I only wish to use universal Cocoa applications.
Hello! 
My MacBook Pro has been giving me a lot of trouble ever since I bought it. I had tried all sorts of things including changing the RAM, re-installing the operating system a few times, running the hardware test, etc. but nothing seems to fix my problems.
When I took it to customer care, they told me that it is the third party software that is causing the problems. However, they could not point out to me which one in particular is the culprit.
So, I have decided that from today onwards, I will re-install OS X and then only use stable (non-beta) universal Cocoa applications on my Mac. Is it even possible to survive on that? If yes, is there any way for me to ensure that an application is written in Cocoa before downloading it?
Is VLC media player a Cocoa application? If no, my resolution has already broken before it had a chance to be practised.
\
Thank you!
My MacBook Pro has been giving me a lot of trouble ever since I bought it. I had tried all sorts of things including changing the RAM, re-installing the operating system a few times, running the hardware test, etc. but nothing seems to fix my problems.
When I took it to customer care, they told me that it is the third party software that is causing the problems. However, they could not point out to me which one in particular is the culprit.
So, I have decided that from today onwards, I will re-install OS X and then only use stable (non-beta) universal Cocoa applications on my Mac. Is it even possible to survive on that? If yes, is there any way for me to ensure that an application is written in Cocoa before downloading it?
Is VLC media player a Cocoa application? If no, my resolution has already broken before it had a chance to be practised.
\Thank you!
Comments
There's nothing wrong with Carbon, just use Universal Non Beta Apps. Btw, I think VLC is still considered a Beta... but Google is really slow for me at the moment so I can't confirm. But from my experience it's also not that stable, and there isn't a thing it can do that I can't do with Quicktime or DVD Player.
Sebastian
VLC is not a Cocoa App. It's a Multi Platform client so it's more likely to be written in C/C++ then Objective-C.
The Mac OS X front-end to VLC is actually indeed Cocoa. It used to be wxWidgets, but it was redone a long time ago.
There's nothing wrong with Carbon, just use Universal Non Beta Apps.
Indeed.
cocoa does not magically make an application better or more stable... its just the API apple use for objective C. A lot of good applications are made in carbon. In fact almost any cross platform app will be carbon.
Correct. While I personally prefer Cocoa by far, Carbon has its legitimate uses and is hardly 'lesser'. Many high-profile apps use it, especially cross-platform ones.
VLC is not a Cocoa App. It's a Multi Platform client so it's more likely to be written in C/C++ then Objective-C.
There's nothing wrong with Carbon, just use Universal Non Beta Apps. Btw, I think VLC is still considered a Beta... but Google is really slow for me at the moment so I can't confirm. But from my experience it's also not that stable, and there isn't a thing it can do that I can't do with Quicktime or DVD Player.
Sebastian
thats untrue.. vlc can do a lot more than quicktime + dvd player. It's decoder also has far better performance than quicktime. That said, some builds of VLC are extremely crashy. I've found 0.8.6 intel version to be fairly stable so download that version... It will occaisionally crash but it relaunches instantly so doesn't bother me too much.
thats untrue.. vlc can do a lot more than quicktime + dvd player. It's decoder also has far better performance than quicktime. That said, some builds of VLC are extremely crashy. I've found 0.8.6 intel version to be fairly stable so download that version... It will occaisionally crash but it relaunches instantly so doesn't bother me too much.
I guess I should have been clearer, there isn't a thing it can do that I can't do with Quicktime/DVD Player that I actually use.
I encode absolutely ALL of my Audio/Video in MPEG-4 simply out of convenience and the fact that I like to standarize on a single platform instead of piece mealing everything and MP3/DivX/XviD/AVI/Ogg Vorbis is a step backwards. Further, Quicktime is very upgradable with extra codecs, like Perian and WMV Player from Flip4Mac meaning I don't have to worry when streaming Audio/Video on the web because either Flash or Quicktime will take care of it.
Sebastian
I guess I should have been clearer, there isn't a thing it can do that I can't do with Quicktime/DVD Player that I actually use.
