Bedrock (framework)
Encyclopedia
Bedrock was a joint effort by Apple Computer and Symantec
to produce a cross platform
programming framework
for writing applications on the Apple Macintosh
and Microsoft Windows
platforms. The project was a failure for various political reasons, and after delivering a beta version the project died in late 1993.
Bedrock started as an internal effort at Symantec in the early 1990s. At the time many of Symantec's products ran on both Mac and Windows, and Bedrock was intended to ease the effort of keeping both platforms up to date. Symantec was also the supplier of the premier development platform on the Mac, Think C
, which included an application framework of its own, TCL.
At about the same time Apple had delivered the latest version of their own framework, MacApp
. The upgrade to 3.0 had not gone smoothly, due largely to a switch in language from Object Pascal
to C++
. Applications written in earlier versions of MacApp had to be completely re-written for 3.0, and even the new version didn't support many of the new features introduced in System 7
, or at least not well. Making matters worse was that their development environment, MPW
, was hopelessly outdated and completely un-Mac-like. At some point the system would have to be replaced outright, by something that would likely look a lot like Think C.
Adding to the concern was the ongoing rise of Windows, which had finally matured into a usable system that would run on the average machine of the era. Cross-platform systems became something of a holy grail in the Mac developer community, but most efforts up to that point had resulted in lowest-common-denominator products that looked like neither platform and were generally detested.
A collaboration between Apple and Symantec thus seemed natural. In early 1992 they first mentioned a cross-platform strategy in the flier for WWDC '92, and talked about it very briefly at the show, calling it Cross Platform Framework and mentioning that more would be revealed at the MacWorld show in June. At the show they announced the concept as Bedrock, with plans to expand it in the future to support Unix
, OS/2
, Windows NT
and Taligent
. The first releases would be officially supported by Apple's follow-on for MPW and Symantec's Think C on the Mac, and Symantec's Zortech C++ on Windows. Although not officially supported, the system would be deliberately written to be able to compile under any C++ compiler. As the follow-on to MacApp, development of that product was stopped to concentrate solely on Bedrock.
While it appeared that the effort was a joint project, in fact the entire development was being carried out by Symantec, a fact that slowly became apparent during the year. Developers started commenting about the dangerous position this placed Apple in, leaving their future development platform in the hands of a 3rd party. It appeared that Apple had completely abandoned the tools market, which may have not been far from the truth at that time. Making matters considerably worse was the fact that Symantec's CEO had given up on the Mac, and even publicly announced that Windows was the future.
A developer's preview was delivered in the spring of 1993 that included several demo apps built using the system. These apps looked nothing like Mac or Windows programs, using custom UI widgets for many common tasks like Open File dialog boxes. Furthermore the applications were simply downright ugly; buttons didn't line up, dialogs had spelling mistakes and bad grammar, and the menu bar often included the same command in several menus. Few previews have been so effective at ensuring the failure of a project (with the possible exception of Copland
).
Throughout this period Apple was also working on OpenDoc
, positioning it as a unique document-centered technology that led to a better user experience than monolithic applications. Apple was particularly effective in "selling" the OpenDoc concept to end users and developers, and the obvious contradiction between working on Bedrock while claiming classic applications were outmoded led to infighting between the project teams in Apple.
In January 1994 Apple finally made the obvious official, and stated that the Bedrock efforts were no longer taking place with Symantec. Instead, Apple took out a perpetual license for the software and was re-purposing it an OpenDoc development platform. How this was to be accomplished was not clear, and the announcement was generally taken to be a death knell – which it was. All mention of Bedrock quickly disappeared from both company's public statements, although various parts of the technology showed up in products from both companies over the years. Apple was left with the programming framework and development platform they had two years earlier, and native support for the PowerPC
was still spotty, at best. If not for the "upstarts" at Metrowerks
, developers may have abandoned Apple entirely.
In the end the effort served as yet another example of the problems Apple was having at the time. After largely ignoring the developer tools market until 3rd parties had completely surpassed them, they suddenly found themselves with no compelling tools just when Windows was starting to break out. Their desperate attempts to address the problem resulted in a string of failed projects, Bedrock, Dylan, AOCE
and, eventually, OpenDoc among them.
