|||||| |||||| || || |||||| |||||| || || ||| || || || || ||| |||| |||||| || |||| Your || || || || ||| || || |||||| |||||| || || |||||| |||||| GEnieLamp Computing || |||||| || || |||||| RoundTable || || || ||| ||| || || || |||||| |||||||| |||||| RESOURCE! || || || || || || || ||||| || || || || || ~ WELCOME TO GEnieLamp APPLE II! ~ """""""""""""""""""""""""""""" ~ HARDVIEW A2: Never Back Up Your Hard Drive! ~ ~ DR'S EXAMINING TABLE: A Vacation from Reviewing ~ ~ TECH TALK: The Future of Apple II Hybrids/Emulation ~ ~ HOT NEWS, HOT FILES, HOT MESSAGES ~ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\//////////////////////////////////// GEnieLamp Apple II ~ A T/TalkNET OnLine Publication ~ Vol.3, Issue 29 """""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" Editor....................................................Douglas Cuff Publisher.............................................John F. Peters \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\//////////////////////////////////// ~ GEnieLamp IBM ~ GEnieLamp ST ~ GEnieLamp [PR] ~ GEnieLamp Windows ~ ~ GEnieLamp A2Pro ~ GEnieLamp Macintosh ~ GEnieLamp TX2 ~ ~ GEnieLamp A2 ~ LiveWire (ASCII) ~ GEnieLamp MacPRO ~ ~ Solid Windows ~ Config.sys ~ A2-Central ~ ~ Member Of The Digital Publishing Association ~ GE Mail: GENIELAMP Internet: genielamp@genie.geis.com FTP: sosi.com ////////////////////////////////////\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ >>> WHAT'S HAPPENING IN THE APPLE II ROUNDTABLE? <<< """""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" ~ August 1, 1994 ~ FROM MY DESKTOP ......... [FRM] FROM MY MAILBOX ......... [MAI] Notes from the Editor. Letters to the Editor. HEY MISTER POSTMAN ...... [HEY] HUMOR ONLINE ............ [HUM] Is That A Letter For Me? Kids' Kitchen Terms. REFLECTIONS ............. [REF] TECH TALK ............... [TEC] Online Literary Collaborations. FINAL Hybrid Article. ASCII ART GALLERY ....... [ASA] HARDVIEW A2 ............. [HAR] Summertime Fruit. Never Back Up Your Hard Drive! DR'S EXAMINING TABLE .... [DRT] THE TREASURE HUNT ....... [HUN] Summer Vacation. Yours For the Downloading. WHO'S WHO IN A2/A2PRO? .. [WHO] LOG OFF ................. [LOG] RoundTable Staff. GEnieLamp Information. [IDX]""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" READING GEnieLamp GEnieLamp has incorporated a unique indexing system """"""""""""""""" to help make reading the magazine easier. To utilize this system, load GEnieLamp 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 GEnieLamp, 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's monthly fee is $8.95 for which gives you up to """"""""""" four hours of non-prime time access to most GEnie services, such as software downloads, bulletin boards, GE Mail, an Internet mail gateway, and chat lines, are allowed without charge. GEnie's non-prime time connect rate is $3.00. To sign up for GEnie service, call (with modem) 1-800-638-8369 in the USA or 1-800-387-8330 in Canada. Upon connection type HHH. Wait for the U#= prompt. Type: JOINGENIE and hit RETURN. When you get the prompt asking for the signup/offer code, type: DSD524 and hit RETURN. The system will then prompt you for your information. Need more information? Call GEnie's customer service line (voice) at 1-800-638-9636. SPECIAL OFFER FOR GEnieLamp READERS! If you sign onto GEnie using the """""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" method outlined above you will receive an *additional* six (6) free hours of standard connect time (for a total of 10) to be used in the first month. Want more? Your first month charge of $8.95 will be waived! Now there are no excuses! *** GET INTO THE LAMP! *** """""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" //////////////////////////////////////// GEnie_QWIK_QUOTE //// / / / I had some line noise yesterday between topics and GEnie / / told me (direct quote): / / / / "[5?2%?3C5;G:3NN~~RAIJ+Vqqh'DG_mWG5?2%?] / / is an invalid response" / / / / Picky! Picky! :) / / / /////////////////////////////////////////// J.SCHONBLOM //// [EOA] [FRM]////////////////////////////// FROM MY DESKTOP / ///////////////////////////////// Notes From The Editor """"""""""""""""""""" by Douglas Cuff [EDITOR.A2] >>> SLEEPWALKING TOWARD JERUSALEM <<< """"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" Did your parents ever sigh in exasperation when you replied "I didn't notice" to one of their questions? Mine did, and I didn't understand why... until recently. In my youth, the reason I failed to notice whether a pot on the stove boiling was generally because I passed through the kitchen with my nose in a book. I later parlayed this indifference to my surroundings into a talent approaching genius. When setting up house for myself, it took me several months to notice that two equidistant supermarkets varied as much as 80 cents in the price they asked for a box of Hamburger Helper. The box was on the shelf, and the price was the price, so I bought it without paying any attention. Paying attention pays dividends! When I read Leslie Halliwell's memoir _Seats in All Parts_, I marvelled that the author could so clearly recall the more than 20 cinemas in his home town. When I'm in a cinema, I concentrate on finding a seat with nobody behind me -- I'm 6'3", and hate being asked to move or slide down -- and then give myself over completely to the film. Half an hour later, you could ask me what color the wall was, or how full the cinema was, and I would stare at you, helplessly. Or at least rapidly change the subject. I hadn't noticed that I don't notice. A cinema was a place with a reasonably uncomfortable seat, a screen, and projector. One supermarket was the same as the next. The only thing I ever noticed about my car was whether or not the gas tank needed to be refilled... until the day when the muffler fell off in the middle of the road. Earlier today, I looked up, startled, as I realized that I have now completed one full year as editor of GEnieLamp A2. And just two days before, I made my first attempt to see how many Apple II users there are on GEnie. On page 203, you will find user profiles, where you can search the profiles of others users, based on interest, first name, last name, GEmail address, company name, city, state/province, country, or just about any combination of the above. (Do not under any circumstances confuse this option with the GEnie mail directory, which lists just about every GEnie subscriber. The list of user profiles is limited to those users who have taken the time to make up their own listings.) A search on those interest in "APPLE II" found me 217 matches. A search on variant spellings (APPLE //, APPLE ][, APPLE 2, and APPLE2) netted me another 35, making 252 in all. A search on "APPLE" got me 562 matches, though that presumably includes some of those interested in the Apple Macintosh, the Apple III, the Apple Newton, and those funny spheroid things you find growing in orchards. AND THESE ARE JUST THE PEOPLE WHO TOOK THE TROUBLE TO FILL IN A USER PROFILE! I don't know what percentage of GEnie users do this -- I hadn't until two days ago -- nor do I know how many clients the A2 RoundTable has, but I'd be willing to bet that this is just the tip of the iceberg. If you want to support the Apple II community but can't afford any more hardware or software this month, then here's a cheap way to make your voice hear. Go fill out your user profile, and mention the Apple II as being one of your interests. The more GEnie users that identify themselves as potential customers for Apple II products, the better off we'll all be. What started me thinking about all this, of course, was KansasFest (a/k/a ICONference). It's not solely an Apple II event, of course, but there were a lot of Apple II people there. It was my first visit, and I hope there'll be a second! It was really a kick to know that there are so many others interested in producing -- and/or consuming -- new Apple II wares. Most of the KansasFest coverage you'll find in this month's HEY MISTER POSTMAN column is provided by Steven Weyhrich, also a first-timer. I'm glad he posted such great reports on the A2 RoundTable, quoting him extensively makes me miss his presence around here a little less. We have a Weyhrich spin-off this issue, by the way. Leon Raesly read Steven's POLISHING GREEN APPLES column in our June issue, and penned a rebuttal, reprinted from the NovApple Newsletter with the permission of the author and publisher. -- Doug Cuff GEnie Mail: EDITOR.A2 Internet: editor.a2@genie.geis.com __________________________________________________________ | | | REPRINTING GEnieLamp | | | | If you want to reprint any part of GEnieLamp, or | | post it to a bulletin board, please see the very end | | of this file for instructions and limitations. | |__________________________________________________________| [EOA] [MAI]////////////////////////////// FROM MY MAILBOX / ///////////////////////////////// Letter to the Editor """""""""""""""""""" by Tim Grams [TGRAMS] >>> CORRECTION <<< """""""""""""""""" I was pleased to see a mention of GSTape in the June GenieLamp A2, however I would like to comment on some things that Steve Weyhrich wrote. First, GSTape does not require the RamFAST SCSI card. It will work with the Apple SCSI cards, both Rev C and High Speed DMA if the Apple SCSI manager is installed. The driver that comes with GSTape works with both the Apple and RamFAST SCSI cards. Second, Steve's problem with the RamFAST driver not being recognized was not caused by renaming the partition names. Rather, he used ProSel to change the names the SCSI driver responds with when asked by GS/OS. This is the "device name" shown in Icon Information available from the Finder. GSTape does not care what your partition or volume name is, however it does need to tell the difference between the RamFAST hard disk driver and other SCSI drivers. If you have used ProSel to change device names and have trouble getting the GSTape demo to recognize the RamFAST driver, you can do a couple of things. You can re-run the "modify parameters" ProSel utility and set the device names back to their original values. For a RamFAST this is normally ".CVTECH.S7.A" or something similar depending on which slot the card is in and which partition on the drive is being referenced. With GSTape, only the ".CVTECH" is required. You can also temporarily rename the PROSEL.PARMS file in the system folder to something else and reboot the system. Tim Grams author, GSTape _____ ______ _ _ ___ ___ / ____| ____| (_) | | / _ \|__ \ | | __| |__ _ __ _ ___| | __ _ _ __ ___ _ __ | |_| | ) | | | |_ | __| | '_ \| |/ _ \ | / _` | '_ ` _ \| '_ \ | _ | / / | |__| | |____| | | | | __/ |___| (_| | | | | | | |_) | | | | |/ /_ \_____|______|_| |_|_|\___|______\__,_|_| |_| |_| .__/ |_| |_|____| | | |_| [EOA] [HEY]////////////////////////////// HEY MISTER POSTMAN / ///////////////////////////////// Is That A Letter For Me? """""""""""""""""""""""" by Douglas Cuff [EDITOR.A2] o BULLETIN BOARD HOT SPOTS o A2 POT-POURRI o HOT TOPICS o WHAT'S NEW o THROUGH THE GRAPEVINE o MESSAGE SPOTLIGHT >>> BULLETIN BOARD HOT SPOTS <<< """""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" [*] CAT10, TOP9 .............. Rich Wifall demos fax software at Kfest [*] CAT11, TOP22 ............. Disk image file formats [*] CAT42, TOP2 .............. AppleWorks 4.3 almost ready [*] CAT42, TOP32 ............. Still a chance for AppleWorks GS? [*] CAT44, TOP6 .............. AppleWorks 5 by October! [*] CAT44, TOP6 .............. KansasFest/ICONference! [*] CAT45, TOP2 .............. Quick Click Calc [*] CAT45, TOP3 .............. What else from Byte Works? >>> A2 POT-POURRI <<< """"""""""""""""""""" A VISIT FROM BRUTAL DELUXE > When is/are Brutal Deluxe going to be """""""""""""""""""""""""" > visiting you? Good question. They (him?) are arriving in SF on Monday morning, and they (him?) plan to call me first thing to set up a time. It has to be Monday or Tuesday, as I'm heading out to KansasFest first thing Wednesday morning. And, surprise, surprise. I find that Opale is not the only Brutal Deluxe work in progress. I will say that I'm a little concerned about the language problem. I've been e-mailing with Brutal Deluxe for the past year, and their English skills seem to be almost non-existant. It should be interesting, to say the least. Joe (JOE.KOHN, CAT28, TOP4, MSG:257/M645;1) >>>>> > Any day now, their (his?) Opale Demo will show up in the A2 """"" > library. It's one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen on > my GS! Did you upload a copy of it too? I sent one up last week, but forgot to turn on Binary II. :( Need to re-up it. BTW, Olivier dropped into IRC last month and mentioned a few other projects Brutal Deluxe is working on (including a Tinies level editor). (B.TAO, CAT28, TOP4, MSG:266/M645;1) SOFTDISK G-S EASTER EGGS Just thought I'd mention, on the topic of Easter """""""""""""""""""""""" Eggs, that every issue of Softdisk G-S is now published with at least one Easter Egg in the main Shell program (with perhaps some in the other programs on the issue...). I think some of them are pretty good, IMNSHO... Just trying to keep the IIGS ever more interesting... :) (I'll be announcing more AWGS Easter Eggs in the SDGS columns in future issues, BTW). -G.T. Barnabas (BARNABAS, CAT13, TOP13, MSG:187/M645;1) SPECTRUM PASSWORDS ON A NETWORK If Spectrum is on a network then (a) """"""""""""""""""""""""""""""" don't store passwords and (b) purchase a site license, unless there is _no_ possibility of two people running Spectrum at the same time. Storing passwords is a convenience for users on standalone machines in their home; it is a good way to hide the passwords from a casual hacker. Storing passwords in any program on a machine that isn't in a reasonably secure location is a bad idea. Thanks, --Dave (SEVENHILLS, CAT43, TOP15, MSG:125/M645;1) ULTRAMACRO 'DIRSORT' LABEL Someone recently asked me a question in """""""""""""""""""""""""" email that I'll answer here for the benefit of all. Question: "#dirsort doesn't work, do you know why?" Short answer: Because it doesn't have the correct address. Long answer: #dirsort is an UltraMacros label that is supposed to represent the address that can be poked to force AppleWorks to display the file listing in the order the files are stored on disk and not the sorted order AW usually displays. UM is substituting the address $2295 for #dirsort. After poking around in the monitor a bit, I found that the $31a2 can be poked to force AW to display the file listing in disk order when adding files to the desktop. The organizer must be in memory before the poke. start A:! //add files from current disk You have a choice at this point of poking $31a2,$20 to restore the default or leaving it alone. As soon as you actually get in a file that code is overwritten. The sorted order will be displayed next time files are added to