We introduced Carbon, the C programming interface that lets you take advantage of features in Mac OS X, such as preemptive multitasking and protected memory. Carbon is a synthesis of old and new Mac OS technologies. Although there are many interfaces in Carbon, in most cases only a subset is essential for all applications. Others may be useful only for specialized needs or to support the porting of legacy applications. Of the numerous development environments available to build Carbon applications, this book will use Project Builder and Interface Builder, which are specifically designed for building applications on Mac OS X.

Next, we will design the application, a moon travel planning guide, that we will use to illustrate major Carbon programming concepts and methods.