While it does n’t have the coolheaded agent of things like Automator and Spotlight , the Unix plumbing in Mac OS X has get just as much tending in Mac OS X 10.4 , and has as many modification in entrepot for technical users as the exploiter - interface improvement .
Tiger and Unix
The biggest change for nonchalant command - line user is the compatibility of Unix tools like mv and cp , ( move and copy ) with HFS+ structures . So , if you need to move Indian file with resource forks , such as Excel , or Mac OS 9 applications , you may do so without need special apps , such as MvMac or CpMac .
accord to Apple , these utilities now apply the same APIs as Spotlight and other HFS+-friendly applications to work aright with fork files . This will make write Unix shell coating for OS X 10.4 easier , since forked file corruption will be less of an issue .
For anyone building Unix applications , OS X 10.4 ships with the GCC 4.0 compiler for ( Objective ) C(++ ) programing . GCC 4.0 adds a turn of coolheaded features such as autovectorization , for better AltiVec financial support . If you do build your own software package , you ’ll need to drop some time testing with GCC 4.0 , as some projects may want change to construct aright . In my own tests , I find that I had to set the default compiler back to GCC 3.3 to get some program to build mightily . If you ’re using a ports package , such asDarwinportsorFink , you ’ll want to contact those various internet site to see what trouble may occur with GCC 4.0 .
Apple has finally upgraded the permissions setup in Mac OS X Server with ACLs , or Access Control Lists . ACLs are a superset of the traditional Unix permissions and allow you more control over permissions than before . For example , with traditional Unix license , if you had write accession to a directory , you could erase files , add data file , or add folders , it was all the same .
With ACLs in Mac OS disco biscuit Server 10.4 , you’re able to specialize between adding a file cabinet , adding a folder , and deleting a file / leaflet , so that permit to do one is not permission to do the other . you may have more than one group in ACL permissions , so that a give directory could have multiple groups , each with dissimilar permission . Of importance to Mac admins in Windows environments , Tiger ACLs are compatible with Windows 2000 / XP/2003 ACLs , facilitate to eliminate a rather vexing compatibility issue .
Windows World
Speaking of Windows , there have been some significant fixes in the Windows compatibility parts of Mac OS X Server . you could now use NTLMv2 and Kerberos security on Windows shares , improving on the premix of older NTLM and LANMAN protection in Panther . Adding Kerberos to the intermixture allows the Windows functionality to be tie into undivided - signon in Mac OS X , and work adding Mac OS X Servers to an Active Directory Domain mold as well as it should .
The Windows integration in Mac OS X Server has improved to where using Mac OS X Server to host roaming profile — the Windows equivalent of the newfangled wandering accounts in Mac OS X Server — for Windows users who will never touch a Mac . This can be set up far quicker and easier than let in Panther .
Other Changes of Note
The VPN services in Tiger are essentially unchanged , although the GUI for set up the VPN server has been tweak a bit to simplify thing .
On the developer side , the new 64 - bit support in Tiger , while not ecumenical at all degree of the OS , does allow developers to implement 64 - turn sustenance at the Unix storey . But what will that signify for end users ?
In a nutshell , most of the 64 - spot livelihood in Tiger is aimed at the “ engine ” level , not the windowpane level . So the core organization libraries , like libsystem are 64 - bit , but Cocoa / Carbon library and frameworks are not 64 - bit . This is not a bad thing per se , since the initial need for 64 - bit computer programming will be at the lower levels .
Panthera tigris will allow developers to apply 64 - bit code in the locomotive of their software , and bit by bit introduce it to the higher level of software as Apple introduces 64 - bit support at the Carbon / Cocoa level .
Java is fundamentally unaltered in Tiger , although it is ask that Apple will update the operating system to support the J2SE 5.0 JDK as shortly as possible .
The developer dick have gotten some critical Modern features , ( and a young adaptation — Xcode is up to 2.0 in Tiger ) that make initiative development on Mac OS X far more compelling than in Panther . In add-on to GCC 4.0 and autovectorization , there ’s reinforcement for seeing your code in a visual style , so you could view the structure of your code outside of the code itself . This is most evident in the new Core Data feature , that provide you to visually graph your database design , and have Xcode use that graphical record to create the database structures for you to expend , without hand - editing XML files or computer code .
Another new characteristic of Core Data is the power to drop a database entity that you create in Xcode onto Interface Builder , and Interface Builder will use that to make a prototype UI for you . Since Apple is embedding the SQLite database engine into Tiger , between that and Core Data , database developers will be reckon at the Mac in a whole novel light source .
[ John C. Welch is a Unix / Open Systems Administrator for Kansas City Life Insurance , a regular loudspeaker at Macworld Expo on IT emergence , a editorialist forMacTech Magazine , and a contributor to Your Mac Life , and any number of Web site , include hisown . ]
