Re: Quark QC10 up and running

[obsbedia2@aol.com (Obsbedia2)]

The best program launchers for my hard drives have always been SuperSelector
(Thank you, Dr. Buggie!) and MouseDesk/DeskTop.

SuperSelector fits on any size disk with plenty of room to spare.  This
mouse-text based program is extremely fast and doesn't require checking all the
drives before giving options to launch ANY program.  It can launch 26 different
programs from its hot keys as well.  It's a shame that the source code was lost
and development halted.  I haven't had any luck tracking down it's developer.

MouseDesk, MouseDesk II and DeskTop v1.1 (also known as "Ultimate DeskTop v1.1"
or some such thing) all provide monochrome, double hi-res graphic desktop GUIs
that kick and are vastly superior to Quark Catalyst.  Each is able to also
launch 24 user defined programs.  A month ago, I contacted Richard Bennett
(http://www.zipworld.com.au/~kashum/) about upgrading or starting anew to
produce a new, fourth-generation GUI for the 8-Bit Apple IIs.  Richard has
written wonderful software for the 8 and 16 bit Apple II series and GUIs are
his declared specialties.  Has anyone had any contact with him recently?  I
haven't had any response back at all.

Among my ideas for the 8bit upgrade are:

1.  More than ten volumes on the desktop.
      MouseDesk allows this with it's icon layout (well, it has 11 volumes or
so), but DeskTop assigns the volume icons to the bottom and left of the screen,
five a piece.  Two 3.5" drives and two 5.25 drives hooked up to a //e limits
the number of partitions on the hard drive to six (32 x 6 = 192 Megs).  9
partitions increases the hard drive size to 288 Megs.  Give up one or two of
the other drives provides 10 or 11 partitions and up to 352 Megs, nearly
double!  13 volumes should be representable on the desktop.  Currently, DeskTop
doesn't show the higher slot volumes (which includes the boot volume with the
hard drive in slot 7 and 11 volumes on the desktop (such as a /RAM volume).

2.  Adjust the "Quit" in the pull-down menu.  I've tried to get DeskTop to exit
to your program, _Spark_, but without luck.  Spark gives me peace of mind with
my dependable //e and it's valuable and fast IDE hard drive.   Tony C. in
Canada would instead like it to exit to BASIC.

3.  Add to the pull-down menu:  "(Close) All but Front."  It has "Close All,"
but often, after digging through subdirectories, both MouseDesk and DeskTop
prompt with a dialog box that some windows must be closed before another can be
opened.  When using windows to transfer files from different subdirectories,
especially deep ones, there can be a lot of windows to close.  

4.  Increase the number of icons and open windows that the program can handle. 
MouseDesk handles 9 open windows; DeskTop allow 8 to be open.  These are
maximums; however, and are dependent on the number of icons in the open
subdirectories.  I haven't been able to get into my AppleWorks3's TimeOut
folder in years.  Just too many icons to open a second window.  If this isn't
possible, then perhaps an "Airlock" Closing option be added (perhaps activated
by holding down the Apple key) so that when a folder icon is selected, the
current window closes before the folder's window is opened.  This would reduce
the number of icons that the program needs to handle by reducing the number of
open windows.  

  Gee, that's a pretty good feature on it's own, even if you can increase the
number of icons and windows.  DeskTop and MouseDesk really slow down with a lot
of open windows because after any changes on the desktop, each window that
overlaps another must be redrawn, from the back windows to the front.  This
would really speed things up!

5.  Minimizing window bars with a double click.  This is such a nice feature on
a small desktop that someone wrote this for the IIgs.  It sure would be nice on
the little 8-bit desktop, too!

6.  As PROSEL-8 does, be able to REALLY drag files from one subdirectory to
another one, instead of just creating another copy in the second subdirectory,
requiring you to go back and delete the original file.

7.  If "6" is doable, then key-mouse combination is need for those times when
files are meant to be copied into another subdirectory, and not just moved. 
DeskTop already has a key-mouse combination in it's Desk Accessory (Yes, this
program has Desk Accessories!) "Sort Directory."  When the Apple key is held
down, the user can click on icons in a subdirectory and Sort Directory will
remember the order in which the icons were selected and place them in that new
order, with any not selected placed afterward in their original order.  If no
Apple key is held down and Sort Directory is selected, then the directory is
alphabetized.

