Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!mnetor!seismo!rutgers!ames!ucbcad!ucbvax!sdcsvax!jww From: jww@sdcsvax.UCSD.EDU (Joel West) Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac Subject: Upgrade your Mac 512 now! Message-ID: <3022@sdcsvax.UCSD.EDU> Date: Mon, 20-Apr-87 23:21:24 EST Article-I.D.: sdcsvax.3022 Posted: Mon Apr 20 23:21:24 1987 Date-Received: Wed, 22-Apr-87 00:37:09 EST Organization: Western Software Technology, Vista, CA Lines: 59 From previous discussions, it's clear that there are some owners of stock Macintosh 512's on the net. I would like to suggest that if you plan to keep and continue to use your Macintosh 512, you should now order a Level-1 upgrade to the 128K ROM. Every indication is that these are currently scarce and I expect that if any are still available in the 2nd half of 1987, the waiting lines will be even longer than today as everyone else rushes to upgrade. Why upgrade? Why will others upgrade? Basically, because a Mac 512 will be obsolete by the end of the year: 1. Software developers will be shipping on 800K HFS disks. 2. Their programs will begin to use the 128K ROM; less than 20% (my guess) of the machines today have old ROM's and the percentage will decline as new machines are sold. 3. Apple has told developers to target for 128K or later, because their market research says those who don't have money for a ROM upgrade (particularly one that doubles disk capacity) don't have much money for software. 4. The 256K Macintosh II ROM includes hierarchical menus, the Script Manager and extended TextEdit, while the SE includes some of these. System 4.1 (summer) will reportedly include RAM-based patches for other machines so that developers can use these features immediately for their products. Unfortunately, the patches will not be available for the 64K ROM. This last point may seem controversial. "Why is Apple screwing its early customers?" I hear the cry. (I sold my Mac 512 at a loss to buy a Plus, but I understand the complaint.) Unfortunately, it is TECHNICALLY INFEASIBLE to provide the new features for the Mac 512. This hit me today as I was looking at the new traps. The 64K ROM has an overloaded OS/Toolbox trap table. This means that the new TextEdit trap _TEGetOffset ($A83C) is in the same slot as _CmpString (Pascal EqualString, $A03C) and on it goes. To fix this means RAM-based patches for the trap dispatcher (which are also needed for many of the overlapping 128K ROM traps). To include the 128K ROM and some of the 256K ROM features you'd need an 80K patch in the system heap or high memory, and this is getting a bit much. If you want the new features, Apple will be glad to sell them to you on a ROM... So, as of January 1988, there will be two worlds in the Macintosh universe: those with the 128K ROM features and some RAM-based traps (90-95%); those with 64K ROMs that can run old software only. (< 10%) I applaud Apple for protecting the investment of the Macintosh Plus owners and pushing the state of the art available to Mac developers. So run, don't walk to buy that Level-1. If your budget can afford it, you might try a third-party memory upgrade, such as Levco's Monster Mac and then, if you don't mind not having a SCSI port, I think you'll have a machine that will be usable for a long time. On the other hand, keep that old keyboard. If you really don't want it, I'd like to buy it off of you :-) (for when I travel with my Mac.) -- Joel West {ucbvax,ihnp4}!sdcsvax!jww (ihnp4!gould9!joel once I fix news) jww@sdcsvax.ucsd.edu if you must