Working With Tiger Technologies 133
Juanvaldes writes "Apple has put online more developer-oriented information about Tiger. There are also detailed articles about Spotlight, Dashboard, 64-bit apps and Automator."
Do you suffer painful hallucination? -- Don Juan, cited by Carlos Casteneda
New Apple User (Score:5, Interesting)
Having seen the Macworld Keynote, Tiger looks very good. I'm mostly interested in Dashboard. Seems like a good step forward (I love Expose). Spotlight also seems great, though the number of times I actually use a local search is tiny.
Apple keeps getting better and genuinely innovating, whereas MS seems to just buy, rebrand, then move on when it's Good Enough(tm). I'm sorry if that sounds flamebait, but it's The Truth(tm).
Re:New Apple User (Score:5, Interesting)
WindowsXP has a built in speech engine. It doesn't need training to understand commands, but you do have to train it to do dictation. I assume any program can use the API, but I only know of one set of programs that do: MS Office.
Dashboard is almost a direct rip off of a third party app, but I forget what it's called.
Desktop search was supposed to be part of WinFS, which MS announced about a year ago. You can't call apple the innovator here, just the fastest-to-market.
I think the true advatages of going with Apple are:
-that OSX gets faster with each version, *on the same hardware*. Think Longhorn will run faster than XP on my P3 machine?
-expose. It works just like you'd expect it to. It's faster to pick out a safari window on a collage of thumbnailed windows than it is from a vertical text list of the window titles (a la XP).
-the
-ability to run as unprivledged. If i need to change a system setting, it will automatically prompt for the admin password. I can also use su and sudo when I need to. (Linux has this too)
-the BSD underbelly. I can use the great GUI to do what I need with a few clicks, but there are some things i just can't do without a terminal. Having rsync, ssh, sftp, cron, etc available to me is great. Unlike Linux, I don't feel like I have to use the terminal unless I want to.
Re:New Apple User (Score:4, Interesting)
Spotlight has been in developement a few years. Well before the MS announcement. In fact, fragments of it were in OS 9.
You are, however, correct about Dashboard and the speech thing.
Re:New Apple User (Score:4, Insightful)
A third party developer wrote Konfabulator which enabled users create and run JavaScript applets. He called them widgets too.
Is Dashboard a knock-off? Apple did introduce desktop widgets first. And their re-introduction and design makes sense. With WebKit and Java as integral parts of the base OS: css, html, and javascript make the most sense, and of course they will still call them widgets.
The fact that Konfabulator called them widgets is a knock-off of Apple's original widgets. The fact that the widgets in javascript makes some people suspicious that Apple stole the idea.
I don't know the principles on either side, so cannot say definitively what happened. I just think bald claims that Apple stole the idea are perhaps overstated.
Re:New Apple User (Score:2)
If that is the case, how far back do they go? Do they predate the BeOS system, where you could literally drag widgets from one application to a container? It wasn't as configurable as, say, Konfabulator, but the ease-of-use for the end user was excellent. You could, for example, put a Google Search control on your desktop (or in a container window full
Re:New Apple User (Score:3, Informative)
Re:New Apple User (Score:5, Insightful)
Some examples: Calculator, Alarm Clock (later, the clock moved to the menu bar), Key Caps (so you could find all the non-standard keyboard characters like the Yen symbol, etc), Puzzle, Scrapbook (like multiple, persistent copy buffers), Notepad (like Stickies), Chooser (to select printers and networks), etc. Yup, 1984.
They all lived under the Apple menu, and could be used at any time. They required some unusual constraints to WRITE, however...but Apple provided some decent sample code and shareware developers wrote hundreds more of them.
After MacOS became preemptively multitasking, the only reason DAs stuck around is that users expected them. There was no longer a good reason to code within the DA frameworks, (and by then you could put any app you wanted into the Apple menu, so that was no longer unique..)
Dashboard is not a knock-off. It's a reintroduction of Apple's own good idea from twenty years ago. As for the naming choice -- well, I think it's dumb...but it doesn't make sense to claim that that's stolen either. There is no more generic term for a small, useful thing. Widgets will be more powerful than DAs and easier to write, but that's a function of the intervening time, not stolen inspiration.
