[barbarian]

I recently upgraded my home computer to a G5 and have now found myself in a minor bind because of it's OS X only booting. I have a ton of files in old semi-defunct formats (macwrite, superpaint, fullwrite, word 2.0 & 3.0 old emailer email and so on) and some of the programs to read these files don't run properly under classic. There used to be a program for OS 9 to read all sorts of defunct file formats... does such a program exist for X or is each file type it's own adventure.

[chabig]

There used to be a program for OS 9 to read all sorts of defunct file formats... does such a program exist for X or is each file type it's own adventure.

It's the same program...MacLinkPlus

http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/6061

Chris

[barbarian]

Just tried MacLinkPlus for X... it's been terribly ported over to X... it did eventually work, but what a hassle...
----
Thinking about this issue, I realize that as time goes by it will just get worse...

What the world needs is an open source translation engine that accepts plugins for various filetypes... basically each plug-in should read a specific filetype and then output to a standard datatype (text, html, xml)... the plug should also be able to convert back to the original filetype...

[chabig]

GraphicConverter will open all of your graphics files. As for the others, you should get them converted right now to something more modern. Don't leave them in the old formats.

Chris

[barbarian]

Actually I have a bunch of files graphic converter doesn't open... mainly superpaint, illustrator 1.0 files, and cricketdraw files (straight postscript).

Lately I've found the best way to open these is by using vMac and running the old programs and then taking screen captures...

-----------
Maclink plus works on most of my old Macwrite documents.

The biggest problem I've had is with Word 1.0 & 2.0 files and with Fullwrite files.

The best solution for the old word files was vMac + word 1.0 and then cutting and copying to textedit and saving as text.

For fullwrite I found this page:

http://www.ejca.org/fwp/

Which allows you to download a version of fullwrite that works decently under classic. As these are complex documents with graphics I've been printing to pdf using the excellent os 9 printtopdf extension...

Fullwrite was an amazing word processor/layout program/outliner.... running it you can start to image what the world would look like if MS didn't rule the word processing world.

[asxless]

This thread highlights the fundamental problems of digital data storage of archival data:
-- obsolete media/readers (e.g. Syquest cartridges / SCSI Syquest drives),
-- obsolete computers (e.g to run old OSs & applications), and
-- obsolete data formats, including old versions of currently available applications (e.g. Word).

Ironically, it really doesn't matter that the archived data are perfectly stored for hundreds of years, if you don't have a media reader, OS or application that can retrieve the data from the media. Luckily, the scholars in the dark ages translated & archived important manuscripts using a technology we can still read -- good quality pen and paper.

There are two basic solutions for maintaining archival data in digital formats...
1) maintain a diligent program of transferring archival data to new media AND translating it into current formats as each technology component becomes obsolete or unsupported (i.e. hardware, OS & application).
OR
2) maintain working hardware, OS and applications that can read the archival data.

FWIW I prefer the latter method. But my computer closet is getting cluttered with old Apples

-- asxless in iLand

[Sven G]

Originally posted by barbarian:
Just tried MacLinkPlus for X... it's been terribly ported over to X...

And, in the new verion 14, after some years' waiting, they finally re-added the contextual menu translator feature to OS X!

[JKT]

Originally posted by asxless:
This thread highlights the fundamental problems of digital data storage of archival data:
-- obsolete media/readers (e.g. Syquest cartridges / SCSI Syquest drives),
-- obsolete computers (e.g to run old OSs & applications), and
-- obsolete data formats, including old versions of currently available applications (e.g. Word).

Ironically, it really doesn't matter that the archived data are perfectly stored for hundreds of years, if you don't have a media reader, OS or application that can retrieve the data from the media. Luckily, the scholars in the dark ages translated & archived important manuscripts using a technology we can still read -- good quality pen and paper.

There are two basic solutions for maintaining archival data in digital formats...
1) maintain a diligent program of transferring archival data to new media AND translating it into current formats as each technology component becomes obsolete or unsupported (i.e. hardware, OS & application).
OR
2) maintain working hardware, OS and applications that can read the archival data.

FWIW I prefer the latter method. But my computer closet is getting cluttered with old Apples

-- asxless in iLand

Actually, what it indicates even better is the fundamental danger of closed, unpublished proprietary formats, but I guess that is a whole other thread.