Technical information
'--
January
1991
Apple polled a panel assembled from a cross-section
of
organiza-
tions
that report on the Apple II, including magazines
(Af
ji
nCider,
A2·CentraJ,
as
Flus,
and
Nibble)
and
electronic services (America
Online, CompuServe,
and
GEnie).
Apple itself participated
in
the vot-
ing
as
a tiebreaker, registering its votes before the other ballots were
sent out (to eliminate
any
possibility
of
returning ballots influencing
Apple's
own
voting!.
The
voting
was
structured in such a
way
that the
individual organizations each actually ranked their votes for several
contenders in
each
category; this allowed the results
to
rened Ihose
products that received the highest praise most often,
and
permitted
resolving conflicts in categories where votes could
be
cast far oneself
(such
as
the magazine and electronic service categories).
Matt
Deatherage (a member
of
Apple's Developer Technical
Sup·
port group) presided over the ceremonies in a tuxedo, lending
an
air
of
great dignity to the proceedings which
were
held on the lawn
of
the
Long
Beach
Museum
of
Art.
I'd like to
pass
on the names
of
the win-
ner in
each
category, and (for most winners) some comments
as
to
why
I think
each
won.
Best
freeware/Shareware: Shrlnkit
for
the
lIAs
by
Andy
rticholas.
Andy
started working
on
Shrinklt
as
a project
for
his college
classes.
He
probably didn't realize
just
how large
an
albatross the pro-
gram
would become in terms
of
the amount
of
time and work he
would eventually put into
it
Shrinklt
began
as
a means
of
combining and compactlrig files
or
disks into
an
archive file that could
be
stored for future unpacking
and
use
'(saving disk space while stored)
or
transmitted to another
computer (saving transfer time
);
see
'NuFX
eases
file transfers
',
A2,
Central, August 1989.
Th
e 8-bit version
of
ShrinkIt became the stan-
dard for archival almost immediately after its release;
Andy
created
versions for both the older Apple II systems and the newer
1281\
sys-
tems, using
the
extra memory
of
the latter systems to
add
utilities to
make working with files
and
disks within Shrinklt
easier,
When
Apple announced
System
Disk 5.0, new features
were
intro-
duced that forced
Andy
to start on a IIgs version. The IIgs version had
to cope with extended files, which
were
used with
the
new
system
software
(bilt not intended to
be
manipula
te
d from
ProDOS
8)
and
also the chameleon-like nature
of
GS
/OS's support for multiple file
systems.
The
IIgs
version also had
the
IIgs's enhanced features and
memory available and made development
of
a more effiCient com-
pression algorithm possible.
So
Andy came up with one,
and
th
en
went back to update
the
8-bit versions
of
Shrinklt to s.upport it
(though they do not support some
of
the other IIgs-specific needs).
Andy's hard work
has
paid off. Apple, knowing a good and compe-
tent worker when they
see
one, hired
Andy
last month to
be
the
pro-
grammer
in
charge
of
maintaining
the
IIgs Finder. Andy is already
soliciting ideas for what people want
to
see.
Best Educational Software:
Katie's
Farm
by
Lawrence Produc-
tions,
disbibuted
by
Botderbund.
Unfortunately, I
am
unable to
comment knowledgeably on this program since
I haven't used
it
myself.
Outstanding
8·bit
Apple
n Software: Proterm 2.2 '
by
InSync.
For
the most part, 8-bit Apple II telecommunication programs remain
superior in overall features to their IIgs counterparts.
Frot
enn, though
not
the
least expensive such program, is the best example
of
how
fea-
ture-laden a "telecommunications' program
can
become. Its author,
Greg
Schaeffer,
has
seen
fit to include not only the standard telecom-
munications functions, but a "host" mode (that allows another system
to dial
Frotenn
running on your
co
mputer
and
use
it
as
a 'mini-BBS'),
extensible dial lists, terminal emulations, a macro language, and a
"learn' mode that
can
watch
you
log
on
and
convert the sequence to
macros for future
access.
Protenn also incorporates
an
editor, disk
utilities (including file and disk copy functions from within
Frotenn
),
and
a large
(up
to 2.5 megabytes, given sufficient
RAM
memory)
review
buffer
to
retain incoming text data that
you
can
later
(d
uring
the
same
Proterm session)
'c
lip' to send to your printer, a disk file,
or
the
built-in editor.
The
editor is atypical
in
that it
has
a comprehensive set
of
com·
mands including cut
and
paste
and reformatting
of
broken lines into
paragraphs (or vice
versa).
The editor goes
so
far
as
to accept a series
of
embedded printer formatting commands similar to those used
by
Apple
Writer
to format a document for
printout
If
your only need for a
computer is to collect
and
edit text via the modem, you may never
have
to
leave
Protenn.
A2,CentraJ
6.91
Frot
enn works on
the
enhanced
12
81\
lie, IIc,
IIgs,
and Laser 128
systems. Originally published by Checkmate Technology,
Frotenn
is
now sold through its new publisher, InSync,
P,O,
Box
22t46,
Phoenix,
Artz.
