Which mac VM (was RE: String>>hash performance)

Richard A. O'Keefe ok at cs.otago.ac.nz
Fri Sep 6 03:30:13 UTC 2002


John M McIntosh <johnmci at smalltalkconsulting.com>
*very* helpfully wrote:
	In general the application used must have the largest version number,  
	an internally assigned number that I typically increment for each VM  
	distributed. In case of version number duplication then the application  
	with the latest creation date is used, if duplication then it's usually  
	the one you've last moved within the finder.  Ah, os-x might have some  
	different opinions here.

Not relevant to me because I'm running MacOS 8.6.
Where's the version information?  Is this a MacOS thing?
Ah, ResEdit tells me that 3.2 has version
    3.2.7 Beta 7 00-USA
and 3.0Alpha8MT has version
    3.0.8 Alpha 8 00-USA

	Now in the 3.0.x series of VM there was some  
	VM distributed that have version numbers out of sequence, so if you've  
	got lots of them about then it's possible an older VM might launch  
	because of a mistake on my part, although I think if you have a 3.2.x  
	VM this shouldn't be a problem. For example double-clicking on an image  
	on my powerbook launches a beta test VM I compiled yesterday, on  
	another office machine of mine used for testing which contains 37 some  
	VM of various forms (many not distributed to the public) causes 3.2.8b5  
	to run because that's the latest.
	
	To ensure that you get the VM you expect to run you could use Sherlock  
	and find all applications of type FAST
	
	IE do a custom search for file type is APPL and creator is 'FAST'

I have
    Date       'vers'        Name
    2000.01.04 <<missing>>   Squeak VM 2.7 PPC
    2000.08.28 2.8.0 Final 0 Squeak VM 2.8
    2001.02.28 3.0.8 Alpha 8 Squeak 3.0Alpha8MT
    2001.06.31 3.1.8 Alpha 0 Squeak 3.0     (the browser plugin)
    2002.05.31 3.2.7 Beta  7 Squeak 3.2.7b6 Classic
    2002.05.31 3.2.7 Beta  7 Squeak 3.2 VM  (a copy in a shared folder)
	    
The 'vers' resource doesn't seem to be helping MacOS 8.6 find the
most recent version.

	Then delete the ones you don't want to use.

It's not clear to me that I don't want to use any of them.
I had imagined that the browser plugin VM was different for a reason;
not that I have any idea what the reason might be.
If you want to see whether something works in an older Squeak,
you _don't_ want to do your testing in a VM that might have some
bugs fixed.  And of course, older VMs asked for less memory; on a
64MB machine it is surprising just how little you can have running
at the same time as a Squeak 3.2 VM.

	As noted people who collect VMs for a living seem to do the drag  
	and drop invocations just to be sure what they run is what they expect.
	
Yes, but I don't collect VMs for a living, and I do want to fire Squeak
3.0 and Squeak 3.2 up from DragThing.  (For later MacOS users, think of
the Dock.)

I'm rebuilding my desktop file.  Gosh, it takes a long time.
Nope, still picks 3.0.  Changed Creator of 3.0 and plugin, nope,
still picks them even though Creator doesn't match any more.
Hmmm.  Don't burn bridges entirely, drop 3.0 VM(s) onto MacGzip.
Well, stap me vitals!  Now it picks 2.8.  Drop 2.8 and 2.7 onto MacGzip.

I don't know how MacOS picks 'em, but it certainly isn't newness...

Hokay, I've compressed all but the latest VM, so that I _can_ test with
older VMs by uncompress followed by drag-and-drop.

Should something about this be in an installation guide somewhere?
Should a new release image (or one derived from it) pop up a warning
if run on an older VM?




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