Errata

Example for keyboard equivalent should be Command+S for Save. Command+V
is the normal shortcut for Paste, not for Save.

The second sentence in the last paragraph above the picture now reads:

"You can put the Finder away in its folder by selecting Put Away from the
Finder's File folder or by pressing Command+Y."

The author had just described pulling a folder or file out onto the desktop,
which you then can choose the above command to send it back to its original
location.

The sentence should read: "You can put the folder or file away by selecting
Put Away from the Finder's File menu or by pressing Command+Y."

of any program. However, rebuilding the desktop only works when you force-quit
the Finder. Normally, force-quit just kills the application, but because the
Finder is "required" it is restarted immediately after you do the force-quit,
and can then act on the cmd-option keys as it would when first starting up. As
the text points out, this is something you should normally not do to a program,
so you might consider leaving the tip out altogether.

Beginning on the second line, the book inaccurately says "System 7 was the
first system written to take advantage of the reduced instruction set (RISC)
PowerPC processor." This is incorrect. System 7 was released in 1991, and
Apple did not release PowerPC machines until mid-1994. To this day, Mac OS 8
and 9 include legacy 680x0 code that is run in emulation mode on PowerPC
machines.

"PC Exchange" control device was introduced with System Version 7.5. This is
not true: I distinctly remember using an LC630 bought in 1994 which had
preloaded on some version of System 7.1 (probably some customized 7.1.X Italian
version) and carried a "PC Exchange" cDEV (and no more the old system software
"Apple File Exchange"). The same thing was stated by other Mac users I
contacted online after being puzzled by the book's entry.

There are several errors and confusing statements in the "Macintosh Operating
System History" table:

System 6.0.2 and following: each of the versions (6.0.3, 6.0.4, 6.0.5, etc.)
were introduced along with new machines which required them, but any machine
could run under later versions.

System 6.0.8 was also the final version of System 6, designed to run on most
then-available machines. Notably, either 6.0.7 or 6.0.8 marked the debut of
TrueType fonts and drivers for the StyleWriter printer.

It's not clear what is meant by the term "reference" release in the table,
although it is used several times. My understanding is that a "reference
release" is one which (a) incorporates all existing enablers into the system
file and (b) is available for stand-alone install, without having to install
and then upgrade. By this standard, "reference releases" would include 7.5
and 7.6 but not 7.5.3 (still required enablers) or 7.5.5 (required enablers,
was a patch applied over 7.5.3).

System 7.6 was _NOT_ simply an accumulation of previously released software;
there were a number of changes including improved virtual memory, and enhanced
screen capture tools. System 7.6 also required a 32-bit-clean ROM, was the
last version to work with 68030 machines, and was incompatible with PowerTalk.

The Appearance control panel was required for startup in both Mac OS 8 and Mac
OS 8.1; this is listed as if it were a change that came into effect with 8.1.

As of Mac OS 8.5, the code was _still_ not "fully Power-PC-native". There is
still 680x0 code in the system in ways which can not be fully eliminated,
although the proportion of PPC code is increasing as time goes by. The first
_fully_ PPC-native version of the OS will be Mac OS X.

Game Sprockets are _not_ designed to "support computationally intense games".
They are a way of providing a single programming interface that game developers
can then use to work with a variety of input devices, video cards, and the
like.

The description of "What is 32-bit Clean" is unclear. In referencing memory
locations, a program can either assume all memory addresses can be described
with 24 bits (which was ok in the early days of the Mac) or it can use 32 bits
for a memory address (which is necessary to deal with more than 8MB of memory).
An application that uses 24-bit addresses will crash when the system tells it
to use a 32-bit address with nonzero values in the first eight bits. A "32-
bit-dirty" Mac is one in which the programs in ROM use 24-bit addresses.
Mode32 and the Apple 32-bit enabler provided 32-bit-clean code which loaded
itself and "took over" for the dirty code in the ROM.

System 7.6 (NOT Mac OS 8, as the text indicates) required 32-bit-clean ROM.
The models with 32-bit-dirty ROM were the Mac II, IIx, IIcx, and SE/30; System
7.5.5 was the last available system for these models.

The last two sentences in the entry for "68030" now read:

"System 7 requires the 68030 chip and cannot implement virtual memory
on Macs running older microprocessors. Runs at 16.7 MHz."

The 68030 can run at faster rate (50 Mhz) (like the IIfx who run at 50 Mhz)
and System 7.0 to 7.5 can be run on 68000 and 68020 processors.

The last sentence in the entry for "68040" now reads:

"Runs at 33 MHz."

Can run at 40 Mhz too (Quadra 840av)

The last sentence in the entry for"PowerPC 603e" now reads:

"Clocked at 75 MHz."

It can run at greater speed, and you forgot the 603. 603 is up to 120 Mhz,
603e is up to 300 Mhz.