On 24 May 2006 at 10:50, Scot Hanna-Weir wrote: > On 5/24/06 10:01 AM, "Johannes Gebauer" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > wrote: > > > With the move to Intel this will change. The oldest version that can > > technically run on current Intel Macs is Fin2k4. > > If Win really has such backwards compatibility, and we are saying that > these really old versions will run in XP, . . .
So, you're admitting that your comments are made in complete ignorance of the situation with Windows? Had I the disks, I'm sure I could install and run Finale 2.0.1, the first version I ever had. It was a Windows 3.0 program, from before Windows had TrueType fonts (so you could get decent printing only with a PostScript printer). I have a client who uses a dBase II application compiled in 1983 that runs just fine in a DOS window on his WinXP computer. Microsoft has always worked to maintain backward compatibility, and all application developers who write to the appropriate APIs have benefited from this. In most cases, you can even get apps to work that *weren't* appropriately written, because Windows provides a number of compatibility modes to accommodate those older programs. All that said, I don't mean to criticize Apple's decision to break backward compatibility. I think that for the size of their market, it was the only way they could go, because it's expensive and difficult to maintain backward compatibility. It requires deep pockets and a huge amount of work to implement. That Apple chose to put their investment in the future may have caused discomfort for a few years at each of the transitions, but in the long run, it has benefited their users more than if they'd delayed the release of their new products a couple of years and maintained compatibility with older software. And, of course, in the OS X case, compatibility layers *were* provided, and those have eased the transition period for users of older apps. That Classic goes away on MacIntel shouldn't be a major problem for any large number of Mac users, seems to me, as OS X is a half decade old at this point. That's the lifespan of a computer, so only people who were conservative and bought an OS9 computer just as OS X was released would be in the position of transitioning now. And, of course, they would have had the full period to begin the transition themselves, had they chosen to prepare for the future. -- David W. Fenton http://dfenton.com David Fenton Associates http://dfenton.com/DFA/ _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list Finale@shsu.edu http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
