[rescue] OS X is certified UNIX

[Mark]

On 14 Jun 2007, at 20:16, Micah R Ledbetter wrote:

> On Jun 14, 2007, at 03:05, Geoffrey S. Mendelson wrote:
>
>> the base BSD/Nextstep system and port the Macintosh GUI to it.  
>> However
>> the shell and command libraries were considered an option that most
>> people would not want. I think even in Tiger, the "BSD subsystem"
>> (terminal, shells and commands) are an option.
>
> My understanding was that the Mac API was ported to the NeXT UI,
> rather than the other way 'round. NeXTSTEP used postscript; Aqua uses
> PDF. (I figured this change was due to expensive licensing for
> postscript.)
>
> I could be wrong on all counts, though.

You are right for the most part, the origins of Aqua do lie in the  
WindowServer (which the process is still know by) from NEXTSTEP. Of  
course the 'Core' graphics technology has pushed it way beyond what  
NEXTSTEP had but it still renders ultimately to PDF, although  
increasing amounts of it are in vectors not rasters. And yes one of  
the primary reasons for switching to PDF was the license costs.

Geoff's point was that the Mac UI ethos was ported over, not  
necessarily the technology (which frankly sucked by the time it got  
to OS 9). In reality the 2 fused at the hip in fact - there are a lot  
of traces of both the Mac and NEXT in OS X.

-- 
Mark Benson

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