5 ms·

Every modern macOS computer is a continuation of the NeXT lineage.

by kozak 3y ago

shagie 3y ago
Documentation for the NSObject objective C class : http://www.nextcomputers.org/NeXTfiles/Docs/NeXTStep/3.3/nd/Foundation/Classes/NSObject.htmld/index.html http://www.nextcomputers.org/NeXTfiles/Docs/NeXTStep/3.3/nd/... Many of the classes in http://www.nextcomputers.org/NeXTfiles/Docs/NeXTStep/3.3/nd/Foundation/Classes/ http://www.nextcomputers.org/NeXTfiles/Docs/NeXTStep/3.3/nd/... would likely still be familiar.
- pjmlp 3y ago
  The userspace C++ framework for drivers replacing IO Kit, is called DriverKit, which happens to be an homage to the Objective-C framework for writing drivers in NeXTSTEP.
hinkley 3y ago
I had to use Macs in college. They crashed just as bad as the PCs. I worked with a Mac programmer. He explained in bits and bobs all of the things he had to take care of to make a program look like it was doing four things at the same time. Oof. My Mac friends kept trying to get me to switch. I said I'd switch when it got a real OS. Enter OS X. On first boot my first thought was, "This is a NeXT with the dock rotated 90º clockwise" I was less wrong about that than I expected.
- sixothree 3y ago
  I remember the 90's as the era of instability in desktop computing.
  - xp84 3y ago
    It really was (though I can't speak for the people working on NeXT boxes and Sun Workstations, etc). It wasn't really a matter of if a given computer would become unstable and crash every day, but how many times and how much you would lose. Somehow I still developed a liking for computers, but even with the incredible increase in complexity which works against it, a $30 prepaid Android burner phone today is more stable and reliable (though it isn't more fast and responsive) than any Mac or PC introduced in the 90s.
    - PlunderBunny 3y ago
      Like many that lived through (survived?) that era of computing, I still periodically press command-S by reflex, without being consciously aware that I'm doing it.
    - hinkley 3y ago
      If you had accounts on the NeXT machines, you wanted to work on your papers there, because it was much less likely to crash and take hours of work with it.
- ylee 3y ago
  >I had to use Macs in college. They crashed just as bad as the PCs. I also used Macs a lot in college, and had the same experience. People who never used pre-Unix MacOS have no idea how unreliable it was. Windows 95 and 98 weren't great, but there was at least some hope of killing an errant application and continuing on. System 7? No hope whatsoever. It didn't help that Mosaic (and Netscape) wasn't very reliable regardless of platform, but pre-Unix MacOS's own failings made things that much worse for using the emerging WWW. >Enter OS X. On first boot my first thought was, "This is a NeXT with the dock rotated 90º clockwise" I was less wrong about that than I expected. I also used (and liked) NeXT machines in college, but not nearly as often as the other platforms; by the time I got to them, they had been relegated to running helpdesk-client software. I first tried out OS X in 2003. I've been using Linux at home since 1995 and had tried every available desktop: CDE, KDE, Gnome, Enlightenment (The horror .. the horror ...), Window Maker/AfterStep, fvwm, and even older ones like Motif and twm. OS X was a revelation. I still use Linux as a server, but for a Unixlike desktop that actually works and runs a lot of applications, OS X is it. Period. (I wrote the above on Slashdot ten years ago <https://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=2940345&cid=40457103 https://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=2940345&cid=40457103>. I see no need for changes.)
jimbokun 3y ago
And iOS device!
WillAdams 3y ago
Yes, but we are missing: - vertical main menu - pop up main menu under right-mouse button - Shelf - Workspace as native app (instead it was re-written in Carbon) - robust support for Services I'd give my interest in Hell for a way to install Mac OS X so that only Cocoa apps were loaded/available.

Every modern macOS computer is a continuation of the NeXT lineage.

by kozak 3y ago

Every modern macOS computer is a continuation of the NeXT lineage.

Documentation for the NSObject objective C class : http://www.nextcomputers.org/NeXTfiles/Docs/NeXTStep/3.3/nd/Foundation/Classes/NSObject.htmld/index.html http://www.nextcomputers.org/NeXTfiles/Docs/NeXTStep/3.3/nd/... Many of the classes in http://www.nextcomputers.org/NeXTfiles/Docs/NeXTStep/3.3/nd/Foundation/Classes/ http://www.nextcomputers.org/NeXTfiles/Docs/NeXTStep/3.3/nd/... would likely still be familiar.

pjmlp 3y ago
The userspace C++ framework for drivers replacing IO Kit, is called DriverKit, which happens to be an homage to the Objective-C framework for writing drivers in NeXTSTEP.

hinkley 3y ago

I had to use Macs in college. They crashed just as bad as the PCs. I worked with a Mac programmer. He explained in bits and bobs all of the things he had to take care of to make a program look like it was doing four things at the same time. Oof. My Mac friends kept trying to get me to switch. I said I'd switch when it got a real OS. Enter OS X. On first boot my first thought was, "This is a NeXT with the dock rotated 90º clockwise" I was less wrong about that than I expected.

sixothree 3y ago
I remember the 90's as the era of instability in desktop computing.
- xp84 3y ago
  It really was (though I can't speak for the people working on NeXT boxes and Sun Workstations, etc). It wasn't really a matter of if a given computer would become unstable and crash every day, but how many times and how much you would lose. Somehow I still developed a liking for computers, but even with the incredible increase in complexity which works against it, a $30 prepaid Android burner phone today is more stable and reliable (though it isn't more fast and responsive) than any Mac or PC introduced in the 90s.
  - PlunderBunny 3y ago
    Like many that lived through (survived?) that era of computing, I still periodically press command-S by reflex, without being consciously aware that I'm doing it.
  - hinkley 3y ago
    If you had accounts on the NeXT machines, you wanted to work on your papers there, because it was much less likely to crash and take hours of work with it.
ylee 3y ago
>I had to use Macs in college. They crashed just as bad as the PCs. I also used Macs a lot in college, and had the same experience. People who never used pre-Unix MacOS have no idea how unreliable it was. Windows 95 and 98 weren't great, but there was at least some hope of killing an errant application and continuing on. System 7? No hope whatsoever. It didn't help that Mosaic (and Netscape) wasn't very reliable regardless of platform, but pre-Unix MacOS's own failings made things that much worse for using the emerging WWW. >Enter OS X. On first boot my first thought was, "This is a NeXT with the dock rotated 90º clockwise" I was less wrong about that than I expected. I also used (and liked) NeXT machines in college, but not nearly as often as the other platforms; by the time I got to them, they had been relegated to running helpdesk-client software. I first tried out OS X in 2003. I've been using Linux at home since 1995 and had tried every available desktop: CDE, KDE, Gnome, Enlightenment (The horror .. the horror ...), Window Maker/AfterStep, fvwm, and even older ones like Motif and twm. OS X was a revelation. I still use Linux as a server, but for a Unixlike desktop that actually works and runs a lot of applications, OS X is it. Period. (I wrote the above on Slashdot ten years ago <https://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=2940345&cid=40457103 https://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=2940345&cid=40457103>. I see no need for changes.)

jimbokun 3y ago

And iOS device!

WillAdams 3y ago

Yes, but we are missing: - vertical main menu - pop up main menu under right-mouse button - Shelf - Workspace as native app (instead it was re-written in Carbon) - robust support for Services I'd give my interest in Hell for a way to install Mac OS X so that only Cocoa apps were loaded/available.