Talk:Mac OS 8

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Contents 1 Kaleidoscope 2 Monolithic or nanokernel? 3 Planning Revision to Introduction 4 8.5.1 5 HFS+/Extended Notation

[edit] Kaleidoscope

I've removed the comment about Kaleidoscope being spawned by Mac OS 8.5. Kaleidoscope pre-dated Mac OS 8.5 by just over two years, and may have been one of the reasons themes were dropped. I remember that there was a controversy because Apple at one point demonstrated a Kaleidoscope theme importer. --Steven Fisher 01:51, 4 August 2005 (UTC)

Does anybody know how to Linux onto a powerpc running mac os 8=0))(

[edit] Monolithic or nanokernel?

The article said that the nanokernel was introduced in 8.6 but I don't believe this is true. The nanokernel has been around since at least OS 8.1. The nanokernel is an integral part of the boot sequence for NewWorld architecture machines. The first NewWorld machine was the iMac 233 which shipped originally with OS 8.1. This would suggest that the nanokernel existed in 8.1.

The iMac 233 was able to run a retail copy of Mac OS 8.5 - suggesting that the retail version of 8.5 included a nanokernel.

Here is a developer reference for the PowerMac G3 (Blue & White).

http://developer.apple.com/documentation/Hardware/Developer_Notes/Macintosh_CPUs-G3/PowerMacintosh_G3/PowerMacG3.65.html#pgfId=3432

This article has the following quote.

"The previous version of the NanoKernel has code that is processor-specific to create data structures. With the NewWorld architecture, the Trampoline code creates these data structures from information in the Open Firmware device tree."

This suggests that the nanokernel was around post-NewWorld architecture. Also, the Blue & White originally shipped with Mac OS 8.5.1 and so this would suggest that the nanokernel was present. This article was last updated in January 1999, around 4 months before 8.6 was introduced.

Here is an article describing the NewWorld boot sequence.

http://developer.apple.com/documentation/Hardware/DeviceManagers/pci_srvcs/pci_cards_drivers/PCI_BOOK.4b.html

Note that in the article the nanokernel was mentioned and this article was last updated in March 1999, 2 months before 8.6 was released.

All reference material on the Apple Developer Connection regards NewWorld and the kernel refers to it being a nanokernel. The only sites I've seeing referring to a nanokernel as being something completely new in 8.6 are non-Apple sites. Many of them are Wikipedia pages or pages where text has clearly been borrowed from Wikipedia.

Mac OS 8.6 definitely introduced changes to the nanokernel but I think it's wrong to say that the nanokernel was first introduced in 8.6. The MP Nanokernel was introduced in 8.6, not the concept of the Nanokernel. See this article for more details.

http://developer.apple.com/qa/hw/hw63.html

This article from 1998 also refers to a nanokernel

http://developer.apple.com/technotes/tn/pdf/tn1094b.pdf

I could be horribly wrong here so would appreciate someone with some more real-world low-level developer knowledge confirming or correcting this.

—The preceding unsigned comment was added by Thepreacher (talk • contribs) 18:16, 31 May 2006 (UTC).

[edit] Planning Revision to Introduction

I don't think the current introduction properly summarizes the history and significance of Mac OS 8. Here are the main points I think need to be addressed:

• The most apparent change to the system was the adoption of the Platinum theme
• Early versions (8.0 and 8.1) support the 68040 processor, however 8.5 required a PowerPC processor
• Mac OS 8 revitalized interest in the Mac platform, introducing many technologies which were being developed for Copland (which was originally intended to be Mac OS 8.) This allowed the Mac platform to remain viable as Apple developed Mac OS X.

The fact that Copland is currently omitted from the article is huge! This was Apple's biggest stumbling block for years. Copland was originally planned as Mac OS 8, and the Mac OS 8 we now know was in direct response to the failure of Copland. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Zachlutz (talk • contribs) 21:23, 29 March 2007 (UTC).

Cool. Please source your edits though, per Wikipedia:Attribution AlistairMcMillan 22:55, 29 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] 8.5.1

This probably doesn't deserve it's own section heading, seeing that it was such a minor update and the content is limited to a single sentence. If there are no objections, I'd like to merge it into the 8.5 section. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Zachlutz (talk • contribs) 10:18, March 30, 2007 (UTC)

[edit] HFS+/Extended Notation

I'm not sure where others stand on this, but I have no problem with allowing both notations of HFS+ and HFS Extended in this article. As far as I'm concerned, they're interchangeable. I would like to see HFS+ denoted as such, however, as opposed to HFS Plus, because, as far as I can tell, that isn't an official notation. Zachlutz 11:53, 30 March 2007 (UTC)

Apple uses "HFS Plus" on the official technote. AlistairMcMillan 11:57, 30 March 2007 (UTC)