Technote 1176

Mac OS 9

This Technote discusses changes and corrections in the next generation of Mac OS: Mac OS 9. This system follows Mac OS 8.6 and contains several enhancements and revised features.

All developers interested in creating products compatible with Mac OS 9 will want to review this document.

Hardware Requirements

Installation

• The installer script for Mac OS 9 supports the concept of "Feature Sets" that allow users to select different kinds of installations beyond "for this computer" and "universal." These new installation types are tailored to suit the needs of particular interest groups such as, for example, Education, Business, or Gaming.
  

• Adds support for copying files over 2GB in size (up to a theoretical limit of 2⁶³ bytes in size) and displaying information about them in Get Info windows.
  
  
• Long unicode file names are now preserved in file copies.
  
  
• Volumes which don't support the Desktop Manager (typically floppy disk volumes) with large "Desktop" files now mount much faster.
  
  
• The Finder creates an invisible folder called "TheVolumeSettingsFolder" on each writable disk, which it uses to keep track of information about open window positions, desktop printers, and other items.
  
  
• Provides some support for Carbon application bundles (folders containing one or more support files). In this implementation of packages, there are a few points to keep in mind:
  
  
  • When the Finder attempts to open an item inside of a package's folder, it sends an 'odoc' event containing a list of documents to open. The difference here is the document list is stored in an optional parameter with the key 'fpdl' (Finder package document list).
    
    
  • In the Finder interface, packages behave identically to applications even though they are stored as folders. The internal contents of packages are hidden from the user.
    
    
  • If an alias is created to an item in a package (say, while using an earlier system version) and the user attempts to open the alias, then it will be passed to the package's application using an 'odoc' event with an optional 'fpdl' parameter (even if the application's 'BNDL' does not list the file type).
    
    
• An Encrypt item has been added to the File menu. When selected this item will launch the "Apple File Security" utility, passing the selected documents to it for encryption. Files encrypted in this way can be decrypted by double-clicking on their icons. Note: Apple File Security cannot encrypt a folder (even if it is a package).
  
  

Apple Guide 2.5

• For both versions 2.3.1 and 2.4.1 of Apple Guide, the Gestalt version selector for Apple Guide returns 2.3.1. For Apple Guide 2.5, the Gestalt selector 'ag_v' returns 2.5.
  

Help Viewer 1.5

• Help Viewer's HTML rendering engine has been made available to other applications as a Shared Library called the HTMLRenderingLib.
  
  
• The ability to search locally for Internet-based Help content, and view it.
  

Apple Data Security 2.0

• Multiple open Keychains
  
  
• Storing cryptographic keys and certificates
  
  
• Integration with Multiple Users
  

Carbon Control Manager

• New routines GetControlID and SetControlID have been added. These routines allow controls to be referenced by ID number.
  
  
• A new control definition packaging model has been introduced in which controls are stored as CFM Code Fragments rather than as standalone code resources.
  
  
• It's now possible to write a control definition to support contextual menus.
  
  
• Attributes have been added to control properties. Control properties can be marked as persistent so their data will be saved when a control is flattened.
  
  
• Six new Control Manager APIs have been introduced that allow controls to support the drag-and-drop feature. This new feature can be turned on either on a per-control or on per-window basis.
  

Carbon Menu Manager

• Menus are now stored as opaque data.
  
  
• Automatic handling of the Apple Menu.
  
  
• New APIs have been added for defining custom menu definitions.
  

Carbon Printing Manager

• New APIs or managing virtually every aspect of the printing process.
  
  
• Extended printer settings structures for storing more user settings.
  

Carbon Scrap Manager

• The ability to provide "promised" scrap data, allowing applications to defer the creation of data until if and when it is requested. This is a concept similar to the Drag Manager's "promised" flavor model.
  

Carbon Window Manager

• Window Classes and Layering
  
  
• New APIs for defining custom windows
  

CarbonLib 1.0

• CarbonLib 1.0 is new for Mac OS 9.
  

CoreFoundation 1.2

• String type to provide a unified and simple way to deal with Unicode strings. Easy ways to convert between these and Pascal and C strings in various 8-bit encodings are provided.
  
  
• Additional collection classes (Dictionary, Array, Data) that, along with String, provide "property list" functionality.
  
  
• XML support for reading and writing property lists.
  
  
• Abstractions for Date/Time along with some utilities.
  
  
• Preferences support for reading/writing user preferences that can be per user and/or per app.
  
  
• Bundle APIs to manage Carbon application wrappers containing executables and arbitrary localizable resource files.
  

