Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple2 Subject: Re: More GS printer information From: dempson@actrix.gen.nz (David Empson) Date: Wed, 9 Jun 1999 10:54:43 +1200 Message-ID: <1dt4oem.p9t6ywv4silwN@dempson.actrix.gen.nz> References: <375A0990.B3FCC73C@swbell.net> <19990606022714.24873.00001045@ng-da1.aol.com> <375BAD50.6AE99B9C@swbell.net> <19990607100853.26253.00001064@ng-fm1.aol.com> <19990608031433.17052.00001901@ng-cm1.aol.com> <19990608050823.11925.00001739@ng-cr1.aol.com> Organization: Empsoft X-Newsreader: MacSOUP 2.3 NNTP-Posting-Host: 202.49.157.176 X-Original-NNTP-Posting-Host: 202.49.157.176 X-Trace: 9 Jun 1999 10:51:21 NZST, 202.49.157.176 Lines: 46 Path: news1.icaen!news.uiowa.edu!NewsNG.Chicago.Qual.Net!207.24.245.130!nyd.news.ans.net!news.idt.net!netnews.com!cyclone.news.idirect.com!island.idirect.com!usenet.net.nz!news.iprolink.co.nz!news.actrix.gen.nz!dempson Xref: news1.icaen comp.sys.apple2:148431 A2MG wrote: > > You just need a CDA that provides the 56k port speed option. > > Most AppleWorks 5 and all AppleWorks 4 users use a patch to turn off GS desk > accessories as it launches - or they avoid them altogether. This is because > they interfere with UltraMacros. I think you have that backwards. UltraMacros interferes with many useful features of the IIgs (notably AppleTalk and anything else using time-critical interrupts), so I never used it. I don't understand why UltraMacros could not be modified to remain compatible with these features of the IIgs. If it was only a speed issue, then an accelerator should solve it. There is no excuse for a normal application program having to take over an entire low-level interrupt for its own purpose, especially when the interrupt in question already supports calling application functions. (Sorry for the mini rant - this is my major peeve with AppleWorks 4/5.) > This DA turn-off is an option in AppleWorks 5 and is the default in > AppleWorks 4. It is a ClrHeartBeat. I don't know if that particular tool > call - which is part of the AppleWorks 4 and 5 startup process - would > negate the 56K CDA or not. It shouldn't. ClrHeartBeat removes all heartbeat tasks, which run every vertical retrace (50 or 60 times a second). (It also loses track of them permanently. I hope UltraMacros does some tricks to save the original value, so the tasks can be reinstated when AppleWorks quits.) This interrupt is the one that UltraMacros needs to either steal or disable for timing reasons. I don't know whether it also has a problem with the "quarter second" interrupt, which is used by AppleTalk. The desk accessory menu doesn't interact directly with the heartbeat task queue (the Ctrl-Apple-Escape sequence has its own special interrupt), but some CDAs might need it. A 57k6 speed select CDA only needs to poke some values into serial port hardware registers (and possibly hook into the serial firmware to ensure the setting sticks). -- David Empson dempson@actrix.gen.nz Snail mail: P.O. Box 27-103, Wellington, New Zealand Path: news1.icaen!news.uiowa.edu!NewsNG.Chicago.Qual.Net!207.24.245.130!nyd.news.ans.net!news.idt.net!feed1.news.rcn.net!rcn!howland.erols.net!portc02.blue.aol.com!audrey01.news.aol.com!not-for-mail From: a2mg@aol.comNomail (A2MG) Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple2 Subject: Re: More GS printer information Lines: 72 NNTP-Posting-Host: ladder05.news.aol.com X-Admin: news@aol.com Date: 9 Jun 1999 00:36:28 GMT Organization: AOL http://www.aol.com References: <1dt4oem.p9t6ywv4silwN@dempson.actrix.gen.nz> Message-ID: <19990608203628.25728.00002035@ng-fh1.aol.com> Xref: news1.icaen comp.sys.apple2:148434 I'll try to answer each point that you make. Pardon me if I over-quote. While I think I know everything about AppleWorks, I am pretty GS-dumb. >>>>I think you have that backwards. UltraMacros interferes with many useful features of the IIgs (notably AppleTalk and anything else using time-critical interrupts), so I never used it. Nope. UltraMacros (nee' MacroWorks and SuperMacroWorks) was written long before the IIGS or GS/OS ever existed. The author had no way of knowing what the GS interrupting accessories would do. As for AppleTalk, yes, you can use it with UltraMacros in AW 5. Quality had UM turned off if AppleTalk is present because it kept crashing on their servers. But it doesn't have to be. There is a patch to allow UM and AppleTalk to live harmoniously. The AppleTalk patch which comes with AppleWorks 5 (in RFP, Randy's Free Patcher) doesn't work. You need the other one. I'll look it up if anyone is interested. Ask me about it, and I'll look it up for you. >>> I don't understand why UltraMacros could not be modified to remain compatible with these features of the IIgs. If it was only a speed issue, then an accelerator should solve it. It is an interrupt (clocks, screen savers, etc) vs. aux mem issue. UM cannot be modified because it would require a complete re-write of the program to turn the interrupt things off every single time UM lept into aux mem (which is a lot!). >>> (Sorry for the mini rant - this is my major peeve with AppleWorks 4/5.) No problem, we've heard it all before. At least you didn't bring in the scary ClrHeartbeat tech note - we know about that, too. Meanwhile, AppleWorks 4 and 5 have been happily sailing along with ClrHeartbeat for over 5 years. Everyone who uses AppleWorks 4 (not 5) on a IIGS automatically runs it, although they may not know it. On AW 5, it's an option. >>> It shouldn't. ClrHeartBeat removes all heartbeat tasks, which run every vertical retrace (50 or 60 times a second). (It also loses track of them permanently. I hope UltraMacros does some tricks to save the original value, so the tasks can be reinstated when AppleWorks quits.) No, the tasks are not reinstated. There is no opposite call to ClrHeartBeat. If there were, it would be in there, obviously. We know that's bad. OTOH, I have never heard any complaints. I don't think they notice that they aren't back on. Rebooting solves it. And there is another, better solution, noted below. >>> The desk accessory menu doesn't interact directly with the heartbeat task queue (the Ctrl-Apple-Escape sequence has its own special interrupt), but some CDAs might need it. A 57k6 speed select CDA only needs to poke some values into serial port hardware registers (and possibly hook into the serial firmware to ensure the setting sticks). Then that's the answer to the Epson Stylus question. If the 56K cda doesn't enter the heartbeat task queue, then it wouldn't be affected. I do wish someone would test it and report back. The REAL solution to the UltraMacros and GS interrupt question is to launch from ProSel-16. ProSel-16 clears out a lot of stuff and allows UltraMacros to live gracefully with GS interrupts always "on." We don't know why, exactly. No ClrHeartbeat patch is needed if you launch through ProSel-16. Even if you launch AW 5 from the Finder, you can route it through ProSel-16 and then have ProSel-16 automatically run AppleWorks 5. That should solve the interrupt problem. If someone who has the source code to ProSel could figure out what this heartbeat-related purge actually does, then we could patch it directly into AppleWorks and everyone would be happy. This would be a good, positive use of ProSel code that doesn't merely duplicate somebody else's hard work. The AppleTalk will still need the patch to skip over the disabling of it. Beverly Cadieux http://members.aol.com/A2MG