Re: mail slug@warbucks.ai.sri.comIvory MacInTalk

[Palter@STONY-BROOK.SCRC.Symbolics.COM (Gary M. Palter)]

    Date: Fri, 13 Jul 90 15:32 EDT
    From: miller@SOL.CS.ROCHESTER.EDU (Brad Miller)

	Date: Fri, 13 Jul 90 18:39:46+0900
	From: kddlab!atr-la.atr.co.jp!myers@uunet.UU.NET (John K. Myers)


	Help!  I am trying to get MacIntalk to work on the MacIvory.
	I have versions dated Jan '83 (28,312 bytes), Jan '84 and
	Apr 14 '88 (both 28,552 bytes).  I have Talktools 1.0 (Sept '87)
	and Speechlab ('85).  No sound comes out.  I have the sound set
	high on the Control-panel, and I have moved the MacIntalk
	icon to the system folder.  Nothing seems to work.  Is it
	supported?

    Apple commissioned the creation of Macintalk only to have the mac introduce
    itself back in 84 <can you say "media event"?>. They never got the source
    code to it, they don't support it, they don't want to know about it, they
    don't give a flying ****. There's even a tech note from Apple about it,
    though I don't remember the number offhand. It is guarenteed not to work on
    some hardware, and in future releases of the os. Possibly including system
    6. So bascially, I'd stop bothering if I were you, and start from scratch if
    you really need this functionality.

    ----
     Brad Miller		U. Rochester Comp Sci Dept.
     miller@cs.rochester.edu {...allegra!rochester!miller}

The Tech Note is #268, 1MacinTalk -- The Final Chapter0.  Quoting the conclusion

2     3The Surgeon General Warning
2     
     The development of MacinTalk ended with the introduction of the Macintosh in 1984.  Nothing
     more will be done to this product.  It is a compatibility risk to use MacinTalk.  It causes the Sound
     Manager to fail.  It will 3not2 work with the new Sound Manager planned for System 7.0.  This
     system revision will also introduce the new feature of virtual memory; it is not expected that
     MacinTalk will work while the user has Virtual Memory running.  It may not work at all with
     future versions of the Macintosh hardware.  Continued use of MacinTalk is a major compatibility
     risk.  Do not operate heavy machinery while under the influence of this product.

0I strongly advise against using it.  While I haven't actually tested it,
I'm quite certain that it won't work on the Macintosh IIfx.  I know for a
fact that it won't work on some upcoming machines.

I intend to remove the Lisp MTB support for MacinTalk in Genera 8.1.

At the Apple World-Wide Developers Conference in May, Apple promised that
they would provide the functionality of MacinTalk in a new product within
a year.  The alpha version of said product spoke far more comprehensibly
than MacinTalk ever did.

  - Gary