{"id":16012,"date":"2009-09-09T21:53:06","date_gmt":"2009-09-09T21:53:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.adobe.com\/jnackdev\/2009\/09\/why-do-you-want-a-64-bit-itunes.html"},"modified":"2009-09-09T21:53:06","modified_gmt":"2009-09-09T21:53:06","slug":"why_do_you_want_a_64_bit_itunes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/jnack.com\/blog\/2009\/09\/09\/why_do_you_want_a_64_bit_itunes\/","title":{"rendered":"Why do you want a 64-bit iTunes?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Prior to today&#8217;s Apple announcements, John Gruber <a href=\"http:\/\/daringfireball.net\/2009\/09\/rock_and_roll_prelude\">wondered aloud<\/a> on Daring Fireball:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>What I&#8217;m interested in is more esoteric: is the Mac version [of iTunes] still a 32-bit <a href=\"http:\/\/developer.apple.com\/Carbon\/\">Carbon<\/a> app? Common sense says yes, but that&#8217;s because common sense says it&#8217;s never a good time for a low-level framework rewrite. But the writing is on the wall: the future is 64-bit, and the only path to 64-bit is <a href=\"http:\/\/developer.apple.com\/cocoa\/\">Cocoa<\/a>, so eventually, it has to happen.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><\/p>\n<p>Let me be really clear:  <strong>I think Cocoa is great.  I think 64-bit is great<\/strong>.  (We&#8217;re <a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.adobe.com\/jnack\/2008\/04\/photoshop_lr_64.html\">embracing both<\/a> with Photoshop.)  But I&#8217;m really, genuinely curious: What <em>specifically<\/em> do people believe a transition to either is going to add to their software?  In the case of iTunes, I have to ask:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Do people really have performance problems* with iTunes as it is?\n<ul>\n<li>I never have.  It filters my 3,000-item library as fast as I can type, does a lovely job with HD video, and whips through album art in Cover Flow.  I can&#8217;t recall others complaining, either.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Do they want iTunes to use more than 4GB of RAM?\n<ul>\n<li>I think we can safely say &#8220;No.&#8221;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Do they complain about the UI (e.g. <a href=\"http:\/\/macenstein.com\/default\/2009\/09\/is-itunes-9-sporting-marble\/\">non-standard scrollbars<\/a>) and think that Cocoa will make iTunes more &#8220;Mac-like&#8221;?\n<ul>\n<li>Again, I haven&#8217;t heard complaints (or rather, only <a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.adobe.com\/jnack\/2008\/06\/future_photoshop_ui.html#c1397794\">ridiculous ones<\/a>).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><\/p>\n<p>So what, then?  Let me put it another way: If you were directing the iTunes team&#8217;s efforts, why would you&#8211;as a customer&#8211;tell them to spend their time on Cocoa and\/or 64-bit, <em>at the expense of<\/em> doing other things customers want?<\/p>\n<p>I don&#8217;t know why I feel compelled to scratch this itch.  See, a smarter, lazier, and\/or more cynical product manager than I would simply kick back, shut up, and say, &#8220;Photoshop CS-<em>X<\/em> is 64-bit and based on Cocoa, so you should buy it!&#8221;  If anyone dared ask how these facts might benefit her, I&#8217;d just loudly repeat, &#8220;But it&#8217;s <em>COCOA!<\/em> and <em>64-BIT!<\/em> So that&#8217;s, like, <em>AUTOMATICALLY AWESOME!&#8221;<\/em>  <\/p>\n<p>For better or worse, that&#8217;s not how I roll.  I want people to buy my (and our) work based on real value, not due to lack of information.  I suppose I can take some weird solace in the fact that no matter what I say, many people will go on happily believing whatever they want.<\/p>\n<p>So, out of honest curiosity I ask: If you&#8217;re pining for iTunes 64, why (specifically)?<\/p>\n<p><em>*Not, of course, that 64-bit is <a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.adobe.com\/jnack\/2009\/08\/a_64-bit_reality_check.html\">any kind of panacea<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Prior to today&#8217;s Apple announcements, John Gruber wondered aloud on Daring Fireball: What I&#8217;m interested in is more esoteric: is the Mac version [of iTunes] still a 32-bit Carbon app? Common sense says yes, but that&#8217;s because common sense says it&#8217;s never a good time for a low-level framework rewrite. But the writing is on [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[19],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/jnack.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16012"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/jnack.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/jnack.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jnack.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jnack.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16012"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/jnack.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16012\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/jnack.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16012"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jnack.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16012"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jnack.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16012"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}