Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!bloom-beacon!think!ephraim
From: ephraim@think.COM (Ephraim Vishniac)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.programmer
Subject: Re: Calling Random
Message-ID: <40216@think.UUCP>
Date: 6 May 89 00:53:40 GMT
References: <1055@mailrus.cc.umich.edu> <1499@internal.Apple.COM>
Sender: news@think.UUCP
Reply-To: ephraim@think.com (Ephraim Vishniac)
Distribution: comp.sys.mac.programmer
Organization: Thinking Machines Corporation, Cambridge MA, USA
Lines: 25

In article <1499@internal.Apple.COM> darin@Apple.COM (Darin Adler) writes:
>Random is a QuickDraw routine, so you must have an A5 world set up for
>QuickDraw globals, and call InitGraf before calling Random.

>This was a bug in the old "Insect" desk accessory by Burt Sloane. He used
>Random to choose a random place for the insect to climb down the screen,
>but didn't have QuickDraw globals in his insect code. He found the bug, but
>not before copies of the DA spread around most of the Mac community.

A much improved version of the Insect DA (improved by Yours Truly),
complete with source code, is available via ftp from the info-mac
directory at sumex-aim.stanfored.edu.  It fixes this bug and many
others.

I'll happily mail a copy to anybody who can't get it from sumex.  It
still loses on the Mac II in multi-colors, but at least it's
compatible with third-party monitors, and has an option to kill off
insects.  It's also an interesting example of how to install and
(ab)use VBL tasks.

Ephraim Vishniac  /  Internet: ephraim@think.com  / AppleLink: ThinkingCorp
Thinking Machines Corporation / 245 First Street / Cambridge, MA 02142-1214

	"Arlo Guthrie, it seems, has found what he was looking for:
		God, and the Macintosh." (Boston Globe)