Solar Systems Ltd. is a small Macintosh software outfit just getting started. SSL does shareware and freeware and is still ramping up its first few products, so please be patient with us.

Versioneer is Solar Systems Ltd.'s first product, a $10 shareware application. A description from the ReadMe file:

What is Versioneer?

Versioneer is an application that makes it convenient to edit the 'vers' ID 1 (and now 2) resource of a file. It's also AppleScript-able, so you can write scripts that bulk-change the version of a large number of files.

Why Versioneer?

Some of you are wondering "What's the 'vers' ID 1 resource and why would I care?" A good question. The 'vers' ID 1 resource of a file is what the Finder uses to display version information for a file.When you do a "Get Info" on a file, the last field before the "Comments" field is the "Version" field, and the 'vers' ID 1 tells the Finder what to put there. Also, if you use "version" in your Finder views, the 'vers' ID 1 resource tells the Finder what string to display in the Finder windows as well.

Versioneer 1.2 added the ability to edit 'vers' ID 2 resources as well, which tells the Finder what text to display right underneath the file name in the Get Info window. Versioneer 1.2 is PowerPC-native and has a new grayscale look.

The power users and developers out there are probably wondering "Why would I need this when I can edit the resource with ResEdit or VersionEdit?" Another good question. ResEdit is slow for this task, since you have to find the 'vers', then find the ID you want, then edit. It also doesn't auto-update the version strings to match the version number, which Versioneer does. VersionEdit does auto-update the strings, but munges the long version string and installs a bunch of other resources that are appropriate only for applications. Also, neither of these applications are scriptable, which Versioneer is. Batch-updating a whole bunch of files is quite convenient if you track your source code version numbers like I do.

Download Versioneer: [MacBinary - 271K] [BinHex - 362K]

A freeware system extension

What is CivHackFAT?

CivHackFAT is a "fat" system extension (or INIT) that fixes a problem many people have running the MicroProse's Civilization(TM) on PCI-based PowerMacs under System 7.5.2 and on all PowerMacs under 7.5.3. Running this extension should solve at least one class of problems with Civ on PowerMacs.

Why CivHackFAT?

Why indeed, since there's a CivHackPCI out there that basically does the same thing. The reason is technical: CivHackPCI patches a PowerPC-native trap with 680x0 code. This is fine when running old 680x0 applications, but generates unnecessary (and very slow) mode-switching when running PowerPC-native applications that like to twiddle the color cursor (e.g. NewsWatcher). CivHackFAT solves this problem by applying a "fat" patch of both 680x0 and PowerPC code. CivHackFAT also provides information about whether it loaded correctly at startup time, which CivHackPCI does not.

Download CivHackFAT: [MacBinary - 15k] [BinHex - 20K]

powerOffKey XCMD

A freeware HyperCard XCMD

powerOffKey is an XCMD that can be used to disable or enable the "Are you sure you want to shut down your computer now?" dialog that comes up under System 7.5 when the power key is pressed. Why? Because there are certain situations under which it is a Bad Thing for the user to be able to shut down the computer while in the middle of a stack. Unfortunately, Apple didn't realize this until System 7.5.3 so this XCMD does require that version of the System.

Dowload powerOffKey XCMD: [MacBinary - 22k] [BinHex - 30k]

getResName XFCN

A freeware HyperCard xfcn/XFCN

getResName is an XFCN (or xfcn if you can run it) which performs a simple but sometimes critical function: given a resource type and number, it will return the resource name. Includes both 68K (XFCN) and PPC (xfcn) versions.

Dowload getResName XFCN: [MacBinary - 28k] [BinHex - 37k]