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649 lines
30 KiB
Plaintext
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NOTE: This file was written by an Executor user to help other Executor
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users solve common problems. ARDI has edited it slightly, but left it
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essentially unchanged. If you're not a DOS user, not all of this
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information will apply but you still may find some useful information
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in it. Enjoy!
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Version 2.
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Updated December 20th, 1995
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Executor/DOS experimental (pre-beta) version 1.99p8
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GETTING STARTED WITH EXECUTOR
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-----------------------------
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"A bug is an undocumented feature.
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A bug becomes a feature by documenting it."
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The author of this document had no previous knowledge about Macintosh
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software and architecture before buying Executor. PC experience in
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abundance but totally blank about the Mac world. Executor was bought
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to fill this hole and fully lived up to its expectations.
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Although Executor can be used without any previous Macintosh knowledge
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(proof that this unique selling point for a Mac still holds true)
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there are some facts that would have helped the author. Some of these
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are described below; perhaps they will help you.
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The original Macintosh was introduced in 1984 with the now famous 1984
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Big Brother advertisements. It was followed by an enormous range of
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machines. The original Motorola 68000 processor (comparable to an
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8086) was followed by the 68020 (eq. 80286), 68030 (386DX) and 68040
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(486SX/DX). Last year Apple shifted its machines to RISC architecture
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and now uses a Motorola/IBM developed PowerPC processor. Apple has
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implemented an emulator within its operating system so that all 680x0
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applications still can be run on a PowerPC.
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Executor emulates a 68LC040, which is a 68040 without a floating point
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processor (the "LC" stands for "low cost").
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(An interesting sidenote: ARDI's 68LC040 emulator for the PC is faster
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than Apple's 68LC040 emulator for PowerPC's. Mat Hostetter, part of ARDI's
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team, wrote the emulator and really should bring it to the market as a
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separate product.)
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Most of the Mac's success was not caused by its hardware but by its
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software. The Mac was one of the very first systems using a Graphical
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User Interface. It is this GUI that Executor emulates.
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The Macintosh operating system comes with the strange name of
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'System'. It has had a number of releases comparable to MS-DOS; it is
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now in its 7th life and like a cat, it was its last; future versions
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are called MacOS. Although System 7 added a lot of new features,
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Executor fully emulates a Mac running System 6.0.7. In the current
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experimental versions (1.99x) of Executor, some emulation of System 7
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functionality is included. It is ARDI's intention to make it possible some
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day that you will be able to use Apple's System 7.5 on top of Executor.
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Like Windows, System supports applications by giving them an
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environment to run in. Interaction between the user and System is done
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with a program called Finder; comparable to Program Manager within
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Windows. It is Finder that generates the metaphors of folders,
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desktop, trash can and others. It is Finder that starts
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applications. With Finder the user can rename, copy and delete files
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and folders.
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The original Finder enabled the user to run one application at the
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time, MultiFinder, introduced with System 6, made it possible to start
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several applications. Executor is a single-program-at-a-time type of
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emulator.
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Apple is known for its furious legal attempts to protect the look-and-feel
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of its products (and lost most cases). Therefore ARDI has developed its own
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Finder substitute, called Browser (ARDI once suggested 'Loser') which is
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integrated with Executor. In previous versions of Executor, the HFS_XFer
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program, was used to copy, delete and rename files and folders.
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System needs a harddisk with a number of pre-defined folders, one of
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which is the System Folder. In it you will find a file called 'System'
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which contains most of the Mac's operating System. On a real Mac also
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the file 'Finder' will be found in this folder. The System Folder is
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present on Executor's file system and there you will find Browser.
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Executor by default loads Browser when you start Executor; if you don't
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want that start Executor with the -nobrowser option.
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ARDI's System file is not compatible with Apple's. If you try to use
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a Macintosh and replace Apple's System file with ARDI's, your
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Macintosh will crash. If you try to run Executor using Apple's System
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file instead of ARDI's, Executor will crash.
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This implies that although Executor emulates a Mac very well the first
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impression is that it looks different because it lacks the important
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Finder interface. Instead Executor either pops up a dialogue box that you
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can use to tell it which program to start (-nobrowser), or it presents
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the Finder substitute Browser. There are a number of ways to disable Finder
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on a real Mac too, which saves a little memory.
