Slashdot Mirror
Brief Tutorial on Reverse Engineering Mac OS X
rjw57 writes "There is an article on OSNews I wrote about how the guy behind Desktop Manager goes about reverse engineering APIs from Mac OS X with a brand new example not revealed anywhere else. From the article: 'I am often asked in email how I uncovered the API calls I use in Desktop Manager which are, unfortunately, undocumented. This article aims to give a little insight into the techniques I use to reverse engineer Mac OS X in order to provide extra functionality to users and extra information to third-party developers. In this article all the utilities I use are a standard part of Mac OS X's developer tools which are freely available.'"
Great example of apples practice of breaking API's leaving developers out of the loop
It's an undocumented, unsupported API; that's what the article is about. What broken APIs were you thinking of? Carbon took over most of the OS 9 ones (apart from some clearly documented exceptions).
If you had read the article you might actually have had something useful to say.
The story you linked to is about copyright infringement, not reverse engineering. It has nothing to do with TFA. Apple is not encrypting their undocumented code, so it has nothing to do with the DMCA. Reverse engineering is not necessarily banned by the DMCA; in fact, reverse engineering for interoperability is specifically exempt from it.
English is easier said than done.
Keep in mind, that once an API is documented, then Apple is committed to supporting it. If a method or function is not documented, then it can change and break your app with any release, be it a software update, a security update, etc.
-jcr
The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
I know that it's fun to pick apart the framework code, make guesses as to what it's doing and how, and write code that exploits it in some way, but don't, don't, don't write a commercial product that depends on what you discover by this kind of spelunking, unless you are fully prepared to deal with the consequences of it breaking at any software update.
If your users call Apple because your program broke, Applecare will tell them to talk to you about it. If you ask Apple for help with an undocumented API, your request will be declined.
-jcr
The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
Keynote uses the supported OpenGL full-screen mode. There is sample code at developer.apple.com that shows how to do full-screen GL contexts.
-jcr
The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
iTunes, for example, and the whole brushed metal is basicly an excuse for making cool-looking apps. I like brushed metal, but apple has changed the HIG to morph around what they think looks best. There really should only be 1 window gui, aqua.
Brushed metal was originally applied to windows that simulated real world devices. iTunes=stereo. DVD Player=TV+DVD player. Later on it was applied to most of the interface and I for one am very glad. It provides better contrast with window contents. Finder windows have a default white background as do many text style documents like PDFs, Word files, etc. Most editors and terminal windows are best with white text on a black background for maximum contrast with minimal eyestrain. This means about half my windows are primarily white and half are primarily black. Now what color is halfway between white and black, does not grab the eye, and does not clash with any other color? Gee that would be only one...gray. Add a little texture and you get the brushed metal look. Apple designers probably realized why people like the brushed metal, but most people just like it because it looks good. It looks good because it is pretty much the best color you can use from a UI design perspective.