Unfortunately, from what I’ve been able to figure out, the SDK will not support non-destructive adjustments. It doesn’t ask the plug-in to “apply” its changes anywhere in the current chain of non-destructive adjustments or anything of the sort. It creates a copy of the selected photo, lets the plug-in do whatever it does to that copy, and that’s pretty much it. So, if the user does some exposure adjustments, then uses some type of “filter effect” edit plug-in, and finally applies a few more standard (ie. contrast) adjustments, he won’t be able to change the initial exposure adjustments and have them reflected in the “edited” copy.

Using class-dump we can see that the following is all a plug-in appears to be able to do:

@protocol ApertureEditPlugIn
 
- (id)initWithAPIManager:(id<PROAPIAccessing>)apiManager;
 
- (void)editManager:(id<ApertureEditManager>)editManager didImportImageAtPath:(id)imagePath versionUniqueID:(id)versionUniqueID;
 
- (void)beginEditSession;
 
- (id)editWindow;
 
@end
 
@protocol ApertureEditManager
 
- (id)selectedVersionIds;
- (id)editableVersionIds;
- (id)importedVersionIds;
- (id)propertiesWithoutThumbnailForVersion:(id)fp8;
- (id)thumbnailForVersion:(id)fp8 size:(int)fp12;
- (id)editableVersionsOfVersions:(id)fp8 stackWithOriginal:(BOOL)fp12;
- (BOOL)canImport;
- (void)importImageAtPath:(id)fp8 referenced:(BOOL)fp12 stackWithVersions:(id)fp16;
- (void)deleteVersions:(id)fp8;
- (void)addCustomMetadata:(id)fp8 toVersions:(id)fp12;
- (void)addHierarchicalKeywords:(id)fp8 toVersions:(id)fp12;
- (id)apertureWindow;
- (void)endEditSession;
- (void)cancelEditSession;
 
@end

To get at the data required to actually perform any “edits” on the image, you have to send the editManager an “editableVersionsOfVersions:stackWithOriginal:” message. This causes Aperture to create copies of the requested images. That’s all the plug-in is then able to work with.

I’d love to be completely wrong on this, but it appears that these “edit” plug-ins won’t be that much different than using “open with external editor.” This isn’t looking to be nearly as powerful or “revolutionary” as a lot of folks are hoping for, I’m afraid.

Maybe the official SDK will somehow prove me wrong, but the initial indications don’t look particularly promising at this point.

The state of the Mac OS

Steve Jobs started off by reporting that Apple had so far shipped 5 million copies of Leopard, making this “the most successful release of Mac OS X ever.” According to Jobs, this constitutes 20% of the Mac OS X installed base. As a developer currently working on a Leopard-only product, I find these numbers to be outstanding news. Wil Shipley of Delicious Monster has noted several times that the type of users who quickly upgrade to the latest operating system are the ones willing to spend money on software, and as such constitute a terrific target audience for new applications.

One can only imagine what numbers Jobs will reveal at the WWDC ‘08 keynote this summer.

The MacBook Air

Unsurprisingly, the complaints, the incessant whining, and the usual proclamations of Apple’s impending doom due to the introduction of the MacBook Air are running rampant across the web. Price comparisons between it and other MacBook models are being used to justify claims that the machine is “overpriced” and “underpowered.”

Granted, the Air is obviously less powerful than its MacBook (Pro) counterparts and it does indeed cost more. But engineering a notebook to fit into the constraints this product dictated doesn’t happen by itself. Hardware engineers don’t work for free. Miniaturization is always expensive. Historically, notebooks have been less powerful than their desktop counterparts, yet tended to cost quite a bit more. Portability comes at a premium.

John Gruber published his take on the MacBook Air in which he says that it is “clearly designed as a secondary machine, not a main machine.” While I agree that this statement holds true for power users, I also think Scott Stevenson makes an excellent point that “there’s an entire category of users that could use this not just as their primary, but their only computer.”

I don’t know if the MacBook Air will be a bestseller, but I do predict it’ll be a success.

The big item that seems to be circulating the rumor sites is the so-called “MacBook Air.” While I think that name sounds rather pedestrian, there does appear to be some circumstantial evidence supporting the idea. But regardless of its title, I am betting we will be seeing some sort of slimmed-down MacBook, probably lacking an optical drive. Justin Williams has an interesting take on how this could be accomplished by Apple introducing a new digital software distribution model. I agree with John Gruber that it will feature a standard hard disk, not flash memory.

We may also see an updated iPhone. Revised Cinema Displays seem likely as well, along with a new Apple TV.

In any case, I’m sure it will be interesting. I’ll be following along via MacRumorsLive. Hopefully some people will be “twittering” live from the keynote as it unfolds, too.

The custom window subclass

Create the following header file:

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// TransparentWindow.h
 
#import <Cocoa/Cocoa.h>
 
@interface TransparentWindow : NSWindow 
{
}
 
@end

In the implementation all we need to do to make the window transparent is specify a NSBorderlessWindowMask and set the background color to [NSColor clearColor].

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// TransparentWindow.m
 
#import "TransparentWindow.h"
 
@implementation TransparentWindow
 
- (id)initWithContentRect:(NSRect)contentRect styleMask:(NSUInteger)aStyle backing:(NSBackingStoreType)bufferingType defer:(BOOL)flag
{
    self = [super initWithContentRect:[[NSScreen mainScreen] frame] styleMask:NSBorderlessWindowMask backing:bufferingType defer:flag];
 
    if (self)
    {
        [self setBackgroundColor:[NSColor clearColor]];
        [self setOpaque:NO];
    }
 
    return self;
}
 
@end

Using the window class

To use this window you can either instantiate it programmatically or set it as the custom window class in your NIB file (I am using the latter method myself in a current project).

If you need a semi-transparent window, you can substitute something like [NSColor colorWithCalibratedWhite:1.0 alpha:0.5] for the color object in line 13.

And, depending on what you are doing, you may want your window to appear above the menubar. To do so, add [self setLevel:NSMainMenuWindowLevel + 1]; after line 14.

One of the motivating factors was Daniel Jalkut’s No More Excuses post, which made me finally decide to fight my inner procrastination and launch this blog.

And I recently “soft-launched” my small self-funded Mac software startup, Alien Orb Software. I want to use this web space to write about technical as well as small business topics, with a focus on the Mac. That doesn’t mean I will arbitrarily confine myself to this subject matter, but that is mostly what I see myself writing about in the near future.