Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!linus!decvax!harpo!seismo!hao!hplabs!sri-unix!Tom.Wood@cmu-ri-fas From: Tom.Wood%cmu-ri-fas@sri-unix.UUCP Newsgroups: net.micro Subject: Another Mac Review Message-ID: <16134@sri-arpa.UUCP> Date: Sun, 29-Jan-84 21:30:59 EST Article-I.D.: sri-arpa.16134 Posted: Sun Jan 29 21:30:59 1984 Date-Received: Thu, 2-Feb-84 04:43:53 EST Lines: 115 st issue contains material on the Mac's hardware, the "desk top metaphor," an interview with Bill Gates from Microsoft, and reviews of MacPaint, MacWrite, Multiplan, and the Imagewriter printer. Also included is a rather interesting (at times) series of "reminiscences of the people who created the Mac," including Bill Atkinson and Steve Jobs. The MacHardware: The 128K bytes of RAM are contained in 16 chips. 64K bytes of ROM with the Macintosh ToolBox (more later). A 6522 VIA handles the mouse, keyboard (which is software mapped), and real time clock. There is a penlight battery to keep the clock going. The design also uses 6 PAL's to handle bus timing, arbitration between the video display and the motherboard, etc. There's a mouse of the optical variety. According to MacWorld, there are two "RS-232/422 serial ports" with a maximum speed of 230.4K baud. You've already heard about the 3 1/2" micro floppies (400K bytes storage.) The drives can eject the floppies under software control--there is no way for you to get them out unless the Mac hands them to you. Supposedly, if you boot the Mac while holding down the mouse button, the drive will eject a "stuck" floppy if all else fails. The Mac's got a switching power supply (draws 60W) and a builtin speaker for the 4 voice sound generator. The sound generator uses an 8 bit D/A converter at a 22kHz sample rate that might (as an Apple brochure suggests) deliver human speech. There is also an audio jack to plug into your stereo, if you're into that kind of thing. Main unit weighs 16 lbs, 8 oz. Keyboard 2 lbs, 8.5 oz. Oh, and the mouse checks in at an impressive 7 oz. The MacSoftware: Overlapping windows, icons, pull-down menus (as opposed to pop-up. There is a menu bar at the top of each window that you can pull-down to reveal the menu contents), the works. This stuff seems to be handled by the ROM ToolBox, which also contains drawing routines, resource management, a segment loader, and pieces of a text editor. The windows can be moved around at will and you can change their size and scroll vertically and horizontally through them. The ROM also gives you a set of Desk Accessories (if you like this kind of humor, it runs throughout the thing) that include a notepad, an alarm clock, and a control panel that lets you modify some of the attributes of the system (speaker volume, key repeat rate, etc.) There is much more--I hope this gives you the idea. MacPaint is the drawing "application." It is slightly reminiscent of the Draw program on the Xerox Alto. Lets you paint freehand using a choice of brushes, as well as draw straight lines and filled shapes. Shapes can be filled with one of oodles of patterns, or you can mix your own. Major drawback: while your finished drawing fits on an 8 1/2" x 11" piece of paper, you can only see 1/3 of it on the screen at once. This means, for example, you can't draw a circle with a diameter of more than 1/3 your paper size. (Reminder: so says MacWorld.) MacWrite is the word processor. It pretty much does what you expect: you point with the mouse, make selections, change fonts at will, etc. At least two problems: there is a definite (small) limit on the maximum document size. MacWorld says 20 double spaced pages. And, it is a little difficult to do things like centering one line of text, because you need to insert new "rulers" when you change the flushleft/center/flushright attributes of the text. You might get used to that, though. Microsoft has a version of Multiplan that uses the mouse and all the window controls. I know nothing about spreadsheets, but it seems reasonable to me. The problem here might be the small size of the screen (9" diagonal.) As an aside, one big difference between the Lisa and the Mac is that on the Mac you can only have one application open at a time (i.e., one program running) while I believe the Lisa lets you have multiple open applications. The good news is that the Desk Accessories don't really count as programs, so you can have your alarm clock on your desk while you are word processing. MacExpansion: Hardware: MacWorld lists the following (I include prices where they were given): Apple: 300/1200 baud modems with auto-dial, auto answer ($225 for 300 baud, $495 for 1200); external floppy ($495); keypad ($99). Davong Systems: many different Winchesters; streaming tape backup; LAN. Other companies with hardware: Prometheus Products and Tecmar. According to the article on the hardware, "memory can not be expanded (yet)." I will leave it up to you to interpret this. It appears that all expansion will take place through the RS-422 ports via the so-called AppleBus. Software: Apple: assembler/debugger, with editor ($99); MacDraw, "a structured graphics editor," ($125); MacProject, a scheduling and planning system ($125); MacTerminal, emulates a VT100 and VT52 ($99); Macintosh Logo ($99). Microsoft: many programs, ranging from budgeting to a word processor; Software Publishing Company: PFS File, a data base program ($100); PFS Report, some kind of report generator ($100); Volition Systems: a Modula-2 system ($495). In addition, (though these were not listed in the same section of the magazine as the above) Apple has MacBasic and MacPascal, and Microsoft provides MBasic. All of these languages can interface with the ToolBox (though it is a bit more painful in MBasic.) AND, all of these languages are interpreted--MacPascal even boldfaces keywords and does automatic indenting for you. You might not consider this a feature. "For now, most serious programmers will write Mac applications on a Lisa development system." There might be hope, though. Supposedly, a C compiler will be available within six months, and will allow program development on a single Mac. My Opinions: It is a lot smaller than you expect it to be. And, personally, I did not find it ugly at all. It does look different, though. I tried MacPaint, and was very impressed. I did not have to touch the keyboard once, and I didn't miss it. The software controlled floppy eject is quite amusing. And, while the display is small, it is very crisp and readable. Anyhow, I liked it. It is obvious a great deal of work went into this machine. If only someone could tell me that you really will be able to put more memory in it someday . . .