© 1996 Lawrence I. Charters
Washington Apple Pi Journal, Vol. 18, no. 4, July-August 1996, pp. 23-27.
There are a few things in life that we all agree are essential. My list includes a warm shower every morning, cold Coke (never that other brand), and fresh-baked chocolate chip cookies when someone wants to bribe me, all hallmarks of an advanced civilization. Your list might differ somewhat. Or maybe you are from a less advanced civilization.
But what are the essentials for your Macintosh? Computers live faster lives than people, faster lives than even dogs and cats. What was an essential six months ago, in the world of computers, may be obsolete today. So what do you really need for your Mac, circa 1996?
Basic Mac
First, you need to define “the basic Macintosh.” “Macintosh” can mean either an Apple Macintosh or an Apple Performa. But it can also mean a Mac-compatible from Power Computing, DayStar Digital or Radius (and maybe some others by the time this appears in print). As of 1996, the basic Macintosh should include:
- Color capability. This doesn’t necessarily mean a color monitor, but the Mac itself should be capable of running color programs. By these criteria, a Power Book 230 with a grayscale LCD screen is “color capable,” as is a Macintosh SE/30, but a Macintosh SE is not. And yes, an actual color monitor is ideal. Note that all Macs currently produced, including Mac clones, are “color capable.”
- 8 megabytes of real RAM. Virtual memory can be nice at times, and various “doubler” products have legions of enthusiastic owners, but there is no substitute for real memory. As a bonus, memory prices in 1996 are the lowest they have ever been. If you can put 200 megabytes of RAM into your Mac, and you can afford it, do so. But make sure you have at least 8 megabytes. Apple has recently said they will ship all new Macs with a minimum of 12 MB of RAM.
- At least 200 megabytes of hard disk space. Thanks to the SCSI port on the back of all Macs it is very easy to add extra disk space: just plug in an external drive. So if your Macintosh LC has nothing beyond the
40 megabyte drive it came with, plug in another drive. Hard disk drive prices in 1996 are absurdly low, and it is virtually impossible to buy a new drive smaller than 800 MB. - System 7 .5.1 or better. Yes, System 7.0 was the last “free” version of the Mac operating system, which means that if your machine didn’t come with System 7.5, you’ll have to buy it. But so much of the current software requires features of System 7.5 that this is now an absolute essential. True, it may be possible to browse the Internet or run a late-model graphics or word processing package without System 7 .5 – but it will be more trouble than it is worth. The updates to bring System 7.5 to either 7.5.l or 7 .5.3 are free, through your friendly local user group.
- A properly installed modem, 14,400 bps (bits per second) or faster, appropriate software (properly installed), and a subscription to a user group bulletin board, Internet Service Provider, or commercial provider (such as AOL, America Online). Computers are communications tools, so if you aren’t set up to communicate, you are needlessly crippled.
- Electricity. The infamous might prefer to live in rural Montana shacks without utilities, but your Mac, at least, does nothing useful without electricity. If you live in an area prone to thunderstorms, you might also want to invest in a UPS (uninterruptable power supply), since too much electricity can ruin your Mac’s day – forever. If a UPS seems too elaborate for your needs, consider getting a Power Key Pro power strip (Washington Apple Pi Journal, Jan.-Feb 1996, pp. 59-60). While not as cheap as this week’s special down at the hardware store, the Power Key Pro is tailor-made for your
Mac, and knows exactly how to treat your peripherals, including modems.
Does this mean that your Macintosh Plus, Power Book 100, or Macintosh SE is worthless? Not at all. If you have one of these machines, and it is in working order, and does something useful for you, then continue to use it. But keep in mind that, compared to machines with the characteristics listed above, these older Macs can’t take full advantage of the rich variety of digital life available in 1996.
“But what are the essentials for your Macintosh? Computers live faster lives than people, faster lives than even dogs and cats. What was an essential six months ago, in the world of computers, may be obsolete today. So what do you really need for your Mac, circa 1996?”