Dashboard is also interesting because the applets (see?) are like Desk Accessories, but the use model appears to be Apple's first admission that virtual desktops might be a GOOD IDEA that users are capable of understanding (when presented in a very animated-so-you-know-whats-happening-at-all-times kind of way). That's a big step for Apple HIG!
Next stop, multi-button mouses, STANDARD!
I only worry that with Expose and Dashboard, Apple might decide that users are all tapped out in the weird-things-that-happen-to-my-desktop department and never implement virtual desktops themselves.
(Though I'm pretty happy with Virtue. Look it up on version tracker.)
Re:New Apple User (Score:2)
It's a knock-off, just like a Rolex is a knock-off of it's cheaper cousins, the Rolex clone.
I laugh whenever I see people discussing Konfabulator, looking over how it is implemented, and how Dashboard is implemented under Tiger is like calling a Porche a knockoff of a 1970's Honda Civic.
They may look similar, but they are not the same thing.
Re:New Apple User (Score:3, Informative)
Re:New Apple User (Score:5, Insightful)
Apple first showed Spotlight last June, and if you look at it you will see that it is really an extension of an old Copland technology (the project that was started to originally replace System 7.5) that came out in System 8.6 under the TwinTurbo codename (text summarizing and indexing of the hard drive). And if you are really stretching you can find glimmers of this in the marketing buzz for Microsofts Cairo (large parts of which made it into Win95 and Win98). In other words, this is not a new idea... so making it work (and well) is the only thing that counts. We are way beyond the point where anyone can claim that they thought of it first.
I don't think that Microsoft's speech recognition does dictation. I think it is just like the speech recognition that has also been built into MacOS since either MacOS 7.5 or 8: very limited commands that are a big drain on the processor, and you have to repeat yourself a lot. Nothing to see here...
And on the Dashboard comment... You are thinking of Konfabulator, and that borrowed its idea from Apple's desk accessories, which borrowed its idea from a demo at Xerox PARC (the one Apple paid for the ideas with stock). And the more you compare how the two system work, the less they look like each other. Dashboard widgets are a special form of html page with a few extra javascript hooks that live in a special environment. Konfabulator scripts are another (heavyweight) program that runs in its own special interpreter with its own language. Konfabulator was a neat idea, but the implementation sucked. Apple just extended the browser and came up with their own twists on the idea. The truth be told, Dashboard has more in common with Mozilla/Firefox's XUL than Konfabulator (and it should, since Dave Hyatt was a major mover behind both).
TwinTurbo? (Score:1, Informative)
Re:New Apple User (Score:2, Informative)
I've been waiting for something like this ever since I heard they picked up Dominic. BFS was amazing. Live queries on all your data, and ever so quick.
Re:New Apple User (Score:2, Informative)
Re:New Apple User (Score:2)
No, but the app may well put things in /Library/Application Support or /Library/Frameworks or preferences folders, etc. Still, it's not hard to find those things, since they're usually just files in folders named after the apps or parent company.
Re:New Apple User (Score:2)
Using that logic, Duke Nukem Forever is the most innovative FPS. Of course, we haven't seen it yet, but all the bold claims they made were waaaaay before Doom 3 and Halflife 2 were announced!
Re:New Apple User (Score:2)
You're thinking of Konfabulator. Dashboard is not a rip off of Konfabulator. I suggest you go read this essay/blog/whatever on Dashboard vs. Konfabulator [daringfireball.net].
Re:New Apple User (Score:2, Interesting)
Not quite true as the 'Library' settings are still left in either the 'System' level library or the 'Users' level library depending on the application. What I would really like to see (and I have just started dipping my hand in development on Mac OS X) is, say an applescript in the .app folder that would detect being moved to the Trash and prompt the user to clean-up the app
Re:New Apple User (Score:2)
First, some sort of a general-framework applescript would need to be written and attached to the trash as a "Folder Action", which is run everytime the folder is modified. This script would need to do nothing for most filetypes, but when it detects the "App" bundle, it should offer to remove preferences
Secondly, each app would need a script (or other executable program) that the Folder Action
Re:New Apple User (Score:2)
Man, man, man. I can't believe you fall for this.