I encode absolutely ALL of my Audio/Video in MPEG-4 simply out of convenience and the fact that I like to standarize on a single platform instead of piece mealing everything and MP3/DivX/XviD/AVI/Ogg Vorbis is a step backwards. Further, Quicktime is very upgradable with extra codecs, like Perian and WMV Player from Flip4Mac meaning I don't have to worry when streaming Audio/Video on the web because either Flash or Quicktime will take care of it.
Sebastian
yes but that's irrelevant. You cannot assume your needs are the same as everyone elses. Also vlc player has other functionality that neither quicktime or dvd player offer.
The fact is, there isn't a single application for mac that satisfactorily handles all types of video decoding and functionality - vlc comes closest though. Thats why I, for example, keep realplayer, mplayer and vlc in addition to quicktime player. And yes you can install perian etc but the performance is still very poor.
yes but that's irrelevant. You cannot assume your needs are the same as everyone elses. Also vlc player has other functionality that neither quicktime or dvd player offer.
Like what? Crashing constantly? Not really a feature.
The fact is, there isn't a single application for mac that satisfactorily handles all types of video decoding and functionality
Except for QuickTime.
- vlc comes closest though.
If you can tolerate constant crashing, never being able to have more than one movie open at once, and don't mind the fact that scrubbing is impossible.
Like what? Crashing constantly? Not really a feature.
Except for QuickTime.
If you can tolerate constant crashing, never being able to have more than one movie open at once, and don't mind the fact that scrubbing is impossible.
1 like for example handling subtitle files... something that quicktime player can't do. Or a floating window feature.. something else that quicktime can't do. OR FULLSCREEN! There are plenty of other things btw
2 No, because
a) there are a variety of codecs quicktime cannot handle, even once you have perian and flip4mac installed.
b) quicktime player's decoding performance is generally very poor, especially with exotic codecs.
3 Some builds are more stable than others. The version I have doesn't crash often. Scrubbing is nice, and quicktime player is the best in that regard. However 95% of the time I don't need scrubbing as I merely want to watch a video file. Ditto for having more than one at once. If I'm watching something fullscreen, then why on earth would I want to have 2 videos open at once.
...
2 No, because
a) there are a variety of codecs quicktime cannot handle, even once you have perian and flip4mac installed.
I know of not a single audio-visual format that VLC can handle, but for which there is no QuickTime codec. The beauty of QuickTime is that every Mac-standard app is a QuickTime app. Each new codec adds its supported media functionality [with certain contractual restrictions] to all of your apps, not just the QuickTime Player.
b) quicktime player's decoding performance is generally very poor, especially with exotic codecs.
...
Never seen this. Which "exotic codecs"?
I know of not a single audio-visual format that VLC can handle, but for which there is no QuickTime codec. The beauty of QuickTime is that every Mac-standard app is a QuickTime app. Each new codec adds its supported media functionality [with certain contractual restrictions] to all of your apps, not just the QuickTime Player.
1) Well here is one example: OGG Vorbis (.ogm). Also I have often come across AVI files which will not open in quicktime but open fine in vlc, yes I have perian etc but it doesn't seem to cover every codec that fits in avi containers.
2) Yes please don't explain to me about quicktime I fully understand how it works.
Hello!
My MacBook Pro has been giving me a lot of trouble ever since I bought it. I had tried all sorts of things including changing the RAM, re-installing the operating system a few times, running the hardware test, etc. but nothing seems to fix my problems.
When I took it to customer care, they told me that it is the third party software that is causing the problems. However, they could not point out to me which one in particular is the culprit.
So, I have decided that from today onwards, I will re-install OS X and then only use stable (non-beta) universal Cocoa applications on my Mac. Is it even possible to survive on that? If yes, is there any way for me to ensure that an application is written in Cocoa before downloading it?
Is VLC media player a Cocoa application? If no, my resolution has already broken before it had a chance to be practised.
Thank you!
Ok, back on topic here... The best piece of advice that I can give to you is install one application at a time. Once you start seeing oddities, you can do one of two things:
a) Uninstall that application and find another one.
b) Open up your Console Logs (/Applications/Utilities/Console.app) and find out what it is complaining about. Then either fix it (if it is missing something that you can install) and/or send that information to the Developer of the Application. Usually developers like to be notified if something happens with their Application, and you could be providing them with some valuable feedback.