Summary of New Carbon APIs

• Apple event Manager
  
  • AEDesc.dataHandle is opaque
    
  • AEDesc accessors
    
• Alias Manager
  
  • New APIs for resolving aliases without displaying a UI
    
• Appearance Manager
  
  • GetThemeMetric
    
• Control Manager
  
  • Custom control definition support using ProcPtrs instead of code resources
    
  • Control property attributes
    
  • ControlRecord is opaque
    
  • Control accessors
    
  • Control IDs
    
  • Control definitions may now support:
    
    • Contextual menus
      
    • Drag Manager
      
    • Setting the cursor
      
• Dialog Manager
  
  • Editing a dialog item list
    
  • DialogRecord is opaque
    
  • Dialog accessors
    
• Event Manager
  
  • New APIs to get the current mouse position and keyboard modifiers
    
• Icon Services
  
  • Icon file registration
    
• List Manager
  
  • Custom list definition support using ProcPtrs instead of code resources
    
  • List accessors
    
• MacHelp Manager
  
  • New context-sensitive help API that replaces Balloon Help - not recommended for use yet in CarbonLib 1.0
    
• Memory Manager
  
  • New APIs for Ptr, Handle, and heap validation.
    
• Window Manager
  
  • Custom window definition support using ProcPtrs instead of code resources
    
  • Ability to change attributes of an existing window
    
  • Window property attributes
    
  • Window iteration by class
    
  • WindowRecord is opaque
    
  • Window accessors
    
• Menu Manager
  
  • Custom menu definition support using ProcPtrs instead of code resources
    
  • Menu property attributes
    
  • Menu and menu item attributes
    
  • Mass menu item enabling and disabling
    
  • CommandID-based access to menu items
    
  • Standard font menu
    
  • MenuInfo is opaque
    
  • Menu accessors
    
• QuickDraw
  
  • GrafPort, QDGlobals, and Region are opaque
    
  • GrafPort, QDGlobals, and Region accessors
    
• Resource Manager
  
  • Resource chain manipulation APIs
    
• Scrap Manager
  
  • All new API that replaces the classic Scrap API
    
• String Comparison
  
  • TypeSelect APIs
    
• TextEdit
  
  • Accessors for some TextEdit low-memory globals
    
• Text Utilities
  
  • p2cstrcpy and friends
    

ATSUI (Apple Type Services for Unicode Imaging) 2.0

• Native support for all flavors of Postscript Type 1 fonts has been added. Type 1 font formats supported include:
  
  
  • sfnt unimaster
    
    
  • sfnt multimaster
    
    
  • sfnt CID (primarily 2-byte)
    
    
  • LWFN + FOND unimaster
    
    
  • OCF (Original composite font for double-byte scripts)
    
    
  • naked CID
    
    
• Memory requirements for ATSUI have been reduced.
  
  
• Breakline is now a linguistic break based on the unicode utilities.
  
  
• Improved performance breakline operation is faster, along with faster layout.
  
  
• Added tab character handling.
  
  
• Many new features have been added to the APIs.
  
  
• Bug fixes.
  

Code Fragment Manager 68K (CFM-68K) 4.0

• Several CFM-68K fragments have been removed from the system. As Mac OS 9 only runs on PowerPC-based systems, these are no longer needed.
  

Communications Toolbox

• The Communications Toolbox Resource Manager (CRM) was reporting the incorrect maximum allowable serial port speed. In Mac OS 9, the CRM has been revised so it reports the correct maximum allowable port speed.
  

Device Manager

• Calls which have an asynchronous variant (_Control, _Status, _Read, _Write) are now accessible synchronously from MP tasks. To test for the availability of this functionality, developers can use the gestaltMPCallableAPIsAttr Gestalt selector.
  

Dialog Manager

• Carbon applications no longer have access to a dialog's item list handle. New routines have been added so Carbon applications can edit items in an item list.
  

File Manager

• The HFS+ API has been introduced with this version of the File Manager. It includes support for large files (forks over 2GB - up to a theoretical limit of 2⁶³ bytes in size), and long Unicode names. Named forks are supported if they are supported by the underlying file system implementation (none of the file systems included with Mac OS 9 support forks beyond the resource and data forks; however, it is possible for a FSM plug-in to implement support for this feature).
  
  
• The maximum number of open files has been increased to 8169.
  
  
• Parameter block calls which have an asynchronous variant, and high-level calls which are based on such calls, can now be made synchronously from an MP task. Calls which are always executed synchronously, such as PBMountVol, can not be called from MP tasks.
  
  
• The File Manager now supports a new error code being returned from disk drivers, driverHardwareGoneErr (-503). Disk drivers should return this error in response to an I/O request to a drive whose device has been disconnected and can't be reconnected. This is especially useful for USB disk drivers. FireWire disk drivers should continue to use the FireWire routine FWWaitForDeviceRePlug to force the user to reconnect the device.
  

File System Manager

• New APIs have been added which allow FSM plug-ins to quickly locate FCBs when a large number of files have been opened.
  
  
• New APIs have been added allowing FSM plug-ins to both validate FCB pointers and map FCB pointers to file reference numbers.
  
  
• A new API has been added that FSM plug-ins can use for checking permissions when using fork IDs.
  
  
• File Manager now implements a compatibility layer so that FSM plug-ins don't have to support the new HFS Plus API calls. As long as your FSM plug-in does not set the kVCBFlagsHFSPlusAPIsBit in the vcbFlags fields of the VCB, the compatibility layer will emulate the HFS Plus call on your volume by making one or more old-style calls to your plug-in. If you want to support HFS Plus APIs directly, you can prevent the emulation by setting this bit.
  

