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Steve Jobs and the History of Cocoa
lopati writes "O'Reilly Network is running the first of a two part series about the intertwined histories of Apple and NeXT, and more specifically NeXTSTEP and the foundations of Cocoa. Nothing really new, but a nice overview of Mac OS X and a quick rundown of how old missteps (no pun intended :) evolved into the present product and company. I thought this was an interesting tidbit: 'But NeXT wasn't just a software company -- Jobs was also obsessed with building hardware. And this proved to be the company's downfall.' Ironic, because this has been Apple's salvation, or portentous, because history is doomed to repeat itself? You be the judge!"
Not a bad overview, although there are a few factual errors. For example, the article presents the development of the Macintosh as something which started in the wake of the failure of the Lisa in the market. This was not the case. There was actually considerable overlap in the development of the Lisa and the Macintosh.
Also, the article states, "NeXT solved this problem by basing its computer on Unix, the most reliable operating system that had ever been created." That sentence would be far more accurate if the word "desktop" were inserted in front of "operating system," as there are several server operating systems that are at least an order of magnitude more stable than any flavor of Unix, including IBM's VM and MVS systems, and Compaq's OpenVMS and NonStop NSK (originally from DIGITAL and Tandem respectively).
I thought this was an interesting tidbit: 'But NeXT wasn't just a software company -- Jobs was also obsessed with building hardware. And this proved to be the company's downfall.' Ironic, because this has been Apple's salvation, or portentous, because history is doomed to repeat itself? You be the judge!"
I very much doubt history is doomed to repeat itself.
One difference between NeXT boxes and pretty much
all Macs these days is installed user base. Don't
get me wrong, NeXT boxes were pretty kickass (and
they made a lovely fire, they were
trying to carve out a new market for themselves
while simultaneously competing with both Apple and
Microsoft.
The hardware was also woefully proprietary.
Macs are moving away from that proprietary stance,
most of the hardware is interchangeable with x86
analogues (IDE, USB, VGA, AGP etc...) Now, that's
not to say that there's nothing wrong with Apple
hardware, (slow FSB, pc100 RAM, Motorolla making
your CPUs) but the positions aren't exactly the
same. Say what you want about El Steve, he does at
least learn from some of his mistakes...
Mod me down and I will become more powerful than you can possibly imagine...
The greatest problem with NeXT hardware was how proprietary it was. Even the monitor interface was proprietary.
Compared to NeXT, the current Apple hardware is very standard. (Some people would disagree, but my TiPB has USB, FireWire, VGA, and a PC Card slot) There is also a substantially larger installed base of Apple hardware than there ever was of NeXT hardware.
I think that more people will be buying computers based on aesthetic style, rather than pure performance. While the currently available processors in Macs are less powerful than their PC cousins, I don't think that the difference is significant enough to matter. (The average user just doesn't need that much power)
I think the combination of NeXT Generation (apologies for the pun) software with nice looking Apple hardware is the most sexy general purpose computing option. (My PC loving boss is getting tempted by the new iMac even!)
PS I'll hear nothing about how many buttons the mouse has...that's been done to death!
Perhaps the most important is to accept standards: USB, IEEE1394, DVI, etc.
Yeah, and if there isn't a suitable standard, invent one!
(If you don't know the story, Apple invented Firewire about seven years ago. It later became an IEEE standard interface. Earlier this year, Apple won a technical Emmy for Firewire.)
I've seen hints of this thing called Cocoa.
How does it compare to, say, Qt, which, IIRC, can sit on top of X or Windows as the underlying layer? (Or has Apple simply invented a better lower layer than either of those and consider Cocoa on anything else to be a Stupid Idea?)
"Provided by the management for your protection."
Jobs was also obsessed with building hardware. And this proved to be the company's downfall.' Ironic, because this has been Apple's salvation...
Or you can argue that if Apple had only made the OS from the begining and never made hardware, they would be ones in the enviable position of being pretend-pursued by the Justice Department.
Lies about crimes
Apple was going to release a version of Cocoa for Windows called Yellowbox that would be free. That way developers could write Cocoa apps and be assured of a large target market by bundling Yellowbox for Windows customers. When the iMac started selling gangbusters, Apple quietly killed Yellowbox for marketing purposes.
Lies about crimes
If anyone knows much about his original NeXTSTEP Programming Book for NS3.x which of course all the Class calls were NXPort instead of NSPort, for example, will find it amusing how he basically updated the original TELOS published book for Cocoa.
The Table of Contents is practically identical.
It reminds me of those Calculus books where you have to buy edition 7 for the class though edition 6 is the same minus new color coding, ease of understanding theorems crap, and a few typos, including incorrect answers!
Simson's a very sound author and his book NeXSTEP Programming is excellent but it never ceases to amaze me that people get repeated material published at updated prices without expounding upon prior work.
If O'Reilly would lower the price a bit I'm sure it will sell well, still far behind Hillegass's Cocoa Programming by Addison Wesley- someone whose knowledge of Cocoa/Objective-C/Eiffel, etc and architecturing real-world projects, while working at NeXT, both as a consultant and top trainer makes his work first on my list of buys.
Now if I could only afford his training I'm sure he'll have some of his famous brownies for all his guests.