macOS Internals • Hacker News Board

Re: macOS Internals

#31

Post by amelius » Sun, May 07, 2023, 8:42 AM UTC

apples_oranges wrote: post #27

ElFitz wrote: post #14

It’s funny how I used to think that operating systems, databases, and cloud systems, as these kind of arcane things that were somehow apart from the rest of software. I could not begin to grasp how they could deal with running programs, access control, or any of these things that once seemed so foreign and mysterious to me. And realising that it’s actually just software, that there’s no black magic to it, just lower-…

Yeah, it's all a bunch of programs doing their thing. One draws a GUI, another talks to the network adapter, and so forth.. And when you click a launcher icon, a loader program is started that (more or less) copies a program into RAM and when all is set up, it tells the OS (and the hardware) to run that, too.

Yes, a modern OS is a tangled mess of microservices.

Re: macOS Internals

#32

Post by aebtebeten » Sun, May 07, 2023, 8:45 AM UTC

vaughan wrote: post #4

History is such a great way to learn anything. It’s interesting - like a mystery revealed, but also provides the why - why things are the way they are. I was looking into accounting the other day, and you can go back to the first document that mentioned credit and debit and introduced modern accounting. There are so many topics like this that seem confusing and arbitrary but it all began extremely simply and pragmati…

> The present is the past rolled up for action and the past is the present unrolled for understanding. — A&WJD

Re: macOS Internals

#33

Post by gl-prod » Sun, May 07, 2023, 9:01 AM UTC

ElFitz wrote: post #14

It’s funny how I used to think that operating systems, databases, and cloud systems, as these kind of arcane things that were somehow apart from the rest of software. I could not begin to grasp how they could deal with running programs, access control, or any of these things that once seemed so foreign and mysterious to me. And realising that it’s actually just software, that there’s no black magic to it, just lower-…

It hits you in the face, how do you eat an elephant? A bite at a time. One API, one abstraction at a time.

Re: macOS Internals

#34

Post by underdeserver » Sun, May 07, 2023, 9:11 AM UTC

selestify wrote: post #23

dlivingston wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's turtles all the way down. Layers of abstraction stacked on layers of abstraction.

Until you get to the physics of transistors and logic gates :) Though I suppose in a sense, even subatomic particles are abstractions over quarks. It’s just that those are no longer abstractions we control.

Yup. APIs and constraints all make engineering sense. Turtles, all the way down... except when you get to quantum mechanics, that stuff is whack.

Re: macOS Internals

#35

Post by saagarjha » Sun, May 07, 2023, 9:18 AM UTC

microtonal wrote: post #22

nikodunk wrote: post #2

It's impressive how so many years after he left, the legendary articles by John Siracusa are still having an impact.

For newer macOS changes, Howard Oakley's blog is really awesome: https://eclecticlight.co/category/macs/

With a somewhat lower bar for accuracy, unfortunately.

Re: macOS Internals

#36

Post by saagarjha » Sun, May 07, 2023, 9:20 AM UTC

ris58h wrote: post #20

Does anybody know how to force sandboxing for a 3rd party app?

sandbox-exec?

Re: macOS Internals

#37

Post by saagarjha » Sun, May 07, 2023, 9:21 AM UTC

ilkkal wrote: post #16

saagarjha wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They’re just shared libraries.

Thanks for the blinding insight.

You’re welcome! Most things are pretty simple :)

Re: macOS Internals

#38

Post by maegul » Sun, May 07, 2023, 9:49 AM UTC

ElFitz wrote: post #14

It’s funny how I used to think that operating systems, databases, and cloud systems, as these kind of arcane things that were somehow apart from the rest of software. I could not begin to grasp how they could deal with running programs, access control, or any of these things that once seemed so foreign and mysterious to me. And realising that it’s actually just software, that there’s no black magic to it, just lower-…

For me this moment was when computers were no longer “magical” to me and that I found comments to this effect (even from those that know more than I and were more senior) odd and kinda culturally cultish.

Re: macOS Internals

#39

Post by astonex » Sun, May 07, 2023, 10:31 AM UTC

ElFitz wrote: post #14

It’s funny how I used to think that operating systems, databases, and cloud systems, as these kind of arcane things that were somehow apart from the rest of software. I could not begin to grasp how they could deal with running programs, access control, or any of these things that once seemed so foreign and mysterious to me. And realising that it’s actually just software, that there’s no black magic to it, just lower-…

If you wanted to learn, I really recommend Operating Systems: Three Easy Pieces (OSTEP). I thought it was excellent and pretty easy to follow. https://pages.cs.wisc.edu/~remzi/OSTEP/

Re: macOS Internals

#40

Post by TazeTSchnitzel » Sun, May 07, 2023, 10:36 AM UTC

If this kind of thing interests you: late-2000's/early-2010's Apple had some fantastic documentation, but it's all hidden in the “documentation archive” (https://developer.apple.com/library/archive/navigation/).