Folder Manager

• The Folder Manager has been revised to support multiple users.
  
  
• A new extended version of the FindFolder routine has been added that accepts new flags and data parameters allowing for more precise control of the FindFolder operation.
  
  
• FindFolder now follows aliases to folders.
  
  
• Notification callbacks have been added along with other facilities for managing multiple user settings.
  
  
• IdentifyFolder performance has been improved.
  
  
• A new volume selector, kOnAppropriateDisk, has been added. This selector allows developers to establish the location of a particular folder when it is possible for the folder to be located on a number of different volumes.
  

Font Manager

• Under Mac OS 8.6 the Font Manager was creating incorrectly formatted FOND resources and adding them to resource files. In Mac OS 9, the Font Manger has been revised so that it no longer does this. Furthermore, there is an update, Font Manager Update 1.0, available for use with Mac OS 8.6 that includes an extension to correct this problem, and a utility, Font First Aid, to fix fonts corrupted by this problem.
  
  
• A new Font Management API has been added to the Font Manager. This is a public API for accessing and modifying the font collection to support the basic tasks of font management. Functionality provided by the new Font Management API includes:
  
  
  • Enumerating fonts and font families.
    
    
  • Accessing information about font families, including name, character encoding, and member fonts.
    
    
  • Accessing information about fonts, including technology, format, and name.
    
    
  • Accessing font data.
    
    
  • Creating and managing a basic font menu.
    
    
  • Activating and deactivating fonts.
    
    
  • Notifying clients of changes in the font database.
    

Mac OS USB

• Added support for driver-requested timeouts.
  
  
• Implemented support in the HID driver to support vendor-specific drivers for Immersion-based force feedback joysticks.
  
  
• Implemented support for the USB Expert to get the international strings from a USB device.
  
  
• Provide USB suspend and resume-wake up support.
  
  
• Fixed bug where device names were not showing up when the "not enough power" dialog was displayed.
  
  
• USBExpertStatus calls are now re-entrant. This should solve the "missing messages" reported by some driver writers.
  
  
• Added new functions allowing USB Class Drivers to get and set the Expert Status level. This will allow developers to debug specific problems they are experiencing and not overflow the log. This functionality is currently only used by USB Prober.
  
  
• Added support for kNotifySystemSleepRevoke message.
  
  
• Improved the performance of isochronous and interrupt transfer routines under Virtual Memory.
  
  
• Fixed a problem that could permit dereferencing nil if we ran out of isoch descriptors.
  
  
• Implemented the USBGetVersion call to obtain the version of USB present. This call is provided as an alternative for using Gestalt so that you does not need to link with InterfaceLib in order to obtain the version of USB present. Listing 1 contains an example of how one could use this call to determine the installed USB version. For this example, you weak link the USBServicesLib as part of the project. The result of the call is a 4-byte 'vers' response exactly like what would be returned by using the Gestalt call with the 'usbv' selector.
  

#include <USB.h>  // ensure that you include the
                  // USB.h v1.3 header file
                     
UInt32 MyUSBGetVersion(void) {
   UInt32 version;
   if ((Ptr) USBGetVersion != (Ptr) kUnresolvedCFragSymbolAddress)
      version = USBGetVersion();
   else
      version = 0;    // version of USB is less than 1.3
   return version;
}

• Fixed the Isochronous frStatus error codes. In USB 1.2 (and earlier) the wrong error codes were returned. For example a DataOverRun error would appear as a Stall error, and DeviceNotResponding was reported as a BitStuff error.
  
  
• Fixed a problem with the OHCIUIM in which multiple overcurrent dialogs appeared when the root hub detected an overcurrent situation.
  
  
• Made sure that the kNotifySystemSleepDemand messages are sent to the driver modules.
  
  
• Fixed the Mouse driver to function better on USB CardBus-equipped PowerBooks.
  
  
• Implements support for USB Audio Class devices, both speakers and microphones and for generic HID devices on USB speakers - volume, mute, bass, and treble adjustment.
  
  
• Implements support for USB Communication Class devices that comply with the USB Communication Class Abstract Control Model.
  
  
• The following changes have been implemented in the USB API:
  
  
  • USBOpenPipe call is no longer supported. Developers should now use the USBConfigureInterface call to set the active interface for the device. This call will also open all pipes in the interface. Use the USBFindNextPipe call to access the pipe references that you will need in passing data through the pipe.
    
    
  • The USBOpenDevice call has been replaced with USBSetConfiguration. Developers should use USBSetConfiguration instead of a device request to perform a set_configuration operation. The USL issues a status message to the USBProber log whenever a set_configuration USBDeviceRequest is made.
    

Memory Manager

• NewHandle was crashing when the size parameter was a value between 0xFFFFFFE1 and 0xFFFFFFFF rather than returning NULL with MemError returning memFullErr. This problem has been corrected - now, for this size range, NewHandle returns NULL and MemError returns memFullErr.
  