Note, too, that the list of basics does not include a requirement to have a PowerPC processor. Yes, Power Mac computers are really spiffy. Yes, they really are better, in almost every sense, than non-Power Macs. But in 1996 you can get along just fine with an old, obsolete, creaking Macintosh II, for example, provided it has adequate memory, disk space, and System 7 .5.
Note, as well, that the list does not include a printer. While most people print things from their computers, few know exactly what kind of printer they need (ink jet, laser, color, portable) until they’ve used their computer for several months. Until you decide on your needs, your local copy store, user group office, library, or Mac-owning friend might be all you need, provided your needs are modest. Spend the money you might spend on a printer, if you knew what to buy, on memory and disk space; you’ll definitely need those.
The Hard Part
Assembling a decent computer system is easy. Doing something useful with it requires something quite difficult: learning. This seems especially difficult for Mac users, famous the world over for never reading their manuals, never following instructions, or deciding that the few instructions they may actually read are restrictive- so they ignore them. Literacy isn’t really dead, but it is often overlooked as an essential.
These books cover the essentials on how to do something useful, even brilliant, with your Mac. They are listed in order of importance, starting with “extremely critical.” The list is also occupation neutral: these books are invaluable to programmers, professors, painters, poets, and priests.
The Little Mac Book
The Little Mac Book, 4th edition, by Robin Williams (Peachpit Press, 1995). One quote on the back cover calls an earlier edition of this the “best book ever written about the Macintosh,” which is no longer true: this edition is easily the best.* The Little Mac Book starts with basic terminology, covers setting up a machine, how to use the mouse, desktop, Finder, menus, keyboard (a skill overlooked by most Mac users), icons, folders, basic typing skills – everything.
Loading documents, saving documents, throwing away documents, and printing documents each have their own heavily illustrated, tightly written chapter. Managing the System Folder, fonts, control panels, desk accessories, the Apple Menu and aliases also get their own chapters, concentrating exclusively on “hands-on” skills with nothing else thrown in but a wickedly dry sense of humor.
Some of the chapters appear to focus on the obvious, such as Chapter 26, Find File. Yet the Find command is one of the great blessings of the Mac world, without equal on those “other” personal computers, though few people ever take the time to learn how to use it effectively. Robin shows how, in 10 pages. Another under-appreciated and under- utilized Mac feature, file sharing, is covered in, again, just 10 pages. (Trivia question for people who think they are detail fanatics: in the file sharing chapter, who is “Shannon” and what is Shannon’s relation to Robin?)
Over the years, The Little Mac Book has grown from 104 pages ($12.95 in 1990) to 393 pages ($17 .95 in 1996). What hasn’t changed is the extraordinary attention to detail, the very sneaky sense of humor and fun, the great index and table of contents (perfect for looking up something in a hurry), and the highly readable layout and design. The Fourth Edition covers all things Mac, including pre-System 7 details, but the emphasis is on System 7 and 7.5 (with a special section on the unique Performa software). Also welcome are the great cartoons and illust rations by John Grimes; you can spend quite a bit of time just flipping through the pages, laughing at the illustrations (provided you read the book first so you know why they are funny).
As for how a “little” book can grow to almost four times its original size, Robin wrote, designed, and laid out the first edition on her Mac SE with a 20 megabyte drive. For the current ver sion, she used her Power Mac 8100/100 with a 20-inch color monitor. Little books grow for the same reason little computers get r eplaced with bigger computers: things change.
“Assembling a decent computer system is easy. Doing something useful with it requires something quite difficult: learning. This seems especially difficult for Mac users, famous the world over for never reading their manuals, never following instructions, or deciding that the few instructions they may actually read are restrictive – so they ignore them. Literacy isn’t really dead, but it is often overlooked as an essential.”
I like to give books as gifts, and The Little Mac Book is my second most favorite gift, surpassed only by William Goldman’s Princess Bride (Ballantine, 1973). True, Princess Bride is a novel, and has nothing to do with Macs, but you should probably read it, too.
