PowerPCheck documentation

 

 Version 3.2                                                                                                        April 1997 

©1995-97 Alessandro Levi Montalcini        Technical support, permissions, suggestions:
C.so Re Umberto 10                                     mailto:alm@kagi.com
10121 Torino                                              mailto:alm@torino.alpcom.it
Italy

Online shareware registration:                    Software download and information:
http://order.kagi.com/?67                         http://persoweb.francenet.fr/~alm
                                                                   ftp://ftp.alpcom.it/software/mac/LMontalcini

• Shareware: $10
◊  This program is distributed as shareware and costs $10. If you use it, please save a copy of the Register utility with the button below and launch it. Enter your name, your email address (if available), and the number of licenses you wish to purchase. Save, copy or print the data from the Register application and send it to Kagi along with your payment. Kagi will process your registration and forward your payment to me. If you’re on the Internet, an online registration site is also available at the above URL.
◊  If you don’t want to pay through Kagi, you can send your payment in cash directly to my Italian address. Please provide your name, your address, your email, and the name and version of the software you’re registering.
◊  You may want to get a copy of the complete ALM Share and ALM Free packages, which contain most of my shareware and freeware programs and can be registered at a very low price. The packages are available as two large compressed archives and can be downloaded from my web and ftp sites.
◊  Please register: your support is the only way for me to keep working on cool shareware programs.

• Kagi registrations
◊  Payments sent via email and through the online registration site are processed within 3 to 4 days. You will receive an email acknowledgement when your registration is done. Payments sent via fax take up to 10 days. You will also be notified by email if you provide a correct internet email address. Payments sent via postal mail take time to reach Kagi and then up to 10 days for processing. Again, if you include a correct email address, you will hear from Kagi when the form is processed.
◊  If you pay with a credit card or First Virtual, you can email or fax the data to Kagi. Their email address is <sales@kagi.com> and their fax number is +1-510-652-6589. You can either copy the data from Register and paste it into the body of an email message, or you can save the data to a file and attach the file to an email message. There is no need to compress the data file, it’s already pretty small. If you have a fax modem, just print the data to the Kagi fax number.
◊  You can also pay with a wide variety of cash from different countries, or with a check drawn in US Dollars. Kagi cannot accept checks in other currencies. In both cases you should print the data using the Register application and send it to the address shown on the form, which is:

      Kagi
      1442-A Walnut Street #392-67
      Berkeley, California 94709-1405
      U.S.A.

◊  If you have a purchasing department, you can enter all the data into the Register program and then select Invoice as your payment method. Print three copies of the form and send it to your accounts payable people. You may want to highlight the line that reminds them to include a copy of the form with their payment.
◊  Kagi cannot invoice your company. If you need an invoice, you must act on my behalf and generate the invoice and handle all the paperwork on your end.
◊  Please do not fax or email payment forms that indicate cash, check or invoice as the payment method. As far as we know, there is still no technology to transfer physical objects via fax or email and without the payment, the form cannot be processed.

• Introduction
◊  PowerPCheck is a cool drag & drop utility that looks for native PowerPC code inside applications, control panels, extensions and all other executable files. It can check individual files as well as folders or entire disks; it inspects both the data fork and the resource fork of each file and creates a detailed text report of all the native code it finds. Version 3.0 can also remove the PowerPC or 68K code from the inspected files.
◊  The text report may include any and all of the 68K, PPC and FAT application types, as well as files that carry PPC code resources. Please note that applications are considered PPC or FAT only if their native code is stored in their data fork; an application whose PPC code is stored inside a code resource is listed as a 68K application with PPC code resources. For example, although the StuffIt Deluxe and StuffIt Lite utilities include native code, they are only included in the report if either the “Report 68K Applications” or the “Report PPC Code Resources” option is set.

