Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!samsung!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!wuarchive!decwrl!ucbvax!dewey.soe.berkeley.edu!oster
From: oster@dewey.soe.berkeley.edu (David Phillip Oster)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.programmer
Subject: Re: Is the Mac 512 still a semi-viable system?
Message-ID: <33126@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU>
Date: 9 Dec 89 07:30:52 GMT
References: <272@spot.wbst128.xerox.com>
Sender: usenet@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Reply-To: oster@dewey.soe.berkeley.edu.UUCP (David Phillip Oster)
Organization: School of Education, UC-Berkeley
Lines: 14

I believe System 4.2 is the last system rated for the 64K ROM machines.
Everything that every ran on the Classic Fat Mac still runs on it, but
many development systems generate code that is assumes the 128K ROMs of
the 512KE, the Plus, and newer.  (The class library of the THINK C version
4 C compiler, for example, is full of calls to traps that aren't present
in System 4.2.)  It is frustrating for a programmer with friends with
unenhanced Macs, but the rationale is, anyone who does not care to invest
the ~$300.00 for the upgrade to 128K ROMs, and 800K, faster diskette
drives is unlikely to spend much on software.

You can still run MacWrite, Word, and many other programs on a classic fat
mac. You can often find software for it quite cheap. I know of at least 5
novels, currently in print, that were written in the last 3 years on a
classic fat  mac.