& LIGHT-YEARS! - TRS-80 Color Computer Archive

nestled among the fruits and
vegetables. Apple has joined
with grocery chains around the
country to offer computers in
exchange for cash-register
receipts.
By January, the program
had attracted 504 grocery
stores and about 7000 schools.
Students collect as many re
ceipts as possible in a 26-week
period and trade them for Ap
ple components. To get an
ImageWriter. for instance,
schools need $65,000 worth of
receipts. To get a Macintosh
Pius, they need $! 85,000 worth.
Participating supermarket
chains are located all over the
country, from Michigan to Flor
ida, from Nevada to Virginia.
The giveaway is John
Connelly's idea. His company,
J. Edward Connelly Asso
ciates, develops incentive mar
keting campaigns. Connelly
buys the computers from Ap
ple at a discount and then sells
them to the supermarkets. The
supermarkets expect boosted
business as a result of their
participation. Some have re
ported sales increases of as
much as 10 percent.
If you're interested in
starting an Apples-for-the-
Student movement in your
community, join forces with a
supermarket chain that serves
your area and contact Peter
Jarvis or George Pittei at Ser
vice Marketing Group. 300
Garden City Plaza, Garden
City, New York II530; (516)
747-7111.
Magic Lessons
Programming may not be the
most popular activity among
Macintosh owners, but its
magic is strangely compelling
to thousands. Creating just the
right spells and incantations
can be difficult, though, so Sy
mantec has released a package
for the programmer's appren
tice in all of us.
Just Enough Pascal ($75)
is a Pascal programming tuto
rial that works with THINK's
Lightspeed Pascal, from Sy
mantec. By showing you how
to build a program step by
step, JEP teaches you about
programming logic. Pascal
commands, Macintosh-specific
COMPUTE!
specific
routines, and Lightspeedspecific
debugging. You may
open JEP as a novice, but
you'll close it knowing enough
to write your own applications.
The tutorials are stored in
a desk accessory. Choose JEP
Instructions from the Apple
menu and you'll find a hyper
media system with buttons for
program assembly instruc
tions. Other buttons take you
to explanations of concepts
and tinkering sessions for ex
perimenting with the code.
Just Enough Pascal is a
terrific teacher. If you have a
little programming back
ground, you'll be surprised at
how well the lessons explain
tough concepts. Each variable
type, each function, each pro
gram unit is explained carefully
with detailed, practical exam
ples. If you have no program
ming experience, you'll never
know how hard it can be to
grasp some of the necessary
information, because Syman
tec's program makes it fairly
easy.
Although Just Enough
Pascal is specific to THINK's
Lightspccd Pascal, that's not a
real drawback. Lightspeed is a
particularly good Pascal com
piler with excellent debugging
tools.
Nothing makes program
ming a snap except a perfectly
logical mind. For most of us,
only practice and experiments
will improve our skills. So
don't be surprised if the infor
mation in Just Enough Pascal
isn't instantly transparent—
that's simply not the nature of
programming. If you want to
learn the magic of the Mac,
though, you can get a good
start with Symantec's package.
Contact Symantec at 135
South Road. Bedford. Massa
chusetts 01730; (617) 274-4800.
Holy Writ
If you don't have The Macin
tosh Bible, get it. The book
gathers together a wealth of
information about the Mac:
tips, ideas, hints, and minireviews
that help you choose
new products and make better
use of old ones.
Not a book to be read
straight through, The Macin
tosh Bible, Second Edition is
best used as a reference when
you think there must be a bet
ter way to do something. It's
organized by topic—Fonts,
Page Layout, Utility Programs,
and so on. If you're wondering
whether there's a way to close
all open windows at once, for
example, look in the "Tips
about Windows" section in the
"Basic System Software" chap
ter. Sure enough, it's there:
Jusl hold down the Option key
as you click in the close box of
an active window tc close all
other windows, too.
Ifyou'reanold hand at
the Macintosh, you may find
the book too elementary at
first glance. It is, however, one
of the few places you can find
all this information under one
cover. You'd have to search
bulletin boards, join user
groups, peruse CompuServe,
and subscribe to most of the
Macintosh magazines to repro
duce the work that Arthur Naiman
and his crew have done in
The Macintosh Bible.
The Macintosh Bible
($28) is published by Gold
stein and Blair, Box 7635,
Berkeley, California 94707;
(415) 524-4000. The price in
cludes two free upgrades to
keep you up-lo-date with im
portant changes in the Mac
world.
Or Not to Upgrade
When is an upgrade not an up
grade? When you don't need it.
Apple has described the
latest upgrade to HyperCard
(version 1.2.2) as a mainte
nance release, and many of its
new features won't apply to
home users. Version 1.2.2 of
fers improved display and
printing of Japanese, Arabic,
and other characters, for in
stance, and provides CD-ROM
drive support for international
users and A/UX compatibility.
Doesn't sound too inter
esting, but surely some home
users could use these new
offerings.
HyperCard 1.2.2 docs fix
some minor bugs from earlier
versions, and the new version
also has improved sound capa
bilities. Of particular interest
to you may be its improved
operation in low-memory situ
ations. If you have a onemegabyte
Mac, HyperCard
1.2.2 is a good upgrade for
you.
Apple calls this version an
optional update, and U.S. cus
tomers aren't required to up
grade. If you're interested, the
update is available from all
registered Apple dealers.
Under the Apple
When they're stored as desk
accessories, applications take
on a new character. Word pro
cessors under the Apple menu
become handy scratch pads
with text-manipulation capa
bilities. Databases under the
Apple become easy-access
fountains of information. Gen
erally, desk accessories aren't
as feature-packed a;; stand
alone programs in the same
genre, but they offer enough
for people who have only an
occasional need for the
application.
Preferred Publishers has
released two such packages:
DAtabase and Vantage. DAtabase
h as good an informa
tion manager as most of us
need. Vantage, on the other
hand, really can't replace your
word processor. (But then,
your word processor prob
ably can't replace Vantage,
either.)
Although its reporting fea
tures are limited, DAtabase of
fers many useful functions..
Using a HyperCard-hkc inter
face called DAtabase Builder,
that's part of the package, you
create forms that look like
cards. Besides graphics tools,
DAtabase Builder offers basic
text fields, calculated fields,
check-box fields, and pop-up
menu fields.
Once you've designed the
look of your database form,
you quil DAtabase Builder
and start up DAtabase from
the Apple menu. From there,
you can enter, browse, sort,
and search for your infor
mation. DAtabase stores text
and graphics, so you can cata
log clip art and other pictures
as well as phone numbers and
addresses.
Too bad DAtabase Build
er isn't more closely linked
JUNE 1989 59