At 9:22 AM -0400 7/29/01, Chris Nandor wrote:
>We have been discussing what to do about system requirements for MacPerl
>5.6.1. One thought was to drop support of any system prior to Mac OS 8.1,
>because of changes in the OS that would make development easier. This
>would also mean dropping 68K support, since 68K Macs don't run Mac OS 8.1.
>
>I don't know what we will do, but if you really want support for 68K Macs
>or System 7.5/7.6, speak up now, so we can have an idea of who is out there.
>
Chris -- Some hosts, upon asking if anyone wants coffee, will take
literally the answer "only if you're going to make it anyway"; others
will interpret it as "please make some."
I do still use a 68K Mac. Besides its function as a floppy disk drive
for my newer PowerMac (!), my SE-30 serves faithfully as a data
sidecar. My work brings me data files of many types and conditions,
so receiving a file means first doing some amount of rearranging,
cleaning, parsing, sorting, extracting, compacting, you name it,
quarantined all the while in some cases.
For this purpose I keep a very stable setup in that little Mac box,
with MacPerl 520r4, Excel 4.0. Word 5.1, and BBEdit as my principal
tools. MacPerl is usually the first and often the only tool I use on
a given task, and I now have a small library of Perl routines
installed that make this machine a valuable member of my LAN. And it
would be great to have the new capabilities of 5.6.1 in there.
But I've known for some time that 68K support would end-- seems like
Matthias began warning about this almost two years ago. So what can I
say? Besides, I still have a great tool in 520r4.
I didn't use Perl seriously on Mac until your and Vicki's book came
out. It transformed my work life. The benefit I've received from the
work of Matthias, you and Vicki, and the members of the MacPerl lists
is enormous. I'm a happy camper in this village.
So my answer is, "Yes, love some if you're getting up to make it anyway."
Take me literally.
1;
--
- Bruce
__bruce_van_allen__santa_cruz_ca__
