Carbon vs Cocoa

Dragonlady8 · Black Widow Joined: 27 Aug 2004 Posts: 9198

Yeah I know it's going to be a PC vs Mac deal , but what caused Apple to drop format?
CS4 will be 64bit but for Windows only because of the above.
Can someone put it in much simpler terms "Other than Mac sucks"

Discuss.

scott a · Ladies Man Joined: 13 Jan 2003 Posts: 9810

The difference is that Carbon apps suck and aren't supported by MultiClutch, which allows me to customize my multitouch trackpad to suit the program. I basically just wanted to be able to swipe to the left with two fingers and have it undo the last action (among other things). So Adobe said they'd switch everything over to Cocoa for me. Sorry for the inconvenience.

Dragonlady8 · Black Widow Joined: 27 Aug 2004 Posts: 9198

scott a, Butthead!

I know that a Beta version of Lightroom just became available as that was mentioned at the conference.
What was the reason for Apple dumping Carbon. Adobe and Apple had been working together for years and then to all of a sudden Apple crapping on Adobe's plate??

scott a · Ladies Man Joined: 13 Jan 2003 Posts: 9810

I honestly have no clue. I'm still figuring things out here but what I said earlier about the MultiClutch is accurate. If I had to guess, it'd be that carbon has more to do with 32 bit and cocoa is a newer generation of carbon and works more with the 64 bit side of things. That might explain why Firefox 3 beta (perhaps rewritten as cocoa?) works with MultiClutch and Firefox 2 (perhaps carbon?) will NOT work with MultiClutch at ALL. But again, I honestly don't know anything more than this. I've only had my MBP for a few weeks now so I'm still kinda getting situated with what apps I need/want/etc. I haven't had enough time to dive super deep into the OS to learn it's quirks and quick keys and shortcuts (and carbon/cocoa issue).

But as you mentioned on WW, the vast majority of people in "the industry" are using Macs, so I highly doubt that Adobe is doing this "just because." I'm sure it's a necessary step of some kind that Adobe is taking in order to keep up with the way that Macs are evolving (read: 32bit to 64bit).

Dragonlady8 · Black Widow Joined: 27 Aug 2004 Posts: 9198

I thought this was interesting - (considering that Adobe PS will be coming out in 64 bit)

http://www.macrumors.com/2008/06/04/mac-os-x-10-6-called-snow-leopard-all-cocoa/

Arstechnica reports on more details about the next major version of Mac OS X (10.6). According to the news site, the next version of Mac OS X will indeed be an Intel-only release and that it is code named "Snow Leopard".

Ars can also confirm the expected release target of January 2009 as well as a focus on speed and stability:
Snow Leopard is currently on track to come out during next January's Macworld, and it will not contain major OS changes. Instead, the release is heavily focused on performance and nailing down speed and stability.

The author points to future mobile devices as the driving force behind this focus on performance and stability. There is also a suggestion that Apple may move Mac OS X 10.6 to "Cocoa-only", but the full meaning of this remains vague:
There may be some disagreement here as to what exactly "Cocoa-only" means, so take that into account when thinking about this. For example, Apple may only axe Carbon UI stuff.

Update: John Gruber clarifies that "pure Cocoa" does not have anything to do with dropping Carbon from the OS.