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Browser has a band under the menu bar with icons of commonly used
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applications and directories and other objects. This band is known as
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the "hot band". You can drag objects into and out of this band. When you
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double click on a directory or volume, a window with icons for all the files
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in the directory will appear. You can drag files from one window to another
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to move or copy them. To delete a file, you must select it and choose
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delete; there is no trash can.
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Double clicking runs an application. The band has six buttons on it
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which allow you to choose which kind of objects are displayed in the
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hot band (applications, documents, volumes, directories, fonts, or
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desk accesories). Also the capability to format disks is included.
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Executor cannot format a totally unformatted disk, but it can imprint
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a blank Macintosh filesystem on a high-density disk which already
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contains a low-level Mac or PC format.
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In a separate chapter below, you will find a more detailed description
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of Browser.
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Since the Mac is meant to be used for graphical applications it uses a
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number of scalable fonts. These are stored in the 'System' file using
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a tool called FONT/DA Mover when using System 6. Under System 7 one
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can just copy a font in the System Folder and it will be recognised.
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FONT/DA Mover is Apple copyrighted software. With Browser one can
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simply drag a font to the font "hot band", restart Executor and it will
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appear within applications. (The necessity to restart of Executor will
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be gone in future versions.)
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On a Mac, files are arranged in folders, the equivalent of MS-DOS
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directories. Folders can be nested and contain icons for programs
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and/or data files. A remarkable feature of Finder is the alias. An
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alias is a copy of an application's icon that can be used to create
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groups of objects. It is Apple's first effort towards object
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orientation. Changing the properties of an icon also changes them of
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the alias, contrary to within Windows (even within Windows 95!).
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Since Executor comes without Finder, and doesn't recognize aliases, it
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might occur that you open a folder on a floppy or CD-ROM finding
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nothing in it. On a Mac there might have been aliases in those
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folders.
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A difference that a Windows user notices is that on a Mac the menu is
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always on the topline of the display where in Windows the active menu
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is always within the current window. A Windows desktop with a number
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of applications running shows a lot of menus which can lead to
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confusion. Windows indicates the current menu by giving it a different
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colour. On a Mac selecting a window automatically makes its associated
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menu appear on the topline. Since Executor can only run one
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application at a time this should not be much of a problem.
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RUNNING SOFTWARE WITH EXECUTOR
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------------------------------
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Now that you have installed Executor on your system and you have
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verified that it runs, you are ready to start some of the demo
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software that comes with Executor. These are freeware, shareware or
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fully working demos of commercial packages. The files are located in
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the EXDEMOS.HFV DOS volume and appear after installation in an
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Executor volume in the 'demos' and 'games' folders. Also Executor
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comes with some useful utilities included in the EXSYSTEM.HFV DOS
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volume that appear in the 'utils' folder on your System drive.
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After you have started some of these programs you probably want to do
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something useful with Executor. This means getting hold of the
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software that you need and properly installing it.
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Before you start installing software there are a couple of issues that
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have to be understood. First you need to have set aside a volume that
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can hold the files you need. Such a volume can be created with MAKEHFV
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as stated in the appropriate section of this manual. Remember that
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unless you to tell Executor otherwise, your newly created volume has
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to have a filename ending with ".hfv" and has to be placed in the same
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directory as the other ".hfv" files are (the default is
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\EXECUTOR.
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The program that creates the new volume is called "makehfv" (make
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hfv). It takes three arguments, the name of the DOS file that the
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volume will reside in, the name of the volume as it will be seen by
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any program running under Executor and the size in bytes that the
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volume will take up. The suffixes "k" and "m" can be used to specify
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the size in kilobytes (1024 byte chunks) or megabytes (1024 * 1024 =
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1048576 byte chunks).
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For example, to create a 10 megabyte volume, in the DOS file
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newvol.hfv, with the internal name NewVolume, you would execute this
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command:
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C:\EXECUTOR> makehfv newvol.hfv NewVolume 10m
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When you next start Executor and cycle through your available drives
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by clicking the 'DRIVE' button you will have an empty volume called
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NewVolume ready to take your files.
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Also remember that Executor is a complex piece of software. ARDI has
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beta-tested this product thoroughly but the enormous diversity of PC
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hardware coupled with the complexity of emulating a totally different
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system on top of this hardware means that crashes are possible. When
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Executor or your PC dies, unpredictable things might happen. It is
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recommended that so-called write-behind-cacheing be disabled when you
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use Executor. Most systems nowadays use Microsoft's SMARTDRV which has
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write-behind-cacheing turned off by default only when you use MS-DOS
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6.2 If you have another MS-DOS version or when you have turned it on
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please change the line that starts SMARTDRV to :
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SMARTDRV C
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instead of
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SMARTDRV C+
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As always, it is best to back up your data frequently.
