ADB (port)
The ADB (Apple Desktop Bus), is a cable/port standard on most Macs. It allows you to connect the keyboard and mouse, via through connectors.
Alias
Is a special file which points to the location of the original file/folder/disk. If you launch an alias, it will open the original file, folder or disk window instead. If you bin an alias, it will NOT delete the original.
Allocated Memory
The Macintosh Operating System is pretty dumb when it comes allocating memory for applications/programs, it doesn't have any Memory Management features at all. So the user has to manually set the preferred amount of memory. It may be necessary for you to bump up the size of most of your regularly used software, particularly if they are memory intensive, such as image processing packages.
To view its settings, find the application's icon in the Finder, then press Amiga+i, this will display the Get Info window. It should have a standard preset number already, however you can alter the number in the Preferred Size box, but don't touch the Minimum Size. The number is in kilobytes. The maximum limit is 99,999k (don't use commas ","). See picture 5.1.
Apple Events
Is the message language of System 7.5's Inter-application Communications Technology (IAC), used by programs to communicate with other programs. It allows them to share data and commands. Applescript can use Apple Events to control the scriptable Finder and many applications.
Apple Menu
This menu is accessed via the multi-coloured Apple logo icon, on the top left of the menu bar. It's purpose is to allow easy access to utilities/programs and Control Panels. You can also place as many aliases of programs, in here as you like, for easy access.
AppleGuide
Is Apple's interactive help system, built into System 7.5 upwards. It can be accessed via the "?" icon on the top right of the menu bar, or by pressing the Help key. If you have enabled the AppleGuide Extension, then you can access all help guides, including Macintosh Guide, which is the Finder's help file - both located in the Extensions folder.
AppleScript
Apple's system level scripting software. It's like AREXX, and provides a way of automating complex or tedious tasks. You can even customise some user operations as well, see the "Automated Tasks" folder that is often installed into the Apple Menu Folder.
AppleTalk
Is Apple's standard Macintosh network and printer communication language. It was the main and only standard on all MacOS's up to System 7.55.
Classic Networking, as it is now called, only allowed the use of AppleTalk as main network protocol, no other protocol could be used. For instance, Ethernet is converted into Ethertalk, which is an AppleTalk variant, before it is sent over the network.
Application
This term is just another descriptive word for 'program' (executable = computer code).
ATM
Stands for Adobe Type Manager. This is a Control Panel that renders postscript type on-screen so that it's shape is always smooth. Before ATM was conceived, all type was rendered using the bitmap screen font sizes (from the Suitcase file), this generated very pixelised looking type, and was no good for typesetters and designers - they couldn't see what it would truly look like, not without printing it out.
Bombed!
Is a common saying with Mac users. People usually say "My Mac just bombed!", when a System Error message appears, simply because this window displays a little icon of a bomb with a lit fuse on it.
Classic Networking
Is a System 6.x to 7.5x network language protocol, which was superseded by Open Transport. Classic Networking used AppleTalk as it's basic network language, even when using modems. TCP/IP was converted to a AppleTalk variant before it was sent down a network, therefore it was very difficult for Macs using this software to talk to any other platform, apart from other Macs.
Clean Install
This refers a the type of System installation. The clean install option (from 7.5 onwards) let's you install the System Folder next to the original System that already exists on the destination volume. This will leave that original System intact but deactivated.
Clipboard
The Mac uses the Clipboard file (in the System Folder) to store data that has been copied or cut into memory. However, the data is lost when you restart or shutdown Mac emulation.
Clipping File
This is the product dragging the on-screen selection, be it a piece of text, sound or image, from an application onto the Finder, which immediately creates a Clipping file. This is only possible with drag'n drop capable applications.
Contextual Menus
Was introduced in System 8.0, and allows you to call up a little menu (whilst in the Finder) containing all the most common actions you are likely to use. It works only if you highlight an icon, window or disk, and then pressing the Control key and drag to the menu item - anywhere on screen.
Control Panels (CDEFs)
Are part of the System Folder, they are used to setup your Mac to how you want. This could be anything from the monitor resolution, colour, networks and various other Finder behaviour. All of them can be customised by the user.
Creator Codes
The creator code, actually refers to the program that saved the document/file. It is like a cattle brand, any file that has a programs' unique Creator code, launches that program when you double click on the it. It is also used to produce the file's icon, in conjunction with the file's Type code. All Creator codes (4 characters only) use upper and lower case characters, numbers, and even symbols.
Defaulted Icons
Means that the Desktop File (see below) for that Mac volume has become corrupted, and so, all icons on that disk have now assumed the System File's own standard set of default icons, namely a dog eared page icon (represents all data and document files), a rotated square with a hand pointing to it (represents any executable application), and default icons for System files, eg. Extensions, Control Panels, Control Strips and preference files.
