LAUG 2.0 News

“Mac OS X Internals” by Amit Singh

Publisher: Addison-Wesley
ISBN: 0321278542
Price: $64.99
Author web site: http://osxbook.com/

“MacOS X Internals” is the first book introduced since the advent of OS X that focuses on the low-level details of the MacOS in a way that will give technical people, ranging from geeky end-users to hardware-level programmers, a thorough and fascinating tour of the MacOS. This book is not for “average” end users; it is not an introduction to how to use a Mac. Nor is this book for people looking to get started programming on the Mac; there are plenty of books designed for new Mac developers. What “MacOS X Internals” tries to be is something unique: a guide to the MacOS from the bottom up, and it hits this mark very well.

“MacOS X Internals” can be roughly divided into three parts: a technical history of the MacOS, a review of the MacOS firmware and booting process, and a technical tour of various parts of the OS itself (such as interprocess communication and the file system, to pick two at random). The first section will appeal to any technically-included user of the MacOS, the latter two are aimed more at programmers, although there is plenty there to increase the knowledge of anyone with a strong technical bend, whether they have coded before or not. The MacOS history is a detailed trip down memory lane from the very first post-Next developer builds of MacOS X right up to Tiger and beyond. The features introduced in each OS are described in detail with emphasis on technical and “under the hood” changes. The author is clearly an enthusiast as well, as he frequently sprinkles entertaining bits of trivia in with the meat of the main narrative.

Moving on from the historical sections to the present, author Amit Singh gives a blow-by-blow description of the process of the Mac booting. If you have ever wondered exactly what the Mac is doing as the power flows and the grey apple logo appears, this is for you. Everything from the sequence of initial power-on tests, to the bootloaders and Open Firmware onto the higher level unix boot process are covered in detail. Of special note is the extensive coverage of Open Firmware, which is much more then a merely the “BIOS” of a PowerPC Mac. Singh describes many activities that a system programmer can do in Open Firmware, including making a draggable windowing environment and even programming the famous “Towers of Hanoi.” Unfortunately, this book was mostly finished before the Intel Macs arrived on the scene, and while there is a section on the EFI (extensible firmware interface) that is the “BIOS” of all Intel Macs, it is not nearly as deep as the Open Firmware section (updated information on EFI and other topics can be found on the author’s web site at http://osxbook.com/).

Roughly following the guide to the MacOS booting, Singh delves into the meat of OS X’s Unix underpinnings, describing how the MacOS really runs “under the hood.” This section covers all the expected topics, including the kernel, interprocess communication, and memory is very thorough fashion, with tons of code snippets all clearly explained. This will be especially useful for readers who are familiar with how other Unixes work behind the scenes, as Singh frequently and helpfully points of the areas where MacOS differs from other flavors of Unix. There is a great section on the various file systems that OS X supports, which is notable because other then a simple list, I have never seen this information in a book with such detail. The section of the primary OS X filesystem, HFS Plus, is very useful for both developers and power users alike.

“Mac OS X Internals” clocks in at 1641 pages in the end, and is over two inches thick. I was thoroughly impressed by this book. The author’s technical knowledge, as well as his enthusiasm and skill at presenting these topics is excellent. It’s hard to find anything negative to say about this book other then the the above-mentioned need to have more information on EFI (which isn’t the author’s fault, it was a matter of timing). I do wish the book came with an electronic version, as this would have made searching and copying the code snippets much easier. There is a coupon included for a time-limited trial of online access to the text, but I would prefer that a PDF be included on a CD with the book, even if this required an increase in the price (you can buy an electronic version on Amazon, but this is separate from the print version). These minor complaints aside, I cannot recommend “MacOS X Internals” enough. It is the finest technical book on MacOS X yet published, and puts Apple’s own technical documentation to shame in comparison. If you are a highly technical end user of developer, this book belongs on your shelf.

Summary: a technical tour-de-force and as thorough an overview of the MacOS as has ever made it into print with appeal to everyone from very technical end-users to system programmers

Plusses: Amazing wealth of technical detail, thorough coverage of all aspects of MacOS underpinnings, great sections on OS X history, boot process and file system, tons of programming examples
Minuses: A bit too much Open Firmware minutiae and not enough EFI minutiae, no searchable copy included

4 dog-cows

(this review has been updated from the original version…additional information on the author’s web site and availbility of the PDF version have been added based on reader comments on this blog)

A podcast from the July meeting of the Lawrence Apple Users Group. This month’s topic included photo resoration tips by Susan Allen. Check us out on the web and subscribe to the podcast at http://www.laugks.org/news/.