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GETTING HOLD OF SOFTWARE
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------------------------
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Apple's Macintosh is the second most widespread architecture in the
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world. Software for the Mac is as freely available as for the PC
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platform. There are however a few distinctions. Commercial software
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tends to be more expensive and sometimes updated versions arrive later
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than their MS-Windows counterparts. It used to be the other way around
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but this is the way it is.
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An important issue to note here is that Executor, due to constraints
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in PC hardware, can only read Macintosh HD (SuperDrive) floppy-disks
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and Macintosh formatted CD-ROMs (more on CD-ROMs later on). SuperDrive
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floppy disks are physically identical to PC HD diskettes (all of them
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have a second hole on the other side of the write-protect notch). As
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on the PC they have a capacity of 1.4 Mb.
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These disks share the same "low-level" format, but have a different
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"filesystem format" than they do on a PC. i.e. the physical format is
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the same as on a PC; it is just the logical format that differs.
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Macintosh commercial software is available from most shops. If you
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have no possibility to use a 'real' Macintosh then be sure that the
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disks you get are HD ones. Otherwise let the dealer convert them.
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Since not all software will run under Executor it is advisable to
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arrange with your dealer to test the software first.
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Especially look for explicit statements whether the software needs
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System 7. If an application *requires* System 7, then it is unlikely
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to work under the current implementation (1.99x) of Executor. At this
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moment most of the work of System 7 emulation has been done but the
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bottle-neck are Apple extensions like QuickTime and Apple Events.
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Good software for the Macintosh can be found with most magazines
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(again verify that they come with HD disks), on all commercial
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networks and on the Internet.
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When you want to use software on a Macintosh CD-ROM, your CD-ROM drive
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will appear automatically within Executor if your CD-ROM controlling
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software conforms to Microsoft's MSCDEX or Adaptec's ASPI standard.
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When you insert a Macintosh formatted HD floppy or CD-ROM these will
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be automatically recognised when you start Executor. If you insert
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them when Executor has already started, you must press
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Shift-left-Alt-2 before they will be seen.
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Due to size constraints on a floppy, most of the time the software on
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it will be in a compressed format. This is comparable to the way it is
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done on the PC where ZIP, ARC, ARJ and LZH are some of the used
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extensions to denote a compressed file. Amazingly the number of
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different compression systems used on Macs is as large as on the PC
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and all of them are different between the two platforms. Yes, there is
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a ZIP utility for the Mac but no available software seems to be
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compressed with it.
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Although the naming convention for Mac files is much less constraining
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than the one we are familiar with on the PC (name of 8 characters and
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an extension of 3), most of the time the name of a compressed file
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ends with a decimal point followed by a three character extension.
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Mind that the name of a Mac file when found on a system that has a
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more constraining naming convention (like MS-DOS) might not be able to
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tell you what sort of format it is in. However, when you transform it
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to Mac format (more on this later) its name will explain more. For
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instance you might find a file called ACMECALC.BIN on CompuServe
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which, when it ends up on your Executor volume, suddenly gets called
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'Acme Super Calculator.sea'.
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The most used compression systems and their extensions are:
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.pit ; PackIt compressed file
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.sit ; Stuffit compressed file
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.cpt ; Compact Pro compressed file
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.dde ; DiskDoubler compressed file
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.sea ; One of the above but self-extracting
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For the first four files you will need the mentioned shareware
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programs to extract (decompress) them. The full Stuffit package can
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also handle the other formats. Compact Pro is found in the 'utils'
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folder on your System disk. Stuffit is excellent shareware and there
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is a freeware Stuffit Expander program that as its name suggests can
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only expand a compressed file (expanding again being another word for
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decompress, foo). DiskDoubler is less used than the others, mainly
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because it is commercial software. There is a free expander though.
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A .sea file basically consists of a compressed file with an integrated
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expander. When you start an .sea file it will expand itself
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automatically.
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Of the mentioned decompressors there are a number of different
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versions to be found; not all of these work with Executor. Also some
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self-extracting compressed files tend to kill Executor. When this
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happens there is a simple but effective trick. Try to get hold of a
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utility called 'DeSEA'. It does what its name implies; it turns a .sea
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file in a .sit,.pit or .cpt file that then can be decompressed using
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one of the mentioned tools.