  
• Memory in Memory Manager free blocks is now released with the Virtual Memory function ReleaseMemoryData. This can greatly reduce the number of disk accesses when Virtual Memory needs to handle page faults. However, this also means that programs that attempt to use pointer or handle data after disposing it (a programming error) will likely get garbage data.
  

Mixed Mode Manager

• Accelerated code resources no longer crash if they are moved in memory after they are initialized.
  

Multitasking/Multiprocessing 2.1

• Allows most File Manager requests and Device Manager requests to be made from preemptive tasks.
  
  
• Greater than 1GB RAM Support.
  

Navigation Services 2.0

• A new function has been added which simplifies the process of attaching a preview resource to a document (NavCreatePreview).
  
  
• Support has been added for Carbon application packages. Packages appear as files to the user if the client requests them (kNavSupportPackages). An option is also available to allow packages to appear as folders, allowing users navigate into them (kNavAllowOpenPackages).
  
  
• A new option is available to turn off the bevel frame around the custom control area (kNavDontUseCustomFrame), and another option prevents opened files from being added to the Recent menu (kNavDontAddRecents).
  
  
• A new event selector notifies the client when the user has opened the current selection (kNavCBOpenSelection).
  
  
• File filtering has been relaxed, allowing the component signature in the NavTypeList to have a wild-card value (kNavGenericSignature).
  
  
• A number of new custom control selectors have been added, allowing the client to automate and restrict certain navigation actions (kNavCtlBrowserSelectAll, kNavCtlGotoParent, kNavCtlSetActionState, kNavCtlBrowserRedraw, kNavCtlTerminate).
  

Notification Manager

• The Notification Manager now displays alert notifications using a floating window. This allows the current application's event loop to continue running while a Notification Manager alert is on the screen. Rather than using the cancel button as in the older style "modal" alerts, these new Notification Manager alerts are dismissed by clicking in the window's close box. The new non-blocking Notification Manager fixes both of the problems described in TN1026, "The Notification Manager: Problems & Fixes".
  
  
• The Notification Manager now plays custom alert sounds (specified with the nmSound field of the request record) asynchronously.
  
  
• The Notification Manager no longer throws away notification requests that were posted during early boot time.
  

Process Manager

• A problem in Mac OS 8.6 that could cause slower Apple event performance has been corrected.
  

PPC Toolbox

• The PPC Browser window now provides facilities for selecting processes on a remote machine over TCP/IP. Users can target a machine for display in the PPC Browser window by providing an address in either the domain name format or the dotted-decimal address format.
  

• A new routine has been added for canceling outstanding list ports calls (IPCListPorts). The new routine IPCKillListPorts takes the parameter block from a pending IPCListPorts call and cancels the call immediately.
  
  
• URLs specifying the target machine for a PPC over IP connection may specify the IP address by using either a domain name or an IP dotted-decimal address. For example, the following are both valid URLs for PPC over IP connections:
  
  eppc://mymac.mycompany.com
  
  eppc://127.76.94.105
  
  
• The PPC Toolbox can now utilize Keychain Access to automate secure connections. This allows background-only applications to initiate secure PPC Toolbox sessions and to send Apple events to processes on machines requiring authentication. In the past, the user interaction required for authentication made it impossible for background-only applications to establish secure connections requiring authentication. Now, in Mac OS 9, the PPC Toolbox routine StartSecureSession (also used by the Apple Event Manager) works together with Keychain Access to allow any process to open one or more secure sessions without any user interaction.
  
  If there is an unlocked keychain which contains an entry for the target machine, then a secure session can be established without user interaction; otherwise, if a keychain entry has not been created for the target machine, or if one exists but the keychain containing it is locked, then an error will be returned indicating a user interaction error has occurred.
  

QuickDraw

• Large cursor support has been added. It is now possible for developers to build cursors larger than the 16-by-16 pixel cursor of the past. In addition, it is possible to create animated color cursors that are updated at interrupt level. The new cursor facilities allow for hardware acceleration, which allows cursors to be rendered inside of the screen buffer and for switching between hardware and software rendering. To take advantage of this new facility, developers must create a cursor plug-in component. For more information consult the cursor plug-in component SDK (coming soon).
  
  
• New "add noise" and Color XOr transfer modes have been added.
  
  
• A flag has been added to tell NewGWorld to allocate memory for the raster data on the video card or AGP (Accelerated Graphics Port).
  
  
• Facilities for adding user-defined transfer modes are now available. Users can specify new transfer modes by providing a callback procedure that implements the operations required.
  
  
• Corrects a problem that could occur when scaling raster images for landscape printing where a column of pixels would not appear in the printed image.
  
  
• Performance of the LockPixels and SetCPixel routines have been improved.
  
  
• Accessor routines have been added for all QuickDraw structures.
  

Sound Manager

• A problem where clicking sounds could occur during sound playback on some PowerBook models when VM is turned on has been removed.
  
  
• The Sound Manager has been re-implemented. The new implementation features improved performance and robustness.
  
  
• In the new implementation it is only possible to have one sound input source active at a time.
  

