Re: Cocoa's Popularity
Re: Cocoa's Popularity
- Subject: Re: Cocoa's Popularity
- From: joie <email@hidden>
- Date: Sat, 23 Mar 2002 23:34:16 -0600
i'd like to respond to this, but allow me to first disclaim the
following:
Ever since I was very young, I've been a fervent advocate of the
Platform- Mac OS on a Mac machine. For all my life(except when using my
trusty IIe) I've used a Mac of some sort. It wasn't until a few years
ago I delved very deeply into the guts of the OS, and it wasn't until
this year I began coding, first in 'straight' console C, and then
Objective-C with Cocoa. Cocoa is a development platform that is just
like the current incarnation of Mac OS- Some of it is open(nee Darwin),
much of it is quite accessible, and some seems to remain hidden- This is
what we live with, true. In the future, the hidden bits will become
less and less so. And so, having made my statement of commitment to
both the Mac platform and Cocoa, and my great respect of NeXTStep, I
shall begin:
Regardless of NeXT's origins, they(and they, note that, not
'Steve'- the man is an icon, but Steve does not [entirely] Apple make)
came up with some very, very neat things. NeXTStep has a very nicely
done interface, and a lot of very compelling and neat ideas. Providing
such powerful development opportunities as existed in NeXTStep, and as
now exist in OpenStep/GNUStep and Cocoa, was, I believe, the ultimate
purpose(though not intentional) of NeXT. The OS was good- is good in
its new form, Mac OS X. What these OSes lack somewhat in speed, they
more than make up for in their interface. Let's use the metaphor of a
hammer, since Project Builder uses it as its build icon.
Say that you have two hammers. One is very, very powerful, the
fastest and sturdiest hammer in all the world. The second hammer isn't
as sturdy, and won't necessarily get jobs done as quickly. Now, based
on 'power', one would choose the former hammer. However, consider that
the former hammer has a handle made of razor blades and spiky bits, and
also has the added stipulation of smacking you in the head whenever you
use it. The latter hammer, on the other hand, has a cushy, soft, gel
grip. The choice now is clear.
Interface does matter, and it can mitigate and temper the need for
raw 'power.' What good is a tool that isn't fun to use? This is part
of the reason why electric screwdrivers are so popular- they're fun.
Granted, these two cases are extremes. However, Apple, again nee
NeXT, has opted to give its users a better experience, albeit a little
bit less powerful- however, as many have shown, it is possible to
remove Apple's handle to reveal the nubby spikes beneath- not quite as
sharp as FreeBSD's, but the the reduced weight after removing the gelly
handle makes up for some of the power/speed gap. I love the GUI of Mac
OS X, but it was using OS X that made me realize how invaluable a
command line was- I go back to OS 9 and I'm constantly trying to open a
Terminal, pull up the Dock, do something like that..
Apple has given us a rather powerful OS(not the 'most powerful in
the world', but not unacceptably far from it), and the tools to do
things with it, to make things for it, to play with it. We pay a
premium for a slightly less powerful, but much, much more fun to use
hammer. I enjoy, really enjoy making applications using Cocoa. Cocoa
and Objective-C are the "right" way to do OOP, if there is such a
thing. In the past, I looked into C++, but it's such a, well, it's an
ugly language. There are too many changes, too many syntax additions,
too much nonsense grafted onto the side of a language that is above all
clean and consistent. Objective-C simply adds one new sort of syntax
and a few data types. It's graceful. Foundation and AppKit classes
take the tedium out of coding to a large degree, and I'm free to focus
on thinking in higher and freer terms than "this does this then that."
I can see my program as objects instead of as a bunch of spaghetti
code. Furthermore, I can design, I can be artful, and I can be
productive- all at the same time.
Again, "In the end, we make our own choices." Mike's own words.
"If you don't like it, leave" is another way of putting it. Keep in
mind: The developer tools are FREE. There ARE alternatives. And let's
not bite the hand that feeds us. I, for one, thank Apple(and,
indirectly, their CEO) for providing us all anew with what are, in
essence, beautiful hammers for our convenience.
-joie
(incidentally, I stood, and still do stand, for the no-floppy
decision. (: Floppies have been dead for a long, long, long time. Even
in the early/mid-90s, I found them quite close to useless... ^_^)
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