the desktop. Although displaying the files in true disk order is faster, whether or not there is a _noticeable_ difference depends on the number of files in a directory and the speed of the computer. On a system with a RAM Fast and an accelerator there may be no noticeable difference. (S.BEVILLE, CAT17, TOP16, MSG:133/M645;1) BRIAN PIETRZAK LEAVES SOFTDISK > the guy who had a lot of input into the """""""""""""""""""""""""""""" > development of Don't Forget (Bryan) is > gone I must've missed something... I knew Jay left for greener pastures, but I _thought_ I heard that Bryan moved to the Mac version of Softdisk. If true, he could still be consulted. If he did leave, what did I miss? Jeff Carr (J.CARR20, CAT34, TOP2, MSG:320/M645;1) >>>>> Bryan did move into Softdisk for Mac, but then he was offered a job """"" in Omaha, Nebraska, and took them up on it. He left Softdisk about a week ago. David (SOFTDISK.INC, CAT34, TOP2, MSG:321/M645;1) FIX FOR OCCASIONAL SPECTRUM "SLOWDOWN" Yes, it sounds like the clipboard """""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" problem. The bug isn't with "large" amounts of text, but if the clipboard contains text that references a font that no longer exists. For example, highlight even just one word that's set with Times.12, copy it, then quit to the Finder. Delete ALL your "Times" fonts and launch Teach. Edit/Paste will show garbage because the clipboard is corrupt. This shows up a lot with Spectrum because it uses an internal "Spectrum.8" font that goes away when you quit (i.e. it does not exist in the Fonts folder). However, that bug apparently does not ever appear if the newest Pointless is installed (which makes me think the system bug is in the Font Manager and not necessarily in the Scrap Manager). Anyway, we're doing two things to hopefully _avoid_ the bug (since we cannot actually _fix_ it): (1) We're going to provide Spectrum.8 on disk so it can exist in the Fonts folder, and (2) We're not going to make the Scrap Manager calls so often. #1 should avoid the problem; #2 will lessen the effects if the problem does occur. As Ken mentioned, the solution is just to copy something else (if you boot to the Finder or some launcher that gives access to NDAs, open the Calculator and press OpenApple-C, then launch Spectrum). Thanks, --Dave (SEVENHILLS, CAT43, TOP15, MSG:132/M645;1) APPLE BRAND JOYSTICKS I can't believe all the positive remarks about """"""""""""""""""""" Apple's joysticks. Apparently you all were either very fortunate, or didn't use your joysticks much. The sticks themselves were great, and lasted forever. The buttons, however, were (I believe) deliberately designed to stop functioning after only a limited amount of use. The actually circuitry would never go out; rather, the spring between the outer orange button and the electronics would always get compressed/bent/etc., and the button wouldn't make reliable contact anymore (it would if you took the orange buttons out, but that made it rather hard to play with). I saw dozens of these joysticks with the exact same button problems. I personally knew people who bought Apple joystick after Apple joystick because the buttons stopped working. I listened to computer-store personnel who always tried to play off Apple joystick problems as "kids being hard on the buttons". I even had an Apple joystick myself and experienced all these problems, and discovered that it was just the bad design with the springs that would stop working. In short, the Apple joystick's buttons were lemons, and I am amazed that anyone can recommend the Apple joystick. -G.T. Barnabas (BARNABAS, CAT12, TOP29, MSG:37/M645;1) TIP FOR APPLETALK USERS I just solved a problem that's been annoying for """"""""""""""""""""""" for almost six months now, and thought I'd share it with everyone. Talk about traps for young players, AND OLD ONES! My IIGS has three boot partitions, which I select with a RamFAST, depending on what I'm doing during that session. One of these is a fast boot (ie. very few INITs/DAs etc.) which starts AppleTalk and logs on to my Macintosh automatically and uses AppleShare to gain access to one of the Mac's drives. About six months ago, the boot process started getting slower and slower, until it got to the stage where it was taking up to 30-40 seconds longer than I thought it should have. I checked the Zip GSX, and for around 30 seconds or so, the cache light was almost hard on. Check the Zip settings! Nope, the AppleTalk switch made no difference. Either did changing any of the slot speed switches. Re-install 6.0.1? No difference. Remove EVERY INIT and DA (including the Apple ones, except for Control Panels NDA and the AppleShare related Control Panels. Same problem. I didn't have time to look any further, so I forgot about it. Recently it had been getting worse, so I decided to take another look. I dropped into debug during the "hard on delay" ;-) and found it madly polling the serial ports. Why? Perhaps it's confused! Delete CDev.data. Same problem. Check out ATInit and AppleShare.Prep. Ahh! Because my Mac had been reformatted a number of times, the server name had changed. The IIGS was trying to log on to every past server name which I'd used, and was "madly polling" waiting for them all to come online. Even though only the current name appears in the AppleShare Control Panel, setup data STILL contains the old information! I deleted "ATInit" and "AppleShare.Prep", went in and logged on to the Mac again, and rebooted with the new parms. The IIGS booted to the desktop, with the Mac volume mounted, in under 10 seconds! Sooo... If you think AppleShare is pretty slow, try deleting "ATInit" and "AppleShare.Prep", reboot, re-logon, and reboot again. Both of these files are in "*:System:System.Setup". Regards, Richard (RICHARD.B, CAT9, TOP14, MSG:14/M645;1) KOALA PAD SOFTWARE? I recently got a hold of a Koala Pad. Unfortunately, """"""""""""""""""" there was no software with it. I know that the pad originally came with at least a drawing program. Does anyone know where I can get it? Also, is there any other software available for the Koala Pad? (T.ABRAMS1, CAT4, TOP4, MSG:207/M645;1) >>>>> I think you can still buy a KoalaPad from Educational Resources, """"" 1550 Executive Drive, Elgin, IL 60123 (1-800-624-2926); $89.95 (Fall '93 catalog). Possibly they would sell you the documentation and the Koala Illustrator disk, which accompanies the pad (or used to). When the pad dies (it will), you can still use Koala Illustrator with a joystick. As 8- bit drawing programs go, it's all right. Since you can use a joystick with Koala Illustrator, I suspect that you can "read" the KoalaPad with the same Applesoft commands you use with joysticks. I've got the documentation somewhere. Let me look around for it and get back to you in a day or two. Eric ( o= =o === =ooo oo oo= == ) (J.SCHONBLOM, CAT4, TOP4, MSG:208/M645;1) >>> HOT TOPICS <<< """""""""""""""""" APPLEWORKS 4.0, 4.0.1, 4.0.2... 4.3? > I just returned from vacation - """""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" > any news on the release of AW 4.1? Sure as comets hit Jupiter, 4.1(3) will be out really soon now. There's one problem with a timeout that needs to be fixed before we release it. Quality Computers --- Power for performance (QUALITY, CAT42, TOP2, MSG:352/M645;1) >>>>> Great news! But, uh, what's the (3)? : """"" (T.SMITH59, CAT42, TOP2, MSG:353/M645;1) <<<<< The (3) is there because the next AppleWorks will be 4.3. We've """"" all known it as 4.1, but to avoid confusion between 4.0.1 and 4.1, we decided we should skip a version number. I'm sure the version police will come down on us soon and our National Health Care plan will be revoked:) (I hope) Quality Computers --- Power for performance (QUALITY, CAT42, TOP2, MSG:356/M645;1) APPLEWORKS _5_! AW4.3 (bug-fix update) has been finalized and will be """"""""""""""" released shortly (check your next issue of TimeOut-Central, if you don't see it elsewhere first). AW5.0 (an upgrade with some terrific new features) was _officially_ announced by Randy (and Quality) for expected release in October. | -(+)- | | ...Will (W.NELKEN1, CAT44, TOP6, MSG:36/M645;1) APPLEWORKS 5 -- WHAT TO EXPECT > I wish we could get some info on any new """""""""""""""""""""""""""""" capabilities of AW 5.0 A _partial_ list: SS '' - memos (cell notes) - dynamic @Alert (revaluates each recalc) - new @Today function DB '' - background text in single record layout. You type in anything you want in normal, inverse or MouseText, and the data is overlaid on that background. You can make cool boxes and flashy screens. - mixed mode in SRL pops up a scrolling list for the current category. As you cursor through, the SRL stuff is updated - DB Pix-style graphics command display single or double hires, PrintShop WP '' - resizable split screens which are "remembered" as you switch around the desktop. In other words, you could have 10 differently sized windows and use OA-Q to move from file to file, each retaining their window setup. - print to screen. Handy for previewing mail merge, varying CPI, etc. - print Odd or Even. Handy for book printing - built-in Outliner - wild cards allow search for T?M to find Tim or Tom. - find text is remembered even when you switch desktop files Desktop ''''''' - you can pick more than 12 files at a time and the desktop is automatically switched when full (12 files each) - improved version of WaitLess built-in In addition there are various bug tweaks and little new features that are actually very handy. Some will be happy that the screen blanker delays are reset by mouse moves. Others will be thrilled that the OA-A command for file listings now offers a "Reverse" the order option so you can go largest to smallest, smallest to largest, youngest to oldest, oldest to youngest, etc. Other new features haven't been finalized or written. We're even still taking ideas, with no promises. BTW, some will surely scream and holler that working on AW 5 has delayed AW 4.3 in some unjust way. Actually, it has accelerated the fixes in 4.3, since they had to be done in order to create a 5.0 foundation. AW 5 has also provided the financial justification to keep doing those free updates we hear so much about. As for cost, it will be cheaper than AW 3 to AW 4, but it's not final yet. It will come on two 3.5" disks and include a delta manual (changes since AW 4). It requires at least a 256k enhanced IIe, IIc or IIgs. (BRANDT, CAT44, TOP6, MSG:43/M645;1) <<<<< AW 4.0 was late for several reasons which do not apply to AW 5. It """"" also had some bugs due to major redesign which is not needed in AW 5, because we allowed for many of the AW 5 features while creating AW 4. There will only be a delta manual for AW 5 (changes since AW 4), no video, no fancy packaging, etc., so development time is slashed. Also, there's more of an agreement between marketing and programming as to what a realistic date is. I fully expect to ship in late September or early October. Most of the tough stuff is already finished now in July. We're attempting to design AW 5 so that _EVERY_ AW 4-compatible TimeOut app will work without change, but there may be a few minor exceptions. Again, the major structure change in AW was the redesign from AW 3 to AW 4. The changes in AW 5 involve adding new features, not massive redesign of how everything fits together. (BRANDT, CAT44, TOP6, MSG:56/M645;1) >>>>> Randy and I also discussed including the AfterWork "engine" and a """"" couple of blanker modules in AW 5, and releasing a new batch of modules shortly after AW 5. Could be fun. B) I'm not sure if Randy will have time for that, though. It'll need a little tweak to the Screen Blanker preferences screen, for sure. (II.ALIVE, CAT44, TOP6, MSG:57/M645;1) REPORTS FROM KANSASFEST Howdy from ICONference, at Avila College in rainy """"""""""""""""""""""" Kansas City! I've had a chance to meet several A2 acquaintances in person; in fact, met Nate Sloan and Jim Z in the elevator, where Jim's Powerbook was plugged into the phone outlet, allowing him to conduct his RTC as he moved from 1st the 4th floor and back again. More when there is more to say... Steve Weyhrich --< (S.WEYHRICH, CAT44, TOP6, MSG:13/M645;1) <<<<< Here's a summary of Day 1 (long post warning, whatever good THAT """"" does) The talks for each of the two days are split up into two sessions, with a choice between two topics for each session. The one exception is that today and tomorrow there is one large session. Here is the schedule: 9:15-10:15 UNIX and the Internet Soldering For Beginner's: Which End of the Iron is Hot? Jim Maricondo Dave Ciotti I attended the Unix/Internet session, and got a brief intro into what it offers and can do for me. 10:25-11:40 Launch Of The Mensch Computer Bill Mensch & Nick Dazio This was a presentation by Western Design Center, the current licensors of the 6502, 65c02, and 65816. The primary topic was an introduction of a computer that Mensch has designed to make use of a new microprocessor that he has designed (the 65265), but it began with the background of just how far reaching the lowly 6502 and 65816 have become. The 65c02 is used in some of the new implantable defibrillators (devices similar to pacemakers, but for those whose hearts go frequently into dangerous rhythms, it shocks the heart back into a normal rhythm); in closed captioning devices on newer televisions; some of the intelligent cable TV boxes; the mouse port on the Macintosh computer; certain stereo systems; and Ricoh fax systems. The Super Ninetendo, of course, uses the 65816, but also the Franklin Digital Book system uses it. The Mensch computer itself does not sound too exciting. It uses the new 65265 chip, which is a 16 bit chip with many opcodes similar to the 65816, plus some built-in ROM code that assists it in running quickly and efficiently. The computer has a 16 line by 40 character LCD display; the keyboard uses a low power chip built into it; so the entire computer can run easily for hours on batteries. Mensch is trying to position this computer as a "consumer" computer, not a game computer or a business computer. He wants it to be something that is so simple that ANYONE can use it, without using the manual. It has built-in printer port, modem port, keyboard serial port, and "host" port (which allows it to be connected to a "more powerful" computer, be it Apple II, Mac, or PC, or to a dial-up host, such as an Internet or BBS node). The connectors for those serial ports are the same as those used to plug your telephone to the wall outlet. Also, if a user doesn't want to use a keyboard, it accepts a Sega-style game controller as an input device. The software for the Mensch computer would be on PCMCIA cards, and one example would be a 10 meg card (that looks as thin as a credit card) which could hold an operating system, an application, and the files created by the user for that application. The