The OS X operating system combines a stable core with advanced technologies to help you deliver world-class products on the Mac platform. Knowing what these technologies are, and how to use them, can help streamline your development process, while giving you access to key OS X features.
Get yourself organized with Opus Domini, a desktop organizer Mac OS X Opus Domini is a desktop organizer for your Mac. What sets this application apart from other calendar and to-do list applications is that the user interface is designed to look exactly like a paper agenda. For home videos, I would go a different route and use iPhoto, which also allows you to import and organize videos. It just seems like the most obvious place to put media (photos or video) that you personally create (whereas iTunes is a place for c.
This guide introduces you to the range of possibilities for developing Mac software, describes the many technologies you can use for software development, and points you to sources of information about those technologies. It does not describe user-level system features or features that have no impact on software development.
It’s helpful to view the implementation of OS X as a set of layers. The lower layers of the system provide the fundamental services on which all software relies. Subsequent layers contain more sophisticated services and technologies that build on (or complement) the layers below.
The lower the layer a technology is in, the more specialized are the services it provides. Generally, technologies in higher layers incorporate lower-level technologies to provide common app behaviors. A good rule of thumb is to use the highest-level programming interface that meets the goals of your app. Here is a brief summary of the layers of OS X.
The Cocoa (Application) layer includes technologies for building an app’s user interface, for responding to user events, and for managing app behavior.
The Media layer encompasses specialized technologies for playing, recording, and editing audiovisual media and for rendering and animating 2D and 3D graphics.
The Core Services layer contains many fundamental services and technologies that range from Automatic Reference Counting and low-level network communication to string manipulation and data formatting.
The Core OS layer defines programming interfaces that are related to hardware and networking, including interfaces for running high-performance computation tasks on a computer’s CPU and GPU.
The Kernel and Device Drivers layer consists of the Mach kernel environment, device drivers, BSD library functions (libSystem
), and other low-level components. The layer includes support for file systems, networking, security, interprocess communication, programming languages, device drivers, and extensions to the kernel.
Relevant Chapters:Cocoa Application Layer, Media Layer, Core Services Layer, Core OS Layer, Kernel and Device Drivers Layer
Using the developer tools and system frameworks, you can develop a wide variety of software for Mac, including the following:
Apps. Apps help users accomplish tasks that range from creating content and managing data to connecting with others and having fun. OS X provides a wealth of system technologies such as app extensions and handoff, that you use to extend the capabilities of your apps and enhance the experience of your users.
Frameworks and libraries. Frameworks and libraries enable code sharing among apps.
Command-line tools and daemons. Command-line tools allow sophisticated users to manipulate data in the command-line environment of the Terminal app. Daemons typically run continuously and act as servers for processing client requests.
App plug-ins and loadable bundles. Plug-ins extend the capabilities of other apps; bundles contain code and resources that apps can dynamically load at runtime.
System plug-ins. System plug-ins, such as audio units, kernel extensions, I/O Kit device drivers, preference panes, Spotlight importers, and screen savers, extend the capabilities of the system.
Relevant Chapter:Creating Software Products for the Mac Platform
The technology stacks on which Cocoa and Cocoa Touch apps are based have many similarities. Some system frameworks are identical (or nearly identical) in each platform, including Foundation, Core Data, and AV Foundation. This commonality of API makes some migration tasks—for example, porting the data model of your Cocoa Touch app—easy.
Other migration tasks are more challenging because they depend on frameworks that reflect the differences between the platforms. For example, porting controller objects and revising the user interface are more demanding tasks because they depend on AppKit and UIKit, which are the primary app frameworks in the Cocoa and CocoaTouch layers, respectively.
Apple provides developer tools and additional information that support your development efforts.
Xcode, Apple’s integrated development environment, helps you design, create, debug, and optimize your software. You can download Xcode from the Mac App Store.
For an overview of the developer tools for OS X, see the Xcode Apple Developer webpage. For an overview Xcode functionality, read Xcode Overview.
The OS X Developer Library contains the documentation, sample code, tutorials, and other information you need to write OS X apps. You can access the OS X Developer Library from the Apple Developer website or from Xcode. In Xcode, choose Help > Documentation and API Reference to view documents and other resources in the Organizer window.
In addition to the OS X Developer Library, there are other sources of information on developing different types of software for Mac:
Apple Open Source. Apple makes major components of OS X—including the UNIX core—available to the developer community. To learn about Apple’s commitment to Open Source development, visit Open Source Development Resources. To learn more about some specific Open Source projects, such as Bonjour and WebKit, visit Mac OS Forge.
BSD. Berkeley Software Distribution (BSD) is an essential UNIX-based part of the OS X kernel environment. Several excellent books on BSD and UNIX are available in bookstores. But you can also find additional information on any of the websites that cover BSD variants—for example, The FreeBSD Project.
