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Mac OS X Buzzwords Demystified

Mac OS X introduces lots of new innovative features, wrapped up in a simple and elegant design. Almost as important, it is fully 'buzzword compliant' — meeting, and exceeding, the requirements of a super-modern operating system. This document helps to demystify some of the buzzwords you'll find in, and around, Mac OS X — so you’ll know your Cocoa from your Java...

Buzzwords demystified

Buzzwords are impressive-sounding words and phrases, usually related to a particular industry, which are frequently dropped into conversation by people who desperately want to impress — or, worse, alienate — others.

This document demystifies some of the more popular buzzwords surrounding Mac OS X, and are to be used for information only: they are not to be used to alienate, humiliate, or otherwise offend your friends and colleagues.

Apache

Industry-standard software for serving websites, comes built-in to Mac OS X. An open-source project, apache gets its name from being a collection of patches — software fixes — to a previous web server project.

API

Application Program Interface — the 'toolbox' that developers can build upon, defines the requests an application developer can make of the operating system or another application.

Apple

The round, fleshy fruit of the rosaceous tree PyrusMalus.

Aqua

Apple's new interface for Mac OS X, with a simple and elegant design. Uses expressive icons, vibrant colour, and fluid motion. If you find the colours distracting, there is a Graphite option available. Aqua replaces the Platinum interface that was used in Mac OS 9.

BSD

Berkeley Software Distribution — refers to the particular version of UNIX operating system.

C

A widely-used programming language. Many programmers like it because it is fairly low-level, and allows them to do 'dangerous' things. Curiously enough, other programmers hate it for exactly the same reasons. Also the third letter of the English alphabet, and the only letter to have a programming language named after it.

C++

An object-oriented version of C. The '++' means 'add one', so the name represents 'one better than C'. Strangely, no-one thought that 'one better than C' was the letter D.

Carbon

A subset of the original Macintosh 'toolbox', allows developers to convert Classic applications to run natively on Mac OS X. Not as much work as completely rewriting from scratch, but not always as simple as 'a minor tune-up' as it is often described...

Classic

The Classic Compatibility Environment runs a version of Mac OS 9.1, so Classic applications (non-Carbon, non-Cocoa) can still run. Applications that 'touch' hardware — such as scanner drivers, CD writers, etc — probably won’t work in the Classic Environment at the moment, so you may have to restart with Mac OS 9 to use those applications.

Cocoa

Highly advanced 'toolbox' for developers, promoted by Apple as the best way to create new applications for Mac OS X. Cocoa applications can be developed in Java, which — like Cocoa, is also the name of a hot drink.

ColorSync

Apple's colour management technology, provides consistent, accurate colour. One of many reasons why graphic designers prefer to work on Macs. Allows calibration for devices such as scanners, monitors, and printers.

Darwin

The desktop is the backmost thing on your screen — the menu bar, dock, and all of your windows sit on top of the desktop. You can customise the desktop with your own choice of desktop picture. Some Mac users like to leave lots of things — files and folders — on the desktop. Up to Mac OS 9, hard disks and the trash always used to live on the desktop, which meant they were frequently obscured. Mac OS X allows you to choose whether you want to show disks on the desktop or not.

Desktop

The desktop is the backmost thing on your screen — the menu bar, dock, and all of your windows sit on top of the desktop. You can customise the desktop with your own choice of desktop picture. Some Mac users like to leave lots of things — files and folders — on the desktop. Up to Mac OS 9, hard disks and the trash always used to live on the desktop, which meant they were frequently obscured. Mac OS X allows you to choose whether you want to show disks on the desktop or not.

Dock

Strip along the bottom of the Mac OS X desktop, that helps to manage applications, documents, and minimised windows. Replaces much of the functionality of the application menu in Mac OS 9, and the little-used Launcher. The source of endless debate, you'll either love or hate the dock. There are lots of nice touches, such as pop-up menus on dock items, that make the dock a lot more functional and useful.

Docklet

A docklet is a small application that lives in the dock, and presents a pop-up menu of various options. For example, the Displays docklet has a pop-up menu that allows you to change monitor resolution. These replicate some of the controls that used to be available in the Control Strip in Mac OS 9.

Finder

File navigation, combines some of the traditional ways of managing files from Mac OS 9, with some new techniques such as the column view. Customisable toolbar permits quick and easy access to frequently used applications and tools.

The column view avoids having lots of windows open as you navigate.

Firewire

Technology for connecting external devices, particularly hard disks and digital video cameras. Firewire, known as iLink on Sony products, is faster than USB for moving large amounts of data.

Genie effect

The 'swooshing' effect of windows minimising into and out of the dock. Unbelievably cool.

iDisk

Web storage space for .Mac subscribers. Your iDisk can be mounted on the desktop like a hard disk, making it easy to share files over the internet, creating your own public folder for others to access. iDisk support is built into Mac OS X.

Java

Programming language from Sun, expressly designed for the internet, and for distributed environments. Designed to be simpler to use than other programming languages, it enforces an object-oriented programming model. Java applications ought to be able to run on any platform. Mac OS X is the only high-volume desktop OS to include Java 2 Standard Edition 1.3, and Java applications on Mac OS X can take advantage of the Aqua appearance — previously, Java applications on the Mac often looked and felt like second-class citizens.

