Leopard brings the final blow to os 9?

It is quite possible that the AW Installer requires OS 9. And why not? X did not even exist when AW 6 was released, and the installer is a programme that runs within the active OS.

But the application itself apparently runs fine in every flavour of X to date.

Six years or more ago, when I first started using OS X I tested a number of older applications. Even the venerable word processor MacWrite opened and ran fine. Of course it had already been installed, so I had no reason to question the viability of the installer.

"..Well, yes I know I obviously can't check what I'm saying, but it makes since to me.."

From the Apple Discussions 'Terms of Use' (revised 1 May 2007) ..

" Submissions

"5. Test your answer. When possible, make sure your Submission works on your own computer before you post it."

You see, the idea is not to give guesses as answers, no matter how well-intentioned, but to offer solid, known-by-your-own-experience suggestions which really are known to work. We can all guess, but that can lead to all kinds of ideas, like the optimistic "..try putting the operating system in the Trash and then restarting ..just might work!!.."

So, thanks again, but I'll leave this Discussion now, and will pursue the answer by myself. Thanks, bye.

Hi oj oj;

You are welcome.

Allan

I've taken a look at SuperCard 4.6 for Hypercard and I can work with it. Unfortunately it will mean work (and time) to get up to speed again. This also begs the issue of what to do with legacy data. I've been working with the Mac OS for 20 years. I've faithfully backed up my data all that time. What's the use of keeping that data when you can't easily find a program to read it (and get the formatting right). Keep paper copies?

Hi, Martin. I've had Macs since Feb. 1984, and in my experience there have been very, very few Mac file formats that aged badly, in the sense of not being satisfactorily convertible to the native format of one or more new applications through the years. Among applications that were intended for mainstream use, HyperCard is one of the very few I can think of that has only one modern successor today, and that's probably because HC never penetrated the mainstream as successfully as Apple had hoped it would. There used to be a couple of other HC workalikes on the market besides SuperCard, but they've fallen by the wayside.

A good rule of thumb is to survey your stored data every four or five years, identify all the file formats whose creator applications have been discontinued since your last survey, and translate all the files you saved in those formats into the native formats of newer applications, or to universal formats that lots of applications can open. Following this practice does mean you have to pay attention to the passage of time and to what becomes of the applications you use (and used to use), but it's worthwhile.

A major downside of converting old files to newer file formats is that the converted files no longer have their original creation and modification dates. I've addressed that problem by keeping the original files in their original formats and folder hierarchies as well as the converted copies of them — not so I can open my old MacWrite files, but so I can still see when I created them. Luckily, all the thousands of files I created or saved between 1984 and about 2000, plus their converted copies, take up only a tiny amount of disk space (~2 GB) compared to the ones I've created and accumulated since then, so it isn't a significant burden to store them. That may become more of a problem as time passes — we'll be in trouble if the cost of storage space ever stops plummeting.

Message was edited by: eww

Eustace,
You may be right... it could indeed be the AW installer and not the AW application that is requiring an OS 9 or Classic system. (Of course, this is a moot point if you don't have AW already installed on your system--as you are going to need an OS 9 system to get it there.)

I have a G5 PPC iMac runnning OS 10.4.10.... and although there is a System 9 folder visibly sitting on my hard-drive, it does not allow me to start up in OS 9 either (under System Preferences & Startup Disk). I never did intentionally install OS 9 on this machine; whatever is there came with the original OS 10.4 installation.
...I'm not sure if this helps in any way with your investigation, but pass it along in case it might.

Of course, this is a moot point if you don't have AW already installed on your system--as you are going to need an OS 9 system to get it there.

If you have it installed on any computer, you can transfer the whole folder, and it will run. That is precisely what I did to test AW6 on an Intel Mac. I moved the folder over a network, but you could use other ways, e.g. burn it to a CD or use a USB memory stick, or whatever.

True, it may well have worked if I had dragged the application's folder over from another computer or my backup drive.... had I remembered that the application didn't need to be "installed" in the old-fashioned way! Age has had its deleterious effect on my brain, I'm afraid... ;>)
Lesson learned: I'll have to stop saving only the smaller "installer" files, and instead keep the actual application folders on my backup drive.

The assertion has been made and seconded that installing 10.5 leopard on a Mac that CAN boot directly to Mac OS 9 precludes ever booting to Mac OS 9 again. Installing Leopard may modify the Hard Drive Image of Mac OS 9, but it cannot permanently preclude you from booting from an OS 9 CD or re-installing OS 9.

I want to assure everyone that anything Leopard can do to preclude booting Mac OS 9 can be removed by resetting the PRAM and NVRAM and booting from a Mac OS 9 CD.