You will also see a dog-eared icon of a document, if you do not have the program that created that file, such as a MS Word 98 formatted file.
Desk Accessories (DAs)
DAs are mini-programs that are usually located in the Apple Menu, such as the Calculator, the Chooser, the Scrapbook or Key Caps.
Dirty Install
This type of System installation will update the current System Folder on the destination hard disk, with the newer System version. It will also leave all preferences and 3rd party Extensions & Control Panels as they were, as per the original System Folder.
Disk Drivers
Like PCs, Macs use drivers for its hard disks, whether its formatted via the Finder or another utility, it places its info onto the disk for basic operational functions.
Desktop (The)
The desktop contains the menu bar, disk icons, background pattern, the trashcan and any icons you may have left lying around - it is basically the Finder's work space for organising icons and windows.
Desktop File
Is a disk based database for keeping information on icon and window positions, and what icons are used on which file or program. Without the Desktop file, all icons would revert to the System file's generic icon collection.
Disk Cache (Memory Control Panel)
This setting uses a portion of RAM to store frequently used data, and also helps your programs to run faster. Many Mac users, use the "32k for every megabyte of memory" calculation to figure out how much it should be, personally I use a standard 256k, 512k or 1024k value, of course this depends largely on how much memory you have available. The absolute minimum is approximately 32k.
Drag & Drop
This feature was introduced in System 7.1, it enables you to drag any document item, be it a; bit of text, a picture, a movie or sampled sound, and literally drag and drop it either onto another document or onto the Desktop. The item that was dropped onto the Desktop, is called a "clipping".
EtherTalk
Is a AppleTalk version of the Ethernet protocol (not true Ethernet TCP/IP protocol) for use on the high speed network standard.
Extensions
Are part of the System Folder, they add specific resources to the Operating System, such as libraries, CD filing system data, System enhancements etc.
File Sharing
Is the term used when you allow other users to have access to your hard disk on a network. Not only can you "share" an entire disk, but you can also "share" specific folders - which I believe you are able to do (share folders) from System 7.6 onwards. Sharing whole disks can be done in all versions of MacOS 7 and 8.
Finder
Manages the "desktop" environment, it is similar to the Amiga's Workbench. When the Finder is placed in a folder, it "blesses" the folder with the familiar System Folder icon, to show you that this is the active System for this disk.
Firmware
This is the software or individual program modules, that are built into the Mac's ROM. Sometimes you can get Firmware updates (downloaded from Apple's web pages) to supplement the ROM. Apple's iMac and the blue & white G3 computers use Firmware updates.
Flashing "?" Disk Screen
This grey screen with a disk and a flashing question mark on it, immediately appears when the computer cannot find a valid System Folder to boot from. Macs can boot from; floppy disks, CD-ROMs or hard disks. Sometimes, even when you have inserted a bootable disk into the Mac, it may reject it, and still show the flashing question mark screen - this means that the disk you inserted is also invalid or non-bootable for your model of Macintosh. It may have a System Folder on the disk, but the computer doesn't recognise it, because the System Folder itself isn't been "blessed" with the normal System Folder icon - this is because there is no recognisable Finder and/or System file in it.
Flashing "X" Disk Screen
This grey screen with a disk and a flashing "X" on it, immediately appears when the computer tries to boot from an invalid System Folder. An invalid System, is one that was created for a different model of Macintosh - you see, each System file is built (during the installation process) specifically for that particular Macintosh, and cannot work on a different make of Mac. Or, that System is so corrupted that it is now invalid, as a bootable volume.
Forks
This term refers to the Resource and Data Forks, these make up all Mac files. Most files comprise of 2 forks, however each fork is stored on disk as individual files. You will not be able to see them ordinarily in MacOS, unless you use a file editor, such as ResEdit.
The Resource Fork contains program code and graphics, and icons, while the Data Fork contains any data, text or graphics for documents.
Happy Mac Screen
This screen always appears right at the beginning of the System startup. It is a grey screen with a little pic of a smiling Classic Macintosh in the center. This indicates that all is well with the Mac (computer diagnostics are Ok, and the System Folder is OK) - in emulation, all this means is that emulation is give a green light for booting up. Whether it does is a different matter!
Hard Disk Driver
Is the bit of information stored in the Rigid Disk Block, on a hard disk - all Mac hard disk formatting programs create this so called "driver" when it initialises the disk.
You can see which driver has been used for any disk, by highlighting the hard disk icon and pressing Amiga+i, for the Get Info window. Look in the "Where" field, and it will give some details of where the disk is on the SCSI or IDE chain and the version of the driver that was used. In emulation, the main boot disk is called an AmigaDevice or AmigaFileDisk.
