Haxie
Encyclopedia : H : HA : HAX : Haxie
In computing, a Haxie is a hack specifically designed for use with the Mac OS X operating system. Haxies typically offer small interface and functionality tweaks to the system or existing applications by injecting code into programs as they load.
The term was coined by developer Unsanity to describe their products, and is a blend word derived from "hack" and "Mac OS X". Unsanity uses it to refer to "hacks" that are specifically designed for use with its Application Enhancer (APE) software.
Today, most such system enhancement products for Mac OS X are considered "haxies", even though not all use APE. There are actually several techniques for injecting code into Mac OS X applications. Some haxies use SIMBL (the Smart InputManager Bundle Loader), are Input Manager plug-ins themselves, or use Jonathan Rentzsch's mach_inject and mach_override or similar code. It is also possible to do code injection as an AppleScript scripting addition (osax) or a Mac OS X kernel extension (kext).
Controversy
Haxies are a source of controversy among Macintosh software developers. Because haxies make changes to Mac OS X that Apple did not intend, they produce an environment that not all application developers may have thoroughly tested their products with. Products by Bare Bones Software actually detect Application Enhancer when restarting after an unexpected quit, and warn the users to remove it before contacting customer support (a strategy that is also somewhat controversial in itself, as the same message is displayed after a power outage). [link]Intel-based Macintoshes
In June, 2006, Unsanity released Application Enhancer 2.0 with support for Intel-based Macintoshes. Many of their haxies are now available in universal binary format, either as a final release version or as a public beta, while the others remain under development.[link]. Third-party haxie developers who rely on APE can now release Intel-native versions of their haxies. An Intel-native version of SMIBL is also available.
External links
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