- Adrian B
- Medlem ●
- Umeå
- 2005-09-28 11:25
John Siracusa, som inte behöver någon närmare introduktion nuförtiden, skriver om vad han tror kan bli Apples nästa Copland om de inte redan nu jobbar på att förhindra det:
För de som inte var med på den tiden så var Copland Apples kodnamn på projektet att lägga till två viktiga bitar till macens operativsystem, nämligen "memory protection" och "preemptive multitasking" (det förra går lätt att översätta, borde vara "skyddat minne", men det senare vågar jag mig inte på). Avsaknaden av dessa två finesser hade gjort att Apple hade halkat efter ordentlig när det gällde tekniska fördelar med operativsystemet. Siracusa skriver:
Classic Mac OS, as it's now known, had a decade-long honeymoon period. From its release in 1984 until 1994, it enjoyed a healthy development life that included several major revisions. But by 1994, the limitations of the OS were apparent to technophiles both inside and outside Apple. Sure, there was a lot of legacy cruft from the 80s in what was then known as System 7, but the real problems were more fundamental. These problems were so well-known that I'm sure anyone who was a "PC enthusiast" back in those days can rattle them off. Classic Mac OS lacked two very important features. Say it with me, folks:
[CENTER]Memory protection and preemptive multitasking[/CENTER]
In the early 1990s, Apple created the Copland project to add these two features to its operating system. Yes, a lot of new end-user features were going to be added as well, but memory protection and preemptive multitasking were Copland's raison d'être.
Funny story—as it turns out, it wasn't too easy to add these features to classic Mac OS while also maintaining backward compatibility with existing software. Oh, and did I mention that Apple switched processor architectures around this time as well? By 1996, the Copland project was dead, and classic Mac OS still lacked memory protection and preemptive multitasking.
Han fortsätter med att berätta vad han tror kommer att bli de två finesser som kan få dagens OS X på fall:
Here's what I think will quickly become Mac OS X's most glaring technical limitation, and what could lead to another Copland-style disaster if Apple isn't careful. Here's what Mac OS X is missing today that will be very difficult to add later without causing big problems for existing software and developers:
[CENTER]A memory-managed language and API[/CENTER]
Det hela är rätt tekniskt, men grundpoängen är att detta är bitar som Microsoft redan jobbat i flera år med och där de ligger miltals före Apple:
As was the case with the memory protection and preemptive multitasking crisis, Microsoft is way out ahead on the memory-managed language/API front. MS has its own new programming language, C#, and is working on an all-new memory-managed API to supplant the venerable C-based Win32 API. These are both projects that were started years ago, and that are finally coming to fruition today.
Jag är inte tillräckligt insatt i det tekniska bitarna för att förstå exakt vad finesserna innebär, men jag litar på att Siracusa vet vad han talar om. Om han har rätt hoppas jag Apple också jobbar på detta, så att OS X fortsätter att vara Världens Bästa OS även 2010.
Läs gärna kommentarerna efter texten också, där finns både de som håller med och de som inte gör det.