Sources detail new features in Apple's first beta of Mac OS X 10.7 Lion

Posted:
in macOS edited January 2014
Apple on Thursday issued its first beta of its forthcoming operating system Mac OS X 10.7 Lion, packed with new features like application persistence, full-screen applications and file coordination.



People familiar with the early software shared details with AppleInsider on what Apple has detailed as "Major Features" in Mac OS X 10.7. Also provided to developers were a list of application features in Lion, which is set to arrive this summer.



Included below are new features and details on Lion. For more on other features revealed on Thursday, including AirDrop and FileVault, see the previous report on Apple's announcement on the release of the Mac OS X 10.7 Lion developer preview.



Application Persistence



After a restart, Lion automatically relaunches applications that were open when the user chose Log Out or Shut Down. The system also automatically restores the state of applications that are relaunched after a restart, including the size and location of a window, selections and contents.



Much like multitasking on Apple's iOS, Mac OS X may terminate an application behind the scenes when it goes unused or has no open windows. The application usually relaunches instantly when the user accesses it again.



Users can still choose to manually quit an application, but Apple has reportedly told developers that quitting is no longer necessary.



Automatic Document Saving and Versioning



In applications built in to Mac OS X 10.7, users are no longer required to save documents explicitly or be concerned about losing unsaved changes. A simple override enables this feature in document-based Cocoa applications.



Mac OS X 10.7 automatically writes document data to disk as necessary so that data displayed in a document window is always the same as the document data on disk. A file coordination mechanism maintains sequential access to files.



Applications that support automatic saving also support document version history browsing. Browsing previous versions of a document is accomplished by choosing "Browse All Versions" from the pull-down menu at the right end of the menu bar.



Mac OS X File Coordination



File coordination allows an application to access files and directories in a way that is serialized with other processes' accesses of the same files and directories. This prevents inconsistencies due to overlapping reads and writes.



Full-Screen Application Enhancements



The first Lion beta also adds support for full-screen mode through methods in the NSApplication and NSWindow classes, and the NSWindowDelegate Protocol protocol. Full-screen support is off by default, but an application can turn it on with a method call.



Turning on the support for full-screen mode adds an "Enter Full Screen" menu item with associated action methods to the "View" menu if it exists. Otherwise, it is added to the "Window" menu.



Also added is a new option for full-screen presentations. NSWindow full-screen support includes a window style mask and notifications upon entering and exiting full-screen mode. It also provides programming interfaces for implementing custom animations that are shown when an application enters and exits full-screen mode.



The NSWindowDelegate protocol allows the window delegate to control the full-screen content size and to provide a custom set of presentation options to be in effect while its window is the primary full-screen window.



Overlay Scrollbars



Overlay scrollbars in Lion are similar to those in iOS, with unique behavior (which users can override, if they choose, in System Preferences). With the new scrollbars, if all of the user?s pointing devices support both horizontal and vertical touch scrolling, the scrollbars are hidden during normal use. They will appear as an overlay on top of the window's content while the user is scrolling, and remain visible briefly to allow scrollbar dragging.



If a user has at least one external pointing device that does not support scrolling, the "legacy scrollbar" is displayed at all times and the usable space in the window is reduced, as in previous versions of Mac OS X.



If the user has no external pointing devices attached, the trackpad settings control the scrollbar behavior, and if the user has disabled scrolling for the trackpad in System Preferences, legacy scrollbars are used.



Application Features



Mac OS X 10.7 Lion also packs new features for built-in applications. People familiar with the first beta released on Thursday shared details on the highlighted features.

Safari

New Process Architecture: Lion adds a new process architecture that separates its rendering process from its application process. This aims to make Safari more responsive, stable and secure.



Plug-in Support in Safari: All browser plug-ins will run in their own process, improving browser stability and security. Netscape plug-ins continue to work in Safari with no modification. Safari does not, however, support WebKit plug-ins. The WebKit plug-in API is not compatible with this new process architecture and is being deprecated. Plug-in developers currently using the WebKit plug-in API are recommended to adopt the Netscape plug-in API in order to be compatible with Safari on Mac OS X v10.7.

The Finder

In Mac OS X v10.7, the following files and folders are now hidden: /lost+found, $HOME/Library



For more, see AppleInsider's previous coverage:



First look: Apple's new Mac OS X 10.7 Lion



Mac OS X 10.7 Lion bringing iOS features to Mac in summer 2011
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 86
    phizzphizz Posts: 142member
    Bring it on.
  • Reply 2 of 86
    The Safari potion is actually WebKit 2. They may have spread this idea system-wide but WebKit 2 is designed this way and so you won't have to upgrade to 10.7 to get Safari to perform better.
  • Reply 3 of 86
    Macrumours is reporting that Lion will generously enabled OpenGL 3.2 on these new DX11 capable MacBook Pros. \



    I'd be interested to know the minimum system requirements of Lion. Will it drop support for first-gen Core Duos and go 64-bit kernel only, which I'm kind of expecting? In such a case will Merom Core 2 Duos (late 2006/2007 era) models which don't currently support the 64-bit kernel in Snow Leopard still be supported? Otherwise, that's killing off a lot of the installed base.



