LOL! This was awesome reading.
On Oct 13, 2:18 am, Amit Singh <[email protected]> wrote:
> Lets try a parable.
>
> If you're a Mac user, even a brand new switcher, chances are you've
> heard of "Cocoa". In vague terms, that's Apple's fancy API for writing
> all kinds of applications. If you don't know what "API" means, think
> of it as a parts bin. Developers use software "parts" to "create"
> applications. A group of standardized/well-established parts is called
> an API. Sort of. Sometimes the term "software library" is also used in
> this context.
>
> If you haven't heard of Cocoa, maybe you've heard of WebKit, which,
> again, in vague terms, can be thought of as a large software library
> used to write the Safari web browser, among other things. Some non-
> Apple browsers, such as Google's Chrome web browser, also use WebKit.
>
> Cocoa and WebKit are used both by Apple for writing their own
> applications and by third party developers big and small.
>
> Now, imagine you are a Mac user using some application that is written
> using Cocoa, or WebKit, or maybe both. Lets say it's called
> TheFancyApp and it's made by a company called The Old Acme Software
> House, LLC.
>
> Suppose you have some issues with TheFancyApp. Maybe you don't
> understand how it works. Maybe it misbehaves or malfunctions, at least
> in your opinion. Maybe you really need somebody to explain to you how
> it works and what to do about your issues. Maybe it caused you some
> data loss or emotional loss and you are hopping mad--rightly so, at
> least in your opinion. And so on.
>
> Which of the following sounds like a more reasonable approach?
>
> 1) Go complain to Apple because Cocoa and WebKit are somehow involved.
> Heck, chances are, even Mac OS X is involved. What's more, since your
> brand new Mac Pro is undoubtedly running on Intel chips, maybe Intel
> needs to get involved too. Sounds like a plan.
>
> 2) Talk to the folks at The Old Acme Software House. They probably
> have heard of this problem before. And in case they haven't, they'd
> sure like to know. Since they wrote this application, they probably
> know their way around Cocoa and WebKit. Even if it turns out to be an
> issue with Cocoa or WebKit, they'd know whom to report it to and how
> to do it.
>
> If you chose 1), no worries. Lets try again. Please go back to the
> beginning of this post and retrace your steps.
>
> If we're good so far, then here are some more things to realize.
>
> MacFUSE (like Cocoa and WebKit) is a software library. It provides a
> bunch of APIs (parts). It's NOT an application. It doesn't "run".
>
> NTFS-3G (like Safari and TheFancyApp) is an application. It uses parts
> from the MacFUSE parts bin. It absolutely needs MacFUSE to run on Mac
> OS X, but it's NTFS-3G, not MacFUSE, that's ultimately letting you
> have read/write access to your NTFS drives.
>
> Similarly, the FUSE-based sshfs is an application. It absolutely needs
> MacFUSE to run on Mac OS X, but it's sshfs, not MacFUSE, that's
> ultimately letting you use SFTP to "mount" directories on remote
> machines as "drives".
>
> Similarly, ExpanDrive is an application. It absolutely needs MacFUSE
> to run on Mac OS X, but it's ExpanDrive, not MacFUSE, that's
> ultimately letting you use SFTP, FTP, and perhaps some other protocols
> to "mount" directories on remote machines as "drives".
>
> OK, so what does MacFUSE do then?
>
> Well, on all mainstream operating systems, including Mac OS X, writing
> software that looks and behaves like a "file system" is incredibly
> complex and time-consuming. In particular, doing so requires the
> developer to write a lot of kernel code, which most developers don't
> want to do for semi-rational reasons. MacFUSE does a whole lot of the
> complex stuff "once and for all" and makes the result available to any
> developer as a... you guessed it: parts bin. This way, developers have
> a much easier starting point and they have much less code to write
> because they can all share the common parts bin.
>
> Anyway, for any question related to some vague mixture of MacFUSE and
> NTFS (and variations of it: NTSF, NSFT, NFST, BOOTCAMP, etc.), please
> go to the NTFS-3G forum:
>
> http://tuxera.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=4
>
> Amit
--~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups
"MacFUSE" group.
To post to this group, send email to [email protected]
To unsubscribe from this group, send email to
[email protected]
For more options, visit this group at
http://groups.google.com/group/macfuse?hl=en
-~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
