“Leopard is the sixth major version of Mac OS X and it will be the most advanced and powerful version yet. For users, it is full of new features and elegant user experience improvements that will make it a joy to use. For developers, things get even better. Leopard contains a cornucopia of cutting-edge new frameworks, streamlined developer tools, new application technologies, and strong system-level foundations. No matter what kind of developer you are, there’s something new in the system that will feel tailor made just for you,” The Apple Developer Connection (ADC) website reads.
The ADC site states, “To help you get acquainted with what’s coming in Leopard, ADC is presenting a series of articles on Leopard technologies over the next several months. These articles will take a deep look at Xcode, Objective-C 2.0, Core Animation, Image Kit, Xray, and much more.”
Apple’s ADC site covers the following:
Leopard Developer Tools:
• Xcode 3.0: Apple’s Integrated Development Environment (IDE) for creating any code for Mac OS X
• Interface Builder 3.0: Intuitive, easy-to-use tool for creating and editing user interface resources files
• Xray: Builds on top of the open source DTrace utility
• Dashcode: Apple’s new Dashboard widget development environment
Leopard Application Technologies:
• Core Animation: A Cocoa framework for creating animated, composited, and dynamic user interfaces
• Objective-C 2.0: An ANSI C compatible language with dynamic object-oriented extensions
• iChat Integration
• Resolution Independence: The old assumption that displays are 72dpi has been rendered obsolete by advances in display technology. Macs now ship with displays that sport displays with native resolutions of 100dpi or better. Furthermore, the number of pixels per inch will continue to increase dramatically over the next few years. This will make displays crisper and smoother, but it also means that interfaces that are pixel-based will shrink to the point of being unusable. The solution is to remove the 72dpi assumption that has been the norm. In Leopard, the system, including the Carbon and Cocoa frameworks, will be able to draw user interface elements using a scale factor. This will let the user interface maintain the same physical size while gaining resolution and crispness from high dpi displays.
• Calendar Store: Framework provides access to a user’s iCal calendar data
Leopard Graphics & Media:
• Image Kit: A new and robust Cocoa-based framework powered by Core Image and Core Animation
• OpenGL Improvements: OpenGL is the industry-standard API for developing portable, interactive 2D and 3D applications. Leopard also provides a dramatic increase in OpenGL performance by offloading CPU-based processing onto another thread which can then run on a separate CPU core feeding the GPU. This can increase, or in some cases, even double the performance of OpenGL-based applications.
• QuickTime Improvements: QuickTime’s plumbing is receiving significant upgrades in Leopard. There have been significant enhancements in handling the H.264 encoding. Also, transparent alpha layers, an optional part of the H.264 specification, are now supported in H.264-based QuickTime movies. And finally, QuickTime supports 64-bit
• Picture Taker Panel: Leopard exposes the ability to take a user’s picture to any application using the Picture Taker Panel
Leopard OS Foundations:
• 64-bit: First implemented at the UNIX level in Tiger, Leopard brings complete 64-bit support to all of Mac OS X’s application frameworks
• Security Enhancements: Leopard brings several new security enhancements to Mac OS X. The first of these is the adoption of the Mandatory Access Control (MAC) framework. This framework, original developed for TrustedBSD, provides a fine-grained security architecture for controlling the execution of processes at the kernel level. This enables sandboxing support in Leopard. By sandboxing an application, using a text profile, you can limit an application to being able to just access only the system features, such as disk or the network, that you permit. Also new in Leopard is code signing. This means that Leopard will be able to identify applications by using digital signatures and then use that identification to base trust decisions on.
Leopard Information Technology:
• Open Directory 4: Leopard Server ships with an updated version of Open Directory that supports LDAP proxying, cross-domain authorization, cascading replication, and replica sets. It even supports RADIUS authentication for AirPort base stations deployed across your office or campus.
• Calendaring Server: The Darwin Calendar Server allows users to collaboratively share calendars across an organization. It provides a shared location to store their schedules and sync them between machines. It also allows users to send each other invitations to events. Implemented using the CalDAV protocol, it supports multiple calendaring clients, including Leopard’s iCal, Mozilla’s Sunbird, OSAF’s Chandler, and Microsoft Outlook.
• Ruby on Rails: Leopard Server features a built-in installation of the powerful and productive Ruby on Rails web application framework. Ruby on Rails is a full stack framework optimized for sustainable productivity. Leopard Server will ship with Mongrel for simplified development and deployment of web-based applications.
Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard is scheduled to ship in the spring of 2007.
More info here.
Related articles:
Apple’s Mac OS X Leopard is 64-bit done right, unlike Microsoft’s Windows Vista kludge – August 14, 2006
Mac OS X Leopard developer features leaked – August 09, 2006
Mac OS X Leopard sneak peek highlights – August 09, 2006
eWeek: Apple’s Mac OS X Leopard with 3-D Time Machine is amazing – August 08, 2006
Apple wows developer crowd with Mac OS X Leopard sneak peek – August 08, 2006
Analyst: Apple’s new Mac OS X Leopard sets new bar, leaves Microsoft’s Vista in the dust – August 08, 2006
Apple’s Mac OS X Leopard gets Sun’s DTrace – August 08, 2006
Inside Apple Mac OS X Leopard’s ‘Spaces’ – August 07, 2006
Take a ride in Apple Mac OS X Leopard’s ‘Time Machine’ – August 07, 2006
Apple previews Mac OS X Leopard featuring Time Machine, Spaces, enhanced Mail & iChat, and more – August 07, 2006
Apple previews Mac OS X Server Leopard; to ship in spring 2007 – August 07, 2006
Yum.
