Re: [LONG] Making the right choice (was Re: How viable is Cocoa development?)
Re: [LONG] Making the right choice (was Re: How viable is Cocoa development?)
- Subject: Re: [LONG] Making the right choice (was Re: How viable is Cocoa development?)
- From: Marcel Weiher <email@hidden>
- Date: Sun, 27 Jan 2002 09:03:59 +0100
On Sunday, January 27, 2002, at 03:03 , Erik M. Buck wrote:
1) If I want to take full advantage of OSX, and have fastest access to
the latest and greatest capabilities of the operating system as it
evolves, should I use Cocoa or Carbon??
Carbon.
Wrong: Carbon is easily usable from Cocoa, the other way around is much
more difficult (plus: if you do the main job in Cocoa, you will
actually have TIME to do the little bits of Carbon)
1a) When Apple implements new feature FOO or new technology BAR
in OSX, do I get to use FOO and BAR first in Carbon or
Cocoa?
Carbon
Wrong. See Services, Sheets, AppleScript Studio, as well as automatic
use of international text and CoreGraphics (both of which developers
need to do extra work to access from Carbon).
1b) Right now (today!), can I access the most OSX features and
Apple
technologies
using Cocoa? or Carbon?
Carbon does not need Cocoa at all. Many people feel that it is not
possible
to make a Cocoa application that Mac users will like without using some
little bits of Carbon.
Many also feel that Carbon apps don't feel like Mac OS X apps at all.
Anyway, since it is easy to access Carbon from Cocoa and the reverse is
difficult, and there are features in Cocoa that are not in Carbon, Cocoa
is easier to access the most features.
1c) Is it feasible to develop primarily in Cocoa, but use APIs from
Carbon? (or vice versa)
Cocoa applications may need Carbon. Carbon applications do not use
Cocoa at
all.
That was not the question, to which the answer is a resounding YES,
despite your attempts at fudding it.
1d) What is available in Cocoa that is not available in Carbon?
Drawers, services, 1/5 the number of lines of code, consistent and
powerful
text widget, some panels.
So you do know that you answer to question 1a is wrong. Good to know.
1e) What is available in Carbon that is not available in Cocoa.
Lots of stuff already cited in this thread. It is also important to
note
that many former Openstep APIs have been dropped in favor of arguably
inferior Carbon ones meaning that Carbon is growing and improving while
Cocoa is shrinking, devolving, and gaining bugs and performance problems
that it did not used to have.
Since all of Carbon is easily accessible from Cocoa, the correct answer
is nothing, nada, zilch. The fact that the Carbon APIs are inferior has
nothing to do with wether they are accessible from Cocoa. Quote the
contrary, the fact that these APIs tend to be rather, er, involved means
you want to minimize your exposure.
[rough agreement]
Marcel