Standard File

StdCLib 3.5

• A problem in signal handling where native tools could crash when interrupted by Command-"." (period) has been corrected.
  
  
• Support for AltiVec has been added including new memory allocation routines that allocate memory on 16-byte boundaries for vector data, setjmp/longjmp variants that save and restore the processor's AltiVec state, and new printf and scanf format size specifiers for reading and writing AltiVec data. The new entry points vec_malloc, vec_calloc, vec_realloc and vec_free have been added to support 16-byte aligned allocations for vector data.
  
  
• The standard C library's string functions have been optimized for PowerPC.
  
  
• Support for native 64-bit long integers (long long) has been added. The routines printf, scanf, atoll, strtoll, and others support this data type.
  
  
• The C library's malloc implementation has been replaced. New features include improved performance, the ability to allocate more than 8MB in a single call, and a more intelligent scheme for returning sub-allocation blocks to the Macintosh Memory Manager - when memory is running low, the new malloc will return empty sub-allocation blocks to the Macintosh Memory Manager.
  
  
• New FSSpec I/O routines have been added. These routines allow the use of Macintosh file specification records in conjunction with the standard C library I/O routines. The new routines are defined in FSpio.h header file. Routines provided include FSp_creat, FSp_access, FSp_fopen, FSp_freopen, FSp_fsetfileinfo, FSp_open, FSp_remove, FSp_rename and FSp_unlink. They function identically to their standard C library counterparts--the only difference being that they accept a FSSpec pointer rather than a string to identify the file.
  
  
• <time.h> functions have been enhanced/fixed. The tm_isdst field is set correctly in mktime and localtime. The %p format specifier is now supported in strftime. The calculation of leap year has been corrected in localtime. The gmtime function is now fully supported.
  
  
• fgets now recognizes line endings for Mac, DOS, and UNIX files.
  
  
• All I/O functions requiring C-style path names to identify files now work correctly with names longer than 255 characters.
  
  
• memchr and strchr now handle 8-bit characters correctly.
  
  
• Two bugs in strncat were fixed. The first occurred when n % 4 == 3 and n < strlen(s2) - the last character was chopped off. The second occurred when n % 4 == 0 and n <= strlen(s2) <= n + 3 - the final three characters were chopped off.
  
  
• Fixes to PLstr suite of routines. Specifically, the functions PLstrchr, PLstrrchr and PLstrspn had bugs where these functions would scan one character beyond the length of the target string (PLstrchr, PLstrrchr) or one character beyond the character set specifier (PLstrspn). These bugs were fixed. Also, a bug was fixed in PLstrncpy in which the destination string was mishandled when len(SRC) < n <= len(DST).
  
  
• Fixed an off-by-one error in [S|U]Int64ToStr which could cause an extra (garbage) character to be output.
  
  
• Double-rounding in scanf has been corrected.
  
  
• Performance of getenv has been improved.
  

Textension 1.1

• Document-wide tabs.
  
  
• Full Justification of text.
  
  
• More than 32K of text.
  
  
• Drag & Drop.
  
  
• Built In scroll bar handling.
  
  
• Built in printing support.
  
  
• Support for inline input.
  
  
• Support for advanced ATSUI font features.
  
  
• Support for one level of undo.
  

Thread Manager

• The routines GetDefaultThreadStackSize, GetSpecificFreeThreadCount, and GetFreeThreadCount were returning noErr when called with a preemptive thread type when called from a PowerPC application. These routines have been revised to return an error code under these circumstances as they should.
  
  
• The Thread Manager routine SetThreadReadyGivenTaskRef now works correctly when given a reference to a stopped thread. This fix applies to the PowerPC version of the Thread Manager - it has not been implemented for the 68k version. In past versions of the Thread Manager, this routine did not work when it was called with a reference to a stopped thread.
  

Unicode Text Utilities 1.1

• New character properties APIs have been added.
  
  
• Unicode text boundaries/break discovery APIs have been added.
  
  
• Bug fixes associated with the UCKeyTranslate routine tbd.
  

UTC Utilities

• New 64-bit routines are now available for accessing the system's clock in both UTC and Local Time formats. Converting a value returned by GetDateTime to a value usable by the new routines is just a matter of copying the value returned by GetDateTime into the low seconds value in the new time structure (along with initializing the other fields to their appropriate values).
  
  
• Facilities have been provided for conversion between UTC (Coordinated Universal Time) and local time. With this release, these routines operate on dates between the years 1904 and 2108.
  
  
• The new routines include provisions for calculating fractions of seconds. This fractional value is stored as a 16-bit value in the new time structure and is interpreted as seconds = value / 0xFFFF.
  

Virtual Memory Manager

• Fixed problem where cleaning a dirty page marked it "recently used" when non-DMA disk drivers access the page's data to write it to disk.
  
  
• New API, GetVolumeVirtualMemoryInfo, for getting information on the volume's Virtual Memory uses for backing storage. This call will not be supported under Carbon.
  
