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/* Using MacOS */

In general, the older your computer, system, and browser, the less compatible you're likely to be with Java functionality. Macintosh implementations of Java are better than they used to be, but still not as good as the implementations for the Windows and Linux operating systems.

With MacOS the Icontext applet runs well under certain circumstances. The only problem we had was with Netscape 3.xx. The best Mac "virtual machines" appear to be the most recent. The Apple MRJ virtual machine, which runs on MacOS 7.6.1 and later, is available at www.apple.com/java It currently works as an optional virtual machine (VM) under Internet Explorer 3 and 4 for Macintosh. The Netscape 5.0 browser is supposed to support this sort of configuration as well. In the mean time, Netscape's 4.xx browsers, available at www.netscape.com seem to handle Java well enough under System 8.5.

The earlier Macs, based on the 68x000 architecture are not very Java compatible. Likewise, MacOS prior to System 7.6.1 seems to be fairly hostile to Java.

The Icontext applet works fine under IE 4, IE 5 Mac OS 8.5, running either the Microsoft or the Apple MRJ 2.1 virtual machines. It was tested under both a 604 PowerPC and a G3 machine. Netscape 4.6 and 4 also worked fine on these machines.

Last modified Sept. 15, 1999