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Excellent information on the various compression schemes, .hqx and
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BinHex formats can be found in a FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions)
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document on datacommunication, available via anonymous ftp on the
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Internet from:
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site : sumex-aim.stanford.edu
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file : /info-mac/comm/info/comp-sys-mac-comm-faq.txt
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When the file is decompressed, you are ready to roll. Mind that a lot
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of software that comes on CDs take the capacity of a CD to the maximum
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by using audio and video clips (called QuickTime). These cannot be
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used in Executor. A program with such a restriction will probably
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complain that you need System 7; the version of the Mac's operating
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system that supports video.
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GETTING SOFTWARE USING YOUR PC
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------------------------------
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The above is all well but you might be tempted to get software for
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Executor by downloading files from bulletin boards and/or networks
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like CompuServe, America Online or the Internet. This is possible
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though a bit more complicated since the PC is not a Mac (you might
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have noticed this; ARDI lives because of it).
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In the PC world every file on your harddisk comes as one logical
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collection of bytes, with a start, a middle and an end. On the Mac
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every file has two components (honest!), these are called the
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data-fork and the resource-fork. The data-fork contains the data that
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is unformatted, or at least not formatted in a way that the actual
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Macintosh OS itself understands. The resource-fork contains data that
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is formatted in a way that the Macintosh OS understands and hence can
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be used to specify parameters for various Macintosh OS routines, for
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instance icons. Every file has both a data-fork and a resource-fork
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although either, (or even both) can be empty.
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To enable distribution of Macintosh files on a non-Macintosh medium
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like most bulletin-boards, a number of people, Apple amongst them,
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found a way to combine the two forks in one file. Two of these systems
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are known as BinHex. BinHex 4 is often known as "HQX" and it combines
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both forks into a single ASCII file. BinHex 5 is often known as
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"MacBinary" and it combines both forks into a single BINARY file.
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Since Executor at this moment does not support serial I/O all
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downloading of Mac files has to be done using your favourite PC
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communication program and your PC modem. Downloaded files will thus
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appear on your PC's harddisk.
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If the file's description from where you downloaded it or its name on
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your PC's harddisk indicates that is in HQX format (for instance
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because its name contains the .hqx extension) there is an extra step
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to take.
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A file with the .hqx extension has been constructed using version 4.0
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of BinHex. This program enables binary files to be transported on
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networks that otherwise would have problems with them by translating
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them in 7-bit ASCII text. You can try this by using your favourite DOS
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editor on such a file; it will contain seemingly endless lists of
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numbers; the human-readable equivalent of machine-code.
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The supplied BinHex 5.0 program converts a.hqx file automatically to
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its original format. There is also an excellent shareware program
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called DeHQX that also gives a lot of information in the process.
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To get a file converted so that it appears on an Executor Mac volume,
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start the program BinHex in the 'utils' folder on your System disk. In
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its file menu you will find a Download -> Application choice. It will
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pop-up a dialogue box where you can specify the file on your PC volume
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||
|
after which it will ask you where to store the result. When all goes
|
||
|
well you will find some form of Mac file on the destination
|
||
|
disk.
|
||
|
|
||
|
If a file is not HQX'ed, BinHex effectively only copies the file and creates
|
||
|
the two forks from the one file. To find out whether BinHex needs to take
|
||
|
the extra step it looks for the phrase :
|
||
|
|
||
|
(This file must be converted with BinHex 4.0)
|
||
|
|
||
|
at the beginning of the file.
|
||
|
|
||
|
CompuServe has its own Macintosh File Finder that enables you to find
|
||
|
your favourite Mac file amongst the odd 20,000 it stores. On the
|
||
|
Internet a lot of Mac software can be found. Look for the SimTel ftp
|
||
|
archives. Another good archive is the HENSA archive of Lancaster
|
||
|
University, UK.
|
||
|
|
||
|
To summarise; when you have downloaded a Mac file it will appear to be
|
||
|
a normal PC file on your PC. Run BinHex to write it to an Executor
|
||
|
volume. BinHex will automatically de-HQX the file. If required run a
|
||
|
de-compression program.
