bskendig@phoenix.Princeton.EDU (Brian Kendig) (03/15/91)
In article <91073.100027DLP@psuvm.psu.edu> DLP@psuvm.psu.edu (David L. Passmore) writes: >So, that's the relase date, but what does it mean? Should I get it? >Will it attempt to rape my Mac IIcx just like many of these other >upgrades do? I wish someone would post the major changes/advantages of >system 7.0. I am running Mac IIcx with 4 Mb of Ram under system 6.0.4. >How much of my life will be trashed in the uneasy transition to 7.0? First off, the release date is probably going to be May 13, by all current accounts, unless something goes tragically wrong en route (like an earthquake hitting the development building or something). No, it will not `rape' your IIcx. No, the transition will not be uneasy. No, your life will not be trashed. The transition from System 6 to System 7 is something akin to the transition from Microsoft Windows 3.0 to anything on a Macintosh. System 7 includes lots of little built-in things that you won't know how you ever lived without: ... an intelligent System Folder that knows exactly where to put things you drop into it, ... an Apple Menu that you can configure just by putting things into a folder (no more Font/DA Mover), ... the ability to open suitcases and cdevs (no more Control Panel) and even the System File itself directly from the Finder, ... a Finder that actually does more for you and fixes seven years worth of little glitches and anomalies that you've probably long since taken as facts of life (and it even adds beautiful color!), ... the addition of aliases (which you will probably quickly find gobs of uses for), ... the ability to have TeachText quickly open any `README' file that used to elicit the dialog "The application that created this document is busy/missing," ... the ability to hit command-option-escape and quit out of an application that has hung or bombed, ... the ability to give an icon to any file merely by pasting it into a "Get Info" window, ... the ability to move through files in Finder windows by typing their names and using the arrow keys and Tab key... And then, once you've gotten past the little niceties, you get to the big stuff: AppleEvents -- you can write a small text editor that can tell somebody else's small spell checker to check your document, or you can have HyperCard tell the Finder to open your favorite paint program then tell that paint program to open a file and print it. The Edition Manager -- you can analyze statistics with your spreadsheet and `publish' that file, then write up a report with your word processor and `subscribe' to the spreadsheet file when you place it in your report. Find that your numbers were off somewhere? Load up the spreadsheet file, change the numbers, and save your work -- and the part of it you copied into your report is automatically updated to reflect the change. Personal FileShare -- you want the guy down the hall to be able to get at some of your files? Just turn FileShare on, and he can mount your hard drive as a server on his Mac or IBM without interrupting your work. The files need to be seen by more people? Set up user accounts and groups and priviledges for your various files and folders by using familiar techniques in the Finder. The Help Manager -- you have an application that's so complex that it looks like it was coded by Martians? Just use the Help menu (right next to the Applications menu, which is where the Multifinder icon used to be) to turn on interactive help, and point to what you don't grok. Balloons of text will appear as you move your pointer, explaining exactly what such-and-such is and why it's highlighted or turned off or what-not. Sound good? Bugs, right? Nope. This isn't going to be another case of System 6.0 (oops) 6.0.1 (oops) 6.0.2 (aah) ... 6.0.5 (nice) 6.0.6 (oops) 6.0.7 (crash). This thing's been in development for well over a year now. Apple made a CD-ROM with the alpha 9 version of the code, and sent it to developers so people could begin making _sure_ their programs worked well with System 7. Then they did the same with the beta 1 version (which included a list a mile high of reported and resolved bugs), and now again with the beta 4 version. If you're holding out for System 7.0.1, you'll be waiting a long time while the rest of us are on cloud nine. However, before 7.0 is officially released, there are a few things you can do to get ready for it. - Don't expect to keep using System 6 if you depend at all on your Macintosh for work. As applications begin taking advantage of all the new features, your machine will be at a dead-and in terms of what it can run; as you see people working even more quickly and easily with the improved Finder, you'll be deciding to upgrade. - Therefore, if you have a Macintosh with only one megabyte of memory, upgrade it now to at least two. System 7 includes a Multifinder that's integrated into the system -- you can't turn it off. Therefore it *requires* 2Mb to even load into your machine in the first place, and probably 2.5-3Mb to be of any great use if you're a Multifinder enthusiast. As soon as System 7 is released, hordes of people may very well create a backlog of SIMMs, and then you'll be kicking yourself for not planning ahead. - System 7 works fine with Plusses, SE's, and Classics. However, that doesn't necessarily mean that it works _quickly_. The engineers at Apple have done a *tremendous* job of optimizing the code to do quite well on the 68000-based machines, but if you use your SE or (especially) Plus for several hours each day, it might not be a bad idea to look into selling your machine while you still might be able to get some money for it, and upgrading to a Macintosh LC or IIsi. If you're in the market for a Macintosh, don't be blindly lured by the enticing price of the Classic; the small nine-inch screen of the compact Macs definitely hampers System 7 more than it did System 6, because you're likely to have more windows open on the screen at a time (what with Multifinder on all the time). - System 7 will offer `virtual memory' to anyone whose machine has a PMMU. This means that you can take a IIci with four megs of memory, for example, and tell it to simulate having eight megs, as long as you have enough free space on your hard drive to store the swapfiles. Virtual memory is nice, but it's slow; if you can afford the RAM, you'll be doing yourself a favor. When System 7.0 is released, it'll most likely be available everywhere on the release date. Apple's most likely not going to stand in the way of letting anyone have a copy of it; all you'll need to do is bring seven 800k floppies or four 1.4Mb floppies to your local Apple dealer, and copy away. (Then bring 'em back to your office, install it on your machine, set up folders containing the contents of the disks, and use Personal FileShare to make your hard drive available to the network; people can then upgrade from System 6 to System 7 directly from your machine, without ever having to worry about getting copies of the distribution disks!) If you want documentation, that will most likely an additional charge ($50, if this follows past experience). Copying disks is free and simple; copying lots and lots of paper is a hassle which dealers usually don't want to go through. Just about two months left, now, unless something really wrong is found in the interim. Happy Macintosh! << Brian >> Disclaimer: I don't work for Apple. All of this information comes from public sources such as MacWeek, and my own experience in using System 7.0b1. (I removed 6.0.7 from my hard drive long ago; 0b1 is much more stable, in my opinion.) | Brian S. Kendig \ Macintosh | Engineering, | bskendig | | Computer Engineering |\ Thought | USS Enterprise | @phoenix.Princeton.EDU | Princeton University |_\ Police | -= NCC-1701-D =- | @PUCC.BITNET | "It's not that I don't HAVE the work to *do* -- I don't DO the work I *have*."