• Removing code
◊  PowerPCheck can remove unused code from the files it inspects. This operation is potentially dangerous because some programs may stop working or even crash if you remove some code that they expect to find in their own files.
◊  The PowerPC application code stored in the data fork can usually be removed without disturbing the 68K application; the stripped application should still run on both PowerPC and 68K Macs, although it will be a lot slower when running on a Power Mac. This is not guaranteed to work, but it’s the safest removal you can choose.
◊  The PowerPC code stored in resource forks is a lot more dangerous to remove, since it’s usually directly accessed by the related application. The stripped program will most likely run on a 68K Mac, but it may easily crash or stop working if you move it to a Power Mac.
◊  Removing the 68K code from the resource fork of an application always prevents it from running on a 68K Macintosh. The application should still be able to run on a Power Mac, but you’ll get an error message from the Finder if you try to launch it on a 68K machine. Note that this kind of removal can only be done on applications that carry native PowerPC code in their data forks.
◊  Before attempting to remove any kind of code, please make sure you have a backup copy of all your applications, plug-ins, extensions, control panels and shared libraries. Code removal can help if you have a 68K Mac and a small hard disk filled with megabytes of unused PowerPC code, but stripped-down programs can’t be restored to their original state if you don’t have a clean backup copy somewhere on your shelves.

• Technical information
◊  There are two kinds of resources that contain native PowerPC code: pure code resources only contain what is called a code fragment, while accelerated and fat resources have a routine descriptor as well. This has nothing to do with performance and doesn’t affect end users, but programmers may be interested in this topic; PowerPCheck marks with an asterisk all code resources that have a routine descriptor.
◊  PowerPCheck uses a simple method to speed up file scanning: the 'TYP#' 128 resource contains a list of file types to skip, and the 'TYP#' 129 resource contains a list of resource types to skip. You may add (or remove) file and resource types with ResEdit if you know what you’re doing. Note that PowerPCheck also skips all files that have an empty resource fork.

• Version history
◊  3.2 - Changed the report generation options to allow customized reports for specific kinds of applications (68K, PPC and FAT). Switched the payment method to Kagi. Recompiled with CodeWarrior 11.
◊  3.1 - Added an option to report 68K-only applications as well.
◊  3.0.2 - Fixed a bug that could cause the “Don’t Save” button to be automatically pressed.
◊  3.0.1 - Recompiled with CodeWarrior 7.
◊  3.0 - PowerPCheck can now remove the PowerPC or 68K code from the inspected files.
◊  2.1 - This version is faster, requires less memory and can work in the background. Fixed various interface and file-saving issues.
◊  2.0 - First shareware release; rewritten from scratch, now scans folders and disks and inspects resources.
◊  1.2.1 - Cleaned up the code and updated documentation.
◊  1.2 - Fat version! Runs native on Power Macs.
◊  1.1 - Rebuilt with new versions of the compiler (never released).
◊  1.0 - First public release.

• Distribution
◊  This software is ©1995-97 Alessandro Levi Montalcini. It can be freely distributed as long as it is not modified and there’s no charge for it, but it may not be included in any commercial package without my consent.
◊  All online services and bulletin boards may make it available to their users at no charge other than the normal connection fees.
◊  All non-profit user groups may distribute it at no charge.
◊  All magazines may publish it on floppy disk or CD-ROM without asking me first, as long as I get a copy of the issue containing my software.
◊  All CD-ROM shareware collections and CD-ROM magazines may include it without my prior consent, as long as I get either a copy of the CD-ROM or an offer to buy the CD-ROM at a discounted price.
◊  All redistribution companies such as Pacific HiTech, AMUG, Celestin or Educorp may distribute it, as long as I get a copy of each media containing my software and a catalog of the company’s offerings (where applicable).
◊  The latest versions of my stuff are on http://persoweb.francenet.fr/~alm or ftp://ftp.alpcom.it/software/mac/LMontalcini. The ALM Share and ALM Free packages, which contain most of my stuff and can be registered at a very low price, are also available there.

• Disclaimer
◊  This software should never cause any damage, but you’re using it at your own risk. As an independent software developer, I can make no warranties whatsoever on it.

• Have fun!
◊  And don’t forget to register your shareware, so that more cool inexpensive utilities can see the light in the future.