Classic Environment and Photoshop Elements

Sally Thompson <sallynewsgroup DeleteThis @yahoo.co.uk> wrote:

> On my new iMac G5 I have just installed my existing copy of Photoshop
> Elements 2 (says Mac and Windows on the package). It is maybe two years old.
> During installation I got this message which I think is Mac related: A
> valid Classic environment was not detected. Support for running this Adobe
> application will not be installed. To add Classic support, specify a Classic
> environment, the rerun the installer.
>
> I assume the "Classic" environment is a Mac thing, and wonder if this message
> has come up because I have OS X Tiger (apologies if my technical thingies are
> wrong!) which is newer than the Photoshop software recognises. Anyway, I
> selected OK, and it carried on installing and seems to work, but I wondered
> if someone could translate the above for me?

It is indeed a relevant Mac question. Classic effectively gives you an
old style OS 9 which will automatically start up within OS X and enable
you to run older software. Look at your menubar ... if when running
Elements you see a 9 icon you are running Classic - you will also notice
that the Apple icon on the far left has changed to the old style along
with the menus.

I think what actually happened was that when you ran the installer it
initially found that Classic wasn't running but your Mac actually
launched Classic, which then allowed the installation to complete
successfully. Whenever you run Elements it will first launch Classic ...
the proof of the relative seamlessness of this process is that you were
able to run the application without even realising that you were going
through this double layer OS complication!

BTW The Classic environment is not necessarily installed by default on
recent Macs but in your casse I presume it must have been.

--
Adrian

On Wed, 11 Jan 2006 21:08:16 +0000, Adrian wrote
(in article <1h90q7i.agt0qc1lqtgksN%nonesuch@place.com>):

> Sally Thompson <sallynewsgroup DeleteThis @yahoo.co.uk> wrote:
>
>> On my new iMac G5 I have just installed my existing copy of Photoshop
>> Elements 2. <snip>
>> During installation I got this message which I think is Mac related: A
>> valid Classic environment was not detected. <snip>
>
> It is indeed a relevant Mac question. Classic effectively gives you an
> old style OS 9 which will automatically start up within OS X and enable
> you to run older software. Look at your menubar ... if when running
> Elements you see a 9 icon you are running Classic - you will also notice
> that the Apple icon on the far left has changed to the old style along
> with the menus.

Thanks for the reassurance and explanation. Actually no there is no 9 icon,
and the Apple icon is the same. The program does run differently from on my
old PC, but I think that is probably just the effect of far greater
performance on the iMac.

It works, so no problems!

--
Sally in Shropshire, UK
bed and breakfast near Ludlow: http://www.stonybrook-ludlow.co.uk
Burne-Jones/William Morris window in Shropshire church:
http://www.whitton-stmarys.org.uk

On Wed, 11 Jan 2006 21:51:29 +0000, Stephen C. wrote
(in article <0001HW.BFEABDE10199658FF03865B0 DeleteThis @newsgroups.comcast.net>):

> On Wed, 11 Jan 2006 10:49:23 -0800, Sally Thompson wrote
> (in message <0001HW.BFEB03B3009B00A5F0284550 DeleteThis @news.individual.net>):
>
>> [re installation of Photoshop Elements 2 and message about Classic
environment]

>> If this is not really a Mac question, I apologise, but my Mac and I are
>> still at the engagement stage, not fully married yet.

> What I think happened is this. The older Photoshop Elements installer is
> capable of installing a classic version, and an OS X version. Since the
> installer didn't find a version of OS 9, it gave you an alert to that effect,

> and continued with the OS X install instead.

Yes, that makes perfect sense and sort of what I assumed.

> Here's hoping you and your Mac a long and happy marriage. Assuming you get to

> that point.

I certainly am not thinking of calling it off - but still at the honeymoon
stage <g>


--
Sally in Shropshire, UK
bed and breakfast near Ludlow: http://www.stonybrook-ludlow.co.uk
Burne-Jones/William Morris window in Shropshire church:
http://www.whitton-stmarys.org.uk

Adrian <nonesuch DeleteThis @place.com> wrote:

> I think what actually happened was that when you ran the installer it
> initially found that Classic wasn't running but your Mac actually
> launched Classic, which then allowed the installation to complete
> successfully. Whenever you run Elements it will first launch Classic ...
> the proof of the relative seamlessness of this process is that you were
> able to run the application without even realising that you were going
> through this double layer OS complication!

Sorry for responding to my own post but I now think that the more likely
explanation is as per Stephen's suggestion ...

--
Adrian

In article <0001HW.BFEABDE10199658FF03865B0 DeleteThis @newsgroups.comcast.net>,
Stephen C. <nobodyNOSPAM DeleteThis @comcast.net> wrote:

> As someone else already posted, Classic refers to the old OS 9. For awhile,
> Macs were sold with the ability to startup in OS 9 or OS X. While I'm not
> sure, I think that your machine is capable of booting in OS X only.

You're right, as of the middle of the G4 desktop series, ca. 2001 or so.
No G5 desktops and only the earliest G4 laptops can boot into OS 9.

This isn't an issue excepting for leftover software tools that people
still have on hand and a few games that (I think) are still sold able
to run under OS 9 only; not all games can run cleanly under the Classic
emulation.

That brings up another trick, though -- anyone used the SCUMVM engine
to make older games work? I've only heard of it, and never tried it.
I think I have a copy of the Dig I never tried out, and would like to.