Time-to-market is the thing. If you believe that MS or any other company that preannounces anything is the one that will bring it to market first or is the real innovator, you amaze me. For instance, MS has used this tactic over and over, before any developer has written any single line of code they "a
Re:New Apple User (Score:1)
Re:New Apple User (Score:1)
Re:New Apple User (Score:2)
dashboard is a ripoff of many apps, but those apps were ripoffs of others and when it comes down to it, it's just an API for programming smaller applications that are all managed by a bigger app... From what I understand (have read previously), the Mac's desk accessories (from the mid 80s) were basically that, but without the big
Re:New Apple User (Score:2)
Re:I'd be more inclined to call you an Apple fan b (Score:5, Insightful)
Your statements are patently false.
Situations where X only runs on 10.2 and up, or Y only runs on 10.3 and up result from adding new functionality, not from breaking old functionality. Frameworks in Macos X support multiple simultaneous versions without conflict.
The reason that so many new packages require new versions of the OS is that the development tools and libraries are improving. Targeting 10.1 or 10.2 requires that developers forgo functionality which can dramatically reduce their effort. For instance using Cocoa Bindings (introduced in Panther) a developer can avoid writing much common code. The authors of Delicious Library say that when they first read about Cocoa Bindings they decided to give it a try:
WebKit, Array Controllers, and scores of other new objects have been introduced over the past few years. In each case the general result is deriving more functionality out of far less code.
This is not the result of Apple un-fucking things. This is the result of Apple producing software that improves the system by adding new functionality that is easier for both developers and end-users.
Apple typically releases free updates and security patches for several years. Jaguar (10.2) came out in 2002, the last major upgrade 10.2.8 was released in mid 2003, I see that 10.2.8 was still covered by the security update several weeks ago.
It is clear that you don't know what you are talking about.
Re:I'd be more inclined to call you an Apple fan b (Score:2)
Note: The above paragraph is an oversimplification.
Re:I'd be more inclined to call you an Apple fan b (Score:2)
For those unfamiliar with the concept, weak binding enables one to create a single body of linked code which depends on calling functions which may never be bound.
Basically, at compile time certain symbols are marked weak, meaning that they appear in the symbol table but their absense is not an error.
At run-time you can call functions to query libraries for the presence of various functions. By noting their presence (or absense) the code
Re:I'd be more inclined to call you an Apple fan b (Score:2)
Did Apple charge for the upgrade from 10.2 to 10.3? Yes. Did MSFT charge for the update from NT 5.0 (Windows 200 Pro) to 5.1 (XP)? Yes.
Stop trolling and sign up for an account coward.
Re:New Apple User (Score:2)
Having seen the Macworld Keynote, Tiger looks very good.
It was you that saw the Keynote, not the Tiger. How about: Having seen the Macworld Keynote, I thought Tiger looks very good.
Anyway, you say you like the way Dashboard looks. I like the way that Core Image [apple.com] looks. I'll bet we see an Aqua-native photo editor better than the Gimp in short time.
Re:New Apple User (Score:3, Funny)
Re:New Apple User (Score:1)
You know, you really should have a comma after the word 'thought.' And I won't even get into where your period should be placed at the end of the sentence.
Next stop: Grammar Rodeo!
no comments on core image? (Score:2)
I think the subject-verb agreement is much more important than keeping all the tenses straight. Tiger still "looks good" even if it "looked good" at the Macworld keynote. Would you have such a problem wi
Re:no comments on core image? (Score:2)
That sentence would be more "comprehensible" if it contained a predicate.
Re:no comments on core image? (Score:2)
Re:New Apple User (Score:1)
But I've got you to thank, Mr. Ambiguity Cop!
Jesus.
Re:New Apple User (Score:1)
it's partially replacing appls like Launchbar - you can use spotlight to launch apps and open files...
just hit f5 (or remap it to command+space), type in the first few chars of your app, highlight it and hit enter. no more flipping through folders to find your apps and files any more.
it's not quite as full featured as launchbar or quicksilver, but i think that's definitely the direction apple is moving with spotlight.