market he is looking at is the low-end home and consumer market; those who could use something less complex than a palmtop, but more than a pocket organizer. In the Far East, in countries like Korea and China and Japan where personal computers have made considerably less inroads than they have here, there are companies that are very interested in the Mensch computer. They don't intend it to REPLACE Macs or PCs, but rather to supliment them. Examples of things it has been tested as include consumer applications like e-mail, digital message center (one that would bypass the Internet or operate separate from it), dictionary, directory assistant (like the Internet utilities Archie, Gopher, etc, work), organizer, programmer's hobby, games, control projects (he gave an example of fingerprint recognition associated with use of an ATM card); Much of Mensch's reason for speaking with our group today is that he needs programmers to design and write applications for the Mensch computer. IIgs programmers would be perfect for this, since they already have familiarity with the architecture of the opcodes and microprocessor (similiar as it is to the 65816). MY OPINION: With a $900 price tag, it is not likely to attract much consumer attention, as it is not as flashy as a Mac or 486 or Pentium computer, though it could possibly be just as powerful. It would not run with off-the-shelf software, so those who ARE computer literate would likely ignore it. It does not offer anything that is significantly different from what you can do with an already existing computer, and it does not have (yet) a compelling application (that is, something that is SO GREAT that people have to buy the computer just to use that application. On the Apple IIe/IIc, it was AppleWorks. On the Mac, it was desktop publishing software. On the Super Ninetendo, it was Super Mario World. On the Sega it was Sonic the Hedgehog. Etc, etc). If the price was significantly decreased, and a business in a large city decided to offer a videotext service using these as access machines, it might achieve a foothold, especially with its ability to interface with an already existing computer. It really should be available in a handheld format (like a digital book) that has the option of plugging in a keyboard or transferring data between the MC and a more powerful PC (Apple II, Mac, or IBM). The Mensch computer will be built by a plant that is under construction in Africa, and will then be the first computer to come out of that continent. Applications where I believe the 65265 chip will likely have more success than will the Mensch computer will be portable pocket computers; countertop computers with expandible features; and multifunction telephones. 11:45-12:45 Lunch! The entertainment for lunch was our own Editor.A2, Doug Cuff leading a rousing game of Computer Jeopardy (aka, Computer Trivia). He was so generous in his prizes that he even awarded points to people in the audience when the questions could not be answered by the contestants. 1:00 pm MACINTOSH SYSTEM 7.5 OVERVIEW DEVELOPMENT TOOLS FOR THE MENSCH COMPUTER Mike Pruneau, Apple Computer Jihad Jaafar & Larry Hittel Here we saw some of the features in the beta release of System 7.5, which is coming soon, with System 8 in the next year or so. It was demonstrated on a PowerMac, with 16 megs of RAM. He gave an overview of Apple's plans for the rest of the 90's. They admit that with as much power as the Macintosh offers today, it STILL is too hard for many people to figure out. There are STILL people who will NEVER read a manual that explains how to use their computer, even if the manual is written in as clear and concise fashion as possible. Furthermore, there will be a continuing revolution in communication, with Internet-->"Data Superhighway", Multimedia-->Interactive TV, etc. He made a good comparison: "If it is easy enough for my mom to use without being told how, it is easy." System 7.5 has 70 new features, some of which were demonstrated. It is compatible with nearly everything out there now. Offers a built-in PC exchange capability, in which an MS-DOS formatted 1.4 meg disk inserted into a SuperDrive will appear directly on the desktop and be able to be opened, etc, just like a Mac disk (and as some currently available extensions allow you to do). Mac "Easy Open" is a new extension that determines or asks which application should open a file if it can't be figured out. Drag and Drop is an enhancement on Cut and Paste. Instead of having to select something (an object or text), Cut/Copy it to a clipboard, and then Paste into another document, you can now select it and just drag it directly to the other document. Many of the features of the Finder are now scriptable (in fact, this is how the advanced help feature works, which is significantly better than "balloon help" was). You can lock up to two folders from prying eyes. You can implement "Sticky Memos", which look like post-it notes stuck to the screen. It will support up to four 4 Gigabyte volumes. There will be a thread manager, for better multititasking. There is a graphic calculator desk accessory that was impressive. It will take an X/Y/Z (three variable) equation, and display its graph in a window, even doing rotation of the shape that the equation defines. On the Power Mac it executed VERY quickly, almost immediately. System 7.5 will also implement a better FindFile (similar to GS, in giving the locations of matching files with their pathnames, but with more capabilities than the GS version). You can now print a document by dragging the document onto a LaserWriter icon on the desktop (just like the Lisa used to do). The minimum recommended memory needed for System 7.5 will be 8 megs, JUST for the system (if you install EVERYTHING), and they recommend 16 megs if you want to do any serious work. It offers features that are, admittedly, available now through inits and extensions, but these will be built into the system and should work properly together. On the PowerMac "power" demo (with a 601 PowerPC chip), he showed a PhotoShop application that had what appeared to be a ball, with tiny bumps (similar to a golf ball), with raised lettering. Using the mouse, you could move a light source anywhere around on this object, and it displayed the shadows properly. The rendering was as fast as it would be in real life, and included the ball changing smoothly from one color to another. UNIX AND THE APPLE IIGS: GNO/ME ANIMASIA 3-D Jim Maricondo Michael Lutynski 2:10pm I went to the GNO/ME discussion. Mostly informational, didn't see anything that hasn't already been talked about here on GEnie in the past. ALL ABOUT THE POWER PC APPLE II INTERFACING: HOW TO CONTROL REAL WORLD DEVICES Mike Pruneau, Apple Computer Erick Wagner 3:20pm I attended the interfacing talk, as I'd already seen some of the PowerMac stuff. Wagner showed how to use the Apple II Plus, IIe, IIc, or IIgs to connect the game port to read or control analog or digital devices. He pointed out that the Apple II is ideal for a dedicated application like this, since it has been around for a long time, and can be obtained relatively cheaply. He then showed some demos of devices being read or controlled with his IIe. MULTIMEDIA AUTHORING WITH CD-ROM LOOKING GOOD IN PRINT Greg Nelson Joe Kohn 4:30pm I went to Joe's talk. He talked about the hardware, software, and page layout considerations to make when doing desktop publishing with an Apple II or IIgs. These are getting shorter, as I am getting tired or typing (and you are likely getting tired of reading). More tomorrow... Steve Weyhrich --< (S.WEYHRICH, CAT44, TOP6, MSG:19/M645;1) >>>>> Chris Budewig, aka Kevin Flynn, reporting live from KansasFest, er, """"" I mean ICONference '94. The annual Bite the Bag contest was held tonight and has now concluded. For those of you who don't know, Bite the Bag is a game of balance and leg strength where you must pick up a paper grocery bag with your teeth. The trick is that the only part of your body that may touch the ground while doing this is one of your feet. Each round, everyone takes a turn picking up the bag. Then about an inch is torn off the top all the way around the bag and everyone who had successfully picked it up the previous round gets to try again. Competition was hot and heavy as, round after round, the height of the bag slowly reached the floor. The final round consisted of seeing which of the three remaining contestants, Roger Wagner, Paul Zaleski, and Joe Wankerl, could pick up three-inch diameter section of the bottom of the bag the fastest. And the winner? Roger Wagner won the crown from last years winner Paul Zaleski. ...Chris (K.FLYNN, CAT44, TOP6, MSG:22/M645;1) <<<<< More from ICONference.. """"" Last night at the buffet and celebrity roast, Tom Weishaar announced the new executive director for ICON, Sherry Wonning. She is a local person, with some background in computer-related training, and a degree in communications. The roast was of Mike Westerfield, and the roasters were Bill Heineman, Greg Templeman (Softdisk G-S), Jawaid Bayzar, Roger Wagner, Nate Trost, and finally Tom Weishaar. Beginning this morning... 09:30am KEYNOTE ADDRESS: CONFESSIONS OF A PRIMORDIAL PROGRAMMER Randy Brandt Randy Brandt spent most of the time giving his personal computing journey to the present, and then with the story getting a bit long toward the end, he finished by saying that he was officially announcing the AppleWorks _5.0_ would be released by the first of October. He didn't have much time to demo features (that _I_ had a chance to see), but said that details of the planned enhancements would be forthcoming. Much excitement by all! PREVIEW OF MICROSOFT WINDOWS 4.0 THE INS AND OUTS OF TELECOM SCRIPTING Pat Wilson, Microsoft Nathaniel Sloan 10:40 I was curious about the new Windows, as I have used 3.1 on the computer at my office, so I attended the Microsoft session. There was originally supposed to be a non-disclosure agreement signed, but there were so many details about Windows 4.0 in the Kansas City paper this morning, the Microsoft rep didn't feel there was any point to an NDA. Much of what is being done with Windows 4.0 will be in making it work more like the Macintosh desktop (though that is not what they state, that is the end result). It will now support long filenames, up to 256 characters, while somehow retaining backward compatability with older versions of MS- DOS; that is, a Windows 4.0 disk with a l-o-o-o-n-g filename will still be easily read by a MS-DOS 2.0, as the file will have two names, the original 8 and 3, and the new long one. They are also working on Plug & Play architecture (removing the need for complicated configuration files), again, very similar to what the Mac allows. In face, the rep used the same "my mom should be able to do it" analogy that the Apple rep used yesterday. It will provide more powerful multitasking. Minimum requirements will be: Needs VGA or SVGA display, HD floppy, 386 or better processor, 19 MB of hard disk, and 4 MB or RAM. LUNCH 11:45am HYPERSTUDIO AS A DEVELOPMENT ENVIRONMENT MICROSOFT OFFICE FOR WINDOWS, I Roger Wagner Pat Wilson, Microsoft 1:00pm Roger was entertaining as always. He gave a brief background of HyperStudio, and pointed out that the program is very usable WITHOUT having to read the manual. He announced that in January they plan to release a Windows version of HyperStudio, and that stacks from the Mac version (and presumably the GS version) will be directly usable on the PC version. They've had a fair amount of success in getting the program into the Macintosh community without getting eaten up by sharks, as have other companies who have ventured out of Apple II waters. For example: McGraw- Hill wanted a 40-unit multimedia educational series to produce. They chose HyperStudio to do it, just because it WAS easy. Wagner pointed out that education has been an excellent market for HyperStudio. Even though sales in that market are slow to get started, a product purchased by a school will usually be used for many years, because they can't afford to change things every few years. Furthermore, HyperStudio was doing color and sound multimedia before HyperCard Mac and even SuperCard on the Mac could do it. Therefore, HyperStudio had the advantage of getting started before the others could get in. Another commercial application of HyperStudio as a tool for education has been Texaco. That company has made use of HS to develop some educational presentations about use of methods of analyzing earth to look for oil. It finally gave them a way to explain this difficult concept understandable to people, even to engineers, that had problems grasping it. The animations from that stack are going to show up in a PBS program about the topic. Wagner also demoed a stack that had someones resume' on it, where the person had used HS to make a stack that scanned pictures of the books he had written, photos of the classes he had taught, etc. It was very much an eye-catching presentation, and would certain stand out over others that were only on paper. Wagner has himself used an Apple QuickTake camera to take photos of people at ICONference, and plans to show his stack later today (maybe even right now). During his presentation, Nate Trost & another crony came in and shot Wagner with nerf guns. However, undeterred, Roger continued his talk. They do plan on getting an updated version of HyperStudio GS out, but have to find someone to help do the programming work. QUICK CLICK CALC WITH PUBLISH AND SUBSCRIBE PROGRAMMER DETAILS Mike Westerfield 2:10pm MICROSOFT OFFICE FOR WINDOWS, II Pat Wilson, Microsoft Westerfield pointed out that a spreadsheet for the IIgs was reasonable to do now, especially since AWGS 2.0 isn't going to be appearing any time soon. Features: True split screen. There can be a _billion_ cells (limited by available memory). It can read AW 3.0, and will be able to read 4.0 (and 5.0) spreadsheet files. QCC cannot directly read AWGS spreadsheet files (because the format is not known, even to Claris, and has not been documented anywhere), but AWGS SS files can be exported to text or DIF, which CAN be read. QCC can do everything that AW3.0 SS can do. It can EXPORT to AW3.0 as well. Data can be encrypted. The size of the spreadsheets can be limited to a specific size (no more than 100 rows and 10 columns, for example). It has a neat graphing function, that does pie charts, bar charts, line charts of various types, will plot two kinds of data side by side. Line graphics can do "fits" of data to a line. Colors can be changed on single cells, and not on the entire sheet (as with AWGS). Also, the height and width of individual cells (columns and rows, actually) can be modified to allow larger fonts, etc. to be in those cells. The "publish and subscribe" feature automates copy and paste. The difference is that the changes from one SS will always be linked to make associated changes in the other documents that are subscribed to that original SS. It does it through the use of FILES, which means that the updates are available any time the subscribing file is opened. Also does cell formatting by grades (A,B,C,D, etc) and let you do calculations on those letter grades (i.e., "B- + 1 = A-"). Can do date and time math. "Cell notes" are available for any cell to remind you what a cell is for or does. (This is also a feature planned for AW 5.0). Cells can be have lines drawn around them in varying thicknesses. What does the future hold? It depends on the response to THIS product. There will be at least TWO other programs coming out, probably by the end of the year, that will help determine whether there will be further products. They would like to do further productivity products, but depends on whether or not there is enough response to THIS (and THESE) products. If you buy, and don't like, it can be returned in 30 days. ALL ABOUT THE INTERNET WAY COOL AND WAY CHEAP MACINTOSH UTILITIES Joe Kohn Bill Lynn 3:20pm Kohn has all the ferver of an evangelist in his presentations on the Internet. He concentrated on the "Internet for Dummies" approach, stating that all you REALLY need is to access the World Wide Web, through Lynx (for text-based computers, currently including the Apple II and IIgs), or Mosaic (for graphic based computers, Macs & PCs). Because of the power of the WWW, Archie, Gopher, and Veronica (Internet search tools) are obsolete (according to Kohn). Kohn says that you should imagine what you could do if the Internet was on your computer, accessible through a HyperStudio or HyperCard stack, with the power of 10 trillion stacks strong. 