Symantec
Symantec Corporation is the largest maker of security software for computers. The company is headquartered in Mountain View, California, and is a Fortune 500 company and a member of the S&P 500 stock market index.-History:...
to produce a cross platform
Cross-platform
In computing, cross-platform, or multi-platform, is an attribute conferred to computer software or computing methods and concepts that are implemented and inter-operate on multiple computer platforms...
programming framework
Software framework
In computer programming, a software framework is an abstraction in which software providing generic functionality can be selectively changed by user code, thus providing application specific software...
for writing applications on the Apple Macintosh
Macintosh
The Macintosh , or Mac, is a series of several lines of personal computers designed, developed, and marketed by Apple Inc. The first Macintosh was introduced by Apple's then-chairman Steve Jobs on January 24, 1984; it was the first commercially successful personal computer to feature a mouse and a...
and Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...
platforms. The project was a failure for various political reasons, and after delivering a beta version the project died in late 1993.
Bedrock started as an internal effort at Symantec in the early 1990s. At the time many of Symantec's products ran on both Mac and Windows, and Bedrock was intended to ease the effort of keeping both platforms up to date. Symantec was also the supplier of the premier development platform on the Mac, Think C
THINK C
THINK C was an extension of ANSI C for Mac OS developed by THINK Technologies; although named Lightspeed C in the original mid-1986 release, it was later renamed THINK C. THINK Technologies was later acquired by Symantec Corporation and the product continued to be developed by the original author,...
, which included an application framework of its own, TCL.
At about the same time Apple had delivered the latest version of their own framework, MacApp
MacApp
MacApp was Apple Computer's primary object oriented application framework for the Mac OS for much of the 1990s. First released in 1985, it is arguably the first such system to be widely used, notably on a microcomputer platform...
. The upgrade to 3.0 had not gone smoothly, due largely to a switch in language from Object Pascal
Object Pascal
Object Pascal refers to a branch of object-oriented derivatives of Pascal, mostly known as the primary programming language of Embarcadero Delphi.-Early history at Apple:...
to C++
C++
C++ is a statically typed, free-form, multi-paradigm, compiled, general-purpose programming language. It is regarded as an intermediate-level language, as it comprises a combination of both high-level and low-level language features. It was developed by Bjarne Stroustrup starting in 1979 at Bell...
. Applications written in earlier versions of MacApp had to be completely re-written for 3.0, and even the new version didn't support many of the new features introduced in System 7
System 7
System 7 is the name of a Macintosh operating system introduced in 1991.System 7 may also refer to:* System 7 , a British dance/ambient band* System 7 , 1991 album* IBM System/7, a 1970s computer system...
, or at least not well. Making matters worse was that their development environment, MPW
Macintosh Programmer's Workshop
Macintosh Programmer's Workshop or MPW, is a software development environment for the Classic Mac OS, written by Apple Computer. For Macintosh developers, it was one of the primary tools for building applications for System 7.x and Mac OS 8.x and 9.x. Initially, MPW was sold as a commercial product...
, was hopelessly outdated and completely un-Mac-like. At some point the system would have to be replaced outright, by something that would likely look a lot like Think C.
Adding to the concern was the ongoing rise of Windows, which had finally matured into a usable system that would run on the average machine of the era. Cross-platform systems became something of a holy grail in the Mac developer community, but most efforts up to that point had resulted in lowest-common-denominator products that looked like neither platform and were generally detested.
A collaboration between Apple and Symantec thus seemed natural. In early 1992 they first mentioned a cross-platform strategy in the flier for WWDC '92, and talked about it very briefly at the show, calling it Cross Platform Framework and mentioning that more would be revealed at the MacWorld show in June. At the show they announced the concept as Bedrock, with plans to expand it in the future to support Unix
Unix
Unix is a multitasking, multi-user computer operating system originally developed in 1969 by a group of AT&T employees at Bell Labs, including Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, Brian Kernighan, Douglas McIlroy, and Joe Ossanna...