Re:New Apple User (Score:5, Insightful)
Apple's business model isn't built on driving up the highest market share possible. If they wanted to do that, they would have switched to x86 long ago.
They aren't trying to sell the most computer at the lowest price- they are trying to sell the best computers at a reasonable price.
Re:New Apple User (Score:5, Insightful)
World dominance is not required for a company to make money. And that's all a company exists to do, really, in the purest sense, and certainly at this size or larger: make money for the owner/shareholders. The market has grown by leaps and bounds while the market "share" may have been declining. That means Apple still is selling more units year-over-year. And the market as a whole may be misleading. Apple from time to time focuses on certain sectors of the market. Are they really declining in every sector? I'm not so sure. In my little market space of academic science, I can tell you without even doing a head count that they have made a serious rebound in the last few years. Windows here has become a platform only of personal choice, not of need. OS X and Linux dominate our department (and I dare say our field).
IANAFA, but the 90's did serious harm to Apple. It's taken a long times for things to stabilize and turn around. But. They did so even before the iPod took off with OS X, the Ti PowerBook, and the seamless G5 migration (at least).
It doesn't take a BS in business to BS to figure out that after the last year or so of financials, Apple is not going to have problems surviving in the short term or being relevant.
It doesn't take a BS in marketing to BS that when Apple's "competitors" are much more frequently talking about Apple technologies more and more in their own talking points and press responses to know that those with big shares are taking serious notice, if only behind closed doors--even if it's blowing off the relevance, saying there's nothing new, or giving us a load of BS about "choice".
You keep focusing on that market share. Someone's been concerned for the last 10 years about it. In the meantime, "the rest of us" will go about our business enjoying a kick-ass platform. And I do mean enjoy.
Re:New Apple User (Score:1)
Re:New Apple User (Score:5, Insightful)
And, the original argument was about market share. That's a hard thing to compute just based on raw sales. How many sales are new to the platform? How many are just upgrading old machines? How do homes with one of each major platform get counted? How does a business with a variety of machines get counted?
If I'm an application developer, I'd be concerned these days with whether the fraction of users are using or have access to a given platform, not just how many raw units are floating around. Here's a pretty unsubstantiated statement, but one I believe is true: the user contact/availability with Macs is growing and has grown in the last few years. Whether those users are migrating or supplementing their current hardware is a curiosity, but not particularly important if you are primarily interested in how many potential buyers of your software/device/etc. there are available.
Re:New Apple User (Score:2)
So was the Q1 2000 to Q1 2001 decline the outlier, or were the three years of increase the outliers (based on something other than personal opinion, of course)?
Dell predicted a 40% increase in Q4 2000 (equivalent to Q1 2001 for Apple) from the quarter a year ago. [dell.com]
They predicted a 50% increase in Q4 2001 [dell.com].
They announced a 25% increase in Q4 2002 [dell.com].
They didn't give an immediately obvious number for an [dell.com]
Re:New Apple User (Score:2)
Wow. You must have Bloomberg FutureCast -- considering that Q1 2005 isn't even half over yet.
Re:New Apple User (Score:2)
Re:New Apple User (Score:2)
Apple sold 1,377,000 systems in Q1-2000 [apple.com].
Apple sold 659,000 systems in Q1 2001 [apple.com], a quarter-to-quarter decline of 52% over a year.
Apple sold 746,000 systems in Q1 2002 [apple.com], a quarter-to-quarter increase of 13% over a year.
Apple sold 743,000 systems in Q1 2003 [apple.com], a quarter-to-quarter decrease of .4%.
Apple sold 829,000 sy [apple.com]
Re:New Apple User (Score:3, Funny)
Re:New Apple User (Score:3, Insightful)
You need up to date information. [nwsource.com]
"Note the trend in Mac shipments, particularly the big increase in the most recent quarter."
Mac shipments have been trending upwards over the last 8 quarters. From 711,000 in Q12003, to 1,046,000 Macs sold in Q4 2004. A sizable jump there in Q4, from 836,000 in Q304.
Market share is not all its cracked up to be.