8.  The 5 Desk Accessories are nice, but some experimenting has shown that
there are room for three more.  One of the DeskTop team members remembered that
there were some more developed that didn't make it to the final version.  As it
stands, Desk Accessories includes:  Sort Directory, Text File Reader, Apple
Sliding Puzzle, a four-function calculator (that doesn't always show all of the
keys or their symbols), and a Date Setter (For computers without clocks.  I've
always been surprised that this one made it to publication on a IIgs program).

8A.  A Notepad is really missing from this group.  Especially useful on an
Apple II with a big hard drive and lots of subdirectories to keep track of.
 
8B.  A "Find File" feature.  AppleWorks has a TimeOut for it that is super
quick.  I've come across a couple of stand alone programs that work, but can
take hours on a hard drive.

8C.  A Calendar.  Even a plain display calendar without allowing entries. 
Sometimes you just want to see what day it will be the Tuesday after next. 
MultiScribe/BeagleWrite has a calendar that allows entries, but I haven't found
 that ability too useful.

8D.  A Picture Viewer.  The Text File Reader is tied with the Directory Sorter
as my two most used and most useful DAs.  The Text Reader allows just about any
file to be opened for viewing, not just Text files.  Sure, I get a few extra
characters in an AppleWorks file, but it's often easier and faster than even
booting Quikview, finding the file, and then exiting, rebooting DeskTop and
getting back to the subdirectory after several windows again.  

  It would be equally convenient to be able to click on a icon and then select
"Picture Viewer" to see Double HiRes, HiRes or PrintShop graphics displayed on
the screen.  Several programs have this feature, including showing the images
in a directory in a slideshow presentation.

9.  Further down the Menubar, it would be nice to see Date and Time displayed
on the right hand side of the Menubar.   Not a big deal; just nice and
hopefully easy to do.   Clockcards, NoSlot Clocks and even DeskTop's Date
Setter would provide the information to a stock //e, //c or //c+ (or Laser ).

10.  Eliminate the multiple disk check when the desktop is chose on DeskTop. 
MouseDesk has only the desktop presentation and it only checks the online disks
once to see if there is a ProDOS volume online, as does the text-based program,
 SuperSelector.  DeskTop has a menu that come up first (unless you press "Q"
for "Quit to desktop") so that programs can be launched without checking the
drives for volumes.  Desktop usually will check each drive twice (sometimes
once, sometimes three or more times) when the desktop gui is searching for
volumes.  Wastes time, is noisy, annoying and one of the reasons why I use
SuperSelector to launch many programs, instead of DeskTop.  It's also the
reason that I use to keep ProDOS disks in the 5.25 inch drives:  DeskTop and
MouseDesk move faster when they don't come across empty 5.25" drives.

11.  Increase the number of programs that can launched from DeskTop's
"QuickLaunch" Menu (currently 24).

12.  Eliminate the //c+ bug.  DeskTop works on the //+, just as MouseDesk and
MouseDesk2 do, but DeskTop continues to spin the internal disk drive as long as
the program is running.

13.  Add the "keyboard only" commands that MouseDesk has to manipulate the gui
desktop without the need for a mouse, including the ability to close Desk
Accessories.

14.  Improving the "Info" feature.  It may be possible to add the "notes"
window that the IIgs Users enjoy.  The 8-bit Apple II GEOS allows three lines
of notes to be assigned to files from the desktop.

Jay Edwards



<<Frank Townsend wrote:

> Shock of shocks the QC10 works fine!  Although I must say that
> setting it up is daunting.  I first got the idea that the way to go
> was to make a lot of floppy-sized ProDOS volumes (like an Apple Corvus
> Omnidrive).  However, that now seems less attractive since you have
> to mount and unmount each one to access them.  Better large drives
> with directories, I think.

If you don't have it, you might want to try to find Quark's Catalyst program,
which is a program selector and large drive manager. Should be the perfect fit
for that drive.

Roy>>