Carbon

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Carbon is a programming API used by Mac OS X.

It is based on Apple's older (pre-X) API, but with changes necessary to allow applications to behave well in a multitasking, multi-processor operating environment.

Applications built using Carbon can be run on some versions of Classic Mac OS, if the appropriate CarbonLib system extension is installed.

Carbon has been available to developers for many years before the introduction of Mac OS X, but was not widely used until widespread adoption of Mac OS X forced its usage.

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The Death of Carbon

Recently, Apple has announced that it is not planning to update Carbon to 64-bit, which means that as more Macs gain 64-bit processors, and Apple phases out 32-bit from it's Macintosh Software, developers will no longer be able to use Carbon to develop Applications. The reason for this is that Apple would rather developers use it's Cocoa programming language, instead, as Cocoa can integrate with OS X features like the spell checker, for instance, making it easier for users to use the OS in general.

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