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Elegy for the Native Mac App: Remembering the Boom and Bust of the Mac Platform

35 points by CharlesW 3y ago

warning26 3y ago
I still have a soft spot for the "brushed metal" appearance available in Mac OS 10.4. It may have been over the top, but it looked so cool. And it did tricks that made it very difficult to replicate on other platforms of the time, including multiple transparent layers and dynamic gradients to create fake "lighting" effects on the metal. One of these days I need to put together a realistic CSS take on it; it should be doable now, but it certainly wasn't in 2006.
- vintagedave 3y ago
  I didn’t know about the tricks it used. As a Mac user (not developer) then I assumed it was just a texture. And I wouldn’t have expected many transparent layers or gradients to be performant. Do you have any more info? It’s hard to find technical content from those days on the net now. But I have a soft spot for the brushed metal look too and so I’m curious to learn more about it.
lapcat 3y ago
See also "On Native Mac Apps" by indie developer Steve Harris: https://reinventedsoftware.com/blog/2023/06/24/on-native-mac-apps/ https://reinventedsoftware.com/blog/2023/06/24/on-native-mac...
exabrial 3y ago
I really miss Pixelmator 1.0's UI. I wish I had a modern IDE that was fully modal. Why? Multiple screens.
ilrwbwrkhv 3y ago
The modern apps such as vs code, slack are such an eyesore vs even that tiny Twitter app in the article. I really hope bespoke, mac apps make a comeback.
pacifika 3y ago
Apple is more focused on what software you can’t make these days and taking away control from software developers. One can’t have creativity when their ideas are controlled. If they want to foster ideas then they need to offer options. Also where is user customisation, doesn’t Apple value diversity in how its ecosystem is used? Ideas such as: Imagine a software catalog instead of a store and an update api for all software. Tools that have decent interop and automation. Then I realise I’m describing Linux, thus I switched.
- lockhouse 3y ago
  What are you talking about? Name one thing Apple has taken away from macOS developers? You can still run software that you download from the internet that hasn’t been notarized. Apple just ensures that you won’t do this by accident since it’s a security risk.

35 points by CharlesW 3y ago

I still have a soft spot for the "brushed metal" appearance available in Mac OS 10.4. It may have been over the top, but it looked so cool. And it did tricks that made it very difficult to replicate on other platforms of the time, including multiple transparent layers and dynamic gradients to create fake "lighting" effects on the metal. One of these days I need to put together a realistic CSS take on it; it should be doable now, but it certainly wasn't in 2006.

vintagedave 3y ago
I didn’t know about the tricks it used. As a Mac user (not developer) then I assumed it was just a texture. And I wouldn’t have expected many transparent layers or gradients to be performant. Do you have any more info? It’s hard to find technical content from those days on the net now. But I have a soft spot for the brushed metal look too and so I’m curious to learn more about it.

lapcat 3y ago

See also "On Native Mac Apps" by indie developer Steve Harris: https://reinventedsoftware.com/blog/2023/06/24/on-native-mac-apps/ https://reinventedsoftware.com/blog/2023/06/24/on-native-mac...

exabrial 3y ago

I really miss Pixelmator 1.0's UI. I wish I had a modern IDE that was fully modal. Why? Multiple screens.

ilrwbwrkhv 3y ago

The modern apps such as vs code, slack are such an eyesore vs even that tiny Twitter app in the article. I really hope bespoke, mac apps make a comeback.

pacifika 3y ago

Apple is more focused on what software you can’t make these days and taking away control from software developers. One can’t have creativity when their ideas are controlled. If they want to foster ideas then they need to offer options. Also where is user customisation, doesn’t Apple value diversity in how its ecosystem is used? Ideas such as: Imagine a software catalog instead of a store and an update api for all software. Tools that have decent interop and automation. Then I realise I’m describing Linux, thus I switched.

lockhouse 3y ago
What are you talking about? Name one thing Apple has taken away from macOS developers? You can still run software that you download from the internet that hasn’t been notarized. Apple just ensures that you won’t do this by accident since it’s a security risk.