pjb94@campus.swarthmore.edu (06/30/91)
There's been a lot of discussion about 32-bit cleanliness here, and people have been wondering about Mode32. Well, here's some of the story: Mode32 enables System 7.0's native 32-bit mode. It is (as far as I can tell) entirely transparent, to the extent that you still turn on 32-bit mode from Apple's Memory Control Panel. When you boot with 32-bit mode on, the Mac begins to boot, says "Welcome to Macintosh", then restarts (in 32-bit mode now), presumably loading its patches into RAM and then restarting after changing modes. At least on my SE/30, I have no complaints, and I think with the Mode32 solution rather than the upgraded ROMS, you know that everything else will be the same, i.e. if Apple bothers to rewrite ROMs for the IIcx and SE/30, they'll be tempted to fix bugs, etc. which will mean old software might not work. With Mode32, you can just turn it off and be sure that everything will act as before. If Apple is forced/ persuaded to fulfill their advertising promises, it should be to buy-out Mode32, and include it in 7.0.1. Phil Brandenberger Swarthmore College