Mac OS X Panther in a Nutshell, 2nd Edition

How This Book Is Organized

This book is broken down into 5 parts, 28 chapters, and 2 appendixes.

Part I

This first part of the book introduces users to Mac OS X Panther, showing you what’s there and how to get your system configured to your liking.

Chapter 1

We begin our exploration of Mac OS X at its surface, by describing and documenting Aqua, the system’s liquid-themed graphical user interface. This chapter covers the visual metaphors and window features that every native Mac OS X application uses, as well as onscreen objects that are available from every program, such as the Dock and the menu bar.

Chapter 2

The Finder is Mac OS X’s graphical file navigation application, which presents your computer’s filesystem through the familiar visual metaphor of folders and files. This chapter explores this application, including a wealth of subtle tips and tricks.

Chapter 3

Meant especially for longtime Mac veterans, this chapter covers the major differences between Mac OS X and its predecessors, of which Mac OS 9 was the final version.

Chapter 4

This chapter covers the System Preferences application as it appears in Mac OS X Version 10.2 and details how it works as a frontend to the file-based preferences system.

Chapter 5

Mac OS X comes with a wealth of core applications, more than any Mac OS before it. This chapter lists the contents of a fresh Mac OS X installation’s Applications folder and discusses the system’s unique approach to application integration, as well as ways to install new programs onto your Mac.

Chapter 6

This chapter provides a quick index of common operating system activities in a question-and-answer format.

Part II

Now that you’ve set up your Mac, it’s time to dive deeper into the operating system. This part of the book introduces you to the basic concepts of networking and system administration, including coverage of Directory Services.

Chapter 7

Like any Unix system, much of Mac OS X’s functionality is based on its filesystem layout. This chapter tours the various folders found on a typical Mac OS X volume, including the Unix-centric directories that the Finder usually keeps out of sight.

Chapter 8

This chapter covers the user’s part in establishing and using a network connection with Mac OS X. It centers on the system’s Network preferences pane and touches on the programs you can use to take advantage of an active connection.

Chapter 9

This chapter details the Mac OS X printing system. It covers printing documents through the standard Print dialogs (as well as through a handful of command-line programs) and discusses configuring the printing system.

Chapter 10

Now that Macs are actually Unix machines at the core, it pays to know the fundamentals of administrating a multiuser system (even if you’re the only human user on it). This chapter also covers the basics of monitoring and maintaining your Mac’s network connections, whether they are to a LAN or the Internet.

Chapter 11

This chapter details the ways Mac OS X stores and accesses its administrative information, ranging from the NetInfo system of network-linked databases to the “old-school” file-based system familiar to Unix administrators.

Chapter 12

Mac OS X’s suite of open source Unix software includes a full complement of network services programs (what the Unix wizards call daemons). This chapter details the major categories of services Unix supplies, including web servers, file sharing, and mail servers. This chapter also covers the control that Mac OS X gives you through either the Sharing preferences pane or the command line.

Chapter 13

Mac OS X Panther includes many new security-related features, from Kerberos authentication to the new FileVault and Secure Empty Trash. This chapter provides a basic run-down of how you can keep your Mac and the data on it more secure.

Part III

Mac OS X is a developer’s dream come true. This part covers the basics of AppleScript, the Xcode Tools, Java, and the concurrent versioning system (CVS) for managing your source code.

Chapter 14

The Mac’s native scripting language, AppleScript, gives you control over the environment and the applications on your system. This chapter introduces you to AppleScript, describing Apple Events and showing you how to use the Script Editor to write AppleScripts.

Chapter 15

Mac OS X is a developer’s delight, and each new Mac and OS box comes with Apple’s own Xcode Tools. This chapter provides a basic overview of the applications and tools that ship as part of the Xcode Tools, including Xcode and Interface Builder, the integrated development environment (IDE) for programming Cocoa-based applications for Mac OS X.

Chapter 16

This chapter covers the various ways you can run Java programs in Mac OS X, either as full-fledged Aqua applications, JAR files that provide their own interfaces, or even command-line programs.

Chapter 17

CVS, the concurrent versions system, gives users and developers an easy way to manage changes made to project files. Under CVS, each person working on a project gets their own “sandbox” copy of every file involved, which they can modify and experiment with however they please; a central, untouchable file repository keeps the canonical files safe. This chapter introduces you to CVS and includes both the administrator and user commands.

Part IV

Now it’s time to roll up your sleeves. This part of the book goes deeper into the BSD Unix side of Mac OS X.

Chapter 18

With Mac OS X, you’ll normally use one way to gain access to the Unix core: the Terminal application. This chapter introduces you to the Terminal application and shows you how to issue commands and tweak its settings.

Chapter 19

This chapter provides a quick overview of the differences between bash, Mac OS X Panther’s default shell, and tcsh, the default shell for earlier versions of Mac OS X.

Chapter 20

This chapter provides a quick overview of the bash shell, along with a listing of its built-in commands for shell scripting.

Chapter 21

This chapter provides a quick overview of the tcsh shell, along with a listing of its built-in commands for shell scripting.

Chapter 22

A number of Unix text-processing utilities let you search for, and in some cases change, text patterns rather than fixed strings. These utilities include editing programs such as vi and Emacs, programming languages such as Perl and Python, and the commands grep and egrep. Text patterns (formally called regular expressions) contain normal characters mixed with special characters (called metacharacters).

Chapter 23

vi is the classic screen-editing program for Unix. In Mac OS X Panther, vim is the default version of vi and runs when you invoke vi from the command line. This chapter covers some of vi’s most commonly used options and features.

Chapter 24

The Emacs editor is found on many Unix systems, including Mac OS X, because it is a popular alternative to vi. For many Unix users, Emacs is more than “just an editor.” While Emacs provides a fully integrated user environment, this chapter focuses on its editing capabilities.

Chapter 25

Like the old saying goes, there’s more than one way to skin a cat. In this case, the cat we’re skinning is Panther. When you configure your system or an application to your liking, those preferences are stored in what’s known as the defaults database. This chapter describes how to gain access to and hack these settings via the Terminal application and the defaults command.

Chapter 26

This chapter highlights some of the key features of Apple’s X11 distribution and explains how to install Apple’s X11 and the X11 SDK. It also explains how to use X11 in both rootless and full-screen modes (using the GNOME and KDE desktops). You’ll also learn how to connect to other X Window systems using Virtual Network Computer (VNC), as well as how to remotely control the Mac OS X desktop from other X11 systems.

Chapter 27

While Mac OS X is Unix-based, most Unix applications need a little help to get them installed and running. This chapter describes some of the issues you’ll run into when installing a Unix application on Mac OS X and guides you through what’s needed to make them run.

Chapter 28

This final chapter lists descriptions and usage terms for nearly 300 Unix commands found in Mac OS X. The commands have been painstakingly run and verified against the manpages for accuracy; this is the most complete and accurate Mac-based Unix command reference in print.

Part V

The book also has the following appendixes.

Appendix A

This appendix lists the special characters you can create using the various special keys (Shift, Control, Option, Command, and combinations thereof) to create special characters without having to use the Character Palette.

Appendix B

This appendix is a listing of resources for Mac users, including books, web sites, and mailing lists applicable to Mac OS X users, developers, and administrators.