, OS/2
OS/2
OS/2 is a computer operating system, initially created by Microsoft and IBM, then later developed by IBM exclusively. The name stands for "Operating System/2," because it was introduced as part of the same generation change release as IBM's "Personal System/2 " line of second-generation personal...
, Windows NT
Windows NT
Windows NT is a family of operating systems produced by Microsoft, the first version of which was released in July 1993. It was a powerful high-level-language-based, processor-independent, multiprocessing, multiuser operating system with features comparable to Unix. It was intended to complement...
and Taligent
Taligent
Taligent was the name of an object-oriented operating system and the company dedicated to producing it...
. The first releases would be officially supported by Apple's follow-on for MPW and Symantec's Think C on the Mac, and Symantec's Zortech C++ on Windows. Although not officially supported, the system would be deliberately written to be able to compile under any C++ compiler. As the follow-on to MacApp, development of that product was stopped to concentrate solely on Bedrock.
While it appeared that the effort was a joint project, in fact the entire development was being carried out by Symantec, a fact that slowly became apparent during the year. Developers started commenting about the dangerous position this placed Apple in, leaving their future development platform in the hands of a 3rd party. It appeared that Apple had completely abandoned the tools market, which may have not been far from the truth at that time. Making matters considerably worse was the fact that Symantec's CEO had given up on the Mac, and even publicly announced that Windows was the future.
A developer's preview was delivered in the spring of 1993 that included several demo apps built using the system. These apps looked nothing like Mac or Windows programs, using custom UI widgets for many common tasks like Open File dialog boxes. Furthermore the applications were simply downright ugly; buttons didn't line up, dialogs had spelling mistakes and bad grammar, and the menu bar often included the same command in several menus. Few previews have been so effective at ensuring the failure of a project (with the possible exception of Copland
Copland (operating system)
Copland was a project at Apple Computer to create an updated version of the Macintosh operating system. It was to have introduced protected memory, preemptive multitasking and a number of new underlying operating system features, yet still be compatible with existing Mac software...
).
Throughout this period Apple was also working on OpenDoc
OpenDoc
OpenDoc was a multi-platform software componentry framework standard for compound documents, intended as an alternative to Microsoft's Object Linking and Embedding ....
, positioning it as a unique document-centered technology that led to a better user experience than monolithic applications. Apple was particularly effective in "selling" the OpenDoc concept to end users and developers, and the obvious contradiction between working on Bedrock while claiming classic applications were outmoded led to infighting between the project teams in Apple.
In January 1994 Apple finally made the obvious official, and stated that the Bedrock efforts were no longer taking place with Symantec. Instead, Apple took out a perpetual license for the software and was re-purposing it an OpenDoc development platform. How this was to be accomplished was not clear, and the announcement was generally taken to be a death knell – which it was. All mention of Bedrock quickly disappeared from both company's public statements, although various parts of the technology showed up in products from both companies over the years. Apple was left with the programming framework and development platform they had two years earlier, and native support for the PowerPC
PowerPC
PowerPC is a RISC architecture created by the 1991 Apple–IBM–Motorola alliance, known as AIM...
was still spotty, at best. If not for the "upstarts" at Metrowerks
Metrowerks
Metrowerks was a company that developed software development tools for various desktop, handheld, embedded, and gaming platforms. Its flagship product, CodeWarrior, comprised an IDE, compilers, linkers, debuggers, libraries, and related tools...
, developers may have abandoned Apple entirely.
In the end the effort served as yet another example of the problems Apple was having at the time. After largely ignoring the developer tools market until 3rd parties had completely surpassed them, they suddenly found themselves with no compelling tools just when Windows was starting to break out. Their desperate attempts to address the problem resulted in a string of failed projects, Bedrock, Dylan, AOCE
Apple Open Collaboration Environment
Apple Open Collaboration Environment, or AOCE , was a collection of messaging-related technologies introduced for the Mac OS in the early 1990s...
and, eventually, OpenDoc among them.