#Bootx mac os 7.6 full
#Bootx mac os 7.6 software

While System 7 itself was 32-bit clean, many existing machines and thousands of applications were not, so it was some time before the process was completed.

This change was known as being '32-bit clean'.

#Bootx mac os 7.6 full

This process involved making all of the routines in OS code use the full 32В bits of a pointer as an address-prior systems used the upper bits as flags. System 7 paved the way for a full 32-bit address space, from the previous 24-bit address space.Although technically not a new feature for System 7 (as these features were available for System 6.0.7), Sound Manager 2.0 was the first widespread implementation of this technology to make it to most Mac users. The new APIs featured significantly improved hardware abstraction, as well as higher-quality playback. A new Sound Manager API, version 2.0, replaced the older ad hoc APIs.32-bit QuickDraw, supporting so-called 'true color' imaging, was included as standard it was previously available as a system extension.In the underlying OS, a number of formerly optional components were made mandatory: Apple intended to have the 'blue' team (which came to call themselves the ' Blue Meanies' after characters in Yellow Submarine) release an updated version of the existing Macintosh operating system in the 1990вЂ“1991 time-frame, and the 'pink' team to release an entirely new OS around 1993.ДЄs Blue was aimed at relatively 'simple' upgrades, the feature list reads to some degree as a sort of 'System 6, corrected'. Development of the ideas contained on the blue and pink cards was to proceed in parallel, and at first the two projects were known simply as 'blue' and 'pink' (including Taligent). Ideas were written on index cards features that seemed simple enough to implement in the short term (like adding color to the user interface) were written on blue cards, longer-term goals like true multitasking on pink cards, and 'far out' ideas like an object-oriented file system on red cards. In March 1988, shortly before the release of System 6, technical middle managers at Apple held an offsite meeting to plan the future course of Mac OS development. By the late 1980s, the list of new upgrades and suggested changes to the existing model was considerable. Numerous examples of this sort of problem could be found throughout the system.ДЇinally, the widespread adoption of hard drives and local area networks led to any number of new features being requested from users and developers. Yet, as MultiFinder was still optional, such a step had not been taken. If the system were able to support multiple tasks, this one-off solution would no longer be needed - desk accessories could simply be small programs, placed anywhere. For instance, to support a limited form of multitasking, the original Mac OS supported small co-resident programs known as desk accessories which had to be installed into the system using special tools.

While additions had been relatively limited, so had fixes to some of the underlying oddities of the system architecture. Running MultiFinder normally required a larger amount of RAM and a hard drive, but these became more common by the late 1980s. Most notable among these was the single-tasking model, the replacement of which had first been examined in 1986's 'Switcher' and then replaced outright with MultiFinder in System 5. However, many of the assumptions of this model were no longer appropriate. That is, the machine was geared towards a single user and task running on a floppy disk based machine of extremely limited RAM. These limited changes meant that the original Macintosh system remained largely as it was when initially introduced. This initially shipped in three volumes, adding another to describe the changes introduced with the Mac Plus, and another for the Mac II and Mac SE. Some perspective on the scope of the changes can be seen by examining the official system documentation, Inside Macintosh.

#Bootx mac os 7.6 software

The development of the Macintosh system software up to System 6 followed a fairly smooth progression with the addition of new features and relatively small changes and upgrades over time.