Things Mac OS 9 doesn't do that you wish it did.

[John Hokanson Jr.]

Cameron is doing some excellent work on a web browser, and I recently discovered the program icWord that allows viewing of modern Word documents. Here's a wishlist of features I wish existed:

- Modern Flash player. Even though it might be speed limited.

- The ability to view Adobe Acrobat documents newer than version 5 (this is most annoying).

- USB 2.0 support.

- The ability to save documents in modern a Word format (though Appleworks and WP 3.5e do an admirable job in earlier formats like 6.0 and 97/2000).

- We could probably do with a better Java runtime.

- Long filename support (this would be a tough one to do).

What's your list?

 

[ClassicHasClass]

For long filename support, look at Coela. Works great.

 

[classic]

protected memory

 

[MacJunky]

For long filename support, look at Coela.

http://www.bekkoame.ne.jp/~iimori/sw/Coela.html
oooooo, this looks neat, but it mentions an expiry date... perhaps a hex editor or something would fix that.. Also appearance manager :/

http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=auto&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.bekkoame.ne.jp%2F~iimori%2Fsw%2FMgrepApp.html

 

[Scott Baret]

Word 98 and 2001 (as well as corresponding versions of Excel and PowerPoint) run great on OS 9 and can export the .doc format (and .xls and .ppt formats) fine. I do wish there was a way to have these versions read .docx files, but maybe someone will come up with a .docx reader for OS 9 as a RetroChallenge project someday

The one thing I wish OS 9 did is run on newer machines.

 

[ChristTrekker]

31 characters is a long filename!

The standard of comparison is still 8.3 format, right?

 

[Gil]

802.11g and/or WPA encryption.

 

[John Hokanson Jr.]

255 characters is considered long filename, and has been on PCs since Windows 95 and OS/2. Technically, a Mac should have no trouble with this, but (unfortunately) the *Finder* in Mac OS versions previous to X will only display between 63 and 31 characters depending on version.

 

[Tron]

h264 for quicktime 6

At least decoder.

 

[closeddoors1559]

I want a decent raster to vector tracer for OS 9.

 

[Emehr]

Seemingly doable:

USB 2.0 (sorely desired)

Spaces would be nice

Pipe dream:

Protected memory

Hmm, that's about all I can think of. The funny thing is my wishlist for OS X is much longer and mostly involves the things that OS 9 can do.

 

[Byrd]

- Good DivX playback

- Torrent client

- Ability to play Duke Nukem Forever

 

[CJ_Miller]

h264 for quicktime 6 At least decoder.

My MDD and TiBook are last-generation OS 9 machines, and neither of them come close to anything crunchy enough to handle h264. My MDD 1.42 with GeForce Ti 4600 video could barely handle 1fps of x264! It is just too processor intensive, and the amount of data probably choke the bus also. To dial down the detail enough for it to work, we'd lose the benefits. Better off converting it to MJPEG.

I would say that this one fits under "running on modern machines", at least a G5.

 

[CJ_Miller]

I want a decent raster to vector tracer for OS 9.

Does Adobe Streamline not do it for you? True that there aren't many options. How about the last generation of Corel/ProCreate draw apps?

 

[ClassicHasClass]

I think it would be nice to have an ffmpeg for OS 9, however. I have some sketchy source code to this effect, but nothing that works (yet).

 

[closeddoors1559]

I want a decent raster to vector tracer for OS 9.

Does Adobe Streamline not do it for you? True that there aren't many options. How about the last generation of Corel/ProCreate draw apps?

That sounds good, I'll try Adobe Streamline out! Thanks.

 

[CJ_Miller]

For long filename support, look at Coela. Works great.

YES! I just finally tried Coela. My preferred setup of two Miller column browsers is finally a reality. Reminds me of older versions of Path Finder. Wish i had known about this years ago!

 

[beachycove]

Coela:

Never heard of this before. Would it allow backup (even Time Machine backup) to an OS9 server? I seem to recall from a couple of years ago that an OS9 (running ASIP 6.3) machine that I tried this with refused to accept some UNIX files with extra-long names.

 

[Dennis Nedry]

Here is my list of demands for the Appearance Manager:

- Support for alpha-transparent pxm# images in appearance themes

- Ability to justify tabs in themes (always left-aligned or top-aligned)

- Support for vertical text, especially on right and left facing tabs

- Scale option for images in themes, instead of always repeating

- Animation of any element in themes

- Rollover of any element in themes

- Appearance control panel options for left grow boxes, 'X' style checkboxes, right-to-left styles, and double double scroll bar buttons present in themes

- Support for window growing from positions other than the bottom, right corner

- Support for custom mouse cursors present in themes

- Support for color variations in themes (similar to Apple Platinum and Aqua Blue/Graphite in OS X)

- Support for equations (add, multiply, sine, etc) in coordinate offsets in layo resources of themes

- Ability to change font face, size, and color in layo resources

- Better anti-aliasing

- Ability to swap out other system resources, such as strings, in the System File

- Ability to reposition the menu bar elsewhere on the screen

- Separate menu title item for the Apple Menu, which can be resized independently

- Alpha-transparent mouse cursors

- Ability for layo resources to "reach out" beyond their bounds instead of everything bigger than the original just getting chopped off.