|
||
|
|
||
|
If Executor 'touches' a file on a PC volume it immediately creates a
|
||
|
pseudo resource fork for that file which is a separate file with a
|
||
|
percent-sign as its first character. This can confuse BinHex and other
|
||
|
programs, and a 'touched' file might not be shown anymore, unless you
|
||
|
turn off the "TEXT filter" within the 'File' menu of BinHex 5.0, so
|
||
|
that all files are displayed instead of just "TEXT" ones.
|
||
|
In such a case simply delete the resource-fork file.
|
||
|
|
||
|
This problem is actually a result of a bug in Executor and hopefully
|
||
|
the bug will be fixed soon.
|
||
|
|
||
|
A special word on text files. When you download a text file that was
|
||
|
produced on a Mac you will experience that a number of DOS editors
|
||
|
have problems with the fact that the Mac only uses a LF character at
|
||
|
the end of every line, where the PC uses a CR, LF pair. Luckily the
|
||
|
MS-DOS EDIT command can read both formats. When you open a Mac style
|
||
|
text document, change one character and then write it back, EDIT will
|
||
|
convert it to PC text format. There exists a shareware/freeware MS-DOS
|
||
|
program called MAC2PC80.EXE that does this all automatically.
|
||
|
|
||
|
If you do not want to store a compressed text file on an Executor
|
||
|
volume but want to read it using a PC editor then there are shareware
|
||
|
PC programs, like UNSTUFF.EXE (free!) that can decompress such a file
|
||
|
on the PC. Aladdin Systems (makers of StuffIt) have now released a very
|
||
|
nice Windows version of Stuffit Expander that handles almost every
|
||
|
Macintosh file format.
|
||
|
|
||
|
Apart from files being BinHex'ed and/or compressed, more complex
|
||
|
programs come in the form of an 'Installer'; a program that installs
|
||
|
the software so that it is automatically copied to the proper
|
||
|
folders. An installer most of the time also decompresses its
|
||
|
components and scatters them around in for instance your System
|
||
|
Folder.
|
||
|
|
||
|
The problem here is that most of the time installers are complex
|
||
|
programs that might confuse Executor. Many installers were written by
|
||
|
Apple and have special information about the insides of Macintoshes
|
||
|
that the authors of Executor did not have (Executor was written using
|
||
|
"clean room" techniques -- no Apple ROMs or System files were
|
||
|
disassembled). In such a case you will have to install the program on
|
||
|
a real Mac and then transfer the installed program to an Executor
|
||
|
volume. Afterward, if it is not publicly redistributable, delete the
|
||
|
program from the Mac. It is illegal not to.
|
||
|
|
||
|
On the issue of files in your System Folder; this folder acts as the
|
||
|
notorious WIN.INI file under Windows, i.e. it is regarded as every
|
||
|
application's liberty to litter it. A separate folder 'Preferences'
|
||
|
most of the time holds files that store items like your highest score
|
||
|
in your favourite game. Since Executor's System drive is limited in
|
||
|
size it pays to occasionally delete unwanted files from the System
|
||
|
Folder. Be careful with the file 'Printer' though. This file is
|
||
|
required for printing in Executor.
|
||
|
|
||
|
Note: The size of Executor's System drive is not really limited in size.
|
||
|
If you run out of space you have to create a second, larger System
|
||
|
volume with MAKEHFV. Do not call the DOS volume EXSYSTEM.HFV but
|
||
|
choose a different name like EXSYS1.HFV making sure that its
|
||
|
logical volume name remains System.
|
||
|
The proper MAKEHFV command line would be :
|
||
|
|
||
|
MAKEHFV EXSYS1.HFV System 2M
|
||
|
|
||
|
to create a 2 Mb. System drive. Copy all files from the first
|
||
|
drive to the second drive using Browser. Be careful; both
|
||
|
drives are called System - the empty one should be the
|
||
|
destination. When everything has been copied delete EXSYSTEM.HFV
|
||
|
and rename EXSYS1.HFV to EXSYSTEM.HFV.
|
||
|
|
||
|
Transferring a file from a Mac to Executor larger than can be fitted
|
||
|
on one floppy is not so easy. Try compressing it first. If it still
|
||
|
doesn't fit you can use a serial cable and transfer it using two
|
||
|
terminal programs, or try to get your hands on a program that cuts
|
||
|
archives in parts. (StuffIt Lite 3.x can do this.)
