Rentzsch pointed out that there is a good way to get more information about what else will be offered in Mac OS X 10.4 that doesn't violate any NDA - looking at the public conference session descriptions. One that is particularly of interest, for me, is Core Data, described as:
This session provides an overview of the new Core Data framework in Cocoa. It will focus on the new functionality provided for managing and persisting model objects, which includes automatic undo/redo, input validation, and saving to various types of "persistent stores" (SQL and XML).Sounds like a new and lighter version of Apple's grand old Enterprise Objects Framework, which basically only exists inside of WebObjects these days. Of all the object-relational frameworks I've looked at over the years, EOF still has the best design in my opinion. It's nice to see something like this offered to desktop and enterprise developers again.
WWDC 2004 Conference Sessions Listing, viewed 6 July 2004
Also of interest is a session about HTML Editing with WebKit. At first I thought this meant that Safari users could finally take advantage of web based rich text editors like Kupu. Looking at the description, I'm now hoping that there will be a common HTML editing component that applications like desktop Weblog / LiveJournal editors can finally use.