February 11, 2003

Bloat 3.0

I have now been playing with trace-malloc on Minimo (a GTK+ embed with no chrome and such). It's an excellent but under-configured tool--the majority of the trash that gets leftover when you go to CNN and then leave it is in void*'s. A

Here's the overview numbers for now: minimo-bloat.html. I will fine-tune these numbers as I go. It appears the three top hitters are things allocated by image frame (coming in at a whopping 1M), by the cache (at 100-200K) and by nsCSSDeclarations (allocated all over the freaking place and apparently never destroyed).

Next I need to figure out if I have all the right prefs for the Minimo run to be truly useful. Probably not. Image caching in particular is obviously on.

Posted by jkeiser at February 11, 2003 12:36 AM
Comments

At WWDC, I listened to Apple representatives make some excellent points about taking the time to build a 100%-compliant Aqua application, and I think all developers need to look beyond the code and listen to what the folks at Apple have to say

Posted by: Agnes at January 26, 2004 9:33 AM

Help! Did you include help tags in your applications? (I'd be lost without them.) Also, be sure to take extra time to develop your other help files. The Apple Help Viewer supports HTML, QuickTime, and also AppleScript. Take advantage of it! There isn't anything I hate more than going to the Help menu and finding there isn't any help.

Posted by: Emery at January 26, 2004 9:33 AM

You Must Promise. To call your mother, to help old ladies cross the road, and to turn your cell phone off at the movies.

Posted by: Charity at January 26, 2004 9:33 AM

The simple fact is that, when all other factors are equal, where will consumers spend their money? I believe that in the long run, the best looking, easiest-to-use applications will also be the most successful. I think that's why Apple encourages developers to write programs that are 100 percent Aqua-compliant.

Posted by: Christian at January 26, 2004 9:34 AM

Adhere to Window Models. Document windows, Utility windows, Click-through, Layering, Drawers, Controls. How do users open windows, how do you properly title windows?

Posted by: Lawrence at January 26, 2004 9:34 AM

Drawers. Similar to Sheets, this is a "child" window that gives users access to items that do not always need to be present. But when do you use a drawer and when do you use a palette?

Posted by: Thomas at January 26, 2004 9:34 AM

In building your amazing Aqua application, one of the most important things to consider is the Dock. There are three things your app needs to be "Dock Compliant." Now, I write this knowing that the Dock will be going through some major changes soon, but for the most part, these should still hold true.

Posted by: Elizabeth at January 26, 2004 9:34 AM

To help you become a good Aqua citizen, Apple has created a few guidelines. I've put together a brief overview of them, and we'll be tackling many of them in the months to come.

Posted by: Alveredus at January 26, 2004 9:34 AM

Clicking an application in the dock should always bring forward an active window. If the user clicks on an open app's icon in the Dock, the application is active and all unminimized windows come along with it. I have found a few problems with windows behaving independently of their application.

Posted by: Matilda at January 26, 2004 9:34 AM

By building an application that takes advantage of Aqua's many facets, you help ensure that your application will not only look good, but have a chance of becoming a raging success. After a new user clicks on the icon of your program, the first thing he or she sees is the application interface. I know that when I review a product, I am very critical of its visual design. I usually have a short time to learn the new software, so design and ease of use are very important. Aside from those who marvel at the beauty of the command line, most users tend to react the same way.

Posted by: Adlard at January 26, 2004 9:34 AM