IBM has about 8.6% market share. Unfortunately, even that wasn't enough - they lost money on their PC business for the last three years, so they bailed out and s
What about Java 1.5? (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:What about Java 1.5? (Score:2)
Re:What about Java 1.5? (Score:2)
Re:What about Java 1.5? (Score:2)
Re:What about Java 1.5? (Score:2)
Re:What about Java 1.5? (Score:2)
a converted developer (Score:2, Interesting)
i got a g4 powerbook in november.
my PC's are dormant. all my development is done on the mac. i just love using it.
i can't wait for tiger.
now i know why there are apple fanatics.
Re:it gets worse (Score:5, Interesting)
I'm actually amazed that OS X hasn't spurred a renaissance for GNUStep. I figured all the "I like MacOS, but I don't want to pay for Apple hardware" weenies would be hard at work getting around this by using GNUStep as a basis for their Free take-off of OS X instead of sticking with Gnome and KDE (both of which are just Free take-off of Windows in my book).
Re:it gets worse (Score:2, Insightful)
I'm guessing that much of that angst has be channeled into PearPC [sourceforge.net]
I agree with your sentiment, but I think that Gnome and KDE are too well entrenched for GNUstep to have much of an impact. There's Simply GNUstep [simplygnustep.com] of course...
But I suspect GNUstep is tarnished for several reasons.
Cocoa is a minority platform with even fewer open source developers. And how many people know objective-c? The Mac has a long history of quality shareware; on the whole
Re:it gets worse (Score:1)
It takes less time to learn ObjC than it takes to learn Java.
And that difference is going to get bigger as Java adds features (and complexity).
It also takes less time to learn ObjC than it takes to learn C#.
There really isn't much of it to learn.
Re:it gets worse (Score:2)
What'd you expect from a language that is pseudodynamically typed, uses a redirectable message passing architecture for calling object methods, and allows for addition of new methods to existing objects (that's objects, not just classes) at run-time?
Face it, every language feature comes at a price. C's speed at run-time comes at the price of development speed. ObjC's dynamic features come at the cost of run-time speed.
For most applications, the speed difference is barely
Re:it gets worse (Score:1)
If speed is a problem, profile it, locate the specific problem sites, and use C or C++ for those parts.
You can do that, without any sort of slow JNI hackery. Objective-C plays nice with its peers.
Re:it gets worse (Score:3, Interesting)
Well, I am, as you wrote it, "a weenie" - I don't want to pay my 2 months salary for a freaking computer (I live in Poland and in fact my income is quite above average), so I only dream about having a Mac. Well, now with Mac Mini and new prices of iBooks I started to count money maybe to
Re:it gets worse (Score:2)
I think you are confusing what GNUstep is (the s is lower case, by the way). GNUstep is not a window manager, and GNUstep is not a desktop environment. GNUstep is an implementation of a set of APIs. If you are not a developer (as you point out), it has no more relevance to you than GTK or Qt.
I always do everything the wrong way there, and the menu in the upper left corner just annoys me.
So change it. There a
Re:it gets worse (Score:2)
No, I don't confuse it. I know that GNUstep can work with different WMs (Afterstep or, I think now preferred wmaker) and I know that it is an implementation. But for the sake of convenience when I write "I tried GNUst
Re:it gets worse (Score:2)
Wow. People in Poland only make $250 a month? I guess that's why there are so many Polish immigrants in Chicago. They came over here to buy $500 Macs [apple.com]
Automater shows promise (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Automater shows promise (Score:4, Informative)
I think you're mistaken. Dashboard widgets are written in HTML+JavaScript. Automator actions are written in AppleScript or Objective-C.
It's basically built on top of AppleScript, so you won't be able to do anything that can't already be done with AppleScript. Apps or functions that aren't scriptable will be inaccessable to Automator.
On the other hand, I think developers will be more prone to add scripting support now that scripting is more accessable to users, and not the pain in the ass that AppleScript typically is.
Dashboard worries me... (Score:2)
Then it only takes one to
to ruin your whole day...Re:Dashboard worries me... (Score:2)
Re:Dashboard worries me... (Score:2)
Yes, a malicious program could nuke a home directory on "any" OS. What is your point? Are you saying users should not have control over there home folder? Come on man.
