Chapter 8. Strings and Text
Ever since Charles Babbage's amazing difference engine, computers have communicated with homo sapiens using text. It's true the Starship Enterprise's bridge was full of lights flashing across the screens, but the only one who ever needed to understand anything was Spock, and he stared into that little glowing monitor; and I'm guessing it displayed text.
A few years after that, Steve Jobs got the idea in his head that computers should not just produce text, they should produce beautiful text, and desktop publishing was born.
Within a few years of that, we were all spending huge amounts of time reading computer-generated text, on our desks, on our laps, and then on our phones; and we wanted it as cool and glossy as the most sophisticated magazines in print.
As a result, the presentation of text has become an essential part of writing software, at least for anyone writing desktop programs. As a macOS developer, you're in the company of people who produce the most elegant...
