The Apple Macintosh Book Second Edition 1985

422 Pages·2016·27.58 MB·English

The
Apple®
Macintosh"
Book
SECOND EDITION
cary
LU
PUBLISHED BY
Microsoft Press
A Division of Microsoft Corporation
10700 Northup Way, Bellevue, Washington 98004
Copyright © 1985 by Cary Lu
Published 1984. Second Edition 1985
All rights reserved. No part of the contents of this book
may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means
without the written permission of the publisher.
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Lu, Cary, 1945-
Mac : The Apple Macintosh Book
Includes Index.
1. Macintosh (Computer) I. Title.
QA76.8.M3L8 1985 004.165 85-21432
ISBN 0-914845-66-7
Printed and bound in the United States of America
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 RRD RRD 8 9 0 9 8 7 6 5
Distributed to the book trade in the United States by Harper and Row.
Distributed to the book trade in Canada by General Publishing Company, Ltd.
Distributed to the book trade outside the United States and Canada
by Penguin Books Ltd.
Penguin Books Ltd., Harmondsworth, Middlesex, England
Penguin Books Australia Ltd., Ringwood, Victoria, Australia
Penguin Books N. Z. Ltd., 182-190 Wairau Road, Auckland 10, New Zealand
British Cataloging in Publication Data available
Trademark information is located at the back of the book
Disclaimer
The opinions in this book are strictly those of the
author and do not necessarily represent the views
of Microsoft Corporation, Apple Computer, Inc.,
or any other company.
Preface to the Second Edition
1X
Acknowledgments xi
Introduction: Computers Should Work Like People xv
1
Getting Acquainted 3
2 Starting Up 15
v
3 Word Processing 39
4 Graphics Software 55
5
Spreadsheets and Graphs 71
6 Business Programs 87
7 Integrated Software 97
8
Introduction to Communications 103
9 Dealing with Disks 113
10
Programming Languages 123
11
How Macintosh Works 141
12 The Video Screen 153
13 The Keyboard and the Mouse 159
14 Disk Drives and Disks 171
15 Input/Output Ports and Accessories 187
16 Printers 193
17
Graphic Arts 219
18
Modems 241
vi
19 Macintosh Software Issues 249
20 Problem-Solving and Getting Help 267
21 The Macintosh versus the IBM PC-AT 279
22 Macintosh Developments 289
23 The Future of Microcomputers 299
24 A Macintosh Medley 311
25 Communications 323
26 Local Area Networks and AppleTalk 345
27 Moving Information Between Computers 359
28 Reproducing the Macintosh Screen 373
29 Technical Topics 383
Glossary 399
Index 411
vii
Preface to the Second Edition
In the 17 months since the first edition, a flood of new Macintosh
products has appeared. To cope with the flood, this second edition has
much new and greatly revised material:
• Software and hardware developments in all areas.
• A dot-matrix printer comparison, including speed and
printing resolution measurements.
• How the LaserWriter and its PostScript graphics language
processor works.
• A chapter on graphic arts, including information on scan
ners and typography.
• Expanded discussion of programming languages, including
a comparative programming example in 16 languages.
• A comparison of the Macintosh design strategy versus the
IBM PC-AT.
• Expanded coverage of communications.
• Networks and AppleTalk.
• The Technical Topics chapter, now with wiring information
for all ports, internal display adjustments, an annotated list
of system error messages, and an explanation of why the
Macintosh should not be operated above 15,000 feet-and
what to do about it.
The first edition included much introductory material for readers
who might not have even seen a Macintosh. To save space in this sec
ond edition, I have shortened the introductory portions and elimi
nated most material that can be found in Apple's manuals.
Although I describe many specific products, my main goals are to
explain how and why things work-or don't work-and to discuss
future developments. Because the future will bring many improve
ments, I use stringent standards, standards that will not suffer from
inflation. In printer resolution, for example, I consider the Image
writer in its "high resolution" mode to be low resolution (very low
resolution in standard mode), and the LaserWriter to be medium reso
lution. Everyone should understand that, at present, only typesetting
equipment is capable of quality printing; everything else is a compro
mise. In graphics, as in all areas, computers should make things better,
not merely easier.
CaryLu
]uly1985
Boston, Massachusetts
lx
Acknowledgments
This book comes out of a conversation between Bill Gates of
Microsoft and Steve Jobs of Apple. Jobs's development team was hard
at work on the then-secret Macintosh, which was many months away
from introduction. Microsoft was busy writing application programs
and helping Apple with the Mac interface and many other design is
sues. Bill suggested that Microsoft's new publishing division prepare a
book as well.
Nahum Stiskin, general manager of Microsoft Press, asked me to
write the book shortly afterwards. I replied that I had never heard of
any microcomputer that was sufficiently interesting to write a whole
book about. Nahum insisted that I go to the west coast and see the
Macintosh in action.
Here is the book.
Many people helped in its preparation. Among the staff of Apple
Computer, I especially thank Chris Espinosa, Martin Haeberli, Mike
Murray, Mike Boich, and Guy Kawasaki. Almost everyone at Micro
soft seems to have helped at one time or another. Jeff Harbers, leader
of the Macintosh software development group at Microsoft, played a
key role, along with others in the group. Despite the extraordinary
pressures of completing extremely complex products under an abso
lute deadline, everyone patiently answered questions and offered sug
gestions. These people really understand how the Macintosh and its
software work; any errors are mine alone.
At Microsoft Press, Joyce Cox and Salley Oberlin contributed out
standing editing; Elaine Foster, Bonnie Dunham, and Marianne
Moon put in long hours turning the manuscript into finished form.
Art director Karen-Lynne de Robinson, along with Nick Gregoric,
Sue Cook, and Chris Stern, turned out the visual portion of this book.
I also thank Barry Preppernau and Larry Levitsky.
Fellow author Steve Lambert shared the pleasures and frustrations
of working with hardware and software under development and pro
vided much valuable advice and insight.
At a critical time, Ellen Chu came in and read several chapters of
the book. She didn't say much; she just threw them out and rewrote
them. She was right.
CaryLu
February 1984
Boston, Massachusetts
xi
For this second edition, virtually everyone who worked on the first
edition at Microsoft Press helped out again, and I thank them all
again. JoAnne Woodcock edited the second edition, and I also thank
David Laraway, Dave Rygmyr, Lee Thomas, Debbie Kern, Stephanie
Ideta, John Berry, Lia Matteson, Greg Hickman, Karen Meredith,
and Lesley Link-Moore. Mark Alsop contributed many new line
drawings.
Cary Lu
]uly1985
XII