Computer Manuals
Though it violates the Mac work ethic (“If I wanted to work, I wouldn’t have purchased a Mac”), read the hardware manuals that came with your computer. In particular, your machine probably came with one manual called something like “Read Me
As for the rest of the documentation that comes with your computer, don’t read it unless you need to – yes, you do have a Mac, and there isn’t any reason why you should spend your time reading manuals when you could be playing with your computer. But do glance through the Table of Contents and Index of all your manuals. That way, when you do have questions you’ll know in advance how the documentation is organized and how to quickly find an answer.
And if the documentation lacks a Table of Contents or Index, complain. Macs are powerful communications tools, so communicate!
The Mac is not a typewriter
The Mac is Not a Typewriter, by Robin Williams (Peachpit Press, 1990) and Beyond The Mac is Not a T
The Mac is Not a Typewriter has a title that splendidly summarizes the book: the Mac isn’t a typewriter, so don’t pretend that it is! Don’t space twice after periods and terminal punctuation, use tabs to line works up, not spaces, use real quotation marks, use real apostrophes, avoid underlining in almost every circumstance — in all, over 40 suggestions how to use your Mac properly, with splendid “wrong way” and “right way” illustrations of every rule. Read, and re-read, this slim
Beyond the Mac is N
The latter volume ranges from issues in basic readability and punctuation to how to properly use initial caps, pull quotes and decorative type. Examples of bad type, good type, and better type illustrate every topic. Pay close attention to the examples and you will find some added treats, such as the words to the famous Western song, “Hormone Derange:”O gummier hum warder buffer-lore rum Enter dar enter envelopes ply, Ware soiled’em assured adage cur-itching ward…”
Both these books should be required reading for all government clerks, secretaries, managers, and other producers of bureaucratic paper. In fact, they should be summarily declared the official successors to the GPO Manual of Style, forever banning double-spaced memos written in Courier 12. Fat chance of this ever happening, but it should happen.
Non-Designer’s Design Book
The Non-Designer’s Design Book: Design and Typographic Principles for the Visual Novice, by Robin Williams (Peachpit Press, 1994). Probably my favorite Mac book – certainly the only one I’ve read more than once — The Non-Designer’s Design Book addresses a critical cultural problem: by putting Macs into the hands of ordinary people, Apple has turned even simple, inexpensive word processors into powerful publishing tools, capable of producing materials the equal of major publishing houses. Unfortunately, “ordinary people” lack any background in design or topography. Robin attempts to steer budding publishers away from desktop publishing horrors and towards mastery of some simple principles. (And no, she doesn’t address spelling or grammar at all.)
Simple, perhaps, but subtle: contrast, repetition, alignment, and proximity. This deserves a quote: “When culling these principles from the vast morass of design theory, I thought there must be some appropriate and memorable acronym within these conceptual ideas that would help people remember them. Well, uh, there is a memorable — but very inappropriate — acronym. Sorry.”
As in the previous books, each concept is richly and imaginatively illustrated, often with very funny examples of bad typography. Many of the examples will prove painful as you nod sadly and say, “yes, I’ve done that.” But you’ll immediately brighten, warmed by the knowledge that you now know what is wrong, and, even better, how to correct it.
Along the way, Robin covers the basic characteristics of type and offers simple, memorable, useful tutorials on how to identify typefaces. Don’t know a slab serif typeface from sans serif? Does Modern and Old Style seem the same? Can you tell the difference between a decorative font and a script font? A slim, 11-page chapter will give you a solid understanding of these basic typeface categories, and with any luck, you’ll quickly appreciate why the entire world doesn’t stick to just Times, Helvetica, Courier and Zapf Chancery.
The examples, as always, are delightful. Also diverting: it wasn’t that difficult to figure out the “Furry Tells” of “Ladle Rat Rotten Hut” and “Guilty Looks,” but the “Fay-Mouse Tells” of “Casing Adder Bet” and “Violate Huskings” consumed way too much thought.
The best parts, however, are the Table of Contents and Index. Not only are they quite functional in their own right, but both are exquisite, unheralded examples of contrast, repetition, alignment and proximity. It is sobering to be in awe of a Table of Contents; this is a work of art.
