Mac OS X Lion: The Missing Manual

The Mac App Store

For years, people installed software onto their computers by buying disks: floppies, CDs, and, later, DVDs.

But starting with the iPhone, people installed software onto their phones by downloading it directly from the Internet. Once everybody saw how convenient (and profitable) that system was, it didn’t take Apple long to realize it could bring the same convenience to the Mac.

So now there’s the Mac App Store—or, as the program is called in your Applications folder, just App Store. It’s an online catalog of software from huge software companies, tiny one-person software companies, and everything in between. You can read about the programs, check out customer reviews, and, finally, download them directly to your Mac. (As you probably realize, Lion itself is an App Store purchase.)

There are some huge advantages to this system, if you think about it. Since there’s no box, no disc, no registration card, no shipping or stocking, the software can cost a lot less; Apple’s own programs certainly reflect this price advantage. Plenty of programs on the App Store are actually free.

UP TO SPEED: Classic and Rosetta, RIP

There are two chief kinds of Mac OS X–compatible programs, known by the geeks as Carbon and Cocoa programs. These terms refer to the programming tools that were used to create them, which also have a small effect on how well they run in Mac OS X. The Cocoa Difference covers them in more detail, but the point is that this chapter describes how to use Carbon and ...