HFS & HFS+ (Hierarchical Filing System)
HFS/HFS+ is the Macintosh's only, filing system for hard disks. HFS Standard, as Apple likes to call it, was originally created for small (20 to 500mb) hard disks, and is limited by the number of blocks it can have on any partition. Meanwhile, HFS+/HFS Extended, is an improved version, allowing smaller block sizes for very large hard disks (1gig upwards), performance increase and better error handling.
Hypercard
Is rather like the AmigaGuide file, except Hypercard docs can contain pictures. However you need a Hypercard viewer or the Hypercard program to view them.
INITs
Is an Extension; which is a loaded file during bootup. It could either be an Extension or Control Panel, since these are the only types of files that are loaded whenever you boot a Macintosh.
Initialise
This term refers to high level formatting of a hard disk, usually via the Finder or utility.
LocalTalk
Is a network port on real Macintosh computers, it is used for linking Macs together.
LUN
Stands for Logical Unit Number - it is a number used to uniquely identify and address a subsystem of a SCSI device. Usually it is not necessary to set the LUN, since most SCSI devices are single units. A SCSI peripheral that has LUNs are optical disk/CD-ROM juke boxes, and multiple custom hard disk tower RAID systems, all these have many drives in a single case.
MacBinary
Is an archive file type, but with no compression. It is similar to HQX, except that it is not ASCII encoded, instead it combines the two forks (resource & data) into one file. This makes the Mac file safe from corruption when it is transferred over to alien filing systems, ie. PC or Amiga formats.
MacOS
Stands for "Macintosh Operating System", ie. System 7.5 or System 8.1.
Open Transport
Supersedes the AppleTalk standard, it is much faster, and allows you to use different types of network protocols. It will allow you to change from one network to another, very quickly, and it allows you to use different types of network, simultaneously.
NU-Bus
Is an old expansion slot type, used in all 68k Macs and some early PowerPC Macs.
PC Exchange
Is a Control Panel that helps you to mount any PC formatted floppy disk (high density or 720mb double density disks only) and any PC SCSI removable hard disk, ie. CD & Zip disks, via the Options button.
It also creates Mac icons for PC files with a 3 character Extension. It can only do this if you setup PC Exchange to associate a Mac file type with the correct PC file naming convention, ie. GRAPHIC.TIF, means that this is a TIFF file, therefore you can use any Mac image handling program. If it is a specific file type, ie. an Excel document, then you associate it with your Mac version, eg. Macintosh Excel.
PC Exchange already shows you an example in its window, .TXT = Simpletext = TEXT.
PICT
PICT is Apple's standard image file format. It is capable of holding 2-24bit colour pictures, as either bitmap or outline graphics (object orientated drawings).
Power Macintosh
Refers to the PowerPC (PPC) range of Macintoshs, that are currently being sold today. PowerPCs are RISC (Reduced Instruction Set Computer) based CPUs, these are capable of extremely high speeds.
PPD
Stands for Postscript Printer Description file, this can only be used with Postscript printer drivers, such as Laserwriter 8. They usually live in the Printer Descriptions folder, in the System: Extensions folder.
PRAM
Stands for Parameter RAM - this a tiny bit of memory that stores vital information, when you shutdown the Mac, ie. the Startup Disk Control Panel setup and some other bits of info the System needs. Sometimes, this memory gets corrupted, so what you do is, you 'zap the PRAM' - to delete it's contents by a keyboard combination, see Keyboard Shortcuts for more info.
Printer Fonts
This actually refers to the Postscript Font files that are supplied with it's screen (bitmap) font, which are kept in a suitcase file. Printer fonts are exactly that, fonts that are downloaded to the printer so that the text in any document can be rendered to any size and rotation they were set to.
The difference between TrueType and Postscript printer fonts is that you can print out any character or words (from a Printer font) that have special effects applied to them, eg. skewed and rotated. This is not possible for TrueType, as it can only be printed "as is". However some programs get round this by converting the TrueType font to postscript before it is rendered to paper.
RAID
RAID stands for Redundant Array of Independent Disks. It is a way of linking several drives together so that they behaved and appeared as one large capacity drive.
There are a few options for setting up a RAID array. The two most common (range from RAID0 to RAID5) options are RAID Level 0 (Striping) and RAID Level 1 (Mirroring).
Striping increases data throughput to and from the member drives, by using all the drives to split up the file over all member drives. Mirroring uses dedicated hard disk members to simultaneously write files to both disks, basically making a backup of the main server RAID disk.
To find out more on RAID technology, there is a FAQ on FWB's web site: www.fwb.com.