3D TECHNOLOGY FEATURING 3D-LOGO PROGRAMMING THE NEWTON Mike Westerfield Josef Wankerl 4:30pm Westerfield demoed what 3-D Logo does, and also discussed the use of HyperLogo on HyperStudio. HyperLogo is the default language on HyperStudio Mac and will be the default on HyperStudio PC. Obviously, the meetings which I discussed above are the ones I attended. Now, off to see the hands-on demo of Lynx... Steve Weyhrich --< (S.WEYHRICH, CAT44, TOP6, MSG:25/M645;1) ___ >>>>> |he Mensch Computer will never run Apple II (8 or 16-bit) """"" software. Bill Mensch said that he had thought about it, but then decided that he should "only look forward, never back," or something to that effect. In the end he intentionally decided to leave out features that would be necessary for it to be at all compatible with Apple II software. ][n my opinion, the Mensch Computer itself has no market, especially if he insists on calling it a "computer." With that label, people are going to be comparing it to full desktop systems and laptops, and in all respects it will come up short. On the other hand, the CPU that it uses, the 6265, is in my opinion very well designed and lends itself to many better uses. It's a great low-power semi-RISC processor that can be manufactured much more cheaply than any other comparable microprocessors (according to the figures he provided). |)uring the Mac System 7.5 presentation everyone kept ribbing the Apple marketing guy giving the presentation about how some new feature he was describing looked "gee, just like the Apple IIgs...." These included a thermometer bar during boot and the improved Find File dialog, plus a couple of other minor features we've been used to using on the IIgs for years. (Remember when the Mac got a Fonts folder? :) |\/|ac System 7.5 also offers hierarchical menus in the Apple menu for folders and other various utilities as a standard (you no longer need to use a third party extension for it). ___ |oday we were "treated" to a demonstration of Chicago, aka Windows 4.0. Everyone (except, I suppose, the MicroSoft employee) left the room feeling "it was just like the Macintosh operating system... of six to eight years ago." New features touted included copying/moving files by dragging them with the mouse into folders (what a breakthrough! :), no more eight character file name limititations (though the file names are still translated to eight character names and saved under MS-DOS -- as a result you're NOT going to see the same file names any time you drop down to MS- DOS), and a "task bar" at the bottom or top of the screen that contained the names of the currently running applications (kind of like the Mac's applications menu). The only vaguely interesting thing to me that was mentioned was that printers being accessed through Windows 4.0 would automatically add their drivers to the system, if they were not present. Beyond that I was very bored at that session and spent a large portion of my time there trying not to fall asleep. |\/|ike Westerfield gave a quite interesting overview/demonstration of his new Quick Click Calc spreadsheet program. He also gave technical details of its publish and subscribe features and handed out disks filled with documents about it and some sample source code. The technical specs and notes will be available in A2Pro shortly, but not the same code. To get that, though, all you'll need to do is ask Mike for it directly. He just wants to keep a bit better track of the distribution of the source code (especially since it was taken directly from the Quick Click Calc source itself). ___ |onight a huge group of us went out to see the movie "True Lies." For a generally mindless acion flick with lots of violence and general carnage, it was great. -= Lunatic (: (A2.LUNATIC, CAT44, TOP6, MSG:26/M645;1) KANSASFEST WRAP-UP Stay tuned to a Bulletin Board near you for """""""""""""""""" information on "KansasFest 94 The CD" I took about 100 pictures at the fest and am having them copied onto a photo CD as I type. Once I get them back and have a rough estimate on how many I have to order I will post the information here. Developing the pictures and cutting the first CD will cost about $80. I hope to make CDs available in the $20 range. If the Photo Shop wants too much for the copies I will look into other means of reproduction. Let me know if you are interested. Bear (BINARY.BEAR, CAT44, TOP6, MSG:67/M645;1) >>>>> I'd be interested in one of those PhotoCDs from KFest, with the """"" further request that I'd like to run one or two pictures from the CD in II Alive. (Hopefully they will all have captions so I know who to ask for individual permissions.) (II.ALIVE, CAT44, TOP6, MSG:75/M645;1) >>>>> Well I just got home from Kfest yesterday. This is the first time """"" I was able to attend. To tell the truth, I was a little bit apprehensive about attending when I knew no one at all in person, only some by name. Now that I've gone, I'm very sad it took me so long to go. I can only wonder what previous years were like. Anyway to say I had a great time would be an understatement. I've made friends with many people in only a few short days. I enjoyed all the sessions that I attended. I loved all the ridiculous games though I was just a spectator. And I managed not to miss as much sleep as many! Thanks to everyone who worked on Kansasfest. I'll never forget it. Joyce (J.SULLIVAN27, CAT44, TOP6, MSG:69/M645;1) >>> WHAT'S NEW <<< """""""""""""""""" QUICK CLICK CALC For the Apple IIGS """""""""""""""" Published by Byte Works, Inc. Price: $60 Manual: 101 pages; includes index and Spreadsheet Cookbook Requirements: System 6.0.1, 1.125M RAM Also supports: Hard drives, networks, printers, accelerator cards Contact: Mike Westerfield Byte Works, Inc. 4700 Irving Blvd N.W. Suite 207 Albuquerque, NM 87114 (505) 898-8183 AOL: Send e-mail to MikeW50 or visit us using keyword ByteWorks. GEnie: Send e-mail to ByteWorks or visit us in A2, Category 45. Internet: Send e-mail to MikeW50@AOL.COM The Byte Works, long the dominant company for Apple II development tools, has entered the productivity tools arena with a new Apple IIGS spreadsheet. Quick Click Calc is the perfect solution for: * Grade books * Balancing checkbooks * Weekly, monthly or yearly budget plans * Figuring car or house payments * Savings plans for college or retirement * A super calculator * Charts and graphs * Tracking coin or baseball card collections * Statistical analysis Look What You Can Do Spreadsheets are amazing tools. In fact, it was the '''''''''''''''''''' spreadsheet that really got the computer revolution going back in the late 70s. Why? Because the spreadsheet was the first tool on a personal computer that just worked better than any of the other ways of doing the same job. Usually, when you compare spreadsheets (or any other program), you quickly get into a feature war. This spreadsheet has 53 functions, and that one 75, and so on. Who cares? Sure, Quick Click Calc has the glitzy features found on the Mac and PC, but the real story it what you can do with them. For example, you can keep a grade book on a spreadsheet. Unlike a paper grade book, a computer grade book can do things like average your grades. Quick Click Calc knows that (A+C)/2 is B, for example. You can draw a pie chart showing how many people are getting As, Bs and Cs, or draw a graph showing how Ebenezer is doing at working and playing well with others. Of course, with a computer grade book, there's always the possibility that Cain will hack into the computer to change Abel's grades. But not with Quick Click Calc, because you can protect your files with password encryption. Without the password, the file just can't be read. Our Manual Tells You How, Not What Our manual helps you use Quick Click '''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''' Calc for it's abilities, rather than features, too. Oh, we have the catalog of features that you need in any good reference book. But we also start off with a chapter that shows you how to use a spreadsheet, too. Using our spreadsheet cookbook, you'll learn by doing, and create your own checkbook and grade book in the process. You'll see how to use a spreadsheet as a super-calculator to calculate loan payments for your dream house. Little Things Mean a Lot If you've used spreadsheets, you know that '''''''''''''''''''''''' little things can be very annoying. For example, scroll bars are supposed to help you get from one end of a document to another. The problem is that most spreadsheet programs have 1000 or so rows and 700 columns, but most spreadsheet documents only have a few dozen rows and columns. The scroll bar gets hard to use. Quick Click Calc lets you set the size of the spreadsheet. You tell it how big the spreadsheet actually is, and suddenly the scroll bars make sense for your spreadsheet. Being Two Places at Once Whether you want to keep a multi-row header in '''''''''''''''''''''''' one place or compare two widely separated parts of your spreadsheet, you'll quickly get to like our true split screen controls. They literally cut the spreadsheet in half, so you can scroll two different parts of the same document in the same windo. Spreadsheets that Communicate Quick Click Calc introduces one of the most ''''''''''''''''''''''''''''' useful new features to come out of Apple to the Apple IIGS: Publish and Subscribe. And a spreadsheet is the perfect program for it, too. Publish and Subscribe is like copy and paste, but it works between documents. You can create separate spreadsheets for your checkbook and your spouse's, then create a third spreadsheet for family finances. With Publish and Subscribe, the family finances spreadsheet taps into all of the other spreadsheets that you use for finances. When you enter a new check in your checkbook spreadsheet, then open your family finances spreadsheet, you see the new totals--without manually copying numbers from one spreadsheet to another! Formatting is Everything Formatting is what makes one document easy to '''''''''''''''''''''''' read, while another with the same information is hard to follow. That's why other Apple IIGS spreadsheets can show negative numbers in red. But Quick Click Calc does much more. Of course you can change the width of a cell, but you can change the height, too. That's important, since you can set the font cell by cell, using big bold fonts for titles, and small fonts when you want to see a lot of information in a small space. You can use color, too, both for text and for the background--and you can use different colors in different cells. Heck, you can even get rid of the default grid and create your own, with custom line widths. Of course, this makes your spreadsheets a lot easier to read, and that's what's important. Just don't tell anyone how much fun you're having when you are supposed to be working! Say It With Pictures Spreadsheets are wonderful tools for holding and '''''''''''''''''''' analyzing information. Modern spreadsheets are also pretty good at displaying it. Quick Click Calc gives you more ways to display your information than any other Apple IIGS spreadsheet--and more than any spreadsheet we've seen at it's price on any machine. You can pick from pie charts, bar graphs, and line drawings. There are several styles and lots of options for each, too, so you're likely to find just the right way to express yourself. You might be surprised at just how many ways you can display information. Lots of spreadsheets give you simple bar graphs or line drawings, but Quick Click Calc lets you plot multiple data in more than one dimension. A bar or line graph can display more than one thing, so you can compare information with a graph. Some spreadsheets limit you to a single dimension, but Quick Click Calc plots up to 3 dimensions at once. And you can even fit a line or surface to scattered data points using liner regression! Quick Click Calc is the perfect program for all your number crunching and graphics needs. Get yours today! The Byte Works We're the Byte Works, famous for our programming tools for '''''''''''''' the Apple II series of computers-and now for our productivity tools for the Apple IIGS, too! Founded in 1980, we have a long history of serving the Apple II community. We started with ORCA/M, a macro assembler that is one of two programs ever to earn a perfect rating from Peelings II magazine. We went on to write APW, Apple Computer's standard programming environment for the Apple IIGS. We've brought you dozens of other programs, too, like ORCA/C, the award winning C compiler; ORCA/Pascal, the only commercial object oriented language for the Apple II; and our Toolbox Programming courses, which have introduced thousands to the world of Apple IIGS toolbox programming. And don't forget HyperLogo and 3D Logo, our fun, easy to use programming languages that can actually show 3D pictures on any color Apple IIGS! Look for more innovative, fun, useful programs for your Apple IIGS for us in the months to come. We're one company with a long term commitment to our Apple IIGS customers! Ordering We accept Visa and MasterCard orders online or by phone, and '''''''' personal checks or school purchase orders by mail. Please include $5 for shipping in the U.S. and Canada. For credit card orders, we can charge exact shipping for our overseas customers. If you need to know oversees shipping in advance, send your name, address, what you are ordering and how you want it shipped (air or surface), and we'll be happy to calculate the shipping charges. Distribution Please give a copy of this to everyone you know! Feel free '''''''''''' to use it in newsletters or catalogs, or to post it on bulletin boards or online services. For a printed product brochure with pictures and a special update offer, send us your mailing address. Ask about our product list showing other Apple IIGS programs, too! We'll also let you know about other new Apple IIGS programs and special offers in the months to come. (BYTEWORKS, CAT45, TOP2, MSG:36/M645;1) <<<<< This may be a bit technical for some, so if it is, keep in mind """"" that I'm discussing gritty details. _Using_ Publish & Subscribe is very easy. There are three documents involved in the process of publishing and subscribing: The publisher, the subscriber, and the edition. The publisher is the document that creates the information other documents subscribe to. The edition is the file created by the publisher; the edition works sort of like a clipboard file, saving information "copied" from the publisher document. The publisher document updates the edition file each time the publsiher document is saved. The subscriber "copies" information from the edition. The subscriber copies the information each time you open the subscriber document. The effect, then, is that the information is moved between the publisher and subscriber each time the documents are saved or loaded. You can also force the update sooner. Internally, an edition file is basically some header information and a scrap, just like a scrap you would use for copy and paste inside any normal desktop program. Since the edition information is placed in a separate file, you don't save disk space. The subscriber also keeps a copy inside its own document, just in case the edition isn't available for some reason. The advantage to using a separate file is that you don't have to have the entire publisher document available to update subscribers. I could, for example, publish information to an edition on a network server, and your subscriber document can subscribe to the edition even if my computer, with the original information, is turned off. My original document can be encrypted, too, yet you can still subscribe without a password. Publish and subscribe is not hard to implement in any program that supports Copy and Paste with the Scrap Manager, but it isn't done automatically, either. You won't be able to use Publish and Subscribe with AppleWorks. I will, of course, support it with any productivity programs we create. For even _more_ details, come to my session in KansasFest. If you won't be in Kansas, watch A2Pro, where we will probably do an RTC on Publish and Subscribe. Mike Westerfield (BYTEWORKS, CAT45, TOP2, MSG:35/M645;1) <<<<< The question came up in an e-mail message as to just how I planned """"" to handle updates to QCCalc. The answer should interest any of you who have bought QCCalc, or who are seriously considering it. Labarski's Rule of Cybernetic Entomology: "There's always one more bug." My correlary: "There are more of them now than there will be when the product has been out for a few weeks." It's inevitable that some bugs will be found, especially right after a new program is released to the public for the first time. My policy for QCCalc is simple: If you report a bug before the first update is released, I'll fix it free and fast and get the fix to you ASAP. The first update will be free through a variety of means, and won't cost you any more than a nominal postage fee in the absolute worst case. If there are still a significant number of bugs reported after the first update, I'll probably repeat this cycle as needed until things settlt down. To give you an idea how this worked in the past, this is also the policy I used with 3D Logo. In that case, with one or two exceptions, a bug fix was on the way to anyone who reported it within one business day of the report up through the first update release. Our free distribution methods for the 1.0.2 update were liberal enough that I don't think many people (if any) paid a dime for it. This policy reflects some basic facts of life, like the fact that there will always be _some_ bugs, and especially so for a program on the Apple IIGS, where the smaller number of users means testing can't be as extensive. (For example, Borland C had more backorders when it shipped than the _total_ number of compilers for _all_ languages I've ever sold! I can't afford to test like they do-- or like they should.) I also don't think you should have to pay for bug fixes, but that has to be tempered by the fact that I don't charge Microsoft prices. The message to you, then, is don't be afraid to biy early, but be sure to report any bugs you see so you get the fix right away! Mike Westerfield (BYTEWORKS, CAT45, TOP2, MSG:52/M645;1) >>>>> I saw Mike Westerfield's demo of Quick Click Calc at KansasFest and """"" was absolutely ecstatic! It does the things I really needed in a spreadsheet. There are vert. & horiz. split windows, changeable font sizes, you can change the number of rows & columns, and it has some decent charting options! I had actually thought of using another type of computer to get these features. Now I can stick with my GS for virtually everything :) I am happy! :) Mark ps -- Get this program. You won't be disappointed! (IMHO) (M.KLINE1, CAT45, TOP2, MSG:55/M645;1) NEW FROM BRUTAL DELUXE, NEW FROM KITCHEN SINK Usually, right after """"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" publishing an issue of SSII, I try to give myself a short break by not thinking about the next issue. But, Issue #7 is already starting to take on a life of its own. I spent a very pleasant afternoon yesterday with 50% of the Brutal Deluxe team, and let's just say that I got an incredible eyeful. I marvelled at their upcoming releases, including Convert3200, Cogito (wow! wow! wow!) and Opale. So, I'll be writing up a piece on that visit, and I have a feeling that Cogito will be released by then, so there will probably also be a review of that incredible game. Kitchen Sink's System II has arrived; it's a Finder-like environment for Apple IIe/IIc systems, and it is most impressive. So, I'd like to let people know about that with a review, and (maybe, possibly, hopefully) a "Such A Deal" offer. Joe (I don't think I'm in Kansas yet) Kohn (JOE.KOHN, CAT28, TOP4, MSG:276/M645;1) >>> THROUGH THE GRAPEVINE <<< """"""""""""""""""""""""""""" BYTE WORKS WON'T STOP WITH JUST QUICK CLICK CALC! > I noticed that you """"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" > said "the first of > our productivity packages for the GS." What else is on the way. Well, that would be telling! :) We have very firm plans (i.e., the project has started) for one more package, and pretty firm plans (i.e., it currently occupies the top of the list for the next product to start, once the current projects are done) for another. Beyond that, about all I can say is that I don't make firm plans any further in the future than the next pruduct. We are carefully examining the idea of producing a _full_ line of GS productivity tools, either alone or in cooperation with other companies. Whether we really do this will depend on the sales of the first packages and what other opportunities come up. As for specifically what the packages will be, I'll just have to say stay tuned. And after the two we're definitely planning at this point, we'll choose from a shopping list based on what people tell us they want and how long we thing it will take to produce, so at this point, I have only a vaugue idea myself. (BYTEWORKS, CAT45, TOP2, MSG:26/M645;1) <<<<< A few people have been trying to pry what our _next_ productivity """"" package will be, after Quick Click Calc. Heck, I have to finnish the initial marketting on QCCalc before I work too much on the other projects! :) Without going into too much detail, we are looking into the possibility of doing a complete line of productivity software. If we do this, in the long term, the software would be available across multiple computer platforms, and would have a few other cute features that would make going into those tougher markets make sense. The way we'll pick the order of packages to do is simple. We look at how many people seem to be interested in the program, how long it will take to develop, and based on past sales and survey results, how many we expect to sell. We then pick the one with the highest profit potential. Sounds calloused, but that's the way we have to work to stay in business. If there is no profit potential, then we don't do the product. We've already done one small survey for productivity software. When you get your QCCalc packages, you'll see another. And we'll do more in the future. Here's the programs we listed on our last survey. These are all of the productivity packages we've seriously considered doing so far. This is _not_ a commitment to do any or all of them; I'm sure, for example, that we would never do everything on this list. If you see something that you would like us to consider that is not on the list, though, or see something on the list that really excites you, be sure and let me know. Paint Draw 3D Draw with Ray Tracing Animation Morphing QuickTime Movie Player Word Processor Spread Sheet Database Programmable Database Business Graphics Planetarium Mike Westerfield (BYTEWORKS, CAT45, TOP3, MSG:1/M645;1) <<<<< Wow! For a new topic, this sure has a lot of posts """"" Basically, I'm listening. Here's a few random comments, though: I _did_ come very close to releasing a Draw program a while back, and backed off. Why? There was a very large contengent of people who basically told me that if it wasn't AutoCAD or something similar, forget it. I listened to them, and didn't release the program (which was nearing alpha at the time). I think I have to make it clear that no program I plan to develop on the GS is going to compete with the top of the line programs on the Mac or PC. That level of program would take years to develop. Also, file formats on other computers are generally not as available as they are on the GS, where there are still serious problems, so I probably won't be able to manage lots of import/ export options, either. So, if you won't take anything less than a program that competes with the top of the line programs on the Mac or PC, be sure and say so. I'll listen to that, too. But then, for $60, you don't get AutoCAD on the PC, either. ;) What I _am_ planning in all of the programs I do is to create reliable, well- crafted programs that are better than the ones currently available. All will work with the Manager, and will be designed to work together in a reasonable way from that environment. All will be priced in the $40-$120 range. The list of programs I posted was from an old survey we did. That's why the spreadsheet was still listed. :) Since that time, I've looked into the QuickTime issue a lot. While it is _possible_ to create a QuickTime player for the GS, it would be so slow on CD ROM based movies that you would not want to use it. From a technical standpoint, the best bet is a movie player that can import QuickTime movies and convert them to a format that is optimized for the GS. _That_ I can do, and may do at some point. Such a program might concevably offer the option of playing a movie right off of the CD ROM, but I promise the results would not be good enough for anything but previewing the movie to decide if it is worth converting to the GS format and saving on a hard disk. Is this still interesting? Anyway, like I said, I'm listening... :) Mike Westerfield (BYTEWORKS, CAT45, TOP3, MSG:42/M645;1) TWILIGHT II UPGRADE We currently plan to release a Twilight II upgrade """"""""""""""""""" sometime in August or September, with more effects and features.. Watch this space for more information. We will automatically send out update notices to all registered owners, so if you haven't registered, then REGISTER NOW! :-) Price is not set at this time. <>>>> Response to the last few messages """"" I am not sure why QC posted a message about Seven Hills Software considering taking on AWGS, but I know they did, so now I need post something about the situation to hopefully head off a flood of email, phone calls, and postings to our category! First a little history: Quality Computers approached us about doing AWGS a long time ago (even before they had signed a contract with Claris). We were very interested, but we believed QC had unreasonable expectations as far as what they wanted done in a given timeframe, as well as what would be reasonable compensation, and we told them so. Apparently they felt we didn't know what we were talking about and/or some other reason(s) because when they finally did get the source code they didn't come back to us. Over the next few months they discovered for themselves that what we had said was exactly true: You cannot get something for nearly nothing, and especially not when you are demanding it yesterday. The sad thing is, if they had trusted our opinion they might already have a solid v1.2 (not v2.0) update. Flash forward to last week. Last Friday we contacted QC to say we were still interested in the project. They were interested, so we began working with the AWGS project manager at QC to obtain source code, bug lists, etc. so we can decide exactly what we can do with AWGS. We expected end-users would NOT learn about this so either company could drop out without disappointing anyone, but apparently someone(s) at QC thought otherwise, perhaps wanting to give the impression that they were "doing everything in their powers" to get an update done to AWGS. Whatever the reason, making any kind of announcement is very premature considering SHS has not even seen source code, let alone signed a contract. And now, if nothing comes of it, Seven Hills could look bad. So let me make one thing perfectly clear: We _want_ to do the project, and at this point the only reason we might not do it would be if QC is still unwilling (or unable) to be reasonable in _its_ expectations of features, timeframe, and compensation. Basically, our offer will not be unreasonable, so if QC wants the update to happen, it will. In the meantime, PLEASE do not write/call/email/post messages about this. If we agree to do the update, an appropriate, official announcement will be made. Sincerely, Dave Hecker, VP of R&D P.S. I'm not upset with anyone who already commented here; it's a natural reaction! :) Also, GWIII v1.2 is now in beta testing; we'll make a big announcement when it's almost done. :) (SEVENHILLS, CAT43, TOP3, MSG:124/M645;1) LYNX OR MOSIAC WITH GNO/ME? > I