🚀 go-pugleaf

   >	/* Written Oct 4, 1986 by chuq@sun.uucp in net.micro.mac */
   >	...
   >	Oh, rumor has it that an HFS compatible Microsoft Fortran will be out
   >	Real Soon Now.  HFS has only been out 10 months, Microsoft ought to
   >	get its act together any time, now...

   >	chuq (Way to go, Microsoft.  Nothing like a company that is responsive
   >	      to its customers needs.  Three cheers for Ann Arbor Softworks!)
   >	/* End of text from uiucdcsb:net.micro.mac */


That's funny.  I've been using HFS compatible Microsoft Fortran (v2.2) since
early September in the course I am teaching here at UI.  So have my 600
students.  Ooops, on second reading I see that you never claimed that v2.2
was not available now.  I should be careful to get my facts straight before
assuming the worst of anyone, shouldn't I.

While I agree that Microsoft has not provided *me* with any support (I would
LOVE to get email from anyone at MS or Absoft willing correspond about the
bug list being compiled by those on our informal MS Fortran mailing list.),
I am not quite ready to claim that MS is not providing anyone *else* with
support.  Shall we take a poll?

(Chuq Von Rospach; Lord of the OtherRealms) writes:
>
>THIS is how a vendor should take care of its customers.  THIS is how things
>should be done.  Ann Arbor Softwares should be given Sainthood or something.
>
They do something stupid and obnoxious, and then change their mind and
be reasonable, and you want to give them Sainthood???  Shouldn't
Sainthood be reserved for companies who weren't stupid and obnoxious
in the first place?
-- 
member, all HASA divisions              POELOD  ECBOMB
					--------------
					       ^-- Secret Satanic Message

Tim Smith       USENET: sdcrdcf!ism780c!tim   Compuserve: 72257,3706
		Delphi or GEnie: mnementh

> THIS is how a vendor should take care of its customers.  THIS is how things
> should be done.  Ann Arbor Softwares should be given Sainthood or something.
> 
> I hope they're properly chastised.  There is no excuses left, either for CP
> or for slipshod support and gouging customers.  
> 
> chuq (Way to go, Microsoft.  Nothing like a company that is responsive to 
> 	its customers needs.  Three cheers for Ann Arbor Softworks!)

A person who works with Microsoft dropped me a line on this note, and
looking back at it I realize that I was unfair to Microsoft.  Not that 
they don't have problems, but that their problems are symptomatic of
problems in the industry in general, and I dind't make that clear.  Other
companies (Notably Boston Software, makers of MacPublisher II, to name one
name) have the same HFS compatibility and nasty copy protection problems --
I've been crashing MPII on my 512K enhanced about twice a day for weeks now
because of what seems to be HFS and new ROM compability problems) but I only
mentioned Microsoft, making them look worse then they are.  To help clear
things up, here is the letter I sent back to the person in explanation:

chuq
-----

> What are your specific complaints regarding Microsoft?  And why
> specifically Microsoft Fortran?
> I do know that the HFS support for certain other
> products has taken so long because of the complexity of the
> implementation; hopefully when you see it you will agree.

Actually, I have two complaints and a mea culpa.  I'll get to the complaints
first.

o Copy Protection.  Excuse me, but I'm in my Bash the Damned Copy
	Protectors mode.  Microsoft is just one of the companies that
	gets caught by this, but a major one -- especially since they
	HAVE pulled CP off of their PC product line but NOT the Mac.
	Copy Protection of a commercial product makes the implicit
	assumption that I'm GOING to be a crook,  that you EXPECT me to
	be a crook, and that I'm guilty by assumption. Microsoft Word,
	while easy to forge the CP, doesn't allow me to install on a
	hard disk.  Microsoft File, while it does allow installation on
	a hard disk, has limited installation capabilities, which means
	if my disk crashes (or more likely, I rebuild it for some
	reason) I can suddenly be without use of my software.

	In general, I find it irritating that a company will spend
	money trying to lock up a disk, raising its price (or lowering
	their margin, whichever you prefer) and forcing me to go out
	and buy another program specifically designed to defeat the
	protection so I can use it as I want to use it (as opposed to
	how The Company feels it is Safe for me to use).
	