  
• A bug in the Virtual Memory Manager that was causing data corruption in a very rare case has been fixed. This bug was only seen on very fast striped hard disk arrays, where the stripe boundary for a read operation fell in the middle of a page.
  

• The Appearance Control Panel no longer leaks a large amount of memory in a reserved area of the system heap each time it is opened.
  

• The new control panel provides a greater range of configuration options allowing association of ColorSync profiles with different functional uses.
  
  
• Allows named settings allowing users to save and restore control panel settings.
  

• By default, dates are now displayed and entered using four-digit rather than two-digit centuries.
  

• File exchange now provides better support for 120MB SuperDisk disks in PC format.
  
  
• Corrects a problem where an incorrect volume size could be assigned to a volume formatted by File Exchange.
  
  
• File Exchange now informs the File Manager when a volume mounted by File Exchange has been unplugged (so long as the underlying disk driver supports the new driverHardwareGoneErr error code described in the File Manager section).
  
  
• Some problems with reformatting PC format volumes into Mac OS format while PC Exchange is turned on have been corrected.
  
  
• File Exchange no longer allows the name of a DOS disk to be changed to " " (blank).
  
  
• Clicking on the Mount Now button in the File Exchange control panel's window now provides additional information and feedback in cases where no volume could be mounted.
  
  
• Has been updated to support features of the new HDI driver, version 1.4.1.
  

• Adds support for Personal File Sharing over IP. Personal file sharing over TCP/IP is implemented by a new background process called "ShareWay IP Personal Bgnd." It works in conjunction with the File Sharing Extension, and was licensed from Open Door Networks. AppleTalk must be active to use File Sharing over IP.
  
  
• Adds support for turning on or off Program Linking over IP.
  
  
• Passwords are now entered using masked text for better security.
  
  
• The Users and Groups control panel has been integrated into the File Sharing control panel. AppleScripts that were designed to work with the Users & Groups control panel will have to be modified to target the File Sharing control panel.
  

• This is a new feature introduced with Mac OS 9.
  

• Introduces AppleScript support for configuring memory options.
  
  
• PowerPC implementation added.
  

• In Mac OS 9 the Monitors & Sound control panel has been divided into two different control panels. The Monitors control panel provides the monitor configuration user interface elements formerly found in the Monitors & Sound control panel.
  

• The new Mouse control panel features an updated graphic interface.
  
  
• AppleScript support has been added.
  

• In Mac OS 9 the Monitors & Sound control panel has been divided into two different control panels. The Sound control panel provides the sound configuration user interface elements formerly found in the Monitors & Sound control panel.
  

• Software Update is new for Mac OS 9. There are no public APIs for this facility.
  

• "Tell" blocks can now accept URLs in the "machine" parameter allowing delivery of AppleEvents to remote applications via TCP/IP protocol.
  
  
• A facility for targeting particular applications in scripts (specifically, the "using terms from" construct) has been added replacing the double-tell block application targeting method described in the Mac OS 8.5 technote.
  
  
• Script Editor is now a Carbon application.
  
  
• The "file busy" flag to has been added to the FileInfo result to allow a script to wait until a file operation is complete (i.e., until the file is no longer busy).
  
  
• Try blocks with optional "on error." It is no longer necessary to include the "on error" section before the "end try." This requirement has been removed.
  

• Adds support for Keychain.
  
  
• The method used for mounting server volumes at startup has changed. Rather than using the older method where mounting information was stored in the AppleShare Prep file, a new folder entitled "servers" is placed in the Startup Items folder containing aliases of server volumes to mount at startup. Aliases of type 'srvr' will auto-route to this folder.
  
  
• Support for Wake-on-LAN capable machines dozing functionality has been added.
  
  
• A DHX User Authentication Module has been added. This allows for encrypted logins to Mac OS Server devices.
  
  
• The PBVolumeMount call (for AppleShare Servers only) no longer negotiates a less secure connection than was requested in the UAMType field. This means that a PBVolumeMount call that requests 2-Way Randnum Exchange (UAMType = 6) will not fall back to using ClearText (UAMType = 2) . This can be a problem when accessing servers that typically support ClearText only, such as servers running on UNIX, NT or NetWare. The client will negotiate to more secure authentication methods if they are available.
  

• Device drivers can now register their profiles with ColorSync using a new API.
  
  
• APIs have been added for identifying profiles and assigning them according to:
  
  
  • Functional area: input, output, proof, display.
    
    
  • Input devices such as scanners and digital cameras.
    
    
  • Printers, including press.
    
    
  • Default Web browser profile (source).
    

• Improved blitting performance.
  
  
• Routines have been added for better context selection control.
  
  
• Routines have been added allowing direct switching between two different DrawSprocket contexts.
  

• Find By Content's overall performance has been improved for both indexing and searching.
  
  
• A new API has been introduced allowing for the immediate indexing of new or altered files on demand. The new routine is declared as follows:
  
  

  OSErr FBCIndexItems( FSSpecArrayPtr theItems, UInt32 itemCount); theItems is a pointer to an array of file specification records referring to the files to be indexed. itemCount is the number of items in the array of file specification records.

