C4 Tip: Drag-and-drop text in Cocoa apps

The cross-platform compatibility I referred to was the fact that Carbon uses a C API, like most other platforms today, whereas Cocoa uses Objective-C with Apple-specific extensions. Carbon is much closer ground to most other platforms; porting to the Mac is often done through it.

John, the (optional) cross platform compatibility of Carbon you mentioned referred to compatibility with both Mac OS Classic and Mac OS X. It doesn't mean that Carbon apps can run on Windows or Linux, etc. Another reason some developers like Carbon is that it's somehow similar to programming for OS 9 (relatively minor modifications required to Carbonize a Classic app).

Mr. Lizard, my limited understanding of it is that Carbon and Cocoa are both APIs (application programming interfaces) that developers use to make programs for Mac OS X. As mentioned in the previous paragraph, Carbon has the (optional) ability to run on both Mac OS X and Mac OS Classic and is also easier to port from mac OS Classic with. On the other hand, Cocoa provides a lot of features (spell checking, font panel, find and replace, and a lot more) without the developers having to do much work (if any). Carbon can access those same features, but it's more work.

Excuse my ignorance- what is there difference between a Carbon app and a Cocoa one?

I'd just like to point out that there is very good Carbon-Cocoa integration in Mac OS X. Carbon can fairly easily access Cocoa controls and interface widgets. The disadvantage is that's not cross-platform—which is, I think, a major reason to develop in Carbon.

Cocoa is an excellent way for Mac-only applications to reach their full potential quickly, which is why it's generally become synonymous with "pretty" Mac applications.

Did anyone of you work in Windows? It has exactly the same problems....

I have found that cutting and pasteing is inconsistent in some apps. If I want to paste a note into the address book, the right click/paste doesn't work.

You can decrease the time you have to wait. See http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20051121074003638

Holy hell, you can't mean that...

...

Okay, you meant it. F**king hell, why did they do that? Someone dosed rather heavily before their usability design session...

Ryan, Camino uses Cocoa for the app's UI itself, but not for the content area. The content area uses Gecko.

The Cocoa interface really is what makes OS X so different from Windows and other OSes. Its the "alive" and clean feeling you get when you use a Cocoa app that makes Mac OS X so special.

There are rumors that 10.5 Tiger will significantly improve the interface of Carbon applications and unify the experience, for applications such as Adobe Creative Suite and Microsoft Office. But until then, I suggest finding Cocoa alternatives to Carbon applications.