////
[EOA]
[LIB]//////////////////////////////
THE ONLINE LIBRARY /
/////////////////////////////////
Yours For The Downloading
"""""""""""""""""""""""""
By Mel Fowler
[MELSOFT]
>>> FINANCIAL GENIUS <<<
""""""""""""""""""""""""
>>> Number: 18671 Name: FGS.SHK.BXY
>>> Address: R.ADAMS48 Date: 920525
>>> Approximate # of bytes: 139904
HOME FINANCE PACKAGE Commercial venders have produced a vast array of
"""""""""""""""""""" programs since the Apple IIGS was introduced. These
programs covered just about every application thinkable, except for a good
quality home financial program. There have been many templates for
Appleworks and Appleworks GS that cover everything from checking and
savings accounts to home budgets and car loans, but nothing that would do
all these things and much more.
Financial GeniuS (FSG) is an excellent home finance program written
specifically for the Apple IIGS using the standard GS/OS interface and is
completely compatible with System software 6.0. With FSG you can keep
track of all you financial records including; checking and savings
accounts, credit card management, home budgets, investment management, car
loans, assets, liabilities, cost projections, home mortgages and mush more.
FSG uses standard methods to enter information into your financial records
such as menus, line edits, radio buttons, check boxes, and pop-up menus.
Financial GeniuS comes complete with an 8 page tutorial that
completely covers all the features included in the program. Starting a new
account mainly consists of opening a checking account followed by various
categories (up to 120 per account) which lists assets, liabilities, income,
and expenses. Each category can be used to break down assets such as your
car, home, summer cabin, fishing boat, and jet plane (don't we wish).
Liabilities like credit cards and Uncle Fred, expenses like groceries,
household goods, Car loan monthly payments, mortgage monthly payments and
interest. Income can be included also as various categories such as
Paycheck, Savings interest, and stock dividends.
The checking account acts as a base for the other categories as most
transactions are done through your checking account. However, each
category can also be accessed for individual transactions, for example your
savings account. Automatic Transactions is a neat feature were you can
create a list of transactions that take place each month, like your car
loan payment, mortgage payment or any month payment where the amount does
not change. Then when it comes time to enter that car loan payment all you
do is call it up from the list of Automatic Transaction. You can also
setup automatic transactions for your savings account for Social Security,
Retirement pay that go into your savings on a monthly bases.
Another great feature is the ability to Split Transactions. This is
useful when you write a check for the local market and not all that you
purchased will fit into one category. Perhaps you also purchased
detergent, bleach, paper towels and toilet tissue. These items would go
under household expenses and not groceries. With Split Transactions you
can split up a single check into two or more categories.
One draw back to the program, and it is a minor one, is that you must
use the TAB key to move from input edit box to the next input edit box. Of
course you can also use the mouse. The TAB key after entering information
in order to go to the next entry box takes some getting use to. The RETURN
key would be more traditional and easier as that is the way most programs
are written. After a bit of use though you seem to get over hitting the
RETURN key to go to the next input box.
Another feature I would like to see added is an Automatic monthly
entry into the savings or checking accounts to handle automatic deposits
from retirement or Social Security payments. I have my Navy Retirement
and VA benefit check deposited automatically and my mortgage and
maintenance fee withdrawn automatically from my savings account. Yes I
can use Automatic Transactions to list these four transactions and enter
them one at a time into my savings account, but it would be nice to have
the programs do this automatically without any actions on my part.
Let's get to the bottom line. This is not only an excellent home
financial program for the Apple IIGS, it also fills a rather large hole in
this somewhat forgotten applications area. We should all give a hardy
congratulations to Rick Adams for taking the time and effort to write such
an outstanding financial program. The $35 Shareware fee is so very small
considering what this program offers. This is not just a Shareware
program, it is indeed commercial quality and we should be thankful that
Rick decided to go the Shareware route because an equivalent commercial
Finance GenuS would cost in the neighborhood of $90 to $100 dollars. I
highly recommend this program for those among you that want to keep track
of your home finances.
///////////////////////////////////////// GEnie_QWIK_QUOTE ////
/ "That is what I love so much about GEnie...I put a question /
/ in.....and out pops an answer. I wish we'd had this when I /
/ was in school. Thanks folks." /
//////////////////////////////////////////// H.RASMUSSEN ////
[EOA]
[TEL]//////////////////////////////
TELETALK ONLINE /
/////////////////////////////////
Doing It Online!
