Believe it or not, we were all clueless about this once upon a time. It's true even if you are "aged to perfection" and can't remember all the details you used to know.
The reality is that the vast majority of humanity still is and will always be. One of the reasons this technology stuff is doing so well is that there are new folks joining the community every day and those of us who joined "in the past" should take time to remember that we got help too. That said, I was also very impressed and amused by Amit's analogy, -Dale On Oct 20, 2009, at 5:22 , Khürt Williams wrote: > > 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 -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