know that the only really silly questions """"""""""""""""""""""""""" > is the one you don't ask, but since I don't > have Internet access but would likt to, is lynx included with GNO/ME or > do you have to get it separat? Lynx is not currently available for GNO/ME, and considering its size, is unlikely to be in the forseeable future (it's a 450KB executable on a PC!) Something like Mosaic would actually be easier, since the GS toolbox would provide a good portion of the 'rendering' tasks that Lynx has to do manually. Jawaid (PROCYON.INC, CAT23, TOP10, MSG:164/M645;1) APPLE II CD FROM GERMANY... I sent the master CD off to the production """"""""""""""""""""""""""" firm on Friday. So I expect a parcel full of CDs waiting for me when I'll be back from holiday on August 12th. Udo - ... just a IIGS freak - (U.HUTH, CAT20, TOP15, MSG:73/M645;1) ...AND AN APPLE II CD FROM DIGISOFT The HFS FST is terrible. """"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" It is really slowing us down on the creation of this CD. It looks like we now will be having 2 HFS partitions and one ProDOS partition, in hopes that two smaller HFS partitions will be handled in a more stable and usable manner by the FST. At any rate, the CD is right about to be premastered. However, the HFS FST's bugs have caused us to lose so much time that there is a chance that the premaster might not be back until after I go on vacation for 3 weeks in August. If this is the case then the CD will not be released until mid/late September, because it takes 3-4 weeks to master and replicate the CD after the premaster is complete and tested. However, if the premaster gets back in time, the CD can be replicated while I am on vacation, and it should ship the last week in August or first week in September... Sorry to bore you with all these details.. Let me lighten it up a bit by giving a few statistics: 106MB of Applications 119MB of disks (selfbooting, non-ProDOS, etc.) 15MB of Sounds 31MB of Stacks 25MB of Text 33MB of TrueType Fonts 2MB of Finder Extensions 3MB of NDAs 35MB of Graphics 5MB of Cracks, Cheats, and Deprotects 2MB of BASIC programs 8MB of AppleWorks 2MB of bitmap fonts And a lot more! :-) It looks like the price will probably fall around $60, since this whole project has taken a LOT more time than we first expected.. <>> MESSAGE SPOTLIGHT <<< """"""""""""""""""""""""" Category 2, Topic 6 Message 237 Thu Jun 30, 1994 P.LAWRENCE5 [Frank@Work] at 11:15 EDT Hello and Goodbye (reluctantly) My name is Frank Andrews. I was an Apple II programmer for 14 years, and when the clock runs out on my Genie account tonight, that will break my last, formal link with the II line. Why this message? Not to be maudlin, (I passed that point a couple years ago :-) but rather to know that I went out amongst the community I shared ties with for over a decade. The Apple II gave a penniless newlywed in college his first professional job, and a couple years later, his first 'real computer'. I saw a horse run across the screen of an Apple /// at NCC (Chicago) in '81, read of Apple II evolution in 'Call Apple', watched windows open up a new world on the Lisa at Applefest San Francisco in '83 and saw and heard the wonder of the GS in '86, (of course I had to buy one :-) Floundering around the dying threads of Compuserve, I found Genie in 1989. This was certainly the place for the Apple II user and I convinced my parent company to open an account (hence my Lawrence Prods. address). While the rumors were flying about the death of the Apple IIGS, I ported "The Lost Tribe" over from the PC platform, (256 color graphics and Midi sound), an act of defiance as much as to prove that it could be done. I still spend time on Compuserve and have visited other forums here on Genie and I have to say, the level of integrity and enthusiasm is higher no place else than in A2 and A2Pro. Financial and mental pressures have persuaded my to sell my GS now. I HAVE to learn Windows to eat and the call of my GS was a distraction that impinged too much on my acceptance of this new task. If I had a non- programming job, I imagine my GS would serve my needs quite adequately into the next century. With that last thought in mind I'll close my message. Emotion and tradition seem to fuel the 'hang on to the GS' cry of the past three or four years and that has its place. But don't let these two items cloud the real issue. Does the II still serve your needs? If so, then why move on? And if you can stay, support the many fine people who are doing spectacular work on the Apple II. Procyon, ByteWorks, Sequential, Shareware Solutions, Quality Computers, Resource Central, SoftDisk, and on and on. This list is longer than the meager offerings at the start of the II's history and is certainly more qualified to provide outstanding products for your needs. And if you have to move on, remember one thing. It can be argued that we are a product of our environment. You have spent time in what was once the largest and IMHO the most open and honest user communities in the world. The first program that an Apple II ran was once call 'HELLO', and what might have started as a marketing strategy became the attitude and outlook for a generation of programmers and users. This kind of influence can not be denied and will follow you to what ever platform you choose to move. Goodbye all, (okay, so I was a little maudlin :-) Frank Andrews [*][*][*] 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 GEnieLamp 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. [EOA] [HUM]////////////////////////////// HUMOR ONLINE / ///////////////////////////////// Fun & Games On GEnie """""""""""""""""""" by Nancy Hagfors [N.HAGFORS] >>> PARENT'S GLOSSARY OF KIDS' KITCHEN TERMS <<< """""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" This is from the book received from my June swap partner, Cookie-Lady. ---------- Recipe via Meal-Master (tm) v8.00 (BB) Title: PARENT'S GLOSSARY OF KIDS' KITCHEN TERMS Categories: Humor Yield: 1 servings -------------------------GLOSSARY------------------------- APPETIZING: Anything advertised on TV. BOIL: The point a parent reaches upon hearing the automatic "yuk" before a food is even tasted. CASSEROLE: Combination of favorite foods that go uneaten because they are mixed together. CHAIR: Spot left vacant by mid-meal bathroom visit. COOKIE (LAST ONE): Item that must be eaten in front of a sibling. CRUST: Part of a sandwich saved for the starving children of: China, India, Africa, or Europe (check one). DESSERTS: The reason for eating a meal. EVAPORATE: Magic trick performed by children when it comes time to clear the table or wash dishes. FAT: Microscopic substance detected visually by children on pieces of meat they do not wish to eat. FLOOR: Place for all food not found on lap or chair. FORK: Eating utensil made obsolete by the discovery of fingers. FRIED FOODS: Gourmet cooking. FROZEN: Condition of children's jaws when spinach is served. FRUIT: A natural sweet not to be confused with dessert. GERMS: The only thing kids will share freely. KITCHEN: The only room not used when eating crumbly snacks. LEFTOVERS: Commonly described as "gross." LIVER: A food that affects genes, creating a hereditary dislike. LOLLIPOP: A snack provided by people who don't have to pay dental bills. MACARONI: Material for a collage. MEASURING CUP: A kitchen utensil that is stored in the sandbox. METRIC: A system of measurements that will be accepted only after forty years of wandering in the desert. NAPKIN: Any worn cloth object, such as shirt or pants. NATURAL FOOD: Food eaten with unwashed hands. NUTRITION: Secret war waged by parents using direct commands, camouflage, and constant guard duty. PLATE: A breakable Frisbee. REFRIGERATOR: A very expensive and inefficient room air conditioner. SALIVA: A medium for blowing bubbles. SODA POP: Shake 'N Spray. TABLE: A place for storing gum. TABLE LEG: Percussion instrument. THIRSTY: How your child feels after you've said your final "good night." VEGETABLE: A basic food known to satisfy kid's hunger -- but only by sight. WATER: Popular beverage in underdeveloped countries. ("Home Cookin' is a Family Affair") (MM'd by Nancy Hagfors - N.HAGFORS/GEnie) (N.HAGFORS, CAT16, TOP23, MSG:347/M1150;1) [EOA] [REF]////////////////////////////// REFLECTIONS / ///////////////////////////////// Thinking About Online Communications """""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" by Phil Shapiro [P.SHAPIRO1] >>> ONLINE LITERARY COLLABORATIONS <<< """"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" At the end of the last century, the invention of the typewriter allowed authors to produce crisp and presentable writing. The surge in book publishing in the 1890s attests to the empowering effects of the typewriter. Now, a hundred years later, creative expression is again benefiting from new developments in technology. Online communications have revolutionized the way writers write and editors edit. Editors can respond to proposed book or magazine articles within hours of receiving them. Authors can cross-fertilize ideas with other authors world wide. Complementary talents can produce synergized creations far greater than an individual could produce on their own. Take the idea generation stage of writing, for instance. The individual who first thinks of an idea may not be the best person to nurture that idea to full blossom. One person may be talented at thinking up ideas but may lack the skills to develop them -- or may not have the time to devote to the entire writing project. Another person might be a great writer in search of ideas. Online technologies can bring these two people together, allowing them to collaborate in ways unthinkable in the past. Imagine the exhilaration you might feel if one day you logged onto an information service or bulletin board and found that someone had sent you an entire play or novel they had created with your publicly shared idea. The finished play or novel may appear two weeks, two months, two years, or twenty years after your idea was first shared. Once the idea is shared, it becomes a literary "soup stock" for anyone to work with. Literary collaborations can take place in all literary genres. However, in the coming years the most fruitful literary collaborations may well occur in the dramatic arts. After all, coming up with an interesting idea for a play is no easy feat. The person with an ear for dialogue may or may not possess the creative spark to think of gripping play scenarios. All these ideas about online literary collaborations jelled in my mind during an incident two or three years ago. A friend from high school confided in me that he yearned to write plays. After writing several dozen short plays, each with its own special charm, he arrived at the conclusion that his calling in life was to be a playwright. Having little inclination to write drama, myself, I was intrigued by my friend's creative bent. How wonderful that, even today, a young author can develop an abiding interest in the writing of plays. How often do you run into an aspiring playwright? Today, having read some of my friend's witty and thoughtful dramas, I find myself conjuring fanciful dramatic scenarios in going about my daily business. "What a great idea for a play!" pops into my head at least two or three times each week. I'm not the person to bring plays to life, though. Others feel the calling of the muse far more strongly. But I'm buoyed by the fact that I might live a vicarious life as a playwright. Perhaps one of my ideas might show up as a full length play in my electronic mailbox one day. Plays are not the only form of literary expression. Online literary collaborations could have equal possibilities in the realm of prose. Consider an author on the verge of finishing a brilliant novel, but who has trouble coming up with a satisfactory ending. Or an author who can't get a chapter "right" no matter how hard he or she tries. Or an author who needs a transition from one phase of a novel to the next. Or an author whose monthly computer column stops short of fully developing an intriguing idea. All these folks might choose to submit a draft of their writing to a select group of online collaborators, and then consider the suggestions that were offered in return. The beauty of online literary collaborations is that the author still retains final say in the wording of the finished piece. He or she can select from the best of the suggested changes that are made. The creative and analytical skills of many persons can then become woven into a multi-colored tapestry of ideas. Writers have never had it so good. Online communications open up tantalizing possibilities for creative literary collaborations. It will be exciting to watch this current drama unfold. Best of all, we all can become playwrights and actors in this emerging play. --Phil Shapiro [*][*][*] The author takes a keen interest in collaborative creativity. He can be reached via electronic mail on GEnie at: p.shapiro1; on the Internet at: pshapiro@aol.com. [EOA] [TEC]////////////////////////////// TECH TALK / ///////////////////////////////// Apple II Hybrids """""""""""""""" by Jay Curtis [J.CURTIS8] >>> EMULATION SOFTWARE AND APPLE II HYBRIDS <<< """"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" The idea of emulating a computer's functions with software and running the emulation on a foreign hardware system is nothing new. One example, which we have already mentioned, is Insignia Solution's "Soft PC" emulator for the Mac. As it turns out, Insignia is now a major player in the Power Macintosh line with a "Soft Windows" emulator. However, software emulation of foreign hardware goes much further back than the development of Insignia's "Soft PC". For example, the first BASIC programming language for an 8080 series microprocessor and architecture (the Altair computer) was written, not on an Altair, but on an EMULATION of an 8080. This BASIC was developed by none other than Bill Gates, president of Microsoft Corporation. The 8080 emulation that Gates used to write his BASIC was prepared by his friend and colleague Paul Allen. Paul Allen's 8080 emulation ran on a DEC PDP-10 minicomputer. As the story goes, Gates and Allen had to work night and day for eight weeks to develop Gates' BASIC in order to cover a stretcher that Gates told to the Altair's developer, Ed Roberts, about having a BASIC he could sell that would run on the Altair. According to the story, Gates had no idea if his BASIC would really run on the Altair after he and Paul Allen had finished it, because the BASIC was, after all, developed on an 8080 emulation. Paul Allen was given the job of flying from Boston to Albuquerque and installing the BASIC on Ed Robert's Altair. As it turned out, the BASIC worked perfectly.