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Megarom Macintosh CD Software (Quantum Leap)(1992).iso
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STD 1.02
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1991-12-30
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What is Startup Downloader?
Startup Downloader (STD) is a control panel that lets you create ‘download sets’ of
PostScript fonts and programs (.ps files). These files, when double–clicked, download the
fonts/.ps files to a selected PostScript printer.
How do I install it?
To install STD, just drag it into your System Folder. If you’re using System 7, you can
place STD anywhere on your disk.
What does it need to work?
STD needs System 6 or above, HFS, and a PostScript laser printer that can be used via
AppleTalk. STD is System 7 kosher, but only uses System 7 features when things go
wrong. Balloon Help is available.
Just a warning
STD has only been tested on my machine, which happens to be an SE/30 running under
System 7 in 32–bit mode. It also works with my printer. Since this is the only system I’ve
got access to, it’s the only one that I’m sure STD works under. If you have any problems,
contact me and I’ll try & fix it.
Also, STD modifies the data and resource forks of the sets it creates, so you have to
configure anti–virus utilities to ignore this or the sets won’t work.
How do I use it?
Using STD is pathetically easy. Open STD from the control panel, and you should see
something like this (System 6 users won’t see the title bar):
On the right side are the ‘menu buttons’, with titles (and functions) that should be familiar.
The big box on the left shows the files currently in the set. Above the box is the name of
the current set file (since there isn’t an active set, it’s set to ‘Untitled’). On the bottom are
two options that I’ll explain later.
To create a set, click on the “New Set” button. STD will prompt you for a LaserWriter file,
and will refuse to continue unless you select one [the explination is long and involved, so
I’ll put it off…for now, just select any old LaserWriter file]. After you select a LaserWriter
file buttons start turning on, letting you do more.
Click on “Add File”. STD will prompt you to select any PostScript font or text file. Go
ahead, add a couple of fonts. When you’re finished, click on the “Done” button.
(See what happens when you click on a file in the list…the “Remove” button turns on. If
you click on “Remove”, the file will be removed from the list.)
Now that you’ve added all those fonts, click on the “Save” button. STD will ask you to
name the file and where to put the file. There you go; when you double–click on that file,
the fonts and text files you chose will be downloaded to the printer. Boy, wasn’t that fun?
Hey, what about those two options?
The two options at the bottom of the window control the behavior of the extractor. The first
one, “Minutes to wait before starting”, controls the length of time STD will wait for a
printer before it complains to you. If STD can’t find the printer in the specified time, it
figures that the printer is turned off and will alert you to this fact.
The second option, “Ignore file–not–found errors”, controls STD’s behavior when a file in
the set can’t be found. Usually, STD will prompt you for the file if it can’t find it. If this is
irritating to you, or don’t want to be bothered, or whatever, turn this option on and STD
will just skip over the file and go on to the next one. This won’t stop STD from reporting
other errors, however.
On to the Extractor
There are only a few things that are relevant to the extractor, because it’s basically a small,
dumb thing that doesn’t have many brains. The extractor will look for a printer for however
long you specify. It will download everything you tell it to, and under System 7 will even
jump into the background to keep out of your way. It will even let you quit while it’s
downloading.
But when an error occurs, the extractor will be sure to let you know (unless the error is a
file–not–found error and you tell it to ignore them). If it’s a PostScript error, or if the
printer wasn’t found, or if it was cut off from the printer, the extractor will notify you of
that fact and ask you to choose from three options: “Quit”, which is self–explanitory, “Try
Again”, and “Another Printer”.
If you choose “Another Printer”, the extractor will prompt you for another LaserWriter file
and will use that file to determine the printer. Then it will start over.
If you choose “Try Again”, the extractor will try the printer again.
Things you should know
Before you go off and download the whole Adobe Type Library, there are some things that
you should know about STD’s behavior.
• The LaserWriter file is the extractor’s link to your laser printer. From the LaserWriter file
comes the name of the printer to download to, so it is very important that a laser printer be
selected before the extractor starts. This doesn’t mean that you have to select a printer from
the Chooser every time you use STD; it means that, at some point in the past a printer was
selected using that LaserWriter file. If you choose another printer in the Chooser, the
extractor will use that printer.
• STD does an exitserver when it connects to the printer, so any PostScript text files that
you download shouldn’t.
•STD will allow you to download any text file, so be sure that you know what’s in a
PostScript text files before you add it to a set.
• While you can quit while a job is in progress, I don’t recommend it. It could, for
example, leave a font half–defined and cause ugly things to happen to your printer. In any
case, it probably won’t be very good for your printer’s VM.
• STD assumes your printer’s password is ‘0’. If it isn’t, well, the set will be temporarily
downloaded. You can change the password the exitserver uses, but you’ll have to do it for
every set you make, because the extractor is stored in STD’s data fork (neat, huh?).
• STD doesn’t do TrueType, because I don’t have the TT book (donations accepted).
Considering that TT Chicago expands to about 300K (no joke!) when you save it as a
PostScript file, I don’t really see it as a problem.
• Holding down the option key while a set is launching causes the set to quit.
The Fee
If you like STD and it makes your life easier, send me $20 and help me support my habit.
I’ll be happy just to hear that someone has thrown away their copy of LaserStatus and is
using this instead. Send all donations to:
Manuel Veloso
9 High Rock Way #3
Allston, MA 02134–2414
CIS: 70365,1426
AOL: FISH26
If you have improvements, suggestions, problems, comments, hate mail, post a message
on AOL or CIS. This program is far from finished, since it only does what I want it to do.
Legal Stuff
This product should work in the manner described above. If it doesn’t, throw it away.
While I’ve tried to make it bulletproof, you the public must realize that I can’t cover every
conceivable thing that you might do. Thus, if your printer explodes, your machine bombs,
you lose that Ph.D. thesis you’ve been working on for the last fifteen years, if Elvis comes
and visits, if you get promoted, or if any bad, nasty, or evil thing happens because of this
program or because of the behavior of this program you agree you will not sue me, my
relatives, or my cat. This product cannot be distributed by disk or CD-ROM on any
organized scale without permission, unless you’re a user group. Violators will be
persecuted.
The products mentioned here are the copyrights/trademarks of their respective owners,
whatever that means.