System 7.5 v7.5.3 Technical Details: Part 1 of 3

System 7.5 Technical Details (part 1 of 3)

This file is one of several Read Me files that describe technical details between system software 7.5 and system software 7.5.3. This information is most appropriate for advanced users. For less technical information, see the About System 7.5 document, the Installing System 7.5 document, or the What's New in version 7.5.3 document.

What's in this document (part 1 of 3)
- General information about system software version 7.5.3
- Changes to the Finder
- Changes to Find File
- Changes to Standard File
- Changes to control panels
- Changes to Apple Guide
- Changes to Apple Menu Options

General information about system software version 7.5.3

System software version 7.5.3 provides the enhancements introduced in System 7.5, System 7.5 Update 1.0, System 7.5 Update 2.0, and System 7.5, Revision 2.

This software installs the latest versions of all components it finds on the disk it is updating, including any components that you disabled using the Extensions Manager. After you run the Installer, the updated components will be in the same folders as they were before you installed the update. For example, new versions of disabled extensions will be in the Extensions (Disabled) folder, and new versions of disabled control panels will be in the Control Panels (Disabled) folder.

The file called System 7.5 Update replaces the enabler on all computers capable of running system software versions 7.5 and/or 7.5.1. Computers that did not previously need an enabler to work with system software versions 7.5 and 7.5.1 still need the System 7.5 Update file since it contains most of the fixes delivered in this update.

The file called System 7.5.2 Update replaces the enabler file on all computers capable of running system software version 7.5.2.

If you use the Custom Install option to install a system for Any Macintosh, both updated enablers are installed. This is normal for the Any Macintosh option. Do not delete one or both of these enablers.

This update includes all of the fixes included with the previously released 7.5.2 Printing Update, the PowerBook 5300 System Software Update, and the PowerBook 2300c Update. You do not need these updates if you install this software. If you previously installed any of these updates, you should install this software, since it contains additional fixes.

After you install the update, the About This Macintosh window says System Software 7.5.3. The window also says Revision 2 to indicate the source of the system software.

Changes to the Finder

This software includes a new version of the Finder with the following changes:

• When you rebuild the desktop, comments typed in a file's Get Info window are no longer deleted. (Of course, if you delete the desktop database -- for example, by making it visible using a utility and then moving it to the Trash -- the comments will be lost because the Finder will have to build a new desktop at startup.)
• The Name field (used in Finder windows set to one of the list views) is wider, allowing you to see more characters in filenames.
• On PowerPC-based computers, icons are translucent while you drag them (rather than simply appearing as outlines). If you drag several icons at once, only the icon under the mouse will be translucent -- the others will still be outlines.
• Copying large numbers of small files is faster. (Previous versions of the Finder updated the bar in the copy progress dialog box approximately thirty times per second; the new version updates the copy progress bar far less frequently.)
• The Finder Update file (once named PowerPC Finder Update) is now part of the Finder. This update deletes all old versions of this file.
• When the Clipboard is active, the Clean Up Window command is dimmed. This eliminates a crashing bug in the Finder.
• The Finder flushes the processor's cache more intelligently, improving the Finder speed on all 68040- and PowerPC-based computers.
• Fixes an issue that caused an out-of-memory error when emptying the Trash if QuickDraw GX was installed.
• Fixes an issue that caused seemingly false out-of-memory messages when trying to open or close Finder windows. This issue sometimes occurred when the desktop had very few icons on it, a window with the Kind column was visible, and a large number of different kinds of documents had been displayed since the last restart.
• Fixes an issue introduced by the Finder that shipped with System 7.5 Update 1.0. The Find window of Find File will now be made active if Find File is already open and you choose Find from File menu (or Find File from the Apple menu).
• If use an alias to connect to a server and your server password has expired or needs to be changed, you'll see a message that the password needs to be changed. (Prior versions told the user that the server couldn't be found.)
• File copies are now done asynchronously, which makes the CPU more available to other applications during copying. If another application is made active during a file copy, the computer does not slow down as much. This effect is most noticeable when using Apple Remote Access.
• Finder window titles are now erased before they are overwritten. (Previous versions rendered window titles unreadable in some circumstances.)

