A visit back to OS 10.6.8, DP 7.24

[stubbsonic]

I suppose it is a rite-of-passage that people of a certain age take stock in our straddling of tech-eras. Here I am weeks away from the euphoric unboxing of a new MBP with its brain-damaging scents and the oh-so-satisfying peeling of protective plastic from pristine surfaces. OTOH, I also very occasionally need to yank the flywheel of a coal-powered G4 (running Tiger) to edit some Appleworks docs. There are features in AW's graphics editor (and the older Preview) that work better for me than the current offerings. A few days ago, the G4 finally gave up the ghost. I harvested the magnets from the hard-disks (as one does), and prepared to drive it over to our town's e-waste recycler.

I found a 2008 MacBook on craigs that can boot in 10.6.8 so I bought it. The OS and AW both proved to be quite difficult to install, but ultimately I prevailed. Now I'll be able to finish my project of updating and converting old AW files to PDF, etc. Out of curiosity, I decided to go ahead and install DP 7 which was effortless. Getting the 7.24 updater from MOTU took 20 seconds.

I recall some thread describing several "sweet spot" combinations of DP versions to OS versions. And OS 10.6.8/DP 7.24 was one that stuck in my mind because it confirmed my experience. Obviously there've been others, but I have a memory of pretty smooth sailing in 7.24.

Now that I have so gracefully assumed the role of grumpy old man when it comes to various changes in DP over the years; I'm hoping I will learn something useful as I poke around in the land of five-versions-ago. I'm mainly curious to see what the MIDI graphic editing feels like. I'm also curious to see whether some current bugs existed in the older version. I'll report any significant findings, and probably a boring musing or two.

[mikehalloran]

DP 7.24 over 10.6.8 was pretty good, as I recall.

I know how to convert your AppleWorks/ClarisWorks (and MacPaint/MacDraw if you have them) graphics files into 64 bit, BTW. I posted that here a couple years ago; I’ll try to find that. If I can’t find it, I can repeat the steps. The app doesn’t cost very much but you do need a Mac that can boot into 32 bit to convert the files—they’ll give you a 32 bit license free when you buy the 64 bit version.

The free LibreOffice will open everything else in those old Mac apps but not the graphics files.

[monkey man]

10.6.8 and 7.2.4 is my favourite-ever combo, Stubbsy.

I hanker for something akin to those days of yore.

[stubbsonic]

Are you referring to EasyDraw? I think it has a way of importing AW graphics. I tried it and it didn't work very well. Anyway, I'm all set now because I can do everything I need to do and then some.

I'm not expecting any massive aha moments in DP 7.24. I did discover that the bothersome selection change happened before DP 7. Mostly, I'll be curious to see how crash-prone (or not) DP 7 is compared to DP 11.