Re: Apple Drops Backward Compatibility for Next MacOS

[dempson@actrix.gen.nz (David Empson)]

Christopher C. Wood <christw@lexis-nexis.com> wrote:

> In article <55aqkv$1n4o@uni.library.ucla.edu>, pubpc1@library.ucla.edu writes:
> |> What if I owned AppleWorks GS and I can't afford to dunk $200 for a
> |> copy of WordPerfect for the Mac?  If I am going to upgrade the
> |> hardware, I want to preserve my investment in current software.
> 
> You would upgrade to ClarisWorks for $69.  AppleWorks was in the
> competitive upgrade list.  ClarisWorks could import all AppleWorks
> file formats (I'm presuming AppleWorks GS here, but have no direct
> experience with such data files)

ClarisWorks can only import AppleWorks GS Word Processor files, not
database, spreadsheet, page layout or graphics.

[For that matter, no software other than AppleWorks GS itself is able to
read these files.  They were never documented, Claris itself has no
idea, and at least two teams of IIgs experts were not even able to get
AppleWorks GS to assemble again, let alone work out how it operates
internally.  If I remember the details right: the whole thing is a mess
of poorly commented assembly code written by different people, and the
combined application had to be manually patched to get it to work!  The
only solution would be for someone to reverse-engineer the file format.]

ClarisWorks will import files from AppleWorks (classic) 3.0 or earlier,
but only some files from AppleWorks 4.0 or later (unless they've added
support for this in a recent version of ClarisWorks).

> |> What about my 100+ AWGS page layout files?
> 
> I don't know.  Call Claris.

They can't help.  AppleWorks GS is a dead-end product.

-- 
David Empson
dempson@actrix.gen.nz
Snail Mail: P.O. Box 27-103, Wellington, New Zealand