Remote-Url: http://www.shawcomputing.net/resources/next/software/services/services_1.html Retrieved-at: 2022-02-20 23:00:52.964773+00:00 People often ask me what it is about OPENSTEP (or NEXTSTEP, or Rhapsody, or Mac OS X) that sets it so far a part from other operating. The simple answer is the GUI (graphical user interface), the environment in which I do all my work. But when they start asking about specifics, the one feature I turn to most is Services.The concept and implementation of Services can make the user experience on an OPENSTEP system quite different from any other platform.As many people know, the Linux community has spent a massive amount of effort in making window managers that look like OPENSTEP. While they have copied the "theme" quite nicely, it still isn't OPENSTEP without the functionality. And from a users perspective, that functionality is often provided via Services.Philosophy of ServicesThe idea behind Services is that no application should have to stand alone. Other applications can aid the application a user may be using... extending that application's feature set beyond what it originally shipped with.In this way, Services were designed to let developers concentrate on what ever they did best. The end user could then put together a collection of apps that covered his needs.Also, with some standard functions made into system wide Services, the developers avoid wasting development time on those functions and devote more time to the key features of their application.Shared System-wide ServicesSome of the Services that people use they may not even recognize as Services at first. Examples of these are spell checking, font and color panels. All of these are functions provided by the system for any developer to take advantage of.