Kevin: I think it's best to just take Scott's points for what they are: a celebration of the good mood and care for customer experience that exists on the Mac, in general. The tone of Scott's article is largely prescriptive, and while it's true that some other programmers on other platforms may meet these same criteria, Cocoa is the dominant development framework for the Mac in 2008, so naturally his comments would be in the context of Cocoa.
And, suffice to say that interface design and usability are subjective topics. But the list of comparisons you present is somewhat ironic considering some of the "close seconds" you cite in the Cocoa world have in fact received Apple Design Awards and are widely considered to exemplify careful design on the Mac.
The argument that Carbon applications can easily provide the expected user experience on Mac OS X is getting weaker and weaker every year.
by Daniel Jalkut — Jun 27
And, suffice to say that interface design and usability are subjective topics. But the list of comparisons you present is somewhat ironic considering some of the "close seconds" you cite in the Cocoa world have in fact received Apple Design Awards and are widely considered to exemplify careful design on the Mac.
The argument that Carbon applications can easily provide the expected user experience on Mac OS X is getting weaker and weaker every year.