	The above, of course, applies to a good percentage of the software
	industry.  Games that reboot when you exit, making your hard disk
	useless.  Programs that require key disks, a practice I find both
	amusing (I immediately make a copy of the key disk, and carry THAT
	around, since I won't jeapordize my masters -- HOW, might I ask,
	does this solve anything?) and irritating, because I don't want
	to constantly be fumbling for floppies to make the programs on my
	hard disk run.  Programs that, when you rebuild your hard disk,
	won't run because they need to be re-installed from floppy because
	the copy protection notices that it's been copied from backup.
	
	Feh to CP.  Microsoft is one case, but they've set their own 
	precedent in the PC area and not (yet) followed through.
	
o Microsoft Fortran.  An HFS compatible version of Microsoft Fortran was
	turned in by Absoft (authors of the program) in, I believe, July.
	It has been sent to people who have called up Microsoft and SCREAMED
	to high heaven.  It has not been announced, it has not been released,
	it has not been admitted to in public and the Fortran shipped to
	the public is useless on the Mac Plus, the 512K extended, and the
	new ROM's.  HFS is well over a year old, the ROM's have been public
	and available for 10 months, and Microsoft has had the code to
	support them for three months.  I know of half a dozen people who 
	are either limping along on old ROM's because it isn't worth it
	to them to fight with Microsoft for the new code (yet) or have
	simply given up using Fortran because of this.  THIS is responsive?
	
	As reference, Think Technology released LSC 6 months ago.  The new
	release is on the way, and in 6 months, one programmer was able to
	add almost every feature, wish, hope and prayer that people have
	sent him since buying the program.  As well as HFS support in the
	toolbox, significant compiling speedup, and a partridge in a pear
	tree.  It can be done. 

Microsoft is not unresponsive.  I've worked with the people in MSOFT a 
couple of times on CompuServe when I've had problems, and they've helped
me out.  But Microsoft could be doing a lot more -- so could Apple, so 
could Locus, so could most software companies.

Mea Culpa Time.  Despite the above, I think I was a little tough on Microsoft.
Many of my bitches were really general bitches at the industry in general,
and some of my comments were tossed at Microsoft but were really more
appropriate to others.  My CP and HFS bitches really ought to have been
aimed at Boston Publishing and MacPublisher II, since I've been having
continuing problems with their wonderful CP and HFS (lack of it) bugs 
causing bombs on my system.  I just bought Archon, and while I LIKE the game,
I rarely use it because when you exit, it reboots the system.  On a hard 
disk based system, this is death -- if I have to make special arrangements
to use the stupid game, I usually won't bother. 

I was tired, and I tossed off an article aimed at one company that should
have been aimed at a lot of companies.  Microsoft isn't an angel, but they
aren't the nasties I think I wrote them up to be.  There are others out there
that are MUCH worse.  I don't think that excuses Microsoft from improving
things, getting releases out faster, removing CP and the like, but the
same needs to be said for most for most of the industry.

Thanks for bringing it up.  I hadn't realized I'd been a bit offbase on
my original posting -- I'll be clearing that up.

chuq

Games reboot the machines in one of two ways on the Mac:
either by a Motorola 68000 
	RESET instruction ;the hex for this is 4E70
or via a 
	JMP.L $40000A .;this latter is what apple recommends programs do
Remember that you can jump to 40000A using many addressing modes.
You can fix the rebooting by searching for the offending bytes,
disassembling a little bit around them to make sure your right, and
replacing the RESET or the JMP opcode  by $A9F4, 
(The Mac instruction ExitToShell, the approved program _exit() routine.)
FEDIT is a good tool for finding and fixing the problem.  

	Always work on a copy, don't risk screwing up either your master
disk or your hard disk until you're sure the fix works.

	Note: Many games, among them GridWars, screw up the environment,
so that even if you quit, you can't safely do anything BUT reboot.

>problems in the industry in general, and I dind't make that clear.  Other
>companies (Notably Boston Software, makers of MacPublisher II, to name one
>name) have the same HFS compatibility and nasty copy protection problems --
>I've been crashing MPII on my 512K enhanced about twice a day for weeks now
>because of what seems to be HFS and new ROM compability problems) but I only

Chuq, beware of MPII in the 512K configuration.  If your bombs are ID=25, then
this is one of the most ludicrous ways of handling out-of-RAM ever seen.  In
fact, they mention this in their manual, though I would personally hide in
shame over something that unprofessional.

I used MPII in such a configuration at home for a while, then took it into 
work where there are 1Meg MacPlusses, and guess what?  No more bombs.  Both
were HFS configurations with new ROMs.

-Brian Diehm
Tektronix, Inc. (SDA - Standard Disclaimers Apply)