As I understand it, each iOS application is sort of like its own 3D plane within a larger environment, hence why the launcher shows up without any lag.
I hope someone can do the work of pasting the original Aqua framework overview that’s probably still hiding somewhere on the Apple website. The manner in which the combination of OpenGL (Metal?) and PDF work to render UI and elements on OS X and iOS is really quite remarkable. I think even now, 20 years later, there isn’t anything comparable being done by Android/Linux or Windows. I would love to be proven wrong, however (I haven’t followed this closely for the past few years).
Yeah the iOS multitasking view tracks all the way back to windows in OS X 10.5 Exposé being actual windows instead of snapshots, and the parlor trick of QuickTime player windows continuing to play video when minimized to the dock all the way back in 10.0 (and perhaps the 10.0 public beta, I forget). It’s the kind of thing that family of operating systems has handled well for a long time.
Compiz and all subsequent compositing managers do the same thing for Linux (each app has its own surface in the GPU and can be composited in 3D), and I believe the compositing in Windows Vista and later is similar.
This is close. There was something that introduced Aqua to the world and played up the combo of PDF and OpenGL... Probably also explained in some WWDC 2001-ish video.
I hope someone can do the work of pasting the original Aqua framework overview that’s probably still hiding somewhere on the Apple website. The manner in which the combination of OpenGL (Metal?) and PDF work to render UI and elements on OS X and iOS is really quite remarkable. I think even now, 20 years later, there isn’t anything comparable being done by Android/Linux or Windows. I would love to be proven wrong, however (I haven’t followed this closely for the past few years).