iTunes 8 is still not Cocoa

Earlier in the year, I posted a blog entry about how Apple, obviously, must be getting ready to release a new version of iTunes based upon the Cocoa framework, and not the Carbon framework. While I still believe this to be true, iTunes 8 is not that product.


A quick look through the application's bundle shows all the signs of a product still deeply welded to Carbon.
A quick glance through the Info.plist:

• No Principle Class so no NSApplication at launch
• The HIWindowFlushAtFullRefreshRate flag is set indicating at least a few Carbon windows
• Application requires Carbon environment flag is set

There are a few .nib files in the bundle, but all the ones I looked at were Carbon.

Localized strings are still kept in a resource (.rsrc) file! What in the world.


In fact, there are no obvious signs of any Cocoa use at all.



As someone who's day job involves maintaining a Carbon app that "should" be transitioned to Cocoa, I can sympathize. But it is concerning as Apple wastes development time adding features like Genius to a straight Carbon application. Anybody writing new features will know that their work will have a shelf life of about 9 months; and will have to be reimplemented—at least the GUI parts—in Cocoa. And the sooner a Cocoa iTunes comes out, the faster it will become a mature, bug-free product.