AUG's PD on CD
Copyright (c) 1996 Apple Users' Group, Sydney
Republished from Applecations, a publication of the Apple Users' Group, Sydney, Australia.
The user group recently pressed a CD full of Macintosh Public Domain software. I bought a copy expecting to be able to use some of the contents on my Apple IIgs. System Software 6.0.1 does come with CD ROM drivers and the HFS file system translator which makes the attempt feasible, at least in theory anyway.
When I opened the CD from within Finder I was greeted with the following folders: comms, Doom II wads, education, fonts, games, graphics, icons, MOD music, movies, science, Shakespeare, sounds, stacks, updaters, and utilities.
The comms, Doom II wads, education, games, movies, science, updaters and utilities folders contain mostly programs so they can not be used on the Apple IIgs.
While the Apple IIgs is not capable of executing Macintosh programs, there are a number of utilities which make the use of data in standard formats very easy. This is made difficult, however, because the IIgs HFS file system translator does not recognise many filetypes. This means unfortunately that most of the files have an unknown filetype. In order to use some of the material on the CD you must first copy it to a writeable disk and change the filetype.
The wide variety of over 100 fonts available on the CD should be able to be used with the help of Pointless from WestCode Software. Most of the fonts I checked came in Type 1 and TrueType format. As I don't own Pointless I am unable to check whether they could be used directly from the disk.
The graphics folder consists of one artists entire works. Unfortunately they are all in the TeachText graphics format which I have not been able to read with any IIgs tools. I expect that a tool will be forthcoming shortly either to display this format or to convert it to something more accessible.
I was hopeful that the contents of the icons folder could be read with an icon editor such as Ego Systems' ICE. However, no icon editor I tried could interpret the Macintosh icon format. Again, I expect that an icon editor will be able to interpret the Macintosh format.
The first success I had with using data directly off the CD was by using SoniqTracker to play the MOD music files. Hurray! Something worked! There are 21 pieces to listen to. Most have been entered using a keyboard rather than samples.
The Shakespeare folder contains 44 works which are easily opened directly from the CD using Teach.
I found the sounds folder a little frustrating. There are over 1000 files in Macintosh Binary format which cannot be played using any of the available Finder Extensions. Seven Hills' Mac Sound Grabber will apparently convert the sounds to the Apple IIgs binary format, but that hardly allows easy access from the CD.
The final folder which Apple IIgs owners can possibly use is the stacks folder. Someone with a Macintosh could be encouraged to try to convert them into Apple IIgs Hypercard stacks, but seriously, this is unlikely to happen. If you play around with stacks and you have a Macintosh then you may find some interesting items with HyperMover. The rest of us can write this one off.
If anyone knows of an icon editor which reads the Macintosh format or a program which can read the Teach graphics files then please let us all know. An accompanying disk which holds the tools needed to get the most out of the CD could be put together for Apple IIgs owners.
All in all the CD was a bit of fun for $10. If Shakespeare, fonts, MOD music, and sounds will satisfy you then it's a good one for the collection.

THIS CONTENT COPYRIGHT © 2007, APPLE MACINTOSH USERS' GROUP, SYDNEY
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Permission is hereby granted for non-profit user groups to republish this content.
PLEASE CREDIT THE AUTHOR AND THE SOURCE: Applecations, publication of the Apple Users' Group, Sydney, Australia

THIS PAGE COPYRIGHT © 2007, ANDREW ROUGHAN