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Thread: The Snow Leopard Thread [Wishlist]

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    The Snow Leopard Thread [Wishlist]

    Us Mac users are a bit thin on the ground, so I thought I'd start up this thread to see if it generates any interest! I want to point out that I'm not your typical Mac fan(boy). I use PCs at work and at home (Windows at work, Linux at home). My motto has always been "the right tool for the right job". Sorry Mac fans, Macs are not the right tool for gaming (unless you only like WoW) but make fairly good servers (though software choice is a bit limited compared to Linux) and development machines. Windows is not the right tool for hassle-free computing, but is fairly nice for mainstream development and excels for gaming! Linux is not the right tool for anything but being a server or coding server applications for. Now that I've got that off my chest... What are people's wishes for Snow Leopard? I have a few:

    • A finder that doesn't suck. Seriously has anyone tried opening a networked device with more shares available than can fit in the window? The scroll bar doesn't appear! I PRAY that this is fixed in the next release. Currently you have to resize the window by at least 1 pixel to get it to redraw.

    • Some uniformity in the UI. I loved how when they released Leopard they claimed that the UI had been brought into total uniformity... then showed a screenshot of iTunes looking totally different to any other Apple application. I guess the same goes with all of the Pro tools.

    • Speed and stability increases. I'm not saying Leopard is slow or unreliable, but I think lately Apple has definitely been sacrificing speed to hit deadlines and to make things look pretty. I remember Tiger being faster than Leopard.

    • Faster installation times. I know I've only ever installed OS X a handful of times (seriously, I can probably count it on one hand) in 3-4 years because installations just don't die. However, when you do have to reinstall (especially over the air on a MacBook Air) you may as well walk away for a while, because it's taking about 1h30m whether you like it or not!

    • Easier development. Yes, Apple, you have awesome libraries and a really powerful language. However, it's nowhere near as easy to pick up as Java or even, dare I say it, .NET I do find it a bit baffling as to why Apple just wont let Objective-C die and embrace more mainstream, if not more modern, languages. Though I've put this in the list, I know it'll never happen!


    That's about it from me for now. If I think of anything else, I'll add it!

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    Re: The Snow Leopard Thread [Wishlist]

    I don't really have anything to add to that wish list since although I played with Leopard recently I haven't really used a Mac since System 7.6.

    I do think that Apple has lost the plot since the 1990s. If you compare System 7.0 vs Windows 3.x or even Win95 vs System7.x in general, Apple was way ahead for usability and UI but since then?

    Seems a lot of their recent effort is focused on being 'cool'.

    Also, despite being so heavily indebted to BSD and open source they sure are the most proprietary company around - well them and Sony - and they seem to give very little back to the open-source community.

    Macs were always easy to network though (AppleTalk etc) but I think for any complex network it really comes down to either Linux or Windows Server. Windows is of course easier to set up but the cost of licences are quite high. The thing with Linux is that almost all the high-end features for which MS and Apple charge so much extra are free. For instance, aside from protecting Microsoft's revenue is there any good reason why Windows Home cannot connect to domain?


    Krish

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    Re: The Snow Leopard Thread [Wishlist]

    Quote Originally Posted by ShALLaX View Post
    • Easier development. Yes, Apple, you have awesome libraries and a really powerful language. However, it's nowhere near as easy to pick up as Java or even, dare I say it, .NET I do find it a bit baffling as to why Apple just wont let Objective-C die and embrace more mainstream, if not more modern, languages. Though I've put this in the list, I know it'll never happen!

    From what I've read a lot of your list is being targeted. I've hated the Finder since it the 10.0 betas perhaps the Cocoa re-write will improve its performance. Then again I'll just stick to the Terminal. Way faster to navigate there.

    However, as a developer (mainly non-osx, Java focused) I agree Objective-C isn't that easy to pickup but Java and .NET/Mono are never going to be first class citizens for OS development. Objective-C is really nice compared to C/C++. I think the biggest let down for development is their XCode IDE. Sure it is much harder to provide smart auto completion. Using IDEA's Intelij on a day to day basis has just spoilt me. Full auto completion of Java methods/objects is just so nice to have. The only downside to it is that it make it too easy for inept people to write software. I would be willing to put good money on a direct correlation between the level of automation provided by the IDE and the amount of crap/buggy software out there.

    Take the time to learn the libraries and develop a few apps. Once you get past the syntax of Objective-c and back in the habit of referring to the docs until you get the common APIs in your head then it really is a nice language.

    Oh my this seems to have gone all preachy/ranty must have had some pent up support rage. Apologies. But seriously "more mainstream"!! Objective-C is C with memory management and with Apple's proper MVC model a software engineers dream!

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    Re: The Snow Leopard Thread [Wishlist]

    I don't know... I quite like Xcode. However, I agree entirely with what you say about making software too easy to write. I use this as an argument with .NET developers. Microsoft makes things too easy (so easy that you don't really need to understand what you're doing). This leads to terrible software!

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    Re: The Snow Leopard Thread [Wishlist]

    Quote Originally Posted by ShALLaX View Post
    • Easier development. Yes, Apple, you have awesome libraries and a really powerful language. However, it's nowhere near as easy to pick up as Java or even, dare I say it, .NET I do find it a bit baffling as to why Apple just wont let Objective-C die and embrace more mainstream, if not more modern, languages. Though I've put this in the list, I know it'll never happen!
    I've got to take issue with this. I spent my first 3 years at Uni using C and C++, as mandated by the lecturers/modules. Discovering Obj-C in my final year was a god-send.

    Once you understand the syntax and core principles it's just as powerful as C++ with STL/Boost and more modern languages such as C#.net and Java.

    However, unlike those languages it feels well engineered and consistent; it's strict in the right areas (MVC and UI) and dynamic where it can be (typing and message passing). To quote ritchiem up there, it's an engineer's dream.

    What really needs to change is XCode, which is a glorified text editor. VS2008 wins hands down for functionality and helpfulness, especially with intellisense.

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