Thoughts on Cocoa source code
Thoughts on Cocoa source code
- Subject: Thoughts on Cocoa source code
- From: Turtle Creek Software via Cocoa-dev <email@hidden>
- Date: Wed, 9 Oct 2019 13:19:15 -0400
Why is Cocoa source code hidden?
Many of the frustrations we had with the 64-bit update attempt were caused
by Cocoa's lack of visible source. It was a "black box" that often required
trial-and-error to figure out. Yeah, the headers are visible, and Apple has
info online. But sometimes that was not sufficient to understand the actual
implementation details.
When debugging, the stack trace inside Cocoa was just a bunch of
rarely-helpful Assembly. No way to set breakpoints inside Cocoa classes, or
step through their C code. More mysteries and headaches.
I personally learned C++ while using the PowerPlant library from
Metrowerks. Its source files were totally exposed. Seeing comments and code
really helped. When designing or debugging, it was possible to step through
their code and see exactly how it functioned. Cocoa would be so much
easier to use if its source was accessible like that.
In fact, why isn't Cocoa open source? Apple open-sources Swift and the
Darwin kernel. Surely the GUI can't be any riskier to expose to developers?
Our programmers found several PowerPlant bugs over the years. We fixed them
right away in our copy, and reported them so they were fixed in the next
update. Apple could get the same benefit for Cocoa. Seems like a win-win.
Someone suggested that I send comments to Tim Cook or whomever at Apple.
That seems a good idea, but I'd like to see discussion results, first.
Assemble more viewpoints.
Casey McDermott
TurtleSoft.com
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