  
  FBCIndexItems indexes (or re-indexes) the files referred to in the array of file specification records passed as a pointer in the first parameter. If the volume containing a file already has an index, the document is added or re-indexed; and, if the volume does not contain an index, a new index is created.
  
  Normally you will call FBCIndexItems after saving a file (or updating a file) on a volume containing an index. This will allow users to keep their indexes up to date without any additional effort. For more information about how to determine if a volume contains an index, refer to the Sherlock technote.
  
  
• Expanded Language Support for indexing volumes has been added. Earlier versions of Find by Content supported a set of Western European languages, Japanese, and Korean. In Mac OS 9, support has been added for all other Roman-alphabet languages and for languages using the Arabic, Hebrew, Greek, and Cyrillic alphabets. The specific list of supported languages (and groups of languages) is Afrikaans, Arabic, Farsi, Urdu, Catalan, Croatian, Cryllic languages, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Estonian, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hungarian, Icelandic, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Latvian, Lithuanian, Norwegian, Other (Roman alphabet), Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Slovak, Slovene, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish, and Yiddish.
  

• Adds universal USB support for all USB HID-compliant devices. This means almost any USB gaming device will work off the shelf, without a custom driver.
  
  
• It is now possible for InputSprocket to use a mouse with more than two axes or more than three buttons.
  
  
• Adds support for calibration of devices and provides an interface for doing so in the InputSprocket configuration dialog.
  
  
• All input sprockets have been consolidated into one file.
  

• Improved ColorSync Integration and Easy of Use with a simplified color matching panel in the print dialog.
  
  
• Application Support for Scriptable Printing allowing specification of printing options when printing from AppleScripts. New APIs have been introduced to support this feature.
  

• Addition Extension to the LaserWriter Custom Hoses allowing developers to create a custom print dialog panel using C or C++ and the custom I/O hose has been extended to allow PostScript filter plug-ins. New APIs have been introduced to support these features.
  
  
• In earlier versions of LaserWriter 8 partial font downloading was only available for fonts with the particular style being requested defined in their type. Now, if the particular style variant is not defined for the font's type it will be synthesized "on the fly" from the plain text style of the font.
  

• Mac OS Runtime for Java (MRJ) 2.1.4 is Bronze certified for running applications built with Oracle Developer 1.6.1 and deployed on Oracle Developer Server using Apple Applet Runner 2.1.4. For information on obtaining Applet Runner 2.1.4 and Oracle Bronze certification, see http://www.apple.com/java/.
  
  
• MRJ 2.1.4 addresses several general Java security problems reported to us by Sun Microsystems, fixes a number of memory leaks, and provides solutions to a number of outstanding developer issues.
  
  
• MRJ 2.1.4 is compliant with Sun Microsystem's Java 1.1.7 specification.
  
  
• MRJ 2.1.4 is compatible with both Swing 1.0.3 and Swing 1.1. For more information or a copy of the Swing software, see the Sun Microsystems web site at http://java.sun.com/. To run Swing-based applets and applications, place the "swingall.jar" file in the MRJClasses folder, in the MRJ Libraries folder in the Extensions folder (inside the System Folder).
  

• Allows users to have their own preferences when they log in. This includes, but not limited to: Preferences, Apple Menu Items, Startup Items, Desktop Items, and Favorites.
  
  
• A voice authentication method has been provided for Multiple Users 1.0.
  
  
• Facilities are available that allow alternate authentication methods to be added. For example, if you were so inclined, you could create a plug-in that provides user authentication by way of a fingerprint scanner.
  

• NetSprocket 1.7 is a bug-fix and feature enhancement release. In addition to increasing the stability of the product, this new version adds new APIs that provide client applications with more flexibility in the way that they manage the players and teams within their NetSprocket applications.
  
  
• API additions to allow a host to drop players from a game.
  
  
• API additions to allow developers the ability to set time-out values.
  
  
• Consolidated into a single file rather than two.
  

• LDAP plug-in (support for LDAP protocol; implementation based on Netscape LDAP server).
  
  
• NBP plug-in (support for NBP protocol).
  
  
• Standard user interface that will allow users to browse for a service via the dialog provided in NSLStandardGetURL and then launch an appropriate application, obtained by Internet Config, with the resulting URL.
  
  
• URL drag-and-drop support (drag URL from NSL dialog or any browser to desktop, creating a file on the desktop, which when double-clicked will launch the default browser and go directly to that URL).
  
  
• Added OTCfgEncrypt and OTCfgDecrypt routines for encrypting and decrypting ARA passwords.
  
  
• Other stability and performance improvements.
  

• Mac OS 9 ships with OpenGL 1.1 that supports the OpenGL API v1.1.
  

• OT has been revised to include the implementation of Mentat Portable Streams version 3.3 and Mentat TCP version 3.5. As a result, clients to the Open Transport API can expect improved performance and stability.
  
  
• The new implementation provides faster endpoint creation and disposal.
  
  
• Copy stall problems should not occur any more over TCP/IP connections while transferring large blocks of data.
  
