“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
@ deadline:
I bought my first Mac to get things done. Why waste the time saved going to Windows forums? Much better to spend it doing something useful…..
Anywho to the Vista talk. Now, back to the discussion at hand…..
“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.”
Does anyone else think that Apple will use this technology to allow Software Update to update third party software as well? That feature was rumored for Panther and then Tiger, as well. Imagine – updating everything on your computer in one fell swoop! Freakin’ awesome!!!
“How about a little transparency about who MDN really is. I get the impression that it is some spotty teenager in a bedroom….”
I think you give MDN too much credit. That teenager seemed to have passed on the website to his 12 year old brother a couple of months ago.
What a great post. Thanks, MDN.
There is so much to talk about, but I will choose just one item. The addition of automatic garbage collection to objective C is a big deal. It will make developing Cocoa apps a whole lot simpler. It will also result in far fewer memory leaks in applications taking advantage of this feature.
Glad to see the back of Ampar – an egotist who clogged up these boards with little contributive value. On the other hand, the guy’s so full of himself, he’ll only start posting on these boards under another name. People like him can’t ‘deprive the world of the benefit of their opinions’ for long.
apple store is close right now.
ithink a new Macbook Pro
ON TOPIC…does “resolution independence” mean that the UI widgets, windows and such are all reconstructed as vector graphics? or are they just higher resolution (and thus take up more space)?
Well yes, Vista will probably sell fairly well in the States. There are people in my office still using Windows 98. And I just started using Windows XP a few months ago (which is draconian in my opinion – grrr). But do we really care? More people are getting on the Mac train.
possibly the most powerful, crushing vehicle since the Panzerkampfwagen
Wasn’t that marketed in hte US in the 70’s as VW’s “The Thing”?
Ok, let’s look at the obvious — Leopard is going to be shipped. It’s going to contain X, Y, and Z. Whether Vista ships or not is really irrelevant. It won’t impact my purchasing decisions, as an individual user. Will it affect yours? Are you sitting on the fence, not sure if you’re going to get Leopard, Vista, or just do nothing? Bahahaha. Seriously, how many people are that concerned about both OSes? You have folks who primarily use one or the other when they have a choice (I’m not talking about folks who are forced to use Windows at work).
Yes, I realize that people can now put Windows on their Macs, but it still doesn’t disprove the generality that people spend most of their time in one or the other, and there’s really not much agonizing over which to use. Mac folks aren’t likely to care. Windows users don’t care much either (except for the pathetic trolls who get off on poking people with sticks all day long).
The response to Vista will be a collective yawn.
Based on this unusual release of info, I think Apple is going to present Leopard at THIS WEEK’s MacExpo in England – http://www.mac-expo.co.uk
Ship it quick! I’m hungry for the new XCode.
MW: “Ask” – and you shall receive.
Frogmella,
Don’t forget MS’s most powerful marketing tool – They’ll give away a gazillion Zunes and of course for $150.00 you can buy a barely breathing, but new, HP or Dell or some such thing, with FISTA already installed.
Why does big business tend to practice the you-get-what-you-pay-for principle everywhere except in their computer acquisitions? I really don’t get it. The consumer? I’ve already concluded that the hardly computer literate consuming masses just follow what they see their employers using, and if their employers are having problems with their HPs then they choose something “different” like a Dell.
I don’t know – it looks like the world is changing painfully slowly, but to get back to the main point – Indeed DO NOT UNDERESTIMATE MS’s ability to “market” their wares. If nothing else they’ll give it all away, thereby perpetuating the plague on humanity we call Windows
When is Lep going to ship? I’ve heard Spring, I’ve heard Fall. Shell games suck!
When choosing a name here, better to choose one no one would dare hijack.
I am thinking of using “Gay Testicles” or “Pussface” or “I heartWindows” or “Lickmyinnards”.
Knowing Steve, he’ll probably release Leopard the day after Vista is announced, because it will mean more attention to what’s lacking in Vista.
• 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.
Monitors with resolutions up through 300 dpi have existed for over 17 years. RadiUS shipped many in the early 90s with up through 120 dpi.
I’ve been wanting this specific feature for well over 16 years. It’s about damn time!
@jcr – Vista, at this point, is vaporware until it actually ships.
Well, we can all hope, argue, discuss and guess what we will soon see. As usual, it will please most, while some can never be pleased. Of course, I’m talking about the return of Ampar.
Resolution-independent display technology is a very big deal. Personally, I’ve been waiting for this to happen for 20 years. Now, with the extreme popularity of digital photography, the computer screen is really begging for more resolution as it increasingly becomes the preferred medium for displaying digital photos. Outta sight!