FM 4 and FM 6 installed on one OS-X client

[John May]

I have a user who needs to access files being hosted on both FM 4 and now FM 5. We are installing FM 6 to get to the FM 5 files. One of our tech people told me that "they" (?) don't advise running two different versions of any software on OS-X. Of course, the user runs the FM 4 in classic mode and would run the FM 6 under X. Or I suppose she could run them both in classic. I have 4,5 and 6 on my OS9 client and don't have any trouble.

Is there anything to this, or is it hogwash?

[Steve T.]

Hi, JM! Well, like you, I've run several versions at once on my desktop system without a problem and would be surprised to hear otherwise. I would guess that there wouldn't be any technical problems (maybe ports?) but there could be human ones. For example, a user could accidentally update the FMP4 db to FMP6 format and trash the old copy thinking it was unnecessary.

Funny.. Mac OS X hasn't been out THAT long that there'd be significant multiple versions of ANY programs for OS X yet that I can think of. Mac OS X is actually very good with protected memory and conflicts. We've had an OS X computer host OS9 db's using Classic w/out any more trouble than 9 alone... in fact, it was better w/10. We just migrated it to X native and it seems to work the best yet.

I vote for hogwash but will humbly accept a tongue-lashing if someone more intimate w/FMP protocols can enlighten me.

--ST