  
• The number of Open Transport library files has been reduced to two, thereby reducing clutter in the extensions folder.
  
  
• It is now possible to keep a protocol stack open across a sleep cycle.
  
  
• Mac OS 9 includes a client/server version of ARA.
  
  
• Dial-on-demand performance has been improved.
  
  
• Corrects some problems affecting various Third-party wireless modems.
  
  
• Some internal timeout constants have been adjusted to prevent pausing behavior when attempting to obtain or renew a DHCP lease.
  
  
• DHCP packets are now more compatible with Windows NT DHCP servers and other types of DHCP servers.
  

• OpenTransport now sends messages to registered clients providing information about changes in the status of the TCP/IP protocol stack. This allows clients to be aware of changes in the stack's state and avoid making inappropriate calls when the stack is down. The new events, listed in Table 1, are sent to registered Open Transport clients. Using these new events together with the OTInetGetInterfaceInfo routine (as discussed in Technote TN1145, "Living in a Dynamic TCP/IP Environment") it is now possible for your application to monitor the state of the TCP/IP protocol stack.
  
  

  Table 1. TCP/IP protocol stack transition event codes.

  
  

  	Constant Name & Value	Description
  	kOTStackIsLoading (OTEventCode) 0x27000001	Sent before Open Transport attempts to load the TCP/IP protocol stack.
  	kOTStackWasLoaded (OTEventCode) 0x27000002	Sent after the TCP/IP stack has been successfully loaded.
  	kOTStackIsUnloading (OTEventCode) 0x27000003	Sent before Open Transport unloads the TCP/IP stack.

  
  In order to receive these messages, a client must register itself with Open Transport by calling OTRegisterAsClient. Once registered in this way, the notifier function installed by OTRegisterAsClient will be called with the messages listed in Table 1 in the OTEventCode parameter. Also, the notifier's cookie parameter will identify the protocol stack that sent the message (currently defined as kOTPRotocolTypeTCPv4 = 'ipv4').
  
  When a kOTStackIsLoading message is received, the notifier's OTResult parameter contains a value indicating the type of hardware link the stack will be using once it has been loaded (these values are listed in Table 2).
  
  

  Table 2. TCP/IP protocol stack transition event codes.

  
  

  	Constant Name & Value	Description
  	kOTHardwareInterfaceIsEthernet = 1	TCP/IP running on top of Ethernet.
  	kOTHardwareInterfaceIs802 = 6	TCP/IP running on top of 802.
  	kOTHardwareInterfaceIsPPP = 7	TCP/IP running on top of a PPP dial-up connection.

  
  

• Facilities have been provided to allow speakable items to be designated as either recognizable when a particular application is active or recognizable when any application is active.
  
  
• Developers can install Speakable Actions for use when their application is active by creating a folder in the Apple Menu Items:Speakable Items:Application Speakable Items: hierarchy. Inside of this folder, add an invisible alias file referring to the application along with items (AppleScript applets or standard applications) associated with voice commands. The items in this folder will become speakable in when the application is active (i.e., is the front-most application).
  
  
• The Speech Listener Application enables Applescript writers to listen for specific words as part of their scripts.
  
  
• Speakable items commands have been updated to use Mac OS 9 features.
  
  
• Built-in commands have been added to allow for application switching and launching based on the running processes, the contents of the "Recent Applications" folder and the contents of the "Favorites" folder.
  
  
• Built-in commands allow for launching web browser and email client based on the selections in the Internet control panel.
  
  
• A new dynamic help view that shows all available spoken commands - this can be accessed by way of the "Show Speakable commands" speakable command.
  
  
• A set of new application speakable items designed specifically for Internet Explorer, Netscape Communicator, and Outlook Express.
  
  
• Speaking the names of push buttons, radio buttons, and check boxes works in (most) applications.
  
  
• AppleScript terminology for the SpeakableItems application is now available.
  

• Provides superior 3D sound experience over previous versions.
  
  
• API additions have been included so that clients of the OpenGL 3D graphics API can more easily use SoundSprocket.
  

• Network Browser now supports FTP connections to servers on TCP/IP networks.
  
  
• Browsing services are now based on Network Services Location (NSL), allowing users to browse services on the internet.
  

• Adds the concept of Sherlock Channels allowing internet search sites to be organized into discrete categories. Categories include People, Shopping, News, and general Internet searches.
  
  
• Find by Content and Find File have been integrated into a single Files channel, allowing users to perform more complex searches than in previous versions of Sherlock.
  
  
• The Sherlock application now provides a simple user interface for selecting which languages are to be supported for indexing. Thus, a user could select English, French, German, and Italian, for example, or German, Polish, and Russian. Of course, selecting additional languages will increase the size of index files.
  

• Commands have been added allowing volumes to be formatted as UFS and other common UNIX file system types.
  

• The primary features are unchanged from the currently shipping MacPac 2.1.
  

Items no longer supported

Apple Telecom software

Color StyleWriter 4000 series printers

Energy Saver API

LaserWriter 8f

QuickDraw GX

Acrobat version of this Note (196K).

Acknowledgments