OK, I figured out what was causing the problem.
The symptom was that MacWise would launch in OS 9 when in fact it is  
an OS X application.
This would only happen on the older OS 10.2.8
It would put up an error dialog box telling you that it needed  
SetWindowAlpha (which lead me on a wild goose chase).
In fact the real problem was caused by the plist resource in MacWise.  
It had the following statement in it:
   <key>LSRequiresClassic</key>
   <false/>

That statement is somehow misinterpreted by OS 10.2.8 as true instead  
of false and thinks it wants to open the app in Classic mode.
I removed that statement and all is well now.

On Apr 12, 2006, at 10:35 AM, Jay Reeve wrote:

> Rich,
>
> You are trying to affect a compile using a runtime conditional. The  
> compile is obviously completed BEFORE runtime.
>
> Go ahead and compile the toolbox, but don't call it unless you're  
> in a system that permits it. Use a global var rather than a  
> constant to determine whether to call the fn.
>
> hth,
>   e-e
>   =J= a  y
>    "
>
> toolbox SetWindowAlpha( WindowRef inWindow, double inAlpha )
>
> long if ( system( _sysVers ) > 1100)
> gTransparentWindowsOK = 1
> end if
>
> long if gTransparentWindowsOK
> SetWindowAlpha( myWindowRef, myAlpha )
> end if
>
> On Apr 12, 2006, at 8:48 AM, Rich Love wrote:
>
>> How the heck do I do this then without using a constant?
>> #if and #endif only seem to be happy with constants.
>>
>> If I try the following using the variable xxx , I get a End of  
>> Statement Expected error
>>
>> long if ( system( _sysVers ) > 1100)
>> TransparentWindowsOK = 1
>> end if
>>
>> #if TransparentWindowsOK
>> toolbox SetWindowAlpha( WindowRef inWindow, double inAlpha )
>> #endif
>>
>> Rich
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> On Apr 11, 2006, at 11:26 PM, Brian Stevens wrote:
>>
>>> Rich,
>>>
>>> Your code to set a constant does not execute as you might  
>>> expect.  Constants can be set but not changed based on a  
>>> condition (such as the system version check done). The following  
>>> code illustrates the point:
>>>
>>> long if ( system( _sysVers ) > 1100)
>>> _TransparentWindowsOK = 1
>>> end if
>>>
>>> print _TransparentWindowsOK
>>>
>>> do
>>> handleevents
>>> until 0
>>>
>>> Clearly this long if will NOT be true (because there is no sysem  
>>> 1100 yet), but you will notice the value is still set to 1. That  
>>> is because the constant is set regardless of the long if test  
>>> result.   Constants are global and can't be changed(hence the  
>>> name constants). You might want to use a variable since a  
>>> constant won't work for the use shown here.
>>>
>>> The other thing tripping you up is an apparent typo on the  
>>> conditional compile statements (#if  / #endif). Both are testing  
>>> for a value of 1 in the constant.
>>>
>>> HTH----Brian
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> On Apr 11, 2006, at 8:55 PM, Rich Love wrote:
>>>
>>>>
>>>> I use transparent windows in MacWise and just discovered that  
>>>> they do not work with the older Mac OS 10.2.8
>>>> So I am trying to look at the system version and only use  
>>>> SetWindowAlpha if the OS is newer than 10.2.8
>>>> I thought the following routine would work but when run under OS  
>>>> 10.2.8, it is still trying to use SetWindowAlpha and opens a  
>>>> dialog box in OS 9 saying that SetWindowAlpha is not available.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> I can't figure out why the following does not work under OS 10.2.8
>>>> It is happy as can be under OS 10.4.6
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> TransParentValue = 3
>>>>
>>>> long if ( system( _sysVers ) > 1028)
>>>> _TransparentWindowsOK = 1
>>>> end if
>>>>
>>>> #if _TransparentWindowsOK = 1
>>>> toolbox SetWindowAlpha( WindowRef inWindow, double inAlpha )
>>>> #endif
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> #if _TransparentWindowsOK = 1
>>>> call SetWindowAlpha( TransparentWindow, TransParentValue * .01)
>>>> #endif
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Rich
>>>>
>>>> --
>>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>>
>>>
>>
>> --
>>
>
> --
>
>