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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 . . .