However, I won't upgrade to Mojave at this time

[roger]

Thanks Howard. I am sticking with High Sierra at present until any snags with Mojave are well known and solutions found (as always). Would be very interested in others' experiences on upgrading.

[Howard Metcalfe]

Oct 10, 2018 12:46:02 GMT -5 roger said:

Thanks Howard. I am sticking with High Sierra at present until any snags with Mojave are well known and solutions found (as always). Would be very interested in others' experiences on upgrading.

I have upgraded to Mojave now and am happy with it. However:

I have sent this note to a couple of people. I think you all should know about this…

Background: My personal problems related to Barbara, my partner for the last 26 years. About three years ago she was diagnosed with COPD emphysema, which is terminal, and was given up to two years to live. There is no cure and the fact that it was the result of smoking since a teenager meant that a lung transplant was not permitted. She required oxygen 24/7 and was very limited in moving about and/or doing things, so I was her full time caregiver. On August 16th-17th this year she went to sleep and never woke up. At the hospital they listed her death as respiratory failure.

I have spent the time since her passing going through her papers and collections, page by page and item by item, things she was not able to do. This resulted in several weeks of review and three truckloads of stuff to be taken away. In the last few weeks or so I have been refurbishing the house (three floors), repairing and replacing as needed. My son up north in Santa Rosa (I’m in L.A.) has been a help and so have friends. More to do, but it will get done over time.

All this is to say I have had no time to even think of updating PAWriter from 32-bit to 64-bit. I have moved to Mojave and noted some significant problems with PAWriter, but it is still mostly usable. But Mojave is the end for 32-bit apps as you know. I have no idea when or if I will be able to try to do the conversion — I doubt it. I’m now 85 years old. So far my health is pretty good and I don’t have any recall problems.

But my last valid compile (32-bit) used REAL Studio 2012 Release 2.1 which is way out of date — the IDE is now called Xojo. Source code and related items are about 640 MBs. My last guesstimate of source code size is on the order of 60,000 lines of REALbasic code. Converting this to 64-bit is currently beyond my capability. (By the way, the so-called “bonus programs” on my website I converted to 64-bit but they were relatively simple.)

As noted, the current version 103 will work with Sierra, High Sierra and Mojave but you may note (and may have already noted) some problems with Sierra and High Sierra, and they get a bit worse under Mojave.

...So in summary, I suggest that you convert your PAWriter data file to a GEDCOM file (specify for another program) and choose an alternate genealogical program into which you can import that GEDCOM file. Perhaps MacFamily Tree 8, into which one user reported he successfully imported his GEDCOM file from PAWriter. Then just forget about PAWriter, since I don’t think I will be able to do the conversion to a 64-bit version in the time remaining to me.

FYI: The last macOS version that runs PAWriter without any known problems is 10.11 El Capitan, the one after 10.10 Yosemite and before 10.12 Sierra. I have PAWriter installed under El Capitan on an older spare iMac for my personal use. I probably could boot on my current iMac from an El Capitan backup external disk (I still have the El Capitan install apps for 10.11 and 10.11.6) and run PAWriter, but that’s not necessary with my equipment configuration.

In any case, these are alternate options that you might choose to use rather than move to another genealogical program.

I’m extremely sorry about this situation. If my situation changes I will let you know, but please do not count on it.

[wemk52]

Hello Howard,

I have upgraded to Mojave and don't seem to have any problems with PAWriter. I can't remember when I first installed your genealogy program on my iMac, but it was at least 12-13 years ago. I continue to research and everything is stored in PAWriter. I can't tell you how much I value having it to organize my files and I often refer to the database when other family members are interested in some history. Thank you for making PAWriter available to the public and for providing continued support over the years.

Please accept my sympathies for your loss.

Best wishes,
-WEMK