Chapter 1. Introduction to Carbon
The element carbon is an essential building block for life on earth. For C programmers, Apple’s Carbon is the essential building block for applications on Mac OS X. With Carbon, you not only gain the benefits of Mac OS X, but you do so while using some of the simplest traditional C interfaces available. This combination makes it easier than ever to create world-class applications for a world-class operating system.
Carbon and Mac OS X
Carbon is the collection of C programming interfaces for Mac OS X, Apple’s next-generation operating system.
Note
A programming interface is the set of functions and data structures defined by one piece of software, such as an operating system service, for use by client software, such as applications and device drivers. For example, you would access one programming interface to enable your application to print and another to manipulate your application’s menus.
Carbon was originally designed to support the evolution of the Mac OS. Apple updated and reimplemented programming interfaces written for earlier versions of the Mac OS to take advantage of new features and enhancements in Mac OS X. Mac OS X brings many modern operating-system features to the Macintosh, including:
Protected memory. Each application lives in its own address space, which prevents errant applications from crashing the system or other applications.
Preemptive multitasking. Each application is guaranteed processing time, resulting in a more responsive ...
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