• Open Menu Close Menu
  • Apple
  • Shopping Bag
  • Apple
  • Mac
  • iPad
  • iPhone
  • Watch
  • TV
  • Music
  • Support
  • Search apple.com
  • Shopping Bag

Lists

Open Menu Close Menu
  • Terms and Conditions
  • Lists hosted on this site
  • Email the Postmaster
  • Tips for posting to public mailing lists
Re: Re: Agent Applications and launchd
[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

Re: Re: Agent Applications and launchd


  • Subject: Re: Re: Agent Applications and launchd
  • From: Alberto Ricart <email@hidden>
  • Date: Sat, 31 Dec 2005 13:01:01 -0600

Zero lines of code is absolutely the right count. I had gone through the same path Jerry had gone through a few days back for the various early iterations of my current project:

A) load and write loginwindow.plist directly (approx 10 lines)
B) cocoa-dev's CFPreference's code (trimmed and made reusable in 75 lines)
C) looking at Apples code for doing this (ugh - can you say bloat)
D) using launchd (22 lines on the plist, but given the 'Launchd Editor' from MacGeekery <http://www.macgeekery.com/tips/ all_about_launchd_items_and_how_to_make_one_yourself> really only 4 values clicked on the app plus and about a 12 lines of code to replace the location of exe when installed).

Indeed option 'D' tastes great and has few calories and zero carbs. The only disclaimer is that it is 10.4 only. Luckily for me, my app has both a client and server daemons, so launchd aligns very well with my app, but the real deciding factor I had already taken. My app uses Core Data, so I was already 10.4 only and loving it.

Now, while this works for me - I don't think it is the right thing for all apps. For one thing, there's no UI/Preference Pane to manage LanchAgents/LaunchDaemons settings (whops, I guess I know what is next on my plate), which is the way that users are accustomed to turning these things on/off. Thus it is 'easy' for developers to want to take this route, and run into this thread again.

From my perspective (C) is an awful solution. It is not API, it is just a bunch of apple events. So something seemingly simple as "add this guy to my autolauch list" requires 800 lines of code. Just to keep it in perspective, ALL my data management code including utility code to populate transient data into my Core Data application, register DO object that provides access to the data to clients, etc is LESS than that, and that is the code that matters to me most. Sure it is the 'supported way', but if you include it in your code you have an additional 800 lines of code to support just for that very tiny small feature. Realizing that sample code from apple is just that, sample code (it illustrates how to do something) there's too much fat and calories on that choice. From my perspective it has zero guarantees on its suitability to do anything, even if it looks official enough (if you are not sure go read the 30 lines in the disclaimer).

Cheers,


/a



_______________________________________________
Do not post admin requests to the list. They will be ignored.
Cocoa-dev mailing list (email@hidden)
Help/Unsubscribe/Update your Subscription:

This email sent to email@hidden
  • Prev by Date: Re: Restoring dock icon
  • Next by Date: currentDocument returns nil (and it shouldn't)
  • Previous by thread: Re: Agent Applications and launchd
  • Next by thread: Detecting iPods
  • Index(es):
    • Date
    • Thread