rkl@and.cs.liv.ac.uk (11/02/90)
In article <252u3129@fergvax.unl.edu (Mike Gleason) writes: > Is there anyone out there besides me that thinks that this is just another > lie cooked up by MacTheKnife? [Bootable ROM Mac Classic] It is true apparently [according to a colleague] and the Filo Info windows show that it's "hidden inside this machine" or some such bemusing message. > For one, how could they fit an entire, decent, > bootable system file in only 357k? Poor old 128K Mac owners only had 400K floppies remember :-) > A better idea would be for apple to supply > some sort of SIMM slot for a ROM disk. Then, *when* they find bugs in the > System software, they could just supply a new ROM SIMM (for a hefty fee of > course). Sounds just like the system Acorn are currently employing with their Archimedes. The general public only get the major ROM releases and the software developers (ISVs - Independent Software Vendors - in Acorn's parlance) get intermediate releases on disk. The Archimedes OS is completely modular and sections of it can be replaced by loading and replacing the ROM versions by disk versions. However, I *love* the power-on-and-go mentality of the Archimedes...it just encourages you to crash the machine in the cleverest way :-) I'm not a fan of Apple's method of releasing an ever-growing and often buggy intermediate release of the System software every few months. I believe that 6.0.6 is too bug-ridden to be usable...at least RISC OS 2.00 on the Archimedes is pretty well rock solid (and has nearly all the features of System 7 (co-operative multi-tasking, anti-aliased scalable fonts, inter-application communication) about 2 years ahead of Apple. Richard K. Lloyd, *** This is a MicroVAX II running VAX/VMS V5.3-1 *** Computer Science Dept., * JANET : RKL@UK.AC.LIV.CS.AND or * Liverpool University, * RKL@000010500211.FTP.MAIL * Merseyside, England, * Internet : RKL%and.cs.liv.ac.uk@cunyvm.cuny.edu * Great Britain. ****************************************************
morse@currituck.cs.unc.edu (Bryan Morse) (11/03/90)
>> For one, how could they fit an entire, decent, >> bootable system file in only 357k? >Poor old 128K Mac owners only had 400K floppies remember :-) A possible way to fit in an entire system is to remember that later system releases include updates and fixes to previous ROM versions. Since you know that isn't needed on brand new ROMS (ie, Classic) you can cut a lot of that out of your ROM disk System. My guess is that that is part of what Apple did. 1. Can anyone verify/refute this? 2. What is the size of the ROM disk System? 3. Anyone try copying the System file from the Classic ROM disk to a Plus and see if everything works correctly? It may not act the same. Just my $0.02... Bryan Morse University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill morse@cs.unc.edu Department of Computer Science