At least with OS X, the worst you can do is nuke your home folder with stupidity. You won't hose the entire system.
Why do you think Apple provides a Backup app with .MAC? Backup your home folder regularly and don't get software/widgets from untrusted sources.
Re:Dashboard worries me... (Score:2)
Re:Dashboard worries me... (Score:2)
The easiest exploit for any malware is through the user.
Re:Dashboard worries me... (Score:2)
(1) Now any 10 year old can write malware. Before it required perhaps a 13 year old.
(2) Users aren't going to see widgets as "installing a program" - Apple has been hyping that they're based on HTML, CSS and javascript, so Joe Sixpack is likely to dimly remember that and think that installing a widget is the equivalent of merely visiting a webpage.
(3) Because they're so easy to write, I expect a lot of them to be available from a wide variety o
Re:Dashboard worries me... (Score:2)
or or ?
Re:Automater shows promise (Score:2)
Automater aware apps do not expose that functionality through AppleScript, but instead through a Obj-C API (and probably a Java one as well t
Re:Automater shows promise (Score:2)
Actions that control an application to get something done. If the application is scriptable, AppleScript can be used for these types of Actions. Objective-C is a good choice if the application has a public API, such as Address Book and iChat.
Which I read to mean that it works both ways. AppleScriptable apps *are* Automator-aware. One just has to write Automator Actions to make use of them in Automator. Also, there is no single API for "Automator-Awaren
Re:Automater shows promise (Score:2)
Re:Automater shows promise (Score:1)
If it has a UI, it's Applescript-able. Check out http://www.apple.com/applescript/uiscripting/ [apple.com].
Re:Automater shows promise (Score:2)
you saw missed the point of Spotlight (Score:1)
importantly it also looks like fun app
ciao
PS smart folders must be one of the best things that will come out of it too...so did you actually read the write blurb??
SQLite part of OS... (Score:2)
Re:SQLite part of OS... (Score:5, Interesting)
It seems like a really cool idea and it has been working great in the iTunes codebase for some time now. Does any OS do something like this already? It seems to me like an obvious solution to a very common development problem. Should really cut down on development time.
Re:SQLite part of OS... (Score:2)
Core Data by default uses SQLite, but it's a new extension to the Cocoa frameworks for DB-like data storage and manipulation. In theory you can extend it to use other DB engines (and I bet someone will have a network-based one done a couple months after Tiger release).
The idea is that using both Core Data and Cocoa Bindings you can just model your data in the Xcode modeler (coming in Xcode 2.0). The model so created is stored in a XML file. You also get things like undo support, automatic
Re:SQLite part of OS... (Score:3, Informative)
In Tiger, Cocoa can manage your data objects themselves through the power of Core Data, providing automatic undo/redo support, additional user interface synchronization, and data consistency, correctness, and speed enhancements when it's time to write to disk.
Core Data gives you the ability to create a description of your data objects. Once defined, Core Data handles most of the heavy work of managing your data objects, both in-memory and on-disk. Th
Re:SQLite part of OS... (Score:4, Insightful)
Does BDB or GDBM replace MySQL? Does XML-files replace MySQL?
SQLite is only a tiny embeddable library providing a fast SQL-interface to your data-files. It is not meant to be used as a RDBMS replacement.
In contrast to MySQL it actually does support procedures and triggers though.
Re:SQLite part of OS... (Score:2)
Core Data is my favorite new Tiger feature. (Score:5, Interesting)
In Panther, Apple introduced "Bindings" which obviated the need to actually write most controller objects. Using bindings, the developer can associate object relationships (targets, and actions) between the View and Model layers by essentially using path names. This still enables a clean isolation between the interface and the application data layers, but requires little code (or sometimes none).
In Tiger they added "Core Data". This allows the developer to describe their model data objects, and the object relationships. At run time, using this model description, the model objects are associated with serialized objects on disk in:
XML file format
binary file format
SQLite-based database format
This repository of frozen objects is lazily loaded, and only those objects which are actually required are unarchived and made live. Think NeXT EOF redux, but easier and not tied to WebObjects.
