Leopard Drops 64-bit Carbon Support - MacRumors
Skip to Content

Leopard Drops 64-bit Carbon Support

by

Developers at WWDC are realizing that Steve Jobs made a purposeful omission when he didn't include Carbon in Leopard's list of 64-bit compatible libraries at this year's WWDC keynote.

At last year's keynote, Apple had claimed that both Carbon and Cocoa would be 64-bit, adding to the 64-bit fundamentals that Tiger had laid. A photo from last year's presentation, courtesy of Engadget:

dsc 0487 300

However, according to the latest on Apple's website, Leopard's 64-bit frameworks will include the POSIX and math libraries found in Tiger, Cocoa, Quartz, OpenGL, and X11 GUI framework. In addition, Apple confirms that Carbon will not be 64-bit on the Carbon Developer mailing list.

In all reality, this omission may not prove to be a huge stumbling block for many users, as Cocoa has been Apple's preferred framework since the inception of Mac OS X and Carbon was employed primarily as a method for porting legacy apps to OS X.

Popular Stories

Apple Card iPhone 16 Pro Feature

Apple Card Promo to Offer Free AirPods Pro 3

Friday May 15, 2026 8:59 am PDT by
Starting as early as next week, customers who sign up for an Apple Card at Apple's retail stores in the U.S. will receive $249 cash back when they purchase AirPods Pro 3, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. The promotion has yet to be officially announced by Apple, so exact terms and conditions are not available at this time. AirPods Pro 3 are priced at $249 in the U.S., so customers who...
Apple WWDC25 iOS 26 CarPlay Light mode 250609

Six Popular iPhone Apps Now Available on CarPlay

Thursday May 14, 2026 9:10 am PDT by
Apple's CarPlay system for accessing iPhone apps on a vehicle's dashboard screen has received six popular apps in recent weeks: ChatGPT, Perplexity, Grok, Google Meet, WhatsApp, and the indie artist streaming platform Audiomack. Make sure you have the latest version of each app and they will automatically appear on CarPlay. ChatGPT Starting with iOS 26.4, CarPlay supports voice-based...
ipad mini 7 blue

OLED iPad Mini: Release Date, Pricing, and What to Expect

Thursday May 14, 2026 5:08 am PDT by
According to the latest rumors, Apple is close to launching its next-generation iPad mini. So what should we expect from the successor to the iPad mini 7 that Apple released over a year ago? Read on to find out. Processor and Performance Apple is working on a next-generation version of the iPad mini (codename J510/J511) that features the A19 Pro chip, according to information found in code...