Auto load/run CD on Mac OS????

[Cresby]

Puts on tin hat and peers above the parapet.

As a (hushed tones) PC user I have a suite of pdf docs that need Acrobat 4 (+ Java etc) and I have successfully configured a CDROM to autorun from the info file for PC's with Acrobat 4 resident on the CD in case the user has only Acro3 or none at all.

Now I would value any guide lines that would get me started on a self contained system for MacOS, eg jargon, file names,info files - relevant FAQ pages - shortcut/link files to Acro executables etc etc.

In particular any info on dual OS CDROMs - I understand the ISO standard ensures most of it but what about one CD that will auto-run on both a PC or a Mac?

I do have friends with Macs but none with the time &/or knowledge to help. One naive user has Acro3 on his HD and it would be nice to bypass his copy of Acrobat.

With enough of the answers in my pocket I will feel confident to ask the questions and understand what I am told.

TIA Cresby

http://cresby.com

 

[jimoblak]

I doubt that auto-run on Mac is an option. I have never seen a CD start a program when inserted. Mac can pop open a CD root or folder window but it does not seem to allow auto-execution of programs.

Dual or hybrid CDs are best created on a Mac. Since you are sans-Mac, I suggest making a plain ISO 9660 (8.3 DOS filenames for the shared Mac PDFs) CD. You can include binhex'd (hqx) or stuffit expander (sit) installers for current Acrobat programs (downloadable from adobe.com). This will require the Mac user to have an unstuffing utility.

 

[jimbopalmer]

Macs CAN auto-start CD's but 4 years ago we all caught an auto-start worm, so turned off the feature.

Control Panels>>Quicktime Settings >> AutoPlay

has choices for both CDs and CD ROMs

AutoStart 9805
AutoStart 9805 Boot
The AutoStart 9805 family of worms can be transmitted via almost any HFS disk volume, including floppy disks, most removable cartridges drives, hard disks and even disk images. Worms are similar to viruses, spreading from computer to computer and often causing damage along the way. Unlike viruses, worms are self contained programs that replicate themselves rather than infecting other programs. Discovered in May, 1998, AutoStart 9805 had spread quickly and widely in the Hong Kong region. It was followed later that month by two variants named AutoStart 9805-B and AutoStart 9805-C. Some of the AutoStart worms are intentionally destructive, overwriting certain files with random data.

AutoStart worms spread via disks that contain an invisible application file in the root directory. This file is designated in the boot sector of the disk as the AutoStart file. When the infected disk is inserted in a Macintosh running QuickTime™ 2.0 or later, the application is launched automatically if the CD-ROM AutoPlay option is enabled in the QuickTime™ Settings Control Panel. Upon launch, the worm application copies itself to the Extensions folder and changes into an invisible, faceless background application.

The background worm application is now automatically launched whenever the computer system starts up. It periodically examines the mounted volumes. If any are not already infected, it attempts to infect them by copying itself to the root directory and setting up the disk's AutoStart information. Most writable HFS disks or volumes are successfully infected. The notable exception is server volumes, which do not have the necessary boot block fields for AutoStart operation.


I tried to remain child-like, all I acheived was childish.

 

[jimoblak]

I think a lot of developers abandoned autostart functions in CDs because so many users disabled their QT autostart. The autostart worm problem of a few years back was not the only reason to disable autostart. One would also kill autostart so that those annoying Director presentations would not take over your screen when playing a 'multimedia CD'.

If you want to go to the trouble for your CD, check out

http://curriculum.union.edu/tips/hybrid/

But keep in mind that the majority of Mac users will have auto-start turned off. It is always a good idea to disable auto-start on any platform because of malicious code.

 

[Cresby]

Thanks for the ideas.
OK, so autorun is not a good idea. On a PC it is the only way I could help the user to use the resident Acrobat on the CD (except paper instructions and VB6 and I would do that if necessary but not for a Mac). The PC shortcut wheeze seemed to want a drive letter - and I tried a few variations. My CD drives don't share the same letter on different machines.

1)
Assuming I could get a MAC user to burn the CD initially is there any way I can have an installed version of Macrobat?

2)
Can I shortcut to a resident Macrobat on CD and also open with the Titles pdf on the CD. Once started Acrobat finds all the subsidiary pdfs on Win9X PC's. I have ignored DOS & Win 3.11. There seems to be no problem with the CD resident version of Acrobat.

3)
I thought Long File names were the pride of Macs - using them long before 8.3 was stretched on PC's. The program names are not an issue I can call them 1.pdf 2.pdf etc if necessary.

 

[jimoblak]

For this discussion, I am assuming that you are targeting pre-OSX Mac users since PDF is supported without the need for Acrobat in OSX...

1) Most likey. I am a little hazy on this because all the Macs I use already have Acrobat. I think earlier versions of Acrobat could do this. Mac is better than PCs at running apps from a read-only drive without installation (there are no windows registry issues and not as many linked library (DLL, PC; Extensions, Mac) problems).

2) Yes. Mac shortcuts are called aliases.

3) Long names are not a problem if you burn from a Mac. If you are creating a CD from the PC, Mac will handle 8.3 names. If a Mac user has a 'joliet' file reading system extension, they can handle PC long file names. This extension is not installed by default and few Mac users will have it.

 

[Cresby]

Thanks - 8.3 it is then. I wanted to avoid Jolliet for the sam reasons I wanted to run CD resident apps - it guarrantees more users can use it - most of 'em just want the contents and aren't at all techie.
I have tried my files on Acro3 and most files do most things except Java but one or two fail. I experimented with PageMaker generating Acro4 files and I only have Acro4 writer and can't see when I am using Acro4+ features.