Re: Cocoa's Popularity
Re: Cocoa's Popularity
- Subject: Re: Cocoa's Popularity
- From: Mike <email@hidden>
- Date: Sun, 24 Mar 2002 01:02:13 -0800
"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. "
Agreed, and for the most part, Aqua delivers, except for the minor
Finder annoyances and poor menu organization (not to mention the
"creator/type binding" fiasco which makes Windows look positively
state-of-the-art by comparison). And there are other annoying things
like a 14 point system font. One co-worker saw it and called OS X
"The Romper Room OS".
But those of us who use tools to get things done *need* power and
speed. Yes we use electric screwdrivers because they are fun, but we
use them *more* because they save us huge amounts of time, allow us
to get a job done faster and easier, *and* allow us to do so without
having our arms fall off from exhaustion.
Give me OS X in its current incarnation with respectable speed, fix
the annoying Finder things, and i will be a convert for life.
-m
============================
At 6:32 PM -0600 3/23/02, joie wrote:
>
i'd like to respond to this, but allow me to first disclaim the following:
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>
Ever since I was very young, I've been a fervent advocate of
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the Platform- Mac OS on a Mac machine. For all my life(except when
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using my trusty IIe) I've used a Mac of some sort. It wasn't until
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a few years ago I delved very deeply into the guts of the OS, and it
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wasn't until this year I began coding, first in 'straight' console
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C, and then Objective-C with Cocoa. Cocoa is a development platform
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that is just like the current incarnation of Mac OS- Some of it is
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open(nee Darwin), much of it is quite accessible, and some seems to
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remain hidden- This is what we live with, true. In the future, the
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hidden bits will become less and less so. And so, having made my
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statement of commitment to both the Mac platform and Cocoa, and my
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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
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make) came up with some very, very neat things. NeXTStep has a very
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nicely done interface, and a lot of very compelling and neat ideas.
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Providing such powerful development opportunities as existed in
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NeXTStep, and as now exist in OpenStep/GNUStep and Cocoa, was, I
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believe, the ultimate purpose(though not intentional) of NeXT. The
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OS was good- is good in its new form, Mac OS X. What these OSes
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lack somewhat in speed, they more than make up for in their
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interface. Let's use the metaphor of a hammer, since Project
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Builder uses it as its build icon.
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Say that you have two hammers. One is very, very powerful,
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the fastest and sturdiest hammer in all the world. The second
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hammer isn't as sturdy, and won't necessarily get jobs done as
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quickly. Now, based on 'power', one would choose the former hammer.
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However, consider that the former hammer has a handle made of razor
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blades and spiky bits, and also has the added stipulation of
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smacking you in the head whenever you use it. The latter hammer, on
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the other hand, has a cushy, soft, gel grip. The choice now is
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clear.
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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-
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they're fun.
>
Granted, these two cases are extremes. However, Apple, again
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nee NeXT, has opted to give its users a better experience, albeit a
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little bit less powerful- however, as many have shown, it is
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possible to remove Apple's handle to reveal the nubby spikes
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beneath- not quite as sharp as FreeBSD's, but the the reduced weight
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after removing the gelly handle makes up for some of the power/speed
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gap. I love the GUI of Mac OS X, but it was using OS X that made me
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realize how invaluable a command line was- I go back to OS 9 and
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I'm constantly trying to open a Terminal, pull up the Dock, do
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something like that..
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Apple has given us a rather powerful OS(not the 'most
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powerful in the world', but not unacceptably far from it), and the
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tools to do things with it, to make things for it, to play with it.
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We pay a premium for a slightly less powerful, but much, much more
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fun to use hammer. I enjoy, really enjoy making applications using
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Cocoa. Cocoa and Objective-C are the "right" way to do OOP, if
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there is such a thing. In the past, I looked into C++, but it's
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such a, well, it's an ugly language. There are too many changes,
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too many syntax additions, too much nonsense grafted onto the side
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of a language that is above all clean and consistent. Objective-C
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simply adds one new sort of syntax and a few data types. It's
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graceful. Foundation and AppKit classes take the tedium out of
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coding to a large degree, and I'm free to focus on thinking in
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higher and freer terms than "this does this then that." I can see
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my program as objects instead of as a bunch of spaghetti code.
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Furthermore, I can design, I can be artful, and I can be productive-
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all at the same time.
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Again, "In the end, we make our own choices." Mike's own
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words. "If you don't like it, leave" is another way of putting it.
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Keep in mind: The developer tools are FREE. There ARE
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alternatives. And let's not bite the hand that feeds us. I, for
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one, thank Apple(and, indirectly, their CEO) for providing us all
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anew with what are, in essence, beautiful hammers for our
>
convenience.
>
>
-joie
>
>
(incidentally, I stood, and still do stand, for the no-floppy
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decision. (: Floppies have been dead for a long, long, long time.
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Even in the early/mid-90s, I found them quite close to useless...