Rebless the System Folder
Reblessing the System Folder is a procedure which re-activates the old System Folder (eg. you cancelled during the middle of a clean installation of the System). To do this, you have to take the System and Finder files out of the old System Folder and then drop them back in, OR open up the old System Folder until all the icons are shown, then close the folder's window again. In both cases this should replace the standard folder icon with the proper System Folder icon.
Rebuilding the Desktop
This often used phrase in the Mac world, means you are recreating the Desktop Database files that hold the entire icon sets for all the documents on the disk you're about to rebuild. You do this by holding down the Amiga+Option keys (and keep them held down) during the very last part of the bootup procedure. Then the Finder will ask if you want to Rebuild the Desktop for each locally mounted disk that has mounted. You can also invoke the Rebuild requester when you insert any removable disk, of course you still need to hold those keys down before it is mounted on the Mac's screen.
Restart
Is the Mac's terminology for a warm or cold bootup, into MacOS.
Sad Mac Screen
When you have a very hard crash, or something on the SCSI chain is not co-operating with the Mac, this screen will appear right at the beginning of the start-up procedure. The screen will be black, with two lines of white hexadecimal code under a little pic of a classic Mac with it's eyes crossed and mouth turned down, in the center of the screen. This hex code is produced by a real Mac's internal diagnostic routines, should something in hardware prove fatal. However this will never happen in emulation, simply because Amigas have a totally different hardware design, and therefore cannot be diagnosed, and so this is skipped in emulation.
Screen Font
A screen font is a bitmap image of a font at a particular size (usually 9,10,12,14,18,24). These files normally live inside a Suitcase, along with other styles of that specific font family, ie. roman, italic, bold or bold-italic.
SCSI
Small Computer System Interfaces - is an industry standard interface for plugging in many peripherals onto a single computer, by daisy chaining them. There are currently three versions: SCSI1, SCSI2 & SCSI3 - and some very fast off-shoots: Wide SCSI, Ultra SCSI & Ultra Wide SCSI.
Shutdown
This menu item will remove all active temporary files, quit all open programs, and prepare the Mac for powering off.
SMIs (Self Mounting Images)
SMIs are really a special kind of disk image, it always has a application with a filename prefix of ".smi", this program will load all the "parts" and merge them together to create a fully accessible 'virtual disk' on your desktop.
Startup Volume
A Startup Volume is any partition or disk that has a valid (a System that works) System Folder, to boot from. This can be easily seen in the Startup Control Panel, as it will display all local disks that have a active (has the custom System icon on it's folder) System Folder on them.
Stuffit
Stuffit is probably the most common compression type on Macs at the moment. It is commercially available as Stuffit Deluxe, also appears on the internet as a shareware program called Stuffit Lite. All Stuffit files appear with a 3 character dot extension ".sit".
Suitcase
Is a special type of folder, which only allows one type of system resource to be stored in them, such as screen fonts (including Truetype), keyboard layouts, sounds and desk accessory files.
System Bomb
Refers to a Mac system error message, because it shows a little bomb with a lit fuse next to the message. The Macintosh is also famous for giving very uninformative error messages, ie. "An Error of Type -11 has occurred!".
System File
This looks like a suitcase file, but in actual fact it contains the Operating System resources (libraries, drivers, generic icons, program code etc.) needed for your particular Mac to work.
The System Folder
Contains all the elements that the MacOS needs to operate correctly. You could take out all of the folders and extraneous files in the folder if you like, except the System, Finder and any System Enabler files, and it will still work.
Usually this folder contains: the System file, the Finder program, Extensions folder, Control Panels Preferences folder, Startup Items Folder, Shutdown folder by default.
Three Finger Salute
I know, this sounds like a "up-yours" type of gesture, but it isn't! Actually, what it refers to is the number of keys used (three in all) to reset the Mac, eg. when a freeze or whatever has occurred and you need to restart the Mac again. The keys in question are: Apple + Control + Power.
TrueType
Was introduced by Apple in 1990, just before System 7 was made available, it is a scalable font format that can be used at the System-wide level, and is mainly used for display and printing purposes. The only practical difference between TrueType and Postscript fonts, is that you cannot print Truetype fonts that have been rotated or have any special effects applied to them.
Type 1 Fonts
Are postscript outline font files, based on Adobe's Type1 format.
Type Codes
Type codes are unique codes for all the different kinds of data files that reside on your hard disk. All Mac files have Type codes. The Type code also helps the program that opens the file, by telling it what kind of file it is, eg. whether it is a JPEG file, word processor file, plain text file, or an application/program - which always has the Type code APPL on them.
All Type codes (4 characters only) use upper and lower case characters, numbers, and even symbols.