This new version of the Finder also includes the following fixes from the prior update's Finder:

• Corrects an issue at startup that could cause the Finder to open the same list of windows over and over again.
• With QuickDraw GX installed, AppleEvents or AppleScript scripts that send Print or Page Setup commands to the Finder are now handled correctly.
• When you try to make changes to a System or Applications folder that is protected by the General Controls panel, the Finder no longer claims there's an access privileges issue. The warning message now describes why the folder can't be changed and how to turn off folder protection.
• Fixes an issue that occurred the first time you started up your computer after installation (or any time you deleted the old Finder Preferences file). One symptom of this issue was a dialog box stating that the Network control panel could not be used.
• Fixes an issue that caused a crash if a sound and a control panel were both in the Startup Items folder and the sound was opened first. (Items in this folder are opened in alphabetical order.)
• The Finder no longer rebuilds the desktop if it finds a folder named Desktop at the root level; now it rebuilds the desktop only if it finds a file called Desktop.
• Improves the way the Finder handles server volumes that are unexpectedly disconnected while files from the server are still open. Now you can save the contents of most files by using the Save As command (in the File menu of most applications). Large files (those that don't fit entirely in memory) might be lost if the server disconnects unexpectedly. With some applications, however, you can copy the contents that are in memory and paste them into a new document, later merging this document with the original file on the server. (With prior versions of the Finder, this situation could lead to serious issues if the user tried saving the document after the server was disconnected.)
• Changes the way the Finder invokes the Find File extension (of System 7.5) instead of the built-in Find feature introduced in System 7.0. The Find File extension now contains a simple flag that tells the Finder to use the new Find File. If you disable or remove this extension, the Finder uses only the older built-in Find. This change enables users to choose between the full-scale Find File and its stripped-down version (the built-in Find command.)
• Fixes an issue that caused an out-of-memory error if too many Get Info windows were open at the same time.
• Enables users to open a document that belongs to an already-running background-only application. (In previous versions, the Finder searched only through the list that showed up in the Application menu.)
• The Finder Update file was renamed. (It was previously known as the PowerPC Finder Update file.) This file handled Code Fragment Manager (CFM) error-reporting for missing dynamically linked libraries.
• Speeds up copying from servers by letting the server set its preferred block size for copy requests. (Previously, the Finder always requested 4.5K blocks of data from AppleShare or FileShare volumes.)
• Speeds up copying to and from servers by greatly reducing the number of times the Finder checks for user activity during copy operations.
• Speeds up the copying of small files by changing the way the Finder writes parts of the files. (Previously, the Finder rounded up the size of the file being copied to the minimum allocation block size, which, on a 2GB disk, is 64K.) Now the Finder rounds up small files to a multiple of the size of a disk sector (that is, to increments of 512 bytes).
• Fixes an issue in rebuilding the desktop that caused the Finder to skip applications if it encountered a background-only application while rebuilding the desktop database.
• Eliminates issues in opening some applications or having the wrong icon appear. These issues sometimes occurred when, during rebuilds of the desktop, the Finder included applications that did not have the necessary bundle resources. The Finder no longer includes applications that do not have the necessary bundle resources, eliminating confusion within the desktop database.
• The Finder now ignores aliases to applications when rebuilding the desktop database.

Changes to Find File
--------------------
The following are the changes in Find File 1.1.2:

• Includes a list of Shortcuts, available from the Guide menu (with the question-mark icon) when Find File is active.
• Includes a new preference used in sorting by Kind, Use full descriptions for found items, which gives more specific Kind descriptions. Using this checkbox results in slower sorts; not using it results in faster sorts but with less specific Kind descriptions.
• Fixes a crashing bug that occurred if the same item was dragged to the same location before the Finder finished the earlier move.
• Fixes a bug that allowed non-numeric data to be input into the Size search field.
• Fixes a bug that allowed a pasted item to exceed the length of several search fields.
• Fixes a bug that allowed too many digits to be entered in the Size search field.
• Allows you to drag a volume icon onto the Location pop-up menu.
• Fixes the zoom box on 68K systems.
• Changes the alert message to be more informative when a server being searched is disconnected.
• Changes the way the Found Items list displays items that are in the Trash after the Trash has been emptied.
• Fixes a searching bug that occurred when the Kind requested was font.
• Fixes a crash that sometimes occurred when clicking the Stop button in the sorting dialog box. This dialog box now displays a spinner during a sort.
• Fixes a memory bug that sometimes occurred after several consecutive searches.
• Fixes a display bug with Found Items that occurred when using large font sizes.
• Fixes the CD-ROM icon in the Drives pop-up menu.
• Enables Find File to find invisible files, some of which you can move (such as the Desktop, Desktop DB, and the Desktop DF files).
• The Clear menu item now deletes only the selected text. (The Clear key no longer deletes anything.)
• Fixes a bug that occurred when dragging a file onto the Kind search field. Fonts and applications now show up as such, not as documents.
• Fixes a crash that sometimes occurred when dragging an item from the Found Items window to the desktop.
• Changes the prompt message when search fields are empty.
• Cleans up Balloon Help. - Includes a new preference to specify transliteration.
• Speeds up searches in 2-byte languages if no transliteration is necessary to perform the search.
• Fixes a bug where the filename input for 2-byte languages could exceed maximum length.

