Full FeedStop freaking out about Cocoa Finder and apps in Snow Leopard
Attention everyone who is excited about the new Finder in Snow Leopard; it isn’t new, it will look pretty much the same, and you really won’t notice a difference. John Gruber put it best on Daring Fireball:
Cocoa is just an API. It is not some sort of magic technology where you just sprinkle a ton of square brackets in your source code and you instantly get a better UI.
What should you be expecting from Apple’s Cocoa-wrapped Finder and their push for developers to go Cocoa? No new looks, but, first and foremost, greater consistency. Currently, Mac OS X’s use of Carbon and Cocoa APIs mean that though apps may look like they are using the same interface elements, Carbon apps and Cocoa apps may not be sharing the same resources for scrollbars, indicators, buttons, and other system-standard elements. Try this: Open up a Finder window and a Safari windows side by side and make sure they both have scrollbars. Now click on the desktop to make both windows inactive. Check out the scrollbar arrows! You’ll see that in Safari, a Cocoa app, the scrollbars have dimmed, and in Finder, a Carbon app, they have not.
While this is just a small overlooked issue in Leopard, it illustrates that these two APIs have separate rules that must require separate upkeep to make them look identical. With Apple wrapping all its user apps in Cocoa and pushing all developers to do the same, it will be a lot easier for applications to incorporate system standard UI elements and features and have them tie in with all other apps on the platform. Part of what is great about the Mac is that most applications work the same. “Command +“ always opens Preferences, there is always a help menu, and the program menu, by and large, conrtains the same stuff. With Cocoa all across the board, this consistecy can make the Mac even easier than it is now.
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I think you mean “cmd+,“ for opening preferences in Cocoa apps. However, I think that command has to be set manually by the developer regardless of the application framework.
on November 1, 2008 at 03:55 AM - LINKYeah that was in there, it might have been accidentally edited. Cmd + , is the preferences shortcut.
on November 1, 2008 at 11:12 AM - LINK