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^_^)
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>
>
On Saturday, March 23, 2002, at 05:47 PM, Mike wrote:
>
>
>Brethren,
>
>
>
>Let us never forget that a HUGE part of what is going on with OS X is
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>*all* about Steve's need to "I'll show you".
>
>
>
>Harken, hath ye forgot the infamous tales of how Steve was ousted
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>from Apple to begin with and stormed off to create NeXT solely for
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>the purpose of "I'll show you"?
>
>
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>After 7 years of *failed* NeXT computers and software, Steve got his
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>chance: a comeback at Apple. Except for the original Macintosh (which
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>other people actually *created* anyway), and some good current
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>industrial design (which other people *created* anyway), Steve has
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>more failures on his resume than he does successes. One instance of
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>insane luck does not a visionary make.
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>
>
>The original NeXT OS and hence, to some degree still, OS X had (and
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>has) some serious flaws (such as the fact that somehow someone at
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>NeXT took one of the world's most stable and fastest OSes (FreeBSD),
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>and slowed it down to an unacceptable crawl (Darwin), and then based
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>"The world's most advanced operating system" on it
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>(Aqua/Quartz/Coccoa)). And hence OS X was born from a poorly-designed
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>15-year old derivative of an otherwise good free OS.
>
>
>
>To make matters worse, Steve is now sending *Apple reps* into stores
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>like Fry's "to make sure no one boots a Mac into OS 9 in the store" -
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>i'm not kidding: an Apple rep said this to me at Fry's Sunnyvale
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>store. Sounds like OS-Nazis to me.
>
>
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>Much of what is going on at Apple is being driven by Steve's maniacal
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>need for vindication and proof that his ideas are the best. Mac OS X
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>is much more about this need than it is about good technology.
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>
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>Steve sees how MicroSloth has foisted a crap OS on the world, and
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>dominated the world with it. In Steve's old age he has come to see
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>the wisdom that succeeding in the personal computer market is a lot
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>more about hype and marketing than it is about *great* software.
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>
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>The original dream of the Mac - and elegant, easy to use OS is long
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>dead. OS X is just a sow's ear wrapped in an external silk purse.
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>
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>Brethren, don't expect OS X to be something that it is not - it is
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>Steve's ultimate revenge and since Apple is hell bent on pushing it,
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>we either have to live with it as is, or go to another platform. You
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>Will Not Change Steve. Remember, this is the man who for seven years
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>said "no" to consumers who wanted to buy a NeXT computer if NeXT
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>would only put a floppy drive in the machine.
>
>
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>You Will Like OS X. You Will Use OS X. OS X Is Good For You Because
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>Steve Says So. Even if it's not what you want, even if it's not
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>superior technology, You Will Use It.
>
>
>
>In the end, we make our own choices.
>
>
>
>-m
>
>==============================
>
>
>
>>On Friday, March 22, 2002, at 07:29 PM, Ondra Cada wrote:
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>>
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>>. . . I *still* can't see any other reason than "to have time and
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>>sources for cra^H^H^Hthings like Genie effects
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>>
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>>Indeed! Keeping the Quartz vector scaling technology secret is
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>>nothing short of bone-headed on the part of Apple. It's not like
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>>MicroShit is going to steal it since they have no clue on how to
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>>develop a third generation "drawing engine." I got into this Cocoa
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>>mess after reading about Quartz; a killer app came to mind that
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>>requires vector scaling--aka,
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>> the "genie effect"-- in order to work. It's been ~18 months now
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>>and still there is _nothing_ out there so I make little progress on
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>>my million-dollar idea because Apple keeps this to themselves for
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>>reasons that are beyond comprehension. What a waste! The genie
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>>effect is cool, to be sure, and gets the PC weenies to chew their
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>>livers in envy which is nice, and I _love_ magnification in the
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>>dock, but there are tons of places where this technology could be
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>>put to more important use--science visualization to name only one!
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>>
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>>After much travail, bitterness, lurking, and reading everything I
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>>can get my eyeballs to focus on, I have come to believe that there
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>>is only one explanation for this all-too- frequent silliness on the
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>>part of Apple:
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>>
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>>the genius/stupidity of Steve Jobs!
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>>
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>>How one man can be responsible for the true elegance of a Ti
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>>Powerbook, new iMac, iBook, and the look-and-feel of Aqua for that
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>>matter, and at the same time allow such lame TV ads to be foisted on
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>>the buying public is one for the text books. In short, Steve
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>>Jobs--and as a result Apple itself--is an all too perfect example of
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>>a mixed blessing. If there were any reasonable alternative I'd bail
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>>on Apple in a heartbeat; alas, there is nothing else but Linux,
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>>which has all the elegance of a dead skunk, or a pact with the Devil
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>>incarnate. So, Hobson's Choice: if you want to ride, you ride the
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>>horse you are given because there are no other horses here on
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>>Hobson's planet.
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>>
>
>>Brian E. Howard
>
>>Cocoa Cult Central
>
>>still trying to scale things up
>
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>
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