Using classic

[e.mkeene]

> Which is why Classic is so nice. I use "old" versions of Quark,
> Illustrator, Photoshop and so on sometimes still, and all of them work
> perfectly in Classic.

I have been running into a lot of people who are concerned about the 
cost of upgrading software or concerned that it won't run well under 
classic. I happened to run across a very old cd from 1994 with ancient 
versions of software, remember MacDraw v1.0, MacPaint, ClarisWorkss 
v.2.1, Mac Write, LetterPerfect, etc.

MacWrite and LetterPerfect opened but were incredibly slow ono my ibook 
700 under classic booted from 10.2.6. All the other old software ran 
just the way they were supposed to run. No skips, hesitations, fusses 
just plain hard work.

In all the testing I have done so far with software ranging from OS 6.0 
(yes, some of it is that old and I still have it) to X, the secret lies 
in how much the app changed the os with control panels, extensions, 
etc. The more it meddled, the less likely it was to work as smoothly as 
did the stuff that was pure application code. In many instances, it 
still worked but poked along trying to find ancient bits of code.

When you need to use classic alot, simply set the sys prefs to start 
classic when the computer starts up or logs on. Startup will take a few 
minutes longer as a result. I use that time to check email as soon as X 
is up and while classic is starting. By the time, I finish the mail, 
classic is ready and stays in the background until needed. That way, I 
just keep opening apps at will mixing classic and native however I need 
to.

One factor that will affect how much speed and capacity you get is ram. 
Once RAM got down to $100/512MB, I made it a point to max ram as soon 
as possible. Then I never have to bother about how much I have open. X 
simply keeps doling out RAM as required. If I have an app that I know 
required extra ram in 9, I use get info to allocate more ram and it's 
good to go. Sometimes, if I have 6-8 X apps and 3-6 9 apps open at the 
same time and especially if I have been opening and closing apps  alot, 
I simply take a few minutes and quit everything that in active use and 
start all over again.

In many ways, I torture both my hardware and software but it just keeps 
working. The one suggestion I have for X newbies is to make friends 
with the column view. It helps you stay oriented in where everything 
is. If you lose something, just do a "find" for it. One other hardware 
related suggestion, at least several times a week, leave your computer 
on overnight for the "cleaning crew" to do its thing. It is important 
that you make an adjustment in the energy control panel, have the 
monitor and hard drive sleep whenever you want it to but on "cleaning 
nights", DO NOT LET THE SYSTEM SLEEP or the "cleaning people can't get 
in"

"cleaning" refers to the automatic unix housekeeping stuff that gets 
done in the wee hours.