On Nov 17, 2005, at 07:03, Anthony Moss wrote:
I'm going to set up a Mac SE as a pre-system 6 and old black
and white games platform. There are going to be four partitions,
containing systems 3.2, 4.1, 6.0.8 and 7.1 (I'll keep all the
partitions down to 30Mb, for compatibility with system 3.2).
How was it that people set up a system 6/7 dual boot arrangement?
Switching between 3, 4 and 6 is easy, using command - option -
double click on the Finder, but switching to and from 7 can't
be done without restarting the computer.
As I remember, Command-Option-double-clicking the Finder will only
change which Finder you use; it won't and can't change what System or
INITs are being used; those are only loaded into memory at startup
time. Or actually, since parts of the System are dynamically loaded
as they're needed, presumably you'd end up with some kind of hybrid
System in memory if you first booted to, say, System 3.2, used it for
awhile to load in some routines, then switch-launched to 6.0.8 and
continued to use it. Sounds like a recipe for a crash to me.
So, to switch system versions correctly, you'll have to reboot from
the right System Folder, and to do that, you need System Picker, as
James said.
The reason I'm putting system 7.1 in there is that its PC Exchange
control panel, integrated into the Finder, is far superior to
Apple File Exchange. It can transfer resource forks onto PC disks
without problems. Can its type be converted from a control panel
to an INIT, in a way that would make it work in System 6 without
crashing?
It has very much less to do with the file's type and much more to do
with the way it's programmed. System 7 is such a quantum leap away
from System 6 in terms of the APIs it offers programmers; Apple
undoubtedly made use of many of those new APIs when writing PC
Exchange. There's unlikely to be any way to make it work under
anything earlier than System 7 without a massive rewrite of its
source code, to which nobody but Apple has access anyway.
Transferring files from a PC (with an internet connection) to a
Mac running system 6, is a nightmare. All the files are packaged
in a binary format - this applies to BinHex 4.0 as well - and when
you run them through Apple File Exchange, they are given the type
of a MS DOS binary file. Anything older than Stuffit Expander
(which itself only runs in system 7) won't recognise the files.
In fact, if I didn't already have ResEdit installed to change the
file type and creator details, I would have been completely stuck.
There must be an easier way to do this?
Macs before Mac OS X are very reliant on correct creator codes and,
even more so, correct type codes. Files created on your Mac or
received from another Mac should already have this; files received
from a non-Mac or downloaded from the Internet can be problematic. PC
Exchange includes a long list of filename extensions and the type and
creator codes they should be mapped to. I don't think Apple File
Exchange had anything like that so you'll have to set the type and
creator yourself. ResEdit works for this, of course, but is a bit
cumbersome.
You can use a utility like AutoTyper, which is designed specifically
to correct files' type and creator codes. You create an alias of it
on your desktop, drag your files onto it, and it fixes the codes. But
aliases and drag-and-drop only exist as of System 7, so AutoTyper
requires System 7. You could write it yourself in AppleScript, but
AppleScript also doesn't exist before System 7. You could write it
yourself in HyperCard with some freely-available externals, but
HyperCard costs money, takes lots of memory and takes minutes to
launch on an 68000 Mac, so unless you have a large number of files
whose types and creators you need to change, ResEdit is probably more
convenient there.
PC Exchange is not the only utility to help you transfer files from a
PC disk. There was also DOS Mounter (originally by Dayna
Communications, then bought by Software Architects) and Access PC (by
Insignia Solutions). There's no mention af Access PC on Insignia's
current web site, but DOS Mounter is still being sold:
http://www.softarch.com/us/products/dm.html
The current version requires System 7; not sure if older versions
might work with earlier systems.
StuffIt Expander of course existed well before System 7; you just
need to find the appropriate version. Check this page:
http://www.jagshouse.com/stuffit.html
If you just need to de-binhex a file, there's also the standalone
BinHex utility. But I'm not sure where to find it, and since StuffIt
Expander does more and is free that's probably the better widget to
add to your toolkit.
Finally, where can I get a copy of the last versions of Switcher,
Servant and Red Ryder?
That I don't know, though I'd like to see Switcher myself some day. I
have this vague recollection that I did find it recently, but I can't
locate it now so maybe that was just wishful thinking.
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