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MultiFinder
MultiFinder is an extension for the Apple Macintosh's classic Mac OS, introduced on August 11, 1987 and included with System Software 5. It adds cooperative multitasking of several applications at once – a great improvement over the previous Macintosh systems, which can only run one application at a time. With the advent of System 7, MultiFinder became a standard integrated part of the operating system and remained so until the introduction of Mac OS X. History Background The first Macintosh was released in 1984, and Apple's developers made an early decision that the machine's 128 KB of RAM was so limited that they must abandon the application multitasking functionality that Apple had developed for the Lisa. As the successive Macintosh hardware models were released with much more RAM being the key feature, new programming techniques were developed as workarounds to allow users to run concurrent applications. Desk Accessories became a staple through the lifespan of System ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Classic Mac OS
Mac OS (originally System Software; retronym: Classic Mac OS) is the series of operating systems developed for the Mac (computer), Macintosh family of personal computers by Apple Computer, Inc. from 1984 to 2001, starting with System 1 and ending with Mac OS 9. The Macintosh operating system is credited with having popularized the graphical user interface concept. It was included with every Macintosh that was sold during the era in which it was developed, and many updates to the system software were done in conjunction with the introduction of new Macintosh systems. Apple released the Macintosh 128K, original Macintosh on January 24, 1984. The System 1, first version of the system software, which had no official name, was partially based on the Lisa OS, which Apple previously released for the Apple Lisa, Lisa computer in 1983. As part of an agreement allowing Xerox to buy Share (finance), shares in Apple at a favorable price, it also used concepts from the PARC (company), Xerox ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
System 7 (Macintosh)
System 7 (later named Mac OS 7) is the seventh major release of the classic Mac OS operating system for Macintosh computers, made by Apple Computer. It was launched on May 13, 1991, to succeed System 6 with virtual memory, personal file sharing, QuickTime, TrueType fonts, the Force Quit dialog, and an improved user interface. It was code-named "Big Bang" in development and the initial release was named "The System" or "System" like all earlier versions. With version 7.5.1, the name "Mac OS" debuted on the boot screen, and the operating system was officially renamed to Mac OS in 1997 with version 7.6. The Mac OS 7 line was the longest-lasting major version of the Classic Mac OSes due to the troubled development of Copland, an operating system intended to be the successor to OS 7 before its cancellation and replacement with Mac OS 8. Development By 1988, the Macintosh had been on the market for four years. Some aspects of the operating system were beginning to fall behind ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Extension (Mac OS)
On the classic Mac OS (the original Apple Macintosh operating system), extensions were small pieces of code that extended the system's functionality. They were run initially at start-up time, and operated by a variety of mechanisms, including trap patching and other code modifying techniques. Initially an Apple developer hack, extensions became the standard way to provide a modular operating system. Large amounts of important system services such as the TCP/IP network stacks (MacTCP and Open Transport) and USB and FireWire support were optional components implemented as extensions. The phrase "system extension" later came to encompass faceless background applications as well. Extensions generally filled the same role as DOS's terminate and stay resident programs, or Unix's daemons, although by patching the underlying OS code, they had the capability to modify existing OS behaviour, the other two did not. The INIT mechanism The concept of extensions was not present in the orig ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mac OS Memory Management
Historically, the classic Mac OS used a form of memory management that has fallen out of favor in modern systems. Criticism of this approach was one of the key areas addressed by the change to . The original problem for the engineers of the Macintosh was how to make optimum use of the 128 KB of RAM with which the machine was equipped, on Motorola 68000-based computer hardware that does not support virtual memory. Since at that time the machine could only run one application program at a time, and there was no fixed secondary storage, the engineers implemented a simple scheme that worked well with those particular constraints. That design choice did not scale well with the development of the machine, creating various difficulties for both programmers and users. Fragmentation The primary concern of the original engineers appears to have been fragmentation – that is, the repeated allocation and deallocation of memory through pointers leading to many small isolated areas of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Macintosh Plus