XCode is integrated with a graphical display that lets you explore the object model graph, and also graph the layout of your source code.
This stuff is very sweet. I've been playing with it off and on, and definitely miss Tiger whenever I need to boot back into Panther. (Yes, it's a legal copy. No I won't break my NDA.)
Re:Core Data is my favorite new Tiger feature. (Score:2)
EOF was never "tied" to WebObjects during the ObjC days. EOF was always available to any application interested in it's power. It was only later when we merged with Apple that it got a back seat and rerouted to WOF, specifically.
Afterall, when we pulled legacy support for Openstep 4.2 there was no need for EOF support either as a standalone.
Personally, I hope the two interns who invented EOF at NeXT, and later founded RunningStart, are working with Apple once again.
Interns? Invented? (Score:2)
NeXT thought it was a great idea, ran with it, and created EOF. Which was better than Swiss Bank's implementation, but for which they also wanted a princely sum. Many rich customers went ahead and bought, but Swiss Bank, despite being among the richest of NeXT's clients, was so angry at being charged out the wazoo for what
IonYz scrolls to bottom of the article... (Score:1)
Re:IonYz scrolls to bottom of the article... (Score:1)
NOTE: This is not a flame or off-topic rant (Score:2)
Re:NOTE: This is not a flame or off-topic rant (Score:2)
Windows is playing around with VMware type solutions for this.
Re:NOTE: This is not a flame or off-topic rant (Score:2)
I think people are underestimating spotlight... (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:I think people are underestimating spotlight... (Score:2)
Re:I think people are underestimating spotlight... (Score:1)
FTA:
"mdfind" is "find", except meta-data instead of file name. It will find any file containing the word "Tiger" and copy it off to a backup drive. You can replace "Tiger" with
and backup any HQ video or image file.I need this feature now!
Re:I think people are underestimating spotlight... (Score:2)
> revolutionise the way people manage files. I
Agreed. I think that the Smart Folders idea is sorely needed. One thing they keep showing in the demos is "recently viewed" (as opposed to recently created or recently modified). I hope I'm reading this functionality correctly, because that's a feature that's needed.
In iTunes we can find a song by when it was added or when it was last played. However, in Address Book we can only see a card that was
Autovectorization? (Score:4, Informative)
Along with improvements to the GUI, Xcode 2.0 will ship with GCC 4.0 which features a new C++ Parser and several code generation improvements including auto-vectorization. While hand-tuning Velocity Engine code can get you the maximum performance from the G4 and G5 processors, now you can have GCC do the heavy lifting for you. You'll benefit from this without any extra effort, with auto-vectorization in GCC bringing anywhere between a 4X and 14X performance improvement to code that works with arrays of data.
AltiVec support without having to write any optimized code...sounds like a winner to me.
Re:Autovectorization? (Score:4, Interesting)
I do a lot of work requiring realistic physics simulation ( using the Open Dynamics Engine ) -- I don't have the expertise or knowledge to attempt to vectorize ODE, nor do I have the time ( since my work is *using* the engine, not writing it. ). What I *do* know is that ODE, internally, does massive vector operations on float arrays ( float[4] vectors/quaternions, float[16] matices, etc etc ) and it clearly would benefit from SIMD optimizations. The trouble is, all the people who do know how to write such optimizations are on the x86 platform...
Anyway, my simulations are heavily CPU bound, and any improvements that can be had for "free" will make me happy as a clam.
No Python with Dashboard? (Score:1, Troll)
Any UNIX command or script, including those written in sh, tcsh, bash, tcl, Perl, or Ruby as well as AppleScript, can be accessed from the widget object.
Is Apple just being an "insensitive clod" here, or what seems to be the problem?
Re: (Score:2, Informative)
Re:No Python with Dashboard? (Score:3, Informative)
No problem with calling a Python script from that.
Re:Anyone else worried (Score:2, Interesting)
The potential exists, but in order for the widget to do damage it would have to be downloaded and installed by the user, like any other trojan horse. If the widget wants to do anything outside of your home directory, the user will get a dialogue asking for an admin password.
This will require a certain level of responsibility from users, but no more so than any compiled program.
Then again, maki