(1) It should be mentioned that Gates' early experience in programming for the 8080 also led him to promote the development and sales of a CP/M, co-processor card for the Apple II. Microsoft Corporation called these cards the "SoftCard," and they sold more than 100,000 of them for Apple IIs. "SoftCard" owners could not only run their Apple II software, but they could also run Digital Research's CP/M operating system and all of the desktop programs that were being written for CP/M by MicroSoft at that time. With his "SoftCard," Gates hoped to jump onto Apple's Apple II bandwagon by selling some of his software to Apple II owners.(2) Microsoft wasn't the only company, however, to develop a CP/M card for the Apple II. The same SoftCard technology, which uses the Zilog, "Z-80" 8080 clone, is also found in Applied Engineering's Z-80 coprocessor cards. Additionally, there were other CP/M cards made for the Apple II and also made for PCs. Past and current users of CP/M must number in the hundreds of thousands. No doubt, some of those who are reading this article have a CP/M card which they still use. There were a huge number of programs written for CP/M, including earliest versions of WordStar and dBase, popular programs which never appeared for the Apple II's native operating systems. Apple II users who are lamenting the discontinuation of the Apple II line should take heart by observing what has happened to CP/M. While it is unlikely that CP/M is still being used on many native systems, it nevertheless continues to have a life of its own on Apple and PC hybrid systems that use a CP/M card. CP/M has its own bulletin board here on GEnie where CP/M users can obtain help and advice on software and hardware. A few, very capable telecommunications programs were developed for CP/M that were favored by Apple users. In the case of the Apple II, continuation of the Apple II's operating systems, user environment and software is probably now dependent upon the development of a software emulation for the Power Macintosh computer or Power PC. Both of these systems use the Motorola RISC (Reduced Instruction Set Computing) "PowerPC" chip. This chip is arguably the fastest and most powerful CPU yet devised for personal computers. The PowerPC is a 32-bit microprocessor with a "superscalar" design that incorporates three independent instruction pipelines or execution units. These are called the "FPU" (floating point unit), "IU" (integer unit), and "BPU" (branch processing unit). The PowerPC's ability to simultaneously process multiple instructions insures significant speed gains over other chips. Additionally, the chip supports a 64-bit wide data bus and 32-bit external address bus, capable of addressing up to 4 Gigabytes of system RAM. The basic PowerPC chip, the MPC-601, runs at a blindingly fast 60 Mhz in the base "Power Mac 7100/60."(3) Because of its power, small size, and cool operating temperature, it seems likely to many computer watchers that the PowerPC will gain a significant market share in personal computers over the Intel x86 series processors within coming months. The chip is not only very powerful, but it is especially well-suited for multitasking and for running emulation software at acceptably fast speeds. The first Macintosh versions of this computer are currently running a hybridized version of System 7, especially configured to make use of the PowerPC's native architecture. In the future, as more and more of the Mac operating system is translated into PowerPC code, software is guaranteed to run faster and faster. Many programmers on GEnie have expressed their interest in the idea of writing an Apple II emulator for the Power PC or Power Mac, and at least one programmer on GEnie has announced that he is actively working upon a IIgs emulation for the PowerPC. Quality Computers has announced in its publication ENHANCE that they are looking into development of an Apple II emulator. However, as of this writing, no Apple II emulation has yet been offered for sale for the PowerPC architecture. Software emulations of the Apple II already exist for use on other architectures, however. One emulation, designed to be run on 286 and 386-level PCs, can even be downloaded right here on GEnie (#23169; APL2EM.ZIP). The program reportedly runs DOS 3.3 and uses disk image files for 5.25 disks and drives. It is said to work acceptably with all types of Apple II software except communications software. (There is some speculation that its emulation is based on an illegal copy of the Apple II ROMs, however.) In addition to this PC-ready Apple II emulator, there are commercial versions of Apple II emulators for the Mac. For example, a company called Pegasus Technology wrote and marketed an Apple II emulator called "II In A Mac." Pegasus sold its "II In A Mac" emulation software for $149. You can download a review of the Pegasus emulator from the GEnie Macintosh software library. "II In A Mac" offered a surprising number of features well before Apple's introduction of its IIe PDS card. These features included emulation of IIe 64K ROMs, 128K of memory with emulation of an auxiliary slot card, emulation of a printer port, a modem port, an 80 column card, and emulation of 5.25" drives. "II In A Mac" used the Mac's native 3.5" drive directly, while "disk image" files were also used to simulate disks in 5.25" Apple II drives on the Mac's hard drive. In order to get software from real 5.25" disks onto the Mac's hard drive, the user was required to use a cable transfer, modem, or 3.5" disk copy methods. Popular 8-bit Apple II programs such as ProTERM, AppleWorks and ProSel were said to have run successfully under the Pegasus Apple II emulation, although they were reported to be painfully slow on the Mac's 68000 and 68020 Motorola processors. The 68030 processor was said to run "II In A Mac" at an acceptable speed, however. According to information published in July's GEnieLamp A2, a similar program to "II In A Mac" will soon be available for commercial sale. Like the Pegasus software, this emulation program, called "STM," will also run on native Macintoshes. No announcement has yet been made about a (native) Power Mac version of "STM." The program reportedly emulates a 64K Apple II+ with the DOS 3.3 System Master. While the initial report seems to indicate that "STM" has somewhat less power than "II In A Mac," the emulation offers something that "II In A Mac" did not offer. It will come on a CD-ROM disk, and it will be bundled with a great deal of original Apple II software. Like "II In A Mac," "STM" will use disk image files to emulate 5.25" drives and disks, and it will apparently also use similar methods to the Pegasus software for copying files from native Apple II disks. In this writer's opinion, STM's marketing innovations may best illustrate how a future, enhanced Apple IIe (or even a IIgs) emulation might ultimately be packaged and sold. In order to determine how programmer's view the idea of writing and selling a full-function Apple IIe or IIgs emulation for the Power Mac, an informal survey was recently sent to 18 programmers who post messages frequently on GEnie's A2 programmer's bulletin board. The programmers were guaranteed anonymity in exchange for their honest responses to the survey. Many of those who were polled are people who have written very popular IIe and IIgs shareware and commercial software, stuff that nearly all of us in the Apple II community possess and use. The survey asked the programmers to respond to questions about the likelihood of whether Apple IIe and/or IIgs emulators will be produced and sold for the PowerPC. The respondents were asked to rate probabilities for each question from "low" to "high" by marking a Likert-type scale from "1" to "4" for each of the questions asked. The respondents gave an Apple II emulator for the PowerPC an above-average chance of being written and sold. An Apple IIe-only emulator for the Power PC was also given an above-average chance. However, an Apple IIgs emulation was given virtually no chance of being written and sold. Some programmers felt that no COMMERCIAL version of an Apple II emulator for the PowerPC would be made available for sale, but, they said, a SHAREWARE or FREEWARE version would be written and made available for the PowerPC architecture on bulletin board services. This would be done, they predicted, by hobbyists or by others as a "labor of love" and as an exercise in learning the PowerPC architecture. One programmer predicted that Apple Computer, itself, would write and sell a IIe emulation which would be based upon the Mac LC's PDS card and system software. The survey also asked additional questions about the problems and advantages connected with writing an Apple II emulation for the Power Mac or PC. Three problems were cited most frequently by the respondents. First, most felt that the market for a IIgs emulation was too small to justify the development costs in view of the tremendous time and effort involved in writing the emulation. A IIe emulation was felt to be more likely, however, in view of the IIe's larger potential market and greater simplicity. The next problem that was frequently cited concerned access to Apple's ROM code for either a IIe or IIgs. Several felt that Apple simply would not cooperate with programmers by making the ROM code available from either system for an emulation. As evidenced by the existence of previous 8-bit, Apple II emulators, the ROM code for an 8-bit Apple II could probably be obtained without Apple's assistance. In addition to those Apple II software emulators we've already mentioned, the Franklin, Laser, and Trackstar card were Apple II hardware knockoffs that also used emulated 8-bit, Apple II ROMs. However, no IIgs knockoff has ever been done, and many of the programmers surveyed felt that the IIgs ROM-based toolset would be very difficult, if not impossible, to duplicate from scratch. The third and final problem, cited most frequently by the programmers, concerned management of 5.25" disk drive software. Because the best market for a IIe emulator would be public schools, it would be important to provide a means of accessing the huge amount of educational software found on 5.25" disks in the schools. If there were no way to attach and access a 5.25" disk drive to a Power Mac or Power PC system, then the disks would have to be copied. However, much of the educational software that people would like to run under a IIe emulation is copy protected. Therefore, while disk image files might provide a potential means of accessing this software on a Power Mac system, it may simply not be possible to copy a lot of it, without assistance from the software manufacturers. Interestingly, the ability to access 5.25" educational software, such as MECC software, was also cited as one important, potential ADVANTAGE of an Apple II emulator. Another advantage, frequently mentioned by the respondents, was that a IIe or IIgs emulation would provide a relatively painless way for some Apple IIe or IIgs users to migrate to the Power Mac or PC platform. Some mentioned that, in the unlikely event that IIgs emulation software could become available, the postscript printing capabilities of the IIgs would come in quite handy for those users whose budgets would not allow the immediate purchase of Mac or Power Mac desktop printing programs. None of the survey's respondents mentioned the ability to run IIgs game software as an advantage of developing a IIgs emulation. While most of the programmers felt that an Apple II emulator could be sold for no more than the current price of an Apple IIe PDS card (currently about $125-$139), one programmer felt that a full IIgs emulator could bring as much as $200. It seems reasonable to ask, however, if a IIgs emulator might not bring MORE than that, if the IIgs emulator could be bundled together with excellent shareware and commercial game software. A IIgs emulator could potentially expand the selection of games that would be available to PowerPC users and could ultimately help to resurrect many games that are no longer being sold. Ultimately, some of the best games might even be ported to native PowerPC code. Having asked the experts about the likelihood of an Apple II emulator, I would now like to stick my neck out and make my own predictions. First, an Apple IIe-specific emulator will almost certainly appear within the next 12 to 18 months for the PowerPC. It will possess at least as much power, speed and capability as the LC's IIe PDS card and system software. Apple will probably produce the emulator, or they will license their IIe ROM code to another company who will produce the emulator with Apple's guidance and blessings. Apple's purpose will be to provide further incentives to public schools (still a significant part of Apple's market) to begin to purchase Power Macs. If Apple does not produce a IIe emulator, then a shareware version of the IIe will almost certainly be produced. New software tools, which may make it relatively easy to port system software and applications, hover just over the horizon. They will become available specifically because of the tremendous increases in computing power that are promised by the new generation of RISC hardware now being introduced. One such tool, known as "FlashPort" already exists for IBM's RS/6000 workstation. Echo Logic, owner of FlashPort, is reportedly planning an MPC-601 version of the software, which is capable of translating the binary instructions from software written for one processor into equivalent binary instructions for another processor.(5) A IIgs emulator will be a while in coming, but it may eventually make an appearance. CD-ROM is fast becoming a computer industry standard, and eventually most computers will come with a built-in CD-ROM drive. Considering that a compact disk can store such tremendous volumes of data, it seems possible that an enterprising software vendor may choose to bundle several computer emulations (such as the Commodore series, Amiga and Apple IIgs) together with the best of their software on a single CD -- a sort of 'goldie oldies' disk for nostalgic computer users. While all Apple II users now enjoy the benefits of a mature computer system and software, the future also continues to look bright. New, promising technologies are making their appearance. Software and hardware capabilities are steadily increasing while the relative cost of personal computing is going down with increased competition and sales volume. The Apple II still has a long life ahead, possibly in new, exciting, incarnations. NOTES """"" (1) Wallace, J. & Erickson, J. Hard Drive, Bill Gates and the Making of the Microsoft Empire. John Wiley, N.Y. 1992. p. 74. (2) Wallace, J. & Erickson, J. p. 158. (3) Thompson, Tom. "Power PC Performs For Less". Byte. August, 1993. pp. 59-64 (4) It should be noted that because of its unique architecture, even the base MPC-601 probably runs native applications faster than a 60 Mhz Pentium will run its own native applications. Even more powerful PowerPC chips are planned for later this year and next year. Faster, 66 mhz and 80 mhz, versions of the MPC-601 are also currently available. (5) Thompson, Tom. p. 70 [EOA] [ASA]////////////////////////////// ASCII ART GALLERY / ///////////////////////////////// Summertime Fruit """""""""""""""" by Susie Oviatt [SUSIE] , .