Release Notes 
March 31, 2003

ABOUT MINIMAC
miniMac is a project to build a very small replica of the original 1984 128k Macintosh.  This scaled down Mac will be based on components taken from a Palm Platform handheld computer, therefore the original Macintosh Operating System is being 'ported' to the Palm Platform.

Our emulated Mac OS will run on any Palm Platform handheld computer running Palm OS 3.0 or higher, including the newest Palm OS 5 handhelds.  Our first prototype is being built out of a used Palm IIIc handheld computer; we expect the second prototype to be built from a Palm m130 or Palm m515 (to add the 'disk drive'); and we hope to eventually build a slightly larger final model from a Sony Clie NR70 (the screen in landscape mode has the same ratio as the original Mac screen... also we will try to build a keyboard from the Clie thumb board).

FAQ
(Q) Is this a real port?  emulation?  simulation?
(A) Calling it a "port" is about as close as we can get to the truth.  We've had to rebuild much of the original Mac toolbox to use smaller resources (graphic files for icons and windows and menus and fonts) and hooked into the Palm OS in a few places (for most of the drawing routines like lines and patterns, for example) to save memory, but it is certainly not emulating any hardware!  Most of our work is figuring out what the original OS is doing at any given point (we are looking at fully assembled code after all!), and developing an abstraction layer of sorts to connect the Palm hardware (like the digitizer and different screen size) with the Mac OS.

(Q) Will I be able to run old Mac software?
(A) Possibly... although most likely not.  Early Mac software often made assumptions about the hardware (like the screen size) that simply aren't going to be true on the miniMac.  It would be theoretically easy to make a few changes and re-compile the original source code to run on a miniMac, but finding any original source code for original Mac software might be quite a trick (update: we have gotten original source code for a couple games... which ones? don't ruin the surprise! stay tuned!).  Apple has recently become much warmer to Open Source development in general and we are hoping to get access to some of their old legacy code (Mac Paint and Mac Write, especially).

(Q) April 1st is coming up... is this some kind of April Fools hoax?
(A) Absolutely not!  We rushed to get our website up a couple days before April 1st to avoid exactly that assumption.  We've been working on miniMac for a couple months now in our spare time and have every intention of finishing the task.  Although, if someone were to do something like this as a joke they would probably lie and tell you the same sort of thing!  Oh well... you'll just have to download the beta and try it for yourself!

(Q) What works and what doesn't work in the beta?
(A) Lots of things in both catagories!  We've disabled a number of features that are still very buggy, so some things just wont work at all right now (like changing folder/file labels).  But most of the Icons and window functions are now behaving.  We've successfully removed the 'info' bar from all of the windows to save on space (the bar that told you how much space was left on a disk, for example); the first build hardly had room for a folder!  Menus work, although we've disable many of the functions in the Finder, so items'll just blink and the menu will close.  We've also hidden the mouse pointer but may add it back if we come up with a way to implement a mouse in the hardware.

(Q) What is this?  Why does the disk icon look like that?  Where is "Shut Dowm"?
(A) miniMac is based on the ORIGINAL Mac OS from 1984.  This is how it actually worked.  There was no shut down.  You can't throw a disk in the trash to eject it.  "Set Startup" sets an application to launch at startup, not a different copy of the System to use.  To make a new folder you have to make a copy of the "Empty Folder".  We've done our best to preserve the details of this original system and not any features added later.  If something seems wrong, it is probably correct!<p>

(Q) How much smaller is everything?(A) We dropped the icons from 32x32 pixel resources to 20x20.  A 480x320 Sony Clie screen in landscape mode would almost exactly match the the original Mac screen (512x342) so we might bump the bitmaps back up to full size when we get that final miniMac built.  The desktop available on a 160x160 Palm will be somewhat more constrained than the 128k Mac.  We've tried to scale other resources to match (smaller menu bar, smaller windows).  At this time you will not get extra space on a 320x320 Palm; it will double pixels to make it 160x160.  So long as we are using pen based input the icons would get too small at 320x320 to work with.  If we find a way to build a mouse for the miniMac we will allow use of the full 320x320 resolution.<p>

(Q) Is this legal?  Will Apple sue you?(A) This project is an homage to an old piece of hardware and software.  The software is no longer for sale, so we are not damaging the copyright holder from selling the product, and we are not making a profit of any kind either.  We are not using the original ROMs for this project (like an emulator would) so we are not distributing anyone else's work, only our own, "strongly inspired" by the original Mac OS, but with hundreds of changes to suit our needs.  Again, we are not looking to make any profit on this and only hope Apple will see that, if anything, our "parody" might foster more interest in the Apple/Mac brand.

VERSION HISTORY
v0.4.3 (March 30th, 2003) - FIRST PUBLIC RELEASE!  Disabled numerous features for a stable public release.  Features intentionally disabled: keyboard interface/interupts (can't type or edit text), alternate window view modes, desk accessories, edit menu.  We'll try to get these added back on soon!

v0.4.2 (March 28th, 2003) - hid the mouse cursor.  fixed the window re-size bugs (esp. out of range).  Still problems with the columns in list views, might need to add the info bar back to the windows? need to patch the font hooks so all routines use the Palm font.  Fixed support for Palm silk screen buttons, house button works!  should we drop the Palm application?

v0.4.1 (March 25th, 2003) - embedded the disk image into the .prc file.  fixed the loading problem on ARM handhelds and the memory leak from 0.3.6.  Added a Palm application to clean up registers and get back to the Palm OS!.

v0.4.0 (March 24th, 2003) - now working with keyboards connected to HotSync port.  replaced Apple fonts with Palm fonts.  removed info bar from all windows.  All resources now scaled down to new size.

v0.3.8 (March 15th, 2003) - fixed some blitter problems.  still some flicker in places.

v0.3.5 (March 9th, 2003) - whoops!  haven't fixed scrolling problem so have diabled it for now.

v0.3.1 (March 5th, 2003) - fixed problem with window scrolling.

v0.3.0 (February 26th, 2003) - all toolbox routines are now mapped.  patterns and rectangle routines are all stable.  All window limits are set to 160x160 screen.  fixed the tapping bug.

v0.2.0 (February 21st, 2003) - fixed menu separators, but they are still selectable! fixed sound bug so we have start-up "bong"... doesn't quite sound right though.  desk accessories available but none of them are working yet.  Clipboard 'works' but buggy.

v0.1.5 (February 20th, 2003) - lots of new resources!  start up icons set to new size and the whole "welcome" window fits on Palm screen.  More fonts to fix.  More icons to fix.  More dialog boxes to test.  restart not working from bomb dialog!

v0.1.0 (February 15th, 2003) - Built new menu bar and set screen bounds to Palm size...  Mapped pen digitizer to mouse controller.  Clock problems - no double clicks?  animations too slow (folder open)?

v0.0.1 (February 12th, 2003) - first happy mac!  screen sizeproblems... need to move default disk locations onto viewable screen, no menu bar?  where is the menu bar?  No control of mouse arrow.