""""""""""""""""
>>> THE SUPRA-FAX MODEM <<<
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""
SupraFAX Modem V.32bis A month and a half ago, my modem was hit by
"""""""""""""""""""""" lightning. I'm fortunate that it was the only
piece of hardware affected. After wrestling with the insurance company for
a few weeks, I collected, and bought a new SupraFAX Modem V.32bis.
At first glance, it's a neat little modem. It's very small, about
half that of most modems. It measures 6-3/8 by 4-5/8 by 1- 1/4 inches.
The case is silver, and it has a black faceplate. The faceplate has four
LED indicators, Off Hook (OH), Send Data (SD), Receive Data (RD), and
Terminal Ready (TR). To the right of that are a pair of 5x7 dot matrix LED
displays that show the rest of modem's modes and functions. Next to that
is the power switch, a rarity on today's computer equipment. Finally
somebody has put the power switch in an easy to reach location!
The modem comes from the factory with two presets to get you up and
running immediately. One is for IBM PC/Amiga/Atari owners (AT&F2), and the
other is for Macintosh owners (AT&F1). Other settings allow you to set how
the modem tells you its connect rate, and which protocols it uses. Some
terminal software chokes on these extras, so it takes some time to
determine just how your program will react. One very interesting command
is AT%Q. When you are logged onto a BBS, return to command mode with +++,
then type AT%Q. The number it gives you is the quality of the connection,
from 0 being good, to 10 being awful. Then you can return to the BBS with
ATO.
The documentation is excellent. Included are a thick reference manual
that explains every feature of the modem, all of its Hayes-compatible
commands, a glossary of terms, and even an index; a Getting Started manual
that explains how to install your terminal software (PC and Mac users
only), what the different display codes are on the modem's fancy display,
and a very basic guide to sending a FAX (if you have FAX software); and
very handy reference card with all of the commands, the display codes, and
even an RS-232 pinout.
UP & RUNNING Okay, so how does it work? My first impressions are
"""""""""""" excellent. The character display is very interesting, and
is certainly a change from the typical row of LED's found on most modems,
although I would have preferred a larger display, since to a novice, a
flashing sequence of 144, LP, DC, and CD don't mean much. What it does
mean is a connect rate of 14,400 bps, LAP-M error correction (V.42), Data
Compression (V.42bis), and Carrier Detect, respectively. After a while, I
discovered a very annoying problem with this modem in particular. When
first powered up, I have no problem connecting to any BBS. But after the
first call, the modem will only connect using MNP error correction. Since
performing a soft reset with the ATZ command didn't cure the problem, I
found that powering the modem off and back on did the trick.
CUSTOMER SUPPORT Now we get to Customer Support. It takes a while to
"""""""""""""""" get through to them, but once you do, they're very
helpful. I tried all afternoon, and the line was busy. Finally, it rang,
and I got the recording, "All operators are busy. Please stay on the line,
and someone will be with you shortly." After about three minutes, someone
came on. He was completely baffled with my problem, as it wasn't one
they'd heard of. He was very knowledgeable and, and decided the easiest
thing to do was to replace the modem. He said there were two ways to do
it: I could send it back, and wait a few weeks for a new one; or I could
give them a credit card number (as a deposit), and they would express-mail
me a replacement, with a prepaid return envelope. The only catch is that
there is a $20 charge for this. I opted for the faster way. Two days
later, the UPS Red Label package arrived at 10:00 am. I sent the old modem
back via Federal Express, in the included envelope.
THE BOTTOM LINE The new modem works great! It has no problems that I
""""""""""""""" have detected so far. I regularly achieve speeds in the
high 1600 cps range, with V.42bis and Ymodem-G, on files compressed with
Quester's LHARC. This modem really flies! I'm very pleased with it, and I
recommend it to anyone looking for a good, low-cost high speed modem.
The SupraFAX V.32bis retails for $399, but I have seen it as low as
$309 from some mail order houses. This makes it one of the best deal in
high speed modems.
Supra Corporation
7101 Supra Drive SW
Albany, Oregon 97321
Orders: 503-967-2410
Tech Support: 503-967-2440
BBS: 503-967-2444
[EOA]
[LOG]//////////////////////////////
LOG OFF /
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