ramsiri@blake.acs.washington.edu (Enartloc Nhoj) (02/10/90)
Ok.. a display of my ignorance: I recently began using my ST as a mac... so far, i haven't run into any problems... however, i still am wrestling with the "system folder" concept. WHile the ST has an "auto" folder into which one puts TSR's and other programs to run at boot-up, i never had problems like i am having with the MAC system concept. I know it is MY problem in understanding what happens to the system folder... i guess it has to do with the fact theat the system folder can be written to and corrupted by applications and so on.. Here is my dilemma: I bought the emulator and bought 6.0.3. I then set up the system folder with several cdevs and inits etc... some very nice ones, i might add, in comparison to stuff available for the ST. When i bought the Epson LQ Software package to drive my LQ800, i began to realize some fundamental misconceptions i have about how the system really works. The driver came with an install program and a folder which contained a system 6.0.2 and the epson driver with fonts... i thought i could simply copy all but the system 6.0.2 into my 6.0.3 folder on my drive and all would work. Well.. this wasn't the case. I eventually made an entirely new system folder on my drive in another partition from which i would boot when i needed to print. I didn't like the idea.. thinking i had to have another entire system folder etc .. just to print.. Then i got a Russian tutorial program... this was came with 4.1 finder and whatever the system was around in 1987... i loaded this onto my drive.. . folders and files could NOT be found.. the application ran fine.. but apparently some table of pointers was never created etc.. SO i popped the stuff off my drive back onto a floppy.. and booted from the floppy. .. ran the program off the floppy. I can't imagine that i am going to have to have separate system folders for "old" programs etc... i obviously do NOT know how to redirect the "old" program to look at and use the newest system. The only other thing i can think is that a program actually writes to the system and modifies it in some way.. this would be weird, of course.... Another question: is there a way to put the system folder into a RAM disk? Even with my Quantum at 1:1 interleave, accessing the system to do OS maintenance is a bit slow... Any and all help will be much appreciated... -kevin] ramsiri@blake.acs.washington.edu
jhlieske@phoenix.Princeton.EDU (Jay Henry Lieske) (02/19/90)
Responding to: 9 Feb 90 19:26:55 GMT ramsiri@blake.acs.washington.edu (Enartloc Nhoj) Having moved from the Atari ST to the Mac (by selling the old 1040 and buying an SE, and keeping my Epson LQ800), I understand some of your confusion. First of all, you need to know that Mac files contain _resources_, which include code fragments, fonts, pictures, text, etc. The _System_ file is merely the repository of the most important resources; _Finder is a program that acts as the shell. The corresponding files in TOS on the ST are built into the ROM. The Installer programs copies resources from one file to another; in theory, you should't have to copy the entire System file from the Epson disk; you just need to copy certain resources, which the Installer will do for you. I installed the Epson LQ driver on my Mac SE w/System 6.02, and it works OK. I have had problems with other programs (Arkanoid for one) that don't run with the driver installed. I don't know how to interpret your problem with the Russian tutorial; perhaps you need to copy some fonts to the System file. Make very certain, though, that you have only ONE copy of the System and Finder on any disk; multiple copies is the cause of many problems. Hope I was of some help. --Jay
ramsiri@blake.acs.washington.edu (Enartloc Nhoj) (02/20/90)
In article <13954@phoenix.Princeton.EDU> jhlieske@phoenix.Princeton.EDU (Jay Henry Lieske) writes: >Responding to: 9 Feb 90 19:26:55 GMT >ramsiri@blake.acs.washington.edu (Enartloc Nhoj) > > Having moved from the Atari ST to the Mac (by selling the >old 1040 and buying an SE, and keeping my Epson LQ800), I >understand some of your confusion. First of all, you need to >know that Mac files contain _resources_, which include code >fragments, fonts, pictures, text, etc. > > The Installer programs copies resources from one file to >another; in theory, you should't have to copy the entire >System file from the Epson disk; you just need to copy certain >resources, which the Installer will do for you. I installed >the Epson LQ driver on my Mac SE w/System 6.02, and it works OK. >I have had problems with other programs (Arkanoid for one) that >don't run with the driver installed. > > Hope I was of some help. > --Jay First, I would like to thank all those kind Mac netters who have come to my rescue of late. You are all much appreciated. I TOO have had success with installing the LQ800 Epson driver with system 6.0.2 .. my DIFFICULTY is getting teh installer to work with system " 6.0.3" ... it may be that i don't need 6.0.3 or 6.0.4 or any future update system files... I would like to think, however, that i can upgrade my system as updates come along.. and simply reinstall the epson driver... when i try to install the epson driver with the included install program with 6.0.3 on my hard disk, i get the warning "System older".. and it won't install. If i simply copy everything BUT the system 6.0.2 file from the Epson floppy onto my hard drive.. use chooser etc .. font/DA to load the Epson fonts... i get "Printworks not installed. Use installer program to install properly" .. when i run chooser and try to print. SO the end result is that i have a system folder with 6.0.3 on my first PARTITION and a complete enviroment set-up the way i like...and a system 6.0.2 folder in the NEXT logical PARTITION... this is not a problem since i disable the first partition when booting up if i know that i am going to be printing. SO far, i haven't noticed differences between 6.0.2 and 6.0.3 .. but there must be some! Again, thanks for all the help... -kevin