Mac OS9

[gstarke]

This one may seem a little "out of the Ark" these days, but we have one key computer that my wife uses and loves which is an old clamshell iBook running Mac OS9 and IE5 for Mac. When I tried to access our test xataface DB from that it does not display the field data at all - just blanks. We don't want to part with it (the screen resolution is just perfect for the work she does and it looks cute on her desk), and have tried OSX but it is too slow on that model.
We are running a Filemaker web database at present which works fine but I want to move to "the cloud" with mySQL not the office server. I presume xataface makes extension use of javascript or something that is throwing out the display.
Can you think of any work around for this? Is there another browser that will run on old OS9 that will display xataface?

[shannah]

Since IE 5 predates many much of the dom and internet standards, unfortunately it isn't practical to target any web development to it. There may be some browsers on OS 9 that do support the DOM, but I haven't used OS 9 in over 10 years (I'm a mac guy) so I can't be sure which ones (if any) will support the DOM and standards (which is increasingly necessary for Xataface to work properly). You may want to try the latest netscape that was released for OS 9 to see if it works. Others that I know if include iCab, and Opera, so it might be worth taking them for a spin.

Another thought (regarding the OS X thing). If you turn off drop shadow in OS X it makes it much more practical on the older G3 models. I ran OS X on an iMac G3 233Mhz for years. I also managed to get OS X running on an old 604e processor (for that one I *had* to turn off drop shadow), but it worked quite well. There are some other settings you can set also to help ease processor load. I agree, those clamshell macs were really cute.

[gstarke]

Thanks for thinking about this one, Steve.
I tried iCab and it was better but still not able to display the record details, then tried Netscape (version 7, the last for OS9) and it was better still but still glitched with some parts ... showing 'details' in the 'Find' window (so you can't actually search). It looks like this might have put a squash to my plans for the time being (unless the clamshell dies).
I have to say I am very impressed with all the work you have obviously put into the program, and your support level through this forum is the best I have seen on the Net.
For me, I will just go back to working with my Filemaker web server and maybe rethink porting to MySQL some later time down the track - it was going to be a massive effort anyway and I don't think I'm quite ready for what will be involved.
Thanks for all the help.
Graeme

[shannah]

In the OS 9 era, Filemaker was awesome. If you are stuck having to support OS 9, then I can't think of any better tool than Filemaker to handle the job.

[gstarke]

Thank you for that recommendation. Your integrity is greatly appreciated.
Just to put perspective on what we were looking at: we have five related databases with hundreds of fields including complex calculations, and likely to be at most only a few users ever. I am sure xataface could have done it but the work facing me was immense and for marginal gains on what we have. I can see that, had any of the factors been a little less, we might have pushed through.
Anyway, all the best with xataface - it really does look great!
Cheers
Graeme