Re: Thoughts on Cocoa
Re: Thoughts on Cocoa
- Subject: Re: Thoughts on Cocoa
- From: Jens Alfke via Cocoa-dev <email@hidden>
- Date: Thu, 3 Oct 2019 12:04:17 -0700
> On Oct 2, 2019, at 10:14 AM, Turtle Creek Software via Cocoa-dev
> <email@hidden> wrote:
>
> For
> anyone smaller, it's hard to justify the constant need to rewrite code just
> to stay in the same place. Return on investment is just not there. Seems
> like each new update is more difficult.
The people I hear complaining about this are those who, like you, didn't move
to Cocoa. Carbon was a _temporary_ transition API*. It was necessary when Mac
OS X shipped in March 2001, but even though it wasn't yet formally deprecated,
it was clear it would be. The Carbon UI frameworks were deprecated circa, um,
2006(?). QuickTime has been deprecated nearly as long. 64-bit systems shipped
in the mid-2000s, even before the x86 transition, and it was obvious then that
32-bit would eventually go away.
Eighteen years is _forever_ in the tech industry. At the time Cocoa was
introduced, the Mac itself hadn't even been around that long!
It sounds like keeping an app limping along on 30-year-old APIs, and then
suddenly trying to move it forwards all at once, is a bad idea. By comparison,
keeping a Cocoa app up to date isn't that big a deal. I was maintaining Cocoa
apps during the 64-bit, x86 and ARC transitions and had to make very few code
changes. I've been out of the UI world for about 8 years, and there have
definitely been significant changes in areas like view layout and document
handling, but adapting to those isn't rocket science.
Yes, Microsoft is rather fanatical about compatibility. But that's part of what
lost them their lead after the '90s: the amount of development resources needed
to keep everything working exactly the same, and the difficulty of making
forward progress without breaking any apps.
—Jens
* Yes it was. I was working at Apple and involved in the Carbon transition
during 1999-2000.
_______________________________________________
Cocoa-dev mailing list (email@hidden)
Please do not post admin requests or moderator comments to the list.
Contact the moderators at cocoa-dev-admins(at)lists.apple.com
Help/Unsubscribe/Update your Subscription:
This email sent to email@hidden
| References: | |
| | >Thoughts on Cocoa (From: Turtle Creek Software via Cocoa-dev <email@hidden>) |