.Mac

.Mac is a collection of internet tools — iDisk, Webmail, HomePage, backup, iCards and Anti-Virus — from Apple. .Mac replaces iTools, and is now available on a subscription basis.

Mac OS X

Apple's latest version of the Mac OS — The power of UNIX with the simplicity and elegance of Macintosh. The 'X' is pronounced 'ten', as in the Roman numeral — this is very important if you don’t want people to laugh at you. The latest version is Mac OS X 10.2 Jaguar.

Mac OS X Server

Mac OS X Server provides tools for file sharing, web serving, network administration, and Macintosh Manager and replaces the previous AppleShare product, providing greater functionality and reliability, but with the same ease of administration.

Macintosh Manager

Server software to allow network-wide settings to be made to control access to applications, file servers, and printers.

NeXT

Company formed by Steve Jobs, after his departure from Apple in 1985. NeXT created the NeXT cube — which didn’t sell terribly well but did look cool — and the 'ahead of its time' NextStep, which then became OpenStep. The 'ahead of its time' part turned out largely to be true, as Apple bought NeXT in 1996 — and got Steve Jobs as iCEO into the bargain — and used much of the underlying technology in Mac OS X.

Objective-C

A programming language, which added support for object-oriented programming to the already popular C programming language. Used exclusively by NeXT, Cocoa applications can be written in Objective-C as well as Java, although both sides will endlessly argue why their particular language is better.

OpenGL

Industry-standard 3D graphics library, used extensively for professional 3D-based applications, and industry-leading games.

OS

An OS, or operating system, is what you have to interact with before you can interact with your applications and get any real work done. The Mac OS has always been designed to make this task a lot simpler and more fun than other operating systems — Mac OS X extends this ease-of-use and functionality.

PDF

Adobe’s Portable Document Format has quickly become a defacto-standard for interchanging documents on the internet. PDF support is built-in to Mac OS X.

Platinum

The interface style from Mac OS 9 — grayscale, slightly 3-dimensional feel. Looks horribly dated and flat when compared to Aqua. Applications running in the Classic environment will still have Platinum appearance.

Preemptive Multitasking

The ability for the operating system to perform more than one task at a time. Mac OS 9 used co-operative multitasking, which relied on applications being well-behaved.

Protected Memory

Protected memory prevents a badly-behaved application from bringing down other applications or the operating system itself. If an application crashes you can continue working with the other applications, without having to restart. One exception to this involves Classic applications: if one Classic application quits, it may affect other running Classic applications.

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PyrusMalus design, develop, and deliver innovative software solutions, and interactive new media experiences.

Quartz

Apple's new 2D graphics library. Delivers on-the-fly rendering of effects such as anti-aliasing and compositing. Built-in support for PDF means the ability to work with PDF data with any application built for Mac OS X. Provides support for TrueType, Type 1, and OpenType fonts; and also supports ColorSync.

QuickTime

QuickTime 6 is the premier technology for digital media. Features tools for the creation and playback of digital media, with support for interactivity — including Flash 5 — and Internet streaming of audio and video. QuickTime VR features cubic VR, for 360° worlds.

Sheets

Sheets replace dialogs in certain areas — particularly the Save panel — and are attached to the window they refer to, which helps to minimize confusion when working with multiple windows.

Symmetric Multiprocessing

The ability to take advantage of multiple processors. Unlike Mac OS 9 which required custom-written applications to take advantage of multiple processors, Mac OS X will automatically take advantage of them.

TCP/IP

Transfer Control Protocol / Internet Protocol. The protocol used to communicate over the internet.

Terminal

The Terminal application in Mac OS X gives you access to the command-line, a thought that will bring pleasure to UNIX-savvy users.

Traffic Lights

The new arrangement of Close, Minimize and Zoom buttons in the top-left corner of windows. The red button closes the window. If there is a dot inside this button it indicates that the document has unsaved changes, and a sheet will appear on closing to allow you to save. The yellow button shrinks the window into the dock, using the genie effect. The green button zooms the window in size.

Traffic lights are also a real-world means of controlling road traffic.

Unicode

A system for working with the diverse written languages of the world, supporting up to thousands of characters. Mac OS X has greater support for multiple languages than any other operating system, and applications that take advantage of Unicode will similarly benefit.

UNIX

Operating System that originated at Bell Labs in 1969 — almost pre-history for computing! Traditionally used mainly on workstations and on servers, it has been continually evolving and improving. Mac OS X now uses the UNIX-based Darwin at its core.

USB

Universal Serial Bus, used for connecting many commonly used peripheral devices such as scanners, inkjet printers and disk drives. Mac OS X comes with support for many inkjet printers from Canon, HP, and Epson already built in, and allows hot-plugging of devices without the need to restart.

WebObjects

Development and deployment software for internet, intranet, and e-commerce applications. A very flexible, scalable way to create database-driven network applications.

The ones that got away

There are many other technical buzzwords that didn't make this list — if you think there are any that deserve a place in the next update of Buzzwords Demystified, please let us know by emailing your suggestions to open-training@pyrusmalus.com