Why is The Non-Designer’s Design Book so far down in the list if it is so wonderful? Quite simply: you can’t appreciate the beauty of typography and design until you’ve first mastered the basics of getting your Mac to do the mundane.
Macintosh Product Registry
One complaint often levied at the Mac is that it lacks the wide range of software available for “other” computers. This is actually a silly argument; how many word processors, spreadsheets, database programs, address books and such do you really need? On the other hand, sometimes you really do need to do the extraordinary, and for that you need the Macintosh Multimedia & Product Registry.
Published quarterly by Redgate, the Registry averages around 450 pages, virtually all of it indexed listings of hardware and software products. You can search for items by product name or company name, or scan through the category listings. Each product includes a brief description, hardware requirements, retail price, the company name, address, and phone number, and in many cases an Internet E-mail address. If you need a program to do gene sequencing, or designing steel beams, or managing a horse farm, you can probably find it in the Registry.
On the bad side: finding the Registry is sometimes difficult. When it is first issued each quarter, you can usually find copies at large newsstands and computer stores. After that — it vanishes. If you don’t subscribe (using the tear-out cards in each issue), getting a new copy is often difficult.
The Registry also features some articles in the front, before the listings. For the most part, these are forgettable; I’d use the guides for years before I even noticed them. Once upon a time, Redgate also published a CD-ROM version of the Registry, perfect for computer professionals who want to use their computers to do complex searches. Repeated calls to Redgate failed to discover if this is still being produced; nobody seemed to know.
Despite these limitations, the Registry is the best single-source for information on what is available at any given time. Don’t rely on mail-order catalogs (which promote what they want you to buy, not what you need) or computer store shelves (which, let’s face it, only have in stock what they haven’t been able to sell). The Mac is well supplied with hardware and software, and the Registry is an excellent guide to this wealth.
No Bookcase Bestsellers
Once upon a time, after completing graduate school, I managed a large bookstore. While working there, I came up with the concept of the “bookcase bestseller,” a book widely proclaimed to be important, so important people would buy it and put it on their bookshelves. They’d never read it-the book was to be seen, not read.
Don’t let any of these “essentials” become bookcase bestsellers. With the exception of the Registry, all the books are quite short, to the point, and exceedingly well written and illustrated. Similarly, under the “Basic Mac” section, don’t do what many people do and buy a modem — and then never use it. A modem that you use will rapidly become one of your favorite peripherals, and if you have one with blinking lights on the front it also is great for impressing friends and relatives. To state the obvious, if you don’t use the modem — or read the books — you’ll find they won’t do you much good.
* I confess, I’m quoting myself. Peachpit Press has reprinted, on the back cover of many of Williams’ books, part of my review of the first edition of The Little Mac Book. The review is from Resources (the magazine of the San Diego Macintosh User Group), October 1990, p. 18. However, lest you think something is amiss, I’ve never requested, received, or expected any kind of kickback from Peachpit Press, though Robin Williams did send me a signed copy of The Little Mac Book, 3rd Ed.
Sources
PowerKey Pro, approx. $100. Sophisticated Circuits, Inc., 19017 120th Ave. NE, Suite 106, Bothell, WA 98011, (206) 485-7979, sales@sophisticated.com or http:// www.sophisticated.com
Computer manuals, yours. Look in that big box your computer came in. Another place to look: under your monitor, or under your desk.
Robin Williams, The Little Mac Book, 4th Edition. Peachpit Press, 1995. 395 pages, $17 .95. ISBN 1- 56609-149-7. sales@peachpit.com or http://www.peachpit.com
William Goldman, The Princess Bride. Ballantine Del Rey, 1977. 288 pages, $5.99. ISBN 0-345-34803-6. http://www.randomhouse.com
Robin Williams, The Mac is Not a T
Robin Williams, Beyond The
Robin Williams, The Non-Designer’s Design Book: Design and Typographic Principles for the Visual Novice. Peachpit Press, 1994. 144 pages, $14.95. ISBN 1-56609-159-4.
Macintosh Multimedia & Product Registry (quarterly), approx. $15. Redgate Communications Corp., 660 Beachland Blvd., Vero Beach , CA 32963 800-333-8760