The following are changes introduced with System 7.5 Update 1.0 (Find File 1.1.1):

• Fixes a drag issue with large groups of items. Now Find File displays a confirmation dialog box when you drag more than 50 items.
• Fixes a crashing bug when searching for items whose names contain desktop. Find File no longer finds invisible desktop files unless explicitly requested.
• Fixes a bug that prevented exact-name matches with foreign file systems.
• Fixes the spontaneous search bug, whereby Find File could start searching without any criteria entered. Find File now displays an alert prompting for search information.
• Fixes a bug that sometimes prevented an item in the Found list from being selected by clicking its icon.
• Fixes a memory issue in sorting more than 1100 items.
• Fixes a highlighting issue with the Keyboard menu.
• Scroll bars are now properly drawn.
• Fixes a cosmetic issue with drag-selecting items in the Found list.
• Properly updates the path in the bottom of the Found list window after the user drags items from the list.
• Fixes a hanging bug that could occur when dragging a folder onto the search fields.
• Fixes a pop-up menu bug that sometimes showed the wrong value after switching to the Finder and back to Find File.
• Fixes the search when the Comments field is left blank.

Changes to Standard File

• Fixes an occasional crash in Standard File that occurred when the data cache was not flushed before being disabled.
• Fixes a memory leak with some of the dialog boxes used for opening and saving documents in Standard File.
• Fixes an issue in the dialog box used for opening files that could allow the pop-up menu to be dimmed in Standard File.

Changes to control panels

• PowerPC-based computers with PCI slots now use the Monitors & Sound control panel, instead of the Sound & Displays control panel, to control monitor and sound settings. (System Update 2.0 removes Sound & Displays.) You can do a custom installation to install the Sound control panel if you need it for older applications. (The Monitors & Sound control panel works only on PCI-based computers.)
• The Memory control panel now displays Will be off after restart if Virtual Memory is turned off, as a reminder that just turning Virtual Memory off does not fully deactivate it.
• The Memory control panel now uses a larger default setting for the disk cache. After you install this software, the new setting will be used only if the Use Defaults button in the Memory control panel is clicked. The new default is 32K for each megabyte of physical RAM installed, up to a maximum of 4096K. (Virtual RAM is ignored for this calculation.) Thus, a computer with 16MB of physical RAM would use 512K for its default disk cache size, resulting in better performance for disk-intensive tasks than the original default of 96K.
• Fixes a bug in resizing a RAM disk in the Memory control panel while file sharing is on.
• Fixes an issue in General Controls panel that caused issues with Retrospect Remote if either application or System Folder protection was turned on.
• When you open an application by double-clicking a document, you can set the default location of saved items to the folder containing the document you opened, instead of the Documents folder or the folder containing the application. You set this preference by turning on the Folder that is set by the application option in the General Controls panel.
• Fixes an issue in General Controls panel that could hang the computer if Applications folder protection was turned on and there was a document or alias named Applications at the root level of the startup disk.
• Fixes an issue in the General Controls panel's folder-protection code that could cause folders to become invisible if Stuffit SpaceSaver was installed.
• CloseView no longer uses keyboard shortcuts that were already used by the Finder. The new keyboard shortcuts for CloseView are:
• 
  - Command-Option-K: turns CloseView on or off
  - Command-Option-+ (the plus sign): increases magnification
  - Command-Option-- (the minus sign): decreases magnification
• If CloseView is active, it remains active after you change the number of colors on your monitor.
• CloseView no longer hangs the system if Balloon Help is on and an audio CD is inserted.
• Includes the following new international keyboard layouts:
  - French Canadian
  - ISO Canadian
  - Spanish
• Installs the updated versions of the following international keyboard layouts if older versions are already installed:
  - Dutch
  - Flemish
  - German

Changes to Apple Guide

Includes Macintosh Guide 1.3 (and several new Guide Additions files), which provides updated on screen help for system software.

