[Info-vax] OT: For MAC Lovers Only :-)

[Steven Schweda]

> So are the boxes it runs on but 7.5.5 is the latest version
> recommended for any of these (and is too advanced for one of
> them!!)

   What's too old for 7.5.5?  (Your hardware descriptions have
been pretty spare.)

> And even if I could get a copy, how would I get it on a Mac
> floppy?

   I don't have "Alsoft's DiskWarrior", but for the more
general question, if you can find someone who has a floppy
with the desired stuff, then it should be relatively easy to
find a system which could make an image of that floppy, and
that image could be shipped around the world to some other
system where it could be written to another floppy.  Even a
VMS system could do it.  For example:

ALP $ moun /noass /fore dva0:
%MOUNT-I-MOUNTED,  mounted on _ALP$DVA0:
ALP $ copy dva0: UofMN_Mac_Internet_Kit_1.img
%COPY-W-INCOMPAT, DVA0:[].; (input) and
 SYS$SYSROOT:[SYSMGR]UofMN_Mac_Internet_Kit_1.img;1 (output)
 have incompatible attributes
%COPY-E-READERR, error reading DVA0:[].;
-RMS-F-RER, file read error
-SYSTEM-F-ILLBLKNUM, illegal logical block number
%COPY-W-NOTCMPLT, DVA0:[].; not completely copied
ALP $ dire /size UofMN_Mac_Internet_Kit_1.img

Directory SYS$SYSROOT:[SYSMGR]

UofMN_Mac_Internet_Kit_1.img;1
                        2880

Total of 1 file, 2880 blocks.

Despite the complaints, it looks to me like a 1.44MB disk
image.

   If you have a Mac with Ethernet (typically an Asante EN/SC
SCSI gizmo for a Mac which lacks one built-in), and you have
a VMS V7.x system (AppleTalk stopped working around V8, as I
recall), then you should be able to run the PathWorks for Mac
software on the VMS system, and the native Appletalk (non-IP)
file sharing on the Mac.  For old-Mac-to-old-Mac
communication, the built-in serial AppleTalk should work if
you have any of the suitable cabling options.

> [...] one of them hac TCP on it and that
> seems to have disappeared during the upgrade. :-(

   I thought that MacTCP was an optional item in the System
7.5 installation. (I tend to check all the boxes, just in
case.)  Before that, I remember nothing, but a custom
installation might be worth a try if you just took the
defaults the first time.

   My obsolete-software-on-floppy collection includes a
six-disk set of a University of Minnesota Mac Internet Kit
(Version 1.1.1, 15 March 1997), which includes MacSLIP and
MacTCP (and the very useful Fetch FTP client, and Netscape
Navigator 2.02, and a pile of other stuff), so I got what I
needed from that.

   As usual, many things are possible, depending on
circumstances.