Re: [9fans] plan9port: cocoa programmer needed

[david jeannot <djeannot24@gmail.com>]

> Can you guys perhaps create a small video about
> how you use your computers now?  It's difficult to
> understand for someone who doesn't own a mac, but
> I would still like to see what you're doing there ;)

I will not give you a video: I will make you want
to own a Mac.

I used Slackware for many years, and I loved to
run as root and to put $PLAN9 at the beginning of
$PATH directly in /etc/profile for example.  But
the last Slackware release came, and I got several
issues.  I had no courage to resolve them.  I
wanted some change.

As so many people seem to use Ubuntu, I finally
got curious.  The live CD give me a very favorable
impression, and I installed Ubuntu 11.04.  I used
it for almost 2 weeks.  But the more I used it,
the more I became convinced that all was only an
appearance, that all was indeed designed to make
you mad.  There is a strange duplicity in this OS,
and I shall not scruple to rename it "TMOS": The
Mask Of Sanity.

When I switched back to Slackware, I was so happy,
that I resolved all the issues in a few hours.
However my hard drive died soon after, and I had
to use Ubuntu again.

I developed such a repulsion that, without knowing
what I was doing, I bought a late 2010 MacBook Air
(11 inch), refurbished by Apple.  That was at the
end of June.

During two months before that date, I had
considered several times to buy a MacBook, but had
not the money for it.  I had read favorable
opinions about OS X on this list and, in the
meantime, my sister, who never understood how to
use Windows or Linux, was using OS X with ease.  I
was impressed by an OS that could satisfy both
professionals and amateurs.  I wasn't convince
though: there are so many people "fond of their
Mac" on the net; it seemed to me very irrational,
alike car tuning or case modding.

I sold all I could on Amazon and eBay to repay my
MacBook, and then I start using it.  I was first
amazed by say(1), the little tool that pronounce
any text.  (The voices are so real since OS X
Lion, that I don't feel lonely anymore.) Then I
needed a tool to write to the pasteboard, and a
few minutes later I found pbcopy(1).  Maybe there
is an equivalent on Linux, but I never dared to
look.  One week ago, I needed to sign a PDF file
made with troff(1).  I was previewing it with the
OS X application Preview, and I began to browse
the tools, maybe for a pen (I have an old graphics
tablet).  Suddenly I fall upon the tool
"Signature" who tells me to sign on a sheet of
paper and to place it in front of the camera.  I
was amazed, but not convinced: I thought it would
take a photo, that would contrast with the PDF's
background.  As soon as I placed the sheet of
paper in front of the camera, my signature was
vectorized on the screen!

Those are little things, but since I bought this
laptop, it's like that every day.  To be sure,
this OS is full of bugs, but upon the whole, it's
lovely.

I also found the Cocoa API very interesting to
learn.  Apple's documentation is good.


P.S.  To swipe from one Desktop space to another
(since OS X Lion) is as fun as it is useful, at
least on a 11-inch screen.