@, .@a@a,. S@@ss@@@@a,. sS@@@ss@@@@@Ss, , , SSSSS@@@ss@@@SSSs @, @sSSSSSSSS@@ss@SSSSs@@s, , `@@@@@SSSSSSSSssSSS@@@@@sSs, @@@@@@@@@@@@@@ss@@@@@@@@SSs , , `@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ss@@@@@@@SSSs@, SsSSSS@@@@@@@@@@@ss@@@@@@SSSSS@, `SSSSSSSSS@@@@@@@@@ss@@@@SSSSS@@ `SSSSSSSSSSSS@@@@@@ss@@SSSSSS@@',''', , `SSSSSSSSSSSSSSS@@ss@SSSSS@@@;%,.,,` @aSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSssSSSS@@@@;%;%%' `@@@@@@@SSSSSSSSSSSSssSSS@@@@;%;%' `@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@SSSssS@@@@;%;% `@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ss@@@;%;% ...,,,,,,,,,,.. `@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ssS;%;% .;;%%;%%;%%%;%%;%%%,. .,::;;;;;;;;`SSSSSSSSSSSss;%%,::;%;%%%%%%%;%%%%%%;%%%%,. .:::;;;;;%;;;;;;;,;;,;;,;;,::,.,::;%%%%%;%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%;%%%;, .:::;;;%;;;;;%;%;%;%;%;%;%%%%;%%%%%;%%%%%%%%%%;%%%%%;%%%%%%%%;%%;. :::;%;;;;%;;%;;;%;%;;%%%;%%%%%%%;%%%%%%%;%%%%%%%%%x%x%%%%%%%%;%%;%;, :::;;;;;%;;%;;;%;;%;%%%%%%%%;%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%x%x%%%%%%%%%%%;%;, :::;;;;;%;;;;;;%;%%;%xx%;%%%%%%%;%%%%%%%x%%%%%%%%%%%%%x%x%x%%%%%%%;%;%; ,:::;%;;%;;;%;%;;%;%%x%;%%%%%%%%%%%%%x%x%%x%%%%%%%%%%%%%x%%x%x%%%%%%;%%;, :::;;;;%;;%;;%;;%%%;x%x%%%;%%%%%%%%%%%%%x%%x%%%%%%%%%%%xx%x%x%%%%%%%%;;%; :::%;;;;;%;;%;;%%;%%;%;%%%%%%%%%%%%;%%x%%x%%x%;%%%%%%%%%x%x%%%%%%%%%;%;%; :::;;;%;;;;%;%;%;%%;%%%%%%%;%%%%%%%%%%%x%%x%%%%%%%%%%%%x%x%%x%%%%%%;%;%%; `:::;;;;%;%;%;%;%%;%%;%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%x%x%%%%%%%%%%xx%x%%%%%%%%%;%;%;' `:::;;%;%;;%;;%%;%%;%;%%;%%%%%;%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%;%%%%x%%%%%%%%%;%%;%;' `:::;;;;;%;;%%;%%;%%%%%%%;%%%%%%%%%%;%%%%%%%%;%%%%%;%%%%%%%%%;%%;%%;' `:::;;%;;;%;;;%%%;%%;%%%%%%%%%%;%%%%%%%%%%;%%%%%%%%%%%%%%;%;%;%%%;' `:::;;%;;;%%;%;%;%%;%;%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%;%%;%%%%;%%%;%;%;%;' `:::;;;%;;%;;%%;%;%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%;%%%%%%%%%%%;%%%;%%;%%;' `:::;;;%;;%;%;%%%%;%%%%%%;%%%%%%%%%%%%;%%%;%%;%%;%%;%%;' `:::;;%;;%;;%;%%%%%%;%%%%%%%%%%%%;%%%%%%%%%%%;%;%%;' `:::;%;;;%;;%;%x%%%%%;%%%%%%%%x%%%%%%;%%%;%%;%;' `:::;;;%;%;;%;x%x%x%%x%;%x%x%%%%;%%%%%;%;%;' `:::%;%;;%:%:,xx%%x%%x%xx,:%%%%;%%;%%%;' `:::%;;;;:%:`xx%x%xx%x':%%%;%%%%%%;' `:::;;%;;%:,`%x%xx%x',:%;%%%%;%%;' `:::;;;;;:::' `:::;;;;;;:::' "Apple" [EOA] [HAR]////////////////////////////// HARDVIEW A2 / ///////////////////////////////// Reader Response """"""""""""""" by Leon H. Raesly, LCSW-C (lee@pro-novapple.clark.net) >>> NEVER BACK UP YOUR HARD DRIVE! <<< """""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" [Reprinted with permission from the NovApple Newsletter] Last month [in NovApple] we ran an excellent article on the necessity, and how, to back up a hard drive by Steve Weyhrich [from the June 1994 GEnieLamp A2]. However, let me present an alternative view. Boy, that title sure is a heretical statement! But before you get all bent out of shape, let's look first at the purpose of a hard drive, and then at the problems with back-up programs, and the process of backing up. A hard drive is known as a "mass storage device". What does that mean? Simply put, that you can put a large amount of data on it, including programs and data files. But that is only one function of a hard drive. Its major advantage is fast access to either programs or data. So we find two primary purposes of a hard drive, essentially put, can be called speed and quantity. The quantity, however, also increases your vulnerability. If the hard drive dies, you have "zero" speed, and no quantity of data or programs at all! It is to protect yourself from this catastrophe that the concept of "backing up your hard drive" developed. And for this purpose, several programs have been written. These programs create an image of your hard drive's complete data on floppy disks (of some size) or tape. This has several inherent problems. 1. It wastes a considerable amount of time. 2. You are out of operation for some period of time until you can get the hard drive fixed, and then restore your backup. 3. You are still vulnerable to a "munged" backup that you can't restore. Hard drives collapse in many forms. It can just mechanically die for a number of reasons. The surface can get bad, or deteriorate (bad blocks). Directories can get munged by whatever means they get munged -- such as cosmic rays (it does happen fairly often). In some cases you can rebuild the data, in others you have to repair the device. But in ALL cases, you are out of operation until you fix the errors or the device. If the hard drive must be mechanically repaired, you must send it off somewhere to be fixed. And for this period of time you are down. Back-ups will not allow you to work with any files on them, they can only be used for restoring the data that was on the hard drive at the time that you made the last backup that you have! Thus, if you did a backup last week, the rest of that weeks work, and all of this weeks work, is lost, gone forever into the Great Bit Bucket in the Sky! However a backup is a very inefficient way to provide yourself with data protection. Let's look at them in principle. All back-up programs copy the entire hard drive (at least once) to prepare a backup image. This includes programs as well as data. But this process means duplicating onto the backup information you already have. (Or at least, should have. You should have made a duplicate of your original program disk when you purchased it, and a second duplicate if updates to the program arrived. Then duplicate the updated copy, leaving the original and its' duplicate unchanged. Thus, you would now have an original and its duplicate, as well as an updated version and its' duplicate. You would continue to do this as long as you received updated versions. And each time, of course, copy the updated version to replace your working copy on the hard drive.) An aside here. Some programs (most notably AppleWorks) will have been customized with accessory utilities, patches, and so forth that you really wouldn't want to have to do all that over again from scratch (if you can even remember what you added, OR REMOVED)! So these original programs I treat differently(although I have all of the original patches, add-ons, etc.). For a highly modified program such as AppleWorks, I make a special "backup" of that program! Using ShrinkIt, I shrink the modified, complete set from the hard drive onto a 3.5" disk. Actually, I do it twice, to two different disks. Now, if I must restore it, I can simply unshrink that file back to the repaired hard drive, without the fuss of re-patching, re-customizing, etc. I'll tell you more on the use of the program ShrinkIt for protection of you data in a bit. If you are collecting fonts or graphics or sounds, or other specialty type files, these would be on the hard drive for fast access. But you should also have an original source disk and a duplicate disk of each source disk on disks standing by. So what you are really trying to do is protect data files. There are two classes of data files created by the different programs you use. 1. Archive copies of data files previously used, that you really want to keep; e.g. the data files of last year's tax returns in a spreadsheet. It seems evident to me that these should not be kept on a hard drive, where they are simply using up space but never being accessed, but rather archived on floppies (with duplicate disks, or even triplicates, if they are important enough, such as tax files). Whether these are 5.25" or 3.5" disks, these files should be off the hard drive and safely duplicated. 2. So this leaves us only the second class of data files: the data files that are currently in use. No matter what program they are generated from, they need to be on the hard drive for convenient and FAST access. However, if you are following the prudent course of duplicates for all your programs and special files (fonts, graphics, etc.) and have moved your archived files off the hard drive, then you would be doing a backup of your ENTIRE hard drive ONLY to secure safety for these relatively few data files. There is another way to secure protection for this small group of data files. Make duplicates AS YOU WORK ON THEM onto your floppies. Certainly 3.5" disks are better, but if you only have 5.25" drives, they will also do. Everyone knows the need to save often, and a hard drive certainly makes this easier and faster. It is not much trouble to save these important files TWICE when you "save often". Once to the hard drive, once to the floppy. If the program that you are using allows some type of macro, a simple keystroke saves your file twice. If not, a method of organizing types of files to floppies makes life much easier. All data disks can have the same name, with the same subdirectory. Just place the type of file on the external paper label for quick identification. As an example, using 3.5" disks, I name all of these duplicate data disks /T, and under that a single subdirectory called M. This means that if I pick up the "Journal" disk (or "Checkbook" disk, etc.), I still save to the same location "/T/M". This then becomes my protection. By saving twice, first the hard drive, then the floppy (at pathname /T/M) I have secured almost absolute safety. Actually, what I do, since these data files are critically important to me, is to save them three times -- first to the hard drive, second to a floppy disk paper labeled "Journal", and third to a floppy disk paper labeled "Journal.Dup". Both disks, of course named "/T", with a subdirectory named "/M". So the second saving location for all disks becomes "/T/M". I have saved hours and hours per week, and many, many disks, for the cost of a few seconds and a few keystrokes! If my hard drive dies, all I need to do to continue working is use the floppies as my primary disk source. No waiting weeks or more unable to do anything until the hard drive is returned! When it does come back, I can rebuild the programs and data on the hard drive as before (or change the organization if I want). Most backup programs have an inherent weakness. They are dependent on the quality of the disk (or tape) you did the backup to. If there is a bad block (or even file header) on the backup, most will just die. And there goes your backup! No more! Kaput! Gone forever. Even though the ProSel-16 backup utility does have a recovery algorithm, it can still fail. And if you are not on a IIgs, the 8-bit programs do not have such a protection. Most backup programs do not allow a partial backup (or where they do, it is very awkward). And, of course, you have to purchase most of them. But I don't want to do all this saving to floppies. I purchased the hard drive for the speed and single convenience. Is there any other alternative? Yes, at least it seems so to me. Another way is to make a duplicate of your working files to one subdirectory on your hard drive, and replicate that onto a floppy disk daily. So here you are using the hard drive alone for its speed. Save to the "organized" subdirectory where the data belongs. Then save to a hard drive subdirectory called "Today" or whatever you wish. Now, at the end of the day, replicate this subdirectory unto a floppy. What do I mean by replicate? Shrink the entire subdirectory onto a disk at the end of each day! Yes, ShrinkIt does a nice protection job for you. And by shrinking the files -- and it shrinks data files quite a lot, that is, makes the resultant file substantially smaller -- you save time and space. You can easily unshrink to another disk if you lose your hard drive. There is even a special file recovery program if something is wrong with the shrunk file or disk. Just run UnShrink to recover the data. It works great! So an alternative procedure is, save to the files regular subdirectory, save to the subdirectory "Today", shrink the full subdirectory at the end of the day to a floppy, then delete the files under "Today" to get ready for tomorrow! Another advantage of the shrink approach is that the software is all freeware, and is available many places. So is the ShrinkIt recovery program, UnShrink. Of course, if you have "forked" data files from a particular 16 bit program, you cannot use 8-bit ShrinkIt, but must use ShrinkIt GS. It too is a freeware program, and available many places. If ShrinkIt just would shrink over the boundaries of one disk to the next, it would be an excellent backup program. When I last talked with Andy Nicholas (about two years ago) he was working on such a program. However, my guess is that since he is a Mac programer now with Apple Computer, Inc., he has dropped that project. There is, of course, one situation where this approach won't work, and where doing a regularly scheduled back-up MUST be done (isn't there always a BUT?), and that is if you don't have control of the creation and saving of the files. A perfect example of this is a Bulletin Board System (BBS). Here, weekly (or more often) back-ups are essential. But, for me at home or work, I NEVER do a back-up of my hard drive! [EOA] [DRT]////////////////////////////// DR'S EXAMINING TABLE / ///////////////////////////////// A Vacation from Reviewing """"""""""""""""""""""""" by Darrel Raines [D.RAINES] >>> GETTING AWAY FROM IT ALL <<< """""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" Last month I took one of the longest vacations that I have taken since graduating from college. My family and I traveled from the teeming metropolis of Houston, Texas, to the cool, mountain streams of southern Colorado. We spent a little over two weeks (including travel time) camping, hiking, horseback riding and otherwise enjoying ourselves. We are talking about real camping here: Tents, camp stoves, sleeping bags, eating outdoors with the mosquitoes, etc. We had a great time! What has my camping trip to do with computers? About a year ago, I purchased a portable sub-notebook computer for those occasions when I travel. I had been feeling out of sorts when I went on a business or personal trip and did not have a handy word processor and spreadsheet. I have really enjoyed my "travel" computer; it does a good job of what I want it to do. I have not taken a single trip without my digital umbilical cord since the day that I purchased it. That is, until my latest camping trip. I thought seriously about taking the sub-notebook along for the ride. However, the dirt and extreme weather conditions that I would encounter made me decide against taking the computer with me