85028, and through several mail-order companies.
Outstanding
16·bit
Apple
U Software: ltyperstudio 2. 1
by
Roger Wagner
Publishing.
While
everyone
else
was
trying to decide
what
to
do with
th
e
IIgs,
Roger
Wagner
counted up the features,
assembled the programmers to create
an
applicable ?roduct.
and
hit
the
ground running.
As
far
as
I
can
see,
he hasn't stopped
yet
HyperStudio
is
th
e one program among those possible to consider
for this
award
that exploits every aspect
of
the
IIgs
in
such
an
easily
accessible
way
as
to make
the
computer's possibilities
seem
limitless.
Although olten compared to
HyperCard
for
the
Mac
(a
nd now
the
IIgs)
, the implications
of
HyperStudio
are
subtly broader.
At
the
basic
level.
HyperStudio
can
be
operated on the current minimal IIgs
machine
II
m
ega
byte, one 3.5 drive, and monitor)
and
do things that
HyperCard
can't do across the line
on
Mac
systems without extra
hardware
or
software.
With
the included sound digitizer,
HyperStudio
has
the best out·of-the-box capabilities
of
any
comparably priced
hypermedia product; period.
With
the basic IIgs
and
HyperStudio
,
you
have high-resolution graphics, animation, sound, and text at your
beck and call via the
Simple
HyperStudio
mechanism
of
creating
cards and stacks.
In addition,.
you
have severat unique stand-alone
utilities with which you
can
create startup effects for your computer
(
HyperStudio's
Sight
and
Sound
modules
),
record
and
edit sounds
(Sound
Shop),
browse a library
of
sound flies
(Browse
r).
If
your moni·
tor is a color monitor,
you
have something
else
the
Mac
version
of
HyperCard
doesn't supply: the richness
of
color.
At
the other
end
of
the spectrum, I have
seen
Roger
literally roll
carts
of
hardware into a room
to
show
off
features
of
HyperStudio
that
allow
you
to
add and
use
laserdisc players,
CD-ROM
drives,
th
e Apple
Video
Overlay
Card,
touch screens
...
all without having to buy any
additional
HyperStudio
software or hardware.
With
a mischevious grin,
Roger encourages you
to
check
Mac
or
MS-DOS
hypennedia programs
and
see
how expensi
ve
the
same
capabilities
are
to add;
he
has
already researched
the
answers.
If
you think you've taxed
HyperStudio
's
capabilities before you've
bought enough peripherals
to
bankrupt yourself, ask
Roger
about
it
He
can
tell you about the
HyperStudio
capability to support externally
added commands (Xcmds)
and
can
even
offer to sell
you
some com-
pilations that his company publishes. Or you
can
probably find
free-
ware
stack and Xcmd ideas floating around
the
public dataways;
HyperStudio
has
freed both user's
and
programmer's imaginations.
Apple's
new
HyperCard
for the IIgs is a different navor
of
multime-
dia pie and will enter a market that
Roger
has
legitimized; it will possi-
bly expand into a market segment where
HyperStudio's
one notable
deficiency versus the
Mac
HyperCard
(
the
lack
of
the
Hyp
erTalk lan-
guage)
has caused some
HyperCard
snobs to snub
an
obviously
pow-
erful product.
But
then, maybe
the
world
of
hypermedia shouldn't
embrace programmers
as
the best authors. Apple's
own
HyperCard
Ifgs
team and other Apple II people
have
been
complimentary
of
HyperStudio,
and
HyperCard
IfgSs
presence
may
not fuel a competi-
tion; these
are
two products that have a similar purpose but differing
mechanisms
of
creating stacks.
We
think the two products will coex-
Ist;
In
many cases on the same person's shelf.
Besides,
Roger
's well out in front.
and
he's running hard with
less
baggage.
But you'll hear more about that in a moment.
Best
inDo.ation:
the
Ramfast SCSI
card
by
C
V.
Tec:hDotogles.
Other
than
the
availability
of
software (which is
an
issue not to
be
covered he
re
),
the
two most frequent complaints about
the
IIgs
we
see
are
that
it
doesn't
have
enough graphics resolution (arguable
ver-
sus other systems
in
it's price class)
and
that
it
is
'too
slow'. Applied
Engineering and
Zip
Technology have addressed one side
of
the
speed equation, the processor
speed
, with
the
TransWarp
as
and
lipOS products.
The
Innovative Systems's
Floating
Foint
Engine
addressed slow
SANE
math. But
it
took
the
Ohio
I\ache
Card
and
then
the
Ramfast
to show what
an
intelligent disk controller could do to
boost system
speed.
from
our perception,
in
many
cases
speed limi-
talions being blamed
on
the IIgs processor
were
actually
due
to disk
access
; adding the
Ramfast
SCSI
interface to your
SCSI
hard drive