QuickTime doesn't play Flash video (.flv). I have to use VLC to play this format. Even Flash viewer won't play a straight .flv file.
Apple added Flash support to QuickTime years ago. I have no problems with Flash video files. If you have a link to one that is unplayable by QuickTime, I would dearly love to play see it.
I am listing all the third party applications I currently have installed. Could you guys tell me if there is some known problem with any of these applications:
Acquisition
Adium
Adobe Photoshop CS3 beta (and all the other applications it comes with)
Alarm Clock Pro
AppZapper
Azureus
Cars Radiator Springs Adventure
Chimp
Colloquy
CrossOver
Darwine
Delicious Library
Democracy
Disco
Flickr Uploader
Flip4Mac
GimmeSomeTune
Google Notifier
Google Video Player
iClip
iFreeMem
iGetter 2.5
Imageshack Uploader
LaCie Backup
LimeWire
MailSteward
NeoOffice
Newsfire
OnyX
Opera
PandoraBoy
Parallels Desktop
Path Finder
pzizz
Quicksilver
RapidWeaver
RescuePRO
Skype
Split & Concat
Stuffit 11
SuperDuper!
Switch
TextMate
Thumbscrew
Toast 8 Titanium
Transmission
TubeSock
Typewriter Keyboard
VLC
Xtorrent
... and these are the preference panes that I have installed:
Application Enhancer
DéjÃ* Vu
Fan Control
GizmoPlugin
Growl
iTheater
Little Snitch
MediaCentral
Visage
I know that is a huge lot. I am a huge fan of third party software and I literally try out every piece of software as soon as it hits the market.
Could LimeWire and/or Azureus be causing the problems? I have heard that Mac OS X has poor support for Java.
I think VLC is still considered a Beta... but Google is really slow for me at the moment so I can't confirm. But from my experience it's also not that stable, and there isn't a thing it can do that I can't do with Quicktime or DVD Player.
I know a LOT of things that you cannot do with QuickTime Player (even the Pro version) that you can with VLC media player.
The two things that I am concerned about are playing MKV files and having support for subtitles. Both are unsupported by QuickTime Player.
OK. I knew you guys would suggest me not to go with the decision of using only Cocoa applications. I am very confused about what I should do.
I am listing all the third party applications I currently have installed. Could you guys tell me if there is some known problem with any of these applications:
Acquisition
Adium
Adobe Photoshop CS3 beta (and all the other applications it comes with)
Alarm Clock Pro
AppZapper
Azureus
Cars Radiator Springs Adventure
Chimp
Colloquy
CrossOver
Darwine
Delicious Library
Democracy
Disco
Flickr Uploader
Flip4Mac
GimmeSomeTune
Google Notifier
Google Video Player
iClip
iFreeMem
iGetter 2.5
Imageshack Uploader
LaCie Backup
LimeWire
MailSteward
NeoOffice
Newsfire
OnyX
Opera
PandoraBoy
Parallels Desktop
Path Finder
pzizz
Quicksilver
RapidWeaver
RescuePRO
Skype
Split & Concat
Stuffit 11
SuperDuper!
Switch
TextMate
Thumbscrew
Toast 8 Titanium
Transmission
TubeSock
Typewriter Keyboard
VLC
Xtorrent
... and these are the preference panes that I have installed:
Application Enhancer
DéjÃ* Vu
Fan Control
GizmoPlugin
Growl
iTheater
Little Snitch
MediaCentral
Visage
I know that is a huge lot. I am a huge fan of third party software and I literally try out every piece of software as soon as it hits the market.
Could LimeWire and/or Azureus be causing the problems? I have heard that Mac OS X has poor support for Java.
Hate to break it to you Bud but most of those apps are Carbon
QuickTime doesn't play Flash video (.flv).
It does with Perian.
Fan Control
*cough*
@Chucker, You think Fan Control might be source of my problems? Should I use smcFanControl instead?