Mac OS X Unleashed

By John Ray and William C. Ray

• Table of Contents
  • Copyright
  • About the Author
  • Acknowledgments
  • Tell Us What You Think!
  • Introduction
  • Part I: Introduction to Mac OS X
  • Chapter 1. Mac OS X Component Architecture
    • Mac OS X Overview
    • Darwin
    • QuickTime
    • OpenGL: Open Graphics Language
    • Quartz
    • Classic
    • Carbon
    • Cocoa
    • Java 2
    • Aqua
    • Migration Issues
    • Summary
  • Chapter 2. Installing Mac OS X
  • Chapter 3. Mac OS X Basics
  • Chapter 4. The Finder: Working with Files and Applications
  • Chapter 5. Running Classic Mac OS Applications
  • Part II: Inside Mac OS X
  • Chapter 6. Native Utilities and Applications
  • Chapter 7. Internet Communications
  • Chapter 8. Installing Third-Party Applications
  • Part III: User-Level OS X Configuration
  • Chapter 9. Network Setup
  • Chapter 10. Printer and Font Management
  • Chapter 11. Additional System Components
  • Part IV: Introduction to BSD Applications
  • Chapter 12. Introducing the BSD Subsystem
  • Chapter 13. Common Unix Shell Commands: File Operations
  • Part V: Advanced Command-Line Concepts
  • Chapter 14. Advanced Shell Concepts and Commands
  • Chapter 15. Command-Line Applications and Application Suites
  • Chapter 16. Command-Line Software Installation
  • Chapter 17. Troubleshooting Software Installs, and Compiling and Debugging Manually
  • Chapter 18. Advanced Unix Shell Use: Configuration and Programming (Shell Scripting)
  • Part VI: Server/Network Administration
  • Chapter 19. X Window System Applications
  • Chapter 20. Command-Line Configuration and Administration
  • Chapter 21. AppleScript
  • Chapter 22. Perl Scripting and SQL Connectivity
  • Chapter 23. File and Resource Sharing with NetInfo
  • Chapter 24. User Management and Machine Clustering
  • Chapter 25. FTP Serving
  • Chapter 26. Remote Access and Administration
  • Chapter 27. Web Serving
  • Part VII: Server Health
  • Chapter 28. Web Programming
  • Chapter 29. Creating a Mail Server
  • Chapter 30. Accessing and Serving a Windows Network
  • Chapter 31. Server Security and Advanced Network Configuration
  • Chapter 32. System Maintenance
  • Appendix A. Command-Line Reference
  • Appendix B. Administration Reference

Carbon

Steve Jobs announced the addition of Carbon to the list of OS X technologies by stating that "all life is based on Carbon." As I've mentioned elsewhere in this chapter, Mac OS X was originally planned to be nothing more than a made-over version of the OpenStep operating system. When developers refused to bite at the new programming interface, it became obvious that there needed to be an easier transition for existing Mac developers.

Carbon is a rewriting of the existing Macintosh toolbox to take advantage of the new technologies in Mac OS X. It also removes routines that were rarely used and incompatible with an advanced operating system environment (such as direct access to system memory).

When an application is written in Carbon, it can run on both Mac OS X and on Mac OS 8/9 (with a free piece of software called CarbonLib installed). With a minimum amount of effort, a developer can take a piece of software that was written for early versions of Mac OS, update it to use Carbon, and end up with an application that runs natively in both OS X and Mac OS 8/9.

Figure 1.7 shows a popular development environment called RealBasic running on System 9.2. The same application is shown in Figure 1.8 under Mac OS X. Aside from the interface differences, they function identically and run from the same binary file.

Figure 1.7 This is RealBasic, running on Mac OS 9.2…

Figure 1.8 …and on Mac OS X!

As Steve Jobs hinted, Carbon is the basis for all current life on the Macintosh platform. Almost all existing applications can be ported to OS X using Carbon. This is not, however, the only way to build applications. OS X offers two other APIs: Cocoa and Java.

Share This