Should read:
“Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard is scheduled to ship in the spring of 2007, though nobody will notice as Vista relegates it to a dull Mac Zealot whisper.”
RMN
Yay, Leopard news! And Peterson had a problem once!
And there are actually people looking forward to Vista!? :~/
Ampar,
come back……
has anyone actually read the OS Foundations? that seems very scary to me, is this the trusted computing we have been hearing about all along? and if it is how will change the way we use our computers?
Viruses done with transparency. Wow.
Ampar’s not coming back.
Your zealous, irrational political diatribes turned him away for good.
I hope you’re all happy.
the calendar stuff sounds like their getting serious about competing with exchange server.
so if apple’s war with ms is comparable to WWII, are we nearing D-day or just at the battle of britain?
Either way someone at ms has probably realized that they have already lost the war. just a matter of time until everyone knows its over!
Vista? What is it?
The Mac zealot whisper is getting louder…
AND FURTHERMORE . . . oh, sorry. Ampar didn’t leave because of diatribes. He left because of identity theft.
Nice trolling.
But lets take a quick, but logical view of Vista:
– Vista should have shipped two years ago with a host of modern day OS features.
– Vista has been completely stripped down of modern OS tooling and is two years late.
Since a host of modern features was to be out two years ago (2004) then those features would be getting dated by now (the present 2006).
But new file strucutres didn’t make it, along with a host of modern system needs, but yet the dreaded registry stays. Thus, Windows users will get a dated, stripped down OS, but Redmond will proclaim it fantastic-oh, and XP a big pile.
Leopard is simply going to crush Vista just on the merrits that Apple can get OS releases out within 3 months or so of their target launch dates.
Lastly, I can’t wait to see the swiss-cheeze-like new network stack in Vista, which hackers should have a field day with…
I miss Ampar… frigging indentity theft morons.
Serously MDN, how about a login window?
It would seriously cut down on people posting as someone else, and other people posting under an assumed name (as I am) to avoid a troll. Ampar said he would be back if and when you did it.
How about a little transparency about who MDN really is. I get the impression that it is some spotty teenager in a bedroom….
The following statement has its own contradictions:
“Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard is scheduled to ship in the spring of 2007, though nobody will notice as Vista relegates it to a dull Mac Zealot whisper.”
see, if nobody notices then it would not be a whisper, but complete silence.
I for one would very much notice since it would deliver me clean 64-bit operation (I have to run a lot of app servers as well as my IDE), and resolution independence, which offers more screen real estate, which is another developer sought after thing.
BTW I have not developed on Windows for three years because of performance problems, so I’m less likely to notice Vista.
So on a scale of 1 to 10 in trolling, Richard M Nixon rates about as well as his presidential namesake (roughly a 2), and I am forced to disagree with Steven, and conclude that it was pathetic trolling.
Honey , I’m Home !!!
@Viktor: Vista is vaporware!
Let’s leave Tricky Dick in the grave, okay?
Where he belongs, i might add.
Vista is not vaporware, but it’s not Longhorn, either.
Longhorn was the biggest software project failure of all time in the computer industry. When MS’s management realized that it was irretrievable, they tossed out the code, and restarted from the Windows Server 2003 code base, to make what they’re now calling “Vista”, which is essentially Windows XP Service Pack 4.
We Mac users and Apple shareholders should be grateful to Microsoft for handing us this opportunity to pick up millions of new Mac users. For many, many customers, Vista is MS’s last chance, because they’re not going to wait another six years for MS to try to get it right AGAIN.
-jcr
Swiss Cheese is actually good while Vista is not
Actually, I agree with Richard M. Nixon: do NOT underestimate the Microsoft marketing machine: possibly the most powerful, crushing vehicle since the Panzerkampfwagen.
Everything in the path of the Vista juggernaut will be squashed like the bugs that should have been. They will pour tens of millions into advertising, promotion, sponsorship, deals with manufacturers, retailers, fast food outlets, you name it. They will claim that it’s more secure, faster, more user-friendly, more productive, better than OS X, and anyone who doesn’t use it will be left in the Dark Ages. Even some Mac faithful will be tempted to wonder if they’d made a wrong decision, in the onslaught of our PC-owning mates quoting press article after press article claiming how it’s the best thing since sliced fruitcake.
It’ll all be bullshit, but as they’ve done time and time before, the public will lap it up; businesses will upgrade without thinking; it’ll soon be impossible to buy a PC without it; and it’ll become a minimum requirement for a number of short-sighted applications and web sites.
Meanwhile, the Mac market share will continue to grow, incrementally but steadily, until it reaches sufficient mass that it can no longer be ignored, and can challenge the Windows behemoth head-on. And then the victory will be ours.
I heard that with Vista PC coud be put into sleep mode. WWWWOOOHHHHHOOWWWW. Isn’t that just GREAT. Microsoft innovations as usual.
AHHAHHUHAOHUHAOHUHAOHEAOHEHAHUHAOUHHAOHAHE
Vista…. pffffttt what a loud of donkey dongs.
I can never understand trolls. I like OS X, and think Windows is a poor copy, but I don’t waste my time by going to Windows forums. The trolls must subconsciously know that Windows ain’t that great, or they would be trying to extoll its virtuest rather than bellow how poor OS X is. Do any Mac fans go to Windows forums?