    I'd also be interested to see if Rosetta is still available as an optional install. Hopefully it is. There are a number of older games, primarily Starcraft, that would be a tragedy to lose. I'd hardly think Apple's recommended solution would be to Boot Camp Windows.
  • Reply 4 of 86
    mstonemstone Posts: 11,510member
    Does it still send .files and DS_store files when file sharing using Samba and zip archives? If so, that is just lame.
  • Reply 5 of 86
    Application Persistence sounds like a nightmare not a feature! What happens when a piece of bad code goes crazy and you have no quit option and a reboot just opens it back up for you?
  • Reply 6 of 86
    begbeg Posts: 53member
    Quote:

    lug-in Support in Safari: All browser plug-ins will run in their own process, improving browser stability and security. Netscape plug-ins continue to work in Safari with no modification. Safari does not, however, support WebKit plug-ins. The WebKit plug-in API is not compatible with this new process architecture and is being deprecated. Plug-in developers currently using the WebKit plug-in API are recommended to adopt the Netscape plug-in API in order to be compatible with Safari on Mac OS X v10.7.



    Is it just me or does this sound really backwards? Apple is deprecating their own Webkit plugin API and telling dev's to go back to using Netscape plugin API's?
  • Reply 7 of 86
    Can we get REAL full screen back in iPhoto please, pretty please?
  • Reply 8 of 86
    cimcim Posts: 197member
    Windows 7 is looking antiquated by comparison.
  • Reply 9 of 86
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by beg View Post


    Is it just me or does this sound really backwards? Apple is deprecating their own Webkit plugin API and telling dev's to go back to using Netscape plugin API's?



    I believe the Netscape plugin API is the standard plugin architecture across many browsers including Firefox, and Chrome. Netscape's lasting contribution I guess. It's probably best to stick with the standard that everyone is using.
  • Reply 10 of 86
    Can I cut and paste files in Finder? I never understood why I can't do that. Unless I'm doing it wrong.
  • Reply 11 of 86
    Maybe it's here and I didn't understand it, but some better integration with TimeMachine would be welcome, particularly with Mr. iTunes. My iTunes library changes a lot, and I'd really like an incremental backup that I can simply switch to if the original drive dies. TM only copies files, and getting back to start after a HD failure looks really painful.



    And for reasons I still don't understand, I can't seem to do backups to disk out of iTunes anymore. It syas 4 DVDs will be needed, then simply stops after one. I long ago assumed this is a bug requiring a iTunes update.
  • Reply 12 of 86
    great improvements.
  • Reply 13 of 86
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by ghostface147 View Post


    Can I cut and paste files in Finder? I never understood why I can't do that. Unless I'm doing it wrong.



    You mean move? mv file1 <path-to-File>file1 || file1a
  • Reply 14 of 86
    tenobelltenobell Posts: 7,014member
    After years of using plug ins to make Apple Mail Wide screen. Finally they will offer mail the way I've always wanted it.



  • Reply 15 of 86
    I think the biggest news that has been overlooked is that Lion Server is built into OS X and it's free for everyone to use.
  • Reply 17 of 86
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by AIaddict View Post


    Application Persistence sounds like a nightmare not a feature! What happens when a piece of bad code goes crazy and you have no quit option and a reboot just opens it back up for you?



    Quit is still there (as is Force Quit, aka Unix kill) it just won't be necessary.



    Quote:
    Originally Posted by bdkennedy1


    I think the biggest news that has been overlooked is that Lion Server is built into OS X and it's free for everyone to use.



    I certainly didn't overlook it
  • Reply 18 of 86
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by mdriftmeyer View Post


    You mean move? mv file1 <path-to-File>file1 || file1a



    Well yeah, but I don't want to do it in terminal. All gui for me. I know how to use terminal, just when showing new users to Mac, they don't want to use terminal.
  • Reply 19 of 86
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by bdkennedy1 View Post


    I think the biggest news that has been overlooked is that Lion Server is built into OS X and it's free for everyone to use.



    But what would an average person use Lion Server for?
  • Reply 20 of 86
    clemynxclemynx Posts: 1,552member
    Have you seen the "Gestures and animations" video here?

    http://www.apple.com/macosx/lion/



    It's just one step ahead in the convergence of iOS and Mac OS. Imagining Mac OS running on a tablet is easier than ever.
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