Mac OS 9 and MPW Shell/Commando

Mac OS 9 contains a change that prevents versions of the MPW Shell prior to 3.5b1 and versions of the Commando tool prior to 3.5d1 from running. Attempting to run older versions of the Shell or Commando under Mac OS 9 will cause an error message to be reported.

Mac OS 8.5/8.6 and MPW Shell/ToolServer

An incompatibility exists between Mac OS 8.5 (and 8.6) and all versions of the MPW Shell and ToolServer prior to version 3.5b1. The problem occurs when the Shell or ToolServer is executing a sequence of tools (such as during a build cycle) and the Mac OS Finder is used to start a file and/or folder copy operation. When both operations are occuring simultaneously, the Finder will often start reporting File Not Open (-38) and/or Param (-50) errors. When it does so, the MPW operation will also start experiencing File Manager errors. The workaround for this problem is to install version 3.5b1 (or later) of the MPW Shell, ToolServer and SourceServer.

Mac OS 8.5 and StdCLib

An incompatibility exists between Mac OS 8.5 and StdCLib v3.4.4 or later when running on certain Power Macintosh computers including 6100/7100/8100's and 5200/6200's. The problem occurs if StdCLib v3.4.4 or later is installed in the Extensions folder, and is due to the way the system loads and registers libraries at boot time. The result is that programs may successfully complete execution but then crash when exiting. The workaround for this problem is to move StdCLib from the Extensions folder to the MPW folder and then put aliases to StdCLib in all folders that contain programs which require it. This will ensure that the correct exit code will be loaded into the program's context.

Note - This problem also occurs with System 7.6 and System 7.6.1 but does not occur with Mac OS 8.0, Mac OS 8.6 or Mac OS 9.0.

 

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