The Macintosh Plus computer is the third model in the Macintosh line, introduced on January 16, 1986, two years after the original Macintosh and a little more than a year after the Macintosh 512K, with a price tag of US$2,599. As an evolutionary improvement over the 512K, it shipped with 1 MB of RAM standard, expandable to 4 MB, and an external SCSI peripheral bus, among smaller improvements. Originally, the computer's case was the same beige color as the original Macintosh, Pantone 453; however, in 1987, the case color was changed to the long-lived, warm gray "Platinum" color. It is the earliest Macintosh model able to run System Software 5, System 6, and System 7, up to System 7.5.5, but not System 7.5.2. Overview Bruce Webster of ''BYTE'' reported a rumor in December 1985: "Supposedly, Apple will be releasing a Big Mac by the time this column sees print: said Mac will reportedly come with 1 megabyte of RAM ... the new 128K-byte ROM ... and a double-sided ( ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
ResEdit
ResEdit is a discontinued developer tool application for the Apple Macintosh, used to create and edit resources directly in the Mac's resource fork architecture. It was an alternative to tools such as REdit, and the resource compiler ''Rez.'' For the average user, ResEdit was generally easier to use, because it used a graphical user interface. Although it had been intended to be a developer tool, power users often used it to edit icons, menus, and other elements of an application's GUI, customizing it to their own preferences. Resources on the Macintosh could be of many different types, and in fact any arbitrary data could be turned into a resource. While the system defined many standard formats for particular kinds of resources (for example, an icon, or a window template), programmers were also free to define their own. ResEdit included support for editing many of the standard types and for creating arbitrary resources with any structure a programmer saw fit. ResEdit was one ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mac OS 8
Mac OS 8 is the eighth major release of the classic Mac OS operating system for Macintosh computers, released by Apple Computer on July 26, 1997. It includes the largest overhaul of the classic Mac OS experience since the release of System 7, approximately six years before. It places a greater emphasis on color than prior versions. Released over a series of updates, Mac OS 8 represents an incremental integration of many of the technologies which had been developed from 1988 to 1996 for Apple's ambitious OS named Copland. Mac OS 8 helped modernize the Mac OS while Apple developed its next-generation operating system, Mac OS X (renamed in 2012 to OS X and then in 2016 to macOS). Mac OS 8 is one of Apple's most commercially successful software releases, selling over 1.2 million copies in the first two weeks. As it came at a difficult time in Apple's history, many pirate groups refused to traffic in the new OS, encouraging people to buy it instead. Mac OS 8.0 introduces the mo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Menu Bar
A menu bar is a graphical control element which contains Drop-down list, drop-down menus. The menu bar's purpose is to supply a common housing for window- or Application software, application-specific menus which provide access to such functions as opening Computer file, files, interacting with an application, or displaying help documentation or manuals. Menu bars are typically present in graphical user interfaces that display documents and representations of files in Window (computing), windows and windowing systems but menus can be used as well in command-line interface programs like text editors or file managers where drop-down menu is activated with a shortcut or combination key. Implementations Through the evolution of user interfaces, the menu bar has been implemented in different ways by different user interfaces and application programs. Macintosh In the Macintosh operating systems, the menu bar is a horizontal "bar" anchored to the top of the screen. In macOS, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
PC Magazine
''PC Magazine'' (shortened as ''PCMag'') is an American computer magazine published by Ziff Davis. A print edition was published from 1982 to January 2009. Publication of online editions started in late 1994 and continues . Overview ''PC Magazine'' provides reviews and previews of the latest hardware and software for the information technology professional. Other regular departments include columns by long-time editor-in-chief Michael J. Miller ("Forward Thinking"), Bill Machrone, and Jim Louderback, as well as: * "First Looks" (a collection of reviews of newly released products) * "Pipeline" (a collection of short articles and snippets on computer-industry developments) * "Solutions" (which includes various how-to articles) * "User-to-User" (a section in which the magazine's experts answer user-submitted questions) * "After Hours" (a section about various computer entertainment products; the designation "After Hours" is a legacy of the magazine's traditional orientation to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Compute!
''Compute!'' (), often stylized as ''COMPUTE!'', is an American home computer magazine that was published from 1979 to 1994. Its origins can be traced to 1978 in Len Lindsay's ''PET Gazette'', one of the first magazines for the Commodore PET. In its 1980s heyday, ''Compute!'' covered all major platforms, and several single-platform spinoffs of the magazine were launched. The most successful of these was '' Compute!'s Gazette'', which catered to VIC-20, Commodore 64, and later the Commodore 128 computer users. Compute! printed type-in programs for games, utilties, and applications, usually in BASIC. Often there were multiple versions for different computers. Sometimes programs were provided as lists of numbers representing a machine language program, to be typed in a utility called MLX. History ''Compute!'' original goal was to write about and publish programs for all of the computers that used some version of the MOS Technology 6502 CPU. It started out in 1979. ABC Publi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
