25/10/2018 5:35 PM

    You’re chatting with Amy. Your case number is 200000FOOBARBAZ.

    We will send the transcript of this conversation to AAAAAAAAAA@BBBBBB.CO.

    Thanks for contacting Apple Support. My name is Amy. Please give me a moment to look over your information.

    Hey there Dale ! Welcome to our chat session and hope your week has gone well so far. I see from my notes that you need help with some hardware issues on your MacBook Air. Is that correct?

    Yes, it is.

    I'm having issues connecting my MacIvory card to my laptop.
    5:38 PM
    I’d like to get a bit more info about that MacIvory card. We can try some steps like resets or getting software that can help us get the two connected. Ready to get started?

    Of course.
    5:39 PM
    It was last used in my boss's Apple Quadra 650 but that bit the dust and I don't have anything to use the card with.

    We still have a Genera license, so it'd be a shame to not be able to use it.
    5:41 PM
    What sort of device is a MacIvory card? I’m getting some info about it turning your Mac into a Lisp machine

    Well, it's a card of some sort. It's green, has an edge connector and doesn't have any connectors on the back.
    5:43 PM
    It's quite big, actually. It's almost as long as my laptop.
    5:44 PM
    This does look to be nearly 20 year old tech. It was used as a supplement for the process to work on I/O devices. It’s actually not needed at all with your system.

    How will I use Genera then?
    5:46 PM
    The Genera Software environment is for using tapes with your Mac, correct?

    No, it's an operating system and development software maintained by Symbolics.

    There's no connections on the back, so I'm not sure where tapes would go.
    5:49 PM
    All the info I see is that this is very old tech and programming. The Symbolics company actually is no longer around.

    Oh.

    Yeah, this sort of set up is from the 80’s and 90’s. It’s not been used in years.

    We used it at work to debug our machines with Joshua for a while, and it only stopped working last week.
    5:53 PM
    I do know that sometimes the best old tech lasts for ages but the info I see, that device has old ports that dont exist on modern computers. I can’t even find adapters. The OS itself wouldn’t be able to read it since the last OS I can see working with that card was Mac OS 7 or 8. We’re in 10.13 as the latest. You could try finding an older Mac with the older OS.

    Okay then.

    Where would I find an older Mac then?
    5:55 PM
    They are collectables so you may have to try places like Amazon, Ebay, etc.

    Right then.

    You mentioned the Joshua OS. That’s a new one to me. Did you mean some form of Unix?

    It's an expert system we used for debugging the machines at work.
    5:58 PM
    Is there a similar product I can use on my MacBook at least?
    5:59 PM
    You can see all the accessories we have on the online store but a debugging system sounds like you could use some other software. There are lots of apps or the Server OS that’s useable on your system

    Alright.

    We'd probe the faulty boards and just put the values into Joshua, I don't think it's too much.
    6:02 PM
    Also, are there any substitutes for Zmacs? Does the XCode editor handle Lisp Machine Lisp?
    6:03 PM
    Actually I think you’d love to talk to some of my developers. They do Xcoding

    Cool.

    Genera was probably the greatest IDE I've used though; it'd be a shame to leave it.
    6:07 PM
    There have been a lot of new things that have come out since and may actually give you some more optoins.

    Can Xcode search for function definitions when I select them? I still have a habit of typing Meta-dot.
    6:09 PM

    Apple Inc.

    https://developer.apple.com/xcode/
    Opens in new window

    That is the info I have on it.

    Alright then, I'll take a look.
    6:12 PM
    I do wish I had better news and I hope that clears up some questions.

    That's alright, thankyou.

    Then have a lovely weekend coming up as well, Dale. Cheers!

    You too.