| Introduction
By design, computers are made to run a wide variety of applications,
created by almost as wide a variety of software publishers. Sometimes
these different programs simply aren't compatible with each other and
you will find your word processing program may not want to play nicely
with your illustration program. Or worse yet, maybe the application you
just installed on your computer conflicts with your computer's
operating system and causes it to malfunction. Understanding
compatibility issues with software will help you to avoid these
problems or to troubleshoot them if they do arise. Basic Components
- Drivers - are programs that act like translators between
the device and programs that use the device. Every device (a printer,
disk drive, or keyboard) must have a driver program. Many drivers,
such as the keyboard driver, come with the operating system. For
other devices, you may need to load a new driver when you connect
the device to your computer.
Windows-based Computers
PCs using Windows as their operating system can be vulnerable to
a wide variety of software incompatibilities. For one, the sheer
number of operating system versions can cause problems. A program
written for Win95 may not work properly on a computer that is using
Win98 or any of the other versions of the operating system.
Another problem facing PC users is the fact that the PC is licensed
to be designed and manufactured by a number of different companies.
One computer manufacturer may use a different piece of hardware
than another, so installing a particular software application may
be fine on one machine but could give you compatibility issues with
the other computer because of different drivers installed. Check
with the manufacturer to make sure you have the needed software,
hardware, and operating system to run the application before purchasing.
When many applications are installed on a PC, a DLL (Dynamic Link
Library), or small collection of programs, is also installed on
your computer. These DLLs are created to conserve RAM usage while
running your program but at times a DLL installed from one program
may conflict with a DLL from another program and could cause problems
with your computer.
Located in the "Resources" section of this document you
will find a variety of sites that will help you troubleshoot or
avoid these issues altogether. Macintosh Computers
In a general sense there are basically two operating systems for
the Macintosh - OS X, which is the newest release, and pre-OS X
systems from System 7 to System 9. With the release of OS X, the
use of extensions (which are similar to DLLs on a PC) has disappeared.
Hence, a majority of Macintosh software compatibility issues will
arise in older systems.
Because Apple builds both the operating system and the computer
itself you will not find many compatibility issues with drivers
and the OS itself.
Most compatibility issues manifest as an extension conflict in pre-OS
X Macs. Just like a DLL, an extension may be installed in your system
software when an application is installed. When a large number of
these extensions are installed, sooner or later one will conflict
with another. Many times you will be able to find which extensions
are conflicting with each other and simply disable one of them.
This will enable your computer to operate normally again. |