Includes Apple Guide version 2.0.2, which includes the following improvements:

• Fixes issues with displaying coach marks in modal dialog boxes.
• Fixes a serious memory leak that occurred every time a Guide file was opened.
• Fixes an issue that caused every twenty-first index item to disappear when multiple additions were in use.
• Fixes an issue that occurred when Apple Guide encountered additions files that did not apply to the current configuration of hardware and system software (for example, if the QuickTime Guide was installed, but QuickTime itself was not installed or had been turned off with Extensions Manager).
• Defaults to US ASCII sorting only if the current script is Roman and the current language is English. (Apple Guide 1.2.5 defaulted to US ASCII on any Roman script system.)
• Fixes issues with coach marks on 68K computers. (Coach marks were sometimes drawn on the wrong menus.)
• Fixes a Look For issue in Japanese computers by first trying to use the script code from the current database.
• Fixes a bug in <Delete Index> that affected Japanese computers.
• Fixes issues with mixed-mode handling of installed coach and context handlers.
• Fixes an issue that sometimes caused Apple Guide to shut down completely on PowerPC-based computers. For example, if a PowerBook additions file was present on a PowerPC-based desktop computer, Apple Guide 1.2.5 would completely shut down because the additions file couldn't be used. Now, Apple Guide ignores the PowerBook addition and continues running.
• Fixes an issue that prevented Apple Guide 1.2.5 from starting up if QuickTime wasn't installed on the computer. This issue occurred only on PowerPC-based computers.
• Includes localizable error strings for use in various abort messages.

Also includes all the improvements to Apple Guide introduced with System 7.5 Update 1.0 (Apple Guide 1.2.5):

• Works faster than prior versions on all Mac OS-based computers.
• Is native on PowerPC-based computers, which also improves performance.
• Is compatible with At Ease.
• Makes additions files available in the Guide menu even if the application was opened with AppleScript.
• Fixes a memory leak of an international resource, which occurred every time a Guide file was opened.
• Makes windows redraw correctly after coach marks are drawn.
• Updates no more of the screen than it needs to.
• Properly draws coach marks in black and white and on a mirrored monitor.
• Keeps scroll bars active when they should be active.

Changes to Apple Menu Options

Includes Apple Menu Options v.1.1.2, which introduces the following changes:

• Performs better, with improved stability.
• Fixes an issue that could hang the computer when the Apple Menu Options preference file was dragged to the Trash.
• Fixes an issue that could hang the computer if there was a locked alias in the Recent Documents, Recent Applications, or Recent Servers folders. The new version ignores locked aliases.
• Moved a large 68K patch that caused a general slowdown on PowerPC-based computers. This patch is now active only while the mouse button is held down on the menu bar or in a menu.
• Increases the height of the editing field used for entering the number of documents, applications, and servers.
• Fixes an issue that could prevent the Recent Documents, Recent Applications, and Recent Servers folders from being deleted when tracking of those items is turned off.
• Fixes an issue that could cause Apple Menu Options to hang if its settings were changed and the System Folder was on a locked volume (such as a startup CD or locked floppy disk). The hang would occur when Apple Menu Options tried to write the new settings into the locked preferences file. The new version does not try to record new settings on a locked volume.
• Fixes an issue with sorting order; Apple Menu Options no longer uses the U.S. standard for modified Roman and Scandinavian alphabets.
• Prevents Apple Menu Options from deleting original files -- it can now only delete aliases. (This change solves an issue that occurred when users saved documents directly into the Recent Documents folder. Once the document was saved, Apple Menu Options replaced the file with an alias to that file.)
• Fixes an issue that sometimes caused the contents of the Apple menu to show up in place of the proper contents for submenus.

Incorporates all of the prior fixes to Apple Menu Options:

• Improves performance.
• Fixes an issue that could cause an application's menus to disappear.
• Fixes an issue that could leave the Apple menu highlighted if an application was opened from a submenu within the Apple menu.
• Shows non-AppleShare servers in the Recent Servers sub-menu.