tmattox@en.ecn.purdue.edu (Timothy I Mattox) (11/01/90)
What follows is an article written by me a few days ago that failed to get
through the local news feeder for some reason. I am trying again to post it.
Preface:
This could apply to anyone installing or who have recently installed
a Macintosh with the help of thier friendly mac-guru, be it oneself or a
friend. The problems arise when the guru owns/uses a different model Macintosh
than that of your Mac witch is being installed with all the neato things on
the guru's Mac. Remember problems can and usually happen when the guru is both
the installer and owner of the new machine.
----
Of late I have seen many people thinking that the IIci is inherently "crashy".
It is not. The problems are mostly caused by programs that didn't follow
Apple's rules (suggestions).
Can anyone guess which programs most of us use,
that usually don't follow the rules?
Those nice INIT's and cdev's.
I know, I use roughly 40 of them. (I just checked my INITLog file).
The problems arize when someone takes there old mac, be it a Plus, or a
IIcx, and just transfers all thier INIT's at once into their brand spankin'
new IIci, and expect them all to work. And then think that their problems
are caused by the IIci.
Take it from someone who has upgraded through the years from a Mac 128K
to Plus, an SE, a IIx, and now a IIci, that all those neat INIT's don't
work from machine to machine. They might still run, but they can cause
"unexplained" crashes. Most WILL work, but it is those few (3-4 for me)
that don't die when you boot, but die later on, when you're about to save
your term paper... that you need to worry about.
The IIci does seem to have problems with more INIT's than my previous machines,
but this is understanable since it has 32-Bit ColorQuickDraw installed in the
ROM's and it has the builtin video.
These features (as one should notice) are the norm for the newer Macs
(IIsi, II LC).
So, to close this post up I will make a suggestion to all of you
who are upgrading your systems, buying new ones, or have just recently done so.
Go slow while adding in all you fun and neat INIT/cdev enhancements.
Remember:
Your machine type has been extensively tested for usability (i.e. no crashes)
when configured with the correct system software, WITHOUT all the
hundreds(thousands?) of INIT/cdev combinations, by your friends at Apple
and by many people from the various software vendors.
(This is not to imply that you should not use INIT's/cdev's, just that
no organisation that I know of has done testing specificly with INIT's
as the primary focus for compatability checks.)
If your Mac ever crashes, don't tolerate it. It could crash again when you
realy need it to be working, say when that thesis is being printed, or
when that resume is about to be saved...
If your Mac crashes, try and determine a culprit, and then DON'T use the
offending software until you have a newer version, or a work-around/bug-fix.
Unless of course you like seeing the bomb-box.
--
- Tim Mattox - (email: tmattox@ecn.purdue.edu)
(talk: tmattox@en.ecn.purdue.edu)
P.S. - For IIci crash fixing, I am just an e-mail away.
Since I am a student, e-mail response times may vary due to classes...