Linked by Thom Holwerda on Mon 2nd Jun 2008 09:36 UTC
Ars has just published part three in their series "From Win32 to Cocoa", in which Peter Bright explains why he thinks "Windows is dying, Windows applications suck, and Microsoft is too blinkered to fix any of it." Part one dealt with the history of both development platforms, part two dived into .Net, different types of programmers, and Windows Vista, and part three details the development platform and tools Apple has to offer, and in what ways they are superior or inferior to Windows'.
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RE[4]: This guy simply has no clue
by tomcat on Mon 2nd Jun 2008 21:53
in reply to "RE[3]: This guy simply has no clue"
Member since:2006-01-06
it may be valid to mention that Directx components have been available for years, but the scope and integration into the OS isn't the same.
Uh, no. I disagree. Microsoft's technologies are layered in a way that makes it possible/probable to use them either directly or indirectly. For example, at the bottom of the stack is Direct3D/DirectSound/DXVA/etc. Above it are DirectShow for video playback. And, above that is Windows Media Player controls and APIs.
Besides that Apple also had system services for sound and video even as far back as system 7.5 so I really don't see his point.
None of this stuff is new. Both MS and Apple provide (and have provided) audio/video APIs. In other words, the level of innovation is only very incremental.
No one uses directsound for anything other than games or simple applications. Yes its there and has been for a while, but who really uses it? Even MS themselves don't fully use it and that is where Apple and MS differ.
Yes, they do use DirectSound. They just don't realize it. Whenever most apps call playSound(), it eventually calls down DirectSound. The fact that you aren't AWARE that you're calling DirectSound is irrelevant. You are. Why do you think that it's necessary to call into the lowest layer of the stack in order to call that INTEGRATED? That's a nonsensical definition for integration. Integration is all about targeting the layer of technology that makes the most sense. If I don't want to learn about DirectShow or Direct3D or whatever, I can simply host a Windows Media Player control, and have IT do the heavy lifting. Or, if my needs are more complex, I have the option of targeting the lower level runtimes directly.
Member since:
2007-02-17
it may be valid to mention that Directx components have been available for years, but the scope and integration into the OS isn't the same. Besides that Apple also had system services for sound and video even as far back as system 7.5 so I really don't see his point. No one uses directsound for anything other than games or simple applications. Yes its there and has been for a while, but who really uses it? Even MS themselves don't fully use it and that is where Apple and MS differ.