Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!ames!claris!drc From: drc@claris.com (Dennis Cohen) Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac Subject: Re: MacII system crashes Keywords: Mac II, system crashes Message-ID: <8929@claris.com> Date: 17 Feb 89 14:57:46 GMT References: <418@salgado.stan.UUCP> <2282@unmvax.unm.edu> Reply-To: drc@claris.com (Dennis Cohen) Distribution: usa Organization: Claris Corporation, Mountain View CA Lines: 33 Mark A. McLaughlin writes: > The question I have is: Is the Mac II really that incompatible with other Macs? > And is there any hope for my running these programs? No, the Mac II is not really that incompatible with other Macs; however, there is little chance of running the programs mentioned. Among the reasons for failure are: 1) Programmers who broke the rules, ie did things that Apple warned them would break on future hardware and System software. 2) Programmers who used a development system whose libraries broke the above-mentioned rules. 3) Incompatibilities in the Mac II as related to other Macs. In my opinion, these are listed in decreasing order of incidence. The only one for which Apple can fairly be chastised is the last one, by far the least common cause. The authors of the programs that fail can always be blamed in the first case. You can be the judge allotting the blame in the second case. I've been programming for the Mac for over five years now and every program I've written has run under new Systems and on new Macs (except for a few that failed for reason 2, above, and those were fixed by recompiling and/or relinking). If you play by the rules your probability of staying compatible is very high, if you don't then your customers suffer and eventually they will find out that it is your fault and you will feel their wrath. Apple sends System releases to their developers before release so that the develop- ment community can test for compatibility and they send out TechNotes as to which practices will cause harm "on future architectures". There is really no good excuse for not being compatible, at least on software for sale. Dennis Cohen Claris Corp. ------------ Disclaimer: Any opinions expressed above are _MINE_!