Run Windows XP on MAC

[Marko]

What are the names of the old applications? I'd like to see the datafiles. They're either a text format or some binary format. If the former, almost any graphic program or spreadsheet can read them without or without some reformatting with an editor or script. If the latter, good luck, but you have the old application to export the data in a text format. Before I'd install and run Windows on a Mac I'd check the old application for the input file format or some export format for a basic text format

I agree, especially with the last sentence!

But I don't know which applications are these, they are not mine, I simply ventured one possibility. Essentially, I would trust Sandy to know what he is doing and why.

I can tell you why I need to run a VM, though. As a web developer, I need to test my sites in all browsers and all environments - make that all the major ones - on which they are going to run.

Of all the VMs I tried, I found Parallels to be the best fit for my workflow and didn't encounter any major problems with it in all this time (since 2006).

[clay harmon]

I'd like to re-iterate what Joanna is saying about the three VM options NOT being emulators. They are virtual machines, which is a very different thing. We run a citrix server at my office that is a multi-core linux box that hosts 3 different windows servers running as VMs. When I want to shake my head in wonder, I use my iPad to login to my home Mac OS box using a VNC app and then open a Windows app back at the office using the Citrix gateway to run the windows app in a window on my ipad. Crazy stuff.

[Joanna Carter]

When I want to shake my head in wonder, I use my iPad to login to my home Mac OS box using a VNC app and then open a Windows app back at the office using the Citrix gateway to run the windows app in a window on my ipad. Crazy stuff.

Heheh. You should my clients' faces when I turn up to do Windows programming on a Mac Out of curiosity, which VNC software do you use on the iPad?

[Scott Knowles]

You're making a lot of unsupported assumptions.

You're right, but it's what I used to do in the USGS, converting water resources data from datalogger and application datasets, all using a MS-based interface into formats for importing into the main database. It's why I suggested before going down the road of parallel or VM on a Mac, look at the original application for the input data format. I'm guessing it wasn't entered with a GUI but some file which is likely ascii (text), and I'm guessing the application has a data export option for other applications. My argument is simple, use what you have first than add anything. But as you note, I could be wrong.

[Leigh]

I'm guessing it wasn't entered with a GUI but some file which is likely ascii (text), and I'm guessing the application has a data export option for other applications.

I run four windoze apps on the MacBook Pro:
1) Drafting/CAD program - direct operator entry with mouse or keypad (GUI), output to graphics files (usually JPEG or PDF).
2) PC board layout - direct operator entry with mouse or keypad (GUI), output to industry-standard ASCII files.
3) Accounting app - direct operator entry from keyboard (GUI), output to PDF or printer.
4) Calendric calculator - direct operator entry with keypad or mouse (GUI), output by screen dump to printer.

The first two are required to support my product development activities.
The third is the books for my business.
The fourth is an application I wrote and distribute.

None of these would fit your paradigm, which I suggest is extremely limited and focused on a particular type of computer application.

I don't disagree with your underlying philosophy.

- Leigh