20060201: Macintosh OSX update

Over the past few years, Apple has made major improvements in the reliability of OSX. Previously, we recommended that users avoid the OSX version of the TCM Herbal Tutor software until Apple rectified a number of problems in its Java engine. It has done so, and the Java version included with the latest version of OSX (10.4.4) is quite speedy and seems to be reliable.

I recently tested our software (TCM Herbal Tutor and TCM Pulse Simulator) on a Macintosh Mini computer and noted only a few minor glitches in the way Java handles pop-up windows and interactive controls:

TCM Pulse Simulator and TCM Herbal Tutor: Pop-up windows
Occasionally, a pop-up dialog window (such as appear at program startup or when the "Possibilities" buttons are selected in a Search window) will appear with no content — it is empty. If this happens, there is a simple work-around: simply drag the size control (lower right corner) a bit to enlarge the window, and the content will immediately appear.

TCM Pulse Simulator: pulse animation stalls
Occasionally, the pulse animation may stall or stop when pulse quality parameters are changed. If this happens, simply hit the "Stop" button, then hit the "Go" button to restart the animation.

(The preceding issues have not been reported for the PC-Windows versions.)

Macintosh OSX recommendations

Our software has been tested on OSX 10.3.7 and later. If you have OS 10.4, I strongly recommend downloading the free upgrade to 10.4.4.

OSX is an elegant and sophisticated operating system with a number of excellent security features; it is also a memory hog. I recommend installing a minimum of 512 MB RAM, preferably 1 GB. Older Macs like the G3's and slower G4's may run very slow in OSX, but users with machines manufactured within the past few years have reported acceptable to good speed performance.

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