|
||
|
|
||
|
|
||
|
FILE CREATORS AND FILE TYPES
|
||
|
----------------------------
|
||
|
|
||
|
On a PC an application most of the time uses the 3-character extension
|
||
|
of files to denote that it created them. For instance an application
|
||
|
named ACMECALC might create files with an .ACM extension. Also the
|
||
|
extension might indicate the type of file like .TXT denoting a text
|
||
|
file. This way of doing things has lead to a lot of confusion since
|
||
|
nobody is regulating the list of used extensions, and three letters
|
||
|
doesn't lend itself to enough logical combinations.
|
||
|
|
||
|
On the Mac the above is regulated. The Mac uses a system where every
|
||
|
file has a 4-character 'creator' and a 4-character 'type'. These are
|
||
|
distributed by Apple - a list can be obtained of valid ones. (This
|
||
|
does not mean that everybody follows the rules of course.) The creator
|
||
|
field is used twofold. Firstly it tells a Mac's Finder what
|
||
|
application to load when the user double-clicks the icon of a
|
||
|
data-file. Secondly it enables an application to only show files in
|
||
|
dialogue boxes that it can handle.
|
||
|
|
||
|
Normally you do not have to worry about the above, but sometimes a
|
||
|
file that you think belongs to a certain application cannot be opened
|
||
|
by it. The adventurous can then change the type and or creator using
|
||
|
a tool like File Kit or from within Browser. From the number of available
|
||
|
programs that can change types and creators we might conclude that the
|
||
|
confusion on the Mac platform as to which file belongs to who is as
|
||
|
confusing as it is on PCs.
|
||
|
|
||
|
|
||
|
USEFUL PROGRAMS
|
||
|
---------------
|
||
|
|
||
|
Apart from the already mentioned utilities there are a couple more
|
||
|
that you probably might want to look for. Get a simple text processor
|
||
|
like UpWord to edit an occasional file or use the supplied Tex-Edit
|
||
|
program. To view the contents of most word-processor documents get Quill.
|
||
|
|
||
|
To make sure that the files you download are not virus-ridden get
|
||
|
Disinfectant. There are only an odd twenty viruses around but still
|
||
|
you might be unlucky. Because Executor has slightly different
|
||
|
"internals" than a Macintosh does, it is slightly less susceptible to
|
||
|
virus infection than a real Mac but better not take chances.
|
||
|
|
||
|
Easy Errors tells you what an error number generated by an application
|
||
|
actually means. (Who ever said a Mac was userfriendly?)
|
||
|
|
||
|
Get File Kit to have a look at file attributes like creation date and
|
||
|
length.
|
||
|
|
||
|
Shareware and/or freeware programming languages are not that freely
|
||
|
available as on the PC. There are a number of freeware 'C' compilers,
|
||
|
ChipMunk Basic 3.21 is a simple Basic interpreter.
|
||
|
|
||
|
HyperCard from Claris runs fairly well, but some stacks will not work
|
||
|
under HyperCard under Executor. Supercard created stacks also usually
|
||
|
work, although some aspects of Supercard's use of color can confuse
|
||
|
the experimental versions of Executor that support color.
|
||
|
|
||
|
If you want to learn how to program a Mac be prepared for a shock. To
|
||
|
fully understand how the Mac works you need to master a large and very
|
||
|
expensive series of books from Apple, called Inside Macintosh. Apple
|
||
|
has released a CD version of these books though.
|
||
|
|
||
|
Just like the Windows environment just knowing a programming language
|
||
|
is not enough to write a nice looking application. On a Mac one needs
|
||
|
to master the equivalent of the Windows API, called the Toolbox.
|
||
|
|
||
|
|
||
|
LIMITATIONS ON WHAT WILL RUN UNDER EXECUTOR
|
||
|
-------------------------------------------
|
||
|
|
||
|
On a real Mac there is a large number of ways to interact with the
|
||
|
machine. Apart from starting normal programs, there are
|
||
|
|
||
|
- Desk Accessories; these are handy programs that can be found
|
||
|
in the Apple Menu.
|
||
|
|
||
|
- Extensions; these extend the Mac's Operating System, for
|
||
|
instance for video.
|
||
|
|
||
|
- Control Panels; enable a Mac user to control various settings
|
||
|
of his/her system.
|
||
|
|
||
|
- Inits; small programs that a Mac loads for special
|
||
|
devices and/or functionality.
|
||
|
|
||
|
Apart from some Desk Accessories, Executor at this moment cannot run any
|
||
|
of the above.
