MacCoder by Retrologic http://www.retrologic.com/maccoder/ MacCoder, news for Mac OS X developers. en-us Copyright 2005 Retrologic Systems MacCoder http://www.retrologic.com/maccoder/images/maccoder.tiff http://www.retrologic.com/maccoder/ 361 78 MacCoder, news for Mac OS X developers. Thu, 14 Jul 2005 14:00:00 GMT 2005071405.html Apple's reported net quarterly profit was US$320 million, up from US$61 million in the same period last year. Much of this can be attributed to sales of the iPod, with steadily increasing sales during each of the last nine quarters. However, Mac computer sales are also up significantly with a 65% gain in desktop sales and an 8% gain in laptop sales over the same period last year. Meanwhile the recent Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger release was the best-selling software in Apple's history, bringing in more than US$100 million in revenue.

At MacNN, there are reports on Apple's earnings conference call, and on the statements by Merrill Lynch analyst Steven Milunovich that Apple is becoming a "mass market company".

]]> Thu, 14 Jul 2005 14:00:00 GMT 2005071404.html ComputerWorld's Ken Mingis reports on Apple's 12-in. PowerBook. Starting at US$1500, the latest version features a 1.5GHz G4 processor, 512Mb memory (the minimum needed for Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger to function comfortably), 60/80/100Gb hard drive, and an optional 8x SuperDrive.

Mingis notes that the latest PowerBook runs fairly cool, is quiet, and runs Tiger with satisfactory speed. Although battery life is quoted as "up to five hours", under normal circumstances around 3.5 hours seems more realistic. The one drawback noted, compared to its larger 15-in. and 17-in. cousins, is a lower quality display, with the 1024x768-pixel 12-in. screen being noticably dimmer than in the larger models.

]]> Thu, 14 Jul 2005 14:00:00 GMT 2005071403.html Apple has released updates to its Final Cut Studio Pro applications, as well as iPhoto 5.0.3 which is available through Software Update or at the Apple website.

]]> Thu, 14 Jul 2005 14:00:00 GMT 2005071305.html Technical note at ADC on using Image Decompressors to maximize performance using multi-buffer decompression with the subCodecIsMultiBufferAware flag in QuickTime 7.

]]> Wed, 13 Jul 2005 14:00:00 GMT 2005071304.html W3C has released xml:id Version 1.0 as a Proposed Recommendation, with the aim of providing a uniform mechanism for recognising XML identifiers. (See the abstract after the jump.)

]]> Wed, 13 Jul 2005 14:00:00 GMT 2005071303.html This 2nd edition of the Apple-approved and -reviewed text is targeted at development on Mac OS X 10.2 Jaguar and is therefore due for an update to include the latest Tiger technologies and Xcode.

However, the current edition provides useful tutorials and reference for: using Interface Builder; building document-based Cocoa applications; using Cocoa's text handling classes; adding scripting to applications; and localizing an application.

]]> Wed, 13 Jul 2005 14:00:00 GMT 2005071205.html The long-awaited 10.4.2 update to Mac OS X Tiger is available via Software Update or by downloading the patch at Apple.

According to the release notes: "The 10.4.2 Update delivers overall improved reliability and compatibility for Mac OS X v10.4 and is recommended for all users. It includes fixes for: (continued after the jump)

]]> Tue, 12 Jul 2005 14:00:00 GMT 2005071204.html Wolfram Research has released Mathematica 5.2, the first version to include the support for 64-bit addressing discussed here.

]]> Tue, 12 Jul 2005 14:00:00 GMT 2005071105.html OSNews reports that recent technical documentation from Apple states future Cocoa development should be in Objective-C not Java. Specifically, features added to Cocoa after Mac OS X 10.4 will not be included in the Cocoa-Java APIs.

]]> Mon, 11 Jul 2005 14:00:00 GMT 2005071104.html EarthlingSoft released version 1.8 of UnicodeChecker, a freeware application to display information about each code point in the Unicode Standard.

