Search LEM
Donate · Amazon.com · MacResQ · Advertise Other Cobweb sites: Low End Living · Reformed.net

Quicklinks: · Power Macs · 'Books · Early Macs · Week's Best Deals · Best Buys · OS Downloads

Give Me a Word Processor 2001.02.14 - In one and a half months, Apple is going to launch their most important product since the introduction of the Macintosh in 1984: The operating system known as Mac OS X. Native OS X apps (carbon and cocoa) are slowly appearing on Versiontracker. Every once in a while I check out the word processing section, but there's nothing worthwhile there, only some very basic text editors that are more suited for coding than for writing. This is really strange. I mean: word processing is the number one thing we do on our computers, but not a single software house or programmer has yet thought of building a decent one. There are ports of complicated games, high end graphic stuff, complete database servers, Apache, you name it - but not a simple little lean word processor. Well, in the fall we'll get that very expensive elephant-like program called Microsoft Word, a piece of software that despite its millions of lines of codes still isn't able to print backwards (last page first, a useful feature with lots of inkjet printers) or remember the cursor location (handy in almost every situation). Of course there will be AppleWorks, but that is very incompatible since they removed the translators. It won't even allow you to do a simple save as RTF. You'll need MacLink 12 for that. According to an article in Mac Addict (February 2001), building a word processor in Cocoa is a piece of cake, as long as you know objective C. It made me start thinking about learning a bit of the language myself, but I'm just to clumsy for programming stuff. I even made a mess of my Commodore 64 BASIC apps. Anyway, isn't that what we have real programmers for? According to what I have read, Cocoa will allow you to build a Quark XPress-like app with two programmers in an old garage within a couple of weeks. So I guess if someone starts coding a word processor with WriteNow-like features, he or she'll be finished in a week. I'll gladly volunteer to do some beta testing! <this article available in a printer-friendly format> Share your perspective on the Mac by emailing with "My Turn" as your subject. Recent My Turn articles Upgrading a Digital Audio G4 to work better in Leopard, 06.02. In its original configuration, the dual 533 MHz Power Mac G4 was slow with Mac OS X 10.5, but add the right upgrades, and it runs Leopard quite nicely. My 4 favorite PowerBooks, 05.28. The PowerBook 150 has a big screen for a vintage PowerBook, the 165c has color, the 100 is diminutive, and Lombard has USB and a great keyboard. Upgraded Quadra a great server for vintage Mac networking, 05.21. The compact Quadra 610 runs quietly, and with a PowerPC upgrade, it rockets past regular 68040 Macs. More in the My Turn index. Recent Content on Low End Mac Mac Pro overclocking, Windependence with Darwine, Blu-ray for Macs, and more, Mac News Review, 07.04. Also more on running Leopard on non-Apple hardware, Ubuntu on a Mac mini, the first autofocus webcam with Zeiss optics for Macs, and more. Wouldn't life be great with an iSlate?, John Hatchett, Recycled Computing, 07.04. PDAs and smartphones are too small for some tasks, full-fledged Tablet PCs are overkill, and ebook readers are too limited. Apple has the tech to own this niche. Mac of the Day: Original iMac G3/233, Aug. 98 - The Bondi blue wonder that bounced Apple back to profitability and into the public eye. List of the Day: Mac Pro List is for those using a Mac Pro. July 5 in LEM history: 98: The iMac: First of a family? - iMac Perfect for schools - 00: Apple is not your friend - 01: 75 Mac Advantages - Do you trust me? - 02: The joy of X with Classic - The good, the bad, and the intrusive - 05: No Quartz Extreme for Pismo - A brief history of NeXT - 06: Education iMac - iTunes and the French interoperability law - TopXNotes - Apple's secret battery reset utility - Misleading hard drive capacity The Macintosh Portable started a notebook revolution, Carl Nygren, Classic Macs in the Intel Age, 07.03. Before Apple introduced the Mac Portable, notebook computers were text-based and ran MS-DOS. Ever since, graphical interfaces have been the norm for laptops. More links in our archive.

Have a question? Ask an expert! Navigation Used Mac Dealers Apple History Best Used Macs Video Cards Email Lists InfoMac's Low End Mac Forum Favorite Sites MacSurfer MacMinute MacInTouch MyAppleMenu InfoMac Macs Only! The Mac Observer Accelerate Your Mac RetroMacCast PB Central MacWindows The Vintage Mac    Museum DealMac DealsOnTheWeb Mac2Sell ramseeker Mac Driver Museum JAG's House System 6 Heaven System 7 Today the pickle's Low-End    Mac FAQ Abandonware    Petition Mac vs. PC Info Affiliates The Apple Store Mac Connection MacMall TechRestore MacResQ ExperCom Crucial Memory batteries.com Advertise All of our advertising is handled by BackBeat Media. For price quotes and advertising information, please contact at BackBeat Media (646-546-5194). This number is for advertising only. Problems viewing this page with Internet Explorer 5.5 or 6? It works fine in other browsers, including IE 7. We recommend Firefox for those using Windows, as it is standards based and more secure than IE 6 (and earlier). More LEM visitors use Firefox than any other browser. Entire Low End Mac website copyright ©1997-2008 by Cobweb Publishing, Inc., unless otherwise noted. All rights reserved. Advice presented in good faith, but what works for one may not work for all. Please report errors to .   LINKS: We allow and encourage links to any public page as long as the linked page does not appear within a frame that prevents bookmarking it.   Access our RSS news feed at http://lowendmac.com/feed.xml.   Email may be published at our discretion; email addresses will not be published without permission, and we will encrypt them in hopes of avoiding spammers. If you prefer your message not be published, mark it "not for publication." Letters may be edited for length, context, and to match house style.   PRIVACY: We don't collect personal information unless you explicitly provide it. For more details, see our Terms of Use.   Low End Mac is an independent publication and has not been authorized, sponsored, or otherwise approved by Apple Inc. Apple, the Apple logo, Macintosh, iBook, iMac, eMac, iPod, PowerBook, MacBook, Mac Pro, Apple TV, and AirPort are registered trademarks of Apple Inc. Additional company and product names may be trademarks or registered trademarks and are hereby acknowledged.