|
||
|
|
||
|
|
||
|
TRANSFERRING DATA BETWEEN MAC APPLICATIONS AND DOS COUNTERPARTS
|
||
|
---------------------------------------------------------------
|
||
|
|
||
|
You can manipulate data within applications on both platforms if they
|
||
|
can read the applicable format, i.e. a Word for Windows 5.x document
|
||
|
can be edited using Word 5 with Executor.
|
||
|
|
||
|
If you let an application produce print output then Executor puts it
|
||
|
in a file EXECOUTx.PS within the directory where you started Executor.
|
||
|
The 'x' is a number from 0-9. This output is a proper PostScript file that
|
||
|
can be printed on a printer that supports PostScript. Otherwise you can use
|
||
|
the freeware package GhostScript to view or print them under MS-DOS.
|
||
|
|
||
|
|
||
|
Browser
|
||
|
-------
|
||
|
|
||
|
Recent 1.99x experimental pre-beta versions come with ARDI's Finder
|
||
|
substitute, called Browser. When you normally start Executor (i.e.
|
||
|
without the -nobrowser) option, Executor will automatically load Browser
|
||
|
and will return to Browser when you exit an application.
|
||
|
|
||
|
Browser presents the following:
|
||
|
|
||
|
- a normal Macintosh style menu
|
||
|
- 6 pictograms
|
||
|
- 2 buttons
|
||
|
- a 'hot-band' containing icons
|
||
|
|
||
|
From the menu you can for instance create folders, print files or
|
||
|
eject a disk. CLicking on the pictograms selects the appropriate
|
||
|
'hot-band'. There are 'hot-bands' for drives, applications, fonts,
|
||
|
DAs, folders and text files. The button 'Sort', sorts the current
|
||
|
'hot-band' and 'Help' gives a short explanation of the various
|
||
|
'hot-bands'.
|
||
|
|
||
|
A word about disk drives here. Executor will try to figure out what drives
|
||
|
are available when it loads. In a standard setup, the drives 'hot-band' will
|
||
|
show the System: drive, your .HFV volumes and your c:/ drive. If you have
|
||
|
a CD-ROM player available it will show up as a d:/ if MSCDEX is running.
|
||
|
|
||
|
On a Macintosh the sense hardware detects that a removable drive is
|
||
|
inserted and its icon will show up automatically. This is different from the
|
||
|
PC architecture. This means that Executor does not detect automatically when
|
||
|
you insert a Mac CD-ROM or diskette. To have Executor detect such a medium
|
||
|
select 'Check for disk' from the 'File' menu within Browser, or press
|
||
|
Alt-Shift-2. If the medium is recognized it will show up on the drives
|
||
|
'hot-band'. Also you have to manually eject a drive from the 'File' menu.
|
||
|
|
||
|
Be careful not to phyiscally eject a floppy when Executor is not finished
|
||
|
with it; buffers might not be flushed. Always use 'Eject' or Alt-Shift-2.
|
||
|
|
||
|
It is possible to drag DAs to the DA 'hot-band' and have Executor put them
|
||
|
in the Apple menu. Not all DAs work however. Be careful to have a copy of
|
||
|
your EXSYSTEM.HFV file. Some DAs crash Executor and weird things
|
||
|
might happen.
|
||
|
|
||
|
Browser can format Macintosh 1.44 Mb. diskettes. For this to work properly
|
||
|
first check that 'Direct Disk Access' is selected. (Press Alt-Shift-5 to
|
||
|
select the Preferences Panel.)
|
||
|
|
||
|
Bibliography
|
||
|
------------
|
||
|
|
||
|
Suggested further reading if you want to know more.
|
||
|
|
||
|
Title Author Content
|
||
|
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
|
||
|
Insanely Great Steven Levy History of the Mac
|
||
|
|
||
|
Technical Introduction Apple THE Source
|
||
|
to the Macintosh Family
|
||
|
|
||
|
comp.sys.mac.comm FAQ D.L. Oppenheimer Everything on
|
||
|
datacommunication,
|
||
|
compression and
|
||
|
file formats.
|
||
|
|
||
|
Executor's FAQ ARDI When all else fails
|
||
|
|
||
|
All company names and products mentioned are copyrighted and trademarks
|
||
|
of their respective owners.
|
||
|
|
||
|
|
||
|
Feel free to contact me : Ernst J. Oud
|
||
|
Compuserve : 100265,3601
|
||
|
Internet : ernstoud@euronet.nl
|