Happy II Year!

A New, New Release.

But first I would like to address the auxtypo, er auxtype issue recently discovered with the 6.0.3. release. Sometimes there are many ways to accomplish the same task. Most of the time it matters not how it is done so we don’t think about it. The auxtype issue has brought to the forefront that just as elusive as issues are with the GS/OS HFS FST, the same can be said about the ProDOS File System Extension for MacOS Classic (7.x-9.x). There is an apparent endian issue with the handling of the auxtype. Given the limited use of auxtypes in the ProDOS world, with most being $0000, if there is an endian issue the result is going to be the same anyway. But when you have an intermittent error and a whole lot of files to copy, your odds of it stumbling are much greater. In light of the HFS FST’s issues, I typically tell people to move data onto it’s native file system on the target platform. Don’t write HFS disks with your IIgs. After all these years I guess I need to add “..and don’t write ProDOS disks with your Mac.”

The root of the issue was the auxtype bytes being swapped during the transfer. In the case of the SCSI.Manager it should have been $0140 but instead it was written as $4001. All auxtypes have been verified with this release.

Overall, there were auxtype issues with several files but not all affected the operation of the system software.
(SCSI.Manager, Finder, Start, and all system sounds.)

Some of this stuff is technical in nature and therefore dull and boring to most people, but we’ll go over it because if not, someone will ask.

OMF Records

OMF record packing. Records are stored more efficiently than the loader in System 6.0 and earlier resulting in less disk space for most program files and improved load times.

Control Panels

Support for Daylight Saving Time has been revised to the USA standard effective year 2007, up from the 1987-2006 specification used on the 6.0.3 and earlier releases.

Each CDEV has an rVersion resource for consistency.

Sound CDEV handles finderSaysOpenFailed events by playing the sound resource in the file. This is just the option to associate additional error conditions with audio feedback.

For the Unicorns out there, Slots CDEV supports ROM 4 “Mark Twain” hardware. Since this revision has inbuilt SCSI hardware and support for the SuperDrive (FDHD) 1.44mb 3.5″, these changes are now selectable and with the lack of Slots 5 and 7 physically, there is no “Your Card” option that can be selected.

File System Translators

DOS 3.3, Pascal, and ProDOS FSTs have been corrected to use the maximum Parameter Count (pCount) values. These are one way of passing variables between sections of code.

Pascal FST checks that the Volume Control Record is actually a Pascal Volume Control Record, that all parameters were properly initialized.

Finder

When opening resource sound files with only a single rSound and no application is assigned to that file type, the Finder sends a finderSaysOpenFailed event. This lets the Sound CDEV play the sound (if no other system extension handles it first). Most sound files in the System:Sound folder can be played by the Finder.

File and volume sizes larger than one gigabyte, up to the maximum GS/OS allows, are properly displayed. Note that this is GS/OS support, and not ProDOS. Since GS/OS has open ended support for file systems other than Apple II native formats those files will be displayed properly in listings.

FST names in Finder windows no longer display garbage if a third party unknown FST is installed and used. Instead, no information is displayed.

Fonts and Sounds

Additional fonts are available: The installed group of fonts has been rounded out and all sets contain each character in each native point size.
Added Fonts:
Courier 48, 56, 72, and 96
Helvetica 56
Symbol 9, 10, 12, 14, 18, 24, 36, 40, 48, 56, 72, and 96
Times 56

Helvetica 96 and Times 96 have missing characters restored.

Various Macintosh system sounds have been added.

Installer

Installer sets the System folder’s auxtype during Easy Update to permanently enable magic routing in the Finder. This only works if the System folder is unlocked. Magic routing is when you’re installing things to the System Folder, you don’t need to open it and go to the respective folder. Files will be placed according to their filetype.

New fonts and sounds can also be added through the Customize options “Fonts: All” and “Control Panel: Sounds” respectively.

Line Edit Tool

Line Edit control supports Control-A to jump to the start of the line and control-E to jump to the end of the line.

ProDOS 8

ProDOS 8 2.4.1 release from John Brooks is included.

Window Manager Tool

When JM Gothic is the System Font, the Window Manager uses JM Gothic instead of the hard-coded Shaston 8.

Apple II Technical Notes Apple IIgs #001 and GS/OS #100 have been updated to reflect the content and organizational changes in this release.

Click for Availability…

TreeHugger is a GS/OS Printer Port driver which supports the AppSocket/JetDirect protocol. Essentially, this means you can print to any networked printer that supports the JetDirect (AppSocket) Protocol, that a native mode IIgs Printer Driver exists for. With Harmonie and Independence that means an awful lot of printers out there have the potential to work as PCL is the de-facto standard among the major printer manufactures. Like Postscript®, that was Apple’s choice for raster image printing starting with the Apple LaserWriter, and natively supported by the Apple IIgs, PCL was HP’s answer to PostScript®. With the introduction of the Harmonie and Independence printer support packages, PCL support and a lot more choices for printers were suddenly available to Apple IIgs users. But network printing was still mostly out of reach unless you used LocalTalk and an Apple LaserWriter or compatible printer. Until now, that is.

Announced with a surprise comment in A2Central’s IRC channel this evening, krüe says, “Please test. Remember that I have no idea what I’m doing…” and almost instantly met with enthusiasm and praise, this is the first release, and as such it is set with a version # of ‘0.0’. I can’t say I’ve seen that before. :)

TreeHugger requires Marinetti to work, and while the 2.0.1 features were used, testing was done with 3.0b3 and an Uthernet card, using the Harmonie LaserJet III 300×300 dpi driver with a LaserJet 6p connected via a software based print server, p910nd. Currently other aspect ratios do not work and there are various issues with the page setup dialog and crashes that are being worked out. as krüe says, “..it probably doesn’t work for anyone else but me..” he does expect to be working on it more, but for now input on what works and what does not would probably go a long way.

TreeHugger is available at http://krue.net/treehugger/.