From: gids.rs@sasktel.net   
      
   > I can't thank you enough for sending me copies Mark Lim's CiderXPress,    
   > NuShrinkItX, QuickViewDHGR, and SCIIBinX utilities. [Apple II    
   > utilities for use on a Mac]    
      
   No problem.  More than happy to return the favor after you sent me your   
   Proterm upgrades   
      
      
   > I've tried three of them with Mojave (10.14.6) and can tell that Mark    
   > put a *bunch* of effort into them, although he credits Andy McFadden    
   > with the heavy lifting.    
      
   Amazing how they work on the newer OSes considering he developed these on   
   MacOS 10.5   
      
       
   > The icons and user interface are top quality, and he even wrote both    
   > SpotLight and QuickLook plugins for them.    
   >    
   > The UnShrinkItX application seems to work particularly well, and    
   > includes the ability to change the contents of archives, including    
   > adding or deleting files, and changing file attributes. It also allows    
   > one to make a new archive. These are things that Kelvin's ShrinkFitX    
   > doesn't do, as it is primarily an unarchiver.    
      
   > CiderXPress, although it looks great and works for many things, still    
   > seems to need a little work. For example, it will create a new Apple II    
   > ProDOS disk image, but seems not to format it, and thus won't allow one    
   > to copy files to it. I had it crash on me several times in a row.    
      
   For most things I have pretty good work-arounds.  The disk images I already   
   have pre-made empty formatted 800 kb and 32 Mb disk images.  On the Mac, I   
   just right-click on the disk image and duplicate it.  Rename the copy, then   
   dbl-click on the copy for    
   immediate use in CiderXPress.  Which I think is faster than having to navigate   
   the menus in CiderXPress to create the images.   
       
   > But, it does open existing disk images and allow a number of operations    
   > on them, so it's close. Very close.    
      
   Yeah, I didn't know enough yet to know what extras to ask for.     
      
      
   > And, I think I prefer Mark's CiderXPress and NuShrinkItX Quick Look    
   > plugins for quickly viewing the contents of Apple II disk images and    
   > archives over the Quick Look plugin that Gerard Putter includes with    
   > Virtual II. The Apple II graphics viewer Quick Look plugin is nice, too,    
   > although it's tough for a plugin to identify Apple II graphics because    
   > so many of them were merely saved as BIN/$06 type files, without an    
   > extension appended to the filename.    
   >    
   > I haven't tried SCIIBinX since it's been a while since I've used any of    
   > those type files.   
      
   This one is awesome and is hundreds of times faster than opening each .bsq   
   file in GSOS.  I dragged hundreds of files to the window and it unsqueezed   
   them all in seconds.   
      
      
   > When Mark was writing these several years ago, he asked me to be a beta    
   > tester (like you) but at the time I didn't have a Mac that would run    
   > them. I wish I had, though, as I certainly would have enjoyed testing    
   > them and offering a few suggestions.    
      
   I offered him some money so he would keep updating.  But he refused.  It is   
   just something he wanted to do.   
      
      
   > Have you corresponded with Mark since he wrote these? I'd like to see if    
   > perhaps he had worked any more on them or would release updated builds    
   > of them publicly.    
      
   I got the jist at the time he just wanted to have something working, but after   
   that he didn't have much interest in keeping up with it.   
      
      
   > If not for your help as a result of this newsgroup, I still wouldn't    
   > have seen them. Much obliged, sir.    
      
   For me, this is one of the more advanced newsgroups that I like to participate   
   in with the smartest programmers hanging out here.  I am probably at the   
   bottom of the totem pole with anything to offer, so I am happy to help when I   
   can.  And I appreciate    
   all the posts you have done about printing.  Those are really good reads.   
      
      
   > The last email address I had for Mark had a yahoo Singapore domain.    
      
   I lost his information when I had a computer crash back then.  I backed up   
   anything important including his software, but unfortunately not his emails.    
       
      
      
   > > The one nice thing that ShrinkitX does is it can view the text within    
   > > TXT, AWP, AWGS and forked text documents. Disappointingly, he did    
   > > not include this ability in CiderXPress. The ability to copy from    
   > > one CiderXPress disk image to another works goods, but have to drag    
   > > the files out of a ShrinkItX window to a folder, then back to a    
   > > CiderXPress window to copy files out of a ShrinkIt file.    
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)