On October 17 2002, John Delacour <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >At 5:55 pm +1000 17/10/02, Brian Ferguson wrote: > >>Forget OS X if you are using Nisus Writer 6 or earlier. > >Are you speaking from experience? I have not yet discovered an old >application that will not run, usually quite happily, in Classic and >I have applications going back to 1983. The dongled versions would >be a problem, of course. > >JD =========
Perhaps I have not made it clear that Classic OS 9.x is a sub-set of the full Mac OS 9.x. Nisus will run under Classic but Classic is a cut-down version of OS 9.2.x. Not only that, but this Classic version of OS 9 can be launched at the same time as you are running OS X. This means that the Mac has running, similtaneously, two operating systems. One is the boot System OS X and the other is the Classic version of OS 9.2.x and you can open and work on applications is either system. You cannot run Nisus Writer solely in OS X until the new version arrives. Alternatively, by using the OS X System Preference called Startup Disk, you can make the Mac boot in the full version of OS 9.x which sits in the System Folder. This allows you to open and work in applications which, for some reason as illustrated below, will not run under Classic OS 9. The older applications, mentioned as going back to 1993, are quite capable of running under Classic OS 9 if, and only if, all the subsiduary files, including all needed Control Panels and Extensions and Preferences, are still loaded at startup or available for loading as required. Of course older programs which are, perhaps written without full compliance with Apple's rules, may not run. Somewhere about OS 8.5 time I seem to recall there was a change in the way Apple wrote parts of the system; certainly OS 9 found out the dodgy applications. I seem to recall that Nisus Writer required minor change about then; someone will enlighten us. I can quote one example of a problem with old version applications. I think I may have mentioned it before. There is an excellent bulletin board/intranet application called FirstClass [FC] which is run by one of my user groups. FC operated over dial-up modems from home to a central server. All the necessary FC files are in one folder on my hard drive; there are no FC Control Panels or Extensions or Preference files in the OS System Folder. FC was created somewhere about 1991-92 and was upgraded three or four times up until 1997. This meant that it would run easily on OS 7+ and OS 8.1. The developers got a bit coy about that time and advised that they would not longer be servicing the BBS part. For my group this would have been a bit of a disaster. Nevertheless, OS 8.5, OS 8.6 came and went and FC rolled on. With OS 9 looming, we reckoned that the time was nearly up, but no. With OS 9 as the boot system, FC kept going as a direct dial-up but then it was found that it could also log in first to an ISP as an Internet connection using normal TCP/IP and Remote Access, and then access the same FC Server via a link. All that was needed was a different FC Settings file. Naturally it was expected that OS X would finish off FirstClass but this was not so. Again, connect to an ISP as usual using Internet Connect or cable and link to the server. If the Mac had been booted in the full OS 9.x, FC continued to work as a direct-dial application. If OS X was the boot system, launching FC by double-clicking in turn opened Classic 9.x but it was not possible to dial-in direct to the FC Server. The reason was that OS X, when launched, disables, or refuses to open, many of the Extensions and Control Panels normally available under a pure OS 9.x boot. These files included all those necessary for connecting to an ISP or the Internet; they include TCP/IP, Modem and Internet which are left in Control Panels, and Remote Access which is in Control Panels (Disabled) thus preventing a connection. When in OS X, may I suggest you have a look inside the System Folder on your hard drive and see whether important files have been disabled. It is my opinion that applications which are self-contained, meaning they do not rely on files in the OS 9 System Folder, for example Nisus Writer 4.1.6, 5.1.3 or 6.5, will [probably] run under OS 9 Classic. I do not have a Preferences [disabled] folder so I assume OS X does not interfere. Unless they are rewritten Applications which require access to OS 8 or 9 System control Panels/Extensions could have problems using Classic OS 9. My apologies if this is too long-winded but there does seem to have been a lot of confusion about the relationship between the full OS 9 and its subset, Classic OS 9. Regards brianF --------------------------------------------------- The Nisus Interactive List [EMAIL PROTECTED] Searchable archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/nisus-interactive%40nisus.com/ To unsubscribe from this list please send a message with "unsubscribe nisus-interactive" in the body of the email to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
