[OS X TeX] macOS 10.5 & 10.6 support

[Richard Koch]

> On Aug 26, 2016, at 2:01 PM, Nestor Aguilera <nestoreaguilera at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> ​Question: "El Capitan" capable implies 64 bits? (I have an old machine running "El ​Capitan" but I am not sure that the processor is 64 bit).
> 

If you are running El Capitan, you have a 64 bit processor and MacTeX updates will be available for many years.

Around the time of 10.5, 10.6, and 10.7, Apple rather rapidly dropped support for older models. But since then, Apple has done a good job of supporting older machines with system updates. 

I conjecture that there is a reason for the temporary "bad behavior" of making machines obsolete. Apple used the transition from 32 bit Intel to 64 bit Intel to dramatically improve Objective C. Because Objective C has a "runtime system," it could not be changed without forcing every program on the Mac to be recompiled. But since no Intel apps ran in 64 bits prior to Leopard,  Apple could change the 64 bit runtime without breaking apps. The changes were so useful and so dramatic that Apple wanted to start using them as soon as possible, hence the decision to make 32 bit machines obsolete.

Dick Koch
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