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by simonh 3522 days ago
Every now and then Apple release a new product, like TVOS for the Apple TV and people ask why Apple wrote an entirely new OS. why not base it on iOS or OSX. of course that's exactly what they do. There's a common core to OSX, iOS and now TVOS that are almost entirely the same code base. Which specific files are common or different for each flavour probably changes from time to time and this may well be a case of that.

The fact is though, iOS and OSX are already as much the same code base as they can be, and as much different as they need to be. That balance may change as the OSes evolve, but I don't think there's any pressing need or benefit to converging them completely.
1 comments
m_mueller 3522 days ago
The necessary divergence you talk about is mainly the UX coming from different input methods for the pointer device, correct?

With the (partly regretable) adoption of UI design patterns that are mainly meant for touch devices, such a merge appears to be closer however. I think the main patterns missing are

* a more powerful touch-capable tiling window manager

* a method to get "mouse hover" events working on touch devices. finger hover?

* a both touch- and precision pointer friendly implementation of the OSX menu system.

Anything I'm missing here?

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rzhikharevich 3522 days ago
> a method to get "mouse hover" events working on touch devices

As far as I know, an example is Apple's 3D Touch.

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m_mueller 3522 days ago
I'm not convinced that employing 3D Touch to do the typical things of mouse hover is a good idea. Displaying help text to users being lost when they do a very specific gesture? It needs to be something that every user can immediately pick up on.

Maybe a stare-o-recognizer using the camera? If the user looks puzzled at a button, display text to explain ;-).

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