[X4U] Sources of PPC Mac drying up

[Zane H. Healy]

At 1:59 PM -0800 1/14/07, Randy B.Singer wrote:
>Zane H. Healy said:
>
>>I'm only still attached to one Classic App, and that is ClarisDraw.
>>I have yet to find what I consider an acceptable replacement for
>>ClarisDraw.  It is simple and easy to use, it does what I want, and I
>>know how to make it do what I want.  At least I've managed to break
>>myself of using Adobe PageMill 3.0, though I still prefer it to Adobe
>  >GoLive CS.
>
>If you ever intend to upgrade to a new Macintosh, I suggest that you
>might want to wean yourself from those legacy applications now, while you
>can still find applications that can read your old files.  A few years
>from now you may find it really difficult to find something that is
>backwards compatible with your old ClarisDraw files.

You just made me realize something, in the last couple years there 
have finally been applications capable of reading MacDraw/ClarisDraw 
files.  I really should buy one of those simply to be able to convert 
my ClarisDraw files should I want to at some point in the future.

>I fully understand the pain that is involved with moving away from a
>much-loved and well understood application, but I can't buy the argument
>that there isn't anything as good as ClarisDraw or Adobe PageMill.

>At Macworld Expo last week I saw no less than four new draw programs
>being demoed, and though I had no real interest in them, they all looked
>really good and easy to figure out how to use.

I know there are better programs than ClarisDraw, I even own versions 
of Canvas, Adobe Illustrator CS, and Freehand.  I've also downloaded 
demo's for a few others.  I *REALLY WANT* to move to using Adobe 
Illustrator now that I finally own a copy (part of Creative Suite). 
The problem is that I only rarely use a drawing program, and 
Illustrator has a definite learning curve.  I've been threatening to 
check out the CAD software available o the Mac, as I think it would 
be better suited for what I do.

>And I used Adobe PageMill when it was current, and I've used quite a few
>Web site creation programs since, and frankly I never did think that
>PageMill was all that good, even when it was available.  There are at
>least a dozen other Web site creation programs available, several of
>which make things really easy by offering really nice templates to work
>from, and one of them has to be able to make you love it.  Though I use
>Adobe GoLive (which is, admittedly, a bear to learn to use), I just got
>Apple's iWeb (it came with my new iMac) and I am blown away at how nice
>(and easy!) it is for your average user.

I've never claimed to be the average user :^)  I actually create most 
of my web pages either with Perl scripts that I write, DEC Document 
(you don't even want to know :^), or a text editor.  Yes, PageMill 
was pretty weak, but for simple, basic websites it worked great!  For 
those, GoLive is overkill.  I'm finding that I mainly use GoLive CS 
as a text editor that allows me to preview the webpages I'm working 
on.  I just got iWeb a couple months ago, and haven't had time to 
really play with it.  I don't use .Mac, so I'd have to come up with 
my own website updating solution I believe (not a problem, as I have 
to do this for one of my GoLive manages sites).

>I think that a little pain now will save you from a ton a pain in a few
>years, Zane, if you ever aspire to get a new Macintosh.

Really the only application that I have that I actively use that 
won't run on a new Mac is ClarisDraw.  I've been trying 
unsuccessfully to get off of it for about 4 years, as I figured at 
some point classic apps would no longer be supported on Mac OS X.

BTW, thanks for the pointer to Sheepshaver in the other message.  I 
don't remember being aware of it, though I might have been.  If I 
remember correctly it was once a commercial application on the Amiga. 
I'll have to give it a try, as it would also allow me to run 
"Warlords 2" which I haven't been able to run since the first G4's 
came out, and "Master of Orion" my other "must have" classic app.  I 
also own the PC version's of both, but the Mac ports are vastly 
superior, as they allow greater than 640x480 resolution.

Zane


-- 
| Zane H. Healy                    | UNIX Systems Administrator |
| healyzh at aracnet.com (primary)    | OpenVMS Enthusiast         |
| MONK::HEALYZH (DECnet)           | Classic Computer Collector |
+----------------------------------+----------------------------+
|     Empire of the Petal Throne and Traveller Role Playing,    |
|          PDP-10 Emulation and Zane's Computer Museum.         |
|                http://www.aracnet.com/~healyzh/               |