Little Bits
By Andrew Roughan
Copyright (c) 1990 Apple Users' Group, Sydney
Republished from Applecations, a publication of the Apple Users' Group, Sydney, Australia.
o I am currently sitting here writing this on my Apple //e with my //GS sitting beside me playing "Sinners" from SoundSmith as a background task with a CDA which Godfrey Gamble demonstrated at the June meeting. This Freeware CDA is available on GS library disk 56 from the bulk purchase people. Also on this disk comes a new version of DiskTimer (which works with both Apple SCSI cards) and the latest version of SoundSmith, 0.94. This amazing Shareware program really puts the 'S' into GS.
o Graham Clarke demonstrated GeoFile, the latest GEOS application, at the June meeting. As a special offer, AUG members can purchase GeoFile directly from Graham for $90. See the back cover of June Applecations for more details.
o Also at the June meeting, Godfrey showed a 32Meg "Empire Strikes Back" footage sequence loading from a hard drive with the new Apple SCSI card. The playback rate was an incredible 20 frames per second. The gathered MAC clan was duly blown away!
o Another of Godfrey's demonstrations at the June meeting was a new music utility, SynthLab. SynthLab is a developer utility designed to unleash the potential of the new MidiSynth tool which incorporates Midi input/output, Midi sequencer and synthesiser functions. Both SynthLab and the MidiSynth tool are available to developers through AAPDA.
o I have become so accustomed to my hard drive that when I actually think about not having one, it scares me! At the moment I have my //e and my //GS both connected to the same CMS 60 Megabyte hard drive using CMS interface cards (1/9/89 ROMS) with differing IDs. Dip 8 on the drive is set to OFF. The //GS has a 3.5" drive and the //e has two 5.25" drives which means I can easily switch files between media using my hard disk as a psuedo server. The only major problem so far is that both computers cannot request the hard disk at the same time. An I/O error results. Hopefully this will be overcome with the 1/3/90 ROM which allows for up to 7 devices, automatic partitioning of 255x32 Meg volumes and support for "multiple initiators". These new ROMS are available from David Reidy at Domino Computers Crows Nest.
o At the July meeting Wayne Short demonstrated a new desktop publishing package for the Apple //GS, Graphicwriter ///.
o The last couple of months have seen a tremendous increase in the number of uploads to the Apple // BBS. Taking advantage of this, I now have programs which allow me to edit fonts and icons, change my GS/OS startup thermometer to have a different colour background, different text and a different icon (mine currently has a pink background with the standard GS icon and "Apple // Forever!"). Also on the BBS are a few TIFs (Temporary Initialisation File - A TIF resides in the SYSTEM.SETUP subdirectory of your GS/OS boot disk and gets executed once on boot up and then removed from memory. E.g. A TIF to play a music sequence on bootup.) and
PIFs (Permanent Intialisation File - A PIF acts like a TIF except that it remains in memory after it has been executed. E.g. GS Bug and PIXIE - development tools to help find errors). Hopefully this BBS usage trend will continue, but please only upload Freeware or Shareware programs. Copyright material is NOT allowed.
o One new release on the shareware market is GS-Shrinkit. Shrinkit was reviewed in the July/August edition of this magazine. GS-Shrinkit is written specifically for the GS in the desktop environment and has the ability to compact resource forks and you are now able to delete one file from an archive instead of repacking the whole selection.
o At the August Apple // GS SIG meeting Robert Caplan - Apple Australia's high volume product manager - spoke on Apple's current and future marketing policies for the Apple // and low-end Mac range. A few interesting points were made. Apple Australia is showing its commitment to the Apple // through the recent $1000 price reduction in the Apple // GS colour system (RRP $2445), a reintroduction of advertising for the Apple // GS and with an upcoming roadshow of the Apple // range and new products, aimed at user groups, resellers and the education market. Rob also re-iterated John Sculley's comments made earlier this year, that for as long as there is a viable interest in the Apple //, Apple will continue to support it. To emphasise this Rob drew a diagram of Apple's marketing direction. The diagram consisted of a triangle with the // GS, //e and the Mac at each corner. Rob said that Apple was not trying to develop these machines along different directions but wanted to bring all three products closer together. How they had brought the //e and //GS together was to keep //e software compatibility with the new machine. The // GS and the Mac are being brought closer together through the similarity of the interface, peripherals and ease of cross compilation. Developers are encouraged to market a GS version and a Mac version of any new software they write.
o HyperCard GS is no longer a phantom product. Apple plans to release a 1.5 MB version in the US in September and the 1 MB version by the end of October. Expect the Australian release soon after. Apple Australia has not decided whether it will be shipped with the GS (like the Macintosh version is shipped with the Mac) or whether it will be sold separately.
o There is a new accessory out for HyperStudio which allows anyone to execute a HyperStudio stack without having to purchase the whole package. This means that stack developers can distribute their stacks more widely.
o Also at the August Apple // GS SIG, the Personal LaserWriter NT was demonstrated. This laser printer can be used on the GS through the AppleTalk network, or the LaserWriter SC can be used with the High Speed SCSI card. Adobe's Postscript is also available.
o The drivers for the Apple Scanner and the Apple 40SC Tape drive unit are now available to developers. Now all we need
is some software for the Apple // GS to utilise these peripherals.

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