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At last month's World Wide Developer's Conference, iCEO Steve Jobs said the Mac OS X train is leaving the station. The implication was that those developers whose products are not aboard, and their respective users, would be left behind. By one measure (remember Copeland?), it is not an easy story to sell, especially to veteran developers previously mislead by hollow proclamations of a new Mac OS just around the next bend. But the wait is almost over. Finally, the light at the other end of the tunnel is a new OS, and it is coming our way.
Aqua, the new three-dimensional interface, garners the most attention. However, Aqua's look could be glued onto Mac OS 9 with little effort. The real Mac OS X story goes beyond appearance; inside the new OS is some of the most sophisticated and elegant software ever to run on a desktop computer.
One method of explaining the inside of an operating system is to describe it as a toolbox with thousands of tools: built-in abilities such as "draw the letter a" and "play a sound." Developers use these tools as a foundation to write applications consistent with the look and feel of a Macintosh.
Some questions remain about which tools will or will not be part of Mac OS X, but the overall design is settled. Mac OS X's tools fall into three main sets, dubbed Classic, Carbon, and Cocoa. Those names may sound unfamiliar, but to developers they are signposts on a Mac OS road map that has been under development for several years.
One of the biggest challenges to overcome when creating a new operating system is to preserve backward compatibility while adding new features. In Mac OS X, compatibility is provided by the Classic tool set. Nearly transparent to the user, Classic will allow most programs to function just as they do now, albeit without the benefits of Mac OS X's advanced features.
Carbon is a streamlined version of Classic. By eliminating or replacing ancient, troublesome tools, Carbon allows applications access to Mac OS X's features without a complete rewrite. In all likelihood, most of the early versions of established Mac OS X ready applications will be Carbonized programs.
Cocoa does not carry any leftover baggage from the Classic and Carbon tool sets, and does them one better. Cocoa's tool set is much smarter. According to Apple, writing new applications is easier using Cocoa. However, converting existing applications to Cocoa requires that they be rewritten from the ground up. It will probably take several years for most large, established applications to make the transition.
By building a logical transition path, Apple has done just about everything it could to make the move to a new operating system painless for developers and users alike. And while eye candy is, well, tasty, the real delight in using Mac OS X is going to be its improved stability. It could be that the Mac that practically never has to be restarted is almost here.
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"All
Aboard Mac OS X"