 

 Enhanced Podcast [77:30m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (4)

Click this link for more information Mac OS X Tiger: Missing Manual at Amazon.com

by David Pogue

After reading this book, I felt like I had to stand up or at least applaud. It was really a masterpiece: extremely comprehensive, easy to understand, expertly organized. The missing manual series by O’Reilly claims to be “The book that should have been in the box.” This book is to computer manuals what iPods are to digital music. Powerful, yet easy to use

The book is designed for someone who has never used Tiger before and is not all that familiar with the Mac either. Unlike a dummies book, he doesn’t talk down to you and respects the fact that you can learn things if shown how to use them.

This book doesn’t just cover Tiger, but also covers the iLife application suite: iMovie, iDVD and iTunes. In fact, I really don’t consider this just a Tiger manual. It’s really a iMac User’s Guide, covering pretty much every aspect of your new Macintosh. Have a problem with your Mac not working right? There’s a great troubleshooting section at the end of the book.

The index and table of contents is well organized so you can focus on the sections you want to learn more about. For example, if you don’t use classic applications (most people don’t) then skip over the section. Finding out how to burn a music CD or setting up your email was very easy to find and understand. No aspect of Tiger was left unexplained. The book even explains how to use the voice recognition software..something I’ve never played with but always wanted to learn how to use

Personally, I thought the coverage of Mac to PC and PC to Mac networking was great, since so many people live in mixed computing environments.

The major complaint I think some people might have about this book is it’s big. Over 800 pages can be a bit intimidating. I showed it to a customer and their response was: “ I thought Macs were so easy to use?” Even though it is easy to understand and find the information you want, I wouldn’t suggest it as the first manual to a new Mac user. I still think Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger: Peachpit Learning Series by Robin Williams is the best beginners book for Mac users. She really walks people through every step with bright colorful pictures.

The ideal user of this book is someone who understands the basics of Tiger and their Mac but says “I don’t think I’m using my Mac to it’s full potential.” After reading this book, they’ll have a complete arsenal to understand any aspect of their Mac.

Pros: The ideal book for Tiger users: complete, detailed, and easy to understand
Cons: Not designed for brand new users with no previous Mac experience, the amount of information may seem overwhelming

5 out of 5 dog cows

Ever felt like you weren’t getting the most out of your iLife? Well, Apple has posted a ton of multimedia tutorials on everything from iPhoto to iMovie. Check them out for yourself here.

Via: Digg.com

The first annual LAUG picnic took place June 7th at Broken Arrow Park in Lawrence. It was a lot of fun; about 15 or so hungry Mac-heads showed up to enjoy a bounty of homemade cookies, lasagne, salad and more. We also had a mini swap meet, with numerous cool antique Macs and other computer toys from the past decade available for sharing and purchasing.

Solio Charger

Solio one of the more intriguing booths at Macworld, a product that lets you charge your iPod or other device anywhere you can get sunlight…or so the theory goes. I read the instructions carefully that you should first charge the Solio via the wall.

I kept it in my car and two months later my iPod’s battery drained while I was driving. No problem, I charged my iPod via the Solio. I’m not sure how long it took to charge, but I went into a client and about 2 hours later it was ready to go. I fully let the Solio drain and then I tried to charge it via the sun. I did the charging during June and put it on my dashboard while driving. After about 4 days in the intense Kansas sun, it only had half a charge. Granted, I was able to charge my iPod enough to drive back from Topeka, but after 4 days or almost 32 hours of direct sunlight, I expected more of a charge. I was disappointed in its woeful ability to translate sunlight into iPod music.

The Solio also acts as a charger for some cell phones. My Samsung i500 smartphone wasn’t compatible, so I couldn’t test that function. I could easily see the Solio being handy to make an emergency call.

Generally, it was interesting, but for the amount it costs, I expected a better sunlight to energy ratio. Al Gore would not approve.

Pros: A good spare battery
Cons: Lousy solar charger. recommend buying a cellboost instead

2 out of five Dogcows