]]> Mon, 11 Jul 2005 14:00:00 GMT 2005071103.html Generating little press, due to the lack of an Apple presence at the East Coast conference since its move from New York to Boston, registration for the Macworld Expo opens today at the Hynes Convention Center with events beginning tomorrow.

]]> Mon, 11 Jul 2005 14:00:00 GMT 2005070706.html 2x 6-pin FireWire ports, 3x USB2 ports, and an optional 80Gb to 400Gb hard drive, styled to sit beneath and match your Mac mini. Prices start at US$100 for the port expander only, ranging from US$140 to US$390 for the hard drive versions.

]]> Thu, 7 Jul 2005 14:00:00 GMT 2005070705.html Eleven new documents were published today at Apple Developer Connection:

]]> Thu, 7 Jul 2005 14:00:00 GMT 2005070704.html Amit Singh provides an overview of the Mac OS X kernel as a Flash presentation. Worth a look, but wish it was plain old HTML with links into the ADC Darwin kernel documentation.

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Technical Q&A QA1429 - Deprecated CALL_ON_[UN]LOAD pragmas Q: I'm trying to build an old project that used the CALL_ON_LOAD and CALL_ON_UNLOAD pragmas and I'm getting warnings that these pragmas are deprecated and that I should use constructor and destructor attributes instead. What are constructor and destructor attributes?

Technical Q&A QA1438 - Using the QuickTime DVCompressor properties Q: Can the kQTPropertyClass_DVCompressor properties only be used with a DV codec or do they also work with the DV export component?

]]> Wed, 6 Jul 2005 14:00:00 GMT 2005070603.html Bare Bones Software has released TextWrangler 2.1, the latest update to their award winning text editor.

]]> Wed, 6 Jul 2005 14:00:00 GMT 2005070505.html An overview of how Apple and the Firefox developers brought the popular web browser to the Intel Mac. Apple initially got Firefox running on the Intel Mac as a demo of porting a complex application. Learning from those Apple patches, Mozilla Foundation employee Josh Aas completed the port, and thinks that "for the first time in the history of Mac Mozilla products, we're actually ahead of the game".

]]> Tue, 5 Jul 2005 14:00:00 GMT 2005070504.html A somewhat whimsically-written overview of the Mac Xcode 2 toolset. For example, section titles include "Split-View Editors Are Paneful" and "External Editors Are vi-ing for Your Affection".

Note that this is an in-depth review of the tools, not of the technologies involved in writing Mac software.

]]> Tue, 5 Jul 2005 14:00:00 GMT 2005070503.html Clear explanation of how to override the system key bindings using your own ~/Library/KeyBindings XML file. Once in place, and with your Cocoa apps restarted, all good OS X citizen applications will take advantage of the new bindings.

]]> Tue, 5 Jul 2005 14:00:00 GMT 2005070502.html Bug-fix patch of the popular open-source MySQL web-based administration tool. Release notes for the patch are available here.

]]> Tue, 5 Jul 2005 14:00:00 GMT 2005070403.html Congratulations to the land of the free and the home of the brave.

]]> Mon, 4 Jul 2005 14:00:00 GMT 2005070402.html Aquamacs is a version of the emacs text editor, modified to conform a bit better with the Apple Human Interface Guidelines. 0.9.4 is a bug-fix release.

]]> Mon, 4 Jul 2005 14:00:00 GMT 2005070401.html Q: I am using NSSound with CoreAudio on Mac OS 10.3.x, why am I getting NULL data in my IOProc callback?

A: Some applications might find it useful to use Application Kit framework's NSSound and Core Audio within the same application. A developer must take notice that NSSound might interfere with Core Audio's HAL (Hardware Abstraction Layer) IOProc. (continued at ADC site)

]]> Mon, 4 Jul 2005 14:00:00 GMT 2005070100.html Have a peaceful and very polite Canada Day.

]]> Fri, 1 Jul 2005 14:00:00 GMT 2005063002.html Technical note at ADC on detecting IP printer supply levels using the command line tool snmpInk (10.4 and later). The XML-formatted data returned by snmpInk can be fed to a supply level Print Dialog Extension. Also covered is the creation of custom supply level tools in a printer driver, to override snmpInk.

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