Third-party books. Several excellent books on Mac app development can be found online and in the technical sections of bookstores.
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Having too many desktop icons and shortcuts can make your desktop look cluttered. It can also make it difficult for you to find the right program that you want to launch. On top of that, when your desktop is cluttered, it can slow down your computer’s startup time and affect your computer performance.
Desktop icon organizer helps you to keep your icons and shortcuts organized and keep them easily accessible.
This software offers various features, including support for modern monitors, shared areas, wallpaper blurs, hide or show icons, and desktop portal creation. It allows you to maintain a distraction-free desktop, and makes all of the shortcuts accessible in their respective categories.
Krento is a modern desktop organizer, which helps you to find program shortcuts and favorite websites easily. It provides a widget engine, application dock, and application launcher in one simple but powerful application. Not only it can make your desktop more organized, it can also make it look more attractive as well.
Iconoid is a Windows desktop icon manager application that allows you to save and restore icon positions, hide icons automatically, color the background of your desktop icons, and choose your own icon text colors. The software is compatible with all types of Windows, from Windows 2000 to Windows 10.
Real Desktop is a desktop organizer software that allows you to create a real 3D desktop environment on your desktop. It features 3x more space for your desktop, 3D room creation for any topics, low CPU and memory usage, and easy-to-use interface.
Desktop Icon Toy is a desktop enhancement software that allows you to create custom patterns for your icon placement on your desktop. There are many patterns that you can create, such as clock, star, heart, cross, spiral, circle, triangle, and many other shapes.
ICU is a desktop organizer software that allows you to configure your icon positions, so that you can restore them to your configured position when they get rearranged. You can set the hotkey for restoring the icons, which can restore your icons quickly.
Desktop Modify allows you to arrange your desktop icons into unique shapes, which can make your desktop more attractive and cute. The features provided by this software include beautiful and unique GUI, save icon positions, and 77 available shapes.
This is a Windows shell extension that allows you to display your desktop icons in the right-click context menu of Windows Explorer. The features provided by this software include show content when right-clicking a folder, hide hidden files from the context menu, and lightweight installation.
iCollections allows you to organize your icons, create photo frames, and view pictures right from your desktop. This software is available for Mac, with key features include create collections, watch slideshow, change collection style, and sort items within the collections.
This software helps you to remove clutter on your desktop and organize your desktop icons on shelves. It is equipped with drag and drop system, Finder integration, different shelf designs, text snippets, drop text selection, and hotkey access to shelves.
Desktop icon organizer can be found in almost any platforms. No matter what platform that you are using, you can always find the right desktop icon organizer software for you.
ObjectDock is a Windows application that allows you to organize your desktop to look like the docking system used in Mac OS X. You can put your desktop shortcuts in various folders on your dock to keep them organized. You can customize it with various skins.
Berokyo is a desktop organizer and quick launcher app available for Mac OS X, which helps to keep your Mac desktop organized to make it easier for you to access the applications and files from your desktop. It offers various main features, such as item organizer, item tagging, and multiple item launcher.
Apps Organizer is a simple tool to organize your Android apps with labels. With this tool, you can create widgets or label shortcuts on your Android home screen to keep all of the icon shortcuts organized. This app is integrated with the Folder Organizer apps to enhance its functionalities.
J-Pilot is a desktop organizer app for PalmOS devices. It helps PalmOS users to organize their desktop icons and keep their shortcuts easily accessible. It has third-party application support, import and export features, and plugin support.
RocketDock is a desktop application launcher with a clean interface that allows you to organize your desktop and keep it accessible. It offers various features, such as minimizing windows to dock, real-time Windows preview, running application indicators, and simple drag-and-drop interface.
Desktop icon organizer is a type of application that allows you to make your desktop more organized. Sometimes, it can be difficult for you to find some application shortcuts on your desktop because there are too many of them. If you don’t organize your desktop, you might end up wasting a lot of time just to find the application shortcut that you want to launch. This software helps to organize your desktop shortcuts into folders for easier access.
To install a desktop icon organizer software, you need to download an installation file from the official website of the software and run the installation file on your device. Be sure to download only the compatible software for your device, since not all desktop icon organizer software is available for all platforms.
Organizing your desktop icons and shortcuts is important to keep your desktop clean and comfortable to look at. Having too many icons on your desktop can be confusing, and moreover, it doesn’t look good for the eyes. It also slows down your computer performance, since it needs to load all the icons on the startup process, which can take quite some time. By using the desktop icon organizer, you can keep your desktop simple, clean, and easily accessible. Not only that, you will also be able to arrange the desktop icons into shapes to make your desktop look more beautiful and attractive.